Chapter I: New Orders

...If there's any one thing this war has taught me, it's that patience is our most valuable asset. I have seen too many good people lost because they were impulsive, because they jumped when they thought they were winning. But three weeks of nothing, it's enough to drive the most patient of soldiers to hysterics. Though I suppose on the up-side, the crew can take a long needed break, we've seen a lot of action these past few years, so a couple weeks of inactivity won't hurt anyone, as long as everyone remains on their guard and doesn't get too relaxed, the war isn't over yet...


Captain Harris sat in the worn down command chair, silently viewing the latest border reports. The Kingdom's Heart had been assigned border patrol six months of ago and every week had seen some sort of attack or enemy sighting, but it had been three weeks since the last enemy was spotted along the border.
A door opened and Harris' XO entered. Harris glanced up at him, watching him come around to his post.

"Still silent Commander. Where those Terrans have been hiding for the last three weeks, I don't know, but they must be up to something. It's not like them to retreat into their own territory for so long," Harris said to Kimera

He's right, Kimmera thought.

"They are planning something, no doubt," Kimmera said. "It's probably something we should be doing right now as well..." Kimmera looked out the window behind the captain into the distance.

I really would like to take the Blade out for another spin...

James sighed as he checked the computer once more to see if anyone had asked for a mechanic.. with the war, he thought he'd get taken up on offer pretty quickly.
Waiting around like this has me on edge.. I don't know why..

He looked up as the door to his shop opened, and he plastered on a smile. "How can I help you today?"

"Just the normal Vaz.. It's been giving me trouble ever since having it repaired at the city." said the man in the suit. The man looked as though he had seen better days.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do.." James spoke, and went to his shop to grab the required tools.

Michael put on his white fedora as he stood up to practice for his next show in 8 hours. He was pretty disillusioned with the entertainment business by now; everything is really hollow. He still performs anyway because he really needs the money to construct children's amusement parks. Neverland was a failure, the clowns he hired were absolutely dreadful. How was he to know that they were all cannibalistic sociopaths?

At any rate, he needed to go get the guys and put together the set list for the night. The children were waiting for his glorious projects to be completed!

Bertrand, was sitting in his quarters, the lights dimmed, he was reading over a report about the last encounter with Martian forces, thou the Martians won the fight,it was a strategic victory for the Terrans, he sighed, then turned the monitor off, then looked at his watch, 04;57am 'Dammit, i need to get ready' he said to himself.

He put on his leather jacket, picked up his pistol, then made his way to the bridge. Passing many marines, somethink he didn't want on his ship. It took him 15 minutes to get there, because he wasn't a huge fan of using lifts.

he walked throw the door, to see the bridge, seemly abandoned. "Ware about to assault Martian space, in 5 hours, and my bridge, is abandoned." He yelled to his first officer, Commander Kobel.

"Sorry, sir i will call them back now." he replied.

"No don't, call Tactical Alert instead." he said, as he went and sat in the command chair as alarm bells rang and the weapons activated. "Now hail the Admiral." he ordered.

The main viewer, changed from a tactical display of Mars defences to the Admiral. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

"Admiral we will be with in Mars, Border sensor range in 10 minutes, I don't want to take any chances." Bertrand replied.

"Very well, I Will order the fleet to Tactical Alert." he said as he closed the channel. Alec sat back down in his chair, and looked back at the Tactical display.

Lee sat in his dark quarters on the kingdom, only a dim blue light could be seen as he was tinkering with the power systems again, he stands up and flicks a switch lights come on, getting brighter and brighter, then darkness as sparks fly from the open panel. "dammit" he mutterd to himself. "this heap of junk is unusable" pulling out a power converter.

On board logistical station Mars1456, Mars Sector...

"Everyone, listen up..." Yelled I... 200+ soldiers looked at my direction. "In less than a week, the Army Command will give us a new assignment... I want you all ready for departure, cause 10 minutes after the signal, we're out of here..."

"Sir, yes sir!" Said everyone...

"Oh, and I want those Assault Bots ready for combat!" Said I while exiting the bay...

