Chapter 11

"Commencing defold. All stations to remain at general quarters! Expect immediate combat action!"

Despite the preparation, despite the battle alert and the crimson warning of the bridge lights, Vanessa nearly lost her footing the moment the Jeanne d'Arc arrived at its destination.

"Lieutenant!" she and May called out indignantly, grappling at bridge stations as the deck lurched.

"Steering course four-seven, two-three, full emergency thrust!" Reda announced, excited, but unperturbed. The hull groaned at the stress placed on it, and the star field visible through the bridge port wheeled at a disorienting speed. Vanessa quickly lost sight of the fiery white thruster wash of the closest squadron of Banshee escorts as the Jeanne d'Arc continued its maneuver.

"I told you not to disrupt-!"

"Proximity alert! Zentraedi warships inside the red zone!" Penelope interrupted. A rain of lurid blue beams, carrying with them utter destruction, slanted over the Jeanne d'Arc's upper hull works, but none struck true. Vanessa locked the grip of her cybernetic hand on a welded handhold behind commander Liem's station, and reached out with her other hand to steady May.

"An old Zentraedi trick," Reda said as she triggered counter-thrusters, and the great ship's motion smoothed out. "If there are enough ships to spare, we always position some escorts near the point an enemy folded away, just in case they return with reinforcements." Vanessa knew about the tactic from her cross training with former Zentraedi commanders, she just hadn't expected the enemy to react so quickly. Another burst of starboard thrusters, and the carrier rolled. "This'll give you the angle, Commander!" Rita called over her shoulder. Liem kept his eyes on his tactical displays.

"With your permission, Captain?" he asked mildly.

"Return fire, all batteries!" Vanessa ordered. "Hold missiles! We don't know how long this fight will go on."

Through the viewport, Vanessa could see the Number One and Two heavy beam cannon turrets rotate and take aim. The squat, dome shaped weapon housings were as big as a battleship turret from old Earth, each concealing three beam emitters more powerful than any non-nuclear weapons carried by any terrestrial fleet that had ever sailed.

"Enemy escort squadron, bearing two-seven-five. Targets locked, and… fire!" Liem barely raised his voice, but in the next moment, a dozen vengeful lances of star fire reached back toward the Jeanne d'Arc's attackers. With each flash of light, a deep thrum traveled through the deck plates. Everyone was held in a breathless pause, until Liem spoke.

"Targets well struck. One frigate, confirmed destroyed. The rest of the squadron is disengaging."

"Well done," Vanessa said with a nod. "And thank you for your quick action, Lieutenant Sertos. Now please get us back in formation."

"Right away, Captain!"

Vanessa trusted May and Abargil to manage the initial deployment of the veritechs. It was the big picture that mattered now, the fleet, the enemy, and the whereabouts of Task Force Five. Straza.

"Enemy ships are active and maneuvering to assume a standard Zentraedi battle formation," Penelope reported.

"Priority message from the Operations Center, moy Kapitain," Garro added. "Orders for the fleet! 'Hostile ships are rejecting all communication attempts. Maintain stand-off distance from enemy forces while the strike squadrons assemble. All vessels are to form on the flagship.'"

Vanessa shook her head, disappointed that any chance of avoiding a major battle had already faded. "Understood. Miss Sertos, keep us at extreme weapon range for now."

"Aye, aye, Captain!"

The deck had stabilized, and Vanessa strode over to examine Penelope's screens. The enemy ships were there, just as Lieutenant Vetzev had reported. The command ship and heavy troop carrier were easily tracked, keeping well out of range. There were only two cruisers, and nine frigates, so now they knew that Task Force Five must have fought on and inflicted more damage after the Gettysburg's departure. But where was Task Force Five? She counted a number of debris fields, but surely they couldn't all be gone?

"Tighten your sweep, Ensign. I need to know what ships the debris came from."

"Right!" It was too much information for any but a very talented or very experienced officer to handle, with so many ships on the move. Looming over all was a curious purple and azure planet, a little larger than Earth, wreathed in white clouds. Task Force Five's battle seemed to have started near the world's tiny moon, sharp, and shiny black as a shard of obsidian, and ran in an arcing path all the way to the planet's near orbit. She instantly regretted sending Kaden away. She would need him if it became necessary to launch a rescue operation to the planet in the midst of the battle.

