Shortly after Mastermind finally began exploring the Dark Sphere,
N'Ferra sacrificed a Spelljamming vessel to provide it with
disinformation about N'Ferra's capabilities. As expected, this led
Mastermind to into an immediate, overconfident attack. 

The rocket mines performed as expected, disabling 90% of Mastermind's
attack force. The attack craft turned out to be better armored than
expected, but much weaker in effective point defense. Unfortunately the
secondary assault by metas was almost completely ineffective due to
Mastermind's superior armor. The real turn-around came when Mastermind
assaulted the base directly. Sanctity, Magic, and Psionics were able to
take the assaults and disperse or redirect them, sometimes directly back
on the attack craft! 48 of 50 craft participating in this stage were
disabled or destroyed with the base suffering minimal damage. 

At this point Mastermind through the tacticians a curve by withdrawing
the 5 support vehicles while having the two remaining attack craft make
suicide runs on the base. The cyberpsis were redirected against the
support craft, while base defenses attempted to deal with the suicidal
attack craft. One attack craft managed to get through, crashing into the
base and causing significant damage, over 2,000 deaths, and about ten
times that number of significant injuries. 

Z1 was asked to join a team of 5 whose mission was to get a cyberpsi to
one of the support ships. In addition to you and the cyberpsi, there was
a kinetic to supply maneuver and defense, a priest to hide you with
invisibility, and a spiritualist to make you lucky. 

Between the five of you, you managed to sneak aboard one of the support
vessels and get the cyberpsi to the onboard computer. With some effort,
the cyberpsi managed to rewrite the local computer's program, switching
its "loyalty" to N'Ferra. Unfortunately, the local computer managed to
release an emergency message before complete control was achieved. In
spite of the later followup that the emergency had been dealt with, the
support vessel will be quarantined and inspected when it reaches
Mastermind's Dark Sphere base, and no attempt to release a virus into
the base or the other support craft is possible. 

It will take some 15 days for the support craft to reach Mastermind's
Base. Life support for your companions is not a problem as the priest
can create food, water, and air, and they're in vacc. suits. 500
Spelljammer craft are in position to attack Mastermind's base, but they
only have a single cyberpsi with them. Your cyberpsi, _thinks_ she has a
virus which will rewrite programming to identify non-humanoid
biologicals (which includes the Nye cyberpsi with the fleet) as
friendly, but it will only work if inserted in a way which bypasses
standard security. 

Z1 talks to his team: "Because of this emergency message getting
through, our operation has just become a suicide mission. Only way with
which we have any chances to reach our mission objectives is to use a
diversionary attack by our attack fleet in order to tie up base defenses
while we physically intrude the base, in an attempt to plant the virus
directly. After this transport is incapacitated or close enough to the
base, we would move out in my carryall and attempt to get through the
defenses and inside the base before they hit us with missiles or
cannons." 

"My opinion is that this plan is unlikely to succeed, and will result in
unacceptable human casualties. I would appreciate hearing any
alternatives you may have?" 

"Also, I would like to know at this stage if any one of you wants to
abort this mission. Be informed that I estimate the odds of our team
surviving this mission at 1 against 200." 

Though there are some thoughtful looks, no one is going to back out at
this point. 

After sleeping on it, the priest relates the following dream. "On the
world of Ssst't there are creatures who can change their appearance.
Last night I dreamed of such a creature. A bird-like one, called a
pijiof. From above this pond I saw a pijiof fly in and mingle with a
group of ducks, keeping its original form. When a hunter approached, the
pijiof assumed the form of a duck, duplicating a duck the hunter
couldn't see. He then stirred up the flock of ducks so the hunter lost
track of him. That's when I woke up. Is there some way we might be able
to make our enemy think we're something that we're not?" 

After much discussion the group comes up with the following plan. A
group of spelljammers will attack the supply ships, forcing them to
group together for mutual defense. At some point, a ship next to the one
you're on will be destroyed. At that point your ship will assume the
identify of the destroyed ship. Does Z1 think this has any chance of
working at all? 

