Sergeant Evans sat up scowling, while around him the rest of the squad did the same. Nobody liked waking up from cold sleep in a cold room, it was too much like waking up in a morgue. Sergeant Evans looked like a twenty year old man of average heighth and build with sandy brown hair and intelligent blue eyes, and he never looked satisfied.

"Why don't they warm up the damn room before they wake us up?" complained Lance Corporal Hersnik. "We won't do much good if we're suffering from hypothermia!"

Several other marines throughout the room agreed adding in their own comments. Sergeant Evans put his feet on the frigid floor and looked at the chronometer mounted near the door. He felt the same way they did about the cold room, but he knew complaining would only make things worse for his squad.

"Team Leaders, get your men up and moving. I want everyone armed and armored by the time I get back." Evans said as he pulled on his special jumpsuit located in it's own compartment below his cold sleep capsule.

The Team leaders followed his eyes to the chronograph and Corporal Winters swore softly. The time was all wrong. They were supposed to be in cold sleep for at least another three weeks.

"SERGEANT EVANS, REPORT TO THE BRIDGE. SERGEANT EVANS REPORT TO THE BRIDGE." The ships PA announced just a little too loud.

"No shit," muttered Evans as he reached into another compartment and pulled out his utility belt and side arm. Clamping his wrist computer onto his forearm he headed for the door, leaving the rest of the squad to complain and put on their armor and equipment.

"How are you doing Karen?" Evans muttered as he walked down the corridor to the elevator.

"As well as can be expected," a voice said from his wrist comp.

"Access the ships computer and download relevant information."

"I'm a step ahead of you boss," Karen replied. "You want a quick briefing?"

Sergeant Evans debated for a couple moments. He had no doubt Captain Lee would want to brief him completely once he got to the bridge, and the Captain liked to have all the answers.

"We're almost there," Evans replied, just before the door slid open revealing the short hallway to the bridge. It was a lot warmer up here in the living portion of the ship but still there was nobody to be seen.

The door to the bridge slid open revealing the semi dark room lit up by monitors and flashing instruments. Everyone on the bridge was in full armor and at their battle stations, however everyone had their helmets off, which was a good sign. Information and a map of a solar system hung in the strategic holo unit.

"Captain Lee, Sergeant Evans reporting as ordered, Ma'am."

The Captain a small woman of oriental descent looked over at him from her console.

"Hello Sergeant. I hate to wake you up early we have a slight problem," Captain Lee began swiveling her chair to face him. Evans waited expectantly.

"We intercepted a Fleet transmission from one of their Picket Sensors in the Richmond system. It said an unidentified ship was entering the system from the direction of the frontier."

Evans nodded. Richmond was a new colony world, just recently opened for colonization by the Empire of the Rising Suns. It's only problem was it's proximity to Federation space and the unexplored Frontier, and the Federation of Terra wasn't a friendly empire.

"The colony on Richmond Four was notified and sent an insystem cutter to investigate. The next transmission we got was that the Cutter had been destroyed and the ship was now enroute toward the colony. That's all we have. We have to assume the strange ship took out the colony's relay station.

Captain Lee shook her head. "Right now it's a small colony of about fifty families. The supply ship left a little over three weeks ago. The nearest Fleet base is about three weeks away, we are only four days away and Imperial Armsman Headquarters has given us the authorization to investigate and take whatever actions we deem neccessary, that directly from General Otari on the `Sun Tzu'. As of yet the Fleet doesn't know we are enroute. It's my guess, and that of General Otari's, that whoever took out the colony's cutter isn't going to hang around too long. A week at the most. Currently the ship is on Yellow Alert so you better go suit up. I'll have a complete mission order for you within the next couple hours. Any quick question?"

Sergeant Evans could think of a million questions he wanted to ask, but he knew they would all be in the mission order. However, "any idea what size the enemy ship is, Ma'am?"

"The Picket Sensor said it's about the size of a light cruiser. No identification. That's all we've got. Anything else?" Captain Lee asked turning back to her console.

"No Ma'am."

"Carry on," the Captain said typing something into her console.

Evans glanced at the other bridge officers working at their consoles before leaving the bridge.