"Deploy the special reconnaissance squadrons to the planet," Vanessa ordered. "There may be survivors down there."

"Deploying now," Abargil acknowledged, his voice and expression firm, now that the waiting was over.

"I have a fix on the Guerrero," Penelope said grimly. Vanessa and the others gasped at the image that appeared on Penelope's main monitor. Jeanne d'Arc's sister ship was adrift not far from the planet, having been crudely bisected by a titanic barrage of energy weapons. The ruined edges of its hull still glowed dimly, slowly cooling in the vacuum of space. Vanessa tightened her grip on Penelope's seat back against a brief wave of dizziness, forcing herself to focus and look. Explosively jettisoned panels were missing, revealing dozens of empty bays across the main hull and bridge tower.

"The crew of the Guerrero abandoned ship and launched lifeboats," Vanessa announced. "Recon units are to prioritize the planet for search and rescue operations. It would have been the best way to avoid capture. Ensign Garo!"

"Moy Kapitain?"

"Let the Operations Center handle most of the fleet traffic. I want your eyes and ears on any signals from survivors, and check on intercepted enemy communications. We need to know if any of their ships have prisoners aboard."

"Kohevo, mem. But recall that the Zentraedi only take prisoners under exceptional circumstances."

"We have to allow for the possibility, nonetheless. May, what's our Air Group status?"

"About five more minutes for all veritechs to launch. We're tracking the enemy strike craft. At least six thousand battlepods are already in formation ahead of the enemy fleet, with more still launching."

"And the special munitions?"

"Commander Reyes has ten elite squadrons standing by. But our recon flights won't be able to get to the planet. The enemy fleet has reoriented to counter us, but it's not leaving orbit. They're also employing local jamming of scans and communications. Intrafleet communications can cut through, but we can't transmit to headquarters, or receive anything survivors from Task Force Five might be broadcasting."

Vanessa shook her head. The Zentraedi had the advantage, had already triumphed once. Why weren't they attacking in full strength? And where was Task Force Five? She was fairly certain that the debris clouds could account for a pair of destroyers, and maybe a fleet tender, but had the rest folded out? Or were they hiding somewhere? Admiral Mbande's face appeared on the comms monitor, looking cool and commanding.

"Captain Leeds, have your crew made any more progress than my own staff on tracking the survivors?"

"Negative, Admiral. We've been blocked from approaching the planet. And my communications officer does not believe they've been taken prisoner."

"Then it's time to make our opening move. Captain Leeds," she said formally, "let it be entered into the ship's log that I, as commanding Admiral of Task Force 2, authorize immediate arming and release of the Reflex warheads."

The bridge hushed at her words. The strident tones from Commander Liem's station, as it tracked the enemy ships, rang out incessantly. Chatter between the scores of veritech squadrons now taking up position throughout the fleet formation crackled in the background. Vanessa kept her gaze fixed on her commanding officer as she swallowed dryly and nodded.

"It is so noted. What are your orders, Admiral?"

"Commence attack with all Reflex warheads. We will follow with an all out strike by our mecha. Capital ships will fire in support. We'll break the enemy formation, and then our warships will move in to mop them up piecemeal."

Vanessa didn't hesitate to reply. "Ma'am, I've run the simulations with Commander Reyes. That plan of attack will result in heavy losses, and the outcome will be very much in doubt."

"Perhaps not, Captain. It is true, the Zentraedi do not normally take prisoners. But they do use bait."

Vanessa's mind raced, thinking first of the survivors in their life boats, almost certainly now hiding on the surface of that strange, amethyst world, then the enemy fleet, obstinately holding orbit, and finally, the sensor shadow cast by the immense mass of the planet itself. She glanced over at Penelope's station, and the ensign, bless her, was already calculating orbits that the surviving ships from Straza's task force might be using to keep the planet between them and their enemies. They couldn't have fought off the Zentraedi, but they would not abandon their crewmates, not after the Gettysburg folded away to summon help. They would have stayed, sheltering on the far side of the planet, hoping for an opportunity to mount a rescue. The Zentraedi, in turn, would maintain their own orbit, leaving the survivors as bait, and wait for their chance to catch and crush the REF ships. That meant…

"You're hoping the remnants of Task Force Five will outflank the enemy when we attack."

Mbande smiled tightly. "Indeed."

