“What just hit us!?” roared Jasken as he stormed onto the bridge.

“Looks like great eye fire, Admiral,” answered Mairen, who was observing a multitude of readouts as she sat at her station.

“What’s the damage?” asked Jasken as he settled into his chair.

“Minimal,” answered Dekken, who was just running onto the bridge himself, eyes glued to his tablet. “The shields absorbed the hits, but it looks like the whole fleet took fire.”

“Do we have a location?” asked the Admiral, smoothing his mustache.

“Just over the horizon to our stern,” said Mairen calmly.

“Swing us into position to return fire, but hold until my command,” said Jasken. “This could just be more Astralbian brinkmanship and we’re not starting a formal war if we don’t have to. Captain Hunt, prepare to scramble fighters.”

“Yes, sir,” answered Hunt.

Jasken opened a comm line to the other ships’ bridges, where he knew the officers would already be gathered. “Captain Kesht, swing ninety degrees starboard and prepare to fire on hostile Astralbians, but wait on my command.”

“Yes, sir,” answered the Raki captain.

“Captain Griezen, lock onto the port airlock closest to the Wingspan’s bridge tower. Prepare to receive casualties, if it comes to that.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Griezen’s stern, raspy voice.

“Officer Mairen,” continued Jasken, “Recall Talon Squad immediately.”

“I- I already tried, Admiral,” she answered. “I can’t reach them.”

Another volley from the Astralbians, though a lighter one this time, slammed into the Wingspan’s weakening shields.

***

The world was a spinning blur of black and blue. Reclan yanked on the controls but was unable to pull the shuttle out of the tailspin it had gone into. The rest of Talon Squad clung to their seats, teeth gritted against the inevitable crash.

Flipping levers and pressing buttons, Reclan opened up all the stabilizing fins at her disposal. Their descent slowed considerably as the fins grasped at the thin upper atmosphere.

"Alright," said Reclan. "We're gonna crash, but I'm going to do what I can to make it as comfy as possible."

"What hit us?" asked Raivyn. "The Astralbians?"

"Probably," said Reclan. "But there's no way to know. Comms are fried. Mechanical redundancies are the only thing giving me any kind of control right now.

The aqua skin and scales of Hrake's face looked pale. Vanbrook handed him a bag from above the seats, and the shaken Hrudukite wretched into it. He tied off the bag and nodded his thanks to Vanbrook, who returned the nod with a sympathetic smile.

"How long until impact?" asked Vanbrook, starting to feel queasy himself.

"Not sure," answered Reclan.

"We're gonna black out soon," he noted.

Reclan punched the dashboard and lights flickered. "Okay, I think we're waking up a bit, and… yes!"

She jerked the controls again, and the shuttle righted itself violently. A collective grunt emanated from the passenger section and the metal of the ship screeched in protest as the shuttle was wrenched into a more manageable trajectory.

“Alright, we might actually survive this!” exclaimed Reclan.

“We weren’t going to before!?” demanded Vanbrook.

“Eh, I didn’t want to worry you,” responded Reclan nonchalantly, adjusting a few dials on the dashboard.

“Looks like our personal comms still work,” said Raivyn, “I’ll see if I can reach Jasken.”

***

“Focus all fire on the smallest tree bearing a great eye," commanded Jasken. "The eyes are where the danger is."

Another blast shook the Wingspan.

"Mairen, have you hailed the Gladius yet?" asked the Admiral.

"They're answering now," she replied.

"Admiral Jasken," said the large Raki who'd just appeared in the corner of Jasken's screen, just above the real-time display of the battle. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"The Astralbians, Commander Grepk, and you can pay them back in gunfire."

Grepk nodded. "We're in pursuit of a different hostile, but it sounds like we'll have to give up that chase for now. We'll plot a course, though I warn you we're still a ways out from your position, on a jump from Hruduk to Platnon. We should be able to best your time in travel but not by much."

"The cult knew the way to Platnon?" asked Jasken, surprised.

