Queen Chrysalis was an isle of calm in a sea of nervous, chattering changelings. They were all busy muttering to themselves, while shooting furtive, worried glances at the surrounding alien ship, as well as the alien guards that stood in the cabin with them, clearly questioning the validity of her plan and her leadership. This growing mistrust was only further compounded due to the fact that a good portion of the hive had resisted the queen’s orders, forcing her to declare them all as traitors, and have them rounded up by her new bug allies, or executed if they dared to resist.

Their deaths are inconsequential, Chrysalis thought to herself as she raised her head slightly higher. They lack vision. Soon, we shall rule this land, and have all the love we… Chrysalis’s plotting was interrupted as she opened her mouth in a long, slow yawn. That… that we can possibly feed… on… They are chattel…

Then, without warning, one of her changelings closed his eyes and slumped to the floor, a content look on his face. “What are… are you doing? We have to… to stay awake… Our allies await!”

“I hear… and…” one of her royal guards started to say, but his compliant reply to his queen was interrupted as he tried to stifle a yawn.

Something is wrong… Chrysalis thought as she stood up, and looked towards the guards. “Krin soldiers, what is… is…” she tried to say in their native tongue, but had to stifle another yawn before she could finish it. “What is happening to…?”

“It’s just differential pressure in the cabin as we leave the atmosphere,” the krin said, his voice level, almost soothing in quality, though somewhat mechanical through his helmet. “If you aren’t used to it, it’s very easy to lose consciousness.”

“Is… is that… so?” Chrysalis asked, her eyes drooping as she took another step forward.

The other guard gave a short nod, his expression unreadable through the black glass of his helmet. “Yes, ma’am. If you pass out, you’ll slowly regain consciousness when your body adjusts to the pressure difference. We’ll even give you a stimulant to help you stay conscious, if you want.”

“No, no, it is fine. I am strong enough to endure this,” Chrysalis said, before she haughtily stuck up her nose and began to return to her previous position. Falling asleep before these aliens is a small humility, a small trade for my vengeance. My rage is more important than my pride. We will… will…

She never finished her thought. In fact, she never reached her destination. Instead, she drunkenly teetered over, before falling on top of a couple of her subjects, who had already passed out several seconds earlier. She was still barely conscious, though, though not enough to put together anything resembling reasonable thought.

“Thank the Battlewatcher... I thought they’d never pop off…” she heard one of the guards comment, his tone relieved.

“I know. Freaking witches, they’re a lot more resistant than I thought they’d be. I hope the scientists will be able to find something.”

“They’d better. I’d love to be able to start returning some of the punishment those snakes had been sending our way, level the playing field, so to speak.”

“All in good time, all in good time…”

The two might have continued talking, might have said something more, but Chrysalis would never hear it. She had already fallen for their trap, and had slipped into the deep inky abyss of a dreamless sleep.

“Sir, The Emperor’s Triumph is hailing us.”

Captain Alzilos looked up from the reports he was reading, his antenna parting somewhat in expectancy. “Finally. He’s taken too long as it is… On screen.”

The screen flickered a little bit at first, an odd glitch, but it lasted less than a second, before revealing General Inos. “My general, are we finally going to be glassing this worthless ball of mud?” Alzilos asked.

“Patience, Captain. We have lost too many good krin in this, and I am not losing any more than we have to. Nuclear fire does not discriminate, after all,” High General Inos rebuked him. “Now that we have the specimens, my escorts and I will be conveying them to Elekor for study. You are to remain here with the remainder of the fleet, to collect the rest of our troops. Once you have recovered all still-living krin, you have full authorization to glass the world.”

“Finally… It will be done before the day is out. Once we are finished, we will depart immediately to rejoin-”

“Actually, no, you won’t,” General Inos interrupted him, robbing him of his thunder. “Once the world is purged of anything that could provide the snakes with possible assistance or information, you are to head to sector 8536 and rendezvous with The Indomitable and The Hidden Pursuit. I have received a communication from one of our spies that the traitors have a research vessel in that area full of some of the new confederate’s brightest, as well as their escorts. Once you are finished here, you are to go and bring them back into the fold. We will need some of their expertise for cracking the magic conundrum.”

“I hear, and obey. However, I do not think we will need all ten remaining combat ships, and the two carriers for such a mission. Shouldn’t five of our cruisers be enough?”

“...While you have a point, I would not take chances with this. Send the carriers back with The Emperor’s Will and The Fearless Reproach as escorts. You are then to take the rest of the surviving fleet to the sector, and make it clear that the traitors would be better suited to return to the emperor’s service.”

“I hear, and obey, my general,” Captain Alzilos said, before bowing slightly to his superior officer. The general nodded in satisfaction, before giving the lieutenant at communications on his bridge a cutting gesture, ending the call.

