SGU s04 e17

D-Day

Nick came marching into the observation deck followed closely by Amanda, and announced to Everett, who was seated with Te'arly and her son, "We found it!"

Everett turned and looked around the room to find no one else was around. "The transmitter?"

"Yeah," said Nick. "It was in the engine room behind a wall panel. You can thank Amanda and Destiny for finding it."

Everett gave a half smile and said, "At least that will be the last transmission he sends," as he turned his attention back to the view in front of him. "Thanks guys," he added.

Nick and Amanda got the hint to leave them alone. There were only three hours away from possible disaster and Everett wanted to spend some of whatever time they had left with his family. Elsewhere on Destiny, many others were doing exactly that too. Camille and Vanessa, TJ and Varro, Ginn and Eli all took some time out from their respective duties to spend time with the ones most important to them. Even Destiny herself could feel the morale of her human souls had diminished from their normal optimistic outlook.

Everett closed his eyes and cleared his mind, trying to focus on locating the exact position of Castell. Again and again he tried, but it was like he no longer existed.

Te'arly gently massaged the back of his neck saying quietly, "Just rest Honey, don't try too hard."

Everett relaxed to her touch. Tired, he closed his eyes, only to be woken by Eli's voice saying, "Dropping from FTL in three, two, one."

Bright light,

Screams. Fire. Explosions.

"Shield's gone!" screamed Rush.

"Controls gone! We're caught in the planet's gravity field, I can't pull her up!" yelled Franklin.

Searing heat,

Obliteration,

Death.

Everett's eyes sprung open with his own scream of terror. Te'arly grabbed him and held Everett close.

"It's okay Baby; it's okay Baby, it's just a nightmare. You're safe, we're all safe," she said softly, gently rocking him.

Everett broke down and cried into her. Te'arly didn't need to ask, she knew what he had seen; there was only one thing that it could have been. Hadrian began to cry, sensing the discomfort around him. Te'arly held her family close as she calmed them down, speaking softly, but allowing her own tears to flow. This was when they needed each other the most, right here, right now.

Everett finally regained some control of his emotional state, lifted his head from Te'arly's shoulder and said with real fear, "I don't know that I can do this; I don't know if I can hold my nerve and order my people to their possible deaths."

Te'arly never let go of him, but her inner warrior strength came through as she said, "You will and you must!" It was the first time Everett had ever heard Te'arly raise her voice to him. "Honey, I love you—but you must be stronger than all of us here and now, or none of us will stand a chance. You need to make calm and decisive plans, and see them through! I know you're scared, we're all scared, believe me; but you must lead and trust in the people you know, that they will do everything possible to make this work. All our lives depend on each other." Each one of Te'arly's words struck Everett with the magnitude of a bullet.

He was slightly stunned at the power in her voice; but her words rippled through his soul, and reverberated against his very being. It was the spark he needed as Everett's mind began once again to fire on all eight cylinders and control his doubts.

He said with a sly grin, "You're right; I can't let a silly dream get in the way of what needs to be done." He jumped up and lent down in front of her, kissing her on the forehead, and then one on Hadrian's head. "Time we get this show on the road."

She smiled up to him as he stood there, "Now that's the man I want to marry!" she said with a smile.

Everett looked at her with endless love in his heart, "Thank you Baby, I needed a good kick up the ass! I have to go," he took off but stopped and turned back at the door and yelled, "After this, I'm going to marry you!" Everett took off to the bridge.

Everett bumped into Samantha Carter along the way and said, "Hey Sam, I'm heading to the bridge, care to join me?"

Samantha smiled, "I have to check on something first, but then I'll head up. I'll only be a few minutes," she said.

Ev smiled at her, "Okay, I'll brief you when you get there," and he continued on his way.

Sam went back to her quarters and grabbed her Asgard enhanced I Pad. She input some figures and waited for the results; thinking to herself she said out loud, please be under 50 mSv/a. The result came back on her screen: 82 mSv/a. Sam's heart sank as she said loudly, "Damn it! We got to get her out of that 302." Sam knew this dose of radiation wasn't lethal, but it was over the threshold of the lowest dose risk before it might cause problems. Now she wanted Captain Tez out of that 302 before whatever had gone wrong got any worse. Sam decided to tell Everett to get in contact with her and explain where it was at; she headed back to the bridge.

