The sergeant had no idea why their scanner was blocked, and he knew that it wasn't time to wonder about it.
"Queen, full speed forward!" He shouted.
In this fast-paced situation, it was better to make the Queen take over his crewmates' task to avoid mistakes or delays.
Unfortunately, it was already too late…
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Before Queen Ai could activate the main engine, the spaceship got wrecked by three blasts at once.
The worst part, one of the plasma beams had ended up hitting the engine compartment!
Peep Peep!
-Error! Can't activate main engine-
The alarm started ringing yet again, making the atmosphere tenser than ever.
When everyone heard so, despair began to cloud over their faces as they knew that without a working engine, it was impossible to shake off their enemies.
"No, no, no, no…We are losing our base speed."
The sergeant's expression got ugly after seeing that their speed meter was getting reduced each second.
No main engine, declining speed, and most likely surrounded by enemies…The situation couldn't get any worse.
Ring Ring!
"Serg! Someone is trying to make contact with us." Luis informed.
"It must be them." The sergeant knitted his eyebrows after noticing that their attacks had been stopped.
"Noah, go check the engine and see if it's repairable or not." The Sergeant ordered swiftly, "I will try my best to buy as much time as possible."
"On it!" Noah removed the seatbelt and flew outside the cockpit by using small boosters on his suit.
Thankfully, the spaceship had been forcefully stopped after its engines got ruined.
"Luis, accept the call." The sergeant took a deep breath to regain his composure.
Luis did as he was told, and a connection was established.
"You sure walked into the wrong neighborhood."
Out of nowhere, a mocking mellow voice echoed in the cockpit, making everyone's expression to turn nasty.
They recognized this voice immediately because it belonged to an infamous general of the royal family's army!
He was known for his brutality and twisted punishments! Videos of him torturing captured pirates had gone viral long ago.
Any soldier who saw what happened to those pirates knew that they would kill themselves than fall in his hands.
The Sergeant and his crewmates knew this as well, which made them feel hopeless about getting out of here in one piece.
In wars, captured soldiers could be recovered if the price negotiated was right. In addition, they could be used as slaves for mining resources and building structures.
But now? All of them had decided to commit suicide than get captured under that maniac.
"Bastard Creed! You have no idea that you are already done for."
The Sergeant tried to buy time by making fake threats. He still had a tiny bit of hope that the main engine could be repaired.
"You think we have been sent here alone?" The sergeant scoffed, "We are merely the scouting squad. The army is right behind us waiting for our signal."
"Is that so?" General Creed chuckled in a funny manner.
He was clearly not believing his crap. The sergeant knew that he had to do better to convince him or at least make him doubt a little.
"Why do you think we have been sent here, to this random asteroid?" The Sergeant snickered, "Heh, we already knew that the asteroid is used as a scheme by you guys."
"Knew? Hahah!" Creed laughed loudly in amusement.
He was sitting in the captain's seat while his crewmates were surrounding him, each on their own seat.
All of them seemed to be trying their best to hold their laughter.
"You little maggots know nothing." Creed stopped laughing at once as he sneered, "You have ten seconds to surrender. You don't need me to tell you what will happen when the times ends."
Cluck!
The connection went off the instant he finished his sentence, not giving time for the sergeant to waste any more time.
"Noah, we have only ten seconds! Please tell me some good news!" The sergeant swiftly asked Noah.
"Serg, the damage is beyond repair." Noah answered with a disheartened sigh.
Upon hearing so, the sergeant fell back on his seat with his eyes closed shut, knowing that it was over for them.
His crewmates all seemed downhearted at the realization their lives had come to an end.
They couldn't even log out without providing a reasonable excuse. Logging out to escape death wasn't one in the eyes of Queen Ai since they were soldiers.
"Since we are dead anyway, let's go out with a bit of flare." The sergeant opened his eyes wide open, displaying a hardened resolve to die as a proud soldier!
As a veteran soldier, he always expected his life to end on duty. When you expect something to happen, mostly like it will…
He wasn't even that afraid or sad.
It is what it is…
'Queen, activate all thrusters.'
'90% of thrusters are damaged. The engine is damaged.' Queen Ai warned, 'There is a 100% chance of the engines blowing up in two seconds after the initial thrust.'
