When the soul has suffered all it can...

Janus's lab was massive, at least five stories tall and a hundred meters squared. Even in its somewhat darkened state it was easy to tell that many strange and wonderful and terrifying devices lay littered about the huge room in the centre of which Janus ran around a large console that went from the floor to the ceiling.

As Trebal entered the room she could barely make out the man through the dim lighting and the thick 'forest' of machinery.

"Janus, we are officers from the Lantean Warship Aurora. We have been ordered by the High Council to retrieve you and bring you back to Atlantus." She expressed to the unseen Scientist from just outside of the doorway. She signalled one of the officers to go forward while she covered him.

The group moved forward closer to the centre of the room. The lack of lighting made it difficult for her to see anything.

"Stop what you're doing or you will be arrested!" She said again, wishing that they had brought a torch with them.

"I'm sorry but..." She turned around to see the scientist Janus standing behind them. How he had managed to sneak behind the armed group of Lantean security officers she would never know. "The research being done in this facility cannot be halted; I am so close to having a viable way of combating the Wraith which may lead to a victory in this war."

"Scientists, engineers and technicians have been saying that for ninety eight years, what makes you think that you can do anything?" The security team stood down as they realised that the darkness was not a sign of a foothold situation but rather Janus' personal tastes.

"Because I've already tested it, you see with my invention...which I've called the Attero device..." He uttered as he moved into the technological jungle that was this man's working space. He was so sure of himself, a confidence that was clear as day even in the twilight laboratory.

"We don't have time for this, the council has ordered that you be returned to Lantea and the humans that are hiding in this gas giant evicted as soon as possible." Janus stopped in his tracks.

"The council can't do that, there are over five hundred thousand people hiding in this planets atmosphere. Too deny them safe harbour here would surely result in there death...or worse."

"What's worse than death? Double death?" She added sarcastically as a matter of fact to the scientists face. He apparently didn't have a sense of humour on par with scientific qualifications.

"Being fed on by a Wraith is a far worse fate than death Commander." He spoke, as if a matter of fact to which the surrounding security officers nodded to themselves. He moved into the large collection of machinery that Trebal barely recognised and began to mutter to himself.

"We don't have time for this. We have five minutes a go." She affirmed to him.

"Alright, just let me get something." He said from what she believed to be the general direction of the centre of the station.

A minute later he came out of the dark centre of the room carrying a small piece of technology. It seemed so unassuming; it could have been a datacore, a core drive...even a breakfast maker. None of the Lantean officers could know that that device had been responsible for the deaths of millions of people and thousands of Wraith...Janus was holding the activation tablet to the Attero device.

"What about the potentia that we detected as soon as we boarded the station? Where is it? " Trebal asked as she finally holstered her force pistol.

"Its in the centre console, do you want me to extract it?" He said as his smile faded into a frown.

"No, no...But my captain is going to need to pass key to enter the stations systems..."

.................

He found his home on fire, the trees and planes outside little much more than ash while the remaining trees of the great forest would soon join them and the sky red and filled with Wraith ships. He pushed through his wooden front door to see the back window of the main sitting room shattered.

"Aurora! Alia! Anyone!" He screamed at the top of his lungs through the smoke filled room. He coughed loudly as the poison entered his lungs. He looked around his home, at the light turquoise walls and the red carpet and the stained glass that now lay on the carpet. He pulled himself to the stairs and made his way up, ignorant of the dangers if the building caught fire. ..

He thought himself up the stairs to find that the upstairs of his hoem was far worse than the downstairs. The smoke had clustered up here and it made sight all but impossible and to breath was even more difficult. He put his hand on the bronze coloured support beams that doubled as decorations only to bring them back from the heat.

"Children! Aurora!" He wailed to the top of his lungs as he felt ground begin to shake...

............

The large gun metal coloured hatch of the gateship fell to the floor slowly, too slowly for the Captain's liking. While not an impatient man he had never allowed a crew member to be that slow. Inside the gate ship stood the CAG Kiana, her uniform slightly torn and she had a gash on her forehead that he assumed she had left to bleed while she made her way to the ship. They both sighed as she put one foot onto the hangar deck.

"Permission to come aboard Captain?" She asked her commander with a frown with her hands on her hips.

"Permission granted Commander, report." He said and led the way to the bridge. He waited for her to catch her breath while they walked the ships corridors before asking on a report on the situation.

