Xenon came out of his jump to see the large scale destruction that had fallen apon all members of the battle. The destroyed remains of ships littered the gravwell, and bodies could be seen floating though space. Xenon moved his small fleet to become active in the engagment. His single Sova, the Osiris, and his small fleet of 5 light carriers and 15 HC moved to attack Iron from behind. As they neared Iron's massive fleet, one of the tactical officers yelled out, "Sir! Visari ships are in the attack! Seems Iron has taken most of them out though, they are on the retreat."

" Do we know what they are doing here?" Xenon asked out loud

" No idea, probably came though the gate at a bad time" Said a man on one of the consoles

" Then we need to wipe them out" Xenon told his crew

" Yes sir" They reported back

" Whats the status of our friendly fleets?" Xenon asked the same man

" Seems David's Lions has taken heavy losses, so has Lord Ryat's fleet. Not looking good sir, Iron's fleet has been hit hard but still seems to be more than able to wipe us up."

" Where is the Horus? In position i assume?" Xenon asked as he sat up in his chair.

" Yes sir ready to make the move"

" Good have them move to the desinated location" Xenon said with a slight smile, " And send the message to Iron, time to give back what we took"

The Fleet continued to move toward the mass of ships that was fighting. As they drew near the strike craft where deployed, though they did not move into the swirling death. They stayed with the ships they had just emerged from. The Horus, which had stayed at the back for most of the fight, moved off to the side making a dash for the edge of the gravwell, as they did a message was sent to Iron...

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Iron sat on his flag ship, the kol named "The Hammer". His fleet had taken large losses, but if he stayed with the push he would be able to wipe out the remaining ships and take his prize. As he looked over the battle field from inside the device that he sat in, he noticed that several ships jumped into the gravwell, " Can we identify the new ships?" Iron asked out loud. A response came back from his scan team

" Seems to be Paragon Xenon's flag ship, and a small fleet. Nothing to that we can't handle sir"

" Ill be the one to decied if we can handle it or not, if he is here, then something is going to happen, i want you to rescan the entire gravwell now!" Iron barked back to the man

" Yes sir just give us a few minutes" the man said

"you dont have a few minutes, whatever is happening is happening now and i want to know now!" Iron said, growing angry with his crew.

" sir we are reciving a message form the Horus" the comm officer spoke up

" what in the hell do they want, if its mercy then they wont get it" Iron said as the message came though

" This is the Horus, we have the device called White Implse, i hope you didnt think we would keep it here for you to take back. Right now we are about to jump, seems we have won this time." The man on in the massage mocked Iron as the meassge ended.

" Sir seems that the Horus is making a break for it, going to the jump point at the edge of the gravity well"

" So thats your plan, try to sneak out?" Iron said as he laughed to himself, " Here is what i want, the Hammer and its support fleet will follow the Horus, the rest of the fleet can stay here to wipe up the vermin. I want all of them dead, and dont forget to wipe the planet clean, dont want anyone of them to be hiding down there" Iron said with a sadistic smile growing across his face. He loved war and he was getting his fare share of it today.

" Sir what of the Visari gate?"

" Destroy it, i want nothing left here but scrap metal" Iron said as his ship began to make its chase of the Kol Horus.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sir Part of his fleet is chasing the Horus" the tactical officer said to Xenon. Xenon sat for a moment in thought, he had planed on the entire fleet moving to follow the Horus, not just part of it. Iron had learned from the last time.

Xenon stood up to address his bridge, " Tell all strike craft to move in and engage, target Iron's fleet and the unknown Visari group, we need to clean this area quickly. Tell the Horus to keep moving, it has some fans following. We need to take out the flak first then focas on the big ships."

A man that was using the long range communitcation rig spoke up, " sir i know this isnt the best time, but seems that more -Ue_ Fleets are on the move, dont know who or what yet, just something i picked up on the long range frequencys"

Xenon walked over to the man, " Let Carbon know, see if he can intercept of something, we are in no position to do anything right now, i only hope its not a support fleet for Iron"

The strike craft glided though space as they raced to reach thier targets. As they entered the fray they let loose of thier waepons. Most went for TEC targets, while a few went for Visari targets, which suprisingly didnt try and fire back. This confused the pilots as they called back for instructions why they where not fighting back. " reason unknow at this time, just wipe them out for now" the tower told the pilots as they continued on thier flight paths.

