Losing track of time on a job like this was easy, and the only clue Drakus had that time had not stopped completely was the EVE Standard Time clock readout on the lower left of his Neocom display. An agonising half hour later, the gate ahead of him began to gather a charge as it connected with its sister gate in the Hasiari system. Drakus quickly focused all attention on his sensor readings as the incoming ship slipped into view from the energy vortex ahead. Drakus accessed the identification information on the ship.
'Finaly.' He thought to himself as he commanded the comms channel to link with Darius' Wolf.
"You took your damned sweet time." he said over the encrypted channel.
"Drakus?" Came the reply, slightly distorted from the residual charge still clinging to his hull.
"Dar, you're in a hell of a bind buddy." He continued. "And that's just with Mags and Zool. First though we have to get past this blockade."
"Blockade?" Inquired Darius. Drakus did not answer and quickly merged his comms signal with the fleet comms.
"Zool, I have him." He said.
"Roger that."
"Zool," interrupted Darius. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Saving your hide, damnit Darius. Now do as I say or so help me that Ammatar Security fleet will be the least of your problems."

Darius brooded in his pod, but bit his tongue. They had no damned right getting in his business, only to lay into him at the same time. For now though, it seemed the fight was not over yet. Darius thought back to Shay'la in the bunk room, and hoped she would live through the fight. He had more questions for her and wanted her to be able to answer them. Or was that all?
"Darius, Follow Drakus to the Sasta system and stay with him. The fleet is entering the Jark system. Wait for our signal before warping to the Jark gate. As soon as you arrive, head right for the gate while we distract them." Darius wanted to protest their getting involved, but he realised he might need the help. Even if he does get killed, he would be cloned. But he had a passenger, and as much as he doesn't trust her, he needed to know what she had been keeping from him. He needed her.

Darius followed Drakus, now de-cloaked, to the Sasta system jump gate and quickly approached to jump distance.

"OK everyone this is it." Remarked Zoolkhan to the rest of the fleet as they warped to the Sasta gate in Jark. "Remember your assignments and engage on sight. Keep the way clear for Darius so he can get out of the system and back to Minmatar space. According to our information, if his pod is destroyed we lose him to a clone hijack." The fleet exited warp at the jump gate and moved to jump range as one large armada.
"Jump." Ordered Zoolkhan once everyone was close enough.

The jump gate charged with a brilliant white light that cut a path through the dark backdrop of space.
"Sir." Shouted one of the bridge officers on The Constantine. "The gate just activated… several… Sir a large number of ships coming through!" Major General Memphos turned on his heel to face the officer who was now frantically getting readings from the centre console and the holo-display.
"Who are they?" barked the Major General.
"Unknown sir, still incoming." The Major General turned to the comms officer.
"Signal the fleet to prepare for multiple incoming, assume they are the hostiles we have been waiting for."
"Yes sir!" replied the young officer as he began to relay the information. It was too late.
"Ships sighted!" shouted the officer at the holo-display again.
"Get me an I.D." Demanded the Major General.
"They're… my god…" Memphos looked up at the display as the area around the jump gate behind his fleet slowly flooded with multiple red blip indicators, tagged with the [FU2] identification mark. The sea of ships grew as close to twenty enemy vessels in total surrounded the gate and began to break off into groups, moving towards his fleet.
"Comms, order all ships to engage closest pre-designated target ranks! Weapons, locate the flagship and fire at will."
"Sir, enemy has locked… incoming fire!"

The side of Zoolkhan's Tempest blazed with flashes of light as the artillery fixtures began to fire their sequence in delayed succession. Hot steaks of phased plasma warheads sliced through the void of space between his battleship and the lead Armageddon. His fleet began their formation runs as Zoolkhan designated targets through the data link system. The cruiser wing broke from the main formation and headed towards the cluster of Omens designated by Christa. The rest of the battleships gained a lock and, as their target assignments came through, let lose with all the weapons in their arsenal. The entire face of the FU2 fleet was a display of flashing lights and vapour trails as the Ravens and other missile equipped ships emptied their launcher tubes in the direction of the enemy. As quickly as it began, the Ammatar fleet turned on to face the FU2 fleet. The Constantine began evasive manoeuvres and retreated to the back of his formation, trying to evade the guns of several of the Minmatar battleships now trained at him. His shining laser turrets rotated on their hard points to face the first ship that fired on him, Zoolkhan's Tempest, and responded in kind with rapid bursts of blinding white laser fire. The white hot stream of particles pounded against the shield emissions of the Tempest, flaring on contact and streaming off leaving the raw radiation to be absorbed into the shield. The shield responded with sharp pulses of blue light as Zoolkhan engaged his shield booster.
"Drakus, we are engaged." Reported Zoolkhan. "Get in here now."
"Jumping." Came the response from Drakus and Darius as their ships entered the jump gate sequence and were swept up by the energy vortex.

