Darshal System- Orbital Defenses:


Jackson “Two Jacks” Murphy rocketed down the launch ramp, his fingers white as he sailed from the dull gunmetal gray of the launch tubes to the intense black of space, the blue-green planet above him, a sea of twinkling stars spread out before him. Jamming the stick down and throttling up he roared up into place along side his flight leader, they were headed out to meet the mysterious incoming objects. Flipping the toggle for his HUD to ramp up he heard the high pitched whine of his targeting computer kick on.

Glancing at the HUD his mouth dropped as the six-large objects began disgorging dozens of smaller blips on the screen. Hearing the static crackle of the flight leader echo across the headsets, “Alright boys and girls we have bandits incoming! We have fast movers, stay frosty!” With that everyone shut down all non-essential communications as they barreled towards the Qua fighters. In a matter of seconds Jack was in the proverbial shit. He banked his fighter into a twisting dive, following his flight lead as they tore through a horde of boomerang shaped dull black fighters. All around him flashes of high intensity lasers lit up the sky like lances of days of yore as both sides began in earnest their deadly dance in the high orbit above Darashal.

Racing through a stream of heavy laser fire, Jack saw ahead of him several of the black Qua fighters bank and turn away from him, as he did so his flight leader opened up with his own turbo lasers, firing a series of intense amber energy towards the turning fighters. Following his leader Jack checked his six and was a little miffed to see a bandit was closing in on them. Throttling back he turned inside the bandit and flipped up and over so the Qua was now between he and his flight lead. Accelerating forward he raced after the black ship as it tried to kill his lead. Dropping the hammer he felt the surge of power ripple through the fighter as he closed the distance, all the while his computer started lining it up for a kill, once the lock on triggered, Jack throttled his mic, “Tally ho!” he said as he unleashed a nuclear tipped missile. Pulling up and away as the projectile raced towards the ship, he managed to catch a glimpse of his lead getting hammered by the ship just before it exploded in a fiery ball of debris then suddenly flaming out.

A sickening feeling came over Jack as he whipped his fighter around, accelerating it through a series of harsh Snap-S turns trying to gain some distance from the fight. Roaring on after burners the sleek single engine fighter skittered and darted until it was nearly two-thousand miles from the battle. Lazily pulling up and turning his fighter back towards the fight, he just gaped. Brilliant flashes of light followed by sudden bursts of energy before they faded to nothing. Jack licked his lips as he began to easy the throttle forward heading back into the fight. Had he looked behind him he would have seen one of the large disk shaped Qua assault ships entering the atmosphere of Darashal.

Darshal Colony- A small farm outside the largest city: Neo-Sydney-

The large assault ship roared through the atmosphere creating a series of sonic booms and a massive contrail as it dipped from frigid space to the much warmer upper-atmosphere then raced downward until it created a billowing roiling cloud as it headed towards one of the small settlements.

Sarah Qallar woke early this morning, far earlier than she normally did and both her parents were surprised and oddly pleased. To them their daughter was growing up, but Sarah woke early so she could head down to the little creek that ran through the farm. She had seen some of the local fauna there before, the large eyed and slender-limbed deer that populated the area. She had seen a doe and several fawn and wanted to see them again. Making her way gingerly down towards the creek in the early morning fog she was eager to get there in case the deer left. The sky was usually vivid this morning the petite ten-year old thought as she paused to catch her breath. Dazzling streaks of light seemed to appear and vanish in the darker parts of the sky. Maybe it would rain the little girl thought as she inhaled the chilly air and continued her walk. A boom in the air made her pause, looking up she saw one of the fighters that were kept in space station roar over head, following close behind it were several odd looking black wing like things. They looked like they were playing tag as the silver fighter thundered towards the far mountains, the others close behind it. Shaking her head the little girl turned towards the small creek when she saw them. Tall, misshapen creatures with a writhing mass where their mouths should be. Large black eyes stared at her as the closest one peered down at her. What looked like a gun held in its large hands.

