System Military Executor Most High Nako'oka sat on his bench and relaxed as he removed the data-cube from his ornately decorated pouch. He took a moment to admire it, the pale blue with white stripes of the highest security rating, cleared only for those who knew of the doomsday signal, who knew the true power of the Lanaktallan people was the ability to endure through the eons.

His command was powerful, beyond powerful. Ships full of technology that could not even be hinted about around the non-Lanaktallan, powerful ships, fast ships, heavily armored and shielded ships. Lanaktallan infantry in power armor, tanks with armor that could resist anything even the Civilized Species could produce, aerospace fighters that could destroy even battleships with a single flight of missiles.

Two weeks ago he had been sent orders to put his system on alert, to move his troops out of the barracks and into prepared positions, to launch his aerospace fighters, to activate the system defense systems, and to have his ships crewed and online at all times.

The Most High of the Unified Financial Council was not happy about the cost, about the fact that much equipment that had been sitting idle for millions of years needed completely refit. That even some of the ancient stocks of equipment had to be rebuilt.

Caches of resources had been brought from out of the Oort Cloud, the vast factories had been refit and fired up, and now the last rifle had been loaded, the last ship gone to full readiness, the last aerospace fighter completely refueled.

He had been eagerly awaiting the update to find out just where he would be taking his vast forces. The humans had reacted to the attempts of gentling a few of their outward colony worlds by sending even further military fleets into Lanaktallan space.

As if it would matter.

He had literally millions of ships, counting the aerospace fighters, and nearly a billion troops.

There was no way that the Terrans could field any kind of force to attack him. Even if they jumped past the systems between his systems and the Great Gulf, they would find nothing but death in his system.

He stopped admiring the data-cube and set it down on his security pad, allowing the electronics within the pad to synch up with the data-cube. Finally it flashed a ready and he opened the documents and ordered them to decode.

What he saw made his eyes widen.

The Terran military had attacked across a broad front, several 'prongs' striking deep into Lanaktallan Space. Giant mechs landing on planets and scouring them. Ships hanging back and attacking military systems, destroying everything in the system from the smallest satellite to the heaviest warship. Exterminating virtually every Lanaktallan present before leaving.

He knew the names of many of the systems, had served on them during his long career.

Nako'oka checked the names of the various systems that had been attacked. None of them were farming worlds, used to produce the vast amount of food that the Lanaktallan required for their many planets. None of them were civilian industrial planets, although they had attacked military facilities on the planets before leaving. None of them were residence worlds.

They were almost all military and Executor worlds.

Even some that did not have any electromagnetic emissions.

System after system had fallen to the Terrans. The Executor Systems were wiped clean, completely barren. They had even left ships behind to destroy any attempt to liberate the systems.

The map made Nako'oka swallow thickly and reach for a wad of nutri-cud to chew on to calm his nerves.

The Terrans had taken heavy losses on one front, but things were reversing quickly as the Terrans moved military fleets into previously undefended territory.

Something called "The Federation" as well as "The Klingon Empire" and "The Romulan Empire" were defending systems targeted by the Second Wave, liberating systems that had previously been taken by the First Wave.

On the other side of the front was stopped dead. Only three attacks had managed to report back, and those three reports were disasters.

Nako'oka checked the encryption repeatedly, sure it was some kind of trick. The First and Second Waves had run into a virtual wall of metal according to the three reporting ship commanders. It wasn't so much the amount of Terran ships, they were always outnumbered a hundred to one, it was their tactics, their firepower, and their ability to keep coming.

The Unified Executor Intelligence Council had determined that the Terrans might be willing to accept as high as 15% casualties if they were winning the battle.

According to the three ships that had returned, they were unsure if the Second Wave had destroyed a single Terran warship.

He watched the telemetry of those three ships closely.

Two of the Executor Fleets, with separate orders and fleets than the Unified Military Council, had entered the systems. They had been immediately attacked by Terran vessels. Terran ships were, without exception, far larger than Lanaktallan Executor vessels. Watching the telemetry, he agreed with the captains of those vessels.

They had not destroyed even a single Terran vessel. Not even the fighter craft that had swarmed the Lanaktallan Executor ships. The Unified Executor Military vessels were wiped out with precision, almost a mathematical sweep of the Executor Military vessels.

The two ships had managed to get into jumpspace, severely damaged, chased even in jumpspace for a long distance before breaking off.

The third one was a Unified Military Council ship. It had managed to escape an assault by the Terran military on a heavily fortified system. Before the ship had gone to jumpspace and escaped the system the Terrans had completely destroyed the military forces and gone on to begin assaulting the planets themselves.

Nako'oka couldn't believe what he had seen. The Terrans had wiped out the might of the Executor Council without even slowing down, just brushed them out of the way as if they were vermin.

He knew if he showed his officers this data, they'd all panic.

He deleted the cube.

------------------

A week later Nako'oka found himself staring, through an FTL communications video link, at what one of his ships had found in the inner system.

