fanfic_name = What If

chapter = Chapter 19

author = Knights Templar

dedicate = Everyone who reads and have proof read this story.

Rating = AP15

Type = Adventure

fanfic = A/N: This is the final showdown chapter; this will be the last great huge battle between the Allied Forces and the Zentraedi. There will be more, but nothing on the scale that you are about to see it on. I plan on developing the plot a little more, and then delving into combat, combat, and more combat. I guess I need to throw a little romance in for all those of you who started into this for the romance. Also all battle scenes will not revolve around a single person and I will have limited talking between characters during the battle scene and will work more on the actual battle jumping from on person to the other quickly.

“When facing danger, it pays to be prepared”

-Aesop

Rick stirred from his sleep and looked over to see his beautiful wife next to him, he smiled and wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close and saw her eyes open. She smiled back at him and buried her face in the crook of his neck and Rick felt her body give a mighty heave and convulse. He felt something warm on his shoulder and pulled back enough to see Lisa’s face, she was crying.

“Lisa, what’s wrong baby? Why are you crying?” Rick asked his wife, an with her tear filled eyes she looked at him with the saddest look he had ever seen Lisa make and it tore Rick’s heart out of his chest. He hugged her tight and knew what she was sad about without even having her answer the question.

“Lisa whatever happens, whatever the outcome of what happens today, I want you to know now and forever that I love you and I will always be there to make sure that we face anything and everything together.” Rick finished and felt his wife give on more shutter and felt her go still. Rick felt a hand slide up his back and into his unruly mop of hair, an Lisa pulled back an looked at him, “You’re never gonna cut your hair are you?” She asked with tears in her eyes but a smiling face.

Rick gave a laugh and looked at the clock it read close to six a.m. and Rick smiled, he had slept for over eighteen hours and felt like he had more energy then ever before the start of this damn campaign. He threw off the covers and jumped put of bed with only his pajama bottoms on and no shirt and started to make poses of everything from a body builder to a ballerina and all the while Lisa giggled furiously.

“Rick grabbed her hand and pulled her out of bed and picked her up and twirled her around a few times, “That’s my girl, I can always make you laugh so easily,” Rick said with an arrogant smirk. Lisa hit his chest playfully and Rick set hr down and bowed to her, “May I prepare her age-less goddess some breakfast?” Lisa giggled some more and returned with a curtsey.

Rick and Lisa walked out arm and arm and started to make breakfast, Rick was concentrating on making the scrambled eggs while Lisa worked on the French toast. Lisa was reaching for the powered sugar, the grabbed it an it tore spilling the contents onto Rick’s hair and face, Rick stopped with a shocked look on his face, and stared at Lisa. Lisa giggled and went to grab a towel but a devilish thought came to her mind. She leaned forward and licked some powered sugar off his face. Rick was surprised but not to be out done took a handful of powered sugar and surprised Lisa by throwing it up into the air in front of her face.

Lisa’s face now covered in sugar like Rick’s started at Rick and felt a heated passion that she continued to feel even after marriage and children with Rick, and judging by the look on his face she could tell he was having the same thoughts. With all notions of breakfast forgotten and discarded the two made for the bed room from where they had just come and were determined to make the most of the time they had together.

A flight of five Veritech flew in formation around a massive floating platform in space. The platform was made of metals from the asteroid field and hardened with whatever human and Zentraedi sciences could come up with. The platform wasn’t only a defensive structure, but was also a barracks and supply depot.

The flight of Veritech pulled in close and made a sweep of the platform and buzzed the tower causing the officer in command to curse and swear as he was now wearing his coffee instead of drinking it. Jacob smiled and he heard his wingman make a scared noise but held his tongue. As Jacob pulled up and away from the platform he looked back and saw hundreds of the platforms all around and knew that this would be the last line of defense, along with the SDF-1.

“Hard to believe that those huge floating hunks of metal are the only thing that will keep the Zentraedi occupied long enough.” Jacob said over the net. No one responded there were no rookies in his flight; they were all hardened veterans who knew when to talk and what to talk about. Jacob appreciated there experience and knew that each one would exact a heavy toll on the enemy before themselves going down.

As much as Jacob hated to think that way, he knew that was how it was going to be; the pilots were no longer being seen as individuals, but rather as numbers and how many they could take down. Jacob gave a smile as he thought to the top squadrons, and remembered seeing the new squadrons, The Old Hands, which had Roy, Rick, Max, Ben (whom had improved his combat skills) and himself and a few other notables that were picked to waste the most Zentraedi. Yes it was a sick thing, but the pilots all laughed and went on their business.

Jacob nursed back the throttle as he came up on the SDF-1 and saw the crew chief give him the thumbs up as he made his approach, not that Jacob would have listened anyway. Jacob hit the runway and felt his tail hook connect with the cable and felt himself forced hard against the harness and then being towed to one of the many pilot hangers.

