Hello everyone who might have this book in your library. Well, as you know this book is under some crazy heavy editing right now. That said, to clear up things, I have decided to incorporate my original manuscript which can help clear up confusion on the events of things in this book. 

So naturally...

I'm gonna drop the entire manuscript here. Part of this is the fact that if you steal it and post a new version of this book on wattpad, I come down hard, but also to help alleviate some confusion with the current updated version. So please do not copy this.... Or face my wrath.

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THE LAST OF THE BRAVE

DIVIDED WE FALL

OFFICIAL OUTLINE AND BREAKDOWN

Cooper H. Church

PART ONE: PRELUDE TO WAR

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FROM "Non-Violence in Peace and War" (1948)

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless. Whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty and democracy?

- Mahatma Gandhi

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Prelude to War serves as the introduction to the universe of the last of the brave, and set's up Divided We Fall's two main parallel character arcs: Commander Mercer and Admiral James Forest. It gives a major backstory about why this conflict is happening, and what is has done to the Alliance (the good guys) and the horrific war-crimes committed by the Expanse Sovereign Union A.K.A the Insurrectionists (the bad-guys). It starts the set-up to introduce us to the major character in this story, one that has no voice, but rather, is pretty important to the story: The Spirit of Endurance.

Part One: Prelude to War I is the introduction of Commander Mercer, and the events that have led up to him being tried at a military court. It explains that his previous commanding officer refused a direct order to retreat and regroup, and he took it into his own hands to protect the lives of his crew by killing his Commanding Officer and taking Command of the Columbia. It shows his personality and mindset involved, as well as his unusual family dynamics to his grandfather, and introduces the fact that his father had been killed when he was just a young child. They some-what reconcile.

Part Two: This part introduces Commodore/Admiral Forest who hates his current job as the Fleet Registrar, but is glad to be out of the Office of Naval Intelligence. It is revealed that he grew up under the insurrectionist government and was forced to flee to Earth as a political refugee. When Admiral Hoshino enters the picture, it is revealed that he wishes to reactivate the Spirit of Endurance which has been mothballed for nearly half a century. He thinks it can be a major morale boost and PR opportunity for the Navy as well as serve as a stop-gap to the ever-growing ship shortage.

Part Three: a Continuation of Part two... Admiral Hoshino attempt to convince Forest to bring a proposal to reactivate the Spirit of Endurance but finds it difficult to do so, due to the fact that the ship has been sold to be scrapped and re-purposed for a newer vessel design. However, he successfully convinces Forest to save the Endurance.

PART ONE: Dust and Echoes

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"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

to children ardent for some desperate glory

The old lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro Patria Mori"

- Lt. Wilfred E.S Owen (MC) [1893 – 1918 ]

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Chapter One: The Spirit of Endurance's restoration and reactivation is underway. Commodore Forest is assigned to the ship to oversee it's last eleven months of renovations and restorations. It is revealed that Admiral Hoshino is dying of a rare disease caused by the old "jump drive" that allows these ships to go faster than light and no longer can command the ship during her final months. He put in to have Forest promoted to Admiral due to his career, and swiftly resigns. But he requests to be assigned to the Spirit of Endurance on her six month shake-down with the 13th Fleet before she is to be transferred into inner-colony patrol.

Chapter Two: Commander Mercer is denied his resignation from the fleet and was quickly given a new assignment to the Spirit of Endurance. He is hesitant to accept the orders, and contacts Admiral Forest about it. He begrudgingly accepts the order as it is only for six to nine months, and after that Forest would see if he can transfer him to a academy or to one of the many fleet headquarters around the fleet.

Chapter Three: Commander Mercer takes command of the Endurance and immediately finds out that his own executive officer has a highly classified record, and finds immediate distrust for his second in command. He had little choice in crew selection, and finds that the Navy gave him a under-trained and inexperienced crew. He boards the Endurance and finds his way to the Combat Information Center.

Chapter Four: Commander Mercer finds his way to the CIC and is met by his XO and one of his closest friends who was familiar with the old engine designs and is the ships jump-specialist. He notes that Hoshino is an official observer. He orders the ship to jump to the Drexicon system. The crew fears that the ship might snap in half due to it's advanced ae, and the fact that it hadn't jumped successfully since she was mothballed. At the planet, they join the 13th fleet, but are ambushed by a large fleet of enemy ships, they are faced with an enemy dreadnought which smashes it's way through the fleet, cleaving the Atlantis in two. They can only watch as the enemy lower a mysterious weapon into the upper atmosphere of Drexicon IX and observe as the planet is torn apart. He orders an emergency jump as thye are attacked by the remaining ships.

