Mankind's Destiny was always laid out ahead of us, from the first moment our ancestors looked up at the sky.

The Stars beyond our homeworld, glistening so brightly in unpolluted night skies, always beckoned us.

We advanced, we trudged, we fought each-other, we made manifest great horrors upon ourselves, but also wonders beyond imagination.

Centuries passed and Mankind could fly to the Stars, feel the warmth of another Sun beyond our own.

We spawned even more horror, wars, brutal murder, dictatorships and Political Games to make ancient aliens now extinct fear us.

And then, we spawned more beauty, more joy, technological wonders that propelled us forth once more, into golden ages untold, technological might unmatched.

And here we are today. Even as our Gates collapsed, even as the Domain collapsed and we came into being in the Persean Sector via our own mistakes...

We trudge forth. And even as a new horror arises ahead of us, we will go forth once more from a desolate apocalypse to a gilded age, together, strong, unified. The United Aurora Federation and those who stand with us shall see to it, no matter the cost.

-Queen Aeria Charlotte Yuki's address to the Persean Sector during the First Persean Conglomerate Council, 219C


Aurora,

The United Aurora Federation,

Aoi System, 221 Cycles after the Collapse

High above, hundreds, or perhaps thousands of lights winked alongside the bright white dots of the black sky. Night had fallen on the capital of the UAF some hours ago, giving way to the unusually calm Night Life of a city as developed as Aurora City. Even with the bright lights of the city's skyline, the brightness above was not fading. Of course, many of the items above were not just simple stars, but rather starships of the UAF and her sister-states, presumably trade convoys delivering supplies to and from the planet's central station, a behemoth of defensive power shaped like a crystalline flower.

From the study of a massive building situated in the middle of Aurora's capital City, a fair lady with bright white hair, a tiara resembling angel's wings and a dark-blue uniform lined with gold and emblazoned with various emblems and accolades stared out into the great void beyond. She wondered just how many of the ships up above belonged to the Home Fleet and how many others were of the representatives of the Persean Sector's other major powers.

A knock on the white wood door to the Study echoed through the marble hall, bouncing off the vaulted ceiling and the wooden shelves containing thousands of hardback books from ages gone. She spoke, her voice soft and smooth, like velvet, "Come in..." watching as the door was opened by one of the Royal Marines guarding her door, a soldier clad in dark-blue tactical gear and carrying a kinetic rifle.

The figure that stepped inside was of a familiar draft to her. She smiled and said, "Ambassador Fairchild. Welcome back..." motioning to the woman to join her at the redwood desk in the middle of the room. With footsteps muffled by the fancy carpet, the woman clad in a very martial black uniform with dress pants and an orange sash draped over her shoulder approached the desk. She pushed her rimless glasses over the bridge of her nose and nodded.

"Lady Aeria," The woman replied, "The Hegemony thanks you for your cooperation in rooting out the Pirate Hive near by Thoriel Beta."

"The pleasure is all Fleet Command's, heh. I'm sure Captain Thorne and Commodore Earhart had their fun there," The woman, that being Queen Aeria Charlotte Yuki herself, replied jovially, pouring both herself and the Ambassador drinks. She motioned to the cabinet and asked, "Anything catch your fancy, or should we just share a glass of Lunamun Standard?"

"The wine will do," The Ambassador replied as she sat herself down. She was handed the one-legged glass with the sweet-smelling alcoholic drink within it, replying with, "My thanks..." before taking a sip. She hummed and watched the Queen sit down in front of her, on an office chair made of black leather. Interlacing her hands, the queen leaned forward, supporting herself on her elbows and gazing at the Ambassador calmly with a pair of deep teal eyes.

"You are quite welcome," The Queen replied, "I presume you're here to discuss important matters? Rare is it for an ambassador to come to me just for a glass of wine and maybe a cake or Ice Cream..." And she then smiled knowingly. The Ambassador sniffed, clicked her tongue and smiled, a bit awkward. The Queen giggled, then said, "Well then, out with it? It cannot be that bad."

