I was making good time as I burned for the interior of the system, my mind focused on the singular task before me. Scan a planet, move on, repeat. Simple, easy, and hopefully it would prove most illuminating. But possibly not. And if that happened to be the case, then I’d be terribly annoyed, enough that I might just take my annoyance out on an asteroid or two… Possibly ten. We all have to relieve stress somehow right?

A chime informed me that I was nearing the innermost planet, and so I altered my course enough to enter orbit at considerable speed. I wasn’t going to take my time, I wanted this done quickly. That said, my scans would be comprehensive and detailed all the same. If they picked up anything interesting then I’d slow down and take my time investigating, if not, I’d move on. Simple as.

The innermost planet turned out to be a bust, it was nothing but molten rock and toxic gasses. I did detect the start of basic life upon it, perfectly suited for such an inhospitable world. It was basic though, something for scientists to study later and see how it developed.

I completed my circuit and used the speed and gravity to hurl myself towards the next planet, my sensors already trained on it. I hummed to myself, a digital finger tapping out a beat upon my thigh. I only realized what I was doing when I started to sing softly under my breath, which was something I didn’t normally do. Nor had I ever done it before. It wasn’t even a song I knew, or at least, I didn’t think it was one I knew. Just another problem I needed to look into later.

The second planet was in a far better state than the first, heavily forested with something like trees. It was untouched and the only signs of life were animals, no civilizations of any kind. So it was onto the third one.

At my speeds it didn’t take me long to reach it, and I instantly could tell something was wrong with the planet. I double checked the readings, then compared them to what should have been there. According to Imperial records, this was a Union colony world, 2 billion inhabitants, a mixture of Okali and their subject species. It was Earth-like in size and gravity, plus the atmosphere was mostly the same, a bit richer in oxygen but nothing drastic.

My scans said otherwise. It was still rich with oxygen, but the planet had been shrouded in darkness, and I could barely get an idea of the population with my sensors. As I entered orbit, I pumped power into the sensors in an effort to cut through what seemed to be interference, but that didn’t work as well as I had hoped. Which meant I had to get closer.

Something in the back of my mind said this was all terribly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place how it was. I shook my head and opened a channel to the Cantera.

“This is Intra, I’ve found something strange about your colony world, I can’t cut through the interference to get any sort of detailed scan so I’m gonna drop into the atmosphere for a closer look the old fashioned way. I might drop out of contact and off sensors, but when I get back I’ll give a detailed report.” I say, and there’s a moment of silence, before Captain Edrym responded.

“Understood, we’ve completed our survey of the farthest planet and are beginning our push coreward. Safe flying.”

I smile softly. “You as well, Captain. Intra out.” Cutting the line I begin to nose down towards the planet, cutting my speed and engaging reverse thrust. Just enough to slow me down so I can actually begin reentry without skipping myself off the atmosphere. I’ve only done this a few times, it’s still nerve wracking, especially since I can feel the heat starting to spread along the underbelly armor.

But I manage it, and soon my nose is cutting through thick layers of something that’s been seeded in the atmosphere. I frown, and run close range scans of the substance, noting that it seemed to be alive. And then I’m through it, and I can get a better and closer look at just what’s happened on the surface.

Immediately, I’m surrounded by life-signs, and I hear all sorts of alarms going off in my head and the ship as recognition sets in. Yil’kaa.

“Sonuva bitch!” I curse, kicking on the main engines and starting to point my nose skyward again. Already I’m detecting small craft rising from the surface to meet me, and no signs of any colonists. This world has been fully converted into a hive world by the invading Yil’kaa, the previous inhabitants by now used as biological material to grow more of their wretched species and their ships. It’s a fate I don’t wish on anyone.

“Weapons free.” I murmur to nobody in particular besides myself, and the Yil’kaa get a taste of some good old fashioned wrath from the heavens. Heavy lasers carve great gouges into the surface, searing away the fleshy hive material that’s been spread around. Kinetic cannons thunder away on rapid fire, a mixture of high explosive antimatter shells and neutron armaments. Rotary cannons spin up and then spit thousands of smaller rounds at the incoming fighters, any that miss are sure to hit something on the surface, chewing up Yil’kaa ground forces like a blender.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Sensors tell me that the living shroud between me and space is thickening, attempting to trap me down here where I am most vulnerable, but I’m having none of that. Forward weapons shift focus from striking ground targets indiscriminately, to actually facing forwards and begin to fire at will. The shroud isn’t much of a match for something like lasers and heavy cannons, and I tear a ragged hole in the mat of living creatures, who desperately attempt to close the gap, but my weapons prevent this as I go rocketing through the breach I had made and enter orbit. I don’t even bother with leveling out, I just keep burning hard for the Cantera, opening an emergency line.

