Homestar Saga

Chapter 128: Annihilation Retrieval

"Warmaster, the derelict is within firing range." The call came over the main radio channel. "Still no sign of the humans."

Yvian stared out of the viewport at the ships they were approaching. The ships were still too far away to be more than shiny blips in the distance, but she knew what was out there. Dead Xill vessels, Quig battlecruisers and Mig fighters and a single twenty kilometer Yig destroyer. They formed a scattered perimeter around a ring of crystals. The crystals were large, nearly the size of a battlecruiser. There were nine, and they were heavily damaged. In the center of the crystals was an upside down diamond. The Crystal Mother.

"They fled our approach, most likely." Warmaster Scathach mused. "The humans would not have kept a large fleet here. They would've been fools to face us." He gave a disappointed grunt. "Fighter wings one through six, advance ahead and check for mines or traps. Fighter wings nine through fourteen, check the other side of the planet. All other ships, continue current course."

Slowly but surely, the Crystal Mother came into view, surrounded by the broken remains of Xill vessels. The derelict ship had been damaged the first time Yvian saw it. It was in far worse shape now. Entire sections of its hull had been removed. One of the crystals surrounding it was shattered, and another was visibly cracked. The faint glow usually emitted by Lucendian ships was all but absent. Yvian could almost feel the ships fear. Its pain. She imagined she could hear it screaming.

"Anyone else feel that?" Mims asked. She was using the radio channel reserved for the Priderender's bridge crew.

"It's calling for help," said Lissa. "It wants to be saved."

"Or killed," Mims agreed.

"Interesting." The Warmaster remarked. "I didn't know you could communicate with Lucendian ships at this range. Scarrend believed you require physical contact to use your implants."

"We do," Yvian told him. "I can sense what she's feeling, but I can't talk to her without touching a control node." She gazed at the tortured hulk. "Bright Lady. What did they do to you?"

After confirming that the humans were gone and there were no obvious traps, the lead ship from fighter wing four entered the Crystal Mother. Once inside, the ship's computers came back online. Sensors confirmed that a hundred and three Federation vessels were accelerating away from the planet as fast as they could go. It was calculated they had left a mere five hours ago.

"Should we give chase?" Scarrend suggested. "A few thousand battlecruisers should be more than enough."

Warmaster Scathach started to shake his head, then changed his mind. "Proceed. I suspect the humans will escape the anti-tech field before we can catch them, but trying will cost us little."

The rest of the fleet continued its steady approach. Another fighter landed, disgorging a small horde of armored Vrrl to search the Lucendian vessel. They didn't get very far. Less than a minute after the search began, a flash of light snapped Yvian's gaze back to the viewports. An explosion. A big one. A quarter of the Crystal Mother's hull had shattered. The Lucendian vessel's pain was so sharp it dropped Yvian to her knees. The shock gave way to horror as her helmet's HUD flicked back to life.

The anti-tech field was down. The Lucendian ship was either too traumatized or too damaged to keep it up. Its kinetic field was out as well, judging from the way the debris scattered in all directions instead of slowing to a stop. But that wasn't important. Only the anti-tech field was important, and the anti-tech field was gone.

The field had been doing a lot of things. It had kept the humans from using their jumpdrives. It kept the Vrrl from scanning the sector. It kept Yvian's voidarmor from making her life easier. The most important thing the field had done was keep the Vore inert. An entire planet full of the things waited a mere twelve thousand kilometers from the Crystal Mother. A mountain of nanomachines stretched eight thousand kilometers from the surface, reaching towards the Lucendian ship. The mountain had been frozen in that stretch for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It wasn't frozen anymore.