Asmodeus was the one to have found the unit. It wasn't one of his typical scouting missions, he'd been out in the emptiness of deep space to be alone. Something about the fact that his echo-vision couldn't reach anything, leaving him blind, calmed him significantly. The confusion of tangled metal that made up the ship had always caused him to withdraw into himself. Though, Azzy had been reporting his scans back to the ship, like a good soldier. And when the small platoon showed up, he felt a secret sense of pride. In both himself and the machine.

'Where are the others?'
"I 'unno Jack. Prolly gettin' fitted an' flung." Azzy wasn't particularly attached to Jack. Azzy wasn't really all that attached to anyone. But he and Jack worked well in tandem, respecting each other as partners and equals. There was always the chance that one or both of them wouldn't make it back, so he had made earnest attempts to keep himself distanced from the other crew members. Over sixteen years, he'd watched maybe twice as many people die.

They had stationed themselves, burners cold and silent, behind the six. Even his com systems had been turned off, not allowing him to ask for the ETA of the others. They had been off for most of his idle exploration. The feeling of drifting aimlessly through the vacuum of space, without the thrusters and boosters on-line, had never sat well with him, but he was patient.'Should we draw the attention of the Kamikaze's?'

"Naw, jus' wait." The cold machine continued to drift, spinning gently. Azzy was focused on the hangar bay of the ship, ready to take action should the others not show up in time. One booster lit momentarily, stopping the rotation. An antennae flicked and the screen to his left beeped quietly, telling him of the power level of the Stalking Cat. Communications were opened between them, a private, scrambled message. 'First to take out one of the big, ugly ones wins?'

Jack and Asmodeus were nearly as opposite as an AI and pilot could be, and Azzy didn't appreciate its challenge to Krato. It meant the Mech was going to get them into a fight that the Hornet wasn't entirely equipped to deal with. Azzy though, felt the familiar burning of excitement, apprehension, and adrenaline. Jack was simply responding to his selfish desire to see all those opponents explode in the emptiness of space.

On any ship and any vessel, you can expect gamblers. The Elyandra was no different. On the lower decks where most of the cargo and food bulks resided, men would sit between their shifts. Amidst the provision-filled crates; an ageless, traditional game of cards was played. Games ranging from hearts to poker over their most recent credits – after all they hadn’t got anything else to spend it on aboard anyway. And what is the point of being paid if you cannot utilize your wages? This very question was the one that lingered in the minds of these gamblers – haunted even; like a ghostly whisper in the back of their heads.

But where men risk money, malicious intentions stalk in the shadows. That is not surprise to most as greed is possibly the most common sin to mankind. Greed is the very reason games of chance exist, after all. Men desire wealth – no – men desire the dominance granted by the possibilities gained by wealth. But until their mission succeeded, a number would have to suffice.

“I tella you, mistah, you no see the card, there no be the card!”

The boy tore his sleeve from the soldier’s grip and proceeded to stand tall – for as tall as a kid like him could stand - then adjusted his cap, which he lowered to throw a shadow over his eyes that cheekily met those of the much taller man. His right hand still held on to his cap, but the boy held out his left straight forward – as if he was expecting someone would put something in it. The toes on his foot pointed in the direction the deck he had just unfolded; a full house.

“Shoulda folded, mistah.” He grinned as he nodded towards his open hand. “No be a bad loser now, mistah, we all friends here.” That was far from true – most had almost sworn to kill one another over their own misfortune with the cards. Especially the boy’s throat was one they would have loved to entangle in their fingers. They were suspicious of why the brat was enjoying the luckiest streak in the entire company and that cheeky smile of his didn’t work in the boy’s favor either.

But as long as he kept winning, the kid didn’t mind. The cold feeling of the soldier handing him the writing tool didn’t bother the boy in the slightest. The pen between his fingers drawing another number under his name; Nickel - made the boy’s little heart once again. He really had to settle for creating that bank account once the ship arrived… Or Nickel’s efforts would have been for naught! But if he could keep pulling this of, he’d be a rich man at the end of the journey.

“So, who is up for another game?” A woman proposed – no doubt the words had sounded a lot more enthusiastic in her mind. “I’m not bailing now.” A third grumbled in agreement and even the sore loser him self nodded. Nickel gathered the cards again and his hands randomized in a more honest order; he would forsake this round. Although that was not completely true either; Nickel did make sure none of the pictures did end up in the first man’s hands. More honest never meant completely, of course…

But before he could deal his slight twist of fate; the alarms resounded loudly throughout the storage deck. It echoed between the walls and the gamblers their ears – that was the downside of their hide-out – even though the officials resided on the upper decks and their games remained yet undiscovered, the alarm would dazzle their heads and hurt their hearing every time it rang. “Looks like the game will have to wait. The crusade skipped in line-” The woman spit viciously. “- again!”

