Alrighty! Here it is: some starcrafty action at last! I'm still fretting about events IRL so this story keeps my mind off things a bit.

Disclaimer: all OC names are mine, Blizzard stuff is not mine.

Chapter 2: Tough First Impressions

1st Lieutenant Tyler Munroesquinted through his flight helmet. His flight helmet was a very powerful tool. It displayed all important information common to all aircraft in its visor. Airspeed, Altitude (If in the vicinity of a planet), and most importantly it would mark the position of all electronic craft within a range of 2000 kilometers. The white label of Captain Sally Porter and Major Ken Lambert were prominent in his 10 o clock position. Whoever thought up the function of showing labels was a genius. Below the sleek figure of the Major's Gold and Blue wraith were the words:

Spirit 5

532mph

0.0023mi

…Very useful indeed.

The flight of wraiths banked their wings to port for a moment to change their course back around to the starboard side of the DBC Tamerlane. Tyler turned his head to scan the 'horizon' off his starboard wing. As he did so he caught sight of Jia's picture, which was clipped below his left MDI. He sighed and only after that did he make sure his intercom had not been transmitting.

His mind inevitably trekked back to his life 3 months before this moment. Where he had just received news that he was being assigned to the Tamerlane, for some reason only God knew. There was no conflict in the Directorate! The nearest rebel cartel was on the other side of Earth, which was already a good 25 sectors away from Vraxia.

It was his own fault…he reminded himself, he knew this was inevitable when he and Erika had signed their recruitment papers. He knew that soldiers get shipped off to anywhere at any time, whether there was a war or not. But, why the heck must he be assigned a mere four days after being officially on with Jia?

He smiled. He couldn't help it, every memory of Jia was a good one…so unlike the early days of trying to get to her, the days when it would hurt so much to remember the way she would refuse to make eye contact with him. It would hurt him so much to remember how the most beautiful eyes in the universe would deny him the simple satisfaction of acknowledging his presence.

Now, it was all smiles, laughs and silent moments under the moonlight when he thought of her. So was this love? Tyler thought so. Bah, he should stop missing her like this. He was still two weeks away from losing communications transmissions with Vraxia. In three weeks time the only planet that would be able to communicate with them would be Earth. Earth was the only Directorate planet with a enhanced comm. dish. It would take ten years to construct such a dish on Vraxia, probably another five hundred years for the Directorate to find the need to build one on Vraxia. But, two weeks more of being able to talk to her was enough. The four months of radio silence would pass fast enough, and then the Tamerlane would begin her homeward voyage from her patrol.

Tyler utilized his sacred practice of listening to the hum of the thrusters to pass the time. The only thing Tyler loved as much as Jia was flying. The hum of the engines were relaxing to him, it was excellent when he wanted time to pass quickly on these four hour patrols. The practice was a bit too effective – for he woke up from the hypnotism two hours later in what he thought was five minutes.

"Spirit Five, planetary body, two o clock." Crackled Tyler's intercom, and simultaneously the words Spirit Six appeared in the upper left of his helmet's visor – Another useful function of the Flight helmet.

"Copy… Roger, I have 'vizz… It's not showing up on the scanners, though." Said Spirit Five – again indicated by the words appearing in Tyler's visor.

The flight of wraiths paused for a moment, waiting for Spirit Five (flight lead) to make a call.

"Tamerlane, this is Spirit-Flight-Two. We have in sight a planetary body…only it's not spiking on our sensors…grid five-five-two-oh-point-five-three. Over." Said Spirit Five.

"Spirit-Flight-Two, our maps aren't showing any planetary body on said grid…please confirm, grid five-five-two-oh-point-five-three." Said the flight coordinator of the Tamerlane, after a moment.

"Tamerlane, those are the correct grid numbers."

"…Spirit-Flight-Two… proceed to investigate." So that was it. No explanations, or extensions, just 'proceed to investigate'. Ah, the military is so straightforward; Tyler could learn to like it here.

The four gold-blue wraiths' thrusters glowed white hot as thousands of pounds of thrust rocketed them forward, instantaneously reaching 1500mph from cruise speed. The pilots closed into the mass of unknown spherical matter silently. As they neared ten thousand kilometers, the sphere grew in detail. It looked like a normal G-class planet. The surface seemed to be scarred and lumpy, perhaps it was volcanic. Perhaps it was in the prehistoric stages of its life…hmm; perhaps Tyler was witnessing the place where the amino acids of the next dominators of the galaxy would evolve from.

But then Tyler's eagle eyes kicked in… What was that? Did something just move in there?

Bah! Stay bloodey focused, man!

"Flight lead, I think I saw some movement around there for a 'sec." said Tyler, with his ring finger pressed on the 'transmit' button.

"Roger that. Spirit Seven and Nine…take the port side, will 'ya? Eyes open, everyone." replied Spirit Five.

"Copy."

Tyler moved his wraith to circle around through the left side of the planet, with Erika following close behind him. His eyes squinted to catch anything unusual. There it was again! That was it, no more time for bullshit.

