3rd Hangar Bay
16th Squadron
Navy Recruit Harriette Kent

Harry was lying on a board underneath 'Sam', her very own A-SF13 Fighter Craft, fixing a loose fuel cell.
Harry had joined the UCON navy over half a year ago. She had some out at the top of her flight training class, impressing even some of her more battle-hardened instructors. After the academy she had been put straight into action, sent of to the war raging in the Hubworld on the CNS Barranow Lake. At first the sheer size of the Carrier she had been placed on had struck her with awe, she couldn't sit still on it and found a need to explore, but recently the amazement seemed to have wore off on the new navy recruit as she began to limit her movements between the ship cafeteria and her own fighter's cockpit, where she spent most of her nights.
"Yo Harry! I got your stuff!" A voice called from across the hanger. Harry slid out from under the ship, and looked for the source of the voice. There was Kingsly, her scrawny blond gunner, who liked to dress like a world war one aviator.
"Ya didn't fuck it up this time?" She asked.
"Nope, got it all. A large black coffee, one spoon of sugar. A BLT. And all the parts you asked for."
Harry snatched the meal out of Kingsly's hands. She sifted through the parts while sipping her coffee. Amazing! Everything was there!
She took a bite out of her BLT, and tried to make her voice inaudible, Ok, you did well. Maybe you're not a complete moron... Came out as, "Mm mm, hmm mmh. Mmmhm mmh mmm m mmhmmhmmm..."
Kingsly's face broke into a stupid grin.
Harry swallowed, "Wha'cha grinnin' at?"
"It's cute when you act like a that..."
"Shaddap!" Harry laughed.
The hangers PA system screeched to life, "All fighter pilots report to the briefing auditorium."
"Awww..." Harry groaned as she got up, she turned to Kingsly, "Sit boy!"
Kingsly dropped down on all fours and made barking sounds. Harry giggled as she headed off towards the over sized briefing room with her meal at hand.

3rd Hangar Bay
16th Squadron
Navy Recruit Harriette Kent

Thunk! The docking clamps for Harry's ship disengaged. The engines began to build into a roar.
"Ready for this?" She yelled at Kingsly.
The hanger doors were opening for the strike teams of A-SFs which were to large to fit on the launching rails…
“Nope, I’m SHITTIN’ MYSELF! But lets do it anyway!” The goofy co-pilot screamed back at her.
Harry let out a whoop of exhilaration as they shot into the cold darkness of space. Well maybe not so dark, the lights of the hundreds of UCON space vessels acted like a second sun burning away in orbit above the blue orb we call Earth.

A voice crackled over the radio, “Ok people! You know the deal, we’re here to assist in destroying the 36th and 37th orbital defense platforms, opening a hole over central Asia for our forces to enter. Then we need to make sure those PLD ladies hit the dirt with a minimal amount of bulletholes.”
Master Chief Petty Officer Fergison was the senior officer of their squad of about 30 A-Sfs. He was a decent guy, no good at poker though.
“Roger that.” Harry replied over the radio. Harry attached herself to the edge of the V formation the rest of the squad was forming into, and yelled back to her partner, “Kings, disengage the weapon safeties! Things’re gonna get fun!”

Aschen High Space Command SOLCOM
1st Assault-Reconnaisance Fleet
Battlestar Jupiter
Battle-Star Group 56
One Parsec Outside Terra
Operation: Looming Glacier

"Situation Report." Commander Huxley asked as he turned to his executive officer, a young woman named Amalia. The woman promptly adjusted her Duty Blue uniforms and spoke. "Several Coalition contacts in these sectors, I count several hundred ships." She said as the Commander nodded. "Position four three seven carom three nine two." He said. And with those orders, the massive hulking form of the Mercury Class Battlestar turned on it's keel, maintaining it's position just beyond Coalition AO, far enough that it could garner a head count. Initial recon was key in this mission. And so the Jupiter maintained the utmost silence, running it's engines dark, and using it's hull as a heat sink to hide it's signature. In tandem with the ECM Jamming that went on. The Mercury Class Battlestar was a fighting force in the Aschen Confederation, much more efficient then it's Columbia class cousins.