"My leadership has asked me to ask you about the Dimensional Gate," She replied warily, "What will happen once it is fully repaired, that type of stuff."

"Ah, well," The Queen hummed, then leaned back and opened one of her drawers, "Expecting that this question would come up from you or the Persean League's ambassador while reform and reunion between you and them is ongoing, I have prepared a folder here for your leadership to read..." And she fished through the contents of the drawer, pulling the folder out and handing it to the surprised woman. She leaned forward again, chin on her right hand, before clarifying, "A short rundown would be us making contact with the rest of the Federation and maybe our world for trade..."

"I see," The Hegemon hummed as she skimmed the file. She looked up at the Queen, a hint concerned as she inquired, "No bringing in reinforcements to subjugate us...?"

"I thought you learned by now," The queen let out a friendly laugh, "We don't do subjugation. We seek cooperation."

Fairchild clicked her tongue, then closed the file gently and said, "You have to understand, a lot of us are suspicious of a faction that just decided to be buddy-buddy with people who, for the past 200 years, have tried gutting each-other the first chance we got. The Luddics are barely holding back protests on their home worlds pertaining to your use of AIs, the Perseans and SFC are talking our ear off about you guys, demanding we do something and Tri-Tach is just playing nice for the sake of profits... Then, there's Tri-Tach's direct competitor, Diable Avionics, the Pirate Leagues, the goddamned Galatians, Iron Shell asking us for taxes, VIC and the HMI being at each-other's throats..."

"The Sindrian Fuel Company are just angry we have the better Resort World, Amanda. You confirmed it yourself," Aeria quipped, which got a snort out of Fairchild. She then said, "As for the Persean League and the Followers of Ludd, I can't promise them anything to settle them down. The League has been iffy on this whole Persean Conglomerate idea since the get-go, but at least their more moderate leadership is coming around to it... And they're gaining traction. And Luddites are Luddites..."

"Yeah," Sighed the Ambassador, rubbing her face, "It's just a pain, Your Highness..."

"Wrangling all of us together to rebuild the Sector will pay out in the end. I have no doubt about it," She told the Rep, before sighing and taking a sip of her wine and motioning to her, "Go on. Drink. It'll go sour if you don't..." as she started nursing her own drink again. The Ambassador nodded and grabbed her glass, before taking a long drink out of it.

"I think I should head back to the Embassy..." Fairchild stated, placing the half-empty glass down, "My thanks for the drink, Your Highness. It was a pleasant, if short business discussion..." only to stop as the door slammed open behind them. A Commodore from the Navy appeared, sweat draping him from head to toe as he dry-heaved. He saluted and said, "Your Highness, Madam ambassador, apologies for interrupting the meeting, but we've had a development and couldn't reach you via your com device!"

"Speak, Sailor," The Queen commanded, standing to her feet, "It must be important..."

"Indeed..." The man breathed. He recited almost mechanically, "A Remnant Ordo has entered Aoi... It's heading for the Gate at the edge of the system!"

The Queen and the Administrator went bug-eyed. Aeria activated her communication system, noting discrepancies, before stating, "They must be trying to jam us..." and patching in a code or two to reroute it through the more powerful planetside relays. She called in, "This is Queen Aeria Charlotte to the UAFS Solvernia. Fleet Admiral, can you hear me?"

A figure clad in a Naval Uniform with a cocked beret appeared ahead, her holographic form taking a moment to stabilize. The woman with a red right eye and a blue left saluted and said, "Your Highness, this is the Solvernia. We read you loud and clear and are already en-route to engage the Remnant Fleet... Sensors are picking up approximately two dozen vessels, however. The battle will be tough."

"It doesn't matter, Admiral. Protect the Gate Restoration Project at all costs... Not one enemy ship must break through." She then ordered. The Admiral snapped a crisp, clean salute before the com winked off. The Queen took her own naval overcoat off a stand and wrapped it around her neck, tying it down. She motioned to the Ambassador to follow her to the command room.

