In only couple of hours, I will arrive back to the Shattar. I hoped that I wasn’t too late. From the information Swiftfin gave me, there was attack planned on the planet. They were hiring mercenaries from nearby systems to boost their numbers. From what I heard, a lot of mercenaries already joined them. With planet with almost no defenses and promise of big profits who would blame them. Well I would, but I have different opinion about what is right to do and about the price of it.

I didn’t know exact number of mercenaries who responded to their call, but I knew that I probably would have to fight my way towards the planet. First ten days in transit I and Lany focused on upgrading our equipment. We still had some parts left from Swiftfin, so I could make some things.

First, I made armor for Strike. She protested that it would hinder her movements and that she already had a kinetic barrier that would protect her better than my armor. That was her argument until she saw first prototype. I made it whole from plaststeel which made it light and easy to move in. I placed one piece plaststeel plates in the arms and legs so they don’t hinder her in fight, but for chest I made slightly different piece. I made it with overlapping plates that didn’t stiffen her movement and enabled her to move without problems. I would have done same for arms and legs, but I didn’t have enough materials. For now, she would have to do with what I made for her.

From the beginning she refused the helmet so I did next best thing. I made headband that would tie itself with the armor and create shield around her head. It wasn’t as good as actual helmet, but it was next best thing I could come up with for now.

When she finally saw the armor and tried it on she stopped arguing about it and asked for a small changes instead. She wanted to be able to strap on some blades that she would use with the telekinesis. I made her two long daggers that she could strap to her tight and build small device on her back that enabled her access to four sharp spikes in the container on her back. She could bring them up over her shoulder with her telekinesis.

Next came armor and weapons for Lany. First we spared in simulations to find what style suited her most. I found out that fighting wasn’t coming to her easily so it would be better to go with something simple. She had good reactions and she was pretty accurate, but she forgot to breathe correctly while she was moving and that let her be winded quickly. With All the information we got from the simulation, we decided to build her heavy armor. We didn’t have the right parts right now so for now we built simple exosuit in case of breach.

For a weapon she made herself a small pistol. Without the help of the armor it was best she could operate. With all the exercise she was getting stronger, but the more powerful weapons still had too much recoil for her. She would have to build some muscles before she starts using something with more punch. Still it was pretty good weapon. She made sure that it was accurate and train with it anytime she could. If I had right materials, I would at least build her some laser rifle.

Lastly came my own armor. I had to just make small upgrades for now as I didn’t have too much materials. I added thrusters around the armor to help me move better and faster. That was one of the things that were slowing me down in a fight. With that done we were prepared to start planning the defense of the spaceport.

With the help from Eleanor we managed to make a decent plan that had at least some chance to success. Eleanor was probably one who most changed on our way. She still didn’t trust strangers and liked to hide inside my body, but she no longer feared to go out. She even started to talk to Lany and Strike.

With the time left until our emerging from the wormhole we started to train. It was mostly simulation that Eleanor prepared, but Strike too had many experience with fighting and proved more than capable in teaching it. She was especially good at thinking like enemy. Without her, our plan would be far worse and our chances to get to the planet without fight would be slim.

Now that we were only couple of minutes from emerging from the wormhole, I went to the bridge. As I entered it, I saw Strike behind the weapons station while Lany was monitoring tactical station.

“Hi, so how it looks? Are you prepared?” I asked.

“Finally some action.”, ”I think I’m ready.” Said Strike and Lany at the same time. I saw that Lany was nervous, but Strike grinned at me. I couldn’t help it and smile back. Like her I was getting excited by the approaching action. I was worried about my friends, but at the same time I found, I liked the action.

“Ok, strap in. I don’t know what we’ll find on the other side, but better to be prepared than regret it later.” I said. We were all already wearing armors that we made. Like I said better to be prepared than regret it later.

“Aye, aye Captain.” Said Strike mockingly, but she strapped herself to weapons panel. Lany strapped herself without saying anything which wasn’t ideal too. I would have to teach them respond normally. Especially, if we became bigger organization.

