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Chapter 6: Everlont

Location: Outside Mass Cannon Complex, Aegis

Cale's mech stomped around the edge of the lake, it's sensors pinging the location around it for any contacts, none. He punched in a command and the Mech's AI, Jack, activated. "Jack, current situation of the space battle?" He asked. He knew it was probably under control, the Cannon had fired and all of his electronics went nuts with static and errors for a brief period of time, then the explosion and the reports he was able to catch showed that the battle had tipped into the UGSM's favor.

"Fleet is reporting that few enemy vessels are still in tact, some have managed to escape, while others are severely damaged and are attempting to either escape with impulse power or are on a kamikaze run towards friendly vessels." replied a calm, smooth, male voice. "Other mech squads are reporting drop ships attempting to take off to escape the planet, most have been intercepted after they leave the atmosphere of the planet while others have changed course in an attempt to find a location on the planet to hide. There are reports of a rogue Guardian initiating Guerrilla Tactics with a small task force. Friendly forces with the aid of the Talkenshi have secured the Mass Cannon and are dispatching Guardian teams to find and eliminate the rogue Guardian." Jack told him. "There is a lot of comm traffic coming in from civilian vessels that where caught in the EMP and are currently in orbit around the planet requesting immediate aid as well as a few that managed to perform an emergency landing requesting medical attention. A few of our Frigates have reported power fluctuations throughout their ship disabling their engines and other key systems. Orders are being handed out from the Serenity."

"Alright Jack, give me the squads orders." Cale ordered. Jack, despite being just reactivated, is never fully deactivated. Jack, like most AI's, remain functional and collect data and Intel and are capable of relaying last minute orders that may have been missed as well as tactical data and have the ability to reactivate themselves during emergency situations. At least, that was for mech AI's, ship AI's where far different. Ship AI's are designed with enhanced infiltration programs as well as electronic warfare measures and counter measures in the event that their ship engages a hostile force. All while also monitoring the ship itself, they could monitor the ships 'life signs' such as energy output, sensors, and the generators placed on board a ship. If something where to go wrong, such as the engineering deck lost all atmosphere and the engineering crew was dead, the AI would assume control of the engineering deck and would be capable of monitoring the engine output, reactors, generators, and power output to the rest of the ship and could regulate how much comes in and out of those outputs as well as deactivate certain sectors of the ship, lock them down, open them up, vent atmosphere on decks where boarders where located at, shut down power to decks, and had control of the internal sensors when need be. Simply, those AI's where smarter than the one in his mech which was capable of at least half of what the ship AI's could do, with restrictions.

"Serenity is ordering our squad plus Omega to form a defensive perimeter around the Mass Cannon, all other mech's are to head for the FOB set up just outside the nearest city." Jack said.

"Acknowledge those orders Jack." Cale replied. Things seemed to have started turning around for them down on the planet, the enemy ground forces where broken and scattered, their reinforcements from the fleet that had came in where now attempting to retreat, if the battle communications where anything to go by, and it seemed as though this battle was close to over. "O'Malley, suggestions on forming a defensive perimeter?"

"There's a ridge approximately five kilometers due north, suggest we send Ashley up there to take up sniper position and have Jenkins tag along as spotter. Have Omega take up formation inside the jungle with their active camo units. We'll take position at the bridge." O'Malley responded. Cale thought it over, things didn't go the way he thought they would, with enemy forces taking control of the city and the remaining civilians panicking and causing a massive uproar trying to leave the city, and that they didn't have as much company as he was expecting. Something didn't seem right, yeah, things could go right and this is just good luck, but there was something about the situation that seemed to unnerve him. But what was it?

"Let's do it, O'Malley have the drones ready to repair Omega's mech's when their systems overheat due to the humidity and heat here. They'll need it." He said.

"Those drones can only do so much, when they get back to the Serenity they'll need to be thoroughly cleaned and components are going to fry on their mech's." O'Malley explained.

"How long can the drones keep them going?" Cale asked.

"I'd say repair their units at least three times before I'll have to go out there myself and rig their units to stay active. Whatever is on this planet is causing all kinds of issues! And I think Stratton is acting up, make sure you take time to check his components in the mech to ensure that there is nothing building up on them Cale. Getting some weird feed back from your mech AND him." O'Malley responded, sounding a little agitated.

"Alright, you'll take first watch then, I'll shut the mech and Jack down to check him and the mech out. Ashley you head up to your position, Jenkins go with her and until I can get Stratton back up and running you'll be running comms full time as well. Omega, go into the foliage and the trees, activate your camo units and keep an eye out, you see anything, report it and take it out. Same to you Ashley and Jenkins." Cale ordered. Ashley's and Jenkins acknowledgment lights in his HUD went green in acknowledgment. He saw the two start in the direction of the cliff. Now, they where getting set up, he would have to wait approximately twenty minutes before Omega showed up, and he hoped nothing would happen during that time. And now that the sun had set and the moon was out, they'd have to be careful.

