AN – This took way to long to finish. It's been sitting on my computer half-done for months, and the block I'd hit was really starting to annoy me. B4$$TarD and I almost finished it on Sunday, and I finished the rest about 10 minutes ago. It's now 1:33am on Thursday, and right now I'm just glad to have an actual update for once. I hope I never leave it that long again.

(23/3/12) – Ok, it turns out finishing a chapter in the early morning means you miss seemingly obvious thing like plot holes and unfinished sentences. They should be fixed now.

"Roberts was going to , Adams spoke up from her position."

Seriously, how did that get through? -_-"

-Failhammer

October 23, 2238 Taras Nova, Vitaris, Vitaris System

In the month after the arrival of Captain Roberts' taskforce, the streets of Taras Nova had returned to a semblance of normality. People had begun to trickle back into the city not long after the central districts had been re-secured by Commonwealth forces. With the assistance of the marines, reconstruction of the hardest-hit areas was progressing smoothly. Despite these concerted efforts, there was still quite a bit of work that needed to be done to restore the city to its former state.

Vitaris Central Command, the nerve centre of Vitaris' ground operations, was back up and running after having been taken out during the early stages of the rebel attack. Many of the original command staff had returned to their posts, while new officers filled the positions left vacant by those killed or incapacitated during the initial strike. Wherever possible, those positions were filled from the ranks of Vitaris' remaining officers and marines.

"The 51st has really benefited from the reinforcements from Korlanis." Wilkins said as he walked into the command centre, scrolling through a tablet. "I'm still surprised 7th Company managed to make it out in better shape that some of the others, considering the state we were in when the Deutschland arrived."

"Some of the other companies weren't fortunate enough to have access to a cave system or a command centre to bunker down in, captain." Froyd said, looking up from the display table. "Besides," he said with a smirk, "7th company's your problem for the moment; I have to worry about the bigger picture. I will be glad when Colonel McCallum comes back from the Deutschland, though."

"What? Getting sick of being the highest-ranking ground officer on Vitaris?"

Froyd looked up with a smirk. "Maybe. Although, strictly speaking, Major Nixon is the ranking ground officer right now."

Wilkins grinned. "Ok, second-highest, then."

"Do you have something to report, captain, or did you just come here to annoy me?" Froyd asked, feigning irritation with Wilkins.

"Right, sir." Wilkins' smile faded as he glanced back to the tablet he was carrying. "7th company, along with the rest of the 2nd battalion, has successfully pushed the rebels out of the north-west sectors of the capital, but some sections have reported some isolated pockets of resistance remaining in the outer reaches of the city."

"What about the other centres?"

"Going by the most recent reports, around half of Vitaris' major centres are still under rebel control. Even with the reinforcements from Korlanis, it'll take a while to push them back out." Wilkins handed the tablet to Froyd, who began scrolling through the data.

"Still, those assault frigates have proved invaluable to our counter attack," Froyd said. He chuckled as he turned back to the tactical display. "Some units have reported that the mere sight of them has sent the rebels running."

Wilkins grinned. "Can't imagine why."

"Uh, sir?" A voice spoke up from the communications station. "You might want to take a look at this."

Froyd and Wilkins moved over to the source of the voice, a rather confused looking lieutenant sitting in front of a communications console.

"What is it, lieutenant?" Froyd asked.

"There seem to be several malfunctions across the grid," the comm officer said. "Half a dozen outposts seem to have gone offline; I can't raise them!"

Froyd looked down at the lieutenant. "Show the ones that have gone offline on the tactical map."

"Yes, sir." The lieutenant began imputing commands, which resulted in a number of red crosses appearing on the tactical map, each one marking one of the affected outposts.

Wilkins turned to study the map, then pointed at one of the crosses. "We have a patrol in this area."

His finger shifted slightly to point at the small rectangle with a single dot over it representing the patrol.

"Contact them," Froyd ordered.

The comm officer nodded. "Patrol 5-alpha, this is Vitaris command. Come in, 5-alpha." A few seconds of silence passed before the officer tried again. After another unsuccessful attempt to raise them he shrugged and looked up at Froyd. "Nothing."

Froyd frowned. "Captain," he said without turning. "I want a squad mustered ASAP. Send it out to the patrol's last known position, find out what's going on with them and the nearby outpost."