Chapter Five: The Spirit of Endurance was heavily damaged and is spinning in an uncontrolled counter-clockwise rotation, and the engineering section has reported that one of the fusion drives has suffered a catastrophic melt-down. The engineering section has major plasma fires. Admiral Hoshino makes his way down to engineering. He enters the damaged reactor and jettisons the core, but begins to die of radiation, and then dies. The ship is stabilized, and Mercer makes his way down to engineering to get a status of the ship. He passes several crewmen who have been killed in explosions and fires through the ship. He see's the engineering crew in radiation suits, removing the highly radioactive Hoshino and placing him in a radiation-sealed bag. Mercer then is informed that second fleet was also destroyed and calls for all non-essential crewmen to muster in Hangar Bay C which was not damaged for a funeral service the next day. Mercer looses it and resigns himself to his ready room, and puts Colonel McBatten in charge, but is soon told that the ship needs him.

Chapter Six: Commander Mercer holds a funeral for the 176 crew-members killed in the attack and for the ships that were lost. He then discusses with his XO about what to do, where his XO McBatten recommends they jump to Ragnar which is within jump range to re-stock up on ammunition. They find plenty of tillium, as well as it's oroginal MAC gun. Mercer struggles to find trust in his rag-tag crew.

Chapter 7: Nearly two weeks have passed, and the Endurance is being repaired from it's most recent battle. They have determiend that Hangar Bay 1 was in-operable, and several crew members are to sick or hurt to work. He finds the crew is struggling with depression and Space-Isolation. After an emergency call from the CIC he (Mercer) is informed that they have picked up an emergency IFF frequency that has the code N7248C and an emergency distress call that has remained un-answered for twenty years. He orders the ship to plot course.

Chapter 8: The Spirit of Endurance goes to the coordinates that were being reported by the Excalibur, the sister-ship of the Endurance, and the ship Mercer's father was assigned to before it went missing.. When reviewing the records of the event, the only thing reported was an unexplained power loss, and that his security clearence was not high enough to acess it's final logs. Mercer expressed his distrust for his XO due to his shady background, and request he declassify the records, but is unable to do so. Mercer orders him and accuses him of being an insurectionist working for ONI (the navy goons) and finds him unable to trust McBatten because of his reaction to the mysterious weapon used at Drexicon. McBatten quickly explains his background, and that he had seen the weapon when it was still experimental, and that he left betrayed by the fact that they destroyed his home of Fair Haven. How the weapon destroys all particles it comes in-contact with.

McBatten explains that Admiral Forest is the only person who is more familiar with the weapon than him, and knew what happened to the Endurance, and that he has a bag-of-bones bigger than he thinks. He then tries to authenticate the records, but his clearence has since been revoked, and warns Mercer not to trust Forest. He then advises that if they find something that breaks the law, they burn Forest, and leak the information to the public.

Chapter 9: Mercer looks at the Excalibur and see's the massive damage to her outer hull, and how the vessel had been partially torn apart. He looks at the sensor report and see's the ship has minimum power onboard, but all computers were offline. The sheering along her hull and buckling of her armor is unable to be explained, as no ship can cause such damage. He leads the away—team to the Excalibur to find out what happened to her. They find a opening into the ship and uses the exposed area to board the ship. He find himself uneasy and asks for Ensign Lewis to stay in place.

When they fully open the bulk-head they find a disfigured crewman who's body was partially stuck in a wall, and his mouth agape, having either died from being in the wall, or from the lack of oxygen. They suspect the ship suffered a catastrophic "Spin out". They work their way to the CIC and find Mercers' father torn in half, his upper half holding a women who's face had been disfigured by what happened. His right hand was still on a computer panel. His father recorded one final log before dying from oxygen-deprivation, he only lived because his lower torso fused with his XO. He reveals that the crew was testing out a highly illegal cloaking device for ONI and that Forest had ordered them to do it.. However the recording fails to stop, and he verbally tells Forest to "Go screw himself" and that ONI needs to be burned. His father at the beginning of their mission had hidden a series of tape recorders with the sensor reports from the ship, one had been wired into the ships sensor and had gained twenty-years of data, but also includes memento's his father had brought with him. Mercer is called back to the ship, they regained contact with the Fleet.