Jacob released the cockpit and climbed out and made for the changing areas where he could get out of his sweaty pilot suite. Jacob changed quickly, rinsing himself and he made for his quarters to get some sleep that had been evading him since he had arrived back to the SDF-1.

He opened the door to his quarters and saw that the lights were on and that someone was in his quarters and as Jacob thought about it, he wondered who, and for that matter how, someone had gotten in. He crept in and peeked around into his room and saw someone going through his closet and grumbling. The sound of the persons voice immediately told him it was female, and it sounded like there were two of them.

Jacob walked in and saw Lisa and Minmei going through his closet and tossing his clothes into two piles. “What are you doing, you two?” Jacob asked them and they looked up and smiled. Jacob asked again, and all they did was smile again. Jacob looked around and knew it was useless to try and ask again and walked out knowing it was useless trying to get anything out of the two of them.

Jacob made the short trip to Rick’s larger, and nicer, quarters and knocked on the door and heard a scurry of motion and saw Rick answer the door, entangled in kids. Jacob smiled and pulled Mitchell and slung him over his shoulder with the child laughing all the way, arms and legs flapping wildly.

“So how’s my favorite little hand full?” Jacob asked the kid in a playful voice. Jacob had his eyes closed and smiled and never say the little kid swing back and punch Jacob in the nose and Jacob stumbled back and clapped his hand over his nose. He felt something warm run out of his nose and saw the little guy had given him a bloody nose.

Rick grabbed Mitchell and twirled him to face Jacob as he held his nose, trying hard to keep the blood from going everywhere failing miserably and dripped it on the floor. “Mitch, what do you say to Uncle Jacob?!” Rick asked in a fatherly tone. Mitchell looked at Jacob and smiled.

“I sowry unca Jacob,” Mitchell said and Jacob smiled and patted the kid on the shoulder and with a quick movement had grabbed him from Rick and thrown him over his shoulder and started to toss him around in the air, Mitchell laughing all the way.

“No worries little man, just don’t do it again, or when you’re eighteen I’ll have to return the favor.” Mitchell missed Jacob’s intention and laughed all the while, and then Jacob threw him onto the couch and he landed with a plop. Carrie by now had heard the noise and came out of her room and looked at Jacob.

“Hey, how’s my favorite niece?” Carrie smiled and broke into a dead run and launched herself at Jacob who now wore a shocked and slightly afraid look as she slammed into him and threw him onto his back. Carrie laughed and giggled, Jacob groaned and got up with Carrie still on his chest.

“You know Rick; if I didn’t know better I’d say your kids are trying to kill me.” Rick laughed and picked Carrie up of Jacob’s chest. Rick moved over to the couch and sat down and Jacob took a seat next to him and Mitchell jumped up and snuggled between the two men and Carrie moved from Rick to Jacob’s lap and curled up and laid her head on his chest.

“So,” Rick said after a minute, “what brings you here?” He asked as he looked at his children and looked back at Jacob. Jacob smiled and rolled his eyes. “Your wife, and Miss Minmei are rifling through my place so I thought I’d go cause chaos somewhere else.” Rick smiled and turned when he heard a knock on the door and got up to see who it was.

Seconds later there was a yell and in came Dana, or as Jacob called her, The Beast. She looked at Jacob and saw Carrie and Mitchell and uttered a war cry that had to come from her mother’s side and leapt at the three of them and landed square on Jacob and forced the air out of his lungs.

Mitchell and Carrie now sensing their best opportunity to get the jump on “Unca Jacob” attacked him too and soon Jacob found himself on the floor being attacked by little kids. “What that...” Jacob got out before one of the kids feet hit him in the mouth now causing his lip to bleed. Having enough of this, Jacob forced himself up, still with kids hanging all over him, made his way for the couch and shook himself like a dog shedding kids like dog’s do water.

Jacob turned and pressed his arm to his lip and looked at Max who was laughing now, and then to Rick who was clutching his stomach as he laughed. Jacob wore a hurt look and walked past them and grabbed a dish towel and pressed it to his lip and slowed the bleeding while Max and Rick finished laughing.

“An what, may I ask, is so funny about this?” Jacob asked the two with a worn expression on his face. Rick looked at him and started to laugh some more, “well it’s so funny that all these kids seem to want to beat you senseless.” Jacob didn’t like the answer. All he had gotten here was a bloody lip and a bloodied nose.

Jacob laughed and looked in Max’s direction, “So what brings you here?” Jacob asked him. Max smiled, “Well one of the women called my wife and told them that they were all going to your place and then I heard something about The Trio.” Jacob groaned again and threw his arms in the air. “What the hell is this? What could possibly be in my quarters?” Max and Rick both looked at him and shrugged.

Jacob sat down and looked at the wrestling kids and looked at Rick, “These kids made me hungry, you wouldn’t happen to have anything to eat would you?” Rick smiled and walked to the phone. “How about a pizza?” Jacob nodded his head and Rick placed the order.

