Chapter Ninety Eight - Time's Up

Seven Gold Class Warships cruised amongst seventy Silver Warships, countless dual controlled battleships circled them. This was the second regiment, usually stationed about the Imperial Planet Cherok. They carried with them a small hope, rushed to prototype by military developers thanks to the information sent to them by the fleet which had sacrificed themselves almost three days prior.

"There are only five of these warheads," the Admiral was informed. "We're hoping to make a sixth and seventh, but there is little chance of getting them to the frontlines on time."

The fifth regiment, a small regiment with only ten Silver Warships and fifty scouts, was already at the border, shoring up the nearly lost third regiment. They had also seeded the space with mines, but did not know how effective this would be against the enemy.

The fourth regiment were held back, to ensure that the League would not invade them while they were at their weakest and the first regiment were being held up by the political circles who wanted to ensure their own safety upon Heptilia2. The Royalists would have tried to hold back the second also, were they not pacified with the fact that the Imperial Family were evacuated to Heptilia2 ahead of time.

Jezmi's old regiment, the ninth regiment wished to get to the frontline in respect of their many fallen former comrades, but their Admiral was dithering, despite having received his orders. He would be expected to lead his regiment into battle and he was not okay with that. They were currently lingering several solar systems away, while their Admiral filled in some 'necessary' paperwork.

"Dammit, if only Captain Welhaven hadn't resigned the commission," Captain Corsair muttered under her breath as she was forced to wait on the Admiral, who had chosen to fly aboard her ship. As the only female Captain in their regiment, she could not help but wonder if he was looking down at her, but her fellow Captains believed it was just because she was better to look at than they were.

"I know how you feel," her second in command replied on their private comm channel. Commander Shen had not long commanded his own ship in the regiment, before budget cuts and the weak willed Admiral had caused this to be stolen away from him. He was more than a little bitter.

"Captain!" Her communications officer cut in to their channel with news.

"What is it?" She asked.

"There has been a message from Talaxi Station asking if their is any Military ship left in the region." Talaxi Station's main function was that of a spatial scientific research centre. Not all experiments could be safely done on world after all.

The woman frowned. "Is there a problem with Pirates?" It wasn't surprising she asked this, dealing with Pirates had always been the job of her regiment and it would not be unlike them to take advantage of the chaos.

"No, Captain," came the response.

"Alright, patch them through."

*****

Despite strengthening the checks at the border between the League of Advanced Planets and the Empire, the heightened tension and increasingly obvious fact that there would be war had many elites attempting to flee to the League just in case the war breached their wealthy bubbles and cause them distress. The League had already stated that they would not be offering refuge at this point, especially to those who clearly did not need it, thus to ensure what little goodwill there was between the two nations, the Imperial Guards were refusing to let anyone through without a valid pass and reason.

Into this chaos, a merchant vessel flew. Due to the number of fleeing vessels, ships that simply were passing through with exports were lost in the crowd. Expecting that there might also be merchants handling illegal immigrants fleeing the not yet war zone or Pirates posing as merchants, the Imperial soldiers were wisely checking every ship. But those who were told to turn back refused and made worse the situation.

An irritated voice appeared on military channels with a valid security code. She argued that they were preventing her from following orders, which were confidential. They asked if they could verify her words with their superiors. "Secret Mission!" She repeated. "Secret! Who am I to say which of the higher ups have clearance and which do not to the full details."

As the woman's details, at least, checked out, they reluctantly allowed her clearance to cross the border, which in turn caused a sudden influx of complaints over the channels from all those turned away so far.

*****

Jariden had just managed to corner Zee near to one of the large cargo bays and had had plans to taste him, just a little, when he was interrupted by his communicator. "It's your turn, hot shot."

The man turned to Zee, who had turned red while caged in his arms. "You're safe for now," he muttered. "Don't try to avoid me next time, Zee." He brushed a knuckle across the youth's soft cheek.

"Wasn't trying to avoid you," Zee replied with a shiver.

"Liar," Jariden laughed, before returning to his cabin come office in order to convince the League's border patrol's to let him through.

*****

Guran's eyes were loosely closed as he listened to her shrill voice in his head. Ugh, it was causing him headaches. It was not as if he could hear her talking, per se, it was as if a thousands of instructions were bursting into his brain every millisecond. Yin was helping to filter out the worst of it, so that he only needed to shuffle through a little in order to see through her plans. The word 'King' was thrown out again, raising his curiosity.

He sensed his husband's presence before he saw him and couldn't help but smile. Yet it was not a full smile, for the edge was slightly blunted by the knowledge of what he knew he had to do. He wondered if Law would be able to accept and understand.

"Hey, What are you doing?" the boy asked, his fingers intwining loosely with his own.

"Listening," he said softly.

"To what?" Law asked.

Guran eased the discomfort in his neck from sitting upright too long. "The Queen. I can still 'hear' her a bit. I just am able to ignore her instructions at the same time."

Law sat beside him, the sides of their bodies touching closely, sharing warmth. "What is she saying?"

"I think she has finished building her fleet and is ready to invade," Guran advised him. "I should probably let your aunt know. I think there will be three of those megaliths this time."

Law grabbed his hand. "Hey, when this is all over," he said softly, "we'll be free to be together again, right?"

Guran didn't answer at first, just smiled. Something concerned Law about that smile. It reminded him about the day he and Warren first met... "Yes, when it's all over," Guran agreed, breaking through his musings. But why did Law not feel reassured?

Luck was waiting in earshot and couldn't help but wonder what Guran and Yin were planning...

*****

The three monstrous spacefaring megaliths shot forward towards the border.

"We've got incoming!"

Half of the first regiment were flying at top speed towards the front line, but they would not arrive before their comrades engaged the enemy.

The fifth regiment crossed their fingers, before watching in horror as thousands of small metallic objected burst forth from the speeding megaliths to settle upon the mines they had placed along the border. Explosion after explosion destroyed their barrier, before the megaliths even came upon it.

The battleships sped to engage, slicing through the enemy mass only to watch it reform as they flew agilely away. Over and over, they attempted this futile tactic, while the missiles were launched from the warships. There was minor damage as a missile exploded into a small, 'carved off' area, detaching permanently those chips. But the megalith retaliated, sending a second barrage of the small devices towards the battleships. The chips began to eat through the shielding first. Other ships attempted to blast them off their comrades but it was like trying to shoot the legs off of an ant from a couple hundred metres away.

Some decided to self destruct before the chips could eat at the metal plating of their ships, getting as close to the megaliths as they could, but the damage they caused was not great.

The first of the warheads was launched, burying its way into the nearest megalith, it's thick shell could not be removed quickly enough by the chips before it exploded. It took a third of the megalith out, boosting most of the defenders moral. The Admirals, however, were not so pleased. They were only given five of these warheads into and were now down to four. Swallowing back a brief premonition, one of them ordered his men to fire his warhead upon the damaged mass. As the warhead reached the mass, it suddenly divided, allowing enough space for the warhead to pass through it! The warhead exploded after leaving the mass, doing very little damage at all!

The Admirals suddenly felt their mortality for the first time in their many, many years.