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Chapter 1: The UGM Serenity

Date: November 8, 2776

Location: Leben Shipyard Alpha Sierra, Epsilon Eridani System

He stared off at the stars from his cabin, it looked so peaceful. Compared to the frontier colonies, constantly being attacked by Lothian warships and pirates, it was safe and quiet. The Human male, light skin, blue eyes, early Forties dressed in a white naval uniform, turned around and stared at his desk. A picture of his wife and child to the left corner, a monitor in the middle, and several stacks of papers to the right. The room itself was pale blue with white tube lights in the ceiling. A small couch in the corner of the room with a metal table in front of it. He looked back out the viewport and saw several Shuttle's flying towards the ship in a V formation. He took a deep breath and then turned around and walked out the door, heading to the bridge. The bridge itself was bustling with life, crew members walking quickly from station to station making final checks. The helm pit was directly below the captain's chair, Coms was next to it. The room itself was square with monitors hanging along the walls with controls beneath them and there was a landing above him that circled the bridge filled with officers as they double-checked the ships status. He made his way to the Captain's chair and sat down.

"Captain!" A young Ensign dashed up waving a notepad

"What can I do for you Ensign....?" he motioned for the man's name.

"Ensign Nielson sir." the Ensign eagerly gave a salute. "I'm your official Helmsman sir. Just reporting that NAV sensors will be operational in a few minutes. Had some minor issues with the relays."

The Captain smiled. "Captain Scheck. I'm glad to hear that. Once the remaining crew members and Guardians are on-board we'll begin the launch sequence and take us to the Frontier for a test run."

"Aye Captain. We'll be ready." The Ensign moved quickly into his pod and booted up the Helms System. The pod next to him was Coms, a neat little concept, both of them would go into an air tight capsule so that way if the bridge were hit and a hole tore in the hull, they could continue to control the ship. The Captain's chair had a single pod as well as several other positions namely Gunner positions and Coms Relays positions had the same function. The Captain smiled, Serenity was the newest of her class, a Goliath Warship. She was capable of holding five to six War Frigates in her hull with a crew complement of a thousand each. The ship herself housed well over thirty thousand individuals, both Human and Pelzigan. Well over a thousand fighters, dropships, and bombers docked in both the War Frigates and Serenity. She contained an abundance of weapons and ammunition. Several hundred nukes, approximately twenty thousand ARCHER Torpedoes, and an entire deck dedicated towards the Laser Turret Defense Grid.

A new system that allowed several hundred small turrets on her hull to fire beams of plasma at their targets. Her shielding system was the best that could be manufactured by the Unified Galactic Systems Military. She was a warship that was going to be hell-bent on eliminating everything that got in her way. "Captain, this is Shuttle Group Gamma, we're on approach and are requesting permission to dock." Came a male voice over communications.

"Understood Gamma, dock and get your people into their positions, once you're ready, we will be underway and will make a Jump trajectory towards the Frontier for our little test run." Captain Scheck responded.

"Understood, we'll be in position in twenty minutes Captain." Responded the voice.

