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I, my crew, Paladins and representatives from planet Sorok were sitting around round table and discussing our new findings concerning Director. They listened to me as I told them about what happened to me from beginning of my journey. After that they listened to Eleanor about what she told us about their and our universe.

“I knew that you were different, but that you are from different universe, that’s something else.” Said Leonard.

“We saw spacers you on many planets, but we thought that you are some kind of new race.” Said Paladin IX.

“In a way we are and because you can’t kill us permanently, you can’t do anything against this invasion. Our only option is to close both blackholes. That should separate both worlds.” I said.

“You were telling us that other blackhole is on your planet. How do you plan to close it without destroying planet?” asked John.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I think I can build something that can close it. It’s not completely safe so I would like you to get on ship and leave planet.” I told Rock, Lee and John.

“What do you plan to do? Can we help?” asked Rock.

“Sorry, but there is nothing you can help me with. I want you to take Anna and her daughters and flee to another planet.” I said.

“What would happen if something goes wrong with your plan?” asked Leonard.

“Then whole planet would be destroyed, but it’s probably our only chance to close it. If everything goes as it should be, only thing destroyed would be building where blackhole is stored.” I said.

“You would be willing to risk your whole planet for us?” asked Catherine Lorna, princess of the planet Sorok.

“It’s either that or enslavement of countless planets, and I can’t place my planet before others. I can’t change it now, that on one listens to me. He made sure of it. All he needs to do is point at me and no one would care what he’s doing as long as there is idea planted, that I’m responsible for it somehow.” I said.

“Well, you’re first person I know who thinks like that.” Catherin looked at me like I was completely different species from everyone else.

“Maybe it’s this new body or that everyone there hating me for long time even thought I was innocent. I don’t know, but I can’t let him enslave you.” I said.

“We’re grateful for it. If there is something we can help you with, just ask and we’ll do everything in our power to get it to you.” Said Catherin.

“Thanks but I need to get some sleep for now and start working on my idea. I still don’t know if it’s possible to make it.” I said.

“We understand. Wish you luck and take care.” Said Catherin.

“Take care, I know you’ll make us proud and don’t worry about your ship we’re repair it good as new.” Said Leonard.

“Thanks, take care too.” I said and others too bid farewell and log out.

● ● ●

I woke up in my bed and contemplated about how to work out my problem. I knew theory behind my project, but theory is one thing and practice is another.  First thing first, I would have to get Anna and her daughters from the planet.

“Anna could you come here?” I called.

There was sound of running feet and small Anna came into my room. She immediately pounced on me.

“What do you want aunt Leya?” she asked.

“I want to talk with your mom about something important.” I rustled her hair and placed her back on floor.

“Eee…  don’t tussle my hair.” She said.

“I won’t, but go and call your mom please.” I smiled at her.

“I’ll go, but you’ll teach me how to make another toy.” She crossed her arms and tried to look serious but I could see her lips twitching.

I looked at her calmly and waited. She looked back at me for a while, then pounced once more time on me.

“Please, I want to learn make new toys.” She said.

I laughed, “Ok I’ll teach you. Now go and call your mom.” I placed her back on floor and pointed her to doors.

“It’s a promise.” She called and run for door.

I came down from bed and put on some clothes. I was just finishing when Anna came with both girls.

“Is something wrong?” she asked with worried expression.

“Not exactly but we gleaned new information about Director.” I said and told her everything that happened to me and others. I didn’t go into too much details as girls were here too.

“That bastard!” said Anna.

“Bad word, place money in the piggy.” Said small Lara.

“That one doesn’t count, he deserved it.” Said Anna.

“If someone deserves it, we can call him with bad words? Like Rock, when he refuses to play with me?” asked Lara.

I could see helpless look on Anna’s face so I came to her rescue, “You can’t call him that. That’s only for really bad people who hurt others.”

Both girl look thoughtful and whispered to one another, “We think we understand. We can call someone with bad words, but only if they hurts others.” Said Lara.

