AuthorsNote: Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to...yea well I hope I hear that at some point. Anyway, as of twenty minutes ago, (I'm getting really into detail here, like the minute of my birth) I am officially 21 years old. I don't feel any different, and I don't get why people make a big deal about this birthday. Anyway, this is a Birthday gift to me (so I can focus on school work) and a shared gift with all of you. Also my plans for my 21st birthday are, thus: Homework Homework Homework Homework School, and maybe if I'm lucky a few hours of video gaming before I start the whole damn thing over again.

...Anyway...

Well this was a nice, uh surprise chapter. I say that because well, it surprised me, no inspiration, then bam two days later one hell of a chapter. Prolly typed more in the last 48 hours then I spent on chapter 21. So lets see, this is definitely a filler chapter, you get to meet Sky and Stella's crew, find out a little bit more about how they operate, oh and a plan. Also before I let you guys really get into it, just a quick note, there's a lot of Rank tossing around here, and I have the ranks set up rather differently then what we consider normal. So the Rank breakdown rolls like this. Galactic Rangers. - Ground Sarge - Private - Captain - Lieutenant - Lieutenant Captain - Commander - Lieutenant Commander - General - Admiral - Senior Admiral This one is the final rank, there are only ten, and there will only ever be ten. Oh and as a final note, I'm sure a lot of you have been wondering why this story is rated M, it never seems that way, well, it starts in this chapter, and its a rather sudden acceleration. So just to be on the safe side I've put a warning in for the section I think pushing the rules here. If its not goody, free and clear for the rest then, if it is, I know I need to tame down the rest of the story.

Veldin

The next few days Ratchet and his family were involved with Project: Strikeback as they had come to call it.

Ratchet was working on the carrier chassis. Rerouting circuits and making room for the double barreled monster of a cannon that he had sitting on the floor. He and Stella had built that thing from the ground up, and after Stella had helped him redesign the plans for the ship to support it, he sent her off to work on her part of the project.. Now he almost wished for her help as he traced his cutter along a section of the ship so that he could get at a panel. As he removed the double stacked armor and put it on the floor. He reached inside to remove the circuit board he turned his head to glance around the hanger. Since he had moved his carrier ship into the main hanger and the project had begun to take shape, he realized how much space it was taking up. He came to a sudden realizing right then and there, as much as he wanted to make this a personal blaze of glory and revenge for his family.

They would need help.

They couldn't turn to the fleet, they were busy trying their damnedest to push back the Terran's, not that they had much success. Really the only reason the Veldin hadn't been invaded yet was because it was out of the Terran's Invasion Cone. Either that or they hadn't seen it on the star charts. Either way, Ratchet knew that he was running out of time and that if they were going to get this project up and running, he would have to call in some support. He sighed and went back to his circuit board.

Stella on the other hand, was working on her part, which, while is was not difficult, it was time consuming. Very time consuming. Her job was to find the exact frequency that the enemy shields were operating at, and then find the opposite wave length so that they could apply to their lasers so that their weapons would be effective again. She pulled the old wavelength from the files that her dad had given her for their earth scouting mission. But when she tried it out on her own, the effects were just a cancellation of the beams, leaving the shields weakened but not pierced.

She was hoping for a similar effect that Zens fleet had on their ships at Marc1. If not outright piercing the smaller ships shields then putting them down into a critical status. She sat in her old room in Veldin, which she now considered her workshop tinkering the output on a laser emitter. The laser emitter was part of a set up on her workbench. She had welded a piece of armor to the surface on the bench and set up a small generator to run a shielding square set to the same frequency as what was on her files. The emitter was pointing at this square and she used it to test the frequency of the laser pulses cycles. Since the original frequency she had tried didn't work she had begun calibrating the emitter by one tiny pulse at a time, hoping that one time, that when she pulled the trigger and the emitter flashed, the shield wouldn't be able to counter and the generator would overload and shut down.

Stella sighed and leaned back, pulling down goggles from atop her head, she turned on the filter that would allow her to see the shield and focused on the little square. She picked up the remote attached to the emitter and turned the small key priming the device. The emitter hummed as it warmed up and tuned itself to the new frequency. A green light light up on her controller. She took a breath and pulled the trigger. Her room lit up and flashed once as the laser discharged she strained her vision staring at the shield and as the flash dissipated she sighed, she took off her goggles and made a note on a pad.

"Another one down, only 2540 frequency's left"

Then her ears caught that sounds of the generator sputtering, she switched her attention to that and observed a small mark in it. Exactly where the laser was aimed. She took another breath could this be it. She reset the test and pulled her goggles on again, daring herself not to hope. This time she watched that mark on the generator as she primed the laser. When the light turned green she pulled the trigger and jumped back as the generator caught on fire from the hole put into it by the laser. The shield sputtered out of view and Stella grabbed a fire extinguisher dousing the generator. She waited a moment to make sure the metal was not hot then brushed off the hardening foam. She smiled and pulled a thin metal rod from her work kit, and slotting it neatly into the hole on the generator. Stella smiled, just like she did the first time she sighted a rifle and popped the training dummy right between the eyes. Then she echoed what her drill Sargent whistled through his teeth when checked her shot.

"Tagged."

She Gathered up her notes and went to see her dad.

Sky's part in the project was coordination. He was the man on the ground, making trips into the town to rally people towards striking back. For those that wanted to just hide and pray, Sky understood that too, he would help them make shelters underneath their houses. He also organized supplies to be shipped around to the various colonies. He had set up his main shop inside an abandoned warehouse, there he kept track of everything. Sky was dressed in his black combat suit with his cap pulled over his face, so it was no wonder that his heavily armored form didn't trigger recall in the next person who came to see him.

