Master talked in his sleep with great enthusiasm as Rat Bastard read up on the Andromen Empire. “You cannot defeat me… take that… pulse generators… swing back…”

“I hope he’s winning.” Spot said as he reclined by the table, relaxing.

“The little guy always does that.” Rat Bastard replied.

“Well he has every right to.” Stargazer added, reviewing the simulations of Master’s attack plan.

“So it’s good?” Rat turned his attention to Stargazer across the table.

“It’s fantastic.” Stargazer looked around the table, Ghost was sleeping in a passenger seat, eight Vorg crew members were also sleeping as if in hibernation. “Hopefully we will be in time to save the armada.”

“The pilot said that the armada might hold off their attack because of the transmission, but since they’re in communications silence, we won’t know until the ship gets closer.” Spot explained.

“Let’s go over the plan once Ghost wakes up. In the meantime, do you two have any words of wisdom?” Stargazer asked.

“How are we going to fight ships that go faster than light when you can’t go past Mach 3?” Rat Bastard asked.

“We haven’t tried flying in space, and Einstein said that an object can’t travel faster than the speed of light, but I think that the force field around the ships allows them as energy to travel faster than light. If that’s true, Spot or I might be able to travel faster than light. This will help us in battle so we can keep up with the spaceships.”

“What do the rest of us do?”

“You protect Master for the most part, but according to the plan you will not be needed in the initial attack.”

“I have to admit that I don’t have the combat experience you guys do.”

Stargazer smiled. “My combat experience is getting shot at three times. But I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“I was on a deuce and a half when machinegun fire cut through seven guys all around me. The tarp was down, so it wasn’t hard for me to jump out of the truck and kill the platoon who ambushed us. I was the only survivor.” Spot paused in recollection.

“We might be bulletproof, but we need to take care of our emotions and minds. It’s going to get really ugly, here and back home.” Stargazer looked at Spot.

“Do you think the visions are real?” Spot wanted to doubt.

“I don’t know, but if it’s a possibility of a future we haven’t experienced yet, then I’m going to try to stop it.” Stargazer replied.

“But how can the sky be green over the capitol?” Rat Bastard asked.

“Maybe it’s World War III?” Spot suggested.

“Aliens, mutants, people just being people, it doesn’t matter how, all I’m concerned with is stopping the bad guys. But for now, you two need to get some rest. We won’t get much once we get closer to Arlos” Stargazer replied and moved towards the cockpit.

Spot watched Stargazer leave the compartment, then turned to Rat Bastard. “Whatever you do, don’t pull your punches anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” Rat Bastard tried to act surprised.

“You can tunnel through hard ground, and I’m sure you can screech a lot more than two times.”

“So you think I can yell anytime I want?”

“Yes, and if you’re scared of killing people or living creatures, don’t be. The things we’re going to fight won’t care if you’re nice or not. They will try to kill you or capture you to experiment and torture you.”

“I don’t like killing people?” Rat Bastard sadly replied.

“You try not to, and you mourn for both the good and bad people. Many of the Soldiers and civilians fighting in wars are only following orders and what they believe to be right. The leaders who push them in that direction are usually the ones to blame, but it’s not about blame or who started it. We need to be better than that and end the conflict by fighting if that’s our only way.”

“I won’t let you down.” Rat Bastard signed.

“That’s good to know.” Spot half smiled while imitating Stargazer’s concern and lay back in his seat closing his eyes.

A slight grin at the corner of Ghost’s mouth went unnoticed as he overheard the conversation.

The day’s travel came to an end as the passengers of the transport entered sector 3390 Tier’dir. It was an open sector of empty space with the exception of a phenomenon known as a dark matter vortex.

Stargazer and the rest of the group squeezed inside the cockpit behind the pilot. “Shouldn’t we see some sign of a friendly ship?”

Captain Sorin looked at his instruments. “Slowing down so we don’t run into a cloaked ship by accident.”

“What are the chances of that?” Rat Bastard asked.

“Extremely, extremely rare, but if it isn’t zero, I’m not going to chance it.” Sorin quickly replied.

“Send out a short range signal, so we can contact and board the Kolisco.” Master instructed.

“You heard him Lieutenant.” Sorin gave the okay for the communications officer to open a channel in possibly hostile territory.

“Sir, we’re being hailed.” The Lieutenant replied.

“Tell them we’re in a hurry and need to board the flagship. If they refuse, let me know.” Stargazer commanded and left the cockpit.

The group followed him except for Ghost who stood next to the captain and console.

Stargazer walked through the ship with Major Krodis and the rest of the team. “So what’s the range of this implant again?”

“About four parsecs, without any large mass in between. But…” She said while fitting her helmet on.

“But?” Stargazer paused his walk and continued after glancing at the major.

“The dark matter vortex will limit any communications to this side of space. And if you’re inside it, the implants won’t work.”

“Good thing Master thought of all this.” Stargazer smiled as he waited patiently in front of the transport’s main entry way, looking out into space.

