Battleship

SADDLE RIDGE

The Land Commander dies inside, even as he finishes putting the last touches on getting the power up and running on the communications grid.

He feels the death of his hatchling mate, the Sea Commander. He senses that, with his last breath, his hatchling mate launched a final retaliation against these… these insignificant creatures that have dared to challenge them.

But that retaliation will not be enough. Not in the slightest.

Mere seconds remain for full power to be reached so that the signal can be sent and a full fleet dispatched. Once that has been accomplished, however, the Land Commander will have no more immediate duties. He will have no vessel—the troop transport had returned to the flagship during the night and by now was doubtlessly nothing more than scrap. He will have no warriors at his disposal—they are all dead.

Still, there will be matters to be dealt with.

First and foremost will be pursuing the humans who inflicted this damage that he is attending to. They are racing down the hill on foot. As soon as the signal is broadcast, he will pursue them. He will overtake them. He will destroy them.

Then he will continuously strike from hiding, finding ways to harry and harass the humans, conduct ongoing guerilla warfare to make certain that they—

That is when he hears a sharp, high-pitched whistling that is unfamiliar, and more sounds that are familiar.

He looks up.

He has just enough time to realize three things: a human-launched weapon is about to strike home just before sufficient power has been reached to send the signal; the Regents-launched spheres are not going to stop it in time; humans were really, really not worth this much trouble.

Then the world explodes in white, and his hatchling mates welcome him.