FREELANCER:
THE EASTERN HORIZON Tau-37 System, Borderworlds
Freeport 10-a five star hotel compared to any other base I've been on.
I was told to get to Room 117, there I'll be briefed about the upcoming mission. A luxury civilian base in the Borderworlds, the Freeport 10 held its records. At the time it was built, it was one of the largest bases in existence. Capable of comfortably holding 1000 people and crew, as well as 540 ships, this 1 km long, 612 m tall structure was turned from a civilian outpost into military barracks for 1000 soldiers and pilots in less then a week. In addition, we had no idea why. The ASF High Command ordered the whole WA fleet to Tau37. I walked through the decorated, but simple white corridors, full of doors. Briefing room was actually pretty big, cheap metal chairs were stacked in long lines. About 150 people were in the room, chatting pretty loudly. ''Good day people, listen up. Im Major Lewis Brightman, from the Alliance Star Fleet Special Forces Headquarters. Im aware you were brought here not knowing the reasons, but its more serious than you think. Lets skip to the bottom line, we are about to invade Malta.'' I heard what I needed to hear, so I went towards the place my ship was docked. The operation will begin immediately. Outcasts threat to attack Liberty, and that was too much for the ASF. As a transporter pilot, my role will be important in the invasion. 2 hours later; a whole fleet was waiting near Freeport 10. I quickly found my way to the docks through this labyrinth of corridors. My AMV-71 armored transporter was docked outside the station, so I could see it through the window. The ship had 2 engines on its sides, and one in the back, above the cargo doors. It was 57 meters long, and its cargo hold could accommodate 160 tons. Before entering the ship, I checked the cargo list: 3 M110 light hover tanks - 32 tons each, 20 troops from the 4th Support , as well as 40 tons of supplies. I entered my ship, and climbed directly into the cockpit. I had 4 crew members: navigator Davis Black, top gunner Jack Howitzer Mueller, rear gunner Thomas Trigger MacKenzie and lower gunner, some new guy, who I didnt know. ''Cargo status?'' I asked. ''All tied up and ready to go.'' Davis said, checking the consoles. The AMV-71s cockpit was quite small, but all 4 crew members could easily fit in. All the gunners were also here, operating their guns remotely from here. The navigator sat left of the pilot, and the gunners behind them. The doors to the cargo space were in between the gunners. Starting the engines shook the ship a little, and soon we were away from the station. The formation already started going towards Omicron Alpha jump. ''Escorts?'' I asked. ''-Escort one here! Escort 2 reporting. '' The delta wing shaped fighters took positing in a line formation, with our transporter in the middle. Hundreds of ship moving towards Malta, in thick clouds, flying through the Tau37s ice fields. ''Check. Gunners, status?'' ''Top gunner check.'' ''Rear gunner ready.'' ''Bottom gunner all ready.'' They all responded. We were close the the jumphole, ships were jumping in from all directions. Finally we jumped. The ship shook hard flying at incredible speeds through the jumphole. Coming on the other side there was already a battle. ''Gunners, give 'em hell!'' Davis said loudly. ''Escorts, brake and engage. Watch for those flak frigates!'' I said, not believing what I saw, the Outcasts were much better equipped than we thought. As we entered the flak zone, the ship took a heavy beating from enemy flak frigates. Those were high tech even for the ASF. Soon all the fighters and capital ships were left behind to fight, and the transports rained down to the planets ground.
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The Armored Fury
Planet Malta, 13 PM local time.
