All my life, I'd wished to go on some grand adventure. One where I could explore the stars and discover new things. I never imagined that my first time exploring an unknown galaxy, I'd be blown out of space by a stray beam.

If you haven't guessed, I'm not Soran. He isn't even here right now. I'm just Alice, the captain of the ship that was now in dozens of pieces and probably has countless dead or injured. I don't exactly know how many survived or where we even are. I wasn't even sure of how in the world the rest of us would survive now. But I did know this, when I found the bastards that blew apart my ship, I'm going to freeze every last one from the inside out.

"Captain Milos... Captain Milos! Are you alright," I could hear being yelled at me.

"Ughh... Status report... Now!"

I opened my eyes to see Xain holding my shoulders. I'd still been in my chair beside Minerva.

"We've crashed on Valerion VI. Most of Asterism's systems have been disabled. Twenty percent of the crew confirmed KIA with another thirty percent injured. It appears that Soran, Edwin, Claire, and Haumea are among the missing officers.

I could understand Soran, Edwin, and Haumea. They likely found some trouble shortly after we were blasted out of the sky. Claire being missing was the most concerning.

"Claire should've been on board with us," I said. "What happened?"

"She attempted to sortie moments before the ship was shot down. Luckily, those Eidolons are tough, so she should be fine. Minerva has already given the order to search for her the moment we can reorient ourselves."

Great, another mountain of things to worry about. Unhooking myself from the chair, I tried standing to my feet. My legs were a little sore, and I could feel other aches around my body. For the most part, I didn't appear injured, though the fact my uniform was a bit tattered was unsettling.

"What do we have to defend ourselves?" I asked.

"We still have the Eidolons and a slew of Ghosts. We could probably get some of the fighters up and running. Most of the infantry weapons and suits are salvageable, but we don't have enough ammo to last us if we get into a big fight."

"Right... We should probably salvage what we can and move on. A large ship crashing here would surely bring unwanted attention in our direction..."

Xain nodded as he reached for his blaster, checking the charge. It was then an incoming communication request that came in, and its sender was Minerva. When I accepted, I could hear her groaning over the line. "Alice!? You're awake! I've been trying to reach you for some time now. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Minerva. I'm just a little out of it. Where are you?"

"I'm in what used to be the crew's quarters. Ms. Claudia and I have been rounding up the injured."

"Alright... I'm on my way to help out."

"N-No," Minerva lashed out. "I need you to link up Talia in the armory. Satomi picked up some incoming signals, and they definitely aren't friendly."

An attack already? That was certainly fast. "Alright, you are in charge in Soran's absence. I'll give you as much time as you need."

"Thank you, Alice... It's good to see that you're alright..."

The communication cut, and as I turned to the door, "Xain... you're with me. We've got company."

The two of us began to head for the armory, which was a challenge all on its own. Many of the ship's corridors were ruined, and there were completely impassable areas. Using Reiterpallach, I could clear some of the blocked hallways. The planet we were on was quite arid, and if I hadn't been able to manipulate temperature, I'd likely be powerless by this point. As we reached the Armory, we were met by dozens of the ship's soldiers and crew all arming themselves for what was coming. Out of the crowd, I managed to find Talia and Satomi surrounded by soldiers and engineers. Right now wouldn't be the best time to bug them, especially Talia.

So, I began looking for an armor locker. Stepping inside, I allowed the locker's mechanisms to begin their work. My clothing had been dissolved and replaced with a sleek bodysuit. Then, the locker began to place armor from my legs upward. When the machine was done, I stepped out and stretched my arms a bit, getting used to the weight. It'd been the first time I'd worn any kind of war gear. I remembered the stories Seraph told from her early days, but I didn't imagine the armor would be so tight, especially in the chest. Then, the pieces of the armor began to shift and move about, encasing my head with a helmet. A blue HUD appeared. I picked up a sidearm from the locker. The moment I did a small image displaying the sidearm as well as ammo count.

Heading over to the weapon rack, I tried finding something that I could use. Considering the situation, it was probably better to use a long rifle. But as I looked around to see the destruction that'd been brought upon our ship, I thought that maybe I deserved a little payback. So I continued looking around until I found a short-barreled shotgun. Then, I found two larger weapons sitting on another table. One of them was a rotary grenade launcher, something the soldiers called a "belcher" or something. The other was a heavy assault cannon that was belt-fed. When I reached for the assault gun, another soldier also reached for it. It was a Fafnar clad in heavier armor than I wore.

"Oh... Uh... Are you sure you want something a little more your size?" He said.

"What?" I said, accidentally allowing some of the venom to seep through. "Look... We've been blown out of space by an egotistical maniac, and unknown enemies are approaching us now. Now, which of you will I use to blow off steam?

