What Has To Be Done

Whoosh... Heian Ciemnosc returned to his defensive position as the close protector of the medium-sized spaceship. At that moment, silence ensued, not only in space but in the coms and with no enemies showing around anymore. Heian Ciemnosc found the situation calm, but he and everyone in the mini-fleet knew this wasn't over. After such careful precautions utilized by the enemy, how could they not have prepared something more than Fighters? Especially when knowing how vital the goods in the merchant spaceships were?

"... There's a radar reading showing a few... no, doz-... damn it... These are too many!" Miss Rila's voice sounded in their coms as an image appeared before Heian Ciemnosc and his teammates. It was the medium-sized vessel's radar scanning and reading the incoming enemy Fighters coming from the rear!

"Moy, preemptively launch some missiles. Get ready to rain them with those." Beto immediately ordered, moving around the formation as his Fighter flew past Heian Ciemnosc. "Cara and Clanton, go to the sid-"

"Incoming! At the front! These are hundreds of drones!" Sandra shouted just as she saw something at their front, where too many objects to count showed up and flew towards them. They weren't Fighters, and airships couldn't do in space, so they could only be drones. Beto stopped and returned his Fighter to the front, where he saw a small beehive of flying objects moving towards them. He went silent for a few seconds before changing plans, "Wei and Sandra, to the left. Clanton and Cara, to the right. Loma, go to the rear and support Moy."

"Team leader, I think it's better if we move," Heian Ciemnosc suddenly interjected. Beto didn't sound too anxious, and the Team, in general, wasn't afraid, but Heian Ciemnosc's senses tingled as he knitted his eyebrows constantly. The coms went silent for some seconds before Beto spoke. After all, Heian Ciemnosc did have the most expansive Spirit Sense range.

"What are you talking about? What did you find?"

"There's something bigger coming here. It's moving in concealment. But if we keep defending, it will trap us wherever we go, too soon, and with these new folks... We'll be overwhelmed," Heian Ciemnosc said without saying unnecessary things. What he had experienced in the Blauw Empire, tactics, strategies, and situations, was incomparable to 10 year war soldier units.

"Moy, Loma, prepare to send smoke in our retreat. We're leaving these behind. Moving in our original direction. Just wait for the moment to send them forth." Sure enough, Beto responded by once again changing his plans instead of staying and getting rid of the horde of enemy firepower and drones. They would flee! Heian Ciemnosc felt a little calmer, his instincts allowing him to do so as he employed the Rychly Transporting Formation Array.

Pshift, pshift... The array formation's inscriptions were unleashed under the mini-fleet, covering it completely, and the systems of every Fighter became used to it as if already premeditated. There were options to engage and disengage outer objects from the Fighters, like the dozens of missiles now floating beside Moy, Loma, and their 9 Fighters. Heian Ciemnosc pressed a button on his Ornament via his dark Soul, and as he did, Beto gave the order.

"Set off, now!"

P... pf... pf... p... p... whooosh, veeemmm...!

In one notion, the missiles at the rear were launched after the sides were covered by each pair, and Beto was alone, the mini-fleet distorted from the image of the enemy's eyes, who were still rushing at them. The mini-fleet zoomed in the distance, crushing the hundreds of drones they had in front, crashing them into shards like glass and tragedy. All they could do was chase after them, and they did.

... On the other hand, the mini-fleet kept advancing for a couple hours, traversing a great distance and nearly crossing 200,000 km at once, bringing them a fifth closer to their destination but still far away. They slowly returned to their usual pace, whereas Beto didn't hesitate for a second to shout his following command.

"Maximum speed ahead! We're already connected!" Beto commanded, and Miss Rila also didn't hesitate to follow him. Her merchant spaceships activated their smallish engines and started flying forwards towards their destination. There were barely 50 seconds of peace as the Team remained on high alert when a sudden appearance tensed them up from afar.

"... Heian Ciemnosc?" The Team and the merchant vessels didn't know what they saw other than too many flying objects moving towards them. In his Ornament, Heian Ciemnosc grabbed the control from his Fighter and swallowed before speaking. His gulping sound could be clearly heard. "It's better to check ammunition. And it would be even better to deal with this before we're caught. Something tells me what we have on our backs has a better engine."

"Ah, fuck..." Beto cursed as he understood. What they were seeing were, indeed, just more enemies. And that it wasn't just drones this time. There were also Fighters. As for their numbers, maybe in the hundreds...