“Can’t a man just get one day off. One day without assaults? For pity’s sake…” The first man echoed her opinion loudly as he stood up. In spite of their complaints however, they swiftly made way towards the hangar. Both pilots knew how dire the situation was. The last hope of all mankind, the last candle in the dark, they were, entangled in a struggle not to dim or extinguish. The Elyandra was meant to be that beacon lighting the path to better days in a limitless space better known as despair. But none would succumb, or be allowed to succumb to those thoughts. Mankind had their way through all that opposed them and a dead planet was no different.

“There they go off again.” The third gambler sighed. “Suppose we better get going too Nickel. They’ll be bringing in the injured ones in soon enough, won’t they?” The boy nodded, but Nickel felt kind of defeated; finally he was on a roll and then those religious dimwits just had to ruin his fun again. If only he could fly a mech, Nickel thought, he would shoot them all down…

(anything inside <> is spoken in Nekan)

It was silent inside the cockpit spare for the random beep and the silent breathing inside the helmet of the floating, armored Nekan as he drifted above the pilot's seat. Dren had been cursing his luck and his lack of preparation for this life changing venture, having been in this quadrant of space for over a week now, alone spare for his AI company. Too bad he only brought enough food and water for four days....

His mind went back to the big event in both his life and in the history of Neka, his home world. He was given a brand new Mech, top of the line. A prototype in a long line of new models for the military. He knew the production models had some major upgrades and fixes, but if he survived this trip and found refuge on the other side, he planned on fixing those bugs and upgrading it himself.

He remembered when he was ready to launch, his Mech held in a launching clamp before a massive round gate. He remembered the cheering over the Com channel as people in the nearby space station congratulated him for his soon to be achievement. Zoning out the chatter, he focused on the gate before him as it activated, creating a large shimmering pool of what looked like water across the surface of the ring, then before he could rethink his decision, the launching apparatus flung him forward through the gate and out across the galaxy.

flying through a dark tunnel, he had his hand's full trying to not hit the walls. Energy bolts would criss-cross his path and he barely dodged those. What seemed like forever inside the dark tunnel, he was spat out the other end in a three axis tumble, which took him a moment to recover from, but from there, even the most extensive scans showed nothing on the other end.

A week later and he was ready to give up. Even with the vast collection of Nekan music and movies he had brought with him didn't hold his attention or help with his loneliness. Now he lay motionless and waited for his demise.

Below him, a blue hologram appeared above an orb in the console. A young, female Nekan looked up at him with a somber expression.

"<Dren, I'm so sorry. If I had known this Quadrant of space was so desolate, I would have tried to convince you to stay in Nekan Space..>" she said. Dren caught the corner of a console with the clawed finger of his glove and turned himself inside the cockpit to look down at her, the blank expression on his face hidden by the helmet he wore.

"<No on had any idea what was out here. It's not your fault, Yuri.>" he said, "<Besides, I was kind of expecting this.>"

"<You wanted to die?>" she gasped.

"<I was bored. I wanted to see something new for once. And at the very least I came here and died, I would be with you again.>" he said, then paused for a moment before adding, "<The real you, I mean.>"

There was a long pause as Dren closed his eyes and drifted in silence before Yuri spoke up again.

"<How about we fire up the Hyperdrive again? One more shot at it? You could get lucky this time!>" she said, trying to motivate him. Dren sighed and pulled himself into the pilot's seat again, pushing his back against the seat to connect the battery over his shoulders and charge it. He lazily began pressing buttons to activate the Ether Generator and provide extra power to the Hyperdrive. Before he activated it, he took his hands off the controls and sighed,

"<How about you pick the course.>" he said, "<I'm too tired.>" Yuri nodded and set the course, then activated the Hyperdrive. The stars streaked by as they shot forward. Dren felt himself drift off to sleep when alarms began blaring in his ears and he woke with a start.

"<Heat signatures ahead!>" Yumi exclaimed. They exited Hyperdive and seeing a targeting icon on his screen for once was something he wasn't used to. There was a large ship on sensors, along with another small contact very near it. As they neared it, another Six in the distance lit up on his screen. Dren grabbed the controls and pulled, bringing his Mech to a halt.

"<Make sure no weapons are active, Yumi.>" he said, "<I d-dont want them to think I'm a threat.>"

"<Dren, are you alright?>" Yumi asked, hearing his shaky voice. Dren just nodded and leaned forwards in his seat, but under his helmet, he struggled to stay awake.

"<Stay in beast mode for n-now.>" he said.