"It's bad sir, six hive ships plus cruiser escort." She said, flatly and openly. "Assuming that every Wraith Hive Ship carries two hundred fighters on average plus the fifty that we've seen cruisers to have before that's..."

"One thousand eight hundred Wraith fighters...plus the six hive ships and twelve cruisers." He interrupted, as flat and openly as his subordinate. "So either way, we're screwed."

"Yes sir." They entered one of the many transporter bays that the ship had.

He turned around and pressed the console screen on the part that indicated the closest transporter booth to the bridge. A white light went through the booth as they were transported through subspace to the other side of the vessel. She stepped out of the booth first while he followed.

For the next three minutes they walked through the incredibly large vessel in silence, Commander and Captain both considered about what to do next. Should they attempt a hyperspace jump within an atmosphere this volatile? Should she lead the gateships in an all out assault on the Wraith vessels? Both were stumped.

As they entered the bridge the holographic view screen deactivated and Second Watch Captain Verro turned away from the direction of where it was with a satisfied grin. The Captain continued on walking while Kiana stood there in the doorway. The captain sat down onto his chair.

"Captain, I've been in communication with Admiral N'chevaron, the leader of the humans that currently inhabit this planet's atmosphere." Verro said, as he crossed his arms.

"What does he say?"

"After several threats to my mother, he agreed to bring the fleet to follow us out of orbit...although he did say that he would level an official complaint with the Lantean High Council." Both men's eyes met in perfect understanding.

"The day when the High Council listens to a human complaint is the day that Trebal teaches Salsa dancing." The captain said to himself quietly. "Verro, summon the senior staff. We need a plan."

"Yes sir."

...............

As they filed into the chamber it became apparent to them all that there were more people in the room this time than last. As usual the captain took the head seat while the command staff sat around him...unusually Engineer Hephasialas sat at the table as well as Janus, the man who not thirty minutes ago Trebal had threatened to arrest.

They had been debating for a little over ten minutes, no real work had been done and with every wasted moment the Wraith came closer to storming the atmosphere and eating them all alive.

"I'm sorry, I may have lost track at this point, could someone please some the situation up for me?" Karyan said from her seat.

"We're currently sitting at an altitude of thirteen kilometres from the edge of the atmosphere, which itself is mostly fluorine and methane. Because of which we can't open a hyperspace window in atmosphere because if we do the entire atmosphere would catch a light faster than the human vessels could jump to hyperspace. There are six Wraith hive ships in orbit and none of the human vessels have weapon systems that can get through the Wraith carapace hull. As the captain said, we're screwed." Kiana summed up the situation to the physician. Janus placed each of his finger tips together as he often did when in deep thought.

"What if we use the gateships as a fighter screen, as a distraction? " Adalyx said to the opposition of Kiana and the Captain.

"With those kinds of numbers? Eighteen ships plus a Pegasus class cruiser versus six hive ships...the gateships would be dead before you could calculate the circumference of a circle..." Verro said, discounting the idea right at hand.

"What about separating the human fleet in two? One group goes one way while the other goes another way while we keep the Wraith occupied?" The captain groaned.

"I don't like it, the wraith could keep us occupied with the hive ships while they send the fighters to knock out the engines on the human vessels and then come back and cull them after the Aurora's been destroyed."

The room went silent again, for a minute? Two minutes? Did it really matter, all the officers were stumped on what to do with this sort of situation...They had defended human vessels hundreds, thousands of times from Wraith attacks but never in this sort of environment. To defend this many people from the Wraith in this type of atmosphere was madness.

History never records what happened, maybe his soul had finally suffered enough and it was ready to finally fight back but suddenly, the captain stood up from his seat and made his way to the centre of the room. He looked as if he had just had an epiphany; he stared out through the room's large window at the station that was still attached to the ship. He turned back to the command staff...

"We're thinking too much like we have in the past, we have to think in a new way..."

"Maybe we could rig some sort of machine to increase the planets electromagnetic..." Janus began before being interrupted by the captain.

"No." He said, more forcibly and fiercely than all but one of them had ever seen him. "We've got to punch our way through the Wraith blockade. We'll go just outside of the atmosphere, raise our shields and fire all our guns at the Wraith while the human vessels jump out-one at a time if it needs to be and then leave and never look back. "

"Agreed." Each one said in turn. It was a sound enough plan, maybe a little simple for what they were usually used to but maybe that was what the war needed, a simpler plan...a good offensive. As they left, one by one Captain Villgans stopped Janus in his tracks. Waiting for the last member of his senior staff to leave before he spoke

"Excuse me; I understand that you have a potentia on board your station?" He said much more calmly now than before.

