19:59, January 21st, 2135

Kayden fidgeted in the cockpit, silently wishing he was flying something with more guns. An interceptor would be perfect, but at this point he’d take a bomber, or the bridge of the Broken Shackle. Anything except for the modified shuttle he was sitting in – one which had been outfitted with an experimental stealth drive that supposedly functioned similarly to the one on his own, larger ship. When combined with the Vrul executor’s active camouflage technology, it functionally made them completely invisible – at least in theory.

“It’ll work.” Anna assured him, seeing his discomfort and placing a gauntleted hand on his shoulder.

“It’s not that I don’t trust your engineering.” Kayden replied, staring at the multicolored tunnel of hyperspace. “It’s that there’s just so many variables. Hell, we don’t even know if the stealth drive works against biological targets.”

“That’s why we left before Ashley’s surprise.” Selina said from the copilot’s chair. “We’ll still have a chance to regroup and retreat if this doesn’t work.”

“But we’ll have lost the element of surprise.” He countered. “And we worked so hard to reposition Ashley’s fleets into Roccan territory so we could jump to Sol directly. Once they realize that Trappist is relatively undefended-”

“It’ll work.” Dawn repeated, settling into her chair. “And besides, it was worth it to see Gibbs’ face when you told him Admiral Swiatkewicz would be passing through Roccan space with his fleet of battleships alongside Ashley. I thought he was going to shit a brick.”

Kayden couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory – one which was cut off by the sound of Ali’s voice from further back in the shuttle. “We will be emerging from hyperspace in 10 seconds.”

“Alright everyone.” Kayden replied, banishing every other thought and focusing on the impending battle. “Buckle in, this could get rough.”

They emerged seconds later into the inky blackness of space. For a moment Kayden was absolutely convinced their plan went wrong. Using his mental connection to the ship he frantically searched for the ships Ashley had sent in advance, wondering if they could have emerged off course. He saw them a moment later – exactly where they were supposed to be, floating serenely in space near the Voidborn fleet.

Then they exploded.

The blast was far larger than one generated by the group of small, remote-piloted frigates normally would be. Kayden watched as their damaged hulls came apart into millions of small pieces, flying in every direction. The Voidborn fleet was far enough back from the jump point that it didn’t even damage their shields, but instead created a field of debris all around them – where many of the pieces were carefully crafted to be shuttle-sized.

Kayden urged the shuttle forward before glancing over at Selina’s grinning face. “Looks like the first part of the plan went okay.”

“Sure, but that’s not the part I was really worried about.” Kayden countered.

“Of course – none of us doubted your ability to blow things up.” Dawn teased.

Rolling his eyes, Kayden expertly piloted the shuttle through the still-smoking detritus of the broken ships. He carefully avoided pivoting suddenly, using only their maneuvering thrusters and momentum to dodge chunks of metal as needed. As he did, he distantly heard his women speaking around him.

“I have to hand it to you Anna – I thought you were crazy for saving those broken ships.” Selina said.

“There’s no way they were ever going to be space worthy again without months of work anyways.” Anna replied. “I recycled what I could for parts, but this was a better way to send them off.”

“Agreed.” Selina nodded.

“You know, in some ways it’s better for us that this battle is happening in Sol.” Dawn said. “This is our home turf. We’ve got every hyperlane mapped, we know every nook and cranny of the system, we know… we know…” She trailed off, catching her first glimpse of Earth from far away.

The blue-and-green ball of a planet was recognizable, but only barely. Continent-sized grey clouds drifted unnaturally across the surface, and the megacities visible from orbit were now a glowing orange color. Enormous fleets of Voidborn ships hovered around the planet, with more seeming to materialize every passing moment.

“That’s… a lot of ships.” Selina said finally, breaking the silence. “Even more than we expected.”

“All the more reason we need to attack now.” Kayden growled. “We always knew we couldn’t beat them conventionally, but we need to at least hold the line long enough to take out the queen. If we wait, we won’t even be able to manage that.”

“We better get started then.” Dawn agreed grimly before turning to Ali. “How far are we?”

“At current course and speed, 2 minutes to target.” Ali responded.

“That’s only going to give us about 3 minutes before Ashley’s fleet enters.” Anna interjected. “That’s not a lot of time.”

“We’ll make it work.” Dawn replied. “We have to.”

In response Kayden pushed slightly more power to the engines before rubbing the shuttle against a piece of debris, making it seem as if they’d ricocheted off it. The maneuver brought them close enough to the enormous Voidborn space creature that he could see the individual muscles in its sinewy tendrils flex as it waved them back and forth through space, swatting away nearby debris as it rebounded off its side. He deftly brought the shuttle within 1 meter of the beast’s back before skimming along its length towards its head, dodging the random spikes and biological vents which littered its ‘hull’.

“This thing’s even uglier up close.” Anna said, trying to lighten the mood.

“Still better looking than that bitch of a Kel president.” Dawn countered, causing Kayden to chuckle despite his dark mood.

“We are approaching the landing zone.” Ali interrupted. “Please land at the highlighted coordinates.”

