The melodic voice spoke again,

“I believe we can help each other. While I would love to go over the details now, we should probably head over to the hangar first.”

I had many questions, but there was a time and place, and this was neither.

The dark-clad figures began darting towards the smoke screen we had been headed towards. They had silenced submachine guns that they used to drive away any Paragon soldiers. The silencers didn’t do anything here, but it did suggest they were a stealth unit of sorts.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth we hurried after them.

On our team comms I spoke to Alex, “You ok?”

“Yeah, I- I’m fine.” A slightly shaky voice replied.

Right, stupid question.

A body exposed to a vacuum would have its oxygen expand rapidly.

Nobody would be fine after being inches away from having their lungs explode.

As we moved, I noticed the brutal efficiency with which these strangers cleared a path. The few shots they’d fired would land on the visors of their targets. Before entering a smokescreen, they would throw grenades to clear it, regardless of who might be inside.

Most concerning was the one who spoke to us, she moved far too fluidly to be someone with fast cyberware, yet her speed proved me wrong. And most absurd of all was her strength, just how much cyberware would a person need to become like that?

Feeling mildly safer with them clearing the way, I took a peek at how the others were doing.

Revy was not flying anymore, likely she had run low on gas. Three people in black armor surrounded and escorted her as they cut through the battlefield.

Switching to Jun I noticed he was no longer being carried by the young gangster. Kenzo had taken that role. Three more figures in black cleared the way for them.

I did not know why they were helping us, but people never help others for free in the world… Is what I used to truly believe.

I’m still skeptical, but I have been proven wrong before. And ended up killing someone who truly did not deserve it.

After ten minutes of running and careful treading through the battlefield, we arrived in front of the closed doors of the hangar. When we stopped in front of it the doors started sliding open.

On the other side, the gangsters that made it past the mayhem were waiting for us. Their weapons were drawn and pointed at the strangers with us.

Before anyone else could Alex spoke in the general comms, “Don’t know them, wouldn’t trust them. But did save our lives. They’re also escorting Jun here and, considering Kenzo is the only one with him, most likely saved his life as well.”

She knew that the gangsters were ruthless, so she appealed to their code of honor instead. Jun’s father couldn’t ignore the fact that they saved his son’s life.

Jun’s father made a gesture for the gangsters to lower their weapons. After they did so Alex added as an afterthought, “Oh, and one of them ripped an armored arm with brute strength. So, I wouldn’t pick a fight with them.”

It was almost comical how all the gangsters tensed up after that.

“Where are the soldiers stationed to guard the shuttle?” I asked, mildly curious if they were still alive.

“I relieved them of their duty, perks of being a captain.” Said the gangster leader.

The man in question beckoned us over with a nudge of his head. But raised his hand to stop the strangers when they attempted to follow us. He used the same hand to point at his temple.

A second later the woman with the artificial voice joined the general comms.

“What is it that you want?” Jun’s Father began the negotiations.

“Right now? To leave in that shuttle.” The voice answered.

“And after?”

The armored woman shifted her weight and crossed her arms. “To work together. I know what you took here. We both want the same thing. And we both would benefit from helping each other.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jun’s father tilted his head and stayed silent for a while.

Eventually, he asked, “How would you help?”

“I have the strength to invade the site, but lack the manpower to realistically take all the ships. I know that you do not wish to involve the higher-ups of your organization if you can help it. I am that help. All I ask is that we split the ships in a fair way.”

Jun’s father let out a small laugh. “If it were up to me, I’d take the opportunity. But it’s not me you have to convince, the one to make the big decisions is my wife. I suppose I can grant you an audience in exchange for your help today. But the shuttle ride is not free.”

The woman responded with melodic laughter. “How very opportunistic of you. Very well, name your price.”

The two started talking about money and I tuned them out.

Revy and Kenzo carrying Jun arrived shortly after. They walked to us.

“You two know them?” I asked while subtly indicating the strangers that escorted us here.

“Nope, never seen them before,” Revy replied.

“No, and if we did, we would have mentioned it in the comms.” Jun pointed out.

I shrugged. “Maybe you were too busy running.” Then looking at him I added, “Well, you know what I mean.”

After two more stragglers had entered the room Jun’s father spoke in the comms, “That’s all of us, let’s start boarding this thing and get out of here.”

Taking a better look around the hangar I noticed that there were only a dozen gangsters left in total. Some of them looked downcast.

