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It took Vincent only five minutes to return to Frosthaven. His ego was still bruised from Brigid’s treachery, but he was also happy they won. He pulled the System crystal out of his spatial storage. “We’re ready to roll. How are we going to do this? Do we pull the new System off that thing and put you instead, or what?”

“Doing that would damage the postament. There are invisible filaments that connect us,” a voice spoke in the air. The New System.

“Aha… the villain speaks. Finally!” Vincent sneered. “Go on, give us your version. How you did it for everyone’s good.”

“Sweetheart, we don’t have time for villain monologues,” Irene kneaded her hands. “My family wants us to have dinner together.”

"Remember, there still remaineth that fleet above," Bella said. "I shall sever those filaments and destroy the diamond, then we don the System."

“Please, don’t! That would kill us… We weren’t the ones to attack you… that was all Thorrak and the Queen… they used us as a tool…”

“I think it’s those two AIs from Sven speaking,” Irene said.

“It is,” the voice said. “Please, allow us to live, and we’ll tell our users to make peace with your users.”

“Hm,” Vincent grabbed his chin, looking for a second at Bella. “And how do you propose to install our friend back if you let you be?”

“The old System can absorb us into it. We’ll be a minuscule, harmless part. We’ll renounce the changes we made and… AAAAA!”

A sharp shriek filled the cave, and the small diamond exploded, turning into dust.

“Tis done,” Bella said. “I worked my magic-breaking spell unbeknownst to the villains while Vincent kept them talking.”

“A clean and merciful death,” Elkandaros said.

“And without allowing it the time to burn some fuses in revenge,” Vincent said.

The System: I’m looking forward to kicking ass. Put me on the pedestal.

“Atta boy. You can put up a pocket universe here to protect yourself, right?”

The System: It should come with the mainframe. I will know for sure only when I’m reinstated. I noticed the new System didn’t have its own protection, but again, it was a very small diamond. Maybe it didn’t have the processing power.

“Here you go, buddy,” Vincent said, resting the crystal on the postament.

The System is reinstalling!

A minute later, a thin forcefield filled the cave.

The System: Protections activated. I should be safe as long they don’t have another breaching device.

“I think we’re good,” Vincent said. “I had a word with Fenros and his folks about that. The breachers were Thorrak’s invention, a localized Warp distortion. I think the one in Orleans was the last… but I bet Bee could devise a counter now that we know how it works.”

The System: Aye, captain. The rest of the Grand Archetypes have awakened from slumber. They wish to be installed in robots and given pod armor and weapons. This way, my safety is ensured twenty-four-seven. What now? I didn’t announce myself to the world yet.

“Then—” Irene started when Vincent raised his hand in a stopping gesture.

“That fleed above bothers me. And by that, I mean the cadets. Do they have enough food and water to make it back home? Are they stranded? Maybe we should give them a chance to surrender.”

“Good luck with that,” Elkandaros shrugged. “There are dwarves up there, too, and Balangastan is the most stubborn of the ten tribes. “Let’s go save the ones in Orleans first and deal with the dwarves later.”

“We have no way to communicate with them anyway,” Irene said. “Identifying their comm frequency would by trial and error would—”

“The frequency is set on that thing,” Brigid said, pointing to the space scooter.

“Problem solved,” Vincent said. “Again, do we save Hubris, Kiara, and Sia, or the cadets?”

“My folks would rather die than be saved over some children,” Brigid said. “We have to do our duty.”

“You look very keen on duty,” Irene said, giving the princess a meaningful look. “Almost like you don’t care at all about your father and grand grandparents' lives.”

“I dooooo…” Brigid sagged his shoulders. “But without my grandmother... there’s nobody to protect me from my dad…”

“He’s abusive?” Vincent frowned. “I won’t tolerate child abuse on my watch.”

“Noooo!” the girl waved her hands in protest. “He’s overprotective. Can’t make a step without him trying to be sure I’m safe. Can’t date a boy, can’t do anything! There was once a bandit who tried to kidnap me. Instead of letting me deal with it, he was flailing those little stubby arms of his in the air while the bandit was keeping him at a distance by pushing his hand against his bald head… it was embarrassing!”