Chapter ten: Admiral Forest sit's silently at his desk, he was given only a short message from McBatten, which had been unusually absent. He suspected they were up to something, and knew that the ship was near the wreckage of the Excalibur which ONI had picked-clean of all information regarding it's cloaking device. He is given an update on the ships status and crew casualties, and informs him of Admiral Hoshino's death. Mercer then informs him that they found the Endurance. But soon Mercer questions him, how he received his father's rank-pips, noting that his father's ship had been miticulously picked clean and records wiped. He then tells him that McBatten told him everything how they were linked to SPECWep Group III and were both part of the Ghost Program, and then reveals that he knew he sent his father to his grave. Forest then tells him to destroy the information, and the ship, and not let the information fall into enemy hands, and then tells him that the ESU wiped all the information. Mercer then tells him he killed all 700 people, and that he accuses him of not doing enough to stop the ESU from using it's new super weapon.

Forest accusees McBatten of feeding him information, and tells him not to trust him, that he probably is the mole that got the fleet killed. Mercer then informs him, either they will leak the information, or he (Forest) should come clean.

PART TWO: We're Flawed, All of Us

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Excerpt from "There is No Fear" (1882)

"The people of this world, if against they stand/

There is no fear, there is no fear, nothing like fear.

Shielded armies, if to attack approach

There is no fear, there is no fear, nothing like fear."

- Subramanya Bharathi (1882 – 1921

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Most of this section has remained completely un-edited since 2017 and has it's strongest ties to the original 2014 version. I will sum up what my layout is here.

Chapter One: Commander Mercer and the senior staff to the observation deck. He and his crew decided to recover all the data of what happened to the Excalibur and then scuttle her, allowing her crew to formally rest. He opts to keep the information about the ship's duty as a minimum and private only to the senior staff due to the fact that it can create distrust for himself and their objective. During the ceremony, Mercer is informed off a message that has come in from Fleet Command. Following the destruction of Excalibur he goes to his quarters and takes the message. It is bad news.

Chapter Two: Mercer waits in his quarters, as he tries to think of the best way to break the news. However, before he can do so, Specialist Kellen arrives. He informs her that her home-world was destroyed in the most recent attack, and that there were no-survivors. He also informs her, as his closest friend, that no one can be trusted. They have a mole onboard the ship, and they were the one's who leaked the command codes allowing the enemies to hack into the ships and shut them down in Pt1, Chpt 4.

Chapter Three: Commander Mercer has been requested to take some personal leave. He has been considering looping more crew in on the mole, to launch a more in-depth investigation. He has his personal computer sitting in front of him, observing unusual background information. He requested to speak with his XO. When he arrives , he asks if he has his trust and loyalty, to which McBatten assures him he is. But Mercer is not so sure, he suspects his own XO of being the mole. He illegally de-classified McBatten's records and accuses him of being a ONI Spy trying to keep stuff under-wraps. However, McBatten defends himself. Mercer then informs him that there is a crew onboard and asks him to take a look at the background information the ship records. He requests he work with Kellen to work on finding the mole.

Chapter Four: Admiral Forest is sitting in a room full of Office of Naval Intelligence agents who are going over the transmission between him and Mercer. They inform him that they have requested McBatten to destroy all the information pertaining to the Excalibur and the illegal cloaking test. Forest tells him, that he is unsure if he will do so. They both distrust the Office of Naval Intelligence. He also tells him that he is sure the Endurance will probably stumble upon Kyra one of their more secretive and questionable projects that existed before his time. He tells them that he can no longer work with them. And requests to be cut loose. He chooses to do the right thing. After the meeting he, makes his way to West Point and visits the war memorial and finds the panel dedicated to the Excalibur. He promises he will not let William, Mercer's fathers death be in vain. He has a anonymous reporter lined up to help him leak several thousand documents of illegal activities, as he himself has found that the war could have been over a hundred years ago.

Chapter Five: Kylen is a reporter with one of the few remaining independent news agencies. She is the anonymous reporter that has been speaking with Admiral Forest. She agrees to meet with him on one of the most remote outposts in the fleet and he exchanges with her physical files he copied from the SpecWep Group III project files, and informs her that the Office of Naval Intelligence will be going after him soon, and that she needs to hide the information and get it out to the public, he tells her to deny everything that ONI asks her. That this war has been both front of questionable activity by ONI and that they are the ones pulling the strings in the war. He wants it to end.

