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Moonshadow had just started giving the red-haired woman a short explanation when Selendil got a message. ”Master, we have hostiles approaching the building. A lot of armed hostiles, mostly what passes for androids among them, though there are some living Cybrans as well. They will be here in a few minutes. I can detect many more similar hostile converging from all sides.” Nox reported. The AI had tapped into the internal systems of the city ship a long time ago, thus it had access to most of the internal sensors. “It seems our guest is about to receive the same report as one of the hostiles just ran into the guards she left outside the building.”

As if on cue, Xiaoli tilted her head a bit and seemed to be listening to something. The tilt was completely unnecessary as she didn’t even have an earpiece but some gestures were simply too hard to get rid of. “It seems the explanations will have to wait. We have uninvited guests with seemingly hostile intentions.” She told everyone and started giving gestured instructions to her troops.

“I’m assuming they’re here for me. I already dealt with some insects that thought too much of themselves. I can deal with these as well.” Selendil replied, already aware of the danger. The only reason she had not personally detected the approaching enemies was because they were not powerful enough to register as a real danger.

“I think the odds of them being here for me is almost equal actually.” Xiaoli countered, surprising Selendil slightly. “There’s a reason I brought so many of my subordinates with me, and that wasn’t just for the meeting. One of the city ships that recently arrived has a rather hostile relationship with our organization for various reasons and they’ve been coveting our enhancements for a long time now. They wouldn’t mind getting rid of us for political reasons either.”

The Cybran city ships were considered to be something akin to small nations by themselves. The Cybrans were both very united and very divided as a people. They all joined together as a whole to fight for a bigger cause, but at the same time, they were very individualistic. Strife inevitably formed between city ships that had differing viewpoints on several important matters. While they would all join forces against external enemies like the Tetrarchy or the Illum, the city ships also had no trouble fighting each other when the opportunity presented itself. Add to that the resource intensive and expensive nature of producing the city ships, and you had a volatile internal struggle waged via unconventional means.

As the city ships were so hard to produce, it was unthinkable for the Cybrans to cause the destruction of a city ship as a result of their internal struggles. Thus, even though the city ships were protected by sizeable fleets that the cities built and maintained, those fleets were never used against the other city ships no matter how severe their differences. The ships belonged to the Cybrans as a whole. If a Cybran vessel opened fire on another Cybran vessel, or even worse a city ship, they would be hunted down as the worst kind of traitors by every loyal Cybran. Instead, the fights between city ships were solved either by shuttles carrying boarding parties if the differences were irreconcilable or various non-violent methods if the differences were minor.

"Their target is irrelevant since they are not a real danger," Selendil stated with a shrug. A dead enemy was a dead enemy either way.

"As to that, I'd like to request something. Could you leave these enemies to me? The people you dealt with earlier already caused some ruckus and the large number of civilians outside this building complicates matters further. It would be really bad for us if the civilians got caught in the crossfire, and it would be politically much more expedient for us if you allowed me and my subordinates to deal with these ‘criminals’. My coming here was partly meant to be a trap of sorts, but the ferocity you used to deal with the previous troublemakers complicated that part of the plan somewhat.” The red-headed woman explained.

As her troops belonged to the Cybran fleet intelligence, them dealing with the so-called ‘enhancements thieves’ was something to be expected, although slightly outside their normal purview. A civilian or an outside force killing the same criminals was another matter and would result in reprisal. The strength Selendil had shown had thrown a wrench into the plan because the hostiles were coming in with much more force than Xiaoli had accounted for. That was after taking into account the fact that she was in the habit of preparing for things to go wrong, a character trait that had served her well thus far.

Selendil pursed her lips a bit, a gesture she found oddly satisfying as she was not used to it. “As they aren’t really a risk to me and my companions, I’ll give you a chance. Do keep in mind though, that if I or my companions are put at risk, I will not hesitate to act." She finally agreed. She happened to be in a good mood, and the enemies were beneath her anyway. Well, at least most of them.

