We made it to bay 13 without any more casualties—on our side at least.
Once in the hanger The Admiral opened comms to General Halker.
“General, we have reached the hanger, ready for exfil. Repeat, ready for exfil.”
“Copy that, Admiral.” The General said. “Prepare to load up.”
And even then we could hear the faint hum of the muffled thrusters bringing the invisible ship down next to us. It had been waiting just outside, as no doubt the rest of the fleet was.
A window opened up suddenly in space next to us, the ramp descending from the still cloaked craft, revealing an interior awash in red combat lighting. We loaded up quick and, moments later, we had docked with the stealthed light Cruiser, rejoining the rest of the fleet outside of the immediate conflict zone. From this vantage point we could see the The Hands of Friendship Clasped Firm crippled, huge potions simply gone, what remained a mangled mess of exposed superstructure. Countless debris filled the space around the station, much of it previously the living.
The Hegemony Armada had amassed over the pole of the station, a steady stream of boarding craft still in transit. Likely they would take prisoner whatever survivors they could find, it wouldn’t be many. Mostly, as was their M.O., they were there to loot any armament and weaponry they could salvage before heading back to Hegemony controlled space.
“General,” The Admiral said once we’d entered the bridge. “Do we have any status updates?”
“Not at this time, Admiral, no.” He replied. “Our techs are still trying to work out how The Heg came though. We think they opened a new Jump-Gate just inside the border and managed a series of leap-frogging Hyperspace jumps to pop out right on top of us.”
“That would exxxplain the ssssignaturessss.” Came the familiar voice.
“Saxxon!” The Admiral squeaked out as we all turned to face The Major. “You’re alive! I thought you were in the lab when the attack began! Is Casslyn—“
“—I wasss… unable to save her…” The Major said, tone betraying more emotion than I’d thought he possessed. He was missing two legs on his left side, the wounds sealed with what looked to be his own silk.
“Torsion beamsss… cut through lab, cut through us. We were ejected to the void… I sssealed my wounds, entered hibernation to sssurvive vacuum… but all othersss were lost… Casslynn was...”
“It’s okay Saxxon.” The Admiral said, putting her hand on the sharp spurs of his remaining foreleg. “We will regroup. We will figure out wh—“
“—Transmission incoming!” The General shouted. “We have a status update! We have a report that… that Earth is…is…” The General trailed off, dropping the comm from his ear.
“What is it General?” The Admiral asked.
“Earth...” The General said again. “It’s…”
“General, what about the Earth?” The Admiral tried again, and when no answer was forthcoming,
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“Rod! What happened? What is going on with Earth?”
“Gone.” The General replied. “It’s gone.”
On the screen telemetry came in. Two feeds. The first of The Hands, broken, surrounded by The Hegemony Armada. On the second, Earth. But not the Earth I had seen in my studies. Not the blue orb that, despite all the terrors it harbored, was quite beautiful. No, this was not that beautiful Earth. This Earth was blackened, dead.
A few dozen used Hegemony One-Shot Grav-Busters sat in orbit around that smoldering globe. They were much smaller than those previously fielded, but if the recent battle was any indication of their capabilities, this was just another of The Hegemony’s new weapons of war.
The General slumped slowly into his seat, speechless. I saw Kel, off in the corner where he’d been standing since our arrival on the bridge—still wearing the insides of his enemies—he was staring at the screen, face expressionless.
The Admiral tuned on the sound accompanying the transmission. It was a Human military correspondent, at one of the offworld posts in their Homesystem, their voice was quavering as they spoke, a lifetime of dedicated training unable to prepare them for this loss.
“—egemony forces have withdrawn through Jump-Gate. Reports of at least 40 billion Terrans dead, an estimated 20 billion more on Luna. Europa and Ganymede response teams en route to inner system to begin administering aid. Further updates will be provided as information becomes available.”
The Admiral looked over to General Halker, then to Kel, still sitting there impassively.
Suddenly he was on his feet over to the console in front of The General. He pulled up the live feed of The Hegemony Armada around the Station, which was just now beginning its jump back to wherever it came from. Fingers tapping in a flurry, we could see him pull up the tracking algorithm on the screen, calculating trajectory and firing solutions.
He got on the comms. “Attention fleet, this is Lieutenant Colonel Thirkle Kelby, prepare for pursuit. Estimated Jump-Gate evaporation, 20 minutes; departure window, 15 minutes. All individuals wishing to disembark, do so at hangers 1 through 3. You have 10 minutes. Over.”
He looked to his friend. The General’s eyes slowly focused as he looked up at Kel. Finally, he nodded.
“Alright then,” General Halker said. Then, standing. “Admiral, I must apologize, but this fleet has been requisitioned for a seek and destroy operation. You are welcome to accompany us, but as Thirkle said, if you do not wish to be part of this operation, you have 10 minutes to debark on the shuttles, 2 corvettes from Obsidian Squadron will remain behind to safeguard you.
“Rod, you can’t be emotional now!” The Admiral said. “Haste will play into the hand of the enemy! They are no doubt jumping back to their Homesystem, if you follow them you will end up at the very center of Hegemony controlled space!”
“That is the plan.” Kel said from behind The General.
“Thirkle, please!” The Admiral said. “Please listen to me. The Hegemony will be punished. The Collective will make sure of it. With our full might we will bring those accountable to justice! But we must be patient!”
Neither Kel nor The General said anything. They merely turned away and began reviewing strategy wordlessly as though a single mind.
The Admiral let out a heavy sigh and, as though realizing the futility of further debate, turned to me and the rest of the escorts.
“We must debark the ship, we will rendezvous with High Command and send reinforcements when we can.” She turned back to the Humans, “Good luck, stay smart and stay alive, I’ll be back by your sides soon with the full might of The Collective.” Then, as though remembering something much out of character yet nevertheless appropriate, she added. “Kill them all.”
We turned to exit the bridge. Admiral hurrying off, flanked by her escorts. Just as I was crossing the threshold, I stopped.
I turned back to the Human who had saved my life, who had saved all of our lives.
“Kel?” I said.
The Human turned to me.
“I’m sorry about Caleb and Chyrkrady.”
The Human’s face seemed to soften by a degree.
“I heard him say it wasn’t your fault.” I continued. “He’s right, it’s not your fault. You tried as hard as you could.”
The Human’s face tilted down just slightly, eyes staring back to the floor, to the Beyond.
“The Admiral is right though. You must be careful. The Hegemony is clever, they are no doubt prepared for retaliation, for pursuit. This fleet is formidable, but it is oh so tiny when compared to The Hegemony’s forces. It is certain that they have chosen this moment to strike for a reason.
They only strike when they are at their strongest and their enemies are at their weakest.
They have chosen this moment to beat us down, to weaken us, to crush us.
They have chosen this moment to defeat us.”
And in that moment his face turned up from the ground, eyes meeting my own. And that look—I have never seen a look like that before or since—it was if the anguish of those billions of lost souls was staring back at me. But there was something else too. There was a hardness in that stare, a wall holding back a rage unfathomable.
As I stood there looking at this creature, feeling that stare cutting through me, I couldn’t help but cower ever so slightly—long forgotten fight vs. flight vs. flight right fucking now instincts booting up in the most primitive portions of my hindbrain.
I barely managed to squeak out the rest of my analysis.
“They have chosen now for victory”
Kel looked slowly down to his red-stained hands.
“No.” he said calmly, eyes rising to meet my own.
“They have chosen death.”
.