He was studying a supply route map and taking note of locations of where to stash things when there was a knock at the warehouse doors. Sky buzzed them open without even looking up. He followed the persons locations with sounds only taking note of where he stopped in his mind.

"You're the person helping people out right, the one behind it all?"

Sky blinked and his ears twitched, the only sign of his surprise. He finished marking off a place to stash supplies before he spoke up.

"Yea, what can I help you with? Mind you supplies are limited right now, I'm preparing for the worst."

The Blarg took another couple of steps forward "Actually, I'm here to help you."

Sky turned to face the person who made his school life hell. "Oh yea, and why would you help anybody but yourself Banner?"

Banner blinked "What? How do you know me?"

Sky chuckled "Banner, you made my sisters life hell at school, made mine too for a little bit, and all the time that we were there. I never saw any spark of decency in you, all you cared about was yourself. That, and your petty vengeance on the people that killed your dad apparently."

Banners jaw dropped. "Sky?" Banner took another step forward "Is that really you?"

Sky reached for his commando knife "Its me Banner, and believe me if you try anything now I won't hesitate to put you down."

Banner stopped and blinked "You've changed Sky, I always saw you as a cold person who only cared about his sister, but this is different, would you really kill me over a school day grievance?"

Banner paused "Something that happened over 10 years ago?"

Sky blinked and took his hand away from his knife. "Watching your mother die changes a person Banner." He sighed "But that's no excuse, I guess I'm just on edge and ready to lash out. I'm sorry."

Banner nodded

"But I still don't know why you want to help." Sky looked Banner in the eyes "I've asked about you while I've been here, I haven't heard anything that tells me you changed."

Banner said nothing for a bit, just squirmed under Sky's hard gaze "I believe it, I didn't change at all, until I heard about the Terran's, I did what I could to help. If you don't believe me, ask around about Constance. Then if you decide you want my help." He threw a piece of paper out onto the floor "Here's how to find me."

Sky picked up the note "I'll keep that in mind."

Banner nodded and walked out. Sky turned back to his map and made a note on it. He had just gotten back to work when his radio squawked static on his table.

Three Times.

Sky's eyes widened a little and his breathing picked up. "Come on" he thought.

Two Beeps.

Then the sound of gas being passed.

Sky ran over to the table and grabbed his radio.

"Damn it, this better not be a sick joke-" He pressed the send button "-Bouncer if you can hear me confirm."

There was nothing for a moment then a rough voice came out. "Commander this is Bouncer, receiving, damn its good to hear your voice. We thought you went down with Marc1. Where have you been this past month?"

Sky sighed "Damn Bouncer, It's good to hear your voice too, I had almost given you up for dead when I couldn't raise contact."

"Same here Commander, Scans show you on Veldin, Have you been on that dirtball since the attack?"

Sky chuckled "This dirtballs my home Bouncer, and yes, I've been here, better question is where have you been?"

There was a pause and Sky thought he had lost connection. "Bouncer?"

"Still here Commander, but uh, give up some landing coordinates for us, we've got a lot to talk about."

"Us? The ships still in one piece?"

"Oh yea, whole crew waiting to see ya, we had this funnel planned out and everything if we couldn't find ya soon. It was very touchy feely."

"Gee I didn't know you cared." Sky's looked over to his desk where another radio was beeping. "Bouncer hold for one moment."

Sky walked over and grabbed the radio "Sky here, go ahead."

"Sky its Ratchet, Stella found the frequency, time to meet up at the house."

Sky blinked, more good news. "Alright, Hey dad, is there still room for a small frigate up in the hills." Sky heard his dad rummage around as he checked the location.

"Yea, why whats up?"

"My team just reported in, I need clearance for them to land and it might as well be up there."

"That's great news Sky, I'll send word to the Planetary Defense building. You give them the coordinates."

"Alright Dad, I'll see you in a few." Sky put down the radio and picked up his squads "Bouncer, you are cleared for landing at Exodus point. There should be coordinates in my computer, access code Brute"

"Roger that commander, we'll make planet fall in ten."

"Ill see you in fifteen." Sky clicked off his radio and rolled up his map of stash houses. He tucked it underneath his jacket and grabbed the hoverboard he used to get around. He closed the warehouse doors behind him and locked them. He threw the hoverboard to the ground and took off up the road towards the plateau.

Ratchet shut off his vid-lnk to planetary defense and turned to see Stella standing behind him.

"Sky's ship survived, and their coming here?"

"Yea, landing apparently on the hills behind the house."

"God."

"Whats wrong Stella?"

"I never thought once about my ship, or my crew."

Ratchet looked away "It happens from time to time."

"Rass went to find them didn't she?"

Ratchet nodded "Left shortly before you woke up, she told me not to say anything unless you asked."

"Hell I need to get into contact with her." Stella turned and walked out of the room.

Ratchet blinked and shrugged "Oh well." He turned as Clank walked in "Good, I hope you've been thinking on a plan while we've been busy here."

"I might have been up to something."

Ratchet knelt down and looked him in the eyes "Good."

Exodus Point

Sky bounded up the hills arcing off rocks with the hoverboard, as he cleared the last ridge he saw his ship sitting in a small clearing. Cooling its engines, Sky smiled as he came to a stop. His ship was custom designed shaped like an arrowhead and covered with the same metals that his stealth fighter was made of. It was designed for a small crew, only one deck everything located in easy to reach. The ship was settled down against the ground laying flat out. Most ships of this style had landing struts required for planet fall and boarding. Sky's ship was designed to land flat and hide inside cover. Perfect for stealth missions. Sky leaned the hoverboard against the rock and jogged up to his ship.

