Beyond the Veil(Zodiac, Closed) ATTN Canuckland

[Yortini Systems]

OOC: This thread is closed for everyone except members of Zodiac. It is a first contact thread for the Yortini Systems.

"All systems nominal, we're approaching the anomaly sir."

Talo Melugandy sat, his eyes glued to the holographic monitor, projected on the wall of the Colonial Control center.

"Continue approach."

The Remote Operator, a young woman named Hevla acknowledged Melugandy's command and began typing feverishly on the control pad.

The probe's recording was displayed on the monitor, the anomaly stood as a daunting figure, a swirling mass of light. It grew larger as the probe descended into it.

"T minus 10 seconds until contact."

The Operator's voice was filled with the tension that everyone in the room felt. A chorus of 20 echoed back the countdown displayed on the monitor.

"9, 8, 7, 6."

It continued, each number louder than the one before.

"3, 2 , 1"

"Contact!"

The Operator almost shouted the word. The room stood in awe, waiting for the 13 minute lag from the radio waves to end. Melugandy would later attest that it was the longest 13 minutes he had ever felt in his life.

Suddenly, the monitor changed to reveal a deep red star. A star never seen before.

"My God!" Melugandy whispered.

---

Had it really only been 17 months? The trip from Yort to this new system felt like it took years. Perhaps the confines of the ship had made the trip feel longer. It was only three years ago that Melugandy lead the unmanned expedition to the anomaly, and now hundreds of light years away from home, he leads another expedition.

"Sir, we are twenty minutes from contact with D-5025-J."

"Thank you Heshol, tell the crew and civilians to prepare for atmospheric entry."

Melugandy turned back to the window and gazed thoughtfully at the looming horizon that grew before the vessel. The atmosphere here is poisonous, but by constructing the inflatable domes the colonists brought with them, it wouldn't be a concern.

Tongues of flame began to stretch across the window as vessel fell through the atmosphere of the new planet, the anchor world. It was Melugandy's honor to name the new world, and though the extensive amount of research he had done on the voyage, he was partial to the name Mehoot. It was the name for an ancient goddess of exploration and discovery.

The chutes were deployed and the colony vessel landed without incident. Within four days the colony sprawled out over the Mehootini landscape.

[Canuckland]

The message was sent across the stars once more. It was sent every day, along with other messages not received by the queens. The Precursors have given them knowledge, but they had to unlock it.



The workers kept digging and digging until they realised something. The message pinged. Something received it. It was only a split second, but they kept working, digging tunnels and building Threshold Towers. It was a never ending cycle on the planet of storms, thunder and lightning every second. Occasionally, the storms left. But they would return in a cycles time. The workers themselves had all kept their work schedule, even after the ping.

Yes. Something was sent, something received. What now?. Must contact Precursors. They must know. Yes.

The Matriarchs were all thinking the same thing, they knew that something must be done. It was time for them. They had to do something soon. To keep their masters happy they would need to do something. It would come to them in time, it would come to them in time. The billions of Aux'mah were all working and moving. From afar, it might as well been a colony of ants.

Must wait. Must wait for the Precursors. They will know what to do. They will gift us once again...

[Yortini Systems]

Melugandy awoke to the pounding of footfalls against the metal grating of the domed colony.

Someone is running

The door to Melugandy's quarters burst open, communications officer, Tawa Golot stood panting in the doorway.

"Sir, we've received a transmission!"

Melugandy grew concerned, it was normal to receive transmissions from Yort, but Golot was visibly upset. Perhaps something had gone wrong, maybe there was a problem.

"What's wrong? Is everything ok on Yort?"

"No, it's the transmission, it isn't from Yort. It came from within this system."

---

The Communications Lab was in utter chaos. Yortini scrambled across the desks, papers flew in a shower of white sheets. Melugandy was arched over the main monitor with Golot and another officer, Ronwo.

Ronwo spoke first "You see we were able to triangulate the origin of the message, and we discovered it came from a planet within this system?"

"What did it say?" Melugandy's head reeled with repercussions of this message.

"Well that's the problem. It is completely unintelligible to us, like some other language." Golot was staring with wonder at the screen.

Melugandy fell silent for a moment. "Can we translate it?"

"It's nearly impossible, we don't understand any of it, we don't have anything to work off of." Ronwo paused "We don't even know any of the grammar, and that's assuming it's actually a language."

