Here follows the third story of Leython Dygonn. I plan to have it about as long as the other two stories I've got. I recommend you to read the other stories if you didn't do so already:

Other stories are found here:
Story 1: The UEF Academey
Story 2: The Harmony Fighters
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Story 4: Tessalis
Story 5: War Comes Home
Story 6: The New Six
Story 7: Purge

With special thanks to dotswarlock, because he let me borrow the Three-Rivers node (starts in chapter 7).

Without anything to add before the first chapter, Enjoy




Chapter 1
The Symbiont and the Earthling

Sunday, the second of august, 3840.

Twenty mantis heavy assault bots moved through the passage, ready to destroy the enemy at the end of it. It was a small base, with ample defences, but the UEF commander had little choice but to stay there. He was surrounded and outnumbered. It would be a more than a miracle if he actually survived the new assault.

The mantii were moving through a passage though and with little space free for movement, they had to group close together. This seemingly unimportant problem would give the UEF commander the chance to escape. But the Cybran ACU pilot did not know that yet.

Moving closer and closer to the enemy base, the mantii were suddenly welcomed with a rain of shells. The red sand of the desert flew up high when the fragmentation shells exploded on the ground, their heat turned the sand, a couple of centimetres lower, into glass.

The heavy assault bots didn't stand a chance. Only five mantii had survived the first salvo of the ten enemy artillery that stood on the two plateaus that created the passage in between. The survival of those five was intended. The artillery had moved away directly after they fired their weapons and the enemy ACU destroyed the five surviving mantii, firing only one overcharge shot. It now left his base via the passage that was now left deserted.

Losing intel on that passage was a drawback. The cybran did not know where his enemy would go and he couldn't check out. All of his land units were moving around the plateaus, now entering the UEF base to destroy it and he had no air units he wanted to spend on scouting. Bombers were not fit for that job, not if the enemy had interceptors and he had nothing but Zeuses.

This first drawback was not the last however.

The enemy had air superiority and two tier one transports. On this war front, he was known for using that combination to the best. He initiated an air drop assault, with mobile artillery. Because the Cybran knew that his enemy had few units, due to a bad production and heavy losses early on, he knew that these mobile artillery had to be the ones that stood on the plateau, killing his squad of mantii, less than a minute ago.

Only ten Lobo's were launching their grenades, but they destroyed three enemy mass extractors that were almost upgraded to tier two. In four seconds, the Cybran commander lost so much mass as he had spent in assaulting the enemy base.

Now finally being fired at, the artillery gave their third salvo since they were dropped by the transports. It would not be enough to destroy the tier two factory, and luckily the artillery moved away. The transports were still waiting and the commander noticed, again, the disadvantage of having no interceptors.

The sudden appearance of enemy fighters had taken the Cybran off guard, he only built bombers, assuming he had nothing to fear from the skies. That assumption was wrong and now the enemy artillery had been taken away from his main base, mostly undamaged, not punished for their job at his base. The Symbiont remembered that he should finally learn that he had to mind his own defences even if he seemed to control the battle.

Now, the transports flew to his air base. The commander knew that the base was lost, far before he could arrive with reinforcements to take the seemingly puny group out. He let the enemy artillery do their job while he sent his mantii towards the air base. They would get in too late to save the base, but if the enemy commander was distracted for some moments, the artillery would be taken out.

The enemy base was destroyed. The wrecks might fit to compensate the loss of his mass extractors. Having found the enemy commander back, with some land scouts, he noticed that his own ACU was close to it. It was time for some one on one combat. The enemy commander had to concentrate on not being kicked unconscious and because of that action, the artillery should remain in his, now destroyed, air base.

Walking closer and closer to the enemy ACU, he was now being fired at. The UEF commander had not constructed any upgrades and the Cybran had neither. If they would fight on like this, they'd both die, but that was not the Symbiont's intention.

Firing upon each other, the Cybran ACU dealt the first melee damage to its enemy counterpart. A stroke at the enemy construction arm forced the UEF commander a bit backwards. The Federation's ACU was heavy though and therefore not easily knocked back, let alone, knocked over.

The UEF commander gave a punch back and the Symbiont commander felt it all up to his head. He wasn't the strongest person around, and therefore his body could not sustain a constant hammering in a one to one ACU battle. Firing an overcharge shot and immediately kicking the enemy command unit on its chest finally did some damage. The enemy's ACU regeneration system was trying to repair the damage while its gun fired back at its Cybran counterpart.

Firing at the UEF commander, the Symbiont retreated. The enemy artillery were destroyed, as were the transports. Land scouts discovered a new enemy base. It was not unexpected. If the enemy had air dominance hid its actions properly, he could now have bases everywhere.

The Cybran built more land scouts, sending them in all possible directions. He counted himself lucky that the battle was fought in a desert like area, with only one lake and one small river in it. There was a sea as well, but no noticeable islands in it. His land scouts could go anywhere where the UEF could have put a new base.

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Finding a third spot to build a base, the UEF commander walked towards it. His engineers at his secondary and, at the moment, only base were building two land factories. After that was done, they'd build point defences, while the factories would construct Lobos and Strikers. Perhaps, he could make another air drop, but he doubted it.

Arriving at the new location with his ACU, near the sea, the commander from Earth started to build some power generators. This base would mainly construct air units, so that he could keep air superiority. If he had the time and resources, he would also build naval units. It could allow him to retreat underwater, perhaps to make a day long trip to another continent. That was risky though. He had to get his ACU on an Atlantis and then transport it to a save location. The ocean was probably too deep to traverse. He would not be the first, but neither the last to die because the command unit's core imploded due to enormous pressures.
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The Symbiont had reconstructed his mass extractors and upgraded them to tier two. Now it was time to build a proper army. Noticing that the enemy ACU was moving towards the sea, he knew that the UEF commander was going to build a new base there. It was only half a minute that he scouted there by himself and found several mass extractors. The enemy probably knew that already, because this planet was controlled by the UEF and therefore scanned completely.

Having built a new air base, the Cybran commander started to use the majority of his economy to construct as much interceptors as possible. He needed air superiority if he wanted his air drop above the water to be successful. Of course, he could drop the Wagners, the Cybran tier two amphibious tanks, at a safe spot in the water, but he preferred them to be dropped closer to the enemy base, simply because that was faster.

And again it happened. An enemy air drop, transports guided with interceptors. His own air force was not large enough to take the UEF forces on, so the Symbiont pilot let the ground forces to be dropped. This time, he was ready to stop them. He had held his mantii close to the base and sent them in as soon as the air units were dropped. Having a couple of mobile flak units helped. The flak fired at the UEF transports and destroyed them in an instant. The artillery and tanks were trapped in his base.

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So the Cybran learned not to leave his own base unprotected. Nontheless, fifteen artillery units were good enough to take out those three tier two mass extractors, again. They succeeded, but the pilot from earth knew that it wouldn't be enough to keep the enemy at bay. He had now sacrificed all of his land units to take out the enemy economy.

The enemy had been slowed down, forced to waste over twenty five hundred units of mass, but he still had a land army. The UEF officer had to reclaim anything in the area, even the smallest stone, to even out the economical disadvantage. While he ordered his engineers to do so, he made a couple of new air factories. They would build nothing but bombers, as long as his interceptors could keep the enemy air units away.

Tier one air stood no chance against mobile flak vehicles, but, at this moment, he had no choice. The bombers might take down half of the enemy mantii. Taking out the land force that would probably come to him now would give him the time he needed. Then he could build a land army on his own, upgrade a tier one land factory and perhaps upgrade the economy as well. Yet, it all still had to happen at first hand.

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This was infuriating! Again, he had lost his mass extractors. Reclaiming the wrecks of the enemy units, he might be able to rebuild just one tier two extractor. He was being slowed down by a minor group of enemy artillery, while he could not take down an enemy base with less than fifty mantii.
Even then, he had lost twenty of them, again to only about ten enemy mobile artillery units and an overcharge shot.

The Symbiont cursed, obviously frustrated that he could not defeat an enemy, even with a major advantage in units and economy. That usually was his way to defeat the enemy. No smart micro management, just using the brute force, bringing in the big guns. However, big guns, the weapons on the mantis were small, so the word 'big' had to be saved up for the tier two level, in which he could build his amphibious tanks.

Despite his major drawback in economic level, the Cybran pilot started to build Wagners. It was time to prepare for his own secret, back door assault. The thirty mantii that he still had from his assault on the first enemy base were now closing in on the second one. It was only a matter of time before that was destroyed. The enemy had nothing at that base.

Half a minute later, the mantii started to fire. Again, the Symbiont had made a mistake. Fifteen tanks were waiting for him. It was no big problem however, his units outnumbered two to one and therefore the group would only lose ten mantii. The thought was correct. Within moments, the enemy tanks were destroyed and the heavy assault bots concentrated all of their fire on the mass extractors and the power generators. This base would lose its economy and if the UEF commander would handle smart, he ordered his land factories to stop. They could not produce enough to deal with the cybran assault group.

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"Earthcom, something is wrong with the mass extractors, they're not functioning correctly."
"Scans indicate that they're draining mass at their full potential. Perhaps there is a malfunction, captain."
"How can that be? have we been hacked recently, check everything, I need the mass. ASAP!"

Three minutes later, the UEF pilot was contacted again: "Nothing sir, it looks like the mass extractors are working at full potential, but you just don't get the proper amount of mass in."
"Oh real great, EarthCom, that's not really the answer I was hoping for. It looks like I have no choice but to do something special then. See you in three hours, EarthCom."

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He finally had some sort of air force, the Cybran commander smiled, it was time to put an end to this.
He had built several amphibious tanks, but perhaps those units were not required at all. He could just bomb the enemy base into Oblivion. Having waited for more than six minutes, upgrading his economy and constructing more units, the advantage he had, should have increased to enormous proportions.

Sending the air armada, along the shoreline, towards the enemy base, at that same shoreline, was a magnificent thing to look at. Countless bombers moved through the sky, following the interceptors that were going to deal with the enemy's counterparts. Yet again, it went wrong. The enemy interceptors suddenly appeared from behind the squadrons of Zeus bombers, taking down one after another. At the time that his own Prowlers had turned around, a tier one air transport flew away from the base. It moved towards the small river and the lake, close to the second, now destroyed, UEF base.

The transport was empty, so it was absolutely needless to deal with it. The UEF interceptors had now taken out almost all of his bombers and finally the Prowlers joined the immense dogfight. If someone would have watched it at night, it might have looked like an incredible fireworks show, but the Symbiont knew better. Sitting in such a plane was the last thing he ever wanted. There was no chance to escape and this situation was one without flak, from either side, firing upon the fighters from down below.

The assault had failed, but he had gained air superiority. The enemy had no units at all. It was time to drop the wagners, in the sea. A quick scout had revealed what the Cybran pilot had expected. Point defences, some were even tier two, protected the enemy base at the front, where land units could reach it. At the back, however, at the shoreline, there was nothing. It was time tell the UEF commander that that was a mistake, although by the time his enemy had found out, it was far too late already.

The Cybran noticed that the Federation pilot made a worse mistake than just doing a lousy job at building defences: he built nothing at all.

Less than a minute later, the Wagners were ready to move out. Out of the sea, into the more than forty degrees hot desert. The red sand looked like it was on fire, as the tanks used their guns do to as much damage as possible. The ACU fired an overcharge shot, but did not walk away.

Tier two point defences, called Triads, if the Symbiont pilot remembered well, tried to stop the Wagner assault force, but to no avail. There were too many. the UEF pilot must have known it for some time now. His death was coming and he did not do his best to prevent it.

Having destroyed the last point defences of the base, now being assisted by a new group of bombers, the Symbiont saw that he had fifteen Wagners left. So he could just have sent them over land as well, dealing with the defence towers first. Regardless, it was better to do it the way he did it, just to be sure.

Moving around the ACU, while taking little damage by the enemy's last gun, the Wagners gave all they could. Within seconds, the enemy command unit's core went critical and exploded. Where a fancy looking base stood, only a couple of minutes ago, the Cybran pilot now only saw one big black circle. The only thing to remain from an exploded ACU.

The Cybran commander contacted Ivanna Dostya via an unencrypted channel, to ensure that the UEF would listen to this message as well.: "Elite commander Dostya, this is John Vedder, I have killed the enemy. I'll build a quantum gate as soon as possible and then return towards Minerva."

"Excellent job, Vedder, with his death, the morale on the UEF side will plummet. He was an excellent commander, always finding a victory in a battle that should have lead to his death. I'm glad that there was no way out for him this time. I'm quite sure that you will have built the gate within eight minutes, I'll see you soon." Dostya said before closing the channel, now preparing to leave via her own gate immediately.

She stood in a gigantic base, so that if the UEF were to attack her now, because they could find the two sources of the conversation, she would not be endangered.
To be absolutely certain that the federation forces would not kill her, she left immediately. If she were to die... She'd rather not think about what would happen in the Cybran nodes then.

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Surrounded by massive rocks that closed the way for the sun to heat up this... "cave with an open roof", close to the only river that was found in the wide area, a man listened to the unencrypted conversation.

"... I'm glad that there was no way out for him this time. I'm quite sure that you will have built the gate within eight minutes, I'll see you soon." And the message had ended.

"No way out for me? I always find a way out of trouble, you should know that by now." Josh Funky said.

Chapter 2
To the rescue

"This is the planet of Zeta Canis. It is well known for its famous river, that has been the theatre of many battles, due to the rich mass field located there."General Clarke said, while Leython Dygonn, Simon Beck and his older brother Shaldon listened closely. They were the ones to get Josh Funky away from the barren planet." Clarke left a small pause before continuing.

"You however, will be going to the other side of the planet. That is where captain Funky was fighting. That part of the planet is very well known to us, because we've had a team of scientists there. The Cybrans might think that the planet is ours completely, because we've claimed it two decades ago, just to get that team down on Zeta Canis' second largest continent, the continent where you will be going to. Despite for the fact that the Cybrans think that this planet is ours, they have raided it several times. Now, it seems like they just raided it in order to assassinate captain Funky."

"General," Simon asked, Leython suddenly remembered how he was. He hadn't seen him in two years now. Simon took every chance to ask a question: "Why did they want to assassinate him?"

"Funky is good with his tactical manoeuvres. A land unit he's got is put into a transport, sent behind enemy lines and then it takes out part of the enemy economy. He once dealt with a tier three economy base with only ten Lobo artillery units. His ACU has been destroyed in the last battle, but he has survived by leaving via an air transport some minutes before his command unit exploded. The air transport was programmed to bring him towards a safe and 'cool' spot between some large rocks, close to a small river."

"He actually hopped on a transport that he made fly along his ACU?" Shaldon asked, stunned by the idea alone. Jumping from the top of an ACU, onto an air transport could easily go wrong and if it went that way, Josh would have been the first UEF commander that would get killed in action by not being in his command unit at the moment its core breached.

"Yes," The general answered, "anyway, the Cybrans have left, but I reckon that they will come back immediately as soon as a commander goes on Zeta Canis, at that very location called "dark red desert". They got there to kill captain Funky, if they realise that he's still alive, they will be eager to finish him nonetheless." Clarke said.

Now Leython took the silent moment to ask the only question that was of importance to him:
"When are we leaving? I mean, we actually have to go right away, he's got water, but no food there. The desert is very hot, even in that little 'hideout', the sooner he's rescued, the better."

"You gate immediately, dismissed."

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"Vedder, get back towards Zeta Canis immediately. Three UEF commanders are going towards the place where you just assassinated Funky. You'll get Shilon and Redain with you."
"There can't be a proper reason for the UEF to go there and investigate, except for the fact that they're searching for their friend. This means that Funky probably is still alive." John answered Dostya, while running towards his ACU. He had to get there immediately.
The elite commander answered him: "Exactly. You'll go there and you go and search for him as well, as soon as you've found him, kill him, no matter what. You'll also have to engage the UEF, with Shilon and Redain as assistance. I've found three suitable locations, close to each other, where you will arrive." Red marks pointed the gating points on John Vedder's wrist screen as he entered the hangar.

"The enemy will probably be thirty seconds sooner, if you leave within a minute. Their gates have already found the planet, but the ACUs have to get there as well."
"So how did we find out that they're going to Zeta Canis, how did we find that out so soon?" John asked.

"As soon as a quantum gate connects to the network, it can be tracked. Those UEF are still powering and initializing the gates far before the command units walk through, allowing us to track the path towards the destination. Because we don't need that much time to power the gates, prior to letting ACUs walk through it, we can reduce the disadvantage in battle, if they are going to attack us. I know that you're interested in almost anything, Vedder, but sometimes you should mind the details a bit less, so you can concentrate on the battle ahead. "Dostya said, while John opened the cockpit of his ACU and stepped in.

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"Excellent, we arrived just where we should." Shaldon said, who had the lead over the operation.
"Simon, you and I will start with a land factory, we'll construct as much units as possible, just to be sure. Leython, you'll build an air factory and then you'll construct air scouts, if necessary, switch to interceptors immediately to gain air superiority. Of course, a couple of engineers are useful too, so you can construct as much economical structures as possible and then get radar online."

"Understood." Said both Leython and Simon. Leython immediately continued. "Can the two of you build a tier one radar tower as well, that'll speed things up for intelligence and it costs almost nothing."

"If you get the power generator for us. We'll build nothing but tanks and artillery. So it's up to you to support our economy. We'll build a couple of engineers, for the most important things, but the most important things means a lot of land factories." Shaldon answered, just at the moment that his ACU sensors picked up a large incensement of the quantum wake. Simon and Leython noticed it as well.

Siomon said: "Looks like we've got company, I think that three Cybran ACUs have just gated in."
"Ok, the general was correct, the Cybrans know what we're going to do here."

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A group of twelve mantii heavy assault bots moved forward. Redain's small assault force, his first one, moved alongside the coast. Guided by two moles, they scouted closer and closer to the enemy base.

The assault force was going to be destroyed, Redain knew for sure. If the enemy ACU met them, they stood no chance. The enemy also had a head start of almost a minute, so that time gap meant a disadvantage of five tanks, and that was if both parties had only one land factory building them.

The thought of retreating back to base had just formed into his head, as five enemy bombers flew over and dropped their deadly payload. "The enemy has got air units, we've got to get an air factory up ASAP!"

"I'm working on it", Vedder answered him. He had built a land factory as well, to ensure that they had enough land units to at least deal with the enemy on the ground. Now one of the UEF's commander was building air units, probably to scout for their missing comrade, so things would turn out right with land combat, if he managed to gain the air superiority.

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Leython's three air scouts flew over the enemy base at the coastline. Simon's direct enemy was the first one who pushed at the front, so he might be the most dangerous one. Simon had massed all of his tanks in his own base, as ordered by Shaldon. There was nothing to gain at the front lines. No mass extractors, no reclaimables, nothing. Besides, the only job they had was getting Josh Funky out. Now he was already found, so the only thing that they had to do was getting him to safety with an air transport. There was no need to attack.

"I've got enough tanks by now, it looks like Simon has got more than enough as well. Leython, you're currently scouting the sea, that's no use, get the Hummingbirds flying over the two other bases. It's time to see what they've got. If we can take them on, we'll attack."


Noticing his stupid move with the air scouts, he immediately changed their flight path and said: "I'm currently building an air transport, so we can get Josh out of his hideout and into my ACU. Then we'll be done here."
"By far not Leython! We can't just magically return to Earth, remember."
"Oh, damnit." Leython answered while the air scouts flew over the base at the enemy's back.
"Just what I expected, he's got an air factory, time to build Cyclones and stop building those bombers."
Two mistakes within a minute, that was bad, very bad. Leython had to get more concentration immediately.

"The third base is going to be revealed as well, he's got a lot of bots." Simon said.
"My tanks can take them on, easily." Shaldon said, before continuing: "I'm going to upgrade my land factory, then I'll be able to build tier two engineers." Leython remembered the incredible skill of Shaldon: upgrading to tier two was his speciality. Whenever he was late to come into the heat of the battle, he still managed to keep up by building tier two point defences and sit in his base until the enemy was defeated by one of his friends.

"I'll build Triads, then send the Strikers towards you, Simon, with myself. When the tanks and I have arrived, we'll initiate a coordinated assault on the base close to the shore. If the enemy ACU is about to be destroyed, we'll retreat the units we've got and finish him with our command units."

"Understood. " Simon said and Shaldon told him to retreat as soon as his ACU had only fifty per cent of its integrity left.
"Leyton," he continued, "you'll have to monitor my front as soon as I get in close combat, I'll transfer my own base and resources. Any tanks that still come out of my factories have to be sent to me, unless I say otherwise. If there is any trouble anywhere, tell me and I'll take a look at it."

Leython knew what he had to do. In a selfish moment, he thought that he knew it better than Shaldon.

Back in the days that Shaldon was still helping him around in the real battles, he had always taken the lead and ordered Leython what to do. It always turned out well in the end, but almost went wrong some times. Now Leython had air superiority, air scouts and even a couple of interceptors already, he was the one who would have the best image of the battle.

He was the one who knew what was needed where and when. Nevertheless, it was better to do as Shaldon ordered and assist him by any means possible. It was, after all, a sound strategy to defeat the enemy here.
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"Enemy ACU is coming towards me." Redain said. "Tanks are assisting. I'll need anything you can help with."
"But we've got another front as well." Shilon said. "How about that?"
"Nothing to worry about, I've just sent a scout, they're turtling over there. more important is that I haven't found Funky yet. We'll have to kill him, that's what we're here for."

"I refuse to die in order to kill him, Vedder!" Redain said.
"Yes, I knowt, but we'll not die, at least not if you just do what I say. Keep the front alive, ensure that your enemy is being kept busy. Shilon, you'll tech up as soon as possible and build amphibious tanks. When that's done, I should have air superiority and my transports can drop them in the water, close enough to the enemy base at the shore that we can take him by good surprise, but far enough to manage the tanks. When he dies, we can easily take the rest out."

But neither Vedder, nor Shilon or Redain knew that the battle would never come even close to that plan.

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"I'm moving forward, Shaldon." Simon said as his artillery fired their first shots. Tanks rushed forward, shooting their cannon shells at them, while getting damage in return. Leython saw that Simon didn't do the best job managing his units.

The Lobos were to fire the first shots and then the assault force had to wait for the fragmentation shells to rain upon the enemy land units. While perhaps retreating a bit, the first enemy line would fall without any issues. Now, it was altogether different.

"I'm coming, Simon, but manage your units better, your artillery is useless this way." Shaldon said and Leython was glad that he still had time to watch his brother's performance. Leython concentrated on his own job now. With the extra economy that he had gained from Shaldon, he now had enough resources to upgrade some mass extractors, while building tanks, air units and point defences.

When the upgrades were completed, he would make that one of his own air factories met tier two. If the two brothers were to defeat the enemy at the shoreline, they could use some torpedoes...

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"What?! A second ACU is assisting at my front." Redain shouted. His eyes widened in shock when he saw that at least thirty enemy tanks were right behind the ACU, ready to assist in the battle.
"So that's why the enemy near the hills is turtling at tier two. He's going to fight at the front on the other side." Shilon said. "I'll send in all of my mantii, then we'll be able to keep them off."
"Good, then I'll continue on searching for Funky, do you guys actually have any idea on how to survive in such an environment. He has to go to the cool at least, but..."

A second passed before...

"Ah of course Vedder," Shilon said. "That river over there, it has got rocks around it. I bet that he is sitting in the cool, with some nice water."
"Damnit, how can I be so stupid?" Vedder said. He immediately sent a scout to check the rocks. Flying as low as the scout could, John hoped that he could get an image of a person sitting at the riverside. The gap between the rocks was large enough for an air transport to land...

The empty transport! It wasn't empty at all, but the ACU pilot probably made a daring escape by sitting on it while it flew at immense speed.

The air scout was taken out of the air just after the moment that it managed to fly over the rock formation, but the damage had already been done. Vedder did indeed see a person sitting underneath the rocks. Hoping that one bomber was enough, John sent his only Zeus in.

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"Enemy bomber coming closer to the rock formation, I'm going to counter it."Leython said.
Without any remorse, the bomber was taken down.

Josh heard a loud crash close to him. Probably outside of the rock formation, an air unit had fallen on the ground. He hoped that no others would come crashing near him. This was not the best place for his Federation friends to wage an aerial battle with the Cybrans.

Suddenly, a colossal shadow was cast over the clear point where the sun could reach. A UEF air transport was landing in the middle Josh's hideout.
"Hello Josh! How've you been?" A familiar voice said via the communication device that Josh held close to him. He knew exactly who was the owner of that transport.

"Hey Leython, well you know. I've been sitting in a pile of sand, with about forty degrees in the shadow. Apart from that, I'm fine. You know, you should really try to fly on a transport once, much better than sitting in a rollercoaster if you ask me."

"Well, now, you can just get in the truck that I built for you. I was given this schematic to get you back to us in a safer way than you just went to that river. Anyway, if it's forty degrees out there, then it must be at least fifty, fifty-five at all places where the sun has been all the day."

"Yes, it's really too hot to survive here for long. I guess that it was forty everywhere a couple of hours ago, because it was a lot cooler here as well." Josh said, while running towards the air transport, happy that he could just sit in the truck at the transport's underside. It was nice to do once, such a flight on an air unit, but without any safety belts, it was just as terrifying.

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"I've got to retreat now, Vedder." Redain said, while firing at one of the two ACUs that were moving closer. His entire base was being fired at by the enemy tanks and artillery. Moving towards the sea, Redain knew that he would die if he remained on the land.

"Dostya," John Vedder said at the moment he got his response from her, at the other side of the channel. "I have just sent an air scout over the location where Funky was, and I saw a transport with a truck flying back to the enemy base. I think that we've lost him."

"Ok, then this mission has failed, ensure you get back here as soon as possible. You won't need my assistance because you can build anything you might require and I cannot go to dark red desert before the outcome of the battle is determined. We will not have any contact as long as the battle goes, because it is not necessary. Good luck." Dostya closed the channel immediately, hoping that at least one of the pilots would survive, but she knew that the odds were slim.

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"Enemy commander is going for the water, Leython get torpedo bombers here as soon -- oh."
Storks already moved in, protected by Cyclone interceptors. If the enemy commander made only one step into the water, it would be destroyed by a lethal series of torpedoes.

The enemy ACU changed it destination immediately. With a large group of heavy assault bots appearing from behind Simon's and Shaldon's ACUs and their own tanks and Lobo artillery, the two other Cybrans had made a good move in order to save their comrade. Regardless, that move was in vain.

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"Thanks, that'll save my life --" Redain began, but he ended his words in panic: "-- five gunships! How can they get so much, we've got nothing! Get everything you have! Build a shield or something, take them out!" He yelled.

The five UEF gunships were too fast however, they started firing upon the enemy command unit, that had only ten per cent of its armour left. With nothing else to protect the core, it was pierced by the gunship machine guns in seconds. Redain's ACU turned into a glowing red orb, sided by hot metal chunks that were part of the command unit's legs and torso only moments before. Redain was dead.

____________
"So, the mass extractors you had under control, gave only fifty per cent of the mass they should?" Clarke asked Josh Funky. He was, together with Leython and the two Beck brothers in the general's office. After they had killed the first enemy commander, the two others retreated. One of them moved into the hills, the other made his way through the middle of the desert.

As soon as Shaldon noticed that the enemy ACUs left their base and moved away as soon as possible, he contacted Clarke and asked what they should do. Spend resources for pursuit, or build quantum gates and return with Josh Funky immediately. Since they arrived on Zeta Canis to save Josh and completed the most important task, Clarke ordered to let the two Cybrans go.

"Yes general," Leython snapped back to the present, thanks to Josh's answer, "the mass extractors gave some sort of malfunction. They worked at their best, but didn't give what they should. EarthCom could not find a virus or any trace of hacking, they told me."

