Volume Twenty One - Hellworld

== Chapter 241 - The Burning Snowball ==
As the ship descended into Proxima B's atmosphere, Jack could feel the air becoming increasingly hotter, beginning to sweat. "So...hot..." Shunsuke groans. "And yet we're still not where it's hottest." Lev replies, staring out at the fiery sky. That remark made Jack sweat more, as he tried not to imagine what could possibly be down there on the ground. Soon, the ship landed on the ground, and odd-looking suits appeared from the ceiling. "What...?" Andromeda trails off. "Please, put those on. You won't survive, otherwise." Lev says, as everyone put on the suits, and walked out of the ship.
Everywhere they looked, there was sand, both beige and black with red cracks, and where there was not sand, there was lava, and out of the sand, fortress-like structures sat, tall and broken. The sky was a fiery orange, and the star that shone on them was blood red. "I welcome all of you, to our home." Lev says. "This is...like nothing I've ever seen before...." Candice trailed off, as everyone began walking through the burning desert, nervous whenever they felt tremors. Jack had a sinking feeling that the lava was going to rise soon, and he didn't think these suits could take that.
"Right now, we're in Clium." Lev states. "One of two countries on this world." "Like that's the most interesting thing about this place..." Shunsuke remarks, as they reached a gate which had a volcano on either side of it. "How does anyone live in this place?" Andromeda asks. "We are strong, and hardy." Lev answers, as he walks up to the gate, placing his hand on a pad. "Handprint recognized, opening." An artificial voice says, as the gate opens and everyone walks through. "I'm beginning to feel a bit...woozy..." Jack groans. "The heat will do that to most." Lev replies. "We need to get to Strela."
As they walked through the valley-like formation of volcanoes, they saw what seemed to be mineshafts running through them. "What are those for?" Shunsuke asks. "This planet has massive deposits of Huscil, we mine it from here." Lev answers, with a small chuckle. "It's rather easy to see when we stumble upon it, plus it's the only metal that doesn't melt at these temperatures." "Good to know..." Andromeda remarks. "Where are we headed, anyways?" "Towards there." Lev answers, pointing at a large spacefaring battleship parked on a large landing pad with three volcanoes behind it.
== Chapter 242 - Commander of Nightmares ==
As they boarded the ship, they noticed people with similar outfits to Lev. "This ship is the base of the Nightmare Division." Lev explains. "It's also the capital of this world. We kept it mobile for obvious reasons." "Your outfits look nice." Candice says. "Thank you, I suppose. We mainly wear them in Strela and off-world, but never here." Lev replies, as they walked through the dull metal hallway. "This place looks beaten up." Jack remarks. "Half of those aren't from battles, I assure you." Lev answers. "I'd rather you figure some stuff out for yourself since I don't want to keep answering your questions."
"Sorry." Candice replies, as they came across a ladder, which Lev began to climb up. "One at a time." He says, which they do, unnerved by the creaking sounds the ladder made. Soon enough, they reached the bridge, and saw a number of people manning various control panels and looking out the windshield-like area as the ship began to take off into the sky. Standing beside a chair was a large, bulky man in the same attire as the other Nightmare Division members. "Rakgu, we have visitors." Lev says, the man turning around, revealing his green skin and pronounced lower canines.
"Well, seems we should get to tellin' the Admiral that." Rakgu replies. "Please, I'm right here." A somewhat deep, commanding female voice says. Then, someone gets off of the chair, and walks around to face Jack and the others. She was a somewhat tall and curvaceous woman with a very pale complexion, with auburn hair and green eyes. She wore the same uniform as the rest, with the only difference being a collar and pauldrons of white fur, and a cape. "You must be those recruits that Vice Admiral Lehrer rescued from Atsumichi." The woman says. "And I, am Admiral Serena MacDonald."
