[CYA] Chapter 181: Hostage?(3) (Patreon)

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/16OmQ9SwTCVjrfarB3L-T8jPfwNa23R6MnYQ7MV7hXiE/edit?usp=sharing

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<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, The Void of Space, near Pirate Shield Frigate>

As they saw the clear flashes of combat within the frigate’s command center, Alex didn’t have time to consider, and he just needed to act.

John reacted faster.

In an impressive display of speed and coordination, the man twisted, locking one magnet in place and hooking a leg through it, even as he put the other of the large magnets into his Inventory and drew out one of his guns, already pulling the trigger.

In one sense, Alex expected the firearm to fail given there was no air to allow a burn, but when he’d asked John near the beginning of this scenario, the man had assured him that even mundane munitions would be fine as the primer in modern cartridges already contain their oxidizer. The gun might have an issue with repeated firing, but that was a different issue entirely.

The man had further optimized his weaponry to work in ‘all’ conditions, which Alex knew meant magic of some kind as many such alterations would be mutually exclusive if done without that science-bending power.

Regardless, John’s shotgun-like weapon flashed as he pump-fired the gun a half-dozen times.

I’m sure I got at least some of those terms wrong. But Alex put that aside as the largest pane of clear material first deformed, then cracked, and finally broke under the assault of magically enhanced munitions.

That… made Alex both nervous at the ease of penetration and unfathomably glad for the distributed nature of the Innominate’s duty stations so an assault like this wouldn’t work on them.

An instant later, Alex’s danger sense screamed, and he acted, twisting to put himself between John and the as-of-yet unknown danger.

It was good that he did.

Behind him, previously hidden magics flared to life, Alex’s Speed Reading allowing him to see that they were commanding piercing, velocity, and shredding.

As soon as the clear material broke, there was catastrophic failure—along with magics within it activating—and then the entirety burst outward… sending shrapnel in a half-sphere spray.

He interposed one hand between himself and John and the oncoming spray, using Life’s Active Defense, surprised to find that the detonation counted as a directional area of effect.

Regardless, there was more to the shrapnel than it appeared and pieces, large and small, punched into his back, individually feeling like solid punches and collectively causing him to scream in silent agony.

The magic laced through them, adding penetrative power let them cut into his coat and even draw blood, but much of the pain was from the high-velocity impacts, only slightly mitigated by his defense skill.

Then, to add insult to injury, heavy blast doors slammed down over the frigate’s blown-open window… because of course they’d have emergency measures in case of a breach.

Alex felt like an idiot yet again.

A bleeding idiot.

Wounds:Penetrating ballistic trauma, mild x 20[110 HP x 20 required to heal]Reduced due to Skeletal Structural Remodeling [Fast, Enhanced]

His HP and stamina jerked downward, but stabilized quickly, having barely lost 200 points a piece.

As he considered things, the fracturing and spray of the viewpane material was likely a feature to defend against exactly what they were attempting.

Yeah… I feel rather dumb. Still, shouldn’t Juba have warned the Initiates of such defenses?

Alex’s skill had blocked most of the damage as well as resisting the physical hits and wounds from the myriad shrapnel that had reached him, but it hadn’t actually stopped all of those. Interesting. Is that because they were laced with magic in an unusual way?

He couldn’t really process through it. His mind was frantically searching for a way to ignore the pain, and the perforations were making him fuzzy.

John’s hand grabbed onto Alex’s ankle, and only then did Alex realize that he’d been floating free.

His mind snapped back on task as John swung him toward the hull once more.

Alex growled, pulling his dadao free and flexing his whole body to drive it forward.

He tried to scream, to add further dissonance, but the vibrations weren’t carried through the vacuum of space.

Still, his sword had a mirror of that property, and with his full body providing force, he should be able to cut through the unshielded hull.

He triggered a Multi-Strike feeling the cycling energy and leaning on his training to enabled a triple hit. In that way, he cut a large triangle free…only for it to explode outward along with the forcefully decompressing atmosphere, slamming the metal straight into his face.

Wounds:Broken Nose, severe x 1[580 HP x 1 required to heal]Reduced due to Skeletal Structural Remodeling [Fast, Enhanced]

It hadn’t even been five seconds, so even if he’d been able to get his hand in the way, he couldn’t have used Life’s Active Defense yet again.

