After retrieving Caesar and Sylvie, Vhlad’s dreadnaught bombarded the entire compound until nothing but rubble was left. On board the ship everyone had gathered at the mess hall, which they turned into a planning room. Baldric, Solomon, Vhlad, and Luna were at the front as they addressed the crew.

"Alright everyone, this air raid is a textbook, destroy to rescue play."

Baldric put his hand on a chalkboard behind them that had a rough sketch of an airship.

"Our target is a cyclops class silvus dreadnaught. It is a standard military design with high ordinance weapons. That includes black, Hellfire, Swarm, and anti-air cannons. The dreadnaught is protected by a light strike escort, two raven class gunships, four sparrow strike boats and biplane fighter escorts.

Their main objective is to reach the Geltic Gate. We have tracked their movements with our scout gliders and confirmed them. If they manage to make the jump, it will be impossible to hunt them down, so we need to take them out of the sky before they can reach it. Once we get sight of them, we need to engage them before they can get into a defensive formation. The two gunships are the only thing preventing us from boarding the dreadnaught. Vhlad, this is your area; knock them down the moment you have a clear shot."

"Don’t worry. The new cannons you paid for will punch through their hulls like a cannon shell on butter."

"It’s a one-chance shot, Vhlad, make it count. At the same time, the boarding party will take off while Vhlad and the glider fighters will draw the dreadnaughts' attention. The boarding party will be split in two. Tinkerton-G and I will lead the sabotage team. Luna and Shinaki will lead the rescue team.

The glider fighter’s two main jobs are to take out the anti-air guns and swarm rockets from the boarding party and keep the enemy hangar fighters in the hangar. Do not allow them to take to the skies. There are two points of entry we will take. The sabotage team will land here."

Baldric pointed at the sides of the dreadnaught.

“It’s a dead drop, but it’s the closest to the engines and the barracks. Our job is to cause as much chaos in the ship as possible to prevent them from organizing, cool down the engines, and destroy the airship's jump core. Meanwhile, rescue team will land here."

He pointed at the back of the dreadnaught.

"This is the area with the least anti-air defenses. The rescue team will jump here but expect resistance upon boarding as the schematics state that this is also on top of their walker and vehicle storage hangar.

My team will disable all anti-airguns and, once those are destroyed, we will set off flares to signal the retrieval ships to begin the approach. Once rescue team finds them, they will escort them to the hangar. Whoever gets here first needs to secure the hangar and open the gates so the gyrocarriers can enter, then hold the position while waiting for the other team.

Tinkerton-G, Ada, and Sylvie will act as our fast means of communication. They will relay information to both teams so everyone knows what is going on. With luck, we can get in there and get them out before they can organize a proper defense. The longer we are on their ship, the more they will gain an advantage and the more we will be bogged down. This is the first time anyone, ever, will do a midair insertion at this altitude. Execution has to be needle point. Any questions?"

"Can we go full lethal?" It was Pete, Vhlad’s first officer. Luna recognized him back at their restaurant. Everyone suddenly looked at her as she had stayed quiet through the whole briefing. But it was Baldric who answered.

"Sabotage team and rescue team will go full non-lethal and only use explosives and lethal force for sabotage purposes only. Whoever is not comfortable with those methods can step away right now."

A lot of the crew stepped back. Too many.

The only ones left were four people: two humans, a young man and woman, a full-bear bestian and a creature encased in a massive stone and mineral-armored body called a Trojek, stepped forward.

"This may put your lives in mortal danger. Are you four sure about this?"

The bestian answered for them. ‘We would not step forward if we weren’t. Plus, we hear you will give those who stepped up a hefty bonus. They said you two could lead a team using non-lethal weapons and not lose a single man against a fully armored company. Let’s see if the legend of Dominion is actually true."

=0o0=

Inside the Armory of the dreadnaught, Luna and Willow mixed chemicals to create more of her grenades and serums, while Annie, with Shiny, repaired Luna's gear and her mechanical arms. Luna made a mistake while mixing chemicals, and it started to react violently.

"Dammit!" She roared out as the chemical burned her skin.

Annie rushed over to her with a bucket of water and cleaned the chemical off. As Annie washed down the station, Luna slammed a nearby wall, and rubbed her face in anger.

She then felt Annie place a gentle hand on her shoulder.

{You are being too hard on yourself.} She gestured to Luna.

Luna huffed. "I don’t know. I just… I can’t think."