“Much appreciated. The idea is to escort you towards your shuttle and I’d appreciate it if you could give us a ride off this city ship as well. It might be a tight squeeze but...” She noticed Selendil gesturing that it would be fine. “In any event, no matter if the enemies are after you or our forces, they will follow us towards the docks and we can pick them off on the way. A running battle in small and narrow spaces will favor us. The maintenance tunnels running under the city will take us away from the civilians.” Xiaoli explained the rough plan.

The group of cloaked soldiers fanned out around them as Xiaoli led them towards the sublevels of the hotel that connected with the maintenance tunnels. Naturally, the enemies were aware of the tunnels and were using them as well, as running around the city with assault gear and weapons drawn would draw too much attention. The first enemies ran into them as soon as they reached the sublevel and the stealthy soldiers that had come with Xiaoli showed their professionalism. Every enemy was gunned down with a few well-placed shots before they even seemed to realize what was happening. Unlike Xiaoli’s men, the enemies did not have the advantage of cloaking, although it would have been useless against both Xiaoli’s and Selendil’s groups anyway. Selendil and Moonshadow could use their powers to spot the enemy and Xiaoli’s forces were all equipped with enhancements that could see through most personal cloaking.

As they traversed the tunnels the fighting got more challenging as the dying enemies seemed to pass on information before they were taken out. Now the enemies knew to expect stealthed enemies, and they were also converging on the group’s position more effectively. The enemies were not a true danger yet, but dispatching them was not as effortless as it had been before. Xiaoli’s men had to use more time to deal with the enemies, and as a result, more of them were reaching them at a time, further slowing down their progress.

Initially, the terrain of narrow and winding corridors had worked to their advantage, but as the situation got more dicey, the opposite became true. It didn’t matter much if Xiaoli’s troops were invisible when the enemy could just shoot down a narrow corridor and actually hit something. It also became obvious that the soldiers that had previously created a rather spacious perimeter around the core group were slowly being pushed back through the side tunnels. Some of them were already in sight of Selendil’s group. A couple of the soldiers had taken some hits, though none of them had died so far.

"Just say the word and I'll make the problem go away," Selendil stated with a small smile. She still considered having a mouth somewhat barbaric, but people seemed to be able to read her expressions much better when she had one.

“Don’t worry, this is part of the plan," Xiaoli replied confidently. It wasn’t, although she had adjusted the plan on the fly to account for the new issues. At least that was the hope. Most plans didn’t survive contact with the enemy anyway and part of being an operative was the ability to improvise effectively.

Sure enough, just as the group of soldiers at the front was pushed back hard, Xiaoli herself stepped forward to solve the problem. She seemed to stride into battle without a single care as the enemy fire was reflected by the shield she had psionically created, while the large-caliber pistol in her hand seemed to spit out shot after shot that all seemed to seek out their targets and penetrate multiple enemies at a time without slowing down. She also seemed to be able to use her enhancements to see everything around her as she shot several enemies by pointing the gun in a direction that was clearly out of her line of sight. She even shot one enemy through a wall.

Even with her help, the flood of enemies rushing in was becoming too much for them to handle. It seemed like a silent signal was passed along to her troops as they all simultaneously took out explosive charges and tossed them into the gathered enemies around corners. This change in tactics took the enemy by surprise, mainly because the androids the enemies used seemed to be cheaper models with little intelligence, electing to rely on numbers and volume of fire instead. The explosions rocked the section of the city ship they were in and rather conveniently collapsed several of the side passages just as they passed into an area where such tunnels became much rarer. This seemed to have been the whole point all along, as now Xiaoli’s troops only had to deal with the enemies coming from the front and the back, and Xiaoli was doing well with the enemies in front.

They actually managed to reach the docks before they were finally stopped. Huang had already explained that the local city ship seemed to be content to let the two groups duke it out without interfering, which was confirmed further by the fact that the docks were cleared of people. People aside from a small group of Cybrans that is, one of whom had a pair of halos floating behind his head. The nearby soldiers all had professional air about them as well. No cheap and disposable androids could be seen anywhere. This time the enemy was serious.

