Violet looked over her shoulder at Tall White Lady, and asked,"You comfy?" TWL laughed. "Yes, I'm COMFY!" "This is FCO Destin at Mauler flight control, Test flight, you are go for launch! Port-side hangar bay ready for launch. Read off Go/No-go." "This is Ensign Ragdoll, EWACS-14 GO!" Violet said eagerly,"This is Ensign Violet, EWACS T2101X reading GO!" "Ensign Wedter, Chase plane 2, we are a GO!" "This is FCO. Launch at command." The red lights in the hangar turned yellow. Violet looked over at Ensign Mal'Lev and whispered,"You better hang on, JAFO!" The lights turned green and the vehicles were launched into space. Violet activated the fusion drive once they were clear of the dreadnought. Violet said, "You slackers had best keep up. This is a shake-down for this new EWACS! I plan to shake it until it falls apart!" Ragdoll responded,"You just try and shake me ,wench! I'm on you, like white on rice!" "Wedter to EWACS T2101: I'm in a H-wing, you can't lose me. Try." Violet got a big grin on her face and said, "Alright. Going to sub-light drive!" She configured the drives and punched it. The RIF formed around the vessel as it jumped to just under light-speed. Mal'Lev said, "Whoa! The stars looked strange in the Relative Inertial Frame! I thought we'd see the 'Star-bow' or Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction or what ever! This looks like a glowing acid-trip!" TWL said,"It's an artifact of the light impinging on the RIF field. It's all scary weird mathematics to me! According to Narchi...we're not actually here. We are in a quantum state of uncertainty between where we turned the field on at and where we turn it off at. Or something like that. Hey, Vi? Turn left a smidge?" Violet huffed, "You mean bank PORT, about TWELVE DEGREES?" TWl waved a hand, "Whatever. I'm a telepath, NOT a fleet officer! Now go up about fifteen degrees on this same heading. JAFO, you scanning anything, there?" ENS Mal'Lev blinked and jumped to his duty. "Scanning. I'm not picking up anything. We're so close to light-speed, I can't make out anything through the distortion." TWL got a strange look on her face, as she said, "Violet! Stop..." The EWACS snapped back to normal space with a lurch as Violet cut the RIF. "...the vessel. Thank you. I have a strange feeling", TWL concluded in surprise. Violet said,"Cutting fusion drive. Going to Stealth-Cloak. Arming ACV's, opening missile tubes." Mal'Lev said,"Oh crap. I'm detecting a gravity lens, one and a half light seconds in front of us. Something is emerging from Hyperspace, and it isn't one of ours!" Violet said ,"Launching ACVs to intercept. TWL, notify the fleet." TWL concentrated and reached out to her Little Sister. A huge hole appeared in space before them as an Asuran Battleship slid into view. They knew that it was old news, already one and half light seconds old. Mal'Lev whispered,"I hope they don't see us." Violet whispered back, "Why are you whispering?" She shouted,"WE'RE IN A SPACE-SHIP! They can't hear us. Twl said, "Best suit up. We're not dressed for this party!" She pulled on her gloves and put on her helmet. Violet snapped one her helmet and pulled one her gloves. Mal'Lev said,"Autonomous Combat Vehicles engaging enemy. ACVs destroyed. The Asurans are scanning for us." He put on his helmet and gloves and plugged his pressure suit into the ship system. The Human Colonial Authority dreadnought, Mauler snapped into view from sub-light speed and opened fire on the Asuran Battleship. Ragdoll's EWACS snapped into visibility, two hundred meters away, as it fired both ACVs toward the enemy. That EWACS turned invisible and began evasive maneuvers. Viloet turned her EWACS away and ran up to full speed as Ragdoll's vehicle exploded into a ball of flame. Violet jumped to sub-light speed, leaving behind shards of metals and flame. --TO BE CONTINUED!--