Jun spoke in the team’s comms, “More than half of the other Sentai gangsters died, but all of us are alive. Why do you think these people were protecting us?”

Nobody had a reply for him.

I didn’t like this.

Despite my philosophical doubts, these people did not look like the kind that helped others without an ulterior motive.

As we boarded the shuttle Jun exclaimed in the team’s comms, “Oh, this is bad.”

“What is?” we all asked.

“The man with a scar is not here, the Yamamoto head being dead is troubling.”

“Why?” I blurted out.

“The vice head, the woman that was by the holo table in the safe house, is the type to hold a grudge.”

“Still not seeing the problem.”

“It’s not a you problem, it’s a Sentai problem. We don’t want the new head of the Yamamoto to make trouble with Paragon.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Thanks.” His dry voice replied.

The shuttle we were getting on was bigger than the old 21st-century model we stole months ago. This one could accommodate roughly 30 passengers and two pilots.

I looked at the co-pilot seat, and before I could even think of going there Alex scurried to it.

Deciding to settle for second best I sat on a first row seat, giving me a good view of the cockpit and the many holo screens there.

Batou placed Vera on a seat on the opposite side of the aisle and then sat next to me. Kenzo dropped Jun next to Vera and sat in the second row.

While we waited for the rest to board, I noticed that Jun and Vera looked like they were talking in private comms. Now that I thought about it, back when we met her, it felt like she knew Jun rather well. But they didn’t interact much together while with us.

Deciding to mind my own business I turned to look at the front.

Revy was pressing buttons and flipping switches with a veteran pilot’s ease.

“How rough of a flight do we have to expect?” I asked her.

“Not rough at all, I’ll keep us far from the fighting. Space is vast and their ships are slow chunks of metal. This shuttle can outrun any of those sluggish warships.”

Jun’s voice sounded in the comms, “I doubt they will bother with us at all. They’re fighting a battle out there, they don’t have time to look into a random shuttle that is leaving the spaceport.”

Now that I knew there was nothing to worry about, I leaned on the back of the seat and took a deep breath. While I wore the safety belts I glanced towards the back of the shuttle.

Our saviors in black armor were behind us, the gangsters were at the very end.

That was smart. I didn’t think about it immediately, but exposing my back to those unknown elements wasn’t the most brilliant idea I came up with. Though if they were to betray us, why save us in the first place?

Thankfully the gangsters thought about that and kept a close watch on their backs. Weapons within reach.

When we were all buckled up Jun’s father gave Revy the go-ahead to move.

The heavy metal doors opened, and we stared at the black void of space.

It stared back as we entered its cold embrace.

I kept my eyes on the screens of the outer cameras to see if I could see any signs of the battle. After observing for five minutes, I saw a small flash of light in the distance as the only indication of the fight going on.

After a bit more of observing nothing, I asked, “Can we see anything that is going on around us?”

Revy raised one of the holograms by the cockpit that she was observing. “The blue dots are US ships, the green ones are Paragon’s.”

On the 3D gridded map, numerous dots were scattered. While initially both forces looked to be in disarray, on closer inspection the battle was much more organized than it appeared.

The ships were spread out in groups that varied from 4 to 20 strong. Despite the wide distance between groups, they kept to their side of the battlefield. None wanted to get close and paint a target on themselves.

There must have been at least 400 ships. Paragon outnumbered the US 2 to 1.

“How long will they hold?” I asked.

Revy answered me, “Long, very long. Those are a lot of ships. And missiles typically get shot at the start together to overwhelm point defense. Leaving only railguns, considering how prohibitive they are on energy costs there are only 3 of them per ship. On top of that, they must both hit and manage to chew through all the armor. Space battles are slooooow.”

Alex shook her head. “That might change soon. There have been exciting talks for quite some time from the scientific community about a new energy cell that has been recently invented. It’s going to change everything. Just like the magnetic shield generators did. The only reason it hasn’t made the news yet is because of how impractical the current model is, but it’s only a matter of time till they find a fix.”

“Well,” Batou started, “More energy for everyone is good, right?”

Alex nodded. “It will improve everyone’s standard of living and it will make everything that runs on electricity less costly to maintain. But it will also allow for new weapons. Laser beams on ships will become a thing, and scores of railguns will become the norm. And who knows what other destructive weapons they’ll come up with once they have all that energy to experiment with.”

Jun grimly quoted, “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Our four voices responded in unison, “Shut up Jun.”