"Yes sir, something no doubt that Moros will level against me in trial." Janus replied with a smile, a hope to see his home again that even the captain couldn't ignore.

"I wouldn't worry about it, I have no intention of filling a report with Moros about any of the technology on board that station, for all the high council will know you had built a bar on that station and were enjoying happy hour."

"Thank you Captain." The two men shook hands. "But why do you ask about the Potentia? Do you intend to use it to improve your ship? How would you explain that to the High Council?" The Captain pulled away from the handshake.

"You misunderstand me." He said fiercely. "I intend to shove it down the Wraith's collective throats."

........

He found himself kicking and screaming as he was being dragged out of his burning house by a heavily armoured security officer which he could only guess to be a military police officer sent by Moros and the rest of the high council.

"No! Leave me be, I need to find my family!" Renatus howled as he was cuffed and placed in the back of the gateship. He got up to make his way to the pilot, to knock him unconscious and to use his ship to try to find his loved ones even as the Wraith put his home to glass but he was stopped by a second, previously unseen officer that sat in the co-pilots seat.

"Sit down sir or I will stun you!" The bald officer commanded. Renatus ignored him and made at him even as his hands were bound by trinium but the officer shot at the captain before he could even land a blow on the officer's head.

As the Captain fell to the floor messages began to come in over the ships subspace radio, messages from stranded people and stranded vessels without a direction...The two military police officers gulped and looked at each other as a woman shrieked "Save Us!" over the radio....

.......

The Aurora broke the seal with the station, exposing its contents to the highly poisonous and corrosive atmosphere of the planet. The ship slipped forward slowly while hundreds of smaller human vessels did the same behind it; not wanting to give the Wraith any idea of what they were planning they left the Aurora's shields off. It was a bold move, and a dangerous one but if all went to plan there would be few casualties.

The bridge crew was resolute; Trebal took over piloting duties while in normal space while the Captain stood behind the Command Chair. To the port side console and behind them Janus stood at the engineering station in permanent communication with Hephasiaslas in case something went wrong with one of the ships vital systems...On the starboard side of the bridge stood Second Watch Captain Verro who was busy coordinating the escape with the various commanders of the human fleet at the sensor and communication station.

Renatus could feel the uneasiness of his crew, he himself was worried off course but many of them were so young...not even fifty! He understood that many had of them had hopes of Ascending one day...it would only be the actions of a kind Ascended Ancestor that any of them ascended today...

"Its not too late you know, to turn back and call the High Council for assistance." Trebal turned the control chair and smiled at her commander as she spoke. He thought for a moment...

"Please, and take the chance of giving a long depressing speech about us away from Moros? Not on your life Trebal." He replied with an evil grin. She turned the control chair back to the viewing window.

.....

Adalyx stood in front of the six other gun commanders in his department. He knew all of them, their names...their partner's names, their children. Though most of them were not members of the Great Houses like him he still respected them, between them they had destroyed an incredible number of Wraith ships...enough to rival any other crew in the Classis and he was proud to serve with all of them.

"Alright...Check your sights and remember that you're not firing drone weapons you're firing the ships energy batteries. Good luck, good hunting." Adalyx said to which his staff nodded in their approval.

He looked around the gun control chair room; it was empty besides himself now. He bent down and put his hand on the back of the chair, where Karyan had repaired it before. He smiled: it was warm which meant that there was still energy going through it.

"Good." He said as he stood up again and turned the chair around without any resistance. He sat down onto the warm metal chair and activated it. He felt a wash with the ships sensor information...the ships data network superimposed it on top of his vision and if he willed it so he could totally blank out his sense of sight in favour of an input from the visual sensors on board the drones which were now under his control.

For a novice or even a talented 'natural' controlling drones could be dangerous to friends as well as enemies...but for a trained Lantean gun officer such as Adalyx it was an art form, a dance in the name of the lords of war.

..................

Throughout the ship the various department heads gave their staff words of envouragement and orders that were to prepare them for the coming battle...Kiana spent the time before the battle preparing her ships and pilots for the possible evacuation while Karyan prepared the ships medical bay for the incoming casualties.

.....................