A new hostile alien race from beyond the frontier? Evans hoped not. They were already at war with one, the Rossilian Star Empire and it looked like The Federation was preparing for war. Both were on opposite sides of the Empire of the Rising Suns. Although the war agianst the Rossilians was going well, even Sergeant Evans knew the Empire couldn't fight two wars at once. And assuming the war against the Rossilians ended immediately, and he knew it couldn't, they still wouldn't be able to take on the Federation of Terra's millions of warships and legions. The Rossilians were a problem too. Three times they had broken peace treaties, using them only to rebuild their forces forces for another offensive, now the Empire of the Rising Suns had vowed to finish them off once and for all. It wouldn't give the Rossilians another chance to nuke defenseless planets to glowing cinders or enslave those colonies it decided to capture. The Empire of the Rising Suns would never resort to Genocide but they could utterly destroy a races ability to build warships.

However if there was another hostile alien race on the border they would have to be dealt with. It was possible it was a Federation ploy, an attempt to probe Imperial responses and technology. Evans hoped not, and in a way he hoped it was. Better an old enemy flexing muscles than another new one preparing to attack.

Of course it could be a pirate ship, but he doubted it. Pirates usually, not always, but usually piloted ships smaller than a light cruiser class, and they pretty much stuck to established space lanes.

Evans walked into the Cold Sleep Berthing area, called more affectionately The Morgue and found his people in various states of dress. Corporal Winters, his second in command looked up at him.

"What's up Sergeant," she said attaching her weapons belt to her armor. Other people noticed he had entered and started get dressed more quickly, but Sergeant Evans really didn't care since they had plenty of time. He took mental note of the laggards, they would pay later though. Nobody was really moving slow, but he knew they could be moving faster.

"An uknown ship just hit a frontier colony. The Banshee is going to investigate since we're the closest ship. We have a couple days before we get there so we're going to take the time to get ready," Sergeant Evans said reaching into his locker for his breast plate.

"A couple days?" Willis said swearing, not expecting the Sergeant to be listening to him.

"Yes, a couple days, four days to be exact, Lance Corporal Willis," Evans said fixing the big black man with a glare. Willis had been one of the slower moving ones to get his armor on.

"Why wake us up so early Sergeant?" Willis said unperturbed.

"I know only a little more than you do at the moment Lance Corporal, now why don't you get your rear in gear and get ready like I told you too."

"Aye, aye Sergeant," Willis said moving a little faster. He knew from the Sergeant's tone of voice his squad leader had noticed how slow he had been moving. Extra duty or something else unpleasant was coming his way so he decided to shut up for now.

"I guess that means our little training mission just got delayed or cancelled," said Corporal Tanaka cheerfully.

Sergeant Evans, Corporal Winters, Corporal Tanaka and Corporal Susalas sat in the small room looking at each other. Evans had just downloaded the warning order to the other's computers so they could read it at the same time as him. The rest of the squad was down in a cargo bay prepping their vehicles and heavy equipment.

"Questions, comments?" Sergeant Evans said leaning back on his bed. It was his room so he got the best seat. Everyone else had to find what was available to sit or lean on.

"That is pitifully little information," Susalas, the short, elf like alien corporal said.

"No kidding," Tanaka chimed in. "Why wake us up so early for that?"

Sergeant Evans shrugged, "So we can learn more about the colony on Richmond four. Before we enter the Richmond system I want everyone to be very familiar with it and it's wildlife and ecosystem. We'll even interface with the computer and run some simulations if the data is good enough. Besides what's wrong with waking up so early, you not getting enough beauty sleep?"

Everyone smiled, "Naw man, but it's something to do. Besides running system diagostics and stuff," Tanaka said. He was the junior Corporal and everyone knew if he wasn't on liberty he wanted to be in the middle of a fire fight.

"Well we can use the simulator for more than just Richmond Four."

"I'll go for that," Tanaka said cheerfully.

"Alright," Sergeant Evans said more seriously. "Get your teams ready for planetfall and I'll get with the Captain and set up some simulation time."

The IAS Banshee approached the Richmond system carefully using stealth instead of speed. Since the IAS Banshee was a frigate theoretically she couldn't stand against a light cruiser in a one on one fight. However she did have two advantages. The first was that she was the most advanced frigate in the Imperial Armsman Arsenal and the second was the fact she had a ghost generator, a new, ultra top secret cloaking device. If it was a Federation Cruiser they would be on equal footing, hopefully, if it was an alien vessel of some sort, anything was possible.

