Chapter 1

Cronian exhaled.

It had been a few moments before he realized he had actually been holding his breath. He tried to relax as soon as he was clear of the violently spinning asteroid that had moments ago threatened to smash him and his blue and grey Flight of Independence starship fighter in to fragments of metal and flesh, but relaxing after one had nearly been mashed in to powder was not something that was easily done. Once he had cleared the spinning rock, Cronian stabilized the fighter, throttled back on the forward thrust and immediately brought all his attention to his heads up display (HUD) to check for enemies that were within his short range sensors; sensors that were built in to the sharp nose of the Independence. Above and all around flashes of weapons fire, engine thrusts, and explosions rocked the already chaotic asteroid field as the four (Ajaxian, Boraxian, Krilgorian, and Tibran) Legions fought a furious battle for control of the very dangerous, but strategically important sector. The battle itself was less then an hour old, and Cronian had somehow managed to fly much deeper in to the vast expanse of Asteroids then he had intended as he pursued a small, very fast and heavily armed Krilgorian Microw Fighter; but he didn't pay his location much mind, since he also had managed to lose the Microw in the chaos of battle that had ensued and developed in to a monster of its own.

"Ok, where'd you go you devil…" he muttered, trying to sort out who was who out of the blue, yellow, red and green colors that were showing up on his HUD. "Damn thing," he muttered, and readjusted the range on the HUD so it would show enemies and friendlies who were within a hundred kilometers down to a distance of twenty. "I've got to figure out how to keep that thing from auto-adjusting…hah! There you are!"

Cronian exclaimed as he found the red delta shaped icon he was looking for on his HUD ; the IFF identifying the pilot's name as Legion. His name is Legion? Parents myst have thought very highly of this one, he thought, firing off his maneuvering thrusters that were placed underneath the nose of his fighter that swiftly pivoted so it faced ninety degrees up from where the craft had been facing previously. Once Cronian was satisfied with the direction he was pointing in he immediately pushed the throttle forward, and with a gratifying jolt to the back of the seat the fighter propelled forward past lazily drifting asteroids and towards an unseen adversary that bore the name of Legion.

Rolling the fighter craft to the left, Cronian slipped past another asteroid, and then incidentally through a cloud of metal debris that was still glowing hot from the where it disintegrated down to from the space worthy craft it had been.

"Damnation, of all the places in the Sector, this war has to start in the biggest asteroid field around," he muttered, rolling right before pulling up past a potato shaped rock, closing in on LEGN. "The bugger is quick!"

Pulling left on the yoke, Cronian took the fighter in to a tight turn back to the left as he continued to close in on LEGN, who now seemed to be doing orbits around an asteroid big enough to be considered a small planetoid. There he is, he thought as he spotted the crimson metal shine brightly from the light reflecting from one of the many nearby stars. Just need to close on him now…he kicked the forward thrust up to full while swerving to the right to traverse a trail of asteroids leading to the planetoid that LEGN was orbiting, as if searching for the right person, or opportunity to strike.

Ducking down under the trail of rocks, rolling over so the belly of his fighter skimmed the surface of the rocks, he craned his neck up to make sure LEGN hadn't changed his own course before bringing his attention back to his HUD to verify that he was also clear of any additional active enemies nearby. Once verified, he kicked his maneuvering thrusters back in to action, quickly propelling him up towards the underside of the dark crimson fighter that was piloted and controlled by LEGN.

Activating his weapons systems, Cronian sighted in on the delta shaped Krilgorian Microw fighter on his HUD (where a targeting site had appeared upon the weapon system activating) and waited two long seconds for the Microw to come within range of his guns. C'mon guns, actuate… he thought and almost a split second later the range finder for his weapons toned green and he pulled the trigger and let loose a stream of super heated plasma rounds at the Microw that had yet to acknowledge his presence; and as if Legion suddenly snapped out of a short nap, the Microw juked quickly away and down as two plasma bolts shot by its crimson red hull.

"Son of a---" Cronian exclaimed and out of pure instinct rolled ninety degrees to the left, barely avoiding colliding with the speeding Microw that had just a moment ago been dead in his sites. "Oh no you don't, you won't be getting away from me that easily," he said, cutting all power to his engines, yanking the fighters yoke up causing the maneuvering thrusters to kick him around one hundred and eighty degrees the opposite direction to looking straight down at the orange glow of the Legion's aft engines.

