The Zrathras stood up from his seat, turning towards Eldrak.

“Yes, Sir! We received a code two distress call from the Taurus 4A. They are a scouting ship under the Orunma Clan.”

Noticing that Haroktok didn’t continue speaking, Eldrak frowned slightly. This was by no means a complete report. Was Haroktok among those dissatisfied with his decision?

An invisible pressure spread from Eldrak.

“Continue!”

Haroktok looked at the temporary captain. He had already made his stance clear. Knowing that disrespecting hierarchy would cost him his life, he stopped antagonizing Eldrak.

“We are in sector #258834. This is the border between the Mornal Kingdom and the Ri Republic. We would reach the Taurus in about 100 hours. This is all we got.”

Eldrak quickly analyzed the information at hand.

A code two distress call meant that the Taurus wasn’t in immediate danger. They should be able to hold on for 100 hours. But the question for Eldrak was if it was worth it to save them.

Eldrak was tempted. A favor of the Orunma Clan could be quite valuable. They were the main scouts and information brokers for the Malohcras race. If he could use his favor to get some news faster than others, it was naturally a good thing.

Unfortunately, the distress call didn’t tell them more. He could only work with what he got and base his analysis on the area they were operating in.

While his thoughts were churning at top speeds, Eldrak gave another order:

“Show me a list of our agents in the two domains!”

Reacting immediately to Eldrak’s voice a list appeared on the monitor before him. The temporary captain studied it calmly, forming and discarding plans in his mind. As a future general he knew the layouts of their enemy’s domains. Their defenses, natural and man-made, were something he had studied for a long time.

Now Eldrak was filling in the enemy’s space stations with the current information of their agents. Something quickly became apparent. Their race had way more agents in the Ri Republic than in the Mornal Kingdom. This wasn’t surprising, however.

The Ri Republic claimed to be an unaffiliated domain but in reality it had long been infiltrated by the various empires. Naturally it was easier for the Malohcras to gain some influence there.

Combining all relevant information, Eldrak’s eyes soon focused on a certain station. This would be his breakthrough point. Their agents there had good positions. When working together, they could turn a good part of the station’s weapon system off.

Naturally there was a big risk of the agent’s exposure after they took action. If this happened, Eldrak had to be ready to sacrifice them. Ever since taking on this dangerous job those agents knew that such a day may come. For the glory of their race, they were fully ready to die. Eldrak could only hope that saving the Taurus was worth it.

Having made up his mind, Eldrak’s orders echoed through the bridge.

“We follow the path towards space station Ri-D-335! Inform our agents to disrupt their weapons. We will attack from the right. We need to completely destroy the station and disrupt the republic’s observation of the surrounding space. Only then can we meet up with the Taurus!”

“Sir, Yes, Sir.”

Sophia shuddered slightly. Her ears hurt from the Zrathras’ loud voices. Her face paled slightly. She knew that this ship would soon fight against humans. She wasn’t sure how their chances stood, but Eldrak looked confident.

Getting comfortable in his role as captain, Eldrak’s next announcement sounded through the entire ship.

“Everyone! Get ready for battle! Initiate state 3. Enemy contact in 60 hours!”

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Despite her apprehensions, Sophia had to admit that it was fascinating to watch the Zrathras at work. On different monitors she saw as the ship got busy. Weapon systems were inspected, smaller spaceships were readied, Warriors formed squads in the hangar.

Suddenly the ship shook slightly. Sophia watched in disgust as some armor strangely grew on the ship’s outside. It was obviously made from flesh. The inexperienced woman couldn’t believe her eyes as the flesh hardened, building a layer of defense around the spaceship.

Prepared to train his future retainer Eldrak calmly explained, ignoring the other Zrathras around them:

“This is biological armor. Its ability to regrow makes is less expensive than other materials of similar hardness. Through mixing different bloodlines, the outermost layer can take on the properties of scaled beasts while the inner layers can dampen vibrations.

Only a huge number of genius biological engineers can achieve something like that. Through their hard work our ship can even withstand attacks from level 80 enemies.”

