"The armoury has been breached!"
"Floor 3 is down!"
The Czar, with his arms folded, heard all the reports coming in. He had gathered all the troops he could mobilize with him. Most Sermentali forces were already busy trying to control the prisoner outbreak.
In this situation, they had no choice but to get on the ground. Intercepting the prisoners was of utmost importance, and they couldn't rely on their compromised systems. For all they knew, the defense systems could activate at any moment and attack them. Heck, they were far easier to breach than the prisons.
He had to strike hard and fast, or there would be no hope left for this base.
A heavy weight, making even his four arms feel weak, loomed overhead—the weight of deciding where to deploy his troops and defeat this mob before they overwhelmed the scattered Sermentali.
If they were all together, they wouldn't lose. He was sure their numbers had that sort of strength.
"Sir!" Lieutenant Dobdobal called out to the Czar. "There's a report, sir. A force of 30 of our finest was wiped out in moments."
The Czar's ears perked up. The weight of the decision had fallen on his shoulders.
Closing his eyes, the Czar took a deep breath.
"They said…" Lieutenant Dobdobal continued. "That they were headed for the Hangar!"
The first attacks targeted the third floor, the only floor directly connected to the service rooms for their spacecraft. The armory, located next to the Hangar for equipment preparation, was targeted next.
Every location attacked had a path leading to the spacecraft hangar. This prisoner riot wasn't just a random opening of doors and a subsequent outburst.
Whoever that last thief they had jailed was, it was clear the human was at the center of it all. This was a synchronized, planned breakout! All of them were clearly in cahoots.
"Now that we know," the Czar said, picking up two guns in his upper arms and two knives in his lower arms. "We will charge at them from the Hangar. Everyone, get to the hangar right now!"
""""SIR YES SIR!""""
The choir of acknowledgement was followed by Sermentali soldiers stomping through the base to rush to the hangar.
This was his responsibility—as the leader, as the Czar of an intergalactic empire, as the person in charge of this base. He had to make all the decisions based on information and rationality. A giant empire was never formed through instinct.
"Right… Let's move…" The Czar bit his lips and turned.
His instincts were not to be trusted, not in this position.
***
Though we had to get through a bunch of soldiers initially, eventually the entire Sermentali base became an empty tour for Estella and me.
"What is happening," said Estella, bewildered by the lack of people in our way.
"My plan worked," I said. A chuckle escaped me. This was the moment to explain the plan, something smart people like me lived for. "I sent all the prisoners towards a location that directly led to the hangar. Grouping them together, to ensure they understood each other, ensured they would all go to the same place."
"Huh. So you made the Sermentali think this was a coordinated prison break?"
"Yup," said I, now practically skipping through the passageways. "Now while everyone goes to the hangar, we will leave by the front door."
"And how will we escape this place?" Estella asked.
"There are emergency spacecraft outside. There are quite a lot of them throughout the base, actually, but the ones outside give us the best chance of escaping right away."
Estella whistled at my words.
"You can know all of this and execute fairly smart plans, but you still get caught."
I pursed my lips at those words. Seriously, talk about low blows.
Instead of responding, I took off faster.
"Hey, there's no need to run!" Estella said. She ran behind me too.
***
Lasers and bullets blended into a hail of weaponry flying around.
"Use force shields!" Lieutenant Dobdobal screamed the order, and all the Sermentali tapped on their gauntlets. Small shields formed out of mana in front of them and rose high.
"Attack attack attack!"
"Get to the damned spaceship!"
"If I can't have it, then you can't either!"
On the other hand, the freed prisoners all went on a rampage against the Sermentali, many of them shooting their guns at everything in sight.
Cyborgs and anthromorphs ran amok. Eagle-kin with guns shot at the Sermentali. Even a fairy from Andromeda had found her way all the way here in the prisons of the Sermentali.
"Mwahaha! I have to go back! Go back and spread the wisdom of Marx to my home!"
"Hey, that fairy! Shoot her first, shoot her first!"
It was a difficult battle. Lieutenant Dobdobal had no choice but to fight defensively. But he could win, albeit at the cost of immense losses.
This fight would have been a lot easier if only the Czar was nearby.
"Where did you go… Sir Czar…"
***
"Almost there…" I muttered while tapping away on the last of the three-layered doors out of the Sermentali base. Just past this door was the emergency escape carrier prepared by the Sermentali—protocol for them.
"No rush, Spectre."
Perhaps used to the quiet of our escape so far, Estella was getting a little too relaxed. Not a problem, she was of a lot of use to me so far. Her strength was immense.
I kept tapping on the door and slowly spoke up.
"Estella, why did you leave your planet?"
Estella seemed a little amused by my question, as if she wasn't expecting it but also wasn't averse to it.
"I had my reasons."
She was of great use to me, and as much as I had seen, she could help even more.
"Would you like…" I tapped the last of the code in and stood upright, turning to face her. A loud hiss resounded as the doors opened up. "To stick with me for a while? I think we can both help each other with our goals—"
Doors?
A sense of foreboding crept up my spine. Estella was a beat faster. Instead of looking at the goal, we both turned to the gate we had just passed.
Standing there, hidden behind the shadows, was a single, four-armed Sermentali.
"The… Earth Czar…"