Memory transcription subject: Captain Sovlin, United Nations Fleet Command
Date [standardized human time]: March 24, 2137
Now that humanity and its allies were here at Aafa, I could feel the weighty gaze of history upon us. The chance to free our societies from the Federation’s grip was both terrifying and inspiring; the Kolshians had stripped us of our own cultures, and thrust us into a censored life of suffering. A government that valued control above all else must not be allowed to exist. Just as I had once considered humans a menace incapable of feeling, out to conquer and pillage, I saw the same creatures that deserved anguish fighting in this system. The Dominion and the Commonwealth, paw in paw: both responsible for my tormented lot in life. If it weren’t for Recel, I might stand with Onso in wanting Aafa glassed.
The personalized anger always shaped my strategizing for the better, though the Yotul had been piping up before I could assemble my tactics. I guess that primitive wanted both jobs at the sensor station. However, I had no intention of taking a backseat during the attempt to vanquish the Kolshians; my eyes stayed alert for anything useful that could kickstart new ideas. While monitoring the sensor feed for data relevant to our tactical options, fifty thousand friendlies at the edge of our detection range caught my attention. In the span since we first arrived in system, our fleet had now gained eighty thousand new participants—nearly doubling our original count.
Of course, I’d like to have Ilthiss’ head on a pike, but thankfully, that warmongering Arxur seemed capable of killing off the beasts under his control by himself. One-third of his force dying back at the gas giant saved human lives, so I could tolerate grays getting blown to dust in our stead. That said, I hoped the computer wouldn’t identify these new arrivals as more Dominion monsters, answering to some other Chief Hunter with a vicious ideology. The confusing bit was that they were denoted as friendlies; if these were Federation or Arxur vessels, their signatures would have been matched to the ones in system. Had someone from the Sapient Coalition decided to send more ships?
I snapped my head up, catching onto a remark from Onso about needing more ships. “Then you’re going to like this. Already marked a tentative green: computer must think they’re not Kolshian or Dominion. We should ask these guys to head toward the bulk of the action, rather than drifting way out yonder.”
The Yotul had been pensive since the battle began, likely worried about our odds of taking down this army—a joint force from the two greatest powers in the galaxy, which shattered the records for any battle force. Onso had understood that our outlook was grim, going in; I think the primitive saw this as a suicide mission. Reality hadn’t looked upon us with kindness, at first. The Terran shipyards at Proxima Centauri, built up adjacent to a colony with temporary housing, and the cumulative manufacturing power of Earth held significant output for a single species. The predators seemed as if they could do anything, when faced with a challenge to their kind, yet it paled in comparison to the system-filling numbers we were up against today.
I knew what hopelessness looked like from gauging the morale of my Gojid crew, back when we squared off against the Arxur. The charge we led against the cradle’s raiders had a few realists, like Onso. It was only when Ilthiss showed up that I saw the first glimmer of hope within the Yotul, and with fifty thousand new additions to our roster, optimism was gleaming in my crewmate’s eyes. I could see that the marsupial was trying to temper his rising spirits; it was important to verify that these were friendlies. If these latest additions were truly on our side, we might be able to fill the system with our own fleet.
There is the issue of the two hundred thousand enemies that are shadow fleet, but it sounds like the Yotul and Terrans have their number. Something about beams of particles.
“Before we hail these fellas, we should know who they are,” Tyler decided. “For all we know, it could be some trick by the Kolshians to dress their fleet up as Venlil ships.”
Samantha rolled her eyes. “That would never work. The Venlil gave us most of their military. Fifty thousand ships don’t grow on trees.”
“Are you sure about that, Sam?” Carlos teased.
The blond-haired officer blinked in irritation. “Enough. You get my point; we can’t afford to be wrong here. Who are we dealing with?”
“Just one more second, sir.” Onso furiously applied some filters to the subspace trail data, before his optimism seemed to fizzle. “Oh. That’s…it’s the Duerten Shield.”
I shot a withering look at the Yotul. “Why are you saying that like it’s a bad thing?”
“Because, like all Federation militaries except for the one we’re squaring off against, they’ve shown they’re completely incompetent.”
“I was in the Federation military.”
“My point stands, old man.”
“Insolent prick. Do you know who was the only captain to spot the Terran ambush on Gojid border outposts, despite their stealth deception?”
Samantha curled her nose at me. “Why are you saying that like it’s a good thing? Besides, maybe my memory’s a little hazy, but didn’t you do nothing to intervene? Something about expecting us to be unable to resist slaughtering the civilians on your colonies, so you camped by an inhabited world instead of your base.”
“I might’ve been a little offsides…my point is, I saw through your tricks, so I was somewhat competent. Not all Federation captains are the same.”
“Uh-huh.”
Tyler was visibly trying not to laugh. “This really shouldn’t be amusing, should it? Guess compared to the shit that came after, it’s the good old days. Now sit back; we’re going fast as we can to help out those SC ships. Unfortunately, Onso has a point about Federation captains not…holding up under pressure. They need us.”
