[b]Sol, Mercury[/b]
The captain gulped, slowly approaching the... being that stood before him. The two guards held their weapons at the ready, but not aimed despite every instinct they had telling them to open fire right then and there. It was painfully obvious that the humans were afraid of the man, and judging by the looks on their faces, they would much rather run and shoot than talk to him.

"You look like one of us who hasn't eaten a bite in days, yet you seem intimidating. Am I correct in assuming that you have powers other than the physical?"

[b]Ocean of Jul[/b]
A few of the humans looked to the man who had introduced himself as the diplomatic officer, a questioning look on their faces. The man nodded, and they rushed to the top deck, eager to see what their training engagements were like. Before that, the humans had seemed impressed at the fact that the hologram was made to be touched itself, instead of making movements outside of it's borders. It was odd, considering the fact that they had just landed a multi-kilometer warship in the ocean, which was commanded by a diplomat. 

"An apology for being in the middle of war games?" Said the diplomat "Watching war games is one of the best ways to learn about another culture, this is the first time we've been able to see others fight without needing to focus more on firing our own weapons!"

After a few moments, the diplomat continued, looking at the holographic display.

"Even the fact that you have separate weapons systems for long and short range speaks about your history and thought process. We think alike, most of our seagoing ships used the same setup. However, those ships were recently replaced by ships that use variable range cannons. It takes extremely complicated calculations to target them though, only those who are genetically modified like me can operate them." He said, tapping his forehead. It wasn't obvious at first, but his head was abnormally large when compared to the heads of the others.

"But that's a story for later, let's see if your opponent has any tricks." He smiled, walking closer to the holographic map. His eyes moved incredibly fast, apparently analyzing the entire map every second.

[b]New Condia[/b]
As the [i]Normady[/i] was torn apart, it's commander smiled. It's entire crew smiled with her, knowing that the enemy's words made no difference. All that mattered was that they died to protect a people they had called their enemies, just because they asked. The Admiral's thoughts were not in turmoil over their imminent demise, for the first time in her life, she was truly, perfectly calm. She had redeemed herself, her crew, and every last Terran that fought in the battle. She knew that she had brought the Terrans one step closer to redemption. What she didn't know was that redemption would not come from other battles, but from the aftermath of New Condia.

With the enemy ships gone from orbit, the rest of the Terran fleet prepared to land ground troops. However, they found that the EU ships were bombarding the surface of the planet, the still occupied planet. The new commanding dreadnought, the [i]Warsaw[/i], sent a message to the EU forces.

"What are you doing?! You're killing your own people! We have ground forces, we can take back the planet! We all fought to protect the civilians here, I won't watch as they're killed to destroy the enemy!"

[b]Earth Orbit, 2051[/b]
The hissing of ruptured pipes and the screams of the crew filled the bridge of the OSV [i]Rudneva[/i], lights and computer screens flickering in the background. The captain's body floated in the air, blood flowing out of his head as his hand slowly lost it's grip on the ceremonial sword he had recieved as a gift so many years ago. The rest of the crew was struggling to stay conscious after the surprise attack, which had forced their ship into a two-minute seven-g spin, with the exception of one woman. She was the ship's scientist, usually operating the small onboard lab or the quantum communication equipment. Somehow, she was perfectly fine, no signs of any pain appeared on her face.

The rest of the crew looked around the room, their seats having been previously occupied by the actual bridge crew, the dead bodies of which now occupied the walls of the bridge. They were all low-level personnel, most of them just enlistees. Despite her being little more than a science officer, the woman was now captain of the ship. It was an impossible battle, five rebel escorts against a single OSA patrol vessel, but everyone had heard the stories. Praskoviya Lovisa, the science officer, had become famous for one fateful day in Siberia five years ago. She was just fourteen years old, but she destroyed an Active Denial System that had been modified to be lethal. Taking that into account, it was no surprise that she felt no pain from the crushing maneuver.

"Tactical, sitrep!" She yelled in a thick Russian accent, grabbing hold of one of the many handholds on the bridge.

"All external weapons systems disabled, electromagnetic redirection is still active!" Called the tactical officer, pulling up the system monitors on his computer screen.

"Perfect, nobody destroys a valuable ship. Now that we have their attack vector, our redirection systems can deflect anything they fire at us. The only way they can hit our hull is with a large missile, which would destroy us. They'll be forced to board the ship, using standard weaponry. Those ships can hold at most fifty marines."

"How does that help us?" Replied the tactical officer "We've just got pistols in here!"

"They can't fire on their way in." Said Praskoviya, grinning devilishly.

"You can't possibly be suggesting suited combat! Guns have too much kickback, and a single mistake with a plasma saber could kill you! You know that, dammit! You can;t expect anyone to throw their lives away for a battle we can retreat from! Just fall back, our redirection system can cover their fire!"

"I'm not ordering anyone to fight them. I want everyone on the redirection systems, I'm going to deck 2."

Before anyone could protest, she flew out of the bridge, headed for the airlock on deck 2. She picked up a spacesuit on her way, it was one of the newer form-fitting ones. As she floated towards the airlock, she put it on mid-air. The simplified, one-piece design made the process quick and simple, though somewhat painful due to the tightness. She took her plasma saber in her hand, heading out the airlock after a nerve-wracking depressurization sequence that seemed to last an eternity.

The moment she reached the outside of the ship, the disorientation kicked in. Up and down no longer had any meaning, especially with the absence of a floor to stick to. Still, she turned to face the three enemy escorts, finding exactly what she expected: fifty marines headed towards the ship. She activated her plasma saber, the ceramic cylinder was instantly obscured by a cloud of blue argon plasma. The enemy marines continued towards the ship. After all, what could one woman with a melee weapon do against fifty marines?

They would soon know.

She launched her self at them off of the ship's hull, cutting one of them straight in half effortlessly. The others opened fire without a second thought, sending themselves spinning and killing ten more from friendly fire. With no way to defend themselves, she cut them down one by one with immunity. The battle was already won, the rebels couldn't do anything but leave now. Still, she flew towards the enemy ship in the middle of their formation, landing just below their bridge window. With her plasma saber, she cut a hole in the floor, depressurizing the compartment and sucking them all out into space.

After the air was gone, she swung herself inside the bridge and opened every door and airlock on the ship, overriding their manual controls. The rest of the crew met the same fate as the bridge officers, a short but painful death by vacuum exposure. With a network connection to the other two ships, she used the same tactic on them, depressurizing both ships at once. The combined seventy crew of the three enemy ships, dead within the time span of a few seconds.

Praskoviya activated the transmitter in her helmet, connecting it to the one on the [i]Rudneva[/i].

"This is Lieutenant Lovisa of the Orbital Security Agency. The OSV [i]Rudneva[/i] has engaged and captured two rebel escort/transports and one enemy battle escort. All enemy vessels are in full operation condition, and we will begin a rendezvous with the nearest station."

[i]They shouldn't have messed with an outdated ship named the Rudneva.[/i] She thought. [i]That's like naming a ship Icarus, then sending it to do scans of the sun.[/i]