"<Dren, I think they're Hailing...>" Yuri said as they watched them from afar, "<They've definitely seen us by now.>"

"<What do you mean you think? They either are or aren't.>"

"<Well one craft is broadcasting on all channels, but it's not a language I've heard before.>" she said, "<I can't really program the translator from what I've heard so far on their Coms.>"

"<Connect to their ship on one of the channels and request a data link, then download their language files. If they don't understand the request, hack in and take the files.>" he said. His head swam in fatigue and his stomach growled loudly. A look of worry came across Yuri's holographic face.

"<You're vitals aren't good. Perhaps we should just help the one's on the ship. The other few small crafts don't seem to have a mother ship nearby. If you help them, they may help you.>"

"<Help them with what?>" Dren asked, not paying attention to his sensors. He shook his head and forced his brain to clear a moment to see the craft from the ship power weapons, and the six heading for them doing the same. It then hit him that the ship before him was being attacked.

"<Send that data link request now!>" Dren said, leaning forward to take the controls. The engines fired and his mech shot forward. He typed a few commands in the console before him and the Mech reconfigured as he flew, straightening out into it's humanoid form. He positioned himself between the six oncoming targets and the ship, just as one of the gunners fired off a shot at long range. Dren assumed the pilot didn't expect to hit the ship at this range, but by a fluke it was on target, and Dren pulled his massive shield and sword, activating the energy shield around the metal plating of his shield to deflect the shot out of harms way.

"<Open a channel to the ship and all of it's crafts.>" Dren said.

"<But they still haven't accepted the data link! The translator isn't configured yet!>" Yuri said, but Dren shot her a stern look that Yuri saw through the eyes of the helmet, "<Channel open.>"

"Drakthani eso manari tharius magi. <I'm here to help. Please send Language files!>" he repeated.

‘Asmodeus. An unknown object has approached battlefield vicinity. No weapons evident. Should we hail?’

“Naw, le’ momma ‘andle it. We got our own pro’lems. Open all channels. Switch to manual control.” The locked panels and sticks came to life. One hand tapped rapid successions of keystrokes. Target locks steadied in his vision and the Hornet blazed into life behind enemy lines. “Hornet will draw fire. Light ‘em up!” The open channel broadcast was for the benefit of both ally and enemy. Jack was quick enough to avoid most fire, and Azzy wanted their attention.

‘The unidentified Mech is engaged in combat with a gunner.’

“Good.” The enemy of your enemy was not always necessarily your friend, something he knew well enough. Now, Azzy wasn’t going to go off attacking anyone that was helping. But he couldn’t trust that the pilot of the machine, if it was piloted, wouldn’t turn on them as soon as the bigger targets were down. Besides, there were other things to worry about.

His call had drawn the attention of two of the Kamikaze’s and the smaller units peeled off in an attack formation. The Hornet fled in erratic patterns, making the other pilots unsure if it would run or attack. “Now yous gone an’ done it. Stupid machine. Ain’ worth jack-shit.” Jack had heard it all before, used to its pilot tossing blame. That was exactly how the AI had earned the name Jack, shortened from either jack-shit or jackass, no one was ever really sure.

‘Weapons system running at full power.’ Without guidance, Azzy busy pulling off the maneuvers that kept the Kami’s from successfully locking on, the Mech retrieved the EMP rifle. Untargeted shots blitzed past them. In the cockpit, Asmodeus swore, his twitchy movements, could anyone have seen them, made him appear disorganized and unprepared. The light pressure was all the Hornet needed to respond. “I need the fraggin’ pulse bow!”

The Hornet came to a full stop, the units following it blowing past at max speed. ‘In this situation, I have gauged the rifle to be the best choice.’ By the time they’d turned back around, the mech was buzzing toward the remaining units.

“’eavy gunner units’re EMP shielded. ‘ow the…” Of course. They needed to get rid of their little shadows back there before attempting to use the bow. And Jack doubtless wanted all four of the escort chasing them, so the other pilots could do their jobs.

Artemis had grown tired of data analysis for today. Inhaling another breath of his cigarette, he typed in a few digits and pressed enter. Running planet diagnostics took time and many cups of coffee and cigarettes. Frowning, he pinched the bridge of his nose and squinted at the three monitors, filled with grid work, schematics and charts. Results had come up negative, there were no planets within this sector capable of sustaining human life. Exhaling the smoke, his office now was filled with the thin toxic mist. Smoking was prohibited throughout most of the ship but as far as he was concerned, the nature of his work allowed him certain liberties to keep his brain ticking over. He was mildly frustrated but he would have been a fool if he thought that finding a suitable home place for his diminutive human race was going to be a walk in the park.

‘Walk in the park’, he mumbled to himself as the expression amused him now. Thinking back, Artemis tried to remember the green fields of his youth, or were they simply the stories his parents had told him on the way to their new home on the Moon. Trees and plants had become attractions in museums, a tragic nostalgia of the once living, breathing world of his ancestors. For all the advances in technology, humanity could not save their dying world from its greatest enemy, themselves.

