Miriya stood at attention, legs locked together as the crowed beamed approval. She had made it to Quadrono Battalion, the most famous group of female warriors in the Zentradi Armada. Out of three hundred candidates, she was one of the four they chose.

The training had been rigorous, and the only way to make the battalion was to survive. She remembered being given her powered armor, dropped into a space field with very limited training, and left there with her fellow trainees. After thirty minutes, Battle Pods attacked them. At first, a good two dozen were cut down in confusion, and then they had fought back. Well, they had flown away as fast as they could. And after they finally made a stand, the pods left. They were attacked again and again, until there were only four left. Then they had been accepted.

And now, they were being honored and presented with patches and other foolish riffraff (or so Miriya considered it) to authorize and approve their entry into the most elite female unit (and possibly the most period) in the Zentradi Armada. The ceremony dragged on, and on, until finally, it came to a close. Miriya nearly leapt out of her skin when Supreme Commander Dolza was spotted applauding the new recruits. Then the rest cycle came, and Miriya left herself to rest.

***

The duty alarm sounded. On instinct, Miriya leapt out of bed and threw on her duty uniform. She walked casually down the corridor to the mess hall. She quickly ate her nutritional supplements, and strode briskly to her morning briefing. The commander of the Quads' was there. Nolira was her name. She was the fiercest and most intelligent warrior Miriya had ever met. She could execute the most brilliant battlefield tactics and combat three enemies at the same time. She stood a good fifty nine feet tall, which was pretty big for a female.

Miriya snapped off a quick salute, and joined the others in their seats. Once everyone was assembled, they all stood and snapped to attention. Nolira put them at ease. "First off, I would like to introduce our newest warriors. Miriya, Polaria, Gemni, and Osh. They will be your new squadron mates."

The four stood momentarily, and then took their seats again. "As you all know, the planet Prenta Nine has been chosen for control by the Zentradi. Our battalion has been assigned to scout out the area, and then destroy everything we can possibly destroy. In three full days, we will fold to the Prenta system. We will then perform a shock attack against any enemies in the area. After that, we will proceed to..."

Miriya was beginning to lose her focus. She managed to get ninety percent of the briefing before her eyes began to slowly slide shut. And just as she knew she would be caught and disciplined, the word dismissed came from her commanding officers mouth. She stood slowly, saluted, and then filed out. The last thing she heard was orbital bombardment. This planet was obviously considered a slight threat to the Zentraedi, and Dolza had chosen it to be "introduced to the new era".

Miriya was just preparing to return to her quarters, when the deck rocked. The battle alarm sounded, and the corridor was instantly bathed in crimson.

"Scramble, all battle mecha scramble!" came the flight operator's high- pitched voice.

Miriya raced down the deck, most of the more experienced pilots had already rounded the corner. Miriya flew into the hangar bay, and quickly changed into her flight suit. She raced down the docking bay, just as she had been instructed, to her powered armor. An assistant was ready, helping her into her battle suit. Miriya gripped the controls, and powered up her mecha. The launch bay doors on the side of the Zentraedi cruiser opened. Miriya smashed the throttle home, and her armor roared into the void, riding a trail of blue fire. A small scout like capital ship was in the distance, and Miriya could see mecha, Prenta she noted, swarming the ship, already engaging the Quadrono's.

The enemy mecha was approximately forty feet tall, and painted brown. It was hunched over, bristling with cannons that fired high powered lasers, that could do some nasty things to her armor and easily destroy her if hit. Of course, these were only average pilots, and they were facing the best of the best. Miriya darted about and annihilated the enemy easily. She leapt about the void; firing short bursts from her left arm pulse lasers. The enemy tried everything, missiles, lasers, even ramming, and manual combat.

Miriya evaded them all, and countered easily with the same thing. If it was missiles she dodged, she launched her own. If it was a melee assault, she smashed her arms through them. Several enemies began to swarm her wing mate, Osh. Osh, however, was alot more than even Miriya anticipated. She curled her armor into a ball, and used the laser net. Blue beams shot out from her armor in every conceivable direction, obliterating everything in their paths. The two starships were slugging it out, but it was obvious that Miriya's home vessel would win the battle easily, due to the mere fact that the Zentraedi vessel had three times as many weapon as the Prenta scout vessel. The battle soon concluded with a few broadsides, and the Quadronos mopping up whatever was left.

***

Afterwards, Osh was appointed a spear leader. A spear was a group of four powered armor suits. And oddly enough, Miriya and the two other recruits were placed in the same spear.

Nolira was enraged and fascinated all at the same time. How had the Prenta fools known that their deaths were coming? And how did they learn the position of the Quadrono command cruiser? This troubled her, but it also made her blood run hot. Even though their enemy was pathetically powerless to stop them in mecha combat, they were obviously very clever. And Nolira knew that a clever enemy was always the most dangerous. She looked forward to the challenge.

Three days later, they arrived in system, twenty cruisers and a few scout ships. The fleet moved in to encircle the world. The scout ships detected no war ships, no mecha, and no space activity period. They continued their scans until they spotted something approaching from orbit. Then they were cut to ribbons.