	The GTD Salvation, turned hard and brought her broad side armament to bear on the Demon class Shivan destroyer.  All three main beam cannons opened up and slammed the Shivan violently.  The main gun was aimed along the "neck" of the Demon and sliced through after several seconds of contact.  The Demon was already in the final stages of death and the salvo from the Salvation only accelerated the process.  Crews in every GTVA ship cheered when the Demon erupted in flames from bow to stern.  But despite this small victory, the battle for the node went on.

	The node connecting Gamma Draconis to the Nebula was surrounded by a vast number of ships from every race, Terran, Vasudan, and Shivan.  The defenders clearly had the advantage of position and heavy weaponry was already in place, turning the node into a hellish killing zone.  The GTVA more or less sat their ships at extreme beam range and opened fire on any ship that emerged, only the larger ships made it through the blockade and was forced to engage to warships directly.  Fighters and bombers crept through constantly, but the amount of GTVA fighter on the node was staggering.  For once, the GTVA was firmly in control of a sector of space.

	Sure ships were being damaged, the GVD Isis was even forced to pull back because of a lucky hit on the engines disabled her interstellar sub-space drive.  Normally this wouldn't have been much of a concern, but with the evacuation only days away,  no chances could be taken.

	The Shivans were not moving into the system with their usual overwhelming force.  The flow of enemy ships was a slow trickle, slow but unending.  The enemy fighters and bombers were not coming in massed waves, only in small groups of ten to twenty at a time.  Any and all hostile forces were easy pickings.  So the battle for node continued for quite some time.  Pilots had easily earned ace status, five or more kills came without effort when there was two or three GTVA fighters for every Shivan fighter.

	Then, the battle took a sudden change.  The entire node flared with sub-space activity, energy rippling away and fading just as quickly as it was formed.  From the bright blue-white vortex emerged the four-pronged maw of a Sathanas juggernaut.  To date the force that was able to destroy a Sathanas was the Colossus, and she was scattered to oblivion in Capella.

	The automatic defences kicked in and hundreds of energy beams slashed across the massive hull of the juggernaut.  The Sathanas was seemingly impervious to the assault, shrugging off the beams as if they were mere stinging insects.  Still maintain the high exit velocity, the Sathanas pushed its way through the defences.  It shoved warships and installations to the side as if the their gaming pieces.

	Then, some higher power smiled upon the GTVA in the form of a computer controlled Mjolnir RBC.  The Mjolnir was simply following its programming, hostile craft identified, within range, target locked, open fire.  If the unmanned RBC could have been given a medal, then it would have.  The beam struck the Sathanas to the left of the stern and at first it was as if nothing happened.  Arcs of energy surged across the hull of the juggernaut.  Armour plating and buckled, releasing even more blue lightning across the hull, and within seconds the menacing red glow turn to a dull red.

	At first there was not a soul that could believe what they saw.  The Sathanas had just died on the spot and watching the immense bulk of the juggernaut begin to drift more than one gunner quickly went over the targeting logs of the Mjolnir.  Each had the same thought in their mind, "I think we should write that spot down."