Commander's Log, Sol Standard Date: July 21, 3340, High Orbit above Raytheon Three-

Falcon Station is now little more than a massive debris field in orbit above the once populous planet. Some of the larger pieces of the once mighty space station are being cut down to size as to not endanger the evacuation on the planet's surface. I should add that such a massive debris field will play out to our advantage after we jump out of the system. Not even the Latorii scanners will be capable of finding anything hidden in the orbiting wreckage. A perfect hiding spot for a V-3 Halycon nuclear mine.

The evacuation of Eagle Station is underway and the ACS transports should be arriving soon. Unfortunately our limited time table was cut even shorter by the Latorii prison break on Falcon. I am not longer sure if we will be able to finish the evacuation completely anymore. Anyone that is not onboard a transport and left behind will very likely end up dead. Something that will weigh heavily on my conscious if it comes to pass.

-Daniel 'Storm' Savarin,

Commander of the Allied Confederate Ship Fairlock

Storm let out a heavy sigh as the door to his cabin hissed shut behind him. He instantly closed his eyes, a faint blue glow emitting from them as the same glow enveloped the zipper on the back of his flight suit. With his mind, Storm slid the zipper down his back before moving his hands and pushing the flight suit off of his shoulders. One of the few upsides of the mesh flight suit was that it made it easier for Storm to maintain his disguise as he only had to create the illusion around his head compared to his whole body.

As such, black fur was present on Storm's shoulders as she started peeling the mesh suit off. The black fur continued onto his back as Storm pulled his arms out of the long sleeves and the gloves that were attached to the flight suit. A grey coat of fur made itself apparent on his upper arms before giving way to white fur on his forearms and paw like hands. The fur around his left shoulder was covered in dried maroon blood. Storm winced some as the flight suit tugged at the fur surrounding his wound, but it was nothing he could not handle.

After finally getting the flight suit off, Storm made his way to his private wash room that was attached to his quarters. He was soon sitting back in a bath of hot water as he tried to relax for the first time in quite some time. While he was far from his limit and had been through worse, it was nice for him to have some time to himself. However, he knew it wasn't going to last. Hence why he was going to make the best of it.

Storm let out a sigh as he leaned his head back and let the water wash over and soak into his fur. There were three primary colors to his fur: black, grey, and white. The white fur covered his front, fore arms, paws, calves, feet, and lower half of his head. A light grey fur ran down his sides, thighs, upper arms ears, and the top half of his head. Finally, the black fur covered his back, shoulders, tips of his ears, his tail, and a small mark that was on his lower forehead.

After nearly a quarter of an hour had passed, he grabbed a rag and soaked it, he gritted his teeth as he started working the maroon blood out of the black fur on his shoulders. It wasn't excessively painful but it was enough to be a hindrance. The wound leaked out a small amount of fresh blood before Storm dried off his shoulder. He applied an anti-infection spray that stung like no tomorrow before properly wrapping it in bandages. With his task done, Storm exited the bath and drained the water out of it. He dried off the rest of his fur, which is no easy task, before dressing himself in a hybridized human, Latorii outfit.

The outfit consisted of mainly loose fitting clothing as to not stick and rub against his fur, one of his main reasons for hating the flight suit he wore whenever he flew his Eagle. It was especially annoying for his tail as it was pinned against his back the entire time. Thankfully some egghead scientists had made a device that attaches at the base of his tail and makes it so he cannot feel it. However, his tail always felt very weird whenever he took the small collar off of it and feeling returned to it.

The pants Storm wore greatly resembled black sweatpants though they didn't have an elastic band. Instead there was a grey strip of cloth that that ran around the waist, almost like a built in belt. Latorii males typically didn't wear clothing across their upper bodies unless they were going into battle, in which case they would wear a form of armor. Storm did own a set of Latorii battle armor that he would wear whenever leading combat on the surface of a planet. The closest thing that it could be compared to was a set of Roman armor from Earth's ancient history.

Storm had never been to Earth, but he hoped that someday he would earn that privilege. Parts of him doubted that he ever would as a great number of the human's that ran the ACS government still did not trust him nor his mother. The closest either of them had been was Alpha Centauri, which was where his mother was currently located.

