A/N Hi everyone. First of all, some of you that are reading this will know that I've written (partly written) a Hawkgirl story before. Ultimately I wasn't happy with it so I've started again.

Also, from the cover art, you'll notice that I have given Shayera a slightly different outfit than the one she had in Justice League. Mainly because her outfit in JL looks a little cobbled together (In my opinion, even though it does use her colours) so I felt that maybe she started out with something different, something more uniform. I always figured the shiny bit on Shayera's cowl/helm was armoured, so I gave her the same for her torso, though keeping it light and keeping her arms free so she can still swing her mace easily. Also, The chest armour and overall colour scheme is based on her outfit from another show. (guess which one)

(Though in this first Episode she is mostly in her military uniform seen in "Starcrossed")

Anyway, I don't want to ramble, though I do want to explain how this fic will go. I'm going to attempt to emulate a structure of a TV show. There will be "Episodes" that are a few chapters long and each will be self-contained, though will have an overall continuity. This will also be a side-project and will be infrequently updated with new "episodes".

That's enough of my spiel. Time to get on with the story.

Please note, I do not own anything in the DCU or DCAU. They belong to DC comics and WB respectively. This is written for the love of the universe which was created.

Episode 01

War

Chapter One

The ship rocked from another salvo of enemy fire. The sounds of internal explosions rumbled through the deck, indicating that the hull had indeed been breached. Possibly in more than one place.

Lieutenant Shayera Hol tried not to think about the fact that their ship was coming apart around them. She simply kept firing on the Gordanian ships, hoping to destroy them before they themselves were destroyed.

Her fears grew as she saw yet another of their support ship ignite in a fiery inferno. She glanced up at her commander and her love, Hro Talak. "The Avenger has been destroyed," she reported, her voice becoming strained from the stress.

"I know," he said back, fury in his voice. "Keep firing. I want the Gordo's sucking space!"

"Yes, Sir," she acknowledged, even though she hadn't stopped shooting at the enemy since the battle had begun.

To be perfectly honest with herself, she had been quite surprised at how well they had fared. When the ten Gordanian ships had dropped out of hyperspace and engaged their small group of three, the battle had quickly turned against them with the destruction of the Defiance. But the two remaining ships had managed to hold their own, thinning out the Gordanian ships from ten to three.

But with the Avenger now gone and their own ship the Integrity, being blown to pieces around them, things were not looking hopeful.

The voice of the communications officer, Konar Tyrn was barely audible to her as more explosions rumbled through the ship. "The Avenger managed to get some life pods free before it was destroyed, but the Gordo's are destroying them."

Hro slammed his fist down hard on the side of his chair, putting a huge dent in the armrest.

"Hol!" Hro shouted. "Destroy those ships. We cannot let them kill any more of our brethren."

Shayera gritted her teeth. She was already doing everything she could. This wasn't even the station she was trained to use. She had been called up here after the tactical officer had been seriously injured not five minutes ago and his relief was nowhere to be found and had been most likely spaced during the initial attack.

Normally, she was in charge of the air squadrons here on the ship, which had been her role for the last few years. Before that she had been an espionage agent, finding her way into enemy territory and relaying information back.

That had changed when she had caught Hro's eye nearly four years ago now. She had narrowly escaped being captured by the Gordanians and had fled back into Thanagarian space, her ship heavily damaged. Hro had picked her up in the Integrity and he had just recently lost most of his air squadron. He requested her re-assignment to this ship and the rest was history.

The overhead lights flickered on and off as more internal explosions cascaded throughout the ship.

They wouldn't last much longer, that much was obvious. The surprise attack and number of enemy ships had simply overwhelmed them, it was that simple.

Shayera stifled a gasp as her console turned a sea of red, indicating that their weapons were all but gone. "I've lost energy weapons," she reported. "I can only fire missiles."

"Dammit!" he yelled, jumping up from his seat.

"Sir," Konar shouted.

Hro turned to him, staring daggers. "What!" he shouted in fury.

"I have word from the cruiser Garrison. They received our distress signal."

"How many ships and how long?"

"Four ships, ETA is forty-five minutes."

Hro moved and sat back down in the centre chair. He looked up as the lights flickered again after more strikes from enemy fire. "Too long," he said with a tired sigh. "We need to do something, or we're dead."

Shayera was slightly taken aback by Hro's sudden change in demeanour. It was as if he had given up.

Was this really it? Was this the end?

No, Shayera wasn't one to give in, not now, not ever. She would keep fighting until her last breath, until she wasn't able to fight any longer. She increased fire rate of their missiles, aiming at the engines of the closest Gordanian ship. If she could disable them, then it would become a far easier target to deal with.

