• Chapter 2
    When Nightopia was occupied, no one within the New Eden Republic could figure out the reason, some suspect the planet was a haven for pirates, others think the UCCPE perceived the nightmarens as a threat to civilian safety; I think the reason was to make an example- they had little power, and they acted like children.
    - anthro philosopher Hiro- on the occupation of Nightopia

    And so we have a home thought Skye as he surveyed the bridge of the Ni Mother Base, the carrier that had just been secured by TWiLiGHT’s renegades; next to him was their leader, with black and white coloring, on Skye’s other side was SUNLiGHT, their tactical advisor, and TWiLiGHT’s sister.
    “The ship is ours, what do we propose?” began TWiLiGHT
    “We may begin our resistance!” called a gunnery officer from the back
    “Unfortunately we cannot... we lack the weapons capabilities at the time” replied Sun
    “We also don’t have enough fighters to hold off a standard cruiser” continued Skye
    “We have to leave before they know what has happened” finished Sun quietly
    “Sir” stated OverSight, the Mother Base’s overseer robot, in its flat tone “the ISO cruiser Firebrand is hailing our ship, the captain is asking why we have suddenly stopped broadcasting tactical data”
    “It appears they are on to us” began TWiLiGHT in his powerful drawl, “OverSight, contact the brotherhood ship Augustgrad and tell them we need our distraction NOW; SUNLiGHT, plot a course for our escape”
    “Aye Sir!” came the reply, TWi walked over to the engineering panel and spoke to an orange and black colored nightmaren in an engineering jumpsuit, “Halloween, ready our tachyon drives for escape” he finished.
    “Sir!” came Hal’s reply as he looked up from the terminal, energetic, as always.

    The TAC room of the Firebrand was essentially a dark room with computers almost wall to wall, updating data every millisecond; the crew there was scrambling, trying to figure out what just happened on board the Babylon. The ship’s overseer robot was not helping, either, it was constantly avoiding answering its directed questions, citing sensor problems on the Firebrand and ‘secret’ tests of new Star Tech equipment. This had the captain in a state of annoyance.
    “Sir!” came a voice from the back.
    “Yes, what is it” replied the captain, hopeful.
    “new sensor readings in, there are very few human signatures on board, those that are there appear to be listed pirates, also, there are many nightmarens on board, all have recently escaped from Revelation’s Station 097”
    “well well, rebels we appear to have, divert all power to weapons and lock on to the Babylon’s engine and weapons systems, fire on my mark; contact the Hammerhead and tell them to do the same, give them our data if they don’t initially agree”
    “Aye!”
    “Weapons at full power, torpedoes in bays 3 and 7 are ready to launch!”
    “Lock acquired!”
    At that moment, the Firebrand shuddered heavily, as a wounded creature would, causing all who were not secured sprawling.
    “What was that?” screamed the captain.
    “Explosive shell, hit the ship on our...port side, dead center.”
    “Batteries 2, 4, 8, and 10 are offline captain; station 6 is heavily damaged”
    “Fire on decks 2, 4, and 9!”
    “Captain, based on the round, and the damage we have taken, a hostile BattleStar hit us.” Came their OverSeer’s soft tone.
    “Contact! New contacts slipping in; one Paladin class BattleStar, registered to the Brotherhood as the Augustgrad, and 35 fighters, mixed ISO dagger and Leonardo knight class, also 20 mechs, air type, mixed Leonardo spitfires and Kyi ANGELS!”

    “Tachyon drives charged, ready to fire!” called Hal.
    “Entering ascent, firing jump in...10 seconds!” called SUN from the back, “...fire tachyon drives NOW!” she finished.
    “Ma’am!” acknowledged Hal. TWiLiGHT looked through the viewport at the front of the Ni Mother Base at the sky, slowly changing from Nightopia’s dark atmosphere to the even darker abyss of space, suddenly a human at the sensor panel called over his shoulder,
    “New contact! Refuge revenant class cruiser, she’s straight in our path!” TWi looked back at the viewport, seeing the dark blue bladelike mass fly straight into where they were going to go,
    “Abort jump sequence!” TWi commanded, not sure it would even be possible.
    “Cancelled!” came Hal’s now deflated voice from his terminal in the back, “feeding all that energy to our guns and shields!” he finished. TWi heaved a noticeable sigh as their small ship angled around the Revenant cruiser, plotting a new course to escape.