The Spider Queen

(Unova Syndicate- Frontier Region)

(Oreciuam Prime- The Bloody Krena Warship)

"By the Kyrenna's beard… I needed that!" a loud groan echoed through the command room.

Sophie glanced sideways and saw a purple-skinned alien laying down on the floor with a needle planted firmly in his arm.

The creature had a short muscular body with several lumpy appendages sprouting out of his back and upper legs.

These lumps bulged and wriggled eerily and one could see a yellowish pus-like liquid contained behind a thin layer of flesh.

The alien twisted and squirmed on the floor uncomfortably while letting out the occasional moan of pleasure much to the disgust of the rest of the crew.

There was a wide smile plastered across the alien's face as he was clearly still feeling the aftereffects of whatever foul drug was injected into his system.

Captain Hessan scowled fiercely and gestured silently towards a couple warriors in the back of the room.

He made a series of hand gestures using his furry paws that Sophie couldn't understand.

However, it was not hard to figure out what he meant when the purple-skinned alien was dragged forcefully from the room by the two warriors.

Both warriors had nasty grins stretched across their faces and Sophie could only assume that the purple-skinned alien was unlikely to return to the command room.

"Fuck. I knew that hiring that lunatic was a bad idea… but his rate was just so low…" Captain Hessan muttered to himself.

Only a small fraction of the crew members that were present on the starship belonged to his original team.

To fill up the numbers Captain Hessan was forced to hire independent warriors looking for a mercenary organization to join.

He specifically picked those that required low payment but as a result the quality of the warriors in his crew was nothing to boast about.

Not that it mattered. Captain Hessan true objective was to use the ongoing war with the Earth Federation to establish drug supply lines across the frontier region.

These temporary mercenaries were nothing more than hired muscle or in the worst-case situations…

Meat shields.

Sophie sensed a faint tinge of killing intent emerge from the captain's diminutive figure and held Lily closer in her arms.

At the first sign of a threat, Sophie was prepared to slaughter everyone on the bridge without hesitation.

Well.. maybe not the pilots… or Perspherene… okay there were a few exceptions.

Sophie trembled slightly as a wave of unpleasant memories entered her mind. She closed her eyes and hissed softly in pain as she received the last memories from her mirror copies.

The sensation of being blown to pieces was so real that Sophie subconsciously checked her body to make sure that all of her limbs were still intact.

The plan worked.

A faint smile briefly flashed across Sophie's face as she recalled just how easily the ambushers had fallen for her decoys.

Hopefully her father's enemies would believe that both Lily and she had been killed by the explosion.

Even if there were suspicions, there was no way to track down their current location especially in the middle of an active warzone.

Sophie let out a small sigh of relief and rubbed the top of Lily's hair lazily. The little girl looked up with her face still concealed behind a mask.

The hybrid girl planted a brief kiss on the top of Lily's head and then returned to gazing outside the window.

The battle for Planet Oreciuam Prime was not going in the Unovan military's favour.

The constant booms caused by the destruction of multiple starships were being picked up by their vessel's radar system.

Sophie witnessed the gorgeous fireworks created by the destruction of warp cores. Blue lightning-like energy flowed through scraps of metalloid debris that floated aimlessly through space.

It was a morbid but fascinating sight. Unfortunately for the Unovan forces, none of the starships that were blown to pieces had the Imperial Army's symbol painted on their hull.

A one-sided slaughter.

Sophie had learnt in school about the Federation's dominance especially in war but it was another matter to witness it firsthand.

"It is only a matter of time before an advance squadron is sent to our position," a gruff voice hoarsely spoke.

The voice came from the fiery creature whose molten body was wrapped tightly in black bandages that concealed most of his physique.

A decorative golden lamp was held in his right palm that occasionally let out wisps of purplish-blue smoke into the air while a small blue book was gripped tightly in his other hand.

"Which one of you bastards said that?! Stop being such a pessimist and just learn to relax!" Perspherene yelled from across the room.

Ishasa bowed his head as he solemnly read aloud the contents from the book in his left palm with great religious zeal,

"I am merely prepared for the inevitable. For when our mortal bodies turn to ash and dust, our souls will be eternally unbound to this plane of existence."

"B'alle whose body is one with the universe contains the secrets of life and death. He holds the power of reincarnation. Those who die in battle will receive his gifts both willingly and gratefully."

"The halls of Voltanera fill with the cries of lust and debauchery but these sins are a reward for those who…"

"By the gods… WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP!" an angry shout came from the other side of the room.

Laughter and mocking jeers broke the formerly tense atmosphere as Ishasa put away his sacred book with an unhappy expression on his face.

Sophie got up and moved several feet away from the unhappy warrior since the temperature around his body started to rise to uncomfortable levels.

This change in temperature was not a problem for her body to endure but Lily was still a child with no cultivation.

Captain Hessan didn't bother to tell the mercenaries to stop making noise since it was important to get the pre-battle jitters out of the way.

Although there should be no need for any fighting if all went according to plan. The furry little creature dialed an address on his private communicator and soon an image appeared.

What was shown on his screen was a Unovan Military officer inside what appeared to be a luxurious bathing room and two reptilian creatures with multiple arms attending to his every need.

Captain Hessan glanced around the room to make sure that no one was paying attention to his movements and then hurriedly typed out a few lines of text.

The officer on the screen lazily glanced at his communicator and then pressed a button to send a packet of information to Captain Hessan.

BOOM!

A loud and sudden blast shook the command room which nearly made Captain Hessan drop his communicator.

Multiple starships blinked into existence with plasma cannons aimed squarely at the fleet defending the interior spatial zone above Planet Oreciuam Prime.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Move now!" Captain Hessan roared as the pilots onboard their starship seemed to be frozen in place.

Sophie crouched down to the ground and used her bladed appendages to dig into the metalloid floor in order to stabilise her posture.

She clutched Lily even more tightly in her arms and prepared to face what was to come.

The Imperial Army had finally reached them.

Wait… wouldn't that mean…

Sophie's eyes lit up as she hurriedly powered up her wrist communicator in order to check if her hunch was correct.

The roars of Captain Hessan and the panicked screams coming from the other mercenaries in the room seemed to fade into the background.

"Come on… come on…" Sophie muttered frantically as she checked the link icon on her home page.

[Connecting to the virtual net… connecting to the virtual net… connecting…]

[Connection Established.]