The engines blowing up was the same as telling him that the spaceship would blow up. So, if he went with it, he would kill everyone on board without a shred of doubt.
Still…
"Do it." The Sergeant gave his confirmation with relaxed shoulders.
His crewmates heard what Queen Ai said and knew what was about to happen.
Instead of crying or cursing out the sergeant for his decision, they simply wrote a mental message for their loved ones and requested the Queen to deliver it after their death.
"Sequence starting in three, two, one…Full thrusters activated." Queen Ai announced monotonously while the spaceship started to shake like a tractor on a field.
"It was a good ride fellas." The sergeant saluted his crewmates while staring right in front of him, knowing that every second spent with his eyes open, Queen Ai records it.
Meanwhile, his crewmates saluted him back with a respectful look.
Then…all of them were forced to hold tightly as the spaceship wheezed at a supersonic speed towards the main body of the asteroid.
Just like before, it went through every rock in its direction like they were made out of air.
Just as the spaceship was about to hit the asteroid's supermassive surface, the weirdest thing happened…
The environment suddenly changed before their eyes.
All of them had their eyes wide open in disbelief as they stared at a humongous dark battalion that was surrounded by hundreds of warships!
Their blinking red and white lights made it seem like they were a cluster of beautiful stars.
'Impossibl…'
Unfortunately, before the sergeant and his crew could react, their spaceship had expanded its last bit of juice and blew up almost instantaneously…
The shockwave was strong enough, it reached a few spaceships and shook them for a few seconds.
Then…There was no then, the supernova fleet continued its journey towards planet Toppoki under the disguise of an asteroid.
"Do you think they managed to see our fleet?"
Inside general Creed's spaceship, one of his staff asked with a worried tone.
"They certainly didn't." Creed glared at his crewmates, "You better respond like this when asked in the mother battalion."
"Yes General!"
"Good." General Creed turned his focus from his crewmates back to the mother battalion.
'I have pushed them enough, if they still haven't seen the fleet, then I can't do much to further his Majesty's plan.' General Creed thought to himself while tapping his finger on the armchair.
"Let's return and report this." He ordered one last time.
One by one, tens of giant gray rocks began to flicker like they were made out an illusion and then transformed into spaceships of different sizes!
Next, they formed a line and returned to the mother battalion by entering one of its hundred gates…
***
At the same time of the explosion, the captain of the scouts department had received notification of the scouting squad getting wiped out.
"…."
He was left completely lost for words, not knowing how to accept such shocking news.
As an experienced captain, who received many notifications of his soldiers dying, he shouldn't have been caught off guard like this.
But when the reality of the situation comes in play, he was excused.
In his mind, they were sent for a spin to ease the commander's mind. Yet, now he heard that they were killed?
"This can't be right! Queen, send me all of their recordings!" The captain jumped from his seat in agitation, wanting to know what happened exactly.
Since all soldiers had given permission for their recordings to be viewed after death, Queen Ai could only oblige.
'Skip to one hour before their death.' The captain requested as he focused on the sergeant's recording.
A moment later, the recording got speed up until it started to show that everyone was making jokes inside the spaceship.
The captain started to manually speed up until the squad reached the asteroid and weird things began to show up.
Before the captain could work his brain on them, the spaceship got assaulted and continued getting bombarded until its engine got messed up.
Then, it was followed by Creed's contact and concluded with the squad deciding to go out with a flare.
Throughout the entire process, the captain didn't comment or pause. He just watched from the start to the final moments of his soldiers in utter silence.
However, during the last split second, he couldn't help but gasp out loud.
As an elf, his vision was extraordinary. So, he managed to spot the supernova fleet during the last moment of the sergeant!
Without a second wasted, he replayed that final scene and paused this time.
'Dear goddess!'
When he saw the supermassive mother battalion and the hundreds of warships accompanying it, he felt chills course on his skin.
An entire supernova fleet was merely two months away from the wormhole that was leading to the Maganda Tribe!
One of the five cores of their alliance!
Meanwhile, the defensive station posted in front of the wormhole was able to block only a nova fleet!
If the royal family's troops reached the wormhole, it would be a one sided slaughter!
