Chapter One : The War Above
"Captian!" A soldier named John O'herra said. He was a piolet of a billion dollar space ship, one of seventeen of its kind. It was state of the art for the people of Earth, the Humans.
"What is it O'herra?" Lord Pinchbeck known then as Captian Pinchbeck asked. He had started to call his crew by their last names rather than rank when his friend and fellow Captian, Robert Thibodeau, informed him that after calling his crew by their last name and getting to know them a bit, they worked harder. Robert couldn't fully explain it because of the number of people in his crew, but he had a few ideas. He believed some may have started to work harder feeling like they meant something and were not just a Private, but a full member of his crew. He thought maybe they worked harder because they felt people needed them more. Or that it may have been that they would now give their lives for him seeing how they had become friends and even family. Bryant, though only doing this for about two months had already seen improvement in his crew. Like Robert, he could not tell fully why they were working harder but knew Robert was right.
"We are picking up a S.O.S call from a American ship," John O'herra told him. They called them American Ships because at the time they were having problems with the Russians and were told to call in before helping them out. There was only five conturys in space; America, Russia, Japan, Germany and Canada. China was no longer a Contury on Earth, they had moved to each of the five contury in space now and helped them. The reason they were no longer a Contury was simple. A war in the Chinese Goverment split it up. They did not know if they should make their own ship or help others. They had done both and even made a Space station. They had lead the space journey only to be stopped when a group calling themselves Herjini attacked. The Space Station was the first to go and then China was next. They had recieved reports from their space station and went to go save it. The other five places all attacked at once. China was gone. But they, Humans, were alive. The remaining Chinese set up little Conturies in the five now main Countries. Though there was more at one point in time, a war had also ended that. But that is for another time.
"Whose ship is it?" Bryant asked. Though he was Canadian he had gone to America to become a soldier because of a war called 'The War for London'.
O'herra had already been trying to figure that out, but they had to get a bit closer so that he could get the right readings. "Captian Wilson, Sir."
Captian Jessica Wilson. Bryant knew her all to well. He had trained with her. Jessica even had a thing for Bryant and fell in love with him but Bryant did not feel the same way. He had just got married and had a son before becoming a soldier. His wife, Ashley, meant the world to Bryant. He never wanted to leave her or his son, Ken, named after his father who passed away right before Bryant's son was born. Ashley thought it would be best to name him after Bryant's father and Bryant agreed.
"Duchovny, contact Robert's ship and tell him what we are about to go and do. I want to make sure that if this is a set up we have some back up!" Bryant said to his communications officer.
"Yes sir." Dana Duchovny said. She then started to make contact with Robert's ship.
"O'Herra, Adams, Set us on a contact course with Captian Wilson's ship. Move us in at about half speed." Bryant knew that if you were making a S.O.S signal you had been attacked and their had been a few cases now that an enemy would attack then right before they beat you they'd leave forcing you to make a S.O.S signal then when back up came to help they'd attack and take both of you out.
"Woods put our shields up! And get our weapons armed Farmer. I am not taking any chances. Scan every fifteen seconds Lafreniere. Duchovny, was the message sent?" Bryant said.
"Yes, Sir. Captian Thibodeau's Ship has got the message and is heading this way. Captian Thibodeau says to keep yourself alive until he gets here." Dana answered.
"How long did he say he would be?" Bryant asked mostly wondering how long he would have to keep himself alive if they did get attacked.
"Fourty-five mintues unless we send a second call. He is about twenty mintues away at fastest speed." Dana told her Captian.
"Good. Keep the channel open and ready in case we do need them. Let's hope we don't." Bryant told her. They all felt that way.
Space was big and to map it all out would never happen. To give someone your location wasn't as easy as just saying 'We are over here'. They used Squares. The Squares were huge but they were scanable. Once a ship got within a square they could scan for their partner. Sometimes there were even ten planets and a sun within a Square.
"Stats report!" Bryant said. He was asking a few people at once and they knew how to do this.
"Scans are picking up nothing but the American ship." Breanne Lafreniere said.
"Doesn't mean we are alone. Keep scaning." Bryant said sounding a little rude but he didn't mean to be. He just wanted to stay alive and keep his whole crew alive too.
"Shield are at full. Nothing is touching them." Dave Woods said.
"Good!" Bryant said "Hope it stays that way."
"Weapons are ready and as soon as anything comes up I'll lock them and await your orders sir!" Cory Farmer said.
"Good. How close are we?" Bryant asked.