The bridge of Destiny was a busy place at this point. Operations of all sorts where under planning, and while the threat of another transmission to the Ori was eliminated, they knew that nothing should be kept to chance around Corporal Luffe.

Greer was against sending him with the away team, even though they were under orders to "keep him involved".

He was saying to Everett, "Look General, I'll do whatever you order me too, but for the record, I think this is a bad idea to send him out with them. He'll be an unacceptable risk to the other men for one, and being in the position he is, I don't think threatening his life to work for us is going to have any effect either. Personally, I think we should just throw him out the airlock and be done with it!"

Before Everett could reply, a distressed message came over Greer's radio, "Sir, we have had to subdue Corporal Luffe; he has opened fire on us unprovoked. I'm sorry to report Sir, he's dead, and we have one man wounded in the shoulder, not too serious. Medics are on their way, Wallace out."

Greer's reply on the radio was instant, "I'm on my way Sergeant!", then to Everett, "I guess that's that then!" and he took off running toward the directional elevator.

Sam watched Everett shake his head as Greer had rushed passed him. "General, aren't you going to follow him?" she asked somewhat bewildered at his reaction.

Everett looked at her and sighed saying, "Greer was right, we should have thrown him out the airlock. I have far too many other issues to deal with for now; we drop from FTL in less than two hours. Besides, Greer is more than capable of getting to the bottom of what happened, as I'd say Luffe found out we took his device."

Sam was beginning to realize just how things worked on Destiny. Strict military discipline had been replaced with a more relaxed set of "military morals" when things were quiet, that included input from the civilian population. People were on a first name basis, or called by their rank depending on who was talking to you. After being in control of Atlantis for a while, she understood well the comrardery that forms between people who are dependent on each other for survival.

Even Everett called Carter by her first name, as he said, "Okay Sam, this is where you come in. I need you to fly one of the retrofitted shuttles since Matt isn't here. I hope the cloaking device your guys fitted from the Atlantis Jumpers works a treat, you're gonna need 'em."

Sam nodded and smiled saying, "You're pretty relaxed around here I noticed General."

Everett twigged quickly, "Oh sorry, Colonel. We don't have any barriers between the military and civilians aboard, so people are free to communicate as they wish—we're sort of become like one big family really."

Sam began to chuckle. "It's okay General, Sam is fine by me—it feels a lot like Atlantis did."

Everett nodded and grinned broadly at her. "We could do with Colonel Sheppard's help about now too, but I'm glad you're here Sam, thanks for helping us."

Sam brought him back to point, "You were saying about the shuttle?"

"Yeah," said Everett, as he pointed out the various areas around the rather modern looking Earth like building, on his large alien 'I Pad'. "When we drop from FTL just out of range of the planet, we will launch the two shuttles: you will be in command of the first, TJ will have control of the other. You need to land the guys in this area here, under cloak. TJ will take this area around the back, with her crew. Now, Franklin and Adam will be in contact with you guys constantly, and with any luck, track you all on screen. They can offer fire support from Destiny if you need it, but Greer and Wallace will be running the snatch and grab from your end, so let them make the call if they need it."

"Any questions?" he asked Sam.

She looked intently at the building and said, "Not what I was expecting; most of the buildings and planets I've been to are pretty basic. Especially when it came to the Ori and the worlds they controlled. These buildings seem to be the equivalent of our world; like the people there are well advanced, and would be able to resist." Sam wondered why they didn't fight back against the Ori, as they appeared to have the means to do so.

Everett didn't really have an answer for her either. "This intel comes from the Valeyian spies that went in undercover. I have no idea how or why they are run by the Ori, maybe it was always just the way it turned out, like the beliefs we have on Earth."

Sam looked hard at Everett with some concern and said, "That means they would see you and me as the enemy, attacking their world—the opposite of the Ori coming after us."

