AN: Obligatory note that I adore the Andromeda series (up until the last season which changed way too much, Kevin Sorbo what the heck) and adopted the Slipstream Technology for my own species.
"You were watching to see when the beast planet would make a move." Cryos stated, the others understanding immediately that his words confirmed their new allies had seen everything. Possibly even the destruction of planet Fire. Pyrus tensed at this, developing ear-spines flattened back, Zera and Zuma watching him worriedly as Sternum observed the large six-limbed Taalrulthian flying alongside them effortlessly.
"Yes, but we haven't been here since the beginning. Leaving a surveillance drone in the Cluster would have eventually been found by one of you, and with the wars ongoing, we didn't wish to make ourselves known." Samateus responded, carefully choosing her words to keep them from becoming more angered.
"So you watched us for a bit and left? Why not help us broker peace?" Sternum asked, growl barely held. Samateus sighed, moving to the other two ships and doing the same with the petals to them, as she had done to Pyrus' ship, then returned to her first position. Another comm link opened and connected to their open lines, a new voice, yet oddly familiar to a few, sounded off.
"Thank you Sam, I think it better I explain a bit more." Said this new voice, Pyrus frowning as it was so familiar it hurt, but remained silent. "I am Xerxes, Patriarch of the Ahr'aht. I and two members of my crew, not including Sam, were in the Cluster on a scientific mission some years ago. We are capable of shapeshifting, and had utilized much smaller ships with similar cloaking technology to what you've seen from our small surveillance drones, to infiltrate each world and learn the culture, languages and history of each. We learned to be members of your societies, admittedly, almost forgetting ourselves at times." He paused, as a massive blast of null energy rocked the Ahr'aht ship. "Wonderful, it seems we've angered it by interfering Sam..."
"It was bound to happen." The Taalrulthian quipped, turning her head slightly to her left. "Shall We hop ahead? This group needs to be there to organize their peoples." Samateus added, moving back to be closer to the Ahr'aht.
"What are and what did you do? I've never had my ship do that before." Tekla asked, slight irritation in her voice. Xerxes chuckled.
"A software update of sorts, it allowed for a wider spectrum of subspace communications. Essentially, we just made it possible to talk." He explained. "We have subspace technology that can get us from here to your fleet and worlds in a heartbeat, which is what Samateus is suggesting we do, just to get a bit more space between us and that massive ball of hatred bearing down on us."
**You are... telepathic?** Zuma asked tentatively, including the minds of the other world leaders as best she could, visibly straining next to Sternum on Pyrus' ship.
**Oh yes! Though more than that, we are Psionic. You are as well, however it is... undeveloped.** Xerxes responded, all of the other world leaders tensing a bit, as his thought–speech voice was a bit loud in comparison to the calm and strained Zuma.
"I am certain explanations can be given later, we need to get to the rest. Now!" Pyrus exclaimed, a bit angered by the banter.
"I have to agree, we've almost reached the Aurora, are you able to use that technology on a larger fleet?" Tekla inquired. There was obvious conversation, but it seemed to consist of chirps, trills and snarls, coming from the Ahr'aht patriarch. A screech came, though muffled, then several barking noises and even Samateus sounded and appeared to add her own animalistic trills to the conversation.
"We have help on the way, for now, just instruct your ships to cluster together." Samateus explained, sounding amused. Graveheart used a text system to communicate this information to the Aurora, as they swiftly rejoined it and their escorts before heading back into the capital ship. Pyrus opted to remain in his ship with his three occupants, keeping pace with the Aurora and Samateus, who kept looking around at the other ships escorting the Aurora.
"Organic ships? I have to say I'm impressed." She stated as she moved close to a Carapace fighter and lightly touched it with a forelimb. It seemed to cringe, then relax, its pilot confused and a bit intimidated by the massive armoured life–form.
