Refuge-A Homeworld2 Fan Fic

[Stonewall]

It's my first try so be easy with me. Criticism if constructive is welcome. Enjoy or at least I hope enjoy.

Refuge-A Homeworld2 Fan Fic
Chapter1-Message in a Bottle

Captain Cimeon Sonderan finished buttoning his uniform and began walking to the bridge. He was almost there when he bumped into chief warrant officer and chief of security Graig Ulmer. Graig was a stocky man with no hair on the top of his head and a goatee that was always well kept. It was always easy to tell when he was mad because his head turned bright red and reminded Cimeon of a volcano ready to explode. The brighter the red, the madder he was.

“Captain,” the marine saluted and stopped walking, “I had been hoping to bump into you.”

“What can I do for you chief?”

“Well sir,” began Graig, “It's been a while since we had a ship wide boarding drill and I would like to conduct one soon. Some of the crew that came on right before we left the station have yet to try and defend this carrier in simulation or in real life. With the vaygr as low on ships as they are they would love to make this ship a new addition to their fleet.”

“I see your point. Put together a plan and give it to me asap. We will address it in the daily brief with the executive officers and conduct the drill as soon as it's feasible.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Chief, a quick question. You're not just in the mood to shoot the newbies are you?”

That brought a grin to the chiefs face. “No sir thats just an added benefit.”

As Cimeon walked away he could almost swear he heard a chuckle from behind him.

The doors opened to the bridge and Cimeon entered. The bridge crew was quietly going about their business. Over at the sensor board was Ensign Adman Paktu. He was stationed on a destroyer before he was transferred to the carrier. He was thin and always on edge. The young man never seemed to be relaxed. At the resource station was Ensign Anallie Somtaaw. Always ready to make a joke, she was the youngest of the Executive Officers and the newest. She knew her stuff though and the carrier never lacked for resources. The Wing Commander Sejica Manaan and the deck officer Lt. Illib Somtaaw were having a conversation about the squadrons in the hanger. The Prise-Gail had the best pilots in the fleet and it was because of Sejica and Illib. Because of the work these two put in the fighter squadrons almost always came back alive. They ran a tight operation and it paid off. Over at the tactical station was Lt. Lennal Sonderan. He had grown up in the same city that Cimeon had and the two were friends to a degree. He was a quiet man who had seen a lot in the war.

They all had seen their fair share of the war. All the executive officers had been in the fleet attached to The Pride of Hiigara. Some had served on this carrier, others on mobile refineries, destroyers, or frigates. But they were all seasoned. They all knew there job and they all did it well. The one that the captain knew the best though was his first officer. Commander Lana Soban had been with Cimeon the longest. She seemed to know what he wanted before it left his mouth. She was tall and very athletic. On her arm was a red tattoo of the kith Soban. They had been serving together since he took command of the Prise-Gail and he was dreading the day she got her own command. They had never been romantically involved and they never would. The captain just knew that officers of that caliber were hard to come by.

“Status,” the captain asked as he sat down into his chair.

“We've been out of hyperspace for two and a half hours and nothing so far. The Hammer and the Blade are in line abreast to us with the frigates forming a protective screen an all sides. Scout squadrons are deployed as are the gunship and pulsar squadrons. All additional squadrons are on 10 minute stand by. We have not set up a resourcing operation since storage units are still at capacity.”

“Thank you commander.”

Their orders were simple, patrol the Ashod sector until Naval Command called them back. Their fleet was more than capable of the task. Along with the carrier there were 2 destroyers, 5 torpedo frigates, 4 flak frigates, and 3 ion cannon frigates. They were a fairly large fleet. The carrier had an enlarged hanger bay allowing them to carry 15 squadrons of strike craft. They were running a full compliment now with 2 scout squadrons, 5 interceptor squadrons, 3 bomber squadrons, 3 gunship squadrons, and 2 pulsar squadrons. So far during the patrol they had only met light vaygr fleets that were easily dealt with. They had only received minor damage that they repaired with ease.

They had just entered an asteroid field known only as G546. It was a fairly thin field but there were pockets where you could hide. All in all nothing interesting. Just rocks and more rocks.

“Captain I'm picking up a ship. Looks pretty beat up.” Said Adman.

“Can we get a visual of it yet?”

“Working on it Captain. It looks like a Vaygr heavy missile frigate. Looks like it's dead though sir. I'm not getting any kind of power reading.”

“Alright sound general quarters. Send a scout squadron to investigate. Send all additional strike craft crews to their ships and have them ready for launch. If the vaygr have a surprise for us I want to be ready.”

“Sir, I've got visual.”

“On screen.”

On the front screen a ship appeared. The frigate was heavily damaged with almost half of the ship nothing but a tangle of metal beams and warped bulk heads. The front was still intact but had large holes and burn marks all over it.

“Sir, it looks like the frigate was destroyed by vaygr weapons not ours. Those scars are from the missiles they use on their corvettes, not the torpedoes we use. Also there seems to be no ion scaring of any kind.”