Aboard The Constantine, Major General Memphos clung to a brace rail around the tactical holo-emitter console as another salvo of cruise missiles impacted his ship's shields. It was clear looking at the display that the terrorist battleships were forming two fire groups. A small group of cruiser sized ships had broken from the group, and were heading for the closest wing of cruisers to the jump gate.
"Tactical," he shouted over the loud thumping of the projectile impacts on his ship, "Have wing two and three join their cruisers under the local control of the Arameth and engage the rouge group heading for wing two and tell the Malachi to join wing one with us. Concentrate fire on our target, and have our cruisers engage close range on that Raven." The Arameth was the Armageddon commanding wing three at the far side of the 'basket' they had set for Darius. The Malachi was the closest Armageddon to their position, at the centre of the 'basket' formation. The orders passed slowly as Memphos cursed to himself. Pod pilots had the advantage of neural links and not needing to pass orders by word of mouth to multiple people before they get executed. It was like trying to fight an enemy ten minutes late. Finally, the display showed the fruits of his orders as the cruisers from wings two and three moved together to intercept the incoming enemy with the Arameth hovering above them in a perfect fire support position. The Malachi began to break away and move to join The Constantine in focusing fire on the lead Tempest battleship. The cruisers in their wing moved away from them and spread wide as they raced towards the battleship formation, now peppering their target raven with thin streaks of laser fire from their pulse lasers.

"Major!" barked Memphos to his second in command, continuing without giving him time to acknowledge. "What are those ships? Behind the battleships." He stuck his hand into the projection at the enemy signals sitting stationary behind the wall of firepower created by the battleships.

"All command ships report." Said Zoolkhan flatly, now fully concentrating on the battle as if in a trance, leaving no more room for emotion in his voice. The small assembly of Battlecruisers at his rear, flanking the Scorpion class EWAR battleship began to respond one after another.
"Dyaus, warfare links running."
"Keriliath, links active."
"Mai, standing by jammers."
"We have incoming cruisers." Reported Zoolkhan. "Witch Doctor's Raven is under attack. Cyclones engage artillery on designated targets." Zoolkhan transmitted the target priorities via the datalink and the two Cyclones unleashed a hail of rapid artillery fire towards the Omens, rippling their shields with explosive rounds of nuclear tipped ammunition while Witch Doctor continued to launch volleys of cruise missiles towards the bigger targets ahead of the group, his shields now struggling under the sustained cruiser fire of the four Omens. The two Arbitrators in the group opened their drone bays and unleashed a small swarm of fighter drones on the Raven, further burdening the shield booster and the capacitor that feeds it. A blast of light and burning metal erupts from the formation as the first cruiser explodes under the fire of the Cyclones supporting the battleship's flank. They switched to their second target, one of the Arbitrators, and unleash more of the same.

At the centre of the group, the cruiser wing with mixed frigates weaves through the swarm of golden ships, picking their targets and focusing their fire power in small groups. Thick beams of laser fire passed through their group from above as the Arameth rained down pulse laser fire, striking several blows on Beinrich's Rupture, the Santa Maria, but not quite able to puncture the shields as long as he kept moving fast. Two stiletto interceptors, piloted by Hobsbawn and Etherial Pain, homed in on the first Arbitrator ahead of them as Beinrich, Carinae and Tekaar, both flying Muninn and an Ishtar heavy assault ships respectively, closed in on the prey rapidly. Both the Arbitrator and the Ishtar released their hoard of drones that passed each other in space moments before the Rupture and Muninn closed to within autocannon distance. They peppered the Ammatar cruiser while the Ishtar drained as much of the Capacitor life blood from it as possible, as was evident from the telltale glowing red stream between them from the Nosferatu energy vampires. The drones from the Arbitrator, currently swarming the Muninn in a foolish attempt to do any meaningful damage, now turned their attention to one of the two interceptors that was preventing it from moving and escaping. It was too little too late however, and the Arbitrator cruiser was devoured quickly by the autocannon fire cutting large tears through the armour with their fusion based warheads, melting the plating around the impact points with their heat and exposing the vital systems within. The grim scene of mechanical butchery was over shortly as large chunks of the superstructure tore free from minor explosions that rippled through the ship, leaving a burning carcase tumbling into space.
"This is Beinrich," came a report over the comms, punctuated by a bright flash from the centre of the cruiser wing. "I'm down. Pod out safe." The blast left a trail of flaming wreckage tumbling through the thick of the fight as his Rupture cruiser succumbed to the fire from the Armageddon and a small swarm of drones controlled by one of the three remaining Arbitrators. Christa Larne cursed to herself and began to scan the scene, looking for the closest Arbitrator to kill.