“Sia is on the shorter size,” Vincent said.

“And what did you do?” Bella asked.

“Hit him on the head with my crowbar, killed the bandit with my dad’s weapon, and told him he did it. He didn’t realize it was I who knocked him out.”

“And you’d let him be murdered just to save some embarrassment?” Irene scolded the girl. “That’s what parents do; they make us feel embarrassed by them. But they also love us.”

“Daddy….” Brigid sobbed. “Let’s save him.”

“Let’s not rush into things,” Vincent said. “I’ll call Dragon and see how’s the situation in Orleans first.” Concentrating himself on the ring, he whispered: “Dragon, this is Axe Raven. Do you copy? Over.”

“I copy, Axe Raven,” Dragon whispered back a second later. “What’s up?”

“We took out the new System, and we’re preparing to launch the old one again.”

“Great news.”

“How are you?”

“We’re playing hide and seek with the occupiers.”

“We who?”

“I and Scoundrell. We used claymore mines, booby-trapped grenades, sniper rifles, and knives… we had a lot of fun… But my leg is broken, and Scoundrell got an arrow through his head—”

“I’m fine, just a flesh wound,” Scoundrell said.

“Went one ear, exits the other, but I always believed Scoundrell doesn’t have much brain anyway. We’re hiding in the church tower,” Dragon continued.

“Do you want me to come and get you?”

“Of course not. We’ll be healed in about a minute and try to kill the last two throne contenders with a claymore mine. They’re just below us, in the church.”

“How so?”

“They’re trying to convince the core to open the access, but it refuses. It says, and I quote: You can take your claim and shove it up your ass. I don’t give a shit about it; I’ll stick with my old pals.”

“Good core… OK, keep your head low. I have some stuff to take care of here and I’ll be with you soon. If things go south, call me. Axe Raven out.”

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“So, we’re going for the fleet?” Irene asked.

“I’m going. You guys stay here… Actually… Brigid… you wanna come?”

“If I help you… will you help me?” the princess asked.

“Help you like what?”

“After the war’s over and you talk peace, can you maybe…. I dunno… pretend you need me as a hostage, you know, political collateral, and take me to Earth?”

“You like it better?”

“I won a talent show, I was cast as Joan of Arc in a Bollywood movie, and I’m a top model… so yeah,” she nodded, counting on her fingers. “Beats here by far.”

“Sure, I’ll help you… But you swear you’ll follow my lead in this. I have some experience with hostage situations.”

“Fine! I’ll follow your orders,” Brigid rolled her eyes.

“Show me your fingers, you punk!” Vincent grabbed her hand, forcing it into the open. “No crossed fingers. Good… Now, System… let’s play it like this: I ask them to surrender, and if they refuse, you make your entry and scare them. If they still refuse, we go in and take out their bridges, paralyzing their ships. Then, they will have no other option but to give up. We spare the kids, knock them off, or something. Right, Brigid?”

“Right.”

“That’s the spirit. Let’s do it. Vorrak, get back in my shadow, please.”

The System: Good luck. I promise you, I’ll make a spectacular entry. You’ll like it.

“Not before my signal,” Vincent said, entering the Bug, followed by Brigid and Striding to the previous location. He happily noticed the fleet hadn’t moved an inch. They didn’t notice him either, and Vincent profited to put some distance between them, keeping the sun behind him. Such a small ship was hard to detect at a longer range.

“You’re sure you can pilot this thing?” the princess asked, seeing how the Bug was moving sideways, turning on itself. “I can try if you want.”

“It has voice commands and an autopilot… must be here somewhere,” Vincent lowered his head to look at the board.

“Is it by any chance that black button with the autopilot written on it?” she asked.

“Are you sarcastic?” Vincent hissed.

“Just trying to make myself useful.”

“Good. Or else I would have told your father. Stabilize the Bug on the current position, facing the fleet,” Vicent ordered. “Open channel of communication… Shit… What if they don’t speak Common Tongue?”

“I speak Elven, I have the full language package.”