As he approached a ladder slid out of the side and Sky grabbed it vaulting up onto the top of the ship. When he reached the apex on the ship he leaned down and put his palm on a scanner. It beeped twice then the deck fell out from under Sky.

He landed hard on the floor of his bridge and brushed his plates off.

"Attention on the deck!"

Sky stood up as the hatch sealed above him and the lights turned on around to reveal his hand picked crew. Standing at the front of the bridge and next to the commanders chair was Bouncer.

Bouncer was a Blarg that had been left on Orxon when Drek was defeated, but by choice. He had never much cared for Dreks plan for building a new planet. He considered the planet his home and one of the first to report to the G.A. When Drek resurfaced with Nefarious. Due to either a birth condition or just living in Orxon's pollution for most of his life. Bouncers normally red skin had altered to a dark green hue. As a plus side though, living in the harsh world of Orxon had made Bouncer tough. He was bigger then the average Blarg and could punch his way through any fistfight. In fact everybody called him bouncer, because nobody knew his real name, and when Sky had found him, he was working a nightclub on Marcadia during a training mission.

Sky's mission had been to get into the club in anyway, so after thoroughly handing Bouncer his butt on a silver platter, as a bet to getting into the club, and getting him fired in the process. Bouncer ended up having drinks with Sky in the club. They talked for a while and Sky mentioned that they could use somebody with fists like his in the G.A. Commandos. Bouncer took the information with a nod, Sky also mentioned that commandos went around dressed in black. and joined the next day. He advanced quickly and ended up catching up to Sky's class. When Sky graduated and quickly rose through the ranks Bouncer was there.

After Sky reached Commander rank and told to assemble his own unit Sky's first choice for a Lt. Captain was Bouncer. Since then their unit had been on several successful missions. In the two short years that they operated they put down three rebellions, solved four civil wars, and stopped two terrorist attacks.

"Damn good to see you in the flesh sir." He said saluting

"At ease." Sky then stepped forward and shook Bouncers hand "Same here Lieutenant. When I sent the emergency signal and nobody responded I was afraid that the Terran's had seen you guys and blown you out of the stars."

He turned to his Captain, Sarash, a blue skinned Teralite, or so she claimed in her recruitment form. She signed up fro commando training from day one and was the only one to rival Sky when it came to in close executions. She was tall and lanky and had a vague Terran shape to her build. She had spikes on her shoulders which she wouldn't hesitate to use in a fight to win. She also never smiled and liked wearing a hat with fusion cells wrapped around it. The rest of her clothing matched Sky's and Bouncer's. Black clothes with a mixture of black plates covering her for armor.

She ended up as part of Sky's unit because she cornered him at a club with Bouncer and told him that if he didn't add her to his unit she would skin him alive. Sky took it as a serious offer and made her his Captain.

"Sir" she said tipping his hat at him. "Glad to see you made it off of Marc1"

Sky nodded in return "Thanks, but I was never on the station except for while I was on leave, I was part of the fighter net."

She nodded and threw something from behind her back at him. "A welcome back gift." she said as he caught it. Sky nodded and pulled the large machete that she had tossed at him from its sheath.

"Nice, this is the one we took from that despot on Kalidon.-" he sheathed the machete "-Gee Sarash, I didn't know you cared."

"Stuff it Sky, Tess has been waiting to hug you."

Sky tossed the machete onto his chair and turned to the last person of his unit. Tess-arera, she was a native of Rilgar and was an absolute gear head and tech expert. Although she passed Commando training with enough rank and combat skill to gather Sky's attention, her main skills remained in building things and keeping the ship running smoothly. She was Sky's height, green skinned, and as a genetic defect was born with four fingers and toes, even though most of her species only had three and two respectively. The only difference in her outfit from the rest of the crews was that she had a visor that she had cobbled together that sat over her eyes. She moved her Visor off her eyes and saluted Sky again.

"Glad to see you made it out of the Marc1 battle sir." she said holding out her hand.

Sky raised an eyebrow and shook her hand. Then he turned and stepped to the commanders chair. "Alright, pleasantries over. Get the ship into ground hide mode and then we'll break for my house, where I'll want a full debrief from each of you. Pack everything you'll need for at least a week."

The three of them saluted and got busy locking down the ship and getting ready to head out. Sky sighed and grabbed the machete, it wasn't much, but it was a start.

Back in the house Stella was sitting on the stool in front of her workbench. Playing with a bracelet, twirling it back and forth between her fingers. Her eyes were glued to the wall and the clock that was there. She was watching the seconds count by until the time rolled over into an even hour. She slipped the bracelet on and took a breath then she clamped her other hand around it and spoke up.

"Broadcasting: The Lunar pull is strong tonight, any orbits out there feeling attracted?"

There was a pause and a small click came from the bracelet, now she waited.

Two hours later she still had the bracelet on and was still sitting on the stool. The bracelet gave another click and Stella heard a voice in her head.

"A Rock is Drawn in to the Lunar Pull."

Stella sighed

"Damn, You found them then?"

Rass's voice sounded in her head "Yes, I did...Commander...They didn't escape notice."

Stella stood up and started pacing the room "Explain."

There was another pause

"I found the ship two days into my trip, and we've been working since then to get it fixed."

"Fixed?"

Stella's head started going through the schematics of her frigate. Unlike Sky who only command a small frigate capable of handling its own in a small battle but not designed to slug it out with an enemy. Stella's ship was an actually battle frigate with 20 decks and a crew of almost 1,500 souls. She was a sturdy thing and had some of the most advanced weapon systems out there. Most of which Stella helped design. The Creations Cannon. That was the name of her ship. Designed and built in under a year it was an advanced frigate and all future models were to be modeled after it. Size wise it was a shaped like a rangers drop ship and half the size of the Phoenix.