“Sir, The Emperor’s Triumph and its three escorts are headed to grid point 12-37-85, and sensors indicate their disruption disks are charging. They’ll be opening a tear soon.”

“Open a channel to the rest of the fleet,” Captain Alzilos said, as he rose from his chair. “My fellow soldiers, we’ve fought well, and died well in the emperor’s name. We have what we came for, and already, the general is quitting the field, our prize in hand. However, we have unfinished business here. A whole world full of horrible savages, ever-unable to see the emperor’s light, lies below. They have had the audacity to fight against us, to stall us in our mission, and once our brothers and sisters have left the planet’s surface, we will cleanse this world of its blasphemous infestation. Let this world be the first, in a long line of worlds, that will finally usher in the empire’s glory once again. Long live the Emperor!”

There arose a shout from the bridge crew, and Captain Alzilos closed his eyes in satisfaction, imagining the zealous cheers from the rest of the fleet.

They may have lost many loyal warriors of the empire today, but every drop of blood the savages had spilled would soon be paid in full. He would make sure of it.

Corporal Kiivzar grumbled under his breath as he pulled open the service panel on the floor. Something had gone wrong in this area, knocking out several lights, as well as shutting down the mess hall a deck below him. It was most likely a blown fuse, or a bad power coupling, which was a simple fix in itself, but still time consuming in its own right, since the sensors only told him the general area that something went wrong, not the specific part. On top of that, it was entirely possible that multiple parts failed, which meant that even if he were to fix one, another might still stall him, and keep him from watching the monitors when they finally glassed this worthless mud ball.

He would still be able to watch it later, but it just wasn’t the same. Purging a world of less deserving species was always a wonder to behold, the awesome sight of the nuclear barrage wasting any remaining resistance always made his antenna stand up in awe.

He would have been even more excited for the prospect of turning this world into a new colony for the Krin Empire. It was rewarding work, turning a barren and radioactive wasteland into a bustling paradise and active stardock in a few, short years, but he knew that such a thing was impossible for the immediate future. Despite the quzin being scattered and unprepared during this offensive, and unable to respond immediately to the krin’s destruction of this world, it was still deep within quzin steward space. As long as those infernal snake-witches still existed, any attempt to try and set up shop out here would be tantamount to suicide.

At any rate, the future prospects of this world were out of the Krin Empire’s grasp for now, so the emperor’s forces would have to satisfy themselves with simply glassing this pathetic ball of mud. We’ll eventually come back, but that will take a few years… Corporal Kiivzar thought, as he finally located the faulty coupling, and began removing it.

His musings, and his work, were interrupted as his implants blared to life, letting him know that the captain of the ship was issuing a declaration to the whole crew. “Troops, the last of our forces have finally left this horrible affront to the natural order of the universe behind. We will begin wiping the slate clean in the emperor’s name in moments, and create a tear to move on to even greater glories. However, by Captain Alzilos’s decree, you all will have the opportunity to watch as we unleash heaven’s wrath upon these pitiful savages. To those of you currently on duty, you may put your efforts on hold for now, and enjoy the show we will be streaming directly into your heads.”

Corporal Kiivzar perked up at this, before he put the wrench to the side and sat down on the deck plating. He had honestly thought he would miss the show, but as he closed his eyes, he couldn’t help but feel grateful to his leaders for thinking about those that might miss such a spectacular display of power.

It was dark inside his eyelids for a moment, but that darkness was soon replaced by the ship’s view of the vibrant world below. Kiivzar couldn’t help but feel a little giddy as he spotted the count-down timer in the lower left corner of his vision; it appeared that the higher ups were giving their subordinates ten minutes to get ready before they began the festivities, which would give Corporal Kiivzar time and some to spare to finish replacing the coupling. There was no guarantee that that was the only problem with this section, but he decided to finish up his current job while he waited for the bombs to fall.

So, with a happy little twitch of his antenna, the corporal got back to work, quickly replacing the broken part, all while keeping an eye on the timer in the lower left-hand corner of his vision. In minutes, he had finished, and he was even more excited when he saw the power in the area restored. Almost as soon as he had finished, a flashing message scrolled across the bottom of his vision, informing him that all systems in the area were back online, and that he had no more repairs to do here. With a happy song running through his head, the corporal gathered up his tools, as well as the now-junked power coupling, before taking his seat on the floor. He briefly thought about replacing the panel, but decided against it, wanting to check on the bombardment of the planet before finishing up his work.

