Robotech: The Stargate Saga

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.


Chapter Forty-Four

Guardian Zentraedi Cruiser XLS-174

Luna Orbit, Sol System

"Defold operation complete commander."

Standing in his command blister, gazing down upon the consoles on the level below, Commander Zarlok smiled at that report. He could see it himself on the status screens floating in their projector fields but protocol demanded that he be verbally informed and so he had been. It was proper.

"So, I see," he said at last. "Begin scanning the area search for any signs of Dolza's command base or its remains."

"Yes commander."

Hopefully we will get to the bottom of what happened to Dolza soon, he thought. He certainly hoped they did as the latest reports they'd received from High Command back in the Empire were very concerning. The fleet of fellow Guardians sent to drive away the invading aliens that the Asgard had warned the Masters about – what had the Asgard called them? Oh yes, the Wraith – had failed in their task only damaging one of the main ships – all of which seemed to have a rapidly regenerative organic armour that put anything the thrice damned Invid had to shame – before the alien weapons overwhelmed their shields and energized armour leading to their ships being destroyed. Clearly the Wraith were both very powerful and very dangerous – especially given that the Asgard had taken the highly unusual step of contacting the Robotech Masters to warn them – as there was simply no other way for them to have defeated the force sent to destroy their beachhead. To make matters worse the last report had indicated an outlying Tirolian settlement had been attacked by the Wraith and everyone there taken for Zor alone knew what reason.

Which meant they needed to finish this unfortunate business quickly and make the long intergalactic voyage back to the Tirolian Empire. There forces were going to be needed to repel the attack by these Wraith, repel it and then chase them back to wherever they had come from to explain to them the depths of the mistake that they had made in invading the Empire.

"Scan complete commander."

"And?"

"We have picked up a very large and spreading dust cloud in a high orbit of the planet. Mass and composition are a match for Dolza's command satellite. The fossil energy signature in the dust cloud matches reflex weaponry."

"He is dead then," Zarlok said somewhat sadly. While Dolza had been a regular Zentraedi – albeit of the High Warlord caste – he had accomplished much in his centuries long service to the Robotech Masters. Conquered and subjugated many worlds, across multiple galaxies, in their name and had brought the uprising by the Disciples of Zor to an end with his brutal but very effective tactics. Tactics that now formed the basis of many Guardian fleet tactics. Such accomplishments commanded the respect of every Zentraedi regular or guardian. To find out that he was indeed dead was thus a devastating blow, one that would take quite some time to recover from. Though how did he come to die by reflex weaponry, he thought knowing that the Robotech Masters – well aware of just how powerful it was – rarely allowed anyone to have access to or use those weapons. Even the Guardians were rarely issued with them as usually when the use of reflex weaponry was required the Masters would send one of their own ships to do it.

"It appears so commander. Commander we are detecting a large number of regular Zentraedi ships in orbit. A sizeable fraction of them seem to comprise a very large and dense debris ring. However, eight hundred and fifty seven remain operational and are in either parking orbits or actively patrolling the planets orbit alongside vessels of unknown design."

"Traitors," Zarlok growled angrily immediately realizing that these Zentraedi had betrayed their allegiance to the Robotech Masters, had allowed whatever race resided on the planet to turn them from following their imperative. A difficult task to be sure but not an impossible one, it had happened before after all the Disciples of Zor had been quite infamous for it. It was why he and his fellow Guardians had been created in the first place. "Have the scans revealed anything else?"

"Yes commander. We are picking up a large object at one of the gravitational balance points it… in Haydon's name.

"What is it?" Zarlok demanded a little shocked by the exclamation. Reverence of the mysterious being known as Haydon was common in their native galaxy and had even infiltrated the ranks of the Guardians. The Masters allowed it as long as it didn't infringe their duties in anyway still mentioning Haydon out loud in such a manner was frowned upon. He made a mental note to discuss it with the sensor officer later.

"Commander it is a factory satellite. Its transponder identifies it as being the one assigned to the regulars and commanded by a Commander Reno. Commander we're picking up another ship in orbit of the planet I believe it to be Zor's battlefortress."

"What! Show me."

"Yes commander."