Back at the battleships Zoolkhan struggled to maintain his shields under the focused battery of the two Armageddons, and engaged his armour repair systems as the final remnants of shield energy failed to hold back the brunt of the laser fire forcing its way through. Hot beams of energy particles and radiation struck home on the armour plating, melting it and leaving a glowing mark that quickly dissipated in the vacuum chill of space before another laser strike continued the onslaught, cutting a grove through the armour plating. A weave of micro machines worked feverishly to repair the damage, vaporising in their millions as the incoming laser fire strayed too close, once again destroying their handiwork and a little more with each blast.
"Mai," addressed Zool over the comms, "Jammers on the second Armageddon, and anything you have left on the flagship."
"Jammers active." Stated Mai in an instant as she flooded the radio spectrum with powerful white noise static emissions from her Scorpion battleship. As if on cue, the second Armageddon fell silent.
"Witch Doctor here, I'm going down." Zoolkhan rotated his camera drone to view the Raven at the edge of their group. In a final death throw, the Raven unleashed a full salvo from all launchers. The cruise missiles turn as sharp as they can and home in on the second Arbitrator cruiser in the attacking formation, smothering it in several explosions. A moment later, the Raven erupted in flames as several decks on the battleship explode section by section. A barely noticeable beacon light races off into the distance as Witch Doctors escape pod warps clear of the stricken ship as the Raven explodes in a bright shower of flame and debris. The cruiser formation turns their attention to the Scorpion and Cyclones at the rear of the battleship group and begin to skirt around the main body towards their targets. The second Arbitrator in the group that was subjected to Witch Doctors cruise missile volley was trailing flames and listing badly, as was the first Arbitrator, still under fire from the Cyclones.
"Mangold, Vir, Kithan," said Zoolkhan, addressing three of his Typhoon pilots, "Move back and support the EWAR and Command ships, take their priority target list and focus fire. We can't lose those jammers." The three ships turned towards the Scorpion and two Cyclones at the rear of the group and moved in close to support with their own launchers and ample drone bays.

Christa had located and designated her wings next target, an Arbitrator flanked by two omen cruisers, and commanded Shadowraith to follow her in his Thorax. Both the Thorax and her Muninn were set for close range engagements and surrounded the Arbitrator quickly, battering the shields with a mix of projectile fusion warheads and super heated antimatter from the Thorax's blasters.
"Those Omens have me locked." Said Shadowraith calmly over the comms to Christa as they continued to dismantle the drone ship. He released his own drones and set them onto the Arbitrator to assist in a quick kill.
"Almost there," said Christa, more to herself than Shadowraith. "We take the next Omen as soon as this is dead."
"My shields are down, repairers running." Reported Shadowraith.
"Tekaar, Carinae, get over here and engage my next target." Requested Christa to the other members of her wing that were already enroute, having unceremoniously dispatched another Omen. No sooner were they in range and beginning their onslaught on the first Omen, the Arbitrator was consumed by a ball of flames before the structure broke into several burning pieces from the secondary explosions. Christa and Shadowraith turned to close in on the Omens and join the other two heavy cruisers.
"My repairers are failing." Came the report from Shadowraith. The side of his Thorax began to buckle and break as several fires erupted near the lower engine fuselage causing the cruiser to lurch off course. He passed close to the Omens that now had no problem tracking the large cruiser with their lasers that were scouring several gashes in the hull. Several bolts of hot antimatter struck the new primary target Omen in rapid succession in one last act of vengeance before Shadowraith ejected his pod from the burning cruiser and warped away quickly. Multiple explosions across the hull crippled the Thorax beyond operation. Moments later, the deathblow was delivered to one of the Omens as the combined firepower of the three remaining heavy cruisers breached the hull with ease, shredding vital systems and detonating the main reactor. The blast ripped through the rear end of the Omen as the front section continued to burn and tumble out of control. Christa began to lock the final target on the list before noticing it was in retreat. Before anyone could establish a lock, the Omen warped into the blackness of space leaving a streak of engine trail behind. If she was not submerged in hydrostatic fluid, she would have let out a frustrated scream.

