Natasha Zhang, Ashton and Flame

"No problems, Nero - Do it," Natasha said before she turned towards Laurey, then considered what she felt.

At the back of her mind was the notion that she was being inconsiderate, a voice in her head which told her she was being a fool. But this voice was out-shouted by the loud call for adrenaline, for some measure of revenge, and of course, putting the remnants of Berkerly's Butchers in their graves early. If Amy was still there, near the bridge, she'd be detecting something ugly and scary in the Captain's thoughts, but also a flash of something good and noble trying to fight back against this reckless streak.

At Laurey's words, Natasha breathed, trying to consider the other person's words sincerely. Then she said, "I do see where you're coming from - We're taking a big risk and one wrong move will lead to our deaths. However, I and the kids, or at least some of them... We're burning. Not just with a need for vengeance, but a need for release. Catharsis. If we don't let these feelings out now, we'll be taking a bigger risk in the future and that would be more fatal."

Ashton and Flame, meanwhile, went to the turrets, prepared to shoot the Deilos Fleet's starfighters should/once they turned hostile. Should Iris and Samuel manage to restore communications in record time, something within their power and skill, Ashton and Flame would follow up by sending messages to Phi and Trajen, as well as each other.

Phi, Trajen, Ashton said to the two, Remember, our enemy isn't Kherol yet - I'd prefer to keep away from him until the very last moment, especially as he's in a position of strength. I will say this, though: If there is a chance we can demonstrate to him that we are not truly vile, then we should.

Ashton here is too idealistic, Flame messaged to the two. If those weird ECM starfighters come near us and Iris + Samuel are too strained to continue protecting the ship, do shoot them. I may not be a Nero, but I am cynical enough to see that for all his merits, Kherol is still an Ascendancy Man and will have to be dealt with one way or another. That said, Natasha didn't tell us what sort of guns do these turrets fire - Hopefully, they are directed-energy weapons.

There was a traditional paper user's manual for emergencies, which indicated that yes, the turrets fired laser beams which were as fast as light, laser beams which ought to instantly fry even one of Kherol's advanced starfighters.

Either way, the Xuanzang flew closer to the Deilos Fleet's flagship, broadcasting a distress beacon that blinked in simple morse code from Earth's modern era. This distress beacon marked them as neutral, as accidental interlopers, albeit ones which had ended up in a battle they presumably didn't want. Hopefully, Kherol's starfighters would be chivalrous and fall back, while not suspecting that the 'freighter's' systems were functional. But the Delios Fleet might try to destroy the seemingly defenseless ship out of spite - Such were the minds of these deserters...

@Letter Bee@Th3King0fChaos@The Man Emperor@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Conscripts@dragonpiece@Starlance@supertinyking@samakama@jdh97@6slyboy6

Narvia had many thoughts in her head while everyone was preparing for the boarding option on Berkeley’s Butcher's Remnants. If it weren’t for the teddy plushie that Amy gave her, she would probably be crying. However, she did get a wonderful gift from Phi, which was a Seal Plushie; it was charming and adorable to see it. Baby Harp seals are her favorite baby animals, which is why her godfather did buy her the first seal plushie she has. ’ I-I do hope I can get over these demons… Berserkerley’s a terrifying creature of my nightmares… He threatened to kill e-everyone I love by bombarding Mars to ash...’, She thought with a terrified look on her face, but this is one of those things that feel like the best way to help her. It would help her stutter of fear if that one thing were taken off her bucket list to finish off the evils of Berkeley’s Butchers finally.

She had a small smile only because she was trying to look stronger than she was, even though it's hard on her. It was almost time as everyone was getting to their positions to start the battle on the flagship of the fleet in question aligned with Berkeley’s ideals. In terms, she had no idea how terrifying those monsters will be because most of those butchers had a terrifying presence as if they were heavily intimidating. She shook her head slightly to try to snap out of the fear and wanted to focus on something else. Specifically, she took out ’ The Sigma’ to ensure it was in good condition. ” I-I do hope we can end those monsters...” She spoke, with a bit of fear in her voice. She was significantly showing that even though she was a part of the greatest brigade, it reminded her of what was in that letter. It was in the back of her head, but it would be better to mention it later after finishing Berkeley’s Butchers Remnants. It would probably ruin the mood slightly more if that were let out right now. However, the operation, which her Godfather gave her was heavily important to her now.

Narvia had a shock when the 11th Fleet’s Remnants' flagship fired a 203mm Plasma Bolt at them. ” T-Those bastards are cowardly… I cannot believe they still are using ’ Banned’ weapons from the Treaty. Hopefully, this ship’s shields and armor can handle those weapon systems...” She spoke with a quiet look of disgust on her face. It made her really angry and disgusted at these cowards; her facial expression changed to that of a young little girl being angry. Obviously, because she was mostly still a child nonetheless. However, a message pierced through from the Flagship, called Akriem’s Razor, was listed in the message. She blinked at the woman said from the other ship, which was a bit insulting. No one should insult Natasha. ” T-That bitch, she deserves everything she’s going to get from everyone! No one deserves to insult us and call us idiots...” She spoke, with a tone of being angry, which activated her Dragon Sight out of being disrespected so much. However, when she did say bitch it was a bit cutely like she shouldn’t have said it type of deal.

---

---

The Akriem’s Razor was still moving through space at their fastest speed possible at sublight speeds. The lights on the ship’s hull activated, emphasizing its primary weapon systems, and it also uncovered the reason for the Bridge’s sunken status. However, it also showed windows surrounding the bridge itself. It showed it had a much smaller target than usual Heavy Cruiser Combat Statuses. The Forward Weapon Turret was scanning for any nearby targets, which it found one a freighter that was quickly approaching. Inside the Bridge, Elaine Solarie Jensen smiled with glee to see another freighter. ” Awh, a cute little Freighter asking for help. As if, If it truly wanted help, it wouldn’t be on a battlefield. I am not stupid fire upon that ship and don’t let it get close to us at all cost. Fire the Superheated Plasma Battery, the Forward Battery! Also, Erudite Guard, are you ready, Marvin, Philip, Fritz, and Tobias? These ’ idiots’ have another thing coming.” She spoke with a knowledge of not being too happy about idiots playing the hero as if they would come out from this battle.

The Akriem’s Razor shifted its forward weapon’s battery towards the Xuanzang, which it started to charge up like, Plasma ship weapons do. The 203mm Triple-Barreled Superheated Plasma Forward Battery fired at the Xuanzang, the ’ idiot freighter.’ Since it was the only thing that was close enough for its primary forward weapon to fire upon. The Plasma Bolt was purple in color, which showed it was augmented to fire hotter plasma than usual Ascendancy Starships. Showing these ships in the Deilos fleet was breaking the terms of the treaty.

Back on the Bridge, the four Erudite Guard looked directly at Elaine and smiled with a vindictive grin on their face. ” We were apart of your Death Squad in the Eleventh Fleet; we will make sure they get their just desserts if they think about bordering us. We won’t back down Elaine, these idiots have another thing coming. Not many people are foolish to board a ship commanded by Elaine ‘Vixen’ Jensen.” Marvin said, holding a Lerida, Heavy Plasma Rifle in his hands. He looks towards his other three compatriots and smiles at this entire idea of being boarded by ‘justice seekers’ or ‘thrill riders.’ ” So what do you think, Philip, Fritz, and Tobias?” Marvin questioned his other allies.

Philip laughs at the idealistic beliefs of idiots, which feels like something the great and idealistic strong Nikolas would do. ” Fools' errand, would be better to die by Alexander Kherol’s men than some idealistic morons in all honestly. At the same time, fighting with our full strength than being picked off by fighters, bombers. But those ECM Fighters are a pain in the ass; Elaine would’ve loved to bad mouth Kherol’s name. But he was so much better than Berkeley, who was bastardizing our German Names. Guess, the only respect I have for Alexander. I think the only man I would’ve loved to tear into would be Nikolas R. Zahrin the Dragon, but Berkeley was a coward in that. All because of that little granddaughter he had, because of her magical powers, Narvia.” Philip said, with a smile on his face, while holding onto the Levine, Plasma Rifle in his hands. He couldn’t help by laugh at the entire ordeal, but he knows that Elaine’s Levine Plasma Rifle was in the base of where she was sitting.

Fritz held his Oriya, Plasma Scythe in his left hand and had a look on his face of wonderment of finally getting his hands on some combat. ” Must say, I been getting quite bored of just waiting, I am going to enjoy tearing into whoever is stupid enough to board, the Capital Ship of Elaine’s Death Squad. Always wondered about that specific thing, why would anyone be equally stupid, my Oriya hunger.” Fritz spoke with a slightly bored tone in his voice. He just wanted bloodletting to begin against whoever was stupid enough to intervene.

Tobias gleefully laughed while staring at his Writhe, Plasma Thrower since it was connected to a flamethrower-like backpack, which would constantly pump out more plasma fire, as long as he refilled the tanks with some plasma rods. ” Plasma-based burning corpses are always fun to see. I wonder if all these interruptions to fighting the 1st Fleet’s Forces are some Joke like Fate and Destiny are intertwined to intervene. But I do wonder about who will be bordering the Flagship, our grand leader!” Tobias exclaimed hopefully for a good challenge compared to all the Rau've he burned with his Write, Plasma Thrower during the war. All he hoped for was a good fight and didn’t care how he would get it since the Kaiosken was a unique opponent to fight nonetheless.

Elaine laughed slightly but looked at the rest of the cowards onboard the Bridge and sighed at their arrogance. ” If you don’t want to die by the Erudite Guard, you best leave us. I do wonder about that little girl that my brother terrified half to death; Narvia Folspear Hadley was an interesting child.” Elaine spoke with a slight annoyance at remembering what Berkeley told her. If anything, it would be pretty ironic if the people who are here to fight her and her crew were no other than those ’ Star Marines.’ However, she sent a seven-word message to the Xuanzang with somewhat of an insult, 'You are idiots, you know that right?’ The voice was definitely female, but it didn’t have an exact match on any female’s voice patterns in the 11th Fleet because Narvia wouldn’t recognize it.

Afterward, the cowardly crew other than Elaine and the four Erudite Guard members ran from the bridge in the quickest possible fashion, which wasn’t in an orderly fashion. However, Elaine transferred all the controls from the other bridge systems to the Captain’s Chair in the direct center. To make it much easier to deal with, she was used to controlling ships by her little lonesome. She smiled, awaiting the so called bordering action while controlling her ship by quick movements.

While on the bridge, Nero heard the girl with the implants complain that they were getting in way over their head. He crossed his arms and shook his head in disgust at this.

"Jesus fuck, we're picking a side, not going at it alone. You act like there won't be anyone watching our backs or something."

Yeah, of course there was some measure of risk here, but like nothing worse than any other stand-up fight. You pick a side in battle and the side you don't shoot at goes 'Oh hey, they must be on out side!', and they don't shoot you. They weren't taking on the entire frigging fleet, just the ships were nearby. Geez, for a freedom fighter, this girl didn't seem too keen on doing any of that fighting thing. Anyway, we all know that this wasn't strictly necessary, but if we all played strictly by the rules, there wouldn't be child soldiers to begin with, so that book was thrown out a long time ago. We're not gonna dwell on this, though, and certainly Nero wasn't, as he was given the go to go and charge up the guns.

It was a good thing he'd been wandering around the ship instead of just chilling about, because he knew now the best routes to all the parts of the ship to get the job done. Namely, he'd be dropping in on the ship's main turrets to give them a boost. He had to do 'em one cannon at a time, but every burst fired from said cannons would be coated in shadow energy that would make it deadlier to some degree. Ash and/or Flame would hear him going "One day, it's just gonna be 'Thy cannons be pumped!', and then I'm done. 'Till then..." before heading off to find Fin and company again for the boarding party. It was difficult to judge how long the spell would last. Nero always judged it as 'a while' because it had like a non-specific time duration that might've been unfluenced by how active you were. Like, it wouldn't shrink down to nothing if you were constantly blasting, but there was a little less time than when you were static and waiting for a target. He never really wanted to think about it much, anyway, since he usually casted the Shadow Charge just before a fight, anyway, so it did what needed to be done. He got back to the bridge to explain that it was a done deal - not realizing that normal comms had been restored - when someone decided to contact them just to call 'em a bunch of idiots.