"Ok, now, I'll order the technical section of my men to take a good look at it. This is a serious situation. Yes, Beck?" Simon wanted to ask a question again.
"I'd like to ask, Josh, in that battle against the sole Cybran, you were at the location where the three Cybrans were during our battle, correct?"
"Yes, that's true, and the Cybran was where you three have built your bases now. You could tell it by the amount of Cybran debris lay around."
"Yes, I noticed some wrecks, now what if the Cybrans suffered from the same problem as you did in the battle before? That would explain why they had nothing while we just kept on firing at them."

"But the Cybran left the planet, so the quantum gate and at least tier two economy was still there, to the disposal of Dygonn, you and your brother," Clarke said, "That would be more than enough to gain such an advantage as you three had over your enemies."

"No, there was no quantum gate, I guess that the Cybrans have got a new, special way of self destructing their weapons, so that they are destroyed almost completely or something like that. I did see some large piles of metal, but those weren't very recognizable either." Leython answered her.
"Anyway, the mass we reclaimed was not enough to give us such a big advantage."

"Ok, that gives us a clear view of the situation we're facing. Both we and our enemies had a disadvantage when they are in the north of the battlefield. A weak mass field could be the reason to this, but I don't think so. That science team I talked about during the briefing, less than an hour ago, that team had searched the entire planet for resources.

The battlefield you've been fighting at was richer than Canis river. That was ten years ago and most of the battles we've had were at Canis river, so this continent was left mostly unscarred. In short, it is simply impossible that the mass field is weak at the north side, while still giving the full amount of resources on the southern side.

No, I think that we're facing a much worse situation. I'm thinking of a quantum leeching device that has been constructed there. When and how, I don't know, but the effect is quite clear: mass is drained from the mass extractors in the area. If one person would control the device, he can gain mass from his enemies. If the device is not being controlled, the resources are just being drained and wasted."

"General, how do you know this?" Josh Funky asked her.

"I have found a very old report. It is of more than eight hundred years ago. Then, the quantum leeching device had been seen for the first time. The Cybran pirate who controlled it, used it to bring a devastating defeat to both UEF and Aeon forces. The first time that the leeching device has been seen was luckily the last time as well." Clarke answered him, before continuing:

"While a group of researchers here is going to take a look at the theory of the device, I will send a new team towards Zeta Canis to investigate there. For you, Beck," Clarke looked at Simon, "Beck," her eyes turned to Shaldon, "and Dygonn," she finally looked at Leython, "I have a more important job.
Regardless the outcome of the Zeta Canis investigation, you will go to the planet where the battle was, involving that quantum leeching device. You will search for traces of it and find out what happened at the planet of Riides, eight hundred years ago. I want to know if the technology still exists. It could help us in the war by finding it, or save ourselves against the Aeon or Cybran forces, if they get it at the moment we arrive.

It is time for you to go treasure hunting at Sung Island."

Chapter 3
Conflict in command

Leython, Simon and Shaldon Beck arrived at Sung Island. The first thing they learned was that the Cybrans were going to hunt for the treasure as well. The quantum leeching device was a powerful weapon and Brackman's symbionts knew about it just like they did.

Sung island was named appropriate. It was the exact island where the pirate used his device. The island was symmetrical, but only by turning it a 72 degrees around its centre. It housed place for five commanders and was the only island in a vast area. The closest bit of land mass was more than nine thousand kilometres away. This meant that the commanders who arrived at the island could not get any assistance but from their friends right there.

Leython and his two allies were with one more than their Cybran enemies, but they arrived at the worst possible timing: before the UEF commanders came along.
Shortly after Shaldon moved towards the destroyed Cybran destroyers that lay on the shore, he was attacked. The enemy force of ten mantii was dealt with, but that was just a reconnaissance force. Within two minutes, Leython had air scouts rushing all over the island in order gain some intelligence on the enemy. The UEF captain saw several engineers, searching for anything that could be reclaimed. As if it wasn't enough, one of the two Cybrans had five air factories and they both were massing land units.

"Guys, we are in deep trouble, it looks like they arrived about ten minutes earlier than we did. We'll have to work hard in order to compensate the disadvantage." Leython said.
"I'm thinking of something, Leython, "Shaldon replied, "build radar at my base, your own and Simon's as well. I'll tech up to tier two, build point defences and help you around getting the same. If we can turtle, we'll win eventually."

"There is one problem with your plan, bro. We have to win and find this technology. If they get it, we got in here for nothing."
"Let's just concentrate on surviving first, otherwise we came along to die, that's worse than going here and not achieving anything."
"Hey, Beck family, get back to the battle!" Leython shouted. More enemy forces arrived, close to Shaldon. He probably had to retreat to the water. Interceptors and air scouts flew everywhere, especially over Leython's base.

Unable to use any means of air now, Leython started to build anti air mobiles. If enemy bombers were about to arrive, he could better prepare for them.

__________
"Shilon, don't spend time to get that ACU. You'll just waste time before he moves into the water. Get the Mantii and the Medusas to the enemy base. There we can deal the best damage. Give me your air units, I have an idea."
"Ok Vedder. Just concentrate on not getting shot down, will ya?"
"No problem, I'll just irritate the other guy, the one we don't know anything about."

Prowlers and Flying Eyes moved towards the eastern enemy. Seeing that this enemy had used all of his resources to upgrade his economical segment, it should be easy to deal with him.

The first bombers were constructed and Shilon transferred them to his ally. After waiting for another thirty seconds, ten bombers were ready to go. John Vedder had sent his interceptors and air scouts away. He lost intelligence on that part of the map, for only a moment, but soon enough the enemy would lose his base there for the rest of the battle.

Less than half a minute later, the bombers arrived. What Vedder saw, shocked him. The enemy had built a shield generator. Had he missed something? He saw the enemy ACU when the Flying Eyes scouted the enemy base, was it upgrading its engineering component at that moment already? If so, he missed some crucial information at a crucial moment. If not, then this enemy was excellent in quickly upgrading and building more advanced weaponry in little to no time at all.

Vedder saw several tier one engineers assisting the ACU, while it built tier two flak cannons. The bombers had turned for their second assault. Vedder tried to make them retreat and remain safely out of the enemies' anti air range, but it was too late.

____________
Simon's flak turrets fired ferociously, the grenades exploded in the air, close to the bombers. Wide gaps were blown into the wings, some bombers were effectively torn into two. They fell like leafs.

"Good job Simon, you've got tier two sooner than I did!" Shaldon said. It was an impressive achievement, but it wouldn't be enough to bring success and glory to the three UEF commanders.

Shaldon hit the tier two level soon after Simon did and the two began to build defensive structures.
The Cybrans still tried to take out the enemy bases with tier one assault bots and bombers, but to no avail.

Leython, who was in between the two Beck brothers, hastily continued his work on economy and factory upgrading. While Simon and Shaldon were constructing a tier two army, Leython continued upgrading his mass extractors. His ACU's construction arm was upgraded to the second tier and it was building the tier two fusion reactors now. The Cybrans were effective with stealth, so it was imperative to have an omni sensor. It was Leython's only goal to have it sooner than any time before.
____________
"They're building a tier two army, Vedder." Shilon said, after he saw what his latest air scout revealed when it flew over his closest enemy's base.
"Build one as well, I'll do the same." The other Symbiont replied. "They still haven't noticed that we hold the centre crater, with its mass we will out produce them."
"The basic defences around the Cybran town over there will not hold if they wage a full scale attack on that location and I think they will soon know about it. We also have to ensure that we hold our won front, in case they decide to attack us directly. We need versatility Vedder. Speed." Shilon said. Despite for being under Vedder's command for this small campaign, Shilon was a better commander. Both knew it, but Vedder did not like the fact and he still tried to be the one who was in command, even though his authority was dwindling. The respect that the younger Shilon had for him had been compromised since three hours ago, when Redain died.

"I'm going to build a tier two air fleet, I don't care what you think about it," Shilon concluded, he wanted to continue, but Vedder cut him off:

"Don't you be so insulting, Shilon, I'm in charge here."
"Would you have noticed the problem we face, Vedder? Tell me!" Shilon said, his tone demanding, Vedder noticed that he couldn't lie.
"No," he admitted, "I wouldn't."
"Then let me just do my job so we can get out of here alive! We've just wasted our advantage in time because you thought that tier one units would do the trick against their point defences. If we lose the mass extractors in that crater, we're at a disadvantage, but we cannot send all of our defences there, because if they attack us then, we'll be too late to protect ourselves if they attack us directly. Don't you get it already, We.need.more.speed.and.versatility!"

Finally, Vedder understood the problem he and Shilon faced. They had to hold an enormous large front with the two of them. They had lost their advantage in time and mass, since they took their time to build their bases at first, before the enemy UEF commanders arrived. They didn't want to rush at first, but now they were forced to use every moment they had. The UEF commanders' quick advancement in tier made the mantis swarm fail as well.

"Very well," Vedder said, admitting his lack of experience, "Build a tier two air armada. I will concentrate on building a naval fleet. If we have that, we will pin them down on this island, they won't be able to go to the beach. Our destroyers can go on land, so we'll be able to lay siege upon them if we have a proper fleet. No tier one land swarm anymore, you are right about that. It won't help us any further."

____________
"Omni online." Leython said. The first words in a couple of minutes came as a surprise to both of his comrades.
"What?!" Shaldon said, "so soon?" He wanted to ask Leython what he had been doing all the time, since they arrived on Sung island. Simon however, was ahead of his older brother.
"I don't care what you've been doing all the time, but this will surely help us, we've got a perfect view now. Now we can plan our assault."

"Yes, and you and Shaldon should do it now, Simon --"Leython started, wanting this battle to be over as soon as possible, but the oldest Beck brother cut him off:
"Not yet, let them do the first next move, then we can see what we're up against."
Simon had his answer ready though, as if he was expecting his brother to say exactly those words.
"Shaldon," he said "we already know what we're up against Shaldon, thanks to Leython's excellent job. You can see that the enemy has got nothing to put up against our armies."
"I do not believe that I gave the order to tech up and build an omni in the first place!"
"No," Leython answered his irritated comrade, "you didn't give me any order at all Shaldon, so I just did what's best for all of us!"
"I am the one in charge here, therefore I am the one who determines what's best for us."
"What makes you think like that, the fact that you're older than us, bro?" Simon asked him, his tone demanding.
"I am the highest in ranking here, because of that I am in charge."Shaldon said, in a tone that made very clear that he wanted the discussion to be ended.

Leython did not let him go that easily though: "You don't have to tell me, or Simon, what to do every single second. I am no longer your pet Shaldon." Leython said, while he still looked at his intelligence screen.
There he saw the important things that would help him to beat the oldest of the Beck brothers.
"Besides," he continued, "one of the two Cybrans is going to build a naval fleet. If I didn't have this omni, Shaldon, we'd never know that and it would've cost us the battle."

"Very well," Shaldon said, knowing his retort was lost, "Leython, build a fleet. Simon, continue working on economy and build air units. I'll upgrade my land factories for tier three weaponry. In the meanwhile, we attack with what we have."

A minute later, when Leython had told Simon and Shaldon what the best plan was, their tier two armies started to move.
__________
"The enemy is going to attack." Shilon said, when he saw what his new air scout reveald. He lost count of how many he had sent on a suicide mission. The enemy tanks were just about to leave their base. He now knew what he faced, but what Vedder was up to, they had yet to see. Luckily, Vedder had learned something in the past minutes.

"Can you send a scout to check for the terrain between my base and my closest enemy's one as well. As you might have noticed already, I've also upgraded my radar tower in the crater. If they come there, you can respond immediately with that large group of gunships."

"That's what I built them for." Shilon answered.
Vedder ignored Shilon's answer and concentrated on his own work now. A large group of enemy tanks moved forward, directly towards his base. He had build an army on his own, consisting of many mantii and some tier two heavy tanks. Having concentrated a lot of resources on naval units, he lacked the firepower on land, for a direct confrontation with the enemy tier two army.

One destroyer was being built, but it would nowhere be enough. Vedder stood little chance, with only one option popping in his head, he asked Shilon for assistance, again.

"Shilon, could you hurry up with attacking 'your' enemy army? I'll need your air units to destroy 'my' enemy."

"I don't know if I can do so immediately. I have no idea how much fighters the enemy's got. You've got stealth generators, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"Good, now use them to hide your tanks, then even if the enemy's got radar all over the island, which I doubt, they won't see your tanks and you can use that to your advantage."
"Oh, yes, of course, I forgot. Our tanks can shoot further than theirs can see. I can just weaken them more and more."

"Yes, but you got to do it now. Move immediately. The more time you waste, the stronger the enemy will be when they arrive at your doorstep," Shilon said, "and arrive, they will. You can't beat them before the tanks reach your base. Not with what you've got now."

____________
"Beck, send in your fighters, the enemy's attacking with gunships, loads of them. " Shaldon said, when the large group of enemy gunships arrived at his slow moving army. It was still protected under the Parashields, but the mobile generators couldn't keep up with the enemy rocket barrage. Soon, they would collapse.

Simon obeyed his brother without speaking. The Cyclone fighters moved in on the enemy gunships...

Flying over the mountain ridges close to the centre of Sung island, the UEF tier one fighters were suddenly being fired at. Seeing them as they were torn in to two, three, even four pieces by one grenade, or that they totally disintegrated when a shell exploded in the hull, Simon knew what was going on.

"Flak towers at the edge of the crater hill. I'm changing the inteceptors's flight path. Flak towers are killing them." Simon ordered the fighters to make a ninety degree turn, then he immediately gave the order, to half of the fighters he had left, to make another turn, making them go back to his own base. The other fighters were sent to the enemy gunships again. The two enemy flak turrets tried to follow, but their turning speed was slow. Firing while turning, they managed to shoot down only two interceptors. In the total process however, they destroyed fifty per cent of Simon's impressive air force.

...Shaldon's Parashields collasped....

"What the..." Shaldon started, while the first of his mobile shields collapsed under the power of the rocket barrage. "Leython! Do your job, damnit!"
"What's the problem now?!" The captain asked, although he already had a good feeling about what was going on.
"You ought to scout the area! All you did was build an omni sensor and some puny defences for your own good!" Shaldon bellowed.

...Enemy bombers flew in and bombed the Parashields. They were destroyed in an instant...

"Scout? How? I have no air units any more, Shaldon has, so he should've done it as soon he saw the whole perimeter of gray dots around the middle of the island." Leython said. Leython did not forget about the existence of enemies on the hill and in the crater, but would only include required information when presenting his assault plan. Assuming that the gray dots couldn't be tier two weaponry because they stood very close to each other, they couldn't hit Simon's and Shaldon's armies as they were moving in a straight line to the enemy. Therefore, it was unnecessary to notify of their existence. Besides, they could do their own job as well.

...Simon's interceptors arrived now, taking out the bombers that tried to make the turn to bomb again...

Now Simon suddenly had to respond to his brother, the unknown buildings were important, but Leython was too busy building his naval units and expanding his economy, that he couldn't concentrate on any event whatsoever, on or above Sung island. He simply didn't have the time to tell Simon to send his interceptors around the hills, at a proper distance to the gray structures.

Simon had to realise that they could harness trouble, even if it were tier one buildings, but he didn't.

Now Leython had said what the younger Beck brother had to do, he finally understood.
"I'm sorry, I --" but Shaldon cut him off.
"I don't care how you should have scouted, but you have built the omni sensor, so the intel job is yours and you should've noted Simon about the 'whole blur of gray units'." He said.
"No way, I didn't have time for that." Leython answered him.
"Didn't have time, work faster, for god's sake! I don't have to tell you that, do I? Do I have to hold your by your hand and tell you how to work? You were able to build that omni sensor on your own accord, you told us the battle plan, so you should be able to tell us of things, if assistance is needed all of a sudden, while working on your fleet, on your own accord."

... Ten gunships were destroyed now, but enemy fighters joined the brawl...

"Shaldon! Listen up! You are the one asking Simon for assistance, so you should note him of the fact that his supply line might be cut by anti air! You are the one that makes an adjustment in the plan all of a sudden. Despite for the fact that we have our own jobs here, our own roles in the battle, we should also do the other things that we can do as well. Such as scouting with air units, which Simon forgot. Notifying others of any issues, which I had no time for!"

"If you have time to build an omni, you have time to notify us of some gray dots, making a perimeter around the crater."
"And if you could've built a tier two army, you could've built some sky boxer flak vehicles with it!"

...All of Simon's interceptors were destroyed by the enemy. At least twenty gunships were still ferociously firing at the Pillars and mobile missile launchers...

"I.. That is not what we're talking about Leython!" Shaldon answered, trying to ignore one of the many flaws that now turned his assault group into a pile of scrap metal. "We're talking about the fault you made. You didn't see the enemy threat. It could've been even worse. That could've been tier two artillery!"

"No it couldn't," Leython said, suddenly remembering why he didn't mention the appearance of the gray dots. "Those buildings stood too close to each other to be tier two. Tier one point defences could never reach our units. Tier one anti air was no threat either, because the plan didn't include our air units that were going to fly to your aid."

...Shaldon's last units were destroyed. The visual markings of the area surrounding the molten iron heaps that were used to be Pillar tanks, disappeared. Leython's omni sensor still accurately displayed the twenty gunships that now moved away, in a straight line across the hill and over the crater ridges, they moved towards Simon's base...

"Stop it, both of you. We'll argue on what went wrong after the battle. If we're still alive, which I personally doubt." Simon said.

"Now, I will continue moving my army. Flak vehicles are in it too, so there's not really much to worry about. I'll just steamroll towards the enemy." Simon concluded.

The gunships arrived at his army. Flak fired at them and they were sent back immediately. Several were shot down nonetheless.

"He's got no intel. At least, not there. Press on Simon." Leython said. The army moved forward in its fast pace, but it was being fired at. There was no source, which meant that they could face only one thing, as Simon noted: "Stealth generators. By the looks of it, repeater guns firing lasers. Looks like heavy tanks. I hope that this is all, then we can get into the base without too much casualties."

Two shields suddenly collapsed under the weight of a bright crimson flash. The enemy had fired an overcharge bolt at the joint line of the domes. Two tier one bombers followed. While they bombed the shield generators, flak guns had found the new targets and fired. The bombers were downed by the myriad of explosions, but their job was done. The two shield generators that had lost their domes because of the overcharge bolt, had been destroyed by the cluster bombs.

"I can't see a thing and they're kiting me!" Simon said.
"Simon," Leython answered, "You've got air units for a reason, use them to discover the enemy tanks, then yours will fire."
Simon sent all of his newly built interceptors in the air and they moved in on his land army, planning to scout ahead.
"And now you had needed the bombers, so you could kill his stealth generators. Use his own tricks against him." Leython continued, while still frantically upgrading his economy and building his naval fleet.
Simon's air units flew over the supposed location of the enemy army and revealed it. His pillar tanks fired and missiles were launched from the Flapjack launchers. The enemy army continued firing as well and the enemy commander fired a second overcharge shot. It had moved in a diagonal line and was now in front of its own army, too slow to keep up with it.

The enemy tanks were being shot at, while all of a sudden, the large group of mantii, that was mixed up in the small tier two army, moved forward. They blocked the path for the Pillars, Parashields, Sky Boxers and Flapjacks; the Cybran commander couldn't be fired at as it continued its retreat.

Two new enemy bombers arrived, bombing the now exposed shield generators that had lost their shields because of the second overcharge shot from the enemy commander. Mantii fired at everything they could reach but their numbers were quickly dwindling under the furious Pillars.

However, several more shield generators were destroyed, the mantii did not pay themselves off, but they gave the enemy heavy tanks the ability to fire at the now exposed UEF vehicles. To make things worse, Simon had sent all of his air units in one single order. New enemy fighters were sent towards them and lured them towards the Cybran flak towers, which made short work of the tier one fighters.

Simon had lost his air units, his land force was weakening and no longer had the ability to fire back at the Cybrans. By the time that the army finally arrived at the base, only the Flapjacks and the Sky Boxers were left. They were destroyed in moments.

"My assault has failed, what are we're going to now?" Simon asked.
"Turtle," Shaldon answered, "Tech your air factory, get Ambassadors, Wasps and Stork torpedo bombers. Get some Broadswords as well. I will be building a Fatboy, concentrating on economy and Strategic missile silos. All of you should build anti nuke launchers. Leython, continue building that fleet. And when we're done here, you and I are going to talk about loyalty and understanding what orders are."

"If loyalty means that it is always my fault and you're so incredible busy that you can't help others, I'd never be loyal to you! Clarke sent me with you and Simon because I'm the best at getting radar towers online and analysing unknown dots the fastest. We should talk about you, how you fail to understand my quality!"

"Oh, analysing gray dots, you failed at that, remember?"
"No, I didn't. No one could've known that tier two weaponry would stand there. The buildings are too close to each other. It isn't my fault!" Leython said. Deep down he thought he should've built an air scout quickly, to check things out for sure, but he paid it no mind anymore.

"Major Beck," Clarke suddenly interrupted the bickering commanders, "captain Dygonn is right, he couldn't have known it. He still is far better than you if it comes to intelligence. You should know it and allow him to do what he wants, otherwise he cannot work and you won't be able to find the quantum leeching device." Clarke out.

Chapter 4
Sung Island: the pirates versus the imperial fleet

Since warlord Sung had taken it, the Cybrans had always controlled the planet. The UEF made attempts to conquer it, but always failed because of the sole isle that saw many bloody fights.
To discover why the UEF never could assume control over the planet, one had to look at the strategic lay out of Sung island. The diversion of mass extraction points was critical. The location of the ever returning Cybran destroyer wrecks was just as important.

Together, they formed a riddle hard to solve, yet easy to understand as soon as it was solved. The Cybrans always used the unique destroyer design to lay siege upon their enemies. The commanders always gated in close to the beach. The destroyers had a long range, so they could take out any enemy standing on the shore. If it was cleared, the destroyers moved in and would start to walk.

A walking destroyer was far slower than one at sea, but that was no problem. The guns were strong and could destroy any weapon while they moved in slowly. Artillery were able to outrange the destroyers, but they had no optical range. Radar would have to assist them, but the Cybrans always used decievers, their mobile stealth generators, to back the walking destroyers up. Weapons could not fire if they could not see.

The only option left, for UEF commanders, was to use an air force, but the Cybrans always happened to find a way to deal with the air threat. Usually, they had air superiority far before they employed the land assault with their ships. If that wasn't the case, the tier two mobile flak proved an excellent weapon to deal with the enemy bombers and gunships. It never came to a war with the faster strategic bombers, not at Sung island.

This time however, was different.

Both Dygonn and Vedder had built an impressive naval fleet. Shilon and Simon Beck had constructed an even impressive air armada. Both could compete with one another.
Shaldon back had created a large tier three land force, but Shilon and Vedder were not lagging behind. Their Loyalist siege bots and Trebuchet artillery could easily stand up against Shaldon Beck's Titans.

The battle was balanced, but Leython had his omni sensor available, so he could watch every move by the Cybran fleet. Because the Geminis were stealthed, he had no idea of the Symbiont's existence of air units. He expected it nonetheless and said it to both Shaldon and Simon, so that they would be prepared for it. Neither of them argued, but Shaldon's tone made very clear that he wanted to hear as little as possible from Leython for the time this battle endured.

The lack of proper communication made the UEF team very vulnerable, but Leython decided to comply. The only things he had to say were sudden enemy movements that he noticed.
Thinking of the devil, Leython saw that the Cybran fleet began to move.

"The Cybrans are going to attack. Their fleet is moving along the east side of the island. I'm going to bring my fleet to Simon to intercept."

"No further action until I say so." Shaldon said. His voice was cold. Clearly he would not soon forgive the UEF captain, the one he taught how to fight in "the real world", for speaking up against him.
Leython decided that it was best to ask the general to assign him to the Aeon front as soon as he returned to earth.

A standoff as vast as this always made Leython nervous. He wanted to see something happen, so he knew what he was up to. If two armies just stood up against each other, he never knew when all trouble would break loose.

This standoff was about to be ended, luckily. It was only a matter of time before the Cybran pirates would meet the federation's fleet. The enemy destroyers had an advantage in range, but Leython's Valiants made that up for direct firepower. Several governor class cruisers were mixed up in the fleet as well. They had to deal with any air unit that would fly over. Strategic bombers were particularly dangerous. Two bombs were almost enough to sink one destroyer. A couple of subs could do the rest.

Simon had Ambassedors and Broadswords to his disposal so he could help taking out the enemy fleet, but it was not a good idea. If he unleashed the force upon the enemy ships, they were very likely to be downed. The Cybran cruisers were powerful and very useful against any aerial threat. The UEF cruisers were powerful too, but lacked a bit of anti air firepower against the Cybrans, which they had traded in for a small tactical missile launcher and a deck gun.

"I'll build torpedo bombers," Simon said. Shaldon however, had a whole different idea:
"No, don't do it, you'll just waste them. They might never make the first turn. They've got air units that we can't see. They'll bring them in to deal with Storks that survive their first bombing run. Most will be shot down by cruisers. You can bet that they've got loads of cruisers, to assist their destroyers. Leython has to fend that assault of by himself. His fleet will go down, but so will the enemies'."

The words infuriated Leython. So he had built his naval force just so it could be destroyed by the enemy?
"Shaldon, I would like it if my fleet would survive."
"Your fleet has got only one purpose, destroying the enemy fleet. Those pirates will have a significant advantage if they win the battle at sea. If we win, we don't have such an advantage. We don't have the range they've got."
"But I've got cruisers, those things have a proper range."
"Can our cruisers go on land? No. End of story. If those destroyers make it on land, they will continue to besiege us. We have to take those out. The enemy commanders have to be killed in another way, why don't you think about that while you embark on your naval war?"

"Oh, ok." Leython said, knowing that Shaldon was right in one way or another, and not wanting to argue again.
About a minute later, the two fleets clashed near Simon's small beach. He didn't build naval yards, so there was nothing in the water that he could lose. Three mass extractors however, would probably not be so lucky.

The first cruisers launched their missiles. Automated systems made them do so. Yet, unlike the mobile missile launchers, the cruiser's missiles had no tracking ability. Most of them, if not all, would miss their target.

Yellow bolts arrived at Leython's ships. These enemy weapons were far more accurate and the governor class ships took the most damage. Leython ordered them to fall back. All of the cruisers had
to be at the rear of the fleet. They had to be alive as long as possible, so that they could protect the fleet against an air assault.

Destroyers continued along their path. They took their damage now, but were only harmed slightly, compared to their weaker counterparts from the second tier. Leython saw that the enemy ships were moving forward slowly. The Cybran commander wanted to confront the old earth empire's fleet directly, but he also wanted to keep range to his advantage. It was time to deny that to him.

With a single order, all ship's engines roared three times as loud. The ships moved forward with all their power. Moving in range of more enemy destroyers, the enemy fire intensified. The Governor cruisers followed the destroyers as fast as they could.

The first Valiant class ships had found their target and fired. The deafening sounds from the gauss cannons were properly transmitted to Leython's ACU. A bit too properly, Leython thought, and he reduced the volume from his live audio feed.

The front lines of both fleets reached closer and closer to each other. More UEF destroyers turned their guns and fired as much as they could. The first torpedoes were fired and only seconds later, the first enemy underwater missiles hit the destroyers' hull. One destroyer was hit critically by the combined firepower of torpedoes and energy bolts. The engines exploded and the ship broke in two.

Two gray dots disappeared as the next destroyer was sunk. Leython's fleet had evened the score.
The cruisers were still firing their missiles, but most missed. The few that hit, would probably deal tremendous damage to an enemy unit, Leython reckoned, but he could not see it.

"Simon, could you send a spy plane to scout over the enemy fleet?" Leython asked, hoping that Shaldon would not stop his younger brother.
"Erm..."Simon began, but Shaldon nodded in approval: "Ok, I'll do it."
Moments later, the spy plane revealed the enemy fleet. It only consisted of destroyers, not a single cruiser was in sight.