The Jupiter was supported by several dozen support craft, Battle-cruisers, frigates, and supply vessels to keep the coherent body of the Aschen fleet moving smoothly, numbering at little over one-hundred and twenty ships total. The Recon fleet was not suited for direct frontal combat operations. Their orders were to slip in and slip out, undetected. Utilizing it's DRADIS and LIDAR Systems to scan the distance.

"Ensure that all systems are functioning within nominal levels, Colonel." Huxley ordered.

Of course, the degree of automation that most Aschen ships enjoyed, allowed them to operate efficiently. This meant that most Aschen ships could enjoy reduced crew compliments without reduced combat efficiency, with less combat crew requirement, logistical crew could be used to maintain the ship's mechanics and automation. Allowing the Battlestar to run smoothly in all forms of combat.

"Commander I recommend we work our plan by hitting Coalition logistics, if we hit their logistical vessels, then we can weaken their combat front, and eventually bring them down. It will take some time for the main Force to arrive, but I am confident that.." The woman was promptly silenced by the raise of a hand. "No... we're not going to conduct guerrilla operations without clearance from the Chairman." He said flatly before he turned back to the screen. "Launch two recon Raptors, have them remain in the area, then spool drives for a jump out, have us rendezvous at the Tal'Dor staging ground."

"Aye sir." The Executive officer said with a crisp salute.


Hangar Bay, Battlestar Jupiter
Port Hangar Deck
Raptor Bay
Operation: Sight Unseen

"Alright pilots, prepare to move out! Our mission is simple! We're to recon the area and report to the Chairman, do not engage the enemy unless in defense." The CAG of the Jupiter's Flight crew ordered. All while men in bright yellow and orange jumpsuits scrambled about to prepare the two Raptors for takeoff. It was a flurry of mechanics, engineers, and other crewmen that ensured the Raptors were fueled, prepped, readied, and armed. So that they could operate at combat effectiveness. Lieutenant Sharon Halsey would board the Raptor, which was dubbed 'Raptor 4-2-2' Climbing in the pilot's seat she made sure her helmet was snug. Testing the new cloaking systems, and radar jamming systems. There were also laser point emitters, designed with confusing LIDAR in mind. Though it only was tested and proved slightly effective. The Raptor mission would rely on the skills of the pilots to take pictures, fly through, intercept communications and report back.

"Alright all personnel check.." The CAG Ordered.

"This is Raptor 3-2-1, All systems check, fuel check, weapons check, reactor, check.. we're good to go." The Pilots in the neighboring Raptor ordered. Both craft would then be lowered into the hangar bay of the Battlestar as it pulled away from the very edges of the SOL system.

Lt. Halsey would press the throttle, allowing her raptor to jet out the runway pod on the Battlestar, letting the void of space greet her, the two Raptors woul be deployed, side by side, and proceed to their objective. Noting the defensive arc the Coalition ships were placing themselves in. Feeding the high-resolution visual data to the Jupiter, which was slowly pulling away, only to flicker away in a bright flash of light.

"Alright boys, welcome to the suck." The CAG Said as she pushed her Raptor forward, engaging the cloaking systems.

RHB LAF-65
3rd Squadron, "Suicide Kings"
Ex-UCON Navy Pilot Kent "Deeds" Ridgen
Abandoned Hyperspace Gate


"Pull up! He's on your seven, I'll have him, just give me two more seconds!"

"Shit! shit! Get him!"

The Light Attack Fighter sprayed it's forward-mounted Vulcan Pulse Emitters, shredding the UCON Close-range Defense Fighter's wing and port engine. As plasma discharge ruptured into the cooling system, the entire ship shuddered, lurched forward, and supernova'd outward.

