Vreta was still positioned between both, his posture upright and firm as he looked down upon them. He did not bother moving out of the way of the mug, and gave absolutely no reaction to its impact. “I cannot ask you to like one another. That would be quite unreasonable. However, in all my centuries of life, I have come to have certain expectations for men, women, and other individuals of science. In lifetimes past, I was a researcher myself, and I consider that experience to be a highlight of my life. Scientists, to me, are exemplars of their species, who push the boundaries of what a mind can do. They are the ones who elevate a species from their primitive origins and push entire societies to the stars, and they have always had my utmost respect. As the peak of a species’ mental prowess, I would expect them to be consummate professionals whose work can speak for them far more than leveraging baseless accusations or flinging small objects.”

For a moment, Vreta paused, his gaze moving slowly between Gazes and Chitnarit. “Was I mistaken?”

“You are not mistaken. Science is what these ones are here for. Right, friend?” Gazes soothed, jumping out of its chair and blobbing over to Vreta where it clung to his back like a large rucksack. Its mobility suit elongated and ran down the length of the Rothian’s tail.

Chitnarit glared at Gazes Fondly over Vreta’s shoulder, pressing up against him on her large and powerful legs. Her salivation must have presented a strong odour, and from so close the glands which secreted powerful pheromones may not have been completely filtered out by the apparatus in the room before reaching Vreta’s nervous system.

“Let's just get this over with.”

---

The Tindrel and QV science teams joined the combined Human-Rothian Expeditionary Fleet in a neutral corporate system. It was far from Psi-Helios, run by huge multi-species conglomerates that didn’t pay much mind to the crew of their vessels.

The naval executives for each civilisation had agreed to participate in a joint exercise as a pretext for arriving near the Psi-Helios system. The scenario at hand was a fragmented jump from lightspeed from multiple vectors to meet aggression from an unknown adversary. The main Human, Rothian, Tindrel and QV elements would appear outside the system and attempt to link up and form an effective formation as quickly and orderly as possible. Then, they would split into teams and simulate a variety of naval battles on the fringes of the system.

While this was happening, a variety of civilian craft would complete tasks among the various non-native structures in the system, to simulate evacuation and data destruction etc. It was at this point that the science vessel would scan the Psi-Helios system. The Earther peacekeeping force had been notified, but what they may or may not do upon commencement of these exercises was yet to be seen.

After a day or so of confirming that all parties were ready to begin, the Rothian in charge of the overall exercise would give the green light to begin.

For the combined fleets, their gathering was deep in space, far from any settled planets. They had alerted both Earth’s government and any nearby planets that this exercise would be taking place, though it was still a rather substantial collection of military force. Keeping a respectful distance from settled worlds was simply courtesy to avoid causing any unease among the civilian population.

For this exercise, the Rothian navy had deployed the 2nd Carrier Group from the Fleet of Vigilance. Compared to the rest, the Rothians had barely half as many ships participating, though that was to be expected for Rothian military doctrine. For their capital ships, the Rothian navy emphasized the highest quality possible in their vessels. On a galactic stage, technology was generally the Rothians’ greatest advantage, so they formed their military and its tactics to leverage that advantage to its greatest extent. For centuries, their ships had been built to modular designs with the intention of facilitating simple and relatively easy upgrades to integrate new developments into existing ships. Though some ships had bore the same names, and even some of the same crew, for centuries, there were none that had not, over time, been essentially rebuilt completely and retrofitted to modern standards. Smaller craft, like strikecraft and drones, tended to be automated and much more numerous.

Among the 2nd Carrier Group, the majority of capital ships were cruiser class, similar in size to the Barbarossa, with some being specialized as battleships that sacrificed carrier space for greater firepower. The flagship of the battle group, the Valiant, was a heavy carrier, about fifty percent larger than a cruiser. The Admiral, Matir’Setla, commanded from the carrier. On his order, his plan for formations and maneuvering tactics had been sent ahead to the other gathered fleets as they awaited the scheduled start of the exercise.

The QV fleet was initially composed of one enormous, amorphous, slightly translucent floating blob in space. Their ships were essentially heavily armed and armoured versions of their individual mobility suits, with large engines and shields. The component parts could split off and rejoin the mothership at will. Each ship was girded with an elegant superstructure of blackened alloy, in which some of the most critical elements could be protected. When the whole thing was put together, the insides looked like a bafflingly complex and ancient coral reef.

It was always difficult to get a full count of their fleet, but previous intelligence indicated that a mothership contained three large battleships that shared the superstructure's devastating main gun, along with dozens of destroyers and potentially hundreds of fighters.

The Tindrel fleet’s capital ship was built into an actual asteroid. As a species they were keen space-excavators, and used the hollowed out husks of the best specimens as a tour de force of their navy. The remnants of this particular planetoid presented as a giant semi-sphere of craggy rock about 10 miles wide. It was pockmarked with sensory stations and armaments and the Tindrel had painted a scary Tindrel face across it.

