So here's new chapter for you. Enjoy it :)

Thanks aeval for proofreading this chapter

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It was my first time sitting in the pilot seat for real. All the others were just a simulation. At first, it was almost real but there wasn’t any real danger of dying. But now if I do something wrong my ship and everything I have built in this game will crumble to dust. Also I had to make the right decision or the Trelians are going to pay for it.

As I was preparing for the lift off I got a pm from Anna, “So do you have some evidence? You have only a little time left until they start. The Battleship is already parking itself in orbit.”

“I don’t have any damning evidence, just some circumstantial evidence but I’m sure I’ll get my hands on it. I just don’t know if it will be before they start with the bombardment.” I replied.

“You can’t stop them without the evidence.” She told me.

“Yes I know and what about me? Did you guys already decided?” I asked the question for which I needed an answer the most.

“I … I don’t know. We talked about it, but we didn’t come to a decision. Do what you have to do and we’ll do what we have to do.” She said without emotions.

“So farewell for now. Maybe we’ll meet sometime in the future and you wouldn’t hate me then.” I said sadly.

There was a moment of silence, then before she disconnected I heard a faint whisper, “I don’t hate you.”

I was sitting in the pilots chair with a big smile on my face.

“Why are you smiling, when we can be dead in a few minutes?” asked Eleanora.

“I just got some good news from a friend.” I said with a smile.

I knew what I needed to do now. I needed to focus on the job and celebrate when everything is over. I used the thrusters to lift off from the ground.

“Sent probes to map the tunnels for an exit.” I commanded Eleanor.

“Yes captain.” Was the immediate reply that I got from her. She was more cheerful than normal. I think she liked being back in action.

I looked as the tunnels were being mapped. The Probes moved fast and I could already see that the tunnels were more complex than I first thought. After only three minutes I could see an exit and was dumbfounded at how the previous captain could even land in here with all the damage to the ship. He had to have been a superb pilot.

I press on the throttle lightly and started to move forward slowly while increasing my speed. I displayed only the exit tunnel and hooked myself to the sensors.

“Are you prepared El?”

“Always Captain. Let’s show them what we are made of!”

I pulled the throttle about one-quarter way and we shot forward towards the tunnel at a tremendous speed. I used all the new skills from my training to weave our way through the tunnels. It was an exhilarating feeling to fly for real this time. It took me only twenty seconds to fly towards to the exit. I blew out of the exit at an incredible speed and continued rising into the sky.

I looked through the sensors around my ship. I could see some traffic going away from the mine. I scanned them and was surprised to see Anna and her team inside one of them. I thought that they would already be somewhere else. I was interrupted by a COM communication from one of the vessels.

“Identify yourself unknown vessel.”

I ignored it and started to climb into orbit. There I started to look for a ship which was about to destroy the mine. It didn’t take me long as it was the biggest ship in orbit. Now that’s what I call a problem.

“El did you get something more from documents or not?” I asked before we get on with our plan.

“Sadly no. There is something, but all the documents are coded and it’s hard to crack them.”

“Ok. We’ll go with plan B then.”

“Yes captain. Calling battleship ORLIN of the United Sorokar Government.” She said.

That was first time I was hearing the name of this planet. From orbit I could see it was mostly made out of water with patches of land. One of the biggest, was where the mine was located. The more I looked at it, the more I thought: why would he want to shut the mine down?

“Cancel the last order.” I shouted, “I think I got something. How much time do we have?”

“Maximum twenty minutes, but I would say about fifteen.” She answered, then asked, “What did you find out?”

I started circling the planet and started scanning her, “Tell me, how many mines are there on this planet.”

“There are a total of five others mines.” She said and I destroyed my theory with it, “but only two of them are big enough to support heavy industry and potentially the construction of any defenses.” she continued, as she evidently knew where I was going with this.

“So hypothetically. If I wanted to attack this planet it would be best to first cripple their infrastructure. And what better way than to destroy half of their mining capacity.” I finished for her.

“Read the documents and focus on this theory. Try to find out if there is something in those files about it.” I said to her.

There was a momentary silence then a joyous shout, “Yes. There it is. I didn’t know what it was until now, since now I know what to look for. There are papers with mine coordinates but with dates prior to his purchase of the mine. I thought it they were just papers detailing his purchase. He even got the coordinates of the other mines in them.”

I was listening to her then asked her, “Can this ship target the other mine from its current position?”

“Yes it can.” Was the fast answer.

“Ok. I don’t know if I’m going too far but if he could pretend to be someone else, why not others? If there are more of them then they could try to take out both mines in one go.” I continued still thinking about all other possibilities.

