"Zhukov," Mims ordered, "I'm going to need you to evacuate all the stations."

  "Negative," refused the Peacekeeper Admiral. "The Peacekeeper units will continue to perform their duties."

  "We're going to have to use most of the ships we've got defending the stations," the Captain argued.

  "I am aware," said Zhukov. "Peacekeeper units performing non-critical functions will evacuate, but necessary functions must be maintained. If we destroy the Queenships, those units will survive. If we do not destroy the Queenships, leaving the stations will not save them."

  "I guess you've got a point," the human admitted. "Make it so. We make our move in ten minutes." He turned to Yvian. "Take the Skygem and dock her in..." he scrolled through a console next to the holodispy. "...The Ballbreaker? Did we seriously not rename all the pirate ships?"

  "We did," said Kilroy. His eyes glowed yellow with amusement. "This unit personally named the Ballbreaker. This unit knows you like to name ships after human music."

  "And I suppose it's coincidence," Mims deadpanned, "that the closest terran battlecruiser is the one that you named?"

  "Affirmative," Kilroy assured him. "It could just as easily have been the Bad Touch or the Bow Tie Daddy."

  The human grunted. "Well, at least it's just the three."

  "Negative," Kilroy corrected. "This unit has named One hundred twelve thousand, six hundred and seven vessels." His eyes glowed an even brighter yellow.

  Mims froze.

  "Are they all, uh," Yvian barely suppressed a snicker. "Did you name them all like that?"

  "Like what?" Kilroy asked innocently. "Human song titles make excellent ship names. They will strike fear into the hearts of other meatbags. Even this unit would hesitate to face a vessel with a name like the Power of Orange Knickers."

  Lissa giggled. Mims groaned. "Just take Skygem to the Ballbreaker, Yvian. We'll be right behind you."

  Eight minutes ter, Skygem and the Random Encounter were docked in the Ballbreaker. Ballbreaker was a Keter css Battlecruiser. Two kilometers in length, shaped like a spear. It bristled with MAC Cannons, Photon Pulse Arrays, and Psma Rail Guns. As Yvian left the crystal ship and ran back to the Encounter, she noticed there were no other vessels in the hangar bay.

  When she got back, Mims gestured at the holodispy. "Here's what you missed." He zoomed in on the Stinger fleets. Five of the fleets had split in half. Seven Stinger armadas each accelerated towards a different Kath portal. Two of the fleets continued towards the Gates. The st group, the one that didn't split, risked their hull integrity to increase their speed as they flew towards Yvian. "The Stingers are on the move. They should be able to shut down three of the portals before the Queens get far enough into the sector to defend themselves. We're sending Gdiator css fighters to join them, since they're the only things we've got that have MAC weapons that are fast enough to catch up."

  "They will prove unnecessary," Kilroy predicted. "The Stinger units are Peacekeeper units. They will be sufficient."

  "Better safe than sorry," the human replied. "There's no such thing as overkill when you're dealing with the Kath." He shifted the holodispy to show the other two sets of void stations. Small fleets of YEET Artillery Barges were moving away, escorted by fighters, frigates, and a few battlecruisers. "There are three more sets of Queenships that will make it halfway into the sector before we can get to them. We're sending a fleet of YEETs with an escort to join the Stingers and deal with them. Hopefully, the Stingers can stay just out of the Queens' range and clear enough ships out of the way for the YEETs to do their thing."

  The holodispy shifted once more. Now it showed the portals on the far end of the sector. "The st two groups of Queens are our problem. We're taking half the YEETs. Hell, we're taking half of everything. We're accelerating as fast as the YEETs can go, but the Queens will still have hours to coordinate before we can get there."

  "This unit believes we should take every vessel capable of matching acceleration with the YEET Artillery Barges," Kilroy cut in. "This set of stations can be sacrificed if necessary."

  "Maybe it could," said Mims. "But it's the only force we've got near New Pixa. All of this is for nothing if the Kath sterilize the pnet."

  "There is only a twelve point six three percent chance our offensive will be successful with half the fleet." The Peacekeeper's eyes fshed purple.

  "That's..." Yvian could hear Lissa's frown. "That's not good odds."

  "Maybe not," Mims admitted. He folded his arms. "But I doubt our chances are much better if we bring them along."

  "Our odds would increase," Kilroy insisted. "We would have a thirteen point seven four percent chance of success."

  "Still not comforting," said Lissa.

  "And not much of an improvement," Yvian noted. "I'm with the Captain on this one."

