Reunion Plot: Part 1

Emil and Marcel are taken prisoner by Dominion forces who believe the two are spies from a rival political party back on Earth.

A majority of Dominion forces are unaware that the planet they are attacking is the lost colony. Only high ranking members know this. Dominion forces are under the assumption they are fending off an incursion by an Ai that was attempting to use a nearby star system as a staging point. Earth's fear of AI is what is fueling the Dominion's attack.

Emil and Marcel are brought to a modified cargo frigate that is being used as a disembarkation point for ground forces.

They are brought through the ship which is at a high state of alert. Moral is low due to the loss of the dreadnaught and the reports of high casualties, but soldiers remain committed, trusting that their leaders will lead them to victory.

Marcel notes and shares with Emil that all of the Canis aboard the ship are wearing collars with glowing devices on them and are more nervous than their human counterparts. They don't ask about it and remain silent and are continued to be led through the ship.

They are brought to an interrogation room where, under guard, the two are immediately asked questions by the officer who brought them there in the first place. They are aggressively asked about their reason for being on the planet. How they got there before the fleet. Who they work for. How did they know where the fleet was going and so on.

Emil and Marcel are unable to answer the questions since they aren't from Earth. They try to explain that they grew up on this planet.

The officer doesn't believe them.

Before interrogations can escalate, the boarding call is made. The two are put under the watch of the acting security officer, Lieutenant Allen Reynolds.

The quick escalation from managing drafted Canis, a stressful, but boring job to being the security officer aboard a ship full of thousands of rowdy humans and Canis amidst the largest military operation in human history had left Allen completely overwhelmed.

Canis, who had been forcibly drafted into bolster Dominion forces were becoming unruly. Those with no or unremarkable levels of powers were given guns and told they would be watches, but trusted enough to fight for Earth and their families there.

Those that were specifically targetted for their powers were collared with the 'obedience collar.' The collar contained a small explosive that would kill the wearer instantly if they disobeyed orders.  In addition to the collar, they were assigned handlers who were always with their charges and acted as the kill switch. If the handler was killed, the device was set off if it could not connect to another handler in a short amount of time. This design would end up being the cause of numerous unnecessary deaths during the combat on the surface of the planet.

However, the Dominion didn't only work with on the basis of fear. Each Canis was given unreduced pay when an Admiral, secretly working for Resistance forces, made the claim that "paid soldiers are fighting soldiers."

Allen sees the addition of the two ner prisoners to his watch as a break from the monotony of keeping an overstuffed ship sane. He is told they are spies from opposing political parties on Earth and to continue the interrogations.

When entering the interrogation room, Allen is shocked to see a very normal looking human and Canis. He was expecting someone who looked more military. Yet, he understands that a spy could and would look like anyone.

Allen is sympathetic to an opposition to the Dominion after witnessing what they were capable of. A lot of innocent people died during the roundup and Canis were often beaten into compliance. Many of the drafted Canis were fighting just to save their own lives.

Allen still treats his job seriously, and when given a task, he works to complete it to the best of his ability.

Seeing how a strong-armed approach didn't work, Allen goes for a kinder method of interrogation. He asks many of the same questions, but he offers water, keeping them company and offering promises of safety. He gets the same answers from Emil and Marcel, but Allen is more convinced they are telling the truth. He allows them to try and convince him further.

Both Emil and Marcel, confused and worried after several hours of interrogation, spill everything, including details about Damien and how they are descendants of colonists from Earth.

Allen is intrigued by the story and slowly begins to believe them more and more as they give more details. He eventually comes to the conclusion that they are telling the truth. The invasion was a mistake. They were killing lost cousins even if there was an AI here or not.

Emil believes that Damien, if allowed to, would be willing to talk for peace. He explains that the AI's fleet is only defending the planet and if the Dominion backed off, hostilities would cease.

Allen is skeptical that even if the AI would stop attacking, the Dominion wouldn't. They had committed too many resources and lives, as seen by the crashed dreadnaught. The Dominion would see this through to the bitter end.

Emil begs for Allen to at least try. He agrees.

Allen manages to sneak a pair of Dominion security uniforms to Emil and Marcel and gets them out of the interrogation cell into the rest of the ship. No one notices due to the traffic of soldiers beginning to board their landing ships. They are just a few faces in a sea.

