Meanwhile on the Hannibal, Major Lim approaches Captain Reyes and says “Captain, latest sensor data from Wave space, massive disruptions heading straight to Shackleton.”

Captain Reyes salutes him and takes a look at the readout, colour flushes from his face and says “Tim you sure about this?”

Major Lim responds “Hundred percent sir, re ran the scans twice, Onyria also concurs with the analysis, a massive fleet is inbound.”

Captain Reyes then says “Onyria, get me an encrypted line to General Churchill, on the double”

Onyria without responding executes the captains commands, moments later General Churchill’s face appears on the comm screen and says “Captain? This had better be urgent”

Captain Reyes salutes and responds “General, our long range wave scans have detected a massive disruption that is heading straight toward Shackleton, transmitting the data now sir.”

General Churchill looks at the data, scrutinizing every word and then utters “Bollocks, Captain are you 100% certain of this?”

Captain Reyes looking grim responds “I wish I wasn’t sir, ETA 20 minutes”

General Churchill then says “By the authority granted to me by the her highness the Empress, I hereby conscript your vessel and your crew as auxiliaries of the Bretonian military, your mission now is to get the Empress of the planet and get her to the nearest safe harbour, Liberty or Blood River. You have priority departure clearance. Churchill out.”

Captain Reyes then keys the comm “Alpha 1, this is War God actual, change of plans commander, the war came to us, we have a new mission, data being sent now, Hannibal is departing space dock, find a open landing area and transmit coordinates, your gear will be delivered via drop pod once a suitable landing area has been identified, Alpha 5 and 6 will also be deployed. Any word on Alpha 3?”

Gunner responds “Negative Captain, she’s still at her family home”

Onyria then responds “Roger that Commander, we will make the needed arrangements”

Amber’s communicator then beeps, as she wants to answer it both her and Valeria hear the sirens of the planetary defences activating, Onyria’s voice then speaking “Alpha 3, what is your status?”

Amber responds “Picking up one last item Onyria, What’s happening?”

Onyria replies “Rhine invasion fleet confirmed in system, we are evacuating and are tasked with extracting the Empress.”

Amber responds “I can’t leave then, my sister is here, I’ll explain when I get a chance, deploy my gear to these coordinates.”

Onyria responds with quizzical tone in her voice “Affirmative, deploying now eta 15 minutes.”

Valeria looks at Amber in shock unable to speak, Amber says to her in an attempt to comfort her “I’ll protect you, we are getting off the planet to safety.”

Valeria then finally able to speak says “You said you still have something to get?”

Amber replies “I originally only came to get the family shield Deliverance, but instead found you here instead, so my plans changed, now I need to protect you instead.”

Minutes later the drop pod slams into the ground in the courtyard, Amber runs over to it, putting her hand on the dna scanner to confirm her identity, the pod opens up and starts the armouring sequence, Amber strips naked, shivering in the cold air, putting on the neural link suit and gets inside the pod, mere minutes later her armor has been secured to her and she puts on her helmet, taking Thunder Child and her Crusader carbine. She runs a quick armor diagnostic to ensure all systems are online, takes magazine from the nano forges dispenser and loads her weapon.

Valeria just stands there looking on in surprise at her sisters lack of modesty but also feeling a slight pang of jealousy at her body, her eyes wandering to the modestly sized b cup breasts and flat toned stomach, her face turning red like a tomato she looks the other way.

Now geared up Amber looks at Valeria and asks her “Where is the shield?”

Valeria responds in a flustered voice “In the armory in the basement, follow me”

As they rush back inside Amber looks over her shoulder as the drop pod engages its self-destruct sequence as the thermite plasma charges incinerates the entire thing in moments until there is nothing left but molten slag.

As they move through the labyrinthine sub structure Valeria asks “How do you do it?”

Amber responds “Do what?”

Valeria then clarifies “Just take of your clothes with no second thought, in the company of others?”

Amber then has a small chuckle as she replies “Oh Valeria, when your life is in danger you don’t think about that, obviously if the circumstances do not warrant it I won’t do it.”

Valeria with a sigh of relief then says “Thank goodness, I thought you may have lost all etiquette over all these years, speaking of which, how old are you now?”

Amber happy the discomfort on her faces is not visible says “129”

Valeria now shocked replies “Wait that means…”

Amber finishing her sentence “you are 118 years old”

As she finishes speaking the ground shudders from the force of drop pods impacting, upon this happening Amber calls the Hannibal “War God actual this is Alpha 3, any friendly forces at my location?”

Onyria responding says “Negative Alpha 3, you have 12 Rhine troopers at your location.”

Hearing this chills her to the core, she readies here weapon and pulls on the charging handle, chambering one round, double checks the safety is engaged and then says to Valeria “We have guests and not the friendly kind, we need to move faster.”

Valeria nods and says “Just up ahead, we are nearly there.”

As they approach the doors to the armory they start taking fire from 6 Rhine troopers that are behind them, reflexively Amber places herself between the enemy and Valeria, she feels a rage she has never experienced before channelling it into her conduit abilities and electrocutes 4 of the troopers where they stand, their armor melting and electronics frying from the massive energy discharge that hit them, shouldering her rifle she takes aim and fires as fast as she can aim the weapon after each shot, the last 2 troopers succumbing to the barrage of 14mm rounds tearing into their shields and armor. After their shields dropped she strikes both of them with lightning vaporizing them entirely.

After the fighting is done she checks on Valeria “Are you hurt?”

Valeria groans and does not move, Amber then hurriedly checks her for wounds, finding she was struck in the shoulder by a 10mm round from a Sturm assault rifle, assessing the wound she finds it was a clean through and through, no major damage fortunately, she disinfects the wound, injects a sealing protein foam that also doubles as a pain killer and puts on 2 anti-septic field dressings, groggily Valeria gets to her feet and with disorientation from the shock asks “What happened?”

Amber calmly replying “You’ve been shot, don’t worry it’s not serious.”

Valeria visibly not happy with this, shakily moves forward, enters the code to unlock the armory, the doors creak open, having not been used for so long, once open the shield Deliverance lay before them, made from the same material as Thunder Child, it can project a shield wall when overcharged by an aether.

Amber stows her Crusader carbine and picks up the shield and readies her sword. Her armor interfaces with the shields components, just as this process completes 4 more Rhine troopers come up behind them, she charges the shield up just in time to deflect the incoming rounds. She will not let them win.