"But how will we signal them? If the timing is wrong…" Too late, or too early, and the Zentraedi would destroy them all in detail.

"Leave that to me. The timing will indeed be critical. I'm sending Phobos on a wide swing to clear the planet's sensor shadow and link communications with Task Force Five."

"If they're actually still out there," Penelope muttered, too low for the Admiral to hear. Vanessa ignored her. She wished they could have safely left Phobos behind with Kaden and the others, wished Doctor Priest had not insisted on taking the risks with his science team aboard the refitted destroyer, but they needed the enhanced sensors and communications gear it carried. Mbande was right, their counterattack was always going to be risky, and this was their best chance. Vanessa nodded.

"I'll provide as strong a fighter escort as we can spare. The Reflex warheads will have to do the rest of the work."

"Commence the operation immediately," Mbande ordered. "We must not allow the enemy to fall upon us separately."

"Understood."

"Mbande, out."

Vanessa moved alongside Lieutenant Abargil. "Air group status?"

"All ready fighters have launched. Nine hundred-seventeen Lightnings are active."

Reyes had pulled off a miracle, getting more of the temperamental veritechs space worthy than she had expected. And they still weren't enough.

"Commander Reyes, you heard the admiral?" she asked.

"I did, Captain," his slightly distorted response came back. No playfulness was in his voice now. "I've issued my deployment orders. I have a strong escort joining the Phobos."

"Good."

Ahead of her Vanessa witnessed a sea of white, gold, green, and red veritechs streaking away into the darkness where the alien planet blocked half of the system's yellow sun. Then three of their destroyers, Kelpie, Medusa, and Minotaur, flew over their heads, picking up speed and spreading out to more effectively screen Manhattan, their other tender, Lothal, and her own ship from attack. She couldn't see the others, Changeling, Harpy, and Dullahan, but she knew they would be doing the same. Throughout the fleet, armor shutters were retracting and defense turrets were sliding into position. Scores of anti-ship warheads peeked from their launch tubes. Comms traffic was a confusing babble of orders and status reports that Garo and Mbande's staff somehow orchestrated into a coherent whole. Penelope and other sensor technicians relentlessly pinged the enemy ships and mecha with active scans, gleaning every last scrap of data that might be useful to the gunners and flight crews. A dozen Lightnings, not part of the main attack group, flew into view on delicate bursts of their maneuvering thrusters and took up position two hundred meters forward of the bridge tower. Vanessa raised an eyebrow at that.

"I certainly appreciate the support, Commander, but don't you need every available fighter with the forward screening force and the strike wing?"

"A necessary precaution, Captain. I have no expectation of preventing the enemy mecha from penetrating our outer perimeter, even with the Reflex missile strike." Which Vanessa knew meant he expected the worst - the enemy engaging the flagship at close quarters.

"Understood. Proceed with the Reflex missile strike." Vanessa glanced at May, who stood straight and correct, her authoritative XO. But she also saw the way her friend's eyes shined. She gave May a nod, knowing what was on her mind.

"Good hunting, Jose. I love you." Not a tremor in May's voice.

"I love you, Allie. I'll be back soon."

They were all aware it was a promise he might not be able to keep. For the first time since the Jeanne d'Arc left Earth, Vanessa found herself glad that Bron was half a galaxy away. Jose opened the channel to his flight crews.

"Jeanne d'Arc Attack Wing, commence the operation!"

Tiny Phobos broke away from the fleet's protection, beginning a wide hook around the ethereal purple planetary mass, accompanied by three score of escorting veritechs, and the enemy's response was immediate. A great tide of battlepods surged toward the REF ships. They were closely followed by the lighter warships, mechanical sea monsters that glared at their prey through bright yellow observation domes, their green hulls bewhiskered with spiny sensor masts.

Reyes and his pilots were ready, their sleek Lightnings keeping in precise formations even as they applied thrust, forming a vertical rectangle stretching across hundreds of kilometers to block the approaching foe. Arrayed against them was a vicious swarm of standard Regult units, along with every variant in the Zentraedi armory, enough battlepods to clutter half of Penelope's monitor with overlapping red hexagonal icons.

"Special Munitions Group, report status," Reyes demanded.

"Black Knights, reporting Reflex warheads armed and ready."

At the first acknowledgement, an automated alert went off on the bridge, a distinctive pulse that every member of the crew was trained to recognize.