The Fafnar raised his hands, reaching for the belcher instead. "Sorry XO Milos. Just take it."

Picking up the gun, the belt hooked onto my backpack, connecting the energy battery. It was quite hefty, so I had to thank Arcadia for my strength. Looking back on where Talia and Satomi were, they seemed to be done with the briefing they were giving. As I headed over to them, I ended up catching Satomi's eye first.

"Alice! You're awake. Oh... Wow... That's a rather large weapon."

"Yeah... I heard we're having company soon. I wanted to give them a proper welcome."

"Damn straight," said Talia. "Damned grubs... Because they came out of nowhere, I've got so much work to do... To make matters worse Soran isn't even here."

"Right... Well, we'll do our best to cover you while you get the ground transport ready. I'll make sure to give them extra hell for you, Talia," I said.

Talia nodded, and as she picked up her Sozdanyie, she began eyeing a phantom in the middle of some repairs. "Dammit, didn't I tell ya idiots to prioritize working models!" Talia yelled before storming off in that direction.

"I'll go help her," said Satomi, "I'd start heading to the hangar bay if I were you. It's the most open portion of the ship."

"Right..." Before leaving the armory, I gathered a decently sized squad of soldiers and had them follow me as I looked for Xain. When I found him, he'd been checking out a sniper rifle. He was already dressed in the mercenary gear he'd worn back on Necron Arcadia. Something about how he felt more comfortable in that than in our new shiny armor.

"You ready to head out?"

"Yes, ma'am," he sharply replied. "I'm just hoping that these are either the locals or some jabronies checking out a big explosion."

"You and me both."

Taking my makeshift squadron of soldiers, I headed straight for the hangar bay. It was just as chaotic as the Armory was, but now there was more heavy machinery involved. Toward the Eidolong wing, I saw a few ground convoys had already loaded up the Eidolons. Now, the rest of the machines were being loaded up as I watched on. The exit to the hangar had been heavily fortified with soldiers manning turrets and taking positions to defend us. I turned to my squad, who'd stood at attention the second I laid eyes on them.

"Alrighty, boys, and girls. We've got a welcome party on their way to greet us. Our mission objective is to defend the Asterism's wreckage at all costs. Once Lieutenant Commander Galatea gives the order, we are to abandon our vessel."

One of the soldiers, a Tau woman, raised her hand. "Ma'am, how long will we have to defend?"

"As long as we need to," I answered," Fortunately, we can salvage a lot of the Asterism's supplies. Our old girl is sturdy. But that's also a problem as we have more supplies now than we have bodies to use them. So we will need time to recover everything we can take and destroy what we can't. Now, any more questions?"

The soldiers remained silent, now awaiting the order.

"Alright... places people! Let's give our guests a warm welcome."

The soldiers all howled and cheered before rushing to take their places at the defensive line. Xain joined me as I did the same.

"Wow... you sounded pretty good for a ship captain," he chuckled.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Shut it... It's just all the war movies I've been watching lately."

"I honestly wouldn't peg you as being the type to watch that. But then again, I got talked into almost dying for money, so what do I know."

I could see much of the area we'd crashed in as we reached the defensive line. It was mostly sand followed by the arid heat. Great, we were in the middle of a desert. Getting another call on my A.U.D. I saw it was Claudia, so I patched it through.

"Officer Milos, I'll assume you've already reached the defensive line. What's the situation?"

"I haven't seen anything just yet," I answered, "But I'll report what I do find."

"Roger that... Just in case I will send an order for some Phantoms to be brought online. The enemy likely has a foothold on this planet if they're approaching us from the surface. But Minerva has issued a prohibition on the use of Eidolons for now. Also, try to restrict the use of your powers. Can't show the enemy all the cards we have."

"Copy that, over and out."

I'd found a nice spot with a barrier emplacement. Setting up my assault cannon in the emplacement an energy barrier formed giving me some cover while allowing the cannon's barrel to stick out. Now began the waiting game. There was no telling how long the unknown forces would arrive. Honestly, I hoped our scanners were just wrong, maybe they just detected a civilian convoy passing through. Maybe that convoy would spot us before we spotted them and turn away. The Asterism wasn't exactly a civilian ship.

But my wishes were dashed as a large cloud of sand began to approach us followed by ships of two differing designs.

"Alright, everyone! They're coming! Do not fire until they start!" I ordered.

Priming the assault cannon I aimed it reading to send a volley of beams in their direction. The ships landed just far away so that our main force couldn't hit them but close enough to see. Out of one drop ship a squadron of humanoid beings wearing black power armor stepped out armed with all manner of rifle or melee weapons. The colors that illuminated their metal bodies varied and there were even some women among them. Theirs were empty only filled with the light of Ether running through their bodies. They weren't as intimidating as the soldiers that exited their more robust ship.

