In terms of raw military strength, it would seem that the
   Army of the Southern Cross couldn't possibly have had any
   influence on the outcome of the Crystal War.  Given General
   Leonard's history, however, it shouldn't have surprised
   anyone that he was not content to allow the RDF do all the
   fighting.  In the end, the ASC affected the conflict far
   more than anyone expected.

    - Scot Robertson, A History of the Southern Cross

Two hours later, the Earth had changed from a mass of colors and textures that filled half the sky to a jeweled crescent slowly dropping behind, a scattering of faint lights dotting the night side. Off to the left, the moon appeared a little larger than Kyle had seen it before... he was farther from his birthplace than he ever had been in his life.

For the first half hour after launching from the SDF-3, Kyle enjoyed himself. He played with the on-board computer, pulling up readouts on every system of the Veritech and running tests on his updated radar package. A part of his mind recalled that day in the South American hanger where he met Vala and played with a flight computer just like this one, but he forced down the twinges of regret that followed.

After a while, though, the excitement drifted into thoughts of his encounter with Vala aboard the SDF-3. He tried to distract himself by writing up the details of the SDF-3 battle, electronically squirting it down to his editor in Monument City along with the footage from his turret camera. That didn't take long, though, and as he dropped into the enforced idleness of the autopilot, his emotions began oscillating between guilt and anger, both increasing in intensity as his mind dwelled on the conversation with the micronized alien woman. All the old regrets came to the surface, but this time they competed with a touch of indignation. Kyle had made a terrible mistake, but the time they had spent together should have been worth something to her.

His confused thoughts were interrupted by an unexpected call coming over the comm. "This is Southern Cross Convoy Tango. We are under attack, repeat, under attack! We need help!"

Oh, blast. Kyle's first thought was to let the Southern Cross deal with its own problems... it was a call very much like this one that destroyed his life. After a few seconds of rational thought, however, Kyle reached toward the cockpit and thumbed several switches.

The convoy was not within the limited range of his radar, so the first question was obvious. "This is MBS Veritech Knight One. Give me your position... over."

The sender of the distress call immediately rattled off a series of Earth relative polar coordinates. Kyle inputted them into the flight computer, which plotted the position of the convoy and displayed it on the radar and information screens on the cockpit. The distress call was coming from a position one hundred and twenty three klicks away, at 49 degrees to starboard and 8 degrees down from Kyle's current heading.

"Convoy Tango, this is Knight One. I'm about twelve minutes from your position... heading your way now. I can't promise much... I'm alone out here, but I'll try to help. What's your situation?" As he spoke, Kyle disengaged the autopilot and grabbed the flight stick, maneuvering until the highlighted waypoint appeared ghosted on the canopy in front of him and moved into position directly in front of his nose laser gunsights. He hit the afterburners with a flick of his right hand, and felt his body sink into the padding behind him.

"Sixteen fighter pods ambushed us, down to twelve now. We've lost two of our six escort Veritechs, and the convoy is starting to take some hits! I hope you can get here soon, Knight One!"

A bit over two minutes later, at a distance of a hundred kilometers, the convoy and its attackers appeared at the edge of his radar. Over the following four minutes, the tension increased as Kyle listened to the battle. By the time Kyle could see the distant flashes of combat ahead, two more tri-thrusters went into oblivion, as did one more of the SC Valkyries.

"Thank God you're here, Knight One! We're taking a beating here!" Kyle quickly sequenced through the targets his radar was now picking up, highlighting the lead transport. It was a fairly new Jackalope class shuttle, unhurt so far. As Kyle continued flipping through radar contacts, though, he noticed that two of the other three shuttles in the convoy showed signs of damage. At six kilometers, the Extended Range Rapier missiles he had picked up aboard the SDF-3 could get a lock... though they had the same speed and payload as the basic Rapier missiles he was loaded with on Earth, the ExRaps had twice the range, and he fired all six of them at the first three tri-thrusters that came up on his target display. He then had to switch to his remaining Rapiers, and wait for the distance to drop to three klicks before he could do any further damage.

