Sma'akamo'o's hooves clattered on the tile as he shifted position with everyone else until they were all gathered around an open spot in the once pristine lawn that was now full of scorch marks, smoking craters, and long lines of carbonized dirt.

The Terran male in formal dress tossed an orb roughly an inch around onto the ground and as Sma'akamo'o watched it turned clear, wobbled, and sunk into the ground.

"Give it a few moments and we'll have a holoterminal with a universal data port set," he said, stepping back.

"Come here," the Void Captain said to Spy'inmo'o. The injured Lanaktallan moved toward her and the 'Ultion Knight' stepped forward. "He may pass, Senior Dire Major," the Void Captain said, her synthesized voice soft somehow. The Ultion Knight growled but stepped to the side. When Spy'inmo'o reached her she looked up. "You must bend down, I cannot reach your injury."

Sma'akamo'o could see the Lanaktallan covert action and espionage expert was nervous, but he lowered his head so that blood from his savaged face dripped to the ground.

"This will hurt. There is no reward without pain," the Void Captain said.

"I am ready," Spy'inmo'o said.

Sma'akamo'o knew that he wasn't the only one watching with nervousness and curiosity. Su'uprmo'o was also watching closely as the Void Captain put her hand over the wound.

Black smoke puffed out around her hand, thin tendrils of purple electricity crackling in it.

Spy'inmo'o made a low noise of pain.

The Void Captain removed her hand, revealing scarred but healed flesh. "I destroyed the microscopic parasites within the wound. You shall survive to give your life in the service of your people on a future battlefield," she said.

The formally dressed Terran shook his head. "That weirds me out every time I see it."

"Introductions are in order," Admiral Smith said. "I'm Grand Admiral of the Steel Samantha Smith, Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems Space Force Navy, in command of the newly reorganized Task Force Ragnarok."

The second one in adaptive camouflage cleared their visor, revealing a Terran male with a scarred face. "Rear Admiral Johnathon Elizabeth Modise, formerly of the Combined Military Authority, Cygnus-Orion Military Compact. Now in command of Task Force Black Harvester."

"Fill in some of us, if you would, Admiral," Smith said.

The male nodded. "I am in command of the most powerful force that the Combined Military Authority was able to field against the Atrekna. A full third of my crew are Lanaktallan Re-Unified Military Fleet members and represent the Re-Unified Defiant Systems," he took a breath. "We took a beating, your people and mine, at first, but we've rallied and were pushing them back."

Admiral Smith nodded as the male stepped back.

One of the ones in heavy power armor stepped forward. "I am The Adamant Mihn-Pok Yuda, formerly The Adamant of the Ninth Grand Fleet. I no longer remember who I once served or my mission, only that I served my commanders loyally and with honor and that my crews are the best in the known universe."

He stepped forward and Sma'akamo'o filed away the data that the big Terran could not remember his past.

The cyborg stepped forward. "I remember little. I am Wrathful-Ember-3812, a cybernetic organism that was once a biological Terran. My ships are now in service to Admiral Smith and Task Force Ragnarok." He stepped back.

The other power armor troop stepped forward. "I am Lord Knight Vestillerak, Eye of Gorthaur Templar, Commander of the Fifth Invasion Fleet, targeting the Unified Council Worlds. An attack by the Atrekna interrupted a battle between my forces and the Unified Military Fleet. My memories become hazy and indistinct at that point."

He stepped back.

Sma'akamo'o stepped forward. "I am Great Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, Unified Military Council System Defense Commander. I was engaged in strategic and tactical analysis of the attacks upon Unified Council Space when the Devourers appeared from thin air." He stepped back.

Spy'inmo'o stepped forward. "Grand Most High Spy'inmo'o, I command covert action and intelligence operations across the Disputed Zone," he snorted. "Without much success. Much of what I receive in the way of intelligence abstracts have been carefully crafted to press the writer's tongue against my hind-hoofs."

That made Admiral Smith nod.

"Garbage in, garbage out," the massive cyborg stated.

"I am Void Captain She'ishlos," the female Telkan said when the heavily armored Telkan stepped forward. "In charge of the Vengeance Strike Force. They are Ultion Knight Senior Dire Major Pevri'ilinta, my most loyal servant. We fight the Lanaktallan Eternity Imperium next to the Defiant Herd Fleet."

The Ultion Knight stepped back.

The Lanaktallan with the clear visor stepped forward. "I am Grant Most High Cu'udchu'ar, formerly of the Lanaktallan Great Herd Fleet Defiant," he motioned. "This is my Grand Most High Executor Commander, who has surrendered his name to his duty to the Lanaktallan people."

Su'uprmo'o stepped forward. "I am Great Grand Most High Su'uprmo'o, formerly the Most High in charge of this sector's defenses," he shook his head. "I have no ships, my troops were virtually wiped out, and the Devourers overrun a dozen worlds."

Admiral Smith nodded.