Xenon watched as the fight continued, at least he had split Iron's fleet, not exactly what he planed on doing but it worked well enough, at least he hoped it did.

(Current RP)

The door clicked opened and Crest walked into the room. Taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes, "I just recieved this from Superior Halogen Radon." Sliding the paper across the table. Minera picked it up. Her look went even to dispare.

"So this is the end. All it took was one bomb and it all came crashing down. We have sealed -Ue_ fate and likely ours as well." she said as she set the transmission on the table. "I fear, we have crippled us and TEC here in the Distant Stars."

"Yes, it would seem so." Xenz said as he broke his silence. "But we may be able to survive..." he paused looking at the responces from his fellow Board members, "...we still have our assets to protect. And assets can be moved."

"Moved where?" Trenop questioned,  "Without Divison support, there is no safe place."

Xenz smiled, "Our dearest, Oione has already taken care of this. What you see is the High Paragon's attempt to regain what he know he has lost. Control." Oione nodded in agreement.

"Money speaks louder than duty to some." she added, " Already I have confired 5 Division who are willing to countermand the High Paragon. We have our own bodyguards now."

The group sat in silence for a moment. The weight of the coversation sinking in. As it did, each person began to smile, for the gears are turning again. Crest put his glasses back on, "So, its it time repeat history?"

(DS Lore)

    Lord Ryat leaned back in his chair as the last of the paperwork was filed in the computer system. He then let his eyes pass over to the photos of his family. Going over the casualty list was hard, and he had heard that many other leaders and commanders just looked at the raw numbers. He preferred to go through and glance over each one, making sure that all that needed to be done was done. For the dead, monetary compenastion to the families. He knew that no amount of money would replace parents, children, spouses, siblings, but it was all he could do at that point. The severely injuried were given the medical care for the rest of their lives. He even visited the injuried and spoke with them. The brain injuried were the hardest. The Advent in their cruelity had destroyed his son's brain when they took over his home planet. And while the ones that were injuried in battle could be repaired, his son could not. The best thing for him was death.
     "Do you always visit the wounded?" Usyma asked as she looked out the damaged window of the office onboard Phoenix. It was the first time he had taken her along, knowing she needed to understand her new duties that she would receive when she became his wife.
     "Yes," he said, "A leader must never forget the sacrifces of his people." She turned from the window and sat in a chair at his desk. It was a basic chair, the fancy ones having been lost in battle. He studied her to try and see what she was thinking, if there was any weakness in doing this. If she showed, he might have to rethink things.
     "How do you handle it?" she asked quietly, her eyes asking for help and showed feelings of lose but were unwavering, a good sign.
     "Well," he said with a sigh. "In this situation, you kinda got it easy. These ones had volunteered for this. They knew the dangers, risks, and costs. So that allows some what of a shield, knowing that they died doing what they wanted to do." he explained, "In others, say a suprise attack from the Advent, you can allow your anger to come forth as a shield."
     "Does the pain ever go away?" she asked.
     "AS my grandfather put it," he replied, "When the pain goes away, then you go away. And you become a threat to your own people. The pain is what makes us human." A slight smile came to his face with that last comment. "Uh..human," he said.
     "What?" Usyma said.
     "I just got done speaking with Lord J'rah," he said, "he to was pained by his loses. Seems that the idea that only humans feel the pain of lose is a silly one. So when I said what towards the end, it kinda seemed a bit lame. And yet I don't quite understand how to put it in terms outside of human."
     "What about the Advent," she asked quietly.
     "I don't know," he said, "I do know that that was my grandfathers issue with them. They didn't seem to care. But I think that he saw only the head masters. That there maybe ones under them that do care. I don't know." Usyma nodded her head at that comment.

