VonGrippen rolled up his sleeves, walking around the broad glass desk in the ship's stateroom, sparing a glance towards the high stern windows that commanded such a magnificent view of the system that had become home for the past two years.

Two years of blood, sweat and more than a few tears. But at last that work had began to pay off. The restoration of the derelict had began originally with the idea of simply getting back to Geldan VII, but as the repair's progressed, the true potential of the starship had began to be realized.

The Polian repair system had been ideal for repairing the hull sections, but seemed to have no concept of the intricacies of rewiring or laying the conduit system that would channel power cables through out the ship to the necessary areas. For that they had begun to look elsewhere. The HMS Shisak had provided a great amount of raw materials. And the decision had been made that since she would be unable to accompany them home that she would be stripped down and incorporated into the Excalibur's design.

The monumental task of stripping a starship in space, coupled with the state of the Icarus, had at first appeared daunting. But as the work progressed it became clear that they would be able to manage. The network of umbilical conduits that linked the two ships together fed power from the Shisak's main reactors and gave life, once again, to the Excalibur. While EVA suits and dropships skimmed too and fro as the crew toiled.

With the near limitless capacity of the Nano-bots Ben had suggested taking the opportunity to repair the superstructure and to strengthen the space frame. That had required the removal of the asteroid that the ship had been impaled upon. The ideas from the freed POW salvage engineers had ranged from cutting the ship free through to incorporating it into any potential redesign. An idea quickly dismissed by Diaz who had pitched a stronger idea over morning coffee.

A large open lab area beneath the bridge had been converted into a meeting area for the technical teams. Coffee pots from the Shisak had been installed and leather office chairs salvaged from throughout the ship had been set up in a semicircle while a construction crew had built a series of tables around them. Conference-one had quickly become the idea nexus of the ship as the crew learned about deep space salvage from the experts.

VonGrippen periodically attended the meetings, preferring to keep back and watch the crew debate the ideas that were thrown up. Making decisions as he was called upon to do, but allowing the experts to throw about suggestions on the how and the why.

Diaz had been in a bad mood, something about a terrible date with one of the Petty Officers working to clear the hangar deck of debris so that it was ready for regular flight operations. With a crew of only four hundred and fifty, it was hard to keep a secret, even on a ship the size of the Excalibur. She had stormed into conference-one obviously irked, simply not in the mood for the general niceties that came along with professional meetings.

She'd quickly earned a reputation for her bad moods in the morning, coupled with a generally acrid tongue that could peel paint off of a bulkhead, many of the crew scurried for cover from her when she was on the war path. Her way or the highway had often seen other engineers twice her years and experience go running for the Admiral's Stateroom in and effort to get him to step in.

VonGrippen had discovered, with his boundless patience, that Diaz's temper was a result of her own anxiety and a perfectionism that made her work virtually flawless. Of course the fact that she could generally piss off everyone working with her to the point where they knuckled down to get the job done as fast as they could just to get away from her didn't hurt either. So he generally told the individuals concerned to deal with the situation and stay focused. A practice that didn't win him many friends, however a starship Admiral's job wasn't popularity.

That particular day, after she had bitten the head off of Lieutenant Commander Sterling Havelock, the acting chief engineer, for his inability to make a decent cup of coffee, and the fact that as usual he'd claimed the largest mug on the table which really wasn't fair as it was at least twice the size of any of the others. She'd settled in to tackle priority one, the 'Stone'.

VonGrippen stayed back by the elevators sipping on his own mug of coffee, his uniform sleeves rolled up and the collar of his tan shirt open. A side effect of the ISA vessel being predominantly crewed by Americans was that the uniforms they had left behind, also salvaged by the Shisak crew, tended to be US naval uniforms, awkward with the House patches sewn onto them.

He wasn't sure what started the usual exchange, Diaz probably, she liked to push buttons with snide comments whenever someone tried to pitch for the umpteenth time the same old ideas that had been rejected so many times before. Havelock had argued with her that she should sit and wait her turn, that she wasn't in charge there. The spiral was predictable especially after nearly a year of those meetings, and VonGrippen contemplated stepping in and getting things on track when Diaz dropped a simply brilliant idea in one of her counters.

