Fleet Action

The Aedentide AI waited, their mind spread amongst the cyberspace networks that held their fleet. A fleet of a trillion under his command, a trillion eyes and ears staring into the void of space. Not a single crew member amongst them, for the fleet was their body, and their body was the fleet.
The commander ran a check over their fleet.
Processing power at maximum capacity. No network intrusions detected. Structural integrity of all ships at 100%. All ships in realspace. Weapons armed. Reality anchors online. No hostiles detected within universe.
Checks were complete. And they waited.
They felt something at the edge of their sensors. A singular blip. Contact. Unknown entity approaching. A status of neutral was assigned.
Hailing protocols were engaged, communication systems fully active. Signals from a thousand spectrums pinged towards the unknown, not a single moment’s lag in reaching the entity.
Planck times ticked by. Likelihood of entity being a friendly Transcended or a Godmind reduced. The commander noted there would be no such lag in response.
Nanoseconds ticked by. Likelihood of friendly non-organic intelligence reduced.
Microseconds ticked by, still no response.
The commander detected probing strikes detected on network. There was no time to be wasted. Hostile status assigned to entity. Counter hacking active, remote Domain engaged.
A lock on the unknown was achieved. The effectors came across resistance. This was unusual, a single ship does not have such resources to resist.
Manipulation of matter partially successful on entity. Matter was erased. Entity was now compromised. Entity makeup and components analysed.
Entity likely a decoy. Biomass detected on ship, designation; Flesh.
More blips on their sensors. Energy and matter signatures matching the unknown hostile.
Hostiles detected. Counting numbers.
The commander noted the enemy fleet. Five trillion Flesh Cult ships of varying sizes were detected. These were not favourable odds. The variables had completely changed.
They considered their options.
A fighting retreat? Negative, this universe held major assets.
Flee immediately? Negative, same reason above.
Another option came. Calling for reinforcements. A few answered the call, but they would be delayed.
Delaying action it was.
The fleet of moon sized ships danced with deceptive agility. Galaxies flew by within the blink of an eye. Dogfighting positions were engaged; all craft would cover for each other.
The Flesh cult ships bore down on them, as both fleets closed the range. The seconds ticked by slowly. Agonisingly so, as if they were years and not moments.
And then the firing began.
Category:Short Stories