Storm was brought out of his musing by a knock at his door. Looking over at the clock, Storm noticed it had been about an hour since he had entered his room. With a sigh, Storm stood up off of his bed that he had been lying on. As he walked towards the door, he put some of his mental energy into restoring the illusion around his body. He soon appeared as the short, black haired, uniformed ACS commander that all but a few knew him as.

Pressing a paw against the door controls, the piece of sleek metal slid to the side revealing Admiral Mark and the girl he had rescued from Falcon Station. Sarah if he recalled her name correctly. She looked much better than she did when he had found her. The doctors on the ship had clearly given her a check-up as she had a crutch supporting her injured leg. It was also clear that she had spent the past hour in the same manner he had. Much of the dirt and grime that had covered her skin when Storm last saw her had been cleaned off. Her hair as a light brown and came down just past her shoulders, going well with her brown eyes.

"Admiral Mark, Miss Sarah, what can I do for you?" Storm asked politely.

"I'm just here with a status report," Mark started. "The transports just jumped into the system and are currently in FTL transit from the star to here. They also managed to gather up one more ship, so the evacuation can go faster."

"That is good news," Storm said as he let out a relieved sigh before his sapphire eyes shifted over towards Sarah. Contrary to his first observation, she was actually just shorter than him.

"Sarah here just wanted to get a chance to give a proper thank you," Mark explained with small laugh.

"I see, why don't you come in my room, Sarah," Storm started stepping aside and waving an arm towards a small, low to the floor table that had several mats around it. Sarah nodded her head after a bit and hesitantly walking into the room to the table. "Thank you Mark, you have command for now. See to it the evacuation continues as smooth as possible."

"Yes sir," Mark said before saluting and walking off in the direction of the command bridge.

Storm closed the door before turning towards where Sarah was sitting. Her head was slowly turning as she took in the various items that were hanging on the walls. There was a picture of three humans, one of which was Storm, hanging on the wall opposite of the door. Next to his bed was a large picture of a Farragut class battlecruiser, the word Oración painted in large, white letters along its hull. Above the bed as a flag that Sarah found rather strange. It was almost entirely yellow and had a fairly realistic looking snake coiled in a striking position with the words "don't tread on me" written below it. On the wall to her immediate left hung a small cross that held a small amount of sand in a glass circle at its base.

Storm walked over to the table before kneeling down and sitting on his heels. Upon noticing that Storm was across from her at the table, her eyes darted down at the floor. Storm let out a small laugh as she shook his head some.

"So, I assume you have at least heard of me," Storm started.

"Y-yes," Sarah started off nervously, finally looking up at Storm. "They… they say you are a Latorii."

"That is mostly true," Storm confirmed. "I do have a bit of human in me, but you wouldn't be able to tell by just glancing at me."

Sarah remained silent, her eyes fall back towards the floor causing Storm to let out a sigh. She had clearly read up on the hate based lies the media broadcasts across human colonized space.

"What all did Mark tell you about me?" Storm questioned, hoping she would see more than what she had heard.

"He said he trusted you… that most of the stuff the media puts out about you is straight up lies and misinformation…" Sarah said in a quiet voice, her face shifting up some. "But they say you brainwashed everyone under your command."

"Heh, I don't believe I have heard that one before," Storm laughed, shaking his head. "Information about Latorii in general is often not entirely correct. Let me ask you this, can all Latorii take control of someone else's mind?"

"That is what they say…" Sarah answered meekly.

"That is actually false, a common misconception. Only a few, very powerful Latorii that have the right genetics and have been trained from a very young age can take control of other's minds," Storm replied. "And I am not one of those Latorii."

"…" Sarah didn't reply immediately, but seemed like she was beginning to open up some. "I… I guess that you are telling the truth… All I have ever known about you is that you are some evil wolf that somehow ended up in command. But… you did save my life, something they said you were incapable of doing… saving a human. So, thank you for saving me, Commander Savarin."

"Eh, I have always hated formalities. You can call me Storm."

