"Avalon is located about four light years away from Carmarthen," Aegis explained. At her prompt, a holographic star map materialized all around us, a 3-dimensional rendering that illuminated the room in a faint blue tint. We found ourselves surrounded by stars, planets and nebulae, each beautifully rendered celestial body or phenomenon suspended in midair. A few icons highlighted Carmarthen, and then plotted a glowing route toward Avalon and its system.
"It will be a few hours' trip from the Carmarthen system," Arondight added.
"Do we have any means of transport there?" I asked. "Can we adjust the portal to bring us there immediately?"
"There is no quantum link for the portal to Avalon," Arondight informed me. "We will have to travel there through the void."
In other words, starships. I nodded and adopted a severe look.
"Ready the armada. We will use the old ways."
Everyone stared at me. I sighed and shook my head.
"Never mind. General Johansson, please assemble your army and get them ready. How many knights you think will be needed to help Avalon? I'll leave that to your discretion. Senior Lin Xue and I will return and get the ships ready, and then we'll immediately head for Avalon from Earth."
"About that," Aegis interrupted. "If you are thinking of sending the Order through the portal and teleporting them to the Crusader and the Stalwart, I am afraid it will not be possible. I cannot conduct mass teleportation of an entire regiment of troops to the starships."
"Eh? Why not?" She had read my mind, but by this time, I had gotten used to my AI knowing what I was thinking before I even voiced the thoughts in my head. She knew me better than I knew myself. "Haven't you been teleporting me and Lin Xue to the Crusader all this time?"
"Teleporting a handful of individuals from the surface of a planet to the bridge of a starship is an exceedingly complex maneuver that involves an astronomical amount of calculations to prevent any accidents from happening, but it is still a manageable task. However, transporting any more than a handful increases the number of calculations exponentially and further complicates the process infinitesimally. Additionally, the only teleporter received in a starship is the bridge, and it is impossible to fit an entire regiment of soldiers and all of their equipment in such a relatively small space. It is simply not feasible."
"We propose that we instead send shuttles located in the hangar bays of the Crusader and the Stalwart to the surface of Carmarthen to pick up the knights of the Order and their armaments," Arondight offered.
"Okay, we'll do that then." I turned away, gesturing for Lin Xue to follow. "We'll leave immediately to make the necessary preparations and arrive here in three days. Best to move out as early as possible. I don't know how much longer Avalon can hold out."
"Do that," Lionel Johansson said. "We'll do our own preparations on our end. We will not let you down, Commander."
"Same. I'll do my best too."
And without wasting any time, Lin Xue and I returned to Earth. Thankfully, there wasn't much to do now except debrief the people at Sprue, then we were free to go. The rest were sent to an affiliated hospital to get their injuries treated, while the dead were taken to a morgue.
"I'll get going then," I told Lin Xue. "Sorry, senior, but we'll have to part ways here."
"Are you kidding?" Lin Xue snapped. "Of course I'm coming with you!"
"Um, are you sure? It's going to be dangerous. And you're not involved in any of this to begin with. Why would you…?"
"Honestly?" Lin Xue thought for a while before she grinned. "Because it's fun!"
"…say what?"
"C'mon, how often does one get to ride in a starship and fight wars? This is a once in a lifetime adventure! I can't miss it!"
"What do you think war is?" I was exasperated. "War is an awful thing. You've seen how people die in battle, whether it was at Carmarthen, or the poor security guards back at HQ during the raid by those two psychics. Just one mistake, and we'll end up dead. You really think something like that is fun?!"
"No." Lin Xue turned serious. "The real reason is because I simply can't leave you alone. You're like a younger brother. Do you really think I'll just let you run off into war all alone by yourself?"
"I'm not alone. I have Lionel Johansson and his legion of knights backing me up. I'll be fine."
"You don't have an ally from Earth. Also, you have very different roles. Mr. Johansson is going to be away leading his Order against the enemy while you run off for some other obscure mission I can't even begin to speculate. Something about recovering ancient relics? When you're separated from the knights, who's going to watch your back? Me, of course. It's my job as your senior sister to take care of you." She patted her chest confidently. "And you don't have to worry about me. I can look after myself. You've seen my power."