Location: Inside the Mass Cannon Complex

Akutenshi followed Grimm down a set of metal corridors to a big rectangular room. Instruments lined along the walls and a holographic display at the center where active. Grimm had asked him to join him in going to this room, to ensure that nothing else had been messed with. And judging by Grimm's expression, the Lothians had done something.

"What is it?" Akutenshi asked.

Grimm growled quietly, and looked at him. "The Shiyoa's have activated the matrix."

"The what?" Akutenshi raised an eyebrow.

"The Matrix, an intricate system that is meant to mess with electronics. With it they can commence an electronic warfare of sorts with a ship in the atmosphere, they can also mess with a ships AI." Grimm responded walking over to the holographic display at the center and raised a paw at it and moved displays around, rearranging them and his eyes widened. "Order your captain to shut down any and all ship AI's!"

"What is it?!" Akutenshi demanded.

"They activated the matrix and have it set to target any and all AI's in your fleet and," He growled louder, "Within any ground units capable of housing one."

Shit, Akutenshi tapped his comm piece on, "Ishimura to all Serenity, FOB Alicia, and mech's, you need to shut down your AI's immediately! The Lothians have activated a device that will target and corrupt your AI's! Order all ships to shut their AI's down now!" He said.

Location: Serenity bridge, orbiting Aegis.

Akutenshi's voice boomed over the comms, panic gripped his voice. "Ishimura to Serenity, FOB Alicia, and mechs, shut down your AI's immediately! The Lothians have activated a device that will target and corrupt your AI's! Order all ships to shut their AI's down now!" He said.

The Captain acknowledged the transmission and looked over at the small female AI. "Liahm, you need to shut down temporarily." He said calmly to her. She stood there, unmoving, unresponsive. "Liahm?" He asked. She blinked, looked at him, and he saw a flash of red along her typical calm blue color.

"Error in processing, cannot complete function." Liahm stated, her voice cold and calm.

"Liahm!" The Captain ordered, "Shut down immediately!"

Her holographic projection tinted red, parts of her where now purple while others were red slowly swallowing the calm blue. "Error in processing matrix, hostiles detected in Cargo Bay Five, shutting down all hatches and venting atmosphere in five." She stated.

"Liahm disengage and shut down! Authorization Gamma-Nine-One!" The Captain shouted. On the upper right hand corner a small camera feed came to life showing the few individuals in Cargo Bay Five, moving about their business repairing damaged fighters, bombers, transports, and mechs. The lights inside the area dimmed red, an alarmed blare and blast doors shut closed on the few entrances into the Cargo Bay. Suddenly the blue shielding keeping the atmosphere from being sucked out flickered and began to fade. The people tried to grab hold of something anchored to the ground. Several where immediately sucked out into space, a few where holding on for dear life when a large shuttle came rolling onto them killing them. Blood smeared the deck where they use to be. Through the audio he could hear the sound of a freight train as all the atmosphere jettisoned out and suddenly no noise. Those that had managed to hold onto something now floated lifeless with no oxygen to fill their lungs, and their blood frozen inside their own bodies. A few of the bodies had let go of what they where holding and drifted through the Bay, their eyes were wide with terror, blood ran down their cheeks and drifted throughout the bay. Liahm's holographic self stood perfectly still, unmoved by what she had just done.

Then suddenly she flickered blue and looked around, calm. "What happened?" She asked.

"Liahm restore atmosphere to Bay Five." The Captain ordered, angrily.

"Restoring-" She stopped, and her 'eyes' widened. "What's going on Captain?" She asked.

"You need to restore atmosphere to the Bay and shut down immediately." The Captain ordered. She looked over at him and nodded flickering off. Suddenly all the lights dimmed red, and the Captain swore he heard the engines shut off. "Damn it." He mumbled. "Maria report!" He shouted over the comms.

"We're losing power to most critical systems Captain." She responded. "Engines are failing, Gravity Generators are going dark, weapons and shielding are offline."

Nielson turned to look at the Captain, "Captain, got some good news. We are in a stable orbit around Aegis, the gravity from the planet itself should keep us from floating around in most of the ship. It'll also give us time to fix the systems." He explained as he examined his console, then to the hardlight display hovering above it.

"Captain, we have about five hours of oxygen left here, it maybe enough time for me to get the power restored to life support." Maria reported. "Until then, everyone needs to stay calm, not panic, and don't exert more force than needed, try and conserve our oxygen."

The Captain nodded, "You heard the lady, everyone stay calm, we'll make it through this." Suddenly, two ships drifted in front of the screen, that wasn't good. Without power the view screen wouldn't work and was now just a window to the stars beyond it. That meant the two ships where right in front of them. One turned to it's port side, trying to evade the other ship and failed as the nose of the second collided into it. Atmosphere and debris shot out into the planet's atmosphere and out into space. They both began to tumble down towards the planet, now without power. The only thing they could do was sit and watch as stars twinkled in the view screen for the next two hours.

