Turning a First-Class ship simply took too long, so it had been decided that a majority of the staff on board enter the escape pods and make their way to the rest of the Newmen fleet.
Only those who were willing to face what was coming stayed with the faint hope of stalling Anoona's forces.
Atsáli had been put in charge of a thousand infantrymen and was stationed in one of the medical bays where traps, turrets and other such tactics were going to be used on the Betas, then of which had boarded the Fallstar.
"Tsk! Cocky bastards think just ten of them will be enough to beat the best Newmankind!"
One soldier huffed only to be scolded by his senior officer.
"Did you not see what happened back on the Earth?"
Atsáli appreciated the banter because, due to the nature of space, the battle beyond the walls of the Fallstar could not be heard.
If anyone stopped talking for even a second in the now almost empty ship, silence would fill the air, and Atsáli was never fond of the quiet.
It was true that, after most of the Doves fell, Betas flew from other Anoonian vessels, and ten of them had boarded the Fallstar.
Atsáli didn't know how many of them they were going to be able to kill.
His widened eyes were locked on the hallway where everyone had their guns trained.
And it was this hallway that the first of the Betas walked through.
For a moment, everyone just looked at its hardened, dark form.
This one was shorter than the ones Atsali had seen in footage; it had smaller claws, too, but still made the air around it quiver.
Atsáli didn't even need to give the order, as all of the men by his side opened fire.
Several dozen grenades were lobbed at the creature, and everyone took cover as they went off in a heart-stopping cacophony.
Atsáli kept his head hidden beneath a metal counter for a moment before glancing to his left.
The sensors on his helmet scanned the hallway, and much to his terror, the Beta was still there, although it looked like it was a little shaken.
The Beta let out a nauseating screech before bolting towards the group, and it was Atsáli who grabbed a pulse grenade and manually detonated it into the Beta's face as it arrived, creating.
The shockwave knocked everyone in a five-meter radius back, including the Beta, allowing the others to continue shooting it.
Atsáli had been flung into a wall, but he landed on his feet and eyed his sensors as they scanned the monster, which had now fallen to its side.
It looked like there was an unseen field around its body that was actively stopping projectiles from reaching it.
Some of the force was leaking through from the hundreds of impacts, but it wasn't enough.
"Throw more grenades at the ugly fucker!" Atsáli barked, disregarding his proximity to the Beta.
"But, Sir!" One of his men, who was among the many others behind him, cried, but now wasn't the time for hesitation.
"Just do it!"
The Beta seemingly heard the captain's words because, as soon as it got back to its feet, it dashed forward and sent forth a punch that carried so much force, it tore five men in half.
It then killed its way to Atsáli, ripping and bashing men and women into bloody piles of meat.
Atsáli tried shooting its face and joints in search of a weakness, but it reached him regardless. Shrugging off every high-power round as if it hadn't landed.
The thing then raised its fist to punch Atsáli, but suddenly looked down as twenty or so grenades landed at its feet.
Atsáli leapt back, but wasn't able to get away in time, so his body was sent into the wall yet again, this time with a spray of shrapnel that tore through his body.
His implants and sensors all loudly beeped in his mind as he fell to the ground, but even as his vision darkened, he kept his glare on the Beta, which was now covered in cracks and was missing its left arm.
The creature let out a horrid screech as the soldiers continued to fire, this time with explosive rounds that seemingly overwhelmed the unseen shield, sending the monster stumbling backwards.
This was good.
Atsáli then used the implants in his mind to contact the fleet, and he sent them a single message as the Beta was gradually blown to bits.
"This is Captain Atsáli Rhinocerotidae, stationed on the Starfall. This may be my last transmission, but I want everyone to know… they bleed. They can be killed." Blood from his punctured lungs and stomach poured from his lips, but he sat upright, making sure to savour the sight before him as his vision further darkened.
His men surrounded the Beta and blew its legs off.
Atsáli watched with pleasure as it let out a vile screech that reverberated across the ship, making the captain smile as some of his men rushed to his side.
He couldn't clearly hear what they were saying, but his smile suddenly faded as he realised the truth behind the screech.
It wasn't a death cry.
It was calling for help.
"Captain! Captain, hang in there!" Kaleido cried as a now weakened, wheezing Atsáli tried to warn them.
"R… Run…" He gurgled through some blood, and his fears were immediately made reality as something crashed through the ceiling.
The soldiers all turned to find another Beta, although this one seemed closer in appearance to the Thunder and Scalpel.
It towered over the nine hundred remaining soldiers, and its mere presence made them all freeze.
It ignored the Newman, walking up to what was left of the dead Beta and took a knee.
[Brother…] It growled, and before the soldiers could raise their weapons, the Beta stood and slashed the air, sending forth waves of force that cleaved through no less than a hundred men.
Atsáli wanted to beg Kaleido to run, but at this point, he was far too weak, so he had to watch as the rest of his men were brutalised by claws that ripped through steel and flesh indiscriminately.