The ship’s alarms went off, startling the scientist. Was it the fanatics again? Those mad religious terrorists couldn’t just go quietly and kill themselves in the advent of Earth’s destruction. They felt obligated to take everyone else with them too. Fortunately, the Elyandra had some of the finest pilots in the fleet, and Artemis was confident they could deal with the villains. Shutting down the computer for the time being, Artemis rose from his desk, stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray, and decided to head to the bridge to see what the situation was, rather than theorise. Stepping out of his office through his automatic door, he was nearly knocked over as several crewmen passed in alert haste.

Moving down the corridor, the alarm lights flashed red and whirred urgently. Artemis walked through another automatic doorway, which happened to be the lift. Coughing hoarsely as the doors closed, the computer in a digitised female voice, asked him to repeat his previous command. ‘Bridge’ he responded, cursing under his breath. In a few moments, the doors opened and Artemis walked onto the bridge. Everyone was at their posts, their eyes showing an underlying sense of fear but prevailed by duty and survival instinct, as they checked communications and weapons systems. He gazed out then at the colossal panoramic window, out to the endless vista of space. Grabbing the arm of a passing ensign, ‘The Captain?’ he politely enquired.

Malicent was roused from his meditation by sirens going off throughout the ship. While he was not required to respond to these alerts, beign a non-combat officer, but he couldn't meditate with this noise. He slowly got up from his kneeling position in front of the alter, streched, and collected his overcoat. Three hours of meditation were wonderul in restoring your inner-peace, but they didn't half give you cramp. He pulled on his overcoat, checking himself in the reflection of a silver mural on the floor. Satisfied, he walked down the isle, the overcoat flapping gently as he sauntered past pews, the doors to the chapel slid apart, and he stepped into the corridor, heading towards the command deck. While he walked he took a headset/microphone combo out of his inner pocket, and put it on. Azreal's voice filled his left ear "Exarch, it appears that the ship may be under attack by two other parties, one possibly from the Children of the Dying Son. And the others...well, I have no idea." finsihed Azreal "Fine" sighed Malicent. "Imform the captain that I will be on the bridge in ten minuites. In the mean time, I will be assissting the rest of the crew."

Malicent walked through the ship, finding groups of men running to and fro, orgainsing counter-attack measures, enacting battle procedure, preping emergecy protocols. He came across a fallen man, who had obviously been knocked out by a falling box during the intial rush during the battle stations sounding. He knelt down, and pulled the man to a relativly quiet cornern, before wiping his minor wound, and sayign a prayer over him. "Morana, Death-Godess, my liege and my guide, sheild the soul and body of this man. Help him through this fight, guide his actions on the right course, and if his time has come, guide his soul into the Feilds of Eternity, oh Night-Mother, I pray." Finsihing his prayer, he quickly called up a medical team to get them man to the medi-wing and way form any hazard, as well as stopping him obstructing other's duties. While he waited with the fallen man, he quickly calle dup Azreal. "Azreal, we have an injured techniation, service number 34456, please imform his commandng officer of this and tell him to get a replacment ASAP. And tell him my blessing goes with him and his men, whatever happens this day." Cutting of the link, he saw the medical team arrive. They loaded the man onto a strecher, then looked at him expectantly. He quickly made the sign of the godess, and utterd a blessing "Morana, guide, bless and keep safe these men, assist them in their valuble roles aboard ship and sheild their souls from those who seek their demise before their Time" the word Time was empahsised. Satisfied, the medical team left the area with teh fallen man, and Malicent procceded to the bridge.

Upon arrival, he entered, and quikcly uttered a prayer of fortitude for those commanders on teh bridge, who had an important Job to do. In retrospect, he thought, he asked the Godess for much, but she had never denied a worthy blessing. While he walked towards the Captains station, he smoothed any creases in his overcoat out. He had to look presentable, even in battle. He cleared his throat, announcing himself, and waited for an accnolagement from the captain. While not being a militay officer, he had provided support for the Captain reguarding motivation and pre-battle speeches. He also had a feelign about this event, a prenomination, as it were, that something may not be all it seemed. His left hand tightened on his left section of his seperable double bladed sword. It was involantry, and he quckly loosened his grip. While awaitign teh Captians response, he noted a science type perosn asking an ensign something. He hoped that he wasn't one of those anti-theist types, who he had worked with before. The last one ended up wiht a bullet in his head. Not from Malicent, but from the mans own commander. To quote the commander - "Dont BS in a war. There isn't any time." to which Malicent had responed "Amen". He didn't want a repetition of that.

"<Dren, the lead craft has a lock on us.>" Yuri said, "<Incoming transmission.>"

Dren looked down to see the oddest creature he had ever seen. He could tell she was female, except her face was flat and had no fur, except for her head which was curled and oddly colored. Dren swore he saw pointed feline ears on the side of her head, and found himself staring, not noticing the incoming craft that was attacking the ship, but had now turned on him.