"I repeat, fixed?"

"Looks like it took a direct hit from one of the cruisers in the battle while preparing to get away. Punched right through the shields and blew out most of decks 3 through 8."

Stella exhaled and sat down heavily on her stool. Decks 4 through 6 were the living quarters. Anybody who wasn't on active duty and not in a blast door safe zone, would be...

"How many?" she asked

Rass took a moment to respond. "The crew now sits at 650 souls on board."

Stella almost fell of her stool, more than half her crew killed. She knew many of them personally. Her mind clicked back into focus.

"That's barely enough to run the ship, how did you guys mange to fix it, and where are you?"

"We just got everything fixed last week, and that was just barely enough to be make speed to Veldin, which were almost there."

"Alright, I'll tell the Planetary Defense force to not fire on you, our codes may not work against itchy trigger fingers. Just make sure your sending the actual ship code."

"Roger that commander, eta is 2 days."

"Ill see if I can organize some people down here to come up and help fix the ship." Stella said already making a note to browse through her Veldin files and see who had previous shipyard work. Another thought crossed her mind. "Rass, how my Direct team? Did they make it out?"

"Reck is in the medi-bay, he tried to manually lower the blast doors to save the inner decks. A line blew out throwing him against the far wall. Shrapnel pierced him in several places, and our nanite tank was ruptured in the attack, we barely had enough to put other non critical crewmen right. Even after that Reck turned down anymore until the rest of the crew was healed. Said that 'the ship can barely run as is, save as many other hands as you can, if we lost me Stella can replace me, but she can't replace over half her crew, not now.' That was before we knew the full count of souls lost, and uh, Stella, I hope you have some nanites there, because he hasn't been doing very well."

Stella blinked "Alright, we've got some at the house, but if there's any others that need it, we'll have to send them to Kyzil's hospital. Oh...and...begin building a list of KIA, We'll hold a ceremony for them when you guys get here."

"Very Good Commander."

"I'll see you in two days then Rass."

Stella stood up and took off the bracelet and threw it on to her workbench. She glanced down at herself and saw the scar that ran across her body. She had decided shortly after that she wanted to keep the scar, even though she could have gone to the hospital and had it removed. She wanted it to remind her of everything she had lost so far. She sighed and grabbed a jacket to throw over her normal outfit of tank top and cargopants. She walked out of her room and stopped to watch as a very large Blarg, a very green Blarg, in black fatigues walk down the hall past her. He nodded his head at her as he passed and went into the bathroom. Stella blinked again and shook her head.

"So that's Bouncer." She muttered to herself as she turned down the hall. She had files on Sky's crew, but she had never seen any of them in person. So it was rather strange to see the other two members of Sky's crew sitting at the counter in their entrance room with her dad. Sky was standing at the head of the counter and listening to Tess talk. Stella tuned them out for a moment and walked past them to the computer terminal. She clicked in and called the Planetary Defense building.

After she told them to be on the lookout for her ship she walked over and sat down across from her dad. When Tess finished speaking and sat down next to Sarash, Ratchet turned his attention to her.

"So you got into contact with your ship then?" he asked her as he reached under the counter and pulled out a can of drink for her. He slid it across the table and Stella grabbed it taking a drink before responding.

"Yea, the ship will be here in two days."

"Good, how many people?"

Stella paused for a moment, chewing her lip, things had changed it was true but her crew was to remain secret against everybody except the higher ups. Only an Senior Admiral Rank could get the names and even then they would have to dig through the intelligence files.

"I'm sorry Dad...I...I can't tell you."

Ratchet just nodded "I wondered, but it never hurts to ask."

Stella nodded and glanced over her shoulder as Bouncer came back into the room. He walked over and stood across from Sky at the counter. Sky who was watching him leaned forward and put both his palms on the counter splayed out. There was silence for several moments before Sky spoke up.

"Lieutenant Captain Bouncer, Your Debrief is the only left that I have to hear, are you ready to disclose to me the full details that it was your job to record while I am away from Command?"

That was the first time Stella realized Sky had a recording device set in front of him, his face was also a lot more hard then she expected. She was lead to believe by the files that Bouncer and Sky were friends.

Bouncer saluted and stood at attention. "Yes sir, Commander Sky."

Sky nodded his head "Proceed then Lieutenant Captain."

Stella watched all this with interest, There weren't any voice recordings weren't in the intelligence files, and it looked like they had done this before, it seemed to be something only Sky did. She made a mental note to get some scans before her brain kicked out of Commander mode.

Bouncer lowered his hand and nodded, still at attention he began speaking.

"I took over Command of The Shadow of Commandos just over a month ago, when Commander Sky was called into helping guard the Space Station Marc1 in orbit above Marcadia as part of its fighter net during the celebration of the Fire-Lords defeat.

"When I received command of the ship I order all system into silent mode and set up shop on the dark side of Marcadia's moon. We set up our listening devices and sat about recording what we thought was going to be a rather calm celebration. When the reports started flowing in about the space disturbances, I ordered the ship into a ready state, although we still ran in a stealth mode we were ready to bang out of the moon and hit warp in a matter of moments.

"When the Terran fleet opened fire I ordered the listening pods retrieved and battle stations ready, we got ready to lift off and open fire on the ships when we received a hold order from Commander Sky, who was apparently engaged with the ships and reported unusually strong shields. We were ordered to hold position and attack when we saw a vulnerability.

