My second fanfic. I suggest you check out the first: (clicky) before reading this one.

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Chapter 1
Occupation

CE 3846

An image came before Granger's eye as he looked into the eyepiece. It was a round, almost flat looking world, a world that had never lived. Craters pocked its surface, one in particular near the south being the source of spectacular rays of ejected material. These white rays, shining spectacularly from the hidden Sun, contrasted heavily with the the dark black mares, oceans of solidified lunar lava.

"Seriously, what is it with you and my telescope?" Alex protested. "Every time you come around, you're always poking around with it."

"I'm just trying to forget the previous events of the night," Granger said, without lifting his gaze from the eyepiece. The telescope was a reflector, utilising mirrors to focus the light instead of lenses. With a aperture width of twenty centimetres, it was powerful enough to resolve most of dimmer objects of the night sky.

"Huh," Alex grunted in reply. "The Moon, then Orion, then the Pleiades... I got over that telescope ages ago. It only collects dust here, you might as well take it."

Granger turned his gaze from the eyepiece. "And where exactly would I put it? My apartment isn't exactly big enough for something this big. Hell, it hardly even fits in your mansion."

"More tea, sir?" one of Alex's butlers asked. He was a youngish man, not much older than either Alex or Granger, and had a very distinctive moustache. He also had the habit of always taking Alex by surprise, and this occurance was no exception.

Alex turned around annoyed. "Why do you always do that Nate? And yes, thank you for the tea."

"Anything for your friend?" Nate asked.

Alex shook his head. "You just go back to whatever it is that you do."

Nate nodded in acknowledgement and quickly made himself scarce.

Alex turned back to Granger, sipping his tea before he spoke. "If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be by ourselves tonight."

"Oh get over it," Granger replied. "You'll get your share of one-night stands, just not today."

"What about you?" Alex asked. "You're still a virgin."

"So?" Granger said defensively. "It's nothing to be ashamed of," he assured Alex.

"Who are you trying to convince?"

Granger frowned. "Just get back to your sipping and I'll get back to my gazing."

He heard a beeping noise emanating from his pantpocket. Standing up straight, Granger retrieved his portable comm and answered the call. It was an EarthCom tactical officer. He immediately put it on speaker so that Alex would be able to hear.

"Sir, you and Commander Mirandi are ordered to return to HQ immediately," the EarthCom officer said.

"But we're off duty," Alex said.

Granger glared for a moment at Alex before he said, "We're on our way."

-------

Avatar-of-War Marxon, the very head of the Aeon military, gazed at the six faces of the pilots before him. Each was a veteran of at least five years of combat and a more than capable pilot. But more importantly, each had been hand-picked by him for their complete loyalty to him. None would think twice before executing an order of his. They were capable tools, and he was their master.

He gazed resolutely at them before he spoke. "For the duration of my station, we have held two main objectives. The first is of course to never surrender the territory we hold bordering the other nations, and this we have performed admirably. But other than this, we have never attempted to take extra territory. To win this war, our goals have changed. We gated in, cleansed, and gated out. The UEF is after all these years only starting to implement changes to their tactics, and it is therefore time for us to change as well.

"The UEF has lost hundreds of millions of potential ACU pilots to our glorious war machine," Marxon continued. "We have prevented those who would fight for a lie from wasting their efforts and their lives. So now it is time for us to attack. The world before us, a mere gate away, has a population of fifteen million. It is rich in resources. But these are not the targets we will be aiming for. I have a different target in mind."

Much to the disappointment of many of the Aeon commanders, Marxon denied them the information for the time being. He however began to detail his plan. "I, Hana, and Jaina will gate to the specified location and immediately construct a base. The other four of you will gate in fifteen minutes later and will be provided a sizeable amount of resources to upgrade your ACUs. The first base will be used as a staging location to gate in further ACUs and SCUs, and we will take this world in the name of the Aeon. Unlike previous invasions though, we will not capture the population. The civilians are a burden and as such will be cleansed. Marxon out."

Marxon closed the channel, severing the connection between the seven ACUs. Three of the ACUs immediately began moving towards their respective gates, walking to their very centre. Each disappeared in a flash of light.

-------

Stinkle reflected on the situation. His node, the Kitiara Node, had been destroyed, and he had only barely managed to escape with his life. And here he was now on this barren icy world. It was a snowball world, completely covered in ice. Scans revealed that several large continents also existed amongst enormous oceans, but these were deep under the ice.

The Cybran knew that this world would not always stay like this. It was in the habitable zone of its system, a similar distance to its own sun than Earth was to its own Sun. It was therefore possible that it was going through a temporary, but nonetheless serious, ice-age of far greater magnitude than any that had occured recently in Earth's natural history. It would only likely exist for a few million years more, as volcanoes would eventually be able to pump out the greenhouse gases to restore it to a life-sustaining state.

Searching for nearby mass deposits, he immediately began constructing a base. As mass extractors, power generators and factories began forming as mass and energy were pumped in by his and his construction bots protosynths, he turned his gaze briefly towards his forward HUD. He thought that he had seen an explosion in the distance, and he replayed the visual. He was proven correct, there were a trio of explosions hardly thirty kilometres from him to the north. If they were ACUs, then he was seriously outnumbered.

When he hit Tier 2 buildings, he immediately covered his base in stealth field generators and built omni installations, capable of breaking through anti-recon mechanisms at a certain distance, but capable of giving radar vision for much further. He decided to lie low and see how things panned out.

That was when he saw another pair of explosions fifty kilometres to the north. Yet again, he hoped that they were not after him.

-------

Knight Hana used her tactical interface to zoom out and show a larger section of the battlefield than just her immediate area. Her first factory was up, and she would soon be assigning mechanical engineers to construct further mass extractors on nearby mass deposits. Her gaze unintentionally fell on Marxon's base, but it stayed there. Incredibly, Marxon already controlled ten mass deposits, and was upgrading his first land factory, even though it had only been a handful of minutes.

Hana quickly realised how she must look while gazing at Marxon's base like an idiot and immediately returned to her work. She suddenly felt the incredible weight of Marxon's gaze upon her even though she had not been looking at her comm screen, she turned to face him for a moment, but he quickly stared her down. She assigned more work to her engineers, and was soon at technology tier 2.

A pair of explosions suddenly appeared in the distance 20 kilometres to their north. "Are they of the Aeon, Avatar?" Knight Jaina asked.

Marxon stared coldly at both pilots for a moment, and carefully considered the possibilities. "They are not, Knight," the Avatar-of-War said, not wasting a single word in explanation of why. "Construct scouts and identify them. Prepare to engage them. They must be gone if the Aeon Illuminate is to be victorious."

Each of the Aeon commanders soon had air scouts tearing through the skies on their mission to identify their enemies. Their identity was quickly known. Assault groups were readied and began moving out.

-------

"Dang, they know we're here," Alex cursed. "We better get ready for an attack." Granger nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'll scout their base, see where they're at," Granger said.

An air scout was quickly built and was soon afterwards torn apart by a hail of anti-air slugs. It did however reveal much about the Aeon base. They were in seriously trouble.

"They're not only 7 minutes ahead of us, there are three of them," Granger said, shaking his head.

"This just gets worse and worse," Alex said.

A pair of blips appeared on the radar, slowed down, stopped, and dropped twelve units a few kilometres north of them. Alex did not hesitate to move out with his ACU to face the enemy units head on. As he expected, twelve shots impacted his ACU, immediately causing a 4% drop in armour integrity. He soon sighted them, Aeon Aurora Tier 1 hover tanks. They were exceedingly fast and possessed excellent range and high damage.

He quickly took out one of the pesky tanks, but the others were now receding from him, all the while using their extra range to continue attacking his ACU. Alex knew the common tactic very well, and that if he tried to chase them, he would be dead within a minute. He fell back, even as a pair of Granger's scorcher bombers took out seven of the tanks.

That was when another group of transports arrived, this time dropping 8 units. Alex knew that these were Aeon Obsidian-class tanks, capable and powerful units that could take out his ACU in no time. The remaining few Auroras regrouped with the Obsidians and began advancing. Granger's bombers were shot out of the sky by a roving Aeon interceptor that quickly retreated. Alex was in trouble as the enemy units approached. He knew that they would catch up with him before he got back to his base and scrambled some reinforcements, and with a bit of skill, the Aeon commander controlling the units could easily kill him. He did not want to die.

"Granger, do something!" Alex pleaded as he began plodding back. Granger ordered a transport to drop a group of Strikers near the Aeon units, but they were butchered in no time. He began thinking carefully, allowing nothing to distract him. Much to his annoyance, the constant crunching of the ice under the feet of Alex's ACU kept him from thinking clearly. Ironically, it was from this that he got an idea.

"Alex, stop and shoot the ice," Granger said.

"What? Why?"

"The ice where you are standing is only ten metres thick. I for one am surprised that it can even hold up your ACU, but if you shoot the ice, you might be able to make a hole and get in," Granger answered.

Alex saw no other alternative and began shooting the ice. The first shot carved a crater three metres deep and eight metres wide. The Aeon units were less than a few hundred metres away.

The second shot blew out another two metres of ice. The Auroras began firing. Four shots impacted his ACU's hull, doing little damage, but reminding him of the pressure.

The third shot dug out another two metres of ice. Only three metres remained to his salvation, but the Obsidian tanks came in range and fired. His ACU's armour integrity levels began falling quickly.

The fourth shot suddenly broke through the ice, sending a small fountain of water almost fifteen metres into the air. As another salvo of Obsidian shots struck him, Alex began walking towards the hole. Eight tanks fired once more at the UEF commander, but they missed as the ACU disappeared under the water. Confused, the controller of the tanks continued sending them forwards, but another five of Granger's bombers arrived and began wrecking havoc on the tanks. It was soon that only their wreckages remained on the battlefield.

-------

Marxon glowered at the stupidly smiling UEF commander before him. "Not this time mate," he said, before his face disappeared. No, not this time, Marxon thought. But the Aeon would nonetheless be victorious on this day. Their next attack was not far away.

-------

Alex's ACU drifted downwards slowly but surely. It soon crashed against the seabed, 120 metres below the ice. He turned the forward HUD's camera upwards and saw that the ice was already reforming in his hole as the frozen air forced the surface of the water to freeze over. Only an eerie white glow percolated through the rest of the ice, a glow that failed to light up his surroundings. He had to rely on his omni radar to guide his way back to his base.

As he began making his way back, the seabed rose slowly. Very soon, his ACU's head hit the top of the ice, causing a low screech to fill his cabin. Moving his ACU backwards, he opened a channel to Granger.

"How the heck am I supposed to get out of here?" he asked. "ACUs can't shoot underwater. And I'm not risking my arm to try and break through either."

"Try your protosynth," Granger suggested. "Reclaim the ice."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Alex said. "You can't reclaim ice. We're at T2 aren't we? Get some Flapjacks here and let them blast me out."

"No, the Flapjack Mobile Missile Launcher's long ranged missile wasn't made for that," Granger said, shaking his head. "All its area-of-effect missile would do is sort of melt the ice. Plus, I need every bit of mass and energy to get to T3. Its the only way we can face the Aeon properly. Just try my idea."

Alex conceded the point and took manual control of his ACU. He lifted the right arm and pointed the protosynth at the ice above him. Much to his surprise, the ice above him rapidly disintegrated. He moved forward again, this time keeping his protosynth active. He carved a path for him in the ice.

