*Dedicated to taivaan_sininen and Ashabellanar4life for the help on descriptions(which I'm sure still need work) on what my ships look like.*

Ember hesitated as she watched the others leave her ship. Get on the Aphelion, Red had told her. She'd been prepared to do just that, walking around her own ship, maybe I'll go ahead and dock it in the Aphelion.

...and yet Ember as she stood in the near-empty vessel hesitated. Her new uniform was a drastic change the black pants, with the bright blue bent bars that symbolized New Elysium made her want to do more than run to the other ship and hide.  She clenched her fists and paused as she reached out and made sure there were no other people on board The Ember. She didn't need another person to actually fly herself, normally she preferred a copilot. But if Red wasn't currently available she didn't want anyone else to sit in his chair. 

Sorry, Red.

He was going to be angry with her, but she hoped he would understand. She was built for this and she was choosing to fly.

So far they'd only managed to attach the mounts to her hull, and one rail gun.  It was better than nothing. Ember felt the ship attach itself to her lower spine and the surge of adrenaline that always came with it as it powered her. She would always be attached to this vessel. It would be her home, her bed, her sanctuary and eventually her death. 

The only thing missing was having her copilot.

She let the cable shift her up through the doors into her chamber. The doors over her head opened up and she vaguely recalled opening her eyes in this very room to Red's worried face before she vomited almost on top of it. 

She smiled grimly at the memory as she stretched out her hands and feet and let the interface fully connect with her. There was no one else inside, so she locked the doors. 

She cycled through the various viewpoints outside of the ship making sure it was all clear before returning to her favorite, the one right in front that most resembled what she'd be seeing if this was truly her body. It opened up to the vastness of space being cut into by the brightness of the star New Elysium encircled. She didn't have a name for it yet. 

She turned to view the Aphelion from her vantage point. It was huge, resembling a large marine sea creature from ancient earth. Somewhere on that ship, Red was at work. He'd have to give her a guided tour, and he'd probably demand that she dock there. Maybe she would at some point. 

Nine hours, that's all they would have to prepare. That was not enough time to attach another rail gun, apparently... Ember sniffed. She didn't need another one. She tested the one they'd already attached pleased to find that moved with just a thought. 

####

Red still stood on the bridge of the Aphelion, but to him, it was like hovering right out there in the edge of the vast expanse of space. Once he had fully interfaced with the ship, the control consoles and the entire vessel around him had turned translucent and disappeared, and he now found himself projected hundreds of kilometers above the fleet. He moved his hands in a circle and the Aphelion moved between his hands like a miniature toy he could play with. He studied it for a moment from every angle. 

"...a general must acquaint himself thoroughly with the terrain...before he can march his army through it."*

It wasn't the same as physical terrain but to Red, the concept was similar. Every vessel had its strengths and its weaknesses. His job was to know them all and use them accordingly. 

At his feet, there was no indication of a solid floor any longer, except the feeling underneath them as he took a step forward. At each step, the hologram cast soft ripples of light outward like waves on a liquid surface.  He raised his hands and shifted them to the right and the enemy fleet was encapsulated in the space between his fingers. He spread it out studying the massive ship at the lead. It was the Perihelion. He hadn't thought about what vessel it was the last time they'd encountered it during their escape. 

The Perihelion was always at opposite ends with the Aphelion. They were out when the Aphelion headed in and vice versa. The fact that they were heading to a point gave Red a deep feeling of foreboding, like a sense of destiny that was coming for him whether he wanted it or not. Remembering the journey it took to get here and the moments with Ember, he knew he didn't want it. 

From his virtual vantage point, everything was laid out before him, but still, space battles could get pretty chaotic due to the gigantic scale at which they were fought. He brought up a hand in front of him, and from the tips of his fingers, blue lights began to trace lines in the air, drawing a holographic interface in the air that displayed miniaturized holograms of the vessels soon to be engaged in the fight. Their forces appeared as glowing blue dots, sitting there and waiting for his command. The Neo-Tokyan ships appeared ahead, glowing in red and facing them in formation. From this scale, they didn't look that far apart but they were still hours away from each other and from actually engaging.  

He, with a thought, projected the New Elysium forces out in front of them. With the legion operating the basic functions of the ship, he moved it to sit directly in front of Ehring Station, completely blocking the ring from view. Then he pushed it forward, there was no reason to allow the fleet to get close to New Elysium. They needed to either defeat them outright away from the planet or take out as much as possible to make desolating New Elysium an impossible task.  

Their forces, projected in blue, were half of what the fleet from Neo-Tokyo was bringing. They'd lost their supposed only Vesper but Red decided not to discount that... where there was one, there could be another.

Ember where are you?

Moving my ship.

Red was at a loss. You are supposed to be on the Aphelion. 

That's where I'm going. 

He felt the signal cut and let it go. Bringing The Ember to the Aphelion was better than nothing but he knew it had to gall her to not be flying right now. 

