SOLAR YEAR 2429, LEO SYSTEM, SECTOR ONE, PLANET RED 420 ORBIT. 1238 HOURS, THE MARSHAL THIRTY EIGHT MINUTES AFTER INVASION

“Full Charge LS cannon. Aim at one of those Teras!,” Captain Hawkins ordered, “We’ll take out as much of the GEOM bastards as we can before they get close enough to outmaneuver us. Rita, take hold of our comms and relay the Vasily and the Epitome to form a V formation on us.”

“Yes Kepten,” A Female disembodied voice acknowledged.

From the few working cameras of the heavily damaged Marshal, the bridge displays show the other two remnants of the Eleventh USTF squadron slowly positioned themselves on the Marshal’s port and starboard sides before moving forward to form a V formation. While the USTF ships were repositioning, the GEOM ships edged closer. Captain Hawkins noticed that the GEOM-controlled ships seemed weary of attacking directly; he had to take advantage of the enemy’s hesitation.

“LS cannon running hot, Sir,” Lieutenant Shizuka reported.

“Fire Lieutenant,” commanded Captain Hawkins

“Round away.”

A flash of light hit one of the GEOM-controlled cruisers right on its prow’s center, its lights dimmed, leaned heavily to its starboard and started to tumble towards Red 420’s moon---slowly being pulled by the moon’s gravity.

“Target disabled Captain,” Shizuka Reported, “Seven hostiles left!”

“Kepten Hawkins,” Rita’s electronic voice resonated from the bridge speakers, “The GEOM ships are trying to flenk es from all sides.”

The Bridge display flashed the seven ships spreading out from different directions preparing to out maneuver the three slow ships.

Captain Hawkins expected this to happen sooner but since the GEOMs where hesitant on going all out after annihilating the Eleventh USTF squadron’s second formation, they had time to prepare a last stand.

“Rita relay to Epitome and Vasily to arm their missile pods with ten kilometer armed detonations and to spread chaff all over our formation.”

“Yez Kepten,” an automated voice acknowledged

“Shizuka distribute all power to the LS gun and keep firing.”

“Aye Captain,” The long brown-haired Lieutenant answered.

“Herrard get me simultaneous head on collisions courses on the nearest GEOM ships,” Captain Hawkins ordered, “our static energy would be enough to crush their smaller ships.”

Herrard didn’t answer as he computed and relayed the suicide orders. No one in the bridge contradicted the Captain. Even if they did oppose the order, everyone thought they were going to die anyway. Captain Hawkins’s stoic face hid his admiration and regrets towards his crew, some fought with him through numerous battles and even at their bleakest moment they still follow him unwaveringly---the guilt that such brave and faithful people had to be under his command slowly overwhelmed him. The ship’s display showed three blue broken lines intersecting with three red broken lines--the collision routes had been set.

“Sir, remnants of the GEOM boarding party are going through the main elevator well,” Lieutenant Shizuka reported, “they passed Fire teams A through G and are heading towards the bridge.”

A thuds followed by several slurping sounds came from the bridge’s bulkhead inching closer the entrance. Captain Hawkins drew his side arm and pointed it at the bridge door; several crew members did the same. The thuds and liquid sounds are now directly behind the heavy metal door.

“Shizuka direct the fire teams to the bridge now!” The Captain exclaimed.

Hawkins’s brows furrowed, he could only hope that their standard issue side arms could slow down the GEOM breed that lie beyond the bridge doors. The parasites now slammed the door, its hinges giving way after every hit.

“Shizuka how long do we have on our fire team!”

“Two minutes on the nearest squad sir,” The tactical officer stammered as she looked at the Captain. That’s the first time the Lieutenant looked at him throughout the whole battle and Captain Hawkins saw how Shizuka’s eyes betrayed her steely demeanor.

One of the hinges now popped off.

Hawkins steadied his aim; cold sweat ran down his pores. The slamming of metal in sync with his heartbeat.

An orange white color flashed on one of the bridge displays, Hawkins peripherals just caught of sight of it. Herrard then acknowledge the orange white streak, it was a USTF fighter. A second later Rita’s holographic mouth gaped open.

“GET DOWN!” Rita exclaimed. The bridge crew didn’t question the change of the A.I. voice resolution, which sounded more human than automaton and more male than female, hurriedly laid prone and braced themselves; the Bridge door burst open.

