Andreas arrived at the bridge of the Zephora only to order his communications officer to reroute all comms systems to his personal office. The large room felt like home for him, so much time since he first set foot on that ship. Several holographic displays were positioned symmetrically over the place, surrounded by workstations. The captain's chair was located roughly at the center of the bridge, sided by the first officer workstation and a small holoscreen. A huge display filled the frontal section, always divided in various smaller screens - each displaying completely different sets of information. Tactical views, sensor readings, systems status reports and many others. That time, though, most of it was occupied by a view from the forward camera.

The admiral stared for a few moments at the blackness of space were the jump node was located, and left. On his office, he faced the large flat screen that occupied the whole wall opposing the door. Small controls were positioned just beneath it, but he never used them. Voice commands were always his choice. The display was already active, and a tall human wearing civilian clothes, with a large beard and moustache appeared after a brief time when the GTVI logo filled the screen. He didn�t identify himself, as if he knew Emer well.

"So, admiral, a new jump node has been found. We�ve received the preliminary briefing, and we believe this new system to be the perfect proving ground for the Nyx. We are deploying the Mohses, which will carry the ship to the jump node. You must evacuate the area before it arrives - remember Andreas, no one else is allowed to set eyes on that ship". Without even waiting for a reply, the man broke the subspace communication link. Admiral Emer returned to the Zephora�s bridge, and ordered the officer to restore all communications with the rest of the fleet.

"You must be kidding, right?" asked Locheart, looking outraged. He wanted some good explanations, but Toshiro just stood there. Having noticed that the lieutenant was not among the least succeptible to a little pressure, he pushed a little further.

"These specs are way far from anything the GTVA ever built! It's not a natural improvement, we're talking about a huge leap here" screamed the captain, turning his back to the main screen. Toshiro sighed, and started to explain the situation - as far as he could go without violating the Security Act. Locheart suppressed the urge to smile.

"These, captain, are the specs for the GTVI designation RIP0131 spacecraft. I don�t have any information on it�s research and development crew, all that I know about it you now know too". A weird silence took over the room, while the GTVI lieutenant gathered breath to resume his explanation.

"The admiral will probably get pissed off at me for telling you all this stuff, and you�ll certainly get a court martial if anyone else learns about anything we�ve discussed here, so stop complaining".

Weber and Locheart stared at each other, no words on their mouths. They started to realize the implications of this. That craft was to be deployed on the system beyond the jump node, with a pilot inside - probably Toshiro himself - and the captain of the Mendel was really uncomfortable with that. Sending a piloted craft to the heart of a system centered by a singularity was not his idea of scientific research - this sounded more like gambling. Or suicide.

"Doctor, I know what you�re thinking, but there�s no way you can prevent it" said Toshiro, almost reading Weber�s mind. The only thing that really mattered for him was that spacecraft. Even if it meant dying, he desperately wanted to fly it. When it came to that level, he was willing to risk everything.

"I am getting aboard this ship and flying through the node, and you cannot stop me. I want to fly this craft, and I will" said the lieutenant while turning towards the door "and you must leave this location immediately". After saying these words, the oriental-looking fighter jock left the room, leaving behind two puzzled and outraged GTVA officers.

Locheart didn�t like the idea of leaving the jump node area. The GTVI was too confident, and almost nothing had been read from the other side of the node - as far as they knew, the whole Shivan armada could be there, just waiting for a fool to come through. He arrived at the Proximus bridge at the same time the shuttle carrying Weber back to the Mendel detached from the main docking port. After a few minutes, the shuttle was safe inside the science vessel�s docking area, and both the Mendel and the Plato left. Jeremiah couldn�t give a single order to his crew, too absorbed by the whole situation.

Suddenly, the main display flared, and the face of admiral Emer came through.

"Proximus, this is the GTID Zephora. You are ordered to leave this area at once!". That said, Locheart looked at his navigation officer - who waited for the confirmation of this order - and nodded. Shortly thereafter, the Deimos class corvette vanished into subspace.

A white streak formed on the black veil of space, exposing a large destroyer-class vessel jumping in. The GTID Mohses was identical to the Zephora, darker than the usual Hecates. It deccelerated, stopping right beside Admiral Emer's ship. A comm link was opened, and the voice of the Mohses' communications officer could be heard on the Zephora's bridge.

"Zephora, this is the GTID Mohses. We're deploying the launcher. Please stand by to send in the controller."

