The hub is in complete chaos! Five large vehicles busted through the Grand-Mothership's wall, revealing outer space. They also each have four infantrymen riding them. Most of their weapons were plasma launchers, taking out groups of my allies. While all of them are doing what they can to fend them off. It looks like a losing battle.

But not on my watch!

I launch as many of my plasmas at those intruding vehicles as I possibly can. It dealt a bit of damage to them. One of them – a tank – turns towards me, and fires their plasmas at me. I, in my mech, jump up into the air, dodging the incoming explosives. Barely.

Once I land, the tank fires again, I can see that it has much bigger plasma launchers than I do. They most likely deal a lot more damage than mine. I sidestep, dodging them again, while still firing my own plasmas. I manage to fire a lot more rounds than the foe. Do my launchers have more ammunition or something?

All my shots are hitting the tank, it's not even trying to dodge mine. But it is taking quite a lot of hits, combined with my allies' fire-power, this vehicle really is 'tanking' the hits.

But while one of their vehicles is focusing on me, my own army starts to level out the battle. One of my plasma shots hit one of their fighters, blowing them up instantly along with taking out more chunks of the tank.

The other vehicles turn to me as well, which isn't good. I can probably take on one vehicle but not 5 at once.

That's when I saw a volley of huge plasma shots come down from above, landing on the other vehicles. The sudden damage made some of the foes look up, the distraction allowed friendly fighters to take them out.

I continued my assault on the enemies, firing shot after shot at them. I've noticed that most of the enemy infantry are gone, probably died. I've also noticed that those vehicles are backing up, seems like we're starting to overwhelm them.

We need to push, push them out of here! Another volley of large plasma shot rain on them, taking out one of the vehicles entirely. Now there are only 4 vehicles, all of them heavily damaged. With most of their weapons shot off, they can't do as much damage to us.

I lead the charge to push them out, firing my plasmas at them to finish off the rest of their weapons. Now they're out of theirs and most of their infantry are gone, they have little choice but to retreat.

However... They're not. They're just sitting there letting us destroy them. Slowly but surely, our power defeated the enemies. Maybe they just accepted their fate that there's no other way out than death itself.

But now that that's over, our forces celebrated. Guns being thrown into the air, cheers all around, though there's still that large hole in the wall giving everyone a view into outer space.

"Well done everyone!" A voice calls out, making most of the cheers quieten down. "Thanks to our efforts, we've successfully defended our Grand-Mothership!"

This caused the cheers to uproar louder than it was before.

"However..." The fighters quieten down again. "There is one particular fighter who turned the tides of the battle. One particular fighter who is most responsible for our victory."

The cheers have completely died down, everyone's listening to the announcer, wherever he is.

"That particular fighter is the one piloting that vehicle."

This made all of the fighters around me turn their heads towards me.

"Pilot..." The voice called out. "Please exit your vehicle and reveal yourself."

Okay, I don't think I'm in trouble for piloting a vehicle around this Grand-Mothership. I am that 'particular fighter' after all, right? I exit my vehicle, appearing on top of it. I look around, seeing hundreds of faces staring back at me.

"Ozone Atom-Breaker... What a surprise that out of all the fighters here, you're the one in that vehicle?"

"Uh, yeah, that's right," I said. "Is there a problem?"

"The fact that you haven't even been a fighter for a day yet and you have made a decision that no other fighter has. It's thanks to that that we've defended our Mothership. We will reward you three protonium salvage crates for your efforts."

Three!? I did not think I'd get three of what sounds like the best crates there is. And I got them for piloting a vehicle instead of going on foot? Not that I'm complaining, but this now makes me feel a bit spoiled.

"As for the rest of the fighters who contributed towards the defence, we will reward each of you a salvage crate as well." This made all them cheer once more.

After our moment of celebration, everyone gradually filtered back to whatever they were doing before we got attacked. But that just leaves me, where are my crates if I just received three? They might be in my bay.

Speaking of, my mech is still out here in the hub. I should probably take this back.

I enter my vehicle, taking on its form, and start walking it back to the garage. I notice all of the fighters moving out of my way as I travel. Seems like they know that vehicles can easily run over them if they don't, literally. Also, the others don't seem to be questioning about why I'm piloting a vehicle here in the first place.

I'm probably thinking too hard. If I'm not getting in trouble and instead got rewarded for piloting a vehicle, I don't think I should ponder on it too much.

But now there's another question, my bay is on the third floor, how am I going to get my mech into my bay?

"Hi, Ozone!" Oh... this fighter seems to always show up at the most convenient times. Right after hearing that, I feel Sky landing on top of my mech. "I got to say, I'm very jealous of you getting three protonium salvage crates."

"But all I did was use a vehicle," I said.

"Did anyone else use a vehicle to defend?" Oh, that's a fair point.

"Right, I get that now. But now I'm just getting my mech back to my bay."

"There's an easy way to do that." She points out. "The computer in your bay contains an advanced teleportation module that allows it to teleport your vehicle to it."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah. Leave your mech here and prove me wrong."

This convinced me to exit my mech and appear on top of it, right next to Sky. She gestures towards my bay, two floors directly above us.

Sigh...

Writer's block at its best here... Seriously, I haven't updated this story since August. When the next chapter will come out, I have NO idea.

Anyway, I have 1 review:

Guest (Chapter 15): "Oooooh! Attack on the mothership? Ominous! Also! Is that damn mega plasma gonna come online and shoot em in the face? Thats gonna be cool!"

Rynowm: "That Plasma Goliathon isn't there for show, many of the things you'll see in the grand-mothership will have a function besides aesthetics."