September 12, 2152
"Commander, you need to wake up," Jask chimed, "I've let you sleep for an hour, but we have imminent arrivals. We need to prepare."
Nephenee sleepily groaned, "Five more minutes, Jask."
"If you don't get up, I will be forced to take extraordinary measures," Jask warned, "I have already begun to lower the temperature in the room to stimulate activity."
"I'm up. What's the situation, Jask?" Nephenee rubbed her eyes and shook Innes in the bed next to her. Then her eyes adjusted and focused on the active countdown on the screen.
"As you can see, I've started a countdown on the screen until the vessel I detected arrives on Temia's surface," Jask informed her, "Based on my estimates, the inbound ship is a cruiser-size ship with many similarities to a Mantoan vessel."
Nephenee shrieked, "Innes! Get up! They're coming!"
"Jask, what is your recommendation?" Innes asked as he sat up, "Do we even have time to evacuate at this point?"
"If we abandoned all installed equipment and left in the next thirty minutes, we would have a fifty percent chance of successfully evading them. After that, your chances are cut by two percent per minute," Jask explained.
"Well, evacuation is out then because we can't leave the RRS," Innes sighed, "Based on the scans you've done and the records from the war, can you estimate how many soldiers may be on the craft?"
Jask reported grimly, "A rough analysis of the ship would suggest one platoon or between two and three hundred soldiers are aboard. When this class of craft attacked during the war, the average total number of troops from it was two hundred fifty."
"So, we can't escape, and they'll outnumber is ten to one," Nephenee grieved, "And for all we know, it could be one of the other groups from Emory's report. That's just great."
"We better get the squad up and prepared then. Why don't you send out a report on the RSS? Hopefully, someone will have good news," Innes suggested as he got out of the bed.
"And if they don't?" Nephenee asked quietly, "Is today our last day of life? Is this the end?"
Innes shook his head as he took her hand, "This isn't the end. We'll make it through this, Nephenee, I promise." He pulled her close and kissed her before letting go and finishing getting ready. After they were both dressed and ready for the day, Innes sent out the message for the squad to assemble in the cargo hold while Nephenee headed to the RRS. Once there, she quickly booted up the machine and stood on the platform anxiously. Slowly, four figures materialized in front of her: Gatrie, Shepherd, Tana, and Tethys.
Nephenee grimaced, "I've called you all because Jask detected an enemy ship headed towards us and will land in less than fourteen hours."
"Damnit. Of course they would come. There's still another ten days before the army arrives," Shepherd growled, "What are our options? And Tethys, where is Emory?"
"Emory is trying to break through but," Tethys answered before, for the first time since creating the RRS, the reception turned blotchy and cut out altogether in a few moments. Even Shepherd froze in his tracks when that happened; he turned around and barked some orders at someone in the room with him in Sol. When he returned, his face was paler, and a pained look covered his face.
"Don't worry about that, probably just a crossed wire," Shepherd grunted, "Back to the matter at hand, Nephenee, what are our options?"
Nephenee cleared her throat, "We've set up defensive structures around the base and are prepared to dig in and wait them out. Based on the estimates, we could be fighting ten times as many enemies as we have troops."
"We should have our backup method up and running by then," Gatrie explained, "We could send our squad there. It won't even the odds, but it should help."
"Be careful, Nephenee. When they got close to Proxima Centauri B, we lost communication with them several minutes before they arrived," Shepherd warned.
"Thank you, Supreme Commander," Nephenee bowed slightly, "Gatrie, send people when you are ready. I will let everyone know when the danger has passed." The other three bowed slightly just before the transmission ended, leaving Nephenee alone with her thoughts for a moment. She took a deep breath as she pulled up the countdown on her wrist again which showed thirteen hours and forty-three minutes until landfall. After minimizing the alert, she headed back to the cargo hold where several people were unboxing battle gear. The Collective had issued each person a leather helmet, jacket, and pair of jeans, each of which was enchanted with general magik and would be the most protection they could ask for. Despite its appearance, it was not only comfy but rather light as well, no different than wearing heavy clothes. However, because of technological improvements, the armor changed colors to blend in with its surroundings no matter what environment it was in. Besides armor, a crate of all different weapons had been pulled out as well for anyone who didn't bring a personal one. These weapons boosted the effective sphere level for its user by one, a standard bump common amongst weapons though usually tailored to one specific sphere. The lance that Nephenee carried, though, was better because it buffed her effective level by two, meaning strikes from her were level five. While she was rummaging around one of the armor crates, Innes approached from inside the ship.
He joked, "Supposedly, there's one just our size in there, but I dug for fifteen minutes and couldn't find anything."
"Say, you're a bit of a factoid, right?" Nephenee said nonchalantly, "What's strong enough to knock out the signal for the RRS?"
"Kind of an odd question, but okay. Well, almost nothing natural is strong enough to knock it out anymore. A pulsar beam and getting sucked into a black hole both have the energy to do the job. However, when Proxima Centauri B was taken over, the Mantoan had a way to disable it as well, probably using an extremely powerful EMP. Why do you ask?" Innes scratched his head, thinking this was a hypothetical question.
"Tethys was on the call this morning, and her signal was cut off," Nephenee whispered as she turned to face Innes, "I was trying to decide how screwed we were if the Mantoan were landing there as well."
Innes rubbed his chin, "I doubt they would attack us and Emory's team but not launch an attack on the Sol System, considering it's roughly halfway between us. But magik could, in theory, create a big enough pulse to knock out the signal."
"Magik? You think the person working with her betrayed her?" Nephenee questioned, "I can't imagine anyone else even having enough magik to create that kind of effect."
