Commander Mercer walked swiftly through the halls of the Spirit of Endurance as he moved towards the Command Information Center, the heart of the ship. Passing by crewmen who were reporting to the post, nearly all stopped and gawked. While he was an experienced Naval officer, many still know him for the loss of Columbia. He knew that it would take time to gain their trust and respect.

Hitting the next major junction, Mercer grabbed onto a hand of handrails as he pulled himself up a ladder and onto Deck 1 – the command deck. Pacing himself, he quickly arrived at the port side of the C.I.C. Looking up at the Marine standing guard in front of the door, he flattened his uniform and adjusted his uniforms collar. Nodding to the Marine, the officer quickly opened the bulkhead door and stood to the side.

Taking a deep breath, Mercer found himself surrounded by the Command crew who were all at their posts making last minute preparations including her first long-range FTL jump in nearly half a century. At the rear of the CIC was the plotting board, where a crewman was erasing all of the ships dotted around the ship. The man looked up at Mercer, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Commander on Deck!" He barked. Mercer looked up and nodded, before looking to the command module where his Executive officer, Colonel McBatten was standing at attention with the rest of the crew.

"As you were." Mercer said. Walking forward, he shook hands with his X.O.

"Welcome aboard, Commander." McBatten said.

"Thank you. Now I heard we have an official observer?" Mercer asked confused. The last thing he needed was for a member of the Naval brass to send a person to observe his behavior.

"The Navy would rather give a retired admiral the title of observer than just a civilian observer." An old voice said from behind him. Mercer knew that voice... Turning around, he came face to face with an old friend.

"Admiral Hoshino." Mercer said. "This is not what I was expecting. What are you doing onboard?"

"I requested to have one last mission, or more like a ride along on my last command. I won't be breathing down your neck, I'll just sit back and watch." Hoshino said. "I don't doubt your command abilities."

Mercer watched as a crewmen handed a sheet to Colonel McBatten.

"Final crew-count?" Mercer asked.

"2200. All crew have reported in, sir." McBatten said as he looked at the updated crew manifest. Mercer nodded at the response before stepping forward and entered his credentials into the ships command module. He watched as a dim green holographic display flickered to life, showing all ships systems. Above his head was the ships Radar system giving off a consistent ping of all ships that gave off tachyons and vector radiation.

"Commander, sir." Mercer heard a familiar voice behind him. Turning around, he saw a person he was all to familiar with. "Specialist Kellen, reporting in sir."

"Where's Ensign Prazna?" Mercer asked.

"He has a case of the Durellian Mumps. Until a new communications officer is available. I am the best qualified for the job." She said. Mercer looked at her face, and her blonde hair that was kept in a tight bun, with a slight scar above her eye.

"Understood. Take your station." Mercer said. Kellen nodded, and quickly walked back towards where she came from, but turned left and stepped up towards the communication station. Turning back to the command module, Mercer took a deep breath and grabbed a clunky old handset and flipped it around with the mouthpiece facing up. Pressing down on a button attached to the command module, he opened all coms across the ship

"All hands, this is your Commander. Initiate jump prep." Mercer put the hand-ste and began to bark orders. "Kellen, request permission to clear space dock."

"Aye sir." She said.

"Leftenant Quinn, send request to damage control teams to seal all airlocks" Mercer asked. The man who's post was next to the Damage Control panel nodded, and spoke through his headset. After a few moments he turned around and faced Mercer.

"Commander Mercer, all hatches sealed sir."

"Sever our connection to space dock." Leftenant Quinn nodded and turned back to the computer. After a few moments, they could hear metallic thunks throughout the ship as the tethers and fuel lines directly to the ship broke off. Specialist Kellen was still on the radio, waiting for an answer from space dock.

"Sir, we are authorized to clear space dock." She said.

