Another short chapter, but this one focuses on Ratchet and Stella back at Marcadia, there's a little drama and little talking, and a bunch of setting up. Mostly likely about two chapters left, maybe three. This is it Loyal Readers!


RaC-Nightmares Series: Earth Bound

Chapter 29: Preparing


"Commander Rain?"

Stella glanced behind her, after looking at who was standing in her doorway she turned back to the view port. "Enter."

Rass walked into Stella's quarters "Bolt for your thoughts?"

Stella glanced back at Rass before turning back to the view port. Rass made a sighing noise "I'll take that as a no." Rass walked further into Stella's quarters "You know, I don't think I've ever been in here, at least not recently. Like what you've done with the place."

"Did you need something Ranger?"

Rass paused for a moment, surprised by the direct question, that and referring to Rass as a Ranger. "Just to tell you that Engineering needs your help with something." Rass paused "Stella what's wrong with you? You've been aloof for the past few days. Not your usual self."

Stella took a deep breath "He should be on Earth by now."

Rass walked up next to Stella "Sky?"

Stella nodded "Yea, Commander Sky, on his mission to try for peace. Alone"

Rass looked at her friend "That's whats bugging you? Sky's been a Commander for as long as you have, and hes gone on plenty of Solo Ops. We have the files to prove it."

Stella nodded again "While that's true, Sky always went into those situations expecting trouble. This time he's looking for peace, that means he'll have left his weapons in his ship, and if he comes under attack he'll be out gunned, then hunted across a planet that he doesn't really know."

Stella fell silent as Rass thought for a few moments. "I think your worried about nothing Stella. I think that Sky is as badass a fighter as you are, better even at hand to hand combat. I don't see him being out gunned anytime. Didn't you give him one of your gadgets anyway?"

Stella moved over to her desk suddenly and started going through so papers "Yes, my prototype weapon. The Energy Bead Gauntlet."

Rass shrugged her shoulders "So what are you worrying for, anything of yours will out class anything that he'll find on Earth. I mean all your stuff is solid, I don't think I've ever seen one of your inventions fail."

Stella nodded "Yes, the final projects, but you've never seen them while they were in the prototype stage. Some of the side effects or misfires can be quite messy."

Rass paused "But you tested this gauntlet...right?"

Stella's silence was her answer.

Rass took a step towards the desk "Why did you give it to him then? If you had no idea what might happen if it backfired how come you gave him the prototype in the first place?!"

Stella whirled to face her friend "Because I was worried alright! He was going to try and sneak off with out telling anybody, and I knew that he would leave all his gear behind, I wanted him to have something that couldn't be taken away, short of cutting his arm off."

Rass was quiet while Stella took some deep breaths, after she was done, Rass spoke up again "I get it, your worried, we covered that already though, so why does him having your prototype worry you so much?"

Stella glanced down "I'm worried that he might fail, that I won't see my brother again. But I'm also worried that I might have just given the Terrans a huge advantage. If they figure out what hes got and some how reverse engineer it like they did the shuttle that started all of this..."

"So your not even worried about Sky, not really, your worried about creating more weapons. Causing more death?"

Stella lifted her head and looked at Rass as she finished her last sentence. "I guess...I never really thought of it that way before." she scoffed "Some genius I am."

Rass laughed "You're a technical genius, not a psychologist. Makes sense for you to miss that, you can't know everything."

Stella gave a small smile, "I guess so." she sighed and put some put some papers in another drawer "So what does engineering need me for?"


"We're loosing pressure in three, find the leak and tie it down!"

"Yes Commander!" The engineer ran off to find the proper coolant line and fix the falling pressure. Stella turned back to her console, typing in commands in to the main control system for her ships engines and trying to reboot the starting sequence.

She turned her head "Somebody find out what the hell happened!" As she resumed work she heard another pair of boots approach her. When they stopped behind her Stella scoffed "Look, I hate to be like this, but I'm aware that this is causing issues through out the ship, I'm working on it, what ever report you have will have to wait."

"Issues?"

Stella turned around in the red darkness of her engine room. The only real source of light coming from the screen behind her. It makes sense then that when she first laid eyes on her dad, it was hard not to see him as scary. "Sr. Admiral. Sir. You should have told me you would be visiting my ship. I would have prepared a proper welcome."

Ratchet stepped forward and in the dim light Stella realized he was dressed in cargo pants and his shirt "Relax Stella, I'm here as your dad, not you commander."