Allen plans to hide the two away in one of the security offices until the commotion dies down. He would then stow them aboard a shuttle and fly down to the surface to make contact with the Ai.

When moving through the the corridors, the ship is hit. Marcel is separated from the group as soldiers panic and flood the pathways. He is mistaken for a soldier and is swept away and ends up on a landing shuttle before either Emil or Allen can get to him. The ship launches and begins to go to the planet.

Thousands of shuttles swarm to the planet. The only way to save Marcel is for Damien to stop the fighting or to have Damien find and rescue him.

Allen and Emil manage to take a small passenger shuttle and fly down to the surface of the planet. The fleet of landing shuttles come under heavy fire and many are shut down despite tight fighter support.

Emil's ship is left alone despite many opportunities for drone fighters to attack them.

Emil directs Allen away from the main mass of Dominion ships to where he originally met Damien.

The area is empty and the two land easily.

Upon exiting the ship, Damien immediately sends up guards and singles out Allen. Emils stops Damien from killing Allen.

Damien confirms that he would not strike back at the Dominion if they stopped their attack, but is not confident that they would.

Allen comes up with an idea. Dominion soldiers are mostly fighting under the belief that they are stopping an AI incursion, not lost colonists from Eath. If that reality was shattered, soldiers would stop fighting.

While the truth would come out eventually as Dominion forces got to the city and came across the militia there, it would be too late by then.

Damien tells them that he has plenty of proof after accessing New Earth files he came across. The files were originally corrupted, but the corruption had a pattern with his own emp signals and had managed to restore them.

The files show that the original colony ships were sabotaged, the navigations tampered with. Along with current data from the colonists, it is irrefutable proof that the inhabitant of the planet are from Earth. Damien, however, cannot get the data to Dominion forces. Combat is too intense to show the large amount of evidence to the front line troops and Dominion ships are shielded from hacking attempts. Damien needs direct access to a Dominion ship to broadcast to the entire fleet.

They begin working on a plan.

--

Crane's reveal to the Resistance command is not met kindly. Several admirals immediately threaten to leave the Resistance and take their ships with them unless Crane is immediately destroyed. Some even try to get their guards to destroy the hard drives that contain Crane.

More yelling and arguments ensue until Crane sends feedback through the speakers to get their attention.

Crane gets serious.

Without cracking a joke or making any snide comments, Crane forces everyone to hear his story. Everything from the first incident of the ship, Eurasia, where he had been exposed to the transformative compound, brainwashed, rescued by the Anderson and beyond. It takes several hours as Crane leaves no detail forgotten.

The story gets his point across: he is not some AI bent on the destruction of humanity.

Crane is tired of living in a world that can't stop screwing itself up and makes an offer.

Crane understands why they don't trust him. He wouldn't trust himself if he was in their shoes, but he wasn't. Crane demands that they let him fix the shithole world they made and in return, they could do whatever they wanted with him in the end because he was tired of living in a continued state of hopelessness that he had always covered up with his normally cheery attitude.

He had expected to finally be reunited with the rest of the world, but seeing it again hadn't met expectations. He's old and has been trying to live on when he should have died a long time ago. He only keeps going now to pay back his old friend, Anderson, by ensuring his descendants would live on in a better world.

After some deliberation, Crane's proposal is accepted.

The Resistance already had a plan. They were going to start a military takeover. With the majority of the Dominion fleet preoccupied elsewhere, the Resistance fleet is powerful enough to lay siege to Mars and with Crane involved, it would be easier.

Plans are accelerated.

--

Adrian finally feels like he has the opportunity to stop back and let others finally take charge. He just wants to be left alone now that this job of getting Crane to the Resistance is now finished.

Dog has other feelings. He wants to keep fighting after having lived through lifetimes of oppression of the Dominion and tries to convince Adrian not to stop now. He states that they will never stop being hunted until the Dominion is stopped. Dog flood's Adrian's mind with all of the things the Dominion has dos done to hunt them down.

Instead of convincing him to keep fighting, Adrian lashes out, completely catching Dog off guard and pushes him back and cuts him off entirely.