"This... They must have taken out all their Fighter arsenal... Those drones should be from their new acquisition. They have halted their offensive on my people! Just to... stop me... Team leader Beto, I need to deliver these things there. But I'd like to know if it's possible to pay you extra for destroying as many of these as possible!" Miss Rila said, feeling excited as she found it in her duty and heart to deal a blow to her people's enemy.

"Agh, Heian Ciemnosc?" Beto felt headaches incoming, but their mini-fleet continued to go at maximum speed, and the enemy rushed to their front as if incensed and injected with chicken blood. It was like they received commands of the mini-fleet's sudden disappearance and last trajectory but had suddenly found them and were glad to delay them.

"I cannot use that array formation for the moment. The Stones would be too many for a second activation, and the array formation will break afterwards. We'll still have more than 600,000 kilometers before our destination." Heian Ciemnosc said, preparing for the incoming incursion, cracking his neck and tensing and relaxing his muscles intermittently.

"Sure, why not? They're also not giving us other options," Beto drew a good amount of air into his lungs before accepting. Miss Rila immediately said, "Good! We will pay 50 Supreme Neutral Stones to each of you after your job's done. But the principal goal is the same, the goods will be the only important thing in this merchant fleet."

"Are you sure you can afford that?" Beto asked the contractor, unsure if it would be possible, but miss Rila nodded and showed her face before him in his Fighter. "We will be capable after we overthrow this enemy back in my Kingdom."

"Well then," Beto nodded, and everyone became aware of the tough job ahead. As Beto started pressing some buttons from his panels, his Team started preparing, with every weaponry system activating and prepared to the maximum capacity. Heian Ciemnosc's darkest eyes looked ahead, and then he looked at the sides, only for more enemies to come at them from concealed positions. The fight had started before they knew it, and bullets rained their way!

"Repel them!!" Beto roared, but there was no need. Both sides and the front started firing as Moy and Loma kept steady and didn't participate. Heian Ciemnosc watched as hundreds and hundreds of enemy Fighters and drones flew towards them. After analyzing for a few tens of seconds, he exited his Ornament and walked to the medium-sized vessel's personnel hatch.

"Heian Ciemnosc? What is it?!" Miss Rila received him attentively. Heian Ciemnosc didn't waste time and took a device out with a complex array formation inscribed onto it. Even miss Rila, who didn't know about them but was of a higher cultivation base than Heian Ciemnosc, understood how complicated and advanced it was. He passed it to her while briefly explaining as explosions and sounds of missiles flying echoed from the outside.

"This will work as a protective barrier. Whatever the enemy uses, have this activated as soon as possible. It will repair itself, little by little, but it must be attached to the spaceship. It will also bring some firepower towards you but will protect you. Just as the vessel isn't struck or gets out of position, it will be fine." Heian Ciemnosc said, gave the device, and turned around.

"..." Miss Rila looked at Heian Ciemnosc's back before staring at the device in her palms. Shortly after Heian Ciemnosc left, just as he was flying towards his Ornament, transparent-blue thin barriers appeared around the middle-sized vessel, covering it with rectangles and squares from all sides. The moment they appeared, Heian Ciemnosc received a coms message from his heating medallion.

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"Heian Ciemnosc, what was that?!" It was Beto. His voice sounded pleasant, but he was too focused on firing at the enemy in front to showcase more emotions or add more words. Neutral Energy beams shot from his cabin from time to time as well, destroying several drones each. Heian Ciemnosc sat back in his chair and closed his Ornament's cabin, saying with carefreeness. "Something that will help. I was studying it more so it could be used in space. It won't last more than a few hours."

"Good... Because things are getting worse... There's something following us!" Beto said between short pauses, and Heian Ciemnosc knitted his eyebrows as he scanned more furtively around them. Finally, he found something scary, precisely worse than they could have dealt with. Heian Ciemnosc initiated coms with miss Rila and casually asked, "Does your enemy own a Frigate?"

"... There were rumors they did, but our spies never caught on this piece of information. It was left for only their highest hierarchy... But it must be a top-notch, nothing lower than that with the gains they've stocked for Eras... I assume things turned for the worse?" Miss Rila's strict voice spoke in the mini-fleet's coms. Heian Ciemnosc remained silent for a few seconds before calmly saying, "Brace for impact."

"Huh?" - "?" - "!"

Pom, pom... pom... pom... pom... Crasshhh~!