Before Sarah could scream she heard a shot followed by another and another as her father unloaded his rifle at the Qua warriors. The one who was reaching for her was hit twice and stumbled, falling to the ground. The others began returning fire, heavy lasers rippled through the air, slamming into the pudgy farm, shredding the flesh from his bones. His scream echoing through the small valley, followed by his wife's cries.

Sarah just stared at the dying Qua before her, her mind numb to all else as she watched a series of colors flash and twinkle under the skin of the creature. Slowly reaching out she touched the slick, clammy skin and shuddered. Withdrawing her hand she gasps as the tentacles stopped moving and the large eyes focused on her, dimming slowly, the flashing lights under the skin fading to nothingness. Looking up Sarah saw another silver fighter and another as they raced towards something on the other side of the valley.

Standing slowly the little girl looked around, as an explosion rocked the area, kicking up dirt and debris high into the air. More of the strange creatures marched past her, they seemed focused on the small village that lay to the north of the farm. Not seeing her father or mother a stream of tears began as the little girl felt for the first time truly alone on this world.

Xindhi Heavy Cruiser- Voided Lights

Aboard the Heavy Cruiser Voided Lights, Cughtagh Skume allowed his aesr energies to flow around him as the Talisan captain explained the nature of the distress call from the Darashal system. An ancient voice echoed around the bridge as Skume spoke, “I see...very well captain we shall respond to the call by the humans. Flash transmit a message to the Galactic Congress explaining the situation.” With that Skume whirled and moved with deadly grace towards his room. Captain Hussar cleared her throat a moment before speaking, “Cughtah? What are you going to do?” Pausing a moment the brilliant white energies flared illuminating the bridge, “I am going to Darashal and see what is happening.” Pursing her lips, Captain Hussar, nodded slowly as she turned towards the command boards, the ability of the Xindhi to travel dimensionally, especially the Cughtagh and Aeryn, still unnerved her.

In his chambers, Skume allowed his galdhr to expand, swirling around him a chaotic whirl of energies before finding the vibrational patterns that would lead to Darashal. Allowing the patterns to be recorded for all other Xindhi, he stepped forward and began his walk towards the beleaguered planet. It would take him mere minutes to reach the world nearly 3 light years away, and take the warship about an hour to reach the world using the fold space technology it used.

Darashal Colony-

As the Cughtagh arrived on the world, a series of explosions rocked the landscape as silver fighters streaked across the skies chasing or being chased by dull black shapes. Allowing the energies to flow from him, Skume's seidhr raced away from him, slowly enveloping everything for miles around him, during the process of acquiring understanding he felt energy signatures that seemed to blunt and turn away his ability to perceive them clearly. A low growl rumbled from the skeletal form as he turned towards the largest concentration of this disruptive energies. The scream of fighters, followed by a massive airburst caused him to look skyward, doing so the Cugtah witnessed another of the large assault ships descend from the upper atmosphere, dozens of fighter craft disgorging themselves in a flurry of activity into the hazy morning. It was movement that drew his attention as several creatures began moving towards a small farm where a girl stood between them and the home. A second later shots rang out as a human male with a firearm began firing at the entities. Dimming his aesr as the death of the man by heavy kinetic projectiles riddled his body, the impacts shredding the soft flesh in a hail of arterial spray.

The human child, for that is what she was, seemed shocked, her hand extending towards the dying thing before her. As he watched Skume felt a presence behind him, drawing his sword and whirling in a deadly display of martial prowess the Cughtagh slashed at the large squid headed being that was closing in on him. However the others began firing their weapons at the Xindhi some of the heavy slugs slammed home knocking the skeletal being off his feet and back into the trees. The explosive power shattered bones and ripped through his chainmail, however the aesr flowed and swirled around him. As he slammed into the ground he allowed himself to be draw into the dimensional spaces between worlds and dragged back to the warship.

In his darkened chambers the Cughtagh Skume fell into his sarcophagus, the energies dimming in his eye sockets. He had made a mistake and assumed he would be able to withstand the impacts of the Qua weaponry. Normally had he prepared his seidhr properly he may have but he didn't and now would be out of commission for several hours as his body healed itself. Before slipping into the eternal dreaming, he felt the engines of the warship boost the cruiser into the dark space, moving towards the Darshal world at incredible speeds.

