-----V-----

Huh, Ethan is being an asshole for once. That‘s a first. It didn‘t really bother me when he told me to go die, I know that I am a bastard myself.

I noticed Nia and Letya going into the ship, he must have told them to turn the key. I don‘t really see a way out of this hangar. Maybe the ceiling will open up or something? And it‘s really obvious that he is going to leave me and Amara on this planet. Like I am going to let that happen!

I fired my blaster towards Ethan, and as expected, he brought out his energy barrier that blocked all my shots.

Reve started charging forward, and swung his ax nowhere near me and shouted out a program. The head of the ax opened up, and as he swung it down, a wave of energy flew towards me.

„He can do that!?“

I rolled to the side, dodging his attack, and fired a quick shot at him. His armor only left a mark from it.

Reve continued with his energy attack, I could easily dodge them, but I am getting tired from moving left and right.

„Amara!“ I called.

Amara fired her sniper, only to dissipate when Ethan called out his barrier. That shield of his is annoying!

She quickly threw few gadgets to the floor after charging them up. And then burst out a wall of energy that we could use as cover from Ivona. There was no cover around, except for the legs of the spaceship that we aren‘t anywhere near.

Amara needs time to recharge her artifact, it‘s only for a few seconds, but that‘s too long for me.

„Use your blade!“

„Ough, fine.“

Amara put her artifact on her back and took out a handle which a blade emerged from. Sizzling hot red energy appeared.

She ran at Reve with speed. Ivona started firing arrows at her, so I changed my target towards Ivona.

Amara and Ivona were both really agile. They could easily dodge ranged weapons.

Reve held his artifact high, and I saw his mouth move to indicate the other program that he was bringing out.

His ax was brought down to the floor, and the floor shook for a mere second, then cracks showed and quickly moved towards Amara.

She jumped high from the energy that was emerging from the cracks and thrust her blade towards Reve.

Reve managed to hit her with the shaft of the ax, and only his shoulder was grazed by her blade, and it seemed to have gone through his barrier quite easily. His shoulder armor sizzled and melted through. Reve winced and loosened the shoulder armor and dropped it to the ground.

„What a pain you are!“ Reve scowled.

Amara responded by attacking again, but Ethan, of course, blocked the attack with his energy barrier once again.

I noticed he was charging his shield with a zettra stone continuously.

I fired rounds at him to change his protection target to himself. Ivona called out a program and fired at me.

Her arrow suddenly turned into many smaller projectiles. A few of the shrapnel went through the energy barrier that Amara threw out earlier. I was hit in my left leg and thigh. Thankfully for the barrier blocking it, it only scraped my skin.

She was going to use her program again, so I called out one of my own.

„Program! One!“ I quickly shouted as her arrow flew and split again.

I fired a shot that also splits and focuses on the small projectile firing towards me. My shot managed to take care of them all.

It‘s a program that I decided to call One, due to me needing to quickly shout it out to block a shot from others. It would basically do nothing towards a living thing, so it‘s mostly used to take care of the enemy range weapons flying towards me.

Ivona fired a few more arrows, and I called out my protective program once more. But it wasn‘t the same scatter arrow that she used, now it was explosive. One of the arrows completely destroyed my shot, and an arrow flew through the smoke and hit the barrier I was behind. It exploded and left me vulnerable as I lept down at the floor.

„I feel like I have angered you, should I say that I am sorry?“

„No need to say, getting hit by my arrows is enough!“

Suddenly, the whole room shook, and we all stumbled around.

„What‘s happening?!“

I glanced up to the ceiling, a ray of light shone and snow started falling. The spaceship itself also started powering up. The floor started slowly rising.

Shit! I need to get on that ship!

-----E-----

Nia must have done something, the entire vault was moving.

Letya ran down the ramp alongside me.

„What did you two do?“

„Nia said that she believed to have found the button to activate this artifact vehicle.“

„Anything else?“

„Um, she said that she needed some sort of gemstone to activate it, but she somehow got through that.“

Just like with the holograms of the planets, but no A.I. was around this time. Maybe she must have gotten through the system without being detected as a hacker.

„Can she steer the ship?“

„There was a screen to activate the artifact, nothing else.“

What? We couldn‘t take the helm? It was just automated? I need to check it out myself, but I shouldn‘t move away from the ramp. I am not letting Vincent or Amara on the ship.

„Was there something else on the sh. . . Actually, I‘ll check it out later, help me protect the ramp and support the others.“

„Got it,“ she exclaimed.

I glanced over at Reve. He was still fighting Amara. That blade of hers was really something. I‘m sure it isn‘t an artifact, she hasn‘t used any programs at all. It‘s likely a blade she had with her when transporting to this planet.

Reve swung his ax around himself, a wave of energy surrounded him and went in all directions, but Amara still was able to dodge it.

„Letya, do you have some sort of program against her?“

„I don‘t, they are mostly just used to assist others.“

„Then do one for Reve.“

Letya aimed her gauntlets at Reve.

„Program. Speed Enhance.“

There was nothing coming out of her gauntlets. It didn‘t seem to do anything at all.

„Did you do it?“

She nodded and pointed towards Reve. I glanced over and saw that his movement increased.

She must have done something to his Nanos. That‘s all that I can think about, otherwise, it wouldn‘t make sense.

When Reve swung his weapon again, he actually managed to hit Amara in the stomach, but her armor protected her from certain death.

Amara was knocked back, and quickly stood up. She took off her helmet and threw up blood. That blow really must have done something to her insides.