"The Commander of the Nightmare Division, no doubt..." Jack remarks. "I heard about the loss of your friend. Did he die protecting you?" Serena asks. "Yes! He saved us from Allen!" Candice shouts, Serena closing her eyes with a small smile. "Then at least he didn't die for nothing." She replies. "Regardless, you need to remember that he is now part of the past. The present is a universe full of monsters that want to eat us and know how to fly spaceships." Serena states. "And I don't want to hear any qualms about killing. The Netraxians want to eat us, they are not beings we can co-exist with."
== Chapter 243 - To Kill or Not to Kill ==
"What?! No! That can't be true!" Candice shouts at Serena. "It is true! Those monsters eat others!" Serena roars back. "We can't just kill anyone we don't like! I'm sure the Netraxians are just like us! People!" Candice yells. "If that's the case, then why is their wargoal to devour all of us?!" Serena bellows. "Please, everyone! Calm down!" Lev shouts. "Miss Distler, this is a war, we have to kill enemy soldiers in a war! No one is saying that the Netraxians aren't people, but right now, w-they are the enemy!" "We're no better than them if we kill them!" Candice shouts. "What is going on?" Rakgu demands.
"I'm not going to allow people like you on my ship! Pacifists have no place in a war!" Serena yells. "Get out! All of you!" "To where?! Everything's lava!" Jack yells back, as Andromeda began to walk towards Serena, glaring at her. "Do you want us to help save your stupid species or not?" Andromeda growls. "I'm all for killing the Netraxians, and anyone who thinks attacking me and my friends is a good idea." The two continued to glare at each other for a moment, before Andromeda takes a step back. "Heh...we had pods you could have used...but if you'll do what needs to be done..." Serena says.
"If we've all calmed down, now, then you might be interested to see the fauna here." Lev says, pointing at something in the lava ocean. They walked to the windshield, and saw that it was some kind of fish-like creature, with scales that looked like stone. "How does it live in lava?" Jack asks. "We've never been sure, it's definitely an extremophile." Lev answers. "It hunts for small 'Lava-Shrimp', and is hunted by 'Lava-Serpents'." "...What...?" Jack breathes. "Let's hope we don't see one of those." Shunsuke says, looking on at the lava fish. "We should be almost there." Rakgu says. "We just need to--woah!"
The lava fish had leaped over the ship, as they could see gills, eyes and sharp teeth, along with fins. "It must be a Silicon-Based Liform..." Candice remarks. The fish crashes back down into the lava, splashing some at them, though it didn't seem to damage the hull, but did shake the ship regardless. "Woah!" Jack yelps. "There's something else..." One of the Nightmare Division members says, as they look to see a long, rocky body swimming through the lava towards them. "A lava serpent..." Serena remarks. "...battlestations." Everyone began to run every which way, as the serpent rose from the lava.
== Chapter 244 - The Vile Lava Serpent ==
The serpent was enormous, covered in rocky scales and fins on its cheeks, head and back, with an elongated, spiky snout, and six eyes on each side of its face. "WHAT IS THAT?!" Jack screams, as the serpent rushes to headbutt the ship. "Left!" Serena roars, as the ship quickly flies to the left to dodge the ram. The serpent turns around and opens its mouth, hissing as its throat began to glow. "Is it going to breathe fire?!" Jack yells. "No...worse." Lev answers, as the serpent fires a jet of lava at them from its mouth. "Up!" Serena bellows, as he ship flies up to avoid the lava jet, which hits a mountain.
Jack looks on in horror to see a hole blasted through the mountain by the lava jet. "How does a creature like this exist?!" Shunsuke shouts, as various turrets on the ship began to fire at the lava serpent, chipping off small pieces of its body as it roars in agony and hisses in fury, ramming the ship again, but this time, they couldn't avoid it. The ship was sent flying towards the same mountain that had been blasted! "All power to the port!" Serena shouts, as the thrusters on the ships' left fired at double the power, letting the ship fly away from the mountain before turning to fire at the serpent more.
