Chapter 9

The shuttle latched onto one of the docking ports of the Enterprise directly, other shuttles attaching themselves to other docking ports or to the shipyard. Ben and Emily were lost in the confusion as they exited the craft, at least two hundred people filling a hangar meant for maybe fifty. The entirety of Dragon squadron followed them as well, nobody having any idea of where they were supposed to go. They all stumbled through the bay, tripping over people, and occasionally being shoved out of others way, everyone moving at a maddeningly fast pace.

Their confusion was finally relieved, however, as a loud voice crackled over the intercom, blaring over two hundred voices. "Attention, I need your attention please. This is Lieutenant Commander Davis, of the I.E.F. Enterprise bridge crew. I want the personnel arriving in the hangar bay to please sort themselves into three groups: Naval officers, army officers, and Warriors. Naval to the far starboard, army to the center, and Warriors to the port."

The three groups each arranged themselves according to the orders, a tiny bit of organization finally brought to the crowd. It looked like there were more than a hundred naval officers, about fifty army officers, and maybe fifty Warriors. Ben realized at that point that the evacuations by the Exploration Forces had worked all over the world exactly as they had at the Missouri Defense Line base; only the highest ranking officers and the Warriors had been taken. The situation must have been getting desperate, as he figured that four hundred shuttles would have brought more than four thousand people to the Luna Yards.

Lt. Commander Davis' voice returned. "Okay, a few updates: the total population of the complete Luna Yards installation, including those onboard the ships, is up to approximately eight thousand individuals. The shuttles you all arrived in are being retrofitted for a long voyage, as each of these ships cannot be expected to hold more than a thousand people for a possibly long duration flight. We are bringing up all the civilian and military craft from the surface that we can, but we aren't going to be able to take all that many people away from the solar system. The Ghalerans will not be going with us; they will be fleeing Earth as well, but will return to their own defensive lines. It looks like this will be the group that will be traveling from the solar system: five I.E.F. cruisers, the Enterprise, seven hundred nineteen passenger shuttlecraft, ninety-two long range HK-3 fighters, sixty-four civilian craft, and eighteen passenger liners, for a grand total of approximately twenty eight thousand humans. The fleet should be assembled within twenty hours. Now, we don't want anyone overreacting, as this may come as a shock, but a treaty was signed by the U.N. over an hour ago with the Liodammians... a treaty that marks the surrender of Earth to the Liodammian forces."

A massive burst of noise emitted from the crowd, most everyone seeming to voice their opinions about where the United Nations could stick their treaty at the same time. Ben was no exception.

Davis continued on, unable to hear the collective indignation in the hangar bay. "In a massive, unexpected sweep, the Liodammians, as of three hours ago, had wiped out more than half of our defense forces. So, it was agreed that they could have Earth, with two conditions: one, that all residents of Earth are to be allowed to live unharmed, under their current laws and societal structures. No changes in the way people live, in other words, except that they will be living with the Liodammians for now. The second is that this fleet be allowed to leave the Sol system, and to proceed to locate a habitable planet for human re-location, far outside the new boundaries of the Liodammian Empire. This fleet will then be used to ferry as many people as possible to this new planet. As for the current situation, most of you will have to temporarily go to Luna Yards to wait for a retrofitted ship to become available, as the Enterprise is the only ship designated for exclusive combat duty; their will be no civilians aboard, and very few non-naval personnel. Your I.D.L. comm. units will beep four times in rapid succession if you must leave the ship."

In groups of ten or so, comm. units began beeping. It was obvious why they didn't just trigger them all at once; it would have been hard to tell if your comm. unit was beeping or not if all of them were going off at once. After more than an hour of various beeping noises filling the hangar bay, almost all of the Warriors and the army officers had been sent off, but not Dragon squadron or Emily. Ben realized though that Emily had obviously not been on the evacuation listing, so they wouldn't be paging her... but what about Dragon squadron? Why hadn't they been sent off? Then Ben had another thought; exactly why the hell was Emily at the base in the first place? There were supposed to be no other Warrior squadrons there!

"Emily," Ben began with a note of curiosity in his speech, "how were you in 'Lightning' squadron? From the info I got, the Dragon squadron was the only Warrior squadron at that particular base."

"Huh?" she looked at him quizzically. "There were more than fifteen other Warriors at that base; we just weren't finished training yet, so we weren't listed as functional squadrons."

He reacted to that with surprise, and had a wicked little thought. He knew that if there were still partially trained Warriors scattered across the globe, like the ones left at their base, the Liodammians were going to have one hell of a resistance on their hands. He smiled.

Before his thoughts could develop any further, the captain of the Enterprisecame over to them, as they were the last people left in the now deserted hangar bay.

"Ah, then you would be Dragon squadron?" the captain began.

"Yes, sir," Rebecca answered quickly, snapping a salute to the captain. "Erm, I think we're a seven-member squadron now though, sir, if that's okay with whatever orders we are being given."

"I don't think it will be a problem," the captain answered with a smile, "I'll inform Command; just send the new member's name, and I'm sure they'll accept. Things are so chaotic now that they would probably readily agree to anything. I'm Captain Matthews, the ringleader of this particular circus. Nice to meet you all."

"Nice to meet you too sir," Rebecca responded, "and I'm Captain Morrison. Exactly why is my squadron being kept here?"

"Ah, well," Captain Matthews answered with a sigh, "quite simply, we have no Marines onboard; most of our guys were killed in battles on the ground, so you're supplementing for our lack of ground deployable manpower. Also, our best helmsman was killed in a fleet engagement a week ago, when this ship and two others went head to head with the Liodammian flagship. We hear you've got quite the pilot in your squadron, fully rated on pretty much everything according to his dossier. He might be able to serve quite proficiently in a dual-role, if you would of course agree to lend him to us. I believe his name was Benjamin Powell."

Ignoring the surprised look on his sister's face, Ben stepped forward and saluted the captain.

"That would be me, sir." Ben stood at full attention in front of the captain.

"At ease, Ben," Captain Matthews said with a grin, "I hear you're quite the pilot and soldier. Rumors have been going around about you; a pilot of a shuttlecraft claims to have seen you turn into some kind of God and destroy a Liodammian cruiser. Heh. I guess people mistake Warrior abilities for the supernatural, eh?"

Ben became slightly nervous at that, wondering exactly what effect his little bit of revenge would have on him. He quickly pushed that thought aside, asking the thing he had been wondering about since Luna Yards had come into view.

"Sir, exactly how did Luna Yards escape destruction during the invasion?"