Yvian bolted upright, alarms ringing in her ears. Her quarters were flooded with flashing red lights. Yvian didn't waste time getting on the comms to ask what was happening. She grabbed her helmet off the nightstand, thankful she'd chosen not to strip out of her voidarmor before hitting her bunk. Then she sprinted for the bridge.

She was maybe three steps out the door to her quarters when a large crimson form blurred past. Scarrend in his armor. The Vrrl reached the end of the corridor and shimmied up a ladder before Yvian made it five more steps. She kept running.

She hit the bridge in less than thirty seconds. Scarrend and Kilroy were already at their stations. The Random Encounter vibrated, thrumming as purple light flashed through the viewports. Purple plasma lanced into the void as the ship fired all sixteen of its cannons.

"What's happening?" Yvian asked, scrambling for her station.

"The Klaath have returned," Kilroy told her. His hands were on a set of manual controls. "This unit is engaging in combat maneuvers."

Space rippled in the viewport. The Random Encounter swerved, narrowly avoiding a collision with the Kluster that popped into space in front of it. The ship swung around, blasting the Kluster to pieces.

"How many?" Yvian asked. Then she said "Nevermind." She could look for herself. She pulled up a sensor display. Nearly the entire sector was a mass of red dots on her display. There were over thirty million Klaath in Aldara sector. No, thirty two million. The motherless sons were still portaling in.

"Bright Lady." Klaath Incursions usually came in groups of fifty to a hundred twenty thousand ships. Yvian had only seen this many of them appear twice. "It's not an Incursion. It's an evacuation. It's Krog Prime all over again."

"Krog Prime?" Scarrend growled. "You think they're running from the Vore."

"We'd better hope not," Yvian told him. "We don't have Skygem anymore. If the Vore show up we've got no way to stop them."

"If the Vore appear we will destroy the Jumpgates and abandon this sector," said Kilroy. "This unit does not believe the Vore are a factor in this Incursion."

"Why not?" Yvian didn't wait for an answer. She realized she had a more important question. "Why haven't we decompressed the ship yet? And where are Mims and Lissa?"

"They are still in their quarters," Kilroy reported. "This unit will wait until they have finished donning their voidarmor before it decompresses the ship."

"What are they doing out of their..." Yvian scratched that thought. "Never mind. I don't want to know."

"Affirmative," the Peacekeeper agreed. "This unit would have preferred not to know, as well."

It took Lissa and the Captain another minute to reach the bridge. "What do we have?"

"The Klaath have returned," Kilroy told him. "This unit is engaged in combat maneuvers." The machine typed rapidly into his console. "Internal comms synced. This unit is decompressing the ship." There was a hiss as all the air was sucked out of the bridge.

"Tendril Sector is under attack as well," Scarrend reported. "The Warmaster is calling for reinforcements."

"Reinforcements?" Yvian was dubious. "I'm not sure how many we can send. We've got a lot of Klaath to deal with, ourselves."

"He's not calling for help from us," the Vrrl explained. "He's calling for more ships of the Vrrl Starfang Empire."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about Tendril Sector," said Mims. "The Warmaster said he'd take care of it, and he will." He pulled up flight controls at his console. "Kilroy, can you pass me control?"

"This unit is currently coordinating with one thousand Peacekeeper Stinger units and nine Gladiator class fighters," the machine objected. "Passing control to a meatbag will lessen our coordination and efficiency."

Mims twitched, but all he said was, "Fine. I need to big picture this thing anyway." He put the flight controls away and switched his display to an overview of the sector. "Does Zhukov have reinforcements ready?"

"Negative," said Kilroy. "There is an Incursion at New Pixa Sector, as well. All available units are currently engaged in combat."

"New Pixa?" The Captain's body tensed. "The fuck?"

"How many?" asked Lissa.

"Eighty million and rising," the Peacekeeper reported.

"Why the hell are they at New Pixa?" Mims wondered. "Did the Federation sneak a ship in?"

"Negative," said Kilroy. "No unusual ships or energy readings have been detected."

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"Then what the Crunch are the Klaath doing there?" Lissa demanded.

"Unknown," said the Peacekeeper. "But this unit has a theory."

"The Queens," Yvian guessed. "They're after the Queenships we took."

"This unit believes that is the most likely scenario." Kilroy's eyes had been red since Yvian entered the bridge. They turned purple as he continued, "This unit does not know how the Klaath knew we had Queenships at New Pixa Sector, but the Incursion there is much larger than the Incursions here and at Tendril Sector. This unit cannot calculate if our forces will be sufficient to defend New Pixa Sector. This unit has calculated that our forces are insufficient to defend Aldara Sector."

"We are?" Yvian frowned. "We've got eight Queens and a quarter million Stingers. That's more than we had when they hit New Pixa last time."

"No, we had more Stingers and several million Federation ships to play with," said Mims. "Plus Skygem." He hmmed. "On the other hand, the Queens have a ton of firepower. Our Stingers are faster than everything except the Raiders, and our beam weapons give us a huge advantage in range. As long as our Queens keep the Gates in one piece, we should be able to hold out for a while."

"Negative," said Kilroy. "Once the Klaath Queens enter the sector, enemy numbers are sufficient to overwhelm the Stinger units with Klaath Raiders alone."

