"Good work on taking out the Eternal, Commander," came General Brakon's voice over James' comm. Brakon was the Five-Star heroic general of Olympus and a well-known adversary of the Zeroth. He had single-handedly defeated an entire fleet of twenty Zeroth Battle Cruisers only four months ago around Mars. Without the interception of his Alpha Aurora, outfitted with a 50-kiloton nuclear warhead, the fleet would have possibly overun Ceres, the target at that time.

"Now that you're back on-station, let's go over a few of the basics...shall we?"

"Whatever," Rick replied, ducking futher behind the crate as Zeroth plasma rounds soared over his head. "You're not gonna baby-sit me are ya?"

"Not at all," Brakon said, laughing a little over the comm. "Make sure you get over to your co-pilot, Nathan. The lad and his team have been pinned down on the far side of the docks, just ahead of your position. I'm relaying some heavy firepower to you now, via the teleporter module behind your E.A."

There was a loud zap behind Rick and he pulled himself around on the floor to look past the underbelly of his Aurora and at the teleporter terminal behind it. The things were new and still in their development process, but they were useful, nonetheless. What hadn't been there only a few seconds ago, was now a fully-automatic STS Ballistic Launcher and a full stash of rockets to go along with it. The shoulder-to-surface rocket launcher is the latest of its kind. It's able to fire up to six rounds of miniature warheads before having to reload the rocket pack. The STS was originally designed to do as its name suggests; fire at surface targets. But recent design modifications has given it some air-lock capabilities allowing it to fire at aircraft as well; as long as it is within a short range. For long-ranged anti-air, the soldier should use the SAM-44 Personal Launcher. For a direct assualt from Zeroth transports, Rick would have preferred the later, but since the Zeroth have already landed, he would just have to deal with the STS.

Rick glanced left, then right, then left one more time before jumping up to dash underneath the E.A. As he approached the module, he kicked sideways to force his body into a slide. His right foot touched the platform of the teleportation module and he cautiously leaned forward to grab the STS and the backpack of ammunition. Plasma rounds nearly nailed him on all sides if it hadn't been for his quick response to lay back after grabbing the weapon and ammo.

"Nicely done," Braken commented. "Now get over there and take care of those transports. Those mounted cannons are using suppression fire on our troops."

"I thought you wanted me to get Nathan and his team out of that hole!" Rick often wondered how organized the Olympian Regular Army really is. They always seemed like the rambo type to him. Although, he did admire their swift action and quick retaliation techniques.

"The only cat-walk you can take to get to him is the one that runs right past those Zeroth transports. They're the ones pinning our troops and preventing us from getting these bastard Zeroth out of our station. Take 'em out!"

Even though Braken was right, he didn't appreciate the barking of orders. Rick was the damn Supreme Commander of the LSF. He should be leading his men and not taking orders from another military branch. Rick decided to let it slide just this once and got up to dash over to the cat-walk, ducking low along the way to avoid being hit by a plasma round...or even friendly fire.

__________________