A few hours later, aboard the H'raal Exile Fleet, on approach to Terra Para's orbit

The bridge of the H'raal mothership had the same uncanny, darklight interior as the rest of the structure. The walls of blue-green solidified energy swirled and pulsed, lightnings flashing along indistinguishable boundaries. The bridge was gigantic in size, comparable to the High Temple of Dragon Retreat, and also shared many similarities with its layout. H'raal were manning energy-made battlestations everywhere around the bridge, soft halos around their heads and ephemeral tendrils at their clawtips being the only indications they were interfacing with the mothership.

Airo watched the gathered H'raal carefully, trying to see any differences in them. They all seemed identical down to the last detail, and wore no clothing, or any distinguishing accessories for that matter. To his eye they were all like clones.

"Ugh, vacuum felt so strange," Veralla said. She stood next to him, this time without a protective vacsuit, her attention divided between the bridge's environment and her own body. "I had not realized how pleasant breathing is."

"Well, you chose to not wear your scaphander," Airo replied.

The bridge was spherical in shape, and they stood at its bottom. Airo focused his attention to the large hologram screen projected in the center, displaying an external view of the cosmos outside, Terra Para being a small, bright dot in the ocean of stars.

"Are you ready, Clanleader Airo?" Shy asked. The massive H'raal te'ylna loomed behind, her demeanor stoic and unreadable.

"I am, Te'ylna Shy," he said.

"We shall begin our assault then."

Airo nodded and focused his attention to the hologram screen again. Besides the external view a stream of additional data was displayed at the edges, the most important of which was the virtual battlefield plane, showing an abstracted image of all combatants and their positions in the local starscape.

Airo had ordered the H'raal into motion as soon as possible, even though the Radiant Knights had advised him to fight the draconic Revenant on the following day. He couldn't afford to wait; each day, the Revenant grew more numerous and the planet's warpstorms were getting worse than ever, threatening to make any groundside operations impossible. Rushing the schedule meant there was less time to establish operational protocol, yet Airo had deemed this a minor problem compared to what was at stake.

Terra Para gradually grew larger on the screen as the H'raal starfleet made its way to the planet's orbit. The sphereships were arranged in a conical pattern, with a distance of several million kilometers between each 'tier', and the formation was led by a lone spacecraft.

"How will you engage the Revenant at such range?" Airo asked, baffled.

"Our vessels are equipped with the equivalent of what you call DEI cannons," Shy replied.

"Understood," he said. Inwardly, he queried Yeoman Cloud. "What is a DEI cannon?"

"The name is an acronym for Dark Energy Impulse cannon," the SAI explained with vim over Airo's commlink. "This type of weaponry is among the most destructive devices ever created in the galaxy. The nomenclature is a mild misnomer, as what is often identified as 'dark energy' is in fact the Æther itself, although interestingly enough, DEI cannons don't fire pure Æther. Nevertheless, they are very rare and are usually found only on the most prized or advanced starships, and are never mounted on anything less than a heavy cruiser."

The H'raal starfleet continued to approach Terra Para. The mothership was at the rear end of the formation, which meant the planet was still more than fifteen million kilometers away, while the leading sphereship was merely several hundred thousand. Airo had a vague idea what the H'raal were trying to accomplish with this type of formation and was about to ask Shy for comfirmation, when the battlefield telemetry warned about enemy contact.

The image on the hologram screen shifted, displaying a view from the leading sphereship's sensors. The golden, spectral shape of a draconic Revenant had appeared out of nowhere and was quickly approaching. Seconds later, numerous other draconic Revenant came within sensor range, swiftly joining the fray.

The H'raal sphereship fired its weapons.

Or rather, its weapon.

A titanic, violet-white ray of sheer power shot out from the sphereship's silvery hull, looking a lot like the residual energy beam of the Reality Vortex. The ray of dark energy engulfed the draconic Revenant and when the flash cleared, there was nothing left.

Then the H'raal retreated.

The sphereship flew toward the next tier of the starfleet vanguard, the Revenant in furious pursuit. More of the spectral abominations appeared, coming from all over Terra Para's orbit, forming a steady stream of reinforcements. The leading H'raal sphereship reached the next group of five ships and the six of them fired their DEI cannons, annihilating rays blasting against the enemy. The draconic Revenant tried to evade the attack, yet even at such an extreme range the H'raal's aim was true, and five specters were destroyed, while another was injured and taken temporarily out of the fight.

The H'raal retreated again, hurrying to regroup with the next, larger picket of the starfleet. In that moment, Airo realized the aliens' plan – they sought to draw the Revenant into a crossfire and string them in one long, easily dispatchable line, relying on the apparitions' lack of battle tactics.

