Admiral Mfume stood up from his chair and said, "Open a channel and prepare to broadcast."

Admiral Mfume looked to the so-called 'Three Wise Men', a trio of linguists sent by SupCom who had studied the Empyrean's language and would act as interpreters. Chaplain Teufel was also there with them. Although his first contact with the Empyrean forces had not ended well, he was the only person to have directly communicated with them before now and was deemed valuable enough to bring into the circle.

Commander Rivkin, the leader of the Three Wise Men and the speaker of the group, said, "Ready when you are, sir."

Admiral Mfume nodded to the Commander and then said, "Begin broadcast."

What the Admiral was saying was patently ridiculous and he knew it, but he nevertheless played by SupCom's script. It was somewhat necessary because however talented the Three Wise Men were, it would have been difficult for them to adapt to any improvisation on the Admiral's part.

Commander Rivkin then repeated the Admiral's words in what everyone hoped was accurate Empyrean. When he was finished, they were greeted with silence. The ships of the Empyrean orbital guard fleets did not power down their weapons, but they did not make any aggressive moves either. In fact, they did not move at all.

What followed was perhaps the longest 57 minutes and 22 seconds in all human history. The ships of both sides remained completely motionless, their crews on a hair trigger just waiting for a massive explosion of violence.

Aboard the Ticonderoga, the tension was broken by the communications officer saying, "Incoming transmission."

Admiral Mfume nodded to the Three Wise Men.

From the main screen, everyone could hear the Empyrean reply. While only the Three Wise Men and Chaplain Teufel could understand the words, the imperious tone of the man speaking did not sound like someone who was surrendering.

For all his research, Commander Rivkin had to struggle to keep pace with the Empyrean speaker and interpret for Admiral Mfume.

Commander Rivkin was holding up his hand, trying to divide his attention between the Empyrean speaker and Chaplain Teufel. And failing.

Commander Rivkin was standing there with his hand over his right ear and plugging the left ear with his finger. His eyes were closed and his brow furrowed. About as soon as Admiral Mfume took notice of him, the Commander dropped his hands and looked up.

The Admiral Mfume held up his hand.

Commander Rivkin turned to look at video feeds of the Empyrean fleets and began muttering under his breath.

Commander Rivkin shot the chaplain a mean glare, but said nothing.

The order went down the line from Commodore Frazier to Captain Yuen to the CS operators. This was it.

Admiral Mfume rose from his seat with a start. "Who fired!?"

However, rather than attacking the entire task force, the Empyreans' fire was directed at a single point.

Without a moment's hesitation, Admiral Mfume ordered, "All ships, begin phased withdrawal. Prepare to lay down suppressive fire and deploy countermeasures."

The order went down the line and the Ticonderoga and other carriers began to pull out just as the Empyrean ships started firing again. The countermeasures deployed were actually inspired by the Empyrean ships themselves, millions of small mirrors that worked much like chaff for laser fire. In fact, the common name for it was 'mirror chaff'. It was actually a technology that had been developed many decades ago, back when Union warships themselves relied primarily on lasers for their armaments. It had fallen out of use during the war because neither the Union nor the Sheolites relied as heavily on lasers in combat anymore. Fortunately, the mission planners thought to load up the Starlights that came with the reinforcements to better prepare the task force for its mission.

The mirror chaff was deflecting the majority of the incoming fire, but they were not out of the woods yet. The battle had only just begun.

Jeff didn't say anything.

Jeff had his reservations about playing along with N, but what else was new? She was instrumental in their escape from the Sheolites, so he had to hope she would be just as helpful against the Empyrean.

If this didn't look like their best chance to survive, Jeff would've stopped her then and there. However, he really didn't want to die here, and was willing to let a capricious AI seize control of enemy warships to improve his odds. And even if she did turn on him, their situation wouldn't be any worse than it already was.

One of the orbital guard fleets had broken off to follow them while the other remained behind to defend the colony. The plan to divide the Empyrean forces in the event of a full-scale engagement was already coming into effect, but even the single fleet outnumbered and outgunned the entire task force.

Even without concentrating their fire to start taking down the enemy ships, two patrol escorts had already been neutralized, a step toward avenging the Azelfafage and her crew. There were still many more ships to go.