Donkey-hoof soup! Alex reeled back, his vision fuzzing, but this spike of pain actually helped his mind snap back into focus even as he sprayed blood into space and felt the grip around his ankle tighten.

A moment later, his back smacked against something hard, bouncing off.

His vision mostly returned as he completed another arc, John seemingly having bounced him off the other side of the motion and brought him back to throw him through his own pre-made hole.

Alex’s eyes widened as his torso went through, his waist hitting, the impact sending him into a spin as John let go.

He was without gravity in the command center. As an invader, he wouldn’t get such niceties.

The various skills almost seemed to seize control of him as he surrendered to them like never before, twisting and jerking to arrest his angular momentum almost instantly, though it felt like he’d torqued a good portion of his back, hips, and legs.

He had only a moment to take in the situation, and in that regard, he had two sources of information.

First, his still blurry vision showed him seven large shapes. One was clearly Juba with a vague blob that was likely his drones between the man and the others.

The six other human-sized beings were all pushing themselves up, seemingly having just been dragged toward Alex’s position.

Right, the explosive decompression.

He couldn’t really see which were which, and that might have been a problem except for his other source of information.

Second, his Spherical Sense reached the closest pirate, showing both magic and life, highlighting a weapon in hand and a knife on her belt as ‘dangerous’ to that portion of the sense.

Beyond the defined range, he got general directions of danger, showing him which four of the remaining five were pirates and which was the hostage.

He immediately pulled out the survival collar and threw it toward the hostage, hoping that she was conscious and unbound.

If she couldn’t catch it, he’d have to leave her rescue to John.

At the same time, he stabbed toward the pirate with his weapon… his slashing and chopping weapon.

He groaned at his still-ingrained reaction. He’d thought he was practicing enough, but it seemed that he had been mistaken.

More practice is always needed…

Still, he had enough strength that he cut into the woman’s neck even as he pushed himself back.

Right, no gravity.

Thankfully, he hadn’t pushed himself back toward the opening, and he’d be able to rebound off the ceiling in a moment… assuming he got the time.

Then, he remembered an ability that he hadn’t been using nearly as much as he should have been.

Analyze.

And possibly more importantly, how his own status would display.

Alex, Imperium CookLevel 10Threat: None

Pirate PilotLevel ??Threat: Moderate

Pirate CaptainLevel ??Threat: Moderate

Pirate EngineerLevel ??Threat: Moderate

Pirate GunnerLevel ??Threat: Moderate

Jessica, Close Combatant ArchetypeLevel 12Threat: NoneBound, Unconscious

Alex groaned. The woman had been unconscious and bound. Poodles…

The moderate threat level for all the pirates was interesting. That meant that the System judged them as roughly equal to him across various scenarios and situations.

It was… nice to have such opponents for a change.

He remembered all too many times that the undead of the last scenario had been shown as high or even extreme threats.

Still, he was in a bit of trouble. Thankfully, it seemed that he was only now being Analyzed by the pirates, and if the reactions of their blurry outlines was any indication, they were dismissive of him.

Perfect.

Blessedly, blessedly, it had been more than five seconds. So, as he launched off the ceiling back toward the woman he’d already cut, he was able to lift his hand and tank a shell on his palm.

From the grinding of his bones, and the feedback from Stress-Interoception, he knew his hand would have shattered from the hit, even with eighty percent of the damage mitigated.

As it was?

He’d bruised the flesh but otherwise caught the slug.

There wasn’t a sound of surprise—after all they were fighting in a vacuum—but the vague blurry blob of a pirate certainly seemed shocked.

Alex took advantage of the distraction and pulled one of the restraining collars from his Inventory, snapping it around the man’s neck on the way by.

As he rebounded, he gave himself a count. Two seconds have passed. Three more before I have Active Defense again.

He really needed to decrease the cooldown of that skill…

His sense of danger suddenly lost the man behind him as the collar fully activated, and Alex turned his attention to the firefight happening near the—

A bright flash came from behind him, and Alex jerked, twisting just off the floor to see John using the triangular hole as a firing position, easily landing hits on each of the pirates.

Unfortunately, they were far more durable than mundane humans, and even with magically enhanced weaponry and ordinance, they didn’t go down instantly.