"Ready the Giga Cannon!" Serena yells. "Will do!" Lev replies, as he presses a few buttons on a control panel, the large cannon on the front of the ship, the size of a Destroyer, began to charge up. The serpent hisses again, and begins to ready another lava jet. "Fifty percent!" Lev shouts, Jack and Andromeda looking on at the serpent. "Seventy percent!" Lev yells. "We're running out of time!" Rakgu yelps. "Ninety percent!" Lev bellows. Candice looks at the serpent in utter terror, as Shunsuke was sweating. "One hundred percent!" Lev roars, right as the serpent fires. "FIRE!" Serena roars.
The Giga Cannon fires at the lava jet, struggling against it but slowly over powering it. Soon, the lava jet is fully overpowered, and the serpent is hit in the face by the blast, being sent crashing into another mountain, causing a rockslide and shaking the area. The serpent begins to rise again, snarling at the ship, but it turns its head to see something, and dives back into the lava. "Is it over...?" Jack asks nervously. "No...there's a lava storm coming." Lev answers. "A WHAT?!" Candice screams. "We have to get to Strela, now!" Lev roars, as they see a bright orange cloud coming their way.
== Chapter 245 - The Flaming Lava Storm ==
"How do you live here?!" Andromeda demands, as Rakgu turns the steering wheel to turn the ship around. "We've gotta go to the other side on full blast!" He shouts, as the ship rushes way from the lava storm extremely fast. "WOAH!" Jack yelps, as he and the others are sent back by the sudden movement. Even from here, he thought he could feel the heat from the storm, and he started sweating, both from the heat and from complete and utter terror. They then see a volcano up ahead! "Gh!" Shunsuke grunts, as Rakgu barely manages to turn the ship around the volcano. "Whew." He says.
As they kept flying, they saw smoke rising from a part of the ship! "What?!" Candice shouts. "It must be from the serpent!" Shunsuke yells. "It needs to be fixed." Serena remarks, as she gets out of the chair and slides down the ladder! "What the?!" Jack exclaims. "Is she insane?!" Andromeda roars. They rush to look out the window, seeing Serena walk out of the hatch, and towards the right of the ship. "Why aren't any of you worried?!" Candice yells, Rakgu laughing. "She's the Admiral, she'll be fine." He answers, as they see Serena draw a red-bladed saber and stab it into the floor of the ship.
She then slides down to stand on the broken thruster, seeing a piece of metal had flown off and a wire was broken. She sees the lava storm catching up to them, and quickly takes out a pair of crimping pliers, before stabbing the pliers into the hull of the ship, taking out her sword, and doing the same with it, quickly grabbing onto the wires with her free hand, grabbing the pliers with her other hand, and fusing the wires back together using a wire connector. She then uses the pliers to force everything further together, repairing the wire as the thruster started working again.
"I knew listening to the electrician would come in handy." She remarks, looking down on the wire. She knew it'd need more work. After that, she turns her head to see the shadow that was Strela's eternal night, with a small smile. The ship crossed the shadow into the country, as the lava storm was frozen into a rain of pebbles by the extreme cold. Serena, pocketing the pliers and taking her sword out of the hull, leaps onto the floor of the ship, and runs inside. "You did it!" Jack shouts. "I did the bare minimum, we'll need it fixed by someone who's an actual electrician." Serena replies. "Now...look."
== Chapter 246 - The Frozen Desert ==
Everything was covered in ice and snow, which no doubt came from the snow and hailstorms that seemed to plague the area. The wind roared loudly, and dark clouds covered the already dark sky, making it so the only light here was artificial, from large structures, most of which looked like they ran deep underground with only a small outpost and docking bay on the surface for each. It was a nice cool change of pace from the Hell they had just gone through, effectively literally, but Jack knew they couldn't stay in these temperatures for long. "This is my home." Serena says. "Get comfortable."
The ship soon docked inside one of the outposts, a hologram gate closing behind it, as they all got out. "We can take out suits off, now." Lev says, as they do so, and walk through the area. It was shiny and white, but had a number of scuff marks everywhere. The lights were blue orange from computers, and a slightly yellowish white from above. In here, they saw purplish blue light, no doubt some kind of UV, shining over plants in greenhouses. "This place is amazing..." Jack remarks. "You made all this?" "Yep." Lev answers. "Huscil doesn't melt easily, and it's a great insulator."