As Rick, and the other laughed and joked good-naturedly about everything in the world and then some, a much more serious and dire meeting was taking place on one of the many ships in the Zentraedi fleet that was waiting in space in its ambush positions behind the moon. Breetai looked down at Admiral Gloval and Hayes respectively before he whispered, or yelled depending on whom you asked, “Are your forces prepared for the upcoming battle with Dolza?” Breetai asked the two important men in front of him.

Gloval looked at Donald and they nodded, “We’re as ready as we will ever be for this battle Breetai, we just hope that the defensive platforms will hold, or more importantly, attract the Zentraedi as you say they will,” Gloval finished with a doubting look on his face. Breetai arched his good eyebrow and looked at the little things in front of him.

“The defensive platforms will hold, they’ll look to destroy the SDF-1, decimate the planet and then finish off our forces in that order, they want to not risk anything by trying to fight us first with your planet defenses intact. But my question is this: How will your cannons on the surface fire and not strike your platforms?” Gloval looked to Donald who smiled at Breetai.

“Well, you see, that is quite simple, we just won’t fire when we have a platform in the way, and besides, they are close enough for us to fire right past them and not strike out own forces. And if it should come to that, we have low shine mirrors in place to reflect the beam harmlessly away from all our forces and hopefully, into Dolza’s fleet.” Breetai nodded his head in assent, and then opened his mouth to speak.

“I must give you human’s credit for fighting so toughly for so long against an enemy so vastly superior to yours. You are truly the equal to all Zentraedi warriors and all my soldiers are honored to fight by your side.” Breetai thumped his chest and bowed to Gloval and Hayes. The Admirals returned the gesture and looked up at Breetai, “Thank you that means a lot to be given such a...compliment by your people.” Donald said with a sort of humored expression on his face.

Breetai turned when on of his aides entered and after hearing what he had to say turned on the men quickly and he wore an excited smile that gave Henry and Donald chills. “Admiral’s,” Breetai said with a wild smile, “Dolza’s fleet moves now to engage our forces. Let us make haste and prepare our forces for the coming battle that will certainly spell death or victory for us all,” Breetai finished with a wild smile and an equally wild look in his good eye.

Donald and Henry exchanged quick looks with each other and made for the edge of the table where Breetai picked them up and practically sprinted them to their waiting ships, as he set them down on the ground, Donald looked back up at Breetai, “How long do we have Breetai?” Donald asked him.

Breetai’s face now wild with excitement and what Donald guessed to be adrenaline started the man intently and smiled, “Within the hour, now go, you both have a lot of preparations to get done and little time,” Donald nodded and them came to and saluted Breetai in a last gesture of friendship and trust and turned to enter his ship.

Breetai watched as the ship made a fast exit and shook his head, he had a feeling that one of those men, both great leaders of their people, would not make it back alive from this great battle. He felt a pang of sorrow but suppressed it with his Zentraedi instincts that told him battle was near. Breetai ran and started to whip those up around him and spread the word that battle was near.

Rick, Max, and Jacob were all lounging together, eating, talking and just enjoying the time they had left talking about the better times. Rick heard a furious pounding at that door hurried to open it and saw Lisa, frantic running around, stripping her clothes off as she moved to get to her uniform and almost ran past Jacob and Max. Nothing needed to be said, it was go time.

Jacob jumped up and grabbed Mitchell and Carrie and ran for the door, he had told Rick and Lisa, who both had important things to do; he would take the little guys to the shelter and leave them with some friends of theirs. He got halfway there when they started to object that they wanted to stay with mommy and daddy. Rick and Lisa both made for the kids who were squirming furiously in Jacob’s arms as he took a beating but held firm.

“Mitchell, Carrie,” Lisa snapped at them, “we have talked about this, this is mommy and daddy’s work and we need you to be strong and let us go do our jobs and make sure that you grow up to be big and strong. Can mommy and daddy go do their job?” Mitchell and Carrie both wailed no and Lisa gave a fed up noise and Jacob didn’t hear anymore of it, and walked out the door and threw them both over his shoulder and started to sprint to the shelter.

Jacob arrived and found Rick and Lisa’s friends right where they said they would be and Jacob handed them over, but the children sensing that they wouldn’t get to be with their parents no clung tightly to Jacob and wouldn’t budge. Jacob took a deep breath and looked at the kids, the little siblings and children that he never had or ever got to enjoy. He kneeled down to their level and looked at them with a smile.

“Mitchell, come here buddy,” Jacob asked the toddler in a sweet voice. Mitchell walked over to Jacob and Jacob opened his arms and Mitchell threw himself into Jacob’s arms and he hugged his tightly enjoying the love he felt from the little kid. Jacob pulled back and took his crucifix off and handed it to Mitchell, who had for a long time wanted to wear it.