Anna smiled at them, “Yes, but only when you are older. Small girls can’t use words like that or they won’t grow.”

“Ok I won’t. I want to be big like mom.” Said small Anna.

I was still smiling, but it slipped from my face when I thought about why I called them. Anna saw it and raised eyebrow at me.

I told them about our plan and that it would be dangerous.

“I told you what I plan to do and you know that I can’t do it while you’re still here. I hope you understand.” I said.

”I trust you, if you think it’s best for me and my daughters I will go.” Said Anna.

“Yes, it’s best solution. I let El book you flight to second planet. I put all my money on anonymous bank account. You can use it to build life for you and your daughters.” I said.

“You didn’t have to, I have some saved money.” She said.

“Don’t worry it’s not that much I’m not very rich.” I said.

“Ok, but you’ll have to visit us when everything ends.” Said Anna with tears pouring from her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll visit if I can.” I said and hugged her. Both girls wanted to hug too and when we explained to them that they needed to relocate, they too started to cry. It took us more than hour to calm down us and girls.

Their flight was booked for next day. I helped them pack their things and thought girls how to make new toys like I promised. For reminder of day we talked with Anna about her plans and played with girls. I called guys to ask if they were prepared for relocating to second planet. All three were prepared, but they would still rather stay and help me.

I told them there was nothing they could help me with. It would take some time to finish what I wanted to do and I needed them to protect Anna and their families. They would all go out of planet.

I slept badly that night because I was thinking about what could happen to others. At least I send their weapons and armor with them. I send it with John as he could take equipment with him being in military and all. Whole relocation was made through him. He and others would go on military spaceship. Eleanor made it possible because of some old law about family and friends of military personal.

He, Rock and Lee and their families came to pick up Anna and her daughters. It was my first time seeing their families and I could tell they weren’t happy with this relocation. They didn’t like me but I couldn’t do anything about it now.

There were tears from everyone as we made our final farewell. I bade them farewell and cautioned them against retaliation from Director. I told them to lay low till they hear something about Virtua central.

When they left, I felt sadness. It was some time that I had someone living with me, and Anna’s daughters brought fresh air in my life. They were still very innocent in dealing with others and didn’t make decision based on option of others. They took me for who I am not as others presented me.

I look some time across yard and thought about last couple of days. After some time I turned and went inside. I started immediately to work on my project. I prepared everything on my ship. For next month I upgraded my ship with new technology I came up with. I tried to merge singularity with antimatter and build something like anti-blackhole. I couldn’t test it, as it would be too dangerous so I would have only one chance in closing blackhole in Virtua central.

I still had some work before me, when I heard proximity alarm and Com request from outside. I took it and I could see Director looking back at me from display.

“I told, I would get you in real life. You already made enough problems for me, now you will see what I do with my enemies.” He said and ended call.

“Missiles incoming. Engaging counter measures.” Said Eleanor and placed them on my display.

There were five of them and all came from five shuttles that came from direction of city. Immediately all of my 25 autocannons pop up and started to shoot them down. They took four but fifth get thorough them and hit my house.

I did some damage but I made my house extremely sturdy. I shoot back at shuttles and they get one more salvos of missiles before I took one down. Before Eleanor started to shoot missiles down I heard explosions on my yard. They had used ground forces to take down five of my autocannons. Because of it Eleanor took down only three of five missiles but they still did only surface damage to my home.

Their troops had some sort of stealth gear and I saw them only after they took down another five of my autocannons. Eleanor made changes to targeting and two others shuttles went down. Last two shuttles finally saw that frontal attack would be suicide and pulled back.

With them gone I could focus on ground forces. I went down to my armory and put on armor. I picked my typical gear which consisted of two pistols and laser rifle. I put on some grenades and tactical mines which I then placed in upper floor of house. When I was finally prepared I had only autocannons around my house. They managed to destroy others but it wasn’t one sided as they thought and El took down couple of them.