He however heard a strange sputtering sound, and moments afterwards a flashing warning sign appeared on his interface. WARNING: MASS STORAGE CONTAMINATION Alex quickly realised what the problem was. He shouldn't have reclaimed that water. Mass storage was not made to store oxygen and hydrogen. Alex immediately stopped the reclamation, but the warning did not go away.

He then heard a hatch open on the back of his ACU. He heard a roaring sound behind him that momentarily pushed his ACU upwards, causing it to land on the ice. When he looked to his tactical interface, his economy meters indicated that he had just lost hundred units of mass.

"Granger, what just happened?" Alex asked.

The other UEF pilot shook his head. "Your mass storage got contaminated by the H and O from the water. It had to dump it."

"Goddamnit," Alex cursed. "Why do bad things always happen to me?"

"It just got worse," Granger observed. "I'm reading four more quantum wakes at areas of high mass concentrations. We have to get out of here."

-------

It had been twenty minutes since the UEF pilot had dived into the water, and Marxon watched as the UEF structures self-destructed. The two commanders were very much alive, but Marxon's plan was now able to go forwards at full speed. Nothing would stop the Aeon from claiming total victory now.

-------

"General, we have to go back and retake that world!" Alex insisted.

"The Aeon could use it to stage assaults deep in UEF territory, even as far as the Core worlds," Granger said.

"It is too late," Clarke said. "The Aeon are digging in. They've even launched satellites. It is distressing that the Aeon are capturing a world for the first time in years, but it doesn't matter. All civilians have been evacuated, and there is little on that world worth fighting for. You have to let this go."

Alex protested, "But if we gated to the other side of the globe..."

"They'd have five nukes on top of our heads in minutes," Clarke said. "Let it go Major."

Granger was shocked by this. He looked towards Alex. "You're a Major now?"

Alex smiled. "You didn't notice the extra star?"

"No..." Granger said.

"I got it for that time on Halvorsen Minor," Alex said. "I thought you knew."

"I didn't..."

"Ahem, gentlemen?" Clarke interjected. "My office is no place for chit-chat. My 12 o'clock will be contacting me any minute now. You're both dismissed."

Both UEF commanders quickly showed themselves out, passing Colonel Arnold on the way. Arnold peeked in the door. "Uh General..."

"Get out Arnold," Clarke said. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be with Mirandi and Selver?"

"Oh yeah right," Arnold said. He was about to remove himself, but he peeked in again. "Who are they again?"

Clarke buried her face in her palm and groaned in disappointment. "They just walked past you."

Arnold comically turned around and began jogging away. Clarke felt a smile tug at her face, but she quickly straightened it.

-------

Ivanna Dostya, elite commander of the Cybran Nation, and friend to Doctor Brackman, had always felt it odd that she had an office. Cybrans were used to living in 3 by 3 by 2 metre rooms and eating aweful tasting nutritious goo, and Dostya had never except herself from this. She had suddenly realised that she was the unofficial leader of the node around five years ago when they had given her the office.

There was little in the office but a computerised desk. The walls were cut in half by a horizontal almost continous strip of red light that was only broken at the door. The dark, ruddy light they emitted was less than optimal, but everyone knew that they had to limit their power usage so as to remain invisible to long-range scans.

She heard a knock on the door in front of her. She brought out an image from the camera just outside her office and saw someone that she had not seen in a very long time. The person was not welcome, but she knew that he must be there for a good reason. She opened the door.

"Stinkle..." she said, not in greeting but as a statement. She made sure that every ounce of annoyance that she felt was heard in her voice. "I certainly did not expect to see you back here."

"No words of sympathy elite commander?" Stinkle asked. He had been hoping for more. "My Node has been torn apart, six thousand Cybrans are dead, and all you say is 'Stinkle...'."

"My apologies," Dostya said condescendingly. "But time has not eased the anger I and my comrades felt when you fled."

"Enough chit chat. I have bad news. The Aeon are building a Space Gate on Sanna 2."

Dostya let go of her anger for the moment. Stinkle seemed to be serious. "I'm not familiar with this world," she said. She immediately turned to her desk and searched for the world. It quickly came up on the map, as did a short essay containing intelligence on it. But Dostya closed the essay and focused on the map. She did a quick calculation and widened her eyes in shock as she realised the ramifications.

Stinkle spoke up. "You understand the seriousness of the situation. What is our plan of action?"

"I can get you two commanders," Dostya said. "Both of the pilots I have in mind are very good at what they do. But we'll need all the help we can get."

Stinkle nodded. "Perhaps we should prepare a message for our long-range transmitter?"

Dostya nodded in agreement. "Exactly what I was thinking. I will take care of that personally."

"So who do I get?" Stinkle asked. "And what do you mean by good?"

"They are relatively new, with around two years of experience each," Dostya said. "What they lack in experience, they more than make up for in sheer skill. So don't think that you'll be able to boss them around."

"Names?" Stinkle again asked.

"Oh, right, they are Mala and Nickal, both from the Swieb Node," she said. "They will be with you shortly. I suggest you return to your ACU. They will meet you there."

"Thank you very much," Stinkle replied, before he began making his way back.

Chapter 2
Ready to Rock

Mala slurped a nutritious puree of some sort. She didn't care what her doctors said, she did not want to eat a single extra gram of the awful tasting goo. Such synthetic foods were the staple of most Cybran's diets, and could provide one every single nutrient one needed, and also provided energy from sugars, fats and proteins. Trace minerals such as iron and sodium were also present in necessary amounts. But it certainly did not make it taste any better.

She sucked on the straw coming out of the enclosed cup, and gulped down another mouthful of the 'food'. She however found that she had sucked too hard, as the straw came free from the thick substance and was sucked into the back of her throat. She choked, immediately coughing the straw out.

Nickal turned around to face her. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Mala nodded. "Quite fine thanks," she said hoarsely, adding a few more coughs.

"You have any idea when this 'Stinkle' guy'll show up?" Nickal said.

"I happen to," a voice said across from the other side of the ACU hangar. He was quite a short man, significantly shorter than either Mala or Nickal. His already comical appearance was only made worse by the fact that his brown hair was already thinning. Bushy sideburns hid his facial circuitry from inspection.

Nickal cocked an eyebrow. Mala asked, "Are you Stinkle?"

Stinkle said, "That's me alright." Nickal still bore a puzzled expression on his face that the Cybran commander did not miss. A frown quickly appeared on his face. "Alright, I'm short and I'm bald. Let it go kid."

Mala shook her head. "Ignore him commander. We were on patrol here, and Dostya told us that you needed us on a special mission. Mind telling us what?"

Stinkle quickly and succintly explained the situation, many times reverting to his personal datapad to retrieve maps or pieces of information. They quickly understood the direness of the situation. If Marxon's plan succeeded perfectly, projections from QAI had shown that Earth could fall to the Aeon before the end of the year. Any attempts by the commanders of the Cybran Nation to shape their own destinies would be useless if that happened. The Cybrans needed the UEF to stay a real threat to the Aeon.

"So what do we do?" Nickal said.

"The Sanna 2 gate will be completed in 72 hours," Stinkle said. "Marxon's planned confrontation will likely occur within hours of this. In this confrontation, the Aeon are likely to win, but we need to tip the scales in favour of the UEF."

"So we gate in and attack the Aeon then?" Nickal pondered. "We're going to fight for the UEF?"

Stinkled nodded. "Exactly. We will need significant stockpiles of modified extra-long range strategic missiles to ensure that the Aeon does not emerge victorious. However, if the UEF emerges victorious, they may pose a very real threat to our plans in the future. We must therefore make sure that at the end of the day, neither side is completely victorious over the other."

Nickal nodded. "Sounds good to me. But let me get this exactly straight. We gate in, start building nukes, and fire them when the Aeon arrive?"

"Exactly." Stinkle smiled, ridiculously moving his straggly sideburns. A smile came to Nickal's face, but Mala elbowed him to make him stop. "I have added an extra measure," he continued. "I have planted some intelligence that the UEF are bound to pick up. They will need all the help they can get."

"Wait, you've told the UEF what the Aeon are going to do? That's almost treasonous!" Mala protested.

Stinkle calmly continued. "The UEF will launch an attack against the Aeon on Sanna 2, but they will fail. Each commander stationed on Sanna 2 is a veteran of many years, and I doubt that the UEF will be able to field a more potent group of commanders."

"You never know," Nickal said, sceptical of Stinkle's actions.

"Oh, I know," Stinkle assured him. He leaned against the wall of the hangar, but suddenly pulled back his hand in shock. "Damn static electricity," he mumbled. He continued, "To add to it, they are being led by the Avatar-of-War himself. I don't suppose you kids would know him as well as someone more experienced like Dostya or I would."

"I've heard of him," Mala said. "He's supposed to be very, very good."

"He's more than that," Stinkle said. "I can remember the last UEF profile of him that we hacked into. 'A tactical and strategic genius and a spiritual expert. His very presence inspires Aeon commanders. Very little information available on him other than this.' This guy is responsible, directly or indirectly of the deaths of billions of UEF civilians and millions of Symbionts. Do you know why there is so little information about him? Why does the UEF have so little information on possibly the greatest strategic mastermind in the history of the Aeon Illuminate? None have faced him long enough to gather information about him, other than the fact that he is unbeatable."

"Unbeatable?" Nickal shook his head. "No way, no one's unbeatable."

"The combination of our file and the UEF file gives these exact statistics: pilot for 31 years, participated in 194 battles, 194 won, 0 lost," Stinkle said. Nickal's mouth fell open. Mala frowned. "Every single battle that he has been in has resulted in an Aeon victory. If he is in an ACU at a battle, the Aeon somehow magically wins. He has never even needed to escape.

"Our analysts have gathered what information they could about him, and they have found no weaknesses. His unit micromanagement is unmatched. His skills at continually maintaining and expanding his economy are unmatched. None have ever broken through his defences. He has continually shown the ability to predict almost flawlessly where a battle will go and make a counter for it. If there is a Way, then he is living proof of it."

-------

"Report, General," Riley said across the comm system. His stern, unrelenting face appeared on Clarke's comm screen larger than life, slightly intimidating Clarke every time he appeared, almost without warning. "What is the status of the war?"

"The Aeon have occupied a world for the first time in 17 years," Clarke said. "It is not of particular strategic value, and it is not in a very good position for staging assaults on our Core worlds. My suggestion is that we leave them there for now. If any attempts are made to take worlds closer to the Core worlds, we will stop them."

Riley nodded in agreement. He however warned, "But be warned, General, all may not be as it seems. Are the Aeon still conducting operations to cleanse civilian populations?"

"Yes, sir," Clarke confirmed. "Two are happening right now, and our commanders are doing all they can." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Sir, do you think that the Aeon might be changing their tactics again? Do you think that Earth could be invaded? Should we make preparations to save our populace?"

Riley shook his head. "No General," he said. "Earth has remained untouched by the Infinite War. Every now and then our enemies may come close. Lana Croix, the last Avatar-of-War, captured the populations of four of our Core worlds, but she was killed and the Aeon Illuminate was driven away. No attempts were made to frighten our people then, and no attempts will be made now." Riley's gaze softened for a moment. "I have been your friend and mentor for the entirety of your career. By now you know as well as I do how important morale is to our warfront. If we brought in the concept of Total War, our economy would be devastated, and recruitment numbers would drop catastrophically. The delicate balance that our predecessors worked to create would be upset forever. Our enemies would rip us to pieces."