Then, another ship appeared in front of them. Massive with structures like thorns protruding from the front of the ship, and a smooth diamond shape for the mid section to the back, red lights lined the sides of the ship and the thorn like structures. They watched as the ship drifted on thrusters closer to theirs, everyone on edge, waiting to see what would happen. The whole bridge was dark without power to it, only the light from the sun shown through the view screen and illuminated parts of the bridge. The air had gotten a little colder. The Captain saw Atkinson motion in a few guards into the bridge, a safety precaution in case the bridge was boarded via teleporter, and they would handle the invader immediately. The Captain held his breath, then, a bright light formed at the center of the bridge in front of him. It started to mold into a bipedal figure, there was a soft sound like the wind as the thing began to take shape. A head with a long muzzle, a tail, ears, then it started adding color and formed into a wolf in a heavy poncho, rags torn around it and the poncho enveloping the rest of his body stood in front of the Captain within a matter of seconds. He grinned staring down at the Captain and then looked up at the security personnel and raised a single paw into the air. The air shimmered around his arm leading up to his paw, strange orange markings shined through the raged holes in the poncho and up to a gloved paw and suddenly, the few security personnel that Atkinson had brought in screamed, covering their ears, blood ran down their cheeks, muzzles, and then went silent and crumbled to the floor.

The Captain tensed, ready for whatever this individual was gonna do, one thing was for certain though, it was a Guardian. But what did he want? The Captain looked up at the Pelzigan, a Wolf with pitch black fur, one blood red eye stared back at him, the other a hollow white color with a long pink scar running down it. His left ear looked like half of the top had been torn off, ragged skin shown the scar there, Cuts and scars lined the mans forearm up to a gloved paw. "Now that that's handled." He said to the Captain grinning, "Let us talk about a certain someone and what will happen to this ship." The man chuckled, his voice deep and harsh. Scheck's look turned from one of anger to horror. It couldn't be possible, the man that stood before him was suppose to be dead back on Eridanus, almost twenty years ago. There was no way this man could be Akutenshi's father. But the man looked almost identical to his father, minus the torn ear and dead eye.

"Everlont." The Captain murmured.

"So you do remember me?" Everlont responded with a wide grin, fangs showing.

"I remember you died twenty years ago, running off to draw the attention of a group of Lothian soldiers so that I could get your wife and your son to safety." The Captain said, anger rising in his tone. "You cannot be Everlont."

Everlont raised a finger to the Captain and shook it, "Uh-uh, I'm alive, and I'm here to take my son back with me, and to eliminate the only true threat to our forces, you."

Atkinson growled and Everlont snarled back, "Quiet cat, before I decide to make you into a new pelt. Now, from what I've been told you took good care my son for me, and I'm grateful that you chose to let him lead his own life and become a Guardian like his dear old dad. But, I must scold you for allowing him to become.....strange." Nielson took a deep breath behind the man and reached under his console, pulling a small hand gun out from underneath it, an older model that he had gotten permission to keep with him, and then stood up and fired at Everlont hitting him in the shoulder. Everlont howled in anger and turned to face the Ensign who fired again, but this time a shield formed around Everlont. He raised his paw to Nielson, and an invisible force threw the Ensign over the console and up against the view port. Nielson landed back on the floor with a thud, barely moving. "Filth!" Everlont shouted nursing his injured shoulder, "Mey! Never shoot at me again!" He continued to scream in anger as Nielson slowly got to his hands and knees, wincing in pain.

He growled and turned back to the Captain who had stood up and stared him right in his eyes, glaring. "What do you mean?" The Captain demanded.

"That you allowed him to fall in love with someone of the same sex." Everlont responded, "plain and simple, you allowed my son to become an abomination, allowed him to be weak, and I'm here to take him back. Teach him what I know, and rid of that little issue he has."

"There is nothing wrong with him falling in love with Cale." The Captain responded. "and I know you, you're not only here to take him back over that reason, there is much more."

"Because I love him! Because I miss him! Because me and him are so much alike, his powers are growing and with him by my side, and Kai's, he can help us take you vermin down, help us retake the Pelzigan civilization and rebuild it while we crush Humanity into the dust! He has a much higher calling than you or me, and he must fulfill it!" He screamed at the Captain, a deep growl in his voice. Scheck stared into Everlont's one good eye and shook his head. "And I intend on obliterating this ship into a thousand pieces, I intend on killing my enemies and the Pelzigans who side with the Humans." He growled as a light started to envelop him. Within a matter of seconds he was gone and the Captain took several deep breaths.

"Maria, status on power?" He asked over the Comms after gaining his composure.

"Almost there, what's going on?" She responded.

