The gigantic megastructure that is the extrastellar gateway continues to shift as its innumerable parts move and lock into place, weaving in, out, and over each other. It seemed to grow ever larger and denser in its altered construction in order to accommodate for the unusually vast distance between Olmona and the destination.

  As specified by Vertan, the gateway is rigged to be one-time use, much to the protest and ire of Gornovan, as he is forced to watch such an expensive piece of infrastructure destroy itself thereafter. Vertan knew that whether this would work or not, there would be no gateway on the other end for them to return through, and that it would be a one-way journey either way. At least with this precaution, they can ensure that nobody follows through with them.

  As the gateway was nearing readiness, the convoy once more took off from the planet’s surface, having refueled and began its ascent to orbit. Soon, the five vessels, accompanied by Lym’s gunship leading the way, are en route.

  Lym’s gunship has this time made itself visually present, bringing itself out of invisibility in order to properly sell the threat to the people at Olmona, for the place is an industrial facility, not a military one. Faced with little options, they were all rather easily coerced into abiding by Vertan’s demands nearly to the letter, for the last thing they wanted was for the delicate balance of the entire place to be thrown into chaos.

  Unbeknownst to Vertan and Lym however, they had already received communications from the Coalition fleet present to sit tight, and that the two will be handled soon enough. General Hiau watched the situation carefully from the other side of the planet.

  As the now-finished gateway rose into view over the horizon, the convoy made the necessary moves towards the structure, leaving the planet behind. Approaching them from multiple different angles, the Coalition fleet slowly moved into position from various different points across the planet, silently enclosing on a three-dimensional pincer movement.

  Different parts of the gateway lit up in sequence of each other, and finally, as though something clicked into place, the space within it began to warp and distort the light of whatever may be visible on the other side. The structure is now operating and functional as they made their final approach.

  This was it.

  Pulling from his portable device, Vertan attempts to call Gahn through the secured line they had set up.

  “Hey Gahn, this is Vertan,” he says. “Looks like we are good to go. Everything still alright back there?”

  But Vertan is met only with silence on the other end.

  “Gahn, do you read me?” Vertan tries again, frowning this time.

  Still, he is met with silence.

  “Is there anything wrong?” Lym asks from the cockpit.

  “I’m not sure,” replies Vertan, his anxiety growing. “Maybe something must be interfering with our signal, it was fine earlier.”

  Checking his device, he finds that there was in fact no interference, nor any further issue with his end. Rather, it showed that the other line was nonexistent altogether, suggesting that Gahn had completely shut off his comms.

  Vertan’s heart sank rapidly.

  “Vertan?” Lym says.

  “What is it?” responds Vertan.

  “Something’s not right,” she continues.

  Rushing up to her in the cockpit, the two stare at one of the screens in front of her. On the indicators, the dots representing the Ulminhan vessels fell further and further away from them, leaving the two out in the open.

  Meanwhile, unidentified objects began to close their distance on them, surrounding them all from different directions.

  A sobering realization sets in.

  “Gahn?” Vertan mutters through a heartbreak that could barely have time to develop. “Why? Why?! Why are you doing this—?!”

  “We don’t have time,” interjects Lym. “They’re getting closer—”

  “Fuck it—just go, go!” exclaims Vertan.

  In a sudden knee-jerk movement, Lym sends her gunship instantly shooting straight forwards, attempting to quickly close the gap between them and the open gateway. However, what would otherwise be a well-placed shot directly at them just barely misses as she performs extreme maneuvers to evade it after every other countermeasure fails.

  “Shit!” Vertan exclaimed as he barely hung on to the interior of the vessel. “We’ve been set up—!”

  To his horror, Vertan watched through the cockpit window as General Hiau’s ship pulled into view. Now, they were completely surrounded by the Coalition’s mightiest. Gahn and the Ulminhans are all nowhere to be seen. There was only so much that Lym could do to throw themselves about, trying not to be struck by the raw and overwhelming destructive power by a single shot of one of these massive warships.

  In the corner of his eye, Vertan watched as General Hiau’s ship prepared to fire a volley. The shots come forth, and he braces for the impact, and in that moment, accepts his fate, his failure, and all that had come before this moment.

  The shots flash straight past them, and instead strike a Coalition ship.

  What?

  What just happened?

  Both Vertan and Lym paused for a moment amidst the confusion, and simply watched. General Hiau’s ship laid hellfire upon what was previously assumed to have been its ally, the other vessel’s projected shields just barely handling the volley and absorbing the blasts. It seemed that the entire conflict around them paused for a moment in tense indecision as to what was going on.

  Did they get hijacked? What’s going on?

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  After the moment has passed, the ship fires back at General Hiau’s, and all hell breaks loose.

  *****

  Shit! General Hiau thought to herself through gritted teeth as she maintained her stoic exterior.

  By her orders, another large volley of rounds is fired upon at the opposite’s flagship. The smaller guns across her vessel began to take on and distract the smaller ships in the fleet, though it was clear that if the surprise attack didn’t succeed soon enough, they were going to be quickly overwhelmed.

  “General!” one of her subordinates exclaims. “What are you—what are we doing?!”

  “You dare question my orders, after what I have drilled in you all?!” she roars back.

  Nervously, the man holds himself back for a moment, and looks out the bridge’s window. Before him, the entire space had become a massive battlefield of chaos and confusion, as everyone seemed to be firing at them, and they seemed to be firing at everyone else.

  “No, stop!” he exclaims. “You’re going to get us all killed—”

  But before he can further object and pull his gun out on her, he was already a dead man. General Hiau shoots him straight in the head, leaving a clean hole through, the smoke still trailing just a little out of his cranium as he falls to the floor.