In his prone position, Hawkins could just make out the GEOM Humanoid variants with slug-like skin. Liquid with mucus-like consistency dripped consistently on their pores. The once human faces now deformed and their skin was a sickly green. Hawkins blinked as the five GEOMs rushed towards the nearest crewmembers. Puffs of vapor emanated from the cold bridge air and appeared nearer the five GEOMS “Slugs”. The bridge echoed of flesh being sliced through the bone until Hawkins only heard his heartbeat once more.

Footsteps clanging to metal inched to wear he was lying until he could see the vamps of the wearer’s boots in front of his face. He looked up and saw a tall dark-haired young Caucasian. He looked up at the cloak-wearing Knight and locked eyes with him. Hawkins smiled and the Knight smirked, reaching out his hand.

“Get up you idiot,” The Knight mused.

“So they sent you huh?” Hawkins took the Knights hand and lifted himself up.

“Yeah, Vyse saw this coming by a long shot and Max relayed the info,” Lyon answered, “When we were phasing from Herodutus we receive your SOS transmissions confirming Vyse’s predictions.”

Hawkins nodded. The power of the remnants of the first class of Knights ceases to amazed him, “What about the GEOM squadron?”

Lyon raised an eyebrow and beckoned at one of camera feeds that showed two Tera-class cruisers limping away while the still unknown flesh-colored GEOM ships were on full retreat towards Red 420’s moon, “When we flanked them a while ago they scattered.”

“So they’re regrouping.” Hawkins concluded, “And you have Enigma-class frigates.”

“Yes, we calculated that there is, at least, a fifty ship armada behind that moon,” The Knight responded, “The forward party consisted of Three Enigma-class frigates. We have twenty five ships inbound soon.”

Fifty ships. Hawkins pondered, his hand stroking his chin, “So did Vyse concluded that a queen is at Red 420? Or was it something else?”

Lyon grinned, “Three queens and he predicted further than that old friend.”

Hawkins stared at Lyon with surprised eyes. Three queens on Red 420?

“Do you mean there’s something bigger than having three queens in one planet?” Hawkins asked with a flabbergasted gape.

“You should know better Hawkins having that probability prediction potential of yours.” Lyon said his hands now behind his back, “The next target after this would be the turning point of this war against the GEOMS but before that we must focus in controlling Red sector’s space.”

Hawkins nodded, “What do you have in mind?”

Lyon looked at the Captain with mischievous smile, “An old Knight tactic.”

SOLAR YEAR 2429, LEO SYSTEM, SECTOR ONE, PLANET RED 420 ORBIT. 2400 HOURS, THE FRANCISCO TWELVE HOURS AFTER INVASION

Captain Hawkins collapsed on his bed and gave a deep sigh. He had just finished supervising the repair crew after a five hour briefing with Prime Banneret Knight Lyon Vermillion about the GEOM heat signatures they found. They had compared the readings with the conclusions of Prime Lord Knight Vyse Kunze and concluded that the strategic three cities where the three battalions dropped were where the three GEOM hives are likely to be. They had the Marshal, Vasily and Epitome docked at the repair ship Francisco. It would at least take two more hours to have the Marshal repaired by fifty percent according to Rita; also, Lyon had directly ordered the Captain that the remaining Eleventh fleet ships would just be doing a supporting role in the upcoming battle.

Then there was the second part of the briefing.

Lyon had an enigma-class frigate recon the GEOM moon base and it reported that the GEOM’s haven’t started mobilizing their ships. Lyon knew better and decided that they would wait for the remaining reinforcements to jumped into Leo system but that didn’t dissuade him from taking a somewhat aggressive move. Hawkins mulled at Lyon briefing them about the aggressive maneuver, unusual of the Prime Banneret Knight since he was always the passive one and tends to follow someone else’s lead.

Five years could change a lot in someone, Captain Hawkins thought.

The attack on the GEOMs would commence at Four Hundred hours and the Captain hoped that Lyon was successful as he went to get some much needed sleep.

SOLAR YEAR 2429, LEO SYSTEM, SECTOR ONE, PLANET RED 420 ORBIT. 2400 HOURS, THE PHOENIX, TWELVE HOURS AFTER INVASION

“Green leader this is Green Prime,” Lyon beaconed, “Fold into column formation and follow me.”

“Roger Green Prime.” A deep voiced Pilot answered.

