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Yirphayen had decided that following the two carbon forms as they relocated from their current space to another was in its best interest, as It detected a fluid rate increase and chemical release that may be of some importance to the current situation.

Moving to keep up with the friendly carbon forms as they speedily removed themselves from their occupied space, Yirphayen stopped at the separation slider and looked for the friendly Eaenhreph that had appeared within its current location. Noticing that it has disappeared, Yirphayen desperately began calling out for the friendly face in a panic as it studied its occupied space.

Yirphayen was beginning to worry. Though these Carbon forms were nothing like the others that tortured its brethren, they were still carbon forms, and watching one of its kind disappear into nothingness was quite disturbing. Calling out for the Eaenhreph that disappeared again, Yirphayen came to a new space and watched as the carbon forms combined themselves with synthetic materials and decided to mimic the carbon forms in an attempt to gain their trust.

Yirphayen was smart, quickly realizing the problem and reaching out to its compatriots, unfortunately finding itself too far away to make any form of contact. Disturbing the five appendage carbon form and motioning to the odd shape displaying its kind, Yirphayen attempted to get the carbon forms to bring it closer. It needed to tell its brethren that the current carbon forms are not to be attacked.

Oddly finding itself suddenly in range of its compatriots after a large energy burst, it let out a calming resonance, telling them that the carbon forms were currently not enemies and to cease hostilities for now.

Yirphayen was happy when they listened and stopped wasting valuable energy on attacking these carbon forms.

Looking onto one of the odd boxes that displayed the four appendages type carbon form, Yirphayen attempted to inform it that they are not enemies, hoping that its soothing resonance would calm the carbon form as it did for its own kind.

Happily finding itself successful, as hostilities seemed to have been avoided, Yirphayen detected another problem. The torturers were approaching en-mass. Attempting to inform the carbon forms in front of it, Yirphayen found itself surprised once again. The carbon forms seemed to have noticed the torturers approach and began to group up in a defensive posture, much like its own kind did, when the enemy came to plunder. Sending a warning resonance to its brethren, Yirphayen decided to closely watch the two carbon forms to see how they would react to others of its kind.

Resonating with worry as the torturers started pouring into the system, Yirphayen was surprised to see the reaction of the four and five appendages carbon forms. A battle, unlike anything Yirphayen had seen, had begun. The outnumbered carbon forms began to destroy the torturers as one would imbibe solar waves. Letting out an exciting resonance, Yirphayen had decided it liked these new carbon forms.

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Michael manoeuvred to cover one of his squadmates that found themselves out of position after a nasty hit, finding that the alien's sheer weight of fire somewhat troublesome as more and more ships poured into the system.

"Five more of the very large ships have entered the system. They are releasing fighters."

" I WON'T LET YOU HURT THEM!" Srettia screamed, channelling all her rage into an alien destroyer, trying to cut off its approach as they crashed towards the singers.

Returning to the bomber formation with his out-of-position squadmate, Michael found himself chuckling at Srettia's change of heart. " Decided you like them now?"

Srettia hissed loudly as she fired another few shots at some approaching fighters. "No, I just won't let these things hurt anyone else."

Michael sighed, covering the squad as they skimmed just above the hull of a screening frigate as Jack fired a rather large volley of torpedoes at a destroyer. "Fair enough."

"Large interceptor group approaching."

Targeting the squad and firing off a volley of shots, Srettia laughed with joy as they broke apart, some exploding and crashing into their wingmates in a blue inferno. "Oh, how I needed this! I think I'll let you fly from now on."

Turning to look at the alien behind her, Srettia noticed it was chiming a rather harsh tune. "I guess he doesn't like them much either."

"Its kind is gathering around the others near the sun. They have yet to engage in the battle."

Shaking around in his couch, Michael easily dodged out of the way of a large volley of slugs, flipping the ship to rejoin the squadron. "Maybe they want us to kill each other." Another harsh chime came from the alien as one of the larger ships broke apart, and four of its kind departed from the wreckage. "Or they just want these guys dead and are conserving their energy to finishing them off if we fail."

"The squad leader is signalling a new target. Displaying it on star map now."

Srettia smiled and cycled the lance batteries forward. "That's a pretty deep target."

"It will break the defensive formation if we are successful."

Michael manoeuvred into the determined path, covering three bombers from flanking fire, as he keyed his confirmation. "What defensive? These guys fall apart like paper in water."

"Another group of enemy ships are arriving from warp. It is now approximately eight hundred ships to our seventy."

"How many do we have to destroy to get them to leave?" Srettia complained as she fired off a few shots at a passing frigate, gouging huge chunks from its side and ejecting debris into the surrounding ships.

Moving deeper into the enemy formation, Michael scowled. "I've seen tactics like this before. They plan to overwhelm us. Pretty much what command thought their tactics were."