"If you like those, I've got some other organics you are welcome to look at." Femur joked in his usual sexual manner before he was cut off by Jade and Graveheart returning to the Aurora with Tekla and Cryos right behind. Samateus laughed a bit, but otherwise refrained from giving a response as she knew they would not hear her at this moment anyway. A few tense minutes passed, they could see the light flashes of weapons fire ahead near their worlds, when Xerxes returned to their communications.
"Alright, brace for slipstream event." He announced, Vox chimed a subspace anomaly warning as the petals of the Ahr'aht ship seemed to fold outward and move beyond the further reaches of their cluster of ships, arcs of assumed electricity visible between them and the center ship, which they could see much more easily now, as spines seemed to rise along its surface with similar arcs of electricity dancing between them. A brilliant light focused their attention ahead as a hole in space opened wide before them with tendrils of white light stretching from it. Those tendrils lapped over and around each ship, connecting to the Ahr'aht ships petals before a sudden lurch pulled every ship caught within the tendrils into the open subspace tear.
They seemed to be jostled around for a few moments, the strange tendrils forming a tunnel that opened back out into space just as suddenly as the previous one had pulled them in. Everyone took a moment to realize they were just behind the alliance fleet. Pyrus was the first to react, quickly opening a communication link with General Blaze. Instead of the General, Flare, his son and one of Pyrus' childhood friends, answered the comms.
"My Prince, we recently began picking up Beast drone activity nearby, but planet Ice has gone silent to our hails." Flare explained simply, the admission that Planet Ice had gone silent taking precedence to Blaze's absence. Pyrus knew that if anything had happened on Ice, Blaze would be the one to voluntarily go and investigate, as the people of Fire were frequently distrusting of his actions around them, and Flare would remain to keep the civilians calm.
"I know about the Beast, we have some new allies that got us back quickly, I'm headed to Planet Ice... The beast planet set a trap, there's more but we will explain once we deal with this. Have everyone keep closer together, if you see a ship that isn't a beast drone, do not engage." Pyrus explained.
"Understood, my prince." Flare responded, the commlink closing with a sudden brief tone. Samateus was still keeping up with him, then suddenly veered off in a flash towards planet Ice. Zera watched her go, eyes going wide as she spotted what Samateus had. Zera had picked up on the lack of communication from her world, keeping her concern and rampant thoughts of Frost attempting something foolish to herself.
"Pyrus, they are sending in huge landing parties, we need to help my people!" She exclaimed, pointing after the Taalrulthian as she looked at him. He frowned, knowing that she was right, seeing the fleets escorting three of the cylindrical capital ships of the Beast entering the atmosphere of planet Ice almost unhindered. Sternum growled a bit clenching a fist that he was unable to act himself, Zuma remaining silent and in meditation.
"Alright, looks like Sam is well ahead of us on that." Pyrus responded, quickly veering to follow the Taalrulthian. A beam of light emanated from Samateus' mouth, passing through several dozen beast drones, which caused them to explode along the path of the beam, almost as they had grown accustomed to the Battle moons issuing. The drones then reacted, several dozen more breaking off to engage her as she flew toward them, and through, spinning and smacking several of them with her wings and tail fins. Those that were hit either exploded or were knocked into their nearby comrades, causing massive chain reactions that destroyed half of the engaging drones. Null energy missiles were fired at her, which she responded to with her own brief blasts of golden energy, negating and dissipating the null energy before it neared her.
"Okay, that is really cool!" Zera exclaimed, watching as Samateus swooped and dodged, taking out more drones as they raced toward her. A Beast capital ship turned and fired several larger blasts of null energy, to which Sam stopped and the two petals moved before her and generated a shield that dissipated the blasts. She seemed to have to strain, the blasts stronger than expected or simply more than the shields could take under normal circumstances. Two lances of green light pierced through the capital ship from their right, the ship slowly crumbling and falling apart, two more lances fired through making certain it was destroyed. The source; another Ahr'aht ship, with more petals than the one manned by Xerxes, coloured gold and blue, appearing with two more Taalrulthians, smaller than Sam by a great deal and keeping pace with the new ship.
