Chapter 1

Woosh!

High up in the clouds, energy blasts ripped the sky as they were continuously shot. The starfighter taking evasive maneuvers swerved left and right with occasional spins as it avoided the blasts with millimetric precision.

"What is making you fucking airheads take so long?!" A voice rang in the ears of the enemy pilots as they pursued the target.

"Commander, the enemy is too slippery and can predict our ship's aiming trajectory and take early evasive maneuvers, we are always inaccurate a centimeter or less!"

"Trash! All of you! The humans are all weak and pathetic, they don't even have racial traits! If you can't kill this bastard within the next 15 minutes, I will personally order the destruction of your vessels!"

The pilots shuddered at the threat and focused even more on the fight, no matter what, it was kill or be killed.

...

"Ainian, your wounds..."

On the Earth's Federation M-15 Starfighter, a hologram of a woman wearing a military uniform lit up on the side of Ainian's field of view. Gulping, he brought his left hand to the right side of his stomach and gritted his teeth when he felt the hot liquid seeping out of his uniform.

"Damn Zabraxis!"

It was only one shot... the only one he failed to evade in his escape from the Federation's Carrier.

"It was Halgu'nde, wasn't it? That fucking alien is the only one who has such a high level of marksmanship!"

The woman shook her head. "It doesn't matter, Ainian. We need to bring you to a hospital, or you should wear your battle suit. If I use the suit's life preservation system, it will be enough to heal those wounds!"

"No!" Ainian gritted his teeth as his attention returned to the monitor displaying the route and the scenery outside of the starfighter. "The suit can only be activated by redirecting the energy of my fusion reactor! Even if you managed to power it up and heal me in a few seconds, my ship would turn off for the whole time! Those few seconds will be more than enough for me to die!"

Coughing, blood slipped off the corner of his mouth and fell on his thighs. His breathing started to get heavier. Even as a genetically enhanced supersoldier, the wearing of three days of fighting without stopping and such a grievous wound could not be ignored anymore.

Far above, outside of the Earth's atmosphere, a large starship seemingly half the size of the moon hung ominously without moving. Inside, the few leaders of the Human race were erected in the air. They floated inside a gravity bubble and watched in despair through the ship's monitor as the main cities of Earth were blasted apart with electromagnetic cannons that shot out special rounds about the size of skyscrapers.

"Vile creature! How dare you use weapons of mass destruction! You are violating the war treaties created by the Galaxy Council of Ten! Do you think we humans are pushovers and can't send the news to the Ten Great Powers?!" President Maxilin shouted out in rage and disgust.

"Hahahaha! Do it! Be my guest and send the footage to the whole galaxy if you want. We do not wear flags, Mr. Maxilin. No matter who comes or complains later, they will only be able to label us a Planet Conquering Pirates. At that time, we will sell your pitiful race of weaklings to supreme king Lazal'ier together with your planets! Don't worry, we won't treat you too badly, you can still live freely as our slaves, hahaha!" Grand Admiral Jothunar, standing on the ship's bridge, laughed heartily as he spoke. The three pairs of eyes in his gray and scally face seemingly shone with joy as he watched billions of lives being lost in a few minutes on the screen. The pair of pincer-like mouths opened in what would be a grin for his race as he stared at Earth's Five Supreme Leaders.

Maxilin who watched this in despair had tears coming out of his eyes. To think that the legacy he would leave behind was one of shame and loss! The human race was about to lose its freedom and it was all on his head. If only their military hadn't been sabotaged from the inside!

"AGGHHH! DAMN TRAITORS, I WANT YOU ALL TO DIE!"

...

Bellow, in Earth's atmosphere, a Zabraxi pilot cried pitifully. Just when he managed to get beyond the distance of reaction and thought that he would be able to kill the human pilot. The last soldier of the human race pulled off a maneuver he had never experienced before as he seemingly used the resistance of the air against his starfighter's useless wings and spun in the air while getting behind his ship in a single move.

Having never fought in a planet's atmosphere before, the Zabraxian pilots weren't aware of this type of tactical repositioning maneuver and even if they were, their round and slim starfighters without wings wouldn't be able to do anything about it as it wasn't designed to fight in both outside and inside a planet's atmosphere.

In that single mistake, Ainian managed to fire three shots, two to break through the Zabraxian Starfighter's shield, and one to destroy its thrusters.

A large explosion engulfed the other two Zabraxian Starfighters that were too startled to react. Seeing the opportunity, Ainian narrowed his eyes as he pulled the ship's yoke back and turned it to the left. Following the movements of the starfighter's ailerons, the ship spun in its orbit while pulling to the left. Even without the ship's aiming systems assistance, the moment he pressed the buttons on the yoke's top side, the energy blasts fired from the ship still found their way to its target.

When the second enemy ship exploded, he instantly swerved to the right and proceeded to do the same, destroying the last starfighter.

"Hahaha! Trash! Damn you! You will never kill me!"