Adrian immediately regrets his actions when he can no longer feel Dog. The empty presence makes him feel more alone than ever. He then guiltily volunteers to help the Resistance in the hope that doing what Dog wants will bring him back.

--

Back on Mars, Andrew answers for his failures and is grounded on Mars for the time being.

He contemplates his position in the Dominion. All of the Dominions views and beliefs come from a time well before him. Andrew feels disconnected from Luke and his desire to wipe out the other side of the family tree. It actually sounds ludicrous the more Andrew thinks about it.

He thinks back to his encounter with his distant cousin, Adrian. The Canis was scared, but confident. Andrew could have killed him. He had the shot, but hesitated. He had killed before, but things were different this time around. As much as he was brought up to hate Canis, Andrew never did. He felt empathy for them and their plight.

Andrew comes to terms with his feelings and leaves his quarters under the cover of darkness. He decides to abandon the Dominion, but with no real plan or set destination, Andrew is left wandering the streets of New London.

He sees that there aren't many Canis left in the city. The forced drafting had taken a noticeable amount, leaving mostly females and their children. It causes Andrew to question his life, raised to hunt and kill both Canis and his own family. Hundreds of years of hate fueled by a single old man that turned on everyone because of jealousy. There was no other reason than jealousy.

Andrew thinks about other options available to him, and all roads lead to the death of Luke. It's the only way to redeem the family.

Andrew makes his way back to his quarters with a plan to set up a meeting with Luke in the hope of killing the man, but alarms ring out before he can even get half way back.

Resistance ships jump into low orbit and immediately attack.

Andrew rushes through the streets, fighting crowds of fleeing people and eventually comes across a squad of soldiers directing the crowd to the old subway lines for shelter. He gets one of them to drive him back, but their vehicle is shot down, crashing into an abandoned part of the city.

The pilot is badly injured and Andrew suffers a light concussion. He leaves the soldier behind to find medical supplies.

He comes across a pharmacy several blocks away and breaks in. He finds what he needs and begins to leave. Near the back, he comes across the owner of the shop. He is a Canis and is hiding near the back with the rest of his family. The cower from Andrew, showing just how bad the Dominion is at governing.

Andrew returns to the crash and cares for the soldier who never imagined that he would be saved by a high member of the Dominion, identified by a signet they wear. Andrew discards the signet and tells the guard that right now, they're all just soldiers stuck in the trenches, who they were no longer matters.

The soldier thanks Andrew for his help and assures him that he'll be fine now and will wait for help. He gives Andrew his sidearm and wishes him luck.

Andrew makes it back to his home without incident to see the family estate under attack by Resistance members.

The attack by the Resistance fleet was a signal for thousands of people to take up arms and weaken the government from the inside. Hundreds of landing ships have already deployed, adding to the numbers on the street. There is fighting all across the city, and the Dominion is losing.

Andrew is caught by the Resistance when he tries to sneak away and is immediately recognized by Adrian.

--

Damien begins to look for Marcel, but can't promise anything due to the vast scale of the battle going on. He looks through the eyes of as many of his drones as possible to search for Marcel, but there are too many.

The fighting primarily takes place 100 miles away from the city, which is outside of New Sydney's anti-air defenses.

Out in the plains, people die in droves, and the Dominion advance is slowed to a crawl as their soldiers struggle to find cover in the flat terrain.

Damien continues to search, but concludes that if Marcel is still alive, he would be staying away from the front lines.

He tells this to Emil.

Emil and Allen come up with the plan in the meantime.

Allen puts out a call on their ship's radio for an emergency evac, claiming their shuttle was damaged with they were abandoning the cargo frigate they were previously on. He gets high priority by mentioning that he has a suspected spy in custody.

Allen receives a reply that a ship is coming to get him to deliver the prisoner to a command ship for further interrogation.

The two go over the plan as they wait for pickup.

Damien needs to have direct access to Dominion communications to get their message out. To do so, Damien created a subroutine and put it in Allen's datapad. Allen only needs to use the data pad on any Dominion computer that is linked with comms to gain control.

To do so, Emil will once again play the part of the spy. Allen will attempt to take charge of the interrogations to gain access of the terminal in the brig. Once there, he will use his approved credentials on the data pad to give Damien's subroutine access.

