Chapter 28: Final Boarding call

January 17th, 3238, 0621 hours

Outpost 49

Core Room

This was her fight. She had to end this. Her clone was grappling at her neck, trying to find some pressure point, some weak vertebrae to snap, but she wouldn't let her find one. Sally was locked in close combat with Alicia. Her clone was boring into her with red-rimmed eyes. "Look what he's done to you!" she said trying to make her see. "He's done something even worse! Not even the doctor would make you act like this!" "He's done nothing! He's made me stronger! I am better than you!"

"That's why you survived? That's why you willed yourself to go on when all of your friends were killed? You just wanted to prove a point?!" Alicia seemed guilty and looked away. "You are pathetic!" the princess deemed, stressing the last word. The clone then said. "Malak did the right thing! Taking me in was the best moment of my life! Robotnik didn't even know until it was too late!" Sally landed a blow to Alicia's head. "So you sold him out to get extra training? That's disgusting!"

"He had nothing left to offer me!" Alicia roared kicking Sally's shins. The Princess held her ground though. "I've fought his drones, I've destroyed his ships! There's nothing else I could learn from the bastard!" Acorn switched to a headlock and tried to choke her into unconsciousness. "You've never thought about anything else except betraying the man who gave you life?" "What can I say? When I see an opportunity I take it." She drove her boot backwards into the princess' pelvis. She released Alicia rubbing her lower abdomen in pain. That's when things really got nasty.

The clone took the opportunity to drive an uppercut into Sally's jaw. It shot up and then a frenzy of blows to her chest. She coughed blood soon after and she knew things were getting bad. She was losing. The others raised their guns but she screamed that she wanted to finish this. Reluctantly, the survivors lowered their guns. She was losing…she needed to find a way…

She thought back. Years ago. Four years to be precise, when humans had arrived on Mobius. She asked for special training to become a Marine and help fight this off. The humans had initially refused the offer but eventually they came around. She remembered the name of her DI: Jones. That was his name. Sergeant Jackson Jones, JJ as they called him. He taught her everything to know about hand to hand fighting, even when your opponent had the upper hand. She remembered a sparring match…

The sun shone in the air, birds chirped, and the gentle crackle of automatic weapons fire drifted over the Great Forest. In the boxing ring located in the right section of the camp, Sergeant Jones was punching Sally with soft gloves. "Come on, bitch! Come on, bitch! You can do it!" Jones whacked the side of the Princess' head. Her mouth guard popped out and bounced on the ring's floor. "I can't do it, Sarge! You've been pummeling me all week! Everything from my head to my ass is bruised!" "Come on, furry. Hit me! You can do it, I know you can."

Sally shrugged and launched a punch but faked and reversed it. That took Jones slightly off guard but he still blocked it. What am I going to do? This man is a monster! There's got to be something I can…wait…there is. But it's damn risky. She decided to proceed with her plan. She fought again as usual but then when Jones let her have it again with a glove right between the breasts, she doubled over, pretending to choke. Naturally, Jones was worried so he stepped forward. "Princess…?" Then she struck.

Moving faster than lightning, she nailed him under the chin. While he was stunned, she released a flurry of blows to his ribs and face. She never let up. It was until Jones shouted 'STOP, STOP! I GIVE!" that she stopped the barrage. Sergeant Jones stood up shakily and held one hand over a black eye and spat blood. "Good job, furry. Good job."

That was what she needed, the classic feint. As a matter of fact, the same type of feint that she used on Chris years ago in the Mandalorian camp, slight variation though. As she was tossed around, she could feel the sharp end of her CANADARMS Ontario Combat Knife prick her leg through the fatigues. The plan was worse than when she was sparring. She needed to get tossed around to give Alicia the sense of false security.

She did so. She purposely started hyperventilating to give the illusion of being winded. In truth, she was barely getting tired and she was also purifying her blood as well. It was almost purely oxygenated and would allow her limbs to move faster and longer. She only needed to be faster here. Alicia started to laugh as she kicked Sally in the face. Her nose broke and blood came out of her nostrils seeping through her fur. Damn, that really hurt! She thought as her nose smarted angrily. "It's over, I can feel it!" Alicia said with a maniacal smile on her face. "Damn straight it is." She kneed the princess and caused her to double over. That was when she plucked the dagger out of her leg sheath. "Good, I was getting tired of this." She said standing over her. "That makes two of us.

