The past surfaces at the strangest of times. The battle looming and Red drew the small score of Tiburon fighters forward and they poured out of the underbelly of the Aphelion in a swarm. They had other fighters, but they were a motley crew of various ships stolen from various places. 

Red had uses for them all. But even as he did so the past loomed up at him again. The same past that he'd struggled to remember in the confines of Helion 7. It came up at him again when he least needed it be there.

"Captain, do you not find it strange that we'd have a communication blackout after a sudden recall?"

"I do, I'm sure they will let us know what's happened," Captain Scott had responded then, resplendent in his uniform. He'd pressed it himself before arriving.  Nodding a greeting to the personnel, who'd flown the shuttle for him, on his way out he'd moved confidently, sure of his faith in the government. 

Lars followed his large metallic body, clinking against the gangplank as they made their way down off the small craft that had carried them from the Aphelion to the Neo-Tokyan Outyards. The Outyards were one of the places the non-elites were allowed to go. You still had to have the rank to be here. Captain Scott had never been fond of it, but others had homes here, bragging about being just outside the elite society. As if they hung around the table long, the Neo-Tokyans would let them in. The Captain even then had found them repugnant enough that he'd kept his own quarters on his ship. No need to maintain a home that he would rarely visit.

He ended at the bottom of the steps and saluted the officer standing there. "At ease," he commanded the young man. But something was off as the young man did not listen, in fact, he trembled slightly. When he started to ask him what was wrong, Lars grabbed his arm.

"Captain."

Glancing behind the others who were clearly not officials that he'd remembered Captain Scott noticed the strange uniforms they wore. They were not regulation Navy at all. 

They all carried guns. Guns were not usually allowed here by anyone who was not a commanding officer. Now he understood the unease of the man in front of him. 

"What is the meaning of this?" He demanded, stepping forward. 

A blonde man with icy blue eyes carrying one of the largest guns, he'd ever seen stepped forward, his smile was sinister but it conveyed the message clearly. He enjoyed this part of his job. 

Red's augments went into full fight mode. He had no idea what the gun did so his augments shifted to the surrounding soldiers taking into account their positioning and their weaponry. Their gray uniforms with black stripes across the shoulders were foreign to him, for a second he believed there'd been a coup. 

"You've been demoted, Captain. You're an augment, correct?"

Taken back, Captain Scott's jaw dropped open. "Yes, what does that have to do with anything?"

"And the AI is your second?"

He could feel his body warnings going off as the soldier turned his attention to Lars. 

"You're fully autonomous?"

"Yes, Sir," Lars straightened, his attention on his Captain.

Captain Scott's jaw began to tick, this wasn't what was supposed to happen. Even as his augments were warning him of an impending fight, his mind was trying to put it together. Why would they do this? "What is going on?" He finally got out.

The man hefted his gun. "I love this part the most," he said before shifting it to fire at Lars.

Captain Scott reacted without thinking. 

He pushed himself in front of Lars to take the brunt of whatever the weapon was but as it hit him it rushed through him and through Lars.

He lay on the deck, pain roaring through him. A large thunk told him he hadn't saved Lars. Emp, he realized dully as his body became sluggish and his augments went offline. He was as normal of a human as he could get. "What have we done to warrant this?" He gasped out, as he turned his head to the body of his second. 

"Done?" The man leaned down to study the Captain before reaching forward and ripping the insignia from his shirt, the tear was audible in the silence.  "You've done nothing. We're just taking out the trash." He looked towards the others with him. "They always react the same way don't they? Surprising, how they can be so stupid."

A gasp came from the shuttle as Captain Scott was yanked to his feet. He looked around and saw the pilots who had flown him down, one had a hand over her mouth, the other he stood grimly squeezing his fist. He shook his head at them. Don't. The ensign nodded and closed the door.

"See to them," the leader nodded towards the shuttle. 

The shuttle doors opened again, and the ensign appeared with a gun this time and opened fire.

######

Red pulled himself from the memory as the two sides collided. This was only a feint, to test the mettle of the other side. Neither had a huge advantage here unless you counted desperation for survival versus fanatical obsession. 