REFLEX REACTION DETECTED

"Werewolves, weapons hot!"

"Fenghuang squadron, status green."

"-tighten it up Musket Seven... Musketeers, ready and waiting, sir!"

On they went, until all of the elite squadrons reported. Reyes checked with Tactical one last time, and transmitted his orders.

"Target Reflex warheads. Fire pattern… Gladius. Confirm target locks."

The tightness in Vanessa's chest was almost unbearable now. Penelope bit her lip until she drew blood, keeping her silence as that unending cloud of enemy mecha closed the range. Vanessa heard stressed metal and looked down, realizing with dismay that she had put the imprint of her cybernetic hand in the grab bar welded to the back of Penelope's seat.

"Reflex warheads, targeted and locked," Lieutenant Abargil confirmed.

Reyes steeled himself, and gave the command. "Authentication Delta-Taurus-One-Seven-Omega. Wave Gladius, Reflex warheads, fire!"

The veritechs, each loaded down with six of the stubby, fat-bellied missiles, were too far away for anyone on the bridge to see the launch, but Vanessa watched the spread of gold-haloed tracking signals - hundreds upon hundreds of them. If the Zentraedi were surprised or dismayed, they gave no sign. Regult-type battlepods mounted a pair of almost laughably rudimentary defensive cannon for anti-air and missile work in small chin mounts. Straza Pentiet was the only pilot Vanessa had ever seen successfully intercept missiles with them, but now the battlepods threw millions of alloy slugs in the path of the missiles. With no fanfare, gold haloes blinked out, and the REF force's main striking power rapidly shrank. Vanessa tried to calculate the number remaining, the explosive yields, the probable damage, but found it hopeless, even for her- too many variables, the speed too great, the numbers changing too rapidly.

"Please, please…" she heard Penelope whisper.

"All veritechs, deploy blast shutters," Abargil ordered, and each pilot activated an armor panel bearing their squadron's heraldry to slide over their cockpit canopy and protect them from being flash blinded.

"Triggering detonation of Reflex warheads in three… two… one," Abargil counted down. And there was light.

There were only a handful of other people still living that had personally witnessed destruction on such a scale as many times as Vanessa had - the unleashing of the SDF-1's Reflex cannon. The catastrophic overload and explosion of the Omni-Directional Barrier System. The Rain of Death. The destruction of Dolza's six hundred kilometer tall mobile command center, from the inside out. What she saw now might be on a smaller scale, but the concentration of power upon that critical span of space between the two fleets was no less.

The bridge viewport's reactive coating muted the light of the blasts, saving the crew's vision and turning the explosions a bizarre, shimmering cobalt blue that reminded Vanessa of the disturbing aurora borealis effect that had hovered in the night sky over the burning wreckage of the SDF-1 for weeks after its destruction. As the light began to fade, she turned her attention back to the monitors. A high-pitched hum was feeding back through the bridge instruments, and the image on Penelope's screen was broken into a garbled mess of graphic glitches and error messages. Penelope was swearing under breath, flipping between imaging modes, and the rest of the bridge crew were making similar noises of dismay.

"I'm sorry Captain, I'm trying! I can't get any clear readings through this mess!"

"It's not the sensors, Ensign, they have plenty of shielding," Vanessa told her calmly. "I saw this during the war, every time we fired the Reflex cannon. Just reset your monitors, everyone!" she called out, raising her voice.

Penelope pushed the heel of her hand forward and flipped the entire row of switches, blanking her displays and powering all of them back on. Abruptly her screens returned, sharp and clear of glitches. Penelope blew a breath in relief.

"Direct hit on the enemy mecha formations! Estimating… eighty-three percent losses in their forward attack group!"

There was no cheering, but the relief in the bridge was palpable. Liem checked his tactical display and nodded.

"Confirmed. The attack corridor is clear. Proceed with Wave Two."

"Acknowledged, Tactical," Reyes replied. "Special Munitions Group, target Wave Two. Fire pattern… Spatha! Confirm lock!"

Vanessa shook her head. All of the death, the destructive force released, and yet it was only the prelude to the real battle. As for the Zentraedi, they could be frightened, confused, and sent into flight under the right circumstances, but not like this. Their Masters had indoctrinated them to pay no heed to mass casualties or weapons of mass destruction. Their reaction to a blow like this one was invariably to redouble their effort.