"Ugh…"

Alicia's eyes went wide. Her mouth went agape. "You…" she said. Slowly, her eyes drifted to the dagger that was lodged in her chest, right over her heart. "You…" "Go on, say it." Sally said through gritted teeth. The Original and the Clone locked eyes. Alicia's hands shook ferociously as she tried to pull the dagger away, but the princess just shoved it deeper, feeling resistance from her ribs, she pushed past it. Hard. Alicia gasped in pain, blood starting to foam at her mouth. "You get to die! You motherfucking BITCH!" Acorn growled. Her eyes seemed to light on fire. "You attack my friends, you ally yourself with the Sith, and you claim yourself to be better?! LOOK AT ME! I'M BETTER! Stay with me, stay with me."

Sally twisted the dagger in the wound, rending meat and making Alicia gasp and arch her back. "You don't regret anything, do you?" the princess asked. "You don't feel sorry for anything you've done? The people you've killed trying to find me, the evil you've been subjected to and embraced? You don't feel sorry at all…" "NO!" Alicia screamed with surprising volume. "NO! SONIC, I LOVED HIM, I LOVED HIM AND YOU KILLED HIM!" She turned and pointed to Chris who stood with his assault rifle raised. "YOU KILLED HIM! YOU SHOT HIM! I'LL KILL YOU; I'LL KILL YOU, YOU HUMAN, Y-" BANG.

Sally looked at Chris, ready to shout but she noticed that his gun was exactly where it was before and the barrel wasn't smoking. Instead, she caught a whiff of gunpowder and saw that her own gun was smoking. She stared at Alicia and saw that she had a neat hole in her head leaking blood. The clone's eyes were glazed over. Sally was stunned and dropped the gun which hit the alien floor with a surprisingly quiet clang. The revolver sat still. Sally sat back on her knees and realized that she just killed Alicia simply out of annoyance. She shot her just to shut her up. No reason at all…

Chris walked over and stared at the corpse. "Nice work." He said nodding his head. "Is this how you felt when you killed that man?" Sally asked with a hint of ice in her voice. He shrugged. "Yeah, kind of." "Alright. Come on, our ride's here." He pointed to the chasm. Far ahead, a small, blur of silver blue sped from the chasm, fusion engines shining brightly. That blur expanded into a large ship that positioned itself over the walkway. A ramp extended and a squad of Marines descended. "Come on, let's go! Up the ramp, move!"

They ran, but Sally stood still. Chris glanced at his watch, scowled, and then ran back. "Sally, we have to go." He said, with his tone rising. "Leave her, let's go!" "She was my clone, in a sense I'm her and she's me. The way she acted…it seemed, so much like me…" Ryan yelled, "The planet is going to be destroyed in a few minutes! You know that?"

"Sally please, we can't waste time! Mourn her later!" he started to sweat. "Sally please…" "She said she loved him…I guess I do too." "SALLY ACORN, GODDAMN IT!" "I…I need to think about this." "Can you do it somewhere else?!" he grabbed her arm. "Let's go!" She never budged. "I…I…" Chris rolled his eyes sadly. "Sally, please forgive me." He reached back and punched her right between the eyes. The princess' limp body fell but the Captain caught her. Flipping her over his shoulder, he began to run up the ramp. "Where's the Phoenix?" he asked a Marine. "Watching our ass in orbit. We're taking off now! Take a seat!" He said. "Sir." The young man was quick to add.

"That's better." There was a set of seats located near the ramp. He sat down with the others and put Sally into the next seat, arranging her and strapping her in. "She's gonna be pissed when she wakes up." Captain Banks said with a nervous smile on his face. "I'll just remind her that I saved her ass doing it." "All crew, prepare for sudden acceleration." The engines activated and the ship rose. Out of the portholes, it seemed that nothing special was happening. Bodies were littered all over the precursor flooring. "Good luck, humans." Said a voice over the COM. "Ben? Is that you?" Tails asked. "Indeed. You are about to embark on a dangerous journey my friends. Armed with your knowledge, only your race can destroy what my makers created. "You're not coming with us?" Rouge asked sadly. "I cannot. I have lived 500,000 years. I have no desire to go on. After half a million years, I have decided that I needed to be deactivated. I have learned, after 500,000 years of isolation, that what I really wanted to experience was death."