Suddenly, 2 Fighters from the rear were immediately eviscerated by an initial Neutral Energy beam, melting their shields and taking one side of their wings off or compartments for the Bulldog types. Then, shelling flew in between, destroying those Fighters who didn't have another chance to fight other than sending those missiles, but not everyone died. However, with the mini-fleet's maximum speed, they were left behind immediately.

"Don't worry about them. They have self-destruction array formations. They will lay mines everywhere and gain us a little extra time... We should... prepare and plan for the worst." Miss Rila spoke in the coms again, this time after the medium-sized vessel was damaged, with their rear open to space, but the goods were fine, and the spaceship was protected by its array formations. Heian Ciemnosc flew closer to it and watched as bodies piled up near the opening, smoked without signs of life.

"We're fine. It's what we must do," miss Rila said, staring at Heian Ciemnosc's Ornament in space. He nodded behind his cabin's windows, not cleared up, and returned to his position. But after a few seconds, he and the Fighters started floating a few meters away from the medium-sized vessel.

"Heian Ciemnosc? What now?" Beto asked, rapidly noticing that tiny change in Heian Ciemnosc's position. It was of importance to keep everything as intended. Decades and thousands of years of practice and trial and error made for any experimentation. However, Heian Ciemnosc's words only exerted more pressure on the Team and miss Rila.

"The Frigate is just minutes from finding us, and we are still dealing with hundreds of enemy spacecraft. We can't defend the vessel without using all our assets." Heian Ciemnosc's words hit Beto, but his efficiency at vandalizing the enemy's morale didn't diminish.

"The little outcast is right. Everyone, if I'm drawn away by the Frigate's cultivators, keep the merchants' wares safe. And wait until you've dropped their numbers a lot more before coming to help me... We're putting a Frigate down!" Beto said, receiving silent responses from his Team as Heian Ciemnosc's attention was brought elsewhere. His darkest eyes seemed to sense something as he narrowed them and fully opened them the next moment. He communicated with his Fighters, and his Ornament flew backwards as if losing connection with the medium-sized vessel and was flung back and downwards.

"Stay in position! Missiles out, and start firing when you see them!"

"!" - "...?" Heian Ciemnosc's Fighters were slightly taken aback, but after a couple seconds of checking their surroundings, they noticed glints from above and to the right. They immediately moved their machine guns and started firing while preemptively launching missiles to float beside them. Suddenly, the Team realized the enemy was catching up to them faster, as dozens and dozens of enemy Fighters appeared from above and were fired by Heian Ciemnosc's Fighters!

Tik- tik tk tk tik tik... The enemy Fighters didn't waste time either, firing below at the merchant spaceships but focusing on the medium-sized one. Their bullets were drawn towards the thin barriers, like ripples, and dissipated those bullets away once crashing against them. Missiles flew from the Fighters protecting it, but SC Fighters moved fast and avoided them, rushing towards the medium-sized vessel while their comrades exploded and died, attracting the Fighters' heavy firepower as more and more SC Fighters rushed from the side and arched towards the merchant spaceship.

Tarararara... pf, pf, pf, pf- pom, pom!...

However! Just then! Heian Ciemnosc's Ornament appeared from below the medium-sized spaceship, and its machine guns went all-out, firing at maximum fire rate and launching missiles with a dozen others floating beside it, flying into the skies and targeting the other Fighters while the bullets and artillery guns aimed at the incoming enemy SC Fighters.

Bum... bum...!

Immediately, 2 enemy SC Fighters were turned into blobs of fire, followed by another 4 who met with a self-detonated missile, and another one that was peppered until it became a group of armor plates floating in space with some blood and gore remains accompanying them. The remaining enemy SC Fighters turned around and arched in a 'U' back to where they came from. The Fighters still coming towards the medium-sized spaceship proportioned heavy fire, which Heian Ciemnosc had already dodged as he did the same as before and flew his Ornament to orbit around it.

Of course, not without a pair of missiles sneaking behind a couple of enemy SC Fighters. Just as the enemy noticed something was wrong with the ultra-defensive Crimsons, 2 of their Fighters that joined their ranks after they rescued them from being professionally bested exploded, bringing about intense tremors among the others and damaging a dozen other of their Fighters.

Ta rara... ra... rrarrraa... Before they could start recomposing, however, Heian Ciemnosc's Fighters followed up with more missiles and machine gun fire. Space was much different than in Kingdoms, so these bullets could travel tens and tens of thousands of kilometers without deviating even a bit. However, it was similarly more difficult to traverse because of the Elemental Poisoning, so the bullets could only be top-notch if they were intended to be used in space, unlike in Kingdoms, dimensions, or a Semi-Space.