"Someone give that bitch a big ole' steaming cup of shut the hell up!"

He couldn't wait to get on board an make some human shits do the dance of death. The Rau've had been more durable than human beings, back in the war, seein' as how they were plant-based. They DID ram into his brain that vegetable matter was a bit harder to puncture and stuff than human tissue, back in training. People, though... Oh, people were frigging fragile, at times. Prosthetic girl was worried about the fight, but hoo boy... Some of this shit was going to be a cakewalk. Some of it. The rest? It was gonna be FUN.

Despite their attempts to hail themselves as a neutral vessel, it seems that the other ship had completely ignored their petitions. Truly, these were the Butchers that Narvia despised so much; capricious ex-soldiers with an insatiable thirst for death and destruction. It was a good thing that the one that commanded them before into battle was dead, but the audacity of a Heavy Cruiser to fire upon a lightly armed Light Freighter that with "absolutely clear intentions of neutrality" was truly astounding!

"Welp." Finbarr grunted as the weapons of the Heavy Cruiser impacted upon their shielding. "Looks like I will have to do this sooner than later, then." He then drew one of his plasma blades, intending to ignite it once they had crossed into the other side of the portal that he was going to create in a few moments. The members of the boarding party were all there; Nero, Tarak, Narvia, and Abaddon, along with his good self. He would perhaps be one of the most integral members of the boarding party, as he was their way in and alsot the way out. By this time, he was already familiar enough with the Xiang... Xuang... whatever to be able to safely portal back into it without looking into its window.

"Alright, who here is going into a portal for the first time?" Finbarr asked as he peered over to see in the windows of the enemy ship. There were some answers, some of which would be rather concerning. "Yeah, it doesn't matter now. As long as no one throws up."

Taking a hard look into the windows, Finbarr then spoke lowly as he summoned his Breach Portal spell. "Et ponte et aperire..."

A burst of blue energy, shaped like flowing water and magic mixed together, came out of his left hand, which rapidly coalesced into a breach. He would be the last to come through, as he needs to maintain it in order for the others to go through. The other side would be visible on the bridge of the enemy ship; the route is sure. "Hop in, and make sure you don't throw up."

There was a great chasm of silence as Laurey stared at the ‘captain’, save for that chiming in her head from so much magic. For the corporeal plane it passed in less than a second, but for Laurey it stretched like spacetime around a blackhole. It wasn’t that Natasha had spotted a weakness to exploit, something only visible to a veteran and not a green engineer, a faint hope Laurey had held onto, no… it was that they needed a release? Were the kids that unstable that their counselor wouldn’t be enough. They needed regular suicide-runs too? Their ship was breaking a military blockade, one of Grand Admiral Kherol, he of Proxima infamy. What were they hoping, that he’d let a rogue combatant off with a kiss on the cheek and a number to call? They needed to scram. What the fucking fuck were they -

The world turned diaphanous, and Laurey forced herself to stay, biting down on her tongue. Copper pangs and strawberry pain. The kids were forming up, ready to go. The one called Nero lusted for combat like a rutting buck. It didn’t seem like a battle she would win, and dissent now would only throw more trouble into a sticky situation.

Yet Laurey questioned her place.

“As you wish, ‘captain’.”

The ship shook and Laurey cursed. She was at the comms console and inspecting the screens for a report. The shields seemed to have held, but they were hot.

With comms online she piped a message to the boarding party: Omnitools on streaming/record for combat analysis.

As the breach came into existence Laurey observed that her legs were shaking. There was a lump in her throat and a growing pressure in her chest and it was really happening. Fuck fuck fuck. The word tumbled over infinitely in her mind as she rushed from the bridge. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. She almost made it to her bathroom before she threw up.

---

The group of Ascendancy military ships are also moving in the opposite direction as the Akriem's Razor. As they were moving in formation, they were slower and more gradual in their approach to the Deilos fleet. But the Grand Admiral need not worry much however. The initial airstrikes had yielded nigh flawless results. The two heavy cruisers are now without an arm and a leg. Communication disruption seems to have done the trick perfectly, considering these folks don't have counter-technology. Now from what seems to unravel is that their flagship is just straight-up routing, abandoning their own comrades and their allies. Kherol's not surprised in the slightest, but this provided him the perfect advantage to send in the gunships to finish them off...

"Grand Admiral?" At that point, his diligent and faithful captain furrowed her two brows. "The second space wing just reported in. Apparently...there is an unidentified corvette around the area."

What? Unidentified? Hmm, could that one slip under the radar of the observation posts? Or they're some random civilians somehow slipping through the blockade he was setting up. Either way, someone's going to be in trouble.

"Here's what it looks like. They're also sending signals marking themselves as neutral."

"Hmm..." Alexander stroked his lips once. "Doesn't look like something the Deilos possess or they could ally themselves with."

He could be wrong and that they pulled some weird strings behind his back, but the simplest answer to this theory could be that they're actually neutral vessels.

"Oh?" Carina perched her brows as she tapped her earpiece. "The Akriem's Razor is attacking that lone corvette."

Ok that settles it then...

"Can our squadrons still attack the cruiser?"

Carina gave a quick back and forth before replying. "They can, but only from one side, because...umm..." She scratched her head in big confusion as she relayed what she was told back to Alexander. "They're actually closing the distance to the Akriem's Razor. More specifically, to the bridge."

Wait...what?

"Hmph, interesting~" Alexander chuckled, being just as surprised as his captain. Whoever is commanding this ship is either a medically diagnosed nitwit, or... "Are they actually trying to board the ship?" Ramming could totally be an alternative explanation, but it would fall into the 'dumb crew' category.

"I don't know, we'll have to see. For now, I am ordering the squadron to attack the cruiser from one side. The rest can choose their own targets on the remaining portion of the fleet."

"I agree." Alexander nonchalantly nodded. "Also lower the ECM and establish direct contact with that corvette."

"Roger."

---

Elsewhere in the battle, the pilots, having received their orders, decided to ignore the Xuanzang. A sizable portion of the squadron peeled off to attack the other parts of the Deilos fleet that got left behind and now were desperately trying to catch up. The attack result were just like last time, but this time the Deilos weren't caught by surprise anymore. Anti-starfighter flaks managed to bring down several spaceplanes, mostly the bombers, which were the mid-war models that the Deilos already had experience dealing with. Nevertheless, the positive results still outweighed the negatives. More ships were lagged behind, thinning out the already disorganized fleet. They are just food to be preyed upon.

Meanwhile, the ECM field began to dissipate - whatever disruption it had left now completely gone. Not shortly after, the Xuanzang would receive this broadcast. The voice would be clearly female, and the Xuanzang captain would be able to quickly identify it.

"This is ANS Manfred von Richthofen of the Ascendancy Navy. You are in unauthorized territory and are potentially undermining our military operation. Identify yourself, your intention and what is it that you are attempting to do?"

Now, Ariel didn’t like the phrase ‘I told you so’, or other such sayings along those lines. It was prideful and bitter, and had never contributed anything of value in a crisis. It soured relationships and incited tempers to flare up. It was meaningless aggression in times that called for cooperation and unity.

As a swarm of starfighters whizzed past in the silent vacuum outside, however, she began to think that maybe some firmer rhetoric or even a mind trick would have saved them all some grief. Oh well. She had her orders.

It was séance time.


Not very much time had passed at all. Séances had always felt longer than they really were. By the time Ariel had bid the last ghost farewell, the assault team had just completed their preparations.

“Heads up from the dead! The bridge has been evacuated, save for five people — the fleet commander, an Elaine Solarie Jensen, and her four armed guards. Four males, one female; all adults. They’re expecting us.” Details were thankfully plentiful, as the opposition clearly had no concept of defence in depth. The only real threats appeared to have been all concentrated in the bridge. The rest of the Deilos crew lived up to their name — fearful and cowardly even as their end drew near. “We’re looking at plasma weapons for all five, with quite the eclectic mix. Three rifles, one plasma-thrower, and one with what appears to be a scythe. Their captain is still steering the ship, but she’s still armed with a rifle, so watch out. She’s seated in the centre — white hair, red bodysuit.”

Finbarr had already opened the portal. It was do-or-die time. Ariel offered a final wave. “Stay safe, everyone!”

There was little else she could do.

---

---

After delivering the food to the doctor, Abaddon went to rest in his room for an hour or so before he was notified that one of the thrusters was losing efficiency. "Judging by the difference between the twin thrusters output it could be coupling error, hopefully." As much as Abaddon wanted to ride his high peacefully, the drop in efficiency could hurt Natasha's ability to maneuver if combat arose. Abaddon slowly rose from his bed and begun to make way to the internals of the ship. When he arrived he checked if the power wasn't diverting properly, something he could fix from the control panel. Nope. Alright, let's check if it isn't getting the same orders as its brother. Nope… Maybe the fuel injector is being finicky? NOPE! Fuck it, Going into the thruster area. Abaddon knows he shouldn't go near the thrusters when the ship is thrusting but better him than Laurey to get hit with plasma. As he went to one of the catwalks to just look. It wasn't hard to see what the issue was, the coupling was having an error alright. It wasn't pressurizing properly. Abaddon just starred at the issue for a while before speaking out to no one, "Okay then, well, just going to take a picture of this and send it to Laurey."

Hey Laurey, it's your friendly galactic neighbor Abaddon. Just messaging you that the fuel pressurization on the duel thruster 02 isn't being fully functional. I tried to see if I could fix it remotely, and nope. I can get it fully operational until you fix it but we'll be eating through fuel. I think we'll have enough to get the planet of plenty.

With care, Abaddon

Finishing his message, he sent the picture to Laurey. Abaddon decided to leave the area before he developed some sort of malignant crystal growth. Abaddon started to head to his room once more but he couldn't rest now, he looked at his miscellaneous list of things to take care of. He started to spend his night just crossing things off his list. Once he had erased a good bit of them he decided to take his trance while everyone else was starting to get active.

He continued his day taking care of the usual issues on the ship. He avoided people as he honestly was lost in thought. Knowing that conflict could happen at any time during this trip, he left his mind on edge as a way of preparing for battle. He thought that talking to some of the kids while intentionally leaving himself on edge was not a good idea. Throughout the day, Abaddon had a growing feeling that battle was coming. He didn't know why but he was going to trust his instincts. As night came Abaddon meditated in his room.

---

Abaddon's instincts seemed to be right as the Xuanzang went into red alert. Abaddon rushed to his room to grab his hammer and swords. The thrill of battle was already pumping through his veins. He knew that he would be able to spill blood today. The previously inorganic black material on Abaddon's body seemed to pulse to life as it moved like black tar on his body. It would spread to the sword where he held it. He kept himself under control, for now, no need to terrify people on your side. He tried to suppress the black ooze but to those of a keen eye, the usual gleam of the material has disappeared as it seems to absorb all light on it.

As Finbarr opened the portal Abaddon started to step forward, "Time to make an entrance." He took a step in and the mass on Abaddon started to whirl around him, making black tendrils around him, making him look like some sort of eldritch horror. Absolute silence in his movement as he launches a sonic slash to whatever was in his view for some odd meters. A face was appearing on his face, one made of black that shaped itself into a wicked smile. Abaddon stood tall in front of his enemies, "Time for a massacre."

@jdh97

---

---

Tarak spent the past few days in a silent calm walk. Not really looking for anything, and not really doing anything. He helped about the ship, yet he found no place he could truly be of major help. Nothing needs repairs, him helping to cook would be dumb as there are already too many hands in the kitchen, and like any good soldier, his equipment is in perfect state. So he walked slowly as the veil of war enclosed upon them again.

---

Once they came out of warp, Tarak was on edge. Not because he thinks there is danger, he knows danger can come from them coming out of warp. They are in the middle of an ongoing hunt for pirates, the Ascendancy and the Pirates would probably take no quarter from them. So Tarak has relegated himself into his room for a bit, as he had taken to don his armor.

Tarak was a superstitious man, he picked this up from his constant years of always being on the edge of death. Watching everyone around you eat a bullet, yet you come out okay, it makes a man think there is something out there watching him. And right now he has a bad feeling, a pain running down his back. Tarak never took off his shirt or padding over his cybernetics as he normally didn't want people knowing he had them. Honestly, it was one of the few things in his life he is shameful about. Yet, he takes his padding off to stretch the area to relax his body. Afterward, he puts the padding back on and starts to put the chest piece back on. Ready for them to warp again, yet that didn't happen when he heard the call from Natasha for everyone to come to the deck.