"We're gonna get hit, hard. I need power in the next thirty seconds." He ordered. Suddenly they saw the large ships weapons power up, beams streaked across space and started to slam into the ship. The deck rumbled, rocked, and groaned as the ship took several hits. The Captain cursed as he saw several red dots burst from the ship. They trailed ghostly trails in the darkness of space and slammed into the front of his ship. Fire engulfed the view screen and vanished as the atmosphere on the deck below jettisoned oxygen out putting the flames out. Without power there was no way to seal the bulk head doors on that deck to keep atmosphere in. Several bodies, some with twisted limbs from being thrown about the hallways and out the holes in the ship, floated in front of the screen. Suddenly another beam struck the side of the ship and the view screen lurched to the left and angled into the planet. The Captain was thrown clear of his chair, tossed to the ground. He struggled to get back into his seat. He gritted his teeth as the ship continued to shake. Suddenly, the lights flickered on. He could hear the engines powering up and smiled, she did it.

"Captain, minimum power restored, we'll have sensors, engines, life support and lighting throughout the ship. Not much else is guaranteed, the power couplings for the phaser banks are shot and will need to be replaced! Conventional weapons systems would require we divert energy else where to power them. Shielding is going to be minimal." She reported over the working comms.

"All hands prepare for emergency maneuvers!" He shouted as Nielson scurried back into his seat and punched in several commands. "Ensign!" He shouted

"Sir?!" Nielson shouted back responding.

"Forget regulations on how to fly a ship this size, I think it's time we put your skills to the test, do what you have to do to maneuver us through the planets atmosphere and out at another point! There is no point of trying to turn this ship around and go back through our entry point!" He stated.

"You got it!" Nielson responded. He grabbed a round hardlight device and twisted it, the Captain heard the engines fire and the decks rattled as they both increased in speed and velocity, and took hits from the enemy ship. The ship shook so violently that the Captain thought it was tearing itself apart, it probably was on certain decks. They tilted to the right and the Captain saw the clouds enveloping his ship then the view screen lifted above the clouds. The HUD had came back online as the ship began to tilt in an attempt to avoid another volley of beams from the other ship. One beam streaked in front of them and dissipated as they went through it. Several stations blew out, members of the bridge crew standing at them screamed out in pain as they flew back, shrapnel blowing outwards into their faces from the glass and metal of the monitors. The Captain gripped his seat, Nielson worked furiously to control the ship as he began to spin the large star ship in a counter-clock wise motion. The Captain could feel his stomach lurching as the ship made a sudden ascension, nose up, towards space still spinning. They emerged out of the planets atmosphere and Nielson punched all engines to their max speed. Warning sirens blared as the engines began to overheat from the sudden acceleration, trying to give the ship the maximum thrust. They maneuvered more, avoiding more and more fire from the enemy ship, sparks flew across the bridge and the blown monitors began to emit smoke. Atkinson had moved towards one of the fallen bridge crew and held them where they where to keep them from sliding across the deck. The big muscular Tiger looked out at the stars in astonishment and fear, his tail lashing back and forth.

"Captain, we keep this up we're gonna blow the engines!" Maria declared over the comms.

"We can't stop yet, Ensign Nielson get us to the planet's moon! Loop orbit! Maximum speed!" The Captain shouted. "Maria we need an extra few minutes of maximum thrusters from the engines, keep them going!"

"I'm working on it!" She screamed in annoyance as alarms blared over the comms in response. The ship spun, ducked, and swerved to avoid incoming fire, warnings blared over the monitors showing several sections in different decks had blown and decompressed from the sudden excursion of force and exit from the planet's atmosphere. They headed towards one of the three moons orbiting Aegis, it grew bigger and bigger as they got closer.

This was not good, Scheck felt the deck beneath him shutter and groan, more monitors around them blew out jutting debris, smoke, and sparks. Within a matter of minutes they entered the orbit of the moon and began a sling shot orbit, decelerating to grant them few precious extra minutes they would need to re-strategize. "Report!" The Captain demanded.

"Multiple hull breaches, almost all decks, several hundred, maybe a couple thousand casualties reported across the ship sir." Atkinson said as he stood over the op's station. "Slingshot orbit established, we'll be exiting in fifteen."

"Maria?" Scheck asked over the comms.

"Engines are about to enter emergency shut down, the Alcubierre drive was close to losing containment on anti-matter. Gate system is inoperable for the time being, sustained too much damage for us to even consider using it." She reported. "Beginning emergency cool down, use the moon's gravitational pull to accelerate us, within five minutes emergency venting will be done and we can punch it again for maybe thirty minutes. All engineering crew have reported in to try and help with the engines and weapons systems as well as shielding but no guarantee on getting those back so soon!"

Not the best scenario, but at least they bought themselves time to try and fix something and get a plan into motion. "Status of the other ships?" He asked to Atkinson.

