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Chapter 666: Hellscape

“Admiral Degaro, we’re receiving a message over the emergency channel!” A halfling woman called out, her red hair shifting behind her as she turned to look at the man sitting in the command seat. “It’s a mobilization order!”

Degaro raised an eyebrow as he looked at the communications officer. “Are we needed back on Earth, then?” He asked, knowing that to be the most likely location for such an order to send them. However, to his surprise, the officer shook her head.

“No, all Destiny-Class vessels are being ordered to move to Deckan. It’s a Golden Order.” When the admiral heard that, his eyes went wide in surprise. There were various types of special orders that could be given to the fleet.

For instance, a Red Order represented that they would be facing an enemy of overwhelming power, and would have to enter combat with the expectation that they would die. Still, this was considered acceptable among the special orders. The worst was the Black Order, a quarantine order which was created in the event that a specific ship was compromised by some unforeseen factor which could not be allowed to return to a civilized world. Upon receiving this order, it was the duty of the commanding officer to fly their ship into deep space, and immediately self-destruct after reaching a safe distance. If self-destruction was not an option, they should steer their ship directly into a star.

Gold Order, on the other hand, represented a different sort of circumstance. This particular order was created for the sake of one individual. It meant that the fleet would act in concert with the Keeper himself. Of course, an enemy that required the Keeper to take personal action with the fleet similarly represented an extreme degree of danger. Nonetheless, this was a special order that could not be denied by any commanding officer. If they attempted to do so, it would be treason of the highest order, and any member of their crew could arrest them.

“Understood. Prepare to warp, then.” The admiral nodded his head, his hands clenching the armrests of the chair he was seated upon. The scenes of the recent battle were still fresh in his mind. Although he had seen combat before, it was never at such a scale. He had never seen an enemy that would single-mindedly act on their mission, and then immediately sacrifice all of their troops. Furthermore, he had never seen the destruction of an entire inhabited world.

The various officers on the bridge began the task of preparing the ship to warp. On his console, he was able to detect energy spikes from the surviving ships as well, indicating that they were similarly initiating their warp. Closing his eyes, he let out a long sigh. “Connect with Deckan Command. Ensure the arrival array has been prepared. Let’s not run into traffic on the way over.”

“Coordinates have been received and accepted by the computer.” The navigation officer nodded his head in confirmation. “Warp is ready at your command.”

With one last nod, he gestured three fingers forward. “Let’s go.” He commanded, and the ship was wrapped in a hazy blue light. On the front display, there was a brief flash, before they appeared within a large fleet orbiting Deckan. At a glance, the admiral could tell that every surviving ship was indeed responding to this call.

Furthermore, all of these ships were oriented to face a single man that was hovering in the distance. If not for the amplification of the computer’s screens zooming in on him, they would have never been able to see such a small figure within the massive void that is space.

As he thought about that, more and more ships began to appear, filling out an evenly spaced array. Only when the last of the fleet arrived did the man hovering in empty space open his eyes. His body was covered with golden armor, a black cape hanging behind him. Despite the Keeper having never appeared in such armor before, it was clear to everyone present who he was. After all, only the Keeper’s presence could justify a Golden Order.

His eyes seemed to scan the ships present within the fleet before offering a small nod. His mouth didn’t move, but his voice was projected into the minds of everyone looking at him. We have identified the enemy’s base. I will not tell you how many millions of lives have already been claimed in their recent attack, only that I aim to lead all of you to ensure that another such attack cannot occur.

This enemy base is hidden in the void beyond the world. As such, only a vessel the likes of those gathered here have a chance of fighting. Yet, even these ships will only have a limited utility. Once we have reached the void, the power sources operating your ships will no longer function, forcing you to operate on battery power.

Because of this, I would ask all non-essential personnel to be sent planetside. Maintain only the bare minimum crew needed to effectively fight the enemy, so that power can be conserved as much as possible. Once all ships have followed this instruction, and their batteries are fully charged, I will open the door to the void.

After his words ended, he closed his eyes once again. The admiral couldn’t help but furrow his brow at the information that he had heard. The greatest strength of the Destiny-Class fleets were undoubtedly their unrivalled power generation thanks to the mysterious blue orbs. Now, it would appear as if those orbs would be rendered useless in the coming battle…

With a sigh, he nodded towards his communications officer. “Relay the order. If they aren’t part of the engineering or combat teams, I want everyone off this vessel. All of you, as well. I’ll be assuming direct control for this engagement.” The officer’s eyes went wide when she heard that command, abruptly standing from her seat.

“B-But sir! We can still be of help!” She pleaded, knowing that directly commanding the entire ship would be a large strain on a single person. Regardless, the admiral shook his head.