Tarak was not fully ready, yet was almost, so it took him a few extra minutes to actually get to the bridge, yet that was when everything was settled. They were going to board the other ship and fight them before getting back and leaving. Tark had a lot of words to say, yet right now is not the time, he will do what he is told. Yet will bring this up when he gets back. He doesn't want to get into a screaming fight with Natasha when he is about to go out. So he prepares in wait, ready to go in. Tarak had left his Anti-material rifle in his room, knowing that he didn't want to blow a hole inside the ship, yet it was also good he did as he would be unable to use it in the closed spaces that are inside the ship.

Tarak waited and watched everyone get ready, he had all his preparations done, so he stood in the bridge of the ship, like a sentinel waiting. Feeling the ship shake and bend after the hits it takes. Tarak noticed each person change under the pressure, as Ariel spoke she gave them much-needed information. There were five of them, the captain, and 4 others. Tarak was ready to go, he was more than ready honestly, he knew this was a stupid plan, yet he had to go through with it. Incase others were to die because he didn't.

Yet Narvia seemed to get angry as she thinks about the enemy. Sure they said bad things, yet to Tarak, they were nothing more than barking dogs, when it comes to push and shove, they are just dogs in the end. As he came over and set a hand on her shoulder and said in his helmet's microphone, "Hey, calm yourself. If you lose your head in the fight then you will get hurt. Okay?" Tarak gave something short, enough to tell her to calm down, nothing more as they didn't have the time for that. Not while on the precipice of the boarding action.

As when everyone who was boarding was ready, and they were close enough, Finbarr made a portal opening into the other ship. As Tarak noticed for the split second he could see before they could enter, multiple control panels, and a few people there. This is the bridge, Tarak was ready, he knew he had to be swift, as he stood directly behind Abaddon, as the large Kaisoken wanted to go first. Tarak knew this was to keep his armor from needing to be repaired so soon, yet Tarak did have enough stuff to repair it himself, it just wouldn't look pretty. However he didn't object, it did give him more time to stack up and fire clean shots at whoever is in there. Tarak knew he didn't need to worry about Abaddon getting blinded by the Stun grenades. On every Kaisoken he used them on it never did anything, and he assumes that Abaddon will be the same.

So Tark began to load up one of his 4 round magazine of grenades with all stun grenades, and his back up one will be loaded in the order of:

-Phosphorus Grenade
-Stun grenade
-High Explosive Grenade
-High Explosive Grenade

As the moment comes when they shall venture into the fray, Ariel gave them one last good luck. Which to that Tarak looked to her and gave her a thumbs up and nod before he looked back, ready to go.

Abaddon enters first taking immediate attention. Abaddon ran in and dived forward and made a large opening slash with his strange Kaisoken blade. While then making an entrance that could be considered flashy, so Tarak thought to help. Tarak knew this would be the perfect distraction, as Tarak unloads his Stun grenades into the room. Having the 4 of them bounce off the walls and explode in different areas of the bridge in hopes to blind the people in there from most areas. Tarak then rushes in using the moment to begin firing at the people he finds inside. Not caring about semantics, nor introduction, he wanted this done before it even started.

His eyes were darting around and noticing who was were, having his IFF pop up finally as he sees Nero, Narvia, and Finbarr pop up. He'll just have to watch for Abaddon, making sure to check his fire when he ventures into the fight. As Tarak was firing he dropped his empty grenade magazine and loaded his other magazine of grenades ready to unload another volley of grenades. As he began laying down fire onto those who stood and tried his damndest to take them out in the quickest manner: Two to the chest, one to the head.

@samakama@The Man Emperor@FalloutJack@Landaus Five-One@Letter Bee@dragonpiece

Natasha Zhang, Ashton and Flame

There it was again, that nagging feeling she failed someone. That nagging feeling she failed to provide adequate answers to other people's questions. That nagging feeling that she had failed the people under her charge just like last time. Gritting her teeth, she tried to ignore it, to force it out, but it was clear from Laurey's sarcastic reaction that she had failed her crew yet again, that she didn't provide them what they wanted, no, what they needed to hear. Why can't she be the perfect Captain for once? Why couldn't she provide the right answers, the right moves?

She knew that her plan and the others' would succeed, but would it be because of her, or in spite of her? Had she really wagered the lives of her crew to get 'catharsis' and ended up compromising her crew's trust instead? Natasha Zhang was angry, and it seemed as though the part of her which she hoped was good and noble was being actively suppressed. But she had to stay calm, she had to give commands, she had to prevent her mask from breaking down. Otherwise, the crew will die and so would she and it would be all her fault, her fault for choosing action over safety.

As the enemy ship began firing back, Natasha Zhang shifted out of self-pity, moving the ship into evasive maneuvers within the limits of a really good freighter in emergency circumstances. She can be more skilled than this, more adept at using the frictionless environment of space and the strength of G-Forces to avoid the enemy's fire, but that would make sure that Kherol saw through their deception if he hadn't already done so -

And then she had it. She had the trump card Laurey wanted, the trump card which 'a veteran can see but a civilian cannot'. Recovering her confidence, she grinned and sent out a message through the comms:

"Everyone, I do have an actual plan and I think you guys might even like it. We're a ship with advanced technology of Ascendancy Origins and we carry a cargo of 'Star Marines'. Who's to say that we cannot pose as though we're still part of the Ascendancy?" A pause for effect, then she continued, "Kherol cannot be deceived easily, but we're a ship filled with child geniuses, hackers, and other Ascendancy Insiders. Oh, and of course, mind-readers and mind-suggesters. Plus one must remember that Moonstrike One has access to Ascendancy surplus and Ascendancy intelligence -"

"So does Narvia," Ashton said to everyone as well. "And we can always use Ariel's seance abilities to, you know, get the actual information we need to pass ourselves off as an Ascendancy Black Ops unit. Quite frankly, though, it's strange that Moonstrike One -"

The ship shook, but not because of a hit, but rather because of an evasive maneuver to avoid said hit. As Ashton took the controls of his turret and began firing at the Delios Fleet's ships, his train of thought was interrupted, while Flame said his piece.

"Captain, Laurey, I have something else which can help - Our formation of 'Star Marines' might not even be listed as traitors yet. We can theoretically come back to the Ascendancy whenever we want," the redhead continued, "Not that I am suggesting that bullshit, but quite frankly, I and Ashton served with Kherol before just as Narvi served with 'The Dragon'. He doesn't like us much, but he will give us the time of day if we tell him we're still with him - "

"This is ANS Manfred von Richthofen of the Ascendancy Navy. You are in unauthorized territory and are potentially undermining our military operation. Identify yourself, your intention and what is it that you are attempting to do?"

"Speak of the Devil," Flame muttered, even as Natasha grinned on her end and responded to the broadcast.

"Captain Natasha Zhang and this ship is the Xuanzang, officially carrying trade goods from the Outer Worlds to The Ascendancy's Core. Unofficially, this is an Office of Internal Security vessel, Code Black, tasked with the return of precious cargo lost to the Rau've after Proxima. You know which ones."

A pause, as Flame interjected, "You look well, Admiral Carina. Star Marine Flame Brooks reporting for duty, just thought we'd do the Grand Admiral a little favor before we arrive at our destination - We're to be redeployed to the Plenty Warzone."

Ashton added, "If you want additional credentials, I have the requisite OSI codes for the ship - Proof that we work directly for the President-for-Life."

He then transmitted a series of codes which if eavesdropped on by Laurey or received by Kherol, would check out - The ship was literally showing as on the Ascendancy's payroll.

A text to Laurie to explain, Rau've Intelligence is more competent than most people expect and that's all I can say about that. Let's just say that these will tide us by for a time. But just in case they recognize that the codes are stolen...

Another message to Iris, Samuel, and Amy, Iris, Samuel, you two and Amy enchant the comms so that they can transmit and amplify Amy's mental spells as much as possible.

Then to Trajen, Trajen, keep your head low - From what we've heard about you, you're an official deserter and your presence will endanger the alibi. Think up a backstory about how you didn't really desert but was drafted into the OSI.

And of course, Doctor Millard, Be ready to take care of injuries once the Assault Team comes home from victory, Doctor!

@Letter Bee@Th3King0fChaos@The Man Emperor@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Conscripts@dragonpiece@Starlance@samakama@jdh97@6slyboy6

---

After Phi left, Amy decided to grab some rest until they would drop out of cruising speed and approach the planet, figuring that most people were already sleeping if the relative silence around her was an indication of anything. As she laid down on her bed and closed her eyes, the world quickly emptied around her and she was left in a pleasantly bland abyss of nothingness. But then... something began to bug her. Like an odd speck of dust that just wouldn't go away, there was a part of her illusionary space that seemed to not work. Frowning slightly she took a deep breath and extended out towards the spot with her mind, slowly approaching this anomaly with caution. Then she felt it, a rush of feelings that streamed across from this point in space and straight to her mind, and the illusion shattered with the sound of a glass house exploding. At least, that's what it felt like to Amy as she sat up, her mind completely freaked out as a few drops of sweat ran down her forehead. Still, she smiled as she slowly realized what she had just found.

It was Avelyn, the girl from before that she felt that little ting from when she reached out to her. Now that her mental defenses were down, the girl's mind felt like a soft putty that Amy could so easily tap into. And while normally she wouldn't go as far as to intrude people's minds so much, this one felt different, out of her control. It felt like... back when she was amongst her own kind, where everyone had such strong connections that if allowed to peer into their mind everything felt so familiar and friendly. And while it wasn't the same extent, feeling something like that had shocked Amy's system after being away from her own kind for so long. But now... it brought a soft smile to her lips as she slowly closed the connection between their minds as she lad back down on the bed, this time opting for a more traditional human way to close out thoughts and emotions in the form of pulling a blanket over herself. "Mmmm, goodnight everyone. Goodnight Avelyn. I feel like we'll have a lot to talk about tomorrow..."

---

Amy woke up to the cacaphony of thoughts and feelings that surrounded her as everyone was summoned to the bridge. With a small sigh she got out of bed and rubbed her eyes, doing a few stretches and adjusting her dress before she stared at her reflection in the mirror for a few long moments. "This is the moment Amy, I'm sure you'll do fine!" She cheered herself on as she put on a smile and quickly left her room to meet up with the others in the bridge, slinking into the back rows once more as she listened to Natasha explain their plan.

Suffice to say, it made her quite uneasy in more ways than one, especially about the part where they wanted to rely on her abilities to persuade others over the radio. She had never done such a thing... she wasn't even sure that it could be done. Still, she didn't want to say that, it already felt like she had the most minor role possible in this operation: what would they think of her if she told them she couldn't do this? She was supposed to be the psychic on the team, and not being able to do the mind magic they want, well... she wasn't sure if counseling the kids would really be enough to earn her keep.

As the briefing ended, she was left with her thoughts as Amy's eyes blankly stared into the distance until she was snapped out of her train of thoughts when a familiar sensation rushed across her mind and she received Avelyn's message. She felt quite bad for the girl, knowing very well just what it was like for someone that people were afraid could read their mind. With a smile she nodded at the girl before she walked up to the twins, flashing a soft smile at them as she waited for the kids to work their magic on the comms system while she tried to figure out what it is that she could do to help them out. In the end she decided that staying back and letting them work was probably the best idea, and she instead spent the time trying to come up with ways to make her ability work.

Once more she seemed to have been lost in thought as she heard Iris tell her that they were ready. "R-right, let's do this." She explained and walked up to the comms panel and looked at it for a few long seconds, feeling her stomach curl as she bit her lips and let her fingers rest on the smooth panel for a moment. Then she would take a step back and pulled her hands up to her chest with nervous expression. "I'm sorry, but I-I can't do this. I've never tried to use my ability over the comms... I'm not sure if it will even work, and if it does to what effect. What if they figure out what we are trying to do? They'll surely be upset..."