Melugandy thought for a moment. "Reply to it. Send out a message, say we come in peace or something like that. If this is a lifeform, I don't want it to assume we're invading.

"Roger!" Ronwo began recording a reply. In less than an hour the reply was sent to the location where the transmission originated.

[Canuckland]

This time, the Aux'mah looked up to the stars.

It hit them, something was sent back. It had hit them all. They all looked up and watched. They knew the masters would be happy. It had finally happened.

They all shut off. The Matriarchs, workers, everyone. They had all shut down. Most of the world was inactive. Just the fauna were walking around, looking at the things that hunted them to feed. One creature even walked closer, touching one of the inactive Aux'mah.

They turned back on.

The creature was torn in half in seconds, blood and intestines covering the forest trees that were nearby. The Aux'mah were back, they were deadlier than ever. And they were doing something, something sinister with themselves. Aux'mah after Aux'mah started to turn on each other. It was a colony war. Aux'mah were tearing each other apart with their new found claws. Entire fields were filled with blood and Aux'mah parts, while they warred. Queens had gotten ideas from their precursors. They had weapons.

A Day Later...

Green fields were red. Grass was filled with Chitin from the Aux'mah. Entire ecosystems were destroyed. At least a hundred of the Threshold Towers of the hundreds of thousands were down. At least two billion Aux'mah were dead. Even now, their newest inventions had been tested. Along with the dead Aux'mah were their new toys. Tanks, walkers and spaceships. They were ready.

They shut off once more.

A battlefield covered in death and war had turned silent. Ionized Lasers had disappeared and everything was silent, not moving. The massive ships they had built from themselves slowly fell to the ground. Then, they had all came back to life. They looked around, confused of their dead friends. They started walking around and resuming what they had done one day ago. The new ships had floated back up.

But, the Matriarchs were not done yet.

On their new ships, there were Aux'mah and Matriarchs. They were now pointed towards the stars. They were now leaving Jual'Tkso. They were heading towards the origin of the signal...

[Yortini Systems]

Melugandy hadn't left his post in days. Sleep was a treasure not to be found on the colony, the excitement of the previous day's radio signal had left the entire crew, and civilian population in udder, wordless, anticipation. Now, though, the initial shock of the signal had worn off, and the colony was simply waiting, hoping.

Melugandy was day dreaming, his home, his wives, had they missed him? Were they thinking of him as he was of them? When he first told them of his "opportunity" as he called it, they were verging on angry. How could he leave them? He explained it was the for the betterment of society, but they didn't understand. They would never understand.

"Sir, we're picking up something. A hot object."

The term "hot" was used to describe a celestial body that emitted energy, exhaust. It meant the object was alive, either a ship or a probe or something of that sort.

I can't believe

"Where is it? How far away?" his mind was teeming with questions, some he knew couldn't be answered.

"Uhh, it's seems to be leaving a planet. It could be headed this way, I'll try plotting the course."

"Hail it, we don't have time for plotting courses! Hail it!" Melugandy was standing now, his outer arms gripped the desk while his central arm stroked his chin, a nervous tick.

"Yes sir!"

[Canuckland]

The ships had pointed their bows towards the signal, the signal sent days ago. The Matriarchs aboard the nineteen ships sent to the message's origin were all communicating, constantly chattering. It's the first time an Aux'mah had been sent up into the stars, up and out of their tunnels into a claustrophobic, closed space, unlike when they could come up for air any time they wanted. Though they liked their ships, they couldn't come up for fresh air. The nineteen ships, unnamed in Aux'mah telepathic language, had sped up.



Two Weeks Later...

They had finally reached the signal. At the edge of the Hospitable zone in the system lay a Garden world. A Queen looked at the planet in awe. She hadn't seen a planet like hers from space, let alone another planet up close. The ships had started to descend, following the origin of the signal that was sent back.

On the Surface...

After the nineteen ships had entered atmosphere, the lead ship touched down by the signals origins, where a few structures were set up...

[Yortini Systems]

Flocks, no hordes of Yortini surrounded the newly landed ships. Some scientists, taking thousands of measurements, calculations, atmospheric readings. Others journalists, jabbering endlessly to their camera crew. Still more were military men, officers, surveying the threat, preparing for the worst, hoping for the best. It would have been so much easier for the Confederation if these vessels had landed on Yort, instead they chose the smallest colony, the anchor world.

