Nineteenth Year of the Nomads

Eight Hundred and Forty Ninth Year After the Battle of the Sol System

“Perimeter Scopes, System Defense Polo’Liekki. Unscheduled FTL revision from the Crown World… Tulipalo’Ja’Armo!”

“System Defense Polo’Liekki, Perimeter Scopes. Say again your last?”

“Perimeter Scopes, System Defense Polo’Liekki. Apologies. Unscheduled FTL revision from the Crown World. Mass indications and FTL revision strength estimates indicate one times titan, five times capital ships, and one two zero plus escort ships. Null Empire ships in the formation. I say again, null Empire ships in the formation. Please advise.”

“System Defense Polo’Liekki, Perimeter Scopes. I copy your last missive. Stand by, I am informing the system Overseer.”

System Overseer Neuvonantaja'Kielen’Sanahaku read the priority missive again. His graspers shook with shock. The Fanatical Purifiers were back, and he was squarely in their crosshairs. He looked up at the messenger waiting on the other side of the desk.

“This is confirmed?”

“Yes System Overseer, it is. The Fanatical Purifiers have been in system for almost four tuhan now, and they have made no transmissions. Perimeter Scopes has a firm lock on their position.”

“What is the System Defence Polo’Liekki’s recommendation?”

“Grant the System defense fleet weapons and movement authorizations, and then fight smart. The Polo’Liekki indicates that he favors a contingency plan that involves luring an enemy into effective range of the Toinen’Maailma system’s fixed defenses.”

“Has there been any FTL messages from the Crown World?”

“No System Overseer, there has not been any FTL message from the Crown World System since the attack alert.”

“Then we must assume that the Fanatical Purifiers have scoured the Crown World to ashes in the void. Priority missive to the System Defense Polo’Liekki. She is granted any and all weapons and movement permissions that she deems necessary to defend the Toinen’Maailma system from the Fanatical Purifier attack.”

“By your will System Overseer. I will have the cryer transmit that priority missive at once.”

Admiral Supesu watched the CIC feed on her secondary display. She was waiting for the Twisted Empire Fleet to do something, but they simply refused to do more than bring their drives and shields online and hide behind planetary bodies. The remaining planetary bodies, she amended. Earth was simply gone. Only a lonely navigation beacon sat in its orbit punching out a simple signifier: ‘S00 - P100’. CIC had checked the code against the Twisted Empire database, and had come back with the code: Special World type zero / danger level zero - total Planetary Consumption process completed: a planet used to be here. Even though Earth had never been her home, Admiral Supesu felt a trickle of rage flow down her spine. The Twisted Empire had so casually eaten humanity’s birth world like it was a simple asteroid.

Admiral Supesu shook off her anger. She did not have time for irrational emotions. Not when missile defense Zeta had eaten so much of the Nomad Fleet’s ammunition reserves.

“Communications, Admiral Supesu. Send the ultimatum.”

“Admiral Supesu, Communications. Ultimatum sent.”

System Overseer Neuvonantaja'Kielen’Sanahaku read the missive for the third time. It was in Empire common, which surprised him greatly. It read:

“To the Twisted Empire scum squatting on the fourth world of our system:

You have one planetary rotation from time we calculate that you will receive this message to evacuate the inhabited planet and the shipyard. We do not care where you go or how you get there, just that you are not on the planet or aboard the shipyard at the end of that time. At the end of the specified time or of your evacuation efforts, whichever comes last, we will open fire upon and destroy the shipyard any and all developed areas on the planet.

This is your first, last, and only warning.

The Daughter of the Void.

System Overseer Neuvonantaja'Kielen’Sanahaku set the missive down on his desk and twisted his neck.

The aide looked at him, “what do we do System Overseer?”

“We can not begin evacuating before the system defense fleet even attempts to defend this system. We will wait, and say nothing for now.”

Admiral Supesu watched and waited. The Twisted did nothing except dig in deeper and try to draw her into range of the defensive weapons platforms around the shipyard.She had absolutely no intention of playing that game. She sat back in her command chair and prepared to wait out Mars’ twenty four hour and thirty seven minute day.

System Overseer Neuvonantaja'Kielen’Sanahaku watched his terminal like a hawk. He was waiting for some sort of FTL message from the Crown World. He was sickly sure that no such message would ever arrive. As the sun crept through the windows into his office, he knew that the Fanatical Purifer’s time limit had run out.

“Admiral Supesu, CIC. The Mars time limit has expired.”

“CIC, Admiral Supesu. Thank you. Communications, Admiral supesu. Raise the Harmony Bringer please.”

“Admiral Supesu, Communications. Harmony Bringer Actual is on link three.”

“Harmony Bringer Actual, Admiral Supesu. Begin fire plan Armageddon. First projectile only, please. I want to give them time to start running if they decide to chicken out.”

“Admiral Supesu, Harmony Bringer Actual. First round of fire plan Armageddon confirmed. Firing in T minus thirteen minutes.”

The Harmony Bringer was positioned above the plane of the system so that it could shoot ‘down’ at the planets below it. It lined up its number one C fractional KEP gun with Mars’ northern polar ice cap. The recoil of the weapon shuddered down the spine of the ship as the three hundred sixty seven and a half metric ton projectile was flung down the gravitic rails. It exited the barrel of the C fractional KEP gun at the nose of the Harmony Bringer with over forty two point eight sextillion newtons of force. The atmosphere of Mars slowed it down some, but not by enough to matter. The impact vaporized the ice cap, creating a Marsquake of truly epic proportions, and nudging Mars out of its orbit.

