I sat in one of the multiple infiltration pods on the ship, made to be ejected at high speeds into enemy ships. This wouldn't be a new situation for me, but I felt a horrible premonition telling me something horrible was going to happen. I sigh deeply, running my hand through my medium length silver hair to hold it out of my line of vision with my elven ears.

"Captain" A familiar, soft voice came from my left side. I turned to see my colleague Danica, who on the unofficial end I had been in a relationship with for the past several few years, while officially she was my Lieutenant, If not for certain soldier regulations we would have been married a long while ago.

"How many times do I have to tell you to just call me 'Dan' Dear?" I teased as I put my arm around her shoulder, a few of men chuckling at the short to the upcoming battle.

She fidgeted under my touch, and with a pouting glare spoke. "Not during working hours I won't, And if you don't focus on the mission right now, You'll have to sleep on a couch in the common room."

I flinched at the threat as my soldiers jeered at me in friendly jesting. With a reluctant sigh I removed my arm from her shoulder just as the sound transmission artifact attached to my ear sounded off. "I hope you're not having too much fun down there captain, the transport ship will be here any moment now." A gruff voice sounded in my ear.

"Understood general." I said in my best official tone as I made a shushing motion with my finger towards the rambunctious rebels. I strapped myself to my seat, Readjusting the mythril blade at my side. Leaning back I breathed in and out slowly, Circulating my mana through their veins to prep myself.

"They're here." Was the only warning that came over the intercom before the pod was quickly ejected out of the ship at a high velocity.

I sat up as the pod rattled gently as the speed continued to increase. "Remember boys, once the pod reaches them, get in there and retrieve or destroy whatever Whatever is in this case." I activate a 3D hologram from my watch of an ornate box covered in runes I couldn't place the meaning of, despite my rather extensive knowledge of runes. The box was from the Ancient empire, they had been gone for countless of thousands of years, much of the Artifacts that was recovered from their scattered ruins seemed to contain great power or lead to large technological / magical advances.

Shaking myself from my thoughts I wrapped my hands tightly around my harness mere moments before we impacted the side of the transport ship, The pointed end of the pod piercing into the hull of the ship, small hatches clasping onto the ship to keep it in place.

Quickly I unstrapped myself from my seat as the front spike of the ship split open into three pieces, with the bottom having a small flight of stairs which I quickly descended before the rest, Pulling my sword from its sheathe as I examined the vast cargo hold we had entered.

It was half full of metal crates, and not even a single empire soldier which I considered odd. Focusing on the task at hand, I coordinated everyone to secure the doorways. There wasn't many of us, only 18, perhaps they viewed us as expendable for a potential suicide mission, I wouldn't likely find out..

Swiftly, we swept through the cargo hold, not bothering to search through the crates as our inside source had informed us that the container was being kept in the command center. However just as we opened the door a mass of metallic clattering sounds echoed from behind us, while at the same time a barrage of white fire flowed forth towards us from the recently open doorway.

Most of us swiftly jumped out of the way while three who had been distracted by the clattering were burnt to a crisp where they stood. Glancing across the room my eyes widened in shock as I realized a majority of the crates had fell apart to reveal numerous metallic automatons, Armed to the teeth with sword and spear. From a quick count I groaned in frustration as I realized there had to be at least thirty of them, practically twice our numbers currently.

I could only imagine we ourselves had a leak which informed the empire that we knew about the artifact and would be coming. With a growl I quickly ordered the soldiers with a mass telepathic link. "Deal with the damn bot's first, Danica, lead half to guard the door to make sure whatever spewing fire from flanking us." I transmitted to them as I leapt up into the air, using a bit of gravity magic to lower my weight and extend my jump by a great deal, I turned my head to target a drone on that was nearing the door behind me, blasting a wave of lightning at it from the tip of my sword, further propelling me to the other end of the room.

As I landed I spun around, seeing two of my men landing atop some of the larger crates in the room to blast them with magic from a safe distance, while the other three landed besides me, possibly using the same method I had. Shaking myself from my thoughts I dashed towards the nearest drone. Crossing blades with a flash of sparks, I pulled a dagger out of its sheath behind my waist with my free hand, imbuing it with lightning before thrusting it into the automatons chest, frying it from the inside.

I leapt towards a bot engaged in combat, driving the dagger into the back of its neck and dragging it into the way of an incoming spear, which was quickly embedded into its metallic gut. Flipping the dagger over the impaled droid's stomach and into the spear wielding automatons face, I stepped back to get a quick breather before hearing a shrill scream from the other side of the room in a familiar tone of voice that caused my heart to sink in despair.

