The Admiral and the Assistant

The Brolla system was quiet and low-traffic, parked out on the far edge of the galaxy. Its lazy red star and sole, dingy planet were a reflection of its people: indigent, dirty and apathetic.

This far from the center of the Imperium, it had been an excellent home for anyone hoping to avoid Imperial scrutiny for many years.

Of course, recently there had been that business with Sehren Senn. That the flagship of the Imperial Navy that had showed up to collect him directly had caused a near-panic among the populace of Brolla. Sure, he was a conspirator and a murderer, but plenty of folks on Brolla technically fit that definition.

Since then, there had been a steady trickle of population away from the planet as those with the means departed Brolla for safer climes. The Navy had left for now, but who knew when they'd return? Local businesses had started to struggle as the economy adjusted to match the population.

Brolla had less money and fewer people than it had had for generations.

The planet spun silently under its sun.

Without warning, a sphere appeared in the system.

It was a massive structure, larger than any space station, but strange. Rather than being a contained unit, like a ship, it was a nest of yellowed, branching struts that connected organically. The surface, if it could be called that, was not a smooth exterior, but a rough, uneven set of cells, separated by thin beams. They weren't steel, or titanium, or any known metal. More than anything else, the entire ship appeared to be made of bone or coral. An enormous chaos of branching, growing biological structures.

It shot into the system, moving well above the speed of light. It didn't use the system's jumphole at all. It came to a sharp halt near the planet, with no shedding of momentum. One moment it was not there, and the next it was.

The surface of the ship flickered as some kind of shielding came down.

The structure loured ominously over the planet for long minutes, scanning. A warm glow started within the massive structure. Sickly yellow light shone through the gaps and cells. Anyone looking would quickly realize that the bone beams were no simple surface treatment; the entire vessel was the same branching cellular structure throughout.

A wriggling became visible on the surface of the ship. Hundreds of thousands of smaller units began working their way free of the structure. They moved in waves, shimmying out through the gaps in the ship. They were small, rounded vessels; flat and long, shaped almost like roaches. They were made of a dull, gray-green metal.

They wiggled free of the structure in waves, shimmering in the dim light of Brolla's star. They sprayed out from the vessel, arcing toward the surface of the planet in a long stream.

Kael Solis sat in the dingy Planetary Defense office in the city of Emberbleak, watching vids on his scanner. He grimaced and shifted in his seat. His old bones complained about his sitting in one position for too long.

The office was cramped and uncomfortable, but he didn't care; he was only a few years out from retirement. His co-worker Dran sat at the comms console, napping. The office needed a good cleaning; there were dust bunnies the size of a man's hand collected under the desks and in the corners of the office.

The planet Brolla had long ago rejected the Imperial Navy's offer of a Naval base, opting instead to manage their own protection through the Planetary Defense Force. It was not a glamorous or exciting organization like the Navy. It was a private, commercial enterprise, subscribed to by the cities of Brolla to ward off spacebound threats. As such it was focused on reducing costs as much as possible.

Kael's career had been quiet. As the sole gunner, he was technically the entire Defense Force for Emberbleak. Realistically, he'd only ever had to fire the city's blaster cannon a few times, mostly to scare off pirates that thought Brolla would be an easy target. He'd spent far more of his time dealing with traffic coming in to the spaceport without authorization, and a few years earlier there had been a nasty collision between two space freighters that had tied up the city's sky traffic for weeks.

Dran snored lightly. Kael kept the volume on his scanner down in deference to Dran's nap.

Dran's console lit up. A steady beeping emitted. Dran snorted awake, reflexively grabbing the headphones. Kael looked up, curious.

Dran's brow furrowed as he looked at the data streaming from the console.

"That can't be right," he said in a gruff, bass muttering. He keyed the console.

"Vessel or vessels of unknown origin," he spoke into the console. "Identify yourselves. Your transponder does not register."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Kael watched him frown at the console. Dran covered his mic and turned to Kael.

"You better get on the gun, just in case. Something weird is going on."

Kael nodded and pocketed his scanner. He rocked up out of his chair and shuffled to the door.

"Watch your back out there," Dran said. "I don't like this."

Kael gave him a thumbs-up and walked outside.

The entrance to the cannon control was across the street. It was a small square building tucked up under a massive blaster cannon. The defensive cannon was five stories tall, pointed to the sky at a rakish angle.

Kael checked for road traffic. There were a few vehicles, but they were stopped on the street. Kael cocked his head. Emberbleak wasn't a busy city, but people didn't just stop in the middle of the road. That would be a quick way to learn some new swear words, and maybe get shot.

The drivers of the stopped vehicles had their eyes fixed to the sky. Kael looked up.

