Chapter Eleven - Annie's Combat Prowess

We had approximately three Heris before contact with the unknown fleet. The Sarias commando was stationed now on Alyss's bridge.

Myself and Annie were headed for the combat arena, because I wanted to determine and see what kind of weapon is good for Annie and her fighting style. I did not know about neither of those things. However, as she had angelic blood in her veins, she was definitely born with some combat skills.

"What are we going to do here, of all places?" Annie curiously asked me. I thought it was pretty obvious, what we're going to do here, but maybe not. "We're here to see what weapon is best for you, and to see what combat style you use. I'll start by borrowing you my twin blade, and you'll go against me with it. Then we'll continue through my entire arsenal and determine the best weapon for you." I said, handing over my first set of weapons. She reached over to it and grabbed it with her right hand. Then she split it up in the center, as she knew how to do it.

I've grabbed my greatsword from my back and readied myself. "Go at your full power, Annie. Don't worry about hitting me. You can use any magic or other powers you have, too.

She jumped in fairly fast, like someone who is used to quick strikes with weapons in each hand. I've dodged her strike, which was pointed directly at my head, but got hit by her second strike, which was aimed at my left leg. I wasn't really going at my fullest, because I needed her to go full power instead, to see how she fares against someone overpowered in comparison to her.

We've exchanged dozens of blows, of which I've blocked nearly all hers or evaded fairly easily, but she was really fast like this. We fought approximately around half a Heri, when I lifted my right hand: "That's enough. I see now. You're very fast. And you know how to dual wield. I think we're going to try daggers next."

She handed me back my twin blade, and I've put them one above each shoulder, as they were there before. Then I've reached onto my belt, where my daggers were put in their sheaths.

I've handed them to her, and then I've readied myself with my greatsword again. "Go on, Annie." I was ready for her, or so I though. She moved even faster than before, so without my combat enhancers, I wasn't able to track her movement. I did not activate them, because this was only a training and I didn't want to hurt her.

Before I've even realized, she was already behind my back, stabbing me into it. I've turned, smacking her chest with the flat side of my greatsword as she flew over half of the arena.

But instead of landing on her back, by the sheer force of the blow, she landed on her knees, supported by her first laid on the floor, in a three-point landing.

After over one Heri of intense, serious combat with Annie, I was sure that daggers are the best weapons for her. She's really fast, and even to me, she would be a serious threat, given the fact that she used my daggers.

I've called her over to me: "That was insane. Your speed and precision with daggers is even better than mine. I guess you were trained to be an assassin. And you were trained well."

When we returned to my room, I told Annie that she can return to the bridge, because I needed to prepare something first.

When she left, I've created a gift box, and placed my precious set of daggers into it. I've written there, on a piece of runic paper: "You'll be better having these than me. They will serve you well. I think you already know of my feelings to you."

After finishing the text, I've put that paper into the box, and wrapped it up with a golden ribbon. After that was done, I left my room and headed to the bridge with the box in my hands.

I've entered the CIC, and looked at everyone that was present there. "Alyss, give me a status report. Where is the unknown fleet right now?" She responded through the on-board sound systems: "They are entering the system right now. Open comm link?" "Yes, do it", I said.

"Sheila, this is your territory, so you talk to them," I've told the SpecOps Commander. She looked at me, then nodded and turned to the holo-screen which was also a window in front of the CIC. "Opening comm link to the command ship of the opposing fleet."

"Thanks Alyss, you're doing good job here. Better ready all on-board weapons. Anti-boarding turrets included." I said. "Understood. Initiating defense protocol." She responded calmly.

"This is the Sarias Collective. You've entered our territory without any identification. State your purpose." Sheila said to the comms. The other commander responded in unknown language something that Sheila did not understand. She turned to me with questioning look: "What did he say? Did you understand him, Dorian?"

