Starlight

Chapter 4: Midnight's Darkness

"Our conquest will be complete, and no-one but the naked

stars themselves shall have the ability to stand against us!"

Giovanni Richson, First Kalida Campeign

Citadel, Dominatus's personal chambers, 16:09 FT

Piedion waited in the large hall outside Dominatus's

chambers, a small datapad in hand. He had been waiting for what

seemed like at least an hour, while strange noises echoed from

inside. He shifted around, glancing about before ringing the door

chime again, wondering if Dominatus had disconnected it. He started

to press it a third time, before getting cut off by Dominatus's

amplified voice booming out from the local intercom. "You only

needed to ring once, ENTER!" He seemed oddly jovial, as if he had

been getting a source of news far better than the rest of the fleet.

Captain Piedion stood before the door as it opened, gathering

his resolve before entering carefully, ducking to one side as a

precautionary measure. He couldn't be sure that Dominatus had not

booby-trapped the room, and he took no chances. "I apologize, my

long, but you did request to be informed of the flight's performance

as quickly as possible." Piedion reverently moved inwards, with

caution guiding his actions, his voice quiet to keep from disturbing

the awsome stillness of the room.

Dominatus was no-where to be found, the sound of a shower

shutting down the only thing filling the background of the room. The

slight smell of steam pointed back towards the rear of the massive

space, to Dominatus's bath. "Back here!' The door to the room

opened slightly, light spilling out across the white carpeting to

illuminate the path. The final squeeking off of the shower, along

with the sight of a flapping black bathrobe barely visible in the

crack welcomed Piedion into Dominatus's private abode. "Sorry about

that! I was still in the shower because I couldn't find the towel.

The maid stuffed it on a hidden rack."

"Perhaps I should come back later, to give you the chance to

get dressed?" Piedion started to turn around and exit, only to fidn

the door shut behind him. He fought down the slight tremble in his

limbs as he started stepping forward. "Or not..." He tried to

loosen his suddenly ill-fitting collar as he slowly walked towards

the lighted room. He still had not made himself completely

indispensible in regards to Dominatus's empire, and should he see

something... comprimising, his head would roll for certain.

"Oh, quit whining. Just hand the report through the door.

I'll look over it and discuss the information through the door, you

won't have to see a thing until I can find my hooded bathrobe." The

outline of Dominatus's head could be seen, a nimbus of ill-kempt hair

surrounding it and blotting out the details of his face in the

mirror. The sound of something electrical popping and the smell of

ozone took up the slack of keeping background noise in the area, as

his hand reached out from inside, taking the pad away from

Piedion. "I will not kill you simply because the news is bad. No

point in killing a perfectly good messager or captain over a ill-

recieved report."

Piedion stiffly stood just outside of the door, knowing

exactly what the report contained. "I am afraid the report contains

far worse information than you would think. The pilots intentionally

sought out alliance starfighters, and have ceased responding. I

dispatched a battlefleet to the last known location to investigate

their fate, though I suspect that the findings will come as

expected." Piedion looked at the shaft of light, before averting his

gaze and focusing on the windows showing Aira along the far cabin

wall.

"So I can see. What do you believe happened? Pilot

error/stupidity, a malfunction or fault in the design of the craft,

or do you by some chance believe them still alive?" The shadow of

the overlord fidgeted in the mirror, looking over the pad, and

grumbling angrily. The electrical popping turned to an furious

crackle of 20,000 volts popping in air.

"I would prefer not to take an uneducated assumption. I

could very well be wrong about the outcome." Piedion shifted

uncomfortably under his lord's questioning, holding his cap on while

slowly thumping his head against the bulkhead beside the door. The

headache from the physical abuse matched that from the thoughts over

the situation. "Decisions are best made with as many facts as

possible expediently available."

"A wise response, but most assuredly not the one I was

looking for." Dominatus had the pad in one hand, while pulling up

the other one, which had the air around it crackling with a

controlled electrical discharge. It left Piedion breathless, with

the worry that Dominatus would kill him after all, before the hand

was brought to Dominatus's face, and it's purpose made clear. While

odd, it did somewhat fall in with the dark overlord's ways, as he

used the discharges to trim facial hair. An odd use, but one of

rather disturbing power that fit with the ways of the dark lord.

Power in controlled amounts.

"In battle, by the time accurate information is obtained, it

is either because you are dead, or that the battle is over. You must

often make guesses you do not wish to make, because it is all you can

do with the information at hand. Now then, tell me what you think

really happened." The dark lord this time used some of his skills to

pry at Piedion's heart, pulling forth the real thoughts that were

lurking. The discharge stopped as the door leaned further open, the

sounds of cloth rustling drawing attention back.

"If that is what you desire, then so be it." Piedion

pondered how best to break his thoughts to the dark lord, before

finally just spilling out the likely tale. "I have reason to believe

that the prototypes encountered the Long Shot. As far as I can tell,

it should be within a sector of here. They are not likely to have

gone back to base just yet, though it will be soon. That means that

they should be within a sector of here. The area has enough hiding

spots to stay within a small grid, so it's quite likely that that is

the ship encountered. The craft also had reported just before

engaging the fighters that they had a sensor reading of a ship of

it's class, and that is why they broke plans."