"Speaking of psychic powers, can't I get some for myself?" I asked Aegis and Arondight. "The two Dragon Cultists said something about the Saurians unlocking their psychic potential. Is there a way for me to do that?"
"Not that we know of at the moment," Aegis replied.
"Sorry, Commander, but you will have to hold off acquiring psychic powers for the moment," Arondight added. "You probably have to find the appropriate ancient technological relic for that."
"Maybe you need to be exposed to Xyrin crystals," Lin Xue suggested. I gave her a stare.
"You watched Xyrin Empire?"
"Yeah. There's a heroine in there with the same name as me. And if I stick with you, I might be granted matriarchal authority and have some control over your relics and army one day."
"That's not going to happen," Aegis declared flatly. "Command isn't shared that way, and you're not going to obtain matriarchal authority just because you have some relation to the Commander. Nepotism is strongly frowned upon."
"It's also a cheap way of making the otherwise ordinary heroines remain relevant to the story," Arondight added.
"Okay, never mind that, let's get started right away. I've to contact my parents and tell them I'll be off for a trip." I held up a hand to stop Arondight from cutting down the fourth wall any longer and also to prevent Lin Xue from retorting. "Let's go."
Aegis and Arondight followed me without any word. Lin Xue looked around before hurriedly chasing after us.
Three days later, we were breaking orbit from Carmarthen and making for Avalon. As promised, Aegis and Arondight had dispatched massive shuttles from the hangar bays of the starships to pick up Lionel Johansson's waiting legion. From the holographic monitors on the bridge, I watched the black, beetle shaped vessels swerve into the hangars with an agility that belied their hunchback statures. Plasma jets roared, spewing superheated flames that propelled them upward, and each was armed with four plasma cannons, the turrets able to pivot about and track multiple targets simultaneously. Then the ramp descended at the rear, almost resembling the shuttle's belly dropping open, to disgorge the heavily armored knights.
No horses, though. That would be too impractical.
Ten thousand knights. Lionel Johansson had marshalled ten thousand knights, armed them and organized them into their respective squadrons in the space of three days. That was impressive.
"Permission to enter the bridge, Commander."
"Please come in, General."
We exchanged salutes before Johansson stepped inside. Already, his men had billeted themselves, but since the trip wasn't going to take long, the vast majority had opted to stay in the hangar bay instead of finding rooms to sleep in. they made do by stacking equipment or turning available furniture into makeshift mattresses and pillows, laying down and catching whatever rest they could before the inevitable battle.
"How are your men doing?"
"They will be fine. They might be slacking off for now, but when the time comes, they'll give the enemy a good run for their money. I personally guarantee it."
"I've seen them fight. I fought alongside you guys against the Knights of Romulus. I have every faith in your abilities."
"It pleases me to hear you say that." Johansson nodded. "So how long until we reach Avalon?"
"A few hours," I replied, nodding toward the countdown displayed on one of the holographic monitors. Already, both the Crusader and the Stalwart were speeding away from Carmarthen and toward a more sparsely populated section of the system to escape the star's gravity well so that we could safely transition into warp space. We didn't want to be affected by any of the system's planetary bodies, whose gravity would have an effect on our Alcubierre drives.
We relaxed, with Johansson making himself comfortable while I lounged on the captain's station, managing miscellaneous duties. Lin Xue had made herself at home at the navigation station and was tracing galactic routes, probably more from curiosity than necessity.
"Man, I can't wait to see what these Sagittaurs look like!"
"They are an alien race. I'm not very familiar with them, but…whoa?!"
I jolted from my seat when I realized I recognized the voice. Spinning around in my chair, I stared in astonishment at Colonel Shang Xiao.
"Sir?! What are you doing here?"
