Here we go again…

SEE CHAPTER 1 FOR DISCLAIMERS

-CHAPTER START-

High orbit over Earth

October 2, 2558

The Confederate surprise attack was quickly rallied against. League Ember-class frigates (480m) and Spark-class destroyers (500m) traded fire with Confederate Rio-class frigates (430m) and Wave-class destroyers (460m); a Confederate Pacific-class cruiser (855m) was blown in half by a shot from an orbital gun, while its now-homeless fighters tried to take down a Drakonian Claw-class cruiser (1.15km), only to all fall to its point-defense guns and fail to penetrate its thick armor; a trio of Jalaxian Gust-class frigates (455m) took down another Pacific-class, while a pair of League Conflagration-class carriers (2.7km) took defensive position around an orbital gun, protecting it from boarders.

It was clear that the Confederacy had vastly underestimated what the League who be capable of bringing to bear to protect itself; the Super-MACs, especially, caught them completely off-guard. They had expected the League to collapse in on itself shortly after the war, not prosper and flourish as it actually had.

Nonetheless, despite the defense, several fully-loaded Confederate Pacific-class cruisers and Poseidon-class carriers (1.75km) managed to slip through the defenses, other Confederate ships sacrificing themselves to allow them such, and descended through the planet's atmosphere. Soon, they had established several strong footholds on Earth, and had set up plans to weaken League military installations and perhaps even capture the two Chairwomen of the League Council. The Second League-Confederacy War had begun.

-SCENE BREAK-

Near Munich, Germany

October 7th, 2558

Melody Marston-Johnson's twin blasters fired, taking down another Confederate war droid. The physically-14-year-old girl looked around, observing the broken forms of the various Confederate battle-droids surrounding her and John Shepherd. A Confederate stronghold had been detected in this area, and she & her team had been sent in to disable its defenses and leave it easy prey for the League's main force to take out. The rest of the team – Miles, Harry, and Klara (who was silent as ever and still small for her physical age of 11) – came up, having carved through a squad of Confederate soldiers.

"This is Bravo-2 to Bravo Actual" Shepherd said into the comm. "Hostiles guarding the northwest path have been neutralized."

"Copy that" said the voice of Phoenix League Marine Corps Major Jane Smythe. "Primary strike-force is still en route to the objective. Sat-scans show no further resistance between you and the objective; proceed at your discretion. Out."

The channel closed, and the team moved on. Ahead a few thousand feet was the structure they needed to infiltrate. The five Spec-Ops soldiers hurried along, moving between trees to avoid detection and soon reaching the entrance. Shep pulled out his TACPAD and plugged it into the electronic lock, and after a few seconds the door slid open. John and Harry led, wielding a 'Gnasher' shotgun and an M90A shotgun, respectively, while Melody with her twin blasters and Klara with her M7S SMG went next, and then Miles, wielding a silenced MA5C assault rifle, brought up the rear.

It was a simple enough assignment: disable the base's communications array and automated heavy turrets. The quintet moved in, sneaking past patrols and silently assassinating those few guards they couldn't sneak past. Soon, they reached the control room for the comm. array. There was one soldier and a trio of battle-droids stationed in this small room; a .45-caliber shot from Klara's M6C/SOCOM pistol killed the former, while the latter were quickly gunned down by Melody before they could react. Klara walked over and sliced into the terminal (she had been studying under Kate in the field of slicing/hacking for a few years now) and shut down the communications array without alerting the rest of the base, also setting up a program to keep it shut down while fooling any who checked it into thinking it was up.

They moved on, stealthily reaching the stairway and making it down to the basement level without incident. They went left and forward, taking out a trio of guards with little difficulty, and reached the control room for the base's external auto-defense systems. Klara inputted the pre-prepared viral code, and soon the exterior auto-guns were overloaded with far more power than they were meant to have, and exploded & melted. An alarm began to sound, announcing total failure of external defenses, and an armed technician ran in only to be gunned down by Miles and his assault rifle.

The quintet doubled back the way they came, carefully avoiding the people now starting to hustle about. They made it up to ground level without incident, and when they were discovered close to the exit Shep and Harry's shotguns made short work of the opposition. They hurried to the exit, running amongst the trees and avoiding further detection. A few minutes later, the four fully-loaded dropships descended upon the Confederate base, as Melody's team were quietly extracted from the area.