I walked to one of my window and used sensors on house to scan my surroundings. I couldn’t see them in scrapyard because sensors there were weak but ones on my house were first rate quality and they immediately picked eleven humans coming to my house.

I sighted on them as they were targeting my autocannons with rocket launchers while Eleanor targeted others with autocannons. She fired at the same time, as I opened on them. I hit my guy in shoulder with my first round which spun him and second round took him in back which thrown him back. Eleanor took down four others before they ducked back.

“More targets incoming.” Said Eleanor and send their location into my heads up display. There were more than fifty signatures coming our way. Some were going on foot and others were driving vehicles.

When first vehicle came into my field of view I started to worry. It was heavily armored and Eleanor had to up power on autocannons to take it down but that meant that she couldn’t shoot as fast as before. Still it took about thirty seconds of constant fire before it was destroyed and it took two of my autocannons. I run down for rocket launcher.

I had six autocannons left and only two could cover this area. I should have taken rocket launcher sooner. It would help more than my riffle. It took me only minute to get back up but already four more autocannons were destroyed while I managed to destroy only one vehicle.

They had two left and one of them was firing at my house from angle where I had no longer autocannon coverage. I went to window and sighted it with rocket launcher. I used one of Lee’s stronger missiles as I wasn’t sure about how strong they were. It took only second to get missile to vehicle. I don’t know what Lee placed into them, but explosion was even stronger than from missiles shuttle fired at my house.

Whole armored vehicle was thrown back with gaping hole in it. Shockwave tossed nearby soldiers away like they were discarded toys. About half of them didn’t get up from ground and others tried to grovel away. I could see some of other soldiers turn and run away.

I heard loud crash at back of my house. They took all of my autocannons down.

“They broke through wall on other side of house. You should head for ship.” Said Eleanor.

“Yes, I’m going. Prep ship for flight please.” I said and moved for stairs. I heard occasional explosion of mines from direction of enemies.

Halfway there I crashed into one of the attackers. I don’t know who was more surprised, me or him. I reacted instinctively and fired at him with Punch and traced laser fire along his body Pat. Shield shimmered along my line of fire from Pat. What got him was bolt from Punch which took down his shield. He tried to get back but I pounced on him and used nanoblade to cut his hydraulics.

“You’re lucky. Don’t ever come after me or someone I care about.” I said and run for stairs.

I heard more mines goes off as I running down the stairs. I heard shout behind me and felt kick in shoulder as they hit me with plasma bolt. I let myself spin and fire with both pistols. I didn’t hit them because they ducked behind wall.

I crashed at the bottom of stairs with loud thud and rolled myself up with thrusters. I fired couple of shots upstairs as I ducked into my underground dock. I made it into ship before they decided it was safe to go down the stairs.

When they got down it was already too late for them to do something to me. I was already strapped to pilot seat and powering engines to get away from my house. I saw them coming from stairs on my cameras and stop when they saw the ship. I could see them looking wide eyed at her. I smiled and pulled throttle. I shot from under house with loud bang. That should give them something to remember me by.

I saw more shuttles going for my house. They would found many things that I built, but none that would alert them to my plan. I had everything stored in one vault which was covered in termite. Eleanor send signal to detonate immediately after first soldier breached my house. I had one backup stored in memory on ship, so I didn’t lost months of intensive research and experiments.

In only about two minutes I was already breaching outer atmosphere of the earth. I had to get away from the earth fast before they start hunt for me. I went straight for the sun to restore some of my energy reserves and I hoped that it would block my energy signature from others.

My only problem was to get through some of warships stationed around earth. I didn’t get authorization from flight control and even if I did it would be illegal. In my verdict at the court room was one point which prohibited me from going away from planet, which my current actions broke. I was outlaw in the eyes of others and I couldn’t count on them to be benevolent. From what Eleanora told me I would be lucky if they only shot at me with intention to stop me and not destroy. I was half way to sun, when Eleanor reported first ship going for the earth. It was a light cruiser which was faster than high tonnage ships. If it was already there others wouldn’t be too far from it.