"Understood, Scheck out." He said, The Captain brought up a holographic console in front of him and tapped in a few symbols in and an audible whistle went throughout the ship. "This is Captain Scheck, listen up everyone, as we all know, the UGSM Serenity is the new Flagship of the Unified Galactic Systems Military but she is also to function as the lead ship in the Epsilon Eridani Defense Fleets. This will be her maiden voyage. Our primary goal for right now is to take her on a test run through the Outer Rim of the Epsilon Eridani System. During which times we will be at yellow alert. That is all." The captain pushed several more holographic symbols and the console turned off. "Ok people, prepare to clear dry dock." He said, The engines started heating up, a loud Whirring noise could be heard throughout the ship as the necessary systems came online for the ship to leave dry dock. The display in front of the captain turned on and showed their approach vector and what was in front of them. Several HUD lights blinked on and showed a row of arrows moving along the path the ship would take. The hull shuddered as the engines began moving the massive ship out of the dry dock. Slowly but surely, they cleared the dry dock and the ship was on her way to the Outer Rim of the Epsilon Eridani System. "All hands, prepare for Gate Travel." The captain said, the whole room turned a dark blue color and there was a loud screeching noise as the Faster than Light engines spun up and began forming the wormhole in front of the ship. The Captain admired the site, most vessels relied upon Warp or Jump to reach their destinations. With Warp it would take hours or even days to reach certain locations, sometimes longer. with Jump it would be instantaneous but they needed coordinates to Jump. The new Wormhole tech that the Serenity was outfitted with was experimental but ready for field testing. With it, they wouldn't need precise coordinates and could get there in a matter of hours instead of days or a matter of days instead of months and exit the wormhole in the general area they wanted to be in. A ring formed in front of the Serenity and the Captain smiled as a bright blue circle formed in front of the ship with a light gray on inside that slowly faded into the black of space. Streams of energy rippled across the hull of the ship as she slowly entered the wormhole. Within a few seconds, the whole ship had entered the wormhole and it had closed, a blue mist filled the viewport.

Date: November 8, 2776

Location: Wolf 348, Epsilon Eridani System

The hanger was bustling with life. There were people, both Pelzigan and Humans, working on the Mecha's that were stored onboard the ship. They worked fast and hard to finish the tune-ups on the mech's. A small group of mechanics were working on the arrow-shaped drop ship off in the distance. Cale watched in wonder as the mechanics continued to pull several panels off the of the shiny new dropship. The ship was said to have stealth capabilities, there were several prototypes on board the Serenity, and they were all being checked over one last time before they were to be sent out on their first run. Their destination was the outer rim of the Epsilon Eridani System, primarily around the planet Foraoise, a lush jungle planet that had several reports of Lothian skirmishes. Cale looked around, the red and white husky wolf mix took a deep breath. He had no clue why the UGSM was sending out their newest and most advanced warship out to investigate a few minor skirmishes when a War Frigate and a few support vessels could've done just the same job, but it wasn't up to him as to where they were sent. The Serenity was a beautiful ship, she contained capabilities not frequently seen in other ships. For one, the ship contained three to five anti-matter cores to power the vast array of weapons that were placed on her along with shields, engines, FTL, and life support. She was a death machine, built to annihilate any and all hostiles that stood in her way. He tugged at the collar of his brown jumpsuit and took a deep breath and turned towards his mech. It was an A2Z1 model, one of the newer ones that were approved for use. They had more maneuverability than any other mech on top of their small shielding system. The hydraulics on the suit was better than most, but that didn't mean that the mech was easy to handle, one wrong move and the whole system could crash on him and leave him immobile for a decent amount of time. He began climbing back up to the cockpit of the mech and jumped into the seat. "Begin routine diagnostic systems check alpha." he said.

"Please verify user." said a cool female voice.

"Authorization Alpha-niner-one." he replied back.

"Verifying, please wait." the voice said again and a few seconds later "Verification complete, Corporal Cale McCoy. Beginning routine diagnostic check." The hatch to the mech hissed shut and a dim blue light filled the cockpit. It came from a central monitor in front of him, it started feeding various bits of numerical data.

After a few minutes of sitting in the cockpit then it pulled up a schematic of the mech itself and began analyzing the various mechanics within the mech itself. There was a dull thud on the hull of the mech that made Cale's ears twitch and stop writing on his datapad. He looked to where the noise came from and jumped when there was a banging on the hull then sighed growling. "in ainm Dhia Maria!" he shouted as he opened the cockpit and poked his head out staring at the female blue and white Husky that stood there looking up at him with her green eyes, looking comfy in her brown flight jacket. Grease stains covered the bottom portion of her suit. She smirked staring up at the well-built man. "How's my favorite Wusky doing?" she said swinging her tail back and forth. He blushed a deep red, she knew that got to him and that she knew he'd blush at that.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that sis?" he said as he paused the diagnostic program and climbed out of the mech and leaped to the ground and tucked the datapad in his pocket.

