"Long live the Empire!" Amid the booming shout aboard the Natural Crest, the Starrealm Knights' lances of light and the ordinary soldiers' blasts of energy struck the hulking humanoid monster at once. The evil aura wrapped around its psionic core seemed to be sucked away by a black hole from another dimension, vanishing in an instant.
And so the enormous creature from the Void, which had killed hundreds aboard the Natural Crest's A Section, was finally destroyed.
"A Section clear!" Sir Ainan said over the comms, drawing back her lance of light.
"Combat in B Section is over!" the head of security reported.
"F Section secure," said Baron Stone, one of the Starrealm Knights.
Sir Ainan opened a private channel and reported, "The ship is back to normal."
She knew she wouldn't get a reply. But as long as there was no news, that was good news to her.
Sure enough, the channel stayed silent. Every so often, though, a rhythmic rush of air seemed to emerge from the terminal's speaker.
Sir Ainan hesitated, then told the troops, "Stay alert! More enemies could appear inside the ship. But if we can kill them once, we can kill them a thousand times!"
The Imperial soldiers answered with loud shouts. Their morale still seemed high, though their cheers were somewhat ragged.
Anyone with a sharp ear could tell, however, that the defenders' cheers had grown noticeably weary. They were near the limits of their stamina and fighting spirit, holding on only through years of grueling training.
Sir Ainan was anxious, too, but as the duke's chief maid and captain of her guard, she had no standing to urge her liege to hurry up and decide the battle.
At that moment, her terminal chimed with a report from Baron Stone.
"Spatial activity detected