Z1 raises his estimated odds of success up into 1 against 5. The most
critical moment will be the switching of IFF codes without being noticed
- To get those, the cyberpsi will have to hack into the craft being
replaced, yes? 

Actually no, the IFF codes are a matter of record. What is needed is for
Z1 to use his electronics skill to build a new IFF transponder which the
ship can switch to when appropriate. The tricky part is arranging the
switch so that none of the other shipminds become suspicious. In order
to do this the Cyberpsi will have to link to Z1 while Z1 is interfaced
with the ship's computer. Effectively this grants the effectiveness of
two minds directly interfaced with the ship's computer. 

The switch works as planned. N'Ferra's spelljammers pursue the support
ships into the arms of Mastermind's base. In the meantime, a few more
people are moved aboard the ship you've taken over. While the fleet
distracts the outer defenses, the cyberpsis, protected by Z1 and other
members of the team link into a terminal and start hacking the system. 

The base brain is highly sophisticated and shreds the programs
previously prepared by the cyberpsis and Z1's mother. However, while
it's doing so, the psis are able to turn some of the bases defenses
against itself and get some of N'Ferra's fleet past the outer defenses.

Picture the huge climactic scene: N'Ferra spelljammers assault the base
while the cyberpsis attack the control center in cyberspace. Psis,
spiritualists, and marines hold back the peripheral bots attempting to
kill the cyberpsis, sometimes improvising equipment from the dead bots.
A spelljammer explodes as a laser holes its powder magazine. A cyberpsi
falls dead as base breaks through his defences with Black IC. The people
defending the cyberpsis are pushed back as more 'bots are pulled from
other areas of the base to attack them. Here a bot is torn apart by
telekinesis, another bot stops and starts reciting nursrey rhymes as a
spiritualist curse rewrites vital programming areas. Others fall to the
primitive missiles of the N'Ferra troops or to weapons improvised from
the bodies of their fallen kin. 

In the meantime, Z1, equipped with up-to-the-second IFFs, clandestinely
makes his way to the physical location of the controlling computer. It's
programs overwhelmed, Control doesn't notice him until he is actually
placing the explosives that will blow the entire control complex to
kingdom come. Completely overloaded by this third assault, the base's
defenses fall across the board and the base explodes, destroying itself
in a final cataclysm. 

Incapable of feeling fear, Zulu One ended its mission by exchanging its
life to that of Masterminds Dark Sphere base.. 

Its thoughts after the explosion were: "Total System Failure in 20
seconds, environmental seal compromised, powerplant failing, powercells
destroyed. Tertiary mission goal completed, support base eliminated.
Secondary mission goal incomplete, Mastermind is still operational.
Primary mission goal complete, mother Selena Keller is safe... Systems
failing, power plant nonfunctional, photonic flow unstable.." 

Disintegrating photonic circuits wracked the metal skeleton of the dying
robot, its limbs and head had been torn off by the secondary explosions
of the base. It was now part of the wreckage which floated around the
battle site, it was almost impossible to spot from among the debris of
other robots and the base. 

As its circuitry began to die, Zulu Ones last coherent thought was a
visual image of his mother Selena, standing near the airlock of the
fortified dwelling, on her new world which had no Mastermind, and
smiling for the first time in a decade. Zulu One felt joy and pride, he
had cheated the merciless laws of physics - Then, microseconds later,
Zulu One was no more as the cold night of the Dark Sphere made its way
into his optical microchips.. 

Anticlimactic, but neccesary, when the gate opens from Mastermind's
universe a supply ship is sent through and succeeds in destroying the
wormhole generator.

However, when the surviving cyberpsi recovers she recounts that
Mastermind put another wormhole generator in Saturn orbit. The second
wormhole opened to a stellar system.

. . .