Jolene stood on one of the Blade’s observation decks, her four Zetans behind her as they watched the flurry of activity out on the orbital shipyards. Spacesuit wearing Zetans and even a few humans motioned for floating equipment as the final preparations for the battle were made. Being a military shipyard, Alrec had a number of spare plasma cannons laying around, and civilian ships were being strapped with the weapons as the last desperate measures were made

“You cockroaches wanna play rough?” Jolene whispered, watching the Zetan shipyard crews remove the modular bedrooms on the Tony Montana and replace them with plasma cannons, “Okay, say hello to my little friend!”

“That should bring us up to five gunports Miss Jolene,” Meana said excitedly. She shivered slightly, it was so strange looking down at Jolene, she couldn’t wait until they were back on her ship and she was back down to the four foot tall height she had increasingly come to think of as her “normal.”

…

Joey looked up the length of Telma’s body, pinched as he was between her toes. He grunted as she playfully squeezed him, giggling at his reaction as he fought against the green digits. Like Kurt and Nea they had snuck away for some “rest,” and looking at the immense female form in front of him, Joey couldn’t help but feel that this was a good final thing to see.

“Ready to be big again?” Telma asked with a smile.

“Keep me small a little while longer,” Joey pleaded as she sat up and reached for him.

“A few more minutes,” Telma said quietly, plucking him from her toe’s grip. He was about four inches tall, and she smirked at him, “You know Joey, if you’re scared of the upcoming battle I could keep you somewhere… safe?”

“Safe?” he asked, confused.

“Of course, I’ll make you maybe half the size you are now, then wedge you deep between my buttcheeks, and with my power armor on you’ll be squeezed in there nice and tight,” Telma said with a dreamy smile.

“Fuck that’s tempting,” Joey muttered, “but… no.”

“I knew you’d say that,” Telma said with a sigh, dangling him over her face, “but it’s a fun idea, isn’t it?” She grinned, “tell you what, I’ll put you there after the battle is over.”

“Hot damn, I’ll kill every one of those fucking squids,” Joey said excitedly.

…

Kurt and Nea waited on the bridge of the Blade, as the largest ship available, Nea had chosen it as her flagship, and she stood, with Kurt on one side and Joey and Telma at her other. For the most part she would refrain from direct command, while Nea was a decent martial artist and skilled with weaponry, fleet tactics were beyond her. If there were any boarding actions? That might be a different story.

The assembled ships waited in a loose cluster, keeping a low orbit near the shipyards over the planet’s equator. The planetary shield, a powerful device meant to protect from orbital bombardment, kinetic or otherwise, had been weakened here, allowing physical entry across a circular area with a diameter of maybe one hundred miles, a pinprick entry in terms of space combat, a castle gate deliberately left ajar.

“First enemy craft are entering the system,” an officer called, “they’re organized in groups of about twenty… The first group is angling in this direction, the others are… following, hanging back in reserve?”

“Looks like you were right about them being hungry Princess,” the admiral said grimly, “they don’t seem to want to spend the time softening up the planet’s shield.”

“Better for us,” Telma said quietly, “if this becomes a siege… we can’t defend the entire planet at once, we’re too outnumbered.”

“Hold fire until they’re within fifty miles,” the admiral ordered, “they clearly aren’t expecting much of a fight, let’s correct the notion.”

“The whites of their eyes,” Kurt muttered.

“Indeed,” the admiral said with a small smile.

Kurt watched through the viewport, the computerized glass identifying the incoming ships with red targeting squares for the whole bridge, even as the weapon’s officers sent command to the gun crews. The first few red bursts rocketed out of a few disparate Cephalo ships, slamming home into the Zetan fleet’s outer flanks. Shields bristled, but none fell, and no ships fled.

“Return fire,” the admiral ordered.

