The screen flared bright blue for a moment and the image of the fifth planet in the system resolved.
“Jump complete,” Bob reported.
“Red, you know what to do.”
“Yes, Admiral, initiating scan.”
There was a tense thirty seconds of silence as the main view screen showed an impossibly large number of enemy ships.
Finally, Redeemer reported, “I am detecting eight unarmed orbital stations and six super heavy freighters similar to the one we previously encountered.
On this hemisphere of the planet, there are thirty orbital defense stations with heavy railgun emplacements that can currently target us. The planet below us has multiple missile silos, but nothing else I can detect. There are approximately eight hundred battleship class craft, Seven thousand four hundred cruiser sized ships of light to heavy configurations, and over ten thousand smaller fighting craft roughly equivalent in size to our destroyers.
Individually, I am not detecting any significant departures from the weapons we have previously faced, Sir. The quality of their ships is significantly lower than those of our forces. ”
“Well,” Connolly responded, “As the old saying goes, ‘Quantity has a quality all its own.’ Lieutenant, I want you to plot a jump out of here that will put us well away from this system. Continue to recalculate for longer jumps as the capacitor increases its charge.”
“Yes, Sir. Plotting for progressively longer jumps, aye,” Bob responded, and his four arms began rapidly tapping the panel in front of him.
No sooner had Bob finished speaking then Redeemer interjected, “They are scanning us.”
“Well, it was either that or try to jam us. We must have them curious. They want to see who they are dealing with. How are our other ships reporting?”
First officer Alenkov replied, “They are carrying out the pre-arranged jump pattern, Sir.”
Connolly nodded slightly out of habit as he replied, “Good, that’s good. Does it seem to be working?”
She looked over the readings and replied, “Affirmative, no indication of what we were concerned about.”
“Excellent. Red, you ready?”
“Always, Admiral.”
“Open hailing frequencies.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
What met the High Lord’s eyes on the holo image didn’t impress him. The creature was in some sort of helmet, possibly an environmental suit. He couldn’t see more, as a close up of its head was all that was being transmitted.
It spoke in flawless Jergoon, though he could tell it was being filtered through a translator, “May I assume you are High Lord Dasskos of the Trisklassa Clan?”
He considered that. This creature not only had fluent translation software, but it also had enough knowledge of the Jergoon to call him by his proper name and title.
“Yes, I am. Who are you?”
“I am Admiral Connolly.”
The High Lord looked him over for a long moment. There was little to go off of. This Admiral showed none of the typical signs of fear he had become so accustomed to from others. That meant it was either ignorant of its situation, or had some reason not to fear him.
“What manner of creature are you, Admiral Connolly? I have not seen your kind before.”
“My species is called Human.”
Dasskos didn’t want to assume anything of this alien. He decided to get to the point.
“What do you want, Human Admiral Connolly?”
The creature narrowed its eyes and replied, “I have come to give you an ultimatum.”
Dasskos blinked his four eyes in mild surprise, “Speak that again. I believe the translator made a mistake. It indicated you, a single ship out of a miniscule force, had the audacity to suggest an ultimatum to the greatest leader of the most powerful clan of the mighty Jergoon. Surely, this was not what you meant to say, was it?”
The creature looked almost casual in its reply, “No, that is not the sense I meant to convey.”
The High Lord replied, “Then by all means, clarify.”
The Human looked at him with unblinking eyes and said, “I do not give an ultimatum to you, High Lord Dasskos, I give it to you, your clan, and all Jergoon.”
Primal rage flared to life inside him. No creature had ever dared speak to a High Lord with such audacity. That insult, compounded by the laughably weak presence of a single ship made it nearly incomprehensible. His anger threatened to break loose.
But, he did not rise to the position of High Lord by allowing his rage to rob him of his wits.
“So tell me, Human, what is your ultimatum to me, my clan, and all Jergoon?”
His tone still infuriatingly relaxed, the alien responded, “For starters, you are to immediately cease all acts of slavery.”
Dasskos chuckled as he responded, “Is that all? Give up what we gained by our strength? Slaves are weak, and serve the strong. It is the way of things. It is the right of the strong to take what they will from those weaker. Every child of our kind knows this simple truth. Can you honestly say you are any different?”
“Yes,” Connolly replied, “I can say we are different, because we are.”
