"We're now entering Pluto Secondary's orbit." Dr. Keller said calmly glancing across the briefing room at his five pilots. They sat around the large square table staring at the holographic projection of Secondary solar system. It was much like the Primary solar system except that some of the moons were more hospitable towards life. Dr. Keller tapped his pointing stick on the table.

"It will take us five days to reach Earth Secondary. I want you all to be prepared. Seyth will have your mechs up and working perfectly by then. Our spies have arranged where they will be hidden while you are on Earth Secondary. They have also prepared new identities for you while on the planet."

"What? I don't want to end up with some fluffy name." Moaned Kelima. Dr. Keller shot him a warning look.

"Your names will remain the same, but you will be Terran Secondus instead of Terran Primus."

"Good. I don't need another one. One name is good enough for me." Kelima commented leaning back in the chair and stretching. Segundo felt the urge to kick the chair out from under him, but resisted. Instead she focused his attention on what Dr. Keller was saying.

Dr. Tristan Keller was in charge of the experimental mechs and their pilots. He'd overseen their training both as individual pilots and as a team. In his mid thirties, he looked like he was twenty with his long light brown hair, which he always kept tied back. Large round glasses rested on his nose in front of a pair of green hazel eyes. He was very intelligent, but not always "with it" as the pilots put it. His outward manner was cheerful and obliging, except they knew better. There were some residual feelings of anger between him and the pilots. They had not been overtly pleased being abducted from their home planet and made into warriors. Unfortunately he was still their commanding officer and they had to obey. This didn't mean they were always friendly towards him, but tolerant. Dr. Keller wondered if they secretly were buying their time until they could exact revenge, but they never showed any outwards signs of such a plot.

San interrupted the scientist's explanation of differences in atmospheres, much to everyone's relief. "Excuse me Dr. Keller, but what exactly do these new identities entail? Are we all to be relatives or go to the same school?"

"Well, since you asked. You each will be set up in a school. No one suspects children of being mech pilots. You're too young." Someone coughed and Dr. Keller glared at the group. "To avoid suspicion your arrivals will be staggered. More will be explained later, right now I need to tell you about." he rattled off more figures and data about the colonies and Earth Secondary, but the pilots tuned him out.

After the meeting they escaped to their quarters for a little sleep. They were going to need it. Jeden couldn't sleep though. He lay on his bed staring at the dull metal ceiling. Closing his eyes he let his mind wander back to the first days after his abduction. His cell had been much smaller than his current quarters, but had been just as unfriendly. Plain metal sheets covered the walls with no breaks. A single cot had been placed in the room for him. The lights had been left on constantly so that he found it hard to sleep. When he left the room he was always escorted by men and women clad only in white gowns and caps. Most of the time he was drugged so the geneticists could alter his DNA. He sometimes wondered how he had survived the ordeal. The others had gone through the same treatment, but rarely spoke of it.

The Martian Primus scientists are fucked up, he thought sourly rolling over to get more comfortable. Just because we have Martian blood in our veins does NOT give them the right to pick us up willy nilly and use us as guinea pigs. Jeden felt like crying, but he didn't cry anymore. He'd run out of tears long ago. He had accepted his fate as a pilot and would defend Earth Primary and Mars Primary to the best of his abilities. He had family to protect.

The water was boiling. San stood in the galley with several young women cooks. They were eyeing him and giggling. He rolled his eyes and wondered if they even realized that he wasn't the least bit interested in them. Just because he was a male did not mean he liked having six nineteen year old women tittering about him. Besides, they shouldn't be interested in any of us pilots, he thought taking the kettle off the burner. We're all destined to die young. Opening a cupboard he sifted through several boxes of tea until he found one marked Evening Delight, which boasted that it contained both chamomile and peppermint flavors. Removing one tea bag, he procured a mug and poured the hot water into it. While he waited for his tea, San considered making himself a snack.

"We don't have any wheat bread about do we?" San asked turning to the cooks.

"I think so. We have lots of types of breads. Let's see." She moved to a tall cupboard. Opening it she studied the contents for a moment. "Yeah, here it is." She pulled a loaf down and handed it to him.

San thanked her politely and took the bread. Making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, San sighed and put the bread back. Finding that his tea was ready, he spooned some sugar in, stirred it then went back to his quarters.

It took him but a moment to find his book, then he sat back to enjoy a little piece and quiet. Halfway through the third chapter he heard the singsong bell of his door chime.

"Come in." he called brushing crumbs out of his lap and onto the floor.

"Valais, I hate to disturb you, but you need to come down and test the new communications panel and upgraded computer system I just installed into Sentinel." Seyth said poking her grimy face in. She looked like a cat that had just eaten a canary.