Melugandy sprinted pasts the masses of Yortini, forcefully creating a path through the mob, catching shards of conversations as he ran by. Everyone was saying the same thing, what were these visiting ships, where had they come from and what did they want. The Administrator struggled to make his way to the wide circlular clearing around the ships set up bye the military. The soldiers were standing shoulder to shoulder, The masses struggled to get closer, arms reached, grasped, grabbed over the helmets of the soldiers, and were forced back. Melugandy squeezed through a space between two Yortini, and surfaced with his face nearly touching the nose of a soldier. he reached into his pocket and retrieved his identification, though he didn't need it, the soldiers would no doubt know who their own leader was.

"Go right through Mr. Administrator" He spoke with distinguished honor, yet through his confident mask, Melugandy could tell this man was nervous, scared.

"Thank you. try to keep these people further back, I wouldn't want them to get hurt." He whispered these words, though there was no reason to. No one could hear him over the persistent chatting of the crowd.

The soldier nodded his head in understanding "Will do Mr. Administrator."

Melugandy entered the clearing through the space provided by the soldier. A few crowd member attempted to scurry through after the administrator, but were pushed back with force by the surrounding soldier. The soldiers began expanding the clearing, forcing themselves against the wall of Yortini, pushing. A few of the soldier were forced to use their batons, and Melugandy could hear the satisfying whack of the plastic cylinders against flesh.

Why did they have to pick Mehoot?

A few of Melugandy's officers stood around the ships. They greeted him, explaining the situation, how the ships just appeared, descended. How the colony has contacted the Yort and were waiting for a response. How no one knew what to do. Melugandy wasn't listening, his mind was elsewhere, captivated by the vessels, their design, their shape. Nothing about them seemed like spaceship. They seemed to be alive, primitive almost, covered in a hard exoskeleton rather than metal.

Is that chitin?

They appeared almost insectoid, the huge extremities in the front seemed almost ironically identical to the mandibles of the beetles back home, the spikes reminiscent of sea life. He immediately was a child again gazing at the strange creature in the bottom of his pail. He remembered the voice of his mother, explaining the organism he had captured was called a Tewaten Crab.

"A delicacy to the Yortini high class."

Her voice echoed through his thoughts, his whole being. And suddenly he was back in the clearing, back in the shadow of one of the ships. One of his officers was asking him a question, he hadn't paid attention, he didn't hear the question.

"What was that?"

"I was asking you what you thought we should do?"

Melugandy's eyes scanned up and down the length of the ships, he counted on his fingers. Nineteen ships stood, an armada by Yortini standards. Perhaps these visitors weren't as benevolent as he had hoped. Maybe they came to attack, destroy. Then what were they waiting for? That's what Melugandy was caught up on, why hadn't these visitors attacked when they still had the element of surprise.

"I think everyone should get back a bit more, I don't know whether these things are dangerous."

His officers' eyes scrutinized him, what was wrong with their leader, why was he acting so strangely?

"Sir, are you ok? You seem a little weird." It was Hervateg, Melugandy's second in command and best friend.

"No, I'm not ok. These ships are alien, they come from a different planet. There's life elsewhere, No one seems phased, why not?"

"Because we don't have time to ponder, we have to react. You better make a call soon, or I'll do it for you. Come on, as your friend, as your colleague."

Melugandy brushed off this comment, friendships could wait. This was now, this ship was now. He walked closer to the vessel. Where was the door? He reached out and slid his hand along the carapace-like hull of the vessel.

[Canuckland]

The door opened.

The Matriarch looked outside from inside of her ship. He looked at the masses of people infront of her. She over to see one of them, touching her ship. The Matriarch stepped outside, onto the green grass. She looked around as her six legs moved in unison and the tentacles under her inspected the ground. Her mandibles clicked twice as she looked around, the horns on her head looking more menacing than the ship itself. She looked up at the blue sky. She looked back down at the creatures ahead of her. She let out a screech and looked over at the one inspecting her ship. She clicked her mandibles and walked closer. She clicked her mandibles once more and looked down at him (The Matriarchs are about 15 feet tall) She lifted two of her legs and stood on four of her back legs, screeching. Clearly, it wasn't like one of their own. She had put her two forelegs down and clicked her mandibles three times. She got closer and looked at it closer. Her mandibles clicked one last time as her two forelegs rose and shot down, impaling it.

Aux'mah spilled out of the one landed ship, hundreds of them as they ran towards the retreating crowd. But it was too late.