"Incorporate the asteroid? What you want to fly around with a big rock stuffed up our nose?" She tsked in her naturally dismissive way, "I don't know why we just don't use the nano-bots strip the thing down and use its component parts to make more nano-bots plating, then ditch the rest."

It hadn't taken much to put her plan into action; the bots were in need of raw material. The tiny robots went to work on their new project converting the raw materials of the asteroid into more nano-bots, which in turn sped up the work on the rest of the ship, as slowly the proud blade-like prow of the Excalibur was once again revealed.

The question arose of what to do with the excess nano-bots after the work was done, but Ben, ever the creative thinker in his own right, suggested adaptive armour. Nano-fluidic armour that could anticipate an incoming weapons blast and strengthen its density in that section, adding to the durability of the already strong starship.

Brilliant minds.

In any project of the scope they were attempting there were unforeseen problems. The primary problem was the destruction of the Excalibur's primary reactors. The engineering sections of the ship were almost non-existent, and trying to strip out the faulty nuclear reactors from the Shisak, reactors that were leaking like sieves simply wasn't an option.

An alternate power source was required. And that had dictated the exploration of the alien starship Sierra-three. After nearly eight months of inactivity there had been no indication of survivors from the alien craft, and Captain Maguire had volunteered with Lieutenant Worth to go across to the alien vessel escorting a salvage team. Attempting to see if there was anything of use across there.

At first things had appeared grim, the nuclear strikes from the Shisak had destroyed a great portion of the aft section, however after the ship had been swept clear by Lieutenant Worth's men the engineers had been set free to have their field day. The equipment they had brought back had at first appeared useless, energy weapons that employed a maser system, enhanced sensor packages that while important wouldn't assist them in the present. But the greatest prize came upon the discovery of the Zero-point generator.

Tapping directly into a dimension of pure energy the reactor was capable of breathing new life and hope into the Excalibur. The device, extremely alien in its design was relatively light and portable, the capacitors, great crystal devices would have to be installed first, the reactor between them. And with appropriate instructions to the nano-bots, a custom reactor housing was designed running along the underside of the after section of the Excalibur, heavily armoured and protected so that the mistakes of the original Icarus flight would never be repeated.

Finally able to power itself, Excalibur flared to life and its crew found a renewed vigour that came from the realization that the hardest part of their mission was at last over.

The weapon systems brought back from the alien ship had supplemented the pin-point defence systems stripped from the Shisak, closing the gaps in the ships defensive screen and providing a secondary layer under the Flak barrier. The Shisak's rail cannons were mounted and brought online as along the dorsal hull before the bridge superstructure, nuclear silos were installed to bring the remainder of the Shisak's nuclear ordinance aboard.

Though the final weapon had been a source of great debate.

The Zero-Point Bore, as it had been nicknamed by the crew, had caused its share of problems. The main cannon of the alien starship appeared different than any other system upon that ship. Using similar technology to the Zero-Point generator the heavy weapon system would require an equal amount of customisation to the ship's configuration to ensure that it could be integrated. A massive channelling crystal that would run along the length of the ship encased in armour plates and focusing mirrors, it would project the lethal blast outwards along the bow and towards a target.

The controversy had been brought up by Maguire, concerned with Oppehiemer syndrome, a lagging reluctance to introduce a weapon of such destructive power to humanity. VonGrippen hadn't shared his misgivings, controlled correctly it was just another tool that would assist him in ensuring the freedom of the House and the colonies under its banner. And with his own morality keenly in place, he could see the opportunities for abuse, but also realized the need, like with nuclear weaponry, for consideration to be applied to how it was used. And since the Excalibur already had enough firepower to shatter a world, the addition of the cannon simply served to reinforce its armament.