"That is not the only reason why." The dark voice was

chilling, and rather accurate to Piedion's thoughts.

"When contact was lost, I checked over the paperwork of the

flight. I found a... discrepancy." Piedion winced as the door was

slammed open, Dominatus forgetting to don the hod of his cloak.

"WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT DISCREPANCY?" By that point, Dominatus

suspected Alliance espianoge.

"It seems that the two pilots assigned, whose applications I

personally signed have vanished, and that those two... dunderheads,

Emos and Melhanadar, took the fighters in Teldar and Haverned's

places." Piedion waited for Dominatus to flatten him, pull his skull

out and beat him to death with it, anything. When the dark lord

slowly pulled on his cowl and frowned, he continued. "I found the

originals, along with falsified ones in the records, and it looks

like a conspiracy was committed, after all."

"Are you sure?" Dominatus's hair was poofed out, a halo of

it sneaking out from under his hood. The shower-hair syndrome struck

even the mightiest of men. The detailing of his bathrobe seemed

similar to his formal robe he wore on the bridge, but one couldn't

always tell due to the flapping from his sudden movements. Dominatus

seemed to level out after a few moments, calming down from his

previous anger. "Perhaps it was espionage, after all."

"No, jelousy. Considering no-one has been able to find them,

I believe that Teldar and & Haverned are both dead, their bodies

disposed of in some way. It would be two-fold, to cover for the

theft, and to eliminate those two dunderheads top rivals." Piedion

turned away from Dominatus, beginning to pace across the white carpet

deck, working his way out into the main living area. He could only

ponder the fates of the pilots with absolutely no information

available. His next words were regretful, and honoring of those he

figured dead. "Ah, it's a shame too. Those two idiots didn't hold a

candle to Teldar and Haverned. Now we've lost our two best pilots,

fighters, and our developments we worked so hard to create."

Dominatus started to say something, before looking around.

It was almost like he was hearing something Piedion did not. A grate

in the cathedral-like ceiling rattled, before falling out to the

floor with a small coating of dust sprinkling down. "Ow! Come on,

Teldar, move it!" An arm wriggled around in the opening, spreading

more dust from the long-uncleaned ducts through the air. "Will you

back off of meee---EEEE!" The two top pilots finally freed

themselves, falling a good 15 feet to a large chair.

"Haverned, you where did your blasted nincompooping g-....

Quick, get back in the vent, I think we're in Dominatus's quarters!"

Teldar hastily untangled himself from his wingmate, and was about to

make a break for the door, when Dominatus cleared his throat. The

man froze for a moment, before turning his head to see Piedion and

Dominatus looking amusedly relieved as the pair stared at

them. "Crap."

"Relax, dear Teldar. No need for a panicked flight, sit

down. Here we were, figuring the two of you dead!" Dominatus had

carefully set himself up to be framed by the bright light coming from

his bathroom. As the two pilots slowly sat down, trembling, he

continued. "You don't have to explain yourselves. I am quite

capible of reading what happened to you. Emos and Melhanadar knocked

you out, then proceeded to try and kill you by stuffing you in a

decommissioned auxilary reactor that was supposed to be removed last

week, correct?"

"Yes, sir. They did, and had set the reactor to warm-up, but

a malfunction shut it back down. Of couse, that malfunction was us-

caused.Haverned burned a hole in the secondary EPS tap, which shut

the reactor down." Teldar looked at the grand commander of the

fleet, and overlord of the Ohansu Empire worridly, not knowing what

was planned. "We tried to get into the maintence tubes, only to find

outselves in the air ducts." The awkward silence dragged on, before

Teldar grabbed at Haverned's shirt. "Excuse us, we need to get back

on duty."

"No you don't. File a report on the damage you did in your

escape, and then you can take the day off. We don't have those

experimental fighters anymore thanks to your blundering attempted

murderers." Piedion smiled as the two looked at each other, before

quickly running out the door. After it had slammed back shut, he

turned back to Dominatus. "I see we'll need to fire with prejiduice

the dockmanager at Kalida. I told him to shrink all the duct

entrances to prevent entry."

"Indeed. It's the evil overlord thing to do. And I see you

also delegate properly and reward when need be. You see, you are

shaping up into a good commander."

"That is what worries me. The good ones are the arrogant

ones who get killed."

Citadel; Aft Hull; 16:10 FT

Melony still sat there, shivering in the dark, surprised at

her own madness. It took her a long, long time to finally getting

the courage to let go of her controls, her hands shook as she set

them down on her controls, hoping she would not hit any buttons by

accident. It had been the single most intense moment of her life,

even more terrifying than falling down the maintnece shaft. At least

she wasn't worried about being spotted. Though she was near one of

the hangar bays, the cleft in the hull she had hidden in was just

about impossible to see into from any angle. "I am never, EVER

flying again."

As she sat there, occasionally unstrapping something, she

finally realized one of the flaws of her plan. In order to make the

repairs, she'd have to go outside, an EVA. It wasn't a prospect she

relished. While the whole idea wasn't as bad on average as the

insane one she had ten minutes earlier, it was still infinately worse

in it's own arena. She fumbled on how to approach working herself up

to doing it, hitting the pressure equalization button before she even

knew what she was doing.