-SCENE BREAK-

Northeast of Beirut, Lebanon

October 9th, 2558

Leonid Dragovich fired his plasma shell cannon again, the shot hitting a Confederate soldier in the head; the man's head promptly ceased to be, most of it vaporized. Nearby, Claudia fired precision shots from her customized DC-15 blaster rifle on semi-auto, taking down a line of Confederate war-droids. The girl was a superb shot, able to hit targets with her rifle that most needed a dedicated sniper rifle to hit. She also regularly served as the "heart" of any team she was in, easing tensions, making newbies feel less tense, and was one of the few people capable of breaking up a fight between the McLaughlin twins.

Speaking of which, the twins were currently focusing assault rifle fire on another squad of Confederate soldiers, displaying the symmetry and teamwork that they only displayed in the thick of heavy fighting (mainly because it was the only time they were too distracted to argue with each other). Shots from Jem's Lancer punched holes in a Confederate soldier's chest, while bullets from Jen's MA5C tore through the head of another. As the last of the enemy soldiers fell, the two let out a simultaneous short cheer, and then realized what they'd just done and turned to glare daggers at each other.

The Confederate attack on the League outpost here finally waned; enemy reinforcements became rarer and with less men, and soon stopped coming altogether. They soon broke and retreated, a few of the League soldiers taking shots at the fleeing enemy. No sooner had the fight ended, however, that another began.

"I can't believe you! After all this time, and you're still trying to use me for your own ends!"

"What the hell are you talking about?-! I was killing them just like you were!"

"Yeah, and using me as bait! This is still just like when you used me as your tool back when we were smugglers!"

"Oh God…" a soldier muttered as he palmed his face. "Twins are at it again…"

"I can't believe I actually used to care about you!" Jem shouted. "That I actually tried to be a brother and look out for you!"

"I never asked you to!" Jen replied. "You were always too soft-hearted for your own good! And you were too stupid to check what our cargo was, and look where it got us!"

"Hey, you didn't think to check, either, so if I'm stupid for not asking, then so are you!"

Jenny's reply was a fist to the face, which led to Jem tackling her; almost immediately, several nearby soldiers rushed in and pulled the two apart. Dragovich walked up, his power-armored foot stomping down hard to get their attention. He glared at them both through his red HUD visor, and after several seconds they back down, allowing the soldiers to escort them to opposite sides of the area.

"I could've taken care of them" Claudia said as she walked up.

"You're welcome" Leonid replied dryly. "Come on; we need to be in Yemen by tomorrow afternoon. Get all personnel ready."

"Yes, sir."

-SCENE BREAK-

Southwest Russia

October 10th, 2558

"Remember: get in, get the data, get out. Short and simple."

"Whenever Smythe runs an op, it's never simple."

"Point. Still, one can hope…"

Miles Fairbrass and Harry Henrikson prepared themselves for this mission. They and four other Spec-Ops soldiers would infiltrate a Confederate base and retrieve vital data from their computer systems (the system had been physically isolated from the main network, making distance slicing impossible). They would then fight their way out to an extraction point. Melody and Shepherd were off running an op in Iran, so Miles & Harry had team leadership here. Klara Leads was busy helping Dr. Scott-Compton out at ONI HQ in Sydney today, so the two young men had command over a quartet of soldiers that they didn't know any of personally. Personnel from Smythe's elite "Shade Company" were providing C&C and transport.

The two King Raven helicopter dropships dropped off the team and then flew back the way they came, and the team began their stealthy advance toward their objective a few kilometers away. After nearly an hour of slow and careful advancing, the structure was in sight, atop a hill just up ahead. Corporal Baron took point, creeping through trees and across a shaded clearing.

And then a pair of spring mines popped up right in front of him, detonating at head level, punching through his energy shields and armor and killing him instantly. Before he had even hit the ground, enemy fire came from the ridge on the left.

"Ambush!"

The team took cover, some of them returning fire.

"They knew we were coming!" Harry shouted.

"This doesn't change the objective!" Miles shouted into the comm. "We've gotta get that data! Punch through to the structure!"