{You don’t have to do everything alone. You do know we are here, right?}

"That is why I can’t focus, Annie. What if… What if… I already made everything worse? What if I put you all in more danger? What if our plan goes wrong? What if you get hurt again bec-" Annie gently placed a finger over Luna’s mouth.

{We all know why we are here. We're all aware of the dangers; I was aware of the dangers when I decided to follow you. Trust in yourself.}

"Trust in myself?!" Luna let out a laugh. "Annie, how could I trust myself when I did this to us? To you? To all of you? Do I even have the right to be here? After everything I have done? I killed people, Annie, on my own. I had a sane mind. I knew what I was doing, but I still did it. And I did it in front of Elizabeth." She began to tear up. "How could I trust myself after what I did? What I have-"

Annie did not let her continue; she slowly gave her a hug while Luna desperately tried to stop herself from crying.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Be angry at me, Annie. Hit me, yell at me." Luna said as she held on to her. "Please be… angry at me."

Annie just hugged her tighter.

"How could you still forgive me Annie? I don’t deserve it… Please hate me Annie. Please hate me…Please."

Annie comforted her as she quietly cried on her shoulder. Once Luna had calmed down, Annie wiped her tears.

{Listen to me. Do you want to know why I follow you? Because I trust you. I follow you because you give us hope. You make mistakes, we all do, but I know you will do whatever it takes to make it right. How many times have you put yourself in danger to save others? To deal with the difficult solutions so that none of us have to?

I follow you because you would never ask us to do anything you wouldn’t do. Every one of us knows you are only human. You are not resistant to temptation or faults. But I have seen you fall and overcome them, and you always manage to do the right thing. It may be hard, but forgive yourself, Sis.}

"But I killed people, Annie. How could I forgive myself after that? I’m a killer now. Just like them."

"You are nothing like them."

Baldric said as he entered the Armory, holding Luna’s large hat.

"And never, ever think you are one of them. You want to know why I follow you too? Even though I am the more reasonable one out of the three of us? Because when you make a mistake, when you know something is wrong, no matter how much you mess it up, you always do everything you can to fix it. You do everything to turn it around and then use it to keep going.

Even if the world is against you, when you know it’s wrong, you stand your ground to make it right. Those people back there, the people who-"

Baldric raised his sleeve to reveal the numbers on his arm

"-did this to us? You are nothing like them. You feel remorse, which means you have a conscience, an actual soul in there which they don’t. That’s what makes you different from them. Luna, you know what you did is wrong and right now I can see you want to make it right. Tell me, do you want to make it right?"

Luna nodded weakly. Baldric then approached the two of them and gave them a big hug.

No words were needed to be said between the three of them, but each of them understood one another. Luna smiled as she cried and let her family hold her together.

=0o0=

“Captain, Silvus strike fleet observed at six hundred yards!”

“How many yards?!”

“Six hundred yards and closing!”

“Pete! Sylvie! Go to general quarters! Get the whole crew moving now! Signal the weapon crews and tell them I want those escort ships sunk!”

The roar of the alarm echoed through every hall and room. The crew dropped everything and scrambled to their positions.

“All personnel! Man your battle stations! I repeat man your battle stations! This is not a drill!”

The weapons came alive and fired repeated salvos that echoed in the lower deck. In the hangar, biplanes and glider fighters woke up and their engines buzzed with anger as pilots and crew rushed to get them ready.

“Captain their scouts signaled our position!”

“Yarr! We are supposed to launch at three hundred, how far are we?”

“Five hundred eighty but its going to grow soon if we don’t hit them now.”

Sylvie computed while Pete and Vhlad waited.

“Captain, ve are too far. The wvind gust is too strong and it might knock them off course. Ve are too far!”

Vhlad cursed. “Now! We launch now! Signal the engine crew and tell them we need more speed! Put all the power on the engines!”

=0o0=

A loud alarm blared through the ship, and Vhlad’s voice rang out.

"All hands on deck! Silvus strike fleet is in range!"

{You have done the impossible many times, Sis. I know that as long as you do the right thing, you can do it again.}

"Thanks Annie."

"Here." Baldric handed her hat. "You dropped it at the hospital, and I know you hate the wind in your hair." When they saw Luna smile, all of them finished preparing their armor and weapons and soon met with everyone in the hangar.

They were the last to arrive, as everyone else was organizing to board the biplanes. Solomon and Vhlad had just finished giving everyone their orders when Shinaki, Ada, and Tinkerton-G met up with them. Ada was now controlling a fully armored combat automaton, while Shinaki wore her full eastern knight's armour and even wore an iron helm that revealed only her lower face.