Hro looked at her and their eyes met. He had fire in them, his earlier lapse completely gone. She knew he would never give in. He just needed an opportunity.

She looked back down at her readout and smiled as she received the result she wanted. "I have disabled one of the Gordanian ship's engines," she informed him.

A small smile crept onto his face as he pressed a button on the undamaged side of his chair. A klaxon began to wail with instructions to abandon ship, confusing Shayera. Hro was up to something, but she didn't know what.

Hro looked forward to the helm. "We stay here on the bridge," he instructed. "Give our men time to escape and live to fight another day."

Hro looked forward to the helm, gripping tightly onto the sides of his chair. "Set course for the disabled Gordo ship. Begin approach on my command, full burn."

"Yes, Commander," Helmsman Vorik Khren acknowledged as he input the command into his console.

Konar called over to Hro. "Escape pods have begun to deploy."

The lights went out for several seconds after another enemy barrage struck the ship. Hro knew they didn't have much time and gave the order. "We cannot wait. Full power to engines. I want us going as fast as we possibly can when we hit that ship." He turned back to face Shayera. "I want all available energy on structural integrity forward. I don't want us to break apart on impact. Not right away at least. I want us to split them in half, is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir," she said with a nod as she carried out the command. Not that it would do much good. When their ship hit the Gordanian ship, both would be annihilated. This was it. This was where it would all end. At least it would end on their own terms.

The ship shuddered, causing the lights to go out completely. The only illumination was from the control consoles.

"What's going on!?" Hro demanded.

Shayera checked her console, which was giving her confused readings. "I'm not sure, the sensors are damaged, I can't get a reading."

Helmsman Vorik answered for her, "The other two ships are targeting our engines. They know what we're going to do."

"Shayera!" Hro shouted at her. "Stop them!"

"I can't, I don't know where the other ships even are anymore. Sensors are dead."

"We're blind, Sir," Vorik confirmed.

The ship shook violently. Shayera held on to her console tightly to avoid being thrown to the deck.

"Engines are offline," Vorik shouted.

"Doesn't matter," Hro said. "Our momentum will carry us the rest of the way now. All we have to do is wait."

Shayera closed her eyes tightly and waited for the end to come. She stood there for what felt like an eternity, the only sounds were that of an inconsistent hum of the failing ship around them.

She opened one of her eyes and looked around. Everyone seemed confused. Had the other ship managed to move out of the way? Or had the damage they took to the engines knocked them off course?

Shayera glanced back down at her console. The whole thing was a mass of red warning symbols. Nothing worked now. They were essentially in a giant coffin.

Hro looked at her in silence. There was nothing to be said now. They had failed utterly. They hadn't even managed to go out on their own terms.

Shayera let out a long, tired sigh and waited for the Gordanians to destroy their ship.

Without warning, the deafening sounds of explosions and the crunching of metal was all around her. She barely knew what was happening when she realised that she and everyone else was airborne.

Shayera struck the front wall of the bridge, twisting her right wing. She yelped as she bounced off and hit the deck hard.

She rolled onto her side and just laid there in pain as the ship continued to shake violently for several more seconds. Then it ceased.

Shayera lay there, her teeth gritted, her eyes closed tightly shut. But the pain wasn't what hurt most of all. It was how their effort to deal one final blow to the Gordanians had ended in such failure. To ram an enemy was the final insult, like a spit in their face. What had happened wasn't any of that. It was nothing but an embarrassment. They hadn't died in a blaze of glory. They hadn't smashed through the enemy ship or else they would be dead. Her best guess was that they had hit the enemy ship's hull and bounced off.

"Shayera."

She opened her eyes at the sound of Hro's voice and looked up at him.

Her eyes hurt as the lights flickered on and off. One moment the room was pitch black, the next it was overly bright. She shielded her eyes from the lights, focusing her attention onto Hro.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, as he reached down to help her to her feet.

"Not really," she said in a strained voice.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah," she said nodding. "I think so."

"We need to check on the others," Hro said, moving off to where Vorik lay, while Shayera hobbled over to Konar, pain shooting up her left leg.

"He's alive," Hro said regarding Vorik.

Shayera awkwardly knelt down next to Konar and checked him over. She looked to Hro and shook her head.

Hro closed his eyes for a moment. "He died in service to his people," he said.

Shayera nodded as she stood up and made her way over to Hro. She was forced to walk slow as she found the incessant flickering of the lights to be disorienting.

"Do we carry him?" she asked as she stood next to the two.

Hro shook his head as he raised his hand and slapped Vorik hard on the face. The helmsman's eyes scrunched up behind his helmet before they slowly opened.

"Captain?" he asked confused.

"Get up soldier," Hro commanded. "We're leaving."

Vorik slowly climbed to his feet, his eyes straining at the flashing lights.