As the Voided Lights emerged from it's dark space tunneling drive, the massive scanner systems all began flashing with alerts and a stream of data started scrolling on the screens. Kicking in the heavy maneuvering engines the cruiser began to skitter around to kick the stern out so that the massive main guns would be able to fire broadside if needed. An automatic message was sent to the orbital space station- “Darashal System. This is Xindhi Crusier Voided Lights. We are responding to your distress call. We are assessing the situation and will provide what assistance we can.”

Captain Hussar eyed the screens before she inhaled deeply, “Send word to COMAHFLT, we have a situation here, a very bad situation.” The junior officer next to her nodded and scrambled down to communications where a pulse broadcast was sent to the closest Xindhi Navel base with the following.

To:COMAHFLT
From: HMS-Voided Lights CAG-21
Reference- Map-Series Special- DA 1:50,000.
Time: Local Alpha- 0023:444

OPPFOR elements at Darashal-Open hostilities. Elements of the HPDF are engaged with OPPFOR. Large concentration of fast-movers near HPDF. It is estimated that HPDF will have less than 4 hours survivability. CoD-223 attached to CAG-21, further cross-attachement to T/F BB-54/CVN-98.

CAG-21 will move to defend Darashal in OPD Lagrange 1-311200A and OPD Lagrange 2-9984064 to destroy one OPPFOR ship at that station.

CAG-21 defends in detail Darashal- CAG-21 will deploy CoD-223 and VF-28 to intercept fast-movers and provide PDF.

CAG-21 End. Alpha-0023:445

The command at Al-Hazred forwarded the information to T/F BB-54/CVN-98. The Xindhi Battleship Fading Glory and the Assault Carrier Tempest and their accompanying support ships 20 L.Y away from Al-Hazred and nearly 100 L.Y out of the Darashal system.

The defensive forces on Al-Hazred were alerted, while the information was forwarded to the Dreaming Queen and her council as well as the holon information recorded by Skume were accessed to glean further insight on this enemy.

While the transmission is being sent, the large ship began moving forward towards the planet's Lagrange point, the whole while the battery of defense weapons began ripping apart dozens of incoming fighters from the Qua. Still a beam of the large Qua assault ship the massive Xi-particle boson accelerator long range assault cannons of the cruiser opened up, sending massive energy bursts towards the disc shaped ship that hung in a geosynchronous orbit over the planet. The brilliant display of energies as the weapons fired filled the skies above the planet with intense lights as the radiations illuminated particles that were traveling through space. Even the ground troops of both sides paused as the brilliant streaks glowed bright enough to compete with the planets own star.

Aboard the warship the flight crews of the fighters and the unmanned fighter/bombers were busy finishing equipping and fueling them. As the first pilots climbed into the cockpits, the entire ship shuddered a moment as the main guns fired. A cheer raced through the flight deck, before they returned to the business of prepping the fighters. A moment later the first flight launched, to be followed the rest at intervals of every 5 minutes.

It was as the energy weapons of the Xindhi Cruiser slammed into the defensive shields of the Qua warship, creating a stunning display of crackling and fragmenting energies spheres, that a series of blips appeared on the Xindhi scanners. A long-range sweep displayed a number of AP warships, this was confirmed a moment later as the following message was picked up:

Darshal Colony, this is Automatis Patronus Task Force 112/424D responding to an emergency communication sent out by one of our freighters...
We are in-system and twelve minutes out...
We will render what aid we can...
Requesting orders...

Jabbing down an override communication button, Captain Hussar spoke swiftly, “Automatis Patronus TF 112/424D, this is Xindhi Cruiser Voided Lights, CAG-21. We are engaged with the OPPFOR and request that you establish evacuation routes starting from our position outward. Out.”

As Captain Hussar finished she saw the first flight of her own fighters enter the fray around the Darashal orbital station. It was going to be a long day.

Stormspear Ralia - Ahrian Destroyer, Neighbouring System. High Captain Moriana Pyrrhus Naieve.

"Captain, I am picking up a distress beacon from a nearby system."

