As the GTVA fleet poured into the system, the Shivans prepared to leave. Their massive vessels entered a subspace portal hidden in a small nebula, deep in the system. This subspace portal was unlike any other. It's construction was entirely Shivan. It traveled farther than any other jump node in the know galaxy. As the Shivan fleet entered the node, the usual blue-green glow of subspace was replaced by a red glow. The subspace portal led to another universe.
Chris stood on the observation deck of the Fire Dawn. He had never served on a ship that was so radically different. All around him, the Fire Dawn looked like any other ancient Orion destroyer, but it's technology, weapons, sensors, whatever, were the most advanced in the GTVA. He had seen what the Firestorm Battalion could do to a Shivan capitol ship.
He was standing alone. Alone was a relative term. No one was speaking to him, but the observation deck was alive with activity. Mainly pilots were on the deck, with an occasional officer mixed in.
Chris was taken unaware as the Admiral in command of the Fire Dawn approached him from behind. The Admiral had a ragged look to him, with his black hair in a tangled mess."Commander Christopher Manstein. It's a pleasure."
"Admiral," Chris snapped to attention. "Sir."
"Relax. I'm not a stuffy assed admiral who will sit here and quote the regs to you. I'm Admiral Sean Loyde."
"I usually go by Chris."
"Just call me Sean. I've been studying the reports from your former commander. He spoke very highly of you, and of every member of all three squadrons. I'm impressed with everything you did here in Alpha Centauri."
"Thank you."
"I would promote you, but if you rank up any higher, you'll have to take a desk job. I don't think you want that."
"No. I prefer to stay with the squadron."
Another Admiral approached, this one with long golden brown hair and two blue eyes that were soft as pearls. "Sean, what did I tell you about pilots."
"Nothing." Sean replied innocently.
"So who's your pilot friend?"
"The Chris, the commander of the Swords."
She shook Chris's hand gently. "I'm Admiral Kristine Loyde."
"Are you two siblings?" Chris asked.
"Siblings, hardly." Kristine smiled broadly. "Try husband and wife."
"But the GTVA code of conduct."
"We don't care." Sean replied earnestly. He then reached over and kissed Kristine. "Nor do we care if any of our pilots do it. It gives them something to hold onto. That's something I would never take away from them. It also improves their combat efficiency."
"We also know about your relationship with Lt. Mitchell." Kristine added. "And don't worry, it's okay with us."
"How?" Chris asked.
"It was all in the massive report given to us by your old CO. He's been reassigned to Delta Serpentis."
"I've got to ask, are they building the subspace portal."
"Oh yeah, that's part of the reason we've got such a massive budget problem. Too many resources are going to that portal. I don't think we'll find anything there, even if we establish the portal. Earth couldn't have survived without the GTA. It's very likely that Earth either went through a civil war, or destroyed itself."
Just then the alarms began to wail. "What is it now!" Sean yelled. He yanked out his communicator. "This is Admiral Loyde, this better not be a joke."
"No sir," a voice from the other end said. "We've made sensor contact with a subspace portal, in the Alpha Centauri Nebula."
"No, you're kidding me."
"No joke sir. Except it's larger than the one from Gamma Draconis, and it's emitting more EM emissions than we can detect. That thing is capable of creating massive amount of power."
"Alright, I'll be right there." He closed the communicator. "Chris, assemble your squadron on the flight deck. While your at it, rally all the other fighter squadrons. Kristine, get back to your ship and relay the coordinates to the fleet. We're going hunting."
The dense fog of the Nebula made it difficult to judge the size of the portal. But only one of the interlocking components was larger than the Fire Dawn. Slowly, the rest of the fleet exited subspace near the portal. Their combined sensor strength was just barely enough to begin to gain accurate readings on the portal.
Admiral Sean Loyde stood at the front of his ship's bridge. He knew he had to make a decision. The portal was obviously Shivan in construction. Admiral Loyde knew that the portal led to wherever the Shivans had fled. But he also remembered the lessons of Gamma Draconis and Capella all to well.
His thought drifted to the statistics of the Capellan crisis. Fifteen battlegroups destroyed. Over twenty five million casualties. Over two million refugees now homeless. That left only a few battlegroups left in the GTVA after the crisis. Relations with the Vasudans were stronger than ever, but the Vasudan fleet was weaker than ever, as was the Terran fleet.
Then his thought remembered the most important casualty. To him at least. His and Kristine's one and only son, Lt. Jake Loyde, had been killed. The mere thought of it nearly brought Sean to tears. He exhaled deeply, calming himself, bringing his voice back under control.
"Communications, get me the GTVA security council." He stated.