Thousands of strange, bug-like ships swarmed overhead, moving in sinuous waves.

Years earlier, a distant uncle of Kael's had passed away, and with no other family nearby, it had fallen to Kael to clean and prepare the house for sale. His uncle had been non compos mentis for years before his death, and had not cleaned nor maintained the old house. When Kael had walked in, he'd discovered a years-long infestation of bugs in the place. The way these ships moved sent his mind back to those first horrifying moments he'd walked into his uncle's house to witness the skittering, shifting mass of bodies.

Unconsciously, and without even checking for traffic, Kael's old legs propelled him across the street toward the cannon.

He slammed into the control station, hitting the fast power-up paddle switch. He threw himself into the gunnery station without strapping in and pulled on the headset. Holos flickered to life around him, showing him the views around the cannon. The air was filled with those strange, gray-green ships.

"Dran! What's going on?" he yelled into the headset. "Any comms from-- whatever those are?"

"Nothing!" Dran yelled back, his voice distorted and tinny in the headset. "They won't respond! I don't know what these are, they're not in any ship database. I'm going to contact HQ for permission to open fire."

Kael watched as the swarm spread out, stretching across the city.

"Null that," Kael spat. "I'm shootin' these guys."

"Acknowledged," Dran returned.

It would only take a minute for the cannon to warm up, but it felt like an eternity. Kael activated the turret, lining up on a nearby ship, willing the power banks to warm up faster.

The little ships began moving in unpredictable swoops and jerks. Kael tried to track one, but it was quickly lost in the swirl of other ships. He swore.

His headpiece beeped loudly. The cannon was ready.

Kael clamped down on the firing stud. Thick bolts of energy blasted forth in a heavy bass rhythm, thud-thud-thud. Bright red light from the bolts filled the sky.

The bolts sailed harmlessly through the swarm. The fleet was thick, but constantly moving in unpredictable patterns, hard to hit. Kael muttered curses and kept the cannon firing, sweeping through the swarm. He could hear the radio chatter from Dran as he tried to get a hit.

"HQ!" Dran was yelling. "We have an unknown fleet, possibly hostile, converging on Emberbleak! They have no identification and do not respond! Please advise!"

The steady thudding of the defense cannon sent energy into the sky in a steady cadence. Kael gritted his teeth. If only he could hit one--

A bolt finally connected with one of the little gray-green ships. A splash of energy sprayed off the body of the vessel.

"Yeah!" Kael cried.

The stricken ship flipped end over end like a tossed coin, knocked off course by the heavy blaster bolt. Then it stabilized, leveled out, and began flying again as it had before, apparently none the worse off.

Kael's face fell. He suddenly had a very, very bad feeling.

He kept the cannon firing. Occasionally he'd hit a ship. It would spin away, recover, and get right back to-- whatever it was these things were doing.

He checked his data. The power to the cannon was good. Focusing lenses were operating correctly. The magnesium extruder interlock was even working smoothly.

The one place the company hadn't tried to cut costs was on the cannon. It was capable of knocking a freighter out of the sky in a few shots, but it didn't seem to be affecting these little ships at all.

The swarm spread out, forming a hexagonal lattice. They descended, lowering over the city, and began moving forward with slow deliberation.. The regular pattern made them easier for Kael to hit, but it made no difference.

Thin red crackles of energy began emitting from the ships, striking down at the street, at buildings, and vehicles. Kael tensed, but there were no explosions on his holos. The air near the ground was filling with some kind of gray fog or mist, though.

The swarm neared, moving steadily, the thin beams or crackles of energy continuing to strike. Kael kept his ineffective fire up, but watched more closely what the little ships were doing.

He saw one vehicle, a green commuter, driving frantically away from the fleet. Kael watched one of the crackles zip through top of the vehicle. It didn't damage the car at all-- didn't even leave a scorch mark on the roof, as far as he could tell. But the vehicle was suddenly filled grey smoke. The vehicle drifted off the road and plowed into a building.

Kael bared his teeth, continuing to fire as the swarm drew near. Dran's voice continued in his ear.

"I say again HQ, a hostile force of unknown origin is attacking Emberbleak! Please send fighters, reinforcements, anything!" A pause. "What do you mean they're attacking other cities? What are they? What's--"

Dran's voice vanished suddenly. The ships were nearly overhead now. Kael tried to remember the prayers his mother had taught him growing up, but it had been too many years. The cannon thudded steadily, tumbling little ships that simply got right back into formation.

A thin red crackle of energy streaked through the cannon control building. With a loud bang, Kael vanished, leaving a puff of grey ash floating on the air, drifting slowly to the floor.

The cannon fell silent. The Ash-Tongues had arrived on Brolla.