Chrystal said, “Still waiting for a response.”

  They waited, and then waited some more.

  Chrystal said, “On screen, now.”

  The familiar visage of the hawk like Shirilla appeared above the holo-table.

  “What is it?”

  He said, “The food world campaign is complete, and we start the first home world attack tomorrow. I wanted to discuss our intentions. We believe quarantining these planets, and removing all space capabilities from the Kascorix to be the best solution. Do you agree?”

  Her whole body shook, and she ruffled her feathers.

  “That is not our way, what you propose would be worse than death for our species. Surely the Kascorix would prefer to go out fighting in battle, and not be constrained so against their will. I am trying not to judge you harshly by this revelation, we know some cultures can be shockingly different. It is why I have limited contact with you so stringently. I must contact my home world for direction, and I will send you my response shortly.”

  The screen cut off abruptly.

  Chrystal said, “Well, that could have been worse.”

  Nadia narrowed her eyes, “Maybe, I’m pretty sure she just said her people would see us as more of a threat than the Kascorix because of our beliefs.”

  Alyndra replied, “I agree. If they fear being contained or caged that much as a species, they’ll see us as a worse threat than death. Even death by stomach.”

  Dahlia smiled, “Crystal is right as well though, since Shirilla could have simply attacked us.”

  That was true, that would be worse. Still, it could have been better as well.

  He shook his head, “Your people should stand down Dahlia, but stay on their specific ships for now. If something abrupt happens Chrystal can launch them all and raise shields while they return to the bridge. Who knows how long we’ll be kept waiting, I don’t want them to lose their edge.”

  He even considered launching the ships now, but that would be a change in his normal routine, and could be interpreted as an offensive action, even if he’d have only meant it as defensive. Better to stick to what he always did this time of day until things went to shit, then he could escalate their readiness.

  Dahlia nodded, “Good idea. I’ll order it done. I’m also ordering half to get some rest.”

  Whatever she did, she did it with the mental interface in her suit.

  The half an hour wait was pretty reasonable, but also seemed way too long at the same time. Fortunately, he didn’t have a flesh and blood body, and his alertness wouldn’t be degraded by a tense wait.

  Chrystal said, “They’re hailing.”

  He nodded, “Answer it.”

  Shirilla appeared over the holo-table once more.

  “We find it distasteful, but as the Kascorix were going to use us as food and we want them to suffer for it, we have decided to accept your plan as long as you agree to our conditions.”

  He nodded, and even relaxed a little, but he was still alert.

  “What conditions captain?”

  Shirilla said, “We will leave probes behind to monitor things, if for any reason you lose control and they regain space, we will come back and annihilate them before they can once more become a danger.”

  He didn’t even hesitate, “Agreed.”

  Shirilla said, “Very well. I have drawn up an attack plan that will keep our peoples separated. My people are highly aggressive when in combat, I suggest you follow them.”

  The screen went blank, and he let out a sigh of relief. All that worry, and right now it seemed unnecessary. Still, he wouldn’t be lowering his guard anytime soon.

  Chrystal said, “They sent us information, analyzing data file. The rules of engagement are for us to not close within five light seconds, or subspace energy range, with any of their ships during the fight. She included the twenty planets, and areas of responsibility.”

  The first planet showed up over the holo-table, showing the sun, the planet, and another A.U. out into the solar system. There was a mostly transparent wall running through the planet from the sun, one side was blue, the other red. The wall was five light seconds wide.

  Chrystal said, “Shirilla suggests we come out here.”

  She pointed to a position three light minutes from the planet on the blue side, and then she pointed on the red side three light minutes out.

  “While they come out over on the other side. The five light second wall will be the zone neither side should enter, yet both sides will be able to get inside weapons range with any of the enemy ships inside that zone including around the planet itself.”

  Dahlia grunted, “It seems a workable plan, though teamwork would have been a better idea. My people will observe the limitations, but can you add in an alarm in the automated systems if they stray too close to the boundary?”

  Chrystal said, “Easily, I also suggest we randomize our entries at the point in the plan up to thirty light seconds in any direction on the X, Y, and Z axis so the Kascorix can’t set up an effective ambush.”

  He nodded, “Do that. In fact, let’s launch the cruisers before we leave so we arrive as a fleet instead of one target. They should have a lot of ships at each of these worlds, upward of five hundred, I’d hate to drop into the middle of a fleet by chance.”

  Dahlia agreed.

  “Anyone else got an idea?” he asked.

  Chrystal asked, “What about our contingency plan?”

  He thought about it for a moment before answering, measuring lives against future surprise if it was needed.

  “We shouldn’t give that away just in case. We should be facing something like five to one odds, ten to one if all the ships are on our side for some reason, which won’t happen. That means our first initial attack, if we each hit five ships with one two second beam, will take them all out at once, or at least cut them in half. We might be holed in return if they concentrate fire, but that will be true no matter what we face them with.”

  If the Canosians did betray them at some point, they’ll do it with the ships that he had in evidence, and not know about the rest.