"Oh come on now Cale, you know I can't resist calling you that, you look too cute when you blush!" She pinched his cheek and smiled. He sighed and stared at her and smiled a little.

"Having fun with the ships engines?" He asked. She gave a simple nod still smiling. He shook his head and smirked. They had both signed up and were luckily stationed on the same ship. He was glad to see one of his sisters here on the ship, the other, Ash, was back on Leben as a doctor.

"Look, I've got to finish the tune-ups on the mech sis, I'll catch you back at the Galley for lunch, alright?" He said.

she nodded "you better not be working too late Cale!" she said as she walked off. He smiled and turned back towards the mech.

"Attention all hands, prepare to exit Jump, we've picked up an SOS signal. We are to drop out of the FTL and investigate. Once we exit FTL, all hands are to be at yellow alert." Said the Captains voice over the intercom. Cale cursed under his breath as he finished up the reoutine diagnostic on his mech and then began to secure it.

............................................

They exited the wormhole, Captain Scheck could feel the deck beneath his feet shutter as gravitational forces exerted themselves on the ship. The lights and consoles around the bridge flickered for several seconds then came back on. Captain Scheck tapped his earpiece and opened communication with engineering and asked, "Report?"

"Energy fluctuations. Running Diagnostics." Miranda replied back. "Believe the energy fluctuations were caused by the use of Gate Travel sir. May need Research and Development to take a look at the Serenity. Possiblity of total power failure using the new Gate Drive. Suggest we only use Alcubierre Drive and Jump Drives for the time." She explained.

Captain Scheck nodded in agreement. He couldn't take the chance that they'd lose complete power. The Gate Drive was still brand new and was bound to have issues. "Very well Miranda." He replied, and closed communications to engineering

"Liahm, I need the coordinates to the SOS." said Ensign Nielson as he punched in several numbers into the console in front of him.

"Sending them now Ensign Nielson." Replied a cool female voice. It was the ship's Artificial Intelligence.

"Received the coordinates, setting course now." replied Ensign Nielson.

"I want a report on whats out there." said Captain Scheck as he swiveled in his chair staring at the monitors in front of him.

"We're getting them in now Captain." replied a woman to the far left of him.

"Alright Ensign, bring us in close." Captain Scheck ordered.

"Aye Captain." Ensign Nielson responded. The viewport tilted as the ship turned onto its new course.

"We should be at the source in 12 minutes Captain, we exited Gate Travel rather close to it." Ensign Nielson said. The Captain nodded and looked out the viewport. He could make out the remnants of a starship off in the distance, her lights still flickering on and off.

"Liahm, have you identified the ship that the source is coming from?" Captain Scheck asked.

"Negative Captain, but I am close to finding the serial nu-" she stopped.

"Liahm?" Captain Scheck asked.

"Serial number USC56398-A. Searching database for the ship that matches the service number. One minute." It was silent on the bridge for a minute until she said "It's the UGSM Valkyrie." The Captains eyes went wide with shock. The Valkyrie was, in a sense regarding her class, a sister ship to the Serenity. The only difference between the two was that Valkyrie had advanced cloaking abilities but lacked the firepower the Serenity had. She was sent out of dry dock only months before the Serenity was ready. It was troubling news to hear that the Valkyrie was sending out an SOS, possibly disabled or destroyed and drifting in space.

"All hands, Red Alert! We are to remain at it until we are certain we are the only active ship out here. I want long-range sensors going nonstop, anything that isn't Human or Pelzigan will be deemed hostile. Ensign Nielson, bring us in close. Prepare a boarding party to go and search the ship for its flight recorder and get any and all survivors on board the Serenity. Deploy two of the five Freighters we have stowed in the ship, set them up in a defensive position. Nothing gets in or out. Let's go to it people!" The Captain ordered. All the lights dimmed and turned red, an alarm sounded. "I want several squadrons of fighters out on a patrol."

