Betrayal preempted

Class 1 squad 1 all held onto whatever they could get their hands on in their spaceship as their teacher Mrs. White skillfully avoided the asteroids in the asteroid field. Maya was screaming in terror, Nathan was crying and Allison was shaking a bit as she made loud sarcastic remarks to try and make herself calm such as "Are we upside down?" or "Can you just let us die please!?!" Mrs. White of course took all of this in stride as she confidently and easily continued to avoid the fast-moving asteroids. This asteroid field was far more dangerous than such things usually tend to be because of the immensely powerful magic artifact at the center of it. The amount of energy fluctuating through the place causes the asteroids to whip around at nearly 368,788 miles per hour or at least that is what Mrs. White clocked them at in her scouting missions. Meaning that to stay in pace with the field and to stop them from getting hit Mrs. White was making their ship match that speed as she did complicated maneuvers that would have been tough at Mach 2.

Without much warning Mrs. White yelled out. "Alright we are going in get ready!" The team did not know what she was talking about before she brought the ship up to its maximum speed and dove directly toward the large black metal box shaped space station. The team looked at it seemed like a solid hunk of metal with no openings.... that they were currently charging at, at nearly 400,000 miles per hour. Nathan goes limp and falls into Allison who puts her arms around him as she joins Maya in screaming. Mrs. White just smiles at that turning her head toward them knowing that if she weren't looking it would scare them worse. It did....

As the shifting outer shell of the space station moved in time to give them an opening to enter Mrs. White was the only one still conscious. However, she slows down as soon as they enter, and she slowly takes them to land. Inside the massive space station was a massive hallway made of the black metal but with shifting pink lights going through it. Mrs. White lands and walks over to her students trying and failing not to laugh. "Good news we didn't die. Bad news that was the easy part." Allison was the first to wake up at the voice of her teacher. She did not get up from the floor but rather flipped onto her back to look up at Mrs. White. "You are not a good person, you know that?" Mrs. White laughs again at that and nods.

***

Chris and Ashley sat in silence as Chris carefully piloted them through space looking at the map to his side. Ashley was only half looking at the radar when something went beep which made her jump up. The thing she saw on the radar was green instead of blue or red. Green means that it was something from the Academy. "Hey, Captain, we might have found them. Though I am surprised we caught up with them so quickly. Do you think something went wrong?" Chris shrugged before slowing the ship down. "Open up com channels let's say hello." Ashley nods and she starts sending out a signal to the ship they are nearby. Both Chris and Ashley stand in front of the video feed to answer whoever picks up. The video screen turns on to a disgruntled Mr. Cen. "Hello? This is Mr. Cen of the battle mage's academy. You are designated as friendly but according to the feed from the main office of mission coordination no 'one should be out here." Chris looked up the teacher furrowing his brow. It was true that he and Ashley weren't supposed to be out here but as Mr. Cen had said no 'one was. Meaning he should not have been either. "We are Battle Mage Academy officers designated 121 and 123. The two of us are currently on an impromptu scouting mission bringing us into this sector. The mission was still being put into the data base as we left. We will likely be done here before it is officially entered into the system. However, Mr. Cen we were not told of anyone else from the academy being sent out here for any reason. May I inquire as to why you are here? Additionally, did you bring the battle mage officers in your squad?" Chris just stood at attention beside Ashley. The two of them knew something was off but for now they would just follow the protocol to the letter so that their superior had no call or justification to punish them. Even if in this case it did mean lying about being sent on a mission. Mr. Cen looked at the two clearly also suspicious but also with apparent concern. "What was the purpose of the impromptu mission you two have been sent on? Who authorized it? Also why are there only the two of you and not your entire squad?" Ashley tensed at that thinking he had out played her captain. Both parties here were in the wrong but Mr. Cen clearly had the upper hand in assigning blame. Christopher cool as usual under pressure simply smiled. "The purpose of the mission was to clarify some odd readings from this sector though unless you are cleared by a person holding 3rd class authority or better, I cannot get more specific. This impromptu mission was assigned to us by the headmaster who needed things done quickly and with expert discretion. Which brings us into why it is only the two of us. We already had our schedules free, but our other squad member and our teacher didn't. Meaning the two of could be sent without rearranging the mission organization data base beforehand. As the captain assigned to a mission that requires Class 3 authority minimally to be informed about that means my authority is temporarily advanced from class 6 to class 3." Chris smiles as Mr. Cen's face begins to sink. "Meaning my authority is temporarily greater than yours making me your superior officer. So, I will ask again with a greater sense of urgency that you answer. Why are you out here? I know for a fact you shouldn't be." Ashley looked up at her captain with a mixture of anger, fear, confusion and respect. On the one hand he was a masterful liar who got through all of that with no logical mishaps as far as she could tell. Also, he had said it all with a confident and convincing tone. But on the other hand, he had just committed several crimes with the lies he had said. Firstly, impersonating a superior officer, secondly lying to a superior officer, thirdly making up a mission and lastly speaking on behalf of the headmaster. If nothing is going on and Mr. Cen is supposed to be here, they are in so much trouble. Not to mention the trouble they are going to be in for coming here in the first place.

