We went to the far end of the settlement to see what luck we would have finding recruits. The east end of Trevanan wasn’t any nicer than the west end where we had been staying. In fact, there seemed to be even more rundown buildings. What we did find was a little more diversity. There were quite a few humans and Langmilians, most of them rough types that would make good fighters if they could be inspired to lend a hand.

The first bar was full of cold mercenaries. A fight broke out at the bar as soon as we walked in and distracted many of the aliens there. It was full of Reflominans and Langmilians with one or two humans. We decided to go and try and recruit the humans first. We went over to a young-looking man with long hair. Judging from his weapons and his leather outfit, I guessed that he was probably a bounty hunter.

“Hello, my name is Jessie and this is Yahn of Karkast. We are looking to put together an army to help Earth, which is currently under attack,” I said.

He looked me over, smiled, and then looked at Yahn.

“Are you offering any money for this recruitment?” he asked.

“Don’t you want to defend your home planet?” Yahn inquired.

"Oh, the irony- a Karkastian telling me I should defend my home planet. The answer is no. I haven't been on Earth for twenty years. In fact, I'm wanted there for breaking and entering. Desperate times call for desperate measures," he said.

“Do you know of anyone that would be willing to help?” I asked him.

"Not unless you're willing to pay a lot of Bani. Good luck to you," he said, then he got up and walked away. We didn't have any better luck with any of the rest of the humans or other creatures we encountered there. In fact, we didn't have any luck until we came to the third bar, which had quite a few humans hanging out there. It was a bar made to simulate an ancient old West bar. It was called the Wagon Wheel. We went around and talked to a couple of uninterested people and began to get frustrated.

“Jessie, I’m telling you, it may be time to give up on this cause. No one wants to help unless we pay them,” Yahn reasoned.

"I'm not giving up. In fact, it's time to make an impassioned plea!" I stated. I jumped up on the bar, suddenly and stamped four times to get everyone's attention.

“Do a dance for us!” someone shouted, and I glared back at them.

“I am not here to dance for you. I am here to ask for your help. I know that many of you are from Earth and may have planned to return there before those horrible Sarceastians began their invasion. Now, I’m asking you to join the fight to help the planet that you call home!” At first, the response wasn’t great, but one or two of the humans began to yell out their approval.

"You tell ‘em, girl! We should fight them!" one older man said.

“Oh sure, you’re going to take on the Sarceastians single-handedly, eh, Sebastian?” a younger man teased.

“No, but I will be able to take them if I have good men like you to help me,” he responded.

“The little lady’s right, we need to join the war!” A long-haired young man shouted.

“I’m in!” Someone else echoed.

“That’s it. We need each and everyone one of you to defend against this enemy, not just of the Earth, but the entire Universe. All of you here have probably suffered some loss at the hands of this common enemy. If your settlements haven’t been attacked by the Sarceastians, it is only a matter of time. For this race will not rest until they have conquered all of civilization! Therefore, we need every able-bodied to join our cause and fight!”

“Here, here!” A cheer went up as I spoke these last words.

“What Jessie says is true. No one knows this better than I do. My entire planet was destroyed by this enemy, and all of my people were killed. I am the last surviving Karkastian and I will not rest until I see the Sarceastians defeated, but I cannot make that happen without your help!” Yahn added. I smiled at him.

“That’s right!” someone shouted. Soon we were walking to another bar with a growing number of people. There were even a few aliens in our midst- one or two Langmilians and several Reflominans.

By the time we let the sixth bar, we were two hundred. A whole group of Langmilians at the last bar had agreed to help us and several more Reflominans. Once we started heading for our ships, we probably had nearly every human in a settlement with us. As we lifted off in the space cruiser, I was proud to see us surrounded by so many comrades. There were ships of every description- Langmilian freighters with their rows of eight wings, sleek, round Reflominan fighters that had two large cannons protruding from them, and human ships of every description, including our own.

“I have to hand it to you, honey. You did it! I hate to be the one to put a damper on things, but this still isn’t a large enough army to go up against the invading Sarceastian forces,” Yahn pointed out.

"I'm fully aware of that. We will stop at some spaceports along the way and we will recruit even more people, I assure you," I said with confidence. In fact, we stopped a few hours later in Eflitian, a spaceport that was much nicer than the one we had just left. We were lucky to come into contact with an Earth Federation army that had been defending far reaches of the universe. The army headed back to Earth to counterattack the Sarceastians. They gladly joined up with our forces. We also gained more alien supporters of almost every description. The Sarceastians’ biggest mistake with all of their plundering was the fact that they had made enemies all over the universe. They had no idea what was coming for them. By the time we reached the last spaceport before planet Earth, we numbered in thousands. I was feeling very proud of my fellow combatants as I looked out of the window at the numerous ships that had come to our aid.

