A.A.A.I, %estim, the Ra-Guul, Xa-Shii-Go and Ykk were clustered around
a station plated in gold. They sat quietly as Ai described her goal to unify the sector
against the Gallmar, which would be the only way to halt their advance and safeguard
the species of the sector from extinction. Ai created a map of the sector that she had
built so far, with Planet X, the Procyii homeworld, far to the left. She began drawing lines
of red that showed how the Gallmar had been pursuing them. She grew a green circle
around the planet they were at.
'We must defend this planet. I believe that if we can destroy them here, they will not
risk another bold attack on our planets. They have faced individual races as they were
fleeing, but not a strong, unified Federation of fighters. This is how we will position our
troops.'
The Ra-Guul and Xa-Shii-Go military tacticians felt they should say something, but as
they watched the plan unfold, they admitted that it might work. Until the Ra-Guul leader
squaked,
<No. We will not commit our Holy Fleet to something like this. How do we know you are
not the enemy? The Ra-Guul refuse and ask you to depart our planet at once.>
The Xa-Shii-Go leader replied, \Ra-Guul friend. They do not lie. It is the enemy they
describe that nearly destroyed my people.\ The Ra-Guul leader fluffed his feathers,
standing tall in the viewscreen. <Krah-Aakh! Keeping such secrets from friends is
unacceptable! You will ALL leave our space at once!>
There was a quiet spell, before the Ra-Guul leader shrieked, <Now! Leave now! Holy
Fighters, show these Bjaak-Kaak the way out!>
The golden winged ships began to stir, their cannons pointed at the Xa-Shii-Go and
Ai/%estim, who hastily made their departure. 'When the Gallmar sweep over your
planet and render it destroyed, you may seek another audience with us.' Ai said as she
departed comm. Range.
As they traveled, Ai and the Xa-Shii-Go leader spoke. He told the story
of how the last few thousand surviving Procyii encountered the Ra-Guul on their planet,
before they had spaceflight. It was shaky at first, but the two races became close allies,
and with the help of the Procyii, rebuilt their space fleets.
\It was difficult, at first. Our gene pool was very small, and for hundreds of years, our
breeding schedules were strict. We had to assign several females to each male, and
then switch them, assigning their children to different partners.. Our religious system
was destroyed, but there was still a real sense of community. For the first time in a while,
there was no argument or politics. It was simply survival. As we began to get back on
our feet, the Ra-Guul decided to attempt to convert us to their religion, even though our
existence obliterated most of their established 'Facts' of their singular dominance in the
universe. It was a long time before we established a joint language, a combination of
vocal tones and body language. It was primitive, but served us well until we regained
spaceflight when a more advanced system was developed. We merged our native
languages into a new one, Ra-Xii, as we called it. We were afraid of going back into
space, as you would expect. But when we saw that the Gallmar had once again gone
into hibernation, we felt it would be safe to rebuild our fleets. We did tell the Ra-Guul of
the Gallmar when we first arrived, and they believed us. But it seems they have simply
forgotten.\
%estim spoke next.
{After your forces crippled my ship, the Gallmar had decided you were simply too mucht
trouble to pursue further. We expected you to attempt to rebuild and resist later, but
we had four other spacefaring species we had to deal with at the time. It was intended
to send a sanitation fleet after you when we were done with them. But you simply
disappeared from us. When I was at the Ra-Guul planet, I noticed I could not scan the
planet's surface.}
\That is correct. The Ra-Guul planet is extremely rich in a gold-like substance, which
we call Gold, to make things simple. But it is superior to gold in many ways. You can
synthesize it, and it conducts much better than gold. It reflects sensors almost entirely.
We hid our fleets in caves full of the material.\
'Do you think the Ra-Guul fleets will be able to defend their homeworld?'
%estim and the Xa-Shii-Go leader replied immediately.
{No.}
\No.\
There was a period of silence.
\They were good friends, but their fanaticism was their end.\
'They haven't been killed off yet. I don't want to abandon another species to genocide.'
{I agree. I would like to show my previous masters that I am free.}
\Our fleet is rather powerful.. Yes.. Perhaps we could intervene, just after the Gallmar
have destroyed their planet, but not all of their people. I do not wish it so, but they must
see the magnitude of the enemy they face. And if that means sacrificing billions of their
people.. It must be done.\
The fleet halted their engines in grim silence. None of them wanted to, but it was an evil
they must allow for the sake of stopping the Gallmar.
The Gallmar fleets arrived with shocking force, smashing through Ra-
Guul outer defenses with ease. The shaken Ra-Guul fleets rushed out to meet them
in a bloody, one-sided fight. Ra-Guul military technology wasn’t very advanced, using
projectile weapons and dumbfire explosives. Most of their combat doctrine was to
believe in their Deity to protect them. And the Ra-Guul fell like a forest to a lasersaw.
<Krah-khaak! Fight on, brothers. The Divine is testing us! We can endure this enemy!