"Can you walk?" Hro asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Good, let's move."

Both Shayera and Vorik acknowledged with a "Yes, Sir," and "Acknowledged."

They headed for the door, which failed to open. Hro unsheathed his Nth metal axe and cleaved it into the door, forcing it open. The three of them stepped through into the darkened corridor beyond. Hro pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, illuminating the way ahead.

They moved onward through the ship. The usual thrum was gone, but the ship was far from quiet. Creaks and groans of shifting metal could be heard from deep within the ship.

They caught movement in a dimly, barely lit hallway. The three of them moved down it, weapons drawn. Hro moved his flashlight around, trying to get a better view. The light shone on an injured crewman, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Hro knelt down next to him. "Do you need help?" The crewman nodded. "Vorik, get him on his feet."

The helmsman did as his captain instructed and helped the man onto his feet.

Hro addressed the crewman, "Anyone else nearby?"

He shook his head. "Not that I know of. They all got to the lifepods. I'm not sure if there are any left."

"Then we head for the hangar deck," Hro said. "We grab a transport then leave. But first we stop by the reactor."

Shayera was confused. "Why?"

"I'm going to set it to overload. My guess is that we're still close to the Gordanian ship we crashed into. I intend to destroy it."

"It'll be a close call," Shayera said. "For the reactor to go critical only takes, what? Ten minutes? We'd have to set it, then run to the hangar bay and hope we get clear before it goes up."

"I'm aware of that," Hro commented as he began to move forward.

Everyone fell in step behind him and headed down an access-way which took them to the lower decks, which were devoid of crewmen.

Shayera found something oddly unsettling about the ship being so empty. The dim lights didn't help as it made the corridors feel claustrophobic, closed in and oppressive.

As they went around a corner, the faint sound of someone moaning in pain could be heard from somewhere ahead.

They increased their pace, both Shayera and the crewman lagging slightly behind due to their injuries.

The four of them came across an injured engineer who was stood leant up against the wall holding his left side.

"Crewman, are you alright?" Hro asked him.

He tried to stand up straight and salute the captain, but his posture was hunched. The man was clearly in pain. He then pointed to a pile of debris that was blocking off the corridor.

"What is it?" Hro questioned.

"There are trapped crewman," he wheezed.

Hro ran passed him towards where he had pointed and immediately began to excavate the debris. Shayera and Vorik quickly went to help him.

Even though she was injured herself, she didn't let it stop her. Shayera had never been one to let an injury slow her down, especially if some of her comrades needed her help.

Between the three of them, they were able to move a collapsed support strut from in front of a partially collapsed door. Between Hro and Vorik, they managed to force the door open, finding injured inside.

They helped those that could walk to their feet. Those that couldn't were left behind. They simply couldn't afford to waste time getting them to the hangar bay and they would simply slow them down.

The group, which now consisted of nearly twenty individuals continued onward towards the aft of the ship. It wasn't until they reached an intersection where one way led to the reactor deck and the other to the hangar bay, did Hro stop.

He turned to Shayera. "You get everyone to the hangar. I'll set the reactor to overload."

She shook her head. "We shouldn't split up."

"I wasn't making a suggestion Shayera, that was an order."

"But-"

"That was an order, Lieutenant," he said more forcefully. "Get to a transport and wait for me there."

Shayera nodded. "Understood, Commander."

"Good, now get going."

Reluctantly she led the group towards the hangar, while Hro headed towards the reactor. She didn't like the idea of him going there alone, but he was the one in charge and she was a soldier. She was bound to her duty and she would carry it out as best she could.

Unfortunately as they moved through an internal airlock that led to the hangar deck, they came across a group of Gordanians, which were blocking their bath to the bay.

In a moment her axe was in her hand and crackling with energy. She charged forward, her injuries forgotten. Her shipmates were right behind her. Those that had weapons had them raised, those that didn't would use their fists.

Shayera was the first one to strike. She swung her axe down hard, letting loose an angry shout as she buried it deep into her foe's armour.

She planted her left foot onto the fallen Gordanian's gut and pulled her axe free before looking for another opponent. She found him quite quickly. The green lizard charged at her, its own weapon drawn ready to strike.

Shayera struck the creature hard with the flat of her axe, knocking its weapon out of its hands. She then punched it hard in the gut, before headbutting the creature in the face.

The Gordanian went down hard clutching its head, while she moved on to her next target.

Shayera saw one of the lizards on top of an injured crewmen, beating him. She brought down her raised axe onto its back, causing the alien to stop what it was doing and howl in pain.

She kicked it off to the side then let the crewman beat the Gordanian senseless.

She looked around and saw that the fight was pretty much over. Once the last enemy had fallen, she turned to the Helmsman.