"Storm? Where does that come from?" Sarah asked, a curious look appearing on her face.

"Latorii are split into different clans and my mother was from the Storm Clan. Since most people tended to hate me the second I gave them my name, I started going by a nickname of Storm, after my clan," Storm answered solemnly.

"If you don't mind me asking… why did you save me?" Sarah asked in a soft voice.

"As I said last time, I was just doing my job," Storm started in a solemn voice, "That… and I figured if I save enough lives, that maybe people will see me for more than a Latorii. See me for the person that I am, not what I am."

Storm took a deep breath as be finished and looked up at the ceiling, a small frown present on his face. Both he and Sarah remained silent for several seconds, both deep in thought.

"I… I'm sorry for doubting you after you saved me," Sarah offered, her voice low but honest.

Storm lowered his head from the ceiling, looking at Sarah with a faint smile. "Thank you, Sarah. That means a lot to me."

"It would seem that Mark was right about you and everything I had been told was nothing but lies," Sarah continued.

"It's alright. I've spent my entire life having people hate me, and I learned not to let it get to me. Well, I try to at least," Storm replied. "Truthfully, I don't blame most people for not trusting me. All they know is that I am a Latorii. All they know about Latorii is that they are waging a genocidal war against humanity. It is when they continue to hate me even after they have met me in person that it gets to me."

"I don't know if I could handle having that many people against me," Sarah said quietly

"It wasn't easy, especially when I was young. All I wanted then was to fit in, but I'm sure you could imagine how well that worked," Storm started before pausing for a moment. "Thank you for taking the time to actually come down and meet me. That in of itself shows that you questioned the lies that you had been told. Otherwise you would have just stayed away from me like everyone else.

"It was nice actually getting to know you, Storm," Sarah said as she picked up the crutch that was lying next to her, using it to help herself to her feet.

"Likewise," Storm replied, nodding his head as he stood up. "Do you have a place to stay right now?"

"I was just going to go back to the infirmary. The cots there are better than the ones we had back on Falcon," Sarah answered as she hobbled towards the door.

"If you don't mind, I have a better idea," Storm said as he stepped in front of the human girl. "Follow me."

Sarah looked around in awe, her jaw dropping some at the room she had entered. It was three times as big as her apartment on Falcon. The walls were painted a golden colored and several pictures hung on the walls. The bed was the biggest she had ever seen and had more pillows than she could count on it. There were two open doors that she could see, one leading to a bathroom while the other appeared to be a closet.

"This is the VIP quarters," Storm started as he walked past Sarah into the room. "It's supposed to be used by governors, fleet admirals, and other higher ups. It is probably the least used room on this ship, so I figured you could use it."

"You're kidding right? This is some kind of joke," Sarah said in disbelief as she took a few more steps into the room.

"I am being serious," Storm replied with a small laugh. "You can stay here till we get to the Soliloquy system."

"I-I don't know what to say…" Sarah stated as she looked around the room.

"I do believe a simple 'thank you' would suffice," Storm answered jokingly. "Anyways, I should get going. I've taken long enough to get back to my duties as is. If you need any help, you can press this button here and a sailor will come by to assist you."

Sarah simply nodded her head in response, still somewhat shocked by the room she would be staying in. With that completed, Storm exited the room as the door hissed shut behind him. He quickly made his way to the command bridge.

"Commander on deck!" Admiral Mark shouted out as Storm walked onto the bridge, the entire command crew going to attention.

"At ease," Storm said as he sat in his chair, noting the screen he had cracked when talking to Governor Price had been replaced with a new screen. "What is the status of the transports?"

"They are descending into the atmosphere now, sir," Admiral Mark replied from next to a holo-radar. "They will arrive at the evacuation zone within the hour."

"And the evacuation of Eagle Station?" Storm questioned.

"The first cycle of ships just landed and are unloading their passengers. Once the transports are almost finished taking on civilians, we will hold in our craft in orbit and start shuttling them directly to the transports."