Everyone looked at the one in formal dress.

He smiled, the predatory tooth bearing smile of the Terran lemurs and shook his head. "Fleet Admiral John Botham Huong. Ninth Terran Republic Fleet," he shook his head again. "I'm probably more lost than anyone here."

Sma'akamo'o frowned. "How so?"

Admiral Huong grinned. "Well, for one, so far, after nine thousand years of exploration, all the way to a couple other galaxies, we've found exactly zero intelligent life. While roughly 8% of the planets discovered could support life as we know it, we have found nothing above fungus and some bacteria."

That made everyone look at one another.

"We found a handful of ruins, but nothing past the industrial age. As far as we can tell, once the printing press is developed every other species ended up with a ticking time bomb," he said. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. As he withdrew one he smiled at everyone. "Genetic engineering chimera species was a failure, cybernetics weird everyone out, artificial intelligence is still twenty years away, and everyone's sure we'll eventually find alien life."

He shook his head. "You're probably wondering what I can bring to this fight."

"Well, yes," Su'uprmo'o said.

"There's one intelligent species in my reality, my timeline," Admiral Huong said. "And they're mean, nasty, belligerent, violent, and territorial," his grin got bigger. "Humanity. My ships are from the Ninth Terran Republic Fleet, and we're in a six-way interstellar war that encompasses both the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxies. I've got guns. Lots and lots of guns."

He stepped back, lighting the cigarette and taking a deep drag.

Sma'akamo'o stepped forward. "I would like to propose that we set aside all previous conflicts and indignities and start from the ground."

"All in favor?" Smith asked.

When the three Lanaktallan saw everyone raise their hand they raised theirs. Only the Ultion Knight did not raise their hand.

"All opposed?" Smith asked.

Nobody raised their hand. The Ultion Knight stood there as a thin hiss of steam was released up by the shoulders of their armor.

"Motion carried," Smith said. "This little klikitik is going to have some earth shaking conclusions."

"Klikitik?" Spy'inmo'o asked.

"Treana'ad slang. Means: informal meeting where everyone speaks their mind and opinion regardless of rank or social status," Lord Knight Vestillerak said.

The three Lanaktallan not part of the Task Force nodded.

"We'll let the politicians and plotters seek ways to throw away the blood we spend and the courage we muster to see this true at a later date," the nameless Executor intoned. "Let us concentrate on how to save the population we are sworn to protect rather than political outcomes."

"All in favor?" Admiral Smith asked.

Again, the Ultion Knight did not vote, and Sma'akamo'o decided that the Telkan would not vote.

There was a buzzing sound and a hologram appeared in the middle of the circle. Sma'akamo'o felt a rush of anger at how crisp the fidelity was. It chirped, showing available access ports for the wireless networks.

"I will engage our databanks," Spy'inmo'o said, trotting forward. He put in the login and stepped back. "There. The login is a nine digit code, very secure."

"If you say so," Admiral Huong smiled.

"The Outsiders, as we are calling them," Sma'akamo'o started.

"Atrekna. They call themselves the Atrekna and your people did at one time too," Adamant Mihn-Pok Yuda stated. "At least in my former reality."

Sma'akamo'o nodded, made an adjustment to the holodisplay data. "The Atrekna and their Devourer weapons."

"Dwellerspawn," the Void Captain said.

"Dwellerspawn, have attacked over two hundred systems in the Unified Civilized Species Council Space," Sma'akamo'o said. "This is their appearance in time-lapse for the last sixty days. They appear without any orbital assets in many places, or the orbital and space assets appearing after ground forces emerge. There appear to be no rhyme or reason to the patterning."

He paused and gave a braying laugh. "Not that my people are known for their pattern recognition."

The joke got chuckles.

"Additionally, twenty systems have vanished. High speed Executor scout ships have reported finding nothing where the stellar system had once been," Sma'akamo'o stated. "In six cases, however, the system reappeared after the appearance of this group of Terrans."

On the screen appeared teenage female Terran lemurs, dressed in skimpy outfits, with wands in one hand, three of them badly scarred up from past injuries.

"Lolita Battle Sorceresses of the Sailor Moon Sisterhood," Admiral Modise said softly. "Things are indeed dire here."

Everyone was silent for a long time.

The cyborg stepped forward, reaching toward the holotank. "May I?"

"Of course," Sma'akamo'o said, moving backwards with the clatter of hoods.

"Analysis of the worlds invaded show a distinct pattern that is quite obvious once it is discovered," the cyborg said. He brought up a hologram of the Milky Way Galaxy, with the two hundred stars highlighted. The galactic wheel began to turn. One by one the planets were marked by a strobing red pinprick.

"Each world has occupied the space of another of the invaded worlds at some time in the past. When you eliminate everything else and only the impossible remains, the impossible has become the improbable," the cyborg stated. "Scanning for any other known intersections shows that Doom Tubes and Niven Rings have intersected those world's paths in the future or past."

