The connection exploded and a handful of Lukas clones died. The fighter-ships kept attacking the ships while flying in arcs around the 6 citadels. The Lukas clones were in uproar. They were scared to die but willing to fight. The bridge on the other hand was ready to flee, they just needed the approval of the captain who, sadly, just passed away.
"What shall we do?" One of them asked in a panic. They did not know what to do. "Send someone to… I don't know! Fight back or something while I charge the turbines."
Small and weak ships with vibrating guns glued to them left the citadel and attacked the remaining fighter-ships. The extraordinarily giant citadel in the form of a Geddos head turned towards their citadel. Through the nose holes came three dozen more fighter-ships.
"Turbines charged, entering hyper-space." The pilot Lukas said. After everybody sat down he started the turbines and they shot away into space, leaving their small ships to die.
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"They got away!" The supreme king complained and threw his hands into the air and pouted. But he got happy again once he saw their ugly little ships exploding into a thousand pieces and the blood of the Lukas clones floating away.
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3 of the citadels were still connected through the connection halls, they were the Teddy citadel, the pheddie citadel and the citadel filled with Teddy and Geddos copies. They tried flying away, pulling at each other.
The pheddie citadel send the other two a message stating that they should coordinate their escape instead of pulling at each other. They proposed fleeing through the asteroid belt.
"Are they trying to trap us or did they not yet develop a life scanner? There is a citadel hiding in the asteroid belt." One of the Teddy copies said.
"No. It's not a trap. The citadel back there is filled with Maxes. They wouldn't attack, instead they are observing if we are safe to approach!" Someone replied.
The pilot nodded once and started flying towards the asteroid belt: "Activate the shields." They were finally able to accelerate since all citadels were moving towards the belt. "Ask the other two to activate their shields as well. Our shields would also shield them and due to the higher size it would be 3 times less efficient."
Behind them was the ninth citadel. It was following them and shooting at the fighter-ships. They could no longer see the small donut shaped things which apparently shoot lasers, able to annihilate everything on contact.
They drifted above the asteroid belt trying to escape as the fighter-ships hurried after them.
"Steady." Pilot Teddy said. She did not like the idea she had in her head, it might result in death or just be for nothing, but on the chance it might work she drifted towards the spot at which the sixth citadel was hiding. She did not enter the space between the asteroids and just flew past them and the sixth citadel.
The moment the ninth citadel also flew past the sixth citadel, the sixth citadel activated their shields and moved into the way of the fighter-ships. 8 fighter-ships crashed into the shield and exploded on impact. Another dozen of those which dodged were shot down by the ninth citadel once they were visible again.
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"Another one! What a great day it is!" He screamed and started laughing, "Another hundred thousand souls to slaughter and in whose blood we can bath!" The supreme king stood up and hit a button on his throne.
In the bowl of the head a laser was visibly charging up for several seconds. The citadels dove down to hide behind the asteroids in order not to be hit by that monstrous weapon.
"Activate the divider and auto-aim." He shouted.
"Activating divider." A Geddos said: "Divider activated, now activating auto-aim."
After having activated the auto-aim function the bowl shot out a thick beam of energy which divided itself into thinner beams which curved through space. Hundreds of beams attacked everything in sight. Every fighter-ship was hit and hundreds of asteroids exploded on impact.
A giant cloud of debris and ashes was left where once was an asteroid belt.
"Did we get them?" The supreme king asked, his eyes shining with delight and anticipation. "Did we?"
A murmur went through the bridge before someone finally spoke up: "We— Sir, we can't detect any biological signatures in the rubble. We missed—" Before he could finish his sentence a bullet went through his head. His inner cotton flew against the walls and his body fell to the ground.
"SHIT!" The supreme king screamed, gun in hand: "Replace him!" He sat down on his throne with an angry expression.
⟪⚪⟫
Somewhere hidden at the edge of the universe were the 5 citadels. Some time had passed since the attack from the Geddos head. The first, third, sixth, eighth and ninth citadel had once again settled down and were holding a meeting digitally, as nobody wished to repeat the previous mistake.
"I believe we should join our citadels together. With a higher number of people and a higher volume comes more power and efficiency and we would be able to fight back against that disgusting citadel." One of them said.
"While I agree with the reasoning, how can we be sure the Geddos copies on the eighth citadel won't betray us?" Another one countered, "I think we should join forces but exclude the citadel with the Geddos copies. They pose a threat!"
A Teddy from the eighth citadel gasped: "How could you say that? Do you know why we have them bound to us instead of letting them walk freely? It is not because they would betray us, it is because they try to kill each other at every opportunity." She took a deep breath before continuing: "As long as there is more than one living being on the ship with them that is not a Geddos copy they do not team up and instead do some kind of There can only be one!"
"How could I believe what you are telling me, you could be working for them.",
"No!" Another interrupted once more. This time someone from the ninth citadel started talking, it was a Max clone: "We also started with a hundred thousand Geddos copies, we currently have 1 left. Teddy is telling the truth."
The Lukas next to him nodded.
"Fine. But if there are any signs of betrayal, we will immediately leave again and attack anyone who is following us."
After having finished speaking, the display vanished and everybody said their goodbyes before heading down to the connection halls. Happily, each citadel had 3 each, so losing one was not a real problem.
The connection halls slowly extended from the citadel towards a middle point between each of them. Once they connected, every citadel activated their shields and extended them for breathing space between the citadels. In that empty and yet oxygen-filled space they send out people to increase the size of each citadel until they connected to one another.