The Almighty Ring

Jiang Fei flipped the beacon signal emitter to ease the tracking of his location. “This is Commander Jiang Fei of the Fifth Hybrid Fleet. Beacon is on. Request mass teleportation onboard.”

“Identity confirmed. Please standby for teleportation,” replied the operator behind the teleportation system.

Light particles surrounded Jiang Fei and the entire army of girls, and they were all teleported aboard the main command ship. With all members accounted for, they were ready to get away from this galaxy.

“Prepare warp jump.”

“Course set for Fortuna Galaxy, Star System Krypton.”

Jiang Fei immediately ordered a warp jump as soon as he was on the bridge. The entire fleet was ready and their destination coordinates were inputted. All power was diverted from the impulse engine to the warp core.

“Warping in 5… 4… 3… 2…”

Just as the countdown system initiated and spacetime was starting to warp in front of each individual ship, several Azure-class Cruisers—ships that were part of the Fifth Hybrid Fleet—deployed spacetime warping disruptors.

The sudden cessation of warping caused severe damage to the warp core, forcing the entire ship to eject itself out of pre-warp and into normal spacetime. Fortunately, the external inertial dampener worked well and there was hardly any ship movement.

“Commander! Someone deployed warp disruptors! The warp core has been forced to shut down to prevent catastrophic damage! It’ll be four hours before we can warp!”

An alarm blared when the ship was forced out of warp. After someone finally turned it off, a deafening silence filled the bridge. Jiang Fei was visibly aggravated, with nerves popping out of his forehead.

“Traitors!” roared one of the captains.

The Alderaanian forces were right behind them and the only way to save themselves was to warp away. However, as all the ships’ warp cores had suffered severe damage, it would be four hours until they could be safe again. Four hours of exposing themselves to the enemy.

Without his order, the captains who were still on Jiang Fei’s side immediately aimed their cannons towards the Azure-Class Cruisers that deployed the disruptors. There was no need for proof, as only the Azure-Class Cruisers had onboard disruptors. The other ships did not carry them.

A moment of silence befell the entire fleet as a public broadcast was played. The transmission came from one of the ships that was being targeted.

“Attention. The enemy is coming but your fate is still undecided. If you choose to surrender to us, we can promise a lifetime of fortune and happiness on Alderaan!”

“Destroy the traitors!” yelled Jiang Fei.

But his orders fell on deaf ears as the remaining captains hesitated.

The situation was against them. The entire Fifth Hybrid Fleet was shackled and there was no way they could outrun the enemy. Jiang Fei had wasted too much time, and now, they had less than two hours before the enemy arrived.

The words of the traitors resonated with the captains who were still with Jiang Fei. They cannot fight the enemy, and even if they managed to sink the traitors’ ships, they would still die.

However, if they took matters into their own hands and surrendered to the Alderaanians, their lives might be spared. The only thing they would lose was their status and rank in the Trade Federation, in exchange for a happy life as part of the Alderaanian governing.

A flash of black light glowed brightly in Jiang Fei’s eyes as he snarled into the communicator, “Are you going to defect as well?”

The last thing Jiang Fei could tolerate in this world was someone betraying him.

“Commander, you’ve left us no choice. You of all people should know well. Your allegiance was never with the Trade Federation! Why would you want to die for them?” said one of the captains.

He reasoned that since Jiang Fei had only recently joined them, there was no way he could have already developed a deep sense of loyalty to the Trade Federation. Even if he actually had, not a single man in the entire fleet would buy that. That is why they believed that Jiang Fei would adhere to the broadcast, trusting that he too would defect.

One thing that they misunderstood about Jiang Fei was that he would never pledge his allegiance to anyone!

If the situation was simply a war between the Trade Federation and Alderaan, he would have chosen the easiest path to stay alive and be done with it, even if he was stronger or on equal grounds with the enemy. The chances of him ‘defecting’ to the other side were high, so long as the given benefits were better.

That being said, this situation was far more complicated than a simple war. Jiang Fei knew that the Alderaanians had been ‘taken over’ by the ‘players’. If he allied himself with the enemy, how would he defeat them and save the universe?

Jiang Fei screamed and cursed in his mind, “F*cking low-life scums! I am doing my f*cking best to save this f*cking world and this is the f*cking treatment I get?”

Even if he wasn’t infected, Jiang Fei would still have been furious at the betrayal, but he could have still tried to understand why they did so. However, with the black malice influencing his mind and judgement, there was no way he would show mercy.

Noticing the sudden change in Jiang Fei’s appearance, one of the bridge members asked, “Sir? Are you alright?”

Jiang Fei’s eyes were now filled with darkness, like a pair of black holes staring into the universe. Malice, enmity, and killing intent filled the room.

“Alright? I’m feeling great!” hissed Jiang Fei, an eerie smile stretching across his face. He turned on the fleet-wide broadcast one last time and said, “This is my final order. Destroy the traitors or you will be treated as one.”

Even though it was being transferred digitally through the ships, everyone who heard his sinister voice felt a shiver go down their spines. Not even the girls could understand what had gotten into Jiang Fei to be that merciless.

“Captain, what should we do?”

“Should we open fire?”

“Are we going to surrender?”

…

All the ships that were still on the fence about defecting started to discuss with one another. Captains themselves had to reason with each other.

Beep.

A timer suddenly appeared on the main screen on each ship. That was the amount of time given to them to obey Jiang Fei’s command or be treated as one of the traitors.

“What is the most logical path here?”

“Screw logic. I say we fire on the traitors!”

“Sigh… I’ve not yet lived a long enough life to suffer through another. It is just my luck to have been given such a brutal commander. That being said, I say we fight the enemy!”

…

“He is just a commander. What can he do to us? I will not stand around and let that young kid lead us all to our deaths!”

“Protect the Azure-Class Cruises! I do not believe he can do anything with just one ship! If he refuses to defect, we will sink his ship and the others that share his belief!”

“That’s right. He’s just a single ship!”

…

A decision was made and those who opposed Jiang Fei’s command aligned their ships with the Azure-Class Cruisers. The rest flew closer to Jiang Fei to prepare for a mass bombardment.

There were no more than about ten ships on Jiang Fei’s side. The captains of those ships were young. Not as young as Jiang Fei, but still considered young adults in their own races. They had been serving in the military their whole lives, and some of them even had families back in the main dominion of the Trade Federation.

Given the chance, they wouldn’t want to die now, but at the same time, they didn’t want to betray their families either! At the very least, they would die as heroes, instead of living as traitors for the rest of their lives.

Those who betrayed Jiang Fei were young as well, but most, if not all of them, were single and unmarried. They had nothing to lose but themselves and had no problem switching their allegiance. Based on past experience, they knew that the enemy would not sink ships that surrendered. They would even be accepted as spoils of war.

Jiang Fei made his last announcement, “I gave you a choice: obey or die. Some of you have chosen to obey, while the rest of you lot have decided to offer up your lives to me. You shall now witness the consequences of betraying the commander of the Fifth Hybrid Fleet!”

Black light glowed in his eyes and a dark smog oozed out from his feet. The cloud of unknown black gas surrounded his entire being. Jiang Fei was now an Umbral version of himself.