He was Captain Henrik Vander Decken.

And he had been Born Whole.

From the Terran/Treana'ad War to the Mantid/Terran War to the Clone Wars to the Fall of the Solarian Imperium, he had commanded starships from the bridge or been part of the crew. He had been there as a junior officer when the Treana'ad/Terran War came to an end. He had been aboard a ship that was off to subdue the colonies when the Mantid had attacked. He had helped the Solarian Imperium take control of Terran space.

He had painted his armor black and joined Daxin the Unfeeling in the Dark Crusade of Light to cast down the Solarian Imperium.

He had been recorded and added to the emergency system just before he had retired at the long age of four-hundred and thirty-eight.

In the intervening time, technology, tactics, and strategy had altered.

But he had been educated. The memories and knowledge burned into his sleeping brain.

As well as the ability to apply that knowledge.

"FULL STEALTH!" he barked out. "Pods out! Get me a sensor sweep on the whole system! Identify any ships! Plot a microjump to the most populated planet."

He turned to Hetmwit. "Population of the system?"

Hetmwit blinked, pulling his attention away from the Terran, who was suddenly on his feet, moving to the holotank and staring at it, the SMG in one hand.

"Uh... three worlds. Terraforming and resource extraction. Twenty-three point two million across the three planets. Four gas giant mining facilities. Three asteroid belt extraction facilities," Hetmwit said, pulling his attention to his screen and punching up the data.

"Military forces?" Captain Decken snapped out. He turned to one of the robots. "Put all weapons on standby. Load the torpedoes and the missile pod launchers. Alert point defense and weapon crews."

"Aye aye, Captain," the robot stated.

"Uh, planetary defense only. Numbers unknown," Hetmwit said.

"Sensor readings coming back, Captain," Goofy stated.

Hetmwit was still staring at the difference in Captain Decken's posture and body language. Gone was the relaxed and lazy movements, the relaxed stance.

Captain Decken stood in front of the holotank, authority radiating off of him.

"Put it onscreen and in the primary holotank," Decken stated.

Hetmwit watched as the screen flickered. Captain Decken tapped one of the planet and the screen zoomed in on it.

There were ships around the planet. As Hetmwit watched, light flashed down from two of the vessels orbiting, striking the surface. Energy bloomed and faded, leaving behind a spreading pool of fire and flame.

"Ship ID's?" Decken snapped.

"Negative, Captain. No known transponders," Goofy looked at the Captain. "These are not Confederacy vessels."

The Captain turned around and stared at Hetmwit.

"Your people are under attack. That planet is being glassed," he said.

Hetmwit nodded jerkily.

"You are the sole representative of your people, despite your dual enlistment in your own military and the Confederacy of Aligned Systems Space Force," Decken said.

The gravity of the words sunk in.

The pause drew out for a long second.

"Do you need assistance?" Captain Decken asked.

Hetmwit looked at the screen.

Two other vessels were firing on the planet.

Hetmwit looked back at Captain Decken. "Yes."

The Captain nodded.

"May we come in?" He asked, his voice grave.

Hetmwit nodded again. "Yes."

"Launch stealth probes. Microjump them near the planets. I want scans of those ship," Decken snapped. He reached up and touched his helmet.

There was a strange whistle.

"All hands, battlestations," he ordered. "All shifts, report to stations."

Hetmwit swallowed thickly.

"Order the atmosphere cleared, Number One," Decken stated, turning back to the holotank.

He was staring at the vessels, going over them by eye. He could tell that the images were over eighty minutes old.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"All hands, all hands, prepare for negative atmosphere," Hetmwit said, feeling slightly foolish at ordering robots to be warned that the atmosphere was going to be pumped out.

"Tesseract mass tanks at 98%," Stumpy stated. "Creation engines at 8% heat and 3% slush."

"Very good," Captain Decken said.

"Probes away. Microjumps in five seconds," Goofy stated.

"Give me a spiral course, get away from the launch zone. We don't know their sensor capabilities," Decken said. He looked at Hetmwit. "Order the Marines to get weapons and armor from the armory."

Hetmwit nodded. He had thought it strange that the Captain had ordered all of the ships to be fully manned, not just skeleton crew, but fully manned, by the robots.

Including the Marines.

Hetmwit passed the order to Super Slugger.

The robot acknowledged the order.

"Get ready to repel boarder. Order away combat teams to the mat-trans," Decken snapped out.

"Aye aye, Captain," Stompy said.

Hetmwit had the weird feeling of the ship moving under him, despite the fact that a quick glance showed him that the inertial compensator was at less than 15% load.

"Corvette Two is being scanned," Goofy suddenly said.

The bridge was getting the razor sharp, crystal clear look of vacuum.

"Scanning has moved on. Corvette Four is being scanned," Goofy stated. "Scanning has moved on."

"Be careful not to burn through our stealth. Drop engine and shield output down two points, they're suspicious something is out here. They may have detected our step-down from hyperspace," Decken ordered.

On the main screen, four of the big ships fired and the surface erupted in fire again.

"Life signs on main planets are dropping. Probes are reporting less than two million life signs and dropping," Goofy reported.

"Give me numbers," Decken ordered.

"Unknown forces consist of five groups so far," Goofy stated.

Group one and three had six heavy ships and twenty smaller ships. Two, four, and five were around the three inhabited planets and consisted of twenty large ships and eighty smaller.

"Planet with the most population?" Decken asked.

"Inhabited planet two," Goofy said.

"Give me a microjump to that planet. Four hundred thousand kilometers," Decken ordered.