"Our chance came when the Starship Phoenix used its waver beam to collapse one of the shields on the enemy battle frigates. The ship had a massive hole in its side and was being pulled into Marcadia's Gravity well. Rather then let the giant ship impact on the surface and possibly wreck hundreds of clicks of land we moved in and deployed a Shatter bomb through the hole in its side. As the ship entered atmosphere the bomb deployed and the ship was flash frozen from the inside out, then it exploded, most of the debris melted or burned up in atmosphere and very little touched down on the planet's surface.

"Unfortunately the Shatter bomb was a prototype weapon and we only had one of it. We pulled out of the fight and rested down on the dark side of the moon again. When the remains of the G.A fleet fled into warp the Terran frigates arrayed into positions around Marc1 and began firing on it. One of the shots pierced the Gravity control and the station began to fall into Marcadia's atmosphere. We wished we had another Shatter bomb to use on the station, but we didn't and even if we had, we more then likely would have been spotted by the enemy fleet."

Bouncer paused and swallowed hard "We watched on the listening pods as the station entered the atmosphere. It mostly broke up but the central section was still in one piece and survived its atmospheric entry. It crashed landed twenty clicks outside of the capital city. Its Reactor blew up and although we didn't have the equipment to check it, we estimated that a good forty percent of the city was leveled by the blast. Any and all surface batteries for the planet we're taken down by the shock wave and the Terran fleet moved in to start dropping troops. We estimate that Marcadia fell within twenty hours of the initial attack.

"The Terran's began locking down the sector and we remained hidden in the dark side of the moon changing positions when needed. After about two weeks we saw our chance to make it out of the system and made a break for it. Before we left though we saw a chance to land on the surface. I made a command decision to scout out Marcadia to report back to the Senior Admirals and the Galactic President.

"As we made surface fall we managed to make it under the radar and set up in a cavern near by what remained of the capital city. Being the most experienced member in surviving wildness and staying low key, I took it upon myself to scout the ruins. I left Captain Sarash and Private Tess in control of the ship with orders to guard it and to find a way off world if I didn't return with in four days.

"I took one of out stealth cycles and made out for the city, as I approached it was evident that our estimates were off. I entered the city on the far side from the impact point and even there most of the buildings were scarred black and and only a few seemed structurally sound to live in. As I moved through the city heading for the impact point I realized that the impact point would be the only place to offer useable intelligence as the condition of the city got worse. I estimated that only twenty percent of the city was habitable, twenty-five percent of the buildings could be repaired to a livable state, thirty-five percent would need to be torn down and reclaimed, the last twenty percent of the city was leveled.

"I proceeded to where my map told me that the old city boundaries had been. From there I could see where the station had impacted. I could not investigate any further then that though as the blast had reduced everything to dust and the stealth cycle would be of no use. There was also a large Terran presence that I could see around the crater. They had even parked one of the frigates in the crater and had it set up as a surface battery.

"As I made for my return to the ship I took a different path to look for survivors. I found them when it was on my second day of scouting. They were being held in camp in a section of the city that was full of unstable buildings. I carefully made my way up to a building and set up to watch them for a moment.

Bouncer paused and swallowed hard again. He went to speak and closed his mouth.

Sky spoke up "Take your time."

This is the General warning I'm issuing all of you, if you don't like this section, well I gave you a warning so you cant rant about it.

Bouncer nodded and took a breath. "What I witnessed was the brutal cruelty that the Terran's were capable of. I watched as they lined up a stretch of thirty souls on the edge of a crater during the high heat point of the day. Each one was forced to their knees and kept there by a solider. As they sat in the dirt on their knees sweating I wondered if this was some sort of torture. Then from one of the tents a Terran walked out. He was dressed in their mixture of combat clothes and had a large knife strapped to his chest and a old gun on his hip. I noticed a change in the line immediately, before I could figure anything out, the Terran walked up to the first pair in the line, a mother and teen combination by the looks of it. He stood there watching them for a moment before he pulled his knife out in a quick movement and stabbed the kid in his lower gut.-" Stella tried to stop herself but she let out a little gasp anyway. "-The captives backs were facing me so I could not see his face, but I could hear his scream, and I will take that sound to my grave. As the kid screamed the solider leaned in close and slowly twisted the knife, I was zoomed in and could see the knife twisting as it poked out of the teens back. He slowly took his pistol out of its holster and slowly pushed it to the kids head. I zoomed in on the soldiers face and lip read while he spoke. He said 'I hope you have a god.' Then he pulled the trigger. The mother had started screaming when the kid had been stabbed, but she stopped and watched as his lifeless body was held up by the Terran's knife. Then the Terran kicked the body off the knife and it tumbled into the crater. It was at this point that I realized the crater was full of dead bodies, each one looked to be executed in the same way. I watched as the Terran repeated this with the rest of his line up. Then he returned to his tent, like nothing had happened. I tried to look away but couldn't pull myself from watching this tragedy."

"It's at this point that I would like it to be noted the I broke protocol and sought vengeance for the deaths that I witnessed."

Sky nodded "Noted"

Bouncer continued "I waited until night and worked my way down from the building and made my way to the Terran soldiers tent. I killed his guards along the way, all thirty of them. Each one silently, and quickly, so that they didn't suffer. The Terran solider was sleeping when I entered his tent, the knife and pistol sitting on a side table. He looked peaceful, I think that's what drove me to what I did. I took the knife and pistol and stood above his bed. At one point he rolled over and presented his chest to me. At that point I took the blade and stuffed it into his chest at the same time I covered his mouth so he couldn't scream. He awoke with the yell in his throat but he couldn't let it out. His hands were around my one as he tried to pull the knife out. I glared into his eye and kept digging the knife into twisting it around slowly, after almost a minute of this I took his own pistol and stuck it against his head I let it sit there for a minute then I leaned forward and whispered in his ear."