“Strange. According to what we know we aren't anywhere near the border of 2 different warlords. Are there any signs of life pods or a pocket on that ship for any survivors?”

“Negative. There are 3 life pods adrift but none are registering any kind of life sign. The only activity I can see is one of the life pods sending a distress call. It didn't start till we scanned the pod for life signs.”

“Did any of the other pods respond the same way?”

“No, sir.”

“Alright. I want a resource collector out there to open it up and see what's inside.”

The fleet prepared for what ever may be waiting for them. Crews ran to their battle stations, pilots jumped into their cockpits, and the capital ships powered all their weapons. A lone collector launched from the carrier and started toward the life pod. The little dark yellow box with arms having the full attention of the entire fleet.

“Captain all squadrons report ready to launch.” called out Lt. Illib.

“All crew members at battle stations. Fleet reports battle ready.” announced Lt. Lennal.

As the collector neared the escape pod the captain grew a little nervous. It felt like a trap. They had been led to this specific escape pod and now they were going to open it. At least they weren't opening it in the hanger. If it was a bomb of some sort at least casualties would be at a minimum. As the collector docked with the pod, Cimeon realized he was holding his breath.

Then nothing. No explosion. No screams of terror from the collector crew. No incoming rush of enemy craft. No decloaking fleet attacking them. Nothing.
“Open a channel to the collector.”

“Channel open.”

“Pilot, this is Captain Cimeon what do you see?”

“Sir, there is a message in here written in Hiigaran. It says and I quote, 'Please save us. We have something that you must have if you want to restore peace. We know where the planet killers are from. And there are more than before.' There's a set of coordinates after that.”

Silence hung like a blanket in the bridge, computers beeping and the ventilators pumping air through the ship the only sound. Every member of the bridge crew had been in the battle over the homeworld. All of them had fought against the war machines that tried to destroy their very homes. When the last one turned to wreckage they all had breathed a sigh of relief. And now that relief was gone. In the space of a breath they were there again. Death yet again loomed large before them. If it were after their own lives they would have laughed at it. But it was after their family, their wives, husbands, sons, and daughters.

Cimeon was the first person to speak. His voice was a crack of thunder in the silence.“Pilot, record what you see and finish scans for any further traps. When the pod is deemed safe bring it back to the hanger for further examination. As of this moment you and your crew are to remain silent about this. You are to tell no one about what you have seen until you receive official documentation releasing you. Are my orders understood?”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Carry on, bridge out. That order goes for all of you as well. If word of this gets out, then we're going to have a panic. Not just in our fleet but galaxy wide. As of yet this is unsubstantiated. Until the existence of more planet killers is confirmed there are none. Is that understood?”The sound of yes sir rang from every person on the bridge. As the captain left to call Command everyone saw a strong confident captain walk to his office. But on the inside Cimeon was shaken to his core.

“This better be important. I was having a nice dinner with my wife for the first time in 4 months.” grumbled Admiral Aba'ye.
“Yes sir, I understand.” Cimeon was desperate for help. Over the next 15 minutes he informed the Admiral about what they found and the actions they took. After the pod was dragged into the hanger it was put in security lock down. There had been 4 bodies on board. 2 vaygr and 2 taiidan. The bodies were in autopsy now. The hard part for Cimeon was they all looked like civilians.

“I appreciate your concern Captain, but at this time we don't have anything we can do. The Sajuuk is on a diplomatic mission and I can't call the fleet back over this. This sounds like a trap. I can't commit a large fleet to something that is probably just bait. The vaygr have never shown mercy. They were going to kill every person on our Hiigara for Sajuuk sake. Intelligence hasn't heard anything about where they came from. They've never heard of any vaygr who liked us either.”

Cimeon's heart dropped. “But Admiral, if intelligence doesn't have any idea where they came from, there could be more. If there are and they hit Hiigara with Sajuuk away, billions will die. Shouldn't we at least send a fleet to investigate? Our fleet is close to the coordinates. We could be there in two days. If we find something then we come home and gather the fleet. If not then we haven't lost much.”

The Admiral just looked at Cimeon blankly. “I don't think your going to find anything out there and you'll be out of communication range for most of the time your gone. I don't like the idea of not being able to know what's going on with an entire carrier group for almost four days. Your fleet is an important part of the navy. We have done some rebuilding but we are still low on ships. I can't afford to take the risk.”

“Admiral, with all due respect, what if your wrong? I believe there is something going on. It's part evidence, part hunch. Please Sir, I'm not trying to be disrespectful but this is too important for me to let it go.”

After several agonizingly long seconds, “Very well. You can go. I've never seen you push a superior officer this far before. If you're this sure about it, very well. But Cimeon you better make it back. It's not just your ships that are important. You and your crew are some of the best we have. We lost a lot of good people in the war. With it over for now I'd just as soon have you all come home.”

