Red Dragon Spaceship Awakening: I Gain Alien Abilities on Mars-Chapter 222: Void and Valor

Lyra was a blur on the battlefield, a shifting, unpredictable presence that enemy soldiers could not seem to pin down no matter how hard they tried.

Her ability: Void Step, allowed her to create temporary black holes and use them to teleport short distances, and she was using it to devastating effect.

One moment she would be standing in the open, her gun raised, and the next she would vanish, sucked into a swirling void that collapsed in on itself the instant she disappeared. Then, a fraction of a second later, another black hole would open behind an enemy soldier, and Lyra would step out of it as casually as if she had just walked through a door.

The enemy never saw it coming.

A soldier raised his plasma rifle, his targeting reticle locking onto Lyra’s position, his finger tightening on the trigger. But before he could fire, she was gone, the black hole swallowing her whole. He hesitated, confused, his eyes scanning the battlefield, and then another void opened directly behind him.

Lyra stepped out, her small handgun already raised, and fired.

The weapon was compact, almost delicate-looking compared to the bulky plasma rifles and kinetic cannons that most fighters carried. It looked kind of small, almost underwhelming, the sort of thing that someone might dismiss as a backup weapon or a last resort.

But that assumption would be a fatal mistake.

The gun fired energy balls, small spheres of concentrated power that shot out of the barrel with a sharp, crackling sound.

They were not bullets in the traditional sense, not solid projectiles, but condensed bursts of energy that detonated on impact with devastating force.

Lyra’s shot hit the soldier right in the back, the energy ball slamming into his armor and detonating in a brilliant flash of light. The blast tore through the plating, the force of the explosion sending the man sprawling forward, his body smoking, his weapon clattering to the ground.

Lyra did not wait to see if he was dead. She was already moving, already summoning another black hole, vanishing before the next wave of enemies could react.

Every human on Mars had awakened their ability through a weapon. That was the universal truth, the common thread that connected every ability user on the planet.

You picked up a weapon, and if you were compatible with it, if there was some kind of resonance between you and the object, the System activated. You gained an ability, and the weapon became a part of you, stored in your inventory and always accessible.

Lyra had gotten hers through this gun when she was still young, maybe nine or ten years old. She had found it in a salvage yard, half-buried in debris, its casing scratched and dented but still functional, looking like it could still do something.

She had picked it up out of curiosity, and the System had activated immediately, granting her Void Step and binding the weapon to her permanently.

That was the gun she was using to fight now. The same one. She had never needed another.

A group of three soldiers spotted her, their weapons swinging toward her position, their shouts overlapping as they coordinated their attack. But Lyra was faster.

She summoned a black hole directly beneath her feet, the swirling void opening with a low, distorted hum, and she dropped into it without hesitation.

The soldiers fired, their shots tearing through the space where she had just been standing, but they hit nothing but empty air.

Lyra reappeared above them, the black hole opening in the air, and she dropped down in a controlled fall, her gun already tracking targets. She fired three times in rapid succession, each shot perfectly placed, each energy ball finding its mark.

The first soldier took a hit to the chest, the explosion blowing him backward. The second took one to the head, the impact snapping his neck and sending his helmet flying. The third managed to raise his weapon, but Lyra’s shot hit him in the arm, the detonation severing the limb and causing him to collapse, screaming.

Lyra landed smoothly, her boots hitting the ground with barely a sound, and she was already moving again, already scanning for the next threat.

Her fighting style was chaotic, unpredictable and almost impossible to counter. She would appear, fire a few shots, and then vanish before anyone could retaliate. She used her Void Step not just to escape danger but to reposition herself constantly, to attack from unexpected angles and to turn every fight into a game of three-dimensional chess where her opponents were always several moves behind. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Another black hole opened, and she stepped out of it directly beside a soldier who was crouched behind cover, his plasma rifle aimed at one of the Viking fighters across the field. He did not even see her coming.

Lyra pressed the barrel of her gun against the side of his helmet and fired.

The energy ball detonated at point-blank range, the explosion muffled by the soldier’s armor but still powerful enough to cave in the helmet and kill him instantly. His body slumped forward, and Lyra was already moving, summoning another void, already gone.

She was a ghost on the battlefield. Untouchable and unstoppable.

And she was having the time of her life.

———

Before coming here to fight in the battle, the Viking had given Tatehan a small communication device: a small speaker unit that clipped onto the collar of his armor and linked directly to the helmet’s internal systems.

It was simple and allowed for direct voice communication without needing to rely on broader comm channels that could be intercepted or jammed.

Bjorn’s voice crackled through the device now, cutting through the roar of combat with that thick, unmistakable accent.

"Oi, Knight! Let’s not get too lost in the fight, aye? Killing and killing is all well and good, but if we just kill everyone without thinking, then coming here might be useless. Follow the plan. Take the higher-looking fighters, the ones you think will be valuable for interrogation. I’ll try and take the battle commander!"

Tatehan, who had just finished cutting through another cluster of soldiers with his sword, paused for a moment, his visor tracking movement across the battlefield as he processed Bjorn’s words.

The plan. Right. This was not just about wiping out the enemy forces. They needed intel. They needed prisoners. And that meant being selective about who they killed and who they captured.

Tatehan keyed the comm device, his amplified voice responding clearly. "Noted."

He scanned the battlefield, his enhanced perception picking out details that most fighters would miss. Soldiers in heavier armor, carrying better weapons, moving with more discipline than the rank-and-file troops. Officers, maybe. Or specialists. The kind of people who would know things, who would have access to information about the Obscuron’s operations.

Those were the ones he needed to focus on.

Tatehan dismissed his sword, the blade vanishing back into his inventory, and summoned his chakrams again. He adjusted his grip, feeling the weight of the blades, and then he charged forward, his eyes locked on a cluster of soldiers who were barking orders at the others, their movements coordinated and their armor marked with insignia that suggested rank.

Time to start capturing.