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Although they had original estimates from her very first encounter with the Empire, and although Orsethii expected the fleet to grow, she didn’t expect it would grow to this size.

The Einherjar now had three devastators – two Imperial and one from the Hegemony. They were accompanied by dozens of battleships and carriers, hundreds of cruisers, thousands of destroyers and frigates. And there were far too many fighters and mecha on the field for them to count.

This was truly a fleet made to destroy.

Many in the Imperial fleet were utterly cowed by the Einherjar. It dawned on them that if they had annihilated the Corvus Republic as was their previous plan, then there was no hope for their survival at all.

They watched with abject fear as their black hulls blotted out the galaxy surrounding them. It was as though the stars were extinguished cluster after cluster.

Most of what they could see through the live feeds were the edges of the ships’ weapons and armor, as they glinted among the starlight. In addition, they could just barely see the scars on their plating and chitin. Some were large enough that they stretched the entire length of the ships themselves.

And despite the damage they seemingly had taken at one point, they were still there.

.....

Their weapon systems worried all of them the most. The barrels of their plasma lances and rail cannons crackled with energy. They were accompanied by the dull orange glow of the mortars and beams from the ships alongside them.

Everyone in the Imperial fleet knew that a single volley from the Einherjar would no doubt obliterate them in an instant. Even if it wasn’t true, that was certainly how it felt.

And if Orsethii’s fleet was far outnumbered and outgunned, the Corvus Republic was but a speck in comparison.

Many in the nation-state were deeply awed and deeply frightened by the fleet that now surrounded them, by the darkness they exuded. They realized that what was once their greatest friend and ally was now one of the galaxy’s greatest scourges.

Her black ships tore great swaths through Imperial space, and left oceans of blood in their wake.

Now, here they all were right in front of them. And they were ready to destroy. Everyone could sense a tide of blood coming their way, even through the vacuum of space between them.

Freya forced her way into Imperial comms. She appeared on every comms display on every bridge and every cockpit, which utterly shocked every Imperial. Especially the officers.

And it wasn’t just because she and her coders broke into their secure systems with ease – it was because of the ink-black circuit lines that ran down her face. They worked in combination with Freya’s displeased expression.

To them it seemed she was slowly seething, in the same way volcanos prepared to erupt. And that gave them a fear that they didn’t know existed.

Her crystal green eyes seemed to pierce through each and every one of them, right through the screens or holoprojectors. As though she was looking at each of them directly.

Unsettling would have put it lightly. Even Orsethii was taken aback by it.

“Fall back or die,” Freya uttered.

Her words were calm and cold at the same time. The tone she used gave them all the impression that there was no room for talk.

Not that they wanted to. Half wanted to fight. Half wanted to flee.

“Go right ahead and fire,” Orsethii challenged Freya. “If you do, you’ll hit your own beloved Corvus Republic, right?”

Orsethii might have been mad with the need to battle Freya, but she wasn’t anyone’s fool. She had numerous ships in her fleet completely surround each of the ships in the Republic.

Her own fleet quite literally enveloped each of them, on every side. It ensured that both fleets were intermingled, and that their guns were literally pointed at their targets from all sides.

“You’re assuming we’ve got poor aim,” Freya replied. “I suggest you stop your assumptions.”

“Oh, I’m positive you’ll hit everything you want to,” Orsethii retorted. “My fleet’s the same. I tell them to hit a ship with everything they’ve got, and they do it. No questions asked.

“And it doesn’t even matter if they hit whoever else is behind their target. I’m sure your fleet knows what I’m talking about.”

Freya’s eyes narrowed.

What Orsethii said held some truth to it. Hers was a fleet accustomed to wanton, unrestrained slaughter. They had never once paid attention to any collateral damage they caused. The idea of it barely even registered to them.

She fought against herself to fire anyway, knowing that even a single mistake could result in the destruction of the Republic.

Something deep inside her gave her pause.

“Anyway,” continued Orsethii, “I don’t care about them. I don’t even care about your fleet. Everyone around us could die in an instant, and I wouldn’t care. I want you, Ra’ventrii. Your blood. I want it draped all over my scales.

“You humiliated me years ago, and left me lying in the sand, helpless. A Reborn, set to the side like garbage. And not just any Reborn, but me, the symbol of my species’ bloodlust. You know I can’t let any of that slide.”

Some of Freya’s memories flashed into her mind – back when she was a duelist at the beck and call of drogar industrialists. They felt bittersweet for some reason.

“You want to fight me? You’ve trapped my people for this?” she guffawed. “Is this some kinda joke?”

“Or I could simply destroy your Republic,” Orsethii countered. “That would open you up to destroying my fleet, yes? Then where would we be? No, that’s no way for this to end, Ra’ventrii. Come aboard my ship. Face me with your blade.”

