Homestar Saga

Chapter 122: The Fall of Brilend Prime

"Listen to wicked pervert human, mangy Vrrl." Fightsmart gave a growl of his own. "Not want fuck with Fightsmart."

"Oh, I think-" the Vrrl cut off as Captain Mims clamped a hand on his shoulder. The human gave a shake of his head. Scarrend glared for a moment, then chuffed. "Fine. Yes. The Empire has a treaty with the Pixens. A full alliance. We've even agreed not to eat them anymore."

"That why Mangy Vrrl raiding Confed so much?" King Tallest asked. "Many hairy flivvans dead. Many many dumbfuck trelg. Trying help stupid slutty pixens?"

"Not really," said Scarrend. "The planet the Scourge took held most of our food stock. We need more prey."

"Interesting." King Tallest shrugged. "Not important, Tallest guess. Mangy Vrrl don't border krog space. Eat all hairy flivvans and dumbfuck trelg you want. Not Tallest problem."

"You don't care?" Scarrend furrowed all three of his brows. "I thought the Confederation would be more... unified?"

The King shrugged again. "Tallest King of Krog. Take care of Krog. Other species High Council's problem. High Council want Krog help, they ask."

"Species under Confed answer to High Council," Fightsmart explained. "Have to allow trade, contribute to Military. Not mean we like each other."

"Let's move on," Mims decided. He typed into a console, and fast-forwarded the display. The Vore Needles changed direction. Splitting into groups of a few thousand a piece, they accelerated towards all three Jumpgates in the sector, as well as the Military fleets, the asteroid fields, and Brilend Prime itself.

The Confederation Military didn't wait. Their ships bulled forward at the maximum speed their destroyers could manage. Mims slowed the display down. The Military opened fire while the Needles were still several minutes away. A massive barrage of plasma and missiles reach out, a wall of death. Beam weapons lanced out, striking at the Vore at a third of the speed of light. Mims slowed the display down further, showing the Needles weaving around the beams and through most of the fire at extreme speed. Some of them took a few hits, but nothing their shields couldn't handle. In real time, the Needles entered the field of fire and smashed into the fleet in a matter of seconds.

"Too fast," Fightsmart remarked. "Conventional weapons no good."

"They'd be useless anyway," said the Captain. "The Vore have the strongest shielding I've ever seen, and blowing a hole in them doesn't do anything. They self repair in seconds."

The Needles tore through the largest of the defenders' capitol ships and kept right on going. The ships shattered and exploded on impact. A few seconds later, the debris wriggled and shot tendrils into the closest undamaged ships. In a matter of minutes, the entirety of Brilend's Military Defense Fleets had been converted into Vore.

Another group of Needles approached the South Gate. The Brilend Militia that was supposed to be guarding it had already used it to run away. The Military contingent backing them up opened fire, but there were only a few hundred thousand of them. Yvian knew they would be easy pickings.

About three minutes before the Needles would have arrived, the Jumpgate died. The Gate, a thirteen kilometer thick ring that stretched over two thousand kilometers across the void, released a single massive burst of radiation. The blue light that rippled inside the ring winked out.

"Close call," said Fightsmart. "High Command try stop Fightsmart fleet. Almost not killed Gate in time."

"Stupid," the Tallest remarked. "South Gate lead to High Rule Sector. Vore woulda killed High Council, High Court. Cut off head of Confed." He smirked. "Second thought, maybe Fightsmart did job too good. Maybe shoulda let Vore through."