02:23 March 20th, 2298 (military calendar)

OUTER EXPANSE, 432 LIGHT YEARS FROM THE GALACTIC CENTER

UEC HEAVY BATTTLE CARRIER – 798 "SPIRIT OF ENDURANCE"

Commander Barnes stood in his personal observation deck, which also served as their battle room. He pressed the button down on the command console and played his personal music playlist. He changed it to Rochkeninovs Concerto Number 3. The music has helped sooth him, on his sleepless nights. Which has grown worse over the past month, more in the past couple of weeks. He closed his eyes, letting the sound of the music seep into his mind, cutting off all fears of the past, present, and future. There was a systematic beeping as the intercom turned on. He pressed a button and turned the music off and grabbed the handset.

"Yes?"

"Sir, we have confirmation of one of our probes the location of the weapon."

"Where is it?"

"In the Nehoric Expanse."

"Are you saying its beyond our galactic rim?"

"Yes sir, only a handful of ships have entered there."

Barnes had heard of the many rumors around the expanse, that alien's creatures, and monsters beyond imagination roamed freely. How a crew that once entered there returned anatomically inverted, and still alive. That explorers who dared to enter were never to be seen again, only to find they went made with rage, and ate, and mutilated each other. The only ship to confirm this was the Event Horizon, which was one of the reasons why they never enter. The crew had mutilated, murdered, and ate themselves. Captain Delrio of the ships last transmission, showed him holding his eyes up, stating some mumbo jumbo. But it wasn't any anomaly that did that to the crew. An expedition team found them, all dead, they were poisoned by a rare form of radiation, that was affecting them. It came from the metals they were mining from, a extreme case of Cherenkov Radiation poisoning, along with a biological agent, which most likely came from a away mission. In the end, the expedition team, destroyed the ship, blowing the reactor up, hoping for nothing to happen again, but that is a understatement, it will. Humans tend to repeat history, repeatedly.

"Kellen, plot a hyper-light jump, take us in the direction of the Nehoric Expanse."

If one thing was for sure, it was one place they could build such a weapon, no surveillance, little activity besides the expedition teams, and cartographers who mapped out the area.

"Aye Sir. It will take about 23 consecutive jumps to get there. About three to six months, when we enter the expanse, the laws of space act differently, we won't be on a galactic plane. It's all empty space."

"I know, we must recalibrate our navigation array to account for that, and the deflector dish."

"Understood, just keeping you up to date Sir, Kellen out." Barnes reached back down to his hip and turned the music on letting the music sooth him again. If they go forward with the plan, the next time he will see his son will be in two years, maybe even a hundred if they don't get rescued. His sons would be old men, even dead already, with grandchildren, and great grandchildren. The mission was risky, but they had to do it, for the UEC, for their families. It was a risk he was willing to take.

. . .

Colonel Jarvin sat in bed. The night was quiet – for once. It had been nearly 4 days since they saw any activity from the ESU military forces. The crew finally had time to rest, but they were still on their toes, waiting for something to happen, whatever small. When he heard of the plan, he was one of the few who objected, he wanted to get home to his grandchildren, he was only a XO, and old for one that is, but still, he wanted to go home. Over half a year in space was one of the books. He had never been on a ship day after day, for more than a couple of months, three at most, before getting some down time on a planet that had a beach, and plenty of women. The only thing he had for him, was that he never spoke to his daughter, or grandchildren that often, after his wife divorced him, a nasty breakup, he was found to be having an affair, with one of his subordinates, right when he was going to be promoted to Admiral, and what happened? He was demoted to Major, and worked his way up, all while the CO, was a Colonel, and now his commanding officer. Barnes was nearly 32 years his junior, young for a Commander, and gifted, but he should have been the commander, of some other ship that the Spirit of Endurance. He had heard of his previous assignments, XO of the Pegasus under Commodore Paris, he stated that he was one of the most gifted tactical planning officers the fleet has ever seen. Paris practically groomed the bastard to be the perfect Commanding officer, even to the point where he has a maneuver named after him, The Barnes Triplet, an advanced maneuver that could put an attacking ship in more danger by firing, since they would have to reload. New ships can perform the maneuver, but is difficult on a ship of such size, and age. The maneuvering thrusters couldn't meet up, and having several crewmen pilot at once, meant it would be impossible.