Protruding out from the hollow insides was a bright double helix structure which housed the engines, shield generators, hangar bays and almost an entire city of support staff. Docked on this double helix were dozens of frigates and hundreds of fighters.

For the vast majority of those participating in these exercises, they were unaware of their true purpose. For most crew or even ship captains, such knowledge was irrelevant and would merely serve to place greater risk to operational security. Among the Rothian navy, only the Admiral and a select few others were aware of their true objective on Psi-Helios. However, he was well-aware of these exercises’ importance in maintaining plausible deniability, so they needed to be taken seriously. For all intents and purposes, these exercises were exactly why they were here.

Being that the scenario would call for them to split into multiple teams, they had to decide how they would divide said teams according to the distribution of forces each navy had brought. The simplest would be to have each separate tackle an objective, but that would also accomplish very little. The purpose of these exercises was to test how they could coordinate with different military doctrines. They needed to make attempts to combine their forces to identify any conflicts or inefficiencies that could arise.

The plan that Admiral Matir had forwarded to the other fleets involved creating battle groups centered around “core” ships. The most capable individual vessels they had available would form the backbone of the battle groups’ formations and tactics. For the five objectives they needed to accomplish, the overall fleet would be divided into five groups. The Qalian-Vosh’s supercarrier, the Tindrel’s weaponized asteroid, and the Rothians’ heavy carrier would be core ships for three battle groups. Outremer did not have any ships that could serve as core ships for this exercise. Even the Barbarossa could not match the firepower of a specialized Rothian battleship, hence why the remaining two battle groups would each utilize a Rothian battleship as core ships. However, the advantage that Outremer had brought to the table related to the sheer size of their fleet relative to the others. Outremer’s navy was massive, and even for just an exercise, they had brought far more ships of cruiser-class and above with different specializations, along with numerous support ships. Given the significant variations in each navy’s doctrines, Outremer’s adaptability was key to this strategy. They needed to be able to round out each group’s strengths and weaknesses to ensure the enemy would not have any glaring flaws to exploit. Every battle group would contain vessels from every species, but the core ships would dictate the tactics for their respective objectives.

Once sufficient time had been given for each fleet to review the proposal, Admiral Matir opened a channel to each fleet’s ranking officers. “The exercise shall be commencing in one standard hour. Requesting confirmation that all parties have reviewed and understood the operational orders for the exercise. I am also requesting any formal objections or tactical input be delivered prior to the start of the exercise.”

Captain Andersen stood at ease on the bridge of the Barbarossa, both hands clasped behind her back. She surveyed the map table hologram’s limited tactical information about the Psi-Helios system. Their long-range scanners could only pick up so much - they would have to perform an emergency sweep once they pulled out of light speed to assess the true nature of the situation. What they did have were five rough shapes to denote potential enemy fleet positions around the circumference of the solar system.

Also appearing to scan the same map table (although they were really looking at their own) was the hologram of Admiral Stentz of the supercarrier OSC Cataphract. He had overall command of the Outreman fleet, as well as the largest Outreman ship they had brought. It wasn't as new or deadly-per-tonne as the Barbarossa, but it was still a fearsome warship. Also present were captains for the three other capital ships in the Human fleet. They were spread between all five battle groups between them, and would be responsible for controlling all Outreman elements within that composite team.

The last two people that Andersen could see were the Barbarossa’s AI, Nelson, and Lord High Admiral Hale. He was being beamed in with a significant time delay from Outremer as he’d personally expressed an interest in being included. He was one of their civilisation’s most experienced Naval officers, after all.

“Can we jump in all together, then split up once we have more situational awareness?” Andersen asked.

“The exercise brief states that a rapid response is needed to counter all five elements at once, before they can complete their objectives in the system.” Nelson’s small blue avatar offered from his position on the map table.

“Then we assume a helical formation to start, to cover more vectors.” Stentz boomed.

---

The science vessel was a hive of activity, with people making last minute preparations for the expedition. In one equipment room, the Sacred Band and Void Company were putting on their suits and tooling up with a cacophony of satisfying metal clicks and bangs. The exercise parameters were clear that ship boarding and combat was not off the table, so the teams were getting ready for all eventualities.

Of course, it was unlikely that the exercise planners had anything too disruptive in mind for their vessel. They would know that the ship had an ulterior mission which required most of their attention. The Sacred Band were in actuality preparing for the possibility of being deployed on solid ground.