As it landed a gang of heavily armored four-armed reverse-bipedal reptiles came stomping out of their ship with weapons as large as my assault cannon. I wouldn't lie if someone asked me if I had second thoughts about fighting. They all came shouting and bellowing words in their language. There were some smaller ones but smaller to them meant something entirely different to us.

The Dreg and the Collecitve. Both enemies I didn't think we'd be facing so early. Originally we weren't even supposed to even come to blows and I hoped we could've avoided this. But clearly, these guys had different plans. Though I had to admit when their ground forces showed up they were far fewer than I thought. There were two Dreg transport vehicles along with some Collective assault mechs, meaning this group isn't like the ones that were with Lucian.

Four Phantoms stepped out onto the defensive line aiming their weapons at our enemies. As they did, the Dreg assault vehicles began to transform and rise up. Now we'd been staring in the face of four mechs, two of them were massive. Prohibiting Eidolons made this so much harder.

"You must quell your fear little snowflake... The enemy bares its fangs... Show them you can be a terrifying blizzard..."

Something my mother would say in a situation like the one I found myself in now. Out of the Dreg's ship, another of their kind came trodding out of their ship. He wore much more splendid armor and carried with him a massive battle axe. He only stopped when he was ahead of everyone else in the army.

"Greetings far travelers!" He bellowed. "It is my greatest honor to welcome you to Valerion VI. I am Balenlok. My superiors would like for your immediate surrender so I will offer you the chance in their stead."

There was no way we could surrender to them at the second. Considering we'd been without our leader and Lucian's involvement in bringing the two forces together everyone that doesn't have a marker would likely be executed or tortured for information. Xain and Claudia included. So we responded by not responding.

This elicited not the response I was hoping for. Their leader, Balenlok began to laugh, chuckling so loud that I'm sure even the people inside the Asterism could hear him. He then gripped both ends of his axe and began to take his steps forward. "Good... Capture who you can and slaughter the rest..."

Another eruption of bellowing and howling came from the crowd of soldiers as they began to charge us. Beams and rockets began firing from their main forces striking the barrier emplacement and portions of the ship. So the exchange of fire began our forces returning their welcome in kind. Pulling the trigger on the assault cannon it began to heat up before firing a rapid line of energy bullets. The recoil nearly launched the gun out of my hands but I had to hold it steady. I had to keep firing to provide cover for the Phantoms to move in. Using my power I began cooling the barrel so that I could provide continuous fire. The sands began to kick up obscuring our vision for those of us on the ground.

"Xain... Mark our targets from your position! Phantoms stay near the ship's opening to keep stragglers away!"

Within the next few seconds, many red outlines began to form within the smoke. I began to fire in bursts at the outlines. A few of them shrugged the fire off like it meant nothing while some were cut down pretty quickly. Though by this point my energy reserves were beginning to dwindle too much. I hoped I wouldn't have to use my sidearms or more importantly Reiterpallach.

Out of the smoke, one of the Collective mechs broke through the cloud of sand. It was a tetrapod type with claws that had five barrels each. Before any of the Phantoms could do anything about it blasted the barricade atomizing a chunk of the left flank. There was also a beam cannon on its right shoulder, duly noted.

"Take that [Explative Redacted] down!" Shouted one of the soldiers as our infantry began to fire beam salvos and rockets at the mech. Only for the ordinance to bounce against the shielding. Two of the Phantoms drew beam daggers and stabbed into the Mech's shielding. One of them managed to penetrate the barrier only for its arm to be crushed in one of the Collective mech's claws. The Phantom on the left dropped its gun and used its manipulator to keep the barrier from closing. Above me, another Phantom rushed onto the scene armed with a nail pile drive. It slammed into the enemy mech's barrier pushing it some ways from the opening. Then from its back a mass of electricity before unleashing a small shockwave that completely disabled the shielding. Then the Phantom rammed the driver straight into the enemy's torso, the nail shooting into the enemy as it collided with its armor and a small explosion erupted from its back.

Stepping away from the Assault cannon I patched myself to every soldier in the area. "Espers! Front and center, I need a barrier to patch the left flank yesterday!"

Several soldiers in lighter armor came running from the ship and began erecting barriers of ether from their fingertips. Medics followed them trying to pull the new wounded from the front line. Meanwhile, a few adepts were laying out suppressing fire with a mix of elements.

"Phantom pilot 343 return to the ship for repairs... Have 626 take your place!"

"Yes ma'am," the pilot acknowledged.

By the time they all arrived the enemy managed to advance on the ship's opening. The Dreg began to switch to CQC arming themselves with their melee and more up-close-and-personal weapons. We would do the same. Picking up an energy sword nearby I activated it. When I looked back at my emplacement, an enemy Collective soldier hoped over it and used his wrist blade to cut the cannon's barrel in half. So much for that. Drawing my pistol I fired three rounds at the soldier and as each hit his body fell to the ground spewing out ether.

