Lead General Abiga was exhausted. She’d had not slept in over a day and was struggling to remain neutrally buoyant. This must be how Brixtix felt all the time, Abiga thought. She was concerned by how little he slept, even for a Maxcelian.

Abiga had hoped to catch some rest on the return journey to her capital ship, the Sharp Reef, but a very irate Head Chancellor was making that impossible.

“You can’t just order the entire fleet to join up with these aliens without governmental approval,” Oganda said. “We have due process. You’re not a military dictator.”

“Nor are you a civilian dictator,” Abiga replied, wanting the conversation to end. “I have governmental approval to perform a spike maneuver to escape the Vo and leave our galaxy. That is exactly what we’re doing. The orders have already been given. We’re not stopping just because I didn’t pass it by you first.”

“Abiga, be reasonable,” Oganda said, tentacles pleading. “We know nothing about these people. For all we know, they could be worse than the Vo or in league with them. This decision forever alters the course of our people. It can’t be made without discussing it.”

“There’s nothing to discuss,” Abiga said frustrated. “If we stay, the Vo will kill us. At least by going we’ll have a chance at surviving. It was the clear choice.”

“That’s incredibly reductive, Abiga,” Oganda said, tone turning from pleading to scolding. “There are more options than placing ourselves in the hands of a people whose intentions we don’t know. The Vo in our Galaxy are gone. We could hide here while the Humans and Canines leave and the new Vo fleet takes off after them. We could reclaim our galaxy and rebuild.”

“And what of the Maxcelians?” Abiga asked. “They are leaving, Brixtix assured me of that. Do we just abandon them? What if the Vo return? You heard what Cluster Admiral Desamaro said, they have hundreds of thousands of these Galaxy-class fleets that could reconquer our galaxy and we’d be powerless to stop them.”

“Abiga, we wouldn’t be abandoning the Maxcelians, they’d be abandoning us. Besides, we’d finally have full control of the galaxy as it was ordained. With all the resources our mother galaxy has to offer at our disposal I’m confident we could repel the Vo. If they return at all. We only have that human’s word that they are that numerous.”

Abiga lowered the tablet she was staring at and turned to fully face Oganda. She hated how manipulative it felt when Oganda used her name over and over again. “It’s Lead General, I’m telling you we can’t. If the Vo return, we’ll lose. Any civilization that can muster a fleet like the one out there right now, has more than one. You don’t just send out everything you have—.” Abiga almost caught herself on the last sentence but her sleep-deprived brain had let it slip.

“That’s an excellent point Lead General,” Oganda said, emphasizing her rank. “Sending out everything you have isn’t a good strategy.”

Abiga chastised herself. Wars of words were for politicians, not soldiers. She shouldn’t have let herself be drawn into a battle where her opponent had the advantage.

“We’re going,” Abiga said, firmly. “A decision needed to be made quickly and I made it.”

Oganda turned away. They spent the rest of the trip in silence. Abiga delegated the retreat of the Tengan fleet to some of her more competent officers before trying again to rest. Meanwhile, Oganda was writing what looked like a speech from what Abiga could see.

When they docked with the Sharp Reef, Oganda floated up and to the departure hatch before turning back to Abiga. “I may not be able to stop you this time, but don’t ever try and pull something like this again.”

Abiga waited for the Head Chancellor to leave before heading out herself and down to the bridge of her ship. They were a few hours into the evacuation, and as soon as Abiga floated down to her seat she turned on her screen to Commodore Prime Brixtix. He looked even more tired than she. But more than that, he looked angry.

“You said that we would have time,” he said to the human Admiral. “That the Vo wouldn’t arrive for a while because they were in Deer Lick Group. Well, they’re here and they arrived almost as soon as the rest of your fleet did. How is that possible?”

“I’m sure you’ve noticed,” Admiral Desamaro said between work he was doing on other screens. “The Vo don’t exactly have the most sophisticated tactics. Instead of doing the logical thing and sending their fleet that was readily available in the Deer Lick Group, they decided to pull a large Cluster-fleet away from their siege of the Milky Way Local Group to counterattack.”

“Why do you sound as though that’s a good thing?” Abiga asked.

