text: y should be firing on us with all they've got by now."
  
  "Maybe they don't have that much firepower", ventured Dolphin.
  
  As if in answer, probing blue rays flashed past Silph's canopy, but thin and far away.
  
  A cool, precise voice came through. "We're going to keep moving in. Stay on course." Silph immediately knew that this new voice was the Wing Commander.
  
  "How can they fire with the planet in between us?"
  
  "They can't. They're directly ahead."
  
  "They're invisible to our radar?"
  
  Silph could almost see the Wing Commander thinking it over.
  
  "All wings, fire your lasers at the horizon!"
  
  "Ayo!" The pilots replied as one.
  
  Silph adjusted his targeting apparatus and aimed his guns on the point where the last plasma burst had come from. He heard the whirr as the guns moved independently of the ship.
  
  He focused, checked the aim, and moved his hand into the grip, taking the safety off and holding the firing button with his thumb. Nothing happened. Well, nothing visible. Laser light travels in a straight line, and without anything to bounce off, would never reach his eyes.
  
  Then, Silph saw a flash. A beam of plasma flew over his canopy, but he didn't notice. He targeted the point where the beam had come from, and fired the lasers a second time.
  
  Something in the darkness twinkled.
  
  "I have a target. Fire on this location." Silph sent the co-ordinates to the wing.
  
  On the horizon, distant, tiny, dimly defined silhouettes were traced out by the wing's lasers.
  
  "We're not seeing any explosions."
  
  "Well, if the ships are crewed by robots then they won't contain any air..."
  
  "But we're not seeing any heat signatures either!"
  
  Swift's voice came through. "We're close enough to launch torpedoes. I don't want to go any closer than I have to. The other flights can have their death or glory run. Once you've launched, head for home.
  
  Silph carefully armed his torpedoes and set the targeting protocols, then released them all. Twelve torpedoes were released from clamps on the underside of the Eagle. He saw them fly into the distance, riding cones of brilliant flame.
  
  He turned the ship around in a lateral spin. Burst. Wait. Compensate. His view swung around, jolting him.
  
  He quickly fired his chemical engines to counter the speed he had got from the catapult. He groaned as the G-forces crushed his chest. "Up" was now towards the Alliance fleet.
  
  The Wing Commander's voice came through. "I see half of you have already fired your torpedoes. The rest of us will close in. No one else will fire until I give the go-ahead. We can't waste torpedoes or time here."
  
  Feeling somewhat guilty, but also relieved, Silph burned his main engines again to get him out faster and was again crushed against his seat. On his scopes he saw roughly half the wing turning back.
  
  He listened to the radio chatter.
  
  "More plasma beams. Accelerate to attack speed."
  
  "I've been hit, I've got to turn back!"
  
  "Keep going!"
  
  "What the-!"
  
  "I've been-bzzzzt!"
  
  "Oh no. Oh no, no, no!"
  
  "Lasers! Where did all those lasers come from!"
  
  "They were waiting for us! They were waiting...."
  
  "..until we were too close to get away!"
  
  "They burned right through my leg!"
  
  "Stow it pilots. Drop your torpedoes!"
  
  A pause in the chatter.
  
  "Good work, now let's get out of here."
  
  "I'm in trouble! My thrust-eeeeeargh!"
  
  "Full power! Fire your emergency boosters! Drop your chaff!"
  
  "It's not working! Plasma is cutting right through!"
  
  "Why? This can't be happening!"
  
  "I- I think they're stopping now!"
  
  "That's because we've got fighters on our backs, pilot! Check your six!"
  
  "We have to go back and help them!" Lek's horrified voice cut through the chatter.
  
  "Don't be a damn fool! Do you want to end up sucking vacuum?" growled Swift.
  
  "I don't like this any more than you do, but we can't do a thing. They have too many guns. Wait for the interceptor squadrons, they can handle it."
  
  The Mammoth loomed ahead.
  
  "Delta two, slow down to landing speed."
  
  "Ayo."
  
  Silph turned to face away from the fleet, then burned his engines, crushed himself in his seat and watched his sensors. When he was moving at a reasonable speed, he spun around to face the Mammoth.
  
  "You are cleared for landing, Delta two."
  
  Silph used his dorsal thrusters to push his Eagle "downwards" (ie, towards the floor) to line up with the open bay, compensated with a burst from the ventral thrusters so he wouldn't keep moving "downwards" and rolled so he wouldn't enter the landing bay upside-down.
  