I was currently going without active drive and didn’t use active sensors. I used passive sensors to get rough numbers on ships in system. After the light cruiser settled around planet, two destroyers came and finally one capital ship.

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It would be hard to get through them when time came to return and finish what Director started.

“Eleanor tell me when we would be close enough to hide my drive with sun radiation.” I said.

“We should be fine in five minutes.” Said Eleanor.

“So what’s our plan now that we don’t have access to our base and resources it brought?” She asked.

“We already made prototype. Our only problem now would be how to get it near blackhole in their Company. With all these ships around planet it would be hard to break into atmosphere.” I said.

“There are couple of options we have.” started Eleanor, “We could use all Energy to power shields and try to break through them or we could take them one by one when they wouldn’t expect it. Out ship is probably faster than theirs by wide margin. There are other options but these two are most plausible”

“Yes they are, but I don’t want to destroy them, just because they follow wrong orders, so we should focus on first option for now. When we get more energy into the power source I would take us to some asteroid and mine metals for more shield emitters.” I said.

“What we really need is some distraction to pull ships from orbit.” Said Eleanor.

I thought already about it and plan was forming in my head. I would have to build some singularity mines and find dozen asteroids for my plan to work but if everything goes right I shouldn’t have problem getting my bomb into company building.

“I have something planned already.” I told Eleanor.

● ● ●

After I powered Paladins source from sun I moved to one asteroids and started to mine it. In next three months I made several singularity mines and in between pulled two dozen of asteroids to my location. I placed mine into eight of them. They would serve as my distraction for navy when I finally start my plan against Director.

I was almost finished with preparation for mission. There were just couple of things I had to do before we could wrap it up and start.

“We have everything prepared on our end.” Said Eleanor. She was talking about another universe. They came near blackhole and were waiting only for me to deliver my end.

“Ï have almost everything prepared. I just …. El is there chance to contact Anna and others before we start this plan?” I asked.

“Sorry but it’s too risky to call them.”

I sighned, “I know. I just wanted to spoke to them last time.”

“I know, you can talk to them after we finish this.” She said.

“It’s fine, I’ll talk to them then. Give me one day to finish preparation and we can start it. El it would be better for you to help others.” I said.

“But you need me here. You can’t do calculation like I can.” She said.

“We already made them. I’ll need you to coordinate attack from other side. I made helmet for me, so I can connect to you on the other side. Don’t worry I upgraded ship as much as I can. I’ll be fine.” I said.

“I just don’t like it. You would be here alone. What if something goes wrong and you would need someone here?”

“Then I would call you and you would come to my help.”

There was silence on the other side than Eleanor said, “Ok, but I still don’t like it.”

“Noted, now let me make final preparation so we can start.”

Last thing to do was use tractor beam to pull asteroids towards the Earth. I sent ones with singularity mines straight towards planet while others would be near misses. That should give them something to work, while I hide behind one of them.

I had already pulled all my asteroids towards the Earth. I hid behind one that would miss the Earth. I placed two others nearby so I could move between their shadows. It would help me stay hidden longer which increased my chances.

Now I had to wait for their move. I was already committed to this plan.

● ● ●

Near planet Earth on Capitol ship Commander of task group was drinking his coffee and reading reports from other ships. He could see some commotion near tactical officer.

“Commander we have some unidentified object coming for the Earth.” Said tactical officer.

“How many are there?” asked Captain of this ship.

“There are 23 targets, sir. Eight of them are heading straight for planet.”

“It has to be her. Mark them bogey one to twenty three and mark ones that are going to hit planet as first eight. Lastly call general quarters for every ship.” Said Commander.

Immediately siren went off across ship and everyone went to their battle station.

“Sir I don’t think we have enough fire power to destroy all of them. We don’t even have enough to destroy all going for the planet.” Said weapon officer.

“What about combined firepower of all ships and planetary defence?” asked Commander.

“It would work but small pieces would still fall on planet surface. All we can do is make them smaller.” Said weapon officer.

