This chapter is pretty good I guess. You can read it if you want to, or you can just skip it and be confused next chapter. Your choice.

We managed to get all of Resilience onto Hope, and salvaged as many parts we could. We were almost done with the village evacuation when we were found. I was taking a group of five humans up to Hope, when five Mundar scout ships entered our system.

"Sir, five Mundar ships approaching. Stinger class. They haven't seen us yet. "

"Cloak Hope now, they can't be too far from a carrier, where is it?"

"These ships have been modified for long range travel. I don't think they have a carrier with them. They are only scout ships. "

"Get the Resilience crew to man Hope. They know how to operate her. Open comms to Hope and the other helicopters. "

"Yes sir, but two helicopters are on the planet. Our comms can't penetrate the atmosphere. "

"We'll work with what we have. Scan for cloaked ships as soon as they get in range. Trudy, May, prepare for combat. Charge the blasters and heat up the missiles." I switched to the speakers that were all over Hope. "Resilience crew, get to combat stations immediately. Villagers, please get to the hangar. Prepare for attack. "

"This is Hope, Cloaking shield is on, shields are holding at 84%, plasma cannons are ready in energy mode. I see five Stinger class ships. Scanning for cloaked ships now, " Said the captain of Resilience.

"Hope, we don't have much support right now. Only three ships. Two more may arrive later, but you're the main source of firepower and our ticket out of here. Try not to get hit. " To Trudy and May I said, "Form up, hold position about a quarter mile from Hope, prepare for combat once the cloak scanning comes back. " We waited while the ships approached. The normal Stinger class ships had rather limited sensors and shouldn't be able to see us for a bit longer.

"Cloak readings just got back. No cloaked ships in the system. Just give the word and we'll uncloak and fire. "

"Negative. We should be able to take them. Fighters, on me. " I flew straight at the oncoming fighters. They were taken by surprise and veered out of the way. "Fire at will. " I turned left and took out one of the scouts. Trudy took out two right away. May was on the tail of another. I looked around but couldn't find the fifth. "Where'd the fifth one go?" A few moments later May finished off the fourth, but the fifth was still nowhere to be seen.

"This is Hope, we've been scanned. Sensing more ships entering the system. We are uncloaking now. " if Hope had been scanned, then they knew where it was. No point in hiding if they saw us.

"That's fine, scan for cloaked ships again, one of the scout ships disappeared. "

"Scanning now. Results coming soon. "

"Hope, set plasma cannons to quarter power and spray energy bolts all around. If shots disappear, concentrate fire in that area. "

"Brilliant idea. Going now. " The space around Hope turned green as they fired into space. After the initial wave died down, a small portion remained green for a moment longer. "We got it. Scan results coming in now. Uh oh. Two large carriers are just outside the system, unloading Stinger, Swarm, and assorted bombers. They are forming up right now. We can't take them all. "

"ARC, how many people are left in the planet?"

"About fifty. "

"New priority, get the villagers out of the planet. Hope, prepare for burn. "

"Yes sir, " replied Hope. The other two helicopters exited the planet, ech loaded with five other villagers to unload on Hope.

"Gabe, Ben, unload quickly. Then get back down to the planet to pick up as many villagers as you can. we've got company. "

"Got it. Only forty villagers left, " Gabe replied.

I dived towards the surface, losing contact with Hope along the way. I landed at the camp and traveled to the village as fast as I could. We had cleared out all of our equipment after we found the village, leaving only a radio beacon at the camp and the village. I got there and grabbed all of them on a large sheet of ice, as well as the radio beacon. I took them as fast as I could to the camp and got the inside. I deactivated both the radio beacons and loaded them into the helicopter. We filled up two of them with ten people, and then once Gabe and Ben arrived they took the other twenty. It was a tight fit, but they managed it. Trudy's helicopter was filled up with the radio beacons.

We took off and ascended as fast as we could. When we broke through the atmosphere, Hope was firing at a large swarm of ships that were advancing towards it. They had not yet reached firing range. We sped up as fast as we could towards the hangar.

"Hope, clear landing pads two through six in the hangar. Prepare to burn on my command, " I said on the speakers. We were approaching fast. The Mundar ships approaching broke into squadrons. We landed in the hangar at about the same time. "Burn now! Go!" I told Hope. The ship disappeared into space, leaving the Mundars behind.

I exited the helicopter and went to the bridge, gathering the others on the way. When I got there, I saw the Resilience crew at the consoles, doing their best to adapt to the controls we had changed. "Thank you for commanding the ship. We never could've managed that without you. What did you say your name was again?"

"Your welcome. I actually haven't told you my name, sorry about that. I'm Sam. Sam Gudroy. "

"Thank you for helping us Sam. "

"Well, we're all in the same boat. Or ship. "

"Good to hear that. Where did you set the course to?"

"I didn't want them to follow us directly to where you wanted to go, so I just shot off in the direction we were facing. Hopefully that's not towards the planet we were headed too. "

I checked the map on the holoprojector. "It's fine. You and your crew go get some rest. It'll be awhile before we arrive. "

"Okay. Thanks again for rescuing us. "

"No problem. " He left with his crew. Once they left, I sat down at the control console. I was glad they were able to operate the ship, but I didn't have to like them using it. The others sat down and we began calculating when to stop the burn and change course. Several hours later, we exited the burn and rotated to get on track for Pandora.

We arrived on Pandora a week after our run in with the Mundars. When we arrived, we spent two days unloading everybody. Not much had changed on Pandora. The human camp was still there, and was being used to generate an Avatar body for the scientist Norm; his Avatar had been killed in the last battle. I had ARC give the Resilience bridge crew the file for the language. The humans we rescued as well as the remaining crew from Resilience would stay at the human camp until they had become used to the planet. They had to wear the masks, which were rather limited. We were considering making Avatar bodies for all of them, but we didn't have enough resources for that.

Everything was going nicely, but I doubted it would last. I had just brought back the same people we had fought to be rid of. I knew the Resilience crew would follow their captain, but I didn't know if their captain would follow me. All I could do was hope for the best.