The Mittnick was abustle with activity, lights flashing, radar sweeps returning to brightly glowing screens. At least the wiring wasn't sparking anymore, which was a relief to those on the bridge who ran the ship, both humans and not. Because, as Dane thought to himself sarcastically, they needed this clustered command center, strewn with spare parts of exposed innards, to be even more dangerous than it already was.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason things were abustle, Another reason would be the news, and the way the entire comm band seemed like it was having an epileptic fit with the sheer amount of transmissions coming across. As if the images of battle they were getting weren't bad enough.

"Alright, how are we doing," Dane asked, looking over his wired crew, each of them working at their consoles with augments and other techno wizardry he didn't claim to understand. As long as they did what he told them to do, things would be alright, as far as he was concerned. 

Holographic generators on the bridge hummed to life, allowing a projection of a sigil, representing Fienze, the ship's AI unit, to appear. "All systems appear to be operating at nominal functionality. Cloak is ready to activate, and I calculate a 95 percent chance that activation will not release a burst of radiation that kills all you mere humans within an hour, as well as a 47 percent chance that it does not release a burst of radiation that renders the entire crew sterile."

"That's a pleasant thought," Varrick, the weapons console operator, commented from his station.

"Well, it's not like he cares, he's an AI," Travess, the comm/sensors/scanning guy, said from his seat. "It's not like he actually need sus here to fly the ship or anything. We're just the backups."

"Very skilled backups,"Alyxis, the pilot of the vessel, chimed in from where she sat. She was possibly the most rigged up of all of them, a visor over her face that gave her full access to ships cameras. "Besides, far as I'm concerned, you being removed from the gene pool wouldn't be a bad thing. Darwinian selection at it's finest." 

Dane suppressed a sigh as he listened to them. This was the sort of thing he had to deal with every day, and this was only the verbal communications. Given how teched up the crew was, they could get a lot worse with their technological access, and he didn't need that. He was very unsure as to whether he was being rewarded or punished at this point. And this was why he didn't enjoy politics. 

He interceded before this went anywhere else that he really didn't need to hear. "Travess, get me a sitrep on what's going on out there."

"On it," the man replied and got to work. Said work lapsed on, as the rest of the bridge crew sat waiting for him to let them in on what was happening. 

"So, should I go get a book or something, Varrick asked. "At this rate we'll be here all day." 

"Yeah, well maybe if people would stop using the ship's network to download catgirl porn, I'd be able to work that much faster," Travess complained as he worked, neural uplinks running at full speed as he fingers danced across keypads. 

"Oh come on, that happened one time," Alyxis complained from her console, working just as rapidly as he was. "I was doing biological research. Very hush hush and classified. It's not my fault you people are perverts who get a rush out of hacking and spying on other people."

"Says the person downloading porn on a military data network," Travess shot back.

Dane spoke up then before the argument could escalate in one of the two launching a cyber attack on the other or otherwise trying to hack/spam the other, activities which would affect their performance significantly to say the least. "Excuse me, can we focus on the mission? I'd prefer living to getting ourselves blown up because you were too busy fighting each other more than the enemy."

"Right. Anyway, the Thresh are attacking, as you may have noticed. The Moon and Gaia Station are under attack right now, because for some reason the Thresh decided it would be wisest to attack our defenses where we were strongest, rather than where we were weakest like a sane military commander. Ships are rallying to the defense, people are getting stranded and cut off, and the defense is running around like chickens with their heads cut off while Earthside yells at people," Firenze said, stealing Travess's thunder, for which the man was very unamused.

"Seriously, can you at least pretend I'm here to do something," Travess asked Firenze from where he sat.

The sigil of the AI flared up onto his monitor, annoyingly, from his perspective, before it replied. "I'm sorry, did I hurt your human feelings? Here, let me make it up to you." Before Travess could respond, a rapid fire slide show of internet meme's began to run across the screen, and through his neural links before he managed to shut it off. 

"God, I swear some day I am just gonna wipe you from the system, and I am going to enjoy it," Travess threatened, though all were aware it was am impotent threat at best. Even if he could, he'd end up on the first prison ship to Pluto, or any number of otherwise undesirable locations in the solar system. 

"Focus," Dane interrupted once more. "Alyxis, get us moving, take us towards the combat zone under cloak, see if we can get in the enemies rear and lay some havoc. Travess, get jamming up, see if we can intercept any useful communications. Varrick, have weapons ready."

"Got it." "On it." "Alright." Acknowledgements given, the engines of the Mittnick flared, disguised by the cloak that shimmered into place as the vessel exited Earth's shadow and headed towards the warzone. A dangerous place, but one they needed to be. It wasn't like they had a choice in the matter. If Earth fell, the war would be over, and they couldn't let that happen. And so, they took the plunge