“Unidentified mech pilot, this is pilot Angela West of the Star ship Elyandra….” Pausing a moment when a missile got close enough to detonate in front of her mech causing some damage and breaking her concentration for a moment. “I do not know who you are or where you come from but know that you are getting yourself involved in a very bitter and dangerous war…” another explosion off screen and Angela swore a bit under her breath. “If you prove to be an enemy know that we will not hesitate to eliminate you…..you have been warned….” - Angela

Dren sat there for a moment, confused and not understanding a word of it. As the Kami advanced, he finally noticed it when it's guns lit up in the darkness of space, the bullets bouncing off his raised shield. It looked like the pilot just wanted to poke at him to see what he was, but Dren's patience had reached it's breaking point.

"<Yumi, did you record that?>" he asked. Yumi nodded as she stood on her holo projection orb on the console. Another single bullet pinged his shield, and this time, Dren shook his head to clear his thoughts once more. The jets fired and he raced towards the Kami who seemed to turn it's attention back to the ship when he didn't respond the first time. It headed straight for the bridge and Dren managed to bring the Paladin's massive sword down to cleave the kami in two less than a hundred meters from the main bridge. Forward jets fired to slow him down in a hurry and he stopped fifty meters from the hull. Turning around, he put his back to the ship and sighed in relief.

"<Yumi, these people aren't getting the message. Hack in and take thier language files.>" he said.

"<Processing.....Link established.....Hacking Security protocols,,,,,Temporarily Disabling firewalls....Compiling data interface......Searching for Language files......Files found, Downloading.......Download Complete. Re-enabling Security and disconnecting.>" she paused and gave a sigh, then smiled, "<Language Files installed. They should understand you now.>"

"<Replay last transmission translated.>" he said. Dren watched the female once more but this time the audio was in Nekan for him and his eyes went wide for a moment, then a look of determination formed on his face.

"<Finally. Yumi, open a channel to the ship and it's pilots once more. Enable translator.>" the orb on Dren's chest changed from a yellow color to a dark crimson red as the connection was established, both video and audio. Keeping his mech in a defensive stance, he reached up and pressed a button on his helmet, making the reactive metal around his neck detach and flow down to the breastplate where it absorbed into it. With a hiss, the pressure equalized and he pulled his helmet off, letting his white and blue hair float behind him, his ears stick up in the air and he opened his fanged mouth to speak to an alien race for the first time for his kind, and have them understand him. Scientists and scholars from his world dreamed of this day and many spent years thinking of the perfect words to say in this First Contact situation. Dren took a deep breath and looked straight into the screen as he spoke,

"Let's kick some ass. I'm on your side!" he said with a smile, his lips curled, exposing his fangs. The link was cut and he glanced down to see Yuri with her brow lowered in annoyance.

"<The first time a Nekan talks to an alien race and the first thing he says is 'Let's kick some ass?' Real subtle, Dren.>" she sighed heavily, "<I'll take your response to them as you not being in your right mind due to malnutrition.>"
"<Oh I'm fine.>" he muttered, stowing the sword of the Paladin on it's back. He then pulled the rifle from the rear on the lower back and powered it on, diverting power from the Ether Generator to it. With the Shield still on the left and the rifle on the right, he targeted another Kami that was nearing the ship. The rifle locked on and Dren pulled the trigger but only managed to take out the right arm. Several other shots missed as it darted around as it headed for him but at the last second, Dren squeezed off a charged shot that destroyed it.

He turned back to the ship and made his mech do an awkward salute to the bridge and turned to speed back out into the battlefield.

Azzy had settled for ignoring the inane, meaningless chatter from the other pilot. At the moment he was pretty **** off. There was no excuse, in his mind, for the Stalking Cat and the Hornet to be the only two outside. ‘Looks like we lost the game.’

“Shaddap Jack…” He yanked on the controls, maybe more savagely than he needed to, slipping once again behind his targets. It came as a slight surprise that the new pilot had switched over to something he could understand, but that wasn’t his worry. The two Kami’s were still on his tail, but he was prepared to deal with them now. No one else would…

In a short time, two of the three remaining Kamikaze’s were floating scrap heaps. They’d not only been run in circles, but disabled by the EMP blasts, and shot through the cockpits with the lancing surge of energy from the Hornet’s bow. Then a hail of bullets ripped through the machines armor, which was truly little more than an air tight dust guard. Not meant for close combat, or even combat at all. Azzy swore, sirens blared (just in case he hadn’t noticed), and he broadcast an open transmission to both allies.

