Belkadan system, Vector Prime

Sparta fleet, HMS Mountain Cloud

8 BBY

The bridge of the newly refurbished Mountain III dreadnought was quiet and calm. It was also the third watch, and the ship's Captain was away on his off time.

Lieutenant Hi-loos, a newly promoted officer via the Imperial Servant program looked over the bridge crew, paying special attention to the shield station, where Ensign Sara Croft was on duty. She was a beauty and a half, and he liked her for her bright mind...and the other two large reasons.

Sadly, his pleasant reverie was rudely interrupted by the signal officer, and the beeping quiet alarm in his bioimplant.

"Sir, there's a distortion to our port side! Not visible on our range finders, but it's modulating gravity..." Ensign Kul'huk exclaimed in a slightly panicked voice.

*Keep calm. We see them* a voice whispered gently inside his mind.

Hi-loos sighed inward, and raised a hand, gesturing upwards with four fingers, contingency 4. With the corner of his eye, he saw Sara nod and focus on her shield station. Shields will be modulated to a random frequency now, as per the new anti-vong doctrine. Not even the operator would know a sure-way to bypass shields.

The holodeck flashed red, the ship's emergency AI taking over the weapon grid. Friendly fire was not so friendly, after all.

Far in the distance, a flash of blue light coalesced for a second into a solid beam of Force Maser, then vanished.

A Silencer at work, most likely.

After a few seconds, a huge plant-like sphere decloaked to their port, leaking visible green sludge.

"Sir, a naked 5 kilometer wide dovin basal!" the sensor Ensign exclaimed out loud.

He bit his lip, and only nodded. The Vong lifeform was very large and visible to everyone on the holomap.

*Formation Delta-6. Link up with Fog and Nimbus, his implant transmitted directly to his mind.

Hi-loos obeyed and swiped the new trajectory in his command deck. Linking into a defensive block with the nearest Mountains, for better close defense work.

Engines purred and thrummed, propelling the dreadnought towards their new slot in the fleet. Forward center, as per standard doctrine for heavy warships. They wouldn't be chasing anyone today.

Vibrations gently felt through his elbow rest let him know the AI has commenced firing at some invisible target.

Splashes of magma from an invisible source impacted their thermal shields, and the datalink promptly advised him his port escorts, two of the new Orion M corvettes had vanished into gas and debris.

Weren't they supposed to be cloaked?

"Launch interceptors, cover our port side." he ordered on to the carrier deck.

Far towards the system edge, the galaxy moved, advancing towards the fleet. No, not the galaxy.

Millions of Vong warships, blotting out the stars.

He gulped a bit. Sparta fleet was quite large, over ten thousands capital ships, but he doubted it would suffice. Not against this.

"We're going to need reinforcements..." he muttered in a weak voice.

*Don't worry, Lieutenant. I've always wanted to fight in the shade, a rather amused voice replied on his bioimpant frequency. Shade...Greyshade! The Emperor?

Commenor system, Celestial Throne spacestation.

Redbox.

Okay, I've had my fun with the poor stand-in Captain. Time to get serious. Well. As much as I could fake it at least.

"Now you see the treachery of these Vong! Millions of bioships, trillions of fanatic warriors coming to enslave us all. Our defenseless base will soon be overrun. But the victory is not yet decided. Begun, the Vong Wars have!" I proclaimed heroically.

My Hands looked at me with dispassionate eyes, and sipped their expensive drinks.

Well, not the AIs. But the others.

Sigh, no sense of drama with these people!

"Can I send my Hammers yet?" Core asked with a child-like tone.

What? And deny our Navy heroes their glory and veneration of standing against overwhelming numbers...

"Not yet. I don't see their worldships." I muttered in a more reasonable voice.

One raised a mecha tentacle. Should I tell him he doesn't need to raise a hand to speak? Nah, it's more protocolar this way, I guess.

"Yes, Fifth Hand?" I asked politely. One, my new Silentium ally also has five limbs, so the rank it's quite appropriate.

"I suspect we won't see worldships until their vanguard secures passage through our defenses. The Vong are not stupid. They already lost a worldship at Helska." he advised me in a professorial tone.

I nodded approvingly. Fanatical and intolerant, yes. Stupid no, not when they had Shapers and coordinators galore.

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Solana tapped her lips with a frown.

