Feeling the ground shaking more and more violently, Ella was drenched in sweat, overwhelmed with anxiety. Xandar was on the brink of being overrun by the Kree forces, and she still had no idea how to start the spaceship.
"Princess, please set the destination!"
"Destination? Ah, uh... this..."
What destination?! Her knowledge of astronomy was practically zero. Aside from the nine planets of the Solar System, she couldn't name a single other celestial body.
Ella had a sudden flash of inspiration and said, "Right! Earth! Take me to Earth!"
Go to Rejek to find some queen? No way. She had no intention of getting involved in any sort of interstellar war.
Ella was on the verge of tearing her hair out from frustration, but the spaceship's AI assistant remained as calm as ever.
"Princess, planet C-53 is located seven jumps away. The journey exceeds this craft's maximum operational range. Additionally, the destination's technological level is too primitive to replenish this craft's energy reserves, meaning you will not be able to return to Xandar. Please confirm the route!"
"Stop wasting time and take off already! Now!" At this point, Ella wanted nothing more than to dismantle the AI system on the spot.
"As you command, Princess. Please fasten your safety harness."
"Safety harness? Oh! Right, safety harness, I'm fastening it now!"
Ella clumsily fumbled with the safety harness, managing to secure it. It was depressing to realize that the only thing she could figure out in this spaceship was how to buckle a seatbelt.
The moment the harness was secured, an intense pushback pinned Ella tightly against the seat. Within seconds, the Nova Corps starship shot out of the hidden hangar and soared into the skies at breakneck speed.
Dizzy from the high G-forces, Ella shook her head to clear her vision and glanced out of the cockpit's glass. The sight made her blood run cold. In the distant sky, the Kree warships were swarming like locusts, pouring out of several enormous motherships, each several kilometers long. Crisscrossing beams of light flickered between them, and explosions erupted like fireworks across the sky.
Nova Corps starfighters were scrambling to intercept the Kree fleet, but the stark difference in numbers was evident. The Nova fighters were being shot down one after another, and the Kree Empire had already seized air superiority.
One of the Kree motherships braved the defensive gunfire and forced its way down to the surface. From a bird's-eye view, countless ant-like vehicles armed to the teeth began pouring out of the mothership and spreading across the land.
Seeing this, Ella finally understood and muttered to herself, "Xandar… it's over."
Suddenly, several Kree starfighters patrolling at high altitude spotted Ella's Nova fighter in the distance. Like sharks that had caught the scent of blood, they broke formation and charged straight toward her.
Seeing the Kree fighters racing toward her, Ella panicked and shouted, "The enemy is coming! Hurry up and accelerate! Initiate warp!"
"Princess, the warp point is outside Xandar's atmosphere. We must completely escape the planet's gravitational field first."
The Kree fighters were diving down from a higher altitude to attack, while Ella's craft was accelerating upward to escape the planet's gravity. Though her grasp of physics was mediocre at best, Ella wasn't so clueless as to miss the obvious: her seemingly advanced Nova X fighter was no match for the Kree fighters' advantage in position and momentum.
"Quick! Evasive maneuvers! Dodge them!"
"This prototype craft is not equipped with an automatic evasion system."
"Then activate the auto-fire system! Shoot them down!"
"This prototype craft is not equipped with weapons systems."
"What? Are you kidding me?!" Ella broke into a cold sweat as the Kree fighters drew closer. To her shock, this seemingly advanced spacecraft didn't even have weapons installed.
Looking around frantically, Ella grabbed what she assumed was the control stick on the right side of her seat. Gritting her teeth, she growled, "If I survive this, I swear I'm taking you apart piece by piece!"
She carefully moved the control stick a few times to test the fighter's handling. In her previous life, as a top-tier player of the video game Ace Combat, she'd never imagined she'd one day pilot a real starfighter—let alone an interstellar one.
Ella shouted, "Is there a shield? If there is, focus it on the front and go full power on acceleration!"
She'd only seen Nova fighters in the movies, and they seemed to have shields. Whether this ship actually had one, she wasn't sure. Without a shield, her chances of surviving were slim—she'd most likely end up as a blazing fireball in the sky.
"Shield activated. Current defense level: 100%."
"Yes! Finally, some good news!" Ella breathed a sigh of relief. At least there was one bit of hope. Dying right after transmigrating would be far too embarrassing for someone claiming the title of a transmigrator.
Staring at the rapidly approaching Kree fighters, Ella gripped the control stick tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force.
"Warning! Shield strength at 75%! Please take evasive action!"
"Warning! Shield strength at 55%! Please take evasive action!"
Ignoring the blaring warnings echoing inside the ship, Ella piloted the Nova fighter head-on toward the Kree crafts. The particle beams from the Kree fighters repeatedly struck the shield, creating ripples of honeycomb-patterned blue light.
"It's either you or me today!" Ella thought fiercely.
Just as the two sides were about to collide, her mind became eerily calm. With a subtle flick of her right hand on the control stick, the Nova fighter gracefully tilted to the side, narrowly avoiding the oncoming Kree fighters. At that moment, the energy shield's strength had dropped to a mere 15%.
"Yes! Witness the unparalleled skills of an ace pilot! Take that, you trash!"
Having temporarily thrown caution to the wind, Ella now treated piloting the Nova fighter as if she were playing a high-stakes video game.
Breaking through the Kree fighters' blockade, her fighter accelerated rapidly. Equipped with two large ammonia-core main engines and four auxiliary engines, the Nova fighter boasted an almost absurd amount of power. The Kree fighters slowed down and attempted to turn back to pursue her, but they were clearly struggling to keep up.
The trembling of the ship abruptly ceased, and the blue sky outside the cockpit window transformed into a vast expanse of star-speckled darkness. Ella realized she had finally broken through Xandar's atmosphere.
"Oh my God! It's so beautiful! Is this outer space?"
Despite being in a life-threatening situation, Ella couldn't help but be mesmerized by the breathtaking spectacle of the universe for the first time.
Humanity's relentless efforts to escape a planet's gravity, she thought, must be for moments like this.
But her awe was short-lived. With a sudden "whoosh," a blue energy beam streaked past the cockpit, snapping Ella back to reality. She quickly realized that this was no time for sightseeing.
Turning her head, she saw countless Kree fighters pouring out of their motherships dozens of kilometers to her left, swarming in her direction like locusts.
Terrified, she yanked the control stick hard, but that turned out to be a disaster. The hyper-responsive Nova fighter spun wildly due to her overly aggressive maneuver, careening through space like a headless chicken. Ironically, this erratic movement temporarily made it impossible for the distant Kree fighters to lock onto her.
As it turns out, no matter how skilled someone is at video games, it doesn't mean they can instantly become an elite pilot. If it were that simple, pilots wouldn't be such a rare and valuable resource.