"Several where immediately destroyed by another Lothian vessel that de-cloaked just outside the weapons platform's range. We've lost orbital stations Orion, Beginning's End, and Alduin. All others are currently experiencing power fluctuations from the recent electronics attack from the planet's surface. Mass Cannon has experienced electronic malfunction from the attack, effectively, we have no Mass Cannon sir!" Atkinson reported.

The Captain thought for a moment then said "Do any ships have power?"

"Affirmative." Atkinson responded.

"Tell them to regroup in orbit above the Mass Cannon on the planet and meet us there then." He ordered, Atkinson nodded and began to send out orders to the remaining ships. "Tell any and all stations to use their thrusters to accelerate there as well."

"What's the plan?" Atkinson asked.

"Simple, form a defensive positions above the Mass Cannon and give them as much time as possible to repair it." The Captain responded. The Mass Cannon would be needed to even the playing field. The AA Batteries on the planets surface would be able to defend the evacuation zones.

Location: Cliff side near Mass Cannon.

Jenkins kept a watchful eye out over the horizon for any incoming hostiles, worry setting in as they had gotten report to temporarily shut down their mech's. They had done so and Ashley had pulled out a sniper that she had stowed away in the mech and was sitting through the scope. The night air bristled against them. The two Humans watched dutifully off into the distance, waiting for the first sign of trouble. There where several solid thumps and Jenkins grabbed hold of a large cannon and jumped to his feet aiming at whatever was coming. Ashley kept her eye out over the cliff, ready to pick off any infantry that tried to come through. Jenkins hands shook, and he watched as a pale blue bulky mech came through the trees. "About damn time." Jenkins stated. "It's O'Malley, he's come with the supplies to debug the systems and repair a few of our power couplings in the mech's." He told Ashley as he walked over to the mech.

It stopped in front of them and the hatch at the chest opened up and O'Malley stepped out. He wore the same garbs they all wore, military tan jeans with a sleeveless Grey shirt and a leather tan jacket with the UGSM and Mech insignia's on his right shoulder. The wolf looked down at Jenkins and took a deep breath. He unhooked a small wire from the side of the hatch and hooked it onto himself. He hopped off the hatch and slowly fell to the ground and unhooked the wire which stayed in position and walked towards them. "Got the crap needed to fix your mech's up, open up the backs." He said. Jenkins nodded and ran to his mech on the left of the cliff side and climbed up the back. Both of their mech's had been shut down in a kneeling position and there where small divots in the armor made so they can climb to the back of the mech in case they needed to do emergency repairs out in the field. He got to the middle of the back and pushed in a small button, a keypad extended outwards and he punched in several commands. There was an audible hiss and the back of the mech opened up. He reached down and grabbed hold of a small lever, one of six, three in a row, and twisted it. It slowly hissed as he turned the lever and then began to pull the piece out. A long green glowing tube came out, humming, and there was an audible click. He looked behind him and saw the old wolf looking up at him and raise a paw to grab the small cylinder. He handed it down to O'Malley then moved over to a small panel with two latches and flipped them, pulled the panel off and a tangle of wires, cords, and dead lights shown. He climbed off the mech with the panel and stepped out of the way as O'Malley climbed up the mech and started to unhook a few of the wires and pull a few out carefully. Jenkins had deactivated the emergency power that kept the systems check running to keep the mech from becoming completely corrupt by the electronic warfare.

"Hand me the splicer." O'Malley demanded. Jenkins nodded and rummaged through a pack that he had left on the ground and found a small scanner with a long prong at the end of it and handed it up to O'Malley. O'Malley maneuvered the small prong and inserted it into a small hole in the mech and flipped the device on. Data scrolled across the pad and he began to move streams aside until he came across one that was broken up and incomplete. He began to type in new commands from the small device to rewrite and rework the missing pathways for the mech's systems and grinned as they started to be filled back in. "Whatever those Shiyoa's did," He said, "it's fixable, take some time to rewrite all this data and complete the missing codes, but it's fixable. Maybe an hour per mech to rewrite the data stream and codes. Now, we have a few fried circuits and components that will need to be replaced, some of which I don't have the replacement parts for and with the fight upstairs going both ways I won't be able to requisition those parts for a while."

"What's going on upstairs?" Jenkins asked.

O'Malley looked down at him and put the pad down, "Like I said, both ways. Both sides have an advantage, the Serenity has taken severe damage along with several orbital platforms have been obliterated, a new ship has entered the fray, and the remaining ships are gathering at one point of the planet to try and push on the enemy ship and force them out of the system. But the new ship has some new toys that it's been using and without the mass cannon, it'll take a few on point ARC's to penetrate that ships shielding according to some of the sensor readings I've been getting from the Serenity and orbiting stations that aren't destroyed yet. So they've still got a battle up there to fight, a long one. But the Captain is resourceful, I'm certain he'll find a way to beat them." He glanced back at the pad and picked it back up and nodded. "Hand me those power couplings." He told Jenkins. Jenkins reached back into the back and pulled out three moderate sized disks with wiring wrapped around them and handed it up to O'Malley. He went to work pulling out the older couplings, and then installing the new ones and then told Jenkins to hand up a few more items needed to get his mech back to working order. Within the hour, as O'Malley had promised, the mech was operating again.

