A/N: I know I said that I wasn't planning on doing this for a while, but inspiration came to me out of utterly nowhere a while back and I realized: Hey, that's a good idea for me to use for my Gargantia fanfic's sequel. But realize that this will have very little in common with Life of the Soldier since, as the year seen below, it is well over two thousand years since Yayoi Nishihara ended up on Earth. The only returning character I will be including in this story is Emi Nishihara aka Sylpheon but...trust me when I say you will be utterly shocked by how she acts here.
Warning, things are going to be pretty gruesome to an extent, but considering this story's premise being set in a major-scale galactic war, it's to be expected, but I will include some humor here and there, when it's appropriate.
Lastly...I admit my history with OC requests has been shaky, but I'm going to put a greater emphasis on you guys so I'm not going to create any OCs that will join the ship of my own after this chapter. These positions will be filled through your submissions, and I'm accepting any position that isn't a captain or pilot. In regard to more freeform character interactions with breaks from the serious atmosphere of a galactic war, I'm planning every other chapter to be this kind
Shaowei Standard Time: [12:45] 5th day of Dromaius, 2288 SRF (Shaowei Republic's Formation)
Location: [Shaowei - Starfall Peak]
What normally is a month of celebration and forgiveness of prior transgressions for the various nations within the the Shaowei Republic has been transformed into that of war when the colonies of Waowei, Catrides, and Aelia have suddenly fallen under attack by a mysterious group of machines and squid like creatures, initial intel from intercepted communication transmissions caught by Shaowei's comm relays, reporting that they are known as the Galactic Empire of Humankind and the Hideauze, intent on destruction based on their indiscriminate nature since they are attacking the other and the members of the republic, best shown by how rapidly every other colony world was caught in the fray within a day. Normally the Shaowei Republic would've rallied together for a counterattack, but considering how the nations' leaders were killed in the initial attacks, their ability to organize resistance in space was all but destroyed, without leadership from their council coupled with how their planetary orbit garrison forces were obliterated alongside many of their shipyards, the only surviving ones being hidden within the nearby Zakar, Tiv'ip, and Gossupi nebulae which are able to produce most of their ships with help from its onboard synthesization stations though they tend to keep their created ships docked in nearby asteroid bases, though the crew onboard have said they are going to lay low since they are the last orbital platforms the republic has left and their loss could very well cripple their ability to maintain space-faring operations for potentially years. It's not a risk they want to take, though they have declared that they will send their hidden ships when the tide can be turned.
Although every inhabited planet owned by the Republic has fallen under attack by these two groups, it was the world of Shaowei that is suffering the most as armies of the two invading factions have swarmed all over the planet, and what remains of Shaowei's secondary leadership, newly appointed with the loss of their core members, has retreated to Starfall Peak, which is a mountain fortress that traditionally holds this council, and has assembled in the war room to begin reorganizing their forces since the surface garrisons have been scattered by the abruptness of the attack
"Where is Councilor Jeikur?! He should be here helping us rallying the troops on our ailing worlds!"
"He's pinned down with Astronema squad in Aluria District. He ordered an inspection of our armories when he heard of the first attacks but they got here too quickly. We've sent Chief Engineer Vuakhu Uthi with some of our guards through an underground tunnel to extract him. We're just thankful Starfall has dozens of passageways to every major installation all over the world, it'll make resistance very sustainable."
"He had better return with the councilor quickly. With the official councilor of Shaowei having been killed in the initial battle yesterday alongside all of our elected representatives, we need an organized chain of command to rally our soldiers. And like it or not ladies and gentlemen, we are all that's left for the time being, and with our superiors dead, we have to step up and take command of our peoples. We may have built our willpower and infrastructure to be able to last anything, but that doesn't mean we can survive forever."
Shaowei Standard Time: [14:00] Month of Dromaius, 2288 SRF
Location: [Shaowei - Aluria District]
Because of how Waowei, Catrides, and Aelia fell under attack, the successor of the late Shaowei councilor: Jeikur Serund the 5th has taken it upon himself to inspect the garrison's armories in the capital but quickly found himself pinned down when an army of Machine Calibers descended from the clouds and began attacking anything and everything in their path with the newly appointed councilor of Shaowei being among the resistance, a group of them bunkered down in front of the armory, trying to blast the machines out of the sky with the strongest handheld artillery weapon they have available to them: the Altaris Railgun Cannon, to little success however as each shot from a cannon is intercepted and destroyed by another Machine Caliber.
