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Prologue

Haven Colony 17.08.2258

109 Piscium in the constellation of Pisces, home to a colony the inhabitants callHaven, a G class star, slightly large the Sol with eight planets six rocky and two gas

giants. Haven is 0.97 AU from the star and is orbited by two moons giving the oceanstides great variation in height, the sea life is varied and rich and the land is equallyvaried with life and has proved viable to grow genetically engineered plants. Haven isdesignated as a farming world, there to support future colonies on barren worlds, settledfive years ago the colony can now support itself, the population is fairly low but moreimmigrants arrive on a monthly basis, those looking for a fresh start on a new and cleanworld. The colony Hub is the centre of government and communications and isresponsible for the colonies development, once the colony reaches a reasonable size andbecomes self sustaining, control is passed from the appointed governor to and electedcouncil, Haven has reached this point and the first elections will be held in three weeks.The council runs in parallel with the governor for six months to ensure a smoothtransition after that the council takes over.

A new arrival to the orbit of Haven is the cargo vessel SS Afterglow converted tocarry both colonists and cargo she is one of the ships that regularly visits Haven and hernearby sister colonies of Primus and Clipper. The Afterglow had arrived three days agoand is in process of taking the colonists out of suspension and shuttling them and cargodown to the rudimentary downport. On the command deck her captain monitored themovements with increasing irritation, dealing with colonists always made him grumpy.Schedules meant nothing to them they treat his ship like a cruise liner and constantlycomplain about anything and everything and now they were officially late the Afterglow should be breaking orbit and heading home to Sol.

How long? said the Captain resigning himself to the inevitable. Sorry sir, it'll be another eight hours at least, we still have two hundred colonists

and forty tonnes of cargo to transfer. The next shuttle is due to leave in twenty minutesand we are only managing a rate of one shuttle an hour. said Greg Barstock the chief payload master, always the same with colonists.

I know, Chief. The Captain made a note in his log stating their reasons why the Afterglow was behind schedule. Do your best, we'll try and make up the time on theway back.

Aye, skipper, said Barstock and headed back to the cargo deck.The captain's name was Azim, he claimed to be descended from the rulers of old

Morocco back on Earth, his skin was light brown and his hair was very short. He had joined the Star Freight Company at fifteen and had worked his way up to command hisown ship, he was a highly respected captain, but , he preferred to work with cargo notcolonists. The current contract Star Feight had with the Federation government was tomove both people and cargo to the three start up colonies. Azim resigned himself to thedelay and turned his attention to more pressing matters.

Afterglow Cargo Deck

On the cargo deck it seemed to Greg that not much had changed, there was stilla group of colonists milling round while the cargo pallets were loaded onto the shuttle. Inthe group was Jack Grey and his family, his wife and three children, Jack was an exmarine and very powerfully built, he kept his hair short and even dressed in a coverall hestill looked smart, his wife, Jane, was a head shorter than Jack, her long black hair tiedat the back to keep it out of her face, she currently had her hands full trying to keepthere three teenage children, Beth, Fred and Ashley in line. Fred bumped into a tallwoman as Ashley started to chase him again, Jane scolded both children and turned to

the woman to apologise.


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Sorry, sorry, will you two behave and stand over there next to your farther anddon't move. Jane turned back to the woman and said, sorry about that they're bored!

Don't worry, the woman replied no harm done. Jane said Jane proffering her hand to the woman. Sarah, Sarah Wishart. She replied. Jane Grey, that's my husband, Jack. Said Jane pointing in her husband's

direction. And the children Beth, Fred and Ashley. What brings you to Haven? Sorrydon't mean to be nosy.

That's okay, I'm a palaeontologist I'm here to study the planet's history, seeinghow life evolved here, and you?

My husband is the new head of security for the Downport, we decided to movehere early to get settled before he needed to start work properly.

Are you staying at the colony Hub? Yes, for the time being, the house units are suppose to be on the ship once we

get them we can put up our own place, we have a bit of land. Jack, meanwhile, had one hand on Ashley and Fred's shoulders, keeping them

from moving. The man opposite him smiled and said. You got your hands full there!

