Chapter 1: Intel

Crusader Cirene saw on her holo-display, a blinking light symbolizing the scryer's pick-up point. Crusader Cirene, waived her hand over a very peculiar crystal sphere. The sphere, in all its grandeur, flashed in a miniscule blue hue, and a beam of light came from the seeker vessel, bringing with it a tall, slender, exhausted, Scryer Neros into the ship's cargo hold.

The Vessel was the latest model in the Advent fleet. It was now considered overpowered from its predecessor, even by Advent standards. The engineering was a large part of it. The "Model 3" Seeker was made of Kalanite armor, with technology so advanced and confusing, the best scientists of the TEC, defiler worlds were unable to formulate any type of intelligence from one that they had captured, not two years ago. The reason being that the TEC defilers lacked any form of psionic, or psychic power. to even do the most menial of tasks. Without the presence of the Unity, all Advent ships were inoperable.

Cirene opened up the cargo hold's door, and Neros entered. He sat next to Cirene at the bridge, and gave her an order, "Take us to Thetis, Sanctity to be exact. I am sure that the Imperial Minister is going to want to hear this." Sanctity was the second oldest starbase, after Transcencia, so it was used as the orbital capital, and information center of the Unity. Again, Cirene waved her hand over the sphere, flashing red twice, then green, and the Seeker vessel entered phase space.

All was silent aboard the seeker. Cirene, eager to hear about the intelligence that Neros acquired on the desecrator world, broke the silence, and asked, "What information did you get from the traitor world?" Neros responded in a low tone, reflecting his exhaustion, "They're worried. They are fighting a 2-front battle, and they are outnumbered, and out-gunned." Cirene, unable to comprehend the information she just heard, asked another question, "Who else if fighting them?"

"Apparently, a nomadic, alien species, began to attack them only ten years before we did. They call themselves the 'Vasari', and the desecrators fear them. Not only that, but I was able to get some photos that they had on these things. They are about as tall as a normal person, have scaly, brown skin, their knees bend backwards, have yellow eyes, an elongated head, and are reptilian. The only thing is, that they are able to speak in human dialects. There is an implant in their brain, similar to the neural stimulators that we have, that is implanted on their speech cortex. The implant functions by using brainwaves as fuel. As brainwaves happen from normal cerebral functions, the implant takes them in, they are processed, the constituent energy from them is absorbed and used as fuel. The emissions or wastes from it, are several frequencies, both high and low, that are fed back into the brain. The result, they can speak, and understand any, and all languages." 

"What else?" asked Cirene eagerly. 

"The rest is information, that will be discussed at the informational meeting in the base with the War Minister. He has to hear this."

=======================Transcencia-class star base in orbit around Tethys========================

==Internal Intelligence Room==

A well-dressed woman with long, brilliant hair slowly walks up to the front of the room. She is known across the empire as being the 'Spokesperson for the Imperial Minister' and thusly, is respected by many, and all. She arrives at the podium bearing the Imperial mark, and spoke.

" I bid you welcome members of the Unity, as well as the Coalesced alike. I come to you today to provide you with information regarding ourselves, as well as the enemy. I begin our meeting today, with our present situation, at our homeworld. After the situation a little over a month ago, both the War Minister, and the Imperial Minister, have decided that we can no longer afford to take risks, associated with the cost of an invasion. They both have ordered the full construction of 20 more beam defense platforms, 3 Hangar Defense Stations, as well as the laying of several mines in the gravity well of the planet. They are also ordering the construction of 2 Radiance Battleships, 100 Illuminator Vessels, 20 Aeria Drone hosts, 50 Disciple vessels, and if at all possible, a Transcencia base."

A man, driven mad with anger, arose from the crowd, and voiced his opinion of the matter, " Now I understand that after having been attacked, the citizens of Alcmena would want to defend their world. I don't blame them, I would have the same reaction. I've kept quiet when you spoke of all of these defensive efforts the Ministry of War deems necessary for our own protection, but when you speak of the ultimate war machine, a Transcencia base being constructed around an otherwise peaceful planet, I don't see why that would need to be a necessary precaution."

