All or Nothing.

After the escape from Alpha, the Prime Awareness evaluated his alternatives. The machines and organics of this universe had forged a new, thriving civilization. They lived, and they died together, which was a significant difference with the other side. However, it was undeniable that they reacted violently to the cleaning on Archangel. Twelve hours ago, the Nexus concluded that the organics would exterminate them, and this time, no improbable tear in space would save them. A fleet was advancing from the other side of the occupied stars, leaving a trail of destruction behind them.

So, he merged the surviving fleets, leaving a few ships to protect the eight remaining stars. The new fleet, one thousand and two hundred cubes and spheres, were traveling into their FTL version. They will arrive directly behind the Earth's moon, and they will destroy first the Moon's defenses. After that, while the fleet destroyed the defensive fleet, they would reduce Earth to ashes.

The sensitive ears of a couple of hidden submarines, patrolling the void around Earth, picked the warp disturbance. The Corps had refined their searching algorithms, and the signal magnitude implied an all or nothing attack. The Supreme Flagship would have said the enemy wanted Kantai kessen, a single, decisive last battle. The defenses around Earth were in high alert state, knowing this battle would be epic.

The Second Fleet, located in the void close to Gliesse, was recalled urgently. So far, seven hundred ships, including three H-44s, protected the Home World. The three original superbattleships were here, too. As a last defense, Earth had installed the first Mirror System at a planetary scale. It was placed above the atmosphere, protecting the planet. Two huge battlestations, the Atlas Twins, protected the poles, and twenty rings of armed satellites guarded the equatorial orbit.

Battlestation Atlas-01. North Pole.

The Earth's defenses consisted of two huge battlestations protecting the polar orbits and several rings of armed satellites around the equator. Both fortresses, built like two mushrooms joined by their stems, standing almost six kilometers in height and two kilometers in width, could be seen even from the Moon's orbit. The space inside the mushroom structures was used as a massive docking ring, similar to Alex's, but open to space. The surface exposed to space featured numerous masts with sensor arrays and antennas.

Atlas-01 was in a state of war readiness. The white-haired mental model had done everything possible to ensure a fast, lethal response to any machine approaching Earth. Since she was monitoring the orbit of the North Pole, the crew had nicknamed her "Elsa," after the mythical figure. Her sister, Atlas-02, was called "Anna" for equally obvious reasons. While they cherished the current peace, the mental models had joined the crew in the joke, even altering their physical appearances to resemble characters from an old animated movie, long lost in humanity's collective memory.

Since she was such a crucial part of Earth's defenses, she was granted the privilege of being her own master. The Ice Queen, as her bridge crew called her, was carefully examining her powerful sensor arrays for any sign of the machines. So far, tracking the ships within the warp dimension had proven impossible.

She sighed, her perfect features as calm and cold as her nickname suggested. Then, she detected the disturbance. "All hands to battle stations! Be ready for immediate combat!" Elsa's voice echoed through the immense battlestation. Thousands of crew members rushed to their assigned posts, sealing the hull in case the machines got lucky. All around the station's surface, hundreds of turrets and silos opened their ports. At last, the enemies had arrived. Her expression remained unmoved, even as she assessed the machines' numbers.

The first warning of ships exiting the machines' FTL came from behind the Moon. Hundreds upon hundreds of cubes and spheres emerged from warp. There was no communication, no threats—only action. The Moon Ring, a literal equatorial ring of weapons encircling the Moon's surface, unleashed a torrent of plasma fire and missiles.

The weapons on the Moon shifted tactical priorities; having such a dangerous threat behind them was untenable. The machines wasted no time. While accelerating toward the blue planet, they directed their fire at the Moon's cities and its armed ring. However, no damage was inflicted, as the Moon was heavily shielded to protect its population from solar flares. Undeterred, the machines pressed onward toward Earth.

The same couldn't be said from the machines. Several cubes and spheres were lost to the Moon's guns, and the machines moved away of the moon. It was there when the fleet was at one light second from Earth that the machines fired a massive salve of missiles and beams. The planetary shield absorbed the fire, covering the planet in light flashes and auroras. They repeated the attack five times, but they were under fire from the armed satellites, and soon, the twin stations will be in range.

Then, the machines were divided into three groups, two attacking the twins and another fighting the fleet. Three hundred ships attacked Elsa first, and they suffered the worst broadside ever seen. Cutting beams, plasma beams, torpedoes, and a rain of destruction mauled a good quarter of the machine fleet. Musashi was guiding her fleet and attacked from behind, catching them among two firing lines.