"We'll make it work," the human said firmly. He pointed at his sensor screen. "The Klaath are just starting to bring in their Corvettes. It'll be another few hours before they start making Queen portals, and we'll have hours after that before the bastards get enough themselves into the sector to take control of the Raiders."

"Scargiver," Scarrend spoke up. "I know this planet is important to you, but the Klaath are also in New Pixa right now. Shouldn't we be going there?"

"We don't dare," said Mims. "I don't know how the Klaath knew there are Queenships in New Pixa, but they did. If we go back to New Pixa..."

"They'll follow us," said Lissa. "Crunch."

"If we're lucky they'll just stay here and take the planet," the Captain continued, "but luck hasn't exactly been on our side, lately. We have to hold out as long as we can."

The next three hours were an exercise in frustration. With Kilroy manning the ship, there wasn't anything for the rest of the crew to do. Yvian spent the time flipping through sensor readings of the different sectors. Over two hundred million Vrrl warships had flooded into Tendril Sector, tearing into the Klaath with gleeful ferocity. When Yvian suggested they ask Empire for help, Scarrend had informed her that he'd already tried. Warmaster Scathach told him the Empire refused to sacrifice a single ship in the defense of a human world.

New Pixa had over a hundred million Klaath in it, now. Fortunately, the Sector's space stations were all grouped together in three areas, each protected by at least a million ships. The Homeworld had another three million, plus a hefty array of beam weapons on the planet itself. Five Queenships guarded each of its three Gates, with another forty eight scattered about in groups of three. Half a million Stinger units caromed through the system at high speed in groups of ten thousand, with several hundred gladiators mixed in. Tens of thousands of Klaath ships were being destroyed every second, but the motherless sons were portaling in their capital ships, now. The real fight had just begun.

Aldara's situation was the most dire. Eight Peacekeeper Queens kept the area around the Gates clear, backed up by ten thousand Stinger units. The remaining two hundred fifty thousand ships patrolled the area around the planet, operating in groups of a thousand. Their beam weapons made quick work out of any Klaath that approached, but they weren't making much of a dent in their numbers. There were over thirty million Klusters in the sector now, and they were starting to bring in bigger ships. It wouldn't be long before Destroyers and Frigates swooped down on them with coordinated fleets.

"Captain." Scarrend's voice broke Yvian out of her reverie. "Another ship has entered the sector."

"Tell me something I don't know," the Captain quipped.

"A Federation vessel," Scarrend continued. "Dreadnaught. At the East Gate." The Vrrl growled. "It's the Enterprise."

"The Enterprise?" Yvian snarled. The last time she'd seen that ship... Well. It hadn't been pretty.

"The Enterprise is hailing us," Kilroy reported. "Would you like this unit to have it blasted out of the sky?"

"Not yet," Mims ordered. "Let's see what they want." He typed into his console, accepting the comm request. "Enterprise, this is Captain Mims of the Random Encounter. You've got a lot of nerve coming here."

"You don't know the half of it, Mims." The voice was deep, smooth. Familiar. "This is High Commander Bartholomew Young. Any chance you can come aboard? We need to talk."

"So talk," the Captain replied. "But make if fast. I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"I noticed." As he spoke, the Enterprise thundered. A hundred cannons shredded a pair of Klusters that popped into existence in front of it. "I can't accept the terms of your original ceasefire, but I got a counterproposal."

"Yeah?" Mims sounded annoyed. "What is it?"

"Aldara's our world," The High Commander told him. "Let us fight for it."

"I see." The Captain was cold as the void. "You're little diversion got out of hand."

"It's not my diversion, Mims." Now it was General Young's turn to be annoyed. "I didn't order anyone to summon the Klaath. I didn't know that tech existed until two days ago."

Mims grunted. "Fine. Give me the details."

"Temporary ceasefire." The High Commander proposed. "You let us into Aldara and we'll fight the Klaath. We won't shoot your ships and you don't shoot ours. We'll stay away from New Pixa and the Empire until the fight's done, and for twenty four hours afterwords. I want your word you'll stay out of Wet Sector for the same amount of time."

"Stand by." Mims turned to Lissa. "What do you think?"

"I don't trust the humans," Lissa told him. "But I do trust General Young, and we need the help."

"Letting the meatbags fight the Klaath will free our forces to assist in New Pixa," Kilroy agreed, "though the Peacekeeper Queen units will still need to remain."

"The Empire won't accept help from the humans," Scarrend spoke up. "If they appear in Tendril Sector they will be attacked."

"Fair enough." Mims reactivated the comms. "The Pixen Technocracy accepts your terms. We'll keep the Queenships here to protect the Gates, but the rest of the sector's your problem, now. We'll give you enough time to get some ships to the planet before we leave." He paused. "We can't speak for the Vrrl, though. Stay out of Tendril Sector."

"Fine with me," said the General. "We'll have our hands full here, anyway." A pause. "I really think we should meet in person. There are some things I can't say over the comms."

"A trap?" Scarrend suggested.

"Not his style," said the Captain. He checked his sensor display again. "Kilroy, can your Queenships cover us while we meet with the General?"

"Affirmative."

"Alright." Mims commed the Enterprise again. "Agreed. Lower your shields. We'll be docked in five minutes."