“...No. You come to me.”

“I’m not stepping foot alone on your ship. You could have your forces tear me apart if you wanted.”

“Then bring a platoon with you, if you’re that afraid.”

Silence hung in the air between the two. It fell heavily, and threatened to suffocate everyone else who was witness to their conversation.

Before either could continue, every comms display and holoprojector flashed and fuzzed. Raijin and Azrael then appeared on them.

Or rather, Raijin forced the two of them into the secure comms channel.

“Apologies for breaking in,” the girl said. “I think it is a good idea to fight on the devastator. Both of you are powerful, neh? You will need a great amount of space for your quarrel. With us there, you can be assured that you will not be ambushed.

“More than that, you will need others to observe your fight directly, to confirm the results. So that necessitates a larger arena. Azrael and I volunteer to be witnesses.”

Orsethii let loose a guttural growl. A part of her felt like she was being played a fool by the humans. But they were all here now, and there was no point in holding back or staying still, much less backing away.

“Fine,” she eventually conceded. “My own personal guards will accompany me. And we’ll all meet aboard your ship, Ra’ventrii.”

It didn’t take long for a handful of shuttles to head towards Thanatos. They came from Orsethii’s fleet, the Republic fleet, and from the ground forces from the planet below.

All three converged, then traveled as a team into one of the devastator’s open hangar bays. Their ships were absolutely tiny in comparison to the massive bay doors themselves, which had only partially opened up to allow them in.

The atmospheric shielding shimmered across the bay, even as the three shuttles landed on one of the larger landing pads. The hangar bay doors began to slide shut when the first of the shuttles’ passengers stepped out.

Orsethii was the first to step onto Thanatos, though a handful of her power armored bodyguards came right behind her. Over to her right, Raijin floated down her shuttle’s ramp and joined Azrael who was waiting at the bottom.

Most of the hangar bay itself was shrouded in cold darkness – its vast expanse was empty of everything. There weren’t any ships or equipment. There were certainly no engineers or pilots milling about.

All that seemed to be here was the smell of slightly ionized oxygen, which was caused by the atmospheric shielding protecting the hangar bay itself.

On top of that, the only lights that were on were being made by hovering lighting drones, which only emitted light for a certain radius around them and their ships.

Another hovering light drone was close to an open entryway. Right underneath it was a large gravpad that hovered slightly above the floor.

All of them walked towards it, then boarded the gravpad itself.

Once they were secure, the pad lifted up even more then traveled through the open entryway and down the voluminous passageways beyond.

Though the lights were on in their specific passageway, it was clear that all others weren’t. Any adjoining corridors and intersections were dark and murky beyond their own pathway. None could see past the deep gloom – that was how oppressive the darkness felt.

A chill spread through Azrael as she thought about it all.

Orsethii on the other hand realized that the ship was completely uncrewed. She had expected a huge welcoming committee the moment they arrived. Perhaps one that was heavily armed and armored, designed to intimidate her. Of course, something like that never could.

But this emptiness threw her greatly. If anything, this was what ate at her.

She thought about her own ship, the way it hummed, the way its passageways and rooms felt alive. Not because of the ship itself, but because of everyone who walked its decks. It was the chatter, and the bustle, and the chaos of, well, life.

Without it, the ship surrounding her felt dead. And yet somehow she could feel it breathe.

A kind of curiosity overtook her suddenly, and she looked over at the two humans by her side. Both were tiny. Smaller even than Ra’ventrii herself. They looked so small and so fragile that she instinctively knew she could break them. Easily.

And yet neither of them seemed particularly bothered or fearful of her presence. That was certainly strange to her. Everyone else in her life stood defensively when around her. But not these two. And the same with Ra’ventrii, as well.

More than that, neither of them seemed particularly bothered by the darkness that surrounded them. Orsethii was certain that if she could feel its oppressive presence, then so could they. But neither shied from any of the dangers that were all around them.

It briefly crossed her mind that perhaps she was weak, somehow. That despite her blood, and her ancestral design, and her genetic disposition, she was inferior. Doubt seeped into her thoughts and buried themselves into her psyche as a result.

She wondered if she had been wrong all along. Not just about being here, but who she was at all. The thought occurred to her that perhaps Retholis was right, and she believed only what she wanted to believe because it made her feel powerful.

She curled her hand into a fist and dug her talons into the meat of her scaled palm. One of them punched through her scales and pierced the muscle below. The pain of it pulled her back to the present, and away from a growing dread that filled her chest.

Orsethii shook off her thoughts, and convinced herself that it was merely her anxiety talking. She was about to face the only opponent who had ever challenged who she was. The only opponent who had shaken who she was. Deeply.

And now, all she needed to do was prove herself.