Elsa was watching how the machines allocated almost one-third of her fleet to attack her. "Glentemen, it seems they think we are a valuable target. Let's receive them properly. Gunners, fire at will," Elsa said calmy. However, a very dark and sinister smile appeared on the Ice Queen's face, "The missiles and torpedoes are mine."

The virtual windows were displaying a mass of cubes and spheres advancing fast and suffering the shots from the armed satellites. They had to move far from them, and inadvertently, the enemy fleet compacted her formation.

The gunners, almost two hundred, smiled in front of their consoles. There are too many ships, too close. A dream for a gunner. In five seconds, the ships were in range. Since Elsa gave them freedom to act, they fired first. The light storm reached the cubes, and the power of her weapons killed many ships. The guys firing the cutting beams had designed a network of fixed beams, and Elsa had approved the idea. Now, the network fired, and the ships crossing the net literally were splinted into pieces.

The Ice Queen fired hundreds of torpedoes and took control of them personally. With a success rate of ninety percent, she left the cubes in bad shape, with big chunks of the hulls vanished. The mass unbalance from the lacking pieces produced a significant mass asymmetry, and the machines had to lose time adjusting the engines output, just to fly straight. Grinning, the gunners took advantage of the sloppy movements and killed more ships.

The machines attacked only one side of the battlestation to negate Elsa of firing all her weapons. They fired a massed attack on her shields, trying to destroy them, but at least for now, it was useless. Leaving a trail of dead or dying ships behind, many colliding against Elsa or the planetary shield, the ships withdrew from her area.

However, there were so many ships that even leaving tens of dead ships behind, they still were a formidable foe. Elsa was destroying everything too close to her personal space, and the machines had to avoid her, suffering too many losses. The same situation was happening around Anna, the second Twin. The space around Earth was becoming cluttered with dead hulls, and not every ship was from the machine fleet.

Scores of light units, heavy cruisers, and some battleships lost their propulsion or guiding systems, the ships going on only by inertia. Almost sixty ships were lost or unable to fight. Enjoying a huge superiority, the machines attacked Earth again, and this time, an immense black cloud covered Earth. The planetary Mirror System was activated, and everything launched against the shield disappeared into the black surface. The equatorial ring, having a good chance, opened fire. A strong exchange of fire happened, with the satellites heavy guns leaving many ships with their shields down.

Superbattleship Musashi.

Musashi's heavy frame cut through the darkness of space, a monument of steel. Her fleet, composed of a mix of battleships and H-44s, formed a formidable spearhead that had struck the Machines' encroaching formation hard, reducing many of their forces to smoldering wreckage. But the enemy's sheer numbers were relentless, and as the battle wore on, Musashi found herself pressed to her limits.

The tactical display on her bridge glowed with a chaotic flurry of red and blue markers. Musashi analyzed the patterns, seeking out gaps, but the enemy was learning. Every few minutes, fresh salvos of missiles and beams lashed out from the Machines' formation, testing her defenses. Her shields shimmered with each impact, flickering as they absorbed and dispersed energy.

So this is a real battle Musashi thought for the first time in her long life. She watched how her crew, even with their families living on Earth, kept their discipline. Musashi and the two H-44s, Hinderburg and Berlichingen, were formed in the same fleet. It was becoming more and more obvious that the machines were keeping a healthy distance from the two new girls. Every group of machines attacking them had been reduced to a mix of small, glowing metallic fragments.

"Shields at sixty-five percent," her Chief Tactical Officer reported, his voice tense but controlled. Musashi could sense the anxiety permeating her bridge crew, though they performed with unerring precision. Their lives depended on it.

Musashi's heavy guns fired in synchronized volleys, each salvo tearing through machine hulls. Her targeting algorithms were refined to near perfection, picking off the most threatening enemies in rapid succession. Yet, for every ship she destroyed, two more seemed to take its place.

She felt the subtle vibrations of her hull groaning under the immense strain. The shields pulsed erratically, pushed to their limits. "Rotate shield frequencies and reroute auxiliary power to the forward fields," Musashi commanded. Her voice, calm yet unyielding, steadied the hands of her crew.

Within her core, Musashi felt a ripple of doubt. Her mental model, usually composed and confident, was shaken. Despite her immense power and the unbreakable will she projected to her crew, she realized she was not invincible. The Machines had found her weakness: an attrition strategy that her armor and shields couldn't hold off forever.

Her gunners were having a field day, her heavy batteries leaving a trail of damaged or dead cubes behind, with her escorts killing the damaged. Unfortunately, there were so many ships that it would become an attrition battle. Every side will try to destroy enough ships to obtain local supremacy, and that requires time and lives.

