As she was still far enough out, Erica ran a scan of the Jaxxen, and what she saw was just beautiful. Jake had done it; now it was up to her to keep them in place, and to do this, she would need to move fast. The Retribution screamed past the moon and directly into the formation. She made it look like she was doing another attack run on the flagship. A minimum of half of the fleet moved to form a perimeter around the flagship. With weapons fire coming in at all angles, the Retribution was taking some damage. Erica couldn’t simply focus the shields because of the differences in the fleet’s tactics. Unlike last time, where the fleet wouldn’t fire at her once she had passed due to not wanting to hit their own ships, this time they threw caution to the wind and blasted at her from all sides.
“Time’s up,” Erica muttered. She flipped the Retribution and pushed the engines up to full military power, rocketing out of the formation. Just as Erica broke free of the fleet, explosions started erupting throughout the fleet. Once the Retribution got away, Erica spun the ship around to watch the carnage. Erica was delighted to see the flagship cracking in two and noticed that at least five other ships were badly damaged. The fleet was dead in the water, as they say. Moments later, space started to warp, and she threw up in her helmet.
“Fucken FTL,” she cursed through chunks of vomit. Checking the ship’s life support, she took off her helmet, vomit splattering across the floor. As she watched her fellow Nordics enter the system, to her surprise, they jumped in with no formation. In her mind, it finally made sense how they could be so easily destroyed; her people had a traitor in their midst, and one in a prominent position at that. Erica stopped the radio broadcast and headed back to the moon’s location to watch the battle. The Nordic fleet was out of position at first, taking many casualties from that, but with time, they gained momentum, pushing back the enemy fleet. Then, a radio call rang out through Erica’s comm.
“Unknown vessel, identify yourself,” the voice demanded.
Erica didn’t reply, as she didn’t want to get further involved in the fight. She was struggling with the fact that she was no longer a part of this tutorial, at least not as one of these Nordics.
The voice repeated, “Unknown vessel, identify yourself, or be destroyed.”
Erica raised her shields to maximum as she replied, “This is Retribution, and I am Erica Blake, former member of the Jaxxen, requesting that you hold your fire. I have taken heavy damage.”
It was silent for a minute, until finally, the radio crackled back to life.
“We do not have a ship in our records named the Retribution, and due to the fact you raised your shields before communicating, we must treat you as a hostile threat. Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded. If you do not comply, we will open fire.”
Erica’s point defence system picked up the gunship moving closer and swung around onto the gunship’s position.
“Gunship, gunship, you are entering the range of the Retribution’s point defence system. If you proceed on your present course, the PDS will open fire.”
“We will proceed on our present course. Power down your systems immediately.”
Seconds later, the PDS roared to life, shredding the flimsy mana shielding around the gunship.
“Gunship, reverse course now, reverse course now.”
The gunship continued forward; the only reply she got was a clear and confident one.
“To the heroes, we give our lives to the heroes.”
A tear rolled down Erica’s face as she reoriented the Retribution and fired a full salvo of rockets at the small and feeble gunship. The explosion lit up the darkness of the void for a second, causing the remaining fragments of the gunship to vanish into the night.
“You idiot why, why did you keep coming?” Erica yelled through the radio. The entire battlefield seemed to stop for a second as they all noticed the enormous explosion. Both sides sent ships in Erica’s direction, firing at each other all the way. Erica saw she had garnered a bit too much attention, so she engaged full thrust, blasting out of the range of the fleets.
----------------------------------------
On an enemy ship:
A man in his early 20s stood on the bridge of one of the enemy ships. He was the commander of the warship Polaris. His name was Eldres Knight, the only son of the founder of the Crimson Crown, a small noble house.
“It’s the demon’s hand again. Why won’t it just leave us alone?”
“Commander, the corvette is getting away.”
“Chase it down. After what it has done, we can’t let it escape.”
Ceasing its firing, the light cruiser commanded by Eldres began to give chase. Following the command to hold the line, the rest of the fleet stayed back. The lumbering Polaris let out a groan as it tried to keep pace with the much more nimble Corvette.
“Sir, we can’t keep this pace. We will start breaking up soon.”
“Fuck, get me a radio.” One soldier on the bridge gave Eldres a radio.
“Corvette, this is the Crimson Crown warship Polaris, commanded by none other than Eldres Knight. We demand your surrender.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Erica instantly replied, “Warship Polaris, go fuck yourself.”
Eldres threw the radio across the bridge, bouncing it off the back of the helmsman’s head. He threw it so hard that the helmsman’s brain splattered across his console. As he did, he must have inputted a command, as he slumped over the controls, starting a sharp turn so sharp it overpowered the artificial gravity, throwing everyone that wasn’t strapped in against the hull.
----------------------------------------
Jake:
Jake was sitting in what was left of his shuttle, even less now that it took that explosion head-on. He was now sitting in a seat with a console in front of him, and that was it. He was floating through space in his cockpit chair.
“My poor little guy, what have I done to you? If I get out of here alive, I will make you better.”
Jake placed his hand on the console and switched on the communication unit. To his surprise, he heard a voice he recognised.
“Corvette, this is the Crimson Crown warship Polaris, commanded by none other than Eldres Knight. We demand your surrender.”
“Warship Polaris, go fuck yourself.”
