CHAPTER 11 - MAKING AN ESCAPE FROM THE STARSHIP CERBERUS

Meanwhile back on the bridge after the groups had split up into the ship…

“You idiots keep failing me!” The captain yelled as he was breaking things on the bridge out of anger. The others fled in terror from his anger. Anyone who wasn’t fast or lucky enough were crippled by his rampage.

After a few minutes of going ballistic he finally calmed down. The crew who wasn’t injured on the bridge returned with medics. His anger had cost the lives of unlucky crew members. The captain wasn’t too concerned about the loss. He would get more crew later on. For now he decided to take matters into his own hands. He only had one target in mind to kill. His target was heading for the front hanger section. 

The captain left the bridge with no one stopping him or getting in his way. His power is what kept others from pulling off a mutiny or fleeing. There had been attempts in the past. All had failed to even get a single score on the captain.

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Yin and Lisa along with the three elite dragoniods had made their way to the back of the ship. They ran into many crew members of the ship. Some fought them and died quickly. While others took off when they had the chance. The ones who fled were knocked unconscious. 

“Honestly, I think we should just kill them.” Yin sighed. Looking at all the bloodshed they left in their wake. A few crew members lied around out cold from Lisa’s work. She was the one delivering any instant knockouts. 

The group eventually broke off with Yin and two of the dragoniods heading for the rear hanger. While Lisa and the other dragoniod headed for the stern's gun control room.

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Lisa with only the one dragoniod had it easier than they thought. They only ran into a few skirmishes before finding their target thanks to Qin’s directions. They found that odd that hadn’t run into too much resistance as they found their target. Now came the hard part of getting past all the thick armor and security.

The stern’s mechanical control room for the rear guns was heavily defended. Lisa and the dragoniod got a good look at what they were dealing with. Thanks to Lisa using a concealment spell on one of the dragoniods summons. He had it climb up along the wall to the room to get a view of the outside.

It was guarded by four guards in total. Two were humanoid rift eaters, while the others were crew members who had bored expressions on their faces. They were just idly chatting with each other. While the humanoid rift eaters were more alert. The entrance had two small laser cannons as extra security for firepower. The door was sealed by a key card encryption of some kind. The dragoniod called back his summon after getting an assessment of the room.

“So how are we going to plan this out?” The dragoniod asked Lisa. 

“I need to kill those rift eaters. The crew members, we can just incapacitate. The laser cannons we’ll need to destroy.”  Lisa answered his question in a soft tone.

“For this to work though. I’m going to need a smokescreen. I need them all to be blind of my approach.”

“If that is the case. I have the perfect solution. If you could cast your concealment spell on my summon again. I can send it in to deliver a knockout gas. It will both blind and make our targets unconscious all in one. After that i’ll have it destroy the lasers.” The dragoniod said to Lisa with his idea.

Lisa liked his plan as she casted the concealment spell on the summon. She followed behind quietly as they made their approach to the room. The dragon summon opened its mouth to let out a yellowish-green vapor. It ran silently around the room releasing the gas. Lisa had to wait for an opening. She didn’t want to get caught up in the gas attack.

The rift eaters were quick to pick up on what was happening. The gas immediately took effect as both crew members fell over and slumped on the floor. The rift eaters on the other hand were too busy looking for the source of the gas cloud to notice Lisa sneaking up on them. They had managed to get away from the gas. 

The rift eaters never even reacted as Lisa stabbed them with twin radiant daggers. They fell to the ground before dissolving. At the same time she did this the dragon summon fired two beams of energy at the laser cannons before they could lock onto Lisa. The cannons were obliterated in an instant.

The dragoniod soon stepped into the room with Lisa. She was now checking over the unconscious guards for a security key. After a few minutes of digging Lisa found what she was looking for. She walked over to the terminal and swiped it. The doors opened up with no issue as they made their way in.

The inside of the room was overwhelming to say the least. Controls for various parts of the stern were everywhere. Lisa and the dragoniod scanned over the room looking for the controls. ItI took them a few minutes to navigate to where they needed to go.

Lisa went to work while the dragoniod stood guard. He had his summon patrol the area while still concealed. Lisa had to hack her way around a bunch of encryptions. It didn’t take her long to get through. Being part of the radiant alliance had allowed her enhance her skills with getting secrets. That including hacking.

She quickly shutdown the guns in the rear section of the ship. She decided to have some fun while she was at it though. She made sure if the guns were to be put back online they would overload and explode. She also decided to add a computer virus that causes the turrets to fire on the ship itself. She smiled grimly as she finished her work.

