It was a mess.
Formations were scattered, and ships turn and explode scattering the aftermath out. The acidic properties of the goo attack from the Inzektor didn’t have any explosive elements, but because some of their attacks ruin the engine and other sensitive parts on the spaceships they tend to explode rather than melt.
That is an easy way to die on the battlefield, and also the best. Some ships faced the horror of the Inzektor race, their ships would be completely encased by Inzektors who wrapped themselves around like a snake hunting its prey. Slowly they unravel the encasing and seeing the person inside, they consumed the living pilot, and the scenes turn rather grotesque.
Every ship had a limited number of shots they could make against an Inzektor, the efficiency isn’t incredible. Which is why they were careful of wasting their bullets, the energy used to power the ship was the same as the one used for the ammunition to they carefully minded the power unit.
The most critical factors were numbers, despite being the aggressor, the Alliance was slightly outmatched as the number of Inzektors launched was nearly four times that of what they have deployed.
If every ship were able to eliminate four Inzektors, there wouldn’t have been a problem, but due to some factors, not many can accomplish that.
“Watch out for your energy reserves, if you’re reaching the point where you’re unable to fight then head back to the Flagship to refuel,” Belle said as her squad maintained a normal formation while engaging the Inzektors.
“Miss, at this rate we’ll be making little progress if we continue to hold the line at this position,” Kiri pointed out. Currently, Luon and the others were situated at the outer perimeter of where they needed to attack from. They only maintained a proper distance and ensured that the other squads nearby don’t get flanked by their own enemies.
“She’s right, the longer we stay out here, the more reasons the others will condemn our squad for not taking the assault seriously,” said Luon.
“Look over there, someone is coming over,” Gizmo said as he noticed a ship heading towards their direction.
“What could they possibly want? The personnel on the YT ship, this is NX2.0 speaking, why have you left your designated combat area and entered our combat zone.” Belle changed her communications frequencies and begun to make contact with the ship. However, their response wasn’t very welcoming.
“Why, look who it is. I was wondering who was still hanging around back here but to think it is you guys. Aren’t you all just holding us back? The order is to assault not to create an immobilized attack front,” the man who said these words was Chester Hopkins. For the last year or so, when Zythos no longer bothered with anyone Chester rose up to the occasion.
Since piloting didn’t require any physical techniques such as swordplay and only required technical skills on manipulating the ship, he became famous within his circle of friends when they started to have the space combat course for his professional maneuvers. He grew up to be overwhelmingly arrogant.
Belle couldn’t help but frown because of his words as she retorted, “We’re just taking our time to adjust to the battlefield, we’ll begin our attack right now.”
“Heh, aren’t you guys a little bit slow on the uptake then? Whatever, if you plan on attacking now, then my squad will press on faster then. Let’s see who can get to the enemies Swarm Host’s core first,” Chester positively responded.
Belle didn’t like the fact that Chester treated the battle as a game, she was calm and collected, her pacing may be slow, but it was enough to say that her performance was slightly above average. The concept of racing to the finish was annihilated by her logic, she could only say to Chester’s vigor, “Hm, alright. I wish you luck then.”
Some enthusiasm may help him survive on the battlefield, so Belle thought. However, to Chester, he felt like she was treating him like she always did. Indifferent, he felt like she didn’t have a single fragment of care or admiration, unlike his friends and comrades.
Chester could only say before he departed, “Well then, I wish you the best of luck on the battlefield.”
After he left, Gizmo couldn’t but speak out, “What an arrogant arse. Just because he thinks he’s a little good he can act this way.”
“Nevermind him, just focus on surviving this ordeal. Is everyone’s energy supply looking good? If so, then let’s push forward,” Belle said as she checked her own ships status.
Everyone responded positively, and the group began to take the assault more seriously. The crew slowly moved deeper into the battlefield. As they were doing so, Luon periodically checked the energy supplies of the four robots and rotated them back to the ship one by one after a certain point of time. Because of this, the ones with most energy and kills were the 4 robots.
However, he was only able to do this because they were still able to maintain the war front, if everyone had to be rotated then they would have easily been destroyed. Only when the fourth robot came back from refueling did something change. Further ahead, in the swarm of enemies, a new type of Inzektor appeared, it was slow and slightly round. Its appearance was an awfully mutated and scattered as it reminded Luon of a firefly mixed with a dung beetles armored carapace, with a curled up posture.
It began to grow a blue hue, and unlike the other Inzektor, it was a several time more vibrant as many other also noticed the phenomenon.
Sensing something ominous, Luon yelled, “Evasive maneuvers!”
Luon changed his formation for his robotic AI and hearing his words the group subconsciously escaped the Inzektor’s line of sight.
The Inzektor then launched a large beam at their previous location, Luon felt glad that it wasn’t able to divert the attack after charging up. He mentally noted the enemy as he started looking up the information on the database. He was surprised to find that this Inzektor had made its appearance on the battlefield 2 years ago, which is why they weren’t taught about it in the school’s and military’s curriculum.
“What a troublesome foe,” Belle thought as he looked at the new Inzektor.
“We should probably focus on taking it out. We can’t continue to make evasive maneuvers, it’s too energy consuming and frightening,” said Luon.
