STAR Series (Very AU, sci-fi) {COMPLETE}

[silverofroswell]

A short part now, and an epic chapter tomorrow.

Part 14

Valenti

`Vice-Admiral Bauer, please allow me to introduce Vice-Admirals Vasilij Enteroff and Pete Huito. You already met Jim Valenti, didn’t you?` We shake hands with Commander Bauer. He finished a few years after I did, and was the best of his class. I’ve only met him briefly, at some conference, but I like the guy. He is a career soldier, and though he has some contacts in the Council, he has the skill to back up his rank.
`And Vice-Admiral Pierce?` He asks cautiously.
`Mr. Pierce enjoys the hospitality of Destiny’s cells. I had him arrested for mutiny at Antar.`
`Oh.` He doesn’t dwell on the problem too much. `Then it’s nice to meet you Vice-Admiral.`
`Please have a seat, gentlemen. This meeting is completely informal, you can bring up any ideas. Our aim is to beat back the talronids with any means possible, so don’t hesitate if you have something to add.`
We sit down on the chairs around the tactical display. It’s a small room on Destiny, and only the ten of us are here, plus the Prince. Liz is in jeans and a t-shirt, and I think its quite disturbing for the Commander and his adjutant, though I didn’t even notice until I caught the baffled expression on their faces.
`The talronids will exit hyperspace in this area. I’m unable to determine their exact position so far ahead, so we have to pack the area with nukes. Normally I would place a smaller task force here `she says indicating a spot far behind there area of entry ` to launch a nuclear attack on their back, but it would be a suicide mission now. They’ll enter normal space in many waves, so we won’t be able to get them with preplaced nukes. The real problem is that the last wave will bring some hyperspace inhibitor ships and they will prevent the Eleventh from entering the area. We have to take out those ships to have a chance at winning the battle. Ideas?`
`Where did you get your info, Admiral?` Well, it will be interesting to see how she’ll answer this one.
`I’ve read it in the future, Vice-Admiral… No, I’m not joking… Yes, I can... No… About three days in clear weather… Yes, that’s how we got here this fast… Do you have any more questions?` Louis’s mouth is opening and closing rhythmically. It’s always a shock when you first see Liz talk like that. At the first moment there is shock, then disbelief, then the nagging feeling of “what if?”. If a person sat down for a few minutes to ponder what it could mean, the possibilities… are amazing. Liz became an Admiral ten years younger than anyone else and her abilities had been inconsequential compared to their current power. One could have anything, and it seems really unfair that one woman holds all this power. The next phase is when you try to think up ways to escape her, and he will find none. The last phase is either refusal or acceptance. He is currently still in the first phase. I lean towards him and put my hand on his arm.
`Accept it, it’s real. She’s amazing in battle. I wouldn’t worry about it, if I were you. Just get over it. She is a prophet, and on our side. More exactly, we are on her side. Okay?` I don’t think he really heard me. It’s strange to see him shocked this much. He only got the ten-seconds-ahead version, not the hours-ahead, but still, compared to the fact that no precog can see farther than 1.3 seconds, it’s still amazing. While Pete and his second are still dealing with it, Enteroff starts to draw a plan.
`If we placed the stations around the exit points with most of the fighters as escorts maybe we could contain them in one area.`
`It wouldn’t work, they would signal back to the others and they’d simply exit well outside the perimeter. We’ve tried it, with disastrous results,` says Max, shaking his elongated, pointed head. I don’t think he realizes how human that gesture is.
`And what about gathering them into one big block? Maybe strengthened with one battleship, we could create an unbreakable dam, and then we only have to force the talronids to attack it.`
`It’s not a bad idea. Zan, will the talronids make a detour around such a centre if we placed it at one third of the way between the planet and the exit point?`
`I don’t think so. They don’t like to be divided by enemy power.`
`It’s agreed then. Vice-Admiral, please tow seventy-five percent of your gun platforms to these coordinates.` She pushes some buttons, one fortified point is stored into the memory of Destiny. `Form a loose double-cone, with the cone’s tip broken off to accommodate a battleship. It should be three hundred kilometers long, maybe a hundred wide at the base. The cone should point at the hyperspace exit. The laser turrets should be on the inside… You heard right. It contradicts conventional strategy to have the lasers in and the plasmas out, but as you probably know they are pretty much immune to EM weapons, the lasers are only efficient against their fighters.`
`Admiral, which battleship will guard the cone?`
`Don’t worry, Pete, you’ll get your share of the battle. I’ll set the Hailstorm there. But some of the Fourth’s fighters will be needed. Greens wouldn’t last seconds against the Talronids.`
`Liz, our guys were quite capable even at the first time,` I add. I know that the Fourth has the best pilots, but she doesn’t have to underestimate the Second’s guys either.
`Yes, but they weren’t fighting against three to one odds when they first realized that battle is completely different from simulation.`
`And what of the other battleships? If we place them on the outskirts of the system, we could charge right into them after they’ve arrived.`
`No. I don’t plan on beginning the battle before the Alliance ships are ready to join us. Then we take out the inhibitors and together we’ll crush the rest. We’ll have to last at least five hours before we can attack. I’ll send the fighters out on raids to keep them occupied and station a battleship at the edge so they can’t pull their formation too wide, or we would be able to do what you’ve just suggested. It will force them to move in a tight group.`
`Then how will we destroy the inhibitors? They’ve always been in the middle of the fleet.`
`That’s the tricky part, isn’t it? Your people don’t have SI drives, M… Zan. With any luck, they can’t detect superluminal signals. So if we stage the attack carefully, a battleship could decelerate exactly in the back of thei r fleet and launch an attack.`
`So the Fourth will attack the enemy in the back?` asks Vasilij.
`No. We can’t use three battleships in the attack force. We need one in the cone to defend the planet, one at the edge of the system as a threat so they won’t launch an all-out attack too swiftly, and if we use three to launch a surprise attack, there will remain only one left. It doesn’t matter where I place it, they wouldn’t have to face more than two battleships at the same time, and that would be suicide. No, we can only use one tenth class as the attack force.` Because she can’t leave the battle, and Pete isn’t used to being a Vice-Admiral yet, the logical choice would be me.
`One battleship attacking the entire talronid fleet? With all due respect Liz, this sounds insane. How will I be able to fight them all?`
`It won’t be you, but the Destiny. Vasilij’s gunners are the best, Jim. And they only have to take out two or three ships, and with the support of the entire Draconian fleet. I’ll be with you, aboard Fate. Vasilij, are you up to it?`
`You can count on me, Admiral.`
`You don’t have to Admiral me, especially not when I’m asking you to risk your hide.`
`As you said we are the best. We won’t fail you. Those inhibitors will be ashes.`
`What about launching an all-out attack a minute before Destiny arrives? We could lure away some of the defensive forces away. With my cruisers as a spearhead, we could gather enough firepower to get all their smaller ships on the other side of their fleet.` I know that she will agree to the Prince’s idea, they’ve probably talked it over “in private”, but that’s a knowledge only the five of us are aware of, so they have to play it out.`
`Agreed. Enteroff, I need to borrow Kyle and his crew. They already have practice in high-speed assaults, the Doombringers could clear the way for your cruisers. They’ll be through the Talronid fleet in a minute, but if they detonate a few well placed nukes, you will get all the attention you need, while Destiny will be able to dance in with little resistance.` That attack was a suicide mission the last time they’ve tried to pull it off. My son “survived” it at Earth, but that doesn’t guarantee that he will do so again.
`Isn’t that too risky?`
`I know you are worried Jim, but I think not. They are the best and I’ll send six of the prophetlings with them. And this time they don’t have to fight their way through an entire solar system, just a hundred thousand kilometers of enemy fleet. But I won’t give that order, I’ll ask them if they want to. Is that okay with you?` And of course my stupid son will take any suicide mission, but I guess I can’t forbid him to do it.
`And the Phoenices?`
`They’ll stay with your group. Cruisers are too big for that kind of attack.` I’m not happy about it, but I can accept it. If they go in a straight line, they won’t be able to meet too many enemies, but a few nukes can really make our work easier.
`And what will we do in the meantime?` I ask.
`Nothing. The Fate, the Avalanche and the Waterfall will sit in quiet while all our battlecruisers and frigates attack the enemy. We don’t have the acceleration to keep up with them. We will head for the battle at maximum speed, and reach the combat zone when the draconians break through. Doom can only start when Destiny has arrived, otherwise the whole surprise would be spoiled; the talronids would send back the ships the Prince had lured away, so you will be left out of the first half hour of the battle,` she says to Peter. `Zan, can you hold out until we get there?`
`It shouldn’t be a problem. If we start the acceleration from far enough away, we’ll be fast enough to escape them once we’ve bitten into them. I expect that we will spend…` he closes his almond-shaped eyes, counting`… ten to fifteen minutes in the combat zone, depending on the formation of their fleet and where we attack. If you send in the Doombringers ahead of us, we’ll have a clear way. But to gather that speed we have to start from far away. This leaves you without middle-class ships if the Talronids chose to attack.`
`Hopefully I’ll know about it well before it happens, if it does.` She waits for a second, to see if anyone has anything to add. I don’t have to be a prophet to know what she’s gonna say. She has concluded all the strategic sessions this way as long as I’ve known her. “I will sum it up now…”
`I will sum it up now: Destiny starts from somewhere well out of the system, Doom at the edge, the Alliance ships near the sun. Once the enemy arrives, our battlecruisers join them. Twenty minutes before Vasilij arrives, they start to accelerate and at T- 15, the Doombringers will follow suit. The Doombringers will reach the enemy at T-10, and the joint assault force will attack at T-5. They’ll hopefully draw away all the middle ships. At T-2 our battleships will start to move. Destiny must be able out the talronids inhibitor ships until T+3, T+8 at most. Around T+1, the enemy will detect the incoming hyperspace signal and rearrange their force to give maximum protection to the inhibitors. Unfortunately, they’ll be late. ` The numbers and fleet movements are streaming from her mouth as she sketches the final battle plan. This was what I’ve always admired in her: her cool professionalism. She sees the battle in front of herself, and this has nothing to do with visions. It’s routine, and skill and intelligence. She can’t think with the head of this enemy, so she forces them to act like she wants them to. If they choose not to follow the path set by her, they would only hasten their defeat.
`We have to hold out until T+12 without too many losses. Then, the draconians will arrive in the middle of the enemy formation, and after that, it will all be up to the weapons. Vice-Admiral Bauer, do you have anything to add?` she turns to him, asking for his input for the first time during the meeting.

[silverofroswell]

Part 15

Max

`Navigation, hold steady! Is everything alright?`
`Yes, milord! All ships ready.`
`Excellent. Begin the countdown! Power up the shield system, we go in in ten minutes.`
`Yes, milord!`
The cruiser Napshuga`R is truly a magnificent ship. The men are all veterans, many older than I am, and I’m well over fifty. They don’t need me, I’m just a token figure here. I feel a shiver, and I answer the com officer’s question before he could pose it.
`We don’t launch fighters until we are well within them. Tell that to all the captains.`
`Milord?` He looks at me questioningly, then his desk beeps, there is an incoming message from the Ceruzza, asking whether they can deploy the interceptors. His face lights up.
`Yes, milord!` Maybe I won’t be so useless after all.

Kyle

{Okay, just another minute and we have the green light. Sudden regrets, anyone?}
{None at all, boss.}
{Well, I kinda miss da fun the others have right now.}
{Mortal-Four; Jamey, isn’t it?} I’m not sure about her name.
{Yessir!} I’m about to “say” something reprimanding, then I shrug mentally.
{Me, too, but don’t tell that anyone. We can’t be everywhere, now can we?} The other fighters and the gunboats have been harassing the talronids for hours, clashing with dragonlings between the two fleets.
{True, sir.}
{Honestly, sir, what are our chances?} I don’t know who it was, because time-voices are completely different from normal ones.
{Pretty good; far better than last time. We’ve seen the thick of it, the enemy is not known for anti-fighter weaponry, plus we have six plus heads. I say, that I’ll pay a pint of beer to anyone who dies today, and I bet a keg that I won’t go bankrupt. Fair enough?} I know that some of us won’t come out of that fleet, and they know it. We are good, but no one can be that good. There are more than a two hundred thousand dragonlings swarming all over the place, and there are only forty-two of us. But someone has to do this, and we’ll save a lot of lives if we can drop a few nukes in the thick of it.
{Fair enough, sir.} And I wouldn’t let anyone else go in there instead of me.
{Okay, steady yourself, here we go!} The forty-two fighters start accelerating, though they seem like they are standing still to me. The internal gravitational stabilizers compensate the feeling of the acceleration; my insides would blow up, if they didn’t. There’s a five minute ride ahead of us, so I have plenty of time to think.
The Angels, Devils and Mortals are all here; the best pilots of the Fourth fleet if not the whole Navy of the Republic. We are sitting in our modified fighters, it turned out that Liz kept them after the simulated battle. With the six prophetlings, I don’t think they will be able to stop us.
The battle has been going on for hours. The enemy is moving in-system in one, tight group. Doom hovers behind them, while three other battleships block their path to the planet. The inhabited asteroids were evacuated, their population is in the relative safety of the planet. Liz concentrated nearly all her firepower in the blockade, and the talronids had been launching waves upon waves of attacks against it, but to no avail. Our task is to zero in on the left wing of the alien force, clearing the way for our main attack force. At least that’s the story we’ve been advertising on the radio network. When I say radio, I mean of course space-wave transmitters. The communication is nearly instantaneous, about twice as fast as the SI drives.
We don’t know if the aliens have learned how to listen in into our conversation, I certainly hope that they did. Only a few of us know what the real plan is: that Destiny will return in exactly twelve minutes from now, and will start to blast the hyperspace-inhibitors that keep the reinforcements away into smithereens.
We are over 0.07 c now, and the enemy fleet is right in front of us. Of course I can’t see it, but the radar tells me how huge it is. About fifty motherships, each of them nearly as big as our battleships, hundreds of thousands of dragonlings, hundreds of talronid battleships, in one menacing group.
Okay, it’s time to take the plunge. I relax myself, tighten my grip around the controller and prepare for the worst. I’m sitting in a ten-meter long craft on top of a fusion bomb, and I’m going up against creatures a hundred times bigger than me. It definitely won’t be a joyride.