Slowly we progressed towards the LZ, being hit by flaks and AA weapons. ''It cant take much more! We gotta land NOW!'' Just as I said that, a well placed missile took out the starboard engine. The ship pitched hard to the left, tipped over its other engine, and went into a spiral dive. There was little I could do now. ''Alpha 7, pull up, pull up!!!'' The last thing I could hear from the radio. In the last moment I managed to pull the nose up a bit, but the ship and its 210 tons hit the ground at 450 km/h. We were lucky we dint roll over, the ship continued sliding another 300 meters.'' Is everyone okay? '' I asked. I flipped a button and opened the cargo doors. I quickly jumped out of the burning wreck, followed by my crew. We crashed near a canyon, filled with a strange liquid. '' The voice in from the radio hailed us: ''Alpha Hotel One Niner, this is ACQ King Five, whets your status? '' I spoke to them ''ACQ King Five, this is AH19, we crashed somewhere south of a small hill, thats all we can see. Where should we meet? '' A brake in the voice from the other side, the following surprised us: '' That small hill is your objective; thats a relay station and we want it blow up. Air support is available now. ACQ King Five out. '' As the transporter pilot and an officer with a high rank, I took command of what I had. The crash took away one M110 tank and 3 men. Bringing the rest out, we settled near the transporter wreck, waiting for the night to pass. We will strike the relay station early morning. Distant explosions lit up the sky, it all looked like harmless fireworks. As the dawn came, the star above Malta shadowed the other side of the planet. I had 27 men under my command. Across the savannahs, we slowly progressed towards the hill. From the distance you could see only one road leading to the top. It was the only hill in the whole area. As all forces drive forward through this pass, between 2 huge mountains, this small hill stood in the middle. An inevitable conflict was about to begin, right here. Apart from being a good forward observation post, this hill could accommodate heavy artillery. The sun was rising on the distant horizons of the planet. It wasnt nearly as nice as on Earth though. The polluted gray atmosphere spoiled this potentially poetic sight. From these moments I realize how Earth can be beautiful sometimes. Silently we approached the hill, slowly crawling behind the tanks. The M110 tanks were designed for covert operations, fitted with the newest technology, like silenced engines and concentrated plasma rounds. The road was pretty wide, about 10 meters, rocks and strange green-blue plants covered the view. We carefully climbed up the road, taking cover behind every rock in the way. Suddenly I saw a flash, probably a reflection. I signaled Sergeant Davis to stop. But it was too late. All I could hear was a loud bang, followed by an explosion, just a few meters in front of me. 2 seconds later, when the smoke cleared, one of our tanks was a smoking wreck. ''We've gotta blow up that gun!'' I screamed trying to top the loud gunfire. Standing up I fired a few rounds into the darkness. ''We've gotta get the tank through, but we can't flank the gun! Sir, what do you want us to do?!'' Someone asked me. Although the sun was high up, it was still dark, due to the dark gray clouds in the atmosphere. I stood up again, looked over the rock and said outloud: ''Davis, Tommy, on me, take some explosives! You guys, provide suppressing fire!'' I ran out of my cover, while holding my weapons above my head and shooting. The moment I realized the gun was shielded. There was no way we could take out that gun by ourselves, so I called in air support. ''This is AH19, we need immediate air support, at these coordinates, over! Roger, this is TI93, we'll be there in about 30 seconds.'' The 2 fighters flew over once, and turned towards us. ''I can make out some AA emplacements. There's not much we can do until you take them out.'' Shooting a torpedo, the fighters turned and left, followed by a stream of fire. ''The gun is destroyed! Follow the tank!'' Running behind the tank we soon reached the hilltop. I noticed, there was little resistance on the whole hill. The M110 fired a burst of blue plasma through the bunker doors, burning everything inside.'' Seems thats it. Squads, regroup here!'' I shouted, still holding my shiny rifle. I saw Pvt. Nelson running towards me with his sniper. ''Sir, we've got friendlies coming from the South!'' he happily announced to us. In the distance, I saw the City of Malta, littering from fires and shining in strange colors. ''All right people, go get some sleep, we've got more hard work in the morning.'' Davis said, walking towards one of the trenches. I sat down near a rock and soon felt asleep. By 17 AM the rest of the 3rd armored came to the hill, fortifying all usable positions.