High Captain Moriana Pyrrhus Naieve turned her gaze away from the screen display at the head of the bridge to direct her attention to one of the communications officers to her left. The tall and imposing woman raised an eyebrow. "Do we know what it's saying?" she queried, placing one gloved hand on the arm of her chair.

"Translating now... It says that there's a large unknown ship attacking a human - AP - colony, and by large they mean large. Rough dimensions greater than any ship in our fleet by a margin of about a thousand kilometres."

Frowning, Moriana brought the beacon's details up on the screen herself, surveying them with searching hazel eyes. Nodding once, she leant back. "Send word to the Council. We will take the Ralia to investigate."

"Yes ma'am. Should I request backup?"

The captain pondered for a few moments, "Request the aid of Starspears. With a ship that size, engaging it would be folly without a fleet. These humans are not worth an entire fleet. Our primary objective shall be evacuation if necessary."

The officer nodded, and Moriana returned her attention to the rest of the bridge. "Lazarus. Set a course for these coordinates." she instructed, sending the coordinates of the colony over to her pilot.

The long haired man nodded, flexing his wings. "Copy that, Captain. ETA ten minutes." he called back, pushing his hands down onto their pads and connecting his specially customised manipulators to the ship's navigation systems. Stormspear Ralia shifted its course, and began to head towards the colony.

Steepling her fingers, Moriana lowered her stoic gaze again to her screen. A flick of her light brown ponytail, and the captain spoke into the ship's intercom. "All crew on hostile protocol. Entering friendly space, occupied by assumed hostile unknowns with superior firepower. Assume your stations."

Darshal System - High Orbit

A lone Pallosan drone floated in space some distance off from the point of engagement above the planet's surface, cloaked. Streaming camera feeds of the battle to a mothership in the outer Oort cloud, where it was mining comets and asteroids, Dominant Ehao Kaiseu's left arms manipulated the controls, attempting to zoom in upon the attacking ship. Unable to do so, she became frustrated and sliced a furrow into her softmetal desk, pressing two buttons she was familiar with. One for a technician, one for a xenopsychologist. They both entered the room with satisfying haste, and Ehao gestured at them approvingly. Putting the tip of a digit against the drone's display screen, she pointed at the technician and opened her mouth wide, howling, "Make the picture of the non-planet dwellers clearer, and quickly. Analyzer," she cricked, drawing her lips around her sharp front teeth to display her urgency as she pointed with another arm at the xenopsychologist, "You must tell me what kind of creature flies the ships that attack the planet-dwellers. I suspect that they are hated to us."

The technician was already working with all eight arms to adjust the view before she had even finished addressing the scientist. He zoomed in on a group of fast vessels, keeping them all in view expertly for several moments, then switching to a different group. The xenopsychologist's arms folded across opposite shoulders as he thought, eventually inclining his head towards the screen threateningly, presenting the sharp bone ridge that ran down his skull. "Not swarmers. Destroyers. Enslavers. But traces, traces of swarming, of parasite. They will not destroy the planet, but they will destroy the dwellers, I believe. I recommend action."

Ehao casually swiped him across the face with a bladed forearm, drawing a line across his ear and pulling orange blood to the surface. The xenopsychologist reared up and stepped backwards from the pain, his legs unfolding to make him a good head height's taller as he screeched. She turned to him, mouth closed but head deeply inclined. "I attack them because I would, not because a pitiful male suggests. I am not your student, scientist. Leave my awareness before I kill you, and next time remember what you hold is too little to suggest to any but lower females." Turning to the technician while the xenopsychologist quietly dashed away, she closed her eyes and pressed a palm to his shoulder. "You may leave, thank you for your assistance."

The technician bared his stomach to her, and left. She sat upon her desk and watched the replays of what the technician had looked at. The heavy use of smaller ships as opposed to a mix. The superior numbers but lesser effectiveness. Something was going on with the attacking race that did not seem to be just a regular interspecies war to her. Something that made her energetic, repeatedly marking her desk with small lines as she tapped her forearm against it. Yes, whatever these were, they were enemies of the good of the universe. Her instincts told her. Opening a line to every public address screen in the continent-sized mothership, she began to address her lowers.

