C16

"XO how long till we exit the hyperspace?"

Ares asked as he nervously tapped his console's screen.

"ETA 1 Mike sir."

Ares XO replied in a professional and disciplined manner.

"So 1 more minute until I find out if my son is still alive or not."

Ares muttered under his breath completely disregarding the fate of humanity because frankly currently he didn't care at all after all his only son was fighting for his life all alone so what kind of a father would he be If he put humanity before his son?

Of course, some people would definitely criticize his thinking but did he care? No! He was the goddamn god of war that already saved humanity once! He already did more than enough for humanity!

"Exiting hyperdrive in 3,2,1!"

The whole Home Defense Fleet which had 3 times fewer ships than the Briian fleet together with 32 military transport ships transporting the marine divisions popped out into the dark starry space.

"Status report!"

Ares barked as he stood up from his seat.

"Huh? One moment Marshal, I'll check again!"

Ares flagships sensors officer said out loud because he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Move it!"

The Impatient Ares roared as he pushed the officer away only to be left dumbfounded at the live video feed.

He didn't see the space battle he was expecting, heck he didn't even see one intact ship! All he saw were wreckages of Briaan ships!

He knew that Einherjar was powerful, but there was no way in hell that he could take on a whole fleet by himself!

"I want to know what the f*ck is happening ASAP!"

Ares who felt his heart hitting his ribcage wildly roared making all the officers including his XO flinch because it was the first time they were seeing this side of his.

...

Bang! Bang! Bang!...

"Valhala this is Brunhilda, over!"

"Valhala this is Brunhilda, over!"

Lilith tried to contact ground control as she blasted a squad of Briaans into meat paste with her mass accelerator battle rifle hiding inside the rubble of once-human buildings allowing the marines in exoskeleton armor together with an IFV in the middle that they brought with their gunship advance forward.

Only for the alpha group on IFV's right to get gunned down by a hidden heavy laser machine gun.

Although the marine's exoskeleton armor had deflectors but because humanity was still using nuclear fission power and the difference between technology only one lucky guy's deflector managed to hold out and that was because the purple laser beam only grazed his arm.

In response, the IFV turned its turret to the right and poured out a short burst of 30 mm APHE autocannon shells at the machineguns position that quieted down immediately.

"F*ck! Don't tell me that jackass is dead!"

Lilith cursed once again only to get contacted by UNOES PUNIC.

"This is UNOES Punic if anyone is listening please reply over!"

"Punic this is Brunhilda the current acting commander of Einherjars onboard ODMT battalion, what the hell is going on up there I can't contact Einhejars ground control over?!"

"Brunhilda we just arrived and all we can see is a graveyard over!"

What the f*ck don't tell me that, that c*nt is really dead!

Lilith screamed in her mind as she couldn't help but feel her emotions run wild upon this thought.

"Punic I don't know what happened! All I know is that we got orbital dropped as Einherjar engaged the enemy fleet over!"

After Lilith said this the communication channel became silent for an entire minute until it came back to life again.

"Brunhilda understood we will get to the bottom of it, but what is the situation on the ground is it safe to orbital drop the ground forces over?!"

"Punic the enemy doesn't have any anti-orbital defense but they do have a small amount of AA I'm sending over the coordinates of the breach head that we made and the casualty count although there are only about 10 divisions of infantry that don't have many heavy-hitting military vehicles were still taking a beating over!

"Understood Punic out"

...

After orbital dropping the 32 marine divisions with ODMT compliments ranging from squads to companies which were all humanity could cough up the home defense fleet began limited orbital strike operations which made things for the ground troops a lot easier.

After all why charge in when you can just call in an orbital strike and enjoy the show without throwing away your life, it's good, right?

While a squadron of frigates from the fleet began search and rescue operations.

"Punic this Arrowhead we have located Einherjar but... I... I'm sending over the live video feed over"

The captain of Arrowhead said as he shared his live video feed because he just didn't have the words to describe what he was seeing.

Hearing this Ares pulled up the live video feed on his console and what he saw made his blood freeze.

He saw the battered Einherjar full of holes and missing chunks of its hull with its front rammed into the enemy flagship with dead bodies both human and Briaan and pieces of Briaan ships floating around it.

It was simply a massive graveyard.

"Arrowhead send in the marines to search the Einherjar for survivors over"

"Punic understood over"

Soon Arrowhead released all the gunships it had onboard together with all the spare marines it could cough up.

"This is alpha one we have successfully entered one of the gunships hangars over!"

The commander of one of the marine's squads reported as he together with his squad floated towards the corridor with the help of his chemical thrusters built-in inside the back of his exoskeleton armor.

While everyone else watched his fully enclosed helmet's live video feed.

Soon he saw a dozen of humans in their space uniforms with fully enclosed helmets with oxygen tanks on their backs silently floating in the corridor.

"KIA"

"KIA"

"KIA"

"KIA"

The commander reported as they quickly checked each body that wasn't torn in half or missing a limb until they finally found the first survivor.

"Allive f*ck this chick is f*cking lucky she just has a goddamn concussion"

The commander couldn't help but curse out at the female soldier's luck after looking at her forearm's holographic tablet which showed her vitals.

This continued until they finally entered the bridge and as they did Ares upon seeing the whole in the bridge felt his mind getting dizzy.

"Find the Captain immediately!"

Ares couldn't help but roar into the commander's communication channel.

"On it sir!"

The commander answered without any fuss after all he was a father himself.

"Marshal we can't find Captain Von Death Im... I'm afraid he got flung into space and there are two options he is either still alive or ..."

The commander answered since he knew who the captain of this suicide ship was after all before they left they got debriefed and he didn't finish his last words but he didn't need to.

Hearing this Ares fainted on the spot.

...

Ares felt like he was having a nightmare, a nightmare about his only son going on a suicide mission and dying and the worst part was that he allowed it!

As Ares woke up in his quarters he came to the crushing realization that it wasn't a nightmare but reality.

"F*ck I... I... shouldn't have let him go! I should have locked him up!"

Ares couldn't help but curse as he covered his face with his hands only to feel his tears wetting his gloved hands.

"Marshal it's me"

Ares heard his XOs voice as he did he wiped away his tears and got his shit together.

"Come in!"

As Ares XO entered the room he immediately noticed the marshal's red eyes.

At this moment he wasn't sure anymore if he should say it or not but in the end, he decided that he should know.

"Marshal we found your son b..."

Before he could finish his words he felt Ares's iron grip on his shoulders.

"Is he alive?!"

As he looked at Ares's crazed eyes he couldn't help but swallow a gulp of saliva.

"He is Alive but his condition I'm afraid he won't live for a day..."

"Take me to him"

Ares said word by word leaving no room for discussion.

...

As Ares looked at Dracula's mangled body with his space uniform that had melted with his skin and muscles into one vomit-inducing mess because his current body couldn't withstand the psionic power he was outputting.

He was currently in a cryo pod that slowed down his metabolism to the level of a dead person which he was already basically one he couldn't but feel his world shatter.

"Sir we put him in cryo sleep but I'm afraid that even the most cutting-edge technology cant save him at this point..."

Punics med bays officer standing on the marshal's side said.

Hearing this Ares took out his phone and dialed up his XO.

"Prepare a frigate to travel back to Earth ASAP"