The sound of the first pop of the air seals breaking, and her

suit sealing nearly scared Melony to the wetting stage, caught by

surprise. The roar of escaping air was more of a wheeze, as she

watched the gauges on her ship cycle down, until at last as her suit

was fully up to speed, pressure dropped off to zero. The sound of

her suit's fan blowing behind her ears comforted her somewhat,

knowing that her own systems would protect her, if nothing else. She

also checked a few special redundancies, hoping not to have to use

them.

"Easy, my beating heart... Take courage in the refuge to

come..." Melony gingerly detached her harness, letting the cockpit

canopy auto-open slowly, her mind manufacturing the whirring of the

motors for her. Her easy movements up and out of the cockpit were

shaking from fear, as she tried to rest easy in the fact that she had

put magnetic devices in nearly every armor plate of her suit. She

gripped the edge of the cockpit hatch with a nearly white-nuckled

grip as she swung her legs over the side, locking her magnetic boots

to the hull.

It took her a few moments to realize she was safe, before she

moaningly laid onto the side of her craft, letting the cockpit shut

behind her as she let her trembling legs go limp. The zero gravity

on the hull of the Citadel let her remain standing, as she wobbled

about. "There we go... safe and secure..." She had to talk slow

and quietly to calm herself, using a form of mental self-suggestion

to keep from freaking out.

She slowly put motion back into her limbs, forcing herself to

take slow and measured steps, walking around her craft to inspect

it. It was a disaster waiting for a place to happen. Scorch marks

littered the hull, in many places punching through to let her see the

interior of the compartments. The starboard fin was now ripped by the

stresses of her landing in the cleft of the Citadel, further

compounding the damage to the wing.

"How am I supposed to fix this? There is no way I can get

out of here with my warp-systems fubar'd like this!" Melony growled

her mounting frustration out with those words, knowing that unless

she could find enough raw material to patch the holes in her craft,

restore the deficiencies from the blasts, and get the couplings to

straighten the wing and re-assemble the plasma conduit and controls

to the nacell, she would be stuck there. If only there...

"Why do I end up in situations that keep on forcing me to

push my luck? Does the creator of this universe honestly want me

dead or something?" Melony could just barely keep from screaming out

her frustration. The only way to get enough raw material to repair

her craft would be to delve into the heart of the beast, the heart of

the Citadel, and loot their stores, take it back outside, fix her

craft up and somehow create a distraction that would allow her to

escape, all without being caught.

The only problem was, she had no clue at all on how she was

to do that. She was an engineer, not a black ops specialist, despite

what Richson wanted her to be. It just wasn't her way. Screw fate,

she just wanted to learn to control whatever was slowly throwing her

into chaos, and get back on with her life. But, no, fate just had to

keep on picking, picking picking. Melony's thoughts rolled all

through her head, comptmplating how easy she could have it right now,

taking her time, having friends somewhere on a city-ship, but

noooo... fate just wouldn't let her be.

"Why can't fat just leave me alone? Honestly?" Melony

grabbed the AW-2 she had put aboard in case of the worst possible

scenario, primed it just in case, and stuffed it into a holster in

her suit as she reached up with one arm and closed up her craft. "I

mean, come on, this has honestly gotten way too far out of control.

How is an 18 year old supposed to take on the Citadel? It's 30

freaking miles long, with god knows how many millions of people on

it! Even Richson had to back off in the face of it!"

Despite her grumblings, Melony started her trudging, knowing

that despite all the trouble she was about to put herself in, it

would be the only way of extracting herself from the mess she had

placed herself in. She could feel the stick of her magnetic boots as

she trudged, taking time to extract off of the hull and move on to

the next point of contact. The whole stituation, from the jerking of

her motions across the hull, to the zero-g, to her near-hopeless

plight was slowly making her sick to her stomach. Quite literally, in

fact. As she tugged the airlock outer door free, it was all she

could do to keep from loosing her lunch in her helmet. It wouldn't

have been the most dignified of entrances into a pit of evil...

"Oooh, Ughh... urk.." As Melony deactivated her magnetics

in the safety of the airlock, and waited for the air to cycle back in

she fought valiantly on another front, to keep from having a most

undignified first entrance. As soon as the airlock door opened, she

ran in, throwing her helmet off to the side, just in time for what

was left of her last meal to go splat on the wall.

It took her several minutes for her to stop the zero-heaves.

Her nasal cavities and mouth burned slightly from what had passed out

of them. For a human, it's bad enough, for a vulpin, thanks to the

extended length nose, the smell and feel is far worse. That by

itself is enough to leave the victim in another fit, all by itself.

Melony sat down slowly on the other side of the small service

corridor from her unfortunate meal, feeling the shakes from her

experience.

She finally tapped on an interphase in the arm of her suit,

calling up a log recorder. "Note to self: More zero-g training,

more anti-nausa pills next time I'm doing an eva... ooooh, that left

me with a stomach in a hydraulic vice..." Melony staggered to her

feet, clipping her helmet onto her back. She figured, even in her

distracted and nausiated state that she might need it before she went

back out. At the least, it would keep her from a gas attack.