It was very sad to hear a being, artificial or not, to desire death. But this would bring the ancient AI peace. All he wanted to do was serving and help. That completed, he wanted to die knowing he had done his job well. "I'm sorry it had to be that way." The Captain said. "Don't be sorry. Your life is short; you have a sense of purpose. I've completed mine. Good luck my friends. Good bye and thank you for inquiring of my assistance." Then the channel went dead. There was no noise for a second, then HK-24 said, "Commentary: Master, I must say, that is the bravest artificial intelligence I have ever encountered. He, as you humans say, has balls. Is that term correct?" Chris pulled the brim of his cap. "Yeah. He sure does."

The Acorn climbed into the air, soon exiting the chasm in the desert. A few laser shots from stranded Sith and robots tried to follow them but they never caught them. They were nearly perpendicular to the ground; the earth falling fast, until the sky turned black and space was all around them. Explosions still dotted the night sky, the ships too far away to be seen in detail. Debris started to rain into the doomed planet's atmosphere, trailing brilliant red streaks as they became meteors. "Acorn, this is Phoenix. Do you have the Marines, over?" The COM officer, a canine Lieutenant responded. "That's affirmative, Phoenix. Marines are onboard and we are moving to rendezvous point." "Copy that. ETA is two minutes. Get the jump engines fired up, we're gonna have to make this quick! Phoenix out!" Just as Chris was about to lean back, Cortana said, "Everyone! It's happened!" "What?" Tails asked. "The sun's gone critical!" Looking out of the window, Rouge said, "Looks the same to me."

"Explanation: The speed of light prohibits us from viewing this spectacle. Theoretically, eight minutes from now, the wave of hot gas would reach us at the same time the sun's explosion would be visible, not that I would want to anyway."

A few minutes ago in the past, Admiral Saul Karath got the surprise of his life. Soon before the battle in the Core Room got out of control, the flagship had received damage battling the destroyer Phoenix, the Earth vessel. He hadn't been expecting the slight change in position which allowed him a head on hit. The ventral prow was punctured all the way through and all decks in the area were breached. The battle was on, and he was sure that victory was at hand. It was only about five minutes before that that a flash of blue light entered the bridge. All of the Sith looked on and a few battle droids aimed their blasters at the spot. A figure materialized and landed softly on the deck. A few soldiers ran forward but were blasted away telekinetically. The figure rose, Darth Malak.

It turned out that when the Master Chief threw Malak from the railing, Malak had a secret weapon in his disposal, an ancient and totally Dark power known as Force Travel. The power itself was Dark in nature as the laws of the galaxy were tossed aside. It allowed a user to teleport across distances instantly via space/time rift. Malak used it to avoid death by impact on the core. Karath grasped at his heart when his Master appeared. "My Lord?" He asked. Malak stood solemnly, his eyes narrowed. "My Lord, your mask is missing." "I will manage, Admiral." The Dark Lord said with his synthetic warble. "You will find me the Phoenix at once." "My Lord?" "They have ruined our chanced of obtaining the Emerald and the secrets of this place. Destroy the ship and recover the Emerald." "Yes, Lord Malak. We are reasonably behind in the attack; we can search for them using radio scan techniques." "Do it." The Sith Lord simply said.

"ETA to rendezvous is forty seconds, Phoenix do you copy?" West asked. "Copy that, Acorn. This is Perry. Welcome home people. Ready to get the hell out of here?" "They are, sir." "Good. Allow us to send pelican transports to your position to pick up the survivors and we'll move to the L4 point to initiate Hyperspace jump." The ship turned white then and a fireball flared. Seconds later it went out. A grey white cloud of atmosphere and metal drifted in the void with sunlight poking through little gaps.

Commander Kylie West's eyes went wide. Her ears twitched and her mouth nearly fell into her lap. "Phoenix? Phoenix? This is the UNSC Acorn calling the UNSC Phoenix. Does anybody copy, over?! Please, respond! Captain, are you there? Please, say something!" A human COM operator looked around at her sadly and said, "Ma'am, she's gone. I'm reading no lifeboats out there. She's been scuttled with all hands."

The crew looked at each other. Chris stared at his men with wide, sad eyes. Captain Alan Perry was dead. His crew was dead. Ensign Kevin Callows, the man he saved from the Firaxa shark, dead. The pretty fox orderly, dead. The Lieutenant Commander, dead, the Briggs twins, dead. All dead. All dead…

All dead, save for them.

