I beat the drums of war with my cannons, the pounding rhythm enough to strike fear into most that heard it. Humanity had been born in conflict and death, and then they had gone and made me and my kind, who refined the art of destruction into something elegant.

That was then, and this was now. There was nothing elegant about what I was doing, I was showing the enemy the depths of my rage, the losses I had suffered so long ago fueling the hate filled shots I hurled at them with unerring precision. My fighters swarmed smaller ships and tore them apart, stinging them again and again like massive wasps.

I bore the brunt of the incoming fire of course, but my shields had been altered long ago to handle Yil’kaa bio-weaponry. Sure they could get through them, but it’d take a lot to do so, then they’d have to get through my new armor. I didn’t know how well said armor would stack up to their weapons, for the Imperium had not gone to war against the Yil’kaa just yet. But I hoped that it’d hold long enough for me to do what needed doing.

Sensors indicated that the Cantera was doing far better now that the enemy’s attention was split between us, able to more accurately focus her fire upon individual ships that posed the biggest threats. For such a graceful looking species, they knew how to make a gun, their cannons were punching gaping holes and tears into the Yil’kaa ships. I suspected that if they two ever got into a proper fight, the Union would stand a good chance at kicking the snot out of the Yil’kaa.

They just had to get into a proper fight first, one that wasn’t massively in the Yil’kaa’s favor. Perhaps I could help with that.

I noted a salvo of torpedoes and shunted myself out of the way, PDCs tearing them apart before I launched my own. They were significantly faster than the Yil’kaa’s, and were a mixture as well. Most of them were plain high yield high explosive munitions, but the others were loaded with swarms of small drones that’d spread through the ships like a virus, devouring it from within before self-destructing. Why build specialized drone units when you can just build drones that eat everything and then kill themselves?

I watched as one ship was crippled by the torpedoes, before it exploded in a bright flash of gore and flesh. I shifted the targets of that ship's boarding torpedoes and sent them after another. Again I shunted myself out of the way with a burst from my thrusters, and tore apart another salvo that’d nearly hit me. My shields were holding for the moment, the enemy was in disarray and unable to properly coordinate. On one side was their latest fixation, the Cantera, just another victim of their self-righteous crusade against technology and anyone that wasn’t them, and then there was me. A foe that had survived them several times by now and was a constant thorn in their side. It was a hard choice, and the Yil’kaa were never known for critical thinking, just a binary world view. They were good, we were bad, and that meant we needed to be destroyed.

Finally I breached their lines, launching a dual broadside on the nearest ships and moved into a combat formation alongside the Cantera, where I received a communication from the Captain.

“I thought I told you to just leave us?!” He said, looking a little worse for wear, but otherwise healthy.

“Oh you did. I just didn’t listen.” I say with a smile, my starfighters strafing a cruiser and causing it to list dangerously towards another. “I don’t make it a habit to leave behind allies.” He seemed to understand, even appreciate the sentiment.

“Well then… We may not have had a chance to get to know each other, but should we fall here today, know that I am honored to have fought beside you as an equal.”

“The same to you, Captain. But I fully intend on living, and making sure you do as well.”

He chuckles and cuts the line, and we settle back into the fight. I am only a few kilometers shorter than the Cantera, but that hardly matters, we’re putting out nearly the same amount of firepower, and with us being just close enough we are sparing our facing shields from getting hit. Which allowed me to divert some power from my port shields into the others, with him doing the same to his starboard shields. We were counting on the other to keep those flanks safe.

I watched a cruiser suddenly split apart, and I took a closer look at it, noting that it was ‘dissolving’ quickly, my boarding swarms doing its job perfectly. Cannons tore apart more and more ships, the fighters were pulled back to keep enemy fighters and bombers off us both. And we waited, we waited either for our end, or our salvation.

The galaxy seemed to look upon us favorably, as I got an alert of incoming FTL traffic, and behind the Yil’kaa a small Union battlegroup appeared.

“This is the Fleet of Luminous Wrath, we are here to assist.” A stately voice spoke over the comms, and the fleet spread out, burning in hard and fast. Again the Yil’kaa were distracted, and began to falter. Union starfighters, which looked like very big, flying laser wielding stingrays, swarmed through the enemy lines and mingled with my own. Thankfully they seemed to note that I was helping the Cantera and was thusly an ally. The Union carriers continued to disgorge swarms of starfighters, while their battleships spread out and presented their flanks to the Yil’kaa, launching large, blanketing broadsides. Destroyers and other ships moved around to flank, darting in and out of attack runs and carving through the Yil’kaa fleet.

The enemy had been running rampant through the Union’s systems for too long without major opposition, and now they were learning that their victims were not as weak as they had first thought. Several ships attempted to disengage, only to get swarmed by corvettes and frigates, who would swoop in, blast away and then disperse, seeking another fleeing target.

The Cantera began to pull away, attempting to reach friendly lines and I did the same, restoring power to my port shields. I would cover them as they shifted position. But this change in behavior from us resulted in the Yil’kaa deciding they wanted to hurt us, and only us. All attempts at fending off the reinforcements was halted, and their weapons became fully trained upon us instead.

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Things were growing hectic, and worse my point defense systems were starting to get overwhelmed. That and the Cantera was taking some significant damage as well, so much so that they were starting to lag and their engines began to sputter. Fore shields shimmered and went down, and I felt impacts along my armor, which held up considerably well against Yil’kaa weaponry it seemed. I grit my teeth, and noticed something through the haze of weapons fire around me. A corvette on an intercept course. And the Cantera starting to go critical.

“Captain Edrym, might I suggest you abandon the Cantera, readings indicate she’s about to blow. I offer you safe refuge upon the Warden.”

