Ma’lit Scout Ship—Watcher of Tril’fir

  Polar orbit of the third moon, 328,272 likals from Faria Prime

  As Skarl collapsed on the communications panel, Hreth’nir felt things rapidly spiraling out of its control. The embassy was under attack, the Republic fleet and the Farian defense forces in orbit of Faria Prime were now attacking each other, and the AI assistant embedded within its brain presented an outcome based on its calculations.

  It had to decide, and Hreth’nir made the only choice available to it. It was time to show the quadrant what was coming and to force them to see that the only way to survive was to fight as one against the true enemy of life.

  Hreth’nir sent a command to the cloaked dreadnoughts in the inner and outer system. It was time to end this once and for all. He will order the First Prime to stand down, and then he will order Admiral Thompson to do the same.

  Faria Prime

  Kepler-62—989 light years from Earth

  Office of the First Prime, Kingdom of Faria

  “Skarl!”

  His hatch brother did not answer him, and the First Prime saw Skarl’s eyes close as he collapsed onto the panel in front of him, his esophagus hanging out of his mouth.

  “Skarl! Please answer me, Hatch brother!”

  An exosuit stepped into viewing range behind Skarl’s limp body, and he clamped his mouth shut, shocked at the sudden appearance of a Ma’lit. “First Prime, I am Hreth’nir of the High Council. Skarl is still alive; he has merely lost consciousness. You will listen to me and obey my commands if you want to limit any further loss of life.”

  He flicked his head rapidly, showing his willingness to do as the Ma’lit commanded him. “Good. We have successfully disabled all the viral bombs; your hatchlings and eggs are no longer in danger. You will call off your attack on the Republic embassy and order your ships to stand down now.”

  “Our ships? Why do they need—”

  His assistant came charging into the office, followed by Commodore Thanik, who bellowed loudly at him. “First Prime, the Republic is here; our ships in orbit are being overwhelmed; we need to call in the outer system forces to defend Faria Pri—”

  “You will order all ships to stand down now, First Prime.” The Ma’lit interrupted, its speakers blaring loudly to drown out any others that thought to speak. The First Prime froze, the two opposing desires of the Commodore and the honored elder crippling him.

  “The Ma’lit Domain will do to Faria Prime what we have done to the Ominians if you do not obey, First Prime.” The Ma’lit added, its speakers no longer blaring but sounding more ominous and terrifying for the threat the honored elder had just issued.

  It was what the First Prime needed to hear to jolt him out of his indecision, and he spun around to the Commodore. “Order all ships to stand down, now!” The Commodore flicked his head in distress, not understanding the order. “First Prime, we must—”

  “You will order the ships to stand down, or I will have you flayed for treason against our king!” The First Prime roared, flecks of spittle erupting from his mouth and hitting the Commodore in the face as his assistant turned around and fled, taking only two hops to reach the door before she disappeared.

  The Commodore seemed like he wanted to flee as well, but to his credit, he remained where he was and yanked the comm unit off his uniform and began to bark orders into it for all defense units to stand down, adding that any ship operators who failed to comply would be flayed for treason against the king.

  The First Prime turned back towards the holo screen and bowed to the honored elder before speaking. “We obey, Honored elder.”

  The exosuit raised a hand in acknowledgment before the speakers activated again. “You will see that you have made the best possible choice for your world and your people, First Prime.”

  The holo screen vanished, and the First Prime felt himself start trembling as relief flooded through his body. He believed the honored elder entirely when it said that, and he hopped to his desk to order the attack on the embassy to cease immediately.

  He will order the entire military to stand down; he will not be responsible for Faria Prime reverting back to a pre-industrial society like those arrogant Ominians. Their precious hatchlings and eggs were now free from danger, according to the honored elder. Somehow, Skarl was able to secure the help of the Ma’lit Domain in freeing them from the clutches of the agents.

  After he ordered the military to stand down, he would go find the agent and kill it slowly with his own hands before hunting the rest of them down and making them suffer for what they had done to his people.

  RSS Indomitable

  Independence-Class Carrier, 7th Fleet

  348,228 kilometers from Faria Prime

  June 13th, 0807 ship time

  “Helm, what the hell happened? Why did we transition so close to Faria Prime!?” Senior Captain Ruggeri demanded, his voice cutting through the confused babbling of the various stations as the bridge crew tried to coordinate with each other to verify the position of the Indomitable and its escorts.

  “Captain, my AI is giving me conflicting information, but I think the Farians have a stealth minefield further out we didn’t know about, and the dreadnought AIs hacked our navigational systems to make us transition past the minefield. We would have emerged right in the middle of it, sir!”

