Era of Madness

Final battle 1

As the Party Hall crashed into the terminal, sending multiples of its floating pieces flying away and breaking a few, Tyler couldn't help but feel his heart aching painfully. He was certain that there were soldiers posted on those and, even if he didn't see the bodies flying and he wasn't the one piloting, a pang of guilt still struck him.

He looked at Erica and John for a second, but then turned his attention back to the terminal, sighing internally. He'd have the time to complain and groan as much as he wanted once they were out of Glactia-62, now was not the time to bother his frien- his partners while they were in the middle of such a battle.

But despite trying to be as discreet as possible, he still got seen by John, who gave him a reassuring smile:

"Sorry you get forced into this, I know having deaths on your consciousness isn't really the greatest feeling" he said. "But don't worry, on this part Erica and I can manage on our own, so you can just tell yourself it's all on us"

"That... doesn't help much" Tyler said, drinking a sip from a flask he had on him. "But thank you for trying"

John chuckled a bit, and then focused on the terminal. He was right: this time, in a large scaled battle of spatial ships, cyborgs, giant infrastructures and such, there wasn't much that Tyler could do anyway. So the best was to simply stay near director Enry Arsin, so he could make sure the latter won't try any bold escape while they were in there.

'Tssk, can't believe we're keeping this bastard alive' he thought.

Indeed, if it was only up to him, the bastard would've already had his head separated from his body, and it was probably the same for John, but Erica insisted to keep him as an hostage in case something went wrong, at least until they left the planet. Sighing, he accepted it as he sat beside director Arsin, not before verifying he was correctly tied up- and kicking him in the process for good mesure.

Then, he simply watched the battle through the screen.

It was completely different from last time: the Party Hall wasn't conceived to dodge the numerous projectiles thrown at it, and didn't possess any real way to attack. So in theory, even though Erica's group were the ones to attack the terminal, they were also the ones that got one-sidedly attacked, as the Party Hallwas slowly getting destroy.

In practice, though, things were not the same at all: the Party Hall was such a massive building that just crashing into the terminal, which was conceived more as a structure to regulate the Outergate than as a real fortress. And even if its flying speed wasn't this high, it was still far enough to not leave the ennemies any opportunity to find counter-measures.

And most of all, director Arsin's paranoia once again became visible: even on the planet he himself governed, he was so scared that one day people would rebel that he made the Party Hall an actual unpenetrable fortress. All of sector A terminal's firepower was barely enough to damage it a bit every minute and, at the rate things were going, there was no doubt they would reach the Outergate before the ennemy could destroy even half of the Party Hall's defense systems.

"Ah, Fefnir tech is such a good thing when it's on your side, don't you think?" he asked director Arsin beside him, who couldn't answer as he was gagged. "Hehe, oh, sorry, forgot some seconds that losing made you lose your tongue. Not that I complain though"

Satisfied by his little nagging, Tyler directed his attention back to the terminal. Out of every attack they were taking, none were near as effective as the strange dark rays of energy shot directly from the arm of a certain cyborg he knew pretty well.

"Oh, look like our dear friend the special agent got his arm repaired" Erica said. "It's going to be a bit troubling if he can keep shooting those anti-matter rays in continue but at this rate, it shouldn't stop us from escaping"