"Miss. Barry it'll be better for you to remain here," Andrea tried to persuade the woman to stay home.
"I'm going to save my daughter," Rina's mom replied. "I know this is all a plan. Those things want to abduct her.. I won't let them.. Not my daughter.." She ranted while struggling to walk towards the ship, Andrea trying to hold her back miserably.
"Ugh, what is wrong with you?!" Andrea grunted as she felt her excessive strength.
Miss Barry is a widow with only one child, Rina. Her husband died in one of the battles with the Nagas.
Since then, she became a bit over protective of Rina. Apart from that, she was just normal, the complete opposite of now.
Andrea, aside from being an engineer, was also a military trained soldier. For Rina's mom to overpower her, something wasn't okay with her body.
All this started as soon as the news of the attack reached here. She just fell unconscious on the floor and woke up saying she saw something while sleeping.
The fact that she slept made people assume that it was all a dream.
However, since when do dreams give people such monstrous strength? Andrea swore to find out what really happened, her curiosity fueled further by the words that Miss Barry keeps repeating.
"A little help here!" Andrea called over the guards at the port.
"Yes ma'am," they both replied and then helped to hold down Rina's mom.
"I'll call over the medic and let them deal with her," she said, wiping away a sweat bead on her face, which made it even more surprising.
'Something's not right here. She managed to make me sweat?!' Andrea thought as she opened the hatch to the spaceship. A hissing sound is heard as the hydraulic gears closed the hatch behind her.
"Welcome aboard, Cap." a monotonous voice booked in the walkway.
"Thanks, Midnight," Andrea answered calmly. "Tell me Midnight, do you think the new engine would work?" she asked thoughtfully.
"According to my calculations, we have a 40% chance that it will power up the spaceship, 25% chance for it to fail and a 5% chance to blow up the drives," the voice answered.
Andrea listened intently as she walked to the ship's Cockpit.
Suddenly, her face tense up and as if by magic, the voice clarified her doubts.
"30% chance of complete.."
" Yes. Complete obliteration. I suggest we place this as a last resort captain. It is a big risk," the voice, despite its monotonous tone, sounded serious.
"I get that, Midnight," Andrea answered with a serious expression. "Despite that, just put the hyper drives ready for blast off at any time,"
"Sure thing, Captain."
"And remember to keep the fuel latch off in the mean time, just give the engine a running minimum," Andrea added.
"Yes," the voice of Midnight came through the intercom in the Cockpit.
From here, one could see the whole landing port. It is small anyway, since it is her own private land.
"Alright," Andrea exhaled a deep breathe before continuing. "Take off midnight, the destination is.."
...
As the ship took off, a figure watched from a window nearby.
"God keep my daughter safe.. I saw it.. I know she will return..." the person said as she sat on the bed, folded her arms around her knees and started rocking. A position she'd sit in for a long, long time.
...
Andrea's ship was not the only one taking off. At the Ausca Military Center, thirty fighter ships were ascending slowly out of earth's atmosphere. However, comparing the speed to that of Andrea's was like an old man and an athlete.
Similar events happened in four different ports. A total of 120 ships took off into space, each carrying a team of twenty soldiers.
This number was not small by any means. It signified how the government valued the station under attack.
...
A dark blue ship shit out of earth's atmosphere at neck breaking speed. Contrary to its name, midnight wasn't totally black. It is a mixture of black and blue streaks.
Due to the speed the ship was traveling, a blurry streak of blue was left behind it. Inside, Andrea was in her newly installed workshop trying to modify a certain black box.
"We are approaching the station Captain," Midnight's voice echoed in the room. "There's, however, no way for us to get any closer that we already are without engaging.."
"Just stop here, Midnight," Andrea interjected. "Remember our cannons should be an element of surprise,"
"Yes Captain," Midnight agreed. "I detected military ships behind us. They may be here in about fifteen minutes. Should we wait for them to engage them slip in?"
Andrea went silent for a second before replying.
"It'd be a great idea if only the enemy could wait," she said sarcastically then chuckled. "It seems we have no choice but to stall for time until they get here,"
"How should I proceed, Captain?" Midnight questioned.
