Yeah, I haven’t been very good about writing this story. This chapter isn’t so great, I hope to do better on the next one.

Finally, a chance. They had been preparing for this moment for almost two months. Sky’s fleet had been building their own drones to support the free sentinel fleet fighting the corrupted fleet. One of the sentinel cruisers picked up a special anomaly sitting behind three enemy fleet. Its diameter occasionally fluctuated, but there was no doubt that that was the other exit out of the anomalous space, possibly even where Stardust went. Aanvi thought it was time to test the theory, so she started building a specialized drone with heavy shields incase something went wrong.

Her drone was completed within a week and it was the size of a real fighter. Most of the drones they created were small and light to better evade the bolts cast by the corrupted sentinel cruisers. They had developed specialized rooms to pilot the drones like real starfighters. After a quick test flight around the Horizon, she determined her drone was ready.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t send the smaller ones? They’ll be harder to hit.”

“And they can only send back limited information Sky. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

“Aanvi, I know that you know what you’re doing. I’m just a little worried you’ll lose the drone and not be able to rebuild it.”

“Please, you know me. I can build a better one and the same amount of time. Besides, this one should take accurate readings on what’s on the other side of the void.”

With that, it was time for the run through the Void. Information was being relayed back that right now there was a clear path to the exit but they would have to move fast. It wouldn’t be long before there was another ship guarding the exit, so Aanvi’s drone was sent on its way.

“This is Avalanche accelerating to attack speed, we’ll be at your side shortly.”

Along side were about a hundred other drones sent as real support, while her drone had minimal weapons for its size and was primarily for getting through the exit.

Text appeared along side the screen. Avalanche read the information the free sentinels had provided:

78 enemy cruisers remaining slowly retreating,
42 enemy frigates remaining,
1,436 estimated enemy fighters remaining,
Distance between exits: roughly 1500 kilometers.

The battlefield scans weren’t looking good. Debris was everywhere, enemy ships behind allied lines and allied ships behind enemy lines, sometimes the ships were even scattered. Unfortunately she couldn’t pulse jump anyways even if her path was clear due to the combat. Didn’t matter since the drone can’t do that anyway, she would have to make the run with it’s standard speed. However, she could still cover the distance quickly and estimated it should take her a minute at most. Now was her chance.

The drones poured into the void and immediately began to go their separate ways to help different divisions that needed support. Aanvi just kept hers as steady as possible. 500 kilometers in and she was alone. One of the enemy ships was moving into position to block the exit though and began firing at her drone. It sustained several hits but the shielding held up.

20 seconds to the target, and the corrupted ship was already in front of it.

“Guess I’m doing this the hard way.”

“Go get ‘em Aanvi.”

She fired her charge beams at one of the towers, it didn’t destroy it due to the frigate’s shields. 15 seconds to target, she was almost hit in a barrage of bolts and beams. She sped by as fast as she could. 10 seconds to target, the corrupted sentinel interceptors had been launched. 3 were in pursuit. 5 seconds to target, they almost had a clear shot of her. She made it through the exit.. but she still couldn’t see anything. Moments later, she appeared inside a planets atmosphere. And unfortunately, those pests made it too.

“I’ve cleared the Void but I’ve got three fighters on me. Taking evasive action.”

All she needed was enough time for a geo-scan. She proved she could make it through, but now could she stay in the air?

She hit her air brakes and let them all fly past her, she shot one down immediately because it didn’t have it’s shields up. She chased another as the third interceptor circled around to shoot her down. After destroying the second corrupted fighter’s shields, she shot the engines and corrupted fighter bursted into flames and disintegrated. One to go.

“Come on.. come on..”

She circled around in an attempt to throw the other one off, they shot at each other, destroyed each other’s shields, and hit each other’s core, causing both drones to explode and disintegrate. The bottom left corner said “incoming data transfer.. transfer incomplete.”

“There’s only one thing that could mean.. she’s there.”

“Let me see if I can salvage some of the data we got.”

The data was part of a log written by Stardust. It wasn’t much, it just read “I hope Sky and the fleet find me soon, it’s been 8 months. Hopefully this signal receiver works.”

“Sky, she’s definitely alive.”

“Now we just need to figure out how to send me over there. We’ll need to spare as much of the fleet as possible.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Someone needs to save her. I’m not sure why she didn’t try coming back yet but it does appear that she’s waiting for us. I’m willing to risk myself to do it. If I can make it through, then it’s likely the rest of the fleet will be able to.”
————
Stardust sat on the ledge over looking the sea. Ivy, a hybrid dragon, was with her. Blizzard, some sort of ice dragon, was further away with a black dragon named Stormbringer.

She was worried about Sky and the fleet, she had run into her own problems with the sentinels. She was stuck on this planet and she didn’t know where to go. At least she made some friends despite her being a strange alien. It was nice to have a break from the fighting, no matter how nervous it made her feel about the fleet. Her wrist comm started flashing, at least it was working again, despite it almost getting her caught the night before.

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to check something.”

She pressed the button and it opened up footage from the wing of a drone. There was some jungle in the background with a river beside it. Next to the river was a savanna. Looks like there were dragons in the background fleeing the continent.

“Stardust? Why is it showing Pantala?”

“I don’t know.”

Of course, there was a corrupted sentinel as well coming at them and the footage went dead.

“Oh no.. why are they leaving?”

“We can’t do anything about that now Ivy, we’re too far from there to do anything. The best we can do is figure it out in the morning.”

(For this portion of the story, it ended up as a role play, like most of Stardust’s misadventures upon accidentally crashing into the WoF universe)

Finally, a chance. They had been preparing for this moment for almost two months. Sky’s fleet had been building their own drones to support the free sentinel fleet fighting the corrupted fleet. One of the sentinel cruisers picked up a special anomaly sitting behind three enemy fleet. Its diameter kept fluctuating, but there was no doubt that that was the other exit out of the anomalous space, possibly even where Stardust went. Aanvi thought it was time to test the theory, so she started building a specialized drone with heavy shields incase something went wrong.

Her drone was completed within a week and it was the size of a real fighter. Most of the drones they created were small and light to better evade the bolts cast by the corrupted sentinel cruisers. They had developed specialized rooms to pilot the drones like real starfighters. After a quick test flight around the Horizon, she determined her drone was ready.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t send the smaller ones? They’ll be harder to hit.”

“And they can only send back limited information Sky. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

“Aanvi, I know that you know what you’re doing. I’m just a little worried you’ll lose the drone and not be able to rebuild it.”

“Please, you know me. I can build a better one and the same amount of time. Besides, this one should take accurate readings on what’s on the other side of the void.”

With that, it was time for the run through the Void. Information was being relayed back that right now there was a clear path to the exit but they would have to move fast.