'I hope you have a god, because you're going to hell.' then I pulled the trigger. After that I left and drove the rest of the night until I reached the ship. We waited until we had a chance then lifted off from the planets surface a week after we had landed. We made our way to the G.A. Rally point and I reported into the Galactic President, who sent me off to find you. That's my Report."

Sky nodded "What did the President think of your actions?"

Bouncer sagged just a little "I only told the president the details of the scout and the executions I witnessed, you are the first person I've told of what I did."

Stella glanced around the table, the other two members of Sky's unit were looking at Bouncer with regret and hung heads. Stella was sure that they had done things like that for missions, but out of vengeance was another thing entirely, and she was sure they didn't let them suffer. They looked shocked that Bouncer had done that.

Sky nodded one more time. "What about your report to the Senior Admirals?" he asked.

"As of this report, I have given the last Senior Admiral the report." Bouncer said reaching a hand into his pocket.

Stella felt her eyes widen, she glanced at Sky, that was a pretty big jump in rank. But then Bouncer pulled a small box out of his pocket and slid it across the counter to Ratchet, who caught it without really looking. Bouncer turned to face him and gave a salute.

"Lieutenant Commander Ratchet, I have been given official orders by the Galactic President to inform you that although you have turned down promotions in the past. Due to the destruction of most of the military chain of command you have been given the rank of Senior Admiral in the Galactic Army. The President would like you to report in ASAP for a briefing and a War meeting with her and the other Nine Admirals." Ratchet nodded and flicked open the box pulling out the patch and medal that would go on his uniform.

Sky turned off his recorder and turned to face Bouncer. "She promoted him?" he asked almost not believing it.

Bouncer nodded "Yes sir, said it wasn't an option this time."

Ratchet nodded again "Before I go make my report, do you know what happened that requires me to take this?"

Bouncer nodded again "Yes sir, Eight of the Senior Admirals were on Marc1 when it went down. The President felt that now wasn't the time to respect your wishes and leave you as a Lieutenant Commander rank. She will give you the full swearing in when you contact her."

Ratchet nodded one last time and stood up. "Alright, I'll go do that now, until then I suggest you all relax and get some rest."

Everybody nodded and Ratchet went to find a more private room to contact the president.

The two members of Sky's unit stood up at the same time, Sarash reached up and patted Bouncer on the shoulder, Tess gave him a quick hug then they both walked off down the hall towards a room. Sky walked around the counter and looked up into Bouncer's face.

"I want you to know, that I don't blame you, nor do I think of less of you for what you did while you were down there. I prolly would have done something similar. Our job requires us to walk the line between doing good for good, and doing the bloody wrongs for the good. Sometimes its easy to lose track of that line and end up so far off of course that we don't know where we are. I'm just glad you made your way back to us."

Bouncer nodded "That's the thing sir, I don't think I've made it back to that line."

Sky held up his hand "I know you have Bouncer. I'm glad you made it here."

Bouncer put a hand on Sky's shoulder "Thanks Sky." Then he turned and walked down the hallway as well. Sky turned to Stella who gave a slow clap with her hands.

"Glad to see you you know how to lead as well."

Sky nodded "Yea, me too."

Stella stood up, "Come on lets go."

Sky nodded again "Yea. "

Two days later found Stella sitting out on a rock in the front yard while she watched as a small shuttle work it's way into the atmosphere from her frigate orbiting above Veldin. She watched as the shuttle dropped down over the near by town and she waited a half hour before it rose up and headed towards her. When it landed in front of her Stella stood up and waited for the wind from the gravity generators to quite blowing dust around. When the dust settled and Stella brushed off her Command uniform.

She had received the same style of uniform as her mother and it seeing brought up the painful memories of that day that she pushed down. There were a few differences over her mothers uniform but they mainly were to pure aesthetic choice. She didn't have a head band, instead she chose to due her hair up in a ponytail and had it going into the back of her uniform where it wouldn't catch on anything. The next was that she had two other holsters worked into her uniform, she had two side arm holsters worked into her uniform rather then just the one, then along her back she had a long rifle one for when she carried her rifle into battle and needed it faster then her quick select watch could give it. That and she worked a few of her own inventions into the suit. The main ones being her crush gloves and her grapple system.

As the shuttles doors slid open Stella made sure she her outfit was straight before stepping into the passenger bay. The cockpit slid open and Rass stepped out, Stella stepped forward and shook her hand.

"Is everything ready?" she asked as Rass stepped to the side.

Rass nodded "Everybody is waiting inside the secondary hanger bay."

Stella gave a nod in return and sat down in the pilots seat. She placed her hands out and almost felt the controls jump into her hands. Both her and Sky loved flying, but she craved it, and this, this she was really good at. She moved her hand down to the thrust level on the gravity generators and flicked it up to max, sending the shuttle bouncing into the air while Rass struggled to get into the co-pilots seat. Stella pulled hard on the control stick and waited until the shuttle was pointing nose up and started falling backwards before reached for the main thrust controls and pushing it up to max. The shuttle shot into the sky and Stella felt her hopes lift for only a moment. She put the shuttle through a few loops before focusing on getting to her frigate. As she approached she saw the hanger bay doors open to reveal a landing spot for the shuttle. She also saw the damage to her frigate. It brought her mood back down as she thought of all the people that had died. She settled the shuttle inside the bay with a heavy heart in her throat.

Today she was here to address her crew, about all their losses, many of the crew were married couples, and a few even had children. She was still trying to think of something comforting to say to them as she got up out of the pilots seat. She walked straight and tall out of the shuttle and across to the access to the other hanger bay. As she walked into the secondary hanger bay she noticed that a platform had been set up and that a large number of people who were standing there seemed almost in shock to see her walking. A cheer went up as she took her spot on top of the stage. Stella turned to face Rass.