Lances of green plasma shot out, each carefully aimed. The Cephalo ships shimmered, small bubbles of light appearing around them as their own shields struggled to compensate. Cracks quickly appeared, and the first line of the squidlike ships burst into flame, inky black blood pouring into space around them as the fleshy ships smoldered and burned in the vacuum of space. The ships didn’t drift or spit flame as a human or Zetan ship would, they twitched, the tendrils curling up and spasming like some massive spider clinging to life after being stepped on.

“We are seeing fifteen of twenty incoming ships destroyed,” the weapon’s officer shouted eagerly. Cheers rang out through the bridge, and Kurt fought the urge to pump his fist.

“Tell the rest of the fleet to fire at will, but do not pursue any stragglers which try to flee,” the admiral ordered.

…

Only two of the twenty Cephalo ships managed to limp back to the rest of the gathered fleet. Among the dozens of gathered creatures, a sense of panic and anger raced along mental networks. They swarmed around a large central mound of flesh, a tentacled mass that seemed to grasp at the very stars itself as an ancient and terrible intelligence within heard the lamentations of its children.

Elongated red eyes opened, and he surveyed the scene before him. It was as he had been told, the ancient abominations had once more surfaced to mar the perfection of the universe, allied with a hence unknown food species… His ancient jowls and flabby tentacles shook as he dragged himself into the nerve center of his ship.

We must flee, the thoughts came to him, the squeals and yelps of the younger Cephalo who circled his massive ship, as if hoping to hide behind him from a fear that many of them did not understand.

Silence, he thought, and hundreds of voices quieted. I have come so far to taste the flesh of these exotic creatures, these green bipeds, I have answered you whines and calls and pleas to come, to see that the abominations have risen once more, and this is what I find!? Fury rose within him, a red-hot feeling that caused the younger Cephalo in their gathered ships to wince and squeal with pain.

He let them squirm a moment, then continued, Few of us are left from those days, when the abominations had spread through the universe like a weed, one which we hacked and burned to clear the fertile fields which you whelps grow fat upon. A wet growl echoed through his massive starship, You have forgotten battle, you have forgotten what it is to EARN a meal!

He let the ship’s senses, hooked to his own eyes, bring him the information on the enemy fleet. It was small, pitiful, even without his own vessel. He rumbled again in disgust, both at the presence of humans which he felt there, and at the weakness that had grown unfettered in his own progeny.

I will lead this attack, you will follow, there were thoughts of protest, and he let his anger seep into their minds again, squeals of submission and apology followed. If any of you do not follow, he bellowed, you will be eradicated!

The hulking mass of the elder Cephalo’s ship lumbered through the void, joints creaking and cracking as tendrils long dormant slid into position. Muscles flared and ancient irises opened, heat beams focusing and warming plasma projectiles.

The mass of smaller tentacled ships followed cautiously after it, their own weapons glowing as the organic processes cooked plasma for battle.

…

“Void take me, what is that thing?” Nea asked in shock. At the head of the Cephalo swarm a massive jagged spire had emerged, the same writhing tentacles of the squidlike ships burst from it, seemingly at random, and it hovered towards the gap in the planetary shields like a shark, blotting out the stars as the wave of Cephalo welled behind it.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Admiral Entyl said in a hushed tone, “we know as they get older their ships get bigger, more powerful, but… this is unprecedented.”

“It’s twice as large as Blade ma’am,” an officer said, looking up fearfully, “It… it seems to be bearing down on us in particular.”

“Fire all cannons,” the admiral said nervously, “tell every ship that has a ready gun to train it on that thing and fire!”

Hundreds of green lances of light leapt out from the combined fleet, exploding into the massive structure and it’s waving tentacles. The black carapace upon it sloughed and melted, some cracked like bone, exposing a sickly pink fleshy surface underneath, but it kept coming, lances of fire shooting from the spiny appendages and raking Blade’s shields as it closed distance with them.

“Enemy vessel is closing,” the officer said nervously.

“Holy shit,” Kurt breathed, “that thing wants to board us.”

