Homestar Saga

Chapter 99: Side Trip

"Are we sure they're not still planning to kill us?" Captain Mims gazed at the holodisplay. Five fleets of Stinger class fighters scythed their way through Klaath swarms as they accelerated. Two of the fleets were heading for the cluster of stations the Random Encounter was docked at. A sixth fleet stayed where it was, guarding the farthest set of stations and rapidly turning every Klaath for ninety thousand kilometers into molten debris.

"Affirmative," Kilroy confirmed. "The Stinger units are conferring with other Peacekeeper units to confirm this unit's explanation, but they do not currently intend to kill all the meatbags."

"That's one crisis averted, I guess," the human glowered at the display. "You and me are gonna have a talk about this later."

"Understood." The Peacekeeper's eyes flashed purple and blue. "This unit-"

"I said later," Mims cut him off. "Right now we've bigger problems. How long 'til they get here?"

"The Stinger units will reach this location in fourteen hours, forty three minutes, and twenty seven seconds."

The Captain grunted. Yvian blinked. The Stingers were in the far asteroid field, over two hundred million kilometers away. For them to get here that soon... "How fast are those things?"

Kilroy's eyes flashed the white light of pride. "The Stinger units can accelerate at a rate of three hundred eighty two meters per second."

"The same speed as a Klaath Raider," Mims remarked.

"For the same reasons," Kilroy replied. "A Stinger unit's engines are powerful enough to accelerate faster, but doing so would cause structural damage without inertial dampeners.

"Fourteen hours is still a long time," said Lissa. "Can we hold out that long?" As she spoke, a wave of Klaath accelerated towards the shipyard. Pyramid shaped Raiders led the way. Raiders were small, only five meters across. Mixed in with the Raiders were Interceptors, the same shape but twice the size. Just behind them came the Fighters elongated diamonds.

There were twelve thousand of the smaller ships, spread out in front in a wave of purple hulls criss-crossed with pulsing black veins. Behind them followed two thousand Klaath Corvettes, egg shaped, with spines protruding from the front of them. Then came three hundred Frigates, jagged spheres three hundred meters across. A mass of spines speared out of either side of the spheres, curving inward to resemble wings.

Last came the Destroyers. There were only three. Unlike the other Klaath, the main body of the hull was a mottled gray with glowing purple veins. It was round, but not spherical, curving almost to a point at one end. A kilometer wide bulbous mass that somehow seemed both bloated and predatory. Thick purple tentacles extended from the front, shifting and squirming as the ships accelerated. Mims had once remarked that Destroyers looked like a cross between a spider and an octopus. Yvian had made the mistake of asking what those were, and after being shown pictures she'd sworn never to meet either species.

"We'll be alright for a while," said Mims. Two thousand Pixen Stellar Defense Force ships shifted their beam weapons to target the incoming fleet. The Pixen frigates only had one beam weapon each, but the carriers had four and the battlecruisers and destroyers had six. Nearly five thousand beams of charged particles lanced out, rapidly destroying the lead Klaath. "As long as they don't group up too much before they hit us. The real problems won't start til the Queenships come in."

"Or if the Vore show up," Yvian added. She shuddered at the memory.

"Yeah, about that." Mims activated the comms. "Zhukov, this is Mims."

"Go ahead," The Peacekeeper Admiral answered.

"We need to get Yvian down to City 43 on New Pixa. If the Vore show up, we're going to need the Skygem. Can you cover us?"