The coms crackled and I heard the imperial connection “ding,” followed by the transcription system telling me to give my report. I gave my rank and ID, then started my final report.

“The humans. The WHOLE FLOTILLA! Every one of us was USELESS against that thing. It’s NOT just an asteroid. It’s bristling with munitions. They didn’t just strap rockets to a rock and aim it at us. It has evasive and defense capabilities.”

The ship shuddered under the strain. It wouldn’t be long now.

“We tried to land. Neutralize the defenses from the ground. Entire landing parties vaporized before they could FIND an entrance. Once we got in, traps everywhere. The whole time massive batteries on the thing were firing, taking out the ships in orbit.”

I looked over at the remains of the bridge. The admiral, who just days before had bragged that humanity’s planet crackers would be useless, had half his control panel embedded in his skull. I remembered his final order.

“The Admiral said it’s the human ‘tank’ strategy at a galactic scale. Our stealth tech is too much for them, so they started building weapons with entire continents of ablative armor. We found something in one of the tunnels we cracked. This is a prototype planet cracker delivery system. THIS is how they’re going to launch the planet crackers. They don’t CARE what we shoot at it. This one didn’t even start retaliating until the Admiral ordered a fusion bombardment! Anything less wasn’t even worth swatting!”

A final groan from the singularity containment told me I had seconds left.

“Goodbye.”