Lucilia and the others headed to the ship's bridge and spotted four ships on approach. Each of them bore the emblem of the Volarian Empire, but what was noticeable was that one of the middle ships' emblem was golden.

"Ma'am!" One of the bridge hands yelled. "It's-"

"I know." Lucilia interrupted. "It's my brother."

Ren and the others ran towards the hanger and got into their knights. They decided to break into three fireteams, with the leaders being Ren, Eleonora, and Scarlet. Ren's fireteam, consisting of himself, Ceti, and Aleyda, all got into their knights and were ready to launch. Ren activated his comms and asked Lucilia, "Do we know who our enemy is?"

Lucilia responded. "Prince Caius Aria Caelum...my brother."

"Shit..." Ren responded.

"Do not show him any mercy on my account. If you do, he will not hesitate to kill you. Do whatever you need to do to stay alive, Ren." Lucilia responded.

It warmed Ren's heart that Lucilia showed that no matter what, she wanted Ren to stay alive, even if it killed her brother.

"I'll be sure to stay safe." Ren responded. "Now, what's the game plan?"

"I will keep my brother's flagship distracted, or at least as much as I can. Meanwhile, you, Elenora, and Scarlet will attack the support ships and disable them or destroy them if necessary. Do all of you understand?"

"Got it." Scarlet replied.

"Understood." Eleonora said.

"It'll be done." Ren responded.

"Good, now deploy!"

With that, all of the knight teams were sent out while Lucilia, her mother, and the Versaerth Villagers watched from the bridge.

"What are our odds?" Laelli asked.

"Right now, it's not great, but if we can disable my brother's ship, we can escape." Lucilia replied. "Send all shield power to our front shields and all fire power to our main guns. This will be a straight fight."

*Caius Perspective*

"It seems my dear sister thinks she can hold us off..." Caius said while sitting in his seat. "Admiral, send out our units and put a bounty on my former brother-in-law's head; whoever kills him gets paid three million credits."

"Yes, sir!" the admiral replied.

"Ah, sister, you made a big mistake choosing love over blood." Caius said while smiling wickedly.

The admiral then spoke in a panic. "Sir, one of our elite squadrons has been eliminated!"

"How?" Caius asked.

"The traitor...he destroyed all of them." The admiral replied.

"What?" 

*Ren's perspective*

Ren had just launched several heat-seeking missiles at a group of Volarian Knights, and half of them were destroyed. The stragglers he picked off with his energy rifle from a distance.

"Ceti! Aleyda! We need to attack these ships where they're weakest. Destroy the engines behind the ship; with this being a straight-forward dog fight, I doubt they used much shield power to protect it." Ren said.

"Understood!" The two replied. 

The goal was to disable each ship's engines, causing them not to be able to chase Ren and Lucilia once they left the system. The three flew their knights to the back of one of the ships. Ceti, Aledya, and Ren all unleashed several missiles directly into the center of each of the three engines behind the ship, causing them to explode and leaving the ship dead in the water.

"One ship down, three to go!" Ren said on comms. "Eleonora, how's your progress?"

"My ship is down. We unleashed hell into the engines." Eleonora responded.

"How about you, Scarlet?" Ren asked.

"Working on it!" Scarlet replied.

*Scarlet's Perspective*

Scarlet, Lily, Serenity, and another knight named Vivi all went towards the ship's backside, but they didn't expect to see a small squad of enemy knights ready and waiting for them. There were five enemy knights, and the four of them were outnumbered.

"My name is Commander Wilbur Sycinius, and you four, along with the others, are traitors of the Volarian Empire; as such, I will personally hand out your death sentences."

"....Your name's, Wilbur?" Serenity said, holding in a laugh.

"Was that a chuckle?" Wilbur asked.

"I mean...can you expect anyone to be intimidated by someone named Wilbur?" Serenity replied.

"How dare you! My name holds much respect in the Volarian Empire!" Wilbur replied angrily.

"Awe, did I hurt your feelings?" Serenity asked.

"You insolent bitch!" Wilbur yelled out.

Lily then got on the private comms, "Did you really have to make him angry?"

"Lesson from Ren: An angry opponent is more prone to making mistakes, especially one with an inferiority complex." Serenity replied.

"Yeah, Ren would say that..." Scarlet said, sighing. "Anyway, prepare for combat; this will be a tough fight."

"Understood!"

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