While waiting to lock-on again, he watched as the ExRap missiles destroyed one of the target tris. The second fighter pod took a grazing hit from one of the missiles aimed at it, but managed to avoid the other, while the last pod was obliterated by the first missile to hit it, leaving the second missile to detonate in an already expanding cloud of debris. Kyle was initially tempted to target the damaged tri for his first Rapier shot, but as he watched it spiral out of the battle leaking smoke, he realized it was out of the fight. He quickly clicked through the remaining targets, finding one the SC Veritechs were not concentrating on, and waited for the distance to drop.

About a minute later, his gunsight turned red, and seconds later, with the lock-on tone echoing through the cockpit, he fired two Rapiers off his wings towards the enemy fighter. He immediately brought up the next Raulon've pod in the computer's list, waited for the lock tone, and fired two more. Then he was within the battle himself... too close for missiles.

He quickly keyed a control next to his right hand, and the closest enemy target popped up on his target display and radar. Kyle flipped off the afterburner and matched speeds, turning hard over to bring the target in front of him. The tri-thruster was making a dive run on one of the damaged transports, and Kyle fired off a couple of shots, even though he knew he was too far away to expect to hit the pod. As he hoped, the arrow shaped craft veered off of its attack on the shuttle to deal with him. It came at Kyle in a head-on attack, and though Kyle managed to put a couple of laser shots into the tri, he took a grazing hit that would have holed his canopy and killed him if it had collided three feet further to port. As a surge of adrenaline flooded his bloodstream, he pulled up and placed the pod in his gunsight, waiting until it turned green before gently pulling the trigger. As Kyle kept the fighter pod in his sights, five laser bolts from the nose and head turret of his VF-1A impacted the body of the pod, converting the enemy mech into an expanding ball of gas and shrapnel.

The next Raulon've Kyle targeted had a better pilot. Every time he had it in his sights, the blasted thing would suddenly jerk in an unexpected direction. After a number of useless laser shots around the ship that never actually hit, the enemy pilot suddenly braked and spun around, putting a hole through Kyle's port wing that somehow managed to miss the two missiles still slung underneath. With a quick flash of thought, Kyle reached forward and flipped one of the transform switches, flinging his Veritech into Battloid mode. He sprayed GU-11 slugs across space around the dodging pod, running through a quarter of his gun ammo before the pod spat out a trail of smoke and spun out of control. However, before he could finish off the tumbling craft, it righted itself and once again dodged to the side, right into a hail of laser bolts from one of the SC escorts. The tri-thruster ended its life in a ball of flame.

As Kyle quickly sequenced through the remaining targets, he stopped in surprise when his cockpit display highlighted a ship well outside the boundaries of the battle. Sixteen klicks away, a recon variant of the standard Zentraedi battlepod sat quietly, watching the combat. A quick check of the radar showed the recon pod had an escort of three standard Regult pods. A second recon pod group floated on the opposite side of the battle.

He didn't have time to dwell on the mystery... two laser blasts flashed by, and Kyle immediately juked his Valkyrie to the side while he pulled up the offending Raulon've on his target displays. The enemy ship, moving much faster than his battloid, rocketed by on his right, and though Kyle sent several seconds worth of gunpod slugs towards it, he missed entirely. A quick flick of his hand, and he was matching speeds in Guardian mode. When he got the on-target tone from his gunsight, he pulled the trigger, and half a dozen depleted uranium bullets punched through the back of the tri-thruster. The damaged fighter slowly drifted to the side, exploding into two tumbling pieces several seconds later. Kyle had a brief glimpse of a giant tumbling humanoid figure spilling into space before a secondary explosion obscured his view in a flash of bright light.

Kyle quickly pulled up the closest enemy target, mildly surprised to notice that it was one of the recon pod escorts. All the attacking tris were gone, and the recon groups were already retreating at max thrust. Three of the four Southern Cross transports showed minor damage, but all were still under power.

"You're a godsend, Knight One! Would you mind joining our escort until we reach Armor Thirteen? Our cargo must reach there ASAP!"

It didn't take Kyle long to make his decision. "No problem, Tango Leader. I was heading that way anyway. What's so important about your cargo?"

"We have experimental technology from the Tokyo research facility. Zand himself designed some of the components. I don't know exactly what the parts are for, but General Leonard is anxious to have them aboard."

