The Son of Earth

"They're coming through the gate!" a panicked voice shouted.

"All ships, fire on my mark!" said a much calmer persona.

The massive metal ring of the jump gate began to glow blue with energy as the enormous mass began to be pulled through.

"Three." said the voice.

A white orb began to coalesce in the center. The stars around the gate faded into nothingness against the massive brightness.

"Two."

The ring's shine increased in intensity, as white tendrils of lightning began to spew out of it. One of them touched an unlucky frigate, shattering it to pieces before any of the fleet could react.

"One."

The front of a massive vehicle appeared out of the jump gate, various markings on its front and sides. The fifty-kilometer-wide gate stressed with the huge object travelling through it, bending as the light grew brighter.

"Mark."

A wave of molten yellow projectiles spewed out from the assembled fleet. They raced across the vast blackness, impacting the massive vessel and the jump gate, rending the gate to pieces but simply being absorbed by the vessel's shield.

"Shit! It's a Titan!" said another voice.

"Cover the Colony Fleets! Don't let it hit them!" a fourth ordered.

"Launch the fighters at it, give it something else to target!"

A massive metal-looking tentacle emerged from the front of the titan, grabbing a capital ship and tearing it in two as more Ceryllian vessels jumped in, their energy cannons already charged and firing.

"Keep them from hitting the civilian-"

The radio chatter from the command ship was cut off as a massive green laser bolt sliced through it. It exploded in a brilliant light, nearly saturating the shields of the surrounding ships.

"One of the High Admirals is down! Target the gate; don't let any more reinforcements through!" He spoke into the microphone, knowing the futility of his actions. At least it'd buy them some time, however; it would take longer for reinforcements to arrive without a gate.

"Roger, Vice Admiral. We frigates will take care of this; we're going to die anyway, so might as well be useful." A gruff voice came through the other end of the line, followed by a multitude of voices stating their agreement. The sleek shapes of the frigates began to pull forward, many of them vaporizing in a wall of green lasers as they advanced. The sun shone off their hulls as they valiantly charged, sacrificing themselves in the hope a small portion of humanity may survive.

"All command ships, pull out! Follow your respective fleet, and flee the battle!" His voice thundered again through the radio channel, as clear as if he had been sitting in the bridge of each and every ship.

This was met with a chorus of affirmatives from the commanders, and confused murmurs from the rest of the fleet.

"They're leaving us here to die?" said one voice over the radio.

"I'm sorry." said the remaining High Admiral.

"Godspeed," another voice said. "And may you go down in history as the greatest heroes ever to live and die."

The jump drives of the civilian and command ships began to spin up.

"God help us," said one of the men on the civilian fleets' radio channel.

"God abandoned us a long time ago," another responded. "Well, I guess this is goodby-"

The voice was cut off as the ship jumped away in a flash of light, followed by nine other ships. Soon, the rest of the ships began to jump away.

"Ryuuhou? Ryuuhou, what the hell are you doing?" sneered one of the forsaken captains over the radio. "Shouldn't you be fleeing from the battle like the rest of your worthless commanders?"

"Not without a final goodbye," he responded. A single railgun shell flew from the barrel of the ship as it jumped away in a flash of light, piercing through the Titan's weakened shields and hitting it directly in one of the less-armored seeming parts of the ship.