"To battle stations!"

Red lights pulsed. The alarm wailed. The scientists were ushered into a safer place as I felt the thousands of tons of this ship pull into a turn as I angled her at my enemy.

"Close formation," I ordered.

The comms officers relayed the order, and my fleet formed up into a tight wedge formation.

I expected Marianna and her fleet of ugly-ass grasshopper ships to turn and face me, but she continued to face down at the space stations, and beyond, the planet.

This was bad. We weren't ready for a final confrontation just yet, and I cursed myself for not being more aggressive with that asshole count. My fleet was still young and relatively unnumbered, and our enemy, this alien-locust fleet, was an unknown to us.

"Scan complete," said a tech. "Cross-analyzing projected ship mass to size class... on screen--updated."

A hologram window appeared beside me, showing me the extent of their numbers.

332 Locust Battleships

1391 Locust Cruisers

5905 Locust Destroyers

Enemy Combat Tonnage: 817,000,000 tons

Own Combat Tonnage: 1,550,000 tons

Almost a thousand times our weight. We were fucked.

Allied Combat Tonnage: 1,900,000 tons

"Wait," I said, "Who are the allies?"

"I've included the Spacer fleet in our analysis."

I looked over at the Spacer spinning fortresses and searched for this alleged fleet, and sure enough, I spotted them anchored in the shade beneath the bulk of the station. They might've had advanced technology and weapons to help us out, but--

"Why aren't they helping?" I asked.

No one answered. The enemy locust fleet continued to adjust their formation behind Marianna's spearhead, and her right flank bent to face us. From this distance, it was less of an armada and more of a cloud of particles.

"Get that Count asshole on comms," I demanded. "Tell him to defend his people."

The communications officers went to work.

"Jessie," I called, and she answered, "Work with those Spacer scientists to get a countermeasure made."

She winced. "Even I might not be able to make something so fast."

"You have to," I said.

She grit her teeth and nodded to herself, and the hologram blinked out.

"Admiral!" said the rebel officer. "Communications request from the Count."

"On screen."

The Count's face appeared all across the front viewport windows, and he looked down at us. "Admiral Redrim, I was under the impression that this was your quarrel."

"She's targeting your planet," I said. "Will you send out your fleet to help us?"

He scoffed. "We haven't had a standing navy for hundreds of years, you ape. We've evolved beyond such simple-minded things." He smirked and looked down at us from behind his nose. "Behold, foreigners, the power of Castrum Stallae--"

Past the transparent view of his massive, jive face, I could see the Spacer Fortresses come alive with movement, almost like disturbing an anthill, little dots formed all across any surface big enough to fit one, and from them, guns.

In a flash, lines of blinding red and blue light cut through the darkness of space and instantaneously shot against the Locust ships, first dozens of lasers then hundreds then tens of thousands in a steady stream laser show that ripped across the fleet in a dazzling display of lights and power.

The Locust ships didn't react. From our imagery, I could see the holes and lines cut through them, and it appeared they were already destroyed, nullified, neutralized. Was this truly a paper tiger of a navy?

The lights bent and reflected against Marianna's ship when the lasers cut across, and like a drill, the combined burn of the lasers threw sparks as they tried to dig, dig deep against her incredible hexagon mana wall.

The lights of the stations began to dim and blink out.

Marianna's mana wall held.

The lights of the stations shut off. The lasers began to die out one by one.

Marianna's mana wall flickered.

The lasers went dark. The entire space station complex was dead in the water.

Marianna's mana wall remained.

Then silence came.

The consoles on the bridge hummed and clicked in the quiet. I could hear heavy breathing. Then a scanner began to blip in steady beeps, faster, rising in speed and cadence, and the technician turned to me, "Delta-S Levels rising! Marianna is charging the cannon!"

I thrust out my hand. "Order to all ships: Begin full broadside--"

The fleet in unison fired everything all at once, an opening burst of our best damage. I held my breath as I watched all of the massive shells and rockets and bullets zip across the multi-kilometer length of space and over to Marianna's ship, and--

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"Impossible."