One of the bugs had jumped on a retreating creature, digging it's claws into it's spine and ripping out it's spine, digging into the ground through it's body. Another Aux'mah had chased a creature, pushing it down as it started eating the creature as it cried out for its life, blood and chucks of meat flying as it's mandibles dug into the creature. One of the bugs had get another down and had dug into it's chest, the creatures own intestines flying out of his body as he watched in horror the bug killing him. Intestines and Blood covered the field as the Aux'mah mauled the creatures, digging into their bodies, eating them and entire bodies getting cut into.

It was madness.

The remaining Eighteen ships deployed their fighters, killing the creatures as they fired their Ionized Lasers. The ships themselves aiming their massive Ionized Lasers at the crowds of people, the explosions of said lasers killing as many as possible. The Aux'mah were being satisfied with the battle, no, a battle is when your enemy has the chance to fight back, this was a massacre.

[Yortini Systems]

From his last breaths of existence, melugandy turned towards the chaos. The entire colony was dying right before his eyes. Women, chemen and children all falling in puddles of their own blue viscous blood.

Melugandy looked down at his chest, he too was bleeding. A gaping whole like a window to his insides. He was going to die.

These creatures had begun killing before the soldiers could have a chance to fire. Their years of training was of no use now. The civilians were no doubt running for the return vehicles, even if they made it they would be gunned down. The creatures ran like a river of purple chitin, killing almost gracefully in some twisted way.

Melugandy sunk lower and lower into the ground. He was tired, a type of tired he hadn't known before. What would happen when it was all over, when he died? Would he understand the universal system and transcend like the scriptures say? Would he cease to exist? What?

Melugandy allowed his eyes to shut. His thoughts left, he drifted off. He was dying.

The world is a cruel place.

[Canuckland]

It was a few minutes later when the ones that were lucky to retreat were long gone from the area. The place they had landed was filled with blood, filled with chunks of meat and organs. As the last of the bugs had started to clean up, piling the last of the bodies up for the Matriarchs to feast on, more ships had landed, deploying hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions of Aux'mah to start digging tunnels for the Matriarchs, and build the Threshold Towers they needed to sustain life. However, it would take at least two weeks to build a tower with the amount of Aux'mah. Luckily, they had their ships...

As they dug more and more tunnels, they realized the planet had resources. Perfect. Now they had a real reason to attack the rest of the inhabitants...

[Yortini Systems]

The CSC Odolega drifted soundlessly in orbit around Mehoot, every now and again correcting its course with momentary burns of monopropellant.

Captain Ishets stood gazing out of his cabin window, and the crescent of light on the surface of the anchor world.

"Standardized calendar date 9.3.10 R, the CSC Odolega disaster relief vessel is en route to the Mehoot colony after a distress call was received. Our ship is equipped with the latest medical technology, in case of any injuries. We don't yet know the nature of the distress signal, but in a few hours, our recon shuttle will return and I'll record what they saw on their mission. This is Captain Ishets, out."

Ishets clicked the button on his recorder and slipped it into his pocket. The shuttle was now visible on its approach to the Odolega, and the Captain pushed off the window through the open door of his cabin. Using rubber hand rungs in the corridor of the vessel, Ishets was able to cope with the zero gravity environment and make his way to the bridge. Once in the bridge, he hailed the shuttle to hear the news from surface.

"Hello? Do you read?" Ishets played with the controls until he could see the shuttle pilots face on the main monitor. To say his face was grim was an understatement. His eyes were wide with horror, what had he seen?

"Hello, Captain Ishets."

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Captain, you should wait until we dock."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Trust me Captain."

With that, the pilot ended the call and the captain was left with utter disbelief.

---

"We flew in close to the colony, and it was totally empty. Everyone was dead, their bodies mangled in bloody piles, contorted. No one was left, the return vehicles were all launched but we found them a few kilometers away, crashed, burning metal." The shuttle had landed and the pilot recounted his story from Mehoot.

The pilot was staring at the wall of the Odolega, as if he was seeing everything again.

"Who killed them? Who would do that?" The captain was completely dumbfounded, someone massacred the entire colony. A veritable genocide, and for what?

"It wasn't a who, it was a what, things, creatures. No yortini did it, no yortini has the strength to rip people apart like that. No, these were monsters, insectoid beasts. They were digging, mining beneath the city. I took some photographs, though I don't think you'll want to see them."

"Let me have those!" The captain yanked the flash drive out of the pilots hand and uploaded the photographs into the onship computer.

