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They watched in fascination as the Cortoid defensive fleet was almost systematically taken apart. This battle was a good argument for the importance of proper tactics even when large numbers of ships were involved. The Cortoid fleet got separated into several parts and isolated. Soon after, all those isolated groups were taken down without the support of the rest of their fleet. The fact that the Shinzen had such a large advantage in numbers meant that they could’ve won the battle even without such complicated maneuvers, but the tactics cut down on their losses and the time spent doing it significantly.

The whole battle had been decided by the single shot from the large Shinzen vessel that employed the Dhar weapon. It wasn’t the number of Cortoids ships destroyed by the weapon that determined the battle, but the pressure it put on the Cortoid fleet. The Cortoids had to eliminate that large threat no matter the cost, and that forced them into overcommitting their forces in an almost suicidal charge against the Shinzen fleet. And it seemed like the Shinzen had designed their approach with that in mind.

Now that nearly all of the defensive fleet was destroyed, the Shinzen ships were free to join in the battle against the orbital defenses and shipyards. Millions of drop pods were launched towards the shipyards, disgorging countless Shinzen soldiers to board the facilities. At the same time, the Shinzen focused their combat Queens on the orbital defenses. The weapons of the orbital facilities were designed to be used against either swarms of small ships or powerful large vessels. They were ill-equipped to deal with small and fast targets that packed enough punch to take the orbital facilities out in a single attack.

Despite their efficiency, it took hours for the Shinzen to deal with the orbital facilities and the battle on the shipyards and other orbital facilities was still ongoing. The Shinzen had obviously noticed the presence of Selendil and the Enduring Symphony, but they were acting as if they had not. It was like they were putting on a performance and displaying their abilities for her to see. As the fighting in orbit slowly started dying out, the Shinzen vessels started moving towards the planet below. Just because the space surrounding the planet was now pacified, that didn’t mean the battle was over.

Three of the Queens finally moved towards the Enduring Symphony, stopping outside the ship, clearly waiting for Selendil to approach them. With a shrug, Selendil obliged and teleported outside the ship to meet them. One of the Queens looked like a mix between some sort of large ape and a tree. It was shaped like a great ape with long front limbs, but it was apparently made entirely of living wood and bark, and it had a mass of branches and roots coming out of its back. The whole appearance of this Queen screamed of a being that relied on pure power, but appearances could be deceiving, as was the case with the second Queen.

While the first Queen was quite large, almost the size of a corvette, the next one was the exact opposite. It was almost tiny, barely the size of Selendil’s fist. It looked like a mix of some sort of canine and a plant. It had six legs and instead of fur it had grass all over its body and instead of a tail, it had a pair of long, thin, and flexible branches with leaves growing on it. Despite its size, Selendil could sense that this Queen was by far the most dangerous of the group as it had almost as much power as Yrala's mother. Despite that, even Selendil had to admit that the thing looked downright adorable.

The third Queen was the only one that was not a combat Queen and it looked a lot more like the old Shinzen Queens. It looked like a plant sprite or a dryad with a mass of leaves in the place of hair and it had a tangle of roots where one would expect to see the feet on a humanoid being. Selendil connected her mind with the trio and immediately sensed that they were relieved to be communicating mind-to-mind instead of using some inefficient language.

Their message was clear. They were happy to see the ‘Great Teacher’ return in time to see the end of the campaign against the blasphemers. They didn’t bother going into detail on their campaign, giving the impression that they assumed Selendil either knew already or that she wouldn’t care about such details, but they did give a rough outline of the current situation. Three large fleets of Shinzen were pushing in towards the heart of the Cortoid empire from different sides, and the weaker races that had once served the Cortoids were pushing in from a fourth direction. Now that the Shinzen had 'convinced' them to join in on the battle, they were using the opportunity to take their past grievances out on their old masters.

Selendil commended them on their efforts, and knowing the importance of learning lessons, she asked them what they had learned so far. The Shinzen Queens were more than happy to go into detail on the hundreds and thousands of tiny to huge lessons they had learned, all the way from individual technologies to larger concepts like language, which they still hated, and tactics like the ones they had used earlier. Something about their eagerness was quite endearing to Selendil so she was happy to just listen to the Queens detail all the things they had discovered. There was a child-like enthusiasm that was hard to resist to the Shinzen.

Luckily their method of communication was very effective, so what would've taken hours to detail with words only took fifteen minutes with passing along entire thoughts and concepts. As the Queens started petering out with their explanations, Selendil asked what they thought of their chances of acquiring victory in the upcoming battles. The Queens explained that they were prepared for some defeats. They had a lot of reinforcements streaming in, and even if an entire fleet or two were lost, they would be able to replace it in short order. They might not attain victory immediately, but they would win eventually. Such was the Shinzen way.

It was clear that the Cortoids still held significant forces and had powerful defensive positions, but they were slowly but surely running out of ships, and every fight saw them losing worse and worse as the Shinzen improved. Even if the Cortoids had ways of winning individual battles, they had no way of winning the war as every ship they lost would take a lot of time to replace. It was only a matter of time. As they were communicating, the smallest Shinzen Queen suddenly turned its head sharply towards the empty space and tilted its head as if listening to some sound only it could hear.