Everyone was manning their battle stations watching their viewers as the Banshee entered the Richmond system. The location of the light cruiser was at the moment uknown and everyone was anxious for news. Inside the stars gravity well they would have plenty of time to act, however, it was almost like water, you didn't know what was in the water until you were under the surface looking around. The Imperial frigate decelerated to the speed of a fast moving asteroid while using passive sensors and listening for the active sensors of any other ships. Sergeant Evans breathing stopped when Banshee, the ships Artificial Intelligence spoke.

"Uknown vessel detected in orbit around Richmond Four. Estimated size, three hundred thousand cubic meters displacement. Detected by eclipse. No other data avialable. Maginifying view now."

A flashing circle appeared around a small globe in orbit over the three dimensional view of Richmond four. The small globe grew and forced Richmond four out of the picture. Three hundred thousand cubic meters classified the ship as in the range of a light cruiser. The ship in the holoviewer looked more like a light cruiser though. It was globe shaped and had three externally mounted scorpions, forward firing weapons the length of the ship, however, due to their armor, only active sensors would be able to tell what type of scorpions the ships was mounting. Several other turrets dotted the hull but there was nothing to identify it immediately as a known ship, there was no doubt however that it was a warship. Everyone was silent, watching the ship that had mercilessly destroyed a system cutter. The computer was currently trying to match the configuration with a known vessel and not succeeding. It had to be either an alien or a pirate.

"Vessel is a Confirmed uknown. No matching profiles exist." Banshee reported. "Also no external markings to designate race or nationality."

Sergeant Evans swore to silently. The ship's AI would have looked at every square centimeter of the ship for any kind of writing, but this ships was sterile, which could mean anything. An alien scout ship for a warlike race or a Federation `pirate'. If it was alien they stuck to pretty traditional ship designs though.

"Aknowledged," Captain Lee said. "Engage Ghost Generator, proceed to planet at maximum speed." She turned to Evans. "I want you to get your people ready for insertion. You have six hours."

"Aye, aye ma'am," Evans said unbuckling himself and motioning the rest of his people up. Captain Lee turned back to her bridge crew as the screens suddenly went blank. They were in ghost space now where they were undetectable and in turn blind to the universe.

"Five minutes," the Captains voice said.

"Ready and waiting," Evans replied sitting in his egg shaped Air Cav. If everything was going as planned the IAS Banshee was in the planets atmosphere about a hundred kilometers from the colony and the unknown vessel was hidden by the bulk of the planet.

Evans looked over his controls hoping he had made the right decision. Everyone was in air cavs except Hersnik who would be piloting the squad Ground Hog armored personel carrier, which would be bursting with supplies for a protracted guerrilla war. Because as soon as the Armsman squad were inserted the Banshee would return to deep space and hide out, waiting and watching. It would be up to Sergeant Evans and his squad to find out more about the unknown cruiser, from the colonists if possible. It was going to be a long five minutes so he told his suit AI to play some music and relaxed.

"Break out," the Captain said and the cargo bay doors slid open and the Armsmen shot out over the planet falling rapidly toward the planet below. As soon as the last aircav exited the Banshee the mother ship disappeared. Fifteen egg shaped aircavs and one Ground Hog infantry fighting vehicle sped ground ward to disappear from view in the jungle below.

Nobody shot at them as they regrouped and formed a flying wedge heading in the direction of the colony, hidden from above by the jungle canopy as they dodged the trees below. Everything was going as planned Evans thought, watching everyone's transponder on his monitor. They had about eighty kilometers to cover before they would split up and proceed on foot. At this rate it would take them about five hours. Several times he called rally points out and everyone marked their maps. It was going to be a long five hours everyone knew. It was early morning and they had plenty of time to night fall.

Sergeant Evans crouched near a tree and watched Corporal Tanaka set his men up in a loose perimeter in the darkness. In the nearby clearing to the north was a large open field and beyond that was the colony, but there was nobody moving out in the open, but there were lights on and there was some damage to the buildings which looked like the result of blazer fire. Corporal Winters had her team on the north west side of the colony where she could see anything coming from the ocean while Corporal Susalas was the cavalry guarding the vehicles.

"Alpha Leader, Alpha Leader this is Alpha Two," said Corporal Susalas sending a coded burst transmission. "Be advised we have some traffic on Legion channel fourty three, twenty seven using reservist code thirty two, over."

