Chapter 28 : Joining forces with the Legion

"Admiral, we detected a massive anti-matter explosion 4 year-light inside the Scylla perimeter."

"Do you know its origin ?"

"We don't…but we also detected a warp signal close to our position. It seems that a ship escaped the explosion radius just in time. We don't have a visual, but from its weakened energetic signature, the ship is probably heavily damaged."

"Could it be..."

The octopus-like admiral, who was the commander of the third Void Legion, stood up from his gray seat made of bones and approached closer to the sensors screens.

He exclaimed.

"It is highly probable that this vessel is the Lance of Kar'goth. Only the Lone Slayer would be lucky enough to survive such a cataclysm. Send a scouting patrol and make your reports as soon as possible. How is the situation at the front ?"

"Stable, Admiral. The Scylla's remaining fleets retreated just after they detected the anti-matter explosion. It seems like this explosion deep in their territory caused them a huge amount of casualties. The fifth legion also halted his fleet and didn't give chase ; our Leader doesn't want to continue deeper until getting more information about the situation inside the Scylla defense perimeter."

"Hmm…contact him and tells him about the Lone Slayer. If it is his doing, we should rescue him and his ship at all cost before resuming our advance."

While Jun and his crew were taking down mega-structures one after the other inside the enemy lines, the two legions who penetrated the Scylla mother system fought hard and kept pushing the Scyllas' main fleet. They used their great numbers advantage to overwhelm the Scylla forces.

When Admiral Aubouros, the third legion commander, detected an assault group separating from the main army to chase after Jun's flagship, he decided to use this opportunity and intensify his assault on the Scyllas' positions.

In a just few weeks, the front line has been pushed far in the mother system until reaching the border of the core sector.

The two legions were about to reach the center of the system, the most defended place the Scyllas tried so hard to protect.

They also received reports from the three remaining legions which were still behind, they just penetrated the mother system indicating they would soon reach them and be able to group with the third and fifth legions.

The fifth legion commander, War Chief and leader of all the Void natives, decided to slow down their progress to let time for the rest of the legions to catch up with them, so they could prepare for the last push and invade the core sector with their strength at the maximum.

Even if the Scyllas corps fought hard and were overall much more efficient thanks to their highly advanced ships and technology, they desperately lacked the numbers. Even if every Scylla ship took down two Void ships on average before getting destroyed, it was still not enough to compensate.

The sheer numbers of the two combined legions pushing forward overwhelmed the Scyllas' defenses.

The Void Natives were fighting madly, they knew this was their last chance and they didn't hesitate to use the worse tactics to destroy even one more Scylla ship.

While the situation looked more advantageous for the Void, the legions that penetrated the mother system also lost many of their vessels during their restless assault and they were now forced to wait for the three other legions to replenish their numbers before advancing again.

On the Scylla side, hundreds of mega-structures have fallen and thousands of ships have been destroyed. The rifters losses were incalculable, and the numbers of Scyllas who died in their Templar clones greatly diminished their ranks.

Both sides were in difficulty, the Scylla lacked ships, crew and their rifter stock was almost fully exhausted. They only had a few numbers of high lethality vectors still alive and ready to be deployed.

The only reason why they didn't call back and use the troops guarding the mega-structures far from the front line as reinforcement was only because of Jun's guerillas attacks.

He was targeting their weakest position far ahead of the legions, deep inside the Scylla perimeter. The Scyllas had to permanently keep troops to defend those mega-structures inside their territory against the Deficient One sabotage ; this made it easier for the legions to progress, as the Scyllas had to spread their forces between two locations.

The Void legions also suffered a huge loss because of the several mega-structure defending the mother system ; every time they attacked a mega-structure, they had to deal with several Scyllas assaults on their flank.

Each of these floating bastions could defend and shot down any kind of ship penetrating a ten thousand astronomical-units radius around it, from the fastest scouting corvette to the most armored battle-cruiser.

Their heavy weapons had enough power to pierce a cruiser hull in a single shot, as if it was butter. Only the Void heaviest ships, the few battleships leading their legions, had the means to survive a direct hit from those deadly Gauss cannons.

The two legions were running against time to kill the scyllas before they can achieve what they planned. Because of their rush, they lost more than 60% of their forces since they entered the mother system.

"Admiral, the scouts reports arrived. The damaged ship is indeed the Lance of Kar'goth. Its engines are down, it needs to be tracted by one of our battleship to move. We tried to establish communication with the Lone Slayer, but we didn't receive a response yet."

"How is the ship état ?"

