World Seed_Endgame

by Justin Miller

  “Everyone, prepare to execute the plan in three, two, one… Begin.” I gave the signal for the Sons of Chaos to start their assault, all ships immediately dropping out of FTL to engage.

  Chapter 27: The War of the World

  As soon as the fleet emerged from subspace, we immediately checked what ships were in the area. Thankfully, this didn’t seem to be where they kept the majority of their fleet, or else we would not have a chance. However, from the report I heard, this should still be a fairly important outpost, as there were a total of three ships stationed here, as well as what seemed to be a station.

  For the configuration of the ships, all three were shield ships, but were spread out quite far. The three of them were placed at equal distances around the planet, while the station orbited back closer to the moon. The station looked almost like a massive cannon, with not one but two white holes contained near the back. The silvery metal spiraled away from them, looking like the barrel of a giant gun.

  We can’t afford to let that station get a shot off. I had no doubt that the power behind that station could level a planet. What was most worrying, though, was that the station was not aimed towards us. Instead, it was actually in an idle position with the barrel of the gun pointed at the planet below. On the far side of the planet, our scans were showing the presence of the local warp gate, so we were not short on things to shoot at.

  “All ships, prioritize the destruction of the station. Under no circumstances can it be allowed to fire!” The three shield ships were far enough away from the station that they shouldn’t be able to defend it. Moments after we had arrived, they had begun moving.Two of them moved to begin positioning themselves between us and the planet, while the third one started to move towards the station.

  However, we came in with all weapons primed and ready to fire. How could we allow those ships to get into their positions to stop us? Our ships turned slightly to aim our biggest weapons at the station, and beams of light flew towards it. Unsurprisingly, shields appeared around the station to block the majority of the damage. It would be a bit unrealistic to hope for something of that size to be completely incapable of defense.

  Thankfully, a few shots did manage to get through, since these were not the same hexagonal shields as the specialized ships. Instead, it was a layered barrier of light that appeared around the station. The bigger attacks, such as the Ariadne’s main cannon, were capable of piercing through the shield layers to inflict some damage on the hull.

  After the first barrage, the Qu’Lopti flights were already moving to form their mechs. If it was possible to do so before we exited subspace, that would have been for the best. However, the shields to fight back the exotic matter were located on the supply ships of each flight.

  “Minimal damage inflicted on the enemy station. Detecting a strong energy building up. However, it is making no attempts to aim at us.”

  I cursed inwardly as the report came in. I was really hoping that I was wrong in my guess, but it seemed like the station existed for the purpose of destroying the planet in the event of an attack. “Judgement flights, move to disable the warp gate! Executioner, join the assault on the station.”

  There were still ten seconds before our big weapons were fully charged again, but we continued pelting the station with our cannons and laser turrets as we moved closer. I could only hope that it would take longer for their weapon to charge than ours, since they obviously needed a far higher output of power. “All ships, fire when able.”

  Ten seconds may not be long, but in a situation like this, it felt like an eternity. I was thankful for the lack of assault ships, but I understood why they weren’t needed here. All that the New Human Empire needed was for the shield ships to delay us. If we attacked the planet, they would shield it while the station targeted us. If we attacked the station, they would shield it to stop us while the planet was destroyed.

  Sadly, a circumstance like this was not something we had planned for. After all, why would we assume that they would be willing to just throw away an entire planet like this? I could see a glowing white light building up within the barrel of the station’s cannon, and knew that it would be done charging soon.

  Thankfully, our weapons came first. The shield ship was currently halfway between the planet and the station, making it still unable to shield either side. With this, we were able to fire freely. Thanks to the Executioner’s cannon, we even had vastly increased firepower compared to the first volley.

  “Warp gate disabled!” I heard the report, barely registering it as the attacks landed on the station. One of the white holes had started to dim, but after the various blasts struck the hull, there were reports of explosions occurring within the station. I could see both white holes begin to flicker, and had a bad feeling for what was coming next.

  Unfortunately, I was unable to give an order in time, before the station erupted in a massive explosion of light. I could vaguely see the shield ship that had been en route to defend the station raising its shields to protect itself, before that ship faded away into the blinding light. Even as far away as we were, we felt the Ariadne rock slightly when the blast reached us, most of us having to cover our eyes to avoid the light.

  When the blast had ended, I was able to see the destruction caused by such an explosion. While the planet itself seemed mostly intact, there was a wide area of scorched earth on the surface, easily visible even at this distance. The moon, however, was not as lucky. It had been much closer to the station when it blew up, and seemed to have shattered under the force of the blast.

  The moon had clear cracks running through it, and was already showing signs of dividing into five large sections, with numerous smaller rocks flying out. As for the ship that had been closer to the station, there was no trace of it remaining. With a nod, I stood up, moving towards the teleport bay. “All ships, clear up the remaining two. Ground teams, prepare to move.” Without the presence of an assault ship, it was only a matter of time before the two shield ships were taken care of.