I strapped myself into the pilot seat and checked the systems. Nothing seemed out of normal so we were prepared for the rescue. When I was finished, I looked up at the countdown. It was slowly going down until only couple of seconds were left.

Three, two, one, …. “Exiting wormhole. Wormhole shield emitter tucked inside. Activating the scanners.” I heard Eleanor through the speakers.

We emerged from the wormhole with the active scanners going all around the ship and shields powered to maximum. I didn’t want someone to jump us as we emerging from the wormhole. After couple of seconds first results from the scans came back. There were four ships stationed around the wormhole. I could see that they had their weapons still powered down.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” I heard through the COM.

“I’m a mercenary like you. I recently heard that you can join mercenaries here for some mission and make decent money.” I said.

He looked behind him and listened to someone. “Look if you wait a minute, I’ll call someone to talk to you.” Said the same voice through the COM, but it was different. Nervous or something.

“We’ll ….”

“They are powering their weapons.” Shouted Strike.

So much for the peaceful solution. I checked our weapons and they were charged to fifty percent. I pulled the thrusters to maximum and we jumped forward behind the four ships. This gave us time to charge the weapons. As we were going by they tried to shoot us, but they were only wasting their shots. Without AI, it would be almost impossible to shoot target moving at such speed.

“They are just wasting ammo.” Said Lany surprised. “I thought mercenaries would be better at this kind of thing. Even I know it’s bad idea to shoot from that position.”

“Not everyone shot at us.” Said Strike and truly one of the ships didn’t shot after us. They used this time to position themselves so they can shoot first.

I smiled. It would have worked, if we had different ship, but Paladin was far better than their ships. Before they were prepared I was already aiming at them with all weapons powered to max.

“I think you should shut down your cores and surrender.” I sent to the ships.

“One of them is trying to send message to planet, but I activated jamming as soon as we started to fight.” Said Eleanor.

“Your message won’t be delivered. I’m jamming on all bands. You either surrender or I’ll destroy you. You have no other option.” I said.

There was silence, but at least one of them powered down weapons. I don’t know what they were doing, but Eleanor showed me that there was a lot of COM communication. They were probably trying to come up with the plan to take me down, but their thrusters were pointed towards me. Only one of them was turned to me and that one powered down his weapons. He knew that he didn’t stand a chance against our ship.

“Who are you?” asked new voice. COM was coming from ship that reacted best.

I drew a deep breath. It was time to step up our game. “My name is Leya and I’m the Paladin. Planet Shatar is under our protection. Does it answer your question?”

“There are no Paladins. That’s just tale for children.” Said one of the other captains. I started to call them one, two and three. Only last one I called Wise, as he was the only one who knew probably what was happening right now.

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have pointed two laser and two plasma turrets on your ships. From readings of your shields and based on technology I saw till now, I would say you have level two shields or really worn level three shields. They wouldn’t stand against my level five lasers and level six plasma guns.” I said and looked at the readings. One of the shields had familiar response. It was something I saw somewhere before, but I couldn’t remember where.

There was only silence on the other side and in a mean time it clicked together. “And one of you have Steins level two shield. I would say badly configured, but I know that glitch and it is not easy to find.”

“What glitch are you talking about and how do you know I have Steins shield?” said the man with Steins shield.

I smiled. “There is slight flickering to your shield and you can’t find out what does it no matter what you do.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I had repaired it once and this same problem took me almost two days to find out. And that was on almost new shield generator.” I said.

“Ok, we understand what you are trying to say. We’ll jettison our power cores.” Said Wise. He knew that my threat against them was real as I knew what I was against. They on the other hand could only guess at the truth.

There was more COM communication between them once more, but in the end they all scuttled their cores. Now they had only emergency power, but I didn’t plan to destroy their cores. Wise would know how to get it back and make it work. Luckily that would take enough time for me to finish my mission.

“Thanks for the cooperation.” I said and closed the connection.

I waited until their cores were far enough from them and then I moved towards the planet. I did last scan of the ships and when I did, I found only small power sources. Nothing strong enough to contact someone on planet in time. At last not with Slip drive.