But the Revenant, while devoid of self-awareness, possessed a sense of wicked cunning and they were far from foolish.

The gathered sphereships fired another ruinous salvo, killing nearly a score of draconic Revenant. The Revenant slowed their pursuit and spread out their ranks, making themselves a harder target while waiting to gather in numbers. The H'raal also slowed their retreat, attempting to bait the enemy into following.

That was a mistake.

The draconic Revenant abruptly surged forward with more speed than before. They came into range of their terrible energy bolts and attacked the sphereships en masse. The H'raal fired in response, killing more Revenant, and tried once more to retreat. Yet now their speeds were matched and the Revenant swarmed the H'raal, lancing them with volley after volley of energy bolts. The apparitions focused their attacks on one of the sphereships, damaging it severely, and it was soon lost among their advancing ranks, its swirling, silvery hull torn and sundered under the Revenant's relentless assault.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Seeing their fellow clankin in danger and their plan foiled, the rest of the H'raal starfleet formation moved forward, joining the battle. Now, the fifty-five H'raal sphereships faced nearly a hundred and fifty draconic Revenant, as well as numerous smaller Revenant, who emerged from the lost H'raal sphereship, harvested from the souls of its crew. The two forces clashed in the depths of the cosmos, the flashes of high-energy blasts brightening the stellar background into near-invisibility.

Airo watched the vicious conflict unfold on the hologram screen. The battle had an eerie, surreal quality, for there was no sound on the mothership's bridge – no alarms, no audiosimulators feedback, no comm chatter. The occasional subdued growl among the crew and muted flashes on the energy walls when the mothership took a hit were the only signs what was happening on the screen was real. Airo glanced around. Beside him, Veralla mantled her wings, her eyes wide, obviously distressed. He petted her quivering headcrests soothingly and she wrapped her tail and wing around him in an instinctive hug. Behind them, Te'ylna Shy stood motionless, a halo of viridian energy indicating she interfaced the same strange network the H'raal used for operation and communication.

The Revenant battered the H'raal defenses without pause, and many of the sphereships were taking heavy damage. However, each of those ships was as big as a dreadnought and had correspondingly devastating weaponry – perhaps even more so, to Airo's limited expertise. The H'raal gave fierce resistance while they maneuvered their sphereships into position, and managed to envelop the Revenant in a limited crossfire zone. The Revenant still might've won, if it wasn't the unique design of the sphereships, which could fly in any direction and had complete freedom in their firing arcs, able to aim their DEI cannons at any possible point while on the move.

After a long, bloody battle, the Revenant were defeated down to the last monster. An hour passed while the surviving sphereships were sweeped for infiltrated Revenant and damage reports were presented. Out of fifty-five sphereships originally part of the H'raal starfleet, forty-nine had survived, and three quarters of them were fit for further combat duty. The casualties were extreme, yet considering the opposition, Airo thought with cynical pragmatism they were completely acceptable.

"Three million of my clan have died to save three million of yours," Te'ylna Shy said to him with a barely-restrained growl. "I hope their sacrifice won't be in vain, Clanleader Airo."

"It will not," he said with determination. "Remember, this was not merely a tradeoff in lives, Te'ylna. This is about the survival of everyone in the galaxy – including your people."

"I am very sorry that so many died," Veralla said. "I will miss them, even though I did not know them. But I also thank you and your clan deeply for helping us, Ynrolshuoay."

Shy's azure plumage fluffed, making her appearance softer. "And I thank you again for your words, Great One. Do not worry. Our clan has already given its word, and we won't renege on it. Even," Shy growled again, "if it means we must all give our lives to carry out our duty."

"Hopefully, it will not come to that," Airo said, folding his arms. "Now, if your fleet can move again, Te'ylna, I respectfully ask you to enter low orbit of Terra Para, and provide me with communication links to the Consortium and the Union."

***

At first, both stellar civilizations ignored Airo's call. After one Æther-assisted viral invasion from Yeoman Cloud into their respective Viirt networks, the Consortium and the Union quickly abandoned their sense of superiority and agreed to a virtual summit meeting.

Now Airo, Veralla, Te'ylna Ynrolshuoay, Admiral Gideon Sorofoth El-Qadir, and Admiral Vilor Ederor Jarmil, the commander-in-chief of Terra Para's Union forces, were all in simulspace, sitting in a picturesque garden gazebo. Airo, in a fit of nostalgia, decided to craft the virtual reality in an idealized image of his homeworld Arceria, and as such the surrounding environment looked like something out of a pastoral drawing: cobblestone pathways winding between emerald hills, a majestic forested mountain rising over timber houses, and flowering gardens built along the sandy coast of a calm, great sea.

