A green light flickered on his display. Spike took a deep breath... and focused. Not all the way. Not quite. Just.... further than he'd ever gone before. He was fairly good at this; he could actually make some parts of his body more dense than others now; which... was a terrible idea, most of the time.

One moment, a tiny speck of darkness approached the Imperial fleet. Millions of missiles had begun to launch, a swarm aimed at the Jeanne; a few absently targeted at the tiny object headed their way. Most of the captains and crew were unconcerned. Less focused on whatever the object was, and more on preparing the main guns; the missiles might soften up, or confuse the target; but they could all see how tough it was. It would be the guns that would take this thing out.

The next... the universe went wrong.

For Spike, it was fairly simple. One second, the display for the exterior thrusters showed green; the next.... the steadily rousing countdown timer had swapped and started to wind down; showing the ETA of when he should switch 'off' to make sure he didn't destroy the Jeanne as well. RC had told him she based her numbers on the time he'd wiped out the Jotun fleet; this time he'd actually gone just a bit more intense, from what he could feel.. so... maybe shave a few seconds off. He would drop out when it showed... maybe three seconds? Sure.

***

On the bridge, everyone stared in horror. They weren't surprised; they had all known this was coming. But... it was bigger than they expected. The newly-formed event horizon actually enveloped most of the missile swarm, and a few of the enemy ships... and the Jeanne was being pulled towards the mass at a fairly hectic clip; RC glanced up in alarm. "Captain, this thing is... at least ten times as massive as the one Spike made when he fought the Jotun. I suspect for him this is like a difference of millimeters, but for the outside.... we might get sucked in as well. The acceleration is more than twice what we expected."

"All thrusters full, flip us around and point the engines at that thing.. anything you can do to augment the engines?" Moreau stared at the numbers. They knew when Spike would be shutting it down; at this rate, time would seemingly start to slow down for them as space twisted... and depending on how the artificial nature of this singularity worked out, they might get to experience a long, drawn-out descent... or it might seem to be a barest moment before oblivion.

"Doing everything I can sir...." The ship could be felt to shake; her engines, ridiculously overpowered for something of her size, still weren't enough to completely overcome the gravity well; in large part because of the equally ridiculous mass of the ship's armor. For just a moment, RC considered the emergency breakaway; she had actually designed the ship to be able to shed that mass, in an emergency.. the lever was right there, and the biometrics wouldn't let any of the human crew pull it, except for the Captain. RC could of course activate it all by remote. "The only other option I've got is to jettison the armor. Just to be clear, if we do, we can only land once; we won't be taking back off."

Captain Moreau nodded. "I am aware, miss Chambers." He tapped the communicator. "Kezia, this is Captain Moreau. Sorry to bother you, but we may all be about to die, and I was wondering if any of those enchantments of yours might help us avoid being pulled into a black hole." The level of calm was... startling.

Abruptly, the shaking stopped. As if with a pull of the switch, all the strain on the ship had vanished. ~No worries, Captain. Is this enough? I can hold it like this... Ahh... for months, actually.~

RC glanced up, and nodded. "This is perfect. Actually..." She tapped the keys a few times. "If you could release it for about... three and a half seconds, we should be able to catch up to Spike before we reach orbit."

~I can't be quite that precise; but here we go.~ In the center of the ship, directly beneath the conduits running power from one extradimensional space to another, Kezia was kneeling in the position she would need to assume for the ritual; the Railgun running directly over her head likely to cause a heat issue for anyone else who would be in the chamber. She made a gently movement of her hands, just slightly changing how the symbols lined up.

For a few seconds; roughly two and three quarters, by RC's information; the ship shook once more; then began moving smoothly again. "Thank you. Now... if Spike does as he's supposed to, the black hole should vanish in.... thirty-six seconds."

The tension on the bridge had mostly faded. Everyone had confidence that, one way or another, the crew would get them out of this safely; there was just too much firepower aboard for it to go any other way.

As they started growing closer, and the count-down timer dropped, RC inhaled deeply; she shouldn't look as calm as Moreau. How much of her anxiety was real, and how much was just a show to look more human? They were cutting it a bit closer than she would like.