They continued to walk, until they came across a large elevator. They walked inside, the elevator sliding down past a number of levels, until they reached the 54th Basement Floor. There were paintings of various warriors and ships everywhere, as well as decorative weapons. "Woah..." Jack breathes, as they walked into a large room full of actual weapons and armor, a window showing that this floor of the base was in an ocean-like area, large creatures swimming where they could be seen. "I guess this is the training room." Andromeda says. "Yep, don't break the windows." Serena replies.
Candice looked on at a screen showing simulations of various combat scenarios, and bowed her head down. "It's been hard without him." Jack remarks. "We have to take down these monsters, though, we have to keep pushing. It's what he would want." "Easy for you to say..." Candice replies quietly, walking to somewhere else in the room. Jack looked on sadly, before going to talk with Andromeda. Shunsuke looked out at the creatures in the ocean, before turning his head towards a Winchester on the wall. He felt like picking it up, but he also didn't know if he should. Eventually, he walked towards it.
== Chapter 247 - Beneath the Ice ==
Serena sat in a chair, looking on at the screen, waiting impatiently for Rosenstock. "What do ya think he's doing, right now?" Rakgu asks. "Hopefully not just looking at his sword collection." Serena answers, half-joking, half-serious. Then, the screen turns on, showing Rosenstock standing there. "Hello, Admiral MacDonald." Rosenstock says. "Hello, Sir." Serena replies. "What progress has been made on the Juggernaut?" "We've almost finished, it shouldn't take too long, now." Rosenstock answers. "That's good to hear. The sooner we can destroy these monsters, the better."
Then, Serena has a thought. "Sir, by looking at everyone here, does anyone seem to be...off?" She asks. "I unfortunately cannot see as such through a screen." Rosenstock answers. "Though I doubt such dedicated people as you would be up to something." "Heh...doesn't really make me feel better." Serena remarks. "And what about Fulke? He's who Jack and the rest are going to meet next, I'm hoping they can report on his research given how secretive he is about most of it." Rosenstock explains. "Good to hear, that man is the only being I've known who can give me the creeps." Serena replies.
"Well, I must be off now. I do hope you take care of our recruits." Rosenstock says, the screen turning off. "Heh...guess we should go see what our recruits are up to, huh?" Serena remarks. "Knowing them, they've already blasted a hole in something, at least Andromeda." She walks out of the room, as Lev looks on. "...What is her last name...?" He thinks to himself, as he and Rakgu follow behind Serena. It is then that they hear an alarm! "Huh?" Rakgu wonders. "Someone's at the entrance." Lev remarks. "Let's go meet them, then." Serena replies, walking through the hallway to go up the elevator.
The man that got out of the pod was a pale pinkish color, with burgundy hair and gold eyes. "Hello to you, Admiral!" The man says. "And good day to you two, Vice Admirals." "Do we know you?" Rakgu asks. "Of course, I'm a new recruit here." The man replies. "You may call me...Solomon." "Alright, then." Lev replies. "And you think you have what it takes, Solomon?" Serena demands. "Because I don't just trust random strangers like you." "Oh, I assure you, Serena, that you can trust me." Solomon responds with a small smile. "Might I see the other recruits?" "...Follow us." Serena replies.
== Chapter 248 - Camouflage ==
"Hello, Jack, Andromeda." Solomon says, walking into the training room. "Who are you?" Andromeda demands. "I am Solomon, another new recruit." Solomon answers. "O...kay." Jack replies, as Solomon walks towards a pair of claw-like bladed weapons. "Ah, Tekko Kagi, how wonderful." He remarks, taking them off their rack and putting them on. "So who, pray tell, would like to spar blades with me?" Solomon asks. Everyone looks at each other, before Shunsuke takes out a pair of brass knuckles and puts them on. "Hmm? An interesting choice indeed." Solomon remarks, before rushing to slash.