It was not long after Admiral Matir had confirmation back from the rest of the officers that the exercise was scheduled to begin. With nothing meaningful to delay them, Matir gave the word to commence. As per the simulated scenario, each species’ fleet would be arriving in a separate part of the system. Part of the challenge would involve making contact with one another, identifying a rendezvous point, and gathering into formation. A meeting point was specifically not planned ahead of time to force them to make such decisions quickly, in the moment. A Rothian AI had given each ship a program to run for the duration of the exercise and would be directing the actions of their simulated foe. Artificial ships would appear on sensors, weapons fire would be simulated from both sides, and they would even appear on view screens. An FTL connection between all participating vessels would ensure that the simulated vessels were synchronized accurately between different ships, no matter where they might be in the system. Additionally, all battle groups would also have designated observer ships present. They would appear on sensors, but were clearly marked as non-participants. Their sensors would be unaffected by the simulation, so they would essentially be “lookouts” to watch for any actual threats that could disrupt the exercise.

---

Arrival in the Psi-Helios system for the Rothian fleet brought them dead into the middle of empty space, which, granted, was far and away the most likely outcome for a random jump. The vast emptiness of space, even within a star system, made arrival near any sort of celestial body exceptionally rare. Regardless, the exercise had begun, and the Admiral stuck to established protocol. Immediately, he ordered a wide-range FTL scan of the system to identify the current location of all known celestial bodies, as well as to start locating allied and hostile ships. Based on the locations of their known objectives, the ship computer began marking off potential sites for strategic rally points. Within a few minutes, Matir had made his decision: a location roughly equidistant from each marked objective within an asteroid belt.

For the purposes of this exercise, the fleets had established an encrypted FTL comm channel to allow them to communicate across the system. “Marking rally point now. Move immediately to asteroid designated PH-238-02. Coordinates following.” The Admiral ordered.

---

Whilst the Sacred Band and Void Company both were preparing for the possibility of battle, the science team was getting ready to begin their scans as quickly and efficiently as possible. While much of the process was automated, the process was likely going to require adjustments on the go, based on what they detected. The Object, if it was there, would be difficult to detect, and they would need to be able to identify the smallest anomalies to be able to refine their parameters to eventually locate it.

Ideally, there would be no need at all for anyone to visit the surface in person, though they needed to be prepared for any possibility. Vreta would have much preferred there to be no need to bring anything resembling a soldier to the planet, but he understood that, in the current circumstances, why they might be necessary. Still, bringing them would be a last resort. For the science team, at least, they would not be gearing up like soldiers, regardless. For many species, personal shielding devices were something of a rarity, but to the Rothians, they were more available. Vreta, at the moment, was already wearing his shield belt, and they had secured enough personal shield devices to outfit an entire field team. In the event that it was necessary, they would have their own personal protection that would at least make them seem not quite so threatening.

Void Company was arming up across from the Sacred Band. Among them, Mar’Ghel, the sniper, had already mostly prepared herself before they had even arrived, so she stood, leaned back against the wall, watching the others. The particle rifle resting at her side had a length over half of her rather imposing height. Her helmet was not deployed, so one could see her slightly inquisitive expression as she looked over the Humans. Out of everything about her, it was her eyes in particular that could draw attention. In casual circumstances, there was a filter applied over her cornea that made them appear perfectly normal. Now that they were potentially about to be deployed, though, one could see that her eyes were wholly artificial. Both appeared to have multiple pupils of varying sizes, each of which could move and focus independently. At the moment, many of those pupils were focused on her counterpart in the Sacred Band.

“Anyone have room for batteries?” Carthage asked, holding up two of the standard size weapon chargers in one hand and looking around.

“I can take some more.” Athena called out. She had been making last minute adjustments to the new chain-feed system for her railgun, to ensure it didn’t interfere when she transitioned between long range and scattershot modes.

Carthage threw the batteries underarm across the room to her partner.

“An army from the depths of Tartarus can’t stop this.” Kjartan growled gleefully, cycling his new heavy rotary plasma repeater. The barrel whirred and fizzed, too fast for the eye to see. He still wore a physical shield in its smallest form on his left arm, so he could easily switch between LMG and his close range weaponry.

“Sacred Band, let's move out.” Thebes eventually barked, magnetically attaching his carbine to the back of his suit.

They clanked out of the equipment room and towards a key junction within the ship, where they could rapidly respond to any boarding action.

---

The massive Outreman fleet jumped into space on the outskirts of the Psi-Helios system as one coordinated unit. Little bastards up front, big ones in back. They immediately began scanning the area while moving to the rallypoint.

The whole area was scattered with large asteroids which muddied the picture. However, a first sweep suggested that enemy fleets were arranged around one half of the system’s curved perimeter, and their joint exercise fleet had jumped in behind them. The fleet closest to the middle appeared to contain something larger than anything the good guys had brought. A weapons platform or an FOB perhaps?

Forward elements from these enemy fleets were already overpowering a hopelessly outnumbered but incredibly brave peacekeeper contingent. The Barbarossa picked up mayday beacons from a huge floating factory complex which sprawled across another nearby asteroid field. It also detected an evacuation in need of urgent assistance taking place on a ring shaped space station orbiting the last of five planets around the system’s red giant star.

