Chapter 1

Weavel had a hard time dodging anti-aircraft fire from the city. Although Federation reinforcements had not yet arrived, the Federation units based in the city were doing a good job of keeping the Pirates at bay. But he knew that wouldn't last long. It didn't matter though. The objectives of the Pirates were none of his concern. He had his own agenda to fulfill. After years of tracking and tracing and hours of research, he finally knew, without a shadow of a doubt where the descendant was hiding. And he had the added benefit of being the sole person who knew this information. After all this time of waiting and searching, he was finally just miles away from redeeming himself in the Pirates eyes. He knew this was the only thing that would do it too. He had done something so dishonorable, so despicable, that the Pirates would never allow him to become one of them ever again, unless he had the pulsating heart of the descendant in his hand. He was just minutes away from the city now. The taste of success was near.

The vibrations could be felt from all around. The Federation transport would shake with every shell of battery launched from the Pirate aerial units. Aircraft could be heard thundering by under and over the transport, but no one knew if they were allied or enemy craft in the windowless frigate. Sergeant Cornell Rice, could audibly hear the pilot requesting more air support, as two of the four Gunships that were escorting the transport had already been shot down. Rice was sitting near the airlock, anxiously waiting for the craft to finally land so that he could get off the flying deathtrap. An earth shattering explosion could be heard outside, and it was so loud that Rice knew it could have only been one thing, One of the Transports had been torn two pieces in mid-air, carrying at-least 150 Federation troopers to their deaths. Rice looked around at his 42nd Special Tactics Brigade of Galactic Federation Troopers. He wondered how many of them would die in the impending rescue effort on K-2L. 40? 50? 100 even? It wasn't at all impossible, and he had to be prepared for the fact that one of those could be him. He recalled when he had to rescue refugees just a few years ago from the oppression of the NSO on Earth. The execution was much more streamlined and many more people had a better chance of getting to safety than the poor souls on K-2L. This was partially due to the fact that there was better planning on the Federation's part, but also because of Rice's defection from the NSO. In addition, fighting other humans was much easier than fighting Space Pirates, who's weaponry was often far more powerful than that of the Federation's.

But Rice was never to forget that mission. He personally helped more than a thousand people get to K-2L. He reminisced on one family in particular whom he became very close to. They came from the former North American zone on Earth. They were very hard to get to as their installation was one of the most heavily guarded. Rice was the one who personally rescued them from their living quarters, and escorted them to the transport, all the while fending off NSO peacekeepers, which was difficult in its own right as the woman was pregnant. After he got them settled in their new living space on K-2L, he kept in contact with them through video links. They called him all the time, and when their baby girl was finally born, he was practically there to see her grow up. They were the closest thing to a family that he ever had. He couldn't wait to see them again. Now it was just ironic that the place that was designated for the refugees' safety, was one of the most dangerous places to be in the galaxy.

Artillery fire ricocheted into the cabin of the transport. They left holes in the hull. Some of the men started gathering their weapons. They knew that when artillery fire started coming through the hull, it meant they were getting close. Rice tried listening in on the pilots transmissions, but it was getting increasingly harder to do as the sounds of explosions and weapon fire were almost deafening. "I need an air strike at the landing area to be cleared!" the pilot practically screamed in a fit of panic. They were definitely getting closer to ground level. More artillery fire poked holes in the side of the transport, this time hitting two of the troopers. Rice saw some of his men rush over to help them, but Rice knew they were as good as dead. If you're hit this early in battle, you almost deserve to die. The transport rolled dramatically to the right making some of the soldiers lose their balance. Rice could visibly see the pilot sweating from where he was standing. This was obviously his first combat duty. He picked the receiver up on the center console and cried into it, "The landing zone is still too hot. I need a carpet cleaning right now!" Rice got a little worried now. Carpet bombings were only to be called in when hostiles numbered in the thousands for the respective area. Perhaps the pilot was just getting ahead of himself. He felt the speaker in his helmet crack to life. "Sergeant Rice?"

"Rice here"

"This is Adam Malkovich, I'll be your uplink for the rest of the mission on Aerial command."

"What happened to George?"

"He was just called-in for field duty."

"How old are you son? You sound kinda young."

"20 sir, this is my first mission, but don't worry, I graduated with top honors from the Academy."

"Everyone graduates with top honors son, else they wouldn't have anyone to fight the wars."

"A morning of rookies." Rice thought. It made sense though. This was the first time in three years anyone had seen active combat. Negotiations had been going on with the upper echelons of the Space Pirate regime for the past ten years. But they just broke down when a new species had wiped out all life from SR-388, effectively bucking Pirate interpretation of the Creator's Prophecy. The pirates had been convinced for over 200 years now that the humans were the ones being spoken of in the prophecy. But since this new species just wiped out the entire human population on that planet, it made that interpretation kind of defunct. The last major campaign was the sanctuary efforts on Earth against the NSO. Now, hostilities against the pirates were resuming in full force with their first victims being the human settlement on K-2L.

"Well sir, I'll do my best to provide you mission info."

"Thanks son, I'm counting on you. Not like I have a choice in the matter anyway."

The thunder all around the transport grew to earsplitting proportions. Rice checked his assault rifle to make sure the shells were at full capacity. He laid one hand on the lever that opened the airlock. He motioned to all his troopers to get ready to deploy. He gestured for all of them to turn on their short range comm-links so that he could talk to them over the deafening noise. "We are going to be landing at the base of one of the residential towers. We are to search all the efficiencies and instruct all remaining civilians to head to the bottom for immediate evacuation. Make sure you tell them to take only what they can carry." The transport made some rough vibrations indicating that they had landed. The co-pilot got out of f the bridge and called out to Rice. "We've landed! Open the air---" but before he could finish the sentence a large projectile blasted through the hull and disintegrated his upper body in a spray of blood and gore. It was time to kill.

Rice pulled the lever , and before it could even completely open, artillery was already trying to flood in from enemy units. The troopers started to file out, and the ones at the front were already getting picked off like sitting ducks. Rice moved out as well and the sunlight immediately filled his visor in contrast to the dark cabin of the transport. He could hear shouts of pain coming through his comm-link. Bullets and laser blasts were all over the place. His eyes adjusted themselves to the light. Rice could see the troopers in front of him running towards the entrance of the tower. Pirates were coming in from the right, armed with heavy cannons and melee blades. He shot a few rounds in their general direction. There was no time to aim properly, he just needed to get to the entrance alive. One of the troopers up-ahead tripped and fell, and before Rice could even get to him, there was a flash of light and a burst of flames. Where he stood once, there was now a crater. Tanks were in visual range.

Once he got to the entrance, he threw a grenade out towards the enemy units, slowing them just enough for him to get to the stairs. As the squad leader, Rice chose to evacuate this particular building first for a reason. In it were the only people that ever allowed him to feel the love of a family, and he wasn't about to let anything happen to them. He had one objective in mind: to get to the 16th floor and rescue the Arans.