“Here Mitchell, I want you to hold onto this for me, just in case something bad may happen to me, I want you to remember your Uncle Jacob somehow.” Mitchell’s eyes started to tear up and he wiped them away quickly and put on a brave face and stepped back and gave Jacob the best salute a toddler could give, which wasn’t that good, but Jacob appreciated the gesture and returned the salute. Mitchell went to the people who would watch Mitchell and Carrie.

Jacob looked to Carrie and opened his arms, and Carrie, already with tears in her eyes ran to Jacob and jumped into his arms. Carrie and Mitchell, both young, both understood the seriousness of the situation and realized that they could all “be with god” as they had been told and they had been raised in their short lives to not fear god and to love and respect him.

Jacob released Carrie and looked at her, and slid his left hand to his right where he always had on a ring that had been given to him by the one woman he had loved before she passed away. He slid it off and handed it to Carrie and she looked at it with big eyes and took it carefully from Jacob and clutched it. She didn’t say a word and ran over with Mitchell and Jacob stood up and looked at his nephew and niece once again and ran for his battle station.

He didn’t see it, but Mitchell and Carrie both ran after him a short distance and then stopped and turned back to go with the only people they knew in the huge SDF-1, scared and alone, they held each other for as long as it would take.

Jacob was still pulling on his gloves and zipping up his flight suit at the same time, neither going very well until he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Minmei there trying to calm him. He took a few deep breaths and pulled on his gloves and zipped up his flight suit and smiled at Minmei and turned to go when Minmei grabbed him and spun him around and surprised him by kissing and then let go and ran off.

Jacob recovered and watched her retreating figure wondering why the hell Minmei would do something like that; he could see all the looks and just walked over to his fighter and climbed up the ladder. He sat down and pulled on his helmet and sat there on the ramp waiting for everything from the gossip to spread and the Zentraedi. Jacob would have much rather faced the Zentraedi, but unfortunately the gossip got to him first.

Max popped up, followed by Rick, Roy and Ben all bombarding him with questions. Jacob rolled his eyes and looked at the screens and said one sentence, “I don’t know, so don’t ask me,” the others quieted and Jacob smiled. He really had no idea why Minmei had taken an interest in him lately, he didn’t single her or, and did for her what he would have done for anyone else.

Jacob would have had longer to think about it, but the alarms where sounding with intensity and Jacob knew it was go time and he waited for the catapult officer to give him the go ahead and it followed seconds later and Jacob took off with blazing speed off towards the defensive platforms. It was going to be a long fight and everyone knew ad they knew that the projected casualties, with them winning of course were running at roughly sixty-five to seventy percent. Jacob brushed these off; they were of course, only predictions.

Jacob watched as Lisa’s part of the fleet set off with the SDF-1 and went off to go and fight along with Breetai and hopefully, they would all see each other soon. Jacob knew that they would make it and he didn’t think about anyone he cared about dying. It had taken mere minutes to get all the pilots from the SDF-1 who were supposed to be on the platforms to their new positions and allowed the SDF-1 to fold to it’s proper position.

The squadrons of carefully trained and quipped veterans started to form up. They constituted roughly fifty percent of all pilots. The rest were pilots who had been trained with Zentraedi pilots as adversaries and were very god, but not as good as those who had been in as much combat as say Jacob or Rick had been in, and as much combat s Jacob had seen, Rick, Max and Roy had seen more.

The Old Hands formed up and started to make their way for the platforms to intercept as many enemy melee and fighter ships as the could. Rick smiled as he looked over and saw the dark outline of the fighters and relished the idea that ninety-nine percent of the fighters had been equipped with the new armored Veritechs. They gave the humans just the punch they needed and could outlast the Battlepods and Zentraedi Fighters.

As the squadron’s, hundreds upon thousands of them came from the Earth and the Platforms and surrounding auxiliary stations, the Old Hands found there intercept box and settled down near the Defensive Platform. They expected attack was just starting to materialize and the humans could see the enormous fleet that was going to try and crush humanity.

Jacob didn’t like the odds, but then again, he had never let things like size and numbers determine how he would fight. It was the heart and soul of a person that determined how they would fight and if everyone fought like they could win, then they would. Jacob got on the comm. unit and decided it was time to share a few words with his fellow pilots and comrades-in-arm’s.

“Rick, Roy, Max, and Ben I just want to say that it has been a long way to now and that if one of us shouldn’t make it back, I want you all to know that it has been an honor to fight alongside you,” Jacob finished and no said a word, it wasn’t needed. The warrior bond had been set a long time ago and now it was just being said. Everyone knew there was a respect for everyone who fought for humanity today, and win or lose; they would all die for something far greater than themselves.

Space seemed to light up as the Zentraedi were caught un-aware by the mammoth blast that erupted from earth and spewed death through a tight space in the human defense and seemed to spread as it past the defenders and made contact with the Zentraedi and wiping out the center.

