05:06, January 1st, 2135

From the corner of his eye, Kayden saw movement. Knowing that he had to keep the queen distracted for a few more moments he taunted her. “You’re not getting it. The device. We’ve already destroyed it.”

“No you haven’t.” She replied. “It calls to me. I will have it.”

“Bold claim for someone who’s about to die.”

She laughed in response. “You cannot kill me.”

“Who said I was gonna do it?” Kayden said before slamming his prosthetic arm down on her carapace-covered one, breaking her grip and causing her to drop him to the ground.

Before she could recover a blast of red light hit the queen, overloading her shields and burning away her carapace armour. She sunk to one knee while still smouldering, and before she could stand a swarm of nanobots coalesced around them into robots as Mirana closed the distance to them. They quickly took advantage of the situation, opening fire on the wounded queen and causing her to cry out in pain.

“Enough!” She shouted, swinging her wings around wildly.

To Kayden’s horror, she managed to score a series of hits – both against the bots and their controller. The spike on the end of one of her wings slammed into Mirana’s armour, penetrating it and throwing her backwards. She screamed in pain as she hit the ground before going silent.

Enraged, Kayden jumped forward towards the queen and grabbed hold of both of her wings from behind. With an almighty roar he tore them directly out of their sockets with a wet squelch, causing blood to spurt out from the queen’s back and revealing that they’d been grafted directly onto her skin. Ignoring his growing revulsion he grabbed the queen by the back of her neck and sent an electric shock through her neural link, bringing her to her knees in front of him. As she twisted and writhed under his grip he summoned his nanobot swarm and formed them into a blade in his other hand – one that he used to lop the queen’s head off, killing her.

Somehow, the ringing in Kayden’s ears was louder than the sound of gunfire around them. He stepped over the queen’s corpse and raced towards were Mirana was lying, the hole in her suit revealing her red skin underneath. Conscious of the fact that she was very susceptible to bacteria and viruses, he tore the gloves off his suit before pressing his bare hands against the deep wound in an attempt to staunch the flow of her green blood.

“You’re going to be okay!” Kayden said to her, reassuring himself as much as her.

She weakly put a hand on his arm. “Did…we…get her?”

“We did.” Kayden replied. “Rest. We’ll get you out of here.”

“Thank…you…executor.” She croaked out before her hand slipped back down, resting by her side.

Moments later Anna appeared by their side. She pushed Kayden away gently before waving her healing glove back and forth across the wound. He watched anxiously as the glove pulsed with different colors, his eyes going wide when the skin and damaged organs underneath stitched themselves back together. As much as he wanted to watch and make sure she was going to be okay, his attention was drawn away by a radio signal from the Broken Shackle.

“Kayden. Whatever you did just now threw their fleet into disarray. Their ships are firing on each other as often as they’re shooting at us. It’s like they’ve lost their damn minds.” Selina paused for a moment. “Ashley just entered the system with the rest of the fleet as well. They’re moving in.”

“Prioritize escorting the civilian ships out of here.” Kayden ordered. “Get them lifted off and heading back to Port Vega. If you can take out some of their fleet while you’re at it, great – but make sure those ships are safe. Then tell Duke to send down any landing craft he’s got to help secure the area.”

“Understood.” Selina said.

“Tell the Vrul onboard to prepare a heavy dosage of antibiotics.” Anna added, standing. “Mirana took a hit, and she’s going to need medical attention.”

Kayden looked over at Anna. “Is she going to be okay?”

“I don’t know.” She replied, tension in her voice. “I’m no expert in Vrul physiology, and she lost a lot of blood. I healed her wounds, but I’m worried about infection setting in. We should get her back to the ship as soon as possible.”

“Stay here with her.” Kayden said, standing.

Turning, he sprinted back towards the tower and wrenched open the door to find Dare kneeling over a wounded marine. She stood the moment Kayden entered the room, looking between him, an enormous hole in the wall, and the now-empty cordoned off area in the middle of the room. Even through his anxiety-ridden haze, he was aware enough to figure out what happened.

“They took it.” Dare said, her voice hollow. “They took it and ran as you were fighting the queen. As soon as they had it they started to retreat.”

“It doesn’t matter now.” Kayden countered. “The queen is dead – her body is back there. The fight in orbit just turned in our favor, and you’ll be getting reinforcements soon.”

