Darkworld: Earth

2.43.

The overmind watched with metaphorical bated breath as the ships arrived in the solar system from all over Rosantean space. Everything hinged on how the humans reacted to this. If it failed, then a chunk of the Overmind would die, a piece of itself that would not be easily regrown.

If it succeeded, then one more piece would be in place to ensure the safety of the source world.

~~~~~~

“Status change! Ships in the oort cloud! Many many ships!” the scanning tech announced.

Captain Anders rushed over to the man’s station, looking to see what the man saw. “Their transponders?”

“Rosantean ID’s but not military,” the tech said.

“Hail them,” Anders said. “I don’t expect to talk my way out of this, but everything we do is being recorded. Let it be known that we tried to talk.”

The woman at the communications station nodded and began typing on her holographic keyboard. The enemy flagship accepted the connection, routed through the military connections between the Empire and the Yonohoans.

Anders was expecting a man, like the deceased Captain Yoko who had commanded the enforcement ship that had caused so much damage.

He had not been expecting a Sulivan.

He blinked in surprise.

“We are the Yukopan,” the alpha of the Yukopan fleet declared. “We have come from the Rosantean Empire to discuss surrender.”

“Then we have nothing to discuss,” Captain Anders declared. “The earth will not submit to this tyranny. We will fight you with everything that we have, and when we die, our memories will claw their way out of the grave in order to choke you with the ghosts of your own actions. You will not--”

“We wish to live. Spare us your wrath. Please, I beg you. Let us surrender.”

Anders paused. “You are not here to demand our surrender?”

“No.”

“You are here to offer yours.”

“Yes.”

“What terms do you offer?” Anders asked.

“We offer unconditional surrender, save only that you do not slay us. We have brought you our weapons. All of our people we place at your mercy. Please spare the Yukopan humanity’s wrath.”

Anders was dumbfounded by the turn of events. “My rank is insufficient to accept your surrender, leader of the Yukopan. I will contact my superiors and request instruction.”

“We will wait in your oort cloud until a decision has been made,” the alpha informed him.

The connection was severed, leaving Anders scratching his head as he contacted the headquarters of the ESF.

~~~~~~

On board the flagship of the Yonohoan fleet, currently acting as an observer in the conflict at sol system, Eolai began to laugh maniacally until he fell on his side, then he laughed some more.

~~~~~~

“What do you mean they surrender?” Turnball asked the holographic Captain Anders.

“I mean that they just showed up, we hailed them, and they surrendered,” Anders admitted. “No shots fired, no demands, nothing. They said they came to discuss surrender, and I started to do my ‘we will not yield’ speech, but they’re here to discuss their surrender, now ours.”

“How many ships are there?” Turnball inquired.

“Two thousand eighty four. It’s a mixed fleet, with some mean looking ones and some that look like passenger liners. It will take some time to inventory them,” Anders said. “Do I have permission to discuss terms of surrender with the Yukopan leader, Sir?”

“We need their ships, and we need training on how to use them,” Turnball said.

“Yes sir. What about their people?”

“Find out how many there are and we’ll figure out a place to put them. Australia’s still pretty empty, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t know, sir, never been.”

~~~~~~

“Are we certain this isn’t some sort of trap?” one of the generals asked. The negotiations were ongoing in orbit, with Captain Anders taking the lead as the one who had first identified and then contacted the Yukopan leader.

“They are Yukopan. They are not crafty enough to issue a false surrender. The Topokan might, but the Yukopans do not have any Yonohoah to learn how to fight. They have weapons, but no craftiness,” Eolai’s hologram explained to the gathered generals.

“You’re certain?” Turnball pressed.

“I am surprised that the Yukopan are here at all. I had no idea that there were so many of them. I truly believe that they brought their entire people, including their young. They would not put their young in danger if they did not fear a greater danger,” Eolai said. “I do not know what has them spooked, but this is an all or nothing effort, General Turnball. Either you accept their surrender and show the Yonohoans how you will treat the cousins of our beloved Topokin, or you turn them away and lose access to the resources that they have brought with them.”

“How do their weapons compare to what the Yonohoah or the Rosantean Empire can bring to bear?” a general asked.

“Inferior to the Yonohoah by, say, three generations,” Eolai said. “They would be peers to the Rosantean however.”

“You’re claiming weapon superiority to the Rosantean empire?” the same man asked.

“Yes. We have the best weapons, the best ships, and the best soldiers,” Eolai said. “But the Rosantean empire will throw endless numbers at us if we were to go to war, so I hesitate to engage them. But this situation is different. They will escalate to your victory against the enforcer that they initially sent, but they will not be expecting your sudden windfall. You may claim victory with the gifts that the Yukopan bring.”

“Where as the other strategy you proposed shows us fighting a losing battle until we can bring in an arbiter,” Major Mary Phillips pointed out.

“They have fabricated cause to prosecute a war against your space forces, but they have no cause to land on your surface, and certainly not to barrage it from orbit. If they try either of those things, I will intervene and they will ‘rue the day,’” Eolai declared.

“You will protect the planet Earth even if it starts a war between the empire and the Yonohoans?” another general asked.

“If I become involved to defend the planet Earth, then the war will not be between the Yonohoah and the Rosantean Empire. The entire universe will raise its fist in outrage and rush to our side,” Eolai predicted. “The Empire is playing a dangerous game already. I had thought that the one advantage that you had was that they did not know that I am here. As the Last Son of Eodar, I could have testified to your valor and sacrifice as you fought to the last to defend your home. My word and the proof I would back it up with would resonate with any arbiter that might be sent. With the Yukopan, that may not be necessary.”

“What do you think of our chances with the Yukopan ships?” Turnball asked.

Eolai shrugged. “That depends on how well you can learn to fight in them,” he said.

~~~~~~

“In a surprising turn of events today, a fleet of Yukopan ships appeared in the solar system. Numbered in the thousands, the ships appear to have come from the Rosantean empire. However, rather than open fire, the the ships appear to have come in order to offer Earth their military aid.

“Not much is known about the Yukopan people. A subset of Xenosapiens sulivans, they are of the same species as the Topokans, the furry allies of the Yonohoan people. Apparently there is a slight difference in the density of their fur, with the Yukopan’s fur being thicker. Why they have come is unknown. They appear to have brought their entire race with them, some thirty two million individuals.

“The talks are ongoing, but a few details are being passed down from the upper echelons through official and unofficial channels.

“With the influx of thousands of ships, the dire outcome for the Earth Space Force is suddenly looking much brighter --”

Captain Moon turned off the radio and stepped out. She walked up to the recruitment station for the ESF in her full uniform and asked to speak with a recruiter about reinlisting. She had her medical baggage, but she believed that she retained the capabilities of a skilled officer.

Perhaps they would turn her away. That was fine. She would try and see.

Earth needed every able hand it could get in this fight, and Ji-eun Moon would do her duty.

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