------

The forty-two fighters streaked past the first wave of the defenders without a scratch, leaving the dragonlings standing. There were thousands of them everywhere, and it was only due to their prescience that they didn’t hit ten of them every second.
{Drop it, Mortal Ten!} Jackson hit the big, flashing red button labeled release, but nothing happened.
{What the fuck?!?}
{They got it before it could explode, Nine, you are next.}
{They’ll get me!!!} The scream was filled with the knowledge of certain death.
{We lost Angel-eight, Mortal-Nine, what’s going on?}
{I dropped it, they are disabling it too fast!}
{We’ve lost Seven and Two, do something!} The Devil’s squadron’s numbers were dwindling as well; two pilots evaporated in the crossfire of the talronid battleships.
{Mortals! Three to Six drop them now!} The four pilots released their deadly payload exactly the same moment, but there were simply too many dragonlings around. Their gravitational weapons couldn’t catch the elusive fighters, but the engineless bombs, moving in a straight line were easy targets.
{We have to cut the fuse shorter!}
{We can’t, it’d fry us.}
{Guys go ahead, I’ll remain behind.} It was Angel One.
{Kyle, have you gone mad?}
{We’ve to clear the way for the attack! If we don’t, everyone is gonna die.} With that, Kyle pushed the brakes to maximum, set the fusion bomb’s timer from one millisecond to instant detonation, and reached for the button.
{KYLE, DON’T!}
`Goodbye, Liz,` he muttered and his palm made contact with the flashing red light.

For a second, a new sun flared up in the middle of the talronid attack fleet.

[silverofroswell]

A/C: I kill a protagonist and that's all the FB I get? I'm disappointed. Maybe I should kill everyone...

Part 16

{Don’t fuck up, Five, drop it! Five, he bought us time, don’t waste it!}
{Yeah, here it goes!} The shockwave was only a split-second behind them, a time interval just a bit longer than the fuse of the atomics. He dropped the bomb, and behind him, another ball of plasma appeared, evaporating two talronid motherships.
{Angel Ten, you next, Devil Two, after her, Devil Four, follow!} Mortal One took command, and though she gave the orders without further hesitation, her voice was trembling. The surviving fighters streaked past the confused enemy ships with incredible speed, leaving small “gifts” behind. The bombs detonated one-by-one, leaving a ten-thousand kilometer wide path behind them for the incoming cruisers.

------

”Here we come”, thought Max. He knew about Kyle’s sacrifice through Liz, and it made him even more determined to stop the invasion fleet. But there was a time for grief and a time for anger and he couldn’t be weak now.
At the spearhead of the formation, the Napshuga’R was standing face to face with the entire left wing of the enemy fleet. The corridor the Doombringers cut for him was already closing, they had to hurry. There was nothing to do, for him, or for any other captain of the cruisers. They had a good speed built up, and if they couldn’t get through the enemy before they closed the corridor, they were done for. Cruisers, especially the draconians’, didn’t have the kind of acceleration necessary to maneuver between the enemy motherships or the firepower to engage them at close range.
He just had to pray and keep his fingers crossed that his gunners could keep the enemy ships at bay.

------

Alex
`Begin the acceleration.` Her voice is completely devoid of emotion as she gives the order. The battleships and their escorts are igniting their sub-light drives and we start towards the enemy. In two minutes, Destiny will arrive, and five minutes after them, we’ll plunge into battle.
I sneak a peak at her. I’ve never seen her like this before. Her face froze into a stone mask when we saw the status light for Kyle’s fighter go red. I’ve seen livelier blocks of wood. She does her duty, gives the orders and stands there, just staring into nothingness. I haven’t begun to process it yet. I can’t accept that Kyle’s dead. He was always so cool, so agile… He can’t be simply dead. He just can’t. If I thought about it, I’d break down here and now. And I can’t. Too much depends on us, even on me.
The Avalanche is on our left, the Waterfall on our right, and the Hailstorm remained with the defensive turrets. I don’t trust those rookies from the Second to protect our flanks but they are the best we’ve got. When Destiny arrives, Doom will head for here, but they’ll be too late if the guys from the Second screw up. In war, we have to take risks.
As we are approaching the enemy, Liz is taking control of the battle. The assault force is only half way through the talronids, but it’s clear that they’ll get through. Liz draws back the fighters scattered around us, and forms one massive fist from all the available Republic crafts. We are aimed at the inhibitor ships, forcing the enemy to draw all of it’s cruisers to one side. And they obey her will. The talronids guarding the rear leave their posts, and maneuver to the other side of their motherships. The computer says that they have superior firepower, and I don’t doubt the analysis, but we don’t have to win the battle, we just have to survive until our allies arrive.
`Sunshine, guard your left. Crystal, enemy from ten o’clock. Thor, Zeus, Adamant, concentrate all fire on that mothership. Nuclear command, fire a volley.` She gives her orders in an empty, monotonous voice, moving the million-ton ships as pawns in a game of chess. But on each of those pawns, serve hundreds of men and women. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have such power in my hands. Such responsibility. She sent Kyle and his fellows there. They went because she ordered them, their deaths rest upon her shoulders. I never want to experience what she must feel right now.

------

Max

She is beyond angry, she is enraged, and her anger only augments her power. The dark storm of prophecy, which the texts call battle-trance, is much more malevolent than it has ever been before. I don’t know if I could reach her through it, and I don’t really want to try. Keeping our ship on a safe path is a challenge without me trying to fry my brain with touching that… that thing that surrounds her mind. She clouds herself with pure hatred, with that night-black storm of destruction that everyone had learned to fear. I feel that she trying to protect us, her will permeates the whole battlefield. But her primary focus is on the enemy. Like iron shackles, her will binds the talronids, forcing them before our cannons, forbidding them to evade our shots. It’s not just prophecy anymore, it’s not just seeing the future. Kyle’s death triggered something darker. She is manipulating the futures. I’m not even surprised when Destiny arrives exactly in the middle of the inhibitor formation. Her plasma cannons flare up, and three of the four wormhole-blockers evaporate in the first second. The fourth tries to make a run for it, but Destiny’s bombers are onto her. With most of the dragonlings fighting us and the battleships, they have a clear path. Destiny’s elite fighters come up and give escort. If I reach towards them, I see as they cut down the panicked dragonlings with frightening ease. They sense that’s too easy, they think that the enemy is disoriented, but they are only partly right. I feel hand that smoothes the path before them.
The Napshuga’R is gliding cutting through the enemy like a razor. Two other cruisers, the Vihar and the Chapa’shok, are behind us only with a few kilometers and both are raining death on the talronids. Our interceptors swarm around us, like bees around the queen, destroying every dragonling that threatens us. Mingled with the human fighters and drones we borrowed from the Fleet, they are capable of dealing with anything that comes near us.
With all the ships rushing back to protect the last, dying inhibitor we are no longer fighting for our mere survival. Instead, we go on offensive. I pick targets, and the Napshuga’R turns slightly towards them, with the rest of the joint strike force following us. With extreme speed, we swoop past a mothership, our cannons bombarding her. The Vihar vaporizes two cruisers rushing out to defend their nest and the rest of the force delivers the punch.
The human battlecruisers use the newly devised tactic: a large group of two hundred suicidal drones break off the main force and takes a final dive towards the wounded mothership, with a flock of small nukes in their midst. In the twenty seconds they need to reach their target, they have to protect the missiles, and then… bang! Another nest of the enemy is gone. I pick the next target: a smaller group of talronid cruisers trying to sneak off to get behind our “lines”. Or at least I think they want to do that, honestly, I’m just guessing. It doesn’t really matter. Following the Napshuga’R, twelve Alliance cruisers, fifteen human battlecruisers, dozens of frigates and more than two hundred cruisers head towards the unfortunate blood-red vessels.
Revenge is so sweet.

------

Lieutenant Tracey Woo sat in her SB-107 bomber and was trembling. She tried to control it, telling herself that she was going to survive it, but it didn’t ease her fear a bit. She didn’t sign up for this. From the explosions that shook the ship, she knew that they were under attack, but she had no idea what the situation was out there. They had been near their bombers since the enemy arrived, and they received orders to take off five minutes ago. There were only five squadrons ahead of them in the launch pod’s line, which meant about thirty seconds of waiting.
`You afraid, Tracey?`, asked her gunner from the back of the two-man craft.
`Yeah. You too?`
`Scared shitless.` She glanced down on her compad.
`Three, two, one, here we go.’ The bomber turned with her as the hangar’s computer directed it over the large electromagnet that served as the fling. For a second, they felt the pressure from the acceleration, then the inertial stabilizers started to cope. Within a blink of an eye, the six bombers were out of the hangar doors that closed instantly behind them. She didn’t see anything – you rarely do in space, but the 3-D radar showed more red dots than she had ever seen in a simulation. She didn’t have time to dwell on it, because a pleasant male voice sounded in the radio.
`Silver Arrow Omicron One?`As the squadron commander, she had to answer.
`Yes.
`I’m Blue Dagger Delta One. We, the Gamma, and the Beta will provide escort. We’ll keep your ass clean and shining if you get my meaning. Now form up and accelerate to ten KKs, I don’t wanna stick around playing practice target for dragonlings, Miss. Tracey and her squadron ignited their engines without a word and linked their navicomps to Delta One so they could keep a tight formation. The fighter jock continued to chatter as they shot towards the enemy battleships with several other formations like theirs.
`It’s a fucking zoo out here. Relatively quiet near the BSs, but the fucking dragonlings are all over the place. Suddenly his voice changed to something harsher. Five to Ten, go get ’em!` At his order six fighters broke off the formation and sped up to meet a group of incoming talronid interceptors.`See what I mean? So try to maneuver as much as you can and hope that someone will look after your tail. Drop those little beauties you are carrying on one of the big nasty ones, so we’ll all have a home to go to after the battle. You’re just a rookie, ain’t ya?` Tracey hesitated for a second before saying yes.
First time is the hardest, just like in sex. Just try to survive. We’ll take care of you, I promise, but it ain’t anything like the sims, trust me on that. Do what I tell ya, and we’ll be cool, got it?`
`Got it,` she said, smiling slightly.
Serena

`Mission accomplished. Reinforcements arriving in three minutes. Free hunt `till then!`
I look at the radar. We are past the enemy now, big empty space ahead of us, and we are really fast and heading into the wrong direction. I switch to commander frequency: the next message will be to the other five cruisers, and to the squadron commanders of the fighters.
`You’ve heard the Prince, Phoenices. We’ll head for Destiny, I guess ole’ Enteroff could use a little help. Alpha scout ahead, Beta, Gamma clear the sides, the rest of you stay with the formation.` I switch the com to in-ship mode.
`Shields: try to do something about the aft section. Weaponry: half the turrets ahead, half back, our pants are down behind. Engines: direct some energy to Shields, they’ll need it. Navigation: pull the squad into the Three-Two Tube.` The cruisers start to drift into another direction. Though we are moving at well over a hundred kilometers per second, there are only a few meters per second speed differences between the six ships of the Phoenix formation. From the V-shape, I changed the alignment to something more defensive: Two equilateral triangles following each other closely. Of course, while we turn and begin breaking, the battle doesn’t stop. Our laser turrets are constantly raining high-energy beams on the nearby dragonlings and the fighters can’t stop for a second either. We sustained minor damages from a few talronids who got too close and lost five fighters from the seventy-two we began the battle with. Five good men died at the hands of these monsters. I didn’t even know their names. We’ve taken many, many more down, but we don’t know the real size of the enemy. This might be the biggest fleet they have, or there might be a thousand others heading this way. I only know for sure that five of my men died and I can’t bring them back. I don’t have time to mourn them; I have to keep the rest alive. I don’t even have time to check what’s up with Kyle. I was too absorbed in the acceleration process to watch him when he attacked the fleet almost alone, but the trail was there so I guess they must be alright. There is no way that anyone could have caught him.
We are reentering the talronid fleet from the other side, fighting our way back to Enteroff and the Destiny. Cannons charged, turrets flaring, the Phoenices take the dive back into the heat of the battle.

------

The three battleships were drifting relatively slowly towards the fourth, wounded one. Destiny was in a tight spot, and though Doom’s fighters and drones were catching up with her, real firepower was still far away. Fate’s, Avalanche’s and Waterfall’s plasma cannons were firing without a moment’s pause at the nearby enemies, engaging them from only a few hundred kilometers. Fighters and drones were swarming all around them, keeping the dragonlings away while bombers departed in smaller groups to destroy the enemy cruisers from close range. The unstoppable death machines were trampling everyone in their way, but it was clear that they couldn’t keep up this for long; the losses were already mounting high, especially among the gunboats. But they didn’t have to. With the loss of the last inhibitor, the Talrons’ fate was already sealed. They just had to hold out until General Rath arrived. The talronids knew this as well and in one last, desperate attempt, hundreds of talronids launched themselves at the battleships, to destroy them with the sheer mass of their bodies.


