“It… this can’t be right, the transmission is using our protocols, and it’s a video file.” Tofor looked at his subordinate as he shook his head in bewilderment. Tofor felt the same way, they had no assets in the direction that this transmission came from. Steeling himself Tofor stepped back and spoke.
“Play it.”
A few moments later the video started playing on the large wall monitor that the room was oriented around. Immediately after the video started there were gasps from across the room. Tofor himself felt his two hearts stop for a beat. Every Trivaxian knew who the being in the message was. Every child born after the most pivotal moment in their history had studied that being. Scientist had analyzed everything about it, its skin color, its features, its clothing, everything in order to try and better understand it. Then the being opened its mouth, and just like the last time a voice started speaking a moment later in Trivaxian.
“People of Trivax,” It struck Tofor how different this voice was from the one of the aliens that had invaded his home. Theirs was cold, mechanical, and void of gender and feeling. But the voice that spoke to his people now felt as if it was truly a Trivaxian speaking, it was feminine, and Tofor could feel the determination in it. “You know who I am, although last time I didn’t introduce myself. We left a monitoring drone in your system to follow your progress, and through it we are aware of the invaders that had attacked your system. Our territory is a long way from you, but we have ships close by. I am sending you this message to let you know that we are coming. Don’t lose hope, we will arrive in nine days. I am Fleet Commander Johanna Stern of the Empire, we are coming.”
The silence met the end of the message. Tofor was looking at the blank screen in shock. Suddenly an emotion he hadn’t felt since the aliens took Rofvax filled his being, hope.
Six days later – Trivax orbit
Quvor watched as the invader’s ships drew closer and closer to his home world. At their current speed they will arrive in two days, one day before the arrival of the other aliens. Even now Quvor could barely believe it. He had watched the video message, and recognized the alien being as the same one that had given his people a great gift. But it was also coupled with anger. The aliens had a small monitoring station in his system, now that they knew it was there it was relatively easy for them to find it.
But Quvor wasn’t really angry about that, he was angry that they weren’t here to prevent what happened at Rofvax. He knew that this anger was unfounded, he shouldn’t expect them to come and protect his people the instant a threat appeared. And if their territory was so far away, then Quvor should be grateful that his people were lucky enough that this Empire had ships close enough to come to their aid. But it still weighed on Quvor, knowing that there was nothing he could do, and that if help doesn’t arrive before the invaders reach Trivax, it would be on his ships to stall them until it does.
It was a fool’s errand, his ships were no match for the invaders. But still Quvor wouldn’t let them pass as long as his ships could impede them. They will die to buy his people time. And perhaps the time they buy will save some lives.
Quvor’s plan was already in motion, he waited until one of Trivax’s moons was obscuring the invaders fleet’s view, and then started moving his ships behind it. He was using the moon to keep his ships hidden, while he used the sensors from the station and satellites in Trivax orbit to monitor the invaders. Once they reach the moon Quvor will move from behind the moon and attack them from the side, in a maneuver that will then slingshot his ship back behind the moon. He hoped that that will save at least some of his ships, and hopefully give him another chance to annoy the invaders. Maybe annoy them enough that they decide to first destroy his ships, buying more time for Trivax.
Quvor scratched his snout with his lower left limb, then he leaned back down at the screen, checking his calculations one more time.
Chapter Twelve
Two days later – Trivax’s moon
Quvor’s ears twitched, for the hundredth time he questioned himself. He was certain the invaders knew that his twelve ships were here. If he was commanding those ships, that would have been the most logical conclusion after he saw that they disappeared. What Quvor hoped for, was that the invaders leader saw his ships as no threat at all, that they didn’t expect an attack. Because who would be crazy enough to attack a fleet of seventy much more advanced ships with only twelve?
Quvor glanced at the clock ticking down to the moment his ships would commence full burst and slingshot around the moon to attack the side of the invaders formation. He glanced downwards and checked his straps once more. The speed his ships would be accelerating would be so big that most will lose consciousness. And yet, Quvor knew that those speeds were nothing compared to the speeds of the invaders. There was mention of a way to negate the force of acceleration in the files given to his people, but they haven’t discovered what it was yet.
The attack itself would be executed by the ship’s computers, there was just no way for his people to control the ship while under so much gravitational forces. Quvor hoped that it would be enough. Then the clock reached zero, and Quvor opened ship wide comms.
“All personnel brace for maximum acceleration!” A few moments later, his ship started to move, faster and faster, until he could feel the straps on his body tighten and his body pressing painfully into his chair. He wondered, if he would survive long enough to thank the aliens for his life.
Twelve Trivaxian ships slingshot around the moon, the gravitational forces of the maneuver made most of their crews pass out. But their presence wasn’t necessary, the computers executed their tasks. As soon as they left the shadow of the moon, they looked at the place where – according to the calculations from Trivax – the invasion fleet should be, and found them within the margin. The ships computers locked on to the closest five ships and fired all their missiles. Each ship launched forty missiles, four hundred and eighty missiles total raced towards the invading ships.
Even though the Trivaxians had the element of surprise, the invading ships recovered quickly enough. Their point defense lasers started locking on to the incoming missile fire. Quickly the Trivaxian missiles started disappearing in flashes of fire. But as luck would have it, the invader formation was such that their smallest crafts were on the outside of the formation. Their lesser point defense capability, coupled with the relatively short range from Trivaxian ships and the amount of missiles, guaranteed that they wouldn’t be able to take them all down.
Then Trivaxian ships opened up with their laser weapons. Their lasers were nowhere near powerful enough to actually destroy the invading ships. But even a low powered laser could prove troublesome if it was allowed to keep its fire on the same area long enough. So the invaders started rolling their ships in an attempt to dissipate the heat from the lasers, which in turn lessened their point defense effectiveness. But just as they took incoming fire, they too lashed back with their own missiles, five ships each fired one hundred missiles in a span of half a minute. And then the Trivaxian missiles passed the invaders point defense. Out of four hundred and eighty missiles, forty seven passed through and impacted the invader ships.
The missiles, just like the Trivaxian lasers were nowhere near powerful enough to actually destroy the invading ships. But luckily one of the invader ships allowed a Trivaxian laser to keep its beam on the same area for long enough to threaten the hull integrity, and out of forty seven missiles more than half targeted just that ship. Twenty five missiles impacted the invader ship’s hull, fifteen of those hitting the hull and only scratching and denting it, but ten of the missiles impacted on the area of the hull that was weakened by the Trivaxian laser. The missiles detonated and punctured the hull, the ship lost atmosphere and secondary explosions destroyed its main systems. The ship continued spinning, now dead in space.