Once they had their scan of the system, and the orders that followed, it only took a quick jump for the various fleets to converge on their rally point. The moment they dropped out of FTL, Admiral Matir’s orders were delivered by his ship’s computer to every single other ship in the fleet. Each vessel was assigned to one of the battle groups supporting five separate “core ships”, including his own heavy carrier, the Tindrel’s asteroid, the Qalian-Vosh supercarrier, and two Rothian battleships. Every battle group contained ships from every species’ fleet, distributed about as evenly as possible. They were assigned according to their capabilities such that each battle group would have all necessary roles filled appropriately. Outremer’s fleet in particular had an abundance of specialized ships that could fill in for weaknesses that any particular battle group might have possessed. On paper, every team had the capabilities to be an effective fighting force. All that remained to be seen was if they could execute properly on that potential.

As the fleets were arranging themselves into formation, the Admiral began to assign the battle groups to their objectives. The large enemy craft was a primary objective, though it would not be their first to assault. The large craft could require more resources than a single battle group to defeat, and the smaller objectives were more pressing. The Tindrel’s battle group was assigned to assist with the distress calls near the factory complex, while the Qalian-Vosh’s supercarrier was designated to facilitate the evacuation of the space station. Of the two battle groups led by Rothian battleships, one, which also contained the supercarrier OSC Cataphract, was assigned to stave off an ongoing attack on a simulated settlement on one of the moons of a gas giant, while the other battle group was to position itself roughly equally between all of the other objectives and remain momentarily on standby. The enemy was going to react, so they needed at least one battle group available to adjust to the enemy’s response and provide reinforcements where needed.

The final battle group was the one commanded by the Admiral himself. The Rothian AI facilitating this simulation was, for the most part, operating independently to keep the fleets from knowing what was coming next. However, it had been given instructions to carry out one scenario according to plan. As an inhabited planet, one objective was to keep Psi-Helios itself protected. The Admiral’s battle group, which included the Barbarossa, was to position near the planet and keep it protected from an encroaching enemy attack. All the while, the Magnificent Horizon, the exploration ship being used by the science team, would be scanning the planet ostensibly for “survivors”.

Upon getting their orders, the Tindrel and Qalian-Vosh immediately started complaining.

"This objective is not worthy of the might our fleet brings to bear."

“You’ll never be able to hold off two fleets at once!”

“That large object could be their central command node. Destroying that might fold their entire force!”

“We are spread rather thin, Admiral Matir. Not much margin for error.” Admiral Stentz added, as the Outreman cruisers assumed a helical formation around each of the core ships and support elements.

---

Aboard the Magnificent Horizon, the science team waited eagerly by their equipment. Freyr stood on a raised platform where she could see almost everything. “Give me topography on Psi-Helios as soon as you can.” She ordered.

“Yes ma’am.”

Dr Lang looked over at Vreta, who usually seemed to be nearby.

“How are you feeling?”

“Did you think this was going to be easy?” Admiral Matir answered. Being that they did not age, it was always hard to tell just by appearance how old any given Rothian was. As long as they were an adult, a Rothian looked about the same at a hundred years of age as they did at a thousand. Of course, the personnel files that the others no doubt had would identify Matir as one of their most experienced naval officers, but even without that, the firm confidence he had with every word he spoke gave him a commanding presence.

“We know nothing of our adversary. Should you be wrong about the primary target, then the secondary objectives shall fail, and the civilians we are sworn to protect at each shall perish. We will complete all stated objectives, and we will do so with the resources we have available. Complete your objectives quickly and efficiently, then regroup on my position for the final attack on our primary target. If your ships are truly strong and your crews capable, then show me what you can do. You have your orders.”

---

Vreta shrugged, tilting his head towards Freyr. “Well, I’ve given my speeches. I don’t have much else to do but watch at this point. I have to admit, I am a bit excited for what we might find, though. If we find another one of these objects here, on another species’ homeworld, then I guess that is pretty strong evidence in favor of the life-seeder hypothesis.”

Crossing his arms, Vreta paused for just a few moments. “Have you wondered how many places this might have happened? How much life is really native to the Milky Way? Maybe there is another one of these on Earth?”

With the gauntlet well and truly laid down, the newly formed battle groups set off in different directions.

The Tindrel planetoid capital ship quickly began charging toward the asteroid belt where their objective was located. Instead of using FTL to jump straight into the battle, it used powerful sub-light drives to gradually build up unstoppable momentum. A helical formation of Human, Rothian and QV ships orbited around it.

The enemy fleet currently besieging the densely packed asteroid belt and factory complex quickly picked up on the incoming hostiles. There were many more individual enemy ships than the joint battle group, but they were spread out across a large area. Closest to their approach were three battleships and a carrier. The battleships launched dozens of plasma torpedoes with bright blue trails. The carrier turned to face the aggressors and fired its primary energy projector, sending a long stream of plasma through space to burn through any ship it touched.

