Chapter 2

The Unexpected Guest

The Quark crew never thought that they would be onboard the Diplo flagship once again, yet here they were, ready to dive into action. No Cliff, no Maria... so who was the leader of Quark? As expected, Mirage was unannymously elected as the leader. Marietta navigated the Diplo far into space while Lieber and Steeg handled flight controls.

The Diplo looked quite different to the former Quark members. Its defensive shield was a lot stronger, the engine was highly advanced, as were the creation cannons. The weaponry of the Diplo made it much more suitable for combat, the separate rooms near the hangar were a lot more luxurious as well. The Klaus government had decided to spend a lot financially on its battleships and organizations such as Quark.

"How much longer?" Mirage lifted her head as she spoke from her seat.

"Not much longer now, just a few more hours. It seems the flight controls have been running smoother than ever." Marietta replied as she turned.

"They sure did a good job this time, huh?" Lieber said as he concentrated on the flight path not paying much attention to the discussion.

Xeim was second in-command to Mirage, a really high rank for a new member. But it was really the only position he'd fit in since he claimed to have had experience in flight controls in the past. Of course, none of them really knew anything about his past so they decided to take his word for it before putting him in that particular position, "Let's just hope we can get some answers from the Federation Station. This side of the Theta Sector is a disaster right now."

A few hours later, they had reached within the boundary of Remote Station #7. However, the path further was blocked off.

"Incoming communication from an unknown location, what should we do?" Marietta asked Mirage.

"Open up the comm link." answered Mirage, just as she noticed an old silver-haired man, who looked to be one of the authorities of the Federation HQ.

"This is Mirage, commander of the Diplo. Could you please brief us on what exactly is going on? Why can't we get in?" Mirage spoke in a loud, yet formal voice.

"This is the captain and commander of remote station #7. It's a havoc right now. We just recieved news from our reporters that battleships of the Alliance have been sighted very close to our current region. You'd better get out of your current location right now, the whole Sol System is in risk. There is no way we could allow any ships to come in or go out of the federation stations right now. I'm sorry, but matters will be discussed later. The situation is far too hectic at the moment." the commander cut off the communication as he gave his brief message. Mirage would normally have been slightly upset at the reply, but matters were too serious at the moment.

"Great. What now, cap'n?" Lieber spoke in a lazy voice as he slouched in his seat disappointedly.

"We can't just turn back. We'll just have to investigate this issue ourselves for now. He mentioned 'Alliance'... wonder what he meant by that." Mirage answered.

Just as Mirage spoke, they could hear a loud rumbling sound that got bigger and bigger and suddenly the whole ship starting shaking rigidly sweeping Mirage off her feet. The alert signal had gone off. Everyone looked towards Marietta curious about the details of their current situation.

"It's- it's something behind us. A battleship! We're being attacked!" Marietta spoke in a shocked voice as she looked more into the data for the details.

"What!" Mirage's eyes were wide open with surprise. "Who is it?"

"Hold on, just let me scan through the data. I-I don't believe it, it's the mothership of the three battle-class ships, the Argyll!" Marietta spoke more shocked than ever.

"The Argyll?" Lieber replied as if he didn't believe her words, "That's one of the strongest federation battleships, and why would they be ambushing us?"

Another jolt. Only this time it was much bigger. More damage was being done to the Diplo, Marietta looked in for damages being done on the ship, while Steeg and Lieber did their best to get the Diplo out of Argyll's firing range.

Steeg was frustrated, "Dammit! We can't avoid it, they're too fast. What do you want to do?"

"There is no way this ship would stand up to a warship like that, the Argyll's weaponry and defenses are even more advanced than the Aqualie ever was. Marietta, quick... enter gravitic warp field as quick as you can, we need to get out of the area immediately. Lieber, Steeg... activate auto-evasion program, we'll need to just get through this until we're back in gravitic warp space."

"Roger!" the three chimed to Mirage's orders.

"Xeim, what are the damage reports?" Mirage looked towards her former student who was behind her going through some data analysis.

"I've just been through them. The rear shields are currently at full power. It appears, the Diplo's shield is severely damaged, it's down to 55 already. The rear engine is still working fine, the hangar is a mess right now. Other than that, we're doing fine for now." Xeim spoke slowly.

"Wow" Mirage put one hand on her cheek, "it seems the Diplo's defense shields have been vastly improved."

Mirage spoke too soon just when another shot from the creation cannon hit the Diplo's wings this time.

"I'm still trying to maintain control here!" Lieber announced proudly.

"Argh! That shot took the shield down to 40... hold on a sec, what's this?" Xeim looked very curious and apalled at the same time.