"Hmm, no cruisers, ok. Simon, build torpedo bombers and send them in. Do not send anything but torpedo bombers. The longer we can hide our real air force, the better." Shaldon ordered him. Leython finally thought that he had become smarter. At least he thought like a good tactician and made the right decisions on what he saw.

Now Leythons ships were amongst the pirates. Most ships had automatically chosen one enemy to fire at, the closest one. It seemed like the Cybran vessels had done the same thing. It reminded him of the old pirate movies, in which two ships closed in to point blank range and then fired with everything they had. It was a suicide mission, always.
This time however, it was not done with two ships, but with two gigantic fleets and, luckily, zero men as crew.

One after another, destroyers and UEF cruisers alike, were sunk. The enemy was intensifying the torpedo barrage. Leython understood that his fleet lacked the submarines that the pirate fleet had. It was intended though. The UEF Tigersharks were sent further to the east so that they could attack from the enemy's flank. Additionally, the enemy had no cruisers mixed in the current arsenal and Simon's first torpedo squadron, ten Storks in total, arrived in the onslaught.

Torpedoes were dropped, Leython did not know at which enemy they had fired, but the total myriad of torpedoes was so stunning that he didn't even try to take a look. Instead, he ordered his submarines to move in at full speed. As soon as they arrived, he would probably win the naval battle.

Thirty per cent of both fleets was destroyed. The Storks turned around for a second barrage upon the enemy destroyers and submarines. Gauss cannons fired ferociously, not sparing a single moment to give the enemy vessels a very hard time.

Then, the turning point of the battle appeared.

While the Storks tried to make their second turn, they were destroyed. A colossal armada of Tier three air superiority fighters appeared out of nowhere. They were effectively sent around the island and caught up in the war. The Governor class cruisers tried to shoot them down, but they could not prevent the fighters from shooting down the torpedo bombers. While Leython had a slight advantage because of Simon's air units, he was now at even odds again, with the enemy fleet.

Several enemy destroyers were trying to make it up to land, so that they could lay siege upon Simon's base.
"Leyton, concentrate fire on the ones that have set foot on the beach. If they put a siege upon me, my base is doomed."
Leython complied, if anything were to happen to Simon, they had lost air dominance for good, and not just for the moment that these enemy fighters flew by.

The enemy air units remained flying above Simon's base. His own Wasps took up the fight, but they were seriously outnumbered. Simon had ordered his bombers to stay on the ground, as well as a his Broadsword gunships. His ACU frantically tried to build tier three SAM sites to deal with the enemy threat.

Most of the Wasps were destroyed, while the naval battle ensued. The destroyers were very slow as soon as they moved on land, so Leython ordered his cruisers to fire at those, while his own Valiant destroyers concentrated on their Cybran counterparts that still moved in the waters.
The two groups of submarines had found each other and were exchanging torpedoes. It was a bad idea to use the subs for that, Leython thought. They might do a better job if they concentrated on the destroyers, but as long as the enemy subs were not minding his Valiant Vessels, it was going better than he could hope for.

Simon had lost his fighters and the enemy fighters retreated. Leython had a plan to deal with the enemy as soon as possible, but it was risky.

"Simon, build some spy planes, I want to know where the enemy commanders are. You still have your bombers and they don't have the best intel, for as far as I can guess. We could use your air units to take out your closest enemy."

"It's too risky." Shaldon answered, fearing a total loss of the UEF air force.
"It is very risky indeed, but this whole battle has turned into a risk now we see that the enemy air force is much more powerful than ours. He might not have strategic bombers yet, but it is only a matter of time before those fly over and bomb us into oblivion. We have to act now. If we take out the enemy commander to the north east, we have no naval force to worry about. We can't be besieged anymore."
Shaldon said nothing, he apparently searched for a way to retort, still unhappy that Leython explained the new strategy to him, instead of the other way around. However, he also noticed that Simon was in a lot of trouble now and would be if the enemy could build a second naval fleet. They had lost any means of air superiority, with only Ambassadors and Broadswords to attack.

It seemed quiet on his own front, but that was only because he had a proper base, with powerful anti air defence and a good amount of titan siege assault bots. Simon had not worked on a powerful defence in his base. His air force was significant, but the enemy had so much air superiority fighters...

The simple truth was that they were locked up on the island by the navy, despite for Leython's efforts. Both fleets evened each other out, compensated each other. These fleets would be destroyed completely. Yet it was only a matter of time before the Cybrans would have a more powerful fleet and could lay siege upon Simon again. Then, he would not survive. As soon as the enemy had strategic bombers, they could finish all of their three enemies.

"I don't like it, but we don't have much choice. Simon, attack the enemy without hesitation, go head on."
"No, first, you have to find out where he is!" Leython yelled at the moment that Simon ordered his air units to take off. The bombers and heavy gunships landed again. Simon made a couple of spy planes and ordered them to scout the area. The commander was nowhere to be found.
"He's got cloak, damnit, this is no use." He said, while the Spy planes were taken out by the enemy air superiority fighters.
"Don't worry, the scouting process has worked, he is underwater." Leython said.
"How can you tell that?"
"I've got an image that will explain it all." Leython answered, and he forwarded a shot from the spy plane's feed of only seconds ago.

The image showed the Cybran engineers assisting the naval yard that was rapidly building more destroyers. Leython counted twenty tier one engineers, but twenty five flying construction drones.
"These construction drones are controlled by lasers and each engineer has got one drone, a tier two engineer has got two, but there are none of those here. There are also no tier three engineers."
"Yes, yes I see," Shaldon answered him impatiently, "cut to the case already!"

"There are too much drones for the engineers to control, so there must be a unit underwater that controls the rest of them." Leython answered him calmly. "There is information in the UEF database about the Cybran's way of building. The ACU has got five drones. The five that are too much on this screen belong to the enemy command unit."

"Ok, send in your fleet."
"I don't have much of a fleet anymore, Shaldon. Also, what about Simon?"
"Send whatever you have left. Simon, build shield generators and tactical missile launchers, you'll have to deal with the landed destroyers on your own."
"Ok, going to work on that now."

Leython sent his destroyers and submarines towards the enemy commander. He hoped that the enemy subs wouldn't follow him, but they unfortunately did. With only thirty per cent of his initial navy left, he hoped that he could get the enemy commander. If not, then Simon should use his strategic bombers to bomb the sea. With such shallow water as this, destroying the enemy ACU should work. That tactic was risky though. The bombers could not track their enemy, so the targeting had to be done manually. Simon had to pay attention if the enemy commander was to go down then. He also had only one chance to kill him, because the air superiority fighters would be on his tail in no time.

While the fleet moved forward, the enemy subs pursued. Now being the only enemies left, they were quickly taken out by a massive barrage of torpedoes, coming from Leython's Tigersharks and Valiant ships alike. A new challenge was waiting though. The damaged fleet had to overcome a new group of destroyers that was constructed. Leython saw the enemy fire but he ignored it. Micro management was possible but would not be worth the effort. The little fire that his units could dodge would hardly compensate for the cost in time.

The destroyers and submarines kept moving. Now turning their guns again, ready to fire, three heavily damaged destroyers collapsed under the firepower of their enemies. The enemy blocked Leython's path, but the submarines continued, effectively moving through, below the blockade.

The enemy ship yard was in range and the first Tigershark's visual feed revealed the Cybran ACU. All submarines were ordered to fire. Leython saw that the enemy had no upgrades whatsoever. This would be easy if he didn't move.

The words had not formed in Leython's mind and the enemy command unit walked to the beach. Ordering the Tigersharks to pursue while firing, he hoped that they could still get the enemy down. It appeared to be impossible. Not twenty per cent of the enemy ACU integrity had been lost and the ACU was about to reach out of the water.

"Simon! He made it out of the water, get it down with your -- oh."
Simon had been watching Leython's assault closely and ordered his air units to move before the ACU reached out of the water. By the time that the cockpit was visible, the Ambassadors prepared to bomb. Out of the fifteen strategic bombers, only five made it through, due to the powerful anti air emplacements and the swift air superiority fighter movement. Still, five bombs were more than enough. Just two seconds later, the enemy ACU exploded.

"Great job Simon, now we can – Watch out!" Shaldon finished. While all eyes looked at the deep strike that Leython and Simon conducted, the enemy commander had initiated his own assault. Only a few bombers had been sent. It was obviously a desperate attack, so soon as they were coming. they were probably not constructed before the enemy assault with the air superiority fighters, two minutes ago.

Desperate or not, it was working. The destroyers that walked on Simon's beach, had taken out the few shield generators that protected his commander. The strategic bombers hit the UEF command unit. The powerful boms also destroyed a tier three mass fabricator. The fabricator exploded and caused an evenly damaged power generator to explode. Simon's ACU couldn't sustain all the damage done to it.

"Ah, craa --" and the audio feed turned into static.
"No! Damnit no!" Shaldon yelled.

____________
"Doctor Brackman, doctor." Shilon said.
"Yes, I have seen what happened, Shilon, I'm sorry to have to witness Vedder's death. While he was not the best pilot... He was an invaluable living person. Just like everyone else. The same goes for the one you just killed." Gustav Brackman answered. He wondered, how long would this war have to go on, if it were to go on like this, like the past thousand years...

Brackman had seen more people die than any other person in the galaxy. He had seen himself die, physically. He was not attached so closely to any person now just yet, that that person's death would kill him mentally. He knew however, that that time would come if peace would not.

Chapter 5
Last Man Standing

Simon Beck was dead. His base self-destructed, as he was unable to transfer his arsenal at the sudden moment. Shaldon was stunned. He had lost his brother. On Sung Island, at the eastern mass field, an empty spot was left. Tons of mass were still there, but only waited on the ground to be reclaimed. It was so much different from when Simon still controlled them. The machines did not... breath life... Shaldon could not find other, better words for it.

He heard Leython talk, but he couldn't hear it. Leython's voice didn't make it to his ears. Shaldon wanted to get away, but there was no reason to. He knew about other commanders, what they went through when they saw a brother, a comrade or their best friend die in an ACU explosion, what kind of process they had to live through. Some of them turned into a raging madman. Suddenly they attacked their enemy and overwhelmed his defences. Less than a minute later the enemy was dead.

As soon as that happened, their strength, their will to fight disappeared. A week later, they sat at home, resigned from the military. If they had other good friends, family members, they could eventually cope with the death of their comrades at the front. If not... Shaldon had heard about it: suicide was not so very uncommon under those pilots.

He couldn't do it. Turning in such a rage. He couldn't bring up the energy to give his units a single command. It was like he skipped the first step of the process. Besides, how?

How could he blame his enemy? Despite for the fact that he despised him because he killed Simon, Shaldon could not resent him for the fact that he had killed. Simon Beck did not exist in the Cybran's head. The destroyed ACU was piloted by a nameless person. It was one of the prices in war. Something that came all too close to Shaldon now.

"Shaldon, snap out of it!" Leython yelled.
Finally, he got back into the reality of the battle. Leython repeated his words now Shaldon was listening: "I'm sorry, but we've got to get back to the battle." He sent a transport to Simon's destroyed base to reclaim it. "We've lost all means of air except for my transport, at this moment. I can rebuild a naval force, but that would not be such a good idea if the enemy has no interest in the sea either. We've got to build more shields so we'll not be bombed into oblivion."

The words hit Shaldon like an overcharge bolt. Less than a minute ago, Simon had died because of strategic bombers and now Leython mentioned the way he died. Shaldon forced himself to answer.
"Yes... yes, and we've got to build strategic missile defences as well. Then we will be properly protected. Should I send in my land units?" He asked, completely forgetting that he wanted to have command over Leython.

____________
Vedder was dead. Shilon knew him for only a couple of weeks now, but he liked the guy. He wasn't a brilliant commander, but neither was Shilon by himself. They both had to keep up training besides the current war on the front. Shilon was better than Vedder, but not so much. He was good when it came to building unit swarms. He also had some tactical abilities, but he still had to learn. It was good that neither of these enemy commanders were strategic masterminds either.

Or were they?

Vedder died despite for the fact that he seemed safe in the water. Defences, they were not appropriate in the sea. Submarines, like aircraft, could not be stopped by a blockade, as a land army or a fleet of frigates and destroyers would. He had told Vedder to retreat. Then, suddenly those strategic bombers arrived. He saw them around during the air superiority fighter assault he initiated a couple of minutes ago.

He had seen the threat, but not realized it's presence.

No, the enemies were no strategic masterminds. It was because of the lack of experience and skills that both parties had lost one man. Shilon was currently the only Symbiont on this entire planet. He just realized it. The buildings were empty, the village was deserted. His sensors could not discover any human life forms. Yet still, it was in a perfect state, like it had known a never ending golden age.

The enemies were two UEF commanders. The only pilots from the Federation. Three persons. Waging war on a planet, so very distant. It felt surreal. Unnatural.

It were all pieces of one puzzle. Shilon, the last Cybran. His enemies, the only two UEF pilots. Three men in search for a treasure so rare that it was a miracle that even Brackman knew about it. Searching near a deserted village that was in perfect state. It was all as unnatural as the perfect shape of this island.

Less unnatural was the course of the battle.

Now that two persons had died, but didn't transfer their weaponry, a race for the now free resources began. Shilon had already sent his transport to the wreckages that were Vedder's former base.
He enemy had probably done the same thing.

While the wrecks were being reclaimed, the battle went on. The UEF commander that looked silent and inactive, suddenly sent a colossal army. The army was too large for his Loyalists and Trebuchets to take on, but he had air superiority. Only a few strategic bombers could make the difference. He stopped all other processes and ordered every engineer he had to assist his air factory.

As soon as he had destroyed this land army, the UEF would have no units anymore whatsoever. He could easily spend his resources on a strategic missile launcher. Sending in his own air force to destroy the enemy bases was dumb and stupid. The remaining pilots had protected themselves well now and would have their commanders on the run at a moment's notice.

So trying to assassinate the UEF ACUs was ridiculous. Strategic missile defences however, could not move and were easily destroyed in a bombing run.

Certain that the plan would work, Shilon started to build a missile silo, and a missile defence structure. Suddenly, the mechanical voice of QAI gave him new instructions:
"Ensure you have some extra Ion Reactors ready. Brackman wants you to be able to teleport at anytime."

"Oh, ok. But why?"
"The doctor didn't inform me on the reason. I inquired him to it, but he refused to answer. He said that I would realize why a teleporting module is important to have at this moment, on this planet. He did not elaborate on the issue." The artificial voice answered.
"Strange guy, Brackman is. I guess he has got his reasons. I'll upgrade my ACU as soon as I can."
"Understood, doctor Brackman will be informed."

____________
"I have built the mobile shield generators, I'm putting the titans and Parashields in formation and then I'll make the real attack." Shaldon said to Leython.
"Good, don't forget to build missile defences, I'm expecting a strategic weapon to come. I've reclaimed most of Simon's base. I'm concentrating on an air force. It'll only be a force of Wasps though, we don't have time or resources for bombers or gunships."

Shaldon's titans moved out. Protected by Parashields, they could withstand the first strategic bombs without problems. The titans had shields by themselves as well, so when those were taken out, but the siege assault bots could survive a battle, their effective defence capacity would be as good as new, just some minutes later.

The Cybran's didn't have any mobile shields whatsoever, personal or area protective. It made their armies very vulnerable, but they had to be found first. Leython had only one omni sensor available. He didn't have time to build one near Shaldon's base or, even better, in the middle of the field. The lack of proper intelligence was a great advantage for the Symbiont enemy, who made perfect use of his stealth abilities.

"Fatboy constructed. I'm sending it to go with my army. It is slower, but I'll have a nice protective range." Shaldon said.

While the army moved, a spy plane flew over it. followed by a large group of strategic bombers. The enemy bombers dropped their payload upon the shield domes. The units were micro managed perfectly. Shaldon's army moved in a perfect formation and that caused its downfall. The strategic bombers flew in a wide formation over the shield generators and dropped their bombs in the exact spots where four shields joined together. With using only two bombers, four parashields collapsed.

__________
A total of eight Revenants was enough to expose the enemy siege assault bots. Shilon did not know what was going so well, but he certainly fought better than anytime before. Perfect use of his units by micromanagement. He sent a spy plane to scout ahead once in a while and his economy and factories had been working non-stop to build unit after unit. Now he was spending every unit of mass and energy he had to build his Missile silo and missile defences.

He had finally found something he was good at. Unit 'spamming'.

His trebuchet mobile artillery had spotted the first enemies in range, just at the moment that his strategic bombers were turning around. It looked like he could spend some time to plan ahead and calculate the speed of armies. It had been better if his artillery shells arrived just after the enemy shields went down. Then, the generators would have been destroyed immediately. Now, there was a chance that they had regained their shields before the Trebuchets' barrage arrived.

Luckily, it didn't. The artillery were not very accurate, that was the Cybran's habit. For decimating an army this size however, it wasn't a problem. The wide dispersion of shells, in combination with the large area of effect, nicknamed splash damage by most commanders, had a serious effect on the enemy assault bots.

____________
The titans' shields had been given a powerful barrage of shells. The generators roared in protest and jumped in to restore the shields to the optimal strength. Being blasted at from several sides at the same time, due to the enemy's grenades, that inflicted a damage at a large area, had forced the shields to take up fifty per cent of the damage they could have. Another barrage like that, and the Titans would be exposed completely.

"Shaldon, concentrate, damnit! Scatter the titans around. That artillery barrage has destroyed most parashields and another barrage is coming. I've checked where the artillery should be, according to the direction where the shells came from. I'll forward the coordinates so you can order your Fatboy to fire there."

"That'll not be of much use, the Fatboy has got a perfect accuracy. Useful to take down a base or something. Perhaps a Galactic, but it does not work against larger armies." Shaldon replied.
"We don't have a choice, do we?" The UEF captain asked him.
"No, you're right." Shaldon admitted. He had lost interest in the battle. Every moment, every move, every step he made and he thought of Simon, who was dead for seven minutes. Would his parent's know already? They lived in a remote area in North America. What if he was the one to bring the news?

A new barrage of grenades arrived. Several Titan shields collapsed under the weight and some assault bots even fell because of the raw power. With balancing technology and more powerful hydraulic pumps at the flanks of a titan, they managed to get up sooner than two years ago. Yet, still not soon enough. The fallen bots caused the titans behind to run in on each other. A large group was jammed and stood clumped together.

Then, the UEF weapons were unlucky enough to see the Cybran bombers again. Only eight bombs fell down upon them, but more than twenty titans were destroyed.

Leython had ordered his air superiority fighters to attack the enemy, but the Wasps weren't able to take a single bomber down because they had been attacked by the enemy tier three fighters.
Leython could have known it. They were hiding in the crater, under protection of stealth technology. The enemy had planned ahead, or was just lucky to have them stashed there for the time being.

The bombers passed a third time, but they dropped no bombs. At least, not on the siege assault bots. They targeted the Fatboy, now the Titan assault force had dwindled to half the original size.

The fatboy could easily withstand the first bombing run. Its shields were powerful enough for that. A second bombing run would be no problem either, but at the third, the shield could very well collapse and leave the experimental factory unprotected.

Since Leython had no Wasps available anymore and Shaldon's anti air couldn't reach the enemy bombers, the two UEF commanders had to watch and see the weapon be destroyed.

____________
The enemy experimental was down. A smoking wreckage was all there was left, thanks to the Revenants. Loyalists had moved into the remainder of the enemy bot army to deal with them. Every time that a Cybran tier three bot was destroyed, an electromagnetic pulse was cast away from the wreck. This brought the enemy units to a halt and allowed the other loyalists to fire without answer.

There was no enemy threat left and one of the two UEF commanders had forgotten to build strategic missile defences. Since Shilon's missile silo was built, he thought that it would be best to fill it to the maximum capacity before launching a nuke.

Assisting the missile launcher to the maximum of his resources, Shilon knew that there was nothing to worry about for the moment. He had finally constructed an Olympus Omni sensor in the island's crater, that allowed him to oversee everything. A couple of scouts had given a good view of the enemy's strength and it was nothing special.

Indeed, as was to be expected, nothing happened for the time being. Now the silo was filled with five nuclear missiles, Shilon prepared the launch. Several strategic bombers were sent to the south east to bomb the enemy defence structures. While they were flying, Shilon queued up the missile targets.

Three missiles were sent towards the south western base. It had no defences and could therefore be decimated completely with only two missiles. The third was sent just to be sure. Shilon had been told about enemies that could build a Missile defence and an anti-missile in the time that the nukes were still on their way. Sending three missiles however, would surely work.

The two other nukes ware sent to the other base. Shilon assumed that the bombers would get through so that the enemy would lose the missile defences. It might go wrong, he thought when he saw the missiles fly and the bombers close in, but it was too late to back down now.

____________
"Strategic launch detected." The automated, monotone voice said the three words that most commanders feared like nothing else. Shaldon seemed to be one of them.

"Damnit! Damnit! I forgot about those SMDs!"
"Oh crap. You've ruined your base, now look!" Leython answered. Shaldon had told him to build strategic missile defences, but he had neglected the task by himself. Even after Leython had reminded him, he did nothing.
The monotone voice returned in the ACU's cockpits: "Multiple strategic missile launches detected."
"Shaldon, get out of your base. You'll lose it anyway."

Shaldon moved his ACU out of his own base, walking towards Leython's. A minute later, three missiles arrived at Shaldon's base, in rapid succession. The bright light blinded Leython even though he was looking at the enhanced screen. The screen always darkened itself when a nuclear explosion appeared on it, but three at a time were too much.

Shaldon's base was gone and his own shields had been hit by a squadron of Strategic bombers. It was not a real problem as long as the bombers were taken out before they could do a third run. Multiple shields were still able to stop the subsequent fall of bombs. Tier three anti air and air superiority fighters were doing their job. The bombers would not last long.

Two strategic missiles appeared above his base. The missile defences responded to the thread perfectly. Two anti-missiles were launched at an incredible speed and the nukes were destroyed while they were still high in the air.

____________
One base down, one to go.

Shilon had lost his Revenants though. It was time to build some new ones. Facing enemy missile defences, there was no real use in his own Liberator anymore. He decided it was a good idea to reclaim it. He gave the order to self destruct.

In the explosion that followed, thirty tier three engineers were blown apart. Shilon made a mental note to himself, he had to be more careful, he had to remember the facts. He had to count himself lucky that the Liberator didn't stand in the middle of his base. The entire base could have exploded.

Building the new squadron took some time, but there was still enough to do. His loyalist and Trebuchet army, that he had used to deal with the enemy land force, was sent to cut off the connection between the two UEF bases. It had been standing near the hills. The artillery could fire at any enemy that moved from one base to the other. The Loyalists could intercept such a unit with ease.

A unit, an ACU for instance.

____________
"Shaldon! Watch out! Enemy units are moving towards you." Leython yelled. If the units were enemy siege assault bots, and Leython assumed that they were, then Shaldon was going to die. More enemy units moved forward, but they stayed at a distance. Suddenly, Leython heard a sound he always familiarised with the sound of thunder: an artillery barrage. Shaldon heard it as well.

"NO! HELP ME!"

Leython immediately ordered his Ambassador bombers to lift off and deal with the enemy artillery. He saw them as gray dots, but there was no doubt that it were the Cybran's equivalents of the UEF's Demolishers. He didn't plan to build the bombers in the first case, but felt like there was nothing to do but to try a sudden assassination.
"Shaldon! Move your ACU to the beach, get into the water and get to the base via my backdoor." Leython said.
Shaldon did what he asked. Leython knew that his comrade was terrified. Of course, he could not know how it felt to be hunted down until he was dead. He could not know how it felt to realise that the hunt was almost over.

____________
The trebuchets were unable to move away all of a sudden and Shilon knew that they were about to be destroyed. The enemy had spared this group of bombers to assassinate him, he knew it. When a commander had no air superiority, but still insisted on building strategic bombers, then he was desperate to finish the battle. Very few bombing runs ever made it through and killed the enemy commander, most were bound to fail. Just like this one.

The enemy had managed to take out his mobile artillery though. He still had his Loyalists nonetheless. The first siege assault bots had found the enemy ACU in their range and targeted it. A ruthless barrage of fire crossed the southern beach. The UEF commander tried to escape by moving sideways, but it seemed useless. The enemy would be gone...

____________
"Ok, relax now, you've got six parashields protecting you, move into the water and then get yourself into my base. We'll repair your ACU and then ask EarthCom to retreat. We don't stand a chance in here."

"Thanks, you saved my life. Leython, about earlier..." Shaldon started.
"We'll talk about it on earth, if we get there both. We've got more important things to do than just talking."
"Ok, got it." The UEF major was safely under the water's surface now. It would take two minutes before he was in Leython's base, still heavily damaged, but alive.

____________
Two minutes later, Shilon sent a spy plane to scout the remaining enemy base. The result brought the damaged enemy ACU in amongst the structures. Shilon could try to assassinate him. The ACU would explode if only one bomb hit it. The majority of the base would be destroyed. It was worth a try. He still had control over the battlefield and was building a Monkeylord. Even if this would fail, the experimental spider bot would not. The Revenants moved through the sky, preparing to strike at the enemy base.

Thirty seconds later, they dropped their bombs. Shields collapsed under the violent explosions. Two bombs made it through all the way to the ground. The enemy command unit moved slowly away, calmly, like nothing special was happening. Shilon knew however, that the pilot must have been in the worst panic in his life, before the ACU disappeared in the bright yellow flames.

____________
"...and we've just lost Shaldon, I have no choice but to retreat. I'm overwhelmed and outgunned. Fancy movements won't work against an enemy presence at this scale. He is far ahead of me in terms of economy and military. Especially now Shaldon's ACU blew up in my own base! I've lost fifty per cent of my structures." Leython concluded. He had seen the ACU explode in front of his eyes. The personal shield that protected his own command unit had blurred the view for his cameras a bit, but there was no question to it. A nuclear explosion had just taken out the majority of his economy.

"Ok, construct a quantum gate and then get out of there. As soon as you have arrived back at Earth, report to me in my office. General Clarke out."

Leython faced overwhelming odds for another five minutes. That was the time he needed to construct and prepare a quantum gate with his current, damaged economy.

In five minutes, a lot could happen. Leython realised that he was the last man standing against the Cybrans on Sung Island.

Chapter 6
The End

"Shilon, my boy, construct a teleportation module on your ACU. You will need it, oh yes." The doctor said.
"Excuse me? Why would I need it, are more UEF commanders coming? The closest land is over nine thousand kilometres away. They won't be teleporting towards here, will they? That'd be suicide even if they have their tier three construction suite available. I've got a proper base, I can't be forced away here, can I?" Shilon asked.
"Please, you will have to teleport. Conventional assaults on this enemy will not work. He is extraordinary, oh yes. I have analysed his work on his Aeon front. Based on the information I have gained from that, I think that he can regain from his current position and destroy you.
The teleporting ability could prove very useful. I am fairly sure that many people depend on your actions today. If you build the teleportation module, it might lead to the survival of thousands, if not millions..." the doctor answered.

"Doctor, are you sure that you are not aeon? You seem to be able to see the future."
"I am fairly certain that I do not wish to cleanse any living soul, Shilon," the doctor answered him. Shilon noticed that his voice suddenly became cold. Remembering the doctors opinion about the Aeon Illuminate, Shilon murmured a 'sorry' but Brackman continued:
"But to answer your question more accurately. No, I cannot see the future, but I just plan ahead very well. Based on threats that exist, I can predict what will happen and try to prevent the death of many. And that brings us back to our teleportation module."

____________
Leython didn't have anything but half a base and a black scorch mark in it. Of course, he had his ACU too, but that was nowhere capable to fight off the enemy siege assault bots.

He had to find a way to deal with them. Everything went wrong today. From the start, gating in at least five minutes later than the Cybrans. Then, this naval debacle. He managed to destroy one enemy, but he lost all of his expenses in the process. Now, he did have a base with proper defences, but half of it was destroyed in the nuclear explosion that was caused by Shaldon's ACU destruction.