He stepped back. "Our enemy continues to utilize temporal mechanics to duplicate fighting forces as well as to move from place to place."

"How does one fight such a tactic?" Spy'inmo'o asked.

Smith stepped forward, tapping the holofield. A space battle appeared and Sma'akamo'o listened with interest as she described the battle between the Lanaktallan fleet and the Terran fleet, how the PAWM arrived, and then the Atrekna arrived, followed by the collapse of the wormhole and the chronotron explosion.

Finally, she highlighted six planets.

"These planets will be hit in the next five days by the temporal shockwave, which has the characteristics of a hypernova explosive shockwave but exists more in subatomic and chronotron space than what we would notice," she said. She tapped all six, bringing them up. "They are currently under attack. We can have elements of Task Force Ragnarok there within 48 hours to directly observe what takes place when the shockwave reaches the planet."

"You are sentencing hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, to certain death," Su'uprmo'o stated. "I cannot accept such a plan."

"I didn't say stand back and observe from a distance. The only way to directly observe what effects the temporal shockwave has upon the Atrekna force's combat power is be engaged in combat with them," Smith said.

"Terran forces are asymmetrical in their ability to project power and control," Su'uprmo'o mused. "It would take a company of Great Herd tanks to equal the firepower of one heavily armed Terran Confederate Army infantrybeing."

Smith nodded. "The Atrekna have shown, in the battles we have data on, to have a singular point of failure in their plans."

"Really? Elucidate, please," Spy'inmo'o said.

Smith opened up two dozen windows, showing planetary movements. "Dwellerspawn for nine of these worlds, direct conflict with Terran forces in the other three. Every time that resistance occurred, the Atrekna forces mobilized greater and greater resources and combat power to crush the resistance, each time to their own detriment as Terran forces do not suffer logistical fatigue in the same manner as most conventional forces."

"Your nanoforges and creation engines," Su'uprmo'o said.

Smith nodded. "Tell me, from your combat experience, is it wise to do an open field charge at an entrenched Terran position?"

Su'uprmo'o shook his head. "No."

"How long have they had to dig in?" Sma'akamo'o asked.

"Say, ninety minutes," Smith said.

Sma'akamo'o shrugged. "The time to use atomics to dislodge them has passed. The planet is lost. They now own it, they will win."

"Sounds like you have experience," Admiral Mihn-Pok chuckled.

"Six times, I have faced the might of the Terran Confederacy's Space Force. Once have I achieved victory when I denied them use of the gas giants through geometry and had mined the comets," Sma'akamo'o said.

"Nicely done," the Void Captain said. "Not an easy victory."

"The Treana'ad lord it over everyone that they won 28.84% of all combat engagements against the Terrans," Admiral Smith smiled.

"And they'll ride that stat to the end of time," the Void Captain said, her chuckle a burst of static.

"As would I," Sma'akamo'o said, braying laughter.

"Aside from that, the Atrekna have shown a willingness to keep throwing troops at Terrans. Hesstla showed that they were willing to keep throwing good after bad in hopes of dislodging Terran forces, giving them weeks or months to dig in," Smith said.

"How will the Great Die Off effect your force levels?" Su'uprmo'o suddenly broke in.

"Apparently due to something with the temporal cascade, we are not suffering any effects from that incident," Smith said. She shrugged. "I have already made arrangements to have non-Terran officers and enlisted in critical positions to take the place of any Terran that succumbs."

Su'uprmo'o nodded. "I misspoke. I should have remembered that you Terrans prioritize saving civilian lives even during combat."

"It is not something we have encountered before," Spy'inmo'o admitted.

"No blood, no foul," Admiral Mihn-Pok said.

Sma'akamo'o got the gist of it.

"If I may," Sma'akamo'o stated. Everyone turned to him. "What is your plan once the Atrekna are forced back? The Unified Council is still in command of our government."

Cu'udchu'ar shook his head. "They will not be at the end of this. The Unified Council has already been defeated, it is just a corpse staggering on under its own inertia."

Su'uprmo'o just stood still for a long moment then exhaled. "You are correct. More and more systems are dropping out of contact, refusing Executor orders, or just ignoring the demands of the Councils. The Night Terran is active on nine different worlds, all of which are emergency command systems for the Unified Sentient Systems."

Spy'inmo'o nodded. "It's obvious to us, who have to do the fighting, that the war is lost."

Admiral Huong lit another cigarette. "Now you just have to convince the politicians, and as long as the battle is at least fifteen feet away and they aren't personally and immediately threatened by it, they'll still claim the war can be won."

Spy'inmo'o nodded. "Yes, that is the problem."

Huong looked up, blowing out smoke. "You know how to deal with that, right?" he asked.

Spy'inmo'o shook his head. "No."

Huong's smile was a cold, dark thing.

"You listen to their speech about how the war can be won, and simply tell them: That's nice. Please face wall now."