“Then we’ll block most with our ship. We won’t let her destroy more than she already did. Send to whole task group.” Said Commander to Com officer than straighten his uniform, “This is Commander Rutherford. As person in command of this group, I order all ships to engage asteroids going towards us. Focus on ones that will hit our planet.”

Other captains confirmed their orders and whole task group move to intercept asteroids. As soon as they were in range they started to fire with everything they had on asteroids.

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I was hiding behind my Asteroid when first missiles started to hit asteroids. With bright flashes there were torn big chunks from them. I would have to time my mines, so they wipe these chunks before they hit the planet.

For now I didn’t have to fear them as they would focus all their power on asteroids going for planet. I had about ten minutes before I would have to move to second stage of my plan.

I called company Virtua, “Hi, you all probably know me by now. You should know that today is day of reckoning for your actions. In about 40 minutes I would destroy your whole building. I’m broadcasting all information about what you did in your company.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re just terrorist, that from latest news send asteroids to destroy our planet.” Said Director on Com. He had to be waiting for my call.

“I already sent it to everyone. If I die, there would be no one to take blame for your crimes.” I said with grin.

“There would be nothing, as there is no crime, but you won’t get here. Our navy would stop you before you place foot on this planet.” He said nervously. He knew I was telling the truth but even if I died that doesn’t made them close blackhole. I had to close it forever. I couldn’t count on politician to make right decision.

“I’ll see you in a while.” I said and closed connection. I used antennas to reroute my signal to every asteroid. They couldn’t tell where I’m hiding.

I was hiding for next ten minutes and now came time to move to second stage of plan. I hid this part from Eleanor, because she would find out what I wanted to do and that I couldn’t let her do. She would want to scrap my plan or even worse she would want to join me but I knew this was my only chance to get it done.

I was currently only couple of minutes from task group. I used new feature I installed in my pilot chair, which enabled me to connect to my ship with my brain. Only problem was that I could do it only for about thirty minutes before my brain would fry itself.

I connected to ship which meant that nanobots from chair would connect to my spine and nervous system. Over time it would damage it, so I had to hurry with my plan as much as I can.

● ● ●

“How much damage did we do?” asked Commander of battle group.

“We’re doing even less damage than we thought. They have too much metal in them.” Turned weapon officer from his console with fear in eyes, “We can’t stop them.”

Commander looked around bridge then made couple of calculation, “We could ram them.”

Half the bridge turns to him. “We don’t have any other choice. We have to stop them. Send orders to battle group Lieutenant Owens.” Said Commander.

“Orders away.” Said Com officer Owens.

“God be with us.” Said Commander.

All ships picked their targets and prepared to ram them, but before they could speed up there was bright flash and where once stood eight asteroids only eight blackholes stood. As soon as they appeared, they blinked away.

Every single person on ships where looking at place where asteroids stood and didn’t understood what happened. They knew that Leya was somewhere on these asteroids. They didn’t understand why she would do it, she had them and they couldn’t do anything about it.

First to react was Commander, “Report, what happened and did it took all asteroids?”

There was silence as everyone looked at their panels for information. They were confused they never saw something so powerful.

“It was some sort of weapon, probably bomb in asteroids, which made blackhole and then closed them. It destroyed all eight asteroids. Earth is saved.” Said science officer.

“There is ship coming from behind one of the asteroids. It has strong energy signature.” Shouted tactical officer.

“Track it and target it with our weapons.” Said Commander.

One of the officers turn to Commander, “What if she has more weapons like ones she used on asteroids?”

“Then we’ll stay and protect planet. We swore to protect them.” Said Commander.

“I still hope she doesn’t have more of them.” Silently said someone on bridge.

“Me too, me too.” Murmured Commander.

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For now everything went according to plan. Explosion covered me and bought me seconds I needed to advance closer to planet. My biggest problem would be going through task group. They were close enough already to start shooting at me.