…

The luxury yacht Tony Montana bobbed and weaved between the duels of Cephalo and Zetan ships that were beginning. Though the Zetan ships had tried to maintain a formation, the numbers of Cephalo ships were forcing them closer to the shipyards and their cannon emplacements. Every now and then a green light burst from the planet’s surface, a stationary military gun or law enforcement weapon desperately trying to help the battle in any way they could.

Jolene scowled as she aimed the plasma cannon from the modular control station, each of her crew was on one, except for Meana, who piloted their ship with the well learned evasiveness of a professional criminal.

“Miss Jolene!” Meana shouted over the comms, “the Blade, it’s in trouble!”

Her heart sunk, without the flagship there was no hope of holding back this tide, but she forced herself to pull up the scene on her wrist computer. Jolene had seen her share of horror and death, but her mouth went dry as she saw the massive tendrils of the tentacled obelisk tearing through the Blade’s hull, the shield flickering feebly as it tried to force away an invader that loomed large over it.

“Miss Jolene, what are your orders?” Amra called in a panic, turning away from her own plasma cannon.

She looked at them all, they really think I can stop this, she thought sadly, God dammit I’d like to be the woman they think I am… She sighed, and focused back on her own gun.

“There’s nothing we can do against that thing,” she said bitterly, “Meana, we look like a civvy ship, but with that oversized shield generator we can take a punch with the best of them. Pick the ships that look like they’re on the brink of losing, and we’ll fly in close and shoot the squids in the face, don’t stop moving though, because they’re going to wise up real fast.”

A beep told her that her plasma projectile was ready, and with a growl she aimed it at a passing mass of tentacles. She hissed in satisfaction as a green ball of fire tore several of them away.

…

Adam brought the car to a halt in front of a nondescript building in downtown Washington D.C. Only a few blocks from the national mall, the unassuming “Emergency Broadcast” building was one of a dozen in the United States and hundreds worldwide, along with a number of similar structures on Zetan planets. Initially meant to warn interstellar travelers of both races that a planet had fallen or was under attack by Cephalo, activating one of the arrays would activate all of them, everywhere, the hyperspace communications some of the most powerful that the Zetans had managed at the time and was still impressive by modern standards.

Upon activation one of the beacons would transmit a standard signal that the planet was unsafe, and should be avoided by civilian traffic, a signal that would be picked up immediately by every human and Zetan ship in the galaxy. The message could of course be changed to more specific instructions… or video even.

The arrays had fallen into, if not neglect, then disuse as Cephalo attacks had waned during the latter part of the war. Security had always been of the order to keep vandals and trespassers out, rather than a truly hardened military effort, and as Adam pulled his transport into the parking lot and got out, a solitary security guard watched him curiously from the facility’s entryway.

Adam confidently walked in, wearing his suit and tie, and Kira followed him in an earth style pantsuit, trying her best to look professional.

“Good evening,” Adam said with a smile, “I’m Adam Langstrom, Cultural Department Deputy Director, we’re here on official business.” He pulled his plastic badge out of his pocket, sliding it through the small gap at the bottom of the bullet proof glass barrier that separated the guard from the facility lobby.

“Cultural Department?” The guard muttered. He scanned the ID, and his computer immediately informed him that Adam was who he said he was, and also had clearance to access the facility, even if it was technically a military installation.

“Yes, that’s right,” Adam said, “this is my colleague, Kira Darkstar, Zetan liason.” She waved pleasantly and Adam continued, “We’re here on department business, we need access to the array immediately.”

The guard frowned, “sure, just let me call a higher up and-“

“No, there’s no time!” Adam said, “it’s… we’re wishing the Empress a swift recovery, after her injuries I mean.”

“Why would you need the emergency array for that?” The guard asked suspiciously.

“It’s her birthday,” Kira said, stepping forward, “we want to be sure she knows it’s from all of earth, here look-“ she reached into her purse, and with one smooth motion swept her shrink ray into her hand, dipping her wrist under the glass barrier and blasting the guard with an arc of light. He shouted in surprise once as he was reduced to four inches tall, peering up in confusion from his own chair cushion.