Walking slowly the length of the stateroom windows he contemplated where they had started and where they found themselves after two full years of work. The Excalibur was complete, undergoing space trials as the sensors were calibrated and the weapon systems tested.

"Sensor systems are calibrated Captain," The hologram appeared in the centre of the stateroom, fidgeting the way he always did, trying to wipe his glasses on his uniform, "I have taken the liberty of updating the star charts for this particular system with the accurate data we are compiling in real time."

"Thank you Commander," VonGrippen nodded, his arms folded as he ceased his pacing, "and the gravitic drive?"

"The first operational test of the gravitic drive should begin this afternoon." Durnham stood patiently, "Ms. Diaz seems confident that adjusting the bow drives from the alien ship will provide sufficient momentum so long as we use all six drives in tandem units."

VonGrippen turned his head to view the rear tri-foils that supported the alien gravitic drives. Projecting a sizable gravity well before the ship the Excalibur would literally fall towards it, shift the gravity well and the Excalibur would in turn change its heading allowing for the kind of pinpoint manoeuvring that almost mirrored the Polian vessels. Had they been powerful enough the alien ship wouldn't have needed the ion drives to boost its speed. Fortunately Excalibur was a lot smaller than the alien behemoth.

"How is Mister Walczak progressing with the computer core?" VonGrippen inquired coming around his desk and stepping down into the recessed seating area between the desk and the door.

"He is quite knowledgeable about A.I. operations and the mainframe Quantum computer, also he appears quite fond of attempting to communicate directly with the ship," the holographic commander appeared mildly amused by this, "she find's his attempts endearing even if she doesn't fully understand what he is talking about when he attempts to explain 'ship board gossip' to her."

"Remind me to have a word with Mister Walczak," VonGrippen murmured, "and you, Commander?"

"I am well," Commander Durnham responded, used to the question. Many of the crew took him for granted as the ship's graphical interface, treating him as nothing more than an extension of the ship's operating system. However VonGrippen had done his best to get to know the man that had at one time been alive.

Derek had attempted to explain what had happened as best he could. The Excalibur's A.I. had still been in its developmental stage when Icarus had launched, the first officer, Commander Durnham had been assigned to work closely with the ship to educate it and act as a bridge between the ship's Captain and the computer. When whatever had occurred happened, the A.I. had been deactivated, reactivating when the Shisak's crew had tried to bring the computer core back online.

Alone and desperate to understand what had happened to her, she had tried to find Commander Durnham, unable to do so she tried the next best thing. Accessing all of her memories of him she had recreated him to almost the finite detail, transferring his identity to her newly created A.I. Child. She had created her own bridge in an effort to reach out to the strangers onboard that had brought her back to the realm of the living.

It had taken time to win their trust, and VonGrippen had found that Commander Durnham, clear, concise and clever in his own right, was a keen chess player. The pair whiling away hours playing the game during their off duty hours.

It was like that for much of the crew as well. Two years saw crewmates becoming friends. And understandings grew out of their close living arrangements. Maguire worked just as hard as any other officer on the ship, taking charge when he had to, knowing that his own survival was tied to theirs. Derek, at times shy, at others quite extroverted, had earned the respect of the crew by his willingness to work, and the relationship he possessed with the ship. Diaz, for all her attitude, had her place in the community onboard the ship.

VonGrippen walked out of his stateroom, passing the bank of elevators in the connecting corridor before walking out onto the bridge. The CIC at the rear of the bridge, surrounded on all four sides by its backlit plotting boards had been updated with the Shisak's holographic situation table, displaying a map of the system they were in projected in intricate detail from the enhanced sensor systems integrated into the ship. VonGrippen marched past it, coming to a stop with his hand upon the back of the command chair, looking at the holographic tactical displays that overlaid upon the observation windows.

Commander Maguire was down on the weapons tier, turning and climbing the centre ramp to join VonGrippen up on the Command tier, "fire control seems to be configured," he reported, "I'm still a little worried about the lack of missile coverage along our flanks, but Havelock assures me that he will have those launchers ready and online inside of a week."

