Hi, little later than I thought it would be, but here it is.

Hope you'll enjoy it. If you have some tips or just wanted to say something to me don't hesitate and write it. I would be glad for all input.

Just one quick question. I would like to ask if the grammatic and word structure is going forward or if it's the same pain it was in the first chapters. I have hard time telling, if it's getting better or not. I would like to know your input on this.

Thanks,

Anarin

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When Leya left we loaded the Gregor’s ship with everything we could pack into it. You never know what you will need on mission like this. Then we waited for the signal from Leya. She will send us short message on tight beam and we will move slowly towards the destroyer. Once we will be close enough, we will wait for next part of the plan. I looked at Strike who was seated near me and like me she was deeply in thought. I never saw Leya so angry as after she found out, they have her friend on the enemy ship. She looked ready to kill someone.

“What do you think she will do once we secure the engineering and rescue her friend?” asked Strike next to me.

I looked up thinking about what Leya could do. “She will probably come to the destroyer and find the captain.” I said.

“Lany you can’t be serious. If she could do that we wouldn’t need this operation.” said surprised Strike. She wasn’t with Leya as long as I so it was normal to underestimate her.

“First we’ll have engineering under our control so their automatic defenses will be offline. They can use only manual and second they would have killed her friend. With her friend secured, nothing will stop her from getting in the destroyer.” I said to her.

“But we planned to take it with stealth even before she knew her friend was imprisoned on the ship.” Said Strike and I felt others leaning forward. They too were listening to our conversation.

“Yes, because it’s the plan with most chance of success. They wouldn’t be prepared for assault like this. No one has seen technology like this in decades.” I said and encompassed the ship. The paint we used to hid the ship from basic scanners was something used only on most expensive ships. To tell the truth it was my first time seeing something like that. It was almost like the paint absorbed the light.

“That can be, but it’s still small ship compared to destroyer.” Said Strike.

I stayed silent for a while thinking about next thing I was going to say. I wasn’t sure, if Leya would want me to tell them about it, but she told me to always listen to my hearth. “I think Leya didn’t show us all her ship can do. There is the weapon which can destroy the destroyer, but I think there is more.”

Everyone stayed silent until Strike spoke up. “Why would she do that?”

I wasn’t sure why she concealed the information from us. I understood the secrecy from others, but we were her crew. Even if I didn’t want to admit it, I was wondering if she didn’t trust us. “She is doing it, because she is protecting you.” Surprised me Leon by speaking to us.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked curious.

“I told you I worked for emperor and like her he never told us everything. He told us only what we needed to know for the job he gave us. Everything else he kept from us.” He said and looked at everyone. “You may think that she doesn’t trust you, but that’s not it. It took me years to come to this realization, but I think it’s right one. She like my emperor just didn’t want you to worry about things out of your control. That is their job to do. To tell the truth I underestimated Leya too. I’m not talking about her strength and prowess in battle. I’m talking about responsibility for others. She’s protecting you from the things which would make you feel at least uncomfortable.”

“But why would we feel uncomfortable? We can’t help her, if we don’t know all the information.” I said.

“You don’t understand. There are decisions which can’t be done by anyone. Decision like destroying the ship and killing everyone on it.” He said and looked at me. “Would you be able to condemn them for death? Would you be able to kill hundreds of people to make the right decision?”

“But she told us, we have to try and save everyone. No matter the situation, we have to try our best.” I said and I felt close to tears. I started to understand why Leya was keeping secrets from us. She was just trying to protect us. Shelter us from the decision which could hurt us. Trying to do her best in every situation. Before he could answer me I interrupted him. “I think, I understand.”

“Ok, that’s good. Now you can support her when she will need it.” He said and stood up. “We should move and prepare. Everyone get into your armors and get to the ship. I want to be prepared to fly this ship immediately.” Said Leon and looked apological at George. That should have been his job.

He just nodded. “You heard the man. Get in the armor and prepare the ship for lift off.”

Everyone went to prepare themselves for the infiltration and I and Strike weren’t any different. We too went to put on our armor. Once everyone had everything prepared, we entered Gregor’s ship and let him take us closer to Destroyer.

I was nervous and shaking of the ship didn’t help me to calm myself. It was nothing like flying on Leya’s ship. Only now I started to understand how much better her ship was. These thoughts managed to distract me from possibility that they managed to spot us and we die. There was nothing we could do to save us from instant death. I sat in cargo hold with others. I couldn’t see their faces through the helmet, but I saw some of the men were nervous just like me. They controlled their equipment constantly. Some of them even trembled little.