The Three Squadrons of FF-42 Phantom Ospreys formed three lines behind the Knight’s fighter ship. Lyon took a couple of deep breaths before gunning the engines towards a pre-empted flanking route to Red 420’s moon.

“Steady boys keep those burners down.” Lyon ordered, “We are passing A -point of the route, leaders keep the boys in line.”

The column made a turn around the floating wreck of the Nobunaga and dove. Lyon was cautious of the fact the GEOMs could have scouts on the debris field or some survivors that could pounce on their fighters and ruin the ambush.

“Approaching point B,” The Knight said on the fighter comms. The three squadron leaders acknowledge. When the squadrons reach the next point, they pulled up and were almost directly below the moon. They have carefully calculated the moon’s orbit speed and should intersect their route in three minutes.

“Green Prime you got to see this.” One of the Squadron leaders reported. A tab popped out on the Knight’s tactical display. A huge object was lumbering towards their flight path.

The Knight analyzed the situation. The ambush group was cruising for a Hundred Twenty Kilometers per hour and the debris was about two minutes until it hits their course.

“Anna what would you recommend?” Lyon asked.

“Now you want my suggestion?” A disembodied female voice answered.

“Now come on,” Lyon protested, “that drop maneuver on the Marshal was different. I didn’t know what happened, I panicked.”

“Cause you’re an indecisive prick,” Anna corrected and made a sound close to that of a sigh, “I’ve calculated the flight path beforehand; I’ll project it on every squadron display.”

“Thank you baby,” Lyon teased. The A.I. flashed his helmet display blinding the Knight in answer.

“Don’t ever call me baby.”

“Alright, ALRIGHT!” Lyon said rubbing his eyes. “Jeez Anna! You don’t have to play so hard to get.”

“If I had eyes, I’d be rolling them right now.”

“If you had eyes, I’ll bet they’ll be beautiful.”

“Shut up.” The A.I. retorted.

Lyon smiled and started to follow the new route. Acknowledgements from all the squad leaders filled the comms. The squadrons dove below the Carrier debris and when they reached the other side pulled up and followed their previous route.

“Cruise at One Hundred Fifty Kilometers,” Lyon said.

The squadron comms crackled and orange and red plumes filled the Knight’s monitors and his rear view mirror. He looked back and saw several of the Ospreys had exploded.

“Green Prime! Green Prime!” The comm rattled, “GEOMS are behind the Nobunaga debris their jumping on us!”

“Anna!” Lyon exasperated, “Didn’t you calculate this?”

“You distracted me,” The A.I. responded, “it seems only the tail end of the formation has been attacked. They were slightly closer the debris that’s why the GEOMs reached them.”

“Now they know we’re here,” Lyon gritted, “All Pilots head towards the moon full speed! Element has been compromise!”

Lyon heard one of the squad leaders yell Go! Go! Go! Lyon enabled his afterburners. Consecutive booms on the comm informed the Knight that the squadrons have fired their afterburners as well. They rushed towards the GEOM moon hive. Lyon did not realize it until Anna had pointed it out. The debris field blossomed thousands of clustered GEOMs---survivors of the recent clash.

“Damn it Anna! What were you doing when I told you to scan the debris field?” Lyon rasped irritably.

“I don’t know, you’re the one who programmed me,” Anna irked.

“Now I know why I didn’t consult you earlier.”

“GEOM hive Three Hundred Kilometers out,” The A.I. said with an annoyed tone.

Lyon opened the comm relay, “Squad leaders sit rep.”

“This is green leader--- we’ve lost green five and seven.”

“Green Prime this is acting red leader, red one, ,” a female pilot reported, “We lost red leader and red three through five.”

“Blue Squadron is intact Green Prime,” The final squad leader reported, “We shook them off.”

“Well that’s a lot of good news,” Lyon murmured, “I hope you’re happy Anna.”

“Excuse me?” The A.I.’s voice was so pitched it stung the Knight’s eardrums, “You’re pinning this on me now?”

“Well I don’t expect sympathy from you since you’re a heartless tera-processed bitch.”

There was an awkward pause between Anna and Lyon. The Knight knew that Anna was now analyzing his voice patterns for his emotional address from his last retort.

“Ok, I’m sorry,” she finally answered, “Maybe if I’ve focused enough I would’ve spotted the GEOMs in the debris field.”