Zoolkhan registered an incoming signal on his display, and watched as Darius and Drakus warped into the middle of the fight.
"Damnit, about time!" Barked Zoolkhan. "Escort wing, break and surround Darius. Head for the gate at maximum speed."
Khaldorn, Hobsbawn, Entarel and Bel split from the main attack group and headed towards Darius and Drakus, who were already moving into the thick of the fight to reach the gate beyond them. Zoolkhan registered another severe hit on his ship as the command Armageddon, still refusing to go down without a fight, stuck a heavy blow with its lasers. Zoolkhan reset the priorities for his heavy fire team to the flagship again that was flying wildly to evade the slower turrets of the Tempests. With their Raven dead, scoring good hits was becoming harder.
"This is Mangold." Came another message. "Enemy engaged…" As quickly as that, another series of blasts erupted fem behind as the three Typhoons covering the command and EWAR ships behind them battered the small cruiser wing with cruise missiles. Their fire was spread between the two heavily damaged Arbitrators, striking quick kills in their wake as the cruisers were torn into twisted and scorched husks that tumbled from the remaining pack of Omens. "Two targets down." Came the triumphant report. "Drones loose, engaging remaining Omens."
"Dyaus, Keriliath, web one each when they get close, then divert your fire to support the cruisers, switch to their target list." Commanded Zool, knowing that the Omens would be too close by now to be hit by the artillery on their Cyclones.

Darius and his escorts made a dash for the gate through the torrents of laser fire that weaved in front of them. As they passed through their own ranks, Etherial Pain streaked by their view, and homed in on the Armageddon looming high above the group, still raining fire on the cruisers below. Carinae in his Muninn was taking the brunt of the fire now as he and Tekaar in his Ishtar drained and shredded another Omen cruiser that was engulfed in flame before breaking in half along the main damage at the centre of the superstructure.
"That Armageddon is making life hell." Said Tekaar flatly over the comms.
"All heavy assaults," replied Christa Larne, piloting her own Muninn, "Focus fire on the Armageddon." One by one, the heavy assault cruisers followed Christa Larne's lead and turned to attack the Armageddon. Christa scanned her wings status and noticed Carinae was trailing several streams of fire. "Car, status?"
"Several deck fires and structural warnings. I'll be fine."
"Pull out now you need to reapir." A small blast ripped through Carinae's port engines as his Muninn began to lose control.
"Warp drive is charging. Can't maintain course."
"Drakus here, breaking to support." He reported as his Cheetah covert ops ship split from the escort for Darius and engaged his dampeners on the Armageddon, forcing it to redirect fire to closer targets. A sudden blast erupted through their wing as Carinae's ships failed to make it out in time and crumpled under the heavy pulse lasers of the Ammatar battleship. Without waiting for a report, Christa and Sh'Khari closed to autocannon distance and began their orbit as Etherial Pain held the ship static with a webifier and warp disruptor, letting Tekaar hold back a distance as his heavy drone wing harassed the Ammatar battleship.
"I'm out safe." Came the report from Carinae finally, letting them know his pod was intact and going to ground somewhere in the system.

The shields of the Armageddon were quickly overwhelmed as Christa in her Muninn orbited close with Sh'Khari and her rupture. A series of small explosions worked their way across the exposed armour of the battleship as the fusion warheads exploded with their fierce power, spat out in rapid succession from the rapid firing autocannons of the Minmatar ships. This close though, Drakus' dampeners only served to reduce the time taken for the weapons to lock their next target, and eventually the turrets came to life again, tracking Sh'Khari's Rupture cruiser. The high power of the lasers overwhelmed the shields at a frightening pace before they met the armour that was a little more resilient. Her speed still gave her the edge for now as the armour was slowly scorched away, rarely managing to strike the same place twice.
"I should have fitted a repairer." Cursed Sh'Khari as her system began to feed her warnings on the armour integrity.
"Keep moving. Warp out when you start taking structure damage." Said Christa calmly. Sh'Khari could feel her heart pounding as the integrity levels dropped with each passing second. A fire alert in the lower decks signalled to her that her structure was becoming unstable. She selected a waypoint and engaged her warp drive.
"Bugging out." She reported. "Have to purge a deck fire."
"Roger that." Replied Christa as Sh'Khari's Rupture raced into the distance on a warp trail.