  He then relaxed, as the Eagle drifted into the bay. He was pushed forward as a magnetic field caught him like a fly in a web, holding his craft in place.
  
  "Power down, Delta two."
  
  "'Kay."
  
  Silph turned off all systems and waited. He felt the jolt as a magnetic clamp attached to the ceiling hit the roof of the Eagle. Then he moved, forwards, then down, touching the steel floor. The canopy was pulled open and Silph found himself looking into the visor of a pressure suit.
  
  "Looks like you got away clean. You should really get some water, you look like you've been wandering through the desert." The mechanic's voice came through the radio, and Silph realised that the landing bays must be un-pressurised. He was in a room full of vacuum.
  
  Silph noticed for the first time how hot he was. Sweat was pooled up everywhere.
  
  "Ah, most first-time pilots are surprised at how hot they get, but space isnt cold - it can't absorb heat. With the sunlight, the human body and a heavy pressure suit on you're not going to feel cold for a while."
  
  > Closure
  "So, Delta flight, you fired your torpedoes early."
  
  Silph stood in the debriefing room with Dolphin, Swift, Lek and the debriefing officer.
  
  "Back in Tach, you would have all been shot for that. Those torpedoes cost money and you can't be sure they even hit at that range. There isn't enough time for another run, so you have probably wasted our time as well as our money."
  
  Swift grinned. "Our orders were 'to fire our torpedoes when we got in range'. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation. We were in range, we did get a target lock and the Wing Commander only forbade the action after we had launched."
  
  The debriefing officer leaned forward, staring her down. "You are walking a fine line, pilot. Watch yourself. You're not on holiday here with your, ah, friends. Dismissed, you pathetic excuses for fakeburger meat."
  
  They turned to walk out. Swift was calm, the rest of them were fuming.
  
  Dolphin sighed. "Come on, let's watch the action. We won't have to fly again until we're closer in."
  
  The ships drifted lazily over the planet, the fact that they were travelling faster than Mach 7 not fazing anyone.
  
  In the bridge of the Order Guard, the scanner crew watched the horizon intently.
  
  "We're picking something up!" called one of the crew, from his scanner screens. "Something on the horizon!"
  
  The Captain walked up, looking over the crewman's shoulder, his magnetic boots clanging on the steel floor.
  
  "It must be them. Communications, alert the fleet. Get into your pressure suits now. I'll get to the helm."
  
  "Ayo!"
  
  Aboard Tycho's Spear, the pressure-suited gunners were scrambling for their controls, strapping themselves into their seats and reaching for the-
  
  "Hold your fire!" The voice filled the ears and minds of all present, replacing all else. Everyone stopped moving.
  
  "We will hold our fire until the enemy is within range of our plasma! We are not, repeat, not, going to paint a bullseye on a ship that cost 10 billion credits to build!"
  
  Slowly they came, imperceptibly, over the horizon. They were shrouded in mystery, and humans have a primal fear of the unknown. Sometimes primal fears don't help.
  
  "Fire, Damn you! We can see them, we can shoot them!"
  
  The cruiser Renegade Heart fired its laser batteries, then opened up with plasma. A fireworks display appeared on the horizon.
  
  "Haha! Suck vacuum, you sneaky bastards!"
  
  Then, blue lightning came out of the darkness, and the Renegade Heart's front section simply disappeared.
  
  The screaming crew were sucked out with the air and left to float in space. If someone picked them up within the hour they'd be fine. If not, they'd soon be choking their lives out.
  
  The captain of Tycho's Spear was a cautious man, and had not kept his ship alive by charging into danger.
  
  "Engines, slow us down! We want plenty of manoeuvring options!"
  
  The two fleets drew closer, now clearly visible as tiny shapes in the distance. Visible range meant easy targeting.
  
  "Why aren't they shooting, then?" wondered Lek.
  
  The fleet suddenly leapt forward, although 'leapt' is misleading. They gradually sped up until the fleets were a mere twenty-five kilometres apart.
  
  The enemy made the first move, beams of blue and red energy lancing out at anything that moved. The human ships in front received the full force, lasers tearing through their mirrored hulls. But even as the ships vented their air and crews their guns fired back, returning salvo after salvo. As they got ever closer, plasma flew, beams of energy doing in an instant what took ten seconds of laser fire. The two groups of ships turned all guns on each other, the human ships nearly blinded by the fireworks outside, with only sensors to rely on.
  