That gives me something interesting to follow up on when I get to the SC Platform. I smell the beginnings of a story already. As Kyle matched his heading and speed to the lead transport, another question popped into his head. "Anyone notice the recon pods that were watching us during the fight?"

A new voice crackled across the comm circuit, coming from one of the three surviving SC Veritechs. "Yeah, Knight One. When we first picked up the ambush, the recon groups were traveling with the tris. Once they got close enough to engage us, though, they remained back at a safe distance." The pilot sounded a touch worried. "I fought during the Uprisings, and I've never seen Zens do that before... the aliens always attack with everything they have."

A small voice in Kyle's head whispered that the mysterious enemy recon pods were going to end up being much more important than any experimental technology Lazlo Zand had come up with.

An hour later, Armor Thirteen appeared on Kyle's target displays. A year ago, the space platform had belonged to the RDF, but pressure by the United Earth Government eventually forced Admiral Hayes to hand over one of the RDF ships to the Southern Cross. Given the recent political rise of the Southern Cross in Earth politics, the UEG felt Leonard should have at least a minor presence among the orbiting forces. Armor Thirteen, just off the Factory Satellite assembly lines at the time, was one of five new ARMD class space platforms built since the end of the Zentraedi War. Though it looked nearly identical to a pre-war Armor Platform, its propulsion and armament made it nearly a match for a Zentraedi Tou Radir class scout ship.

Kyle watched the distant dot of the Armor grow in front of him with a touch of anxiety. Every time he dealt with the Army of the Southern Cross, it turned out badly. After losing Vala and his RDF career, he couldn't think of the SC without being engulfed in anger. Though the emotions faded with time and enough alcohol, they still remained.

This time, though, it was thoughts of Vala that brought anger. For the first time, Kyle realized that perhaps he had been using the Southern Cross as a convenient scapegoat. They didn't force him to disobey orders... he did that all on his own. Perhaps he was placing the blame in the wrong places. He already blamed himself, but if Vala had really loved him, she would have stood by him rather than trying to kill him; her alien blood just kept getting in the way. Perhaps it was time to give the Southern Cross a chance.

Kyle listened in on the communication chatter between the lead transport and Armor 13 as they got closer. Everything was going smoothly until the convoy was about twenty kilometers away from the Platform. With a flash of light, a Tou Radir scout appeared. Though it was the smallest class of Zentraedi capital ship, the Zen Scout was slightly larger than the Armor Platform. It was only a dozen kilometers from Kyle and Tango flight, and already Kyle could see a flood of pods appearing on his radar.

Suddenly, an unmistakable face appeared on his cockpit console. "This is General Leonard... the transports are here, but enemy forces will reach them before they can make it to the landing bays. Flight Tango, we are launching fighters to deal with the enemy. Tango Escort, Knight One, guard the shuttles... let Ghost Squadron deal with the aliens!" The heavyset face then disappeared as a full squadron of twenty Veritechs jumped out of the launching bays of the ARMD.

The next several minutes were tense, if uneventful. Kyle made sure his speed was matched to the transports as they went to full throttle, and then kept his eye on the radar and flight computer. The battlepods behind Kyle gained on the transport convoy rapidly, but Kyle watched as the Ghosts flicked past, their afterburners then lighting up the night behind him. Less than a minute later, Kyle noticed the first missile launches, and the stars paled behind a wall of explosions nearly a kilometer across.

With little to do other than keep his position in the convoy formation, Kyle kept most of his focus on the battle behind him. The Ghosts were obviously far better than the Zentraedi pods, but the enemy had a three to one advantage in numbers. Despite that, in the first few minutes of the battle seventeen pods went into oblivion, nearly a third of the enemy squadron compared to only two of Ghost's Valkyries. Once again, Kyle noticed two small groups of battlepods guarding recon pods a ways back from the main combat forces.

Kyle was beginning think that his part in the situation would be nice and calm, but suddenly his flight computer flashed a warning.

With a flick of a couple of controls, Kyle found out that several pods had broken through the line of Ghost fighters and were racing towards Tango Convoy. All three of the remaining Tango Escorts spun around and accelerated towards the approaching ships. Kyle almost joined them, but something held him back. I'm a reporter, blast it! Not a bloody RDF or Southern Cross military pilot. Anyway, if any of those pods gets past the Tango Valks, they'll need someone here.