The QV supercarrier adopted an entirely different approach. Its target was surrounding an enormous ring-like installation, the surroundings of which were relatively open. The QV battle group jumped to maximum firing range as a stationary mass of weaponry, then unleashed a barrage of energy projections and plasma torpedoes before the enemy fleet had a chance to bring their own guns to bear.

The gas giant was obviously of strategic value to the invaders. In addition to glassing settlements on its largest moon, they were deploying dozens of orbital rail cannons around the other three moons. They all opened fire the minute the Rothian battle group appeared in range.

The central grouping of enemy forces was staggering. A dozen troop landers were supported by two dozen cruisers and even more smaller ships. The centrepiece was a vast circular command ship, which began launching drone bombers by the dozen.

Among the Tindrel’s battle group, the Rothians had just three capital-class ships, along with some smaller support vessels. All were cruisers, which were the main ship of the line for the Rothian navy. They were general purpose ships without particular specializations, but in keeping with Rothian naval doctrine, still exceptionally capable, high quality vessels. All Rothian ships had to be fitted with the most recent upgrades in order to be approved for service so that they could continue to utilize their technological edge. Such measures were necessary, as it was generally expected that their ships would be outnumbered in any given engagement.

On the approach, the cruisers launched their fighters and positioned themselves in the formation to be able to intercept incoming fire. Both capital ships and fighters utilized lasers in point defense roles. They were short range, low energy, and not suited to deal with armored vessels, but torpedoes could not outmaneuver a lightspeed beam. The Rothian cruisers were among the first to be able to open fire, as their fusion cannons had greater range than most other energy-based weapons. Strictly speaking, the projectiles themselves were also composed primarily of superheated plasma, but they were high enough every to maintain sufficient coherence for a longer period of time, and therefore, over a longer range.

One of the Rothian cruisers positioned itself to trade blows with the enemy carrier. Rather than allow the plasma beam to potentially damage any allied vessels, it accelerated to intercept. It positioned the front crest, by far the most heavily armored portion of the ship, to take the brunt of the hit. The shields flared, glowing almost as brightly as the beam itself, but for the first hit, it left no effect on the hull. The ship returned fire with all forward batteries focused on the carrier, sending out a barrage of blinding white energy projectiles. Though for the other species in the fleet, there was something notable about the ship’s weapons. All weapons fire from both sides was, of course, simulated, but the power output they would register from the cruiser’s fusion cannons were higher than their intelligence reports would suggest a Rothian cruiser should be capable of.

While all of the ship captains in the battle group were expected to be able to act on their own initiative moment to moment, their overall strategy was meant to be driven by the Tindrel commander in the core ship. All Rothian captains would follow their orders and defer to the Tindrel’s instructions, once given.

“You could run and get me some more coffee?” Freyr smiled sweetly, before continuing.

“Joking aside, if we can find something concrete here, we’ll be in a much stronger position to scan other populated worlds. Dr Hou was working on a theory that Human DNA contained clues about another location, because he…well.”

“Ma’am, topography is ready.”

One relic of Earth’s dominion over the Diaspora was Outremer’s planet classification framework. All of their software still compared the new planet being scanned with the cradle of Humanity, rather than the world all of the Human scientists present were more familiar with.

Psi Helios was 12% smaller than Earth, and had a broadly similar evolutionary journey too. Larger planets like the gas giant stopped it from growing too fast and being pulled towards the red giant star, rendering it uninhabitable. It had a circular orbit and a stable axis, with a tilt of 17.9 degrees. There was a higher degree of tectonic activity, and about 20% less water, but still enough to make this planet an attractive place for organics to develop.

This was evidenced by the tangled mangrove-esque root system covering 75% of the planet’s surface and rising miles towards the sky.

“They sure pick good places to hide.” Freyr breathed, putting her AR glasses on as data began flooding the lab.

---

“Ramming speed! All units, close for battle! Tindrel elements, prepare to disengage!” The Tindrel commander of their planetoid ship shrieked over battle group comms.

The group’s capital craft was now moving frighteningly fast towards the middle of the three battleships and a cluster of smaller craft coalescing to face the threat. It became obvious a few seconds beforehand that it wasn’t going to stop, and planned to smash straight into the fray. If it looked like they might miss, they had the option to enact a small warp jump to adjust course at the last moment.

At the same time, Tindrel cruisers and destroyers were unlatching from the double helix structure protruding from the back of the planetoid and fanning out to begin fighting. The biggest hitters would time their disconnection until they were right among the enemy, so they could attempt a devastating broadside. Outreman vessels had to make emergency adjustments to their attack run to avoid a catastrophic pile up, meaning they lost speed and their tight helical formation.