So now, there was only really the wait between the getting ready and going, as the Xuanzang worked towards their destination, the Akriem’s Razor. Fin was working on forming the portal proper, Ariel was working to talk to dead people, Tarak was loading his arsenal, and it sounded like Natasha, Flame, and Ashton were up to something. Looks like the whole 'We're taking a side' thing that Nero had mentioned earlier might've taken root, because it seemed like they were going to BS the Ascendancy. Nice! He was staying out of their immediate sight. So, while that was going on, let's walk ya through some of Nero's preparations. He was, of course, in his ballistic vest and all that jazz, knives prepped and ready to go. His 'Killer Mask' - a Multi-Spec Survivor Mask - was of course this device over his face that would provide air if needed, face protection about as strong as his armor, and several different spectrums of vision and detection. It had a normal view, low-light, and infrared to begin with, but there was more. Reptilian species, crystaline species, plant species - they didn't give off alot of heat. So, there were also pheramone/pollenation screens, lumen tracers, sonic vibration tracker, and even a setting for mass-density. Now, like a Predator mask, it could only do one vision at a time, and this is because the overlap would be intensely confusion, otherwise, so you have to choose carefully.

Nero was ready as he saw that Abaddon was joining them, Tarak was ready, and the Ascendancy bluff was being implemented. But then, more importantly, Ariel had ended her Seance, giving the boarding party important intel. Apparently, they were expected, which to Nero was just a case of 'Well, there's stealth out the window, but what'd I expect?'. He figured that a stand-up fight was what was going on, and it was fine. Ecclectic badasses on the other side of the now ready-made portal? Oh, hell yeah! This'll be fun. The Kaisoken was certainly into it, as he was heading through already. And then, Tarak started unloading stun grenades through the aperture! He was doing the thing Nero suggested back on the station! Double hell yeah! Time to get going, though weirdly, Fin seemed to think the brief weirdness of his portal was gonna drive them all sick. Whatever, man... Nero followed with the rest, and while Tarak was laying down gunfire and Abaddon was getting into the fray, he had given his armor a boost, as well. Against plasma weapons? Oh yeah, better safe than sorry on that one. He'd be looking for a good opening to sneak around and catch someone unawares. Might be an idea to take out the one with the scythe...if they lived long enough.

TO BE CONTINUED IN A COLLAB!

Onboard the Xuanzang’s Bridge. Narvia watched as Finbarr opened his portal to the enemy starship, which was a bit pretty. She did somewhat get a laugh at the joke that Finbarr made, which was something. However, she was still angry at the entire thing for using banned weaponry against starships. Narvia had two interruptions, which were one from Ariel and the other from no other than Tarak. ” O-Oh, sorry, Tarak… W-Wait, their leader is Elaine Solarie Jensen?!” Narvia confusingly spoke towards Ariel. On top of them, waiting for them sounded like the element of surprise was not going to be a thing. However, she heard from her godfather Nikolas that the Vixen Death Squad was the most dangerous unit in the entire Ascendancy Military. It was primarily because of how Elaine conducted herself compared to her older brother Berkeley.

In essence, it caused her to be very afraid in the back of her mind, but she had to take what Tarak had said to the heart, or she’ll die in this operation. However, Abaddon, Tarak, and Nero went through the portal first, which would be a good idea for her to go through. It would be better for Finbarr to be last, through the portal. ” T-Thank you for the good luck, Ariel; hopefully, my demons will be over soon.” Narvia spoke with a bit of self-confidence and hopefulness. Therefore, she went through the portal to be on the other end, and what she saw was a complete convoluted mess of strange engineering. It was mostly because the Dragon’s Claw was much more refined in its design compared to Akriem’s Razor.

----

( Collab with, @Th3King0fChaos, @dragonpiece, @FalloutJack, @The Man Emperor, Landaus Five-One, and input from @Conscripts

Note: Part 1 of Collab)

Onboard the Akriem’s Razor Bridge. It was much more spacious than it first seems for a Heavy Cruiser Bridge, which had multiple layers of levels type of stairs. Therefore, it meant a distinction of a complexity and perfectionist type of way that German War Machines usually had in their craft. The lowest part of the ship was no other than closest to the view screen and windows surrounding it, which the portal that Finbarr made manifest on the Akriem’s Razor Bridge. However, in the next part, the Navigation panels and the track towards where the Captain’s Chair is at, Elaine S. Jensen is sitting, with a smirk on her face since she was correct to become a part of a battlefield. As such, the Erudite Guard is above Elaine by one step, nearest to the Bridge’s exit. ” Awh, Excellent it is the Star Marines finally, some well-timed welcoming to the Vixen’s Den.” Elaine spoke with her licking her lips. It would mean that sweet little Narvia will be coming through that portal to help herself be free of her demons.

The Erudite Guard knew who to suspect from that portal, which appeared nearest to the viewing screen and windows. Spacetime Breacher, Hunter Wolf, and a few of his friends most likely, including the Innocence. However, what came out first didn’t phase them, which was the Kinslayer. They did fight the Kaisoken previously and knew that some of the race would evolve to be more human-like crystals. The next person to come through the portal was Tarak, which held the Angel’s Lyre Assault Rifle. In all likelihood, Tarak would fire off some of his stun grenades. Fritz was thrilled for battle, which he had always wanted no matter what, and he was going to enjoy every minute of it. ” How wonderful, Hunter Wolf always leading his little brothers and sisters to victory. I want to bleed you and your little friends dry of their blood; Oriya hungers for it. Especially the little short girl in your group, Codename: Innocence, the idiotic goddaughter of the Dragon. As well, it’s always good to know your enemies.” Fritz said, wanting to bleed them all dry. He was obsessed with combat, which is why he had combat prowess with his plasma scythe.

Afterward, the stun grenades went off, and two more people entered through the portal that Spacetime Breacher made, which were Nero and Narvia. ” O-Oh god, why does this place look like a convoluted mess of a design?” She questioned cutely. Therefore, Narvia helped the Erudite Guard and Elaine hear her, but they were stunned by the grenades that exploded. ” Awh, you want to know our design, its German Engineering at its finest. Also, it’s nice to hear your innocent little voice again. I must say, you are an idiot, Navi; trying to rid yourself of your demons is going to take much more than killing the little sister of the one that traumatized you. But, I wouldn’t want this any other way.” Elaine spoke hopefully of shaking Narvia’s resolve, which would make it easier for her guard to kill Narvia. She was trying to provoke Narvia into doing something foolish, which she is nothing to the Dragon’s Skills nor resolve. In terms, Elaine laughed, but then the shock of the shields being hit by fighters from Alexander Kherol’s Fleet annoyed her slightly. Though Elaine wasn’t a stupid person since the gunfire from Tarak knew how to kill people, he is the oldest and knew how to fight, which she decided to move from her seat and hide behind her chair while getting her laser rifle. If she were delayed any further, she would’ve been shot in the chest, then the head. ” I almost forgot… the only other person that would be stupid enough for this mission in the Star Marines would be the Silent Assassin, Nero. Unlike my brother, I actually researched with Philip’s immense intelligence and knowledge. I wonder what Nikolas’ would say? Oh yeah, Better to be prepared over not to be, must always know the weakness of your enemies or you are fated to die.” Elaine spoke with a solid understanding of Nikolas’ Pragmatic and Idealistic Behavior. It was a definite funny saying, but it makes absolute sense in this situation.

In terms, Narvia couldn’t help but shiver in fear at the two things that Elaine had said both times. It did crack her resolve, but she would try not to fall for her death. Therefore, Narvia had to respond with what Elaine had said but was trying to make the most sense in making someone on the opposite side, helpless. She looked at the four men in the back, carrying terrifying weapons, but the most significant threat would be the plasma thrower. Therefore, Narvia looked directly at the Plasma Thrower guy and said, ” I do hope you have a fun time… with no more Gravity!” Narvia exclaimed towards the Plasma Thrower guy. The magic activated right underneath Tobias, which slowly lifted off the ground. Narvia was grateful her magic was useful for helping get rid of a massive danger, like a Plasma Thrower. ” A-Also, you don’t scare me, E-Elaine…” She spoke and tried with some resolve, but it was a bit hard not to notice she was stuttering.

Finbarr was the last one that came out of the portal, jumping into the bridge with one of his plasma blades already ignited in anticipation for battle. His free hand was glowing an iridescent yellow and gold; a telltale sign that his Energy Blast was already being prepared. The portal closed behind him as the fighting commenced; he wasn't there to see the detonation of the stun grenades, nor did he happen to hear the ensuing conversation between Narvia and Elaine.

Finbarr's first words in the bridge were of heinous make, directed towards their enemies in there. "Scarlet for your mothers for having ya eejits.", he growled as he sheathed his plasma sword and fired a pair of golden beams towards the man that Narvia had suspended in the air with her anti-gravity magic. They were hot, and they would hurt.

When Nero arrived, he immediately noticed...this place didn't look too much like a bridge. There's having a two-level bridge like in Star Wars, and then there's this mess. You'd have to be climbing all over the place, just to be getting anywhere. Not that that was a problem to Nero, but good god, the people in here had to be either exhausted or in the best shape of their lives! Up the stairs and waiting to fight as they waltzed in through the anomaly were four soldiers and - in her chair - the mouthy Jensen bitch, who decided to blah blah blah 'Look how smart I am, 'cause I read a file'. Nero actually chuckled at the monikker leveled at him when he was mentioned. They couldn't see it behind his mask, but you could clearly tell he was in a mocking mood because of that.

"Oh yeah, that's me. The quiet killer, the silent sociopath. Not one peep out of me 'till the job is done."

He then gestured to the portal where the rest of their team had surely manifested.

"And hey, lookit that! Abaddon the Bake-Saler! He makes lemon bars in frilly aprons!"

The point of this was that the Captain really didn't know anything about her opponents. People assumed that Nero was this silent killer because barely anyone was around that could verify how he operated, what his personality was like, and so on. And as for Abaddon, well... They knew that he was the Kin-Slayer, but Nero felt a bit of the truth spoken in a laughable manner would make these five pains in the ass feel stupid. Anyway, all the events going on as they were, Fin had decided to attack the man that Narvia was floating about. Nero saw this as an opportunity, as well. The man had an exposed neck. So, Tobias would also have a swift Monomolecular blade coming for his throat...as would Philip, who also exposed himself. Nero made it look like he was going to throw both at Tobias, but then one actually went his way. Swift and dangerous. That was Nero.

Abaddon was ready for some carnage mixed with late 1900's heavy metal. Instead he literally hears them start monologuing. It was shocking in fact, so shocking that he honestly just stood there and let them continue. But nevertheless the time both him and his allies spent talking gave him time to properly assess what they were going against. Abaddon was quick to notice the plasma scythe. The accentuated edges, the blackened metal, and to top it off the skull on the bottom. They were perfect. A perfect signal for countless forms of childhood trauma. My god, it could be the cover page for how to spot damaged goods! Jokes aside, I should worry if he gets close to the kids. He moves on to look at the other ones. Alright then, she has a gun. He has a gun, and he has a… A FLAMETHROWER! Let's kill him first.

Once the fight truly started, Abaddon was a little slow on the draw this time around. But he was happy to see a sufficient amount of pressure was being put on the heavy flame. So he turned his attention to the scythe wielder. It's been awhile since I have been engaged in martial combat. Hopefully I'll get some fun before the kids come on and spoil it. Abaddon leaned his body forward and launched himself at the scythe wielder. Doing a preemptive sonic slash as he gets close.

Tarak hates monologues. Honestly, he really didn't care what they had to say, he just wanted them dead. He fired his entire magazine within a short time frame as he backed some of them into some corners. Hell, he was upset that they thought they could monologue. He started moving around to one of the walls as he angles himself with the plasma throwing asshat. He witnessed both Nero and Finbarr going for him. Tarak thought it'd be a waste for him to also go for him, so Tarak decided to use Narvia's anti gravity well to try and do some trick shots.

Tarak quickly did some math and made an input for his grenade launcher to detonate his grenade after 3 seconds. He then quickly aimed at the ceiling as he fired the grenade to bounce off of it and lose a good bit of its kinetic energy as it fell into the anti gravity well. He plans on bouncing it off of the man and getting thrown out and finally falling underneath Marvin, the grinning fool with the Heavy Plasma Rifle, as the grenade would then explode when it lands and release a cloud of white phosphorus. Tarak hoped Marvin liked the feeling of burning from the inside out, because that was the exact plan.

