"How many are there now?" Mims activated the holodisplay in the center of the Encounter's bridge. An overview of New Pixa Sector came to life, sprinkled with red dots indicating enemy vessels. A lot of enemy vessels.

"Twenty one thousand, four hundred ninety three," Kilroy reported. "Klaath Klusters are appearing more rapidly. This unit predicts a large Incursion."

"Yeah, a small one would be too much to ask." The human took a deep breath and visibly relaxed. A shiver shot down Yvian's spine. The Captain hated the Klaath with a fury Yvian could barely comprehend. If he was shutting that out, cutting off all emotion and eliminating the tension from his body, it could only mean one thing. Things were about to get bad. In a calm professional voice he ordered, "Cease all operations in the Confed and bring our ships home. We're going to need them."

"Objection," Kilroy objected. "Ceasing all operations will result in the death or enslavement of over eighty thousand pixen citizens." Yvian hadn't known it at the time, but the Trelg Pleasure Guild's executives had issued a memo before moving to enslave the residents of Fico Station. They'd ordered the capture and processing of all available pixens, intending to continue operations solely on the backs of implanted slaves.

It was illegal as Crunch, but that didn't matter. No one was going to stop them. At least, no one from the Confed. The Peacekeeper units had taken exception, rightfully regarding it as an unprovoked attack on their surrogate species. Instead of ordering or asking for help, all Lissa had to do was give permission. The units had gone to war with gusto.

Over half of Pixa's forces were in Trelg space, destroying slave processing stations and saving whoever they could. The Confederation had responded with a declaration of war of their own, but the Kingdom of Trelg had been snubbed by the Military after the Trelg Militia nearly let pirates steal the entire Third Fleet, and it would take weeks for a significant force to reach Trelg space. Instead, the Peacekeeper units were contending with Militia and the Guild's own fleets, but that was still enough to tie up most of Pixa's firepower.

"They'd only be gone a..." Mims cut himself off and sighed. "No, you're right. A day is too long, and this might take longer than that. How many ships can we spare without losing anyone?"

Kilroy was silent for a moment. Yvian assumed he was communing with his fellow Peacekeepers. "We can spare a hundred ships. Maybe more in a few hours, as more complete their missions."

Mims took a breath, then nodded. "Bring me whoever you can spare. Station them at the Gates." New Pixa Sector had two Gates, on opposite ends of the sector. They both lead to Xill space, which made travel by traditional means impossible, but they also allowed Yvian's forces to the sector via jumpdrive. If the Klaath destroyed the Gates, the Pixen Technocracy would be cut off from the rest of the verse. Forever.

The Klaath didn't use Jumpgates. They made their own portals to move between sectors. Nobody knew how. What Yvian did know was that destroying the Gates to cut off reinforcements was one of the first things the motherless sons would try. Not that Yvian was expecting reinforcements to begin with.

"Can we work with that?" Lissa asked. "Do we have enough to defend the sector?"

"Unknown," said Kilroy.

"Our forces are evenly distributed," said the Captain. He pushed a few buttons and the Holodisplay shifted. "We've got two Gates, and three sets of stations." The display highlighted three groups of void stations. One in each of the asteroid belts, and a third just over twelve thousand kilometers from New Pixa itself. The asteroid belt stations took up more volume, with asteroid mines and wholesale manufacturing, but the third housed all of Pixa's food production, as well as the small shipyard the Encounter was docked in. "That means we've got about ten thousand ships each."

"That's pretty good, right?" Yvian frowned. Why was the human so worried? "That's more ships than they had at Krog Prime."

"That's more ships than the Militia had at Krog Prime," Mims corrected. "There were over a million other vessels in the sector when the Klaath hit. All armed."

"There were eighty six thousand, four hundred and two stations as well," Kilroy added. "Scattered through out the system. The only reason the Militia survived was because the Klaath spread out to destroy them all."

"Now they've only got five targets," said Mims. "We're going to get swarmed."

"Shouldn't it be six?" Yvian asked. "What about the planet?"

Mims swore. "Kilroy, please tell me planetary defenses are up."

"Negative," said the Peacekeeper. "Construction will not be completed for another three weeks. Planetary defenses are negligible."

"God damn it." The Captain thought quickly. "Lissa, put out a notice. I want all citizens back in the crystal cities. Tell them to get inside a building and stay there. The stuff they're made out of absorbs energy. It should keep them safe."

"I'm on it." Lissa started typing into her wrist console.