"Why are they cheering?"

Rass looked out over the audience. "What can I say Stella, you know how to lead, these people trust you. When I found the ship the communications system was fried. Nobody knew that you were alive and ready to get back into the fight. Many had thought you died on Marc1."

Stella looked back out over at her crew, she raised a hand and the cheering died down. Stella spoke up and her voice easily carried out over the Hanger.

"I came here today, to offer my apologizes for not being on the ship when the Terran's attacked. Also to join you in mourning those brave souls we lost on that day. Never before have we lost that many souls and never all at once. The past few days I have been trying to work out what to say, to console those that lost people they cared about. Today on the way up I realized there was nothing to say, a loss like this is unprecedented on this ship. That and saying anything about how brave they were would be almost insulting to their memories. Because every damn soul on this ship are the bravest souls I've had the pleasure of serving with. Telling you to not miss them is unneeded as well, I also lost somebody, two somebodies that day of the attack, both of them very close to me."

Stella took a breath and blinked back the tears. "I can tell you now, almost a month after, that the pain never goes away, and if it does it always returns stronger and more gut lashing then before. I watched my Fiance die before me while there was nothing I could do, and moments before I watched the ship that my mother commanded vanish in a ball of flame. This past month I've learned a lot about what it is to grieve. About what it is to feel lost, every damn day, my whole world has changed for me. I know a many of you feel that way as well, whether you were one of the many unlucky who lost family members when we were attacked, or since this war has started or who knew those that were killed when this ship was attacked.

Stella looked out around at her crew. But I've learned something recently, most people use the word unlucky when they talk about loosing somebody, I just did myself, but we can't call ourselves unlucky, that's admitting defeat over this. We must call ourselves lucky, lucky that we knew such brave souls who served with us, lucky that we got to know them for how much we did, and lucky, that we survived, survived so that we could return the favor to those that attacked us."

Stella started pacing "So don't waste all your time mourning, mourning for those that were close and those that you knew. Mourn them for a while but then focus on the good that they did focus on their memories so that you won't forget them. Then focus on those memories think on them whenever you feel defeated, think on them whenever you feel sad, and think on them whenever we engage the enemy!" Stella shouted out these last few words and the crew erupted into cheers again.

"I can tell you right now, that our own Galactic Army is working its hardest to push these souls out, I can also tell you that we have always operated separately from the main army. Right now, I am working on a plan to begin a campaign of destruction, crippling the power base of the Terran's in this galaxy. Right now! At this very moment! Plans are going into effect to get us to Marcadia, to hit them where the Terran's where they have set up shop. Then to kick them out of our Galaxy, and we'll take the fight to them, we'll make them sorry about the day they chose to come here! We'll make them feel the losses that we felt for every soul claimed from this war! AND WE WILL LEAVE THEM SO FAR BURIED THAT THEY WILL NEVER! EVER! COME TO OUR GALAXY AGAIN!" The crew erupted into cheers again, louder then before.

Stella had one more thing to say and waited for the cheering to die down.

"Go now, go to your stations, get this ship fixed up and battle worthy again, so that we can launch our counter attacked, and drive them from this galaxy, Go! And use the memories of those we've lost to drive you forward, let our guns of vengeance rein free!"

The Crew went into cheers again and began moving out of the hanger heading for their posts where ever that was.

Rass walked up behind Stella "That was pretty impressive there Commander."

Stella nodded and stepped off the platform "Thank you, most of it was made up on the spot." She glanced behind her "Get the rest of the team and have them get what they will need for a two week stay. Then have them meet me in the shuttle. That includes you Rass."

"Great I'll grab my spare oil can and meet you there." She said sarcastically. "Like I need anything." Rass dropped down next to Stella and the both of them moved towards the shuttle. As they entered Stella sat back into the pilots chair and plugged into the ships PA system.

"Crew, I will be leaving for the Planets surface again to continue with the planning, I also will be taking my squad with me. But at no point does this mean that I will be unreachable. If you need anything the current command officer will forward any and all calls to me. I may not be able to receive them at the time, but I will get them and respond. Good luck to you all and I'll see you in two weeks."

Stella closed the connection and leaned back in the seat. Rass sat down next to her and glanced her way every few minutes.

"Go on, I know you want to."

Rass glanced away then looked Stella in the face. "Why didn't you get that scar healed? I saw how far down it went Stella, whats the point of having it?"

Stella closed her eyes "Its a reminder, about what can happen just when you start to get to cocky, its also a reminder of everything I lost."

Rass said nothing, they both just sat there and stared out the view-screen watching people occasionally walk through the hanger.

"There they are." Rass spoke up pointing out towards where the last two members of Stella's squad were as they exited a lift door.

"There they are indeed" Stella said as she wound up the engines to get ready for take off.

Jason was a one of the many robotic beings of Solona, although he was a bit of an outcast. Rather then being built by a person or in a factory of some sort. He was hit by Nefarious's Biobliterator while he was on Metropolis. But, Rather then freaking out like most of the victims, Jason accepted it. He took it in stride, found the nearest place that would help him customize his new robotic body and spent the next two months adding in a collapsing jetpack in his back, a cannon hidden in his arm, and a blade that was exposed when he would bend his knee the right way. On the outside Jason changed, but on the inside he was the same, a joking laughing dude. He rolled with what the universe did to him and he didn't give a damn otherwise. He usually got a piece of him colored with a simple bird drawing every time he finished a mission. He told everybody that the marks were for every time the universe had given him wings and he had used them.