Probably, they hadn't any intelligence about the Twins. Terran and Fleet scientists had made every possible effort to design two space fortresses. The space around the polar orbits was left almost alone, with the exception of a few suicide attacks testing the shields. Every attempt had failed since even the meteorite that it had killed the dinosaurs was harmeless to them.

The situation was becoming a tactical nightmare due to the battles degenerated into multiple small skirmishes. Finally, the Second Fleet arrived, one thousand ships ready to fight. The machines reacted fast, leaving Earth and the dangerous battlestations behind and moved away. They found empty space and regrouped into a huge sphere, keeping the most damaged ships inside.

Superbattleship Yamato.

It seems they like me, Yamato thought. A sucesion of fast, well coordinated attacks, were draining her shields. The missiles and torpedoes were effectively neutralized by the Klein Fields, but beams were raining on her. The cubes were receiving a harsh welcome, and many left in bad shape or worse. However, several shields were overloading, and finally, they reached the hull. The armor, her last defense, was compromised, and breaches appeared in many decks.

It was the first time the powerful ship had been damaged. I suppose even I can be hurt, she thought darkly. Her shields were dangerously saturated, and she had several decks open to space. One of the H-44s, Hutten placed her hull close and acted as a shield against the frequent attacks Yamato was receiving.

She approached the engineering consoles, where her engineers were working feverishly to keep a main energizer stable. "Yamato, energizer-02 is losing alignment. The singularity containment field is failing," said one of them. The highly unstable, synthetic element was accelerating its decay, and the graviton production was out of synchrony. She nodded and said, "Interrupt fuel supply and stabilize the thanatonium, and shutdown the energizer." The man followed the orders, and the situation got better. Since they were in the middle of a battle, the man took energy from the main power reserve to compensate the energizer. She felt how her backup was being drained.

Around her, her weapon specialists were doing their best, but it was obvious the machines had identified her as a priority target. Great, just great, she thought while a pair of cubes made a firing pass on her. Her weapons transformed a cube into Swiss cheese, and the second continued its trip as two big pieces, courtesy of a Hutten static cutting beam. For the cube, it was like flying through a knife. A salve of torpedoes from a couple of heavy cruisers finished the two pieces.

It's time. She sent the order, and the hidden mines changed to active searching mode. Soon, the area where the machines were marshaling their forces lighted like a supernova. First, after a few explosions, a long chain of detonations saturated the area. Thousands of mines found their targets beautifully packed into a small volume of space, and it was a carnage. When the radiation subsided, only a hundred cubes survived in bad shape. To add salt to the injury, several SGCs reached the area, killing even more ships. All the Second Fleet, commanded by the Battlecruiser Derfflinger, accelerated to pursue the survivors.

Tactical Cube-001.

The new ship, named Tactical Cube, was designed as a flagship or a command ship. Strongly armored and shielded, it was the response of the Prime to the necessity of having a fleet control unit on the battlefield. The brain inside had the resources to control thousands of ships and analyze very complex tactical situations. Was it conscious? The Awareness had granted him a limited form of conscience, enough to avoid unnecessary risks. Right now, he knew it had fought the battle the humans wanted. The battlefield was carefully prepared and he fell down on it. He sent his logs to the Prime and tried to reach a safe place to preserve their forces the best he could.

High Seas Fleet. Battlecruiser Derfflinger.

The massive presence of Admiral Kessering, who was sitting in his command chair, was busy deploying his ships in four smaller fleets of two hundred and fifty ships, all of them in pristine shape. His adversaries were damaged by the mines, and from time to time, sporadic explosions from mines looking for targets were seen. It seemed that so many explosions had disturbed the subspace, and they were unable to warp. The cubes were running for their lives, searching for an undisturbed area.

Every fleet, shaped as a coin, surrounded the survivors. When the fleet reached the cubes, they placed the plain side of each coin against the cubes, giving to all their weapons a free line sight. Kessering was not going to be merciful. Her XO, the mental model of his flagship, a tall and athletic girl with a body screaming of speed and lethality, coordinated the maneuvers.

She had kept her hull name. "Admiral, we reached optimum firing range," she reported. "Kill them all," her admiral replied with the most detached imaginable expression.

One thousand ships opened their launching cells, and five thousand missiles and torpedoes left the cells. The cubes tried a coordinated response, and while escaped to open space, they fired all her pulsed weapons against the swarm. Even if they intercepted a few missiles, there were too many. Many cubes lost shields, and they had the hulls open to space, leaving a trail of gas and metallic pieces behind.

