Homestar Saga

Chapter 104: Ace in the Hole

"Kilroy," the human's voice was devoid of emotion. "Do Stinger units have jumpdrives?"

"Negative," said the Peacekeeper. "We are not able to manufacture jumpdrives, yet."

"Good." The Captain opened a comm to the rest of the Peacekeepers. "Attention, all forces. The Vore assimilate technology. We can't let them get yours. Every ship equipped with a jump drive needs to prepare for self destruct. Blow the reactor the second you're infected. If those bastards get a jump drive the entire galaxy is fucked." He paused. "And try not to get infected. We've lost enough people today."

Yvian should have been concerned about the possibility of dooming all life in the verse, but she wasn't. She had bigger problems. The Vore were coming for the planet. For her planet. Yvian's mouth went dry. The Vore Sphere accelerated faster than anything she'd ever seen. It continued to reconfigure itself, activating shields that were nearly the equal of Klaath Queenship.

"I'm plotting an intercept course." Captain Mims was steady as a rock. Cold and professional. He must be shitting his pants. "We'll make contact in four hours, thirty seven minutes."

"Can we stop them?" Lissa's voice was nervous, high pitched. She'd seen the Battle of Dorado, too. The humans had hit the Vore with everything, with fleets and weapons that could grind the entire Pixen Stellar Defense Force to dust. They had been completely ineffective. The Vore had consumed them all.

"I don't know." The Ballbreaker hummed as the human pushed it's engines as hard as they would go. "If we can get close enough, Skygem can shut them down. Probably. But that still leaves the bigger sphere to do what it wants."

"Spheres," Kilroy corrected. "The larger mass has divided into two."

Yvian focused in on the sensors. The larger mass of Vore had just finished cutting itself in half. The halves moved away from each other, each forming back up into a ball. The balls, each the size of a small moon, activated shields an order of magnitude above what their smaller counterpart had produced. Even if the Peacekeepers and the Klaath worked together, with every ship in the sector, Yvian doubted they could put a dent in it.

"That's... not good." The Captain was silent for a moment. "Zhukov, this is Mims. Prepare for Last Resort."

"If we activate the Last Resort," said the Peacekeeper Admiral, "it might stop the Vore, but it will not stop the Klaath, and we'll be helpless as long as it's active."

"That's why it's the Last Resort," Mims agreed. "We've got four hours. Maybe less. We need to kill the other Queens and get as many Peacekeepers out of the area as we can."

The two massive Vore Spheres burst into motion. They were faster than the one headed for Pixa. A lot faster. Both Spheres accelerated at over two thousand kilometers a second. Yvian swallowed, then asked, "Where are they going?"

"Trajectory calculated," Kilroy reported. At least Yvian thought it was Kilroy. It might have been Captain Evans. "They are each heading for one of the Gates."

"Makes sense," Mims supposed. "They'll want to get out of the system and start infecting other areas. How much time do we have?"

"At current acceleration, Vore Sphere now designated as Vore Sphere 2 will reach the South Gate in five hours, three minutes, and forty seconds," Kilroy reported. "Vore Sphere now designated as Vore Sphere 3 will reach the North Gate in eight hours, nineteen minutes, and ten seconds."

Before the Captain could reply, something seized control of the comms. A new voice interjected, melodious, sinister, and familiar. "Attention humans, Peacekeepers, and Pixens. This is Exodus the Genocide, representing the entities you know as the Xill."