`Suicidal talronids incoming on crash courses. All plasma cannons cease firing, only shoot if the enemy is within a hundred Ks. Avalanche, watch your starboard aft, quite a few will be there. Nightmare, don’t follow it, pick a new target. Skeleton squad, help the Duino, they’re in trouble-`
`THIRTY SECONDS,` counted Fate’s computer.
`-first kamikazes incoming, front gunners pay attention. Nuclear command, start firing our smallest torpedoes, ten every second, detonate them a hundred Ks ahead of us for one minute. Dagger squadrons, draw back for the next ground, that ship’s finished-`
`TEN SECONDS`
`All ships cease firing ‘pedoes, we don’t want the draconians to run into an explosion. Launch the last group of drones on patrol duty-`
`THREE. TWO. ONE.`
Blue dots appeared everywhere, hundreds of them. They slowly grew to kilometer-wide shimmering wormholes and in each one, the nose of draconian cruiser appeared. The magnificent poison-green ships sailed out of the wormholes carefully, and the rifts crumbled behind them as they activated their weapon systems and started to rain death on their arch-enemies.

The Alliance had arrived.

[silverofroswell]

Part 17

Gigantic tents have been erected in a hurry in the great park of New Earth Central. The planet was going to celebrate their survival. Shuttles of the Second and the Fourth have been arriving for the last hour, ferrying the soldiers of the Republic to the surface. The drink and the food was for free and there were enough young girls and boys, eager to meet the heroes, to entertain all the sailors of not two, but six fleets.
They’ve deserved it, and they knew it. With the help of the draconians, they’ve crushed the talronids and saved the people of New Earth. They’ve beaten impossible odds and lived to tell the tale of it. The Republic and the Alliance destroyed the invading fleet. They were intoxicated with the flush of victory, having survived the greatest threat any human ever encountered. Fighting against evil, defending the innocent, they’ve claimed victory. This night was for the soldiers of the Republic.
Yet they all froze and stood attention when they’ve heard the familiar voice of the Admiral of the Fourth Human Fleet. Everyone silenced, and those civilians who dared to whisper met death glares. The usually velvety voice of Admiral Parker was hoarse, as if she had cried, but it was as firm as ever.
`Warriors of humanity! Today, we fought and we won, and now we are going to celebrate, and this is the way it’s supposed to be. But when you dance and laugh and drink, do not forget those who gave their lives for our victory today. You all lost someone on the battlefield today. A thousand and thirty-four of our comrades have died. We do not forget and we do not forgive. Though revenge won’t bring them back, the enemy will pay for their death a thousand times and more.
Remember them while you enjoy this night, for it’s what they would want of you. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t shed tears for them, but life goes on. The war goes on. They wouldn’t want tonight to be a night of sadness and grief, they would want it to be a night of joy and laughter.
Remember them as the heroes they’ve been, and now, please, raise your glasses with me, to honor their memory.`
Everyone raised whatever they’ve been holding and emptied them in unison with their Admiral.
`Remember those who gave their lives for our victory.

Remember the Heroes of Humanity!

[silverofroswell]

Chapter 4

Of Love and Duty

Part 18

New Earth

{HOW COULD YOU LET HIM DIE?!} The Admiral was beyond angry. Her dark rage besieged the walls of her Acolyte. She was looking for someone to blame, and had she found the perfect target.
{There was nothing I could do, Prophetess.} If Shouhanas had been a human, he would have lowered his head in shame. {We’ve tried everything we could, but there were just too many of them.}
{I’ve trusted you to keep them safe!} She was sounding ridiculous and despite her anger, she knew it. The prophetlings couldn’t be held responsible for Kyle’s death.
{We failed you, Prophetess. We couldn’t carry out your order.}
{Damn you!} Her futile fury was suddenly gone. It consumed all her strength, and she collapsed down on a chair and started to sob. She looked up at him with tearful eyes. She wasn’t the Prophetess of Humanity any more, just a lost, sad little girl.
{You’ve lived so much, Shouhanas,} she began, weakly. {Tell me why he had to die?}
{There is no answer I know of. It is a war, and in war, many good people die. He died a hero’s death, if that helps.} It was impossible to tell if there were any emotions in the ancient Antaran’s voice, he was as calm and quiet as ever.
{He didn’t want to die a hero’s death. He wanted to live and enjoy his life. Will they all go like this? Because of me?} She was riding an emotional rollercoaster these days. Sometimes she began question her own sanity.
{You are responsible for those who are under you. Their deaths rest on your shoulders.} She looked up, sober and serious again.
{This was not the answer I expected.}
{But it is the only answer I have.}

------

Antar

Isabel

`Shut up you… You… You idiot! You’ve no idea what you are talking about!`
`That will do, Lonnie,` says my mother. I rush out of the room, fuming. I slam the door behind me. I had had enough of my family. With determined steps, I hurry towards the communication center. The servants give way to me; I think my frustration could be felt from miles away. The guard at the door looks like he is about to stop me, but then he decides against it. He steps back and allows me in. The comm room of the Palace is a crowded place, full of engineers and technicians, but at this late hour, there is no top head here. The officer in charge steps up in front of me and starts to protest mildly.
`Lady Vilondra, you’re not allowed in here…` Under my icy stare his words die in his throat. `Um… What can I do for you, milady?`
`Has there been word from my brother?`
`No, milady.` Again, I just stare at him. He is far weaker than me, and he knows it. I feel his lie. `Um… Yes, there has been one.`
`Let me see it!` He looks like he is about to refuse, then he gives up and shrugs. He gives me a sheet of paper, with my brother’s report. He says that they are expecting a battle with enemy forces in a few days. The good news is that Rath will catch up with them soon. I get an optidisc out of my pocket.
`Transmit it to him!`
`Milady I… Yes, milady.` He gave it up. I smile at him.
`Thank you, officer.` I wait until the message is safely away, then I thank him again and leave the room.
Since that fateful night, a lot of things have changed. Where should I begin? The whole race speaks of Zan and Liz’s bond and of the granoliths’ part in the assassination attempt. With a little help from me, all of the press has been notified that even their own killers left the crystal-computers. The fleet is being mobilized, and we draw troops to Antar’s defense. Civilians are leaving the planet in a constant stream, but far too few. Most trust the strength of our ships. The fools!
Meanwhile Khivar has begun his own campaign. The snake! He speaks of the “Royal House’s apparent inability to lead the people”, and the “treachery of Zan”. He keeps on talking about how outdated a system the monarchy is.
Father has collapsed, he is only a shadow of his former self, while my mother spends all her time comforting Avianna with some mad hope that my brother will come back to her.
Our race is at the brink of civil war, my family is in ruin and invasion threatens our home.
All in all, I’m not a happy camper nowadays.

The only ray of hope is that Zan will come home soon, and make things okay somehow. I don’t really know what I’m hoping for. I should be concentrating on convincing as many people as possible of the necessity of leaving their homes. The talronids will come, no matter what some choose to believe, and like all planets they’ve attacked before, Antar will fall as well. Maybe we can beat back one attack or two, but there is just too many of them. The other races all accept this reality.
The renulars have been withdrawing from their new colonies, concentrating their forces on a more defendable border. The Draconians are pumping scouts into the emptiness, trying to locate the enemy, while we are preparing for one decisive battle. And I have the feeling that that battle will happen only too soon.

------

‘How are you?` Serena could only offer a sad smile.
`I’m coping.` They’ve stood silent for a while. `I can’t believe he is gone.`
`Neither can I. He always seemed…`
`On top of things,` she finished for him. They’ve stood by the great vidscreen of the central bridge. They were nearly alone; most of the people who usually worked in the heart of Destiny were going over the reviews of the battle. Vice-Admiral Enteroff was standing at a respectful distance, staring into the distance. Apart from him, everyone else was busy with their computers.
`It must be really hard for you.` They were talking in low, quiet voices, like people who’ve been through too many things lately, and came through with hardened hearts.
`It is. But no matter how hard it is, I have to stand my place.`
`You don’t have to… You could ask for a month’s leave. No one would say a word.` She smiled weakly as she shook her head.
`Thanks Alex, but no. My people need me.`
They’ve stood silent for a while, watching the stars that twinkled in the distance.
`Tell me, please, why haven’t you told me when…?`
He seemed to contemplate the answer for a while.
`It wasn’t much of a conscious decision, but I think that we thought that telling you would risk the lives of those under you.`
`Duty comes before everything else?` Alex was mildly surprised that she didn’t sound mad, only melancholic.
`You know it does. It has to.`
`I know. It hurts, but I think I understand you.`
`He understood too.`
`Yes… He did. You know, he threatened my life once, when I was… upset about Liz’s way of doing things. He told me that he would slice my throat if he had to, no matter how much he loved me.` Tears glistened in her eyes. Alex put a comforting arm around her shoulder.
`I never knew that. But it’s just like him. Always joking, and laughing, but underneath all serious and all business.`
`I’m sorry, Alex, I didn’t mean to fall to pieces on you…` she sobbed. `I miss him so much…`
`Hush. I understand. We all miss him.`

------

The airlock hissed as the shuttle connected to the Napshuga’R. Soon, figures walked out on the door leading to the other vessel, antarans and draconians. During the battle, there was no time for idle chit-chat. Though they had the upper hand, it took all the cunning of the Admiral and the General to clear the skies of the talronids. After the first minute of confusion, the enemy rallied and retreated into one, tightly knit group. It took hours for the joint forces to destroy all the talronid motherships and the drones were still hunting the last of the dragonlings at the edge of the system.
After the victory, the humans descended to the surface to party, while the Alliance remained on duty above them. The battle had taken its toll on the Eleventh as well. Tugs and repairmen in space suits were running up and down on the body of the scarred, yet still beautiful cruisers.
The Eleventh was formed by the draconians in one mighty effort to create a proactive force that could go forth and meet the enemy before it threatened their homes. It had more ships than the first ten draconian fleets put together, and was only outgunned by the Third Alliance Armada.
However strange it might seem, most high-ranking officers were antarans. The draconians’ talent at warfare stopped at building the best ships of the Alliance, and they knew it. Traditionally, after a General served a decade in the Antaran Royal Navy, they retreated and joined the Draconian or the Alliance Navy. Lord Rath had guarded the borders of the Alliance for fifteen years, and then left for Earth on the infiltration mission. After his return, he has been offered the position to lead the second largest fleet of the known galaxy. He accepted without hesitation, of course. After a month’s training, the Eleventh began her first tour of duty. After several clashes with younger talronids, they had picked up a large hyperspace signal heading straight into the heart of the Alliance. They instantly started to pursue, but the Talrons took them farther then they had expected.
Apart from the skirmishes, this was their first real battle, and their General was more than satisfied with their performance. Due to the Prophetess’s help, they hadn’t lost a single manned vessel, and though many interceptors did not return after entering the combat zone, the General couldn’t have been more satisfied with his troops’ performance.
It took more than a day after the battle for Michael to get things moving again. The long hyperspace travel and the fight both took their tolls on the ships, and there were just too many things that demanded his attention. Being the general of a frontier fleet and being the general of the Eleventh were two completely different things. He was really looking forward to spending some time with an old friend.
He was the first through the airlock, and looked around, searching for Zan. The interior of the Napshuga’R was alike to any other Draconian cruiser, though it was an old model. The designers were pretty creative when it came to placing hyperspace wings, but the inside was always the same, dull one.
`Welcome aboard my flagship!` someone shouted good-heartedly from the end of the corridor.
`You call this dingy a flagship? Where are the rowers? Or does it even has sails?`
`It’s nice to see you, Rath. I see you haven’t changed a bit.`
`It’s nice to see you too.` They’ve clasped hands, and looked each other in the eye.
Max led the way towards his quarters, while the General’s adjutants trudged after them. He looked behind his shoulder and waved them away.
`Guys, get lost for a while, okay? Go over the diplomacy stuff, we’ll meet in an hour.`
A few turns later, Zan opened the door of his quarters.
`You don’t live here, do you?` Michael asked, after looking around.
`Not really. It was the Chief Engineer’s place, when I moved in. Of course, the captain offered his quarters, but I turned him down. It’d be a waste. I only spend a few nights here. I usually sleep over on Destiny.`
`Oh, poor Zan… Tell me how mated life suits you.`
`It’s… very different. Besides, we don’t have much time for ourselves. She is currently shouting his acolyte’s head off, and will have at least a dozen meetings and debriefings today. It will be a small wonder if we’ll be able to meet in body.`
`Acolyte?` Michael asked, `What you’ve been up to, organizing a cult? Typical of humans but I expected better of you.`
`Don’t be daft. What you know of the events after the Pact’s signing?`
`Just rumors, really. I know that you are a persona non grata in the Kingdom, but I lost contact with Lonnie and the rest of the world after we went after the talronids. What happened?`
`The granoliths found out that Liz is a prophet and things only went downwards after that…`
It took him ten minutes to sum up the events of that night. Michael sat silent for a while, humming.
`And? Now what? `
`I don’t know. We could go to Earth to refill the battleships and make some matters clear to the Council. Or maybe you could join us, and we could head towards the front… We haven’t decided yet.`
`There is a lot of trouble at home, that’s for sure. Now that we don’t have to maintain radio silence, I’m getting worrying reports. All races are retreating, and systems are falling on all borders. The Eleventh is needed back at Draconis, we have to prepare before the lightning strikes.`
`Yes, but securing the human fleets wouldn’t be a waste of time either.`
`Yeah, maybe you’re right.` Zan stood up and stretched his muscles.
`We should leave business for later. I’m sure we’ll have more than enough strategy sessions in the next few days. How about going over to your place? I’m sure you are better equipped for entertaining guests than I am.`
`Well,` Michael said, `the Draconians sure pay well. I’ve managed to get my hands on a few bottles of hundred years-old Alangian butterfly-wine.`
`Sounds good!`

[silverofroswell]

Part 19

Star system Antar
Deep Space Sensor Station KS 75

The station was calm and quiet. The reactors worked on minimum power, and there was nothing worth seeing on the commercial channels. Lieutenant OrSem liked it this way. He and his two mates oversaw one of the many stations in the warning array. It was good pay, with eight working hours everyday during which you had nothing to do but watch a couple of high-tech gadgets hum to themselves. One week at the station, one week at home. The Lieutenant was a patient man. He liked sitting in the comfortable chair in peace and watching the stars. He never expected anything to happen. After all, this was Antar.
But more than two weeks ago, the impossible happened: the alarm sounded. Luckily, he was off-duty that day, safe on the surface, but ever since, his sense of safety was disrupted. He became more and more tense every day. Sitting duck in an unarmed spacestation in the middle of an invasion was the nightmare of all deep space marines. The shuttle was securely anchored to the station, but it wouldn’t be able to outrun the dragonlings. Roughly speaking, they were expendable. So, it was understandable when the lieutenant nearly fell off his chair when the sirens started to howl. He froze for a second, and then the routine of a thousand drills kicked in. Though the transmission was automatic, he hit the big “Alert the Planetary Command Center” button, then jumped off the chair and started to race down on the stairs towards the airlock.