Clarke conceded the point. "Yes, I suppose you're right." Riley closed the channel, leaving Clarke with a great many things to think about. She was however interrupted when her secretary called her.

"Someone to see you, ma'am," she said.

"Who on Earth wants me now," Clarke protested. She mumbled a few complaints, but was silenced when she saw who had arrived.

A woman stood in front of the door dressed in a uniform of the UEF. Unlike Clarke's and other commanders' uniforms, this uniform was almost wholly black, the only colour being a blue UEF sigil on the left breast pocket. The uniform was short-sleeved and skin tight, seemingly a piece of clothing for a gymnast or circus performer. A black beret on her head sat on top of her long black hair, streaked with strands of blonde. The woman was in her earlier twenties, and an eager yet noble gaze emanated from her silvery grey eyes.

The woman saluted General Clarke. "Long time no see, General," she said almost condescendingly.

"Indeed Colonel," Clarke replied. "Take a seat."

"How kind of you," the woman said, taking a seat.

"Why are you here?" Clarke asked.

"What, I can't just come to visit the highest ranking officer in the UEF?" the woman joked. Clarke was unchanged by this, and the woman's expression became serious as well. "I have very bad news. It's about the occupation of Sanna 2. My unit has intercepted intelligence that the Aeon are planning to attack a very important target, and are building a Quantum Gate that will probably be completed within 72 hours."

The woman carefully explained the situation to the General. Clarke widened her eyes as she realised the implications of what the Aeon were planning. There would be little stopping them if they were completely victorious.

"This is a grave situation," Clarke said. She accessed her computer, saying, "I can get nine ACUs down there right now. They will have 12 SCUs if they need them available immediately. Tomorrow morning, I can send another six. I can't spare any more without dipping into those posted in defensive positions. And you know as well as I do that the Aeon will take advantage of even the slightest weakness in our defences."

"I think that will be enough," the woman said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to return to my work. I will return tomorrow morning to brief a pilot on exactly what is happening. Do you have one in mind?"

Clarke thought about it for a moment, but quickly decided on the perfect person. "Yes I do. You'll meet him tomorrow." The woman turned around to leave, but Clarke called to her again. "By the way, could you provide me with your contact details? I may need to get in touch with you again."

"I suppose," the woman said. Within a few short moments, Clarke was equipped with her contact details, allowing the General to contact her while she was still on Earth. It suddenly occured to her that though they had worked together before, Clarke had never got her full name. The name on the screen read CATHERINE KOCH.

-------

Loud music blared, Alex whooped in joy, and Granger sat in the corner of the room. He was still unsure how Alex had managed to coerce him to another party, a social gathering of a sort that he had never enjoyed and that he doubted would ever enjoy. Tens of men and women his age courted each other, drank alcohol, but overall, they just kept on dancing. To Granger they all looked crazy as far as he was concerned.

He got up, and began threading his way through the crowd, the front door his target. A hand suddenly latched on to his shoulder and twirled it around. Granger got ready to defend himself, expecting a hefty punch in the face at that moment. Fortunately it was just Alex.

"How you liking this party?" he asked, quite drunkenly.

"How many beers you had?" Granger asked, knowing that it was still far too early for him to get drunk.

"I dunno," Alex replied. "Four maybe?"

"You're drunk after four beers?" Granger said, concerned. "At the last party you drank way more before you started going weird on me."

"Maybe the beer's been spiked?" Alex suggested.

"Why would you spike beer?"

"I dunno. Woah, I don't feel too good." His eyes became unfocused for a moment before he slightly staggered. "I don't think I can stay at this party for much longer."

"I'll take you back then," Granger suggested.

"No, you should stay and enjoy the party," Alex insisted.

"I doubt that'll happen, but if you insist, we'll stay here. I'll get you into a room in the back."

Granger escorted Alex around in a quest to find the host of the party. He was a friend of a friend of Alex's very busily kissing a girl in the corner of room. Quite annoyed at being interrupted, he nonetheless led them to a bedroom. Granger deposited Alex on the bed.

"Try to get some sleep," he said. "We're on duty tomorrow."

Alex groaned and turned over. Granger went back downstairs, and again sat himself in a corner of the room. That was when he reminded himself that he had wanted to go outside. He could use the fresh air.

Only once he was outside did he realise just how stuffy it had been inside. The frantic breathing of almost a hundred people who had been heavily drinking had slowly filled the room with a noxious gas that Granger had not noticed. But now that he was outside, he almost choked on the fresh air. He coughed once or twice before he settled down.

He surveyed his surroundings. The house was only single story, but it was massive. It's floor area alone would have probably equalled the floor area of six normal homes. Additionally, it was situated on a massive slab of land on which was located a tennis court, and an Olympic sized swimming pool. Numerous flower gardens were taken care of by a battalion of gardeners and servants, who even now attended to the garden amidst the chaos of the party.

Granger turned his gaze to the stars above, but patches of cloud blocked his vision. Light pollution gave the skies an almost navy blue hue, dimming the stars considerably. He sighed and looked away. He saw something in the corner of his vision, and turned to face it. It was a boy a few years younger than Granger who seemed to have passed out. Granger did not even think about the situation, and immediatley picked the boy up. He was stick-thin and Granger had almost no trouble carrying him at all.

He passed the host on the way. "Hey, can you help me with some other guys that have passed out?"

Granger knew that he would not be doing much else for the rest of the night and agreed. "Just as soon as I get this guy to someplace he can rest."

Granger deposited the boy on another free bed, and immediately made his way back to the main hall of the house. The host quickly intercepted him and led him to a man who had passed out. They got rid of a bunch of kids who were drawing on the man's face with glee, before they took him by the arms and legs and carried him away. They did the same with several other men and boys and women and girls who had passed out, with Granger usually doing most of the work and the host directing him.

The host said to him, "Oh I never did catch your name."

"Granger," he said.

"Lane," the host replied. "Nice to meet you."

Granger again seated himself in the corner and looked at the time. It wasn't even nine o'clock yet despite everything that had happened. Then, much to his surprise, the music was cut off and everyone stopped dancing. Lane's voice was heard was through the speakers.

"There's a great guy who's been left out of this party," he began. "He helped me tonnes by taking some people upstairs so that they could rest properly." Granger gulped silently. Lane would bring attention to him, attention that he did not want. "Give it up for Granger!" Lane said, pointing straight at him. "He's the best good samaritarian I know. If someone fell dead right now, he'd probably carry you to the hospital himself."

People turned to face him, and scattered applause was heard. But the applause was only scattered for a few moments, as soon everyone had begun clapping. Everyone had begun clapping for him.

Granger felt a strange feeling inside him that he had not felt before. He did not know whether it was pride or simply happiness, but smile did come to his face. He gave everyone a weak "Thank you" and soon the music was on again and people began dancing.

Granger went out back, picked up Alex, put him into the car, and drove him home.

-------

Hana continually expanded her base. Grids of power generators and mass fabricators filled her base and tens of engineers stood by for new constructions. Twelve Tier 3 Quantum Reactors powered 18 Tier 3 Mass Fabricators, enormously adding to her already high mass income. Several Tier 3 land and air factories stood by, ready to being construct as soon as they were needed. She had upgraded her ACU with the Heat Sink Augmentation, Heavy Personal Shield Generator, and Tier 3 Engineering Suite. Her main gun now had seven times the firepower, her ACU's armour integrity was effectively five times greater, and she could construct Tier 3 units very quickly.

Hana turned her gaze to the spectacle before her. In the middle of Marxon's base was an enormous building that made his ACU and his other buildings look like toys. It was an oversized version of the Apocalypse class Strategic Missile Launcher that had an hour ago been programmed to construct a rocket that would launch a satellite into space. The satellite had already been launched and was in a stable 110 minute orbit of the planet.

The satellite was no mere communcations device. It was almost the size of an ACU itself, possessing similar mass fabrication and power generation facilities. It also had a protosynth that had been specially retrofitted to be able to construct in regions of high radiation. The nanobots a normal protosynth used were very susceptible to cosmic rays, and a single high energy particle could often knock one out. The nanobots used by the satellite on the other hand did not suffer from this problem.

Her ACU's long range vision afforded her a view of the satellite. It had achieved a geosynchrous orbit and construction on the Quantum Space Gate had commenced. Marxon had not informed them what the Gate was for, and Hana could only guess that it was only for the purposes of high bandwidth information transfer. She supposed that if Sanna 2 was to become the stepping stone for the final invasion of the UEF, a solid connection with the Quantum Network might be necessary.

Hana, not wanting to exceed her storage capacities and waste resources, began constructing large numbers of mass and energy storage buildings, knowing that they might become useful in the future. She soon deemed that she had enough and turned her economy buildings off altogether. She decided to use the time to look inwards.

She had become part of the Aeon Illuminate when she had been 19. An Aeon raid eleven years ago had miraculously chosen not to cleanse her home, and tens of thousands of her townspeople had joined the Aeon. She and many others had resisted at first, but the sheer extent of the lies that the UEF told their populace had shocked her to the very core. She had never known that Symbionts were unwilling slaves, or how much information about the war was concealed to the average civilian.

If the revelation of the incredible levels of censorship in the UEF had shocked her, the utter lack of lies told by the leaders of the Aeon to their people shocked her even more. Any person could access detailed information about the war. She found the name of the UEF commander who had been killed by the Aeon commander when her city had been captured. She found the exact number of casualties of every Aeon attack, and even images were available from the scene.

She had originally opposed Marxon's ideas, but she had always wanted to pilot an ACU, and she gradually began to see things from Marxon's side. Marxon's actions were working to slowly bring down the UEF. Every man or woman or child killed was one less future enemy. Morale, the greatest tool of the leaders of the UEF, was dropping. Hana was sure that once the UEF was converted and the Cybrans were gone that they would be able to live peacefully.

Hana had managed to achieve harmony in her life in the Aeon Illuminate. Every day of her life, she felt self-fulfilled and assertive. But one thing she missed was the fun, the chaos of being a young person in the UEF. People did not do things for the fun of it in the Illuminate. They did not say absurd things, and did not understand word play. Words were meant for the impartment of ideas, not concealment. She missed the simple exhiliration of a little white lie, but she put these things out of her mind.

A frantic SCU pilot called every pilot active. "UEF units detected," she said. "My forward position is under attack, requesting reinforcements."

"What units, Knight?" Marxon asked.

"Tier 3 Broadsword Gunships, Avatar," the SCU pilot replied.

Marxon widened his eyes. The UEF had somehow not only arrived undetected, they had also managed to get to Tier 3. The group of enemies was likely to be skilled. He turned his gaze to everyone else. "Commanders, get ready for combat. Construct missile defences immediately. Our Space Gate must be completed."

Hana immediately ordered her production facilities to come back online, and ordered numerous Tier 3 land and air units. Her engineers stirred from their slumbers, and began pouring further mass and energy into her construction projects. The first few Harbinger-class Siege Assault Bots and Corona-class Air Superiority Fighters were soon constructed.

A thought suddenly came to her mind from the very depths of her consciousness. "It's time to rock," she mumbled to herself.

Chapter 3
Bifurcation

"So, we're going to be split up?" Alex asked the intel officer.

