Volume Twenty Three - Strike Force Manticore

## Chapter 265 - Weaving Through Conflict

As the pod exited the Warplane and into the conflict, they saw massive dragons breathing plasma jets at starships, which were firing back with railguns, missiles and lasers! "Woah!" Jack yelps, as the pod dodges a missile and flies in the direction of the flagship, weaving around asteroids and destroyed strike craft as it does so. A small draconic creature flies towards the pod, but a strike craft rams into the creature to send it crashing through an asteroid. "That was close..." Shunsuke remarks.

"It's not done, yet!" The pilot shouts, as they see more dragons rush at them, the pilot trying to get the pod to dodge all of them. "Are there any weapons on this thing?!" Jack demands. "Unfortunately, not yet!" The pilot responds, as Jack looks around, before unbuckling his seatbelt to leap towards the spacesuit compartment, opening it to put on one of the spacesuits. "Jack!" Andromeda yells, as Jack turns back towards her. "I promise I'll be back." He replies, before going into the airlock.

Jack flies out, his belt covered in magazine pouches, his gun in hand, a tether keeping him attached to the ship, as he fires at one of the dragons in the eye, causing it to open its mouth wide, probably roaring in pain, as it rushes towards Jack, who throws a grenade into the dragon's mouth right as it blasts the plasma jet, causing it to explode! Jack then feels the tether being cut, and, shocked, turns to see another one of the dragons ram him head-on, sending him tumbling away from the pod!

Jack was breathing quickly and heavily, staring out at the black abyss, spiraling, seeing briefly the glint of a scale, or perhaps of metal, it was hard to tell. He waved his arms around frantically, trying to get anywhere, trying to signal everyone. He didn't know if anything was working. Then, he felt someone grab him, and begin pulling him somewhere. He was shocked by how sudden it was, but upon turning, he saw it was Andromeda, bringing him back as the airlock closed, and the pod reached the flagship.

## Chapter 266 - The Manticore Admiral

"I am...never doing that again." Jack remarks, panting a bit, as Andromeda holds him close, looking concerned. They were walking along the halls of the flagship, often needing to stop or move out of the way for soldiers running through. Soon, they reached the door to the cockpit, and walked inside, seeing a tall man standing there, staring at a screen which showed the battle raging outside. "Who's that?" Jack asks. "The Grand Admiral, Hilbert." One of the soldiers answers. Jack walks towards Hilbert.

"Are you the aid they sent?" Hilbert demands. "It looks like we were the closest." Jack replies. "What's the situation?" "The situation, if your eyes don't work, is that we are outnumbered ten to one by the enemy and their plasma jets are ripping through our hulls like butter. " Hilbert answers. "They've chased us to this chokepoint to keep us in one place, we need to deal with them now, or any piece of debris from any ship could kill us at any time." "I want to help stop them." Jack says. "Please, give me a ship."

Hilbert laughs. "Give you a ship?! When you're less experienced than any of my soldiers?!" He shouts. "I appreciate your bravery, kid. Choose the latest model if you want the best chance of surviving, and pray to whatever god you worship that you have any experience in flying strike craft at all!" Jack's eyelids droop a bit, as he puts on some armor and runs back towards the hanger to find the most advanced strike craft there, which looked rather modest, as far as he was concerned. Still, he gets in, and flies off.

He remembered the catastrophe back during the mission to the desert, and, not wanting for that to repeat, he had been training to fly better ever since, in the time he wasn't hanging out with his friends, training his gunmanship, or fighting the psychopath of the week. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and opens them again, flying towards the nearest massive space dragon, placing his hand on one of the levers, and pressing the button that was on that lever with his finger, looking towards the dragon.

## Chapter 267 - Dogfight with Dragons

A stream of bullets flies out of the left machine gun on the strike craft, and towards the space dragon, causing it to roar in pain, though said roar would never be heard. "Thank you, Fulke..." Jack mutters bitterly, knowing what kinds of bullets these had to be. A number of small space dragons rush at Jack, firing jets of plasma. Jack quickly stomps his foot on a pedal and turns the steering wheel to the left, causing the pod to fly in that direction to dodge. Jack then has the strike craft turn around to fire.

The space dragon is hit, being sent backwards by the bullets as bright glowing orange blood spewed out of its wounds. Jack then hears an alarm and looks down at the radar to see three dots behind the central one. He quickly makes the pod veer to the right to evade more plasma blasts, and turns around to press a button with a missile icon on it, causing three missiles to fly out of one of the missile launchers at the space dragons, which try to dodge as the missiles chase them to explode at them.