Immediately a projector field activated and a new holographic screen pixeled into existence showing a long range visual scan of a ship sitting in orbit surrounded by some type of shipyard structure. While there were some differences in the vessel's appearance compared to when it had disappeared, and it was noticeably larger the design was unmistakable. Is Zor alive and here, he wondered even as he felt a cold knot of dread form at that possibility. Zor Deralda after all was The Master and Creator of Robotechnology knowing more about its secrets and able to wield more of its powers than even the Robotech Masters could. If he was here, and alive, then it would explain so much from how Dolza was killed with reflex weapons to so many regular Zentraedi defecting from the Masters to the capture of the factory satellite.

It also meant that they would have an even bigger problem on their hands. Especially as in the years before his disappearance and apparent – but doubted by many including the Masters – death he had become increasingly critical of the Robotech Masters and the way they ruled the Tirolian Empire.

Abruptly the sensors chirped an urgent warning as a ship came over the planetary horizon and into the view of their sensors. Passing close enough to the battlefortress for Zarlok to see it. The very sight of it making the knot of dread in his stomach grow even tighter and indeed made his blood feel like it had suddenly been replaced with liquid nitrogen. The reason being the vessel was Asgard, specifically a Gungnir-class battleship a class of Asgardian warship that even the Masters Legionnaire forces would be cautious around. Between heavy ion beam weapons and disintegration torpedoes it would have little difficulty in wiping out his whole squadron if its commander chose to protest their presence here. Of course, its presence also meant that the Asgard might be getting in league with the turncoat regulars as well as whichever micronian race lived on the planet.

Which was a most terrifying prospect.

"Commander we are detecting multiple ships breaking orbit and moving towards us on an intercept course," sensors reported, "we read twelve regular Zentraedi ships, four Thuverl Salen-class heavy cruisers and eight Tou Redir-class destroyers. We are also reading another vessel of unknown configuration moving towards us from the direction of the factory satellite."

"Show me," Zarlok ordered. He wasn't concerned about the regular Zentraedi ships approaching his own squadron, while they outnumbered him two ships to one, he had the advantage of superior firepower and defences compared to regular Zentraedi vessels. They would need at least twice that number to be much more than a live fire exercise for his gunners. But an unknown vessel, well that was a very different proposition as its strengths and capabilities were just that unknown making them potentially very dangerous indeed.

Immediately the holographic screen changed to show an angular vessel tan in colour with black and silver highlights moving towards his position from the factory satellite. It was obviously a warship as the recessed weapon in the blunt prow and the very visible turrets – which appeared to be of both triple and dual barrel variants – made that perfectly clear.

"Tactical what can you tell me about that ship," he asked, frowning in concern as there was just something about that ship, something that screamed danger.

"Very little I am afraid commander," the tactical officer reported, "most of our scans are being blocked by some type of stealth system. I can tell however that it is surrounded by an energy shield of incredible strength – I haven't seen readings of a shield this strong outside of one of the Masters motherships – and is emitting a power signature that does not match anything in our records."

"Hmm. Time to intercept?"

"Commander the regulars will intercept us in one minute and fifteen seconds. The unknown was vessel approximately sixty-seven seconds later."

"Commander we are receiving a transmission from the command dreadnought orbiting the planet," communications reported before emitting a sound of surprise and anger, "it is Lord Breetai."

I never thought I would see the day when Breetai would betray the Masters. Not even for Zor, Zarlok thought with a burst of both sadness and seething anger. Like Dolza Breetai was of the High Warlord caste and had long been held in very high esteem by even the Guardian Zentraedi, his exploits, and conquests in the Masters name legendary. His ferocity in battle against their enemies – like the Asgard and the Invid – unmatched by anyone. For him to turn was a very sad day for the Zentraedi but one that he would eventually pay with his life for.

"Ignore them I will not hear the words of traitors," he replied. "Are the approaching regulars ships in weapons range?"

"They are commander."

"Then instruct all forward batteries on all ships to open fire. We will show these turncoats the price for betraying their oaths to the Masters then we will leave to gather our forces before returning to crush the rest of them and this world."

"It will be done commander."