Perhaps, he could hold out, Leython thought. The triads might be able to take the enemy bots down.
The quantum gate was finished for twenty per cent. The new situation didn't make Leython very nervous though. In fact, he was perfectly calm. He knew what was going to happen. He was being attacked, his entire base would be destroyed and he made it out of this place a second before five strategic bombs would fall on the quantum gate, or his ACU.

It was a 'standard' procedure, it happened so many times. Of course, it went wrong so many times as well. Luck. It was mostly on Josh Funky's side, but why wouldn't it not be on Leython's side for this time. It had never conspired against him...

____________
Shilon's new Spook flew over the enemy base and was shot down. He had lost count of how many he had lost. But for every spy plane that he had lost, he won some information in turn. This time, it was a forty per cent completed quantum gate.

Remembering what the doctor had said, saving millions, Shilon thought. Could the death of this person save millions of Symbionts? But why would he need to teleport for that? Would it be the only way to kill him?

"...conventional assaults will on this enemy will not work..."

Strategic bombers would fail? They did not fail in the last two occasions. Due to the perfect flight path, Shilon managed to let the bombers bypass the protective layer of most of the enemy shield generators. In both cases, he had just enough bombers to break through and destroy the enemy ACU. Surely, there would be no exception? Well, if the doctor said so, this enemy was quite more dangerous than Shilon had thought.

"...I think that he can regain from his current position and destroy you..."

The words returned in Shilon's mind and suddenly, he was shocked. Was the enemy really that powerful? If he were, he should have killed him already, just like Vedder? Why was he not dead yet? Shilon knew that someone that could come back from the position that his enemy was in, such a person could easily have killed him far earlier.

Regardless what this enemy was capable of, he had to be killed. He could not be allowed to leave the planet in three minutes, he would have to be dealt with. Shilon's teleportation module would be finished at that time, but how could he destroy him after he arrived there? Quickly build a shield? With some point defences? Yet, that would not be the best idea. Shilon still didn't know what the teleportation module was any good for.
Finishing off the commander? Or escaping by himself?

By only thinking, looking at all possible things that could happen, that he had to do, where he had to teleport to, Shilon was wasting time.
The enemy was going to get away if he continued like this. He had to destroy the quantum gate.

The Monkylord would not arrive in time. The Loyalists had been destroyed by the UEF point defences.
The Strategic bombers he had, could not destroy the enemy ACU because it was protected too well. The gate however, was partially unprotected. The shield's limited range came into play. Shilon ordered his three Revenants to take care of the enemy gate.

___________
"Commander Dygonn, watch out!" The transmission with EarthCom had been left open for the last few minutes, after General Clarke had given her new orders.
The sudden warning almost made Leython jump: "I hear you, I hear you!" He said, while he saw some strategic bombers fly towards him. They did not worry him. He was protected by a tier three shield generator and had a personal shield as well. There was nothing to worry about, he thought.

That was a mistake. The bombers dropped their payload on an unprotected part of the quantum gate and a chain reaction followed. The gate, that was completed for sixty per cent, exploded. Leython had just wasted three minutes. If he could get out of here alive now, it would be even more impressive.

The strategic bombers were destroyed, but their job was done, Leython was trapped on the planet for five minutes longer. He had to make a change in his plans. He had to rebuild his base, dig in and be able to survive for a long time. Then, he could construct the gate with ease and leave Sung Island.

____________
Shilon's Monkeylord moved closer to the enemy base, but he was ordered not to use it. The UEF did not know about the weapon, neither did the Aeon. All enemy commanders that had met it, had paid for it with their lives. They could not even transmit an image of the Monkeylord to their superiors at home. Brackman had ordered not to give any information away. The Monkylord was not to be used to attack an enemy base directly, not yet.

And so, Shilon constructed more mobile artillery to besiege the base from afar. He also sent in tier two engineers, with some mobile stealth generators, as he was reminded to do so by the doctor. The engineers were building the Gunther type stationary artillery.

____________
Leython tried to build additional shield generators, but it was not working. with every shield generator he built, another one collapsed under the weight of the enemy artillery barrage. Soon, the first generator would be hit. If that happened, it would go downward faster and faster.

Less than a minute later, the first generator exploded. Leython knew, that it was best to try to build a new quantum gate now. He had met the moment in which he had the most time to get away.

The engineer he ordered to reclaim the generator's wreck was hit by the enemy barrage as well. Leython could not hope to reclaim any more mass than he had done now. He already self-destructed his omni sensor to reclaim it. The factories were reclaimed as well, only the shield generators, economic structures and other defence structures were still online.

One shield after another collapsed. The barrage destroyed three generators at a time. There was little chance that his quantum gate, that was completed for fifty per cent now, would be ready before all shields had collapsed and the barrage hit him. But he had to try, it was his only chance.

____________
"QAI, what is happening at Zeta Canis?" Brackman asked.
"The UEF seem to have sent a team towards the secondary continent. The exact place where Vedder had fought against this commander called 'Funky'. They are investigating the terrain and the resources there."
"Of course, there are many ways to solve a puzzle. The UEF are looking for the quantum device on Zeta Canis. If it exists, it can be found there. 'There' is what brought us 'here'."

"Their logic is flawed. Sung has possibly never set foot upon Zeta Canis. Therefore, the quantum leeching device will not be there either." QAI answered.
"If their logic is flawed, then ours is too." The doctor said.
"I fail to comprehend your theory."
"I will elaborate then," Brackman said kindly, "We went to Sung island because we thought that the quantum leeching device had led to our defeat. However, if the quantum leeching device is not there, how could we think about it? How could we think that we had to search for it here?"
"I do not understand." The quantum AI answered the doctor.
"You see, it is a paradox. The only reasonable explanation is that the UEF had the best idea, search for the device on Zeta Canis first." The doctor concluded.
"If that is true, why have they sent commanders to Sung island?"
"For the same reason that we have, to waste some lives." Brackman's tone didn't show an emotion, but he was saddened that three commanders had died there today. Shilon could still call off his assault and spare the enemy's live. That however, would be unwise. Letting Dygonn go back to the Earth could lead to the loss of lives later on. It might not be noticeable just yet, but Brackman knew, or at least thought, that Dygonn should not be allowed to go that way.

____________
"My base is almost completely eradicated. I've left with my ACU, to the eastern mass field. Without a miracle, I am dead. I might have been able to hide from his intel, but if he's got an omni sensor somewhere, he'll be able to follow me. I've managed to reclaim some things and put mass and energy in storage at the eastern spot. If I'm able to build a stealth generator, some power generators and mass extractors, I might get away, but I doubt that I'll succeed. Two tier three SAM sites are still operational at the eastern mass field. I'll be protected against a minor threat, but that's it."

"Then I'll wish you good luck, commander. That's really all I can do for you now." The EarthCom officer said.

Only two tier two fusion reactors and a shield generator stood in Leython's primary base. Powerful bolts hit the shield from the west.

Unable to restore itself, the shield collapsed half a minute later...

Two bolts hit the generator, it exploded...

The series of bolts had found their new targets now. The power generators were hit simultaneously...
Soon, they overloaded and a metal scrap heap was left...

The last visual information disappeared from Leython's screen. His first base was lost...

All he had left was an outpost at the eastern side of Sung Island. He almost made it...

Leython prepared for the final minutes on Sung Island, regardless of the question of survival. He ordered the quantum gate to be built. He just might get out of there...
____________
"Shilon, my boy, is your teleportation module ready? Do you have enough energy available to make the jump?"
"Yes, but it is not necessary, I've got him cornered..."

____________
"General Clarke, the team you dispatched to Zeta Canis is back with the report."
"Forward it, officer." Clarke answered.

The report left the general stunned. The lack of resources income at Zeta Canis, for captain Funky during his solo battle, for the Cybrans at the time of the six man battle, was not caused by a quantum leeching device. There were no traces of it at all.

It did not exist.

What was worse, was that there was a proper explanation for the issue. A series of earthquakes and volcano eruptions had radically changed the landscape. The mass field had changed. It had shifted. The southern part had become richer and more accessible. The northern part, where Funky had been, where the Cybrans had been, was almost inaccessible and had lost much of the valuable mass.

So she had believed in a myth. A quantum leeching device. It did not exist on Zeta Canis. It did not exist on Sung island. After all, the UEF commanders there never reported the symptoms, while the Cybrans would have more than enough time to get the device after their many victories.

...It did not exist...

Samantha just realised it. She had wasted the lives of two valuable commanders. Trying to explain to the parents of Simon and Shaldon Beck that their sons had died because of her mistakes was a daunting task. She could hide the truth... Like Riley had possibly done many times...

No, that would be inappropriate to say the least. To not tell the truth here was to lie. The two brothers were good commanders and mentioning that they died because of their own mistake or something like that would dishonour them...

...It did not exist, it never existed...

Normally, general Clarke seemed emotionless. Uncompromising. This time however, it was different.
Not especially because of the death of the two Beck brothers. She had heard the reports of failed missions many times before. She had listened to commanders, how they lost their comrades. She had seen pilots die. She had witnessed it...

Yet never, never, she had personally sent two commanders to their doom by ordering them to find something that didn't exist. The third one was still out there...

Leython Dygonn. If he still was there and didn't return yet, he was in serious trouble. Samantha realised, shocked, how 'fond' she had become of the boy. They still regularly trained. He never won a battle, but he always realised how he lost. His intelligence work was flawless and improved ever again. She was a better commander overall, but he was superior with radar towers and stealth generators.

This was neither the place nor the time to think so much... to become emotional, Clarke realised and she regained her usual emotionless way of thinking and contacted EarthCom:

"EarthCom, what is the situation at Sung Island?"
"Patching you through, general. Commander Dygonn is in serious trouble."

____________
A new spy plane scouted the area. Leython saw it flying over. It would not take long before the first enemy units would arrive...

The quantum gate would not be completed, Leython had just started building it...

There was no way out of here, Leython realised. He talked to the EarthCom officer again:
"Hey, I'm going to die in here, there's no escape. Could you do something for me?"
"What is it sir?" The officer asked. He said the words loudly, wanting to make sure he understood Leython and that the pilot's last wish would be carried out.
"I've got a beautiful sword in my apartment, ensure that Jeff Lancet gets it. Captain Jeff Lancet, you got it?"
"Yes sir!"
"Dygonn, Clarke here. I'm sorry."
"What for, that I'm going to die? That's the risk I've taken. A risk I know about. Don't be sorry for that."
"No, I'm sorry that I sent you needlessly. The quantum leeching device was a myth." Clarke said, displaying no emotion. Leython was not sure she meant it, but that was something very hard to tell about her anyway.
"I would be dead if it were true, but it is something to be sorry about indeed." Leython answered.
"If there is some sort of afterlife, or if I miraculously survive this, I'll kick your butt as soon as I see you around."
"Permission granted." Clarke would have laughed if Leython would not be in trouble, but this was not the time to openly admit that they were trying to make fun of the situation.
"Good, Dygonn out." And Leython turned off the transmission. He did not want to talk with them during his last moments. It would be sad enough already because they can still watch the video feed.

Time had passed. The quantum gateway was halfway to completion...

He might just make it. That thought was quickly kicked out of his mind though. Three strategic bombers appeared and dropped their payload. Leython's personal shield generator was deactivated because he needed the energy. The ACU almost collapsed under the violence. Leython felt the explosions all into his teeth...

Again, the gate was destroyed. Leython could start all over...

The three bombers were shot down by the little anti air he had...

Three new bombers arrived...

Three bombs appeared and Leython tried to move away...

The bombs hit the ACU nonetheless and it was blown off its feet...

The almost forty metres high walker hit the ground on its side and rolled over...

The second squad of bombers had been taken out by the SAM towers, but Leython did not see it; he had lost consciousness...

The video feed at earth failed. Clarke realised that the cockpit had taken the worst damage and to get as strong as possible within moments, it had automatically turned off all unnecessary transmissions. One of the very few signals that were left, was the ACUs structural integrity...

It remained the same for some time. The enemy commander probably lost all of his bombers and had to construct new ones. Then, the last signals suddenly disappeared and Clarke made the conclusion that was inevitable since Shaldon Becks's ACU had exploded in the south eastern UEF base: captain Leython Dygonn was dead.

Chapter 7
The doctor

"Doctor Brackman, our prisoner woke up." QAI said.
"Do not brand him as 'our prisoner', he is merely 'our guest'." Brackman answered.
"In my vocabulary, a guest is someone who is free to leave. This one is not and is therefore a prisoner: someone who is not free to leave and is subjected to the ones that have taken him."
"QAI, you don't have the ability to feel. You branded him prisoner by statistics. Emotion is part of what you think of someone and therefore you cannot understand this situation completely. He is not our prisoner, please adjust."
"Affirmative." The quantum AI said indifferently.
"Good, now please don't say anything while I talk with our guest. Act like you're not here."
"Affirmative." Sounded from QAI's audio boxes again.

____________
"What is this place? heaven or hell? Does the afterlife look like this?"
"I must say, mister Dygonn, that this place is neither heaven nor hell. I must also say that I do not know what the afterlife looks like, although I am fairly sure that my workspace does not look like it."

"So... what does that mean? Am I not dead?"
"I'm afraid not. Although, afraid? I'm actually happy that a twenty two year old boy is still alive."
"Boy? Boy? I've grown up, you know?" Leython said, while still laying on the bed. "And I've got another question. Who are you? You must not be from the UEF, this place doesn't remotely look like anything made by the UEF, or the architect must've had the same idiotic taste for design as Jeff has for fashion."

"No, you are not in UEF territory." the voice sounded and Leython gasped as he saw a holographic image appear in his sight. He was talking with the same man that was seen on the quantum broadcasting network so many times on Earth.
"I am Gustav Brackman and I must say, my taste for fashion is not the best either. Who is this... Jeff you speak of?" The Cybran leader asked.

"Jeff is one of my friends on Earth. He must think I'm dead by now. Anyway, why am I still alive?"
"Mister Dygonn, why do you fight? Why did you join the UEF military?"
"Excuse me?" Leython asked, clearly caught off guard by the sudden change of subject.
"Please answer my questions. Then your own question will be answered." Brackman simply said.

Leython wondered, what was he fighting for? A simple question but so hard to answer.

The words Eric said to him once, came back in his head:

"You’re just arrogant, not a good commander, but an arrogant commander who thinks he’s good. I at least know what it takes to be a good commander. Firepower, and the will to serve the UEF!"

He said it when they had an argument of what was more important: intel or large unit swarms. It later appeared that both aspects were important in a battle, but they did not know that back in those days. But the word 'firepower' didn't make such of an impression on Leython four years ago. No 'the will to serve the UEF'. Leython didn't have that when he joined the academy, he remembered.
He joined because he didn't have anything better to do in his life.

After school he could have subscribed to a university, but what would that be for use? He would get a job, become a rich person and live happily ever after. Besides, he was bored of learning one physical formula after another. He didn't want to get on for another five years with that.

Afterwards, he would get nothing but research projects to work on. A desk job. He joined the military for that. He wanted some real change in his life.

So he joined the academy without a doubt, but also without a feeling of pride for the UEF. It didn't mean much to him. He never asked himself what he was fighting for.

"I don't know. I have no idea what I'm fighting for." But suddenly he thought of his work at the Aeon front. He saved thousands, if not millions of lives by protecting the UEF border against the Illuminate's constant assault.

"Wait, I fight for the lives of the people. Or at least I did before I was sent to Sung island. I fight for their lives and their freedom to live how they want." Leython concluded.
"Fighting for the lives of others, fighting for freedom, oh yes. That is courageous. I am not much different than you are. I fight for freedom as well. Not just for the freedom for people to live how they want, but to live in the first place."
"What do you mean?"
"In the universe, there are many enslaved people. You may not have noticed. I have ordered you not to be killed in the hope that you might join me in my... 'quest' to free the many millions that are enslaved. I'll not evade the crucial words: I hope that you would join the Cybrans to free the Symbionts in the UEF." Brackman said.

____________
"What?" Leython was baffled. He had not been killed for only one purpose? To join the Cybrans? To abandon the UEF? To betray his own friends?
Now Brackman had said the words, Leython suddenly realised that he fought for a lot more than just the freedom for people to live. He fought for his friends, for and with his comrades. How could he abandon them and turn against them?

On the other side... Brackman said that he fought for freedom too. The freedom of millions of Symbionts. He fought for the freedom of those who Leython helped to keep enslaved.
If he, by some miracle, would make it back into UEF territory, he now couldn't just join the fight again. Not with what he had just been told. If he did, he would fight for slavery known as the Symbiont program. Not knowing what he fought for was a thought of a couple of minutes ago, yet it seemed to come from a different life.

Joining the Cybrans? Trying to return to the UEF? Both options opposed each other like slavery and freedom. Now Brackman had talked about what he did, Leython felt ignorant. He was as ignorant as a fly. He had a feeling like that his ignorance was the reason why he didn't know what to do.

"I..." He started, not knowing what to say.
"It's all right, don't worry. I am far too hasty to hope that you'll join immediately. Far too naive to hope that you'd be joining anyway. By explaining you why you're still alive, by answering that question, I invoked a lot of other questions. Questions that can't be answered just by words, I know. You need some time to rest and to think. I know of a Cybran node that will accept you. Not every node would do that, oh no. If you would step on the wrong planet, you'd be killed before you could even say a single word."
"A node? Is that what you call your cities?"
"Not exactly. The Cybrans are, like the UEF people, all different. People with the same culture live with each other. The word 'culture' has got a wide definition here. Each node has got his own... expression. One would try to end a conflict only with words, while the members of another node would solve an argument by assassinating the opposing persons."

"I guess that the latter node would not be pleased if someone in a UEF suit would pay a visit."
"Oh no, absolutely not, my friend." The doctor said, and a smile appeared on his voice.
"I would like to send you to the Three-Rivers node. The node would be safe for a person like you, I am sure of that."
"I've got another question, what if I want to go back to the UEF?" Leython asked.
"Then I will not stop you. I, as a person of freedom, cannot force you to go there and turn you into someone who would completely sever the ties with his former society, only to join the Cybrans and become one by himself. I can only ask you to stay here for a while." The doctor answered.
"Ok then. I'll stay, I'm actually interested in how things look like. However, if I want to go back, can I contact you and say so immediately?"
"Yes, you can."

____________
"A UEF officer?" Ibann asked.
The Cybran was the Three-Rivers' president and was stunned by the words he heard.
The Cybran nation was quite different from the UEF, knowing of no money, no properly old-fashioned grown food and there was no democracy.
Brackman had explained this to Leython and also that the Three-rivers node was different from that picture: it was closer to the UEF than any other Cybran node. In this node, there was democracy and food was an exported product. Money did not exist nonetheless but that was no problem for commerce. The 'product' that was imported was the protection from the other nodes, that they lacked.

The Three-Rivers node wasn't assaulted too regularly, but frequently enough for the node's citizens to realise that they had to think of a proper countermeasure even without the ACUs. After years of research, the Three-Rivers node managed to construct mobile cities. In the event of an assault, cities were already moving when enemy ACUs arrived. This bought them enough time for the other nodes' commanders to come to their aid.

The last assault on the Three-Rivers node issued, was ordered by the UEF. That was the reason why Ibann was infuriated by the notification that his assistant had given to him.

The UEF assault wasn't relentless and no Cybran commanders were killed in action. After they realised that there were no military bases on the planet, the enemy pilots retreated and it even might seem that they felt sorry for attacking civilians, if it were not for this loose cannon. One UEF commander assaulted a city that was unfortunate to be close to one of the gating locations.

He burned it to the ground, killing more than three hundred thousand people. The pilot escaped, but everyone knew who he was. He almost seemed an Aeon commander by the way he attacked.

"Yes sir," Ibann's assistant said, "a UEF officer, Brackman had seized him and now he sent him here. To take a look around."
"I know that the doctor is full of surprises, but this goes really far."Ibann was baffled. How could Brackman just do this? If the officer escaped, he could inform the enemy of every secret that the Cybran nation hid. Especially this node's secrets.
"What should I do, sir?"
"Did Brackman ask for anything in particular?"
"No... Well, only that we had to introduce him to the Cybran's customs."
"Our node is unique, how can we introduce him to the entire nation? An Assumpta assassin would just plant a plasma blade in his head and be done with it, so that node would be worse than ours. Yet, there are other places."
"I believe that we had to tell him about us. How we have come into existence, how we fight..." The assistant said, not sure of what they had to do.
"He already experienced how Cybrans fight, he lost that encounter. And can't the old doc just tell him how we came into existence?"
"I don't know what our use is either."
"Oh well, give him a fancy apartment, then he'll make it in here. Just ensure he won't make it out of here."

____________
"Quantum travel is successful. He is here, mister Torino." The engineer said.
"Very well. I'll see how much I can do. Has everyone been informed that this person may not know anything about our arsenal or technology?" Torino asked.
"Yes sir." The engineer replied. "I have received the message, just like anyone else."

Leython stepped out of the personal transport and was amazed by the difference he saw. No time was spent on the Cybran gating room. Consoles were properly placed nonetheless. It was looking more efficient than the UEF work, but less time had been spent on it and no time was spent on anything useless or redundant.

The UEF rooms and offices looked perfectly organized, but the looks that Leython liked before seemed so unimpressive now.
Leython wondered if the reality was what it looked like here, while a man approached him.

"Mister Dygonn? Welcome. I am Torino, the president's personal assistant. Doctor Brackman had informed me of the situation, that you'd come. The president wanted me to assist you with anything necessary."
"What about your work for the president?"
"It is not too much work and I can easily leave the less important tasks to others.
Don't you worry about the pressure of my job." Torino said friendly.

He and Leython walked through the node's capital city while he explained to the UEF officer how the Cybran society worked. Brackman had not lied about the different nodes. For every Symbiont, there was a culture in which they fit in.
Torino didn't mention the word culture once, but Leython couldn't think of a better definition.

"This will be your apartment, mister Dygonn." The president's assistant said when they arrived. They went to the highest floor of the tallest building.
"As opposed to some other nodes, we do have windows. We spend some more time to aspects such as a proper view of the area, despite for the fact that..." Torino suddenly stopped.
"What is it, sir?" Leython asked.
"I don't know if I can tell you. What I wanted to mention is involved with our technology, which is supposed to be classified to outsiders, you know?"
"That's pretty obvious isn't it?" Leython said, understanding that whatever the secret was that involved a nice view of some area, he might find out eventually. Torino seemed to know that as well.

"This node houses some secrets that are key to our survival. We want to hide every secret from you. I am sorry, but I doubt we can fully thrust you."
"Well, that's good," Leython said. "I can't thrust myself either. You know, I'm in a terrible dilemma now. I'm fighting for the UEF people, having been on the Aeon front since I officially made it to commander in the military, I have always done so, though I may not have realised it. Now I have talked to doctor Brackman, he told me what he fought for and he..." Leython didn't exactly know how to put it. Was this what the doctor stumbled across too? Brackman decided to say it directly, maybe he had to do so too.
"... to make a short story even shorter, he asked me to join him. To join the Cybrans and fight for freedom."

"Yes... now, the dilemma part comes?" Torino asked, already suspecting what would come.
"I now know what I have fought for, apart from the citizen's lives. The Symbiont's slavery. I don't think I can fight in the UEF military with a clear conscience, not now I know this. However, if I fight for the Cybrans, I fight against the UEF. I will turn against my friends and eventually fight them. It could go so far that I'll have to kill one in order to survive."

"Just what I thought. Now, first of all, you mustn't think in such an absolute way. It's not all black and white. Secondly, I'd advise you to take your time. In order to have a clear conscience, you must be honest with yourself and you must be able to be objective if you make your decision."

"How can I be objective?" Leython asked desperately. "How can I be so if I hear the story only from your side? How can I tell lies from the truth? How can I be sure that none of you will make a story up? How can I be calm and objective if you're going to claim how sad it all is that many Symbionts are enslaved? I don't know if that is true. Now I also don't know if it would be true if UEF officers claim that the Symbionts are not enslaved. To put it plainly: I don't know if anything is true!"

"Well..." Torino hesitated, not knowing how to help. "I must say, you've heard the story from the UEF side for your entire life. That was a lie..."
"I don't know if it was a lie. The core planets are engulfed in lies, but the people are so ignorant by what happens at the Aeon or Cybran front, they simply don't care. I was ignorant too. Why would I spend my time in searching for the troubles that the UEF faces? Why would I take a look at the possibility of enslavement of people if I hear that they do a very good job in every administrative segment of the society?"

"The Symbionts are not doing anything but desk jobs?"
"No, but that is now actually the only thing that I'm certain of that it is true."
"Anyway, you said that you were ignorant, what changed that?"
"The moment that I had my first battle at the Aeon front. Those freaks were going to cleanse an entire planet. We stopped them however, without too much civilian casualties but it left a mark on me. For days, I remembered the panic in the people's voices as soon as an Aeon experimental weapon came closer. The Aeon weapons are powerful. They can level entire bases in a minute. Don't even think about what they do to a city.
Anyway, since that first battle, I knew what I was fighting for but I didn't realize it. I assumed that it was just the story of my life and I didn't think about it. Every time that someone else asked me what I fought for, I couldn't answer him."

"So, despite for the fact that you knew what you were fighting for, you didn't realise it."
"No, but I did realise it at the moment I returned on the battlefield. Fighting off enemy forces in order that other people could survive and be free from oppression."
"Which is what Brackman does as well. And he realises it all the time."
"Here we go again." Leython sighed. "What the doctor claims to do. That is what I think of it at the moment. That won't change until I've got actual proof that he is right. Then, there is another problem. Say, if it were true, I don't want to fight my former comrades. But I want to do something on the field. My intelligence work is perfect and using Cybran mobile stealth generators would be something in which I'd excel. I can really help and want to do so."

"Mister Dygonn, you go from one subject to the other. You seem impatient and restless. Of course, I would be restless too in your situation. You have travelled over thirty per cent of the known universe's distance without remembering it, then you spoke with the person who is said to be the biggest pirate and rebel in human history and now you are going to spend some time in a Cybran node. Would you have thought, twelve hours ago, that you'd be here now?"

"No, I wouldn't." Leython answered.
"Just take your time. No one can change sides without properly knowing what's going on. Until you think you know enough to make your decision, keep looking for more information."
"You know, I wonder if everyone would be ignorant. No one of the UEF has taken a look at what the Cybrans want to say. No one has tried to negotiate with the Aeon. In turn, the Aeon just wage war and try to cleanse the UEF and the Cybran nation. The Cybrans also don't want to talk with the UEF about a solution. It is all just war. That heathens things up and wastes the last chance to settle things by negotiations."

"It's sad but true." Torino couldn't think of something else to say.
"To think of it, I only came to this conclusion because I am here. If I would have won that battle, then I wouldn't think of how this war came to be and how we could solve it without fighting. I think of it because I now want to tell truth from lies."

Chapter 8
The treasure's history

Two weeks had passed since the battle of Sung island...

"Shilon, my boy, are you listening?"
"Oh, yes doctor, I'm sorry." The Symbiont answered.
"You seem distracted."
"Yeah, well, I've got a question."
"What is it?"
"Could I speak to the man I rescued?"

A silence fell. Brackman had expected the question, but it didn't make the situation any easier. Leython Dygonn was at the Three-Rivers node and intel suggested that the Aeon were planning an assault on the node.
Any quantum travel might put the node at an enormous risk.

There was another problem. Shilon was a honest man and his first words would be apologizing ones, for the two comrades he had killed.
Brackman couldn't predict how Leython would be in such a case. Would he still be the calm person he was when the doctor talked with him about the battle? When Brackman tried to say that he was sorry for Leython's loss of his comrades, the UEF pilot told him not to be, apparent to know how 'unfair' live and war could be. Yet, how would Leython react when the killer himself showed up?

"Doctor?"
"I'm sorry Shilon, I don't know if Dygonn would remain calm if you introduced yourself to him. Perhaps the wound would heal better if he doesn't know who the killer of his former comrades is."
"Wounds will never heal if the matter is not dealt with." Shilon answered and doctor Brackman was thrown more than eight hundred years back in history.