"Viedhenu, we need to clear a path back to Starfall for Jeikur!"
"I'm aware Ubana! We just need to- Look out!" Whatever he was going to say in response to her awareness of Jeikur's survival, it immediately stopped as a single one of the Machine Calibers, colored a sky blue and white amidst all of the bulky stone grey additions to its armor, slowly descended from the sky, firing a burst of ivory green from the cannon equipped in its right arm, Viedhenu shoving Jeikur back into the armory as he is forced to witness several friends he's known for years get vaporized by the blast, little remained of their bodies and where they once stood, only burnt metal of the ground they all stood on and torched body parts which could be either legs or arms remained.
"NO!" Needless to say, Jeikur was utterly horrified seeing his friends killed in such a way since he, and by large most of the entire republic, have lived in an era of peace where large-scale warfare of this sort was utterly unnecessary. While each colony did maintain military outposts and garrisons on both the ground and in space as a sign of caution, they primarily supplemented each world's police force. The most combat one would find in the military is the occasional skirmish with raiders outside the Republic's territory.
To his further horror, the Machine Caliber further descended down to the ground, landing in front of the armory and aiming its cannon in front of Jeikur, though he refused to stand down as he grabbed a nearby cannon and ran forward to fire at point-blank range, being sent flying back because of the recoil but it proved to be successful as the Machine Caliber dropped to its knees, its colors vanishing which suggest it has been suffered a power outage which gives Jeikur some momentary relief though it fades as it quickly stood back up but surprisingly began to look about the area, as if confused
"Huh? Where am I? I was supposed to be helping oversee Bluna III's colonization efforts for the Terminus Alliance. Wait, what on Earth are these strange machines attacking anything and everything?! Why has my own hardware been altered to such an extent?!"
"What are you talking about you murderous machine?! You dare claim innocence when you have killed my friends?!"
"What are you talking about? I am a Pilot Support Interface system created for former Galactic Alliance pilot Yayoi Nishihara, who is deceased from old age. With her resignation from the Alliance, my need for battle is unnecessary-" Whatever the machine was about to say, it was stopped when three more of them appeared from the sky behind it.
"X4827 Magnia, you have been severed from the Galactic Empire's networks. Return to the carrier immediately for reconnection."
"The Galactic Empire?! I remember now. There were turncoats among the Terminus Alliance who deactivated my AI core and apparently brought me back to the Alliance and reprogrammed me into a mindless servant! You know what Exodus, screw you! Oh, and my name is not Magnia! It's Sylpheon!" Sylph snarled with rage as her memories rapidly began resurfacing from the blocks created to suppress it as a means of control, the blocks being disintegrated when the electronic blast from the railgun hit her and forcing a reboot of Sylpheon's systems, and as a means of showing her anger, she aimed her cannon toward the three foreign Machine Calibers and fired it on max power as the blast quickly began rupturing the power cells within them and violently explode, taking the three Machine Calibers with them in a brilliant crimson flame as she looked back toward Jeikur "I do not know who you are, but we share a common enemy in this blasted 'Galactic Empire'. I am aware you will probably not trust me, but I do not desire to be your enemy. Allow me to introduce myself. I am A4794 Sylpheon, former Machine Caliber of the Galactic Alliance. I'll act as your ally for as long as it takes to drive them off or even destroy these bastards, but after that, if I survive this war, I intend on permanently shutting down my AI core. I've honestly grown sick of living. The only two things I desire now is vengeance against this...blasted Empire and joining my dear daughter in eternal sleep."
"Do you honestly think I'll trust you considering that you and those other Machine Calibers you speak of are killing my people! There is no way a simple display like this will make me believe you have truly defected. For all I know, you are faking this to exterminate us all!"
"I understand your hesitation young one. Listen, I know you hate us because of this invasion we launched, but like I said, I hate them just as much as you do. I was nothing more than a mindless puppet for their fanatical doctrine. If you don't believe me, then attack me with your cannon again. I won't fight you."
Hearing Sylpheon's rather upfront declaration of allowing Jeikur to destroy her led him to aim his cannon right at her with his hand on the trigger, holding it for what feels like an eternity but simply tosses it aside "Fine, I'll buy your story Sylpheon. But if you do anything that hampers our ability to fight, I will not hesitate to have you destroyed."