Norfolk, who’d been looking at something else, stopped and lifted one of her limbs and placed it on top of Desamaro’s hand. Desamaro froze for a moment before rubbing the bridge of his nose. Abiga didn’t know what a human looked like when they were tired, but he definitely seemed tired.

“It means that I got their attention,” he said. “Which is a good thing because if they took notice it means I did something they don’t like. And if they don’t like it, it was probably a good move for us.”

His tone was neutral but Abiga detected a hint of caution as though he’d given something away he hadn’t wanted to.

“Admiral Desamaro, we’re putting a lot of faith in you and I don’t appreciate being kept in the dark,” Abiga said, firmly. “I don’t want to find out later that it was actually your people that started the war or have been perpetuating it needlessly. I’m prepared to pull my fleet and my people out of this situation if that’s the case.”

“Agreed,” Brixtix replied, without hesitation. He’d read her bluff flawlessly.

Norfolk’s lips moved up as she growled at Desamaro. “I know, I know,” he said to his companion before returning to Abiga and Brixtix. “Look, the Vo attacked us unprovoked just as they attacked you. Remember, they never surrender, they take no prisoners, and they always attack. That’s not just propaganda, I can provide you both with evidence to support it.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’ll review it another time,” Abiga said feeling slightly more at ease. “Right now we need to deal with jump logistics. Brixtix?”

“Like I was saying,” Brixtix said, immediately picking back up where he left off. He was used to her quick topic shifts. “We’re moving as fast as we can but our stellar jump drive can’t handle these distances fast enough. We’re already starting to see signs of drive burnout.”

“Your drives can be replaced,” Desamaro said. “It’s more important that they’re in position than that they have functionally jump drives.”

“Ok,” Brixtix said hesitantly. “Even if it were possible to just ‘replace’ our jump drives like that, the Vo will be on top of us before your Galactic Ring Drive fires. In your jump formation, we’ll be like bugs in a dried up pond, easy pickings.”

“Just get your ships into position,” Desamaro said. “We’ll hold off the Vo.”

“Fine,” Abiga answered but Brixtix could, she was worried he’d try to argue when they all had more pressing matters to deal with than debate the correct course of action. “And Admiral, I will want to see that evidence later.”

Admiral Desamaro nodded then went back to work, ending his connection.

“This is a lot of faith we’re placing in these people Abby,” Brixtix said. “I don’t like it.”

“I know,” Abiga replied. “I don’t like it either.” She needed a way to ensure that they didn’t become entirely reliant on the Humans and Canines to protect them. “Brix, can you reconfigure the ring jump formation so that the Sharp Reef and Lord Norxix’s Revenge are on the outside? I wanna be ready to jump in and help if we can.”

Brixtix’s tongue slithered out of his mouth joyfully. “If it means killing Vo then I’ll make it work.”

The Galactic Ring Drive was like nothing Abiga had ever experienced. The jump formation was so tight that she could see, actually see, with her cephalopod eyes, other ships. The true scale of the Human-Canine ships shocked her. It was absurd to feel claustrophobic in space and yet she did, surrounded on five sides by massive ships. Her capital ship, the Sharp Reef, was not only the largest ship her people had ever built but it was the largest structure her people had ever built. It was similarly true for Brixtix’s capital ship, Lord Norxix’s Revenge, but both were still smaller than the Last Expedition support ships, which is to say nothing of the larger Stellar Cannon ships.

Admiral Desamaro had taken his red dwarf Nova Cannon ships out of the jump formation and staggered them behind the Ring Drive, Double Dutch, facing the approaching Vo. The jump formation had then been reconfigured to be hollow around the aperture of the ring. Luckily, Brixtix had still managed to reorganize the Tengan and Maxcelian ships to leave the Sharp Reef and Lord Norxix’s Revenge on the outside of the formation.

As the Vo approached, Abiga was glued to her map monitor which was being fed information from the Last Expedition’s sensors. The battle began when the Vo launched a barrage of colliding red dwarves from their own versions of nova cannons. The Last Expedition’s Nova Cannons responded by firing a single red dwarf per pair of ships. At first, Abiga was confused as to why the red dwarves hadn’t been fired in colliding pairs this time, but when the Vo and Human-Canine red dwarves collided the confusion evaporated. Admiral Desamaro was using a two-fold strategy. He was conserving ammunition by using a single red dwarf to detonate a Vo pair while simultaneously creating a smokescreen of stellar explosions and debris. Even the Human-Canine sensors couldn’t pierce through a nova explosion to see what’s on the other side which meant the Vo’s sensors probably couldn’t either.