There was silence on the bridge of the Acorn. Commander West took off her hat and looked at it sadly. The man who had nominated her for this position was dead. Spinning in space, asphyxiated and cold…She only hoped he died in the blast so that he wouldn't have to live his final seconds in the airless void. She closed her eyes and cried, but not too loudly. She placed her forehead to the cap. After a second or two she opened her eyes and saw what gave her hope: FFG-3216, UNSC Acorn. She only had to look at the "scrambled eggs" on the brim of her cap to give her that sense of purpose.

She jammed the cap back on her head. Captain Alan Perry had nominated her for the job and she got it. Now that he was dead, it was her responsibility that they got home. She had hundreds of men and women in tow and by God she wasn't about to let them down. "Orders, ma'am?" The gunnery officer asked. "Stay calm, gentlemen. Engineering: What's the status of our jump drives?" "80 %, Commander." "Keep it going. The Captain's crew took this shot for us. God be with me." She gripped the controls and pushed them forward. She only had a year of flight training under her belt, but that one year would be enough to get them home. She knew it.

"They aren't shooting at us!" Chris was surprised to realize this. "They must have thought that we were on the Phoenix." Tails said with great gratitude. "Prower, four hundred men and women just died in a heartbeat. Are you insinuating that you feel glad?" Chris asked. Tails flared up. "No sir. I'm just glad that it wasn't us. You are glad it wasn't us, right?" "Should I be? It's survivor's guilt. Perry's dead and I wish I were dead too. He had a wife…shit…" "Yeah. Shit." The fox said hitting the back of his head off the bulkhead.

"Engines almost at full charge!" Engineering reported. "UNSC Acorn, this is Lieutenant Veers, Snake Squadron. Shame the Captain didn't make it." "Veers! Thank God you're alive!" "Well, what's left of us. I'm down to two wingmen. Big Bird went down so our heavy fighter support is long gone. We need to dock if you're bugging out." "That we are. Hurry, we're in a bit of a blitz here." "Say no more. Please."

West hit the BROADCOM. "Attention all Mandalorian ships, this is the UNSC Acorn. The UNSC Phoenix has been destroyed with all hands lost. As of this moment, I am Senior Commanding Officer of this battle group. The star behind us is going supernova and the blast will be here in three and a half minutes! All ships break engagement and retreat into hyperspace. Randomize your coordinates. Out." She shut off the COM. "Alright everyone, brace yourselves. Things are about to get rough."

The Acorn cruised in the night blasting a few Interceptors. As soon as she was in the clear, West booted up the Hyperspace drive. The Mandalorian fleet followed suit and they all fled into Hyperspace. Malak stood on the Leviathan's bridge. "My Lord, the enemy is running! We've won!" Karath said, overjoyed. "Wait…" Malak said surveying. "There were two vessels…They're all running…" Malak was fitting the pieces together until… "We must leave! Activate the hyperdrive! At once, Admiral. Can we make a jump damaged?" "Yes but…" "Do it then." "I…yes my Lord Malak."

The Sith cruiser banked in space. The fleet was confused with the order. The flagship jumped away leaving the rest to wander. That was when the expanding gas from the star hit the planet. To anybody in the fleet with an open window, all they would see would be a flash of light from the star and then they would be vaporized. Every single ship melted away from existence along with everyone aboard. Outpost 49 shuddered in the outburst and flew apart, the atmosphere chased away in a silvery wisp. Rocky fragments obliterated whoever wasn't immediately in front of the planet and smashed the moons to pieces. All that was left of Outpost 49 were fragments of the planet with bits of artificial passageways exposed, glowing white-hot. Nothing remained of the only known Precursor relic.

Sally opened her eyes. She rubbed the spot where the Captain slugged her. It smarted when she touched. If she ever got ahold of him…That's when she saw him. All she could do was smile though. "Hey." She brought herself to say. "Did we do it?" "Yeah, we did it." Chris wore his leisure uniform, white T-shirt and fatigued pants. Sally wore likewise. "Did we make a clean getaway?" That's when Chris' smile turned into a frown. "There was one stain." "What?" "They got Perry." She sat up straight. "The Captain?" "No, the whole ship. Blew her out of the sky." She started to feel woozy. "Oh my God…Were there any survivors?" All Chris could say, "Besides our group and a few flyboys, there's nobody left." She placed a hand to her temple. "Oh my God." She willed herself not to think of it. "Where are we headed?" "For the moment, deep space. We need to set the record straight with the Mandalorians and pick up our bearings. We need to build a beacon. Some kind of shit Tails said and we have to go back via Slipspace so apparently there's a process to the whole thing. Chris kneeled down to the Princess' level.
"Sal…we're going home! We're going home at last!" he grabbed her hand and smiled widely. Sally also smiled. "I can't believe it. Mom…Dad…I'm going to see them at last…" "Hell I'll be glad to see Sonic even!" Sally giggled. "One thing's for sure." She said. "What's that?" "This has been one hell of a vacation."