  Tycho's Spear opened fire at last, having escaped damage by pretending to be weaponless. A hundred apertures in the ship's bow vented plasma, the brilliant beams converging on a single point. The captain shielded his eyes.
  
  "Skipper, um, we have an anomaly here with the scanners. Must be a bug in the system. Are we under electronic attack?"
  
  "Let me see that!" The captain strode over and stared intently at the indicated display.
  
  "That's the targeting apparatus. And it's saying that our target is still squeaky clean. Are you certain we had a hit, that it's not just lagging?"
  
  "Well, the optical and infrared is blinded by the radiation, but the enemy's radar absorption doesn't work at this range. Our radar arrays confirm that their hulls are completely intact. Not a scratch."
  
  Both sides had now started up all their weapons. Beams of incandescent green, blue and red light flashed across the dark void, boring holes and melting steel. The ship rocked under the feet of the crew as engines burned, to try and gain just a little more efficiency in their shooting. Technicians and computers calculated furiously.
  
  Silph's apprehension returned. "Wow. I would hate to fly out in that."
  
  Like everyone else, he was now wearing his pressure suit.
  
  A group of cruisers, bored of the volleys and eager to launch boarding pods, sped up and ahead of the fleet. They fired their few pod-catapults sporadically as they moved. Beams of plasma moved out to intercept them. It was a massacre. Pod after pod was found by the point-blank beams, which tracked them at near lightspeed. Nothing was left but vapour – and this quickly dissipated into the vacuum.
  
  The cruisers projected their plasma in a full broadside, now at point-blank range. On the bridge of the cruiser Skyrider, the gunners quickly became agitated.
  
  "We can't get any hull breaches on them! This is impossible!"
  
  "What? Their defenses can't be that strong! All guns, fire on that ship's engines!"
  
  Seventy red beams thrust out of the cruisers, right at the enemy fleet, but at the last second, they veered away. All the plasma in the world was useless against an enemy they couldn't hit.
  
  Then the blue lightning simply arced over the five-kilometre gap, and the mighty steel ships just boiled away into nothing.
  
  > Flight
  In the war room of the Alliance, things weren't looking good. Sensor data from every ship was uploaded onto a massive display. All those present watched in shock as point-blank plasma beams were bent around their targets. They winced as they saw the blue lightning pick off their ships with cold precision
  
  "What the hell is that thing?" asked the UG Admiral.
  
  The R&D team of the Physics and Energy missile producers had an idea. "The lightning could be producing antimatter when it hits a target, it could be causing intense heat or it could be shearing the bonds between molecules. Either way, we've never been able to do it."
  
  "And the bending plasma?"
  
  "Probably an electromagnetic field."
  
  "But they've stopped all our high-powered lasers as well! And our torpedoes!"
  
  "Ah, even we can shoot down torpedoes. The bomber wing didn't get close enough."
  
  "Tell them to use their lasers! Nothing can stop a laser."
  
  "No, we've taken too many losses. Give the order to pull back."
  
  Aboard Tycho's Spear, the captain's thoughts clicked into place.
  
  "Plasma guns, cease fire! Laser batteries, give them all you've got!"
  
  An immense humming sound suddenly permeated the ship, making everyone's chest vibrate.
  
  Points of light appeared on the horizon.
  
  "Still no hull breaches, sir!"
  
  "Dammit, we aren't going to win here now. We're being torn apart. Helm! Turn the ship around! Lasers, turn your guns to face the rear."
  
  As the remaining ships in the Alliance fleet turned around, they tried using their lasers. That was when they realised that the enemy ships also had mirrored armour.
  
  In the war room, the various military leaders were puzzled.
  
  "I just don't get it", said an armour specialist. "Even mirrors a metre thick shouldn't be able to stop that much energy. They know something we don't."
  
  "Attention all pilots! Scramble! Scramble your fighters now!"
  
  "Looks like we're going to see some action after all," grinned Swift. "When we take care of their starfighters, we'll be home free."
  
  There was no briefing, no agonising wait. Delta flight simply stumbled to the catapults as fast as their magnetic boots could carry them.
  
  In his cockpit, Silph eyed his fighter. It was an Interceptor, fast, agile and sleek.
  
  The ground crew slid the canopy closed. He was lifted to the level of the catapult, then pushed in gently, drifting into its embrace.
  