"Hmm, you're right; that doesn't make sense either. Unless, but that couldn't be it," Innes started muttering to himself.
Nephenee scowled, "What are you dreaming up now? Whatever crazy suggestion you have, I'm tempted to believe you. Only because you have this uncanny ability to come up with the correct solution."
"I don't know if you're aware, but Emory isn't human; she's half Fae," Innes elaborated a little crazily, "After I found that out, I read a lot of lore about the Fae because that's how I'm wired. Who knows what is true and what isn't, but most of the stories that follow the transition from child to adult Fae talk about a massive power change between the two. You know how strong Emory was before; now imagine if her power grew exponentially in a very short amount of time. The excess power could get released as a pulse, potentially strong enough to temporarily knock out the RRS."
"That's crazy. You're saying a person, a single person, could release the equivalent intensity of a pulsar with magik? No way, I don't believe it," Nephenee snorted.
"When I met Emory, she didn't technically have a sphere," Innes admitted, "And over three weeks, she gained a sphere and progressed it to level two. Her mana pool and the strength of her sphere allowed her to go toe-to-toe with multiple members of the High Collective. You saw the sphere she created before we left; she could have made one the size of a skyscraper."
Nephenee's eyes grew wide, "Even if you're exaggerating on the last statement, the other two are enough to sway my opinion. Still, she has to show up." Innes sighed but nodded in agreement because she was right; it wouldn't matter how strong Emory was if she wasn't there. While the pair had been talking, the armor crate had been mostly emptied which allowed the two giants to find the right set of armor finally. They put it on over their normal uniform like most outerwear, and Nephenee cut a hole in her helmet for her ponytail. "How do I look?" Nephenee asked.
Innes smiled, "Like you're ready for battle." However, once they found their gear, there wasn't a reason to leave it on for the next twelve hours. So, they took off the gear and found an empty spot in front of the base to sit and eat provisions. It wasn't anything special, just crackers, jerky, and dehydrated fruits, but it did serve as a good way to get their impending doom off their minds. While they ate, they talked about their families back in Sol and the lives they had left behind. Nephenee's family was a branch of a Council family, allowed to learn the secret sphere but not a voting party in clan decisions the way she described it. Her family, the Lavenders, oversaw the protection and defense of the main family, the Violets. This specialty position molded her into a magik warrior, much in the same way Innes's family and their martial arts had honed Innes. She grew up on Earth in an area called the Rocky Mountains, deep in the hills near the Violet's fortress, which was a pure forest of coniferous trees and woodland creatures. Her family came to Mars for something related to Council business, but she didn't know the specifics. In contrast, Innes had never left Mars; however, due to his military background, he had visited all five habitat units, though the general landscape of all of them was flat, artificially created savannah. This was a long overdue conversation between the two budding lovers and made the two feel much closer together.
Nephenee looked down at her wrist and saw two hours had passed. Since they still had over nine hours until the enemy was supposed to arrive, she ordered the entire squad onto the ship and told everyone to rest or sleep for the next six hours. After everyone was in, she locked up the doors and set Jask's sensors to a wide pulse that covered both the area around the ship and the rest of the star system. The pair was alone in the cargo hold since they were the last two onboard, so Nephenee grabbed Innes's wrist and led him to her cabin. Yet once they got inside, she just stood there, holding his hands and looking at her feet.
Innes asked, "Is something wrong? We don't have to do anything; we can just take a nap."
"No, it's not that," Nephenee whispered, "I just wanted to say something, in case this whole thing doesn't go well."
"Stop, don't go there. This is all going to go just fine," Innes emphasized as he patted her shoulder.
"Well, if it doesn't, I just want you to know that I care about you," Nephenee mumbled as her eyes welled up holding back her tears, "I care about you a lot, more than I thought I would at first. You're a good person, Innes. Thank you for relentlessly supporting me." A tear ran down Innes's face as he pulled her face up and kissed her on the lips.
Innes murmured, "I think I'm falling in love with you." As the tears turned to passion, the two embraced each other and made their way carefully to the bed. After enjoying each other for a long while, Nephenee cuddled close and drifted off to sleep followed by Innes shortly afterwards. Finally, an alarm blared in the cabin, stirring everyone from their slumber. Innes sat up first and asked, "Jask, what's the alarm for? And why did the countdown timer drop so much? We weren't sleeping that long."
"My initial estimate assumed they would need to circle Temia for a bit to find out our location," Jask replied, "However, based on their newest trajectory, that doesn't seem to be the case as they are essentially on a collision course with us. You have one hour and three minutes until arrival."
"Nephenee, time to wake up. The enemy is almost here," Innes gently warned as he slightly shook Nephenee. She opened her bloodshot eyes and rubbed her puffy cheeks as she sat up. The pair quickly put back on their uniforms and armor before heading out and waking up the rest of the crew. All-in-all the squad took about thirty minutes to get up, ready, and changed for battle. Innes had activated the ship-wide alarm which aided him in jolting the others into a fighting mentality. Once everyone was outside and lined up in front of the base, an object hurdling through the atmosphere could be seen headed straight for them. Anxiety and fear were apparent on everyone's face as the reverse thrusters from the massive spacecraft engaged, roughly five times as large as their ship. It landed with a loud thump a quarter mile away and hissed as the airlock released the pressure from the ship. Then a bright light appeared a few feet in front of the squad, blinding the party and forcing them to turn away. When it dimmed, two people stood in its place, an old, lanky man in a robe and a young, red-haired girl with glowing golden eyes. She smiled, "It looks like we made it just in time."