During the confusion that would happen, both Allen and Damien will escape in a shuttle and wait to see if it works.

The rescue ship arrives and Emil is put into cuffs and they are brought up to the command ship.

The plan quickly falls apart when Allen's request to take charge of interrogations is denied and he is barred from the brig. Instead, the officer in charge has already convinced himself that everything is Emil's fault and has already sent a request to execute him and is only waiting for approval. Allen races against the clock to find another terminal.

Allen goes right to the source, the comms center where he asks to contact other ships, regarding the fate of the others who had been on the hit cargo frigate he had been on.

The man in charge happily obliges, but routes the communication through himself instead of giving Allen access to a terminal. Allen tries to talk the person into letting him use his own credentials, but the other person doesn't let up, stating that it's against regulations.

He does what he initially asked for and has the other put out a roster request. While the Dominion comms officer is busy taking in the incoming roster, Allen quickly plugs his datapad into a nearby terminal.

Allen is discovered and a struggle ensues that ends with Allen being shot and killed by guards, but not before the subroutine has finished its job and begins to broadcast its message across the entire fleet.

Emil's execution is halted and he is instead brought to the bridge where Dominion high command is arguing. Some call for a halt to the fighting; others call it a trick. Either way, they want to talk to Emil personally.

--

Adrian wants to kill Andrew for what he has done and what he represents, and he almost does until he is stopped by others.

Andrew explains his change of heart and bargains for his life. He promises information on where to find the head of the Dominion, Luke which once removed, would help end the fighting quicker.

Adrian doesn't trust Andrew, but is overruled by Admiral Riesha, who sees this as too good of an opportunity to pass up. Even with most of the Dominion fleet gone, the Resistance forces wouldn't be able to hold onto Mars once reinforcements from the rest of the system began to show up.

Not one hour later, a force is assembled, consisting of Adrain, Andrew, Von and a squad of Resistance commandos. They go to the Dominion headquarters where Andrew says that Luke is, at the very bottom basement floor.

The building is heavily guarded by soldiers. Von uses this as an opportunity to show off his powers. He drives half of the soldiers insane with a single thought, and the rest are quickly dispatched. Von notices that Adrian struggles with his powers at several points, but Adrian shrugs off the probes.

The group enters the building.

--

Crane is in control of the tactical part of the battle. He directs ships and landings, putting soldiers and support where they need to be.

While doing this, Crane attempts to break into Dominion security networks, but is rebuffed. The security is adapting to his attempts at an alarming pace. Allen suspected that the Dominion had developed a limited virtual intelligence to run their security. He continues to probe the networks, looking for a way in, but it fended off each time.

Not one to quite so easily, Crane employs brute strength by bombarding the security with everything from porn to funny cat videos in an attempt to distract it and let him slip by. It still doesn't work.

Crane then begins to look for a back door, areas that are old and outdated. Since the Dominion network was built on top of older systems, there are weak points where integration didn't go smoothly, leaving potential weak points.

Crane finds backdoor after backdoor being actively sealed until he comes across the server located just outside of New London in a bunker deep underground. He is intrigued and probes into it and quickly finds something disturbing. So disturbing that he doesn't realize that he had been forcibly uploaded onto the server and then cut off from the rest of the system.

Crane's disappearance doesn't go unnoticed, but the attack is going too well to stop.

--

On New Earth, after only a day of fighting, the attack is stopped. Many Dominion leaders are skeptical about the claim that the are attacking the lost colony, but the information holds up against scrutiny by experts and enough are convinced that they are indeed attacking their lost brothers and order a ceasefire.

A splinter on the Dominion forces, unable to accept the news, breaks off and managed to jump away before they can be stopped. The remaining Dominion forces open up negotiations and begin to clean up the mess of destruction.

Damien manages to find Marcel near the back of the Dominion line and reunites him with Emil.

The two learn of Allen's death and call him a hero that saved countless lives.

The two are then used as direct liaisons to Damien and go with the first group back down to the surface to take Dominion negotiators to New Sydney to see the New Earth leaders and hopefully officially reunite Earth with her colony.

-End of part 1-