“They can send message as soon as we go towards the planet. We should at least destroy their antennas.” Said Strike.

“But with their weak power sources it would take their message couple of hours to deliver.” I said grinning. Strike didn’t want to learn much about the ship. Only thing that she was little interested in was weapons systems. That meant she knew very little about Slip drive and how it functioned.

“El prepare Slip drive and calculate emerging point behind Shatar’s third moon.”

Special shield emitters were extended from the ship. They should make shield around the ship that would protect it while going through the fifth dimension. I was still astounded by this drive as it was something that made sense, but at the same time it was hard think it was possible.

The slip drive had one function. It functioned in a way similar to wormhole, but it could be used only for small distance compared to the wormholes. It was because of huge energy needs of the drive. When Lany saw it for the first time she was confused about the workings of the drive. I explained it to her on sheet of paper where I wrote two dots. They were about ten centimeters from each other.

“Ok you see that there are two dots on paper. One is our ship and other is the destination where we want to go. As you can see they are fairly far from one another. With normal drive it would take us long time to get there.” I said and connected both points with the line.

“Now slip drive is different. We go to another dimension where the distance between this two points is almost none. It should work something like this.” I said and once more took the paper and folded it in two so that the dots touch each other. Now I took the pencil and punched through the paper.

“Now both dots are connected and we don’t have to go whole way as they are near each other in fifth dimension.” I said.

“But how can we know where is the second dot?” asked Lany.

“Well that’s what the special navigational equations are for. They are many times harder than calculation for normal coordinates and because of them the slip drive is only operable by the ships with the AI and it’s safer to use higher AI.” I said.

“What do you mean safer? Is it dangerous?” asked Lany then.

“Not with Eleanor, but with weaker AI it could be difficult. The AI has to calculate a lot of data while going through the Slip which means it has to be pretty powerful.” I told her.

“Then we’re lucky that we have Eleanor.” Said Lany.

“That you are.” Came from the speakers.

“Yes we are.” I said.

I shook my head to clear it of the unwanted thoughts and focused on the mission. I need to stay focused, because too many lives depended on me.

“Slip drive prepared. Ready to engage on your command Captain.” Said Eleanor.

“Thanks Eleanor. Engage in five.” I said.

I saw Lany and Strike look at me as this was first time I and Eleanor spoke like this. Strike also looked nervous and looked at Lany couple of times. I was curious as to what Lany told her about this drive.

As the count come to zero, I felt jolt as we crossed great distance in couple seconds. Before, when I was a human, I felt little nauseated, by slipping across the space, but now I felt fine. I looked behind and both Lany and Strike weren’t doing so good. They were white, but at least they didn’t lose their breakfast.

“You’ll get better at handling it with practice.” I said to them as I was looking at sensors feeds. “What is the situation Eleanor? Do we have company?”

“No ships in detected. We are safe for now. We are behind the moon as we wanted with only small deviation.” Said Eleanor.

“Good, I’ll move the ship so you can scan the planet.” I moved the ship slowly around the moon to get our first look on the planet after two months.

“There is large amount of ships around the planet. Most of them look like small attack craft, but there is definitely one Destroyer class ship. It looks old and beat up, but it’s still a destroyer. It is about five times our weight and more in armaments.” Said Eleanor.

“Yeah that could be problematic. What do you think? Do we stand a chance?” I asked Eleanor.

“What do you mean stand a chance? You plan to attack that thing?” asked Strike.

“I don’t know, but I want to look at all the option we have. Maybe one of them would give us opportunity to take it down.” I said.

This time even Lany turned to me. “I hope you’re joking.”

“We have three anti-matter missiles, six nuke and ten normal missiles.” Said Eleanor to me.

That should be enough to take it down, if we hit it right. Of course, there was the little secret Strike and Lany didn’t know about. What I wasn’t so sure about, was if I wanted to destroy it. For something this large they would need sufficient crew which meant somewhere around hundred crewmembers. I wasn’t prepared to kill that many people.

“What are you thinking about?” asked Lany.

“I try to think about option where we wouldn’t need to destroy them.” I said.