Alan sat in the cockpit of the Vengeance, looking out and remembering life before the war. he tried not to think about his wife and children, but try as he might, they still kept coming back. he was an enemy of both earth and mars, thanks to those corrupt politicians that dominated earth and the stupid incompetent pilots that made up the bulk of the martian navy. how he wished he could teach those scumbags a lesson or two about piloting! the Vengeance was sitting at the border of earth and mars territory. sometimes the best place to hide when you were wanted by two factions was the border between the factions. that way, if an earth ship saw him, and opened fire, a martian ship might be able to pick him up, or vice versa. the factions are far more interested in fighting each other than in fighting Alan. it would allow him escape if need be, but the chances of detection were slim due to the improvements of the ship Alan was able to make with his wife's plans. but it wouldnt surprise him if he got detected one of these days...

"Hey, Colonel..." Yelled Commander Banks... "I heard you would get a new assignment?"

"It seems they want us to go to another place... Yet they don't tell me big thing..." Said I...

"Well... you'll get more action anywere else but here... This station was build to support the Fleet in Jupiter Sector, but there ain't much going on there..."

"Just us and them trying to find a solution out of this Solar Sistem..." Commented I... "And perventing them from doing that ain't important at all..."

"Well... Still... Good luck pal..." Said he before returning to his duties...

"Same to you..." Thought I...

Harris glanced over the ship's status report. The secondary starboard support beam was still a bit weak, but that was something only drydock could fix. Harris put the panel down on the arm of his chair and rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"That's it," Harris said firmly standing up, "Kimera, sound the alarm, we need something to keep ourselves occupied with"

Finally some action... Kimmera thought.

"Yes, sir." he said with a half-smile, approaching a communications console. He pressed several buttons and spoke into the announcement system. "All hands, prepare for combat. This is not a drill," he said, somewhat cheerfully. The klaxon sounded throughout the ship, and 5 minutes later the sounds of weapons lockers opening, soldiers chatting up which bulkheads were sturdy and which ones weren't, and ammunition clicking into various guns graced his ears.

"So, what's the plan, Harry?" he asked his superior.

"Prepare to run drills. Helm, set your course for the outer rims of the border. Terran mercenaries like to hide out there and sabotage our forces, so let's see if we can't give them a surprise visit"

Willice was on his first day of his new assignment, a new repair station in orbit of mars, he was to be in charge of main operations at the station, it had weak armorment, and had almost no armor, it was one of the larger repair stations with 2 repair docks in it, the docks were able to exspand and decrease based on the ship and automated arms were added for hull work, the station was even capable of creating a small oxigen rich area within the confinds of the docks to make it so workers diddnt need space suits to work on the ships.

"Johnson, get that starbord power conduit repaired, this ship needs to depart in 5 min" I yelled

"Aye sir" Said Johnson

I walked over to a control panel and took controll of one of the mechanical arms working on the hull, i used it to pick up an iron beam that was to be added to the hull for extra support, welded it to the hull in no time.

"Captain Emmet to dock, are we cleared to depart" Said Captain Emmet, he was a close friend of mine, his ship was not prepaired to leave dock though and the docking arms were still in place.

"Captain, the ship still has gaping holes in the side of it, half the power system is offline, we cant let yo depart yet" I Said

"If you dont let us clear soon, we will force our way clear, Emmet Out"

Just then the thrusters of the ship started to spew fire

"Everyone out of the dock area, move, move, move!" I Yelled

the docking clamps broke off from the station and stock to the ship as it moved forward, some of the emchanical arms broke off of the station as well, the dock was falling apart, one of the beams supporting the dock fell, the ship then made its way into orbit of mars leaving a gaping hole in the side of the dock

as i made my way into the control complex i sat in the commanders chair

"Damage Report" I Said

"The Starbord dock is sevearly damaged" Said a random command deck officer

"Automated Repair Time" I Said

"Most of the Automated Mechanical Arms were severaly damaged or destroyed, it will take atleast 4 hours to repair them, then another 5 hours to get the dock back up and running" Said the officer

"Make it so, i will be working in the Port Repair Dock" I Said and i stood up and walked over to the elevator

"Cap'n i'm picking up a Sensor patch. Cruiser sized." An officer yelled from one of the many Sensor posts, on the bridge. Alec quickly rushed over to the post, pushing the crewmen out of the way. He sighed, He ordered the Hellion beams charged and Sub-light to maximum.

