Chimera sat in her Stinger vessel as the rest of the fighter squads began to wake up, all snuggly fit into their own Stingers.

  The startup sequences had already finished, but she wanted to be sure that the Harriers were all set to follow up.

  At least, she told herself that.

  Despite her bravado earlier, Chimera was starting to feel just a bit apprehensive to the situation she now found herself in.

  She was about to fight three destroyer class starships in space, with one ship (albeit a super badass one) and a few couple hundred gravity guns and a handful of MACs.

  This was all hoping that those very defenses would hold off whatever the Verdant Hood vessels had to fight with.

  She was out shipped in numbers, which could mean a great deal of casualties.

  Chimera didn’t like to think about the people she spent helping in the med bay, sucking out into the vacuum of space, or being blown to bits by plasma fire.

  The thought of losing people reminded her too much of,,, then. Before she got stuck here.

  She tried to put on a brave face, but inside she was beginning to worry if she could really pull this off.

  You’ve done everything you could.

  She shook herself.

  It’s up to them now, and fate.

  Chimera didn’t like that, didn’t like the idea of fate having anything to do with the people she cared about.

  Yeah, she was still salty about Traika and her bullcrap, but now these people were her people.

  The best way to protect them was to be the main focus, the one that the enemy paid attention to, and the only place she could do that was out in front.

  So screw fate, I’ll save these jerks and get back without losing a single one. Not just them either.

  She turned to her screens, her internal navigation showing her an updated star map, complete with the locations and trajectory of the incoming enemy.

  The destroyers seemed to notice the Meras and were taking an intercept course towards her location. It was clear that these ships were going to attack.

  “Alright everyone, get ready to launch. Alpha, you're with me, Beta and Gamma are on the flanking destroyers. Our mission is to disable the vessels starting with their engines. If you can, take out their main weapons and auxiliary defense platforms. I want those ships gift wrapped.”

  The Harriers came up on her screen, a visual reading showing their faces with their own helmets in place. Some even sported a breathing mask, indicating they were in the rested position.

  “Captain, permission to speak?” Bayleaf’s angular helmet came into view. She was part of her Alpha squad along with Arrose and Bargo, with a sunken eyed fifth member she didn’t recognize as their fifth member. Each group was composed of five fighters with a squad each, for a total of twenty five per fighter group, about half of their full Stinger aircraft.

  “Speak Bayleaf.” Chimera nodded back, placing her own helmet over her head.

  “Captain, the destroyers we’re facing will have their own complements of fighters. I recommend that we instead focus down one of the destroyers at a time, so that we can handle the squadrons they will send in retaliation.”

  Chimera pondered this, not aware of the fighter response the destroyers apparently had.

  “How many, do you know?” she asked.

  “Usually twenty per vessel, or at least that was the most recent intel.” Bayleaf spoke, her voice muffling as the mask appeared on her lower jaw.

  Chimera spoke to the other groups, confirming that this was indeed true.

  “Alright, change of plans then. We’re going with Bayleaf’s proposal. All squads are to focus on the left most destroyer. The Meras will pull the other two towards the defenses to give us the time we need to capture the vessels. If there is any chance that they make a run for Torsca, all fighters divert to taking that destroyer's engines out.”

  ‘“Roger!”’ The rest of the fighter’s responded.

  Chimera felt her jitters from earlier begin to calm down as she watched the pod fighters begin to launch out of the Meras.

  No time for second guesses. Time to save people, time to be a hero!

  Once her turn came up, Chimera punched the launch button on her controls, feeling the subtle gravity of the ship give way to the thrusters on her three wings.

  The vastness of space passed her as she joined up with her group, the light of their thrusters leading her forward as she took her place next to them.

  “Elfari, my brothers and sisters in war, the enemy lies before us. Let us show them the mercy of the Empress!” Chimera heard one of the Harriers shout.

  The others roared their approval, deafening the coms for a moment as Chimera felt their fervor rise.

  Time to fight!

  …

  Deep within an Elfari vessel, a newly formed being began to spread its awareness across the ship that was its body. The ocular arrays that were its eyes opened wide to spot the little pods that were its defenders, rushing off to fight the enemy from beyond.

  Meras-102, or simply Meras to her friends, smiled as she felt her body come alive with renewed vigor. Her magical engines, now replaced with a new design that promised incredible energy reserves and even greater energy generation, hummed with life as they began their perpetual cycle.

  Weapons from another mind came online, a sub-brain developed by her newest friend that began the process of spinning up the guns, so to speak.