Without hesitating, Cronian forced his fighter forward at maximum speed, keeping the Microw in his sites as he shot toward a rather dense cloud of asteroids, where dozens of small star fighters flew around and between the rocks, exchanging fire with each other while using the rocks as cover. Of course not all were lucky or good enough to avoid being lined up for a kill, and quite often a bright flash from an exploding pilot and fighter would fill his vision. While the battle ahead ensued, Cronian watched as the numbers next to the Legion, who he had set as the primary target, grew rapidly larger as the Microw continued to lengthen the distance between it and Cronians Flight. It was obvious to Cronian by this time that the Krilgorian Microw Fighter was much faster then his Flight of Independence as he forced all the available power to his engines that he could safely allocate, only to have Legion continue to pull away and the only thing he could do is hope that Legion would inexplicably slow down, or get engaged with another slower fighter.

PLING!

"What in the world…" Cronian muttered and looked down at the read flashing button that read 'COMMS' and pushed it to get rid of the plinging noise that was infuriating his ears. Once pushed, a flood of voices came at him, making his quite cockpit seem very crowded all of the sudden.

"Where is everybody, I can't seem to…oh--"

"Sulimo, are you there? Do you read? Damnit."

"There's a lot of yellow Bor's over here, could use some help!"

"Where are--I suggest you pull back, your deep within Boraxian controlled territory…"

"Sure, now you tell me, oh wait..I..never--"

"Was that Skirm?"

"Sounded like it--"

"All pilots, cut the chatter! Leadership has been elected for the Ajaxian Legion…"

"Wouldn't it sound better as a 'Ajaxian Navy,' I'm sure we have more then…"

"I said cut the chatter!"

Cronian couldn't help but smile as he refocused on the pursuit of LEGN who was now a tiny speck near a gaggle of floating rocks, where according to his scanners about half a dozen other Krilgorian ships sat, waiting. Ok, I'll just pull in behind these 'roids and wait for something else to come along that doesn't have a bunch of friends nearby…he thought as he killed the power to his engines, fired up his thrusters and moved in behind a lumbering rock to stay out of sight.

"…anyway, as I was saying, Leadership has been elected for our military, as well for the other Legions, which means everybody is going to be fighting a much more organized war. So if you're far from friends here in the Asteroids or anywhere else, I suggest you return to where you have some Blue around. Return and relocate. Coordinates for regrouping are being transmitted to all pilots. That is all, you may go back to chattering now."

"I have a hankering for some ice cream. Anybody…"

Cronian turned down the volume on the voice coming in to his helmet and looked up at his HUD, where in the upper right corner an arrow flashed, pointing in the direction he needed to go to get back to where everybody was. Those must be the new coordinates, he nodded, fired his engines back up and kicked the nose of his Flight around facing the direction the arrows were pointing. Right before he throttled forward, the proximity alarm shrieked to life, startling Cronian so much as he felt he could have leaped out of the cockpit. Looking up, he gulped as he watched a small 'roid sail straight for the asteroid that he was using as cover. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! Jerking the yoke quickly he rolled the Flight to the right and dove straight down as the proximity alarm continued to scream at him, letting him know he was about to become one with an asteroid; his maneuvering thrusters firing quickly and immediately as he piloted the space craft around the dozens of smaller rocks that were peppering back and forth from each asteroid.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap!" he said, and watched as the two rocks converged, collided and shattered, spewing smaller rocks at him, his shields lighting up as several made contact.

"Oh great…" Cronian groaned as he saw several red deltas on his HUD break away from their original position and head straight for him. "This can't be good. They must have seen me. Cronian to any nearby freindlies," he said, keying up his comms gear, speaking through the microphone in his helmet. "I am in need of assistance, multiple Krilgorian fighters in hot pursuit; if anybody is available to assist, I'd very much appreciate it!"

"Cronian," an unfamiliar feminine voice spoke in to Cronians ear. "You are deep within Krilgorian controlled space---"

"Tell me about it," Cronian muttered, triple checking that his engines were indeed at full power as he sailed through the colliding field of rocks.

"---chances of anybody being available to assist you are slim."

"Why even bothering answering if you're just going to give me bad news?"

"Just trying to be helpful…"

"Ah, thanks anyways," Cronian said, trying not to sound too dismissive. "Anybody else wanna be helpful, now is the time---" Cronian was cut off in surprise as the entirety of his star fighter shook violently as he was hit from behind, his shields flashing quickly from a green to an amber color.

"Oh hell no!"

Wide eyed and completely alert, Cronian peered back behind him quickly.More Microws, he thought quickly. Gaining on me very quickly! With that thought Cronian was suddenly struck with an idea. His fighter rocking violently as he was struck again, his sheilds flashing to a deep shade of red, Cronian cut all power to his engines, and activated all thrusters up on the nose of his fighter causing his Flight to be propelled backwards straight for the oncoming Microws.