Luckily, Mr. Cen seemed to completely believe Chris. "Alright I Saraad Cen came alone to this sector because it is not an official mission thus my squad had no call to come with me. I came regarding the mission agreed upon by the first squad leader Elanor White. " Chris nods as he thinks on how he should continue this conversation forward. "It is a crime for someone with less than class 3 authority to take a military class ship without an official mission to do so." Mr. Cen nods. "I am aware yes." Chris looks down to Ashley for a second and for a moment they seem at a loss until Chris looks back up at Mr. Cen. "So, you came to help Mrs. White and her squad?" Mr. Cen looks at the two officers for a few moments before nodding. Chris let out a relieved sigh as he began to speak. "Oh, alright then I will tell you the truth the two of us are here for the same reason. Let us continue together in formation. We may as well all go to help them sense we are all here." Mr. Cen goes wide eyed and anger is clear for a moment before he bites his lower lip and nods. "Alright you two take point I will fall in behind you." Chris smiles at that as the Com goes down and he gets back in the pilot seat to take point. Ashley begins to speak "Well that went better than I expe-" She is cut off as a red light goes off at the weapons controls, she is sitting at. She looks down reads the alert then looks up at Chris "Our ship has been locked by a military class ships targeting system...." Chris's eyes go wide as well. "That son of a bitch! He's trying to kill us!?!"

***

Squad 1 still found themselves in the first room they had found in the giant space station after walking through the hallway that they had landed in. They found themselves under an unending assault from human like skeletons in full metal armor looking very much like older versions of the armor they themselves wore. The skeletons each had powerful assault rifles and it was clear they still knew how to use them even in death.

Three skeleton where focusing on Allison as she hid behind a broken piece of wall she had taken cover behind before she used enhance to jump 50 feet into the air and blasted all of them in the face with her now fixed from last mission dual pistols. Her bullets shatter the skeletons skulls and broke their helmets off but that did not matter as they continued to fire at her. Allison caught two bullets in her upper left leg as she fell back to the ground behind her cover. Casting a level 3 spell called regeneration the bullets where spit out of her leg as the holes closed. Allison trying to figure out how to actually put the skeletons down called out. "Hey, has anyone actually re-killed these bastards yet!?! I blew of a few of their heads, but it didn't do shit!" Maya was surrounded by several skeletons as she used several enhance spells to run around and avoid shots as she got up to their firing line to grab and rip away and a part their guns with her clawed hand. She ripped the first rifle she saw out of the skeletons hand and crushed down breaking it in half before hitting forward her hand going through the skeletons armor as she could grab its spine which she then tore in half. The skeleton fell unable to move. Maya though took a second too long to confirm that and took a barrage of bullets into both of her sides which caused her to scream out in pain. Nathan jumped down and landed next to Maya before casting a level 3 spell called force shield creating a blue half sphere of pure magical energy to appear around the two of them. The half sphere blocked any bullets that shot into it. Maya forced herself to her feet as she cast several regeneration spells to heal her wounds. "Thank you, Nathan," Nathan nodded as they watched Mrs. White jump over their shield and land in the center of the firing squad that was attacking Maya. They turned and took aim at her, but she held out her hands and cast a level 4 spell called phase. Her students in their shield watched as the bullets went through the flickering form of their teacher and ripping into the skeletons. This goes on for a few seconds before the skeletons on both sides are in pieces too small to move and Mrs. White brings herself back into the physical world. Nathan's Shield went down as Allison made her way over to the rest of the team. "Okay never mind I worked something out. But seriously what the hell are so many skeletons with our equipment doing in this damn place? Surely, we didn't send this many men to their death, did we?" Mrs. White thinks for a moment as she looks over the carnage. "Officially speaking we sent two teams of 3 here and no 'one else. So, if these are the skeletons of our men they were sent in secret or made it here without orders." Maya was the first to start off toward the door. "Well lets hurry. My armor has already been damaged to the point that it is almost worthless as protection. Dragging this out does not benefit us." Nathan shook his head hurrying after her. "No but being cautious does yes? Avoid getting shot in the first place." Maya shrugs as she kicks open the door to see two paths in front of them and then turns to Mrs. White. "Which way are we supposed to go?" Mrs. White walks over, looking concerned. "I don't know. My information simply says to go through this door and continue until we find another door that should be directly ahead avoiding doors we see to the side." Allison lets out a heavy sigh "That is just vague enough to not help us." Mrs. White nods before Maya starts looking down both tunnels. "Mrs. White and Allison, you two go right. Me and Nate will go left." Mrs. White immediately protested. "No, this mission is more dangerous than even ones that would be assigned to the four of us. You will all stay with me." Maya looks up at Mrs. White with a glare "So was our last assignment. Wasting effort to account for us as liabilities is counterproductive to the mission's success. We are a team of four. That means if there are two locations, we split into two teams of two. When one of us finds the right way, we will contact the other team." Mrs. White glares back at Maya but nods and starts off to the right. "Come on Allison lets hurry." Allison quickly followed her. Maya and Nathan went the other way.

