Chapter 2: A most unusual situation

The other 19 ghosts had to abandon them. The contingency plan required them to reach the cloaked dropship as soon as possible. As such, they left the base in a hurry and, after a tiring 1 hour of running through hostile territory, they finally entered the ship.

The ghost sergeant didn't ask one question as he steered the ship towards the battlecruiser hidden away behind the the planet's moon.

Captain Trevor approved their entry code rather unwillingly. It was always a shame to enter "1944-23-08-victory/" for a code, as it meant dangerous, insanely stupid failure. So, after interrogating each and one of them, he proceeded towards the deck. He had to give his report to Admiral Andronic in person.

45 minutes later

"... that was all that could be done sir! We may have to get our hands dirty this time...!"

" Indeed, this is an unfortunate turn of events, captain Trevor! We simply cannot blow up their supply caches, for we definately need them. Not to think what would happen if the entire gas dome exploded!

No, this situation required cool heads and firm hands, namely a good old round of negotiations with the enemy commander!" said Andronic with a serious tone.

And, with that, the transmission ended. Captain Trevor could breathe a little before the storm.

Aboard the Decebalus, Admiral Andronic- it was his unofficial title, even though he wasn't actually promoted-, prepared his subordoinates for what he called "active peace talks". Turning to his deputee, he grabbed him by the arm and said:

" Josef, wake the boys and girls up and start the engines! Tell them to arm themselves but not get trigger happy. We are meeting the adversary head on, but we will not engage unless there is no other way, understood?"

Rather intrigued by his superior's decision, the deputee officer agreed, then opened up all loudspeakers and comm links on the ship. He shouted:

" All personel prepare yourselves and go to your posts! This is a code 12 orange situation, (sensible hostage rescue type) so do not fire unless told to! We'll have liftoff in half an hour!

The crew was glad to be back on its feet and kicking. Sure, they enjoyed a two year vacation, but even that could get very boring. Alcohol was not infinite, neither were card games, movies, arcades and other distractions. A kind of austere vacation, some would say- especially those kept in cryo most of the time-, but it was either that, or starvation, or the Zerg. So, a fight to the death was a welcomed relief, sort of.

The Decebalus's five engines roared like a gargantuan beast awoken from its slumber. The ship was fully online, its weapons manned and its crew ready for anything. The deputee officer steered the ship manually, carefully exiting the hangar and avoiding all obstacles along its way out of the canyon and finally took into space.

Setting the speed at a minimum, in order to preserve fuel, they reached Solaris Secunda's atmosphere in about one hour. Scanners indicated a buildup of forces in the western hemisphere of the planet, which lay on its light side.

" Make contact with that audacious scumbag! Am să-i bag mortu' în casă!"

" Right sir! The translator says you just said: " I shall put the dead into his house!"- what does that mean?" asked a curious Josef Harding.

Marcu looked him up and laughed for a minute. Swearing in his native language was always amusing... especially when prople around him won't understand a thing. Even the translator device seemed to be failing in its job.

" It means I will scare the shit out of him! informed Andronic with a higher tone. Now open that damn link, don't just sit there!"

Josef tweaked a few knobs and submitted a password. He then created a private, very secure server on which they could speak. At least the ghosts managed to retrieve that bit of useful info. Not too soon after, a private channel between them and the Kel-Morian base was opened.

A man in his thirties, with tanned skin, crystal blue eyes and blond hair, dressed in a conventional, but elegant black suit, sat on a chair, smoking a cigar. He looked them up, visibly impressed by their arrival.

" Hi! he said. It seems someone hacked into my network. And to whom do I owe the pleasure?"

" Admiral Marcu Andronic, commander of the UED Blockade Squadron, Cronus Wing!" answered Andronic proudly and imposing.

The enemy commander let out a long whistle; he really wasn't expecting that kind of answer.

" Damn! And here I was, thinking the Zerg got all of you!

" The Zerg aren't all that smart! Smart tactics and one can outmaneuver their overwhelming numbers!"

" Still, its year 2502 and here you are! Now this is something you don't see everyday! he said, taking a long breath from his cigar. Name's Schnitt, by the way! I lead this bunch of renegades! I suppose you are missing a few ghosts?"

" That I am. Got any idea where they might be?"

" Perhaps. Care to join me for a smoke, admiral?"

" At your funeral maybe!" answered a dead serious Andronic.