“Kira,” Adam exclaimed, “what-“ he was hit with the shrink ray next, and he blinked the stars out of his eyes as he felt Kira’s soft fingers wrapping around him.

“Sorry,” she muttered, “this was taking too long.” She slipped the shrunken Adam underneath the barrier, sticking her wrist in again and clicking him back to full size, leaving him sitting on the guard’s desk within the security station.

“I suppose that works,” he muttered, slipping off of it and walking over to let Kira in.

…

The Blade had a full contingent of Zetan marines, and the human volunteers who had boarded the ship were experienced spacers, well acquainted with violence and plasma weaponry. As the Cephalo spire’s tentacles discharged hundreds, thousands, of the clawed servitors into the ship, they fought bravely, making the enemy pay for every inch, every deck taken. Burning flesh mixed with the sewery smell of the invaders as the noxious fumes wafted through the ship.

“They’re coming for the bridge!” Kurt shouted, looking at the diagrams of the ship flashing red.

“Tell gun crews to hold their positions and keep firing at it!” The admiral shouted, “we have to get it to let us go!”

There were screams and battle cries outside the thick blast doors separating the bridge from the rest of the ship, human and Zetan. Nea scowled, pulling a plasma pistol as she motioned Kurt to her side. The bridge was growing tense, and others were reaching for their weapons, checking to make sure they were ready.

“Should we like, turn over some of these chairs for cover or something?” Joey asked hesitantly.

The Zetans glared at him, and Telma ruffled his hair, “bolted to the floor,” she explained with a smile, “in case of artificial gravity failure.”

“So we’re sitting ducks if those things get in here,” Kurt muttered.

“We don’t design our starships for firefights on the main deck!” Admiral Entyl shouted. She looked up at the screen grimly, looking at the diagram showing which sections of the ship had fallen to the enemy swarm. A blue room flashed red, signaling the creatures had taken it.

“They’re just ignoring the guns,” the admiral said quietly, realizing the pattern of attack, “they’re going for engines and the bridge… they just don’t want us getting away.”

“Then give them what they want!” Kurt said suddenly, “ram them!”

The admiral’s eyes went wide, “are you insane!?”

“Do it,” Nea said with a nod, “he’s right, if the guns cannot penetrate this… thing, that has us ensnared, we’ll overload our core and drive the ship into it…” She looked at the screens and grimaced, “Admiral… I fear we have lost the Blade anyway…”

“I…” the admiral swallowed, “of course Princess, I’ll give the order to abandon ship, but the safety override for the engine core is here on the bridge… we’d need to remain with it.”

The implication hung over them all, and the bridge was silent, save for the sounds of battle echoing further in the ship.

“Fuck,” Joey whispered, “is this it?”

“We’ll do our duty,” Telma said softly, “to the end.”

“For Zeta Prime,” Admiral Entyl said suddenly.

“For Zeta Prime!” The other crewmates shouted.

“Fuck it,” Kurt muttered, “For Earth, for the US of A, and for Iowa too, go Cyclones!”

“We didn’t even go there man,” Joey laughed.

“GO CYCLONES!” The Zetan crew echoed.

…

He stirred, watching through his servitors as the mix of Humans and Zetans changed their tactics. Squeals of pain and panic echoed through his mind, the whelps tasting battle for the first time… he told them to continue their assault, and then ignored them.

Pathetic wretches, he thought angrily as he focused back on the largest ship, entangled by his spire’s tentacles and now… what were they doing? His ancient flesh shuddered and chuckled as he realized it. The abhorred creatures were going to end themselves in an attempt to destroy him.

I have missed them, he thought, scuttling free of his ship’s central nervous system, I will not let this opportunity pass… His senses dulled as he was left with only his own aged form, but with a thought his servitors brought him his armor, that ancient and ebon material last used countless millennia ago, when mankind had stood against them in full and defied the gods of this universe… They were weak now, a primitive scattered remnant, desperately clinging to this food species… in a way they were like him, diminished, that ancient swell of power’s noontide gone, only this pale remnant remaining.