"Bip: Alpha Two this is Alpha Leader Aknowleged, monitor transmission, out." Sergeant Evans said. Bip, didn't stand for anything but it told his AI to encrypt, condense and send his words as a burst transmission. It was a slow, but undetectable method of communication.

"Hard copy, Alpha Two out," Susalas replied by burst transmission.

"Karen, see if you can pick up and decode the transmission."

"No problem boss," his AI replied.

A strangers voice cut into Evans helmet. "Yea, I see it Kev. Bastards have a SandLion on the ground. Watch yourself, I'll designate it for a missle in case we're detected."

"Damn strait Stan. If it moves out of the town I want you to nail it, don't wait for my permission. That SandLion has sensors good enough to detect the bunker."

"Roger. Any sign they're sending out another patrol?"

"Negative. They seem to be staying in the town, but if they want us they're going to have to come out after us sooner or later."

"Roger, Black Wing out."

"Wolverine out."

Sergeant Evans pondered what the two had said. From the sounds of it they were legion reservists or former legionares, which was no great surprise since the Banshee had listed ten former legionares and four former starfleet crewmen as colonists. The reservists would have battledress and weapons and a better idea of what was going on. It could also be a ploy, but he doubted it. However if he could see the SandLion he could confirm the enemy was Federation since the SandLion was a Federation Light Battle Unit, a small fast anti-grav tank used for reconnaissance.

"Bip: All Alphas be on the look out for a Federation SandLion. If it leaves the town take it out. Alpha Leader out." Sergeant Evans said, if the reservists were worried then he believed they had good cause. Now it was time to make contact but before he could say anything a voice came over the monitored freq.

"Wolverine, Wolverine this is Bugeye, we got a squad leaving on patrol south west quadrant," another voice broke in.

"This is Wolverine I copy, Space Ace take your merry men and intercept them, do what damage you can, then pull back. Save your missles `cause I don't know of any nearby supply ships."

"This is Space Ace I copy intercept and attack, out."

"Wolverine this is Bugeye, I now have two SandLions. Space Ace watch out."

"Alpha Leader, Alpha Leader this is Alpha One, I have three Federation SandLions in sight near the south west area," Corporal Winters reported via burst transmission.

"This is Alpha Leader aknowledged Alpha One, designate targets to Alpha Two. All Alpha units transmit in the clear, comm condition yellow." Sergeant Evans said. All hell looked like it was about to break loose and burst transmissions would only slow things down.

"Alpha Leader this is Alpha Three Romeo. I have a patrol departing near the south west, supported by at least two SandLions." Private First Class Turkana reported. He was the primary rifleman in Tanaka's fireteam, less than thirty meters away from Sergeant Evans.

"All Alpha Units move into firing positions, Alpha Two Missles in the air, stand by." Evans ordered telling Susalas to launch missles that would hover until ordered to strike by forward observers.

"Karen put me on the reservist's freq," Evans said crawling up to the tree line where he could get a good shot at anything coming out of the colony town.

"Your on chief," Karen reported.

"Wolverine, Wolverine, this is Sergeant Michael Evans of the Imperial Armsman Corps, call sign Alpha Leader. We are moving to assist. Please advise the nature and disposition of opposing forces. My coordinates are one-two-niner-zero-two-two. Over."

"All units this is Wolverine. Comm condition purple, all units bug out, rally point seven."

"Shit!" Evans said to himself. They didn't believe him. Not that he blamed them. They probably wouldn't be expecting military assistance for at least two and a half weeks, and now they thought their encryption codes had been broken.

"Karen, transmit all on Armsman and Legion freq," he said. Now he could see the SandLions hovering close to the roofs of the town, their gatling converter cannon aiming at the jungle over the heads of the troops that were moving in a wedge towards the tree line.

"Enemy soldiers are Federation Dragoons, with a sixy eight percent probability" Karen reported. By comparing pictures of the equipment and weapons of the enemy to known templates she could tell they were Dragoons, the Federation of Terra's elite commandos, some of their best.

"Is the cruiser out of range for fire support?" Evans asked.

"Yes," Karen replied. "It could move into position in eight minutes however." Sergeant Evans smiled.

