Junebug grabbed her go bag, a large duffel that contained her battered armor, her helmet and a variety of small arms from her quarters. The November Sky rocked as its massive spinal mounted mass driver fired. The ship immediately maneuvered violently, as the helmsmen worked to minimize the consistency of their target profile. The warships grav pumps kept the maneuver from jellying the bones of those inside but it still lurched violently throwing crewmen into the bulkheads.

Sayeeda nearly ran into York who was sauntering along the companionway with irritating grace. The intelligence officer had not donned any armor but he wore a bandolier of reloads for the elegant plasma pistol he wore in his holster. He reached out a hand to steady her but Junebug ignored it joining him in heading towards the hangar bay.

“Brigands? Really?” she asked as they ducked into an alcove to avoid being trampled by a squad of Marines in full zero g combat gear raced paced at a lumbering run. Junebug assumed they were heading towards boarding pods or other strong points in the ship in case they needed to board or defend against a breach.

“Sven said they were Chalcedon ships, know anything about that?” Junebug demanded, bracing herself against a hatch as the mass driver fired another round. York’s face didn’t change but Junebug had been around him long enough to recognise the irritation on his face. For a moment she thought he was just going to ignore her.

“The Chalcedon League, so called, is a number of former Terran colonies that are currently in rebellion against Earth, they are mostly located across the Gulf, and so they don’t have much to do with the rest of the galaxy,” York responded tersely. The gulf was the vast empty area of interstellar space which separates two of the galaxies spiral arms. RIP travel across the Gulf was notoriously difficult as it became difficult to navigate.

“Isn’t most of the galaxy former Terran colonies that are currently in rebellion?” Junebug asked, amused insipte of the gravity of the situation. York smirked at that.

“Terra dosent care about most of her former colonies. You are all too small and to dependant on Terran tech to be a threat, you can be snapped up in due course if the central command deems it necessary.”

“But you do care about this Chalcedon League?” Sayeeda pressed as they reached the bay where the Highlander sat. Woods was waving a half dozen Terrans in battle armor up a ramp onto the ship while Neil appeared to be trying to load some sort of hauler. Junebug hadn’t been avoiding him since Taya had told her about his date with Woods but she hadn’t had much contact with him either to know what he was doing.

“Some colonies are more important than others,” York said, his tone grudging but not quite confirmatory. 

“So why did they show up here then?” Sayeeda demanded, “This is hardly the Terran heartland.”

York rode the bucking deck plates without apparent difficulty. He looked mildly irritated with the situation but not alarmed.

“I suspect they are here to claim the Ancient tech for themselves…” Something slammed into the ship with the force of planets colliding. The lights in the hangar bay went dark for a moment and then lit again. One of the enemy ships had hit the Sky but the shields must have held.

“Brace for a jump!” an authoritative voice called over the public address system. Reality shuddered like jelly as the November Sky jumped into the RIP.

“Extraction!” the same voice declared and the warship stuttered back into reality, its weapons opening up immediately. Quick in and outs were a Terran Navy speciality. It was hard on the crew and the ship but a vessel that was willing to accept the stresses of a series of micro jumps could displace millions of miles in seconds, allowing them to avoid patterns of enemy fire and launch ordnance from new and unexpected angles.

York and Junebug ran up the ramp to join the rest of the team. Neil and Taya were already in the cockpit. Woods, Saxon, Sven and a half dozen marines were strapping in to makeshift crash harnesses that had been attached to the walls. A trimly attractive marine with the name ‘Ragan’ stenciled across the front of his armor slapped the closure switch as the captain and the spy climbed aboard.

“Compliment full sir, all aboard!” he called out of the shattering din of weapons fire. Woods nodded.

“Clear to lift!” her voice said over the comm net, sounding in Junebug’s mastoid implant as clearly as if the woman was standing next to her.

“Belay that,” York said calmly, “Stand by for…”

“Brace for a jump!” The ship slid greasily back into the rip and then extracted a moment later. It felt to Junebug as though her skin were being peeled back and hot irons run over her muscles.

“Launch,” York declared calmly.

The Highlander burst from the launch bay over the north pole of the planet. It was an insanely risky jump on behalf of the Captain of the November Sky, the ship could easily have been destroyed if he misjudged currents by even a small margin. Junebug climbed into the captain seat above and behind Neil and strapped herself in. Taya smiled at her nervously from her own console. Above them the massive bulk of the November Sky flickered and vanished into the RIP. 

Junebug looked at her tactical plot forcing her mind to make sense of the complicated array of dots and vectors. The jump had carried them clear of the major engagement zone where fighters and bombers from both the small fleet of Chalcedons and the November Sky were engaging. It also put the planet between them and the major capital ships. Unfortunately there was no way they could avoid the wing of interceptors that was rising from the equator towards them. Speaking of the equator…

“What is that?” Taya asked point a finger towards the middle of Saavran, a massive area, hundreds or thousands of square kilometers to be visible from orbit, glowed with fire and magma. The oceans rippled and vast clouds of water vapour filled the sky. Ejecta reached into orbit in long ribbons. As the watched white flashes appeared on the surface, spewing more material skyward.

“That was Site Alpha,” York declared calmly as he climbed up into the cockpit area.

“The Chalcedon’s are striking it with mass drivers.” Sayeeda found herself momentarily speechless. Saavran was no one's idea of a tourist spot, but there had to have been hundreds of thousands of people living in and around the equatorial port, which was certainly part of the incinerated area.

“Fortunately they are either unaware of Site Beta or hadn’t had a chance to …”  Alarms began to beep as the incoming fighters began to paint the ship with their sensors. Junebug reached down and bought up her weapons display.

“Let us hope Mr Edwards is as good as he thinks he is…”