In terms of everything, the battle of the Razor was going poorly for the Erudite Guard and Elaine, which had home field advantage. It was like for all the research, intelligence and thought of what the Star Marines would do was good information. Elaine had learned the only thing for them to do is fight the Star Marines and the Kinslayer separately. Since in a group their combined magical powers and techniques would overwhelm them and kill them. Elaine shouldn’t have been stupid in not taking this threat as seriously as possible, all she wanted to do was kill Narvia and have a laugh at taking the Dragon’s Goddaughter.

Tobias, on the other hand, really had a very low chance in surviving this since he had three problems right now. He was a bit crazy and always had a lack of care for certain things, which included his bones. Therefore, he remembered that the Gravity Disable Spell allowed him to move in it. Good lord, never thought the little girl would use that spell on me of all people. Smart child. Even though she's still a scared little girl still. Looks like all our research only got one of the Star Marines on point. He thought with a sigh. It was like a big eye opening experience to never monologue during a battle, which Fritz and Elaine definitely did. However, the person who saved him from at least the Gravity Disable was no other than Philip.

Narvia was shaken to her core with what happened and had no real idea why anyone would do that, but with how the Vixen Death Squad is. They are a tight knit group of expert genocidal maniacs, which don’t have a heart that only cares for the deaths of their enemies. ”U-Uhhh, seriously? Never thought genocidal maniacs had a heart...” Narvia said, with a quite terrified look on her face. These monsters actually protect each other, which is one of the strangest things she had ever seen. However, she still wanted the Plasma Thrower dead, because plasma flame wouldn’t be a good idea to die by. She kept her Gravity Disable up since it was still active, but then she took out a pistol and fired at the Vixen herself to show she’s not afraid of her. To keep the pressure on Elaine at least, which would be better.

Philip laughed slightly, at his predicament a bit crazy of a thing to do but he smiled at what he did since Tobias is the ace in the hole for his group. ”Is this the first time you’ve actually fought in a battle, Narvia? Always the sheltered little girl, it seems. I do this for my compatriots like you would do the same for one of your friends in the Star Marines.” Philip replied to Narvia with a smile. However, what happened next was unmistakable was the Plasma Sword from Finbarr and his golden beams hitting his back. In terms of the well calculated throws by Nero to hit him and his ally Tobias, which one of them would actually miss since he’s no longer in the same place as he used to be. However, the one that was aimed at Tobias did hit him instead, which hurt but like he was going to allow himself to die. He turned around with the blade and knife in his back and raised his shoulders up and fired a suppression volley in the direction of where most of the Star Marines were at. ”Might as well, Commander, I think it's time for Plan B, Divide and Conquer. I do wonder if any of those idiots get a well deserved death.” Philip said towards Elaine.

Narvia decided to move quickly to the Navigation panels since there was plasma rifle fire coming from Philip. It was a bit much more hectic, which scared her but she had to wonder what Divide and Conquer was about, probably means they will have to fight one on one with the enemy. She continued to fire at Elaine’s position, which was at her captain seat.

Elaine could definitely hear Philip’s voice, which was strained by the fact he was injured but still able to fight. As such, it didn’t help that Narvia was still trying to shoot at her even with the suppression fire of Philip, but he was injured and the suppression fire wasn’t that good, nonetheless. It sounded like the best idea for a new strategy since she didn’t have every single little detail about the Star Marines like she wanted. Elaine knew this would be a tough fight, but misrepresenting them. ”Tobias, everyone you know what to do, initiate plan B. God damn, shouldn’t have given a monologue since it seems like one of your number hates it. But whatever.” Elaine spoke with a slight annoyed tone but still thinks she is in control. It did help she could see now, which would make plan b much better. However, Fritz was in direct combat with no other than Abaddon.

Fritz laughed hysterically when he entered martial combat with the Kinslayer. The Plasma Scythe sang and glowed, when it struck against the Kinslayer’s Blade. Fritz had always been one of the more crazier combatants in the Erudite Guard during his fighting in close up, he takes glee in slicing up his opponents. However, this time the opponent was no other than Abaddon. ”Affirmative, Elaine. We will help ourselves to your plans.” Fritz said, a bit worried about Philip since he was always the smart one.

Marvin heard the activation of plan B, however, another thing was a problem, a Prosperous Grenade exploded right underneath him. It fucking hurt, but he had enough willpower in him to withstand the pain of what happened to him. ”You are going to pay for that, bastard Hunter Wolf.” Marvin angrily spoke towards Tarak. As such, his gear was burning quite quickly, which didn’t help that the one that does the medic stuff was a crazed lunatic fighting with the Kinslayer.

---

It didn't take long for a reply. The moment Carina announced the reply to him, both the Grand Admiral and his captain put on their earpieces. There was no need for any magical persuasion, as Kherol simply followed the simple line of logic to address this reply.

"Star Marines? Aren't they like...gone after Proxima?" Carina asked.

"As far as I know, we're not prohibiting them from further serving, or just straight up going back to their home. What surprised me is they'd actually serve the Ascendancy after all that happened. Especially that edgy kid Flame." Alexander replied, as he laid back on his chair with his palm on his cheek. Still, regardless of feelings, he should check the facts: the OSI code. "Get the OSI code and match it with the ship model in the database."

Carina nodded as she relayed the message over to the necessary department. On the while, Kherol was deliberating what to do with the Akriem's Razor, now that there are a bunch of kids in there. His original plan was to surround the ship with starfighters, wreck their shielding and engine system and then used his newest weapons - the Longinus squadron - to just blow up the whole ship. Obviously getting the reputation of killing several perhaps innocent kids weren't something he wanted in his moral or professional autobiography, so he wanted a better plan. After weighing different options, he settled with his own boarding party. Sure it risked self-destruction, something Kherol clearly had gone through but this was the plan with the least collateral damage.

Seeing Carina was busy, he turned to the second in command. "Get our boarding squad ready."

"The OSI appeared to match. OSI Xuanzang, Tang-class transport corvette. Status: Operational. Seems like the real deal."

Alexander still had a bit of suspicion. But confirming the ordeal with the OSI would be time-consuming. They're widely known for having slow service query, and Alexander's request might take up a day or two even as a high-ranking official. He wanted to finish this quickly without delays as there are more things he wanted to move onto.

"Fine. I'm convinced." Alexander said as he stood up from his chair. "You mind giving me the intercom."

Carina nodded as authorization was transferred over to the Grand Admiral.

"Normally I would have had you all tried for obstruction of governmental operations, but considering the urgency, I am letting you off the hook this time. Once your mates get back to the ship, you are to leave the system. Consider this our token of appreciation for your so-called 'help'."

The transmission ended. Alexander immediately relayed further instructions to the crew, all combatants and the blockade about the Xuanzang's allied status. At this time, the Richthofen and its supporting ship would have already arrived in the vicinity and was quickly approaching the group. In the meantime, Carina took one final opportunity to send a little message to her 'buddy' Natasha Zhang.

"Hello darling. It's not the best of positions to be meeting each other again, is it? Hope next time we can be more on equal footings."

As their weapons clashed, Abaddon couldn't help but laugh with Fritz. It was thrilling to engage such an enthusiastic warrior. Abaddon could feel his body begin to creak as he filled with excitement. He started delivering a barrage of slashes. None were intended to do any major harm. They served as nothing more then a test of might. Abaddon wanted, no required finding the young man's limits if he was going to have a proper fight.

The slash barrages are mere child’s play for Fritz. An insult to the pride of the Erudite’s Guard. In fact, he was unimpressed to the point that he didn’t try to dodge most of them. The ones he felt threatening enough he would make sidesteps or use his scythe to gracefully parry them. The rest? He tanked them. Firm like mountains, he watched as the slashes clashed with his armor, the sound ringing music to his ears.

”Is that all?” Fritz banged the spot the last slash hit before he launched his own fury. Three major swings back to back. One aimed for Abaddon’s chest horizontally before swinging down for his head and then a full body turn for his torso again.

The man's armor was well made but well made equipment would have faltered with a novice warrior. His graceful dodges mixed with sheer resilience made the fight worthwhile. However, it seemed Abaddon's test already seemed to bore the young man. His small taunt was almost funny to Abaddon if it weren't for the fact he started swinging that scythe at him. Well, his defense was decent, for a human. Let's use this to test his offense. First, Abaddon used his blade to elegantly deflect the scythe over him, crouching to make it easier on himself. Next the swing came down from on top of him. He let the blade glide down his arm allowing him to stay in close range. As the next slash came in, Abaddon quickly moved in and grabbed the scythe just before the plasma edge. Abaddon had seen what he needed now. The fight should be of some mild entertainment. Abaddon looked Fritz in the eyes, "Come now, what is the point in a killing each other if we can't have some fun while doing it?" Creaking metal could be heard from where Abaddon held the Scythe. The black goo pulsed as Abaddon launched Fritz back 10 meters back, letting go of the scythe. There was a clear deformation in the shape of a hand on the scythe now. "Now let's have a real fight" as Abbadon pointed the blade at the man. Abbadon wasn't throwing those childlike strikes anymore, he hopes Fritz has more to give.

”Hahaha, indeed.” Fritz grinned widely. This man. One could not believe he found his own kindling here. A big big shame they were forced to kill each other. Yet he took his words back. Dying to Kherol is good enough, but to spend his last moments in the blaze of battle, a man, a warrior can only wish.

His grin did not falter as he charged at Abaddon. This time, his scythe was already in motion, but with multiple fake movements in an attempt to trick the Kaisoken of his intentions. What real strike he delivered though, came with murderous intent. The ground would shake with every hit, the lights of the room would flicker for a split second. The attack would be ferocious, but eventually, it would end with an earth shattering downward blow, one that could leave the blade quickly entrenched in the cracks on the floor.

This is what Abbadon had lived for hundreds of years. The thrill of battle was a feeling that had called to him since his name was Fremont. As Fritz started his assault Abaddon's decades of combat experience came fully out as he started to piece together the patterns in his fighting. The intent behind each of Fritz's slashes were so palpable to Abaddon that It felt he was announcing his attacks. As the final attack came Abaddon got the sword ready to counter. As the strike came, Abaddon arced the blade upward, striking the scythe with the spine of the blade. With the other hand he initiated the rockets on his hammer. The thrust spinned Abaddon to Fritz's side. Using this angular momentum, He let out a devastating hammer strike on target with Fritz's lower back.

It was one thing, Fritz had hoped his combat prowess was much more than the Kaisoken. Fritz laughed loudly when his Scythe was blocked, which he had always wanted to die by a much skilled opponent rather than being blown up. ”This was rather fun, May you go find a much better-” Fritz said, but was interrupted by the reason that Abaddon’s Devastating Hammer Strike hit him clearly breaking his spinal cord. In terms, that was the last thing the crazed psychopath would even say since he had much more fun in all the years of being apart of the 11th Fleet. Since no one even held a candle to his might, only Elaine was able to stop him from going too far.

---

Marvin’s own power armor made sure that his willpower wasn’t the only thing keeping him up, and while the workings of his Plasma Rifle were damaged, they had enough redundancies to maintain functionality. So he began shooting at Tarak’s approximate location, spraying burning plasma everywhere even as he himself kept moving, eventually throwing aside his main weapon as it eventually burnt out, and choosing to draw a pistol and a monomolecular knife instead to try and go into close quarters.

Tarak watches as Marvin seems to finally catch up and figure out they were in a fight. Tarak immediately takes a defensive position by diving off to some cover as he began to hear the plasma rounds fly around him. Yet as the rounds flew, he found a few began to dig through the control panel he was using as cover. However, when they hit him, they did minor damage to his suit because of them losing most of their power to his cover. He quickly dived back into the clearing when he felt around 5 seconds had passed, enough time for Marvin to empty his magazine. Yet what Tarak saw was slightly surprising, as the man began to rush him like a mad man. Tarak’s reaction was to go and bring his gun up and unload multiple rounds in the direction of Marvin. Tarak began to use an alternating pattern of burst and full auto to keep Marvin guessing. Yet as the man moved Tarak was at least entertained, knowing this guy isn’t no half-rate Merc, Tarak knew this was going to get close and personal, as he prepared for such a fight.