"We can't precisely analyze it as most of its technology is unknown to us, but we can at least know that the ship isn't in a state to fight anymore.

Its engine overloaded and they are all offline, one of its two main caliber batteries has been destroyed and we detected multiple breaches on both the inside and outside hull plating.

The majority of its autonomous interceptors are either damaged or missing, and their shield deflectors are also not working.

The damage to its hull is critical ; unless they sealed the entirety of their ship, any living being breathing oxygen, methane or nitrogen is probably already dead."

"I see. Enter its coordinates and head to it, we are bringing it back. The ship isn't far away from us and I want to confirm myself if the Lone Slayer really died or if he is still alive."

Admiral Aubouros knew Jun was a rifter since the first time he communicated with him.

Even if, at first, he was suspicious of him and he only tolerated his presence because Jun took part in the fight alongside the legions against the Scyllas, he slowly started to appreciate Jun. He liked his decisiveness in battle and while Jun's strategies were original for the Void natives who preferred brute force, they worked most of the time.

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After all those years fighting with the Lance of Kar'goth, he ended up considering Jun and his crew as valuable allies.

He didn't know how a squad of rifters was able to disobey the Scyllas and rebel against them, but he knew those rifters are specials ones.

When Aubouros first reported about Jun to his War Chief, the Fifth legion commander, he received the order to kill him as soon as possible, steal his ship and scavenge all the ancient technology it contained.

However, Aubouros disobeyed and tried hard to convince the War Chief of how important these rebellious rifters were for the Legions.

The War Chief was more skeptical and thought these rifters were spies sent from the Scyllas.

However, Aubouros knew it wasn't the case. He saw the cruelty of those rebels rifters when they faced the other of their kind who were still loyal to the Scyllas, no matter how far a spy would go to achieve his goal he would never bring so many disasters to his own faction.

Not only the rebels didn't hesitate to slaughter whole groups of loyal rifters and their Scyllas commanders, but they also seemed to fight with their life on the line at every second. They didn't fear death ; they were ready to give away everything they had as long as it brings harm to the Scyllas.

Nobody, not even in the Void, was as extreme as those rebels when it came to fighting the Scyllas.

Aubouros was good at identifying people's inner desires, and when he observed Jun and his squad, he only felt an extreme hatred against the Scyllas.

A hatred that was deeper and stronger than the Void natives'.

This is the reason why the War Chief submitted to Aubouros' advice and authorized the Lone Slayer to fight alongside the Legions ; even if he didn't like the idea, he knew Aubouros was better than him when it came to analyzing people's minds.

Aubouros' species was reputed as masters of psychic control and manipulation.

Before the Scyllas invasions, when the natives were fighting between each other, Aubouros' clansmen were feared for their ability to invade minds and telepathically control any kind of living being, be it organic or not.

The War Chief always respected and acknowledged them for this ability. He even put some of them in charge of the Intelligence division, as they were the only ones in all the Void army to be able of obtaining information from a Scylla mind.

As their leader, Aubouros is by far the best of its kind. Among the five Legions commanders, his opinion about someone is always considered as being the closest one to the truth.

___

'Where am I ?...'

Everything was dark.

I felt like plunged inside the darkness itself, as if I was swimming in a pool of dark miasma...

I already knew this feeling.

I knew this place.

'Don't tell me...Tassadar, are you here ?'

'I am.'

As I expected, I was once again in my own sea of consciousness.

I didn't know how this space worked, but it seems that I end up here every time I lose consciousness.

'I didn't die ?..'

'No, you once again survived, human. You can thanks the ghost for saving your life. A few second later and you wouldn't be in this world anymore.'

'Ghost ? You mean Gladia ?'

'Whatever her name, she is nothing but a disgusting ghost for me.'

Gladia and Tassadar were diametrically opposed. Just remembering how Tassadar wreaked havoc inside my body during the third protocol when I absorbed Gladia still gives me chills, even until this day.

I thought that living together inside my body for so many years would have calmed their feud, apparently, I was wrong.

'Time won't change anything, human. I cannot coexist with such a being. To be honest, the reason why we can both survive without destroying each other inside of you is still something I am unable to understand.'

'Maybe, but if Gladia teleported me on time and saved my life, doesn't that mean she also saved you ?'

'Hmpf. Don't forget that she saved herself first and foremost. You are nothing but a living container ; if you die, both the ghost and me die aswell.'

Seeing the black matter pout inside my consciousness was unreal. I couldn't help but smile at Tassadar, who had the same appearance as me when I'm fully covered with my Dark Armor.

