Annihilation: The Power of a Queen by Saxon Andrew, Derek Chiodo

from the jump limit.”
     
    The Warleader had never known the fear he was feeling. He was trapped. He sat in his command chair and watched those ships coming at him at unbelievable velocity. His silver plume was laying flat against his back and he could see his death approaching. “Warleader, I know we would never consider surrendering,” his second said, “but if we all die here, there will be no one to warn our world of this danger. I will follow you to death, but the Home Nest must be warned.”
     
    “Honor demands a death before dishonor,” the Warleader said. “But you’re right. This is a danger that we must try at all costs to warn the Vetrel. Abandon ship; set the self destruct. Everyone into survival Pods. Let’s hope these Humans take prisoners. Abandon ship!”
     
    Commodore Johnson saw the big ship stop and start emitting life boats. “Hold your position,” he ordered his ships. “I’m sure they have set a self destruct; let’s wait until it goes off. Communications; order a transport for the prisoners.”
     
    On Cainth the Clan Leaders watched the fortresses totally destroy the fleet above the planet. Terl looked at the clan leaders and said, “That’s what will go on line over us tomorrow. Only 300 ships remain to be converted. For the first time in more than 1500 cycles, we can feel what it’s like to be free.”
     
    Tgon-Gee saw the slaughter of the fleet at the planet and turned off his feed. “How close we have come to being made powerless. Dorg was right; the Alliance Leadership had set us up. He felt a deep burning anger and was determined to make them pay but first a trip to Cainth to thank them for their advice.”
     
    Kosiev said, “Commodore Johnson, have one of your ships move toward the Saratoga and fire a light beam at it. We’re going to stop the feed now.”
     
    “Yes, sir, the ship is already in position and the Saratoga has acknowledged the cut.”
     
    The remaining Alliance warships were caught between two Human fleets and they had no chance of survival. The 738 human ships destroyed twice their number within 60 seconds of contact. The Subleader ordered a fast withdrawal but now the numbers were in the Humans favor and each ship took one of the remaining Alliance ships and destroyed them all before any of them could make it to the jump limit. The Alliance had sent 4800 ships and none survived. The Humans lost 240 of their 900 ships. More than 60% of those losses were from being rammed by larger Alliance ships.
     
    Kosiev reviewed the results and said to Tag, “We have to change our fleet strategy; staying in formation works in space battles but not against ships willing to ram. We can’t give up our edge in speed and maneuverability by having our fleet stay in line.”
     
    “You’re right,” Tag said while looking at the ship losses. “The weave worked well but we waited too late to start it. Perhaps we use both next time. We’ll engage them in formation and then start the weave once we break into their ranks. We should also change direction every ten seconds. They can’t maneuver as fast and it’s hard to ram when your target turns away faster than you can match.”
     
    “I understand we took the flagships crew prisoner,” Dorg said. I thought this race was supposed to suicide before being captured?”
     
    “I think they saw no one was going to escape and they know the importance of getting a warning to the Alliance,” Tag said as he watched the flagship self destruct on his video. “Admiral, leave a ship hidden that can watch the wreckage of their ship.”
     
    “Why, do you think they have something planned?”
     
    “How hard would it be to hide a small armored shuttle in the wreckage that was isolated from the blast?”
     
    “I see your point. Their Warleader was not among the prisoners. Should we just destroy the wreckage?”
     
    “No, we might want to let him escape.”
     
    “For God’s sake, why?”
     
    “We now know the screen