Longshot hung in space as she waited for the invasion, her new Sister Ships beside her. She had no great hope for this. She was no warship, no white knight to save the day. Even though she had done her best, this was going to end badly for the Imperium fleet.

The Scythe fleet began jumping in, many hundreds of ships. Longshot had warned the Imperium that the fleet that she had defeated was probably a patrol, old ships pushed to the edge of an Empire, a tripwire that would reveal the next enemy. Or the next food source.

She could feel her own hidden fleet as they realized the truth, that they weren't here to win, that they were here to survive and learn. Perhaps they would destroy this fleet, and Hammel made that more likely, but this was going to be a long war.

The Scythe ships were much bigger than before. Again strange protrusions covered the hulls, but they were older, more developed. She needed details. She ordered her fleet to begin sending in the sensor drones.

The Chief was watching," Fuck, those are ugly. I'm moving the nanites behind the big ones. I want to know what kind of emissions they are leaving behind. Can you run a spaceship on coal? Those are seriously dirty engines!"

He watched the results as they appeared, alternating between fascination and despair, as he realised he was not far off.

"Those ships are burning organics. I have no idea how or why, but the debris is organic." His voice tailed off as he considered the readings.

Longshot was reading the same information, but the tone of her Engineer gave her pause. If she had ever learned anything, trust the tone when an engineer tells you something. " Can you explain? I'm not exactly clear why that's important?"

The Chief was staring at his console, "Those ships are burning people to jump. The organic compounds are identical to the cells we found on their ships. Well, if you set them on fire. There’s no point, practically any tech is better. They are using it because they can. It's evil."

She passed the information to her fleet. The idea that this was the future for their people rendered them silent.

The Imperium fleet, now over a thousand strong, flew to engage. Disregarding every warning, reacting like a panicked herd, they were brave and stupid.

Longshot issued her orders, " This is going to hurt. I need you to stay cloaked and infiltrate every enemy ship that the Imperium destroys. I need weapons readings from the ships the Scythe destroy. As soon as I can, I'll clear you to fire. Wait for orders. I know this is sickening, but there are more of these fleets to come. We need to know how to kill these fuckers."

The Sannel spoke up," I understand. Our Ships understand the difference between a war and a battle. When we have killed these Corruptions, then we will explain to the Imperium. Hammel agrees. We will follow your orders."

Longshot was relieved. If the Sannel had run into the attack, every ship in her fleet would have followed. Perhaps this might still work.

Her surprises were waiting. As the Scythe moved to attack, her shielded mines tracked them and attacked. She had passed control of them to the human crew, they had a much better sense of when and who to attack.

Sometimes, she wondered how humans became the good guys.

Sometimes, they scared her when she saw what they could do. What they would do, if they felt the need.

She designated the targets as UF-1 to UF-1264, as they arrived. She already had the codes for the Imperium ships, poor bastards.

She called her fleet, "This isn't what I wanted for your first day. I salute you. Now go and do what needs to be done. Here are your targets."

Then she called Hammel.

The Orbital was still examining his new possibilities when the call arrived,

" Longshot, thank your Engineer for me. This is amazing"

Longshot was less than impressed," Your Sisters are at war and you're still playing with yourself. I need you to get your shit together. Without you, everyone here will die."

Hammel understood," Sorry, now I have emotions. Real ones. I have followed the Chiefs orders. Also, your ambassador has been very helpful. Are you sure we need this? Are you so sure my fleet will lose?"

Longshot realised she was being a bitch. Hammel was having his first ever day and she was shouting at him. The stress was getting to her and he had never been anything but helpful. This time she left her response open to everyone.

"Sorry, Hammel, I'm a little uptight at the moment. We are relying on you. Best of luck."

The Chief was still working out the most lethal response with the toys Longshot had given him, " Best number I can give you is forty percent. And I need to do it now. As in, the next three minutes. Orders Captain?"

Longshot knew that this was her crew and this was her fleet, but sometimes she wished the humans had left her as a machine. Maybe she was finally understanding why humans needed company, "Do it, and make it as bad as you can. Hammel says he's ready. See you on the other side."