***

Chris turned the energy shield of the ship on again just before the 2nd plasma cannon shot crashed into it. Ashley was still trying to get the now murder hungry Mr. Cen on the com but to no avail. Chris was working his brain as fast as it would go as he knew that as impressive as the energy shield was it could not stand up to continued plasma rail shots. It certainly could not stand up to the anti-matter missiles that Mr. Cen still had not used because one of those missing would cause uncomfortable questions. But despite that Chris knew that he would use one before he would let the two of them get away and tell what happened, so he didn't have much time left. "Ash I'm gonna need you to prep two of our anti matter missiles for launch." She looked up at Chris clearly panicked. "It's dangerous to use those in a dog fight like this especially as he is behind us, we are likely to miss. Plus, what do you mean two? One will destroy anything that is in the area why could we possibly need two!?!" Chris pulled the ship into a helix roll before turning around and turning the energy shield on blocking the next plasma rail shot head on. "I just said prep them for launch. Get your suit on and then take the pilot seat." Ashley quickly prepped the anti-matter missiles before hurrying over and getting her armor suit on unable to guess at what her captain had planned. Chris smiles before turning on the energy shield to stay on not worried about wasting its energy as he gets out of the pilot's seat and puts his own suit on.

Chris calmly walks over to the weapon controls before putting in aim instructions one to the left and one to the right both several miles away. He fires both anti-matter bombs to those coordinates creating massive black explosions to both side of the ship leaving barely enough space to maneuver through them as the explosions themselves had a diameter of a several miles. Mr. Cen though being a master at piloting these machines himself was able to like Chris keep the ship between the narrow space. Ashley looked up at her captain thinking his plan had failed as Mr. Cen was a better pilot than he thought but saw him opening the back of the spaceship before picking her up and putting her over his shoulder. "Chris what the fuck are you doing!?!" Chris chuckles as he takes out a plasma dagger. The plasma dagger looks just like a dagger handle before he clicks the button to cause the green energy to come out in the shape of a small blade. Then casting an enhance spell and a fly spell Chris jumped out of the ship into the small space between the anti-matter explosions. As the only safe place to be for Mr. Cen was directly behind them Chris was able to land onto the homicidal teachers' ship. As they landed Chris clicked the button on his plasma dagger and stuck it into the ship causing a small hole in the outer armor of it allowing him to grab onto the ripped-up piece of ship. He then pulls Ashley up and has her grab on as well. Chris hears over his com as his teammate yells at him. "You crazy bastard! What the hell!" Chris held up a finger to silence her before letting go so that he falls to the back of the ship before using the level 4 spell gravity anchor to stick himself to the back of the teachers' ship. Chris holds his hand against the back door before casting the level 4 spell blink to suddenly appear in Mr. Cen's ship. Mr. Cen though being a graduated Battle mage himself was already standing and had two plasma daggers, one in each hand and charged Chris before he could get a steady stance. Chris nearly fell as he dodged back the first two hits and used his own plasma dagger to redirect the third hit down. Chris then tries to slice up at Mr. Cen's neck. Mr. Cen though leaned back before grabbing Chris by the arm and pulling him forward intending to slash through his face. Chris flipped in Mr. Cen's grip causing Chris's Wrist to break in the twist but allowed him to kick twice up into Mr. Cen's head causing him to let go of Chris. Mr. Cen and Chris stood about 8 feet away from each other. Mr. Cen got back into a fighting stance as Chris held up his Plasma dagger with his hand that was connected to his remaining good wrist. Mr. Cen smiled darkly as he looked over Chris. "My oh my officer 121 it appears you truly do deserve your spot in class 1 squad 2. If you are this good perhaps you even deserve to be in squad 1. Any year other than the year of these freakish students you would have been. And you would be if squad one where to... never come back?" Chris narrowed his gaze. "Shut up. I am not so greedy that thought of the peoples ranked above me dying is appealing. I will earn my way up with my eminent skill." Mr. Cen chuckles as he replies. "Oh, my you really are just as arrogant as that bitch Elanor. Too bad you feel that way. Do you really