Twenty Peacekeeper Queenships floated a mere four hundred kilometers from Yvian. Three hundred twenty four thousand cubic kilometers of death. They were in two separate formations, with six Queens forming a border in the shape of a hexagon and another four forming a cross in the center. Their shield bubbles were filled to the brim with modified Peacekeeper Stinger units.

Behind each formation were two hundred million Vrrl capital ships. The majority were Bloodwing Battlecruisers. Two kilometers in length, the Bloodwings were built to resemble a Vrrl leaping out of the shadows, with glowing eyes and four mechanized arms reaching for prey. The fanged maws of the ships hung open, ready to unleash the Ion Roarcannons the Starfang Empire was so famous for. The back half of the cruisers were large blocks, painted black. A year ago the sight of Bloodwings would have terrified Yvian. She hoped they would scare the humans the same way.

Sprinkled here and there among the Bloodwings were Pridewing Destroyers. Six kilometers of blood red hull, forming an elongated diamond that reminded Yvian of a primitive knife. If the Bloodwings scared Yvian, a Pridewing would have made her crap her pants. She wouldn't have been alone, either. A Pridewing coming out of a Gate would fill the britches of everyone in whatever poor, doomed sector the ship arrived in.

"Oh, Crunch!" The thought led to an epiphany. Yvian jerked upright, eyes wide. "I get it!" Mims, Scarrend, and Lissa all turned to look at her. "Brown pants!" The looks became concerned.

"The brown pants," Yvian explained. The looks became more concerned. The pixen's face flushed. "That thing the Captain says sometimes," Yvian tried again. "You know, about wearing brown pants? I get it now."

"Are you serious?" Lissa voiced the disapproval everyone else was showing. She pointed at the mass of ships on the holodisplay. "We're about to assault Aldara."

"We'd appreciate it," Mims backed her up, "If you could pretend to be professional."

"Sorry." Yvian held up her hands in a placating gesture. "Sorry. It's just... that's been bugging me for months." She ran a hand through her hair. "And it's kind of tense in here."

They were on the bridge of the Random Encounter. The ship was docked in the shipyard that served as New Pixa's Central Command. The station had a dedicated Command Center, but Mims hated the idea of leaving his ship during a battle. Yvian understood his reasoning, but she'd have rather done this from the station. She could have coffee on the station. Maybe even beer.

"I still think this is a bad idea," Mims admitted. "Throwing everything we've got at them with no intel."

"It cannot be helped," said Kilroy. "The humans know we are monitoring their networks. Their information security has been surprisingly effective."

"It will be glorious," said Scarrend. "Besides, starting with a less protected sector would reveal our power and give the humans time to adapt." He eyed the Captain, head tilted quizzically. "Are you sure you're alright, Scargiver? It's odd for you to be so... risk averse."

Yvian didn't say anything, but she agreed with the Vrrl. Captain Mims had been... off... since the battle at the Hub. Colder. Harder. More prone to violence. He'd never smiled much to begin with, but now he seemed downright moody. Yvian had tried to talk to him, but he'd blown her off.

It was grief, she knew. Skygem had been a friend, and she'd died right in front of him. The Captain was good at a lot of things, but handling grief wasn't one of them. His failure to save the crystal ship had left a hole in his heart. A hole that wouldn't get better. Mims would mourn, and drink, and rage. He might even cry in the safety of Lissa's arms. But he wouldn't heal. He couldn't. The man had been grieving for thirty years, and he'd keep on grieving 'til the void took him. It was who he was.

"I'm fine." Mims glowered. "I've always been risk averse."

"Risk averse?" Lissa raised both eyebrows at him. "You?"

"I take calculated risks," the Captain informed her. "Reba knows about the Queenships. She's seen every card we've got to play. There's no way she hasn't warned the Federation."

"All the more reason to hit them now," Scarrend argued, "before they have time to prepare."

"They've had three weeks," said Mims. "They're already prepared."

"You worry too much," Scarrend chided. "What could the humans possibly have built in three weeks?"

"I don't know," Mims admitted. "That's why I'm worried."

Seeing Mims worried made Yvian worried. Growing up in the Confederation, she'd been spoon fed all manner of horror stories about the humans and the things they do. Mims had tried to convince her those stories were wrong. He'd succeeded, but not the way he'd hoped. The stories weren't wrong to be afraid of humanity. The stories were wrong because they weren't afraid enough.

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The Confed warned of their intelligence and their tech. Their ruthlessness and creativity. Their madness. All true, Yvian supposed, but not the whole picture. These were things that were explainable. That could be planned for. The real terror of humanity was less known and less explicable. Humans could tell when they were being watched. They could feel the intentions of other sapients. Most frightening of all, they could know things. Things they shouldn't. Things they couldn't.

Humans didn't need logic or evidence. They could look at you and know the things that you've done. They could feel the right time to move. They could smell an ambush in the vacuum of space, and they could know, just fucking know, when shit was about to go sideways.

