The bridge shook as another devastating hit slammed into the bow.
For the thousandth time, Lead General Abiga wished she had something, anything that could repel their weapons but no matter what she tried they always punched through. The blow shook bridge officers from their chairs and floated them away from their stations. It would have done the same to her but her tentacles were wrapped firmly around her chair.
“Report,” she shouted. It was a sad state of affairs that she no longer expected her officers to know when to report.
“Sorry ma’am,” one of her most senior officers said floating up uneasily. “They’ve nearly broken through our shield wall. Estimated time until breach is 15 hours.”
Abiga stared at her bridge officer and felt guilty. They were scared, no more than a hatchling. She’d lost too many good commanders in this fight, too many good friends. Hatchlings were all she had left.
Her forces were already backed up against the galactic core and now there was nowhere else to retreat. She’d set up a spherical defensive wall that kept the enemy from jumping through and attacking from behind but it was all she could do to hold them off. She was cornered.
These alien attackers were called the Vo. It was the only message they ever sent, the sound ‘Vo’ chanted by thousands of voices. They’d had come from outside the galaxy, surrounding it and attacking from all directions at the same time. Abiga had been prepared to throw back an assault but not one coming from the outside. All of her forces had been positioned strategically along her people’s internal galactic border with the Maxcelians.
Her people, the Tenga, had been at war with the Maxcelians since before she’d been born. So far, it had only been small-scale skirmishes while each species focused most of their energy on colonizing as much of the unoccupied portions of the galaxy as possible. However, once the territorial lines on the galactic map became solidified and vacant worlds became scarce, open large-scale war became inevitable. There was only one galaxy and neither were willing to become subservient to the other. At least they’d both agreed on that.
One of Abiga’s screens lit up with the scale-covered face of her once greatest enemy, the Maxcelian head of army, Commodore Prime Brixtix.
“Abby,” he said voice like gravel. “I’m sending you some backup. Your lines are about to break and the Spike won’t be ready for at least another day.”
“No,” she replied. “I’ll buy you all the time you need to get the Spike ready with what I have. We can’t spare the ships.”
Commodore Prime Brixtix didn’t even pause to think before responding. “An outward spiral charge won’t work. It might have against me but their ships are faster than ours. They’ll either outrun or outmaneuver you.”
She clamped her beak down hard. He was right and she knew it. Still, she had to do something, there was no one else left. Her forces were either spread thin or part of the Spike. It was up to her.
“Here’s the plan,” she started. “I’ll get to the bottom hemisphere of my shield wall to spiral in like a drain, speed past the galactic center, and ram through their lines at the apex of the shield wall on the top side. We can time it all so it coincides with The Spike and the ships in the top hemisphere shield wall can follow after acting like a rear guard.”
The Spike was their collective last ditch effort to survive. While Lead General Abiga and her dwindling forces held off the extra-galactic invaders, Commodore Prime Brixtix was rallying the majority of their forces, Tengan and Maxcelian alike, into a spike formation that would punch through the enemy lines and out of the galaxy. Neither the Tenga nor Maxcelians had made significant excursions into extra-galactic space but it was their only remaining option against the Vo.
Brixtix looked away for a moment, working through calculations on a second monitor. His face grew more and more grim by the second.
“How many would we have to leave behind?” Abiga asked. She knew exactly what he was calculating.
Both the Tenga and Maxcelians had already lost so much of their populations. Brixtix’s entire family had been killed when the Vo had broken through a thought-to-be-impenetrable line of defense surrounding the Maxcelian homeworld and Abiga had lost her sister and nephews to the fall of the Tengan homeworld. The remaining planetside population centers had been evacuated into massive mobile cylindrical habitats. There were many millions of habitats with thousands more dedicated solely to food production. Still, it was only a fraction of the original population that survived. The Vo took no prisoners.
Brixtix finished the last calculation and turned back to Abiga’s monitor. “We’d lose 23% of the civilian ships, the majority of which would be Maxcelian.”
Abiga’s color changed to a fierce red. They had agreed! They needed to stand together if they wanted to defeat the Vo. Both their people would be treated equally in this war, neither Abiga nor Brixtix would favor or disfavor one species over the other. He had agreed then went behind her back, with his stupid reptilian pride and honor, and placed all of her people at the center of the spike to keep them safe.
Before Abiga could say anything, Brixtix saw her color change and interrupted. “The same way that the majority of the shield wall is made up of Tengan ships.”
He was right again, but she wasn’t done. “That’s military, Brix. I can command Tengan forces more efficiently. You’re talking about sacrificing Maxcelian civilians over Tengans.”