Everett replied cautiously, "That is why we can't fail to get them out—we only have the element of surprise once—there is no second chance. Genesis controls the people the way any ruler does; misinformation and fear. Maybe they were too afraid to fight back, or they just believed him."

Samantha accepted that they may never know the how and whys, but she understood the value of a surprise factor. There was another concern that she wanted to talk about too: Captain Tez.

She said with some apprehension, "General, there is another issue with Captain Tez and her F-302V. Before I came to the bridge I was checking on her last radiation reading, and it's—well—not getting any better."

Everett stopped looking at his plans and focused on Sam. "Okay, define 'not getting any better'".

Sam's eyes opened wide and she slightly nodded and said, "Um the reading has slightly increased since she first spoke to me, but it is not at a dangerous level perse. Although it is at a level that prolonged exposure could become an issue; particularly for a woman in her child bearing years."

Everett put his hand to his chin in contemplation before speaking. After a moment he said, "You haven't told her yet either I guess; maybe we should get her opinion before we make a decision that will leave us open to attack. Call her Sam, and put her on speaker. I think Adam should have the right to his opinion with this as well." Everett turned and spoke loudly above the ambient noise; "Can we have some quiet on the bridge please people?!" he ordered. "Put it through Sam," he said.

Samantha got Tez on the horn.

Tez answered, "Colonel Carter, how are we doing?"

Sam replied, "I have you on speaker in the bridge, and General Young wants to have a few words with you too."

Tez chuckled, "I'm not going anywhere, so fire away!" she said smiling.

Sam gave her the news. "Well your latest count is at 82 mSv/a, a little bit higher than we would like—."

Tez cut in, "So not too bad then?"

Sam answered. "Not too bad for a short time only; a few hours maybe. But I would rather see you out of that 302 than in it," Sam showed some anguish in her voice.

Tez thought for a moment before answering. "But if I come back, we have to drop from FTL; that will make us a target and give away our position." She paused for a moment then added, "Listen, if it is not that bad then I will continue. If it is going to affect me then maybe we should; I don't know. What are your thoughts General Young?" she asked.

Everett replied, "I know what Colonel Carter is getting at; anything above 50 we start to see an increase in the chances of health complications later on in life. But for the short term, as the Colonel said, a few hours should be okay." He looked at Adam who reluctantly nodded in agreement, with Everett adding, "Adam has given me the nod to say it's your call Tez."

Tez smiled to herself in the cockpit; although she was concerned about this, there was far more danger in the mission facing the Ori. She knew her odds of survival at any point could be poor. Why let a small amount of radiation worry her now, so she answered. "I have got more chance of being taken out by the Ori than this killing me. Besides, I don't think it's bad enough to endanger everyone onboard Destiny—I'll continue on," Tez changed her tone of voice, "Is that okay with you Honey?" she asked Adam cheekily.

Everyone on the bridge was now looking at Adam, who decided to answer with the age-old phrase men say, when the woman you love has made up her mind; "Yes Dear!" But hidden under his humor was a nagging feeling he couldn't shake.

Everett looked back to Samantha and said, "If there is anything else at all you want to bring up about any of the mission Sam, now's the time."

Samantha smiled at him, but she was still concerned for Captain Tez. "Not at the moment General, but I will call you if anything does come up."

Everett gave her an understanding nod, knowing that she had some apprehensions about Tez. "Thanks Sam, I'll keep you updated of any changes immediately," he said genuinely.

Samantha Carter walked out of the bridge and headed to find M Sgt Greer and his men, and see how the mess there was being assessed.

Amanda had entered the bridge and was going over some sensor details with Eli they had collected about the force field on the Supergate. Everett turned his attention to her with a new briefing.

"Dr Perry," he said, "I have a different mission for you and several others."

Amanda walked back over to Everett, who was standing against the back wall of the bridge to the right of the door. "Yes General?"

Everett lowered his voice a little to speak privately with her. "Amanda, I need you to assemble a team to work in the infirmary with Varro. We only have two general nurses and a medic onboard, apart from our normal team. Could you please enlist the help of Camille, Lt James, and Dr Wong Hoy; I know she is a psychologist, but she also has some good medical training as well. It could be helpful if we get a lot of wounded," he said, hoping not to.

