The Drekan invasion had finally begun in earnest. The tiger-like deathworlders had already consumed three other species and their war machines were hungry for more. The peaceful herbivorous Kinter with their relatively low-tech homesteads and pitiful navy would be no match for the warlike Drekan.

Granted it was easy to take territory. Keeping it was another thing entirely. The Drekan soon found out that as peaceful as the Kinter may have chosen to be, there was a depth to their resolve unlike anything the Drekan had ever seen. The Kinter had fought an unstoppable enemy once before. And where was the Engressia Hivemind now?

That curse on the universe that had devoured countless worlds was nothing more than a memory. Its ships had been melted down to slag, cooking the biomass of the inhabitants down to charcoal. The Kinter and their allies had done the unthinkable. Then the antelope-like creatures had resettled their ruined worlds and found a kind of peace. A peace which had lasted for generations until those accursed Drekan had come along.

The forces occupying the Kinter worlds paid dearly for every inch of territory that they took. Then they paid for it again and again as snipers picked off their officers and saboteurs destroyed their equipment. The Kinter would not surrender. They would fight with everything they had and defend their land until there was no breath left in their bodies, then haunt the invaders from the afterlife if need be.

However the first shots of the war were fired not at the Kinter, but at the human manned outpost Zmiinyi on the rocky barren planet of K10 far on the outskirts of Kinter space.

The first wave of Drekan ships exited the warp and swept the system for orbital defense platforms or weapons satellites. They found none. But there was a small outpost that was against all sanity broadcasting directly at them demanding that they leave the system or suffer the consequences.

"This is the Human outpost Zmiinyi requesting your immediate departure from Kinter space. There is no mineral wealth here, no technology worth having, no treasure to be taken." The human officer explained to the encroaching ships via video link. "These worlds were stripped and discarded by the Engressia Hivemind generations ago. The Kinter who live here are peaceful creatures that wish no harm to anyone. Leave them in peace or face the consequences. It's not worth it."

The Drekan admiral in charge of the armada responded arrogantly. He roared with laughter and bared his fangs threateningly. "And what will you do if we don't just turn tail and run?" He hadn't heard of humans yet but they looked delicious. They had no hair or horns to get stuck in his teeth.

The human reply was somber. "Then we will resist you to the best of our abilities. Your incursion into Kinter space has already been reported and help is on its way. If you continue this aggression it will mean war between our people and yours. It's not worth it. There's nothing in this system of value."

"Oh but there is something valuable here!" The admiral replied joyfully. "Our species requires fresh meat and the Kinter look delicious, not as soft and tender as your kind, but I cannot wait to see how they taste. They will be good food for our soldiers."

"Then know this." The human bared fangs of his own and leaned in close to the camera until his face filled the screen. "Eat well while you can. Savor this minor victory. Go to sleep with full bellies and dream well. Enjoy your meal. But know that you will pay dearly for these temporary pleasures and when you see the cost of your hubris laid out before you, your species will weep."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"I doubt it." The admiral responded before closing the video link. "Proceed with the invasion." He told his aide.

The first Drekan warship began to move toward the inhabited worlds ignoring the outpost on K10. They would crack that bone later and devour the marrow inside. A warning shot glanced off the Drekan ship's hull doing no damage. They hailed the small human outpost and demanded its surrender. There was no reply

"I repeat, this is a Drekan warship. I suggest you put down your weapons and surrender, or else you will be hit. Do you copy?" The Drekan comms officer repeated as another shot bounced harmlessly off their hull.

"Drekan warship, go fuck yourself." Came the reply.

The captain waved a hand and flicked his orange and black ringed tail dismissively. "Bomb them and move on. We've got a war to win."

The weapons officer punched in the coordinates of the small human outpost and watched as it was reduced to dust by the ship's guns. He didn't think much about it before moving on to his next task. The invasion of the Kinter worlds had begun and he was looking forward to tasting fresh meat again. He purred happily to himself as he worked, not understanding the hell he had just unwittingly unleashed on his people or how dearly this meal would cost them.

***

Much later when the war had gotten going in earnest the Drekan realized that these Humans and Kinter would not be easy prey. So a second armada was dispatched to reinforce their tenuous grip on the system. Their first ships had run afoul of the humans shortly after the Drekan landed their troops on the Kinter worlds.

"What's that on K10?" Asked the weapons officer aloud as he saw a Human targeting system light up his ship. "Don't those apes ever learn?"

"Comms, hail them and tell them to surrender. Weapons, destroy them if they refuse." The captain ordered.

The comms officer did as was requested and got the expected response. "They're telling us to go engage in self-copulation." He told the captain.

The captain turned to the weapons officer. "You see that human base? Eliminate it for me." He said with a chuckle. Those Humans really never did learn.

Their first salvo disappeared in a hellstorm of counterfire. Missiles were shredded into harmless debris by the sheer output of the Human weapons systems. The Drekan captain looked at his screens in disbelief as threat warnings blared in his ears. It wasn't just a single base this time. Hidden beneath the surface of the barren planet Human weapons had begun to spin up and come to life.

Their massive guns jutted from every surface of the planet making it look like an angry puffer fish. The humans had made improvements since their last encounter. K10 would not be such an easy kill this time.

It was also broadcasting a message to the entire Drekan armada. "No, really. Fuck you. Fuck all of you." The raspy hate filled female voice said, picking up steam and ferocity as it spoke.

"Fuck your mothers and your fathers! Fuck your ancestors and descendants! Fuck the very roots of your family tree! Fuck the single celled organisms that you evolved from!" The comms officer on K10 roared as the new guns put out enough firepower to push the planet slightly out of orbit with the sheer force of their fury.

"Fuck the sunlight that warms your homeworld! Fuck the teeth in your mouth! Fuck the broken condom that spawned you!" She screamed into the radio.

She continued to spew profanity like an auto-cannon throughout the entire bombardment, never stopping, not even bothering to take a breath as she spat venom at the invaders who had caused so much pain to her and her family.

The battery on K10 put out so much ordnance in such a short amount of time that it triggered gravimetric disturbances as a small moon's worth of hate was brought to bear on the Drekan armada.

The ships of the Drekan armada held on briefly but soon vanished into clouds of tinsel one after another as the weapons battery that would eventually earn the nickname "The Shredder" went to work.

"I think they heard you." The weapons officer remarked as he looked over at the comms officer who was covered in sweat and panting. There weren't even distress beacons transmitting from the radar reflective cloud of what had once been hundreds of Drekan ships.

"Fuck you for existing… and fuck you for taking my son from me…." She choked out, rage radiating from her every pore as she clutched at a medallion around her neck. It bore the symbol of the order of St. Rachel, a sun drowning in the blood from a bleeding heart.

"Fuck you." She said one last time before her grief overwhelmed her and she started sobbing for what she had lost.