As they got closer to ship, More details came up on the tactical display. It was an old Type-III Heavy Cruiser, by now it was more of a pocket cruiser. The sensors indercated that the Cruiser also had there weapons charged. "load the tubes with Shiva's, and prepare top launch on my Mark." He ordered, eagerly awaited the ships next movement knowing that the the Shadow was very much in there Sensor range as well.

Lee walked onto the bridge, holstering his pistol. he walked over to a powerd down console and sat down at it, he hit button and the console came to life. The ships main offensive weapons control infront and the defencive weapons to his left. "ready to shoot some bugs sir" he said eargerly

"Time till Intercept." Alec yelled. "10 minutes" a crewmen yelled. Alec sat there in his seat anxious, awaiting combat, he hadn't been in Combat in a few weeks. "Sir, Hellion beam 1, won't charge up." a crewman yelled.


"WHAT" Alec shouted, walking over to the crewmen, and physically assaulting the man. " Get that damn working."

James had finished his work a bit early that day, and he sighed with relief. He checked the net to see if he'd been picked up. He smiled with relief as one of the dry docks requested his presence to help repair some of the ships of the fleet that had recently done battle with some of the Terrans. He went home with his mood oddly happy, and packed his belongings. He'd begun to whistle a tune he hadn't heard in a few years as he went to the ground based space port to be sent to his new job up at the dry docks.

Another ship came into the dry dock, its menuvering thrusters were offline and the main engines badly damaged, it was flying in by explosive decompresion in air locks.

It rammed the main contol complex of the dry dock and caused a massive hull breach

at this time i was in an elevator trying to get down to the port drydock

A Klaxon Sounded, the elevator lights turned to red, the elevator came to a hult

I Pressed a few buttons on the control panel

"Evans to bridge, status" I said calmly

"One of the damaged ships rammed us by mistake, massive hull breach, we are evactuating, there is explosive decompression, the station is heavly damaged, get out of the elevator and to the escape pod" Said the bridge crewmembers

I used the emergency button on the control panel to open the doors, the elevator was between decks and there was just a wall, there was a ladder indented on the wall however, it was not far enough away from the elevator to climb up it though, i opened the top hatch and got out, i climbed up the elevator to an open floor

As soon as i left the shaft there were crew members running, getting supplies to the shuttles and launching escape pods

I made my way to one of the shuttles

I got into it and went to the cockpit

"launch" I said

"Aye Sir" Said the pilot

i took a place at the engineering station, i powered up the engines and the ship left the dry dock

I looked out the window "Thats a waist of 5 years of construction" I muttered to myself

The shuttle weaved in and out of debris, then there was a shutter, the shuttle was hit, one of its two thrusters were hit, it veared of course into space.

"Colonel Forge to the CIC" a voice ecoed through the entire station... I rushed into the place, interrupting what I was doing... Once there...

"So, why would someone interrupt me when I'm dealing with paperwork?" Asked I...

"We just got a live feed from an incident ocured on Mars orbit..." Said Commander Banks... The Video feed showed a ship crashing into the station, and the later evacuation of the same... "The ships maneuvering thrusters were offline and the main reactors were badly damaged..."

"Sabotage or battle damage?"

"I guess it was battle damage, but I hadn't received any report on that..." Said Banks...

"And what about Jupiter?" Asked I...

"Still not much..." Said Banks while changing the viewscreen to a tactical map... "Small skirmishes between our forces and theirs, and the Megacorps are starting military campaigns against each other..."

"The wild west in space..." said I...

"True..."

Harris patrolled the corridors of the Kingdom. Troops were stationed at each gateway and anyone not on duty was running combat sims. Harris crossed his hands behind his back, inspecting the troops and the ship. Cables and pipes were still dangling in some areas. The Kingdom hadn't seen a drydock in ages, but as long as she could run and fight, she would be in service.