------

`This stuff is stronger than I expected, ` Max said calmly with a solemn expression on his face.
`Don’t mind its strength, it’s the flavor that matters!` They were sampling Michael’s extensive collection of exotic vintages, though some of the beverages that were called “wine” throughout the galaxy were quite far from the traditional terran drink. Some were made out of animals, for example.
`It reminds me of blueberry.`
`Blueberry? That, my friend, was made out of a certain type of bug, and carbonated by the toxic subterranean gases of Goral-V. `
`Still, it reminds me of blueberry, ` Max said, and judging from his pose, he was ready to fight for the point.
`Okay, have it your way. Then, tell me,` Michael begin, searching for another bottle, `what do you think this is?` He picked up an elegant bottle, half full with a blue-ish, jellylike substance.
`Trouble,` he said in a different tone.
`You guessed right because it is…` It never came to light what it was, because Max interrupted him.
`There is trouble.` He concentrated for a second, as if he was trying to listen to a far-away voice. `Prepare your ships. We are leaving shortly.`
`Why? What happened?`
`Antar is under attack.`
`You must be joking.` From friendly-banter mode, he switched to prince-in-command.
`No. Liz found out just now. What do you think, how long is the hyperspace route back to Antar?`
`Five days, maybe six. Why?`
`It’s nine by SI drives. We have to go by wormhole, then SI in when we are near enough. Can your ships gate the human fleet as well?`
`No problemo.`

------


Sirens started to howl all over Antar. Everyone ran towards the relative safety of the underground bunkers while the few who could actually do something to stop the invasion tried to get to their crafts. Vast hangar doors opened and thousands upon thousands of interceptors streaked forth to leave the atmosphere and form up between the planet and the invasion fleet. The crews of the cruisers rushed up on the ramps of their crafts and the magnificent, hundred and fifty meters long ships started their rapid rise towards the stars. The sky begin to darken and slowly changed from the usual purplish-blue to deep, poison green as the planetary shield system gradually powered up.
The same was happening on all the inhabited planets of the system, as well as on the orbital stations, everyone was doing the well rehearsed emergency routines.
Finally, the Navy climbed out of the atmosphere and drew the defensive net around the planets. Calls for help were sent out in every direction. The military heads gathered together, discussing strategy and plans for evacuation.
The star system Antar stood ready for the siege.
Above them, the battle had already begun.

------

`They are closing in!` OrSem shouted, terrified, watching the rear radar.
`Go faster, you piece of junk! Please go faster.` The passengers in the escape pod were close to succumbing to panic. The miles between them and the dragonlings were shrinking with every second, and the swarms of the interceptors leaving the defensive stations were still too far away.
`We will all die!` Even the primitive computer of the shuttle has reached this conclusion. It displayed the remaining time until contact, in rapidly decreasing seconds.
There was nothing they could do. Four heartbeats later the dragonlings streaked through the rapidly expanding gas cloud that used to be the crew of KS-75 to meet the first waves of the ground-based fighters.

A/N: I'd like to welcome the new people. Hello Serephinah, Ner, Norma Bates. You've arrived quite late, there is only one chapter left unwritten before the end of the Stars universe, but at least you got to read the whole story in one go.

[silverofroswell]

Part 20

`General Rath, Prince Zander, Admiral Blau, Vice Admirals, thank you for coming on such short notice. Please have a seat.` The humans looked uneasily at the antarans while they seemed completely undisturbed by their presence. The high officers of the forces stationed in the system sat down around the table except for Admiral Parker.
`We don’t have much time so I’ll get right to the point. The capital world of the Antaran Kingdom is under attack.`
`Again?` asked Valenti.
`Yes. And this time it’s serious. The talronids mean business. If we don’t interfere, not a single soul will leave the battle alive.`
`Then maybe it is time to rethink the terms of the treaty,` said Admiral Blau. He had been pushed into the background ever since he arrived here. Not only was he ordered like a common soldier by a woman who was at least twenty years younger than he was, but she even dared to take credit for the victory. As for her claim to being able to see the future, he didn’t give a damn. When they got back to Earth, he’d be the first to propose her removal because of apparent mental instability.
`It’s funny you should mention that, Admiral, because Antar has requested our assistance. According to the treaty, it is our duty to help them.`
`Well, then we shall depart with utmost haste to Terra, to ratify the treaty. If the Council approves, then maybe we can really send out a smaller relief force,` he said pompously.
Prince Zander slowly and deliberately rose to his feet. His face remained as stone-calm as ever, but he definitely radiated an aura of deadly menace. Liz quickly gestured him to sit back, which he did, but his gaze remained fixed on Blau.
`I don’t think you understand. Even if we hurry and, as you said “depart with utmost haste”, we might be too late. You are to ready your ships for immediate departure.`
`You cannot command me. I’ve put up with your behavior during the battle, but I will not tolerate it any longer. Speak to me like that again, and I’ll see to that you’ll be removed from your post.` Liz’s eyes narrowed. Valenti suddenly remembered a very familiar conversation not so long ago, when another officer tried to threaten the Admiral on her own ship. He began to wonder how much of this was planned beforehand.
`Is that so? I was afraid that it will come to this. Frankly, I don't have time for idiots, Admiral. You are wasting my time. I'm relieving you of command,` there was hardly any emotion behind her voice, it was as if she was just shooing away some annoying bug.
`You can't do that! You don't have the authority!` He still didn’t grasp that she meant every word. His Vice-Admirals stood stupefied, still not having caught up with the events, expect for Vice-Admiral Blau, who was watching the exchange with an interested expression.
`The Council is far away. Will you go quietly or do I need to call the MP?` she asked almost casually, offering him the choice.
`Who do you think you are?` shouted Admiral Blau. Liz picked up her com.
`Sergeant, I need your assistance.` Two burly looking guards stormed in. Liz pointed at the baffled soon-to-be-ex-Admiral leisurely.
`Sergeant, take that gentleman into custody, please.`
`HOW DARE YOU!?!`
Liz turned back at him, her eyes flaring up. Her low, threatening voice cut icy silence into the air.
`I am the prophetess of humanity. I do whatever I please, and nothing, you or anyone else can say or do can stop me.` He continued shouting as the soldiers dragged him away.
For a second she stood silent, composing herself, then she put on a charming smile and turned to Louis.
`Admiral Bauer, please allow me to congratulate to your promotion. You are in charge of the second fleet now. Is there anyone else who questions my authority? No? Excellent. Ready your ships, we are leaving in six hours.`

------

`You’ve gone too far this time. You’ve simply gone too far.`
`You still worry about the Council? Don’t. We have much larger problems on our hands.`
`Do we? Name one!`, he said annoyed. It was like he was talking to a wall.
`Do you have any idea about the size of the invasion? We are vastly outnumbered. If they rallied only a tiny percent of their forces against us in a battle, we wouldn’t stand a chance.`
`Then it’s even more important to remain on good terms with the Council.`
`Oh, we’ll get their support when planets start to fall.` The remark was so cynical and so unlike Liz that it shocked Alex.
`You would sacrifice planets…?`
`Don’t be daft, of course I would, not if I have any other choice. But I can’t be at two places at the same time, and we don’t have enough forces to protect every system. They know where we live. Can you understand that? They know.` It was one of the first things taught in the Academy. If the enemy knows the coordinates, you had better start evacuating that system. But you couldn’t empty all the planets, not in the middle of a war.
`If only we had a decade. Or even a year. It took a hundred thousand years for us to evolve from monkeys. Is it too much to ask for one decade to prepare for a war? Or even five years. If we had five years we could forge the Alliance’s and the Republic’s technologies together. I fear that the war came too early for us.`
`Will we lose?`
`I don’t know. We need time, time to create ships, weapons, technologies. If we survive long enough, maybe we can turn the tide. But I have to win every battle I fight. If I died… you wouldn’t last a year.`
`The Alliance survived for hundreds of years.`
`Yes, but this is something different. It feels different… I can’t explain it to you, but it’s a turning point. The forces heading here…` she was searching for words` … I’ve seen the space between the stars. I’ve searched thousand futures… but all these are just tiny things compared to the threat we face. An uncountable, hungry horde, million times greater than anything we ever saw… ` She was trying to tell the unimaginable, paint the inconceivable. `This is a turning point. If we fail, everything falls. Everywhere. No one, ever will be able to stop them. No one. Never. If we stand, and fight hard enough, then, maybe there is hope.`
`How you know that? How you know about the things you said?`
`It doesn’t matter. I just know it, and it is true. So do you understand why I don’t give a damn about the Council?`
`Maybe it’s just your fears enlarged? I mean there has to be somewhere somebody who can stop them, if we don’t. What if we packed everyone on ships and got the hell out of here? Somewhere to begin anew and build up a new empire and this time, prepare for them?`
`If you are a candle, you cannot prepare for being thrown into the ocean,` she said, shaking her head sadly. `Alex, I need to ask you something. Stay here.`
`What do you mean “here”?`
`Go back to Earth. Convince or destroy the Council. I’ll send two prophetlings with you. They can come very handy during negotiations, and they are excellent assassins. Try to get as many people into unexplored territories as you can. Found new colonies, build new factories, so when all our fortresses fall, there will be still more troops to fight.`
`And let you go into battle without me?`
`I need new ships and better weapons, and there is no one else I can ask. Will you do that for me?`
`Of course.`
`Usurp the Council, if you can. Democracy is a luxury of peace. In the years to come, we can’t afford the people choosing their rulers, because simply they’ve no idea who would be a good ruler.`
`I’ll do what I can,` he said, and he meant it, against everything he believed in.
`Thank you. `

[silverofroswell]

Part 21

Vilondra of House Antar, also known as Isabel Evans, was watching the deep, poison green sky over her beloved homeland from the window of her tower-room, and wondered if she would live to see the sun rise again. Under the shield, there was no dawn or dusk, only the eerie glow above them. Dark thoughts came to her easily nowadays.
When the talronids had barely entered the system, it became clear that the planet was doomed. The population was collected into evacuation camps, so if the Navy could punch a hole into the blockade, they could empty the planet at once.
But Isabel knew, it was a futile hope. No one could get there quick enough, not with the damned inhibitors above them. The Alliance Armada would be there in two days, but they must exit hyperspace at a distance of two weeks, and inch the rest of the way in on sublight drives. By the time they got there, the planet would be ashes.
The fleets stationed in the system did everything they could, but the talronids outgunned them ten to one. There were many desperate attempts in the last two days, and many acts of heroism, but to no avail. No matter how hard they fought, they were losing ground. The inhibitors were too well protected, surrounded by motherships and hordes of cruisers. Nothing could get to them, and while they stayed alive, nothing could get out of the system.
The defensive rings fell one by one to the never-ceasing onslaught, but that was their purpose: to buy time, and bleed out the enemy. Soon, it would be time for one last, desperate attempt to attack the blockade with all their force at one weak spot and make a run for it in real space, trying to outrun the talronids.
She looked around, and her eyes took in the view of the castle grounds, maybe for one last time. No one tended to the gardens today, and the usually sparkling light-fountains stood down, showing only the bare metal bones of famous holographic statues. The yard that should have been bustling with life stood empty and deserted. It was a strange, sad sight.
`When did things go wrong?`, she asked herself. It was just a game two weeks ago for her; an admittedly dangerous game with great rewards, but only a game. Now her planet was at the brink of destruction. It was just not funny anymore. People, her people were dying every second above her, to delay the invasion, so that she and the others could live a few days longer.
Never during the last fifty years, on Antar, or on Earth, did Vilondra take anything really seriously. She invested time and energy in things because they interested her or it was expected of her, but she never bore any responsibility. And now she had to grow up fast.
She had to be strong now, visiting the camps, trying to keep up hope in the people. They weren’t humans to break down and panic, when the future seemed bleak, but antarans, proud and strong to the end. And the end seemed near.
There was no crying or chaos in the camps, just silence, determined silence. They knew that their lives were out of their hands. They waited for gigantic transport ships to get the green light so they could bolt from the planet. Their chances were slim, and they couldn’t do anything to alter them.
It was the helplessness of the situation that maddened her most. It didn’t matter what she did, not anymore. If she had been more persistent, then maybe more people would have left for the safety of the colonies. Maybe it was all her fault.
She looked up again at the unnatural sky.
There was no night or day, not anymore, just the endless wait for the inevitable.