“We’re good to go. We got the signal from Leya.” I heard from speakers over our heads.

All my nervousness was gone and I waited for the last part of our plan. Even I didn’t know how she planned to blind their sensor, but it would be something to look at. About five minutes later, I felt whole ship shook and metal groan as something hit us. Everyone looked around and only when we heard shocked voice of captain we relaxed little.

“Leya blinded their sensors. Now is our time.” I heard him said disbelievingly and I felt the pull on me as we accelerated towards the destroyer. I was curious as to what Leya did. There was silence in the hold and only sound there was from engines running to full power. It didn’t take us long to enter the ship and before I knew it the cargo doors were opening.

I switched my vision to heat vision and luckily for us there was no one in place where we landed. We picked this place, because it was just hole in the ship. It looked like it was made by missile geting past their defenses. In our flyby we didn’t see anyone repairing it and that was what we counted on. It looks like we were right. Now we had to do the harder part. We didn’t have schematics for this vessel which meant we had to guess the position of engineering department and prison.

Leon and Strike run outside and went straight for the door. Once there, they guarded it until everyone could get out of the ship. I walked up to them and I could see Strike had her eyes closed.

“There is no one on the other side of the door. We’re clear to move forward.” She said.

“Good. You, Lany and couple of my man will go to take engineering department as we talked. I’ll take rest and looked for the prison.” Said Leon. We divided into three groups. One was going to protect John the prisoner and Leya’s friend. Second was going to take over the engineering department and last one was going to stay here and protect the ship.

I saw Geroge walked outside of the ship in his armor. Like others it was upgraded. When I first so it I was appalled that someone would put something like that on them. The armor was rusty in some places and didn’t hold the pressure more than couple of minutes.

Now he wore shiny new armor with some of the upgrades from Leya. Small nanoblade in wrist pocket, mag boots and couple of others. Before he looked funny, but now that I saw him he was dangerous. The armor made minimum noise and moved smoothly. He walked up to us. “Ok, we’re secured here. You can move on.” He said and I saw Leon and Strike nodded. I saw him shook his head as he looked at me and Strike. “Let me tell you, Leya know how to surprise someone.”

“What did she do? I felt the ship rock, but I didn’t know what she planned to do.” I said.

“Never saw explosion like that. I’m not even sure how she could survive it. From the last readings before we lost our sensors feed we gathered it was some sort of anti-matter explosion. Only it was about five times larger than anything I ever saw.” Said George in strange tone. I think I heard fear mixed with astonishment there.

I saw Strike smile. “That’s our Leya. She does nothing in half measure.” She said.

I smiled at Strike’s remark. I wasn’t sure when I started to think about her as my friend, but she was. When I started this journey, I would never think, I could make someone like her my friend. She was completely different from me and she didn’t even like engineering, but she was still my friend. In truth I thought about her as my older sister and I would protect her at all cost. She looked at me with smile and I knew she would protect me too.

“Lets do this.” I said.

She nodded and we moved into the bowels of the ship.

● ● ●

I looked at the retreating backs of other party. I focused at the Strike and Lany mostly. While on the ground, I could see they were comfortable with one another. When I looked at them I could see something in their eyes. It was same thing I saw once in my men. It was purpose, in doing something bigger than they were themselves. I knew the light slowly died with the death of emperor. Now I could see small sparks in their eyes as they once more did something with purpose.

I shook my head and concentrated on this moment. I had to find the prison and protect Leya’s friend. That was my job and I didn’t plan on failing it. She was counting on me.

I turned to my group. “Once more we are tasked with saving lives. Long time, we did what we thought was necessary to protect ourselves and way our emperor wanted us to live, but on our way we forgot something important. We join the black guard to protect, but it was long time since we guarded life. Now we were given a chance to do our duty.” I said and I could see fire brighten in eyes of my team. I smiled, because I knew same fire was ignited in my eyes. “They will not stop us from reaching him and we will protect him until this ship is captured!”

Everyone had bloodthirsty look in their eyes and even always calm Liray look ready to kill something. I motioned for everyone to move forward behind me. For first ten minutes, we didn’t see anyone, which was strange. I was on one destroyer before and there should be a lot of crew to man it. As soon as I thought it, I spotted someone on my sensors. I was still surprised at sensitivity of the sensors. We didn’t even have such good sensors in black guard and we used one of the best in this part of the universe.

There were three crewmembers in a small room on our right. We could either sneak past them or try to incapacitate them. I motioned for others to stay silent and shown them three hostiles in room on left side of corridor. The door to the room were open and that meant, it was too risky to sneak past them.

