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“Start sending them prepared packages.” He said, and then turned to his first officer. “Are the marines safely aboard?” He asked.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Good, disconnect us from the station, and set a course away from our ships, we must appear as if we are trying to escape.” Captain Smith said. A minute later they were disconnected from the station, and heading away from the Earth, Viking and Dauntless following. So far everything was going according to plan.

“Captain, we are detecting another ship on an intercept course!” Sensor officer yelled.

“What? Where is it coming from?” Captain asked. The ships sensors looked for a heat signature that was given by spaceships drives, it worked in tandem with their visual sensors to then detect the ships trajectory.

“It just came from around the planet Captain. The sensor readings match that of an Olympus drive, but we can’t match the visual. And Captain, its coming fast, a lot faster than anything we thought Olympus had.” The sensor officer said his voice wavering slightly. Captain Smith, checked the stats of the new ship and was amazed. The ship was traveling at least four times their max speed, and it was slowing down. They could go from the Earth to the moon in a hour or two if they wanted, then it dawned on Captain Smith that they must have come from there. He asked for a visual of the ship, and a few moments the big screen on the front wall showed the new ship, at first it was blurry but quickly the image focused and they could see the ship speed towards them. The ship had the same general shape as Bismarck, but it didn’t have any sharp angles, its corners were all rounded, soft. There were things mounted on top of the ship, it took Smith a moment to realize what they were.

“Turrets?” Captain asked without noticing that he was talking out loud.

“Captain we are getting a laser communication from that ship. Voice only.” Comms officer said.

“Patch it through.” Captain said.

“To Concordis vessel under the command of dissidents. This is Ship Master Adrian Farkas of Olympus warship Athena, shutdown your drives and prepare to be boarded. Any hostile action will result in destruction of your vessel.”

Everyone on the bridge turned towards Captain Smith with their faces pale, and he looked back at them in the same manner. A warship? Olympus isn’t supposed to have warships! And yet, there one was, racing towards them at an unimaginable speeds. He was just about to try and contact his sister ships when his Comm officer yelled out.

“Captain. The Station!” Comm officer yelled, his voice terrified.

* * *

Major Taylor was sitting back in the cargo hold of Bismarck, a part of their mission accomplished, as proved by the evidence in the palm of his hand.

“It’s really small.” He said.

“Olympus has superior technology, that little thing has the capacity to store the entirety of data created on Earth since the start of the internet age.” The man who extracted the core, Hughes said.

“Really? That’s impressive.” Taylor said. He turned the core in his hand one more time, and then stored it away in a special container they brought with them. After securing the core, he turned to Novak.

“Are we away enough from the station?” He asked, there was no need to elaborate, they both knew the reason for the question.

“Yes Major.” Novak said.

Taylor looked around his men, he sighed. “Do it.”

Novak took out a small device from his belt, there were two switches, and a red light. As he pressed one of the switches the light turned blue. He then pressed the other switch, the light flashed twice and then turned green.

“It’s done.” Novak said.

Taylor nodded, there was no need for anything else, it was their job.

* * *

“We are receiving a voice only communication from the new ship Captain.” Viking’s Comm officer said.

Captain Tucker Dawson, turned to his Comm officer.

“Play it.”

A moment later the speakers around the bridge came to life and a commanding voice boomed out.

“To Concordis vessels. This is Ship Master Adrian Farkas of Olympus warship Athena, you are in direct violation of the international law. Turn your ships around and exit Olympus space, any other action will be treated as hostile, and will be responded to as such.” The voice said.

Dawson slammed his hand on the armrest. He looked at the video of the approaching ship, provided by their visual sensors. Olympus had warships. How could have that gone unnoticed by everyone Dawson wondered. The arrogance, they weren’t even a real country. He was convinced that it was all part of Tomas Klein’s plan. He might have even goaded the politicians to attempt this move, so that he may turn out a hero. He thought that his one ship was enough to turn them away from their goals. Well he was mistaken. Dawson turned to his Comm officer intending to send a message to the other Concordis ships.

“Captain! The Cloud station just blew up.” Viking’s sensor officer yelled out.

Dawson stopped, for a moment he had forgotten about that part of the mission, he shook his head and forced himself to think clearly. His mission was to retrieve the server core. Slowly he pushed his anger aside, and tried to think clearly, he still had a mission to accomplish.

Chapter Twenty-two

Adrian Farkas looked helplessly at the screen as the Cloud station blew up, there was nothing to indicate that it was going to happen, one moment it was there, and the next it was in pieces. Pieces that were now falling down to Earth, some will burn up in the atmosphere, but others, Adrian knew would survive and crash into the planet. Everyone in the Command Center shared Adrian’s feelings at the moment, the heavy weight in their chests, the feeling of total helplessness. Adrian allowed himself and others a second more of sorrow, and then he turned to his Comm Handler.

“Comms, inform the Fleet of the situation.” He said coldly, there would be time later for sorrow for the souls that perished with the station, they had a job to do now.

“Bethany, I want tracks on movements of all three ships.” Adrian said. Bethany nodded and went to work.

“Weapons, get me targeting solutions on all three ships.” Adrian told Noah, who got to work immediately.

“Navigation, get us closer to the dissident ship, put us between it and the Concordis ships.”

“The Fleets Master Reiss is on the comms for you Ship Master.” Estevez said.

Adrian accepted the call, and immediately Laura’s face filled his screen.

“Ship Master Farkas, from this moment you have authorization to open fire on Concordis ships, try to avoid it, but if they keep ignoring your warnings, fire a warning shot. As for the dissident ship, disable them, it is now imperative that you take ship and its crew prisoner. Do you understand?” She asked grimly.

“Yes, Fleets Master.” Adrian responded.

Laura nodded and ended the call.

“Comms record a message for the Concordis ships.” Adrian said.

Estevez gave the go ahead.

“Concordis vessels, turn your ships around and leave Olympus space. This is your last warning.” Adrian said.

“Comms record another message for the fleeing ship.” Adrian said.

“Power down your drives, surrender and prepare to be boarded, you have—” Adrian looked at the estimated time it will take for the Concordis ships to intercept it. It showed 13 minutes.”-five minutes to acknowledge this message, or we will open fire.” Estevez sent the message.

“I have the tracks, Ship Master.” Bethany said. Rather than sending it to his screen she turned on the holo-desk. Image of Athena was shown in the middle, with its current course represented in a white line, the other ships were shown also, with their trajectories shown also but with a blue line, a red orb signified where Cloud station used to be, other information was shown, distances between the ships, and their speed were shown on a board that floated above the hologram constantly updated. Adrian was amazed at the amount of the information showed there, much more than his screen could show, he knew that Bethany was playing around with the holo-desk since it arrived but wasn’t aware that she was this proficient with it. He looked at the fleeing ship, it was going a lot slower than Athena’s top speed, but they had slowed down in order to not over shoot the station, Concordis ships were closer, and even though they moved slower they would reach the fleeing ship around the same time as Athena did.