The Ambassador nodded, then radioed in, "All Tenth Battlegroup assets currently orbiting, this is Hegemony Ambassador Amanda Fairchild. Prepare to assist in the defense of the Gate Project. The survival of this entire system and our alliance is at stake. Fairchild out..." before following the Queen toward the command center located within the bowels of the palace complex.

The Command Center was already on Red Alert. Navy Officers and other branch personnel were already on-site, the central holographic display map of the System showing the approaching enemy fleet as a single scarlet chevron, versus the six blue chevrons of the Home Fleet and her escorting pickets, not to mention the dozens of gold chevrons marking allied vessels.

"Her Highness is on-deck!" A soldier announced. Damn near the entire Staff turned around, ready to greet her when she waved them off back to their posts.

"At ease! Prep our ECCM systems and let's counter this fleet already..." She told them, hunching over the holographic table. She linked to the Solvernia, then spoke, "Fleet Admiral. We're in position and ready to help coordinate the engagement. Move to Charlie Sixteen and spread out your ships. Enemy fleet's bound to have Reapers. Keep the Semi-breve on Standby."

"Copy. All ships, this is the Admiral. Stagger formation and distance yourselves by up to two kilometers from each-other. Purcellyra Cruisers, prep Semi-breve missiles and keep them on standby. Rillarus and Lillarus, prepare to counter the enemy's advancing Battleships. Inazumas are to provide escort. Meanwhile, we and the Solvernia will be the tip of the spear. All squadrons, launch, launch, launch!" The Admiral called out, her voice incredibly calm despite the large enemy fleet that was heading toward them. "I want the Sentries to be our Alpha Strike... Get the Hammerheads from the Hegemony to support them."

As the vessels formed up and positioned themselves as the Cordon that was set to meet the enemy, The Queen could only look on with worry. The enemy fleet seemed massive, if the readings given were correct. She curled her lower lip back, nails digging into the metal of the holographic table as the fleets closed distance. The tension in the room was palpable...

And then everyone froze as an alarm blared. The radar operator called out, "New Contacts! High tonnage! It's a whole other fleet!" before the echelon appeared on the map, several thousand klicks behind the rest of the vessels ahead. The Queen felt her heart sink as she saw the readings of about half-a-dozen enemy Battleships and a Drone Carrier. She grit her teeth and started praying...


In orbit...

"New contacts on scopes, ma'am! Enemy battleship ordo! Counting six heavies and one carrier vectoring toward us and the rest of the Allied Navy!" A female ensign with fox ears and a tail reported from the sensor suite consoles. Admiral Solvernia Auria, the woman after which the Class and Ship they were aboard was named due to her excellence in service, gazed ahead, stoic.

"Vector one of our Destroyer pickets to intercept... We've kept reserves ourselves," She said with little change of her tone, before activating her com bracelet, "Commodore Earheart, is your Carrier ready? We may need her and her Automata Escorts sooner than we originally expected..." as she eyed the holo-display ahead, which was linked directly to New Aurora's SAT network and the sensor buoys around the system.

"Affirm. Battle Group Novaeria will be entering the system within five mikes. Fighter Command is prepped to engage enemy Drone Squadrons... Yumie's really looking forward to this one," The female officer seemed all the more jovial. The Admiral allowed a smile to form on her face as she gazed upon the holographic form of the Commodore which stood on her left. Clad in the same naval uniform as her, but lacking some of the bling, the ginger-haired fox-girl's tail wagged excitedly, even as she held hands behind her back.

"Then let's not disappoint, eh?" She smirked at the young woman. Earhart's hologram turned to her, smiled too, then gave an approving nod. The Admiral then ordered, "All squadrons are clear for launch. Intercept enemy bomber drones and prepare our main batteries while we delay for the Novaeria and her Battle Group to arrive..." as she gazed outside.