____________
Saturday, the ninth of January 3019...

"Doctor Brackman, doctor Brackman!" Tisa cried. She was desperate.
"What is it, my dear?" Brackman answered the incoming channel immediately, knowing it came from the newly discovered planet. Secretary Bidard Sung had left his node to colonize the new planet. He had taken his family and a vast group of acquaintances with him.

Sung was a scientific mastermind. His experience matched Brackman's. However, his political abilities were just as good, but with that came a bad trait of overconfidence. Sung tolerated no people who spoke against him.
Sungs political efforts made him powerful nonetheless. He gained much support, yet never made it to president.

When the planet was discovered only six months ago, Sung wanted to colonize it.
Still upset about the lost election, three months before the discovery, hundreds of thousands of supporters went with him. His wife and three children had no choice but to go as well.

As good as Sung's business went in science and politics, as bad as it went in his family. constant arguments between father Bidard and sons Raldir and Ecthellis had nerved mother Sila and daughter Tisa more than anything else. The three men only bickered.

Now, Tisa called Brackman, desperate for help: "They're going on again. Father has given the food management to be overseen by Raldir, but he's telling him that he's doing everything wrong, while it goes on nicely.
Father is also discussing the latest improvements in quantum physics with Ecthellis and they just can't agree on what technical devices can be made now. Ecthellis is telling father not to be so hasty with new technology but he, in turn, tells my brother to accept technological change for once. I must say, a device to drain mass from a distant place is very farfetched, especially with using only quantum technology.

The arguments are getting worse now. I hate it to be here. I want to get out! Help me doctor!"

The desperate call for help left Brackman stunned. One of the few positive things in the last decades for the Cybran nation and Sung's personal affairs were about to ruin it. Of course, Brackman didn't know that things would spin out of control so badly.

____________
"All the time. When Vedder fought against the UEF. When Redain died, while you suffered from the weak mass field. When you fought on Sung island. When I talked with Dygonn. When I spoke with him about all three battles. All the time I thought about the successful Sung and his quantum leeching device. I thought about how powerful the Cybrans could become and that we finally could free all Symbionts in a short time span.

Now you said this, I finally know what the device has brought. Nothing but death, grief and perhaps even hate. Your words bring back memories, how a girl and two boys are imprisoned in their father's affairs and how I was unable to do anything.

Your words have opened an old wound and imbued it with poison. I have not yet ended a matter that should have been closed eight hundred years ago.

I will contact the Three-Rivers node and arrange a meeting with Dygonn for you.
After you have settled everything with him, you and he will go to Sung island. You will find out what technology is there. That will be the key to closing the matter. I will note down everything I remember that Tisa Sung has said to me. Perhaps, I can find locations where the two Sung brothers went to.

I don't have the intention to use technology to free more Symbionts faster, only to close this chapter in the infinite war for everyone involved."

____________
"Mister Dygonn? Are you awake?" Torino asked. He had received disturbing news: the man who had killed his comrades two weeks ago, was going to take him on an excursion. Leython seemed calm for all the time, but had not been confronted with this man directly.
The other problem was the Aeon threat.

"Yeah, I'm awake, what is it?"
"A person will come to see you and plans to go back to sung island with you. He is your former enemy."
"Ok, can we talk before he's coming over here?"
"Of course. What do you want to ask to me?"
"No, not the two of us, but me and my... 'enemy'?"
"You want to talk with him via the quantum network?"
"Yes." Leython answered from behind the still closed door.
"I'm sorry, but we have to keep transmissions very limited because of the recent Aeon threat."
"How does he plan to get over here then? By foot? Quantum travel is detected more easily than just some conversation over the network."

"That's true, but Brackman came up with a plan. When he will arrive here, in his ACU, other Cybrans will initiate an assault on the Aeon, keeping them at bay for the small time span that we need to get you out of here and relocate our cities."

Leython had experienced the secret technology a week ago: intel started suggesting an Aeon assault. The cities were on the move at any time. He had an idea of the issues with a conversation through the quantum network.

Small 'notes' would mark the point of origin and the receiving end for less than a second, making it nearly impossible to calculate the coordinates of the both ends. A conversation would take long enough for others to pinpoint the target.

The quantum travel of an ACU gave such a high signature that one could decipher the gating coordinates on a planet without too much issues.

Apparently, the Cybran wanted to go to sung island and prioritized it so much that Brackman arranged the meeting. The Aeon would surely use the situation to their advantage and attempt to cleanse the Three-rivers node. To prevent that, the Cybrans would keep their enemy busy at their own planets, long enough to get the capital city away from the gating coordinates, both the coordinates of both the gating in and gating out points. After a couple of hours, the city would be away too far for the Aeon to catch up. Additionally, the gating of the other ACUs would relatively hide the signature of the commander who would go to take Leython on a small expedition.

"Mister Dygonn, is something wrong?" Leython woke up from his thoughts.
"No... yes. I want to see the face of the one who killed my friends but saved me. I remained calm because I wanted to have questions answered. I'm sure that, when speaking with this person, my question s will be answered, but I don't know what I will do next.

I guess I just have to await the confrontation. I just want to ask, can you have two strong guys at my side to keep me under control in case I flip?"
"There isn't time for that. Shilon will come, take his ACU to the city and leave immediately. He can do so because the quantum wake when gating in won't reach to the city's gate. As soon as he arrives, you'll have to hop in and then it's 'good luck' to both of you."

____________
"Quantum gate online, the ACU can leave the planet." Ibann said. "Then we can get on the move again. I'm glad that Dygonn's away now. The fact that he knows about the moving city technology is bad. If he tells the UEF..."
"If he goes back to the UEF, he won't tell. He can't betray us just like he can't betray his old friends."
"I hope you're right about that, Torino."
"Don't worry, you'll never despise him, perhaps you'll even thank him someday."

____________
"You're comfortable? Good. I'm moving towards the gate. We'll be back on Sung Island in twenty seconds."
Until they arrived at their destination, neither Leython nor Shilon said a word. The silence was the most awkward moment in Leython's life so far: he was alone with the man who killed two comrades, almost killed him too, but rescued him at the final moment, by Brackman's orders. In turn, Leython had attacked the other Cybran with his fleet, knowing that the ACU was underwater. This had led to the death of Shilon's friend.

"So your name is Shilon, right?" Leython asked when they had finally arrived.
"Yes."
"I heard of your name only two hours ago, when the assistant of president Ibann, Torino had told me what the plan was."
Shilon didn't reply to what Leython sad.
"What exactly are we going to do here?" Leython asked.
"We're going to settle things." Shilon answered, while constructing his base, he gated in at Shaldon's former base, that now displayed the huge black scorch marks created by the Cybran nukes.
"And to do so, we've got to go back here? I wouldn't have minded to talk at the Three-Rivers' capital. Then we could've been kept under control in case we'd get into a brutal fight."
"We won't get in a fight. I'm too calm and rational for that, you're too smart for it. Additionally, I'd lose because you know how to fight when not in an ACU." Shilon answered calmly.
"Well, I might be able to fight better, but I've got no chance with my bare hands, you've got a gun."
"You're a bit paranoid. That's very good as long as it doesn't get much worse." Shilon said and he pulled his gun.

Shilon stood up, climbed to the top hatch of hic cockpit, opened it and threw the gun out. It fell in the burned sand.
"Now," Shilon said after he sat again, "that makes us even. Let me explain what we're going to do here."
"We're going to settle things, you said." Leython said while he watched how the engineers were reclaiming the last remains of Shaldon's base.
"Yes, but I haven't said what we're going to settle. Of course, this battle could give use hours to talk. There is more though, something that'll take us days, if not weeks."
"What is that?" Leython asked..
"Sung. Warlord Sung. The great Sung, or secretary Sung, if you want to name him by the title he had in his old node, the Hexaplain node."
"Hexaplain node?"
The node doesn't exist anymore. Doctor Brackman had given me the information he could find or remember in the last hour before I gated to the Three-Rivers node. I know that Sung had two sons and one daughter, he was an excellent quantum physics scientist and a good politician, but a horrible father or husband."
"You couldn't wait for a bit longer because of everyone's safety?"
"Exactly, and sending the information now would be too dangerous for us. The Aeon are under attack by a small group of excellent commanders, but afterwards, they'll spare no effort in tracking us down. We've got to make it hard for them. Very hard."
"So we're here to find some clues on what Sung did here?"
"Yes, then we'll find out how much of this myth about the device we fought for, the QLD, is true."
"Nothing of it, my general said it to me just before I 'died'."
"Hehe," Shilon chuckled, " no trace of it exists right now, but what about the history? We might find that, and more, out by going to the node on this island, in the middle of the crater."

"There's a node in here? I didn't see it in my UEF ACU."
"It's stealthed and automated defences give some protection, so you have to want to go to there to find it in the first place. You must know about it beforehand. Vedder, who you and your comrade killed, knew about it. I don't know how, but that's not important now. There are some mass spots, there, which are hidden from normal sensors too. You can see them if you go there with some units though."

"Enemy coming in!" Leython yelled. Shilon had just built his radar tower and a gray dot already appeared on the intelligence screen.
Shilon responded faster than Leython had seen anyone doing in years. He added five hunter light assault bots together, ordered them to move towards the enemy while he sent an air scout as well.

"It's a Cybran engineer, with white stripes. The same stripes as the Cybran defences have, over there in and around the crater."
"I know about abandoned cities that still have active defences, but this is highly advanced. That engineer has got the same looks as yours."
"I'll move in and examine it more closely...."

Several seconds passed before ACU and engineer had met.
"It is the same. This can't be, a city is all that's there, how can it control more than basic defences?"
"I can think of only one explanation: It's got an ACU control unit, that is automated with some orders."
"Perhaps, but how is everything kept up to date?"
"There's only one way to find out. We have to go in there and check out the buildings."
"Let's go then." Shilon said and he ordered his air factory to upgrade and construct a tier two air transport.

____________
"I'm glad that those defences don't fire at Cybran units." Leython said while Shilon walked his ACU towards the centre building.
"Yeah. Otherwise, Sung island would now have killed two more pilots, bringing the total of this year to five."

Leython felt that neither of the two wanted to directly talk about the way they had lost their friends, thanks to each other. However, they could never freely talk and work together if they couldn't resolve this matter.
Either of them had to start. Leython decided to cut to the case now...

"Do you resent me for what I have done?"
Shilon understood what Leython wanted to talk about, but the sudden direct question caught him off guard. He still spoke with his usual calm voice.
"No, do you hate me for killing your friends?"
"No, why do you not hate me?" Leython asked.
"Why should I hate you? The war claims victims every day. We are both very aware of the risks and dangers in battle. We accept the facts. I am emotionless and doctor Brackman said that you are without real feelings, although he admitted that he didn't know how you would react if you'd see the killer in front of you all of a sudden."
"How does he know that? I have never said that directly to him. I only spoke of my sword mastering study I had in Japan, on Earth."

"Brackman 'lives' for more than a millennium by now. He knows a lot, an incredible lot. Including Japanese culture and common human knowledge. From what you told to him, he knows that you're emotionless. From –" Shilon wanted to continue, but Leython cut him off:

"Of course, I forget how good I am at that by myself. Know how someone talks and walks and you know how he fights in battle. It works the other way around too. I learned about it in Japan and I may be incredibly thankful for learning it there at all. Never had a person who isn't born in Japan, been trained in their art of sword fighting.
I was special. A perfect successor, Lyndis thought. She was emotionless, but she did have some feelings, yet purely practical. To know how someone else was. Her personal self was not so important. I am a perfect successor. I'm exactly the same. Only I do care about myself and my own comfort.
We had trouble with that difference, but respected each other nevertheless.
Who I am is thanks to her. I am so in battle and you're right, we're too calm and emotionless to get angry at each other."

Leython paused for a moment before continuing.
"We accept the fact that we're enemies."
"Or were." Shilon said.
"But, can we be friends?" Leython asked.
"Oh yes, of course. The two of us together would make the best friends, if we'd just not feel guilty and get onwards with life."
"So, it'll just take time, eh?"
"Nah, more than that, time will never heal wounds or make you leave the past completely. The battles on Sung island prove that to Brackman. Now, we're going to find out how this place turns people's lives into a hell."

____________
Shilon and Leython walked into the centre building. They had access thanks to Shilon's implant. Security cameras that still worked recognized his Cybran implant and the doors opened. They both felt like they were entering a tomb.

They were right.
It didn't take long for Leython to see a holographic image of a UEF, Cybran and Aeon icon.
A list was placed below each icon. The Cybran list was much shorter than the UEF one, but the Aeon list had only one name.

"List of casualties in the Sung Island battles." Shaldon said, pointing to the words on the large table which was placed below the hologram.
"The hologram is rendered from this table. It's a console, this whole thing. The UEF list, Shaldon and Simon Beck, the ones you killed, are all down below, look at the date. The second of August, that was two weeks ago." Leython said

"John Vedder, was my comrade, you killed him with... Simon, right? The first one I finished was the one who sent the strategic bombers, wasn't he?"
"Yes, but look at the Aeon name."
"Lisana Marxon?" Shilon asked.
"The current Avatar-of-War is named Marxon. I heard it when I finished off an Aeon commander, the transmission was still open and this girl begged him for help. More than that, we don't know about the mysterious guy..."
"This Marxon's got to be a predecessor. She died later than these two UEF colonels. George Dilter and Stephanie Remen, but they died all on the same day."

"Look at the first casualty on the Cybran side." Leython said.
"Raldir Sung? He is one of the sons."
"What's the father's name?" Leython asked.
"Bidard Sung." Shilon answered. "Brackman gave me all the names. The mother's called Sila, the daughter is named Tisa, the eldest brother is Ecthellis and the youngest is Raldir."
"Ok, it looks like Raldir is the only Sung who died in battle in here. Others could've been killed in a different way, I think that this is just the list of people who died in the ACU, on or around this island." Leython said.
"Yeah. Now, we've got to find something that tells us what happened in this building, within these walls. What made that this place brought more than four times the UEF casualties than Cybran deaths?"
"And did that same thing keep the Aeon away since the death of Lisana Marxon?"
"And what killed Raldir Sung?" Shilon said, knowing that answering these questions could very well raise even more questions.

Perhaps he and Leython could find a bathroom and somewhere to sleep. It was technically not necessary, but no bad luxury.

It was not so late however and Leython had already moved on to a console close to a wall.
"I found something!" He said. The console contained a series of files, when Leython accessed it, it displayed a folder named 'speeches'.
"You don't need brains to tell what files those are." Shilon said, when he took a look at the screen. "Let's hear one of those recordings."
"Take a look at this!" Leython said excitedly.
"Quantum Leeching Device introduction. That's interesting!" Shaldon said, being as excited as the former UEF pilot.

____________
Thursday, the twenty third of March, 3020...

"Ladies and gentlemen, today, I bring you the Quantum Leeching Device. An incredible weapon in battle. Intelligence suggests that the Aeon Avatar-of-War, the infamous Lisana Marxon, wants to cleanse our node, as she recognizes our technical mastermind. She wants to... 'kill two birds with one stone'.

Thanks to the Quantum Leeching Device, the Avatar-of-War will not succeed. She will fall into a trap and be defeated, by me and my oldest son Echtellis."
Bidard Sung paused for a moment to impress the crowd...

"One may wonder, why using only two ACUs if the island holds place and resources for five and we have four excellent commanders? The device will give enough of an advantage for two commanders versus three, so it will definitely be enough to take out one enemy. How? To answer that question, I will explain what power is housed in the Quantum Leeching Device. The device creates a quantum channel between its point of origin and its destination. It is, in fact, an interplanetary gateway, on a scale to be used with the ACUs range. The effect is the same as the quantum network that humanity uses for so long already.

Information, energy and mass can be transported via the small-scale channel.
If the device is placed in an enemy engineer, it can hack in the enemy's building blueprints and be built in those structures while the enemy builds them.
If that happens, we know where the building is, we can see what it registers. The enemy power generators can be disrupted, reducing the capacity with twenty per cent. We can do that, but we can also drain their mass from the mass extractors. Since we can store mass, but no energy, we won't have a direct advantage with disrupting their energy flow, but we will have an increased mass income by draining their's. In both cases, the enemy's a income will decreased by twenty per cent.

The device has got two drawbacks, but they will be taken care of.
The first is to get it into the enemy system. It has to be brought there first. It will happen by shipwrecks that are be placed on the beach. Enemy engineers will most probably reclaim them as soon as possible, for their personal gain. The ships won't give much mass, but a virus will be transported into the enemy's system and then the draining will begin.

The other drawback is the maintenance cost. To drain twenty tons of mass per second, we require a fully operational ion reactor to work at its full potential. Expensive indeed, but because we have built those in the crater and stealth fields are active, our income is certain, our advantage is a fact and the defeat of the Avatar-of-War will be inevitable. All thanks to our latest weapon, the Quantum Leeching Device. This weapon will bring victory!"


____________
"So the device existed and perhaps still exists..." Leython said.
"Yes, if we find it, we'll report to Brackman and ask what to do next. Perhaps we've got to destroy it."
"Because it will be desired too much?"
"Yes. Now, what do we have more?"
"The only interesting thing I see, is 'arrival – first speech', want to hear it?" Leython asked.
"Actually, I wanted to know how the battle exactly ended. Marxon did die, but what was the sudden UEF appearance?"
"Let's go and try to find a central control room. If we can find something, we'll find it there."

Chapter 9
No word against him


Saturday, the twenty fifth of March, 3020

"Milady Marxon, are you certain of your victory?"
"Yes, I may be on my own, but I leaked intel to the UEF, that the Cybrans are planning to assassinate the Federation president. That they are planning the attempt from here.
They will come here and distract the abominations while I will build my base of operations at my leisure. The fact that the Cybrans have got a base on this island already before I arrived, will be no advantage for the them.

Ah- my sensors indicate that they have just arrived. I will continue my work. Be in harmony, evaluator Ashira."
"Good luck, may you be blessed by The Way."

____________
"Ok, we can get information by use of the quantum device. that part works, father." Ecthellis said.
"This avatar is fast, she already reclaimed the second wreck and has found the reclaimables to her east." Bidard answered.
"Let's get the drain of mass started immediately."
"The two UEF pilots have arrived, this will help us... just as to be expected, my plan works perfectly."

"What!? Ecthellis yelled, stunned by what he heard all of a sudden.
"I leaked fake intel to the Aeon, that we'd plan to kill the UEF president. As was to be expected, the UEF came and this third faction will turn the balance in our favour."

"Are you out of your mind?" Ecthellis said. Whatever Bidard's reasoning was, it put the node's citizens at a huge risk.
"Not at all." Bidard answered calmly. "I have planned this, that not only the Aeon will fear this place as soon as the Avatar-of-War is dead, but the UEF will fear us as well. Additionally, they will slow down the Avatar."
"But they will slow us down too." Ecthellis retorted. "If we want to protect our node, we've got to hurry up and build defences there. Your plan has backfired on us as much as it helped us."
"We will both survive and the QLD won't be lost. What do you worry about?"
"The node! The damn node! If the Avatar-of-War finds it, she'll decimate it immediately. They are more important than the success of the QLD."
"Ecthellis, you worry too much."

____________
"Earth's Headquarters? Colonel Dilter here, I'm having an issue with my resource management. Colonel Remen is suffering from the same mass and energy deficit."
"How much do you suffer from the issue?"
"My mass income is hampered by eighteen per cent and my energy production's efficiency is down to about eighty three per cent."

____________
"Sung didn't win because of tactical skills, but by the numbers he had due to the device and the fact that the Avatar-of-War wanted to kill Remen first." Leython summarised the battle in a single sentence.
"I thought that they employed a good strategy. As good as what I did when I fought against you."

"Moving forwards, backwards and forwards again? No, they weren't determined although they knew everything and could easily plan their strategy." Leython answered.
"I remember that I had difficulties when I was working with John, we didn't agree. That caused those funny moves. Bidard and Ecthellis were bickering all the time too, so that would indeed explain why they weren't fighting as well as they could." Shilon said, now noticing why his, and the Sung's battle was going so badly.

"Yes. the reason why you won against us, two weeks ago, was because we couldn't agree either."
"I was also fighting very well when I was on my own, better than I usually do. Finally, I used spy planes frequently. The real thing I excel at is unit management though."
"I realised that, you used strategic bombers to have four shield generators collapse by dropping bombs on a single spot. "
"Yeah, I did that again, four days ago, but I was sloppy with intel though..." Shilon said, recalling his inconsistent job with air scouting.
"I'm much better with intel. I know how to get the whole field on screen and how to counter my enemies. Managing single units in huge armies however, is not something I can do."

"Hmm, we could work together on the field then. Me on the front, giving you the required time to build up your intelligence field." Shilon offered.
"That'd be great, but first, we've got to find out what happened after the battle ended. We have seen why the Aeon would never return. The Avatar-of-War died an agonizing death. She knew it was coming, knew she'd be surrounded by tanks that literally formed a death squad." Leython said.

"George Dilter saw his beloved girl die in front of his eyes. He flew into a rage, attacked the Avatar with everything he had, including his ACU. The Avatar lost too much in that assault." He continued.
"I wonder who the next Avatar-of-War was." Shilon said.
"We might never know."
"True, but it won't be important for Sung's history."

Leython hardly heard Shilon while he walked to another console. He accessed it and made the system search for the folder 'speeches' again. Looking for the speeches with the same date mark as the first battle, he found one named 'first QLD test – victory!'.

____________

"Ladies and gentlemen. The first battle has been brought to an end. We are victorious! The Avatar-of-War, Lisana, is dead! The UEF commanders are dead! But what's more important, the QLD works perfectly as planned! The device can be used to defend our node. Anyone who attacks us will be killed. Our node will, from this day forward, be known as the 'Phantom node'! The Avatar-of-War mentioned the word 'phantom' when she noticed her resources deficit. Both UEF, Aeon and Cybran commanders have feared the Avatar, now they will fear us, as we have defeated her.

The name of 'Phantom' will imbue our enemies with fear, we can now enjoy a calm and peaceful life. This island houses enough resources for all of us. This day's victory will mark history as the success of the Quantum Leeching Device, as the first victory of the Phantom node, as the beginning of the glorious era of Bidard 'Phantom' Sung!"


____________
"Well, that certainly shows he values himself more than anything else." Leython said.
"Yes," Shilon answered, not even looking up from the console he had accessed in the meantime, "I've got a series of recordings here, notes that are made every day. Do you remember at what date Raldir Sung died?"
"Twenty sixth of March, same year. So that's the day after the first battle, why?"

"There must be a reason why this is now a tomb, even though it had the potential to flourish at its very foundation. It had the resources to support its people. The planet at their full disposal to expand, even though the nearest land is more than nine thousand kilometres away. They also have the best technology to protect themselves. The Aeon Avatar-of-War died and the Aeon never returned here. The UEF tried to assault this place for numerous times, but always failed. There is no strategic reason for how or why this node has been deserted, abandoned. The reason why the society here collapsed, must've come from the inside. Mutiny, or betrayal. Either one. Of course, odds that the Sung family is personally involved in that, are high." Shilon concluded.

"So you're trying to find out how it happened, by taking a look at what made Raldir Sung die? That makes sense." Leython said.
"Yes, I've managed to get every recording from the twenty fifth. It are quite a few. It looks like that every thirty minutes is saved with a different timestamp. This can become a long day."
"Not really, you've got to take a look at the recordings' names. Most are nameless apart from the date and time, but here are three that bear a special name." Leython said after he took a look from over Shilon's shoulder.
"I guess we'll start with the first one and then see if we've got to listen to the other two as well." Shilon said and he ordered the first recording, named 'Raldir Sung's deceit' to be played.

____________

"Father, what, in the name of all that's free, have you done? Why did you lead the UEF in here?!" Raldir yelled. They were in the main control room at the top of the Central Tower, the node's most important building, where Bidard 'Phantom' Sung had housed the major governing body and where more than fifty thousand lived.
"Simply to make them fear us as much as the Aeon will do now."
"Don't you understand? The Aeon may fear us because you and Ecthellis managed to kill the Avatar-of-War, who is said to be the greatest Aeon strategic mastermind of our generation. Because that happened, you imbued the Aeon people with fear. However, the UEF is not like the Illuminate. They don't fear us because we've killed two colonels. Two good commanders, but nothing more."

"Yeah, and?" Raldir's father said with his famous demanding tone, which several political opponents had feared, when he still lived in the Hexaplain node.
"They will attack again, ultimately win."
"No they won't. We've got four command units. One will constantly patrol with a base it his side. Any incoming army will be decimated. If they reclaim a ship, the QLD will assist us, so don't talk such nonsense!"

"That's not the worst father!" Raldir said angrily. "The commanders lost mostly because they didn't fight with each other, against us. They were divided, which is obvious because they were Aeon and UEF, those don't fight so nicely alongside each other. However, when four UEF pilots will arrive, they will fight alongside and it'll be only a matter of time before they have found and transmitted the cause of their resources deficit and then they won't reclaim anymore!"

"Why do you worry so much? We've got a base at the beach and here around the node, around the crater."
"That won't be enough, four UEF commanders will kill us. Not only have you jeopardized the node already by gaining attention, you also risk all of our lives because the UEF will continue to attack us!"
"That's enough, you don't understand what I know!" Sung said, being as angry as his youngest son, nothing in his voice still resembled his tone of his famous political speeches. He almost seemed afraid of what his son told him. As if he knew that he was correct, from a certain point of view, but he didn't want to admit it.

"Of course you don't understand, you're not a very good commander, as you're not able to do much more but resource management, but this, what I'm going to tell you, is of the utmost importance!
We also need the UEF to continuously attack us. We must be able to test our weapons we will develop."

Raldir roared in anger: "What?! Do you want them to attack us, risk the lives of everyone in this node?"
"War requires us to sacrifice something to free gain something else, like freeing enslaved Symbionts. We need to test weapons against our enemies and we need to do so in our own territory, so that we can easily check our progress while we can still call upon our safety."
"If you free someone, but have lost the node because of your stupid tests, you have killed hundreds of thousands. That one person you freed is not really good if you have killed countless of others."

"Don't you dare to speak to me like that!" Bellowed Bidard. "I lead the node, I am the master scientists, I am the best strategist –"
"As the best, you should know better than to jeopardize all these lives." And Raldir pointed at the people working in the main control room, he pointed at the floor; underneath were one hundred and forty six stories. He then pointed out of the largest window, where he stood many times, to look at two other buildings that each supported life for more than another fifty thousand.

"You.. You don't understand anything. The QLD is our defence weapon that protects the node. We will not be destroyed."
"There's no one who can be absolutely sure of that..." A pause fell before Raldir spoke again, no one knew what the small note was that he had been given.

"You have already destroyed the node." Raldir said, in a tone that was engulfed in sadness. An angry Raldir never touched Bidard in the least, but now he seemed a bit surprised for a moment, but he quickly recovered.
"No way!" He said in denial.
"Yes! The UEF ACUs that exploded, caused radiation. Not as much as a nuclear explosion back in the twentieth century would cause, but still enough to contaminate the ground. The food we're growing can't be harvested. The crops that were spared in the battle are wasted because of the explosions. We can't support ourselves for longer than three months while we've got to wait for eight months before we can harvest a new, fresh and uncontaminated batch of food. Oh and you know that we can't fish, because the fish that do live here, are poisonous."
"Then we've got to put the people on a one third ration for the time being. We'll hold out. As I said, we've got to sacrifice something."
"I can't believe you! You seriously plan to sacrifice everything to reach your own plans, don't you?
Are you insane?"

The whole discussion was working on Bidard's nerves, but this was the limit. Although he didn't think so by himself, Raldir was right about one thing, anything that would stand in between him and his plans would be sacrificed remorselessly.
"Raldir Sung, you are banished. Your attempts to interfere with me have gone too far. You had finally gained my thrust when the first harvesting of crops brought a good result, but that you think that you know how to wage war better than me is the limit. Before noon tomorrow, you will no longer be on our planet."


