“When you offer a cat a mouse, you should make sure that it's still moving.”

-Jill

***Outer Rim***

***Antioch***

G.O.D.: Your people slaughtered a Cyber Colony (2.542 Casualties, 42 Vessels) in your service. You get a massacre boost for your race's accomplishments! G.O.D.: Reward! The male members of your race get one skillpoint for spreading your faction's influence. Go forth! Fight your enemies and spill their blood for fame and glory!

“Hmmm... they are a little too zealous if you ask me,” I comment while I watch the three-dimensional map of the battle. It's projected into the air in the centre of my throne room.

“That doesn't stop you from grinning though. A lot of people are fighting and dying out there.” Silith snuggles closer to me, swinging one leg over mine while we watch the distant battle which is transmitted to us in real time.

It took me a while, but I finally found out why there aren't several thrones in this room. Apparently, my mate thought that one throne that's wide enough to accommodate the two of us is enough.

I keep smiling, unwilling to share my recently discovered secret with any female. They tried to hide the fact that they get skillpoints for increasing our numbers. So it's only fair if I hide the fact that males get awarded skillpoints for defeating our enemies and widening our sphere of influence.

It's too bad that it took Martin and me so long to realize that. We kept complaining and mewling like little children, instead of searching for a way to better our situation. And the easiest way I know of to get skill points is killing people.

Well, it seems like our inferiority complex was solved on its own.

In hindsight, the answer was quite obvious. G.O.D. is only interested in ensuring that the system keeps running. How is the system kept running? Of course by ensuring that the V.C. has as many anchor points in the real world as possible.

So it's quite obvious that G.O.D. would give nice rewards for making more of those anchor points, or for defending them. The system isn't interested in the people who use it, but it's quite interested in self-preservation.

“They are dying.” I nod gravely. “But honestly, they are also treating this battle as just another game. That huge battleship for example... what is its captain thinking? They are parking in the moon's orbit and hammering away at the Cyber outpost as if the whole system is theirs. They are turning themselves into a huge target.”

The demons on board are easily replaceable. Our population is growing faster than we can build ships or hollow out asteroids. Some women even have to put their clutches on ice until we can catch up with providing living space.

Still, exposing an expensive warship to the enemy like that isn't smart. A possible waste of resources.

“That's just something we will have to learn. Space battles are new territory and up so far we have to wing it. It's learning by doing without an instructor who tells us what to do.” Silith shrugs and plays with the hem of my shirt.

I sigh and hug her close to me. “It's been a long time since the two of us had some time to ourselves.”

She huffs. “We are together all the time. What do you mean?”

“I mean... it's hard to explain. Of course, we are together, but I am missing the days when it was just the two of us. The old times back on Haven. Nowadays, there is always something. Either one of the kids, or Lis, or Fi. It's not that I dislike them, but... you know...” It's hard to explain.

She smiles and gives me a peck on the cheek. “I know exactly what you mean.”

Then Silith returns her attention to the map. “They are doing a decent job, don't you think? The plan is coming to fruition, though I think that the Prip were a little quick to run away. Did they even have time to study the situation?”

I shrug and put an arm around Silith's waist. “Our forces attacked with superior numbers. I would have been very disappointed if we had lost. After all, we spent weeks scouting out the system and preparing the stage.”

Using a sizeable part of our current military forces was a calculated risk. The primary point of attacking a Cyber outpost served to test their strength and capabilities. It was crucial to know what we are up against.

The questions which had to be answered were their ships' capabilities, which strategies they would employ, and whether or not they would care about civilian targets.

All of those questions were answered more or less. We know now that the Cyber are on a similar technological level as us. But their drones and swarming strategies give our current weaponry headaches. One of their fleets might look weak, but once they deploy all those drones their opponent is taught that huge ships aren't everything. Their vessels have almost no armour, but they come with so many redundant systems that they have to be shot to scrap metal before they stop functioning.

When one part of the ship goes offline, there are still several others which keep working. And unless we make sure that none of several power generators in even the smallest ships survives, they will keep repairing themselves. Our own ships are based on a similar principle, but the Cyber are clearly overdoing it with the redundancy crap.

Then there are their drone carriers, large engines which transport thousands of drones of various sizes and functions. They can easily swarm an area. Originally I thought that we wouldn't have to worry about boarding actions too much.

I mean, we are hurling energies around which are able to atomize even some of our largest ships with ease. Most of the time, there won't be anything left to seize after the battle is over. Though that little problem doesn't seem to concern the Cyber. Their drone carriers are designed to board and capture enemy vessels.

The thought of having thousands of infiltration-type drones like that centipede running amok throughout Tartarus' corridors makes me shudder. We really have to find a plausible way to counteract such an attack. The only answer may be to entertain similar drones or have a lot more crewmen on each of our ships.

Having a crew of five people controlling a five kilometre long destroyer may not be a good idea after all.

“We have to train some ground forces. It would be pretty embarrassing if we lose one of our destroyers because a dozen drones managed to breach the hull. It's not like it's likely for them to get on board, but space battles may require holding our position from time to time,” I muse.

“Yeah.” Silith raises her hand to zoom in on the destroyer which is parked in the moon's orbit. “Maybe not standing completely still, but laying down covering fire for one of our own colonies is a realistic scenario. The ships are forced to stay in close proximity to the target and that makes it possible for small drones to board. Though, I am impressed that the Cyber colony is that tough to destroy. It's been a few minutes since they started bringing down the hammer. The Cyber must've dug their power plants deep into the planetoid's crust.”