Jenkins slid into the cockpit and began rebooting the system to make sure it was clean of any viruses or system malfunctions. The door hissed shut and monitors to either side of him came to life showing the status of the mech. He glanced over at the systems diagnostics and grinned seeing that it read all green across the board and began to power the mech up. Immediately comm's came online and he could hear the chatter from up in the planet's atmosphere and ships began to make preparations to take on the new enemy vessel. He switched it over to the ground teams comms and listened in as the mech powered up. "We have contacts two clicks south of your location Delta, split up and surround them."

"Copy Alpha, we're moving into position now." He could hear the leaders of Delta moving about in the jungle, branches snapped every so often but other than that, there was only the soft bristle of grass and leaves as they moved through the jungle. By the time they had reached their destination his mech was up and running and he continued to listen in. "Contacts dead ahead, Delta-One and Two has taken positions behind the enemies and are waiting for the go ahead." He could hear them clicking their safeties off, and then a loud crash. "The hell was that?" asked the squad leader.

"Unknown, hold position!" Responded a team leader. Jenkins tensed up and locked onto their location, he used the magnification on his mech's camera's to zoom into the area and saw a dark bulbous figure slowly moving towards them.

"Ah shit." He said as he keyed his com. "Delta this is Lance Corporal Jenkins, you have a Colossus coming in!" He shouted over the comm's. "Repeat, Colossus coming in! Get out of there!"

"LC Jenkins, we read you, all units pull back now!" Suddenly, he saw the figure raise an arm, a glowing white hot plasma round charged up aiming at the ground. "God damn it! Run!" The squad leader shouted over the comms. It fired, and static filled his cockpit.

"Delta come in!" He shouted. A few silent seconds passed by, "Delta-One?!" He repeated. Nothing. The figure continued to fire into the jungles, explosions and fire swept the surrounding area. "God damn it!" He shouted as he got ready to sprint at the giant being.

"Jenkins hold position." Cale ordered. "There are two more Colossus' in bound to that location. There is no way your mech alone could take them on."

Jenkins stopped and typed in a new command, a filmy green filter appeared on his screen illuminating the area in front of him. The sun had officially set, it's orange and pink rays hovered over the horizon and the two moons could be seen above the planet. Stars filtered in and he saw two more giant mech's appear with their cannons flashing, and then firing into the ground killing the remainder of Delta. Cale was right, it was only his mech and Cale's, two against three was not a good odd. Colossus' where the infantry variant of the Lothian mech's. They held a variety of armaments much like Cale's and his. But not nearly as dangerous as a Leviathan class mech. The bigger counterpart designed to assault ships and board the outside of the hull and tear it apart. He watched as they finished their task and then stood straight up and scanned the area. "All ground units fall back to Mass Cannon parameter, we need to keep them from taking it." Cale ordered through the comms. "All mech's should be operational in three hours, at that time we'll plan an ambush for both their foot soldiers and mech's. Cale out." The com went dead and Jenkins sat in his mech deep in thought, happy, that they were going to engage those bastards and take them out.

Jenkins acknowledged the order, and watched as the three Colossus' formed a search pattern. Within three hours the remaining mechs where operational and Jenkins grinned, eager to get back into the fight. "All mech's, this is McCoy, prepare for engagement." Said Cale over communications. There was a string of acknowledgements from the remaining mechs. It was time. Jenkins remained up on the cliff, a launcher in his mech's arms being aimed towards the three Colossus'. He waited for the targeting system to lock on, and then gave his confirmation he had lock on to Cale. Several green triangles popped up on the screen in front of Jenkins that showed what was going on outside his mech. They were rapidly approaching the three Colossus', the monstrous beasts had dozens of weapons placements with a slit at the center of the face that served as a viewport. The color of the beasts were a black and bronze coloring. There was a loud warbling sound that was emitted from the three as they raised their right arms towards the oncoming triangles. The things towered over the mechs. Jenkins clenched his teeth as he fired the launcher. A glowing blue ball of energy escaped from the muzzle of the weapon and shot towards the closest Colossus' knee. It's head turned to look at the oncoming blue ball of energy, and attempted to aim towards it and destroy the blue ball, but it was too late. The blue ball of energy impacted the knee joint with a thunderous explosion. Pieces of the knee joint blew in multiple directions and the Colossus wobbled where it stood, attempting to keep itself upright. For a few seconds Jenkins held his breath, then he saw the joint give out. The leg crumbled downwards, metal plating, gears, and other parts shot outwards with a secondary explosion going up the leg and into the chest which blew outwards. The beast let out a loud mechanical whining noise as it fell to the ground.

