Ma’lash’s heart sank. In most cases only capital ships were equipped with warp drives. 85 signals meant 85 capital ships. Ma’lash had faith in the skills of his warriors, but they were tired and weakened after the Daelaam fleet. Ships were destroyed or wounded. Shields were depleted. Interceptors needed rebuilding. The Daelaam fleet wasn’t nearly at its peak.

Now was the time when the tal’darim were at its lowest strength. If the full power of the fleet was 10, then the current Ma’lash fleet would be 5. How the hell did whoever this fleet belonged to cut the timing so precisely?

Ma’lash didn’t have long to think as the mysterious fleet showed its face.

It was a ragged tagged terran fleet. Ma’lash found the design familiar, and it didn’t take long for him to realize the terran fleet had the same style that the battlecruiser that led him here had. Then he thought of a terrifying possibility.

This was a trap…the terran forces lured him into the Daelaam defensive fleet with a single battlecruiser. He or she had stood back and watched the two fleets fight in a battle to death. Now that the Daelaam were gone and the tal’darim were weakened, he or she decided to come in and end the weakened victor.

“Highlord, detecting massive energy spike from enemy fleet!”

An ascendant rushed to Ma’lash, ignoring his superior social status. “Highlord, we need to warp away.” Energy spikes meant the enemy ships were charging their main weapons. The tal’darim were in no place to fight.

A wise commander would warp away and cut the losses, but all Ma’lash could think of was what a fool he was. He should’ve seen it. A single terran battlecruiser in Daelaam space. The “accidental” encounter of the Daelaam facility. And yet he didn’t. He was fooled, and the worst part was he didn’t even know who his enemy was.

“Highlord!” The ascendant yelled as Ma’lash made no response. “We need to go!”

Ma’lash recovered. A scent of determination in his eyes. If he fell back now, he would be not only weakened but also ashamed. Defeating by the terran wasn’t exactly honorable, and the public wouldn’t care about the numbers or the situation. His supporters would abandon him and his ascendants would consider him weak and unfit to lead the tal’darim. Nuroka would be happy to use Ma’lash’s lack of authority and challenge him while loyal supports like Guraj would leave him. But if he could take down the terran fleet, then maybe he could prove his strength to the others and hopefully maintain his position long enough for him to rebuild his fleet.

Ma’lash had no choice.

“Direct all power to shields and move forward. Prepare for boarding combat.”

The ascendant thought he heard his master wrong. “Highlord, we are in no position to…” He was cut off by a red psi blade that penetrated his chest.

Pulling the blade out, Ma’lash scanned the other tal’darim. “Anyone else?” The others looked down obediently, or at least that was what they did. What they really thought was only known by themselves.

The remaining Ma’lash fleet struggled to improve their defenses. The energy in the crystals powering the ships were directed to the plasma shields. Finally, in the gaze of thousands of tal’darim, the terran fleet opened fire.

85 Yamato cannons were unleashed toward the Ma’lash fleet. The AIs calculated and found out the most efficient way to use the cannons and not waste a single shot due to overkill.

The yellow balls of energy smashed into the blue shields of the red ships. The plasma shields could’ve held, but they were depleted from the battle against the Daelaam...

The plasma shields fell, and the remaining thermal and kinetic energy swept through the haul of the tal’darim ships. Jean have no orders to let the ships live, so the Warden AIs went for killing blows.

As flames consumed the ships the tal’darim warriors within, even the most radical and fearless ones, wondered why they refused to arm themselves with an emergency warp system. Such a device could’ve saved those who saw the attack coming and had an almost neglectable period of time to respond. Unfortunately due to their foolishness and arrogance the tal’darim could only stare as the glowly balls of death clashed with their ships.

It was a massacre. Countless tal’darim elites were slaughtered as defenseless as a colony of ants at the hand of a human being. Some of them accepted their fate, and others cursed at Ma’lash for his foolishness. Some prayed to Amon, and some made a desperate attempt to escape. In the end they all received the same resullt.

Death.

When the smoke cleared, Ma’lash was shaking.

His mothership was lucky. Two Yamato cannons hit its shield, but the shield wasn’t fully depleted, and it managed to reduce to effect of the cannon to a degree the physical plating of the mothership could hold. A small portion of the ship were the cannon directly clashed into was melted down, but the majority of the ship was fine.

The same couldn’t be said for the other ships.

Most of the carriers and all of the destroyers were destroyed. Destroyers fell under one single round while most carriers took two to die. The mothership without any shields perished along with the 2300 tal’darim onboard. The other mothership was severely injured.

“Fire all batteries.” Jean said without any sense of mercy.

“Highlord!” A zealot screamed desperately. They were lucky to survive the first round, but luck wouldn’t save them if the laser batteries of the battlecruisers started firing. What was worse was that all those tal’darim that were killed could’ve been saved if Ma’lash was wiser and made the right decision. They could’ve jumped away whenever they wanted, but they chose not to. The tal’darim were willing to face death in a blaze of glory if they had to, but being slaughtered like beasts because of a foolish order was, well, foolish.

The Highlord sensed the anger in the zealot’s tone. He stared at the zealot threateningly, but this time the zealot didn’t back off. Ma’lash nodded, but just as the zealot let down his guard Ma’lash crushed his skull.

“Those who wish to flee and live on as cowards, leave. Those who wish to be real tal’darim warriors and loyal followers of god, join me and board the enemy flagship. Victory or defeat. Tal’darim will never surrender!” Ma’lash pointed at the largest terran battlecruiser at the back of the terran fleet. It was heavy armed, heavy armored, and guarded by four smaller battlecruisers, but all Ma’lash could see was a chance to recover from his loss and regain his honor.

The Highlord was like a gambler who was gradually losing everything due to his greed.