"Vorik, you go help the commander," she ordered. "Pick two to go with you."

He nodded and chose two crewmen before they headed off to the rector room while Shayera and the rest pushed onward.

They arrived at the airlock that led to the hangar bay. The light was red, indicating no pressure. Without wasting time, she led them into a side room where all of the pressure suits were stored.

None of them wasted no time getting into their suits. Shayera as an officer had her own, while the others used standard spacesuits.

With everyone sealed up, they headed back to the airlock and were cycled through four at a time until the whole group was stood inside the hangar bay.

The bay itself housed several fighter wings and transports which were secured on their launch racks that attached to the ceiling on runners. The runners were used to quickly extend the shuttles and fighters out of the bay in sequence so that they could drop-launch and be in the fight much faster and safer than if they launched from the bay itself one-by-one.

They were used for planetary drops. The transports carried troops, while the fighters were there for support. She herself had been involved in a drop several times. There was nothing like the rear door of a transport opening and them flying out into combat, with explosions and laser fire all around them. It was one of the most exhilarating things she had ever experienced.

Shayera gestured for everyone to stop, which they promptly did. She noticed a Gordanian dropship parked there in the bay, which meant there were probably more aboard than the ones they had encountered. By the looks of it, the craft was currently sat with no one aboard.

The main door was also open, or rather had been obliterated, with a few pieces of metal strewn about the hangar bay floor.

She put that out of her mind for the moment as she turned to the group. "Can anyone fly?" she asked. Only one raised their hand. She nodded. "You're the pilot of the transport. I'll be support in a fighter." Shayera then pointed to two crewmen as everyone began to file into the back of the transport. "You two with me. We're checking out that Gordo ship."

They nodded and followed her as they moved over to the ship. Shayera's leg was still giving her grief, but she was now able to ignore it for the most part. Besides, it could wait until they were out of immediate danger.

The three of them stepped up to the rear hatch. Shayera raised her axe and charged it, energy crackling along its blade. She then brought it down on the control panel, causing it to spark. She then sent a second pulse of energy into the panel, causing the door to slide open.

"I'll go first," she told the others as she stepped up the ramp only for two Gordanians to rush her.

She shielded the blow with her axe and moved clear of the second. The crewmen jumped at the Gordanians and held them long enough for Shayera to dispatch them both.

Lieutenant Hol moved to the cockpit and set it to launch before running out. The three of them got clear as the dropship flew out of the bay into space.

With that dealt with they headed back to their dropship and the two crewmen headed back inside, while she waited outside with the pilot.

From then, it wasn't long until the airlock from the ship was cycling and Hro with a group of three, before another five emerged after the next cycle, all of them in spacesuits.

"Report," Hro ordered once he was stood by Shayera.

Shayera answered immediately. "Came across some Gordanians. They have all been dealt with."

"Good. The reactor is set to go."

"I'm going to offer support in a fighter," she said.

Hro nodded as he turned to Vorik. "You do the same," he said. "We'll split up into two transports, I'll be piloting the second."

"Understood," Shayera acknowledged.

Hro rested his hands on her shoulders. "I'll see you on the other side, Shayera."

She smiled. "I look forward to it."

He leant forwards and their lips met, albeit briefly. He pulled away and rushed with the others to the second transport, while she and Vorik headed to the fighters.

She jumped in her craft and started the fighter's computer, which sprung into life.

Normally a pilot would check over the craft before a launch, but they simply didn't have time for that. She also knew that these fighters were meant more for planetary combat and wouldn't stand much chance against Gordanian capital ships. But they didn't have much of a choice.

After everyone had confirmed they were ready, the tow transports and the two fighters launched into space.

Shayera glanced behind to see the front of their ship embedded into the side of the Gordanian ship. That at least revealed why the other Gordanians hadn't outright destroyed their ship, as it would have destroyed the other ship as well.

Her attention was drawn to two large remaining enemy ships, which were now on an intercept course. Shayera clenched her teeth, knowing that if back-up didn't arrive within the next few minutes, they were dead.

That's when their ship the Integrity exploded, after its reactor finally went into overload. The explosion tore both their ship and the Gordanian ship to pieces, but it also sent out a huge shock-wave that rushed towards them at surprising speed.

Lieutenant Shayera Hol knew they wouldn't outrun it. She braced knowing it was going to be a rough ride.

The shockwave hit and her world began to spin. Her control panel flickered on and off as the whole craft vibrated. She held on to the joystick tightly, hoping that it would pass before the fighter came apart.

Unfortunately, she wasn't so lucky. The craft began to tear apart as it spun faster and faster, until she was ejected from the craft.

The last things she thought before passing out from the G-forces, was that she hoped Hro had survived.