Time and fear are the greatest
enemy of the Soldier.
Time ravishes you, fear cripples you
and the end result is always death.
Anonymous - CY 515
Chapter Seventeen
"So your my ride out of here," Tealera Meduk said haughtily as she approached Luke Skywalker. Luke was standing near the Imperial shuttle that was to be their ride home.
"That's right, Captian," Luke told her.
"I don't know if I should feel honoured or terrified, flying with the pilot who took out the Death Star," Tealera told him.
"I don't think it matters," Luke replied, "News it seems travels fast in the Empire."
"Not really," she responded, "I have a few high placed friends in the fleet, I asked some questions. And besides it not like your Rebellion has been covering it up."
"That's true I suppose," Luke said.
"Tell me Commander, what is the plan?"
"We load you and your staff on the shuttle," Luke told her, "Your staff will remain in the passenger area, you'll ride shotgun with me. Once we arrive in a neutral system, I'll drop you off and you'll be free to try and return to the Empire."
"I've already betrayed the Empire Commander," Meduk reminded him, "They wont take me back. They'll kill me."
"You can come with me," Luke told her sincerely, "The Rebellion needs experienced starship captains. You don't have to go back."
"It is my duty to return Skywalker," Tealera said with resignation.
"I will return you then," Luke told her, "I give you my word."
"Commander Skywalker, Captain Meduk," the holographic representation of Andromeda said as she appeared before them, "Captain Hunt has asked that you join him in Command."
Dylan was standing at the Captain's station as Meduk and Skywalker approached. On the ships view screens the Commonwealth fleet was represented in a tactical display. Three hundred blue dots on the screen showed the positions of the allied forces.
High Guard ships were represented with a blue circle around the dots while Sabra-Jaguar ships had a box around them. The rest of the fleet was shown without any markers simply blue dots on the screen.
"Captian Hunt," Meduk began, "you wanted to see us?"
"Yes," Dylan said turning from his displays, "What I hope will be the final battle in this war will happen in just a few days. I just want to make sure the two of you are ready, as well as your crew, Captian."
"We'll be ready, sir" Luke told him, "Artoo and I have optimized the controls on the shuttle, and the grav-field generator you installed will make this the fastest ship on our side of the universe at sublight speeds."
"That is good to hear," Dylan replied.
"Captian Hunt," one of the new crew members called out, "We are receiving a transmission from Ekindu control. A single Magog swarmship has entered the system and is making a bee line for the High Guard formation."
"Battle Stations," Dylan ordered, "This could be a trap."
On his stolen Magog swarmship Rev Bem realized that he never considered what he would do once he found Dylan. Well over three hundred starships had gathered over the planet Ekindu, all of them warships. Most of the fleet seemed to be old High Guard ships and Nietzschean ships from the Sabra-Jaguar Pride, but there were Castalians and many other represented there.
As he approached the fleets position they began to open fire on him. It took all the skill he had as a pilot and every trick he learned from Beka to avoid being hit. It would not however help him for long.
"This is Brother Behemial Far Traveller to the Andromeda Ascendant," Rev called into the comm. system, despite the fact the Andromeda was still nearly three light minutes away, "I repeat this Rev Bem to the Andromeda. Please cease fire."
Rev managed to avoid another barrage of missiles from the nearest Commonwealth vessels but he new he couldn't keep up this game for long.
He need a miracle.
"Wait," Luke said strangely, "Don't fire on that ship. There is somebody on it."
"Of course there is," Harper responded loudly from the engineering pit at the back of the deck, "Magog."
"No, I sense a peaceful presence," Luke insisted, "You have to intercept that ship."
"He's right," Trance said as she ran onto the bridge, "Don't destroy that ship."
Just then the message came in, "This is Brother Behemial Far Traveller to the Andromeda Ascendant. I repeat this Rev Bem to the Andromeda. Please cease fire."
Harper cried out "It's Rev!"
"Andromeda cease fire and intercept that ship, order all ships to hold fire," Dylan ordered, "Launch defensive missiles and cover that swarmship."
Dylan received his acknowledgements and ran down to the launch bay to receive his old friend.
"I thought, for a moment that today would be the day I would look upon the face of the divine," Rev told them.
"No kidding Rev," Beka commented, "If not for that last batch of defensive missiles, we'd be scouring the system for you constituent atoms."
"Why are you here Rev," Dylan asked, "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but your last message left me with the impression that we wouldn't see you again."
"I have uncovered some terrible news," Rev said to those gathered there, Beka, Harper, Tyr, Dylan and a strange new Trance, "The Magog have gathered a vast fleet to deal with your Imperial problem. The Spirit of the Abyss has gathered thousands of Swarmships and is sending them to face the Empire. From there they will form the vanguard for the final invasion of the known worlds."