"Hold on a sec. I need to hit him with one of my skills. Then I'll be able to understand him." I've chanted the call for my primary skill, it to activate in the Ancient speech, then closed my eyes in concentration. After ten seconds, I opened them and nodded to Sheila.

"Please repeat. I did not understand what you say," she told the commander.

The other commander said: "We're the Harbingers. We seek to harvest. You are in our way. Move aside." It sounded more like an order than anything else, though.

"Well.. That is unpleasant. Alyss, if you may. Open fire from all batteries." I ordered. "I hate being ordered by some unknown guy". I've added to my previous statement.

She did not hesitate, immediately commencing weapon fire upon the newly found enemy. The enemy fleet probably did not expect that, so they were a bit late at returning their own barrage of weapons at us. They lost around 20% of their total fleet strength to our destructive power. However, they successfully regrouped and begun a round of their own weapon fire.

"We have lost 30% of our shielding. Reporting fires on multiple decks. Reactors are overheating. Incoming Sarias fleet from our rear." Alyss said with frustration and a bit of relief.

"Aahhh?! How the fuck did they do that? Your shields are supposed to withstand fire from millions of ships. Also try to cool down the reactors a bit, so we don't blow up the entire system by collapsing." I screamed, and ran through the door, still handling the neatly packed gift for Annie.

I've turned to her, and the SpecOps commando and said in a commanding tone, leaving no room for doubt: "You all. On me. Move it!"

All of us ran towards the primary hangar, weapons at the ready. In mid-run, I turned to Annie: "I know that this is bad timing, but I have a gift for you. Please unwrap this soon."

Then I handed her the box with my daggers. She unwrapped the box, her golden eyes sparkling with happiness. She grabbed my face with both of her hands and planted a long kiss on my lips. "Thank you! I will treasure them for the rest of my life."

I've let her to kiss me, stopping briefly. She then took out the paper and after a quick look into it, she hid it in a pocket within her trousers. After we stopped kissing, both of us red from ear to ear looked at the commando.

They were smiling from ear to ear and one of them said: "Congrats on that, you lovebirds. But now we have a bit of tension here. When you two were kissing, your ship just said we lost another 20% of our shields. Also our own fleet gets hammered out there. We better hurry up."

"Yeah, that is a good idea. Double time, everyone!" I ordered.

When we reached the hangar, my fighter was already hovering above the Sarias tank, both started up and ready. I've grabbed Annie around her waist and jumped the twenty Ems above, where the fighter had its cockpit. She screamed a bit at the unexpected shock, but started laughing afterwards. The commando then entered the tank and we flew off the hangar in a hurry.

"We are losing shields fast. You better hurry, Dorian." Alyss said with a hint of stress in her voice, which was now clearly visible. I've reached for my deepest powers, as this was one of the moments, which were the most dangerous to us.

This new enemy is clearly way more powerful than the Voids, so we had to eliminate them as fast as we were able to, while minimising our losses as much as possible.

I've led us to the enemy fleet, and shot a hole through their command ship's plating with my enhanced powers channeled into the fighter. "Their durability is not so high. It's their weapons that are a problem." The commando's second lieutenant laughed as she said: "Yes, to your weapons maybe, but to the Alliance, not so much. The Collective's fleet had to turn back, as they were devastated. Now it's only us to deal with them."

We've dropped the tank inside the command ship and landed ourselves next to it.

We've lined up and I ordered the Sarias SpecOps squad: "You guys go and try to sabotage as many systems as you can. We'll go and kill everyone who stands in our way."

Then we split up into me and Annie, and three squads of the SpecOps and moved out.

"It's been some time since I've fought alongside someone on-board of an enemy fleet. Let's do this, dear." Annie looked at me, her face blushing slightly, nodding in response: "That is the first time someone called me 'dear'. I like it. Let's kick some ass."

We gave each other another kiss and launched into the ship with fast speed. I never thought that Annie would fall for me in the middle of a warzone, but hey, life can be strange. However, the uncertainty of her feelings for me not being there was washed away immediately.