  “Holy shit, that would have been a cluster—” Admiral Thompson never got a chance to finish what he was saying as the main viewer flared brightly before the automated systems dimmed it as three miniature suns appeared less than 70 kilometers from the bow of the Indomitable.

  “Three Farian heavy destroyers just lost core containment; the debris is heading right for us!” the tactical officer yelled out in warning, followed by the ship’s battle AI Bellona triggering the imminent impact alarm as her voice came over the intercom.

  ~ Brace for impact ~

  Ruggeri gripped the armrests and gritted his teeth as he felt the restraint system pulling him against the chair. Two seconds later, the Indomitable was pelted by debris that shook the massive vessel as the hull rang like a bell from the impacts.

  ~ Multiple hull breaches detected; initiating damage control procedures ~

  “Tactical, status of the landing bays?” Ruggeri called out as he stared at the damage control screen Bellona was displaying.

  “Bays 1, 3, and 4 are fully functional; Bay 2 was hit with debris, and Deck Boss says she needs at least a half hour to get it operational again.”

  “She has fifteen minutes; launch all available fighters and bombers.”

  “Aye, Captain. Launching now.”

  “Bellona, display all enemy—correction; display all Farian ships in the battle space.” He called out, rejecting the enemy designation for now as the ship shuddered slightly from the dozens of fighters and bombers being launched out of their tubes.

  “Tactical, have the fighters form a screen around us and our escorts, and I want the bombers to loiter in a holding pattern until we need them.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Looking back at the holotank, Ruggeri efficiently cataloged all the different colored icons populating the screen, not happy with the number of green Farian icons amidst the sea of blue icons representing 7th Fleet. Two of the green icons turned red before being listed as Zeta status, and he cursed as another four blue icons turned orange, indicating moderate damage.

  “Why haven’t the goddamn dreadnoughts decloaked yet? Captain, I want to broadcast a message to the remaining Farian ships near us; we need to get them to stand down before this reaches the point of no return.

  The troop ships are almost at the drop point, and the planetary defense forces are going to open fire on them if we don’t get this under control.” Admiral Thompson said urgently from next to him, framing it as a request, not an order, which he appreciated.

  “Aye, Admiral. Comms! Open a channel for the admiral and broadcast on all frequencies. Tactical, send a request to the dreadnoughts asking them to decloak.”

  “Aye, sir!” Both the comms and tactical officers responded almost simultaneously as Ruggeri eyed the holotank again. The troop ships will reach their drop points in less than a minute, and now there were only twenty-two Farian ships remaining in orbit, most of them colored in various shades ranging from yellow to dark orange.

  “Channel open, sirs!” Comms called out as the intercom system chirped. He looked at the admiral and gave him the go-ahead signal, and Karl put up the privacy screen around him to record his message without the din of the bridge interfering.

  “Tactical, what’s going on with the dreadnoughts? Why haven’t they decloaked yet?” He demanded as he nervously eyed the icons of the hundreds of Farian ships that were scattered throughout the outer system.

  Some of them were already moving towards the 7th Fleet while other groups of green icons were showing signs of imminent null space activation, which meant they were most likely going to enter null space and then flash back out to defend their home world.

  “Sir, the AIs responded and said they received overriding orders. They did not clarify what that meant before closing the channel.” The comm officer answered, clearly miffed about being hung up on by the dreadnought AIs.

  He was just about to order another channel to be opened to the dreadnoughts when the privacy screen around the admiral came down, and Karl grabbed his right arm in an iron grip, his eyes filled with panic. “Dom, initiate Protocol 10, now! All ships need to power down their weapons and shut down the automated defense systems immediately!”

  “What!? They are still firing on us, and more are—”

  “Do it, Dom! Now!” Karl demanded as he cut him off, his voice filled with a fear he had never heard from his best friend before. The anxiety in the admiral’s voice, and the fact that he was using his first name on the bridge in the middle of combat no less, sent a chill down his spine, and he practically screamed out the new orders, feeding off Karl’s palpable apprehension.

  “Bellona, initiate Protocol 10; all weapons and automated defense systems are to be powered down immediately!” He smashed his thumb against the biometric scanner on the panel in front of him and glanced back at Karl, wondering what the hell was going on as Karl did the same with the scanner in front of him to verify the order and fulfill the two-person command rank requirement to initiate the protocol.

  After they both verified the protocol with their thumbprints, Bellona acknowledged the order, which had never been activated before in Republic Naval history as far as he knew. Protocol 10 was a command override that would allow the battle AI of every ship to take over all ship functions and carry out the orders of the Fleet Commanders only.

