"Sir! Broadcast message from the HECATE, coming in!"

"Put it on the Secondary Viewscreen, Lieutenant... Damn."

Captain Li sinks back into his chair as the message plays out. And so begins the end of the once mighty Earth Alliance.

"Open broadcast channel - All Earth Alli... Earth Vessels. There is one last thing to see. And, of course, I don't want Captain Wikan to stand alone at that court martial." <glances at first officer, who nods>

"Channel Open sir."

"This is Captain Li, of the E.A.S. JASON (with emphasis). Due to the condition of the battle, JASON will not continue to fight. However, she will not surrender, either. We will proceed to power down weapons systems, and retrieve all loyalist escape pods. Once all escape pods have been retrieved, we will leave this sector of space. Regardless of whether or not you fire, JASON will not return fire.

"You who follow General Hague now have two choices. You can let us leave, or you can destroy us. Or, if you choose to be bastards about all of this, you can let me retreive all of the pods and THEN destroy us.

"I trust I'll be notified of your decision as soon as my Jump Engines are back online.

"JASON, out!"

"Alright everyone. You know the story. It's been a pleasure to have served with you all, now clear the bridge. That's an order! Move it. Everyone get ready to retreive the few escape pods out there. And don't move too far from our own escape pods. If I read a power spike from their ships, I want all of you safely away from JASON as soon as possible. Number one, you're with me. You have the sensor array."

"Captain..."

"Yes, I know. One way or another, we're going to find out."