As the sentence was finished, a freighter was launched from the Mohses' docking bays. It had standard GTVI markings, and was slightly modified to carry a single fighter-class spacecraft. Almost at the same time, a small shuttle was launched from the Zephora. Inside it, lieutenant commander Kenzo Toshiro stared through a small window, imagining the green wireframe of a jump node delimiter. He was about to be the first human to fly into a system where a black hole existed, and that thought was starting to frighten him. The only thing that kept him wanting desperately to do it was the idea of flying the RIP0131, and he finally was about to do it. He had been studying the specs of that ship for the last two months, and every detail on it was perfect - it was everything he dreamed of on a fighter.

His shuttle approached the now halted freighter and initiated docking procedure. Blood pumped wildly throguh all of his body, as adrenaline rushed through his veins ordering all energy to be transferred to his brain and muscles. Feeling a knot on his stomach, he opened the standard airlock, and boarded the modified Triton. The compartment he was in connected the cockpit to the cargo container in the back, and was hardly one meter wide. Toshiro stared at the airlock for an instant, as his shuttle unlocked the magnetic grapplers and started to return. A last thought of fear crossed his mind, and was quickly tossed aside by his desire to fly the perfect fighter. He then opened the door connecting to the container, and all lights inside were activated.

Admiral Emer sat anxiously on his chair on the bridge of the Zephora, watching the Triton class freighter that stood still inside the jump node area. As protocol determined, he ordered all possible weapon and engine power to be redirected to the sensor systems, as the new craft was to be tested. It was the first operational test of the Nyx, and he couldn't help but wonder where that ship came from. No development group on the entire GTVI could have built that. He finished giving the orders to adjust the ship for the test, and checking was being performed.

"Ahead one-quarter. Bring us closer to the jump node." ordered Andreas, as the Mohses started the same movement. His navigation officer nodded, and the huge ship slowly started to move. Emer strangely noticed - the starts seemed strangely bighter that day.

Toshiro stared in awe at the RIP0131, as he tried to adjust his mind to the sight before him. The only thing he could see was a large area where all light disappeared, a deep black seemed to fill the air. He knew that it was the craft he was about to fly.

The fighter was taller than wide, a small vertical wing above and a larger one beneath what seemed to be the cockpit. No light reflected from it, so he could not be sure. Proceding to the control panel, he typed the security code and entered the commands to initiate the pre-launch sequence. The cockpit cover oepend, and the displays and controls inside could be seen. A bridge extended from his position to the side of the cockpit, and he walked through it - occupying the single seat on the fighter.

Admiral Emer watched as the main screen of the Zephora�s bridge splitted to show all sensor readings from the freighter Toshiro had boarded a while ago. His Hecate was directing as much power as possible to sensor systems, and he hoped to learn a good deed of information from that craft on it�s first flight. Andreas noticed as the doors at the back of the small transport flipped open, but nothing came out. He waited a few seconds, and hailed Toshiro.

"Already done that captain, as soon as the doors opened" was the response.

Emer was impressed. He had seen nothing, his ship�s sensors had detected nothing, but the fighter was out there anyway. He searched the screen for anything out of the ordinary - noticing a small area where space was completely dark - and contacted Toshiro, ordering him to activate all lights on his ship. Four bright spots appeared, but the area remained dark. The Nyx was truly an awesome improvement over the stealth technology used on the Pegasus.

Toshiro maneuvered around for a few minutes, trying to get the feeling of flying the strange spacecraft. Despite being one of the most experienced Special Operations Command pilots on the GTVA, he had a hard time mastering the new fighter. It was different from anything he had flown before, and the fact that he had studied it�s specifications for months didn�t help much. After the lieutenant commander acquainted himself with the RIP 0131, he proceeded to the next stage on the craft�s first test fly, and came to a halt inside the jump node area.

"Lieutenant Commander Kenzo Toshiro, you have permission to activate jump drives".

Toshiro lifted the small yellow and red cover, a pressed the button. Almost immediately, a blue vortex started to ripple before his eyes, and in a few seconds the blackness of space had been replaced by the blue and black tunnel that he had seen so many times. He couldn�t remember how many times he had been there, and thought he was used to it.

This time, though, he felt differently. He felt cold.

Locheart stared through the window on his personal quarters, waiting for the reply to a request he had sent to command. He had a strange feeling about the ongoing activities near the newly discovered jump point, and wanted to set things clear with his superiors. The GTVI was always mysterious and dissimulated, but after seeing the specs for that fighter he needed to know if they were acting by the book, be it whatever book the intelligence guys used - ghosts of the GTI rebellion still haunted allied ships all through known space.

After a few hours, the reply finally arrived. The Zephora had officially full authority over the new jump node space, and all other craft needed Admiral Emer�s personal authorization to approach the area. Almost at the same time, the distress signal from the Mohses arrived.