"I'll do the tanking, you go from their backs, okay?" I told Annie as we ran through some long corridor. The insides of this ship were grown over by some kind of meaty material, which looked like it would devour us if we're to stray too close to it. It also looked very sturdy.

It didn't take long for us to reach the first set of enemy units, as they were probably preparing to board Alyss at the time she lost her shields.

We jumped on them, slaughtering them like pigs, blades whirling.

They were looking like some organic robots, growing cysts from their limbs embedded with mechanics all over them. Overall very disgusting sight to see.

They were probably weak against heat-based magic or weapons, so I've switched from my sword to my PAC, and started shooting them, while Annie was just tearing them apart with her daggers.

They had no long range weapons, or guns at all. They had some strange claws instead, but were slow to react to our fast movements. I've occasionally threw a decent amount of magic plasma balls at them, or just burning them up with my fire magic. They weren't strong at all, but there were simply too many of them for us to move forward at a faster pace.

"Alyss, please scan this ship we're inside of. I need to know where is the bridge of it. Also give me a status report of your current structural integrity and also of those Sarias squads."

"I've lost over 90% of my shielding, also they successfully boarded me. I also have multiple hull breaches all over me. However, they have no success of moving away from their entrances. My inner defense systems are working at max. Also, the reactors were stabilized."

"About the squads, two of them were successful at their task, disabling enemy shields and engines. The third squad is locked in a tight gunfight. I suggest giving them a hand. Sending full scan now." Alyss said, summarizing her report, that I asked of her with mixed tones of fear, satisfaction and anger.

"You've heard her, Annie. We have to move. We don't have enough time to kill everyone on board. Let's save this squad." We started running, killing everything in our way while following the map we were given by Alyss, to the point of the location of the third squad.

Based on the full scan, they were surrounded by over forty enemies, inside a room, which was supposed to be main power supply.

However, on the bridge, there were over a hundred of enemies, but what took my eye to it was a signature of an Ancient Shard. I've decided that we'll rather teleport to the reactor first, instead of running over three hundred Kems to the location of said squad or going for the second Shard. Lives of allied or friends are more important than some gem. However, I had the means to save the squad and grab the gem as well.

After the portal was created and stabilized, we jumped right through, while I yelled to the squad to drop themselves on the ground. After we've been through, I started to cast wide-spread blue fire devastation to annihilate everything that is standing. The enemy seemed to be shocked by our sudden arrival, as they stopped firing for a few secs.

That was more than enough time for me to finish casting the spell, and they immediately turned to blue dust, burning themselves alive. Literally, a life-saving moment. A moment later and the squad may start to get losses.

The second lieutenant got up, turned to me relieved: "Thanks for that. Without you guys, we might have ended up dead. Now to destroy this thing!"

She reached to her belt, and handed me a device, which was a detonator for a cold fusion bomb. The other three members of the squad started to assemble the bomb right next to the thing that was some kind of strange looking reactor. It was fairly similar to Alyss's own reactor, but instead of metallic rings, it had that meaty metal around it, without any containment fields.

I've started to fiddle with the detonator, as in the state it is right now, it would've had range around half a Kem. So I've decided I will enhance its range by multiple times by patching it up to Alyss's primary systems.

"Hey you, girls. Better hold this room until I'm done with hacking into the fleet, so they all go down with their flagship." Annie, and all the commando members nodded in agreement, and took defensive stances.

I've then called to the rest of the commando to rendezvous on my location and waited around five Mis for them to arrive. They arrived in the estimated time, with some members lightly injured with a few scratches and cuts, but nothing serious for me to take care of.

"Hey, Annie. Take this." I've thrown at her my personal sniper rifle, which was more like a railgun, than a normal rifle, heavily modified with high-tech stuff. "Take the rear line and shoot anything that gets past the first line. Don't need to save up on ammo as it runs on my own power."