Harris entered command, dimly lit by the red combat lights. Harris took a slow walk around the perimeter of the uneven shaped design.

"How long until we reach the outer edge?" Harris asked.
"Another two days Captain," an officer replied.
"Continue with combat simulations. Begin your long range scans for any enemy targets in the outer reaches. As per usual, isolate the Asteroid fbelt, it's going to play tricks with your scanners"

Lee pressed more buttons on the console before him. "sensors are calibrated to compensate for asteroid field, weapons are at peak effeciency". " terrans come near us and they will not know what em'".

A screen showing white outlines of the asteroids, starts to flash, a small white dot appears from behind a large asteroid. "Captian Harris, we have possible incoming from the asteroid field"

Al was awakened by a beeping noise on his scanners.

"oh shit!" he said "martian patrol."

he thrusted his engines forward at maximum speed, hoping he hadn't been detected...

Harris jumped up onto the platform and was at the tactical station.

"Always assume it's a target, move to intercept, get me a tactical and class readout ASAP! "

Kimmera popped into the bridge just seconds after the readout was called.

"Sorry I'm late, sir," he said. "I had a tough time with a few of the rookies. What's our status?"

Michael walked up onto the stage and smiled with bright white, shiny teeth at the audience. There were only 20 people to see his last show! How depressing! For the next half hour he went through the classics, the ones that everyone knew. However, something strange happened.

When he started to perform Thriller, his skin became itchy. He was growing hair! Lots of hair! And his nails were growing! And those were... whiskers on his face? Shit! He was turning into that cat-werewolf monstrosity from the Thriller video!

And wish that last lucid thought, he lost himself fully to his madness and began rampaging in the shady little bar he had offered to work at for the night. Merely 20 minutes later, he was put down. A fitting end for the animal he had become.

I managed to restore partial menuvering thrusters to the shuttle, however it had been a while and we had drifted far from Mars

"Sir, we have incoming" Said the Pilot

I jumped to the tactical consol and brough the machine gun online, though it was mearly an orbital shuttle, the threat of a terran attack brought weak weapondry to the transports.

"Its just space debris" I said observing the readout more clearly, i tok the gun offline.

"Sorry sir, it loksed like a terran fighter" Said the pilot

"No problem, remember that when it looks like deris next time and we get trapped in a terran ship's docking bay" I said slightly angry

We then managed to make it to a Mars Ship going to battle, we were to be transported back to mars as soon as the battle was over.

(This Cruiser isn't the Kingdom,)

"Jam this comms i don't want them calling for help, then Take us in, and cut that thing in half." Alec ordered,
The Shadow, slowed down, to 0.2 IGSL, the common speed for combat, two missiles flew out of there hatches, as they made there way to the Cruiser, a large bulging red ball appeared on the front of the hull, It was a Hellion beam charging, the two missiles prematurely exploded, causing little damage to the cruiser, but because of the radiation, basically disabled there sensors.

A Beam fired from the Shadow, slicing throw deck after deck on the cruiser, till it was was halfed, a wreck, not even a Dry dock could fix that.

"They don't seem to give there, Cruisers much armor do they." he smugly said.
"Sir, they got a signal off, some how." a crewmen said, wiping Alec's smile of his face.

"We have ourselves an unidentified target, it's too fast to be civilian. Keep on it helm! Where the hell is my tactical readout?!" Harris demanded.

The flight to the dry dock was uneventful to say the least.. Just empty space for most of the ride to the dry dock. He'd signed up for some combat training, just in case the Terrans did try to get this far into Mars territory. As his parents always told him: It was better to be safe than sorry.

As the ship neared the dock, he peered out of the window and couldn't help but grin. The dry dock was better than he had imagined it. He might be in awe of it because o fthe sheer size and never having worked in one before, but he was going to enjoy every minute of it.

"Tatical readout unavailible, to much ionising radiation coming from thoose asteriods sir. We're going in blind."

cmon you damn bucket of bolts, can you go any slower!?

the patrol ship was gaining on Alan, but it hadn't started firing. seeing a large asteroid, he swerved to enter a crater in the asteroid, big enough that he could turn his ship around.

