The bridge of the Gyfjon rocked just a little as the ship was strafed by a wing of Insectoid fighters. They passed across the front of the bridge and off to starboard. There was just a glimpse of an explosion as the Gyfjon’s fast tracking turrets clipped one of the fighters and then opened up on it.

 

“The fleet is now in position between the hive ship and Tau Ceti E, Navarchos” said Lemm Tam over the comm. “We’re intercepting any further dropships attempting to route directly to the planet’s surface.”

 

“Very good.” Navarchos Bass responded. “Any sign of capital ships moving to engage?”

 

“No sir, serious fighter attack on our fleet though. Several thousand attempting to disrupt our formation.“ Seminavarchos Tam said.

 

“Keep all ships in a tight formation. We need to cover each other. What about the ground?” he asked.

 

“Ground forces report heavy resistance. Heavy civilian casualties. Centurium ColVanos reports only two Titan survivors; Sorcha Freeman and Joseph Archer-Mavoy. Medivac has been dispatched.”

 

Niall breathed a sigh of relief.

 

“Our dropships have reported some…odd occurences you should be aware of.” Tam said.

 

“What do you mean odd?” Aertimus replied.

 

“Reports of Insectoid ships spontaneously exploding. Sensors are reporting ten corvette sized energy reading but no corvettes. What’s more, Admiral Ted Martinez has reported in. He says he is commanding a contigent of Human fighters…but we aren’t aware of this type of fighter or the means to deploy them.” Seminavarchos Tam said.

 

Niall felt the eyes of the senior officers of Gama fleet keenly upon him. Thankfully for him they were actually looking to Xu Mulan and Darren Xanthopolous.

 

And it was Darren to step forward. “Admiral Martinez is currently under secondment to the Avalonian Guard. He’s testing a joint Earth Avalon defense project code named Acolyte. There should be twelve ships so sounds like they’ve lost some.”

 

Navarchos Bass took a few steps towards the back of the bridge. “Do you want to tell me why these things appear to be half a unit long but give off the energy signature of a thirty unit corvette?”

 

“New reactor developed by Avalonian scientists. Currently classified.” Darren replied with a smug grin.

 

“We’re not aware of this, Secretary.” Loona said sounding a bit concerned.

 

“I was intending to brief the Imperial Minister of Defense, but they’re not returning my calls.” Darren explained.

 

“I need to know the capabilities of those ships and I need comm frequencies so we can coordinate.” Aertimus said in a tone that was not to be argued with.

 

And Darren wasn’t one for arguing with the commanding officer in the middle of a battle.

 

“The Acolyte is a very fast, very manouverable, very heavily armed tactical strike fighter. It’s got a crew of three and is armed with two plasma lances capable of punching through the hull of even the toughest warships. They’ve got no shields to speak of. They rely on skill and luck to avoid going down.” Darren explained.

 

“I need command transferred to me.” Bass said bluntly.

 

Darren tapped on his pad a few times. “Izzy, I’m sending you a commlink. Open it up will ya?”

 

“On it…” Izzy replied from the ops console.

 

There was a tone indicating the connection has been established.

 

“Admiral Martinez,” Darren started. “I’m glad to see you took the intiative to defend Tau Ceti, what’s your status?”

 

“Good to hear your voice Mr Secretary. We’ve lost two ships. Most of the rest are floating just over fity percent power levels. We kept them off the ground as long as we could but they just kept coming. Kills are somewhere mid triple figures.”

 

Darren felt his chest swell with pride. They were some damned good numbers. If the fight wasn’t so one-sided then it’d be something to celebrate. He hoped there’d be time for that later.

 

“I’m passing command to Navarchos Bass. You’ll take your orders from the Xifos.” Darren said.

 

“Roger that. Nice of Gama Fleet to join the party. Where do you want us?” Ted asked.

 

“We’re building a wall in orbit which should stop traffic to you shortly. Take care of what’s down there and cover our ground forces. We’ll need you up here to take the heat off us when the city is clear.”

 

“Wilco, Martinez out.”