"Yes sir!" responded the bridge crew in unison.

Akutenshi stared up at the ceiling and took a deep breath when the lights went dim and turned red, an alarm sounded. Not good. He sat up from his bed and looked around. His and Cale's quarters were small, a single bed, not bad seeing as the two were together, a simple desk with a lamp and computer. It was only about sixty square feet wide. Big enough for two, that's all they needed. He walked over to the closet and began stripping and putting on his uniform. The standard grey uniform with the patch of seven planets circling a star with the words UGSM above the picture and the words Unified Galactic Systems Military down below. His rank, Sergeant was displayed on the collar of the shirt. He began slipping on his grey pants and black boots when his coms started beeping. "Ishimura here." He said as he tapped a button to reply to whoever was trying to reach him. "Sergeant Ishimura, you're wanted in hanger A1 on level 31, Get there as soon as possible." Came one of the Master Sergeants voices over the coms. "Understood, Ishimura out." He replied back as he tapped the coms off. He finished strapping the boots on and checking to make sure everything was in order on his uniform and headed out the door.

He entered the hanger and saw Cale, Miranda, Haki, and Cale's sister, Maria. In front of them all was a dark-skinned Human Master Sergeant, tall, thin, yet muscular with piercing blue eyes in the typical gray combat armor. "Reporting in sir!" Akutenshi said as he trotted over to the rest of the group giving a quick salute when he reached them. The Captain, a tall light-skinned Human in the typical light grey officers uniform stood next to the Master Sergeant with a concerned look on his eyes.

"Good, now people, I want you all to listen closely and carefully. We are currently at red alert, and have picked up on an SOS signal. It is coming from the Stealth Class War Freighter the UGSM Valkyrie." The Captain said.

That sent a bit of a shock to Akutenshi. The Valkyrie was one of the more advanced Starships the UGSM had, she had only been in service for approximately six months. She wasn't nearly as advanced as the Serenity but she could probably knock Serenity down a few pegs and probably leave her more than just crippled if they were to fight each other. The Master Sergeant stared at Akutenshi. "The Captain wants your team to be deployed and investigate the Valkyrie, find her flight recorder, any survivors, and then prepare the Valkyrie to be towed by the Serenity. We have yet to locate any nearby ships that may have been capable of taking her out, but we have deployed two of the five freighters that were stored in the Serenity as well as several squadrons of fighters to help scout the perimeter for any hostiles. So, with that being said, you shouldn't have to worry about being attacked by ship, but much rather if any hostiles are on board the Valkyrie. With that, we will be keeping close tabs on you guys, if we have to we can deploy a transporter circuit to your location and teleport you out of there. Is there anything you'd like to add in Captain?"

The Master Sergeant looked at the Captain and the Captain nodded as he stepped forward. "Now listen up! I want this to go smoothly, no screwing around. At the first sign of trouble or any hostile ships I want you all to return to the ship immediately and prepare for an emergency Jump. But that is needless to say as I'm sure you all know that by now. The Serenity will be on standby and we'll keep as close to the Valkyrie as possible. That is all." He said. The Captain stood back and nodded to the group and then walked towards the hanger door and made his way back to the bridge.

"Alright people, you have your orders! Get to the Valkyrie and find the flight recorder along with any and all survivors!" The man shouted as he turned and walked out of the hanger. A small dropship was soon brought in and they loaded up, Cale in the cockpit prepping the dropship for take-off. The engines warmed up as the hatches closed. There was a low rumbling as the engines went online and started up. Akutenshi could feel the ship lift off the ground and begin moving forward. They flew off into space and headed towards the massive starship.

"Cale, adjust your heading and proceed carefully, you'll be entering debris field from the Valkyrie." Maria said.