The Aurora's dragonfly head appearing out of the large brown and blue gas giant was the first indication that the Wraith got that the Lanteans intended to leave the planet. The ship stopped at a small distance before suddenly between the massive planet and the six Wraith Hive Ships. On the bridge the captain stared the Wraith vessels down from behind the control chair, if anyone didn't know better...they might have thought that he was going to growl.

"Everyone thing good thoughts." He said to Trebal who grinned in reply. He grinned at the Wraith again as he saw that they were releasing fighters.

"Captain, they're releasing fighters!" Verro exclaimed.

"Thank you, I can see that." He tapped the small intercom device on his collar. "Adalyx, Salvo flak fire...I want it to rain."

"Yes sir." Adalyx replied following which the bridge could hear the gun captain ordering his staff.

The space in front of the Aurora became a bright yellow killing field, hundreds of Wraith fighters were eliminated in the first wave by the Aurora's twenty four hull mounted energy weapons. The Captain smiled, it was all going to plan...

"Shields up." The Captain ordered.

Behind the Aurora several dozen human vessels lined up the behind the ship, its energy killing field and its impenetrable shield. The various ships suddenly began to jump into hyperspace while the Aurora took the full force of the attacks from the Wraith ships. One by one the ships left the field of combat until none were left.

"First group of ships has departed." Verro announced with a grin to the bridge.

"Out of how many?" Trebal asked as the command chairrocked from side to side.

"Thirty seven."

"Fantastic." Captain Villgans said.

....................

The Council chamber was full for once. At the door stood two military police officers dressed in the thick leather armour of the officers that he had encountered on warships. Moros sat at the head of the table as usual however oddly the seat directly next to him was clear. Renatus Villgans didn't care, he had nothing left...his commanders were dead and his family...they were gone. The pain was tangible, he wanted someone to reach into his chest and pull it out for the entire world to see and for him to shoot, to kill it so that it didn't hurt anymore...

"We, the Lantean High Council, the Alteran Colonial Quorum, The Great Houses and the Alteran people charge you, captain Renatus Villgans, son of Apolloson Vill...." Moros began reading through the traditional speech for the accused when suddenly the broken Captain spoke up.

"Enough of this crap, either put me on trial or list my ancestors. The millions of people in this galaxy don't have enough time for you to do both. Just get on with it!" The Captain said from his seat, a single tear managed to break through his defences and roll down his cheek.

"Very well then..."

..............

"Verro, I'm not sure that the ship can take much more of this!" Trebal said as a power surge went up through one of the conduits in the floor and blew up one of the consoles. At seventeen minutes in the fight was going better than expected...shields were still holding, drone levels were still holding and they were still able to fire the energy weapons but the ship was in considerably rough shape.

The Captain couldn't help but cough violently as the smoke and ash entered his lungs. He followed one of his officers with his eyes as the officer went to collect the woman that was standing at the console that had just exploded.

"We've got two groups left to go!" Verro replied as he tried to keep his footing on the bridge. Even though the shield was absorbing most of the Wraith weapons fire and the Gun Commanders were taking down most of the wraith fighters their was still considerable weapons fire from the Wraith ships, enough to start to rock the ship violently and do damage to its subsystems.

"Verro, I'd like to get this done before we lose artificial gravity!" Renatus complained as he took the young woman's place at the front of the ship. "Janus, input the code into the station computer and get ready to make it overload!"

Janus nodded and grabbed the small semi transparent computer that sat on his engineering console. Though it was impossible to see from across the room he input the seventeen digit code and nodded at the captain. He was ready...

"One more group!" Verro announced with a smile to the entire bridge. The bridge crew grinned to themselves even as their ship was being battered by Wraith Hive Ship weapon fire and as they fired in kind. We can do it, we can make it.

........

Adalyx was awash with ecstasy as his mind wrapped itself around the Drone weapons that he now controlled. He smiled when the Drones ripped through wave after wave of Wraith fighters, turning them to little more than boiled dust, he laughed as he saw the faces of the Wraith that he killed...tears fell from his eyes as he made the Drones explode within Wraith ships...killing thousands of the monsters.

........

"That's it! The last group has gone." Verro exclaimed in exaltation to which the crew momentarily cheered. The Captain turned his head from the smiling Second Watch Captain to the Commander who sat in his chair.

"Trebal!"

"Already there sir." The Aurora abandoned its position in the mouth of the storm on the edge of the atmosphere. The Wraith vessels continued to fire but it didn't matter.