  “Captain.” I heard a voice calling after me over the comms. “We lost one of the Judgement Warriors in that blast, and the others are badly damaged.” I momentarily paused my steps when I heard that, but ultimately had to continue. The Qu’Lopti aren’t dumb enough to go out like that without using clones. Although we lost the mechs, the supply ships still had the facilities to house the Qu’Lopti, and slowly build replacements.

  “Understood. Recall any of them back that can make it, and begin salvaging. Celeste?” I glanced back down the hall behind me, finding the Deus Ex girl chasing after me, nodding her head. I gradually began shifting into my combat form, although I maintained my normal size.

  “Let’s do this.” She said, a smile in her voice. As I walked down the hall, I saw glittering silver sand fly in front of me, surrounding my body. This was the true reason why Celeste had practiced her special technique, and also the first time we have been able to employ it in a combat scenario.

  The silver sand locked together around me, becoming a solid metal frame. I glanced down to my hand, which was now surrounded in a white, metal gauntlet with red highlights. Similar armor was spreading out all around my body, with the last piece forming over my head. My vision darkened for a few moments, before Celeste linked her senses with mine, allowing me to see outside of my ‘suit’.

  “Looks like everything’s working, John.” I heard her voice directly in my ear, seeing a holographic display in the corner of my vision, showing what I currently looked like. The only exposed skin I had right now was the leathery white wings, but even the tops of those were armored. As for the rest of me, I was outfitted with a smooth, white suit of armor. Across my chest and arms, red highlights formed simple patterns. On my head, a simple black visor in the shape of a V marked my face.

  “Alright, tell the others that we’re moving in. We’ll go down first and clear the way.” Once we got to the teleport bay, I stepped up on the platform. “Locate the facility, and send us down as clo
se as you can. The others can join us when they get here.”

  “Understood, John. Let’s go kick some ass.” I could tell that she was looking forward to a proper test run of this armor mode. Within a few moments, we were already down on the planet. Surrounding us were tall mountains, with a single metal door in the side of one not far away. “This is the area of the planet with the most densely packed lifesigns. Odds are, this is the base you’re needing.”

  I nodded my head, pointing one finger towards the door. “Break.” I spoke simply, urging the metal mana in the door to disperse. This was one of the key features of the ‘Celestial Armor’, as Celeste termed it, allowing her to direct my mana more efficiently according to my thoughts. Of course, it was far from the only feature.

  Walking forward, I ignored the alarm that sounded when the door began breaking apart, forming little more than crushed scraps. Behind where the door had stood, there was a dark hallway leading down. With a thought, I retracted my wings back into my body, the suit shifting to accommodate the change. There was no need for me to have wings when I was going underground, after all.

  Incoming call from Thalia.

  I hesitated for a moment, but chose to ignore the call for now. I couldn’t afford to be distracted, even if there was not likely to be anything here that could hurt me. One of the first things I had learned about the New Human Empire’s abilities was that they had a way to block my element manipulation.

  “John, we’re on our way!” I heard Sharon shouting over the comms. “Don’t do anything stupid before we get there!”

  Too late. I thought with a small grin, stepping into the hallway. Celeste analyzed the scene, and quickly adjusted my view to compensate for the darkness, allowing me to proceed without the need for a light source. “Celeste, begin scouting the environment. I want to know exactly what I’m up against here.”

  “Got it!” She cheerfully called back, and I saw a layer of silver sand rushing forward from behind me, flying into the nearby vents. To my surprise, there hadn’t been a group to ‘welcome’ me at the first door, but we might have just gotten here faster than they could prepare their defenses.

  With Celeste’s nanites flying around to scout, I saw a holographic map forming in the corner of my view, beneath the display of myself. At first, there was only the long hallway that we were currently in, but gradually more areas were filled in, the blue map expanding in three dimensions. Thankfully, this included the room directly ahead of us, at the end of this hall, because there were several red dots present, indicating enemies.

  “Want to try out the cannon?” I asked, feeling my grin grow slightly as I continued walking towards the door at the end of the long hallway. The response I got back was a very energetic confirmation, so I raised my right hand to aim my fist at the door.

  The armor around my arm shifted, expanding and contracting as it rearranged itself. When it was done, there was a slight extension past my fist, a white cylinder that stretched out a few inches. Immediately, I began generating plasma mana in that area, which was captured by the armor and caused the new addition to glow red. “Firing!” Celeste’s voice rang out, before a thick beam of red light shot out, blasting against the door and burning a hole through it. I could hear a scream of pain from the other side, so a pleased smile crossed my lips.

  I shot off two more blasts before I reached the door, one above and one below. That way, by the time I arrived, there was a large enough hole present that I could simply step through. Looking at the room, I saw over a dozen shaking figures, familiar energy rifles aimed at me from all sides. “Sorry, but this is going to be a bad day for you.”