"So you have some idea of what's going on," said Grepk. "Yes, the cult most recently departed from Hruduk. According to sources inside Zrykyk's newly-formed citystate, they were headed directly for Platnon. When we reach the moon we'll fill our water tanks and try to make it to Avonia in one jump rather than two, going as fast as we can push it. We may be able to reach you within the week; the Gladius was built for speed."

Jasken nodded, and an explosion reminded him he was in the midst of a battle.

"Don't kill yourselves, but the sooner you can get here the better," said Jasken. "The Astralbians have us outgunned."

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"Providence shine on you 'til then, Admiral," said Grepk.

"On you, as well," said Jasken.

***

Drixen led the fighter squads as they raced across the upper atmosphere to meet with the enemy. The trip would take some time, given the distance from which the Astralbians were attacking, but the possibility of being sighted early and fired upon was a constant danger.

"Alright," said Drixen to his fighter squads, "This is what we train for. I want all bombers focused on taking out eyes on the bigger trees. Cowgirl has a special gift for Jylik, so I want First Squad on me while we make a run on the flagship.

"Keep your eyes peeled for wasps; let's make 'em hurt!"

Drixen pulled off one of his signature loop-the-loops, much to the delight of the fighters flying in formation behind him.

***

"Jasken, are you there?" called a voice over the emergency channel on the bridge of the Wingspan.

"Raivyn, is that you!?" asked the Admiral incredulously.

"Yes, sir," answered Raivyn. The signal was crackling with static as the shuttle began to heat up in the atmosphere, creating a burning cloud of ionized gas around the vessel that interrupted the signal. "We've been hit, but Reclan is taking us down gently as she can, we'll need a rescue shuttle."

"Understood, but the whole fleet is under attack. Keep in touch and keep your heads down. Let us know when you've landed safely."

"Will do, Admiral, sorry we can't do anything to stick it to the Astralbians."

Jasken smirked. "You'll get your chance. I'll see to that."

"Yes, sir. Raivyn out." She ended the comm and looked out the window, watching the world beneath them grow closer by the minute.

"Touchdown won't be for a little while yet," said Reclan. "I'm going to shoot for hitting one of the big lakes on the continent that we're on a collision course with.

"The shuttle's designed for emergency water landings and we're probably still seaworthy since the hit basically just took out our engines and comms."

"Probably seaworthy?" asked Vanbrook.

"You heard me, hotshot," said Reclan dryly.

***

Drixen took out yet another of the swarming void wasps that had emerged from the star trees, focusing on keeping a path clear for Cowgirl and the other bombers.

The massive insects and their riders were highly maneuverable, but the eyes, bred to fire lasers like those of the bark of the trees, didn't pack much of a punch against the Republic's EM-shielded fighters.

"Target's coming up, Cowgirl, ready to get this done?" asked Drixen.

"Let's do it, Textbook!" she replied enthusiastically.

The fighter escorts banked away and allowed Cowgirl and the other bombers to deliver their payloads.

The other bombs struck and shook the trees, unable to take any out of the fight, but Cowgirl's trunk buster blasted one of the great eyes into a paste, exposing the inside of the star tree to the aether. A haplass tree priest was sucked out of the gaping hole, spinning off into the black.

"Hey, they do work!" shouted Cowgirl. "Sweetie, I know what I want for our first anniversary," she said. The pilots all laughed and cheered.

"You got it, hun," said Drixen with a chuckle. "But for now let's keep harassing the Astralbians. They don't know it but that was our last trunk buster. We need to keep the pressure up, so let's divvy up the trees between squads and keep them on their heels.

***

"What was that!?" shouted Jylik after the explosion rocked his entire star tree.

"We've lost communication with the primary great eye," said Yrinla calmly.

"We've what!?" demanded Jylik.

"Lost communication with the primary great eye," repeated the tree priestess. She frowned as she touched a node on her control panel and concentrated. "The eye is… gone. There is a gaping hole where it once was."