“Yes, I am,” Brixtix replied. “The only reason there are this many Maxcelians in the first place is because of Effeeta’s suicide charge against the Vo to protect the main Maxcelian civilian fleet at the Half-Moon Nebula.”
Effeta’s Half-Moon charge was legendary. However, it was also a devastating loss to the Tengan Army. Effeta had driven her forces into a wipe-out encirclement to save the Maxcelians. Most of Abiga’s senior command and a full third of her forces perished in the ensuing massacre. That single act created an unbreakable blood pack with the Maxcelians. Since that day, not even the most hard-line Maxcelians would question the pride or honor of a Tengan.
“And what about your cousin Praxic’s defense of— “ Abiga started before catching herself. She calmly returned her color to a neutral blue and tried again. “This isn’t the time, Brixtix. There are enough dead heroes and unpayable debts for us to start trying to do them justice now. Just get the Maxcelian civilians into the Spike and… what’s going on?”
Brixtix’s bridge had entered a state of commotion. Abiga watched closely trying to figure out what was happening. She checked her own sensors but there was nothing in the immediate vicinity. The Vo hadn’t broken through her shield wall.
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Brixtix turned back to his monitor dedicated to Abiga. “They figured us out!” He shouted, smashing his large clawed hand down. “There’s a reverse spike coming in from extra-galactic space. Right where we were going to push through.”
Abiga froze. It wasn’t possible. The Vo had barely shown any sense of tactics instead relying on their vast numbers and advanced technology. Yet, the data from the senors Brixtix had hidden along the Spike’s escape route showed it was true. She had to do something.
“Ma’am,” said a young communication officer interrupting her. “We are receiving a transmission for the reverse spike Commodore Brixtix detected. Should I put—“
“Yes,” she shouted.
Finally, she was going to look her enemy in the eyes. This was her opportunity. The Vo never communicated. She could reason with them or negotiate a cease fire or anything save her people. Brixtix popped up on the split screen, face hard and talons extended. He looked ready to kill.
Two faces appeared on the screen, neither of them looked like how she’d imagined a Vo. The one in the center had gray hair on top of its head and hanging from the bottom of its face. The exposed skin was brown-beige with a distinct olfactory organ in the center and two recessed eyes. The second face was significantly lower on the screen and fully covered in hair. It had a protruding snout, recessed eyes, and pointy triangular ears. While they were both mammalian in appearance, they didn’t seem to be from the same species.
“Greetings,” said the partly hair covered mammal. “I am Cluster Admiral Desamaro of The Last Expedition. This is Norfolk.” The fully hair covered mammal let out a shout at the mention of their name before Cluster Fleet Admiral Desamaro continued, “We received your distress call and we’re here to help. I ask that you open the top of your shield wall to allow our forces through.”
The distress call. Abiga had nearly forgotten about setting it up. She’d insisted on its creation and continual operation ever since the Vo had arrived. It had worked. She’d done it.
Brixtix, however, had his guard fully up. “Cluster Admiral,” Brixtix said. “What is your purpose here?”
“I’m here to kill some Vo,” Desamaro said. Norfolk made a quick wordless shout in agreement.
It was clear to Abiga that the conversation was being translated in real time, although how these aliens had created functioning Tengan and Maxcelian dictionaries so quickly she didn’t know. The only word that hadn’t been translated was ‘Vo’. It seemed that name was universal to all the Vo’s enemies. If they were really the Vo’s enemy.
“What reason do we have to believe you? You could be a Vo plot to make us let down our guard?” Abiga asked, recovering her senses.
“The Vo don’t make plots and I think you know that,” the first being said confidently. “Again, I ask that you open your shield wall. If you refuse to comply, I’ll be forced to open your shield wall myself.” The one called Norfolk lifted one of its limbed and placed it on one of Desamaro’s who closed his eyes for the length of a breath before opening them again. “However, in the interest of future positive relationships, I’d rather our help be voluntarily accepted. Please open your shield wall.”
Abiga watched on her monitor as these intruders punched through the Vo at alarming speeds. This Desamaro wasn’t bluffing, he’d be able to break through her already crumbling defenses easily. Abiga hated it but she had no choice. Turning to her last remaining sub general, she openly shouted for her forces to open the shield wall and allow the Last Expedition in. Secretly, she signaled Brixtix to make a mad dash away with whatever ships were in the Spike if the situation turned sour. Brixtix signaled back and confirmed. He’d run if it meant he could come back someday and defeat the Vo for real.