[Stonewall]

Chapter 2-Target Practice

Cimeon walked into the briefing room a little tired and in serious need of some food. He walked over to his chair at the head of the metal table and noticed almost everybody was there.

Graig was near the middle of the table with a confused expression on his face. As chief of security, his station was on the auxiliary bridge during general quarters so he had no idea what happened with the frigate. He was trying to persuade the young ensign Adman to share what the meeting was about. The poor ensign was clearly starting to get a little tired of the man. His narrow face and light green eyes were tight as he again told Graig that he couldn't tell him. His thin body relaxed as Graig finally gave up.

Lennal was in a world all by himself. His face a blank expression that betrayed no hint of what he was thinking. Sejica sat down beside him. When her hand touched his shoulder, he jumped. After apologizing, the well built woman started to ask him questions about new deployment ideas she had. It wasn't very important but it did seem to bring the lieutenant back to the present and out of his own personal world.

The small Anallie was telling some kind of a joke to Illib. Cimeon wasn't following and neither was the big man. His large shoulders were hunched over and his face was exasperated. Evidently the resource officer couldn't read body language because she kept going on like her audience hung on every word she was saying. With hands flying and her face as animated as the cartoons he watched as a kid, Cimeon had to laugh.

“I didn't know there was anything funny going on” Lana sat down on Cimeon's right side.

“I know, but when she starts going I can't help but laugh. I really should make her some kind of a morale officer. Even if you don't get her jokes you can always laugh at her.”

At that moment the last two people they were waiting for came in. The chief engineer sat down near the other end of the table and the chief medical sat down near the middle on Cimeon's left. Lt. Commander Rainie Sonderan was always cool and collected. While the engineer started pumping people for information, she simply sat down and continued to work on her data pad. While of average height there wasn't a person on the ship that could talk down to her.

“Thank you all for coming promptly. For the sake of those not on the bridge earlier, I'll give an over view of what we're dealing with. After that I'll let you all weigh in on the situation. Five hours ago we came into contact with a destroyed vaygr heavy missile frigate. As we searched the wreckage, we came across an escape pod that was emitting a distress signal. When we investigated, there was a message written inside the pod that claimed there were more planet killers and a set of coordinates. After conferring with command, they don't put much weight on the message. They don't want to do anything about it. The admiral believes it to be a trap. While I understand his position I disagree and as such have asked that we be sent to investigate the coordinates and bring back what we've found. My request was granted and we will be traveling to the Athlith system with all haste.” As Cimeon had been speaking the corners of Rainie's eyes had started to shine. Now that he was finished a single tear ran down her other wise stone expression. She had grandchildren on Hiigara and right now he knew she was probably thinking of them.

“Sir.” It was Lt. Lennal who broke the silence that started to creep over the room. “Why do you think this is a legitimate claim? The vaygr hate us. Why would they try and help us all of a sudden?”

“There were civilians in that escape pod. The vaygr may hate us but they aren't going to start killing their own people to try and get a few of us. They also know if we thought they were real we would bring Sajuuk to destroy the planet killers. Even if it is a trap, we need to know how they plan on destroying the Sajuuk.”

“Are we telling the crew? My strike craft are going to need to start running additional simulator runs to prepare for fighting a possible planet killer. I'd rather have my people be ready.”

“Yes, Sejica, we will. However, we will not be telling them for another fifteen hours. At that time we will enter an area of space with large, dense dust clouds. Our communication range will be limited and even if any crewman were to panic and attempt to contact home they wouldn't be able to. That also means, however, that we will be out of contact with command for the duration of the mission. No matter what happens at least one of our ships need to contact Hiigara within five days. It's a two day trip so that gives us one day on site to figure out what this is all about.”

“What happens if none of our ships make contact in five days?”

“The fleet assumes it was a trap and that we were destroyed. No one comes after us. Like I said command didn't want us to go in the first place. If we mess it up, it's all on us.”

“Captain.” Rainie got Cimeon's attention.”Are the bodies I have in the morgue from this escape pod?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

Rainie plugged her data pad into the table they were sitting at. After pushing a few buttons a hologram of a vaygr body hovered in the middle of the table. The long thin body was semi transparent allowing the viewers to see into the organs. There were several deep lacerations on his back and shoulders as if something had crashed down on him. The face was cleaned up but had some small cuts and the nose broken. The doc made the skin even more transparent till it was almost entirely gone.

“Whats the problem doc? If the pod didn't give off a distress signal and had been floating for a while, he suffocated. Why does that worry you?”

“It's not how he died that we're looking at. He was a civilian. The fuel used in vaygr missiles is everywhere in their ships. This man couldn't have been on that missile frigate for more than three days. If he had been, there would be burns in his lungs. The vaygr adjust quickly but there is always residual scarring. This mans lungs are clean, no burns, no scars. The part that worries me is right here.” At that the image zoomed in on a section of the mans brain in the lower back almost right on the spinal cord. There was a small, white, lumpy mass in the mans brain.