"Yes, sir. Orders from General Clarke herself," he replied, reading from the handheld computer before him. "Captain Selver is going back to Sanna 2 as soon as the pilots on site clear a space for him. Your hangover momentarily makes you unfit for piloting an ACU. You will therefore be assigned to guard a very precious asset."

"What asset?" Alex asked.

The intel officer looked at the computer for a moment before turning back to Alex. "Sorry Major, but it doesn't say."

"Where is Granger then?" Alex asked.

"He came early and was assigned to Colonel Arnold," the EarthCom officer replied. "I can't say exactly where." He looked once more at the computer. "You're to wait in the Mess Hall for Colonel Koch. Those were the General's orders, sir."

Alex stroked his chin. He was not familiar with a Colonel Koch, despite the fact that he prided himself on knowing every ACU and SCU pilot in the UEF. Was this Colonel from a different branch of the military then? It was possible, he thought.

Memories returned to him as he went into the Mess Hall. After his first operation a year ago with Granger, Alex found himself stuck with him. He was unable to undertake his usual activities in the Mess Hall, namely talking and flirting where appropriate. But as his responsibilities began increasing, his free time to spend in the Mess Hall had decreased. He had noticed long ago that it was rare indeed for an officer of rank higher than Captain to enter the Mess Hall, and many surprised stares accompanied him as he walked in.

The volume of conversation dropped perceptibly and people rapidly regained their inhibitions. Alex seated himself in a corner of the room, trying to hide himself from the his reproaching juniors. He did not want them to be cautious around him while they were still relatively carefree. It would not be long before each of the young-uns before him began losing time to have fun. He did not want to compromise their present.

As he sat dejected, he heard another subtle shift in the tone of the conversation. Looking up, he saw that many of the guys were turning around to look at something, or someone, he soon corrected himself. It was a black-haired woman wearing some sort of black, skin-tight uniform that highlighted her toned body. He noticed that there were blonde streaks in her hair. Alex had only rarely seen such a combination of beauty and physical fitness in a woman before. He made a mental note to find out who she was.

The woman seemed to be scanning the room with her grey eyes, undaunted by the attention paid to her. Much to Alex's surprise, she looked straight at him, and began making her way towards him. Only once she was but a few paces from him did she come to a stop. It was then that Alex recognised her. It was the girl that he had met a year ago at a fast food outlet.

"Cate?" he said hesitantly, standing up.

She smiled. "Colonel Catherine Koch, Major."

"How the..." Alex mumbled, shocked by the revelation.

"Come," she beckoned almost seductively. "This is a terrible place to talk."

She began walking away. Alex took a moment to recover before he began following her.

-------

Granger blinked slowly, drowsy from the lack of activity for the last half hour. Beside him sat Colonel Zachary Arnold, one of the longest serving officers left in the UEF. He was a veteran of the Infinite War, and Granger did not doubt that he could probably pour out some story of his labours for the UEF. The only problem was that he had dozed off, and was quietly snoring away next to him.

They had come to the ACU hangar half an hour ago with the knowledge that a drop zone would be cleared for them within a few minutes. Their ACUs had been readied, and both towering blue behemoths stood in front of them. Their arms hung at their sides and no lights were on. A matter of a few minutes had quickly changed into a pitched battle. An unexpected stream of Aeon fighters had taken out the UEF airstrike intended to destroy an Aeon base. So now they waited.

Granger rested his head on the wall behind him, again closing and opening his eyes drowsily. A yawn escaped from his body. Much to his surprise, Arnold stirred next to him.

"We going yet Major?" the Colonel asked.

"No," Granger replied.

"Well, that was a nice little bit of shuteye," Arnold said, yawning. "How they doing down there on that Snowball?"

"Last I heard, sir, it's a stalemate," Granger replied. "They have 11 ACUs down there last we counted, and we have 13. They control a bit more resources though, and have been around longer. Our guys at the start were hard pressed to make strategic missile defences while defending against attacks. The odds have evened now though. Our guys have boxed the Aeon in, effectively stopping them from expanding, while they're expanding as much as they want. It's downhill from here."

"Nice to know," Arnold said, yawning. Drowsily scratching his head, he said, "I'm hungry. You hungry?"

Granger shrugged. "You could just get a ration bar," he said.

Arnold humphed. "Those things are inedible. I need something more filling."

"We might be called into action at any moment," Granger protested weakly. "Just have a ration bar or two and you'll be fine."

Arnold shook his head. "Protocol has its limits Major," he said. "You have to know the right time to cross the line. Right now, for example, I doubt that we'll be able to crack that base where we're supposed to be landing any time within the next half hour. That's why I'm going to find myself some food. You can come and get a meal, or stay and have a nap."

Arnold got up and disappeared into one of the many corridors leading out of the enormous hangar. After a few moments of deliberation, Granger got up and began following him.

-------

An enormous shell fell in the middle of the Aeon outpost to the west of Hana, crashing against a pair Tier 3 Heavy Shield. The shields' integrity fell by 50% each, though no unit was damaged underneath. The four SCUs controlling the base began constructing new shields over unprotected areas of the base, and by the time the next shot arrived, there was nothing to hit.

A tier 3 spy plane was ordered to fly over what had once been an Aeon base. A pair of UEF SCUs were busily constructing over the scorch marks of numerous explosions, and mechanical engineers rapidly reclaimed numerous wreckages. In the middle of the base stood a Duke Tier 3 Heavy Artillery Installation that was continuously lobbing powerful shells at the Aeon base to its north.

An Aeon commander contacted them all, but spoke specifically with the Avatar-of-War. "Avatar, should we attempt to destroy that artillery and retake the island?"

Marxon thought about it for a while. "No, we should not," he replied. "The UEF have wasted resources that would have been better spent elsewhere. That artillery will have no effect on our base. Any attempt to destroy it will however be countered easily. The UEF has a significant air force and a ground force that they can easily mobilise with the numerous transports that they possess. An attack is likely to fail."

Hana was bound to agree with him. Nonetheless, she recognised that the UEF not only had more ACUs on the battlefield, they also had no restrictions from expanding their resources. They would find it hard to fight back as the battle progressed.

Marxon seemingly read her thoughts and announced to everyone, "Commanders, we must remember that in 60 hours, when the Space Gate is completed, this battle will be won. All we have to do is prevent any missile launches against it."

Hana spoke up. "Avatar, with our serious disadvantage resource-wise, I have my doubts that we will be capable of what you say."

Marxon looked straight at her with his chilling gaze. "To rectify this situation, all unoccupied SCU pilots will immediately go under the ice and begin constructing mass extractors on the seabed. They will also construct fleets of submarines to protect our underwater assets after each mass deposit in our vicinity is capped. Marxon out."

Hana was surprised that she herself had not thought of Marxon's plan. Looking to her tactical interface, she saw seven unoccupied SCUs shoot a hole in the ice and walk in. Within minutes, ten new Tier 3 Mass Extractors were complete, and seven more were under construction.

Another shell fell on the outpost, damaging three Heavy Shield Generators. Hana smiled at the inability of the enormous artillery unit to do anything and checked her production queues. Another Quantum Reactor was under construction, as were a pair of Mass Fabricators. Eight Tier 3 air factories continuously pumped out fighters and bombers and gunships that she always held on standby if a hole was detected in the UEF defences.

The ice was too thin to support a Galactic Colossus Sacred Assault Bot, which was why they twelve Czars were arrayed around their islands, awaiting orders to attack. The flying saucers refueled air units on patrol around the Aeon bases, repairing them when necessary.

Marxon again contacted them. "Knight Belecost will be arriving soon to take direct command at our outpost. Three Quantum Reactors will be transferred to him, as well as every unit at the outpost. Marxon out."

It was soon afterwards that another Aeon commander gated into the middle of the base, the quantum wake lightly damaging the units around it. Over ninety units were transferred to him, and he began upgrading his ACU and constructing further defensive structures and units. Hana noted with disappointment that Belecost upgraded his commander with the Resource Allocation System to boost his ACU's production of mass and energy, where a personal shield generator would probably have been more appropriate to protect his ACU from possible attacks. She let it slip for the moment.

-------

Granger busily munched away at a sandwich. He was surprised that he could be so hungry only two hours after breakfast. Granger doubted that he had ever eaten faster in his life, but much to his surprise, Arnold had already finished and was waiting for him, impatience etched on his face. A half minute passed before he stuffed the last scraps of the sandwich into his mouth.

"Well, does that change your mind about whether or not it was right to come here?" Arnold asked him. Granger did not reply. "Well?" Arnold asked again. Granger pointed his finger at his mouth, and Arnold understood. He did not wish to talk with his mouth open.

After swallowing, Granger replied, "No, it doesn't. Orders are orders. The General's word is law."

Arnold frowned. "If she told you to jump off a cliff?"

Granger did not take even a second to countermand Arnold's argument. "If it was for the good of the UEF, the I wouldn't hesitate."

"The good of the UEF?" Arnold scoffed. "Sometimes I doubt that what we're doing is for the good of the UEF. Are the Cybrans just malfunctioning machines like Riley tells us? Is the Aeon Way incredibly ludicrous?"

"This talk is treasonous," Granger interrupted him.

Arnold continued. "There are millions, maybe billions of people fighting against the UEF. Might they not have as good a reason as we do for fighting? And if they do, should we even be fighting?"

"Then why do you fight?" Granger asked.

Arnold's gaze softened. He sighed. "There are good people out there worth saving. I've had the opportunity to meet a few, and, I, I fight for them. To save them." His gaze hardened again. "Why do you fight?"

Granger was taken aback by the question. He had never really thought about it. He had joined the ACU division of the UEF military almost as an act of defiance. Just like Alex, he was an orphan, but he had not been adopted by any family. No one had believed that he would be able to achieve very much, and he had become an ACU pilot simply to show them that they were wrong.

Arnold saw the confusion on Granger's face. "I'll tell you the two main reasons that people look to become a commander. The first is patriotism. I think patriotism towards the UEF is fine, but if patriotism is your reason, you will become very confused as you gain experience. I for one have seen and done things that would shock you, and I'm very hardpressed to be even slightly patriotic any more."

Granger was shocked by Arnold's honesty. But he nonetheless beckoned the Colonel to continue. "And the second reason?"

Arnold smiled. "The second reason is a trait you'll see in all too many high ranking officers. You'll see it in stupid teenagers that kill themselves in vehicle collisions. They crave one thing - power. Once they gain their first taste of power, they will do anything to get more. If you ask certain politicians and high ranking officers, they will dodge questions about how they came into power. More often than not, it was through conniving and back-stabbing. Tell me Captain, is this your reason for joining the ACU division?"

Granger immediately and sincerely answered, "No."

"Good," Arnold replied. "Now, we just have to work out why you fight. Because if you don't find out, you might find yourself doing something at odds with yourself."

Granger nodded. Much to his surprise, an idea came to him about how to break the base on Sanna 2 that was supposed to become their base. He immediately told Arnold his idea.

"It's risky," Arnold said sceptically.

Granger smiled. "That base isn't going to self-destruct any time soon."

Arnold nodded. "Alright then, we'll try it."

-------

Cate strided quickly through the corridors of the EarthCom building. Alex had trouble keeping up with her.

"You're the girl I met a year ago," Alex said. Cate nodded. "What do I call you?"

"How about slipping some protocol in Major?" she suggested. "I am a Colonel."

"Sorry ma'am," Alex apologised.

