“Get me back to the lead warliner,” Kori’nh called to the pilot. “I must guide our response.” The cutter pilot flew faster, recklessly, but they closed the distance to the enormous Solar Navy flagship.

As the maniple subcommander repeatedly broadcast his stern threats, the ominous crystal globe continued to emerge from the clouds, blue-lightning weapons building up to a giant discharge. Kori’nh opened a channel to the lead warliner. “Don’t waste time, Qul Aro’nh. These aliens have already proven their aggressive intent on numerous occasions.” He drew a deep breath, committing himself and the Solar Navy. “Open fire!”

As escorts continued to stream down to the floating city, intent on evacuating as many inhabitants as possible, a second warglobe broke through the clouds, rising toward the mining facility. Deep below, the Adar saw a third phosphorescent patch glowing, emerging. How many were there?

“As you command, Adar,” Qul Aro’nh said and drove the front ranks of warliners in. They launched a full spread of kinetic missiles that impacted in flashes of fire against the diamond hull, leaving only slight discolorations. Then Aro’nh shot his banks of high-energy cutting beams, spears of orange fire that scorched tracks along the crystalline hull. One warliner pushed forward for a closer strike.

In response, blue lightning bolts crackled from the spikes on the two alien warglobes. With a jagged blast of pure energy, the deep-core aliens completely vaporized the nearest warliner. The other battleships reeled.

A gasp of sick dismay went through all the Ildiran troops. Adar Kori’nh could not believe what he had just witnessed, the utter ease with which the enemy had destroyed one of the most powerful vessels in the Ildiran Solar Navy! Qul Aro’nh shouted for his remaining warliners to regroup.

Escort ships loaded with refugees began to rise from the Qronha 3 skymine, while other transports landed. The workers onboard the mining city were panicking. Kori’nh could hear their cries for help across the communications channels, but he could not evacuate them any faster. Already the maniple’s docking bays were filled to capacity.

Small private ships began to fly away, personal leisure craft and tiny supply vessels designed to make regular shuttle runs back to the main Ildiran system. But those spacecraft would never be sufficient to remove all of the people in the crowded splinter colony.

A third diamond warglobe finally emerged from the clouds, and now the triad of enormous spheres hovered high above Qronha 3’s storms, blistering with lightning. They opened fire on the cloud city. The first shot blasted a reactor dome and vaporized one of the crowded dwelling modules, murdering hundreds. Flames spread quickly.

The Adar felt a sick pain in his heart, a wrench through the thism for all the people who had just died. “Get me aboard my flagship!”

“Almost there, Adar.”