Lyon sighed. He programmed Anna to have human-like emotions so that he could enjoy more realistic conversations and rebuttals since his courage didn’t go as far as actually conversing with the opposite sex. Having a hard time talking with something he created convinced him that avoiding direct female contact was the right decision.

“Where’s my GEOM hive scan Anna?,”

“Aye Captain,” Anna mocked.

“And She’s back,” Lyon murmured. They were close enough for Anna to make a 3D display of the initial layers of the GEOM hive. The hive was shaped like an open-pit mine but with inner walls like that of a bee hive. The shaped surfaces of the walls and its colors vary depending mainly on how old the hive is, the queen or its purpose.

“Bogeys coming from the debris field sir!” A Pilot shouted on the comms.

Sure enough, five GEOM ships were wading through the debris field heading towards the USTF formation.

“All pilots ignore hostiles and stay on mission,” Lyon commanded.

They were close enough to see the gaping mouth of the GEOM hive located at the under belly of Red 420’s moon. Just then, a partial model of the hive popped out from the Phoenix’ display.

Lyon was astonished.

“I believe that you’ve realized what my findings of the GEOM hive are Lord Lyon,” Anna said, “We really need to destroy this hive Lyon.”

Lyon nodded, “We can’t have the GEOMs produce more organic-based ships. HQ would want to have data on this thing Anna.”

“Roger that,” Anna replied, “Head towards this crevice, it seems the production line starts through there.” The hologram zoomed in on a huge crack on the almost perfect outer ring of the GEOM hive.

“god,” Lyon gasped. The crevice gap could fit three Olympiad-class carriers stacked on top of each other. The crevice glows a purple hue intermittently and Lyon could just make out the dots that were starting to pour out of it.

“Ambush squadron, we got multiple GEOM Hellcats,” Lyon advised on the comms, “get ready boys, stay on mission.”

Hellcats were one of the first space-based fighters. The first generation of spacecraft were always over engineered since space was still largely undiscovered and not knowing what threats to face had them built to endure the unexpected. The Hellcats had thicker armor than successive fighter models and had stocky but powerful engines. The armaments of the Hellcats were somewhat lacking but GEOM reconfiguration would have certainly changed that. Being a Prime Banneret Knight, Lyon has several prerogatives, one of which is having personalized and customized equipment. Lyon had his Phantom Osprey fitted with an A.I. co-piloting system; a Hiraga stream bound twin propulsion system and an assortment of armament choices. His customized fighter is faster, has greater firepower and has no need of having a mother ship; though he had to trim the standard panels to three centimeters to compensate with the added weight of the weapon and engines. The reduction of the Phoenix’ armor had reduce his chance of surviving a direct hit , he remedied this by installing Anna. The Phoenix was as formidable as an Enigma-class frigate but Lyon feared having all the upgrades he had installed was still insufficient in fighting or even surviving the upcoming clash. Unfortunately, his combat group would have lower chances of surviving the battle, most of which use the standard Osprey fighter craft.

The GEOMs were converging towards the combat group from every direction. They were in the eye of an infected storm.

“Keep the tight formation boys!” Lyon said as he braced himself, “we’re going head first into that crevice. First volley on my command!”

The then ambush group had one trick under their sleeves. Each Osprey has been fitted with a disposable Lebensschmerz rail gun Juniors, coined by the USTF pilots, on their fuselage hard point and five of the best pilots have two napalm bombs afixed to the wings of their Ospreys. The five were the combat group’s top priority.

Before initiating the attack on the GEOM hive, Lyon ordered an Enigma-class frigate to do a full scan of its immediate area. There was a ten-thousand kilometer radius heat signature on the suspected GEOM spot and x-ray scans showed a lot of GEOM activity. During the briefing, the intel officers had suspected that it was a GEOM production plant, thus they have fitted the Ospreys with scorched earth potential to weaken the GEOM force before the full scale attack. Anna had just confirmed it was the first discovered GEOM ship factory and the mission’s importance rose significantly.

“Security group! Protect the bombers!” Lyon ordered, “Here comes the blank party!”

The infected Hellcats converged into a sickly colored, metallic wall, trying to block the combat squadron from pushing towards the GEOM hive. Lyon turned off his LS rail gun’s safety.

“Fire! Fire! Fire!” He shouted.

Simultaneous streaks of light zoomed across the vacuum towards the Hellcat blockade and blossomed as they hit the aging fighters. As the struck Hellcats got sucked into the moon’s gravity well it created a gap at the GEOM blockade.