Kyle dropped back almost a kilometer behind the shuttles and then again matched speeds. Once again he waited, adrenaline pumping in his blood and his eyes glued to the cockpit screens.

The three Tango escorts managed to hold off the dozen or so pods for two minutes before going to oblivion. With the shuttles now less than five kilometers from the Platform, another well-known face appeared on his displays. "Knight One, you have several bogies incoming. I'm on my way!" The silver metal that covered half of T. R. Edwards' face glinted with a reflection of sunlight before the comm window closed. As Kyle spun his ship around, he noted that five Veritechs, including Ghost Leader, were hot on the tail of the nearby pods, but they were not going to reach him before the enemy ships.

Kyle picked the closest pod and immediately fired off his last two missiles. He then flipped to Guardian mode, spinning around to face the incoming enemy battlepods but throwing the legs of his Veritech forward, so he was still velocity-matched to the shuttles. He then waited for the distance to close. As the first few pods came into range, Kyle kept his finger twitching on the gunpod trigger, firing a spray of bullets towards each pod as it came within range... there was no way he could hold off the incoming pods, but if he could get the first few to evade, the much faster Ghost Veritechs would be within range to start picking off the rest.

The first two pods jerked to the side after a couple of near misses, but the third decided to try his luck at a head-on pass. Though Kyle took a minor hit to his Valkyrie's right intake and fired off the last of his GU-11 ammo, the Regult pod disintegrated when three gunpod slugs punched through the center of its cockpit. Then Ghost rockets were landing among the enemy pods, and within twenty seconds none remained.

Suddenly the Zentraedi Scout Ship folded away in a blaze of red light, leaving behind the couple of pods still engaged with the main force of Ghost Squadron. The two recon pod groups were also gone... either they were destroyed in the battle or they made it back to the Zen Scout before it left.

The half-metal face of Ghost Leader once again appeared on his display. "Nice work, Knight One!" Edward's single visible eye seemed to delve into Kyle, even through the cockpit screens. "I've heard of you, Bartley. Those fools in the RDF made a grave error with regards to you. You could be of use to humanity by working with us in the Southern Cross. Bring the transports in to Armor-13, and then land there yourself. We need to talk." The comm window blanked, leaving Kyle to his thoughts as he toggled back to Fighter mode and accelerated towards the Armor Platform. With his much faster VF-1A, Kyle had nearly caught up with the Tango shuttles when they moved into a single-file formation and entered the landing bay tunnel, one by one.

As Kyle lifted the cockpit canopy, he watched Ghost Squadron land around him. By the time he climbed down on to the hanger floor, the lanky, blond-haired form of T. R. Edwards was waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder.

"You did good, Bartley. You kept the aliens busy just long enough for us to get to them." Again, Kyle had the feeling that Edward's single eye bored inside him, digging for any secrets he held to himself. Edwards, perhaps aware of his effect on Kyle, turned away with a flip of his blond hair, though he continued to speak. "You're good in a fight. We need people like you." The metal-cowled face turned back towards Kyle. "Yes... you could be very useful."

"Commander Edwards... Pilot Bartley... report to the bridge for debriefing."

Edwards looked up as the announcement blared over the hanger bay speakers, then looked back at Kyle, a smirk on his face. "We shouldn't keep the General waiting... after you, Mr. Bartley." Edwards gestured towards the elevator, so Kyle nodded and headed towards the steps to the raised platform where the exits from the hanger bay resided.

As he reached the top of the platform, Kyle turned and fired a question at Edwards. "What do you think of the renewed fighting between human and alien forces, Commander?"

Edwards looked up at Kyle, answering as he climbed the steps. "Its like anything in life, Mr. Bartley. You fight when there's a reason for it." He crossed the platform, and touched a control next to the elevator doors. Turning back to Kyle, he continued. "You do what you can to survive and prosper."

The lift arrived, and the two pilots entered. As the elevator climbed toward the bridge of Armor 13, Kyle silently pondered Edwards and his comments. Though his words were reasonable and perfectly politic, something about Edward's expression made Kyle feel that something far more complex was going on beneath the surface of that half-shrouded face. Despite his reporter's instinct to continue grilling his subject, Edwards made Kyle uncomfortable enough that he kept his mouth shut as they waited for the elevator to arrive.