As soon as the fire from above let up, the team ran for it, dashing through the trees and heading for their objective. More enemy soldiers came out, and were either gunned down or bypassed. As they began to ascend the hill, more soldiers fired down on them; however, the League team proved to be better shots, and killed their obstructers without anyone's shields failing. They planted a breaching charge on the door, and the resulting blast stunned a pair of Confederate soldiers just inside, leaving them easy prey for Miles' shotgun. They rushed in, killing the soldiers in the living room, and came up to the computer set in the center of the room.

"Gonna take some time" Harry said as he plugged a device into the computer. "We need to hold them off for about 15 minutes."

"Heads up!" Corporal Griffin shouted. "Hostile dropships inbound!"

"Alright, everyone get to cover!" Miles shouted. "We need to hold 'em off! Protect the computer!"

Tables, desks, and other furniture were overturned to form cover. There were two doorways to cover; Miles, Walcroft, and Private Banes trained their weapons on the north door, Harry and Griffin on the east one. The first enemy soldiers came from the north, and were quickly gunned down by Miles' MA37, Banes' DC-15, and Walcroft's C-14. A squad of Confederate battle droids came from the east, only to fall to Harry's grenade launcher. Enemy forces kept coming, as all the while the data was slowly transferred.

Pvt. Banes backed off into cover, her shields sparking and trying to recharge. Suddenly, heavy blaster-fire rang out from behind her, as a pair of heavy battle droids emerged from the basement. The barrage of bolts struck her in the back, burning through her unshielded armor and into her torso. One bolt hit the now-unprotected back of her neck and burned clean through. She dropped to the floor, twitched, and then lay still, dead. Angered, Harry fired an ion grenade at the two interlopers, frying the droids' circuits and causing them to collapse to the ground, permanently inert. He then picked his BR55 up again and continued firing on the soldiers approaching from the east.

The battle wore on, bodies piling up by both entrances. Finally, the device attached to the computer chimed and blinked green. Harry quickly ran over, picked it up, and stuffed it in his pack.

"Okay, we've got it! Evac's on the way; let's get to the extraction point!"

The quartet headed out the north door, fighting through a gap in the enemy forces and running for the trees, heading for the clearing a few hundred meters away that would serve as an extraction point. Suddenly, there was a large explosion that engulfed Walcroft; with his shields weakened by enemy fire, the mortar shell blew him apart.

"Keep running!" Miles shouted. "Don't stop!"

They ran into the trees, dodging and weaving to avoid bullets, blaster-fire, and mortars. A mortar blast caught Griffin, blowing his leg off. "Keep going!" he shouted, and as Confederate soldiers got close he triggered his grenades; the explosion ended his life and the lives of several enemy soldiers, and also brought down a tree, crushing a few more. Miles and Harry ran for dear life toward the clearing, which was now in sight. As they reached the clearing, a mortar shell landed near Harry, knocking him off his feet and for a loop; his shields went from full to zero, and a portion of his chest armor was blown off, though it protected him from fatal damage. Miles walked over and grabbed hold of his friend, dragging him with one arm and firing his pistol with the other, as a Shade Company LAAT dropship flew in, opening fire on the pursuing Confederate soldiers.

When Harry came to fully again, he was being helped toward the waiting dropship, which Jane Smythe was stepping out of, walking toward them.

"Did you get the data?"

"Yes, ma'am" Miles reported.

"Good" Smythe said, as she put her arm around Harry's other shoulder, as if to help get him to the dropship. "Then that's one less loose end."

BANG

The point-blank shot from Smythe's old revolver punched through Harry's torso, tearing through a kidney and slicing his aorta open. He fell backwards in shock. Before Miles could react, Smythe turned her pistol to him and fired; the bullet tore through his skull, and the lifeless body toppled to the ground. As Harry faded in and out of consciousness, finding himself tossed in a pit, his suit's power core set by the Shade Company troops to "controlled overload" that would detonate and destroy his vital organs, he heard Melody's voice, static-laden, over the comm.:

"Mi-, -ry, we're -der att-ythe's troo-. Do no- mythe! I rep- -ot trust Smy- -k out!"