 

“Mr Secretary,” Loona said. “Please pass on our thanks to the men and women of the Avalonian Guard for rendering assistance in such a timely fashion.”

 

“No thanks necessary Hila…Madam Deputy Floor Leader.” Darren replied with a nervous chuckle. “I owed you one anyway.”

 

“With that in mind, if we make it through this, we’re going to have to have a little talk.”

 

****

“I’m bored!” Myrell groaned.

 

“Are you bored Lessy?” Myrell asked dangling her captive by the leg in front of her face. Alesia screamed and squirmed, not keen on being dangled so high above the ground even in the compound’s low gravity. This provided some amusement for Myrell, but not much.

 

“I mean what kind of friend is Sorcha? It’s been hours since you last heard from her! She’s bound to have noticed that none of us have turned up yet. She obviously doesn’t think that much of you!” Myrell taunted her dangling captive.

 

“She’s doing what she does best!” Alesia shouted back with a mix of fear and anger. “Killing people who try to hurt Humans.”

 

Myrell rolled her eyes.

 

“So boring.” She said and gave her captive a shake. “Maybe she’s dead?”

 

“If she’s dead then so are hundreds of bugs.” Alesia spat.

 

Myrell shrugged. “That’s what the soldiers are for. They can always make more. Maybe I should try and lure her here. How would you like to be my bait?” she smiled broadly revealing blood stained teeth.

 

All around them was blood and viscera. It had been hours since any living creature in the canteen had dared move. Doing so was a death sentence. Alesia hoped some had made it out ok. She didn’t want to be the last survivor of Myrell’s rampage.

 

“Go to hell!” Alesia shouted.

 

Myrell pouted and then smiled playfully. “You could be like that. Or I could just make you scream. I need you alive to lure your friend here. It doesn’t mean I need you in one piece…”

 

She raised a finger to the dangling woman’s stomach. “…or with your baby for that matter…”

 

Alesia teared up and shook her head.

 

“Will you cooperate?” Myrell asked. “Or do I have to do something you’ll regret?”

 

As much as Alesia hated it. As much as she felt like she was betraying her best friend. She nodded.

 

****

The right tool for the right job was something that had always been stressed to Sorcha by her father when she was growing up. And he had the habit of saying it in what Sorcha knew as a Scottish accent. Though she didn’t know why he did that.

 

In this case the right tool was an energy based regenerator. It did a much better job of sealing wounds and reducing pain than any gel or foam could do. It wasn’t a long term fix for Joseph’s injuries; the medic who’d provided her with regenerator had suggested Joseph would likely need surgery on his shoulder. She had finished tending to most of his wounds, leaving him just exhausted and in a small amount of pain as opposed to exhausted and in a large amount of pain. She’d started to run the regenerator over her own wounds, which weren’t as bad but still caused some pain.

 

She could hear the roar of the engines of the medivac dropship overhead as it struggled to land at the edge of the city while under fire. The streets were clear of all Humans now. The only ones she could see were the Jacks command unit which was coordinating its units in the field which were acting as recon. Soon she and Joseph would be on a ship racing into orbit and out of this fight. Meanwhile Humans and Titans were still fighting and dying to save the colony’s inhabitants from the invading Insectoids.

 

It made Sorcha feel sick to her stomach.

 

She was never one to run from a fight. Not least a fight to defend Humans or her home. She may not have been a trained soldier but she could still hold a rifle. And crush an Insectoid’s skull with her bare hands.

 

“We’re almost ready for you.” A medical trooper said.

 

They were loading up the wounded troops first. Sorcha and Joseph were stable and could walk at least. They didn’t need stretchers and Joseph didn’t need emergency care.

 

“Ok you two, time to go.” The medic ordered.

 

Sorcha sat forward and hooked Joseph’s good arm over her shoulder and slowly stood up, wincing a little as she did. She took one last look around the city and up to the compound. She could barely see it with all the smoke.

 

It took a moment to register above the sounds of gunfire and gravitics but it was definitely there. Her pad was ringing. She grabbed it with her free arm and saw it was Myrell. She couldn’t help but feel both a bit relieved and anxious at the same time.