The Fafnar from earlier approached me firing his belcher at an enemy Dreg that came in after his Collective ally fell. The Dreg got pushed back out onto the other side of the barricade.

"Name?" I asked him.

"Private Naogumo Izumi ma'am!"

"Good... You're with me... Don't die private."

The two of us charged into the enemy forces, and Naogumo dropped his belcher in favor of a heavy shotgun. Any Collective soldier I saw, I either shot or cut down. Any Dreg soldier that came our way Naogumo had blown its head off or rammed one of his horns into their chest. By this point, the enemy managed to breach the inside of the Asterism. The Phantoms outside kept the enemy mechs at bay but for how much longer? Then there was still that larger Dreg to be concerned about. The fact that Balenlok hadn't joined the fight gave me pause.

"Battle Sister! I require your aid!" I could hear Naogumo shout. Turning I found him fighting two Dreg warriors. He'd been using his shotgun as a club but they were overwhelming him. Holstering my pistol I switched to the short shotgun. Charging the first dreg I switched the energy sword off and jammed it straight into a small open portion of its armor. Flipping the switch on again with the blade piercing through his large body. He wailed in pain but he didn't fall. Turning to me he took a swing at me with his axe from above. Backing away I fired the shotgun at him only for him to shrug it off like it was nothing Great an army of juggernauts... Where was Seraph when you needed her?

Firing two more rounds into the Dreg's armor, they did nothing as expected but that wasn't the goal. The Dreg charged me again this time dropping his weapon. I could've just stepped out of the way but I needed to take him down here. Letting the reptilian grab me he began squeezing me as hard as he could with his four arms. Naturally, it was as painful as getting cause between a boulder and a wall. But he gave me just the wiggle room I needed to strike. Freezing a bit of the air I created an ice dagger in my free hand then rammed it straight into the Dreg's neck. From there I began freezing up all the fluids in his body causing shards of ice to poke out in various places. As he died his body relaxed allowing me to climb right out from his grip before he came crashing to the ground.

Before catching my breath I looked over to Naogumo, who'd by this point had taken down his foe. I was relieved to see he was alive, but the battle wasn't over yet. There were still many enemies within the defensive perimeter and we were the only ones capable of stopping them before they reached the rest of the ship. Retrieving my energy sword I started to look for my next foe, that was until I could hear something. Over the gunshots, screaming, and sounds of blades and beams clashing there'd been a strange noise. As it got louder the fighting began to die down.

This particular sound... There's no way... Is it... Music?"

It was the sound of a guitar being played pretty well actually. Followed by the sounds of loud engines and loud shouting.

The clouds over the battlefield began to darken and red lightning flashed about. Then a column of lightning struck the two larger Dreg mechs where they stood causing them a massive amount of damage before exploding.

"Alright!" shouted a voice in the distance. "Party people! Your saviors have arrived! Your Children of this fine broken vessel listen to what I say! If you want a better place to live in then you'd better cover your ears!"

The skies began to fill with music all coming from a guitar and red lightning began to rain down like a God smiting his enemies. The Dreg ships and Collective vessels were shot down along with the enemy forces being set ablaze by the sound of the music.

"Everyone cover your ears!" I ordered

One by one the Dreg and Collective began to combust into flames as the music played on and by the time it was over most of the enemy forces were either dead or amid retreat. Getting to the cannon emplacement I tried to find Balenlok but I would fail. Instead, there was a field of dead and retreating soldiers now running through the desert.

"Don't let any escape Xain."

Following my orders I saw head pop one after the other. Then from the wreckage, another force appeared driving toward us. They had no mechs or ships but they did have a rather large amount of troop transports and convoys. Even stranger, a singular man was standing on top of the head vehicle with a V-type electric guitar. He had long black hair that was tied up in a ponytail and had been wearing a black military jacket over his shoulders with green cargo pants to complement it. As he reached the hole in the Asterism he tapped his guitar against the top of the vehicle and it stopped. Stepping down he slung his guitar over his back and raised his hand.

"Please don't shoot me, I'm unarmed... I'd like to speak to someone who's in charge here."

I climbed over the barricade and holstered my weapons. "That would be me right now," I answered.

"Swingin... You fine folks did alright for a bunch of stranded people... The name's Jugan... Jugan Asterius of the Coalition of Freedom."

His etiquette could use some work, but considering he just saved our lives so I could give him a pass for now. Taking off my helmet I threw it to the ground. As I was about to introduce myself I stopped as I saw Jugan's cheery demeanor suddenly change to one of genuine shook.

"Alara!? You survived!?