"I snuck onboard…well, I asked Lin Xue to bring me along." Shang Xiao shrugged. "When I read the briefing, I realized that you kids are way in over your heads with this. And I wanted to see if you guys are telling the truth or if you are just insane. I couldn't resist wanting to find out if starships and faster-than-light travel really existed."
He grinned and flexed an arm. I recalled the markings on his face when he fought against the Tarbosaurus the other time. According to Lin Xue's explanations about psychics, he must belong to the faculty of Strength. A cultivator, if we were located in another more superstitious and less enlightened time period.
"Besides, if you're fighting a war, you will need some extra muscle."
"…I guess so."
Closing my eyes, I sighed and sank into my seat, feeling a headache build up. Fortunately, I didn't have time to worry about it because the countdown was reaching zero. There was a slight distortion in our surroundings and we dropped out of warp space and into the material universe, the starships sliding into the Avalon system.
"Begin transmitting messages," I ordered Aegis and Arondight. "Let the Avalon Defense Army know we are here to assist. We don't want to fly into their airspace, only to get shot down by the people who were asking for our help."
"Understood," Aegis said. "Transmitting messages on repeat until we receive a response."
"Deploy sensors and scan the system. It might take a while because we are several light minutes from the system's star, but I hope we can build a picture of what happened here."
"Already conducting sensory scans," Arondight reported. "Resolving image in approximately ten minutes."
Just as I had expected, though, when the sensors finally bounced back off the planetary bodies and returned to my consoles, they painted a bleak picture. I saw wreckages of ships and a cloud of debris almost resembling an asteroid field, but packed much more tightly, mostly metallic and glinting. Clearly a colossal naval battle had occurred in orbit here, and the outcome was apocalyptic?
Were we too late? Perhaps it was a more practical scenario I could hope for. We were only two ships and one legion. I doubted we would have made much difference against two massive armadas.
Then I saw Avalon. A holographic monitor constructed a 3D map of light of the planet, having it orbit in front of me. I narrowed my eyes when I caught sight of a cluster of alien ships gathered around the planet. Dust motes fell from the ships, which were tiny when compared to the planet of Avalon itself, and when I magnified and resolved them, I understood that they were transports.
Troop transports. The alien enemy – the Sagittaurs – was landing their armies on Avalon, presumably to take the planet. With the human fleet shattered, the Sagittaurs had achieved orbital superiority and now dominated the void.
At least that was something we could help with. I had ten thousand knights at my disposal. If I could deliver my troops to the planet, then they would make a considerable difference to the planetary war.
But first, I should get rid of those alien ships threatening a human world.
"Let's close in on them," I began, only for Arondight to interrupt me suddenly.
"I apologize, Commander, but I think I should report this immediately. We are being hailed by a Captain O'Connor, of the Avalon Navy."
"Put him through." I didn't hesitate. An image resolved in front of me, and a handsome middle-aged man appeared, dressed smartly in a black and gold navy uniform, replete with medals pinned to his breast. He watched me warily from his side of the communication screen.
"This is Captain Conrad O'Connor, commanding the Swift Blade. I ask that you identify yourselves, unknown ships."
"I'm Commander Li Tian Xing, captain of the Templar class cruiser, Crusader."
O'Connor's brow rose as he struggled to process this information. Probably because he hadn't heard of an Asian name before. Or he didn't know what a Templar class cruiser was…
"No, he should. It appears that the Avalon Navy use the same classes of ships as the Holy Terran Empire." Aegis, as usual, was on top of things. "And the Swift Blade, the ship he is in command of, is a Lancer class destroyer. A reliable design from back during the prime of the Holy Terran Empire. It appears that Avalon has managed to preserve a good deal of their naval might from those ancient days."
"That's good news." I grinned at that, only for my heart to sink when Aegis continued.
"No, Commander. From the data Arondight and I gathered from the sensor sweep, it appears that the majority of the Avalon Navy has been destroyed in combat. Currently, there are only three Lancer class destroyers left the Swift Blade, the Straight Arrow and the Striking Spear."
"…you've got to be kidding me…" I mumbled when I realized that we only had a total of five human ships left against an entire alien armada.