  To think before she would have to worry about mana usage in regards to the ship, or possibly syphoning the needed energy from the crew in order to function key systems.

  Now?

  Every gun, every magnetic cannon, every gravity weapon, scrambler, communication array, and Asteroid defense system spun to life and began their targeting protocols for the soon-to-be arriving enemy.

  Yes, this was what it meant to have power! The power to end the threat of the enemy, and safeguard the land she and her sisters loved!

  But the Captain had spoken, and these three were to be made prisoners.

  Well, it would be good to know how these things tick, so to speak.

  Meras shifted the outer hull of the vessel, growing and adding a net of celestial oaken limbs stretched outward to create a thin but durable net.

  She wasn’t letting any of those Verdant Hood fighters reach her hull without some resistance.

  It also doubled as a response to any debris flung her way, better it hit the limbs than the main body.

  “Meras, do you read?” One of her little arrays picked up chatter from Beta squadron.

  She turned her attention to the fighter group of twenty five, sending a signal that she did read them loud and clear.

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  “Enemy fighters had been spotted, we’re going to intercept, can you spare us any assistance?” the disparate Harrier spoke.

  Meras contemplated as she watched the battlefield.

  Even now she was moving in place to intervene on the other two Sword-class destroyer vessels so that the pods and their boarding party could take the leftmost destroyer.

  She would need her energy, but perhaps… Yes, she could send a little something to help. Meras smiled wickedly as she picked up pieces of an asteroid near her location, a pull from her new tractor beam adding it nicely to her front section.

  She then activated her gravity cannons, picking pieces off of the massive thing and loading her ordinance with the asteroid’s bounty.

  Yes, this will do. She thought to herself.

  With a mighty push, she hurled the remains of the asteroid in the direction of the enemy fighter squadron, who easily pulled out of the way.

  However, not all of them followed the same flight, and most were broken off from their group, no longer cohesive and connected.

  “Thanks Meras, we got it from here!” The now excited Harrier spoke over the comms, his fervor coming through as the rest of Beta moved to pick off the scattered fighters.

  You're welcome my little soldiers.

  Meras moved her attention back to her original targets.

  Oh those two destroyers were downright pissed, she could tell. Their guns were aimed to harm her little pods, and all those nasty fighters, all angular and pointy. While she might be a fan of thorns and spikes, these repugnant excuses for craft were downright ugly.

  They simply needed to go.

  With a thought from her mind, she could feel the orbital defenses she and her newest friend built together spurn with power. Those magnetic cannons of hers, so different from what her sisters and mother would come up, so downright alien to her little Elfari.

  They were rigid, unchanging, nothing like how nature was made to be. These weapons made her think of a race that spurned such confines as ‘nature wills it’. Rather, it was as though they defied what nature had intended, challenging even the almighty forces of life for their survival.

  It made Meras contemplate, but it also made her grin. These were a race of warriors, of beings who would not die quietly and who would fight to the bitter end.

  And Chimera said she was built from such a race? These Humans she spoke of?

  I wish to meet them, I want to see them as she does!

  If someone could see the look on her face, they might claim that Meras was manic with her new desire to experience these alien wonders.

  Nevertheless none were there to comment and so she was able to geek out in relative peace.

  She willed the cannons to take aim, aiming at the rightmost destroyer with the intent of taking out its engines.

  The angular ships really did look like swords, with their long neck bodies but flat appearance, along with the prongs along the mid section and the two massive engines in the back.

  Luckily it made it fairly simple to find what she was looking for.

  The MACs as Chimera called them began to cycle their energies for a salvo, already locked onto the massive aft engines of the nearest destroyer. It also appeared to be readying a response of its own, as Meras could see the green glow of its plasma lances.

  Nasty things, made to burn and cook her pretty oaken body.

  Better to do away with those at once.

  Meras smirked as her array of one hundred gravity cannons, all of those that orbited the moon, loaded up their ordinance from the asteroid earlier.

  Engage, dismantle those horrid lances.

  Her order was carried out as the cannons fired, each one set to take out a key battery or weapon on the destroyer.

  She watched as the destroyer suddenly shift off to the side to avoid the blast of debris, the maeneuver allowing it to dodge most of her attack.

  Mostly, because she accounted for a movement and sent a wave of debris from her own gravity cannons at the place it now sits.

  It tried to avoid these as well, which gave the MACs just enough time to finish their firing solutions.

  Cripple the sword my stone throwers from the stars! HahaHA!

  Meras laughed as she saw the streams of light launch out of the cannons, each one lighting up the astral sea as they found purchase in the large engines of the destroyer.