I noticed her robotic features around her head. She looked over at us and scowled. She must have known that Letya did something.

„So you want to play that game.“

Amara with her glare, took out her sniper and aimed towards Letya.

Does she really think I am going to let her shoot at us?

I saw her mouth move, likely silently using a program.

I prepared my shield, and then she fired her weapon. Her blast quickly went towards us, and I was ready for the impact, but it never came. Her blast suddenly changed direction towards Reve.

I didn‘t have time to say a word, the blast directly hit him in the chest, breaking through the artifact barrier, and it came out from the other side.

„Shit! Reve!“ I called.

Reve dropped his artifact and tried to stop the bleeding from his chest. But Amara‘s weapon pierced right through, and he was bleeding from both sides.

He dropped to the floor, and no movements were shown.

I saw Amara grinning, absolute no remorse was shown, she seemed to like it when he fell.

Ivona quickly fired at Amara with anger showing. Her arrow hit Amara‘s shoulder while she was focusing on us.

„Your next!“ Amara yelled towards Ivona and started to aim.

The platform we were on, suddenly stopped moving. I glanced at my surrounding, and without even realizing it, we were above ground. I was way too focused on the battle, snow was starting to pile up around us. The skies were grey.

Amara shot her artifact, and I quickly called my Sky Barrier program to block it. But when it collided, it was shattered and her blast was still going towards Ivona but at a slower pace.

Ivona rolled to the side, the blast exploded on the floor.

Vincent fired his weapon towards Letya and me. I couldn‘t protect Ivona while being shot at.

I felt a rumble around me and noticed that the thrusters of the ship were starting up.

„Run, Ivona! We can handle this, you don‘t have to put yourself in any more danger!“

„I won‘t! Until the bitch dies, Reve won‘t rest in peace!“

I was taken back by that, even though she didn‘t know Reve for that long, she still felt a large amount of anger.

Vincent started running toward the ramp, with his sword and blaster in each hand.

He fired a few rounds, I blocked them with ease. He went right at me and swung his blade. My shield scraped against his weapon, and his barrel of the blaster managed to pass my shield, and his finger was pressing down at the trigger.

With my free hand, I took hold of his hand and his blaster round fired behind me.

„I‘m not letting you escape without me!“

„You deserve this! You deserve to stay stranded on this planet after what you have done towards me! You are just a cruel bastard, and you know that don‘t you!?“

„Of course, I know that! And I am not planning to change!“

The thrusters of the ship ignited, and the ship started to rise.

Vincent managed to get his hand free, and aimed at me. But right when he was about to shoot, Letya dashed and kicked him. Vincent lost his balance and fell off the ship. We weren‘t high up, so it likely didn‘t hurt him as much.

Letya stumbled and almost fell along with Vincent, I grabbed her and pulled her up.

„Get inside, the ship is about to go into orbit.“

Letya nodded and moved up the ramp, but didn‘t go inside all the way.

I heard yelling coming from Vincent.

„Amara! Shoot the thrusters! Don‘t let him escape!“

Amara stopped fighting Ivona, her aim started moving towards one of the main thrusters.

„That‘s not gonna happen!“ I yelled.

The thrusters where quite far away, my Sky Barrier program wouldn‘t last a single shot. Then the thought of the new program I gained in the vault hit me.

„Program! Redirection!“

I only skimmed through the text about it, but I think I got the gist of it.

My shield opened up slightly, and the air around it reverberated.

„Fire, now!“

Amara fired her artifact, her projectile went straight towards the thruster, but it changed its direction towards my shield. I was knocked back a bit when the blast was absorbed by the shield, and I felt it gained a bit of energy.

Vincent started aiming his own weapon and fired alongside Amara. All their energy bullets were swallowed up by the shield. It was the same back when I first got it when I was fighting Vincent back at the ruins.

Ivona wasn‘t going to let them keep on firing, she shot her arrows in their direction. None of hers seemed to be affected by my program, it must only work on energy-based weapons.

„You‘re annoying me!“

Amara, once again, fired towards Ivona. But its direction changed and went straight up towards me in an arc.

Her projectile came from the side of me and hit my arm where my shield was on. And with slight piercing pain and heat that started to rise, I saw lights reflecting through my blood that burst out from me.

The universe seemed to have slowed to a halt. The snow didn‘t fall. The blood didn‘t move. The heat felt cold.

I noticed that something familiar was falling away from me and down to the snow beneath. It was bone with flesh around it, and veins that transported blood through it. At a glance, it looked cold, even though it had clothing that was ripped. Blood was spurting out of it from one side. There was something metallic strapped around it, it was used for protection against enemy weaponry.

With my shocked and terrified expression, I fell down on my back while clutching my bleeding left arm. It seethed as I stared towards my arm that fell down the ramp, with the shield still attached to it.

As the ship rose, the force of the wind has almost blown me off. Letya ran back down and grabbed my shoulders. I screamed as I was being dragged up the ramp. I screamed not from her dragging me but from the pain from where the arm once was.

And once I got inside, the ramp started closing. And then the ship suddenly shook as one of the thrusters was shot down.

„Fly! Get us out of here!“ I yelled through the pain.

There were no windows around me, but I could feel the ship still rising, but with a loss of a thruster, we wouldn‘t be able to go far.

I heard static through my ears, Letya was speaking to me, but no words ever reached my ears. My sight was starting to fade, the empty black void was closing my ability to see. Only static and the sight of nothing remained as my mind was being pulled into unconsciousness.