Shunsuke quickly blocks the slash, grunting a bit as a cut was left in his knuckle, and throws a punch at Solomon, who takes the punch and slashes at Shunsuke's face. Shunsuke leaps back, and ducks to avoid another slash, which left slash marks on the glass! "Stay away from there!" Lev shouts, as Shunsuke kept dodging Solomon's attacks and punching him, Solomon continuing to take the punches and slash. Shunsuke tilts his head to dodge a sudden thrust from the claws, which get lodged inside a wall. Shunsuke then kicks Solomon to the other wall, Solomon getting up and smiling.
"You pack quite a punch, for a..." Solomon trails off, and leaps to slash at Shunsuke with both claws, Shunsuke rolling beneath him to dodge before throwing a punch at his back. Solomon swiftly whirls around to slash at Shunsuke's arm. "Guh!" Shunsuke shouts, stumbling back as Solomon goes to slash his chest! "Wha--" Shunsuke barely blocks the slashes with his other arm, and is sent to the ground. Solomon once again prepares to slash at his other arm, but his blades are blocked by Serena's saber. "I lnew you were a spy!" Serena roars, slashing at Solomon, who blocks the slash, leaping back.
"That soon, eh?" Solomon remarks. "How unfortunate, I wished to play with you a little longer." Solomon then leaps to slash at Serena with both claws, Serena once again blocking the slashes before slashing Solomon across the side, sending him flying into a wall. "Agh...well...I felt that for real." Solomon says, standing up and beginning to grow and change. Jack and the others watch in shock as his skin turns to red scales, he grows dark red horns, his pupils turn to slits, his hair vanishes, and he grows wings and a tail, claws appearing on his hands and feet. "That...what...gh..." Jack trails off, glaring.
== Chapter 249 - Crimson Scales ==
"Surprise! This is what I really look like!" Solomon roars, slamming his tail at them. They quickly dodge, as Jack takes out his gun to fire at Solomon with, the bullets bouncing off his scales harmlessly! "What the Hell?!" Jack shouts, as Andromeda tackles him out of the way of a fireball. Solomon leaps to slash Candice and Shunsuke with his claws. They quickly roll out of the way, and the claws rake marks into the floor. "Always fast ones." Solomon remarks, chuckling. "I've heard about your accomplishments, you're a little famous around the galaxy." "What...?" Andromeda breathes.
She then notices Solomon rushing to slash her, as she slashes at his arm with her Psychic Weapons, leaving bleeding cuts in it, before leaping out of the way. Rakgu rushes in to throw a punch at Solomon, who catches the punch, sliding back a bit from the force, before grabbing Rakgu by the arms and slamming him to the ground, shaking it. "Gah!" Rakgu yells, as Solomon grunts in pain from Lev firing at him with what looked like a black and gold laser pistol with glowing orange rings on the barrel. Solomon rushes at Lev to slash at him, but Serena leaps between the two of them, slashing his arm!
She had slashed the deepest wound of the arm, and ends up cutting it off! "GRAH!" Solomon roars, as Serena leaps onto his other arm to run at his head, driving her blade into it. Solomon continues to roar in agony and manages to grab Serena, throwing her off himself as blood spurted from his head. He then breathes a wave of fire at the Admiral, as she slashes her sword at it to cut through and slashes her sword at his torso, yelling a battle cry. Solomon attempts to block with his other arm, but Serena manages to cut through that arm, and through Solomon's torso, as he falls backwards.
"Well...that's over..." Jack remarks. "You beat a Netraxian that easily...?" "Trust me, I put everything I had into that confrontation." Serena retorts. "The spies are the weakest Netraxians." "Well...that's...bad..." Jack replies. "...Will there be more?" "I know there will be more." Serena answers, cleaning off her sword before taking off her gloves, Lev handing her another pair to put on. "You need to get somewhere else, soon. But first, we're going to let you pick your weapons." Serena says. "Go ahead, they're all right there on the wall, and I do want you picking weapons, Socqreath. Trust me, you'll need them."