Jack then flies to start firing at one of the large space dragons, causing it to writhe in pain more as he notices the temple of scales atop its head, knowing that had to be the cockpit. He prepares to fire as many missiles as possible at the cockpit, locking onto the orange scaled face of, presumably, the captain of that dragon, before rapidly pressing the missile button, making the missiles fly towards the cockpit, fast and nimble, but...the missiles were shot down by another, larger strike craft, a human one.

The strike craft was black and somewhat scuffed, with wings shaped like that of a bat, and an overall shape resembling the planes that carried nuclear bombs. A drop of sweat ran down Jack's cheek, as he was able to make out exactly who was sitting at the cockpit, with his red eyes, spiky hair, black trenchcoat, and golden buttons, knowing just who he was and why he would do this, knowing full well that this was about to get bad. Jack knew, very well, that the man he was about to face...

...was Karim.

## Chapter 268 - Shootout through the Stars

"Still trying to terrorize everyone?!" Jack demands. "Don't you want to take the opportunity to test your piloting skills?" Karim replies. "NO?! NOT RIGHT NOW?!" Jack shouts. "Too bad." Karim responds, as two missiles fly out of his ship and towards Jack's. Jack yelps and flies to dodge the missiles, which follow fast behind him. Jack turns the ship around and puts it on reverse, aiming at the missiles to fire two of his own at each, the explosions briefly blinding him, as he opens his eyes.

Karim was ramming his ship towards Jack's! Jack, thinking quickly, sets his ship to fly to the right to evade the ram, as Karim turns his ship around to fire bullets at Jack, who has his ship to dodge the bullets as well as possible, soon seeing that they exploded upon contact with anything they touched. Jack turns his ship around to fire back, still having it dodge the bullets, as he sees the bullet holes begin to appear on Karim's ship, Karim not seeming very concerned, as he rams at Jack once more!

Jack is unable to dodge in time, as he tries to fire at Karim's ship with a missile, Karim not bothering to dodge as his ship flies through the explosion and rams Jack's through the battlefield, hitting various strike craft and mini dragons along the way, towards what looked to be a battleship. The hole is torn through when they crash, making it all the way into a large room with a disc-shaped metal floor, connected to the walls around by bridges, surrounding a large, glowing orange cylinder-shaped vat,

"What the...?" Jack breathes. "A...power core chamber...?" "Looks like it." Karim replies, getting out of the wreckage of his ship, as Jack climbed out of the wreckage of his own while grunting in pain. The alarms then sounded, red lights flashing across the room, as the doors all closed and drones began repairing the damaged walls. "Looks like we'll have company soon." Karim remarks, before turning back towards Jack. "I wonder if you've grown at all, being on that Hellhole Serena is from."

## Chapter 269 - Clash inside the Core

Karim pulls the trigger of his pistol, unloading bullet after bullet at Jack, who leaps to the side, rolling, ducking and weaving, to evade each one, while firing back at his opponent. Karim takes the bullets head-on and keeps firing at Jack, who keeps dodging, and ducks behind something, hearing Karim change his gun's magazine. Right as Jack hears Karim do that, he pulls the pin on a grenade and throws it behind himself, hearing, and feeling, it explode shortly afterwards, his ears ringing a little bit in pain.

Soon, the object Jack had ducked behind was ripped out of the ground and tossed aside, Jack leaping away, and yelping in pain when he hits part of the fence on the bridge and ring floor. Karim was standing there, a bit burned, but otherwise fine. "Did ya really think that would work?" Karim asks, before firing at Jack again. Jack, holding his side in pain, runs to dodge the bullets, firing at Karim's eyes, bullets that Karim actually decides to dodge by tilting his head, something Jack takes note of.

Karim begins to reload his gun again, Jack running to kick the gun out of Karim's grip, as he puts his own back in its holster. Karim grabs Jack's leg, and throws him at the strike craft, Jack shouting in pain when he hits the windshield, before falling on his knees, looking up to see Karim walking towards him, illuminated by the power core and the flames. Jack tries to stand up to throw a punch, Karim grabbing Jack by the neck and turning around to throw him at the fence, bending it. "GAH!" Jack screams.