“I…thank you.” She said, her relief palpable. “Sir.”

“Load up any wounded into these vehicles, and get ready to move out. We’re going to meet them at the landing pads.”

Not waiting for her response, Kayden ran over to an armoured bulldozer and hopped into the drivers seat. He pulled the control cable from his arm and connected it to the relatively simple machine, taking control of it instantly. The engine rumbled to life as the metallic vehicle bay door in front of him slid open painfully slowly. When it finally stopped moving he urged the vehicle forward, following the path back to Anna and Mirana.

As he reached them he disconnected himself and hopped out, landing next to the two women. He leaned over Mirana’s body and carefully picked it up, sliding it into the large seat of the bulldozer before buckling her in. He helped Anna climb in afterwards and was about to slide onto the squished seat next to them before Anna shook her head.

“Get the queen’s body! We might need it for testing later.”

Realizing she was right, he ran over to the queen’s body and severed head before unceremoniously tossing both of them into the bulldozer’s shovel. He then climbed into the seat, arranging both Anna and Mirana on his lap while he connected his control cable again.

“Come on.” He said, taking control of the vehicle. “Let’s get back to the ship.”

***

06:42, January 1st, 2135

“How are we looking?” Kayden said as he stepped off the elevator and onto the bridge of the Broken Shackle, still wearing his armour but having retracted his helmet.

“The civilian fleet is away.” Selina reported. “We used hit-and-run tactics to draw the Voidborn fleet away from the planet while they were still in disarray, giving enough of an opening. Unfortunately for us it looks like they figured their shit out and stopped attacking each other for the moment, but at least it meant we got the civilians out and Duke successfully landed reinforcements on the planet.”

“He reported several Voidborn landing craft making one last pickup run.” Dawn added. “They didn’t have nearly enough landing craft to pick up all their troops though, so the marines down there are going to have their work cut out for them.”

Kayden looked over at Ali as he strode to the middle of the bridge. “What’s their fleet strength like? Can we take them in a straight-up fight?”

“I believe so.” She replied. “The additional reinforcements from Sanctuary should be enough to destroy them without too many casualties. We are holding outside weapons range, and it appears they are unwilling to engage right now.”

“Get Ashley on screen.” He ordered.

The viewscreen in front of them split, with one half resolving to a tactical map of the space around them and the other half showing Ashley. Her short black hair was tied back in a bun, and her soft brown eyes flicked up to the screen in front of her before nodding. Under normal circumstances Kayden would make a comment about how her flawless brown skin looked soft and inviting underneath the tight blue bodysuit she was wearing, but in this moment his anxiety overrode those feelings.

“Heard you had a rough time down there.” Ashley started. “Mirana took a hit?”

“While taking out the queen, yeah.” Kayden confirmed. “The other Vrul told me they’ll be able to give us an update on her condition in the next hour.”

“She’ll pull through.” Ashley reassured him. “She’s a tough one. Do you want to go be with her? I can take this one on.”

“No.” Kayden replied. “I mean, yes – I’d like to be there, but the Vrul said it’d do more harm than good. I’m still covered in Voidborn guts, and that’s not exactly conducive to a ‘sterile’ environment, so I may as well be here where I can do some good.”

“Fair point.” Ashley relented. “So what’s the play here? We gonna finish kicking some Voidborn ass? I don’t like the fact that we’re both just sitting here, waiting for the other to make a move.”

“Kayden.” Ali interrupted. “I’ve completed my scans of the Voidborn fleet. It appears they are using swarms of nanobots and biological creatures to mend the holes in their ships.”

“They’re doing field repairs.” Ashley paraphrased.

“Shit.” Kayden swore. “That settles it then. I’d rather not give them time to repair – let’s take them now, before they’re done.”

“Agreed.” Ashley said before turning to her own bridge crew. “Order the fleet forward! Lead with the cruisers, deploy bomber wings 1 through 3, and send the corvettes around in a flanking maneuver!”

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“Join the main attack force.” Kayden ordered, turning to Selina while cutting off the call to Ashley. “Put us alongside the cruisers and start picking targets.”

“On it.” Selina replied, her fingers dancing across her workstation.

