The bridge went silent, only the faint hum of the consoles around the room audible.
Nalyra’s eyes darted over the message, twice, thrice, four times.
“Ydani.” She breathed the unknown word aloud, slowly, as if tasting it. This was not something she had prepared for. Not something she could have prepared for. It shouldn’t have been possible, and yet there it glowed, spread across the main viewport for all to see.
Small murmurs began to stir around the bridge, and Nalyra didn’t like the tone they were taking on.
The Crown Daughter sprang to her feet, striding to the edge of the command dais. She cloaked herself once more in the mantle of Royal Hand, a confident smile on her face. So what if these aliens had scraped together some rudimentary knowledge of the Zakkili and their language? She was still commanding a Star Citadel, the pinnacle of naval power in all the known empyrean. It would take far more than a ragtag fleet of a dozen vessels to unnerve her.
Regardless of how much Zakkili they had managed to learn, first-contact protocol was clear when dealing with an armed, spacefaring species. They would submit, or the remnants of their little fleet would be permitted to limp home as a message: prepare for the coming of the Monarchy.
“So it seems that these…Ydani have skulked around in the shadow of our Monarchy long enough to have learned the language of their betters.” She let her grin widen, revealing her pointed canines. “Good. That makes what comes next even easier. Ensign!” She barked the last word, causing the woman sitting at the communications station to jump slightly.
“Yes, Highness!”
“Let us send a message of our own.” Nalyra waited until the woman was ready, fingers poised on her console. “Ydani fleet. This is Crown Daughter Nalyra, Royal Hand of the Saint’s Aegis, Star Citadel of the Zakkili Divine Monarchy. You appear to be laboring under the misconception that we are intruding on ‘Ydani space’. It seems that I must correct that misunderstanding: all the empyrean touched by the light of the stars belongs to Queen Matriarch Azora, by Divine Right. Under her authority, I order you to power down all weapons and defenses. You are to prepare a shuttle for your highest-ranking officers and have it proceed to intercept range, so that we may welcome you aboard to receive your unconditional surrender. You have ten marks to comply, from the moment you receive this message.”
Nalyra could feel the mood in the bridge rise, small bleeds of admiration and pride coming from her crew. Vessa was once more at her station, already making preparations to receive the Ydani officers on the Aegis.
“The alien fleet is buzzing with point communications.” One of the ensigns called out. “They clearly heard us, Highness.” The woman hesitated. “...and they are increasing active scan activity?”
“Probing for weaknesses.” Chuckled Mikka, still lounging against the holo table.
“They’ll find none.” Nalyra said, her confidence sincere. “However, it seems plain to me that they might need a…demonstration of their course’s futility. Master Engineer, divert power from engines to void shields. Let them smash themselves on our defenses until they tire of it.”
“Yes, Highness.” Nivi leaned closer to her console, tapping at one of the screens.
“No further reaction from Ydani vessels.” Another one of the bridge crew announced. “No EM spikes, to weapons or otherwise. They’re just- wait. Reading movement.”
“Weapons activity?” Vessa leaned forwards.
“Negative Admiral.” The woman shook her head. “I’m getting signatures on…fourteen small craft, departing from hangars across the fleet.”
“Fighter craft? Interceptors?” The Admiral frowned, clearly unamused. “Do they think they are going to pull our pilots out into a dogfight?”
“I’m running their silhouettes against the database, ma’am…” The ensign glanced back at the command staff. “There are no exact matches, of course, but they’re closest to, uh, shuttle craft.”
“They’re going to try and board us.” Mikka cackled, as if it were the funniest thing she had ever heard.
“The shuttles are moving into a line formation, just at the edge of stand-off range.” Another crew member reported.
“Warm up the point defense network. Get me firing solutions on every one of those vessels.” Vessa ordered, brow furrowed. “If they think they can sneak a shuttle in with those kinds of numbers, they are gravely mistaken.”