Jack manages to wrestle himself free of the bars, gasping for air as he saw his own blood dripping on the ground, looking up once more to see Karim once more walking towards him. Jack slowly stands up, one of his legs shaking, and runs towards Karim to throw a punch at him, Karim grabbing that punch, as well as the other punch Jack throws, before twirling him around and kneeing him in the stomach, letting go to let Jack get sent flying right as Jack kicks Karim in the chin, tilting his head upwards.

## Chapter 270 - The Minotaur

Right then, a hand grabs Jack by the collar from behind, and sets him down. "Wha..." Jack breathes, seeing a tall man in shiny armor, with an orange visor on his helmet and a large jetpack on his back. "Well...this is new." Karim remarks with a small smile. "Looks like they continued the project, after all this time." "What...?" Jack asks, as the figure continues to glare at Karim, supposedly, at the very least, they were facing him, seemingly ready to fight him, as Karim got into a fighting position.

"This'll be interesting." Karim says, running at the figure to swing a kick at them. The figure blocks the kick with their forearm, and punches Karim in the face with their free hand, sending him flying across the ring. Karim lands on his feet and one hand, blood trickling from his mouth and nose, as he stands upright and wipes the blood off his face, a wider grin on his face, as he takes out his other gun to fire at the figure with. The figure runs right through the bullets, which don't seem to affect them whatsoever!

"Hmm?" Karim wonders, as he catches a punch from the figure, his arm being force backwards, and forced to bend, as bones could be heard cracking. Karim then swings his other fist at the figure's helmet, making it move slightly to the right, as the figure grabs Karim's other arm, Karim kicking the figure in the chestplate for very little effect, aside from the figure sliding backwards a few feet. The figure then knees Karim in the stomach and slams him to the ground, kicking him in the face right afterwards.

The figure then takes a large blaster rifle off of their hip, and fires at Karim, hitting him square in the chest with what looked like a beam of plasma. Karim is sent through a door by this, as more gunfire could be heard, and explosion occurring in that area as smoke appeared from it. "W-woah..." Jack breathes, shocked and amazed, as the figure helps him up. "Th-thanks." Jack says, as he passes out, both from his injuries and from his failure to process what just happened, a second alarm suddenly sounding!

## Chapter 271 - The Mechanical Samurai

Soldiers were lining up against the walls, pointing their rifles at the dark, sparking hallway, where a hole had been cut. They heard clanging footsteps, and servos whirring. Whatever it was coming their way, it was most certainly not human. Many of the soldiers started to sweat, and one gulped, as they stood their ground, and saw something begin to walk out of the darkness, out of the smoke, a robot made of Huscil, holding two Nodachi, a robot with a black screen for a face. A robot they knew all too well.

Proto.

The soldiers all fire at once, Proto deflecting the bullets while still walking towards them, silent as ever, as then runs at them, still deflecting the bullets, the head of a soldier it runs past flying clean off! Proto then slashes the arms and gun of of another soldier into pieces, vertically bisecting another, and horizontally bisecting two more, still deflecting every last bullet headed towards it with minimal effort. Proto then slashes the heads off three soldiers, and cuts the legs off three more.

The remaining soldiers, screaming, fire as many bullets as they can at the robot, but not one bullet even gets close, as Proto cuts cleanly through five soldiers with a single slash, running towards another group at speeds that made it appear as a near-invisible blur to the soldiers! Blood and metal fly through the air, as that group of soldiers falls into pieces, severed limbs and heads falling to the ground in puddles of blood. Another soldier takes aim at Proto, from behind a barricade, and fires a rocket at the machine!

Proto swings its other sword to cut the rocket in half, dodging the two halves as they explode behind it. The soldier shrieks in terror and tries to run away, Proto slashing through the barricade like butter and cutting off the soldier's legs and arms, tilting the soldier on his back so he could stare in horror into the screen. Proto stood there in silent for a second, before jabbing a Nodachi into the soldier's face, killing him instantly as blood spouted from the wound, covering Proto in red as it walked.

## Chapter 272 - The Long Awaited Rematch

As Proto walked, it saw Andromeda appear from behind a corner, a number of soldiers flanking her, staring at Proto in terror. "Y,,,you again..." Andromeda mutters, forming her Psychic Weapons, about ten of them, taking a step back, taking a deep breath, feeling herself tremble a bit. Proto walks slowly towards Andromeda and the soldiers, who, screaming, fire at Proto, who blocks all the bullets like before. "Stand down..." Andromeda says, her voice almost cracking. "...this thing is mine to rip apart."

