Chapter 2 - Plea

The remaining asteroids had been knocked off course, leaving behind a mass of debris. Two ships had been badly damaged and one lost. The Station had suffered a single hit when it's shields failed, but the communications were back online so calls were going back and forth.
Panicked voices and shouts echoed through the damaged docking bay. Blacktip weaved his way through the debris, knowing exactly who he was looking for and where to find her.

A loose cable hung in front of the door, sparking wildly. Blacktip quickly and carefully knocked it out of the way and darted into the room before it swung back.
''Rochalle?'' He called into the dark room.
''I'm over here.'' Grunted a soft voice.
Blacktip made his way across the small cargo bay and into a cubby hole dimly lit by a red security light.
'' 'Chelle, are you alirght?'' He asked worridly as he knelt next to her, mentally kicking himself for asking such a stupid question.
''Yeah, I'm fine. We both are.'' She replied, placing a webbed hand on her swollen stomach. ''Now go and help your crew. I can handle myself.''
He brushed a sticky red tendril of hair away from her face and helped her up.


''Emergency power cells back online.'' Kieron's voice said over the com.
''Let's get the hell out of here then.'' JD said.
''BNo thanks then?''
Jd stayed silent.
''Thought not.'' Kieron finished and the com clicked off.
''Stop pacing, you're making me dizzy.'' Spirit said, looking up from her console.
''We haven't been able to contact base for over two hours now. What the frack's wrong?'' He grunted angrily.

Spirit was about to say something when a smooth male voice came down from the cockpit.
''Technical difficulties.'' Chester said. ''It's all comming back online now, but it appears that side mission may have cost us.''
''How d'you mean?'' The Demon snapped.
''The station's been hit by an asteroid shower. Murc's saying it was an attack.'' Chester replied, trying to keep his cool as he peeked through the squar hatch and down into the bridge.
''By who?''
Chester shrugged. The officer Shadow spoke to said it was the T'raykes, but we won't know more until we get back.
''Then get us back as quick as possible.'' JD said and flopped back into his chair.


General Newark sat at his desk, sifting through the data that had been sent to him as soon as the communications went back online. The data mainly consisted of damage reports from each deck on the Station. He'd just finished reading Station Captain Murc's report containing the all together amount of damage, how long it would take to repair and also his own reasons for the possible sudden attack. Newark rubbed the bridge of his nose and took a sip of his water, which had gone warm in the intervening hours.

His desk comp bleeped again, signalling a new data file. He sighed heavily and opened it. The Stalkers team had been planetside now for two hours and were busying themselvse with what ever repair work they could do. JD, the Stalker's captain had quickly compiled his data and sent it as soon as he could. The report included why the specialist team had been delayed; they'd picked up a distress signal from a space freighter and found that it had been stolen, the original crew slaughtered. The pirate's plan was to lure in another ship and capture it. A fire fight had broken out and JD and his team mates had won. The details of the freighter had been taken so Newark made a note to inform the lost ship's company of it's destruction.

There was no evidence in any of the data that someone in the Shadow Stalkers had any idea this attack was comming and for the next couple of months the base was on high alert, using every available resource to monitor the T'rayke's home system closely for any sign of another attack. The silence made everyone uneasy. No inhabited system should be so quiet. Newark thought as he studied the readings.

Everything was quiet until captain Murc received a recorded vid from the T'raykes. Everyone on the bridge watched it on the main viewer in silent shock.
''They're asking us for help...?'' Murc said, feeling slightly amused by the plee.
Everyone remained quiet.
''Send it to the general. He needs to know about this immediately.'' He added.


''They have destroyed a large number of our forces. Our cities have been reduced to smoking debris and what little man power we do have left isn't enough to stop them. What they have on their side is.. Is...'' The dishevelled Wasp sighed, an air of defeat about him. ''We don't have the resources to bring it down. Please, help us!'' He said hurridly and the screen flickered angrily at an explosion in the back ground before going blank.
''Bring it down...?'' The old Bear murmered to himself.
He opened a com line and summoned Captains Murc, JD and Blacktip to his planetside office for a meeting. The only way to handle this, he thought to himself as the com clicked off, is to answer their call. The state of the Wasp and the explosions caught on the vid were enough to beat ack any rising suspicion of a trap. But he still wasn't sure.

Blacktip, JD and Murc filed into Newark's office, stood beside each other and saluted. The general motioned for them to sit down, and they did so, pulling up a leather chair each and sat in silence, waiting for the Bear to start.

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