Imperial Legacy

There it was. The vast emptiness of space.

Abstract and fantastical, yet scary and abysmal.

"…"

Nathan observed the giant rocks that floated across the Stardrifter, the asteroids, and caught a glimpse of something, the fact that they carried some sort of abstract energy with them.

"Sir Nathan. Do you notice it? The asteroids are carrying Aether Energy! That means the Psychic Stone must still be nearby! Thankfully, that means the main part of my mission is over, phew!"

"It is… but, I sense…"

"…Too much danger."

Just a few minutes away from them was another breach in the spaceship, one that led to a Nest. And, unfortunately for the pair, the Beta-1s could smell the stench of their brethren on him.

"…Let's head back now." Nathan urged.

"Huh, why? Even though my main objective is over, don't we still need to try and confirm the location of the Psychic Stone to get a better advantage?" Aston asked, "Or, have you already spotted any incoming enemies?!"

Nathan shook his head.

"No, it's not that… I'm just getting a horrible sense that something is lurking."

"…" Aston stared at him for a moment, before shrugging and saying, "Then, I guess we should trust that sense. I don't wanna end up dying, after all…"

Out from the rift behind them burst around five Beta-1s, all of which simultaneously leapt at Nathan. However, he dodged with ease with the help of his propulsion jets. Aston followed suit, also activating his propulsion jets.

"Shit… my internal systems couldn't detect them through the rift!"

"Aston! Stay on guard, and fight off all the Beta-1s that try to come your way! I'll deal with them!" Nathan yelled, before unleashing a sudden surge of explosive speed and slicing through one of the Beta-1s.

"Zoom! Unleash plasma cutters, left and right legs!"

In an instant, streaking blue blades made of plasma were unleashed from his lower leg areas, and with precision, he lacerated through two more of the Beta-1s and their tentacles immediately.

He followed up with his plasma blade and slaughtered the other Beta-1s instantly.

"…Woah…" Aston half-gasped, "That the capabilities of a Mecha Knight? No wonder you guys are also known as War Knights."

"I'm not that strong." Nathan replied, "In situations outside of war and large-scale battles, I'm only slightly better than mid-tier Cyborg Models and equally matched with all-rounded models like the Royal Knight."

"Ha, don't kid yourself! You're strong, and the most humble battle model I've interacted with, thus far!"

Nathan glanced at him and chuckled before turning away.

"Well… we have bigger problems at hand currently." Nathan said, "For one, the rift we just came through has now disappeared somehow, so we have to find another way back into the spaceship."

"…Well, let's just try and find another rift. Blasting our way into the spaceship is just gonna put us at unnecessary risk." Aston said, just before a "ding!" was heard coming from his lab coat's pocket, and then the faint sound of ringing.

"Oops... er… it… it's my Bioni-Phone IX…" Aston said, "I swear it was silent before though… I guess the newer models that are connected to the neural interface aren't that good after all." Aston muttered, shortly before picking up the phone.

The call lasted around a few minutes, and by the end of it, Aston had a quite nervous expression on his face.

"Who was it?" Nathan asked, intrigued.

"…The other Mecha Knight with us." Aston replied, "I told him everything, and he said he was looking forward to meeting you, again, I'm assuming, since you may have seen him previously as fellow Mecha Knights."

"…And… ha… unfortunately, he has just told me that an attempt at breaching the Main Zone of the spaceship went awry, waking up several Beta-2s. This isn't very good, as you probably know already, since, they could take a big chunk of the rest of the guys we have, which is detrimental to the plan."

"…Why did they decide to take such a risk in the first place…?" Nathan asked, "That Mecha Knight could've put us all in great peril. If I was there, I'd have shot him in the foot for such an idea."

Aston chuckled nervously.

"…Well… he said that they found out that a Leviathan was slowly approaching, and would consume us all in three days, and so he decided that this was the best approach in the current dire circumstances."

"Shit… things are getting worse and worse by the minute." Nathan groaned. He felt like stabbing himself in the chest with his plasma blade to wake up from the bad dream he was having.

"But, things don't make sense." Nathan mumbled, "A Mecha Knight should be able to deal with a group of Beta-2 alone, despite the risk of injury, and he shouldn't have even broken a sweat if they came as a group. How is it that they were forced to retreat after it went awry as you said?"

"Not sure. He mentioned something about some 'damn snakes', but I have no idea what he meant by that."

"Then, since we have no choice but to find a rift, as blasting an entrance into the ship will send a whole group of Beta-2s after us, I guess the quickest way to do it is to find the nearest rift to the others."

"Do you have any idea where that could be?"

Aston thought for a bit, before shrugging.

"The rifts send us to random places. The best we can do is check every rift we can find."

"That's fine. Let's hurry." Nathan responded. Following Aston's lead once again, they then proceeded along the outside of the spaceship.

The Stardrifter was similar to other Commander Grade Spaceships, in the fact that they were mostly spheroid-shaped, and their magnitude ranged from being the size of a city to the size of a small moon. It was already good enough that not many Beta-1s or Beta-2s had migrated to a spaceship of that magnitude yet.

Luckily, because a rift to where the others were, in Zone 6, was surprisingly close nearby it took merely a few hours to find their way back into the spaceship.

"…Huh? This is Zone 6?" Nathan said, after entering through the rift, "It seems to be more devastated than I imagined. Even more so than Zone 1 through 4."

The walls and floor were all smashed to pieces, here, there and far beyond what the eyes could see. This was quite impressive since most of the walls of the spaceship were reinforced with steel. Though, Nathan could still shatter them to the same degree, that went without saying.

"Yep." Aston replied, "This is all because of the other Mecha Knight, and I call him behind his back, [[Brute]]. He's just a fighting maniac. But, if not for his irrationality at times, he would've become at least a well-renowned general."

"Ah. Gossiping about the acting leader, I see? I didn't expect this from you, lead researcher." A voice called out, shocking Aston for a moment.

This voice belonged to an incredibly beautiful lady with blonde hair and, surprisingly enough, hyper-specialised eyes, with pupils both purple and cyan blue.

This meant that she was either a Warrior Model or a Greater Warrior Model, and he was leaning toward the latter.

"Taking such an interest in me already, Mecha Knight Nathan? Haha, I'm nothing you have to worry yourself over." She told Nathan, before she introduced herself, approaching the two of them unhurriedly.

"I'm Akairs, one of the remaining Cybernetic Supervisors of the spaceship, a supervisor of the spaceship's Cybernetic Laboratory Halls."

"According to strict orders, I'll also be the one in charge of leading you two back to the others."