Pearl
Hermitcraft System

There's one word to describe flying one destroyer directly at the Gigacorp fleet: stupid. Suicidal works, too.

Naturally that's exactly what we did and I was learning that the hard way.

"Hard to starboard! Keep those fighters off our asses and get a hole through their damn lines!" I barked, ship rattling. Explosions lit up the starry sky, enemy fighters zipped past, all completely silent in the vacuum of space.

The Hermits rushed to comply.

"Command, is there any way to get the rest of the fleet in the air?" I demanded.

"Negative, Captain. We didn't think you'd take off before the Buk Lord got her people through. Just hold out for the next one thirty minutes and we can get at least a few in the air." They responded.

"We don't have thirty minutes." I responded sharply.

"It'll have to do, Hermitheus." Command replied calmly.

"Damnit! Put everything you have into it, people!" I barked, pulling a screen of the battlefield into my immediate vision.

An endless sea of red triangles met me, with a singular blue one: us.

My heart sank.

We were dead.

I had never been a religion person before, not like Ivan or Xisuma. But I felt like praying to whatever god or gods were out there for a miracle.

Then a voice came over the radio: "Come in, Hermitheus. This is the Kraken. Please move to port briefly. We are here to assist."

I let out a relieved sigh. "You heard it! Hard to port!" I barked.

The ship lurched to the side, giving us a good view as a group of the Lazarus ships moved into a triangle-shaped formation. They cruised forwards at a steady pace, firing all their weapons as they passed. The combination of speed, destruction, and the triangle itself forced the Gigacorp ships to lurch away or be destroyed.

I suppressed a grin. One of the oldest tricks in the book.

The Lazarus formation split into two lines. They slowly growing blue on my battlefield map as they sent a quick signal, showing they were friendly.

I shot a quick, silent question at Nafia: you ok with this? They had, after all, kidnapped her and used her to blackmail her father.

She gave me a small smile and nodded.

I smiled and back and turned my attention back to the Lazarus fleet at hand. Their little maneuver had bought us some time, but not much. And besides, it was only a few outdated destroyers against a fleet of Wraiths.

Just as the thought crossed my mind a new ship jumped out of FTL at the point of the Lazarus Triangle. I could almost imagine a deep boom rattling my bones as the city-sized Heavy Destroyer appeared.

A Drauger.

The entire battlefield seemed to suck in a breath, holding it in to see what happened next.

"Holy shit..." B muttered, eyes wide.

That was one way of saying it.

"Hail, Hermitheus! It would be an honor to join you in battle!" The deep, imposing voice from the Lazarus fleet—no, the Drauger, said.

My eyebrows shot up. How in hell did they get their hands on THAT?

I didn't question it any further as the Lazarus Fleet moved into a defensive position around the Hermitheus.

"I assume this is Xisuma's oldest?" The voice from the Drauger asked.

"Yes. My name is Moon. Who am I talking to?" I asked.

"I am the Overlord. It is an honor to finally meet you, Moon. I have heard a great many things about you from Xisuma and your brother." He replied.

I froze for a second.

"...is Grian with you?" I asked, hopeful.

Silence for a moment.

"He is attending to his duties on the planets surface. The report came in a few minutes ago: they've pushed Gigacorp out of Scarland. And yes, he is fine. He has been doing quite well with us, and he is well taken care of. You may see him after the battle is won if you wish." The Overlord said after a second.

Really? I thought, after all that, he's just going to let me walk right in?

"We will hold out until the Severnyy arrive, child, I promise. Until then...Formation Ultima, Lazarus! Hail the Hermitheus and Kraken at the helm!Show Gigacorp the true meaning of pain!" The Overlord barked.

The plan appeared on one of my screens as the Lazarus fleet moved into position. I confirmed.

"Five degrees to port and increase speed by ten percent!" I ordered.

The fleet moved into an angled line, soaring up and then down again like a whip. We blasted between the gaps between the still stunned Gigacorp ships, firing EMPs to take their shields down before firing the main cannons and obliterating the closest line to us.

That pulled the enemy out of their shock.

They moved into a wide semi-circle, facing the inside towards us. Their shields combined and they pushed forwards like an ancient Greek phalanx, firing their own top-side cannons from above the shields.

The Kraken took the brunt of it with its heavy shields and armor, but shots still got through and took out a pair of Lazarus destroyers to our immediate left. Heavy swearing in an unfamiliar language flooded our comms.

From there Gigacorp reminded us of why they were the dominant military force of the galaxy.

"Route auxiliary power to shields! Protect the Kraken's bridge!" I barked desperately. The entire Hermitheus rattled as Gigacorp fighters and destroyers pounded against our shields.

No amount of training or drilling from Xisuma could have prepared me for this level of carnage. Nothing could have.

Pure adrenaline ran through my veins. An old lesson from False came to mind, when she had been training me to fight: everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

"Hermitheus, move into a defensive circle. We MUST hold on until our allies get here." The Overlord sent.

We all backed into a large ring, combining our shields into one long defensive barrier. All the ships unloaded everything they could, but Gigacorp was getting bolder. The whole time they had been poking at us, testing our strength. But it was one small flight against a Galaxy-defending fleet.

"Do you have a plan?" I asked the Overlord, a slight condescending tone creeping into my voice.

"We hold out until the Buk Lord arrives. Then we drive all the way to the Aesir and take it down." He replied calmly.

Something violently ejected from the Kraken, soaring into the center of our circle.

Two blue beams of energy shot up and down, spreading around us into a sphere.

"That's new..." Nafia muttered in front of me. I smiled slightly.

"Little project Xisuma was working on. Never thought it would work. Theoretically, they won't be able to shoot through without entering the field, but we can shoot out. The one problem was fighters being able to come in." Tango admitted.

I whistled in appreciation.

"Wanna test that out, Joel?" I called.

He grinned like the maniac he was.

Joel (on the upper level guns) immediately started blasting everything possible, from EMPs to S-Torpedos to disrupter blasts. He caught some poor Gigacorp cruiser off-guard, taking out its shield within seconds before it fired a Torpedo. It deflected right off the shield and, with a stroke of insane misfortune, bounced right back and destroyed the cruisers bridge.

The whole thing started dissolving into fire.

Joel cackled at the sheer cartoonish comedy of it. Lizzie smacked him in the back of the head.

"We're deploying fighters now." The Overlord said, bringing me back to attention.

I once again prayed for a miracle as the sphere was battered by Gigacorp forces.