With the Zentraedi desynchronized the Human forces assigned for the defense launched every fighter they had in a head ling rush at the Zentraedi who where still reeling and were in for further shock as Apocalypse Missiles were loosed from the front rank of the attacking Veritech and they went streaking towards the Zentraedi vessels and erupted at all points in the cluster of Zentraedi vessels causing even more carnage and death.

But for every Zentraedi ship they knocked out before they lost someone in the actual fight, half a dozen more would fold into local space and take its place. The Veritechs engaged the Zentraedi forces that had managed to be launched in between massacres. The Veritech showed no mercy swooping down on the ships and pummeling defenses and Zentraedi fighters and Battlepods. The armored Veritech had an edge over the conventional Zentraedi forces as they could move faster and inflict more damage and target up to half a dozen Zentraedi combat craft.

Some of the Veritechs had torpedoes on them and started to launch those at the Zentraedi craft destroying those left ad right. But even with as much damage and surprise the humans had had dealt out, the remaining Zentraedi were now starting to respond. Fighters and Battlepods could be seen coming from the rear echelon ships and the Veritech reformed to meet this threat and the two sides met in a flurry of missiles with the humans gaining the edge by annihilating hundreds in seconds, but the edge wouldn’t hold as the Zentraedi numbers started to show.

Jacob flanked and dodged with Rick at his side and released missiles with Rick launching a follow up barrage and they could see that they were, ever so slowly, being pushed back to were they had come from. Jacob switched to Battloid and started to pick off unwary Battlepods and Rick swooped off to save a struggling Veritech in Guardian Mode.

Roy banked left and pulled hard on the stick and eased back on the throttle almost stopping the Veritech on a dime and rapidly thought his way through to Battloid and righted himself and stood with gatling cannon ready and started to deal out death swiftly and arbitrarily to all Zentraedi who neared him and held his ground like the true warrior that all said he was.

Max found himself cut off and surrounded with over a dozen Battlepods closing in around him for the kill, and all Max could do was smile as he engaged the foot thrusters and shot off for the Zentraedi who had of all things least expected was for the lone pilot to charge them. But charge max did and in less than a minute had disposed of the Zentraedi who had dared to get in his way.

Jacob made a run over the surface of a Battlecruiser, skimming the surface dodging erratic firing from the Zentraedi gunners. He came into range and homed in and let loose a score of missiles and watched as they streaked towards the command station and made a huge gaping hole and watched as Rick’s missiles struck home before the armor could cover the hole with the resulting explosion just ripping the seal off.

Rick and Jacob didn’t have long to savor the destruction of the command crew as they were accosted by many Battlepods. They turned and didn’t even wait before they started to spray the battlepods with bullets and they fell before the fusillade. Rick and Jacob scanned the area and say that the battle was pitched and that no one was getting the upper hand. But they didn’t get paid to assess the tactical situation, they were paid to kill, and kill they did.

The thousands upon thousands of heavily armored Destroids sat waiting on the defensive platforms as they watched the battle unfolding before them. Every now and then a large explosion would light space and everyone knew that a Zentraedi vessel had just gone up. The Zentraedi were closing in despite the pressure by the Veritechs and would soon be in range for Earth-based long range energy cannons that could pick off Zentraedi vessels one by one.

The destroids knew that the Zentraedi were close as more than a dozen blasts erupted from earth like sniper rounds picking off many Zentraedi vessels. The explosions lit up the faces behind the targeting visors and all could see the determined looks on the faces of the young men and women from all over the world. This would be a battle for the ages and they would be ready.

They didn’t have to wait long before the Zentraedi arrived and the Destroids started to unload volumes of fire into the Battle Pods that hundreds seemed to just be incinerated by their tremendous fire. While the Destroids worked to keep the Battlepods that had slipped through the Veritech net, the Veritechs themselves kept engaged with the Zentraedi capital vessels while the Earth-bound cannons fired on the Zentraedi destroying them one by one, but at a rapid pace.

But the news didn’t bode all well for the RDF as they started to suffer a massive number of casualties in both the Veritechs and Destroids. The Destroid platforms were taking fire from the Battlepods and thought Destroids where being destroyed, more and more were being moved in.

Ensign Ramsey sat in the cockpit of his Destroid, sweating as he poured an unrelenting stream of fire at the Battlepods as did the rest of the other Destroids on his platform eradicating Battlepods that happened in their path. Ramsey grunted as one of the Destroids close to him blew up showering him and those around him with debris and chunks of metal.

Ramsey flipped the red top off of the heat seeking missiles and pressed the button and sent a flock of missiles out into space that only Zentraedi Battlepods inhabited in front of them and the missiles immediately found their targets and half a dozen of the Battlepods erupted into fire.

But that didn’t satisfy his urges as he continued to fire into the swarm of Battlepods never letting up and always had the same look on his face. He wore the cold, distant but controlled look on his face. This was what he thrived on, the desperate, must do situation that meant either life or death, victory being the only possible outcome for humanity to survive.

