Chapter 23: Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies Closer

As S117 got up he noticed there was light on one of the ships window, he found it rather strange, they weren't supposed to be near any sun or any star, so how could there be light. He picked up his Dagon Nightshield and his Dagon Hammer.

Both of these items felt strange, he didn't like them, he felt it just wasn't right, the Nightshield was a force field just like the Displacer Field, it just used less energy and was more effective. As for the Dagon Hammer, a close combat weapon, not very good if we are up against one of those Kolari Plasma Sniper but the Hammer can actually use the Nightshield's generator and get an higher force field.

S117 was almost ready when he got an incoming transmission from the bridge.

"Sir, sorry to bother you but we are ready to leave Mizar" - the navigation officer said.

"WHAT THE HELL!?!?! Why are we in Mizar??" - S117 asked while on his way to the bridge.

"We got a transmission from a Commando ship saying we were needed here Sir" - the navigation officer promptly said.

"Well I'm on my way to the bridge so start explaining!" - S117 ordered starting to loose his patience.

"Sir, we got a transmission from a Dagon Commando ship saying an Invader Mothership was heavily damaged and needed support, right after that Bob Dylan contacted us saying he had a Plexxan on board and that he was about to self destruct, as we got here the Mothership was already destroyed, but we are about to help the Slah'ke against the remaining Nexus forces" - the navigation officer said with a very serious tone of voice.

"You did good but next time I want you to warn me about every transmission we get instead of deciding blindly by yourself what to do, this is my ship and it moves when I say so, understood?" - S117 said beginning to calm down.

The bridge of the Longsword was very small, it was different from the other Battle Cruisers, it had more armour so the command crew could be safer, also if the ship was ever to die, the bridge could be a perfect escape pod thanks to the low dimension engines added by the Invaders. The ship had been refitted and every single mistake made by the Terrans when they built it was corrected, at least the known ones. S117 liked it and he was thankful but still he felt like this ship was almost having his final battle.

"What's our status officer?" - He asked.

"We are ready to start Sir, they have few numbers, few Rifts just left the system in a hurry so we can win" - the gun officer replied.

"What do we have in our fleet? Type of ships and numbers, please"

"Five Zealots Sir!" - the communications officer said.

"Incoming Rifts, six of them, on our scanners"

"Incoming transmission!"

On the bridge screen a familiar face appeared, it was Orca and with a smile he said:

"We are giving you a chance to give up and go home, and yes I'm talking to you, the guys in the Longsword, that or we revenge S117's death!!"

S117 turned to the communications officer and made him an hand signal, at first the young officer didn't understand what the captain meant but soon he understood and started typing on his panel. After that S117 turned back to the screen and in a few seconds he began:

"You do know with who you are talking to, right?"

Orca's face suddenly changed, he was surprised and looked like he just seen a ghost.

"You are talking to the Captain of the Longsword, the Captain that commanded this ship for over fifty-seven years, the Captain that lead people to victory several times but also the Captain that was there when this ship lost a battle…." - And with a small tear, S117 ended and turned his face.

"S117 how can it be you are still alive !?!?! John told me you died…."

S117 stood up and looked to the screen again, and with a determinate look he answered.

"I'm not dead as you can see and I'm about to answer your surrender proposal"

S117 made another hand sign to the gun officer and to the communication officer and so the battle started, the Longsword fired a volley of Fusion Torpedoes to one of the Nexus Rifts but the fast Rift evaded it and got out of Longswords range, the Zealots started to move towards the Rifts faster than the Longsword which made the old Battle Cruiser look pathetic compared to them. One of the Zealots exploded as the Rifts teamed him out of their range and soon another Zealot went down too, that made the lasting Zealots fall back to Longswords position.

"Sir, one of ours is hailing us"

"Get it through"

The screen flashed and Tomglomerate appeared on the screen.

"S117 we need to get close enough to the Rifts to shoot them, any ideas?"

"Yes I think I have one, tell the other Zealots to get closer to me and standby"

When S117 finished the Longsword started moving backwards and so did the Zealots following him, the Rifts started following and with their weapons charged they kept shooting, luckily the Zealots were able to evade the shots but they were getting closer an closer to hit them.

"Officer, tell all of the Zealots to intercept the Rifts now!! Set an intercept course to those Rifts and charge the Super Heavy Laser"

The Rifts were suddenly surprised at this action they weren't waiting for it and they were now in the Zealots and in the Longswords range.

"Shoot!!"

The system now looked full of fireworks from the Longswords screen, Dual Gamma Cannons shooting and Fusion Torpedoes flying in the system and hitting the Rifts very hard, the Rifts were destroyed one by one until only Orca's ship was left.

"Sir, the enemy Rift is hypering!"

"Let him go….Lets hyper out, and go to Polaris to meet the rest of our fleet"

S117 walked away from the screen and headed to the bridge door when the screen flashed and Womble appeared on the screen.

"S117 we need your assistance, we were ambushed by the Hive in Polaris, the Dagons and Orfine are fighting them, but we don't know for how long we can take it!!"

"What about the Va'Tal ?!?!" - S117 asked as he got to his chair.

"They won't leave their base without talking to you"

"God damn it !! Tell everyone to hyper out !! Head to Megrez"

"Isn't there a Nexus base there?" - Womble asked wondering what S117 had in mind.

"Not anymore, just go!"

S117 turned to the Navigation Officer:

"To Megrez it is….wake me up when we get there I'll be in my room" - As he ended he left the bridge and started making his way to his room only thinking about a good night of sleep.