"Very well," VonGrippen inclined his head, "are the gravitic drives ready for their test run?"

Maguire smiled, "ready and able."

VonGrippen motioned to the helm pedestal to the right of the command chair, "if you would be so kind, Mister Maguire."

There was a moment of delight in the other Commander's eyes as he took his place at the station, activating the holographic interface, feeling his way through the Orion style controls that gave better control over the gravitic drives. Warming up the system as engineers scurried to their monitoring stations, watching the reactors as they fed power to the drives for their first space trial.

VonGrippen took his seat and steepled his fingers, sitting back and feeling the connection with the ship, and sensing her anticipation, he looked over at Maguire, "be sure to give the drives a thorough testing, let's gauge our top speeds. Let the ship run."

Maguire nodded, understanding what VonGrippen meant. After two years of sitting still there was a need to shake off the cobwebs, to sense the feel of a deck vibrating underfoot as the ship moved under its own momentum.

At a command from VonGrippen the Excalibur pulled away from its makeshift dry-dock, the remains of the HMS Shisak and the Alien vessel left behind. The Gravitic drives worked flawlessly giving a singular grace to the silvery ship as it slid through the night, her running lights gleaming, the Striking Falcon depicted on her forward swept wings. The channels in the hull showing the glowing blue crystal of the Zero-Point Bore underneath the armour plating. She was a sublime beauty, like a sailing ship of yore that belonged amidst the stars.

Aboard her crewmembers cheered, securing the last of their work. The hangar deck beneath the flight deck housing the two dropships hastily renamed EX-01 and EX-02 in honour of the great lady that had become their home. She combined the best of four civilizations all culminating in her design, sleek and powerful in her own right, there was no denying that she was a warship at her core. A heart of steel ready to fight should she be called upon to do so.

"Mess hall rations number four," Derek mumbled as he waited for the 'chef' to peel open the cover of the self-heating ration pack and toss it heavily onto his battered metal tray. After two years, the food all started to taste the same, bland and unappetizing.

Derek would have killed for a decent hamburger, or a pizza... or any number of foods he had given up to accompany the 'fearless leader' on the trek to the middle of nowhere.

Diaz as usual sat alone, and Derek contemplated finding a quiet corner to go and hide in. Many people wondered at his capacity to deal with her flaring temper which, at times, he had been the recipient of. His reply had been that, growing up in a house of four girls and his mom and being the only man there, you learned pretty quickly how to let irrational anger and cranky behaviour slide. In plain terms, he simply ignored it.

Of course that didn't mean he was sadomasochistic enough to willingly put himself through the wringer with her. There were only so many times a day he could put up with snarling temper tantrums when he tried to be polite, or ask for the salt, or complimented her on her hair... It really didn't take much. Of course if he tried to get away, that would cause another fight entirely when he feebly tried to explain why he hadn't sat with her.

Diaz was fast becoming a stout example of why Derek preferred the company of men. That and the ratio of boys to girls on the Excalibur was easily five to one, and most of those were taken. Left with little other choice, Derek had often found a special kind of release in spending time with the First Officer Ben. Not a sexual kind of friendship, but more a sense of admiration that Derek had. Ben loved his partner, and was looking forward to returning to Geldan, a consummate faith that he belonged with just one person. It was reassuring for Derek to know that there was more to a relationship than a casual one night stand, or a bumbled relationship lasting three weeks, two of which were spent trying to avoid the person in question.

Sex, well sex wasn't exactly readily available on ship. The Kaynin seemed to disprove that, as a half-dozen pups followed their mother to the dinner table. But try as hard as he liked, Derek typically couldn't make much headway, it seemed every guy he fell for was taken or straight. And though he had a few offers for a romp or two in the communal head down on C deck, he hadn't taken them up on it.