"Understood Maria, adjusting heading." Cale and Maria were taking every precaution to avoid trouble or hull breaches. "We're approaching the Valkyrie, ETA is 5 minutes. The Serenity really did park close to her." He said, Akutenshi stood up and made his way into the cockpit and stared out at the darkened figure of the Valkyrie. He got an eerie feeling just staring at the ship that made his fur stand on end. There were chunks of the hull missing and electricity flashing throughout the ship from damaged circuits, motherboards, you name it, were sparking. There were a few lights on the upper levels of the ship that flickered on and off every few minutes. The ship was almost half the size of the Serenity, and it was scary knowing that a new warship could be taken out and was now just adrift in space. Cale looked over to Akutenshi and put his paw on his. Akutenshi stared down at him and saw the worried look on his face. "I don't like the look of this." He said to Cale.

"I know Hun, but we've got a job. Besides, I highly doubt whoever attacked her stuck around long enough for us to see them." Cale responded.

"That's what worries me, we don't know who or what attacked her." Akutenshi said as he walked into the back of the dropship and took his seat.

"Alright people, we're-cac naoFA: " Cale shouted as there was a thud against the ship hull. Akutenshi quickly got back up and ran to the cockpit and saw a long Human, his skin a light gray color, his eyes bloodshot, and an arm and leg missing. The man's blood was floating out in space. The look on his face was complete terror. Akutenshi wanted to vomit at the sight of seeing the man. Poor Human. They watched as the body slid off the viewport of the craft leaving a blood streak on it.

"Cale, brighten the lights." Akutenshi said. Cale punched in several commands and the lights in front of the shuttle brightened. What they saw put them all in shock. There were both Pelzigans and Humans floating in space, all torn apart and the same exact look that the man they had just hit had.

"Cad é san ifreann?" Cale said in a low voice.

"Take us towards the umbilical." Maria said.

"Why?" Cale asked.

"Because sensors show that the hangers energy shields don't have power being supplied to them, we land there and step out, we'll suffocate and die." Maria stated.

"Got it Maria, setting course for the nearest Umbilical." Cale slowly maneuvered the ship into position next to the umbilical and began docking procedures and extending their ships umbilical out towards the Valkyrie. "Attaching the Umbilical now." There was the sound of several latches securing against both hulls. "Securing Umbilical and pressurizing interior." There was a soft hiss and the monitors in the cockpit confirmed pressure and oxygen. "Okay, we're good!" Cale yelled back and heard the group stand up and open their end of the umbilical and step onto the short tube.

"We'll report back as soon as we can Cale, try not to leave us." Akutenshi said as he followed the group into the umbilical and Cale gave a small nod. The group reached the end of the umbilical and opened the other side and stepped in.

"Alright people, activate night vision." Akutenshi said, activating his. The room around them became eliminated in a green-tinted color but allowed them to see perfectly fine. "Alright guys, arm yourselves." He said, Everyone nodded and pulled out an M17A Assault Rifle they had brought with them from the dropship and clicked their safety's off. "Let's get that flight recorder, find out what happened." He motioned for them to proceed, Haki took point and Miranda took the rear. They kept their guns ready to fire in case they ran into something they didn't want standing. They proceeded down the hallway that was a diagnally shape which was littered with metal panels, wires, and several other components Akutenshi couldn't make out. They soon came to two other paths. Akutenshi brought up the ships schematics on his wrist pad and pointed to the left route, they continued. Eventually they came across several Human bodies, all of their life signs read deceased. Akutenshi shook his head and motioned for the group to continue. The lights flickered off and on as they got closer to the bridge. They soon came across a heavy metal grey bulkhead that had sealed shut. The panel to the left of it flickered on and off. "Haki, take a look at it, see if you can open it." Akutenshi ordered. Haki nodded and went up to the panel and took it off the wall and began messing with it. There was a creaking sound coming from the hull.

"Sounds like she's not going to last much longer on this deck Akutenshi." Miranda said.

Akutenshi nodded in agreement. "Haki, hurry it up." He said.