The Counterattack
Hill 121, Planet Malta, 7 PM L.T. I wake up in the morning, looking at the dark red sky, awaiting further instructions from the HQ. ''Sir, the artillery is in place now, our anti armor guns are ready. We have units from the 7th, 1st, and the 4th Armored down the hill. Davis told me, looking at the incoming transmission over my shoulder. I sat on the chair in the bunker, and opened comms channel. ''ACQ King Five to Alpha Hotel One Niner, whets your status?'' The voice from the other side asked. I replied, looking at the captured AA battery through the doors: ''ACQ K5, this is AH09, we captured the hill and fortified all positions, gun batteries are ready for support. Over.'' After a short break, I could hear the other him speak again. ''Okay, we will pull back to....wait....wait..'' he paused, ''you've got incoming...oh ****...theres a whole Outcast army! They're coming from everywhere! Hold the hill at all costs!!! ACQ K5 over & out!'' Fear in his voice... I ran out in the open, screaming: ''People, take your positions! Hostiles coming from the west, we have to hold the hill!'' A lot of people started running all over the place, seemingly uncoordinated. I took my phaser rifle, put the scope on, and hid behind a bunker wall. Orange-red stripes appeared in the sky. That could be only one thing-the feared Red Firewall. Some officer screamed with all his voice: ''ARTILLERY!!! TAKE COVEEEER!!!'' Total panic ruled the top of Hill 121. Everyone ran in every way, taking cover behind anything. The stripes now started falling towards us, making no noise at all. The rain of death hit the hill with full force, crushing everything below. I tried to stay alive hiding in a shielded bunker. They hit us with all they had for 30 seconds, inflicting casualties on the hilltop. We all ran out of cover, when I looked at the bunker I was hiding in, it was completely destroyed. ''They are coming from the west!'' I could hear the voice. ''Counterattack!!!'' someone added in panic, everyone regrouped to their positions. ''Wait for them to get in range!'' I screamed, but noone listened. Most of our artillery was blown up, but we fired from everything we had.
The units waiting behind the hill now charged towards the enemy, leaving huge dust clouds behind. The 2 armies now collided in the fields below the hill. Western Alliance forces were outnumbered 7:1, but the technology the Outcasts used was quite outdated.
There was little we could do while the fights raged a few kilometers north-west of the hill. Although the ASF made the Outcasts pull back to the City of Malta, they took heavy losses, and were slowly overrun. The dark came down to the hill once again, and the northern horizon skies burned lit by explosions. We just received news that the WA ground forces were defeated on the outskirts of the city. The armored fury was heading right here, with one goal to retake Hill 121. We didn't wait long until they came close enough. We tried everything to keep them away from the hilltop, knowing reinforcements are not far away. The 6th Armored division was heading towards us. We destroyed at least 15 enemy tanks, and killed maybe even 50 troops, before they reached the only road leading to the hilltop. ''Shoot the bastards!!!'' We fired at them from above, and even though we were short on ammo, we didn't save it. The first tanks reached the top shortly. I heard an officer call for reinforcements, which we knew wouldnt make it in time. ''This is AH19, we are being overrun! We need reinforcements immediately! We can't hold them off much longer!'' He was interrupted by an exploding tank, a column of fire jumped in the air, littering the whole hilltop. We pulled back from the clear, into the trenches and bunkers. ''We can't let them take the hill!!! We gotta do something sir!'' Jack asked me, but I didnt respond. I ran through the trench, towards the searching for a better cover. Sitting in a corner I quickly pulled out my FAR radio, a small thing with a screen used for long range communication. ''ACQ K5 this is AH19, whets the status of the orbital artillery?'' I asked looking towards the officer standing next to me. ''Orbital artillery is standing by. Where do you need it? ''He responded quickly. ''Need a full barrage on the hill. Now! Over.'' I said again, waiting for an answer. ''Roger that, incoming orbital strike.'' Since there was no point of screaming I called a few officers who warned the other guys to take cover. Enemies were now on top of the hill, lead by tanks, they ran towards the trenches. Suddenly everything blew up almost instantly, you couldn't watch it or hear anything, it was so loud. Every impulse hitting the ground close to you would simply take all air out of your lungs. It stopped after about 30 seconds, but it seemed like eternity. Silence on the hill. I'm not sure was it because I could not hear or because there was nothing to hear. Slowly the rest of us crawled out of cover, gasping for air. There were only dead and alive. Noone was injured. Not from the artillery. Surrounded by burning wrecks and unrecognizable junk we got out in the cleared ground, full of craters. As the sun went behind a thicker cloud, I took out a small beacon, stretched it and put it on the floor. The counterattack was repelled. I could count the rest of us on 2 hands, as we waited for a transporter, we lied down on the ground, and watched the sky. Of 121 WA troops initially attacking the hill, only 12 of us survived. Among the killed was my whole transporter crew, all 4 of them died.
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The Northern Strike
Planet Malta, 5 AM L.T.