"Good." Mercer said. He smiled slightly. "So far, so good". Mercer thought "Helm, one eighth impulse, full reverse. Take us out... slowly." Looking up at the slew of helm officers, together they began to work as one. The center navigation pilot pushed back on the control sticks. "I want a minimum of 30,000 kilometers before we jump." Mercer said. Tapping a few keys on the command module, he pulled up a display showing the orientation of the ship in-relation to standardized spacial telemetry. "XO. Run pre-checks."

Colonel McBatten reached under the command module and grabbed out an old clipboard that had all of the checks that were mandatory before a jump.

"Nav!" McBatten barked out.

"Go!"

"FTL"

"Go"

"Communications"

"Go!" Kellen yelled out.

"Tactical"

"Go"

"Operations"

"Go"

"Sub-Light"

"Go"

"Helm"

"Go!" Said three voices in unison. Mercer watched as Kellen swapped the radio to a wireless headset before walking over to the FTL Navigation computer. Connecting a various plug into the system, she reached down and grabbed a crystalline key that glowed an eerie strange blue color.

"Run the clock." Mercer said. He watched as she double checked the ships jump calculations run on the computer to Kellen's own hand-calculations one last time. As they all waited in silence, the entire command crew disengaged from their consoles as they waited for the jump.

Kellen grabbed another handset and began to speak into it.

"All hands prepare for FTL Jump. Fifteen..." Kellen said. "Fourteen." Hearing a few more button clicks, they all were on the verge of the point of no return. The jump threshold. It was either jump, or spool down the drive. "Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five..."

Mercer looked over at Hoshino who was sitting at a spare console, not moving a muscle.

"Three... Two... One... Jumping." As Kellen turned the FTL key, the entire ship began to bend and contort as they crossed over into the bulk. Mercer tried to ignore the unusual geometry that began to appear in front of his eyes. The ship began to bend more as it began to fold in on itself.

After a split second, a bright light erupted from the vessel as everything rapidly snapped back into place. Taking a deep breath, Mercer grimaced for a second at the sudden splitting headache he had. Everyone had the same look as he did. Taking a deep breath, Mercer looked around him, and felt a slight ping of relief, part of him had been unusually anxious about doing one of the largest jumps a ship can make.

"Sit rep?" Mercer asked.

"Getting out barring now." Kellen said. Running down the four stairs to the main floor, she turned on the external sensor array, before looking through a eye piece. Mercer looked up at the HUD as it updated their predicted coordinates. "Sir, we are now in geosynchronous orbit above Drexicon IX." She announced.

All at once the entire Command crew cheered and shook hands before returning to their posts. Feeling the engines come to lift, the entire ship shook for a moment.

"Commander, I am guessing the splitting headache isn't normal."

"The engine is out of spec. We aren't used to the gravimetric distortions on these older ships. We'll get used to it." Mercer said. He remembered reading his father's journal which detailed the headaches they would get on long-range jumps. On older ships.

Mercer hit a button and the module started to display a holographic image of the radar system. He could see that they were in close proximity to the Archeron. The 13th Fleets flag ship. It was marked with three stars next to it.

"How close are we to the Archeron?" Mercer asked.

"300 meters, sir." Said a voice.

"Helm, back us off. I was a minimum of 600 meters between us and any other ship. Specialist Kellen, patch me in to Fleet Admiral Harper." Kellen who already had established herself back at the communications panel, unplugged the command module from the internal system and patched Mercer into the external com array.

Grabbing the bulky handset, he put it to his ear.

"This is Commander Mercer, to the Archeron." He waited a few seconds, as he heard nothing but static and crackle. Looking over at Kellen, she adjusted the system to account for modern sub-wave network communication protocols.

"This is the Archeron. We read you Commander. Authenticate ship codes." The person on the other side said. After only a few seconds, he heard another crackle as Admiral Harper spoke over the radio. "Commander, we have reports that Operon Five was attacked. However, the attack fleet was a tenth the size we normally see. The 8th fleet is currently engaged."

"Understood, sir. What's the came plan, actual?"

"The Archeron, Pleides, and Appache are going to engage the enemy. You are to remain back and give us some flak fire from your Mark 12s"

"Understood." Mercer said.

