As Altopereh stood in orbit, now fully exposed in front of Perciosa and Sirius, both titling their heads at the damaged vessel, Perciosa finally spoke, "That last attack was high-grade. That probably killed his vessel instantly." Sirius looked at the orbiton and scoffed, "A shame. I wanted to kill that vessel myself." Perciosa shrugged, following with, "What do you suppose we do now? We still have some time before our vessels are gone too." Sirius lifted his head, eyes narrowing toward the stars above. "I'm gonna make my way to Sacros. I still haven't paid them for what they did to me." Perciosa laughed, a deep rippling sound. "Sure, let's use the minutes we have left on old grudges." The two towering monsters disappeared, rippling the space around them, back on the Morphius, Mikhail was confused as to where the god-like beings had gone. But as he was contemplating the very sight he saw, Leonora came through the coms: "General! Are you alright? My forces have entered orbit, we can clean up from here."Mikhail exhaled and answered, "Thank you, Leonora." He sat heavily in his chair, whispering, "I think… this hell is finally over."
With Leonora's fleet of fifty ships taking formation and surrounding the planet once again, Leonora left her flagship and made her way toward the Morphius, joining Emilia and Mikhail. Now at the control deck, her face grinned as she looked at Altopereh floating in space, battered and beaten. Suddenly a call came from one of the ships in formation: "General, we have the Tartarusios. They are ascending to orbit as we speak. We are firing, but their shield is holding up. We request backup." But just as the message ended, the Tartarusios burst through the final layer of Antia's burnt atmosphere and appeared in front of the Morphius, Altopereh still suspended between them.
Inside the Tartarusios' control room, Oscar rose from his seat and walked toward the massive reinforced glass showing the battlefield ahead. His voice firm as he turned to Bjorn: "Send the call." Bjorn nodded in understanding as he connected the Tartarusios with Morphius.
Now on the command deck, the call from the Tartarusios came through, patched to the main screen. Oscar's face, hardened but grieving, now confronted the Terrian Empire's most brilliant generals: Leonora Kaelthorn and Mikhail Rozasar—not to mention the young commander who had approached them not too long ago, Emilia Rozasar. The three of them glared at Oscar with pure hatred, each for their own reasons. Few ever had the chance to stand in front of them; many tried and failed. But due to the unique circumstances they were in, Oscar's face emotionless his heart full of grief as he said to them:
"Let's end this pointless bloodshed. Think of how many souls you have lost. More than half of the ships that came are gone, most of them erased from existence. Those lucky few lie buried on the rocks below. Does life mean nothing to the Empire!? You proved your point. Let's lick our wounds and hope to face each other again."
Leonora listened to Oscar closely. She exhaled slowly, then took a step forward, looking Oscar dead in the eyes. A smirk slipped across her face as she said, "So you are the infamous Oscar Meltion. I thought I would never get to talk to you. I thank the Almighty for the chance He gave me for this. And I'll say three words to you: you will pay." As she said those words, she turned around to Mikhail and said, "Let's end this." Mikhail nodded and turned to his control crew: "All ships, take aim at the Tartarusios. By the grace of the mighty Emperor Johan Adrin the First, I sentence you to death."
Back on the Tartarusios, Oscar had expected this reply. He closed his eyes once and said, "Everyone, ready up the cannon will take as many of them with us as we can." Bjorn looked at Oscar with a smile on his face he said, "You got it, boss. We started with a bang; it's most fitting we end it with another one too." Chris broke into laughter and said, "You know, I always thought I'd die a boring death, but I'll have to say this sure as hell seems one heck of a way to die. So thank you, boss. You gave us freedom, even though it was for a few years." "Yeah, thank you, captain," Harry said, tears streaming as he manned the weapons. Mario, gripping the helm with his steady hands, repeated the same gratitude.
Then Nolan cut in from engineering: "Hey boss, I just got confirmation from Halley. The girls have landed and are now stationed below.""Good," Oscar replied. "It was a good call to leave the girls down there. Thank you, Nolan."Nolan smirked as he said, "You softie. You thought I'd let you die without me? So I want to chime in on the thank-you train. It's truly been a pleasure. Wasn't it, boys?" shouted Nolan as he turned to all the mechanics and engineers behind him, as they shouted, "Hell yeah!"
Oscar settled into his seat. Now sitting, he turned to Tarko, standing to his left. "I'm sorry, Tarko. I promised you freedom, but it was short-lived."Tarko groaned once. "You idiot. I lived longer these past months than I ever lived through my life." He smiled as he said, "Take this from a man who has lived more than 10,000 years—I don't regret a thing."
Oscar looked ahead toward the drifting Altopereh. With a smile on his face he thought to himself, I'm sorry, Youri. In the end I was not the right captain, but I'm sure as hell you'd beat me up if I said that. He raised his voice. "Now set the plasma cannon at two-hundred percent. It's time for our show now."
Inside Altopereh's cockpit, the radio com had relayed everything—somehow the connection with the Tartarusios was still on. Youri had listened to everything, from Oscar's call to Leonora all the way to the so-thought last words. As he stood on the seat, his head cut in multiple places, blood all over his body from all the wounds he had, Synch had turned his eyes red now, and he was barely able to see anything. He barely raised his hand and pressed on his com, His voice came out cracked, bloody:
"You guys thought I kicked the bucket… god damn… I need to work on my figure." He wheezed a laugh, then choked on blood. "My ship isn't dying today… and so are you."
Altopereh's AI activated once again, now in autonomous mode. "Backup power at ten percent. Initializing start-up." The half-dead orbiton convulsed, then slowly rose back alive—this time barely holding on—composing itself as it slowly rose higher and higher, finally reaching a stop just atop the twin moons. The ships around the planet all shot at it, but none managed to scratch it—the alloy it was clad in was truly monstrous.
Now atop the moons, Altopereh stood there half-broken, parts of its wings gone, pieces of its body barely holding on, it stretched its hands. Light particles gathered in its hand.
"I'm sorry, Leonora… but I can't let you destroy my ship just so you can kill my friends," said Youri as he took one final breath before light beams lunged at every ship present, destroying most, few barely survived—before Altopereh shut down once again.
That last attack had allowed the Tartarusios an escape path, and before Altopereh fired, Youri had told one more thing to the crew:
"Hey… I know what I am… and I'm sure you probably came to a conclusion too… so I'll say this… thank you everyone… thank you… for putting up with a monster like me."
Tears fell across the Tartarusios. as their friend had once again saved them from certain death. The Tartarusios cut through the void, escaping the Empire, as finally the Battle of Antia had come to an end—one that would go on to be remembered as the Battle of Hell.