Talon fell asleep during the voyage, battle weary and numb from the loss of all his pilots. He knew that already more fighters had been assigned to his squadron, as well as replacement pilots. He now headed the 107th Ravens, as commander Samson was in Beta 1 when they reached Gamma Draconis. Commander Samson was now no more than charred bits of flesh sticking to a few pieces of what used to be a Hercules Mark 2. He walked over to the mission briefing room and sat down. After a few moments, the half hour briefing alarm sounded. He smiled. Because he was now a commander of a fighter squadron, instead of a four ship wing, he had a pager on his belt that told him when a briefing was before the rest of the pilots knew. As the thirty minutes until the briefing crept by, pilots slowly filtered in and took their seats. Talon leaned back in his seat as the briefing began. The briefer cleared his throat and began.
"At 2350 hours, the GTD Aquitaine and other elements of the 6th fleet emerged from the jump point that started in Gamma Draconis. We have found ourselves in a nebula, probably caused from an ancient supernova. Because of the nebula's properties, visibility, scanner range, and comm range have been greatly decreased, and there is a lot of lightning which could really mess up your craft. All elements of the 107th Ravens will be scouting the Nebula. Alpha will go with Zeta, trying to lure Shivans out, and Beta, Gamma, Iota, and Kappa will do a general search since our sensors are nearly useless. Good luck."
Thirty minutes later, Talon was strapped into his Hercules fighter, clamped on to the outside of the Aquitaine, waiting for the signal to launch. He got the signal, detached his clamps, and rocketed away. Because of the high morality rate of his previous mission, most of the pilots on patrol were green, with almost no combat time. He set his fighter on autopilot to go on his patrol course. He tuned in to the general frequency and listened to what was happening.
Command: "All teams report in."
Alpha 1: "Nothing found command."
Zeta 1: "Ours sensors are picking up zilch, command."
Beta 1: "No trace of any Shivans."
Iota 1: "Nothing to report command."
Talon was surprised to find that Kappa wing did not report in. Apparently Command was surprised too.
Command: "Kappa wing, are you there?"
Iota 3: "Command, we saw faint explosions in the direction of Kappa wing's position. Assume the worst."
Command: "Roger that. All wings continue your patrol."
Talon flew on, wondering all the time about Kappa wing. Suddenly, he saw a faint red blip on his scanner. The computer identified it as a cruiser sized object. Talon opened a direct channel to command.
Alpha 1: "Command, I have an unidentified object in front of me, possibly a cruiser."
Command: "Go investigate it Alpha. Zeta, back them up."
Talon fired his engines and sped into visual range of the cruiser and was very surprised to see a familiar design in front of him.
Command: "Alpha, is that ship a Cain or a Rakshasa?"
Alpha 1: "Negative command. It's a Terran cruiser, Fenris class!"
The Fenris class cruiser was an old design, dating back over forty years, yet it was a reliable design, used by both the GTVA and the NTF.
Command: "Hail that cruiser, Alpha."
Alpha 1: "This is Alpha wing of the 107th Ravens, GTD Aquitaine. What is your status? Over."
Trinity: "This is Alfred Romig, captain of the GTC Trinity. We have survived a Shivan attack, but we have lost our engines and all of our weapons. We need help!"
Command: "Your designation is incorrect, Romig. You and your ship defected to the NTF ten days ago. Surrender the Trinity or be destroyed."
Trinity: "As captain of the NTC Trinity, I hereby surrender my ship on the condition you get us the hell out of here."
Command: "We will send the Psamtik and the Aquitaine to recover you."
Trinity: "Roger that."
Command: "What are you doing out here Romig?"'
Trinity: "As a prisoner of war, my rights are protected by the Beta Aquilite Convention. I will answer no questions, command."
Alpha 2: "I thought rebels didn't recognize BETAC."
Command: "No, but we do pilot."
The Psamtik and the Aquitaine appeared in realspace.
GTD Aquitaine: "This is the Aquitaine. Now dispatching transport Discovery to assist the Trinity."
Trinity: "Roger that."
A 60 year old Elysium-class transport propelled itself from the Aquitaine, its engines flickering with age.
Discovery: "This is the Discovery, beginning docking procedure. Okay Romig, you know the drill. Surrender your weapons and no one will get hurt."
Trinity: "Acknowledged."
The Discovery rotated and was about to dock when a massive rift in subspace opened 300 meters from the Trinity. It was a massive Shivan destroyer which came right out of subspace firing, spearing the Trinity and the Discovery with red beams of energy. Both ships were vaporized by the massive beam cannons. Turrets around the destroyer grew red and more energy burst from them, punching through the Aquitaine's armor. At first glance it looked like the Aquitaine had came through the volley unscathed, but slowly the front half of it slid away, and the engines lost all power as the ship started to break up. Talon was dumbfounded. His sensors showed that almost all the compartments on the Aquitaine had been breached, exposing everything inside to the vacuum of space. Thousands of people had been on that destroyer, and now they were all dead. The Psamtik banked to port and opened fire on the destroyer, but even the Psamtik's main beam cannons had trouble penetrating more that a few meters into the destroyer. Talon opened an emergency channel to command.
Alpha 1: "Command! We have been ambushed by a huge Shivan destroyer. The Aquitaine is gone; it's gone!"
Command: "Calm down Alpha. We are designating the new destroyer Ravana. Sending in help now."
The Ravana fired on the Psamtik, but most of its weapons were placed in the front and the Psamtik took only damage from the few rear beam cannons. But that could not last for long because the Ravana was turning to intercept the Psamtik, aligning most of its guns. But at that moment, a huge hole in subspace appeared, propelling itself into realspace. Talon's sensors reported it as six kilometers long, making it the largest ship ever seen.
Alpha 1: "Command! A massive warship has entered the battle! We don't stand a chance against it!"
Command: "All units, do not fire on that warship. That is the GTVA Colossus. Colossus, open fire."
GTVA Colossus: "Roger that."
The Colossus opened fire on the destroyer, sending enormous green beams lancing toward the Ravana, punching holes right through its armor and into its reactor. The Ravana died in a fantastic explosion sending the front third of its body on a ballistic course which would eventually take it into the sun. Talon could only stare in amazement at the Colossus.
Command: "Welcome to the first combat deployment of the GTVA Colossus. Over 20 years in the making; it is the largest ship ever. It has more firepower than the rest of the 6th fleet combined."
GVD Psamtik: "We have received orders that all surviving personnel that was assigned to the Aquitaine will immediately be transferred to the Psamtik. Alpha, you will dock in our main fighter bay."
Alpha 1: "Roger."
Command: "Psamtik, after you rendezvous, with the fighters you will jump out of the nebula. The NTF is heading toward the Knossos."
GVD Psamtik: "Affirmative."
Talon engaged the autopilot and headed toward the Psamtik. He could not believe that the Aquitaine and its 12,000 personnel were all dead. He landed in the Psamtik's fighter bay and headed towards a bunk that he had been assigned. It was odd sleeping in a room meant for Vasudans. The bed was oddly shaped, and the pluming was impossible to figure out. Fortunately, the Psamtik had human-style bathrooms and briefing rooms. From what Talon gathered, the NTF, while badly damaged, was trying to jump to the nebula, presumably to escape. The Colossus and the Psamtik would guard the nebula, and try to repel the NTF attack, and hopefully stop Admiral Bosch's rebellion. There would be a Deimos-class corvette, the Lysander, and a Typhoon-class destroyer called the Het-Ka to assist them.
He lay in the odd bed and fell asleep.