“Leya I looked at the sensors reading from when we jumped and one of the mercenaries managed to send the message towards the planet. The energy readings are stronger than I anticipated. He had to some backup power source.” Said Eleanor.

That wasn’t good. From the readings, I could see we have about two hours before signal from their scouts near the wormhole comes. “Ok that scrapped our option where we would pass ourselves as mercenaries. We don’t have enough time.” I said.

“We could try and sneak past them. There doesn’t seem to be as many of them on the other side of planet.” Said Lany.

“There are still too many of them. We wouldn’t stand a chance if they found us.” Said Strike.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Said Lany and raised her eyebrow at me.

Strike looked from Lany towards me and back. “What are you talking about? I should listen more to what you are saying, because I feel like I don’t know anything about this ship or you.”

“You didn’t see me flying this ship to its full capabilities and you didn’t see me to use all my skills. That’s why.” I paused and let that sink in. “Just know that we are not as outmatched as you think.”

She looked doubtfully at me, but in the end she just shrugged. “If you say so. So what are we going to do?”

“We could try to pass as asteroid. Most of them doesn’t look like bright bunch. When they find out about us it would be already too late.” I said.

“No we are too big. They would have to destroy us to show that their story about protecting the planet is true.” Said Eleanor.

“Yes, you are right. Didn’t thought about that.” I said deep in thought.

“What about overwhelming them?” said Lany.

I turned to her. “What do you mean?”

“We could send more asteroids towards the planet and force them to hunt them one by one. We could slip past them when we’ll see big enough hole.” Said Lany.

“That’s pretty good idea.” Said Strike.

I smiled because I knew what to do to make it even better. I already did something like that, but this time I don’t have that many ships against me and they’re not in such good state. “We could hide behind one of them and after they destroy it, we’ll hide in dust from the asteroid. Or barrel down through them.”

Strike and Lany smiled at this idea. “That should at least get us near enough to slip past them.” Said Strike.

I pulled the ship back and went to look for small asteroids. One by one I sent them towards the planet and hid behind one. I picked one which was somewhere in the middle of the group as it provided most cover. It took me about an hour to hunt them all down, but with the speed I gave them it should be enough for us get near the planet.

It didn’t take long for mercenaries to spot the asteroids and sent couple of ships to take care of them. They broke them apart to smaller chunks which would burn while entering the atmosphere. Our asteroid lasted longer than others, but in the end it was too destroyed.

Small chunks hit our shield which caused it to flare little. I hoped that the dust would cover it, but I was sure that sooner or later someone would saw it.

“Tell me when someone starts aiming at us. I want to be the one making the surprises, not the other way.” I said and prepared myself for the action.

For whole ten minutes nothing happened. We just drifted towards the planet and I had little time to think about how I got here. From the first time I started to play Virtua, I was only reacting to what others were doing. I always went somewhere and tried to stop someone. I needed to stop doing that. I needed to get before them or I would lose in time. I wasn’t sure how to do that, but Shatar was just beginning. I would have to do something to even the odds, but that was thought for the later. Now I had friends to save and enemies to scare.

“Someone is targeting us.” Called Strike.

I smiled and pulled the thrusters to max. I felt the pressure on my chest, as the acceleration forced me into the chair before the compensators lifted the weight from my chest. I wove through the remains of asteroids as the enemy fire turned the ones behind me to even finer dust.

I wasn’t worried about them catching us now, because we were just too close to the planet. I managed to dodge couple more of their attacks and we were already entering the atmosphere. With all the asteroid chunks burning around us they didn’t have a chance to target us. It had to be nice fire show for the inhabitants of this planet. As we got lower I placed the ship under the clouds and tried to hug the surface as much as I could. That should mess with their sensors and I wouldn’t be surprised if they lose us.

When I thought we were reasonably safe I changed the direction and flied towards the city. I wanted to look at the situation there before making more decision. It didn’t take me long to fly there and even from long distance I could see smoke columns rising from the city. From the looks of it they were under siege and they had serious problems.

“El, give me some targets.” I said.