  "The good news is we've got sixty thousand Stingers coming our way just as fast as they can." Mims checked his wrist console. "The bad news is they won't reach us for another fourteen hours. The Queens will be far enough in to coordinate the Kath in five." He let out a long breath through his nose. "

  The first few hours were tense, but uneventful. Most of the ships that were equipped with beam weapons were of Confederation design, and far too slow to keep up with the YEETs. Mims had ended up taking all eight hundred beam frigates, twenty YEET Artillery barges, two hundred Gdiator css fighters, and twenty battlecruisers. In the Confed it would have been an unstoppable force. In the face of the Kath it felt... small.

  The beam frigates fired continuously, clearing the path ahead. Periodically, a group of Kath Frigates or the occasional Destroyer would swoop towards Yvian's armada. They'd bring thousands of Corvettes and smaller craft in their wake. Six hundred Psma Beam Cannons was only enough to destroy the smaller ships before they reached Yvian, but some well pced MAC rounds killed the capitol ships before they could enter firing range.

  By the four hour mark, Stinger fleets had reached three of the Kath Queen portals. The ships were smaller than the Encounter, but their Phased Beam Arrays were twice as deadly as the beam cannons in Yvian's fleet. They massacred the Klusters making up the portals in short order. With the portal ring disrupted, the portal cut off, slicing the front quarter of the Queenships off and leaving the rest trapped in Kath space.

  Less than an hour after that, everything changed. A Kath Queen needs to get a third of its bulk into a sector before it can start firing weapons or directing the other Kath. Yvian knew at least one of them had managed it when a wing of ten Frigates and a few thousand smaller ships suddenly veered away from it's attack run on her armada. All the Kath between Yvian and the Queens stayed where they were, flying erratically enough to prevent a YEET round from passing between them. The others all streamed towards each other, forming massive fleets.

  "Fuck me," Mims cursed. He gred at the holodispy. "I hope I'm right about this."

  "It would appear so," Kilroy reassured him. "The Kath have no regard for their own lives, but they are prioritizing the protection of their Queens above all else." The Peacekeeper typed into a console and the holodispy shifted to a wide view of the sector. "Kath ships are rallying and moving exclusively towards our fleets. Even the groups attacking the Gates have broken off."

  "So New Pixa's safe for now?" Yvian let a little of the tension out of her shoulders. "That's good news."

  "It is not," Kilroy disagreed. "It means we have the full attention of seventeen million Kath attack craft. We will be overwhelmed and destroyed."

  "Not necessarily," said Mims. "We've been accelerating for a while. The Kath are fast, but it will still take a long time for anything behind us to match speed and catch up." He tucked the portion of his helmet that covered his chin into his hand. "Now it's a race. We just have to get close enough to kill the Queens before the rest of the Kath overtake us."

  "Getting close will be difficult." The Peacekeeper changed the holodispy again. It showed Kath streaming into the area between Yvian and the Queens she was after. "The Kath are increasing their defense. This unit calcutes a full six hundred thousand vessels will be in pce by the time we arrive."

  Mims grunted. He thought for a moment. He looked at Kilroy. "Got any more secret armies? Maybe a super weapon you haven't told us about?"

  Kilroy's eyes fshed yellow. "Does this unit count?"

  Mims snorted. "Well, we've got fifteen hours to come up with a pn. We'll just have to..." The human trailed off. The portal in front of them winked out of existence. The front third of eight Queenships drifted, disabled but not destroyed. "What the hell?"

  "The Vore," Yvian guessed. "That's what they did at Krog Prime, when the Vore infected them."

  "Run a scan," the human ordered. "We need to know if those bastards are infected."

  While Yvian was scanning, Kilroy spoke. "Stinger Fleet Six reports successful engagement. All Kath Queenships destroyed. Stinger fleet six is en route to assist Stinger fleet five."

  "Scan complete," Yvian reported. "No signs of the Vore."

  "Good news all around," said the Captain. "Thirty two down, forty to go."

  "Alert." Kilroy's eyes fshed red. "Stinger Fleet Four reports Vore infection." He typed rapidly into his console. The dispy fshed to the remains of eight Queens. The Kath had cut their portal, but they hadn't been fast enough. The front thirds of the massive Queenships drifted just as the others had, but pulsing silver threads shed around and between them. The Kath Klusters that had made up the portal exploded into Raiders and Fighters, pulsing white psma down on the infected ships. Yvian didn't think it would do them much good.

  "Fuck." Captain Mims took a breath and let all the tension out of his shoulders. "Who's flying the Ballbreaker?"

  "Peacekeeper unit 898967151," Kilroy told him.

  "We'll call him Dave," the Captain decided. "Dave Evans. Tell Captain Evans to change course. We're making for the Vore."

  "This fleet must not change course," Kilroy reminded him. "The Kath Queens must be destroyed."

  "I know." The Captain was grim. "It will just be us."