How could we have been so trusting? He thought as he observed. He was alone unless he counted the legion of AI buzzing in the back of his mind through Lars and his channel to Ember. 

He watched as the red and blue lights from each side went out as they each lost fighters. Ember go and pick them off, they aren't making it but we need those Tiburon...as many as we can get. 

He'd have to send someone out to pick up any survivors if there were any. Exploding ships in space weren't always instant death, especially for augments.  

He watched as she darted out amongst the battle picking off the other side with ease, her maneuvering even in her slightly larger vessel was nothing but incredible. He longed to be on board with her rather than watching from here. He could do this, had excelled in it before, in what felt like another life. But his heart was no longer in it. His grip on the table in front of him only relaxed when she darted towards the underside of the Aphelion again. 

He urged the Aphelion forward again as it moved and he checked the weapons systems it contained. He knew the standard but who knew what had happened to it and if New Elysium had had the supplies to put it fully together.

"Captain, The Perihelion is also moving forward to engage us," Jack's voice came from somewhere beyond black behind Red.

Red studied the situation. He hated not knowing the full capabilities of the Aphelion, there just had not been time to be ready. He pushed through it now, as they neared each other's range. It was more of a cat and mouse game now, who would outlast the other... Red had Ember up his sleeve, but he had no idea what the other side had waiting in the wings.  

#####

Ember's pulse was pounding as she retreated under the Aphelion. There were twenty fighters left and they'd retreated with her to regroup. 

Both of the flagships moved in position to engage each other. The Leviathans resembled a large tentacled marine creature from the old legends of earth. Ember was sure they were legends before man ever flew out to the stars. 

And yet even before they fully engaged the smaller Tiburon moved towards each other, this time Ember took the lead, testing her rail gun, not wanting to hit her own fellow fighters. 

Ember head under the belly of the Perihelion, we need to cripple it. 

Her eyes narrowed as his voice pinged in from their channel with some static. The Perihelion loomed in front of her. 

Got it. 

She flew up towards the nose of the Aphelion a tiny speck next to it, the remaining Tiburons followed behind her, and the enemy.

"Let's send these bastards back to the abyss," a voice crackled in her earpiece. A few other voices joined in and Ember smiled at the camaraderie. She missed it, her fellow Vespers talking to each other inside their heads, they'd never needed comms to link up. It was close to what she was used to. 

A tear slipped out and she blinked it away, replacing her sadness with anger, she focused on the Perihelion. Somewhere on it, her father resided... Probably in the nose of the ship just as Red was focused on the battle so was he. 

Somewhere she felt the rest of the legion operating as Red released the rest of the Tiburon fighters completely operated by the legion. The AI's would be a basic fighting force, operating on logic and reason alone. Not necessarily creative fighters they would still hit harder than the other side, relying entirely on human pilots. 

Ember shrugged her own insult off. She was a human pilot after all, but she still thought of herself as superior.

Accelerating she flew towards the nose of the flagship, imagining her father inside. Would he be surprised? She doubted it.

Bullets came out at her from the right and she swung left arching just above the nose of the Leviathan class ship, barely avoiding the spray. She laughed as the bullets rained down on their own ship. Moron, she wouldn't mind pushing their own artillery at their own ships if that's what they wanted.

Calm surrounded her, hope you can see this father, she pushed downward along the bottom. There were no gats down here, nothing to avoid. It was a serious flaw in the design, one they'd need to rectify on the Aphelion. But they hadn't encountered another race to fight with. Just skirmished with settlers who thought they were too far outside the influence of Neo-Tokyo. People she used to help reign in.

Soft, she thought. That's what we are. Fighting each other because apparently, we have nothing better to do. 

Ember... His voice in her head again sounded so far away. She felt Lars strong presence though which was comforting. Red would have trouble getting through the signals coming off the Perihelion, and he was going to hate it.

"Go get 'em!" Another unfamiliar voice crackled in her ear. She smiled to herself. These were people she really needed to get to know later. It's not the same this time, she thought. I would never have been allowed to meet these people before. But this time I will. 