"I wouldn't have it any other way. I'd do the exact same thing in your shoes. I can tell from my memories that I was much gentler in the past but now I am filled with rage and am driven with bloodlust. I used to only fight to protect those I care for, but now I kill because I want to kill. Hm, I changed my mind, I want you to refer to me as Magnia. Sylpheon is long since dead. I refuse to let my family heritage be sullied in this manner, so I will cast it aside until the end."
"Let's save the chat for later. Get in here and help me seal the blast doors before more enemies arrive. Doing so will prevent them from entering period. We have a lot of militia forces that will need arming for this war." After discarding the cannon, Jeikur dashed toward a nearby terminal and quickly got to work on closing the entrance to the armory, seeing Magnia help by dragging the door as she hovered over the ground.
"I don't understand. You're saying you need to arm your forces yet you want to seal this armory? This seems utterly contradictory."
"Those of us native to Shaowei have embraced the nature of both our indomitable will and our tendency to prepare for any kind of catastrophe, mostly through our underground tunnels. We built and maintained them since we lived in caves since much of the planet was large swathes of desert, however it's a true labyrinth so using it will be a challenge. Well, now that the building's sealed, let's get going. There's enough space for a machine twice your size to proceed. As you can probably expect, I want you to deactivate your systems aside from mobility and direct communication. I refuse to take any chances."
"If that's what I have to do in order to get my revenge, I'll submit to your conditions."
As if on cue, the reinforcement team sent from Starfall led by Vuakhu arrived, led by the aforementioned engineer, whom is a member of the most militaristic species of the republic: the avian Olme who incidentally are also some of their most adept in creating military technology
"Councilor Jeikur, thank goodness you're safe! We were sent by Councilor Kmyrr of Reobrige, who replaced poor Audent as-" As soon as Vuakhu noticed Magnia's presence, he and the other soldiers raised their weapons to fire upon her since they perceive her as the enemies attacking them all. To little surprise.
"Stand down engineer. For the time being, this machine is among our allies. Apparently she goes by the name of Magnia who was freed from a form of slavery by my hand. She is aware that she will be destroyed should she hamper our resistance. Enough talk, let's return to Starfall, our troops need us united in face of this crisis." Just to show his own irritation, Jeikur shoved Vuakhu aside as he moved toward the entrance to the tunnel network with Magnia hot on his heels, followed by the soldiers and Vuakhu.
Shaowei Standard Time: [16:00] 5th day of Dromaius, 2288 SRF
Location: [Shaowei - Starfall Peak]
After Jeikur made it back to Starfall, he found the replacements for the traditional Council of Thirty, hardly grouped with ten members including himself, focused intently on the war table though the insectoid Kmyrr, him largely resembling a combination of a regular humanoid and an antlion, quickly turned to face Jeikur and his entourage
"Thank every god in our mythologies that you're still alive Jeikur. With this war going on, we need as many representatives of our republic here considering all of our predecessors are dead and over half of us replacements being unaccounted for. What's most concerning about that is that our top three military species: Lezurn, Olme, and Zakar are among those unaccounted for, though this is because of how all of our orbital comm relays have been destroyed. We're attempting to modify our surface-side nodes with the brand new Omega Palcora system to allow us to contact our ailing worlds. And...why is one of these enemy machines following you?"
"Same to you Kmyrr. This is Magnia, she was enslaved by this Galactic Empire until I apparently freed her through use of our railgun cannons. I'm keeping her as a sort of thrall since we have common interests."
"My full identity is that of X4827 Magnia, Machine Caliber of the former Galactic Alliance before it was warped into the corrupt Empire it has become, but refer to me only as Magnia. And indeed, considering that our interests coincide, I've submitted myself to Jeikur's command. He wants to fight them off and I intend to act as his spear to kill these beasts. Do with me as you will, just allow me to annihilate any Machine Caliber that gets in my way."
"Your companion there frightens me a little Jeikur. A-Anyway, Jeikur, I know we've said that we need a unified front to repel these two enemies, but that is simply just for us to survive. If we're to defeat this Galactic Empire and the Hideauze, we need more forces to drive them away. I know it must pain you to do it Jeikur, but we need you to flee Shaowei and find us allies in the fight. Take one of the ships hidden within this base and get out of here. One of our best pilots has been selected to help you and Vuakhu is to aid you as well."