"Aye aye, sir," Smiley said. "Plotting microjump."

Captain Decken turned and stared at Hetmwit. "Have you been in combat before?"

Hetmwit shook his head.

"Then today is a good day for you," the Captain said, turning back to the holotank. "A new best day for me," his voice was softer, musing.

Hetmwit could feel the difference, like the Captain was an entirely different person, standing in front of the holotank with his left hand on the hilt of that toothed sword and his right hand filled with the blocky submachine gun.

"Once we jump in, target the nearest of their big ships. All main guns and launch two pods per vessel. All same target," Decken ordered.

"Aye aye," Hefty answered.

"Microjump plotted," Smiley stated.

"All hands, all ships, brace for microjump," Decken ordered. He looked at Hetmwit.

"Execute," Hetmwit ordered.

His vision streaked, the horizon a pinprick in the distance on the center of his vision.

There was a weird feeling, like he was being yanked forward.

The screens cleared.

"CONTACTS! MULTIPLE CONTACTS!" Goofy called out.

"Target locked! All ships reporting target lock!" Hefty called out.

Hetmwit could see the vessel. It was massive, kilometers in length. There were crack in the hull, burning with a dull red light. It was scarred and marred. Chains hung from the vessel.

"OPEN FIRE! ALL GUNS FREE, MISTER FUMBLES!" Decken roared, making Hetmwit flinch.

There was a weird feeling, like his bone marrow was being plucked at by phantom fingers.

The missile pods launched, the pod inverted into an nCv round, and the wreckage started taking hits.

"ALL GUNS FREE!" Hefty called back. "IMPACTS! Shields are down! Hull impacts!"

Hetmwit saw the ship suddenly explode, breaking into multiple pieces.

"Target is breaking up!" Hefty called out. "Initial C++ hit has caused enemy contact to break up."

"All corvettes, target smaller ships. Get me a new target, Mister Fumbles!" Decken roared.

"Capital ship targeted! Engaging with main gun!" Hefty called out.

"Ship status, Number One?" Decken asked.

"No hits. No boarders," Hetmwit called out.

"Target locked!" Hefty called out.

"Stay on it, Number One," Decken said. He looked at Hefty. "Guns free, Mister Fumbles!"

To Hetmwit, the entire thing contracted down to his board, passing information to Captain Decken, who was walking back and forth across the bridge, snapping out orders. The ship shuddered twice, once the lights flickered, went to red, then back to white pinpricks.

"Sir, primary mass tanks are down to 20% or lower. Primary magazines empty. Missile pods are empty. Creation engine heat at 65%, slush at 54%!" Hetmwit called out after another of the large ships took a hit from the C++ cannon and another took two missile pods that shredded the shields then made the hull break up. "All pods are expended. No pods remaining."

"Microjump to Rally Point Echo, Mister Smiley," Decken called out. "All ships!"

"Rally Point Echo, aye aye, sir," Smiley called out.

There was the compression, the yank, and suddenly the entire flotilla was behind the fourth gas giant, only fifty thousand kilometers from the burning gas giant.

"Rotate tesseract tanks," Decken ordered. He looked at Hetmwit. "Put all main guns in cooling mode. Reload the magazines as soon as the tesseract tank rotates."

Hetmwit nodded.

It was like everything between Decken roaring out "Guns Free!" and now was a weirdly compressed single moment. He could remember doing things, following Captain Deckens orders, but it was all jumbled together.

"Casualties?" Captain Decken asked, moving over to stand behind the Captain's throne, resting his huge left hand on the back.

His right still held the SMG.

"No casualties reported, sir," Goofy said.

Decken turned and moved to the holotank, moving his hands through and bringing up more data.

"Negative ID on these vessels, Number One," Decken stated. "Energy readings are startling."

Hetmwit got up and moved over to the holotank. "How so?"

"Like the Precursor Autonomous War Machines, they have hellspace energy in their energy weapons, their nCv cannons have hellspace imbued shells," Decken stated. "But their ship types are odd. They're using hellspace shields as their primary shields, which are fine against your people, but modern Confederate weaponry just ignores it."

He brought up another image.

"These are hellspace engines, not jumpspace," he zoomed in. "This debris here?"

Hetmwit could see bodies spilling from a hole in the hull. They were all black, bipedal, with long arms and legs. They were covered in reddish cracks that dulled to black in seconds.

"That's the crew," Decken stated.

"What does it mean?" Hetmwit asked.

"That this is a new foe," Decken stated.

"Tank rotated. Creation engines cooled. Reloading magazines and pods," Fumbles stated.

"Mister Goofy, enemy concentration?" Decken said, using motions to move through more data on the holotank.

"Enemy vessels converging on the third habitable planet to assist vessels we engaged," Goofy stated.

Decken nodded. "Plot us a microjump that brings us in right behind the largest concentration," Decken stated. He looked at Hetmwit. "Get back to your station, Number One."

Hetmwit nodded, hurrying back and buckling himself in.

"All ships report green status," Goofy said.

Decken straightened up.

"Take us in," Decken said.

Again with the pinprick and the pulling.

"Contacts! Two thousand kilometers from forward bow!" Goofy called out.

"GUNS FREE, MISTER FUMBLES! ENGAGE THE ENEMY!" Decken called out.

There was the plucking feeling in Hetmwit's marrow.

"Victory or death," Decken growled.

He lifted the SMG up and tapped the end of the stubby barrel against the pauldron over his right shoulder.

"Either is fine."