  In shock and unsure as to whether they were witnessing betrayal or whether they should continue with their orders, many of the rest of them rushed to do the same, each drawing their own firearms, only for all of them to meet the same fate. None were match for General Hiau, armed on all four hands and watching with all four eyes. All fell to the floor, each a blast squarely through their skull or eye as each of Hiau’s arms independently shot them one after the other.

  Continuing with her operations, Hiau scans the battlefield. Not good. Lym’s gunship is struggling out there. No matter how strong the thing is, it is still mortal and can only survive a finite amount of shots, all of which have been specially designed to deal with such a threat by now. They need to get to that gateway, and fast. At the very least, nobody seemed to be thinking about directly bombarding the gateway itself. Nobody is yet desperate enough to risk such potential catastrophic consequences of doing so when it is active and running.

  But suddenly, something goes very wrong. From her view, she could see the gunship, which was flying about to avoid the flurry of shots earlier, be abruptly brought to a complete standstill. The vessel appeared to struggle immensely against the invisible force, but to no avail. An additional beam of light is eventually cast in its direction to help visually identify and illuminate it.

  Slowly, but surely, the gunship began to be pulled back towards one of the bigger warships in the fleet, its underbelly doors open. Both sides appeared to struggle with monumental force in opposite directions.

  No! Hiau thought. They’re getting caught in the manipul beam!

  Steadily, eventually, it appeared as though the behemoth of a predator finally swallowed its prey, its doors closing shut. They have been locked within one of that ship’s containment bays.

  Furious, General Hiau changed course for her ship, moving it straight ahead towards them.

  *****

  The vessel around them shook and rattled as it struggled with all of its might against the pull of the invisible manipul beam, but was unsuccessful in its resistance as it was finally brought into the warship’s custody.

  “No, no, no!” Lym found herself exclaiming.

  Surrounding them, masses of armed troops gathered around the containment bay to handle the still-struggling gunship, unable to break free from the manipul’s grasp. It seemed that they were once more ready with what they had previously seen before; the same instruments, weapons, and chains that had once bound her. Supplementing them are additional, specialized and modified super-soldiers.

  “Leave me alone!” Lym shouted as she fired off multiple shots.

  Overwhelmingly powerful, the gunship’s shots immediately punch through several of the ship’s layers, damaging critical structures in the area, and for a moment, the gunship almost breaks free. Attempting to cause as much chaos as possible, she began firing off every single weapon and countermeasure, some of which killed several of the surrounding troops.

  All of this was done only for them to find that they were eventually snapped back to their original position, the surrounding men quickly recovering to reassume their positions, standing down firmly as they began saturating the vessel with firepower.

  Something opens up the ship somehow, and Vertan falls through, realizing that a portal had been opened remotely via a handheld device. Multiple of these portals would appear and disappear across the gunship in an attempt to shake the two out of the vessel.

  Falling straight onto the floor, Vertan suddenly finds himself in front of the chaotic gunship, and encircled by several armed men, they quickly move to apprehend him. Attempting to scramble to his feet, Vertan almost escapes their grasp, but is eventually forcibly restrained in spite of his struggles.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he swore that he saw Lym, in an unusual action compared to her otherwise restrained nature, begin to remove herself from her cockpit.

  “Lym, no—!” he attempted to scream out.

  But come out, she did. And instantly, she paid the physical price for it. She too is held immobile by the manipul beam, and the surrounding troops immediately move to bind and restrain her. Vertan wanted to shout at her and scream as to why she would attempt such utter madness at a moment like this.

  And then, she began to move through it.

  They attempted to rapidly adjust the frequency, beaming at her with wildly varying and inconsistent beats, yet this time, it was of no use. Faster, and faster she moved until she was once more at her normal pace. Any shot placed upon her bounced off, and any chain or other method of binding, she tore off with increasing ease.

  Watching the shifting reality surrounding her arm, Vertan braced for what was about to happen in the next instant.

  A powerful, concentrated beam of energy emits from her arm, immediately cutting a hole clean through the ship. With a clean sweep, she immediately swipes half of the troops there into nonexistence, all that remains of them are the lower halves of their bodies, and the top bits of their heads falling to the ground if that managed to survive.

  A frantic commotion amongst the chaos occurs between the surviving troops. They just witnessed their numbers get instantly cut down by half, after all, their comrades all suffering an instant and brutal death.

  This hesitation was just enough for Lym to leap from her perch and quickly begin handling the rest, and, breaking free, Vertan joins her in the slaughter, shooting at everyone in the vicinity.

  Soon, they are all left with either the dead, or the quickly fleeing.

  Every single alarm seemed to flash and scream into insanity; elsewhere across the ship, thousands upon thousands of troop and crew members rushed to neutralize the prevailing threat.

  Surveilling the scene, Lym held an angry expression. Looking back at the gunship, it now hung in suspension by itself, no longer immobilized by the manipul beam. Immediately, she sicced the vehicular beast upon the entirety of the Coalition warship they were in, and the gunship leapt from its place, wreaking havoc and destroying the rest of the larger vessel through sheer destructive brutality. The thunder and crashes of the ship’s collapsing superstructure can be heard even a far, far distance away.

  In tandem with the gunship, still mentally linked to her control, Lym began cutting down the warship with her bare hands, a combination between lightning-fast ferocity and the newer, controlled technique of her hand’s energy emission.

  Through one of the holes in the ship, Vertan can see on the outside a few of the smaller Ulminhan ships begin to take retaliatory action against the Coalition fleet. What took them so long? And why only a few of them—?

  Abruptly, a massive collision shakes the entire place, throwing him off of his feet. The floor, walls, ceiling, and surrounding structure buckled and appeared to shift and sway, as though the whole place could crumble apart any second, held together only by a few threads left.

  General Hiau’s warship has collided with the Coalition flagship head-on at a nearly perpendicular angle.