The orders given by the Tindrel commander were quite basic. Simply advance forward and attack at close range. Rothian vessels tended to prefer keeping range on their intended targets, as it allowed them to best utilize the heavily armored frontal crest present on most capital ships. Being in close quarters allowed hostiles to more easily position themselves to bypass it. Their ships were not specifically vulnerable at other angles, but it meant they could not as effectively use one of their main defensive advantages. Still, one could not deny the effectiveness of this initial strike.

Naturally, the hostile capital ships in the Tindrel’s path powered engines to maximum acceleration to avoid the massive asteroid’s path. The carrier had been positioned in the back, protected by its battleships, so it was able to get clear first. The battleships would have been able to follow suit in time, were it not for one last-moment adjustment from the Tindrel capital ship. For most ships, engaging a warp drive was not something one could do easily in combat. It required remaining stationary for any significant jump, as well as imparting a significant power drain on the ship. For the planetoid ship, however, there was more than enough space to build in dedicated power systems for their FTL drive, and it did not need to remain stationary to perform a relatively short jump. The planetoid performed a short jump, just a few miles in one direction, but it was enough to put the battleships right in its path. With the planetoid’s unstoppable momentum, it was far too late for them to respond. The asteroid smashed straight into the rear battleship, broadside. While it was a simple approach to combat, almost primitive in nature, the planetoid most certainly had the mass to make it work. The crushing force burst the battleship’s shields and smashed it into unrecognizable pieces. The second battleship had been closer to escaping, but it was not quite enough. Its stern was struck by the planetoid, shearing its rear half from the ship and sending the remainder into an uncontrolled spiral.

For the purposes of the simulation, the enemy was not programmed to have any forewarning of allied tactics or capabilities. They were unknown to the enemy, just as the enemy was unknown to them. However, the AI mediating the scenario was to ensure that the enemy could learn and adapt efficiently. Admiral Matir, in particular, had insisted that their foe be intelligent and capable. The Tindrel had carried out a shocking and effective first strike; only two capital ships remained in the immediate area, and they were heavily outmatched by the allied forces focused upon them. However, this battle was far from over. They were still outnumbered overall by the enemy in the asteroid field, and they were adjusting quickly to the Tindrel’s approach. Hostile ships were remaining at long range and spreading out even farther from each other, as well as moving closer to asteroids to use them for cover, making ramming more difficult. The dense asteroid field could make it difficult for the enemy to get overlapping fields of fire to be able to focus on smaller capital ships, but the planetoid was so large that nearly every ship could get a firing line on at least some part of it, no matter where they were.

The enemy carrier managed to move behind a nearby asteroid, but two of the Rothian cruisers bore down upon it to try to eliminate the nearest threats as quickly as possible. They could track its position through sensors even without line of sight, so they did not bother to try to move around the asteroid. While there was a fair amount of it, the carrier’s cover was only rock. The power of the cruisers’ weapons allowed them to shoot straight through the small asteroid, rapidly draining their target’s shields regardless of cover. There was a single other battleship in close range firing on everything nearby, but it likely would not take long for the rest of the battle group to overwhelm it. The real test would be how the Tindrel could react to being outnumbered and surrounded, as they were now.

---

“Starting wide-spectrum signal scan.” Marae remarked as she gave the command, though at the moment, it was mostly Nirann who was guiding the process. He did not have a body present in the lab, as he was currently linked into the ship itself so he could better operate the sensor suite. He could remove the intermediate step of a user interface and operate their ship’s hardware as if by thought.

Marae turned away from her console and back towards the others. “This could take a while. It’s doubtful that the signal we find, if we find one, is going to be identical to the Navigator’s. We’re probably going to get a lot of false positives, especially with an intelligent population on the planet, so we’re going to have to keep adjusting the parameters as we go. Nirann can help single out likely signals, though.”

The channel was flooded with bloodthirsty cheering from the Tindrel camp as blinding explosions erupted from the two disabled battleships. They had waged war like this on their planet and in space ever since they reached it, so it must be nice to validate its continued effectiveness.

The planetoid ship came under fire from several directions. Its large shield generators absorbed most of the hits, though one torpedo found a gap in the front as energy was directed towards the more vulnerable spindle off the back. It burst through and crashed into the side of the rocky face, tearing a small slab off into space.

Barely slowing down, the Tindrel capital ship narrowly missed a cluster of hefty asteroids and sheared off and away from the engagement. It would turn in a wide circle for another ramming run if possible. Point defence lasers on its stern fended off numerous munitions as it left.

The channel was flooded with bloodthirsty cheering from the Tindrel camp as blinding explosions erupted from the two disabled battleships. They had waged war like this on their planet and in space ever since they reached it, so it must be nice to validate its continued effectiveness.

The planetoid ship came under fire from several directions. Its large shield generators absorbed most of the hits, though one torpedo found a gap in the front as energy was directed towards the more vulnerable spindle off the back. It burst through and crashed into the side of the rocky face, tearing a small simulated slab off into space.