Sure enough, everything the pilot said was true. The pictures showed stacks of yortini corpses, surrounded by puddles of blue. Other pictures showed strange crab-like creatures going about their business in the dirt.

"For the love of all things sacred!"

"I think they were eating the bodies."

"How did they get here?"

"They had ships, giant living ships."

The captain let his head fall into the palms of his central hands.

"Pilot, why don't you take a rest. We're going back."

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep again."

The Odolega began the 34 day journey home, they had a lot to report.

[Canuckland]

Two Months after the 'Great Feast...'

Threshold Towers were on the planet, in the hundreds they stacked high. Their new ships had been all over their system. Their ships had landed on every planet and built Towers, they were thriving. With a majority of their moons and planets in the system habited by Aux'mah, supported by their Threshold Towers, they're numbers were rising, and fast. As the hoards of the bugs shambled on the planets, protected by their Threshold Towers, some of which on the unprotected planets, were decaying. They mined and killed each other for their vehicles and ships. They had found something of interest, something that their Masters, what they call the 'Ichor,' have taught them about long, long ago.

They had found the Anomalies.

One Month Later...

An entire fleet, over 120 ships strong of Aux'mah Chitin had been made in the short three months. There was nothing stopping the Aux'mah from killing from their ranches and using their Chitin to build their ships. They did nothing but build and mine for these ships, waiting for the day they hoped to find their new opponents and kill them once more. It was satisfying for the Aux'mah hivemind. They craved more, they craved blood and meat, they craved the fear in the enemies eyes, they craved killing.

Fifty-Nine ships were pointed towards this anomaly that their precursors have taught them about. They were about to enter, for the first time, into a new system. A huge step for the Aux'mah...

One more month later.

The two systems from the two anomalies have been colonized with Threshold Towers in their biodomes, the other alien races of Juah'tkso running amok in the fake forests on the barren and deserted planets. But it was time. It was time for the Aux'mah to fulfil their masters last wishes, to fulfil their goal in their short lives.

To Conquer.

(OoC: Entering last Anomaly to Yort's system. Prepare for the steamrolling!)

[Yortini Systems]

The news of the creatures, the inhabitants of the anchor system was an utter shock to the Confederation. The notion of intelligent life on other planets had never been entertained by yortini science. It simply was never conceived, incomprehensible. The Confederation kept the information under wraps for as long as they possibly could. It wasn't a conspiracy, that was the wrong word for it, they were simply trying to maintain order for as long as possible, prevent the rampant spread of misinformation, like a disease. However, despite the Confederation's best effort, word inevitably got out.

In the following weeks, the colonies grew paranoid. What if the beasts came here?. The militias of the old day reformed, freighters were equipped with rail guns and other home made weapons. The anomaly, now known as the gateway, was surrounded 24/7 with frigates and cruisers of every make and size. Waiting. If, and when any vessel entered through the gateway, the ships would open fire immediately. Without question, without hesitation.

Miners on the Tedeb belt packed up and returned home. The economy took a hit, mining was one of the most important industries.

Everyone waited, hoped for the best.

[Canuckland]

Sixty nine ships. The Aux'mah fleet amassed Sixty nine ships. While their entire fleet would not be entering the next portal, a small fleet of only twenty five ships would. They would enter and colonize once more. The Aux'mah were growing, and growing fast, in their Biodomes, more and more animals needed to be bred and tranported to their new planets. It was tiring work, but with the animals on the new planet in their home system, they would be supplemented for a long time.

But, their attention was focused on this new anomaly. Thirty ships, half of which are untested. Another half of which is entirely new. It was a surprise to the Aux'mah, how the knowledge of space technology had came to them from their masters, the Ichor. It must've been a long time for them to implant that kind of knowledge into them. That did not matter right now, what mattered is this portal. The portal to the next system, deciding whether or not the Aux'mah will fill their hunger for murder and meat. It would fulfil their wonder for their new adversary, whether they would be a ranch animal, and be harvested for meat for the Matriarchs, or whether or not they will fight back for once.

It did not matter.

What mattered, is that the ships, had finally entered...

2 Matriarch Carriers
12 Planetary Assault Carriers
6 Devastator Warships
6 Planetary Bombardment Carriers
4 Planetary Troop Carriers
120 Dropships

[Yortini Systems]

Thirteen ships rested in formation around the gateway. They sat, in wait, letting out a puff of monopropellant every now and again to correct their formation. Like sleeping beasts stalking an injured prey, awaiting the proper moment to pounce. Every six days, a ship would rotate off, and a new one would take its place. The absolute silence of space was incredibly loud, filling every cranny in the ships.