Proto suddenly rushes forward, its sword swinging at Andromeda's neck! Andromeda, just barely, manages to block with a Psychic Weapon, beginning to leap back, but is slashed in the shoulder by another blade right then and there! When did it appear?! She thought she only saw one blade be swung! "GAH!" Andromeda yells, landing on the ground as she tries to slash Proto in the chestplate, Proto blocking the slashes with its blades! Andromeda quickly leaps back with her Psychic Weapons.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Andromeda screams, placing all her Psychic Weapons in front of herself right as she registers Proto rushing towards her again, knowing that hesitating even a little bit would be fatal if Proton was so fast she could only process its earliest movements. Proto's blades clash against the Psychic Weapons, as Andromeda quickly has one Psychic Weapon wrap around each of Proto's limbs, still using six to block the blades, before slamming Proto into every wall.

"RAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!" Andromeda roars, continuing to slam Proto around, with no intention to stop until the robot was immobile scrap metal. However, all the slamming didn't seem to damage Proto even a little bit, as it suddenly emits a sonic pulse, Andromeda screaming from the pain as she holds her head in agony, giving Proto time to slash an X across her stomach and kick her in the stomach to send her flying through the soldiers and crashing into a wall hard enough to dent it!

## Chapter 273 - Down with the Ship

Proto walks slowly towards Andromeda, slashing the soldiers around it to pieces so fast that its arms didn't even seem to move. Andromeda was on her hands and knees, bleeding badly and panting heavily, as she looks up to glare in both anger and fear at the robot, which looked back at her with an unknowable emotion, if any emotion at all. "WHO ARE YOU?!" Andromeda screams at Proto, coughing up a LOT of blood immediately after that scream, Proto giving no response at all as it prepares to decapitate her.

Suddenly, Proto tilts its upper body back to evade what looked like a small tank shell, which blasted through the wall without effort. It turned to see Hilbert standing there, holding a large rifle with both hands. "Get out of here, everyone! I'll deal with this tin can!" Hilbert roars, as Candice and Shunsuke, along with a few surviving soldiers, pick Andromeda up to carry her towards the hangar. Proto wastes no time rushing at Hilbert, who fires another tank shell at the robot, who slashes an X in it!

Proto rushes out of the resulting massive explosion to slash Hilbert's gun to pieces, Hilbert narrowly dodging Proto's slashes as he grabs its arms as soon as he can, slamming it against the wall. "If I'm gonna go down, you're coming with me!" Hilbert shouts, taking every single kick from Proto the best he could, feeling every bone that Proto's foot connects with shatter like glass. "ACTIVATE THE SELF-DESTRUCT!" Hilbert bellows, knowing that by now the dragons had gotten close enough...

As Andromeda looks through the escape pod that she, Candice, Shunsuke, Jack were in, they saw the flagship of the Manticore Strike Force explode violently, a chunk of it just barely missing the pod as they could feel the heat. "I hope that thing actually dies from that this time." Andromeda remarks. "But...I doubt it will." "We just lost this battle..." Shunsuke remarks, hearing the pilot of the ship laugh. "Oh, no!" The pilot says. "It's just a tie!" That's when they saw, that the shrapnel reached the dragons.

## Chapter 274 - Galactic Machinations

"Well, that happened." Atsumichi remarks. "Looks like we lost our fighters." "Proto is much more durable than that." Sechsgrad replies. "And if it did not survive, I can simply reconstruct it." "And Karim?" Saparbek asks. "Karim was a detriment, a hindrance. We're better off without him because he is an...unknown variable." Sechsgrad answers. "He was also my partner in crime." Saparbek replies. "Regardless, now it is time to check on the project that the Emperor has been working on." Sechsgrad says.

"...Project?" Saparbek asks reluctantly. "One so massive, one so powerful, that it will exterminate the human race, as well as any other species that stands in its way." Sechsgrad answers. "With the GDF being a thing, how do you know that's true?" Atsumichi asks. "I have a plan to deal with the Galactic Council, and get them out of the way through nothing more than subterfuge." Sechsgrad explains. "It won't be long before they, too, crumble, and then Arcturus will rule the galaxy as the Ancients did."