     The wormhole in the Ryes system shuddered and quivered before it ripped open. A massive shockwave of energy spread through the gravwell for a split second and then settled. The wormhole was one that connected Trader Space to Distant Stars. A massive fleet appeared at the mouth of the tunnel in space. 16 Kols lead the way followed by 8 Marzas and 8 Dunovs. 12 Sovas and 6 Akkans brought up the rearguard. 400 Kodiaks, 400 Cobalts, 400 Hoshikos, 200 Percherons, 300 Gradas, 250 Javelis, and 50 Cielos swarmed like minnows around the leviathans. Lord Ryat's reinforcements had arrived in Distant Stars.
     Duke Edmenton sat at the bridge of his Kol watching over the whole transition. He was an imposing figure even with his seven feet tall and 230 lbs of muscle folded on to the throne like seat in the Flag bridge. His pale skin and shocking red hair and full beard completed his ensemble of divine status. And he wielded it often. Few were immune to his personality.
     "My Lord, we have arrived in the Distant Stars sector," an officer reported.
     "Continue on to Eras," his voice boomed. He naturally had a loud voice. An the fleet began to move through the wormhole system in Ryes towards its sun. Ryes was a collection of asteriods around a red giant so there was not much industry here though he new High Baron Ryat had capitalized on the resources even here. Entry in to the next gravwell, Ryes II should a small asteriod that was busy with trade posts and refineries. The fleet traveled through the gravwell, giving the tradebase the proper recognition codes. The next jump was into a barren system aside from a couple of resource asteriods and another tradebase. The fleet passed through with similar actions and jumped out to the Ryes star.
     The Ryes star was a massive bloated red giant. Several TEC starbases of different factions orbited the giant, none were enemies. The fleet moved on to the far side of Ryes to jump into Eras.
     "Battle Stations!" Edmenton declared. Sirens sounded and men dashed to their stations as the fleet prepared to jump to the Eras star. Last intel had reported strong Advent presences attempting to nest there that was from the Kyrene system. Edmenton meant to smash them quickly before reinforcing Lord Ryat. The fleet gathered themselves at the edge of the gravwell, each ship making sure to be properly positioned in its battle formation.
     And then they jumped.
     The brilliant blue of Eras revealed a startling and unexpected view. The gravwell was full of debris. And not a single Advent around.
     "Report!" Edmenton said.
     "Massive amounts of debirs, my lord," an officer reported, "Looks mostly like Advent with a sprinkling of TEC remnants. Whatever came through here was gone just as quickly." Edmenton stroked his beard in thought.
     "Move on to Eras I and send a message to Lord Ryat," he ordered. Acknowledgements came and the massive fleet began to move on the Eras I.

     Lord Ryat allowed the annoyance at Alexander's treatment at J'rah cool off. The feelings were understandable considering all the Vasari had done. Ryat's own grandfather had to work hard to break his own prejudice at the beginning of the war against the Vasari. His grandfather had taught him to try to understand why one did things. Sometimes one did what one thought was his only choice, like someone stealing food because he was hungry. If one thought the thief that there are better ways to get food and that thief changed, then all was well. But if the thief refused to learn, then judgement was passed. The Vasari was such a thief, some were learning and some were not. He wondered if there were some Advent like that as well.
     "I'm in agreement with the Admiral," he said quickly recovering, "Lord J'rah and I have suffered considerably as well. I would like to think that my people did not die over some silly trinket."
     "I too would like an explaination as to this matter," Lord J'rah rumbled, having passed off Alexander's animosity as a normal reaction to what his people had done, "We are not a rich clan and most of our fleet has been destroyed in this one battle. It will take months to rebuild."
     They all waited silently for Xenon to speak.

