Mag and his crew had taken control of the transport's bridge and had the normal crew of the transport go to the mess hall shortly after the X-19's had come after them. The shockwave from the ship had sent the transport spinning out of control, numerous holes in the hull.

"Can you get anything back on line?" Mag asked the pilot. The computers on the ship were still mostly working, and the only people Mag could talk with were on the bridge, as the intercom had blown out.

"Nothing, sir. I suggest you have the crew get into space suits, quick, or you'll have a transport with a large shipment of dead bodies."

"Good thinking." Mag turned to the rest of the officers on the bridge. "Everybody, go get space suits on, and look for other crew members. Tell them to get space suits on, and see if you can help them, if they're wounded. I'm going to go see the transport's normal crew in the mess hall."

The bridge crew floated out the door, as artificial gravity was out, and the bride was soon empty, except for Mag. Mag took a couple minutes checking on the computers for a damage report, then headed to the mess hall, which wasn't far away. When he got near it, he saw that the door was completely fused and warped. The entire wall near the mess hall was warped, for that matter.

Mag got a tool kit and cut a large hole in the door to walk through. The sight he saw when he walked inside the mess hall would have made an organic sick to their stomachs. The Ishiman crew had been watching the battle out the viewport when the lightwave hit. Everything metal in the mess hall had been melted and/or warped. No tables, no counters, no chairs, except some things that resembled them on the floors. But the worst part of all, by far, was the red slushy substance floating around the room, with pieces of bones, small bits of organs, and miniscule scraps of Ishiman uniforms in it.

Mag looked at the viewport. It had taken the shockwave fairly well, as it had just let most of the energy through into the room. It was then that Mag noticed it. Some of the DEF forces occaisionally passed the viewport as the transport slowly revolved, and Mag noticed them assembling. A jumpgate formed at their center, and they began trickling into it, one by one. The transport was drifting towards the jumpgate. Soon, they were passing into another system, probably some random system in the Free Trade Zone that was just the first of the DEF's long line of dropout points before getting back to their secret base...

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"I am the supreme dictator of the universe, it's just that nobody knows about it yet."
"Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

(If anyone is surprised at what happens here, don't be. I've actually been building up to it since Chapter II)

"Commander, report!" came the order from the UNS Mariposa.
"Admiral Spann, the Gaitori are out eliminating the last remains of the Mars Station that built the Vengeance. The Obiards are securing the orbital defenses around Earth. Salrillian and Cantharan ships still remain unaccounted for, as they left after their heavy " A sudden interuption, the flash of a warp flare, came into sight.

As the Obish escort slowed down to a stop, a shook up Commander took the bridge.
"Driven back unholy alliance their Pearls gone!" The Commander slumped to the deck.

Spann reacted immediately. "Quickly! Secure that escort! We don't know what's out there, and we don't want to take any more losses than we already have."
The escort was secured just as a channel opened up to Admiral Krvtz.

-------

"Admiral, an Obish Escort just came in, badly damaged. He passed out, but managed to get a couple of words out first. He mentioned an 'unholy alliance,' and 'pearls being gone,' whatever that is supposed to mean."
"Their Pearls?" Krvtz looked aghast. "Why would they remove their Pearls? Have they forsaken Ln'tkra?"
"You understand it?"
"Yes. It is a long standing tradition among us. You have seen the white spheres surrounding the front of an Obish saucer?"
"Of course"
"Those are known as 'Pearls of Ln'tkra*,' pointing in all directions to honor our Goddess of the Stars. The only reason for them to remove the Pearls is that they had turned to another Deity."
"And this means ?"
"There is only one deity irrational enough to cause this. Sh'yara**, Goddess of Fury often associated with the Cantharans and Salrillians."

*LIHNT-kuh-rah
**SYA-rah
(I really should get a pronunciation guide up. It's simplify things a bit)

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What others can travel so far into so many universes yet remain so deeply rooted in their own?

But not all the DEF were heading off to set up the secret base...