Amanda asked, "Do you think it's going to get that bad?"

Everett sighed softly and replied, "God I hope not, but we need to be ready for anything!"

Amanda simply nodded and headed on her way.

TJ was sitting next to Corporal Stevens casually stitching the minor gash on his right shoulder as Sam walked into Greer's ready room/gym.

Stevens looked at Col. Carter and smiled, using an English accent and line from Monty Python; "It's just a flesh wound, Ma'am!"

Sam looked at the black body-bag at the side of the room and said, "Corporal Luffe I presume?"

Ronald came over to her smiling and said, "Yes, and no longer our problem. Sgt Wallace tapped two in his head when he got a bit antsy, and pointed his hot weapon around at Stevens. He said that we were all going to die or some bullshit like that after fidgeting with this," He handed Sam what looked to be an I Phone. "Clever eh?" he continued, "Looks just like a phone from home, but it ain't—some Ori alien tech to send messages to his transmitter. Had it in his pocket, and from what we can work out, he controlled it with his mind and finger. We found an implanted wire just beside his cervical spine, hence no local transmission signal around him—as the wire plugged into the phone."

Samantha looked over the phone and said, "But there would have been a signal from the phone to the transmitter; so how did we not detect it?"

Greer filled her in with his own theory. "Since Eli found the subspace link, we allow people to send text messages and make calls back to home on their own phones. Destiny now has her own cell phone interface that gets connected to the subspace link at a particular time, collecting and storing texts before she downloads all the messages back to Earth in a burst. We have specific times for calls, but you can text anytime. I guess he was just taking advantage of our own tech onboard."

Two men lifted the lifeless body onto a gurney and wheeled it out of the door.

Sam said, "I want to take a look at how that worked so we can counteract it in the future."

Greer answered, "Yes Ma'am; he's going on ice until this shit is over, then he's all yours—or the SGC," he smiled at her, happy that this problem was over.

Greer got everyone's attention sharply. "Okay people, listen up! We have got two teams, one will take the front, the other from the non-existent roof opening. You guys on the roof, we need an access point so blow it carefully and quietly. Now from our intel, the building appears to be of concrete and steel construction, and very similar to any Earth prison. The homeys' seem to have better tech than us, so surprise is the key. We will be shipped in by both shuttles—one flown by Col. Carter, the other by our wonderfully talented Lt. TJ—both have cloaking ability. Destiny will offer fire support, but don't count on it; they will have their own shit to deal with no doubt. I will lead team Alpha, and my good friend Sgt Wallace, will lead team Zulu. Are there any questions so far?" he waited for any response before continuing. "Good. Our main objective is to rescue, and I don't believe I have to say this, two persons known to us. One is Castell, the other is General Decca Traise."

A slight murmur sifted out through the ranks of the men who had faced this man already in combat, defending Destiny.

Someone called out, "Sir, are you serious—Gen. Decca Traise?"

Greer got angry at being questioned, bad move. "Front and center PFC. Lane!" he yelled back.

The young man did as he was ordered, and Greer stood in his face, but spoke quietly to him. "Private, I don't like this anymore than you do, but if you ever question me again like that you will be scrubbing this room with your toothbrush for the rest of your term aboard this great ship Destiny," he hardened his stance toward PFC. Lane, "Do I make myself clear?!" he yelled.

The Young Private snapped a salute and said at the top of his voice "Sir, yes Sir!"

Greer snapped back, "Don't call me Sir, I work for a living!" amused at his own attempted movie humor.

The shaking PFC came back with the correct response, "Yes, Master Sergeant!"

Greer motioned to him and said loudly, "Fall back!" as PFC Lane scurried away. "Right, let's do this people!" said Greer, and they split into teams ready to head toward the shuttles.

Corporal Stevens, who had just refitted his armor, looked to the young man Greer had just blasted with a smile and said, "Don't ever question him again; it's safer not to!" and laughed at the young Private.