Kayden carefully guided the shuttle between two enormous spikes in the creature’s back before gently touching down at the base of its neck. As he made contact he waited for a moment with baited breath, half-expecting the creature to throw them off. When it didn’t he quickly turned off the ship’s power and began unbuckling himself.

“Let’s move.” He said. “Selina, Anna – you stay here. Dawn, Ali – you’re with me.”

With those words, all joking attitudes disappeared. The group of them quickly linked their armour together using a tether, then linked the tethers to a trio of drones he’d brought with them. With a final equipment check they opened the shuttle door and exited onto a surface Kayden was absolutely sure no human had stepped foot on before – the back of an enormous space creature.

“Ali, guide us.” Kayden commanded as he watched the shuttle’s camouflage engage, causing it to disappear before their eyes.

“25 meters to your left.” Ali said, pointing.

“The grey cable on the ground there?” He asked.

“Precisely. It is a flexible set of piping which is connected directly to the creature’s brain stem. Injecting the pheromones into there will have the desired effect.”

Nodding, Kayden led the two women towards it. Typically during space walks they engaged the powerful magnets on the bottoms of their boots to avoid drifting off into space. Given that the creature beneath wasn’t made of metal they had to move far slower, gripping onto Kayden’s drones for support.

“I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know the answer, but I’m going to ask anyways.” Dawn said. “Why did they have this pipe in the first place?”

“Installed into the creature’s body is a set of tanks filled with modified cerebrospinal fluid. The modifications to the fluid act as a sort of drug, making the creature more compliant to the Voidborn commands transmitted through the neural link. This is likely required because the creature is far larger than most Voidborn, and therefore a standard neural link may not provide sufficiently granular control over its actions.”

“Yup.” Dawn nodded as they reached the grey pipe. “Definitely didn’t want to know. Now, what’s next?”

“Here.” Ali said as she handed Dawn a 30 cm clear cylindrical tube with a mechanical top. “These are the pheromones we collected together in transit. Use your powers to turn the container incorporeal, then insert it into the piping.”

“Is that going to be enough?” Kayden asked.

“It’s a distilled form of the pheromones, highly concentrated and turned into a liquid form. It will suffice.” Ali replied.

Kayden watched as Dawn’s arm – and the container she was carrying – turned hazy and translucent before she slowly and carefully began to dip it into the piping. She was almost elbow-deep before judging that she’d reached the center of the tube and looked up at Ali. The android woman nodded in return and Dawn released the container before pulling her arm back quickly.

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“What now?” Kayden asked.

Before Ali could answer they saw a flash of colors from far away. Kayden turned to face it, instantly recognizing it as the distinctive kaleidoscope associated with ships exiting hyperspace. He squinted slightly, trying to make out the shapes of the ships against the black backdrop of space.

“It’s Ashley’s fleet. They have arrived.” Ali announced.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them lurched as the lumbering space creature began to move towards the ragtag group of independents, Roccan, Lokken, and SCI survivors. All around them Kayden caught glimpses of sleek black Voidborn ships racing towards the human fleet, including several battleships whose main guns could blow the Broken Shackle in two with one shot.

The beast lurched again, picking up speed and throwing all of them off its back. For a moment Kayden experienced every pilot’s worst nightmare: a disorienting spin through space with nothing to stop him. His vision blurred between the void, the brown chitin of the creature, and the blinking stars. The problem was made worse when he collided with the Voidborn beast painfully before bouncing into space.

“Kayden! Use the drones!” Dawn shouted over the radio.

The sound of her voice snapped him out of his confusion. Grabbing hold of the tethers which still held both Ali and Dawn, he sent a mental command to his drones to pull them away from the creature. They responded immediately, all of their lines going taught but stopping the confusing spinning motion.

“Ashley’s fleet is in range of the Voidborn ships.” Ali said, completely calm despite their situation. “They are engaging. Shall I activate the-”

“Yes!” Both Dawn and Kayden shouted, not waiting for her to finish the sentence.

“Activating now.” She replied as Kayden pulled his two women close, using the drones to stop them entirely so they could view the now-unfolding battle.

They were treated to one of the strangest sights any of them had ever seen. The Voidborn behemoth who’d just been charging towards the fleet of human ships suddenly changed course, darting towards the nearest pair of Voidborn destroyers. When it was close enough it extended its enormous tentacles around them, pulling them into a crushing embrace. They watched entranced as it rammed the ships together like they were toys before rubbing them against its underside while making a strange moaning sound that echoed through space.

“Dawn.” Kayden said slowly.

“Yeah?” She replied distantly, clearly distracted.

“When you made the pheromones, what…exact…feeling did you impart onto them?”

“I insisted that she use the strongest possible emotion she felt a connection to in that moment.” Ali interjected. “Something primal that all living creatures would feel, regardless of their racial psychology.”

“And what emotion was that?”

“Horniness.” Dawn replied with a small giggle.