Jack smiled and took in the mans appearance, he was late thirties, dark skin andslim build. But, what jack noticed was the implant connectors just behind his right ear.

I noticed your implants, Navy? Said Jack. The names Jack, by the way. The man put his hand to his ear and and brushed the connectors with his fingers

in a subconscious way. Bit of a give away, he said. Yes, comms specialist, working for a private firm

now, here to help with the install of the FTL comms relay, Tunde is my name, nice tomeet you Jack.

Greg approached the group, the cargo pallets had loaded, now it was time toboard the passengers.

Okay folks, time to board the shuttle. Again to Greg irritation there was much milling as people collected belongs and

organised themselves, but finally the last person was in the shuttle.

Afterglow Bridge

Back on the bridge, the duty officer was studying the sensor display, somethingodd was happening. About ten kilometres off the port bow there was an energy build up,that looked like a jump point forming.

Skipper? He said. What's up? said Azim still looking at screens trying to determine the best way to

make up time on the way back to Sol. Sensor shows a jump point starting to form, about ten klicks off the port bow.

Azim looked up. This close to the planet, that's crazy. Azim brought up the sensor display to his screen. Sure enough an energy buildup, designated by the computer as a forming jump point showed on the screen.

Get on to Haven control and tell them some damn fool is trying to open a jumppoint way to close to the planet and bring the main engines online, we may need tomanoeuvre in a hurry! Azim hooked into the ship wide comm system and said. Allpersonnel to duty stations, I say again, all personnel to duty stations. Azim switch thecomms to Greg's personal communicator. Greg, is that shuttle away yet?

There was a small delay, the Greg's voice filled the bridge. Just leaving now, skipper. Then the proximity alarm sounded followed by the computer announcing

Proximity alert! Proximity alert! Jump point has formed ten klicks off our port bow! Said the duty officer.Two slender arms appeared from the jump point, the swirling mass of energy that

forms the gateway between normal space and jump space. As the ship slid into normal


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space the shape became more apparent. The vessel was H shaped, the long nacelleslinked by the large main section positioned towards the back of the arms. As the shipcleared the jump point smaller craft began launching from its port side, these craftaltered their heading and came towards the Afterglow. The Captain recovered from hisshock first.

Damn, what is that thing, computer? Configuration unknown... Warning missile launch! Warning missile launch!

Activating defence grid! Five missiles inbound! The defence grid was a token gesture, the ships shields could not hope to stop

one missile, let alone five of them. Tiny pinpoints of light could be seen around the frontof the ship and five new contacts appeared on the sensor display all moving fast, headedtowards the Afterglow . The rest of the bridge crew arrived and took there seats.

Shields up! Reported the duty officer. Unidentified ship, this is the SS Afterglow , a commercial freighter, check your fire, we are a civilian ship, said the dutyofficer now trying to contact the attacking ship.

Computer, how long to impact? Said the captain. One minute thirty three seconds to impact. Replied the computer.

Azim activated the ship wide comms. This is the captain, we are under attack by

unknown forces, missiles are inbound, brace for impact! Then, helm, main engine burn,break orbit and get us moving!

Aye, sir replied the helmsman.The main engines fired and the Afterglow started to break orbit, the four tail

pipes glowing white. Spinning up jump engines, reported the navigator. Ten minutes Decoys deploying, reported the duty officer. Sixty seconds to impact. Reported the computer.

Shuttle 002

The shuttle cleared the bay as the proximity alarms sounded on the Afterglow and headed for the surface. The distance form the ship increased as the situationbecame clearer the pilot decided to get the shuttle on the ground as soon as possible.The pilot announced the situation to the passengers.

Folks, make sure you're secured, we have trouble up here and Im going to getus on the ground as quickly as it can.

With that he started to adjust his flight path, then called Haven control. Haven control, shuttle zero zero two from Afterglow, over. Shuttle zero zero two, read you, over.