As soon as she saw the Queen behave that way, Selendil also cast her senses in all directions. As a result of her relatively recent changes after completing the Great Song, her senses were much sharper and could cover a much larger area. She could even sense into the phase space and could feel the approach of numerous Cortoid ships. For some reason, they no longer used their warping ability. Perhaps the Shinzen had something to do with that. In any case, she could sense over a thousand ships approaching. A significant commitment considering the current state of the war.

Apparently, the smallest Shinzen Queen had also sensed something along those lines and a call was sent to the fleet to have them stop their invasion of the planet below and turn around to face the new enemy. Selendil suddenly got a thought though and instructed the Shinzen to keep their distance from the place where the enemy would appear. As a reward for a job well done, she would give them another lesson. Something to strive for. Then she teleported back to the ship.

“Nox, turn the ship around and prepare to fire the main weapons towards the coordinates I’ve provided.” She commanded.

“What’s going on?” Nochehuatl asked unaware of what was going on.

“It seems the Cortoids have figured out that if things were to continue as is, they would eventually be strangled to death by the Shinzen. They’re making a desperate offensive in an attempt to regain some initiative. Not a bad plan as such. With the Shinzen ships stuck trying to invade the world below, they would be caught between two threats. I thought we might as well give the Shinzen a little bit of a hand to make things go more smoothly. We can make the entire rest of the war much shorter with a single shot.” Selendil explained.

“Admit it. You just want to try out if the primary weapons work.” Nox’s biological body stated as she walked through the bridge doors to take a place on the weapon controls.

“That’s a scandalous accusation without any basis whatsoever.” Selendil feigned being indignant, but even Nochehuatl could feel the eagerness radiating from her.

“And yet, you don’t deny it.” Nox confirmed and turned a bit more serious. “The ship is in position and we’ll be ready to fire when you give the signal.”

The ship had gone through a small transformation. All of the auxiliary arms had connected with the base of the central section of the ship, and they were fanning out at equal distances, surrounding the ship like spokes of an old fashioned wheel. The other end of the central section was pointed at the coordinates Selendil had provided, and the entire ship seemed to be glowing. They didn’t have to wait for long as the Cortoid ships started phasing in, maintaining a loose formation around a large ship that seemed to have some sort of weird weapon mounted on it.

“It seems they brought another weapon they salvaged from the station.” Nox commented.

"It doesn't matter if they never get the chance to use it. Fire.” Selendil gave a command.

The light coming from the ship increased in brightness and for a moment the whole ships seemed like on the verge of exploding. Just then all the light seemed to be directed to a single point at the front of the ship and a wave of light emanated out from the ship and in the direction of the Cortoid fleet. For a small moment, it looked like the bright light had not done anything, but then something weird happened.

It looked like cracks spread all over the area where the fleet was located as if the ships were seen through a window that someone had just broken. It was like space was broken apart in the area, and the ships also had similar cracks running through them. Then the Cortoids ships simply started coming apart with pieces of the ships sliding away from one another, moving at differing speeds. Nochehuatl stared at the view with confusion as it seemed something very odd was happening. Ships that had been whole only seconds before simply came apart. Even if that had somehow happened, the laws of motion would dictate that the parts would continue to move at the same speed and in the same direction. Yet the speeds varied wildly as some parts seemed to come to a complete standstill while others accelerated in ways that could not be explained.

“What in the Xhlotapaque’s name is happening?” The serpentine scientist muttered as he watched even the stolen Dhar weapon break apart and drift into several separate directions. The eeriest part was to see the bodies of Cortoids that had been split into pieces where some of the pieces were bleeding profusely, while others seemed to be frozen in time.

“Our weapon broke the space and flow of time in that area of space for a time.” Nox explained with a nasty smile. “Incidentally, I’d grab a hold of something. The universe doesn’t really tolerate such problem areas for long and will reassert control soon. That tends to be a bit of a turbulent event.”

Nox hadn’t even managed to finish her words when the entire ship started shaking and the space in the affected area seemed to twist on itself. It looked like massive gravitational forces were suddenly pulling everything in the area toward a tiny point in the center that swallowed all that remained of the Cortoid fleet before calm space seemed to restore itself in the area and the earlier cracks seemed to repair themselves. There was no sign on anything strange happening, but there was no sign of the Cortoid fleet either. “Did you just fire a black hole at the enemy?” Nochehuatl asked again.

“No, the effects of our weapon are much worse than what a black hole would cause. The temporary black hole is just a happy side effect that takes care of all the debris.” Nox stated happily.

“Where does all that go?” Nochehuatl asked numbly.

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Nox declared flippantly.

"Actually we do have theories," Selendil interjected. "We just haven't been able to confirm those theories. We’ve calculated and estimated that the debris will get dumped somewhere outside our universe. Whether that’s some odd plane similar to the phase space or another universe, I can’t say. Not that it matters much. After being subjected to the effects of our weapon and being sucked through a black hole there’s not going to be much left to arrive wherever the stuff does go to.”

“And the ship can fire that weapon how frequently?” Nochehuatl continued his questioning.