“Right away.” Said Eleanor and I could see targets highlighted in red. They were mostly some tanks and heavy artillery. Things that needed to be taken down or the city would fall. I was surprised that it was still standing with all the heavy ordnance that mercenaries brought on the planet.

“Shouldn’t we announce ourselves first?” asked Lany.

That stopped me at my tracks. “Yes we should give them chance to pull out first.” I said and looked back at Lany. “Thanks for reminding me. Can you go and adjust one of the drones? I want to be able broadcast through it.”

“Right away.” Said Lany and meanwhile I used the cave where we hid before to cloak us from enemy scanners.

After about five minutes Lany returned and strapped herself in. “The drone is ready and I placed it near the ramp.”

“Ok, lets start this show.” I said and come out of the cave.

As soon as we were out I let the drone out and changed our position. I didn’t want to be anywhere near it when we start broadcasting. Finally, when we were good distance from it I hit the play button. I could hear immediately the message we prepared into it. “This is Paladin Leya. This planet is under protection of paladin’s. Anyone attacking the spaceport on this planet should pull out or we will be forced to retaliate.”

This went on until we heard explosion from the place where we let the drone out. If this was their response, we should show them ours. “Ell, do you still have the targets?”

“Yes, putting them on your display.” Said Ell.

“Thanks Ell. We should clean up this place a little.” I said, while targeting closest tanks. When I had solid lock on them I fired from the laser cannons and I could see that this tanks weren’t armored as heavily as they looked. The laser fire bisected them and from four tanks I fired one, two were cut in half and in other two I had to hit something explosive as there was only crater where they stood.

That was good and all, but it showed us to the enemy. Immediately missiles went flying after us. “El, countermeasures.” I said simply, but she was already using them from twelve missiles after us only one impacted our shield. We were almost over the city, so I wanted to start next phase of the plan.

“Strike, Lany, are you ready? Defenders look like they will need some help.” I said.

“Almost thought you wouldn’t ask.” Said Strike with hungry look.

I laughed. “Ohh, I wouldn’t do that to them. Wouldn’t want them to think that this will be easy as they thought.” I said without looking at Strike.

Both of them went towards the ramp where they would jump down from the ship. Strike would bolster their defense on the front, while Lany would work on the turret defense and anything else she’ll get her hands on. Meanwhile, I would take care of any ships attacking the city. We talked about this before arriving and this was best composition we could come up with.

First, I would let out Lany. She will jump when we will be next to city hall and Strike would hover her down with telekinesis. Next I would fly over the place where the fighting was heaviest and Strike would bolster the defense.

I flew strait for the city hall and opened the ramp when we neared it. When we were over it I did slow turn over the plaza. On sensors I could see that Lany managed to land without problems. She was already running towards someone on the ground. They’ll point her towards turret control.

With Lany on the ground, I let Eleanor scan the city walls for signs of fighting. From the readings, I could tell that the heaviest fighting was over the breach in north side of the wall. “Hang on to something. We’ll be coming in hot.” I said and move the ship towards the breach. Strike would have to jump from the ship and used telekinesis to smooth her landing as I couldn’t land without making an easy target from me.

“Just take me over the place and tell when I should jump. I’ll take care of everything else.” She said.

“Roger. Maybe I’ll be able to help you little.” I said with plan forming in my head.

As we neared the breach I pointed ship towards it and flipped it hundred and eighty degrees around. I pulled the thrusters to maximum to blead the speed fast. Besides the slowing down the thrusters pointed directly at the bridge and the soldiers there found out what it was like to have plasma drive pointed in your face.

After a short while the ship came to standstill. “Strike you can jump.” I called.

“Thanks, I hope you left me someone there.” She replied.

I saw her jump from the ship and at the same time Eleanor displayed couple of missiles coming for me. Now that I was alone I could use little more power while moving the ship. This new body could take it. The stress from acceleration wasn’t as big on it as on my human body.

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Hi everyone,

Took me longer than I anticipated to return here. I will try to post in normal pace now that everything looks calmer.

Like always, if you have some tips, I would be glad to receive them. :)

Hope you'll like this new chapter.