“Before we leave, I plan to disable life support.” The admiral spoke, leaning back in his seat. “The air in this room will last a lot longer if I’m the only one here, will it not?”

The communications officer trembled slightly at that, but could only shakily nod her head. She hadn’t expected that even life support would be deemed a ‘non-essential’ system in the current situation. “I… I understand, sir.” She answered reluctantly, moving back down to sit at her terminal.

“The following personnel will remain on the ship, along with up to one assistant each of their choice. All other personnel are to immediately leave via the emergency gate. Senior Weapons Officer Bracken. Senior Weapons Officer Crylo. Senior Technician Arway. Senior Technician Kelpie. Senior Shield Officer Harwin. Senior Navigation Officer Nobert. Repeat… all other personnel are to immediately leave the ship.”

After she finished giving the order, she stood once again, as did the other members of the bridge crew. With misty eyes, she turned to face the admiral, slapping her right hand over her chest, her fingers spread out. “Return safely!” She called out, her words echoed by the other staff before walking towards the door.

The admiral returned their gesture with a nod. Although not a typical salute, what they had done was an ancient custom among the halflings. The salute of the Bloody Hand, the sign of the halfling’s pride. “I’ll do my best.” He said in the softest voice that he could manage.

Tapping a button on his armrest, he pulled up a holographic display that occupied his entire field of view. In one corner, he saw as the lifesigns of the ship all gathered at the emergency gate, forming an orderly line as they left. By the time they were all gone, more than ten minutes had passed, and there were barely a dozen signatures remaining aboard the ship.

After he hit another button, he pulled up the power distribution for the ship, and turned off all power to the unoccupied portions of the vessel. Although he did not turn life support off just yet, he was prepared to do so as soon as the command was given to depart.

A short time later, the Keeper’s eyes opened once more, scanning over the far less populated vessels gathered around him. He gave a small nod of acceptance. Thank you all for your prompt responses. I will now begin. You may depart as soon as the gate is open.

With that said, the Keeper turned around, and his body shattered like countless shards of glass. In its place was an elven woman with silver hair, donning a black dress dotted with white dots like the starry sky. She lifted a hand, and the space before her seemed to fracture.

A long, red line formed horizontally before the body of the elven woman, whose figure was faintly recognizable as the Goddess of the Void, Leowynn. The line grew, extending from one side of the fleet to the other, before it began to open up vertically. To Admiral Degaru, it appeared as if a massive, red eye had opened in the vastness of space.

“Give me ten percent on the engines.” The admiral said as he plotted the course into the massive gate. The rest of the fleet similarly began to move alongside him, while the goddess Leowynn moved to stand on one of the departing vessels.

Degaru wasn’t sure why or how the Keeper had suddenly turned into Leowynn, but he knew that such a question was not one for him to ask. Especially not at the current moment. His eyes trained forward, focusing on the approaching void. Before his ship reached the gate, he hit the button to disable life support across the ship.

The moment that the ship passed through the gate, there was a flicker on the controls in front of him, a sign that their power had indeed been cut. Thankfully, they had been prepared and could switch over to battery power immediately.

Operating the controls in front of him, Degaru quickly brought up a scan of the area around him. To his chagrin, none of the typical scanning devices seemed to function properly within the void, so he promptly disabled them as well while switching to the exterior cameras.

Outside the ship was an infinite expanse of darkness, similar to the deeper regions of space. However, there seemed to be far too few stars populating this sky, as well as a few rather misshapen stars that seemed to pulsate in the distance.

As the camera panned around, Degaru was able to identify a metal structure which did not belong to the fleet. It was constructed around what appeared to be a strange blob of energy, as if two bubbles had been pressed against one another. Nearby, another bubble rested not far from the metal structure, surrounded by three ships.

Degaru’s eyes widened as he saw the ships, clenching his fists. They were the same type as the ones that he had seen wreaking havoc not long ago, and he was sure that he would never forget them. Each one had what appeared to be a miniature white star at their core, the main vessel itself being a series of rotating rings built around that core.

All forces, prepare to engage. Leowynn’s voice spoke into the minds of the fleet commanders. Focus fire on the enemy ships. Under no circumstances are you to attack the metal superstructure.

After Leowynn gave that order, she began to float up from the vessel that she had been standing on, her body rising up and into the void. As it did, she began to grow bigger and bigger, the void itself trembling at her presence. Within the deep darkness, Degaru could faintly see something shift within the deep void, figures that seemed to blur beyond his perception.

Shaking his head, he locked his camera onto the three ships. “Conventional targeting systems are offline due to interference.” He reported over the comms. “Resort to manual targeting, and fire at will.”