Suddenly; with less than four seconds on the timer; the mass vanished; replaced by... a nearly perfect sphere of vivid white and silver, rapidly approaching... at first. It almost immediately began to fall apart, visible flashes of light as pieces hurtled away in random directions; one of them headed directly for the ship. "Brace for impact!" Moreau gripped the straps holding himself to the chair, ready for the blow as whatever it was, a chunk of metal half the size of the Jeanne itself... practically splattered against the hull, sending pieces ranging in size from a few meters down to droplets scattered away.

Inside the ship... it was barely felt; if he hadn't been ready for it, he might not have even noticed the effect. "Try to avoid the larger chunks... but pull in close. Spike should be in the center of that."

"Of course, sir. I do need to warn you... that blob of metal there is big enough to have it's own gravity field. And, while slowly, it is traveling towards the Capital. If we don't move quickly, it might hit before Kezia finishes the ritual."

"...How quickly?"

"It will reach the atmosphere within... twenty hours. We can reach the planet ourselves in six, if we hurry."

Moreau nodded. "...If we use one of the gunships to grab Spike, can it catch up?"

RC tapped a few keys. "The Gunships aren't quite fast enough; their acceleration ability is only marginally better than the Jeanne herself. The Dragonslayer can make it, though, with time to spare."

***

A few light-hours away, the Imperial relay station suddenly buzzed to life; showered with messages; millions of them, final messages home from the crew of more warships than had ever been lost from a single battle. Confirmation of end-of-life in a combat situation; the typically rare message to be relayed back home, to let the family know how they had died; and thus the status on authorization for breeding a replacement, or using their genetic material to have more children.

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Relay Tech Hrrjekilnath was only a lowly silver; his shell still heavily laced with iridium as he slowly developed the physical and emotional maturity expected of an Imperial; when he was finally ready, truly leadership material, it would be stripped away to its golden core; and he would have a newfound vulnerability, a shorter name, and more would be expected of him. He... wasn't sure if he would ever be ready for it, really.

As he sorted through the messages; letting the computers handle all but the high-priority messages; he still had an enormous deluge to deal with; unfortunately, every ship's captain had the authority to send high-priority or even Emperor-level alerts, and there were millions of them; undoubtedly, a few had accidentally changed the priority level as they were being crushed to death; there were hundreds of Emperor-level alerts, when normally this was a once in a century ocurence.

This was the first time Hrrjek had even seen such an alert; much less had to read through dozens and re-prioritize them.

The remaining ships in the system were gathering into larger formations; though no longer making a mad dash to intercept. Conflicting orders were being passed around; even the ball of debris that the fleet had once been was likely to destroy the Capital at this point. Was there a point in defending it?

The first few messages were obvious mis-flags. A string of gibberish that should never have been sent, likely the sender died even while composing it. Some captain sending a message home... most of them to the Capital itself. Hrrjek forwarded them; no point in holding on, the recipients would likely be dead not long after reading them.

The seventy-fifth message was... different.

The overall Admiral of the fleet at the time had believed she had important intelligence; that, if the slug were to suddenly become a black hole, the Emperor must be warned; Cronos had survived, and was here. Hrrjek didn't have sufficient clearance to understand how dire that warning was; but he immediately passed it on to his superior for adding to the relay network; the moment the Emperor arrived, he would know exactly what that meant.

***

"Looks like we got lucky, and beat the Emperor here." Moreau looked over his screens; the Capital was... an insane sight. An enormous, blue-silver ball; towers starting at the ocean floor and extending up through it to the surface. Each of those towers housed millions of people; and there were thousands of those towers. There were few natural islands; those had mostly been ground away over the centuries to become more housing; and the world's natural geography had been slowly shaped in the name of optimizing housing and food production.

"We're going to be landing.... here." He tapped the display. Suddenly, the hologram in the center of the bridge spun about; to show a long strip of brown near the planet's equator. "This is one of the planet's space-ports; the furthest above sea-level on the planet, at about two kilometers up. We'll be hitting it with the main gun three times on the way in... and landing wherever seems likely."

Inside the cargo bay, an identical display was showing Ripper, Rex, and the assembled soldiers exactly what the bridge display showed. "These things are fast, tough, strong, and dangerous. We should expect them swarming us within seconds of impact... and ready to die to save their home. The ritual will be starting the moment we land.... but we don't know how long it will take."

The Jeanne appeared herself as a diagram in place of the planet. "There are tiny holes built-in to the armor to allow wiring for power supplies and bolts to attach point defense clusters. These will be firing as well, and honestly be too small for an intruder to enter... as well as too durable for anything man-portable to breach. Regardless, I want Ripper and one of my fire-teams in the heart of the ship, ready to pounce on any breaches. The rest of you..."