"Just kidding," she replied. "You can still call me Cate. I'm not in EarthCom, and protocol sickens me sometimes."

"Right. So who exactly are you?"

Cate suddenly stopped in front of an elevator without warning, causing Alex to overshoot her. He walked back around, and Cate smiled. She pressed a button to go down. "As I said, Colonel Catherine Koch. Have training in signals analysis, software infiltration, mechanical repair, marksmanship, heavy security penetration, advanced combat training..."

"Woah, advanced combat training?" Alex interrupted. "I've heard of combat training, but advanced combat training? What the hell is that?"

The elevator doors opened. Delicate and relaxing elevator music wafted down to their ears. Cate smiled again. "It's a secret. If I told you, well, you know what would happen." She revealed a holstered hand gun on her hip. Alex shifted aside his unbuttoned EarthCom jacket and revealed his own handgun. "You honestly think that if I pulled a gun on you, you could pull out your own gun in time to stop me?" she said condescendingly.

"Maybe I could," Alex teased. "After all, you never hear about girl gun-slingers."

"That's because they always end up in nameless divisions, like me," Cate replied. A bell wrung, annoucing that they had arrived on the level that they had specified. "We're here," she said, rapidly walking out of the elevator. Alex had to jog to keep up with her long stride.

-------

The air fizzed and popped as a pair of UEF commanders arrived in the middle of a massive UEF base. Tens of Tier 3 fusion reactors and tens more mass fabricators were clumped under groups of shield generators. Land and air factories were constantly being assisted by roving squads of tier 1 engineers. A Fatboy Mobile Factory swivelled its enormous cannons, searching for threats. Hundreds of Cyclone interceptors and tens of Wasp air superiority fighters whizzed above, while rows and rows of Flayer SAM launchers and Aircleaner anti-air flak readied themselves to defend against aerial threats.

The battle had been going on for almost 15 hours now, and neither the 13 UEF commanders or 12 Aeon commanders had given any quarter. The UEF commanders had been picked carefully for their skills, and they showed no sign of letting up. The pair of UEF commanders already in the base, situated on a snow covered island surrounded by the ice covered seas, turned their ACUs to Granger and Arnold.

"We'll need the Fatboy, and an air transport," Arnold said, as a number of mechanical engineers approached the newly arrived commanders to help them upgrade. "We're going to attack the base to the south."

One of the commanders, Major Newmann, shook his head, "The ice won't support the Fatboy's weight."

"Exactly," Granger said. He explained his plan to the pair of pilots, and they were bound to agree with it. They checked with Major General Finn, who also agreed.

-------

Belecost ordered the construction of more and more resource production buildings. He planned to build a battery of Serenity heavy artillery installations to act as a final deterance to the UEF onslaught. They would give up any attack against his base if he was successful.

He saw something in the corner of his eye on his tactical inteface. The radar map revealed a large group of air units heading towards his base. He scrambled his fighters for a confrontation if they came too close, but much to his surprise, they stopped a few kilometres from his base. He sent an air scout to find out what was happening, as his radar map registered the arrival of a pair of land units. What had the UEF dropped?

His air scout was destroyed by a newly build SAM launcher, but not before revealing what was happening. They were a pair of UEF ACUs, one of which was upgraded with a heavy shield field generator that protected both pilots, and also covered the SAM launcher from attack. Upon closer inspection, he saw that they both possessed Tier 3 engineering suites with which they constructed more turrets, as well as Heavy Plasma Cannons that greatly increased the range and firepower of their main cannons. The ACU that did not possess a heavy shield generator possessed a backpack upgrade that Belecost did not recognise.

Another one of his air scouts was launched and was soon shot down as it passed over their makeshift base. But this time, it showed something different. The UEF ACU that did not possess the shield generator upgrade kneeled over. The ACU's backpack opened up, and an enormous missile launcher flew out on a pillar of flame.

Belecost widened his eyes in surprise as a section of his line of turrets on the outskirts of his base was destroyed in an enormous thermonuclear explosion. He cursed himself, knowing that he should have constructed tactical missile defences against the possibility of an attack by the UEF ACU's backpack nuclear missile. He however quickly recovered from his shock, and sent mechanical engineers to reclaim and rebuild his units. Few of his resource structures had been destroyed in the nuclear explosion.

However, even more surprising, a string of explosions occured in front of the area just attacked. The ice covering the oceans were ripped open by the explosions, and soon the wide superstructure of a Fatboy Mobile Factory peeked out of the water. Two of its enormous turrets appeared out of the water, ejected water that had leaked into them, and began firing. Belecost's turrets began firing at it, but their shots were useless against the Fatboy's shields.

Belecost scrambled his units to try and attack the experimental weapons platform as he realised what the UEF had done. So far in the battle, neither side had used experimental land weapons due to the fact that the ice could not support their weight. What they had not realised was that the ice did not need to support their weight, the units could simply go under the ice. Such large weapons were easily bulky enough to break out of the ice by themselves. Unfortunately however, his base stretched to the very edge of the island on every side. The Fatboy would have great difficulty getting out of the ice with his turrets in the way. That was why the backpack nuclear missile had been launched, to give the Fatboy some space.

The Fatboy was soon wholly out of the water, and its four main cannons were continuously firing at the surrounding Aeon base. Shield generators and turrets were destroyed by the hail of fire. Simultaneously, it began constructing Titans, each new Titan scouting Belecost's base, looking for the ACU. Belecost knew that there was only one thing that he could do as his last air units were shot down by UEF interceptors that patrolled nearby, and he began walking his ACU towards the Fatboy. He did not expect to survive.

As his ACU became visible to the Fatboy, its shorter range machine guns began firing at him as the main cannons began swivelling around. Several shells connected solidly with his ACU, but in the end he succeeded as he made his way under the Fatboy's shield. A single overcharge shot from his ACU took out the experimental weapon, and the enemy Titans were soon quickly taken care of.

-------

"We failed," Arnold said. He began calling back the interceptors and transports to take them back before the expected reprisal.

"It's not over yet," Granger said.

Arnold turned his forward HUD to Granger's ACU and smiled. The ACU kneeled over again, unleashing another nuclear missile. The missile connected solidly with the Aeon commander's ACU, completely destroying it. As Granger and Arnold loaded themselves into their transports, the Aeon units self-destructed, leaving thousands of units of mass in their wreckages. A new, UEF base would be constructed within minutes.

-------

"So where are we going?" Alex asked.

"We're going to a personnel gate," Cate replied.

Alex frowned. He did not like personnel gates. "Where are you taking me then?"

Cate smiled. "You'll see."

They both made their way to a personnel gate. A capsule was readied for them. Seating themselves in the capsule, a disembodied voice instructed them to remain still for the jump. They sat opposite each other as everything was readied. Alex found it enormously difficult to keep his eyes off Cate's appealing figure, much to her annoyance.

A gut-wrenching moment later they arrived.

"The gravity's off," Alex immediately observed.

"What do you mean 'off'?" Cate asked.

"Well, it seems like 1 gee Earth standard, but it seems somehow different," he replied.

"That's true enough." The capsule's door whizzed open, and they were given the all-clear to get up and get out.

"Where are we then?"

"You'll see," Cate replied. "Look," she said, pointing to a window.

Alex looked at what he originally thought to be a painting, but its depth quickly came upon him. A wave of vertigo passed over him as he looked out of the window. He was slightly afraid of heights, but what he was looking at now was absurd.

The distances stretched to infinity, and tens of stars glittered. A planet could be seen in the distance, appearing no larger than a tennis ball held at arm's length. Between their position and the planet was strung tens of spacecraft, each bristling with weapons and shimmering with personal shield generators. The ships took all sorts of shapes, from cubes to triangles to thin, pencil-like constructs. Smaller lights passed between the ships, undoubtedly small interceptor and bomber-like craft resembling the Cyclone and Scorcher.

Alex gulped down bile that was rising in his throat. "I think I'm going to vomit," he said.

Cate chuckled. "Welcome to SpaceCom," she said.

Chapter 4
The thick of it

Night began to fall on Sanna 2. The cold, white sunlight that washed over its barren, icy surface came closer and closer to the horizon, entirely flat save for intermitent islands of snowed over rock peeking out of the ice-covered waters. Deposits of the heavy metals utilised by the war machines of each faction to construct and deploy units were limited to these islands. Such a layout of deposits caused commanders to fortify each island.

Engineers were transported, wreckages were reclaimed, interceptor and air superiority fighter fleets were transferred, and defences were soon erected on Granger and Arnold's island. They soon constructed land and air factories of their own, and began pumping out units. But they knew that any attacks would be useless, whether by land or air, due to the twelve Czars arrayed around the Aeon bases. Hundreds of fighters accompanied each Czar, ensuring that sudden air raids did not take them out. While each Czar was armed with missile launchers and flak, as well as a powerful laser on its underside, its armour was very thin and any significant numbers of fighters could take it down.

The Aeon knew that any attack against the UEF would be equally pointless. The UEF had similarly sized roving fleets of Cyclones and Wasps, and each base had numerous gunships and point defences defending it from ground assault. Several of the older bases, constructed sixteen hours ago when the UEF had initially arrived had one or more Fatboys. It was almost impossible for any number of land units to get past its guns.

Granger had kept himself busy for the last half hour by concentrating on continually constructing defences and ordering around units to stay in patrols. His half of the island was filled with networks of Tier 3 Fusion Reactors and mass fabricators, all extensively covered in shield generators. He was soon producing far more than he could spend, and began constructing a strategic missile launcher. He did this not with the intention of completing it, but to act as a storage system. An incomplete building could be reclaimed for the full value of mass and energy that had been pumped into it. By pausing construction if he needed to, the resources would not be wasted.

Major General Finn contacted Granger. "Captain Selver, I see that you have started already. I am sending you the schematics of a very long range missile that we will need. Complete the launcher and queue as many of these missiles as you can. Simultaneously, please build more missile launchers. We will need as many as we can in 56 hours."

Granger was about to ask for clarification, but the officer closed the channel, and his ACU chimed, "Schematics downloaded." He asked Arnold what was going on. "Why do we need this new missile? Don't our missiles have enough range as it is?"

"I thought you knew," Arnold said, frowning.

"I had no idea that we're all supposed to build strategic missile launchers," Granger said. "I was just building it so I can use it for mass storage."

Arnold nodded. "That's a good idea. But still, we'll be needing those missiles for what will happen."

-------

Alex turned away from the window, waiting for the nausea to fade away. After a few seconds, he asked Cate, "Why did you bring me here? I'm an ACU pilot, not a ship pilot."

"The planet below is completely wild and untouched," Cate explained. "It is not colonised, and no attempt has even been made to terraform it." During the days of the Earth Empire, the precursor to the UEF, a large number of planets had been terraformed to enable human habitation without pressure suits. It was indeed unusal for a world approximately the size of Earth to not be terraformed.

Cate continued. "After recent events, the possibility of one or more ACUs gating down to the planet in an attempt to attack our fleet has risen. This is why your ACU has been taken down there and put in control of a base that will ensure that enemies have a hard time accomplishing their objectives."

Alex nodded in understanding. He was, however, still confused. "What do you mean by recent events? All I know is that the Aeon have built a spacegate on Sanna 2. Is that relevant to what you're worried about?"

