"My fellow Terrans, Humans, All of Earth or Terra, whichever you deign to use, the Senate has heard your cries of outrage. We have heard your wails of pain, your righteous fury, your demand for retribution for those taken from us, and your mourning of Ares. Some of you have asked us to reach out to this alien Senate, this Sapient Alliance, and demand they hold the Axon responsible, some of you have asked for us to isolate ourselves from the galaxy, to let the sleeping bones lie. I am afraid neither will be successful. The S.A.'s council has given a paltry ruling, one meant to appease rather than deal with the issue at hand, a trait we have seen previous nations do all too often. They will not stop the Axon. Isolation will only weaken our homes to attack, let us not forget that while the Axon are truly a scourge, the Hexat and Krultathan peoples have come to our aid, assisting us with their ships and technology. Without them, it is unknown whether the Axon would have stopped at just Ares. No, Isolationism is not the answer either." The Senate speaker, an elderly man with many decorated medals, spoke. He was Andreus Filcher, the 131-year-old survivor of the Great Wars. He looked at the people assembled before the Senate halls with a quiet, weary look one might expect from their grandfather remembering a painful past, his gray hair cut short, and a decent beard on his tanned, leathery face. His green eyes looked weary from all they had seen, but his voice, while sorrowful, was unwavering.
"Many of you know how strongly I pushed for peaceful negotiations over war after the first nations agreement, many more may remember their fathers or mothers telling of what hell the great wars had been after the nuclear fallout in the middle east. I lived through it all, so do not take lightly what I am about to say, as hypocritical as it may seem to you.
Humanity has waited, we have waited for the response of the foreign governments to deal with their terrorists, and we have found their response wanting. Peaceful ways have failed and fallen. The Axon intends to end Humanity as we know it, making us slaves or wiping us out. And so it is with a heavy heart that I have to say. Terra Firma is revoked. Terra Bellum Salvos Is now instated. War Economy is now in effect. Army size limits are now lifted. War Tech is now in effect. Make us of the gifts our allies have given us, and the precious time we have, for Humanity is now in a war for survival.."
--
Viza turned off the holo-viewer and looked at Amelia, seeing the distress on her face. He knew that despite her attitude, she didn't really want war, that she had been secretly hoping the council would make good on the Axon violating their own laws, but it had been a fleeting hope. With the Terran Senate speaker's words, and with the recent news of the Axon seceding from the S.A. if any support the humans, War was all but inevitable. He placed a paw on his mate's shoulder, pulling her in for a close hug as she sat there silently.
"I knew it would be bad, but for them to declare Bellum Salvos so quickly...Viza, this is...it's going to be a bloodbath. What if iI had acted differently at the council? what if I had given over data showing Humanity could help defend them if given the technology, that they didn't need to be dependent on the Axon? What if-" Amelia started quietly, her overthinking showing itself, though less than it used to. Viza stopped her with a touch to her face, making her look at him, to focus on him, and still her mind.
"Many warriors of Krultatha have the same thoughts, before and after a battle. If they had done something differently, would things have changed? The truth, my huntress, is that it does not matter. No matter how much you may dwell on it, what's done is done, though if you wish for my thoughts on it, I would say you gave the council ample opportunity to fix things themselves, and they failed. Even if you had given them the data on humans, it would not have changed their minds. Most were already made up long before they entered that call, I think."
They were in the spare room Amelia had set up for the nanoforge, tying it into the power supply and with direct access to the ship's cargo hold. It was mostly empty for now, but she had been working on a few weapon designs for the ship when the broadcast from the FTL comm buoy had been received, dated two days prior. That had meant that, since they informed Terra of the results of the meeting, as well as Amelia's personal ship being underway to them right before they left, the decision for this had been made in only 3 days, accounting for delays in communication.
It would be another 3 weeks before they reached Terra since while the Elysium was much faster than the Kixax, it also could carry less fuel and burned it faster, requiring them to have to refuel before making it to Terra. Ti'Chal had suggested several different stations along the way, but that had been put aside when the Kixax relayed a message to them from Ratizherr station in Avi'Sharr space. Apparently, the insectoid race wanted to speak with Amelia as an ambassador to the new T.G.A. Viza had approved, stating that despite their insectoid lineage, the Avi'Sharr were quite empathetic, owed in part to not being a hive-mind species, and in part for having utterly helpless young stages in their lifecycle. Kixixlix must have agreed since he forwarded it in the first place so, against her better judgment and with getting Ti'Char's approval via allowing her to make a full "royal honor guard" Amelia had agreed. Now though, she was more worried about making sure the Elysium was fully armed and prepared for anything, she had even been debating pulling out more serious Azathoth files, but those would require things that she didn't yet have access to, and would require Hal's approval as well, a safety net she had built in to prevent her from using the files rampantly herself.