“Did you see the girl in cell forty-one. She’s real beauty. I think, I’ll visit her tonight.” Said one of them.

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“Captain told us to wait until we capture the city. We have to look like good guys until then and raping the women wouldn’t help us in any way.” Said another.

“I know. I just can’t seem to wait until then. You should see how she looks.” Said first guy.

“The planet will be ours in couple of days. Then we’ll have our way with them.” Said third guy and snickered. “Maybe we’ll even share her at the same time.”

The anger clouded my vision, but I forced it down. I motioned for Liray and Helia to follow me. We went near door and I held up three fingers. I closed them one by one until I hold the fist and we stormed inside. The three men inside were playing cards and they definitely didn’t expect us to jump on them. They were wearing only pressure suits which didn’t provide them with any protection against us. We took them all down. Maybe I should have restrained my men, because their punches killed them, but I was pretty pissed myself. I was sure of one thing. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over them. We hid them behind the bed and closed the door behind us. Once done with covering our attack, we moved forward.

It wasn’t long before we encountered our first problem. In room in front us were positioned about ten people in power armors. Even worse was that it looked like this was the right way to the prison. I tried to think up some way around them, but nothing came to me. In the end, it didn’t matter. About five minutes in my thinking I was interrupted by laud siren. I looked up and I knew what it meant. We were found and the time for stealth ended. Now came the time for quick action. With that thought I motioned for others and I too ran into the room with gun blazing.

● ● ●

As we split from Leon and his group I asked Lany for direction. We thought that the engineering would be in the middle of the ship and if our prediction proved to be true, we had long way before us. I was at the tip of our group with Lany going right behind me. She had probably best armor, but she wasn’t fighter, not like Leon or Leya. If I didn’t need her to point the way for us, I would put her in the middle of the group.

At first, we didn’t meet any problems and I was surprised by vacant corridors on the ship. From what Leya told us there had to be around hundred people to run ship this big. On our way I was startled by the state of some corridors. They looked like heavy fighting occurred in them. There were plasma burns and bullet castings on ground. I think we made mistake somewhere in our thinking, but I wasn’t sure where.

“What do you think happened here?” asked Lany.

“Looks like there was fighting. I’m not sure what happened, but I would guess that we aren’t first party to capture this ship. That would explain the small number of crewmembers.” I said.

“Then there could more prisoners than Leya’s friend. We have to help them.” Said Lany from behind.

I moved forward, but Lany stopped me with her hand. “We have to help them!” she insisted.

I sighed. “I know and I’m sure Leon will know it too. What we need to do is capture the engineering room and take over the ship. Even if we rescue the prisoners it would be for nothing if they blew up the ship.” I said patiently.

She held my shoulder for a while, but finally she released it. “I know and I’m sorry. I just don’t want them to be hurt by these savages.”

“They won’t be. I think, they will find Leon a hard nut to crack.” I said and patted her on shoulder. “He will find them and protect them.”

I saw her nod her head. I smiled and motioned to others to follow me. We met couple of mercenaries, but luckily we managed to evade them for now. The closer we get to the engineering the better chance we’ll have in pulling this stunt off. I was thinking about how to avoid next encounter when I bump into someone rounding the corner. I didn’t felt him and no one said anything about seeing him on our sensors which meant he was somehow shielded. I sent two of my knife in his direction, but he deflected them with force field.

I heard whine of weapons behind me so I ducked. They took my surprised assailant right in the head and even his force field couldn’t hold under the barrage of this many weapons. Even before he fell down on the ground I was rounding the corner and looking for more enemies. I saw one running in distance and round the corner. No sooner I sweared, I heard laud siren over our head. We were found.

I motioned for others and we run towards the place where we thought the engineering was located. I heard only occasional “Here right.”, “Go forward.” and ”Turn left.” From Lany.

It didn’t take them long sent someone after us. I looked behind the corner we wanted to go and found it occupied by the enemy mercenaries. I sent after them spikes and they took two before they could do something. Others immediately started to fire from their weapons and the corridor was filled with plasma and laser fire.

I motioned for one of the man behind me to move forward. He was caring our only grenade launcher. I counted to three and then we moved from behind the corner. I was covering us with my shield and before we ducked back he managed to lob over to them three grenades.

Almost immediately we heard the explosion and enemy fire from the corridor stopped. I leaned out and scanned the corridor. The corridor before us was destroyed. The walls were blackened by the plasma fire deep scratches were along them from the shrapnels. Nothing moved in the corridor so we moved forward. We were on the other side when I heard laser fire and one man fall down. Others turned around and killed the mercenary pretending to be dead. I went to our man, but even I could see he was dead. It was my fault as the leader of this team, but I for now I needed to move forward. I looked one last time on still body of man who trusted me with his life. The man who I failed.

