"Incoming missiles!" SAIL loudly warned just as John switched his attention from the situation outside to Peri that was just beside him.

"Oh, fuck." John cursed.

In the face of homing missiles, John didn't have any tricks to fend it off.

All he could do was to continue dodging the bullets, and energy beams as the missiles slowly get closer and ultimately blow them to smithereens.

With the missiles, the Apex ships lowered the number of projectiles firing at John because they didn't want to hit the rockets accidentally.

As John focused his mind on trying to find a way to deal with the situation behind him, John controlled with the utmost of his ability to receive the least amount of damage from the attacks.

*Bam*

*Bam*

The shield glowed with a faint light where it was hot, John saw some small cracks appearing in some places, but it was soon fixed.

"Direct hit by projectiles detected. Forcefield capacity dropped to 43%," SAIL warned.

This time John made sure to skillfully maneuver the ship in a way that the thrusters and engine didn't get damaged, and they slow down even further.

"Put your seatbelt." John spoke as he kept one hand in the joystick, and the other reached for his PIPS, [I don't have a choice than to overclock the engine before the missiles get closer.]

"Okay." Peri followed along with John's order and obediently fastened her seatbelt.

John took his Breathing EPP, a grey cylinder device, from his PIPS and placed it beside him.

"SAIL, depressurize the ship, turn off Life Support System, the Artificial Gravity Generator. Prepare to turn the shield off at my order. Channel all energy and fuel onto the engine and thrusters. After I turn down the Energy Defensive System, we are going to activate turbo." John gave a stream of orders as his hand flew across the keyboard in front of him as he got ready to activate the turbo mode.

By turning off everything that was using energy, John could redirect all the energy generated by the Power Generator towards the engine and increase even further the speed of the spaceship. Of course, to do this, he needed SAIL's help to force the engine to work more than it was built for and disable all safety systems to stop the engine from entering in a kind of turbo mode.

"Yes, Protector. Initiating the process of turning down all requested systems."

"I need some time..." John glanced at the screen in front of him and saw the fastly approaching objects behind them.

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There were about 5 homing missiles that had been launched by the enemy.

*BOOM!!!*

"What!?" John exclaimed as he saw one of the homing missiles explode out of nowhere.

There was only a trail of red light that came to contact with the missile, and it exploded.

Peri saw the development, and a faint smile appeared on her face, "Looks like he began to take action."

Sensing his PIPS vibrate, John glanced down and saw that Lenny was requesting a direct local connection between both of their PIPS.

As the Miniknog fleet behind had FTL Jammers, they also had some kind of jamming device for communication, and as such, simply calling wouldn't work, that's why Lenny chose to request a local connection and not to use his PIPS to give a call.

"Looks like I'm indeed the best!" The moment John accepted the connection, his ears were greeted Lenny praising himself.

"What do you want!? I'm a little occupied here trying to save our lives and all." John was annoyed and somewhat angry that Lenny was calling him in such a tense and deadly moment just to speak nonsense.

"That's how you thank me for destroying the missile?"

"What!?" John exclaimed, "It was you!? But...how!?"

*BOOM!!!*

Another missile exploded as soon as the red trail met with it.

"I'm simply shooting them down, that's all." John's lips twitched as soon as he heard that.

Shooting such small objects flying at incredibly high speeds with unpredictable patterns of movement, and Lenny still had the face to say he was just shooting them down.

"How about it? Am I good, or am I good?" At this moment, John really wished he had the chance to punch Lenny just like Peri did, but he rather deliver it on the face and not in the chest.

John sighed and calmed himself. This wasn't the moment to quibble and chitchat, "Where are you?'

"I'm at the spaceship's roof, I think. I'm beside the long-range communication antenna."

"How the hell you got there?"

*BOOM!!"

As he destroyed another missile, Lenny answered, "I went out through the side hatch, the same from where I got in."

John stopped to think about it and realized he had some recollection about hearing some warnings from SAIL about a hatch being opened and then closed.

While John was focused on piloting the spaceship and trying to think of a solution, Lenny had already opened the side hatch, where he entered together with Forge and Saito and climbed his way to the top of the ship.

"Alright, Lenny. I'll have to turn off the Forcefield so that I can activate some kind of turbo by overclocking the engine. You need to be careful with the bullets and energy beams they will send our way as soon as they realize the shield is down."

"What!? Are you serious!? Do you wish to get me killed!?"

"No!! We need to do it, or else they will get even closer, and it will be impossible to dodge the beams at a closer distance. You saw how easily one of those energy beams went penetrated the ship's shield."

"..." There were some moments of silence followed with another explosion that shook the spaceship just a little, signifying another missile being destroyed. John heard Lenny sighing, and his voice came through, "Alright, do it."

"... Don't die, Lenny. If you do, we're all probably going to die with you."

"That's reassuring to hear."

"SAIL, deactivate the Defensive Energy Forcefield System." John gave the orders, "Overclock the engine and push it beyond its limit, I don't care about overheating, and the damages are done. Only get us out of the jamming device's range."

"Yes, Protector. Deactivating requested system and initiating turbo mode."

John glanced at his side and saw that Peri was also staring at him.

She had an expressionless face as he nodded at him.

John turned back to his Navigation Console, [Let's see if we can get out of this alive.]

Soon enough, rumbling noises could be heard echoing throughout the spaceship.

The spaceship started to faintly vibrate as the engine began to work more than it was built for.

Along with the engine, the Power Generator also heated up as the engine consumed more and more energy.