“What is that thing? And is it contagious?” asked the sensor officer. He was a little disgusted by the sight of a persons “guts” and the mass really was making him squirm a little.

“Don't worry Jr. if it's gonna kill ya I'll shoot you before the pain becomes unbearable.” joked the chief.

“You never cease to amaze me Graig. To answer you Adman its a growth associated with the progenitors. Radiation from the weapons they use can cause this kind of growth. This man was on a ship that was attacked by some one using progenitor tech. In every engagement where we used Sajuuk or the dreadnought, the ships they hit didn't escape. This man has been in an area with keepers. A civilian in an area with keepers sounds like another graveyard. Who knows what they dug up.”

“True, but that just means we need to go see what's out there even more. Does anyone else have any other questions or comments to add? No, ok we'll move on then. We leave as soon as this briefing is over. All stations will maintain constant readiness. We won't come to full alert till we're closer but I do want every station fully manned. I also want a squadron of gunships, interceptors, and bombers ready to launch at a moments notice. Ok, chief you had said that you wanted to have a ship wide boarding drill. I want to make that happen before we reach the dust clouds. Lets work the details up before we leave here and then make it happen.”

Ship wide boarding drills are always fun for the marines. With ion rifles turned down, the Hiigarans could stun a person not wearing body armor with a good body shot. By turning the ion stream down in strength it acted much like a long range stun gun sending an electrical charge into the nervous system and locking the muscles up. In the boarding drills the chief randomized the boarding location and let his marines start coming in that location and start shooting. This drill was only slightly different in that the entire ship was effected. The marines planned to simulate a boarding action from in the frigate construction module. As they began the fight the crew fought back. Cimeon and Graig were with a group of twenty marines. Unlike the other marines they wore body armor so even if hit they could continue to grade the marines and crew.

“They let us come to far in.” Graig said,” We made it through the construction facility and even took the corvette mod before they even started putting up any real resistance. They should have tried to bottle neck us from the start.”

“I wouldn't count them out just yet chief. We haven't seen Illib yet and you know he hates people messing his stuff up. He's been letting us trash his area for a reason I'm sure.”

A blast of ion fire stopped the conversation. Ahead of them a group of crewmen had waited till the marines were right on top of them to fire. The lead marine was hit and fell to the ground with a web of purple around his chest. The second marine took a hit to the leg which knocked him down but not out and the rest of the shots struck wide of their intended marks. The group took what cover they could along the bulk heads and started returning fire. The marines were able to use their superior numbers to suppress the crewmen long enough for the “wounded” marine to be dragged back to a safer position. After that they started to pick the crewman off one by one. The captain was always in awe of thr marines. They moved with such purpose and confidence. If a crewmen was foolish enough to show any part of themselves the marines shot it. If they stayed in one spot too long the marines moved into a place where they could get an angle to shoot in on them. After a few minutes the last of the purple beams died down as the last few crew members retreated to a better position.

“That was a little better. This time they actually knocked out three of us with a loss of six. For not being marines they did ok. But I think it was to little to late. At this rate we'll get to a critical room in less than fifteen minutes. After that, we can consider the ship a loss even if we fail at a take over.” The chief was looking at were the retreating crew had gone. “If they did a critical lock down they may be able to delay us an extra ten minutes but that's it. They should have thrown the weight of their defense at us by now.”

“Until it's over, I'll give them some playroom. We'll see what their planning soon enough I'm sure.”

The marines continued down the corridor. They were two decks above engineering and once they got there it was all over. With control of engineering the enemy could disable the ship. As they advanced they met scattered resistance. Every time, the marines were slowed down, but losses were at a minimum and even Cimeon was starting to be disappointed. If they had been vaygr, things would have been looking very bad. Then the surprise.

There were about fourteen of them left as they started down the corridor toward engineering. All of a sudden there were purple lines everywhere. In the first volley of fire, four marines and the captain were hit. Using the ventilator shafts several crew members had slipped in behind the group. Illib Somtaaw was among them. Caught in a two front battle kept the marines from concentrating fire on any one place long enough to move. The group they were facing was also larger than any they had encountered before. With four guns behind them and seven in front they had the numbers in this skirmish. The marines knew their training though and kept on fighting. The air was charged with electricity as the beams shot back and forth. There was so much static that Cimeon could even see the hair on one of the marines heads starting to stand on end. It was a simple shoot out at first. Both sides in cover now, very few shots found their mark. Dead locked the marines were confident that their superior marksmanship would give them the edge to win out.
The stalemate ended with the arrival of more crew members. The addition of just a few more guns let them lay down enough suppressive fire for Illib to move up and get an angle on the first marine. After that, it was simple leap frog. The chief was the last to go down. He and another marine were fighting back to back when the marine was hit. As the chief turned to try and cover his back Illib ran up and shot him.