Abiga personally orchestrated the opening of the shield wall to allow their ships entry while Brixtix was busy with some more calculations. Desamaro had remained on their shared channel but was currently directing his own ships. A few hours into the maneuver, Brixtix unmuted himself.
“What is your plan here Cluster Admiral Desamaro?” He asked. “My analysis is showing that even with your additional forces we won’t be able to defeat the Vo.”
The creature Abiga found out was called a human, was busy at work while the other being, called a canine simply sat there staring at the screen. At the question, Desamaro turned back and seemed to wordless confer with Norfolk for a moment. Abiga could tell that information was being passed back and forth but she wasn’t sure how or could she tell what exactly was the canine’s role. As wordlessly as their conference began, it ended and Desamaro faced the monitor with Abiga and Brixtix. “This fleet isn’t fighting off the Vo. It’s here to protect you for when the one that is fighting the Vo arrives. Please stay behind us.”
Over the next hour, the Last Expedition fleet dove into the spherical shield wall with shocking speed and positioned itself in between the Tengan-Maxcelian shield wall and the Vo. Abiga felt useless. Her entire purpose in this battle was to hold back the Vo and now the Human-Canines were doing it. She switched her view to her private channel with Brixtix. He was still busy trying to organize the Spike and refused Abiga offer of help, too many voices ruined the harmony he said. Then, her map monitor caught her eye.
Tens of millions of new contacts appeared right on the edge of extra-galactic space just as the Vo had, surrounding the galaxy in all directions. Their ID signatures were Human-Canine but they were of a completely different style from the ones in the reverse spike. Most importantly, they were enormous.
Each ship was half the width of a yellow star and twice again as long, and they appeared to be grouped in pairs. Entire Tengan and Maxcelian battle fleets were smaller than these behemoths.
Abiga was already struggling to comprehend how the Humans and Canines could muster so many massive ships when the number of contacts doubled. Her battle map had trouble interpreting the results until her computers finally managed to parse the large stream of incoming data. Each new contact was a red dwarf star. Abiga’s shock grew even more profound, the massive ships were shooting out stars. Even the strongest Vo ships would struggle against a direct hit from a star.
“By the homeworld,” she heard Brixtix mutter slack jawed. “They’re all on collision courses.” As soon as Brixtix spoke, Abiga’s map crystallized revealing the trajectories, each pair of red dwarves had been fired to collide in the center of a group of Vo ships.
Abiga’s sensor screen roared white as tens of millions of stellar explosions shook the entire galaxy. Huge amounts of stellar debris and nova scale explosion crashed against the Human-Canine shield wall. The spherical shield wall compressed as constituent ships fired their engines to push back against the shock wave that would have obliterated Abiga’s shield wall. There was nowhere for the Vo ships to escape.
Once Abiga’s sensors stopped whiting out from the sheer amount of destructive energy they’d been exposed to, they unveiled an unsettling conclusion. Some of the Vo ships had managed to survive.
Abiga pushed her shock down. “We need to capture those ships.”
“I’ll make the survivors pay for what they did,” Brixtix added.
“There won’t be any survivors,” Cluster Admiral Desamaro said. “Fire again.”
“Wait!” Abiga shouted, causing the human admiral to pause. “I can convince them to surrender. I’ll interrogate their captains. We’ll get some answers.”
“As much as I want them dead,” Brixtix said, struggling to get the next part out. “They’re more useful to us alive. We’ll kill them later.”
The human admiral stared at Abiga and Brixtix’s monitor for a moment before shouting to his soldiers. “Belay that order. Let them sue for peace.” Then, he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.
Abiga opened a channel on the frequency the Vo used for their chant and said, “Surrender now. You have no hope for victory. Surrender now and you will be spared and treated with dignity.”
She waited for a response with bated breath. They’d never been able to communicate with the Vo before and now was their chance. They had to respond, there was no other option.
The communication signal light lit up on her monitor as a single word came through chanted by thousands of voices, “Vo”. Their remaining ships fired their engines at maximum power, directly into a collision course with the closest Human-Canine ship.
“Fire,” the human admiral said in a flat tone. At once, all the red dwarf ships being charged fired on the remaining Vo without hesitation.
“The Vo always attack,” Desamaro said as red dwarf stars collided killing the last of the Vo. “They never surrender, they take no prisoners, and they always attack. Remember that.”
Abiga sat in silence not knowing what to say. The Vo were gone, her people were safe, and all she’d done was cry for help.
“We should meet face to face before the rest of my fleet arrives,” the human said. “Another Vo fleet will arrive soon. This isn’t over.”