Having easily dispatched the first Omen with his wingmen, Mangold designated his second target, now aware that his sensors were blaring at him with multiple lock warnings. Both the remaining two Omens ahead that had turned back to face him and his group, and the two Armageddons that had formed up ahead of the main battleship group, had begun a concentrated battery on his ship. Heavy pulses of laser fire pounded his shields and quickly overwhelmed them. He continued to battle against his targeted Omen, ignoring the battleships for now and letting his repairers do their job.
"Mai, jammers!" Zoolkhan said over the comms, more of a yell than anything else.
"They are running, but not taking hold. I'll try to recycle them." She responded in frustration. Somehow the Armageddon had found a counter to her jamming, meaning she needed to reset the jammers before she could try again. At a steady rate, Mangold's armour was stripped faster than the damage could be repaired, despite being at a long range from the pulse lasers that worked better in close. The Omens were orbiting him in close, somehow managing to dodge his cruise missiles for a short while before they finally caught up, and making his own repeating artillery useless given their speed. Only his drones were doing any damage, and the support fire from Vir and Kithan that took up a better fire position. Finally, one of the Omens was consumed before his own warning systems notified him of damage to several decks where his armour was weakening under the concentrated fire. He tried to engage his warp drive, but the slow and lumbering battleship could not align to his destination in time and began to buck and lurch off course as several explosions erupted through the armour plates.
"I'm out of control. Ejecting." Mangold's pod quickly launched from the escape chute and gained some distance from his crippled ship before it began to pull apart under the laser fire. He selected a waypoint and warped into the blackness.

The Arameth continued to resist the combined assault of the remaining heavy cruisers to the bitter end. Unable to escape, the large battleship was now trying desperately to damage Christa's Muninn. Jorund navigated to follow Christa's path around the battleship, less than a couple of seconds behind her and traced her line of fire across the exposed and sickeningly gold armour plating of the behemoth that was slowly dying the death of a thousand cuts. Christa's orbit took her past the front of the battleship, strafing her fire across the command bridge of the battleship, ripping large chunks out of the deck and killing the entire command staff. Quickly the laser fire became uncoordinated, eventually silenced as the behemoth battleship ruptured on several levels from internal explosions before the reactor core breached and swallowed the ship and the darkness around it in a brilliant white-hot flash of light that fully decimated the Armageddon.

Kithan and Vir quickly demolished the final omen on their target list and turned their Typhoons to return to the main battleship formation behind them. Kithan registered warnings that the Armageddons had locked him too. A second later, the combined rapid laser fire pummelled his shields. He returned a lock on both of them before selecting the second ship as his target and launched a battery of cruise missiles at them.
"Under fire." He reported as his shields began to rapidly diminish.
"Drakus," said Zoolkhan over the comms. "Get those dampeners on the lead battleship." With no time to revel in the kill of the last battleship, Drakus turned his ship to the flagship of the Ammatar and closed to locking range. He dampened the sensors of the target ship so it could not lock the battleships without getting closer, leaving it less space to orbit the large bulk of the FU2 battleships.
"Kithan here, I'm going down."
"What?" exclaimed Zoolkhan, taken back by how quickly Kithan's Typhoon was crippled as he panned his camera drone to view the last burning remnants explode.
"Pod clear. Repairers malfunctioned and would not activate." Zoolkhan felt that burning hatred rise with his bile as he designated the second battleship as a new primary target for his heavy guns.
"Damned thing won't hold still." Cursed Zoolkhan. "Any available interceptor, pin this guy down for us."
"Hob's here, I'm on it." His Stiletto emerged from the mass of the main skirmish with the cruisers, abandoning his escort to Darius, and made a break at a frightening speed towards the dampened Ammatar battleship. The surviving Typhoons reformed with Zoolkhan and Mute, and turned their firepower towards the second Armageddon.
"Mai here, jammers back online and running." Zoolkhan afforded a smile inside his pod, now determined to bring down this ship.

Darius and the remaining escort continued through the fight towards the gate, now less than seven kilometres from jump range, when their warning sensors began to register several Omens had locked them dead ahead, and were turning to intercept them and block the gate. The group turned away to try and draw them from the gate and find an opening as lasers finally found their frigates. Small and fast, the lasers did little damage to the Wolf frigates, but their way out was blocked and they were turning away from the gate to keep the enemy from getting a good firing solution on them.
"I'll take them close and draw their fire." Said Khaldorn. "If they break, head for the gate as fast as you can." Without waiting for the protest Darius was about to issue, Khaldorn lit his afterburners again and turned the other way, aiming to strafe the cruisers ahead at an angle when he got closer. His trajectory was reckless at best, like everything else Khaldorn did when he hooked into a pod. two of the four Omens took the bait and broke their blockade to intercept Khaldorn. As their lasers began to track his ship, he turned sharply to take them away from the gate and towards the main battle in the hopes the cruisers would destroy them. Bright beams of light flashed a rapid beat all around his ship, several now striking home on his shields that worked feverishly to dampen the intense focused heat of the lasers.
"Christa," he shouted, "get these guys off me will you." The last remaining heavy cruisers piloted by Christa, Tekaar and Jorund formed together and moved to aid Khaldorn. Darius and his remaining escort turned towards the gate now and made a dash for the jump portal. Once in range, Christa designated the primary and secondary targets for the cruisers and opened fire. The three heavy assault ships made short work of the shields and began to chew through the armour, pock marking it at first with rough gouges before smaller chunks began to tear off, streaming behind the Omen class cruiser. Both attempted to break away from the fight and turned back to the gate. Khaldorn joined the fighting as he gave chase, now the hunter as his small autocannons spewed out one rapid burst after another. The bullets cut through the engine housing and sent the ship into a spin as the engine broke off, still burning the last of its fuel and going into an uncontrolled spin. Khaldorn cursed as the engine suddenly jinked towards him quicker than he could react. The large engine nacelle crashed into the side of Khaldorns ship and smashed one of the guns off his wing mounts as the target Omen ripped to several pieces by the explosions and focused firepower of the heavy cruisers.
"Khaldorn, you ok?" asked Christa.
"Fine." He said, still continuing towards the gate again on a somewhat unsteady flight path.