"Launch fifty auto-bots with auto turrets then head around the station," Andrea commanded then added. "They would concentrate on us long enough for the bots to flank their rear,"
"As you say Captain," with an audible click, the hatch opened and figures were dropped out. In the dim light from the thrusters, one can faintly make out the humanoid shape.
They had a metallic glean, shining black in the bluish flames of the thrusters.
They had a length of a minivan and in place of their arms, a barrel with sinister looking energy was placed. The head was round and the torso too. The lower body was like an oval pulled further.
The glowing energy made them look like a group of traffic lights put in one place.
Their feet had mini thrusters, now red in heat, which produced similar bluish flames as the ship's. With an increase in the raging blue flames, Midnight too off with constantly increasing speed.
A few minutes later, when Midnight's thrusters were only tiny blue dots in the dark universe, the bots took off after her in a beautiful sync.
They looked like a line of blue and green dots moving against darkness.
As Midnight's signal caught the radar of the Naga ships, a group of the fighter ships took off after her, after all, who wouldn't be attracted to a Mega sized, dynamically shaped super fast ship with beautiful colors on it? Only about idiot would want to blow it instead of capturing it.
There was a common rule among the Nagas. If you claim it, it's yours. Thus, when the soldiers took after Midnight, it wasn't for battle, it was personal.
Thus was part of Andrea's plan. The bots, who came much later, easily reached the back of the enemy's group and started attacking the star shaped ships.
They actually looked more like sea urchins, a funny thing since their planet is an all round desert.
The ships, or 'urchins' as the Earth soldiers called them, were purple and had a hatch at the bottom, the thrusters at the rear as usual. The only thing out of place, was the cannon on its sides.
It made it seem like an urchin with hands.
Despite how awkward the cannons looked, their power was like someone had cheated codes in a certain game.
The cannons used a type of energy found after extraction of Aluthium. Although scientists had already said it wasn't harmful to living organisms, the problem lays in its over reactiveness.
A ton of this substance would probably produce far worse effects that of Hiroshima bombing.
This is the only problem that humans are yet to overcome in order to harness its power.
The funny thing is that, although several broken urchins have been hauled back to Earth's laboratories, they are still unable to reproduce the metal. There was a certain energy infused which they never ever got.
...
As Midnight led some fighter urchins away, the rest engaged with the bots. Andrea had designed them herself and as a souvenir, she used the metal from the urchin's cannons to make shields for the bots.
Although it couldn't totally negate the energy shots, it at least helps to parry it. Yes. Parry. The beam came out as a half-tangible purple substance.
Imagine a solid purple beam of thirty centimetre radius hitting you, with the energy similar to two nuclear bombs,, terrifying indeed.
As awesome as the energy beams sound, their bane was an enhanced plasma shield like the one covering Midnight right now.
Blast after blast hit the shield and dissolves to add into the plasma shield. Isn't this a good thing? I mean, your shield is getting strong right?
The answer is..
No.
As soon as the plasma reaches a maximum hold, the shield would start breaking down. That is why the urchins never stopped shooting at Midnight.
To their dismay, as thin as the shield seems, it seemed too 'hungry'.
"Hahaha!" Andrea laughed at their attempts. "Keep shooting you dummies, keep feeding my bank,"
"You are truly amazing Captain," Midnight's voice came. "To use the shield to collect Avron, truly a genius!" one could almost imagine the AI's happy face, if it had any.
"Don't say that, Midnight," Andrea reprimanded her AI. "You know very well that the both of us came up with that idea and I don't feel good when you give me all the credit,"
"OK Captain."
...
At this point, the urchin's mothership, an even bigger urchin, almost the size of mt Everest, had realized the trick and had called back the urchins.
The positions reversed, thus, the urchins racing back to the station and Midnight behind them. A very rare situation as it is always Earthlings running.
RIIING!
Inside the station, the commander's phone rang again.
"Commander, the Naga blasted the shield deploying beacon. We need to launch a new one but.." Rina's voice stopped.
"You need a person out there to activate it, right?"
"That's right Commander. Success comes at a cost..."