Act 2: Neither Now or Later Becomes the Story that is His... History.
Chapter 11: taC s'regnidorhS htiW syalP niwT s'nietsniE

A marksman need but the tiniest of image to lock onto and do the mathematics in his head before firing his weapon and making the score. He does not need to rely on enhancement or targeting technologies, except for what he peers into with his eye. It is with a pull of a finger onto a trigger, is the shot fired, will he know of his success or failure. With failure, he will continue to try again until he succeeds.

Before the blips on the radar appear onto the furthest edge of the screen, a barrage of impulse bullets that sail across the distance at light speed onto the oncoming horde. Though weakened with their travel through space, their impact onto their targets become devastating, causing their targets to react as if they were hit and wounded. They slow down their pace, as they start to fight with their controls and argue with their computers, and obscenities begin to shout across through their com-links.

The first hail of killer impulses came from Guynemer and Mannock's guns, slowing down most of horde. With the radar screen still empty, visual contact is made to only the best of eyes looking across the horizon.

"Alright men, shoot...", McCudden started to say when the rest of the group fires their weapons array at once and break away from the formation. "...when you got them within your visual range.", he finishes and a trailing voice, finding himself the only one still in formation. "Oh well...", he saids to himself as he looks around and pulls up on his control stick, raising his angle of attack to a higher one.

Racing across the closing distance, the impulses finds their targets and starts the shut down sequence of their machines of those who were already hit before, slowing down the others who were to receive their first hits.

From above and behind them, Voss come flying at a high rate of speed, looking down at the action in front of him. Still far away from his quarry, he positions his cross hairs on top the last craft of the formation and squeezes the trigger, holding onto it for several seconds. It takes time for the impulses to reach the craft, but the barrage he sent immediately slows the craft in its tracks and the kill is instantly scored as the flash of a temporal gate takes away the target from the field. He then adjusts his ship to get the next ship into his cross hairs.

From the same direction but from below the action, Ball races across the Jovian gravitation curve and finds the distant fighting has begun without him. He increases his speed and adjusts his trajectory to place himself into the center of the enemy flight, and hopes his guns find something to shoot down as he presses the trigger of his weapons array. He continues to hold onto the trigger as he closes in on them, unsure if he has hit anything, but when in fact his signal has caused havoc with a tightly closed formation of 10. One by one they get sucked into a temporal portal as their ships shut down around them.

Frank Luke looks around his control panel of his craft as he closes in to the front of the enemy flight, and notices that his fellow pilots have dispersed themselves into individual positions and not the tight formation he thought they were supposed to stay in until the fight started. Looking around, he notices that the enemy flight was not as large as they were supposed to be, and he realizes that the fight has indeed started without him. Though still far away, he looks upon the tiny dots of light that makes up the flight and chooses one to charge into. With a sweaty paw on the controls, he pulls back on the throttle, gets thrown back onto his seat as he accelerates towards 1/10th light speed with an itchy finger on the trigger and several targets dancing around his crosshairs.

Coming in from the Jovian North Western Horizon, the Red Baron flies through the gravitational pull Jupiter has on his fighter with the greatest of ease. Studying the enemy flight as they appear to have risen from the Jovian Horizon, he starts to calculate which one of the targets would be his. Taking into account of the action, he places his finger on the trigger once he has aligned his sights onto a globular group in the front of the pack. He presses on the trigger and holds on until he sees a change within the group, seeing them disappear from his sights.

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With a double flash of light, each ship that has been shot down jumps from the temporal gate into the Temporal Complex and then to the large maintenance bay where the fighters were stored. Each one- pidgeoned holed back into its storage location with crews standing by to assist the pilots out of their craft.

The first to arrive, opens his cockpit and starts yelling obscenities.

"What the god damned fuck was that fucking shit out there!!!", he yells as he throws his helmet out from the cockpit, barely missing the maintenance crew tending to his craft. several sets of hands approach his location to help him out of his seat. "I can get my own damn self out!!", he yells at them.

Another fighter materializes in the parking spot next to his, with curses and obscenities spewing out as the cockpit opens.

Standing on his seat, he turns to check out his comrade.

"They got you too?", he asks in a lowered tone. Another fighter materializes onto its parking spot of the maintenance bay, quickly followed by 2 more. "I don't fucking believe this...", he says as he eyes the maintenance bay being filled with members of his flight.

"What was the fuck out there, Se'Gar?", his friend looks at him.