Knowing his orders would be carried out Zarlok turned his attention back to the tactical displays. A few moments past then a familiar thrum of power ran through the ship as the forward particle cannons opened fire upon the traitors. Slender whitish-blue javelins slicing across the intervening space almost instantly as one of the upgrades to their cannons that the Masters had given the Guardian Fleet were gravitational and electromagnetic coils that increased the speed of the protoculture generated particles in the beams to a much higher velocity than what normal cannons could achieve. Though it was still considerably less than the velocities that the Masters could accelerate the particles in their own ships beams to.

Zarlok grinned as he watched their beams slice into the traitors' ships, slicing through their armour with effortless ease too tear deep into the ships. Two of them immediately erupted into titanic fireballs as the beams sliced open either their fuel and weapons stores or their reflex furnaces. Another three immediately fell out of formation trailing debris, atmosphere, and the bodies of dead and dying crew from the breaches ripped into their hulls. Though that soon stopped either as emergency atmospheric force fields activated or internal bulkhead doors slammed closed and isolated the breached areas or a combination of both.

The remaining seven ships – including the heavy cruisers – returned fire.

Zarlok's grin turned into a smirk of mixed amusement and malice as the responding beams impacted the shields protecting his squadrons ships and did nothing. Well beyond dissipating in a luminous blue fog of radiation as the energy output of regular Zentraedi beams was well within their ability to withstand. He was about to order them to fire again and finish off the traitors, so they could leave to return to Xarlez and gather their forces to crush this problem in the bud, when he was slammed to the deck as with a tremendous roar – a roar louder than anything he had ever heard in his life before – the ship rocked violently. Shaking in a way that a robotech warship should not be able to. Alarms began wailing warning of damage and he immediately began to smell smoke. After what seemed like an eternity the ship stabilized and he slowly, somewhat painfully got back to his feet.

"Report," he ordered.

"It's the unknown ship commander they just fired on us," tactical reported, "we sustained a direct hit from a focused energy beam weapon. Exact composition unknown but extremely tightly focused and extremely powerful. Shields are down the forward emitters have literally melted, energized armour down to forty percent capacity. Forward cannons one through four are offline, as are forward missile launchers one and two. Twenty percent power loss to all forward decks."

All that from one shot, Zarlok thought in a combination of shock, amazement, and horror. Nobody this side of the Robotech Masters themselves should have been able to damage this ship in such a way and even the Masters couldn't do it with just one shot. Well not unless they used a reflex cannon and that would have destroyed his entire squadron.

"Commander we're being hailed by the unknown ship. They're ordering us to stand down and prepare to be boarded or they'll destroy us."

"Orders commander?" his advisor, Toval, asked from behind speaking for the first time since they had defolded in this system.

"You know what must be," Zarlok replied. Toval nodded back in understanding, agreement, and acceptance. They could not, and never would, surrender. To do so would be to violate everything they believed in, everything that they were. They were the Guardians, the praetorian guards of the Tirolian Empire. Enforcers of the will of the Robotech Masters. They would bow to no one but them. "Communications send all our logs and sensor data back to the forward operating base for the immediate attention of Commander Xarlez. Then instruct all ships to open fire on the unknown ship."

"Yes commander."


Ancient Destroyer Aurelius

A Few Minutes Earlier

Sitting in his command chair on the bridge of the Aurelius Rick Hunter observed the group of Zentraedi warships that had just arrived with curiosity as they drew ever closer to them. The destroyer's advanced and powerful sensors confirmed that they were considerably more advanced than normal Zentraedi vessels. They looked different as well as instead of the normal greens and purples and almost organic lines these were sleeker, constructed off a bluish-grey metal and had no organic influence in their construction whatsoever. All six of them were surrounded by energy shields, fairly powerful ones though the tactical AI's in the data stream confirmed that they would be no real match for the weapons systems of the Aurelius constructed as they were by a race over a million years more scientifically and technologically advanced than the Robotech Masters, and had some kind of energized armour that somewhat reminded him of the polarized hull plating from the pre-Rain science fiction show Star Trek: Enterprise.

They also seemed to be sitting their doing nothing, beyond running scans.

An alert through the data stream caught his attention a moment before the communications officer spoke up. "Captain we're receiving a hail from United Earth Defence Command. It is Minister Exedore he says he has information about those ships and which group of Zentraedi they belong to," the officer reported.

"Put him through," Rick ordered.

"Aye sir."