Stella sighed "Dad, yea sorry about this."

Ratchet looked around in the semi darkness "So correct me if I'm wrong, but red emergency lighting is usually not a good sign. Whats going on?"

Stella turned back to her console. "The weapons systems are linked directly into our engines down here. Gives them the higher power draw that they require since they aren't exactly normal gun systems. Best I can guess right now, when we reconfigured for the frequency weakness that the Terran fleet has. It caused a massive feedback loop that overloaded several systems including the coolant pressure monitoring system." Stella paused in her explanation to press a button against the wall "Get somebody to Engine Room 1 Junction box, I need pressure back in hoses 4, 7, 12, and 23"

Ratchet walked up next to her "Is it serious?"

Stella shook her head "Only if we had been in warp when this happened. But since we're in orbit the the engines are running in low cycle mode. We are mainly running in the dark as a precaution, but out in space, better safe then sorry."

Ratchet nodded "Right, so what can I do to help? You old man still has his usefulness."

Stella paused for a moment while she thought. "Take the hallway to your right, at the first junction take a left and go straight until you reach the Coolant Monitoring system. I need somebody there to rest the system when I'm ready."

Ratchet nodded "Gotcha" he took off down the hallway and Stella called up her remote control system for the Coolant controls. "Engine Room 2 Junction Box, Hoses 3, 8, 14, 24, 34, and 41" Stella continued resetting various systems till she heard her dad through the intercom. "I'm here Stella, what next."

"I'm resetting the system from here, but I need somebody to reset the pressure in the hoses while I do this. There should be two large valves in front of you. Turn the one on the left when I tell you."

Another voice crackled out on the intercom "Engine Room 1, Junction Box Reset and Pressure dropping."

Stella pressed a button on her console then reached for a lever along the side "Dad, now." she said as she grabbed the lever and pulled the switch. On her screen red lights appeared and there was a deep shuddering through out the ship which was accompanied by a deep humming that seemed to shake Stella's entire body. Stella ignored it and focused on the screen which was showing the rising pressure inside Engine 1. "Dad, turn a little faster."

On screen the red lights finally faded to blue, then back to green. Stella let out a small breath, the problem may not have been critical, but the fix could have destroyed the whole ship if it went wrong. "Alright Dad, the valve on the right this time."

"Commander, Engine room 2 we can't get hose 34 to lock down and balance the pressure."

Stella swore softly under her breath. "None of the automatic systems are responding on this end. Can you guys get it done on manual control?"

"No Commander, the pressure is too high, if we open the line for manual access, we could blow the system."

Stella swore again "Dad, I need you to turn the valve, slowly, though, I haven't reset yet."

"Engine Room 2, "We're going to have to balance the pressure through the other hoses, make sure they don't fall under 85."

Stella called up her control to see the pressure was already falling. "Diverting pressure to 1 through 18, get ready, gentlemen and ladies, this is going to be close."

"We're diverting pressure on this end to 35 up to 45"

Stella nodded to herself and started typing on her keyboard again, setting up Engine 2 for its reset. "Dad get ready, starting the reset now, there will be feed back inside the system, the valve should kick against you, but you need to keep it in place."

"Roger, hit it whenever."

Stella grabbed the reset lever and threw it again. The same deep shuddering shook the ship, although this time it seemed stronger, and the humming noise got so loud that Stella started getting a headache within moments.

Meanwhile in the monitoring room that Ratchet was in, he had just felt the kick in the pressure, and he was currently taking all his strength to hold the valve in one place, and it was slowly slipping. Thinking quickly Ratchet summoned his Omni-Wrench and jammed in into the spokes on the valve then braced the handle in a groove on the floor. The deep humming noise continued for a few more painful moments before it faded and Ratchet felt slack in the pressure against the valve. Turning his hands quickly, the humming faded from noise and the slight shaking of the ship stopped. Ratchet sighed taking it as a good sign his daughters voice came over the intercom "Good work Dad, head on back."

Ratchet walked over to the intercom "Alright, see you in a bit." he left off the switch and started walking down the hallway, he found his daughter at the junction waiting for him. "Making sure I don't get lost?" he asked in a teasing voice.

Stella smiled as they started walking towards the elevator "Kinda, actually I wanted to ask why you came over, I'm sure you had a reason before you came down here and offered help."

Ratchet nodded "Lets talk someplace private."