The other one bursted into laughing. He was clearly having a good time blackmailing the former UED captain. However, if he would continue pressing the wrong buttons, he might learn a history lesson about what happened in Japan- a country from Earth-, back in 1945. And it won't be a pleasent one! Those two planetary nukes had a very suggestive name indeed...

" Relax! I'm not here to tease you! In fact, I am about to propose an alliance with you folks!" he said with a strange spark of hope in his dark blue eyes.

" Why would we ally ourselves with a Kel-Morian? Hmmm?"

" That's just the thing! We ain't Kel-Morians anymore!

That was something Marcu wasn't expecting. Was it a tactic to seed doubt inside his head, a trick, or simply the truth? An alliance with the descendents of the convict worldships has proven itself to be awfully disastrous, especially since the memory of Samir Duran and his so called Confederate Resistance Forces betraying them not once, but twice at least, still lingered in the back of his mind, ever present.

The crew itself, which has been quietly eavesdropping on the conversation, had a hard time believing the former morian's good intentions. It's only normal, once an entire sector seems to be looking for the likes of you.

" Why would I do this? Tell me, why I shouldn't turn you and your lackeys into spacedust?"

" Because, Admiral Andronic, assuming you can really pull off such an endeavor, it would be a foolish action. Lets see: I've got your 21 ghosts, a motherload of vespene gas, both liquified and in the form of vapours, rich mineral deposits, the best miners in this system. Oh, and on top of that, I assume that since the rest of your fleet isn't with you, they either lack fuel or courage. I, on the other hand, need protection from the Dominion and other pirate scum!"

" Mama lui!( Damn his mother!) This bastard knows how to play his cards like a pro!" the admiral muttered to himself.

After 1 one hour stormy deliberation with his most trusted advisors and the rest of his captains, Marcu Andronic finally agreed to meet Schnitt down on the surface of Solaris Secunda, at a neutral location.

As he was leaving his personal quarters, he nearly forgot to take a certain golden box with him. Beautifully decorated, it had the name "Santiago" engraved on it.

The Decebalus activated its vertical engines and slowed down on its descent. With little to no light around, they had to carefully land on the rocky plateau underneath them. Josef, being an ace pilot, managed to get the job done smoothly.

Marcu Andronic stepped out of his ship, accompanied by twenty marines, four goliaths and the remaining 19 ghosts. All lights were suddenly turned on, revealing commander Schnitt, he himself guarded by loads of soldiers armed to the teeth. He was wearing the same elegant suit, just like any politician would. His battlecruiser was armed and ready behind him.

Both commanders stepped forward. They looked each other straight in the eyes. They continued doing that for a couple of minutes, before finally shaking hands, much to the amazement of the bystanders.

" I can't believe my luck! Meeting an UED son of a gun face to face!" said Schnitt smiling.

" Neither would I! answered Marcu, joining him for a walk. What do you want to talk about?

" Frankly, I don't know! All I can think of is how to remove the threat that that dominion force is posing us. There is something else, however: getting revenge on my former superiors!

" Former? What, you got fired for being lousy?" asked Andronic.

" Sort of. Anyway, we just struck the mother of all vespene domes out here! With what we gathered so far, we can power up four planets at the same time. Four additional battlecruisers shouldn't be a problem!" added Schnitt rather jokingly, but thruthfully.

" Straight to the point, aren't you? Alright then. Release my agents and we can talk about our next move!"

" How can I trust you about this?" asked the former morian skeptically.

" If detonating your bases will not be enough to convince you, then perhaps this will! gestured the Admiral as he handed him over a golden box.

Schnitt took the box and studied it very carefully. Massive gold, with the name "Santiago" masterfully stylsed on it. Expecting no less than a bomb or someone's head, he opened it.

The smell nearly knocked him over. Inside were some of the best cigars he could have dreamed of. Wonderfully hand rolled, dark brown cigars with a golden leaf tag on them. It read...

" Santiago de Cuba! The best and most expensive brand in existance. Take them!"

Happy as a child after Christmas, Schnitt pocketed the prized box and put his hand around Andronic's shoulder. How ironic, they now looked like life long pals.

" My friends, let us celebrate our new partnership. But, before we do that, let me return your ghosts and some 100 barrels of gas as a welcome gift!"

As he said that, he pressed a button underneath his wristwatch. One of the APCs opened its doors to reveal Esmeralda and the rest of his squad, untied and unharmed.

