Everyone except Asuta stood on the deck of the reinforced specialized combat breaching shuttle, tense and waiting for the moment that they would leave hyperspace and begin the attack. The shuttle looked like an oversized drill on one end with a cylinder sticking on the other end with all the thrusters and weapons. They all sat inside the cylindrical portion, tightly strapped to their seats as they waited and in bulky combat exosuits that Asuta had provided them with. Roger and Sean had trained with them a little, and they provided them with massive strength even if their batteries wouldn’t last more than an hour if they were fighting full tilt. But for a short assault and retreat like this, Asuta assured them that this was the strongest option.

Asuta was waiting in the main ship, ready to cover their approach to Immortus station with all of her weapons. Meanwhile everyone else would infiltrate into the station and extract Lira, and Nyx if they ran across him.

Suddenly the ship shuddered and they exited hyperspace. On a holographic panel floating off the wall, dots appeared on an overhead map, showing the rest of the attacking fleet exited hyperspace behind them.

All the attacking ships immediately opened fire full force, catching the gathered Immortal Council Fleet off guard. Three of the defensive ships were destroyed in the initial barrage without even raising their shields, and several more were seriously damaged, unable to mount a full defense in time. The three hundred ships of the defensive fleet milled around in chaos, but quickly began to return fire and organize themselves now that they had overcome their surprise.

The breaching shuttle suddenly burst into motion as the thrusters fired full force and launched them like a missile straight towards Immortus Station out of the main ship. Sean could see on the screen that Asuta’s main ship was warming up like crazy as she charged the main cannon and twisted the vessel to point directly at Immortus Station.

The Station itself began to activate, hatches opened revealing weapons emplacements that slowly turned to face the attacking fleet.

A shimmering blue shield flickered into existence around the whole thing, then another, and another, until the whole thing appeared covered in a massive shimmering bubble. The view of the station kept becoming more and more distorted as Sean watched the screen, until suddenly in a giant flash of light Asuta’s main cannon fired.

The giant purple beam blasted directly into the layered shields, and each grew to a blinding blue glow before shattering the next second.

The beam kept blasting through shield after shield even as their breach shuttle kept barreling towards Immortus Station at high speed.

The screens were completely blinded for a few moments as the purple beam finished piercing the thin shields and hit something more substantial underneath. The whole screen was covered in blue light for a few seconds before it slowly faded and Sean was able to see again.

The purple beam, the one that had reduced an entire planet into molten rock, had been stopped. A single thick shield remained, glowing so brightly it was as if it was as if a massive bluish star was filling the screen. A star that was approaching massively as their ship kept accelerating towards it.

Sean braced himself even as he spotted the screen showing the battle behind them. The Independent Immortals had been pushed back for a few seconds, but behind the defensive fleet two hundred more ships had appeared from nowhere and joined in on the assault. Who were they? Why were they attacking?

But the blue star now filled the entire screen now and Sean braced himself against his seat a moment before impact.

With a massive crunch and electric hum, they slammed directly into the glowing shield and pierced through. The conical front of the ship pushing through and piercing a hole for the rest of the ship to pass through. Sean was thrown forward at the sudden change of momentum as piercing the shield eliminated most of the speed they had built up before.

The breaching shuttle kept flying towards Immortus Station and before Sean could think anything else there was a much deeper impact and he was slammed against his chair again as the shuttle pierced directly into the surface of the station like a nail entering a soft wood. He was sure that if he wasn’t wearing this exosuit then his body would be regenerating from at least several broken bones right now.

The seat released and everyone stood to their feet, Ash’s six tentacles unfurling and waving behind him like a series of snakes as he stood behind the rest of them. Ash opened the compartment in his arms activating the twin heavy duty lasers inside and deployed them and raised his arms at the ready.

The rest of them also raised their weapons and quickly jogged towards the conical front portion of the ship with Emily in the lead. She hit a large button on the side of the end of the cylinder portion and they waited by the metal door in front of them. The ship rumbled and there were loud crashes outside, and a few seconds later the door opened to reveal a large devastated hallway filled with sparking wires and twisted metal on either side of the ship leaving only a center strip directly ahead that appeared undamaged.

