The Nyth fleet had been hit hard. I fought hard to keep my face neutral as the live video feed displayed the damaged ships. "Send a message to Ayrn'Na'Teck and extend an invitation to join me on the Unity," I instructed Lt. Foster. We were skirting around a cloud of wreckage that had been jettisoned. Small autonomous repair craft were busy collecting and repurposing the debris. The position the Nyth had fallen back to and were maintaining was several light days away from the Zrynt and far from any powerful energy sources, so they were forced to make do with the supplies they had on hand for their repairs.

"Sir, Ayrn'Na'Teck sent a reply. She is politely declining your invitation. She has her hands full trying to fix her fleet."

"I suppose I should have seen that coming," I replied.

"Admiral, the Stargazer is attempting to establish communications," Lt. Foster reported several minutes later.

I nodded to her and Commander Azevedo's face appeared on the main screen. "Yes commander?" I asked.

"Sir, may I suggest we begin repair operations immediately? Some of these ships look like they're barely holding together."

"I have yet to confer with Ayrn, but it sounds like you already have some ideas. What did you have in mind?"I asked.

"I recommend deploying all battleships to four bravo golf six three to begin building repair infrastructure. The system is clear of hostiles and has a small red dwarf that should provide sufficient power for repairs. Meanwhile, repair crews can stay and assist with the critically damaged ships."

"Alright. Since this is your brainchild, you will assume command of the battleships and begin construction immediately. There should be sufficient nanites on board your ships to get things started. Send me your mission plan when it's ready." I nodded at Lt. Foster who terminated the connection. I had barely taken a breath when my systems notified me of a high priority message. Commander Azevedo had already worked out the mission plan well before her call to me. I verified the information and gave it my stamp of approval. A moment later, the battleships were gone.

"Lt. Foster, alert all repair crews that their services will be required. Authorize them to use whatever resources we have stored. Contact the Nyth and get our crews to where they are needed the most." Lt. Foster acknowledged the order and went to work coordinating with the various groups.

The repair crews were shuttled off, along with a significant amount of raw materials and nanites. "Lt. Foster, would you so kind as to open a ship wide comm for me," I asked.

"Ready when you are Admiral," she reported after a moment.

"All hands, we are now at threat level Bravo. All personnel are to report to assigned areas for emergency equipment checkout immediately. We are in the vicinity of a Zrynt Lord and I want everyone to remain alert. Soon we will have vengeance. Admiral Ryan out."

I turned again to Lt. Foster. "Send word to organize remaining ships into patrols. Contact engineering and see what ideas they have for establishing a sensor net as well."

The tension among the crew was palpable. This was the moment the fleet had trained for. Having the Zrynt so close without being able to attack was frustrating, to say the least. Lucky for us, the Zrynt Lord seemed content to sit and guard whatever it was they were so determined to build. Several hours later, the ship's engineers had a solution for deploying a sensor net. With the aid of the ship's fighters, modified probes were placed in predetermined locations far enough away from where the fleet was gathering to give us at least a few precious minutes notice if the Zrynt decided to attack. The coverage wasn't as good as I could have hoped, but when combined with active patrols, I was fairly certain we would have enough advanced warning of incoming hostiles.

The worst damaged and jump capable Nyth ships departed just before Admiral Rodrigues arrived with the Second Fleet. Unity's exhausted repair crews were grateful for the influx of supplies and personnel after twenty hours of working side by side with the Nyth repair crews. They had done remarkably well in those twenty hours. The Vengeance sent additional repair kits off to Commander Azevedo, who was laboring furiously to get the Nyth ships operational.

We weren't the only ones engaged in frantic construction. The Zrynt seemed to have conscripted all available ships into construction of the ring. As impossibly large as it was, construction was moving forward at a frighteningly swift pace.

Twenty-five hours after Second Fleet's arrival, Admiral Vaehil arrived with his fleet of Tuleeririan ships. "Good to see you alive and well Admiral Vaehil," I said. I was currently in my office going over reports when his fleet arrived. He wasted no time in establishing a video link.

"It is good to see you too Admiral Ryan," he replied."Our jump schedule resulted in us missing any updates sent out over the last several hours. What is our current status?"

"Well, the Zrynt know we are here, but only seemed concerned with building their massive ring. The jury is still out on what its true purpose is, but I have a feeling that we won't like it. Luckily for us, the Zrynt Lord seems content to sit there and guard it."

"This behavior is strange for the Zrynt. I don't like an unpredictable enemy."

"I have to agree with you," I replied. "The Nyth's initial estimate of the ring was grossly understated. As far as we can estimates its about sixty percent completed and is roughly two thousand kilometers in diameter."

"Why was the initial estimate so wrong?" Admiral Vaehil inquired.

"Judging on how quickly it is being constructed, they must have barely begun building it when the Nyth arrived. The braiding pattern they are using combined with the small section that was completed distorted their computer's calculations."

"From the data you sent to us while we were in transit indicates that the unknown alloy we uncovered on our planetary assault is the same used to construct the ring. The few tests we have been able to conduct indicate that the material is an extremely efficient, natural superconductor. We have yet to reach its maximum power threshold."

"So, whatever they are building requires an unimaginable amount of power. That certainly makes me feel better," I said sarcastically. "That makes another argument for those who believe it is some sort of super weapon."

"I have thought of that myself," Admiral Vaehil admitted. "I don't believe the ring itself is a weapon. I agree that its true purpose is less than friendly, but there are several things that don't make sense if it is a weapon."

"Like what?"

"Location for one," he admitted. "Why build it so far away from where it needs to be deployed. It's obvious they can construct them with worryingly rapidity. Odds are they could build one closer to our populace and deploy it before we could stop them. In conjunction with that, transporting them would prove...difficult, if not impossible."