“Now ‘at yous ‘ot-shots’ve got all acquain’ed, one’a yous min’ gettin’ this bastard off’a me?” Something sparked on his console, and he chittered at it in surprise and fury, then slapped it. “It’d be won’erful if yous could make it fast.” The Hornet’s cockpit was filled with hissing, blaring, noise. But Asmodeus appeared mostly calm, with an edge of anger and determination.

‘Hull breached. High, right booster damaged. Working at ten percent. Hydraulics leak, isolating source.’

“Keep the cockpit pressurized Jack. On’y one more ta go.” He didn’t dare turn around to take care of it himself. With even one booster damaged, the Hornet had nowhere near the maneuverability it had with all of them working at full power. Enough to keep up his ragged, erratic flight patterns, but barely. And besides that, he didn't want to risk flooding all the air out into space by taxing the Hornet's capabilities while it was damaged.

“Son of a ****ing!” The words bouncing around the locker room for a second as Jared resisted the urge to punch a hole in something. He was supposed to be off duty, supposed to be out of uniform… supposed be heading for his date with Veronica! And now the Children decide to attack and force all pilots back to duty.

Because of this he was one of the last to launch because of the need to change into his flight suit and grab his helmet. He almost slammed his locker shut but stopped himself to not risk damaging the bottle he had put inside.

He ran out and jumped into his Orion, plugging himself into the mech. It was the main reason he didn’t have an AI like the other pilots, he was the Orion essentially when connected. Also AI had a tendency to try and interfere with controls which just caused problems for a direct linked pilot such as himself.

“Orion, joining the battle,” Jared spoke over the coms before launching out into the empty void. Stabilizers and vectored thruster properly deploying to allow him almost perfect control in the weightless environment.

“Roger, Orion. Be advised unknown craft is designated friendly.”

“Understood, Unkown is friendly,” He checked his sensor to locate the unknown just be aware of its location but when he did he found some very wrong also in the local scans… “Bridge, you’re getting this right? Are the Elyandra’s even shields up?”

”We’re looking into it, Orion. Your priority right now is to deal with the remaining hostiles. The Hornet is in need of assistance.”

“Copy, heading to assist,” Jared replied gunning the engines and readying his rifle.

The Orion closed distance fast and it wasn’t long before he was in range though it was apparent the Hornet was having some difficulty. With the man-machine interface Jared and the Orion have it was barely a second for the weapons to lock. He opened fire, the first round hitting the kami’s engines sending it spiraling out of control. The next three punctured its core lighting up the emptiness of space with its demise.

“Hornet you’re clear. Head on back for repairs,” Jared sent on the comm. before checking the area for anymore dangers when something weird started up. “Hey guys, I’m getting a lot of interference on my sensors. Anybody else seeing this?”

"Roger 'at Orion. 'eadin' fer 'ome." Azzy didn't so much notice any interference on his scans. Much of the Hornet's sensor array had been damaged. Not all, as it was spread throughout the mech, to prevent it from being easily disabled. There were at least twenty different tones of alarm buzzing through the tiny space around his ears. Warning lights flashed, streaking his vision with multicolored dots. The air that kept the cabin pressurized was slowly being hissed off into space, and he'd already begun to notice it. He had to force himself not to yell at the competing noise and light. It wouldn't help. All he had to remember was that it would not help him.

"Take o'er Jackie. Gonna try ta seal 'is leak..." He muttered, letting the AI take over piloting while he unbuckled himself. Floating free of the seat, there was very little room to move about, but enough for him to locate and open the bag stowed behind. Azzy dug through it, retrieved a small tube, and began systematically searching for the crack in his cockpit. Everything else within drifted freely with no notice from the pilot. What he finally found was a place where the visor had come loose from the mount. Barely, but enough that he was loosing air.

'Asmodeus. Be advised, the Cat is reporting mines in the area. Local sensors and scans come up blind. Visuals unconfirmed.'

"Locate the points'a origin fer 'at in'erference. Guide us a'tween 'em." Azzy shook his head once, violently, to clear the spots that were beginning to darken his vision. "Use visual an' t'ermal scans ta navigate." The cap to the patching compound now bobbed along, bouncing around the cabin, Azzy floating near to the place the air whistled out. He emptied most of the tube along the seal, pressing it in with a finger and hoping his patch job would hold.

'Emergency jump protocol started aboard Elyandra.' "Yeah, yeah, I 'ear ya..." Asmodeus pulled himself back into the seat, strapped in, and didn't even once think about what they might hit on the way back in. "'ornet ta 'anger one, reques' permission ta en'er."

"This is hanger one, you are clear for entry Hornet. Head for docking bay seven."

It was soothing to Azzy's nerves that they made it back with no further problems. Jack had, if not easily, skillfully avoided hitting any of the mines. When the Hornet stood in its dock, he barely had a word for the techs already swarming over it, running diagnostics.

He needed to see the captain.