"What is it, Xeim?" Mirage joined Xeim as she looked into the analysis. "I don't believe this. The transporter is requesting a connection, doesn't look like we can control it. It's operational! But to where? We're out in the middle of nowhere and all connections to our transporters have been cut off. What could possibly be causing this?"

"Captain! Intruder alert! In the hangar, it appears they have transported auto-mechs into our ship through their transporters!" Every word of Marietta caught Mirage by shock.

"H-How is that possible?" Mirage spoke in disbelief. "We'll talk later, Xeim come with me. Prepare for hand-to-hand combat, I hope you're ready."

"Ready as ever." said Xeim very quietly, yet with a lot of confidence.

"Captain, wait." Lieber grabbed his rifle and phase gun, "I've informed the squad, they're on their way right now. And count me into this. Steeg can handle the flight controls."

"Lieber?" Mirage was concerned.

"Trust me. We don't have much time right now, let's go!"

Mirage, Xeim, and Lieber nodded in agreement and made their way to the hangar as Marietta and Steeg did their best to maintain order in the ship. Just as they had reached the transporter near the hangar, they noticed the auto-mechs included robo-gunners along with incapacitators, and the Quark squad team had already arrived. One of the auto-mechs had a voice system implanted in it.

"Surrender yourself to the Alliance. Refusal to comply will result in annihilation." was the message from the auto-mech.

"A voice-message system in an auto-mech. Sounds like something from the Vendeeni." Lieber said looking a little confused. "Well, how's this for an answer!" As the rapid fire from Lieber's rifle took down the auto-mech, destroying its voice message system... the other auto-mechs started firing towards its targets and the incapacitators drew closer.

Mirage jumped in front of the robo-gunners distracting them as they drew closer and broadened her shoulders unleashing an energy sphere above her, "Sphere of might!" This slowed the robo-gunners down only for sometime.

Xeim jumped behind the Incapacitators who were just about to sneak up on Lieber. He swung his fists three times with lightning speed, "Electric Fists!" The incapacitators had malfunctioned immediately. Lieber was about to thank Xeim just as he noticed the robo-gunners draw closer towards them, "move out of the way!" he screamed.

"Stay away... Shooting Spree!" Lieber unleashed the bullets in his rifle like mad as the robo-gunners finally went down after eating over a dozen bullets. That took care of them, but there were still too many incapacitators to take care of. Mirage, Xeim, and Lieber found themselves surrounded by an army of them while the rest of the squad team were busy handling the other auto-mechs.

"Just wait until they draw closer. As soon as they charge towards us, we jump out of the way. Don't worry, i'll take care of them." Mirage spoke as Lieber and Xeim agreed, but a little concerned for their captain. And so just as the incapacitators drew close enough and leaped towards them, the three jumped out of the way in enough time as the incapacitators clashed into each other gathered into a large group now. Mirage jumped into the air with a slightly high elevation, clenched her fists together, and swung her fists overhead, "How 'bout this! HAMMER OF MIGHT!"

The huge explosion hit smack in the middle of the area taking down the incapacitators immediately.

"Amazing..." Xeim looked towards Mirage as he had just the raw power of his mentor. "Well, that takes care of them. But it still doesn't look good. We better get back to the bridge, i'm sure these auto-mechs were just a distraction."

"You're right, let's hurry and get back!" Mirage concurred. The three left the mess in the hangar for now and headed straight for the bridge.

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"How are we holding out now?" Mirage blurted out as soon as they reached the bridge.

"It's odd. The firing has stopped, temporarily I think, but i have almost no control at the current flight speed right now!" Steeg was not any calmer.

"I've located the gravitic warp field, we're just about ready to exit conventional space." Marietta announced, a little happier this time.

"It seems like they thought the auto-mechs would do us in easily. Well then, warp us out of her as soon as possible." Mirage ordered.

Marietta simply nodded, "Roger! Entering gravitic warp immediately."

The Diplo quickly warps out of their current location and out of the Argyll's range.

"Defense shield down to 15... the gravitic warp engine is heating up and it doesn't seem like the conventional space engine will last long either. And all our energy sources have been shot. Seems like we were blasted by four rounds of their disruptor cannons." Xeim said as he checked the data analysis.

"Four rounds! How could a battleship like this withstand an impact like that? Steeg, what's our current location?" Mirage looked towards Steeg as if she was expecting a quick answer.

"We're within the gravitational field of Planet Expel, What should we do?"

"We have to land before we crash. Can you maintain flight control in the direction of Expel?"

"I sure can. Heading for Expel immediately, prepare for emergency landing! It ain't gonna be a pretty one either!"