Jake giggled, then it turned into a full-on laughing fit. Between his fits of laughter, he tried to communicate with her as he looked at the time and the notifications that poured in.
Ding! Class level increased + 70,735,420 points Ding! Grade level increased + 18,189,108 points.
Notification: For completion of the secondary objective, you will receive a reward at the end of the tutorial, plus you will receive a point conversion upgrade to all unused points. Objective bonus: you receive 100,000,000 points split between all survivors.
Time remaining 00:00:01:00
“Retribution, this is the Rusty Bucket. How far out are you?”
“Too long. I won’t be able to make it to you in time. I will have to go with your alternative plan. We will meet again, master.”
The world shifted, and Jake found himself back in the white void that he was in when he first entered the tutorial.
Notification: For surviving the tutorial, you receive 100 levels in one of the two: class or profession. Please choose which you would like.
“Profession.” Jake didn’t think about it for a second.
Ding! Profession level increased + 7000 points
Notification: All unused levels and grades will be converted to points at a 1:20 ratio at the end of the tutorial.
Notification: Bonus. Taking into account the outcome of the tutorial, the system has come up with three bonus prizes.
1. Item upgrade token: Upgrades an item one rank.
2. Race Skill master of the lost (unique): Those who have lost their way in life can get a second chance. By following the demon of the past, they can find hope in what was once lost.
3. Item settlement token: Claim a plot of land on your home world. Size 870 km²; the area picked will be protected from bombardment and unauthorised entry, limited to those with hostile intent. You can pick up to five lifeforms to run your settlement. Any profession-related activities will have a 20-point bonus for each level gained. This only applies to the owner and the five managers. Items crafted will require 30% fewer materials to form a finished product while in the settlement.
----------------------------------------
Matt and Jess:
Matt was sitting beside his fighter, looking up into space at the fireworks display going on in orbit.
“What a show. Do you think they will win?”
Jess was in her fighter, watching the space battle on her radar.
“Not a chance. The size of the fleet is well above what I predicted it would be. Oh, wait, here they go again; they’re coming in for another run at that big one.”
“Do you think they’re going with the original plan or something else?”
“Definitely something else. You destroyed the shuttle, so all they’ve got left is that ship, right? So, how would Erica get away from the explosion?”
“What is that constant talking on the radio?”
“I don’t know, but it is on all the frequencies. Oh.”
“What is it?”
“I think they did still go with the original plan. An enormous cloud of objects just impacted the enemy fleet. An enormous cloud of objects just destroyed the biggest ship.”
Jess looked up after saying that.
“That is amazingly beautiful. The sky was full of shooting stars, well, they—it was really bits of the spaceship burning up in the atmosphere, but still a beautiful sight to behold.”
“Do you think whoever blew up the wreckage got out alive?” Matt asked.
“It would have been Erica, and no.”
“Why do you think that it was Erica and not Jake?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Why would Jake, the man who got his complete team killed back on Earth—now we know why it was because he is a demon—why would he get out alive? Just if my brother didn’t fall for that demon’s honeyed words, maybe he would still be alive. I’m just grateful we found out what he is before he got us, too.”
“Yeah, a demon is a demon in this new world. Humans should stick together, you know, humanity first and all that.”
“That’s right. If it wasn’t for needing her help, there wouldn’t have been a need to even speak to that Medusa.”
“What was her race again?” Matt asked.
“I don’t know, some kind of slave race or something.”
“I actually thought you liked her.”
Jess laughed. “That was hard to do, but thank you for the compliment on my acting skills. I had to use them all the time for my brother so he wouldn’t be upset when he got back from his missions with that demon.”
“I’m not sure if you truly think that way. If you were an actor, you would have won an award. Are you sure you are not acting now?”
Jess’s face went red with anger as she screamed at Matt, her words unintelligible.
Matt stood up and quickly jumped into his fighter, taking off as fast as the little fighter could fly.
“That crazy bitch. I swear she has a split personality or something. One minute she’s all friendly, the next she wants to kill y–” Alarms started to sound in Matt’s cockpit. “What the fuck? She really has lost it.”
Matt looked behind his fighter to see where she was, but what he saw wasn’t what he was expecting. “The fuck is that?” Behind him was a Nordicless gunship, sent down to see what was constantly using its radar on them, only to find an old-style light fighter running from its approach. Matt shit his pants when the gunship opened fire on him. He activated his shield and started evasive maneuvers, then he conducted radio calls for help.
“Jess, I’ve got an enemy attacking me. I can’t hold on for much longer; I need help.”
It felt like a lifetime before he got a reply.
“Thirty-five seconds out.”
Matt looked at his interface to check the remaining time in the tutorial.
Time remaining 00:00:00:30
“Looks like I’m on my own till the end.”
----------------------------------------
Stats at the end of the chapter
Universal constant interface
Name Jake everval
Race human
Grade TG
Level 100 Max cap for this grade 205,624 unused
Class trooper shadow mage
Class level 1000 Max cap for this grade 1,013,378 unused
Profession Arcane Smith
Profession level 113
stats points available 116,217,178
Mana 323,360
Arcane 423,500
Stamina 323,200
Health 633,360
Strength 1116
Agility 31,225
Intelligence 42,350
Wisdom 32,336
Perception 10,637
Integrity 63,336