Somewhere in the shadow of Aira; 16:30 FT

"Richson, I know you want me to stick around, to help explain

to her what exactly is going on, but we're running out of time. Too

much longer, and we'll be looking at a galaxy-wide hunt for me."

Admiral Davison looked across the near-deserted bridge to his long-

time commander. The old, old vulpin just furrowed his brow as he

concentrated on the Citadel, blocking out Davison's concerned words.

"For all we know, she didn't even make it. I'm sorry, but we

just can't risk staying much longer, even with the cloak." Davison

let his slight sorrow show. He had helped Melony out with the

fighter, to allow her to get out here, only to have gotten reports

that she may not have even made it. And, they had arrived in time to

see the Citadel move into the shadow of the planet. Now, there was

no chance for the girl. The instant she dropped out of warp, she

would be toast, if she was already there, she've been toast, and even

if she could evade the Citadel long enough for the Salu II to get

into position, they'd all be toast when she tried to link up. "It's

time to go."

Davison's last words seemed to spark something in Richson's

head, as he stood up in the darkened bridge, his paws padding across

the non-skid flooring towards the helm console. Then Davison felt

what his ex-CO felt, that slight prick at the back of the mind. And

that was with shields up to prevent contacts. Richson had been

searching actively... He took several more steps forward, whispering

something silently, Davison couldn't make it out.

"Sir, Richson, come on, that's not her, it's that new leader

we're feeling, now reel yourself back in..."

Richson shook his head slightly, his ears finally perking all

the way up. He could feel the whole situation... Yes, the new leader

was aboard, but hope remained. "Noo... it's more than that. She's

aboard. She made it here first..." His hoarse whisper got a slight

stare of of the old Admiral, as he continued. "I lost her, she's

unconciously shielding herself. I got the feeling that she went

aboard to try and steal enough supplies to repair her craft. She

didn't make it here unscathed. One of her wings is clipped. And she

doesn't know we're here yet."

"She's ON the Citadel? How?" Davison, while having heard

quite a few crazy things in his time, had not heard that one before.

He raised his voice with disbelief as he spoke, unable to believe

Richson, despite all that he knew of the old man.

"She's got skill, I'll give her that. Her fighter is nestled

underneath hanger twelve. Can we get that on the main screen?"

Lanson looked towards the science officer, who nodded and pulled up a

zoomed in view. Richson pointed to the shadows in an overhang, his

voice slightly triumphant as he spoke. "There! We'll have to wait

until she comes back out."

"Don't you mean IF she comes back out?" Davison could believe

Richson if he was managing to get that close with his divining, or

whatever he had developed over the years, but there was still the

fact that there were millions of troops waiting for an excuse to

start shooting aboard the Citadel. Plus that mysterious leader who

was adept in whatever power Richson wielded so easily now.

"Leave the if to me. You underestimate us, you underestimate

us a great deal..." The shining white of Richson's rather pointy

smile in the dark sent shivers down Davison's spine.

Citadel; Unmarked Corridor; 16:40 FT

Melony could feel something at the edge of her mind. One of

those creeping thoughts that just digs itself into your mind and

stays there, annoying you until you act on it. "Right, you crazy

vixen, go RIGHT!" Melony drew her pistol out as she moved ahead in

the dark of the service corridor, planning on doing just the

opposite.

"What part of right don't you understand? Good god it's been

a long time, not left, right! Trooper squad on the left spark

anything?" The little thoughts continued to rattle around in her

head, annoying Melony to near-death. There she was trying to

infiltrate the most dangerous ship in the galaxy, and she was

developing a split personality. Heck, for all she knew, it'd start

claiming that it was Richson next.

"Yes, I am, now go right! Listen to me, I'm watching from

the outside!" The little voice grew insistent again as she moved

forward. Melony wondered why her internal voice wanted her to go

right... screw it, why couldn't she? It was from inside her, not

external influence... Right it was...

Far off, Richson was fuming as he tried to clear the way for

Melony, trying to steer her away from trouble even as she headed

right for it, nudging camera view-finders so they wouldn't see her,

causing shorts in sensors, touching troopers minds just enough to go

the other way....

Melony looked up at sign, depicting fighter parts storage. A

bit convienient, but hopefully Ohansu parts were at least half-

decent. If not..., well, she'd have her work cut out for her. The

question nagging at her was how come she had managed to get that far

so easily... It was like the ship was deserted or something...

surely there were internal sensors at the least, a guard outside of a

room like fighter maintnence, something, but... nothing... just the

hexagonical, dark, pipe-lined interiors of the Citadel's support

corridors. Way too quiet for her tastes...

Inside the heavy, interlocking doors, it was surprisingly

light. Melony was glad they were fairly well maintained, opening

quietly. The tall shelfing units, filled with cannons, nacell

pieces, manifolds and all manner of engineering goodies hid the

interior, and her from anyone who might be inside...