The diagram flipped. "The only part of this ship not covered by the psuedo-neutronium armor is the rear, the engine vents. The armor back there is tough as hell, but...there are spaces back here that a good plasma cannon can make a breach. Once he's with us, Eyeball will be leading the team protecting the engines, and Spike will join Ripper in watching for any breaches."

"Everyone, gear up, and be ready. The Emperor isn't likely too far out; the end of this whole mission is right here, in this star system; likely on this very planet."

***

Spike looked around the tiny compartment; it was made for someone larger than himself, but still; it was a fighter cockpit. No leg-room. He should consider himself lucky that it even re-pressurized so he could take off the helmet and breathe freely again. "This.... feels a bit weird. Last time I did this, I had to fall on my own."

Eyeball adjusted his controls. On his sensors, he could pick up a few space stations not far outside the swath of destruction; most of them still accelerating in his direction, thanks to the earlier pull of the black hole. "Well, I would haven grabbed you that time, but I was saving my friend, Butch. The Jotun had just launched the ship he was on into space, hoping to get him out of the fight."

"...Things have changed quite a bit over the years. I... will never forgive you, you know."

Eyeball leaned back in the pilot's seat, frowning. He could jam the 40mm gun's ammo holster into his implant, and kill them both. But nothing else would hurt Spike. Besides. They were on the same team. Even if Eyeball had taken out Spike's team, the first time they met. "I know. Frankly, I don't blame you. I could blame it on my powers, on this rogue precognitive instinct that made me do things I wouldn't have before. But... I killed people who didn't really deserve to die even before that."

"I was a soldier. I fought, I thought, for my country. I enjoyed the fighting, the killing. I killed men, women, and children, because they were threats, and those were orders, and I enjoyed doing it. I genuinely wanted to go out in a blaze of glory on a pile of dead enemies, like I was a Viking en route to Valhalla."

Spike sighed. "Yeah. Well. The DIrector tells me you're an asset to the planet. That I should do what I can to make sure you make it home alive... and ask you to turn Ripper over. Or kill him."

Eyeball glanced out into space... and frowned, focusing on one of the hundreds of stations out there. His computer showed the projected course, and information, when he looked at it. It would miss the planet, and its own weak thrusters eventually stop its moving in the coming days. And... it was a Relay station. The biggest, most important, one in the entire Imperial network.

His instincts were pushing him... both ways. He should ignore it, and head back to the ship. He should dump every single missile from this fighter's ridiculously deep missile bays at it to overwhelm its point defenses.

For the thousandth, or millionth, time, he wished his powers worked like Apollo's. Destroying that station would make a huge difference. He just... didn't know, good or bad. He glanced at Spike. "The ride is going to be rough for a bit here. Got a target of opportunity we'll be taking out." He tapped a button, activating the missile bays, and flipped on the comms. "Captain Moreau. I've got a bead on the Primary Imperial Relay station, and enough missiles to take it out. Not sure why, but my instincts are pushing me to blow it up, or not. It seems... important. What do you and RC say?"

After a few seconds, the response came back. ~That station is the central comm hub for not just the system, but the Empire. While its still up, it can transmit messages that not just other stations, but the Emperor himself, can hear before arriving. If you can take it out, do it. But... how? That thing has armor, point defenses, and is too far away for railguns or plasma.~

Eyeball tapped a few more buttons. His armament loadout popped up. "Just watch. I wish it were some amusing trick with my powers to hit something light-minutes away with precision. But... its just math."

He turned off the comm channel. "Dragonslayer. Adjust thrust on all missiles launched, and launch all missiles; I want all of them to strike the target within a three-second span."

A soft computerized voice. "Warning. Current missile inventory exceeds one thousand. Are you sure you wish to launch all missiles?"

"Confirm. Launch."

The fighter began to shake, shifting to point off to the side; the thrusters tilting to continue accelerating towards the Jeanne; as it began ejecting missiles into space, one after another. Spike stared out the window as the glowing dots of departing missiles steadily grew more numerous; dozens in the first few seconds. Then hundreds. Thousands.

"Jesus, christ Eyeball. How many missiles does this thing carry!?"

A soft chuckle. That entire direction was a blazing mass of white pinpricks. "As many as it can fit. Which... is hopefully enough to do the job."