For a while nothing happened, there was no invading armada to cut down, no swarm of intersolar locusts to swat at. The only enemies were the occasional micrometeors that bounced into the hull of a ship. Though after a while something did come.

On the internal side of the gateway, a set of motion detectors were rigged to notify the CSC immediately upon detection of contact. At 1700 hours on 09.00.01.05.01, the motion detectors pinged. The smooth black carapace surface of a ship reared its anticipated head into the soft light of the gateway.

Simultaneously, every ship in formation opened fire, streaks of light raining from the worn metal hulls.

[Canuckland]

The streaks of fire heading towards the lead ship, a Matriarch Carrier. Almost immediately, some of the hardened chitin had broken away, revealing some of the innards as Aux'mah flew out into the vacuum of space, the hole to be filled seconds later. As ship after ship came out of the anomaly, they too were fired upon by weapons. It wasn't long before the Planetary Assault Carriers fired their massive Ionized Laser, striking an enemy ship right down the middle, as the ions exploded, the ship tore to pieces. (OoC: If this is seen as godmodding for a mainline ship, please tell me so. I've been conflicted on whether or not the ship to ship versions of the Ionized Lasers are to be scalpels or scramblers in a sense) As the rest of the ships arrived, it was evident how many there were.

As fighters deployed into the endless space to harass the enemy ships, the larger ships did not halt their advance into the system. Clearly, they had finally found something. Something that was worth their time and effort. The smaller dropships fired off their tiny Ionized Laser scalpels, firing at the enemy ships as they sought fit. The larger capital ships, the Matriarch Carriers, were firing off their plethora of Ionized Lasers and Disks, hoping to hit something as the enemy fleet had slowly started to get smaller and smaller, overwhelmed by the thirty or so ships that had arrived in their system.

They had arrived, the Yortini's days were numbered...

[Yortini Systems]

"We're outnumbered! Someone contact Space Command, request reinforcements!" Captain Hevoly barked orders at his crew. The light frigate rocked back and forth wildly. A few crewmembers who hadn't secured their harnesses well enough flew from their seats and rebounded off the walls of the bridge.

"Reinforcements are on their way sir. 12 additional frigates, 6 cruisers and 6 repurposed freighters. They'll arrive in less than an hour."

"Tell them to hurry!"

A flash of light off to the distance demanded the captain's attention. A laser had hit the CSC Grenotaw, he knew the captain of the ship. It was his friend. There was an explosion, the captain half expected a sound. Instead there was a silent unsatisfying cloud of expanding gases.

"Fire torpedoes one and two. Keep the railguns going!"

The torpedoes flew gracefully from the sides of the ship. Paused for a second in the blackness, then activated their engines. The torpedoes swam towards their target, the largest of the invader ships. Occasionally adjusting their course. Armed with a concentrated high energy explosive and shards of shrapnel, the torpedoes could rip a hole in the shielding of a ship, if they hit in the right spot.

"Torpedoes fired sir!"

One of the invaders fired an ionized laser. It burned straight through the steel hull of the yortini frigate. Melted metal flew from the cut, burning. A loud boom jolted from the rear of the ship, the hydrogen was hit. Captain Hevoly Was thrown from his chair towards the now shattered monitor in the front of the bridge. The gaping breach in the hull pulled against everything in the bridge, crew members were sucked out into the abyss. Hevoly clung to the monitor, his hands sliced by the glass screen, drops of blue flying towards the breach and boiling from the vacuum. He slipped.

Pulled violently through the breach, he grabbed his nose and mouth. The five remaining ships continued the assault against the beasts. He watched the torpedoes glide into the largest of the vessels, they hit. He turned behind to see the reinforcement fleet in the distance, they were just arriving.

The vacuum swallowed the last of his air.

[Canuckland]

A disk hit an enemy ship, tearing it apart in two, as the halves drifted apart. It was a mere moments later before the two halves were engulfed in flames. The Aux'mah were over whelming them. Even the dropships could've won this easy victory, as the clouds of smoke were snuffed out by the vacuum of space. The Aux'mah ships themselves were taking hits, but the metal infused chitin was holding up pretty well.

