The Spider Queen

(Unova Syndicate- Frontier Region)

(Oreciuam Prime- The Bloody Krena Warship)

"Come on… come on…" Sophie muttered softly as she slowly moved her finger to tap the messenger icon on her wrist communicator.

Boom!

A shockwave from a nearby explosion slammed into the hull of the starship. The impact was dampened by the shielding systems but Sophie still experienced a mild jolt.

Fortunately, her bladed appendages were planted firmly in the metalloid floor of the command room so she didn't lose her balance.

The other mercenaries weren't as lucky and painful groans and thuds could be heard coming from around the room.

Lily squirmed uncomfortably in Sophie's arms but her big sister was too focused on the task at hand to pay attention.

Sophie's golden eyes narrowed as she hurriedly opened the messenger icon on her screen and was blown away by a flood of notifications.

Over two thousand messages were currently unread along with hundreds of missed calls and sent videos.

These messages came from old classmates, her university peers, some people Sophie had gotten to know during the entrance exam, her father, and his death guards as well as her close friends.

At a better time, Sophie would have taken a moment to appreciate just how much she was missed by those around her.

Sophie's finger trembled slightly as she saw the numerous missed calls from Cleo's smiling profile but now wasn't the time to read them.

The hybrid girl quickly opened up her chat history with her father and scanned the lines of text at a breakneck pace.

Rescue mission? The church? Why would the saintess…? Oh wait… Rachel!

[Connecting to the virtual net… connecting to the virtual net….]

[Connection lost.]

Sophie fought the urge to curse in rage as her screen flashed a black and red colour to indicate that the connection to the virtual net was lost.

A mere two minutes passed since the screen shifted to black and red but to Sophie this time felt like an eternity.

Eventually she finally saw the screen on her wrist communicator change to a light green colour.

[Connecting to the virtual net… connecting to the virtual net….]

[Connection Established.]

There was no time to type out a long message. Clearly the connection was unstable and Sophie didn't know when it would break again.

A determined expression flashed across Sophie's face as she inputted a series of commands and pressed enter.

A red light subtly blinked from the corner of her device as Sophie enabled the tracker function to broadcast her current location.

Of course, she only linked this broadcast to a select few of her contacts. This included everyone that was mentioned in her father's messages who were involved in the rescue operation.

Hopefully it would help.

Sophie wanted to read some more of her missed messages but another violent explosion rocked the starship sideways.

BOOM!

Lily screamed loudly as Sophie's bladed appendages nearly became dislodged from the metalloid floor.

The hybrid girl quickly curled her body around Lily's soft physique and dug her pointed barbs even deeper into the flooring.

Captain Hessan might not appreciate the damage being done to his flooring but frankly at this point the Sophie couldn't care less.

"Plot a course for the asteroid field but pretend to engage with those Federation bastards," Captain Hessan spoke firmly.

Perspherene nodded with her usual easygoing smile noticeably absent from her face. A few mercenaries at the back of the room moved towards the monitors that controlled the weapons.

Sophie observed the fiery warrior Ishasa kneel down in prayer with his eyes trained steadily on the sight of multiple starships exploding.

His bandage covered body shuddered and trembled constantly. Sophie couldn't tell if the fiery creature was afraid or excited.

What can I do?

Sophie clutched Lily tighter in her arms and scanned the command room for any available positions or jobs.

There was nothing and perhaps that was the most frustrating thing about the whole situation.

Only cultivators in the void stage and above were able to participate directly in spatial battles using their bodies.

While Sophie was curled up in a protective ball, Captain Hessan was frantically opening up the information packet that the military officer had sent him.

There we go…

A wide grin flashed across the furry creature's face as he opened up the data packet to see a complete route through the asteroid field.

It had truly been a wise investment to provide Lt. X'ren with the occasional gifts of pleasure slaves and cash donations.

Captain Hessan rubbed his paws together in glee and entered the route into the starship's main AI unit.

Now the escape route was all planned. The problem was how to reach the asteroid field in one piece.

Perspherene and Lilliam were both decent pilots but their ability to fly in high pressure situations did not inspire much confidence.

"Keep firing towards the Imperial Army starships but be careful not to land too many direct hits," Captain Hessan ordered.

"We just want to keep up an appearance… do not make ourselves a target."

He glanced at the warriors in charge of controlling the plasma cannons and received several nods of affirmation.

Boom!

This time it was a Unovan military spacecraft only a few hundred feet away from their position that exploded into tiny pieces of metalloid debris.

Sophie watched in horror as an enormous wave of blue warp core energy struck the side of their starship.

The lights inside the command room instantly started to flicker as this violent surge of energy bypassed the basic shields surrounding the starship and entered the inner circuitry.

"No… no… Perspherene activate our warp core now and send us into hyper drive before its too late!" Captain Hessan cried out.

"But sir… its too risky!" Perspherene nervously replied.

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE?! WE MAY ONLY HAVE MINUTES BEFORE THE NEXT SHOT BLOWS UP OUR ASSES!" came the furious roar of the captain.

He may have sounded intimidating but Sophie's animalistic instincts could sense a hint of fear in his hostile tone.

This was truly out of his calculations.

Perspherene gritted her teeth as her forked tongue slithered out of her mouth. She glanced at her fellow pilot before pressing the button to activate the warp core.

A faint humming noise could be heard that only made the tense atmosphere in the command room even more frightening.

The excess warp energy that had entered the inner circuitry was causing certain systems onboard their space vessel to be compromised.

Sophie could feel the temperature begin to drop gradually as the heating system slowly turn off.

This was probably the end.

All she could do was close her eyes and pray that both Lily and her would survive.

Sophie wasn't sure who would answer her prayer to since the hunter goddess wasn't exactly a protective deity but she still tried anyways.

"We don't have all day!" Captain Hessan's quivering voice snapped Sophie out of her trance as she took one final look at the scene outside the window.

Three fighter starships with the Imperial Army's symbol painted on the underside of their hulls were approaching quickly.

Sophie's enhanced vision could easily see the faint crackling energy gathering on the tips of the plasma cannons mounted on the spacecrafts.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Multiple beams of light shot towards their starship just as Perspherene let out a victorious hiss and pressed a button.

A harsh white light filled the command room that was so bright that Sophie was forced to close her eyes to avoid the deadly glare.

She could faintly hear the sounds of someone screaming…