Chapter One: Cries to a Cold, Fruitless Moon.

Space: "The vast, endless, void between celestial bodies, outside of the Earth's atmosphere." What we used to think was so massive and boundless, we now understand as simple, and finite. Five-hundred years ago, no one could have guessed where we would end up now, or how we, the Human race, would come to be one of the most powerful presences in the galaxy. We learned, and changed our ways, thanks to the Planetary Union; and the Oracle in specific. They helped us learn to discourage the ways of war, and helped us evolve past our selfishness as a race... thats what we thought. But no one, not five-hundred years ago, not ten, and not even a year ago... could have predicted the events that would unfold, or what would befall our galaxy, and home world...



Silently, the U.S.F New Dawn ran through the darkness of the of the void; what was left of her. Its hul; fractured and twisted with its crew lost within the cold of space. They weren’t expecting an attack, nor were they prepared. Only thirty light years away from union borders, an area that had been declared safe for transit, they lowered their shields to divert power to the engine. They wanted to be home, after 2 long years in the vast darkness. But less than twenty light years away from Union territory, they were destroyed: Obliterated.

The New Dawn had been constructed years ago, one of the first human star-frigits in the Union. By far, it was the largest ship to ever be constructed by mankind. Having been its age, it had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of battles. In all of them, against any enemy, and all the odds, the New Dawn stood… Now, all that was left of her was twisted metal, and lifeless bodies, that floated through the void.

Through its destruction sliced another vessel. The remains of the New Dawn could not even meet half of the size of the ship that extinguished her light. Like a spider, with hundreds of outstretched legs wrapped around a central abdomen, the ship crawled through the darkness; as if the voids very fabric was forced to twist, and contort, around the vessel, shrouding it in complete darkness.

Just as swiftly as it annihilated the New Dawn, and its crew of one-thousand, it retreated into the darkness…



Date-
2nd of 19th, 39 Cycle.
4th of January, 2607

Time-
5:21:34:3 Oatheir Time.
6:21 PM, Earth Time.

Location-
Earth
Earth Alliance Headquarters, England

"Adding crew!?" John asked angrily as he smacked metal gauntlet onto the solid metal desk. If the desk was any other officers, he would have been court-marshaled on the spot. But Adm. Lucies simply chuckled to himself. The reaction of his subordinates never stopped to amaze him when they were given new orders, or a dreaded change to the crew.

"Six new members, Captain. That is all. You will get to keep the ships A.I., and we will only be removing three from your curr-" Quickly, Cpt. Duglas was quick to interject, quickly bringing himself out of the sitting position in the chair he was in so he stood over the Admirals head.

"Mark, that is exactly the part I don't like about this! You know that every soldier you remove from my crew, is one more that I have to train!" Impatient with the insubordination of his underling, the Admiral stood up to stand over the Captain. "Admiral, I need you to see my side on this! This will be the third 'Crew Augmentation' in less than a year. Admiral, come on! You're busting my balls here!"

Attempting to keep an even-keel, the Admiral spoke in a softer voice, slightly condescending, to get his point across. "These orders are over my head... Duglas. You know that the Union is tightening regulations; putting more men in priority ships, which is exactly what the 26th of November is... Now, I am left with no options here" He said, putting more force on the word Options. "The only choices you can make, are to either sign the documents, and take it up the ass like a man, or I will be forced to demote you Navigator, on your own ship."

Again, the Captain asked aggressively, taking a step back away from the Admirals desk, "But Admiral- does that constitute them taking two of my best fighters, as well as my engin-" Again, the captain was cut off when the Admiral, now obviously irritated, raised his finger to silence John.

"One more word about the Unions alterations to the 26th of November, and I will be left no other option but to put you on leave." To avoid a scene in the office, John left the Admiral no other choice but to bring out the big guns. Unable to continue the argument any further under the threat, John stood straight with his feet together, bringing his left hand up into a fist, bringing it into his heart; a traditional Union salute.

Swallowing his words, the Captain admitted defeat with a large lump in his stomach about the situation. Sitting back down in the chrome steel chair, John reached forward to pick up the piece of glass. In the holographic projection of the glass, John took one more quick read through of the document before reaching his right hand up, placing it in the center of the plastic. An electronic wur could be heard as his hand was pressed against the plastic. After a moment, it beeped, and the captain removed his hand from the document, stood up once more, and handed it to the Admiral. Placing it back on the desk, he quickly stood upright at attention, a blank frown splashed across his face as he held back spatting on the holo-doc.