"God damn it, Deeds, if you weren't my wing man, I would be dead five times over..."

"Six times."

"Six? How six?"

"Remember the Frigate near Sylvonius five? If not for my chaffs those missiles would have ended you so fast only dropping into a star would have burned you quicker."

"Whatever, just glad you got my back. Don't remember any Missiles." Gary "Rock" Malone grumbled into the comms of his patched-up, ragtag LAF and formed up next to Kent and Bobby, creating a wedge formation as they received orders to fall back into routine patrol.

There was a bit of silence before Bobby broke it, "What do you think is going on? All these light fighters, so far from their ships... Think there's a battle going down?"

Kent responded as he switched into autopilot, "Not sure, but the Boss'd have us cashing in if they any more than we did, so I guess it's just time before we find out."
Bobby wasn't satisfied with the answer, but knew Kent didn't have any more of an idea than he or Rock did, and so settled into his seat to continue the patrol. The random fighters had been showing up recently, as if this spot was some sort of UCON fallback point. What they didn't know was that the entire Red Hand Brigade was poised near the modified gate, ready to slingshot near Sol and mop up any survivors to claim the spoils for themselves. Their intel was leaking in slow for the moment, but Phase II of operation: Long Haul had just begun, so they expected it to pick up within a few hours. Until then it was just sit and wait... His proximity alarms sounded and the formation banked to make for it even before being ordered to.

"Fifth group within two hours..." grumbled Rock, as he switched to manual flight and armed his weapons.
"At least it's entertainment while we wait for word." responded Kent and hit the engines to full speed even before the ships were out of their bubble, they had plasma bolts splashing their shields from the trio of Attack Craft.

"This is Deeds, Suicide Kings 1, engaging bogies."

"Roger that, SK 1 engaging UCON bogies, you are weapons free." responded command. the first two ships exploded and the remaining two split, one going up, the other to the right just as the patrol group sped off to pick them up.

RHB Wrecked Dreams
Stolen Agano Class Light Cruiser
-----------
Operation: Long Haul(Phase III)
Taiyou Hyperspace Gate

"Captain! One of the ships is breaking formation and coming directly for us!"

The entire crew shifted into action as one hiveming. Alarms sounded throughout, and all hands manned General Quarters Billets as they prepared evasive manuevers. Maynard stood adamant and scanned readouts of the information,
"Christ, that ship for us? How did they pick us out? We were one among thousands. They would have to have been actively searching for KIA ships to even come across the name!" He shouted, "And we didn't even get to the damn checkpoint yet! Someone tipped them off!" he was furious, but kept cool after his little outburst. Now was the time for survival, not for panic and anger,
"Get auxilliary units to ready escape pods on the port decks! Any engineering available get the Hykano-G series online now, I want 150% performance from engines, route any power available to shields and propulsion!" Maynard was a veteran of several Deep-cover Ops missions, until his command through his file out when his cover blew. He managed to escape then, but never forgot the betrayel, "Sir! The Forward Cannons on the enemy ships are readying! twenty seconds to get our bearing!" One of the Navigators exclaimed,

"Bring us about, show them the Starboard, Move all extra men and women to the port side until we can get behind those asteroids there." He gestured toward a spot on the display. The orders he gave out were answered without question, "Status on Turbine Extensions Boosters?" He demanded, and a voice called out, "135%.." two seconds, "145%" one second, "150% Ready asnd operational!" The voice shouted and Maynard answered with the same tone, "Punch it! I want us out of here, now!"

"Sir the rounds are-" The young man on the RADAR was cut off as the sound of metal ripping intself to pieces, being instantly vaporised, then instantly cooled while atmosphere vented, all in one seongle moment reverberated through the ship. The entire ship lurched forward, and then at a diagonal, throwing several people scrambling, and Maynard against the railing which he white-knuckled. Sparks littered the air and the lights dimmed before coming back online,

"Status report!"