"Flight lead, there is definitely movement in there!" he said

"Roger, we see it too. Orbit at five thousand kilometers, the Tamerlane should get here in a few."

Tyler looked behind him, and his visor projected a view behind him, making his the solid body of his wraith seem transparent through his cockpit, enabling him to have an unobstructed view of his eight to four o clock quarters. He could see the outline of the hammerhead style front quarter of the Tamerlane now. She would probably arrive in about two minutes. The 'planet' began to shake. Was it going to implode?

No, it was…. disintegrating.

What the bloodey hell?

"Spirit Seven, rejoi – "said Spirit Five

"Spirit Five?" asked Tyler…silence followed.

God, something was wrong. But, Tyler didn't know nor care, this was action. Every bit of him said so. He turned his wraith to face the Tamerlane and gunned the throttle.

"Tamerlane, this is Spirit-Flight-Two. That's not a planet! Spirit Five and Six are probably gone! Request support." Said Tyler as he checked to make sure Erika was okay.

"There are things chasing us!" said Erika in distress.

"Spirit Seven, we're scrambling fighters now. Continue on your course." Said the Tamerlane officer.

Tyler kept his nose pointed at the Tamerlane. He didn't know what the hell that planet was or what the hell took out his flight leader. All he knew was whatever they were would could be shot and killed…and the huge 500mm autolasers of the Tamerlane looked like just the instrument for the job. Already he saw the hangar doors on the 'neck' of the Tamerlane open up and wraiths come buzzing out of them.

"Spirit Seven, report." Said his intercom, he looked up to read who had transmitted: Spirit One.

"Spirit Five and Six are possibly down… bandits don't spike sensors and they're probably on our six." He said.

"Roger, swing around and engage!" said Spirit One.

Jesus Christ! The Colonel has gone mad!

But an order was an order. Tyler swung around on a dime using the zero-g of space as a combat pilot should. He gunned the throttle once more. Something was wrong. His visor should be drawing red boxes around any unknown craft in his view, but there was none.

Then it appeared out of nowhere. A green ball that left a trail of gas in its wake was heading straight for him. He jinked and dodged it easily. The absence of an explosion behind him reassured him that Erika had done the same. But where had this come from? Were they cloaked?

He fired a burst from his wingtip mounted railguns. The muzzle flash gave him a small illumination around him and then he saw them. There were thousands of them! That 'planet' must have been these hostiles all along. They must have been clumped together doing…something. They could have easily been mistaken for a planet, but Tyler hated himself for not noticing the difference between a horde of angry unknown hostiles and a planet.

They were coming at him like a sledge-hammer. Before he could tap his 'transmit' button, Erika had read his mind and took position directly at his six, even without the instruction he had meant to give. More green balls were coming towards him, but only some were aimed directly at him. The main body of wraiths must be a short distance behind him. Tyler's mind formed his plan immediately. For some reason the bandits were not registering any scanner signal, thus making his missiles useless because they needed a signal to lock on to and track. But this made his job easier. He primed his railguns and aimed manually with his fixed gunsight and pushed down on with his thumb on the trigger.

They were so tightly packed it was impossible to miss. He and Erika surged passed the balls that were directed at them. All the while the yellow tracers of their slugs were ripping into random craft that were in their path. He was inside the horde now. He dare not turn and blow his speed; he must exit the horde from the other side and come around once the furball ensued. He kept his trigger depressed as he danced his wraith around possible collisions. God, when would this stream of bandits end?

The crackle of radio traffic along his 'range' comm. channel told him that the furball had ensued. But with this seemingly never-ending stream of bandits he wondered how the mere fifteen squadrons of wraiths could win. At last his view cleared of orange bandits and was filled with peaceful black space again. He checked his ammo-counter; two thousand rounds left. He looked behind him. Sure enough there was the multicolored furball of green balls and red and yellow tracers dancing around as the main body of wraiths dashed through the horde as he did. But the bandits were extremely maneuverable. He saw them turn on a dime to pursue the wraiths and they didn't even seem to lose any speed in the process.

As he turned to join the furball, he saw that five of the bandits had pursued him through the gale of lasers and landed on his six. Again, Erika telepathically read his thoughts and could be seen coming around behind the five bandits on Tyler's six. Tyler jinked to give Erika a better shot. He could count on Erika to clear his six; these enemies which were remarkably maneuverable were also remarkably slow and they were losing ground on him by the second. At that observation, Tyler knew that he had to play with Energy tactics to win this fight.

As he dodged the green balls behind him, he took random shots at anything orange that got in his way. It was difficult to spot them in the blackness of space, but with all the glowing of fireballs and laser bolts it was much easier. He looked behind and saw Erika's shot land true on one of the craft and at the same time he saw the four remaining spin around on their heels to come head-on with Erika.

Tyler spun around as fast as he could. Erika had read his mind again and blazed through the four of them without sacrificing any speed to turn. They came around again, but were taken aback by the sight of Tyler's wraith already nose-on with them and waiting to receive them. His guns tore through two of them as he caught them unprepared. As he avoided the debris, two other wraiths threatened to collide and he was forced to bump into some debris. It splattered on his canopy. Before the electronic cleaner could wipe it off to clear his view, he managed to distinguish what they were; guts.