  Alyndra said, “Hopefully they won’t betray us, but it’s possible they’ll use us to help take out the Kascorix, and then make a move of their own.”

  He sighed, “Trust is a short commodity these days, but I’m thinking the same thing, we don’t know them except that they are an aggressive species. We also know that they seem to make a minimal effort to accommodate other cultures, but I’m not ready to trust that yet.”

  Being an aggressive species wasn’t inherently bad, it depended on how they channeled that aggression, and their beliefs. The Mirosians were an example of an aggressive species that weren’t a threat to anyone but those that proved they were enemies. It was his hope that one day humanity would grow the same convictions, many already had, but hardly all. He also hoped the Canosians were similar in nature, but he had no proof either way.

  That hope didn’t mean he wouldn’t plan for the worst…

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  They dropped out of subspace at three light minutes and fourteen seconds from the planet, and headed toward the Kascorix world while their passive and active sensors got to work.

  It would take them seven minutes to close with the planet, and active sensors over four minutes to start giving back data. The passive sensors however, just took a couple of seconds to gather the light, radiation, and other particle emissions for the sensor programs to form a three-minute old picture of the planet.

  There were close to six hundred ships in the system, instead of the five hundred they’d estimated. There were also sixteen space platforms in orbit around the moon, each three miles long, and two miles wide. All the platforms had two ships in various states of progress.

  They hadn’t been expecting defense platforms, and they weren’t, not really. They were shipyards with weapons on them, which amounted to the same thing.

  It was almost two minute later when Chrystal reported.

  “Three hundred and fifty ships are headed our way, looks like they detected us within seconds, so they must have their solar system seeded with sensors with quantum communication ability, the other two fifty are heading toward the Canosians.”

  The numbers for them weren’t so bad, they could handle seven to one odds. He wasn’t so sure about the weaker Canosian fighters, who only outnumbered the Kascorix by twenty to one. Those small little fighters wouldn’t last long, and would have to take out the Kascorix vessels fast. They could win, but the attrition would be horrific.

  He shook his head, not his problem, he needed to focus on his own battle, which included the shipyards.

  He frowned thoughtfully, “That could be an issue, have everyone flare shields at five percent to take out any sensors within five light seconds when we close for battle, we don’t want them having real time information to work with.”

  It was mostly the two or three second delay in information which made targeting the randomized path of the energy along his shields impossible for the enemy to accurately target. Without knowing where that energy was at any moment, the enemy would have to guess. They could get lucky, but even then those paths would be away from the power cores, and the bridges of the ships, just to be cautious.

  Chrystal replied “Acknowledged.”

  It was a few tense moments before they reached near weapons range, flared the shields to destroy any nearby enemy sensors, and then each of his ships fired five two second beams at the enemy ships as they entered range. Two hundred and fifty enemy ships were shorn in two from the more powerful subspace energies that their shields couldn’t absorb, a little over a hundred simply exploded.

  The enemy ships had fired as well in groups of ten to overload the shields, and holed thirty-five of their fifty cruisers, but other than the Mirosians needing to go to their armor’s oxygen supply, no other major damage occurred.

  Their second volley cut the last hundred of the Kascorix ships in halves and thirds, and ten more of his cruisers were holed through overwhelming ten to one fire.

  One of their cruisers exploded.

  His hand clenched into a fist, and his eyes tightened at the denial and anger that went through him. Lucky shot, there was nothing they could do about that, but he was pissed. More about the four Mirosians which were not replaceable, than the ship which could be replaced in twenty minutes. In fact, he noted it was already being replaced in one of the empty bays behind their shields.

  It was inevitable though, and why they had four on each ship, two from another ship would take the new one.

  The battle was pretty much over though, the enemy ships were destroyed or helpless at this point. The forty-nine remaining cruisers showed their belly which was the largest surface, and used incredibly large beams to slice and destroy what was left of the enemy ships.

  “Set a course for the moon, are any of their ships operational there?”

  Chrystal shook her head, “No, and not enough fixed defenses on the shipyards to break through the shields.”

  He grunted and shook his head at the foolishness, the Kascorix’s only defense was their offense.

  “I don’t want to destroy the moon, it could mess up the planet, so pass the order to use gravity weapons to destroy the platforms and unfinished ships.”

  Chrystal said, “Acknowledged, our sensors are picking up what the Canosians are up to now.”

  He nodded, and couldn’t help but wonder how they fared at twenty to one.

  Chrystal’s eyes widened, “Umm. There are twenty-five thousand Canosian attack craft in space, they outnumbered the enemy a hundred to one.”

  He frowned thoughtfully, “Well, I though it odd they needed a twenty-mile ship to hold five thousand tiny fighters.”

  Not that their fighters were tiny exactly, but twenty-five thousand seemed like more of a reasonable number for that sized carrier. He wondered if that was their limit, and hoped so.

  “I suppose it makes sense, they didn’t need to launch all their ships just to take out three to five ships.”

  Both battles took place simultaneously, but as they cruised toward the moon they got to watch the battle several light minutes away take place since the sensor readings were showing the past.

