(anwhile, Caleb's POV)
*Bzzzt*
*Trrrr*
*Thud*
Caleb, deployed near the front of the Cult fleet, saw stray strands of aura from Yu Rulo's orb sweep over his ship, as almost instantly the electrical systems around him began failing in rapid succession, warning runes dimming across control panels while weaker soldiers nearby started collapsing unconscious beneath the crushing residue of divine pressure.
*WEEEOOOO*
*WEEEOOO0*
Ergency alarms scread throughout the destroyer as Caleb felt his heart jump into his throat, because all around the forward line, ships had already begun exploding one after another.
*Boom* *Boom* *Booom*
For the first ti since deploynt, the possibility of death no longer felt theoretical to him, as he stared through the viewing glass and saw entire vessels vanish in fire before his own eyes.
'Shit... is this it?' Caleb wondered, as for one unstable mont even his thoughts nearly slipped into panic while the hull around him groaned under stress.
Compared to ships deeper in the rear formation, his vessel sat dangerously near the front, which ant the pressure wave rolling through the fleet struck his position far harder than many others.
Panels burst in showers of sparks.
Weapon conduits flickered.
Navigation arrays collapsed.
And once the primary electrical systems died, only the ergency life-support matrix powered by reserve mana stones remained, as it sohow strained to maintain breathable air inside the vessel.
*Pant*
*Pant*
That realization made Caleb's spine run cold, because if an internal surge reached the live weapon cores stored below deck, the destroyer itself could beco its own funeral pyre.
'Not good... this ship may explode at any ti!
The thought ca naturally, and yet as quickly as fear surfaced, discipline forced its way over it, as Caleb rembered sothing Leo
had drilled into him countless tis growing up.
A frightened officer spreads death.
A calm officer contains it.
And in that instant, Caleb understood this was not the mont to indulge fear, because too many eyes were already looking toward him for cues on how to react.
"Everyone stay calm, backup systems are still functioning and we are going to be fine," Caleb said, forcing firmness into his voice even while his pulse hamred violently inside his chest.
The pilot looked toward the burning horizon and pointed with trembling hands.
"But General Sparrow... his ship... it's destroyed!"
He said, as even Caleb's stomach lurched hearing that.
From where he stood, the flagship really did appear consud, and for one dangerous second his mind imagined the entire formation collapsing without its spearhead.
Yet he crushed that thought imdiately, as reason took over.
"General Sparrow is a Demi God, he won't die easily even if his ship explodes," Caleb said, more confidently than he actually felt, as he forced the crew's attention back inward.
"You focus on us now, seal this cabin, prepare for prolonged electrical failure, and preserve reserve oxygen because ergency systems can sustain life for forty-eight hours at most."
His tone steadied the room in the most important way.
Because panic had been inches away, and strangely, once he
projected calm, others began borrowing it.
The crewn stopped shouting.
Hands returned to consoles.
Breathing slowed.
As orders that he recently gave out began to be followed.
"You heard the Lieutenant. Seal the cabin..."
"Try to divert more power towards the ergency systems.
See if a hard reboot brings any of the electricals back up..."
The crew talked amongst themselves, while outside, more distant explosions rolled through the fleet.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOOM*
Several additional ships disappeared in bursts of fire where rogue fragnts of the divine attack leaked through, and every blast made the crew instinctively brace for their own turn.
'If I die here... what would father and mother think?'
Caleb wondered, as he braced himself for what he believed might be the final monts of his life, while the crippled destroyer drifted
amidst chaos and failing systems.
However, the worst never ca to pass.
As slowly, the violence began to weaken and the crushing pressure faded, movent stirred through the floating wreckage ahead, where amidst fire and broken debris, Caleb suddenly caught sight of a lone silhouette suspended in the void.
General Sparrow.
Alive.
For several long breaths nobody inside the bridge spoke, because
seeing him erge from the burning ruin of his flagship felt so unreal that even seasoned crewn could only stare in stunned silence.
Caleb exhaled so hard his knees nearly weakened.
"I told you," he muttered, trying and failing to suppress a grin, as relief washed through him so sharply that it almost felt painful.
At nearly the sa mont, damaged systems across the destroyer began sputtering back to life, as one console flickered awake, then another, then navigation arrays returned, followed by weapons systems crawling back online piece by piece.
The pilot blinked in disbelief.
"Power is returning..."
Caleb's expression hardened instantly at those words.
"Good, then focus on restoring combat functionality and do it fast,
because this fight is just beginning," he ordered, as hands moved furiously across controls while mana channels reignited, targeting grids rebooted, and shield arrays slowly climbed back toward operational stability.
And before the crew could fully process that they had survived the
divine strike....
The radio erupted.
"CHARGE!" Commander Anderson Silva's voice roared through fleet
comms. "Every ship with mobility push forward and finish them all!" That single order transford the atmosphere inside the destroyer almost instantly, as fear turned into montum, shock hardened into aggression, and beyond Caleb's ship the entire Cult line surged forward with sudden purpose.
Thousands of warships accelerated together, weapons flaring across the void, as plasma streaks ignited the darkness ahead to punish the
Yu Clan.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Explosions rolled through space in layered waves as tens of thousands of ships exchanged fire, while streams of energy crossed so densely through the battlefield that the void itself seed woven from destruction and light.
And then Sparrow moved.
From the center of that chaos, he unsheathed his sword, and even
from this distance Caleb felt the terrifying pressure of aura gathering
around the blade before-
*SHHHHIIIIING*
A horizontal slash swept across the battlefield with catastrophic
force, and where it passed, enemy warships ruptured in cascading annihilation as nearly a thousand ships vanished in one devastating
stroke.
*KABOOM*
The bridge fell silent.
While soone whispered almost prayerfully, "What the hell..."
Even Caleb could only stare, because although he had always known
Veyr was monstrous in battle, witnessing such power firsthand felt
less like watching a warrior fight and more like watching myth itself
operate.
Then the pilot shouted over the commotion.
"All systems back online! What are your orders, lieutenant?"
As Caleb's grin returned at once.
"Well then what the hell are we waiting for?" he barked. "You heard
the Commander. Join the fucking firefight!"
He ordered, as his own destroyer lurched forward.
Weapons hot and ready as they joined the fray.
*BOOM*
Their first volley ripped into an enemy cruiser, a second followed
almost imdiately, then a third, and as enemy return fire streaked
past their hull Caleb felt sothing inside him shift.
Earlier he had feared dying.
Now he was fighting. Actually fighting.
And sohow that fear had transford into exhilaration.
"Target the left flank battery, reload plasma tubes and bring us
closer!" he shouted, as orders began spilling from him almost instinctively, as though so dormant part of him had awakened
under fire.
Around him the Cult advanced as one living organism, Sparrow carved devastation through the vanguard, Silva's fleet pressed ahead rcilessly, and Caleb, in his first true battle, felt the war he had imagined all his life finally beco real before him.
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