“Drop the LS boys, breakthrough the gap!” Lyon ordered as he set the Phoenix into full throttle.

The Phoenix was the first one through the broken blockade, several Ospreys followed suit cleanly. The gap was rapidly being closed by the continuously reinforced GEOM fighters, several of which successfully crashed their aircrafts to unfortunate Osprey fighters. When Lyon looked back from inside the alien blockade almost half of the squadron didn’t make it, most of those who did make it had clipped Hellcat fighters. Before Lyon averted his eyes from the death charge he had commanded, a few more Ospreys exploded against the GEOM fighter craft and through the smoke and fire two fighter Ospreys emerged, each had to telltale metal casements on their wings---they’re napalm holders.

“Red one here,” The female pilot bawled, she fought to keep her voice from being wheezy but failed, “---I’m through the blockade with blue leader---the others didn’t make it sir.”

“Dammit!” Lyon slammed his fist on his control panel, surprising Anna. He grinded his teeth in anger, they lost the initiative and they paid dearly for it. He hoped the brave actions of the pilots who sacrificed their lives for the completion of the mission would not be in vain. Anna had analyzed the emotions of the Knight and had waited for Lyon to simmer before addressing the next obstacle.

“Lyon,” she said calmly, “I’m having energy readings at the entrance to the GEOM plant,”

“Force fields?” Lyon queried, “Charge our phase cannons Anna, we need to override the circuits before we get disintegrated.”

“Aye, Captain. The shield links are located at the top and bottom centers. They’ve also stopped pouring out the Hellcats.”

The squadron had shook off the chasing GEOM Hellcats and fired at the Hellcats that came from the GEOM hive. The Phoenix poured out the missiles from its enlarged pods and tried to blast an opening. A red beam of supercharged light narrowly missed the Phoenix; Lyon looked towards the debris field and saw the GEOM frigates were almost in flanking position.

“Phasers are charged Lyon.” Anna announced.

As soon as Anna had said that, Lyon fired the Phoenix’ phasers and struck the shield links, depowering the force field.

“Shield down, everyone rush towards the entrance,” Lyon broadcasted on the squadron comms.

The Anna pinned updated list of the squadron: Green squad still had six fighters, red squad was down to two and Blue squad has three. The good news was the combat group had successfully protected all the napalm bombers. Lyon watched the cavern roof pass overhead as they entered the GEOM plant.

“Phase two boys!” Lyon rasped as he maneuvered through the alien maze, “Anna scan the hive for a backdoor, we are not going back out where we entered.”

“Scanning.” Anna replied.

The tunnel opened up to a humongous chamber, tens of Hellcats were parked inside the chamber and the once human pilots and personnel lumbered around the cave floor. Some of the GEOM-infected looked up and Lyon could just see their mouthed guttural shouts.

“Blue and Green leader drop them!”

Twin tanks fell from two of the napalm bombers and landed on top of the Hellcats and burned the parasitic monsters and their hosts. As the last of the combat group passed the bombed area, the hellcats exploded and filled the cavern with fire and heated shrapnel.

The cavern funneled into a tunnel again, several of the GEOMs were waiting for the fighters to pass and jumped on the unwary pilots. One pilot was skewered and his osprey crashed on another fighter, both collided with the tunnel wall and caused a cave in.

“Anna, tell me there’s another way out because we’re definitely not getting out of here that way.” Lyon exasperated. His missile count just turned zero and his chain guns were overheating from firing at the GEOMs that were trying to bring down the fighters.

“We’ve got another cavern coming up, much bigger than the previous one and another tunnel network after that.” Anna replied, “I think this is it.”

A bright light shone from the tunnel end and the combat group emerged into an enormous fissure that was turned into the main production area of the GEOM ships. A purple liquid ran in the middle of the fissure floor and was sucked by throbbing tubes which led into a huge, bladder-like storage. The storage was connected to production lines that were likely moved from mines from the captured worlds. Instead of metal, they use the solidified mucus-like substance and assemble them into parts for the horrific GEOM ships the USTF fleet fears. Lyon studied the purple substance, its color was slowly turning to flesh as it neared the production line’s end and it seemed to be---moving.

The plant also featured a new type of GEOM, tentacled blobs that slithered to and fro in the production line. They assembled the “parts” and seemed to monitor the production machines. The cavern seemed to go on forever with the same production line repeated where the other line ended.