We were ordered to go back to HQ, 12 km east of Malta city. We also thought we were done with combat, and will be returned to Tau 37. I slept most of the way to Q, there was nothing to talk about, nothing to see. Soon we arrived, the transporter landed hard, opening the back door with a loud bang. The HQ was a captured village, there were at least 70 000 troops here. We prepared for a final assault on the City of Malta, and we knew it wouldn't be easy. It was early morning, we went to Major King, he is in charge for assigning the rest of us into squads. ''Good morning, please give me your ID number and registry.'' He said when I came to him. He was tall and he had long black hair. Instantly he noticed the airborne pin on my uniform. ''Oh...pilot. Go there.'' He said and pointed at another building. ''Hey Mike! What the hell are you doing here?'' He said happily. I knew him from before, when I worked on the ASF Yorktown. We spoke for a few minutes, he managed to drop me in as a gunship pilot, since there were too many ships and too few pilots. Since I was a backup unit I had no real objectives, having to do what they tell me in battle. It was an M6 class gunship, the ASF-10385. It had 2 side engines, both behind and above the hull. It was about 7m tall, 30m long, and its shiny small cockpit windows reflected the faint sunlight. A quite large rear cargohold, about 10 meters wide, could accommodate a light fighter. Near it was a huge hover transport, refueling the ship. The only entrance into the ship was through the cargohold, since it was protected from all sides. It was a windy day, dust was hitting my face and my hands. I climbed up the left side of my gunship, and looked around. On the outskirts of the town, there were 3 Predator class cruisers, probably the 3 largest ships on the whole planet. I climbed back down and sat into the cockpit. It wasn't nearly as big as the AMV's, the pilot sat near the gunner, and the turret gunners didnt exist. This ship had 2 turrets, and it was fitted with the latest automatic defense technology. The pilot could fire 2 primary weapons, in this case 2 Phantom Phase Hammer cannons, as well as manually fly the ship. This battle was pretty much a head on assault, no major tactics could be applied to such a simple battle. The ground troops, as well as air support, were already on the way to the city. All I could do is to wait for them to call for assistance. My copilot was an engineer, Staff Officer Daniel McDouglas. ''Can I call you Danny?'' I asked him, looking at the scanner. ''Yeah, sure.'' Just as he said that, the last cruiser flew above us, shadowing the ground for a few seconds. ''Damn I'm lucky this is better than running behind a ****ing tank all day.'' He announced staring through the right window. I adjusted to ground frequency 110, and listened awaiting for a call. ''This is DK131, we need air support at our position now, enemy armored units are pushing us back on the city entrance!'' soon we were needed, and I started the quiet engines. I hit the throttle at full power, and soon we were flying towards the nearby city at 1570 km/h. In space, this ship can reach up to 2070 km/h, which was faster than most heavy fighters. Only about 1 minute passed and we were above the city. ''There! **** we have to hurry!'' Danny said, marking the leading tank. I dived towards them at full speed, firing the stream of death towards the tanks. The first 2 tanks exploded in the middle of the street, and the other quickly went around them. I stopped the ship above the crossroads where the pinned soldiers were. While I turned the ship towards the tanks one of them fired. The round hit us from the left. Suddenly the ship turned to its left side falling towards the ground. ''****! What the hell!!!'' I screamed in panic, trying to level the ship and stabilize it again. It was too late though, we fell directly on the left engine from 37 meters. I hit full throttle again, pulling the ship back into balance. ''Damn you Outcast ****s!!! Die now!!!'' Again I dived towards the tanks, this time from only 50 meters, firing at them. I flew between the buildings, occasionally hitting the ground with the ships nose, when I noticed the weapons have overheated. I kept flying towards the tanks on the ground level, increasing speed to 210km/h. Davis looked at me saying quietly: ''What the hell are you doing?!'' I rammed the first tank, it bounced off and hit the building to the left. The other 2 tanks were crushed as well. It was too late to pull up, so we collided with the skyscraper in front, passing directly through it. Although we lost power and one of the engines, I still tried to pull the nose up. The ship fell onto a 4 story building, destroying the top 2 floors. We were kinda lucky the building didn't fall apart. Silence ripped through the ship. A few pieces falling onto the ship's hull, and concrete cracking, thats all. Since we ''landed'' sideways, I could see the street we passed through. A few tanks lied on the ground upside down, smoking. The first one fell onto a balcony of a nearby building, crushing the floor. Thats all I saw through the huge hole in the skyscraper across the street. ''Oh **** my head!'' I said loudly, checking if I bleed with my hand. ''This bucket can sure take a lot of beating.'' Daniel noticed. I wondered if we had any chance of bringing the ship back to the base. At least whets left of it. ''All right, lets try to restart the engines.'' I said. Daniel flipped some switches and told me with a surprised face: ''Im not getting any power out of engine 2.'' I looked through the window and announced: '' Yeah that might be 'cause there is NO engine 2!'' Finally we managed to pull it off the ground. Amazing luck. We flew at full speed 150 km/h, since our only remaining engine gave only 50% power. It was really hard to control the ship like this. Luckily we avoided all missiles and threats, on our way out of the city. Slowly we crawled towards the HQ, leaving the raging fights behind. It was already 34:17 PM by the time, and we were tired like hell.