-SCENE BREAK-

Same Day

Sana'a, Yemen

Claudia Marrows-Nightray fired her customized DC-15 blaster rifle, blasting/burning a hole through a Confederate soldier's skull; the assault speeder he'd been piloting drifted out of control and smashed into the highway's center divider. The M831 Troop Transport Warthog she currently rode in hurried down the highway, now unmolested. A Jalaxian soldier carrying a grenade launcher sat across from her. Leonid Dragovich sat in the front passenger's seat, AM-X3 Plasmacaster at the ready.

Claudia closed her eyes and thought. For some reason, she thought back to when she first joined the League, a little while before the First War broke out. She also thought to before that, remembering her old "family": Heskov, Silvia, and Eve. A mind-scan made a few years back that she had known what had happened to Eve, but someone had placed a memory block there. She continued her line of thought, expecting the usual dead-end, but this time she found a "thread" that led to that sealed memory, and clutched at it for dear life, following it to its source. The memory block had "degraded" with age. The Jalaxian stared as Claudia seemed to slow her breathing, almost going into a trance. Yes, there'd been an inhumanly-deep voice, a flash of red light, and… and…

"I remember!"

The Jalaxian practically jumped at Claudia's sudden proclamation. Leonid turned around in his seat.

"Remember what?"

"What happened to Eve, my old friend, my former penni-sister! …My God, what exactly was that she found? There was a presence, and Eve had this dark look on her face. It felt like-"

She was interrupted by blaster fire hitting the sides of the vehicle, as three more Confederate attack speeders came up from behind. The driver of the Transport Hog swerved back and forth to dodge a few shots, and when the speeders had to stop and let their guns cool, Leonid brought up his cannon and fired. The explosive plasma shell hit the engine of the leading speeder, causing a large compound explosion that consumed the vehicle and its pilot. The Jalaxian fired a grenade that wedged in with the second bike's pilot, blowing his torso open and causing him to spin out of control and crash.

"Hang on!" the Hog's driver shouted. "We're almost at the base! Vice-Chairman Devine is there waiting for you guys; says he wants a report on that op in Beijing!"

Soon enough, they reached the outer perimeter of Base Arabia, the League's headquarters for the Middle East. The pursuing Confederate assault speeder couldn't turn back in time, and was blown to bits by a defending Scorpion tank's cannon.

"Devine's inside" the driver reported. "Better hurry."

As the three got out of the vehicle and headed for the entrance to the base interior, a static-laden yet still comprehensible transmission was captured over broadband comm. – Melody's transmission. Claudia listened in growing shock.

"Smythe has… betrayed us?"

"Indeed" Dragovich said. "Jane Smythe has betrayed the Phoenix League."

"But… why?" Claudia muttered, her back to Dragovich as she stared out toward the highway.

"For several reasons, I would say. Smythe seeks power and influence in the world, more than she has now. She seeks the chance to make a name for herself, to get her name written in the history books. And she seeks revenge against people whom she feels wronged her several years ago, before the war. But even with her vaunted Shade Company, she cannot accomplish her goals alone. So she made a deal. A deal…"

There was the unmistakable sound of his plasma-cannon charging up.

"…with me!"

Claudia spun around to face Dragovich… and took a shot to the lower torso from his plasma-caster at near-point-blank range, with her energy shields deactivated beforehand because she thought she was safe. Her armor failed nigh-instantly, and the superheated plasma shell blew her torso open, vaporizing most of her organs and reducing what was left to burning, disintegrating meat. She collapsed backward, her arms reaching down, an instinctual attempt to protect parts of her body that were no longer there.

"Wh… What have you done?" She choked out.

"What was necessary" Dragovich replied, as he stood over her, placed the "barrel" of his cannon against her chest, and fired again. Claudia's heart and lungs ceased to be; death followed swiftly. Dragovich then turned his cannon to the Jalaxian, firing again; the alien dove to the side, but the blast hit his right arm, blowing it off at the elbow. The few other soldiers in the area – standard ground troops - finally reacted, opening fire, but by then Dragovich had activated his armor's energy shields. He drew his blaster pistol and returned fire, killing two League troopers. A Centaur rolled out from a nearby garage, but Dragovich fired his plasma cannon at the turret, scrapping it irreparably. The troopers fell back, and Dragovich made his way into the base.