"What do you look like under that mask, anyway?" Atsumichi inquires. "This is my face." Sechsgrad replies coldly. "Formerly, it was the blue skin of a Socqreath, that is all he information you require." "Well, it does answer my question if I were asking literally." Atsumichi replies. "But I was asking what Machiavellian plan you have of your own, since you seem like the type to have such a plan, and therefore to have a plan to betray your leaders." Sechsgrad remains silent at this. "I want in." Atsumichi finishes.

"...If I have a plan," Sechsgrad replies. "Then it is far, far more than simply betraying a fool like Arcturus." "Ooh, I like." Atsumichi responds. "What might the details be?" "Don't mind me." Saparbek says flatly. "I do not care what any of your plans are so long as they don't impact mine." "...The plan I have reaches across this entire galaxy...and beyond." Sechsgrad answers. " "You are all participating in that plan, and have been doing so for around twenty years, now." "Now I'm super interested." Atsumichi replies.

## Chapter 275 - Laid to Rest

Men in black uniforms, their heads bowed down, carry a dark blue coffin with the type of hat Hilbert wore towards a burial site, a gravestone erected there. "Unfortunately, due to dying in a massive starship's explosion, Grand Admiral Hilbert Sycamore has no body to recover, let alone a body we simply could not find. This cenotaph will forever mark his impact on the world, on his men, on our species, but most importantly, on his friends and loved ones." Rosenstock says, his hands on a sword, his voice cracking.

Andromeda shatters a vase on her desk with her fist, wrapped in bandages, Jack in the same situation. "If...I had been stronger..." Andromeda starts, but trails off. "Anne, you did all you could." Jack replies softly, and weakly. "These guys...they're monsters. They don't care about anyone, and...they might be too strong for us to handle." "I refuse to accept that!" Andromeda yells. "I refuse to accept that there's a problem we can't solve! Damn this war! Damn these monster! DAMN EVERYTHING!"

Andromeda began to break down crying, as Jack felt a stabbing pain in his heart. He wished they could have saved everyone, too. He so desperately wanted for that to have been the case, but...it was impossible. There was no way it could have happened. And it was all because these dragons wanted to expand? He couldn't accept that, he couldn't believe it to be the truth. Something more sinister had to be afoot...there had to be a way to stop them. He wish he knew how, as he grimaced, tearing up.

"We couldn't save them..." Candice whispers, crying softly. "They called for our help, and we couldn't save them...we failed...how are we possibly supposed to win this war if we can't save one fleet of ships...?" "I dunno..." Shunsuke replies softly. "...we were probably given all this treatment because the King thinks we're superheroes, but that's just not true. I think the best case scenario would be to stop this war at its center, by taking out the Netraxian Emperor, but that's probably not possible for us."

## Chapter 276 - The Spy

A small pod docked inside a more artificial-looking Netraxian ship, as three Netraxian warriors stood at the entrance to greet the newcomer, who sets a crate down in front of them. "Are you certain this is it?" The Netraxian in the middle growls. "Yes, I am." A familiar voice answers. "The schematics to the Human Star Realm's secret weapon are inside this crate, and yes...there's seriously that many schematics." "Hmph, must be as big as our own secret weapon." The Netraxian on the right remarks.

"Can we trust that these really are the schematics?" The Netraxian on the left demands. "You distrust your own spy?" The man asks in response, sounding a bit offended. "You don't exactly have the best track record." The Netraxian on the right answers. "Buchardt is a genius, he'll need to be dealt with if we are to win this war." The man replies. "Then deal with him." The Netraxian in the middle demands. "Very well, I'll try." The man responds, walking back into the pod, which flies back out into space.

The man sighs a bit as he looks down at the radar and distance measurement, seeing he was far enough away, and smiling a bit. The Netraxian on the left opens the crate, seeing the schematics for something, as they begin to glow brightly! "IT'S A BOMB!" The Netraxian on the left roars, as the crate explodes, destroying the ship from the inside and killing everyone on board, before a signal could even be sent. The man's pod continues to fly away from the explosion. "Job well done..." He remarks.

He had known he was a Netraxian when he turned eighteen, and changed into his natural form against his will. When he tried to change back, his eyes, ears and teeth remained the same, so he hid them. He had to end this war soon, he had to protect the species he had grown up in, and save the species he was born from. He didn't want either extinct, and he didn't want this pointless war to go on any longer. He was going to stop it, even if it meant the betrayal of both humans and Netraxians.