The deck plates lurched beneath Kev'cect's many feet. Yet another Torpedo must have struck his heavy cruiser, the Challenger. The impact and detonation of it's powerful warhead blasted the Challenger sideways by at least a meter, judging from the way he was thrown against the restraints in his chair. His abdomen was strapped to the chair, and he was firmly supported by his eight legs, planted in a wide stance on both sides of the specially designed seat. His upper torso wasn't so lucky, and he struck his elbow against the console he was stationed at. Tentatively flexing his arm and five fingers, he discovered to his relief that everything was still in working order in spite of the needles of pain shooting up his arm. For the tenth time that hour, he cursed the fact that his security team wasn't patched in to any of the Challenger's command intercom links that would have enabled him to tell how badly the ship was wounded.

He had a different, but far less useful function in this battle. This fight would be won or lost by Spacers, as the spaceship crews called themselves. He could do nothing but wait in the eerie silence broken only by those few sounds loud enough to be transmitted into his space suit through the floor. His training was in hand to hand combat, small arms, support weapons, zero-G boarding operations, demolitions, and planetary assaults. He had no training in maneuvering a starship or firing the huge weapon batteries that would either win or lose them this battle. In a way, his job was the toughest of all. He had to sit at his console and wait while his fate was decided by beings he'd rarely even spoken to except while performing his job. A glance at his chronometer told him that it was time for the security status report. Three seconds later, his helmet headset came alive with a short burst of static, "Security teams report in. Station one, report."

Each team was stationed at a console by one of the Challenger's main airlocks or at the entrance to the Bridge. This was a standard United Planetary Federation Spacefleet procedure since the Second Sathar War. Like most of the Vrusk race, Kev'cect was dedicated and waited patiently for his airlock status to be requested. He could tell that the security chief, a human male named Henin, was handling the stress well. His voice betrayed no nervousness as he continued through the list of security stations. At Station three, he received no reply to his request for a report.

"Station three, respond!"

The silence hung in the air for an uncomfortably long time. Kev'cect knew Station three was the console by the Airlock on Deck 9, just two decks above his own position. He knew the human crew members manning that station, and fervently hoped that only the Intercom lines were down and not the station itself. When he heard, "No response, Station four, report." over his headset, it startled him. Hastily recovering, he replied, "Station four, all secure." He half heard station five report in the same, and dreaded the next ten minutes that would be spent once again in silence. To his surprise though, he heard Lieutenant Henin say, "I've just received a status report from Captain Galvin. We've defeated one of the destroyers after us, and the second has broken off pursuit. In about thirty minutes, the ship will be repressurized, and we can all get out of these damned spacesuits. Until then, remain at your posts and we'll continue the security checks by the book."

"Sir, any word about casualties yet?" Kev'cect tried to place the voice, but the static was so thick on the com line that he could only narrow it down as belonging to one of the two Dralasites in the security team. Whoever said it, Lieutenant Henin would likely be angry at the breech of procedure and would reprimand the culprit when this was over. Now he merely replied, "Not known at this time, but decks one, nine, and twelve, were severely damaged and four members of the damage control team were lost in the last explosion. I'll let you know when I hear anything about Station three." Kev'cect found it significant that Lieutenant Henin had said, "about" instead of "from" the security station. From the security command center, Lieutenant Henin had access to a wealth of data from external cameras and skin sensors. Although Kev'cect trusted his commanding officer to be truthful in what he said, what was omitted worried him.

After what seemed an eternity, the Challenger's undamaged decks were pressurized. After the engineers inspected the decks and seals, Kev'cect and all other crewmembers not repairing the damaged sections of the hull finally removed their space suits. Soon after, the damage report was relayed to the crew. The hull of the Challenger was severely damaged in four places, the Electron Battery was destroyed, as was the Rocket Battery and Disrupter Beam Cannon. The worst part of the report was the casualty list. Both of the security personnel were, as feared, dead. A total of eighteen other crewmembers were either killed outright by incoming fire, or blown through the hull of the ship to be left behind as the Challenger continued it's retreat toward Federation space.

Kev'cect felt a twinge of guilt at leaving those crew to either die in space as the air in their suits ran out, or to be picked up by the Sathar. The worm like creatures were known to be brutal with prisoners of war. It was vital that the Challenger not turn back though. The pursuing Sathar warcraft would catch the ship and, this time, there would be no survivors at all. The unexpected bounty of information obtained in this system had to be brought back to the Frontier or the lives already sacrificed would be wasted.