     Lord Ryat looked up from his reading at this comment.
     "My homeworld?" he asked. Xenon nodded his head. Ryat felt the stirrings of anger pulse through him. He closed his eyes for a moment and settled himself. He again looked over the briefing supplied by Xenon, studying it for answers.
     "I don't know about you Ryat," Alexander said, "but if I found out that my homeworld was going to be bombed, I would blow up."
     Ryat smiled coldly. "Don't think that I'm not doing it right now in my own way," he said quietly, "I just prefer to hit the right target for the right reasons. Which begs the question, why was my homeworld the target?"
     Xenon shrugged, Alexander looked at Ryat in thought, J'rah continued to look over the briefing.
     "Now this is interesting," he rumbled, "were these nanites always in the design plans?" Xenon frowned. Then began to go through his files on his computer.
     "No, no they seemed to be added in later," Xenon said, "Interesting, but why?"
     "Don't know that answer to that," J'rah said, "but I can tell you they seem to be of Vasari origin."
     Ryat cocked his head to the side in thought. "What do they do exactly," he asked.
     "They multiply, I think," J'rah said,"Not much else. You detonate the weapon and they spread all over the planet during the process."
     "Guaranteeing that there is a thumbprint pointing straight at the Vasari," Usmya said quietly.
     "Which would have caused me to hate the Vasari," Ryat added, "Which would have made me break my alliances with several of the Vasari tribes. And would have weakened much of my industries and trade routes."
     "Which would have undermined your power in the TEC and allowed -Ue_ to take over," Xenon said, "Ingenious, and it makes sense with what I have seen. This failure would shatter the -Ue_ corporation."
     "So what now?" Alexander said.
     "We refocus on getting those planets from the Advent," Lord Ryat said, "Wait, you said that this thing worked by being fitted to a Novalith Cannon right?" Xenon nodded his head. "I wonder what it would do when fitted to a Kostura Cannon?"
     "Effects are unknown," Xenon said.
     "I will have my engineers work that out if you don't mind, Lord Xenon," J'rah said.
     "Just Xenon please, and yes," Xenon said, "but please, only the ones you trust most, and no one else."
     "How can we trust this alien with such information," Alexander grumped, "He might just use the weapon upon us."
     "If you wish, I can do it under your oversight," J'rah said, "I understand your animosity and my people and I have much to make up for due to our," the alien paused for a moment as if searching for the right words, "Useless traditions that we once had."
     Admiral Alexander started at the alien as if seeing him for first time. "Deal," he said.
     "Well, it will be a while before we get all the damaged fixed and refits made," Ryat said.
     "Indeed, my people will need time to replace our loses, though one of our recent conquests was an industrial planet of massive size. With Xenon's friends and this planet now up and running we should rebuild nicely in a couple months. Also, my engineers will need time to fix the phase gate," Lord J'rah said.
     "True, I will need as much time to repair and call for help," Alexander said, "So I guess we are stuck here for a time."
     "Indeed we are, I will give as much help as possible" Lord Ryat said, "Oh, one more question Xenon. Where the hell is Carbon?" Xenon just shrugged.

     "Well," Lord Ryat began, "This incident here has changed a lot of that. For one thing a lot of the equipment and men that were tied into the campaign are severely damaged or gone. It will take months to rebuild, even with all the infrastructure we have in place. Flipside, I do have reinforcments coming. When I'm not sure yet, but soon. And with them we can do something different while we rebuild in other key areas."
     "Oh?' Alexander asked, "And where do these reinforcments come from?"
     "From my home systems in Trade Space," Ryat replied, "This attack on Kyrene III and IV is very important, so I stripped my garrisons to their minimum to maximize our punch. Unfortunately, with our losses here, we need time to rebuild to get that back."
     "So what do we do until then?" Xenon asked.
     "Well, there is the Ario system," Lord Ryat said, "They are another Advent cell that was aligned with the Advent that own Kyrene. But due to the fact that they are a single system empire, they are relatively weak. I sent a mercenary force against them to neutralize them while I dealt with the other Advent empire. They were effective but now we may have to visit them again."
     "Yeah, I remember that system," Alexander said, "They were pretty roughed up but we left them alone for the time being. We didn't have anyway to take over the planets so there was no point in attacking."
     Lord Ryat nodded his head. "Yes them," he said, "But due to the fact that we have lost time here, they most likely have built up enough to cause issues again, so I suggest that we send a moderate size fleet to deal with them permanently."
     Lord J'rah made a grunt noise getting everybodies attention. "I must bow out of this attack as my fleet is desperate need of repair and I believe our time is better spent getting ready for your campaign and repairing the Phase Gate."

(DS RP)

Alexander shakes his head, "I might have to bow out of the conflict for a moment as well. If I'm going to rebuild, assuming this planet is still offered to me, I'll need time to both set up the planet and orbital facilities. In any case, I don't enlist from just anywhere. I'll have to call forces from Trader space, and that can take some time. Even then, I'm not too eager to assault the Advent. If my forces are ready when you absolutely have to leave, I'll see about providing support. Otherwise, you might have to engage without. On the plus side, I know there's a Kostura Cannon on the other end of that gate and if J'rah can make it work, I'll be able to destroy it."