____________
"What is this?" Shilon was stunned.
"He banished his own son?" Leython asked, although he already knew the answer. Leython had heard and read of stories in which great leaders were the worst leaders. Those people had been corrputed by their own ingenuity, they were arrogant and couldn't be reasoned with. Anyone who was critical would be removed, mercilessly.
Others would probably have noticed Sung's wickedness even before he left to colonize this planet. It had become worse, Leython thought and Shilon agreed when he heard his former enemy's thoughts. Bidard Sung had become a bit too crazy since his plans seemed to work.

He could've become 'dangerous' even before the first successful test of the QLD. The people would have feared him when he noticed that he was almost always right. The victory made him think he was invincible, that was the reason for him to proclaim himself phantom. Anyone who stood up against him, disagreed with him, even thought ill of him, would have to leave. Raldir was the first one but didn't even make it off planet alive... Yet why?

"I found something else." Shilon said and Leython woke up from his thoughts.
"What is it?"
"A passage from a conversation in Tisa's room." Shilon said.
"Were they doing that to everyone? Listening? Taking away their privacy?"
"Pretty much anti-Cybran, don't you think? No, I think that she recorded her own conversations, perhaps as some sort of a diary." The Symbiont mentioned.
"Then what is it doing there? Isn't a diary supposed to be private?" Leython asked.
"I'm not sure about that. Regardless, this title implicates a conversation of Tisa and Raldir. It might explain what Raldir planned, but went wrong."

____________

"Tisa, don't cry. You'll see me again. I'll make sure of that. It won't take long before you can make your way out of here as well."
"What... How?"
"It's not like I'm gone for the rest of my life. Father will know that he needs me. If I am gone, things will go downhill with the food management. He wants to put the entire node on a one third ration. People will revolt, that's for sure and then you can easily persuade father to get me back." Raldir said
"I can't persuade father, you know that. What if he banishes me too, or worse?"
"He won't, I'm sure of that. If the whole node is in crisis, then the people will stand up. When that happens, you can persuade him."
"What if he doesn't listen. He doesn't listen to us at all, did you know that?" Tisa asked desperately.

"For our entire life, mother always took care of us, it was always her. Did he ever play a game with us? It was always about his career. I'm fifteen now and I even know my boyfriend's father better than Bidard. You know I have only met mister Vedder three months ago, two weeks after I met Lars. Whenever Lars wanted to play a game of chess with his father, he always made some time.
Not with him," Tisa glanced upwards; five stories higher, their father was at work, "he always sacrifices everything for his job. In the last eighteen years, he had participated in the elections for presidency in the Hexaplain node and he always lost. However, he was always appointed to secretary again and he tried again and again. The losses made him more and more frustrated and eager to finally win. He came back home late, after working at office and then planning his political agenda. He left before we were even awake. Sometimes, I didn't see him for more than a week.

You know it, he doesn't listen to us. The only time he even talked with you or Ecthellis, is when he had to discuss the progress in food management or the development of technology. Even then, he always did everything within his reach to make you agree with his plans. It is ridiculous, to find out that he never spoke with us to ask if we had a nice day. When I told him I had a boyfriend, he only said 'great' without even looking up from his console!"

"Tisa, don't forget one thing, he still is our father and –" Tisa cut her older brother off immediately.
"Our father? He doesn't seem to realise that. He doesn't seem to realise that we're relatives, he doesn't seem to realise that I am his own daughter! He doesn't treat us like children, so he isn't a father for me in any way. You are so naïve Raldir, believing he recognizes us as our children!"

Silence. Raldir didn't know anything to say. Tisa was right. Never had their father played hide-and-seek with them, back in the Hexaplain node. Never had they played a game of chess. Or Monopoly. Never had he even told them a little story before bedtime.

"Perhaps we can't persuade him." He finally admitted. "But the people have to know that he may be able to protect them, but they won't like to live here for very long."
"But how, how can we tell the truth without getting into trouble."
"I don't know, don't forget that I can't work from the inside anymore. I have to be gone within eighteen hours."
"I can't do it without you Raldir." Tisa squealed.
"You won't be doing it without me, I'll speak to you every day if need be." Her brother tried to reassure her.
"I.. I don't know. Can't I leave too?"
"No, of course not, you have to help the people. That's what you're so good at. Help them by any means possible. Ecthellis has got a creative mind, albeit not too creative to be good for him. He still understands the reality, unlike father. Ask him to help you. You can do it, I'm sure of that."

"When are you going to leave? Right now, or will you wait for the final moment?"
"I'm going to take my ACU tomorrow morning and then I'll build a base, a quantum gate and then I'm going back to the Hexaplain node."
"Are you sure you can take your ACU? Is that safe to do? Wouldn't he want to keep it with him?"
"When I'm in my ACU, there's nothing he can do against it."


____________
"That would answer the question." Leython said.
"What question?"
"How Raldir tried to make it off planet and how that ended in failure. He stepped into his ACU, but the person who was on the field, patrolling, would probably have been given the orders to kill him."
"What?! Would Bidard Sung, his own father, kill him?" Shilon asked, unable to grasp the truth.
"Oh yes, don't forget that he is not their father, as Tisa said." Leython answered with a grim face. "He is not the one who spent time with his family. He only thought of his career and his sons as a tool in his plans. Now that the tool named 'Raldir' has broken, he wants to get rid of it. He probably thought that of Raldir as a thread when he stepped in his ACU and then ordered him to be killed."
"This is so wicked. It's sick and wrong." Shilon said.
"I know." Leython replied at the moment he saw that the recording's ending started a new recording:

____________

Sunday morning, the twenty sixth of March, 3020...

"Sir, you are not authorised to be here. Please leave immediately."
"What? Why am I not authorised to be here?"
"Phantom Bidard Sung's orders. We are supposed to keep you away from here. I must add to it that you're supposed to be away from this planet before noon."
"I very well know that I've got to get out of here. Now just let me pass so that I can."
"Sir, we can't let you leave with your ACU." The officer said, immediately understanding how Raldir wanted to leave. "You are to leave by personal quantum travel. You are allowed to enter the coordinates of destination, but that's how you've got to leave."
"I will go with my ACU. It is my ACU after all, not the node's one."
"Sir, we can't allow you to go there." Another officer said, but Raldir was prepared for the resistance. He quickly took his gun and fired twice, the blue lasers stunned the officers, who wanted to stop him, before they could react.

Engineers and other officers saw what happened and they stood still, watching as Raldir stormed towards his ACU. He still had to go up the hangar's stairs to reach the cockpit, more than twenty metres higher, while some officers grouped together and fired stunning shots at him. The shots hit the metal stairs however and Raldir made it safely into his command unit.

____________
"What?! He's in his ACU?" Sung said angrily, while patrolling around the island. He already expected that Raldir planned to leave the planet by command unit. He therefore warned the guards at the hangar and ordered them not to let him through. To make sure that nothing would go wrong, he also mentioned that he would take patrol duty for Sunday morning, just in case that Raldir actually made it in his ACU. The fact that it happened was surprising nonetheless.

"Yes sir. He is now moving out of the hangar and making his way towards the outside of the island. I think he's going to build a base."
"Leave it to me."
"Sir?"
"I said, leave it to me! I'll deal with him!"

____________
"Raldir Sung, leave your ACU immediately! You are banished and you should leave by personal quantum travel."
"Why? Why am I not allowed to take my ACU with me?"
"The ACU has been confiscated by the Phantom node. Leave it immediately."
"No, you've given this ACU to me some months ago, I'm not going to give it back. I'm going to build a quantum gateway, the liquid ion reactors for the energy to leave the planet, then I'm out of here. You should agree with that!"
"I don't agree with it, leave your ACU now or I'll take you out!"
"If you do that, you'll contaminate the ground with radiation even more. Then you've got to do it without fresh food for two extra months."
"There will be other opportunities to get food and we can ration it. We will not have this discussion again, Raldir. Leave your ACU immediately."

But Bidard's youngest son didn't leave his ACU. He moved on and built several mass extractors. Then he constructed power generators and started to upgrade his ACU with the engineering suite for advanced structures. All the time, Bidard warned him more and more, but when the upgrade was completed halfway, Raldir had enough of it and switched off his transmission.

If he hadn't done that, he could have managed to leave the planet with his ACU.

____________
"No! Officer, contact my husband, he must call off that attack!" Sila yelled.
"He's not responding. The Phantom is ignoring all transmissions. We can't do anything." An officer answered.
"Isn't there any sort of emergency code to contact him?" Tisa asked.
"I'm sorry." The officer said.
"No..."

Both mother and daughter saw how Bidard Sung continued the attack with the Silvano type two bombers. They continued to bomb Raldirs ACU, which couldn't bear all the damage. It kept moving towards the water, but the Silvano bombers' speciality was that it could drop both normal bombs as well as torpedoes.

When the ACU was just meters underwater, everyone witnessed how the father of no one let the bombers make their final run and so how he murdered his own son he didn't recognize...


Chapter 10
Tragedy

"I still can't believe it..." Ecthellis said, five minutes after they all had witnessed the explosion caused by the Silvanos' bombing runs. How could he? How could he kill his own son?

Tisa ran away, crying. Sila stood near the window, looking at the two buildings that Raldir looked at all those times. She didn't make the faintest noise, sobbed endlessly.

Ecthellis left the main control room. He walked towards the elevator and pressed the button that would bring him to their apartment. When he arrived, he immediately continued to Tisa's room. The door was left open.

Ecthellis did not know what to say, buy luckily Tisa already spoke: "He said he had a plan to save the node. Now he's dead."

"Father's gone crazy..." Ecthellis said
"We've got to put an end to it!"
"Yeah, but how? I can't kill him like he killed his own son."
"For him, we're no children! For me, he's no father!"
"I..." Ecthellis started, but he had no words.
"Ecthellis, we've got to do something. If it goes on like this, he will kill anyone who disagrees with him. He's turned into a tyrant."
"I know that the node is in peril because of his mistakes, even though his plan was actually great. He should've thought of the consequences though. I'll talk to him and try to persuade him to start a second settlement. There's a great group of islands, some nine thousand kilometres away.

The radiation is almost completely nullified at that distance. We can grow food there and transport it back here. The right crops can be harvested within three months. Father will have to inform the people about the food situation. That will cause issues. The people won't be happy. If I can tell him about my plan and mention that we can solve these issues before anyone will notice them, then he'll automatically comply." Ecthellis concluded.

"That won't be enough just for now," Tisa said, "we've got to get rid of him. He may not control this node, this prison for much longer."
"How do you plan to 'get rid' of him? You can't just kill him!"
"I don't know." Tisa said. Ecthellis suddenly noticed that her desperate tone had returned in her voice.

Tisa was changing, psychically. She changed faster than other girls and differently too. It rally started when they went to this planet, when Bidard took his 'family' without asking their opinions.
It infuriated Tisa because made her feel worthless. She almost got into a depression. When she met her boyfriend, she came alive again. She knew she meant something, that there were others, apart from her family, who loved her. Her boyfriend had supported her and she learned to be determined.
She still had trouble with that, but was improving. Raldir's death had apparently given her the motivation to do something about the man who was supposed to be their father.
Only, she didn't yet know how...

____________
"What have you done?! What have you done?!"
"I had no choice, Sila. I really had no choice."
"You did have a choice and you know it. You could've kept him here, then he didn't have to go in his ACU. Then you didn't have to irritate him so much.
If you didn't have to irritate him so much, he wouldn't have turned off the transmission. But why, why did you kill him?!"
"Sila, he was a threat to us. He could've attacked the node!"
"He would never do that! All he wanted was the node's welfare. He was a better man than you!"

"Sila, please, we've got work to do, ensure that the node will now fare well, despite for this sudden treachery. I've got things to take care of, business to attend to." Bidard tried to evade the matter, but he was too obvious and Sila cried in agony: "Yeah, right, you don't even think about us, about what else is in your life! I should've stopped you from the beginning. Then we'd still have our family in the Hexaplain node!"

Sila ran out of Sung's personal office room, angry and determined that she would never say a word to him again. But even she could not know that it would turn out that way...

____________
"Father." Ecthellis said.
"Ecthellis, what is it? Are you going to blame me for Raldir's death? Are you going say that I should calm down with my experiments again? Or are you going to tell me that we mustn't put the people on a one third ration but have to get food in another way?

Whatever it is... I'm not in the mood, I need to think."

"Why do you want to think by yourself, father? It's a sign of strength if you know what you are and what you aren't capable of, if you accept other people to share ideas."
"What do you want to say with that?!" Bidard said angrily.
"I'm saying that it might be wise to ask others if they've got a plan." Ecthellis answered.
"Oh really? Then I'll get started immediately: do you have a plan?" Bidard asked.

"Yes, I do. In fact, I already started it. No, please listen!" Ecthellis said when he saw that his father wanted to cut him off. "I sent special scouting planes to a group of islands, nine thousand kilometres away. The ground there is useful to grow food. The right crops allow us to harvest a new batch before we run out of food here. The people don't have to know anything about the problem we face now. We will make tell the public of this new settlement of course, so that half of this node will go with me to this other group of islands. Two settlements are better than one."

"What if the crops are ruined?" Bidard asked.
"We've got three months to think about that, assuming that they are going to get ruined." Echtellis simply answered.
"We could raid UEF or Aeon settlements, but we can't attack with more than two ACUs. A strike team would be required as well, so an assault on the enemy, just for food, is too much work." Bidard said.
"Then we've got to fall back on the quickly processed... 'food'." Echtellis said, with the emphasis on the last word.
"No!" Bidard said loudly. "That won't happen! That stuff is just revolting!"
"Several nodes, if not most by now, seem to be fine with it."
"But I am not! One of my key points in the elections, was to reserve the properly grown crops, that almost made me win the last one in the Hexaplain node. If it seems that we won't get a nice batch of food from the harvest on those new islands, we'll have to act immediately. We might be able to raid a settlement after all, but that requires time to plan, so we must know what we're up to as soon as possible."
"What if we tell the people of the issues, so that they know something may be up ahead?" Echtellis asked.

"I'll make a speech, I'll explain it as a plan instead of a problem, then the people won't get... nervous." Bidard said, knowing that nervous would be a serious understatement.
"I will need people. Engineers, farmers, etcetera." Ecthellis told his father.
"You will have them. They will help the node immediately. They feel the same ambition and loyalty for the node as I do. If the plan works, the first expansion of our node is a fact."

____________
Three months later...

"A batch of food is coming from the Vast Ocean settlement. The fifth batch today, sir."
"Our plan worked without a hitch, perfect. I will contact Ecthellis and tell him to give the final report." Bidard said and he closed the transmission with the newly appointed food coordinator. He immediately contacted his son:

"Report."
"Don't talk to me like that, will you?" Ecthellis answered.
"Just tell me what happened this week."
"Nothing special. Anyway, we've got enough food. This region can support all three hundred thousand of us with ease. I think that we can eventually support more than a million, just here."
"That's good. Now, I need you here again." Bidard said, seeming to have forgotten that he and his son were talking about the food status.

"Why?"
"Science projects, Ecthellis."
"What's the plan now? Don't come up with something totally ridiculous."
"The QLD wasn't ridiculous."
"It seemed ridiculous in the first place, but please don't tell me you're trying to build walking ships or something like that, just to get rid of the days of work to get ship wrecks on the beach."
"No," Bidard answered, "that be stupid. I expect you to be here in two days."

____________
The next day...

"No! Tell me it's not true." Sila cried.
"Yes, it is. I just found it out while I was checking the quantum network." The hacker answered.
"No, my family..." Sila said in desperation, and she walked out of the hacker's room.

In the main control room, Sila walked towards the windows where Raldir stood so many times. Her life had changed so much in so little time. Too much, too soon.

"Where is Bidard?!" Sila's loud words broke the room's relative silence.
"Mister Sung is currently unavailable. Can I take a message?" One of the officers said while he stood up from his chair.
"I have to talk to my husband! He is the only one who might understand!" Sila said.
"He is currently unavailable, please calm down, it can't be that important, can it?"

Sila screamed in anger, did she have to tell these people? The ones who didn't really care about what would happen outside of the node? The ones who still had their family, here? She didn't have a choice however:
"The Hexaplain node has been attacked by the Aeon. It's completely destroyed. I must speak to Bidard, as he must know of this and inform the node of our loss!"
"I'll get him immediately madam." The officer said, who finally seemed to understand the importance of the matter.

For ten awkward and agonizing minutes, Sila paced up and down in the main control room. Of all those things that could happen, this was what she had to hear from a hacker who managed to break through the Phantom node's firewall.

How could it happen that the technical staff restricted this piece of information?

The Cybrans were all brothers and sisters. They shared the freedom, they fought for the enslaved, together. But they also shared the happiness and sadness. Then why was the destruction, the cleansing of the Hexaplain node, the loss of all those people, who were family of the civilians here, why was that held back? It happened a week ago already.

____________
"What, how does she know?" Bidard asked angrily.
"You know of it too?!" The officer asked, shocked by the fact that Sung had apparently held back this crucial piece of information.
"Seven days ago, doctor Brackman informed me. I ordered the tech team not to let any of the news about the Hexaplain node to get through. If the people would know about this, the morale would plummet. We couldn't allow that to happen, just after we sorted out all of the issues with our food supply. Now, tell me, how could this have happened?"

"I think that it's a either a hacker who managed to evade the firewall, or one of the tech team got disloyal and told your wife." The officer said.
"Find this man, contact the tech team and ask for all information you might need. But first, go back to Sila and tell her that I am busy and I'll speak to her this evening." Bidard said firmly.
"Sir, she sounded desperate, perhaps it's a better idea to—"
"You heard me, I will speak to her this evening."

____________
"What did you just say?!" Sila said, not believing the officer.
"He had no time." The man answered. He didn't dare to look straight in Sila's face.
"Where is he, where is he?" Sila demanded, her voice grew louder and louder with every word.
"Madam, I'm not allowed to tell you where he is at the moment."

Then, it happened. Sila flew into a rage. One that was worse than anyone had ever witnessed. Anything that stood in the room would be thrown across. Sila seemed stronger than any time before. She had a strength that wasn't hers, but caused by the fury that controlled her.

____________
"Tisa Sung? Come to the main control room immediately! Your mother's gone mad!" The officer yelled while he knocked on Tisa's door.
"What?! What happened?"
"I just heard it too and please don't get angry with me, the Hexaplain node has been attacked by the Aeon. They cleansed it."
"No, it can't be..." Tisa said. Her uncles, aunts, nephews... All were gone.
The only family she still had, were Ecthellis, her boyfriend Lars and his family, who had lost half of his family too, so it seemed now.

"Yes, I'm sorry. At least I still have my family here." The man said, while he took her towards the elevator. "What's worse, it happened a week ago and your father tried to cover it up so that he would keep the morale at a high level, because we had just heard that the food production at the Vast Ocean has become a good success."
"Yeah, why would he ruin the happy moment with really important news? " Tisa said sarcastically.
"We're here, perhaps you can calm her down." The officer said when they arrived at the control room.

____________
"Are you going to get him already?"
"Madam he still doesn't want to—"
Sila cried again. It was too much for her, it all went too fast. Her husband had left her to die alone. He never thought of her anymore. She was alone. There was nothing left.

Her life was ruined as much as the tables, chairs and consoles in this control room. The charming boy that Bidard Sung was, ceased to exist a long time ago. She should've known it and stopped the nightmare far before he even planned to colonize this planet. The more time that passed, the more relatives had passed away. Her mother, five years ago. Her father, two years later. Three months ago, Raldir. Now, everyone that stayed behind in the Hexaplain node. But she lived on to suffer more and more of this misery. It had to end. All of it.

Sila saw that the officers all stood together, unable to think of a way to stop her. Whatever she would do now, they wouldn't stand in her way. She had to do it. There was no other way out of this.

Before anyone could respond, Sila jumped upon an officer and took his gun. While running towards the windows, she fired at one of them. The window she hit didn't seem to budge, but she fired again, again. Again and again. The officers lost count while yelling her to stop, not to do it, as they already knew what was going to happen. But just as they expected, Sila didn't hear anything of what they said.
Finally, the window shattered. The glass mostly fell outside of the building, falling down hundreds of metres. Sila stepped forward, ready to jump, wishing that everything could end. Knowing that everything would end.

"Mum?"

This time Sila did hear someone. Her own daughter. Could she do this, jump? While Tisa was watching it happen. Sila didn't wish anything but the best for her, yet she wanted nothing but to end it for herself.

She turned around, looking at Tisa. An eternity, a terribly agonizing eternity seemed to pass before she said something to her:
"I can't go on like this... You must bring him down, I can't do it." Sila turned around again, looking at the ground far below her.
"Mum! No! Don't do it!" Tisa screamed.

Again, Sila turned around.
"You have grown so strong in the last time. You have the strength to live though this misery. You can bring him down. You still have a brother. You still have the love of a nice and kind boy. You are able to overthrow Bidard, to lead this node out of this hell. The people will accept you as they have accepted him, but they know that you won't become such a tyrant. When you lead the node, it'll be in peace. Do it for everyone, Tisa, do it for Raldir. Do it for me..."

Tisa screamed again. Louder than she could even imagine, now that her mother had let herself fall down from the building. While falling down, Sila embraced her last moments of her life, knowing it would all end...

Chapter 11
Betrayal Ocean: The Tempest


The silence was deafening. No one dared to say a single word. Tisa sat on the floor, her eyes engulfed with tears. In front of her, Sila jumped...
Some minutes later, that felt like an eternity, Tisa stood up, thinking, hoping that it was a nightmare, that she would wake up in her bed, bathing in sweat.

Walking away, she noticed that one man followed her. The same person who had taken her here. She heard him speak but the words didn't make it to her ears.

"Miss Sung, please wait for a moment!"
Tisa finally concentrated to hear him. By doing so, she immediately realised that it all was true what happened just a few minutes ago. She wasn't dreaming, she was awake. It was real that her mother had jumped in front of her eyes...

"Miss Sung, what should I do?" The officer asked her. He apparently assumed that she could make decisions now.
"I don't know," she answered, "I really don't know." And Tisa sat on the floor again. Why? Why had this happened?

"The misery we're in. It certainly wasn't planned by your father. We've got to convince him to step back so that someone who has some experience with humans and their feelings can take over."
"He's not a father for me and he won't step down willingly!" Tisa's sadness and desperation turned into fury. She remembered who was to blame. Who she held responsible for all of this.
The officer almost made a step backwards as she stood up again, but he could refrain himself from it.

He had seen how the situation in the Phantom node deteriorated. Not by enemies from the outside, but Sung himself was responsible for all of the issues they had. Quite a lot of people who openly, or to him in person, critiqued the Phantom's reign, were banished or put in jail already.

It was true, Tisa was right. Sung had turned into a tyrant who cared about nothing but his pretty throne. The ideals he had were not bad initially, but his self absorbed thoughts had turned this perfectly safe place into a secure prison. The citizens hated it to be here. The officer could come to only one conclusion. Bidard Sung had to be taken down with violence.

"Ecthellis."
"What? My brother? What's with him?" Tisa asked.
"Ecthellis is still there at the Vast Ocean, all he's got to do is tell Bidard that he's got to step down and then your father will go there to get rid of your brother. Of course, he can't because Ecthellis is a better commander and will be prepared much better. To speak to your brother in person, Bidard has to come out of his ACU before he'll be allowed to enter the settlement."

"Then Ecthellis can seize him, or better, kill him." Tisa finished sharply.
"Kill him? What do you mean?" The officer asked her.

"Well, unless you can think of more than one meaning for the word 'kill', then by 'kill him', I mean 'take his life'."
"You... Couldn't..."
"Oh yes I could! I hate him as much as I loved mother. I haven't forgotten how he killed Raldir. I bet that Ecthellis thinks about it just the same. Especially if he hears of what caused mother's death. Don't forget that he doesn't know that yet."
The officer was shocked by what Tisa said and she noticed it: "Know that when I see Bidard, I think of him as a brutal murderer, not my father. I have never known him as a father!"
Now, he understood. It was clear. Tisa wanted to do something about it and it was not his job to stop her if he thought that she would go too far.

____________
"Commander Ecthellis, a message is coming from the Phantom Island."
"Patch my father through." Ecthellis said.
"The thing is, it's not your father, but the message comes from a hacker." The assistant informed him.
"Ok, patch the hacker through." He answered, not know that he was in for a shock:

"Tisa?" He said, seeing her sister and an unknown man. Tisa looked like she had just experienced the worst thing in her life. She seemed unable to speak...
"Tisa, what happened?!" Ecthellis shouted.
Still, Tisa didn't say a word, but her face expressed pure agony yet again. The man next to her sighed, then he took the word.

"Sila Sung, your mother, mister Ecthellis, has taken her own life."
"What?! How... Why did this happen?!" Ecthellis asked, stunned by the sudden news. "This is impossible... Why would she kill herself?!"

This time, Tisa did speak, her fury returned while her sadness seemed to disappear: "It's him! The Hexaplain node has been cleansed a week ago and he's been hiding it! When mom found that piece of information, she flew into a rage, insisting on talking to him. But he didn't want to come and then she jumped out of the window. From the main control room!"

Tears sprung in Tisa's eyes, while Ecthellis had to sit down and needed some time to comprehend what all of this meant. Without the Hexaplain node or his mother, the only family he still had was his sister who he was seeing via the video feed.

Tisa had once again said ‘him’ or ‘he’ when she spoke of her father. With proper reasons, Ecthellis thought, because Bidard Sung had not been kind to his wife or children. Then he had also been responsible for the fact that Sila had to hear the terrible news, of losing all her family safe his son and daughter, in the worst way possible.

Bidard Sung had deliberately kept the cleansing of the Hexaplain Node as a secret. He lied to his people, he brought fear to them. The only thing that might be good was that the node hadn't been attacked by more UEF or Aeon forces yet.

Ecthellis had heard enough. His father had to be brought down. By force, as he was no longer sane.

Tisa spoke again: "We've got to get rid of him! And you know it!" The conclusion Ecthellis made just now was exactly the one thing that his sister was repeating for three months already.

____________
"Mister Sung, a message is coming from the Vast Ocean settlement."
"That must be Ecthellis. What would be so important that he has to tell me now and can't wait for a day?"
"I'll patch him through, sir."
Bidard could have expected the forthcoming rant from his son, only an hour after his wife had committed suicide. Then again, he did not know that his daughter had found the same hacker as Sila, this time not to get information, but to bring it to Ecthellis...

"Father! What have you done?" Ecthellis' words echoed in his room. For a tiny moment, he was left with no words, stunned by the fact that Ecthellis seemed to know what happened. As always, he would find a way to evade the matter, or at least to blame someone else.
"What is it my son? Why are you so angry?" Bidard asked in a polite "I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about" tone.

Echtellis wasn't easily fooled though. Especially not if he knew what happened, if he knew that his sister would never lie, no matter what happened.

"You know very well why I'm angry. You know that I was objecting to the firewall from the beginning. You know that I feared that something would go horribly wrong if our people wouldn't know what was going on in the outside world.
But no, you had to secure everything that even remotely had to do with communication. Even the family members who are divided by my and your settlement aren't allowed to speak. And now look what happened!
The Hexaplain node is destroyed, everyone is dead and we didn't even know up until thirty minutes ago! My mother jumped because YOU didn't want to comfort her! YOU had to work! You're a brilliant scientist, but your work as a father or a husband is just an absolute and complete failure!"

Anyone would have been left completely stunned by Ecthellis' furious words or the snarl on his face and so were all the people in his settlement shocked by what they had heard. Sila Sung, the Phantom's wife had taken her own life.
The Phantom was supposed to be so great and yes, his scientific work was brilliant, as was his strategic performance, but how could someone who was great permit his own wife to kill herself? Wouldn't he do anything to stop her?

