2318

SIX

With a slight jolt, the starship lifted itself into the air. Devan lay on the inclined chair, watching the scenery change outside as it accelerated up, and beneath them, the city slowly shrank to the size of a palm, then a dot, then nothing. Meanwhile, the skies turned darker as they entered orbit and the continents came into view. Devan continued staring at the planet in awe. Beneath the yellowish clouds, he saw and recognized some of the lands that he was taught by the others when he was young -- Asia and the Pacific Ocean sprawled beneath them, patches of green and brown scattered around the landmass.

After Devan got bored of the scenery, he turned back towards Ell and Drew, who was seated beside him. Drew, sitting beside him was still staring out into empty space while Ell was busy typing onto her tracker. 

"Guys? Who's controlling this cruiser?" Devan noticed that the cabin was exceptionally silent and asked.

"It's controlled by the ground control, it's route and direction is safe for us, you do not need to worry about it," Ell mumbled, still focusing on her computer.

Devan nodded and turned back to the window when Ell spoke, "Uh... guys? The Aksillet Empire is currently sending thousands of starships of their way here. We've just got the information from the Space Station that we're leaving from, and we need to make the jump into hyperspace within ten minutes."

"An attack so quickly? This means that... the FLaw should also be transported here with an attack on such a massive scale," Devan sat up, "We have to return to Earth and check where the FLaw is, tell the ground control that we need to return back!"

"But... we can't! We're still really unstable in the atmosphere and it might be fatal trying to get back to the ground. But what might be our best bet is to send us to the Central Space Station, it will still be shielded by Earth's shields from the Aksillet bombardments, and they can send us back to the ground from there."

"Sure then, send us there," Devan replied. The trio sat in tense silence as Ell typed furiously into the tracker. Then, with a violent shake, the craft turned and jolted forward as the cabin shook. After a tense moment of silence, the cabin stabilized and Ell finally spoke, "Okay, we're safe. We're heading to the Space Station, but how are you so sure that they would attack us with the FLaw right away?"

"We have seen their previous battles, they would shift all their flagships and superweapons to every war, and I am sure they would in this war too. You can trust me here, I know what's right. Now, tell the ground control to engage all shields around Earth and direct all of our military and our superlasers on their incoming ships. We need to stall them until the Union fleet arrives to counterattack them."

~

General Barker surveyed the supercarrier Colossus. From the bridge, he could see hundreds of aircraft and laser cannons lining the sides of the carrier. They were heading for war, the first time in decades since the nuclear war. 

Their fleet was dwarfed by almost any fleet in any empire, however, with theirs consisting only two flagships, the Peregrine and the Colossus, which could only be compared in strength to an Aksillet destroyer. Besides that, any other remaining ships of their fleet would only be small, patrol-sized spacecraft that would definitely be no match for the massive Aksillet fleet.

Just as he had reached European Earth, he received an order from the Chancellor for war, although he was not sure of the cause. The Chancellor stated in the message that reinforcements are coming, but he would have to hold the planet for a very long time, considering the lack of munitions and manpower.

Turning back from the bridge platform to the control hall, he glanced outside to the plain vacuum of space and the Central Space Station beside the supercarrier.