The underside of the hull was dark, blocking out most of the light, but Ember had no trouble using her sensors to navigate. She had two Tiburon following her, she almost lazily turned the rail gun around, spinning as she did so and firing a few rounds off, watching as the two ships exploded. Then she was back on course. 

Taking out the drive to a ship like the Perihelion was not going to be an easy task. She had schematics downloaded into the ship and could recall them much like an AI at will. She brought them up now matching them to the Perihelion. 

She needed a bigger ship. Or something with more firepower. Her railgun was going to as useful as a mosquito; annoying but only causing a scratch. She swerved around and waited for a moment. Surely they had something she could bring back. Even crashing an enemy Tiburon into the right spot would have more impact than the railgun. 

She turned away and moved back to the main fight... Surely she could bring someone, or a couple someone's back with her...

Sensing another ship behind her she flipped around, instantaneously sizing up her new opponent. The vessel gave her pause, as she'd never seen it's like before. 

It was all black and would have been difficult to see in open space unless it shifted in front a star. It resembled an old blackstar model but with it's "points" facing in front instead of towards the back.  The points began to light up and Ember pointed her railgun at it and fired, shearing off two of the arms.  Even with two of the points missing it still managed to fire a beam towards her which she narrowly avoided.

What is that? Hey Red, I think there's an E-- The shockwave from a second beam sent her spinning out of control, her sensors catching the other ship just as it fired. Static ripped through all of her senses as The Ember shut down, leaving her blind to the outside world. Her body shook in the harness as she felt the wave roll through her. Red!, she called out in a panic as she slid into darkness. Red!

####

Hey Red, I think there's an E--

Static. 

Red's hands tightened on the console. He watched Ember's light go out and then moments later the fighters from Neo-Tokyo broke away from the fight. He was numb for a moment, unable to move.

Lars ordered the fighters back. 

Red stepped out of the console in a daze, his breathing was heavy, his mind was barely able to process what had happened. Ember? He shook as he tried to reach her, over and over again. 

"Captain?" Lars's voice came at him. It took him several seconds to realize that Lars was speaking to him. His gaze flicked up to his friend in Amy Larsson's body without really seeing him.

"She's not dead," Lars repeated. Red took a few unsteady steps toward him and grasped his arm.

"Tell me," Red was barely standing, his eyes burned and Amy Larsson shuddered under his grasp. 

"The reports coming in suggest they took The Ember into the hold of the Perihelion, Sir. Her father wanted her alive, remember?"

That was so much worse. Red moved away to the door.

"Red! Where are you going?"

"Where do you think?" Red turned back to Jack. "Get this fleet moving, we're going to get her back." 

"We can't," Jack started. "We got them to leave, we don't have the resources to chase them down."

"We're fine," Red turned to the console. His mind race as he tried to take stock of what they had left.

"We can't," Jack turned back, his tone insistent. "Red stand down, they are leaving, we're done here."

"I can't..." Red started, Lars was still connected to the legion waiting when the hit came. He was too focused on how to chase the Perihelion down. He barely registered that Jack had hit him in the same place that Ember had placed the staples days ago. He slid to the floor staring out at the stars, his eyes sliding shut so that the last thing he saw was New Elysium in the distance, mocking him. 

#####

The door opened and guards poured in. 

Jack hesitated as he stared at Red's face. "Take him to Cyril," he ordered finally. He looked at Lars. "Can you bring the fleet back... Lars?" He hesitated over the name Red had used. Larsson nodded at him before turning back to the console. 

Jack was sensing an opportunity, one he'd wanted before but had been denied him.  Red was too dangerous to leave completely untethered... And his reaction to Ember's capture was the proof. "I had to keep the fleet here," he tried explaining to Larsson, whom he'd known for years, but Jack realized he didn't know her at all. He was still grappling with the fact there were two people inside of that body. "I had to protect the fleet," he tried again, aware that he was assuring himself more than the woman in the room.

"Sacrifices must be made," Larsson responded in a monotone voice. Jack winced at the phrase, once again reminded of his father, but he nodded, his shoulders dropping in relief. He walked out of the door missing Lars's last thought on the subject. "Idiot."