'Why are you smiling ? Aren't you ashamed of ending up on the brink of death every time you join a battle ?'

'I am just a human, I am not immortal Tassadar. You can't expect me to emerge victoriously and without a scratch after fighting such powerful beings. Rather, I feel extremely lucky to still be alive after all those life-and-death situations I went through.

To be honest, I'm also happy to see that Gladia could teleport us in time and save us from this insane spell. What is the situation outside ?'

'As you can guess, you once again lost consciousness because of your injuries straining too much your mental. Gladia couldn't save everyone, she prioritized you and the reapers, as the drones aren't as important. Your flagship has been heavily damaged, so much that I don't know if it will be able to fly anymore.'

This was huge news to learn for me ; the Lance of Kar'goth represented the majority of our destructive power. It is thanks to this ancient ship and the army we found inside that we could fight the Scylla for so long.

If it is destroyed, it would be an unimaginable loss for us.

'What about my squad ? The crew ? The reapers and drones who were fighting with me ?'

'You ask too much questions, Human. You'll see yourself when you wake up, but if I can give you an advice...do not expect the things to be the same after loosing so much. It's already a miracle for a lowly human to cause so much problems to the Scyllas and still emerge alive after so many battles, you shouldn't test your luck too much.'

It was understandable. If Gladia waited until the end to teleport us, it was probably because she got intercepted by the enemy reinforcements.

It is already a miracle that they couldn't destroy us and we could escape their attack.

'This Scylla you fought against almost obliterated both you and your ship in a single attack, and this Legatus wasn't even their Leader… If you decide to continue on this path, being lucky wouldn't save you from a certain death.'

'What about the anti-matter bomb ? Did it work ?'

'It did, but I can't confirm the death of Legatus. I can only tell you that you shouldn't use these bombs recklessly anymore, a single one of them disintegrated everything material in a whole year-light radius.'

'A WHOLE YEAR-LIGHT RADIUS ???'

'Yes.'

This is insane. We predicted those bombs' explosion radius to be only a few thousand astronomical units. A year-light is around 60 000 astronomical units, I can't even calculate how many kilometers it is.

'Nine trillion, four hundred and sixty-one billion kilometers.'

As if he was reading my mind, Tassadar just answered with a ridiculously high number.

'I still can't believe it…'

'Even if your idea of going solo this time provoked such a bad situation, you still achieved your goal in the end. Now, only the final part of your plan needs to be done. I don't know if you'll be able to achieve your goal, but I already accepted the fact that you'll probably die trying.'

This bomb exploding the fleet chasing us was supposed to be the last step before the final part of the plan I made with Gladia, but, is it still doable now that the flagship got so badly damaged...

'It is.'

'Can you please stop reading my mind ?'

'It's not my fault if you can't control your thoughts in your own sea of consciousness.'

'Anyway, didn't you say the ship almost got destroyed ? I guess we had a lot of casualties…I don't know if the last part of our plan can be done without a ship and an army.'

'Do you know where you are right now ?'

'How could I know, I'm unconscious. Where are we ?'

'Inside a battle-cruiser from the third Void Legion. Because the Lance of Kar'goth is baldy damaged and a lot of reapers and drones have been lost, you now lack a big part of your previous strength.

However, all those years you spent fighting the Scyllas and their rifters brought you something more valuable than a single ship : it brought you allies. While I don't like those Void natives, we still share the same goal, and from the conversations I heard, it seems like they have a lot of respect for you.'

'Do you intend that we should start the final phase of our plan with the Void legions instead of our own army ?'

'You don't have a choice anymore. You are sole responsible for this situation, this is entirely due to your mistake. If you didn't decided to raid the mega-structure alone and if you brought with you at least Alice and Douglas, you could have avoided this situation.'

Tassadar was right, it was entirely my fault and I felt extremely bad for all the reapers who died because of my arrogance.

They may not express their emotions, but they are also living beings, like me.

I decided to do this mission alone to avoid casualties and to improve my skills and instead I almost killed everyone. I need to be more careful and anticipate better the consequences of my actions.

I now have the death of many loyal reapers on my hands…

Only by achieving my goal, should I honor their deaths.

'Enough talk, you need to wake up. Once again, you stood here for too long.'

'Tassadar wait ! Before you kick me out of my own sea of consciousness, I want to ask you something important...'

'Tell me.'

'Who is this Revered Mother for you ? Will you survive without her presence ?'

'...'

He didn't answer me.

Tassadar kept the silence, turned himself and walked away, engulfing himself in the darkness.

I stared at his back before feeling the control of my body slowly coming back.

I was waking up.