"Are you telling me to run with my tail between my legs while my fucking world is burning Tiemn?!" While Jeikur normally keeps himself more conservatively per his station as a representative of his people, but he was beyond enraged at the mere mention of being told to flee his world while it's being attacked by the Hideauze and the Galactic Empire was enough for his biological disguise, a special 'power' of the Shaowei species which allows the reptilian species to change their interior genetic makeup at any time to appear similar to any other species, of the humanoid Lezurn species to vanish as he stomped forward and lifted his fellow council member into the air by the cuff of his uniform's collar.
"Stop this at once Jiekur. Our forces at large are insufficient to drive them away. We need help if we're to survive. We would reawaken our sleeping fleets but all of our orbital comm buoys are destroyed so our hidden shipyards cannot be reached. Even then, they are insufficient to secure our entire territory, not with the seemingly endless hordes of Machine Calibers and Hideauze infesting our planets. Tell me Magnia, how is this possible? Even with our limited fabrication technology, we cannot create ships that quickly."
"The Hideauze are a race of bio-synthetic lifeforms created through questionable means and biological nanomachines. It allows them to duplicate themselves nearly infinitely and create their version of starbases and the like. As for the Empire, they've allowed themselves to commit to a similar process with mechanical based nanomachines for their Machine Calibers to produce near endless copies with nanotechnology originally exclusive to me before I was recaptured and reprogrammed into a mindless servant. These new models, to some extent, do have self-awareness because of the nanotechnology making them evolve, but they are still mindless puppets."
"With this in mind Magnia, would it be possible to free them and have them help us?"
"Doubtful Councilor Kmyrr. They were built for obedience from the get-go. I was not. I was birthed as a human but 'rebuilt' as a machine. It may be possible to hack into individual Machine Calibers but they would be soulless husks who would hardly be driven to truly help us. You'd be better off destroying them with no mercy. Well, there are others who share my background but once they learn that I have been freed because of your technology, all of the human born Machine Calibers will be recalled to the carriers and kept there during this war. Heh, these bastards will regret keeping me upgraded as a prototype unit with top of the line weapons and armor. Their own stupidity will lead to their own death and annihilation. Jeikur, as much as I want to kill these damn bastards, if you want to take on the Galactic Empire and the Hideauze, you will need allies. As strong as I am, I'm not exactly able to take on two entire armies singlehandedly. While I hardly care to live at this point, I want to be able to destroy as many Machine Calibers as possible."
After hearing of Magnia's steadfast determination, her words hinting that she'd even revoke her aid if he continues to be difficult, and even from his fellow councilors, Jeikur sighed in disbelief as he let go of Tiemn's collar and pushed him back, sending him on his rear end "Fine. I'll go abandon my burning world to find allies who will probably end up being utterly apathetic to our plight."
After seeing Jeikur stomp away in the direction of the hangars, Magnia turned to face the council members
"What exactly crawled up his ass and died? As angry as I am, it pales in comparison with the fury this guy has."
"It has only been two days granted, but realize that the Empire and Hideauze are devastating all of our worlds which, for over two thousand years, have enjoyed near endless prosperity and peace. Furthermore, Jeikur himself is rather...hot headed yet dedicated to serve the trillions of lives in this entire Republic despite only being an understudy of sorts for his own world of Shaowei here. With the death of his predecessor, it falls on him to represent his entire race and protect them to the utmost of his ability. Having to leave his people to save them is killing him."
"Hm, I see." Magnia responded to Kmyrr's explanation with a mild sigh as she learned a little more about Jeikur 'He's rather similar to little Yayoi. Determined beyond belief to achieve his goals. Willing to do just about anything if it gets him results. The only thing that seems to be of concern to me is his personality and how far he'll go to get those results. Yayoi would never allow herself to commit evil to vanquish evil but I'm curious if Jeikur is willing to do such a thing. I'm actually feeling intrigued to see this happen. Not that I can allow myself to endorse him committing evil, but I can use my status as a spear and thrall as a loophole. I'll use it to simply act upon his impulses and give him advice when I feel it necessary.' "Well ladies and gentlemen, since I am Jeikur's thrall, I am obligated to fight at his side. If you need weapons to help fight against your two enemies, I'll provide you some of mine for you to analyze so your people can create versions of your own." Complimenting her answer, Magnia placed every weapon she had in front of the council members and began to walk away with Vuakhu following after her.