His good humor died nearly the second he sat down and closed his eyes, though. Instead of seeing the planet, as well as the timer counting down around the four minute mark, he instead only saw blackness. He was about to run a system’s diagnostic, but stopped when he seemed to see a spot-light turn on somewhere above, revealing a figure standing on a stage. The creature was bipedal, and was somewhat reminiscent of the bipeds that the ground troops had been fighting on the planet below, but there were some distinct differences. This one was bald, with pallid, sickly-looking flesh, and eyes that seemed to be nothing more than pits into eternity itself. It was dressed in black clothes, unfamiliar in make, but obviously well made, which were slightly open in the front to reveal a white shirt and some kind of corded accessory hanging from its neck.

It bowed to the corporal, and Kiivzar immediately began to run a systems diagnostic, to see if he were picking up some other signal, rather than the one he was supposed to. Before he was able to finish, though, the creature in the corporal’s vision straightened up again as it began to speak in perfect krin. “I apologize, but tonight’s entertainment has been cancelled, as the main players in the hit series The Destruction of Equis have declined to fill the roles appointed them. Instead, for your pleasure, the human forces of Earth would like to present to you some of their greatest hits, accompanied of course by a live performance of several of their greatest percussion artists who ever lived. To begin tonight’s entertainment, I present to you Richard Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ in E-minor, with a minor light show to accompany it as the percussion section readies their instruments. Following this will be a specially requested playlist assembled by the human forces. Thank you, and enjoy the show.” The creature then took another bow, before disappearing completely, leaving Corporal Kiivzar with a horribly mixed feeling of dread and confusion.

Not wanting to waste any time, the corporal’s eyes snapped open as he sprung to his feet, his sidearm coming to the ready as his heart pounded loudly in his chest. However, before he had even begun to move, a weird-sounding mixture of wind and string instruments began playing not only through the corporal’s implants, but through the ship’s speakers as well. He immediately tried to shut off the one in his own head, and was gratified to find that whatever virus that had infected the ship had not managed to spread to the implants, too.

Not that that was a possibility if the universe were following the natural order of things, as krin implants were specifically designed to be write-protected until they were physically plugged into something, but the corporal wouldn’t have been surprised had he lost control of them. They were orbiting a planet that defied the laws of reality, after all, and there had been cases of void knights overwhelming krin implants before. It wasn’t too far of a stretch, then, to suppose that the primitive savages were capable of the same thing. Fortunately for the corporal, though, it appeared that whatever had managed to get into the ship’s computer wasn’t capable of overriding implants.

Unfortunately for the corporal, however, was the fact that it appeared that the virus had managed to take control of most, if not all, of the ship’s systems, including the ship’s automated defensive systems. The corporal had barely a second to react as the turret directly above him deployed, took aim, and began firing.

He saw it coming, heard the turret charge, but he already knew he was dead. There was no cover in this narrow hallway, and even were he to run as fast as he could, he would never make it to the end in time. Time slowed down as he activated his implants, and his mind raced as he tried to think of a way out of this. Almost instinctively, his eyes flittered down to where he had been working, and his heart leapt with hope at seeing that the panel to the power coupling was still open.

Time reasserted itself, and Kiivzar was already moving, his legs scuttling rapidly as he dodged to the right, his pistol pointed downward and towards the hole in the floor as he unloaded into the newly repaired coupling. As quick as his implants made him, however, he wasn’t quite fast enough to dodge the automated turret from so close of a distance. Fire so hot that it seemed like it was freezing washed over his lower left arm and two of his legs, searing chitin and flesh, and causing an explosion of steam that instantly filled his nostrils with the familiar foul stench of plasma-based death. The resulting explosion was enough to turn his dive into a fling, causing his pain inhibitors to overload as his head and side slammed into the wall, nearly knocking him unconscious. I can’t pass out now… he thought as he slid down the wall and fell onto his unwounded side. His implants were blaring alarms at him, but he ignored them as he pushed himself up into a half-reclining posture, his eyes desperately searching for where the next round of plasma would come from, his gun hand shaking as he raised it to defend himself.

He needn’t have bothered, because even though he had been winged in the process, his aim had been true, and he had fried the coupling with the first blast from his pistol. Noxious black smoke rose up from the open floor, and he couldn’t help but fall back on his face in relief. The gun was dead, as well as power for this sector. Even if there was another turret in a nearby wall, it wouldn’t be able to unload its payload on the bleeding and concussed krin, since this entire section depended on that coupling for power.

Now that he was out of any immediate danger, he tried to push himself into a sitting position, to determine how badly he was injured. As he brought himself upright, however, his vision swam, and he felt the world pitch sideways, causing him to fall to the ground again. He tried to fight the growing darkness, but it was just too comfortable lying there, the cool deck plate almost soothing against this battered and scalded chitin. He could hear the sounds of turrets firing, the screams of his compatriots as they were attacked by the very systems designed to protect them, but he could do very little about it as the darkness slowly and inexorably drew him down into its depths. Above it all, the accursed music of the so-called ‘humans’ swelled to a fever pitch, seemingly mocking all krin who could hear its terrible song of war.