  They hit instantly, no delay in firing or ship movement could avoid these metal arrows. She watched as the destroyer began to float, no longer under its own control as it spun slowly from the magnetic assault.

  The slight spin also made it hell for its remaining guns to lock onto her pods, which satisfied her to no end.

  Now for the remaining one.

  Grabbing another piece of floating debris, this one made of ice, she ripped off more to divide and arm her little soldiers with water from the starry sea.

  The cannons took it greedily, and Meras could tell that these might be a bit more deadly than the last bombardment.

  Only critical weapons and the engines then.

  The middle Sword began to turn on her, aiming its body so that the tip of the pointed hull faced her.

  This also made it difficult for her to aim, as the body would turn to face her, even as she began to move around and try to flank the vessel to catch her real targets.

  However, the orbital guns were not subject to this, and could fire at will if she but gave the command.

  The problem came with the Sword’s placement.

  Meras grit her teeth as she saw the pods between her target, and the leftmost sword, their fighters already launched and assailing her pod fighters.

  The fighters were outnumbered, but every moment they were being harassed was another moment for the swords to aim their guns and pick off her warriors.

  And the Sword she was after made sure that those pods were behind it, ready to be hit by collateral fire from her orbital guns.

  I cannot fire, and the enemy knows this.

  Rather than risk her people, the most she could do was keep the middle Sword’s attention.

  It was a stand still, for the Sword could not fire on her pods without damaging its own allies-

  A lance of plasma slashed across the battlefield, narrowly missing her pods and scratching the side of its ally ship.

  W-What?! It’s firing on its own?

  Meras calculated whether it did this knowing it wouldn’t hit, but the data she compiled always came back with the same answers.

  After crunching the numbers, it was clear that the attack was deliberate.

  They will not allow us to capture them. I Must Stop Them!

  She tried to hail her bonded Captain, but the fighting was scrambling her attempts at a hail.

  So she instead turned to the vice captain.

  Through her bond, she explained the horror she had witnessed, but to her relief, it seemed Bark had the same idea.

  “Go to Red Alert! That hostile is using scorched earth tactics. Repeat, Go to Red Alert and get me some damn targeting vectors!”

  Satisfied, Meras felt her charges begin to scramble, raising their magical shield batteries and arming the deadlier arsenal that they had saved in reserve.

  She also conveyed the fact that the Captain was unable to be hailed.

  “Damn… Deploy the Solar Cannon.”

  Meras felt worry as she began the magical array that would power the cannon, conveying that this might harm their fighters.

  Bark shook his head, “the Cannon will only be aiming at the right side of the vessel. Away from any collateral damage. Even if it misses the target, the solar radiation should fry their equipment.”

  He seemed certain, and Meras wanted to believe him, but the worry wouldn’t go away.

  The Cannon charged slowly, so she may have time to find an alternative solution, but every minute counted as the middle destroyer moved to launch another lance of plasma, this time clipping the engines of an entire squadron of pod fighters.

  The Stinger fighters thankfully had sealant to prevent spilling out into the empty space, but some were not lucky.

  Meras witnessed three of her people out in the vacuum, desperately activating their emergency suits to prevent the cold of the stars from snuffing out their lives.

  They only have fifteen minutes…

  Meras urged the captain to give her a vector to target the cannon, no longer hoping for an alternative as more lances from the traitorous destroyer fired upon its fellow battle brother.

  “Vector marked Vice Captain.”

  “Meras, tell me you're ready,” Bark spoke, his teeth gritted as another lance took out a few more fighters, this time with no hope of recovery.

  She showed the charging sequence, and after a few seconds, felt the thrum of the sun within her ready to fire.

  “Now, fire the Solar Cannon!”

  The Cannon unleashed its fury as the middle-most destroyer was set ablaze by the power of the sun. The vector carved the ship in half, no longer taking the vessel as a possible target for capture.

  It sealed the fates of those aboard, but in times of war such decisions must be made.

  Still, the loss of life tugged at her heart as Meras began the charge of recovering her lost people, sending out her tendrils of limbs to grab and pull them into the waiting hangar bay, safe from the cold.

  She only hoped that her Captain forgave her for following such orders. It was her innocence that Meras enjoyed, the simple idea that those that died could be saved, or that no loss of life was possible even when it wasn’t.

  But she knew the truth, and as she moved to recover more of her people, Meras never kept her eyes off of the first crippled destroyer, determined to blast it to smithereens if it so much as dared to harm her kin.

  …