He sat down across from Diaz and set his tray in front of him, hoping that she had at least one cup of coffee in her and was in a good mood. Naturally she wasn't and began to complain loudly about Havelock and his asinine rules that made no sense to anyone but him. Of course try to point out to Diaz that the rules Havelock followed were the Uniform Military Code and that all he was doing was to attempt to instil order in his engine room would have been met by a very angry set of words directed towards him.

"How were the jump tests?" Derek asked hopefully, "I felt us jump..."

"They're good drives," Diaz responded a little irked that he had changed the subject on her, "the recharge time is pretty astounding though. They take about half the time of a standard Orion jump system, meaning we jump once ever twelve hours instead of every twenty four."

"That's going to cut down on our travel time," Derek replied smiling, at least that had to be good news.

"Yeah but VG's planning to go back to Geldan VII the first chance he gets, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up on some back water colony picking mosquitoes out of my hair while you bang rocks together for fire."

"Geldan's not that bad," Derek retorted, "it sound's quite nice if you talk to any of the colonial..."

"Of course they'll say that," Diaz snapped, "just cause they live there. Look I am thinking that once we put into the first colony we find, I am going to take VG up on his offer to ship home on a Tradeliner. A little first class as opposed to steerage," she gestured to the ration pack, "I am so sick and tired of those that I warned chef, if I see him so much as open one around me I was going to shove it so far up his..."

"Diaz to reactor room, Diaz to the reactor room." The shipboard P.A. rang out.

Derek smiled, thinking to himself that he was luckily saved by the bell.

Diaz stood, cursing about not even being allowed to finish her coffee as she stalked off leaving Derek to relax and try to enjoy his meal in peace. Naturally that wasn't to be, as Octavius entered with a young Kaynin wearing a baseball cap and rushing to keep up.

Of course for Derek, he had no idea when it came to Kaynin how old they were. They seemed to hit puberty and just stop aging, which made things interesting. As a people they were drawing heavily upon Geldan society for their culture, developing their own cultural heritage as they flourished. It seemed that they preferred complex family arrangements, partners seldom bonded for long, picking and choosing who they wanted to love and showing genuine affection to each other. And yet there was a feeling, at least from Derek's observations, that they couldn't shake their canine heritage. There was no question, Octavius was VG's hound, there was a love for his 'master' that was obvious by the way he interacted with the Admiral, beyond even the Geldan crew's reactions to the Admiral.

Octavius plopped the young Kaynin down at Derek's table and looked firmly proud of himself, "Excuse me Mister Walczak, but you are the computer specialist and this pup is in need of training." He cleared his throat a little, "he is the youngest of one of my litters and he lacks... direction."

Octavius's polite way of saying that the scrawny pup with the shaggy hair was the runt of the litter and he couldn't figure out what to do with him. Derek just sipped his coffee and nodded obediently.

"His name is Antoni Kyr... he comes from good stock and breeding," Octavius fluffed a little, proud that his own bloodline was becoming so prized amongst Kaynin society, "and he is intelligent. He will make a fine apprentice if you train him well."

Derek nodded, "I think I met him at the last Christmas party, the fast one with the..." Derek snapped his fingers, "yeah."

Ant looked a little sheepish, the Christmas parties on the Excalibur had become such a big event, especially given the size of the community, and on a dare a group of young Kaynin had sprinted with rolls of toilet paper through the lower decks 'decking the halls'. It had been humorous until Commander Maguire had put a stop to it and ordered the kids to re-roll and account for every scrap of the precious paper that had become a sought after commodity once it began to run out.

"I shall leave you two to get acquainted," Octavius surmised as he rose again, flashing his white incisors to a pair of female Kaynin at a far table and wandering off in their general direction whistling to himself.

Derek looked across at the dark haired lad sitting watching him through dark round eyes. Seeming harmless, but Derek knew better. The level of sheer mischief attainable by one bored Kaynin was measurable upon the Richter scale because of its potential for destruction.

"So," Derek said after a moment.

"So," Ant echoed.

"'sup?" Derek asked.

"Nutin, 'sup?" Ant replied.

That was getting him nowhere fast, so Derek sighed, "so you like computers?"