"People against the swarms, we have found an enemy to the life of good! In several hours, we shall attack!"

She closed the line, and the cheers began to echo through to her chambers.

Above the Darshal Colony:

Aboard the Voided Lights, the combat information center crew began relaying the positions of the AP ships and their distances to the central combat computer in order to plot new firing positions. Captain Hussar narrowed her eyes a moment then exhaled slowly, “Plans go to hell once the enemy is encountered.” she muttered to no one in particular as she felt the ship shudder again as the massive main guns unloaded their deadly bursts towards the harvester ship closest to them.

It was almost exactly at that moment that hundreds of screens began to relay information that required the crew to check the data before a sudden chill passed through many of them. The officer in the CIC depressed the comm, leaving it hanging a moment before he spoke, “Captian? We have some off the chart readings...We have the same readings we get when a Cughtagh or Aeryn are discharging Aesr in large amounts.” The words caused Captain Hussar to pause, a sickening feeling in her stomach as she moved to look at a screen to read the date herself.

“CIC, get me telemetry data on the source of that energy build up and I want it yesterday.” she murmured as she began sliding screens until the latest information came up. Toggling the hailing frequencies she spoke in a low tone, “Automatis Patronus TF 112/424D, this is Xindhi Cruiser Voided Lights. We are picking up massive energy build-up from a source that is located near the fifth planet in this system, near one of the moons. Our scanners are detecting a massive heavy metal body as the source of the build-up, can you confirm? Over, out.”

The Qua Harvester- Brood Runner:

The first impact from the heavy weapons of the Xindhi cruiser slammed into the magnetic shielding, causing a ripple as the energy coiled and then recoiled along the entire shimmering area. As strong as the shields were, the pressure and impact from such a distance of several thousand miles caused the magnetic field to bend inward, to rip apart from energy creating a reversed polarity for several precious minutes. It was at this moment that Burrowers fired from the AP warships struck home. With the magnetic shielding reversed the explosions were contained by the shielding, causing immense explosions that rocked the ship from within, causing walls of fire to race along corridors buring and devouring anything it came in contact with. Sister-captain Zhu stared in anger as the data feeds told of massive structural damage within her ship.

Slamming a fist on the command chair, a move that caused the salt water to splash and flow onto the deck, she moved with lightning speed to the command console, her large eyes reflecting the blue-green screens. Her mind a raging torrent of jumbled thoughts, causing those around her to try and shield their minds from the tumult that flowed from her.

Her mind coupled with the neural network, as it did she began transmitting to the other harvester ships and the mother ship which was still several million miles away from the conflict. “Sister-captains. I have suffered a great deal of damage from these new comers. Their weaponry is different that the hominids of the planet below.” The fiver other captains were silent, they had seen the events transpire for the Brood Runner and a sense of failure had passed through them all. One of their sisters was in danger but the harvesting of this planet came before all else.

Sister-captain S'hax touched her neural transmitter, “Sister Zhu we have seen and understand. Fight well.” There was a series of subtle telepathic agreements by the others as they sent their wishes to the doomed ship.

Geosynchronous Orbit of the Harvest Ship- Revit over Darshal Colony

On the far side of the planet Sister-captain S'hax broke the connection and stepped back, her face tentacles roiled in anger as she tapped another screen, her landing craft had touched down and were moving towards a series of settlements on an island. So far the hominids had put up some resistance but their weapons were limited at best. However these new comers had weapons of a much greater sophistication. It would be interesting to assimilate them into the Qua, to employ their technology for the good of the Qua.

“Sister-Captain...we have detected new objects on the surface of the planet...three objects from the attacking ships.” came a thought wave, a squealing snort escaped her beak as S'hax turned towards the sister whom had spoke, “Are they a threat to us?”
“We are unsure Sister-captain, at this time we have no idea of the purpose of the objects.”
“Hmm...have a lander go to the objects and figure out their purpose.”

Pulling up the combat screen, S'hax stared at the data on the Xindhi Crusier, after a moment she tapped another neural net and flooded it with thoughts, “I want a firing solution on that ship, I want it dead.” The confirmation came back, “Yes Sister-captain we shall have one shortly.”

