Jason had awoken slowly. He was still very tired. He wasn't sure if it was night or not; after all, they were in space. It took him a while to realize what had woken him up. A faint buzzing noise was issuing from the wall on the opposite side of his bed. He looked at it with apprehension, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, a steel panel in his wall had dislodged itself. Inside was an air vent, where a thin, red haired man in his 20's with glasses crouched with the unmistakable look of someone in stealth mode. He looked in all directions before beckoning him towards him. Jason followed him, moving cautiously.

Red Haired Man: "So, are you that apprentice we heard the Monarch stole from the commander?"

Jason was a little confused, but still answered.

Jason: "Uh, I guess. Who's the 'Commander'?"

Red Haired Man: "Who's the Commander! Commander J-Dude, who else!"

Jason: "Wait, are you with the Union?"

Red Haired Man: "Bingo. I can't tell you anything here. We have a limited timeframe. Follow me."

Jason: "But what about the...?"

Jason pointed towards the security camera sweeping the room.

Red Haired Man: "No worries. I'll explain later."

Jason followed him through the vent, until they came to a large unused room with a large covered fan humming noisily. Inside this room were many wires flowing from the walls, with signs of tampering to them. Two other men were there. One without glasses, who was rather portly, with brown hair. The other was also brown haired with a dirty T-shirt with the words 'Obey Me, I Am Root!' on the front. He didn't know what this meant, but didn't bother asking.

Red Haired Man: "Okay, it's safe to talk here. Don't bother keeping your voice down. We're miles away from any sleeping quarters or anything, and the fan makes enough noise to drown out any suspicious sounds we make. This place was also a passageway for the security wiring. All it takes is a little snipping and some hacker work and we can take control of the whole security network."

Jason spied on one of the computer monitors connected to the wiring a video image of him asleep in his bed. He was about to ask when the man interrupted him.

Red Haired Man: "We just recorded you sleeping without any distinguishing movements. Then we made it loop over the security system. No one will have a clue that you're gone till somebody comes looking for you."

Jason: "So you are those spies that J-Dude said were stationed here?"

Red Haired Man: "Some of them. There are others, but if we met too often, the secret wouldn't be safe for long."

Jason: "So can I ask for a name?"

Red Haired Man: "Well, not our real names. Just our code names. The Monarch knows there's someone sending information to the Commander over a frequency that he find sometimes, but we just use our code names, so no ID can be made. I'm called the Irishman, this guy here…"

He pointed to the portly man.

Irishman: "…got his name from some classic book. Lord of the Rings, or something; I have enough trouble with the here and now to bring up the past. Calls himself Gimmicky, or…what was it again?"

Man with T-shirt: "Gimli. Hey Gim, you do know Tolkien's dead right?"

Gimli: "He's not dead. He just sailed off to the undying lands."

Irishman: "Anyway, this one we call 'El Rooto', because of his shirt. He considers himself the chief."

Jason: "What's with the shirt anyway?"

Irishman: "That old UNIX system from the 20th century. Root meant Boss in that system. Anyway, now you get the general idea, so let me just tell you why your here. We're busting you out of this tin can. We're going to disable the camera in the hangar and ready one of the Orcas for you. We can set up the autopilot, and then disrupt the frequency they use to retake control from this ship. We also want you to take this, to the Commander."

He handed Jason what looked like a hard drive.

Irishman: "It's a full digital layout of the secret weapon. We weren't able to send it over the frequency, because they have an airtight read-only code on it. So, you know what you have to do right?"

Jason nodded.

Irishman: "Then follow me."

Jason followed him through another twisting path of wires and fans until he came to a grate where outside was the hangar. Many Orcas were sitting placidly on the black metal floor. Jason crawled out into the hangar, where not a soul was lingering, and walked toward the impressive aircraft. One of them sprang to life, engines humming. The cockpit opened, and Jason jumped in. It hissed closed, and the ship swooped out, its once silent engines roaring loudly. The ship swiftly moved into position, until suddenly, it lurched and shook. The engines had sputtered and died. The glowing green light that had said "Autopilot" now read "Manual". A radio on his control panel screeched on. Max's voice rang from it.

Max: "Pilot! This little joyride is over. You are to return to base for an explanation, or we will blast your ship into oblivion."

Jason took the controls and tried to get a feel for it. He tested the weapons system and found the communicator button.

Jason: "Sorry Max, but that's not an option."

Max: "What? Well if it isn't the apprentice flying the coop. Don't do this to yourself. Return to base before you get hurt. As a little incentive, your ship's friends are on their way."

On his scanner, Jason found at least a dozen Orcas heading straight for him. He turned around, and fired the pulse lasers at it. He caught a few by surprise, one exploding, the other having been torn cleanly in half, the metal glowing yellow with heat. The others retaliated, firing a few of their rapid-fire blasters. He was hit by a few, but the strong energy shield had absorbed the damage. Max spoke again.

Max: "Very well. I gave you the chance to willingly join me. You chose the hard way. But now I see from your disobedience and ungratefulness that you would rather choose death! Pilots, attack to kill!"

In an instant, he felt many sudden jolts. A concussion missile had clipped him, and a pulse laser had severed off the end of one of his wings, disabling one of the two concussion missile launchers. Once again he turned. These pilots outnumbered him ten to one, and they knew how to properly use these ships. He turned around, and headed as far away as he could, until his main engines had overheated, and the ship drifted: a sitting target. Then, he felt the ship beep, and noticed that "Autopilot" was once again glowing green. A red light read that the ship was overheated, and requested to "Release Coolant". He looked around wildly, until a blue button next to a gauge was found and pressed. He heard a light gurgling noise, and the engines started up again, correcting his course, and with a final jolt, created a wormhole and was pulled in. The closest ship that pursued him was too close to the wormhole and was moving too fast. It went through the massive gravity field too steeply and went into a roll, finally being thrown by the gravity straight into the Leviathan at breakneck speed, smashing it like an insect upon a very large windshield. Inside the Leviathan's bridge, Max was literally staring off into space. Over the communicator, one of the pilots spoke.

Pilot: "Monarch sir, we have the target locked on and are ready to pursue and destroy."

Monarch: "No, leave it alone. Each of my Orca's has a tracking device installed. That fool is going to lead us to the Union. This will be known as a date worth celebrating. It has seen the dawn of my weapon; it will soon see the end of the Revolutionaries."