High Commander Thagath

The time was upon us, and I could barely contain my impatience that the operation was taking this long to happen. I watched in excitement and pride as the hustle and bustle of the various bridge crew prepared for our invasion. It’s time to get our revenge on those damn insects that think that they can live in OUR galaxy.

After the humiliating loss of the Indomitable Crusade, there were few things on anyone’s mind about these Terrans except how nice it would be to crush them, both figuratively and literally. My mandibles clacked in anticipation of the inevitability of their struggles. The plan was a simple one, which was surprising because the plans that were made by High Command were usually extremely complex.

The first step on this plan was to amass all the ships that we had at our disposal and congregate at a single point. The second step was to capture one of the Terran’s many merchant vessels. The less defended the better. We coerced a surrender from those insects, teaching them to fear us like they should, and knocked out their communications before they could send out a distress call in the process. They had deleted their computer systems, effectively bricking their ship. That wasn’t what we were after.

The next step was to, at the threat of the death of their colleagues, pack a shuttle of theirs full of as much explosives as we could, and have them fly into the Strength Through Diplomacy. We also rigged up a QE transponder that would cut out the moment that their shuttle exploded. At this point, all we had to do was wait.

The Terrans were assured that they would be outside of the range of the explosives once they docked with the ship. I clacked my mandibles, they were going to die anyways, just like the rest of their pitiful species.

I turned to my communications officer. “What is the status of the shuttle?” I asked.

“Still broadcasting, High Commander,” came the reply.

I clacked my mandibles again, this time impatiently. “As soon as that link goes dark, put us in route to the Terran’s ship. They will learn their place in this galaxy soon.”

“At your command, High Commander,” was the response from my navigator, having already made the necessary calculations for a jump.

Before I had the opportunity to respond, my communications officer piped up. “The link just went down, High Commander.”

I clacked my mandibles. “We hit them now, while they don’t have any time to react to our presence!”

“At your command, High Commander,” said the navigator once more before turning the warning lights on.

I braced for the inevitable tug at reality that came from faster than light travel as our fleet blinked out of reality and, less than a minute later, blinked back into reality, the truly massive shape of the Terran ship, that was function over all else. Considering that my own species also valued function over all else, I would have considered it a beautiful ship. That appreciation ended when I saw the massive hole in its hull, easily large enough to start the boarding operations. I clacked my mandibles in anticipation. We’ll have to be quick, but with the strength we have amassed, this will be easy enough.

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Admiral Fernando “Fearless” Villa

“Shit!” I shouted as I picked myself off the ground and leaned heavily on the desk of my ready room. My head was pounding from the migraine that I already had. Gritting my teeth in pain, I activated my comm. “What the fuck was that!” I shouted as I shook my head and tried to clear the ringing from my ears.

“There’s been an explosion in hangar bay 33, possibly sabotage, and decompression in the adjoining areas of the ship, but we have bigger problems than that,” came the word from my chief engineer, terror seeping into her voice.

“What the fuck could possibly be worse than a catastrophic hull breach?” I asked.

“Contacts, sir, hundreds of them,” the voice of the radar technician spoke up. “Yalayan make sir.”

I froze. How in the hell did they pull this one off? We knew that their ship count was this high, but why the hell aren’t they committing to the defense of their homeworld? Are they really that confident that they can get The Big Stick to reroute to our position? What the hell is their game? “Send a distress signal to Terra, get the whole damn Sol Defense Fleet here, otherwise we aren’t going to make it,” I said as I made purposeful strides to the door. With the push of a button, the door opened and showed to me the bridge of The Strength Through Diplomacy. The usually orderly and calm environment that usually graced this area was replaced with the frantic putting out of fires, some metaphorical, while others were literal, as a small fire had started, presumably from a loose wire.

I walked purposefully to my command chair and sat down, pointing to my communications officer. “What’s the status of the distress call?”

“Our entire QE network was taken out in the blast; we only have short range comms right now.”

Shit. “Get one of our escorts to send out a distress call to Terra, get them to bring the entire Sol Defense Fleet.”

“It’s going to take at least an hour for them to get here,” supplied my security officer from one side of the bridge in between giving orders for the boarding operations we would inevitably have to do. He was right, as he always was.

I nodded and got into the conference calls with all the ship captains in our escort group. Everyone was already there and waiting for me. “Any damage to report?” I asked. After getting a no from everyone, I nodded. “Thank God for that. Ladies and gentlemen, the name of the game today is holding what we got. The primary objective is the safeguarding of information about Terra. If you get boarded and are about to lose your ship to the enemy, follow Broken Ties protocol, and scuttle your ship.” Everyone’s face hardened at that, they all knew the consequences if Terra’s location was leaked. “I don’t want any heroics from anyone.” As soon as I had gotten confirmation from the captains in my command, I continued. “Our second priority is the protection of civilians aboard the Strength Through Diplomacy. Seeing how this ship is easily the biggest target in this confrontation, they will most likely target us.” I paused to catch my breath as I saw the ships get into the firing range of our escorts. “I don’t need to remind you that this is the largest concentration of Terran civilians outside of the Sol system, so remember what you’re fighting for.” Everyone’s faces got even darker at the implications of what the Yalayans would do to them. “Until the fleet gets here, don’t die, but that goes without saying. The carrier Rabbit’s foot will coordinate with the corvettes Double and Trouble to run interference, while battleships Bells N’ Whistles, Roosevelt, and Failure to Communicate will soften them up for boarding operations. The Strength Through Diplomacy will provide fire support where we can. If you’re about to go down, take as many as you can. Does everyone understand their roles?”

The ship captains nodded before disconnecting from the call, some shouting orders at their crews before they even got off the call. I looked over the threat assessment hologram. I watched in horror as the hundreds of contacts turned into thousands, as Yalayan carriers disgorged hundreds of attack crafts each. “How long until the Sol defense fleet arrives?” I asked.

“Forty-five minutes,” responded my communications officer.

“Shit!” I said as I tried to massage my migraine away before it got any worse. “The fortitude of Terrans has been rumored by those that we call allies, let’s not disappoint them,” I said as I watched blows start to be traded amongst the participants of the battle. May God help us all.