We charged out of the ship and dove for cover as bullets were tearing through the boarding vessel's hull. To us, the vessel had already served its purpose.

“Squad 1onemove to the flanks! Squad two provides suppressive fire for squad one!” Shouted Xander as he unleashed his own rounds of suppressive fire on the pirate scum. “Crawl back to hell!” shouted the soldier next to me, which turned out to be his last words as his head caved in like a watermelon, covering me in blood, viscera, and brain matter. “Enemy sniper!” screamed one of our guys, I stood there stunned. My vision changed from upright to falling as I got tackled from behind, thereby dodging the incoming fire that would have popped open my head as well. “Jason get it together! We need to push them back, are you with us.” Said Henry.

“Sorry about that, any idea where the sniper is at?!” Henry shook his head at my question.

Then it’s time to use the tools we brought.

“Activate Drone group 3.”

[[Drone Group 3] is online and awaiting your command.]

I began instructing the last of the construction drones I had brought from the engineering bay to spread out and maneuver themselves toward the ceiling. Thanks to the current shootout the drones made their way unnoticed among the commotion of blood, gunpowder, and screams.

There! I found the bastard. Upon finding the sniper I had a few drones sneak up right above him and then release themselves whilst engaging their thrusters for extra speed. From afar we saw a fountain of blood spring forth from between what used to be a whole pirate, luckily the spectacle was too far away to see all the gory details.

As the battle progressed I continued to make use of [REMOTE CONTROL] to launch surprise attacks with the construction drones on unsuspecting pirates. As we slowly whittled down their forces and pushed them back we saw gunfire come from behind the pirates. Our local comms was joined by friendlies. “This Ferus from Squad C under General Thalia, we’re flaking the enemy from behind!” We pressed the advantage as we unleashed a deafening war cry within the stronghold of our enemy. “Die pirate scum!” “Rafar will never fall!” “This is for killing my friends!” soon the fighting ceased and we met up with Ferus and Squad C.

Ferus shook hands with Xander. “We’re glad to see you boys here, we need to keep pushing towards the command center, they are preparing to FTL jump, we already destroyed their coms center so they won’t be able to report back to their superiors.” Xander nodded. “Then the general also suspects that these pirates are more than they seem.” We quickly followed behind Ferus as we charged through the large ship.

Along the way we encountered Rafarian Squad B being pinned down in the cafeteria, we charged the enemy from behind, making short work of them. Leading Squad B was. “Belleran is that you?” I said as I offered the man my hand. Belleran took it and looked at me in stunned surprise. “My Lord what are you doing here??” I flicked my head in the direction of the recently deceased pirates. “Same things as you, making sure these bastards won’t be threatening Rafar again.” Belleran was about to apologize for his earlier outburst a few weeks back but I cut him off. “You're forgiven, but if you feel the need to still apologize then watch my back as we end them.” Belleran saluted. “Yes, your Highness.” As we moved on we encouraged many other splinter pockets of resistance, but unable to slow down any further for fear that the FTL charge would finish we instead split off parts of our force to help out each group, eventually leaving only me, Xander, Henry, Belleran and four other Rafarian soldiers to charge towards the command center.

We knew where to go as the heaviest sounds of conflict led us forward. Breaching through the door I saw General Thalia fighting in close knife combat with two other pirates, one of which looked to be the captain. Many Rafarians lay dead or dying on the slowly turning blood-red floor and in a glance, I estimated that about twelve pirates were still left standing.

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“For Rafar!” I shouted as I and my companions charged forward.

“Die lowborn scum!” Shouted what looked to be an officer as he and his fighters met our charge head-on. Almost immediately the ranged fire ceased as a heavy melee began. Knifes, punches, kicks any dirty trick in the book, and then some we used to gain the upper hand.

I ducked right before a fist my head had been, and a second later I retaliated by punching the lady between the nether region. Another pirate jumped on my back, making us both crash to the blood-soaked floor. I tried to wiggle him off me with no success. And a second later a gunshot rang above my head, as the weight on my back went slack. I immediately got out under the now dead weight and was helped up by Belleran who quickly reupholstered his smoking gun. I gave him an approving nod before we both rejoined the fray.

Henry and Xander were barely holding off four attackers on their own while four of our soldiers duked it out between five other pirates. The general was still fighting valiantly against the captain and another soldier but was steadily losing ground as she was being worn down. I pointed Bellarn in the direction of Henry and Xander while I got out my personal pistol, switched on to automatic firing mode, and shouted “General Duck!!” over our comms. The General did as I told and a second later the air above her was filled with lead, the captain escaped most of the bullets, but his pirate companion hadn’t been so lucky as the lead pinned the pirate to one of the command consoles. A clicking sound rang out as no more lead could be found within the pistol's metal chamber. I rushed forward to cover the still-getting-up General and faced off against the captain.

We exchanged blows but soon our arms and hands locked together as we tried to grapple one another to the ground. “If it isn’t the dirt-born prince, what a pleasure it will be to ransom you off!” Sneered the captain. In his moment of derision, I let a bit of my pushing power go, letting him get nice and close so I could spit in his eye, stunning him which gave me the opportunity I needed to sucker punch him with a left hook. “Don’t worry I’ll give you you’re own fucking locker in which you can rot away the rest of your miserable existence!” The captain’s nose bled furiously, and his eyes looked wild. “You commoner-loving of filth! How dare you touch me!” He screamed.

Once again we were locked in stalemate. “Your no pirates are you, tell me scum, who do you work for!” The captain answered by kicking me in the side of my leg causing me to stagger. Thinking he now had the upper hand he pressed his advantage. With his momentary surge forward I angled us towards the side, causing us to crash into the floor with our sides. Disorientated as I was I still managed to get up first, which is when I noticed one of the pirates working on the console. I rushed the man, took out my trusty pistol by the barrel, and whipped it straight across the side of his head.

As the man crumpled down I soon screamed as I felt the knife pierce through and embed itself into my left shoulder, followed up by a meaty blow on the right side of my frontal lobe. The captain turned me around and I had a split second the see just in time the next punch that broke my nose.

Red liquid dripped from my nose, and I tried to dampen the force of the blows coming my way with my arms... But my left arm would not respond any more thanks to the captain’s knife.

The captain pulled out more knives from who knows where, he nailed my left arm into the console with one whilst using another to stab me in the sides. I wanted the horrible blood-curdling screams of battle to fade. Only to momentarily realize that those screams came from my own throat as the captain forcibly pulled me forward, causing the connective tissue and bones between my left shoulder and arm to snap.

Falling to the ground with less weight than before did nothing to stop the air from escaping my lungs. I tried to gasp for more air while I screamed, but both attempts were cut short as two hands choked the life out of me.

“What a shame, that I won’t be able to ransom you off! But I’m sure your body will be worth something to those lowborn parents of yours!” Said the captain. The edges of my vision began to grow dark and close in, as I struggled in vain to get this pretentious monster off of me.

That is when the captain fell to the sides as a long steel-covered military boot crushed his precious jewels. Revealing a tired and battered yet standing proud General Thalia. Behind her, I saw Rafarian soldiers join the fight.

I closed my eyes in temporary relief, instinctively I tried wiping the blood off my face with my left hand, but for some reason, it never showed up.

“Your Highness! Jason!” Screamed familiar voices, but they seemed to grow farther away even as I lay still. There was only one thing I wanted right now, which was to rest and for all of this to be over.

The sounds stopped, I felt cold, and the light went out.