Along with that he had 5 medals of valor, the Colonial Cross, the UEC Excellence Award (marines), three purple hearts, the Colonial Medal of Honor, and the highest award the Colonial Military Congressional Honor Award, for his created of the Barnes triplet, which saved his ship, alongside four battle stars, one gold. He on the other hand had a couple, a pilot's wing, UEC Excellence Award (Airforce), a Purple Heart, and three bronze battle stars. He was considered a decorated officer, but Barnes was something different, he talked to the crew unlike a CO, talked to them like friends, being friendly, and kind, a way to get to the them, and they trusted him fiercely, probably even die for him.

He himself didn't question his loyalty, it will always be with his CO, and the UEC, he would die for them, he would die for any crewmen, but he had an obligation to protect those above and below him. Even Barnes would do that – not that anyone wouldn't. Jarvin was considered a unusual military officer, growing up on a ESU occupied Colony, was part of the militia, after a massacre, he turned, immediately, and fled the planet to the nearest Coalition ship and signed up. His past to most of the crew was shadowed in mystery, all of it was redacted for his safety.

Jarvin grabbed a cigar and lit it – nothing like a cigar, it reminded him of home, how his father would smoke a cigar every night, and tell stories of early expeditions into the Expanse, of the Reavers, and space pirates, which were all too real. His father wanted him to join the militia, and then the ESU military, just like him. His father said he was a freedom fighter, they wanted to be independent, that the UEC had no say in how they live their life, or pass taxes. Most colonies were poor, and couldn't afford the taxes, and without taxes they had no representation. It was the leading cause of the war, even before his time, his grandfather was one of the first soldiers during the Coup D'état against Harvests UEC government, it was a bloody battle, killing 40,000 people in a single day, the UEC on the planet, ended up being totally wiped out, overthrown by the masses, outnumber 4 – 1, the total casualties were mostly UEC military.

"A Proud day it was!" was what his grandfather said, every time he went on about the first victory. There had been other resistances, but the Harvest Coup, was the largest, full control over a planet, once they had that, they moved on, becoming a war machine, threatening the UEC entirely, which was now a realization. "I never thought we would win, but they didn't want to fight us! Not once!"

Growing up on Sagittarian VII the motto that the insurrection went by always read the same words in bolt:

FREEDOM, HONOR, DUTY, RESIST, REBELLION, UNITED, JOIN THE ESU MILITARY CORE TODAY

For some reason, the words never seemed to leave his head. The pure idea of such things was intriguing to him as a child. Jarvin was raised by his father, exposed to the propaganda, the ideas of the ESU, and eventually what they really wanted was not just control of the Expanse, but they wanted to own all of controlled space. They called the UEC the Demon, how they wanted everything, how they were losing their freedom. That if they don't resist they will be prey to an authoritarian society, one which they themselves have become. The UEC was authoritarian, but they were that to hold control over the colonies, to keep the peace, and communication between the planets, while the ESU was a full totalitarian regime, not better than the Nazi's, all they wanted was to take out the UEC, and make the world they want. It disgusted him. Jarvin was a good man, he was no monster, not mass killer. He'd be damned if he did that. The ESU was the monster of a empire.

Jarvin, after going over all the options, had come to the same conclusion, destroy the weapon, or be destroyed, he had family, on both sides of the opposition, a niece who he saw once, on a one-use travel visa, a non-aggression agreement, he was there for her birth and christening, and that was it. She would be a little younger than Barnes, who happened to her – he will probably know. When it came to making his decision, it was the needs of the many out way the needs of the few, and they were the few. His niece could be dead for all he knows, or the creator of the weapon, it was all speculation. But his loyalty was the UEC, and that was how he made his decision, either be destroyed by one side, or be destroyed by the other, by hatred, or loyalty. It was the one scenario, become divided, and fall, or become united and stand. The crew of the Spirit was the one for the latter, always following their commander, and doing what was right.