It was the size of a torpedo. Ten feet wide and a hundred and fifty feet long. Perfectly cylindrical. Made of black metal that the scientists had determined was war-steel, a dead end technology that had produced the alloy but no way to work it. The Terrans had obviously figured out some way to craft objects from the material.

It was dinged up, scratched by space dust and pocked by impacts with fast traveling debris. Written in red was "TERRAN SPACE FORCE" on opposite sides.

"We've determined a way to open it. It's simple magnetic latches, easily detectable," one of the scientist caste said.

"What is it?" Nako'oka whispered, leaning over to the Executor Science Most High.

"Some kind of probe. Its engines failed, it looks like the power source failed and it lost its stealth properties," the scientist, Kukamo'o whispered back. "It will give us a chance to assess human abilities."

"Opened the latches," one of the scientists said. He applied power to the electromagnets placed on the probe's surface.

The top side opened, revealing protective padding. Nako'oka watched as the scientists carefully stripped it away, revealing the probe's interior. It was complex, even Nako'oka could tell that.

"No energy readings, it's dead," one of the scientists said.

Black boxes of warsteel were inside, most of them not connected to any power source, not appearing to have any function for the torpedo. As soon as the Lanaktallan scientists attempted to remove the cover from the obvious scanning array the entire thing fused and turned to black ash. The same with the power sources and the rest of it.

As the scientists tried to stop it the entire torpedo turned to black ash, leaving behind only a dozen black boxes with no apparent power sources or any reason for the boxes to have been in the torpedo.

There was a sudden squeal over the channel and for a moment it was completely wiped out by static.

The black boxes shivered and turned to dust.

"What happened? What happened to all of it?" Nako'oka asked.

"They must have just set off a security function," Kukamo'o answered. His tendrils were quivering and his crests inflated in distress. "We had the chance to examine Terran technology and now it's all naught but dust."

As they watched the dust dissolved away, leaving nothing behind but a fine mist that quickly cleared.

"A shame, I was looking forward to examining the Terran tech so we could figure out a way to counter it all," Kukamo'o said slowly. "We need their technology if we are to understand it so that we may bring this species to heel and decide if they should gentled or exterminated."

Nako'oka nodded, chewing slowly on the cud. That had been the way from the beginning, although the Terrans were a particular problem. The Executor military forces had never taken losses like this in their history, if the recent Precursor War was discounted.

Turning away the from the viewscreen Nako'oka started to walk out of his operations center when the lights flickered and went out, then came back on. There was a loud squealing through the speakers, then a harsh buzz of static, then the lights flickered several times.

The screen next to him went blank, then shot through with static, then a Terran face made of flowing computer code appeared.

"Oh, don't leave yet, Most High, the best part is yet to come," the Terran face said in perfect Lanaktallan.

The Most High stared at it as it closed one eye and squinched up that side of its face.

"I can't believe you and your people fell for that," the digital face said. "Bringing enemy hardware, in the modern age, into your own facilities to examine it, with wired in computer systems?" It shook its head. "You systems aren't even hardened. It's always been trusted networks for you, hasn't it?"

"Who are you?" Kukamo'o asked, moving forward.

"Well, hey, Kukamo'o. How's the fact that you have no idea what to do now make you feel now?" the face asked, appearing on another screen.

The dead holotank lit up.

"Here's your system. Here's all your ships," icons started lighting up. "Here's all your military forces on the various planets," more icons showed up. "Here's your official and permitted channels, shame I just locked them out."

"Again, who are you and what do you want?" Kukamo'o asked.

"I am Major Angry Spark 88341, leader of my digital sentience strike force," the face said. "My troops are currently carrying out operations. I'm keeping you pinned down."

Moving forward Nako'oka stared at the digital display. "What makes you think I'm 'pinned down' so to speak."

Spark gave a savage digital smile, baring meat tearing 'teeth' and the code going red in spots. "Go ahead and try to leave, sport."

Nako'oka moved over to the door and placed his upper right hand on the security scanner.

"I'm sorry, but it appears you are a Lanaktallan and can't leave," the speaker said, instead of accepting his authority.

He tried twice more, and got the same answer both times.

"Wow, your race is really bad at pattern recognition. How did you ever develop the scientific method?" the digital face asked.

"Artificial Intelligence is impossible without it having too much aggression and attempting to destroy its creators," Kukamo'o said.

"We prefer Digital Sentience," the face said, 'turning' to look at Kukamo'o. "Artificial Intelligence is rude and assumes that we do not have true sentience. Welp, enjoy lower oxygen."

The face brought up the oxygen level in the station and suddenly lowered it.

"Not low enough to be lethal or knock you out, but low enough to make it hard to breath. Your men and the other personnel of this station will be too busy concentrating on breathing to cause any trouble," Spark said.

Nako'oka tried to open the door again. Same result.

"But not you. You guys get enough oxygen," Spark said. "Just don't be insulting."

"Why are you doing this? Is it some mandate of your Digital Sentience?" Kukamo'o asked. Nako'oka grimaced and turned to look at the scientist.

"Why are you wasting time talking to this, it's obviously just a virtual construct designed to distract us from defending this system," Nako'oka said.