“Damn right they do,” the Yotul declared. “Well, now that they’re here, don’t we have to contact the Duerten Shield? Make sure they don’t wander off unsupervised?”
“Er, I’m sure we wouldn’t put it that way, but yes. It’s a good number of ships, and maybe this time will be different. Believe it or not, I heard they held up surprisingly well defending Kalqua.”
“Cornered animals, sir. Sovlin probably needs that concept explained, since prey could never hurt anyone just because they’re out of options.”
I scoffed. “I don’t take explanations from medievalists and microwave chefs. Go make your fucking call.”
Officer Cardona ran a final confirmation with Onso of the data, before passing along the news of Duerten Shield reinforcements to Captain Monahan. The UN commander gauged the distance between us and the floundering Sapient Coalition; the manned Kolshian vessels were making quicker work of our direct allies than the Shield’s last stand. Pairing the two groups together could grant them more backbone…and adding the Kalqua natives to the mix took our tally above 180,000. The real question was whether the avians were finally friendly toward the humans, or whether they’d cause fractious disruptions. The tone of this conversation would indicate their disposition toward us.
Without humanity’s kindness, the Duerten species would be in the same positions as the Gojids post-cradle, if not worse. I don’t see how they could find it in their hearts to still harbor hatred for us.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
A Duerten commander blinked onto the screen. “We were hoping a Yotul captain would speak to us about our integration, but I suppose a predator will suffice. We’re here to make Aafa pay for what they did to us.”
“Good,” Monahan growled with a neutral expression. “If I may, weren’t the Homogeneity’s numbers devastated at Kalqua? I thought you only had—”
“A little less than ten thousand ships total. I do know my own fleet strength. Look, we lost more people than you did on Earth. I’m so angry I can’t think straight. If the Kolshians attacked us again, we’d be fucked anyways, so we might as well point our guns at them, here and now.”
“Understood. The other forty thousand are Shield allies?”
“The Leshee felt guilty for not sending any ships to Kalqua, some grudge about being iced out of the Federation military. The Jaur saved most of their fleet for today, because, surprise, they wanted to help out with this anyway. The—wait, why am I telling a predator this? I’m sure the motives of forty-four species, and which ones turned up, don’t matter to you. What registers is violence, and there’s forty-thousand Shield ships that want to dish that out.”
“You know, we’re happy you’re here. We’ll forward the coordinates of our herbivore allies’ advance, and you can team up with them. They’ll fill you in on any details you need. Oh, and Commander?”
The avian stiffened. “Yes?”
“Humanity is not your enemy.”
“We’re…starting to see that. Thank you for saving us.”
The Duerten struggled to say those last words, and hurriedly disconnected from the call. Samantha chuckled with disbelief; it seemed the avians hadn’t put the entirety of their predator distaste aside. However, I trusted the Shield to fight by our side, as long as it meant dishing out retribution to Aafa. The look in the Homogeneity commander’s eyes when she spoke about her anger struck a chord. It wasn’t dissimilar to how I’d felt after losing my family, stewing in hatred and a desire to make the responsible parties suffer. In her case, that grief was fresh. Trusting the Duerten not to do something rash would be foolhardy under the circumstances.
“We need to keep an eye on them. They’re not thinking straight,” I said.
Carlos nodded in agreement. “I know. Every human on this ship knows how they feel. Many of us came out of Earth’s attack willing to do anything to the Federation.”
“However much they’re not of sound mind now—” Tyler began.
Samantha sighed. “Or ever.”
“—we need their numbers. Their desperation could make them fight better. You heard it from their mouth; they know if this battle isn’t won, they can’t defend Kalqua anyway. Their fleet is in tatters.”
Onso flicked his ears. “The Archives told us how loud and individualistic they are, and it shows. They do crazy, illogical things during bursts of emotion. Assassinating Nikonus because they were angry over their uplifting? Leaving Kalqua with zero ships to their name now?”
“Let’s not tell them that,” I responded. “It won’t matter as long as we win this fight. Unlike the Kolshians, the United Nations isn’t a habitual practitioner of genocide.”
“Yet the Federation said we’d conquer and enslave them all.” Carlos shook his head, as if disappointed by our continued reality. “They accused ‘predators’ of what they themselves do. I wonder if they hate us because our darkest moments are a mirror of their finest.”
Samantha patted his shoulder. “Oh, you sweet little thing. They hate us because of our eyes and our food, and don’t need another reason. They wanted us to be conquerors; it just turns out the system we’re conquering is theirs. Now, let’s go bail out those bumbling SC idiots.”
“This should be an ‘easy’ stop, but let’s not get complacent. Man your stations, everyone,” Tyler ordered.
Yotul Technocracy ships and Terran drones were also moving their vectors toward us, after tallying a resounding victory against the shadow fleet. The Sapient Coalition bunch were the last group still engaged, for our initial skirmishes by the outer planets. A light formation of manned hostiles were giving our herbivore friends a world of trouble; tactics on both sides had broken down into a disorganized shooting match that was tilting toward the Kolshians. The SC’s numbers had been nearly halved by an enemy band much smaller than them. It wasn’t worth waiting for the Duerten Shield, or our autonomous allies, to join our rescue.