Omicron Industries
City of Malta, 14 PM L.T.
The resistance was crushed, all counterattacks were repelled. Malta was no longer the Outcast homeworld. Although all ground forces have been defeated, one thing remains: the battle for Omicron Alpha airspace. We landed hard at the HQ, almost hitting a house.
Our ship caught more than a few eyes, everyone around was looking at the wreck. The hydraulic doors opened, and we walked away from the ship not even looking back. Daniel held his hand on his forehead, while a stream of blood raced down his hand.
''Well, Ill see ya around.'' I said. He just waved back and responded ''I owe you a Sidewinder.'' He smiled and disappeared behind the corner. I walked towards one of the cruisers which will take us back to Freeport 10. There was little resistance on Malta. Seems they didn't except us. 3 million defenders fought against 190000 WA troops. Large convoys of soldiers, vehicles and prisoners went towards the ships. There were 19 million civilians, who were not civilians after all, but they weren't pirates either. They will be sent to prison colonies in Tau-17 and Tau-63 in the following weeks. Now we were left to defend Omicron Alpha, we knew the Outcasts will strike back from Omicron Eta and Omicron Tau. What they didn't know was that the ASF made peace with the Corsairs recently. Until then we were not even closely aware of the power of the Corsair army. As a last resort, a Corsair capital ship fleet will jump into the system and help us out. Walking along the road I could hear someone say : ''WA fleet was supposed to hunt the communists instead of Outcasts. This just sucks.'' The other guy responded: ''Yeah, so whats next? We gonna go for the Liberty Rouges?'' They both laughed loudly. This is when I regret I haven't joined the Alliance Defense Forces instead. They were right; the WA was firstly created as a response to the second Coalition threat in Alliance space.
A few minutes more of walking and we boarded the ships heading for Freeport 10. Anyways we lost 2360 pilots of total 17100. That leaves 14740 of us to fight in the space above Malta. '' Hey De, did ya see this? 210 people arrested for Cardamine usage.'' Sergeant Josh spoke to me, with a smile across his whole face. The ships flew above the clouds so we could see the red star fall behind the planet. Space is what I live for. Thats the reason I've always wanted to be a pilot. Traveling towards Freeport 10 you could see the remains of ships which fought here. I saw a large ship with a strange shape, so I asked an officer who was sitting besides me: ''Hey, what's that?'' He responded quietly, almost whispering into my ear: ''Thats the E22. An experimental carrier. I'm not sure what its doing here but I overheard it can carry over 140 ships.'' We entered a small asteroid field and jumped to Tau 37. Suddenly a pilot entered the crowded passenger area and said: ''You're all assigned to the ASF Sovereign, your ships will be awaiting there.'' Soon the transporter docked to FP10, and I immediately went towards the docking map. That was a screen indicating where each ship was docked. After finding the Sovereign, near dock 15, I searched for the Corsair battleship. They said it would be here, and I had to see that. Dock 143. I passed by on my way towards the ASF carrier. That Corsair battleship looked like it was made by the Junkers. Although it was 3 times the size of the LNS Missouri which I saw in Liberty a long time ago, it looked like it will fall apart. I almost got lost in the base by the time I found the carrier. It was pretty small, held only 20 ships, but equipped with state of the art technology and weaponary. It streamlined long hull had 3 small wings attached to its end, with engines on each wingtip. I got into the ship, followed by a few officers. Entering I pressed a panel on a wall with my hand, and the computer said: Ship 17, bay 2. I proceeded through dock 1, 10 ships were neatly stacked into small docking pits, engineers, pilots and robots were running all around them. I passed through a small door, entering dock 2. Ship 17 I said to myself, coming towards a ship I was sure I never saw before. How the hell was I supposed to fly something Ive never seen? Sorry about this, we ran out of F-210s, so here you go: a brand new F-100 Hunter. It flies like a 210 so there shouldnt be problems.