Barely slowing down, the Tindrel capital ship narrowly missed a cluster of hefty asteroids and sheared off and away from the engagement. It would turn in a wide circle for another ramming run if possible. Point defence lasers on its stern fended off numerous munitions as it departed.

This left the comparatively weaker Tindrel vessels to fight without their carrier vessel alongside the Rothians and Humans. However, the imminent threat of another devastating charge on the flank by the planetoid had proved a powerful distraction in previous engagements. They made short work of the support vessels which hadn't retreated, then most of their ships attempted to get to cover afforded by the asteroid field. Their ships excelled in short range combat, but their shields wouldn’t hold up in a protracted long range engagement.

Despite a snarl-up between the helical Outreman formation and the chaotic and rapidly spreading Tindrel fleet, the closest remaining enemy battleship wasn’t able to take advantage of this troop confusion. The OSC heavy cruiser Valkyrie pulled up alongside the hostile ship while deploying a swarm of countermeasure drones between the ships. While still manoeuvring, the enemy battleship fired a massive broadside which would have likely disabled several small vessels behind. The Valkyrie’s counter measures intercepted roughly 40% of the munitions before they hit its shields, though the heavy cruiser still took a battering. The Valkyrie’s shipboard AI was able to simulate a violent shaking motion in some parts of the interior, for the purposes of realism.

Moments later, the Valkyrie returned the broadside, before re-engaging its thrusters and dropping down underneath the enemy battleship to avoid another salvo while its shields recovered. Two plucky frigates above the enemy also jostled to find a firing position for their main guns before releasing jets of energy through space towards the ship.

---

“The locals call that stuff the Morgrawal. Say it's all one entity.” Masgard pointed to the massive root system covering Psi-Helios. He hadn’t been far from Dr Lang since they’d boarded the Rothian vessel, though he kept a relatively low profile and seemed to be working on other things most of the time.

“How do you know that?” Freyr asked.

“We do our research. The natives are so entwined with it that they refer to themselves as the Morgrawalai.”

The sophisticated net of scans being unfurled by the Magnificent Horizon was gradually peeling back layers of the planet. Freyr observed that the obvious ‘Morgrawalai’ population centres were varied. There were some that appeared to be inside the large trunks of the tree, some underground and some in the circular clearings near lakes that the Morgrawal had left.

The enemy battleship had a respectable amount of firepower on its own, but without support, there was no way it could get through even a single ship’s shields before its own were depleted by the focus fire of multiple capital ships converging on it. The third Rothian cruiser joined the Valkyrie and the other Human ships in overwhelming their foe. With all of their fire combined, it did not take more than another barrage to tear the battleship to pieces. The enemy carrier, meanwhile, had found no safety behind the asteroid it had gone to for cover. It launched as many strike craft as it could as quickly as possible, but the carrier’s fate was sealed by volleys of superheated plasma from the first two Rothian cruisers. Fighters and bombers could be dangerous even to capital ships when utilized properly, but the enemy fighters that had been launched so far had no ship support nearby. Rather than throw them pointlessly at the allied battle group, the enemy instead gave the order for their fighters to disengage and retreat back through the asteroid field to their own lines so they could still utilize them later in the fight. Rothian fighters pursued them some distance and destroyed a portion of them, but they too did not want to push their fighters too far beyond the support of their motherships.

The initial strike had been undeniably effective, but the majority of the hostile fleet still remained. The planetoid had built up incredible momentum and was unquestionably effective in close quarters, but the enemy was quick to adapt. The Tindrel’s current targets were at long range, so they had much more time to evade than the initial group. Rather than move together, however, any ship within the planetoid’s projected path scattered in all directions, often weaving between asteroids to make a direct pursuit path more difficult. It was unlikely that any individual ship could escape the Tindrel, but with intelligent maneuvering, the enemy could guarantee that the massive planetoid could only chase, at most, a single ship at a time. All the while, every other ship in the fleet was unpressured and free to engage at long range. The pelting of ranged weapons fire was a constant against the planetoid’s shields, and it was far from efficient for them to have to chase down every hostile ship individually.

While they had secured a position within the asteroid field, there was a question of what to do next for the rest of the battle group. The Tindrel were taking plenty of initiative to act with their own ships, but beyond being told to “attack”, there had been no orders for the rest of them. The Rothian cruisers formed up, positioned their strike craft defensively to intercept incoming munitions, and returned fire. They certainly had the range to engage any ship in the asteroid field, but there was still no coherent direction for allied forces. They did not know what targets the Tindrel would engage next, and therefore which targets would be most effective to focus fire, nor how to position tactically to take advantage of whatever they were going to do next. There were certainly protocols the Rothian captains could follow to quickly establish a firm chain of command to begin giving those orders, but that was not the purpose of this exercise. The Tindrel commander was not incapacitated; therefore, they needed to try to follow their direction. One of the Rothian captains opened the fleet’s comm channel to request those orders.