The Mandalorian fleet made the Acorn even tinier than she was. Kaidan was leaving the group behind for the fleet. "I want to thank you all for everything that you've done for me, for my boys. Anybody else wouldn't have done a damn thing. We've really saved the galaxy now, haven't we?" Sally stepped forward and gave Kaiden a hug which the Mandalorian returned. "I'll miss you princess." He said hugging her back. "Where will you go now, Ordo?"

He looked at her and smiled. "I'm going to look for Mandalore's helmet." "What does that mean?" Banks asked. "It's a very powerful symbol to my people. Whoever finds the helmet is the leader of the Mandalorian clans." "Kaidan, the helmet is somewhere out here! It's impossible!" Chris interjected. "Difficult yes, impossible, maybe. But I'm sure as hell up to the challenge. You coming, 24?" The droid stepped forward. "Query: Are you certain that you wish me to accompany this Mandalorian after all that we've been through, Masters?" "Yeah. You need to stay here, 24. Tell you what though?" Chris said. He pulled off his hat and handed it to HK-24. "Query: It is a piece of military headware." "It's so you won't forget us."

"Statement: Master, droids do not forget unless subjected to a memory wipe. I shall never forget you all…but deep down in my behavior core, I deeply admire the symbolic gesture. Thank you." Kaidan and his friends walked through the airlock and were gone. They all turned to Jolee. "Your turn, Old Man." Bunnie said. "Screw that, I'm not going anywhere!" "Jolee, you can't stay here." Chris said. "Why? Why can't I come with you? I want to see what wonders you have. I've been around the galaxy and I always love seeing new places. Please, so you don't make me cry. Take me with you." "Chris, think of the timeline implications." NICOLE said. "He can come. We can just take him back here, it's essentially time travel. He can be back just seconds after we've gone." Bindo smiled. "Nice choice, sonny. Let's get going." "Not yet." Tails said. "We have two problems: One, we need to inform the Jedi council about Malak and the Star Forge. And two: We need to dump the Ebon Hawk somewhere."

It was on the Outer Rim world of Taris that they decided to bestow the Ebon Hawk to a new owner. The richest man on the planet was a man named Davik Kang. For the sake of the meeting, Chris and Johnson (the two most senior officers).

Taris was much like Coruscant except that anti-alien protesters were more common. In a building good enough for a king, they met Davik Kang of the Exchange crime syndicate. Now, Chris had spent some time in the galaxy and learned about the Exchange. They were not to be fucked with, let alone this one man. "Greetings gentlemen. I am Davik Kang. Please, sit down." They did so. "So, what can I do for you today?" "Are you interested in buying a ship, Mr. Kang?" Chris asked. "I have ships, sonny." Davik said laid back. He sat in his chair in a relaxed way. "What makes this ship different?" "What makes her different?" Johnson repeated mockingly. "She's the fastest damn ship in the Outer Rim. Class 1 hyperdrive!" Davik's eyebrow rose. "Class one? Impressive. I'll need to see it though."

Davik was led through the complex with his bodyguard Canderous Ordo. Chris and Johnson noted the fact that Canderous and Kaidan were from the same clan. On the docking arm, Davik himself inspected the Ebon Hawk. Chris took this time to talk to Canderous. "Hey." He said. "Hey." The Mandalorian said back. "You're a Mandalorian?" "Is it really important?" "Maybe. Do you know Kaidan Ordo?" "Maybe, he was my second cousin-" he then locked and eye and turned to face him. "Who are you?" "Is it really important? Kaidan is alive just if you wanted to know." "That actually does help you. Thank you." He shook hands. Chris thought he would scream, the opposite hand was crushing his fingers. Canderous smiled mischievously.