Nalyra was silent, staring at the image on the viewport. The fourteen shuttles, lined up, seemingly just sitting there. It felt like cold water was dripping on the back of her neck. Something was wrong with this. Something was very wrong. These aliens, these Ydani…they knew what a Star Citadel was. Their ships weren’t archaic, and the Crown Daughter could only guess their sensor equipment was around the same level. They had to know what they were up against. Their sensors would show them the futility of this course. Therefore, they must have had some kind of strategy, some trick behind their ears.
Yet…what could they even do? Logic told her that directly boarding a Citadel was impossible, even with ten times that number of shuttles. The Aegis’s point defenses could easily slag a dozen shuttles a second, and wouldn’t miss, no matter what evasive maneuvers they might try. Not at these ranges.
So why did something feel so wrong about this?
Nalyra opened her mouth, about to order Vessa to preemptively bring the Aegis’s guns to bear, when a flash of light caught her eye.
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“Reading an EM spike coming from each of the shuttle craft.” A woman near the front of the bridge reported. “It’s similar to a subspace reactor charge, but those ships are too small to have a drive…”
Nalyra watched as each shuttle seemed to shine and shudder, small orbs of white light dancing over their hulls.
“They aren’t powering up weapons. This is different, it’s-”
The shuttles vanished.
For a heartbeat, everyone just stared at the viewport, silence falling over the bridge. A split second later, the room flooded with red light, an alarm blaring.
Numerous windows popped up across the viewports, showing the alien craft sitting inside hangars. Inside the Aegis’s hangars.
It felt like the floor was dropping out beneath Nalyra’s feet. She stared, dumbfounded, as the shuttles opened, disgorging squads of hulking armored figures into her ship.
Mikka was the first to act. She sprang up from her chair, jogging back over to her station, her fingers already on her ear piece.
“We have hostile boarders in hangars four through eight. Heavily armed and armored. I need squads moving to intercept. Set up defensive perimeters on the Mid Deck. Prioritize intersections. Assume the enemy’s target is the bridge and reactor.”
The Lieutenant Commander’s firm voice galvanized the rest of the bridge crew, the room exploding into movement.
“Nivi, get the ship locked down. Seal every door you can in their paths.” Nalyra ordered, turning to the younger woman.
“I’m-I’m trying Highness! The Aegis isn’t listening!”
“Are you saying they’ve hacked into our systems? You’ve lost control of the ship?” The Crown Daughter asked sharply.
“Nothing so delicate…” Nivi’s fingers were a blur, dancing over her console. “They’ve…they’ve just dumped petabytes worth of junk data into our system somehow! Each subsystem is locking itself down, disconnecting from the main hub to stop the data flow.” She stood up, leaning over the edge of the command dais to shout to two women below her. “Hey, focus on quarantining each subsystem one by one! I’ll set up a new virtual hub, reroute them to my station after they reboot!”
The camera feeds were starting to flicker and slow down, as if confirming Nivi’s words.
“How did they get into our systems?” Vessa growled, fighting with the console at her station.
“There!” Someone shouted, and one of the camera feeds sluggishly zoomed in. Sticking out of one of the data sockets in a hangar wall was an ugly, utilitarian, spike-shaped device.
“Maker’s ire!” The Admiral cursed, turning to Mikka. “Can we secure that hangar?”
“Negative, Admiral.” Mikka shook her head, her face grim. “My soldiers have already engaged the enemy.”
The rattle of semi-automatic gunfire filtered in through one of the cameras, dread starting to bleed from the crew. The Aegis was valiantly trying to track the enemy boarders through the security cameras, showing hulking armored combatants moving rapidly through the hallways.