"Alphas One and Three, designate targets. One takes north half three takes south. Alpha Two move into position for a high speed aircav pass. Alpha Four your detached from Two, stage the missles one hundred missles to my south.

"Alpha One, Ak-out," Corporal Winters said, aknowledging Evans.

"Alpha Two, Ak-out," Susalas said.

"Alpha Three, Ak-out," Tanaka said.

"Alpha Four, Ak-out," Lance Corporal Hersnik said telling the missles he had launched to move to a location one hundred meters south of Sergeant Evans where they would hover and be much closer to the armsmen when they were needed. The enemy Dragoons were almost at the edge of the forest and the SandLions were beginning to advance when Sergeant Evans gave the command to fire.

Missles streaked toward their designated targets less than three meters off the ground dodging tree and bush. When they reached the clearing they dropped to under a meter. The anti missle lasers on the SandLions frantically started firing, but two of them were hit and exploded in a plasma fireball. The third SandLion escaped being hit by a Plasma Fireball round but a concentrated acid round spattered the unit causing it to swerve and flee back into the town, it's armor hissing and smoking. Meanwhile blazer and incinerator fire flashed through the night to raze the Dragoon infantry formation. Return fire erupted from the town and those caught in the killing field. Half the Dragoons caught in the open had gone down in the first volley and the remaining few were trying to retreat back into the town under covering fire. Evans himself accounted for at least two of the fallen Dragoons. Now the armsmen would have to retreat or risk having the wrath of god, in the form of a light cruiser, called down upon their heads.

"Alpha Two, begin your attack run, One and Three pull back to rally point twenty two under cover of Two's attack."

The aircavs of Susala's fireteam zipped over the horizon and began strafing the Dragoons in the open. Interfaced with their aircav units the perceptions and reflexes of the aircav pilots were boosted to faster than computer speeds allowing them to dodge the slow traversing incinerators of the Dragoons while small anti missile lasers incinerated enemy missiles. With their SandLions out of action the Dragoons were in trouble, however if they had enough missles they would eventually start getting lucky and knock out one or more of the aircavs. During one run a Dragoon that had been lying motionless got off a lucky shot with a PF round and an aircav disappeared in a cloud of vapor. Pfc Kinnison wouldn't be going home.

As soon as the Tanaka and Winters reported they were far enough away Evans gave Susalas the order to back off. Not a moment to soon as the SandLion rose from cover and started firing. Lance Corporal Willis's aircav took a hit but the whole team made safely into the cover of the tree line and out of sight of the damaged SandLion.

Sergeant Evans's squad was halfway through it's ammo casualty report when a voice broke into one of the frequencies Evans was monitoring, the Legion frequency.

"Alpha Leader, Alpha Leader this is Lieutenant Kevin Hicks of the Imperial Reserve Legion, call sign Wolverine. Please report disposition and location. Over."

"Wolverine this is Alpha Leader," Evans said relieved they finally believed he was legitimate. "My location is one-three-eight-zero-four-three. I say again one-three-eight-zero-four-three, please advise nature and disposition of enemy forces, sir." Evans didn't want to tell him he had one man who was killed by a PF round launched by a Dragoon thought to be dead, one man lightly wounded and a damaged aircav unit. The lieutenant might get the impression he was recieving a report from a subordinate since he outranked Sergeant Evans and could order him around, which he did outrank the sergeant but he had no command authority, not over an armsman.

"I copy one-three-eight-zero-four-three. I will be enroute to you approaching from the west. My ETA is about twenty minutes and I will have eight men with me. The enemy is a reinforced Federation platoon with a SandLion platoon of three. Most of our people are hidden in a bunker, but some of them are in town being held hostage, or they're on the ship, I don't know. My guess is they are probing the Empire and stealing what technology they can. Thanks for giving them a bloody nose back there."

"Don't mention it Wolverine. Just doing our job of kicking ass and we'll be expecting you. Alpha Leader out."

"Wolverine, out."

"Karen, send this to the Banshee. Repeat it at thirty minute intervals until you recieve a response. Bip: Banshee this is Alpha Squad. Uknown is a Federation Raider, groundside we are facing a reinforced Dragoon Platoon with a currently damaged SandLion. Break.

"Most of the colonists are hidden in a bunker, the rest are being held hostage in the town or on the ship. Please advise reference tactical situation. Out."

For more information please contact me at warcat@usmc.net