As soon as they stepped forward, they were faced with a flash of cold energy that materialized into several razor sharp bursts of ice that maimed several of Xiaoli’s men despite their armor. Xiaoli herself managed to defend herself with threads of psionic energy, while Selendil almost contemptuously brushed aside the energy aimed at her, Moonshadow, and Huang.

“Well, well. An elementalist.” Selendil commented.

Elementalists were a rather rare branch of psionics where their powers were mostly directed towards controlling one of the elements, hence their name. They were part of the faction of psionics that focused on only one or two abilities instead of spreading themselves thin. As a result, the elementalists usually didn't have much skill in other branches of psionics, but in return, they were really powerful in their chosen field. Selendil secretly thought that most of them were actually either people that had been left exposed to elements for one reason or another while developing or those that had read too many fictional stories about ‘magic' or other arcane abilities and wanted to emulate the effects.

“Bringing one of the Cybran Deities into an internal struggle, one aimed at the naval special ops no less. Very bold.” Xiaoli stated. She was actually quite troubled by this turn of events. Deities almost never took part in fights like this as they were important strategic assets. She also knew that she would have trouble fighting this enemy in head-on combat. Her particular style of psionics was very useful against most enemies, even being more than enough to fight many Deities, but in return, she was weak against certain types of psions that specialized in the straight-up offense. She was not a Deity herself, and that would become a severe detriment in this battle as Deities also became faster, stronger, and more durable thanks to their status.

“Oh, I don’t know. The city agreed to suppress all transmissions from leaving as you probably already noticed, so if none of you survive to tell the tale, then where’s the harm?” A slim and short woman stated from behind the hostile Deity. It didn’t take much to figure out that the gaudily dressed figure was the one leading this operation. “Besides, the potential gains far outweigh the risks.”

“Are you still sure you don’t want my help?” Selendil threw a question to Xiaoli, who was about to reply but got cut off by the diminutive woman.

“Know your place peasant and keep silent you mangy whor…” Her words were cut off as her head simply vanished before her body collapsed on the floor. Selendil appeared on the other side of the room while holding the missing head by the hair. The cut in the woman’s neck had been burnt closed, though no one knew how as they had not sensed anything, so there was no blood.

“My apologies. It seems my hand slipped." Selendil said calmly. None of them had seen her move, not even Moonshadow whose expertise lay in her ability to see and detect things. Xiaoli was already running the scene again in her head in extreme slow motion but still couldn't catch Selendil's movement. At that point, both of them truly started to realize the vast gulf between them. It’s one thing to know something in theory and a whole another to have such a close brush with potential death.

The hostile Deity turned towards Selendil with a grievous expression. “I don’t think you realize what you’ve done. You just killed the youngest daughter of the Shah of Isfahan. Your days are numbered.”

Moonshadow surprised everyone present by bursting into a gale of laughter. “I don’t think you quite realize who you’re talking to. She could destroy every Cybran vessel in this system a dozen ways without even lifting a finger. Heck, even I could do that, though I would have to actually exert some effort. The only question here is, will the Cybrans have one less Deity after today as well?”

“His strategic value is actually relatively small for a Deity, as he is almost useless when it comes to battles in space. We can bear his loss.” Xiaoli taunted with a small smile.

That was the downside of being an elementalist. Selendil knew that what the others called halos or what she knew as achievement rings came about in two ways. Either you became so strong that you got one purely thanks to that, or you mastered one skill to an extent that the universe recognized your achievement. That’s how you became a so-called Deity. As the elementalists focused on their chosen element, they had an easy time becoming a Deity thanks to their dedication. Someone like the Deity in front of them could also relatively easily get another ring thanks to a related and complementary element, like ice and water. They had much more trouble getting any more rings after that, and once thrust into the empty void of space where their element could not be fully utilized, they were nearly helpless.

Selendil could sense that the Deity in front of them was specialized in manipulating extremely low temperatures for offensive purposes and combining that with the molecules found in the air he could create deadly attacks. He also seemed to have specialized in manipulating water, which made his original abilities stronger. Selendil thought the focus was all wrong as in her mind it would be more effective to focus on the water aspect as that way he would be more formidable in combat. Most beings were filled with water after all. In either case though, he was not able to do much against ships that were already used to traveling the cold void of space.