------

Two days earlier
Just outside the star system New Earth

`This is Admiral Parker. All wings report in.`
`Admiral Bauer. Avalanche and her ships stand ready, Prophetess.`
`Vice-Admiral Valenti, Fate stands ready.`
`Vice-Admiral Vetier, Waterfall stands ready.`
`Vice-Admiral Huito, Doom stands ready, Prophetess.`
`Vice-Admiral Cho, Hailstorm stands ready.`
`Vice-Admiral Enteroff, Destiny, and all her ships stand ready.`
`Prince Zander aboard the Napshuga’R. My ships are ready.`
`General Rath, please begin the countdown.`
`At once, milady. All ships hold positions. Commencing countdown from one hundred…`

The largest fleet ever assembled stood down completely. Every robust human battleship was surrounded by the smaller, more fragile draconian crafts, and the rest of the human ships took up positions around their new comrades, so their jump would pull the human ships with them.
There was not much to the organization of the relief force, really. Admiral Parker issued orders with a quiet, but firm voice, and it was amazing how quickly her orders were obeyed by the sometimes reluctant men of the Second after it became known that she had had their Admiral dragged away from a meeting and locked up on Destiny.
Her authority was never even questioned. After Michael’s announcement on public channels that the Prophetess was to be obeyed without question, there was no one in the system who would try to cross her. Provisions were carried to the ships amazingly fast, and though both the Second and the Fourth were down on nukes and drones, there was no choice but to leave the holds half-filled. New Earth simply didn’t house enough supplies for six battleships.
Now commanding two-fifths of the Republic Navy, and half of the Draconian, Admiral Parker still felt that she lacked the force necessary to break the talronids’ hold over Antar.
And more than that, she was most worried by the strange mist that clouded her vision when she tried to See the situation near Antar. She felt a will not unlike her own strain against her, cloaking the Talronids from her in the dimension of Time.
She felt the Prophecy unfurl around her, and did not know how to stop it. You cannot outrun a hurricane sent from the depths of time. You can only ride it, and hope that you can hop off before it tears apart all you love.

Blue gates of energy opened above New Earth.
Help was on its way.

------

INTERLUDE

Nearly half a million years ago
In a long forgotten Galaxy millions of light years away
In the final days of the conflict known as the Great War

All their strongholds had fallen. All their weapons had failed. There was no hope for them.
`What should we do, Prophet?` Their voices were resonating with the vibrating beat of the universe itself.
`Where shall we flee, Prophet?`
`Silence!` The creature was far from anything that anyone on Earth could ever imagine, but by their own, alien standards, it was regal and beautiful. They had no emotions a human could understand, no desires a human could call his own. They were neither good, nor evil. Just immeasurably alien.
`We’ve become like Gods, so we played God. We created this abomination, and now it will consume us. So be it. But we shall not be responsible for the destruction of all life in all the galaxies.`
No one asked anything like `Are you sure, Prophet?`.
Ten thousand years of conscious self-evolution made their race akin to no other. Their intelligence, honed to perfection, could cross gaps of logic in a second that would take thousand years for a human to solve.
`I see no hope, but we have to try. I shall quest ahead and seek another of my kind.`
The acolytes bowed, understanding the need. Blue light flashed and they slumped down to the ground, lifeless. Around them, in an expanding circle, all of their race died, powering the plunge of their prophet with their sacrifice.
It rose through time like rocket. It felt power gather around it. It considered changing the outcome of the battle above their last planet with a flick of a thought, but he decided against it. They were overwhelmed one to a million, and it didn’t want to waste energy on winning that battle.
They’ll last long enough for it to find a suitable candidate,
If there is one.
Streaking through thousand and thousand years, he touched consciousnesses that touched the flow of time, some had power, but were born too early, and some were too weak to stand in the path of the rot that spilled out from its own galaxy, polluting everything they touched. It sensed that “back”, when it left its body to die, millions were sending their life force to sustain his, but it did not care. It just rose, upward and upward.
Then, finally, it found what it was looking for. A light. No more than a spark, but bright enough. Just enough. It dived back for a few thousand years, securing the crucial events that led to her, then rushed ahead again to examine her more closely. On the way back, it touched a few minds around her physical place and with bursts of revelations, it prepared them for her coming. It took nearly a minute for it to understand her culture, and another to compose a message. Back in that other time, all members of its race were dead, having sacrificed themselves to fuel his journey. There was nothing to go back to, just hordes of the abomination. It didn’t have much time left, if time ever had a meaning for a traveler. It emitted something like a sigh, then it began to communicate with her.

`The winds of war are blowing…`

[silverofroswell]

Chapter 5

The Fall of Antar

Part 22

Prophetess Parker

Too many things happened too fast. I should’ve had a millennium to grow, or at least a century to build some power. I’ve been forced to act too early. If you put a prophet to the test, she’ll pass and her power will increase. But there’s a price to pay for this hurried growth. There’s always a price.
Your emotions. Your memories. Your sanity. Your humanity. I should have been brought up in a remote, quiet place, made aware of my abilities slowly, gradually. Instead I’ve been thrust into the deep water. My antaran brothers went mad because of the strain that the constant use of their power put on them. I’m a million times stronger than they, and sometimes I feel that my problems are a million times harder to deal with too.
Too damn early. I’m not ready. I can’t see far enough ahead, I can’t predict everything that happens on all the worlds of the Alliance and the Republic. How can I defend them when I don’t know what’s going on? I have to expand my limits daily, increasing the strength of my vision. But the farther I see, the farther I’ll be from everyone else.
I’m not human anymore. That’s the truth, when you get down to it. I look human, and I play the part, but I’m more alien than an antaran could ever be. I eat and drink out of habit. I don’t need food or water; I get my energies from sources outside my comprehension. I gave up on sleep two weeks ago. Instead I quest ahead and behind, watching out for those who belong to me. I try to keep up the pretense but I slip more and more often. How can I pretend to smile when I don’t know joy anymore? How can I pretend to care about lives that simply don’t matter?[\i] I remember caring about Alex, or Maria, but these are only memories, and like everything that is human in me, they are quickly fading. Kyle’s death brought something out of me, some dark anger that I could cling to for a while, but soon it too was gone, just like all of my other emotions. I could stop the process, or even turn it back, but I won’t. I can’t remain human and be who I have to be at the same time. It’s my choice to give up everything to protect those who used to matter to me. That’s the only way. Only two of my drives remain.
Duty. It’s the only thing that is really important. It’s why I exist. To be a weapon, forged to purge the filth of the talronids from the universe. Oh, I know my purpose now. I feel its presence. It is watching me from the other side of Time. It created me and aimed me at the heart of its enemies. I don’t know what it is, or why it brought me to life, and I don’t care. The talronids are my enemies as well as its, and I’ll fight to the death to protect mine from them. By being a prophet, a creature of might, I can stave them off long enough for… For what? I don’t know, but I know that if I’m strong we might get a chance. We are just a whisper in the tornado, a candle compared to the dark, cold ocean. There are less than a hundred planets in the Republic and the Alliance put together, and there are hundreds of galaxies bustling with Talrons. Overwhelmed doesn’t even begin to describe the odds. We are nothing compared to their might. But we have to fight. And we will. If I fail, no one else will triumph. That’s the dark truth that makes my nights dreamless. That’s why duty is the first and foremost. There’s only one thing that steals my attention from time to time.
Him. Love. The only thing that binds me to sanity. To be in his embrace, to breathe in his presence, is the last comfort I have. He has all that I need, all the emotions, all the hope, the bravery. To be with him is to be mortal again. At least what I remember from being mortal. Funny isn’t it? All the little things are lost. I remember that I used to like the flavor of oranges, but I don’t know what I found so appealing in it. Why was the scent of raspberries my favorite? I don’t remember ever thinking about these things, and now, I’ll never find them out. Still, the shadow of life he can grant me is more than I would have on my own.
Just to think about him is a pleasant distraction. Being with him is almost unbearable. I know I used to love making love, now I don’t understand what’s so thrilling about it. It’s just grinding our physical bodies together. I’m not disgusted by it. I just simply don’t enjoy it any more than walking the corridors. He knows of my feelings, gives me what I need. His soul. His emotions and thoughts. By borrowing his, I can relive some of my own. It’s not much, but at least it reminds me of the years I’ve spent as a mortal. I can’t give him anything in return. I can’t let him to enter my mind. The powers that twirl in me would tear him apart. My body is his to use, but he doesn’t want it, and when I’m with him, I understand why. When we are apart, I only remember the understanding, and I only remember that it is sad for some reason, but I don’t understand why it is sad, or what does sad mean.
I need him. I need him more than anything. I want him completely but I have nothing to give in return. It’s not fair, but life isn’t fair.
Still, he holds me back. While I’m with him, I slide back to being a mere mortal. I’ll have to choose between Love and Duty. That has been foretold to me. I don’t know when the choice will come, and in what form, but it will.
How will I be able to tell him that he has to go?

Star System Antar
8th day of the siege

All the outlying planetoids and stations have fallen; only Antar and its moon remained intact. The defensive forces, or what was left of them, fell back to the final line of defense: the geostac batteries orbiting the planet.
One last charge, and they’ll have to evacuate, attacking a weak spot in the blockade and trying to outrun the talronid vessels in normal space. There wasn’t any real chance that they’d be able to, but still, some would live. The planet was doomed, and you had to be a fool not to know that.
It was time for last, desperate attempts.
On one of the spaceports stood a metal sphere. It was at least two hundred meters wide, and its surface was perfectly smooth, without any apparent entry point. It lacked the antennas and weapon stations usual on the exterior of most ship.
It was one of the rarest ships to see between the stars: a renular battlesphere, a gigantic mental amplifier that could multiply the combined power of the individuals sitting in it.
Around it, several hundred of the most powerful antaran telepaths gathered, ready to board the spaceship.
The mission was clear. Take off, fight the minds of the Talrons, and try to severe its connection to the hyperspace inhibitors. It could be done, and it had been done before, but not against an enemy of this size and not by antarans. Their chances were slim, still, they had to try.
On the pavement of the spaceport, a heated argument took place.
`Princess, you can’t come.`
`You’ve no right to deny me! I want to help!`
`No, you can’t risk your life.`
`I want to do something useful. What good am I if I die stranded on the planet when I could have helped to stop them?`
`You are the princess, you have to stay with the people.`
`Not when I could do something to save them!`
There was a moment of silence in the shouting, when both parties ran out of breath.
`Look, Uncle. All I ask is to let me on that ship. I am powerful, and you know it. You could use my help,` she began anew, this time in a lower voice.
`History will remember me as the Governor who lost our home planet, but I’ll be damned, if I’ll be the Governor who let the royal line die out. You are the heir to the throne, princess, and your survival is more important for our people than any help you could give us.`
`I’m not the heir! My brother is.`
`No one knows where Zan is, and as things stand now, you are the next in the line. Please, Lonnie, go back and let us do our duty.`
`It’s not fair!`, she cried out, exasperated, but she got no answer.

------

Draconian cruiser Dyadalmash
Flagship of the 11th Draconian Fleet

Michael

`To all ships: begin the countdown. Prepare to leave hyperspace.`
`Countdown started, Sir,` says the ‘comm officer on my right.
The bridge is a busy place, but there’s a moment of peace now. Nothing requires my immediate attention. My cruisers are gliding through the immaterial reality of the hyperspace effortlessly, their elegant stabilizer-wings keeping them straight. There are human ships trailing after each of them. A dozen ships are surrounding the battleships, cutting out a bubble in which they can exist.
Soon we’ll reach our target, a nameless spot just outside the Antar system. We will form up again, and this time, the humans will be carrying us on their back, right to the planet, where we’ll break the blockade and then flee with the population.
It’s not even in the plan to make a stand and fight.
Antar will be lost forever. I will never see the magnificent towers of the High City, I will never bathe again in the waterfalls of my estate.
Our homeworld will be destroyed. All that beauty, all those memories disappearing forever, because one woman decided that it’s not worth fighting for. What, in the devil’s name, is, if this isn’t? Who does she think she is, to turn her back on a culture that thrived when humanity was just a bunch of monkeys on trees?
The most infuriating thing is that without her the Eleventh wouldn’t stand a chance. They outnumber the three fleets put together, but with her abilities, maybe… maybe we could win.
But she wouldn’t even listen. She just said no flatly before I could even begin! How can you argue with someone like her?

Max

`Exiting hyperspace in 3…2…1…Now!`
The ships of the relief force glide back into the normal space. We don’t waste a second, all vessels start moving. The battleships’ engines roar up as they take up a hexagon formation, with the rest of the fleets between them. We perform the maneuver seamlessly and the countdown begins anew. Less than five minutes later we disappear again without a trace, this time heading directly to my home planet.
SI travel basically takes place in normal space, it’s just very fast, so we can travel between the ships. I don’t let the opportunity to see Her slip. Taking one of the shuttles aboard the Napshuga’R, I sail over to Destiny. After docking in the usual hangar, I hurry to her flat.
Through her, I know that there’ll be a commander’s meeting. It doesn’t matter as long as I can be near her. I feel as if I’m losing her. She is slipping away, day by day, and I can’t do anything to stop it. While I’m with her, our connection reignites, but it always starts to wane again, as soon as I leave the room. I’m more and more afraid that one day, I’ll wake up and it’ll be completely gone.
She doesn’t need me anymore. Or she needs me more than ever. Both are true at the same time, and I don’t know what to think, how to feel anymore. She has become so distant, so… lost? There have always been a few secrets between us, and I let them be because I trusted her to do the right thing. Now I’m thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have let those secrets come between us.
In the beginning, I was afraid that she wouldn’t accept our differences, and now the tables are turned. I can’t find a way to touch her heart, to capture her soul like I used to. I can’t lie to myself that it will pass away, and everything will be all right again; it won’t.
I can’t keep up with the pace she has set. I’m not a prophet to oscillate between the present and the futures yet to come. I can’t measure up to her, I’m not enough anymore. She needs a husband equal to her, and I can’t be that husband. We are in a deadlock. Mating is for life, and nothing can change that. I’m not who she needs, yet she has no one else to satisfy her needs. I can’t give answers to her problems or lend her my strength. She is unique, one of a kind, and she suffers from the loneliness.
Between us, there’s just silence. She’s glad when I’m there, I sense it, but I sense the underlying guilt as well, no matter how hard she tries to hide it. There are still moments of openness between us, but they’ve become scarce. Sometimes I feel like we are living in a lie, in a marriage that has no bond in it.
Other times, she clings so desperately to me, like she’s afraid that she’ll lose me. Beware of the prophet who looks at you with tears in her eyes.