An engineer spoke to me, looking into his checklog. I climbed up on a wing, and soon felt asleep, due to the surrounding noise. It was a strange ship, with a pyramid shaped front and back end, with 3 wings on the end. I slept on the small wing until an alarm woke me up. Red and white light were flashing, and the loud alarm ripped the silence in the bay. I quickly jumped off the wing, and into the pilots seat. I started the silent engines, and quickly slipped through the ships double doors, into the dark black space. All fighters, attack the enemy destroyers! 20 fighters turned towards a destroyer, a long flattened tube shaped ship. I wasnt so convinced we could take it out. Behind us the carrier turned away towards another destroyer. First I flew under, and turned the ship from above. I fired a few heavy rounds at it, looking at the ships shield take hits. 2 of its upper turrets turned towards me, firing from the bright blue Infernos. One shot hit me, throwing the ship to the left violently. The back of the ship spun out, turning it towards the cruiser. I took my helmet off to isolate myself from the chatter of my squad. I fired another few rounds into one of the ships upper turret, knocking it off the ship. Meanwhile it fired a shot directly into my ship, knocking off one wing and damaging the engines. Slowly I flew away, opposite of the exploding cruiser, towards the Sovereign. One of the Outcast heavy fighters attacked me from the side, destroying my shield. I turned my ship behind the enemy, firing a burst of 30mm Mass Driver ammo into his back. Suddenly he killed his engines, and turned towards me still flying backwards, not loosing any speed. He fired a missile towards my ship. I energetically pulled on my controller, trying to avoid the incoming missile. It missed me by a half meter maybe, and turned surprisingly quickly toward me. It speeded into my engines, setting them on fire. The force of the blast blew up the bypassing Outcast fighter, which was nearly dead anyways. 3 days of non stop action really knocked me down. I rolled slowly towards the carrier, through the crossfire. ASF Sovereign, this is AH19, requesting docking. I hailed the carrier. Roger that Ah19, you have priority clearance for docking. Over. I docked quickly, since the carrier stopped just to let me in. The heavy doors closed behind me, and I quickly landed the ship. I jumped out of the burning ship, which now erupted in flames. I walked away from the ship, looking back only once.
The Way East
Omicron Alpha, Tau 37 Jumphole
It all happened so quickly. The main Outcast force was defeated in little less than 4 days.
We were about to take the Marauders trail back to Omicron Lyrae. Outcasts left all hopes of retaking Alpha so they did not attack any more. Planet Malta was declared inhabitable some time ago, so it will be used for some quantum weapon testing. I wouldnt be suprised if they blew it up accidentally. I knew almost no one from the Western Alliance since I joined recently. The armored fury jumped out of Omicron Alpha leaving the chaos behind. Going to the bar I saw someone I knew. Staff Officer Daniel! I said loudly. He turned and said Weapons Officer now. Am I lucky to see you here? He sat against the wall, looking at the small paper in my hand. Congratulations on your promotion. What are you doing here anyways? I thought you were on the 275s. I said looking at him from above. Nah, those idiots transferred me. Here. He smiled and paused Ive work to do now, well talk later. He turned back to the wall. I slowly continued walking; now going to my room. I jumped on the bed face down, and fell asleep instantly. The ship silently turned towards the star, and jumped to the next system. Omicron Lost. It was a border system, with a dimensional rift leading to Akeelas Beacon. Heavy ASF battleships and carriers gathered around, guarding the passage. A small red star was littering the ships lower hull. Behind the wormhole you could see a green-purple nebulae. We knew our work here was done, while hundreds of remaining ships flew to the nearest ASF outpost in Omicron Lyrae. I woke up a few hours later, still tired, watching through the side window in the bar. The carrier stopped, letting an Argon personnel transporter inside. I went down towards the dock. More transporters soon docked, flying to the Solar system.
Enlightened by the shining stars, we went back. Home. It was just another forgotten battle in the never-ending war for the universe. When the numbers are small, the differences are big.