Marvin was not so foolish as to continue his blind charge, and dove behind another control panel to avoid Tarak’s shots, only to find a mirror image of the Star Marine’s situation happening to him as his cover was perforated and damage got through his shields and armor. Nevertheless, he can sense the pattern Tarak was making, and managed to get at least one shot in-between his enemy’s bursts of fire. Either way, this cat and mouse dance would not last for long, as Marvin crouch-walked, half-crawling, out of his cover, firing another three rounds before getting up and zig-zagging closer to Tarak, hoping to get within knife range of the large Star Marine.

Tarak witnessed Marvin make the same tactical maneuver he did to get out of the hail of bullets. With the rhythmic timing of Tarak’s shots, he knew Marvin was going to try and fire inbetween the shots. After a few moments, Tarak saw Marvin pop up to fire a shot, yet what he wasn’t ready for was how fast the man moved from the shot. The round hit Tarak, yet his armor was more than capable of taking such a shot. But, Tarak was being wary, knowing he was planning to rush him, Tarak waited as he was counting.

After a few moments he found his gun ran out of bullets, which was when he saw Marvin made his move as he fired 3 more rounds, each of which Tarak made sure to lean forward with his body so they would hit his arm armor, to not only mitigate the damage, but also set up for his plan. Tarak used his leaning position to get ready for a forward charge as he fired his next grenade, a stun grenade, as it was aimed at the ground under Tarak. Hoping to blind Marvin and prepare for a close range engagement and to use the moment to surprise the man with a quick kick to the arm where he was holding his gun.

It was Marvin’s combat experience which allowed him to close his eyes soon enough to avoid the full effects of the stun grenade, though not the kick, which caused his gun to fly out of his hand and clatter onto the floor. However, the Ex-Ascendancy member reacted quickly with a headbutt and a blind stab, hopefully allowing him enough room to open his eyes while drawing a second dagger, an electrified one, with his now-free right hand…

Tarak witnessed the most annoying thing, something Tarak never liked about people like these psychos, willpower to fight in the most inane manners. As Marvin moved to throw a headbutt at Tarak’s head, Tarak had more than enough ability and practice to shift his body from the kick to his defensive shoulder charge stance from before to do a jumping shoulder bash right into Marvin’s face. Allowing the knife to swing as is cut and slashed across his back armor. Slightly opening a spot on his back but nothing that would ruin the integrity of his suit. Yet what he is planning next was outright inhumane. As if Marvin was knocked back from the shoulder bash Tarak would bring his gun up fast and fire the next round in his grenade launcher, a High explosive round, right into Marvin’s chest.

Death was immediate - Not even armor can stop that. Burnt, cooked pieces of the ‘unfortunate’ guardsman rained down all over the area, including where the others were fighting…

The blast was dangerously close, yet because of the natural trend of the grenades' explosive force to explode towards the object hit, most of the actual force was output onto Marvin and subsequently blasted him into small chunks. While Tarak was just hit with a concussive force, yet because of his years of dealing with all sorts of inane situations, he was more than acquainted with this, as he then began to turn his attention to the rest of the fighting as he began looking to figure out who needs help.

---

The threat of death was still there, as Nero’s blade closed in on him fast. Two, but one quickly veered off into Philip. It was unexpected, but in the state of mind Tobias is in, he couldn’t bring himself to care about the second blade. But the first one was still definitely a danger. Still under the influence of the Gravity Disable, Tobias had no choice but to take the blade head on. Whatever he had to do, that blade must NOT hit the tank in the back. He knew exactly the fate of flamethrowers and its equivalent classes throughout history if the tank got hit. He loved the smell of phasma corpses, but he was not going to turn into one himself

Tobias instead raised the handle of the phasma thrower at the back to intercept the blade. It sliced through it, but stopped just as it made a cut in his hand. It hurts but Tobias simply blocked the pain out as he took the blade out.

Thankfully, the Gravity Disable was down quickly enough. Once down, Tobias let out a megalovaniac laughter before he unleashed a screen of plasma towards Nero, ignoring any firepower coming his way. Then another. Then another. Then finally as the barrel overheated, he took out a blaster and fired a shot at the kid in front of him. He didn’t care if he’d die, he only wanted to see people burn.

Ah, so close, and yet so far… The guy, Tobias, blocked the shot and saved his neck. True, his hand would be hurting, but that wasn’t enough! A bloody hand was just an appetizer to the fun, an opening prelude, a bit of a prologue, a- Oh, I’m sorry, they’re both nuts! Still, as Tobias fell to the ground - Navi’s spell basically running out - Nero had gotten a little closer, but what he was...was just out of reach. In the case of Tobias himself, though, Nero was in decent reach of the plasma-thrower, which he activated. The man was not...being all that precise. You don’t have to with a flamethrower. But because of his wild sweeps of the weapon, someone as fortunately agile as Nero had an out without having to make a hasty retreat. That is, he was able to leap over these impromptu walls of flame as they came at him. He couldn’t close the gap just yet, but he wouldn’t have to, right now.

The thing of it was that Tobias still had the stairs, the high ground, the Kenobi effect. It was easy enough to keep an enemy at bay like this with a weapon like that. At least...until it overheated. Flamethrowers were cool, but only in style, not in practice. The mercenary had to stop when the barrel got too hot, because if he didn’t, he’s melt it. The moment he stopped and pulled out a gun, Nero acted. He threw Extra Knife #3 at the gun hand even as the guy was pulling the trigger, all while juking to not get shot. But immediately upon doing that - knowing that Tobias would either have to move his hand or move his body or do anything other than shooting - THAT was when Nero leapt up the stairs, drawing his new plasma daggers and looking to create some super-heated lacerations! Flailing arms would do for a start, but he was honestly thinking block his defence - maybe the gun, if he tried it - with one knife, and hamstring a leg to hell with the other!

Tobias saw the extra knife, and did a quick sidestep to dodge it, but the moment Nero leapt on him, both daggers in hand, the clumsy equipment on his back already sent the instinct that this would be the end. But he would not throw his hands open and accept death so easily. No no no. He threw away the pistol and blocked Nero’s one dagger with the entirety of the plasma thrower. His other leg? He didn’t need it.

Tobias felt blood being released from the cocoon in his leg, but it all just turned him into a wild beast. He gritted his teeth as his eyes opened wide as if it could pop from his socket any moment now. Then, regardless of the plasma, Tobias grabbed right onto Nero’s blade. His gloves would give him seconds before his hand completely melted. He only needed one second. Tobias would plunge that superheated knife right onto the fuel tank behind his back. Then his other hand would completely let go of the plasma thrower in an attempt to grab Nero. He knows he’s going to die. Ashamedly, to this ‘kid’. But he’s going to go down like the man he is: burning rage of lunacy.

Huh?! If only you could SEE the look on Nero’s face when he actually grabbed his super-heated blade like that. It was a weird mix of surprise, and yet...approval. You can’t see it because Nero was wearing that facemask, of course. Still, this would only last about a second, as Tobias took the opportunity to stab the blade into the main tank of his plasma-throw-

Dink!

The tip of the blade stopped at the tank without penetrating anything. Also, his hand was no longer melting. Now, we don’t know how long, if any, there was perhaps a pause there with maybe a look of confusion or disbelief, but the next thing you know, Tobias would hear…

”You know I can turn those off, right?”

That would be some palpable embarrassment, right there, to say nothing of potential for ‘Oh Crap!’ as Nero brought the other dagger up to stab at Tobias’ throat.

Embarrassment never came to full fruition on Tobias. The psychopathic Erudite Guard fell down for the last time. Much without any last words.

---

Narvia felt the strain of keeping up her Gravity Disable for too long, in which it would be slightly annoying but she needs to keep her magic reserves or it’ll take a long while to recover. In terms, the gravity disable is no longer active, which she feels like it isn’t the right thing to do but it's better than straining herself too much. ”I dislike I had to do that but wasting my magic on one spell, shouldn’t be a good idea…” She thought to herself a bit frustrated at herself. As well, she sighed at this whole thing, but thankfully Philip is badly injured compared to their leader of all things.

Elaine laughed at Narvia’s weakness, which definitely helped her's primary focus in the High Magic category. ”Amazing, the little girl shows not that great at world magic.” Elaine said, with a laugh at the weak Navi. Thankfully, her backup in Philip was no longer suspended by Gravity Disable as well. She pulled up her plasma rifle and took a pin point shot at the console that Narvia is hiding underneath, since the suppression fire from Philip wasn’t that great. Navigation consoles dislike being hit by plasma bursts from her rifle. ”Hope you like a bit of boom, in your face, Navi.” Elaine said with a vindictive smile on her face.

Narvia had a shock on her face when the console did explode in her face by being hit from Elaine’s plasma rifle. It caused a feedback loop, which shocked Narvia intensely and made her lose her cool by becoming angry at the explosion. ”Y-You b-bitch, you will die for that…” Narvia said with her cute angry voice. Her arms, and face were scarred by that explosion and it hurt like hell. She moved from the console that was still sparking and electrified and decided to shoot Philip with her pistol.

Philip was grateful he was freed from Narvia’s gravity disable, but he was hit by Narvia’s pistol. It hurt pretty badly, but not as much as the Plasma Sword stuck in his back, which he will want his revenge on the one that caused that injury. He can endure much more pain than normal, but he isn’t nowhere near the endurance of the Dragon. ”Aha, I should really repay you back for this Plasma Sword stuck in my back, Spacetime Breacher. Also, Narvia are you trying to make this not as fun or are you just a little angry ball of joy?” Philip questioned Narvia’s reasoning in shooting him instead of going after the one who caused those scars on her body.

"Whatever you say you gobeshite." Finbarr snarled at Philip with a cheeky expression. He had done quite an amount of damage against the fuming bastard with the plasma rifle, and there was just no way he was going to let that man get away from it; at the very least, Finbarr wished for him to leave this battle in a body bag, no more, no less. There was always the option of knocking him towards the vacuum of space through a portal, but that would be a rather risky move.

After a moment of decision making, Finbarr opened a portal behind himself, jumping backwards into it just as another breach opened up a dozen feet away to the side, where he came out and unleashed a pair of golden energy beams directed at the sword that he had stuck in Philip's back, intending of heating its plasma blade to the point of combusting the man's damn flesh.

Philip laughed at the cheeky expression of the Spacetime Breacher, much better than the banter he gets from the crazies in his group. He raised his plasma rifle, but was taken a bit by surprise when Finbarr was no longer in the location he had been in. ”Seriously, you little bitch of a coward.” Philip said, with a bit of disgust. However, he forgot that Finbarr was moving to a different location to get the jump on him like a Spacetime Breacher would do. However, that changed when the plasma blade started to heat up from an energy beam he noticed a bit too late on the direct side of him. Philip grunted a bit kind of and turned around as quickly, but he had to get out that plasma blade out of his back, which dropped his plasma rifle on the ground. ”I hope you like your own Plasma Blade stuck in your back, Bastard.” Philip spoke with a slight annoyance in his voice. It was going to take him a bit before he’s able to do that since he could smell his burning flesh and didn’t want that anymore.
"Yum." Finbarr winked as the smell of Philip's burning flesh wafted across the room. "Smells like barbeque. Did no one tell me that today is grill day, huh?" He then turned back towards Philip and unleashed a continued barrage of energy, making sure that his opponent didn't get to rest while he still had his rifle on the ground.

Elaine sighed at Philip losing his cool, which she had noticed Narvia become slightly angry and laugh at that too. However, besides talking she decided to lift up her rifle again and shoot at Narvia yet again, without saying much. ”I wonder what the little girl is going to do.” Elaine thought to herself, with a vindictive smile on her face.

Narvia saw Elaine shooting her plasma rifle again at her, which she tried to dodge by moving to the side. ”Y-You bitch of a woman, why are you trying to push my buttons?” Narvia questioned a bit annoyedly. However, thankfully the plasma bolt hit the ground besides her instead of directly at her. It made her realize that the angier she gets the more that Elaine can toy with her as if what she said about killing her was true. However, she checked her pistol and it was out of ammo, which made her curse under her breath. She took out the clip to put a new clip in, which took a few seconds. ”F-Finbarr, can you please get rid of that bitch of a woman’s cover?” Narvia asked Finbarr kindly and cutely. It made the most sense, since it was controlling the ship’s movement and everything, the Captain’s chair of the Vixen.