  The airlock behind him closed, the one in front of him opened, and his face felt like putty as the walls of the catapult flew by.
  
  He quickly formed up with Delta flight, closing the distance by firing his chemical engines. When he was close, he fired the retro thrusters until his sensors told him he was at a stable distance.
  
  "Fighters, you must keep those pint-sized fighters off our backs until we're out of range. We're heading off-planet. You're spread thin, so be careful."
  
  Silph checked his sensors and saw that the greatly-reduced fleet was now running for it. A parting shot of blue lightning from the enemy flashed past Silph's window and turned a cruiser into dust and echoes.
  
  "Look sharp, Delta, here they come!" Swift's voice was calm. "Don't play chicken. You need to fly underneath them, or over them, dodge their shots and get on their tails.
  
  Silph saw them on his sensors and used his attitude thrusters to tilt the fighter's nose down. Then he burned his chemical engine.
  
  He saw Swift out the window doing the same thing. Then he felt a jolt.
  
  "I think I just lost something!"
  
  "Keep changing direction or their lasers will tear you apart, mirrored armour or not!"
  
  He went into a series of lateral slides from side to side, keeping his eyes on the target.
  
  Swift went into a more fancy corkscrew manoeuvre, flying in an unpredictable spiral.
  
  Silph saw the fighters fly over his canopy. They were... boxes, of a similar design to the ones he had encountered on the station. They were bigger and their legs and tracks were replaced with thrusters, but still boxes. He pulled back on the stick, spinning so that he was both upside-down and on the box's tail.
  
  "Cynic! Compensate!" Silph realised that while he was staring down the engines of his foe, he was drifting away from it, not towards it. He fired his chemical engine and groaned as invisible force worked on his chest.
  
  When he was travelling at the same speed as the box he stopped his burn and pulled the plasma grip out from the control board. A beam of intense red connected the two, before the box's engines just converted to scrap. He quickly fired his ventral thrusters as the plasma connected with the box's fuel tanks, flying over the explosion.
  
  "This isn't so tough!"
  
  "They aren't even trying to stop us."
  
  Lek laughed over the radio "Can you believe it? This one isn't even shooting at me. Wait, it's doing something. It's moving. Oh... guys, I'm moving towards it, I can't stop. Guys? I'm pretty scared here."
  
  Silph quickly set himself moving towards Lek after a few compensating burns. Lek's fighter was drifting fast towards another box, much bigger than the one Silph had shot up.
  
  "Trojan! Use your engines!"
  
  "Engines are dead!"
  
  "Eject! Punch out!"
  
  "I can't! The ejector seat isn't responding!"
  
  His fighter struck the box silently and stayed there. The box then turned around and started to head back to the enemy fleet.
  
  Silph fired his lasers precisely, but the mirrored armour of the box reflected much of the energy.
  
  "Their armour can't be that strong. Let's see how they like continuous fire!" Silph banged the controls, locking the lasers on overload.
  
  Finally, one of the armour plates began to liquify. But the box was speeding up.
  
  "Cynic, break off. There are more fighters inbound! Hundreds of them! Do you want to be caught as well? We would only make it worse!"
  
  Silph's mind was made up. "I'm not leaving my friend behind."
  
  Swift's voice grew urgent. "Don't be a fool! He's doomed! Cynic!"
  
  Silph did not respond. With his mind now working in heightened precision, he manoeuvred his way on to the tail of the box carrying Lek. When he was in a straight course, just behind, he fired. Then one of his dorsal thrusters flew off and he realised the mirrored armour was deflecting his own lasers on him.
  
  Using his attitude thrusters he pointed his nose upward. The reflected energy would now bounce off into space.
  
  His lasers traced glowing spots in the armour. Plate after plate liquified and was lost to the void, before he saw the inside. Just chips and wires. A last laser burst drove in, and the box exploded.
  
  Silph choked, then breathed again when Lek's ship drifted free, so heavily damaged a whole side was blown off. Lek pushed off the wreckage and grabbed a protrusion on Silph's fighter.
  
  Silph's controls went blank and unresponsive. He looked around him for the first time and realised that they were under the guns of a small enemy spaceship. Dolphin and Swift were nowhere to be seen. He had flown back into range of the enemy fleet.
  
  His radio hissed and crackled. "blargithigilbeepbeepbeeeeepbeeptuational awarenesss is a vital tool, Delllta two. You will now be aware that you can either come with us, or be bisshted. Sublimated. Vapourised."
  
