Alistair watched as the Beshin clan’s fleet aligned with theirs and the Norgard fleet of the Ethos Crusade. The three fleets couldn’t have looked more different. The Ryser ships were practical and efficient, with unpainted adamend alloy giving them a dark green sheen, minimal decoration, and no decals to speak of. In contrast, the Ethos Crusade’s ships had a gothic look; their armored fronts were often shaped into skulls, bird heads, or other monster heads and weaponized to the teeth. At the other end of the extreme was the Beshin clan’s fleet, with little to no technology on board—their ships were crafted from wood and resembled ancient Japanese warships, decorated sparingly. They relied on magical barriers surrounding the ships to protect the crew from the vacuum of space. Built for speed, they favored boarding and ramming actions, their strength in the individuals they carried rather than in the ships themselves. Alistair knew they’d be the first to engage up close and personal—if the Crusade’s drop pods didn’t beat them to it.

  To keep pace, Alistair would have to teleport directly to the planet and rely on the drop pods’ turrets and the Beshin clan’s ferocity to create a suitable landing site.

  He glanced at the message that had pulled him and Riseth from their sleep a bit of an hour earlier.

  [ACUN] Urgent Faction Message:

  Title: Retaliatory Strikes!

  From: Aegis Coalition Headquarters

  Attention!

  The retaliatory strikes against the Blackmarket Syndicates are a go! This message is directed to all factions participating in the strike.

  Multiple primary targets have revealed themselves as of seven minutes ago. Coalition forces are actively engaging Dragon of Pestilence Xariarch, Void Lord Nephrakas, and the headquarters of the Axmisius Assassin Order, including most of their leadership, along with several other high-priority targets. While we work to occupy and eliminate these threats, proceed with your own objectives and neutralize your designated targets.

  Good luck.

  Alistair didn’t know the full scope of the operation; it had been kept tightly under wraps, with only the most trusted individuals and leaders receiving as much information as he had. Nessyra had hinted that they likely didn’t know a fraction of what was actually going on. He was certain the Blackmarket Syndicates had expected these retaliatory strikes—spies had probably warned many of the targets.

  “It won’t matter,” Nessyra had told him. “They can’t hide forever, and any targets who realized they were being hunted were taken out on the spot to spare us future headaches.”

  The Syndicates’ heightened alertness had likely caused the longer-than-expected delay, but with enough targets now under assault, it was high time the Coalition got its pound of flesh. If nothing else, Alistair hoped they managed to kill Xariarch—by far the biggest plague threatening their fledgling universe. The tension on the bridge was palpable as they prepared to jump to a beacon hidden within an asteroid belt around a small planetoid in the system, planted there by a stealth craft months ago. For all they knew, they could be jumping straight into an ambush. They had their own ambush fleet on standby, but it would still mean significant losses.

  Alistair took a long, steadying breath, sharpening his focus as he watched the timer tick down. Once they were in the thick of it, he knew there would be no time for his usual careful considerations.

  “10 seconds to jump!” a crew member announced.

  Alistair watched as Captain Kazire issued a final set of commands, feeling the hum of lower-winded weapon systems spooling to life just before the familiar pull of warp space took hold.

  The transition lasted roughly 10 minutes but felt like an eternity. As one of the first ships to arrive, they re-entered real space, screens lighting up as more and more ships flashed in around them. The fleet quickly began a hard burn toward the target planet, and Alistair could hear multiple sighs of relief that they hadn’t jumped into a minefield or an ambush.

  “Launch the beacon drones,” Captain Kazire ordered.

  Alistair watched as the drones scattered across the screen—only for one to explode a moment later, and the Kaiakos shuddered violently as enemy fire slammed into its shields.

  “Fuck!” Kazire cursed. “Half of those asteroids are enemy ships! Open fire!” he barked as the Kaiakos continued to shake under the onslaught.

  “I’ve already ordered the ambush fleet to jump to the locked-in coordinates. They should be here in 10 minutes,” Nessyra’s avatar announced, her voice cutting through the chaos on the bridge.

  “Turn the craft, launch missiles!” Kazire commanded.

  On the screen, Alistair could see their ships and several Crusader vessels taking losses, barely able to return fire. Suddenly, the Beshin craft, which had previously dashed ahead, surged back at even higher speeds. Alistair’s eyes widened as warning lights blared—a massive railgun shot was headed straight for the Kaiakos.

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  “Get the flicker core ready!” Nessyra shouted. But before the projectile could reach them, the Beshin flagship intercepted it, destroying it just before impact. Across the fleet, similar scenes played out as fighters from the Beshin ships deployed their magic and a range of defensive concepts to shield the out-of-position fleet.

  Kujo’s grinning visage appeared on the screen, multicolored flames flickering around him. “We’ll cover the defense! Focus on taking out the emplacements and ships! You’re welcome, by the way!”

  “Thanks, Kujo! I’ll make sure to get you a drink after this!” Alistair responded.

  “You’d better not forget—and bring the good stuff!” Kujo added with a gleam of anticipation before cutting the connection.

  Alistair watched as the tide of the battle began to turn, though he was certain Syndicate reinforcements would arrive soon. “Have the Akris and at least two more crafts cover our rear—I don’t want the entire fleet facing the wrong direction again. And launch the fighters; we’ll be holding our ground here,” Kazire yelled to a communications officer, who gave a sharp nod before relaying the orders.