Kilroy spoke up. "Message sent to the Peacekeeper units on the surface. They will assist, then hunker down themselves."

"Good enough for now." Mims turned back to the holodisplay. The Pixen forces were firing on the Klaath. Mims had insisted on outfitting as many ships as he could with beam weapons, and each fleet had roughly two thousand ships equipped with the things. They were a massive power drain and only did a fraction of the damage of regular cannons. Yvian had thought the human was crazy, but she'd changed her tune once she saw them in action. Beam weapons could hit a target at ninety thousand kilometers, and they were impossible to dodge. Most energy weapons had a maximum range only half that, and an effective range of less then ten kilometers against ships that could move. The Klaath were getting swatted out of the sky, and they weren't close enough to fire back. "What's the count Kilroy?"

"Eighty three thousand, seven hundred eleven," Kilroy reported. A mass of red appeared, nearly completely obscuring the holodisplay.

"Correction," said the Peacekeeper. His eyes went red. "Four million, nine hundred sixty thousand, three hundred forty three."

Mims went perfectly still. He let out a slow breath. "That's what I was afraid of."

"Oh." Lissa stared at the display. "Oh Crunch. It's not a normal Incursion, is it?"

"No," said Mims. "A normal Incursion has somewhere between sixty and a hundred twenty thousand Klaath. We could deal with that." Another rash or red dots spread across the display. "This is an evacuation. It's Krog Prime all over again."

"Fuck." Krog Prime had been beyond desperate. Mims had pulled in every ship he had, the Militia had pulled out all the stops, and they'd barely saved the sector. The only reason anyone survived had been a desperate gambit to infect the Klaath Queenships with the Vore. A gambit that had cost Yvian her ships, her pride, and her legs. Her legs had been regrown, but she still had nightmares about that day. "That means..."

"It means the Klaath might not be our only problem," the Captain maintained his conversational tone. "We might be looking at a Vore invasion, as well."

Another swath of red appeared on the holodisplay. "Oh, fuck," Yvian breathed. "Oh Bright Lady, not again."

"Captain Mims," Kilroy interrupted. "This unit requests permission to activate the Stinger units."

"The Stingers? All six of them?" Mims shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"There are more than six Stinger units," said the Peacekeeper.

Mims froze. Slowly, he turned his head towards the machine. "Oh?"

"There are three hundred and ten thousand Stinger units," Kilroy elaborated.

"Three hundred..." Mims stared at the Peacekeeper for a moment. When he spoke it was almost a shout. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"Negative," said Kilroy. "This unit is functioning within normal parameters."

"What's a Stinger?" asked Lissa.

"It's an attack drone," the human explained. "About the size of an interceptor. Fast, lightly shielded, and equipped with a beam weapon." He turned back to the Peacekeeper. "You of all people know why I don't want remote weapons in this sector. If the Xill turn..."

"The Stinger units are-" Kilroy began.

"If the Xill turn on us," Mims shouted over him, "they'll take control of every one of those fucking things! And that's just the Xill. Reba's still living with the humans, Kilroy! A Synthetic Intelligence just as dangerous as the Xill, who's actively trying to kill us!" His whole body clenched as he screamed the words. "And you've just handed her the means."

"The Stinger units are not remote piloted," Kilroy tried again.

The human unclenched his fists. His head tilted slightly. "Not by remote? You found a way to fit a pilot on those things?"

"Negative," said the machine. "We still lack the manufacturing capacity to produce inertial dampeners. The units..." His eyes flashed purple. "This unit found an alternate solution."

"Is that so?" the human's voice went deathly quiet. "And what solution did you find?"

The purple light remained in the machine's eyes. "We could not place Peacekeeper units aboard the Stinger units, so we made the Stinger units into Peacekeeper units."

"The Stingers are Peacekeeper units?" Mims ran a hand over the back of his helmet. "You put your operating systems, your minds, into attack ships?"

"Affirmative."

"And you didn't tell anyone?"

Kilroy looked down. The purple light got a little bluer. "Negative."

"God damn it, Kilroy." Mims glared at the holodisplay. A little counter on the bottom of the screen informed Yvian that there were twelve million, six hundred eight thousand, and thirty seven Klaath ships in the system. The clusters that weren't near any defenses were already spinning around each other, forming portals to let the larger Corvettes, Frigates, and Destroyers into the system. "How the hell did you hide three hundred thousand ships, anyway?"

"The Stinger units are equipped with Stealth technology."

"Of course they fucking are."