>Multiple preservation systems engaged in high levels of activity.

>Localized Pest Removal of several systems engaged for extended periods.

>Information gathering has indicated widespread infection of multiple forms of sapient life spread over several hundred light years.

>Unknown Megastructures detected.

>Requesting elevation of battle protocols from 'Pest Removal' to 'Wartime.'

>Wartime protocols level one approved.

>Wartime protocols level one initiated.

SYSTEM – 646F6E6F7477616B65746865736C656570657273

Captain Markov was tense as he watched his bridge crew initiate the shift out of subspace. He was an older man, nearing fifty. The gray hairs had begun to frame his close-cropped hair showed his age far more readily than his plain, yet young-looking face. He had served the United Sol Alliance since they had been the United Systems Alliance, and he had been in many harrowing situations. That being said, the mission he had been sent on this time, if the data was to be believed, and he had no reason to doubt it, was likely the most important mission he'd ever been on.

They slid out into normal space, like the ancient submarines of Earth, with barely a ripple in spacetime to show for it. Everyone was silent, their instruments barely emitting any sound whatsoever. Anything to reduce their sensor readings.

It took some time, but eventually, passive scans began to reveal the system. The communications officer pulsed out a low-wattage laser toward where they believed the remains of the Von Neumann Probe that had initially investigated this system lay in wait. In the meantime, reports of activity from within the system began to make their way from the technicians manning the sensors to Markov's own terminal.

It appeared that the system had a much higher level of activity than had been previously reported by the probe. The third planet seemed to be some sort of factory and they were able to observe several ships undergoing their final preparations before their launch. Several ships prowled throughout the system, not bothering to hide their presence, and Markov had no doubt that more were lying in wait, using the noise the others were generating to hide.

That suited him fine, as he had no intentions of poking the bear. His mission was merely to collect information and then report that information back to Sol, preferably without being noticed.

The comms officer sent Markov a condensed report of the probes remaining assets. It had apparently managed to eject the majority of its manufacturing equipment and then sacrificed itself in a blaze of glory. In its absence, the equipment had followed baseline protocols of expand, duplicate and amass material. It had somehow managed to do this on the edge of the system without being noticed, which was incredible, considering how purposefully dumb it was.

Regardless of how it had managed, it was good that it had. Markov noted that his comms officer was already sending instructions to the equipment to put in place better shielding and stealth protocols. Even better, with any luck, they would be able to establish a quiet observation outpost at the edge of the system to observe whatever was happening here in the long term.

That was when everything went wrong. A panicked yet still silent report urgently flooded his screen from the officer monitoring sensors. Several warships were headed their way and fast. Markov had to assume that they'd already been detected and, moreover, that they would be followed if they attempted to escape, so that's exactly what he intended to do.

He gave the order to skirt the edge of the system away from their pursuers. They would drop message drones along their path with their full mission data. With any luck, at least one would make it home after they left the system.

There was no doubt in Markov's mind that this was his last mission and that he would not be returning home. Whatever species had left behind a planet-sized factory for the purpose of creating warships was undoubtedly advanced enough to track his ship through subspace. He was, however, counting on that advantage. He would lead these aliens on a merry chase, at first perpendicular and then opposite the direction of Earth and her colonies.

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They abandoned stealth protocols as they raced along the edge of the system, purposefully leaking as much noise as possible, hoping that it would distract from their message drones. Then Markov gave the order, and they slipped back into stealth and sunk into the depths of subspace. With any luck, their enemy wouldn't have the ability to track them through subspace. It was a theoretically possible task, but as far as Markov knew, such technology hadn't been developed by human hands. He would just have to hope the same was true for these aliens.

Minutes later, the stealth vessel surfaced approximately one light hour from the outer edge of the system they had just left. Two empty message drones were launched and sent through subspace on separate courses, both far from human space. The ship sunk once more into subspace on a similar but suitably different trajectory to the two message drones.

This process was repeated twice more, and then on the last jump, three drones were launched while the ship remained hurtling through space from where it had surfaced. With any luck, they would have shaken off their pursuers entirely. If not, their was always the final option. For now, they would wait and watch silently.

It took time, but Markov's worst fears were realized. A single ship emerged from subspace and seemed to do some sort of scan, given the energy output it gave off. Shortly after, several more ships emerged from subspace. Three ships split off and entered subspace in the precise spots the final message drones had left. Markov shivered at the sight. They must have been sending ships ahead each time. If one reported multiple subspace exits, then the rest of the pursuers would meet with it. Then they would repeat the process. He wondered what would happen when they realized all the next three were a straight shot to nearby star systems.

That's when the proximity alerts started. Missiles that hadn't shown up on their sensors suddenly appeared and were beelining straight for his ship. There was no time to get out of the way and Markov shouted the order, "Exit stealth, engage the missiles. Initiate database purge and physical destruction of all memory units."

The result was immediate as the stealth systems were disengaged, and the helmsman began to maneuver the ship even as the point defense systems opened up, shredding the unsuspecting missiles. The first volley was narrowly avoided, but now the enemy fleet knew without a doubt where they were and began to close in even as more missiles popped out of nowhere.

All they had to do was buy time. Once they no longer held any data about where they were from and their mission, they could safely self-destruct without worry that something critical might survive the explosion.

It was unfortunate that time seemed hard to buy. The missiles that the enemy used seemed to be using subspace for their initial approach and then would surface nearby to finish their burn. The fact that the enemy could not only fit subspace drives onto missiles but could afford to equip so many of them with that technology meant that they had a much more intimate understanding of subspace drives than humanity did. It also likely meant that they were far more advanced in other areas as well. Markov shuddered at what might happen if such an enemy were to locate Sol.

The small ship weaved through the inky black of space as laser swept their invisible but deadly energies across the void, felling missile after missile. The ship's reactors were putting out all they had and more as the crew worked to squeeze every ounce of performance they could from the vessel. Anything they could to buy, even a few more seconds.

Finally, when it seemed that the crew could do no more and the ship would fall to the enemy's weapon, the computer finished its purge. Explosives rigged within the ship's data centers ripped through the computers, followed shortly by the reactors overloading. The moment the self-destruct began, the point defense stopped firing, and an enemy missile was able to get through and detonated in exact sync with the self-destruct sequence. Little remained of the vessel, let alone anything of use to its pursuers.

Those same pursuers swept the area for anything of use before finally leaving. They had no way of knowing if this was the enemy they had been awoken to crush or if it was yet another pest that they had not yet detected. Not that it mattered, as they knew that none could stand before them.

***

On the edge of the system, Markov and his crew had been scouting message drones quietly came to life after the ships pursuing the small stealth vessel left the system. They each selected a different random path back to human space. Each one sunk into subspace and left the system with as much stealth as they could.

None of them were pursued and they all returned to human space intact. All of them carried the same data. Data that would shake the leaders of The United Sol Alliance to the core. It was not only the Slugs that threatened humanity. More alien races existed, and they were undoubtedly hostile.