  Alistair winced. They had lost one of their new carriers, which had caused significant casualties with the crew; luckily, the fighter pilots had already been within their crafts in anticipation of an ambush and had managed to launch, reducing their casualties from the craft exploding. They had also lost two smaller support crafts, while the Crusader fleet had lost a destroyer that had been focused on. Their fleet had taken the heaviest casualties, but the damaged crafts were already repairing themselves as the Beshin crafts continued to intercept the most devastating attacks while the Ryser and Ethos fleets started to decimate the inferior ships and weapon emplacements.

  Just as they were about to gain the upper hand, more flashes appeared from behind and to the side—their fleet was caught in a pincer maneuver by a large Syndicate reinforcement fleet. The two forces were evenly matched in numbers, but while Alistair’s side held the qualitative advantage, the enemy now had the positional edge, pressing their fleet hard.

  Alistair glanced at the timer for their own reinforcements—still roughly three minutes out.

  “All fighter crafts, Sally, out and give our new guests hell!” Kazire growled.

  Alistair chafed at his inability to intervene, forced to watch as the battle unfolded. Victory seemed likely, but the cost would be much higher than he was comfortable with. Space battles were fought at extreme ranges, and even though this engagement was practically knife-fighting distance by fleet standards, it was nearly impossible for an individual to contribute without a craft of their own.

  Riseth, who had been silent until now, suddenly grasped his hands, her expression tightening with focus. “I can sense the aura of one of the new arrivals! I’ll teleport in with Alistair and deploy a beacon—just try not to blow up the craft while we’re inside!”

  Alistair locked onto the aura through their resonance, aligning his focus with hers. “I’ll follow your lead. Let’s go!”

  Before anyone could protest, they vanished, reappearing on the bridge of an enemy craft. Riseth immediately used her manipulation magic to seize control of most of the crew, forcing them to turn on each other as Alistair charged at the source of the powerful aura they’d sensed—a female Elven Vampire.

  To her credit, the vampire reacted instantly, dissolving into a gaseous form to evade his attack. But Alistair’s telekinesis held her in place, and he drove his armored fist through her ethereal torso, grasping her Blood Core. White-hot flames from his Blazing Edge skill engulfed his gauntlet, eliciting a shrill scream as he crushed her core with both force and burning concepts, the bridge lit by the intense flare. The sheer force of his attack sent flames spilling violently across the bridge melting the surrounding consoles and blowing apart the captains chair the vampire had occupied mere moments ago.

  The vampire died before she could reform, disintegrating into smoke, blown away by Alistair’s violent ambush. He dashed toward the remaining vampires on board—those Riseth hadn’t managed to bring under her control. Meanwhile, Riseth moved through their ranks, her bone blades shifting into chainswords that tore through the vampires, their regeneration disrupted by her abilities.

  “RIP AND TEAR, BLOODSUCKERS!” Jack, the blade spirit, exulted in their minds, his telepathic voice ringing with savage glee.

  Riseth and Alistair tore through the bridge. Within less than a minute, Riseth had placed a beacon onto one of the consoles before quickly typing commands into the one beside it.

  “I’ve locked onto the next aura. How long until you can turn this ship against the others?”

  “Point me toward the aura,” Riseth requested, not looking up, and Alistair gestured to his right.

  She nodded, finishing her commands before smashing the console and grabbing the beacon. “Alright, let’s go. This craft will be causing havoc—and ramming the ship ahead of it,” she added, flashing a predatory grin as she took his hand.

  High Inquisitor Elenora stared at the screen in disbelief as the enemy fleet fell into complete disarray, even before the reinforcement fleets—both theirs and the Rysers'—had arrived in force.

  “What the hell is happening over there?!” she demanded.

  The screen shifted, showing a new perspective of the enemy fleet. A green dot moved from one ship to the next, each vessel ceasing fire and turning its weapons on its allies. Elenora watched as one ship burned its engines to crash into another, triggering a chain reaction that threw the entire right wing of the formation into chaos.

  “The leaders of the Ryser Clan have locked onto a strong enemy aura and taken the opportunity to board,” an officer reported.

  “They didn’t conceal their auras or, at the very least, deploy teleportation countermeasures on their crafts?” Elenora asked sharply.

  “No, ma’am. They likely assumed the distance was too great for anyone to lock onto them and teleport,” a sensor officer replied.

  Elenora couldn’t help but snicker, covering her mouth with her cybernetic hand. “Good thing they’re on our side, then.”

  They watched as the Ryser reinforcements arrived, quickly followed by their own fleet—much larger and more imposing.

  “Have the reinforcements make a pass and head directly for the target. We can’t allow those heretics to escape,” Elenora commanded.

  “Yes, ma’am!” came the sharp response from across the bridge.

  She drummed her fingers over the armrests of her command throne, interfacing with the ship’s drone network to get a bird’s-eye view of the battle—a perspective far different from the others on the bridge. From her vantage point, she could tell this battle was already won. A small, satisfied smile crossed her face as another asteroid ship shattered. She wondered if the Syndicate had another fleet waiting to reinforce. Still, with the emplacements and ambush forces decimated, she doubted they’d risk contesting their substantial fleet presence while the Coalition struck countless other targets.

  “Prepare to follow our detachment to the target and board the pods for planetfall.”

  “Yes, High Inquisitor!” came the prompt response from across the bridge.