Free Web NovelChapter 90: [90] The Hostile Takeover, Sector 4 Defense
The sky above the Margin tore open with the sound of grinding and rusted metal.
Dropping out of the sickly green clouds was a massive fleet. They were not the sleek star galleons of the Celestial Court. They were not the terrifying horrors of the Primordial Chaos either.
These were scavengers. Dozens of massive and asymmetrical warships forged from welded scrap metal descended upon the unprotected city. They had stolen armor plating and sputtering unstable engines.
The Scavengers were a massive faction of ruthless space pirates and exiled mercenaries who preyed on leaderless territories. With Gildas dead and the Spire Guards in disarray, the Margin was a prime undefended asset.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
The pirate ships did not issue warnings.
They immediately opened fire. Showers of crude and highly explosive plasma rounds rained down on the neon lit slums. They shattered the rusted skyscrapers and sent massive plumes of black smoke into the air.
Arthur Sterling stood on the edge of the safehouse roof. His pitch black eyes tracked the falling ordinance. The corporate shark felt a familiar cold fury settling into his veins.
Someone was attacking his newly acquired territory.
Vane burst through the roof access hatch.
His heavy broadsword was already drawn. His face twisted in absolute panic.
Cassia sprinted over from the far side of the roof. Her sniper rifle was completely assembled and humming with lethal energy.
"Scavenger fleet!" Cassia yelled over the deafening roar of the bombardment. "They have been waiting out in the void for the defense grids to drop! They are here to strip the city to the foundations!"
"We have to evacuate the lower wards!" Vane roared loudly. He pointed down at the panicked masses flooding the narrow streets. "They are targeting the residential blocks! We need to get the civilians out!"
"Wait," Arthur snapped. His voice cut through the chaos with absolute and unyielding authority. "We are not running. We can not abandon tbis place."
"People are dying, Arthur!" Vane screamed. ƒreewebɳovel.com
He grabbed Arthur by the shoulder and forcibly turned him around. "This is not a spreadsheet! We cannot fight an entire fleet with three people!"
"If we run, they take the central energy grid," Arthur countered coldly. He slapped the hand of Vane away.
"The grid powers the atmospheric recyclers. If that falls, the smog becomes toxic, and everyone in this city suffocates in an hour anyway. We hold the grid. We hold the city."
Cassia racked the bolt of her sniper rifle. "He is right, Vane. We secure the infrastructure, we secure the populace. So what’sthe plan."
Arthur looked at the two of them. Vane had raw idealistic power. Cassia had cold lethal efficiency. They were the perfect strike team.
"Vane, you are the shield," Arthur commanded. He pointed toward the towering and heavily fortified structure of the central energy grid three blocks away.
"You can hold the main entrance. Do not let a single pirate through those doors. Cassia, take the high ground on the eastern spire. Snipe the lieutenants. Break their chain of command."
"And what are you going to do?" Vane asked with his grip tightening on his sword.
Arthur drew the Ebonheart Sword. The dark metal glinted in the sickly green light of the invasion. "I am going to do the most important stuff."
They moved.
The trio dropped from the roof and plunged directly into the warzone. The streets were absolute pandemonium.
Rusted landing crafts slammed into the cobblestones. They deployed hundreds of heavily augmented pirate thugs wielding crude chain axes and stolen plasma rifles.
Vane hit the ground like a meteor. He did not hesitate at all. The scarred hero roared and swung his massive broadsword in devastating wide arcs.
He became an impenetrable wall of kinetic fury at the gates of the energy grid. Every pirate that charged him was brutally swatted away. Their cheap armor shattered under the sheer protagonist strength of the frontiersman.
High above, Cassia was a ghost. She moved across the rusted rooftops smoothly. Her sniper rifle barked with lethal precision.
"CRACK! SQUELCH!"
Every time she pulled the trigger, a heavily armored Scavenger captain dropped dead.
They were perfectly shot through the visor. She systematically dismantled their tactical formations and left the grunts confused and terrified.
