They passed over the planet surface, which was made almost entirely up of swamp area, a few small hills rising occasionally from the murk. As they lowered, one of these hills seemed to begin falling forward, until it was noticed that this piece of hill was a prop, lowering as a gate made of grassy earth, revealing an enormous hangar where every ship they saw in the battle occupied the area, most heavily damaged. Even the large shell shaped battle cruisers occupied the space, one of them missing. The Eds and Jason shared a twinge of guilt, knowing that most of the damage inflicted on the cruisers was from their own ship. The ruined shield generators were still hissing as they landed. The large cannons they had nearly demolished were being tended to, sparks flying as men with blowtorches attached new barrels to the laser cannons. Their guilt subsided a little as they saw how many replacement generators, cannons and escape pods the Union actually had. As they walked onward toward the back of the hangar, an eager looking woman in her twenties ran up from the bottom of one of the cruisers, saluting J-Dude as she came.

Woman: "Commander, I see you're back from your rescue mission."

J-Dude: "Yes. How are the repairs going Lieutenant Marx?"

Marx: "Very well sir. The Emancipator was a total loss, but the Truth, Guardian, and the Independence survived, needing only minor maintenance."

J-Dude: "And what about Sergeant Lightrunner? How bad was the damage?"

Marx: "The Cougar missiles only hit his communication system. He reported back to the Guardian just after you left from repairs."

J-Dude: "Excellent. Guys this is Lieutenant Julia Marx, head of Engineering, and Flight Control at the Union. Marx, this is Ed…"

Ed: "Greetings!"

J-Dude: "Edd…"

Edd: "Double D to friends' maam."

J-Dude: "Eddy…"

Eddy: "What's shakin'?"

J-Dude: "and Jason."

Jason: "Pleasure to meet you."

They had walked into a blue fabric room with glass holographic screens, showing Delomaar, Ainidras, and even the Earth. J-Dude responded to their perplexed faces.

J-Dude: "We make sure to keep an eye on Earth constantly, in case Max plans on using it as a hostage, as you've learned he is less than hesitant to do."

A red haired middle-aged man with an army uniform on approached them.

Man: "Commander, good to see you were successful. Wish I could say the same for us. Our simulations showed that had that unidentified vehicle not interfered, we would have easily taken out the Armada's forces."

J-Dude: "That means two things General: Firstly, it means we are becoming formidable in comparison. Secondly, it also means that the unexpected things that I don't doubt he's cooking up in some think tank are what will wrong foot us. We need to be ready for things more powerful than his Cougars. Cougars are drones, with weak artificial intelligence similar to what you find in a video game. So of course we mowed them down, but when a single, armed to the teeth manned craft came into the picture we couldn't even take that out. We need to be ready for the new things he's cooking up."

Jason and the Eds did not understand the emphasis in that sentence, but didn't bother asking. The general seemed to have understood, as though catching a hint.

General: "I see your point sir. I will try intensifying the training or perhaps start looking up more efficient weaponry."

J-Dude: "Preferably both if you wouldn't mind. Thank you, you may leave us. Well, it has been a long day. We should all get some sleep after the night shift starts. I'll show you the living quarters."