System Overseer Neuvonantaja'Kielen’Sanahaku was thrown from his throne when the projectile struck, even though he was two thirds of the way around the planet from where it had impacted. He no longer doubted that the Fanatical Purifiers were willing to bombard the planet into oblivion with sapients still on its surface. He frantically threw open the door to his office, looking for an aide. He found one in the hallway, squiming back upright after being thrown to the ground.

“Quickly, get me to the Cryer. We must get the evacuation proclamation issued.”

“This way System Overseer.”

Admiral Supesu studied the effects of the Cee Fractional Kinetic Energy Projectile on the Martian surface. The crater was truly impressive, probably larger than the Chicxulub crater had been back on Earth. It was only Mars’ artificially generated atmosphere that let life survive the impact on its surface.

“Harmony Bringer Actual, Admiral Supesu. Good shot, good effect on target. Hold fire at this time.”

“Admiral Supesu, Harmony Bringer Actual. Holding fire at this time. Out.”

“Communications, Admiral Supesu. Record for general transmission in Twisted towards the Twisted fleet and shipyard.”

“Admiral Supesu, Communications. Human-Twisted translator online. Ready to record for transmission. Live mic in three… two… one… now.”

“Message Begins. This is the Daughter of the Void. To the commanding officers of the Twisted Empire ships and shipyard. You have seen what our fleet is capable of. I advise you to begin evacuation procedures at once if you do not wish to die a futile death. Message Ends.”

“System Overseer, Cryer. Missive from the System Defense Polo’Liekki. Missive begins: I am unable to engage the foe with any chance of success. I have signaled my surrender, and have begun evacuating the shipyard.”

“Good. that is good. Cryer, make a reply missive. Ask the Polo’Liekki to relay it to the Fanatical Purifiers for us. We sentients on the planet have also surrendered and will be evacuating as quickly as we can.”

“System Overseer, Cryer. System Defense Polo’Liekki signals compliance. No response yet from the Fanatical Purifiers.”

“Understood Cryer. What is the status on the first transport?”

“System Overseer, Cryer. The first freighter is lifting off now with nearly a thousand sapients on board. It has no destination though, and the freight commander is mildly frantic in requesting one.”

“Send him to the Crown World. I do not know what it may find there, but it is a known short route that he should be familiar with.”

“System Overseer, Cryer. Understood. Directing all evacuation ships to head for the Crown World.”

Admiral Supesu sat back in her command chair and let out a massive sigh of relief. The Twisted Empire had opted to break and run in the end, saving her from having to condemn millions of Twisted to death. She doubted that the Empire had enough freight lift capacity to move more than a tithe of the Twisted out of the danger zone in time though.

“Communications, Admiral Supesu. Get me one of the Hunter class frigates that we have tagged as a courier. I have a message for Admiral LVV back in the Proxima Centauri system.”

“Admiral Supesu, Communications. I have a courier ready to receive that message.”

“Message Begins. Admiral LVV, I have something of a situation here in the Sol system. The Empire has surrendered with a minimal loss of life, but it could probably use some help evacuating. You probably already have freighters and liners complaining of our arrival, but anything that you could turn lose would be of great help to the evacuation effort. Message Ends.”

“Admiral Supesu, Communications. Courrier reports clean copy of message and is departing now.”

“Communications, Admiral Supesu. Link to Harmony Bringer Actual please.”

“Admiral Supesu, Harmony Bringer Actual. Send traffic.”

“Harmony Bringer Actual, Admiral Supesu. Secure from fire plan Armageddon at this time. The Twisted are clearing the blast zone at this time.”

“Admiral Supesu, Harmony Bringer Actual. Securing from fire plan Armageddon at this time. Out.”

Even with the assistance if the Empire and the Remnant Fleet, it took two weeks to fully evacuate both Mars and the Sol system shipyard. At the end of that time, and with every last Twisted and human confirmed to be clear of the danger zone, Admiral Supesu let the Nomad Fleet Demolition and Ordinance Disposal Teams lose to play on the Sol system shipyard. Simply blowing it apart with the Harmony Bringer’s main battery would either be gratuitous overkill with the all up C Fractional Kinetic Energy Projectiles, or spread dangerous debris all over the system in the case of the canister projectiles. Using the heavy mass drivers would take too long, and also result in debris floating everywhere. So the Demolition and Ordinance Disposal teams were set loose to play, wreaking surgically precise damage with gleeful abandon and copious amounts of explosives.

The planet of Mars was subjected to the full wrath of fire plan Armageddon. The Harmony Bringer fired its main battery over and over again until Mars was a molten ball of rock with a pair of new moonlets from oblique angle impacts throwing large portions of the Martian surface into orbit.

With its tasks completed, the Protector Branch of the human Nomad Fleet turned to leave the Sol system behind for good. It left behind a single beacon too endlessly broadcast a message:

This system was the birthplace of humanity. It was also very nearly humanity's grave. We humans have taken to the stars, never to have a singular homeworld again. We are ever moving, ever fluid. We have no head to strike off, no center to pierce. If you do strike at us, then you had best be sure to kill all of us. If you should fail, then you had best hope that we never find you, for we will repay every wrong in kind.

So far, no other species has tried to attack humanity. Not because they fear humanity's ships, weapons, or power, but because they all fear losing all that they hold dear. Humanity laughs at this fear, because they have moved passed it and learned a more powerful truth. It is a lesson that humanity learned long ago, and illustrated to the Twisted Empire in dramatic fashion: a race with nothing left to lose is at its most unpredictable and dangerous.