Morwen frowned as Arjun handed her the latest sanitized report out of the Brotherhood’s intelligence networks. Word had it that New Xinjia was getting pommeled and if they didn’t get any help, the entire colony would fall in a week’s time. She glanced up from the tech tablet. It reminded her of a magical tablet, but it contained its own power source and a connection to the Brotherhood’s Extranet.

“Does Akamori know about this?”

Arjun shrugged. “I haven’t seen him much since we got back. I would imagine so though. Public Relations are trying to spin it so it doesn’t sound as bleak as it looks. That might work with the civilians, but the brass all know. The Sauridius are putting the screws to us.”

“The Sauridius have begun to make their final moves. I believe we’re witnessing the closing actions of this war. New Xinjia is a large target and it does demand attention but it feels too direct for Ominek’s hand. This is aggressive, overt, loud.”

She shook her head trying to piece out the greater flow of pieces. When she tried to channel her Divine Sight ability though, found the web of divinity shrouded in darkness and difficult to read. It also gave her a bad headache that forced her to actually consume a few points of aether to cast a healing spell.

“You ok ma’am?”

“Fine. Just weary. Fighting this war will burn you at both ends nearly constantly if you let it.”

“I hate to seem pushy, but what are we going to do?”

“I’m not sure unfortunately. The Arch Priest will fight us if we try to leave.”

She looked back at the footage recycling in a loop on the tablet Arjun gave her. She wove the hand signs to cast a missive spell to the Arch Priest then stopped. No. She was done asking for his permission. The war was more important. She had her tools, and she had her people. It was time to start using them. Morwen rose, and called up a map of the Brotherhood’s colonies. New Xinjia was now red. New Eden several systems away now looked even more vulnerable than ever.

Morwen forwned. “Why not attack the capital itself? Cripple the enemy and sieze the conflict all together?”

Unless New Xinjia was just a feint. “Gods…” She turned to Arjun. “New Xinjia isn’t the main target. New Eden is.”

“My family is on New Eden….” Arjun muttered softly. “If we leave now it would shatter the Federation though. The Arch Priest would probably break with it.”

Morwen glanced at the now alarming distance between the Sauridius’ siege on New Xinjia and their capital world. They were defenseless against a force using magic. She had to interpose herself between her enemy and her allies. But doing so would mean losing the support of the Federation.

“Screw it. Prep the ship for take off. We’re going to New Eden.”

“Yes ma’am.”

#

“I just need to get my head around this one last time. You want us to steal the Cadaver Crasher ? Just like that?” Sirsir asked.

“Yep.”

Everyone exchanged nervous looks with each other before Akamori finally followed up.

“What?”

“Have we tried asking for a ride first?”

“Yep.”

“And?” Sirsir prodded.

“No ships in or out due to the orbital lockdown that Arch Priest Erlaut has enacted. Also, The Brotherhood of Man isn’t able to commit the Crasher because they lack a crew fully trained in magic use.”

“What about Lt.-I mean Captain Fenix?” Yasiin asked.

“Water magic doesn’t work well for propulsion through space. And he lacks the ability to open Umbral gateways.”

“So what’s the plan? We aren’t gonna go storm in there blasting up those marines are we?”

“No, of course not. We’ll go in stealthed and seize control of the bridge. Once we have control of the ship we can basically do what we want with it. No one has to get hurt.”

Sirsir regarded him skeptically, and the looks he got from the others didn’t fare any better. The collective opinion was bordering on uncertain skepticism. Akamori coughed, trying to break the uncomfortable silence of judgement that settled in.

“Guys. Seriously. It’ll work out. Trust me.”

“Coming from the guy who was attacking dragons as a 2nd grade spell soldier.” Sirsir said with the faintest hint of a smirk. It was all good natured ribbing after all.

“Hey, I won didn’t I?”

“Technically you survived.” Yasiin amended.

He shrugged nonplussed. “Still counts.” A beat passed and he clapped his thighs, rising up from the bench, the blue fabric of his new robe…duster…whatever this was. What was it?

A god should have no need for armor , Thanaton grumbled.

“I’ve got some final prep to set up. You guys go relax. I’ll message when we’re ready to move. Dismissed.”

Before anyone could question him, he spent a point of his AP to channel his flight spell from air magic, and burst off into the air towards the starport. The pad that held the Cadaver crasher wasn’t very busy. The detachment of Brotherhood marines posted to Eryn didn’t get to see much activity unless Morwen was taking them out on some hairbrained near suicidal mission. Today there were a few maintenance techs doing routine services on the old ship that should have been done years ago.

Akamori angled in for his landing and glided to the ground in a casual stroll. Greese and oil stained the worker’s coveralls as they worked on replacing some component he’d never seen till. They gave him a brief wave as he strode up the cargo ramp into the hangar bay of the ship. The musty, metallic scent gave him a nostalgic smile as he made his way to the bridge. Captain Astor Fenix sat in the command chair of the bridge, boots propped up on the spell controls, with a cold beer in hand wreathed by a cool halo of moisture.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Akamori folded his arms and leaned against the bulkhead. “You get your own magic infusion, and you’re reduced to using it to keep your drinks cold.”

Fenix saluted his beer can and turned to take Akamori in. The bulky blond officer rose from his seat and sighed. “You look good for a guy who just got out. What brings you here? I can’t imagine it was for the memories.”

Akamori shrugged. The enchanted shoulder plates of his armor bobbed gently. “They weren’t all bad. Can’t have the good without the bad. Besides, I’d say it all worked out ok. Mostly.”

Fenix nodded with a sigh. “Yeah. I reckon so. So what brings the esteemed hero of Hidros by?”

“We’re gonna steal your ship.”

“Okay.”

Akamori blinked. “Okay? Just like that? You’re not even gonna ask why?”

