Humanity Endures

Part 4 - The Beginning of the End | Chapter 6

The golden expanse of the Remnant remained unchanging and barren, the only semblance of humanity within sight being the gleaming hulls of Lassarha's joint fleet as it cruised along the golden interstellar highway, this time, at the behest of the Prime Constable herself. That fleet, together with the tens of thousands of refugee ships that skulked through the void alongside it, held over a billion desperate people in their hulls; the refugees sought to find safety in a galaxy aflame with apocalyptic war, and the soldiers sought to win safety by triumphing in this apocalyptic war. The hulls of the ships shimmered in the blazing light of the magnificent gilded void; flying in front of a backdrop of dozens of ever-mysterious Remnant structures, the sight was both enchanting and poetic. This enchantment was mostly dispelled when one realized that the surfaces of these Remnant structures were shifting and warping under the influence of some unknowable force, for this was more than a little disquieting — in this, the strange structures were much like the news Lassarha had recently received.

It had been but a few hours since a constabulary raider-class had come up to Lassarha's fleet, carrying with it a vast wealth of information, and, critically, Xertaza's written command for Lassarha to bring the Empire's justice to the gates of Nahmatiix. Why the Prime Constable had to rely on her, Lassarha did not know, but when faced with the chance to rid the Empire of a band of traitors and improve her own reputation in the process, she had no choice but to accept, no matter the risk.

Once accepting, Lassarha had set off immediately; her fleet was currently barreling through the golden void, their destination being Nahmatiix itself, and Lassarha, though aliens were invading the galaxy and she was flying towards a possibly traitorous system with negligible support, had not an ounce of anxiety in her. The Remnant was a safe haven for human ships of any allegiance, for the alien navies had never been seen in the Remnant since their arrival, and Lassarha's human foes were likely too tied up defending their own worlds to attack her there. Furthermore, no human wanted to fight a battle in the Remnant — this was because most human weaponry, save the coilgun, was "smart," employing a wide variety of electronic and communications-related methods to help aim. As a result, the vast majority of human weapons were crippled by the chaotic, shifting, and omnipresent interference that dominated the ever-inhospitable Remnant. This interference was so extreme that some past confrontations in the Remnant had seen both sides hold a temporary ceasefire, and agree to breach out of the Remnant safely, in order to fight each other in normal space — this happened because conflict in such a chaotic battlefield was so unpredictable, it was likely to spell disaster for both sides.

As such, protected from both foes familiar and foes alien — in the truest sense of the word — Lassarha was as relaxed as one could be while the galaxy burned. Lifting her arm to grab a drink of 50% from a nearby, retractable pedestal, when Yezalax suddenly blurted something out loudly and unexpectedly, Lassarha, shocked, bumped her drink; it fell to the ground, a moment later, shattering on impact and scattering glass across the gilded floor.

"What did you say?!" Lassarha called out to her ship's captain confusedly, all while her bridge became overrun with panicked conversation. A moment later, Lassarha's implant told her the subject of their concern, while Yezalax yelled back, "Nahmatiixian ships, numbering eight hundred thousand and counting, have breached into the Remnant nearby! Lassarha, they're firing on us and our fleet!"

Replying with a textcomm — the situation demanded more efficient communication — Lassarha asked, desperate, "We're in the Remnant — how effective can their fire be?"

"Their ships seem to have been engineered with an all-coilgun armament, which is completely unaffected by the Remnant's interference — despite us outnumbering them, they have us severely outgunned. Lassarha, what do we do? Do we try to flee?"