Bang!!!
The entire Motherland suddenly shook with so much intensity that Gloria almost fell off the chair she had been sitting on.
What was going on?
An asteroid impact would have been foreseen and taken care of before it even came a mile close to the orbiting ship.
Another ripple followed. At that point, Gloria could no longer stay seated.
As she tried to get up on her feet, one of her male slaves walked into the room.
"Master, I need to get you to safety. There has been a breach in the Motherland," the slave announced as he moved closer and gestured to Gloria to follow him.
"What do you mean there was a breach? An external breach?" she asked, still confused.
"Yes, we need to move. Your safety is my utmost priority," he said as he proceeded to grab her arm and tried to pull her along.
"Get your hands off me," she commanded, and he immediately let go of her, his expression apologetic.
He was only going to the extreme to protect her.
She could see that apart from the desperation written on his face, there was exhaustion. It was as if he had gone a long distance to get to her.
Another wave followed, and Gloria immediately made up her mind to start moving.
As they tried to maintain their balance once they were in the hallway, Gloria asked him how he knew it was an external attack.
"I was at the space observation room when the ship suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started firing," he answered.
"Where are we headed now? Where is Taylor?"
"I have no idea where he is, Master, and I think it would be best to get off the Motherland completely," the slave answered.
"What do you mean? The Motherland is a fortress," she started. "These people, whoever they are, cannot just break through—"
Just as she was saying this, the wall ahead of them caved open.
Through it came a large, alien-looking creature. It was so large it blocked the entire path ahead.
"You spoke too soon, Master," Gloria's slave said. "They are already here."
The creature in front of them was clearly not of human origin. It wore a sort of armor and even had a helmet on.
It made a loud roaring noise at Gloria and her slave, who stood in front of her, guarding her.
"Give way!!!" a voice spoke from behind the creature.
Immediately, it crouched to the side of the wall to give the figure behind it room to come forth.
Gloria immediately recognized who it was from the apparel he had on.
The individual who now stood in front of her wore not the house colors, but the unmistakable crest of the Wang Clan.
What was a Master of the clan doing all the way here in a sector of the galaxy so far from his home world?
She stared in disbelief.
Whenever Sentient clans went to war, they did it on neutral grounds.
It could span planets, even an entire solar system.
"A Master of the Rae Clan, and her weakling of a slave all alone," the Master finally spoke.
It finally dawned on Gloria. They had been ambushed, on home ground.
That was something that felt unprecedented, even for her.
But she was not about to fold.
If there was one thing she had learned in her years of being a Sentient Master, it was that showing weakness was the largest path to eventual defeat.
"And what are the dogs of the Wang Clan doing in my home? I don't think you came for a treaty," she blurted out with confidence.
"Ahh, a cheeky one," he chuckled. "From the way you speak, you sound like a royal, perhaps one of the clan leader's famous daughters."
Gloria's face flushed. That was a wild but accurate guess, and her expression just validated it to her opponent.
"I see my guess was right. Would you kindly point me to your father, and I would gladly be on my way," he said with a mocking bow.
Her expression suddenly changed.
Were they here because of her father?
What exactly did they want with him?
He was supposed to arrive earlier in the day but had experienced some sort of delay.
He had informed her he would arrive later in the day.
"I think you would need to get through me first," she retorted, trying to get the situation under control.
They could not know he wasn't aboard or that he would be arriving later.
"Oh, I don't think that would be a problem," the Wang Master said as he gestured to his slave.
The giant alien creature immediately charged straight for Gloria and her slave.
"Kill the slave," the man called after his servant. "You, however, spare the woman. I believe the captain would like to meet her."
Gloria's slave immediately moved to block the creature's path to her.
His entire body turned shiny steel, and crossing his hands, he tried to break the creature's run but only managed to slow it down a few paces.
Gloria immediately took a few steps backward to avoid direct impact and give more room for the fight.
It was clearly obvious that her slave was the inferior one.
She needed to find a way to somehow tilt the battle in her favor, but the only way she could think of was projecting more aura into him.
She placed both of her hands together and concentrated.
A wave of blue energy began to flow from her and into the slave.
The moment her slave received the aura, he was suddenly filled with a new burst of energy.
He was even able to repel the creature and push it back a few paces.
"Wow, so much aura wasted on a weakling of a slave," the creature's master mocked. "See as my slave breaks yours."
"I guess we'll see," Gloria said, trying to talk tough.
Soon enough, the creature regained its stance, and the pressure on Gloria's slave became even worse than before.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Gloria's slave was suspended in the air, held by the creature.
Before she knew what was going on, her slave had been snapped in half, the sound of metal cracking in the air.
"No!!!!," was the only word she could pronounce as something broke within her.