Dji-Kii!>
It was mere hours later that the Ra-Guul flagship suffered major hull damage and over
10,000 Ra-Guul souls vanished. From a long distance off, Ai and the Xa-Shii-Go fleet began advancing on the battlefield, but they were worried they would not make it in time.
<Aphet Wing, form up. More bombers inbound.>
Three golden winged fighters in a tight triangle flew at blistering speed through the carnage. Gallmar bombers were approaching the Holy Station, the massive orbital structure. It must not fall. Ja-Fay began to spin up his chainguns, and lined the bombers up in his sights. <Open fire!> He screeched. Hundreds of bullets flew at the bombers, but their shields were unfettered. <We can't get through their shields!> Screeched one of his wingmen.
<We are about to become martyrs, my brothers. Close your wings into cruise mode.>
The golden, spear-tipped wings folded and bent forward, around the ship. A brutal point was at the tip, and the ship engaged maximum burn. The Gallmar bomber did not see it coming until it rammed through his shields and buried itself deep within the bomber's hull. Then, the fighter overloaded its reactor, detonating itself inside of the bomber. Its torpedoes ignited, just as Ja-Fay's wingmen did the same to the other two bombers. An enourmous explosion cleared a full kilometer in each direction. Golden shards floated through space, their heat quickly dissipating in the cold of space.
Rivers of molten gold ran through the streets of the Ra-Guul capital city. The skies
were full of panicked creatures, all seeking to go anywhere that wasn't on fire. Gallmar
dreadnoughts surrounded the planet, their beam weapons tearing the surface below
to pieces. Cruisers and fighters swarmed around the lower atmosphere, hunting down
ships that attempted to flee.
'How do you intend to break that fleet?' Ai asked the Xa-Shii.
\Your companion, %estim, holds the answer to that issue.\
{I shall upload a virus to their engines. They will all fall into the planet's gravity well and
crash into the planet's surface. I have already accessed their systems, and they have
not yet discovered my presense.}
Ai was very quiet. 'We are damning the entire Ra-Guul to extinction. There is no way
they will survive such a force.' The Xa-Shii-Go replied,
\These Ra-Guul are not the only ones in the galaxy. There are several roaming Ra-Guul
missionaries and military forces. They will doubtless be here shortly.\
In the distance, hundreds of Gallmar engines suddenly went dark, and they began to
drift towards the planet. They began to glow red as they gained speed, entering the
upper atmosphere. Escape pods left the ship, and they too fell dark, plummeting to
the ground behind the Dreadnought like a cloud of gnats. The planet, already glowing
red, began to develop thick black clouds of smoke as the ships impacted the surface.
The smoke and ash spread out across the planet with alarming speed. Storms formed
and raged in seconds. Thick black sludge fell as rain, with the occasional Gallmar ship
dropping along with.
Within an hour from when the battle started, the golden planet was black and littered
with flaming carcasses.
The battlefield was quiet. Nobody said anything for a while, as the fleet
combed the debris for survivors. They didn't find many. These survivors were brought
on board the Xa-Shii-Go ships, but they didn't react. They didn't cry or scream or display
any emotion. They were, in every sense, dead. Ai could see that soon their hearts would
simply give up beating. It was a pointless task, now.
There were not many Gallmar wrecks, but every salvageable one they found was quickly
swarmed by the Ykk and towed back to the fleet, where the rest of them worked on
getting them up and running, %estim lowering their still-active firewalls, and Ai uploading
vassal AIs to them.
The first of the Ra-Guul reinforcements arrived.
<This is the Spear of Retribution. We have arrived to..>
The newly arrived fleet of two battleships, a cruiser and around two dozen strike craft
stared out at the battlefield. At the wrecked ships and stations, and lastly at the cloudy
black planet.
{You are too late. You are alive because of it.} said %estim.
<What.. This is impossible. We must.. Wrong coordinates..>
'This is the price of your leaders not listening to our warnings.' Said Ai.
The Ra-Guul moved silently through the debris. They approached Ai's fleet.
<And you intend to strike back, correct? You intend to kill them all?> Said the Admiral
leading the fleet.
'Yes. We attempted to have your people join us before this catastrophe occurred. Now
do you see the weight of our request?' Said Ai, indicating the destroyed planet behind
her.
The planet, where the smoke had dissipated, glowed red. Lava ran openly across
the surface, with the force of so many ships impacting its crust, many places on the
planet simply ruptured, earthquakes shaking the ground so hard, mountains crumbled.
The world seemed to be on fast forward, storms forming, dropping their contents, and
evaporating, to re-form seconds later. Volcanoes sprouted, erupted, and collapsed
again. The oceans, what was left of them, boiled away, fueling the massive hurricane
whirling above.
And everything was covered in thick, suffocating blackness. Nothing alive remained on
the once golden planet.
![[Image: 16106_s.gif]](http://signavatar.com/16106_s.gif)