"Friendly fleet incoming. First assault forces. The enemy will not win this battle."

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Chrarada screamed in fury as her ship exited warp and immediately began firing off its long-range torpedoes. "Join the rapid response task force and move the ship to the front of the formation." She ordered, though quickly frowning as she received orders to cover the flank, Chrarada slammed her fist on her com pannel. "Relocate to this quadrant. Cover the task force and let them move to the rear." She reluctantly corrected.

Receiving confirmation from her bridge crew, Chrarada noticed the odd lightships around the sun and sent a query to fleet command, grimacing as they were suddenly marked as civilians on her map. " Those things... Civilians? Keep an eye on them. Destroy them if they make any funny moves."

Feeling the venom pool within her mouth as her ship reached its position, Chrarada swallowed and laughed as a large group of vessels moved to cut off the response force retreat. "Yes, come here so I can destroy you!"

Watching as the enemy ships moved into range and her warship unleashed its new lance batteries and rail cannons, Chrarada was now almost thanking the commander for putting her in the current position as the weapons crew sunk four ships and split a fifth in half in just over a minute. "Try not to hit the civilian ships while they leave the wreckage. We'll deal with them after the battle."

Looking at her command console as it beeped a new tone at her, Chrarada held back a maniacal laugh and accepted the assigned task.

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Talon leader Ranarus clattered around in his harness. He, along with twenty other Aasteran boarders, were chosen to accompany the Terrans in a large-scale boarding operation of the largest ship in the enemy fleet. Shaking excitedly in his armour as the Terran leader went over the battle plan in his own harness. Ranarus couldn't help be feel immense satisfaction. The honour of doing battle face to face with the enemy.

"RANARUS! Wake up, pal. Your squad is covering our flank, so no sleeping." Commander Soto, a Terran selected to lead the squad due to his experience in dealing with Aaster soldiers, warned.

Ranarus key his affirmative and held his Terran rail rifle tightly. " I will perform my duties as ordered commander."

Commander Soto nodded and continued explaining the plan. "So, we think, we'll be dropping into the reactor core, or what passes as one for these guys. We disable the power then try to take as many prisoners as possible."

Ranarus waited silently, listening as his commander continued to speak as the green light turned amber, and the boarding shuttle crashed violently into the enemy ship, drilling deep towards the core. After the scraping sounds and the vibration stopped, his harness burst open, and the amber light turned red.

Commander Soto moved towards one of three exit doors as they burst open and quickly exited the shuttle. "Let's go! Red team left, Blue team centre."

Ranarus being red team, covered the left exit hatch as the shuttle occupants quickly dropped and began moving into the ship, tens of groups now migrating in all manner of directions. "No enemies sighted commander!"

Motioning for his squad to follow him, Commander Soto began following the map the Ewar boys quickly assembled for him. "No atmo. It looks like they vented. Maybe they aren't as stupid as we think."

Ranarus was beginning to get a bad feeling. He had been on the enemy ship for four minutes now. But, for the entire way, not one sight of the enemy. "Something is w; they or they are very incompetent."

Commander Soto had to agree with Ranarus. "Eyes open, they must have set up an ambush somewhere."

Turning into one of the final hallways leading to the power source, Ranarus slammed himself against the wall, his armour nearly forcing itself through the thin metal as a blast of white light flew past him. "Enemy spotted!" Watching as the Terrans drove themselves into the walls, creating an instant cover, Ranarus ordered his men to do the same.

"They're fucking three-legged balls with arms." One of the Terrans shouted, firing down the hall."

"Watch the CQC; they got four arms." One of the Aasteran shouted, blasting a hole through the aliens with ease with his Terran rifle.

"Frag out!" Commander Soto announced as he threw a ball that hit one of the alien's centre mass, crashing right through it and splattering guts against the wall before exploding and sending shrapnel and gore in every direction while shredding the remaining enemies.

Ranarus was always on the fence about whether he could trust a Terran or not. But after that, he decided it didn't matter, and he would rather be on their good side. Quickly moving down the hall to secure the passage, Ranarus stopped as a painful grinding, a screeching noise caught his attention. "Anyone here that?"

Moving up beside Ranarus, Commander Soto paused to listen. "It sounds like a slow hover crash."

Ranarus shrugged and followed his commander. It was right before their destination that everything went wrong. The screeching and metal grinding sounds pierced their suit dampeners as was beginning to cause issues within the group. Peeking around the corner, Ranarus spotted a weird device along with a large number of alien defenders. A duo turned down the hall, firing into the defenders, both dropped, holding their heads as if in pain.