"It's smaller than a Zrynt Lord ship," I countered.

"That may be true, but its design and mass would require a significant amount of power to propel."

"Whatever its purpose, we'll find out in roughly forty-five hours."

"When do we begin the assault?" he asked.

"Initial operations will begin as soon as the Xroex arrive in about twelve hours. The main event will take place about six hours after that."

"We'll be ready," Admiral Vaehil said with conviction."There is one more thing you should know. The sections of tube we recovered are different in both length as well as curvature. All data indicates that it was not meant for this ring."

I was ripped from my sleep as warning klaxons blared in every room. I grabbed my battle armor and raced out of my quarters. "Report!" I shouted over the alarm. The bridge was in a state of organized chaos as crew struggled to don their battle armor while attempting to keep up with the influx of information. I felt their pain. In my mad dash to the bridge, I had only my lower extremities encased in armor. Once personnel were properly attired, the chaos settled into well practiced efficiency.

"Admiral, we have confirmation of fourteen explosions in the vicinity," Lt. Smith said above the din. "We should have confirmation on their locations any moment."

"Coordinate with the other fleets and see if they have any additional intel, and get our patrols to scout the locations once we have them. Activate off duty patrols as well. I want additional ships at the ready if those were simply a diversion or precursor to a Zrynt attack."

Lt. Smith had just finished delegating the tasks to his subordinates when he said, "Admiral, we have an incoming message from the Xroex."

"Send it to my station," I commanded.

In an instant, the message appeared. "Admiral Ryan, we have sensed the disruption our arrival has caused, but felt it prudent to eliminate the hidden vessels before they had a chance to cause harm. I assure you that this area is free from any additional Zrynt ships."

"Lt. Smith, send a message to the leaders of the other fleets. Zrynt found and neutralized hidden Zrynt ships. They claim area is clear." I paused while the message was drafted and sent. "Recall off-duty personnel and patrols. We will remain at threat level Alpha until we have confirmation of the Xroex's claims."

A methodical search was performed, but no traces of any other Zrynt ships were found. It delayed our timetable by several hours, but it was better to be safe than to have a hidden fleet of Zrynt ships biting you in the backside.

***

Ballyx was anxious to get underway. It was understandable why the other fleets had to see for themselves that the threat was neutralized, but it was still disconcerting that they hadn't taken his word for it. His people had the honor of being the first offensive wave. The plans had been laid out and refined as the fleet was assembling, thus allowing the attack to commence immediately.

By the time the other fleets were satisfied the threat was gone, Ballyx had divided his remaining ships into what Admiral Ryan had called strike groups. Ballyx had noticed that the Terrans felt the need to assign creative names to the most mundane of things. Finally, Ballyx was notified that he was cleared to engage the enemy. Mere moments later, the Xroex fleet jumped.

Ballyx had changed the ship assignments for most of his combat personnel. A typical combat crew consisted of pushers and mappers paired together. Mappers would find weaknesses that could be exploited, while the pushers forced psionic energy into the targeted area. Each ship was originally assigned five hundred pair along with twenty five pair in reserve. Ballyx shuffled personnel around and paired ships together. One ship would be mapping while its partner took out the targets.

The pushers were gathered in a single location waiting to be called out to strike at targets. The mappers jumped around in a predetermined pattern, looking for targets. Once a target was found, the weaknesses were tagged and a pusher was summoned to destroy the target. It was decided that this method would be the most efficient against the cloaked Zrynt ships. They had few weaknesses, but the few they did possess were significant enough to be fatal. These weaknesses were common to all cloaked Zrynt ships they Xroex had encountered.

Ballyx's stomach lurched as his ship was called out for a kill. Ballyx was monitoring the fleet, so he was uninvolved in the destruction of the single Zrynt ship they were called out for. Ballyx was beginning to think something was amiss. The pushers weren't being called out as quickly as he had been anticipating. He began extracting data from every Zrynt ship they had encountered thus far. There were enough kills now to see a pattern developing. The Zrynt ships were converging on a single location. That location just happened to be the staging area for the pushers. Ballyx quickly recalled all ships and began plotting. The Xroex had just gathered when the Zrynt came rushing in.

Ballyx quickly split the fleet and they moved to engage the Zrynt. The Zrynt didn't realize the danger they were in until they began firing on the Xroex. Dozens of Zrynt ships were incapacitated or destroyed in seconds. To their credit, the Zrynt quickly caught on and the rate at which they were dying was drastically reduced. Experience had taught the Xroex that the most effective method in destroying the tough Zrynt ships was to sabotage their weapons and wait for them to destroy themselves. Even if they Zrynt had figured out what was done, without their weapons they were harmless...or so he thought. Instead of retreating, the Zrynt increased their acceleration. Flaws were exposed due to the extreme amount of power being delivered to the engines, resulting in more Zrynt casualties. The Zrynt continued to parish, but those who survived pushed forward on their reckless journey with zeal. A cold chill crept up Ballyx's spine as he realized what the Zrynt intended to do. Instead of their damaged weapons, they had become the weapons.

The closest pair of ships must have realized their intentions as well. It was too little too late. Zrynt ships tore through the fleeing ships, sacrificing their lives to take out the large ship. Their deaths pulled the other Xroex ships out of their stupor. Xroex ships began rapidly disappearing as they jumped to safety. Once the danger had passed, the Xroex began chasing down the Zrynt survivors. The Zrynt had proven how simple physics could have dire consequences for the unwary. Small objects with high velocity resulted in enough force to take down heavily armored ships. Ballyx ordered his ships to begin gathering debris to be placed in the path of the fleeing Zrynt. It was only fitting that the same law of physics be applied to them as well. Changing direction at such high speeds turned out to be an impossible task for the doomed Zrynt.