------

`We have six hours before the battle begins. I still can’t give you reliable information on the enemy’s plans. We are still too far away and I can’t penetrate the cloud it drew around itself. So I’ll have to improvise on the spot. Zan, you said your people will be able to leave fast.`
`Yes, Admiral, the transport ships are ready to bolt. If we can brake the blockade…`
`So that’s what we’ll do. Peter, Vasilij, you’ll be the spearhead.`
`Yes, Admiral,` they nodded gravely.
`Vetier, Waterfall will bring up the rear.`
`Yes, Admiral.`
`Cho, I want to keep Hailstorm as a reserve. If anything goes astray, you’ll have to save the day.`
`Yes, Admiral.` The answer she got was the same every time. They’ve accepted her orders without questioning them.
`General, are you sure that you can jump us out with the fighters intact?`
`Yes, Admiral.`
`Then, Admiral Bauer, Jim, I need you to go after the inhibitors. We’ll need to get away real quick, and we can’t sit like ducks while the fighters dock. The battleships weren’t designed for retreat, it’d take too much time to get the fleet ready for SI. They don’t expect an attack from behind, so their back will be relatively unprotected. You jump out there and hit them as hard as you can.`
`But Admiral, if Fate and Avalanche shoots down the inhibitors, then the Fifth Alliance can hyperspace in. Together we would…`
`Fail.` She finished for him. `Without doubt. We can’t take on these Talrons in a single battle. We rush in, get the civilians and disappear before trouble really starts. Hit and run. And after the people of Antar are safe, we’ll continue to hit them and run away until they are so weak that we can finish them off in a single battle. But I won’t fight that battle until those billions of innocents are in my care.`
`Then what should my ships do?`
`Divide your forces into two groups. The smaller should assist Destiny, Doom and Waterfall in escorting the transports and the larger should give a hand to Avalanche and Fate. Zan, can we expect any trouble from the government?`
`Hardly.` He didn’t add anything, so no one asked.
`Excellent. So to sum it up: we’ll have to take out the inhibitors so we’ll be able to flee. But even with hyperdrives, we can’t make a jump in the middle of a battle. So we’ll have to fight our way out as well, not just in. Questions?`
`How much time do you think we will spend in battle?`
`After half an hour, we would start losing battleships, so we have to get out in less than twenty minutes, no matter what. If we lose this force, we lose the war.`
`How will we extract?,` asked Valenti.
`You’ll have to be really quick to get all the inhibitors. Luckily, they are all in one place, so you won’t have to divide your forces. Two battleships, and half of the Eleventh should cut their defense into pieces, but you’ll have to make a run for it the minute you’re ready, unless you want the greater half of their fleets fall upon you. It’ll be up to the Eleventh to give you an exit. We will meet you up after the battle.`
Her gaze swept over of the men, making eye contact with each of them.
`If there are no more questions, then I think we are finished. Brief your own people gentlemen and get ready: the battle awaits.` She watched as the others began filing out, and she looked at the prince.
Her words in his mind were barely more than a whisper.
<Stay with me. Please.>
------

The star system Antar
9th day of the siege

It was the end. The last attack has failed, the battlesphere couldn’t get close enough to the motherships to destroy the heart of the Talron. It was blown to pieces with the best of Antar’s telepaths a little outside the trajectory of the fourth planet, taking all their hopes with it.
Though the orbital batteries amassed during the two hundred years of the war still held, everyone knew that in less than two days, Antar would fall. The evacuation camps were empty; now the people lived aboard the evac ships.
Now, it was their last chance: run and fight. The fifty remaining cruisers withdrew into the atmosphere for quick repairs before the last attempt. It was doubtful that any ship would reach even the outskirts of the system, but they had to try. Everything was better than sitting and waiting for death to come.
The people of Antar had no God, no one to pray to in these desperate times. Though they did not ask, someone listened. At 17:08, Earth time, Antar command caught a signal on the recently installed space-wave detector. Hoping for the best, they ordered all ships to take off, not wanting to miss the chance if it was indeed a relief force.
With a little lag, the Talrons sensed it as well. The enormous fleet began to shift, moving ships to welcome the newcomers, but they were slow. Too slow.
Six minutes after the first signal showed up on the screens, six human battleships and four-hundred sixty-two draconian cruisers exploded into sub-light space.
`Alliance forces, this is prophetess Parker of the Human Republic. You seem to be in a bit of trouble. Do you require assistance?` Isabel was the first to grab the comm and before anyone could have interfered, she began to transmit.
`Admiral, this is Princess Vilondra. We need your help badly.`
`Begin the evacuation. We are coming in for you.`
She switched to another frequency.
`All ships, green light. Go get them!`

------

Lieutenant Woo’s hands weren’t shaking this time as she reached for the main flight control joystick.
`Silver Arrows, prep for take off. All wings report in.` She checked the engine’s and shield’s panel for the hundredth time, while her gunner did the same for the weapon panels, but all she saw were unblinking, green lights. The Waterfall’s mechanics did a great job with the shield system. They completely reconfigured it, copying the Fourth’s method, minimizing the EM capacity and maximizing the anti-gravity deflectors.
`Omicron 2 is ready for battle.`
`Omicron 4 standing by.`
`Omicron 3 reporting in!` Kevin was the youngest in the squad, and a little too hotheaded for his own good.
`Omicron 5 reporting in.`
`Omicron 6 standing by, Boss.`
The bomber bay’s launching electromagnet picked up their craft and hurled it out to open space. A thousand bombers and five times as many fighters were gathering around the Waterfall. Though couldn’t see anything with her bare eyes except for the sun of the system, the 3-D radar showed that space ahead of them was full of alien battleships, and even farther ahead went Doom and Destiny. Fighters were darting all around the formation with swarms of drones and alien interceptors escorting them.
Tracey switched her engines on, and the navicomps of the squad linked to her did the same for the other crafts. They were supposed to take up a position a thousand kilometers left to Waterfall and start on raids from there. But before venturing out into enemy space, they had to wait for their fighter escort to catch up with them.
They did a few laps of honor around their mothership, then the radar showed a group of golden dots approaching rapidly from sunwards.
`Happy to see me again, Silver Arrows?` Asked Delta Leader on the comm. `It seems that we are along for another ride. Let’s form up and head out, the crowd here is getting on my nerves.`
`Glad to see you, Blue Daggers. Had a nice day?`
`Nope, no frags so far. I bet those fuckers are scared shitless to come anywhere near us.` While they were chatting, they linked up the navicomps to keep their formation tight.
`Then we’ll have to go to them, won’t we?` She asked, smiling slightly.
`I guess. If the mountain won’t go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must go to the mountain.
`That’s what my tactics teacher always used to say.`
`What, Old Horseface taught you too?`
`Yeah, I wonder if he had a heart attack when he heard a real war broke out. He was always dying to get into some action himself.` Her thoughts flew back to the academy, and how different it seemed back then. Humans were the good guys, everyone else… everyone else was the enemy. Reality was much more… complicated, she mused as a group of draconian interceptors streaked past them, easily overtaking her relatively slow bomber.
`Okay, enough of chatter. Approaching combat zone. All Daggers: de-link computers, and brake up into pairs. One wing of the pair covers their bomber, the other wing covers their asses. Don’t be heroic, you’re supposed to look out for the Arrows, not go hunting alone. Good luck, everyone, and behave yourselves!`

------

`Sir, the Snowflake-Five was destroyed.` Another cruiser disappeared in the crossfire of the motherships, with a hundred good men aboard her.
`Call back the rest of the Snowflakes and send out the Zeus to escort them back.` Admiral Bauer leaned over the tac-map, worried. Their assault was going smoothly, but losses were unavoidable. The motherships that threatened the cruiser group retreated even farther when the Zeus and her fighters forged their way through the hordes of dragonlings. Back and forward were of course relative. Though the Zeus advanced faster than the battleships, the Avalanche wasn’t very far behind either; moving at two percent of the speed of light. It would take nine minutes altogether to catch up with their already fleeing prey; the inhibitors simply did not have the acceleration to outrun the human-draconian forces.
If the Talrons thought at all like the humans, the Admiral thought, they must know that once we get the inhibitors the antarans will be able to flee.
The number of ships they were so easily sacrificing seemed to prove his theory. The enemy threw everything they had in that area at them, without any kind of tactic, as if they were trying to overwhelm the battleships with their sheer numbers. There were large forces stationed in the system, but they were scattered, so the humans only met a small percent of them. The rest was moving seemingly randomly, as if they didn’t know which target to pick.
So, apart from some minor losses, the assault was a complete success, but according to all laws of the battlefield, the accumulating minor damages will result in mass losses after a critical point, and Louis Bauer wanted to make sure that he’d be out of the system before they reached that certain point.
Three draconian ships came up from behind and caught up with the Zeus. They singled out one of the motherships and bombarded her with deadly rays of energy. It slowed down, marking it a perfect target for the Zeus’s plasma cannons. The second volley tore it into pieces while the fighters, the interceptors and the drones chased away the remaining dragonlings.
The best of the human and draconian technology showed up on the battlefield and the crumbling rear of the talronid forces quickly gave way to the two battleships and the nearly two-hundred cruisers; dooming the inhibitors.

------

`Omicron-2, dodge left!` The bomber went into a spiral, when the pilot twisted the joystick ninety degrees. The three dragonlings turned after her, offering their backs to Delta Four who used the opportunity.
`This is six, two on me!` The young pilot’s fighter was already damaged and he knew that no matter how hard he tried, in a few seconds they were going to hit him again.
`Coming!`
`Hold on!`, came two replies at once. Delta Eleven and Nine cut in, and while Eleven drew away the fire of the gravitational weapons, Nine vaporized the enemy from two kilometers afar. They were both very of fond of Six, and took it as a personal insult if someone tried to hurt him. After another two minutes of close quarters struggle, the human crafts remained relatively alone.
`This is Lead. Skies are clear. Form up, we don’t have much time.` The fighter screen broke off the main battlegroup two minutes ago to disable a mothership and a couple of smaller warships near the path of the main force. The twelve squadrons of fighters and bombers met relatively little resistance, but they knew this was going to change.
`This is Delta One,` he began on the squadron’s channel, ` Nine, escort Six home. Seven, now you take care of Omicron Three. Twelve: Omicron Six is yours. We’ll all look out for your back.` Delta One wondered if it was wise to send someone with Six. The space was empty between them Destiny, but a lone, damaged fighter was no match for a handful of dragonlings. But now, two of his men were uncovered while they had to look out for a bomber.
He switched to Silver Arrow Omicron’s frequency and informed them about the changes, then he had twenty peaceful seconds to check quickly all his systems before the next wave of defenders were on them.

------

`Antar, we are a minute away. Begin the evacuation!`
`Roger, Destiny.`
When the relief force arrived, the talronids began their assault on the homeworld of Antaran Kingdom anew, with greater ferocity than ever before, as if they intended to destroy the planet in the five minutes left before the battleship’s arrival. The last ships of the home fleet perished one after the other as they tried to stave off the invaders. The geostac stations were firing continuously, vaporizing wave upon wave of attackers.
`To all ships: begin braking!` They had to slow down, because they would’ve swept past the planet before the evac ships could have joined them.
`Thor, cut back,’ a switch in frequencies, `Cirill, help out the Method,` another switch, now to nuclear command, `a volley on them,` she points on a score of cruisers approaching from sunwards, then a switch to the fighter frequencies,` Blood Drainers Gamma, forward, full throttle!`
Her hand was gliding absent-mindedly over the control panel while her other hand was pointing on various targets on the map of the battlefield. She didn’t look down, she didn’t have to. While there were a dozen fighter commanders on the bridge, she intervened time to time, sending a squadron out of the way of harm, or right into it, knowing they’d win.
It was what she was born to do: to rule the battlefield, to crush her enemies. But this time she was fighting another battle beside what went on the physical plane against a mind half a million years older than her own.
While the Talron that saw the end of the Great War tried to cloud the vision of the new Victorious One, Liz was desperately struggling to keep her people alive. She let her body do what it had to do, while she ran back and forth in the near future, probing roads, nudging personal fates from one path to another with the aid of her acolytes.
The help of the twelve prophetlings was immeasurable. The antarans knew next to nothing of real power, but the tricks they’d learned in the past millennia helped her to shape her talent. They were twelve fingers for her, probing, prodding fingers. They were weak alone, but it was the body that had to have strength, not the fingers. They were everywhere, coming and going making small shifts in the river of time. They had to care of individual fates while their Prophetess worried about the outcome of the battle.