"That is what we are going to find out.", Se'Gar answers him, watching the room fill up with members of their flight.

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Frank Luke arrives into the horde first, spraying targets with impulse bullets as he passes them by in an inverse parabola that encircles the enemy flight group. Continuing to hold onto his control stick hard against his seat, he forces his fighter to cork screw around the flight several times as he continues on with the barrage of simulated bullets onto the enemy crafts he has encircled.

Voss has caught up from above on the rear, picking off targets at his leisure. Ahead of him, he can see Luke spiraling away from him, around the enemy fighters in a large arc at high speed. Albert Ball comes in from front of the group, passing underneath Voss. The Red Baron pulls into a spiral and plows himself into the flight, coming out the other end in an inverted J-turn.

Mannock and Guynemer had flanked the flight at either side, picking off targets that flies across their crosshairs. A few managed to pull away, realizing that the fight had started with out them, only to realize that their attempt to escape put them in front of the crosshairs of the others like Immelmann, Hawker, Boelcke, Lowenhardt and Rumey.

James McCudden remained at the rear, carefully calculating the fight that happening in front of him, and pouncing upon anyone that tried to escape. The enemy flight gets dwindled down to just a hand full of fleeing fighters, as the historical flyers gather into a loose fitting formation to chase them across the Jovian horizon.

"Lets save one as a prisoner.", a voice breaks through the silence of their communications radios.

"Yeah, lets have a prisoner!", another voice shouted with glee.

"Which one?", a third voice adds to the chatter.

"Him...", the voice of the Red Baron saids in a grim tone, touching the windshield of his fighter, activating the targeting scanners to light up on the other fighters.

"YEEHA!!!", another voice yells, as Frank Luke's fighter bursts out of formation and starts shooting at the remaining fleeing few. Mannock, Ball and Guynemer joins Luke on the free-for-all shooting spree. Several of the historical fighters increase their speed to catch up with the enemy fighter chosen to be their prisoner.

They surround the enemy fighter from all sides, facing their cockpits towards him, leaving their underbellies in an exposed formation. They are soon joined by the four fighters who cleared the space of any further remaining enemy craft.

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"Whether the events occur in the past, present or future, as a time traveler, one has to think that all events occur at the same time.", Tabitha continues with her explanation, "Your original theories were correct- Time would allow only a certain number of incursions depending on the amount of energy used. But since the placement of the Orion's Rift into the temporal plane, the rules have changed- as had your original theories."

"So that explains a lot. How does this Orion's Rift work?", Dr. Brunner asks.

"It works in the very same principle of a supernova implosion and release of energy.", Tabitha started to explain.

"Wait a minute- you plan to ignite a supernova on the temporal plane? That would destroy 4D-Space as we know it!", Dr. Brunner saids with much concern.

"We are not talking about supernovas of stellar mass here. No, these artificial supernovas are created by imploding iron cores of a millionth or a billionth the size- anywhere from several centimeters to 2 meters in diameter maximum.", Tabitha explains.

"Hmmm...", Dr., Brunner saids, thinking to himself.

"And since this has been done in the past- we know that it works, and as a side effect, continues an energy loop at continually feeds the temporal plane with energy, making time travel for us easier...", Tabitha started to say before withdrawing into silence.

"It sounds feasible, but why the sudden change in your tone.", Dr. Brunner saids.

"The Orion's rift was place in the temporal plane at a specific coordinate. One that we know and can work around; but as for the temporal police- it is unknown to them until they figure it out. But to protect ourselves, some of us had to make the supreme sacrifice for a greater cause. We are time travelers, not soldiers, but we are forced to take that role.", Tabitha explains.

"For us to live and continue on with our technological break throughs, their efforts will not be in vain. My only concern is with you, miss; somehow all your past action were used for person gain, and yet somehow it becomes something bigger that effects us all. I don't know whether to punish you or to reward you.", Dr., Brunner starts to explain.

"If you don't mind, I'll take the reward.", Tabitha says trying to break the coldness of the room created by Dr. Brunner's statement.

"I'm serious, Miss Mustidae. Without going any further, I would like more proof of what you are saying before letting you continue.", Dr. Brunner says.

"You want proof?", Tabitha asks. "You'll get proof", she continues saying as she grabs his arm with one paw and places the other in the pocket with Hepzedah's temporal beacon, activating it.

In a bright flash they both disappear.

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