Jacob banked hard, Rick following his move as they strafed a turret on the Zentraedi cruiser and blew it up, trying hard to immobilize the ships offensive and defensive weaponry. Jacob felt himself on autopilot, he felt as if he wasn’t really doing anything. He was in his own zone not thinking of anything and not worrying about anything either.

Jacob looked left and saw that the Battlepods were giving the platforms hell as they tried their hardest to hold off the Battlepods. Jacob got on the net and told Rick as much and suggested that they move over there to help take some of the pressure off of the Destroids. Jacob and a few other Veritech made for the Destroids to help them.

A huge blast from Earth that rushed by the group that engulfed two Zentraedi vessels and they went up in flames and exploded. Jacob smiled and flew on to the Destroids to help them. Jacob knew that they had done what they were supposed to in holding the Zentraedi off long enough to allow Gloval and Breetai and their forces enough time to prepare to attack.

Admiral Gloval watched the engagement from the far side of the moon with his fleet of ships hiding in the hulls of Zentraedi ships that were all primed with explosives that would be nudged the Zentraedi fleet and would then be detonated. Gloval smiled and knew that it would be tough to beat the Zentraedi, but they had to win or else they would all die.

Gloval heard an aide walk up and he continued to look out the large glass window and he heard the person salute. “Go ahead,” Gloval said and the aide started to explain the situation to Gloval and he knew it was time. Gloval turned and looked at the scared man and nodded to him, “Send the message to Breetai that it is time for us to launch our attack.” The man nodded and he walked off and to send the message.

Gloval felt the ships move and the huge hulls started to move. It was only an instant before the hulls packed with nuclear explosives were launched from the high-powered catapults in the direction of the Zentraedi fleet. Gloval continued to watch and then explosions erupted, large explosions that went up all over the rear of the Zentraedi fleet.

Gloval raised his hand and flicked his hand forward and his vessel moved forward and so did the rest of his fleet. Gloval stood on the bridge of his new capital ship, a version of the SDF-1, the cruiser mode anyway, that had been built so that a formidable cannon could be fired. Gloval had received his new ship, and Lisa had received the SDF-1. Gloval had named his ship The Cossack.

His ships moved forward and they prepared to engage the Zentraedi and he could see on the strategic map that his Zentraedi Allies were moving too. Gloval knew that they would have to force all the way to Dolza’s Command Ship and destroy it which would be up to Lisa who was with Breetai would have the job of punching though and destroying the reactor inside the Command Center.

His thoughts traveled to Lisa and Donald, the two people closest to him in his life. Lisa and Donald were like his brother and daughter. If anything happened to them he would be devastated. He lowered his head and a tear rolled down his face as he thought of all those that wouldn’t be returning. But his moment of peace and reflection were cut very short and were shattered when someone shouted something about the Zentraedi and Earth. Henry looked up and was horrified by what he saw. The Zentraedi were about to bombard Earth.

Jacob had barely seen the move as hundreds upon hundreds of Zentraedi ships lined up and their cannons warmed up. They fired pouring untold amounts of fire down onto the defenders and the Earth itself. Jacob watched unable to move as the white hot beams caught platforms and command stations off guard and annihilated any semblance of defense that the RDF could put forth in front of Earth.

In an instant the beams made their hellish descent down to Earth and started to bombard the Earth. Everyone knew that the only real safe people were the ones in large and important cities, everyone else was dead. For what seemed like a life time, all the remaining RDF forces just hung in space, too shocked to move or do anything. All feared that an entire half of the Earth had just been eradiated.

But a response from the Earth bound defenders was swift and seemingly sweet in its own destruction. Every cannon that had survived was now set on full spread and fired at the Zentraedi. At this point there were too few RDF forces for the commanders of the cannons to be concerned with friendly fire deaths. But some were killed to friendly fire.

But a few of the cannons had been knocked out and some of the remaining RDF forces were still floating in space in those areas that had not been wiped clean of everything before it. The Zentraedi had not expected this and were caught so off guard that the push they had achieved was now slowing in the face of what could be considered a speed bump force.

Rick and company knew that this would be the end and that they would die unless something happened, and that in itself was an outside chance. They prepared and clustered around a remaining platform and were ready to make it a hard won sector of space. All were prepared to die and all had accepted it. But death wouldn’t come quite yet as ships began to de-fold right were the platforms had been, and they were human ships. Hope had come from literally nowhere and they would continue to fight on.

But as the RDF forces left began to charge they were very harshly ordered to board the ships and “get the fuck out of dodge before the real shit hit the fan,” and thought they had their doubts, they jumped at the chance to get away and fight again another time. It didn’t take long for the remaining RDF forces to return and very soon the human ships folded and were linked back up with Gloval’s fleet that was preparing to engage and drawing massive attention from Earth.