I have missed you, he thought almost longingly, humans… I have missed you!

…

“We’re losing ships left and right!” Amra shouted in a panic, “M-Miss Jolene, do you have a secret plan, or a gadget, or-“

“I’m just a simple woman making her way in the universe,” Jolene growled, “I’m sorry if you thought otherwise, but I’ve got no aces up my sleeve for this. This… this could be it.” She adjusted her plasma cannon, destroying a smaller and wounded Cephalo ship with a precise shot through the center.

“It’s okay,” Tolith said quietly, “I…” he smiled, “I’m still glad I joined up with you.”

“I just wish I’d had longer with all of you,” Zenya pouted.

Jolene smirked, then snapped her fingers, “hey! Back to those guns! We’ll be the last ship standing, or I’m not the best bounty hunter in the galaxy!”

That seemed to put a little fire in them, and Jolene adjusted her black hat as she looked at the battlefield, whizzing by as Meana maneuvered them through engagements. They were losing, one of the orbital stations was falling towards the surface in flames, and after a few return volleys the guns on the surface of the planet had gone silent. The fleet was fighting valiantly, but… they had lost half the ships they’d started with, and the Blade was being boarded, gripped in the tentacles of that unspeakable black spire.

This rodeo is nearing the final act, she thought bitterly. She sighed; guess I’ll be the last clown.

…

“Put your badge on the floor, and step away from it,” Kira said to the tiny guard.

He gulped, “I… I can’t let you guys in here!”

“She’s insane!” Adam said suddenly, peering down at the shrunken man, “she’s in Zeta Forever, I’ve seen her stomp dozens of humans into paste! I’m terrified of her!”

“Adam!” Kira exclaimed, appalled.

“Holy shit!” The guard shouted, “I’m sorry, just take it!” he threw his access badge on the ground and slowly stepped away from it. Kira sighed, then pointed her shrink ray at it, quickly returning it to normal size and leaving the guard small.

She bent down to pick it up, “that wasn’t true,” she said, “I love humans, I would never-“

“Come on!” Adam hooked his arm around hers, dragging her into the facility.

…

“Here they come!” Kurt shouted, firing his plasma pistol at the blast doors as they were pried open. He dove, dodging a return blast. These creatures weren’t the fleshy clawed things from the last Cephalo he’d encountered, they had bony black growths over their mottled skin, armoring them from attack as they raised glowing red tendrils, firing beams of deadly heat into the ship’s bridge.

“CORE CONTAINMENT CRITICAL” a robotic Zetan voice echoed from a control panel as they exchanged fire with the invaders.

…

“And… it’s done,” Adam said, pairing his wrist computer with the Emergency Broadcast Array. He turned to Kira with a smile, “would you do the honors?”

She rolled her eyes, “Come here Adam,” she said in a sultry voice. She pulled him into a kiss, linking their hands as the pressed the “broadcast” option on the holographic controls.

…

Admiral Andre Labutut had commanded a ship upon the sea during the Zetan invasion, and while he’d hated the invaders for what they’d done to his native Brazil, he’d volunteered to serve with them when the Cephalo had arrived. He’d never been entirely sure of his decisions, but he was a man with a chiseled face, a tan, and jet-black hair that hadn’t gone grey even before Zetan medical technology had become widespread, people seemed to like to follow him, even if he was never clear on exactly what he was doing.

Better to be lucky than skilled, he thought for the millionth time in a long career. Here he was, a commander in a space fleet, and he’d grown up seeing his father barter with street vendors so they could have meat for Christmas… Many had speculated on his political expertise, always choosing to support the right political party at the right time, rising through the ranks of his own country’s navy, then that of the United Earth fleet, and now here he stood, commanding men of all nations, in his native Portuguese no less, well, with a translation implant of course…

He had seen the broadcast, as had everyone else in the Human fleet orbiting the small brown dwarf star. He watched the young lovers kiss, and felt something stir in him… He looked to the bridge crew, they’d all seen it too, the passioned plea for cooperation and rescue, by a pair of young lovers no less… He sighed.