“Then they wouldn’t have the resources to build any defenses for the invasion.” Eleonora said horrified.

Then she continued, “You know what our duty is. We have to stop them.” Then with a steel voice she finished, “at all costs.”

I knew she was telling the truth, but I was trying to think of a plan where we would not have to be branded as criminals and die. We had to at least try to warn the others.

“Broadcast it to the whole planet and also to their ship, but not only towards their bridge, but to the entire crew on the ship.” I commanded Eleanor.

“Done, but do you think it’s wise to warn them? They could launch a strike immediately and we could maybe get one of the missiles.”

“We have to try. Maybe the crew aren’t in on this plan to strike the mines. They could start a mutiny and save us the hard work.”

We looked at the Battleship and moved the ship between it and mine. There was no response from them or from the planet and that concerned me, as there should have been something at least. As I was losing confidence in our plan, they launched two projectiles toward both of the mines.

“I’m registering an outgoing vessel from the battle ship. It’s going towards the wormhole that leads to the Goldan system.” Said Eleanora.

“Track it if you can, but I have to focus on stopping these missiles first.” I replied, as I was moving to intercept the first projectile. It was just a slug of metal but it would do its job when it hits the mine. I needed to divert it or destroy it.

“Send two atomic missiles to divert it from its current course. That should be enough.” I commanded Eleanora and focused on the second projectile.

I could heard two plops as the missiles fired away. “Missiles away. Detonation expecting in fifteen seconds.”

“The second projectile is too far for the missiles to intercept. We don’t have the capability to stop it.” Eleanora said sadly with hint of horror in her voice.

I speed up after the missile and thought about what to do before it impacts the second mine. I didn’t even register my two missiles exploding until Eleanora told me about it. “Two missiles detonated. Target is successfully diverted and will miss the planet altogether.”

Better than I expected. It was probably because the projectile was just a slug of metal which could take a better kick than an asteroid which would just crumble.

“We are closing in on the second target. Do you have some sort of a plan captain?” she asked worriedly.

“Maybe.” I said still thinking about some better plan. “Do we have a tractor beam on the ship?”

“We do. But it’s not strong enough to divert or stop this projectile.”

“Yes, but what if we just grab the projectile and divert all power towards the thrusters. We should have enough power to stop it from landing, theoretically.”

“Theoretically yes but our ship would have to endure the strain and she’s not in a one hundred percent state as she is now.”

“We don’t have any other choice. Do it as we come around it. Use the tractor beam to hook us up with it” I said.

I was already almost upon the projectile and as I fly past it, I stopped speeding and rotate myself around the projectile. Then as I felt the tractor beam hook onto the projectile, I started to pick up our speed until I was pushing the ship at full throttle.

“It’s not enough. I’m rerouting more power to the thrusters and I’m also using the maneuvering thrusters.” Said Eleanor with a distracted voice as she was probably doing multiple complex calculation so our ship does not blow up.

I felt the kick and we were slowing, but it still was not enough. I felt the whole ship shaking from the overload, but still it wasn’t enough. We had to do something more. There was one possibility, but it was pretty insane. I had to consult it with Eleanora first as it was very dangerous and could do more harm than good.

“Eleanora what would happen if we detonate a singularity before us? Could it help us save them?” I asked.

There was a brief silence then she said, “Yes but it could also destroy much more. We would have to make it brief. And by brief I mean exactly a couple of seconds max.” Then she was silent for a couple seconds. “It’s possible but I would had to change the missile little to make them smaller and only cause a singularity of three seconds.”

“Ok do it. We don’t have much of a choice.” I said.

There were a tense couple of seconds as we were moving towards the ground. There was even a timer before we made impact with the ground. Currently there were thirty seconds remaining.

“You should hurry, we don’t have much time!” I shouted.

“I got it. You can launch it.”

I immediately entered the Captains codes and fired the singularity. For a second there was nothing and then there I was, looking at the singularity missile which created a small black hole. It was a terrifying sight to behold and I could feel the pull from it as it slowed us down. As soon as the black hole appeared, it started to collapse on itself and we were falling once more towards the ground.

The black hole was there for only three seconds. But we had received significant help from it.

“Any problems caused by the singularity that I should know of?” I asked.

“No everything looks fine. It was only there for a brief moment so there’s nothing that time cannot repair. Though there could be a small earthquake but nothing too strong.”

That wasn’t good. But probably better than the other possibility. I looked at the timer for impact and it still showed about twenty seconds to go and we are still dropping. I just hoped it would be enough. When the timer hit thirteen seconds, it started to slowly climb to fourteen then fifteen. After a while the window just vanished and we were floating with a five ton metal slug in air.