Lisa messaged Yin that she had completed her task and was going to rendezvous with him. A minute after she sent her message the entire ship shook from a loud explosion. The dragoniod and her both fell to the ground  as alarms could now be heard going off.

“What was that?” Asked the guard.

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Yin and the two dragoniods made their way to the rear hanger. The encounters were numerous but nothing the trio couldn’t handle. When they arrived, they decided to let loose. They sent their summons rampaging around attacking any rift eaters in the hanger. The summons chased the crew and damaged anything they could find. The distraction was almost too good. The dragoniods were able to successfully destroy the rear hanger launching units in the chaos. 

It all happened within less than ten minutes. Yin looked on from a hiding spot when the two other dragoniods rejoined him. “Honestly, I didn't think it would be that easy. While you two had finished up. I just received word from Lisa that she has accomplished her goal. We are going to meet them at our rendezvous point now. I wonder how Qin is doing with her part?”

A minute had passed as they started making their way for the rendezvous point when the entire ship shook. The trio stumbled as they regained their footing. Alarms were no going off everywhere. 

“What just happened?” Asked one of the elite dragoniods. 

“I have no clue.” Replied Yin as he decided to check in on others. Especially Qin. Lisa said she was fine. While Cleo said a fire had broken out of the part of the ship their were in. The only one who wasn’t responding was Qin,

Yin had a bad feeling about this as he tried Julia next. All he got in a message were a few chilling words. “We need help in the hangar…” before the feed was cut out.

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Just like Lisa had done earlier. Cleo had the dragoniod use his summon to get a quick peak around a corner to see inside. The summon wasn’t hidden like Lisa had done. Unlike Lisa who liked to be hidden when attacking. Cleo liked to be stealthy. She  assessed the situation of the room they came to for the bow controls. It was guarded by two rift eaters and two crew members. The only defense was two laser cannons. The dragoniod called back his summon after seeing the room.

The dragoniod at this point wasn’t sure why he was needed with the way Cleo was killing or the way she incapacitated her enemies. Either way orders were orders as he followed her.

She was silent and stealthy as she approached the room. She held her hand up to the dragoniod and would give him a signal if she needed his help. She bolted into the room with lighting speed. What happened next wasn’t too  much of a surprise for the dragoniod to see. Although his reaction was still unnerved by this attack.

Cleo turned both her arms into bladed swords as she decapitated both rift eaters in an instant. They fell to the floor before dissolving. The crew guarding the door were too slow to react. She next turned her sword arms into metal fists as she grabbed both men. She slammed both of their heads into each other. This caused them to fall to the ground unconscious. 

The laser cannons only fired off a few shops while she did all this. She dodged the lasers with only inches from being hit. Cleo was unfazed as she turned her arms back into swords as she sliced through both lasers. This all happened within less than thirty seconds.

The dragoniod was speechless as he walked in behind her. Cleo was digging through the guards pockets as she looked for a key card. She had tied them up while she was looking not wanting them to attack her if they woke up.

The dragoniod raised his brow in confusion. Cleo let him know the most likely thing they would experience later was a killer headache.

Cleo retrieved a card as she went to swipe to get into the terminal. They had to spend some time finding the controls but eventually found them. Cleo went fast to work on disabling the controls. Doing the same thing Lisa did but decided to do some more creative hacking. 

The two would sometimes compete to see who could come up with better sabotage results. She made it so that the guns were reactivated. The interchangeable mechanism would go full throttle. By doing this she hoped the gun's mechanism would break from spinning too fast. it would also make it impossible to even fire with the guns switching so fast.

The two finished up and reported to Qin. Qin on the other hand said she hadn’t gotten to the hangar just yet. They were running into wave after wave of crew and rift eaters.

Cleo asked if she needed assistance since they had finished their task. Qin was hesitant but finally agreed. Cleo and the other dragoniod made their way to Qin. The two of them ran into waves of enemies as well. They only managed to get about halfway before a loud explosion rocked the ship.

Both were blown off their feet as the floor below blew upwards. The dragoniod was fast with his summons to shield them from hitting the ceiling above. When the dust settled Cleo and the dragoniod both found themselves blown out onto the deck above. They both checked themselves over. Cleo had sustained a few minor cuts. The dragoniod only looked more annoyed than hurt. 

The two could only gasp at the destruction wondering what was happening. The bow of the ship was a burning wreck. Alarms blared while people could be heard screaming in pain. Cleo tried to contact Qin but was getting no response. She then contacted Julia. All she got was “We need help in the hangar…” before the communication cut out.