"Yes, sir." Wilkins saluted and left, the sudden turn of events still buzzing actively in his mind.

October 23, 2238 CNS Deutschland, Vitaris, Vitaris System

"What happened?"

Adams worked over her console, trying to find an answer for the captain. "I'm not sure sir; the transmission just cut out. I'm trying to get the Virginia back online, but they're not responding."

"Hmm. Odd," Roberts said, tapping his chin in thought. "Some sort of fault with their systems?"

"It's possible, sir, though it must be something serious for there to be no reply at all.

Behind the captain, Magness noticed something odd on his console. "That can't be right..."

Dwynt picked up on Magness' bemused expression and walked over to him.

"What is it, lieutenant?" he said, just loud enough to also get the attention of Captain Roberts.

"I've lost the Virginia's transponder signal, more accurately it's not showing up as one of ours."

Dwynt, now sharing Magness' look of confusion, leaned closer to the console's screen to confirm it for himself.

"He's right, captain. The Virginia is definitely not a Commonwealth ship, at least according to this display."

Before Roberts could reply, Adams spoke up from her position. "Sir! Transmission from the Cumberland. They're taking fire from the Virginia!"

Roberts spun around in his chair. "What!?"

"I'm also getting reports of small arms fire across the fleet," she said.

"The Raritan and the Eagle are moving to assist." Magness noticed something odd on his console. "Wait a minu...sir, the Raritan's changing course; it's heading for the main comm satellite!"

"Hail the Raritan!" Roberts ordered.

"No response, sir." Adams said.

"Intercept them!" Roberts turned and barked at the helmsman.

"The Raritan's firing at us!" Magness said, alarm clear in his voice. "The shields took the hit; we're fine."

"Return fire!"

"Sir, the main comm relay has gone offline," Adams said. "The network's shutting down as well."

Dwynt appeared next to Adams and looked at her console; he wanted to confirm what the lieutenant was saying with his own eyes. Once he had, he stood there, stunned by what was happening.

"What the hell is going on?" he whispered.

He was broken from his stupor by the sound of the bridge doors opening, which was followed by two officers and four enlisted walking onto the bridge. The enlisted carried carbines and the officers had their pistols.

The new arrivals had gotten Robert's attention as well.

"What's going on here?" He asked.

"Were taking control, captain." Lieutenant Commander Walker, the apparent leader of the group, answered. He raised his pistol at Roberts. "By force, if necessary."

"Walker, what the fuck are you doing?!" Dwynt shouted.

"Shut up James," Walker said. "You don't need to know anything except for the fact that you're no longer in control."

Roberts got up from his chair and glared at Walker. "Fine. We don't seem to be in a position to argue."

Walker smirked. "I'm glad you saw it my way, captain."

He gestured to the lieutenant next to him, who walked over to Roberts and disarmed him. The lieutenant then led Roberts towards the bridge's exit. Walker winked at the captain as they walked past him. Acting on the signal, Roberts spun around and grabbed the lieutenant escorting him by the shoulders and slammed him into the wall, knocking him out. Half a second later, Magness charged the mutineer closest to him and knocked him to the floor, surprising the others. In the ensuing confusion, Dwynt drew his pistol and fired two shots into the chest of another mutineer, who crumpled to the floor before he could bring his own weapon to bear. Walker further added to the confusion when he shot one of the mutineers aiming their weapon at the Roberts. The remaining mutineers, realising they had been set up, made a break for the exit, only to be cut off by a squad of newly-arrived marines. Adams kicked the legs out of a mutineer behind her a moment too late; he had fired at the captain and hit him in the chest. The mutineer tried to get up off the floor, only to be put back down by a swift kick to the head.

After the chaos around him had died down, Dwynt re-holstered his pistol and looked around to find Roberts laying behind his command chair. Adams knelt next to him and began to check him over. She opened his jacket and shirt in order to clean the wound and apply a shot of med-gel from her first-aid kit. Walker and Magness, meanwhile, were collecting the mutineers' weapons. As he walked past Adams' console, Walker stopped when he noticed a number of channels lit up on the screen.

"Well, looks like the other mutineers on the Deutschland have been taken care of," he remarked as he went through the list and acknowledged the messages.

"Good. It helps to have someone on the inside," Dwynt said with a smirk. He looked over at Adams. "Is he still alive?"

"Yes, sir." Adams said, checking the captain's chest. "He needs urgent medical attention, though."