Stella jerked her head towards the elevator "My Quarters then, come on." Stella turned and led the way into the elevator. A short while later found them inside Stella's quarters. Ratchet looked around, he had to admit to himself he was a little surprised.

"It's clean."

Stella looked over her shoulder with an eyearch raised "Of course its clean."

Ratchet looked around at the sparse room, from her bed in the corner to her desk against the side, the only sign of the messy inventor he raised was the designs that she had displayed on her vid-screen wall. Stella walked over to her desk and moved some papers into a drawer before sitting on the edge of the desk. "So, whats up Dad?"

Ratchet moved over and sat next to her on top of the desk, he realized for the first time that Stella was dressed in a matching outfit to his, aside from the color. Where he had green cargo pants Stella had black and with a dark purple shirt. "I just wanted to talk about what's been happening, check in with you." he sighed and looked at her vid-screen wall "With Sky AWOL on Earth, I find that I need to be the calm rational one..." Ratchet stopped and looked at Stella "With your mother gone, I'm finding it harder and harder to hold onto my calm. I'm still trying to decide when we head out for Earth if I just want to use the old Waver prototype cannon to just be rid of the planet once and for all."

Stella turned her gaze to her view port, where Marcadia floated in the distance. "Before he left Sky asked what had happened to me. He didn't say it, but I think he thought Mom would be disappointed in the way I've been acting." Stella stopped and turned her gaze to Ratchet "I think hes right, these past three weeks I've been thinking, what do we really get out of all this? Vengeance? When has that ever solved anything?" Stella slid off the desk and walked over to the view port. "Think about it, all of the evil people that you have ever fought, they always had some sort of plan in mind, some vengeance for something done to them. If we just set out for Earth with Vengeance in our minds and Hatred in our hearts, are we any better then those people that we swore to protect the galaxy from?"

Ratchet leaned back on the desk "Are you saying you've forgiven Zen for everything hes done to us?"

Stella was quiet for a lone while, when she spoke up it was slow and deliberate "No, Zen needs to be tried for War Crimes, everything hes done. He can't get away with it, we need to get him and all of his officers and who ever led the original attack." Stella looked at her Dad "What about you?"

Ratchet slid off the desk "I can't answer that right now. Not because I don't want to tell you the answer, but because I don't know which one I'll give."

Stella glanced at Ratchet as he walked up next to her "Can't decide?"

Ratchet shrugged "I'm not sure, half of me just wants to do what you're saying, bring him in and try him for his crimes, but the other half, the half that aches every night in an empty bed...that half doesn't want to stop till every last Terran is dead, and Zen himself beaten to a pulp. When we get to Earth and I actually set sights on Zen, I'm not sure which half will win."

Stella stretched then glanced at her wrist "Well, we're about to find out."

Ratchet glanced at his own wrist where like Stella he had a watch display set into his gauntlet. "It appears so." he turned to his daughter "Are you ready for duty Commander Rain?"

"Always ready Sir." Stella tapped a button on her gauntlet. Ratchet watched as armor slid out from under her clothing and quickly slid over her body, How ever it wasn't until the helmet slid out from a small pad on her neck and covered her head that Ratchet recognized it.

He reached out a hand and placed it on Stella's now armored shoulder. " Electrosteel..." he shook his head "Where did you find this old thing? I haven't seen it since..." Ratchet trailed off.

Stella turned around and headed for the exit to her quarters "Since Mo-" Stella stopped and started again. "Since Commander Phyronix wore it last. I felt it might be fitting to wear it for whatever waits for us on Earth."

Ratchet walked along beside her "But what about protection from the Terran slug weapons, the Electrosteel won't stop something aimed at your head."

Stella nodded "Something I'm aware of, don't worry, I've covered it." The two of them had reached the hanger, where Ratchets ship sat. "You better get back to your command ship Admiral. You'll need to be in place for the attack."

Ratchet nodded and saluted, Stella quickly copied the action "Very well Commander Rain, have your techs prepare the fleet for warp." Ratchet paused and then reached out and put a hand on her shoulder "Your Mom would be proud of the woman you have become. Never forget that."

Stella blinked twice "I won't Dad." with that Stella dropped the salute and turned around, heading for the bridge. Ratchet turned and ran for his fighter hopping in and taking off into space. He navigated away from Stella's frigate and moved towards a large battle bunker that was hovering in the ship yards of Marcadia.