They moved out packed full of weapons, ammo and explosives toward the shuttle launch area. As they moved their gear into the respective shuttles, Greer told them that they were about 50 minutes out from launch, and under the circumstances, cut all of them some slack.

He said over their earpiece radios, "Okay guys we have about 48 minutes left in FTL. Now I don't normally allow this, but I'm letting you all have twenty five minutes off the clock right now; take it or leave it, it's up to you. But it's a once only offer; if you're not back on time, I'll shoot you myself. Three, two, go!" He looked across to Sam and said, "Colonel, I know you out rank me, but if you want to—you can…"

Sam cut him off with a wave and smiled. "Thank you Sergeant, but I have quite a few things that need doing right here." She paused for a moment then said honestly, "May I say something to you Sergeant?" Greer nodded. "For a Master Sergeant, you have a very kind heart; and I admire how much you care for people in general. When I was with SG1, I always felt safe knowing O'Neill, Daniel, and Teal'c would have my back, no matter what. I get that same feeling from you and all the guys on Destiny too. I just wanted you to know that." It wasn't a normal thing for Sam to say, but she knew this was a really tough mission—that they may not survive.

Ronald smiled inwardly for a moment, but then conceded to his feelings and let his smile out, saying, "Thank you Colonel; we always will." He went back to his Asgard I Pad and studied the building and plan again.

Eli was busy running through data streams of information about the Supergate force field that Amanda had delivered to the bridge a short while ago. It wasn't that he had to worry about it so much, but more so to keep his mind off what was coming. He was on the bridge with Nick, Adam, Franklin, and of course, Everett. It had been decided to close the bridge to all but essential personal, although they had decided to keep the blast doors open for a quick exit.

Nick reported something he had been picking up for about five minutes. "Ev, I have a strange subspace disturbance that seems to be trailing us for the past few minutes."

Everett got out of the forward console chair to take a look at Nick's screen. "It's not the signature of our 302's?" he asked.

Nick shook his head and pointed to four dots on the screen. "No, their ours. This is not like any ship's signature I've ever seen; and if it is a ship, then definitely not Ori in origin." Nick looked at him with no answer. "All I can do is keep track of it, but for the last six minutes it has followed our course exactly."

Everett thought back to the secret information Destiny had "accidentally intercepted" from the Apollo 2011. He knew the Valeyians had some very unique ships, and as they were just following and not attacking Destiny, Ev figured it may be one of theirs. "Keep an eye on it Rush, but if it can do that, it could also just as easily take us out. With any luck, they're friendly!" he smiled at Nick.

Nick tried to lighten the mood in his 'Scotty' response, "Aye, aye Captain, will do," causing Eli and Franklin to chuckle.

Destiny beeped all the CI screens across the bridge: "Planet system detected; eighteen minutes at current FTL speed to heliopause region," was the message given to everyone.

There was a short shared silence on the bridge until Eli exhaled a large sigh, and said loud enough to be overheard, "Oh fuck, here we go."

Everett responded by making a general announcement over the main com. "All personnel, may I have your attention; we are about twenty minutes away from FTL drop." Everett looked at the faces of the guys watching him, and knew he had to say something to help steady everyone onboard:

"I know this is going to be a tough mission for everyone here. A lot of us have friends, family and loved ones aboard, which are foremost in our minds right now. As we enter this mission, I want to offer my sincerest heartfelt gratitude to everyone, for your courage, perseverance, and passion that all of you have displayed since you joined Destiny's crew. Some of us have been here since the beginning, and many from later on—it does not matter of which time you came to be here—you are a part of the crew, the life, and now, a part of the Destiny family. I know at times we have had our differences; our own opinions," Everett looked at Nick and smiled before continuing. "But as humans, we are capable of greatness under the most extreme situations. I cannot ask anymore of you than what you already give as an individual—and in this time of battle, I will only ask one thing of anyone:"

"Act, don't think: take action at the situation before you."

Everett hoped he said the right words as he continued. "I cannot promise you that all will go smoothly, especially with what is to come. I will promise you this: that I will do everything in my power to protect everyone onboard, and the Ancient ship Destiny—and I will leave no one behind."

