Alison was sitting in a pne seat waiting for the pne to taxi out to the runway. She had decided to fly back home and gone to the airport to buy a ticket to America. She had hoped Kenna would come and see her but according to a Joseph Mackenzie, his niece, Kenna, had no desire or intention to see her. She let out a sigh. Something about that man felt wrong and creepy, and she didn't trust him, or what he had said. She did not believe Kenna would tell him that, she knew Kenna was more direct and would have come to tell Alison herself if that was the case. She thought status as she felt the pne lurch back a bit, indicating it had begun taxing out to the runway.

  Name: Alison Elise Rose

  Cn: Mackenzie

  Cn rank: Sor Tak

  Military Rank: Recruit

  Military Position: Pending

  Gactic Credits: 0

  Css: Void knight

  Alison, of course, had been to her recruitment assessment and signed the documentation. She was now waiting for her boot camp to be assigned and had not been told how long she had to wait for it. The pne had made it out to the runway when a screen appeared in front of her that made the colour drain from her face.

  “Crap, not now!”

  Secure Uplink remotely initiated. Per the agreement you made with your recruitment officer. You will be unconscious for twenty-four hours.

  *******

  I looked at the command table sceptically and couldn't resist asking out loud.

  “Hail the massive carrier that is full of marines, spitfires, drop-ships and who knows what else… Are you freaking kidding me?”

  I bit my lip in a moment of indecision pressing down on me, calling someone that commanded a fricken Gactic Federation Alliance Carrier when I was just a drop pilot fresh out of boot camp, was a little scary. However, a new alert from the command table made the decision for me.

  “Alert! Gactic Federation Alliance cruiser broadcasting the identifier name, GFA1193, Merrigold. Has begun hostile actions by deploying troops, orbital station bases sensors are indicating the deployment of fifty cruiser css ships that have begun to spread out and are heading to set up a perimeter around the sor system. Accompanying them are five-hundred destroyer css ships that are also separating into teams of ten destroyer css ships per cruiser. Also being deployed are one-thousand frigate css ships, who have also begun to move in teams of twenty per cruiser. Hostile carrier has been changed from neutral to hostile.”

  It took me a minute to recover before I started screaming in panic. The trepidation I had started feeling only intensified by magnitudes as I began to fear for the safety of my pnet and everyone on it.

  “Hail the carrier, hail the bloody carrier right now!”

  *******

  Commander Haruto Sato could hear the banging on the bridge door of his carrier and was trying his best to ignore it. He had ordered security to arrest the fool that thought they could take command of his ship. He didn't care that they were a captain, this was his ship and on it, he was king, and he had his orders and had not received any new ones. The reason security had been unable to arrest her yet was because she had come with another captain and an entire ptoon of fricken void knight css marines.

  “I am ignoring you and your breach of command protocol!” He shouted at the door before turning back to his ships’ command table as he watched the cruisers, destroyers and frigates leaving his carrier to set up their perimeter around the sor system.

  He was about to turn back to the door and tell the captain to stop banging on the bsted door and go away when it suddenly opened, and she marched in, followed by her ptoon. Who spread out with their weapons pointed at his bridge crew, ordering them to cease all actions.

  “Commander Haruto Sato, you could be relieved of duty and could be arrested for failing to comply with a wful order! However, I will assume the message you received from the officer I met at the exit of the clone chamber was not the one I gave and give you one st chance. By order of the Gactic Federation Headquarters, you are hereby ordered to stand down and hand command of this ship over to the two captains that have arrived onboard your ship. This is done until the ship has docked with the MWOA254 orbital station base. A proper branch office can be set up. You are also hereby ordered to take no hostile-”

  She was cut off suddenly when the command table between them let out a loud ding and announced.

  “ALERT! Incoming hail from the Orbital Station Base Blossoming Terranova. Do you wish to accept the hail?”

  “Uh, XO, please note that I have stood down and relinquished command of the carrier Merrigold to the Captain by order of Gactic Federation Headquarters.”

  “Yes sir, the ships’ Commander has stood down. I shall note it in the log!”

  Captain Biko nodded her head and then moved to wave her hand over the command table to answer the hail. A bulking white suit with a fg of some kind on the arms appeared on the screen. The humanoid suit was wearing some sort of helmet with a gss panel and inside, it took a few seconds, but the captain managed to get an angle where she could see the young face of a woman inside. She quickly came to the conclusion that this woman was wearing a very primitive space suit.

  “I am Captain Jessica Biko of the Gactic Federation, I just took command of this ship from Commander Haruto Sato, while I understand the deployment of these ships around this Sor System can be seen as hostile. I assure you I am only allowing it to continue as they are currently under the orders to set up a perimeter and defend the sor system from hostile forces. I was sent here by Gactic Federation Headquarters to set up a branch office at the Blossoming Terranova Orbital Station Base, are you the Guild Mistress?”

  I saw her mouth open to respond, but before she could, the ship's sensors and I assumed her stations’ sensors as she stopped and looked down at something. Let out an alert ding.

  “Alert, three entry authorised Ships have surfaced from subspace! Tracking them on route to the Blossoming Terranova Orbital Station Base.”

  My eyes slowly tracked them on the sor system map as the ships’ sensors quickly identified them. I quickly read the information. Yarahoto Css, privately owned ship, Pilot: Travis Johnson. Serotoh Css, privately owned ship, Pilot: Zeo Walker. Snubsert Css, privately owned ship, Pilot Brendan Ripter. I took a step back from the table as I looked at the information with a bit of nervousness.’that can't be good news’ I thought as I watched three void pilots from Celestial cns race each other across the sor system and the worst part about it was they were here in person and not in clone bodies. I couldn't help myself. I looked up at this unknown potential Guild Mistress and I asked.

  “Friends of yours?”

  I watched her eyes shift up to look at me and a smile spread across her face as a nagging feeling of worry ran down my spine at the sight of that smile.

  “Star Hawks always fly together”