In a distant and seemingly inconsequential part of Arcadian space, over two hundred individual multi-mile wide artificial asteroids revved up their hyperdrives and primed the synced nukes stored within them. The entire process they underwent was completely autonomous, starting the moment they received the signal to activate and the coordinates of their target. At first, only a handful of these Weapons of Mass Extinction entered the Faster Than Light highway that was hyperspace, but soon after that the rest followed suit in short order.

Speeding though the subspace that allowed FTL travel, the unthinking bringers of the apocalypse did not even stop to make course corrections. They didn’t need to, after all, for inside their mix of reinforced concrete and extremely potent fusion bombs was a hyperdrive tailor made for the weapon itself. Then again, what would dropping out of hyperspace a few miles off course mean in the long run? The weapons would still be on a collision course with their target, and even if they did collide with others there was enough armor to make damn certain that there was no premature detonation.

The asteroid bombs counted down the minutes and seconds until they would exit hyperspace. Without the right equipment, anything exiting hyperspace would do so at absurd speeds, thus inducing a terrible case of death upon any unfortunate enough to be hit with that many G’s of force. Thankfully, the asteroid bombs were fully designed to take that kind of force, despite not having the ‘correct’ equipment. They would exit hyperspace at many, many times the speed of any normal craft, but that was the idea. They were supposed to slam into their target at many times their terminal velocity and, upon impact, the percussion-triggered nukes would add to the Mass Extinction level destructive force unleashed upon that impact.

Add in the fact that it would not just be a single one of these Asteroid Doomsday Devices, but instead over a hundred, and it was plain to see why anyone who knew about the ‘Doomsday Sanction’ would expect it to reduce any foe to tiny, tiny pieces. Once the signal had been sent, there was no way of ‘putting the genie back in the bottle’. Instead, the only fate for the planet in question was oblivion.

And so, knowing full well what they had consigned themselves to, the few surviving citizens of Darwin Prime tried to hold out as long as they could and buy time for the incoming doom to come and eliminate the swarming monsters that were coming to take their lives, along with themselves. A noble sacrifice, to be sure, but one they felt that they had no choice but to make. If they let the creatures devour their world and everything in it, then the monsters would only grow in number and ferocity. All they could hope was that the entire signal was broadcasted and the doom that was about to visit Darwin Prime would also visit the rest of the planets in the system.

…

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The combined fleets had pulled back to a safe distance and prepared to watch the Asteroid Blitzkrieg take place. The signal that had been transmitted spelled death for any and all on any of the planets and moons in the Darwin system, a fact that would likely deal a very painful, if not fatal, blow to the enigmatic swarm that had come from outside the galaxy.

The ships in the fleet suddenly had their Heads Up Displays show a red rectangle with a red picture of a lumpy rock and a countdown timer. This was the cue that the Asteroid Blitzkrieg was just about to enter the area and that it was coming in fast. This was the signal shown to tell anyone and everyone in the area to get the fuck out of the way and to do so with all due haste lest they be smashed to space dust by the incoming barrage made of Weapons of Mass Extinction. Every single ship was, thankfully, out of the danger zone, and as they watched the first of the doomsday devices fly out of hyperspace like a bat out of hell, the crews all held their breath.

…

The first asteroid to come into contact with the swarming gestalt consciousness shredded the fleshy veil covering the world as if it was a single piece of wet tissue paper trying to stop a professional pitcher’s fastest fastball. Not only did it tear straight through the undulating hollow sphere of organic mass that shrouded the planet, it caused the hive mind to scream in agony and the torn area to vomit out a horrific amount of blood and viscera. It was mere moments after this that the first light of the apocalyptic impact shone out through the hole like the death of a miniature star.

Shortly after this first impact, the second Asteroid Bomb shot out of hyperspace and tore another massive chunk out of the invasive organism, followed shortly thereafter by the third, fourth, fifth and sixth doomsday weapons that had followed it. The repeated psychic shrieking of the invader knocked more than two thirds of the crew aboard the Arcadian fleets unconscious with blood trickling out of their eyes, ears and noses. Thankfully, the rest of the crew were either not nearly as gifted as their comrades or were tougher than they had been given credit for and rushed the more critically damaged members of their fallen crew to the infirmary wards and/or their beds once the infirmary wards were filled.

All throughout the system, the monster shrieked and howled until it was almost entirely silenced. Four planets and seven moons had each been hit with at least fifty asteroid bombs apiece, and the remnants of the monsters that remained above the planets and moons were quickly bleeding out. However, the system’s asteroid belt was still infested with the creatures, and if nothing was done, they would begin the harvest again. In fact, they were beginning to make a move through space towards their larger targets again, making the sacrifice seem to have been for naught.

“I have to do everything around here, don’t I? Fear not, for the cavalry’s here.”

A joking voice broadcast over an open channel raised the spirits of the few who were still conscious. The arrival of the flagship of their beloved ruler and the rest of his fleet brought the hope that the monsters could indeed be defeated. As the main military fleet of Arcadia vomited out its strike craft and prepared to lay waste to its foe, the panicked cries for help from three other systems let the ruler of Arcadia know that the worst was yet to come. The invaders had to be wiped from this system and quickly if he was ever to be able to save the other systems in his nation, let alone the galaxy.