"What have you done to Sentinel?" San inquired raising a dark eyebrow at her. The chief mechanic only smiled broadly.

"You'll love it. I promise. It'll give you better control when you're fighting hand to hand combat with other mechs."

"Should I be frightened that you look so happy about this?"

"It's a big improvement, I swear." Seyth retorted. Reluctantly San got up and followed the overzealous mechanic to the mech bay.

Seyth thrust her hands on her hips and stood proudly in front of Sentinel while San climbed into the cockpit and started testing the controls. They did seem to handle smoother and the computer was taking less time to process his commands. He had to hand it to Seyth and her team.

"Hey, Chief, could you show me exactly how you wired this up? Just in case I get stranded somewhere and have to fix it myself?"

"Sure. No problem." Seyth climbed up next to San and pulled a screwdriver from her back pocket. With practiced ease she undid the panel and began talking about connections and interfaces.

San always took time to learn about the improvements Seyth made. It would help him if he was ever in trouble and had to fend for himself. Besides the mechanic obviously knew what she was talking about, San reasoned as he tried to reconnect a wire that had come loose doing Seyth's demonstration. Anything could happen during this new mission and he knew it. Murphy's Law always applies.

"So that's Mars Secondary. Looks a hell of a lot like Mars Primary." Kelima grumbled not sounding in the least bit impressed. "So how much longer until we reach Earth Secondary?"

"About three or four standard Earth Primary hours." San replied.

"Don't get all technical with me." Kelima growled while San ignored him. Pushing Kelima's buttons was a fun way to pass the time. Staring at the holographic monitor in the briefing room Kelima was waiting for orders and looking thoroughly bored. San was sitting in a chair with a clipboard in hand going over the checklist again.

"You think they'll see us?"

"I doubt it, the visual disrupters are on." Kelima glanced over at his fellow pilot with a quizzical look. San sighed loudly. "The cloaking device is on." He restated using the Star TrekŠ reference.

"Man, I wish we had those things for our mechs."

"It would take too much energy to produce a field. The battery would be bigger than the mech." San replied not looking up from his list. "You did remember to pack your Niven 35 sniper rifle?"

"Hai."

"And extra ammo?"

"Hai. Niven certainly makes the best guns the Martian Primus military uses."

"Yeah. How about the Bowie knife?"

"Hai. Jeez! San I've been over that list and packed everything on it. Stop worrying!"

"The thermal nuclear exploding Melvin device?"

"Hai. Wait there is no such thing as a thermal nuclear exploding Melvin device."

"I know." San said looking up from the list with a big grin on his face. "I couldn't help myself."

"You're evil." Kelima stated.

"Thank you."

"Hello!" Segundo called entering the room. "I thought I'd find you here. San do you have that list of essentials we need because I want to run over it one more time." San handed the blonde the list without a word. She took it from him and settled herself in a chair while she busily tallied everything she'd packed. After marking off everything, she handed the list back to San.

"I'm taking Baby and Sugar with me even if they're not on the list." Segundo said firmly. "I wouldn't leave my two best weapons behind."

"I doubted you would." Kelima muttered. Segundo shot him a dirty look.

"Hey, those guns have seen me through a pirate frigate pyro boy!" she snapped. "And they've saved your hide too! Don't knock them!"

Kelima grumbled something inaudible and turned back to the monitor.

"Sometimes you worry me." San said standing up. "I'm going to check on Sentinel. I suggest you check your mechs too."

"Did that this morning." Segundo chirped leaning back in the chair. "See you San."

"Bye bud." San nodded a farewell to the two pilots and exited. Alone together, Segundo and Kelima busied themselves by watching the monitor.

Stars passed by as the great ship continued its course. The isogenic core in the star cruiser's engine allowed it to travel quickly across vast quantities of space. This made space travel similar to taking a trip across the Atlantic in an old steamship. This analogy always seemed to make Segundo wince. Anytime someone mentioned it; she couldn't help but think of icebergs and the number of lifeboats. I think I saw that movie way too many times, she thought as they passed by something that was probably a moon.

After ten minutes, Kelima gave up attempting to see anything new or interesting and got up. Segundo followed him and they both headed for the mech bay. They knew San would be there and maybe Jeden and Veir.

Walking the long corridors, they remained silent nodding the occasional hello to passing crewmembers. Jeden frowned at the laptop computer, which was currently connected to Anubis' computer system. The figures weren't making sense. Out of the corner of one blue eye, he could see Segundo and Kelima approaching. Tapping rhythmically on the keyboard, he tried to correct the figures. Hitting enter, he waited for the processor to register the new information.