Lord Ryat's face reflects little emotion, but it is just that facade of neutrality which convinces Alexander that the man is pertubed by the Admiral's unwillingness to commit to the task of engaging the Advent. Such is the break with their personalities. Where Ryat is unwilling to completely damn the Vasari, Alexander is unwilling to completely damn the Advent. Lord Ryat replies, "Admiral, I prefer the cannon be captured intact if at all possible. It represents a unique opportunity for our forces, not only for whatever effect it may have with White Impulse, but as a general asset."

Alexander's mouth twitches as he thinks it through and says, "I think it can be done. When my fleet arrives, I'll have my men drilled on the objective and draw up possible plans of attack." He then looks to J'rah, "If necessary, I can work out limited access to the White Impulse for you to work out any technical details. You might want to be delicate around Alkaline Sanders. I'm sure he'll be just as uncomfortable with this as I am."

J'rah makes a facial expression which Alexander can only assume is discomfort. Looking to Xenon, Alexander says, "I'm going to wait a few days before making any official reports about -Ue_ and their approach to TEC allies, especially since I was assigned to this area by men higher than them. The reason I am waiting is to give you an opportunity to convince me to not send the report, or endorse it. Whatever you choose to do, keep in mind there are a lot of dead Centauri out there that also need someone to speak for them. I'm sure if they come to understand everything going on here, they'll be less likely to give you even as little consideration as I am."

The grim tone which grew on Alexander's face as he spoke brought the room to a deafening silence. Even the air ventilation sounds as if it temporarily shut off. J'rah, whose expressions are an enigma, appears as shocked as any human would. Taking a deep breath to break the moment, Alexander says, "I would like to adjourn this meeting unless anyone has something more to bring up."

(Personal / DS )

