image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/118.png]

Heh, the dragon is holed up in his little temple. We've fired two laser shots and... Nothing! Well, maybe he feels safe, but our job is to pull him out of there and force-feed him.

"Up the laser to UV; maximum power."

"Yes, sir."

...

"It's firing."

I see the laser silently sitting there, appearing to do nothing. The bottom ring is glowing a vibrant set of colors, though, which proves that it is, in fact, firing.

It won't shoot massive visible beams like in those movies we make. That would be an immense efficiency loss. These beams only become visible in the atmosphere, but even then, we use lensing and wave masking to reduce atmospheric diffraction.

In short, if you can see that laser, it's probably busy killing you.

"Sir, why not go for the max?"

"X-rays? We don't know the limit of his capabilities."

"Sir, x-rays aren't the max."

"No, but we haven't figured how to stop gamma radiation from damaging the inscriptions. Besides, we're trying to feed him. Not slaughter him. If we did that, our god would eat us all."

"Yes... Sir."

Sheesh! Did my earlier foodie talk not get through to these starving fools? We all need more food, more food! The dragon is no different.

"Sir, we have confirmation of dragons exiting the temple. A hundred and ten thousand? Sir, it's an army."

"Look for the target. Pitch black with red eyes. It's quite unique for a dragon. Plus, he'll likely be larger than the others. Keep track of him; we'll focus on testing his limits."

"Sir, he's been located. He's flying at the head of the pack. Quite a bit ahead, too. Five q seven, ETE."

"Five point seven kilometers until engagement, eh? He's quite fast. Still a Demigod, though. Good, we probably won't need to bring out the—"

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Contact."

"SIR, the laser platform exploded! Massive gamma burst from eight-two-eight q one-one ex nine-three-seven q one-three ex ten q six-one!"

I look out at the laser platform. Yep, it's exploding. Dang. I liked that thing. Made my food real nice and crispy.

"Drop formality, alert level two. Magnitude?"

"Off the charts. Whatever fired that, we can't even begin to measure it."

"Visual."

"On screen, nothing there."

I point at a spot on the screen with my tentacle.

"No, ah... What's that? Zoom in."

I'm treated to a fullscreen view of the dragon's dim red eyes. Why the hell can't we detect him?

"Lock that. Status?"

"Target's still in the atmosphere."

What?

"Visual."

"On screen."

Yep, that looks like our target. Is that a misdirection? But why expose his eyes up here? We can't detect his presence. He'd be effectively invisible if not for his eyes.

"Retarget lock two. Lock one misdirect. Attack with EVERYTHING! If he's got a mobile gamma laser somewhere, we can't let him fire it again. That's beyond our capabilities. He's not supposed to be a god, yet, so—"

"Contact."

"Ships four-three through two-one-seven, sans eight-one. Gamma."

I look at the screen.

"Shit, the dragon army will be here soon and he's mopping us up by himself. Have you located the gamma source?"

"We can't get a lock."

"Keep trying, and ARE we firing at him?"

"No effect. Is that an illusion?"

"I don't know, it's just floating there."

"Dragons engaging. We've lost ships—"

"Switch to loss count."

"Three-four ships."

"Fuck! Towing crews engage! I don't care, throw all the damn stars. We should've brought a god for this."

"Towing engaged."

"Alert one, prepare to disengage."

"Alert one, readying boson slip."

"Seven-two ships."

"Weapons remain ineffective."

"Switch to the other dragons."

"Firing at non-target dragons."

"Boson slip engaged."

...

Silence.

...

"Haah, why aren't we moving?"

"Two-seven ships."

I look to the science officer.

"WELL?!"

He's shaking.

"It's... I've never seen anything like it. There's no fermions. It's a quantum-level lockout."

"WHAAAAT?! Who in the hell even HAS that? What are we— is this dragon an Avatar of Virtue?! Did we get trapped?!"

"Seven-four ships."

I look at the deity officer.

"No virtue or sin detected. In fact, none at all."

"NONE?! Are we up against..."

I trail off.

"Possibly, sir. I pray we're not, but one of those monstrosities is the only explanation."

"NO! He can't be. If he were, we'd be long dead."

"Eight-seven ships."

"He is Abyssal black. Maybe he's unascended?"

*clang*

*klang*

*kssh*

"Doesn't matter, we need to get out of here. Are the stars here yet? The dragons sure are."

*klink-dee*

"One-nine kay su, E-TOC."

*tnk-tnk*

*chrrrrip*

"Nineteen THOUSAND Solar Units?! Tell them FASTER! I don't care how!"

*rreerr*

*kk-ching*

"One-seven ships."

*rrrrrrrr-KI*

*vvvvvKiN*

"Contact."

*kPPRng*

"Gamma, one-seven-eight ships. Spread formation. No coherent distribution pattern."

*bOOM*

*thoK-ting*

*pok*

"What IS that?! I've never heard of such a laser, never mind it being gamma wavelength!"

*eee-rrrrrr*

*TOK*

*zing*

"They're backing off."

"Unidentified weapon schema."

"Did we lock it this time?"

"Yeesh, it's locked."

"Where is it?"

"It's him."