Artemis witnessed the space battle with much interest, leaning forward on a control panel to the annoyance of a crewman, who swiftly ushered him aside. He sighed with relief as there were no reports of casualties, although it would take some extensive repairs and time before the mechs would be running at a hundred percent again, and what if the enemy had another plan in mind beforehand.

He turned to the intimidating Malicent, acknowledging him with a nod. The mysterious minister of the death goddess in his dark attire made Artemis shudder a little. He had nothing against the guy or his religion. Hell knew they all needed it in a time like this, otherwise they’d end up at crazy as the extremists. However, the scientist wondered how Malicent had ever been allowed on the ship without some apprehension, for he was hardly the glowing messenger of hope Artemis had imagined to console him. A mine exploded close to the Elyandra, sending violent vibrations through the ship. Artemis had to steady himself, he was getting a craving for a cigarette.

Now paying attention to the alien craft as it bravely saved Stalking Cat from the mines, Artemis was very excited to see the mech’s pilot. This was indeed a momentous occasion for science, however he felt that he may be the only one who understood this. They had just encountered another alien race, humanity wasn’t alone in the universe. Although it was impossible to determine the being’s intentions. The crew were more concerned with their own survival. ‘Captain, I wish to accompany you to the medical bay.’

When the Captain announced the ship was making a hyperspace jump, Artemis rolled his eyes. He might need to go to the medical bay for personal reasons afterall, he hated jumps as they made him queasy.

Malicent returned the slightest of nods to Atremis, and looked out of the front veiwport and into outer-space. New life, he mused. Possible. The goddess need not be in one place. He kept his balance as the ship shuddered due to a nearby mine exploding. He wished he was on board one of the Church's Night Cruisers. A fully sized battle-ship, armed with enough firepower to wipe out a small moon. Unfortunatly, they were all busy, mainly beign repaired. The terrorist attacks had hit the fleet hard, and had lead to Malicents placement on board the Elyandra. His previous ship, the Nightingale, the biggest ship in the Church's fleet, had been crippled by two of the sucide bombers and nearly destroyed. Torsion feild generaters didn't work very well after 40 pounds of semtex had exploded next to them. He had been sent to the Elyandra by his superior, the Abbot of Dusk. He sighed. If only he was on baord one of the battle-ships. He would have blown those over-zelous fools into Underland before they coudl draw breath. But, no point musing about what could be, rather, focus on the now. He quickly turned and walked over to the navigation unit, and looked over the sholder of the operater at the screen. The captain was right. It was broken. No sensors, no sheilds on the tactical unit. Malicent swore under his breath. Did they buy this ship second hand? Did they buy this ship, period? No scanners, goddess save us. With that Malicent looke down at the navigation officer, seeing him shake slightly.

"Calm yourself, Officer. The Goddess watches over us, even now. And if it is our time, then we shall at least go down fighting. Now, prepare for a hypersapce jump, as the captain has requested" With that, he walked around the rest of teh bridge, checkign on the officers, offering a quiet prayer here, a blesssing there, and confort when needed. He reached the weaposn officer, who was shakign as well, but more violently. Malicent clicke don his mike "Azreal, we have a Section 8 - Nervous Breakdown. Send up the off duty Weapons Officer to teh bridge please" With that, Malicent quickly began to tlak to the man. "Officer...Jackson, please, come with me" The man looked at him, and slowly realised he had no real choice in the matter. While he got up, malicent transfered dontrols of weapons systems to teh defense officer. Seeing the sheilds were down, he wasn't really doing much else. After completign this, he took the arm if the still shaking officer, and led him toawrds the exit. "It is fine, my freind, you are in no danger. Do not fear, take a deep breath, and then we shall go for a short walk, to gatehr our nerves. If you would be so kind to wait here, and take deep breath until I return" Leavign teh man breathing deeply, Malicent quickly walked up to the Captain.

"Captain" he said "I must take this man from the bridge and to the Secure Psych Secion in the Medi-Bay, under regulation S8-NB (Section 8 - Nervous Breakdown). You will have my report by tommorow. I have already sent for his off duty counterpart to take up the slack. My the Goddess guide you" With that, he returned to teh officer, adn slowly led him off the bridge, past Artemis, and to the litf to get Medical Floor. As he walked pas tthe scientist, he smelt teh smell of ciggarettes. He wrinkled his nose. Horrible things, no-good at all for your mentl of physcial helath. And they didn't help when he was doing therapy either. Last time a smoker had been smokign in the same room that Malicent had been doing therapy in, the smoker had had a clip-board thrown at him. The smoke blocked the meridian lines in the body, as well as affecting neurone activity. The latter was easy to deal with, but the former required acupuncture treatment to reset the meridian lines and unblock the flow of qi. Malcient had taken multiple courses in acupuncture to assist in his psychological duties aboard ship. Hearign Artemis request to go to the Medi-Bay with the captain, he hit the "hold lift" button after getting in with the shaking officer, and waited for either the Captain and Artemis, or just the former, to join him in the lift.