Walking up to her, Marcu was very tempted to slap her face, but he restrained himself. Instead, he hugged her like a father huggs his daughter. After all, there was a 22 year difference between the two: Esmeralda turned 18 four months ago, while he turned 40 this month.

She liked to portray him as the father she never had. Growing up as an orphan in the Confederacy's cruel Ghost Program, she never really attached to anyone. Relations with her first squad have always been edgy. Once, she killed two of her underlings for disobeying her direct orders. After the Fall of Tarsonis, she was drafted into the Dominion Ghost Academy for a short while, before being set free by Andronic during the Korhal invasion.

Now, without all those neural inhibitors and memory wipes, she felt like she finally belonged somewhere. The people aboard the Decebalus were now her family and friends.

The Admiral looked her in the eyes, saw the relief, and then beckoned her and Josef to follow him to Schnitt's base.

Once they found themselves in his command center, they started discussing future strategies. All of them were centered on strenghtening their fleet and hitting their enemies hard and fast. The threat posed by the Dominion and Zerg alike was enough to worry them.

Everything seemed to be going well until a telescreen started beeping.

" Mind answering?" asked Esmeralda with a killer's tone.

" K, mam! said Schnitt with a hint of irony as he pressed the green button on the table.

And who da hell might you be, princess? he asked.

A marine, clad in a blood red CMC armor with a dragon on its visor, answered rather intrigued.

" Mind your tongue, boy, or I'll cut it for you! I am colonel Zack Curtis of the Terran Dominion. You are ordered to surrender all your forces or face death itself, morian!"

Schnitt was already smoking one of the cuban cigars in a defiant way, certainly not giving a shit about his enemy's threat.

" Well, you can shove your threats right up your exhaust pipe, you dog!'' he shouted.

Colonel Zack Curtis didn't like that response one bit. In fact, he was pretty annoyed, his eyes flared like laser batteries, while his hand was shaking uncontrollably; nervous indeed.

" In less than an hour, you and your friends will die at my hands! Don't say I didn't warn you!" he shouted as the screen shut down.

Marcu Andronic stood up. A true challenge, after all this time, was like a rainstorm in the desert. And getting revenge on one of those responsable for the destruction of the UED seemed a good way to end the day.

" Josef, I want the fleet to hide itself on the planet's surface. We need each and every one of our ships repaired and resupplied. In a word, airworthy!"

" It shall be done!" responded Josef.

The Admiral then turned to his ghost lieutenant, who was waiting impatiently.

" Esmeralda, you are tasked with protecting mr. Schnitt!"

The female ghost's beautiful ruby eyes burned with the desire to end Schnitt, rather than protect him. After all she went through today, it was understandable though.

" But sir...!" she tried to protest.

" No discussion! You all have your orders, now go!"

The Decebalus took position in the orbit, right above their allied base. Scanners indicated a fleet of 5 battlecruisers coming out of hyperspace. Marcu was surprised to find that they belonged to a new class, seemingly a lot stronger than the ones he met so far. They Dominion forces positioned themselves in a V formation and were powering their weapons.

" Josef, aim the yamato cannon right above the first ship's counterpart!" commanded Andronic.

An unimaginable wave of energy shot out of the UED ship, making contact with the enemy command ship just a few seconds before it itself launched its own killer shot. The impact caused a chain reaction with tremenduos consequences on the Dominion's side.

" Four left, two out of which are severly damaged. Engage them before they get a chance to take us down!" ordered the Admiral.

All the batteries aboard the Decebalus fired relentlessly at the damaged cruisers. The surgeon like precision of the exceptionally trained gunners made short work of them. However, not paying enough attention cost Andronic dearly, as one of the least damaged cruisers hit their rear hull and engines with a yamato blast.

The ship shook as if hit by an asteroid rain. The whole crew was down on its knees, still in shock. On the deck, the command crew, together with Josef and Andronic tried to asess the damage and mitigate it.

" Damn it! Damage report!"

" Shields down to 20. About 30% of the ship needs serious repairs, plus we've lost 150 people so far!" answered an alarmed Josef.

Furious that his ship's shields failed during when they shouldn't have, Marcu took the helm and retreated towards the planet's surface. It was Schnitt's turn to prove his worth to him, while the rest of the UED remnant fleet was still gathering. The AA would provide the much needed cover, if only he could reach the safe zone in time...