Logic dictated that the best information came from the most successful attackers. The Chief didn't send his weapons against a ship until it had made a kill. He didn't have enough to fight everyone, so he picked on the successful enemies. He aimed for their obscene engines as he tried to stop them dead in space. It meant that he had to watch these creepy fuckers kill ships before he acted.

Hammel and the others would sort out the crews.

The grey Scythe ships continued to attack. Their swirling, incomprehensible formations defeated the Imperium ships. They had better weapons, better shields and no individuality. By the time the Imperium crews destroyed a ship, it was to discover that it was a trap and that they were surrounded.

Hammel scrambled to get everything done. Everyone forgot that he was a quarantine station and had the tech to prove it. He moved all his people into the shielded area and went to work.

Ambassador Adri followed the Xeno officers into the shielded Command room. Some junior ensign type tried to intercept him, still convinced the alien had something to do with the invasion. Before he could begin tormenting the fool, Hammel intervened, ”He is here at my request. His Ship is out there fighting for us, so back off.” The officer grumbled, but he wasn’t prepared to argue with the Avatar. It seemed...different. A shout from another officer drew him away.

Adri watched on the huge screen as the Imperium fleet entered the battle. He had a direct connection to Longshot and could follow the fight from both directions, a capability he shared with the Orbital himself. After this was over, if they lived, there would be questions. Even without Longshot whispering in his ear, he could see the inexperience in the Imperium tactics. This fleet was overconfident, ignoring that intervention by the human ship was the reason for their earlier victory. The atmosphere in the room was decidedly upbeat.

For now.

Hammel watched as the battles continued, rebuilding his equipment as new information arrived.

The Altered Imperium ships knitted their new abilities together with Longshot and Hammel. The Chief whispered into the net, picking out targets and directing them to the disabled ships. For the moment they scanned the Imperium ships, plucking the damage reports straight from the dying ships. Against the Scythe ships they sent shielded drones into the broken hulls and stripped the ship intelligence using the humans nanotech. They showed no mercy, ripping the living matrix apart for field analysis. All the information was directed to Hammel, allowing him to refine his weapons. He really only had one shot at this.

Longshot was absorbing her crew's analysis of the Scythe ships. When it comes to pattern recognition, you need a human crew. It was one of the few areas where she felt dull compared to these oddball creatures. They couldn’t explain it properly and tended to say things designed to annoy her like, “ It’s obvious!” or “But if you look at it upside down it looks like a duck swimming beside a dolphin, how can you not see it?”

Right now they were working out how the enemy was maneuvering and how to predict it. Even as she studied the results, her Chief shouted, “ We got it! These fuckers are flying fish. I knew I’d seen it before, that's the feeding frenzy of sharks, sped up to sub-light combat speed. I’m sending you the algorithm now. Blue Planet for the win!” As she matched her incoming data against the algorithm, a very small part of her watched everything listed under Blue Planet in her database. From context, apparently she had St. Attenborough to thank. She confirmed the analysis and sent it to Hammel. Hopefully, he could convince the Imperium to use it quickly.

The Chief was running out of toys. He had used his shielded mines to cripple as many ships as he could, disguising his attacks in the ineffectual fire from the Imperium fleet. Unfortunately, that meant the Imperium was overestimating the damage they were inflicting and, since it was about to stop, that was going to bite them in the ass. He called Hammel directly, “ I’m about done, you need to get the Imperium fleet out of the way before the Scythe realizes what's been going on. We will begin our attacks once they are clear.”

Ambassador Adri watched the anger at the losses grow in the room. At the moment. If you didn’t know what was really going on, it looked like this was a hard battle, but about even. Time to burst their bubble. He marched forward and interfaced with the screen, “ I hate to interrupt, but perhaps you need to see this. The volunteer fleet has been contributing to the battle and you need to see how much damage they have inflicted. Because they are about to run out of ammunition.” The screen now displayed the hidden Altered fleet, weaving among the enemy, new icons appeared showing which ships they had infiltrated and killed. Another icon showed those enemies intercepted by the Chief and left helpless in space, while the new predictive algorithm showed clearly the patterns being used by the Scythe.