---

“Well, if we do everything right, the Morgrawalai will never know we were here.” Marae remarked, though her voice trailed off as she started to focus more on the console in front of her, and the data that was pouring in.

Vreta watched the screens as well, though with less of a focused eye than the scientists analyzing the data. “Hopefully so. We just need to be prepared if things don’t quite go to plan. If this object is buried as deep as the Navigator was, it will take a whole excavation team to extract it. Of course, if it isn’t, then the natives may have already discovered it. About how ‘primitive’ are these primitives? I know they are pre-spaceflight, but are they at the point of using livestock, wagons, and iron swords, or are we talking cars, biplanes, and gunpowder?”

“Push them into the clear channel! We’re coming back around!” The Tindrel commander screeched. The capital ship sent a visualisation of a gap between two tight clusters of space debris. The factory complex was nearby - they had cleared this channel to allow large freighters to quickly move to and fro. Based on the relative positioning of the asteroid field and the system’s general gravitational alignment, the planetoid’s second pass would come from ‘above’.

Ordinarily, the Outreman fleet would have flushed the enemy fleet out from their hiding places with seismic charges. They could have smashed the asteroid belt into small and less dangerous pieces and lit hostile shields up. However, that sort of weaponry was incompatible with a simulation where they couldn’t actually go around wrecking the place. Especially when there was a real factory complex nearby that was already signalling for them to use caution on their property.

The Tindrel ships paid no mind to that, however. It was largely their own holding, after all.

“CHARGE!” Their captains screamed as one, forming a war cry. The full weight of their force swarmed into the depths of the slow-moving asteroid field, seeking to rapidly gain ground on the enemy and do battle. The formation they had from the beginning was totally ruined. The large Outreman vessels couldn’t navigate into the tightly-packed core, so they began skirting around the edges, firing at enemy elements which broke cover to assault the planetoid. Their smaller destroyers and frigates joined the Tindrel.

For the Rothian captains, it was certainly an improvement that they now had orders, at least. The plan that the Tindrel had did make some sense, even if it was unconventional by Rothian standards. They just needed to find a way to pressure some of the enemy ships out into the open. The Outreman ships were moving around the outside of one of the clusters, though the Rothian ships had more options than simply following them. At the very least, having so few ships meant that the Rothian cruisers could move deeper into the cluster while maintaining a somewhat close formation.

With the Outremans moving around the outside to block escape in those directions, the Rothian cruisers could move straight forward some distance to try to force some of the hostiles in front of them out into the freight channel. The channel was directly behind the nearby enemies’ position, and the captains quickly came up with a plan to “encourage” them out into it. The cruisers’ weapons had the power to penetrate the asteroids entirely, while their enemy did not. As such, the cruisers positioned themselves in cover behind close asteroids while firing through them to the enemy position on the other side. From there, only torpedoes could maneuver around the obstacles to strike the Rothian ships, and with the Rothians positioning their fighters and support ships purely defensively to screen against them, very few could actually get through. While the asteroid field provided strong cover against the planetoid, they were nothing but a disadvantage against the Rothian ships. At close range, at least.

For the hostile vessels, there were two courses of action. They could advance on the Rothian position to get clear shots, or retreat out into the freight channel. Should they advance, they would have to move relatively slowly in order to maneuver around the asteroids, during which time the Rothian cruisers would have free reign to barrage them from cover, taking more and more damage the closer they came. As with any energy-based projectiles, the fusion cannons were more powerful at closer ranges, since they would lose coherence the longer they traveled. Should the enemy move out into the channel, however, the opposite would be true. As powerful as they were, shooting through the asteroids did drastically reduce the effective range of the Rothian weapons. Should they fall back, the cruisers’ weapons would start to deal much less damage, and the Rothians would have to leave the asteroids in order to face them on more even “ground”. Since the Outremans were effectively blocking retreat from any other angle, the choice was obvious for them to move out into the freight channel.

The entire time, the planetoid had been taking constant fire from other hostile groups spread across the field, but that fire began to suspiciously diminish seemingly all at once. Aside from the groups closer to the Rothians and Outremans, nearly all of the rest of the enemy fleet had moved into cover. A sensor sweep revealed that most of the enemy fleet was now powering warp drives. Charging a warp drive required substantial amounts of energy, so for vessels without dedicated FTL power systems like the Tindrel planetoid possessed, jumping beyond lightspeed imparted a substantial energy tax onto the rest of the ship’s systems. They had to remain stationary, while shields and weapons were usually hampered in their effectiveness. The same was true for their enemy, but the majority of their ships were currently at long range with hard cover behind the asteroids. They had no real way to exploit the vulnerability in time. Most of the enemy fleet was about to suddenly reposition somewhere soon, so the allied battle group had to decide quickly how they were going to prepare.