"Thank you, but I think we can show off more later! C'mon, they're after the capital already!" Samateus responded, diving and shielding herself as she entered the atmosphere of Planet Ice. Pyrus pitched his ship forward, following as safely as he could, his scanners marking Sam as moving at speeds normally unreachable by their current ship tech, beast drones firing at and falling before her as she rushed toward the Ice capital and the palace that was likely already under attack.
Meanwhile, the Aurora moved alongside the Obsidian Flare, the Ahr'Aht ship that had first made contact, captained by Xerxes. It occasionally fired torpedoes, the thin projectiles with small self-contained engines as Xerxes explained they were when Tekla had asked, and blasts of coloured light were seen in varying colours from other, smaller, Taalrulthians in armour who hovered close to their ship. Xerxes did not always speak to them in the common tongue, however, instead speaking to his crew and the Taalrulthians on the comms with their series of chirps, growls, squeaks and other vocalizations that were so complex even Tekla could not make heads or tails of the language.
"This is not what we expected, the Beast… Their forces got too close far too quickly. Who is in control of long-range scans on your worlds Graveheart?" Xerxes asked at one point, no visual image of him being shown, just a symbol that seemed to be duplicated on each of the Ahr'Aht ships, and smaller decals on the Taalrulthians appeared to also have this symbol. Graveheart frowned, not liking being unable to see the face of the one he was talking to, nor the way he kept communications open with them, yet spoke to others in his own language.
"Most of the long-range scanning equipment is on planet Ice, and we would have been informed of the null-energy well in advance. Why?" Cryos responded, the look on his face mirroring Gravehearts'. Graveheart could see, through Cryos' expression, that he somehow knew the voice of the Ahr'Aht commander, had recognized it as familiar.
"Can you trust all of those who have access? Who would have been able to disable them?" Xerxes responded after a moment.
"Why are you questioning my chain of command? Who are you to do so?" Cryos responded angrily befor Graveheart could stifle his outburst.
"The one who just confirmed that there are no scanning signals being emitted from the surface of planet Ice. You've been deceived, King Cryos, and your daughter may be in danger if she goes there alone!" Xerxes quickly snarled, shortly, the Obsidian Flare lurching ahead suddenly and gunning toward planet Ice, the pale blue of the engines becoming blinding white. Cryos grit his teeth, Graveheart gently resting a hand on the monarch's shoulder reassuringly after briefly muting their communications channel.
"We can trust them, I'm sure of it. They wouldn't have openly rushed in and told us as much as they have without good intentions." He smiled lightly, Cryos nodding.
"I… I swear I recognise his voice. If they are shapeshifters, he may be someone I owe my life to, and it worries me that he would have staged his death to leave." Cryos explained vaguely, Gravehearts' smile fading as he processed what Cryos was telling him. He sighed, nodding.
"We'll get our answers, once the Beast is well behind us once more." Graveheart attempted to calm Cryos, cringing as a group of Beast drones swooped past them, two Taalrulthians pursuing. They were not much larger than a beast ship themselves, wings exuding light in differing colours from each other, and some more similar, showing distinctive class or ability between each. That Samateus, who had been so much larger, could be related to any of them, boggled the minds of those who had seen her up close.
As they continued to direct attack groups and attempt to reorganize their forces, more Ahr'Aht ships began to arrive. Most were slightly smaller than the Obsidian Flare, yet several larger subspace events opened and ships larger even than the beast planet itself, fell into place behind the Alliance fleet. Graveheart and Cryos gaped at the sheer size of these ships, similar in design to the Obsidian Flare, with far more Taalrulthians appearing and flanking them, other smaller Ahr'Aht ships, manned scout ships and fighters, appearing in battle groups and quickly moving to assist with the Beast drones in the airspace between the planets before the capital ships, like the Obsidian Flare, moved closer and each battle group entered each planet's atmosphere. Strangely, only Samateus had been seen entering the atmosphere of planet Ice, and both Graveheart and Cryos had noticed.