Kaleido turned to run away but was caught by the Beta, causing the vice-captain to drop his senior, who could only watch as his subordinate was eaten alive.
The last thing Atsáli saw was the bloodied cyan eyes of the Beta.
Pools of nightmarish light.
Light that he now wished he had never dared stand before.
If not for his sake, then for the sake of his men.
.
..
Thunder's four eyes dimmed as the Bio-Web informed him that fourteen Betas had been killed.
It was clear that their self-powered Noetic Shields weren't strong enough to withstand several consecutive explosions.
They were all also young, having only recently hatched on the Moon.
It was all so tragic, but it wasn't enough to distract Thunder from his objective.
Against the wishes of his mother, he had boarded the flagship of the Newman military detachment and now stood on the bridge along with the captured leadership, one of whom was a High General who maintained a stoic air as he knelt alongside his officers.
Thunder breathed, and the entire deck shivered, but it wasn't because he was angry.
He was confused.
If it hurt this much to lose a single one of his siblings, then... Why were the Newmen fine with losing hundreds of thousands?
He walked up to and sat in front of his captives, sighing deeply as he crossed his legs.
He looked into their eyes and saw nothing but fear, which was natural.
And yet...
"You will all die. Do you know that?"
The Newmen all flinched.
Thunder then turned his gaze to the High General.
"So why? Why even try? If I were you, I would have left in accordance with mother's warning and flourished on as life tends to do." There was a deep sorrow in his chiral voice, but his gaze remained steady.
"Well?" He asked, and no one responded.
"You know, I briefly thought about letting you go. Giving you a chance, but then your men killed my brothers yet again, allowing me a brief glance at the scope of my mother's grief." He rumbled as he stood up.
The air then halted in fear as the Beta's cyan coloured eyes flashed, and it was here that the High General finally spoke.
"P-please... Spare us."
Sparks began appearing on the bridge, small ones at first, but they grew larger with every second that passed.
Each loud snap startled the Newmen crew, and it wasn't long before many of them were loudly weeping.
Thunder turned away from their pleading gases and sent all the gathering electrical energy into them, cooking their organs before they could even scream with several miniature bolts of lightning.
Another Beta entered the bridge, and she let out a low hiss upon seeing the charred Newman corpses.
"What's up?" Thunder asked lightly, trying to shed the weight that pressed on his shoulders.
"All enemy ships have been either captured or destroyed."
Thunder, like his mother, liked hearing someone's words straight from their mouth and not over the Bio-Web.
"And the Newmen?"
"We have captured fifteen million meat bags—"
"Shiri..."Thunder scolded softly, making the Beta stand more upright.
"We have fifteen million prisoners, brother."
Thunder nodded before stepping closer to the bridge's large visor, which allowed him to see the vastness of space.
Somewhere in the Ink blackness was his mother, and while he couldn't see as far as she could, he felt her all the same.
"Tell the others to make themselves at home. Can the Thetas even use regular Newman devices?" Thunder raised a brow, making Shiri tilt her head in confusion.
"No matter." Thunder sighed as he walked up to his sister. He knew the burn of the rage she felt very well, and so he gently placed his hands on her shoulders.
"You were born on the moon, right?" He asked, and she silently nodded, making her brother smile warmly.
"Then you are one of mothers crowning achievements. She may never get a chance to say it to you, but you are worth more than every Newman life. The same goes for all of us. However, we must not lose ourselves to hatred... And grief."
Shiri knew her brother was right, and she allowed his words to wash over her, temporarily lulling the raging fires within.
Something which Thunder could feel and was proud of.
"Good. Now, send an order out to have the prisoners sent to the Moon. Ret will most certainly enjoy their company, and we'll send her to deal with the rest of the fleet. That said, we can't let her leave us in the dust!" Thunder bellowed, shaking a fist in the air.
"Feel free to eat any corpses you find lying around. You'll need fuel to achieve specialisation."
Shiri nodded before making her way to the corpses behind Thunder, which she began eating.
Unlike Thetas, Gammas and Deltas, Betas didn't come in specific categories or types and instead developed specialisation after excelling in a certain field.
If a Beta worked well in the cold, they would grow larger and gain rubbery fatty tissue that would protect them and serve as emergency energy.
Others were particularly lethal, like Scalpel, and developed claws that could cut through steel as if it were paper.
And then there was Thunder, who could Noetically gather charged particles.
There was also one more, but little was known about him.
All anyone knew about 01 was that he was ever changing. He never seemed to be satisfied with his form, and so he would change again and again, his cells growing more complex with each metamorphosis.
He seemed displeased with the very act of growing and shedding repeatedly, so now he was quite still.
Most of the change was occurring at the cellular level, where his work was concentrated.
Even in steel, he mentally added lines of script to his genetic code.
Thunder smiled unthinkingly as he thought about the inevitable day of awakening.
It sent a chill up his spine and actually made him worry a little since, while all of Anoona's children could sense each other's feelings, no one could feel those of 01.