Immediately, the problem of this strategy became apparent to Abiga as the Vo’s next volley of red dwarves burst through the stellar smoke screen. The Last Expedition had to wait until the next round of shots came through before they could launch their counter red dwarves. As the next bout of red dwarves collided, forming a closer smoke screen Abiga opened a channel to Brixtix who was ready for her call.

“I’ve already calculated it,” he said. “The creeping barrage will reach us after the Ring Drive fires. This might work.”

Abiga wasn’t so sure. She knew the Vo’s Galaxy-class fleets had ships that could withstand a glancing blow from a nova explosion, she’d seen it herself. That meant that a Cluster-class fleet must have them as well.

As though summoned by the thought, a fleet of Vo ships erupted from the stellar smoke screen. The assault crafts were smaller and more numerous than she’s expected. They weren’t fleet crushing stellar cannons but instead the same type of ships she’d been fighting for years. It didn’t make sense. The Vo always relied on brute strength. Then it hit her.

“What going on?” Brixtix said noticing her sudden color change. Apparently, he’d been so preoccupied with his calculations he hadn’t notice the Vo breakthrough.

“Get ready to break formation,” Abiga replied. “The Vo have sent out skirmishers to try and disable the Last Expedition’s Nova Cannons. If their point defense systems can’t keep up, we’ll jump in.”

The Vo’s quick approach hadn’t caught the Humans and Canines off guard. The first squadron of now empty Nova Cannons retreated into jump formation while the remaining cannons sprang to life with anti-spacecraft fire. Vo ships whizzed between the larger stellar cannons firing in all directions. Sections of Nova Cannon hulls were sheered away and vaporized into dust. Still, the point defense seemed to have the upper hand, laying waste to Vo skirmisher after Vo skirmisher.

The battle dragged on as the red dwarves were fired and the creeping barraged approached. Brixtix’s estimates were nearly spot on, the Ring Drive would be ready to jump just before the Vo’s red dwarves struck the fleet. Yet, Abiga was still worried.

According to Cluster Admiral Desamaro, each Nova Cannon could hold a maximum of three stars and with the pending jump, they couldn’t run into the galaxy to reload. Only firing a single star to collide with a Vo pair of stars had bought them time but it was going to be close. Abiga noticed another problem as well. Every Nova cannon that retreated into the jump formation meant there was less point defense systems shooting down the Vo skirmishers. Additionally, it had become clear that whatever powered those behemoths couldn’t maintain point defense and fire a star at the same time.

Abiga waited for Desamaro to make a move until she couldn’t stand it anymore. He must be planning to sacrifice the last Nova Cannons so the rest could get away. She looked at the map and made a plan with Brixtix. The Vo weren’t going to have any sort of victory if they had something to say about it.

The skirmishers were continuing to focus their firepower on Nova Cannons whose point defense systems were inactive. They were even diverting energy from their forward shields to weapons since they didn’t have to worry about frontal fire until Abiga and Brixtix arrived.

They jumped the Sharp Reef and Lord Norxix’s Revenge in between the Vo skirmishers and the defenseless Nova Cannons then opened up. Full weapon barrages were rare but a beautiful sight to behold, especially when the enemy had their shields down. Laser lights and plasma fired in quick succession punching holes through the Vo ships. Their losses were devastating.

A complete collapse of the Vo skirmisher forces followed. Abiga and Brixtix would jump from Nova Cannon to Nova Cannon catching the Vo off guard each time. Abiga kept waiting for the other shell to drop and the inevitable Vo ambush that never came. In barely an hour, she had personally destroyed more Vo ships than in any battle that had occurred in her galaxy.

The last Nova Cannons fired their intercepting stellar shots then jumped back into formation. Abiga and Brixtix followed suit. Like a well-oiled machine, within a minute of all the ships from the Last Expedition in place, Double Dutch fired its ring drive, launching them across the galactic group.