Jylik shook with rage, his form trembling violently.

"All trees will make a defensive perimeter around me now," he wailed, his eyes burning with intensity. "I want every wasp going after their bombers, and I want-"

Another blast rocked the ship, nearly as strong as the first.

"The Republic gunship the Halberd is targeting the empty eye socket, your highness," said Yrinla. "Even if we turn the tree's great eyes away from the enemy, the tree is badly wounded."

Jylik roared his frustration and slammed a fist onto his desk. "We will retreat!"

Lady Trilia appeared on Jylik's screen. "Your highness, I agree that retreating and regrouping is wise, only let me stay behind with my contingent to hold them off from following. When we are able, I would like a moment to speak with you about our strategy moving forward."

"Your council will have to wait," snapped Jylik. "But you have my permission to stay behind and protect the retreat."

***

Reclan gritted her teeth as the lake rushed up to meet the shuttle. The rest of Talon Squad were strapped into their seats, bracing for the coming crash.

"Alright, guys," she said over her shoulder, "Impact in five… four… three… OH BOY!"

With a magnificent splash, the shuttle slammed down into the water at as shallow an angle as Reclan could manage. After the initial confusion of the crash, Reclan looked out of the windshield to see a vast, blue expanse of water and a sandy lake bottom dotted with rocks and vegetation far below. She thought she might have seen some kind of underwater city, but the details of the scene were lost in her state of shock. As quickly as it had descended, the shuttle bobbed back up to the lake's surface, floating serenely as the ripples from the crash spread out over the surface.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO ONE AND TWO!?" demanded Vanbrook.

"I miscalculated!" retorted Reclan. "You're alive, right? Quit whining!"

"Sounds like Rec and Van are the same as ever," said Raivyn. "Everyone else okay?"

"Yes," said D'Jarric, sounding calm as ever.

"All systems go," said Doc dryly.

"I am physically unharmed," reported Hrake.

"How 'bout mentally?" asked Vanbrook.

"Time will tell," replied the warrior with a sagely nod.

***

"Looks like they're retreating, sir," said Hunt.

Jasken nodded. "They'll protect the crown prince. They didn't see the trunk buster coming, but that was our last one and the closest replacement is back on Griffonia. Thankfully they don't know that, at least not yet."

"Our shields are all but depleted, sir," said Dekken. "I don't know that we could take another great eye blast."

"Hopefully they don't know that, either. How are our travel shields? They weren't entirely depleted when we got here."

"They're only at about ten percent. We could utilize them in a pinch but they wouldn't buy us much protection at the moment."

"Activate them in case of a parting volley from the Astralbians," said Jasken.

Dekken nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Hunt," said the Admiral, "call back the fighters. It looks like the Astralbians are leaving a rear guard, so I don't want them chasing the flagship and getting themselves surrounded."

An impact shook the Wingspan, and Jasken looked at Dekken.

"That was just a standard eye," noted the Raki as he watched the readouts. "It all but finished off our battle shields… and, ouch, looks like some energy arced through into the hangar area."

"How bad is the damage?" asked Jasken.

"Hmm, hard to say, but there aren't likely to be many casualties.”

***

The shuttle floated high enough that the ATUC could be driven out over the water, and the Squad was able to hook the shuttle to the rear of the hovercraft and tow it to shore.

Reclan stayed aboard the shuttle, activating a beacon in hopes of beating the Astralbians to the punch.

Vanbrook flopped down onto the sandy beach. "Well that was fun. Any word from aetherside?"

"No," said Raivyn. "I'm calling Jasken now."

"Well you're going to want to tell him about those!" exclaimed Vanbrook, pointing to the lakeshore.

Raivyn's eyes shot to the place Vanbrook was pointing to, and saw a small horde of creatures emerging from the water. Humanoid and nearly the size of a man, they had grey-yellow skin in the gaps of their green and yellow mottled insect-like shells.