Nick smiled at Everett and said, "I don't know if that was what I would have said, but I believe it was what we needed to hear—thanks Ev."

The FTL clock slowly, but surely ticked down. Ronald had his teams ready to go; all had returned on time. Nick reported to Everett that their "tail" was still following them precisely. Everyone on Destiny was anxious as that FTL clock continued ticking down— but they were ready for whatever was to come.

"Eli," said Everett, "Status please," he asked calmly.

Eli worked through the numbers. "Shields at max; all weapons online and armed. Ship's systems at one hundred percent. FTL drive is ready for neutral switch. All fighters are ready on our mark, however they will need a couple of minutes before they can reactivate their hyper-drives."

"Thanks Eli," said Everett, as he lent across toward Eli and added, "They may know we're coming, but they don't know where from. That should give us enough advantage to launch the shuttles without them being detected. The 302's may have to fend for themselves for a few moments."

Franklin was in Kirk's chair and announced focused, "One minute."

Adam called out at the forward CI control, "I have conformation of the twin planets; they both appear to be heavily populated—billions between them."

Eli thought out loud, "Great, just what I wanted to hear," then added, "I have the escape FTL loop programmed in navigation at a distance 0.75 parsec; gives us about ten minutes in FTL."

In shuttle number one, Greer looked at Samantha and said, "Ready Colonel? On my mark," the blur of the FTL drive swept across Destiny as Greer counted down. "Three, two, mark!"

Both shuttles unlatched from Destiny's hull and quickly faded from sight, as the Jumper cloaking systems came online instantly. A message came from Destiny to Sam's and TJ's respective screens: "Happy hunting."

Destiny continued forward toward the two planets as yet undetected. Their subspace "tail" was also tracking them in real space now under sublight speed, some 10,000 km behind. Nick tried to get a fix on the ship's signature, but it appeared to be surrounded by some type of subspace distortion. They could not detect it visually on screen either.

Rush said, "Ev, there is definitely a ship behind us, but it's basically cloaked."

Everett cut him off with a quick wave of his hand, which were now folded across his chest. "It's a Valeyian Destroyer," he said with a smile, "and they have already contacted me—in other ways."

Nick shook his head, "You could have told us!"

Everett snickered and chuckled saying, "What; I just did! Do you have to know everything Rush?" They smiled at each other.

Destiny traveled along past a murky green colored gas giant about twice the size of Jupiter. The light rays from the advancing solar system's sun reflected eerily through the vertical ice rings surrounding planet. At a distance of 300,000km from the outer rings, Destiny was hoping to stay concealed against the Ori using the gravitational and radioactive interference of the planet. It awarded them with several more minutes of stealth, and importantly, time for the F-302V's to cool down ready to jump again if needed.

Franklin broke the news. "Heads up guys, we got multiple hyperspace windows opening!"

Before anyone on Destiny's bridge could react, a barrage of light flashes ripped past them, followed by explosions out of the opening hyperspace windows. Every Ori ship tried in vain to exit, but was taken out by the Valeyian Destroyer Ha'tinge. Second Commander Warenz sat back in his bridge chair and smiled at the Ori's demise, but he knew this was far from a victory. He felt Everett call to his mind;

"Thank you".

Meanwhile on Destiny's two shuttles, Ronald was staring out the front screen at the rows of Ori warships in battle formation.

He slowly said out louder than he thought, "Fuck me..." then remembered who he was sitting next to. "Oh, sorry Ma'am."

Sam replied quietly, "That's a perfectly understandable statement in this situation, Sergeant; I was thinking along those lines myself."

The guys in the back were peering out of every vantage point available. The Ori warships were lined up at intervals of about 1,000km; stacked four rows high, they disappeared into a distant point that blended with the blackness of space. On the other shuttle, TJ and Sgt. Wallace tried to remain calm as they carefully followed their own navigation path past the fleet of Ori ships.

TJ had never felt as scared as she did now, and relied on her years of military training to keep her calm. "Damn it," she said, "We can't even contact Destiny to tell them."