Blasting a hole through the wall and dragging his teammates into safety, Ranarus peeked over his cover. "THEY HAVE HAVE HEAVY WEAPON EMPLACEMENTS AND SHIELDS!" He shouted, eyeing the device as he began checking his team over for damage.

"SHIELD WALL!" Commander Soto shouted, grabbing his four trusted squadmates and charging his hand shield.

Ranarus watched as the five Terrans slammed their shields together while the rest gathered behind them. Realizing the plan, Ranarus began firing into the weapons emplacement doing his best to ignore the sound clawing at his brain. "COVERING FIRE!"

Continuing his barrage, he watched as the Terrans steadily made their way down the hall as the enemies rained fire on them. Ranarus began to feel blood dripping from his nose. Quickly looking at his suit sensors, he saw no cause for alarm and continued the fight.

Commander Soto exhaled as he finally reached the shield. Shaking his head, he peeked around the front guard to push his pistol through, firing off a few shots at the shield generator before throwing an anti-matter grenade and hiding behind the shield wall again.

Ranarus watched in amusement as the grenade exploded and took out the surrounding area, leaving a massive hole in the wall and killing the alien defenders. That is, before the sound got infinitely worse, forcing him to his knees as he clutched his head in pain. "SOMEONE SHUT THAT OFF!"

Commander Soto fought to stay on his feet against the harmonic assault. Painfully. One step at a time, he moved with his team to where he thought the weapon was located, only to be confused at what he saw. Multiple areas with odd silicon diamonds, each emitting light that would be sucked into varying directions towards the floor. Pointing his pistol at the screaming diamond shape weapon, Commander Soto pulled the trigger as he was shot off his feet, the defending aliens ambushing the Terran team once again as they swarmed into the room.

Forcing himself into the chamber, Ranarus covered the commander's escape as his teammates pulled him into cover, aiming at the weapon emplacement as the enemy rained fire on the Terran position. Fighting against the assault, Ranarus let lose a heavy volley into the diamond forms, shattering them and successfully silencing the attack.

"I'm fine! No damage, let's kill these fuckers." Commander Soto announced, checking his armour for damage as his squad patched him up.

Ranarus, now freed from the attack, watched force began to push on the defenders. Moving forward with the team and into cover in one of the odd weapon alcoves, he began firing on the enemies swarming the room, taking down large groups of them as his rifle easily pierced their cover.

Commander Soto scowled as the ship's power source was cut and the lights died. "Power's out! Push forward, we sweep the ship, take prisoners, and find the friendlies!!" He continued, grimacing as the emergency lights slowly came to life.

Ranarus stepped forward in anger as a blast of energy bounced off his shield. Kicking the large diamond to the side while he shot off the arm of a particularly brave enemy, he motioned his team to push forward. "Understood, commander!"

Now that the enemy weapons were disabled, Commander Soto and his boarding group easily repelled the final force of the alien ambush. Spending time to sweep the large room of enemies, he walked over to the large silicon diamond and picked it up to study. "What kind of weapon is this?"

Ranarus walked over as the final shots of the battle rang in the distance of the room and looked at the object easily the size of his torso. "I'm still detecting energy. You should destroy it."

Commander Soto put the diamond down and studied it once again, switching to various optical spectrums with interest. "Maybe we should bring it back to command. Not like they can take this reactor bay from us."

Ranarus frowned and pointed his weapon at it. "They could activate it at any time, and we need to get moving." Deciding on whether to pull the trigger or not, Ranarus was throw off his footing as a blast of heat crashed into him from the side.

The boarding team turned towards the location their hud had marked and paused in confusion as it marked the diamonds as enemies. Commander Soto the first to speak. "We destroy the diamonds and move on."

Just as the group pulled up their weapons, one of the silicon diamonds began to coalesce and take shape. It was at this time; Commander Soto came to realize just what was going on and acted. "HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

Ranarus frowned but made sure his team followed the order. "You better have a goo-"

Just as Ranarus was complaining, One of the silicone diamonds took the shape of a circle, chiming a sorrowful tune at the boarding team as it fought to maintain its form, breaking apart and falling to the ground several times before somewhat stabilizing and softly chiming another tune at them.

Ranarus watched as Commander Soto opened a private com to the other boarding commanders and was silent for a good few minutes. "We need to get moving now before we're swarmed again." He shouted at the other Terrans, who were now silent as confusion washed over Ranarus's boarding team.

After another minute, a massive explosion rocked the ship. But something was different, and Ranarus could swear it came from within the ship. It was then he noticed that his weapon limiters were removed. Looking to Commander Soto for answers, he was shocked to see that the Terran's had activated their back compartments, revealing heavy weapons.

Commander Soto looked to the boarding team as the lance battery on his back swivelled to shatter a massive hole through the wall, obliterating tens of the aliens as they began to group for an attack once again. "Change of plans."

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