"Oh... SHIT! Look out, hide!" Melony's internal new guide

spooked her, just enough to make her ready to fire, as someone came

around the corner, carrying a new targeting scanner. Melony took all

of a second to fire, hitting him in the shoulder.

Teldar had all of a few seconds to wonder how in the hell an

armed tean-aged vixen had managed to get aboard, before he sank into

unconciousness. Melony looked down at him for a second, before

grabbing two armor patching kits, a small wiring and conduit kit, and

the targeting sensor Teldar dropped before running for the airlock.

Citadel; Main Bridge; 17:00 FT

Piedion looked over the technicians as they worked

dilligently, ever watching the skys for signs of an attack. He

looked over to the view-ports of the bridge, wondering if it was

still such a good idea to have them. Heck, someone could kamakatzi

the bridge and kill them all with such a weak point. He made a

mental note to put that on a list of things to change, along with

fixing the ducts.

Dominatus walked in on the new Captain's thoughts, getting

him to look up. The dark lord moved... distractedly, as if he was

being chased by a pack of poodles... most unusual, even for him. He

noticed Piedion at one of the forward stations, looking up at him,

and quickly oved to join him.

"Yes, my lord? Something the matter?" Piedion turned back

to the odd sensor glitch, trying to work with the technician as to

what was the matter with the readout, or the sensor system. He was

about ready to call down to the engineering department to have the

sensors recalibrated, since the blip was mirroring the Citadel's

movements exactly, but something kept bugging him.

"Are you finding anything... strange... on the sensors?"

Dominatus didn't quite know how to explain that he kept on getting a

whispy feel of an old nemisis. But, at Piedion's strange look

towards the sensor readout, he started connecting the dots in his

head. "Something like a sensor ghost?"

"Well, yes, actually, m'lord." The sensor tech stuttered it

out, only slightly afraid to admit that he didn't have a clue what

was going on. It was turning into a bad month for him. He pointed to

the blinking blip on screen, as the Citadel made a minor course

correction to account for the local gravity well echos.

"Yes... But, I was willing to write it off as such, until

you arrived. Something had me on guard about it, but... maybe a

little target practice would be in order?" Piedion let the

implication sink in as he inspected the few readings that had been

aquirred from the blip... He twisted himself through the gap between

the tech's console and the console behind, an engineerin repeater

console.

"It could be... illuminating. Especially for any fool who

would be stupid enough to stay when they see the main guns

charging." Dominatus followed his new captain around the long way as

the thought processes in his head turned over. There was simply no

way to have a solid lock, fire and destroy in time to keep the

unknown from evading and avoiding capture. It would be simpler to

let it go, and chase it down later.

"Sure, you can't power up the main guns, but, don't torpedos

have their own independant propulsion systems and tracking? It's not

too hard to load torpedos silently, and let them drop into space.

And then tell them to lock onto the blip..." Piedion checked over

the console for the fire control as he spoke. The idea had cropped

up as Dominatus had reminded him of the liability of the enormous

firepower of the Citadel. It was a simple enough idea. And much

harder to detect before the torpedos locked in.

Dominatus started to say something, then stopped. He started

to open it again, but just couldn't find words for a moment. The

idea was absolutely devious, conniving, decietful and absolutely the

kind of original thinking he was looking for. "Inspired thinking,

Captain. Inspired thinking. It's perfect. We'll have those fools

this time... And they'll only have a few seconds to realize how

screwed they are..."

He started chuckling, a dark, sinister chuckle that took

fear, and started playing dodgeball in other's hearts with it. There

were days when it payed to be the lord of the known galaxy. And

that day was one of them.

"I always have wanted to try out having a Cruiser-shape

practice target."

Citadel's Aft Hull; Melony's Fighter; 1730 FT

It had taken her over half an hour, but she had he craft in a

semi-working order again.Plasma flowed outward to the starboard

nacell again, illuminating it's interior as it worked up it's

charge. The hull and structure had both been hastily repaired with

the Ohansu paneling and structural components. And, she had repaired

her targeting sensors, at least partially, with the one she had

stolen from her stun victim.

Overall, it wasn't the prettiest, but it would work. Now came

the bigger problem of escaping. One simply cannot just waltz away

from a large super-battleship like the Citadel. It simply doesn't

happen. Too many sensor nets, too many upgrades over the years that

had allowed it to keep constant with Alliance forces. But, there

were always ways to avoid detection, if one could arrange a surprise.

As she climbed back into her cockpit, making sure that

everything was in proper order. After all, it would be a shame to

escape the Citadel, and escape into disaster with an exploding Warp

factor. Plus, the disaser faced if she came away from this with

nothing. She had to have something to come away with to Alliance

forces. If only there was a way to figure something out...

After all, it's not like she could just hack into their

computers, sure, engineering technology was much the same b-

Melony's previous train of thought hit a mental brick wall at close

to warp 9 as a realization hit her. Yes, engineering technology,

especially that developed by humans, did share a common software

base...

She about smacked herself upside the head over it, it was one

of the stupidest ideas she had ever gotten. Sneaking into the

citadel, finding the engineering master terminal, and programming a

distraction sequence into the Citadel, along with a back door for

later use. Anyone with any sense would say it was showing off and

foolhardy in the greatest sense, but at the same time, she needed any

chance she could get to distract the crew and escape. And, to give

Richson a chance to escape if he was around.