A holographic screen blinked into existence in front of Rick showing the face and upper torso of the micronized Zentraedi official. The look on his face immediately put Rick on his guard as he had interacted with Exedore on a number of occasions over the last few years and he had never seen him look like this before. Exedore looked both concerned and frightened by these new ships and that set numerous mental alarm bells ringing in Rick's head as Exedore was not given to being alarmed easily.

"Exedore this is a surprise," he said in greeting. "What can you tell me about the newcomers?"

"You need to be extremely careful and if needs be very ruthless here Captain Hunter," Exedore said grimly, "I recognise those warships, they belong to the Guardians."

"Who are the Guardians?" Vanessa asked from the first officer's station even as she exchanged a confused and concerned look with Rick. There was something in the way that Exedore said that name, some subtle inflection in his voice that worried them greatly.

"The Guardians are an elite subspecies of the Zentraedi race Commander Leeds," Exedore replied, "they were created by the Robotech Masters after the last great uprising against the Masters by both the Disciples of Zor and elements in the Tirolian Empire that wanted to dethrone them and restore the previous democratic Tirolian Republic. An uprising several fleets of my brethren took part in on the side of the republican elements after they freed their crews from the neuro-somatic conditioning of the Robotech Masters. While they were ultimately defeated it was a very bloody affair and saw the destruction of entire worlds but in the end – through the actions of Dolza and others – the Masters faction emerged victorious.

"The Guardians were created in the aftermath to be both what you would call a praetorian guard for the Robotech Masters as well as enforcers of their will on all other Zentraedi," Exedore continued, "not only are they bioengineered to a much higher degree than we were ourselves but there are other control methods used on them that make them fanatically loyal to the Masters. They also possess upgraded ships, weapons, and battle mecha making them far more powerful and dangerous than any other Zentraedi forces. Though their capabilities are still considerably less than those possessed by the Legionnaire forces of the Masters. They also rarely leave Tirolian space."

"If they rarely leave the empire then why is a group of their ships here now," Rick asked.

Exedore frowned. "I am not sure though it is possible that they have been sent to find out what happened to Dolza as the Masters surely know by now that he is dead," he said after a moment of thinking about it, "if that is the case then the six ships before you are actually part of a much larger force which will be waiting somewhere else in the galaxy."

"They're a reconnaissance squadron," Vanessa commented.

"Very likely," Exedore confirmed, "though the fact that they are here at all is a problem. As soon as they realize we have defected and no longer serve the Masters – and we never will serve them again – the Guardians will react violently. They are programmed with a fanatical loyalty after all and will kill anyone who breaks away from the control of the Masters."

"Will they answer us if we try to talk to them," Vanessa asked.

"Lord Breetai is trying to contact them now, but I very much doubt they will respond favourably if they respond to the hail at all. Though you will lose nothing by trying yourselves as well," Exedore admitted a moment before alerts flashing through the data stream caught both Rick's and Vanessa's attention. They simultaneously checked the alert to see that the Guardian ships had opened fire upon those Free Zentraedi ships that were moving towards them. Firing beams whose speed and power levels were much higher than the norm for Zentraedi particle weapons.

"Damn it," Rick growled slightly as two of the Zentraedi ships exploded, torn apart with an almost contemptuous ease by the Guardians while three more fell out of formation heavily damaged. The rest returned fire only for their beams, beams which had during the war regularly ripped their first generation ships apart, to sleet ineffectively off the Guardian ships shields. "Okay let's see if we can get their attention. Weapons fire on their lead ship take out their shields."

"Aye sir," the weapons officer acknowledged and accessed the incredibly potent weapons array that the Aurelius carried. He quickly reviewed his options before deciding on the best course of action by firing the main cannon at the Guardians. A purple-blue energy beam erupted from the blunt prow of the Aurelius a moment later, sliced across space and slammed into the shield around the Guardian ship with searing force. Immediately the shield glowed like a nova before shattering in a blaze of photonic pyrotechnics and causing a few small explosions to appear on the forward section of the Guardian cruiser. "There shields are down, armour weakened and some of their weapons are down sir."

"Impressive," Exedore commented looking a little shaken. Despite having been informed of the sheer power of the Aurelius, due to his position on the Defence Council as the official Zentraedi representative, he had never really seen the main weapon before. Now he had he was stunned as he had known that the Old Ones – or the Lanteans as they were apparently called according to the Primus AI – had had power far beyond what the Robotech Masters themselves did but it was one thing to know it and another to see it. Especially as unlike most of his kind he knew the true power the Masters had.

