Chetaara ran up to him, threw her arms around his neck, and hugged him. Her soft breasts squeezed against his chest. "You did it. You kept your promise. You freed us."
"Yeah." Byron turned towards the dark horizon. "But it won't last long if we don't stop the Firestorm. Has anyone seen the commander and captain?"
Everyone looked at each other.
Byron swept the camp with his eyes. "No one saw them? That tells you something. How could they be in this camp and no one found them?"
Princess snapped her fingers. "Because they are not in the camp."
He followed her train of thought immediately. "They're in the mine. Of course. That's the only place that would be safe if they're planning to destroy the surface."
He ran for the gate leading out of the compound.
When they reached the entrance to the mine, they could see Captain Kurrs and at least fifty Death Troopers standing in the path leading up to the elevators.
Kurrs hunched over in pain, but had his rifle in one hand and a whip in the other, standing bold. "Ladies and gentlemen, you're not getting in here. That's a fact. I suggest you go find somewhere to pray to your phony gods, because in about ten minutes, you'll be going to meet them."
"Why are you trying to stop us?" Byron yelled. "If this goes off, you'll die with us!"
Kurrs tapped his codpiece. "Without a working dick, I'd rather be dead."
Chetaara stepped forward. "We will stop you, captain. And you will die for what you've done to my people."
"Maybe. But I'm taking you with me. Fire!"
The Death Troopers at the front of the group fired their weapons, sending a wave of lasers at the Nikora. Some of the Nikora fell with cries of agony, but others fired back, causing the Death Troopers to fall in kind.
The Death Troopers behind the front row charged forward, swinging their energy whips. The Nikora leaped into the air to meet them, and the two sides collided.
Byron found himself caught between the two warring factions, fighting Death Troopers who came at him, and trying to defend Nikora who were fighting back. He shot a Death Trooper who leaped at him, launched a fireball at another soldier who seemed about to whip at a Nikora female, and kicked a Death Trooper trying to strangle a Nikora child. Through the chaos of the battle, he kept an eye out for his real target and found him.
Captain Kurrs had his whip lashing the air around him while firing blasts at anyone who came too close. He caught sight of Chetaara, and swung his whip at her throat. She screamed and fell to her knees while the burning lash encircled her neck.
Byron roared as he charged the captain. He tackled Kurrs from behind and knocked him to the ground.
Kurrs rolled over and punched Byron in the face. Byron barely felt it, and when he punched Kurrs back, the captain flew almost three feet in the air to crash against the wall.
Kurrs wiped blood from his lip with the back of a hand as he grinned. "You been workin' out, Jones?"
Byron stood up. "Something like that."
He had changed. He felt stronger, faster, and more powerful than ever before. It had to be the level up Otis had given him.
He charged the captain again, and slammed his fist into Kurrs' stomach. Kurrs doubled over, but Byron grabbed him by the throat, and punched him in the jaw again. Kurrs went flying up to the cave ceiling.
A stalactite punched through Kurrs' back and came out of his chest to impale him.
Kurrs hung from the stone spear, eyes wide, gurgling for a long moment. His arms and legs went limp as he slid down from the stalactite to land dead on the floor.
"Amazing," Chetaara whispered.
Byron smiled at her. "I'm just getting started."
The sirens blared louder as a voice came over the loudspeakers. "Warning, Firestorm Protocol Activated. All Imperial personnel to shelters immediately. Repeat, Firestorm Protocol Activated. All Imperial personnel evacuate the surface immediately. Eight minutes before detonation."
A pair of metal gates began to slide over the elevator doors.
"No!" Byron ran for the elevators.
Chetaara chased alongside him, but Byron was able to outrun her. He dove for the closing gap in the doors and made it through just as they slammed shut.
He took deep breaths as the elevator began to descend.
He was alone. As far as he knew, he was the only one to make it to the elevators. The commander waited below, and he would have to stop him.