Everyone on the transport heard Sorin’s report. “Kolisco has decloaked and we are entering their telemetry beacon.

Stargazer scanned the area and spotted the uncloaked ship, as well as several other cloaked ships. He looked deep into the interior and found the exact spot in the engineering section he expected to find. He quickly paned on to other ships while the transport entered the small landing bay of the starship.

The transport door opened shortly afterwards and Stargazer led the way down the ramp into a squad of security guards.

“Lord Stargazer or whoever you are, I don’t know what you think you can do, but Admiral Novis has instructed me to assist you in any way we can.” A human-like Soldier greeted them, except his skin was light blue and coated with a thin layer of glossy plastic like material.

“Master will need eighty fusion grenades with short range detonators.” Stargazer replied, Master, Ghost, and Spot stepping forward ready to go where the weaponry was.

The Lieutenant Commander looked at the boy in his navy blue Vorgoling spacesuit. “Follow me, my Lords.”

“We’re in a hurry Lt Cdr, double time please.” Master instructed breaking out of a brisk walk into a jog.

Stargazer and Rat Bastard made their way to the bridge, finding an eager crew and captain wanting to follow their instructions. “Lord Master will need to sit in the Captain’s chair, while I and Rat Bastard will be here in these chairs.”

“You’re not going to fight the Kalar like the Destroyer of Ordis?” The science officer asked.

Stargazer looked at the almost human like female whose skin was light peach. Her hair was dark blue and he could tell it wasn’t a chemical dye, but if she had been on Earth it would have passed for a fad. “I would tell you the entire battle plan, but due to operational security, its better you don’t know at this time how we’ll defeat the Kalar.”

“Don’t worry Ma’am, Master will have everything under control.” Rat Bastard interjected.

“In the meantime, I need the communications and weapons officers.” Stargazer waited to be introduced and gave them instructions as to what they would be doing.

Rat Bastard walked up in front of the captain. “Everyone else will be performing your normal duties, except for you Captain. You will need to stay behind Lord Master while he does his thing.”

“Am I supposed to say anything?” The Captain replied.

“No, you just need to look calm, no matter what you see and hear.” Rat Bastard said, then turned into the Rat.

The Captain flinched and moved backwards a few inches, with a bug eyed face.

“You see, you can’t do that while Master does his thing. Otherwise, people will be paying attention to you instead of Lord Master.”

“I guess everything will be fine as long as there’s no more transforming into animals without any warning.” The Captain recovered to his calm self.

Stargazer sat in the navigator’s seat to the left and looked out into space through the dark matter void.

“Master, where are you guys?” Rat Bastard called returning to his human self.

“I’m here.” Master entered the bridge followed by a security team. He stood for a few seconds looking around the bridge. The circular bridge was very well organized and roomy compared to the cockpit on the transport and auxiliary control center on the space port. One large screen in the center displayed open space in high definition. He eyed the Captain’s chair, with shock absorbers underneath, black padding all around, and state of the art arm consoles. “Nice…”

“Yes, we’re ready.” Ghost replied to Stargazer’s mental question.

“Okay, here goes nothing. Comms, tell the armada to move back half a trillion miles… There are three scout ships moving slowly through the void.”

“What? How?” The science officer and a few others whispered.

“On our way.” Ghost said over the communication console.

Master sat in the Captain’s chair, owning it with pleasure. “Please focus your camera on me, and do not show Lord Stargazer or Rat Bastard.”

Stargazer typed instructions on the console which were shown on the main screen for Master and everyone to read. A digital representation of the Kalar ships appeared on the screen.

Half the bridge crew looked on in astonishment, wondering how the cloaked Kalar ships were being tracked, especially since they were on the other side or in the dark matter vortex.

“Okay, let’s take this nice and easy, starting from the left and closest ships first.” Stargazer said out loud as if speaking to himself.

“Let me know when the first ten are nearing the end of the vortex.” Master commanded.

“First one in place, and in green.” Stargazer said, with the closest scout ship icon turning green.

“Nice.” Master replied.

“Yeah, just hope they don’t start moving in erratic directions.” Stargazer scanned feverishly back and forth tracking all the ships he could see.

The Andromen armada moved quickly into position as the twentieth grenade was emplaced.

“It’s time to start this thing. Communications officer, please broadcast open frequency.” Master combed his hair with his spread fingers before the start of the show.

“Yes, Sir.” The officer replied.

“No… It’s yes Master.” Master looked at the officer, smiling.

“My apologies, Master.”

“Attention rock people, I’m Master. And today I will be giving you your first lesson in war. As you can tell by your ship scanners, we are probably outnumbered five to one. However, what you fail to calculate is that I am in charge of this armada. In my world there is a weapon which is feared among all alien races who tried to invade our magnificent planet Earth. It’s called the Tardis Beam. You think you have the advantage of starships, but because you have ship engines you are already defeated. I will demonstrate by instructing my weapon’s officer to scan the area in sector 33010 with the beam.” Master looked at Stargazer off screen and pointed at him.