Sophia wasn’t yet familiar with the significance of level 80 beings. But form Eldrak’s proud tone she understood that their biological armor was impressive.

Under different circumstance Sophia would have loved to ask some questions, but with other Zrathras around she didn’t dare. She could only accept the explanation and nod silently.

After Eldrak’s orders the Zrathras’ massive mothership began to take a different route. It slowly traversed the special node it was on for a few dozen hours. This was enough time for the ship to get perfectly combat ready.

The temporary captain stayed on the bridge, orderly monitoring every little detail. He knew that this upcoming fight was an unplanned test for him. His performance would definitely be brought up during the next elder council. Either by his allies or competitors.

But Eldrak wasn’t nervous. No. He was excited. He was excited to see blood. Excited to feel the thrill of battle. Excited to experience the feeling of controlling the situation.

Ever since he received his punishment, Eldrak hadn’t had any reason to fight. Especially not against strong beings.

Just as Eldrak wanted to give the order to enter the next spatial path, a new message appeared on his screen. A warning came from one of their agents. The space station they were going to attack had just received reinforcements.

A scary smile formed on Eldrak’s face. He balled his fists. A dangerous pressure emitted from the genius warrior as he scanned the bridge with narrowed eyes.

Could this really be a coincidence? The station they wanted to attack received reinforcements just like that?

Eldrak naturally didn’t think so. Either they had a traitor on their ship or one of his competitors deliberately leaked his position. Neither of the two options could be completely ruled out, but Eldrak still tended towards the latter.

This only solidified the Zrathras warrior’s stance. For some reason their once united clan was slowly rotting from the inside. During the peak of their strength, their clan was feared throughout the universe. But ever since some infighting started, they had been declining.

Eldrak even found the death of their last general to be slightly suspicious, but he didn’t dare to voice his doubts. Only by going through the Ritual of Ascendence could he gain the authority to clean up their ranks. Obviously, some clan members wanted to restrict him.

The more some parties worked against him, the more importance Eldrak placed on the position of general. His mind was set. He couldn’t avoid the upcoming fight.

Scary laughter echoed through the bridge. Everyone focused as Eldrak gave the signal to advance.

The Zrathras’ ship glided forward. Suddenly it received a massive pull. It had entered the spatial path. Lights flickered left and right. Space seemed to elongate and compress at the same time. After only a second it had passed hundreds of millions of lightyears.

As soon as the mothership emerged inside the new spatial node blaring alarms echoed throughout the ship.

“Enemy contact!”, confirmed Haroktok.

“Bastards!”, shouted Eldrak angrily.

In front of them multiple patrol ships were searching the spatial node. This was not standard behavior. A space station placed in the normal universe was usually able to observe the surrounding spatial nodes. Only if one awaited enemies capable of blocking detection would they preemptively send out patrol ships.

At least a good massage also surfaced on Eldrak’s screen. Their agents managed to turn off a third of the station’s weapon systems.

Eldrak wasn’t too surprised about this. Even if his competitors dared to leak his own location, they wouldn’t dare to leak their agents.

On one hand those agents weren’t only from the Zrathras clan, on the other hand no one would be willing to become an agent if internal struggles could leak their identities. Although they were ready to die, no one wanted to die a senseless death.

Knowing that they had already been discovered, Eldrak was prepared for a fierce fight. Multiple orders left his mouth in quick succession:

“Everyone on high alert! Scan the patrol ships for any irregularities! Ignore them if you find nothing! Black Space one, fire! Black Space two, get ready! Focus the enemies’ working weapons! Shield Destroyer, fire! Deactivate all camouflage! Power our shields!”

With Eldrak’s orders everyone steeled their minds. It was time to face the enemy. At the left side of Eldrak two Zrathras were analyzing the readings on their screens at inhuman speeds. A moment later they calibrated their weapons. And fired.

An immense black energy ray silently shot from the ship’s weapon turret. It effortlessly penetrated the space node, racing into the normal universe. It suddenly appeared next to the republic’s space station. Before the enemies could react, Black Space one heavily crashed into the enormous defensive structure.