The enemy commander had opened a channel as soon as the fleet began its pursuit. He was not there to demand an explanation for the Union side firing the first shot or to seek their surrender. Instead he engaged in a tirade against them that had been going on for nearly twenty minutes without even the slightest pause.

The Three Wise Men struggled to keep pace with his often rapid-fire ranting, but the substance of the matter was clear almost immediately and there was little useful information to be gained after that point. Regardless, Admiral Mfume kept the channel open and let the Wise Men continue to interpret.

Commodore Frazier and Captain Yuen were focused on the Ticonderoga herself, but the Commodore could not help rolling his eyes and sighing at the breathless Empyrean commander.

As if on cue, the Empyrean commander's rant was cut short. Shouts of confusion and distress in the background were abruptly silenced.

The main viewscreen came on, glowing a soft pink. Blocky pixel-art red hearts popped up onscreen along with the words "HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN!!" in flashing, blocky text.

Staring at the screen, Commodore Frazier could only mutter, "What... the..."

The text vanished and in walked the virtual idol Mika Otonashi, who would be pretty much unknown to anyone under 40 were it not for a revival of her work several years back. When Mika spoke, the voice was clearly not hers but one that was much more obviously computer generated.

Admiral Mfume eyed the screen suspiciously, but nevertheless said, "All ships, hold fire on Empyrean ships transmitting friendly codes. Focus on active hostiles."

He made a gesture for the communications officer to cut the feed. Once the viewscreen went blank, he then said, "All ships, Empyrean ships transmitting friendly codes will now be referred to as 'fallen angels'. I repeat, Empyrean ships transmitting friendly codes will now be referred to as 'fallen angels'. Maintain distance and continue to monitor the fallen angels. You are authorized to override friendly fire countermeasures if the fallen angels turn hostile."

Admiral Mfume folded his hand and looked at the blank viewscreen.

The ships that were not assimilated were either destroyed or they escape back to Selene 03. For the past 18 hours, the two orbital guard fleets were locked in brutal close-quarter combat while Admiral Mfume kept the task force at a safer distance to cover the fallen angels' attack. By providing more of a support role, the Union side managed to avoid losing any ships or suffering any significant damage. At this rate, the hostile orbital guard fleet would be wiped out within the next several hours and it would simply be a matter of neutralizing the surface defenses and calling in the Marathons so Marines could secure and pacify the colony.

Watching the battle unfold, Commodore Frazier joked to Captain Yuen, "At the rate we're going, it looks like I can afford a little siesta after lunch."

Commodore Frazier shrugged.

Before Commodore Frazier could comment on Captain Yuen's hands-off policy, the radar operator announced, "Incoming contacts! Two clusters matching the configuration of Empyrean expeditionary fleets."

The orders cascaded down the line and Commodore Frazier gripped the armrests of his chair, frustrated that he could not take a more active role in the coming action.

Commodore Frazier whispered to Captain Yuen, "How long do you think we're going to be able to use these fallen angels as a shield?"

Looking out ahead, Yuen stoically replied, "I don't imagine that will happen. This won't end until one side is wiped out. I've read up on the Admiral. He won't back down now that the fight has started.

"You've heard about what he did at Ganymede. Yes, he probably saved 6th from a major catastrophe, but he also lost a carrier and two destroyers in the process. And then, even after the fighting was over, he pushed his crippled task force to hunt down the enemy stragglers for four days. That is the kind of man who's leading us against these odds."

Commodore Frazier was serving as CAG on the Britannia back during the Battle of Ganymede and had never bothered to get the full story. Hearing Yuen's account of what happened, that sad, wearied look the Admiral gave him three weeks back made all the more sense. Commodore Frazier pledged to support the Admiral then and neither the current circumstance nor this new information was going to change that.

With a fairly flimsy grin of his own, Captain Yuen replied, "I guess so."

They were interrupted by a sensor operator shouting, "Yankee One is taking heavy fire! She's not going to make it!"

'Yankee One' was the official codename for the flagship of the fallen angels. The two arriving expeditionary fleets along with the super cruiser still in the enemy's control concentrated their fire on the ship and even a monster of that size couldn't withstand that much firepower for long.

Commodore Frazier felt a lead weight sink in his stomach. Yankee One was the main thing drawing the Empyreans' fire away from the task force. Now it was gone and the two freshly arrived expeditionary fleets could turn their attention to the Union interlopers.

Their situation had suddenly taken a dramatic turn for the worse.