    Todd calls a meeting with Casey and their senior staff.  Back in the same drab conference room once again, all but one chair is taken.  Todd stands up as the room quiets down.  "As you all know, the Mary Read is finally finished and she was puttering around the grav well earlier today.  We finished her ahead of all expectations so pass along the thanks for the hard work.  Casey can tell you all about it later, and just so you know, I'm authorizing a full weapons test at the conclusion of this meeting, but for now I have to tell you about phase 2 of our plans.  Thanks to the system data brough in from the scouts, of which we only have 2 left, thank you for not following orders and bringing them back safely...  We now have a much better understanding of our surroundings.  Who's out there doing what...  What systems have what in them...  And most importantly, all the info we need about our next target.  Last week before Roesh left, he picked the Finley System to make a play on.  We're going to take a planet or two and get ourselves set up to have some steady legit resources.  We've basically been operating off of a bank account and collecting on favors owed, so if we're going to survive out here, we need this.  The plan is that we take the Mary Read and some of the messed up looking frigates and about three quarters of the dummy frigates and fly them into the Finley system.  The Mary Read will head to the settled planet and take out whatever defenses they have, while everything else just hangs back.  Naturally, they're gonna get on the comms and start calling for help...  Fortunately, they're far too out of the way to attract anything more then the local militia that's roaming the system.  Even if they do manage to get a deep space transmission off, everyone else out here is too wrapped up with their own problems to give a crap about the little activity we're creating.  So once they put out a call, the rest of our frigates, with the last of the dummy frigates, all painted up nice and pretty like, will come in and make a statement.  The orders are to lightly fire on each other and blast the shit out of the dummy frigates.  They're wired up with explosives, so when they go, you're gonna get rocked if you're too close.  When the dummies all go, the attacking frigates are to bail and return here.  The defending frigates are to attack the Mary Read and force her to retreat.  After that, our 'Veteren' frigate crews will request a resupply and authorization to use the further out planets as safe harbors.  If they say ok, we're good, if they don't go for it, hopefully Roesh is back and he can clue me in on the next part of the plan."
    Casey asks, "So where's he at anyway?"
    Todd replies, "No idea.  He was supposed to be back yesterday, but I was told to proceed without him when we were ready to go.  I guess we could have done this yesterday, but I was stalling to give him a little more time to get back.  But today, we're technically behind schedual, so we're gonna test the guns and get going as soon as we can."
    One of the others at the table speaks up, "Who's in charge of what? And who's making the retreat calls?"
    Todd responds, "Well, Casey is in charge of the Mary Read, she get's to call her own retreat."
    Casey interrupts, "I'm thinking when my shields hit 10%, I can fake a failure.  A few of the damage control officers and myself were playing with the system yesterday and we figured out how to get the shield generator to stay active while we actually trigger the shields on and off like a switch.  The trick is to heat the system up by hitting it as hard as you can until it's 90% gone.  The system goes into a semi-shocked state by trying to stay alive without overheating and going critical.  The emitters can then be flipped off fooling the system itself into thinking that the ship is taking less fire.  Turn it back on, take some more damage and drop it back below 10%, shut the emitters off again, then back on...  From the bridge it'll be some precision work.  Outside the ship, it'll look like half of our defenses just got their ass kicked."
    Another person at the table asks, "What happens above 10%?"
    Casey continues, "I'm not exactly sure how far above 10%, but at some point before 20%, and almost a guarantee by 40%, you start risking shocking the capacitors and frying them.  Once that happens, you've got no shields at all.  These systems take a few seconds to start up and shut down for a reason.  So just to make sure we're in the safety zone for doing this, our small scale tests show 10% and lower to be within the tolerance range."
    The last person questions again, "How do the adaptive forcefields on the Kols work then?  I was under the impression that they were an instant on system."
    Casey just shrugs leaving it up to Todd to answer, which he does.  "The Kol's Adaptive Forcefield IS an instant on system, it's sort of a last resort type deal not like the regular shields.  The difference is, being that it's a last resort system, it's almost immediately stressed as soon as it's turned on because you're using it to stop something big and nasty your normal shielding won't tolerate.  Plus, it's entire power supply is stored in capacitors rather then being actively generated, so once it's used, it's used until the system has time to recharge the capacitors again.  Similarly to normal shielding, it still takes a couple seconds to turn off intentionally, not that you'd ever want to, because it has to discharge the power load into other systems."
    Casey comments while sitting back down, "So I'm leading the Mary Read, and you're doing what now?"
    Todd picks up where he left off, "I'll be in charge of the attacking frigates, and I'll give the retreat order.  Roesh was supposed to be in charge of the defenders and to negotiate the deal after, buuuuuuut.....  Well, that job now falls to you Tim."
    Tim nods in approval, "Aye sir."
    "You're a horrible diplomat, that's for sure, so don't screw anything up by telling the person in charge of that planet that we'll be back or something.  Thankfully though, you're only play fighting today so you should look like you did a great job commanding your little fleet." Todd says, rousing a few chuckles from the table.  "Questions, comments, concerns?  Now's the time..."
    Tim asks, "What about local militia jumping in from other planets after the conflict zone cools off?"
    Todd replies, "You're the diplomat, don't get blown up.  Scouting shows that the system has a group of defenders that protect the settlement, and then sort of a neighborhood watch that patrols the rest of the system for threats.  They should jump in as soon as they can especially if the main defenders all get blown up."
    Casey interrupts, "Speaking of blown up, let's go test my guns."
    "Ok then.  Anything else?  Meeting adjourned." Todd says.
    The room clears, and everyone heads over to the Mary Read.  Once on the bridge, Casey clears some space and Todd has debris set up as targets.  For the next hour each gun is fired multiple times at targets to make sure the system can acquire, track, and hit what it's aiming at.  Once it's decided that the tests were seccessful, the captains all head off to their ships, head to their rally points and form up for their first operation.
    Casey calls out on the radio to all the ships in the area, "Everyone, get in behind me, this will be our first actual jump, so if we don't go, then no one goes."  She sits in her captain's chair on the bridge and straps in, "Let's do this."
    The navigation officer informs her the course to Finley has been set, the main engines shut down, the pilot calls over the intercom, "Jump drive active in 3... 2... 1..." And the ship vanishes in a flash of light.  Todd orders the attacking fleet to move to the end of the gravity well and follow the Mary Read.  After they all jump away from the asteroid, Tim holds the defending fleet for a couple minutes before ordering them to jump.

(NO LONGER NEEDED, SEE EDIT FOR OP)

Wait, see if I've got the important bit right... So the key plot point now is that xenon is handing over that terraforming tool to Alexander, and Iron has just been pretty much defeated by Carbon and Ryat. And now they're are wondering how to fight the Advent, having lost loads of ships to Iron. That okay?

Oh, and they have a Vasari ally now

Awesome. I'll try to get the intro story for him up tomorrow