"There you three are. We were thinking we would do the raid without you." Tinkerton-G said to them.

"Sorry G." Luna said "I just needed to be talked to. Got our weapons all ready?"

"Oh yeah," G said, pointing to the biplanes. "Vhlad really has everything in his ship; it almost matches the organic restroom in my laboratory. Almost. Now before we go, I have something for you. Quick bring me over there.”

Luna picked him up and G guided him to a small black box on top of some barrels.

“Don’t be noisy about this as I did not make enough for everyone but this is for you.”

She opened to find a copper mechanical worm the size of her arm, a thin glass disc filled with dark smoke and her sunglasses.

“I was wondering where that went. But what’s with the worm?”

“Its not a worm, its an arm. I call it arm-o.”

“Arm-o?”

“Yes arm-o. Like your old serv-o. Why this little fella will act as your personal medical dispenser.”

“Medical dispenser?”

“Yes for your amber serum. I noticed that you need to inject yourself manually which is incredibly inefficient so instead, Arm-o will do it for you once it detects you are in any mortal situations. Now you can just fight away and leave the injecting to it.” Arm-o stood upright and revealed at the bottom of its body there is a compartment for her syringes. “Now this disc here is a new type of grenade that uses photons and electromagnetism. I call it the dark grenade.

Throw the grenade and the whole area will be robbed of light, creating an absolute true darkness. No light can enter in its radius. It does fade over time but I bet you already know what to do while your enemies are bumbling in the dark.”

“But won’t I be able to not see when I’m in it?”

“Which is why I fixed your sunglasses. Once you put those on, it inverts the photons for you. You will be able to see and no one else.”

“This is very impressive G. How on pandora did you make something like this? Especially without any of your equipment?”

“You forget who you are talking to. They don’t call me the great Tinkerton-G for no reason.”

“No one calls you: The great, G.”

“Well soon someone will. Also give me your grapple gun.”

Luna placed her gun down and G picked up some nearby scraps of metal.

“Look at this pathetic design. Primitive. Honestly, a liquid coolant Luna?"

“Hey, Ferris did that.”

“When I see him I will beat that boy. He is seriously slacking off. There done. I gave the barrel an upgrade. It’s a high speed winch that will allow you to fire even against high force winds without it being swept off.” Luna marveled at her gun which felt lighter. How Tinkerton-G managed to fix her gun in mere seconds when she, Annie and Ferris worked on it for months, she will never know.

“Also here.” G pointed Luna to another grappling gun at the sides. "I made you this one without using a high intensity barrel. Made that from scraps of automatons I found lying around.”

“I don’t know how you do it G. Thanks. How much do I owe you for this?”

“Bring them and yourself back in one piece and I will call it even.”

“Done deal.”

=0o0=

The airship vibrated as drumming sounds of Vhlad’s cannons roared around them. The alarm blared and the hangar was filled with the buzz of fighter biplanes, glider fighters and the clamor of the crew scrambling.

Solomon and Vhlad waited for her as their boarding plane was about to take off.

"I… We owe you a lot Vhlad." Luna said as she approached them.

"Don’t worry, minnow, you will get one hell of a bill afterwards!" Vhlad laughed as he tousled her hair. “Besides, I have always wanted to hunt down a Silvus strike fleet. I can’t wait to scrimshaw on their hulls."

As everyone moved to the planes to board, Solomon and Luna stayed behind.

"Solomon… I’m-"

"I’m sorry." Solomon beat her to it. "I have been an absolute imbecile recently. I am sorry for striking you, cursing and losing my temper at you. I just…"

Luna gently placed her hand in his arm.

"No I was wrong Solomon; this is… all my fault. Everything that happened was because of me. You don’t need to… I swear Solomon, I will bring her back. Even if I die, I’ll bring them back."

"Don’t die, Lunabeth. If they make it out, I will need a baby sitter."

Both of them smiled.

"Silvus strike fleet is in range! Prepare for contact!"

They shook hands, then she dashed towards the biplanes. The first biplane was already preparing to leave, and Luna jumped onto the second one. Vhlad gave her a salute, and soon both biplanes began to head towards the hangar doors. Luna felt the dreadnaughts' massive cannons begin to fire, and the vibrations were felt even from inside the biplane. The aircraft picked up speed and finally flew away from the massive dreadnaught.