Chapter Six: Specialist Kellen is in her quarters looking over the various transmission reports that Mercer wanted her to look over. She determined that on the crew, only a handful of people were capable of encoding a message to look like background radiation. She is beginning to suspect Doyle of being the mole, due to his background as both a transmission engineer, and that they both took advanced courses in particle physics at the academy. She has been secretly trying to gain his trust and familiarity, even going as attempting to access his own personal computer. She joins him for dinner in his quarters and stays the night, when he is asleep finds his computer unusually empty, with no transmissions, not even a personal file on it, and she begins to suspect him even more. She quickly begins to get in uniform as her shift is coming up. He questions her if its about her special assignment, but denies it, stating there is a staff meeting in the morning. He looks at her suspiciously. When she leaves he gets up and checks his computer but finds it as he left it.

Chapter Seven: Specialist Kellen, Mercer, and McBatten are going over their suspects, and they all are beginning to believe it is two people; Doyle and Bomler both who had the background to hide the messages like that. As they go over the information, the ship goes into Condition 1. When they arrive in the CIC they are told of an enemy ship that has jumped into their location. They are trying to figure out how they found them. Kellen runs a back trace and finds the transmission was sent from her station. They soon begin to loose power throughout the ship just like the Fleet did. They find that the jump-computer has been locked out as well. Mercer orders the ship to go to conventional targeting systems, and for Kellen to begin decrypting the jump-computer. She finds that the encryption was the same method she and Doyle had designed and quickly unlocks the computer, before jumping the ship to coordinates she calculated by hand for this reason.

Chapter Eight: Mercer and Kellen are in his office going over the most recent hacking of the ship. They found all their transmission logs had been wiped. Kellen reveals that she is certain it's Doyle as he is using the same technique they developed at War College. But he probably did not know that the engine sensor logs are continuously backed up to an old storage array. She recommends they go through every communication terminal and run a back trace for the same transmission protocol. They do so, and go to the CIC and run it on Doyles terminal and find's that it is the one that has been sending encoded messages to run along the engine sensors.

Chapter Nine: Mercer and a squad of Marines and the Master of Arms go to arrest Doyle. When they approach his quarters, he opens the door and accuses Kellen of being the spy. However, Kellen who joined the squad notes that he was lying because he has a noticeable tell and that she and Mercer go back far enough, that they trust each other. Doyle then shoots and attempts to assassinate Mercer. He is rushed to the medical bay where the doctors remove his clothes and begin to access the bullet wounds. McBatten rushes to his side, where Mercer tells him that he is the Commander now and if he doesn't make it to get the crew home. McBatten promises him that he will. He see's Kellen silently weeping, and begins to suspect there is something more between the two of them, but doesn't question it.

Chapter Ten: Colonel McBatten is in the ready-room going over the situation report as Kellen and the crew work on restoring the computers to their factory configuration. He also was informed by the Doctor that the bullets pierced Mercer's right atrium, liver, and pancreas and had severe internal bleeding. They stabilized him, but are evaluating him to see if they can take him off the ventilator yet to see if there is any brain damage from the stroke he suffered in surgery. McBatten then walks down to the brig an looks at Doyle, sitting there in his uniform. Doyle tells him that McBatten is a traitor and fighting the wrong side. He then viscously assaults Doyle, beating him to a pulp. He discusses with his senior staff on what to do with him.

PART THREE: The Last of the Brave

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"There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With out backs against the wall and believing in the justice for our cause each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment."

- Field Marshal, Douglas Haig (1861 – 1928)

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Chapter One: Colonel McBaten and the senior staff have opted to pursue the charge of conspiracy and sedition. The only choice is the death penalty. Two Marines drag a wounded Doyle and throw him into a docking port and seal the hatch. McBatten interrogates him one last time on what he knows about the weapon, but he refuses to tell them anything. Only that he was one of it's lead designers and that the Alliance will fall soon. McBatten then threatens to vent him out into space unless he talks. Doyle begins to beg, but refuses to give up any information about the weapon. McBatten then orders the Marine to decompress the hatch, blowing him into space. He returns to Mercer's side who has remained in a coma for two weeks. They are discussing whether or not to remove him from life support, he is then informed as the senior commanding officer, that there is a high chance that he will die from his wounds. That Mercer has the same disease that was killing Hoshino.