"Got it." Finbarr ceased his attack on Philip, opening a portal right underneath the captain's chair with a flick of fingers and a bout of concentration. The portal swirled and churned under the chair, but it did not take anything; not yet. Finbarr would then fire a beam of golden fire at the base of the chair, cutting through it like an industrial laser. In a few moments, it would fall into the vacuum of space; and anyone who was idiotic enough to fall into the breach. At the end of that, Finbarr was a little tired, and catched his breath as he withdrew behind a console. Portals were a tiring business.

The Ship shook when the captain’s chair was taken into the void, which completely stopped it dead in its tracks. Elaine was completely pissed off at Narvia doing something smart for once in her bleeding life, she should’ve had killed Narvia when they first met. ”Why… you little cunt, you are going to pay for that with your bleeding life.” Elaine said. She stood up and walked around where her cover was at previously and clearly had a much better shot at Narvia than she did previously. Her plasma rifle was held up to directly point at Narvia, which she fired at least twelve shots in a row.

Philip during the shaking of the ship, fell down the stairs, which he was on but he did get battered by Finbarr’s attack. At least he did get out the Plasma Sword, but his plasma rifle was a bit out of reach. ”...I must say your anger is getting the better of you, Elaine.” Philip laughing while in pain. He slowly got up afterward and sighed at the one thing that was keeping the Akriem’s Razor shields up. It means, whatever is in Kherol’s arsenal can easily end it. ”Now where was I, oh yeah, killing spacetime breacher with his own weapon.” He said with a bit of an annoyance. However, Philip sighed and looked towards Navi and smiled slightly, the sweet little girl actually used her quick thinking cap and actually dodged Elaine’s attack, since the Plasma rifle has only another two shots left in its capacitor. He was definitely badly injured, if anything having Finbarr taking off the attack and focusing on the captain’s chair helped him slightly.

Narvia was shocked at the anger coming from Elaine and could do the only thing she could do, which was activate her Gravity Disable, yet again but on herself. She didn’t really have any real time to say her usual saying when activating this spell. She floated clear up to the ceiling, which the plasma bolts hit the gravity disabled’s area and the shots went everywhere, but where Narvia went to. ”U-Uhh, I’m not sorry for that. You deserve everything you get bitch.” Narvia said, cutely and happily. She slowly went down to the ground and disabled her magic again, but she was basically on the defensive right now. If it wasn’t her quick thinking she would’ve been hit with a face full of plasma. Narvia was running on adrenaline and anger right now and was getting slower.

"Awww, they're mad." Finbarr snickered as he watched Philip fall down the stairs, as well as when Elaine just missed all of her shots. "Seriously, you're all so bloody incompetent, even a chicken can do a better job at trying to get me. Hah."

Of course, his goal here was to taunt the enemy, get into their nerves so that they would make more and more mistakes while trying to fight the Star Marines. And, sure, make sure that Narvia gets the absolution she needs. "Hey, Phililili." He said rather tauntingly. "Does the balance on my sword seem a little awkward for you? Of course it is, you friggin noob, you are a failure and always will be. No one loves you, not even your mother."

He then waited for Philip to come up from the stairs, brandishing his own weapon. Once he got close enough, Finbarr will lock him in Spacetime Lockdown before opening a portal under that man and… Woops. He falls on top of Elaine. At least that was the plan. It is foolproof!.. Is it?

Elaine had to make her last two shots count, which she couldn’t allow the girl to get the better of her, but Finbarr was helluva annoying her, more than the Navi. ”Can you please put a sock into your taunting? Do you have shit for brains or something.” Elaine said with a snide remark towards Finbarr. However, she walked closer to Narvia since it would be better to give Narvia a double tap directly to her forehead, execution style. She licked her lips, unaware of Finbarr’s idea of a laugh if Philip fell for it. ”Come here and meet your maker, Narvia, I do hope you love two plasma bolts directly to the back of your skull.” Elaine said with a gleeful laugh to her.

Philip got angier with what Finbarr said about his mother, his mother loved him to death, until he tore out her own heart for betraying the Ascendancy. ”...Don’t you ever dare speak of her, you utter idiot. The Ascendancy didn’t deserve that betrayer in their ranks, which she got the best of it for traitors.” Philip spoke with a complete raged tone. He completely forgot about Finbarr’s magical skill set, but he charged up the plasma sword. Philip decided to throw the Plasma Sword directly at Finbarr’s face instead. ”Hope you like the taste of Plasma Sword in your skull, son of a leprechaun.” Philip said, with a slight smirk to what he had said. Afterward, he pulled out his plasma pistol and fired a plasma bolt at the console that Finbarr was near instead of directly at Finbarr.

“Woops.” Finbarr sidestepped a little bit before catching the still ignited plasma sword right on its hilt.He gave Philip this incredulous expression, as if he had given him an exam and Philip had spectacularly failed it. “Dude you’re really just embarrassing yourself.” Finbarr drew out his other plasma sword, forming an X shape as he held them together. “I totally saw that coming… oh well.”

He would then break open a portal, though the console exploding right next to him forced him to slow down. However, he charged into the breach with both blades pointed forward… and emerged right behind the heavily wounded Philip, intending to swipe out both of his arms for stumps.

Narvia had a bit of a feeling of oh shit, they are being a bit smarter, while working on their instincts instead. Freaking Psychos, these bastards are especially that cunt of a woman, Elaine. However, she decided to use her bow of light construct magic to form a beautiful bow in her arms, which had an arrow in it already. ”I-I would rather not die here, you cunt of a woman.” Narvia said. It is a bit annoying having to repeat herself, but she pulled on the construct’s string and released an arrow of silverlight directly at Elaine. Another Arrow started to form, reminding her that she only has two more shots of the magic.

Elaine got hit by the Arrow to her arm, which made her drop her plasma rifle and she grinded her teeth at the painful hit of High Magic. ”...Seriously? You still have enough magic to use that construct… Should've not gotten close… Fuck. You fucking are going to die by my bare freaking hands for that.” Elaine said, completely enraged and cannot really handle anymore of this shit from Narvia or Finbarr. She was laughing like a hyena and hadn’t really looked around, thinking her Erudite Guard killed the intruders, when that assumption wasn’t correct.

Philip had noticed a bit too late, that what Fin was doing was all a ploy to get him enraged enough to stop using his brains. It definitely worked, however, he quickly turned around, instead of having his arms cut in twine, what happened was much more gruesome to him, the dual Plasma Swords cut from the top of his head to cut him completely in half instead. Before that happened, however, he said a few words, ”Kill the girl, Elaine.”

Elaine had a shock to her system, when she heard the clean slice through Philip, it pissed her off more. She wasn’t going out without a fight and she pulled her plasma pistol, which only had enough bolts to at least injure and not kill Narvia. ”I am going to enjoy myself, Narvia… Watching you scream in pain is going to make me happy, when I die.” Elaine smiles quite evilly. She fires her plasma pistol with pinpoint accuracy towards Narvia’s left leg.

Narvia tried to dodge the plasma bolt from the pistol, but unlucky on her part she was grazed by the plasma pistol bolt on her left leg, instead of a direct connection to her knee. She gritted her teeth and looked at Elaine, with a definitely, if looks could kill, it would’ve. ”Y-Your psychos are quite… stupid don’t you think? Why would they allow themselves to be cut in half…” Narvia said with a literal confused look on her face. Not really understanding what someone would do in their final moments, not like these sickos are going to be given a proper burial anyway. Her construct magic dissipated since she couldn’t really handle the pain in her leg, therefore, she picked up her pistol instead since it's better than nothing. ”E-Eat this you cunt of a bitch.” Narvia said with a smile. She fired at her with her pistol, she kept pushing the trigger non-stop.

Elaine couldn’t help but sigh, when she tried to dodge out of the way of the bullets but five of them hit the mark, her left and right legs in the knees and one in the arm that was holding her pistol, which it dropped down the stairs towards Narvia. She fell down the stairs since her balance was fucked by being hit in the knees specifically, which she groaned by being hit by a girl who never once fired the pistol before. ”...How in the hell… did you do this, Narvia? ……I will not fall by you.” Elaine said, with a strained tone of voice. It is like she was still thinking she could win this, however, there was one way out of this. However, that way was lost when her control of the ship was lost by Finbarr. ”YOU TOOK MY ONLY WAY TO KILL YOU AND YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS, YOU FUCKING STAR MARINES! SELF-DESTRUCTION WOULD BE YOUR DOWNFALL IF IT WASN’T FOR THIS LITTLE CUNT FROM CONNER LEO HADLEY. DAMN HIM!” Elaine yelled really loudly, which is like if she was able to get out of this ship she would’ve exploded the entire crew for being useless bastards.

Narvia hadn’t really thought all the controls of the starship was on her captain’s chair, which made her straight up laugh really cutely. ”Wow, you are really stupid putting all your eggs in one basket, or in this case the Chair.” Narvia said, still a bit shocked, that the bitch was going to try to escape a battle from Alexander Kherol to do this all over again. Seems like she’s a coward after all of her intimidation at the beginning, it was to cover up that she’s a straight up coward. ”You are as much as a coward as your older brother, Elaine. You won’t admit it because you are too prideful.” Narvia said, to add insult to injury. She slowly walks up to her and puts back her pistol and takes out her Daichi the Swift and outright slices her head clean right off.

Before Elaine’s head got chopped off by Narvia, she had truthfully never had truly believed she was a coward until her head was chopped off. She wasn’t unable to say anything since she’s dead now. Narvia didn’t really want to deal with what’s going on anymore, but she is definitely injured compared to the others. The Adrenaline was still pumping, but the injuries on her face and the plasma burn scar on her leg were going to make her scream after the adrenaline wore off. ”Good riddance to bad rubbish.” Narvia said, cutely and with a slight smile.

"Glad that this whole shabang is done." Finbarr nodded as he walked up to Narvia, putting a hand on her shoulder. This wasn't much of a battle, if one thought about it. They were fighting against incompetent psychopaths that allowed their emotions to cloud their judgement. "We better get your injuries treated."

Narvia felt Finbarr’s hand on her shoulder and she smiled happily at what happened. She turns to him and gives him one of her cutest smiles ever since, her fear is now over by how easily Elaine died without much of a fight. Obviously, out of all the people in this slaughter of psychos the only one that was injured was her. ”Y-Yeah… But I at least got rid of the specter of Berkeley R. Jensen from me… no more having to worry about that dead and forgotten bastard.” Narvia said a bit happier but her adrenaline was slowly decreasing. It made her grit her teeth and kind of tear up from the pain that was now surging through her body. ”Ouchies.” Narvia said with a bit of a pained look on her face.

---

At this point, the Star Marines could see the silhouette of a gigantic spacecraft outside of them through the open windows of the Akriem Razor. Moments later, they would be able to hear running footsteps heading towards them in a hurried manner. As the scene of carnage laid bare to the Ascendancy troopers to witness, they weren’t hostile. In fact they looked quite satisfied as they relaxed their weapons a little. On closer inspection, the seven rings insignia of the 1st Fleet were on their upper left chest plate. They scanned the perimeter carefully and swiftly before the squad leader approached the Xuanzang’s boarding party.

“You must be the ones your captain was talking about. There’s dropships at the docking bay. Use them and get back to your corvette.”

The soldier spoke, without hints of hostility nor hospitality. All he knew were missions and this was the way instructed to proceed. If they so choose, it would be the dropship interior that perhaps many of the child soldiers were familiar with during their years of service. The dropship operator would be there, confirming their destination before letting them back to the Xuanzang to regroup with the rest of their team.

---

---

Enchanting the entire communication system was a delicate process. Iris didn't know what enchanting felt like to Flame but to her it was thousands of paths that would spread out like roots. She had to navigate each one to ensure whatever she was working with would properly conduct whatever magic Iris wanted. Some materials were better for enchanting then others. Although normal technology wouldn't be Iris's first choice, having the entire communication system share the burden would lessen the strain on it. With this Iris extended the range of enchanting through the wires to make a larger enchanting area. The paths were thin and fragile, forcing Iris to take tender care of each one. She carefully laid the path for Amy's magic, focusing fully on not overwhelming the system.

The stage had been set for Amy, all she has to do is perform and Iris will make everything else workout. However, Amy begun to fret over her capabilities and begun up back down from her task. Amy gave Iris more than enough signs telling her she was nervous. Iris mind scattered for a second, tangling her paths back into a wicked knot, incapable of conducting magic. Fuck, I lost concentration and I have to start over. But first I need to support Amy. We need her right now.