Davik walked out of the ship with Johnson. "Wow. I have to say I am impressed. It is the most amazing ship I have ever seen. I will take it. How much?" "How does 115 sound?" "Thousand? Bargain. I'll take her. What's your name?" "Ahita Othar." Chris said. This is my associate Avri. He said indicating Johnson. "Well, Mr. Othar, Mr. Avri, it's been a real pleasure doing business with you. In my opinion, this is the best thing I have ever stolen!"

The next stop was Coruscant. The Princess and Tails walked into the Council Chambers. "You have requested to come before the council to deliver information?" Master Vrook Lamar asked. "We have, Master." Sally said. "Darth Malak has been building a fleet with a giant space factory called the Star Forge. It's of unbelievable power. It was the tool that decimated Telos." "A factory you say?" Master Lonna Vash asked. "Yeah." Tails responded. "He can make hundreds of ships in days." There was silence. "It is clear that the Force has brought us a worthy adversary, but we know next to nothing about this 'Star Forge'. Did you perhaps hear anything Malak said about this?" "No, Master." Miles responded. Lamar growled, "Well that was useful." "Vrook, what about Revan?" Master Zez-Kai Ell asked. "No! It's too dangerous! We can't do it!" the old Jedi Master protested. "We have done it before in the past." Kavar said, backing up Ell. "But we simply can't just reprogram him like a simple droid!" "No residual thoughts will come through, I promise that." The mustached Jedi Master said, his dragon-tooth earrings bobbing as he spoke. "I…So be it. The council is adjourned. Thank you for telling us this. Thank you." Then they were ushered out. "Did you understand anything in there?" Tails asked. "Not a goddamned thing." Sally responded.

Their jobs done and the galaxy set in the right direction, the Acorn accelerated back into space. Commander West had called everyone into the R&D Lab made impromptu in the vehicle bay. Some prefab walls with a wrench on it were all that stood. The Captain knocked and was let in. Vennettilli straightened his new cap. It wasn't the same as the old fidel he had worn since Basic, but it was something. In the center of the room was the Blood Emerald shining a shocking green. "What I don't understand is why they called it a blood Emerald." Johnson said. "That shit is green!"

"I have a solution. Perhaps the Forerunners had green blood. Thus, justifying the name." "Whatever." Avery said lighting up. "What's this thing Petty officer?" Chris asked pointing to a cigar shaped device with a disk running perpendicular to it. "That's the beacon, sir." Miles explained. "It's modeled after a simple COMSAT but the interior is hollow save for a few maneuvering thrusters and NAVCOM systems. It'll give us a steady location." He took a second rubbing the back of his neck. "One way though…" The Commander nodded with hands behind her back. "I can understand that. How long until we get it operational?" "Oh it's working now; I just need a place to set it up." "Simple, dump it out into space and let's go."

"Not that simple. I see where're you're going with this. All the space in the universe, right? We need a location where nobody can find this." "Why se secretive, shugah?" "Think of it, Bunnie." Tails said leaning on the beacon. "If Malak found it, then who's to say that he won't come back to our universe and kick our asses?" "Point taken." "I have had three suitable locations but I've narrowed it down to one." The fox said tapping a galaxy map. "Location number one: Yavin IV, a gas giant in which we can put the beacon in a decaying orbit. The beacon could be swallowed up in as little as a few months." "Why did you discount it?" West asked. "It's a heavily trafficked area. Number 2: Polis Massa, an asteroid field in which a planetoid has the same name. I discounted this one because of the odds of it being smashed by the rocks." "High?" Chris asked. "No, low. Astronomically low, about 1,281,592:1." "Alright. Number Three?"

"This one I decided to go with, a large cluster of black holes called the Maw. Created some 100,000 years ago by an unknown civilization. There's a single spot where gravity cancels out so that's where we'll launch." "How are we going to get in?" The Chief asked. "If they're black holes, wouldn't they suck us in first chance they get?" "Well, not this way. I've been talking with Cortana and there is a safe way in. That's where we're heading." NICOLE said. "What's our ETA?" West asked. "Nineteen hours give or take thirty minutes or so." The personal AI reported. "Good. I want that beacon charged up and ready to go as soon as we're in range." Miles saluted. "Aye aye, ma'am."