A dozen of the finest vessels belonging to the UAF Navy formed around the super-dreadnought Solvernia. The battleship, made up of two prongs, like a split arrowhead, and with engines large enough to push its mass forward, was loaded with weapons ranging from heavy-duty point defense weapons to the massive kinetic artillery cannons belongong to the UAF and its missile batteries, including one missile system that all were very familiar with.

The Semi-Breve, sat amidst the central pylons of the battleship's multitude of gun mounts, was a thermonuclear torpedo whose warhead was sitting at almost one gigaton, easily capable of wiping out a good chunk of an enemy armada should they come within range. They had three aboard the warship and a couple more on the escorting Cruisers to their left and right.

Opposite them and closing fast were a dozen, azure-colored vessels of the Remnant fleet. The AI-led ships tended to like performing raids on various factions and had seemingly chosen the capital system of the UAF this time. They were bulky, heavily armored, but much smaller than the average human-flown vessel, due to the lack of a crew, even a skeleton one.

The first vessel to get into range of the Fleet's guns was a Drone Cruiser. Beams lanced forward as its point-defense laser turrets tracked a slew of bombers and fighters of the UAF that were flying. Two torpedoes slammed into the forward shields, washing the bow of the vessel in fire, followed by the rattle of autocannons as the Gunship wings of the UAF's fleets and pickets met the enemy.

The Solvernia strode forth like a mighty titan, its main kinetic batteries meeting the first enemy warship with twin blasts. Two ferromagnetic slugs left the coils of the large cannons and struck the forward shields of the enemy ship. One round was stopped, shattering on impact with the blue-shimmering dome that stood several meters in front of the azure ship.

The second broke through and still had enough speed to wound armor. The kinetic slug left a rather large hole in the hull of the enemy warship, having taken out one of the enemy's Reaper torpedo launchers. Return fire was swift, the Remnant's auto-cannons opening up in volleys, bolts of fire striking the UAF's own shields as the ships finally made contact.

The first line of UAF Destroyers, alongside about two dozen fast Frigates and Frigate Escorts, cut into the enemy line to sow confusion. They coordinated their forward-mounted, gimballed batteries to lay into the sides of enemy gunboats, tearing armor and superstructure. One of the Destroyers caught heat itself, multiple heavy-duty Flak Batteries and Autocannons with barrel diameters that could fit humans laid into it.

Armor tore and guns were disabled as the Destroyer refocused her shields in two directions, just in time to stop herself from being completely destroyed. Her armor held, though barely, as damage control crews got to work. Swiveling about by utilizing her directional thrusters and then pushing up and away from the middle of the enemy formation, she launched a missile swarm at the exposed backs of two AI ships.

Point-Defense Pulse Lasers on the enemy ships swiveled on their mounts, scarlet beams pulsing and flashing as they cut into the warheads and split the Anti-Ship Missiles down the length of their bodies. The Destroyer's crews got some of the guns functioning in time for her to open up, peppering the top armor of the enemy ship with rounds just as it shifted its shield toward them.

A kinetic blast lanced through the core of the Destroyer, tearing through armor plating and striking the magazine for its missile launchers. The ship split at the seams, flashing like a bright, but short-lived second sun as ammo cooked off and the reactor's coils and antimatter fuel detonated in a blinding display. Sister-ships to the destroyer moved in, their Frigate Escorts laying into the Remnant's own escorting vessels.

The Battlecruisers of the UAF Navy, Rillaru-class warships bearing the dazzling dark-to-bright-blue camouflages of their masters, swiveled about and brought gun and missile to bear. The dagger-shaped vessels pierced down the mid-line of the enemy fleet, armor and shields taking volleys of enemy fire while they provided support to the destroyers. MIRV launchers let loose, the vehicles for the warheads splitting about midway into the flight toward the Remnant's larger battleships. The multitude of anti-ship warheads struck shields or missed, a sparse few making it through the enemy's protective CIWS Curtain, scant fewer even penetrating armor.