Another hit to the sheilds.

The tiny monitor flashing, warning that the sheilds were all but depleted.

Over head, a Microw passed within inches of his cockpit.

The range finder on his targeting bracket toned green.

Cronian exhaled and pulled the trigger.

The maneuver had been a brilliant move.

Two Microw's, their pilots surprised by the sudden reversal of direction that Cronians fighter had been traveling in, only slightly altered their courses so as not to collide in to Cronian and each other, and passed directly over his sheildless craft. As the nearest Microw passed over the reversing fighter, the Flight suddenly opened fire with a trail of hot-blue plasma rounds right in to the backside of the nearest surprised Microw where they exploded in to the chaotic, but idle, hyper drive causing the fighter to vanish in to a ball of intensely hot light with only small fragments of metal flying off in to collide with a random asteroid or two. What was left of the Microw spun silently as a glowing chunk of twisted metal that resembled nothing of its previous shape where momentarily the light glowing off the wreck seemed to shimmer and distort as something obscure and unseen quickly passed by.

----

Diamondblade sat in the cockpit of his safely cloaked Ajaxian Eagle of Tanurdia, watching the outnumbered Flight fight to stay alive. He had heard Cronians call for help over the Ajaxian open communication frequencies and immediately flew on over to his location without acknowledging over the comms that he was nearby and enroute. Doing so would cause him to radiate a signal out from his cloaked vessel risking the chance that a nearby Krilgorian would detect the signal and locate his cloaked fighter; which would cancel out the usefulness of his cloaking device that was allowing him to stealth his war around an enemy fleet of fighters, bombers and repair ships. If the Krils had cloakers floating around as well, he was unaware of their existence.

Thrusting forward, then diving down with a quick snap roll that brought him underneath of and facing the opposite direction of Cronians Flight, Diamonblade deactivated the cloaking device while lining up his crosshairs on to an oncoming Microw and quickly squoze of a burst of hot blue plasma rounds. The Microw Fighter pilot, seeing the elongated shape of the Eagle shimmer in to existence as he lined up his own sites on Cronians fighter juked to the right just in time to avoid a direct hit to the fuselage but not fast enough for the rounds to rip through his left wing where violet clouds of what had been fuel billowed out in to space as the wounded fighter evaded away from the cloaker that had been at the right place at the right time to save Cronian from a certain fate.

"Diamondblade here," he said, focusing a narrow communications beam to Cronian who had rolled away. "I'll cover you, try to get out of here if you can."

----

"…here if you can." Diamondblade's voice crackled over the radion that sounded damaged.

"Th--thanks," Cronian coughed as smoke filled the cockpit.

The indicator lights in front him flickered, momentarily draping the cockpit in complete darkness of space. The damage readout that rested next to his right leg showed the schematic of his Flight of Independence pulsed red; his shields were no longer existent, and multiple hull breaches permeated the now blackened skin of his fighter, many of which were likely responsible for the power fluctuations that were now plaguing the controls, Cronian surmised. However, Cronian didn't need the damage status screen to tell him that he was in serious trouble.

Noticing that he was still drifting backwards due to his last second decision making, using his right foot, he pushed the throttle pedal down and was surprised as his rear burners hiccupped and coughed too life, causing him to move erratically forward almost out of control. Well this definitely can't help at all…he thought as he killed the power to his rear burners, leaving his Flight of Independence moving through space, spinning in a slow circle before Cronian reoriented with thrusters so he could see directly where he was flying.

Having long lost site of Diamondblade and his dogfight, he was left to watch the action through his three dimensional scanner display, where he watched Diamondblade pop in and out of existence as he cloaked, decloaked, fired, and cloaked again to keep the multiple Microws and various other Krilgorian attack craft that had joined in the fray from getting a positive bead on him.

"Diamondblade," Cronian said, fighting with the control yoke that was positioned inbetween his knees. "Bug out, I've got a dead stick. Thanks for the effort, no sense in us both biting it out here."

"…."

"You copy Diamond?"

"Copy," Diamondblades voice replied, grudgingly

Cronian watched as Diamondblade once again disappeared off his sensors, leaving nothing but Red Krilgorian combat craft in his wake.

Well, here it comes, he thought a mere moment before a missile launched from an unseen spacecraft exploded underneath the belly of his Flight. As the shockwave smashed in to the battered fighter, it carried with it incendiary hot projectiles that ripped right in to the Flights volatile fuel cell and with only a mere seconds pause ignited the craft and Cronian in to bright ball of yellow and violet flame before he could even brace himself for the fate that diamond blade had only delayed.