The person next to him was Reck a native of Novalis, he stood taller the Stella and was minus the small spikes that grew on most of his species so instead he relied on his speed and hand to hand combat abilities to get him through fights. He carried two blades on his hip and after seeing his skill with blades Stella had rigged up two holsters for his upper arms. If he ever got disarmed in a fight a quick hand movement and he got blade shot into his hand by the holster ready to go. They also doubled as armor plates across his shoulders. The two of them walked into the shuttle and Reck stopped in to give a wave. Upon seeing Rass however.

"Hey ScrapPile where you been?" he joked as he moved back to take a seat.

"You know same old, just saving the Commanders life." Rass joked back.

"Rass had earned that name when Stella told them of how she had ended up with a 'defect' Galactic Ranger as a pretty much personal body guard. Stella had been on a training mission to Orxon at the time working in tandem with Sky's commando team on a similar exercise, although he hadn't known it. While clearing a room Stella had been distracted by a pile of scrap. After poking through it she found a thrown out hard drive attached to a AI. The thing had been welded to the ground and buried under the scrap. Upon checking to see if it had power she was startled when the thing had yelled at her to piss off. Stella had proceeded to have a little chat with the AI and found out that it had been dubbed RA and a failure and then welded to the ground for its smart mouth. Even though the thing pointed out that it didn't have a mouth. Stella interested downloaded the personality off the hard drive and when she returned to her room she proceeded to design a body for it. The program which had been yelling at everybody in an ultra-male voice had actually thought itself as feminine and wished to have a female voice. After recovering from her laughter, Stella told 'her' that 'her' new name would be Rass. Then they had worked together to put up an old galactic ranger model, one that was small and compact and then downloaded Rass into it. Two days later Rass figured out how to move the body around and the two had been pretty much together since then.

"Everybody buckled up back there?"Stella called out as the craft lifted off the deck.

"Yes Sir" Jason called out "Thrill us." Stella's crew was very used to her aerobatics while she flew. Stella smiled as she threw the ship into reverse and dropped them like a stone towards the planet.

Later that night Ratchet was sitting around in the living room of the house, dressed up in his command gear with his new rank hanging off his chest. Surrounded by his children and their personal crews, plus a few dozen locals who wanted to help.

"I'll be blunt with you" he said to his rapt audience. "Things are grim. The Terran's are pushing and we can't seem to stop them. Everybody's pulling out last ditch plans to try and save the galaxy. I'm no different, the plan I've come up with is reckless and almost insane. But it's our only hope. What I'm about to detail to you, is a last ditch plan that I have been working on. It is not backed by the G.A. Or the president, what I say here, does not leave anybody's lips." Ratchet nodded to Clank who activated a holo-display.

"The Terran's power base is what we know as the galaxy's capital. They have pretty much leveled Marcadia's surface and have begun fortifying it. But they left a flaw in their defenses, something that they don't realize we can do."

Stella took over "When the G.A. Launched their last offense on the Fire-Lords, they used a prototype technology called Void-Gates. When the attack was done the Void-Gate system was stored in the Marcadia shipyards. Left there until a time we needed it. It was judge as too expensive to set up everywhere, so we tucked up and put it away. Now, thanks to the lead project designer giving me the blue prints. I figured out a way to get into the system and activate the gate from here. Allowing us to transport back through the hole it'll rip. And it will rip a hole, because when I tested the system I found out that the Terran's have not destroyed the ship yards. In fact they seem to be trying to figure out how to work them."

Ratchet nodded "So, we're going to open the gate, and drop a hit squad right into their power base. We're going to pull the same thing we did with the Fire-Lords. We'll hit em where it hurts and wipe them clean out of our galaxy."

"This is risky, because were only going at them with one half powered frigate, a stealth frigate and any fighters we can raise off of here."

Ratchet glanced around at everybody "If you're going to back out. Now's the time, because once you accept this mission. You agree not to stop until we reach Earth, and make the Terran's see why invading us was the stupidest thing they could have ever done."

Stella spoke up. "I'm in."

Sky nodded "Anywhere she goes I go."

Bouncer was next. "And anywhere He goes, I sure as hell go."

Sarash "I'm game."

Tess thought about it for a moment "If we pull this off it'll be one of the most impressive feats ever pulled."

Rass nodded "Lets kick it.

Jason and Reck nodded at each other before leaning forward "Just try and stop us."

Slowly everybody else who had come to the meeting nodded their yes.

Ratchet stood up tall "Well then." He picked up a piece of paper "Lets lay out the plan."

"Phase one is simple in itself, we open the gate, just in and cause as much damage as we can. We'll figure out battle groups and get some training done while the frigate gets repairs worked over on it. But the second stage is where it gets tricky."

"This is where I take over. My crew and I are going to attempt to infiltrate the captured ship yard at Marcadia. Once there we'll work to activate a hidden system inside all the shipyards we have ever built. Something we were going to use only in emergency's if we ever had a planet turn hostile. Not a weapon mind you, just a disabler if you will. The system is designed to emit a heavy pulse of EMP energy onto the surface, crippling anything hooked to a circuit board. Since the humans designs are based off of ours, this should render anything they have set up as worthless.

Ratchet took back over. " Allowing us to land on Marcadia and set up camp. From there we'll make plans for seeing them off Marcadia. Best case scenario they run off and let us have the planet. Worst case, we go guerrilla style and hit them until they leave anyway. That's why this is possibly a one way trip."

Everybody nodded

"Well then, lets get to work, we move for Marcadia in three weeks."

Well that's that, for now, also, I'm sure there are lots of spelling and grammar mistakes through out this, if you see any leave me a note in a review or send me a PM if you want. I'll fix em when I get a chance, for now, sleep, then school.