Following a picket of destroyers in on a flanking route, a quad of Sentry-class artillery cruisers moved in. Their VLS systems fired first, a dozen high-impact missiles swarming from the ship's top toward the enemy's side. Detonating upon impact, the missiles cratered the side armor of two of the enemy's own Drone Cruisers. The warships shifted and overlapped their shields over the damaged area as they maintained the flank of the spear tip that advanced toward the Gateway.

The Sentry was a long ship, not like any normal UAF design. It was blocky, almost shaped like a gun. Two prongs stood at its bow, the one at the top bearing in its maw an in-built magnetic accelerator cannon that fired an oversized slug at subluminal speeds. The other prong bore an elegtromagnetic pulse emitter, usually used to eliminate the enemy's shields and/or disable it.

The EM weapons fired first, beams of shimmering lightning arching through the void and hitting the enemy's shielding. Emitters overloaded on board the enemy's cruisers, forcing them to turn their main weapon mounts to engage. Missiles and beams of energy lanced out between the Sentries, all four of which fired their spinal mount kinetic cannons. Four massive slugs screamed silently through the void. Three made contact, boring through armor like hot knives through butter.

The fourth skimmed off the top of a cruiser and struck an enemy destroyer's engine cowling, disabling one of its side-most engines. It didn't take too kindly to that, firing a volley of missiles toward the warships that hit it. All four cruisers brought up their energy shields as their destroyer escort broke off, trying to support their siblings. One such destroyer was focused, volleys of kinetic rounds punching through its shields and causing it to 'over-flux'.

... Ships within the Persean Sector and, previously, within the Domain as a whole, ran on the same Lifeblood:Antimatter fuel. It was used for everything from keeping their reactors active to allowing them to jump to Hyperspace. In order to compensate for the overuse of this material throughout the ship's 'veins', so to speak, each vessel needed a set of Flux coils and Vents, Flux being the excess reactants emitted by 'burning' the Antimatter.

Over-Fluxing, thus, was when a ship gathered too much Flux within its system, causing an electromagnetic pulse to temporarily disable almost all systems sans life support. A UAF Destroyer now floated without power, shields or weapons, square in the middle of a massive fight. All it'd take was one shell or Reaper torpedo from a Remnant ship to end them then and there...

... If it wasn't for the Tenth Battlegroup finally deciding to engage. Trident-shaped vessels, hammerhead-shaped cruisers armed to the teeth with kinetics and other naval assets belonging to the Hegemony and the Persean League appeared, one such ship utilizing a tractor cable to pull the disabled UAF ship out of harm's way. Aboard the Solvernia, which had now been engaged in close quarters combat and taking hits, the com crackled to life. A Hegemon captain spoke, her voice jovial and carrying a heavy accent, "Apologies for bein' late, Admiral! Bastards dropped a Virus into our computer systems that damn near had several of us spaced..."

Admiral Solvernia smiled, then said, "It's quite fine, Captain Case. Sole thing I'm disappointed in is you not using the Zepporia-class you received as a gift."

"She's still undergoin' refit, though don't worry, I'll take her for a spin the next thing tomorrow!" Case joked, her shipboard crew laughing. Solvernia could see the female figure of the Captain was sat on the bridge of the leading Hammerhead Destroyer of the fleet. The ship resembled its namesake animal and tool by the shape of its bow, which carried two heavy kinetic batteries at the bow, specifically high-caliber rotary chainguns with six barrels, and two missile launchers. Quad Reapers. An illegal modification, but worthwhile. Its point-defenses consisted of two laser batteries mounted at the rear, near the engine cowlings.

"Ma'am," A sensor operator turned toward her, arranging his cap.

"Go ahead," The Admiral nodded.

"Destroyer Division Five has engaged the enemy Battleship Ordo. They're taking losses, but they've pinned the enemy's capitals down..." He reported as he turned back to his console. The Admiral approached as her ship groaned around them, sparks flying from the ceiling and a console nearby. A fire extinguisher drone washed the damaged device in foam as the Admiral hunched over and looked through the scope of the sensor crewman's console. He pointed at the ships engaging on the screen, a picket of abour six destroyers and a dozen frigates.

