**Icarus**

The Diplomat was completely silent for the first half of the trip, his eyes glazed over. After what felt like an eternity, he finally spoke.

"I have suggested the evacuation of Sol. If you are at war with the Iscandarians, then we'll need to help you. I don't know about your military power, but the Iscandarians have the largest fleet we have encountered so far."

**Sol, Jupiter Station**

Interstellar transports encircled the space station like the gravity rings of a civilian ship, waiting to take the chosen few to the colonies along with more population bombs. Amazingly, nobody seemed to be protesting, they had all pledged to fight for their homes. The military had said that they had a plan to stop the Iscandarian superweapon, and they did, but it wasn't the best. Nevertheless, military vessels streamed in from the colonies, built with the hope that they might be able to overwhelm the Iscandarians with sheer numbers.

Civilian ships lined up with the military vessels, armed with railguns built for splitting apart asteroids and modified tractor lasers. A few even had missiles, mostly conventional explosives, but some of the ships from the District had multiple nuclear ICBMs haphazardly strapped to their sides. It was amazing that the same people who had been scrambling to leave a few weeks ago were now lining up to fight, maybe they had found their courage, or maybe they decided there was nothing left to live for.

All in all, there were one thousand military vessels, the largest fleet yet assembled. The fleet wouldn't last long though, as such a massive fleet simply couldn't be maintained for any extended period of time by a nation like the Federation. All of the extra warships were like disposable cameras: meant to be thrown away after use. Still, every single one of them bore a hand-painted symbol on their hull, the symbol of the Terran Military. It seemed that the Terrans were nothing if not dedicated.

A message was transmitted across the system using sublight radio, though it was not encrypted. The Sazkarjhit station would almost certainly pick it up, but the Terrans didn't seem to care, it was almost as if they wanted them to hear.

"This is Kai Vivian, High Admiral of the Federal Star Forces. The Council has seceded control of all Federation matters to me, as of today, I have complete control over this nation. I know that these are hard times, and I know that you're all afraid. Things look bad, the Iscandarians are threatening to wipe us all out, and they most certainly can. But there's something my father said: 'If a Terran believes they can, they will'. We can survive this! We can defeat the Iscandarians! We have to redeem ourselves for what happened all those decades ago in the Third World War, and this is our chance! If we don't fight them, what will we tell our children? That we gave up and let them terrorize the galaxy? I will fight even if I am the only Terran left, I don't know what your choice will be, but I implore you to stand with me. If there is one thing I know for sure, it's that nobody deserves to live out their lives in fear!"

**2019, Prefecture 24, The District**

The Woman awoke to the beeping of a heart monitor, all she could see was a clinical white ceiling illuminated by a standing lamp that blinded her relaxed eyes. Not able to feel her legs, she tried to look down at them, then thought better of it and laid her head back on the pillow. She had no idea what had happened, but she certainly didn't want the first thing she saw after waking up to be two stubs where her legs used to be.

"Wh-where am I?" She asked instead, closing her eyes to block out the light.

"Oh thank god!" Said a voice that she seemed to recognize, but she couldn't quite place it. "You're in Missouri, we couldn't take to a hospital, cover and all."

"You mean this isn't a hospital?" She said, clearly confused.

"Not a registered one, didn't you get that whole Missouri bit?" Responded the voice, which she had confirmed was definitely male after much deliberation. Blaming her mental disorientation on medicine, she continued.

"How did you get hospital equipment then? You need all kinds of permits to get your hands on that stuff, and the illegal stuff is always half broken. What even happened to me?"

"Hey, look, I really can't explain everything. There's something kind of important happening, and I really can't be missing it. It's been a week or so, okay? Is that good enough?"

"I'm not inclined to lay here without knowing at least why I'm hooked up to a fucking heart monitor!" She yelled, still keeping her eyes closed for fear of seeing the actual extent of her injuries.

"Look, you got shot when the National Guard tried to disperse the protest you were a part of. We found you lying on the ground, in critical condition. We managed to keep you alive for the two hours it took to get you here, then put you here. This is the first time you've waken up, we kept you out in case the pain was still there."

"Why was I out for a week from a bullet?"

"It wasn't a bullet."

"Yeah, no. The National Guard did _not _use explosives on peaceful protesters."

"They... I... it's a long story, okay? What matters right now is that you've fully recovered physically, we were just waiting for you to wake up. We've got arms and armor waiting for you, if you're willing to help."

_Well at least that means I've still got legs._ She thought, before speaking

"You're trying to recruit a woman who was just in a peaceful protest to fight? For all you know I'll report you."

"You won't I know that. Look, let me show you what we're fighting for, then you can make the choice. Please, just give us a chance."

After a pause, she shifted her weight, getting up out of the bed.

"I'll do that much." She said, opening her eyes.

"Wait, are you-?"

"Call me Kaguya." He said, throwing a badge to her. It was circular, a smaller circle inside was white, followed by a band of green, then a red crescent.

"About those equations earlier, were you actually right about them, or were you lying about solving them?"

"Let's just say you'll find out soon enough."