think gifted as you are that a student can beat a teacher who has already graduated and had many more years to practice spells and battle techniques." Chris slowly lowers in his defensive stance getting ready to dodge or to lunge. "I think that you have left me no choice but to try." Mr. Cen nods slightly "That is a respectable attitude young Chris. I will try to make this hurt as little as possible." Chris scowls "Can you tell me at least what you were doing here?" Mr. Cen smiles "Of course. I was here to make sure that Elanor White did not make it out of this little sham of a mission she is on. Though it seems the devils I summoned to ruin their ship have been destroyed I planned to summon and send more. She cannot succeed" Chris rolls his eyes before lunging at the old man who side steps and slashes toward him. However right before the attack hits him Chris casts blink and appears on the opposite side of Mr. Cen. Chris goes to stab into Mr. Cen's back as Mr. Cen had been pushing away from the direction as his body moved in his attack at where Chris was. However, before Chris could Mr. Cen cast Blink also and appeared just above Chris. Chris looked up just as Mr. Cen drop kicked him in the face smashing him against the floor. Before Mr. Cen could land and stab into his back Chris cast blink again so he was now 8 feet in front of Mr. Cen again. Mr. Cen charged Chris as Chris cast blink again to be at the front of the ship. Mr. Cen cast blink to get behind him but Chris cast blink to get away from him by another few feet causing the two of them to be faced to face. Mr. Cen looked over Chris thinking "Do you intend to keep going with this game of cat and mouse?" Chris smiles and nods "Indeed I do. Losing is not an option. I don't mind keeping this draw going for years as long as I eventually get an opening to win." Mr. Cen frowns before casting a level 5 spell called lightning step. Suddenly Mr. Cen was upon Chris in less than a blink of the eye as Mr. Cen could move in the low end of the hyper sonic speed spectrum. Mr. Cen slashed down with both of his plasma daggers slashing through Chris's armor and chest area causing Chris to cough up blood and ripping his armor and chest open making him fall back limply. Mr. Cen then went to grab Chris by the neck and stab his plasma dagger into his face but in the split second before the dagger reached Chris's face blink had been cast making Chris be behind his teacher again. Mr. Cen turned and lunged at Chris not wanting to give him any respite, but Chris also cast the lightning step and suddenly he and Mr. Cen where on even ground as the both fought in the hyper-sonic spectrum of speed. They both also continued to cast blink so that every inch of the spaceship at any second could be where they were at. Relying on both instincts and the muscle memory of their training at this point as they were moving faster than their senses could keep up with. The fight continued as both of their lightning step spells went out with Mr. Cen kicking Chris hard in the chest sending him smashing against the side of the ship. This caused Chris to crumple onto the ground panting. Chris looked up as Mr. Cen was slowly making his way toward him flipping the plasma daggers in his hands with a smile. "You really are talented for a student. It really is to ba-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as a hole was blasted through his head. Mr. Cen fell to the side revealing Ashley to Chris as she was holding up a pistol. "You fucking Bastard. You left me on the top of the ship expecting me just to wait there while you fought him. Are you stupid."? Chris goes to protest but the groans in pain and nods "Yes... Yes, I think I am."

***

Mrs. White and Allison continued down their hallway on edge as they had yet to see anything significant. That is until the find a door at the end of the hallway that they go into thinking that they had just found what they were looking for. However inside of the door was a square room with nothing in it except for a small box. Mrs. White knew that what they should have found if this was the right was to take was another hallway leading left and right. "Allison lets go back and catch up with Nate and Maya. This is the wrong way." Mrs. White began to walk back as Allison spoke. "But what about that box. What is it?" Mrs. White turns to look at the box and shakes her head. "I do not know but it isn't what we are here for. The box is too small to hold the artifact. " Allison walks up to the box unable to contain her curiosity before opening it. This of course as Mrs. White was trying to say a bad idea. Once the box opens a powerful spirit comes out of it. The spirit takes the shape of a giant cloaked skeleton with spiked chains coming off from his arms. Allison looked over to Mrs. White "Oops?"