Her comm system beeped suddenly, startling Melony and making

her believe she had been spotted, until she checked the transmission

source. It was some kind of hyper-tightbeam, that focused in

directly to her craft, missing the Citadel's detectors. From the

signal coherance, it was like some kind of subspace laser, for the

non-existance of signal leakage. Not a peep would have been

detected, had it not been directly at her position.

"No way, no way..." Melony was impressed, even slightly

intimidated by the level of communications and engineering know-how

that could come up with such a signal. She timidly pressed the

recieve button, as the signal continued to come in. Her displays

flashed as the signal's embedded programming altered her setup

programming slightly to accomodate the reply transmission.

"Melony, this is Richson, don't do it. We're getting ready

to pick you up right now." The call-id box scrambled for a moment,

before identifying the ship as the Kep Salu II, somewhere to the fore

of the Citadel. "Just launch, and we'll come around to get you."

"How? You've fought this thing before, and you should know

plain well that this thing should be upgraded by now to the point

where even your cloak could be pierced. For all you know, they could

be manually loading torpedos for an alpha strike or such. Let me do

what I've got in mind, if you do know it, and we might get out of

this alive. You are not in my chain of command. Melony out." Melony

cut the line before Richson could come up with a response, and she

clamped back on her helmet. It was about to get real ugly, real fast.

She set a few programs back up that had been in place before

she got out. A backup plan, for the just in case. If she was right,

which hopefully wasn't the case, the ship would be too busy dealing

with Richson very soon to notice another blip. A quick sync with her

flight suit finished her new preperations, as she re-pressurised her

suit and prepped for her next foray in.

The little thought in her mind pressed in again, urgently

pressing against her normal thought trains. "Don't do it. Don't be a

fool, don't be a hero. You're not ready?"

But, her own thoughts pressed back. When is one ready, other

than never? There always had to be that first crazy time, one of

foolish chances in order to do it the next time. And this was as

crazy as the times came. Better now than never. She stepped over

the side of her fighter onto the hull, pressing one foot down, then

the other. One foot at a time, that would be how she would take it.

One single step at a time. She'd already done this, in a practice of

sorts, when she had gotten the repair supplies. This time would just

be a little more intense.

Kep Salu II; Bridge; 1737 FT

"DAMMIT!" Richson wanted to smash something, but he held

himself back. It would be stupid to do, foolish in gesture and while

satisfying, a wasteful thing. It wouldn't pull Melony back from her

heroics, despite all he wanted to.

"Now what? She can't?" Davison still wondered about the

thought processes in the heart of Richson's mind, but he wondered

carefully, knowing of the turmoils that were likely going on if his

former captain was cursing at all. The dim lighting, supplimented

only by the bridge readouts, barely illuminated his form.

"She won't. She's going in to try and sabatoge the Citadel,

and allow us in without much of a hitch." Richson checked over the

science readouts beside the technican stationed there, watching the

passive sensors follow her progress. The only Vulpin aboard the

Citadel, a dangerous and lonely position to place oneself in. "She's

got the crazy notion that the Citadel can track us all of a sudden."

"Is that any diffrent than your feelings? If she is

supposedly as strong as you, can't she pick up the background

feelings of the crew? And if so, is there any way for us to move out

of the firing line without them picking us up, without her

accomplishing her mission?" Davison didn't always think as he did,

but several more years working alongside Captain Diess had taught him

the full notion of deducting circumstances, and he wasn't liking the

picture being painted.

"Well- oh, shit..." Richson hadn't thought down that track

of thought, but now... it reached up and smacked him upside the

head. He tapped the sensor tech, and asked him to re-check the

passive sensors for signs of torpedos being loaded. And watched in

mounting horror as the Citadel's portside, facing the Salu, lit up in

warning. A veritable christmas tree of loaded torpedo tubes, with

more each moment lighting up in passive standby. "God help us. We

can't move without giving them proof we're here, at which point we're

ash..."

"Then maybe you've gotten too cynical in your old age. She's

pulling a repeat of your old stunts, but she doesn't have to go it

without help." Davison was willing to put his faith on the line,

once again. There was a chance to get out of the mess. A single

chance, that he had trusted before, who had saved the Long Shot

before. One that Richson had put faith in so far, even if it had

failed now. If Richson was willing to trust Melony this far, Davison

was willing to trust her, with help, to pull off a crazy stunt like

sabatoging the Citadel. If anyone had a chance, much like Richson so

long ago with his piloting sabatoge, it would be her.

"Let's hope we're right this time too."

Citadel; Forward Corridor 1942-23-Alpha; 1743 FT

"A turbolift is over there. Go that way, the guards don't

patrol that connection. It should reach the bridge sections where

the master computer is." The voice in her head tickled again.

Offering a suggestion this time, instead of telling her not to do

something. Melony knew it had not failed her in gathering the

supplies, she decided to trust it again.

Something had cleared out the side corridor from personelle.