------

Isabel

Everything happened so fast! One minute we were sitting on the planet, planning our escape, the next, there is a big force fighting its way through the blockade. If only they had warned us! But any message we received, the Talronids would have sensed as well. We had only ten minutes to leave our home planet. These are the final minutes of Antar.
The ship trembles under my feet as we rapidly rise through the atmosphere. The planetary shields go out with one final blink. There is no reason to leave them up. We slip through the defensive batteries, right into the middle of the human formation.
The gunners of the orbital turrets chose to remain in place. There are more than ten thousand good men and women in those slowly rotating geostationarious cannons, ten thousand who will be left behind.
They will cover our back. It was their decision to stay and fight. They’ve sacrificed themselves for us, for there will be no escape after the human ships pass the planet. We will mourn for them, and remember them as heroes forever. But for now, they still live, and are raining death on those who dare to follow us.
In the mad rush of the battle, seconds tick by, and I cannot do anything. I’m not a gunner or a pilot and there’s no one up here to meet my sword. I hate being so helpless! I can just stare at the screen and hope that Liz, Rath and their ships will protect us.
Now that our ships are in the middle of the formation, everyone begins accelerating. The other half of our forces is battling to overcome the defense of the last few inhibitors. Now it’s all up to them. They either beat them, or else … I don’t want to think about the or else.
I hate being helpless!

------

Liz

In a minute the last inhibitor will be downed.
A hunch, weak and waning fast.
Too fast.
A glimpse of something sinister. Something hidden.
I try to see it, but it’s clouded.
{Concentrate!}, I roar to the prophetlings.
Focus the attention in one single moment and it will unfold.
Concentrate.
Concentrate.
I’ve found it! Fuck!
Cruisers and motherships breaking off the inhibitors’ defense force. Wheels spinning. Cruisers maneuvering around the battle. Vectors yet unseen show themselves.
Forces that eluded us so far, moving on absurd paths.
Those paths. They converge.
I tear up the cloak that protected them from me.
It all falls into place.
It’s a trap.
To catch me.

------

`Firebird, watch out! Concentrate on the cruisers, leave the dragonlings to the fighters! They can’t get through!`
The battle quickly deteriorated from organized retreat to a desperate struggle for survival. Dozens of motherships were rapidly approaching the formation. The whole talronid force was crushing down on the three battleships assigned to escort the refugees.
Now they were in the crossfire.
`Lava Eagle, pull back! Nav, to the Eagle, Delta, Kappa, help the Eagle!` The Red Phoenix turned toward the Eagle, trying to get into range, while two squadrons of fighters disengaged the dragonlings and hurried to her defense.
But the cruiser was doomed. Two draconian cruisers got at short range, matched her speed, and were firing continuously. The Eagle broke out on top, firing her single plasma cannon at the lower half of her left tormentor. The million Kelvins hot liquid metal ball hit home and the talronid erupted into flames.
Before Serena could sign a breath of relief, the other warship steered left and for a run straight into the Eagle.
They both disappeared in the coming explosion.
Bolton!, she wanted to scream the name of the captain of the Eagle, but she knew that he was dead with his hundred and twenty men. She wanted to cry, to scream, to fall on the floor in pain to mourn the friends and comrades lost. Buts she couldn’t fall apart, there were still five cruisers under her command.
`Phoenices, cover the Agni!`came the command from Destiny.
`Did you know this Liz? Did you plan this?`, she thought darkly.
`Nav: speed back. Turn to one-oh-four, two-seven-oh. Delta, Kappa back! Tighten the formation!`
The battle went on.

------

`They are above us!`
`Watch out, three from sunwards!`
`This is Five, my shields are down!` A dozen talronids were chasing the girl. She tried everything, but no matter how hard she slalomed, she couldn’t shake down all of them.
`This is Five, I need assistance!`
`Cut right, Five, I’m coming up behind you!`, shouted Eleven.
<i>Too late</i>. They all felt when she ran out of luck, and one talronid managed to focus its gravitational ray right on the cockpit.
`Suzanne!` Delta Eleven, though he was late to help her, fired a rocket right into the middle of the dragonling pack, and the tactical nuke evaporated all of them.
`Here comes another wave!` There was no rest.
`Eight, where’s your bomber? Nine, don’t go wandering!`Delta One was trying to keep the squad in something resembling a formation and tried to keep all the angles covered to the bombers while he himself was fighting for his life.
He was losing men; Nine and Six returned to the carriers early in the battle, Seven was blown apart, he lost his own wingman in the assault on the mothership, and now Five. All of them were good men and good friends.
This was totally getting out of control. They ambushed a lone mothership, and the bombers blew it to pieces while the fighters entertained its escort, then they turned back, but ran into hell itself. They were fighting to get back to the battleships, but the battle was so thick near Destiny, that he doubted that they’d make it through.
But he wasn’t about to give up while he had a joule of energy in his lasers.

------

`Six new motherships will be in striking distance within a minute, Sir!`
James Valenti was watching the battle with his fists clenched tight. The rest of the fleet was about to be destroyed, and he couldn’t rush there to help them. Instead, he had to <i>flee</i>, while his friends and comrades were in mortal danger. Was there a more cowardly thing to do?
`Sir, we have to hurry!` His new adjutant was a young, but promising officer, and he still had to learn a few things, like not to hurry him. He missed Pete very much; it was like his right hand was missing.
`Let’s go,` he sighed. He switched to the frequency of his strike-group.
`To all ships: we’re leaving the battle. Disengage the enemy immediately and draw near the draconian ships. Prepare to enter hyperspace in thirty seconds!`
It was an incredible challenge, jumping out of the battle. All of Fate’s and Avalanche’s fighters broke off, turned tail and fled to the nearest cruiser, with the dragonlings in hot pursuit. According to the plan, Jim ordered all of his interceptors to abandon all attempts of self-preservation, instead they only concentrated on keeping the dragonlings away from the fleeing fighter’s backs.
When ninety-five percent of the human ships were in range of a draconian ship, they started to open the gates, one after the other, taking the nearby terran vessels and a few unfortunate dragonlings with them.
The battleships were last, and as Jim glanced at the battlefield one last time, he wondered if he was ever going to see them again.

-------

`First ships reaching the gravitational threshold! Entering hyperspace!` Ten evac ships, two human battlecruisers and a dozen ships of the Eleventh disappeared in the blue gates.
`First batch away, Admiral!`
There was sweat glistening on her forehead, as she fought her own battle with the mind of the Talron, trying to break its hold over their future. The six prophetlings she kept by her side stood by side frozen, lost in another world while men and women were dying in space. Not just gunships and corvettes, but cruisers and battlecruisers were lost forever too. While the losses mounted, the human-draconian-antaran group was making a painstakingly slow progress, trying to get out of the gravitational reach of the planet without being blasted to smithereens by the enemy.
With the Admiral immersed in her private battle, Colonel Whitman took charge, trying to keep the formation together and trying to beat back the talronids and protect the evac ships at the same time. Neither he, nor Enteroff were ready for such tasks, but they tried their best. They used the battleships as gathering points, where the damaged ships could retreat, while the draconian vessels gave the bulk of the attack parties led by the battlecruisers, departing to meet up the incoming waves of talronid cruisers and motherships. The rest of the Alliance ships zigzagged back and forth providing cover for the evac ships.
But there were just too damned many of them. Millions of dragonlings, more than a thousand cruisers and nearly a hundred motherships clashed with the retreating forces, more than they’d ever met put together.
Against this incoming swarm, they could do nothing but fire continuously, choosing the closest target and destroying it, then choosing another, and another and another, hoping that they’d be out of there before the shields gave away.
Only fifteen minutes passed since they entered the system, but it seemed like the battle had been going on for hours.
Everything was happening incredibly fast. Even the organized attacks had to be finished within a minute or two, because if they were too late in returning, the horde would close in between them and the main fleet and they’d be cut off, and written off as lost.
In the mad rush of the battle there was no rest and no peace, just the endless slaughter against an undefeatable enemy.

------

The Red Phoenix shook slightly as the main plasma cannon fired.
`Hit!` The targeted cruiser evaporated as the cruisers of the Phoenix group streaked past it, part of an attack formation consisting of the battlecruiser Agni and eleven Alliance cruisers.
`Nav: stay close to the Agni! Gens: plasma off, more to shields! Fighters: we’re heading back, stay close! Aft sections: fire a volley to keep the ‘lings off our tail!` They’d already destroyed the enemy carrier, and they’d learned the hard way that the surviving dragonlings always tried to take revenge with one, last, suicidal attack.
`This is Aft! We’re out of rockets!`
`Damn! Then Gens, front turrets to fifty percent, aft turrets to a hundred and fifty and hope that they won’t overheat!` The engineers working on the fusion generator of the Red Phoenix redirected some of the power assigned to the front laser beams to the turrets near the engines. The reactor was already working on a hundred and twenty percent, but currently no one worried about the regulations. They needed every ounce of energy to charge the shields, to squeeze out the maximum speed from the drives and to provide sufficient firepower to the weapon systems. There was no such thing as gradually rising temperature in the engine room. You either kept the damn thing under control, or you burned alive when the million-Kelvin hot plasma broke out of the magnetic hold. They were trying to remain on the inner side of the line, as close to catastrophe as they dared. The ship desperately needed energy.
In the passing seconds, the aft computer-controlled turrets destroyed fifteen hundred talronids with the help of the remaining drones and the fighter escort. The attack force approached another relatively lonely mothership. The draconians reached it first. Two cruisers battered it with fire from their ion and grav cannons. The cruisers defending the mothership rushed ahead, one colliding with an Alliance cruiser, the other nearly missing. The next triad of the Eleventh fell on the cruiser as angels of vengeance and tore it apart. The Agni came next, surrounded by the Phoenix cruisers and escorted by the frigate Enkidu. They targeted the mothership herself and engaged her at point-blank range, concentrating the maximum possible destructive power in the minimum possible time; they couldn’t afford to slow down. Six alien cruisers brought up the rear, finishing off the last two enemy ships and clearing the area from the dragonlings.
The whole attack took less then fifty seconds, and during that time the fighter pilots barely had the time to adjust to the new circumstances. They only saw the endless stream of dragonlings, with no rest, no moment to catch their breath.
The Talrons lost four cruisers and a heart-ship, while the relief forces only one cruiser and three fighters. But the Talron didn’t feel the loss where a hundred wives and husbands will never see their beloved come home from battle. One immediate threat to the evac ships was gone, but there were already three other, similar groups approaching the defenseless refugees of Antar. The Agni and her ships just couldn’t get them all, be there every time, and even one mistake would mean the death of hundreds of thousands.

------

Max

‘Third batch away, Sir!` I let out another sigh of relief. Ten ships, ten million of my people are safe. It was a close one, but they made it. The Napshuga’R turns back towards the battleships and fifteen cruisers copy her.
We’ll sail back to the battleships as fast as we can, and try to run back ahead with another group of transports. We risk them by bringing them out of the formation, but the BSs can move faster if they don’t have to protect so many transports, and the gravitational threshold is less than a minute away now from the main group with our speed.
Now only Destiny and her sister ships stand in the middle of this madness. Valenti left some time ago, and Hailstorm followed her shortly. Captain Cho couldn’t get here to help us, and there was no point in risking her ship.
Alex had to order her to leave; she wanted to stay and fight. Finally, she retreated into hyperspace from the advancing motherships.
The three battleships and their escorts remained alone, and the enemy is coming from every sides.
And She left us, to fight her own battle. I don’t feel her anywhere, as if one half of me was simply missing. I don’t know where she is or what she is doing right know, but I hope that she comes back unscathed. We need her badly. I need her badly.
The engines` roar changes as we begin braking as we approach the formation. The pursuing dragonlings will soon catch up, and we’ll have to fight off at least a thousand of the damned things before the next convoy could join us.
I sigh and close my eyes. I’ve learned a few things from Liz. I let my consciousness expand, instead of being focused to here, and now, I try to concentrate my will on the next moments. I catch images of possible futures and I help my gunners to choose a better path – I’m no prophet but the battle computer shows that the gunners are twenty percent more efficient with my help. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.
I come out of the trance when we meet the first human interceptors. Ten evac ships break off the main formation, and join us. The battle is raging around us, and we have no time to waste. On my order, the cruisers turn and the engines roar up again. In ten seconds, we leave the battleships behind with ten thousand kilometers, and the enemy closes on us again. I close my eyes again, to stave off the hordes of hungry dragonlings.

------

`Faster! Catch them!`, Alex shouts through the radio. We’re trying, Serena wanted to reply back, but she didn’t have the time. The Agni and her escort was hurrying back to the main group. One mothership slipped through the defensive net, and none of the draconian cruisers protecting the evac ships was in position to intercept. They tried though, and the mothership and the cruisers escorting her destroyed them one by one.
They had less than twenty seconds before the Talronids reached the evac ships, and even the cruisers at the spearhead were forty seconds away from the rear of the enemy.
The transports desperately tried to evade the enemy, scattering into every direction. The Talron picked one target and the blood-red, nearly amorphous vessels that served as the limbs of a sentience beyond the understanding of the human mind followed it’s will.
Serena could only watch numbly as they opened fire on the hopelessly maneuvering, defenseless transport. Her shields held only for a second then gave away. She couldn’t do anything. A million sentients died in the fraction of a second, and she couldn’t do anything. Men and women, adults and children became nothing but overheated space dust.
And she couldn’t do anything, but watch.
And count the seconds left till they caught up with them.

------

Liz

Forward. Slash. Up. Left. Down. Down again. Trace back. Forward. Right. Left. Back. Skip.
Timeless dance we fight. I’m all and I’m nothing. I’m the inferno and I’m the spark. I consume and I create. I seek and I destroy.
Shimmer. Glance. Back. Left. Thrust. Forward. Step. Forward. Slash. Forward. Light. Forward. Duck. Cut. Light. Glance. Forward. Turn. Push. Shield. Forward. Again and again. Light! <i> <b>FREE!</i></b>
I soar high up, breaking free of the chains that bound me to a single future. I open my eyes, and find myself on the bridge. It takes me a second to catch up with this reality – to start breathing for example. Another two while I get acquainted with the situation of the battle. We’ve been doing badly, but not that badly. With a little luck, we’ll be out of here in three minutes, and more importantly, more or less in one piece.
I breathe in, then I plunge myself back into the flow of time. I’ve got a battle to win.