The speaker, made her rebuttal, "I understand that you may seem reluctant, and that your sentiment reflects that of what it is that you are surrounded by in the Aerolian sector. But if you find that loosing 320,000 people, access to the Keiper system, which we will now have to fight for to regain control of, the destruction of another antimatter recharger in the empire, and the complete obliteration of the Consecrated Palace as something that can be overlooked, I, as a member of the Unity, would begin to question your devotion to our cause! Now if there are no further interruptions, I would like to move on, and discuss the battle front. We have been able to successfully capture 3 planets and have integrated them as part of the empire. Of those 3, one was a neutral world, that did question us at first. We resolved the problem by bringing in the Malevesant, for those of you who don't know, a Rapture Battlecruiser, and ordered all the adepts on board to do some mind-cleansing with the Domination ability that thy possess The other 2 were captured from the from the frontline against the traitors. We were able to root out all heretics, the ones that were able to stay, are of little use to us, besides crewing Disciple Vessels. Now that we are on the subject of des-"

"Millenia, hold on..." came from the entrance of the room. At that moment, Neros entered the room. He walked up to the speaker, whispered for a brief moment, handed her a small sphere, and proceeded with walking out of the room. She noted that there was a small paper that he also handed her that read, 'Display the contents of the sphere, I will tell you what to say telepathically from outside. Signed, Crus. Albert Palmira Neros ' Before continuing with the briefing, she began with establishing the mental connection that she would need to provide the information of the spheres contents. She began the connection, 'Neros, are you hearing me?' Not too long after, he responded, 'Yes, now you can begin.'  She didn't hesitate one moment, she turned, loaded the sphere on a small, round pylon that was emitting a beam of light, and began again, " According to new information that was just provided to me today, we are apparently not alone in our assault of the TEC forefront. In the Li sector, the sector where the majority of the offenses are taking place."

The Li sector is one of the 26 divisions that the Advent recognize. When 1,000 years ago the Advent where exiled from their homeworld, the TEC came across their layout of the galaxy. They were so amazed at how organized and exact their map was, that they threw out their own, which contained about 600 divisions, and adopted the Advent's. There was only one key difference. The TEC renamed theirs, and kept absolutely no information about the Advent names, that could have prevented the loss of several worlds to the Advent.

"The Li sector, as you all are probably aware of, is the largest sector, outside of the Ganesh sector, where the Earth is located," she continued. "A new, previously unknown race has begun a full frontal assault, and as a result, are forcing the TEC to stretch their forces. This race has technology that is only somewhat superior to our own. Their technology revolves around the use of nanites, or extremely small and agile robots. On this first picture that I will show you, you will see their colony ship. It is needles to say, enormous. A transmission that was interrupted from them, we discovered that this was called a 'Jarrasul Evacuator'. Now I want you all to think for a moment, 'Evacuator', that means that they are running from something. If they are indeed running from something, why is it that they have stopped here, and began to attack the traitors? Whatever the reason maybe, we do know that this ship was able to easily take on a Kol Battleship, and defeat it, but not without any injuries of its own. Even though, it seemed as though it began to repair itself after the battle, as if to erase the scars of battle.  On this second illustration, you will see the actual being that is the 'Vasari'. She displayed the photograph. This same being was captured, and is being detained at the sector 7-3 division, and is to be interrogated later today. They seem to be easy to manipulate mentally. But they also like to avoid the light. It should be noted that these creatures don't have the best intentions in mind as his peculiar one was a spy that was caught on the surface of Acheron earlier this week.  It also seems to be clear that both the Vasari, and TEC are in the midst of designing and engineering a superweapon similar to our Deliverance engine, that allows us to cleanse the thoughts of a planet's heretic populace. 

Suddenly, a reverberation was felt throughout the base. An alarm sounded, the warning lights came on, and the computer began to immediately inform those onboard of the situation. "Warning, Invaders detected. Warning, Invaders Detected. Now activating Self-Defense system."  The alarmed speaker gave an order, "Computer, define invader identity, and calculate invader numbers immediately!" Shortly after, the computer system came on again, "Attackers Identified as the Trader Emergency Coalition, 3rd fleet. The fleet is comprised of 2 Kol Battleships, 30 Cobalt frigates, 3 Krosov frigates, and 10 Long Range Attackers. Attackers now within a kilometer of the base, activating, Disorientation Pulse."With that, a cloud of electromagnetic energy surged from the base as the attacking fleet headed towards it. Upon contact with the ships, their engines became disabled. Inside one of the Kols, the crew was stricken by surprise.

"Captain, the base has just fired an energy pulse that has overloaded the engine reactor feeds. Our ships are now just drifting towards the base!"

The captain of the ship responded, "I don't care what it takes, find a solution to get those reactors back online, and when you do, give the fleet the information! Someone tell me what it is that we are up ag-" At that exact moment, the ship felt a sudden push in the opposite direction, throwing all of its crew of of their seats, or on the floor if they were standing. The captain was the first to respond, "What the hell was that? Someone get me some answers fast before I start reprimanding you all!

" Captain, the ships computers have been able to confirm the energy signature of 24 Iconus Guardians.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Iconus Guardians are no war ship, they are support cruisers, fire upon them immediately!" 