The fighters that had been recovered were all sitting in the hangers and getting repaired and re-supplied. There would be no rest as the new techs ran all about handing out something for the pilots of the Veritechs and Destroids to eat before they went back out. Rick sat waiting for the signal to go.

In the few moments of down time he had thought of his wife, and of his children. Rick knew that there was always the chance of being killed and Rick and Lisa had made this clear to their children. Rick didn’t like ruining the innocence of Mitch and Carrie, but it was necessary. Rick felt something plop into his lap and looked down to see a energy bar, he didn’t like them, but he opened it and ate it anyhow because he was hungry and worn out enough to need it.

Jacob taxied to the front of the line and looked back and saw Roy and Max behind him and Rick a little ways behind. They were all ready for a combat launch. Since the launch ramps were in the rear they could not see how close they were getting to the Zentraedi so they would have to wait for the “go” light that would send them all out again.

Admiral Gloval watched as they neared the Zentraedi and he could see a huge amount of debris. Admiral Gloval nodded to one of the communications officers and the officer began to relay the prepared message. The front rank of the fleet was starting to form with the largest ships in the front with the smaller, more agile ships in the rear. It soon became apparent that the ships were forming a wedge and fighters were being launched into the open space of the wedge behind the large ships mingling with the smaller ships.

The lead ships charged their weapons and in an instant they fired and engulfed hundreds upon hundreds of Zentraedi ships who had thought they were out of range. Moments after the cannons fired thousands and thousands of Apocalypse Missiles were launched and went streaking towards the Zentraedi. Again the Zentraedi were engulfed in fire and death.

The human lines crashed into the Zentraedi line with all guns blazing. The charge of the Human ships carried the momentum as they pushed forward causing massive death and damage. Dozens of Zentraedi ships were taken by the push and blew up in blinding flashes. The heavies pushed through allowing the smaller ships with their more precise cannons to tale sniping shots at the Zentraedi.

The fighters came streaking in with five peculiar Veritechs at the lead. The fighters streaked for the Zentraedi and released their missiles on Battlepods that were just launching. Fighter flew everywhere mixing with Battlepods as they danced about space jockeying for position to get the kill on their opponent.

Five fighter stayed together never breaking and staying in a close tight formation raking the hull of the fighters and destroying Battlepods as if they were playing a game, a deadly game. All those who came before them never stood a chance as they were annihilated.

As the fleet led by Admiral Gloval pushed into the Zentraedi formation, Lisa, and Breetai both moved their fleets into battle against the other flank of Dolza’s fleet. Lisa watched as the SDF-1 fired another salvo and caught two Zentraedi ships in its wake and destroyed them. The battle between the Zentraedi’s wasn’t quite as finesse as the Human attack on the Dolza.

Lisa was quite shocked when Breetai moved his whole fleet into a position and they made a headlong charge into the guns of Dolza’s fleet. But this was how the Zentraedi thrived and after sustaining huge casualties in the first seconds Breetai and his fleet had even the score with a blistering counter-barrage.

Lisa stood on the deck and gave orders moving the few ships she had with her into a position that they would best serve Breetai and his forces. This battle was unlike anything any human had seen before. As the two fleets engaged nothing was done to discern between friend and foe, to Lisa’s observation, as Zentraedi just fired fanatically at each other with explosions lighting up space like fireworks.

Lisa watched as Sammie, Kim, Vanessa, Claudia and someone whom she hadn’t had the time to get and know. The battle was chaotic and Lisa’s thoughts kept going back to Rick and her children, one of whom was fighting with Gloval and the other two whom where in the belly of the SDF-1 itself.

A blast rocked as a nearby friendly Zentraedi ship was destroyed. There was a moment of shock but the crew recovered as they kept moving forward with the momentum of Breetai’s attack. Lisa hoped that they would get to the Dolza’s Command Station quicker; she was desperate to do her job and end the fighting.

Reports started to filter in that the Zentraedi had fired on Earth and had left almost nothing in front of the planet that could offer resistance. Lisa felt herself go weak for a moment, but this was compounded as a new report of an attack on the Earth seemed to indicate that the Zentraedi were going to make sure that humanity had nothing left to go back to.

Out as if to make the situation worse, a column of Zentraedi ships had been seen moving to flank Gloval’s fleet and it looked as if they would be able to get around the rear and blaze away at them. Lisa was weighting her options and suddenly a transmission came through and her father was on the other end.

“Let’s roll,” Donald said as the moved his fleet right into the Zentraedi path. “We hold here, let nothing pass through us, we will hold or die!” Lisa felt her body go numb as she realized the implications of her father’s words. Her hands started to shake and she felt her head go numb. But there wasn’t a thing she could do, nothing to help her father.

Admiral Donald Hayes had slide in front of the Zentraedi column and now his forces wait for them. The report was these were fighter less ships which was good since Donald didn’t have any pilots in his active command of the emergency fleet.