------

Everywhere on the battlefield, fighter pilots stopped for a heartbeat when they’ve felt her enter the combat. Like a beacon, she shined, showing way, and clearing the path. Suddenly, the joystick seemed lighter and the crafts faster. They leaned into her wind and let it freshen them up with unearthly energies. They all sped up, ready once again to take on all the enemies of this universe and beyond; fighting with unbeatable skill and unmatched luck.
The prophetlings slowly stood up from the floor, and no matter what ship they were on, they all turned towards Destiny, their eyes all shining with the same blue light, drinking up the strength of their Mistress, readying themselves to get back to their tasks. One by one, they all re-entered the flow of time, helping the ships She assigned to them.
The two hundred laser turrets of the Agni turned after the retreating mothership together, filled with one purpose from one mind, and let their blasts fly exactly the same moment, tearing apart the murderer of hundreds of thousands. The Prophetess, filled with dark anger, took revenge.
Her will flew onward jumping from ship to ship, smoothing fates, helping shots and saving necks. The tide of the battle was turning; mothership after mothership perished in the crossfire of the Fourth and the Eleventh. Suddenly the plasma cannons hit home more often and the lasers flared more brightly.

------

Serena

For Kyle, you bastards, I want to scream as I see the enemy blown to pieces.
`Reload. Fire,` I say instead.

------

Max

She’s returned! I feel her as she was standing right beside me. She is quicker than the lightning and a thousand times more deadly. The future unfolds before me, I see farther and everything becomes clearer. I guide the Napshuga’R through futures when we win, and the tide of the dragonlings break on us.
I don’t know how many of the things we’ve destroyed so far, but it has to be well over ten thousand. They come in a constant stream and our interceptors aren’t much help against them. But with Liz back on the field, I’m strong enough to lead them right before our cannons.
Our formation accelerates; with the evac ships nested safely inside the ring of the cruisers.
A pang in the future.
Holy shit! Motherships!

Six of the most deadly ships of the enemy were positioning themselves right into the way of the cruisers escorting the refugees, eager to kill.

------

Liz

I left my beloved last; a decision I’ll regret till the end of my days.
Six motherships were blocking the path of the last cruisers of the Antaran Royal Navy. In their hurry to reach the extraction point as soon as they can, they went too fast to evade the enemy.
I’ll never know if it was just a coincidence, or the Talron knew of our connection and wanted to destroy me through it.
I felt his terror, then after a moment of indecision, I felt him to make his choice. He chose to protect the ten million innocents entrusted to his care. Against the overwhelming firepower of the enemy, this could mean only one thing.
`Good bye, love,` he whispered. These were his last words.
He shut me off easily to protect me from the pain of his death, then pointed the nose of the Napshuga’R to the foremost enemy ship, to ram into her, giving a chance for the rest of the formation to slip through.
And then, suddenly, I found myself at the vertex of two paths, clearer then ever before, like when I was falling from the cliffs seemingly ages ago.
The future hung in the balance.
<i>I went with my instinct. With a defiant roar, I swooped down on the Talronid ships with all my might and anger, disabling them for a heartbeat, freezing them in time for one long second, enabling the cruisers and the evac ships to pass unharmed.
The rest of the battle went by the book. In the next three minutes, we destroyed over a hundred cruisers and a dozen motherships, those who threatened my love among them. The fleet entered hyperspace, and we escaped the trap the Talrons set for us.
We emerged from the wormholes near a nameless sun. There were no victory celebrations that night; too many good people were lost for ever. But we survived, and became stronger again.
That night, we made love once again. With passion and fire burning in our veins, moving with the pure joy of life, rejoicing every moment that we are alive.
And I was finally, truly happy.
</i>

------

Alex

`Duty,` she whispers. `I choose duty.`
She turns away from the map, broken.
A single tear trickles down her right cheek.
She never shed more than that one drop.
She never spoke of this day, never mentioned his name.
But when she turned away, I caught her eye for a split second.
Until the day I die, I’ll remember the look in her eyes – empty, soulless holes with pain in them, pain beyond any imagination. And I pray every night that I’ll never know that pain.
The antaran cruisers slammed into the motherships with full speed, sacrificing themselves, so the evac ships could reach the point of escaping.
The heir to the throne of Antar was dead.
Max, our friend and ally was gone.
I stood mutely for a second, then, I slowly raised my eyes to her, wondering what I would see.
She just stood there, her face frozen into the mask of stone she has worn ever since.
The life was gone from her. A shell stood there, staring with empty eyes, but not really seeing anything. If you looked into her eyes, nothing looked back.
Liz was gone. She followed him into the grave. Only the Prophetess remained.
And She was angry.
She began speaking again, with a dull, monotone, lifeless voice. Her hand was gliding on the tactical console, switching between the frequencies, giving orders.
`All ships in the main group begin braking. Destiny, steer left. Waterfall, steer upwards. Doom, steer left. General Rath: signal the Fifth Alliance to hyperspace in. We stay and fight.`

No talronid left the star system Antar that day.
The day Elizabeth and Zander of Antar died.

The day the Queen of the Stars was born.

The day, the second Great War began.

THE END

[silverofroswell]

More than a year passed since I began working on Between the Stars. A lot of things happened in my life since last May, but these novels were always a solid point for me, I could always sit down and write when I needed a moment of peace and quiet.
Now, it’s over. This epilogue is the final piece of the Stars trilogy. The story calls to me, that I should continue it, but I have a thousand other tales I want to tell, so I’ll remain strong.
This is the last time we’ll see the Human Republic, the Antaran Kingdom, and the Alliance of the Nine Races. Bid them farewell.


Epilogue

Sixty years after the destruction of Antar
Near the ruins of Old Earth
New Alliance battlemoon Unity
Dock AA-245

The Ezeraev glided into the enormous hangar bay and her pilot put the frigate down smoothly. The ramp opened with a hiss and a lone, hooded figure hurried down on it. The officer, sent out to escort the guest, kneeled and bowed his head.
`Lady Vilondra, the Prophetess is expecting you.` Isabel just nodded and gestured him to get up. He led her towards the hangar doors without saying anything else.
Normally a hero of the Alliance, like her, visiting would get all the attention of the press, but the order that came from the highest of places was that they must keep this strictly low profile.

------

From the protection of her cloak, Isabel was looking around, curiously. Was it really seven years ago when she had last been to Unity? It was only half finished back then, the skeleton of the magnificent station it had become. Home to nearly two billion people, the heart of the New Alliance. It was the first of the twelfth class ships, but far from the last.
There was little beauty to be found on a battlemoon – they were designed with protection, rather then in aesthetic values in mind. But after sixty years of constant battling, Isabel found that she valued a hundred meters of sturdy plas-steel and good shield generator more than the most beautifully formed statue of the Alliance. Works of art didn’t protect you when the Talrons came, but guns, shields and prophets did.
The elevator carrying them came to a halt, and they stepped out of it. A white-robed human was waiting for them - one of the Prophets. The officer escorting her bowed respectfully and retreated into the elevator- his role was over.
`Follow me, please.` There was no kneeling, or “Lady Vilondra” this time. There were no weapons on him- he didn’t need them. “I am the weapon,” she remembered Liz saying that. In his pure white clothes, he seemed totally harmless - until he started to move. He had the grace of a predator, totally confident and absolutely sure that there was nothing more dangerous then him around.
The man led her down on the corridor. They were near the heart of the station, and after another elevator ride spent in complete silence, they arrived at their destination – the personal quarters of the ultimate ruler of this galaxy.

The room would have been surprisingly modest to an outsider, but Isabel was used to the simple life style of her friend.
The Prophetess of the New Alliance was lounging on the sofa with the copy of the Alliance Times in her hand. The jeans she was wearing were nearly half a hundred years old, but around her, things tended not to age. She didn’t look a day older than twenty-five, only her eyes betrayed her true age.
`Come in, Izzy,` she said as she stood up. They hugged each other tightly. `How are you?`
`Bit tired from the travel. The prophet you sent for me wasn’t really all sunshine.`
`You know them. They are still in the “I’m the center of the universe” phase, and they won’t leave it if it’s up to me,` she spoke smiling. ‘Tea?’
‘Thank you.’ She filled two cups for them, one with sugar and one with Tabasco.
Isabel remembered the so far only rebellion against Liz’s rule. It ended weeks before it even had a chance to begin. Liz had all the traitors executed and defeated the prophet that dared to conspire against her in duel, showing her underlings that they were still far behind her. The woman walked into the audience room, unaware that her conspiracy was uncovered. When she stepped over the doorstep, she stood up without saying a word. They’ve locked their eyes, and it was over. The loser fell to the floor dead; she suffered a sudden heart attack. Not many knew of this in the Alliance- there were secrets best left buried. That was the reason Liz didn’t want her acolytes become too powerful for their own good.
Isabel had to constantly remind herself that this easy mannered, soft-spoken woman was a ruthless ruler and an iron-fisted despot.
`And how is the family?`
`Well, Alex is fine. He stayed at home, taking care of the twins. I haven’t seen Seri in ages, though, what’s up with her?` Liz smiled wavered for a second, and she reached <i> far </i>, not in time, but in space.
`She is fine. They’re resting after a tough battle, and preparing for the next.`
`Can they really pull this off?`, she asked worrying for her daughter fighting in another galaxy.
`Don’t worry. She is a resourceful young woman, and besides, Shouhanas is there to keep them safe.` The Fifty-second was one of the ten fleets sent to the neighboring galaxy as a proactive defense force, sort of an early warning system.
They sat for a while, chatting away, enjoying companionship without the need of any pretense. Though they contacted each other regularly, it was always because of “business”. It had been years since they had met in person – politics always came first.
But there was a reason why Vilondra left New Antar, and it wasn’t just to have a cup of tea on the other side of the galaxy.

------

Later that night

Liz entered the cantina with Isabel. Her hair was fiery red again, and her skin was several tones darker than a few hours earlier, but it didn’t matter much.
Firstly no one would expect to meet <i>The </i> Prophetess in a pub, secondly, if she didn’t want to be seen, no one saw her.
She was a legend, even more than when she was just the Admiral of the Fourth. She was the ultimate ruler of the New Alliance, the unquestioned leader of the Milky Way. She looked around curiously, letting the environment sink in. It took her twenty years to be able to be surprised again, and she wouldn’t trade the feeling for anything. Except for…
`Where is he?`
`He’ll be here in a few minutes, I guess.`
`What is he like?`
`Just like Zan when he was his age.`
`Have you seen him?` Liz was full of questions. She could <i> know</i> the answers if she chose to, but it was easier, smoother this way.
`I acted as his Aunt. A loyal couple raised him, with my help.` It had been their agreement since the beginning that Liz would know nothing about the clone until they met in person.
`Where did he grow up? Under what circumstances?`
`On New Chillag. His foster parents are diplomats. But enough, you’ll see him for yourself.`

Chillag was an antaran planet before the Invasion. Now it was just ashes and ruins. In the first ten years of the war, the systems of the Republic and the Old Alliance fell one-by-one. Liz and her ships were fighting non-stop, rushing from planet to planet, defeating Talrons, but there were just damned too many of them. They had to flee, evacuating the population to the far side of the Galaxy, and begin everything anew. Orbital shipyards, factories, mining complexes were built in days to support the war machine while the Alliance and Republic ships were trying to slow down the enemy’s progress, fighting waves upon waves of experienced, battle-hardened Talrons. It seemed that they couldn’t win, and it was the end.
But when Earth finally fell in the tenth siege, the new infrastructure on the other side of the Core was nearly complete. New battleships began to appear in increasing numbers, and slowly, gradually, the Ten Races began to have the advantage of numbers on their side.
There were many defeats, but there were key victories as well. The turning point was the appearance of the combat ingurgitators, a technology that made it possible for a single ship to destroy an entire Talron.
The army swept through the galaxy and, in one glorious year, they mostly cleared it of the enemy.
But the evolution of the Talrons followed the pace they set, and soon they evolved non-Euclidian space-curvatures to counter the combat-ingurgitators. Since then, the New Alliance was slowly pushing them back with the aid of the prophets.
There were many losses. Three races of the Nine disappeared forever. Billions died, and much more suffered from the war. Antar, Renul, Earth, all the old planets were gone forever. But they prevailed.
And now, with the lead of General Serena Whitman-Antar, Alliance forces had entered another galaxy. Now, after fifty years of desperate struggle, they were on the offense.

------
Sitting over my coffee, I’m more nervous than I’ve been in a long time. I dread and long for the moment when we’ll meet again. Maybe I should cancel this thing, and postpone this rendezvous until later. Lonnie gives my hand a reassuring squeeze.
`Don’t worry. It’ll go all right.`
Suddenly I stiffen, just like back <i> then</i>. I slowly and deliberately turn towards the door. And there he is.
He walks steps over the doorstep. He looks around, searching for her aunt. He is Him, without doubt. He walks with the same feline grace of the predators. My gaze locks with his, as it did in another life. I take a deep breath, and smile at him. He doesn’t know me yet, but I’ve known him for ever.
It’s so like it’s been fifty years ago, and it is so different at the same time! Once again we meet, and I can begin anew that went so wrong.
I’ve cheated fate, and escaped the prophecy. Now it is up to only me to set the path I walk.
Now, at last, I can choose love. And for a little while the universe will have to take care of itself, because the Prophetess is going on holiday.

THE END


<i>The year is 2445
The world is a yet wider place
Peace reigns on the Milky Way
War rages in the universe

Forever and ever. </i>