Moving back towards his command chair, Kayden took a seat before opening a channel to engineering. “Anna, we’re going after the rest of the Voidborn fleet. Can you boost our power output?”

“Of course babe.” Anna replied. “We’re on it! Lots to do though. Talk later!”

As the channel cut off, Elara turned in her chair and placed her hand on Kayden’s. “Do we need to talk later about how there’s nothing you could have done differently?”

“I want to say that I should have brought the power cells from the shuttle so I could summon Fenrir.” Kayden replied, shaking his head. “But I also know that dissecting what I could have done differently isn’t going to help us right now. I’ll remember for next time, and that’s all I can do.”

“Proud of you.” She said softly before kissing him on the cheek.

“Thanks Elara.” Kayden replied before refocusing on the task at hand.

A brief silence fell over the bridge as they joined the fleet’s formation, cruising inevitably towards the Voidborn. Kayden mentally counted the seconds until they’d be in range, scanning through the tactical readout as he did. When he saw the Voidborn ships come about to meet them he highlighted several bombers and light frigates, intending to leave the heavier targets for the cruisers to attack.

The larger ships in the fleet fired before they did, the space between the fleets filling with the flash of energy weapons and the fire of missiles traded back-and-forth. The moment they were in range they added their own weapons to the mix, destroying a pair of Voidborn bombers with combined flak and missile fire before they could unleash their payloads. Selina expertly rolled the ship to avoid a lance of energy from the enemy battleship before pushing more power to the engines, closing the distance as they returned fire.

Even through the chaos of the battle, it quickly became obvious that they were winning. The Voidborn had fewer ships than they did to begin with, and they’d already sustained damage from their previous engagements – both with the SCI and each other. Their combined fire made short work of the Voidborn’s bomber and interceptor squadrons, allowing their own fighter craft to attack with near impunity while their capital ships continued an uninterrupted barrage.

Kayden was about to call Ashley back and congratulate her on the victory when Ali suddenly spoke. “More contacts entering the system! An entire Voidborn carrier group, by the looks of it. They will be in weapons range in 30 seconds.”

“It’s a trap!” Elara said.

“Ashley is hailing us!” Dawn said.

“On screen!” Kayden ordered.

Ashley’s face appeared in front of them and she immediately started speaking. “We don’t have the firepower to take on that new fleet!”

“Agreed. Sound the retreat.” Kayden said.

“Can’t. They’re approaching from the hyperspace jump point. We’d need to go through them to get there.”

“An in-system jump then.” Kayden said. “Get us to another jump point. There’s one that leads to the Cassiopeia system – we can rally at the jump point, then make the longer jump from there.”

“Fine.” Ashley nodded. “That’s Lokken Star Collective territory though.”

“Yeah, well…let’s just hope they’re feeling hospitable.” Kayden replied.

“Spinning up the hyperspace drive now.” Ali said.

“I’ll get us clear.” Selina added, rolling and plunging the ship downwards.

“Whenever you’re ready, punch it!” Kayden ordered, watching the second Voidborn fleet inch closer on the screen.

There was a brief sensation of movement and the familiar kaleidoscope of colors on the viewscreen next to Ashley’s face before they emerged away from the battlefield. All around them, ships began to pop out of hyperspace as their drives cooled down. The fighters and bombers frantically returned to their hangars as the larger ships reloaded and took stock of the situation.

“Kayden. Some of the ships took damage in transit.” Ali said tersely. “They may need a few minutes before they’re ready to make a longer jump.”

“Fuck, she’s right.” Ashley swore, clearly having heard Ali over the radio. “We’re going to need at least 5 minutes.”

“The Voidborn will be all over us by then.” Kayden replied, shaking his head.

“You’re not kidding.” Ashley confirmed. “I’m ordering the fleet to rally around the cruisers and use them as a bulwark. Hopefully that’ll buy us enough time.”

“Bring us about.” Kayden ordered. “I want us firing the second those bastards drop out of hyperspace.”

They didn’t have to wait long.

Less than 30 seconds after the last ships in their fleet reached the rally point, the first ships of the combined Voidborn fleet dropped out of hyperspace. They were quickly met with a barrage of fire that dissolved their shields and melted their hulls, but it didn’t matter – more and more ships continued to drop out of hyperspace and join the fray. In seconds a pitched battle erupted around them, with both sides throwing everything they had at their enemies.