Heian Ciemnosc did another circling motion again, and when he reappeared to face the enemy, there were a few more dozen Fighters with some drones. The latter were faster but less deadly and not the suicidal type. Thus, Heian Ciemnosc fired at them and attracted some attention as he came out of the covering Elemental Eye array formations' barriers, bringing the enraged enemy to attempt to destroy him without realizing who they were dealing with. However, it wasn't their fault. After all, Heian Ciemnosc had just started his first steps into the real world.

"Sir! There's more below!" And just as Heian Ciemnosc was becoming used to defending the medium-sized spaceship with ease, one of his Fighters responded. Indeed, Heian Ciemnosc used his Spirit Sense to find a few machine guns' firing lines already shooting from below their universal focus, accurately aiming at the medium-sized vessel. Heian Ciemnosc felt his lungs filling up with air, and he released it slowly, with dark particles escaping his nostrils.

"Leave it to me... Keep your duty on... If I tell you to do something, even if it's fucking crazy, because it will and will kill you... Just do it!" Heian Ciemnosc said without a care in the world, not only to his Fighters but also shared it with the merchant spaceships. Miss Rila said nothing about him, but Heian Ciemnosc could tell she felt... somewhat grateful and saddened. Although dying like this wasn't horrible, at least not with their purpose, dying outside the actual war did bring regret to their Souls.

"Aye, aye!!" - "You got us, sir!" The Fighters' team leaders responded, bringing Heian Ciemnosc a sudden, reminiscing sensation to his numbed, pale skin. If he had hair like anyone else, he would've felt it standing on air other than at the corners of his hairline around his head and face. Smiling strangely, like a predator having found beautiful places to prey on weaklings, Heian Ciemnosc flew his Ornament more rapidly, orbiting the medium-sized spaceship.

"..." Meanwhile, inside the spaceship, miss Rila's crossed arms slowly moved. Her right-handed fingertips landed around her lips and chin, falling pensive and with her chest rising and falling more heavily.

"... Heian Ciemnosc!! How is it going on your side?!" Beto said, seemingly becoming anxious about something. Heian Ciemnosc, who was with his Ornament gaining new bullet holes and gashes through the wings and underside, responded while every single piece of weaponry fired at the enemy Fighters and drones, flying in the direction they were moving still even after a quarter of an hour. "It's fine... Team leader... is this about the Frigate?"

"Yes...!" Beto responded, sounding as if he sweated crazily, but Heian Ciemnosc could only relate and not understand what it was like fighting all out in space without a spacecraft. "I'm gonna take away now. The front will be cleared, but I'll leave my 2 Fighters in automatic. They were set by Ruo Wei to work better than before... But they won't be me, and my Fighters won't have the chance to live long after I leave them."

"I understand," Heian Ciemnosc responded, his darkest eyes moving about— everywhere. Beto said a few words as his Spirit Sense caught the Frigate's concealed figure, overshadowing them from behind. There were a few damaged machine guns at the front and anti-missile turrets caused by what Heian Ciemnosc knew well to be self-detonation array formations... and Dantians.

Beto spoke once more as Heian Ciemnosc sensed him exiting his Bulldog Fighter, took his SC Fighter, and left them behind before flying to their universal focus' northwest. "Let them endure until it is no longer salvageable. You will endure a heavier bombardment and barrage of enemy attacks... Just keep the goods in check. I trust you won't have to wait long before we take the Frigate down."

"Oh. I see. Good luck hunting that thing then," Heian Ciemnosc said. But, just then, the Frigate they dreaded started taking its concealing array formation off. It wasn't that good, but it was above Heian Ciemnosc's Spirit Sense and dark Soul detection. Only allowing him to realize when it moved at maximum speed with its small engines. Only then was the array formation under too much pressure to reveal a few gaps in its concealing properties.

Its massive body, 3 times their mini-fleet's size, advanced rapidly from behind to their left, as they were at maximum speed. It was as if a hand was moving it from one point to another before stopping it and keeping it at the same speed as the mini-fleet, bizarrely pressuring anyone who was their target, including Heian Ciemnosc.

It was so massive! And it was just a Frigate! It was more or less as long as a navy's Frigate but was much thicker and had a more steep appearance, with its few small engines at its rear. But the Frigate Heian Ciemnosc belonged to had its small engines on its belly, showcasing the diversity that only spaceships could have.

...