Vsevolod cracked his sore neck and rubbed at his stiff muscles. He was getting too old to be managing a space station, but the alternative was worse, so he didn't complain. He had been put in charge of the shipyard, which was better than most of his fellow compatriots could boast. Most of them had been trapped aboard their vessels their entire lives, forced to live like rats while clones of their younger selves were treated much better and even allowed families and lives, if you could call their brainwashed existences lives.

Then again, he was probably one of the few from the original defectors who knew the truth. Not that there were many of those left around to care. Hell, even he didn't know the truth for decades. Not until an irate captain stormed into his office one day, demanding to know why his ship wasn't ready yet.

Vsevolod had gaped like a fish in open-mouthed astonishment as a far younger version of himself had berated him. It was a surreal experience, but it wasn't the last time he would be dressed down by a clone of someone he remembered and had been friends with. The one time he had stuck up for himself, he had been lashed and tossed into prison for a year. The experience had broken his will.

Once he was released, he was put back into his old position, but it was clear he needed to tread carefully or he would vanish like so many of the original Coalition traitors. At heart, Vsevolod knew he was a coward; that's why he joined Xin's little rebellion. He never wanted to fight a war for power-mad dictators. He only joined the Coalition Navy for the benefits and status, even though he was only the captain of a support vessel.

He could feel that cowardice creeping back in now that damaged ships were returning en masse from multiple different systems. It seemed that the Asgardians had finally decided to make their push, and Vsevolod's little station was the closest target to their border. He knew if they reached the system, he would likely die. It wasn't like he could commandeer a ship and make a run for it.

When the first enemy vessels started to appear on the sensors, dread washed over him. With a quavering voice, he ordered the alarm sounded and the station's guns brought online.

"Fat lot of good that'll do," he muttered under his breath.

The station was old, and just like everything their Shican overlords allowed them, completely inadequate for the job.

He watched the scanners as the home fleet engaged with the Asgardians, unsure of who was doing more damage, but praying that whichever side won, they might let him live.

Without warning, another fleet dropped into the system, less than a light minute from the station, then another dropped in behind the home fleet.

Vsevolod knew his life was at an end even before the missiles and lasers finally arrived. With a strength of will he never knew he had, he did something unthinkable and reset the station's power systems, temporarily disabling the weapons. It was all he could do, but it was enough, and the command center erupted into chaos as the power went out. Then he closed his eyes and embraced his fate with a smile on his face, the first one he had allowed himself to have in over twenty years.

***

"Any idea why the station's power dropped off before our weapons arrived?" Vitor asked the tactical sensor operator.

The man shook his head. "Maybe they overloaded a power junction, sir?"

Vitor grunted at the explanation, but watched as the rest of the missiles arrived and turned the station into an orbiting field of debris. Captain Vargthane was already maneuvering the fleet to jump and join the others as they tore apart the remains of the Xin forces in the system.

The battle was in full swing when they arrived, and he could see that Jarl Ylva's fleet had suffered significant losses before Char arrived to back her up.

It wasn't the Jarl's fault. The Xin forces had dropped jump inhibitors, mimicking what he had done to their fleet during his first encounter. It was easy to underestimate Xin's forces since they were using outdated ships and weapons, but doing so was a mistake. It was clear by the deployment of jump inhibitors that the Xin forces were adapting quickly, which was less than ideal.

With the losses Xin suffered in the current battle, along with the previous ones, the Coalition ex-pats were down over four hundred ships. The combined Union fleet was down over fifty vessels, but Xin had far more ships to throw at the problem than they did. Hopefully, the losses were enough to get the Shican's attention, because now they had to play for a fighting retreat.

It annoyed Vitor that they wouldn't know if the enemy had taken the bait until additional ships appeared a few jumps out. Accurate intelligence was important, but their efforts to expand their surveillance were halted after discovering the comm node connections could be detected. They couldn't let the Shican know the Union was keeping tabs on a good chunk of Xin space, or they might suspect a trap.

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***

As they were transitioning to the next system, Vitor received an update from Eden's End. The carriers were in place and ready to jump into Xin territory. That was good because the other update informed him that over a thousand Xin ships were en route to the same system the Union fleet was heading to.

That was far more ships than anyone thought the Shican would throw at the problem, which probably meant the Shican's human fleet was larger than estimated.

The remaining transit time was spent in tactical meetings with Lagertha Char and the other Jarls.

"Options?" Char asked over the comm.

"As disgusted as I am by even having to suggest this," Jarl Bergson said, "I think hit and run tactics might be the only option, at least for my fleet. Our older Asgardian ships are tough, but they aren't five-on-one tough. That was proven during the last fight."

Everyone in the meeting took a moment to quietly contemplate the losses. If their attrition rate continued, the entire Union fleet would be wiped out after three more fights of that same size. The Xin forces were obviously hoping to do it in one, based on the size of the fleet they were deploying against them.