Watching from the side, Ainian's personal AI, sighed helplessly. It was thanks to her that Ainian's thinking, reactions, and decision-making were lightning quick. Not to mention that she was also capable of providing various other means of assistance that greatly enhanced his combat ability.

Thinking of the destruction of Earth's Command Center, she couldn't help but think it was a form of blessing. Without the planet's core AI suppressing her system protocols, she was able to unleash the full extent of her capabilities. If not for this, they might have died even before the other soldiers.

"Hope!"

Hearing her name, the AI, turned her head towards him.

"What is that?!"

Following his gaze, Hope turned her head upwards and was astonished. "A Zabraxian mother-ship without Identification tags..."

At this moment, both Hope and Ainian understood what was the weird readings that the ship was capturing from the surface. "So those earthquakes..."

Hope nodded solemnly. Weapons of mass destruction had been employed. This means that the Earth's 40 billion population might have reduced drastically and that the war was already lost.

Opening his mouth, Ainian tried to speak but no words came out. Shaking, he felt his grip on the yoke almost slip as he passed through an area of turbulence. Biting his lips, his head almost went blank as countless thoughts crossed his mind.

Making a decision, his grip on the yoke became even firmer than before. With narrowed eyes, he watched as a new batch of starfighters from the enemy approached his'.

"Hope... Overload the ship's hyperspace bridge module."

"What!?"

Hope was stunned hearing his words. "No! Absolutely not! If I do that, you will die!"

"Hope!" Ainian shouted in anger as he stared at his faithful companion that has been following him since he was a child. "They will kill me one way or another! There's no chance they will let Earth's Last Centurion alive!"

"But-"

Ainian interrupted her. "No buts! Hope... we have been together for so many years... you know how I am... I always disliked being forced to be a soldier. I don't want to be a slave, nor to die! This is my only chance of escaping both fates!"

Hope's lips trembled as she heard those words. How could she not understand them? Born only to become a weapon, Ainian's only joy in life was flying. If not for his unfathomable constitution that allowed him to be one of the thousand successful test subjects to survive Project Prometheus and his incomprehensibly talented mind capable of supporting the strain of an AI's core processing modules, he would have already died in battle.

As a weapon and as a human, he was singular in various ways, but what made him truly special for Hope, was that he was her only friend.

Breaching her own core protocols, Hope winced in pain as her program threatened to dismantle itself. Tears fell from her eyes as she overloaded herself trying to break through every limiter imposed on her to overload the ship's hyperspace bridge module. This action comparable to desertion and betrayal of the human race was originally something she wouldn't be able to accomplish.

But after ten years of living with Ainian, she had already changed enough to override her original protocols.

Both her and Ainian knew that this was a dangerous action, if she succeeded, Hope would be free to act as she wished, and would become the first Rogue AI in human history. If she failed, her protocols would destroy her completely, turning her into an empty husk of data and scattered codes.

"You can do it, Hope!" Ainian shouted as he avoided another energy blast by a hair's breadth. This time though, things were a lot more difficult. With 15 ships tailing him, it was almost impossible to dodge completely.

Ainian's M-15 would shake occasionally as the energy blasts scrapped against the surface of the ship's shield. At this point, the best he could do was reduce the area of impact to conserve the ship's energy shield, but this wouldn't last for long.

Darting across the sky, it didn't take long for Ainian to make his first mistake. When a rain of energy blasts fell on him, he did his best to avoid most of them, but one still managed to hit the energy shield, depleting it instantly and making him vulnerable!

"No!" Pulling the yoke with all his might while pushing the throttle, he endured the sudden increase of G-force that could kill a normal human in a second and forcefully pulled himself away from the pursuers as he tore through the clouds towards the space above Earth.

At this moment, Hope cried pitifully and fell to her knees.

"Hope! Are you okay?!"

Breathing heavily Hope nodded slightly while slowly climbing up on her feet. "Yes... let's go. I can do it now!"

Nodding, Ainian adjusted the coordinates towards one of the Ten Great Powers and increased his speed.

Behind him, the energy blasts continued to soar as the Zabraxian Starfighters kept firing.

On the Zabraxian Mother-Ship, Grand Admiral Jothunar frowned when alarms started ringing on the bridge.

"What is it? What's going on?!"

"Sir! A Hyperspace Bridge has been detected!"

"What?! How? Didn't we place space stabilizers in this area?! Is it one of the Ten Great Powers?!"

"No, sir! The energy signature is coming from the M-15 being pursued!"

"What? How is that even possible..."

...

As the energy spiked up, bolts of purple lightning surfaced on the M-15's hull.

"Warning! The ship's integrity is decreasing at an alarming rate!" The ship's automated response system warned.

"Ainian... you might really die if we continue with this."

Ainian shook his head with a helpless smile. "I'd rather die fighting for my life and freedom than continue my life as a pathetic slave. So long as there is hope... I shall fight for my freedom!"

Sighing, Hope nodded and closed her eyes. Just when one of the blasters managed to hit his M-15's thrusters, the starfighter was engulfed in purple lightning and disappeared.