"Survivors of the enemy forward attack group are about to make contact on your flanks, Group Leader!" Abargil warned. "Enemy mecha still number over one thousand! Teams one, three, fourteen, and fifteen, break formation and engage!"

"Just keep them off us for a few more seconds!" Reyes called back. "Locked and… fire! Fire!"

The smaller second wave of Reflex missiles lashed out, whirling through the gaping hole the first strike had left in the ranks of Zentraedi mecha. They powered through the opposing fleet formation, losing many of their number to defensive turrets, and finally converged on their main target - Quiltra Queleual - the monstrous landing ship and its thousands of reserve battlepods.

"Detonation in five, four-"

"Captain!" Penelope shouted, "Large force of battlepods scattering from behind the landing ship!"

"What!"

"- one!" And the last of Task Force Two's Reflex warheads exploded, vaporizing an empty target. As the distortion cleared, Vanessa could see the same thing Penelope had. The landing ship had launched and concealed the rest of its mecha in its thruster wash while the two fleets were still deploying. With unflinching bravery, they had held their position until the critical seconds when escape was still possible, but it was too late to retarget the Reflex missiles.

"They out-guessed us," May observed bitterly. "They planned to sacrifice the first group of battlepods and the landing ship to preserve the rest."

"Some battlepods were caught in the second wave blast, but I estimate there are about another three thousand still out there," Penelope reported. "The rest of the enemy ships are deploying their own smaller mecha complements and forming up with the main group. Another fifteen hundred battlepods and seven hundred Gnerl fighter pods!"

Vanessa glared at the monitors. Their opening punch had cut the Zentraedi mecha forces by half, but it had not been the knockout blow she and Admiral Mbande had intended. The admiral herself abruptly reappeared on screen. There was no sign of any cracks in her resolve as she addressed the bridge.

"Unfortunate. But we are far from defeated. Captain, your fighters are to protect the fleet, while all warships target the enemy cruisers. They will be our first objective. Do not close with the enemy fleet until Phobos has completed its mission and re-established communication with Task Force Five."

"Yes, Admiral."

A furious dogfight was already under way between Reyes's squadrons and the survivors of the first missile barrage, and the heavy Zentraedi warships were now blasting away at the REF fleet, their heavy beam cannon batteries leaving eye-watering streaks of blue across the blackness of space.

"Target the enemy capital ships with a full missile barrage, Commander Liem. Our main batteries may fire at will," Vanessa said, grimly watching the distance between the Reyes's fighters and the enormous second wave of Zentraedi mecha tick down.

"Aye, Captain."

The battle developed quickly now. The strike mecha battled back and forth between the two fleets like darting fireflies - here a flash of green as Lightnings salvoed their lasers, there the glowing white lines of paired particle beams sweeping the battle space, as the endless swarms of battlepods pursued them in turn. And always now, the bursting orange spheres of stricken mecha expending their Protoculture supplies in catastrophic explosions. Every few seconds scores of anti-warship missiles launched from the Jeanne d'Arc's flanks, belly, and upper works, leaving great arcing lines of crystallizing vapor as they joined hundreds of others to strike out at the bigger enemy ships, still beyond visual range, while the lighter enemy frigates skimmed along the flanks, searching for a weakness. Vanessa's bridge crew fell into a regular cadence, each voice calling and answering as if in chorus, first the conn, then veritechs, gunnery, sensors, and finally Garo following with the latest reports from the rest of the fleet. Vanessa's anxiety fell away as iron control settled across her features. This was nothing like the ambush they had suffered a few months ago. How many times had she watched Lisa and Captain Gloval orchestrate victory after victory? She could do no less. Where more of her attention was required, May smoothly stepped in and managed the other station operators.

"- large group of battlepods has broken through on the fleet's left flank. Reserve squadrons to intercept - Sword, Goliath, and Tiger Shark-"

"- target Alpha-One well struck. Target is disabled and falling out of formation."

"Re-task dorsal batteries to targets Beta-Seven and Beta-Eight, approaching from above the fleet's plane of advance."

"Dorsal batteries, aye!"

"- countermeasures ineffective Captain! Ten seconds to impact!"