They all charged forward and inspected the area with their rifles held at the ready after making it away from the breach shuttle. The area appeared empty, no one nearby the breach just yet. Sean turned back and saw that the cone portion of the ship had opened up into three large segments and scraped and embedded themselves into the walls as they unfurled. As Sean watched a blue shimmering shield flickered on around the door back into the ship and the metal door closed back up behind them.

“It should hold for a while,” Emily said over their encrypted comms to their suits, “Let’s search quickly. Remember, stick together. We don’t want to leave anyone behind this time.”

“Yes, Emily.”

“Yes.”

“Affirmative.”

Emily took the lead as they carefully picked their way past the damage and sparking electrical wires and made it to an undamaged portion of the station. Emily took the lead, running at a jogging pace as the rest of them followed behind with their weapons at the ready.

— — —

Lira raised the hammer and gently struck at the chisel to slice off another chip of stone. She raised her hammer again and adjusted the chisel to the left slightly. She kept the hammer there in the air motionless for several seconds before letting out a deep sigh and dropping both the chisel and hammer to the ground unceremoniously. What was even the point? This piece was coming out terribly. She walked over to the couch and collapsed onto it and buried her face in the cushions. The metal collar bit into her skin as she lay there, its cold surface always reminding her that she couldn’t leave just yet. That she was a prisoner here.

She wanted to keep her face buried in the cushions, but the sensation of the collar began to trigger her so with a groan she rolled over onto her side. She should go eat something, treat herself to a nice meal. She would be eating alone, but at least it would be something else to do. She slowly slid up to a sitting position, dragging her body against the couch cushions as she did so.

Yes, she would go to a restaurant. That should cheer her up. It wasn’t like her stipend given to her by Immortus Station mattered anymore. It could only be spent here, and she would be gone as soon as Samir finally gave her the damn license. He was so evasive, always promising that it was coming soon. Lira wanted to hope he hadn’t tricked her, but if he didn’t accomplish something, made some real progress on it… Well, she didn’t know what she would do.

The lights flickered and the floor shook slightly like an earthquake. Lira perked up and looked around in confusion. What was that? Immortus Station never had power surges…

She waited for something to happen for a few minutes, but everything stayed the same. She strained her ears before sinking back on the couch. She stared over at the holopad sitting on the far end of her table. Grrrrrr. It was so far away and she didn’t want to move…

Suddenly there was a knock at her door and Lira immediately jumped. Someone knocking on her door? Who could it be? No one ever visited her anymore.

Before she could even walk over to answer, her door clicked and swung open on its own. Three men in black armor of the Security forces stepped in, two of them scanning the room while the man in the center fixed his eyes on her.

“Lira,” the center man said, “I’m Peter Rose. Please come with me, there’s been a situation.”

Lira reached up and tugged at her collar nervously as she stared at him.

“Si-Situation? What’s happened?”

“I’ll explain on the way,” the man said seriously, “Come with me, we must move quickly.”

The two other men walked around and flanked her on either side looming over her as Peter remained in place.

“O-Okay,” Lira said, “Lead the way I guess.”

She followed him into the hallway, with the two menacing guards following behind. She tugged nervously at the collar. Where were they taking her? What was happening?

They navigated through the hallways and Lira vaguely recognized where they were going. No, it couldn’t be…

But it became increasingly clear that, yes, she was correct in her guess. They were going straight for Nyx. And one of his parties that was happening right now. By the Shadow, it was embarrassing she even knew the schedule of their events so well that that was something that she knew instinctively.

“U- Uhm, Mr. Rose,” Lira stammered, “If we’re after Nyx Vesper, now might not be a good time. He’s in, you know… Can’t we just wait a bit?”

“No. I’ll go in after him,” Peter said, “You can stay out here. You two guard her by the door.”

“Yes, sir,” the man to Lira’s left said as they reached the door to the rooms. Peter took out a card and swiped it over the door and it swung open. Immediately the groans and other gross sounds came out from inside. Lira turned away and covered her ears while cringing. Ugh, this Peter better not be messing around to subject her to this…

After a minute or two, Nyx was dragged by his collar out of the room with an unamused Peter in front of him. Luckily it seems that he was wearing a clothing band so he wasn’t naked.

Lira raised her hands from her ears and with relief realized that all the gross sounds had died down even with the door still open.