"Hit! Hit! Port quarter and amidships! Fires on decks 135-155Band C! Atmospheric clamps locking down on decks 280-300! Shields at 35%, engines at 130%! We got hit hard, a triple burst shredded like butter! It just barely missed the magazine, sir!"

"Get everyone out of the pods! Set trajectories for those moons there, and send a distress signal, then hail the cruiser that fired on us! I want us moving, now! We will not survive another salvo!" He roared.

The first shot had missed. As the experimental Hykano-G series engines that were installed on top of the ship's normal propulsion had lurched the entire ship forward in a burst, causing the first shot to stray off target. The second shot was slowed by the shields, but made it's way to the Port Quarter, opening a gaping hole and venting hundreds of people into the void. The last round, now compensating for the speed, and with the lack of shields, punched a hole straight through amidships, just forward of the Aft Magazine. If not for the rugged design of the Agano-class cruisers, the entire ship would have split in half. the only thing keeping it together was the force from 30% again the normal engine speed, and the reinforced ribbing. As it was, the groaning of the metal threatning to buckle amidships was a terrible noise to behold. Even amid the smoke and flames on the Bridge, the only respite was watching the green dots indicating escape pods go orange, meaning a succesful launch. If not all the crew, at least some would survive.

A heavily encrypted signal was beamed off several broadcasting satellites, making the intended target, and source unreadable. The signal ended up on the bridge of the Everlasting, and nobody was happy with the news.

Wrecked Dreams was giving full steam, pulling behind several large asteroids in an attempt to outrun the bigger ship, since it was smaller, faster with it's upgraded propulsion, their only hope was getting far enough out of the harasser's range to get the rest of the crew off before self destructing the ship to protect it's encryption algorithms. Even as they floated the banks were being wiped and destroyed, just in case they were boarded, or the files weren't destroyed in the detonation.

It was a last-ditch effort, and a middle finger to the tyranny of the Taiyou Empire.

1st ODI Division
605th Regiment
Bravo Company
4th Platoon
Lt Mayfield

4th Platoon moved quickly toward their objective, the east gate. They had been ordered in to a hot drop but had seen little in the way of initial fighting. The men moved in tight fire teams, each acting like a cell in the over all group. Mayfield was making good time considering their trajectory seemed to have put them about half a mile off target, which may have explained the lack of combat in the area.

As they continued the hostile presence grew, and with it their pace slowed until they were nearly on top of the original DZ and at a stand still. "Eden, take your fire team north and get us a new line of fire up. Bower and Kimble take that third story balcony for support. Master Chief!" Mayfield turned to the man standing a few yards behind him. "You're south bound. Lets move people, Third is waiting for us and we don't want them to have all the fun."

Taking up a position just outside of the intersection that would have served as their drop zone Mayfield began laying down fire with his Nano Rifle. The twenty two soldiers that remained with him did the same, drawing most of the attention their way as the rest of the teams made their way quickly to their designated area. Sargent Eden's fire team was the first to open up from the north, followed quickly by the sound of two MR20 anti-material rifles began picking off targets. The sudden increase in lines of fire threw the Terran force off balance which is exactly what the Jumpers needed to get their foot in the door, and once they started moving again their would be no stopping them. "Master Chief you are cleared hot, fire away. Friendlies entering hot zone, repeat, friendlies in the fire zone!"

The six minutes that followed felt like six hours for the men in the midst of it. They stood on the other side for a moment of relief as the Platoon regrouped with amazingly no casualties. Mayfield knew that luck wouldn't hold out the night but he would count on their skill to keep them alive. He subconsciously knew that Lieutenant Archer had been on the com during the fighting, he knew they were at the gate where the real fun would begin.

"Alright boys, Third beat us to the punch so we've got to go in double time to make up for that extra half mile of huffing we just did." With that they made their way to the gate weapons at the ready to complement their brothers in arms.