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  “What the fuck is going on!?” He whispered urgently as he leaned closer to the admiral. “Honored elder Hreth’nir hacked my wristcom and ordered me to stand down the fleet or the Republic would face Class Four sanctions.” Karl answered ominously as he pointed towards the main viewer. “It will be speaking to us momentarily.”

  Ruggeri looked back at the viewer and cursed as he watched the Gallipoli, an older class heavy cruiser, begin ejecting escape pods as the severely damaged ship started tumbling out of control.

  Bellona’s voice came back over the intercoms. ~ Protocol 10 initiated, Captain. All weapon systems and automated defense systems are powered down, and the battle AIs are engaging in evasive maneuvers only. ~

  He thanked her as he watched the Gallipoli continue her death spiral, no longer ejecting escape pods. The small number of pods being tracked by Bellona was heartbreaking; they were nowhere near enough to account for the nearly 800 strong crew, and he silently prayed for the ones who didn’t make it out.

  The Farian ships that had been attacking the Gallipoli mercifully stopped firing on her once the escape pods started ejecting, and he vowed not to forget the proper conduct of the Farian forces no matter what happened here even as those same Farian ships began to fire on a nearby squadron of light cruisers that had been coming to rescue their sister ship.

  A flurry of panicked voices erupted from all the bridge stations as Bellona changed the viewer perspective, and his eyes widened at the sight of the massive Ma’lit dreadnought currently decloaking right in the middle of the battle space.

  The Republic ships had stopped firing as soon as the fleetwide order was issued, and their battle AIs were currently engaging in evasive maneuvers as the last eighteen heavily damaged Farian ships continued to fire at them with what functional weapons they still had.

  The dreadnought’s smooth, silvery hull began to shift as weapons ports emerged, and the bridge crew fell deathly silent as all eighteen Farian ships simply broke apart less than three seconds later, the Ma’lit particle accelerator beams that destroyed them invisible to the naked eye.

  “Those poor bastards.” Karl muttered quietly, echoing his own sentiments exactly as he stared at the pitifully small debris clouds marking the location where thousands of Farians just had their lives extinguished by the dreadnought AI.

  ~ Captain, the Dreadnought AI is trying to override the communications systems. I am engaging counter-intrusion syst- ~

  Bellona’s voice suddenly cut out, only to be replaced with a dispassionate, synthesized voice that somehow seemed to sound neither masculine nor feminine.

  ~ All ships are ordered to power down their weapons systems and maintain their current positions on the order of the High Council of the Ma’lit Domain. Any ships violating this order will be destroyed, and their governments will be subjected to Class-Four sanctions. An exception has been made for the Republic troop ships and armored carriers currently in orbit of Faria Prime.

  Any attempt to attack these ships or the humans within them will result in the destruction of the violators. Any orbital and land-based weapons systems that ffireon the landing forces will be destroyed, and such an act will be considered a declaration of war against the Republic of Humanity, necessitating an overwhelming response by the Ma’lit Domain to defend its allies.

  Honored elder Hreth’nir, of the High Council of the Ma’lit Domain, will address you now. ~

  There was a chime, and another computerized voice came over the intercom, though this time there was a sense that a living being was speaking and not an AI.

  “I am Honored elder Hreth’nir, representing the High Council of the Ma’lit Domain. All combat between the Kingdom of Faria and the Republic of Humanity will cease now, or the dreadnought AI will immediately destroy any ship violating the ceasefire.

  The Republic forces will be landing to secure the embassy and rescue their citizens, as well as to secure certain targets on the surface. Any interference by the Kingdom of Faria and its military forces will be construed as an act of war and severely penalized by the Ma’lit Domain.

  This ends now. A Ma’lit scout ship has recently returned with a report on the Balrikan forces heading towards the quadrant to exterminate all who reside within it. I will share their report now; you would be wise to examine the information.”

  There was another chime, and Bellona came back over the intercom for the first time since the dreadnought AI hacked the communications system.

  ~ Captain, we have received a data burst containing 273.6 exabytes of information; Iitwill take 28.7 hours to scan the contents of the data burst for malicious programs. Several files have urgent tags attached to them for immediate review. ~

  He shared a look with the admiral, who gave him a nod. “That’s not needed, Bellona. Download the data burst and display the files with the tags, thank you.”

  ~ Affirmative, Captain. One moment, please.”

  A few seconds later, a dozen holo screens shimmered into existence, all displaying Ma’it script with videos and data tables. Bellona converted the script to Republic Standard, and there was not a sound to be heard on the bridge as they saw what must have been hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Balrikan ships assembled in dozens of systems.