“Well, it’s not something that can be fired all that often. The stress it places on the systems is quite severe. We are tearing apart space and time after all. That’s not something you can do easily and its only possible thanks to a combination of technology and psionics. Besides, this was the best-case scenario for the weapon. We obviously can't fire it when two fleets are intermixed since it can't tell the difference between enemies and allies. The enemy ships were also confined to a relatively small area, so…" Nox explained with a chipper tone.

“That didn’t answer the question though. Not really.” Nochehuatl pointed out.

“That’s because there is no simple answer. We’ll have to check what the effects were on the ship and estimate based on that.” Nox retorted with a shrug.

“There’s also something about the weapon that the universe seems to dislike. We’ve actually gotten warnings from the Great Song that using the weapon too often will result in severe consequences. That’s part of the reason why we don’t rely on the weapon despite the obvious effectiveness.” Selendil explained. Not that she was really in the mood to care what the universe had to say after killing off her entire race.

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“And what would this cooperation with your people look like? I get that you want information, but what else would you require from us, and what could we expect in return?” The fish-like creature asked through the glass while swimming around. The thing looked like a mix between a dolphin and a toad, yet somehow it looked delicious enough that Moonshadow had to fight against the instinct to lick her lips.

"Well, we'd, of course, expect your support against the invaders militarily, as well as supplies for any ships we send. Our ships would be pretty far from home if they came here, so handling logistics would be quite challenging without your assistance. We wouldn’t expect you to handle the entire burden of supplies, but more to facilitate things.” Moonshadow explained. She was currently on one of the trading stations of the Aqualans.

The Aqualans were a fully amphibious race that lived mostly in water. They were capable of living on land, but most of their cities were underwater, and many of their larger ships and orbital facilities had their interiors flooded for comfort and speed of movement. This station was one of those that accommodated for visitors and thus had about half of the station flooded and the other half dry. Even here the Aqualans preferred to negotiate through such glass screens so that they could remain submerged.

“That seems like a very reasonable offer. Too reasonable. What's the catch?” The Aqualan negotiator asked straight out. The pending feeling of danger shaved on his patience for diplomatic finesse.

“Well, honestly the catch is that we’d rather fight them here than in our own territory. We also aren’t fully aware of their capabilities, so we’d rather test their limits when it’s your worlds on the line instead of our own.” Moonshadow admitted. That wasn’t all of it of course, but those were the main reasons. She knew the Aqualans appreciated frankness and she’d already been rebuffed by several other races. It was time to test out some old fashioned honesty and directness. Maybe that would get better results.

"I respect your honesty. Are you aware that some of their ships already reached Haven? Apparently, they also mentioned the possibility of a peaceful surrender. They’ve mentioned that to every race they come into contact with.” The Aqualan mentioned testing her reaction.

“I was not aware, but I’m not surprised. It’s a classic strategy to divide the opposition. They’d probably even treat you well if you surrendered. For a time. At least until they got rid of those that resisted them. After that? Who knows. But you already knew all that. If I’m not mistaken, more than likely there are parties in your government that would like to take the offer, except there are others that want to fight.” Moonshadow didn’t rise to the bait.

“You’re right. Of course, the same would likely hold true for most races, so that’s not a hard thing to guess. Would it surprise you though, if I told you that I was one of those who advocated for surrender?” The Aqualan asked, once again testing her.

“Why would it? Something tells me though, that your government chose to resist.” Moonshadow countered.

“Once again you’ve guessed correctly. I think this is a misguided war. Not because I think you're wrong to resist. No, in fact, I hope you're successful. The problem is the same reason why you'd rather fight them in our territory. Whether these attackers are pushed back or they achieve victory, we'll be the ones that end up suffering. It will be our worlds that will be devastated by the war. I was hoping that our government would decide on surrender so that this burden would fall on others. They did not listen. They have chosen to resist. I’m sure they will be happy to take you up on your offer, as shortsighted as that might be. I will take your offer to them. I just hope you’ll remember this moment once this is over.” The Aqualan revealed a long row of jagged teeth as he spoke.

“If that is your stance, then I might have some news for you that might alter how you view this. As you've probably figured out, you're not the first race we approached. We already learned some things about the enemy, though all of this comes from rumors and third-hand sources. Apparently, they treat vanquished foes with respect. They think resistance is only to be expected in a situation like this. However, once they do take over, they expect you to know better. They have very little sympathy for those races that rise in rebellion after surrendering. The word is that there are several worlds that are now nothing more than wasteland that used to be home to billions of people and centuries worth of culture and history.” Moonshadow gave the Aqualan representative a small push. What the representative did with the information was up to him.

Although her attempts at diplomacy had not been all that successful so far, she’d had better luck at getting information on their elusive enemy. It seemed the enemy wasn’t really hiding their agenda. It was actually the opposite. They wanted everyone to know what to expect. It was easy to figure out why. Many races had chosen the path of peaceful surrender, and the races that chose to resist were isolated and without support. It was a strategy as old as time, yet it was also effective. One thing was clear though. No single race would be able to resist the advance of this enemy. They’d need allies, and they’d need those allies fast.