“Bye Bye, Nyx!” dozens of voices chorused from inside the room in unison as Peter released Nyx and turned to the door.

“See you next time!” The voices inside shouted again in unison before the door was shut again. Lira shivered. Had they practiced that? It was so creepy…

“Yes,” Nyx said as he stared at her with a wide grin, “They practiced that. That sort of thing really turns some people on. We all got to pitch in, you know. Do our part for the group. I could see the question all over your face.”

“Shut up, Nyx,” Lira said.

Nyx laughed even as Peter silently took the lead and started leading them away from the room.

“Ah, you're practically red all over, Lira. No wonder you never came if even this much is making you so embarrassed. You should… experiment more. You got a fine enough ass to find some partners willing to help you out, and… ‘teach’ you some new techniques. That little boyfriend of yours would never have to know if you don’t tell him.”

“I’m fine without your help,” Lira spat out, remembering why she disliked Nyx so much most of the time, “Don’t drag me into… all of that back there. Gah, you’re so calm about it too…”

Nyx shrugged, “Whatever. Just some friendly advice, you do you. But you’re really missing out.”

“Quiet you two,” Peter suddenly said from the front, “Don’t say anything until we hand you over. No sudden movements or things might go wrong quickly. Do you understand?”

Lira nodded, still confused on what exactly was happening right now.

Nyx shrugged, “Whatever,” He said, “You’re just the big enemy of my whole group, but I guess I’ll listen to you anyway. I’m the one with the collar on.”

Lira gave a questioning glance at Nyx, who raised a returning eyebrow at her, appearing amused at her confusion.

“Good enough, I suppose,” Peter said, “Quiet from here on out.”

They continued forward and heard the shuffling of dozens of feet in the room ahead.

As they rounded the corner, Lira’s heart leapt as she saw the towering robot standing behind a group of three large exoskeleton armors, shining bronze with every inch of them covered so it was impossible to tell their identities. Opposite them stood dozens of security officers, shifting foot to foot and looking nervous.

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“Ash?” She blurted out loud as she saw the distinctive blue eyes of the robot with six unfamiliar tentacles waving around its back.

“Is that you?”

“Yes, Lira…” The robot said, “We’re here to save you.”

There was a long pause.

“And Nyx Vesper too.”

“Thanks for that pause, you robotic asshole,” Nyx said, “Really feeling the love here.”

Lira felt her vision tint red as she whirled around to face Nyx. She jumped forward and shoved him roughly, sending him stumbling back in surprise.

“You don’t get to talk to her that way, Nyx! She’s ten times the person you’ll ever be!”

Nyx recovered his stance and rubbed his chest where she had hit him and looked at her uncertainly.

“Damn. Someone’s touchy…”

Lira looked up and realized that everyone in the room had tensed and raised their weapons at each other. There was a moment of silence before Samir of all people bustled around the corner and paused as everyone looked at him. His eyes fixed on Lira and Nyx standing to the side away from both the Immortus Station security and the intruders.

“They’re escaping!” Samir shouted, “Station, activate both of their collars!”

“Samir, no…” Peter said, but it was too late. Her collar began to heat up, and a second later there was a sensation of head and pain at her neck, and then there was only darkness.

— — —

Ash only had a single moment of shock before the collars around Lira and Nyx’s necks lit up and their heads exploded into a spray of gore before anyone could react.

Peter Rose had gone after them a few minutes ago, claiming that he wanted to help them a few minutes ago. They had been waiting in a standoff with the security forces of the station. Their gear was nothing in comparison to the advanced exosuits Sean, Roger, and Emily were wearing, but It was only Peter’s orders that had forced the Security force from attacking anyways. Despite their combat advantage, all of them were Immortals. If one of the security team managed to get close enough then they could easily eat through the surface of the armor with just a broken finger or two and some dedication to the task.

So despite their overwhelming firepower advantage over them, especially with Ash on their side, the groups were evenly matched. Ash had to stay near the back so the three Immortals in the exosuits could hold back the crowd from Ash who was more vulnerable to attack.

Ash watched as Lira’s headless body hit the ground, blood spurting from her open neck, the collar she was wearing even now cutting away at any of the new flesh that formed.