"Nope."

"Right," Derek responded prodding a piece of cardboard in his ration pack that was supposed to be a chocolate brownie, "so what do you like?"

"Dunno," Ant shot back.

Derek sighed again wondering if the Kaynin wasn't better suited to a job in weapons control or one of the pinpoint gun turrets where at least there would be explosions to keep him entertained. But then he realized the potential for sheer chaos and disaster there should Ant get tired of waiting and try to start his own battles just to get an explosion or two off for good measure.

"Well till you figure it out, how about you give me a hand up in the main server room. Commander Durnham's gonna go ape when he learns you're helping me." Derek smiled, "might help keep him off of my back while I try to tweak the A.I. programming to access Captain Taggert's logs."

Cruising at high speed through one of the outer systems, the Excalibur was making good time on the return journey to Human civilisation. Her jump drives functioned properly and her systems, despite lingering problems with the main power converter. The main power distribution system that fed power from the Zero-Point Reactor into the jump drives and main weapon systems. It had shown a capacity to overheat, both the original UN systems and the ones stripped from the Shisak had developed a tendency to overload when the reactors were run at anything close to maximum capacity.

VonGrippen sat contemplative of their first series of moves. On the desk before him the Overlord computer sat, unopened. A reminder of the gift from Markus, a gift that, to the Admiral, served as a reminder of Earth.

Instinct drew him towards home; he could simply start the long journey back towards Geldan along the Beacon Corridor using the Excalibur's jump drives to cover the distance. But that still didn't solve the Earth problem. If Earth didn't destroy itself through civil war, then eventually it would find a way to reach the House, and how would the colony fare after a hundred or so years of isolation? Would VonGrippen be merely laying a whole new set of problems on the doorstep of his grandchildren?

It wasn't like him to worry; he greeted each of the problems with a cold, rational thought, except for one. Katherine. He missed her terribly, and after two years he longed to just be lost in her arms, staring into those luminous eyes of hers... it was a weakness he never admitted openly. For her he would change the world, for her he would fight any war, win any battle. She had but to ask... Except that the one time she had asked him for something, he hadn't been able to do it for her, and that crushed him.

What difference could a single starship make on Earth? Could he make the Americans sit up and take notice of him long enough to realize that their days of mastery over space were at an end? That the colonies had finally decided they wanted freedom?

He reached out to the growler phone on the desk beside him, "helm new course and heading, I want you to put us on course with the closest American controlled colony." He set the phone down again. He would find a way to guarantee freedom, Markus had delivered to him the perfect intelligence, his enemy as seen through their eyes. And with Overlord feeding him accurate and real time data he would deal them a fatal blow.

"Liberation is a subjective term," Maguire snapped hurrying to keep pace with VonGrippen as the two men wound their way down through the corridors of the ship, through one of the main cargo bays and across a second larger bay that currently stood empty.

"Liberation from an occupying force isn't subjective to the inhabitants of Tarkus," VonGrippen replied descending the metal rung steps to the starship hangar bay, "nor is it subjective to any of the other colonies the United States of America currently occupies to fuel its war machine."

Maguire caught VonGrippen's arm, "look, I've come to consider you a friend over the past two years, and I'd like to think I have come to know you pretty well. You're not the holier than thou type. You don't go foisting your opinions and morality upon other people, let alone colony worlds. You can't sail up to a world that has been peaceful and obedient under the United States rule, level guns at their government buildings, threaten them with orbital bombardment unless they surrender and see your vision of democracy."

VonGrippen turned back, pausing on the ladder, "why not? That's exactly what governments have been doing for hundreds of years, including the United States. I am simply removing a puppet democracy from power and ensuring that the civil population of Tarkus knows that they are free, at long last, to choose who they wish for their government."

"It's gunboat diplomacy," Maguire urged grabbing onto VonGrippen's arm earnestly, "reconsider this, please?"