  Chapter 28: Race Against Time

  I saw the barrels of the gun glowing moments before bolts of energy shot out at me from a dozen directions. Not paying any attention to it, I allowed Celeste to handle the defense. “Let me try this out…” She said in a playful voice, and an array of blue hexagonal shields spread out around me to intercept the incoming attacks. The shielding method looked similar to the shield ships that the New Human Empire uses, so it was likely she copied the idea from them.

  As for me, I decided to try to take a lesson from someone else, as well. Stretching out my mana, I connected with the auras of the various humans surrounding me. Then, exercising control over the time mana which exists in all things, I simply stopped their hearts. Doing so used a fair amount of mana, but nothing that I could not afford.

  All around me, people dropped their weapons, bringing their hands up to grip their chests with looks of pain on their face. Their bodies slumped forward, but refused to fall from their previous positions. This was likely due to their hearts being frozen in time, unable to be moved with them until I cancelled the effect. As soon as I did so, they each fell to the ground, and I continued moving forward.

  “That was Tokemi’s trick, right?” Celeste asked, causing me to nod my head. Although I had never really used time mana before in combat, I knew the idea behind it. Even more so when it was stuff like that, which I had heard of Tokemi doing herself. Am I just holding myself back? I thought curiously as I marched forward.

  “John!” I heard an irritated Sharon calling out from behind me as she charged forward, apparently already merged with one of her rabbit companions. Her ears had elongated, moving to the top of her head and gaining the typical white fur. “We’re here!”

  Behind her were Yin and Yo, so it seemed like the whole team had been gathered. I nodded my head slightly to her, before turning towards the door at the opposite end of the large metal room. “Celeste is still mapping the area, so I’m not sure which way to go.”

  In the corner of my vision, I saw another prompt appearing, alerting me that Thalia was trying to reach me. Likely, she was annoyed that I didn’t answer when she called earlier, but I still didn’t really have the time to talk. “Alright.” Sharon said, moving to stand next to me. “We’ll talk about your going off on your own later. Let’s do what we came for and get out.”

  “Guys, I’ve mapped a section of the facility.” Celeste called out, speaking through the power armor she had turned into so that everyone can hear. “I haven’t seen a single Orik, so this is almost definitely not a main outpost. Everyone inside the facility is human. Furthermore, many of their appearances are identical, meaning that there is a high chance that they are entities purchased from the system.”

  “That’s… quite a lot of expense to put into this.” Yo spoke up, tilting her head and raising a slimebrow in a look of confusion. “Why would they be willing to spend so much gold for that?”

  Celeste shook my head, which felt really annoying by the way, and continued. “I don’t know. It probably has to do with our reason for being here. I’ll let you know when I find anything else.”

  Everyone nodded their head, and we continued forward. In the next room, we were almost ambushed by the same cloaking technology they had originally shown us at the Qu’Lopti homeworld. However, this time we had Celeste, who could monitor for such things. When she alerted me of the three assassins, I didn’t hesitate to stop their hearts as simply as I had the men in the last room.

  It wasn’t until nearly five minutes later, after we had passed through at least ten rooms, when we ran into a real problem. Until that point, I had been able to deal with whatever appeared without even worrying about the others interfering. However, I was surprised to find that I was suddenly unable to use my elemental manipulation. “What’s going on, Celeste?” I asked, looking to the three humans in front of me who had most definitely not dropped dead like I wanted them to.

  “I… don’t know? Dammit, it seems like they had countermeasures in place after all.” I couldn’t really blame Celeste for not being able to sense that, because it was not something we completely understood yet. However, it did cause Sharon and Yin to take action.

  Sharon sped forward, her body turning into a blur as she appeared between two of the men, growing long blades from her gloves that immediately severed their necks. Meanwhile,
Yin had… the easiest way to describe it is crushing. Regardless, the third assailant was now little more than meat paste on the floor.

  “Looks like it’s our turn.” Sharon said with a small grin, and I could only nod in agreement. Although I also had equipment that I could use, it was primarily designed to assist my elemental manipulation, or mimic it in some way. With my own powers sealed, it was likely my gear wouldn’t be of much use.

  As such, I moved to the back of the group with Yin, while Yo and Sharon advanced in the front. Even without my elemental powers, I still had Nature Magic to heal them with. Well, not like they would really need much healing. Thankfully, powerful individuals are likely way too expensive to place in this facility, if they were bought through the market.

  With nobody truly strong enough to fight back, our progress was unhindered until Celeste’s silver sand had mapped out the entire facility. When there was just a small percentage left to explore, she sent a warning to the rest of the group.

  “I think I’ve found the path we have to take, but there is a barrier before the final door.” I could tell from her tone that she was frustrated by that fact. “I can’t get through it, or any of the vents leading past.”

  Sharon seemed almost bored as she watched Yo tear down a steel door with her bare hands. “Is there anyone we need to worry about?” She asked, looking in my direction.