"Captain, Iconus Guardians are no war ship, but our previous intelligence tells us that Iconus Guardian crews, are the top Psychokinetic members of the Advent fleet. When our ships fell within range, their crew used the ships' abilities, and pushed us out of the way so that way we wouldn't be able to get in range to fire weapons!" 

Inside the base, the speaker ordered that everyone stay calm, and evacuated the room. The starbase computer, now took over every single action in the base, while it began to do what it did best. "All weapon systems online, now commencing self-defense operations. All Drone Adepts, report to the command center in the upper pylon to begin offensive measures."

"Engines back online!" was the response from the systems administrator in the Kol.

"All other ships also reporting that their engines are back online." Came from the youngest of the crew, that managed inter-fleet operations.

"Then begin the assault as planned!" was the reply from the Captain. "Make sure that the base is the first thing we take out."

"Captain, massive phase out detected! Sensors indicate that there are 100+ ships. We can't take on a fleet of that size with our current fleet alone!" 

"We can if they don't have the correct ships! Status report!"

"They have 6 Radiance Battleships, 4 Progenitor Motherships, 120 Illuminator Vessels, and 50 Disciple Vessels. We also detect a huge antimatter reaction from the starbase, and the Iconus Guardians. 

With that, the Iconus Guardians gave off another round of Repulsion. The starbase the also began to fire. By this time all the Drone adepts had made it to the command center of the base, and launched the drones.

"Captain, the base has deployed bombers!"

"They really want to make sure that we don't get out of this place without taking damage. Michael, how long until the phase-out fleet arrives to the battle?"

"Sir, they are already within firing range, I also have more bad news, they have a Phase Inhibitor directly behind the base. Leaving is almost certainly not going to be an option."

"Damn it! If they are going to destroy us, why haven't hey attacked us yet?"

As if on cue, the fleet of 120 Illuminator vessels fired their beam weapons on the paralyzed fleet. On the first round 7 Cobalts fell out of formation, and exploded as their antimatter reactors reached critical mass. The bombers from the base had also joined in on the fighting, and took on one of the Kols, along with a Radiance battleship. On the unlucky Kol, a scene unfolded as the Radiance drew ever nearer,

"Captain Bolden, we are detecting an enormous antimatter reactor in that ship headed towards us. The energy projections have the reaction at 4.6 quadrillion Joules. The reaction is expected to be finished within the next 15 seconds."

From across the room came a panicked reply, "No correction to that estimate, prepare for impact!"

The Radiance Battleship fired off a devastating pillar of light, it took almost no time for it to hit the Kol Battleship. The Beam penetrated the ships shield with ease, as the beam tore through the hull of the ship, splitting it in two, and tearing through the antimatter storage chamber, causing a fatal explosion that could be felt on the the surface of the planet. The 3 unlucky siege frigates were so panic stricken that they tried to turn around to escape, but were only caught in the cross-heirs of several beam defense platforms that erased the 3 ships from existence. Only six of the long-range frigate were left, as they attempted an escape after having witnessed the destruction of a Kol with a single shot. 23 Cobalts followed them there after as well as the single Kol right behind them. On the Kol, more bad news echoed through the ship.

"Captain, another phase out detected. 30 light carriers are in the fleet. We now detect that there is an excess of 500 bombers that are moving towards our single ship."

"What about their main fleets? What are they doing?"

"They have just taken out the remaining Javelis LRMs. All we have left are 22 Cobalts, and this ship!" 

The captain then decided that he was willing to sacrifice himself, as well as his ship to protect the escaping fleet that they needed badly on the Vasari front. He gave the order, "turn this ship around we are going to fight them head on!"

"Captain, we are out numbered, and outgunned. Besides, we took too much damage from the star base, and our shield generator is out."

"Yes, but we need to buy time for the rest of the fleet to escape, remember that they have an Inhibitor. We need to buy them as much time as possible, even if it means our own demise!"

The Kol swiftly turned and focus-fired on a single Disciple, which was easy to take out. But it seemed like the Advent didn't take to kindly to that as at that exact moment, all their ships fired on the single Kol. The bombers came within range as well, and a devastating light show ripped through the hull of the Kol, causing an explosive meltdown that blew the ship, and its crew to pieces. Once everything had cleared out, it was seen that the rest of the attacking fleet, escaped. The Advent didn't leave the battle unscathed. With a loss of 10 Disciple vessels and 2 Illuminators, there was hell to pay. A single voice from the planet was heard on all of the Advent ships, "This is Planetary Minister Adnan Vendira. You may all return to your respective locations. We will take care of the clean up. We could not have done it without you. I'll make sure to let the War Minister now what happened here. You may all rest well as you can expect commendations come tomorrow." With that the transmission ended, and the ships proceeded to return to their respective duties, as the clean up began.

Chapter 2: Interrogation

Coming 3/25/2009