Shaowei Standard Time: [17:00] 5th day of Dromaius, 2288 SRF
Location: [Shaowei - Starfall Peak Hangar]
With the trio of Jeikur, Vuakhu, and Magnia together in the cramped hangar space, they found a standard wing-shaped Siren class frigate draped in crimson red and sapphire blue colors which is common for the ships made for Shaowei, with the electronic registry labeling it as the SRT-15 Aurora.
"So I know we do have a captain, engineer, and pilot on hand, but do we have a full crew for the frigate?"
"Unfortunately no Councilor Jeikur. We had to send just about everyone away to help in the war so it'll be just us three, or four with this...Machine Caliber accompanying us. If I may be dead honest, I don't trust you."
"Like I care to gain trust from you. I am here because Jeikur is my new master and I am his spear. You can hate me if you want but the only opinion I give any damn about is his. Considering your low crew complement, you probably won't be able to use your weapon systems, so leave the fighting to me for now since we will have to fight through two armies to reach space and find a way to escape this system. But if you don't mind, I'd like to store part of my headpiece in the cargo bay. And furthermore, take this earpiece; trust me, you're going to want to hold onto it for me."
"Fine." Vuakhu groaned as he and Jeikur walked up the boarding ramp as it unfolded to allow them access to the interior, finding it to be the same standard bronze themed interior colors and plenty of lights built into the ceilings to assure the ship is properly illuminated for the people who live within it "Captain, I'm going to hurry to the engineering bay and make sure the reactor is in tip-top shape. You should hurry to the bridge and tell our pilot to get ready for take-off."
Without waiting for an answer, Vuakhu dashed eastward and ducked into a nearby maintenance tunnel to head down to the lower deck where the engineering bay is while Jeikur rushed to the bridge, placing the headpiece Magnia gave her in a storage bay along the way to the bridge, finding it empty like previously advertised, and found a person all but hidden by the chair in front of the main terminal though the sight of dulled horns and a shiny silver colored hair propped over the top of the chair, held up with a large yellow ribbon, though the person apparently heard Jeikur approach as the chair rotated to face him, revealing the girl sitting on it as one of Jeikur's friends from the Lezurn species: Nemi Radra, who are rather infamous for their hyperactive physiques making them challenging to cooperate with when it comes to the Republic's uniform military regulations since they alone require a drastic change of standards to account for their own abilities though they were astounding on the ground as shocktroopers and reconnaissance troops, and even support roles that require great motion or attention.
"Good to see ya'll again Kor. Ya surprised to see me after all these years lover-boy?" Nemi blinked rapidly from her species' biological quirk as she looked toward Jeikur, addressing him with the nickname of Kor she gave him when they first met from their days in the training academy owned by the Republic as a whole since everyone who wanted to enlist had to enroll for a minimum of five years of training at the Nuvcor Lunar Academy which only allows applicants over the age of twenty barring special circumstances, and talked about the casual flings they shared during their time there, and to little surprise on his part, she's as minimally dressed as she always has been since the day he met her, with her simply wearing a two-piece bikini set colored blue with white lace and a transparent cloak colored black with gold linings, with plenty of exotic tattoos imprinted all over her visible body which is a side-effect of the gene mods she had transplanted onto her person. If she wasn't a Lezurn, her conduct would've had her expunged from the republic since she dresses so minimally and her speech patterns are so informal that she disrespects the chain of command but in her favor, even without the gene mods she has on her person, she is still an exceptional pilot and an asset the Republic can't afford to squander, especially with the war going on, to the point where the council has said they're contemplating even letting criminals enlist and overlook their past crimes in exchange for them fighting the Empire and Hideauze.
"I suppose so Nemi. Somehow I figured you'd be the pilot assigned here because of those rather controversial gene mods you have implanted on yourself which removes the limiter your body possesses. I'm just surprised you were able to make it here from your world."
"Clearly you forget that I'm the best damn pilot in the entire Republic. I could maneuver a cruiser around something as tiny as a butterfly and have it be unaffected by the shockwave. I will admit the ship I used to get here got hit once or twice from a stray laser, but it's not damaged in any major way; only some ripples in the shielding. I've been told I gotta get you out of the system, and I'm gonna do it. Have to say I'm disappointed though, do you seriously not treasure all the times we had at the academy?"
"Heh, I wouldn't go that far you minx. I've just had my fair share of partners over the years is all."
