--The P.A.L.A.D.I.N. SSF (Post Advancement "Light" Artillery Damnation Integrated Navigator Space Superiority Fighter) Wraith Squadron log: Day 31: 00:12:39 Hours

The sages were a whole race all on their own… no one knew much about them but a few had seen them during several conflicts against small rebellious systems. Each was said to have complete domination over one type of energy or element and their own special way of fighting. How many there was no one knew and at one point it was thought that they had been conducting their own military program. That rumor however hasn't been put to rest and some say that the whole inter-galactic fleet was their idea and their program.. No one knows but hell, it worked out for the better of us.

The day was a Saturday now and we had partied for a day after the ceremony. The group that we had originally trained with went along with us to the fifth and final Harbringer-class base in existence. The thing that made these bases special was that they were of pure PALADIN personnel and ironically enough they were equipped as if the base was a fighter itself. It was shaped as if it were a massive oval, mile thick (counting the communication towers) and twenty five miles long. Underneath the oval was a black continuation that went down into a large pole looking reverse toer. It seemed as if it was one of the platforms from Bespin in Star Wars, only that it was real and it was what we would live in for a long period of time.


http://img. (Base Picture)


It was as if the base itself was a huge city dedicated to warfare. Garrisons, repair facilities, gun nests, gun factories were all present but it was mostly dormitories as one would expect from a military establishment. Research teams also occupied part of the base but they usually stayed in the areas around their laboratories. It was rare to see one of their white coats in the hallways as they were always submerged in their research, but they were there nonetheless.

Now was our fourth day on the base and half of us were asleep while the other half was in that thin line that defines sleep and awareness. The intercom's introduction drone made us all wake up with curses snared in-between our teeth and a death wish for the speaker, but this was quickly overtaken.

"All pilots report to docking ports by five minutes ago. There is a class three inspection by a sage on the floor."

As if the base had been cued, the Fallen Sun our base's name fell into utter silence, only broken by the machines that spread all along the base. Of course, after one or two minutes the murmuring and bickering started up throughout the base. Axitsuke was stupefied from childish glee. He had read all the books on the history of the Sages, whatever had been written or had been vaguely known about them he knew.

Jonathan was quite the contrary. He took the news as if it were a sunrise on the east.

AKA... as if it happened every day.

"..An actual Sage?" He gave an uncaring look. "Feh, it's probably just a fancy rank.."

He would soon see though.

- - - - - -

A rapid, fire and ash preaching, voice echoed through the halls of the base as we rushed to the docking ports in the hangar while still dressing and putting our uniforms on, straightening the hair and putting shoes on. We entered as the voice was half way through her rapid, fiery speech against the pilots.

"..I am promised the best Terra-legion that has ever stood up against the face of war and this is what I get? Slackers that take two minutes to 'rush' down here? I find this to be pathetic, if I had been an enemy then you would've all been dead. You might all excel at space combat yet your base can not man itself without you. I am here to teach you about the enemy, their tactics and their abilities… oh, and as an added little bonus I get to turn you into half-decent fighters worthy of the rank of Tetra-Regiment."

You know... you tend to usually listen when the speaker seems to be a crazy pyromaniac with fire emanating from herself into colossal wings that made the metal of the base itself cower before the heat…

I glanced at Jonathan and his eyes were wide with bewilderment. I could tell that his senses were really about him. This was more than the fancy rank that he had expected.

"My name is Ariel and I can see you are all clearly shocked to see that the legends are real, all so far has been a mere light show. Report to Training Meadows at 02:00 in the morning, not before, not after. Be on time. The start of your training will begin there. I expect great deeds from you and I will give you all a rare second chance to give me a good first impression." She then burst into silver ashes that no one dared go near to and that our squadron stood there watching as everyone started filing out. We half expected her to burst out of them again for more insults.

-------

Not one member of the 25 mile base had ever been in such silence. Not one word was uttered in the remainder of the day and it wasn't because of fear or anything of the sort. It was just the hurt pride of Paladins that was speaking.

The next six hours until 02:00 hours were the most pensive ones that anyone could have ever asked for. We kept the base afloat but that is all that anyone bothered to do. No one had the will to do anything else than the minimum and so at 02:00 in the morning we all filed to the Training Meadows for the meeting.

We walked into an old transmission as we entered the Training Meadows and we all flinched at the sight of the destruction. There was tall Aurelian warriors in yellow-black armor with their lances pointed at cowering villagers that had taken to hiding behind fallen rafters made of burning wood and whatever they could find to have a brief place of hiding before the inevitable. I tried to glance over at Timothy but I couldn't. This sphere was causing me to feel the agony of the recorder, the fear, the pain, and their despair. It was as if I were the user…

The recorder this time was a mother who had just lost a child and was desperately looking for him before the enemy got to them. I felt the panting of her breath as she was running through the thick, thorn strewn brush trying to find her only child. I felt the staggering of the legs and how they burned from running desperately for quite a while now. I felt that rush of blind bravery that she felt as she ran into the village after looking for him in the outskirts of the forest that made half the border of the village and falling by the riverbank to try to find him even if it meant her death. The last skirmishers from the village were seen forming a circle as their eyes reflected a mixture of anger and sadness and they were fighting off the oppressing red armored enemies of the demolition faction from the Aurelian Royal Militia. The recorder dashed through to desperately look around for a second before she was surrounded by their mounted lancers. During that second we felt her lack of air as she looked around her and saw their path of destruction through the village. Rooftops were on fire and thick, black smoke was pouring out of the doorways. A lone wailing scream was heard and then she realized that she was the only living person in the village.

She was alone for the first time in her life. Memories of her husband and family flashed in and out of her vision as she peered into the cold, icy, blue eyes of the lancers. She slowly looked down to the floor and burst into silent crying as memories of her husband, family and life flashed through her field of vision. Her first crush, her graduation, her wedding day, the day that her son was born, and the day's morning… a morning that she thought would never end, a morning which was calm as all the others had been but a special one nevertheless.

…for she had just learned that a second child was going to come her way.

She let out a last sob in which her whole life and feelings were poured into and her life ended. The projection ended with a shrill scream and a half red screen. It turned black shortly afterwards.

End Transmission.

-----

Ariel removed the sphere from the displayer and put her in her brown, leather pouch that was strapped across her. No one said anything at all and then she started speaking again.

"I.. I was there four years ago. I was there to see the massacre of my village. It was the fourth Aurelian raid recorded on Extruvious."

She paused as she had to control her breath and then continued with a tone of defiance that we hadn't heard her use in a while.

"In my pouch I have the only record of the beginning of the war. Forget what the media has told you about how it started, forget what propaganda has been said. It all has been a mixture of over exaggeration and lies. If you have no serious motive to be in here then I must ask you to leave."

No one moved.

"Now I say only one thing."

"Help me send these bats back to hell."

Everyone that was gathered there muttered some sort of agreement under their breath. We had seen the scenes, we had felt the fear that had been instigated into the woman's head. We had seen the brutal murdering of the villagers and we had been galvanized to the common goal of repaying the House of Aurelious because of the brutality of that explosive start of the war.

What followed was awkward silence broken suddenly by the wailing of sirens.

Raine took out her Bridge Operator PDA and she shook her head. "Speak of the devil..." she uttered.

A full fleet of assorted battle cruisers, frigates, destroyers and fighters exited warped space 50 clicks from our station. This was what made the emergency sirens wail off and send everyone scattering to their stations and fighters.

This was the first test that our squadron would face and I wasn't sure how any of us would fare, or how much stress we would have to face to lead the entire garrison into battle.

"Those S.O.Bs..."