The lift doors opened to reveal the bridge of Armor 13. Though it had the same basic layout as all the RDF ships, this bridge had obviously been personalized by the Southern Cross. The stylized lion and shield of the SC was splashed everywhere, replacing the much simpler flying kite of the RDF, and most of the bridge stations had been shuffled around to different locations, though the captain's chair was in its usual position. As the lift doors closed behind, that chair swiveled around to face them, revealing the large frame of General Anatole Leonard.

Leonard stood and walked towards Kyle, his hands clasped behind his wide but muscled body. "You were a lot of help today, Bartley." He gave Kyle a thorough inspection, starting at his feet and stopping once he was looking into Kyle's eyes. "We can use someone like you here. The RDF was stupid to discharge you just for doing your job."

"Thank you, sir... I think." Something about this situation made Kyle nervous. After years of distrusting the Southern Cross, here he was at the heart of it. He wasn't entirely prepared to take anything at face value. "I'd like to help the war effort any way I can, but my primary duty is to report on what's happening up here for my editor and Earth's population. I'm not here to take sides between the RDF and Southern Cross."

A faint expression of annoyance flitted across Leonard's face before it smoothed back to calm friendliness. "Of course not, Mr. Bartley. All I meant was that its good to find people who are dedicated to their duty, whatever that may be. We are all up here to do what's best for humanity." He gestured towards one of the control stations at the back of the bridge. "You might find this interesting, Mr. Bartley."

Kyle followed Leonard and Edwards to the duty station. What he found there was a video displaying on a screen, apparently recorded near Saturn since the massive ringed planet floated in the background. The video began with several explosions of blue light which resolved into Zentraedi ships. Over the next twenty seconds of video a dozen ships folded in, including a Zentraedi flag ship, the most massive of the Zen capital ships. A brief flash of light from a laser turret on one of the closer ships ended the recording, though Kyle caught glimpses of more folds in progress before the video turned to static.

"This was taken two days ago by a satellite out at Saturn. I assume the RDF already showed you this...?" Leonard looked towards Kyle questioningly.

"Actually, they didn't. They were a little busy when I was aboard the SDF-3. Can MBS have a copy of this tape, General?"

Leonard smiled magnanimously, and gestured to a nearby bridge technician. "I already had one prepared for you, Mr. Bartley. I wanted to make sure that you, and MBS of course, got a copy of this... in case Hunter decided to keep this to himself."

Holding the tape handed to him by the bridge officer, Kyle nodded in appreciation. "Thank you, General. MBS will be very glad to get this."

"The aliens are our enemy, Mr. Bartley, and they must be eliminated!" Leonard gestured emphatically, and Kyle's first instinct was to defend the Zentraedi and RDF. However, his anger towards Vala, his realization that the impulse was due to feelings he had for an alien woman who thought he was trash kept his mouth shut. "To that end, we've had Dr. Zand work on enhancing our weapons technology. If you would be willing to help us out a bit... perhaps by escorting a few more shuttle convoys for us... I might be willing to give you access to the fruits of his labors. In the meantime, feel free to use our supply shop, and think about what I've said here, Mr. Bartley. Carry on."

It was obvious the interview was over, so Kyle turned around and called the lift back, leaving Edwards and Leonard in a private conversation. Once down in the hanger bay again, he went to the supply shop and picked up a fresh batch of twelve range extended Rapier missiles and replenished his depleted gunpod ammo. The Southern Cross had given him a good rate for his unexpected escort services, so Kyle also bought some extra protoculture fuel. Though the Veritech could theoretically hold enough protoculture to run for years, in actuality the cost and rationing of the complex fuel meant that nobody ever came close to a full tank. Kyle was happy to note that the damage to his wing and intake were being patched for free.

He took the time to schedule another SC escort mission... it couldn't hurt to keep in the good graces of the Army of the Southern Cross. It was launching in less than an hour, heading for an Earth-bound base near Monument City.

Nearly an hour later, Kyle once again launched into the void, escorting a convoy of three Southern Cross shuttles and looking to find his next story about this new war against the alien Zentraedi.