I shook head and we run forward. I wouldn’t let his dead be in wain. I strengthen my will and swore to avenge him before this ends. From the inscriptions on the walls I knew we were moving in right direction. At every corner, I leaned out and scanned for the enemy, but I saw no one. I started to fear we were somehow goaded to ambush.

Finally, we made it before the engineering room and till now we met now one. The door was closed and sealed.

“We have to blow them.” Said Lany from behind me.

I turned to her. “Is there no other option?” I asked.

I saw her move towards the door and look at them. We all knew they were waiting on the other side and it would be hard to get inside without someone dying. I saw Lany look at the door and suddenly she struck them with her fist. I winced at the loud bang, but she didn’t stop she moved next to the door and placed her hand on the wall. She once more struck it, but this time she punched through the outer shell of the wall.

“I think we have our way in.” she said cheerfully.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She walked to us and told us her plan. I immediately wanted to refuse, but I knew it was best plan we had. In the end, I had to approve it and we prepared for her move. We moved next to the wall and waited for her. We had to make sure we didn’t do too much damage to consoles as we wanted to control the ship. That meant we couldn’t use the grenade launcher.

Lany walked across the corridor and prepared for her short dash. On my command she pushed form the wall and hit the wall on the other side. With load groan, I saw it buckle outwards and she vaulted into the engineering room. We quickly followed her inside.

It was big room with a lot of equipment. There were about twenty people waiting for us, but Lany’s charge gave us little room as we punched our way in about five meters from the door they were aiming at. Before they could adjust their aim three of them died and we were onto them. They outnumbered us two to one, but our armor was better.

“Don’t damage the consoles!” I shouted and looked for the leader of this bunch. I found him quickly. He was standing behind others in light armor. I felt power radiation from him and I knew he was psychic user just like me.

Lany was tearing through the mercenaries in her new armor and it looked like they couldn’t take her down. She was sight to see. Her armor had scorches on its surface and there were holes, but she was still going like nothing happened. I don’t know what Leya did with the armor, but it was making her impossible to stop.

I didn’t want to stay behind Lany so I pushed myself up and towards the leader. He saw me coming and sent to kinetic blasts my way. I swatted them away without problem and sent two of my spikes to his to guards. He wrapped himself in force field, but his guard didn’t have anything like that. They went down with spikes protruding from their chests.

I smiled sinisterly at him. “You are going down.” I said and jump sideway as he sent my spikes after me. I jump towards him and covered my fist in force field. I thrusted it towards his face, but he leaned back and sent blast into me. I let it slide over my shield and I heard yelp behind me as it hit his subordinates.

He sent blast after blast against my shield and I had trouble keeping up with them. He was evidently stronger them me. He planned to exhaust me, but I had some aces in my sleeve. I sent every spike and knife I had on me after him. I knew he would be able to deflect them, but it would cost him some seconds and I found flaw in his defense. I picked weapon from the ground and fired at him just as he was deflecting last spike.

He stopped and looked down at the spike thrusted in his stomach. I was aiming at the place on his shield which was spotted. Every time my dagger or spike hit his shield he strengthened the place where it landed, but other places on his shield were weakened.

I looked behind me and my group was just taking down last to mercenaries. There was only six of us left. Me, Lany and four others. I run towards the Lany who was slumped on the ground.

“Lany are you alright?” I said panicky.

“Yes I am. I just don’t have power in the armor. They had to hit power core. Help me get out of this thing so I can start working.” She said from inside the armor.

I heard pain in her voice as I stepped towards her. “Are you hurt somewhere?” I asked.

“No, It’s just bruises from punching through the wall.” She said.

Relieved I started to pull her out of the armor. It wasn’t easy as most of it was covered in burns and the release mechanism was destroyed. It took me more than ten minutes to dig her out of the armor. I was surprised at the damage to it and even more when I saw her walk out of it without heavy injury. I saw only bruises on her shoulder and nothing more.

With her out I went to others and tried to help them as much as I could. Some of them died and some of them were hurt badly, but there was fire in their eyes. They managed to do their job and they were prepared to defend this room till they die.

“I’m proud of you.” I said to everyone and turned to door and hole in the wall. “Now we need to defend this place. I need to patch this hole and prepare all our defenses.”

I turned to Lany, but she was already working on the console. They will come here and we had to hold this position until others managed to take capture the bridge. We managed to barricade ourselves, before the attackers came, but I was already hearing them on the other side. It wouldn’t be long before they start with their attack.