"It is completely relevant," Cate assured him. "I picked up the intelligence that the Aeon are building a spacegate above Sanna 2. Spacegates have a limit, Alex, as to how far they can take a spaceship without a receiving gate. Beyond that distance, the probability increases that the ship will arrive inside out, or as a cloud of vapour."

Alex quickly understood what she was trying to say. "So you're saying that the spacegate on Sanna 2 is in range of something important? The Aeon will be able to get ships to someplace special?" Cate nodded. "Is it a Core world? Hell, can they reach Sol from here?"

Cate shook her head. "No, the place in range of Sanna 2 is not actually supposed to exist. Only a select few people in the UEF knew about this, but many commanders have been informed for the mission on Sanna 2."

"What place?" Alex asked.

"This place," she replied. She looked away, out of the window, seemingly scrutinising the SpaceCom fleet, searching for flaws. The distances did not daunt her in the least. "The Aeon are planning to engage our fleet. They intend to take out as much of our fleet as possible. This is just a stepping stone for them, but if they are successful, there will be little capable of stopping their final invasion of the UEF."

"The final invasion?"

Cate was deadly serious. She looked back at Alex. "The final invasion. An enormous all out attack on our worlds intended to sweep the UEF away for all time. We can't let this happen." Alex nodded in agreement.

-------

Marxon thought carefullly about the situation. He and the other Aeon commanders were outflanked and outnumbered, and their defeat was inevitable. He could hope that the Gate would be completed before the UEF achieved victory over the Aeon, but he was not one to rely on hope. He knew that the UEF were building up their nuclear arsenals for an all-out nuclear attack against the fleet of the Aeon Illuminate when they arrived, and that if the battle went sour, the missile defences of the fleet would not be enough. They needed significant ground based defences as well.

He thought about his options. He quickly came to a conclusion: The best defence is a good offense. They had hundreds of fighters, tens of bombers and gunships, and most importantly, they had 12 Czars. If these forces could be concentrated on just one of the UEF's many positions, the bases would be taken out, leaving enormous amounts of mass in the form of wreckages as well as in the form of unclaimed mass deposits.

The question now was which base should be attacked. Marxon made the decision quickly. It would be the northern base that would fall. Unlike the UEF base to the southwest, they had made little headway against the Aeon. While many defensive bases capable of halting their attack existed betweeen the southwest base and the Czars of the Illuminate, no such bases existed in the north. There was nothing that would be able to stop them.

-------

Granger contacted Finn. "Sir," he asked, "do the Aeon have strategic missile defences protecting their Czars?"

"Our reconnaisance does not suggest that they do, Captain," Finn replied. "What are you planning?"

Granger thought carefully about what he would say next. If he phrased his idea incorrectly, the Major General would not accept it. "Sir, a significant portion of the Aeon air force is either constituted by or directly dependent on the twelve Czars that are in position around their bases. The possibility also exists that the Czars may be used to take out one of our larger bases. Destruction of any such base will spell our defeat."

"This information is correct, Captain," Finn replied. "What are you suggesting?"

"Sir, I alone have enough missiles to take out two nearby Czars," Granger said. "Scouting has also shown that many ground attack aircraft are being loaded into the Czars, and many fighters are breaking out of their usual patrols and being transferred to different ACUs. I think the Aeon are readying an attack. We need to take out as many Czars as possible."

Finn turned his gaze to his tactical interface and replayed footage taken by their last few spy planes. The captain was right. They were readying for an attack. Why hadn't he or a more experienced commander seen it? Why hadn't EarthCom seen it? He shook the thought out of his mind for the moment. "Your theory is likely to be correct, Captain. If this attack works, you will receive my commendations. If, however, this attack fails, know that you will have wasted twelve highly expensive missiles that were meant for the final attack against the fleet." Granger nodded.

Twelve strategic missiles were readied, and soon fired. They rose on their pillars of flame into the endless blue sky.

-------

Across eleven Aeon ACUs and numerous SCUs the chilling warning rang out, "Strategic Launch detected." This warning was repeated twelve times, much to the surprise of the various Knights and Crusaders. Marxon watched as many scrambled to check their strategic missile defence buildings. He remained cool and collective however, knowing that his and every other base of his followers had enough missiles to defend against a simultaneous strike. Additionally, if this was instead a strike against the Spacegate still 50 hours from completion, he had modified the structure that had launched the engineer tasked with constructing the Gate. It would now fire a single missile at high speed that would unleash a Chrono Stasis field similar to the one an Aeon ACU could upgrade itself with that would disrupt the enemy missiles. There was nothing to be worried about.

Worry began to gnaw at him when he saw that the missiles had not appeared on any sensors. Something was wrong, he quickly concluded. That was when an enemy missile suddenly appeared moving at high speed through the patrols in front of one of the Czars. The missile skilfully dodged his fighters, and ripped into the side of the Czar. For a moment, it would seem that nothing would happen, but then the side of the Czar was torn open in an enormous explosion that engulfed the rest of the Czar as well. The gunships and strategic bombers that had been held within the Czar were thrown away like toys. No wreckage was left from the once enormous experimental weapon.

More missiles began appearing, flying at low altitude, and Marxon simultaneously opened a channel to the other pilots, and began moving his own three Czars. "You are ordered to immediately move your Czars!" he exclaimed. In the frenzy, few pilots actually managed to respond in time, and in total eight Czars, three hundred gunships, and a hundred strategic bombers were annihilated. Fury ran through Marxon's blood, but he quickly brought in under control and pacified it. They would need a different approach.

-------

Before Alex was a man equal in rank to General Clarke. It was Admiral Eric Johnson, the highest ranking officer of the UEF SpaceCom fleet. Just as General Clarke was the commanding officer of EarthCom, Johnson was the commanding officer of SpaceCom. He was a tall man, taller than either Alex or Cate, and he stood pin straight without the slightest hint of a slouch. His sardonic gaze and overall youthful appearance hid his true age.

"Colonel Koch, you have outdone yourself again," Johnson said.

"Thank you, sir," she replied, saluting. Her face was expressionless, and she appeared as a private in the Ground Corps saluting to the President himself. Alex had never seen her like this, and he had not expected it from a person like her. He quickly realised that inside the warmth and curves was a real soldier.

Johnson turned his gaze to him now. "Much is expected of you, Major," Johnson said.

"I will do my best, sir," Alex replied.

"At ease, Major," Johnson said to Alex. He turned to Cate, saying, "You are dismissed Colonel."

Cate immediately turned around and began walking away. Alex turned around to see where she was going, almost sorry that she was leaving. Johnson caught the look in his eyes.

"She is a well endowed woman, Major," he said matter-of-factly, taking Alex by surprise.

"I suppose so, sir," Alex replied, surprised at the lapse from protocol. "Sir, may I ask a question?" Johnson nodded. "Why have I never heard of this fleet before? How new is it?"

"This fleet is by no means new, Major," Johnson replied. "You know Avatar-of-War Lana Croix, killed in 3601, arguably the most successful military leader in the history of the Aeon Illuminate?" Alex nodded. "This history of the fleet is linked to her rise and fall."

Johnson began explaining everything to Alex. Croix's rise in 3593 had shaken things up enormously. She had implemented new strategies to take direct advantage of the Aeon technological superiority, and a UEF attack on Aeon space was rapidly dealt with. The leaders of the UEF quickly realised that they needed to construct a defensive fleet, as Croix began advancing deep into UEF territory.

"Prior to that event, the UEF had always been wary of constructing a fleet due to possible action from space pirates or the enigmatic Free Space Alliance," Johnson continued. "But they knew that they needed to do something about the Aeon advance, and so a fleet was constructed. The fleet had to be large and powerful enough to be able to bombard and take out multiple bases and ACUs, but small enough that it could be rapidly transported through the Spacegate network and hidden from enemies."

"And what happened in 3601?" Alex asked.

"Croix herself and a massive contingent of Aeon ACUs gated to the world below us," Johnson replied. "Our fleet was far from completion, by we had enough firepower to take out what mattered: Croix herself. Just as one takes out the commander of an army to achieve victory, we took out the commander of the commanders, and chaos ensued. Having suddenly lost their commanding officer, the Aeon military fell into disarray. We drove them off."

"And what about the fleet?" Alex questioned. "This sort of thing would be newsworthy."

Johnson smiled wrly. "Indeed, it was. That was why our people were told that Croix had died at the hands of the SpaceCom fleet. Additionally, it was told that the entire fleet, as well as ship construction gantries was destroyed in the aftermath by remaining Aeon commanders, who swiftly retreated afterwards."

Alex nodded. "I suppose that makes sense," he said. "Now, can I get on-planet to my ACU so I can build up my base?"

Johnson nodded. "By no means. We still have a minimum of 50 hours before the Aeon fleet gets here. In this time, you will be well rested. But before that, you will meet the captains and officers of the fleet."

Alex sighed. There was nowhere he would rather be than in his ACU right now. Either that, or back at his mansion. Even the thought that he was suspended in the middle of nothingness was enough to trigger nausea. Stifling it down, he followed the Admiral.

-------

Commander Levis crossed her arms. 50 hours remained until her fleet would gate to Sanna 2. From what she had heard, Marxon would require her fire support before she was sent to the SpaceCom base. She had only been recently instated as the head of the Illuminate Fleet, but she did not doubt that her fleet was capable of taking out the ungainly UEF one.

She watched her ships, slowly moving around her flagship, the Petrel, each subtly curved and shaped. Each ship was not only a work of sheer firepower, but also a work of art. Their hulls glistened green and white, untouched by enemy fire as of yet. A few of the ships shimmered a cold white, seemingly testing their personal shield generators. Their robotic gun turrets swivelled automatically, inherently wary of enemy units.

Each ship was outfitted with the most advanced techology in the Aeon Illuminate. No costs had been spared in their expense, and thus many of the weapons systems fitted were not cost-effective enough to be deployed by an ACU. Prototype anti-shield cannons had been retrofitted as well. While these guns were highly effective at taking down enemy shields, they were not capable of damaging armour to as great an extent. Last Levis had heard, the weapon was being tested for a new tank that would be deployed in the future.

Levis did not know any way the UEF fleet could possibly defeat her. But she suppressed her overconfidence, knowing that it was a weakness.

-------

"Colonel Arnold, sir, is it alright if I take a nap?" Granger asked. "I'll give you my units for now, and you can give them back when I wake up. Can you wake me in six hours?"

Arnold thought about it a moment. "I suppose so, Selver," he said. "You're not used to super-long shifts are you?"

Granger shook his head. He yawned. "I've only been a pilot for a year or so and working ten hours straight is a real killer."

Arnold nodded. "I sometimes forget that you're just a kid. Go ahead. I'll wake you if anything goes wrong."

-------

Major General Finn, stationed on the northern base, thought he felt a strange, nearly continuous earthquake. As the source of the thudding came closer and closer to the northern base, its frequency dropped periodically, until it was just a single thud every few seconds. He became suspicious. A wing of air scouts was sent to the north of the Aeon base. Flak and shells were lobbed at them by Coronas and Conservator interceptors, but they survived long enough to confirm what he had suspected. There were seven areas of ice that had only recently formed, as if something had just walked through it, and gone under the ice.

Even as he shouted, "Ready strategic bombers," the thudding began again, this time spread across a line stretching along the western side of the northern base. The island the base was situated had a coast running almost straight north-south, and whatever was approaching under the ice had formed a skirmish line along the length of the island.