As soon as he had caught his breath Illib used his hand comm to report to the bridge.“Commander, we stopped the group heading to engineering.”

“Good job, lieutenant. They're pushing hard toward the bridge. If you can take your squad and head to deck four, you should be able to hit them before they get there. Hurry though, Anallie was commanding down there and she was having some difficulties.”

“On our way commander. You boys coming to watch or sitting this out?”

“I can't grade you if I don't see what your doing.” grumbled Graig. His head was a little red. He didn't like getting shot or out smarted.

“Good job lieutenant. You drew us right in. Had you attacked earlier we would have had reinforcements to fast for it to work. Graig will get over it and probably even give you a good grade after he cools off a bit.”

As the small group ran through the carrier, Cimeon got a situation report from the commander himself to see how the different sides were doing. After initial success the marines had slowed down but they were still pushing steadily toward the bridge . She estimated that if something didn't change, the bridge would be taken in ten to fifteen minutes. It would be a good time for the marines. Slightly below what the captain had hoped for from the crew.

“Alright here we go.” As the lift opened onto deck four, Illib's small group quickly started moving forward with carbines raised. As they moved forward they noticed groups of crew members huddled together talking about how things were going. They were the casualties so far. There were some marines here and there but for the most part the crew had been hopelessly outclassed. The team that had attempted to take engineering had been a small part of the group. With that many marines going through there wasn't much the crew could do but try and slow them down. As they got closer to the fighting, noises could start to be heard. Ion fire, yelling, boots hitting the deck plates all these increased in volume as they got closer.

Illib planned to try and surprise the marines like they did Graig's group and try to create a cross fire. But it was not to be. They were seen by a marine before they were able to get a single shot off. The element of surprise gone, there wasn't anything to do but dig in and try and get as many marines as they could. The captain watched as the marines systematically forced the crew to retreat or get shot. Pushed back over and over their numbers dwindled as they fell to the marines. They got a few of the marines but not enough to make a difference. Before long the call came over the ship wide intercom. “All crew members and marines stand down. The bridge is breached. Repeat. The drill is over. All crew members are to stand down at once.”

“So how did they do chief?”

“There was a lot of confusion at the beginning, Captain.” For the last two hours Graig had been reviewing tapes of the drill. The captain was a little concerned about the performance of the crew. After thirty-five minutes the bridge had been taken. It was suppose to take an average of forty-five minutes for a carrier of their size to be taken down in a drill. With marine support in a real life situation a carrier like theirs shouldn't be taken. During the war there were too few marines for capital ships to have a full compliment. As a result, ships fell that never would have if they had been better staffed.

Still the fear was real. If the Prise-Gail were to have two Infiltrator frigates latch on and no support came they would be hard pressed to keep control of the ship. The vaygr needed all the ships they could get. If possible they would board and try to take the ship. Going into vaygr territory they needed to be ready.

“The crew fought hard, but they just didn't have a good idea of what they were doing. I'll visit each subsection one at a time and talk to them about what they need to do better. It's a good thing we did this drill. Now we know were we need to improve.”

“Keep on 'em. I want the problems that can be fixed, fixed.”

“Captain,” Sejica had just walked into the briefing room. With space limited it also served as the captains office. “If I could have a moment.”

“Certainly. Graig thank you for your report. Keep on the crew and officers. I want everyone ready just in case. If we get a chance we'll have another drill soon for the crew to try and practice what you teach them. I don't think it will be before this mission is over but as soon as we feasibly can. Dismissed.”

As Graig left the room the wing commander sat down at the table facing the captain. “Our strike craft wings are training to combat any progenitor tech that we know about. Everything from another Sajuuk class dreadnought to keeper drones and junkyard dogs. The pilots are doing as well as can be expected but I would like to add another factor to the fight. Civilian transports.”

“I think I know why, but go ahead.”

“The escape pod was asking for help. To me that's why I believe it is real. They weren't trying to help us they sounded like they wanted to help themselves. With those people being civilian in the pod there maybe civilian transports at the coordinates and not a military force.”

“What kind of an effect would it have on your training? I can't see it being that different from what you're doing now.”

“If there are more ships for us to protect than just our own fleet, we are going to be spread even thinner. Right now, we are training with a certain amount of craft in a defensive role. If we have more ships to protect, that number goes up and the number of strike craft left to offense goes down. This will effect what my pilots can and can't do. They need to know who is going to pull extra defense and who stays on offense. And also at what point do they all focus on defense? All these are things we work out in the simulator.”

“Alright start training. But make sure you pray that there aren't any because if there are we're all going to be stretched way to thin.”

A day and a half distance away Charl reported to his captain.“Sir, long range probes just indicated that there are two fleets on course too our current position.”

[Stonewall]

For anyone who is reading the next chapter should be much sooner than this one was. Life happens what can I say. Enjoy.

Chapter 3-Do they really exist?