"I'm going as fast as I can Akutenshi, this is being a bigger pian sa asal than it should be." Haki responded. There was a sudden squeal and the whole ship shook violently knocking everyone to the ground. "Haki, we need to get this thing open Now!" Akutenshi said, his voice raised, Haki got back on his feet and moved a few more wires around and the bulkhead opened with a loud hiss. "Move in!" Akutenshi said and they proceeded in. They were met with several dead bodies sitting in their chairs at their consoles, all of them had blown and it was apparent that the shards from their desks and consoles had fatally hit them. A Pelzigan male Tiger had a shard of metal protruding from his chest. Akutenshi looked around and took a deep breath and proceeded onto the bridge and towards the Captain's chair. He kneeled down and put his paws on a panel that was on the floor. He punched in several codes and a part of the floor behind the Captain's chair gave off a low hiss as it rose up revealing a metal red box. The flight recorder. He reached over and grabbed hold of it, pulling it out. The hull creaked once again and Akutenshi checked his wrist pad out and studied it. As he feared, they wouldn't have enough time to search for survivors. The sensors were showing structural failure throughout the entire ship. Several sections had decompressed completely and if they stayed any longer they'd more than likely end up dead. "Alright, we got the flight recorder. Let's proceed to the Umbilical." Akutenshi said.

"What about the survivors?" Miranda asked.

He sighed "At the rate of decay this ship is in, I don't think we'll have time to-" mid-sentence he stopped, they weren't alone on the bridge. Miranda and Haki could hear it too. A soft scuttle of feet across the floor. It came from behind the Helms control. Akutenshi raised his gun and stood up carefully and proceeded to it. "Come out with your hands up, and we won't shoot." He said in a cool calm voice. He waited a few seconds then saw a pair of white hands pop up. A man, not even in his mid-twenties, stood up. His brown hair was a mess, his face had some blood caked on it and his uniform was torn. But that wasn't what made Akutenshi stare at the man in shock. On his right arm there was a small green color emanating from it, it was barely visible but Akutenshi could make out ancient Pelzigan markings on the man's arm. It wasn't possible. Humans had no Guardians, not that they knew of. "Who are you?!" He said in an angered tone. The thought of Human having Guardian abilities was unimaginable.

The man looked terrified but responded in a shaken voice "Lance Corporal Lupin, s-sir."

Akutenshi nodded and gathered himself. "Any other survivors on board?" He asked.

"Not that I know of sir, I'm sorry. I've been here for a few hours and I haven't heard a word or anything. I'm sorry." Lupin said, Akutenshi nodded. The hull creaked yet again.

"Akutenshi, we need to get out of here! The hull is beyond its limits. This section of the ship could go in any minute!" Haki said in a worried tone.

"Understood, let's make our way-" Akutenshi started, but was interrupted as the hull underneath him warped and buckled, he fell face-first against the floor. Damn it! He quickly got back up and grabbed Lupins hand and pulled him forward. "Run!" He shouted. "Back to the Dropship!" He saw Haki and Miranda turn and start running, Lupin being pulled by Akutenshi. He broke out into a full on sprint as sparks started shooting out of control panels and loose wiring around the room. The ship's hull was badly damaged, it was stressing itself trying to stay together. There were multiple cracks and a white mist started spraying out into the emptiness of space, the oxygen was beginning to vent. He ran as fast as he could, the floor beneath him began to buckle again and he almost lost his footing but managed to avoid falling over. There was a loud screeching noise and metal panels started falling from the ceiling, wires came down sparking and the lights began going off section by section in the ship.

They made their way back towards the Umbilical and made their way back into the dropship. "What the Ifreann is happening Hun!?" Cale shouted back.

"Take off! The ship's hull is buckling! Get us out of here!" Akutenshi shouted. Cale turned towards the monitors on the dropship and it came to life. He retracted their Umbilical and shot off full throttle back to the ship. Behind them, the section that the Umbilical was connected to caved in and began crumpling like a paper followed by an explosion, no fire, no color, just a bright white mist came out as pieces of the hull came flying out. There was no noise.

