Admiral Sysko D’fray stood at the helm of his mothership, the Black Phantom as he approached the small blue-green planet, orbited by the Archon fleet. The dragons of Draxos had been pursuing the Archon cyborgs across the galaxy for generations. He crossed his arms and frowned.

“Picking up signs of life on planet X2943,” his science officer commented.

“We knew they were after something,” Sysko said. Since the Archon Empire had cast a plague on their people five hundred cycles ago, the Draxos had been in a constant battle against their enemy. Once they’d recovered from the illness, his people had made it their priority to protect all other species in the galaxy from the cyborg threat. The more species the Archon assimilated into their collective, the less would remain as allies against the eventual demise of the Draxos.

“The Archon have already opened fire on the planet, engaging in their usual assimilation protocol,” his tactical officer informed him.

“Send out fighter jets,” Sysko ordered.

The first volley of jets flew out from the launch bay and charged through space toward the Archon fleet. The Archon ships were a chaotic mass of sharp points like cancer cells. His own streamlined triangular-shaped fighter jets gracefully turned and engaged the cyborgs.

“How far have they proceeded in their assimilation process,” Sysko asked his tactical officer.

“It appears they have released multiple short range, highly targeted hydrogen bombs in the most densely populated areas of the planet, but they have not taken control of the population yet.”

“Have they begun to assimilate the people?” Sysko asked.

“Physical contact remains limited,” his tactical officer informed him.

“Good,” Sysko said. “Then there's still hope for these people.”

Sysko's ships began to lose ground as the Archon ships sent out another volley of fighter jets.

“Launch the next volley,” Sysko said.

The next group of jets zoomed out to join the battle above the blue-green planet called Earth. Images of the comely human species flitted across the screen as a transmission from his science team came into view.

“I've uploaded images of the species in question, Admiral,” his science officer said. “These are the creatures we are defending.”

Sysko walked toward the screen and watched the images of the beautiful but small and delicate females of the human species. The females of his own kind had been hit the hardest by the plague. There were so few left that it was said there would be no more females within the next generation. His male desire rumbled at the sight of the tiny human women. He felt a pang of sadness for them that they had come from their limited technological advancement and perception of the galaxy to be awakened by the worst predators in the galaxy.

“We are uploading scans of their databases to understand them better,” his science officer offered.

In all his years of battling the Archon across the galaxy, Sysko had never seen a species with females quite so lovely. Among the Galactic Collective, there were plenty of pleasure houses to fulfill the needs of the many bachelor dragons of the Draxos. Most females were not as lovely as dragons, but these humans had charm all their own.

The fighter jets gained ground and broke through the line into the main cyborg armada. His fighters opened fire on the larger ships, causing hull damage in the mothership.

“Send out the third volley,” Sysko commanded.

With so many ships to repair, the Archon were left with low defenses that the Draxos broke quickly, focusing on the mothership. There was an explosion and the ship cracked in half. The rest of the armada warped and disappeared, leaving the broken mothership to flounder in orbit around Earth.

“Where has the armada warped,” Sysko asked.

“They have jumped into the next system and are lingering at the edge.

“They must truly want these humans in their collective if they are willing to wait at the edge of the system after we've taken out their mothership,” Sysko mused.

Escape pods flew from the mothership, spraying out in all directions. Some barreled toward the atmosphere of Earth and broke through, disappearing into the blue-green planet

Sysko swore in an ancient dialect of his home moon Arcadia and gritted his teeth.

“Do we have a lock on the pods that entered the atmosphere?” he asked.

“Most of them,” his tactical officer informed him.

“We can't allow cyborgs onto the surface of the planet. They will begin the assimilation if even one survives.”

The cyborgs were like a virus, first infecting the databases of the species in question. Then, the people. Unlike most of the other species The Archon had tried to assimilate, the Draxos had been too strong. Instead, they set a plague on the dragons to destroy them, but it didn't wipe out the species. It made everyone ill long enough for them to destroy the mainframe databases and eventually corrupt the female genetic lineage of the Draxos race. Every year less and less girls were born and now there were hardly any.

“Send fighters after all of the cyborg ships,” Sysko commanded.

His tactical officer sent out the command and ships flew down toward the planet. Sysko was as determined to protect this planet as any other. But the sight of the beautiful females made him just a little bit more motivated to keep them safe.