"Keep firing," exclaimed Zoolkhan, not that he needed to repeat that to anyone in particular, "it's almost down." The high of the battle was beginning to take hold of him as he sensed a kill coming on. The Malachi battleship was finally succumbing to the combined firepower of the battleships.
"Etherial," said Zoolkhan to their other interceptor pilot. "Begin scrambling the flagship and hold him down. Hobs, as soon as this ship blows join her." Both pilots signalled that they understood as the target Armageddon was poring flames and other vapours from numerous hull breaches, as though it were a wounded and bleeding animal. It simply refused to die. Another salvo of cruise missiles from Vir Freeman's Typhoon detonated along the buckling armour plating of the battleship, ripping off several burning chunks as the violent blast waves washed over the golden skin. With remorseless timing, a barrage of heavy projectile warheads slammed into the sections of failing armour, punching large fiery holes in their wake as the phased plasma detonated on a delay causing massive structural damage across many sections of the ship. Proving too much punishment to bare, the Armageddon finally broke its back before erupting into several explosions starting at the engine outlets near the reactor, and tore itself to pieces.

Darius, Entarel and Bel weaved slightly to avoid the incoming laser fire of the last two omens on the gate. As they got too close, their shots became deadly accurate and focused on Darius.
"We have to break again, damnit." Cursed Darius as they swerved from the gate. He glanced at the heavy cruisers above, still chewing up the second Omen, and Khaldorn heading towards the gate at his usual reckless speed.
"I'll try and bait these too." He said. A few seconds later, his ship was struck by more laser fire, still badly damaged from the impact earlier and leaving a trail of smoke behind him. "Erm, scratch that..." he said again. A moment later, Darius watched in an odd mix of horror and confusion as Khaldorn ejected from his ship half a second away from the gate, leaving his Wolf to slam into the gate's structure. It tumbled away and exploded as Khaldorn engaged the gate sequence and jumped with his pod.
"Well," commented Darius flatly. "At least the gate still works." The second Omen was crushed under the fire of the heavy cruisers as Darius registered more lock signals. "Damnit, where did they come from?" Two more Omen class ships had circled around them and they were now heading straight towards them and herding them back towards the gate again. Darius signalled to turn back to the gate once more, aware that the numbers game was getting the better of them. Christa continued to the gate with her wing.
"Darius, just go for it. We'll cover you." If it weren't for the fluid in the pod, Darius would have taken in a deep breath. He could always risk his pod, but he had a passenger in the bunk room and he needed her to live. He turned back to the gate and away from the new cruisers as his sensor overview registered an incoming signal warping right for the gate.
"Darius, get clear." The crackled transmission came as a single rupture exited warp extremely close to one of the Omens at the gate. It charged in at full speed trailing bright plumes from the afterburner charged thrusters mixing in with streams of thick smoke poring from several jagged holes in the hull. The side of the Rupture illuminated with the twinkle of the autocannons as it skimmed past the Ammatar cruiser, strafing it with a relentless barrage of projectiles. As she got clear, Sh'Khari fired two heavy missiles from the rear launcher point that slammed into the shields of the Omen before bringing them down entirely. The Omens diverted their fire towards Sh'Khari who was turning sharply to avoid the lasers from striking her badly damaged Rupture. Darius took his chance and headed for the gate at full speed. He got much closer before the commanders of the Omens realised he was making another run. The lasers swung round to meet his ships but it was too late.
"Jump!" shouted Darius over the comms. The gate swirled to life and swept up the ships in the jump vortex, catapulting them to safety. Sh'Khari turned to the gate once more and resumed her barrage on the cruisers, now joined by Christa, Tekaar and Jorund. Between them they decimated the first cruiser and without skipping a beat, began their assault on the next. Christa registered the other two Omens warping clear on her sensors and snorted in indignation. The sustained fire of the heavy cruisers and Sh'Khari's Rupture was too much and the Omen began to break apart, leaving a hollow carcass floating in roaring flames.