John did drop them, however; the shock of the unexpected hits caused each to stumble.

Alex continued to spin, and growled as he had to twist again and extend his limbs to slow that tumbling and align properly to get ready for another jump. That’s five seconds.

He vaulted in once more, sheathing his dadao and pulling out the next collar.

Take the hit, collar the pirate.

As far as plans went… It was pretty terrible, but it was a plan, and action was almost always better than inaction in a combat situation.

Regardless, Juba was able to advance, and John continued to pump fire—not literal fire, that was his wife’s thing—into the pirates from his elevated position.

Soon enough, everyone was collared, and John was clicking the ‘life-saver’ collar on the hostage.

Alex hoped they’d been fast enough. Either way, they needed to get her to Bev sooner rather than later.

Juba signalled the Innominate, before hesitating.

The big man laughed, the action clear through his faceplate.

Then, he turned to Alex with a raised eyebrow.

Alex frowned for a moment, then palmed his own forehead.

He was the helmsman.

He nodded at the other men and sat, wedging himself into a corner and activating the remote flight controls.

All weapons were held ready, the aspect beams powered down.

No new threats had appeared, and the ship was simply awaiting his direction.

He gave it.

The Innominate slowly rolled, orienting on the shield frigate and moving in to dock with the other vessel.

They’d done it.

The pirates were under control.

<Alex, Real - Dorgon Calls for Aid, The Innominate docking hatch with the Impressa>

In stable orbit around a colony world, three ships were docked together as they whipped toward the endless horizon.

Within the clearly more modified of the ships, Alex and a few companions waited to greet the crew of the other vessel near the airlock.

As the inner door hissed open, Alex could tell that things were not going to go as smoothly as they’d hoped.

The other crew came out nearly as a lump, many seeming to immediately frown in confusion.

Captain Pike himself came through just ahead of the others, arriving like a storm, his rage clear as his gaze swept the gathered crew of the Innominate. “Which of you is Alex?”

Alex sighed, raising a hand and holding his dissonant tonality in check. “That’s me.”

Pike walked up, pulled back his fist, and swung for Alex’s face with a wide, haymaker of a punch.

Alex blinked in shock at the action. Really? A haymaker to the face? Is this guy twelve?

Analyze triggered practically on its own, confirming what his danger sense had already told him.

Captain Pike, Commander ArchetypeLevel 12Threat: Minimal

Alex raised his hand and caught the fist, not even using an activation of Life’s Active Defense.

Pike’s attack landed solidly… and the young man’s wrist bent from the odd angle of impact.

There was a crack as the captain broke his own wrist.

A moment of silence followed before Pike’s eyes went wide, and he paled.

He didn’t scream, which was a pleasant surprise, but he did drop to his knees, cradling his arm. “What are you made of? Stone? You level 20 brutes are all the same.”

The severe woman who’d argued with Pike before groaned. “You haven’t even analyzed him yet?”

Pike hitched, clearly embarrassed even through the pain. He glanced at Alex and paled. “T…Ten!?” His incredulity was obvious. “How the everloving frog-prince are you only level ten?”

The woman sighed again. “I would bet that they are Initiates, too.” She looked around at Alex and his companions. “Right?”

They all jerked slightly. Alex’s eyes widened, realizing in that instant that Jessica—the hostage that he’d been rather blase about retrieving—had been a real person.

He swallowed, then wet his throat and swallowed again.

He’d almost let a real woman die? He’d been playing with a real life?

He paled.

The severe woman sighed. “And they didn’t know we were Initiates either. Cracker barrels, I’d hoped they had an easy way to tell.”

That started a swarm of questions back and forth.

It was quickly decided that they needed to share a meal at the very least and—after Pike’s wrist was fixed up—they’d need to sit down and actually take a moment together.

One of the Impressa’s crew, a tall, balding man, took Pike toward the medbay, with a plan to join them in the dining hall after.

Alex was still reeling a bit. Who knew that they’d find other Initiates in such a wide open void?

Kaylee.

Kaylee had known and told them that it would happen sooner or later.

Thankfully, she’d been caught as much off guard as the rest of them.

It seemed she hadn’t believed her own conjecture any more than the rest of them, and that made Alex feel better, if only a bit.

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