The Almighty Ring

“There’s no way we can survive that…”

Alexis sighed heavily as he rested his forehead on the console screen. Cold sweat dripped down his cheeks onto the screen panels. Right now, the thought of actually escaping, to abandon his post, was as vile as seawater to a drifting sailor.

Though the temptation was there, the punishment and repercussions of actually deserting was the same as being sent off to deal with the 12 Brown Bear Hypercruisers.

“Father, if we engage them head-on, we will surely be crushed. There is another way… a more… surgical manner in dealing with the enemy,” said Sarila, brimming with hope.

Alexis agreed, “From where I sit, there’s no other way but that.”

“That?” asked Jiang Fei, turning to Sarila.

“We are going to board their ship and attack them from the inside,” she explained.

Alexis wiped the sweat off his forehead. Determined, he returned to his commander’s seat, which was one seat behind the ship’s captain, and opened the ship-wide broadcast system.

“Attention all crew members. As you can see, we are being dropped off here to deal with the enemy. An enemy whose fleet far exceeds our numbers and strength. I’m sure everyone here has doubts on our survival and to that I say… trust me.

“We are going to deal with them my way. Right now, I want the ship to park at the furthest limit of our teleportation system. We are going to board their ship and wrestle it from them! That is all. Good luck and godspeed!”

As Alexis was giving his speech, Sarila pulled Jiang Fei aside to explain their ‘forceful boarding’ strategy.

This strategy is commonly used if enemies possess a larger number of ships and/or more powerful ones. It required sufficient energy to generate enough force to breach through the enemy ship’s shield.

Once the shield was compromised, soldiers could then be teleported aboard the enemy ship. That was one way to forcefully inject one’s soldiers into the ships of your enemies and surgically take them out from within.

Unlike any earthly based warfare, soldiers could never sneak into an enemy’s ship without being noticed. This was because of the phase-shift shield which not only stops physical objects, but also prohibits foreign teleportation.

Forceful teleportation through a phase-shift barrier could result in catastrophic failure. One possible outcome was the complete disintegration of the subject being teleported.

The first hurdle to be overcome was making sure that the enemy’s shield was either compromised or at least slightly damaged. Upon successful boarding, the ‘hitchhikers’ would then find another challenge waiting for them.

Soldiers who successfully teleported in would have to face the ship’s own internal defense system. Turrets and automatons were only to be expected. As they were in enemy territory, assault would be fierce, making survival difficult.

This bit was the real challenge as a single mishap would result in the utter destruction of the boarding squad. They would either take over the ship, or lose every single one of their members.

They would have to fight their way to the bridge, disable the phase-shift barrier, and then entirely take over the ship to escape by teleporting back to their mothership.

In cases where the enemy ship’s captain was desperate, he or she would trigger the ship’s self-destruct mechanism, destroying both themselves and the enemy within.

Forceful boarding should always be the last resort since there was barely any chance of success. Although it was a rare occurrence, all ships were still designed to prevent such an attack, rendering it even harder to execute.

Backed into a corner by his own superior officer, Alexis had no other option. The enemy fleet was too strong for him to attack via conventional means. The only way for him to survive this mission without being branded as a war criminal, was to board the enemy ship and take them out from within.

Jiang Fei’s pulse raced as he realized he was about to partake in such a high-risk mission.

“Sir, we are entering the enemy’s teleportation range. We will be within firing range in 30 seconds,” said the captain of the ship.

“Begin teleportation!” ordered Alexis.

Whether it worked or not, Redstone was done for, and this strategy was now the only hope of survival for Alexis’ fleet.

Alexis turned Jiang Fei and asked, “Fei, are you coming with me?”

Since the ship would be destroyed whether or not Alexis did anything, he would need to join the attack.

“I humbly decline. I do not want to be dead weight to you,” said Jiang Fei.

Contrary to his words, Jiang Fei would in no way be dead weight. In fact, he was the best hope Alexis had for the success of the mission. However, fighting alongside him would expose many of Jiang Fei’s secrets.

“In that case, good luck and farewell. Sarila, take good care of this young Terran.”

Leaving only those final words behind, Alexis immediately left the bridge.

“Begin boarding mission! It has been an honor to serve with you lot,” said Alexis, bowing to all the members in the bridge before he left.

Everyone else, including the captain, remained on the ship. Besides the ground infantry, it has been established that anyone with a combat level of 80,000 or lower would never be assigned to be part of the combat force.

The captain and other members of the ship’s crew remained behind, as someone needed to stay to control the teleportation system. They would go down with the ship.

Right now, there were over 10,000,000 personnel on the ship and only 45,000 of them were combatants. The rest, no matter how many there were, would soon sail lifeless amongst the stars.

The combatants were usually proud of their job and always looked down on their non-combatant comrades. Today, after having gone through thick and thin together, and shedding blood alongside each other, they were highly motivated. They promised one another to have their revenge against the Trade Federation.

Instead of sending them off one by one, all combatants were teleported at the same time. As their bodies turned into particles of light, the ship’s crew sent them off towards all 12 Brown Bears, distributing them evenly.

Alas, countless amounts of red blood splattered everywhere on the hulls of the enemy ships, as a large portion of combatants failed to penetrate through the phase-shift shields. Their bodies materialized on the shield and smashed against the hull, resulting in a festival of gore.

Seven out of ten teleportations were a success, and by the time the last of the fighters were teleported away, Redstone was then within the enemy’s firing range.

It did not take long for them to aim their cannons and open fire at Alexis’ personal Hypercruiser, destroying half of the ship in just one round of barrage. While the remaining ship crew retaliated with everything they had, all they could do in return was damage a smaller Battlecruiser of the Federation’s fleet.

The difference in their strength and numbers was too great. Like a bicycle trying to crash into an 18-wheeler, the result was clear and concise.

…

When Jiang Fei teleported, he appeared in one of the ship’s interior corridors. Thankfully, there was no one in sight other than his own allies who had been teleported with him.

He quickly plastered himself to the nearest window to watch the battle. A broken frame was all that remained of Redstone, a small chunk of the once mighty ship that used to be at least 10 times larger. Everything else was debris floating in space.

“Talk about escalation of war…”

Jiang Fei sighed. The death and cruelty in space wars was more than a thousand fold of wars on Earth.

“Fei, don’t think too much now. Remember to protect yourself,” said Sarila as she noticed Jiang Fei looking out of the window when she teleported in.

Jiang Fei nodded and gathered his composure. He quickly took charge of all the Valsalrian soldiers with him and formed an attack formation with him at the front.

Moving along the corridors and silently killing basically anyone that was in their way, they quickly found a computer console. One of the soldiers, who happened to be good with computers, hacked into the ship’s system and gained access to its schematics.

“We are in the dead center of the ship. This pathway leads to the armory. I suggest we head over there to arm ourselves. Based on the system, there are explosive devices that we can use to get around the ship!”

“Good. We’ll do that,” said Jiang Fei as he gestured for the squad to move forward with the plan.

Silently, Jiang Fei remained behind and whispered, “0541, can you hack into the ship and take over it entirely?”

“Technically, yes. But I need time.”

“How long?”

“As much as you can give me,” replied 0541.

“That I will,” Jiang Fei ended the conversation with a final confirmation.

Instead of leading the squad, he would follow the flow of battle and decide on the fly. Taking over the ship’s system was only a secondary plan.