Initially, Admiral El-Qadir and Admiral Jarmil barely spent a glance at Airo, or even Shy, their gazes fixed for a solid minute on Veralla. Typical. She always gets the attention, Airo mused as he waited patiently for the aeonth time for Veralla's supernatural magnetism to wear off.

"The deal is simple," he said without any preamble. "The Consortium and the Union will start to cooperate, both between themselves and with the Order of the Radiant Knights, effective immediately. Additionally, you are to provide complete support in any matters the Knights or the H'raal request, and you will house any refugees who are sent to either Kryoon or Arcolant. You will agree to these terms unconditionally, and will enforce them until the end of this crisis."

"And on what grounds do you make such demands of the Consortium, Commander Airo?" Admiral El-Qadir asked, his Drylander features twisted in distaste.

"Well, for one, I still have Omega-level clearance," he said with a thin smile. "I can completely lawfully take control over your forces."

El-Qadir rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration.

"The Union of True Humanity is a sovereign state beholden to no one," Admiral Jarmil said, his expression one of sullen defiance. He was a giant man, as large as Lylana, and even though his dark uniform was made from smart materials, it still looked like the fabric barely held his bulging muscles. The Union admiral snapped, "Why we should submit to you, abberant freaks?"

"In your case, because we can wipe out your entire force," Airo replied coldly. "This, by the way, is also true for the Consortium."

"I've listened to a fair amount of threats in my life," Admiral Jarmil said. "If you think–"

Suddenly, Shy rose to her feet. Admiral Jarmil was built like a living mountain, yet he couldn't compare to the ferocious-looking H'raal clanleader. The Union admiral stopped mid-sentence, eyeing warily the feathered alien. Admiral El-Qadir also had his attention on the te'ylna.

"Three million of my clan have given their life to fight the Revenant," Shy growled in a low, menacing voice. "They have died, because the Yssyy clan has given its word to aid the Radiant Knights in their task to defeat Tungust Ferrtau. If it has to, our clan shall give three million more of their number. If it has to, the clan shall give even more. If it has to, the clan shall give everyone to fulfill its word.

"Or," Shy continued, "if it has to, the Yssyy clan will kill whoever stands in the way of our allies – to whom it has given its word. Now, humans, decide – shall you stand in our way, or shall you join a worthy cause?"

The two admirals were visibly shaken by her words. "The... whole... clan..." El-Qadir mumbled, while Admiral Jarmil glanced left and right as if the lawns around the gazebo held squads of armed enemies.

"We have over thirty dreadnoughts at our disposal," Airo snapped. "Let this sink in."

It didn't take long for that to happen. "It seems there's no choice in the matter," Admiral Jarmil said with resignation, getting his composure under control first. "As supreme commander of the Union of True Humanity's armed forces of the Ascendancy System, I cede control to you, c... Commander Airo."

"Hmph, so be it," Admiral El-Qadir said. "As head of Terra Para's SDO of the Galactic Stellar Consortium armed forces in the Ascendancy System, I formally relinquish command in favor of you, Commander Airo."

"There, you can finally hear the true facts about this war," Airo said. "Now–"

"Wait!" Veralla suddenly interrupted. "Airo, you have to tell them to stop hurting people!" The two admirals looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Yes, thank you for reminding me," Airo nodded. He fixed the admirals with a hard stare. "Also, in addition to cooperating and ceding all control, tell your soldiers to stop terrorizing the local populace and conduct thorough investigations in any case involving mistreatment from your respective forces toward native inhabitants. Fail to comply, and there will be consequences."

For some reason, his words seemed to galvanize the two admirals.

"You are playing a dangerous game, Commander," El-Qadir said. "Don't push too hard, or we can call an entire starfleet to invade this system."

"Even the H'raal cannot stand before the might of the entire Union," Jarmil threatened.

"Yes, you could do that," Airo said flatly. "However, it would take them time to arrive here, and when they do, the only thing they would find would be the smoking remains of orbital bombardment."

There was silence.

"Understand something here, gents," Airo continued. "We are all on the same side here. We want to help you. Yet to do so, you need to play by our rules – so step in line and check in your gung-ho elements. Keep things civil. After all, you do claim to be representatives of stellar civilizations."

Airo smiled at his own words. Yet, what truly aroused his mirth, were the reactions of El-Qadir and Jarmil, who both balked at him for using a pun at such a moment.

"Now, if you are done playing tough soldiers, hear me out."