love this story, would love to read more of these.

Hee! Seems I already reviewed the last chapter. Since it must have been years ago, I don't care and I'll review again.

I have just finished re-reading all the Mission stories and I want to say - again - how very impressed I am with this. You did a wonderful job at capturing Infie's 494, his reasoning processes, his quick thinking, his streak of defiance, the underlying vulnerability and his strength to deal with it. You also did a nice job of establishing him as the great -reluctant - CO and soldier Biggs described in LoA.

And of course, you created Andrews. Who bonded with him in this story, who is his link to the outer world, even if just for the duration of the trip. And who later Infie wonderfully brought back and who played such an important part of making Alec/494 who he is in this 'verse.

It really is amazing how well you managed to capture Inf's characters and universe and integrate this story into them. (already praised Inf on her own later integration, hee).

As for the story itself, great, great descriptions and details. The armament and little military jargon were great, as was the telling of the battles and skirmishes. Nice job of integrating the Balkan's "current" history with this DA post-pulse future.

Thanks again for a wonderful story.

Maia.

This is a really good story- your characterzations are excellent. However, I would suggest that in future stories you be careful not to use redundant statements.

ex. 494 shrugged. "Probably not." The norm probably didn't have any close combat training. After all, he was only here to take care of the cargo and not to fight. He might not have been killed but he would probably have been seriously injured

The last sentence is unecessary.

Also, mabye use a thesaurus- Alec says that the others don't trust him way to often and it might help the flow of the story to say that they lacked confidence in him, or were not sure of his competence.

Anyways, despite the criticism this is definitly a cut above the norm and the storyline is very well done.

Love this!

-plug- I'd love it if you'd r and R my story!

Man this is so good I can't begin to express myself altough I thought that 494 will be promoted to C.O.

It is one of the best stories i read here. i'd say it's way better then many show scripts.

Great story, it's good to read soemthing about how Alec was during Manticore, we knew that he was one of the best but we didn't know how, thankyou for telling us.

Great story, can't wait for the sequal.

Gamegirl452

Hm, ok.

I was just wondering if you were ever going to write about 494's next mission (end of chapter 5. I was going to review chapter 5 and ask this, but stupid told me that I could only review each chapter once! Hmmph!)?

'Cos I would really like to read it.

Ta,

Starre.

Era! Yay, you updated it all here! Okay, so I know I've reviewed it before, but this story is just SO good!

I loved it right from the beginning and up to the very end!

I know everyone has said this, but it needs to be repeated: Your attention to detail is AWESOME. As is your writing. It just gets the reader involved, it makes us feel like we are there. Really good.

As for the story, what can I say? You totally made me love Andrews. And your portrayal of 494 is amazing. He is this totally amazing kid, but with the intelligence few adults have. The way he makes decisions and his quickness is perfect and completely believable. But so are the insights you gave us. I think the part where he analyzes the kids playing is So strong. So insightful, so intelligent and at the same time so sad. And we can also see glimpses of the mischievous guy he turned out to be.

Truly great. I loved the bit with Milosevic and all the sports references. Oh, and the part where 494 takes command was so well done. I could totally see it.

Anyway, I am going to stop now. Don't want to bore you :).

Great job, and I hope we see more form you soon.

-Maia.

This was an awesome story! I have never read one like it really and it had me hooked the whole time I was reading it. It was also cool because my cousin is on the U.S.S Constellation, so it was neat to see you used a real ship. If you write another story it would be cool if you continued with Lt. Andrews some in some way. He was a good character and it would be interesting to see his contiuned reaction to the X-5's and 494 imparticular. Can't wait to read more of your stuff! (wow that is like the longest review I have ever written!)

Ok, yeh, I *like*!

It may not have come out the way that you wanted, but it certainly came out well.

I like the ending, and especially how 494 had to disobey orders. I'm not sure, but I think in one flashback of the series (or maybe it's something I've just picked up), they were taught that the mission was more important than the soldier, and not to go back for a downed soldier if it endangered the mission. So having 494 think and evaluate the situation, to know what had to be done was good, while having 909 basically not knowing how to 'think for himself'.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it, and want to thank you for writing it and updating so quickly.

isn't updating it's pages at the moment, and when I realised that, I went looking to see if you'd written anything else. You had. I was happy. So then I read adn reviewed.

If you ever write another mission story, I will be very happy. Ok?

Great. Once more, really like it!

Starre.

F-U-N-N-Y! Spinach and vitamins huh? This is damn great story, very interesting story line! And to think to that Alec was a "smart-alec" even from the beginning!

One more chapter to go!

Oh, I can't wait! I just love these mission stories. And thanks to you, I get to read two at once!

Yay! thankyou so much Era!

Wow, ok, so Andrews has been captured. Let me guess, 494 goes after him.

You know, I've been thinking, Max should read these mission files. ;)

Oh, and will you please do an epilogue - where they fill out the mission reports, like Infie did for Search and Siezure? Please?

I'm glad that Infie chose you to write this story, 'cos it is *good*! I love your writing.

Hm... maybe I should check to see if you've written anything else ;)

Starre.

Wow!

Updated already!

Cooly, cooly, cooly, coolies!

Ok - enough madness for now. I'm really liking this - and how 494's getting all the important jobs 'cos the others don't trust him.

It makes sense.

Anyway, thnx for updating, I was checking to see if you had and was really glad!

More plz?

'Cos if "Tonight the real work would begin" then I wanna be in on the action!

*Star*

This is good, hope the action will pick up soon.