"No," Beka breathed.
"It is true," Rev told them, "The final push will begin in only a few days."
"What shall we do now, Dylan," Tyr asked calmly.
"We carry on with our plans," Dylan told them, "We have no other choice, if the Magog come will just have to face them too."
"That's suicide," Tyr snarled.
"It's all I've got Tyr," Dylan replied, "The Empire isn't going to help us, and we can't fight two wars. We deal with the Empire first, then we can worry about the Magog."
____________________
Three hundred and fifty Commonwealth Starships had gathered for war. All around the Andromeda Ascendant powerful warships of all sizes manoeuvred into position for a quick hop through the slipstream.
"Captian Valentine, is my flagship ready?" Dylan asked the formal question.
"The Andromeda Ascendant is fully at your command Captian," Beka responded.
Dylan looked over to Rev who had taken the main sensor station, the place where he belonged and smiled.
"Then let's bring it," Dylan ordered, "All ships move to slip point. Beka take us into slipstream."
"Transiting to slipstream in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2..,"
The Andromeda shifted space opening the vortex into slipstream. Behind them the Commonwealth fleet did likewise. Not long afterward the ships reverted to realspace and into the Conduit system, to face the Empire.
"Sensors," Dylan inquired as the approached the location of the conduit.
"I am detecting nearly two hundred Imperial ships in the system," Rev reported, "There are also thousands of space mines littering all the approaches to the conduit. The Imperial ships are scattered into smaller units across three cubic light minutes of space."
"Dylan, the Drago-Kazov and Than Fleets have arrived," Rommie reported, "They send their compliments."
"Tell them to join the party," Dylan said.
Both the Than and Dragan fleets threw themselves into battle against the Imperial forces along side they Commonwealth ships. The Imperial vessels were however taking quite the toll on the allied ships. By spreading themselves out they forced certain elements of the native fleets to engage them inside their own firing range. The mines fields made it difficult to manoeuvre and Imperial turbolaser fire began to rake the oncoming ships.
On the flight Deck Luke was prepping the Imperial shuttle for launch wincing every time Andromeda shook fearing she had been hit by one of the Empire's massive turbolasers.
Meduk was there as well herding her officers into the shuttle.
"Captian," her former first stopped her as starred directly at Luke, "Do you know who that is?"
"Yes," she told him, "now get on the shuttle."
Once everyone had been loaded she entered the cockpit to find Skywalker already there.
"Everyone is in," Meduk reported.
"Good," Luke replied as he turned on the comm., "Andromeda control, this is the Imperial shuttle Prosperity requesting permission to depart."
"Prosperity, please hold," the controller replied.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Beka noted as a Jaguar cruiser exploded ten light seconds to port, "We're losing ships faster then they are."
"It's a total stalemate on all fronts," Rev reported, "The Imperials seem keen on holding this system."
"Too bad," Harper yelled, "This is our galaxy and we're evicting them."
"Exactly Harper," Dylan replied and then looked to one of his officers, "Has Skywalker's shuttle left yet."
"No sir," she replied, "They are holding in the Launch Bay."
"Get them clear," Dylan ordered.
Before she could carry out the order Star Destroyer jumped out of Hyperspace directly in front of the Andromeda.
A single heavy turbolaser locked onto the High Guard flagship and fired. Three green bolts smashed into Andromeda's bow incinerating large portions of the ship and causing much of the forward sections to blow outward like a can of Sparky Cola under to much pressure.
The ship quaked with the impact and the entire command staff was cast to the deck or into the nearest bulkhead by the vibrations. Harper who had been running from his station to start repairs on the point defence lasers was thrown across Command and into Dylan.
Disentangling himself from Harper, Dylan pulled himself from the floor.
"Damage report," he called but when no answer was forthcoming he called out again, "Andromeda, damage report."
It was the Andromeda's avatar that responded, "I've lost connections to the rest of the ship. My main AI is damaged and twenty missile tubes are off-line. My sensors indicate that we are leaking antiprotons and the pion reservoir has been ruptured."
"What about the ship that attacked us," Dylan asked.
"It jumped back out as soon as it fired," Rommie told him.
"Beka, get us out of here," Dylan ordered, "pull us back to fall back position one."
"Right," Beka responded, "That is if Andromeda wants to move."
"Dylan, we are receiving a report from the Drago-Kazov fleet," Rev reported gravely, "The Magog have arrived."
Chapter Eighteen
Someone once said "Know thine enemy,"
the problem comes when you know him
so well you become him.