Storm nodded his head as he looked out of the reinforced, energy shielded glass towards the planet below. He could see several of the massive transports as they descended into the atmosphere of Raytheon Three. Perhaps they would indeed get out of this without any further combat. That was all he could hope and pray for. The Fairlock could still fight, but she was hurting and mostly without support. While the Dropships could act in place of the lost Assault Ships, they were more built for planetary assaults, not dogfighting in space.

"Sir! Proximity alarms are going off at the star! No cascade signature present but hyper replays are reporting three frigate sized contacts, IFF negative," an officer shouted out.

"Mikael, status report," Storm said calmly.

"The lack of a cascade cloud signifies that no capital ships have entered the system. Hyper scans of the ships confirms that they are Imperial Cutters that jumped into the system with their own hyper drives. Recommend sounding general quarters in preparation for immediate combat," the AI responded.

"Admiral, do we have any Corvettes nearby?" Storm asked.

"One is just coming out of atmosphere while another was about to dock at Eagle Station. I am guessing you want them called into formation?" Admiral Horner replied.

"Make it so," Storm said, nodding his head. "And sound general quarters."

"Aye sir!"

Moments later, all the lights on the ship went out and were replaced by red combat lighting as alarms barked to life. The massive battlecruiser started to turn around in its orbital flight as engines activated. It only took a few minutes to get the ship's fully operational port side facing the star and the direction the Imperial ships were coming from. The two Corvettes were positioned above and behind of the battlecruiser with their weapons deployed and ready.

The Corvettes were much smaller than the Fairlock but could still back quite a punch for their size. While only being a little over eight percent of the length of the larger battlecruisers, the frigates were still armed with three railguns, though they were smaller and two of them could only fire in mostly forward arcs. These two railguns were located at the back of Corvette above the bridge while the third was on the underside of the vessel towards the middle. Finally, each Corvette was armed with four pulse laser turrets, two along the side and two on top towards the bow.

Three Imperial Cutters blinked into existence less than twenty kilometers from the three Confederate warships. Large, blue lasers raced forward from under the bows of the Latorii crafts almost immediately. All three Latorii ships focused their fire onto a single Corvette. The lasers caused the ACS vessel shields to glow purple as it returned fire with its railguns. Both Corvettes let loose a volley of Mach fifteen slugs while the Fairlock unleashed a broadside of her own larger, faster slugs. The Cutters mostly ignored the return fire from the Corvettes as their shielding technology was far superior to anything humanity could muster.

The six smaller rounds practically bounced off the Cutter's shield as it gave off a blue glow. The Fairlock however had fired her broadside in a rapid ripple, each turret firing a quarter of a second after the last. The first six shells did nothing but ricochet off the Latorii ship's shields. The seventh and eighth managed to break through the shield and slammed against the vessel's armor but lost too much energy breaking the shields to pierce it. The last four rounds tore through the exposed armor, wrecking everything in their path before exiting the other side of the Cutter. The Latorii vessel's engines sputtered as the ship drifted out of formation before exploding in a blue fireball.

The two remaining Cutters continued to focus their fire onto the Corvette. Its shields were rapidly approaching their breaking point even with all power diverted away from the engines. With the Fairlock's main batteries still on their reload and recharge cycle, the Corvettes could only hope to survive long enough for the battlecruiser to finish off the attacking Latorii vessels.

It wasn't to be though as the first Corvette's shields gave way, exposing its bare yet thick armor to the Latorii frigates. By now, two smaller, yet still quite large lasers on the rear dorsal sections of the Cutters were firing away at the designated Corvette. The high frequency energy weapons burning through its armor till one of the bursts of laser cut through the ship's reactor. The Corvette exploded in a giant fireball, showering its sister ship in debris and rapidly draining its shields. The two remaining Latorii frigates instantly switched their fire over to the last Corvette and broke its shields within seconds.

Having finally completed its reload and recharge cycle as it once again ripple fired off its massive electromagnetic weapons. As the Cutter's shields had partially been drained from several consecutive hits from the Corvettes, it only took four slugs to break its shields. The other eight rounds blasted through the white armor plating of the Cutter as if it didn't exist. With its structural integrity all but gone, the Latorii vessel broke apart before the section containing its reactor exploded.