Arthur moved through the chaos like a ghost in a tailored suit. He did not fight with the explosive rage of Vane or the distant precision of Cassia. He fought with surgical and corporate efficiency.
He parried a wild swing from a pirate machete. He stepped cleanly inside the guard and drove the pommel of his sword directly into the throat of the man. He spun around and severed the hamstrings of two advancing thugs before they could even raise their weapons.
They were winning the ground war. They were the unofficial rulers of the Margin, and they were defending their claim flawlessly.
But the Scavengers were not just bringing infantry.
A shadow fell over the central square. Arthur looked up. Hovering directly above a massive crowded civilian shelter was a heavily armored pirate dreadnought.
The underbelly of the ship groaned as a colossal primary plasma cannon slowly rotated. It aimed directly at the fragile tin roofed building housing hundreds of terrified mortals.
"Arthur!" Vane screamed from the grid entrance. His voice cracked with absolute despair. "The shelter!"
Cassia fired three rapid shots at the cannon housing. But the heavy energy shields absorbed the sniper rounds effortlessly.
"I cannot penetrate the shielding!" she yelled over the comms.
The cannon hummed loudly. A blinding sphere of superheated red plasma gathered at the barrel. It was a localized extinction event.
Arthur did not think. He did not calculate the cost. He sprinted.
He vaulted off a destroyed hover skiff. He launched himself high into the air and directly into the trajectory of the massive cannon. He was completely exposed. He was a mortal man jumping in front of a spaceship main gun.
"System!" Arthur roared in his mind. His pitch black eyes locked onto the glowing red death aimed at him. "Activate the Multiplier! Give me the two seconds!"
[Ding!]
↳ 2x Multiplier Activated.
↳ Duration: 10 Seconds.
The change was violently instantaneous. It was not the apocalyptic world ending density of the million fold multiplier. It was a pure and concentrated doubling of his base physical and conceptual limits.
His muscles tore and instantly healed. They bulged with explosive and unnatural power. His sensory perception accelerated to the point where the falling rain seemed to freeze in mid air.
"KRAA-THOOM!"
The dreadnought fired. A massive building sized beam of red plasma shot downward. It carried enough kinetic and thermal force to vaporize the entire city block.
Arthur met it head on in mid air. He did not try to block it. He did not try to absorb it.
He swung the Ebonheart Sword in a perfect and flawless upward arc. He utilized the exact augmented physics of his Dimensional Breaker Physique.
"CLANG!"
The heavy dark blade struck the plasma beam. The sheer and impossible kinetic torque of the swing of Arthur did not just stop the energy. It physically deflected it.
The red beam violently bent at a ninety degree angle. It ricocheted off his sword and shot harmlessly out into the dead expanse of the Deficit Zone.
Arthur plummeted back to the earth and landed heavily on his feet. The cobblestones cratered beneath him. His arms were shaking and his chest was heaving as the seconds expired. The multiplier instantly shut off and left his muscles screaming in agony.
But the shelter was completely untouched.
Vane stared from the gates. He was completely speechless. The jaws of everyone watching dropped as they stared at Arthur as though he had run mad!
Not even those who had awakened a god Talent would dare to brag of deflecting a dreadnought cannon!
Cassia lowered her rifle with a wide and feral grin on her face.
Before the dreadnought could charge another shot, the massive central flagship of the pirate armada descended into the city square. It crushed a dozen abandoned buildings under its rusted hull.
The heavy loading ramp hissed open.
Stepping out of the ship was a towering and twelve foot tall cybernetic warlord. He possessed four massive arms. Each of them gripped a revving and blood stained chain axe.
His eyes glowed with psychotic augmented fury as he looked at the three defenders. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"I am Korgath of the Scavengers!" the warlord roared. His voice was amplified by mechanical speakers that shook the very ground.
He slammed his axes together and created a massive shower of sparks. "I claim this territory! Bow, or be ground into meat!"