At the last port, we gathered another five hundred or so men, many of them were already on their way back to Earth to join the fight. Finally, we began to move into Earth's outer atmosphere. It wasn't long before we caught sight of a very large Sarceastian war cruiser that was shaped like a large star. There were spire-like protrusions coming from the center of the cruiser from where smaller Sarceastian fighter ships were coming out of. There were four more of these large cruisers that were farther away from us.

“I think we’ve gotten lucky. I think the invasion has just begun. We need to talk about our strategy with the others before we go in blindly and begin attacking,” I pointed out.

“In my opinion, we need to hit their main war cruisers as hard as we can. They are focused mainly on their attack, and probably aren’t expecting an army this size to attack them,” Yahn suggested.

“That sounds good to me. I am going to make contact with the ground forces to find out the situation there and talk to the other commanders,” I said. During the trip to Earth, each army had appointed a leader. We were in charge of the human armies and Commander Kelron was the head of the Langmilian armies. Captain Joransen had been appointed the head of the Reflominan armies.

I remembered from my days on the expedition team, the proper code for contacting our military commanders. I used this code to try and make contact with General Watkins of the United Earth Federation Army using our space cruiser's communicator.

“General Watkins, are you reading me? This is Private Jessie. I am leading a human army that is about to launch an attack on the invaders. What is the situation on the ground?” I asked. After several minutes, an answer came through.

“Jessie? The fugitive?” The general asked.

“Yes sir, but I’m coming back to help defend my home planet and I have several thousand fighters with me,” I answered.

"Well, we welcome any help that we can get. The Sarceastians are starting their attack on the ground. They seem focused right now on strategic military targets. This way, they try to stop us from defending ourselves. Mostly, they have sent out smaller fighting ships along with a coordinated ground attack," General Watkins shared.

"We are going to hit their space cruisers really hard, general. Once we have sufficiently weakened those forces, we can join the fighting on the ground. Together we can defeat this enemy, sir," I said, proudly.

"Well Private Jessie, I wish I had your optimism, but things aren’t looking too great for us right now. I have to say though if your army is as big as you say it is, we might just stand a chance against them. I assure you of one thing. If you lead an army that defeats the Sarceastians, you can bet that I will make sure that you are granted a pardon," The General reassured me.

“Thank you, general. We will be in touch. We are about to begin our attack on the Sarceastian cruisers!”

“Good luck soldier. Hope to see you alive and well on the ground,” he answered.

"Yes, sir!" I turned to Yahn. "Did you hear that? I will be granted a pardon if we help defeat the Sarceastians."

“Yes, I heard him, but right now, we need to focus on the attack. We need to make contact with the other leaders,” Yahn reasoned.

“You’re right, Yahn. Let me get back on track. Commander Kelron and Captain Joransen, come in please!” I spoke into the communicator.

“Yes, I’m here,” Commander Kelron answered.

“As am I,” Captain Joransen said.

“Wonderful. We have been talking with the ground forces and I told them that we were going to focus our efforts on attacking the space cruisers. There are four of them as you have probably seen on the radars of your ships. My army will take on the two that are nearest to us if the two of you will coordinate an attack on the other two that are farther away. Does this sound like a good strategy to you? Over…”

“Yes, I will handle the cruiser in the middle if Captain Joransen will handle the one that is in the farthest distance away,” Commander Kelron said.

“Yes, I agree with this plan of action,” Captain Joransen answered.

“Great! After we finish the attack, the survivors will meet up on the ground at coordinates 45-9, the city of New York. Over and out,” I said.

"I have to say, I am most impressed with your skills. Not only are you smart and beautiful, you are also a naturally born leader." Yahn smiled and gave me a small kiss on the lips.

“Flattery will get you everywhere!” I said with a wink. “It will have to wait until the war is won, though.”

“You are well worth waiting for,” Yahn spoke, winking back at me. We turned our attention towards attacking the large star-like space cruiser that we were drawing ever closer to. The Sarceastians had begun to notice our presence because some of the fighting ships leaving the cruisers had begun to come our way, firing lasers as they went. Soon we were surrounded by the small round ships.