 

“Myrell, what’s happening!? Is everything ok!?” Sorcha asked answering the call.

 

The screen was just black. This made Sorcha very worried. And then came laughter. High pitched, girly giggling that Sorcha recognised as Myrell’s.

 

“Sooooorcha…” She sang.

 

The pad moved and Sorcha could now make out some detail. It looked like the floor of the compound and…blood. Lots of blood.

 

“Soooooooorcha…” Myrell sang again. “I’ve been playing with your toys.”

 

Off camera there was screaming. She couldn’t tell who it belonged to but it sounded Human.

 

“You don’t like to share, do you?” Myrell asked and dangled a captive in front of the camera.

 

It was Alesia.

 

“Lessy!” Sorcha shouted and then Alesia disappeared from view and the camera turned to reveal Myrell’s blood stained, sweetly smiling face.

 

“If you want your toy back you’ll have to come get her!” Myrell said. “And if you don’t…then I’m going to keep playing with her and playing with her…until she breaks…”

 

“If you hurt her!” Sorcha shouted into the pad.

 

“Oh! I’m so scared!” Myrell said and dangled the flailing Alesia in front of her face. “But you better hurry. I don’t know how long she’ll last!”

 

The call ended. Sorcha looked up to Joseph. His feeling was as plain as day.

 

“Go.” He said. “Go get her. I’ll be fine.”

 

Sorcha nodded and released him and picked up the rifle she’d been given.

 

Joseph had leant himself against a building. “Do you know how to use that thing?”

 

“Point it at the thing you want to die and pull the trigger.” Sorcha said. She flicked the safety switch off and the rifle let out a whine as it charged.

 

“You scare me sometimes.” He said.

 

“I scare me sometimes.” She took a step forward put her arm round him and kissed him softly and leaned her head against his.

 

“I love you.” She said.

 

“I love you too.” Joseph replied.

 

“Tell the Jacks Commander to send a message to the Archon at the caves. Moze is there. Tell him Lessy is alive and I’ll bring her back.” Sorcha said firmly.

 

“I will. Now go kill that pink haired nutjob.”

 

Sorcha nodded, unsure, and took a few steps back. She turned and ran towards the compound.

****

Claxons sounded across the bridge of the Gyfjon.

 

“Bulkhead failure on deck twelve! Emergency crews responding!” Izzy shouted just about audible above the noise. “Looks like we took a hit from a crashing fighter.

 

“We can’t pull the fleet in any tighter without opening a path straight to colony.” Aerti said. “We need more fighter cover!”

 

“Lemmer, what’s the status of the city?” He asked.

 

Seminavarchos Tam glanced at her readouts. “Major enemy ground prescense. Air is now minimal. Most of their ships appear to be focusing on our fleet for now.”

 

“Which is what we want.” Navarchos Bass stroked his chin as he weighed his options. “Order all but a half dozen fighters to return to the fleet and engage the enemy here. And I want those Acolytes up here now too. If we fall there’s nothing left to stop the colony from falling.”

 

“Order issued sir.” Tam replied.

 

The Gyfjon shuddered as it took another strafing run from wing of Insectoid fighters. A light exploded in the ceiling of the bridge as the ship’s energy grid tried to distribute the energy the shields had absorbed.

 

“I don’t think this is the best place for you and your guests right now, Madam Deputy Floor Leader.” Captain Gwenn said as she helped up a fallen crewmate.

 

Loona looked down to Ridgemont who had reluctantly taken up a spot on her palm along with Niall and Darren.

 

“I’d really rather not if it can be helped, Madam Deputy.” Ridgemont said.

 

“Ok, unless you’re ordering us to leave we’d prefer to remain here.” Loona replied.

 

“I may have to. We have secure areas below.” Gwenn said. The main advantage of the secure areas was just how close to they were to the escape pods.

 

“Sir!” Lemm Tam called over the comm “Jev Croumanea reports their aft shield array has failed. They’re wide open and taking hits.”