== Chapter 250 - Choice of Weapon ==
Jack looked on at the selection of weapons on the wall, specifically the selection of handguns. Most of them were laser pistols, but some were higher powered than others. A few seemed to be effectively one-hand railguns, but none used bullets. Some were bigger than others, with larger or smaller magazines and barrels. And plenty looked very efficient at what they were made to do. But Jack then looked down at the Glock in his hand, and turned towards Serena. "I'm sticking with what I already have." Jack says. "Hmph, alright then." Serena replies. "Let's see what your friends decide."
Andromeda was staring at a wall of swords, of many kinds of swords. Longswords, Katanas, Rapiers, Cutlasses, Sabers, Shortswords, Scimitars, Falchions. She wanted a blade that would cut, a blade that would not break under most circumstances. She eyed the blades closely, trying to discern what they were made of, and noted the shine of the Katana. It was then that she decided to pick it. "This is made of Huscil, right?" Andromeda asks. "Yep." Lev answers. "But that's a damn sword, you really want to use that against a space dragon?" "I have a feeling I won't need it." Andromeda replies.
Candice was staring at a selection of polearms, which had various kinds of hammers and blades, be they spears or axes. One polearm even seemed to have rockets on either end. Then, she reached for her own choice, a Bo staff made of what felt like a light but strong metal. "That's your choice?" Rakgu asks. "Yes, I'd rather have a weapon like this, if I must have a weapon." Candice answers, Serena giving a long, exasperated sigh. "Alright then, and you, Vaquero?" She asks. But Shunsuke was already holding it, the Winchester Rifle. "It's this, or nothing." Shunsuke says. "Heh, fair enough." Serena replies.
Jack, Andromeda, Candice and Shunsuke were getting inside a Strike Craft, feeling a little bit cramped as they did so. "Remember, your destination is Procyon." Lev says. "You might want to exit Warp Space as soon as possible, there are Warp Buffers around the system." "Good to know." Jack says. "Who are we meeting?" Andromeda asks. "Brigadier Fulke Yelverton. Apart from Demetrius, Fulke's our Head Scientist. He's rather stoic, even more so than me, so try not to add humor to the situation. He doesn't appreciate it." The pod then closes, and flies out of the atmosphere, before warping away.
== Chapter 251 - Speaking in Warp Speed ==
Jack and Andromeda watched the stars go by, wondering what people lived around them. "They always look so beautiful..." Andromeda remarks. "...For so long, I never knew what they looked like, because of the rain..." "Yeah...I feel the same way..." Jack replies. "...Anne...I'd love to go to your homeworld, one day." "I...hope you will, Jack." Andromeda replies with a small smile, as the two kiss. Jack loved moments like these. Here, he felt...peaceful. He could almost forget about the desperate war they were fighting...almost.
Candice was staring solemnly out the window at the stars, unable to take her mind off Kasper, tears forming in her eyes. "Hey, Candice." Shunsuke says. "I already know..." Candice replies. "I know you think you're alone in this, but..." Shunsuke starts. "You don't know what it's like to lose someone you love..." Candice interjects. "...you don't know what it's like to have that." Shunsuke's eyes widened a bit when she said that, but he continued. "I know, but Kasper's death hurt all of us deeply." He replies. "Not as much as it hurt me!" Candice yells, beginning to cry. Shunsuke closes his eyes, saddened.
And then...they made it.
== Chapter 252 - Procyon ==
A shattered world lay before them, its molten core exposed as the fragments of its crust and mantle drifted through space. In the distance, orbiting the world, was a large space station. They flew towards said station, and noticed that it was like multiple space stations loosely conjoined into one. As they got closer, a number of lasers fire in their direction, creating a grid that scans them. Then, the airlock opens, and they fly inside the docking bay, seeing a number of odd-looking Strike Craft.
As the airlock closed, they got out of the pod, and looked around, seeing people who seemed to be scientists everywhere. They walked through the docking bay, and noticed an elevator. As they walked towards it, a robot appears in front of them. "Hello. I am GUIDE." The robot says. "Please allow me to tour you through the Procyon III Station." "Al...right." Jack replies, as they follow GUIDE into the elevator, which slides up to allow them easy access to the door, which GUIDE leads them through.