“Bomber, 2 o’clock high!” Ali announced.

“Got him!” Elara replied, taking manual control of one of the weapons emplacements on the hull and shooting the bomber down.

An explosion at the edge of the battlefield caught Kayden’s eye. He glanced over at Ali only for her to shake her head sadly. “We just lost the Freedom’s Progress to Voidborn bombers.”

“Fuck. That was one of our few destroyers.” Kayden said before hammering the button for the internal comms. “Load the cluster missiles! We need to destroy those bombers!”

A beam of energy glanced off their shields, causing the entire hull to shake in protest. Kayden glanced at his tablet to see that the blow had cost them 20% of their shields. He pulled the control cable from his arm and connected it to the ship, taking control of several guns and bringing them around.

“Kayden, we need to focus on the capital ships!” Selina advised. “The fleet can’t take much more of this!”

“Additional contacts exiting hyperspace now.” Ali announced.

“Shit. What now?” Kayden groaned.

“It’s the Lokken! And the independents’ fleet from Port Vega!” Dawn announced. “They’re hailing us!”

Two faces appeared on the screen in front of them next to Ashley. One of them was familiar to Kayden – she had brown hair that was streaked with grey, a thin face with high cheekbones, and piercing blue eyes. The other face was that of a man with grey hair, skin wrinkled with age, and a grey beard. To Kayden’s surprise his left eye had been replaced by a cybernetic implant that extended to his ear, and he had a scar trailing across his forehead.

“Beth Weir, your timing is impeccable!” Kayden said to the leader of Port Vega. “And I see you’ve made a new friend too!”

“Admiral Swiatkewicz, at your service.” The man said. “Can we render assistance?”

“Yes!” Ashley growled. “Get these fuckers off my fleet.”

“Of course. Bringing our battleships to bear now. Do try to stay out of the way.”

Kayden watched with a mixture of glee and morbid fascination as a trio of battleships fired their main guns into the Voidborn fleet, blasting away a carrier’s shields. The follow-up shots from the Lokken cruisers hammered the ship’s armour, melting it and causing explosions to ripple through its hull. As they did, the independent’s makeshift fleet of corvettes, frigates, and destroyers swarmed forward and enveloped Sanctuary’s fleet, acting as a screening force against the bombing runs.

Against their overwhelming force, the tide of the battle turned back in their favor quickly. When it became obvious that they’d lost, the Voidborn enacted a fighting retreat – sacrificing their smaller ships as a rearguard so that their larger ships could pull back. Kayden was only too happy to oblige them, taking direct control of the Broken Shackle and using it to enact as much revenge as he possibly could for their fallen comrades.

“That’s the last of them.” Ashley announced as they watched a pair of Voidborn corvettes explode. “The rest retreated to the jump point for Alpha Centauri. They’ll be gone in the next few minutes.”

“Good.” Kayden said.

“Holding this system is critical for ensuring these Voidborn do not enter Lokken space.” Admiral Swiatkewicz said. “My fleet will remain on station here and assume control over any defenders.”

“Wait, I didn’t agree to that!” Beth countered angrily.

“I don’t know how Commander Duke is going to feel about that either.” Kayden added.

“My fleet is the largest, therefore I have the most to lose, and I should be in charge.” The admiral reasoned.

“Duke has the best lay of the land and has more forces planetside.” Kayden said. “You may not want to discount that advantage.”

“And I know how you operate – you’ll sacrifice our fleet first before you put your own in harm’s way!” Beth protested.

“Naturally!” The admiral said, furrowing his brow. “Our ships are worth a great deal more.”

They continued to bicker back and forth until Dawn waved at Kayden, catching his attention. He muted the conversation for a moment and looked at her. “You have an idea?”

“You should invite them here. Get everyone face-to-face and talk this out before it goes really south.”

Seeing the logic, Kayden nodded and unmuted himself. “Folks, listen. We’re all running hot after our victory. Let’s figure out how we’re going to manage the defense of this world after we take a minute to count our dead. Why don’t we meet on my ship in an hour? I’ll share whatever intel I can at that point, and we can make some decisions.”

Beth paused for a moment, then nodded. “Fine. 1 hour, your ship. I’ll take a shuttle over.”

“As will I.” The admiral nodded.