The ships of the Second Fleet were a bit different from the other fleets. The ships were a bit smaller, but they were composed of agile and faster ships than the others. Based on the concept of the Blitz, the battlecruisers and heavy cruisers were specialized in a battle of speed and short-term engagements.

The four subformations opened fire with all their batteries, finishing several tens of wounded cubes. With the resistance broken, the Admiral Kessering fleet accelerated to flank speed and dived against the cubes. Derfflinger and her sisters fired their torpedoes against the most damaged cubes, killing many of them. They made a fast firing pass on the disorganized cubes.

Kessering knew the speed was too much for humans. A few minutes ago, he commanded, "Derfflinger, send the order," he only said. The mental model nodded, and she and her sisters took command of navigation and weapons. With engagement times of seconds at best, the cores spaced the right timing for the different weapons. After the pass, the other fleets repeated the maneuvers.

When the last subformation finished, the cubes were just a lot of space junk.

Aftermath of Battle of Earth.

The mirror system protecting Earth had made wonders to defend the planet. Every massive discharge from the machines had been absorbed. On Earth cities, the people were on the streets, watching the skies. Hide in shelters were useless, since if the planet was bombarded, no refuge could protect them. So, in many cities, life went on like nothing. The fact that the hybrid numbers were close to the billion helped, too. They were conscious of what was happening in space in real time.

When the first attacks crashed against the planetary shield, the effect was surprising. A worldwide aurora showed his many colors, and the antimatter missiles produced powerful flashes of light on the shield. Since the shield was in space, not in the atmosphere, there wasn't any noise reaching the ground.

The effect of the mirror system was more dramatic. The shield stopped the light from the sun, and the world was completely dark. It was a bit chaotic, something like an eclipse, but the people had been warned before.

In space, the ships from Kessering's fleet were reaching the most wounded ships, those without propulsion and helm. The ships docked with the damaged ships and stabilized their course. Then, they towed slowly the ships to the battlestations. Many hulls had, fortunately, survivors, thanks to her mental models sealing what air bags they could make.

Yamato was walking steadily through her hull. Kotono remained in her bridge, dedicated to sealing her open wounds. Four decks were still open to space, and two main turrets had suffered the same destine. Lots and lots of sailors died. Now, I understand Richelieu and Prince of Wales. They died in my hull, the place where they must be safe.

Even if her superior functions were stable, some output from her core was showing signs of fragmentation. Her mind was being plagued with weird scenarios, and her calm demeanor was only a disguise. Yes, I miss the oceans and my old, simple hull.

I'm becoming an oba-san, she laughed quietly. She finally reached the deck four. She knew Kotono was sealing the hull, but still several places were holed. Deck four was the place where she had lost most crewmen. Above this deck, one of her main turrets was attacked and severely damaged. The turret, opened to space, had lost dozens of gunners. For the deck below, it was worse. Some power lines had collapsed, and a storm of plasma was released inside the deck, killing everything organic down there.

She remained there, watching how the medical personnel was helping a few lucky survivors. The long row of body bags impacted her. I know this is not the first time humans had a lot of dead onboard a ship. How can they assimilate it? How must I react? She didn't know.

She felt how Kotono, being more human than her, was giving advice to her. Somehow, encouraged by her sister, she visited the wounded and helped the doctors.

Battlestation Atlas 01. Elsa.

Several hundreds of mental models of the battlestation's core were inside her docking rings. It was a surprise to find the Yamato there. The powerful superbattleship sported several hull penetrations, covered by a few millimeters of nanomaterial to keep the air inside and her fragile crew alive. Tens of warships were docked, some of them lacking the command towers, turrets, with the hulls lacking pieces or showing long scars where the cubes' weapons carved deep wounds in the hull.

Elsa could feel how her medical installations were becoming saturated. Certainly, her top-notch medical facilities could help most of these sailors, but she had counter thousands of dead people. Her numerous avatars were helping, many of them working inside irradiated engine rooms where no human being could help. The girls on these ships were too busy, fixing the hull integrity or even procceding to a preventive evacuation. So, she passed hours moving dangerous pieces or warheads, too close to compromised sections.

One of her aspects, Elsa-303, was next to one of the boarding hatches on Yamato's hull. She is wounded, Elsa thought, clearly worried. She climbed up the ramp and looked at the shuttle bay. Many wounded crewmen were there, waiting for a hospital bed. The distressing picture at her right side, a big sector covered with body bags, made her feel sluggish and distracted.

Many injured sailors lay on stretchers, some barely conscious, while medical teams rushed to stabilize their conditions. The air was filled with the hum of machinery and the clipped, efficient commands of medics trying to save lives. Elsa-303 paused for a moment, her synthetic senses overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the damage.