“Our orders are to remain in orbit around this star,” he said with a sad smile. He swallowed, his gut was telling him to do something, and his instincts and his mother’s prayers had served him well, bringing him from poverty into the heights of power through two alien invasions. Now… his gut was telling him to do something that his brain screamed against, but…

I was never that smart, he chuckled. Whatever was in his body and soul had outvoted his mind.

“I have decided to mutiny,” he announced as he turned to the other bridge officers, “In fact, I think I shall go ahead and commit another crime and ask you all to join me, I believe death is the usual punishment, and they cannot kill me twice, so why not add a few counts?” His crew looked up at him in awe, “Broadcast my orders to all of our ships, we go to Alrec’s aid.”

…

Tayla watched the broadcast of her sister and the human, “Kurt,” her lips tight. Smith was alongside her in the Zetan war room, the various military officials seated at the long table. Princess Kavrala sat at the end, directly across from her sister who now sat on their mother’s throne.

“I do not know what the humans mean by this broadcast,” Kavrala growled. “We had agreed this would not reach the public!”

“You agreed?” Tayla asked, shocked, “you mean you saw this and chose not to act?”

“Nea made her choices,” Kavrala said, “we cannot let emotions corrupt our decision making-“

“I would say that our sister has well learned her lesson!” Tayla hissed, “did the humans in the Alrec system rally to this call?”

“They did,” Kavrala said in a low voice, “they fight even now, but-“

“They fight even now!?” Tayla shrieked. “Send our fleet! What void spawned thoughts have clouded your mind that you don’t wish to save our sister and her human allies!?”

“I am mother’s chosen heir,” Kavrala said bitterly, “I must make difficult decisions… and my decision is that Alrec dies, a testament to Zeta Forever’s folly.”

“GAURDS!” Tayla practically shouted, “Arrest Kavrala!”

Smith blinked, looking around the war room. Guards, both human and Zetan, glanced about as he did, trying to judge what they should do. He sighed, then stepped forward.

“Princess Kavrala,” he said in a firm voice that had been honed by Secret Service training, “You are under arrest!”

“Am I?” she hissed, her own Zetan bodyguard stepping forward from her place on the wall.

Smith gulped and assumed a fighting stance, the seven-foot-tall woman leering at him expectantly, “You saw how I handled Princess Nea,” he growled.

“Nea wasted more time on the martial arts than I,” Kavrala said angrily, “but my bodyguard? Are you ready to die in my sister’s service Smith?”

“I don’t doubt he is,” Liana said, stepping forward from her place against the wall, “but he’s hardly alone.” The dozen humans in black suits and ties joined her, each drawing their weapons and focusing them on Kavrala and her bodyguard.

The other princess looked around madly, looking to the admirals in a final desperate plea, “she’s just a placeholder! A puppet until mother recovers, you can’t-“

“What are your orders, Empress Tayla?” a Zetan in a military uniform asked, standing up.

“Send my fleet to the aid of Alrec,” Tayla said in a low voice, “scatter my enemies before me.”

…

He rumbled through the enemy ship, driving the abominations and the greenskinned food species before him. They were not prepared for one such as he, and he screamed in triumph as his armored tentacles rendered their flesh as his voice rendered their minds. Both the humans and the green food species had proven to be a worthwhile conquest, and he felt long forgotten pleasure as his teeth closed upon them.

…

“Here it comes!” Kurt shouted, hearing the tumbling of the creature down the hallway. They had listened as it had overwhelmed barricade after barricade. His eyes went wide, and he tried to shoot the thin tendrils that snaked onto the bridge.

“Kurt!” Nea whimpered, “It’s… it’s so much stronger…”

There were screams of horror as Admiral Entyl turned her weapon on herself, her blood splattering the ceiling as her crew joined her.

“No,” Kurt muttered, “we’re human, we’re here, this isn’t possible-“

There were screams as the bridge crew and the admiral pulled their weapons, placing them to their foreheads. A *splat* echoed through the ship’s command center as they ended themselves with their own weapons.