The Zentraedi fired first destroying dozens of ships and Donald responded in kind with his own attack that carried him right into the heart of the attack column and quickly degenerated into ship to ship fighting with the smaller human ship generally faring the worse in the engagement. But they fought on as they knew what would happen if they failed.

The Flagship of the commander of the Human Fleet moved forward and Admiral Donald Hayes opened a barrage on a Zentraedi cruiser that succumb quickly to the attack and it moved onto its next target destroying it. The momentum had changed and now it became a slugfest as the ship traded shots no side seeming to get the edge over the other.

The Zentraedi commander saw the tenacity in which the Humans defended this flank and he poured more of his precious ships into break them but the result was the same as they were repulsed and the Humans showed no inclination to break, all the while taking large casualties. It was that one ship, the largest of all those he faced that would check his attacks, he needed to destroy it. He moved his ship forward and moved to engage the ship as many rose to challenge him. He brushed them aside and kept moving and finally was within range. He smiled viciously as he ordered all gunners to fire.

Donald shook violently with his ship as they were accosted by the enemy command ship. Donald swung his attention to it and ordered all gunners to return fire at will. The attack hit the Zentraedi ship and explosions riddled the ship. The two ships closed range, firing all the way like the ships of old. But one started to slow, and Donald knew that his ship was taking to much damage and he had one last chance to stop this Zentraedi from destroying anymore ships after him.

The Zentraedi was surprised when the Human ship turned and poured on all the speed it had and thrust itself into the side of the Zentraedi ship and fired all guns at close range inflicting massive damage. The two ships seemed to stop in mid space despite the fact they were moving quite quickly. Then an explosion went up and seemed to stop both sides.

A young Captain watched and his hand moved to the comm. unit and he hit the first signal he could get that would announce it to the Allied Fleet. “RDF, I repeat RDF, this is Hayes group and we just checked the Zentraedi,” he lied, “and Admiral Hayes has just died in the service of his people,” he said nothing else and gave the order to move forward.

The air in the RDF was shock and surprise but this was what the RDF needed as they were given a new banner to rally around. The fighters fought with new intensity and the ships all drove forward with the passion to win.

The Zentraedi that were facing Donald’s fleet were set upon by elements of friendly Zentraedi fleet that had managed to break away long enough to destroy them and let the Human forces join along. They ran headlong back into combat with a renewed vigor of revenge.

The five Veritech’s that were Rick, Jacob, Max, Roy and Ben flew in with all guns blazing catching Battlepods in their wake and sparing none, not that any would have surrendered. Their anger was fueled by the attack on Earth and the death of Admiral Hayes. They could make out a lump in space and they knew that it was Dolza’s command station.

They started to fill with glee as the ranks of the Dolza’s fleet began to thin, but they still retained a huge number of ships but they had lost their edge and the RDF was about to unleash it’s ultimate weapon that no gun, Battlepod, or Command Station could defend against. The voice of Minmei started to play forth on every frequency they could.

Resistance seemed to fall apart as all RDF and friendly ship opened fire and caught the shocked and listless Zentraedi off guard. The SDF-1 pushed forward and the warmed up the shields. The Zentraedi seemed to come around and say a lone ship making for the Command Station that Dolza was in and they began to fire to no effect and the SDF-1 punched through the skin and forced it’s way into the center of the station.

The SDF-1 closed in and opened all missile ports and took aim for the reactor and fired all missiles and Dolza watched in horror as the missiles closed in and detonated on the reactor. He was shocked at how fanatical the Micronians were and he was amazed that they had beaten them. They would make great allies against the Master but he would never get to fight them as he was caught in the explosion that engulfed most of his entire remaining fleet and parts of the friendly Zentraedi and Human fleet not smart enough to get far enough away.

As the explosion subsided the remaining RDF and Allied forces could make out the faint glow of a green shield of the SDF-1 and a triumphant roar of victory went up as all knew that the war was over and they could go back and start to rebuild their homes and lives. The RDF and Allied Zentraedi had won the day and had earned the right to live on. As the victorious forces made for the shattered Earth thousands of Zentraedi plunged into the Earth scattered Zentraedi all over the planet.

Rick landed at the SDF-1 and Lisa ran to him before he could get out of his Veritech and Jacob and the rest of the group made for the small group crowding around Rick’s fighter. Rick heard a cry and saw Mitchell and Carrie running for them and Rick felt happier now that he had ever remembered feeling. Right now, despite the death, the destruction and all that was to be done, life for them was good.

A/N: Holy mother of hell, that took forever, and I apologize for taking so long, I wanted to make it good. Anyway chapter twenty will be short and really have reflections by all the main characters and a little drama. Anyway R&R this one, if you don’t, I’ll hunt you down cause this took forever.

State = Continuará/To Be Continue

feedback = Sí/Yes