The High Lord walked a few paces to the side before turning to face the image again, “And what do you offer me? What will you give to the Jergoon if we change our ways and abandon the natural order of life?”
The Admiral’s lips parted to reveal his teeth and he said, “On accepting that and other conditions, I would offer you our friendship and all the benefits that entails.”
Dasskos looked down to the underling in charge of initiating the invasive programs. The operator made a gesture indicating more time was needed.
Looking back to the hologram, he asked, “What will you do if I refuse?”
The lines of hair over the Human’s eyes rose up and he replied, “If you do not choose to comply, we will force you to do so.”
For the first time in his memory, Daskoss was dumbfounded. The utter madness of this creature boggled his mind. One ship, alone and far enough out of communication with the rest of its pathetic fleet for them to even know what was going on, had dared threaten the Jergoon species.
It was then that the High Lord decided he wanted to take this creature alive. He would cut however many limbs it had off and lean its stump of a body against the wall. So arranged, he would then eat its limbs in front of it. This insult must be answered.
“Let me consider your offer, Human.”
He gestured, and the image of the alien’s face blinked out of the room.
Turning to the underling, he asked, “Have the invasive programs taken control of their ship yet?”
The operator turned and replied, “Nearly, High Lord. I estimate another twenty seconds. They have had significant issues with the defensive measures, but we eventually broke through.”
“Good. Put them on holo when it is complete.”
One of the sensor operators at a console across the room shouted, “High Lord, I have concerns about the other ships in their fleet. Since the first vessel jumped in, they have been making multiple short range FTL transitions. I can detect no pattern. They seem to be jumping around a localized area, and never to the same location twice.”
The Jergoon leader considered this, then said, “Send battle group three to go destroy them. This ship before us will be enough to sate my questions.”
One of his military advisors stepped forward and asked, “My Lord, An entire battle group for six ships?”
Dasskos turned to his advisor and said, “I want to make sure none of them get away, Kilssas.”
“I hear and understand, My Lord. However, with great respect, to send over three hundred and fifty of our ships for every one of theirs seems excessive, does it not?”
“Excessive arrogance requires an excessive response,” he growled back, “I can afford to be extravagant, and so I will be. I want them all dead.”
A few more moments passed, and the underling in charge of the assault programs gestured to the High Lord.
Connolly’s face was again projected into the room and the Human asked, “Have you made your decision?”
“I have,” Dasskos replied, “I have decided to take your ship, and punish you for your impudence. I will enjoy eating your limbs as you writhe in agony and watch.”
Turning to the waiting technicians in the room, he said, “Disable their ship, and give the honor of boarding it to the highest bidding captain.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
After High Lord Dosskas said, “Let me consider your offer, Human,” the com flicked off and Jack immediately turned to check his readings.
“Red, give me a report.”
Redeemer replied in a clinical tone, “They sent five invasive AI’s after me.”
“Are you doing okay?”
“We are not in danger, Sir. They are less sophisticated than the one I previously encountered.”
“Yeah, but there are five of them,” he retorted.
He glanced over at her and caught a glint of something in her projected expression as she said, “They are running around in a virtual ship I set up. I have led them to believe they are about to gain control of our systems.”
Connolly smiled at that and continued, “How is the counter infiltration going?”
“By sending five programs after us, they opened up significantly more bandwidth than we planned. Some information is on physically isolated systems that are impossible to get to, but I have gained access to everything you tasked me to find and more. I would say this was a successful mission, Admiral. I even had time to prepare a special surprise for them.”
He quirked up an eyebrow, “Oh, what’s that?”
“I got access to their automated defense satellites and made it so they wouldn’t target us. We won’t have to worry about them.”
“That’s excellent,” He replied, “We need to stay long enough to hurt them so badly that they realize they are vulnerable. We only make it in the long run if we put them on the defensive here and now.”
He barely caught the smile on her holographic face as she said, “Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem, Sir. Should I prolong the virtual encounter to gain more time?”
“No,” he responded, “We have what we came for, and I don’t want to tip our hand we are on to their invasive programs.”
“Commander Kerner,” The Admiral said, diverting his gaze across the bridge to her, “Work with Red and target as many of those ships as you can with SPL’s, one shot each. I leave the targeting criteria to your discretion, but I would like to see some of those battleships taken down.”
“Understood, Sir,” Kerner replied crisply, “Do you want torpedo and laser batteries activated as well?”