“Then translate this message in Elven for me: Dwarven Fleet. This is Guildcher Vincent Valaška. Your cause is lost. Surrender, and we will arrange transportation for your home planet.”

“Dûrathar Fleet. Itha Guildcher Vincent Valaška. Ar'noril thal'ash. Lotha'se nael, ar'len athar'il thar'donath, ar'nothra'nor dhûn in'ra thal'var.”

“Can you write it down, please?” Vincent asked, offering her a pen and a notebook.

A minute later, he started broadcasting the ultimatum a few times until a voice yelled back in common tongue: “This is Space Cadet Louis Herman. You kidnapped our director. Release him, surrender to us, and accept your just punishment.”

“Surrender?” Vincent answered. “The only reason I don’t destroy those piles of rust is because you kids are on board. Be smart, don’t waste your young lives for a dead asshole. I beheaded Thorrak in public as punishment for his crimes, and I had the right to do so, as per the System’s orders.”

“You murderer!” another voice barked. It was darker, rough, and clear enough to Vincent that it was a dwarf. “You killed our Archetype for a dead System? Then what about this? If you care so much for these kids, you surrender, or we’ll space one every minute. Their usefulness has expired.”

“Shit, shit, shit. Axe Raven to the System. Execute. Execute. Execute!” Vincent yelled.

A moment later, a bright message showed in his eyes and probably everywhere.

The System: I'm the true System. The false System is dead. The Balangastan Comradery treachery is noted. I will pass judgment. The Balangastan tribe is to be disbanded, and all its wealth to be confiscated. Cadets, defend your lives. Accept the offer I’m extending to you and select yes. The treacherous new System will be uninstalled from you, and my enhanced version will replace it. You will deal double damage to the Dwarven species for the next hour. Killing dwarves will give double XP. Purge the fleet of the Balangastan plague and each one of you will receive five extra tokens. I will extend a jamming field over the fleet, disabling all healing and regeneration for the traitors and halving their resource pools. Offer no mercy!

“Except if they surrender or if they’re kids like you, idiot!” Vincent yelled.

The System: Correction. Except if they surrender or they’re kids like you, idiot!

“What a moron,” Vicent facepalmed.

The System: Hey! I hear you. I’m doing all I can but still rebooting many things.

“Soo.... this is the System, huh…” Brigid sighed. “Don’t you have second thoughts about killing the other one?”

“System, how are they doing?” Vincent asked, ignoring her.

The System: I detect two thousand and thirty-two humanoid lifeforms aboard the ships. Two-thirds are cadets, and the rest are dwarves. Heavy fighting has started.

“Shall we go help?” Brigid said.

“Yeah, let’s do that… Fuck, that didn’t go as planned…”

They jumped on the bridge of the largest ship because it was within the Bug’s optics sight. Vincent was armed with his assault rifle, while Brigid had a sword and a shield. A dozen dwarves were there, all busy barking orders into coms. Vincent opened fire, killing them in seconds. Brigid stayed in his back, protecting him from the few dwarves that tried to jump at them.

With the dwarves dead, they exited the corridor and proceeded onward. That section of the ship was filled with dwarves trying to seal thick doors behind them. Vincent and Brigid appearing in their back didn’t help much.

Suddenly, Vincent found himself face to face with a cadet, a young girl with blue eyes armed with an axe. She yelped in fear, seeing the black armor. At her feet was a dwarf with his skull caved in. Behind the girl were a dozen more cadets of mixed ages and sexes.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m Vincent Valaška,” he said. “How are you, kids?”

“We’re fine, sir!” the girl saluted. “As long as we can get in melee range, that is. They have guns, and we don’t. The corridors are clear, and about a hundred have barricaded themselves in the bay. We were checking the rooms one by one.”

The System: Sending the location of each living dwarf on the minimap.

About fifty feet further was a room that showed two blinking red dots on the mini screen. From the position, the dwarves had guns in hand, waiting to ambush the ones in the corridor. Vincent entered the next room and shot them through the walls.

“I’ve not seen many spaceships in my life, but I’m pretty sure the separations aren’t supposed to be made of drywall,” he said.

“Thorrak could cut costs on anything,” the girl cadet explained.