Christa panned her camera drone around to view the scope of the fight and saw the last two Arbitrators had left the group and were closing in on Drakus, who was just at the edge of the flagship Armageddon's dampened lock range. She quickly signalled her wing to give chase and hoped to get there before they could engage.
"Drakus, check behind you." She said over the comms, followed by his clear and explicit cursing. His instinct took over as he began to move away from them, then realising he was moving towards the flagship. In no time, the combined drones of the two Arbitrators were swarming around him, eating through his shields like so many hungry parasitic insects. Ahead of him, The Constantine finally gained a lock on his small ship through the dampening as he was driven closer by the incoming Arbitrators that were now attempting to track him with their beam lasers. A bright lance of light pulsated from the Armageddon flagship and stripped the small Cheetah of its shields. The brittle armour was exposed to severe punishment from the drones as the Armageddon silenced its weapons, confident that the drones will do the rest of the work quickly. Drakus felt the deepest insult at their underestimation and weighed up the only option he had left. His own booster ignited as he set a path right for the starboard gunnery deck of the flagship. The missiles and projectile impacts from the remaining battleships showed the shields were clearly down, making his suicide run possible. Drakus waited until the last possible moment before he ejected and marvelled at the sight of his Cheetah slamming into the gun deck, reducing it to twisted and burning metal. Not allowing a moment longer to savour the occasion, Drakus warped clear of the battle scene in his pod to seek a place to lay low.
"All ships return to the gate and prepare to jump when this is over." Ordered Zoolkhan. Zoolkhan monitors the fleet to ensure his order got through, and noticed Christa and her cruisers were still pursuing the remaining cruisers. "Christa, this means you too. Objective is complete now lets get out of here." He could hear a heavily muffled curse over the comms line before her cruisers turned to the gate once more, still firing their weapons until their range was too far.

Zoolkhan, along with his remaining battleships, continued to direct fire towards the last Ammatar ship. Even through his hatred for the traitor race, he had to bare the sting of respect for the commander of this fleet and the technology at their disposal. Even wounded, without support, and limited weapons, this Armageddon was proving a handful. Zoolkhan relished the possibility of bringing it down like the other two, but he was losing ships too and was not willing to risk any more now their objective was complete. The interceptors that were pinning down the flagship broke last and returned to the gate as the Arbitrators, no doubt feeling dislodged from the fight now, warped clear of the battle before they too were destroyed. Once the interceptors were clear, the flagship was free to move again, once more dodging the fire from the slower projectile guns of Zoolkhan's tempest and giving it respite enough to begin repairs again between the batteries of cruise missiles raining down on it. Even then, the impacts were not enough to justify them being fired anyway as the range of the proximity detonators gave the flagship time to escape most of the blast wave. Zoolkhan watched with the remaining fleet at the gate as the badly damaged Ammatar flagship aligned towards one of the station beacons and warped clear of the carnage. The gate was surrounded by utter devastation as the burning carcases of Ammatar Security and Freelance Unincorporated ships littered the spacescape. Zoolkhan quickly took stock of the remaining fleet and frowned as the number of losses before giving the order for the fleet to jump through the gate, leaving the grave yard like scene behind them, before any more fleet ships show up.

Unscathed, the aggressive and deadly form of Darius' Wolf frigate slid into the docking bay of the Freelance Unincorporated headquarters. The orange hue of the lights seemed to absorb into the anodised armour plating around the engine nacelles giving them a menacing crimson tint. Further down the hangar, more crew members and a small armada of hangar drones raced to the scene of the second Wolf that was coming to rest. Ahead of Darius, the stabber piloted by Bel was already being attended to. None of the ships were damaged as such and made a clean get away. The trip back had been uneventful once they were inside Minmatar space. No sooner had his ship come to a standstill, his systems allowed him to disconnect from his pod and Darius quickly dashed to the lower deck bunk room. Shay'la was still in the small bed, laying still and unconscious from her injury. Her chest was moving slightly from her light breathing giving Darius indication she was still alive. Darius disengaged the dampening field in the room before racing for the main hatch to get a medical crew.