“Cantera! This is Intra, initiate an emergency FTL jump out of the system, it’s lost and enemy reinforcements are no doubt inbound already.” I say almost frantically. Sensors reveal that several small craft have broken atmo behind me, in an attempt to keep me from fleeing.

“Intra? What’s going on? Why should we…”

“There isn’t time to explain! Either we stay and die pointlessly, or we run away and live to save the rest of your people!”

I hear nothing but silence, my weapons turning to face the incoming ships behind me. I start to saturate the empty space between myself and them with fire, mainly just to slow them down. I could handle them in a straight fight certainly, they were only corvettes, but they would keep me occupied long enough for the larger ships to show up and cause me some serious problems.

“Understood Warden of Eternity. Transmitting rendezvous coordinates, we will meet you there.” I receive the coordinates, and watch as the Cantera vanishes off short range sensors. I align myself, and charge FTL, jumping immediately when I can.

Weapons realign themselves and go dormant, and I sit back with a sigh, shaking my head. It just had to be the Yil’kaa, they couldn’t just keep to themselves and stop causing problems for everyone else. Especially me.

I don’t really know how long I was like that, just trying to relax, but before too long I received a distress call from the Cantera while still heading for the meeting point. We hadn't even made it halfway there yet.

“This is the Battleship Cantera of the Okali Union. We have been pulled out of FTL and are under attack by a massive enemy force. Requesting any Okali warships in the area to respond immediately. Intra, if you hear this, press on without us, you seem to know this species and how it works, help those that you can. We’ll keep them busy.”

It was being broadcast in the open, on all frequencies. And I knew he had told me to just keep going without him, but I couldn’t do that. It just wasn’t part of my programming to leave someone in need of help behind. I knew I should, that the knowledge I carried was important, but as they say.

Old habits die hard.

I used my long range sensors to get an idea of the situation around the Cantera. From the looks of it she was surrounded on all sides and putting up a good fight. She was a battleship after all, one would think she’d be dishing out as much hurt as she was receiving. A quick check of the enemy fleet revealed to me that they had only one interdictor, and it was keeping itself out of the fight. A smart move, but also a stupid one, because I wasn’t in range of the FTL inhibitor… yet.

I cut my own FTL, realigned, and began a series of small jumps that’d get me into the perfect position. And once I was, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and engaged FTL one more time.

“Today is a good day for you to die.” I whisper, turning my sublight engines up to full power, which had minimal effect on the speed I was going right this moment, but I had a plan in mind. One that was probably going to hurt a lot.

Just as I reached the FTL inhibition zone, I cut the drive, popped back out into realspace and slammed my armored prow right into the Interdictor like I had been shot from a railgun. It didn’t even have a chance to engage its engines, or send out a warning to any of the other ships nearby. I cut my way through it with sheer speed and brute strength, and I filled the radio frequencies with a blaring, booming and deep blast from a warhorn.

With the Interdictor’s blood spilling over the pristine white armor I was now adorned in, I turned to face the enemy, and my sensors detected a brief hesitation from them. My arrival was unexpected, as was the brutality of said arrival. I grinned almost savagely, feeling my heart and reactor thump away quickly, indicating the rising excitement in me. Long range sensors detected incoming Union ships, which was a good thing, but they’d take time to get here. Time neither of us really had. But there was no chance we’d be getting out of this so it was time to fight.

“Come on you bastards, show me what you got.” I snarl across the comms, and immediately the enemy takes the bait, the taunt no doubt enraging them almost as much as my destruction of the Interdictor did. I know this is probably a bad idea, but I’ve had enough of running. And so I shall run no longer. My hangars open, heavy fighters start to stream out and my weapons charge back up. I blare my warhorn a few times in quick succession, then open fire. I watch the first salvo chew through shields and armor, shattering ships with ease.

The battle is on, and I have gone to war, where I belong. Hulls will shatter under my cannons, armor will melt and peel away as my lasers carve them apart, and I will break any ship that dares draw too close over my bow. I have no organic crew to preserve, no need to hold back. This day, the Yil’kaa will learn to fear me, they will remember the foe that stands against them. I feel my shields take the opening salvo from the enemy, and I laugh in their faces.

I am humanity's synthetic goddess of war, and I do not look kindly upon the enemies of my creators.