[b]Earth, Arabic Wasteland[/b]
A hundred soldiers walked through the scorched wasteland, clad in armored radiation suits. The crackling of a geiger counter filled everyone's ears, a display on their HUD showing the radiation levels. Even for their radiation suits, the levels were getting close to dangerous levels. Each one of them was pumped full of nodified antibodies and white blood cells, in case they encountered the remnants of a bioweapon. It was never easy, walking there, but their mission made it even harder.

They were searching for a small terrorist cell, and those in this particular branch were known for their sneak attacks. Nobody quite got why they had to stay on watch, there wasn't any cover for kilometers. Nevertheless, they advanced with their coilguns drawn. Off in the distance they could see a bombed-out city, over the years, the names of the lost cities had been forgotten, but someone commented on it.

"This place meant something once."

That's when it happened.

A sniper's bullet pierced the heart of one of the soldiers, dropping him to the ground instantly. The rest scattered, desperately searching for cover in the barren wasteland. More sniper bullets came down, each one hitting it's mark perfectly. An aircraft wing flew above them, dropping paratroopers. The Federal soldiers opened fire, dropping many of them. However, the terrorists already had their weapons assembled, spraying bullets indiscriminately across the Federal troops.

When the paratroopers hit the ground, it was all over. They must have trained their entire lives for combat, as they could drop a dozen soldiers each. Those that were left alive were brought aboard a landed helicopter, and one of the terrorists walked up to the Federal commander.

"We will rise again." He said

"With what? A few guerrilla fighters?"

"Look outside."

The Federal commander looked out the door into the wasteland, and in the distance he saw a missile rising into the sky. Suddenly, he realized what he was looking at. It was known that the nations that once stood nearby had nuclear capabilities when the war began, but all supported the attack. If the terrorists had managed to get their hands on a missile...

"You're right. It's a nuke. Pretty soon the news will be full of broadcasts about how Paris is burning in nuclear fire."

[b]Drydock 003, Earth Orbit[/b]
"Captain! Captain Lovisa!"

The new frigate stood in the background, the railgun firing assembly being fixed into place. No sparks flew, the vacuum of space wouldn't allow it. Instead, there was nothing more than a bright light at every seam, the melted metal solidifying instantly in the void. The Captain turned around to see Admiral Yakov running towards her, and couldn't help but chuckle a little about the predicament. She never thought of the Admiral as someone who ever left their desk.

"What is it, Admiral?"

"It's from SETI, they've detected a radio transmission from a nearby system! It looks like a distress call!?"

"How could we possibly know that?"

"It's from a recently contacted species, the Sazkr... Sazkara... Saza... Sazkarjhit? Something like that. Anyway, we're pretty sure they sent it. They weren't hostile, and I want you to return the favor. Is the [i]Alcubierre[/i] spaceworthy?"

"Well, the tertiary railgun accelerator isn't operational, the port armor hasn't been installed, and the plasma engines haven't been broken in yet. However, if you really need us out there, then the Alcubierre Drive is fully operational. We've even got the Iscandarian modifications in place, we can be there pretty fast. Of course, the crew needs more train-"

The Admiral cut her off, something admirals seemed to do quite often.

"The best training is a mission. I want the [i]Acubierre[/i] outside Sol today!"

The Captain opened her mouth, then decided it was futile. She turned to a comm panel and picked up the microphone.

"The TSS [i]Alcubierre[/i] will depart Drydock 003 for interstellar space at 19:00 hours today. You'd better be ready, because the ship sure as hell isn't."

[b]Luna Station[/b]
Fergus' eyes positively lit up, and it was clear he could barely contain his excitement. His mouth dropped slightly open, and his body straightened out instantaneously.

"Religion." He said "[i]Definitely religion[/i]."

[b]Mars, Contact[/b]
When she heard the sword come down, Oumou expected pain, or at least someone else screaming out. Instead, it was a different sound. She felt no pain, and the only sound was comparable to the dull thunk of a book against the imported Terran soil. Then it hit her -the aliens hadn't killed anyone- they understood what they were doing fully. It was incredibly that a species so different could have such a similar way of thinking. Tears began to fall from her eyes onto the transparent surface of her helmet, and a smile spread across her lips. The smile of someone who had been rescued from certain death.

She took the alien's hand, letting her help her up. The others got up as well, the Martian gravity making their transition somewhat slow. They floated up in the air for less than a moment before coming back down, but their descent wasn't assisted by the heavy pull of Earth's gravity, so they fell in an almost graceful manner. The one that had held up the sword unexpectedly jumped at the alien, but her hands weren't in any position to indicate an attack. Her arms were spread wide, but the moment she reached the alien, her arms closed around her. She knew it must have looked odd, but it was an almost instinctual response.

"Hug." She said, her voice shaky even through the speakers. "Friend."

[b]Nouvelle Orbit, TSS [i]Alcubierre[/i][/b]
A blinding flash of blue light filled the skies of Nouvelle, clearly visible to anyone below. It was like another sun, but it only blazed for a few moments before disappearing completely. Anyone with a telescope pointed the right direction would see an odd object, tumbling around in the sky like a top released at a bad angle. An ice-like substance covered it, being shed due to the sheer speed of it's rotation. Another flash of blue light could be seen, though much, much dimmer. It went on for a longer period of time as well, and seemed to surround the object. After it cleared, the object was no longer rotating. However, it was still speeding across the sky at unimaginable speeds.

A radio message was beamed from the object to a plateau in a large mountain range, using all radio frequencies. If anyone else was listening in, then they wouldn't know the language. It was obvious it wasn;t meant for any eavesdroppers.

"This is the Terran Star Ship [i]Alcubierre[/i] to Sazkarjhit vessel. One of our SETI installation picked up your message and this vessel was dispatched to assist if needed. Please inform us of the situation and what you wish for us to do here."

The transmission was cut off there, but the speaker certainly didn't stop talking. Though nobody outside the vessel could hear it, everyone on that ship was speaking by now. Cheering muffled the Captain's speech as she practically screamed at her fist officer.

"Okay, yeah. We're going to land the ship."

"What the hell?" Responded her first officer "This thing may be a lifting body, but it sure as hell can't land without a runway!"

"Sure it can, you just have to distribute the negative mass correctly. The warp rings can provide an antigravity effect."

"Do you even realize how hard-"

The captain ruched off to her quarters, determined to land the ship. She had majored in quantum physics, but her first officer had his doubts about the possibility of calculating the precise distribution of negative mass required to land a frigate.