Cimeon was ready for some sleep. He had just finished going over some last minute details with Sejica and Illib. Always looking for a way to do things better the two of them had come up with a way to launch the gunships from the frigate bay three at a time. With the fighters exiting two at a time from the forward bay and three gunships from the side bay, the carrier could deploy all of it strike craft in what seemed like seconds. It had taken much longer than the captain had wanted to finally leave the two of them and head back to his cabin.

Finally there, he had thrown his deep blue uniform blouse and pants on the bed and changed into a set of shorts and his undershirt. Catching a reflection of himself in the mirror he stopped. His hair was a deep brown, though around the ears you could start to see a gray hair or two starting to show. His brown eyes looked tiredly back at his tall broad frame. Quickly shaving away the stubble that had started to show again, he washed his face and laid down in his bunk.

An insistent beeping noise woke him in what seemed like just a few minutes.

“This is Cimeon. Whats the matter?”He groggily asked into his communicator.

“Captain, I would like you to come down to sick bay please.”

It was Rainie. Why would she call him now? Wasn't she always saying he needed to relax more?

“Can it wait Doc? I'm off duty and trying to sleep.”

“Sorry Captain, but I really want you to see this. Besides aren't you the one who always tells me your fine and don't need as much sleep as an ordinary hiigaran?”

“Let me change. I'll be there shortly”

He looked over to the clock and realized he would have been waking soon anyway. He had been asleep for 6 hours. After putting on a clean uniform and putting his now cold boots on again, he hit the keypad next to the door and headed out.

It was nearing the shift change and there were crew members moving about getting ready to start their shift. Some had mugs of steaming balfee. The black brew was a little bitter for the captains taste but if you needed to be awake, there wasn't a better drink for it. Taking the lift down a deck, the captain made it to sick bay just in time for the doc to ping his communicator.

“I told you I was coming.”

“You were also sleepy and I didn't know if you really had decided to wake up.” Rainie answered as she folded her communicator up and put it into one of her lab coat pockets.

“I appreciate your vote of confidence.” A smile spreading across his face. “ Now what is it you wanted to show me this early?”

“I found something on one of the bodies.” She started to move to the back of the sickbay where the bodies were stored. Each one was still on a rolling bed, a white sheet covering them. The area was cold and dry. Cimeon started rubbing his hands and blowing little smoke clouds.

“Shouldn't all personal items have been taken and cataloged before you received the bodies?”

“Yes. And they were, Captain.” Rainie answered as she moved to one particular body. “This is something I found actually on the body.”

Lifting the sheet from one of the beds the captain saw a young woman in her mid twenties. Her skin was the pale blue of death and the captain found himself sad for the young life that had been extinguished.

As the doc rolled her over, Cimeon expected to see something very profound. A large tattoo or a scar. Maybe even a robotic enhancement. But instead all he was able to see was a collection of cuts and bruises the woman must have sustained during the battle that destroyed the frigate she had been on.

“I assume I'm missing something? All I see is wounds from a battle.”

“That was what I thought as well during the autopsy. One of the techs was putting the bodies away with me when we both noticed a bruise that hadn't showed up on the scans. Normally when we scan the body, we see all the bruises as thin layers of blood. But this one was large and we hadn't seen it at all during the body scan. We quickly checked to see what it was.” At this Rainie began pulling at the sides of a good size bruise on the womans shoulder blade. It pealed right off. “The bruise was covering this up.”

There was a small tattoo about three inches wide. The red tattoo was a taiidan emblem with a dagger through the top. It was a new design for the captain and he didn't know why anyone would want to cover it up. The imperial taiidan were allies with the vaygr. Why would they need to hide who they were? “What does it mean?”

“At first I didn't know. Had it not been covered up I would have marked it down as a tattoo and just moved on. But since they had been hiding it, I wanted to know. According to the data banks, this is an old badge for the taiidan interceptor squadron 1453. That squadron was the only imperial squadron to object to the burning of Karak. They all were tried in a military court and found guilty of treason. With the death of the emperor, the squadron escaped any real punishment as the imperials needed every pilot they could get their hands on. The squadron had a reputation of being extremely skilled and held a sense of honor in all they did. They wouldn't attack civilians and even though they were on the imperial side, our spies reported they didn't have a strong hatred for Hiigarans. When the imperials allied with the vaygr, the squadron was attached to Makaan's fleet initially because of their skill. When the squadron was ordered to attack a civilian convoy they refused and as such were again labeled traitors. The squadron was disbanded and many of them were killed on site. There were some that did manage to escape with a small band of imperials that didn't feel comfortable with the vaygr. The last official record of them shows the vaygr destroying the rebellious fleet shortly after.”

“So this woman could have been a member of a rebel cell?”

“It's possible. That's why I wanted you to come down here. If there was any doubt about that message this should help clear it up.”

“Or make it an even more elaborate trap. I thought you said there wasn't any fuel burns on their lungs. If this woman was a military member she should have not just burns but lots of scarring.”

