They hadn’t listened. They hadn’t submitted. They had chosen to resist the Supremacy, and for that, there was only one answer. They would pay in blood, their own and that of their comrades. This is how it was done, how compliance was ensured. “What’s the status of the shuttle bay?”

“Three hundred en route,” his deputy reported. “It would be more, but we had to peel a battalion away to address the situation on the promenade.” It’d become an all-out melee down there, a contingent of station security having sprung a jailbreak and armed themselves. “We need to contain them before they hit open ground.”

“You fool!” the commander scoffed. “If we want to reestablish control, it won’t be by trading one-for-one on the promenade!” Anyone could be a hero, but did they have the stomach to be the butcher? That’s what the shuttle bay was about, a way to force the weak-willed commanders of those ships bearing down on them to surrender.

“Sir, enemy ships will be in range in thirty seconds,” a combat controller reported.

The Vaadwaur commander spun on his heels to get a look. He could see them now, the enemy ships silhouetted against the bright blue seas of the planet below. He would beat them in the skies, and he would crush their will to fight. Maybe he’d even let one of the support ships get away so they could carry word back to the others, a warning of what awaited any who resisted the Supremacy. “Get me a targeting solution on the flagship, and open a line.”

Aboard the Polaris, Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes’ eyes were forward, determination on her face as they barreled towards Archanis Station. There were 15,000 civilians and 5,000 officers aboard, and beyond those souls, the station would mark the first step along the journey to retaking the Archanis Sector, a region crying out under the yoke of the Vaadwaur.

“Juno, Vesta, and Lincoln have engaged the enemy,” Fleet Captain Gérard Devreux reported from beside her, tracking the two firefights occurring on the edge of the solar system.

“How’re they faring so far?” Fleet Admiral Reyes asked.

“They’re holding their own, but they’re outgunned,” Fleet Captain Devreux warned. The Vesta, Gagarin and Glenn were all highly capable spaceframes, but they were facing off against a pair of Astika battlecruisers and five Manasa assault escorts that’d all been designed with a singular purpose: to exert military might over those the Vaadwaur wished to conquer.

“Remind Cayde and the others that they don’t have to win,” Fleet Admiral Reyes ordered. “Fast and light, their job is simply to keep the enemy occupied. I want everyone to come home at the end of this.” The loss of the Serenity still weighed heavy on her.

“Ma’am, we have an incoming call from Archanis Station,” reported Lieutenant Commander Elena Mattson. “From the command deck, not an area we yet hold.”

“Not even a shot fired, and the Vaadwaur are already calling to surrender?” Fleet Admiral Reyes grinned. But there was no chance of that. Not with this enemy. With this enemy, it would be a fight to the last man. “Put it on screen, I suppose.”

A moment later, an angry-looking Vaadwaur commander appeared on the screen.

“I am Fleet Admiral Allison Reyes of the Federation starship…”

“Irrelevant!” snapped the Vaadwaur commander, cutting her off, uninterested in her spiel. This was about him and his demands. “You are either a subject of the Vaadwaur Supremacy, or you are nothing.”

“Curious, because from where I sit, it doesn’t seem much like that,” Fleet Admiral Reyes replied calmly. “You have a station that belongs to us, and we would like it back.”

“Or what?” the Vaadwaur commander cackled maniacally. Who was this Federation woman to make such demands? She would kneel before him, same as the vice admiral he’d taken as his pet, or she would die. Or maybe both.

“Or we will kill each and every one of you as we pave the road to victory,” Fleet Admiral Reyes answered coldly, her eyes narrowing on him. She’d reviewed the reports from the covert team embedded on the station. She knew what the Vaadwaur – and this man in particular – had done. They had committed crimes against humanity, and she would have no problem killing them all if that’s what it took to take back the station and free her people.

“Funny, because I was about to say the same to you,” the Vaadwaur commander replied sadistically. He was going to enjoy this next bit. “Look out your window, admiral, and witness what awaits you should you continue with your hopeless endeavour.”

They flipped to a split screen, the commander on one side and the forward camera on the other. What was that stuff venting from one of the shuttlebays? 

Lieutenant Commander Mattson zoomed the camera in, and they got their answer.

Bodies. 

Hundreds of them.

For a moment, those bodies twisted and writhed.

But then, in the vacuum of space, they died.

“For every minute you do not surrender,” the Vaadwaur commander threatened. “Two hundred more shall perish all alone in the night.”

Around the bridge, there was a collective gasp, but Fleet Admiral Reyes didn’t blink. She didn’t react at all. Not outwardly, at least. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. Instead, she simply shrugged. “That seems a quite inefficient use of material, but waste your soldiers and your workforce if you must. It’s no matter to me.”

“Do not test me, admiral,” the Vaadwaur commander warned.

“I’m not testing you,” Fleet Admiral Reyes countered, her voice frigid and her eyes dark. “It just seems you have no idea who I am. I have only one purpose. That purpose is to put your head on a pike by sun up, and there’ll be nothing you can do to stop me.”

He stared at her, trying to get a read on her. Was she actually willing to let them all die?

“I’ll be seeing you,” Fleet Admiral Reyes said with a wink, and then she cut the link.

As the admiral glanced around the bridge, she could see the apprehension on their faces of the bridge crew. The price of victory was now clear, and Fleet Captain Devreux asked the obvious question: “What’s the play?”

“Same as it’s been since the beginning,” Fleet Admiral Reyes replied firmly, no doubt in her mind. The only way to fight terror was to put an end to it. “Kill the ships and storm the station.”

“What of his threat?” Fleet Captain Devreux inquired, his stomach queasy over the idea.

“A man like that, if he doesn’t do it today, he’ll just do it tomorrow,” Fleet Admiral Reyes pointed out. “To abandon this would be to abandon every man, woman and child on Archanis to their fate.” She looked forward again. They were almost in range now. “If we wanna save lives, we’re just gonna need to be fast about this. Signal the others. It’s time to fight!”