  > Flare
  "Who... are you?"
  
  "You will find out, soon enough... I must say, I have never seen one so willingly fall into a trap before, although your manoeuvres on the torpedo run were well thought out."
  
  "How do you know who I am?"
  
  "We know a lot. And your electronic security is primitive at best. Now, you are coming with us. You have much to learn and... so do we. Whablishhhhhht? Beepbeeeeep? Silllph, we are leaving now. What is your decision?
  
  "I'll come with you."
  
  "Yessss, let's move."
  
  The box carrying the only two humans for miles around disappeared into the mouth-like landing bay of the enemy ship. Silph thought it looked like a corvette, but realised that whatever these creatures were, they were definitely not human.
  
  On the bridge of the Order Guard, the captain grew restless.
  
  "How long will it take for us to pick up the rest of the survivors?"
  
  "The retrieval ships are working as hard as they can, but we're going to have to leave some of them behind."
  
  The captain blinked. "We are leaving no-one behind. We have a third option."
  
  The Order Guard's crew fired up the lifepod and sealed the hatch.
  
  "This way, we can make them stop and pick up extra survivors as we go" explained the captain.
  
  The Order Guard's autopilot engaged the engines at full power, opening the fuel valves as far as they would go.
  
  The former captain stood up and saluted the doomed ship.
  
  "Farewell!"
  
  The crew cheered the ship on, watching the video feed coming from the Order Guard's bridge.
  
  The enemy fleet drew closer and the engines were strained to the breaking point. If it missed, the ship would likely break free of the planet's gravitational field.
  
  Silph, waiting in the cockpit of his imprisoned ship, noticed something on his scanner.
  
  He opened his radio channel. "Lek, have a look at this!"
  
  Lek carefully moved his body so he could see into the canopy.
  
  "Wow. Just... Wow. That is the biggest scanner bug I've seen in my life."
  
  "That's no bug. Look over there!" Silph gestured to a viewport.
  
  Lek's mouth dropped open. "They're flying nova!"
  
  The Order Guard was burning fuel at an incredible rate. Without enough armour to protect from micrometeorites, her bow was full of holes, but without any crew aboard, they had no effect.
  
  Plasma lanced out and bored a massive hole in the ship, melting computers, screens, chairs, armour. But that just made the doomed ship even hotter. The autopilot was hit, but the engine valves were locked open.
  
  It flashed past Silph and Lek, moving into the heart of the fleet. Then, something got in the way...
  
  Much of the energy contained in the doomed ball of metal was instantly transferred to the unlucky enemy ship. It was torn apart and liquified, but the Order Guard kept ripping through its hull, a compacted, molten mass travelling at escape velocity.
  
  Blue lightning flew out, vapourising the ball, but the gas, now superheated, kept moving.
  
  Then it struck another ship, which didn't yield to the gaseous ball, but fought against it.
  
  Silph covered his eyes as a massive nova flare suddenly blossomed out of the darkness of space. The enemy fleet was shielded from view by its blinding yellow glow. After about ten seconds, his retinas slowly recovered and he could see venting gas and wreckage floating off into space, and his heart leaped when he realised their foes could be defeated...
  
  But then he saw the enemy fleet still intact, now with no man's will left to stand against them.
  
  In the war room, the mood was sombre.
  
  "So, we lost half of our fleet. Three trillion credits we lost, and we only took down two of theirs. Even that was due to a surprise nova flight.
  
  "We will all have to prepare for their arrival on land. The pods that came down earlier were just a vanguard. When they come in force, we'd better be ready."
  
  Silph stared his captor down. He was humanoid, standing on two legs, five fingers on each of his two webbed hands, with blue, shiny skin and a dorsal fin sprouting out of his back. He was wearing a hard shell that covered the front of his torso, and magnetic boots covering what Silph presumed were his feet.
  
  "Why do you look so... human?"
  
  "Why you look so... Shakhurai?"
  
  Something clicked in Silph's mind
  
  "Oh, you have got to be kidding. You're the Outsiders?"
  
  "Yesss. You know us by that name."
  
  "Why are you here? What do you want with us? Is it the metal? The planet?"
  
  "Oh no, my... pink friend. We are here for... how to say? Ah, of course. We are here for our Xan'thor. Our revenge."
  
  The Outsider landing pods were already floating down to the surface. The invasion had begun.