Mims claimed it was just a matter of instinct and experience. That any sapient could do it. He'd tried to teach her. But Yvian knew the truth. Humans were psychic. Or at the very least, they could harness their instincts in a way no one else could. If Mims said he had a bad feeling, then things were about to go very, very wrong.

"Peacekeeper unit Admiral Ender Zhukov has run the calculations," Kilroy reassured the man. "This is our best course of action." The machine clamped a hand on the Captain's shoulder. "Do not worry, Big Daddy Mims. We will be sufficient."

Mims sighed. "Let's just get this over with." He activated his comm. "Scathach, this is Mims. Are you ready?"

"Mims, Scathach," the Warmaster replied. "We are."

"Good. Stand by." Mims turned to Kilroy. "Are the Peacekeepers ready?"

"Affirmative," said Kilroy. "We would like a speech before we begin."

"No." Mims switched his comm to a general broadcast. "Alright, people, this is it. You know the plan, you know the stakes, and you know the risk. Good hunting, and may Fortune find you on the cusp of the Crunch." He glanced at Kilroy, then added. "We will be sufficient. Queenfleets 1 and 2, activate jumpdrive on my mark." He flicked his gaze around the room. Yvian didn't know what he was looking for. He took in a breath through his nose and said, "Mark."

Twenty Queenships activated their jumpdrives. Quantum entanglement fields slid over each one, then spread to thousands of Stinger ships perfectly positioned to lightly touch the Queens' hulls. The energy built for thirty seconds. Then the fields did whatever the Crunch they did to reach out and touch a Jumpgate hundreds of light years away. The blue light of the Gate Effect spread over them, and the Peacekeeper Queens disappeared.

"Jumps initiated," Kilroy reported.

"Starfang Fleets 1 and 2, prepare to initiate jumpdrives," Mims ordered. "In sequence, just like we planned. Ninety seconds."

As big as the Jumpgates are, there was no way they could accommodate two hundred million ships at once. Yvian didn't know what would happen if too many ships tried to jump to the same Gate, but she doubted it would be anything good. The Vrrl would have to enter Aldara sector in waves. The times and positioning had been carefully calculated by Peacekeeper units and then again by the Vrrl themselves.

Thirty seconds after the jump, twenty Queenships appeared in Aldara sector. Ten at the North Gate, and ten at the East. Sensor readings made their way through the Nexus, feeding into the holodisplay in the center of the bridge. Mims leaned in, squinting at the readings. He uttered a single word.

"Fuck."

"What is it?" Yvian looked over the Captain's shoulder. The holodisplay showed a map of Aldara Sector. She looked for the special weapons she'd seen the humans use at Dorado. There were two curved discs over a hundred kilometers across. Ion supercannons. Ships were pulling away from the structures, but the cannons themselves remained inert. Still under construction. The massive Starcannon orbiting Aldara's Homestar wasn't complete, either.

"How?" Scarrend wondered. "How can they still have so many ships?"

At his words, Yvian's attention snapped back to the fleets guarding the Jumpgates. Too many red dots to count, but the holodisplay helpfully placed a number above each fleet. There were three hundred million Federation ships in front of each Gate.

Mims opened his comms. "Starfang Fleets 1 and 2, stand down. Do not initiate jumps. I say again, do not jump. Scathach, you getting this?"

"I see them, Scargiver." The Warmaster was grim.

The Queenships were already firing. Thousands of beams tore into the enemy fleet. Stinger units swept the void with their plasma cones, ready to turn MAC rounds into harmless lumps of molten metal. None of it mattered. There were too many. As Yvian watched, it got worse.

More and more ships appeared. Fighters spilled out of tens of millions of carriers. Eyes wide, Yvian checked the sensors again. The fleet she was looking at, it was all heavy hitters. One hundred eighty million battlecruisers. A hundred million carriers. Twenty million destroyers. The Queens were focusing on the carriers, trying to kill them before they could launch their fighters. They were destroying nearly a thousand of them a second. It wouldn't help much.

"We've gotta get them out of there," Yvian decided.

"We can't," said Lissa. "They can't jump until they clear the Gates. That'll take half an hour."

"The Queen units will not survive that long," Kilroy reported.

"They will if we can take some of the pressure off." Mims looked up from his console. "We need to give them more targets."

"I'm not sacrificing my people," Scathach's voice warned. Yvian hadn't realized Mims left the comms open.

"We don't have to. There aren't enough pilots in the entire Stellar Defense Force to fly this many ships." Mims typed into his console again. "Let me... yeah. They're unmanned."

"Can Reba control that many at once?" Yvian's shoulders tensed even more. That many ships, SI controlled?

"Reba's not controlling them." Mims sounded sure. "Those are SDF Military vessels. High Commander Young's not part of Reba's cult." He turned to Kilroy. "Can you tell if they're operating by remote?"

"Peacekeeper units are unable to connect to the enemy fleet," Kilroy reported. "Remote control is inaccessible."

"Which means those ships are on autopilot," said the Captain. "Being run by simple AI." The human made a fist. "We can win. Scathach, we're gonna need your Hunters to make the jump after all."