She nodded and said, "They are doing their duty for the Federation... And are giving time for the Novaeria to arrive. Speaking of," She checked an ancient wristwatch, its minute arm ticking down. She smiled, then turned her gaze out of one of the bridge's main windows... As if materializing out of thin air, a two-pronged vessel about the size of the Solvernia emerged, its hangars opening and spitting out a flurry of starfighters and gunships that banked to engage the enemy's fleet.

Around them, the rest of its battlegroup appeared. Destroyers and Light Cruisers began pouring fire the moment they stabilized within the gravity well, missile and cannon laying waste to an advancing armada of Drone Warships that fired back, damaging and destroying their comrades. Still, the enemy advanced unabated like a burning-hot knife trying to stab its way through chainmail.

"Apologies for the tadiness, Admiral. This is Novaeria, engaging!" Commodore Earheart called out over the com as her ship's own point-defenses and gun batteries lit the Void up in Flak, Counter-missile fire and

They were making progress, but it was slow. Solvernia, the admiral, not the ship, ordered, "Pull back DesDiv Five and tell them to go for repairs... All other ships, full steam ahead! Push these machines back!"

The Fighter leading Novaeria's premier squadron of Hunter-Killers was different. Bearing the marks of an angel's wings on her own atmosphere-capable fighter's back, a blonde pilot peered through the visor of her specialized helmet. Her HUD flared in front of her eyes as she tracked a squadron of enemy drone-bombers, launched by the carrier in the rear of the Remnant formation.

She zeroed in on the leading bomber, thumb rubbing the FIRE Button on her missile. She radioed, "This is FALCON-1 to all FALCON Wing assets, break and engage enemy targets of opportunity... FALCON-1, diving on enemy Bomber formation. FOX-2!" And she thumbed the launch. A missile's oxygen-propellant engine ignited and it shot off the rail on the wing, locked onto the enemy bomber.

She peered through and activated the gunsight for her 40mm rotary, which was sat offset to her right in the plane's fuselage. As the anti-aircraft missile struck the leading bomber, shrapnel splayed out in an arc and pierced the hulls of some of its siblings while outright destroying it. She zeroed on the second target to its left and squeezed the trigger. She murmured to herself, "Fox Three..." while the cannon roared silently in the void, shaking the spaceborne fighter's fuselage as its rounds flew and tore through the enemy's other strike craft.

Speeding past them, Fighter Wing Lieutenant Yimmie Thompson, 'Ace'(a simplistic name, dare she say) powered her directional thrusters and swiveled about, feeling the G-Force pin her against her chair. She zeroed in on another enemy and switched to missiles again, locking onto it as she set her main engines to overdrive. As the tone called in her helmet, she called out, "FOX Two!" Again.

As the missile wailed off the rail and banked utilizing its own micro-maneuvering thrusters, it struck. Following up, her squadron-mates lit the rest of the bomber formation up. One of Yimmie's mates radioed in, "Got your back, Ace..." as he veered left and joined up with her by pulling a High-Gee Maneuver. She gave a ping on the radio as a thanks, swiveled about and armed her sole Anti-Ship Missile, aiming toward a leading enemy Frigate.

Closing the distance, Yimmie called out, "Bruiser!" before thumbing the launch. The massive missile lanced off her bird's underbelly and veered to the target. Point-defense lit up the void, flak detonating around both the missile and Yimmie's bird. A warning blared as a shell exploded dead in front of her, raining shrapnel onto her ship's hull, but she kept flying, keeping an eye on the Anti-Ship Missile itself.

It impacted, tearing a good hole through the enemy's frigate. Its brothers soon followed as Destroyers focused on them, firing forward cannon batteries and laying into them with even their flak machine guns, which'd been switched to AP rounds. Yimmie surveyed the battlefield real quick, radioing in, "NOVAERIA ACTUAL, this is FALCON, enemy is being pushed back across all areas. Times one Frigate and times five enemy bomber drones destroyed by FALCON Squadron in concert with DesDiv Three..."