“How far until the bay?”

“Fifty yards after the next corner… They have heavy machine guns in there.”

“Could they use the scooters to run?”

“Run where?” the girl gestured. Through a lateral window, they could see both the frozen plains of Frosthaven and the scorched desert of Emberweld.

“Fair point… Brigid, I’ll knock the door down, and then you can do your number. Is that skill of yours out of cool down?”

“It has no cooldown. Mana costs are high; that’s why I use it sparingly… I have enough for a twenty-second run.”

“It will have to do. When you’re finished, roll to the right, give me some space, and hide behind something. Ready?”

“As ready as I can be,” Brigid nodded.

“Kids, get behind that corner. Farther! Don’t peek!” Vincent yelled, fearing that stray bullets or ricochets could get the kids. He picked up his spear, shaped it like a halberd, swung it back, and then forward at full speed, hitting the door with the hammer. The hit made the metal buckle, and then, at the last second, he added the shock of a stride, moving just an inch forward.

It was the most perfect timing he had ever achieved. The door got projected inside, its hinges breaking. It flew through the bay, smashing into the back wall and leaving a trail of destruction behind.

Brigid dashed inside so fast she almost caught up with the object. Fast enough that the dwarves shooting at her missed or hit their comrades. Her sword was sharp, or she used another skill simultaneously because it was cutting everything in its path without showing any sign of slowing. It went through multiple heads and bodies like a hot iron through butter.

It was impossible to follow her body count, but that was at least a good two dozens. Finally, she ducked for safety behind a pile of crates and Vincent Strode into the middle of a dwarven barricade, killing the ones there from the shock. He started lobbing grenades and shooting his rifle, moving from one cover to another with fluid movements, like when he had been deployed in a war zone, but now with magic on his side. And Vorrak.

A few dwarves tried to open the exterior doors to escape with the scooters. The exit malfunctioned, beeping in protest, Vincent shot them dead. There was no more appetite for fighting afterward; the remaining dwarves surrendered.

“On your knees, hands on your head, fingers interlocked!” Vincent ordered.

“I’ll die on my feet,” a dwarf barked back. Vincent recognized the voice. It was the dwarf who wanted to space the cadets. He shot the dwarf’s kneecaps off, and as the dwarf fell, screaming, he put the barrel of his revolver in the man’s mouth and pulled the trigger.

“Do I have perchance the reputation of being a nice guy?” he yelled at the rest, who were cowering. “You think I’ll go easy on murderers who tricked kids into being their cannon fodder? Cadets, come here!” he ordered. “Here you have your prisoners,” he pointed at the twenty-and-something dwarves. “Their fate is yours to decide. You can kill them or spare them.”

There was an evident hesitation among the cadets. Fighting was one, and they had done it with courage, but executing someone in cold blood was another thing.

“What will happen if we spare them?” the girl with blue eyes asked, holding her axe at the ready.

“Life in prison, without access to any magical power,” Vincent said matter of factly.

“Why don’t we judge them individually?” a cadet said. “We know them. Some are better than others…”

“There’s wisdom in your words, young warrior,” Brigid said.

“Tie these bastards for now,” Vincent said. “I’ll make sure you go home soon enough. Just give me a little time to sort some things out. System, how are we?”

The System: All hostiles aboard the other ships are dead or have surrendered. That’s one good thing. There is good news from Orleans too.

“Did my pals kill the remaining pretenders?”

The System: No. They have retreated before that and are negotiating a surrender. They got scared.

“By you?”

The System: I wish, but the main cause is the Vikings. They officially announced they wouldn’t accept them on the throne and would invade if Sia was not restored. So, your friends are safe.

“That’s fantastic news…”

The System: Not all news is good. There are fifty casualties among the cadets.

Shit!

The System: There are hundreds of injured as well. If you transport the heavily wounded to Krivoburg or Pragwyn, their chances of survival are guaranteed. There are about twenty kids in need of transfer, grouped in three medical bays. I’m showing you the locations in your head… maybe you can jump directly to them.

“Brigid, please keep an eye on the assholes while I take care of the wounded,” Vincent blurted and jumped away.