Chapter Two: Kylen is writing up a major news article that will be published within the week. She has given an advanced copy to her sister, as she has been getting tailed by a few people. The copy was put on an old card and encoded to appear as pictures. She requested that the files be given to the Secretary of the Alliance, and the other copy to the Associated Press. Sending out the email to her colleague at her news agency, she watches unsuprised as several military police officers arrest her. She is taken and interrogated by an ONI Agent who knows that she has highly classified documents, but she refuses to acknowledge them, they then formally charge her with espionage and have her removed to a different location. It is then revealed that Admiral Forest has since resigned from the Navy and has delivered the files as well personally to the Secretary of the Alliance, and has forced the Security Counsel to launch an investigation into the Office of Naval Intelligence. When he is leaving, he goes to Central Park and sits down. A ONI agent sits down next to him, and tell him to fall on his own sword. Forest nods and acknowledge the threat that has made. He makes his way back to his apartment and sits down before grabbing his side arm, and writing an encoded message to Mercer's grandfather, apologizing for getting his son killed. After finishing it, he puts his gun to his head and takes his own life.

Chapter Three: Specialist Kellen is sitting in the medical bay next to a comatose Mercer, they have been unable to revive him for nearly six weeks. However, they continue to hold out hope. As they attempt to reduce the sedation, she watches as he twitches a finger and looks at her. Before nodding. She thanks god, before running up to the CIC to inform McBatten that he is awake. McBatten lets her know before telling her that they have been granted access to Sigma Octanus which is part of the Independent Coalition of Planets that has maintained neutrality through the conflict. They are going there due to the planet having a "cradle" which is a station that can make automated repairs to a ship, but also so they can meet with a resource that has vital information into the weapon.

Chapter Four: The Spirit of Endurance jumped into the Sigma Octanus system, and slowly limps to the cradle. The most recent damage they suffered in battle has destroyed her long-range communication systems, effectively leaving her unable to communicate with the Fleet. They are granted access to the cradle, and begin to wait for the ships repairs to be completed. Colonel McBatten goes down to the planet in civilian clothes and meets with a scientist who is familiar with the weapons design and is willing to help them. He hands them designs and the most probable staging area where the ship can be hiding, but informs them that they would be going right into a hornets nest as the ship's defenses are weak, but it's heavily armored and guarded by it's own fleet of vessels.

Chapter Five: Commander Mercer is finally allowed to begin taking up some minor work, and is released from sick-bay. Specialist Kellen and him meet in the forward observation deck, where she asks him why he did not tell her that he had Fletcher Syndrome. He tells her that his condition has been stable for most of his life, and that his condition is minor and controlled, and that he did not think it would be necessary to tell her. She then nods, and begins to bring him up to date that she and the senior staff have been working on locating the enemy fleet, and that at this point, it was up to him, whether they take the opportunity to refuel and fix the ship and go home, or stay and fight. He nods and tells her he will let them know soon.

Chapter Six: Mercer is finally allowed to take command again. When he goes to the CIC the crew claps and welcomes him back. He tell them to get back to work, and that they have a lot of planning ahead. The entire crew has gotten back from shore-leave, as they prepare to finish up the repairs on the ship, the ESU ship that had been pursuing the ship has found them along with a few ships. They are quickly expelled from the system, and are forced once again to flee.

Chapter Seven: Commander Mercer and Colonel McBatten are standing in the damaged hangar-bay that has long been converted into crew-space, where they could convene and socialize. As they push the tables to the side of the bay, they both grab a piece of red tape, and put down a line that goes down the entire length of the hang-bay. After waiting a short-while, the crew arrives and Mercer announces that the senior command has been working on a plan. However he can not make a unilateral decision for the crew. He tells them there is a line, and asks for all crew members to stand on one side of the hangar-bay. Mercer then asks them that he needs the crew to work as one unit in finding the ship, and to take it out. However, he tells them that the mission will effectively be suicide. If most of the crew does not take a "side" then they will make their way home, but tell them that this could be their chance as they are informed that the weapon is under-going a major overhaul within the next six months. If they choose to stay and fight, they will start planning, and go on the offensive. He watches as the entire crew except a few people walk over the line showing that they are willing to stay and fight. He then asks for a few volunteers, that they will be the lynch-pin in the mission, that they are going to be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. He watches as several marines and engineers volunteer. McBatten steps on the line, and so does Ensign Holland. He then nods and thanks the crew.