Qua Mothership- Deep Drinker; 3 million miles away, behind a red-orange gas giant in the Darshal system.

“I see this universe is much more prepared for us than we had anticipated Sister-Captain.” Thought the large Qua whose body was submerged in bluish waters, his eyes wide, the tentacles writhing about.
The captain turned and nodded slightly, “Yes High-Lord P'ffash, it seems you were correct in sending an expeditionary force. Shall we discharge the scalar burst?”

Shaking his head, the high-lord eased back onto his chair, allowing the water to wash over his form, his beak open slightly, reminiscent of a smile, “No sister-captain, we shall observe a while longer to accumulate information on our new enemies.”

Stormspear Ralia - Ahrian Destroyer, approaching Darshal Colony. High Captain Moriana Pyrrhus Naieve

The sleek figure of the Ahrian ship passed through the Darshal system slowly and cautiously, cloaking enabled and a 'Haze' in place around the vessel; a 'cloud' of psychic energies focused by the ship's manipulators that fogged sensors and senses alike. A ship within this Haze was very hard to detect via standard means of bypassing cloaking. High Captain Moriana stood on the bridge with a permanent frown on her features.

"Send a transmission to the Xhindi and the Automatis Patronus. We haven't had sufficient interaction with either empire for them to be able to recognise our ships as non-hostile." she instructed.

The communications officer nodded, and initiated a transmission towards the respective empires' vessels.

"Greetings, Xhindi/Automatis Patronus, this is the Ahrian vessel Ralia, Stormspear class. We are non-hostile to your empires, I repeat, friendly. We wish to lend what aid we can. Requesting information on the nature of the attack? Over."

Moriana nodded to herself as the vessel approached the colony, "Prepare to defend against hostiles. We can't know if these beings will be able to see past our shroud."

"Captain! Transmission from the Council. A group of Starspears are en route, ETA twenty minutes."

"Excellent. Try to avoid drawing fire. We need to be able to relay information back to the Council."

"Yes, Captain."

Outer Oort Cloud, Darshal System

In the main docks of the mothership, rows of battleships hung inside a concave structure, the ship itself wrapping around and forming a three-dimensional harbor, where the vacuum and dusty light of space filtered in via a 500-kilometer wide hole to the outside. Millions of Pallosan were now in this area, swarming into the battleships in threads from all different sectors, top-back arms raised in excitement and bloodlust. Without any official confirmation, a lone battleship piloted by a mere 500 Pallosan undocked and aligned towards the exit, activating it's spatial pathfinder before anyone could stop it. Ehao Kaiseu watched remotely from her quarters for a while as others were infected by this idea and tried to do the same, but to no avail. The engineers in charge of the undocking procedures had locked the berths until the proper preparations had been made. Eager as Ehao, her underwives, and the ruling males were to eradicate this race, they could not send their own kind on a suicide mission.

However, Ehao made a note to invite any surviving males from the stray battleship to her private quarters. Proper reward for such bravery was warranted, and certain area of the mothership could afford new management. Pulling up a video from the ship, she broadcasted it on all screens within the hangar area to keep her people's attention occupied, before they could become too excited. Calling it into view on her own displays as well, she was kept from immediately watching it by a page from outside her door.

"Dominant Kaiseu, I have something you must see, it concerns the destroying." The voice of the xenopsychologist she had struck earlier clicked through her audio system. For a brief moment, she entertained the thought of inviting him in and devouring his arms for annoying her yet again, but eventually she laid her arms flat against her sides in a gesture of non-aggressiveness and allowed him in.

He tentatively crossed the threshold into her command center, flashing his eyes at her then to his flanks, and immediately her lips pulled back from her teeth at the display of such cowardice. She nearly leapt up and dug her blades into his shoulders, but he said something that stopped her.

"Thinkers. They are thinkers. The minds of them link somehow, naturally or technologically, and they think. These screens can help you see for yourself." He unrolled two screens in his left arms, holding one over the other. They both showed a ship, and had identical time displays in the corner, meaning they were filmed at the same moment. As she watched, one ship moved, the larger, then the other smaller one no more than half a second after. She clicked her digits in understanding. "Yes. They react very quickly. This is a new danger they show, I will relay the discovery to the rest of military Pallosan."