"let's see them try to shoot me now! and if they fire at the asteroid, well, ill just have to find another one."

On the ship going into battle, i was assigned some repair work on a Light Cannon when a Terran Patrol showed up and atarted fireing, it was a small patrol, more like a fighter, must have gotten lost and wandered away from its mother ship, there was no gunners around, and the ship started shooting at the patrol, so i jumped on the gun and started shooting, i missed a few times, but managed to hit an engine power line, the left thruster went down and the ship started to spiral, i tried to take ou its other engine but i kep missing, i finially made another hit, i hit the pilots canopy breaking it and decompressing the pilots area, the gunner still had his area pressuried, he was still fireing but the ship spiraled out of control, one of the other gunners, a landing bay gunner shot a grappling cable and brought the ship in, i was assigned to repair it enough were it could fly, it was to be dissasembled back at mars and multiple copies would be made, so spies could get to Terran Space, and if i wasent able to get it to fly, i was to atleast get the main computer online, it could hold data on Terran Ship Movements, however unlikely, it was worth a try.

James was surprised by the sheer amount of activity the dry dock was experiencing.. Nicknamed "Salvation" by the workers, he saw ships that were currently being built, and others that were being repaired from the border skirmishes. He was led to his quarters by a very uptight and humorless marine, and he gave up in exasperation at any attempts at communication with the female.

"And I thought the women back home were cold."

He unpacked his things in his room, and stuck his personalized side-arm under his pillow. He'd spent some time out on an abandoned field shooting barrels with it, so he had some experience, but his aim was still off as ever.

Harris stepped down from the platform and stood next to his chair.

"Bring us in helm, his trying to hide has possibly just cost him his life. Lock the target, arm tracking missiles, fire when ready" Harris commanded.

Two small orbs of light shot out from the Kingdom. Using the internal computer of the Kingdom, the missiles would follow the target until its elimination. They streaked by, weaving through asteroids until coming zeroing in on the small ship hidden in the crevice of the asteroid, blocking the ship's only path out

20 seconds to impact... 10 seconds to impact...5...4...3...2...1... missile 1 confirmed hulled damaged, missile 2 no data avalible, may have been a dud

"Reload and arm! We can't keep this window of opportunity open for him too long!" Harris said hurriedly.

"firing second wave!" another two orbs of light shoot out from the ship. "5...4...3...2...1 confirmed hit main propulsion is offline."

"Sir, comm from the fleet, they are past the Martian Border, Time till they get to Mars two weeks, and they request we rejoin formation. " a crew men said, reading over a report.

"Take us back to the fleet then." Alec Replied.

James was greeted by his instructor as he left his quarters. He'd forgotten all about the combat training he had signed up for. He smiled as he was led to the training area aboard the dry dock, and was even more surprised to see others like him wanting to be able to defend the place that had come to cal home. He took an empty position next to a few others, and followed in the routine easily enough, but was dreading the firearm training..

"This ought to be quite interesting"

Kimera watched quietly as Harris commanded the bridge. Flashes of the past suddenly overwhelmed him. There were images of his father, images of his childhood, images of himself crying over a limp body...

Make my sacrifice matter.

Those four words were all he could hear. He held back tears, as he recognized his father's voice.

Damn, the medicine must be wearing off... Kimera thought. I wish it wouldve picked a better time. He wiped his eyes quickly. Harris gave him a quick glance.

"I apologize, sir," Kimera said. "I seem to have had trouble sleeping lately. Only several cups of blue mist are helping me stay awake. But I promise it won't interfere with my performance."

"Sir!" an officer yelled out. Harris quickly changed focus from Kimera to the target.

"He's making a run for it!" Harris said. "Damn this guy is fast and tough!" Harris muttered.

"All right people, let's greet him with a barrage from the forward cannons, make him stop in his tracks, I want to have a chat so don't disappoint me!" Harris commanded authoritatively.

Just then the ship that Willice was on came into range and opened up with all its cannons on the ships engines, it managed to damage the engines, but not stop the ship, as the cannons fept fireing small explosions around the enemy ship appeared.