The other two Colossus' looked towards Jenkin's position, and raised their right arms, the weapons placements brimming with red lights as the weapons powered. "Crap." Jenkins said as he maneuvered the mech to drop off the cliff as the weapons fired. There was an explosion directly ahead of him as beams of red light hit where he had been. "Cale!" He said into his comms, "You were right, the other two locked onto me. I had to abandon post. Moving into another position to hit the other two."

There was a moment of silence, then Cale's voice said "Copy, we are moving to engage. Fire when ready."

Jenkins nodded in response as he maneuvered through the thick forest until he saw a small hill that would hopefully give him a clear shot. There were several loud bangs and he saw blue streaks of energy race towards the legs of the remaining two. He looked behind him and saw that Ashley had taken up position on another hill and was firing at the machines. He reached the top of the hill and positioned himself. He was right, he had a good field of view on the two machines and locked his next shot onto the left Colossus. He fired, this one looked towards the shot and attempted to stop it from hitting its leg, but also failed. It met the same end as the first one. There were now dozens of blue and green lights firing from below the forest canopy impacting the metal platting on the last one. He aimed towards it, and fired. The last Colossus' met the same fate as well. As it tumbled down, the green triangles swarmed around it and flashes of green and blue could be seen through the canopy of trees and then an explosion.

"This is McCoy to all mech's, mission complete. All three Colossus' down." Cale said over comms. "Good job."

Location: In orbit above Aegis, Serenity Conference Room

The Captain rubbed his eyes, feeling them wanting to close and rest and forced himself to stay awake as he walked into the dimly lit blue room with the round holographic table. Atkins looked just as tired as he was, bags forming under both their eyes. The whole crew had been running nonstop for almost thirty four hours and they were all feeling the effects. "Are the other ships ready to transmit?" He asked yawning. Atkins nodded and walked up to the table and hit in a command. Several small probes floated into place and several Captains appeared before him, all a mixture of Pelzigan and Human. Some looked equally or more tired than he himself. "We need a battle plan to take out that ship." He said, "As that is a no brainer, so forget protocols and procedures, we need a plan that'll work. Something that'll help us punch through their shields and hit them where it hurts." The other Captains looked at him, some shook their heads,

"And if we break procedure, who takes the blame?" Asked a younger Captain, probably in his late twenties or early thirties, dark skinned Human Male.

"I'll take the damn blame for breaking the procedures." Scheck responded. "We are in a fight for our lives here and the protection with this planet, to hell with procedures and to hell with prior orders. We have a task here people, that is to defend this planet and come out alive. We do what we must to succeed. forget what the people up high are gonna think of what we do here, we need to win. We cannot retreat without leaving our deployed forces to die, and we are not leaving them. If we are to pull out we pull out with every last person on the ground." He paused, "But, if we do we leave the Lothians with a Mass Cannon capable of reaching between planets and destroying entire groups if charged all the way. I don't think Admiralty would appreciate us giving that over to the enemy." He sad as he glared at the young Captain. "Now I need a plan to either destroy that Mass Cannon and pull our people out, or to defend it and push that ship back." He stared at all the Captains waiting for a response. Nothing. "If none of you have a plan I have one. Procedure prohibits the use of multiple ARC's all at once due to the electric field build up between all ships firing at once. But it maybe our only chance, we have twenty five ships left, we know from scans of their ships from the orbital platforms that are still operational and surviving that it would take twenty of our craft to punch through that things shields, so we device a tactic where we can get twenty of our ships in position to slam their shields with pin point ARC fire."

"Captain Scheck you know that we can fire multiple rounds, but unlike the Lothian targeting systems and ARC's, you know ours are not so accurate, it could take several tries before we can all hit a point at the exact time, at least not without a predestined coordinate and time for our ARC's to lock onto that target, and as you said, the electronic field generated by all of the ships could knock our systems out for a brief time leaving all of us vulnerable." A Male Fox replied, looking at the Captain with a smirk, he knew what Scheck was planning but he wanted him to say it.

"You foxes are clever ones, you should know that I said we had twenty five ships, including the three frigates that the Serenity has deployed. We take those three frigates as well as five of our remaining ships, the Resolute, Sunrise Prelude, Aerion, Inheritable Justice, and the Justigon to go and sneak around the planet on the opposite side and come up behind the enemy ship. The rest of us will approach from the front. There is a solar flare coming in that should mess with the enemy ships sensors, but not the twenty ships that will head for it. The planet's gravitational field and Ozone layer, if we go planet side, should protect our sensors long enough for us to target a section of the ship and slam into it. The Serenity won't be able to stay in the atmosphere for long so we'll be the first to pull back out. The rest will follow suit and will continue firing ARC's at the enemy ship." He brought up a diagram of the planet with small circles indicating their ships and a large red triangle representing the enemy ship. The diagram showed twenty small circles enter the planet's atmosphere and then set up beneath the enemy ship just a large orange glow enveloped the planet's outer atmosphere and showed the five ships go around and stay hidden within the planet's atmosphere and then suddenly pop out behind the enemy ship and then the bottom push up from below it. "It's simple, in a manner of speaking, and it's probably our best chance." Scheck finished as the simulation ended. "It won't completely destroy the enemy ship in one go but it'll make them want to jump quickly and get away to make repairs. We do have another fleet inbound to the planet to assist us but it is unknown when they would arrive." He said pointing to the large triangle. "We need to do whatever kind of damage is possible to that thing. Are we all in agreement?" He asked looking at the other Captains, each nodded, while one or two shook their head grinning.