  All the scouted systems were plotted on the Ma’lit astrometric charts, pointing along a single axis of advance that led directly towards the quadrant. Behind the Balrikans, thousands of star systems were shaded red, outlining the bloody swath that had been cut across thousands of light years.

  The other holo screens showed the results of the Balrikan advance, the hundreds of precious and rare habitable worlds that once teemed with life now nothing more than spinning orbs of death where trillions of sapient and sentient lifeforms once dwelled.

  Smaller screens displayed a rotating stream of images displaying the unique species that once inhabited these now lifeless worlds that had not yet been discovered and now never would be because of the Balrikans.

  The wide variety of uncontacted life forms was both astonishing and heartrending; they had made it through the brutal filter of evolution and random chance, proving their fitness and hard-earned right to exist only to be exterminated by invaders who viewed them as nothing more than vermin to be eradicated and prey to fill their bellies.

  Honored elder Hreth’nir came over the intercom again, and this time, there was detectable emotion imbued in its words.

  “Our estimates are that 3.4 to 3.8 trillion sapient lifeforms have been exterminated through various means, and trillions of faunae weighing over seven dralats as well. They are coming for us all; this ends now. The old troubles and interspecies conflicts between the younger races no longer matter.

  The Ma’lit Domain will discard its longstanding policy of non-interference starting now. Any species, governments, and stellar organizations that defy us will suffer the same fate as the Ominians, and none will come to save you when the Balrikans descend on your defenseless worlds to feast on them like ravenous locusts.

  You have been warned; what happens next is entirely dependent upon your actions, and our wrath will know no bounds. We know what it is to be alone among a graveyard of trillions, and we shall not drink from that bitter cup of death again.”

  There was another chime, and Bellona came back over the iintercoms.

  ~ The channel has been closed. ~

  No one on the bridge uttered a sound, and Ruggeri didn’t blame them one bit as he turned to look at the XO sitting to his left. Carvalho’s almost black skin was a shade of ghostly pallor, and he could see her chest rising and deflating rapidly as she continued to stare at the holo screens displaying the almost two million Balrikan ships coming to kill and feast on everyone she ever knew and loved.

  He looked away from her; there was nothing he could say or do that would help her right now. He glanced to his right, and Karl turned to face him, his face a stone mask as their eyes locked. Same with Carvalho, there was nothing to be said.

  Turning back to look at the multiple screens filled with hundreds of thousands of ships, mobile shipyards, refineries, and great caravans of troopships that were holding billions of Balrikan warriors, he felt his stomach clenching in primal fear.

  They knew they were coming, and in his heart, he truly believed they had a chance if they could get the entire quadrant to unify. That belief was based upon the number of ships the Republic scouts and spy drones were reporting in the Forbidden Zone, which was now tallied at just under 300,000.

  The Ma’lit scout ships, with their far superior technology and less deadly fold space engines, were able to go further and scout the true extent of what was coming. He looked at the number of confirmed Balrikan warships being displayed under the astrometric charts and called out in a shaking voice. “Bellona, am I reading this right? Does that say 1.2 million warships?”

  ~ Affirmative, Captain. There are three other files marked as urgent, but they can only be viewed by Admiral Thompson and President Lopez upon proper biometric verification and within a privacy field to view the files. ~

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that, Bellona?” The admiral demanded angrily before muttering under his breath as he erected the privacy field around himself again. Looking back at the holotank, Ruggeri eyed the imposing dreadnought in the middle of the battle space as both the Republic fleet and the surviving Farian defense units reorganized themselves on either side of the Ma’lit ship.

  So far, the Farian ships were refraining from firing on any of the Republic ships, though hundreds of Farian ships from further out were currently streaming towards Faria Prime. The troop ships and armored carriers were at their drop points, and thousands of drop pods and Bio-Synths were already within the mesosphere, the friction of their passage turning them into fiery orbs as they headed towards their targets.

  Bellona seemed to have everything in hand as she used the command override of Protocol 10 to reorganize the fleet into loose formations in case the Farians decided to resume hostilities.

  He glanced down at his panel, dreading the number of messages he knew was waiting for him from the irate captains of the fleet, most likely demanding to know why they still haven’t had ship control returned to them. As he began to type out a fleetwide update, he was startled by a hand suddenly grabbing his right arm, and he stopped what he was doing to look at the admiral.

  Karl’s face was almost ghost white, and he felt his heart dropping to his stomach as a privacy screen went up around only him and Karl. Staring at him with haunted eyes, it took Karl a few moments before he finally started to speak, his voice just barely above a whisper.

