Omega

"Well," Ade murmured to herself. "Fuck."

Fuck. It was a beautiful word – you could use it as a verb or an adjective after all. One syllable, and you could express any range of emotions. Usually negative, true, but if you were using it in as a verb in the literal sense, usually the emotions were positive. And while over two-hundred years of separation between Earth and the Koprulu sector had introduced knockoffs like "fekk" into the English language, Major Ade Taharqa was quite happy to be old school. Fuck. Shit. Piss. Cunt. All those words and more. The UED was here to reunify the human race, and part of that included proper swearing, thank you very much.

Right now though, "fuck" was the only swear word upon her lips, and the only swear word within her mind. Because right now, standing on the bridge of the Tiros, she was looking at a data slate given to her by Captain Gorodetsky, detailing troop losses on Braxis. In terms of raw numbers, they weren't that high, but given what was on Braxis…

"How recent is this info?" she asked.

"Two, three hours," he said.

"Fuck."

Gorodetsky winced, but she paid him no heed. She flipped her finger over the slate, looking for some silver lining in all of this. The only one was that a UED squad had managed to make it off the planet and be picked up by the Marathas, which was now en route to the Korhal system. Apart from that, lots of fucks coming from a load of shit. The Psi Disrupter was destroyed – by the zerg no less, even though the Queen of Blades getting a force together to mount any kind of assault should have been impossible. Going through the report, there were apparently rumours that the zerg had been aided by a terran force, one that had taken out the disrupter's primary generator. Not enough to knock the disrupter itself out, but enough to temporarily disable it. Or, in this case, tear it apart, kill every human there, and in the process, unleash the Omega Swarm upon the UED. She closed the file, sighed, and walked out to the viewscreen of the Tiros. Nothing but darkness looked back at her. Darkness that hided that the universe was a shithole, and that everyone wanted to kill her, her family, and her fellow soldiers. Here in the Koprulu sector most of all.

"So…" Gorodetsky said slowly, walking up to her. "Does DuGalle know?"

She looked at him. "You're asking me?"

"Well, you are his…y'know…"

"No, I don't know," she said.

"Well, some say you're his pet officer. I mean, Braxis, Korhal, Char, you were there at every major battle. People even say you were there at the battle for the Overmind itself."

"Lots of people were there at the time."

"Yeah, but you're the one who got promoted to major for it."

"Hmm." That was true, but she didn't feel like discussing it. "Well, DuGalle will come through," she said. "We lost the disrupter, but we've still got the Overmind. Still got the zerg. Still have control over the Dominion, and the Umojans and Morians are either cowering in fear, or reaping the benefits of UED rule."

"Yes, but, will DuGalle come through?" Gorodetsky asked. Ade looked at him, and he quickly said, "I mean, no-one's doubting the admiral, but with the deal of Vice-Admiral Stukov…well, we know that hit him pretty hard."

"Hmm." Ade returned her gaze to space. "Well, the vice-admiral died a hero. Wars are fought by heroes, so heroes die. Sometimes on Char."

"Yeah."

An uneasy silence lingered between the two officers, broken only by boops, beeps, and some John Doe asking for Jane Doe over the intercom. Ade didn't want to discuss Stukov. Gorodetsky was a capable officer (at least for a Tau Cetian), but he didn't know the truth of what had happened to Admiral Stukov. How he hadn't died on Char, but on Braxis, and at DuGalle's hand. True, it was Samir Duran who had pulled the trigger, but it was DuGalle who had sent Duran and his team in. DuGalle who had given the order. Stukov had given his life to save the Psi Disrupter, to give them victory over the Overmind, and now, his legacy was a smouldering ruin. And while the UED fleet might be kept in the dark about Stukov, they couldn't be kept in the dark about what had just happened. She returned her gaze to the data slate, going straight to two points of note. One of them was the Marathas, which had retreated to Korhal. Ade guessed that the captain of that ship knew what was coming – an assault on Korhal itself. It was the seat of the UED's power in the sector, and if that fell, Char was their only remaining major stronghold. There was a fight coming, and she suspected that she might once again be on that Godforsaken rock. Defending terrans there who were descended from criminals, and according to reports, acted like criminals against their liberators.

The second point of note was the Omega Swarm – apparently a Dr. Cook had suggested that in addition to using the zerg as a weapon of war, they could improve that weapon. The result was a small brood of zerg with armour welded into their carapaces, giving them extra protection at no cost of speed. She doubted that the Queen of Blades would replicate the procedure, and a few hundred zerg would make little difference in the long run, but still, she frowned. She knew DuGalle had voiced reservations about using the Overmind as their proxy – he'd wanted a bigger fleet, not one that would rely on appropriated materials and a swarm of insects. Now, that was coming to bite them all in the rear, 60,000 light years away from home.

"So," Gorodetsky said. "What happens now?"

She remained silent, keeping her eyes fixed on the Omega Swarm entry. Omega. The end. The opposite of Alpha. Some cute name Dr. Cook came up with. Could he have guessed at the time that a week after his creation, it would turn on its masters? That the UED Expeditionary Force could indeed be facing the end? That if Korhal fell, it very well could be the end?

"Major?"

She sighed, turned off the slate, and looked at her captain. "You ever been to Korhal?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"Well, get some sunscreen on. Because I think we're going to be deployed there soon. Sand gets everywhere, and the sun's nasty."

No army ever won a war by staying on the defensive. But right now, that was the only strategy she could see DuGalle applying. And if it didn't work…

They'd be fucked.

Right now, that word wasn't as appealing.