"Captain, I think we're ready to do this operation." The Fox responded and faded out.

The others followed suit and Scheck looked at Atkins who grinned. "Crazy old man, you know the Serenity won't last long in the atmosphere, we were barely able to escape through it. I mean the sheer size of the vessel alone puts it at risk of being torn apart in atmosphere."

"I know, but I have hopes that Maria was able to fix the power issue and the engines." He responded.

"Her last report said we should have the ability to enter Warp 3 if the need arises, but she won't be happy to hear we're going back to the planet orbit. This ship just isn't really built for atmospheric fights."

"I know Atkins, I know." Scheck told him as they walked out of the conference room and back towards the bridge. They where exiting slingshot orbit from one of the moons and were approaching the planet. Within a matter of minutes the ship was beginning to enter the planets atmosphere.

The Solar Flare was quickly approaching the planet. The five ships with the Serenity's frigates deployed to the opposite side of the planet and the Captain felt the deck shake as Serenity broke through the atmosphere. Maria had complained about the amount of work her and the engineering crew just put into fixing the ship only to have him break it once again. He laughed, telling her he apologized for the mass destruction he did to the ship and promised to have the ship brought to dry dock to be repaired. Flames enveloped the front of the view screen as they approached their destination within the protection of the atmosphere. Just as they started reaching their destination the reverse thrusters were thrown and they started angling upwards. Within a matter of minutes they were angled upwards, stars could be seen within the view screen with the massive ship right above them. It stayed where it was, good, Everlont was either too busy with other matters in the ground units, or he thought his ship wouldn't be affected by the Solar Flare. Whatever reason it was, he would take advantage of it. "All ships, lock in trajectories for ARC, prepare for firing sequence." The Captain ordered. All the ships responded with quick acknowledgments. He could hear the large railgun charge up and the thump as magnetic's and energy pulsed to life and started to spin. The ARC was a mass slug wrapped with energy, and the magnets would fling the projectile faster than anything they had. It was a blunt bullet, but it worked in taking down shields. A few minutes later all ships reported that they had the enemy ship in their scopes, ready to fire. Liahm guaranteed they'd hit their target and Scheck waited. The Captain knew he would have to wait for the flare to hit Everlont's ship then he would slam the ship with everything he had. The view screen showed the flare approach, an orange yellow hue, appeared to be flames, shot forward and enveloped Everont's ship, and he gave the order. The whole ship shook violently, a massive thundering sound as the rounds were fired upwards and through the flare. Another slug loaded in, charged up, and fired. Within a matter of seconds the flare had dissipated, moved on, and Scheck grinned. The shields on Everlonts ship flickered and failed allowing several shots to impact the surface of his vessel. The five ships appeared and began firing everything they had. "Helm, ramming speed!" He ordered. Nielson nodded and punched it. The ship lurched upwards and streaks of fire slammed into the bottom of the ship. Everlont's ship returned fire, slamming into some of the smaller ships beside the Serenity, two of them erupting into explosions and flames as their shields flickered and failed. All of their remaining ships pushed back out into space and the Serenity slammed into a side of Everont's ship. Metal shuttered and blew apart as both of the ships connected. Their turrets continued to fire into Everlont's ship just as his ship did the same. The ship shook violently as they finally cleared the other ship and the Serenity spun to the side to avoid oncoming fire. They could see the other ships pelting Everlont's with plasma. His ship began to turn to a vector to escape and it's engines lit up. Scheck gritted his teeth, ready to chase the bastard and find out how he survived and what his true intentions were. "Helm plot course to follow and full speed."

"Aye Captain." Nielson responded. The two ships stayed side by side firing at each other until finally Everont's ship began to open the middle part of it's hull, thousands of small triangles floated out and flew ahead connecting into a gate.

"They're going to jump!" Atkins shouted.

"Thank you Atkins I can see that!" The Captain responded. They continued to fire at each other, taking hit after hit, the Serenity's shields had failed and they started taking more and more damage until finally, Everont's ship warped into the gate and the gate collapsed in on itself, the gate structure going behind the collapsing wormhole. The Captain glared at the empty space in front of them. "Status report?" He demanded.