The ship was a new design from the Military, it was a bulky model, like a rounded edged cube. It was as long as the Phoenix was, and carried twice as many cannons. Each cannon was controlled by a pilot deep inside the super structure using a holopod to trick the pilot into thinking that they were in the cannon themselves. The ship was designed not only to slug it out with capitol ships and defend against fighters but was in fact had a smaller crew the the Phoenix.The ship was almost half a mile of armor protecting a small core control room inside where everything was run from. This allowed it to literally be a command bunker in the middle of an all out space war.

Ratchet flew his fighter into the small hanger and landed it on the edge of the space. He hopped out and went over to the small stand against the side where he had left his Aegis Armor. When he reached out a hand for it though he saw a small vid-pad had been left on it. Picking it up Ratchet read the note there.

"Dad by the time you read this, you'll know what I mean when I say I'm not the only one with a new set of armor. Your Carbonox armor is useful, but old, just like your original Aegis armor. So, I ordered a new set some times ago, the Aegis Armor Mark IX armor set, then added my own modifications to it. This suit is lighter, allowing you to move faster, has jets built into it so you can keep Clank in space where he has less chance of being hit by a bullet. It can also stop any slugs the Terrans can throw at you, short of explosives. -Love Stella. P.S. There is a self donning feature on the armor, just put on the main chest plate and the armor will do the rest when activated."

Ratchet put down the pad and looked at the armor, that was when he started noticing the differences, the biggest one being the main pad which went over his chest. Ratchet reached for it and attached it to his chest. He pressed the pad and held his arms out as the pieces of armor floated off the table and attached themselves to his body. In a matter of moments Ratchet was covered in his new armor. As the last piece settled into place, Ratchet grabbed the helmet that hadn't moved and slid it over his head, his HUD booted up and a slight hum made itself known as the armor activated, Ratchet realized that the armor glowed a dark orange now and he smiled to himself.

He ran up to the control room and sat down in his chair, he opened a link to the rest of the ships in the fleet then turned to CR-3. "Has Commander Rain set up the warp coordinates?"

CR-3 nodded "Yes sir, if I may ask, how come we're not using the Void-Gate?"

Clank looked up from his place on the main console "Covering that much distance with the Void-Gate has a chance to collapse space and time. A rather large chance in fact, so we have deemed that the gate can not be used for this attack."

Ratchet smiled at his old friend "Glad to see you made it Clank."

Clank turned back to his console "Ratchet, you are my friend, and I would not miss this mission for the world."

Ratchet nodded "Glad to hear it." He leaned forward and pressed another button on his console. His next words went out to the fleet "This is Sr. Admiral Ratchet, we have our warp coordinates set up, prepare all ships for warp, spin up engines to max and wait for my word."

Outside in space, twenty-one ships, including the frigates of both Stella and Sky, all lit their engines at the same time, causing the light to flash out towards the orbital docks. The civilians that were living there cheered, and inside one office the Galactic President looked up from her desk. "Good luck Ratchet."

Ratchet pressed another button "Command Rain?"

Stella's voice echoed out "Coordinates sent to all ships, preparing to lead the warp. Moving fleet to jump zone."

The fleet was slowly arranging themselves in a wedge pattern outside of Marcadia's gravity well. Ratchet sat down in his command chair. "Commence Warp."

Stella's voice responded "Warp in 5."

Ratchet blinked and slowed his breathing, reading himself for the journey ahead.

"4."

Stella was watching the various read outs on her ship while she counted down

"3."

Sky was on Earth, preparing to sneak into the white house.

"2."

Sasha was still alone, and known only to a select few.

"1."

Ratchet opened his eyes. "Zen, here I come."

"Warp."

In a matter of seconds the ships all flashed forward into a warp jump, one that would last three weeks, and one that would put them right on Earths Doorstep.


Next chapter we jump back to Sky and Earth, and the Twenty one days that he has to try and get Zen to see reason. Oh I have so much planned for the next two chapters, its going to be great!

Oh, and just FYI, I'm breaking my usual Story rotation, I'm not updating anything else except Earth Bound until its done, so hopefully within a month, Earth Bound will be finished, and I can vanish back into the ether of the Internet.

Of course if you want me to stick around for a bit, you can head over to my profile page and vote on the poll there. It could just choose what little piece of work I do while I try to make up my mind on if I want to continue with the rough plans I have for the Generations Series.

Oh, I hope its not needed, but seriously please Review, they help tell me that I'm doing a good job, and they spur me on to burn the midnight oil when writing. The more reviews I get, the harder I work, and the Faster the chapters get out.

Peace,

-Emile