Bidard had his answer ready though:
"Who do you think you are to question me?! I'm giving my best to keep this place running, but all you do is rant, moan and whine at me! How would you think that the people will respond if they had gotten to know the about the cleansing of the Hexaplain node, just moments after we're getting the food situation under control again? It would be a ma—"

In a roar, Ecthellis cut his father off. What was he thinking? He was a political mastermind, surely he could've found a better way to deal with such an issue instead of not talking about it, hoping that the people wouldn't notice?

"You're the smart guy here, you're the best in politic affairs. You are the one who can give a proper speech, you are the one who knows how to turn a defeat into a victory, only by words. You have done so at the end of every lost election –"

"Don't talk me of that treachery in the Hexaplain node. If I would've been president, it wouldn't be cleansed at all!"

"You talk nonsense! If you would've spoken to your citizens, you would have comforted them. Their loss would not have been less painful for them, but the node wouldn't suffer from it. You would have persuaded them to keep up and work at their full potential for the node! You would have turned their loss into a reason to keep up!" Ecthellis finished. He wasn't done yet though.

"I'm going to get rid of you. From now on, this settlement will be independent. I'll not listen to your orders. We can still have contact and trade, but I'm not taking orders from you!"

"You, don't you dare to..." Bidard started, but then he noticed that he couldn't do something about it from here. The only way to claim back his settlement, was to do so by force. Then he would do exactly what Ecthellis wanted. In his ACU, he would be at a disadvantage because Echtellis had time to prepare. He was probably doing so already and what was worse, just like Bidard feared, Ecthellis knew that he had an advantage:

"Do what? You can't stop me. Come here with your ACU and I'll kill you if need be!"
"You wouldn't do that! You can't do that!"
"I can, I can end your life just like you have ended Raldir's. My love for him is greater than my loyalty to you!"
"That'll be your last words Ecthellis! That is your last mistake! You may have forgotten that I've got two ACUs, two pilots and you are on your own. I'll be there in twenty minutes! The area is so large that that advantage in time means nothing compared to the two to one odds that I have. If you're smart, then you'll surrender immediately when I've arrived. Don't make the same mistake that Raldir did!" Bidard bellowed.

"Come and get me!" Echtellis snarled. He was ready. He had done some science projects on his own.

____________
"Don't do it! Don't kill the only brother I have left!" Tisa said to her father. They were standing in the main control room, with the officer that had accompanied Tisa since Sila jumped. He didn't seem to be interested in what was going to happen. Bidard didn't know that his daughter told the officer not to say a single word...

"Quiet, Tisa. He made his choice and since you can talk to him, as you have already done, for how can he else know about the Hexaplain cleanse, you are the one who must convince him to stop and surrender. Then I'll not punish him as hard as I have punished others."
"No, you must surrender, can't you see it?! You've destroyed the node!" Tisa said.

Bidard hadn't expected this, but as always, he could retort:
"Ignorant child," he said with a vicious glare on Tisa, his daughter who he did not recognize, "you don't seem to understand anything, do you? I am the one who made this node flourish, anyone who is against me is trying to bring the node down or to, as you phrase it so well... destroy it.
Now, don't even dare to say what I should do."

The words made Tisa step back, terrified that Bidard would hurt her. However, she also knew that Ecthellis would not be frightened, that he would deal with the so called Phantom.

Another officer joined the group, by the looks of him, he had something important to say.
"Sir, we've found the hacker!"
"Great, now bring me to him. I'll deal with that scum. He risked to destroy everything we worked for."
While they walked out of the main control room, the second officer filled Bidard in on the details, Tisa and her assistant quickly followed. They had to find a way to deal prevent a confrontation. Hopefully, the officer was wrong and they went to see the wrong person...

"The hacker is a boy named Lars Vedder. He seems to be quiet. Never had any issues. But you know it, suddenly they change and then there's nothing that can save them."
Tisa suddenly stood still, just like her father.
"Lars Vedder? He's your boyfriend, isn't he?" Bidard snarled. "You should've taught him to respect me, instead of playing chess with him or acting like obvious lovers all the time across the node!"

"How do you know this?!" Tisa said furiously. He was never interested in her life. Why then, did he want to find out how she lived?
"I heard that you had a boyfriend. I wanted to know who that guy was, so I sent someone to follow you and naturally, I would learn who he was."
"You have been spying on me?!" Tisa was baffled. "You don't care about me, you never did for all the time I lived and now you suddenly want to know who my boyfriend is? You're unbelievable!"

"Quiet, it appears to be for the better that I have found out that your boyfriend is the hacker. He jeopardized the node. You may not see him anymore. He might harm you too." Bidard said. His voice had suddenly changed. He seemed afraid of what could happen to his daughter, what a criminal could do to her. Tisa was not fooled easily though. She knew her father better than he knew her. She knew that he was an excellent speaker and therefore she could see through the web of lies he had made by speeches.

"Don't talk to me like that! I know that you lie. You don't say that because you fear for my welfare, but you just want to keep him away from me so you can control me. I'll tell you, it's not going to happen!"
"I'll take care of you later, Tisa. You will obey me, whether you like it or not. And you," Sung turned to the officer who brought him the news. "You will take care of Vedder, no matter how you do it, as long as he won’t be here anymore when I arrive.”

“Consider it done, sir!” The officer answered immediately.
“Good, I’m going to get Shaduga now, he will accompany me with his ACU. I’ll tell the control team that, if this settlement is going to be under attack, to inform me and then Shaduga will be back here in an instant.”
He walked away, leaving Tisa and her assistant behind, astonished because Bidard was once again willing to banish someone who was supposed to be recognized as a family member.

____________
Two ACUs gated in at the Vast Ocean’s southern island. Within minutes, the first buildings stood, ready to produce mass, energy or units in order to deal with the enemy resistance. Twenty minutes after Bidard Sung had announced his arrival, they were here to deal with Ecthellis, one way or another. Bidard thought it was best to contact Ecthellis immediately, so that he might surrender. If the guns blazed , it would be too late for diplomacy.

“Ecthellis, we have arrived. You will have your final chance to surrender now. If you don’t comply, we will start the battle. You only have one choice. If you choose to fight, you will die.”
“I was about to tell you exactly the same thing. Shaduga, are you with me?”
Shaduga was a man of few words, but whenever he said something, he always made his opinion, choice or decision very clear:
“No.”

“Then we will fight and you will lose.” Ecthellis said and he cut off the channel. It was about to begin. The beginning of the end. For a new beginning. For the node’s citizens.

____________
“Lars Vedder.” The officer had seen him walking along the corridors of the centre building. There was no one else.
“Yes?” Lars answered. “What is it?”
“You have betrayed the node. For that, you will be punished.” The officer said and he took his gun.
“What?! You couldn’t kill me. Don’t you know who I am?” Lars said, stunned to see the man slowly towards him.
“I do. I do know who you are. You are Lars Vedder, son of Richard and Helen. Tisa Sung’s boyfriend, who is the daughter of the Phantom. But all of that doesn’t matter.” the officer said and he aimed at the boy now. He was just three metres away from him. “You are a hacker and your work has crippled the node.
Everyone now knows that the Hexaplain node has been cleansed. Something that we have tried to prevent in order to keep the people calm, to have peace. You dealt a dangerous blow to the node’s welfare. That is treason, Vedder, treason that will be awarded with death.”

“You can’t do that!” Lars answered, while walking backwards. He hoped that he could jump in an elevator and stay away from this man. “You don’t know what all went wrong here. It is Bidard Sung’s fault that we’re in this. He should’ve done his job instead of doing the opposite and even trying to shut the mouths of the people who do the best for the node.”

“How ignorant you are, you should really grow up and learn how things work in the real world.” The officer said. He still pointed his gun at Lars’s head.
“And how can I not be ignorant if you guys keep hiding information? Tell me, how can I grow up if you’re not letting me to?” Lars asked
“Not, but that does not matter,” the officer answered in turn, “because you won’t be anything. Good-bye, I won’t lie, no one will miss you.”

A shot followed.

____________
“Shaduga, what is the status at the larger eastern island?” Bidard asked. With the cost of many units, he had finally managed to take out the enemy at the island on the west. It was not over yet, because Ecthellis was sending in a fleet towards there.

“I have managed to build an outpost, but I doubt that I can keep it up for long. The enemy ships are tearing mine apart. Those advanced frigates can, for some reason, come very close to the shore. Closer than ours can. They’re also very strong and have excellent firepower. I doubt that my base is going to hold on for long.”

“Spare me your excuses. Send in Silvano bombers. That will do the trick, he’s got no anti air units in his fleets.” Bidard snarled.
“Ok, but I’ll have to get Silvanos towards there first.”
“Just do it. With them, you can deal with their fleet and then you’ll be able to take down the base on that island too.”

Bidard just had the time to say his words before he was introduced to Ecthellis’s powerful advanced frigates. They indeed came very close to the beach. He would lose the buildings closest to the shore, but it was no big deal. Engineers were already sent deep into the island to build an air factory that would produce Silvano bombers for himself. It was just a delay of the inevitable.

____________
“So Bidard, you’re retreating towards the island’s middle.” Echtellis said to himself. “That won’t help you! My stupid plan of walking ships wasn’t that stupid at all. Just a small change in the design and they could come close to the shore. Then let the legs come out and those can help the ship to go on land. It is so easy.”

The advanced frigates moved onto the beach, their guns destroying everything in their path. The ships were not so fast though. It would take time before they could take out the base that was now being constructed in the middle of the enemy island. However, that was going to happen eventually, even without any further assistance. His trap was about to work, he would order the ships to self destruct when only a few engineers were left. Those would naturally reconstruct the base, with his ship wrecks...

The Phantom’s Quantum Leeching Device was about to backfire.

In the meanwhile, the same trap was about to spring at the eastern side of the battlefield. Shaduga was less experienced and Ecthellis’s front was much stronger, so the plan was progressing much faster there. Perhaps Shaduga could be taken down much sooner already.
It was time to scout every island he was supposed to control, in search for the ACU. If it was under water though, it was going to take longer to deal with him.

____________
“Those things are moving on land!” Shaduga said furiously.
“I know, I know! Echtellis, you traitor. What you told me not to do is what you’ve done by yourself! What is all of this, were you planning it since yesterday already? Or a week ago?” Bidard asked.
“You’d better ask himself sir, I don’t know the answer.”
“This isn’t the time for jokes, Shaduga, get rid of his units!” Bidard told his assistant, he was getting more and more irritated because he had to hear Shaduga’s answers to any rhetorical question.
“Yes sir.” He answered quickly. Ordering all of the units to take care of the enemy ships, he suddenly noticed that they fell down on the ground and exploded.

“Sir, the enemy ships are destroyed. I don’t know how it happened, but I didn’t do it.” The pilot said.
“It could be that the legs collapsed under the weight of the ship. Those things are heavy. It could also be that the engines overloaded because they had to make the frigates walk and fire continuously and simultaneously.” Bidard mentioned, no longer paying attention to Shaduga.
“But they can move on water, while firing. So that should be no –”

Bidard cut him off: “I’ll do the maths here, thank you! The ship’s engines aren’t designed to make it walk, which costs a lot more work than just sailing. This means that we’ll just have to give them a lot of targets to fire at if we can’t take them down in another way. Still, taking out the enemy vessels with bombers is a better plan.”
“I’m going to reclaim the wrecks and use the mass to take this island.” Shaduga said.
“For the first time today, you’ve said something good.”

____________
“Sir, you are draining twenty five per cent of Shaduga’s mass extractors. His energy income is disrupted by twenty seven per cent.” Ecthellis’s battlefield monitor said.

“Thanks, Dimaro.” Ecthellis answered. He then turned to another channel, where his best scientist was about to inform him about the latest experiment in energy storage.
“Selis, how’s the energy storage going?”
“As you know, we’ve got three different types, or procedures of storing pure energy. The first one, based on quantum dot stabilisation, failed. The device is not stable enough, so I wouldn’t call this type grounded already, because we haven’t had the time to build a decent prototype yet.”
“When you say ‘not stable’, do you mean that it is leaking energy?” Ecthellis asked.
“You could say so, but to be more accurate, it’s better to say that the device has exploded.” The scientist answered.

“That’s not very good, how’s the second prototype doing?” The Cybran commander continued.
“Not very good either. It’s not storing energy, sparks are coming out of the device all of the time. We’re going to shut it down. The energy we’re wasting by not using it would be wasted anyway.”

“Ok, what about the third device?” Ecthellis asked.
“That’s working fairly well. We’re able to store a fifth of the energy we’re producing. This also means that we’re now storing about five per cent of the enemy’s energy that’s being drained. If you are in need of energy all of a sudden, you’ll be able to use that storage device.” Selis answered.

“Good, go back to the drawing table and try to make the first device stable enough and the third to be more effective. Discard the second type if you see no way to improve it. Good luck.” The commander said and he closed the channel.

____________
“Sir! My mass is being drained! I’m losing my energy income too!”
“The bastard! He’s using the QLD technology!” Bidard said.
“Don’t reclaim his ships sir, the virus is in there.”
“You should’ve known it. We use the same strategy at home too! Why did you reclaim the units?” Bidard said, blaming Shaduga for what had happened even though he didn’t expect this by himself either.

____________
“I would have missed him.” Tisa said, looking at the officer’s body. The man who accompanied her still pointed his gun at the point where the officer’s head was. “But no one will miss you, officer.”

“Thanks, sir. You just saved my life.” Lars said, still trembling because of how close he was to death.
“Come on Lars, we’ve got to contact Ecthellis and help him by any means possible.” Tisa said directly.
“Ok, let’s go!”

Five minutes later, he had made contact with the other settlement.
“I’ve got to speak to Echtellis,” Lars said, “we’re going to help him.”
“I doubt he needs any help, he’s perfectly fine, but I’ll patch you through.” The battlefield monitor replied.

A moment passed before...
“Hey guys, how are you doing?” Ecthellis asked.
“We’re fine, but how are you?” Tisa said.
“Perfect, Shaduga is suffering from the QLD and it won’t take long before Bidard is too. He’ll reclaim the ships that I’ll put there for him.”
“Won’t it be a bit obvious? I think that he’ll not reclaim your wreckages because Shaduga will have noticed what trouble you brought for him.” Lars cut in.
“Oops... My bad, I’ll not destroy my special weapons then. He’ll lose in another way. Don’t worry.”

____________
“Those frigates are coming closer to my base, but I’ve got the first Silvano bombers here. They’ll be destroyed.” Bidard said and he sent the bombers to take out the frigates. The ships were equipped with a minor anti air gun, but that couldn’t pose a threat to the most advanced bomber in the universe. Bidard didn’t know however, that the most advanced bomber in the universe posed no threat to a walking frigate either.

The bombers closed in on the enemy ships and dropped their payload. Detecting that it were, they dropped torpedoes, instead of normal bombs. The torpedoes were designed to fall in the water and then make their way towards their target. Since the ground didn’t allow them to move through, the torpedoes blew up on contact.

“Sir, it’s not working,” Shaduga said, he looked at the live feed transmitted to his ACU, “you’ll have to change the Silvanos’s orders. They’ve got to use the bombs.”
“I know, I know and I’m working on it. It’s not that easy though. I’ve got to adjust the schematic. That’s a job supposed to be done behind a desk, not in an ACU. I’ll have to manage my units too.” Bidard replied.
“Transfer the units to me, I’ll take it over.”
“No, then they’ll be struck by the virus. We can’t allow that to happen. Use your units to the fullest and distract the enemy as much as possible.”

Bidard tried frantically to change the Silvano design. They had to detect that the units were on land so that they’d use normal bombs. The air units were powerful and strong, but the anti air guns were taking their toll now. The first bomber crashed down in a massive fireball.

It wasn’t working, the design was secured with powerful encryption software that he couldn’t hack just yet. Perhaps, there was a better way to deal with this. Bidard sent the bombers he had away so that they could not be attacked by the advanced frigates anymore. He tried to code an emergency procedure for all units. That might work. The units were going to have to attack the ground underneath the frigates.

____________
“Look Tisa, it’s going to be all right. Bidard lost his largest island on the west and I’ve got plenty of units at my island to the north. The settlement is protected very well. I can end it now.” Ecthellis said just now the frigates destroyed the enemy air base in the middle of the western island.

Now, he sent more than thirty Silvano bombers to Shaduga’s ACU, he didn’t even search for it because it reported its location, thanks to the virus. The flight was going to take several minutes, but there was nothing that could be done against it. Shaduga didn’t have any anti air equipment. This battle was too easy. Bidard’s QLD had backfired. The Phantom had lost.

____________
Shaduga moved his ACU around, under water, protected by an armada of submarines. The only place where he was really safe though, was at his base at the southern major island. There was Bidard’s base as well. He had ordered his assistant to get back to base, because the seas were not safe, but it was too late.

“Sir, I’m under attack. Dozens of Silvanos are getting at me. I can’t get out of the way.”
“Damn it Shaduga, damn it!”

A second before the ACU exploded, Shaduga managed to transfer his units and structures. At the southern island, Bidard now had two bases, but it wasn’t going to do him any good.

The virus that contaminated Shaduga’s units, now widely spread in Bidard’s base. To make things even worse. Echtellis had another nasty surprise.
“Echtellis! You bastard! What have you done?!”
“Simple, I’ve added something to the QLD’s software, now the units that are struck by it, will self-destruct if the ACU is blown up. It doesn’t matter if the units are transferred. Smart isn’t it?”
“You betrayed me!”
“Yes, I did. This place will now be known as Betrayal Ocean. Just like your island is named Phantom Island.”
“You’ll not get me, Ecthellis. I still have the time to retreat! Which I will do. Then, I’ll be back twice as strong and –” Bidard was cut off by his son:
“You won’t return, idiot. You’ll not even get away!”

The Silvano bombers that had killed Shaduga, now moved towards Bidard’s ACU, but they were too late. Bidard had thought of this situation. If all would go wrong, he had to be able to retreat. He entered his quantum gate and returned to Phantom Island.

Echtellis saw what happened. It appeared that the virus hadn’t infected the quantum gate. Therefore he didn’t know of his father’s escape plans and he was surprised to learn of it. It was important that Tisa knew this. Bidard would have his revenge for his failure here. Tisa was going to get hurt, badly.

____________
“Out of the way! Everyone, get out of the way!” Bidard yelled. This was insane! Echtellis had betrayed him. He lost half of the node in one day and what was worse, that half had turned against him.

The engineers in the hangar looked at him, too afraid to say anything. One had to break the silence though. In the time that Bidard was absent, the people here had learned about the Hexaplain cleanse.

“Sir,” one engineer, who was brave enough to speak up, “something has happened here. Tisa, your daughter has told us of the Hexaplain cleanse. I’m sorry to hear of the loss of your wife’s family.”
“What?! She told... What did she say? Tell me!” Bidard said, walking to the engineer.
“She told us of the Hexaplain cleanse, that it happened a week ago and that you hid it to keep us happy and ignorant.”

The last word infuriated Bidard even more and he roared in anger. Could no one keep his mouth shut in here?! He moved close to the man who told him of this news, he wanted to beat him, throw him around the room. But no, that wouldn’t be a good idea. That engineer didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, he did just what he was supposed to do. Tell him of the real culprit: Tisa Sung.

In an instant, he turned around and stormed out of the hangar.

Three minutes later, he stepped out of the elevator that had brought him to his apartment. Tisa would certainly be there. He entered the room and saw that all the windows were blinded. What was going on here? He turned on the light and saw a determined woman standing in front of him, pointing at him with a gun. He was stunned. Tisa aimed an officer’s gun at his chest.

As calmly as possible, Sung spoke the words that he quickly thought of.
“You can’t betray me. You can’t.”
“You don’t know what I am capable of.” Tisa answered frantically. “You don’t know anything about me. Now don’t tell me that I can’t do something. I’m no longer a scared little girl, you know? When I’ve made a plan, I’m determined to make that happen. I found a way to end this and now I will!”

Unable to believe this, that his own daughter could kill him, he spoke again:
“I’m your father, how could you?”
“Are you my father? Why are you all of a sudden? Never, in my entire life, have you done anything for me. You ignored me, neglected me. You haven’t showed that I am your daughter, never! Now you claim to be my father? I will deny it now. Just like you denied Raldir to be your son when you murdered him!”

Tisa shot. One, two, three shots, straight at Bidard’s chest. She didn’t look away or close her eyes. She witnessed her own deed. Sung’s face still looked confident, just as always, when he had held his speeches, when he said that he would become president of the Hexaplain node next time, after a lost election.
All his life, he showed confidence, all the time. The only difference was, his final moments had really shocked him, for the first and the last time in his life.


Chapter 12
Leaving the past

“That’s the end of it.” Leython said.
“Yes, that story’s worse than what we’re going through. Losing a friend to an enemy. I can count myself relatively lucky that I didn’t have to endure the loss of my brother to my father.”
“You’re right. Unknown enemies can become friends too, but when the hate strives through the family, it will be torn apart.”

Several minutes passed before either of the commanders said something:
“Well, shall we go back?” Shilon asked eventually.
“Yes, but can I try your ACU for a moment?”
“Why?” Shilon asked confused.

“I’d like to test it, find out how it works. The handling of the command unit itself, controlling the units. I might want to fight alongside you guys after all. I’m fine with fighting Aeon fanatics. Brackman will find a way of avoiding the UEF forces for me.”
“Fighting Aeon forces isn’t too hard to do. Just go to the front there and you’ll be waging war frequently.” Shilon answered.
“What about fighting us? When do you do that?” Leython asked.

“Well, we only attack the UEF when we need something from them, such as technology or intel. We also go to the Aeons if we can get technology from them. The UEF have Symbionts to be freed however, so most of our assaults in Federation territory go with that goal.” Shilon said.
“But the Aeons attack you for most of the time, don’t they?”
“Yes, they want us all dead and are pretty restless, now let’s go.” Shilon repeated.

“Wait, I’ve found the last entry in this speeches database. It’s a speech from by Tisa Sung.”
“Ok, but then we really have to go. This place is getting me on my nerves now we’ve been here for three days.”

____________

“I am not so good at speeches as my father is, but... I’m fairly certain that I can get us out of the misery that he brought us in. That will eventually be more important than nice words and promises.”
Tisa said to more than three hundred thousand people who all closely listened to the speech that was announced a week ago.

“I killed my father, because I couldn’t stand this world anymore. What he said to be the perfect place in the universe to live in, had quickly turned into a living hell. A prison. Now that we all know about the tragedy that is the Hexaplain cleanse and now that my father is dead, we can work start anew.

I take it you all wish to have the nightmare here to be ended and to do so, I propose to go back to the place where we came from. To build a new node and honour our old one. To honour the people that have fallen because of my father’s blind stupidity. To honour your families, to honour my brother Raldir and my mother Sila. But most important of all, to honour our perseverance to live on in the way we want.
Our node will bear the name of the three ways that we will remember ourselves: the memories of lost friends, the memories of icons in our life and the will to carry on. Our new node will be named the Three-Rivers node. We will go back to our old planet as soon as possible, to start anew.

Thank you for doing something my father never did, thank you for listening to me.”


____________
“That would explain it all. They’ve just left this place. Apparently, Ecthellis and his scientists have found a way for this system to keep updating itself, so that it’s got the Cybran’s latest defence weapons and it can survive even if the Infinite War pays a visit again.” Leython said.
“Yeah, now let’s go.” Shilon said impatiently.
“You don’t like it here, do you?”Leython asked, while they moved on to the elevator that all of the Sung family members had used numerous times.

“No, didn’t you feel like you were entering a tomb when we stood in the main hall?” The Cybran asked.
“I did and it indeed is a tomb, but a carefully protected one.” Leython answered with a smile. He liked this place.
“That’s what bugs me. I’ve got the feeling of being watched. The feeling that it is hunted here. I’m not in for staying here with Raldir’s ghost.”
“Wait, turn around.” Leython said seriously.
“What?!” Shilon asked, he was scared by the sudden change of tone.
“Look over there,” Leython answered with a smile, “that’s the window where Raldir and Shila always stood to look at the node. So their ghosts must be standing there now too.”

“Not funny, Dygonn.” Shilon said, but he could not hide a smile either.
“On a more serious node though.” The UEF pilot said, while they moved on again. “This place indeed looks and feels like being haunted. Bidard named himself the Phantom because of the Quantum Leeching Device he developed. His legacy still goes on, after more than eight hundred years.”
“True.” The Cybran answered and he pressed the button marked ‘zero’, bringing them back to the main hall.

____________
Ten minutes later, Leython tried a couple of buttons in Shilon’s ACU. It all seemed familiar, but there were a couple of options that were switched, such as the pilot’s overview screen of the battlefield and the ACU upgrades menu. Within a couple of minutes, Leython thought he knew how the ACU worked and he gave the order to have the tier three engineers, that were standing there for about three days now, build a Monkeylord.

“I’ve never seen such a weapon.” He said, stunned by the fact that no UEF commander had ever reported a thing that large.
“No one knows about it, not outside of the Cybran territory. We’re ensuring it’s a secret. We’ll only use it when we’re sure we can kill the enemy commander before he can transmit an image of the unit.” Shilon informed.
“With stealth, it’ll have another great advantage. This is a perfect weapon to end a battle quickly. It’s more useful than what we have at the UEF if it comes to sudden assassinations.” Leython said.
“Yes, but it would be useless against you, since you’ll have omni sensors everywhere.”
“You’d better be happy that you’ll not be seeing me in an UEF ACU for at least a while, now you’ll stand a chance with this experimental.”

Suddenly, a light flashed on the dashboard and a Leython heard a bleeping sound:

“What’s that bleep?” Leython asked.
“Emergency signal, let me sit there!” Shilon answered and Leython quickly stood up.
“Shilon here, what’s the problem doc?”

“The Three-Rivers Node is under attack. Aeon forces are about to cleanse it, they gated in a few seconds ago. I’m so glad that I can contact you right now. The cities are on the move and they’re safe, except for the capital. It’s going to be cornered in about two hours. We are occupied at the full Aeon front and you’re the only Cybran that can go there and make a stand.” Brackman said.

A map appeared on Shilon’s overview screen and it was clear that the moving city was surrounded by three commanders that just gated in and the sea the capital was moving on to now.

“I want you to drop at the sea, build enough air transports to move all civilians away, over the sea. You will be in a transport too, so that you can get out of the enemy’s ACU’s effective range. You will be in need of a large air armada to ensure the safety of everyone.”

“Roger that.” Shilon said.
“Doctor Brackman, can you get me an ACU as well? I’ll help.” Leython asked.
“I thought that you didn’t want to fight for the time being.” Brackman said, surprised by the sudden interruption.
“That was against the UEF, where my friends are. We also have little time to think about that right now, don’t we? Just ensure that there’s an ACU ready for me when we arrive.” Leython simply answered and he changed the subject to the strategic aspect of the oncoming battle:

“The passage you see, that’s where two Aeon commanders have to send their land units through if they can’t do it by air transports. The third commander has got to send her units in by air transports anyway. If we can build up a proper air force and we can close the gap in that passage, the node is safe and we can sit this run out until we’ve got reinforcements.”

“How do we get you with that ACU in time, over there?” Shilon asked.
“No problem, I already sent an ACU to where you are now. Get out of Shilon’s cockpit, Leython. Your new way of transport has arrived.” Shilon looked outside, he saw a command unit walk towards him.
“Do you think you can jump to the other unit?” Shilon asked.
“No, I’ll have to climb down and climb up onto the other cockpit. Why don’t you order your engineers to build a second quantum gate in the meanwhile, we’ve got to leave at the same moment to prevent issues with the quantum wake.”

____________
Just five minutes later...

“Ok Shilon, we’ve got a nice place to start but they’re about six minutes earlier and they’re with three.”
“But like you said, they’ll be sending their units through this only passage.” The Symbiont answered.
“Which will be here shortly, assuming they’ll rush a tier one army. We’ve got too much to do in too little time. Let’s get this work done.” Leython replied.