When the elevator came to a stop, the doors opened. The crippling heat struck him again and he remembered the gruesome labor of his time in the mines. It lay empty now, pickaxes and mining carts lying abandoned.
He stepped into the cavern. "Skarr, where are you?"
His voice echoed off the walls.
The sirens blared again with the voice over the loudspeakers. "Warning, Firestorm Protocol Activated. All Imperial personnel to shelters immediately. Repeat, Firestorm Protocol Activated. All Imperial personnel evacuate the surface immediately. Five minutes before detonation."
He stepped deeper into the cave, trying to overcome his body trying to shut down from the heat and exhaustion.
He came to an adjoining cavern and turned the corner. There, he found the commander hunched in his multi-legged harness before a blinking console as his harem of women surrounded him in a semicircle. The Nikora all turned to glare at Byron as Skarr tapped buttons.
Skarr's metal legs turned him around while he smiled. "Ah, I'm surprised you came by yourself but I suspected you would be here."
Byron wiped sweat from his forehead out of his eyes. "I'm here to shut it down, Skarr. The Firestorm. The camp. Everything."
"Of course you are. But you won't be able to stop anything, my boy."
Byron made a point of looking down at Skarr's huge gut. "Are you saying you're gonna fight me?"
Skarr chuckled and snapped his fingers.
The Nikora women moved as one, charging at Byron.
Byron ducked and weaved as the females swung punches and kicks at his head, stomach, and legs. He was fast, but they seemed faster. The air around him whistled with their flying limbs. Despite his best efforts, one punch connected to his jaw and sent him spinning to the ground.
Skarr pushed a button that made his harness walk him forward. "I don't need to fight you, Jones. My harem will do it for me."
Byron looked over at the women surrounding him. "You don't need to do this, ladies. You don't need to protect him. He doesn't care about you."
Skarr wheezed in laughter again. "Do you think they obey me because they love me? No, it's because of this little button."
He pushed a button on the console around his waist.
One of the women screamed and fell to her knees as sparks flew from the collar around her neck.
Skarr waved a hand. "With those collars, I can give any of them an electric shock any time I want to. I can even shock them to death."
He pushed the button again and held it down.
The same Nikora on her knees jerked and screamed before she collapsed on the dirt. The other Nikora females gathered around her, wailing.
Skarr ignored them. "As long as I have this button, they'll do whatever I say. Like, for example, kill you."
He snapped his fingers and pointed at Byron. "Ladies, take care of him for me."
The Nikora turned away from the fallen female, wiped the tears from their eyes, and lunged to attack again.
This time, Byron felt a little more prepared. He backed away to keep them out of reach as their claws swiped and slashed at him. He managed to grab one of the arms flying at him, and twisted it. The Nikora flipped away, jumped off a wall, and leaped at him again.
As he tried to avoid her, a set of claws sliced into his bare chest. The pain made him gasp, freezing long enough for a foot to slam into his jaw. He went down.
This wouldn't work. He knew he had to fight them, but he didn't want to hurt the Nikora. He knew they were just following orders and trying to survive. It was Commander Skarr he wanted, and he was t
he key to stopping them.
Byron knew he had high strength stats, but he needed more. He turned on his strongman code, and power surged through him. He used his more powerful arms to grab a boulder on the ground and hurl it. The rock slammed into two of the women, knocking them to the ground. That left him an opening to leap across the room to Skarr.
He landed on the Commander's gut, and it felt like landing on a giant marshmallow. The force made Skarr hunch over and gurgle. He took hold of the commander's harness and tore it in half.
As the metal around his stomach fell away, Skarr dropped to the ground. His mechanical legs went limp, and his real legs flailed helplessly, unable to even move him.
Skarr lay on the dirt, gasping as his plump hands reached out to the women around him. "Ladies, help me."
The Nikora shrieked as they leaped on him. He screamed as their claws tore into his pale flesh.