"All communication are to be sent in the green, we need real time communications." Said Admiral Harper. Mercer nodded, and motioned Kellen to do just that. As the entire communications went up, the entire ship could hear what was happening.

"God it. Sir." Mercer said.

Mercer looked up at the radar as it displayed a slight gravitational shift. The ships sensors were sensitive to those types of changes. Even a slight variation ncould make it appear as if there was a sensor ghost.

"Specialist Kellen, is the Drexicon system known for gravitational irregularities?" Mercer asked as he turned to her. Kellen was both a communication specialist, but also a systems engineer.

"No, sir." She said. Mercer turned his back to the console.

"Fuck." Mercer said under his breath. Mercer watched as another series of gravitational waves appeared on the radar. Grabbing the handset, he recognized exactly what was happening. He had seen it once before, during the Battle of the Binary Stars. Pushing the button he opened up the inner coms. "All hands, condition one." Immediately the ship went to high alert as the alarm sounded, and the C.I.C turned blue. Specialist Kellen began their action announcements.

"Action stations, Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. Action stations, action stations, set condition throughout the ship, this is not a drill. All hands man your battle stations. The route of travel is forward and up to starboard, and aft to port. Set material condition zebra throughout the ship. Reason for action stations: possible inbound bandits." Kellen repeated the call to general quarters a few more times. After a few more times she stopped repeating the call, "Commander, all stations report condition one." She announced.

"Tactical! Order our guns to load up all the Mark 12 turrets, and prepare for defensive firing." Mercer barked out. Immediately the tactical officer relayed his command.

After a moment, he watched as the radar system stopped reporting gravitational anomalies.

"Sir, are you sure you aren't seeing sensor ghosts?" Asked Colonel McBatten.

"Something's wrong." Mercer said. "I know it."

"From where."

"Battle of the Binary Stars. They used sub-space probes. It caused us to think an attack was coming from beyond the primary star, instead the enemy fleet was able to surround us." He explained.

"I'd trust your gut more than anyone else then." McBatten said. They both looked across from each other as they read the sensor signals. They watched as a massive spike of graviton erupted as space distorted.

"Evasive maneuvers! Fire the port bow and aft starboard chemical engines!" Mercer yelled out urgently.

The Spirit of Endurance slid out of the way as a ship appeared where their aft was.

"Tell our turrets to open fire!" Mercer shouted.

"All weapons free!" Said his tactical officer. "Repeat, all weapons free." As the weapons fired, small thunks could be heard throughout the ship.

"Checkmate." Mercer said under his voice. Grabbing the handset, he looked at Kellen.

Grabbing the handset Mercer flipped it upside down as he heard his voice reverberate throughout the room.

"All ships break formation! All ships I repeat break formation." Mercer saw the sensor reports as the gravitational anomaly grew. There was a ship coming through, and it had a bigger signature than even the Endurance and the Columbia.

"Belay that! All ships hold formation!" Said Admiral Harper.

"Admiral with all do respect I think we are about to have a much larger ship jump in, or an entire damn fleet. That could knock out our ability to navigate affectively."

"You have your orders, Commander."

Mercer looked up at the radar system, before looking at his X.O for approval. Grabbing the handset again. "

"Admiral, listen to me. Order our ships to break format-" As he tried to finish his sentence, the entire crew was tossed to the right. Mercer slid down the floor as the gravity well of a ships jump drive grew stronger. "Helm, back us off!"

The helm crew began to frantically adjust the ships impulse engines to try and break them free.

"Sir, we are stuck in the gravity well an inbound ship." Said the Navigation officer.

"All hands, brace for impact!" Mercer roared. As the entire crew gripped their consoles and secured themselves to their seats, McBatten and him continued to slowly slide down the floor until they could grab onto anything. As they both held on for dear life, Mercer felt grabbed onto a handhold, while McBatten propped himself between a bulkhead frame as their feet began to move off the ground.