Their chuckles became full-on laughter as they watched the Kraken crush the Voidborn destroyers with its powerful thrusts, breaking through its shields and tearing its hull to shreds. The space-groaning stopped for a moment before it wrapped another tentacle around a Voidborn battleship and began pulling. The ship’s engines flared in a futile attempt to escape, but the creature’s hold was already far too strong as it began pulling the doomed craft into its amorous embrace.

Suddenly, the first salvo from the human fleet ripped into the Voidborn. Kayden watched as energy shields flickered against energy beams and missile explosions. It was a textbook opening attack, one followed up quickly by a round of projectiles that ripped through any ship whose shields had already failed. Blasts rippled through some of the smaller ships, taking them out of the fight.

“Are you three done hanging out in space?” Selina said teasingly over the radio as she brought the shuttle close to them, disabling the active camouflage for a moment so they could see it. “Because if you are, we’ve got more work to do.”

Chuckling, Kayden replied. “Yeah, yeah. Let us aboard when you’re ready.”

With some careful maneuvering of both the drones and the shuttle, they were soon back aboard. After repressurizing the cabin Kayden slipped into the pilot’s chair one more time before squeezing Selina’s thigh in a show of appreciation. She purred in response before winking at him from behind her helmet’s visor.

“How goes the battle?” Dawn asked as she buckled herself into her own chair.

“The initial salvos were successful.” Ali answered, turning her tablet around for the rest of them to see. “The Voidborn ships were forced to redirect a portion of their fleet to destroy the Kraken. However, a significant portion of the fleet has continued towards Ashley and they are beginning to return fire.”

“How significant of a portion?”

“The Voidborn still outnumber her ships by a ratio of 3:1.” Ali said.

“Shit. That’s still more than we planned for.”

“I believe she has the situation well in-hand.” Ali replied with a coy smile.

Kayden watched with rapt attention as they were treated to a display of tactical brilliance which would rival any in human history. Ashley’s fleet performed a perfectly choreographed fighting retreat, slowly drawing the Voidborn fleet towards the hyperspace exit point. The human battleships acted as a rearguard, absorbing the seemingly unending barrage with their powerful shields as the smaller ships continued to fire around them.

As the Voidborn fleet cut passed through the jump point in their pursuit, explosions began to bloom around them. Hundreds of perfectly-placed nuclear proximity mines roared to life, bathing the nearby fleet in fire and electromagnetic radiation. Dozens of their ships saw their shields flicker and die only to be pummelled by yet more projectile rounds as Ashley’s fleet did a quick about-face and stood their ground, returning fire.

Just as the last of the explosions died out, yet more ships exited hyperspace – this time, behind the Voidborn fleet. They immediately unloaded with every weapon they had into the Voidborn ships’ poorly defended backsides, tearing through all but the most powerful of shields. As the beleaguered Voidborn fleet sluggishly turned to face this new threat the space was suddenly filled with thousands of interceptors and bombers launching from both the newly entered fleet as well as the human one, turning the ambush into a true battle.

“This is the Voice of the Stars.” Elara announced over the radio from the Kel flagship. “We are engaging the enemy.”

“This is the Hopeful.” Mirana added from the former Vrul scavenger bot. “We are with you, Elara.”

“Ladies, your timing is perfect.” Kayden replied over the radio, shaking his head in amazement at the combined fleet.

It was an imposing sight. Sleek golden Vrul cruisers hovered in a protective formation around enormous purple Kel battleships. Mixed groups of Kel and Vrul frigates and corvettes hunted the Voidborn in packs, darting forward in daring hit-and-run maneuvers before fading back towards the fleet. Dozens of destroyers coordinated their fire, with the Vrul ones using energy weapons and the Kel ones following up with projectiles. In the middle of it all sat the two nation’s flagships, showing the kind of unity that Kayden knew their ancestors always dreamed of.

“The battle isn’t won yet.” Ashley’s terse voice reminded them over their shared radio channel. “We’ve got them on the ropes, but when the rest of their forces finish off that octopus-thing and join the battle we’re screwed.”

“Where do you need us most?” Kayden asked, itching to get into the fight.

“I don’t think we’re getting a better opening than this to get planet side.” Ashley replied. “Get on the ground and end this quickly. I’ll give you whatever bombers and air support I can, but it won’t be much – hopefully just enough to punch a hole through their defenses and get your boots on the ground.”

“Understood.” Mirana replied. “We will deploy the troop transports.”

“As will we.” Elara agreed.

“I am remote-piloting the Broken Shackle. I will use it to escort the troop transports to the ground.” Ali added. “I have detected a strong signal similar to the one broadcast by the artifacts emanating from these coordinates. Please proceed there.”

Kayden glanced at the coordinates that popped up on the screen in front of him. The boiling rage of looking at what was ostensibly his people’s home planet threatened to overtake his better judgement as he was forced to compare the location to a live view of the planet, glancing at the glowing orange spots as he did. Pushing those feelings aside for a moment, he felt some small measure of relief to see where they were going wasn’t currently on fire. That being said, as he stared at the coordinates for a moment longer a realization washed over him and he groaned aloud. In response Selina tilted her head to the side and looked at him in confusion.

“What is it?”

Kayden exhaled before replying. “I guess this means I’m going home.”