I could already feel their weapons turning on me. They were scanning me and tried to get good lock on me. I used remaining chunks from asteroid to scramble their lock and dodged their laser and plasma fire. I didn’t go in straight line more than two seconds. I redlined engines and my speed was probably at last twice theirs. I had one last trick that I could use against them and then it would be just dodging and shooting enemy fire.

Already laser and plasma shots were striking space around me. Couple of them hit my shields but didn’t do much damage with my new upgrades. I could feel their missile pods lock on me and shoot missiles from all of them. There was more than hundreds missiles going for me.

I used my triumph card I send four parts of my ships away which confused missiles and then used countermeasures against them. When they couldn’t get good lock on me they focus on nearest power source, which were parts from my ship.

This took some weight from my ship and I could move more swiftly around. I used bright flash from exploding missiles to advance further to planet. I was only couple of minutes from it. Already more than fifteen minutes went by from starting second stage of my plan.

There was bright flash and more than half my shield power went down. I had to miss one of the missiles. I didn’t do damage to ship but I had to reroute power from some of cables which were damaged in attack.

I was between ships before they found me and this was critical part. I couldn’t hide there and dodging would be hard. I tried to connect even more to ship and I could feel slipping myself from my body. I changed my body to that of ship. I was no longer Leya, now I was Paladin.

I could feel time slowing down like it always did when I was in danger, but now I could react faster. I couldn’t dodge laser fire so I endured it but I could dodge missiles and some of plasma fire. I weave around missiles and plasma fire.

My shields were going steadily lower, but still held. I was almost behind them when my shield failed and they managed to destroy my life support. It was bad, but I was just glad that it wasn’t anything important for piloting the ship. I didn’t need life support anymore, now that my body died when I transferred into ship.

Luckily that was last shot before I was out of their range. I had couple of minutes to recover some shield power for planet fall. I placed special plate at front part of the ship for protection against heat. I hoped that it would protect power source on ship and bomb. I placed them behind second shield which wasn’t as powerful but should at last protect from random shot or chunks of destroyed ship spinning in compartment.

Last thing standing before me and Company was planetary defence. I planned to use access from ocean, where they should have lesser coverage but navy was faster than I thought and they already changed course back for the Earth. I would have to chance it with frontal attack.

I had twenty percent power in shields when I entered atmosphere. For now I didn’t use shields and let front block of metal take brunt of it. I was lucky as still no attack came at me.

As soon as I thought that laser fire missed me by couple of inches. It burned some of my sensors but that was all. I immediately engaged shield which was lucky because I immediately took three hits.

They lowered my shield capacity by 5%. I couldn’t go like this so I started to use random evasive patterns that Eleanor stored in memory. It helped but I took occasional hit. It wasn’t long before my shields would fail and then it would be only luck if I finish my mission.

I could already see Company building but it was still about thirty seconds before I would get there. I could feel power building near tower and I jerked ship to left as powerful laser cut through space I was occupying before.

If I get hit by this one, I would be done for. I could feel once more energy build up and dodged right while they fired left from my position. They tried to guess where I would dodge.

There were two more shots before I advanced too close for evasion. I was only ten second before I would finally finish it. I would have to endure one shot from this cannon. I already placed AI cores where I resided now into shield with bomb and power source.

I could feel another build up, so I retreated into AI cores. I have some sensors here and I could see what this shot did to my ship. It pealed her outer shell until only power source and bomb was left. I rerouted all power to this tiny shield and it held. I just hoped that there was enough power to finish my plan.

They didn’t shot once more at me because they thought they got me with this last shot and in truth they did, but what they didn’t understood was that I wasn’t planning to return alive from this mission. From beginning, I knew that I could win only if I sacrifice myself either to ship or completely. I sent signal to Eleanora to fire missiles on their end.

My last command was activating bomb, when we hit Company building. After that there was nothing.

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As you probably guessed this is one of the final chapters. I'm planning to continue writing but this was my first time writing something and I didn't prepare for it like I should. That I found out latter in chapters but still I finished it and I hope you liked it. I now plan either continue this story or start new one. I'd like your input which would be better.

Yours Anarin