The scientist did not move or speak, merely watching the dominant female in front of him with an open mouth, his soft ear cavities below his eyes swelling shut as they tasted the danger in the air.

"Oh, you know, studier of aliens. I was about to embark on a viewing of a ship that contains Pallosan with great hearts and blades of steel, who took an undercrewed battleship into the heart of the enemy. I will review the records, as they are likely dead now, but I wished to see it as it occurred. I can no longer do that, as it has passed." Her head tilted back, her chinless face moving away from him, but her arms came up and turned their blades in his direction. A shaming gesture. "Bare your stomach," Ehao cricked.
Slowly, the xenobiologist folded his arms behind his back in the instinctual way, pressing the blades to major arteries so he could not move from the position quickly without killing himself. Ehao took one step forward, then sliced a line up his stomach and face. He jerked automatically as his muscles convulsed, slitting his own veins. Then the tension of the line broke, and his entrails spilled forth, staining the floor orange. Urinating upon them, Dominant Ehao Kaiseu pressed the button for the custodians with carnivorous animals, then began to review the tapes from the battleship with a three-minute delay.

Main Battle, Darshal Orbit

Fivemater Silk Owmena captained the nameless battleship that she had undocked from the mothership. Her five husbands and forty children split control of the secondary systems among them, as the ship was designed to operate. Below that level though, she knew she was understaffed. She lacked the numbers to fully control all details of the systems, to rule the entire ship. She needed several more families for that, and she had only been able to convince five to join her. But this was a matter of little importance.

As the ship curved through the gravity wells of the planets in their way, continuing in a straight line even though it avoided everything that was physically in it's way, Silk began to strategize aloud, relaying her thoughts to everyone within the ship so they could act as she would if the ship were her own body.

"Get males below breeding age in the cruisers, five to each of the six so we may eliminate a fair number of their fighters. First of my husbands, I wish you to be on the primary railgun, eliminate a command ship if you see one, otherwise obliterate their puny hulls. All charges are to be explosive-based unless they prove to have powerful shields. Anyone with a redundant non-essential post, you are to be controlling grasper and analyzer systems. Do not relay the results back, the hated must not know our location." Signifying the end of command with a click, she tossed back her head and bellowed, teeth ridges pushing forward to create a hissing scream. This was echoed back to her from each of her husbands and daughters. They arrived on the battlefield seconds later.

The conflict at which they had warped to was nearly at a close. The Qua ship here was in a state of magnetic vulnerability, along with a few fighters in combat with forces from the planet and elsewhere. With a hum that reverberated throughout the kilometer-long hull of the battleship, it's primary forward railgun aimed at the shimmering disruption in the alien cruiser's shields, and fired it's 4-megaton explosive nuclear charge. The cruisers attached to the side of the ship disengaged themselves and began slowly approaching the fighters with their weak propulsion systems, firing non-ferrous grapplers at them to reel them in for study. Many missed, and one even clipped a planet-dweller destroyer, but two landed directly in the fighters, penetrating the hulls and pulling them in, the cruisers with successful shots turning back to the battleship. The others opened fire with small-gauge railguns on the remaining fighters, enthusiastic in their destruction.

But Silk Owmena was not concerned with these things. She was concerned about the transmissions she was picking up from the planetary ships, and how they made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Unsure if they were streamed to her intentionally or just unshielded, she began broadcasting back friend-codes with little hope. Primary analysis showed they weren't even using the same base number in their computer codes. This could become a problem.
She began feeding the signals through a converter, and the noise that came out made her quiver in disgust. It was a squishy, gargly noise that seemed to have no breaks in it's flow. It sounded like someone excreting. Opening a channel closed only to the frequencies she had received from the Qua, she began clicking out, "We do not seek to harm any aside from the parasites. Do not fire."

Leaving the channel open, she entwined her arms in uncertainty. They were equipped to deal with swarmers, yes, but nothing with a planet behind it.