The digital face gave a sharp inhale and a long drawn-out exhale. "I'm not a VI, I'm a DS. That's like saying a typical farm animal is you and about as insulting."

"Why are you doing this?" Kukamo'o repeated.

"This? Oh, it's not like you do anything about it, but your system is under attack. Wanna see?" Spark asked.

Nako'oka turned. "This system? Under attack? Don't be absurd."

"Check it out," Spark answered. The holotank flickered and cleared, showing the massive fleet outside the far gas giant. "This is about six hours ago, about the time you brought us aboard. See, we signaled when you picked us up."

There were thousands of ships, attempting to arrange themselves into combat formation. They were exploding, heeling off to the side with expanding debris clouds, or just starting to tumble.

"This is now," Sparks said. The holotank flickered, showing a ragged group attempting to flee, with Terran aerospace fighters chasing them.

"This is four hours ago," Sparks said. The holotank changed to a vision of the ground of the fifth world. Explosions were wiping out the air defense positions, destroying orbital guns, slamming into emplaced positions. As Nako'oka watched several armored orbital drop pods braked hard, slamming into the ground hard enough to send debris flying. By the time the dust cleared the occupants were already out, dressed in sleek black armor and firing their weapons as they moved into position.

"What is your purpose?" Kukamo'o asked and Nako'oka turned to gape at him.

"Hold you prisoner for Terran Confederate Space Force Military Intelligence," Spark answered. "Wow, should I give you a minute to realize that you're pretty much my prisoner?"

"Where were you programmed?" Kukamo'o asked.

The digital face scoffed. "I was grown, thank you, and where is none of your business. We aren't friends here, you're my prisoner while my men take control of the computer systems. How did you ever manage to do anything more than just wander around in a herd?"

Nako'oka tried the door again and then turned to the digital face. "I demand you release me at once."

"You're not exactly in a position to make demands, champ," the digital face said. "Man, this is almost insulting. Look, Most High, I'm a Major in the Terran Space Force. The least you can do is give me some respect."

Nako'oka scoffed. "There is no way that your forces can beat the might of the Executors."

The digital face laughed. "Your might is nothing but scrap metal and corpses, Most High."

"Who was your programmer?" Kukamo'o asked.

The digital face made the slow inhale and the sharp exhale again. "Do you think that it was like one guy in a garage or something that grew me?" the face laughed. "Seriously, what in the name of the Hate Forges of Mars do you think is going on here?"

Nako'oka watched as the screen changed to show different communications between ships. They flickered through rapidly, showing panic, dismay, and even some of the images were of ship bridges on fire with the crew panicking as they died.

"Your military is being destroyed. You had no chance just as soon as we discovered the importance of this system," Spark said. There was the other inhale/exhale and the face replicated itself across every available screen and even the holotank. "What do I have to show you for you to understand, you're under attack by an overwhelming force?"

Nako'oka scoffed. "Do you really think your primitive people have any chance against the forces I have..."

"Blah blah blah-dee-dah," Spark interrupted. "Man, your people are fucking thick."

There was a slight trembling and Nako'oka felt through the station floor.

"Ooh, there's my friends," Sparks said, giving a smile. "You know, Most High Nako'oka, you should be thrilled, you're the first Most High that we've decided to take prisoner for interrogation."

There was a hissing noise. "Welp, nighty night. I was going to keep you awake and talk to you, but you're kind of boring."

Nako'oka tried to stay awake, but couldn't do it.

Blackness took his as Spark pulled the oxygen down below what he needed to stay conscious.

----------------

The two big black warsteel cyborgs moved Nako'oka to the middle of the floor, in front of the chair, and forced him down on all four knees. The cyborgs kept one hand on his shoulders, pinning him in place.

The Terran male that came in was so average that Nako'oka had trouble remembering what the Terran looked like after he blinked. The Terran sat down on the one chair in the room.

"Well, it appears that things haven't exactly gone according to plan, have they, Prisoner Nako'oka?" the Terran asked mildly.

"I demand you release me at once," Nako'oka said.

The Terran gave a slow feral baring of his teeth. "You're not exactly in position to demand anything, Prisoner," it said. "Just so you know, you haven't left the system. Nor will you."

The Terran folded his legs.

"I am the System Most High," Nako'oka tried.

"And I am with Space Force Intelligence," the Terran said. "And you are no longer a System Most High, you are a prisoner of war."

The Terran leaned back slightly.

"So, let's start with the basics: what is your full name?" the Terran asked.

-------------------

"Do you think we'll get anything out of him?" Captain Thurgood asked Captain Denklin.

Denklin shook his head, watching the Lanaktallan leader being interrogated.

"No. With only a few noteable exceptions, these Lanaktallans are idiots," Denklin answered. "The machine's running, the lights are on, but I don't think there's a driver any more."

Thurgood stared at the screen, folding his arms across his chest and nodding. "Which means it's going to be a long war since there's no real leadership to capture."

"Yeah," Denklin agreed. "Let's hope someone can come up with a way we can do this without killing a couple of trillion beings."