"Walker, get the captain to the infirmary."

Walker nodded and began to carry Roberts off the bridge. By this time a squad of marines had arrived on the bridge. When Dwynt noticed they had arrived, he pointed to the unconscious crewmen in the middle of the bridge.

"Drag those fuckwits to the brig."

"Yes sir." Two of the marines walked over and grabbed the crewmen by the ankles and dragged them off the bridge.

Adams stood and returned to her station, while Dwynt sat down in the empty command chair. The bridge shook slightly from the impact of another salvo, suddenly reminding Dwynt that the ship was in the middle of a battle.

"Lieutenant, what's our status?"

Magness ran back to the tactical console. "Shields are holding; aft is at 57%. No damage to the hull as of yet. The Raritan's breaking off; looks like it's taken a fair few hits."

"Sir, we've just received an encrypted transmission from the Cumberland. Working on opening it now," Adams said. "It's no good, sir. It looks like it's corrupted; I don't think I can make anything of it."

"Send it to Walker." Dwynt reached up and activated his TacComm "Walker, Adams is sending a corrupted encrypted file your way. Let me know if you can get anything out of it," Dwynt said.

"I'll get right on it, sir."

A string of beeps drew Magness' attention to another part of his screen.

"Several small craft detected leaving the Cumberland; it's going up." Silence followed for a moment. "Sir, we've just lost the CNS Cumberland. I'm picking up...four shuttles heading our way."

"Bring them in, and have a squad of marines meet them. I don't want to take any chances after that earlier incident."

Magness entered the commands into his console. "Done, sir."

"How many ships do we have left?"

"Uhh..." Magness hastily checked his screen. "Vigilance, Eagle, Dauntless, Tornado, Lancer, and Wolf are still showing green. Virginia, Hokkaido, Neptune, Pioneer, Raritan, and Hornet are all showing red."

"What about the frigates in the atmosphere?"

"Midway and Lightning are red, the rest are gr- sir, Hokkaido and Hornet are closing in on us!"

Dwynt turned to the helm. "Fern! Get us clear and bring us in with the remaining friendlies! Magness, get a defensive screen launched!"

After he issued the last order, Dwynt suddenly remembered that the commanding officer of the ship and the squadron was out of action.

"Adams, who's currently next in command?"

"One moment," she said, checking her display. "Sir, the only other friendly vessel commanded by a higher ranking officer is the Eagle. They've just reported that Captain Lester has been incapacitated as well, making you next in line."

"What about the Cumberland?"

Adams shook her head. "Captain Hojo didn't make it out."

With three captains turned traitor, one dead, and two more incapacitated, Dwynt was now technically the highest-ranking officer in the squadron.

"Sir, the rest of the squadron is requesting orders."

Dwynt nodded, snapping out of the minor shock his new position had caused.

"Right. The Hornet is the primary target; we need to get rid of their carrier to turn this around. We currently have the long-range edge, but we need to keep the heat off." He turned to Magness. "Make sure we don't get caught in range of their battlecruisers."

Adams spoke up from her station. "Sir! The Wolf is requesting urgent assistance; they've been caught between Hokkaido and Virginia! Neptune has taken out the Tornado andis now closing in!"

"Send the heavy cruisers towards the Neptune to cut it off! Wolf's the only ship between them and the Eagle."

"Wolf is in range of Neptune; Vigilance and Lancer have taken up position escorting Eagle." Magness paused for a moment. "They've opened up on the Neptune."

"Where's the Hornet?"

"Behind the battlecruisers."

Dwynt grimaced. "Shit, we've missed our chance."

The Deutschland had now fallen into line with the remaining loyalist ships and taken up position next to the Eagle. The Dauntless moved in behind the two carriers, then through to assist the heavy cruisers. Disabling the Neptune would allow the loyalist cruisers to concentrate on the two traitor battlecruisers; removing them would severely dampen the traitors' superior firepower. Those ships were faster than the carriers, and more powerful than the cruisers. The traitors were outnumbered, but nowhere near outgunned.

Magness spoke up solemnly. "Sir...the Wolf's gone. Neptune'sbroken off, but the battlecruisers are now heading this way."

"Tell our cruisers not to pursue," Dwynt ordered. "They are to concentrate on the Virginia; Eagle will provide support against the Hornet's strike craft. Our wings will harass the Hokkaido."