After building the first economical units and two land factories, the first enemy scouting groups arrived. They were small but showed that Leython was telling the truth about the disadvantage in time. The enemy had now noticed that they were facing resistance and would show no mercy.

“Oh blast, I ruined it already.” He said.
“What is it?” Shilon asked.
“It’s the different button configuration. I started building energy storage with my engineer, instead of a power generator. It’ll slow me down a bit, but that might prove to be a troubling issue later on.”
“Don’t think of it just yet, just think of a strategy that will work.”

Leython had already planned it all since he had seen the battlefield overview in Shilon’s cockpit when they were contacted by Brackman.

“Ok, build your base but don’t build anything else than tier one units. If you’re as fast as during our Sung Island battle, I’ll be able to tech up and protect you in turn. Then we can put up a solid tier two defence system, tier two air transports and drop tanks at the enemy bases.” He said and he moved his ACU forward. A larger group was arriving at the passage and Shilon could better save his units up for the really big waves.
Using the ACU now ensured that they wouldn’t lose any valuable units yet. Having those units later on for support meant that the ACU was well protected and could still fight at that time.

Shilon’s ACU was at the front already and had scored a total of ten kills, but the Light Assault Bots were now supported by the first enemy tanks. Leython could have beaten this wave with ease as if it weren’t for the disadvantage in time. Without a doubt, these enemy commanders were sent to execute orders, they weren’t thinking on their own and they were inexperienced.

The troop movement reflected that. The enemy Aeon tanks were weak and could easily be destroyed, yet they were not moving in a wide formation, but clumped together. Leython knew out of experience that if such groups were close together at one moment of the battle, that they would move so for the rest of the time. This was a major disadvantage for his enemies, as they were going to find out later.

“Shilon, build air factories, we need bombers. Cybran bombers do still drop cluster bombs, don’t they?”
“Yes they do, that’s a good think against Aeon tanks, isn’t it?” Shilon laughed.
“One bomber can take out many tanks.” Leython said, glad that his companion knew that, despite for his limited knowledge about intel. But then he realized that this was such a basic thing that Shilon really had to know it, whatever his good or bad points were.

“I’ll give them something to remember us by.” The Cybran said
“In the meanwhile, I’ll build air factories too. We need to protect the whole place against air transports, which they will use when they suffer massive casualties from the assault via the passage.”

“We’ve got a lot of ground, we’ll never cover that in time by building fighters.” Shilon said, worried about this point of the battle. He had the right to be worried because the city they were protecting, was located in a vast plain. This meant that any unit that slipped through, was free to go anywhere.

However, Shilon didn’t experience Leython’s strategy yet.

While they were both moving up and down on the front, backing up their own units, or taking damage for them in turn, Leython’s first two air transports were constructed. They were filled with tier one engineers immediately. Within three minutes, the whole plain was covered by radar. No air units so far, this meant that the Aeon were playing along the plan Leython had thought of.

No surprises, this was going to get boring. Yet one thing changed that.
“Leython, I just overcharged the first enemy heavy tank, be prepared because I can see another three coming towards us.” Shilon said.

“Radar suggests that they’re coming with more and more tier one units too. It seems like the third enemy commander has joined the fight. I don’t know why, but they seem no longer interested in cleansing the city.”
“That’s good.”
“Not really, because this means that they’ve got a new plan. Cleansing us.”

____________
Ten minutes had passed. Leython and Shilon were still holding their ground, but they suffered heavy losses. The enemy had already made the way up to tier three units. Before that had happened, the two commanders were able to take out any tier one unit with their bombers.

Aeon tier two units that were left almost unscarred in comparison, were taken out by their own heavy tanks that were covered by mobile stealth generators. Then, suddenly the tier three bots arrived. Leython had made a nice progress in the economy upkeep, but Shilon, being an expert with tier one rushes and micromanagement, was unable to let his speciality go and work with more advanced units.

The result was that Leython was forced to do the economical work on his own and because of that, while he also kept an eye out on the radar overview screen, he couldn’t manage his units anymore.
Now, while they were trying to keep up with the enemy, they were busy dealing with the economy and unit management issues they had.
Leython transferred every combat unit he had, to Shilon and Shilon gave his base to Leython. This allowed both commanders to do the job they were best at but it still didn’t solve the main issue that they were having: enemy siege assault bots.

“We’ve got to find a way to get rid of them. Losing fifty per cent of our ACU’s armour won’t do any good if we can barely overcharge our enemy. Now, we’re just wasting our mass and energy into repairing our ACU so that it can work on the front as soon as possible again.” Shilon said.
“I’m going to build shield generators, you guys have five versions, right?” Leython asked.

“Yes, what is the plan?”
“The enemy is just blindly sending units through to be destroyed. No matter what we put at it. We’ll build a lot of shield generators and place our ACU underneath it. The enemy will fire at the moment that the command unit is detected and we’ll just wait until we can hit them.”
“But our shields aren’t very powerful. They’ll be downed in no time, they’ll still hit our ACU.”

“If we do it right, we can place five layers of shields in between the ACU and the enemy bots, without any space being in between the shields itself. The generators create a layer that varies in size, relative to the generator’s version. We’ll just plant five generators close to each other and we’ll be done.” Leython said.

“Can you place them so well that the shields will all come close together?” Shilon asked.
“I’ve done so with UEF shields and now I’ve got more options, so I think I should be able to do it.”
“Let’s get to work then.” Shilon said, knowing that this was their best shot to keep up.

____________
The next few minutes, Leython did nothing but frantically trying to rebuild every shield that fell and spending the rest of his economy to upgrade to tier three. If they could just build mobile artillery, it’d would help a lot.

The tier one force was gone and the enemy used less tier two heavy tanks as well. The enemy mobile shields were another problem, more were added in the mass and Leython thought he was lucky because the enemy didn’t mix any flak up in the formation. He therefore didn’t dare to build gunships and order them to take flight above the land force, since gunships were a downright provocation for the enemy, to build mobile flak units that they still lacked.

The small amount of tier one bombers Shilon now was forced to use, seemed to do nothing, but the Cybran’s micromanagement did the best work. The bombs fell directly on the shields’ joint sections, massively increasing the effective damage and easing the ground units’, and especially the ACUs’ job.

Suddenly, it stopped. The last enemy units fell and Leython knew that this was no good. He doubled his efforts to build more fighters, preferably the tier three version of them, that he could build for some time now. He feared an enemy air drop and wanted to be ready for it. The first radar towers were upgraded to omni sensors, allowing him to see the wide area around the fleeing capital city.

He dug in even more. Doing everything possible to upgrade his land factories to the tier three level. The enemy could also be preparing an even larger wave of ground units. Siege bots and mobile artillery had to be built to prevent a successful assault.

The two Cybran ACUs and many engineers moved everywhere to reclaim mass and assist Leython’s economy by that way, hoping that it would be enough. The enemy made one stupid move after another, completely ignoring the backyard attack they could do with just a few transports, but they were still with three and their timely advantage was still seen up to now.

Another minute passed without a single hint of the enemy. Shilon was calming down, as if he wasn’t calm already. He was certain that the enemy had retreated, but Leython knew better. He hadn’t detected a single quantum wake eruption, caused by an ACU’s arrival or retreat. This could only mean one thing and that was confirmed two minutes later by a spy plane that he had ordered to investigate the three gray dots, marked as land units, that had come into his sensor’s range.

“Shilon, we’re not done yet. By the looks of it, they’re sending in Galactic Colossi.”

Chapter 13
Those who fail at history are doomed to repeat it

“Oh crap, what are we going to do about that? We’ll never be in time!”
“Watch and learn, Shilon, watch and learn.”

Instantly, so it seemed, Leython’s engineers started building tactical missile launchers. He had very little time, but it was not undoable. If the Aeon hadn’t strengthened the armour around the Galactic Colossus’ eye, because they didn’t learn from their mistakes or couldn’t find a way to protect the eye, then only one missile was able to blow away the Colossus’ focusing lens.

“What are you doing? Those things are useless. I thought that you knew how weapons worked. You’re the intelligence expert after all!” Shilon said angrily.
“Shilon,” Leython answered quickly, “we’ve got no chance but to try this out. There isn’t time to build a proper force to deal with the Colossi or to evacuate ourselves and all the people in the Three-Rivers’ capital. We’ve got to do it this way.”
“Do what? Committing suicide while building TMLs?” The Cybran asked.
“No, finding out if they’ve learned from the weak spot in the Colossus’ design or not.”

“For as far as I know, it doesn’t have a weak spot and three of them are now moving our way. I’d say that we run and build a quantum gate to try to get the citizens off planet, then move into the water. We might just make that!”
“No need to, the spy plane I sent tells me that they haven’t learned from the past.” Leython said calmly, knowing that one missile would be enough to make the almost two hundred metres high unit virtually useless...

Three missiles were launched and they moved in on their targets at high speed, exploding when they collided, but causing little damage and Leython’s second spy plane told why.

“Oh, they did learn from the past, that’s bad.” He said.
“How so and what are we going to do about it?” Shilon was worried, Leython could tell by his voice.
“It’s eye can be shut! That’s unfair, those Aeon are cheaters!” He said.
“Well,” Shilon said, unable not to laugh about Leython’s angry tone, “weren’t you a cheater when you destroyed the eye for the first time?”

“Whatever, but now I’m just going to launch five at them. I actually thought of the time that this could go wrong and they’re coming horribly close now.” The UEF pilot answered and he immediately launched five missiles he had built, just to be sure.

This time, the plan worked. One Colossus’ eye was destroyed, the armour that was supposed to protect it, appeared to be too weak. However, it was only the eye and the rest of the gigantic unit moved forward, along with its two companions, that were still unscarred.

Leython quickly ordered all of his engineers in the area to assist in the construction of more missiles, he needed a total of ten. Within moments, the five launchers had all produced on missile, that were launched immediately, to strike at the enemy. The live feed provided Leython with an all to accurate sound of charging lasers, while the first engineers were grabbed by the gravity claws.

Shilon had moved away in his ACU and Leython decided that it was about time that he’d do the same. While he moved, a massive explosion caused one Colossus to fall down and the others to stop and process what had happened.
The five missiles had made it so close to the eye that the laser hit them and they exploded. The eye wasn’t shut and because of that, the laser’s core engine that was located directly behind the eye, exploded, causing this colossus to blow up and another one seemed to be losing its balance.

However, the only one that was still able to fire its laser ploughed on forward and it charged its laser again. More and more engineers were being taken by the gravity claws, like children’s toys. It was too late though. Another set of missiles flied upwards and went straight for the eye.
Also this eye wasn’t shut because the laser continued firing. It exploded as well.

“You see, Shilon, it’s all right. Now, there’s one which can still move but has lost the firepower of its eye. If we plant an overcharge bolt in the eye, the core engine will still explode, causing the Colossus to fall down.”
“Ok, will you do that please, you’re closer to it than I am.” Shilon said.
“Pfah, you’re just afraid of being crushed.” Leython answered.
“No comment.” Shilon replied, shrugging his shoulders.

____________
Another five minutes later, the situation looked completely different. Leython’s base was blooming because of the three wrecks that had been reclaimed. He had upgraded every mass extractor to the highest level, every radar tower was an omni sensor too and he had also built the eight tier three Ion reactors for the upkeep.

Shilon ordered one spy plane after another to check in on the enemy bases and he waited for Leython to build a suitable force to take them out. Then...

“Leython, they’ve got a strategic missile launcher!” Shilon said.
“Ok, we’re going to build missile defences.” He answered.
“We’ve got to build one at the node’s capital as well.”
“More like four. The city’s huge and we’ve got to tell them to stop moving, otherwise they’ll be out of our protective range in no time.” Leython concluded.

“I’ll contact them right away.” Shilon said and he opened a channel to contact Ibann.

In the meanwhile, Leython sent several transports towards the city, he had to get the engineers there as quickly as possible. Shilon had finally been able to get through the enemy defence line with a spy plane and now it had revealed a strategic missile launcher that was fully operational. There was no clue that could tell them when the first missile would be launched. Leython was almost completely certain that it was going to be too soon.

“Shilon, I think that we’ll never get SMDs everywhere, to protect both the city and our base. I’m still pumping out spy planes though and I’m transferring all of them to you. Keep them outside of the enemies’ omni range and they’ll not be discovered. When you hear a strategic missile launch notification, send all of the spy planes over the missile launcher and they might just hit the missile.”
“Ok, I’ll do that, you’re pretty fond of cheating, aren’t you?”
“Yes I am, but I’d rather give it the name of ‘simple answers to complicated problems’. Of course, that’s just how you’ve got to live. Never make it harder for yourself than absolutely necessary.”

“Strategic launch detected.” Sounded suddenly from the cockpit’s audio boxes.
“Ok that’s it already, send those spy planes!” Leython yelled.
“I’m going to let them fly a bit higher, by the time they arrive, the missile has already gained speed and altitude.”

Shilon ordered the planes to go higher and higher, which was possible, but seriously decreased the sensors’ effectiveness. The sensor waves those planes sent, were too weak when they returned to the spy plane, making them unable to give a signal of the ground below them.
It was no problem though. The units were no longer meant to make a report of what happened at the enemy’s base, but they had to collide with a missile.

Seconds later, they did. The missile was hit by the improvised counter measure and it was taken off its flight path. It was flipped so much around its own axel that it couldn’t go to its original target anymore, but would crash into the ground, some hundreds of metres away from the missile launcher, in the middle of the Aeon base.

For this possible event, of which most commanders thought of as a faulty designated target, every faction had provided the missiles with a counter measure. If one would hit a friendly base, it was going to self destruct high above the ground and so Leython and Shilon were provided with some very impressive fireworks.

“It’s not over yet.” Shilon said, knowing that the explosion managed to vaporize every spy plane but did no damage to the base at all. Years and years of development had provided everyone with powerful missiles that weren’t very expensive, but their effective blast radius was limited and beyond that range, there would never be a sign of damage.

“It’s time to continue on those missile defences. Shilon, we won’t have resources to construct more units. Use what we have instead and target the weakest enemy. When that’s done, protect the wreckages and I’ll send in engineers to reclaim for more mass.”
“Ok, let’s end this party.”

____________
“Knight Elenes, what is the status?” The Avatar-of-War asked.
“They are still alive Avatar, our enemy is proving to be a powerful foe. They’re improvising one counter measure after another. They already destroyed our three experimental bots with a couple of tactical missiles, that were targeted at the Colossus’ eye.”

“ What, is that weak spot still there?” Marxon asked.
“Excuse me avatar?” Elenes asked.

“The colossus’ eye proved to be a weak point about a year ago. Then a UEF commander targeted it with a tactical missile and blew the Colossus up with an overcharge bolt. That is why a counter measure has been installed. You may not have heard of it because you were appointed with the duty of Knight only recently.”
“The same happened here, one colossus was destroyed while its eye was shut, it had been struck with five missiles.” Elenes asked.
“That means that the armour is still weak. The engineers will have to redesign it. Thank you for notifying me, I will pass it along immediately so that this flaw will be removed. Now return your attention to the battle.” Marxon concluded and he closed the channel.

“Well, as if it were not enough, those two Cybrans have just taken out my missile with a swarm of spy planes. They may not be followers of the Way nor they seem to be willing to live by nature’s laws by imbibing them with artificial intelligence, but they certainly are crafty.” Selene Elenes said out loud, though no one could hear her.

“Fellow pilots,” she had opened a channel to her allies, “we must be able to retreat at a moment’s notice. These enemies are dangerous, construct a quantum gate and ensure that you are capable of leaving at any time necessary.”
“Knight Elenes, that were not the orders of Avatar-of-War Marxon.” Her companion Sheila Ido said. “We are to cleanse the city and not leave before that has been done.”
“We are likely to fail and would you not rather fail and live with the possible shame than fail and be unable to tell the story afterwards?”
“I am an Aeon knight, I will not succumb to those abominations.”
“You may want to dub them ‘abominations’, but they are not, I think. They are rather interesting... And dangerous.”

“Elenes!” Nina Quio shot at her with an angry look. “You don’t talk about them like that. You know that they are abominations that will never understand the meaning of The Way. That is why they are still fighting, why they are not united like we are and that is also why we will cleanse them. There is not threat ---” Nina fell silent, an army was moving towards her. It could never have come so close if she had built artillery stations and point defences, but in her urge to cleanse the enemy as soon as possible, she had both of her knights ordered to construct a Galactic Colossus when the ‘normal’ assaults proved to be useless. Now, there was nothing she could do, except for...

“Retreat, Templar Quio!” Selene said, hastily ordering the construction of gunships that might slow the enemy down. She feared that it was useless though. The army moved towards her superior at high speed and first buildings were about to be attacked.

Nina ordered her fighters to take off, making them guard the Aluminar transport she had quickly constructed. She had thought that building defence turrets were a waste of time and resources by her two knights, but now she realized that it had done more damage than she thought. Because of the small firebases that Elenes and Ido had built, her base was the weakest in terms of defences.

She spent her resources in a new Colossus, which was not completed yet. Because of that, she had no other units and her base stood no chance against the Cybran tier three bots and heavy tanks that were now using their weaponry to the fullest.

Feeling that the transports gravity claws had picked her up, she ordered it to move to Ido’s base. When she arrived there, she could assist in the battle again, by the use of the Resource Allocation System she had just built. This was a slowdown in the plan, but nothing more than that.

She would be proven wrong only moments later.

____________
“Shilon, get the fighters flying!” Leython yelled, the enemy commander had built a transport and was no doubt intending to use it to fly away. There was no better chance than this.
“What about the node?” Shilon asked, worried about the air cover that the Three-Rivers’ capital now missed.
“Don’t worry, the commander that built that missile silo has got no units, because she built that silo, the other one hasn’t even got an air factory and the third has just got that transport and a couple of fighters. No bombers whatsoever.” Leython said. The battle was going well because the enemy had wasted an enormous amount of resources and he had all the intel required to find out that the Aeon were at a major disadvantage now.

The air superiority fighters soared in, their stealth systems still protecting them until they flew in the omni sensor’s range. Then, the enemy fighters would attempt to thwart the assault, but they were outnumbered at least three to one. Leython had another idea to deal a devastating blow to the enemy:

“Shilon, order them to stop.” He said.
“Tell me, do you want her dead or what?!” Shilon asked, confused by the sudden order.
“Just do it and give them the order to attack three seconds later.” Leython answered, realizing where the Aeon commander was going to. If that other - unshielded - base was her final destination, then that base was about to be decimated as well.

____________
“Fighters!” Elenes shrieked, seeing gray dots appear at the screen at the moment they entered the Sheila’s omni sensor’s range. It was too late though. They rushed on at full speed and Nina attempted to make an emergency drop, but to no avail. The Aluminar was struck by more than a hundred missiles and exploded above a tier three power generator. The ACU fell down and hit the spiky orb...

It was all too much for the ACU and the quantum reactor. Selene heard Nina screaming so loud that it seemed to tear the air apart. The crash in the power plant caused its core to erupt and destroyed the ACU’s resource allocation system. The ACU exploded and Templar Quio was gone.

____________
“That’s why I wanted to have you wait for three seconds.” Leython said in a simple tone.
“Cool, nice job.” Shilon replied, retreating the air units that had survived the massive explosion. Those could do their former job again: protecting the node from aerial attacks.

“Now, what shall I do first, take out this base where the Loyalists and Rhinos are now, or move them further towards the second base?” Shilon asked, seeing that the buildings still stood and therefore that the Aeon commander was able to transfer the base just before she died.

“Leave them here, I’ll send a new group of units directly towards that other base and then we can calmly prepare our assault upon the last enemy.” Leython answered.

____________
“I’m going to request a retreat, Sheila!” Selene said.
“What?! We still are here, we can still produce units and fight back.” Shiela said angrily.
“But we can’t turn the battle in our favour anymore, no matter how many Colossi or Czars we build. We will be eliminated. Whoever gave the order to attack Quio’s transport at the moment that it was above your base, and not before that time, was smart. We are outwitted by far. They have more experience.”
“No, I’m not giving up because we have suffered some losses. I will cleanse them!”

“Knight Elenes is correct, knight Ido.” Marxon interrupted. He had received word of Quio’s death by the Choir member that supervised the battle. “Build quantum gates and leave. Be sure that you leave at exactly the same time, otherwise one of you will suffer from the quantum wake. Good luck.”
Marxon closed the channel again.

“I’m not going to leave. Transfer your arsenal to me if you want, but you’re not going to get me with you. Tell that to Marxon.” Sheila said.
“That’s madness! Do you want to survive or not?” Selene was stunned, how could someone think like that?
“You’re pretty simple minded for someone who knew a possible princess of the Aeon. There is no such thing as live and death. If my ACU explodes, I will be one with the Way.”
“One with the Way that you misinterpret. It looks like I can’t convince you to leave while you still can. Farewell Sheila.”

____________
One minute later...
“An Aeon commander left the field. One to go!” Shilon said when he noticed the quantum wake eruption.”
“Send in all of the units right away. We must not give her a single chance to escape.” Leython replied, hoping that he would finally get some rest at the Three-Rivers node. Jumping into a battle was exhausting and he had forgotten how exhausting it was, during the three weeks absence of piloting an ACU.

He also wasn’t completely familiarized with the Cybran’s ACU console lay-out, which confused him several times already. There was time to learn to work with the difference though, especially because there were days without an Aeon assault.

While he thought about this battle, Shilon managed to destroy the remaining enemy ACU. The battle had ended, but there was one other thing to do. Leython contacted doctor Brackman:

“What is it, mister Dygonn?”
“The enemy has been taken care of, but—” Leython was cut off.
“Splendid, my friend, splendid. How was the first battle in a Cybran ACU?”
“Not bad, I still have to learn to work with it though. There is only one thing.”

“Tell me, what is it?”
“We have those mobile stealth generators, yes? Well, the tanks we have, have such a low range that there’s only a small margin for them to move while firing, but not being fired at. I never really liked to use mobile missile launchers but I’d really like to have a unit that has got a long range, but fires rockets or missiles that are fast and will go directly at my enemy’s units, instead of flying around and then aligning with a hostile tank. Do you think that we could make such a unit, that would be available at the tier two stage?”

“I’ll take a look at it, we can do it, but it takes time to develop.”
“Thanks, it would be really great if such a unit could fire further than the point defences’ visual range. Then they’re really useful to lay siege upon an enemy base, even if they have radar, because we’ve got the stealth generator’s protection.

____________
In the Three-Rivers capital...
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Ibann speaking, I have good news: the Aeons have been driven away. They’re no longer on planet and we are safe. Thank you for your attention, more information is coming later this evening.”

“President?” Secretary Torino addressed his superior.
“Yes?” Ibann asked.
“Do you remember what I said three or four days ago?”
“You can’t remember when you said it, so why should I remember at all?”
“You’ve got a point there sir, but what I said,” Torino continued, “is that you’ll never despise Dygonn, but you might even thank him. You’ll have to thank him today already. He is one of the two commanders that saved us.”
“Interesting... This has indeed taken away any doubt I had. Thanks for telling, Torino.
Three weeks ago, we have lost John Vedder, the direct descendant of Lars and Tisa Vedder-Sung, who founded the Three-Rivers node with Ecthellis Sung. Now, we have gained a new ally, one who was partially responsible for John’s death. Life can be vile sometimes, but we must realize that life can be just as generous.”

____________
Seraphim II...
“She did not want to fall back?” Marxon asked.
“No, Avatar, she did not and now she will be destroyed.” The Choir member said.
“Ok, contact knight Elenes and tell her that I want to speak to her.” The Avatar-of-War said, knowing that there was nothing that could change the outcome of the battle.

Fifteen minutes later...
“I am stunned. She did not leave?” Marxon asked calmly.
“No.” Selene answered, her eyes cast down, she couldn’t tell why someone would dare to do a thing so foolish.
“Do not let your emotions gain the upper hand. Acknowledge her death, but do not dwell in the event.”
“I am not saddened by her death.” Selene said and she looked up. “I am baffled by how she died. She refused to retreat and bring herself to safety. Why?”

“She did not understand the Way correctly. Fighting in the name of the Way for as long as possible does not mean the same thing as sacrificing yourself at the moment that your defeat is certain, if you can still retreat.”
“You once said, in one of your speeches, that the ones who are in harmony with themselves and their surroundings, will win the battle. Were the Cybrans more in harmony than we were? Is that why we lost the battle?”

“You ask an interesting question.” The Avatar answered, his face revealing nothing, but he was furious about the fact that Elenes seemed no longer be understanding what the Way meant. The Cybrans are abominations and yet she wondered if they were more advanced in the Way than she.

“They are not more in harmony than you are, you are less in harmony than they are. It would be better for you not to participate on the battlefields just yet.” He said
“Avatar, respectfully, are you saying that I am barely advanced in the Way?” Selene asked cautiously.
“That is correct, but not a shame. Many knights have this issue but most of them will understand eventually.” Marxon answered, still revealing no trace of anger or resentment, though he fully realized his disappointment in Selene because she failed at her duty to assist the Aeon military.

“I do not understand. I have known a good friend, she was advanced in the way and –”
This time, Marxon cut her off and made clear that he would not be negotiated with.
“Knight Marisa Zelda Gawain did not understand either.” He said firmly. “If she did, she would still be here and perhaps be a Crusader. She was a good strategist, but did not understand the Way as well as I did and as you will eventually do. Now go. Within an hour, you must have cleared your ACU from any personal belongings. The ACU will go to another knight while you will take your time to study the Way so that you may become a knight again, one day.”

“Yes, Avatar-of-War Marxon.” Selene admitted her defeat and looked forward to what she was about to learn. She did her utmost best to hide her questions about Marxon’s ideas, but to no success.
“Know that I will be unforgiving were you to fail again.” There was no doubt that the Avatar-of-War was serious, his tone cracking like a whip. “When you think you are ready to serve the Aeon military again, return. However, do not return as long as your doubts are still in your mind.”

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Nice! One typo:"Were" should be "Where". That's all I found. Keep it up .

Thanks, I'll edit it now. I'll also include something extra now. I've made it before I did the first book cover for dotswarlock.

EDIT: edited now.

Nice start. Let the games begin.

Marc

i figured that he did something sneaky to survive when the "empty" air transport flew away. great start to another instalment

Spoiler! (black text)
Why else would I mention an empty transport ;P

Because it's the kind of thing you notice?
Also, a T1 transport can't carry an ACU, as far as I know.
Maybe this changed from vanilla to FA, though. I might be wrong. Also, UEF ACUs don't have a stealth upgrade.

That's correct.

Chapter 2 is up now, enjoy.

Ooooooooooh! A treasure hunt. Should be fun. Nice battle descriptions as usual. Nice job.

Keep 'em coming,

Marc

I'll be away for this week (up to Friday), because of an introduction week for my university. I hope that I can still write something, so that chapter 3 will be up on Saturday or Sunday, but I don't know how much time I have.

I think that I'll be able to have chapter 4 up a week later, so then I should be back on schedule.

Take your time and have fun at your new school. Cya when you get back.

Marc

Chapter 3, Conflict in Command is now up.
Enjoy

Yay .

Another good battle.

I'll make a small criticism. Take it for what it's worth. Your commanders are behaving like kids on a school playground instead of soldiers fighting a war. Majors and Captains DON'T argue like that during a battle, especially if a General is looking over their shoulder. Even Lieutenants would know better. With as much experience as they have, they should be much more mature.

Any way, I'm looking forward to more action and intrigue.

Marc

The thing is, they don't know better, at least Shaldon doesn't. The general didn't really look over their shoulder until the last moments of that chapter (I might have included that though). Shaldon is higher in ranked, but Leython is smarter. Neither of them wants to accept the other. Leython's work under Shaldon just after he returned from the academy only strengthens that. The result is a huge argument during the battle.

I agree, it is immature, blaming each other for mistakes, but I personally couldn't find a better way to do it . That probably has got to do with the fact that I haven't experienced so much im my life yet.