“She's taiidan, sir. They didn't mix with the vaygr well. As a matter of fact she could have been stationed on a taiidan carrier for her entire career. We didn't see many of them left by the time the vaygr hit Hiigara but there were a lot out there. The taiidan preferred their own ships more than vaygr ones most of the time.”

The doc rolled the woman back over and covered her with the sheet again. As they walked away from the body, Cimeon started to feel warmth seep back into his hands. He was deep in thought. A rebel imperial taiidan cell. Before it was just the vaygr, now imperials. And imperials that supposedly didn't hate Hiigarans. He didn't think they even existed.

“Thanks, Doc. I'll see you at the daily briefing in a few hours.”

With that he was out of sick bay and on his way to the mess. After grabbing a tray, he sat down. A slice of agrin with some kind of red jelly smeared on it, a bowl of crunchy brown flakes with a little blue clast poured over it. A cup of orange “drink” rounded out the bland but fulfilling breakfast. Cimeon's head was still trying to process the information Rainie had given him when Lennal sat down across from him. His tray, with an identical breakfast, making a clack that brought Cimeon back to the present.

“Hi, Cap. You doing ok?”

“Ya, I'm fine just thinking about some new info the Doc gave me before I came in here. Evidently one of our dead civilians wasn't civilian but a possible rebel imperial taiidan that doesn't hate hiigarans.”

“Wow!” Lennal replied with shock, “I didn't think that there was such a thing.”

“Me either, that's why I'm thinking so hard. If there are rebels out there that want our help, then how do you treat them? How will I be able to know if they are sincere? And if she was with a rebel group, why was her tattoo covered up? I would think that she would want us to find it. So many different things to deal with.”

Lennal sat there crunching his agrin while the captain talked. Cimeon finished talking and took a large bite of his breakfast and waited. As they sat there thinking a sudden light came to Lennal's eyes. He finished his last bite and looked the captain in the eyes.“You're going to help them aren't you? You've already made up your mind but you want someone else to let you know its ok. Am I right?”

“Maybe a little”

“Well, here's my two cents. I don't trust the Vaygr as far as I can throw them. I don't trust the imperials either. But I'm not the kind of person that kills innocent people for fun. If there are people who need help, I'll help them with you. I'm not going to like them and I'm not going to eat dinner with them but I'll help them find a safe place. And if they aren't sincere then I'll make sure you know to blast them to oblivion before any of our people get hurt.”

Cimeon was done with his breakfast now. He was just finishing drinking the clast out of his bowl when Lennal was done with his impromptu speech.

“Thanks. After all we've seen together, that means a lot. I'm heading to the bridge. I'll see you a little later.”

Cimeon dropped his tray and other dishes into the wash area and headed out the door of the mess hall. The gray door opened up to a fairly large corridor. One of the advantages of being on a carrier. Before the war they were designed to be able to do more than just fight. Science missions, carrying diplomats, and even humanitarian rescue, the Prise-Gail was designed to do all these jobs. The ship was laid down almost 3 years before the war. One of the new carriers that would be the mainstay of the Hiigaran navy. The ships of the new design theory were suppose to be more than combat vessels. Peace was the way of life before Makaan. With peace in mind the carriers were designed with more comfort in mind so the crew could go on longer extended missions into deep space. Charting unknown regions and “advancing the common good” as the politicians had said. Thankfully, the admirals at the time still made sure they had built a solid fighting vessel as well. When war broke out, all the extra room was good for moving troops around and the science equipment had proved its value at gathering info and spotting cloaked ships more times than Cimeon could count. All the extra dock space for dignitaries shuttles and storage for deep space missions translated into more fighters and gunships that the carrier could field. The carriers that were built during the war were more stripped down so more could be built. There were only a few carriers like the Prise-Gail still around. From the exterior the changes were small. Extra hull plates here, a few more antenna sticking out there. But the over all shape was the same.

Cimeon had been the ships captain since she left the dock. They had just finished their first diplomatic mission when the Vaygr came to the core. They were fighting near the Soban territories when word came that Hiigara was under blockade. With the Pride of Hiigara no longer a secret, high command sent the Prise-Gail to join the hunt for Sajuuk. They met up just after they retrieved the oracle. The carrier had seen it all. The finding of the dreadnought, the death of Bentus, the destruction of Makaan, when Sajuuk got underway for the first time, and then the breaking of the blockade. After the Vaygr began to retreat, fleets were quickly assembled to reclaim the lost territory and put a buffer zone around Hiigara again. With all the experience and capabilities it had, the Prise was an obvious choice as a flagship. After another year of pushing the Vaygr back out of surrounding systems and helping set up the hyperspace inhibitor net again the carrier had earned a much needed rest. Casual patrols and diplomatic missions had been the work of the day for a little over eight months. Now it seemed like that break was over and it was time for the ship to get back to work.

