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Michael knew it was a bad idea to drop into the suggested location. He could sense something was wrong just from looking at it on the map. And true enough, the moment his feet touched down, his com went dead, and GPS started malfunctioning. "OhH, It'S AlRiGhT, It'Ll Be A fUn AdVeNtUrE!" Michael repeated loudly, mocking Jack's suggestion. This place was nothing but purple rocks, wind and static. "Good thing I chose the heavy armour before coming to this disco."

Holding his rail rifle close, Michael began to make his way forward to the last know position of Srettia. He looked in the corner of his HUD at the red light indicating his com was dead, and he decided to try it again. A vain attempt to contact his crew.

Unfortunately, all he got was getting static. "I'm gonna beat the crap out of Jack for making me come to this spooky ass place."

The sun began to fall behind the far-off mountains, and Michael decided it was a good idea for a quick rest before continuing his search. Crouching behind a large purple and teal boulder, he tabbed his water dispenser, taking a long drink from his suit reserves as he continued to look around.

He tried to make sense of everything while resting. "Damn Jack, it was his idea to come here. I bet he knew this would happen." Michael reluctantly got back up and started walking towards the marker he had placed on the map.

His walk was short but suddenly interrupted by the sound of crumbling stones. Turning around, his eyes met with tumbling rocks colliding with the ground. Michael began to worry as he began switching to IR and X-ray, both revealing nothing.

"This place wasn't supposed to have life on it." He thought.

Holding his rifle high, he moved towards the rocks deciding to investigate. "Nothing." He said. "This place is damn haunted."

Double-checking in all available spectrums didn't seem to reveal anything either, so Michael continued his trek to find Srettia.

It didn't take long, however, for more stones to start tumbling around him. Swinging around, Michael came face to face with a biped he'd never seen before, carrying a lethal-looking weapon pointed directly at him. Before Michael even had a chance to bring his weapon to defend himself, the beings weapon flared, destroying his leg, causing Michael to fall helplessly to the ground. Grabbing his knee, Michael felt his suit begin to pump him full of combat stims.

He looked towards the biped in horror as it walked over to him and kicked his gun away before pointing its weapon at his head.

"You lose, partner." Jack stated, pulling the trigger ending the game.

"You suck at this. What kind of soldier are you?" Jack teased.

Michael laughed as the hard light faded around him and Jack's avatar disappeared. "One that flies ships. How the hell did my suit optics miss you?"

"Phase suit with no armour and a heavy weapon."

"Of course, you would choose the suit that lets you fade from existence and blocks all sight. I bet you just memorized the map and walked around phased or something." Michael complained.

"That I did. It makes both of you easy to destroy. All I had to do is have a portion of my feet touching the ground and to follow the vibrations."

"You're a damn cheater." Michael said, watching as Srettia approached from across the room.

"I suggest you do what the ancients said and get good scrub."

"That was fun, but did you have to shoot both my arms off?" Srettia asked, walking up to the vHL console.

"You pulled out a knife. So yes."

"And I'll make sure to get you with it next time too." Srettia said with a huff. "Anything on the scanners yet, Jack?"

"Nope, we are still in empty space."

"Well, that's a shame. What do we do now?" Srettia asked, flicking her tail.

"Well, we're still two days out from the system, and I'm tired of being killed by Jack. It's still a few hours from dinner as well, but I suppose I could make some borscht since it takes about two hours to cook properly." Michael suggested, walking out of the room.

"What's that? Some sort of Terran meat?" Srettia asked, take a few quick steps and catching up to Michael.

"Nah, it's a soup made from beats. It'll have some meat in it though, well synthetic meat, can you print me up some cooking gloves, Jack?"

"Sure thing, I will begin printing off the ingredients as well."

"Synthetic food is better than the stuff I've been eating, so no complaints from me." Srettia said with a smile.

Michael made his way to the kitchen and changed into a new set of clothes before he began to prepare the meal. "I hope you like sour foods." he asked, walking out of his room and into the kitchen.

"Whats sour?" Srettia asked, closely watching Michael as he began to prepare the meal.

Michael paused for a second and continued sorting the ingredients. "You'll just have to find out."

"It better not be like the spicy peanuts you tried to kill me with." She hissed, poking him in the side.

"Well, we can count this as an experiment then. Have you figured out what you want to watch tonight?"

"Is there a random function? I'm not sure what I want to watch. Unless you have a suggestion?"

"If you ask me a question like that, I might just throw you in the sim again and teach you about some more advanced warp mechanics."

"Alright, we'll just random it up tonight and hope we get a good one." Srettia returned, sitting down on a stool and leaning onto the counter so she could continue to watch Michael cook. "There is a lot that goes into cooking Terran food. Where did you learn to build your meals?"

"Mostly cooking shows, honestly. I mean, when you're stuck testing deep space ships, you end up with a lot of time. So you either spend it learning, playing, or doing other things of that nature."

"That was not in your file, partner."

"Well, I assume they can't get everything right, not like they are watching me every hour of every day."