"Good copy, FALCON Actual. Good kills." The Command Carrier's com officer replied jovially as she arranged her headset. She ordered, "Admiral and Commodore are ordering as follows:Vector to Sector Three-Two-Three and engage enemy Fighter Drones harassing EXECUTOR Squadron and JACKHAMMER, en route to strike at enemy Battleship Ordo. We're also vectoring GHOST and the Heavy Cruiser 'Coralyn' to assist in that area..." Before a hum echoed over the com. Yimmie gave an acknowledgement hum.

She radioed, "All FALCONs, on me! We're vectoring to Three-Two-Three and assisting the Coralyn to keep EXECUTOR and JACKHAMMER alive!" which got affirmative replies. She looked left and right at the rest of her squadron as it formed up. Though their fighters resembled something out of history books, more-so stealth-capable air-breathing fighter craft than standard space fighters, the highly-maneuverable Hyper Arias were some of the best experimental assets the UAF had in its short line of Strike Craft. They could do this.

"... Shit! We have new contacts on scopes! They just jumped in!" Radioed the Novaeria com officer, her voice filled with panic as multiple alarms blared all across the ship. It was taking fire... The Com officer called out, "All assets! We have an enemy Destroyer picket that just jumped in behind our fleet! It's headed for the Gateway Project and reportedly carrying Reaper launchers! Intercept if you can! Rearline defense won't be enough to stop it!"

Yimmie scoffed, then radioed, "This is FALCON, re-tasking to engage! C'mon, boys!" As she pivoted her aircraft on the spot and activated the full boost of her engines, afterburning into supersonic cruise. A pair of heavy cruisers vectored to intercept as well, but were much slower than the fighters, with some of her comrades still carrying anti-ship missiles. She ordered, though her voice was strained by the speed at which they moved, "The moment we get in range... Fire your remaining Anti-Ship Missiles, boys...! We're sinking those things before they get to the Gate...!"

Replies were short, but affirmative. She pushed her engines to redline, as did her squadron-mates. They had the targets on lock and had only enough fuel to hit them. If their engines died now, they had to rely on rescue vessels from nearby freighters or military pickets that were still headed to engage the enemy. Or the cruisers trailing far behind them, she thoughts.

If they survived. If.

Remnant bastards had point-defense on the rears of those destroyers. Lasers, guns, didn't matter.

Closing the distance was faster and faster. Yimmie felt her blood slowly slipping away from her eyes, the vision in the corners of her eyes ever eaten by the growing darkness. Only her center of vision was there still, and even that was blurry. She listened for the callouts of her friends as they closed and closed and closed, praying and praying they'd reach the targets before they fired off their deadly payloads.

The first to fire was her XO. She heard him call out the shot, but her hearing was a bit shoddy. She saw the missile streak forward at higher speed than her, only to strike the first target in the distance with a flash. A second missile flew out, this time from another of her mates. Another of the five destroyers was down. Then, two more... One last destroyer and one last missile.

Their last fired. The missile streaked forward... Yimmie's breath caught in her throat as she tried to follow the deadly weapon...

And a scarlet beam cut the void in half, detonating the missile mid-flight. Yimmie swore, then called out, "Negative kill! Negative kill! One more destroyer's still whole and headed toward-" She cut herself off as she saw the missile fly off toward the Megastructure at the edge of Aoi, the gateway that would've gotten them a link to home... She couldn't breathe anymore, her heart racing, panic setting in as Death flew...

The first flash was of the Reaper Torpedo's massive detonation...

... The second was of the Gate's Dark Matter Core overloading. It blinded everyone and everything... A shockwave rattled the world, audible all across the Persean Sector...

And then, all was silence in this part of the Galaxy... An empty void which once housed almost a thousand stars...

Where had it gone?

Where was the Persean Sector?