"Permission to be dismissed, Admiral..." Holding back a growl, the Captain stood at attention, asking to leave the Admirals office. As he spoke, the Admiral raised his hand to dismiss the captain, but was interrupted when suddenly he flinched, hearing a series of commands run through the earpiece in his head.

"Captain, you have new orders..." The Admirals face seemed to be shocked, stricken with grave news. As the commands still ran through his earpiece, he began to speak them to the Captain, who stood with a confused look on his grizzled face. "The U.S.F New Dawn has just been confirmed... Destroyed."

John was baffled, dumbstruck, and at a loss for words. Before he could speak again, the Admiral began to read again "Its confirmed. Fifteen light years out of Union borders, it was destroyed.

"Captain. Assemble your crew, report to the November, and report to Oatheir immediately. You will have new orders there." It didn't hardly take a moment for the Admiral to snap up into a salute, and nod the Captain out of the room. Without a moment to hesitate, John stepped out of the office and down the long hallway, into the grav-lift. Simply by thinking, the Captain told the lift where he wanted to go, and within a moment found himself in the Atlas.

The Earth Alliance HQ, located in England, was all the way down at sea level. Because of the nuclear engines attached to the ends of starships, Earth had been declared too unsafe for any ship to lift off of. So, the Lunar Atlas, or just Atlas for short, was created. Placed within orbit of the moon, star ships of any size could safely dock on the Atlas, without the fear of polluting the atmosphere. But with that came another problem: How to get people in and out of Atlas in a moments notice, without the use of rockets or other means of transit that would take weeks to arrive?

The grav-lift was the answer. Basically working on the same concept of the Gravaton Drive, the engine in starships that aloud faster-than-light travel, the grav-lift would could simply warp the gravity around an individual, or object, and project it at faster-than-light speeds at the Atlas, where another grav-lift would act as a glove, catching the object or person, and placing them safely inside of the Atlas.

Something was wrong. In just a few short moments of arriving in the Atlas, John didn't have time to think about what the Admiral had just told him. The New Dawn, the largest, heaviest, and most well armed ship in the Alliance, had been destroyed. Though, he didn't seem to have much time to think about, according to the urgency in the Admiral's tone. There would be plenty of time to think during the two week trip to Oatheir.

After a few turns through the busy hallways of the Atlas, the Captain found himself in the Loading Bay: Dock 13. Under the painted words on the solid steel projected a hologram reading: U.S.F 26th of November. Smiling to himself, the Captain walked down another hallway to find himself in a massive chrome room... in the middle of which sat his pride and joy: The November. Taking a few more steps towards the ship, he slowly raised his left hand up to his mouth and spoke into his wrist-communicator: "I.o.n. Wake up the ship. We need to leave, now."

A few seconds after his words hit the communicator, the ship began to purr and groan awake once more. Walking forward to meet the ship, the bay door slowly hissed, and opened down to meet the floor as John took his first steps onto the November.

Once inside the doors, the captain placed his hand against a panel inside the bay, and closed his eyes. Focusing, John locked himself into the computers system, and began to speak. Connected to the ships communication systems, each one of his words would be sent through the ship, and into the crews personal communicators.

"Attention crew of the U.S.F 26th of November. This is your Captain speaking. All hands report ASAP to the November for immediate departure. Doors will close, and the November will be leaving in exactly ten Standard Earth minutes. All fighter pilots, report to the Bridge immediately. If you're not on the ship by then, the boats leaving people." With his final words, the Captain let go of the panel, disconnecting himself from the system, and walking further into the belly of the November.

As John walked through the long corridors of the November, the words of I.O.N really didn't connect with him. John was confused, angry... and determined.

"...Say the word, and we'll be off." John heard the computer say as he arrived in the bridge. Making his way to the central control panel, the Captain began to open documents left and right from the Alliances Ship Registry. Frantically, John pressed the flat of his hands against the console and began to look through the thousands of ships. It took him all of a few seconds to find exactly what he was looking for: The crew and cargo, and weapon systems of the U.S.F New Dawn.

"-This- is what my problem is, I.O.N.." He said bringing up a full schematic of the ships weapon systems. The New Dawn was by far the most heavily armed ship in the fleet, with some of the most advanced weapon systems in the entire Union. The ship carried firepower unmatched by any other ship: Five A.M.P Cannons, over a-hundred F.F Valkyrie Missile Turrets, and almost a-hundred-and-fifty man-operated F.F Flac turret.

Quickly closing the document, John opened the Crew Registry, displaying the massive list of crew names and their positions on board the ship. Don't be on that ship... John thought to himself as he searched and searched through the lists of names. After a moment of looking, John found what he was looking for. One singular name more important than any other:

On-Ship Phd. Duglas, Amanda C. Service Completed: 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours.