The heavily inhabited parts of the Citadel were better walled, with

white and grey paneling armoring the walls. Little lights flashed

along it's length, as Melony slowly paced down it, weapon drawn, suit

sealed against a gassing attempt. She saw the alcove down at the end

of the connecting corridor, signage indicating lift access.

She smiled grimly as she moved, polarizing her visor to keep

people from figuring out who she was. No-one had spotted her yet,

and she intended to keep it that way, if possible. She paused in the

intersection, looking left and right down the halls to either side.

She couldn't see anyone to either side, so she moved to access the

lift. A quick sprint across the corridor got her across, and she hid

herself in the alcove for the lift as she summoned it,

A brief brush from that strange though that kept running in

her head gave her a seconds warning, before the lift doors opened to

a once again surprised Teldar. He had woken several minutes prior,

and had just gotten to a lift to head to the bridge when he found

himself once again in the presence of the intruder.

"Aw, come on. Son of a-" His grumbling curse was cut short

with another blast from Melony's pistol, spinning him around again

into darkness.

Melony wondered what kind of luck would bring her back into

contact with the individual again, before ducking into the lift with

the passed out individual, and selecting the bridge from the choice

of destinations. It took a minute or so for the lift to traverse up

to the bridge, but it deposited her in the back of it, The busy room

was keeping to itself, most of the activity to the front, allowing

her a small area to work in, hiding behind the consoles.

She looked around quickly, from behind a structural support,

to see the main engineering console, thankfully unmanned. And

active... she snuck over as best she could, hiding behind the back

row of consoles for protection from being spotted, as she moved over

to the console. She looked over the controls, thankful for a

standard keyboard, and went to work, programming in her plan.

The system was slightly diffrent from the standard

programming languages, so some of what she wanted to do, shutting

down the weapon power and shields, couldn't be done, but she managed

to latch one component of her plan in, and set about on a few other

distractions.

In the meantime, Teldar groaned, feeling the pain from

getting a second blast almost exactly in the same place as the

first. He used his good arm to prop himself up, his left arm

rendered useless until he could get medical attention from a damaged

nerve. He looked out the still open doors, seeing the intruder at

the main engineering console of the bridge, readouts and programming

flashing on the console.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see sabatoge in

progress, and he knew he was in no condition to do anything, but at

the same time, the bridge crew was right there, busy in a massive

flurry of activity, unaware of the problem mounting at the back of

the bridge behind the consoles. At least, unless he warned them. 20

to 1 would be good odds.

He too, used consoles and structural supports, sneaking

quietly around Melony's distracted work, until he passed the back

consoles. At which point, he started walking normally, or at least

as normally as one could with a shot-up shoulder. Dominatus happened

to look back for a moment, feeling a pricking at the back of his

mind, to see Teldar staggering up, cradling his shoulder with his

good arm.

"What happened to you?" Dominatus didn't quite know what to

make of the situation, as he looked over one of his favored pilots.

Teldar pantomimed loading a weapon and shooting it off,

jerking his head in the direction of Melony's work. When Dominatus

didn't quite get it, he mimed an intruder sneaking around, once again

pointing and gesturing towards the back of the bridge, motioning for

silence quickly afterward. That time, the dark lord understood, and

smiled evilly. He was going to have fun. It took a rather brave

individual to come onto his bridge.

As Melony finished up her quick work, Dominatus quickly

organized the bridge crew and loaded them up with rifles and

weapons. Melony logged off the console, shutting it down, just in

time to hear multiple weapons priming. She winced as she looked up,

into 10 energy rifles pointed at her face.

"I'm taking that my invitation has been canceled?" She

slowly stood up, putting her arms behind her back to do a little bit

of dirty work. She had an emergancy backup plan, and luckily, she

was just close enough to the hull for it to work.

"Indeed. I've waited a long time for you to become foolish

enough to come aboard, and now I am going to enjoy slowly taking you

apart, Richson." Dominatus smiled cruelly as Melony looked him down

from behind her polarized visor. Her bold actions, along with the

pricking feeling at the back of his mind, had conviced him that the

great captain, instead of a young girl, was aboard. The fact that

Melony's speaker for her suit masked her voice didn't

help.

"So, you think you know me, do you? Just what do you really

know, that's what you should be concerned with. Not everything is as

it seems." Melony taunted the dark man more, unaware of what he

could do, as she plotted in her coordinates, and pulled up the remote

red button.

"Oh, you'll regret crossing me, Richson. I know you far

beyond what you know, and you will regret the day you crossed

Dominatus. I make the rules of the game now." The dark lord gathered

power to him, his hands crackling with massive discharges just

waiting for a target. His hood left his face in shadow, as he

motioned for others to stand out from between the two of them.

"You have to know what game you're playing in order to make

rules for it. And right now, I just changed the game we're playing."

Melony knew that giving away too much too fast could ruin everything,

but she had to think of something to keep Dominatus guessing.

"Oh, and you think you have, do you? Let me show you what

we're playing then..." Dominatus reached out, great lightning

shooting out towards Melony. She had just a moment to activate the

magnetic charges in her boots, letting the current roll along her

suit and into the deck harmlessly. "Smart, but not very. Guards,

since he doesn't like playing with me, we'll just have to teach him

out to dance."