"Let's see if that's got their attention," Rick said, "communications send a message to the Guardians. Tell them to stand down immediately and prepare to be boarded. Tell them if they don't, we will destroy them."

"Aye sir."

"They won't surrender," Exedore pointed out knowing all too well the psychology of the Guardians and the level of conditioning used on them by their creators.

"I know but I still have to give them the chance to," Rick answered prompting an understanding nod from Exedore. The Zentraedi official started to open his mouth to speak again but before he could speak the Guardians responded to their demand to surrender in a way that for fanatics was totally and utterly predictable.

They opened fire.

Powerful beams of supercharged protoculture generated particles raked the shields of the Aurelius making them glow with a soft goldish-white light as they effortlessly deflected the energy away from the hull. Rick sighed softly as the deck beneath his command chair shuddered slightly as the Guardians fired on them again. A check of the data stream showed that the shields, drawing power as they were from not just the artificial black holes in the core of the Aurelius three gravitic reactors but a potentia module as well, were not being overly stressed by the Guardians guns.

"So predictable," he said with a resigned sigh.

"Indeed," Exedore agreed again looking more than a little shock as the destroyer easily absorbed firepower that would have torn even Breetai's command dreadnought apart. "Though they will keep trying and even with the amount of power you can put into them I doubt your shields would last for long against them."

"Longer than you think," Rick replied as a dozen anti-ship plasma missiles exploded against the shields setting them aglow but otherwise doing no damage. "But I do see your point Exedore. Alright time to put a stop to this. Weapons open fire. Keep firing until the Guardians are dead, fled or surrendered whichever comes first."

"Aye sir."


For the first time since her last great battle with the Wraith ten thousand years earlier the Aurelius opened up upon an enemy fleet. First to fire was the main cannon once again sending the purple-blue lance of a quantum slicer beam at the Guardian flagship. Already damaged from the first strike Zarlok's cruiser had no chance as the beam took it straight on the bow, punching through its armour like it was paper to tear right through the entire length of the two and a half kilometre long ship before exploding out the back in an eruption of flames and debris. Antimatter particles spilling from the edges of the beam tore through the cruiser instantly reacting to the normal matter surrounding them with the predictable result that even as the beam disappeared the cruiser erupted into a titanic fireball as the simple but devastating reaction of matter-antimatter mutual annihilation consumed it.

Even as the first cruiser dissolved into fiery oblivion the standard energy armament of the Aurelius also opened up. Bolts of neutron particles, each bolt encased in its own subspace bubble allowing the particles inside to be travelling at speeds beyond that of light, shot forth from both her heavy and standard cannon turrets in streams of green death. The effect of the Lantean weapons on the Guardian Zentraedi was beyond devastating as the powerful bolts simply ripped right through their shields as if they didn't exist to slice into the energized armour. As each bolt impacted it unleashed not only a subspace sheering wave that shattered the normal matter it encountered but a charge of exotic energy as the neutrons in the bolt suddenly violently decelerated back to sublight speeds neutralizing the electrical charge that held all matter in the universe together. Huge sections of armour simply dissolved into oblivion followed a few seconds later by the hull metal beneath.

A second salvo impacted ripping deep into the innards of the two targeted ships, tearing them apart from the inside out. Deprived of key supporting structures the melting and dissolving hulls collapsed in upon themselves before both vessels became small suns as their reflex furnaces were torn apart and annihilated. The fireballs from the twin explosions washing over the shields of the Ancient destroyer but doing little damage to them beyond setting them aglow.

Furious and terrified by the ease with three of their number had been destroyed by this demonic micronian warship the remaining three Guardian ships continued firing upon the Aurelius pounding her shields with a storm of beams and missiles. Fear among their crews only growing as their weapons fire seemed to sleet ineffectively off the unbelievably powerful shields surrounding the vessel. The same could not be said for the vessels return fire which in a combined slicer beam and pulse particle weapons salvo sent another cruiser and its crew into the afterlife a moment later.