The Locust ships burst into what looked like massive clouds of debris which soon mixed and faded into one another. A cloud so thick that it consumed Marianna's ship, the entire space of the fleet, and it appeared that a dull brown sandstorm had brewed in space, churning and boiling over and spreading fast, spreading toward us at an alarming pace--as fast as our projectiles!--and our entire volley erupted with thumps of explosions against the brown tide.

"Admiral! This cloud isn't debris." She turned to me with haunted eyes as behind her, the dark cloud raced closer. "It's packed with machines--Ai Drones."

It wasn't a cloud. It was a swarm, and it hit us all at once like a crashing wave, pulling a veil of pitch-black over us, and instantly, the alarms began the wail.

"Admiral! The drones are digging into the ship. They have mandibles that are ripping through our armor."

I could hear it from here. The tick-tick-ticks of some millions of drones biting into my hull.

"Route lighting into the LMD," I ordered.

The hull arced with lightning, but--

"No effect," said the technician. "They have EMP shielding."

"Freeze," I said.

Ice shot out from the hull, a sparkling frozen blue that creaked and cracked across the bulk of those drones, freezing them over us, encompassing the ship like a block of ice, but--

"They're eating right through, Admiral. The rate of consumption is--"

"Recycle them."

The ship guns flipped, and mining lasers burst into the churning air of those drones as they swam around us like a school of fish.

"Cassandra," I said aloud. "Use the matter gain to bulk our armor. It should at least slow them down."

"Confirmed," she said back. "Current hull strength is at 93%, dropping 1% every six seconds."

"Status report on the rest of the fleet," I said.

"They're in mimic mode," said an officer. "They're in the same state."

"Status on Marianna--"

"Delta-S levels at 19%," said the technician.

"Full speed ahead," I commanded. "Ram us right into that bitch."

The ship engines rumbled, I felt the pull of momentum, and immediately it fell limp.

"They got the engines!" one said.

"Swarm intensifying!" said another.

"We've lost a destroyer! The crew is--oh my god..."

"Admiral! A breach through the hangar doors! The drones have entered compartments A3 and A4."

"Seal it using foam magic and mobilize the hero party!" yelled the officer.

"My word; this data--The gimps! The gimps are--they're vibrating in unison!"

"Delta-S levels at 27% and rising fast--"

A burst of laughter hit us from the open communication channel.

It was a woman's laughter.

And when I recognized it, the face of her blinked across the front viewports.

Raven's hair, deep red lips, the taunting smirk of a demon.

Behind her, the drones swam and crawled like worms against the hull.

"Obi Imsi." Her voice echoed throughout the fleet and the spacer complex. "How nice of you to sit there and die for me."

"Marianna, you fuckin' dickhead. What do you have against this planet of nerds? And the furries? Why the furries of all things?"

"Oh, Imsi, your poor, stupid, noisy fool. There is an entire universe of truth that you are far from tapping into, and the thought that a weak little man like you could even think to have a moral high ground on me is--" She burst into laughter. "It's special, Imsi. It's fucking special."

Heart of the Sadist activated.

Heart of the Masochist activated.

"You see, Imsi, you're not even worth draining the order from. Do you know why, Imsi? It's because you're trash. Trash is already in the state of highest entropy. I literally can't make you any worse than you already are." She erupted into laughter, and her face blinked out.

I shook my head and crossed my arms, and just by willing it so, wires and tubes and metal hoses lashed out from the walls and ceilings and floors to hook into me, and from them, the cold electric wetness of raw mana.

Heart of the Kraken activated x500

If I couldn't sail to her, then I'd swim us there.

Distance: 31km

Delta-S levels: 35%

Hull strength: 60%

A Kraken tentacle thrust forward and reached into the swarm, and I could feel the sting of ten thousand tiny mouths tear into it. The pain enlivened me further, and combined with the mining lasers tearing through the swirling tempest of those drones, my sadomasochist fighting prowess approached its climax.

I swam across the sea of locust drones.