As the Nikora ripped into him, Byron turned away to the control panel. He had been worried it would look really complex or in an alien language, but he just pushed the button that read "stop."
Once again, he reminded himself he was in a video game.
A low whine filled the air of the cavern as the loudspeaker said, "Firestorm Protocol deactivated. All Imperial personnel may resume normal duties."
He turned back to the body of Skarr lying behind him. The Nikora females turned away from it, gasping with exertion, their arms and faces covered in blood.
The women all bowed.
One said, "Thank you for freeing us."
Byron nodded. "All in a day's' work."
Chapter 23
THE ICARUS looked as good as new as it stood on the grassy plains where Byron and his women had left it. The repair spiders finished the last cracks in the hull and scurried back inside when Xana pushed a button on her tablet.
After settling in, Byron looked out of the bridge forward window at the Nikora gathered outside the starship. They all waved and jumped up and down, and he could hear their cheering even through the ship's hull. "You sure you don't want to stay, Chetaara?"
Chetaara stood behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "They will do well without me. My people have retaken the compound, and have turned it into a home base. The Empire's weapons and equipment are ours to launch a rebel movement. I have faith they will prevail. Besides, I can return. But if you succeed in your quest to overthrow Lady Necralia, that will help all of us, not just Nikor."
Byron turned to Khloe, who walked over to him. "You ready to go?"
"Yeah, I need to talk to you about that." Khloe lowered her eyes while poking her toe at the floor. "I'm sorry, Byron. I want to help overthrow Lady Necralia with you, but I don't think it's possible. Neither does Princess. We're gonna go rebuild our clan."
"Okay, you don't have to help me, but what about us?"
She looked up to kiss him. "Byron, I really like you, but I can't share you. I know some people in this game share guys with other girls and girls with other guys, but I can't. I'm just a one-woman kinda gal."
He looked at his crew standing nearby. "I'll send them all away if that's what you want."
She shook her head. "No, because you'd hate me for it. Besides, this isn't real. I don't know you. I don't know what you're really like. This is all just a game. I've been burned by online relationships before. I told myself I'd never fall for a guy online again without meeting them in the real world."
He felt a sinking feeling in his gut. "But we were getting along so well. I thought you wanted this."
"It was different when it was just a fling, but if it's going to be real, long-term, I can't handle that right now. Not like this."
He lowered his eyes to his boots. He had felt a real connection to her, but had to admit she had a point. "I understand."
"But if you ever get back to the real world, look me up." She read out an email address, adding, "Maybe we can get together over coffee. And if that works out, maybe Netflix and chill. You know, normal stuff."
He grinned. "Sure."
Khloe smiled and strolled out of the bridge. He took one last look at her ass before she slipped out and he heard the boarding ramp close. Through the window, he watched her and Princess walk out onto the planet's surface, waving at him.
Scarlett leaned against him with her elbow on his shoulder. "Cheer up, Byron. You'll always have Nikor."
Byron grinned at her. "Ah, it's not that big a deal. Let's go kick Lady Necralia's ass."
They all climbed into their chairs, ignited the ship's engines, and the Icarus launched itself up into the clouds.
Scarlett looked at Byron. "So where do we go next?"
He leaned over to look at the star map. "Well, I can't take Lady Necralia down by myself. We need to connect with the Resistance. I know that--
"Oh, shit." Scarlett turned to her controls as lights flashed all over her screens. "We're not out of the woods yet."
A black starship hung in orbit over the planet Nikor like a huge knife with its blade pointed at the Icarus. What looked like a black cloud flowed out of one side, but as the cloud drew closer, tiny specks became clearer. He realized hundreds of Death Wing fighters formed the cloud.
"The Empire," Xana whispered, "has arrived to come get you."
Byron felt like all the blood drained out of his face. He was powerful, but this felt like trying to stop a tidal wave "Uh, Scarlett, can we go to hyperspace?"