Seven cracks began appearing on the ice, equally spaced out in a line parallel with the western edge of the island. The ice was quickly torn open, and eight eyes revealed themselves. Each eye was at the very top of the Galactic Colossus Sacred Assault Bot, arguably the most powerful land weapon in existence. As they began wading towards the island, UEF Tier 2 artillery installations swivelled around and fired. Their shells did little damage against the sluggish beasts, but every bit counted.

Numerous strategic bombers soon arrived at the scene, dropping their Small Yield Nuclear Bombs on the Colossi. Little overall damage was done in comparison to their enormously thick armour, but the enemy assault bots soon came in range of the coastal defences. Another salvo of artillery was fired, much of it impacting directly with the broad frames that were hard to miss.

But soon the Colossi came in range to attack with their own weapons. Deadly Phason beam generators in each of their eyes were fired, taking shields and the units under them out immediately. The coastal defences were soon in ruins, and none of the strategic bombers were doing enough damage.

"We'll get aerial reinforcements there immediately," Arnold said. Tens of strategic bombers and gunships, accompanied by hundreds of fighters began taking off. The air units were soon arriving at the scene, and began pounding away at the Colossi. It was to little avail though.

He suddenly remembered something very important. He immediately transferred Granger's units back to Granger and hailed him. "Buddy, get up! The Aeon are attacking the northern base!"

Granger got up drowsily, but rapidly refocused himself. "Why do bad things happen when I fall asleep?" He however turned his gaze to his comm screen.

"They've got me!" a Lieutenant exclaimed. The pilot watched in horror as he manoeuvred his ACU to run away at full speed. As his ACU turned around, he heard a high pitched whirr behind him, and his personal shield field generator's integrity began falling rapidly. There was little he could do as the shield fell and the beam immediately vapourised his ACU.

Even as the ACU's storage was suddenly set free, a salvo of bombs from a group of Ambassador Strategic Bombers hit the Sacred Assault Bot in the back. Its armour was pierced and a series of chain reactions detonated its main reactor core. Its knees buckled and gave way, and it soon lay sprawled on the ground. A few seconds later, tens of buildings and units self-destructed, having lost its ACU's signal.

"We were too late," Granger mourned.

"He died with little pain," Arnold assured him.

Granger's bombers immediately swung around for another pass. A wave of enemy fighters appeared on the radar, but were torn apart by a blockade of Wasps and Cyclones that were now patrolling to the south of the island. The Small Yield Nuclear bombs ripped through the armour of another Galactic Colossus that soon lay sprawled on the ground like three of its cousins. But three of the five ACUs in control of the island had been annihilated, and the remaining two were being chased by 3 remaining Colossi, chewing up bits and pieces of the once enormous UEF base as they slowly but inexorably made their way east.

Another UEF ACU exploded in a thermonuclear bloom, and soon only Finn was left in control of the once mighty base. A single Galactic Colossus continued to follow him, shrugging off the hurt being dealt to it by numerous Broadsword Tier 3 gunships in pursuit of its final goal: Finn. Finn knew that his ACU was faster than the enormous experimental assault unit and that he could keep running for as long as he needed while his allies took out the Colossus. But he observed that he had very little of his original base left, and losing any more would make recovery next to impossible. He needed to take the offensive.

"Sir, what are you doing?" one of his SCU pilots asked. "You'll get yourself killed!"

"No, I won't," Finn said. The SCU pilot made to protest again, but Finn silenced him. "Stand down, commander," he said, turning his ACU around as he came next to a Tier 3 shield generator. A number of engineers were ordered to assist the shield generator to speed up its regeneration, and he waited, warming up his overcharge cannon. When he judged the enemy unit to be close enough, he charged.

The phason beam cut through the Heavy Shield Generator in an instant, colliding with full force with his ACU's shield field generator. Even as he arrived in range, the shield fell, and for an instant the phason beam hit his ACU. Warning lights flashed, but he did not care. The Heavy Shield Generator came online again, buying the time he needed. The overcharge bolt hit the Colossus's chest, ripping through what little remained of its armour. It crashed to the ground, sending miniature earthquakes that jarred him to the very core of his body.

"I'm getting too old for this," he mumbled to himself. But he smiled, as he had saved much of his Tier 3 resource farm and Tier 3 factories. Rebuilding would pose no difficulty, despite the fact that four-fifths of the infrastructure on the island had been taken out.

Chapter 5
Endurance

Alex was terribly bored. For over an hour he had sat in on the meeting of all of the SpaceCom ship captains and officers as they had discussed the details of their defence. They had discussed the smallest details, each of which had been seemingly disconnected from other details. They had started discussing possible formations that the fleet should take, and had abruptly begun discussing positions of asteroids, followed by another unusal change of topic to self repair capabilities. And yet they had somehow managed to work out a complete battle plan, much to Alex's surprise.

Johnson stood up and spoke up. "Everything is settled then. A complete and detailed report will be sent to each and every ship, and each Captain will brief their crews as necessary. The next thirty hours before enemy ships are expected to arrive will be utilised for wargames. Ship crews will train to work together and fire at enemies while moving. A number of small asteroids have been prepared for this purpose. You are all dismissed."

Each of the officers rose and began making their way to their shuttles to return to their respective craft. Alex sighed in relief, and began making his way to his dorm room, hoping he could get in a few more hours of shuteye. Meeting everyone over the course of the last ten hours had been emotionally exhausting, and there hadn't been a single bit of eye-candy the whole time to ease things.

But it seemed that he wasn't to get his rest just yet. "Major, there's someone I'd like you to meet." Alex sighed and turned to face the Admiral. Beside him was a short, stocky middle-aged man.

"This is Commander Derrick Halverson, lead gunner of this ship," Johnson said. "You are assigned to him for the duration of the first war games. He will be answering any particular questions that you have about the fleet to the best of his abilities."

Johnson quickly made himself scarce, leaving the two staring at each other. Halverson broke the silence, saying, "Hi there."

"Hi... sir?" Alex replied uncertainly.

Halverson shook his head. "First, Earthworm, my rank of Commander and your rank of Major are roughly equal," he said. "So from now on, I'm Derrick, and you're Alex." Alex nodded apathetically, unsure of what to think about Halverson's attempts at being friendly. He followed the gunner closely behind.

Catching up with him, Alex asked, "So... Derrick, what is the name of this ship?"

"They didn't tell you?" Halverson asked. Alex shook his head. The gunner chuckled. "These up-highs are hilarious. The ship is called the Endurance. It's the largest ship in the SpaceCom fleet, and isn't called Endurance for nothing. It has armour and shields each at least double the thickness of other ships, and nothing short of a volley of nukes could take it out. Makes it a sitting duck though, and more or less useless for sublight travel."

Alex nodded. "So, why do you need gunners? Can't you just do it by computer?"

"We do do it by computer, if you call a Symbiont a computer," Halverson replied. "How it works is that we have four commanders on board. The first commander is the Security Chief, and commands a contingent of soldiers that keep the peace onboard and can be used as an extra engineering team if needed. Then you have the Lead Engineer, who has a team of proper engineers who look after the ship. After that there is the Head Pilot, also the nominal second-in-command of the ship, who gives the Symbionts orders to move the ship around. Then me, and all I do is make sure all the weapons and shields are functioning properly. In battle, I give the Symbionts targetting priorities. They do as they are told. Each of the commanders reports to the Captain, who reports to the Admiral."

"But why Symbionts?" Alex asked, still not seeing why computers could not be used.

"You need a measure of human intuition to be a proper gunner," Halverson explained. "And whatever little human intuition the Symbionts have is usually enough. They also get along with half of our rations, so that's nice too."

"So where are you taking me?"

Halverson smiled. "You're going to meet my team. They're not very sociable though, so don't expect much."

-------

Absolute silence marked the surface of the asteroid. Mala heard the rhythmic thudding of her ACU's walking through the legs and body of the enormous mech, but other than this and the sounds of her ACU's computers and auxillary systems, there was utter silence. The crunching of the ACU's footsteps on the rock sand of the asteroid was not heard. There was no wind that howled against the ACU. Only silence.

The silence had begun to unnerve Mala, but she did not let it distract her. The asteroid that they had chosen was merely a pebble in the sky, a flying mountain. It was surprisingly round despite its small size and had a tightly curving horizon. Mala continued walking with her ACU around the asteroid. Nickal and Stinkle were doing the same on other areas of the asteroid, the movement of the enormous combined mass of the 3 ACUs slowing the asteroid's spin such that they would remain hidden from visual inspection from the UEF fleet on the other side of the asteroid.

The asteroid was the equivalent of a Near-Earth Asteroid. It did not belong to any main groups, being one of the carefree flying mountains that dipped towards and away from the system's sun every nine hundred days. Though it had originated far enough away from the system's sun to accumulate volatile materials, numerous trips into the system had long ago boiled away the water ice and light-weight gases. It had been large enough that the lighter gases and water ice had floated to the surface, allowing a roundish core of rock to form. Of course, it was now only this core that remained.

After a while longer, her ACU's computers showed that the asteroid's spin had been more or less halted. She began making her way to one of the several mass fields on the asteroid. Unlike larger planets that Mala was accustomed to fighting on, most of the heavy elements that constituted mass were readily available at the surface with little digging required. Her mass extractors thus siphoned only half of the energy that they normally would for excavation.

She soon stood in the middle of a compact base, guarded by tier two artillery and tactical missile launchers, and hidden from radar by Deceiver mobile stealth field generators, her land factory slowly upgrading to tier 3. Though she only possessed six mass extractors, she boosted her mass income as needed by reclaiming the matter of the asteroid itself. Her base was thus surrounded by large trenches formed by roving engineers that reclaimed the rock as was needed.

She constructed more Deceivers and began moving out with engineers to cap other nearby mass deposits. She made sure that every one of her units was stealthed, and soon began to upgrade her ACU. She then readied one of her tactical missile launchers with a special payload. A message was uploaded to the special missile, and soon launched towards where she expected Nickal to be. A second message on a missile was sent towards Stinkle. The missiles soon disengaged their engines and opened parachutes. Their communications silence had stood for long enough.

The three bases were not in eyeshot, thus making tightbeam radio broadcasts impossible. A signal broadcast through the quantum network would be be picked up by SpaceCom, and the entire UEF fleet would probably come to kill them. And Mala doubted that they had the firepower to take the enemy fleet down yet.

Mala's message: "I am at Tech 3 and will soon begin on the first strategic missile launcher," reached both of the other Cybrans, and they soon replied with their own messages on missiles. Both of the other pilots were at Tech 3 but their economies had not advanced far enough to build missile launchers yet. They still had almost thirty hours left, more than enough time. Stinkle added, "I am constructing a high resolution telescope to scan the UEF fleet."

A message in a missile was soon sent to both Nickal and Mala. The results were not good. "We will need to change our tactics," he said. He however said nothing about what they would change their tactics too. Mala and Nickal both began constructing strategic missile launchers nonetheless.

-------

Tractor beams caught and threw numerous small asteroids around and through the fleet. Most if not all of the asteroids had one or two small but powerful explosive charges placed on them to reflect the fact that a ship that lost its shields did not usually have armour covering every surface. Guns therefore tried to aim at these charges for an easy kill. However, each asteroid moved quickly and spun slowly, making aiming very difficult. However, the Symbionts' AI made this very easy for them.