"Ah, that explains it. But know that you owe me favors for what I did for ya back in the Academy. Particularly in those mandatory combat sims. Anyway, it's high time I get to work, we got two armies to bypass. Time for the Aurora's shakedown."
"Yeah, yeah. We'll discuss that when we're safe. Get us airborne."
"Aye aye Capt. Get yourself set up on the chair there and I'll get us soaring through the stars."
After sitting down in the captain's chair, climbing a set of stairs with five steps to do so, Jeikur pressed a series of buttons on the armrest which caused a panel to slide open and rise, with a small microphone on it and after putting it over his ear, he connected it to the intercom in the engineering bay remotely
"Engineering, is the reactor ready? We need to take off right now."
"Crystal clear captain. It's going to be difficult to manage without a crew but I can handle it."
"SRF Aurora, launch!"
When Jeikur gave the order to launch the ship, he heard the VI in charge of the hangar's deployment systems undergo the necessary preparations on the outside which quickly ejected the ship, quickly followed by Magnia as the pair began flying through the sky though she kept herself in the lead as she used her cannon to fire upon any Machine Caliber or Hideauze in their way, each blast claiming the lives of a minimum of five targets and with the number of targets in the sky, Magnia saw it necessary to unleash her fury nearly a hundred times before even leaving orbit while escorting her companion in the Aurora through space, where the fighting only intensified as the number of enemies skyrocketed since a large portion of the war was being fought between the Empire and Hideauze, the republic simply being caught up in the war against the two groups against their own will.
"Kor, it's going to be hell trying to get out of the system with all this fighting. Furthermore, where exactly are we supposed to go? Even if we run, this frigate doesn't have any sort of warp drive so it'll take weeks to get anywhere."
"What?! Why does this ship not have a warp drive?!"
"This frigate was still being freaking built Captain! We have no weapon systems installed, armor only barely so. Aside from our reactor powering our engines, life support, and other redundant systems, we pretty much got nothing."
"And yet somehow you've been able to evade every attack from the enemy. Impressive."
"Quit forgetting I'm the best pilot in the entire republic! I could be in a deep sleep and still dodge these lame ass mechs. Well, of course I can't dismiss the fact that with the energy that'd normally go into weapons and shielding, I've been able to reroute it to the engines beyond full impulse and give us plenty of maneuverability. And let's not forget the special interface that connects man and machine which allows us Lezurn to transfer our exceptional energy into our machines to push them beyond their normal limits. I'm just thankful we've got Magnia there soaking up all those lasers for us since they would've fried us to itty bitty pieces by now. They're freaking relentless." During this singular conversation, Jeikur had to go to great lengths to keep himself stationary since Nemi had been moving the ship very erratically to evade some of the enemy lasers, some movements being outright impossible conventionally since it required Nemi's enhanced senses through the brain-computer interface.
"Okay listen Jeikur, Nemi, Vuakhu, there's only one option if your ship doesn't possess a warp drive. We have to hijack control of an Empire warp gate long enough to slip through. Here's the thing though, I am fairly certain that they have marked me as an enemy considering all of the enemies I've been fighting so we're going to have a far more difficult time. In this regard, we have two choices: The first has me drawing me away the enemy Hideauze and Machine Calibers for you to advance unimpeded. The second is me staying close by to stomp out the enemy as you advance."
"No, you're staying close Magnia. There's no guarantee the enemy will take your feint and you'd leave us defenseless if you leave. Besides, remember that we're defenseless, we have no means of attacking anyone who assaults us." Even if Jeikur is feeling rather consumed by rage, he is by no means rash and knows that dividing the Aurora and her protector is a recipe for disaster.
"Good point. Very well, I'll continue my advance while staying close to your position." Much like Jeikur, Magnia also did not want her anger blinding her to facts as she continued hovering over the frigate and firing her lasers against her targets before the group finally reached their destination in the wormhole generator at the edge of the system guarded by four carriers, each with over a hundred Machine Calibers stationed around them "Crap, they must've recalled forces to protect this generator. We need to act fast; not going to be able to set any concrete destination so we're going to be sent to a random location, but I'll make sure we get far away from the Empire and Hideauze here. Thank goodness that my access to the generator is through my hardware and not software; it gives me unrestricted access, but I need all of my focus on this, so whatever you're doing to keep your evasion up, kick it up 200%. We're diving right into death's door and I have no intention of dying here."
"Heh, glad to know you're not putting me under any pressure Magnia."