Ghost pushed the short range detonator while Spot flew by the ship. The grenade exploded inside the engine capacitors, creating a chain reaction, amplifying the already extremely lethal grenade’s damage, a hundred fold.

A Kalar scout ship exploded, breaking in half and decloaking while speeding through space short of the speed of light.

“As you can tell, we have not lifted a finger. Well except my weapons officer. So the question of the day is do I need to continue to destroy all of your ships before you surrender to me?”

The bridge was quiet as Stargazer displayed the movement of ships trying to spread out.

“Which of you boulders is in charge? Are you afraid of me or something?”

Commander Paldar appeared on the screen. “We will not surrender because a small ship has been destroyed. And we are not afraid of you.”

“Oh you should be.” Master turned towards the crew members around the room. “And why am I talking to a rock man with pebbles for a brain?”

“I…” The life support tech tried to answer.

“Don’t answer that. I already know.” Master turned back to the screen.

‘Send out a mass detonation’ Stargazer typed on the screen.’

Ghost saw what Stargazer had in mind and instructed Spot to continue to the flagship while the already emplaced grenades would be detonated.

“Since you don’t want to take a hint. Surrender now and this won’t happen to you.” Master pointed at the weapons officer, and thirty-two ships exploded from within.

The Captain’s tension left him as he managed to crack a smile.

“Commander of rock people, decloak all your ships and surrender before I litter this entire area with an unnatural number of ship debris!” Master said.

“Where’s Stargazer?” Commander Paldar replied.

“He is on his way to Arlos if you must know. But why does that matter? You really don’t understand the gravity of your situation or the empire for that matter. I have just commanded you to surrender, but you seem to really be too egoistical for the welfare of other people’s lives.” Master pointed once again, and three more ships exploded from within, one being totally disintegrated with a nuclear reaction from the engines.

“We will not surrender without a fight.” Commander Paldar replied, commanding his ships to rush the armada.

“Once again, you have not understood that this will not be a fight, but a massacre. Your ship will now be destroyed.” Master said, Ghost seeing the entire conversation as Stargazer heard and saw it.

The Kalar flagship’s engines exploded while in the vortex causing the ship to implode leaving no survivors.

“Attention, armada, target the Kalar ships and fire long range missiles.” Master instructed as the communications officer transmitted Stargazer’s tracks to the armada.

Hundreds of missiles made their way to the intended locations, half missing their targets; but it was clear that the Kalar were not expecting to be effectively engaged while cloaked at maximum weapon’s range.

“Any Kalar leadership hearing my voice, fighting will only get you killed, and you won’t take any of us with you. Do you surrender?” Master continued to sell the alternative.

“Master, it’s highly unlikely any Kalar will surrender.” The Captain replied.

Master turned his head with a tilt, looking at the Captain. “Watch and learn, me capitan.”

Master stood up. “Hear me Kalar, your honor will stay intact. There is no shame in being defeated by me, or the other Burik’dir. We will not enslave you or harm you once you have surrendered. However, you must surrender or you will face death in a most humiliating way, because I will not allow any of you to abuse your power on others anymore. Your legacy in dying here today will be with dishonor and misguided pride to be told and known throughout the universe. Now, which of you noble warriors will concede and live to fight another day?”

“This is Commander Ur. I order all ships to decloak and deactivate weapons.” The Kalar starship decloaked and stopped in space.

“You see; a diamond in the rough… Your surrender is accepted Commander Ur. We’ll initiate boarding procedures once everyone has complied, and advise all Kalar ships to maintain positions while your ships’ weapon systems are disabled and you are taken to the nearest able star base for processing.” Master glanced back at the Captain, as the communiqué ended.

“Wonderfully done.” Stargazer smiled and half bowed at Master.

“Sir, Admiral Novis is hailing us.” The comms officer reported.

“Yes, where is our fearless leader? I thought he or she would be here on the flagship.” Master said sitting back in the captain’s chair.

“I’m on the real flagship; which doesn’t matter anymore since you have saved us a very costly battle.” Admiral Novis answered; his pray mantis looking head displayed on the screen.

Master turned towards the communications officer with a death stare. “Admire, that was a rhetorical question. We knew where you were the entire time.” Master turned back around to face the screen and smiled.

Stargazer stood next to Master and the Captain. “It’s good to see the admiral has an efficient armada, and tactical prudence. But we need to quickly disable the Kalar ships and move on to our next objective.”

“You are correct Lord Stargazer, and I would be very interested to see what that next objective will be, not to mention honored to meet the Burik’dir.” Novis’ armored spacesuit was lean with silver plating, a trademark of the queen’s imperial space fleet. His prey mantis dark green features were strikingly identical to an Earth insect, except that it was super sized.

“Once the Kalar ships are accounted for, we will meet.” Stargazer replied.