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Quickly I turned around to stare at a man clad in white, holding a trident with two points embedded into danica's chest, and surrounded by the corpses of my companions, covered in violet black flames that seemed to not extinguish until their fuel was burned to ashes.

My vision blurred as tears fell down my face, An odd sort of dazed rage as I stared into the lifeless gaze of danica which seemed to connect with my own.

"Oh my, rodents are on my ship, I wonder why they might be here. Ohh, perhaps it was this?" The bastard in white held up the ornate box in his hand, the entire point of our mission being so close, possibly a great power that could turn the entire tide of the rebellion, for better or worse...

Yet I realized, I honestly don't give a shit. I thought back to how I had tried to convince Danica to leave the rebellion with me, to go live peacefully in some remote corner of the universe, yet she spoke with such a passion of the rebellion, giving me the only reason I had or needed to stay with the rebellion. Yet now she was gone, after all of these years, countless days, hours, and minutes. Only to leave forever in a single instant.

I was shocked out of my thoughts by a dull pain in my side, I glanced down to see a spear in my side, wielded by an automaton. With a shocked blankness of emotion I smashed my fist into its face, while cutting up my fist. Using the other hand to rip out the spear from my side, causing the healing rune formation I had imbued on my mana core to activate, quickly spending up mana to heal the damage in several seconds.

I lifted the blade reflexively to bash away the black flame that was hurtling towards my head. The fire spread across the sword, leaving me barely enough time to throw the sword away before it reached my hand. "Uwaah, this rat has a bit of a bite." The bastard mocked from across the room. I glanced up at the him, preparing to retort before the voice of the general echoed in my ear "Status report Captain?". With a deep breathe I glanced around me, seeing all of the people I had been joking with several minutes ago dead. Taking a deep breathe I gained a new found determination as the Automatons slowly surrounded me.

"Everyone is dead, but the artifact is destroyed." I spoke as the man in white stepped through the crowd of automatons to stand 10 meters away from me. "Oh, has the rodent gone delusional in its despair? Does this look destroyed to you?" He spoke with a sneer. Mocking my as he held open the box.

I glared at him with a resigned rage. "Dumb ass." I spoke as I pressed a few buttons on my watch in preparation.

He glared at me with a condescending look. "For that Ill make your death slow, droids, seize him." The bots quickly moved in as a robotic female voice sounded from my watch. "Remote Pod ejection activated." As soon as it spoke I jumped towards him, using all the mana I have to propel myself forward, forcefully pushing my body past its limits as I tore the droids to bits on my way to the bastard.

Behind me the pod quickly detached from the side of the ship, leaving a large hole in the side of the ship. Swiftly the nearest droids were dragged into the vacuum of space. I felt the pull as I reached the man who had an expression of shock on his face as he stared at me, He attempted to backpedal but the pull of space dragged him towards me, as well as the ornate box, which flew out of his hand towards me. In a desperate effort he stabbed his trident, engulfed in black flames, towards me with one hand, while his other vainly reached for the box.

I felt it pierce through my intestines, stabbing out of my back. I grabbed onto his arm and pulled him towards me. Dragging him with a turn to throw him out into space ahead of me. He desperately used is mana to envelope himself so that he wouldn't swiftly die, however that did nothing to stop him as he was dragged out into space.

Enveloping myself in the little mana I had left, I held the box in my hand with all my might, unintentionally smashing the valuable looking box into pieces. As I was dragged out into space I stared at what flew out of the box. A seemingly ethereal serpent about the size of a finger floated there for a moment, glancing around in curiosity before looking at me with a gaze that paralyzed me in fear.

It looked at the shattered bits of box still in my hand before flashing to appear in front of my face in an instant, suddenly I lost the feeling of the vacuum of space, instead floating weightlessly in the air mere meters from the hole in the wall. Slowly the serpent moved towards my forehead, fazing through it at the speed of a centimeter at a time. Each moment being more excruciating than the last I felt as if my soul was being torn to pieces over and over again. I saw as my arms and legs seemed to turn a void black in centimeter sized chunks, before breaking off and fading into nothingness.

I watched through the pain as the process continued as far to my shoulders and waist before my vision turned black, The last thing I hear before my consciousness fades is an ambiguous voice.

"Don't worry, Ill make a new us, a better us."