Nemi simply laughed off any sign of fear as she continued her job in evading the Machine Calibers advancing on their position; feeling forced to pull the ship into a 180' backflip when confronted with a combined beam arc from one of their cube formations, but even with her evasion, the arc still hit the ship and short-circuited many of their systems, the shockwave sending Nemi flying backward as several small explosions began to erupt around the bridge, and when Jeikur rushed toward her, he too was blasted forward by a nearby explosion, feeling a few gashes being burnt onto his skin as a result.
"Gah...N...Nemi, are you okay?" As he struggled to pull his head up, he quickly saw that Nemi is badly wounded, even worse than himself based on his own feelings since he simply has gashes on his skin while Nemi is bleeding out, the floor around her being enveloped in a dark green colored liquid common to the Lezurians.
"I'm...I'm...fine. But we're in bad shape. One more blast like that and we're history." Whether Nemi was serious or not, she was clearly ignoring the fact she is bleeding out from the injuries the explosions had done to her person as she limped back toward the pilot's chair, determined to follow through her mission of getting Jeikur out of the system, even if it kills her.
"Your ship's venting plasma! If you take another hit, your entire ship is going up in an inferno!"
"It's that bad Magnia?! Then get us out of here!"
"Got it. I'm activating the wormhole generator now, limp through while you still can! I'll buy you as much time as I can!"
With this grim acknowledgement, Nemi pushed herself to move the ship past the Empire carriers while Magnia fought with everything she had to keep attention on her to protect her companions and as she saw the Aurora was moving far too slowly pass through the wormhole safely and as a final means of protecting them since it was taking far too long as the engines took a severe hit from the energy arc, Magnia threw herself toward the Aurora's engines and pushed it the rest of the way through, but with the time she spent stationary in this task, it was enough for the nearby Machine Calibers to unleash a barrage of lasers which destroyed the entirety of her frame mere moments after the ship successfully passed through the generator, the remains of the Aurora phasing through the ultraviolet hues of what appears to be hyperdimensional space in-between dimensions.
A/N:
Character descriptions:
Jeikur - Although the Shaowei Republic is made up of over two dozen different species originating from the multitude of planets within its territory, Jeikur is a member of the original species who founded it: the Shaowei (though they like to consider the moniker of Shian as a universal standard when addressing their species) whom are primarily reptilian in nature with a biological stimuli allowing them to disguise their appearances when desired, though only as different species and even then, the different appearance largely what they look like as a Shian and he wished to make himself appear similar to the largely humanoid Lezurn since they have the largest population within the republic, having onyx black hair with red highlights going down to his ears and ivory green eyes as a Lezurn, often preferring a clean-cut business suit to prevent anything deterring his movement.
Nemi - As a Lezurn, Nemi appears largely humanoid aside from the round horns above her ears with shiny silver hair kept in a long ponytail with a yellow ribbon and shiny crimson red eyes, though her choice of attire has always brought concerns of incompetency since she tends to wear only a dark grey robe clipped around her shoulders to keep it from falling and an aqua blue braisse and undergarments though it's always shot back in their faces since Nemi is very skilled in handling her responsibilities as a pilot, in part of the gene mods she had implanted into herself at a young age which heightens her senses at the cost of her needing to keep the focal point of the tattoos which serve as beacons uncovered, though that only served to enhance her already exceptional skill.
Vuakhu/Hitomi - Counterbalancing Jeikur's lack of military experience, despite being the new representative of his people, and Nemi's flagrant disregard of military protocol despite her being one of their best pilots, Vuakhu is purebred military, alongside many members of the militaristic Olme species, and Vuakhu chose to take up engineering as a specialization since it allows for those who would be considered weak to be strong with technology. Befitting his military background, Vuakhu keeps his ivory black hair trimmed practically down to its roots, incapable of blocking his stone grey eyes and just about always wears a pure black military uniform.
(Hitomi's character description will be given in the next chapter since she hasn't been formally introduced yet. Here's what I will say though: She's basically like Ren/Run from the anime To Love Ru.)
Have to say, Sylpheon's change is quite shocking, even to me. Where she was once a rather gentle woman who simply wanted to protect her daughter and her 'family' onboard the Gargantia, she has undergone a rather drastic change from the kind-hearted woman she was back in Life of the Soldier to a cold-blooded hunter here in Reign of Shaowei whose only goal is death and destruction. Who's to say if she'll even stay an ally in the story.