VonGrippen looked down at the hand on his arm, then he looked up into Maguire's arm with a stare that made Maguire release his arm, "I remember Tarkus before the war, it was a safe agricultural community. Founded by Ukrainians. That was until the Americans with Orion help dispatched a division of troops to pacify the colony."

"Tarkus requested American aid, we went in to help liberate them from a corrupt government from power that was abusing..." Maguire paused, blinking at VonGrippen's look, "oh my god... that was House VonGrippen..."

"Villainy is just a matter of perspective. Yes I seized the Tarkus Colony, and would have held it were it not for... mitigating circumstances. As for corruption, it depends upon who you ask," VonGrippen replied, "I simply feel that without the outside influence of American peacekeepers on Colonial soil, the colonies will choose their independence over continuing to support the war efforts of a government too blind to realize its own aspirations for domination, let alone another's."

"And you, Alexander VonGrippen, are the self appointed Captain Nemo of space." Maguire crossed his arms, "avenging injustice by inflicting as much damage as he can upon his perceived enemies."

"Yes," VonGrippen responded, walking out onto the hangar deck as one of the Colonial shuttles descended through the airlock starboard plane elevator and taxied across the deck. Inside were the representatives of the Tarkus Colonial government, the governor and the military commander of the colony, all realizing the level of firepower the Excalibur had poised over their heads, and choosing to talk rather than suffer a long and bitterly sustained orbital bombardment of their capital buildings.

Maguire shook his head, wondering what it would take to make VonGrippen stop with his mad quest, and simply go home.

Nemo had found a fiery end in an underwater volcano, dying with his Nautilus. Would VonGrippen find an end like that? Maguire shook his head, no, the wily bastard that VonGrippen was, he'd find a way to survive and thrive in the chaos he was about to create.

Madame VonGrippen accepted the communion delivered to her at the basilica by one of the many Cardinals that routinely gathered in Vatican City. Amidst the ruins, Cardinal Kardiac Strathcona laboured to perform the sacrament. The great and beautiful city could still be seen all about him and despite the blackened and scorched windows, and dark craters, there were signs of the reconstruction. Debris being tended by bulldozers trying to repair the damage while artisans struggled to pick through the wreckage to find what could be saved..

The Americans, it appeared, could still be counted upon to miss a target in the most spectacular fashion imaginable. The high altitude bombers sent to ravage Rome getting confused in the stratosphere, a commander panicking over the sheer numbers of European Valkyrie fighters, or a computer glitch that had thrown their GPS satellites off by a few miles. It didn't matter, the Vatican had burned. The condemnation the world levelled at the United States for its barbaric attack had been shouldered by the outgoing administration, preserving the road for President Elect MacDonald to take office.

Madame VonGrippen gave a slight smile as she watched Sephradon, an apt pupil, kneel to the Cardinal, duplicating her mentors motions, looking up to where the Pontiff sat, giving his blessings to those that asked for it. Amidst the ruin, Pope Adrian V sought to show the world that the Catholic Church was strength in a time of madness...

As the young woman joined the former Highlady off to one side of the shattered basilica, she adopted an imperious sneer, "what does this serve?"

"A demonstration," Madame VonGrippen murmured, "of the true power of God..."she turned her head, "the power of his righteous vengeance."

"Of my righteous vengeance," Sephradon corrected her eyes cold and dispassionate, "and why... pray tell... should I oblige?"

"Because in order to set a trap for those that have secured themselves behind their impenetrable fortresses, then we must first provide the appropriate bait to draw out those that have wronged us both..." Madame VonGrippen looked up towards the Pontiff, "besides, what better way to prove your divinity? It would be solidified if you struck down his mouth piece."

Sephradon arched her delicate eyebrow, "you simply seek to draw your son to Earth. I fail to see how cutting down an old man will aid me in my cause..."

"I taught you better than that," Madame VonGrippen replied through clenched teeth as she smiled to the Prime Minister of Italy who walked past them after receiving his own communion, "when the Pope dies, who will come to his funeral?"

Sephradon licked her lips, "I see your point..."