"Serenity, this is Corporal Cale McCoy, we are enroute to the ship. Got one survivor and the flight recorder." Cale said. He waited for a response.

"Understood Corporal, get back to the Serenity ASAP, we're reading several Lothian Battle Cruiser Jump signatures a few kilometers out. We're preparing everyone for an emergency jump." Responded the Captain.

"Understood!" Cale said. He punched it flying between pieces of the hull of the Valkyrie and small shards of metals. The Serenity came into view. The two Freighters that the Serenity had deployed were being docked into the belly of the ship and the doors sealed. Several squadrons of fighters formed around the dropship. Off to the left in the far distance, they saw several bright lights shine then dissipate.

"All hands, battle stations! Cale, get your ship back here!" Captain Scheck ordered over communications.

"Yes, sir!" Cale responded. He pushed the dropship as hard as he could, the escort fighters kept up.

"We've got your six, just get back to the ship!" One of the pilots said over communications.

"Understood!" Cale Responded. The fighters formed a defensive pattern around the dropship. The Serenity was just ahead of them when a bright blue light flashed in front of them. "Everyone hold on!" Cale shouted into the comms as he angled the dropship to avoid the wormhole. On the other side he saw a massive black ship emerging from it. It was like no other Lothian ship he had seen. The front of the ship had multiple long spikes that had several lights flashing on and off. As the rest of the ship emerged, it was round and smooth with hundreds of cannons on her hull. "Oh my Gods...." he uttered as the massive ship exited the wormhole. It was the same size as the Serenity! "Captain, we have an unidentified ship that just dropped out of a Jump in front of us, looks like it's heading your way!" Cale said into communications.

"We see it! Get back here now!" Captain Scheck responded. Immediately the Lothian ship fired at the large grey UGSM Vessel, the ships shield flickered multi colors ranging from red, blue, green, and grey, then dissipated. The laser tore through her shields and hit her directly, there was an explosion. Serenity returned fire with her own phasors, they hit a darkened grey shield that didn't even falter. They continued to fire their weapons at the enemy ship but no luck. The ship's shields stood. Cale had docked into the Serenity when the ship fired a missile into the hanger they were in. There was a bright flash of light as the missile hit inside the ship and blew up. The Dropship was thrown against the wall by the blast and Cale's head went full force into the control panel knocking him out. Maria shook violently in her seat as she cracked the back of her skull and fell unconscious. Akutenshi was the only one in the back not strapped in, he was flung back and forth, he closed his eyes and focused and the markings on his right arm began to glow. There were secondary explosions but he was able to conjure a shield around the ship protecting them. The intense pain that went throughout his body was too much, but he maintained the shield until the explosions stopped and allowed the darkness to swallow him.

.......................................

"Captain, our shields are recharging! FTL engines are ready!" Ensign Nielson said.

"Set us a course to Leben!" Captain Scheck Ordered.

"Already set sir, beginning jump sequence!" Ensign Nielson responded. The Captain looked around, sparks flew all over the bridge as they took hit after hit from the enemy ship.

"Sir, There was an explosion in hanger A1 on Level 31!" shouted a woman on the far left of the bridge. He cursed under his breath, that's where Akutenshi's dropship was.

"Send in medics and fire control!" Captain Scheck ordered.

"Yes, sir!" She responded. The view screen angled towards the emptiness of space. He could feel himself being pulled out of his own body then felt like he was slammed back into it, the Orange planet known as Leben was a small sphere in the distance, they had escaped but still had at least another three hours or so at warp before they reached Leben. "I want a full damage report. Send a message to HQ, let them know we've engaged a new ship and were forced to retreat." Captain Scheck ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Responded one of the Officers.

"I'll be in the med bay." Captain Scheck said as he stood up and walked towards the elevator and got in. "Level 12, Med Bay" The door shut on him and he was on his way to the med-bay.