Due to situation am diverting to emergency LZ using approach plan C, confirmclear to proceed, over.

Roger zero zero two, understood, your path is clear, Haven out.

The Bunker

The bunker, as it was called, was the underground Haven Control Centre, fromthe bunker all space and interface traffic could be controlled plus the newly installed, butas yet untested, ground based particle cannon. The room was square with sixteen largescreens on one wall, two screens bigger than the others sat side by side in the centre,and three rows of semi-circular desks with the control consoles arranged in front of thescreens. At the back raised slightly above the others was supervisors station. This stationcould view the contents of the other consoles and the supervisor could talk to eachoperator or all of them at any time. Since this was still very new there were only twocontrollers and a supervisor at there stations plus three technicians from the team thatinstalled the particle cannon. The left hand large screen displayed the video feed fromone on the control satellites, on the right hand screen was the tactical display supplied


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by the sensor net. One of the smaller screens on the left hand side showed the particlecannon battery, which was located forty kilometres from the colony hub, on top of a hill.

The tactical display showed the positions of the jump point and the hostile vesselplus what looked like fighters and the missiles. The Afterglow was disparately trying toaccelerate and break orbit, but the missiles tracked her movement.

Forty seconds to impact. reported one of the controllers. The Afterglow haslaunched decoys, they've just gone active!

Looks like the fighters are going after the satellites. reported the other, wehave visual on the fighters, on screen now.

The fighters looked like small versions of the larger craft that had launched them,H shaped with what looked like the cockpit located slightly higher and between thenacelles. The group of six fighters broke up into three groups of two and headed indifferent directions.

Thirty seconds to impact. reported the first controller. Has that shuttle entered the atmosphere yet? Asked the supervisor. Just doing so now, he should be on the ground in twenty minutes. Uh oh, another ship is coming through the jump point, I have no idea how they

are holding that thing open! Said the second controller.

The supervisor brought up the tactical display on his screen, another three shipscame through the jump point. The computer reported that the configuration was similarbut they where smaller vessels, there tonnage equivalent to a navy destroyer while thefirst ships tonnage was similar to a navy heavy cruiser.

Twenty seconds to impact, missile altering course, going for a decoy. Both large displays suddenly turned white, the left display then just showed static

the satellite having been destroyed in the explosion, the right hand tactical display slowlystarted to clear.

Nuclear detonation! They're firing nukes! said the first controller, his voiceraising an octave.

The supervisor, Commander Reinhardt, directed his attention to the techniciansworking on the particle cannon, they were staring at the now clear tactical display.

Gentlemen, now would be a good time to have that thing working. The technicians went back to the console, one looked at the commander and said. Should have it for you in ten minutes. I don't think we have ten minutes. replied the commander, then turning to the

comm unit he punched in the code for the Security Centre at the Downport, after a shortdelay a voice said Sir.

Lieutenant, we are under attack by unknown hostile forces, I think they'll bepaying you a visit shortly, on my authority I want you to disperse your unit.

But sir, what about the Downport? I don't think your twelve marines will make a difference to this fight, they'll be

more use gathering information for the relief forces when and if they arrive. Very good sir, Ill put plan sigma into operation immediately.

Next Commander Reinhardt entered to code for the colony hub there was a delaybefore a voice announced. Governors office. This is Commander Reinhardt, I need to speak with the governor.

Afterglow - Bridge

On the Afterglow the sensor screens came back to life, but instead of five missilestracking them only two were left. The ship was gathering speed but the remainingmissiles were still closing fast.

Rad shield holding, that was a high yield nuke! said the duty officer. Ten seconds to impact. reported the helm. Decoys? asked the captain. None left. Replied the duty officer.


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Five.. Four.. Three.. Two.. One.. The first missile hit the Afterglow, the ship shuddered under the impact and a

great hole opened in the side and flames billowed into space as the air rushed out of theship.