The lone remaining Cutter was now firing with all seven of its lasers as the last four and smallest weapons on the frigate opened fire. The blue light based weapons burned through the thick armor of the Confederate warship. Far from being out of the fight, the Corvette opened fire with its four lasers. Even the Fairlock had opened fire with its impressive yet short ranged laser battery. The orange lasers were nowhere near as effective as their opposing Latorii counterparts, but they were good enough to work down a lone Cutter.

The combined laser fire broke down the Latorii shields just before the Corvette fired off its three railguns. Each shell was aimed precisely at the bridge of the alien warship. The slugs broke through the reinforced, yet unshielded glass and killed all of the Latorii officers. The rounds managed to break everything in their path before bouncing off the armor on the other side of the ship causing the rounds to ricochet around the inside of the vessel to devastating effect.

With its internals gutted and shattered, the Cutter's laser fire abruptly stopped as its engines went dark. A lone escape pod jettisoned from the disabled vessel as it drifted through space. Storms eyes tracked the pod as it arced through space and descended towards the planet below.

"Combat complete," Mikael stated in his neutral, robotic voice. "Warning, damage to the Crusader is critical, recommend abandoning ship and scuttling."

Storm looked over at the wounded Corvette. It was venting atmosphere and its thick titanium armor was still red hot in some areas. While conserving and saving as many warships was a priority, the Crusader was clearly beyond salvaging.

"I concur, give them the order to abandon ship and active their scuttling charges," Storm ordered. "Reroute a Dropship and have it pick up survivors."

"What do you want to do about the Latorii escape pod?" Admiral Horner asked.

"I would really like to talk to its occupant…" Storm said, putting a hand to his chin, "This attack was highly unorthodox by Latorii standards. Three lone Cutters blitzing against a battlecruiser that had Corvettes in support. Granted if it was just the Corvettes I could understand, but it would take at least six Cutters to take on a lone Fletcher-class."

"I agree, something is definitely amiss," Mark stated as he looked at the holo-radar as it tracked the lone pod and its predicted landing point.

"Admiral Horner, you have the con," Storm ordered as he got out of his chair and started towards his quarters. "Transfer the data on that pod to my Eagle."

"Aye, sir."

Storm's Eagle descended through the atmosphere of Raytheon Three towards the area the Latorii escape pod had impacted. The reentry period took a while as air resistance violently shook the agile space fighter. After finally reaching the proper altitude, the Eagle's engines started up once again as Storm rocketed through the air. It didn't take him long to find the small crater created by the escape pod in the middle of a small patch of trees. Looking around, Storm found a clearing just big enough for him to set down in and flew towards it.

Storm set the Eagle down gentle in the long grass before he shut down the engines. They whined as they came to a halt. The seat slid back and turned slightly as Storm unstrapped himself. This time he was not wearing a flight suit or his helmet, nor was he actually behind any disguise once he had exited the Fairlock. He was however armed with his BowLance and was wearing his Latorii armor. He looked as Latorii as possible, and that was his intention. Much easier to get information from a lone Latorii if he or she thought Storm was on the same side.

The smells of the forest were the first thing that Storm noticed as he exited his ship. There wasn't anything that could compare when he was up in space. There were some machines that had been made that were capable of fooling a human nose, but not a Latorii nose. This was the real thing. Storm closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath of the air. Upon opening his eyes again, Storm set out towards where the escape pod had crashed. He moved at a brisk pace, but was not quite running. Looking down at the underside of his left arm, Storm eyed the digital map from the device that was strapped to his arm. A blinking red dot showed the position of his destination.

It didn't take him long to reach the landing site. The grass around the crater had been burnt away by the heat that had radiated off the metal from reentry. Storm slowed to a walk as he cautiously approached the escape pod. He could see that the door had been ejected and was lying a bit away from the where the space lifeboat had landed. Looking inside, Storm saw that it was indeed empty as was the compartment that carried a BowLance. A larger compartment was also empty and there was no telling what had been inside of it. Turning away, Storm started sniffing around before catching the scent of the pods lone occupant.