The snarl of code and emotion in Ash’s mind roiled as he saw Lira hurt. Without pausing to analyze any further, Ash whipped out his six tentacles and ordered them to start eliminating targets. Before anyone else could recover from their shock, six of the security team fell to the ground with smoking holes in their foreheads from Ash’s laser beams. Ash raised his twin arm cannons in a flash as the Immortals slowly moved, still not fully prepared for battle yet. Ash blasted two more of the Security team with his larger arm lasers and one instantly fell to the ground with their upper torso boiled away by the beam. The other managed to raise a shield in time and it glowed brightly for a few seconds before failing and having them go through the same fate.

Ash used her tentacles to blast the first six Immortals from the security team on the ground as they twitched and started moving again, sending them limp to the ground once more.

Emily was quick on the uptake and charged forward towards the headless body of Nyx, who was closest to her, blasting her weapon at the other Immortals as she did so.

After Emily had taken two steps, the rest of the room seemed to catch on with what was happening. Roger and Sean, as well as the rest of the standing Security team started blasting each other in waves of chaotic gunfire shooting every which way.

Ash’s tentacles kept waving around pinpoint blasting any Immortals that were limp and slumped to the ground to keep them out of the fight. Ash’s two arm cannons swiveled independently to blast any Immortals that stood directly in her way as she moved forward.

Ash waded forward towards Lira’s downed form, moving as fast as his bulky body could move. The weapons of the opposing Immortals only made small burns in Ash’s exterior and didn’t make him slow in the slightest as he slid to a stop in front of Lira.

Ash’s tentacles were working overtime to rapidly strike rising Immortal after rising Immortal, trying to strike them before they regained their wits and turned on their shields again.

Ash felt something dissolving her foot and rapidly lifted it. One of the downed Immortals had crawled towards her and stuck their broken hand into Ash’s ankle. With only a few seconds of contact, Ash could feel the joint already had been significantly weakened. Ash pointed her arm down and blasted the Security officer point blank, the beam sinking into the metal floor with the force.

“Capture them! Don’t let them get away!” Ash heard faintly from the robed man from before, carrying over the chaos of the battle. Sean and Roger even now used their exosuits to fight off over a dozen other Immortals all targeting them at once.

Ash saw Emily had slung Nyx over her shoulder and was rapidly running back towards Sean and Roger, with the other man, Peter Rose, defending her. Blood was still running like a fountain from the severed necks of both Lira and Nyx as the collars remained active.

The security team around those two seemed confused, hesitating between raising and lowering their weapons as Peter yelled at them, even as he ran to keep pace with Emily.

Ash squatted down and used the six tentacles on her back to reach behind her and lift Lira’s limp body off of the ground. The over twenty Immortals Ash had been suppressing with their lasers regenerated and began grabbing their weapons and making their way to their feet.

Ash’s tentacles wrapped around Lira to hold her tightly by her torso to Ash’s back, leaving only her legs to dangle beneath limply.

Ash retracted his lasers into her arms and there was a heavy thunk as she switched weapons. The folded up swords raised up and snapped out to unfold in an instant, unfolding and then stiffening in place once fully extended into two long blades.

The Immortals charged Ash, most even throwing their weapons aside as they moved in from all sides to attack her.

“Yes, the robot! Destroy it before it escapes!” The same voice said again, “This is Samir, we have high priority armed intruders, I need reinforcements in sector…”

Emily and Peter had rejoined Roger and Sean and half of the Security Officers were still fighting while the other half paused, seeming confused by Peter’s shouting at them.

Ash ran forward and sliced a path through the Immortals that stood in her way. The blades were incredibly sharp and durable and passed through the Immortals bodies like they weren’t even there, slicing each of them nearly in half with each cut.

Ash kept moving forward through the crowd, even as she felt her blades slowly being eroded away from passing through the Immortals so many times.

The pile of gore and regenerating bodies behind Ash worked to her advantage as the Immortals charging from behind tripped in the pool's blood or the flailing limbs of the living halves of the Immortals Ash had already dealt with. Several of the Immortals managed glancing blows as they fell near Ash even as they were sliced in half. Ash could feel whole segments of her body weakening and having small chunks in her torso and legs being scooped out on a microscopic scale.

One of the Immortals managed a weak blow with their fist on Ash’s chest as they fell limp to the ground, and the metal bent inward and sagged like the flesh of a rotten fruit. A little closer in and they might have begun damaging one of Ash’s batteries or internal components.