"We are closing in on Captian Wilson's Ship." Jay Adams said.
Bryant looked at the window in front of him. He saw the ship though you could hardly call it a ship. "What has happened to it?" Bryant asked.
"It looks like it was hit with armor percing missles..." Breanne said. "Thats odd..."
"What is it Lafreniere?" Bryant asked.
"Their Shields are up... it's like they either took the missles and then found some way to get their shields active or the missles went right throw their shields..." Breanne said confused.
"No..." Dave said. "I have seen a Ship hit with Shield piercing missles. The shields either have weakness marks or are off because of the amount of damage the ship has taken. The shields on Wilsons shield were turned on after they got attacked." Dave started to push bottons on his computer.
"Woods...?" Bryant asked knowing Dave was looking something up.
"Sir! The Shields are coming fr..." Dave started to say when a missle hit the ship.
"What the F*ck!" Bryant screamed. "Lock that son of a b*tch and open fire! O'Herra get us the f*ck out of here!"
"Yes sir!" O'Herra said as him and Adam started to push buttons on their computers.
"Sir! I can't find anything to lock!" Farmer said.
"What the f*ck! People help me out here! What is going on?" Bryant ordered.
Before anyone could answer a second missle his the ship.
"Our shields are getting hit by two missles!" Dave said.
"Sir our Comlink with Robert's ship..." Duchovny started to say when a third missle hit Bryant's ship and all the power went out. Back up power came on a few seconds later but there was only enough to sacn, keep the air systems working and send a S.O.S.
"Please tell me what just happened people" Bryant said slightly calm. He knew something wasn't right.
"Sir... " His second in command said. "They hit our main systems. They knew we'd be comlinked with Robert. They tryed to hit that first but missed the second time they hit it and the third took out our power."
"Sir... " Dave said. "the first hit wasn't a miss. It was right over our comlink but because of our shields it didn't take them out... I don't think it was meant to. I think there was a second ship. I think this was a set up. I had just noticed that Wilson's Ship was shielded by a second ship."
"You mean a second ship was using Wilson's ship to lure us over?" Bryant asked.
"No." Dave answered. "Wilson used a damaged ship to make us think she was damaged. She was shielding the other ship. Thats probably why we got her ship signal. She was shielding the other ships signal. She shot our shields and a third ship hit us with Shield piercing missles. That's why I picked up two missles on the second hit. Wilson was showing him our power as he took out our comlink. She knew we'd be here and knew we'd have Robert coming."
"Woods!" Bryant's second said, Jodie Smeele, "What you are saying put Captian Wilson under Earth Law Act Seven! She would be killed for doing this."
"Not it she Planned everything out" Bryant said. "For now though we say their is three ships out there and one of them in Damaged and one is Wilsons. That we know. Robert is on his way. I am not sure how bad out comlink is damaged. We may have a link with him but just can't use it. If that is the case Robert's going to be another fourty mintues. If our comlink fell he'll be here in around twenty still. Now can we live long enough?" Bryant asked.
"Sorry to talk out of order Sir, but has anyone noticed that we havn't been attacked again...?" Private Scott Wolney said.
"Open up whatever comlink or message system you can to the two ships around us. I want to see them and f*cking scan them!" Bryant ordered.
People started to do stuff on their computers. It would take longer because of the power.
"Sir. I have our damage Report." Wesley Hogan said.
Bryant looked it over. "Like Dave said Comlink and power down. Four dead... Hogan send the order to get power and comlink back but do not turn them on until I give the order!"
"Yes sir" Wesley said then he turned and headed to give the order.
"How are our shields?" Bryant asked.
"They are fine but for the fact we don't have enough power to run them."
"And how bad is the hole from the second missle that hit our ship?"
"It looks like it's stable. From what I can tell it took out a walk way too and that walk way blocked the hole. And it's holding."
"I don't think that was part of their plan. But it helps us..." Bryant says.
"Sir..." Duchovny says "We have a message coming in."
"Let it through." Bryant said.
"Bryant!" a Voice says.
"Jessica!" Bryant said mad. "What have you done!?"
"I have taken out one of Canadas best. And in another half an hour I'll have two of you down." Jessica answered.
"B*tch! Without my Ship running Robert won't fall into your trap!" Bryant answered.
"Oh Bryant you understand nothing. Robert is going to run in to save you because your ship is going to be damaged and landed on one of the planets."
Before Bryant could answer his ship was hit with missle after missle until it fell from the sky.