The training wasn't as hard as James had anticipated it was.. They learned various hand-to-hand combat techniques, and with the endurance he had built up back on Mars, he lasted longer than a few of the other recruits.. He was taught how to hit weak points on a Terran's body at close range if one was dumb enough to try and rush him. There wasn't much to the training itself: Some was recapping a few things that most people pick up on, a few new styles of attack if you have to fight bare hand, and how to disarm a Terran. The instructor nodded at everyone as a suggestion to take a break for lunch, and next bit was a bit of basic firearm training.

"I should have become a soldier.. I love this..."

James walked to the break area, looking over the food that was offered... It was like a 5 star restruant, and even contained some Terran cuisines (spellcheck).. He marveled at how the dry dock carried such fine meals, but heard a story that a rally of workers used their own paycheks to finance this.. He couldn't complain.. He'd work twice as hard each day as long as he knew this delicious food was here. He selected a fine choice of steak, potatoes, and carrots, and seasoned them with a few spices. He took a seat in the middle of the room, and began to eat the fine food he had chosen, and thought back upon his life on the surface.

Alan was running from asteroid to asteroid, along the border, but he knew he couldnt last much longer. plus, the asteroid field was ending!

"Damn it! open space! not where i want to go!"

he tried to turn left into the asteroids, but the missile must have damaged his navigation, because he drifted right, into the awaiting earth frigate.

"oh my god..."

Alan watched as the frigate charged up its cannons, knowing that he had at last met his end.

at least i'll get to see my wife and kids...

the martian ship came out of the asteroids.
the earth frigate saw the ship, and directed its fire toward it.
Alan tried to escape the field as all hell broke loose, trying to go somewhere, anywhere that wasn't this hell...

"This week is going to be a very long week..." Was I thinking, while laying down in my bed... I was reading an eBook, trying to relax from the stress of living inside a Space Station... I wanted action... Suddenly... someone calls me...

"Colonel Forge to Hangar Bay..."

"What now?!" Yelled I to the room... Hoping it wasn't another brawl...

I crossed the Space Station and arrived in there... When I arrived, what I saw surprised me... Someone had been messing around with a mech bot, and the bot was acting like an animal... A Domestic one!

"Why the hell did you call me? This ain't work for me... This is work for the dumbass engineers that put him up there!"

"Sir, We need your password to deactivate it..."

"I'm going to ask SysAdmin to put a couple permission from combat engineers... Cause If some shit happens in battle... We've cats in our hands instead of Battle Bots..." Said I, while putting the codes...

And I left then, back to my readings...

James came back from his lunch back to his training. It lasted for quite a bit longer than he realized, but he had a basic grasping of the usage of small arms and the more heavier, explosive ones... ones that he really enjoyed. He walked back to his quarters, opened up his computer and checked his schedule.. He was supposed to be working on some of the mech bots. He searched in his bag to find a little disk with the schematics of some of the newer models to learn up on what he'd be fixing and, if he could, upgrading without permission... He had a few ideas that he could try, and hopefully, they'd actually work.

Harris stood intently watching the viewscreen, mild satisfaction showing on his face.

"Tow him in," Harris commanded, "and have a marine detail meet me in the hangar bay."

The other ship contacted Harris's Ship

"Are you in need of an engineer, or going back to mars anytime soon, i have an engineer here who needs transport to mars, he says he will do engineering work on your ship if you need it" Said the captain of the ship i was on.

"Ill monitor progress from the bridge," Kimmera told Harris, who took the command perch as Harris stepped down.

"If you need me just gimme a call."

Harris entered the hanger bay. The small ship was secured and an armed escort had arrived.

"Blow the hatch," Harris ordered. The lead marine nodded and someone set up a small charge. The detail stood clear as the small explosive went off, blowing the hatch open on the ship. The marines stood there, pointing their guns.

Come out and you won't be hurt!" the lead marine yelled into the ship. There was no reply. The marine looked to Harris.

"Commence shooting," Harris said, coldly.

Suddenly, there was movement in the smoke, someone waving their hands

"Hold your fire," Harris, not blinking said.