"Barrier to full power!" The rhythm the bridge crew had found abruptly broke. There were simply too many foes engaging along too many vectors at once. A full spread of heavy missiles, guided in by a hideous, crablike Cyclops theater scout that was hovering on the edge of the mass battle between the mecha, defeated the Jeanne d'Arc's electronic countermeasures and converged on it. A succession of warheads detonated in overlapping flashes of fire, pummeling the ship's barrier system and turning its energy field into a writhing nimbus of sickly green light. Shockwaves jolted through the hull, rattling the bridge crew.

"Barrier system is red-lining!" Liem called out, urgency thickening his voice for the first time. Safeties developed after the disaster in which the SDF-1's barrier system had overloaded and annihilated over a thousand square miles of the Ontario Quadrant kicked in, and the Jeanne d'Arc's primary defense system instantly collapsed. Swathes of blue energy fired by the pair of Zentraedi frigates approaching from above them raked the hull, and the crew cried out as the great ship was shaken again and again.

"Brace! Rolling to starboard!" Reda called out, sending full power to the port thrusters and putting the ship into a nauseating maneuver that threw them all off-balance again. The stars and the raging battle spun before them as Reda attempted to protect the damaged sections of the ship and put undamaged armor between them and the blistering salvos.

"Damage report!" Vanessa demanded.

"Three hull breaches," Liem, the first to recover, reported. "Number Four Battery is down. Missile tubes twenty-two through thirty hit. Fire reported in the Number Twelve Magazine. Our barrier system is in its reset cycle and is inoperative. Casualty reports are pending."

Vanessa grimaced. The Number Four turret of the ship's main batteries - again. There would be scores of casualties. Superstitious crew would begin saying the turret was cursed, if they even survived the day, because the fires, if not brought under control, might destroy half the ship.

"Moy Kapitain," Garo spoke up," the admiral wishes to know if you intend to withdraw and conduct emergency repairs."

Vanessa knew it would be the safe move. The Jeanne d'Arc was the lynchpin of the fleet, and right now, they were terribly vulnerable. But she also knew if that lynchpin was pulled out, the whole fleet would quickly fall apart.

"XO, oversee damage control," she ordered. "Priority to the barrier system."

May brushed a hand through her tangled curls and nodded firmly, making her way toward an auxiliary bridge station. "On it, Captain!"

"Miss Sertos, get us back on course!"

"Aye, aye!" she yelled back from the conn.

"Ensign Aster, Commander Duy, get me a solid lock on those frigates. I want them out of our space!"

"Understood, Captain."

"Mister Abargil, work with the CAG and tighten up the fighter squadrons, I don't want anything else slipping through.

"Aye!"

Vanessa finally turned to Garo. "Ensign, you can update the admiral that the Jeanne d'Arc is getting back in the fight!" Her crew sprang to their tasks without hesitation.

"Negative, Engineering," May said firmly, speaking into her com-link. "As long as the core subassemblies didn't overheat and fuse, we can restart the barrier system without disengaging the safeties. Bypass the diagnostic cycle and it should power back up. Trust me, I've worked with these systems before."

"Enemy frigates locked. Fire a full missile salvo. Coordinate barrage with Manhattan." Under Liem's calm direction, the ship shuddered with the release of another wave of heavy anti-warship missiles, while Lieutenant Abargil reorganized their fighter defense.

"Reserve squadrons move to waypoint Delta-Seventeen. Our main force is to regroup and prepare to intercept the next wave of attacking pods."

Vanessa's seasoned crew soon set the ship right again, which was fortunate, because even as the fleets' missiles drove away the marauding frigates, knocking almost half of them out of action, the Zentraedi commander unleashed an even heavier follow up attack. The capital ships - the command ship and the pair of heavy cruisers, finally broke orbit and closed the distance with Task Force 2, increasing their volume of fire and attempting to bracket the Jeanne d'Arc.

"Barrier system reactivated!" May crowed triumphantly, a second before three energy beams terminated against the restored defense screen, spreading a bright green spherical glow across half of the ship.

"Main force of battlepods will contact our fighter formation in ten seconds!" Abargil warned. Thousands of fresh battlepods were about to swarm Reyes and his own air group, scant seconds after the veritechs had emerged victorious over the survivors of the Reflex missile strike.

"Execute Plan Blue," Reyes ordered his pilots. Abruptly the vast, carefully ordered formations of Lightnings fell to pieces.

Next chapter… Interlude: Plan Blue…