“Bah, as if I’d believe that of someone who isn’t even a Deity.” The man scoffed.

“You know, one of these days you’re going to have to explain to me why everyone is so focused on those stupid rings," Selendil stated while looking towards Moonshadow. “Everyone seems to think you don’t have any power just because your rings are not visible. You and Amaterasu are perfect examples of how stupid that assumption is, yet everyone keeps making the same mistake.”

“Well, you have to understand that most races don’t know of any ways to hide the halos. Both I and Amaterasu are exceptions, even among our own people. As such, everyone else is too used to judging people by the visible indication of power.” Moonshadow explained calmly, as if they were not in the middle of a dangerous situation with guns drawn on both sides.

“Be that as it may Xiaoli, since I already killed this one, does it really make a difference if I get rid of the rest of them?" Selendil tossed the severed head to the side.

“I’d still prefer it if you didn’t. You might have roused the ire of the Shah of Isfahan, but just murdering all the enemies present here is another matter. Especially the Deity. The Shah might or might not care about her daughter, but losing a Deity would be a provocation against the entire city ship and their allies.” Xiaoli replied.

With a sigh, Selendil turned towards the enemy elementalist. “Well then, make up your mind and stop dithering. Will you do the smart thing and run with your tail between your legs, or will you force me into killing you all?”

Her earlier display had made it clear that they would only be committing suicide if they picked a fight, so the enemy Deity signaled a retreat, as much as it galled him. Xiaoli's men were already rendering first aid to their injured comrades when Xiaoli approached Selendil. "He did have one good point though. You, and by extension we, have earned the ire of the Shah. As soon as they return, the Shah will try to make trouble. Maybe not military trouble, but trouble nonetheless. It might be better if all of us disappeared for a short time so this whole thing can blow over. I’ll send in a report first of course. I think we’ve already established that you’re not a Cybran so it might be useful if we tagged along with you.”

“Well, we do have to travel to that Tetrarchy controlled world you mentioned. I imagine you’re welcome to come along?” Moonshadow stated with a questioning tone while looking at Selendil.

“Sure, why not. We needed some security people anyway, and she might be worth giving some tips so she won’t waste her talents.” Selendil replied with a shrug.

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The fact that Selendil had been able to expand the insides of her shuttle with a wave of her hand to accommodate for all of Xiaoli's men had already caused enough of a shock. However, once Xiaoli saw them arrive at Selendil's ship, the woman's face was twitching in very interesting ways as she processed all the implications. The final nail came when she was introduced to the rest of the crew, especially Amaterasu. While most people might not have been able to recognize the Empress of an obscure offshoot faction of humanity, one of the fleet intelligence officers for the Cybrans sure as hell could make the connection.

“Dread Empress.” Xiaoli greeted Amaterasu as they were gathering at the conference room they had used before. Interestingly the Illum Empress had been the first to arrive and others were still on the way.

“Well, if it isn’t the Red Spider.” Amaterasu had received the reports from her own intelligence service, and Xiaoli’s information had been among the reports.

“I did suspect that Selendil had something to do with the Illum, but I didn’t realize she worked directly for the Empress. I should’ve realized.” Xiaoli commented. This didn’t look good. Had she just turned herself over to the Illum?

“I think you’ve made a slight mistake. She doesn’t work for me, I work for her for the moment.” Amaterasu grinned. She was rather enjoying the situation. “I happen to be the first officer of this ship.”

“The wha-how? Why? What?” Poor Xiaoli had trouble processing the information and Amaterasu was not going to make things any easier.

"I'm sure you've heard about the special connection we Illum have with the Progenitors. It's only fitting I would serve one of them." Amaterasu's grin widened.

With a groan, Xiaoli placed her face in her hands. "I give up. I don't care anymore. Fuck it. Let's just go with it. I'm sure I'll wake up soon."

“You’re not in a dream, no matter how much it might feel like one at the moment. Now gather your wits. Judging by the report Moonshadow sent me, we’re about to decide the fate of a Tetrarchy world and one of their bases.” Amaterasu had already heard the news and was eagerly waiting for the result of this little conference.