“Negative, I don’t want to utilize all of our offensive capabilities on the first engagement. Even on our best day I wouldn’t expect to knock out this many ships. I don’t want them to have a complete picture of our offensive capabilities to analyze. Let’s leave a few tricks up our sleeve for next time.”
“Aye, Admiral,” she confirmed.
The main screen began highlighting a group of enemy ships.
“Sir,” Alenkov interjected, “We have a significant number of enemy craft powering up. It looks like they are about to make a jump.”
“Put me on QEC to the Mako,” he ordered.
The strong features of the cruiser’s commanding officer filled the screen and Jack said, “Captain Washington, it seems you have a significant force preparing to transit to your location.”
The dark skinned man replied with his resonating bass voice, “We will be ready for them, Admiral. Do you have a headcount for me?”
“Red, what are we seeing?” Connolly asked.
“There are two thousand, two hundred, and seventy five ships currently charging their FTL drives, Sir.”
Washington was unfazed as he responded, “We have been seeding the combat area with QE-Com enabled beacons, and there is no indication they are replenishing the sensor drones that have been reporting our movements.”
Connolly nodded in approval, “Captain, knock out as many of them as you can while maintaining the safety of your ships. Use your SPL’s, and only engage other offensive systems if necessary. I want to keep some options they don’t know about in reserve for later. Oh, and make sure none of the beacons get left behind. I don’t want them reverse engineering any of our technologies.”
“Affirmative, Admiral. SPL’s only and clean up after ourselves.”
Connolly gave a two finger salute and said, “Good hunting, Captain.”
The dark skinned man gave him a broad smile and returned the gesture before the screen cut off.
“Activate the multiplex kinetic shielding.”
First officer Alenkov replied, “Shields up, Admiral. The goons are hailing us.”
“On screen.”
The image of the High Lord appeared in the monitor and Connolly asked, “Have you made your decision?”
“I have,” Dasskos replied, “I have decided to take your ship, and punish you for your impudence. I will enjoy eating your limbs as you write in agony and watch.”
Turning to the waiting technicians in the room, he said, “Disable their ship, and give the honor of boarding it to the highest bidding captain.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
To a Jergoon, few things match the thrill of finally capturing your prey and holding its life in your hands. In that moment, the sheer rightness of the universe became manifest. The strong ruled, and the weak were subjugated. He had the foolish, infuriating Human in his teeth, and in a short time would taste his blood. He didn’t even try to stifle the mirthful, rumbling laugh at the idea.
His laughing trailed off as he observed the Human didn’t even seem to comprehend he was defeated.
“Troubles with your ship, Admiral?” he mocked, “Unable to run or fight, perhaps?”
The image of the alien on the holo spoke, “Remember, High Lord Dasskos. Remember when everything around you is crumbling to ruin, and you look up to see one of my kind looming over you. Remember that I offered you friendship and you chose the alternative.”
A far off pang of uncertainty, barely noticed, cried out from the deep recesses of the High Lord’s mind. He looked down at the underling who was in charge of the invasive programs. The look the weakling returned to him was one of fear.
No, it was terror.
“My, my Lord, I can’t explain it, but the invasive programs have failed. The alien ship has somehow defeated and erased them from our computers. They have infiltrated out systems!”
He returned his gaze to the holo image as the Admiral said, “Tactical Officer, you may open fire.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
In the choked atmosphere of the processing room, Gurna, the other slaves, and the Jergoon taskmasters were transfixed at what they saw. The white ship that had jumped into space had done nothing from what he could see for a handful of minutes. Then, things began happening quickly.
A huge formation of Jergoon ships began jumping away. Moments after, the hull of the white ship seemed to let off a silvery cloud. The way it swirled and flowed reminded him of the second purifying stage of Trisk. The cloud began to take shape around the white ship as lightning flashed around the ship before almost melting into smooth streams of energy. They flowed out and away from the ship before spreading to form a faintly glowing blue cocoon of energy.
Disappointment stabbed at him as he heard the Jergoon say, “Hah, those fools seek to challenge the High Lord! See now how the automated rail gun stations move to acquire the target. This will make a good show indeed.”
What happened next silenced the tormentors.
Pure white beams of light, a dozen at a time, pulsed out from what looked like tiny, momentary stars outside the elegant craft. Each line of luminescence ended in a Jergoon ship, and just as quickly the targeted vessel erupted in a bright white cloud of energized gasses.