John Devine walked through the wide hallway of Base Arabia, the McLaughlin twins to either side of him. They'd picked up the recent transmission; though he couldn't show it, John was worried for Mel on a personal level. He was one of the few who knew the history between Melody and Jane, so he knew that, sooner or later, the latter would be going after the former with everything she had. He looked at the twins; even they were too caught off-guard by this sudden twist to bother snapping at each other.

"Hey…" Jen asked. "Where's Claudia? Weren't she and the others supposed to be here by now?"

John's reply was cut off as, up ahead, two League soldiers ran into the hall. As they began to turn toward Devine and the twins, an explosion went off just out of their view, knocking the soldiers off their feet and unconscious. Leonid Dragovich stepped through, turned to face Devine and the twins, gave a malicious grin (visible as his faceplate was retracted, leaving his nose & mouth visible while his eyes remained hidden), pointed his cannon at them, and fired.

Long-buried protective instincts came to the forefront all at once. There was a sudden movement, and Jen & John were left staring in shock and horror as the site registered. Jem stood between them and Dragovich. He'd taken a direct hit to the mid-torso from the devastating weapon. The inside of his body was visible, charred and blackened. Now pale, he turned his head to look his sister in the eye.

"Jen…" he struggled to whisper out. "Run…"

And then he collapsed, falling to the floor, unmoving.

"Going to insult him as usual, child?" Dragovich snarked at Jen.

Jen stood, shaking and trembling horribly. In her mind, the hatred of Jem abruptly vanished, the psychological manipulation of the Confederates so long ago coming undone. She remembered Jem as he really was, all the things he did for her, all the times he looked out for her… all the times that he & she were brother and sister.

There was a terrifying and heart-wrenching cry as, consumed by grief-stricken rage, Jen McLaughlin charged Leonid Dragovich, fire and fury in her eyes, which had tears of grief and rage falling from them. He fired a shot, but she dodged, and she pulled from her belt an extremely rare item, experimentally created drawing from databanks on the Black Talon; a two-pronged blade of superheated bluish-white plasma. Dragovich responded by directing all of his energy shield's power to his right arm and cannon. He blocked the opening strike, the shield flaring as it repulsed the blade; she struck again from a different angle, and he moved to respond. They fell into a deadly dance, and bodyguards took the opportunity to get to John Devine and rush him out of the area.

"KILL YOU!-! FUCKING KILL YOU!-!-!"

The duel continued in earnest, Dragovich putting all his effort into holding off the enraged berserker's unyielding strikes. Jen fought ferociously, fueled by the pain of loss, the agony in her heart at her beloved brother's untimely end. Soon, she partially broke through Dragovich's defenses. There was the sound of sizzling flesh and a grunt of pain as the tip of the plasma blade sliced across Dragovich's left eye.

Unfortunately, the anger at this fueled Leonid's own counterattack. With the twitch of a finger inside the cannon, a quartet of long, wicked blades sprang out ringing the tip of the cannon. He headbutted her, stunning her briefly, and then struck with the quadruple bayonet in an upward strike. The four blades punched all the way through Jen's chest, actually lifting her off the ground. He then fired the cannon point-blank, vaporizing her chest and the organs within, leaving the burnt remnant of her spine as the only thing holding her together. He tossed her aside with the weapon, one of the blades slicing through the spinal cord in the motion, sending Jen tumbling away in two pieces, her upper half landing next to the body of her brother. He retracted the blades on his weapon and, ignoring the pain from his now-useless eye, continued toward the data control center.

A few minutes later, Dragovich and those loyal to him left Base Arabia in four stolen dropships. As they made their escape, Ishtar Solos arrived at the base, observing the carnage – burning machinery, the cries and groans of the wounded, and… her heart ached as she spotted the bodies of the twins, lying next to each other, hands clasped. She caught a look outside as Claudia's body had a tarp draped over it by a stone-faced technician. The Elvaan girl closed her eyes tightly, struggling against the emotions roiling within her.

'I'm so sorry. I failed you…'

-SCENE BREAK-

"Well, well, well, if it isn't little Janie. You've got a lot to answer for, little girl."

"Colonel Veers. You know, I've wanted to kill you for a while now. This is actually kind of… exciting for me."

"Hah! Do your worst, child! You ain't takin' this old bastard without a fight!"

-CHAPTER END-