"I have another suggestion," Vitor chimed in. "My fleet has a small group of stealth ships. What if we load their cargo up with stealth missiles and sneak them close to the enemy fleet while using them to deploy the weapons?" He would have suggested laying a trap at the jump point into the system, but the Xin fleets were smart enough not to use the standard jump points.

"Too risky," Katalynn said, shooting down his suggestion. "The moment they detect our fleet, they are going to jump to us, possibly rendering all those efforts meaningless. I like the concept, however. We need to guarantee they will stick around for the trap to work. Instead of sending a small group out to try and close with the enemy, let's bring them to us. Force them to fight near a gravity well and prevent them from escaping. Once they are in the trap, then you send your ships in with the missiles from behind, allowing us to hit them from both sides."

Vitor shook his head. "What if the enemy splits their forces and surrounds us? If we get stuck inside the gravity well of a planet, we're going to lose a lot of ships."

"That's why not all of us will be deployed for the trap. We all have comm nodes; it's time we use them to our advantage," Katelynn replied.

"If they detect the link, the entire plan could be ruined," Vitor shot back in annoyance. They were using them while in FTL, but it was a compromise to discuss tactics.

Katalynn smiled at the response but gave a quick rebuttal. "If the Shican's pet humans had that ability, they would have detected your scout long before she reached Xin's home world. It's pretty clear that the Shican don't want their slaves to have any capabilities that might allow their pet humans to overthrow them, assuming they can even think like that. Unless anyone has a better idea, we will be going with my plan. Who wishes to act as bait?"

Vitor couldn't find any fault in her argument. At least when it came to the capabilities of the Xin ships. He was about to nominate himself for the role of bait, knowing his ships were likely the toughest in the fleet, apart from a few in Char's group, but Jarl Ylva beat him to it.

"I'll be honored to do it," the fiery-tempered woman declared.

Katalynn didn't accept the offer right away. Instead, she asked a pointed question. "You understand that your fleet will suffer heavy losses?"

"I'm aware, but we are Asgardians. We fight to survive, but if we must die, what better way than to go down fighting? Besides, I still have the most ships. The enemy doesn't know how many survived the previous battle, but if they see a hundred ships, they may assume it's the entire fleet."

"Very well," Katalynn said. "Anything else?"

"Fine," Vitor said, "but I'm going to assign my twelve sharks and thirty-four remaining Stingrays over to your fleet, Jarl Ylva. That should give you a bit more firepower and help spread the damage and keep more of your crewed ships alive. I also suggest you take on as many missiles as possible and deploy them near the planet. They can act as a secondary distraction until the stealth ships and the rest of the fleet can get into position."

The Jarl nodded in confirmation, and the plan was set. Once they exited FTL, they had just over a day to implement their plan before the Xin fleet was projected to arrive.

As soon as they appeared from FTL, ships began moving. All of the automated ships that Vitor had assigned over to the Jarl quickly took up their new posts, while the stealth ships maneuvered near the support ships and opened their cargo bays.

Special racks had to be manufactured to hold the missiles within the cargo bays, since those ships had never been designed to carry anything other than repair materials. It was a tight fit, but they managed to stuff ten missiles inside each vessel. That gave the eight Swordfish-class corvettes one hundred and four missiles once their onboard missile capacity was included. Kaela's ship, the Fox, could hold twelve additional missiles, giving them an additional fifteen to fire at the enemy.

Assuming each of the stealth missiles hit their target, that was a hundred and twenty-nine fewer enemy ships. Realistically, that wasn't going to happen, but any enemy ship removed from the fight by their trap was one less they had to face.

All of the ships in Jarl Ylva's fleet were up next, loading as many extra missiles as they could aboard. The missiles would need to be deployed beyond the gravity well of the planet, or they would burn up all their fuel trying to remain in orbit.

The weapons would still be orbiting whatever planet they used to lure the Xin forces, but they should be far enough out that they could orbit for a few days without issue.

The problem was making sure they were still close enough to move into position once the fighting started, while being far enough out to avoid the enemy detecting them as soon as they arrived.

It took most of their available time to load up the ships and set up the trap. Once all of the weapons were deployed, the remaining fleet jumped away to wait. The Xin fleet was in for a surprise when they showed up. Over seven hundred stealth missiles were orbiting the large moon that they had chosen as their target. That was nearly half their reserves.

The moon was far enough out from the gas giant that any jump wouldn't be affected by its gravity, while being just large enough to trap the fleet within its smaller gravitational pull. The strategic position also slightly limited what direction the enemy could approach from. Hopefully, Xin's forces would assume the fleet was reorganizing and rearming after significant losses, and not look too deeply into why the fleet had seemingly trapped itself.