Alex watched as railguns and new high energy lasers blasted away at the asteroids. To his surprise, not a single shell missed, such that the entire fleet did not need to worry about friendly fire. Shields were however on, to make sure fragments of asteroids did not cause any damage. Despite this deadly display of fireworks, he was quite unimpressed. He missed the thuds and screeches of his ACU, and all the tremors from the continuous fire only served to make him nauseus.

Halverson was constantly barking out orders to his six symbionts, each working furiously, simultaneously coordinating multiple cannons spread over the Endurance through their computer interfaces. He continuously used his computers to scan for asteroids, and searched asteroids for large cracks that would facilitate their destruction, as well as the presence of explosive charges. He gave targetting priorities to the Symbionts, as well as orders whether to use explosive shells, armour-piercing shells or lasers, and they diverted their fire as needed. He however noticed how bored Alex looked, and an idea occured to him.

"Buddy, how about you take over for a bit?" Halverson suggested.

Alex, with no idea of what it entailed, agreed immediately. An asteroid soon appeared on the screen. Alex did not take a second look at the asteroid and just said, "Concentrate fire on that asteroid." Lasers fired uselessly, just burning its surface. Halvorsen smiled as half a dozen explosive shells arrived a few moments later, tearing it to pieces in an enormous explosion.

"Heh, typical newbie mistake number 1, buddy," Halvorsen said. "You didn't look for explosive charges, or cracks, and wasted a good amount of power and mass on an asteroid that only needed 1 laser or one shell to destroy."

Alex frowned. "It's harder than it looks."

Halvorsen smiled. "I don't blame you for thinking so. It took me a good year before I got anywhere near a score of 80% efficiency, which is the absolute minimum for my job. And even since then I've been gradually improving. It's not easy."

Alex nodded. "Well, can you give me something to do? Otherwise I'll just go to bed."

"I suppose I could send you to Xan, the Security Chief," Halvorsen pondered. "He'll probably have something for you to do. I'll send him a message to tell him you're coming." Alex agreed.

-------

Levis yawned. She had overseen the readying of the Illuminate fleet for over twenty hours straight, and she knew that she deserved a rest. But something was amiss. She could feel it.

As if confirming her thoughts, she heard rapid footsteps behind her. She turned around to face a shorter man. She immediately noticed that his skin was lightly tanned, an uncommon trait in the Aeon Illuminate. She had not seen him before, likely a new recruit, a specialist in space combat perhaps.

Levis acknowledged his presence with a blink of her eyes and remained silent, letting him speak.

"My name is Bean, maintenance officer aboard the Petrel," he said. "We are carrying more mass than can be accounted for, Commander," he continued. He paused to allow Levis to ask questions about the situation, but she remained silent. He frowned. "It is simply possible that we are carrying extra luggage, and I am requesting permission to check our cargo bays."

"Forward all information to my computer, officer," Levis said. "Do what must be done to rectify this situation. I will advise as necessary."

Bean made his way away from the bridge, and Levis soon lost sight of him. She turned a disinterested eye to the computer screen, on which the information had appeared. The exact value of the excess mass caught her eye however: 57kg. A single thought occured to her - that the excess mass was enough for a small and light person, like Bean.

She had to put it out of her mind, knowing that a witchunt at this time could destroy the sense of togetherness that her crew had worked on tirelessly. Such a loss could drop the efficiency of the crew, and therefore the efficiency of the entire ship in battle. She could not allow that to happen.

Yet she realised that she was often right about these things. Her mind often stumbled on things that she would never have thought about. And when she thought of something in such dubious circumstances, she was often right. She knew that it was likely a product of her extensive training in the Way - an arduous path of mental training and self discovery practiced by virtually every member of the Illuminate.

But nonetheless, she put the thought aside, turning her gaze to the forward HUD. A large shield bubble generator had come online, creating a small white sphere floating in front of the ship. One of the smaller ships, armed almost solely with new shield disruptor batteries, began firing. Information forwarded to her indicated that the shield bubble would theoretically be able to hold against all the guns on the Petrel for almost a minute, and yet the smaller ship took it apart in fifteen. The technology was more than functional, and would give them an enormous advantage.

Levis left a note on her computer, forwarding it to other officers on the Petrel and the ships of the rest of the fleet indicating that she was intending to retire, and suggested that others do the same. 28 hours remained.

-------

Alex watched the computer screen, mesmerised by the display. There were twelve others in the room, two of which were glued to computer screens, manipulating interfaces similar to the tactical interface on his ACU. They were using an ACU simulator, but everything was progressing twice as fast. Simulated units were moving twice as fast, units were constructed twice as fast, and units died twice as fast.

"What do you think of it?" Xan, Security Chief of the Endurance asked.

"It's amazing..." Alex said without turning to face the officer. He however realised how rude he must seem, so he turned to face him. "What I don't get though is why you guys, a bunch of soldiers, are using ACU simulators."

"Easily answered, "Xan said. "There is nothing better than an ACU simulator to keep you on your toes, and keep your mind sharp. After that, we realised that we were elite soldiers and needed to be much faster. That's why we cranked up the speed to 2X."

Alex nodded. "These games are hectic," Xan said. "You should try."

A thermonuclear explosion lit up the computer screen, indicating that one of them was victorious. Alex shoved one of the soldiers away and sat at the screen. The game loaded Winters Duel, an icy map consisting of a valley edged with plateaus. It was based on an actual valley at Luthien, where a Cybran and a UEF officer had slugged it out in a rarely seen one versus one for over an hour before a spectacular draw.

Alex noted the reduction in gating time, causing him to waste almost a half a second before he began constructing his first few buildings. A land factory was quickly constructed, and he ordered four engineers and a few Mech Marine light assault bots. The first engineer rapidly moved out of the factory, and he had to move quickly to give it an order to cap a hydrocarbon deposit, while his ACU moved south to construct a mass extractor on a mass deposit not in his immediate start position.

As his ACU began constructing the mass extractor, a pair of enemy Mech Marines arrived at the outskirts of his base, quickly taking out an engineer which had just been constructed. Even as he began moving his ACU around to intercept them and ordered the construction of a few MA12 Strikers, the Mech Marines moved north and took out the engineer that had been constructing the hydrocarbon power plant. The incomplete hydrocarbon plant was also annihilated, its fragile, incomplete structure annihilated by a barrage of shots.

The battle rapidly went downhill after that. Having lost several engineers, Alex was unable to expand out of his base, and had to build more engineers instead of combat units. The soldier opposite him rapidly took two thirds of the mass deposits on the map, and Alex knew that he would not be able to survive for long. He continually constructed new MA12 Strikers, backed with Lobo artillery and point defences, but he was completely overwhelmed when ten Scorchers penetrated his defensive lines and took out his power. He was overrun shortly afterwards.

The soldier he had played against smiled. "You would think a pilot would be able to beat me."

"Again," Alex insisted.

"Whenever you're ready," he said.

Two UEF ACUs yet again gated to different sides of the map, and this time Alex was ready. As soon as his first land factory was constructed, he built a few raiding units of his own. As he sent them to his opponent's base, they intercepted the enemies raiding units. Alex was able to micromanage the raiding units with one hand while constructing new units in his base with the other hand. His raiding units survived, but he knew that they would be destroyed if he sent them in. His opponent had seen them, and was probably reading a counter.

Instead, a force of six MA12 strikers and a Snoop mobile radar suite moved out. Simultaneously, Alex began moving his ACU forwards, covering their advance and ensuring no raiders got through. Engineers moved in behind the lumbering biped, constructing mass extractors as they went. Engineers in his base began constructing more and more power generators, and second and third land factory were soon completed. Yet more engineers were constructed.

Alex's Strikers soon encountered an engineer, rapidly tearing it to pieces with their cannons. They managed to destroy a mass extractor, and began moving northwards into the enemy's base. A single blip of radar was however picked up on the Snoop's radar. Alex quickly recognised it was an ACU. He pulled back his Strikers out of range of the command unit, and clustered them around his ACU. Another six Strikers that had been constructed joined the first six, and together they advanced.

A barrage of shots struck the enemy ACU. Foolishly, the enemy ACU concentrated its fire on Alex's ACU, leaving his Strikers unharmed. No units came to assist the ACU, and its armour integrity began to drop quickly. It had no choice but to retreat. Alex pressed his advantage, but his units soon ran into pair of point defences. The immobile cannons streamed fire onto his units, taking out three of his tanks, but he was able to pull out in time.

Four Lobos soon arrived. Each of the mobile artillery units was armed with a high damage fragmentation grenade, and had as much range as each of the point defences. Two simultaneously attacked each point defence, their fragmentation grenades flying high above them. The point defences tore them apart very quickly, but the grenades landed soon after. Each split into six projectiles, raining fire onto the immobile cannons, burning through their armour instantly. Alex had grouped together twenty tanks, and he advanced with them, his ACU at the very tip of the formation.

The game was set far faster than he was used to, and he was dazzled as a cloud of tier 2 Stinger gunships flew over him, turning their Hells Fury Riot Guns onto his ACU. Alex's enemy had virtually no other units in his base, and factories were quickly torn to pieces by the combined firepower of Alex's tanks and his ACU. They soon began firing on the enemy ACU, but Alex's armoured command unit was running out of armour very quickly. As the enemy's ACU dropped below 3500 ingame 'hit points', Alex's ACU bloomed in a catastrophic explosion. Almost simultaneously, his enemy's ACU was destroyed, caught in the thermonuclear fire of Alex's core breach.

The soldier opposite him glared at him for a moment, before saying, "Again."

-------

"Choir, would cruisers be capable of breaking through the ice?" Marxon asked, contacting the tactical officer.

The young woman shook her head. "Nay Avatar, their engines are not powerful enough. A battleship would be quite capable though."

"Thank you," he replied courteously, as a plan began forming in his mind. An unorthodox approach was necessary to take down the ailing northern base, especially since the enormous amounts of mass collected within the wreckages of the Galactic Colossi were being reclaimed. He surmised that about ten battleships, sixty cruisers, forty harbingers, twenty air transports, twenty strategic bombers, and a hundred air superiority fighters were necessary.

He relayed orders to the other Aeon commanders. Construction soon commenced on a number of naval factories.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Wow. Nice continuation of the old story.

Good one. Glad to see you continue this story line.

Marc

And here I was thinking that I would have to post another chapter before anybody noticed.

I've done a significant part of the next chapter (its gonna be so awesome), but I am having to carefully word things not to give stuff away. The following chapters will have something that you certainly won't expect.

Good, good...

Chapter 2 - Ready to Rock is here.

Nothing revealed just yet. Still building up.

Nooo why do you have to post this when i'm about to leave for school?



I'll try and read it later.

Good chapter. Lots of new material to be woven into the story.

Critique time...



potent, I think



check for consistency

Keep up the good work,

Marc

More setup...I want a battle!

ME WANT BATTLE!!!!11!!1!!

haha.

Great set up though.

Thanks for the corrections. I think I've fixed them.

As for the house being massive, it is massive area wise, not storywise. I have seen numerous rural houses situated on estates not far from my house that are only single story, but they are probably two or three times as wide as my house (and my house is comparatively huge compared to houses built these days).

Gah. Finish please. I can't wait, and I'm not sure how many more fanfics I 'can't wait for it to finish' and how long I can stand it.

Chapter 3 - Bifurcation is up.

Trust me, you haven't seen anything yet.

Very nice chapter. Quite enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the next part of the story.

Marc