Homestar Saga

Chapter 97: Stingers

"How many are there now?" Mims activated the holodisplay in the center of the Encounter's bridge. An overview of New Pixa Sector came to life, sprinkled with red dots indicating enemy vessels. A lot of enemy vessels.

"Twenty one thousand, four hundred ninety three," Kilroy reported. "Klaath Klusters are appearing more rapidly. This unit predicts a large Incursion."

"Yeah, a small one would be too much to ask." The human took a deep breath and visibly relaxed. A shiver shot down Yvian's spine. The Captain hated the Klaath with a fury Yvian could barely comprehend. If he was shutting that out, cutting off all emotion and eliminating the tension from his body, it could only mean one thing. Things were about to get bad. In a calm professional voice he ordered, "Cease all operations in the Confed and bring our ships home. We're going to need them."

"Objection," Kilroy objected. "Ceasing all operations will result in the death or enslavement of over eighty thousand pixen citizens." Yvian hadn't known it at the time, but the Trelg Pleasure Guild's executives had issued a memo before moving to enslave the residents of Fico Station. They'd ordered the capture and processing of all available pixens, intending to continue operations solely on the backs of implanted slaves.

It was illegal as Crunch, but that didn't matter. No one was going to stop them. At least, no one from the Confed. The Peacekeeper units had taken exception, rightfully regarding it as an unprovoked attack on their surrogate species. Instead of ordering or asking for help, all Lissa had to do was give permission. The units had gone to war with gusto.

Over half of Pixa's forces were in Trelg space, destroying slave processing stations and saving whoever they could. The Confederation had responded with a declaration of war of their own, but the Kingdom of Trelg had been snubbed by the Military after the Trelg Militia nearly let pirates steal the entire Third Fleet, and it would take weeks for a significant force to reach Trelg space. Instead, the Peacekeeper units were contending with Militia and the Guild's own fleets, but that was still enough to tie up most of Pixa's firepower.

"They'd only be gone a..." Mims cut himself off and sighed. "No, you're right. A day is too long, and this might take longer than that. How many ships can we spare without losing anyone?"

Kilroy was silent for a moment. Yvian assumed he was communing with his fellow Peacekeepers. "We can spare a hundred ships. Maybe more in a few hours, as more complete their missions."

Mims took a breath, then nodded. "Bring me whoever you can spare. Station them at the Gates." New Pixa Sector had two Gates, on opposite ends of the sector. They both lead to Xill space, which made travel by traditional means impossible, but they also allowed Yvian's forces to the sector via jumpdrive. If the Klaath destroyed the Gates, the Pixen Technocracy would be cut off from the rest of the verse. Forever.

The Klaath didn't use Jumpgates. They made their own portals to move between sectors. Nobody knew how. What Yvian did know was that destroying the Gates to cut off reinforcements was one of the first things the motherless sons would try. Not that Yvian was expecting reinforcements to begin with.

"Can we work with that?" Lissa asked. "Do we have enough to defend the sector?"

"Unknown," said Kilroy.

"Our forces are evenly distributed," said the Captain. He pushed a few buttons and the Holodisplay shifted. "We've got two Gates, and three sets of stations." The display highlighted three groups of void stations. One in each of the asteroid belts, and a third just over twelve thousand kilometers from New Pixa itself. The asteroid belt stations took up more volume, with asteroid mines and wholesale manufacturing, but the third housed all of Pixa's food production, as well as the small shipyard the Encounter was docked in. "That means we've got about ten thousand ships each."