  There were a hundred ships per Kascorix vessel, and both sides opened fire at five light seconds. The Canosian ships were like a swarm, and fired multiple times as both sides closed over seven seconds. They’d opened a hole in the shields, and like past battles one of the small attack craft flew into the hole and pulsed its shields, which ripped the Kascorix ship apart from inside their shields.

  The Kascorix however had returned fire, and their subspace energy attacks were stronger than the Canosians, just as his was more powerful than the Kascorix. Each of the two hundred and fifty ships fired five one second energy beams at five fighters every two seconds.

  The battle was quick, only just over six seconds to destroy the remainder of the Kascorix fleet. Still, it came at a heavy price. If each of the Kascorix attacks had destroyed a small craft, they’d have lost over three thousand of their small craft. The first volley however, at extreme range missed more than eighty percent of their targets, as the Canosian craft were small and flying in erratic random patterns.

  Subspace energy moved at the speed of light in normal space, and light was impossible to dodge, yet their aim and expectations of where the Canosians would be in five seconds were wrong.

  In the end, the Canosians lost seventeen hundred and thirty-two ships to the enemy’s two hundred and fifty ships. Although only eight hundred had been completely destroyed, the rest were cut in half and dead in the water. It could have been worse, but he was still horrified by the seven percent loss. Not much he could do about it though, not since they wouldn’t let him fight alongside them.

  Chrystal said, “Gravity range in three, two, one…”

  The holo changed from the remnants of the Canosian battle, and showed the moon again with the surrounding platforms. Their high-powered gravity emitters reached out and crushed, tore, and pretty much turned all the platforms and partially built ships to scrap. Afterwards, the gravity emitters were used to launch all the metal on a trajectory that would take it all into the sun in just under nine months.

  Dahlia said, “Good fight.”

  Chrystal reported, “The Canosians have started SAR activities, to recover their damaged craft and any surviving pilots.”

  He nodded, “Approach the planet with one ship, on our side. Create one of those cultured meat factories, along with finished samples on the surface. Also, create some sensor drones so we can see what’s going on back here after we leave, I don’t expect the other worlds to mount a rescue. Still, I want to leave the destroyers at the food worlds until this is done, then we can pull them here and put five around each home world.”

  Nadia asked, “What if they destroy it? The factory I mean.”

  He sighed, “Then they starve in ten years? That won’t be our fault. We can try again, when they run out of food maybe they’ll be more reasonable. Hopefully they won’t just arbitrarily blow it up though.”

  Alyndra nodded, “Sounds cold, but there’s only so much we can do, we can’t force them to eat an alternative source of sustenance. If they self-destruct… that’s on them.”

  Chrystal said, “Shirilla informed us it will be morning of the day after tomorrow before they’re ready for the next planet.”

  He whistled, “That’s pretty quick, think they’ll replace over a thousand vessels that fast?”

  Chrystal replied, “We could do it, on Mars. Fabricate the ships and components with fabricators that quickly I mean. The port and starboard side of the ship can easily hold the twenty-five thousand craft, that leaves a whole lot of space in the middle for manufacturing capacity, resources, and a city large enough to support millions. No way to know if that’s how it’s set up, but it seems likely. That war carrier has to be designed to replace a lot of ships and pilots at the same time.”

  Dahlia said, “Chrystal’s right, that ship is a huge city all designed to support war, from the hangar bays, to the beings that live in the middle of it.”

  “That’s rather intimidating.”

  Nadia patted his knee and teased, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

  Dahlia laughed, “And this ship isn’t intimidating?”

  She had a point, the energy to matter converter meant they could probably replace those ships in an hour, except they wouldn’t have pilots.

  They waited while the factory was finished, the forty-nine ships docked, and the replacement cruiser was already built. The damaged cruisers all had their own matter energy converters, so all the holed ships were repaired as well.

  Dahlia smiled, “I must go join the party, to celebrate our victory, the four lives we lost in battle, and to honor their memories.”

  Dahlia left the bridge.

  He checked the time, it wasn’t even close to lunchtime yet, and they had two days to kill. They pretty much had their strategy down, and so far the Kascorix hadn’t come up with any new surprises. Their remaining time was limited as well. He supposed the best use of his time was spending more of it bonding with his three mates, and Nadia seemed to be on that same wavelength, as she got up and sat on his lap.

  She wiggled a bit naughtily right on his cock as he put his arms around her, she’d been insatiable since she’d said she was coming back, and now that she was here in person that hadn’t changed at all.

  Well, he wasn’t going to complain about that…

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The next month followed the same pattern every couple of days. The battles were always short and violent, the Kascorix seemed incapable of even a strategic retreat, and had obviously depended on superior technology and overwhelming force to win out in the past.

  It probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference with him, he had the ships and stronger emitters and could take them apart from any distance in range, but he knew in the case of the Canosians the Kascorix could do a lot better, and take out a great number more fighters if they retreated and fired rather than closing the distance or standing still. It seemed almost insane that they didn’t try and keep their distance from the little ships, which were instantly deadly when the small ships reached the shield hole.