Iris turned herself to face Amy more directly, believing that eye contact is important. Iris reached her arm and gently touched slightly above her arm, "Hey Amy, can I talk to you real quick?" Although the inflection would have it come off as a request, Amy should be able to tell it was going to happen anyways. After hopefully earning Amy's attention, Iris begun to talk to her. "Her Amy, I can tell your getting a little nervous about everything and I can understand actually. A surprise battle and then having a challenging role thrusted upon you is enough to make the best men panic. But that panic and unease will lessen as you begin to try to do it. Trust me that I'll get it out there for you. I trust you to try and do it. Even if it only gives us a few seconds then you have done so much. So let's do this Amy!" Iris has Samuel and herself scoot over to make room for Amy to sit too. If she takes the offer, Iris will put a hand on her shoulder in an display of support.

Iris laid the paths back out, moving with more haste than previously. Once she had finished laying the network out once more, she went to hold Samuel's hand. Iris knew that Amy's lack of confidence could have temporarily shaken his concentration as it did with her. Without much thought she was already rubbing the back of his hand as she held it, trying to alleviate any stress that may be building as the fight was getting more heated.

Iris was nervous for those everything the fray. Not only was she worried about then going in without a healer. She was also immensely worried that some of them were going into the fight with a lot of emotions. Emotions will lead to someone getting hurt for sure. She can feel this anxiousness just building in her chest. One that makes her wish that she went with them. She was about to start thinking about it more, but if she continued her web would crumple again. She just put these ideas out of her mind for now. The mission comes first.

@6slyboy6

Natasha Zhang, Ashton and Flame

"Hopefully indeed," Natasha replied to Carina. "Sorry for getting in your way, btw - Again, we were headed to deal with the Rebellion in Plenty. Now farewell!"

And with that, this 'happy' little interlude was over.

Timeskip - Plenty

It seems that there was no need to run the Blockade around the Agri-World of Plenty, as the trust gained with the Ascendancy was enough to get the blockading fleet to let the Xuanzang through willingly. Thus, they were able to soar to the hilly region of Peanuthaven, where the Xuanzang then hovered above the crashed Prison Ship called the Circle of Hell. Natasha then addressed the crew through the comms, "All right, people, we've been let through by the Ascendancy's goons, but we need to make it quick before they catch on, especially as the ship is more noticable the longer it hovers above the crash site. So let's head for the meeting room to discuss tactics - I'll continue once we're all there."

When the crew, including the Star Marines, arrived, Natasha did continue, "I've also taken the liberty of asking Moonstrike One to alert the Rebels of our presence so that they don't accidentally send rockets at us. She should be relaying the message soon - Don't worry, it's all encrypted. As for the operation, well, it's also simple - All of you take a shuttle, or parachute, or use a jetpack, downwards until you reach the wreck of the Circle of Hell. Then you go in and search for Realist's prison chamber, brushing aside any opposition you meet."

A pause, "After this meeting is done, begin sorting yourselves and assigning combat roles. Tarak, you're overall leader, with full liberty to split it into smaller sub-teams if need be."

Another pause, before Natasha addressed Finbarr, "Mr. Callaghan, assuming I got the range of your 'portal power' right, we'll be hovering 500 meters above the Circle of Hell, meaning that if you guys need a quick getaway, we will need to hover lower in an emergency -"

Ashton interrupted, "Actually, Finbarr has a way around that, although I'm not sure I should be open about revealing the exact details if he hasn't openly indicated he's willing to share. Then again, he might already have told us about it earlier and I could have forgotten. Either way, he has a way around that which can be used for a quick getaway."

Flame then said, "Either way, we should also keep the ship's cameras open, focusing on potential threats all around. If there are remnant Ascendancy forces in the ship, we should try and message them that we're taking Realist off their hands so that they can be free to reinforce Ascendancy troops elsewhere or otherwise pose as their 'relief'. Or we can kill them all, but that'd expose us as their enemies unless we have Samuel and Iris and perhaps Amy conduct a local communications blackout by using a mix of electromagnetics and enchantments before we all swoop down. That said, it'd be efficient if we do, so perhaps we should try it?"

Blue Crow (NPC)

He was new to the Bounty Hunting business, having had only less than a decade in it. But during that time, he had gone through many ordeals and fought the worst civilized space had to offer. He had seen the war and its immediate aftermath, and knew that in order to bring him closer to his goals, goals which were at odds with what others wanted, he would have to make sacrifices. Sacrifices which would further his patrons and which he personally disagreed with. But to achieve his private quest, he'd have to endure... Even if it meant fighting children to acquire the Ascendancy's discarded property.

As he and his companions snuck through groves of peanuts and shade trees, many of whom were engineered to emit a natural pesticide toxic only to insects, Blue Crow sighted the Xuanzang flying overhead and thought, Oh, no.

@Letter Bee@Th3King0fChaos@The Man Emperor@Landaus Five-One@FalloutJack@Conscripts@dragonpiece@Starlance@samakama@jdh97@6slyboy6@Jade Kiyo

In preparation for this latest mission, Finbarr had... not really done that much. Other than some bouts of practicing his plasma swordsmanship, he had spent most of the time in between the fight in the Akriem's Razor sleeping or eating or... being the cute one in their merry little group. At this moment, he had the same gear he had back when they had completely annihilated the Erudite Guard, though he would often be spotted writing in his diary. Now...

"Actually, Finbarr has a way around that, although I'm not sure I should be open about revealing the exact details if he hasn't openly indicated he's willing to share. Then again, he might already have told us about it earlier and I could have forgotten. Either way, he has a way around that which can be used for a quick getaway."

"Nah, it's alright mate." Finbarr walked forward to share the way by which he bypasses the range limit of his breach portal. "I can portal to places as long as one of these requirements are met. I'll be able to portal to a place if I can see it within a hundred meters, or if I am already familiar with the place enough in order to visualize it within my mind, which is how I am able to connect two points in time and space through the breaches." Finbarr paused, as if hesitating to share this one last tidbit to everyone in here... though his fellow Star Marines already knew that anyway, and it would be very convenient for Natasha and the rest of the crew if they knew everything he could do. Glancing at everyone, he then continued. "I can portal to a place I don't know if someone I know is in there, and if I sense that they are in danger." He tapped Ashton at the shoulder. "I have metacognition as part of my magical skill set. If any of these blokes find themselves in mortal danger, I will know. And I can get to them even if they are in places I don't know about."

Finbarr shrugged. "I guess love connects us all, after all."

Flashback, before arriving at Plenty

In terms, Narvia’s ouchies on her face and leg hurt when she returned to the Xuanzang because the adrenaline was gone. She did get looked over by the doctor, which helped her help those areas heal much better. It didn’t help that she had some scars leftover on her face, which is a consequence of her actions of hiding underneath the console on the Akriem’s Razor. ” I would rather be injured than any of my friends dying, Doctor Millard.” Narvia said to the doctor. Her face was quite solemn and happy that only she was injured in that ordeal on the Akriem’s Razor.

Narvia was much happier and hummed a bit because of what she did to get rid of Berkeley's specter for good. Many things were going through her mind, but she took the plasma rifle and the pistol that Elaine used since she wasn’t going to need them anymore. It wasn’t like she would use the Plasma Rifle because it was a bit heavier for her to wield properly. She wouldn’t want to hurt anyone from plasma bolts accidentally. It’s why she placed Elaine’s Plasma Rifle in the Xaunzang’s Armory for others to use, who can use Plasma Weapons much more efficiently. ’ I do hope that’s alright to do that. I’ll keep the plasma pistol since it's much easier to use than… that oversize rifle for me.’ Narvia thought with a smile on her face and couldn’t be happier. She was happy that she finally got something new to wield, even though its only a plasma pistol from the Akriem’s Razor. However, she would use the Sigma over it, but she got another small arms weapon.

Narvia went to her room and cuddled with her two seal plushies, and had a nice nap since it would be better to be as rested as possible. It’s only because it wouldn’t take that long to reach their destination to Plenty, and it would be the actual start of the mission since the Akriem’s Razor was a detour. She comfortably napped to recover from what happened on the Akriem’s Razor.

---

Present Time

Narvia woke up from her small nap, which made her realize one thing they arrived at their destination. She got dressed and cutely giggled at her two seal plushies, Cute 1 and Cute Phi. She is still a child and has childish thoughts over being used as a killing machine for the Ascendancy Military. ” Please stay adorable, Cute Phi and Cute 1, because you are so cute.” Narvia spoke cutely in her room, which she was so happy to address Cute Phi first. She absolutely liked Phi a lot because she gave her second seal plushie, so she named it after her. It didn’t take her that much time to get fully equipped and dressed after taking her nap, which included that plasma pistol. She walked towards the bridge, where everyone is primarily, and she felt slightly embarrassed. It is like she missed half of the conversation already but believed that she knows what’s going on. Because she heard the mention of Finbarr’s capabilities by Ashton, she decided to speak up. ” Uhhh, I think Finny had spoken about his abilities earlier… and I am sorry for being late.” Narvia spoke cutely, with being heavily embarrassed. She was definitely sorry for being late, but she needed that nap; she wouldn’t want to be exhausted before the actual mission.

Finbarr explained his powers yet again, which definitely made Narvia remember, definitely he explained them previously. However, Narvia knows what Finbarr was hesitating to speak about, and she had a cute little smile on her face. She is so energetic when Finbarr talks about his ability to sense danger nearby. It didn’t help; she was still embarrassed. However, what he said next made her giggle cutely and blush at that. ” Aww, Finny, thanks for that always will be helpful to have you around!” Narvia exclaimed cutely. She was definitely blushing more at what Finbarr said than what she did because it was a bit embarrassing but a definitely cute saying.

In terms of what Flame said, having a communication blackout sounds like the best option to not contact the blockade ships, that the Xuanzang are actual enemies. One can’t be too cautious during these battles, but one of these days, they will have to fight Alexander, who allowed them back to their ship. ” Uhh, It would probably be a good idea to blackout communications…” Narvia spoke cutely in agreement with the blackout plan. However, on Narvia’s face, there was plain as day doubt on her face since she had a feeling they would be encountering enemies. ”What? I feel it won’t be too easy anyway, and I got it from my godfather Nikolas. His gut feelings are always on point since his instincts were second to none. Also… Nikolas asked me to pass on a message to you, Captain.” Narvia said, with something her godfather would say, most of the time. However, she sighed slightly, but this news hurt her more than anything when she realized that her Godfather retired.

It took her a bit of a pause before deciding to rely on Nikolas's message for Natasha. ” My godfather had a pleasure working with you, Natasha, you were one of the people who he called a friend and have the talent to fly in the stars for the rest of your life, as you see fit… He has officially quit the military and lives on his homeworld of Draken’vina, protecting the citizens therefrom fauna. It was what was deciphered all those days ago. I will do my last operation from him when the time comes, but it's first to deal with the Ascendancy’s dogma and help save Realist from the enemy’s clutches. The other child soldiers are where my home is now until I reunite with my mother, godfather, and older siblings.” Narvia said, with a heavy heart but solemnly wanting to help Moonstrike stop the evil of the Ascendancy first. Before the mission of killing her father and finally living with her family at her godfather’s homeworld. He wouldn’t really be her godfather anymore, with what he said about what he wanted to do with Lana, marry her. Nikolas has a better understanding of the Star Marines than Elaine because he always saw them as a third family for Narvia to keep ongoing.

In the back of her thoughts, ’ So that’s why… my father discarded me all those years ago… this birthmark I have on my right arm. And… my name is Narvia Folspear Stephan-Zahrin now...’ It felt like a cruel fate of a joke, but she was happy to have her godfather’s last name instead of the Hadley last name she had previously. Additionally, she was holding her right arm with a bit of an annoyance in her body language and her facial features. ’ I must be living the worst… reality is known to man because all I want is to reunite with my mother and older siblings. I do approve of you marrying my mom, Nikolas...’ Narvia thought with her hand on her cheek while staring directly at the others on the Bridge, with a look of what are you looking at. ”What? Sorry I was thinking about what was on that decipher… Like my last name changed to something else...” Narvia said cutely with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. It made her realize she said something in her thoughts, was heavily embarrassed, and trying to cover her face because of her tomato-like cheeks.

_{@The Man Emperor@Letter Bee}