They were squirming, pulsing, and oozing insides of an organism. Tyler's stomach retched at the sight. As he fought it down, he realized that this was why they were not spiking sensors or why they were so maneuverable. They were living organisms. They could easily outfly any machine and they would definitely not register any scanner signal – bioscanners, probably, but the wraiths didn't have such scanners. Tyler shook himself and turned to rejoin Erika who was jinking away from two of the creatures. As he zoomed past the engagements of other wraiths, he noticed that very few of them had the advantage. They all had something chasing them, be it five creatures or twenty green balls.

The Tamerlane finally closed within range of the furball. Her laser cannons tore into the individual creatures with computer-like aim. The creatures, in all their numerical advantage, changed tack and sent the hull of the Tamerlane rattling as their green balls peppered the hull. Tyler heard the order of RTB come clearly through his intercom in the midst of all the traffic of yells of 'splash one!' or 'clear my fucking six!'. Dozens of wraiths instantly bolted to the waiting hangar doors of the Tamerlane. But Tyler must stick with his wingman in need.

Soon the only squadrons that had unofficially volunteered to cover the other's retreat were Mojo squad, Thunder squad, and Spirit squad. The squadrons clumped with their own kind and fought a leap-frog retreat back to the Tamerlane. They would gun their throttles towards the Tamerlane and the pilots up front would spin around to scatter the bandits that would chase their fellows before shooting back towards the Tamerlane and then the pilots that were now up front would spin around to cover the formers' tail. The Mojos were not faring well; the creatures had special interest in them. But it was not Thunder squad's, nor Spirit squad's responsibility to cover them. If Mojo One could not keep his squadron organized, it was his own fault. Spirit One kept the remaining Spirit pilots together well enough and got them a good distance into the cover of Tamerlane's guns.

As the squadrons who had made a dash for the Tamerlane first were making emergency landing through the hangar doors, the creatures would pursue them savagely. Very few made it into the ship as they were disintegrated by the teams of creatures, despite the desperate cover being given to them by their squad-mates, and even though some were cloaked, the creatures would still fire blindly and their shots still held true. The few that made it in would quickly jump out of their wraith to seek cover along bulkheads as the creatures would swoop inside the hangar and wreak all kinds of havoc in there.

Marines swarmed in the hangars in response to the security breach. A hail of bullets would meet the creatures who moved clumsily about in the cramped hangars. The maintenance crews would blast their sidearm at the unwelcome intruders. But more creatures were swarming into the open hangar doors when they sensed the cruiser's weakspot. Captain Jacobs ordered the laser cannons to concentrate on keeping the creatures from entering the hangars, thus leaving the three stranded squadrons with even less cover than they already had.

Bah! Tyler knew this wasn't going to work. At this rate the Tamerlane wouldn't be able to clear the hangars fast enough to receive any more wraiths before her hull went critical. She would most likely abandon the remaining wraiths to fend for themselves. Tyler looked down again, to the picture of Jia, who was still smiling at him. What was she doing now, at this moment while Tyler was fighting for his life? He glanced above the picture to the MDI. The green dots which represented the wraiths were dwindling down to the dozens, while the hundreds of creatures still remained invisible to his sensors. But it was time to focus now; he was in front of the squad, so it was his turn to come around and scatter their pursuers.

Before he could even bring his nose upwards, he was struck by a ball. His wraith tumbled around as the force of the impact made him spin. His aft-quarter was gone, replaced by flames which were entering his cockpit. Any second, his wraith would explode. He tugged at the lever placed above his head and his flight chair along with his transparent steel canopy. The ejection compartment didn't consist of his forward instruments, only the chair, the floor and the canopy; damaged instruments could be dangerous. At the last moment Tyler reached out towards Jia's picture. He grasped it and secured it in his fist right before he was blasted upwards, leaving his flaming wraith behind.

His flight helmet's HUD disappeared as it was disconnected from the wraith. He looked around at the dwindling figure of his wraith, and the Tamerlane which was still fighting for its life. He was at the front of the squad, so that the rest of the Spirits flew passed him at breakneck speed. The ejection compartment was not as pressurized as his wraith so Tyler felt his insides squirm at the roar of the passing wraiths. Something else hit his compartment with jolting force.

He was on the verge of falling unconscious. He was awfully low on oxygen and his mind was swirling with fatigue. He looked at the crumpled picture of Jia in his hand. She was still smiling at him, and her eyes were still glowing, even brighter than the blinding flash of the Tamerlane's Yamato Cannon. He wondered again what she was doing right now. He wondered how she would react if he had died. But it didn't matter. At the age of sixteen, Tyler might very well lose his life right now, and he didn't want to die. But if Tyler was going to die, then no matter what, he would make sure the last thing he ever saw was Jia's face!

And then he passed out.

Please review fellas! Chapter 3 up next week or so: I have exams this week.