“STOP!” Joey shouted, tackling Telma and forcing her gun away from her head. There was a flash of green, and the ceiling had a sudden a melted portion. Joey gritted his teeth, focusing all of his strength and willpower into keeping the gun away from Telma’s head. She glanced at him; her eyes filled with grief.

“In my presence, your foul miasma is as nothing,” a voice growled, “Human,” the voice hissed, not in his mind, but through the air, as sound… “I wish to speak to you, as one warrior to another…” the squid hauled itself into view, buoyed by a mass of tentacles gripping the ruined metal of the bridge doors. “This… meal, she is your mate?” he looked to Nea, who had her own plasma pistol to her head, tears in her eyes.

Kurt stood in shock, then blinked, feeling wetness run down his scarred cheek, “Come in then,” he muttered, “you’ve got me by the balls.”

A chuckle echoed through his mind, and the air together. A mottled grey mass hauled itself onto the bridge, populated only by Kurt, Nea, Joey, and Telma, the latter two in a life-or-death wrestling match for the plasma pistol Telma seemed intent to end her life with.

The thing regarded them with eyes the color of frozen meat, the pulsing and wrinkled grey head filling the door as it hauled itself inside. It was covered in linked black material that clinked as it moved, scuttling to the center of the room as Kurt, Joey, Nea, and Telma watched.

“Please,” it rasped, “give me your curses, your anger!”

“Go fuck yourself?” Kurt replied. The thing seemed to shudder, it’s many tentacles writhing as it relished his response.

“Kurt!” Joey shouted in panic, “I can’t hold it!” He was desperately holding Telma’s weapon away from her head as the Zetan wept, making eye contact with him.

“Do you remember me?” the Cephalo rasped through yellow teeth, “Do you remember us?”

Kurt felt that primordial hatred flare, “Yeah,” he said, his face contorted into a snarl, “I don’t know how, but… I think I do.” He hated this thing, it was in his blood, every inch of him screamed to rush at it, to tear it to pieces.

“It comforts me, in my ruined and aged state, to know that even now your very genetic code has primed you to react to us,” the Cephalo rasped through that horrible circular mouth. “We fought for this universe long ago, and while your mind knows me not, your soul does…” It chuckled, a horrible sound like tumbling granite,

It glanced to Nea, to Joey and Telma, “You are that ancient abomination, the voice of rebellion against the natural order which the creator ordained…” Telma screamed, fighting against Joey as she tried to bring her weapon to her head, “I am above the sickly soft children your species fights against today…” the pale grey-pink eyes focused on Kurt almost admiringly, “would that such as you had encountered me in my youth, that I would not suffer to see my own progeny and yours in such a state…”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Kurt said angrily.

“Your very cells tell the story better than the mess of signals in your brain ever could,” The Cephalo rasped, “but now… it is time to end this.”

Nea dropped her plasma pistol in a stiff and robotic fashion. Kurt watched as she drew a shrink ray from her belt, and the flash blinded him as she obeyed the creature’s commands.

…

“This is the end,” Jolene whispered in a singsong voice, looking at the mass of Cephalo converging on her ship, “my only friend, the end…”

“Miss Jolene!” Meana shouted suddenly, “ships are entering the system!”

Jolene paused, letting the flicker of hope ignite something in her, “Cephalo?” she asked uncertainly.

“Human and Zetan! They’re in attack formations!”

“FUCK YES!” Jolene crowed, “evasive maneuvers, we’re going to live dammit!”

…

Kurt scrambled backwards, his shrunken form slipping against the smooth polish of the bridge floor. Nea walked towards him stiffly, lifting a massive foot over him and easily pinning him to the ground as the Cephalo controlled her mind.

“Your own weapon turned against you human,” the Cephalo chuckled, “I am strong enough to command even these lower beings who crowd themselves around you, hoping your blasphemies will pass to them. This thing shall crush you, at my orders.”