He sighed deeply, and took a step back, sitting in the captains chair behind him. His heart pounded inside of his chest as he tried to relax. "Shes on Oatheir..." He told himself as he lightly chuckled, still trying to relax from the adrenalin surge that rushed through his chest.

"Sergeant Gunnarson reporting for duty sir!" he heard a soldier state from behind him. Refocusing himself, John stood up and turned to face the tall soldier in front of him. He nodded as he looked over the handsome soldier that stood in front of him... honestly a little envious of brown-haired well shaved and strong beard he looked at. This made him think about shaving... but that would never happen.

In front of him stood a line of fore soldiers... which should have been five. A woman, no doubt. Always late. He thought with a laugh about the late soldier. But before he could speak a word to the soldiers, in came the sixth. A beautiful vixen of a woman stood in front of him, with beautiful long brown hair to her shoulders, and equally magnificent eyes. This time, he would let the tardy be excused.

"Kalre present and ready for duty Sir!" She stated firmly, almost firmer than her male counterpart, Sargent Gunnarson. If the two were dating, John had a pretty good idea of who wore the pants in the relationship. Taking a deep breath, John placed his hands behind his back and locked his fingers together.

"At ease, soldiers." John said as he looked over the rest of the soldiers, men he had known for years. "Captain Rayas, Sargent Ka'Sel, Sargent Muenger. A pleasure to see you as usual, gentlemen. I hope you had a restful two-week leave, and I am happy to see you three on board once more.

"Sargent Gunnarson and Private Kalre. Both of you have been handpicked by the Union to serve on-board the November..." The Captain said as he reached behind him and pulled a hologram of the two cadets profiles. Having never looked over them, he thought now must have been a good time. "... Both served aboard the U.S.F Albion ((Fable reference?)). Gunnarson... Sixteen Confirmed fighter kills. Thirteen more and you'll match my record... Planetary Defense, Kell-Tath without a single breach..." He said raising his eyebrow, looking at the trained killer that stood before him. "Damn good work, Sargent. Private, First Class, Kalre. Highest simulation scores in your class, Summa Cum Laude at the Academy... Very impressive."[/b]

Looking back up from the hologram, the Captain closed his open hand and the projection closed with it. "Now that we have the formalities out of the way, lets get down to why I really brought you here." He said standing back up straight again, his tone now different... more relaxed and layed back. "The 26th of November is one-on-a-kind. The first and the last of the Interspersion Project. This ship carries on it a Quantum drive with enough warp-thrust to spin Earth on its axis, three-hundred times. And your job is to protect her."

"I will admit." He said raising his hand to dismiss the other three pilots. "Your profiles are both impressive, Gunnarson your is by far one of the most impressive I have ever seen, serving on my ship or not. But in my eyes you are still rookies, and that means until you impress me, you will always be rookies. But don't worry too much about it. I'm a pretty -chill- captain.

If you would be so kind, Captain Rayas," He asked before the tall, Yoa soldier as he was about to leave the room. "Would you show these two new pilots to their quarters, and to their fighters. That is all, kids, you are released. Get settled in, and get ready for a long haul. Its three-days to Oathear from here." With that, the Captain sat back down at the Command Counsel and pressed his hand against the controls as the soldiers left the bridge.

"I.O.N." He said sighing, finally able to relax in the chair. "Get me Zaal, down in the Lab. Tell him I need to see his delightfully slimy face up here, asap."

Erik's back stiffened, ten years service, and eight of that special forces, and he was a recruit?! Then again, most of his record was sealed and most of the deniable black ops he'd run weren't even on paper. Maybe this captain just didn't have the clearance. He decided to let it slide ....... for now and shook his head as he headed off to the flight deck. He heard footsteps catch up to him then fall in step. He looked over at Kalre. Well at least there is one bring spot to this whole thing. He grinned as he bumped her with his shoulder hard enough to make her take a step over. "They let someone like you on this boat? Standards must be slipping, did they run out of trained monkeys or something?" he teased as he grinned down at her. I.O.N popped up and led them down to the flight deck.

They joked along to the flight deck where they got the first look at the hardware they'd be using. I.O.N turned them, "These are your ships. I'm sure you are familiar with the function of Falcon-class fighters, correct? At any rate, do you have any questions?" Gunnarson pulled himself up onto the wing then reached down to give Virana a hand up. "Falcons eh? That's the nice part about being the best, you get to play with all the nice toys" he quipped. He poked around a little. "Hang on, I thought I knew the Falcons inside and out but these seem to have been tweaked. There are some systems here that I don't recognize, I.O.N what can you tell me about them?"