Speaking of, he was enjoying walking around the ship, talking to the crew now that he didn't have to hide, Amelia had even built a wireless power collector for his frame so that he wouldn't have to go in low power mode as often, now that she didn't have to worry about people looking at the ship's power systems too closely. Back to the issue at hand, however, Amelia nuzzled Viza a bit before stepping back to the nanoforge.
"I know, I'll be okay. The emission upgrades to the laser turrets are done already, though we've sacrificed firing speed quite a bit for raw power. They'll now use UV band lasers. Engineer Savi said something about modifying the shield emitters to provide sectional redundancy, which should help keep the entire shield network from going down. Smart one, that gal." Amelia started as she worked at the nanoforge's design screen some more. Having its limiters removed made it a lot easier for her to use since she was able to convert it straight to English and modify the user interface to her liking now. No more mess-ups like before.
"What about the hellfire PDFs you were on about?" Viza asked as his tail swished, seeing Amelia focus back on her task. He leaned against the wall and watched her work with a smile in his eyes.
"Mmm, no good until we get to Earth. I can make them with this thing, but the ammo they use is...difficult, it would eat up a lot of materials. Materials I'm going to need for our "claws" As my now-apparent sister says." Amelia said, sounding annoyed but her face showed anything but. Despite how she worded it, Viza thought she was actually growing fond of the Queen-Matriarch. What drew his attention even more, however, was the way Amelia talked about needing materials for something. The thing that would by far eat up the most materials was whatever she decided to put in the centerline mount below the ship.
"Oh, I take it that means you've decided on which "Big-Fucking-Gun" as you called it, is going there?" Viza asked amusedly as he stops slinking against the wall and walks over to view the design screen at Amelia's request. Viza's eyes go wide in shock, his ears pin back, and his tail drops.
"Is...Is that a.."
Amelia grins almost demonically at seeing his face. "Yup. You all went on and on about the Axon shield tech and how none of your traditional weapons work against it, so I made something..different."
"That." Savi, the Krultathan engineer started as she walked in. She was just over 8.5 feet tall and had a tabby cat coloring to her fur with mismatched green-yellow eyes. She had somehow gotten in without either of them noticing.
"Is an abomination...Where can I get one."
Viza looked at the engineer as if she were a devil herself, and Amelia just laughed. "Tell ya what, Savi, I'll let you be the first to fire it. Big red button and all."
Both of them looked at her this time curiously. "Big red button?"
"It's.. never mind." Amelia said, waving them off, and then out. "Now shoo, I need to work, stop distracting me with engineering and adorable loverboy-ness."
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Kixix felt a shiver run down his back as he watched the Terran senate-speaker's speech. Something about the way the man looked gave off a feeling of danger in the back of his mind, as if he weren't looking at an old man but a ferocious predator, which he supposed he was. Looking back down at the holopad, he still couldn't believe what the report said. With just three birthing ships now in system, as well as Krultatha supplying basic ship designs and tech, Humanity was already in the process of improving upon both the Hexat and Krultathan designs, making them their own, and producing ships with them. Granted they were nowhere near the size of Krultathan cruisers or his own Kixax, but the sheer efficiency that the humans were working with was incredible, as they expected their first battlecruiser of their own design, a mere 600 meters long, to be finished by the end of the week structurally, and outfitted in another.
They had even improved the efficiency of the birthing ships themselves, claiming they were "too slow" to keep up with their needs. Whatever one could say about Humanity, when their entire planet was put towards a task, they were startlingly efficient at getting it done, almost frighteningly so, and Kixix had to let out a nervous laugh, thinking about how when he first heard of them he wanted to do anything but play ambassador to a bunch of deathworld primates. Now here he was, cheering them on. He even approved of the name they were giving their first battlecruiser.