I lowered the engines output as it was putting out 150% this whole time. I’m afraid it would need an overhaul after this escapade. I started to descent near the mine, where I managed to place the projectile safely onto the ground. There were a lot of people watching me, but I didn’t want to go down there before I solved my problem with the Directors identity.

I had multiple Com requests, but I ignored them. I had to take it one thing at a time.

I went to look for Anna and the others. Eleanora helped me track the shuttle they were on and I speed up after their shuttle. We got to it before they even landed and I contacted them. “Hi, we need to talk and by this I mean all of us.” I said to her. Then I continued without emotions, “When you land I’ll take you on my ship and we’ll have a talk.”

Then I closed the connection to them. “Eleanora do we have some way to protect us while they’re here?”

“Yes I have small point defense inside of the cargo hold and on the bridge but I wouldn’t take them to bridge if you can’t trust them. You can load them into the cargo hold and have talk with them there.” She answered.

“Thanks I’ll do that.” I said and was silent as we continued to follow them. I looked up my status window and there were some big changes.

Status windowName:LeyaAlignment:MetalLevel:65Gender:FemaleRace:GorianClass:Paladin of shadowsTitles:Saviour of Trelians, Saviour of Sorok, One against many, Singularity survivor-Health:3780Health regen:3.44/SecStamina:930Stamina regen:9.15/SecShield:300Shield regen:5/Sec-Basic stats:Trainable only stats:Strength:48Vitality:53Agility:82Perception:61Intelligence:87Knowledge:78Charisma:53Luck:51Willpower:32Points left:5-Fame:16 020Reputation:153-Resistances:Melee: 3%Mental: 6%-Licence:None-Skills:Spaceship piloting (Master)

Pistol (Basic) lvl. 3

Assault rifle (Basic) lvl. 2

Weapon engineering (Intermediate) lvl.8

Armor engineering (Intermediate) lvl. 3

Ship repair (Advanced) lvl. 2

Adrenalin rush (Basic) lvl. 7Traits:Nanobot blood

Building trance

You are the first Master Pilot. Therefore this skill enables you to pilot any vessel capable of flight. May they be a big battleships or the smallest fighter. You are an Ace amongst your peers.

Spaceship piloting(Master)Progress:1%Type:PassiveThis skill enables you to operate basic ships and qualify you for owning your own ship. With this skill you can legally own only commercial ship without weapons. For better ships you need higher level or special privilege.

For being the first player to obtain Master level in Spaceship piloting you receive 1000 fame.

I was intrigued by this 1% progress. But like a lot of others things this day it would have to wait. Next I looked at titles.

Saviour of SorokBy saving the mines from certain destruction, you gave Sorok a fighting chance. Your reputation on Sorok has been elevated to friendly. They now celebrate you as their hero. You can be a candidate for a position in Sorok's government.

Friendly status with the people of Sorok

10 000 fame

One against manyYou are often in a situation where you are fighting against multiple opponents. Through your ingenuity you managed to survive and collect valuable experience. You know how to fight against multiple opponents and this gives you a slight advantage in your future encounters.

Bonus +10% when fighting against more than one opponent

Singularity survivorYou looked into a black hole and survived. You are one of the few who could see this extraordinary phenomena from up close. As always, something powerful like this changes you. You still don’t know what the change might be, but you feel that something inside you has changed.

???

5 000 fame

What the windows says is true. I feel different from normal, but I thought that it was because of approaching the meeting with my old team. I focused and tried to find out what has changed but I couldn’t find anything. I even asked Eleanora, but she too couldn’t find anything different with her scans.

No matter what I’ll find out in time. Now, we were closing in on the landing pad and I waited until the passenger shuttle settled down and then left. I could see four people waiting on the platform. I skillfully landed near them and then opened the cargo hold door. From the left side of the ship I disengaged a platform for them. One by one they entered my ship.

I had locked all doors in there and closed the ship. I lifted off from the platform and went somewhere where we could talk. I went somewhere over the ocean and activated the hover option on the control panel. I sat there for about two minutes until Eleanora spoke in an encouraging tone, “Don’t worry I’m with you. We’ll make it thru.”

“Thanks. What would I do without you?” I said while shaking my head and headed towards the cargo hold with a smile on my face.

“Of course you would be lost.” Said Eleanora.

I came before the doors leading towards the cargo hold and opened them with a voice command.

When I walked into the cargo hold I could see them sitting in a circle in the middle of hold. They were arguing about something and I could guess about what or better said who.

“Hi, so we meet once more.” I interrupted them.

There was a silence as everyone stopped speaking and looked at me. The first to react was John who jumped to his feet and started running after me. But he didn’t even manage to do two steps before there was hiss and two turrets fired in front of his feet. He immediately stopped and looked at me with a hateful expression.