Scarlett shook her head. "They're jamming us. We're stuck in the system."
Xana raised a hand. "Um, I might be able to find a frequency to jump from."
The communications screen lit up with the face of a thin man with white eyes and skin. He had a humorless smile. "This is General Deth, commander of the Necralia fleet. Your hyperdrive is disabled and you are clearly outnumbered. You will power down your engines and prepare to be boarded."
Scarlett held up both middle fingers. "Fuck you we will."
Deth chuckled. "That was not a request. Lady Necralia wants Byron Jones alive, but the rest of you are expendable."
"We're not going anywhere with you, shithead."
Deth shrugged. "I merely tried to save you some time. Feel free to try to resist us. We could use the exercise."
The comm screen went black.
Chetaara put her hand on Byron's shoulder. "No, we will escape. It's the will of the gods that you be free."
"Well, I can't fulfill anything if I'm dead." Byron pointed at Xana. "See if you can get the hyperdrive working. Scarlett, evasive maneuvers. And give me weapons. We're gonna fight."
"You got it, Captain." She pushed buttons.
The joystick came out of the console for Byron to hold and the window lit up with icons for all the Death Wing fighters swarming towards them. There were so many that the icons blended together into a red mass drifting through the cloud of fighters.
Byron felt his heart sink. He had played games against impossible odds before, but this seemed too much. He tried to think of some trick or move that would let him beat the fighters. He reminded himself this was a game. There had to be a way out.
"Okay," Byron murmured. "Let's just go for it."
He pulled the trigger and fired into the storm of Death Wing fighters. Laser bolts pounded into the dark swirling mass in front of them. Some of the health bars on the enemy ships dropped, but none of them fell completely. The fighters veered off to avoid his fire, but came back around with their guns blazing.
The Icarus rocked from the impacts and thundered like a rainstorm as the enemy fighters pounded the shields. Byron glanced at the wireframe display of the Icarus and watched the shields on the port and starboard sides collapse from yellow to red.
"Shit!" Scarlett yelled. "We're gonna lose the shields in about two seconds, then it's the hull that gets fucked!"
Chetaara shook her head. "May the Goddess preserve us, we cannot stand against this onslaught."
Byron let go of the ship's guns, knowing they were wasting power. He couldn't take these ships o
ut. He looked around the area for another object. He spotted a huge battleship drifting by on their starboard side.
He pointed at it. "Maybe we can get some cover. Fly as close as you can next to that ship. Try to use it like a shield or to take any random fire."
Scarlett nodded and steered the ship towards the battleship. The column of Necralia Death Wing fighters rushed towards them, and went from a cloud to hundreds of enemy fighters again. The spray of weapons fire became a rain that poured out onto the ship.
Scarlett worked the controls, and the Icarus spun in a spiral that made all of space twist around the windows. Chetaara shrieked and hung onto Byron as the centrifugal force sent them all up against the walls. They headed for the battleship and swirled around its length as the fighters chased them.
He rushed off the bridge and charged down the hallways towards the rear of the ship. The halls of the Icarus rumbled with fire as he reached the engine room filled with glowing pillars, and Xana furiously tapped at consoles.
"How's it looking?" he yelled.
Xana shook her head. "I-I'm sorry. It's jamming across the spectrum. I could bypass it if I had enough time, but we don't."
The whole ship rocked and sirens blared as the thunder of weapon impacts grew louder.
Xana looked up. "We've lost shields."
One wall of the engine room burst open in an explosion. The blast knocked her and Byron off their feet. Somehow, she ended up on top of him. The two of them stared into each other's eyes.
"I love you," she whispered.
He felt a moment's shock before he spoke. "I love you, too."
She gave him a kiss and rolled off. She slammed her fist on a button that made a metal plate slid over the hole in the hull.
Mine Shaft: A LitRPG Sci-Fi Harem Adventure (Venus Online Book 4) Page 16