Hallie, enter Combat Mode.

[Entering Combat Mode… suggesting temporary retreat while mental stability resumes]

No.

[...Acknowledged]

I see our guys taking down more pirates by the second, and our barrier still holding, but probably not for long. We included the risk of being surrounded like this while we planned our incursion, and the solution we came up with was that we’d have to deal with the situation when it came; lacking any intel at the moment of the layout of the ship, we would only be making educated guesses, and you can’t come into a fight with a simple guess of how the enemy is going to hit you, you either know and prepare, or you adapt to the circumstances accordingly.

Activate Rejuvenation… i don’t know if you can crank it up to the max like before, but do your best Hallie.

[Rejuvenation now active]

Good. When I hear those words, I rush through our barrier, getting past it as if going through a thin veil of mist, and immediately a kinetic bullet pierces my right shoulder. Rejuvenation kicks in and starts healing the wound at a fast pace, when you can actually see the muscle and tendons regrowing. I flex my knees, and the still fleshy parts inflate like a ballon, and the metallic portion also gets bigger as they burst with power by the effect of Physical enhancement. Hallie is managing the activation of technomancy skills with only my will as an input, i’ll praise her later.

When I push myself to the front, I feel as the ground beneath me caves in a little and I'm propelled forward as a plasma bolt. The strain on my legs is considerable as I'm feeling my tendons rupture under the pressure I exerted, but I pay it no heed yet. As I'm on the air, I deploy the mantis blade from my forearm and when I get close to the cluster of pirates that are still alive, I do a clean swoop.

The centrifugal force pushes me forward still, even with the resistance from my attack just now, and I almost crash against a wall a few meters in front. I land on my knees, and when i try to get up i have some trouble as Rejuvenation is still healing the damage self-inflicted on my muscles; i only manage to turn my head and see that, the five remaining pirates from that group are now separated in ten pieces, each one of them in different angles.

I received several gunshots as well, and I'm bleeding in several parts of my body that are now closing up by themselves. But, the thought of my memory gaps just makes me ignore the pain… I needed something to vent my anger, I already had little I could call mine, and I felt like they took away my most precious possession, my memories.

Not giving me any time to ponder, another pirate group arrives from another corner. I glance at my guys and they are moving forward to rendezvous with me as I'm at least twenty meters away from them, but I hold up a hand in the air. The pirates are about to point their guns at me, but I look straight at them, and activate Eyes of Dominion at maximum power.

It feels like the metal around us vibrates in place, as the pirates stand frozen, unable to point their guns at me. I would like to use my own weapon to run them down, but using Eyes of Dominion at this level doesn’t allow me to move much.

“Leave them to me!” I shout at them, and I deactivate my skill.

I think I heard some complaining, but I muted everything in the world. Right now, I just wanted to be left alone with my fury, to unleash my anger on the first deserving target I could find, and this place was crawling with them.

The pirate group that got stunned tried to aim their weapons at me again, but by the time they got their bearings again, I had my own weapon ready, and I unleashed a full barrage at close distance. The measly shields they had on themselves were of no use against a high caliber plasma weapon fired at no more than seven meters. Only bodies with disintegrated body parts remained.

Luckly, no other group came, for now at least.

My team rushed to meet me, Santángel at the front of them, with his burns still fresh.

“Commander, please refrain from doing that, we need your commands” He admonished me.

I agree with him, I was never suited to commanding troops in the field, he’s more of a troop leader than I am.

“Sorry big guy… how are our wounded?” I asked.

He sighed and looked back, where the body of Ihmad lay still on the floor, unmoving.

“The rest of us will live, don’t worry. Yvonne is a damn good doctor” He answered.

“Guys…” Said Luca with a worried tone.

We all turned to face him, and he pointed to a corridor to the right.

“We need to move, the targets are closeby, but there’s dozens of cogliones coming our way and… “ He makes a pause as he seems like he’s listening to their comms “There's someone they are calling ‘the Brainscrew’ coming”.