"Janus!" The Captain exclaimed to which the Lantean scientist nodded in reply. "Trebal, jump!"

As the Aurora jumped into hyperspace between the four Wraith Hive Ships a reaction began at the heart of Janus' station's Potentia power source. Like the birth or the end of the universe itself exotic particles collided with dark matter and everything else within the artificial universe of the Potentia....A great mass of energy was released, enough to destroy LX-335 and anything around it. The Wraith on board the vessels were pulled apart like warm bread by the massive explosion and the collapse of gravity that could be seen light years away...

.............

Renatus stood now, on trial in front of the eleven High Councillors of his people. He wasn't sure og what the penalty for resisting arrest was but he was sure that it would not end well for him. It only got worse when one considered that he and High Councillor Moros were not the fondest of friends...not fifteen minutes before he had spat in the High Councillors face.

"Captain Renatus Villgans, former commander of the Lantean Fleet Command station. Are you ready to receive the charges?" Moros spoke in his typical judgemental voice that put himself on a pillar and all those addressing him under his foot.

"Get on with it." The Captain said, defiant to the end.

"Very well, Renatus Villgans. We the Lantean High Council sentence you to..."

"I apologise for my lateness, I have only just received the message to return to Atlantus and I decided to view the charnel house that is the main land from space." Renatus turned to face a young woman in the doorway. She was very beautiful...her hair was darker than the space between the stars and her eye lids were painted gold...In many ways she reminded him of Aurora, how she had been in the worst of times, for what would any fair woman now be but a pale in comparison compared to his late beloved?

"Councillor Melia, it appears that you have missed the majority of the trial. We have already voted and were about to sentence Captain Villgans as you were arriving." The captains gaze followed her as she sat down, occupying the final seat next to Moros.

"Yes, although I am not convinced of this man's guilt...you say that he disobeyed direct orders but did not that disobedience allow the two Officers that apprehended him to guide almost one hundred smaller vessels back to Atlantus? Did this not inadvertently lead to almost a thousand of our kind being saved?" She spoke eloquently and with a confident voice that surprised the bound captain...most of the council were spineless yes men he had been told!

"Melia, we have already voted-"

"We have not already voted, you voted without my attendance Moros. We will vote again democratically, as has been the Alteran custom since the dawn of our civilisation...and remember, the vote must be unanimous." She spoke fiercely to her superior, with a fire that would have surely given her a rank in the Classis...

.................

The Aurora sat in the middle of a nebula orbiting a small barren planet with an orbiting stargate. The damage to the ship was somewhat extensive but for the most part the shields had held and the number of weapons fired was still comparatively low. The casualty ratio was the best part of the mission, nine casualties, none of them fatal.

Captain Villgans sat in his office on board the Aurora that also doubled as his quarters, it had been a hard day and the one hundred and thirty seven year old Lantean was almost completely haggard at this point. As he finished his report to the High Council Commander Trebal made her way into the room.

"Sir." She said as she handed him her own report, written on a computer tablet.

"Thank you Trebal." He said as he read through it. "It was a busy day."

"Yes sir it was." She answered quietly as she stood at attention. "Adalyx and Karyan sent a message from Atlantus."

"Oh?" He asked, intrigued as to what his Gun Captain and physician had to say.

"Yes sir, they report that they've been drafted for a two week tour in the monitor corps but they also say that Councillor Melia sends her thanks for a job well done." She said as she twiddled her thumbs behind her back.

"You would have thought that she would have contacted us herself." The Captain said, his voice a cry of disappointment.

"Yes sir, but I don't think that Moros was happy that we destroyed that gas giant."

"Oh really?" The captain said as he pulled his attention away from the computer screen.

"Yes sir, apparently his exact words were something like 'I'm going to have that mucking fans commission.' "They both chuckled to themselves. He gave one last look at her report before handing it back to her.

"Thank you Trebal." He spoke gently. "What does Hephastialos say about the repairs?"

"Three weeks just to sort out the dings." She said with a grin as she turned off the pad that the report was written off.

"Thank you Trebal." He said.

"Good night Sir."

"Good night Trebal." He said as she left the room. As she left the room something crept onto his face that hadn't in a long time...a smile of pure happiness and words echoed throughout his mind that hadn't since the day that his wife and children had died...

"We can do it, we can make it. We're going to be alright."