Fortuna Freeport, as it's translated into English, was the largest of the Bazidanese habitat stations, and had been chosen as the neutral ground on which to negotiate the future of humanity and Earth.

William and his sister felt glad as they watched Wizr's slide into the docking bay next to theirs. Curiously, the Cantharans, Salrilians, Obish, and Spamo were late.

Wizr would pursuade the Gaitori to respect the Ishiman claim to Earth, and their help in defeating the UEC. He was a master persuader.

The Eleejeetians would be here too, and they would be inclined toward mercy, as Jomo doing the negoatiating. Darkk had personally saved Jomo from the Salrilian carrier battlegroup and Gaitori pirates, and would be able to lever him into a great deal of help.

Darkk thought he could handle the Cantharans. He'd done the origional analysis of the rouge asteroid found by the crew of the Ares, and had discovered the curious "virus" it contained. He'd put a lot of thought into them since then, hating leaving a mystery unsolved. Now he thought he had it. He'd long known the depths of their programming, but Sarah had been needed to tell him what the stuff they did would do to what they came in contact with. She'd told him.
He could bluff his way through the negotiations by letting on he knew their dirty little secret. Having a secret amused him. He'd have to watch his back, but that wasn't really different from his current status, or harder.

The Salrilians probably wouldn't have too much to say. Darkk had subtly hinted that Audemed was on the offensive, and the remains of their forces had been sent hurrying back to their home bases, to plan a counteroffensive.

The Obish... Suddenly, Darkk recieved a message from Spamo. He was aghast as he read it.

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

Levt.
Grand Admiral Gerald Zakharov Levt.
Now an admiral without a fleet.

He sat there, polishing his broadsword. Pondering. All that remained of the glorious UEC was the carrier around him. Earth and all of it's outposts had been captured by The Woven, the Phylydians had eradicated the entire UEC Armada, and the Vengeance had been destroyed.

He sharpened the blade with the microlaser, giving it an ever-so-jagged appeal that made the Celtic sword sing. Pondering. It was over. It was all over. The Aliens had won, at the cost of untold billions of lives. Earth lay in ruins, as did the rest of humanity. Mankind would never rise again from it's slow grave. Doubtless there would be several ambitious attempts to reunite, but they would inevtably fail against the dominion of aliens.

He glanced down the shaft, noticing a small buckle at the end. He straightened the tip with his tooth. And now, he was over. He had offered humanity a place in the stars, at the top, and for a brief time he had delivered such. However, Spamo and Darkk, traitors and terrorists to humanity, had led The Woven against him.

Normally he would have them hunted down, a fleet's price on their foreheads so he could have them pay the ultimate price for dooming mankind. He straightened a loose lase on the leather handle. Instead he would let them live. Forcing them wake up every morning and face every day with the knowledge that their blunder, their lost cause had been responsible for mankind's destruction. That they were the reason humanity had to scatter and eventually die out.

Mankind had fallen from the peak of it's civilisation the moment they betrayed it in the name of rightousness. Levt polished off the last speck of dust and marveled at the restored broadsword.

Then, without even slight hesitation, he thrust it deep into his chest.

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

THE END

(start a new chapter)

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 03-15-2001).)

(I think it's Pallas's turn. His story is up next.)

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

Well, we can try the following:
Obish-Gaitori War
Boodan Civil War
Enslaving of Audemed (BTS)

I've got to assemble the Chapters. So far I've only done Ch1.

We could, alternatively, use a different universe for this:
Marathon: Invasion
Voyager
WhiteSpace
(StarLance?)
(Any others)

I'll be gone for 3 days anyway.

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What others can travel so far into so many universes yet remain so deeply rooted in their own?

Well, it's not quite over yet. Your "pearls" plotline hasn't been resolved.

As for the Boodan Civil War, the events of it are SUPPOSED to be top secret.

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

You can do your "Pearls" plotline, in another chapter. Someone please close this one.

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.