Twenty hours, fifteen minutes later, the Acorn appeared in a flash. The ship coasted through space. Commander West was at the helm guiding her bird into the small range where gravity was nullified. Cortana had outlined the area in a sphere where the gravity remained constant. Any farther and the Acorn would be tugged in a respective direction and a few minutes later they would be too close to escape certain death. OK, think happy thoughts Kylie. West pondered easing the throttle forward. "Release the beacon." She said. "Aye ma'am. Beacon is away; the Emerald is safe on board. The viewscreens showed a cigar-shaped beacon slowly firing its maneuvering thrusters. Veers was out there alone making sure that the tiny device wouldn't fly off into the black holes. His F-29 putted in the night on small accelerations countered by small braking to avoid going beyond the sphere. It was a few thousand kilometers cubed in volume but he didn't want to risk overshooting. "Beacon is in place, returning to clamp." He reported flying away.

"Final system's check." West ordered looking over the various devices. "Engines?" "Fine." "Weapons?" "Green." "Life Support?" "Green across the board." "Radiation shielding?" "Responding." "Gravity?" "Holding at 1.2 Gees." She nodded and tugged on her cap brim. This would be her first crossing and she felt excited. "All stations stand by for transit. This could get rocky, people!"

On the lower decks, everyone was getting ready for the inevitable jolt, that one swift rock that would propel them across existence itself. They had only done this once and strapping in was necessary. Every man, woman, anthro, and human pulled down acceleration straps to keep them in their seats and off the walls.

The ship approached the beacon that she launched previously. "Activating Slipspace drives in five, four, three, two…engaging!"

The ship pulsed blue. The Emerald inside the beacon glowed bright green, which made the entire device shine. Anybody looking out a window wouldn't see this as the ship blue-shifted all of a sudden. A subspace tear appeared that was bright white. The engines blasted and the Acorn and her crew disappeared.

Once inside, the outside pulsed white. Blast shields slid over to protect their eyes. "What's our ETA back?" "Unknown ma'am." The Navigator said. "You did input the coordinates the Phoenix used to get here right?" West asked. "Yes ma'am I did." Kylie nodded. "Good. I have to call this in."

"Attention all personnel, this is Commander West. It appears that we have made a smooth transition through the gateway and are on a straight course home. Relax guys, it's over." The COM shut off. Captain Chris Vennettilli sat on his bunk smiling. It was over. They were finally going back home. He visualized Earth, how much had changed in a few short years? Did anything change at all? Everybody thought they were dead…some of them were dead. He realized with a sad thought that he would have to tell Mrs. Perry that her husband was killed. Normally the XO or senior officer of a ship would notify the family, but seeing as how they were all dead, the responsibility fell unto him. He would also do it in person. He owed Alan that much.

"Got a new contact, materializing around the L5 Lagrange!" The MAC station Edmonton had reported seeing a glow in that area. All ships in the immediate area were called there. "Move forward. If they're hostile, take them out." Vice Admiral Gerome Andsworth said. "Copy that, Admiral. Looks like they're coming through." Rear Admiral Smith of the UNSC Banebridge said. There was a flash and a ship flew out of nowhere. It was unlike any model Andsworth had seen at all. He pushed the magnification on his ship to view it in greater detail. It was moving way too fast, but he noticed an eagle on the back "wings" not built unlike frigates. What caught him off guard, was the speech coming through:

"Attention, Attention, is anybody receiving this transmission? Red Freq, Red Freq." Smith asked, "Red Freq? That's MAF lingo." Gerome didn't chance it. This ship was barely 100 meters long and wasn't any model they had, although the smooth edged looked slightly familiar. "We read you…uh…unidentified ship. Please state your name and business." He said this with such clarity but he ordered the TAC officer onboard his flagship, the Indomitable to arm one of their nukes. "Yes, of course. This is the UNSC frigate Acorn, FFG-3216, repeat, UNSC Acorn, FFG-3216. Commander Kylie West, former XO on the UNSC Phoenix!"

Andsworth clenched his jaw. He was surprised to hear the name. It was impossible though. They were supposed to be dead, yet here they were. Something was wrong. The Phoenix wasn't there though. "How do I know this isn't a trick?" There was silence on the channel. "Admiral, this is Captain Vennettilli, UNSC Indomitable, 3234." That sealed the deal. Andsworth knew every officer's voice he ever met, let alone his right hand man. "Captain? You're alive! Where's Alan? Where's the Phoenix?" "Dead sir…they're all dead."

Gerome mourned for Alan. He was a fine officer and his crew idolized him. He was gone. So is the nature of being a soldier. He put that aside though as the men and women he thought dead were back home where they belonged. "It's good to hear your voice son. Find a place to land. Welcome home, everyone, welcome home."