Not many had good results against such an Inzektor. Luon and his had only survived the ordeal because of Luon’s good eyesight, he noticed a shiny blue Inzektor in the midst of a giant swarm.
Not all of the battlefronts were having a good time with it. In fact, with the sudden appearance of the Inzektor, the Alliance’s fleet battle potential dropped a few percentages. The success rate decreased, knowing this Belle could only agree as she said, “Alright, let’s change the focus on our operation in eliminating that Inzektor. Fortunately, there’s only one on our battlefront. Let’s storm in and take it out while maintaining the line. As for the members who will be taking it ou-”
Before she could finish her words, everyone in the squad noticed another change. Nearby their battlefront they couldn’t help but saw 3 ships break out of their formation and charge towards the newly appeared Inzektor. Luon couldn’t but noticed the emblem on the side of their ship. It was the same YT sign he had seen before, and he could only assume that it was Chester inside.
“The reckless fool!” Belle couldn’t help but exclaim as she begun to make contact with him. As she finally made contact all she heard was the arrogant bellowing of a pathetic excuse of a man.
She cut it off immediately as she relayed the words of the fool to her teammates. Gizmo couldn’t help but comment, “Did he really think it would be that easy to rush into a field of Inzektors and make it out alive?”
Belle slightly groaned at his remark as she couldn’t help but recall that was going to commit to the same error as she was blindsided by that fact. She silently thanked Chester for revealing such a flaw.
“So what’s the plan now? Do you still want to go in after him?” Luon asked Belle, interrupting her thoughts.
Belle let out a sigh as she said, “No, we’ll maintain our formation and work towards the Inzektor. Luon, keep watch of its position and notify us of any changes we need to make to evade.”
Luon agreed, it was better not to make such a chaotic situation even harder to deal with. Between maintaining the line and attacking a difficult to deal with Inzektor who was in the core of everything, the former was more important, but the latter was a subject that caused confusion. His squad may have been able to evade it, but he couldn’t say for the other ones.
“Alright, while the Inzektors are distracted by him, let’s take out all as many we can,” Belle ordered the squad who began to eliminate the Inzektors earnestly.
Chester dashed in expertly evading all of the Inzektors, the two followers he brought along could barely catch up to his moves. Sure enough, one of them slipped up as they crashed into one of the Inzektors, its wing was shattered causing it to spiral in a circle before they halted the engine due to fright, but this was a foolish mistake, especially in the midst of all those Inzektors.
Their ship was torn apart as for their body the details were rather graphic. Chester who had witnessed the scene along with his other teammate couldn’t help but feel uneasy of their fates. He couldn’t help but have second thoughts about the assault as he felt that his confidence got the better of him.
‘Did I make the wrong choice? No! I didn’t, we need to take it out! With it, dead my accomplishments would be unmeasurable! Everyone will look up to me! I won’t be a side character anymore! All I have to do is dive in and jump out as quick as a rabbit, and nobody can do it better than us Rabbit beastmen!’ thought Chester as he continued to accelerate.
He soon reached the target as he fired a few shots. However, he soon realizes that he needed more than just a few. The Inzektor screamed in pain as the damage was quite significant, but not enough as it begun to regenerate.
Realizing he needed to do more damage he screamed, “Come on YT3.1 help do some damage!”
He didn’t hear a response, he soon realized that the other follower had met the same fate as the one before. Chester could only grit his teeth as he looked at his energy reserves. He didn’t know how to calculate how much he needed to escape with and he had no leisure to think so. He fired more shots at the enemy causing it to explode as he begun to make his escape.
He drove his ship to the closest allied forces nearby realizing it was Belle’s squadron, he couldn’t help but say to himself, “Hahaha, to do it right in their faces.”
He had always felt undervalued because of these people, but today he accomplished something that they couldn’t have done.
Suddenly, the engines of his ship turned off. The energy had already been depleted due to the last strike as he was only relying on his current acceleration to escape. The Inzektors, angered by Chester’s attack swarmed in on him.
Gizmo said, “Hey, isn’t it looking pretty bad for him? Shouldn’t we save him?”
“Of course it is a bad situation to be in you fool. Although I don’t like Chester’s attitude, I dislike the fact that someone I know dies in front of me. Alright, let’s g-” Belle said.
“Don’t bother, we have some more things to worry about,” Luon coldly said.
“What do you plan on abandoning him?” Gizmo who was shocked said.
“There’s no choice, even if you get there, how do you plan on getting him to safety? Hoist his ship around like a piece of luggage? And look what’s behind him, there are more troublesome things to think about,” Luon said as he pointed at the massive number of Inzektors all aiming towards Chester. Initially, they were all spread out on several battlefronts, but Chester’s assault had attracted the attention of many Inzektors.
They all grew a green hue and shot their acids at Chester’s ship, it melted leaving no traces. But that wasn’t the troublesome part, the Inzektor train that Chester started no longer had a target, and the closest enemies to them was Belle’s squad.
Was Chester a hero? Or a fool? Luon thought he was a reckless rabbit who rushed to his death and brought the grim reaper along with him. They wanted to take it slow as a turtle and live a longer life, but life doesn’t always go there way, the only thing on their minds now, was to avoid being dinner.