Once everyone was safely on board the ship made its jump and the Captain stood and nodded to Artemius, “Let’s go” she spoke to him in a curt manner mostly due to the current situation than anything he had done. Catching the lift with Malicent Captain Troy stood there silent and tense, her mind racing over all the small things that needed to get done before they were ready to face another attack from the Children and their forces. What was plaguing her the most though was how their systems had shut down on them, like some failure though there had been no warning or anything. It had been like someone had hit a switch and just killed them, which should have been close to impossible given what their security systems and firewalls were like. Finally it was the sounds of the still trembling man that brought the Captain from her musings, “The Children seem to forget that what they are fighting against is the human spirit. The very thing that God himself gave to us. It is far stronger than anything they have or ever will have” she spoke with conviction and faith in her words.

Meanwhile in the med bay Angela was snarling as she fought against the medical personal who were trying to treat her, the wounded animal in her wanting to just find a quiet spot in which to lick her wounds in peace. Those dealing with the Alien were not having any better time, mostly because they were not sure just exactly how to treat him. The chief medical officer pushed his bewildered staff to the side and began the process of scanning the foreign body the readings finding them to be fairly close to genetics to that of humans. Once they figured out just what was wrong with him, they began with putting him on fluids and giving him a nutrients injection to help combat the mild bit of starvation he had begun to suffer from.

The Captain and the others arrived just in time to her Angela practically roar as she kicked a nurse out of the doors into the main hall, the poor guy actually landing at the Captain’s feet. With a tired sigh the Captain helped the man up then led the way into sick bay in time to Angela hemming up another nurse by the collar of his shirt. “Lieutenant Jones!” her voice crisp and clear seeming to silence all the chaos in the room. “You will get a hold of yourself right now and allow for them to treat your wounds. That’s an order” her blue eyes locked with Angela’s gold, the tension in the air becoming damn right palpable as Angela’s inner beast fought with dominance with the Captain. All she needed was for the Captain to look away and that would be it, there would no longer be any respect nor would she feel so inclined to follow any future given orders. There the two stared at one another, the span of several heartbeats until finally Angela yielded and looked away, “Yes Ma’am” she growled out as she laid back in the bed and allowed them to finish treating her wounds. The cut on her head had begun to close though when they began to struggle with her it opened up again, and the wound in her side was bleeding worst now.

The Captain spared a moment to speak softly to Angela, assuring the pilot that she was not in trouble and had not failed the crew of the ship in anyway. With that done she went to go and see to Azzy to ensure he too was faring well given how much damage he and the Hornet took. When she was certain he was on the way to being well again, she spoke to him of her gratitude for him once again aiding in saving the ship and all those in board. After insuring that her pilots were on the mend she went to check on the Alien to see if he was conscious and try to figure out just how he came to be in the middle of their war.

It seemed that everyone wanted to see the alien. Including Azzy, now that his life wasn’t in jeopardy. The only thing that bothered him was, as soon as he’d set foot in the medical bay, everyone that wasn’t busy with Angela or the alien wanted to make certain he wasn’t going to suddenly drop dead from unknown cause. It was more than a little annoying, since he knew he was fine. High pitched squeaks and clicks rounded out his words of explanation. Azzy couldn’t control it; they escaped on their own when he was particularly upset by something.

Soon as the Captain entered, he stood at attention and saluted. While waiting patiently to be acknowledged, and somewhere out of the way, he cast a critical eye over the decidedly cat-like entity. “So ‘at’s a alien… Ain’ real impressive, is it?” The little pulses of clicks buzzed back to him, giving him a clear picture of the thing.

He was completely unperturbed by the show between the two women. Azzy was a soldier, he’d seen it before. What did a bat care for dominance anyway? The entire thing seemed foolish to him. Idly, his fingers searching for something, anything, to do, he’d started playing with a cigarette. His attention wandered for a moment as he considered Malicent. Asmodeus didn’t think he needed to even be on the ship. There was no room for religion in the way he saw things. Humanity had too many holy wars, and he thought, with a priest or whatever the man was aboard, this would just turn into another shit-fest. It wasn’t that he couldn’t be polite to the man. Azzy offered a nod of his head to him, then shoved the thoughts away altogether. They weren’t necessary.

By the time he was spoken to, he’d field stripped three of the filters, the rest going back into a pocket. “Wit’ all due respec’ Cap’in…” A series of agitated clicks followed. “Wha’ the **** ‘appened ou’ there?” More of the high pitched chattering. “No warnin’ fer the mines an’…” This time it was only a single chirp, but clearly displayed his feelings on the situation. “on’y one on duty pilot?”