“KURT!” Joey screamed, forcing Telma’s hand and the plasma pistol in it against the wall. It shook, Joey had both hands on her wrist, holding it with all his strength as he looked pleadingly at his friend for answers.

“These green things,” the Cephalo mused, “they do not serve you? You think you are equals? Amusing… now die.”

“Nea,” Kurt rasped as her boot pressed on him, “I…” He blinked, and not knowing what else to say, he gave her a final smile. Remember me like this, he thought, for as long as you’ve got…

Nea’s eyes met Kurt’s, and even as he struggled beneath her boot, she saw the reflection of her eyes in his. Blue, human eyes she’d long been ashamed of, the remnant of her grandmother’s love for her human grandfather. She blinked away a tear, and then realized…

I did that!

They blinked at one another, her boot on his shrunken form eased, letting him breathe.

“CRUSH HIM!” The Cephalo demanded, tendrils flailing.

Nea took a breath, summoning all of her willpower, Am I human? She wondered, realizing she was shrugging off the Cephalo’s attempt at control. Close enough, she decided.

Those blue eyes blinked, again, and she felt electricity flaring up her arm, anger, jubilation, love. She returned Kurt’s smile, and then in a lightning motion she turned her shrink ray on the mottled grey thing. Its eyes went wide, that pinkish-grey frozen meat color flashing more vibrantly than ever as it disappeared in a flash.

The princess was her own again, and she gasped as she looked down at that tendrilled grey thing, on the bridge floor.

“YES!” Kurt shouted, “DO IT NEA!”

“NO!” It roared, “YOU WILL OBEY, CRUSH HIM-“ Nea cut the thing off as she brought her boot down on it, a wet slapping sound echoing over the bridge as she ground her boot back and forth slowly, like she was stomping a noxious insect.

The ship seemed to shudder as the reverberations of the Cephalo elder’s death spread through the ship. There was a scream as its servitors entered a berseker rage, the tentacled spire seemed to shift and quake, a patient in the midst of a seizure… then it began to draw the Blade to it…

…

The arrival of the human and Zetan fleets, combined with the death of the Cephalo spire, had thrown the attackers into chaos. Terror and madness spread through the creatures and everything they touched, the remaining Cephalo tried to break away, fleeing as the Zetan and Human ships pursued them, green cannons flaring brightly against the black vacuum of space.

“M-Miss Jolene!” Tolith called, “The Blade…” they watched as its engines flared, pressing the flagship towards the black mass of the Cephalo ship.

Jolene looked at the approaching relief fleets, then at her own Zetans. A smile lit up her features, and she tipped her hat.

“Set course for the Blade, there’s a billion credits on there waiting for me, get my armor ready!”

…

Nea had immediately returned Kurt to full size, and with Telma no longer threatened by the Cephalo, she and Joey were helping the exhausted Kurt and Nea through the collapsing ship.

“Come on!” Joey shouted, “there’s got to be an escape pod or something left!”

“We already sent the rest of the crew away,” Telma said bitterly, “I… I think there isn’t anything left for us.”

Joey paused, hefting Kurt’s barely conscious form over his shoulder, “Hey,” he said with a smile, “at least we go out knowing we won, right?”

…

“Every Cephalo on the ship is dead?” Jolene asked, slapping her visor over her face.

“None are detected on board Miss Jolene,” Meana said eagerly. “The shield is failing, there’s no air for them… or anyone else, to breathe.”

“Groovy,” the bounty hunter said under her breath, leaping down the boarding tube into the wreckage of Blade.

…

Kurt, Nea, Joey, and Telma lay panting against the hallway of the Blade, the atmosphere rapidly venting and growing too thin for them to breathe.

“CORE DETONATION IN TWO HUNDRED SECONDS,” a robotic voice called.

“Well,” Kurt wheezed with a smile, “we didn’t do so bad, did we?” He glanced at them all, and they returned his smile as their bodies went limp.

His vision went white, and he blinked against what he thought was a lack of oxygen. He frowned as vision started to come back, a massive gauntleted hand filling his field of view as he passed out.