The shifting sands of Nauru, the blazing heat of Delta's star, and the vast emptiness of the sky above. The forces of nature, that fluctuate with the sands of time. The sands themselves, that are forever shifting. This environment will test anyone's strength, willpower, and their ability to survive. Or they will die trying, being swallowed whole by the very sands they tried to overcome, in whatever it was they tried to achieve. Then be forgotten forever, as the sands forever shift onward in time, with, or without them.
"Sir, you have been staring out the window at Nauru for quite a while now, are you alright?" someone cautiously asks Duke. Being forced from his thoughts, he wakes up back to the reality around him. Duke looks in the reflection of the bridge window, to see who was trying to talk to him. Seeing it was his tactical officer, Duke feels at ease and responds confidently, "I am, you have nothing to worry about, nothing at all." The officer nods in acknowledgement for a moment, then walks up next to Duke with them now both looking off into the distance of space itself. "I have made final communications with all commanders of the main fleet; they are ready and waiting for you to give the word." For a moment Duke says nothing, and is silent, and the only sounds is the background noise of the bridge and busy work.
Duke says nothing a moment longer, but then looks sideways at the officer and responds, "Give the order, signal the fleet that we are coming." The moment Duke finishes, the tactical officer offers a quick salute, and starts barking orders at everyone on the bridge, which Duke deafens out and focuses back on his thoughts. Old foes fill his mind, as well as old battles that were both won, and lost. What Duke is searching for in his mind, is inspiration. A means to an end, for the siege of Gamma is about to begin.
Twenty-five minutes later, now residing in Omicron Theta.
"Sir, I'm still not getting any response from our fleet, I still think someone is jamming our transmissions." the tactical officer says, "That can't be possible, we have some of the best communication arrays that credits can buy! Is there any possibility we can re-route it elsewhere?" Duke angrily replies. "We have tried everything, not even Pygar twenty clicks away is responding to our communication attempts, ever since we jumped, we have been unable to reach anyone" the officer snapped back. The entire crew of the Lockdown is on edge, they should have rendezvoused with the fleet in Gamma by now. Without comms however, they could not confirm anyone's position from the fleet.
During the chaos, a communication prompt flashes on the main screens of the bridge. This surprised everyone, which in turn made the chaos die down very quickly. Where Duke was standing, the screen flashed across his face, along with the tactical officer beside him. Without saying a word, Duke pushes a button accepting the communication request without a second thought. Before Duke could say a word, the sender says something first, "Hola senor, I hope you enjoy our gift of torpedos, and adios you bastards." Seconds after these words, the bridge is stunned with silence, as the engine bay takes several hits from cloaked torpedo bombers who arrived undeteced, and escape without losses. Overconfident, and heavily underestimating the Corsairs, Duke returns home in Delta two weeks after the initial campaign on impulse speed engines, defeated.