Just as she says that, something impacts the destroyer's aft-section and the whole ship is rocked sideways, shortly stopping the hellish bombardment. The ship took the attack like a tank, but now its engines are warming up and the flare of powerful ion jets shows that the captain doesn't want to risk another hit.

They will most likely try to gain enough speed to avoid another kinetic attack. One of the Cyber vessels must've lined up a large rail gun on the inviting target, even though their remaining forces are being chased through the system.

It really wasn't necessary for the destroyer to take that hit. They should have simply kept moving while attacking the base.

“I am always impressed by how much that new armour can take.” I chuckle and massage Silith's side. The diamond-armour which I developed so long ago got a few improvements since our researchers got their hands on the formula. They added a few things which weakened its overall strength against physical attacks, but the new ability to absorb some energy-type weapons more than makes up for it.

Together with a layered system of several defensive technologies, the new armour type is used throughout the whole fleet. It's actually getting to the point where we have to worry about keeping the crew alive, not because the hull was breached, but because of the kinetic force which was transmitted to the ship as a whole. It's still possible to die if the pilot's head pops on the deck like a ripe melon.

Silith draws in a deep breath and allows the manager to shine through. “I hope the captain learned something from that. I would still reprimand him for risking the ship like that. Our new shipyards are running at full capacity, but it still takes a week or two to print a destroyer, if we even have the resources.”

Nodding, I connect to the network and send a note to Martin who is overseeing the action. As long as nobody else with a military background and experience in real space battles shows up, we gave him the job of organizing our forces. Thanks to Martin's history with the defence of earth I thought that he wouldn't be the worst person for the job.

My expectations were affirmed when he immediately implemented a military structure which would slowly rotate his whole personnel through various tasks. Everyone would get their chance at being a fighter-pilot, the commander of a destroyer, or even the coordinator of a whole battle-group.

At first, I wasn't too keen on the idea, thinking that it would give too many idiots the opportunity to mess up.

But then Martin reminded me that we are immortal and that our soldiers are supposed to fail. After all, death would simply imply that the person in question was too stupid for the job. If they did well and survived, they would be rewarded by rising through the ranks and given more important positions.

“You still haven't given your opinion on the Prip. We partly staged this battle to give them a show and to make them aware of the larger world around them,” Silith reminds me of her earlier point.

“Oh, yes... No. I think its fine.”

“They stayed in the system for less than ten minutes. They hardly saw anything of the battle.”

I shrug, not really concerned. There will be other opportunities to 'paint the picture'. The Prip are supposed to be our third-party witness when we encounter the G.S. for the 'supposedly' first time. The whole farce is a gamble, but if we can deceive our enemies for just a few months it will be worth it.

The idea is to let the Prip know that someone powerful is fighting someone else powerful. We want them to see enough to conclude that whoever the two parties are, they are fighting a war to their teeth.

When the G.S. forces show up, they should hopefully encounter the Prip before us, since our fleet is slowly moving away from Prip-controlled space. They will inevitably contact the Prip or even subjugate them if I understood correctly how a G.S. crusade works.

Then the Prip will tell them about the two mighty combatants who are slugging it out in their neighbourhood. When the G.S. comes face to face with the Demons and the Cyber, I hope that they won't see the tree for the forest. Or did the figure of speech go differently?

Anyway, they should be searching for one opponent, not two. I have no doubt that their full attention will be focused on the Cyber when we meet.

“The fighting started a few hours before they arrived. Even though they just stayed for a few minutes, the light of the battle reached the position where they emerged. They surely witnessed at least some of the good parts.”

We are interrupted when the door to the throne room opens and Lisandra steps inside. “There you are. What are you doing? Watching the battle already?”

“Damn! We are late! I knew it!” Fiona bumps into Lisandra, holding an oversized paper-bag in each hand. “What did we miss?”

“Hours?” Silith answers questioningly.

“Then let's at least watch the finale with you, and then we watch a good movie.” Lisandra strolls up to us, not minding Silith's sizzling gaze.

Silith wraps her tail around my waist, pulling us together. “We were having a little private time. Besides, there is just one comfortable chair here.”

“That's no problem!” Fiona strolls up to us and deposits the two humongous bags in Silith's and my laps. A divine smell emerges from the bags. The smell of fresh popcorn. How did they get their hands on that? Is the printer for organic matter finally working?

Then she continues to my throne's left armrest and pulls. There is a strange 'click' and the throne shifts beneath me, widening ominously.

After a lot of whirring and unfolding, I suddenly find myself on a comfortable... bench!

“What did you do to my throne!”

They turned my throne into a piece of transformer furniture! I don't know why, but I find that offensive! A throne is supposed to be... a throne! Not an unfolding bench!

“Just a little adjustment for the four of us.” Fiona sits down on my free side and takes the popcorn bag from me.

“Yeah, we are all equals, so the throne must fit!” Lisandra bends down and presses a button between my legs.

It whirs again and a leg-rest folds out of the throne, widening until I am almost lying with outstretched legs against the large backrest, sandwiched between Fiona and Silith. Smirking, Lisandra pulls a human-sized pillow out from beneath the throne and throws herself onto our laps, leaving me no way out. Humming, she reaches into the popcorn bag in her sister's hands and retrieves a whole fistful.

“You know... if you put the backrest down it's a quite nice bed. But let's watch the rest of the battle before we test that function.”

Sighing, I reach up and pull Lisandra's waving tail down to get it out of my vision.