The bridge fell silent once more. Dwynt stared straight at the bridge's main display showing the battle. A swarm of green dots followed three larger ones, representing the remaining loyalist cruisers. As they closed the gap, half of the small dots broke off and headed for the large red dot representing the Hokkaido; the rest made a beeline for the Virginia. By the time they reached the battlecruisers, a smaller swarm of red dots had appeared; the Hornet's strike craft had arrived. The Neptune had also turned around to make its way back to the battle line. Several dots winked out on both sides as the dogfight picked up, but it seemed that green was slowly winning out over red. Despite the tide of the battle seeming to turn in favour of the loyalists, the traitor light cruisers maintained their positions flanking the Hornet. A few more tense minutes passed before the breakthrough Dwynt was looking for occurred.

"Sir!" Magness shouted. "Shield overload on the Hokkaido! The entire aft section is unprotected!"

Dwynt smirked. "Adams, signal the strike craft and the Vigilance. Hokkaido designated primary."

"Aye, sir."

The bridge crew waited as several green dots drifted away from the main battle and towards the Hokkaido. The Virginia tried to cover its partner, as did the Neptune, now back in range, but it was too little too late. Six large red dots became five.

"Hokkaido is down! They're dead in the water!" Magness reported excitedly. He quickly checked himself, remembering they were on the same side barely half an hour ago.

"We'll deal with the clean up later," Dwynt said. "Redesignate Virginia as primary for the cruisers. Strike craft clear to attack Hornet and escorts."

Dwynt knew the strike craft would end up attacking all of the enemy at once; the Virginia, now isolated, was moving to link up with the approaching Neptune and the rest of the traitor squadron.

"Oh shit..."
Dwynt glanced at Magness. He was about to question the tactical officer when he noticed something off on the main display: the Lancer's dot was gone.

"Lieutenant..."
Magness sighed. "Confirmed loss, sir. The Lancer's gone. I can't explain it; their last status report showed minimal damage on the ship, and heavy damage inflicted on the Neptune."

Dwynt slammed his fist on the arm of the command chair. "Another bloody inside job, I'll bet."

"Looks that way, sir. Vigilance is collecting survivors"

"And the Neptune?"

"Vigilance just finished them off," Magness replied

Dwynt slouched slightly in his seat. "Get a report from the Lancer's survivorswhen you can. I want to know just what happened to the Lancer."

Dwynt sat back and watched the battle unfold on the screen. Dwynt was sure it wouldn't last too much longer now; the loss of the Hokkaido seemed to have been a turning point. As he was thinking about how to handle the aftermath, his TacComm beeped.
"Go ahead," he said after activating the device.

"Sir, this is Walker," a slightly agitated voice on the other end said. "I managed to recover most of the file. It matches something that was discovered in one of the mutineer's quarters."

"What would that be?"

"An attack plan for Korlanis. Vitaris is the staging point."

"Staging point? Even if they managed to capture Vitaris' fleet whole, there's no way they'd have enough to attack Korlanis," Dwynt said incredulously.

"That's true, which is why the file mentions reinforcements. No numbers, or a schedule. I can only assume this crewman was too low to receive that information," Walker surmised. "All I can tell is it's likely going to be sometime soon; the arrival was supposed to coincide with the takeover."

Dwynt spun around to Adams. "Lieutenant, get a transmission ready to Korlanis. Walker will send you the...oh shit." The realisation smacked into him. The main comm relay was offline. They had no way to get the message out.

"Fern, where's the nearest comm relay?!"

"Uhh...Gobi, sir. There's a mining operation there."

"Right. Adams, send the packet to the- "An alarm from Magness' station distracted Dwynt before he could finish. "What was that?"

"Commander, several ships just jumped in," Magness said. "Looks like at least two dozen ships, capital and escort."

Dwynt looked up at the screen to see two dozen grey dots appear near the edge. They began to form up and head towards the battle.

"Identify!"

Magness frantically worked his screen. "I..I can't; they don't match anything in the database!"

"Hail them!"

"No response, sir," Adams replied after a brief wait.

Magness suddenly noticed something on his display."Wait...sir! Confirmed match with a ship design seen by the Comm Station crew during the first attack!"

Dwynt slumped back into his chair and let out a sigh of frustration."Shit. This just isn't my fucking day. Fern, set course for Gobi. Adams, inform the rest of the squadron. We're leaving."