Not about to let the Ancient warship have all the fun the remaining ships of the Zentraedi squadron that Breetai had dispatched to intercept the Guardians opened fire again. All targeting the remaining two ships, ships that were already coming under fire from the Aurelius cannons. A storm of beams and missiles converged on the two ships.

In seconds it was over as the last two Guardian cruisers crumpled into plumes of highly energized flotsam under the brutal deluge of fire. Simultaneously the Aurelius and the Zentraedi ceased firing…

…the whole battle had taken less than two minutes.


Bridge

Ancient Destroyer Aurelius

"Enemy ships have been destroyed."

"So, I see," Rick replied outwardly calm but inwardly he was more than a little stunned by the sheer devastating firepower of this ship. While he had intellectually known – thanks to the neuro-interactive simulation that his ancestor Captain Bonran had left for him – that the Aurelius was an immensely powerful warship armed with the very last generation of weapons that the Lanteans had made it was very different to actually seeing what she could do when her power was truly let loose. To say that the power of this ship was both terrifying and awe inspiring would have been a monumental understatement.

It made him realize the incredible responsibility they, and he, now had. The robotechnologists already wanted to look at how this ship worked, how its systems did what they did. And while he couldn't really stop them, he was now even more determined to advise Admiral Gloval and the others among the defence council to be careful with this ship. With her power as it was based in sciences and technologies that even by robotech standards were so advanced they bordered on magic. Thankfully that very advancement meant it would certainly be years if not decades before they were able to reverse engineer anything major from this ship even with the likes of the Asgard and Primus to help.

He shook off those thoughts for now.

"Stand down all weapons and lower shields," he ordered. "Helm brings us about and begin heading back to our berth at the factory satellite."

"Aye sir."

As the crew began to carry out his orders Rick leaned back in the command chair, ignoring the data stream interface inside his head for the time being, and thought about what had just happened. The battle that had just taken place between them and the Guardian Zentraedi. From what Exedore had said, before he'd signed off during the battle – well more of a slaughter if he was honest with himself as the Guardians had had no chance against this ships power not in such a small number – he knew that this was just the first clash with the Guardian Zentraedi. There were going to be others…

…and he got the distinct impression that the next time it would not be so easy.


Ascended Planes

That Same Time

Standing by his viewing font Zor frowned as he caught Captain Hunter's last thought. No, he knew that the next time the people of Earth encountered the Guardians the battle would not be quite so one sided. Xarlez would learn from the destruction of Commander Zarlok's reconnaissance squadron and would prepare accordingly. He might even petition the Robotech Masters to allow the use of reflex weaponry against the Aurelius and as powerful as that ship was wasn't strong enough to withstand that. Certainly not for the length of time it would take for them to defeat Xarlez.

"Well, that was a bit anticlimactic," Janus pointed out from where he was standing on the opposite side of Zor at the viewing font. The two of them weren't alone as Oma was here as well. "But really not surprising given what we designed the Aurelius-class to be."

"It's not going to be so easy next time though is it," Oma commented.

"No, it won't be," Zor agreed, "Xarlez will learn from the loss of that squadron. Learn and develop new tactics and strategies to counter the Aurelius's advantages. He will certainly petition the Masters to allow the use of reflex weaponry. A petition that they are certain to grant given that Nimuul will want this situation dealt with quickly so he can call Xarlez back and send him and the others in his force against the Wraith."

"The battle with Xarlez when they find him is going to be a challenge for them isn't it?"

"Yes."

"We should prepare ourselves," Oma said after a moment of quiet thought and reflection. "We might have to intervene even if it is just to ascend some participants during or after the battle to come."

"Agreed."

"Agreed."


Authors Notes: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. Now before anyone accuses me of making the Aurelius really overpowered remember that she was built towards the end of the Wraith-Lantean War as a dedicated Wraith killer warship. Something that her class was very good at and if they had entered service even five years earlier, they would have turned the tide of the war firmly back in the Lanteans favour. The next clash with the Zentraedi Guardians will not be anywhere near as easy as this one was as not only were these six cruisers dedicated reconnaissance vessels, but they were just that cruisers. When they actually confront Xarlez and the division of the Guardian Fleet that is in the Milky Way they will be facing much heavier and thus more powerful warships. Not to mention the formidable defences of the Guardians forward operating base. Some might not survive this final arc of the story. Until next time.