Five hours...

He could see the fleet, see their numbers, their strengths, their weaknesses.  They had nothing, supposedly no augments... But he didn't necessarily believe that. He had to account for the possibility they had everything New Elysium had. No one was that stupid, to give away their greatest weapons without hoarding them for themselves? Surely not...

A signal appeared, a channel waiting, directly from the Perihelion. Red recognized the kind of call it was. A Captain to Captain, private chat. Every ship had the capability, sometimes things were discussed that didn't need to go beyond the leaders. He'd used it before...

But now?

Red wiped everything away and made sure that Jack and Larsson were included in the call. "Not a word," he said to them without looking back.

"Shouldn't I be the one to speak?" Jack asked, his voice was annoyed. "Aren't you forgetting who is in charge here?" Any other time Red might have let him but he had a feeling that he knew who was on the other side of the call. 

Red muted Jack. "I am." Sorry, Jack, this is what you wanted me to do, I warned you that I didn't want to be here.

The channel opened and Red was face to face with Darius Dawson, his eyebrows shot up before he regained his composure, placing his hands behind his back, doing his best to radiate calm. It was a familiar pose, but he felt strange standing in it now. Another life, he thought. And that guy didn't know shit about living.  

Darius faced him in a similar position, hands placed behind his back, eyes glaring down. His peppered hair only giving him the illusion of age.  Darius was an imposing figure, well muscled even in advanced age, he wore the red, black and gold colors of his house, over a uniform that put him in charge over even the Captain of the Perihelion. His radiated power, not old age, his eyes bore the blaze of fanaticism. His eyes widened slightly and he frowned as he recognized Red. "Well if it isn't the butcher of New Caledonia."

Red stiffened at the words.  

"We both know that I didn't murder those people," Red said through clenched teeth. His fists tightened behind his back as he struggled to maintain his calm demeanor, even as he faced the man who bore the responsibility for the murder of billions of augments.

"Sacrifices must be made." The elder Dawson said. Somewhere behind him, Red sensed movement, knowing that it was Jack. Suck on that for a while Jack, he thought. He knew that he and Jack didn't see eye to eye, but Jack hated his father for what had happened and to hear the quote from him probably bothered him more than any physical blow Red would have happily delivered up.

"You and all of those other dogs at Helion 7 should never have seen the light of day." Darius continued, disdain dripping from his tone as he clasped his hands behind his back. He turned away from Red and walked in a circle. In this room it was just the two of them, however, Red suspected unlike himself, Darius would have made this whole conversation private. "I can see now that we were too merciful. With the destruction of Orion's Reach, I know we were crippled but we should have sent them more resources, given them more teeth. They should have been able to eradicate the vermin, not just cage them. But perception is everything. I know you understand this, it's why you rose so high to command the Aphelion. Even a dog can be taught to guard what is most precious to us." 

Red just stood there letting the man rant. He doubted he could get him to reconsider, he had, after all, chased his own daughter halfway around the universe to preserve his "family honor," even if it meant stripping her of everything that had made her life possible.

 "You are nothing more than a nuisance, Captain Scott. Your disloyalty shall be rewarded."

"I gave you years of loyalty," Red snapped. "I was already rewarded with prison for that service. I gave my life to you." He lifted a hand pointing at Darius. "You aren't getting anything else from me."

"I could be persuaded to mercy if you turn over my daughter.... It's past time that she returned to be purified." Darius went on as if Red hadn't spoken.

Red sighed, clenching his fists behind his back. He was tired of listening to Darius Lawson already. "You'd really take away her ability to do anything?" Red was aghast. For a moment he lost his composure, and he knew that Darius had scored a hit against him. 

This was a battle of the wills and Darius had taken a gamble and figured out his weak spot. Damn. Jack may have been right about staying away from Ember. Everything Jack had said made sense, he should have known how they would attack.

Darius shrugged. "My daughter will die a human. That is the best gift I can give her. Not with the abominations like all I see before me."

"With no say in it herself?"

Only then did Darius lower himself to look Red in the eye. It was like looking at the old ideas of the incarnation of the devil. Red shuddered and looked away first, his fists had remained clenched behind him.... 

 "You don't ask them what they want. She is mine. These are the terms I'm going to lay out for you---"

"No," Red cut him off, his body relaxed. He was tired of the man's talk already. Was this what they were all like up there? 

No, he answered his own question. Ember was an example of what they were not... He would still need to protect her, even here. But there would be no terms. There couldn't be.

"There will be no surrender. You wanted us all dead. Come and get us. Get your hands dirty, old man," Red cut the connection and his knees felt wobbly. What had he just done? He hadn't even heard the terms.

"You son of a bitch," Null, snapped and Red whipped around finding Null with her hands around Jack's throat. "I think it's high time you tell us what the fuck is going on, Neo-Tokyan, why we should we die again for you!"

***Sun Tzu "The Art of War"