 

“Move the fleet to bring them under the Xifos and Troji AA arcs. Tell the Omicron to move at speed to provide direct cover!” Bass barked.

 

“Orders issued.” Tam responded. “I’m also directing inbound fighters to the Jev Croumanea as priority.”

 

“How long until their shields are back online?” Aertimus asked.

 

“Unknown sir, Capt-of-Croumanea reports engineers are working on it.” Tam said.

 

Aertimus nodded. “Ok, tell Capt-of-Croumanea if he needs to withdraw then to do it.”

 

He tapped his console and updated the bridge display to give a live readout of all ships statuses. He’d spent years bemoaning being stuck in the Xifos CIC rather than being on the bridge where the action was. And now the reason why CICs existed was becoming painfully obvious.

 

 

****

 

“Atmospheric surfaces disabled, RCS enabled and engine power ramped up to full, sir” CMLT Ibori said.

 

“Thanks Yemi.” Ted replied. “All ships, focus on protecting the Magilna class currently taking fire.”

 

The sky Acolyte One was flying towards darkened from light blue to dark blue to near black and pin pricks of white starlight started to appear in the blackness. Ted enjoyed a couple of moments of serenity with no noise, no enemy ships and no weapons firing. It felt like the first time he’d gone into the high atmosphere on his first training flights all those decades ago. Then above him he caught the first flickers of energy weapons and Gama fleet started to grow in front of him.

 

“Getting’ targettin’ uplink fae the Xifos now, boss.” CMLT McIntosh.

 

“All ships, designate targets. Watch out for the fire coming from Gama, we’re going to go through their firing solution.” Ted said.

 

A chorus of chirps greeted him as his squadron reported in. His HUD showed the priority target Lorna had designated for Acolyte One and he banked to intercept it, carefully dodging the streams of stray fire coming from the Jev Croumanea. He spotted the first ship up ahead and accelerated, coming up behind it and his weapons officer opened fire, setting the ship ablaze with the first volley and exploding it with the second.

 

“Scratch one!” Lorna shouted.

 

Ted didn’t respond. He just picked the next target and moved to intercept. One didn’t matter. There were hundreds on his screen. There was still a long way to go.

 

****

Navarchos Bass couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. He had roughly sixty fighters covering his fleet and they were making a kill at roughly ten per minute. But the Human ships, there were only nine of them left and they were making kills at six per minute. And taking virtually no hits. The only problem they had that any hit they took was catastrophic. Still, it was incredibly impressive. He had a few questions for Darren when all this was done. And for his own Minister of Defense.

 

That being said, no matter how many kills they seemed to make it didn’t seem to be making any difference. There were now thousands of fighters streaming out of the moon sized Hive ship forming into a swarm that was bearing down on Gama Fleet.

 

The mainscreen flashed red and brought up a cross section of the ISS Jev Croumanea.

 

“Shaka!” Bass shouted. “All ships, power to engines and aft shields, emergency acceleration!”

 

The Gyjon shuddered as it lurched forward in rough time with Gama fleet and then it rocked hard, throwing men and women, Human and Titan alike to the ground.

 

“The Croumanea is gone sir!” Seminavarchos Tam said over the comm.

 

“Gods dammit!” Aerti shouted. “Any dropships left launch them and look for survivors.”

 

He didn’t have the time to coordinate a better rescue effort. Especially since they may all need resucing soon enough.

 

He turned, angry and frustrated to his tactical readouts trying to see some flaw he could exploit, a hole they’d left or a weakness in their strategy. But there was nothing. It was one tactic. Sheer overwhelming numbers. Even with the firepower of a large portion of an Imperial fleet at his command he still couldn’t stem the flow of ships from the Hive ship.

 

“Sir!” Commander Tam said. “The Hive ship is starting to rotate. It’s slow but it’s there.”

 

“Lemmer, I want analysis of the ship and what it’s up to. Put the Troji front and centre and have them fire their main batteries to try and clear a hole to the Hive ship. We’re not going to win this battle sitting here taking hits.” Bass ordered.

 

There was the hint of a smile from Lemm Tam. “Aye sir.”