Distance: 28km

Delta-S levels: 40%

Hull strength: 50%

Faster. My ship now writhed forward like some kind of fucked up amoeba-whale. Faster. The swarm thickened, and the friction increased. It was like swimming in hardening clay.

Distance: 23km

Delta-S levels: 50%

Hull strength: 40%

"Redrim, our bearing!" shouted the Card King. He struggled to keep us steady between the tentacles pulling us forward and the shifting tides of the swarm. "I can't see through this shit!"

"On screen: Sexual Energy Scan--"

The viewport glass flipped over to show us a blackened view of space around with only a cloud of pink in the distance--our target. The Card King saw it and flung the wheel over to correct our course.

Distance: 21km

Delta-S levels: 60%

Hull strength: 30%

"Redrim! The cannon is beginning its final charge!"

I roared as I willed even more mana to be pumped through my body.

Heart of the Kraken activated x2000

Distance: 17km

Delta-S levels: 70%

Hull strength: 20%

Marianna's eerily calm voice spoke over the open comms. "Don't you see it, Redrim? The planet is already dying."

Distance: 13km

Delta-S levels: 80%

Hull strength: 10%

We were almost there. Just a little more.

"Its people suffer, Imsi. They suffer down there. The war, the strife, the violence, and the lies. Their suffering far outweighs what little good they might have on that sad, little planet."

Distance: 8km

Delta-S levels: 85%

Hull strength: 5%

"You see, Imsi. I'm not a monster. I'm a savior. I'm saving them. I'm ending their suffering."

Distance: 4km

Delta-S levels: 95%

Hull strength: 0

"Admiral! We've lost hull integrity!"

"Drones are entering in all compartments!"

"Mobilize the marines!"

"The gimps! They've broken free from their quarantine and are defending the halls!"

Almost there. Our air was venting, the LMD sparked with malfunctions, and the swarm dug holes into this ship as my crew fought back against the tide of them, and just when I saw the light of the sun peak through the cracks of that swarm, I saw the edge of freedom, and I saw the red of the Sword of Gods' Twilight.

"And with this coup de gras, I will bring them the peace they need."

Distance: 1km

Delta-S levels: 100%

We burst through the edge of the swarm, and I saw a light shine blindingly at the core of Marianna's ship. It was pulsating, empowering, boiling over before the climax--

I aimed the Cosmic Shard Cannon and fired. Our remaining cosmic shards shot across as a shotgun blast spray, and the Gate Core laser ripped among those glittering dots, tracing the lines of a circle--

And the Delta-S cannon fired a beam of light kilometers thick. Red lightning arced from its power, and our systems began to blink and dim and spark.

The portal coalesced into shimmering puddles of space, and the red beam of the entropy weapon poured through and out the nearby exit portal--

Which reflected the beam out to space.

"It's working," someone said. "The portal reflection is working!"

By putting the exit portal nearby and angling it away from anything important, we were able to divert the entire attack to fuck all elsewhere.

But.

Something was wrong.

"The shards! They're--they're decaying!"

The red beam of light began to spill over the sides of the portal, the bent reflection twitching and snapping in places, breaking and shattering as a thousand lines of red light in different directions, and the entropic weapon burned through the shards, it aged them to the point of utter decay, and the portal failed with an erupting snap and a shockwave--

And the red beam of light ripped through space and dug into the planet's surface.

The battleship lights blinked off. All systems down. We were dead in the water, and we floated helplessly as we watched the planet begin to burn and boil. The surface churned with earthquakes and glowed with fires. Oceans evaporated as steam, and the magma core spilled out.

It was over. We had lost.

The red light clicked off. The attack resolved.

And silence came.

For a few moments, Marianna's ship stared at that dying wreck of a planet, as if itself were contemplating its own sin, and eventually, and finally, she said, "They shall suffer no longer."

A portal snapped open nearby, and like unplugging a drain, the swarm of drones sank through.

Marianna's ship followed.

On the other side of that portal--I could see it--another fresh planet, bare and unbothered, now ultimately vulnerable to her.

And we could do nothing but watch as the portal blinked out, and the silence returned.