"Yes, my dear?"

"Solanus is beaming gravity mines in their path. Cloaked, of course." she said in a fake whisper.

I raised my droid eyebrow, figuratively. Solanus could do that? I mean, I could teleport things, but... nevermind. Any help was welcome.

Silent explosions marked the holomap. I wanted to add sound effects, but my AI friends were horrified at the blasphemy.

So, no sound in space. Sigh. These people need more fun in their lives!

X2 slurped his juice audibly, possibly in protest. No! No lightsabers versus dreadnoughts. Not even the new Paladin lightpikes. Leave war to the professionals.

Numbers trickled down in the warscore counter, slowly but surely. The Sparta fleet was losing escorts fast, to some invisible ships or something.

Meanwhile, the Vong were losing cruisers and smaller ships by the thousands, although their battleships seemed to absorb the detonations with ease.

Well. I never thought this would be easy. We might still lose the North anyway.

I ran the calculations again, using the new data coming in via the holonet. Belkadan will fall in 3 hours.

Fleet Athena could reach there in 3 hours from Sernpidal. 2 hours if the Nebula destroyers jumped ahead.

I glanced at Core, and he shook his droid's head. Okay then.

Separating fleet elements would invite defeat in detail.

"Wait 12 minutes, then send Athena." I ordered on a hunch.

If Belkadan falls, and they begin landings, a few worldships might show up.

One raised his tentacle, then lowered it. Well, he is rather smart. Only question is, are the Vong as smart as they think they are?

"The Helska quarantine battlegroup has five thousand Orions as escort. They could reach Belkadan in 2 hours." I hear Zuckuss mutter for himself.

Oh. I forgot about those, since they were detached on permanent quarantine around Helska and the orbital graveyard. Wouldn't do for scavangers to dig through dead Vong ships and infest my galaxy with alien biotech.

Alright then. They'll all die, but we only had droid crews anyway.

"Excellent proposal, First Hand. They shall die with glory!" I announced with flashes of shadow and fire around me like demonic wings.

Zuckuss glanced at the spectacle and sipped his brandy unfazed. C'mon! Don't be so jaded!

The future of the galaxy is at hand...my first Hand.

Orders sent, and the escorts departed for glorious battle.

Thrawn bit a bit to loud on his rice crackers, trying to hide his un-existing emotions. Fine!

"Itching for a fight, Admiral?" I asked softly. His red eyes glared at me, then he nodded shyly.

If I had a mouth I would smile now. He's so cute!

"Remind me to port you over with the Athena fleet." I allowed generously.

I mean, he was kinda our top organic Admiral. It would be a shame not to use him, to confuse the Vong in the hour of their victory.

My Other partition monitored the other top Admiral with some nervousness. He kinda made my creepy senses tingle, the Silentium admiral. Let's hope he will only murder Vong bioforms today.

'Don't worry so much, Pef. Solanus has his eye on him as well.' my water maid sent me in the Voice bond.

Not even gonna ask how, since Solanus is a damned water planet, and has no eyes!

Minutes passed slowly, as loses climbed in the warscore.

Soon I'll have to change locations and board the Celestial Orbit, formerly known as Centerpoint station. Yanking organics from the jaws of certain death ensured their undying loyalty, after all.

And...time to go. A Silencer cruiser was just hit and lost cloaking.

"Good job people. I'll be back!" I explained politely, then grabbed Solana and teleported to my workstation. I even managed an appropriate quote here. (Me being a sentient droid going on an important mission.)

She leaned on my armor and sighed softly.

"Sometimes, I think you're just playing theater for everyone, my love." she muttered as I began saving the crew of the Silencer.

"Well, all the world's a play, and all men and women merely players." I replied absently.

"Are we only players? Do we not bleed if you cut us?" she whispered in a rather annoyed voice.

Technically... but that isn't what she's asking.

I patted her shoulder as a reply. No wonder my core memories were locked in by that nice god.

Few sentients would react well to the real truth of their existence.

But for now, I had monsters to kill, and citizens to save. Ontology could wait.

More and more of my Navy ships burned under the relentless assault of the Vong, and I was kinda busy for a while.

"Emperor, Athena Fleet will emerge from hyperspace in 30 seconds." Thrawn announced me politely.

Right. Time to go all in.