Such horrible racket… was his last thought, before unconsciousness finally claimed him.

Captain Hazalk nervously worked the controls to the shuttle, well aware that, if the human’s little virus gambit didn’t work, he and his cargo would be vaporized before they could even leave the atmosphere. Normally, he would have left this sort of mission to his troops, but due to the high number of allied forces being carried into space, they needed every able-bodied krin that could fly behind the controls.

“Being okay, Haasalk?” one of the humans asked as he entered through the door of the cockpit. His name translated to Sergeant Village-in-the-Middle, strangely enough, which only made Hazalk wonder what his own name translated as, and how the power decided on such meanings.

He shook off his musings, however, in favor of answering the sergeant. “I’m fine. Just nervous,” Hazalk said, before he pointed towards the instruments. “I’m not receiving any feedback from the ship, so I-”

“Shuttle 0349, what is your status? You’ve been dark for several hours.” A commanding voice suddenly came in through the receiver. Hazalk froze in place as terror gripped his heart, up until the point where whomever was on the other end started laughing. “Boy, I wish I could have seen the look on your face, Hazalk! I bet you nearly wet your pants!”

“What is being?” the human next to Hazalk asked, worry in his voice.

“Nothing, just Alexander playing a prank,” Hazalk scoffed as he tore the receiver from its cradle. “What’s the situation, Alexander?”

“Well, I’ve already started the party. They’re working quickly, though, and because of their recent ground assaults, most of the actual soldiers are still in full armor and gear, so they’re harder for me to take out with the guns than… well, when Ilisk pulled this same exact thing on you. I’m really more of a nuisance at this point, and it shouldn’t take them too long to destroy either the computer or reactor on each of their ships, so you better hurry. The carriers should be even quicker, and they’ll send over reinforcements the moment they have control again, so you’re working on a limited timetable.”

“One second…” Hazalk said, before he pushed a few more buttons on his console. “Okay, brief your kinsmen. We’ve got a fifty-fifty mix of equines and humans, so I don’t know how you’re going to get that through.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got just the thing…” Alexander said, before clearing his throat. He then began to speak, first in his native tongue, then in the alien equines’. Hazalk could not understand any of it, but he was fairly certain that the former human was telling them about the layout of the ship, and where to attack first. His guess was proven right when a flicker on the captain’s dash drew his eye and saw the readout of the ship they were headed towards, with assumed attack routes highlighted, and the computer, engine and bridge rooms specially marked. “Okay, I’ve briefed not only your group, but the whole set of shuttles headed towards The Emperor’s Will. I’ve got more shuttles to brief, so this will be the last time we speak before you actually make it inside.”

“If we make it inside,” Hazalk muttered darkly to himself.

“Nah, at the rate you’re going, you’ll make it long before they reach me,” Alexander said, obviously hearing what the pessimistic krin said. “Keep your eye on the prize, and we’ll do more than just ‘make it out alive.’”

“...What about the general’s ship? Were you able to take that down, too?” Hazalk asked a little hopefully.

There was a slight silence after this, which was all Hazalk needed to know that the human had failed. “I’m sorry, but he and his escorts slipped through a tear before I was able to finish. I left a present for him, but the most it will do is slow him down.”

“Which means that, even if we save this world, we’ve already lost,” Hazalk said grimly.

“Hey, we haven’t lost yet. We’re all still breathing, after all! I wouldn’t count us out just yet.”

“For all our sakes, I hope you’re right,” Hazalk said, right as he left the atmosphere, and got a second look at the assembled krin fleet. The ship they were headed for had several busted plasma cannon banks, mute evidence of the fight he and Akitesh had given them before they were forced to abandon ship, but otherwise, it was a perfectly serviceable vessel.

Ship number two, here I come… Hazalk thought to himself as he gunned the engines. Just you wait, General, I’ll be sure to deliver that promised warhead to you soon…

Author's Notes:

Hey, guys! I know I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger, so here you go! More cliffs to hang from!

And yes, you probably saw this coming, but with how I said this wasn't the last book last chapter, the BBEGs were going to get away with something. So I decided that Chrysalis, her hive, and everyone they ponynapped would make an appropriate sacrifice for the sake of the story.

As for the ships left behind, well... the battle's only really just begun, now, hasn't it?

Anyway! Here's the usual stuff!
My book: => What I've Become! <=

My Patreon: patreon

And the Tv Tropes that Alias_the_J made. It still needs a lot of work, but if you're willing and tv tropes savvy, it would be awesome if this stub got filled out, more!Tv Tropes: Humanity Within.