Human crew members can handle a straightforward task, and do a clinical job cleaning up this area. The quicker we deal with this, the sooner we can push toward the inner planets.
Onso pulled up an enemy target on-screen, as we coasted within range, while I monitored whether any foes turned toward us. The Commonwealth vessels seemed a bit dispirited, like they believed that their government was sacrificing them to the cause. With those extenuating factors in mind, it wasn’t a surprise that they were slow to react. If Recel were still alive today, would he have been called home and roped into “serving his nation?” I almost felt guilty as we nabbed our first mark, nailing them with a plasma beam that was all too easy to land.
The Sapient Coalition regained a bit of their senses, with humanity coming to their aid. Our herbivore allies regrouped enough to coordinate fire on specific Kolshian vessels; I passed along which ships were being targeted by our allies, so we could pool our resources on the ones they neglected. The manned enemies turned their last missiles toward human-crewed ships out of spite, bitter at the predators who sealed their suicide mission. The barrage could be batted aside by most of us, except for smaller vessels that had too many inbound explosives centered on them. With the rapidly-dwindling number of Commonwealth survivors now out of projectiles, it simplified cleanup even further.
A small handful of Kolshian ships attempted to flee, and were pursued by the fastest Terran craft. We couldn’t allow them to fall back, bolstering the largest contingents near Aafa. I knew the point of the staggered resistance was to soften us up for when we reached the inner sanctum; excessive planetary defenses and the best Commonwealth-Dominion vessels would be waiting. Having less threats to contend with improved our odds, given the daunting scale of the task ahead. Taking the Federation founder’s world wouldn’t even be the end of our mission.
“Finish off anything with a Kolshian warp drive!” Monahan barked. “We have new orders from command. While it’s ideal to split our forces, UN manned ships are being paired with the Shield and the Coalition. We can’t afford to leave them to their own devices, so we stick to them like glue! Navigations, sensors, find us the best point of attack by the inner planets. Weapons, bring me an update on our ammunition stores. Comms, patch us into allied channels and keep us synchronized.”
A chorus of assent came from the stations the captain called upon, while the last Kolshian resistance in this region was mopped up. It was troublesome that our Sapient Coalition allies had bungled such an easy assignment; I hoped the furious, revenge-seeking Duerten Shield would have a higher level of competency. If none of our partners could handle their own, our warship would be strapped to an anchor. Human leadership needed to have the good sense to cut them loose, if it came down to it, and make the requisite sacrifices to win this battle.
I peered at the sensors screen. “I see we’ve plotted an intercept course, to rendezvous with the Duerten Shield. After that, I say we go toward that oblong rocky planet…Caato, if I remember its name. An unimportant research colony with a few hab modules; unless you want to bomb it, I wouldn’t concern yourself with settlements aside from Aafa.”
“Sovlin is right,” Onso agreed. “It’s a prime target. There’s a mix of Commonwealth manned vessels and Dominion ships. I imagine neither side likes that, so they might not be fighting…or coordinating at their best.”
“Precisely.”
Tyler ducked his head. “I’ll forward our suggested destination to navs, along with the location of known enemies. Anything else we should know?”
“Well, just some tactical advice, sir. From what we can see on here, the enemy resistance only gets thicker as we go forward. I recommend keeping the SC and the Shield in supporting roles.”
“No, that won’t do. The Duerten won’t be happy taking a backseat here,” Onso challenged. “They want revenge for what was done to them. We already established that they’re highly emotional, and not thinking straight.”
“Then what are you suggesting? We let them take the lead, despite their questionable competency?”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting, Sovlin. Let the Duerten pick their role, and see how they fare. Caato is the test of whether it’s best to let them go off on their own.”
Tyler pursed his lips. “I don’t see a better option to keep them in line, and getting in their way could make them turn their guns on us. This might convince them we’re on the same side. I’ll fill the captain in; she can have someone that’s an herbivore ask their decision on how we want to play this.”
“Let’s hope this goes better than we all expect,” Samantha grumbled.
As the sensors officer marched off for a conference with Monahan, I found myself questioning the Yotul’s suggestion. I hated to admit that Onso’s advice was normally sound, but in this case, his idea could be detrimental to the fleet’s success pushing deeper. It would be enough of a challenge to protect weaker allies without putting them in charge of our next move. The humans were attempting to manage a tricky situation, with the numerous parties for and against them in the battle, yet this seemed like a ludicrous gamble. I hoped that the Duerten Shield’s combat actions today would be as bold as their words.
We needed not just to win this next stage of the clash, but also to swing momentum to our side heading to Aafa.
None of this factored in Ilthiss’ ships, which had moved off on their own vector, rather than aiding our Sapient Coalition friends. That bloodthirsty Chief Hunter must not have wanted the appearance of teaming up with prey. There was no question that the Duerten would not appreciate our Arxur aid. I didn’t envy the Terran brass, trying to juggle these different interests. If anyone could keep this tinderbox from erupting into flames, it was humanity; the predators had been agents of peace since day one on the galactic scene.