Ash was nearly back to her family when there was a sudden tug on her back where she held Lira tightly to her. One of the Immortals from behind had managed to catch up and grabbed hold of one of Lira’s rapidly flapping legs. They were climbing it like a rope, a determined look on the man’s face.

One of Ash’s tentacles slightly unfurled and twisted to blast the man in the face. He fell to the ground, his hands going limp as he fell to the ground.

Peter was shouting at the people chasing Ash, but they didn’t seem to hear him over all the chaos still going on. Samir was still shouting and goading on the Immortals to attack Ash with fervor as Ash carried away Lira on her back.

Suddenly a loud voice boomed through the place, cutting through the noise.

“STOP! STOP ALL OF YOU, DAMMIT!”

Everyone but Ash paused as Peter shouted into a squarish device held near his mouth that one of the nearby Security Officers had given to him a few seconds ago.

Ash kept moving and after a second reached her family and quickly went behind the three exosuits with a slight limp. Her legs were extremely weak and felt like they were made of glass, eaten away by the grasping Immortals that had been attacking her from the floor.

“ALL OF THEM ARE LEAVING THIS STATION IN PEACE!” Peter shouted into his device in a commanding tone, “I AM PETER ROSE, FOUNDER AND LEADER OF THE IMMORTAL COUNCIL. YOU WILL STAND DOWN NOW OR I’LL HAVE YOU SCRUBBING TOILETS WITH A TOOTHBRUSH FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!”

Peter lowered the device as the remaining Station Officers stopped advancing and turned to look around for Samir, who had seemingly vanished in the chaos somehow. Ash had been sure she had been tracking him the whole time, but it seems he had slipped away while Ash had been distracted with the battle.

Peter turned to Emily who still had Nyx’s body slung over her shoulder.

“Go,” he said, “Get out of here. We’ll sort all of this out later when everyone’s a little calmer.”

Emily shifted Nyx’s weight on her shoulder.

“Thanks, Peter. I appreciate it,” Her voice said from the exosuit, her voice only slightly distorted as she spoke.

Ash scanned the gathered Immortals and while several appeared close to attacking again, sharp glares by Peter at the offenders made them reconsider.

Everyone started moving towards the breaching shuttle at high speed, leaving the group of Station Security behind. They were nearly there when there was a loud snap of breaking metal and Ash’s left leg crumpled into scrap, sending her crashing to the ground. It seems the Immortals had damaged her legs more than she had thought.

Sean and Roger quickly stopped and ran back while Emily hopped from foot to foot, her arms full holding Nyx.

Sean and Roger reached down and grabbed Ash on both sides of his body. Ash heard their exosuits straining and their motors strain with high pitched whines. But the two of them managed to lift Ash off of the ground and began carrying Ash forward one heavy step at a time. Ash tried to put her leg down to help push, but it was also near failure. Ash knew that it would likely crumple as well if it had to hold her entire weight all at once.

Emily jogged forward and back, checking the corners as Sean and Roger carried Ash through the hallways back to the destroyed section they had entered. Suddenly with a screech of tearing metal, the hand of Roger’s exosuit punched through the weakened metal of Ash’s torso and plunged into the internals. Ash’s eyes flickered as Roger stopped his exosuits hand just before it hit the power supply before retracting it from Ash’s body. Ash immediately hit the floor with a heavy thump as Emily ran up to the shuttle and lowered the defensive shield.

“Shit, sorry Ash,” Roger apologized as he reached down and grabbed lower down towards Ash’s hip for a better grip.

Emily disappeared through the open door of the shuttle before reappearing a second later without Nyx. Her exosuit was completely covered in blood from where Nyx’s body had been bleeding on her the whole time, much the same as Ash’s back and legs were the same.

Emily ran forward and joined Sean and Roger in lifting Ash off the ground, and moving towards the ship.

With a heavy grunt, they carried Ash inside the ship and dropped him back onto the floor, face first with a heavy thump. Ash quickly unfurled her tentacles to release Lira’s body from her back.

Sean quickly picked Lira up and began inspecting the collar still active around her neck. Ash used his arms to push himself up to a sitting position so he could see what was happening.

“It only has limited power,” Emily said to Sean, “No time, and the collar should shut off in twenty minutes or so. We have to get out of here first.”