“I’ve fought with you enough to know you’re one of the rare few who run into fights, not away from them. If yer lookin at stealin’ the Crasher, it’s because there’s a fight yer eyein up. I’ve never been much of a bettin man, but New Xinjia is under siege and it’s just like you and the others to go rushin in to save the day. If you need the Crasher? She’s all yours.”

Akamori sighed, feeling a little deflated. “I had this whole speech planned and everything. It was gonna be really cool.”

Fenix chuckled as he took a pull of his beer. Akamori flopped down into one of the other command chairs, sulking.

“If it makes ya feel better, I won’t tell the crew-what little there is. Funny thing about the Brotherhood? Not too many mages around to staff a ship like this. Be a shame if a few moved in an’ helped themselves to the ship. All she’s doin now is just gatherin dust.”

“On Eryn? More like leaves.” Akamori joked. His mood lightening slightly.

“Yeah. I think the maintenance boys are the only ones happy about it. They’ve been doing a lot of repair work on the ship. Those scaley bastards have had us runnin from one fight to the next so damn much the poor girl’s about to fall apart at the seams.”

Akamori didn’t realize just how much he’d come to miss that New Eden drawl. It gave Fenix a really casual tone of voice. Unless he was kicking your face and ribs in. Water under the bridge, though.

“So when is this heist happenin?”

“Soon. We’re got new gear. I figured I’d give you some time if you had anyone who wanted to go fight with us.”

Fenix sighed. “I wish I could say I do. Unfortunately, we both know how poorly a buncha zeroes do against even first grade mages, never mind second and higher. Nah, you and yours would be better off without us. On the ground, at least. Up in orbit, we might be better at supportin ya.”

“I understand, and no hard feelings. Just wanted to give you the chance to fight if you wanted to.”

“We appreciate that. Honestly. But my time with the Captain taught me that sometimes, some fights yer best off stayin out of. There’s a few of us who’ll stick around, but I don’t think our marines will be much help against spirits and necromancers.”

“No. No, they won’t.”

Sirsir, Yasiin and Sala dissolved into reality, glancing around. Confusion etched on their features. Sirsir stepped ahead of the primal and nomad. He scratched his head and gave Captain Fenix a nod.

“Hey Sir. Sorry about barging in on your ship like this.”

Fenix chuckled, dismissing the notion and downing the last of his beer. “Think nothin of it. New Xinjia needs help, and you boys are probably its best shot.”

Yasiin shook his head, pulling up a magical holographic of the New Xinjia colony’s system.

“I wouldn’t be so quick to ascribe us as saviors. We may not hold this assault off. They’ve committed a lot to the attack.”

“Well, looks like we’ll get to put the one to three rule to the test.”

Everyone blinked at Akamori and rolled his eyes. “Oh, try not to look to shocked. I read some books. Yes. Besides, any good grunt knows that you usually commit a larger assault force to overwhelm a defending unit. Especially one as entrenched as New Xinjia is.”

“Then we’d best get going. Every minute here is another life lost.” Fenix said vacating the bridge. Sala and Yasiin made room for the large broad shouldered marine to step through them on his way out.

“Wish I’d have known they’d practically give us the ship. I’d have saved some of my guild marks on those invisibility potions.” Sirsir said.

“Quit pouting.” Akamori teased.

“Would have been easier with Amara.” Yasiin said.

“Yeah. Yeah, it would have. Strap in. We’re got a planet to save, or die trying.”

The four of them took seats, Akamori, Sirsir, and Yasiin in seats with spell controls, Sala taking a troop bench along the wall. Akamori grasped the controls, magically linking up with it. The sensation was almost like holding his spell blade, only the Crasher called no one its true master. Not the way Thanaton responded to him.

“Give me a moment to make sure everything is good,” Akamori said, his gaze distant and unfocused, as if looking at something else. He was actually pouring through all the various sensor feeds of the ship. Visually inspecting everything for signs of maintenance failure that would ground them for longer.

“Huh.” He finally said, looking genuinely surprised. “They’ve been working on her for quite some time.”

“How long?” Sirsir asked with a nervous look before strapping in tighter.

“Long enough. They fixed that rattling sound that was always coming from the air vents.”

“That was the air vents? I thought it was deck plating.”

“No, that was a different rattling.” Akamori corrected.

“Oh. Well, shit. Good for them.” Sirsir nodded approvingly.

Once his preflight checks were good, Akamori prepared for takeoff. He fed the goliath vessel several points of void magic, feeling a slight fraction of power siphon away into the ship’s spell core and his will mix with the Aureoliam fuel. A deep reverberating shudder banged throughout the battleship as its thrusters engaged and the magic lessened the massive ship’s mass, making orbital ascend even possible.

Akamori was thankful it even rose. As the battleship slowly came about and angled for higher orbit, two squadrons of spell fighters roared up from the ground to dock in the battleships hanger. A fiery butterfly missive spell turned into a translucent portrait of Cenine.

“I hear you’re going hunting for the Sauridius after they attacked that human colony.”

“Yeah.” Akamori said hesitantly.

“We’re going to join you. We have mutual interests, you see. We have reliable intel. The primals that fled have taken up arms with the Sauridius. If there’s a chance you’ll run into them? We want in on the fight to bring them to justice.”

Akamori frowned. It wasn’t like Cenine to hold a grudge. Despite that, spell fighters would help keep the dragons off the ship as it approached.

“Alright. Strap in We’re about to burn hard for high atmo.”

Cenine nodded, and the spell dissolved into motes of flickering aether. It would be a frightening day for the people of Eryn as both the Thefaris and the Cadaver Crasher rose into the heavens to make war on their enemies. The fleet of the Erynians remained moored to the ground. For now.

‎