Storm hastily started off in the direction his nose led him. According to his map, the woods started to die off the further west he headed. A breeze was blowing from the north, which meant that the Latorii from the pod wouldn't be able to smell Storm coming. He slowed down as the scent got stronger and stronger. Stormed grabbed his BowLance off of his armor and held it in his left paw. His shoulder still was in quite a bit of pain and was stiff, but Storm pressed on. It wasn't long before the trees gave way and a vast rolling plains.

Storm's eyes quickly found his target and narrowed. Something wasn't right. The Latorii had set up some kind of device with a large antenna rising towards the sky. What worried Storm was that it resembled a hyper relay, but it was impossible to make one as small enough to be man portable. Then again, that was by human standards, and what his mother knew about Latorii scientific progress was around forty years old.

Storm hid behind a tree as he wondered what he should do next. From his position, it was only a few hundred yards to where the Latorii and the strange device were. It was an easy shot for him if we wanted to take out one or both of them. However, doing so would almost certainly mean that he would learn nothing. Closing his eyes, Storm took a breath and concentrated before stepping out from behind the tree and starting towards the Latorii.

"Tal chi!" Storm called out, the Latorii greeting cutting through the silence of the air. The wolf-like alien spun around in surprise, his paws quickly grabbing his own BowLance. Upon seeing Storm he seemed to relax some, the metal plates of his armor clinking against each other as he stood back up to his full height.

"Tal chi!" He called back, but still continued to eye Storm with caution. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm part of the heavy scout fleet that arrived one planetary rotation ago," Storm lied confidently, "My hyper drive was damaged and I could only manage basic FTL flight to this planet."

"I see," the Latorii nodded, clipping his BowLance back onto his armor. He seemed to have bought Storm's story, but neither of them was ready to lower their guard. "Well then, you can witness the first combat use of our newest weapon."

"This… thing," Storm started, gesturing a paw towards the device a few yards away from him, "Is a weapon?"

"Not exactly, nor is the weapon I speak of really a weapon, more of a new transit system. A cascade planet bridge. It will allow us to transport our troops directly from our planets to the surface of these vile human worlds."

The Latorii had only just finished speaking when Storm activated his BowLance and a long energy spear elongated from one of the open ends. In a fluid motion, Storm thrust the energy lance through the device causing it to give off a series of sparks before all of the lights on it went out.

"Heh… I thought you reeked of human stench," the Latorii spat out. "Not that it matters, you are too late."

As if on cue, a large purple and black cloud burst into existence several hundred yards away. It was indeed a cascade cloud. Storm watched in horror was well organized columns of Latorii infantry marched through the portal. There were at least six columns that were five across and twenty deep coming out in a straight line with many identical rows behind them.

The Latorii that was next to Storm moved quickly as he grabbed his BowLance, activated it, and stuck at Strom in one motion. The ACS commander easily jumped back out of reach before turning tail and running back towards his ship. He opened a channel up to Admiral Horner using the device on his left forearm.

"Mark! He have a problem!" Storm said frantically.

"Sir, what the heck is going on down there?! Mikael is saying he has picked up a cascade event on the planet's surface," Admiral Horner replied in a professional manner in contrast to his superior's panicked tone.

"He is right! They used some kind of man portable hyper relay to open a portal straight to the surface. Latorii infantry were already pouring through it by the time I destroyed it," Storm answered as he closed in on his ship. "Recall all of the Dropships and start deploying marines to the evacuation zone. Get the Fairlock into planetary bombardment position and be ready to support us with orbital fire."

"Aye, sir! Right away, sir!" Mark said before he started barking orders to the bridge crew of the battlecruiser.

"God help us…" Storm muttered once he had made it to his Eagle.

Well, here is the third chapter. I am thankful to the few of you that have favorited and followed this little story of mine. If you have any questions, I would happy answer them. I a also up for suggestions as to what you want to see in this story. My plans are very loose and there is a lot I could add in if it is a good enough fit. Once again, thank you for reading! I hope that you enjoyed it!