[Music] the first mistake they made was assuming we wouldn't retaliate the second mistake was believing we had limits the varkari had studied us for decades observing from their High orbit stations tapping into unsecured Transmissions mapping our weaknesses they saw our capacity for war and decided we were primitive brutes too riing on Old instincts too clumsy in our approach to strategy they underestimated the one thing that separated us from every other sensient species they had conquered we valued our healers as much as our Warriors when the varkari ships descended over Vega Colony they didn't strike the
defense platforms first they didn't engage our battle fleets they went for the hospitals medical centers relief stations the places where Humanity housed its most vulnerable it was a declaration not of War but of Slaughter the message was clear they would take take our future one broken body at a time the first Transmissions from Vega Colony lasted only 7 minutes before silence swallowed them whole what little we received was filled with screams burning structures collapsing and the cold efficient hum of varkari disintegration cannons the final voice we heard was Dr Elias Carver pleading for the lives
of children over an open frequency that was their last mistake the first wave of our response wasn't soldiers Pilots or Armored Division those were prepared for battles of attrition long-term engagements where strategy dictated pacing what we needed now was immediate decisive absolute response and so we released the 88th Special Operations group better known in classified reports as the angels of death they were not soldiers soldiers obeyed Rules of Engagement soldiers honored the battlefield the 88th was something else they were the answer to Cruelty the response to Horrors that no treaty or diplomatic resolution could undo
their existence was never meant to be known to the public their missions never recorded in history their job was not to reclaim territory it was not to fight battles it was to end Wars before they began and the varkari had given them the perfect reason to act within hours of the attack Angel strike teams were in route to Vega Colony aboard stealth Cruisers They carried no Insignia no banners no identification there would be no negotiation no demands no offers of surrender the 88 did not recognize the concept of Mercy when it came to those who
attacked the defenseless the first varkari Outpost fell before planetary sensors even registered the intrusions silent Landings black clad figures moving in perfect synchronization eliminating every Target with Precision the varkari relied on energy based shielding assuming resistance distance would come in the form of direct assaults the Angels did not fight directly they sabotaged reactors corrupted atmospheric stabilizers collapsed entire command structures from within the planet itself turned against its Invaders as oxygen scrubbers overloaded temperatures spiked and gravity Fields destabilized varkari commanders once so certain of their superiority found themselves gasping in thin air crushed under failing infrastructure
drowning in malfunctioning containers Fields by the time the varkari fleet realized the ground forces were no longer responding it was too late the orbital platforms that once ensured their Supremacy had been commandeered the 88 did not simply destroy them they turned them against their creators varkari warships still docked were torn apart by their own defense grids their systems overridden with impossible speed Communications were jammed emergency signals silenced the Invaders had spent decades studying Humanity's Wars they had not accounted for a war they could not see coming the varkari flagship ven's Pride attempted to retreat its
engines never ignited the 88 had infiltrated the vessel before its Commander even knew there was a fight the crew died without ever seeing their attackers when the dust settled Vega Colony remained standing the hospitals though scarred still held survivors the varkari presence was erased their ships turned to Drifting husks their soldiers ghosts in a war they never understood and above it all an untraceable transmission was sent across their remaining outposts in the Galaxy they attacked our healers we unleashed the angels of death Humanity never heard from the varkari again the silence did not last it
never did the varkari had built an Empire on arrogance convinced that no species could match their efficiency in war they had always believed that Humanity's strength lay only in numbers that we were creatures of brute force and stubbornness the masacre at Vega Colony was meant to be a warning an example of their ruthlessness instead it became the first great failure in their recorded history a failure they refused to accept 3 weeks after the 88th eliminated the occupation Force longrange sensors picked up distortions along the colony's Outer Perimeter space itself wavered as varkari warships emerged from
slipstream larger and more numerous than before the first wave had been a simple planetary assault this was something else entirely the varkari had brought an extermination Fleet human forces in the system scrambled to prepare but it was clear from the start that this was not a battle they could win through conventional means the varkari had deployed Siege formations each warship covering the others with Precision Shields overlapping in a perfect net of Defense they were done under estimating us this time they had come prepared but so had we the 88th did not operate under the same