"Having problems?" Segundo asked.

"A little. The navigational interface is acting weird."

"Here, let me take a look." Kelima leaned over Jeden and typed in a few numbers. He read the data then deleted a line of text. Pressing enter they waited for the computer to reply.

"There." Kelima said with a smile. "That should do it. Fire Fight had the same problem earlier. You've got an extra line of text that shouldn't be there and there were a couple figures missing from the line above. I'm not sure why it's there, but it has something to do with the last software that headquarters had installed before we left."

"Good thing we caught it before we got stranded somewhere on Earth Secondary." Jeden grumbled wondering how he'd missed the extra line of text.

"Everyone should check their databases then."

"I didn't notice that when I was here this morning. I better go look at it." Segundo said turning and hurrying off in Alucard's direction.

San was standing by Hard Rock while Veir inspected one of the mech's giant legs.

"I think they could have done a better job on the icons, but at least they're back." Veir muttered running his hand over the twenty new skull and crossbones. "Next time someone needs to tell me before they are going to replace my armor." San only nodded. He noticed Segundo with a mass of connecting cables climbing into Alucard. She turned on the onboard computer and began hooking up a laptop.

"Hey, did you two know about the glitch in the new software?" she called from the open cockpit.

"Hai!" both Veir and San replied.

"I found it earlier this morning." San shouted. "One of Seyth's computer whizzes discovered it and told Kelima and I. Veir and Jeden have yet to fix the problem."

"Jeden just fixed it. Do you want the cables when I'm done Veir?"

"Sure." Veir said looking up at the blond pilot. She stuck her nose into the laptop and began typing furiously.

"Do you think she needs our help?" Veir asked turning back to look at San.

"Possibly, but let's see if she can get this on her own. She's not completely computer illiterate."

"Just mostly."

"Only with word processing programs."

Veir nodded and opened Hard Rock's cockpit. Sitting in the pilot's chair, he turned on the computer system and began testing all the controls. So far everything worked fine. Now all he needed to do was fix that glitch and everything would be ready to go.

"Everything checks out. I think we're ready."

"I believe so." San replied. "If you don't need me, I'm going to check on the others." San wandered off, leaving Veir to wait for Segundo to finish. It didn't take long once she had located the duplicated line. Handing both the cables and the laptop to Veir, she waited patiently for him to finish before returning both items to the mechanics.

Seyth and her team of industrious mechanics did final tests on the five mechs before they reached Earth Secondary while the pilots watched. This might be the last time the mechanics could perform maintenance and they planned to take full advantage of the time. Seyth barked out orders to men and women in blue coveralls.

"Dammit! I said check the weapons! Not the thrusters! We've already done that! Hey! What do you think you're doing? You can't take a nap! Get to work you slacker!"

"Um, Seyth-san?"

"WHAT?"

"Do you want me to test the thermal weapons?"

"Yes, on all of them."

"All of them?"

"ISN'T THAT WHAT I JUST SAID?" The mechanic shrank back and skittered away. He was obviously new and wasn't used to Seyth's pre-major mission tirades. Surviving Seyth's temper was part of the initiation, if you left in tears then you weren't worthy. Most of the mechanics were just as insane as she was and knew that she expected perfection when it came to the mechs. She hated to loose any pilot due to a malfunction that could have been prevented.

Rumor had it that Seyth's brother had died in a pirate raid because his missile lock had jammed. The malfunction had allowed a pirate heavy armor to puncture his fuel tank, causing the entire mech to explode. Since then improvements had been made on all models which manifested into the five experimental mechs currently in the bay. To Seyth, keeping the pilots alive was her way of letting her brother's memory live on. To have one die because of a malfunction was to have a piece of her brother's memory die too.

The five pilots simply stayed on the sidelines and waited for the mechanics to finish. Dr. Keller appeared and motioned to them. They quickly followed him out of the hanger and to the briefing room.

"I have received some knew information about the mission." Dr. Keller said gesturing for them to sit. The five pilots did so. "There are more details about the map. Apparently there is only one person who can translate it. He has been trying to decipher ancient Martian Primus for several years. We don't know how successful he has been. The Terran Secondus leaders want this man, but he and the map have disappeared. You will need to locate and retrieve the map. This is top priority as of this moment. Aiding the colonies is secondary."

"Who is this man?" San asked leaning on the table.

"Dr. L. Em. Here is what he looks like." Dr. Keller produced a picture from his lab coat pocket. He passed it around. "Memorize this face. Your Terran Secondus contact should have more information. If there are no questions." No one said a word. "Then you are dismissed."