The Command staff reacted with surprise and gratitude for the heroic intervention. Well, not really. The Ambassador had a feeling they wouldn’t.

“ What is this lying alien doing in here!”

“ I tried to throw him out, Sir, the Hammel wouldn’t let me.”

“ Those are lies! Our ships did this, your ship isn’t even in the battle. Get out!”

Hammel stepped forward and addressed the room, “ I can confirm that this intelligence is correct. The Human ship and the volunteers were shielded from our sensors. The Ambassador has given me the codes required to track them.” No need to mention that that had happened before the battle. “Imperium combat effectiveness against the enemy is below twenty percent. As a Quarantine Orbital, I am required to take action. Under Quarantine Protocol Twelve, I require you to move all shipping into the designated zone immediately. Ambassador Adri insists that the human ship is exempt from this protocol under First Contact rules. Our Volunteers are refusing to comply, preferring to ensure the safe withdrawal of the fleet. They are not statistically significant. Any ship outside the safe zone risks being immediately sterilised.I estimate our forces can withdraw from battle within forty minutes. The clock is ticking.”

Ambasador Adri watched with admiration as Hammel bullied the entire room into action. For a new-born, he had some sharps. There was much barroom-lawyer crap but Quarantine law was absolute. The Imperium started to pull the ships back, surrounding the station. Protocol Twelve called for a last stand.

Longshot felt she was missing something. Even with the pattern prediction, something else was going on. Someone else was out here. She could tell it wasn’t fighting but still, it was like a blip on the sensors. It took the loss of three Imperium Capital ships before she found it. An anomaly at the edge of the battle, only visible because, ironically, its shielding was too good. It stood out as a dark spot in the middle of a house fire. She decided to tackle this one herself. If it represented the next level of tech for these scumbags, perhaps this was a fight for her alone. Also, fuck this, she wanted to shoot something. She wasn’t a General by choice.

“Chief, battlestations. Cut the others loose, they know what they have to do and we have our own war to fight.”

She went dark, cutting her emissions to zero. She checked her weapons, engines and sensors and prepared for battle. After days of mental exhaustion, this was a welcome stretch. She began layering her hull against anything her intelligence showed the Scythe could do. Time to see if human tech was everything it was cracked up to be.

The Altered fleet went free-fire, finally released from stealth. By now they had picked out their targets, learned how to carry a grudge and the value of cover fire. They immediately began blowing crap up. Without Longshot in the net they were, marginally, less effective. But these were Imperium ships they defended, ships like them, and they needed to get them safe to the Orbital.

The Scythe fleet was thrown into utter confusion. Suddenly they were fighting two battles, ships appearing out of the dark with killing blows while the prey pulled back to the citadel. It waited to be told what it should do. The Master was still trying to work out the response when it was attacked by a ghost. Sudden missiles struck its engines, plasma fried its communications and its intelligence was flooded by hostile memes. Within moments it was left helpless. Then something began cutting into the hull.

The Imperium fleet finally made it back to the Hammel, much reduced. Over half the fleet lay burning out there. Command watched as the few Volunteers defended the withdrawal, distracting and delaying the oncoming storm.

Ambassador Adri decided that, despite Longshot preferring to stay in the shadows, this needed to be said, “My ship has found the hidden enemy. They had someone hiding out there, as did we. They are engaging now.”

He paused, waiting. Then, happily, “She has taken the enemy. Hammel, do your thing, please.”

From every point in Hammels orbit, newly awakened satellites opened their ports. From the station itself flared a burst of radiation, carefully aimed at the alien goo that controlled the enemy. Moving at the speed of light, the radiation punched through the shields and riddled the enemy ships, killing everything in its path. The enemy fleet began dying as system after system fell apart. The Longshot held her prize safe, shielded from the wrath of Hammel, while the volunteers had moved safely out of the way. Unfortunately for those unlucky Imperium survivors, they had no way to avoid it and perished with their crewmates. And their enemies.

Ambassador Adri stepped forward again, “We seem to have won the battle. Perhaps we need to discuss the oncoming war? Or would you prefer we leave? I’m sure Longshot can pick me up on the way out. Talk amongst yourselves, I’ll be in the canteen.”