Doctrine as standard military divisions the moment The Invasion fleet was detected the Angels had already slipped past the initial line of Engagement in the void between warships between sensor sweeps and blind spots they infiltrated the varar had adapted their battle strategy for a war in open space the Angels fought a war inside their ranks by the time the first exchange of fire began half of the varkari fleet had already been compromised their targeting systems reported Phantom enemies their command networks flooded with conflicting orders it wasn't just sabotage it was chaos orchestrated with exact Precision entire
battalions of varkari soldiers turned on each other convinced they were under attack from within their officers were found dead at their own command stations cut down by invisible hands before alarms could even sound the first ship to break formation was the battleship Coral's honor its reactors detonating in a chain reaction that tore through three adjacent warships the fleet attempted to reposition struggling to identify where the attacks were coming from but there was nothing to see the enemy was already inside their Halls moving between them like ghosts every moment they spent searching was another moment lost
then came the transmission it played on every varkari frequency every screen every personal Communicator a voice calm and deliberate speaking in Flawless varkari dialect you came to silence us to burn our wounded our children our future you believed we would cower that we would beg you believed we would forget there was no response only frantic orders desperate scans weapons fire lashing out at empty space we are Humanity we do not forget the next detonation came from the fleet's flagship a massive dreadn that had been coordinating the assault the explosion tore through its Central decks rupturing
atmospheric seals as fire and debris spilled into the void Escape pods launched in frantic succession only to be intercepted before they could clear the battlefield the Angels did not leave survivors the varkari fleet tried to retreat it didn't matter the moment their ships attempted to break formation their own engines overloaded their Halls collapsing inward from internal sabotage One By One The warships that had come to end Humanity's resistance instead became drifting wrecks their Crews Vanishing before their final Transmissions could even be sent the few who survived to be recovered by human forces spoke only in
Whispers they did not describe the battle they did not discuss the fleet's failure they spoke only of Shadows in the halls of Silent figures moving unseen of the moment they realized they were already dead before the fighting had even begun for the first time in their history the varkari did not simply lose they had been broken the aftermath of the the slaughter rippled across the Galaxy varkari outposts abandoned their positions their trade routes collapsed as their Merchants refused to leave their home sectors their generals once confident in their Empire's dominance issued no new offensives the
silence was not due to cowardice it was worse than that it was fear Humanity watched and waited expecting retaliation none came surveillance drones captured images of varkari War councils in disarray their leaders arguing over conflicting reports they could not understand what had happened how had an enemy so crude so unsophisticated in their eyes dismantled a war Fleet without a single Counterattack the truth was more horrifying than they could admit they had never fought us they had fought Shadows Whispers The Ghost of Vengeance that walked unseen in their corridors their warships had not been destroyed in
combat they had been undone before the battle had even begun done but Humanity knew better than to believe the war was over the varkari were wounded humiliated but not extinct and in the void wounded Predators were the most dangerous of all the confirmation came 6 weeks later deep space monitors detected erratic movements along the fringes of varkari territory at first it seemed like internal conflict fleets abandoned their stations entire colonies ceased communication but the pattern wasn't one of collapse it was one of reorganization they were not retreating they were consolidating then the reports changed a
human scouting vessel patrolling the outer systems sent a distress signal no words no audio only static and then silence by the time reinforcements arrived the vessel was still there but its crew was missing every system intact no signs of Struggle No Escape pods launched it was as if they had been erased from existence then it happened again and again civilian transports military convoys listing stations the pattern was clear the varkari had learned they had adapted they had decided to fight us the way we had fought them they had created their own angels of death Humanity
responded with urgency security protocols tightened civilian routes were heavily escorted stealth sensors were deployed along every major human world we were prepared to fight in the shadows if they dared to drag us into to them the first direct confrontation came over the colony of Russell hog a small varkari Strike Team infiltrated the planetary defense grid slipping past scanners with methods nearly identical to the 88 Zone but they made a mistake they had tried to match us in our own game without understanding the rules by the time their team reached the control Hub the real angels