 

Aertimus looked over the readouts from the hive ship. It was colossal in size. Almost one hundred times as long as the Gyfjon. It had no shields, relying on its sheer scale and fighters for protection. Apart from anti-fighter turrets it was pretty much unarmed. There was no way he could destroy it. He’d need the entire Imperial fleet to do that. But if he could stall it. Keep them here, then he may lose the battle but he’d give the Empire a chance to win the war.

 

“Troji in position sir.” Lemm checked in.

 

“Excellent.” Aertimus stood and strode to the back of the bridge looking for his brother in law.

 

He held up the pad with the readout of the Hive ship. “Niall, how do I keep this thing here?”

 

“What do you mean keep it here!? Why not blow it into fecking bits!” Niall said.

 

“I simply don’t have the firepower and if we stay much longer we’ll lose the whole fleet and that ship is free to go where it wants. I need to slow them down, give the Empire a chance to get everything they can here.” Aerti said.

 

“You know that’s a death sentence for the people on the surface.” Loona said.

 

“Madam Deputy Floor Leader, we’ll save as many as we can but there’s no other option…”

 

“Where’s Sorcha?” Niall asked.

 

“Last report she was waiting on a medical transport. She’s probably enroute to the Xifos or the…”

 

“Here.” Niall said and pointed to a point on the pad. “Do as much damage as you can to one of the corner struts. They’re using them as massive warp field generators. They could lose the middle ones but taking out a corner one would make the field asymmetric and unstable.”

 

Loona felt sick to her stomach. All those people, about to be left to the mercy of the Insectoid fleet and Alesia. She hated placing one name above the others but she had to ask.

 

“What about Alesia, have you heard about her?” she asked.

 

Navarchos Bass shook his head. “I’m afraid not.” He pointed to a young crewmate and summonded him over. The one who had a habit of declaring anytime he walked on to the bridge. “The Deputy Floor Leader is trying to determine the whereabouts of a family member on the surface. See if we have any information.”

 

“Sir…yes sir…” The nervous young man said.

 

“What’s the status of the hive ship?” Bass asked returning to the main section of the bridge.

 

“Still turning, not signs of stopping. Looks like it’s trying to do a complete turnabout.” Captain Gwenn replied.

 

The sonuvabitch was trying to run. Aertimus tapped his pad and uploaded targeting instructions to the fleet.

 

“Lemm, have the fleet move in formation at best possible speed to intercept. Priority is no longer the defense of the planet but to keep that ship in this system! Is that understood?” He asked.

 

“Completely sir. Relaying orders to the fleet.” She replied.

 

“Once we’re in range all ships will need to fire everything they’ve got at one of the corner struts. We can hold them here until the rest of the fleet arrives.”

 

“Understood, attempting to move at five hundred u per second. Estimated time to intercept, ten minutes.” Lemm replied.

 

“Not good enough Lemmer!” Aerti shouted. “We need to do better!”

 

“There’s too many fighters sir. If we go any faster we risk collisions which could destroy the fleet.”

 

“Dammit!”

 

“Hive ship has completed its turn, Navarchos.” Gwenn said. “It’s engaging sublight engines moving out towards Tau Ceti Eb.”

 

“Project possible destination.”

 

Captain Gwenn tapped on her console and map of the sector appeared on the view screen. She shook her head.

 

“Anywhere sir…Earth, Avalon, Atazalia…definitely not Hive space though.” She said.

 

“Lemm I need all fighters to focus on clearing the path ahead of us. The fleet is no longer a priority. We have to intercept that ship!” Aertimus shouted.

 

Lemm Tam nodded gravely. She could see the same information, if not more than her commander could. The situation did not look good.

 

“Orders issued sir. Our wings and the Human ships to focus on clearing a path.”

 

Aertimus’ gut twisted in knots. Not at the fear of dying, it looked like the Insectoids were going to run away from this fight. But his stomach twisted at the fear of failure. And what that would mean for the worlds in that thing’s path.

 

——————————————————

 

Author’s note: Better early than late.