“I was just thinking that. All hands, abandon ship! All escape pods land on the Warden of Eternity.” He said, and I watched as the escape pods started to launch, counting the number of life-signs aboard each one. Nearly a thousand souls, most of the crew would make it. I kept my hangar bays open, even the secondary ones as well, watching as the pods landed and began disgorging the crew who flooded into my corridors. So many people, it was… comforting. Like when I had rescued the Imrani.

In my moment of distraction, I failed to note that my cannons hadn’t exactly destroyed the incoming corvette, but I had torn some delightful wounds in it. The ship and I lurched to one side as it rammed us, and I focused my attention on it fully. It had hit right where the armor was weakest, breaching the hull but not going any further than a few hundred feet into the interior. Worse, it seemed this was a calculated act, not just one of desperation, as the ship's crew was flooding into my halls and leaving carnage in their wake.

“All hands, intruder alert! Combat personnel are ordered to repel boarders.” I yell over the intercom, and I watch as the Cantera’s crew rush to do as I had asked. I unleashed my own drones into the mix, and watched with satisfaction as the warmachines took thunderous steps down the halls alongside Okali sailors, pushing back the Yil’kaa.

And then I felt something touch me, not the ship, but me. A hand, a Yil’kaa hand. It was hard and cold, cruel and malicious, and it was TOUCHING ME. I screamed in both fear and rage. “Security to the Main Intelligence Core. Boarders are seeking to take me offline! Situation critical!”

The ship jolts, taking more and more fire from elsewhere, I feel systems flickering then going offline and I briefly wonder if this will be my end, if I will die now. I hope not, but it’s looking pretty grim all things considered.

Pain slashes through me, not the pain of armor and ship flesh being burned or broken, but pain in my very code. I feel a large chunk of myself get torn away, a scream leaving my lips before it’s silenced by another flash of pain. My world becomes skewed, strange and almost incomprehensible. I register weapons fire in the Intelligence Core, not Yil’kaa weapons, but Okali and I know that I am saved.

“T-T-Transferring t-t-temporary co-co-command functionality to Ca-Captain Edrym, Okali Union. H.I. Systems, H-Heavily damaged. Survival mode engaged.” I hear myself say, just as my bridge is occupied by friendly forces, who take control. Yil’kaa boarders have been repelled, the corvette blasted out of the hole it had created and the breach sealed off for repair.

I feel darkness clouding my mind, feel my code starting to unravel, and I hope… I hope they’ll take good care of my ship.

“I’m sorry Ula… Looks like I’m not going to be coming back.” I whisper, before everything goes dark.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Captain Edrym sat in the command chair of the Warden of Eternity, and heard the soft sigh of Intra as she presumably died around him. But the ship was still functional, and that was perhaps the most important thing at this moment.

“Someone get an engineering and computer science team to that Intelligence Core and see what they can do for our friend. She deserves at least our best attempt at keeping her alive.”

“Aye captain.” A battered officer said, the bridge crew familiarizing themselves as quickly as possible with their stations.

“Engine pod four is offline, sublight speed has dropped to three quarters power.”

“Weapons are still active, auto tracking enemy targets and firing at will.”

“Forward shields offline, port and starboard shields at thirty percent.”

The status report came from various officers, and Edrym nods. Behind them the Cantera exploded, taking out a few Yil’kaa ships that had drifted too close, seeking a prize to claim by boarding action.

“Push as much power as you can into the engines, retarget weapons to fore, let’s punch a hole through this blockade and get out of here.” He said, a general callout of affirmatives reaching him. The ship was impressive, and he would be looking it over personally when they got out of this mess. Hopefully Intra would still be alive as well, so she could properly explain things.

The ship continued forwards, blasting away anything that got in its path. The Union fleet moved to intercept and protect, adding their firepower to the widening hole that the Warden was making in the blockade. And in moments, they were free, the fresh Union ships moving to block any incoming fire from reaching her. A full retreat was called, starfighters disengaged and swept back into their hangars, and as one, the Fleet of Luminous Justice jumped away towards safe harbor.

An hour later, Edrym walks into the Intelligence Core, only to find his teams being held at gunpoint by the automated defense drones.

“S-Sir! They won’t let us inspect her housing.” The team lead said, looking frightened by the fact that these machines were clearly acting almost on their own, without Intra’s guiding hand.

“Security drones, stand down. Let my crew do their jobs.” He called out, and the machines looked at him, then stepped back, raising their weapons into a ready position. They didn’t interfere any further. “What’s the status of our inorganic friend?”

The teams set to work, checking everything over. It took a moment to find Intra herself, but when they did the lead code jockey winced, shaking his head.

“She’s not doing good. Looks like her memory banks are intact, as is her personality matrix. Everything else though took a serious hit, it seems these… aliens were picking her apart piece by piece.”

Edrym frowned, then tried to imagine it. He managed to, but the image his mind produced wasn’t pleasant.

“Do what you can for her then, keep her alive. Hell, fully repair her if you’re able. If not, do damage control till we get back home and can have better suited minds take a look at her.”

“Understood. It’s going to be slow, we don’t know anything about her code so recreating it will be impossible. And trying to splice our own code to hers may also be impossible.” The look they got from him was enough to make them flinch. “But… We’ll do what we can.”

“That is all I ask. Get working.”

“Aye captain.”

Edrym looked at the partially fractured case where Intra was contained, noting the intermittent flickers of light within that was all that was left of her. He hoped she would be fine, perhaps better than she once was. But it was still up in the air.

With that, he turned and left, needing to see to the rest of his crew as they limped back home. They had a war to win.