"Xerxes, why are there no forces moving to assist Samateus?" Graveheart asked after unmuting their comms. Jade overheard this from her weapons control console nearby, turning in her seat, eyes wide. The Obsidian Flare remained in tandem orbit over planet Ice, within range and direct sight of the capital and where Samateus had gone.
"Sam is the best of our fighters, she can handle it. We're doing what we can otherwise and she'll let us know if she needs assistance. Lady Zera, Zuma, Sternum and Prince Pyrus are with her as well, I trust that she will keep them and the civilians safe. We need to make certain they have the time they need and don't have others moving to bolster the Beast ground forces." Xerxes explained simply, suddenly, the image on their screen flickered, and the symbol disappeared, replaced with a view of a tall serpentine creature with feathers much akin to a bird, but much larger, some clipped and shaped, others allowed to fall as they pleased, four arms, two likely vestigial wings as noted from their position on its back and the other two having hands with three fingers bracketed by two thumbs. A long tail curled around its feet, covered in feathers that were also shaped and well kept. Its legs, which were scaled from the knee down, folded in with an extra joint, akin to a lava-dog and even its face could be considered similar to the Firian animal, two large expressive eyes with slit pupils akin to a Firian watched them. "I'm sorry, I had forgotten you preferred to see who you were speaking with." The creature, now confirmed as Xerxes, caused Graveheart and Cryos both to gape, a bit shocked and exchanging a comical glance before either spoke.
"How… Wait, nevermind. I forgot you're like Zuma. Look, we need to get away, the Beast-" Graveheart started, as the creature before them smiled, feathers moving with his expression.
"Not to worry, I understand your concerns, and as for your apprehension, King Cryos…" Xerxes sighed, nodding lightly, his feathers bouncing with the movement. "I am Galen, or moreso, was." He admitted, turning briefly to one of his crew, another Ahr'Aht who seemed less extravagantly feathered, colours more muted or less vibrantly colourful in comparison with Xerxes. Xerxes nodded, feathers rising again as he seemed to have been angered by the brief report, the one who had spoken to him swiftly moving away once his report had been delivered. "It seems the Beast has learned to move more swiftly than your world engines allow, we're attempting to slow it down, yet many of our mass-packets aren't making it all the way."
"Mass Packets? I thought such tech was impossible." Tekla chimed, having been working furiously at a console in an attempt to increase weapons output for the ship, several of the turrets offline and unresponsive after a malfunction in the operation coding. Her focus did not shift from the console before her, that she could concentrate on the conversation and the repairs never ceased to amaze the others who had been working with her since she had arrived on planet Ice with her initial warning about the Beast. Xerxes however, did not appear phased at all.
"We've had some years on the peoples the Makers left behind. Regardless, even the Taal are having issues keeping our packets safe, and we only have so many available until more can be built. May I request the assistance of your fleets?" Xerxes asked, Graveheart raising a brow before nodding.
"Once our worlds are clear for the most part, we will gladly help in any way we can." Graveheart announced, Cryos and Jade nodding confirmation before all three went back to their tasks, even Xerxes appeared to bring up a command console of his own, holographic images appearing in the air before him in his chair of sorts. He seemed angry and hurried, an image of planet Ice, albeit reversed for those watching him, and the golden streak of Samateus could be seen, with pointed explosions and weapons fire aimed at her. He paused to watch her progress at one point, cringing visibly, which meant all of his feathers flattened, giving Graveheart and Cryos a good look at his overall shape. They could see he was settled upon a chair with no actual back or sides, to accommodate him in whichever way he chose to sit because of the sinewy and long body shape of the Ahr'Aht, not to mention his tail, and his limbs seemed thin, almost unhealthy. He looked at the camera that transmitted his image, smiling lightly.
"Don't concern yourselves with me, focus on this battle. I hope, it may be our last with this monster." He sighed, the onlookers blushing and looking away, to do exactly as suggested, watching formations of Taalrulthians leading Ahr'Aht ships and others protecting Alliance ships as the battle dragged on. Several near-misses occurred, the Alliance ships ill-equipped to communicate with their new allies, yet able to move enough to avoid collisions or friendly fire.