When the Challenger jumped into this system, F.S. 37 on the stellar navigation charts, it appeared to be uninhabited. No radar or other transmissions were picked up during the five day trip inbound to the system's only planet. It appeared no different from the other three systems the Challenger had jumped to during this reconnaissance mission. When one of the probes was launched toward the planet , it must have set off some form of proximity alarm. It was intercepted by a small Sathar fighter and destroyed soon after it entered the atmosphere of the world.

Before transmission from the probe was lost, it managed to get close enough to catch a Sathar I.M.P.P. unit on video. I.M.P.P.s, or Independent Mineral Processing Plants, were first encountered in system F.S. 30. A Frontier Expeditionary Force found a network of ten I.M.P.P.s on the surface of an ice covered world dubbed "Snowball". This network had been in operation for ten years or more, and had mined enough materials to produce eight heavy cruisers and assault carriers as well as at least twenty fighters. The planet was liberated from the Sathar, and the I.M.P.P.s were destroyed by the UPF just prior to the Second Sathar War. The production from those plants had almost tipped the balance of power irrevocably toward the Sathar armada.

Now a second I.M.P.P. network had been found. Captain Galvin explained that these plants must also be eliminated or the next battle would be more costly in men and ships. The Challenger approached the planet to bombard the plants from orbit, but was attacked by two Sathar Destroyers and a heavy cruiser before it could close to firing range. The enemy ships had been hiding on the far side of the planet. Captain Galvin had managed to outmaneuver the opposing heavy cruiser, but the two destroyers continued to assault the beleaguered ship during it's outbound journey.

Now the Challenger was free of pursuit and days away from jumping back to Federation space. Soon, however, the Federation must return with enough forces to destroy the installation and defending forces. Kev'cect hoped his ship would be returning with the assault force. No member of the crew would object to helping to obliterate this Sathar outpost, avenging those who wouldn't be returning with the Challenger on this trip.

Ssrannqs swiveled his command couch toward the door when he heard his assistant enter.

"The enemy cruiser is still accelerating away from the planet and has disabled the Insolence and badly damaged the Furious" , the officer reported soberly, "Casualties are estimated at..."

"I do not care about the casualties." Ssrannqs interrupted, "All I need to know is if our scout has intercepted their subspace messages as I ordered."

Consulting the datapad in his fore-tentacle, Xenss replied hesitantly, "Yes... but it will take several months to crack the encryption code."

"That will not be necessary, Xenss. I have already obtained the cipher. Have the communications technicians feed the message into the base computer."

Xenss' four pupils dilated in surprise. "Then you already knew that cruiser would enter this system from the last communication we intercepted. Why didn't you bring in reinforcements before it arrived? We could have eliminated the ship before it could escape or send a message to the Federation. Now that they know of the forces we've assembled here, the offensive must be called off."

Ssannqs eyed his inferior contemptuously. "That kind of thinking is what allowed our forces to be beaten back in the last conflict. I wanted that cruiser to escape. They know only what I allowed them to see. They have no idea that this is our forward outpost or of the supplies we've gathered here. I only let them see our production facilities, not supplies or troop ships. They will inevitably send a strike team to destroy the production facilities I let their probe find. When they do, the assault armada will be assembled here, and we will crush the forces they send. Then we will strike right into the heart of the Federation, and they won't have enough ships or troops to stop us!

"You may go now, Xenss." As the door slid open and Xenss slithered toward the exit, Ssannqs added, "Ensure our forces are ready in four days. It should take at least twenty before the UPF can mount a strike against us. I want our fleet in place and in prepared ambush points well ahead of that time."

Xenss slithered out the door with an obligatory, 'Yes commander.' He barely heard the threat that followed as the door began to hiss shut. "You know, there is only one price for failure."

After he had gone, Ssannqs studied the star chart once more. His forces were one jump from the Zebulon system. In twenty-four days after leaving this system, the fleet could be assaulting the Prenglar system, with it's UPF spacefleet base and the largest spacecraft construction and repair station the UPF possessed. The systems the UPF called Truane's star and Dixon's star would be assaulted quickly or bypassed if they proved to be difficult to take in a minimal period of time. This time, the Sathar Armada would destroy these pitiful creatures once and for all.

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