  “Dom, this doesn’t leave us. If you speak of this, I will have you hanged for treason. Do you understand me? Decide now if you want to know or not.” He stared at his best friend in shock, not truly believing that Karl just threatened to have him hanged for treason. Karl’s eyes held no lies within them, and he knew the threat was very real as he saw true fear within them.

  “I understand. Show me.” He whispered back, immediately regretting it as he said the words. Karl gazed at him for another long moment, those blue and white orbs searching his face to see if he really wanted to risk his life for this.

  Regret filled Karl’s eyes, and he gave a curt nod before looking away and typing on his panel for a few seconds as he began whispering again. “I cannot show you what I just saw; the Ma’lit files deleted themselves after I viewed them, but I can give you an idea of what I just learned.”

  A star chart of the quadrant came up in the air in front of them, and Karl used his trembling fingers to zoom out until a radius of 10,000 light years surrounding the quadrant appeared, and both the Perseus and Sagittarius arms were now visible.

  Working quickly, the admiral began to plot out all the locations of the home worlds of the major species and sloppily drew out approximate outlines of their territories with his fingers, and though it looked like a five-year-old did it, Ruggeri saw the beginnings of a rough map being drawn in front of him by Karl.

  Towards the galactic rim, Karl squiggled red lines across a massive section of the star chart that encompassed a significant portion of the Orion spur where it connected to the Perseus Arm before boxing it off with a red border, and he instinctively knew he was looking at the red-swathed area that was shown on the Ma’lit astrometric charts.

  Karl drew a slightly curved, dotted line in red and then wrote out 1.2 mil before drawing an arrow pointing towards the quadrant until it hit the furthest known extent of Insectoid territory closest to the Balrikan advance. In the middle of the long arrow, he drew a large oblong circle and then wrote F.B.-300K.

  That must be the Forbidden Zone, he thought to himself as Karl then drew two more long red arrows, but from two opposite directions. One arrow came from the edge of the void between the Perseus arm and the Orion arm, cutting through the Orion Nebula before terminating at the boundary of the qquadrant.

  The other red arrow came from the Vela Molecular Ridge area, cutting across the Gum Nebula before terminating along the boundary of the quadrant facing the Sagittarius arm and the galactic core.

  At the end of the first arrow pointing from the Perseus arm, Karl put a dotted line and then wrote 600 K before going to the end of the second line, where it started from the Vela Molecular Ridge, and putting another dotted line with 380 K.

  At the bottom of the star chart, Karl wrote out 2.4 mil warships before finally leaning back in his chair and glancing sideways at him with a resigned expression.

  He stared at the map for a few seconds, and he understood now why the Ma’lit did not share the information about the two other Balrikan fleets of almost another million warships that would be attacking the quadrant in a pincer attack from three sides.

  If the other species found out about this, they would have already surrendered to their despair when the Balrikans finally arrived, the war already lost in their hearts and minds before they even began to fight. I—I wish I didn’t agree to see this, Karl.” He whispered, trying to keep the dread he was feeling out of his voice and failing miserably as Karl looked at him. “I know, Dom; I’m sorry.”

  He cleared his throat to speak again when a red alarm light began to flash on the panel, and Karl quickly deleted the star map before dropping the privacy field, the sounds of the bridge returning to them as a panicked babble of voices assaulted their ears.

  “Another two BioSynths have been hit; order them to disperse—"

  “Sixty-four confirmed dead; fourteen from 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry—"

  Seeing that the privacy field was down, Lt. Baumer began to update them from the tactical station, her strident voice cutting across the bridge. “Certain elements of the Farian ground forces have started firing on our troops still in the air! Almost a hundred dead and three hundred being listed as out of action so far, sirs!”

  “Get a hold of yourself, Baumer! Put up a holo for me; are the Farian ships firing on us?”

  “Negative, sir! Putting up a holo for you n-”

  Baumer stopped speaking for a second before she looked back up at him and the admiral. “The dreadnought is reconfiguring its hull! Oh shit... Ma’lit destroyers are coming out of the dreadnought, sir! Five destro- eight destroyers! Correction: There are now twelve Ma’lit destroyers heading towards the Farian ships!”

  Karl yelled out to Baumer, his voice filled with fury. “Goddammit! Tactical, get the commanders of the ground forces on the line now! I want to—"

  Baumer cut him off as she looked back up from her station, her voice filled with fear. “Sirs, the dreadnought is moving towards Faria Prime; they are opening all their weapons ports and pointing them towards the surface!”

  He and Karl both looked at each other at the same time, Karl’s grim expression mirroring exactly how he felt as they both looked back towards the holotank. The Farians were about to find out just how badly they had screwed themselves.