Teldar was watching the whole situation in pain, before a

flickering shadow on the back wall caught his attention. He turned

around to see it's cause, and stared out at one heck of a problem. He

slowly choked out his words, edging for the doors as he began to

panic. "Oh.... shit..."

Piedion turned around to look at what he was doing, and he

too caught a good look at what had shocked him. "You've got to be

kidding me." When he started moving to the doors, everyone looked,

and very quickly, the bridge devolved into a panic run for the

doors. A locked and loaded Avenger, the nose less than a yard away

fom the hull, sitting there pointed right at you, was a very large

pursasion to leave immediately.

Melony smiled, as she brought her hands around from behind

her back, her primary trigger finger resting on the bright flashing

red button on her right wrist. "I think you understand where I'm

coming from, when I said that you had to know what game you're

playing in order to change the rules."

Dominatus winced, knowing full well what was about to

hit. "Point, conceeded." He started to make for the doors, right

before Melony de-magnatized her boots, and pressed.

The next moment was one of fire, as her craft punched massive

breaches into the bridge windows, and the atmosphere closest to them

ignited from the several-thousand degree debris. Then, the internal

piping and conduit exploded as their contents superheated and burst

them, the deck buckling and rupturing in a massive orgy of flying

metal and shratenal. Then came the vacuum suck back, ripping

anything not bolted down back out into space. Several technicans,

ripped metal, a desperately holding on Dominatus, and Melony, aiming

right for her fighter, as it's cockpit opened.

As she shot out of the new one her craft had ripped for the

bridge of the Citadel, she reactivated her suit's magnetic fields,

and slammed into the cockpit structure, knocking the wind out of her

as she hit the pre-programmed evasive sequence. She didn't have time

to look back as she clawed her way into the craft. It carried out

it's mission, reversing back away from the Citadel's hull and rolling

quickly off to one side and accelerating away.

As it departed, the blast shields finally slammed down into

place, allowing the atmosphere to return to the bridge, and for

anyone who had been holding on to let go of their death-grip.

Dominatus fell with a thud to the floor, along with a lucky aide who

had survived the blast and the suck. Piedion looked back in in

shock, seeing the amount of damage dealt with the small craft's

impudent shot.

"My lord, are you all right?" Piedion ran over, helping

Dominatus back up. The dark lord shrugged him off, and moved over to

the helm controls, laying in a pursuit course. "I take it you intend

to stay here?"

"Yes... and I'm wondering why this ship was ever designed

with such a flaw." Dominatus watched the fighter progress away as

the Citadel powered up to blow it away, and as the sensor echo ripped

open to reveal the Kep Salu II, as thought. "I have them both now.

This embarssiment will be avenged."

"We didn't expect to have a pilot waiting for a chance to

blow up the bridge. There was no way to know, but, target practice

awa-" Piedion looked around as the bridge flicked, and the Citadel

lurched back to a halt. "That was what that sabotour did. No

matter." Piedion ran over to the primary tactical station, and hit

the firing stud. "I made a few modifications to the arment, to let

us 'reach out and touch someone'."

"It's about time, as well."

Kep Salu II; Bridge; 1750 FT

"Oh, great, she's been captured... I think.." Richson

watched over the tactical readout of the local area, noticing

something... odd... "What the heck..." He refined the sensor

resolution of the area as Davison came over.

"It that a fighter signature? What is- oh, hell!" Davison

took a few moments to understand, but as soon as he did, he ran for

the engineering console, and the transporter controls. "Get ready,

because she's about to make someone's day very miserable!"

"I see it. She's crazier than I am!" Richson vaulted over

the outer bridge railing, stepping on the lower rail first, then up

and over the upper rail, landing by his chair heavily. As soon as he

regained his balance, he ran over to the helm station, sliding into

the seat and powering up the engines, ready for the all-out sprint.

"Captain, there's a fighter decloaking in front of the

Citadel's bridge! I'm reading most of the personelle clearing out."

The sensor tech looked close up at his readings, wondering what the

heck was about to happen.

"You would too, if one decloaked right in front of our

bridge. They're running for their lives, and... oop! There it

goes!" Richson watched with a half-murderous glee as the fighter

fired, cracking open the bridge hull like an egg, and as Melony flew

out of the debris cloud and right into her craft. "And that's our

cue to get cracking."

The Salu decloaked and roared past the Citadel, even as the

ship began to turn in pursuit. As Melony's craft rolled to one side,

about to loose it's pilot, it dissappeared in the sparkle of a cargo

transporter, grabbed by the Salu.

"I've got her, get us the hell out of here!" Davison looked

up from his controls, seeing Melony tucked away safely in the hanger,

her fighter skidding to a halt from it's still slight momentum.

"With pleasure. Hang on, all hands secure for a bit of

ludicrous speed." Richson reached for the warp drive throttle, and

jammed it clean through the forward end of the console. He held on

as the ship shuddered with a sudden burst of power, then leaped

ahead, roaring away from Aira so fast that it left most of subspace

in it's warp wake. The stars blurred, then streched into

nothingness...

To Be Continued...