Chapter Eight: The crew of the Endurance have been finishing the repairs of the ship themselves, and securing all stations. They have been working on an attack plan. Mercer joins Kellen and members of the engineering and science departments in the Battle Information Center that has remained unused. Since they were forced to flee Sigma Octanus, their leak has volunteered to operate as a civilian informant and advisor. He informs them that a colleague of his that wishes for the weapon to be destroyed as well, has told him that the weapon is within the Necrotic Expanse, a area of space that has pockets of chaotic space due to hundreds of microscopic black-holes and that the only way in would be conventional thrusters or use their jump corridors but that would bring them straight into the hornets nest. He has plotted a course that will allow them to make micro-jumps to speed up and allow for maneuvers around the spacial anomaly. However, they have one thing, once in the staging area they will effectively be blind. They will need to rely on pre-existing plot courses, and drift in under grey-mode with limited power, and will need to reduce life support to minimum mask the crews life span. Kellen then tells him that they have a solution to take out the weapon. They have devised a two-birds and one stone solution. To force their jump-drive onto the enemy vessel, and then jump it. It would cause the enemy vessel to de-stabilize causing the weapon to explode. However, the ship will be stranded and only have about sixty seconds to escape. They determine to use it's mini-drive to jump out, even if that means they might tear tear the ship in two.

Chapter Nine: The Spirit of Endurance's is preparing to launch the attack on the weapon ship. Mercer does a final walk through of his ship, knowing this mission could very well be her last. Making his way down to the memorial hall-way, he saw various crewmen mourning their friends who had been killed in various attacks over the past three years. Mercer walks up to one wall, which had been set-up by the crew to remember the Excalibur. Next to it, was a picture of Admiral Hoshino, when he was younger. He reaches into his pocket, and removes a picture and places it on the wall, leaving behind a picture of his father. Walking down to the hangar-bay the engineering crew has attached the old FTL drive to Scorpion bomber, he tells McBatten that he will take the ship, however, McBatten tell him that it's his job to do this. He was going to take out the weapon that destroyed his world, and that he wants Mercer to see this war come to an end. Mercer complies, and hugs his friend as they board the bomber.

Chapter Ten: The crew of the Spirit of Endurance is dead silent, only speaking in whispers as the ship drifts into the outskirts of the fleet. Mercer is standing in the middle of the CIC, his breath visible from the cold condition on the ship. He glances over at Kellen who is sitting at her post and nods. She nods back. He looks up at the DRADIS and waits for their opportunity. After a moment, they watch as one of the large destroyers jumps out of the area. He tells them to go. The Endurance powers up and launches all of her nuclear warheads at the fleet. They quickly begin their attack. The Endurance is shaken violently, and Kellen orders The Ranger to launch and "god speed". The Ranger makes it's way to the weapon ship and boards the ship in it's docking bay. The crew boards and begins to undock the weapon, but as enemy crew-members start attacking, the marines are quickly outnumbered. A grenade damages the ability for The Ranger to undock the FTL drive. McBatten is shot-down and Ensign Holland radios that McBatten is dead, and they are not able to get back. She tells them they are going to detonate fire it manually. The Endurance CIC crew acknowledges and begins to launch it's sub-light engines at full power. As they are escaping the fleet, Mercer watches as Kellen takes over at the FTL computer to launch their emergency jump. She tells them that the weapon was producing a massive amount of gravity and is collapsing on itself. Mercer orders her to jump the ship as Kellen put's in the coordinates, he watches as her console explodes. Launching himself over, he puts in the coordinates into the damaged computer, as he turns the key the Spirit of Endurance is engulfed in a brilliant light.

Chapter Eleven: The ship shakes violently as her lateral-structural supports are blown out and the crew thrown apart. Mercer braces as the ship calms down. Looking down, he see's Kellen dead. He closed her eyes. As a medic is called up, he shakes his head. Standing up, he looks around the CIC and sees its severe damage. Most ships' systems have been destroyed or severely damaged. After evaluating their location, it is determined that at sub-light it would take the crew nearly three-thousand years to get back home. Making the decision for the crew, Mercer has the crew go into cryo-sleep until they are rescued.

Prologue

Hathem Mercer (John's son) is onboard the Columbia-A when they pick up a faint distress call several light-years away. His commanding officer orders them to investigate. When they arrive they discover the Spirit of Endurance with all systems deactivated with minimum life-support being maintained in the old cry-storage bays. When they arrive, they discover the crew of the Spirit of Endurance still alive. Upon waking up Commander Mercer, he is shocked to have discovered that within six years of the destruction of the fleet and the weapon the Alliance has prevailed and the war is over.

Six months have passed and the year is now 2568, the surviving crew has either taken new assignments or retired from the Navy. Mercer has taken command of the successor to the Excalibur which is part of the Spirit class vessels. The Navy has brought the Endurance back to Earth to be a museum ship. At the dedication memorial the Navy has Mercer christened the newest flagship in the Fleet, the Spirit of Endurance-A.