The bridge was in the process of shift change. The doors at the back of the bridge opened to let Cimeon enter. The entire bridge was laid out around a holographic projector situated in the center of the room. During a battle, this projector would project a three dimensional view of the battle field. The captains chair was placed above and behind it facing the main view screen. The view screen showed the simple passing of stars as the carrier group journeyed through hyperspace. There were a number of stations circling the room and facing the main view screen. The bridge was laid out in such a way that almost all the stations could see both the main view screen and the holographic projector in the middle of the room. The only two stations that couldn't, was the helm situated in the front of the room and the auxiliary terminals built into the back wall of the bridge.

“Report,” Cimeon asked as took the captains chair from Lana.

“Nothing to report. We have maintained speed and direction with no malfunctions or anomalies. There have been no incidents or concerns at all.”

“Nothing? I know things can get boring during third shift but nothing?”

“The only thing that happened was Anallie showed up and started to sing some kind of song she called a 'dirge'. At which point she called me matey and called her self queen of the tiranics. We all got a chuckle out of it but I didn't think it qualified as something to report.”

“That girls a little crazy at times isn't she? How she made it through everything with her sense of humor intact is beyond me. Well, you are relieved then Commander. Get some sleep I want you on the bridge when we exit hyper space in a few hours.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lana left the bridge and Cimeon started working on a little paper work from the station built into his chair. All around him the sounds of the bridge going about their work was comforting. To his right and a little forward was the Tactical station. Lennal would probably be reporting in soon. Situated a little behind it was the sensor and communication station. Ensign Adman was deck officer during second shift and manned his station during third shift today. His replacement was already here so he was probably in bed sleeping or getting a little food first. To the captains left was a large station. Both Illib and Sejica worked at that station. Right now Illib would be down in his hanger office and Sejica was probably with the pilots running more simulations. Behind their station was the resource and damage control station. Anallie was due to be here this shift but hadn't showed up yet. She still had plenty of time so Cimeon wasn't worried. There, next to the holo projector, was a small station were Lana would be standing while her and Cimeon were on the bridge.

The sound of the doors opening alerted Cimeon to Anallie's entrance. The little resource officer was almost skipping as she made her way to her station. After a brief conversation with the operator she was replacing, she sat down.

“Nice of you to join us. I didn't know royalty was aboard.”

“Well, Captain I can't watch all of my willing subjects from my quarters, now can I?”

“No, I guess you can't. Why a pirate by the way?”

“Cause pirates are cool of course. They go where they want and do what they want. If only they could leave innocent people alone and just fight each other I might have been a pirate. But all the groups I talked to were pig headed slugs that just wanted to steal from good hard working people. So I joined the navy to stop the influx of bad pirates and make enough money to start my own good pirate gang.”

“You can't be serious. Good pirate gang?”

“Of course Captain, watch.”

The small screen, set into the station attached to his chair, changed to a picture of a vessel that had a hanger module like a Somtaaw Explorer and a body of a battlecruiser. With a ion turret on top and what looked like the same energy cannons the explorer's were using all over the ship. The engine section again looked like the engine of an explorer. As he watched, the ship started attacking a razor class carrier. Only instead of destroying, it the ion cannons flashed purple and seemed to wrap the carrier in a purple lightning. After a few shots, the explorer/battlecruiser parked above it and seemed to dissolve the other vessel.

“What was that?”

“A good pirate. See instead of raiding hard working people, I would raid the bad pirates and use their ships for resources.”

“Isn't that just a bounty hunter or vigilantly?”

“No, silly, those people get paid by the government and have rules to follow. A good pirate just whoops the bad guys and takes their stuff.”

“Right, ok. Helm how much more time till we reach our destination?”

[doberman211]

Lol. How old is Anallie anyway she seems like she's a kid xD

I'm a little late on this but here's my two cents. I'm liking it. I can't wait for the next chapter. I like how you remove as much "human" out of homeworld as possible. Like how coffee isn't called coffee and such.

You have a good sense of the military chain of command, which is something I lack, therefore something I need to look into for my rewrites :/

You're very visual in your writing and I enjoy that, because you can imagine the room in your mind while reading. Also, good work on the drill. It's not something you usually think about. But ion cannons in atmospheres are weak enough to begin with, so I don't think they would have to turn down the power on them, or maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. And by ion cannon I'm picturing some huge shoulder mounted cannon so I hope that's right. Otherwise it would just be a plasma rifle.

There's not really much to say in the negative on this one. It's interesting and kept me reading through all 3 chapters non-stop. I'll be staying tuned in on this one that's for sure.

And yeah IRL > URL no matter what. So stuff gets in the way I understand. Just some encouraging words from a fellow fanfiction writer.

Peace, Doberman211

[Stonewall]

Thanks for the encouragement. I have the next chapter almost finished I'm just trying to finish the last little bits like spelling and grammar.

Anallie is a mix of my three year old daughter and my sister. I always seem to like those charactors that seem to be completely uneffected by whats going on.