Nalyra watched one of the enemy soldiers sprint into the line of fire, the bullets of her Armswomen ricocheting harmlessly off its armored shell. It was all she could do not to let her jaw drop. The enemy reached a trio of Zakkili soldiers, slamming one of them into the wall. The woman crumpled to the ground, but the enemy was already moving, grabbing another Armswoman’s weapon. It ripped the weapon from her grip, and Nalyra winced, imagining she could hear the woman’s bones break as her finger caught on the trigger guard. A second armored soldier sprinted past the first, and grabbed the last member of the Zakkili squad, simply seizing her by the arm and lifting her in the air.
For the first time, Nalyra was able to grasp the scale of the invaders. The armored suit dwarfed the Zakkili woman, almost double her four-foot height. The suit’s head was nearly scraping the ceiling of the corridor.
“Maker preserve us.” Soreth’s breathy voice sounded from behind Nalyra, fear and disbelief bleeding heavily from the woman.
The suspended Armswoman struggled in the grasp of the armored enemy, kicking and cursing at it. Almost casually, the soldier brought its free hand to the Zakkili, and pushed its armored knuckles to her neck. The woman jerked and twitched, as if an electric shock was running through her body, then went limp. The third enemy soldier was already moving between the defeated Armswomen, snapping some kind of restraints into place.
After a moment, the Zakkili were all neatly packed away, and the enemy started moving again.
Those weren’t the movements of machines or drone tech. These things were suits of armor, built around something enormous.
“Damnit, we need heavier weapons to get through those.” Mikka growled. “Sergeant Kinna! Get a squad to the armory and get some heavy AP weapons!” She barked into her communicator. “Yes, I know it’s dangerous, but I’d rather put a few holes in the Aegis than lose it entirely! Get it done!”
Similar scenes of defeat were occurring throughout the Mid Deck, captured by the flickering and stuttering security footage. Nalyra watched as one of the suited aliens took down an entire squad of Armswomen, using an odd-looking, blocky, bulky rifle. It must have shot some kind of electrified device, judging by how each of the Zakkili hit jerked and shuddered for a moment, before dropping like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Shit!” Mikka snarled, slamming a fist down on her console. “What in the Maker’s name are those damned things?! I’ve never seen heavy armor move that fast.”
“I’d like to know just what’s inside them.” Vessa said quietly, her mouth a tight line across her face. “Nivi, what’s the status on that lockdown?”
“I’m trying, I’m trying!” She groaned. “We should have had it by now…” The engineer leaned over her console again. “Lina, have you isolated the security subsystem yet?”
“I’m working on it, Master Engineer.” The woman’s voice was strained, stress pouring off her in waves. “They just dumped another load of junk data on us. The Aegis is using most of her processing power to keep the life support and artificial gravity running.”
“Maker take these stupid aliens!” Nivi spat, fingers blazing over her console once more.
Nalyra stood silent in the middle of it all, trying to project an aura of psychic calm that she truly didn’t feel inside.
She glanced over at Soreth, finding the High Priestess deep in prayer, her fingers pressed together, her crownthread slowly waving back and forth. They could surely use some of the Maker’s protection right now.
The Crown Daughter’s eyes went back to the various security feeds. The situation wasn’t hopeless, not yet, but things were spiraling out of control quickly. Star Citadels were not designed to handle boarding parties already inside the ship. Even lockdown was little more than sealed doors and restricted access controls — more suited to riot control than repelling invaders. The original shipwrights in charge of creating the massive starships simply hadn’t been able to envision a situation where a Citadel would have an armed enemy force within its own hull.
“Got it!” Nivi gave a triumphant cry. “I’m engaging all security locks on the doors. Mikka, tell your people they’ll need a retina scan to get through any sealed door from now on.”
The Lieutenant Commander was already contacting her forces through her ear piece, redeploying the Armswomen around the new, more effective, bottlenecks Nivi had just given her.
Nalyra could feel the swell of relief, seeping out of the bridge crew.
The feeling was cut through by a sharp current of dread, as gunfire rang out in the corridor that led to the bridge, only somewhat muffled by the thick security door.