“Are you getting this Anna?” Lyon asked, both intrigued and frightened at the scene. He feared the GEOMS now more than ever. Linking their parasitic nature with the imitated technology they acquired.

“Yes Lyon,” Anna responded, “We’re seeing firsthand how they build their atrocious weapons and ships.”

“We must get the data out of here.” Lyon muttered, “All pilots record your camera feeds, we need to get this intel out of here.”

They were nearing the cavern exit when they saw a completed GEOM ship roughly the size of a Marathon-class cruiser.

“Shit,” one of the pilots muttered on the comms.

“All pilots use all your ordnances,” Lyon ordered, “Give it everything you got!”

The cacophony of weapons imploded inside the plant. Bullets pelted the GEOM blobs and the assembling machines, the last of the napalm dropped and what was left of the missiles fired. One of the heavily damaged Ospreys deliberately crashed at the GEOM cruiser which blossomed into flames.

“Lyon, I’ve found a way out,” Anna said, “Kind of.”

“Kind of?” Lyon irked, “What’s wrong with the exit?”

“It’s above us,” Anna replied.

Lyon looked above through his translucent cockpit; the cavern roof looked as intimidating as the now destroyed GEOM cruiser. “You mean we have to blast through that?”

“Yes, and I think everyone had used all of their munitions.”

Lyon fell silent for a moment then guided the Phoenix perpendicular to the cavern roof, “All surviving pilots head towards the cavern roof, that’s our ticket out.”

Lyon counted, five Ospreys---all of which followed blindly his ridiculous command, “Ok Anna, I’ll do the usual, I’m handing her over to you.”

“Understood,” Anna answered, “there’s an unexploded ship engine directly below us.”

The Phoenix’ cockpit was filled with smoke and the inner panels were filled with precipitation. The cavern roof exploded a second later, another puff of smoke and Lyon appeared again in the Phoenix’ cockpit. Debris fell from the exploded roof and the surviving Ospreys narrowly dodged each one. The stars were again visible as the smoke and smoldering rock cleared.

“We’re getting out of here!” One of the pilots shouted.

Then a looming figure appeared on top of the gap. The trio of GEOM frigates was now blocking the exit

“Shit shit shit!” Red one exclaimed as the frigates charge their energy beams.

Lyon was about to teleport the Phoenix behind the frigates---his thoughts of leaving his squadron behind pained him greatly but the importance of the GEOM ship production data superseded the lives of his men and one of them needed to survive to report the findings.

Six bolts went through the three frigates amidships and the ships toppled to the right like dominoes. The combat group avoided the exploding ships and emerged from the cavern to be greeted by six USTF ships.

“I guess we’re even now,” A voice jested through the squadron comms.

Lyon could only smile as hoorahs and cheers of the remaining pilots filled the transmission.

“Hawkins you bastard.” He muttered.

“I’m guessing Captain Hawkins’ random accelerated probability potential had kicked in.” Anna said as she sent docking routes for the five remaining, heavily battered, Phantom Ospreys, “He would have been a top class Knight if his potential had an average maturity rate.”

“Sue his parents then Anna.” Lyon mused, as he placed his feet atop the Phoenix’ panel while Anna pilots the Phoenix towards the docking zone of the frigate, Silver Eclipse. The USTF Enigma-class ships’ armor shimmered as they waited for their Background Adaptive Camouflage System to render, the main feature of the Enigma-class that had put them ahead of the other USTF ships.

“Wake me up after we get docked Anna,” Lyon lazily said.

“Let me remind you we’re still at G.E.O.M. controlled airspace Prime Banneret Knight Lyon,” Anna said, lacing her words with the best sarcasm technology has to offer. Unbeknownst to Lyon, Anna had turned on transmissions with the Silver Eclipse.

“That’s goes to show how much I trust you.” Lyon teased, “Now let me sleep.”

“I’m sorry to say this Lyon but you’re going to have to postpone that nap.” A voice said through the Phoenix comms, “G.E.O.Ms are now swarming this place and your teleport ability would really be helpful.”

“Why are you such a buzz kill Hawkins?” Lyon said, not moving from his sleeping position.

“Because you’re probable death woke me up from my nap you selfish idiot.” Hawkins replied.

“Should I thank you now or later?”

“Just get on the ship, the attack on the moon is starting.”