Wallace nodded, "Yeah, it sucks. Radio silence is a bitch at times. I'm sure the General knows what they're up against; we'll just stick to our part and get it done Ma'am."

TJ altered course and headed away from the Ori fleet, toward their primary target on the planet. Sam and Ronald continued on a little closer to the ships, with Ron questioning what Sam was up to.

"Colonel," he asked concerned, "Aren't we a little close for comfort?"

Sam answered carefully. "Something's not right here—the ships, in formation like this—it doesn't seem right." She looked straight at Greer, "Sergeant, if you were going to defend your world, where would you be—in the open, or attack from nowhere?"

Greer realized her point quickly saying, "Hit 'em from nowhere, hard. This guy's smart and he knows we're coming—this is a bluff."

Sam brought up some onscreen info and pointed it out to Greer. "See this here, there should be an energy signal reading coming from all of those ships. Even if they are dormant, life support and other ships systems still give off an energy signature that we are more than close enough to read."

Greer's mind ticked over. "So you're saying these aren't real? There like a hologram or something Colonel?"

Sam shook her head saying, "I'm not specifically sure what is causing them to appear, but I don't believe they are real. Our sensors don't seem to be reading anything solid ahead of us." Sam thought for a moment then added, "Maybe this is some sort of satellite generating a holographic ship around it. There is definitely a strange energy signature out there, but nothing that matches an Ori Warship that I can see."

Ronald answered her with a chilling question, "But it would only take one real Warship hidden amongst the fake ones to catch us scanning..." before he could finish, a volley of light flew past the shuttles nose and rear, missing by only mere meters!

Greer yelled, "Colonel, get our asses outta here now!"

Sam immediately took evasive manoeuvres, then switched off anything that could allow a signal to leak from the shuttle. "Whoa..." Samantha breathed a sigh of relief as any further shots they detected were in the wrong direction. She looked to Ronald and half smiled saying, "You were right, it only takes one!"

Greer replied cautiously, "Yeah, but it looks like they lost us—for now. Let's just continue with our objective." Ron looked at Sam in the eyes and said very respectfully, with a smile and nod, "Colonel; good flying Ma'am."

Samantha smiled back at him. "Thank you Sergeant."

On Genesis's unique Warship, he sat in his command chair in front of several high ranking Priors. Castell was seated beside him in full view of everyone there.

Prior Abarchus described what had been transpiring. "My Lord, a cloaked ship was detected near the image ships in the far quadrant. It appeared to be only a type of shuttle or small vessel, possible carrying their extraction team. Destiny past planet Olillun (pronounced: Ol' e' lune) and encountered our wave of twelve ships. We now believe that a Valeyian Destroyer is protecting them, as we have had no contact with any of our warships since attempting to exit hyperspace."

Genesis turned to Castell with a scalding look, then back to Abarchus. "Valeyian Destroyer—hmmm," he contemplated their next move. "Allow the rescue to take place, but not without several casualties on their side; be difficult, but allow escape. I want General Traise to be re-united with his 'family' on Destiny." He paused for a moment then added, "Crash a ship into Destiny to get through their shield, then board discreetly. Allow them to believe they have countered our attack—I need our soldiers aboard their ship to capture General Young. I believe he will come willingly once the situation is explained to him through the carnage of his crew."

Abarchus nodded but added, "That may cost us an entire warship; shall I send one of the lesser populated reconnaissance ships?"

Genesis snarled, "I don't care what it costs for the glory of Origin, send whatever ship you like!" he huffed, then added, "Oh, and Abarchus—make sure our men use whatever means necessary to exploit the loved ones of the crew, no exceptions," he added maliciously.

Prior Abarchus knew what his master meant, but he himself had his own family and could not bear the thought of what Genesis had just suggested. There had to be some honor between enemies, and this was one order Abarchus would decide not to follow. Innocents should not be used as pawns in war, no matter who was fighting. Castell sensed the unsettledness of Abarchus's soul and smiled inwardly, and recited a line from his own spiritual history to himself;

'Even if the odds are stacked against you, there is always hope to be found in the soul.'