"I resent that. I give you plenty of privacy. Especially since I can see through every camera at once if I wanted."

"You're right, Jack, my bad." Michael replied.

He then proceeded to finish preparing the food and set everything to cook while Srettia watched. She seemed to enjoy the process, so Michael figured further cooking demonstrations would be a thing in the future.

After cleaning the dishes, Michael turned to the door and looked over his shoulder. "I'm going to go hang out in the cockpit for a bit. You coming?" He asked, turning to look at Srettia only to notice she was slumped on the counter sleeping. "Well, that was quick. I guess I'll go move her to the couch."

Michael moved over to gently picked Srettia up off the stool and carefully left the kitchen. Looking around, he decided to make his way down the hall and towards the ship's rec area. Somewhere along the way, however, he noticed that Srettias tail had wrapped itself around him. "What am I going to do about this?" He said, walking into the room and towards the couch.

"There is nothing to see on long-range scanners currently. I do not see why you can not just relax until dinner is ready."

"Alright, let me know when the soups ready to be cooled. Guess I could use a nap after getting the crap beat out of me anyway." Michael replied, laying himself down on the couch with his hang. Ion.

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Admiral Miles sat in his couch staring at the main screen as the absolutely massive energy signal rapidly approached his fleet. "Any idea what that thing is?" He asked.

"We'll know in a few minutes. It's still too far for an IFF yet, but it does have a similar energy profile as the experimental ship Captain Michaels flew, although with a few differences and no gravitons." Tanda replied, trying to figure out what the hell kind of death was approaching.

Admiral Miles was suddenly thankful at having kept his fleet at full readiness for the last week. "Seems it won't have been a waste." He thought. "Prepare for combat but don't fire until fired up. I doubt fleet could field something so large after our first test, make sure all fighters and bombers are launched." He ordered, sending a ready alert across the fleet.

Watching as the fleet reported green across the board, The Admiral waited for the unknown to come into sensor range.

"IFF confirmed, T.M.B Leda... Double-checking... Confirm IFF T.M.B Leda. The base will arrive in approximately one hour, Admiral." The com officer reported.

"Tanda... Is it possible for Leda to move that fast?" Admiral Miles asked.

"No, sir. I'm as confused as you are."

"Well, at least I'm not going crazy. How long until they're in coms range?" Admiral Miles continued.

"I don't know how fold space works, sir. But if it's anything like warp, approximately nine minutes." Coms reported.

"Alright, We'll just have to wait and see what's going on then. Tanda, what are the odds that they were able to refit Leda with a new type engine in a week?"

"Honestly, I have no clue, Admiral. I don't even know how the engine works yet. They might have just been able to slap some gizmo onto Leda's reactor and change the way warp works."

Looking down at a report on Leda's armaments, the Admiral frowned. "Well, I hope this doesn't send the wrong message to our new friends. Nothing like sending a planet cracker to a people who've been planet cracked. The hell was command thinking."

"Admiral, Leda is within coms range, attempting to contact them." Coms reported.

After a few seconds of static, a new face came up on the main screen, and the Admiral stood to take a step forward. "This is Admiral Eric Miles commanding the seventh fleet. I assume your Commander Kendra Brown?"

It took a few seconds, but eventually, the woman reported. "Yes, sir, though it is unorthodox, I am to be transferred to your command upon my arrival. Transmitting orders now."

Looking at the transfer orders, Admiral Miles let out a small chuckle. "So I am to be reinforced with nearly fifteen times more ships than I came here with then, is it?"

"Not including fighters, bombers, and civilian ships, sir." Commander Brown replied.

"Speaking of civilians, I wish to speak with the Commander of the relief fleet when you arrive. Can you arrange it, Commander?"

"Of course, sir. His name is Finley MacDonald, the leading expert in cold climate search and rescue command, as well as relief efforts to extreme climate colonies. He's a bit of an ass, but he recognized the problems of Aaster within seconds of seeing their planet. I can vouch for his skills firsthand."

"That so? Well, I guess He'll have fun then. I wonder how he'll fare against First Tail Chrarada." The Admiral chuckled.

"I read the bio's on what was available. She's the one in charge of their entire space-born force as well as their leader, correct?"

Admiral Miles nodded in confirmation and moved back to his couch. "From what Captain Andriet says, she runs a tight ship, wouldn't surprise me if she beats him in line if he steps out."

"Sounds like my kind of woman. Anything else you need, Admiral?" Commander brown asked.

"No, that will be all for now. I would like to meet with Commander MacDonald as soon as he's available. We need to get the fleet out asap. I'll send a message to Captain Andriet to expect reinforcements."

"Understood, Admiral, I'll make sure he's ready." With that, the Commander cut the com, and the Admiral was left to think about the problems a moon base equipped with a geo cannon might cause.

Exhaling a deep breath, Admiral Miles looked over to his Com's officer. "Com, get me Captian Andriet and see if she can get First Tail on as well."

