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Johanna watched the holo in front of her as the fleet prepared to make an FTL transition within a system, what was supposedly impossible to do. But thanks to the knowledge in the sphere, they had attained the technology that allowed them to make short transitions through normal space, which meant that they were not forced to abide by the restraints of hyperspace travel.

Then the holo changed; the markings above the fleet and its representation started to move incredibly fast across the holo, crossing the 20-light-minute distance in a little over twenty seconds. The fleet ended its skim at around 400,000 kilometers from the planet.

“Fleet-wide skim available again in fifty-two minutes,” the Navigation Handler reported.

Johanna nodded. The technology was amazing but required a lot of power, which was why it took so long to replenish the skim-dedicated capacitors.

The holo now showed countless stations, assembly yards, and defense platforms in the orbit of the planet, ships moving between the stations and the planet and the two moons that orbited it. The moons had many facilities on them that were surrounded with large defensive weapons.

Johanna glanced at Aileen. “Go ahead,” she said.

Aileen stepped up to the holo, raising her hand and opening a channel to the Ra’a’zani.

* * *

Dakar Tag’r’ron of Clan Ooruvan entered the command room in haste, the alarms still blazing throughout the headquarters. As soon as he entered, his subordinates informed him of the situation.

“A large, unidentified fleet has just appeared close to Lu’tal,” one of Tag’r’ron’s taskmasters reported. The rest were moving around the room with almost panic-like haste. But all were doing their jobs.

Tag’r’ron glanced at the large holographic display, which now showed icons representing the unidentified force. “How did it get here unnoticed?”

“We don’t know, Dakar; one moment there was nothing, and then they were there.”

“There is no transfer point there,” Tag’r’ron said. The Ra’a’zani might not have been able to use the transfer points that the devils could, but they had learned how to detect them.

“No, Dakar, and there was no indication of such a large transfer. They just appeared out of nothing,” the taskmaster said.

“Have they found us?” Tag’r’ron asked.

“Their signatures don’t match, Dakar. It is unlikely that it’s them.”

Tag’r’ron watched the holographic feed. The numbers and other data concerning the ships was still being updated, but already, deep down, he knew that this fleet was hostile. There was little reason for anyone to send so many ships, and that they had just appeared from nothing suggested that they had greater technology. Already, the five hundred ships protecting this system were moving, adjusting their positions to protect the resource processing plants in orbit of Lu’tal. The fleet had two hundred class 2 warships, which had always been the backbone of the Ra’a’zani fleets. Another thirty class 3’s and twenty class 4’s—the strongest ships they fielded—and the rest were class 1’s, the weakest of their warships, which were ordinarily used for patrolling.

“We are receiving a communication request from the unidentified fleet,” the taskmaster said, forcing Tag’r’ron to bring his attention back to him. The taskmaster then exhaled through his snout in surprise. “The communication is using our outdated codes, Dakar!”

“Open a channel,” Tag’r’ron ordered.

The holographic display in front of Tag’r’ron changed, and a being stood there watching him. “A Human?” Tag’r’ron exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, Ra’a’zani,” the Human female said in Ra’a’zani language. “We have come to settle a debt that your kind owes. We have come for our people. I am offering you this one chance to surrender, or we will destroy you and take our people anyway. If you surrender, you have our word that you will be left in peace once we have taken all your slaves and destroyed all your military assets.”

Tag’r’ron’s first impulse was to demand the slave to bow to him, but he kept his mind. The Human world was destroyed, their people only stragglers. He knew that they had colonies outside of their homeworld, but he was having trouble believing that the force now attacking his system was Human. It didn’t make sense to him, that the race his people had conquered so long ago was now demanding things of him. Slaves did not demand from their masters.

He glanced at the holo; the preliminary scans of their ships were starting to come in, and already he could see that those ships were not like those that had taken back the Human system. These were warships like those of the devils. But Lu’tal was the only hope for his people’s survival; it was here that all the material for their shipbuilding was processed, here that they mined more than half of all of the materials they used. If Lu’tal fell, the Ra’a’zani would die; whether by the hands of these Humans or the devils, it didn’t matter.

“Ra’a’zani don’t answer to slaves,” Tag’r’ron snarled.

“Exactly the response we expected,” the human female said grimly. “Your surrender doesn’t matter in the large scheme of things. We know why you had to run away, and we know who hunts you. But your plans for rebuilding and defeating your foe will not come to fruition; the end of the Ra’a’zani starts now. You are nothing now. Your civilization will end by our hand,” she said, and closed the channel.

Tag’r’ron watched the empty space where the holo of the Human had been, his mind still not believing that this was happening. The rest of the room was quiet, no one saying anything, until suddenly the holo showing the Human fleet started flashing.

“Dakar! The Humans are opening fire!”

Chapter Seven

As soon as Aileen closed the link, Johanna ordered the fleet to fire. While Aileen had talked with the Ra’a’zani, she had assigned targets to her fleet. Her ships opened fire with their missiles and long-range energy weapons, and the Ra’a’zani ships and defense platforms started dying.

“How much do you think before they are ready to talk again?” Johanna asked.

Aileen grimaced. “They might not, but if they come to their senses, it will be after we take the orbit.”

Johanna nodded. That had always been a possibility. “You should get ready; we will move to the surface and the next stage after we clear their defenses.”

Aileen nodded, a bit shaken, and walked out of the command center. Johanna leaned her head to the back of her chair, and the access points on the back of her neck made connection with the Watchtower interface in her chair. Her vision changed as she suddenly found herself in space looking at her fleet. With a thought, she started sending orders to her ships.

* * *

Force Leader Andros Venter sat in the command chair of his ship—the dreadnought Risen—and watched the holo in front of him attentively. Orders from the Fleet Commander came through the holo and Andros acknowledged them. His ship was in the front line of the fleet, leading the assault on the Ra’a’zani fleet. Half of the Ra’a’zani fleet was composed of their class 1 ships, the same class that Andros had fought at Sol, 450-meter-long patrol ships. The second most was their class 2 with 200 ships, which were about a kilometer long and equivalent to the Empire’s cruisers. Lastly, there were 30 and 20 of their largest ships, classes 3 and 4, respectively. Their class 3 fell somewhere between the Empire’s cruisers and battleships at 1750 meters in length, and their class 4 was larger than the Empire’s battleship at 2500 meters in length, but still smaller than the Empire’s dreadnoughts. All Ra’a’zani ships followed the same design, that of squashed, irregular boxes covered in small, scale-like plates.