The Over-Break System

Reading his mind and understanding the helplessness her host was experiencing, Tobs refused to allow the dark thoughts threatening his mind to take over.

-You built this scenario, and you know exactly how things are supposed to play out. You were never meant to wipe out all of the enemy forces one by one, hell the script has already been written.-

-Focus on the main objective, the D.Star; it is constructed exactly as you remember, which means its fatal flaw is also in place.-

’Fatal flaw…THE EXHAUST VENT!’ Brance’s eyes shot wide open as he locked onto the D.Star, floating menacingly off in the distance.

”GS-Squadron, cover BR-1 and Me; we are going after the D.Star!” Steeling his resolve, Brance shot forward.

”We are doing what now?” Blanking out for a second, Ill-Cyn was half a beat late but soon caught up with his brother.

”The exhaust vent, we need to hit it as Red-Five did in the movie; that is the only way to stop this battle.”

”We were never meant to wipe out all the small fries and shouldn’t have gotten distracted.” Beating himself up for wasting time, Brance pushed his Ion engines to their maximum speed.

”We weren’t wasting time, Brancie; the whole point was to thin the herd; without taking out enough of the enemy ships, we couldn’t get in close enough to make our final run on the D.Star.” Taking a deep breath, Ill-Cyn shook his head.

’Says you; it’s not your Mana being burned right now.’ Grumbling in his mind, Brance brought up his Status panel for the first time since entering the illusion.

And what he saw caused his heart to drop into his stomach.

’No wonder I felt so drained after repairing Ill-Cyn’s ship; I only have 9% of my MP left…how the hell have I burned so much of my Mana, Tobs?’ Brance asked, but a startling thought popped up when the words entered his head, causing his pupils to constrict.

’Hold on…wait a second…how long have I been at it?’ Confused at his expenditure, Brance looked over at the droid perched on his left wing in confusion.

-Three days, Brancie…you have been working on the Governesses’ Codex for three days straight, without rest, food, or a break. To the others in Pinhurst Mansion, you seem to be sleeping sitting up….-

-Gabby tried waking you dozens of times, but when Jessup found her doing so, he quickly kicked her out of the Training room. Right now, he is sitting beside you and feeding you potions one after another to keep your body from shutting down.-

-Your stamina and Mp have already entered critical levels more than once, but luckily he was there to aid you…otherwise, you would have already passed out from mental and physical exhaustion.-

Tobs’ words threatened to shut down Brance’s brain as overwhelming exhaustion suddenly washed over him.

’What…what is happening,’ he thought as his vision blurred.

-Brance, don’t focus on how tired you are; if you pass out now, it’s all over, and you will suffer a heavy penalty!-

’Ugh, my head feels like it’s about to explode,’ tightening his grip on the flight sticks and leaning forward, Brance struggled against his bodily functions for a moment before regaining control.

’Final push, then you can pass out, don’t pass out, don’t pass out, DON’T PASS…OUT! YOU’VE GOT THIS,’ clutching the controls so tightly his hands lost all color, Brance saw the spherical D.Star enlarging as he got closer.

-That’s it…-

Afraid to speak, Tobs muttered softly as she watched Brance’s face pale.

With Ill-Cyn hot on his tail, Brance arrived at the massive metal structure and dove toward its surface before entering one of the thousands of trenches.

What he didn’t know was that he was already running on autopilot. Hence, as Brance navigated the trenches, he unconsciously sped toward where he needed to be as if everything was predetermined and he was only an actor in the movie.

”Cyn…get in front of me; you need to…hah… blast the hatches open… so I can sink a photon… bomb down into the vent….” With some effort, Brance struggled to speak, but his words made it to his fake brother as he watched Ill-Cyn’s fighter pull ahead and line up a hundred meters ahead of him.

Surprisingly, all the snark and characteristics which made Ill-Cyn so similar to the real Cyn disappeared, and he was utterly silent as they flew through the channels while explosions rocked their ships left and right from above.

”Launching my attack in 30 seconds.” Instead of the usual emotion Brance had expected, Ill-Cyn’s voice was robotic and didn’t sound like his older brother anymore.

25 seconds

20 seconds

Slowly counting down in his head, Brance toggled his weapons armaments to the photon bombs as his eyes became heavy and his head started nodding down.

15 seconds

10 seconds

’I am…so tired…’ Brance thought as he hit the ten-second mark until Ill-Cyn was supposed to blow the hatches.

5 seconds

’This is it, come on…heh…wake up Brancie, all you have to do is push the triggers, and then you can sleep.’ He thought while being faintly aware of Ill-Cyn’s ship going deeper into the trench, seemingly entering the final approach toward the exhaust vent.

4 seconds

3 seconds

2 seconds

1 second.

WAAAP WAAAP WAAAP!

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Three distinct and unusual noises came from ahead, and Brance didn’t even think; he pushed the flight sticks down, angled his ship, and pulled the triggers.

He had total faith in the fact that Ill-Cyn didn’t miss the shot and, subsequently, fired…but the moment he pulled the trigger, Brance’s eyes, which were only a quarter open, watched the two green balls launch from the nose of his ship, and down the tube ahead…then…everything went black, and he finally passed out.

The last thing he heard was the gentle voice of Tobs.

-You did well, Brancie, you succeeded; now get some rest; everything will be fine from here on out.-

***

In reality, Jessup was frantically force-feeding one potion after another down Brance’s throat. It had been three days, and with Brance not showing signs of finishing the clearing of the Governess’s Corruption, he was panicking.

Things had been touch and go several times, and more than once, he had been forced to clean Brance’s face to clear away the blood leaking from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

’He can’t keep this up; if he does, I don’t know what will happen.’ Multiple times over the last few days, he had been forced to step away and physically move Gabby, who was insistent on staying by her boyfriend’s side, but Jessup knew better.

It was one thing to be a bystander or third party like he was, but if he were to recklessly allowed Gabby to see Brance covered in blood, he had no doubt the young lady would lose her shit and try her best to stop her boyfriend from continuing.

While Jessup was lost in thought and finishing up feeding Brance another set of potions, the situation rapidly changed suddenly, and there was a bright flash of light before the Governess’s body was bathed in Platinum and Gold flames.

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