Shields have failed. reported the duty officer. It wasn't a nuke! The second missile struck home and detonated inside the ship, which started to

rip itself apart, then the fusion reactor blew and the ship was consumed by a blindingwhite fireball then dimmed leaving debris impacting on the upper atmosphere of Haven.

The Bunker

They've got the Afterglow! Shouted a controller. The jump point is now closing, that last ship through is a different configuration

to the others. Reported the second controller. I bet that's a troop transport. Said the Commander, again he turned to the

particle cannon technicians. Gentlemen, any progress? Five minutes, the weapon is charging now, but..

But, what? The cannon should have it's own power source, that has not been installed yet

so we're taking power from the colony grid. Which means? Err.. Recharge rates are slower and there isn't enough power to activate the

shield system. So, your telling me we've got one shot maybe two, then these bastards will level

the cannon emplacement? Great.. Said Reinhardt. Two new contacts, high altitude, approaching fast, track puts them on course for

the downport.. ETA twenty minutes reported the first controller. Probably those fighters, if they're not going to pound the place from orbit it looks

like they want it intact. Activate the Gatekeepers, warn the Marines.. What are the those

ships doing? The tactical display showed the ships altering formation, the computer hadassigned each an identifier, the largest warship was Delta One, the four smaller warshipsas Delta Two through Five and the transport as Delta Six. Delta's Two and Three weremanoeuvring to enter a low orbit while the others held station, two fighters designatedKilo One and Two had entered the atmosphere and a separate display now showed theretrack relative to the downport, the remaining four fighters, designated Kilo Three to Sixwhere in orbit destroying satellites.

Two new contacts, Delta Seven and Delta Eight, look like smaller craft departingthe transport. Said the first controller.

Downport Security BuildingFour green military open top Jeeps sat outside the security building, all the

vehicles towed trailers full of survival equipment, weapons and ammunition. The Jeepshad wheels instead of using anti grav technology as less power was need, the enginesran on hydrogen fuel and all the Jeeps carried a water processor, as long as there wasaccess to water the Jeeps would never run out of fuel. The Jeeps were also capable of recharging the power packs used by the gauss weapons, all in all with there low powersignature they were ideal vehicles for Plan Sigma. Plan Sigma was quite simple in theevent of an attack where local forces were significantly outnumbered the elements wereto disperse and act as reconnaissance force gathering data to be passed on to a relief force, contact with enemy forces was to be avoided at all costs.

Lieutenant Mills stood next to the lead Jeep, hands on hips talking to SargentMabutto, the squad leader. Mills was new to this outfit having only arrived four weeksago as a replacement, the previous Lieutenant having been killed in a vehicle accident.


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Mills was not only new to the outfit but new to the Marines, this was her first posting.She was a head shorter than Mabutto but already had a reputation as a hard taskmaster, she carried the same loads and always lead the squad out on there morningruns. She wore the standard kit, Helmet with integrated thermal/infra red monocle andcommunicator, chameleon wear battle fatigues that adjusted there colour and patterns tothere surroundings. The harness had pockets for power clips and ammunition plus handgrenades, each Marine carried four and finally the M1165 Gauss Assault Rifle. Using theinterface nodes in her gloves the weapons sighting system could be slaved to thehelmet's monocle. Mabutto was dressed in a similar fashion, his Assault Rifle also carriedan under slung grenade launcher and slung on his back was a Gauss Shotgun, somethinghe liked to keep handy for close encounters. His skin was jet black and he had apowerful build honed by his fifteen years in the Marines. He'd seen officers come and go,but, so far, was impressed with Mills. The previous guy had been a complete liability, wholike to drink to much, and who happened to be drunk when he drove a Jeep into a ditchat high speed.

Mills had a hard copy map spread out on the bonnet on the Jeep and both her andMabutto where studying it intently, he placed his finger on an area about two hundredkilometres north of the downport.

This is the place we've seen, there's plenty of water and a cave big enough forthe Jeeps and us, we then just need to find some OP's closer to here. Said Mabutto.

