The Almighty Ring

The squad came to a blast door and they quickly cleared the corridors of enemies before lining up along the side. One of them took out a scanning device which looked an awful lot like an x-ray scanner. He held it up and started to look around.

“I’m picking up two turrets on the top left corner, two meters from the door.”

“Copy that. Breeching in 3… 2… 1…”

BOOM!

Pew pew!

“Turrets neutralized, clear to proceed.”

“Copy. Proceeding…”

…

Looking at how the squad performed, Jiang Fei could not help but respect these veteran soldiers. It was obvious that this was not the first time they were within an enemy vessel.

Unbeknownst to Jiang Fei, they had been through too many battles to count and traded the lives of their comrades for experience. For them, going through their enemy’s ship was something they were familiar with.

“Commander, I have detected a large number of automatons dead ahead. Do we proceed?” said the soldiers with all the gadgets and tools.

Sarila currently held the highest authority amongst the soldiers, above even Jiang Fei.

“Proceed with extreme caution,” she said.

The current plan was to break into the enemy’s armory and wreak havoc across the ship. Taking advantage of the confusion, the squad would then breach the bridge to take over the ship.

“Roger that!”

Knowing what they were going up against, all the soldiers did a quick check on their weapons before proceeding, charging the energy on their armor and bracing themselves for what lay ahead.

Despite having a lower combat level and intelligence, automatons were harder to deal with. After all, they were machines, and thus did not possess any means of foresight or fear.

Fighting them was akin to fighting a death squad. It might sound easy since they didn’t fear getting shot in the face, but it was harder than it sounds.

The squad was proceeding slowly on constant high alert when they encountered the mass of automatons. As soon as they were made, the automatons went into attack mode and started firing. A temporary barricade was created to shield everyone.

Guns were blazing but neither the automatons nor the squad were able to press on. The corridor was narrow and small, making it difficult for the elite soldiers to properly fire at the automatons, even though they were had combat levels of over 100,000.

“Did anyone bring a pulse cannon?” roared one of the soldiers.

“I’m charging it now! 20 more seconds!” replied the same soldier that had all the gadgets and tools.

He was operating a tube-like rifle which was making an electrical whirring sound.

“Move! Move!” he said, aiming and firing the pulse cannon in the general direction of the automatons.

Instead of the usual deafening sound of a cannon firing, the pulse cannon let out a wave of faint blue light that expanded far and wide, covering the whole corridor and all the automatons. As soon as it was fired, the automatons stopped, as if they were deactivated.

As suspected, Jiang Fei realized that the pulse cannon they were talking about was just an electromagnetic pulse generator. It was an EMP that would fry all electronic-based devices, including automatons. To those of flesh and blood, the pulse would only cause a mild tingling sensation on the surface.

“Clear.”

“Left, clear.”

“Clear, on the front.”

“Proceed.”

After checking on all possible points-of-interest, the squad confirmed that it was safe to proceed.

…

“Sir, Valsalrian soldiers detected on Sector F, Corridor 5.”

“Dammit! They’ve boarded!”

“Have they not figured out a new strategy yet?”

“What do you expect? They are bandits. It’s their bread and butter.”

“Lock down the entire sector and send in our own soldiers to flush them out!”

…

Similar conversations had taken place on all the other ships that had been boarded by Alexis’ soldiers.

Compared to the rest, this ship that Jiang Fei was in was in the worst position, as the enemy squad there was making the best progression. They were clearly heading towards the ship’s armory, and the entire fight would quickly escalate if they managed to breach it.

“Send in all soldiers to guard the armory! Stop them at all costs!”

“Aye, Captain!”

“Contact the other ships and ask for reinforcements! Have them send in more soldiers to deal with the intruders,” said the ship’s captain.

A few seconds later…

“Captain, we’ve got a reply. The other ships are being intruded as well. The command ship is asking us to hold our own until they can send in reinforcements.”

“Dammit! They’re quick when there’s a business deal going on but slow like tortoises when there’s trouble!” spat the captain of the ship.

He then put together a small firing squad and headed down to the armory to deal with the intruders himself.

Almost all the ships in the Trade Federation’s fleet were unprepared for dealing with a boarding party, as they prioritized technological advancements over having stronger soldiers.

Ships and cruisers alike were armed with superior weapons that could destroy a star system from a few light hours away, but none of the ship personnel onboard were as powerful as the Valsalrian soldiers.

At most, they had a plethora of automatons to deal with intruders. But it was clear as day that they weren’t good enough to deal with a Valsalrian invasion.

…

“Commander, we are close to the armory now. However, I have to inform you of some bad news. There are a large number of life forms heading to our position,” said the soldier that was constantly monitoring his handheld radar.

Sarila immediately halted her steps and barked, “All hands prepare for battle!”

“Aye, Commander!” replied everyone as they stopped advancing forward.

Their aura changed from that of a lurking cat to that of a hunting wolf.

When dealing with the defense turret, the squad was moving in an orderly fashion. However, when dealing with enemies of flesh and blood, although they had several lifetimes worth of experience, luck still played an important role.

Jiang Fei himself dared not breathe too loud when everyone else was as silent as the night. Everyone was pointing their guns in the direction they detected the life forms coming from.

After an uncomfortable amount of time passed in silence, the door finally slid open and the roars of the enemy soldiers were heard, giving away their position.

“Enemies located, dealing with extreme prejudice.”

Pew pew!

Both sides started to fire at each other and neither side was receiving any damage as they were both prepared. After several rounds of wastage, the Valsarian force sent out a single soldier.

He was equipped with minimum armor and armed with only a small lightsaber. He went behind the squad and activated a cloaking device. With speed, he wall-walked over and above the line of fire and landed behind the enemy’s squad.

Two seconds later, he killed three soldiers with a single slash of his lightsaber and quickly returned to the squad. With that, the exchange of fire stopped and both sides drew out their melee weapons instead.

A few remained behind to provide supporting fire while most of them charged towards the enemy and engaged them in a melee fight.

Thud. Thud.

As the battle progressed, a Valsalrian soldier was shot and killed. As for the enemy, a heavy-gunner was held up by the neck and killed with a neck-snap by a stronger Valsalrian soldier.

Death was happening all around whether one liked it or not, and if you didn’t kill, you would be killed instead.

Noticing that Jiang Fei was remaining passive, an enemy soldier charged directly at him.

“Die!” roared the soldier.

His lightsaber was aimed at Jiang Fei’s heart, but when he tried to plunge the blade of hot plasma into his chest, plasma splattered everywhere. Instead of piercing through Jiang Fei, the blow had dealt absolutely zero damage.

Jiang Fei was wearing a powerful battlesuit that could withstand an attack of 7,000,000 combat level. The soldier that tried to stab him was only over 200,000 combat level, while the lightsaber he was using was just a standard-issue weapon.

Jiang Fei raised his fist, but just as he was about to utter the words “back at you”, he froze. Theon’s warning to never kill an intelligent life form flashed in his mind.

“Back with you,” said Jiang Fei, changing his words.

Instead of delivering a sure-kill punch, he held back his strength and punched him in the stomach instead, temporarily knocking him out. Once unconscious, Jiang Fei picked him up and tossed him over to his own allies. Although he was still alive, the soldier would not be able to return to the fight for the time being.

“How am I going to do this…” said Jiang Fei to himself, conflicted.

Even without Omnisurge, Jiang Fei was already at 3,000,000 combat level. He could easily take out all the enemies alone. The problem was that he was prohibited from killing.

Holding back his powers and making sure to only incapacitate the enemy was much harder than just killing them.