“So this is it. You came just to threaten us. To give you what you want?” he spat at me.

“No this is for my protection and from looking at your behavior it is necessary.” I answered back to him in a calm manner, “Now, can we talk or do you want to shout at me some more?”

He obviously wanted to do that just to spite me, but decided to let it go, “I’ll behave but we have nothing to talk about. I’m already decided.”

“Then I can set you down back onto a landing pad and then I can talk with the others.” I said.

“No I have to be here so you don’t poison them with your excuses.” He said and moved to the back.

I moved towards the others from the group, “Hi first I want to introduce my friend Eleanor. Say hi El.”

“Hi my name is Eleanor.” A kind voice could be heard from the speakers then it changed to a cold and angry one, “If you try to attack my captain one more time, I will shoot to kill.”

I could see that they were all uncomfortable with this new information. “Don’t worry if you don’t do anything to me you have nothing to fear. She’s just little overprotective of me.” I tried to calm them down.

“Now to the main topic. What have you decided about me?”

They looked at me, then Rock started, “We decided to hear what you have to say. We want to know the full story without any bullocks.”

“Yes we decided to hear your side of the story before we’ll decide what to do.” Joined Anna.

I looked at them and tried to consolidate my thoughts, “Ok here is what happened” and I started to tell them the true story about what happened. I didn’t conceal anything from them. Even that I could save them if I had insisted on installing the navigation panel myself. I told them even what happened after the trial, how the media told everyone a different story than the one that was told in court. I didn’t cry over it as it all happened long ago and I was actually relieved to finally tell it to someone else.

When I ended my story they just stood there. I was waiting for some reaction but no one said anything. Even John was silent and didn’t say anything. Suddenly I had the urge to stop hiding my face from everyone. So I decided to take off my helmet and show my face to everyone.

I didn’t count for the reaction it would create. Especially in John. He looked at me and started crying. I didn’t know what to do and looked at the others for help. They just shrugged. Finally, Anna went and hugged him.

“He was my father. I don’t know who I should trust now.” He was saying between the sobbing. Then he looked at Anna and asked, “Do you think she’s telling the truth?”

He looked at her with so much hope I had to turn my head away. I now understood why he was hating me so much. John Merrick was his father. I barely heard, “Yes, I think she’s telling the truth.”

I whirled around and looked at her. She was looking back at me and smiling with a sad smile. “I believe you but I can't decide for the others.”

It was Lee who surprised me as he just got up and hugged me. Finally even Rock came to me and said, “I’m sorry I doubted you.”

After that we were talking about what we are doing in real life. They knew what I was doing so they talked about their job. Anna was a successful designer with her own collection. Rock was a construction worker, which explained his enormous body. Lee worked as an accountant but had a hobby of making explosives. It was a dangerous hobby so he moved it into the game.

We were interrupted by a Com communication during our talking, “Leya you have Com request from Sorok.”

“Please Patch me through El.” I said to her and turned my attention towards the Com.

“You think you can hide in a game? We know who you are and we already told everyone on this planet. You don’t have a place to hide.” Said a voice over my Com.

“Who am I speaking to?” I asked.

“Doesn’t matter. You are a walking corpse. We’ll get you someday.” And with this he disconnected.

I turned to my friends, but they were already telling me they didn’t do it. Even John told me so. He told me he would tell me if it was him because he would want to hear me cry when I found out. But that was before he started to slowly believe me.

“Leya I pinpointed the location of call. If you want, I can show you.”

I was thinking about it for a while. “No it wouldn’t change anything. Nevertheless I wanted to go away from this planet. This just made it that much more urgent.” I said calmly.

“So this is what you’ve been through all this time?” asked Lee.

“Yes but the threats are nothing. People like him, I don’t have to fear. It’s the ones who don’t tell anything. They are the dangerous ones.” I said sadly then asked them, “So, where should I drop you guys off?”

“Do you want to get rid of us so soon?” said Anna with a smile.

“No, but I’m not sure where I’m going and I don’t want to drag you into my problems.”

Anna looked at the others and they all nodded, “This is a pretty big ship. You would need a crew to man it, to use it efficiently.”

I didn’t know that I could smile even more, “Then welcome aboard.”

“Proximity alarm. Five ships incoming.” Said Eleanora.

I started to run back to bridge, “We’ll talk about positions next time. Now I need to show some newbies how to fly.” I said with a smile and commanded to Eleanora, “Give full crew access to my friends.”

Anna was looking at the others as I left and she shook her head. “She changed so much from the shy girl who asked me for a job.”