were waiting no words were exchanged no mercy was offered the varkari operatives never left the facility for the the first time since the War Began prisoners were taken their uniforms bore no Insignia their armor was matte black without a single marking their weapons were stripped down human designs modified to fit their physiology every detail confirmed what we already suspected they had studied us too well and now they sought to become us interrogations yielded little at first they were trained for resistance just as our own Specialists were but there was one thing they had not accounted
for one flaw in their logic that they could not Escape they had been bred for Conquest for Empire building for Domination they did not understand Vengeance they did not understand a fight waged not for territory or resources but for the right to exist the 88 did not operate under orders alone they did not fight because they had to they fought because the varkari had taken something from them and in the face of that no amount of conditioning could match their result it took 3 days before the first varkari prisoner broke and what he revealed changed
everything the varkari prisoner's voice trembled as he spoke not out of fear of pain His Kind had been bred to withstand torture but out of something worse something deeper understanding they are not soldiers he admitted they do not fight for Conquest they fight because we made them the interrogation room was silent save for the steady hum of the overhead lights across from him Sat Commander hail the man responsible for the 88's deployment his expression never changed his breathing never wavered what do you mean hail asked the varkari exhaled sharply his mandibles clicking you took everything
from them their homes their people their purpose they became something else something you fear we thought we could become them his voice cracked we were wrong if was confirmation of what Humanity had already suspected the varkari had tried to replicate the angels of death they had stolen techniques reverse engineered technology trained their operatives in the art of unseen War but what they had failed to understand was that the 88 was not a program it was not something that could be manufactured it was something born from loss from Rage from the fire of Retribution that no
training regimen could ever replicate and the varkari just realized they had walked into their own grave before the varkari prisoner could say more the alarms blared a coordinated attack this time it was not just assassin slipping through the void this was a final strike the varkari had gathered everything they had left throwing it into one desperate push the skies above Vega Colony burned as ships descended in force plasma fire raining down Shields flaring in Desperate retaliation it it was their last chance and they knew it but Humanity was ready the 88 had been waiting preparing
studying every move the varkari had made since their first failed Counterstrike they had let them think they were still a threat that their attempt at mimicking the Angels had made them equals now the illusion was shattered the varkari warships sleek and brutal cut through planetary defenses but the Angels were already inside every command center fell sight every critical system collapsed in on itself engines detonated mid bur Shields reversed polarity artificial gravity spiked turning entire corridors into death traps varkari command structures crumbled from within before a single shot was fired in space their ships were turned
against them the same tactics that had torn their Fleet apart before were used again but this time there was no attempt at secrecy this was not a shadow War anymore this was an execution Vega colony's surface became a Battleground varkari soldiers stormed the medical centers the hospitals the places they had once burned to the ground but they did not find doctors cowering behind walls this time they found the Angels the 88 had not just come to stop them they had come to make an example for every Hospital Burn of arari Warship fell for every medic
slaughtered an entire Battalion was erased the varkari had thought they could match Humanity's ghosts but ghosts did not fight for survival they fought for the dead by the time the last varkari officer issued a desperate Retreat order there was nowhere left to run their Fleet once a symbol of dominance lay in burning wreckage their ground forces were either dead or surrendering and the angel stood over them their work not yet finished the remaining varar who had survived the battle were rounded up but no one expected them to remain alive for long the angs had never
taken prisoners before Vega Colony and none had ever returned to speak of what had happened as the last of the varkari forces were subdued a message was broadcast across every surviving Comm Channel it carried no threats no demands only a statement this was your final mistake and then silence the war did not continue there was no negotiation no plea for peace the varkari did not retaliate their empire once built on arrogance shattered under the weight of a war they had started but never truly understood Humanity did not celebrate there were no parades no Grand Declarations
of Victory there was only the work of rebuilding of remembering and of ensuring that no one ever made the mistake of underestimating them again the angels of death returned to the Shadows waiting for the next enemy foolish enough to awaken them
