Chapter 261: Vexical Prime: Bad Luck
Jace watched in complete shock. Outside of the fight in the distant space he watched as the space seemingly collapsed in some spots. While in other spots the space collapsed outwards.
The spots where space was collapsing inwards was indicative of a ship coming out of Faster Than Light speed. Then locations where the space was collapsing outwards like a bubble were ships coming out of warp. But it was not that there were ships that were currently doing it that was shocking him.
It was the amount, ships were appearing at all distances. Some closer than comfortable. Some far enough that they were barely more than dots. But the amount was staggering. His heads up display immediately began lighting up as it picked all of them up. It then immediately began labeling them.
A moment later an emergency announcement began to get broadcast on the Vexical Empires open channel. It was usually forbidden to use it. But it seems that Director Fenrir categorized it as an emergency.
"This Director Fenrir of the Military Intelligence and Logistics Division of the Vexical Empire. The Crystoph Federation, New Hexarian Republic, Montez Kingdom, Holy Empire of Gregory and Circle of Yuri are launching an unjust invasion with the excuse that the military is suppressing its people. They launched their attack before declaring war. Making all except the Crystoph Federation violators of the wartime agreement. Meaning any captured soldiers have no rights." The declaration ended, but Jace still had a bad feeling.
The Guardian-01 flew over them; he was distracted from the sight of the ships from almost every known human country that had managed to get so deep into their country. "Get on the ship, Asana, prepare to take a route straight to The Elysium."
The ship landed with its ramp already lowered near them. Uti and Jul’an were closer and ran right up the ramp. But before he and Rook could jump onto the ramp of the ship, it began getting hit with lasers and missiles from the new ships. It was not the only one. It was a coordinated attack.
But Jace could barely process that as the plating came out under them and the Guardian-01. Making it so having magnetic locking boots did not matter one bit. Jace and Rook were still attached to a plate but it was thrown into the air. While the plate that the Guardian-01 was on was thrown in the opposite direction.
"Shit!" Jace cursed and grabbed the ankle of Rook who began flailing in the air. "Nila! Are Uti and Jul’an with you?!" After a second of him holding Rook’s angle he calmed down. It seemed he would still panic in extraordinary situations. Although Jace was just as thrown off by all of the enemy ships.
"Yes sir! We managed to pull them on. How about you and Rook?" Nila asked in a panic as he could see the Guardian-01 take off from the piece of hull it was on.
"I have him. They are targeting ships closest to the planet. Get clear and see what Director Fenrir wants us to do. Fortunately I do not think she deployed any soldiers to the planet that were not there from the start." Jace pointed out as he looked for something they could use. Because they were currently free falling toward the planet.
"Yes sir." She answered.
Jace could now focus on their situation. "I wish you did not do that." Rook pointed out as he started looking around as well. "We are in a difficult situation."
"Not difficult enough that I would needlessly endanger my squad. Especially since we are in the line of fire for those other ships." Jace pointed out as the destroyed cruiser began falling with them. "We need to get inside that cruiser. We will have to ride out the crash from inside of it. Get a better grip on me, I have an idea."
Jace pulled Rook down. Rook grabbed Jace’s shoulders and held on tight. Jace pulled the Dragon’s breath from the spot on his lower back that he had it hanging on by default. He put that there before they had even climbed through the airlock. He had figured it would be easier moving around with the weapon like that. He was glad he was not holding it in his hands or he would have lost it like Rook lost his assault rifle.
He aimed it behind him and fired. Causing him to launch forward in this semi aerial environment. Fortunately the gun still had some kick to it. They moved to a large opening in the cruiser that had formed as it began falling apart. It was a hallway opening that they were flying to.
They landed on what appeared to be the roof just as the cruiser began to spin. They could feel it because of the lack of gravity on the cruiser now. But Jace was easily able to ignore it as his boots latched onto the ground.
"What now?" Rook asked as he moved to the wall to steady himself.
"Now we head toward the hanger or an escape pod." Jace quickly explained as he began running with metal thumps as sound became existent in what should have been a vacuum, but by this point they were entering the atmosphere. The cruiser may be falling into parts but it still has some accessible areas.
He had read the new schematic the moment he touched down. The front half of the ship had been sheared off. They were in the rear half, which only had two of the hangars they could use. There were six different locations where they could jump inside of an escape pod. But those might have been launched the moment the hull was completely and unrepairable.
They moved forward some more to arrive at the first location where escape pods should have been. But when they saw the giant hole where the location should have been Jace cursed his luck. "Looks like someone got lucky and completely destroyed it. Come on, we need to move on to the next one."