Dwynt didn't want to admit it, but he had essentially just ordered the fleet to cut and run. However, he also didn't see the point in sticking around and trying to fight a losing battle. Especially with the potentially crucial intelligence they had received.

Magness spoke up from his station. "Sir, we have multiple cruisers headed our way. We don't have long before they're in range. The enemy's lost another cruiser, the Raritan, not that it makes much difference now."

Dwynt groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Can we hold them off?"

"With what we have...not likely," Magness replied with a grimace. "We're not in such a bad shape, but the rest of the fleet's not faring too well; the Eagle's out of commission and the Cumberland has been destroyed. The Eclipse, Catalyst and Dreamweaver have all taken damage, but no major hits yet. The enemy seem to be trying to disable rather than destroy us."

Dwynt rested his head on his hand as he weighed up his options, then he glanced up at Adams

"Lieutenant, it there comm station that's still active?"

There was a pause as Adams checked the status of the relay.

"There seem to be a couple, sir, but I can't establish a connection. There's no way to get a message out."

Magness chose that moment to speak up from his station. "Sir, we have multiple cruisers headed our way. We don't have long before they're in range." Another beep. "We've just lost the Eclipse."

Dwynt slumped back into his chair and let out a sigh of frustration."Shit. This just isn't my fucking day," Dwynt muttered. "Adams, signal the remaining loyal ships. Tell them to break off and set course for Korlanis."

Dwynt didn't want to admit it, but he had essentially just ordered the fleet to cut and run. However, he also didn't see the point in sticking around and trying to fight a losing battle. He new the other captains wouldn't question his decision; they would have seen what he'd seen on the map.

"Sir, all ships report ready and in position."

"Jump."

The four remaining loyalist ships jumped away from Vitaris. A few seconds after the jump, Adams noticed something on her screen.

"Uh...sir?"

Dwynt glanced up. "What is is, lieutenant?"

"We seem to have received a transmission before we jumped...from the Hornet."

"Oh?"

Adams studied her screen. "It's a vid file. The only other part of the message says 'watch yourselves'."

Dwynt thought for a moment. "Put it up."

A few touches of Adams' console brought the face of Captain Talbot, the CNS Hornet's commanding officer, to the screen.

"This is Captain Michael Talbot, of the CNS Hornet, he began, his tone calm, but betraying a hint of urgency. "The Vitaris Insurrection is more widespread than we first thought; we now know the rebels have infiltrated the Terran Commonwealth Navy. Approximately one hour ago, several ships, including the CNS Deutschland, went rouge and attacked the comm relay. We managed to fight them off and force them to flee, but not before they inflicted severe damage to us. I'm sorry to report the loss of the CNS Hokkaido, Raritan, and Neptune. A full report has been attached, including the traitors' suspected heading. Disturbing evidence has come to light placing the senior officers of those ships at the centre of a plan to attack Earth and seize control of the Commonwealth. We unfortunately have no idea when this attack will take place, however there are likely several sleeper agents on the ground as well. We will update when we know more."

The playback stopped.

"Well, that's just great," Magness said.

"Adams, did that message get sent to Gobi?" Dwynt asked.

"I had no access to the network when it was sent; I can't know for certain. I would say it likely was."

Dwynt sighed. "Well, I guess we'll have to prepare for that. Magness, have the squadron ready for combat as soon as we arrive. This could get ugly."

AN (19/2/13) – I've been meaning to revisit this for months. I have had the revised ending to this chapter sitting, handwritten, in a notebook for...I have no idea how long. :/ I decided a little while ago that I wanted to end The Vitaris Insurrection, and continue the overarching story in a new work. I might decide to keep TVI going, and can the 'sequel', but I wanted to rewrite the ending of this chapter so that it could work both ways. One thing I do want to do is revise the whole thing, not just the first and last chapters. I have already done some handwritten work on the second chapter, introducing a new character and expanding on a few details. This new character was actually in the new ending of this chapter, but I obviously couldn't include him. :P

I have a couple of other story ideas and characters I want to use for new projects, but I have decided not to post anything planned the story properly. TVI is proof enough of what happens when you don't do that. Anyway, I hope to actually do some more with these, and other, characters and worlds in the future, hopefully more frequently than I have been up until now.

-Failhammer