Okay, looks good, you lead the way, Ill take the tail. Said Mills folding the map. Sir! Mill's comm unit crackled into life. What's Up Marine? The downport defence grid just went active, the Bunker is reporting inbound

contacts, twenty minutes out. Okay, the bastards are on there way, lets move. Mills slapped Mabutto on the

shoulder to send him on his way and he jumped into the lead Jeep, Mills climbed into thefront seat of the last Jeep and the small convoy sped away.

The Bunker

One on the particle cannon technicians, a tall thin man with medium length wavyhair, had taken a seat at the operators console. An optic lead came from the console toplug into the interface connector just behind his right ear. He was now in full control of the particle cannon. The target designated as Delta Two was now in range, power chargewas reading full, he could feel the minor adjustments to keep the cannon on target.

Ninety nine percent firing solution on Delta Two, eighty four percent on DeltaThree, solution is firming up, cannon charged and ready to fire.

Hold. Said Commander Reinhardt his comm choosing that moment to comealive with the Colony Governor's voice.Yes Governor.

What's happening? Said the governor a note of panic in his voice.

Sir, we are under attack by unknown hostile forces, the freighter Afterglow hasbeen destroyed, two vessels are assuming a low orbit, we think they intend to conductan orbital ground strike and what we believe are two fighters are currently inbound tothe downport ETA 15 minutes. Also, it looks like two troop transports have justlaunched.

What do we do? Again the panic. Sir, gather your staff and head down to the basement, we'll not be able to hold

them off so when there ground troops arrive do not offer an resistance. What about the Marines, send them to protect us! Demanded the Governor. Sir, the Marines have there own job to do, just do as I say, Reinhardt out. Said

the Commander barely able to contain the irritation in is voice. Delta Two firing... Delta Three firing! Reported the first controller. Not energy

weapons.. Kinetics?


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Confirmed, they must be using mass drivers, Im tracking four projectiles, massaround a tonne, speed Mach 3 and increasing, target... It's the downport, feeding newdata to the Gatekeepers.

Downport

The Gatekeeper is an area defence weapon, essentially a thirty millimetre gaussauto-cannon designed to have a high rate of fire to intercept missiles or low flying craft.The three installed at the downport had been activated with complete autonomouscontrol, anything entering the downport's airspace would be considered hostile. Theycurrently took tracking input from the bunker, there own integrated sensors remained inpassive mode. All three barrels tracked the expected paths the raiders would take, ABattery tracked Kilo One while B Battery tracked Kilo Two, C Battery was set to engagewhatever made it past.

The downport was by necessity a large wide open space, covering about tensquare kilometres, there was one large hard standing landing pad there would beenough room for another five. The admin, security and passenger terminal were located

on the northern side of the downport, all the building were temporary prefabricated unitsthe more permanent structures wouldn't be built until the space traffic significantlyincreased. The maintenance sheds and fuelling tanks were located on the south side,again these were temporary prefab buildings. Two Gatekeepers were located on theeastern perimeter while the third was on the western edge, there should have been afourth but it was damaged in transit and a replacement still had not arrived, constructionof the downport planetary defence gun had started, the beginnings of the tower were inthe south east corner.

The path of the kinetic projectiles could be seen as they descended through theatmosphere, the air around them been energised into a plasma state and leaving a fierytrail. The Gatekeepers tracked there new targets and opened fire when they were inrange, but they werent designed to intercept these sorts of weapons. There fire had

very little effect. The first kinetic struck the passenger terminal producing an explosionequivalent of ten tons of TNT, as the shock wave expanded the prefabricated buildingsflew apart, debris flying across the open ground, the other projectiles took out theGatekeepers destroying there mounts and rendering the weapons useless. The lastprojectile hit the fuel tanks, the exploding hydrogen adding to the ferocity of the attackthat levelled the maintenance buildings, again spreading debris everywhere. Smoke anddust filled the air and more debris rained down around the centre of the detonation. Twominutes later the alien fighters overflew the downport adding there own weapons fire tothe general destruction.

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