"Understood, sir." Came a crisp reply as the officer began to tap away at her panel. It only seemed to have taken a few minutes for his request to be carried out before he was staring at both Chrarada and Andriet.

"Let's skip the formalities for now, please. We have a moon-sized issue approaching that we need to talk about." The Admiral started, confusing his two guests.

"Out with it then, Admiral." Chrarada returned.

"I do not know how or why. But fleet command has decided to send Moon Base Leda, filled to the brim with both civilian and military ships. It will be arriving at my position in approximately thirty minutes."

Chrarada looked at the Admiral with what he assumed was frustration before replying. "I see, and what exactly is a moon base? And how did it get here so fast if you claimed a relief fleet would take approximately one year?."

"Well, to answer your last question, I don't know. The only way they could be moving a moon base here that fast is if they had prepared the base with our new type fold drive long before we even came out here. To answer your first question, A moon base is just that. We hollow out a moon and install weapons, fabricators, fleet refit stations, and housing for entire armies in them. They are mainly used to defend important systems. To make things clear, our cradle system has four. Had four. Most likely three now as Leda is on the way."

Pausing for a moment to let Chrarada absorb the information, he continued. "The most worrisome thing about it arriving is the Geo Cannon. We use them to destroy pirate bases that drill too deep into planets or asteroids. Most people just call them planet crackers."

Chrarada was silent. Lost in thought on the current situation and the issues that could arise. "Admiral, what you just said will be between your people and my bridge crew. You will keep your moon base outside our system with the rest of your fleet. The civilian relief ships will be welcome after I meet with its leader. Understood?"

"Understood First Tail, I have yet to meet the man myself. Perhaps we could arrange to meet together once he arrives and give you a tour of the moon base?"

"That would be agreeable. I would like to meet with this base commander as well." Chrarada finished.

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Finley was busy going over his fleet and crew roster. He was excited to meet the inhabitants of this planet, not so much the planet itself. It can go march into a sun for all he cared. Unfortunately, there were people still stuck on that death ball that needed his help, so he couldn't just ignore it. "Four of these domes will be toast in a few months if they aren't already. Going to have to assign each of them a dedicated fab ship." He mumbled to himself, jotting it down on his already extensive action plan.

A loud knocking at the door broke him from his train of thought, angry he smashed the com. "What the hell do you want?"

Commander brown walked in angrily towards the rude man and stopped to absorbed her surroundings with astonishment. Every wall had a data screen filled with action plans on top of action plans. Crew and ship movements, supply refit and distribution, mechanical and medical aid. Entire rosters, and shifts, and breaks, already laid out.

She looked down at the man who was glaring at her with a look no one's ever given her. Collecting herself, she stood tall to reply. "I am here to inform you that Admiral Miles and First Tail Chrarada will be arriving at the base to meet you within fifteen minutes. so you should probably get ready to meet them."

"Well, they can come see me then. I'm busy, If you haven't already noticed. My job is to somehow keep close to three billion people alive, and I don't have time for pleasantries yet, so if you're done. Goodbye." Finley finished, swishing his hand to move a data screen aside.

Kendra watched in shock as the man started tapping away at his pad again, completely ignoring her. "I don't think you understand Mr. MacDonald. First Tail Chrarada is one of the most important Aasteran you could ever meet. I suggest you get ready."

"And I'm telling you, CoMmAnDeR. I have too much work to do and too little time. They can come talk to me in my smelly office if they want to meet me." Finley flipped his hand, and a new data screen came to life displaying four domes with reconstruction plans laid out along with personnel shifts and rotations and continued to move them to the side.

"Are we done here, Commander?" Finley asked, watching as Kendra turned to walk out of his room before he got back to work.

Keying the com to his new friend Ryan, he waited patiently as he needed some information before proceeding with the rest of his work. "Hey, Ryan. Those satellites I asked for. How long until you think the engineers will have them complete?"

"Looking like a few days, I already have the calcs done on them; I just need the tech printed." Ryan replied.

Finley sighed. This was going to set him back a bit. "Alright, thanks bud. I'll buy ya a beer when we get a chance to breathe." Hanging up the com, Finley went back to work.

More knocking at his door broke him from his thoughts. Angrily he smashed the com. "What the fuck do you want this time?!" He shouted, looking up as his door opened. He watched as a man he'd never seen before entered, and one of the aliens, a pink one following in behind him.

"Ahh, I see Commander Brown was right about you, Commander MacDonald. I am Admiral Eric Miles and Beside me is First Tail Chrarada. Mind if we come in?"

Righting himself real quick, Finley offered the two a seat. "No, of course not welcome to my office."

Finley watched as the two looked around his room with wide eyes scrutinizing his work. "Is there anything I can do for you two? Perhaps some tea?"

The Admiral didn't even bother taking a chair and turned to walk out of his room. "No, Commander, I think I've seen what I needed too. And you, First Tail?"

"His attitude requires adjustment. But he passes. I'll leave you to your work commander MacDonald."

Finley watched as the two left his office, allowing him to get back to his work.

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