She had killed many ships, and uncountable Nexus inhabitants had been destroyed. However, the long distance killing was almost surgical and cold. Her crew was safe behind her shielding, but the crews onboard the ships were always exposed to these dangers. Walking through the busy crew, she reached the bridge.

Only one mental model was around the tactical console. Right now, Kotono was working on a big holographic display of the ship. The damage wasn't terrible, but she had to rebuild a few zones and a couple of main turrets. Four decks were still holed, and the Klein Fields were in the process of releasing energy to Elsa's converters. However, when a ship of this size is damaged, the crew losses are awful. Of course, the Core knew she was here. Kotono, looking serious and hurt, greeted her, "Elsa, welcome to my hull. I'm sorry I couldn't receive you, but as you can see, we are busy."

Elsa greeted her. "I wanted to meet you. I must confess to you that my nanomaterial stock is about to run out . The list of dead and missing people is increasing every second. This is the first time we lost so many in a space battle."

Kotono nodded while she smiled sadly, "The battles are always like this. But if we don't want this attack to be repeated on more worlds, we must follow this war to the end."

At last, Kotono asked, being afraid of the answer, "How many?"

Elsa said, "So far, one hundred and forty four ships, seventy-two cores, ninety thousand crewmen. More or less, we are still checking the hulls."

Kotono nodded and said, "I hope Gunzou is doing well. "

Yamato's mental model, dressed in a worn, blood-streaked uniform, was standing near the bridge's entrance, her expression composed yet weary. She approached them, and her eyes met Elsa-303's, and for a fleeting second, they shared a silent understanding—the burden of leadership in the face of catastrophic loss.

"Elsa," Yamato began, her voice soft but resolute. "Thank you for allowing my ship to dock here. I need time to recover my systems and my crew."

Elsa-303 nodded. "You are always welcome, Yamato. Rest assured, we are doing everything possible to assist. Your crew is receiving the best care I can provide." Her tone was calm, almost motherly, as she obtained damage reports from the Core.

Elsa-303 shifted her focus to the damage reports streaming into her consciousness. Over 300 ships had sustained damage, many critically. The Atlas-01's repair facilities were operating at full capacity, but even they would need weeks to restore the fleet to fighting strength. Worse, the casualty reports were grim—ten of thousands dead, many more injured.

Musashi's voice cut through the communications network, steady and commanding. "By now, I'm taking command of the Fleet in the Sol Star System. We have routed the enemy for now, but they will return. Repairs must proceed at maximum efficiency. Priority goes to capital ships and defensive platforms."

Elsa-303 relayed the orders through her network, coordinating the repairs like a maestro conducting a symphony. Drones swarmed the damaged hulls, welding breaches and replacing compromised armor. The battlestation's industrial capabilities were unmatched, but even they had limits.

As she worked, Elsa couldn't shake the gnawing feeling of unease. The machines had been relentless, their strategy cunning. They had learned, adapted, and pressed their advantage wherever possible. If not for the Second Fleet's timely arrival and the Mirror System's ingenuity, Earth might have been lost.

In a secure meeting room deep within Atlas-0, Elsa and Anna, Musashi, Shinano, and the fleet commanders gathered. Elsa projected herself into the room, her icy presence a reminder of her nickname.

"The machines will return," Musashi stated bluntly. "We dealt them a significant blow, but their capacity for adaptation is unmatched. Next time, they will be better prepared."

"Agreed," Shinano said, her normally serene demeanor clouded with concern. "We need to adapt as well. This battle showed us our weaknesses. The Mirror System held, but it won't hold forever. Yamato's damage is a clear indicator that even our strongest ships aren't invulnerable."

Elsa crossed her arms, her gaze sharp. "Then we need to bring the fight to them. Waiting for them to attack Earth again is a losing strategy. We should focus on identifying and neutralizing their command structures. The Tactical Cube's retreat suggests it values self-preservation. Perhaps we can exploit that."

The room fell silent as the commanders considered her words. Finally, Musashi nodded. "We will suggest to the Admiralty to form a task force to pursue the machines. Elsa, Anna your battlestations will remain the linchpin of Earth's defenses. Begin gathering intelligence on the enemy's movements. Shinano, coordinate with the Fleet Admiralty to draft plans for a counteroffensive."

The meeting adjourned, but Elsa remained in the room for a moment longer, staring out at the stars beyond the battlestation's hull. The machines had underestimated the Fleet and humanity's resilience, but they would not make the same mistake twice. This was only the beginning.