"Are's Vengeance"
He found it rather honorable, even Noble, they would name it after their lost settlement, a reminder to both sides what set this all off. He himself still had his own war to deal with, however, after being tasked by Amelia to get the Ava on their side. He didn't understand what her thought process was on this one, as everyone knew the Ava, while deathworlders, were weak in combat, and were isolationists. He understood checking to see if the Axon had their partners gene alter them, but other than that, he could not see the point. He just hoped the human girl knew what she was doing. He would be there in just 3 days, as the Ava homeworld was not far away, but still, he was hesitant. He would be the first ship known to enter their home system in 400 years, and trepidation had him worrying if their stellar infrastructure even worked still.
-------------------
"You humans are insane, you know that? Statistically insane, the lot of you! How the hell did one of you figure out how to accelerate a mass-having projectile to 5 percent the speed of light?!" Kevi asked, the shorter-than-average Hexat having blown a fuse over the railgun designs again. The exosuit he was wearing as well as his own enhancements, namely mechanical legs and arms from having been born paraplegic, the only reason why the Hexat could survive Terra's crushing gravity. His white-silver fur bristled in annoyance as he looked at his human counterpart, an engineer by the name of O'Donnelly.
"Railguns? We use ta electricity ta make a magnetic field, an propel ta slug of ferrous material ta-" O'Donnelly started before getting bapped on the leg by the angry Hexat with said designs.
"I know that, Engineer O'davunelly. I've seen the designs. But how insane is your species to make it instead of laser weaponry, or even plasma weaponry."
O'Donelly shrugs, running a hand through his russet brown hair as his brown eyes rolled at the butchering of his name. "Dunno what ta tell ya. Can ye make it a not?"
Kevi's translator had a difficult time with the Human's thick accent, but he swore it was because the human engineer was purposefully changing it just to mess with him. sighing, he nodded. "It is..unusual, but yes, we's already finished the prototype to be mounted on your first battlecruiser. I still do not see why you humans prefer slug throwers to proper weapons."
"Aya, ya might find it a wee bit odd, but have a thunk in that noggin. If ta Axon's shield been calibrated ta dissipate plasma an laser, with has ta energy payload as thermal, whatya think happens when ta payload is changed to kinetic an thermal with 5 times ta force?"
Kevi starts doing mental math in his head, trying to calculate the force for such an impact before realizing everything that had been said. Shields were calibrated for laser and plasma, not matter. Or for matter only, not thermal. Either way, this weapon's payload would do serious damage, and if it wasn't blocked by kinetic shield, then...
"You...weaponized the drone tactic used on Ares?!"
"Nah, we had ta railguns for oh..century or so. Just got ta upgrade to them thugh."
Kevis clicks his teeth in frustration, he's going to assume that the translator malfunctions, because he didn't want to that about if it were true. Using magnetism and the boson effect to slingshot matter at a fraction the speed of light? terrifying. The first encounter with the Axon would be brutal before they could have a chance to adapt to the new type of weapon, if they could.
-----------------------
"THOSE IMPUDENT APES!" Axon queen Carcian bellowed out, throwing the report across her chambers. The collector ship had never made it back, and they had just now found out why. One of the humans had escaped containment, and somehow made the reactor go critical. What should have been a supply of eight thousand humans had turned into only twenty recovered, and most of them had resisted every effort to subdue to the point they lost several. Carcian had never seen a species fight so hard against something inevitable before, such was the impudence these humans had.
"Get me Commander Zikal." She shouted to one of her workers, who nodded and promptly left, likely happy she hadn't ended him then and there. he returned a few moments later with a female Axon, approximately twice his height, in tow. She was a scarred individual, evidence of many battles and wars she had fought, one of the most decorated the Axon had, yet had not a brood her own. Rumors speculate it was because of twisted desires for not of her kind, but none would dare speak such things to her maw.
"Commander Zikal, I've called you here for one reason and one only. These impudent primates have made a mockery of us to the council, and have incited rebellion among the Hexat and Krultathans. Put them down. Take an extermination fleet, and wipe out half their population by any means necessary. Afterwords, force the other half into subservience or death, I care not how. The Axon Empire's honor WILL be restored. Do this, and I will grant any one of your wishes."
The commander nodded and asked how much time she had to prepare, to which the Queen responded their equivalent of time to two weeks. The Commander saluted, then turned to leave promptly, her task at hand.
The queen, in the meantime, looked at the male worker curiously, its fear bringing her delight and warmth. "Your name, male."
"Bitzas, my queen." It said timidly.
"I shall have you tonight Bitzas." The Queen demanded, as she enjoyed watching the relief wash over his face. In time she knew that it would be replaced by fear once again, before the pit took him, and the thought brought great joy to the sadistic creature.