“Okay,” Sean admitted after a long moment of holding Lira’s body, “But we should put them in the seats so they don’t fly around.”

“Sure. Do that, I’ll start the extraction process.”

Sean and Roger quickly strapped Nyx and Lira’s bodies to a pair of seats, and assisted Ash in lifting her into her own as well. Sean and Roger took their own seats and Emily sat up front in the piloting chair. The ship began rumbling and there was a loud screeching of metal from the station.

Ash looked up at the holographic screens above, and saw that the three segments of the conical portion of the ship was fusing back together into a single point. After it fully sealed with a heavy click, the ship began to slowly spin on the screen and thrusters fired full force into the station, creating a stream of fire burning the surroundings and sending hot plasma racing down the undamaged hallways nearby.

With the artificial gravity of the shuttle, Ash only felt slight shifts in movement from their spinning that was becoming more and more rapid as the thrusters kept firing and slowly causing their shuttle to slide out of the hole it had made in Immortus Station.

“Asuta, we’re coming out. Sending route and timings…” Emily said, barely audible even to Ash’s auditory sensors over the rumbling of engines and scraping of the metal of Immortus Station on the exterior of the shuttle.

With a jolt of motion, the breach shuttle finally fully extracted itself from Immortus Station. There was a single large burst of air that threw them forward for an instant, before the part of the station they had been in transitioned into a vacuum. The automatic sealant doors probably had sectioned off the part of the station when they detected the loss of air pressure.

The thrusters of the breach shuttle now began accelerating them up to speed.

There was a purple light in the far distance and suddenly the nearly invisible shield lit up again. The breach shuttle suddenly flipped around, still spinning in place rapidly, the thrusters spinning it faster and faster with each moment even as it pushed it forward.

Ash started feeling the rotational forces shifting her even through the artificial gravity they were under.

Just like before, the last shield of Immortus Station glowed brightly to stop Asuta’s planet destroying weapon. Their breaching shuttle slammed into it a second later and pierced through at full speed, barely even slowing this time as it did so.

They kept moving at high speed towards Asuta ship that was being fired on by dozens of smaller Immortal Council ships at once.

Several of the attackers turned and locked their weapons on their breaching shuttle even as their thrusters began slowing their rotation and bleeding off some of their momentum so they could land inside Asuta’s ship.

Asuta’s main ship diverted its defenses to viciously focus fire on the ships that had shifted their attention to the breaching shuttle. But it wasn’t without cost, the attackers that had remained dedicated began to land shots and do some serious damage through Asuta’s shields without all of the main ship’s weapons focused on them.

Several of the Immortal Council ships still managed to launch some missiles or hit them with a stray laser or two when they weren’t defending themselves from Asuta’s blitz of attacks.

The lasers skittered off the breach shuttle’s shields, while Asuta shot down the missiles fired at them with pinpoint shots with her own laser point defense system, causing them to explode early.

Their shuttle rumbled as some of the missiles exploded a little too close, and the shields lit up slightly as they were hit with more laser fire. But with one final wave of attacks, Asuta bought enough time for them to land the shuttle in the hangar bay. A rough landing at the maximum safe speed without damaging the main ship. They sank to the floor as the main ship’s artificial gravity took hold of them and the ship slid against the floor with a spray of sparks and carving a furrow in the pristine hangar floor. They slowed down until they came to a slow stop only a dozen feet from the far wall. The opening of the hangar was quickly sealed shut with a large metal door.

The main ship around them hummed loudly, stopping a few minutes later. Ash looked to the screens above as Emily stood and changed them to link to the exterior of the main ship. The view was distinctive. They were in hyperspace, they had made it out.

A few minutes later after Ash had been carried out of the breaching shuttle, Lira and Nyx’s collars finally ran out of power with a soft pop. They all watched as Nys and Lira’s heads quickly regenerated.

Lira opened her eyes and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

She looked around the hangar with confusion.

“Huh. What happened? Where am I?”

Sean stepped forward and took off the helmet to reveal his face.

“You’re with us, Lira,” he said, “You’re home.”

Lira let out a massive sigh of relief and her eyes were shining as she looked between Sean and Ash, “I am. I’ve missed you all so much… I’m so happy to be back.”