The hatch door hissed and complained as it usually does, swinging outwards onto the gantry that was now level with the floating ship. Already, Darius could see Entarel pushing his way past the meandering deck crew that were busying themselves with monitoring systems and securing rigging cables. Entarel approached Darius at a hurried pace.
"Dar." He half shouted towards him. Darius did not respond, his thoughts in an entirely different place to everyone else, as he looked around the deck below the gantry trying to locate the crew chief. He spotted the man by a stack of crates with his team leaders and, ignoring Entarel standing in front of him, pushed past and hurried down the steps.
"Mags is going to roast you alive Dar." He shouted to him again as he ran down the steps along the back wall of the hangar. "And that's only if you're lucky that Zool doesn't get you first!" Still no response, Entarel sighed in confusion and shook his head as he watched Darius barking orders at the crew chief. After another minute and the chief yelling into his comms device, the hangar door burst open and disgorged a medical crew dashing to the elevator with a gurney. Darius was already running back up the steps as Entarel looked on in confusion, barely avoiding being barrelled over by Darius as he charged back into the ship, followed closely by the medical staff. By now, more members of Freelance Unincorporated had gathered at the hangar floor looking up at the commotion with a mix of concern and curiosity.
"Move!" came a shout from behind as the medical crew dashed from the hatch again. Entarel jumped to one side as they pushed past more crew on the gantry, pushing the gurney along ahead of them. Entarel caught a glimpse of the occupant for half a second, noting an unfamiliar woman laying unconscious as they headed for the elevator again.

Entarel turned back to the ship to see Darius standing at the hatchway, staring past him towards the elevator.
"Darius, what's going on?" he asked.
"Damnit!" came another furious shout from behind. Entarel swung round again to see Zoolkhan marching up the steps, with a not too impressed look on his face. "Darius!" he continued as he stomped across the gantry. Entarel, wisely, got out of the way and headed back towards the steps once Zoolkhan was past him. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to watch what was coming next either. Zoolkhan came to rest inches from Darius' face. "What the hell did you think you were doing? Do you have any idea what this… what the hell were you doing anyway?" Darius remained silent and emotionless and just stared back ad Zoolkhan, who looked like he wanted to choke him on the spot. Zoolkhan clenched his jaws tight. "Get cleaned up and report to Maggot. Now."

Zoolkhan stormed off again, as angry as he had arrived. Darius pondered a moment before suddenly realising he was still covered in muck, blood and pod fluid.

"How could you let him get away?" shouted Ramar, now standing at the head of his office desk. "He was in the palm of your hand. All your people had to do was to point their guns and fire. And you failed!" he continued, lambasting Major General Memphos over the comms screen. The face staring back at him was flushed red with anger, taking a dislike to the verbal torrent coming his way. "I will never have this chance again. We had the perfect tool with the mole, and we won't get another."
"May I remind you," growled the angry officer, interjecting Ramar's ranting while barely restraining his own, "taking down as much of that fleet as possible was the primary objective. Not serving your own personal agendas. That was simply a luxury. For both of us. Have you forgotten that that terrorist killed my brother two years ago?" Ramar fumed under his breath, unable to protest the facts. "And don't you dare forget that right now there are hundreds of our people still floating around in escape pods. A massive search and rescue effort is under way as I speak, and that's just for those that survived. I sacrificed nearly my whole fleet along with countless Ammatar brothers to face that fleet."
"And you still failed to destroy all of them!" blasted Ramar.
"We reduced their numbers. Their attack will be delayed significantly and give you chance to either reinforce the defences or evacuate the more valuable parts of the operation. That is a mission accomplished at a high price. Be more grateful for that." Not wishing to waste a single moment longer debating the issue, the Major General cut the transmission, reverting Ramars screen to display the main menu. Ramar clutched his hands around the edge of his desk, barely restraining the urge to tip it over in anger.

Ramar stepped away from the desk, unsettled in his thoughts and clenching his hands into fists over and over again as if he were trying to vent off the stress. He could not stand the frustrations any more in his mind as another chance for retribution slipped through his fingers and placed him right back at the beginning. He knew the objective, the main objective and the reason for sacrificing a fleet on what was known to be a suicide mission, had been effective. The price of the hardware lost today was a simple dent in the losses he would have sustained if that fleet had made it to his deadspace facility. And even more damage would have ensued in the long term had they reinforced it some more, giving them clues that there was an informant on their end. Even so, as he stopped at the small end table and pored himself a glass of water, Ramar was not satisfied. To him it was equally diminishing for him to have put unique and one time assets into play such as Shay'la and the pathetic creature, Kordan. He knew as he lifted his drink to his lips and took a gentle sip, that he would never have such a perfect opportunity again. In spite of the clam now creeping over him, a burst of anger flooded him. He flung the half-empty glass of water at the wall of his office, smashing it into several pieces. Ramar stared down at the gathered shards for a moment as his office door burst open with a frantic-looking guard that half-charged into the room holding a pistol.
"Sir?" he enquired. "Is everything alright?" Ramar brooded for a moment before marching towards the office door.
"Fine." He replied as he brushed past the guard and entered the outer hallway.