?My name is Nicodemus Hallows. I am the governor of the space station you are approaching.“, he said into the microphone in front of him, not certain if the aliens were listening, ?We are a civilian space port. Requesting parley.“


    Next to him, the young engineer Ricky was sitting at the controls of Binary Bloom’s hidden weaponry. It wasn’t much, more intended as deterrence. But if they could use the moment of surprise, they might be able to take out two, with a lot of luck three of the ships.


    ?I didn’t know we have these.“, Ricky said while working the controls to get them ready to fire without sending out revealing energy spikes.


    ?Not many do.“, Nico said. With Baer away, he had to rope in Ricky to do the job. The boy was a talented engineer. More importantly, he was there.


    The alien ships answered by opening fire. Rows of of glowing beads hurled towards the outpost, each a superheated ball of plasma. Nicodemus hit the stereotypical red button that made alarms blare throughout the station and airlocks and shutters close in preparation for a hull breach. In about ten seconds, Binary Bloom would become a honeycomb of almost a hundred sections.


    The pulsating plasma beams were not aimed for the inhabited parts of the station. The station AI projected their calculated paths and points of impact.


    ?What the …?“, Nicodemus exclaimed, and then: ?Oh the little fuckers! Ricky, fire, all weapons, now!“


    Ricky pushed several buttons in quick succession. Deep in the station, at the edge where Binary Bloom ended and the alien ruin began, sections of the hull blew off, shot into space by explosive bolts. Six smaller hatches were immediately followed by missiles, each three meters long and carrying a gamma-ray nuclear warhead.


    Three of them were vaporized almost instantly, because several plasma beams were targeting this exact location. Only two missiles had enough time to fire their sideway thrusters for evasive maneuvers.


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    Other beams shot a large breach into the hangar bay doors. Another stream destroyed the large UV laser cannon. Not that it made a difference, it as well as the smaller lasers were still broken from the EMP. Several streams missed the station or hit the alien structure where no parts of Binary Bloom had been built, yet.


    ?Launch bays one through six are all gone.“, Ricky reported the status, ?Laser cannon is out, too.“


    Bloom had only a last surprise still up its sleeve. A large piece of machinery that to a casual observer looked like a particle accelerator. Which wasn’t entirely wrong.


    ?Quantum coherence cannon ready in five seconds.“, Ricky said.


    The aliens had stopped shooting. They had fired only one burst. Small landing crafts now detached from their ships. Two each, eight in total. They fired their engines and approached Binary Bloom at high speed.


    ?Hold it.“, Nicodemus said.


    ?What do you want?“, he said into the microphone that transmitted his words into space. Then he switched to internal communications and connected to the two ships the marines had come in.


    Suddenly, the intergalactic diplomatic channel flickered to life with a broadcast: ?This is Amara Vance, president of Erulas. Unidentified alien vessels in system Noctua 7469, galactic coordinates in the data stream to this broadcast. I know what you are looking for. The core is in my possession and I have had it moved to a secure location. Your soldiers died for nothing. Reinforcements are already on their way. If they encounter you within human space, you will be destroyed without further warnings.“


    ?That’s a cute bluff.“, Ricky remarked after the broadcast had finished.


    ?Yeah.“, Nicodemus answered, ?Even at max speed, they’re more than two days away from here. The question is: Do the Qyrl know that?“


    Ricky looked at him as if he had just said that water isn’t wet. ?It’s pretty obvious, Nico. Unless there was a fleet stationed in interstellar space, Erulas is the closest planet.“


    ?Calidor is even closer. A few fast attack ships could make the trip in thirty hours or so. The Qyrl may not know that it’s not yet inhabited.“ Then he turned to the comm unit again. After a short exchange he summed up: ?I’ve informed the marines of the situation. That general on the battleship had already ordered them to repel boarders. I have no idea how long they could hold the hangar if it came to that. Qyrl aren’t exactly the best ground troops in the galaxy.“


    ?Uh, Nico“, Ricky was pointing at the holographic display that showed the station and its immediate surroundings, ?I don’t think they plan to come through the hangar.“, his finger was directed at the projected courses of the landing crafts, and none of them was flying towards the docking area.