It was when a Devastator Warship that was torpedoed in half, the whole ship engulfed in flames, that the Aux'mah knew they weren't invincible.

But they kept going, pressing onwards as the fired Ionized Lasers and Disks, hitting the overwhelmed enemy as the last of their ships blew apart. The Aux'mah had their first Stellar Victory. They Aux'mah were going to have their second planetary victory, whether their new adversary liked it or not. The Ships advanced through the debris of their own Devastator Warship and the other ships that were guarding the Anomaly. As debris bounced off the chitin of the ships, they realized they lost more than a simple warship. They lost an entire Matriarch Carrier and a few dropships. The whole battle was only a few minutes, and they had already lost two ships of their advance. Hopefully, they still had enough...

[Yortini Systems]

Space command was scrambling, papers flying in the air. It was utter chaos. Thirteen ships lost in a single day, a horrific loss of life. These kinds of casualties haven't been seen since the days of the Colonial Wars. The CSC was dumbfounded. Usually Confederate frigates were able to take care of most problems, but these beasts were obviously a different story. Perhaps the long banned nukes would be needed. The CSC had hoped it wouldn't come to that, but they were kept armed in case such an opportunity presented itself.

While the reinforcements prepared to take on the invading fleet, the Hub station launched a few non-nuclear missiles to soften up the monsters. The few Confederate cruisers and destroyers were undocked to act as a second wave if the reinforcements couldn't cut it. The missiles flew from the station towards the battle, each capable of sending hundreds of metal shards at the enemies.

---

At the front line, it was obvious that railguns didn't do much good against these creatures. The newly arrived reinforcements now resorted to torpedoes and flak shells.

There were eleven ships in all, each firing shells from their large onship guns. The shells flew through the battle and burst just before hitting the beasts, sending chunks of metal shrapnel that could rip into just about anything. High energy torpedoes were launched and guided themselves towards their prey.

Already, three of the new reinforcements were destroyed. Hit by the powerful enemy lasers, effectively melting the hulls. It was already clear that this would be a difficult fight, and the outer world colonies were in the process of evacuation. It wasn't understood what these monstrosities wanted, but it was evident they couldn't be bargained with, reasoned with. It was as if they weren't even sentient, just killing, expanding. Perhaps that was true.

[Canuckland]

As the non-sentient, killing and expanding machines encountered new resistance, they decided to employ a new tactic. Fighters. Fighters launched from the decks of the last Matriarch Carrier and the Planetary Assault Carriers as the tiny fighters rushed towards the enemy fleet, while the Ionized Lasers from their home ships had fired off their depleting salvo's, needing to recharge soon. But they would give it their all. Something was sending reinforcements. Something was here. The Aux'mah needed to fulfil their hunger for killing once more. As the Aux'mah in their ships, so cramped and closed off, were working their hardest to keep the ships going, they knew they were finally doing something. They also knew their Metal-Hardened-Chitin was not great against anything. While it would keep the slugthrowers away, the other weapons their adversary's used would penetrate...

The massive Ionized Laser on a Planetary Assault Carrier had fired, eschewing a Yortini ship of it's armour, melting it and eventually, the ship blew apart. The battle, though one sided, was not going as expected. Two torpedo's struck an Planetary Assault Carrier where the batteries were stored for the weapons, it blew apart immediately as another ship broke apart, a Planetary Bombardment Carrier, as it was struck by multiple weapons from their enemies. The dropships were firing their small Ionized Lasers, heading in a beeline fashion, heading towards any planet they can find.

It wasn't too long before the Second Wave was preparing...

[Yortini Systems]

"Good God!"

Commander Yeryak of the CSC Terkateka watched watched in horror, the larger ships were releasing smaller, nimbler ones. Like swarms of gnats they approached came closer. There were too many to hit with torpedoes, the yortini vessels didn't have machine guns, they had have to use flak shells. They would have to hope the spread of shrapnel could hit the fighters, like firing a shotgun at flies.

"Aim for those smaller vessels. Fire all flak launchers!"

The ship vibrated with each blast of the flak launchers. Deafening silence strangled, suffocated. The vibrations of the ship mimicked sounds, they were horribly quiet.

CHOON CHOON CHOON!

The shells burst in the space between ships, sending shrapnel of every shape and size. Some hit, though they didn't do much. Others missed entirely, flying into the void to God knows where.

"It's not working. Tell the CSC, request artillery fire!"

The Confederate reinforcements, one by one, ripped apart at the seams by the invaders.