Scores of destroyed Jergoon warships turned to hundreds, maybe even thousands, as the ship reached out its awesome weapons to strike the stunned fleet.
Could this be one of the old gods of lore our people spoke of in ages past? Gurna thought to himself, Surely, I am beholding one of the revenging Keja, messengers of the god of death. Have the mighty ones of old come to avenge my people of our oppressors?
No sooner had this crossed his mind, then he saw the energy shield flare to life, pulsing under the assault of rail gun fire. Then, in a pale blue flash of an FTL jump, it disappeared.
He was in shock at what he had just witnessed. A single ship came and unleashed a slaughter on the home planet of one of the greatest Jergoon clans.
He was brought back out of reflection by the voice of one of the taskmasters, “Why are the stations still moving? The alien ship is gone.”
Sure enough, when he looked he could clearly see the massive armored rail gun stations were indeed still moving. As he watched, he saw electricity dance along the rails. The automated station was charging to shoot at something with dozens of the magnetic cannons, each capable of crippling or destroying a ship with a single slug.
In a shudder, one of the huge guns pulsed. In the fleet, a flash of fire bloomed into space then faded out. His eye was drawn to the light of the explosion, and he saw the front quarter of the ship drifting slowly away from the rest of the superstructure.
Why are the planetary defense stations shooting at their own forces?
As the thought passed through his mind, the ship was slammed by another shot and erupted as the drive core went critical. Several of the smaller ships around it were hit by debris, and started listing.
“What is the High Lord doing?” one of the guards exclaimed, “He is firing on his own forces!”
The other guard had no answer, and remained silently in shock.
One station may have been some kind of catastrophic mistake in the software of the automated defense programs. Casting his eyes across the other stations visible to him, Gurna saw the telltale signs that they were all charging to fire.
One after another, the juggernauts opened fire on the thousands of ships still in orbit over the planet. Mighty machines of war were reduced to scrap under the blistering fire of the automated machines of destruction.
Some ships immediately began taking evasive maneuvers. They were the exception, however. The supermajority of the fleet reacted slowly to the new threat, clearly not able to comprehend what was happening.
For the next half hour, Gurna and the others in the refinery stared in disbelief as a battle raged between the fleet and the rogue defense stations. In the end, the most effective weapons the fleet had were the mighty ship killing missiles. Even they were not a sure solution, however. The stations were designed to detect and neutralize incoming threats, and destroyed almost all the missiles launched at them.
Those stations that were not taken down by the fleet eventually ran out of ammunition. When that happened, they fired their maneuvering thrusters and plunged in fiery plumes into the atmosphere of the word they were meant to defend.
When it was all over, Gurna looked at the mass of debris now surrounding the planet. Some of the hulls of ships floated listlessly through space while others were taken hold by the gravity well to be embraced in fire. For the first time he could remember, Gurna felt something he had never experienced before: Hope.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The High Lord’s chamber was silent after the intense and frustrating past half hour. The bodies of two underlings deemed to be incompetent lay on the floor. Dasskos sat seething with a rage he could not satiate. He had never faced such a defeat before.
“How many ships are left?” he asked into the room.
Kilssas answered him, “We have lost approximately two thirds of our forces, and all of the planetary defense installations.”
Dasskos growled, “And what is the status of the battle group three?”
“Scout ships sent to the area indicate no sign of them, My Lord. It appears they were all destroyed.”
He rose and gave his anger voice, bellowing out an incoherent roar that caused everyone in the room to freeze in place. Silence fell, interrupted only by the occasional mechanical sounds the equipment gave off.
After some time, a single timid voice spoke, “High Lord, I have found something you should see.”
He turned his head and focused his eyes on the technician in charge of invasive software, “Speak, but know if I do not find value in your words, I will kill you.”
Fear filled the face of the other Jergoon, and he tapped a few panels on his console as he said, “As I was looking to see the extent of the intrusion of their invasive software, I found this. It was in the navigation database. It appears to be a communication packet for you by name, My Lord.”
“Show me.”
The holo image floating in the center of the room changed to reveal a simple text message. What it said bypassed all the frustration and rage and sent a cold spike of doubt through the heart of the mighty Jergoon leader.
It read:
We now have the locations of all your worlds.
We are coming for you.
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.