I've turned my attention to the console-like thing sitting next to the reactor. When I used my powers to read the enemy commander, I've got very deep understanding of their technology, so I had no problem doing the hacking.

I've started it up, and started typing in commands to link up with the entire fleet, linking up their energy systems in one big chain of power. Behind me, the girls were shooting the enemies that came bursting through the main corridor, one after another. Even though these enemies had some ranged weapons, such as blasters, they seemed to lack the brains to put up some strategy for us to be a problem.

Also, we were too well entrenched for the enemy to remove us successfully and the layout of that room was in our favor, as there was only one set of doors into the room itself.

I've finished the programming around twenty Mis later and made a thumbs-up gesture to the Sarias squad, who assembled the bomb right in time. The enemy bodies were already piled up to over a thousand, and we were all ready to finish this up.

"Girls, go on without me. I have something to finish on board, before blowing this fleet up."

I've ended up using a more complex teleportation spell to transport that many more people back, while also transporting our vehicles.

I've successfully sent them back without any problems. Then, I've hit the button on the detonator to launch up the countdown sequence. We had now five Mis before the whole fleet was going to blow up. And I had less than enough time to grab that Shard.

I've decided it would be better to wrap myself up inside of a time dilation field, so the time I went through to get that thing was flowing differently, than the actual time of the Universe, detonator included. I've grabbed my twin blades from over my shoulder, and with a quiet 'click', connected them together.

I've started to run at my usual FTL speed, straight towards their CIC. The time dilation field expanded over the entire ship, so I had no issues with blowing this thing up by accident. The only downside was that I was unreachable by usual comms and scan systems. Even Alyss wouldn't be able to locate me as I've now existed within a different time line.

I've rammed through the CIC door with such force that I've made a hole fifty Ems wide into it, slashing everyone in my way. I was carving a way straight to the person bearing the black gemstone embedded in their armor. I stopped for a second, looking at him, as I've killed everyone except for him.

"So, it is you who bears the Purple Shard. Killing you will mean I'll have two of them." The enemy commander spoke to me with arrogant voice. He looked like a human, but infested by similar material as the ship. He was bald, with pale skin, he also got cysts growing randomly from his limbs.

"My, my. You don't even know who I am. That will be your downfall. I've killed the previous owner of the Purple Shard so you're not gonna be much of a problem to me." I responded to him, battle stance ready.

He's drawn his sword, took a stance of himself and waited. "I'll tell you one thing, Harbinger. You're already dead, you don't know it yet, though," I said, jumping at him very fast, that he wasn't able to see me. I've pointed my strike to his head and slashed.

It fell off with a loud "thud", as it landed on the ground, blood flowing from both the head and the body and right before he turned to dust, I've cut out the gemstone out of his chest.

After it fell to the ground, I've picked it up and hanged it next to the purple one. After that was done, I've disabled the time dilation field and ordered my ship to leave the sector:

"Alyss, move away from here. This place is going to be very hot soon."

My ship understood that order, and activated her warp drive, jumping away to the next solar system. They were all watching the holo-scan of that battle, as the time for explosion was out.

Right before the fleet just exploded, and their debris scattered over dozens of systems, I've successfully returned with a black gemstone next to the purple one on my neck. "I am out of my shields, and I must repair myself." Alyss gave me a report of her state of structural integrity when I jumped out of a portal.

"Let's go somewhere safe. And then I'll oversee the repairs. And you, SpecOps Commando. Good work out there." I've saluted over to them, and they saluted back in unison. "We'll now return home, if you don't mind. I've called for a drop ship to pick us up." Sheila told me.

"Thanks for the show, Dorian. Also, watch out for the Shards. It is unwise to leave them close to each other like that."

"No problem, and don't worry. I'll make sure it won't happen. And thanks." After that, she turned around, ordering her squad mates, all to leave for the hangar.