Chris waited in the cockpit of his Ares heavy assault fighter. He was tensed, ready for a fight. The waiting was always the worst part. His sensors were detecting an encrypted transmission between the Fire Dawn and the GTVA security council. When he tried to decode it, his communication system told him that he didn't have the necessary clearance. He then looked at the code, level Omega. That's why. Chris thought to himself.
"Hey boss, you detecting this transmission," Louis stated over the squadron radio.
"Yeah. Can't decode it though." Chris replied.
"Want me to try?" Sydney asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I've got a higher level code than you do, remember."
"It's level Omega, don't bother."
"Your joking. That means one of two things. Either we've found Admiral Aken Bosch or we've discovered another subspace portal."
"Neither of which are good things." Anya added.
"All hands," Sean stated over the general communication channels, "stand... wait, we're reading incoming jump signatures. All fighters, launch, launch!"
Chris wasted no time. He rammed his throttle to full and rocketed out of the bay, with the entire squadron right behind him. "Swords are on station." Chris stated. "Awaiting orders." He checked his weapon banks. A Kayser and a Maxim, along with two banks of tornado swarm missiles. All showed green, indicating they were ready to fire.
"All fighters and bombers, maintain a close escort of the capitol ships. Do not get too close. We're opening fire in five, four, three, two, one. All guns.... FIRE!"
The entire 6th fleet opened fire with every beam cannons they had. The Shivan ships, all cruiser and freighter sized were obliterated in the first volley. However, another group entered just as the first group exploded. This time, the Shivans had a Lucifer destroyer. It was already releasing a cloud of fighters.
The Firestorm Battalion concentrated their entire volley on the Lucifer destroyer, severally damaging it, but not destroying it. Chris cringed as he saw the forward beam cannons on the Lucifer begin to charge up. He was shocked when the beams missed their targets, firing harmlessly into space.
"Yes, yes, YES!" Kristine yelled over the general communication channel. "The beam inhibitors worked Sean. They worked, we're invincible."
Then the Firestorm Battalion fired again, turning the Lucifer into space debris. Chris charged toward the incoming Mara fighters. The second he got a lock, he launched a group of eight tornadoes. The missiles blew the Mara apart. He then released a pair of countermeasures as he avoided a Shivan missile.
As he passed the several weakened formation of Maras, he sprayed Kayser fire from his quad gun bank, blasting it apart. He suddenly remembered just how powerful the Kayser was. He braked gently to swivel his nose around and quickly got behind another Mara. His missiles locked in less than a second and he fired, his missiles again tore the Mara apart.
The Firestorm Battalion fired once again as a third Shivan capitol ship group entered. At it's head was a Ravana destroyer, which was vaporized before it could get a chance to even try and shoot. It was then that the remaining Shivans quickly fled through the jump node.
"Never, never," Louis was almost crying over the comm, "have I seen something so beautiful."
Chris had to agree with Louis as the Shivan fighters, cruisers, and corvettes hastily retreated through the subspace portal. Chris also noted the strange color of the individual subspace portals. The red glow was odd. Normally, ships entered subspace with a blue portal.
"All fighters, return to your command ships." Kristine stated calmly.
The Swords were assembled in the squadron barracks, hours later. They were all still radiating confidence after the Shivan's great retreat. After all who couldn't. The Shivans had never withdrew. They had only been stopped once they had been all destroyed, or they had whipped out whoever they had come to destroy. A single GTVA battle group had stood up to, and stopped a major Shivan offensive in it's tracks.
A scientific team was already coming to Alpha Centauri to study the new portal. Once they arrived, the 6th fleet was going to immediately secure the other side of the portal. The scientific team was going to be at their location in the mourning. Admiral Sean Loyde had been very exact about the timing. At precisely 0830 the next mourning, all squadrons would be ready for launch, and the capitol ships would ferry them through the subspace portal and to wherever the portal led.
It was currently 2230 hours. Chris had given the orders for everyone to go to bed, and get some rest. RaNah and SiHah had their own area to themselves. It was enclosed by a divider. Anya, Amy, and Sydeny had something similar. Chris and the rest of the human males had their bunks in yet another enclosed area. Chris stepped out of his flight suit and crawled under his bunks covers. Nick was above him in the top bunk.
Chris lay on his back. While he was excited and feeling confident from the previous battle, he couldn't help but think something was not right about it. The Shivans had never before retreated. They had always come, and kept coming, until they couldn't accomplish their objective anymore. He knew that all to well.
He felt Anya slide into his bunk on top of him. He put his arms around her and held her in a gentle embrace. Anya's hair was loose, not tied back. She was dressed in shorts and a tee-shirt, the standard undergarments for GTVA pilots, as was Chris. She kissed him as she settled into a comfortable position on top of him.
Note: There has been a slight change in Chapter Ten. The original Admirals for the Fire Dawn and Fire Dusk have been renamed to Sean and Kristine Loyde.