Akamori, Amara, and Sgt. Sirsir stood in the Crasher's airlock in their armor, fully sealed. Private Sala had been nice enough to heal the worst of Akamori’s injuries. Meaning instead of feeling like the Brotherhood’s tanks had run him over, he merely felt beaten up. The Sgt held a massive spell machinegun that looked a little different from the rest. Akamori had been inspecting the weapon, and the Sgt. caught the admiring gaze.
“Nice, ain’t it? It got a bit of an upgrade when I visited the wellspring on Eryn.”
“Isn’t using that exhausting?” Amara said.
The bulky Sgt. shrugged. The shoulder plates of his armor shifting slightly with the movement. “Nah. With each wellspring it’s visited, it’s also picked up a reserve of its own magic. Those rifles you two are holding are just blank spell rifles. They ain’t been infused by no magic yet. This heavy machine gun of mine touched both Air and Light magic. I can deal pain or health with it. And both it and I can pool our energies to last twice as long. Pretty handy, really. Maximum big man shit.” He wore that trademark self pleased grin. Akamori could even spot his teeth through the visor’s tint.
“So exposing weapons to wellsprings can imbue them with better qualities, too?”
“Gods, you fuzzies. I swear I’ma dump you off in the library for a whole damn day.”
“Sure wouldn’t hurt…” Akamori muttered softly.
“Magic is just energy, yeah? And exposure to said energy can have a bonding effect. You either take on the magic itself or it imparts other qualities. Same applies to your gear. Your armor, rifle or blades can all take on magic as easily as you because it’s just energy. I’d wager that’s why the Captain let ya keep that spell blade you brought. An air goddess’ energy touched it. That aether can permeate and flow through and into anything. That’s why it’s virtually everywhere.”
Akamori’s brow crooked. He knew they had a mission, but this felt pertinent to ask. “Then why don’t the Brotherhood have mages?”
Sirsir scoffed softly. “Cuz they swore off magic when they took off to settle their own corner of the sector. But that’s ancient history.”
Akamori recoiled at the idea. Why would anyone swear off magic? That seemed like such an odd and arbitrary choice. He pocketed the questions for another time as the big sergeant turned to grip the airlock latch.
“Who the hell knows? Not me! Now. You fuzzies ready? We’re about to go for a walk.”
An unconscious fear immediately gripped Akamori, and he could tell by the way Amara had stiffened she wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about the idea of stepping into the void, either. Something primal and ancient writhed deep within his soul. On an unconscious level, he knew what lay beyond the black. The feeling gave him goosebumps, even within the protective shell of his armor.
“Out there? But aren’t we supposed to not use magic out there?” From everything Akamori understood, doing so would be very, well… terrible.
The Sergeant turned to grin at them through his faceplate on his helmet. “Don’t worry. The void shield we’ve got up right now has a buffer area. It’s about 3 meters away from the hull of the ship. Stick close to the ship and you’ll stay inside the shield. And we’ll attach these void tethers for safety. Think of ‘em like gravity ropes. They’ll anchor us down so the ship doesn’t pull away from us and we fly off the hull. They should, in theory, prevent you from breaking the surface of the void shield, but no one’s ever been brave enough to test it. Don’t be that guy. For the love of the gods, please don’t be that guy.”
Unanimous nodding all around. Sirsir’s hand tugged the airlock latch down. The light flashed red, and the air hissed away as the airlock depressurized and went dark before opening up. Sirsir connected his tether first, attaching a plug head with a dark rune on it to the hull. A violet rope of energy linked the Sergent to the hull. The process repeated with Amara and then Akamori.
“Alright, our objective is in the main gun.”
“Why the main gun?” Amara asked.
“Wait… in the main gun?” Akamori said.
“Somethin’s got it plugged up. We’re gonna knock it loose.”
Akamori gave Amara a concerned look. This sounded like a maintenance job, so why were they armed? Small jets of air puffed from the Sgt.’s thrusters and the big man’s body lifted away from the hull of the ship. He turned back to Akamori and Amara.
“Something?” Akamori asked.
“That’s right. Something. We’re gonna go find out what that is, and unseat its ass from our main gun. Alright, fall in. Just feed your armor a little energy, and it’ll do the rest for ya.”
A beat later, the two fuzzies floated up and behind the Sgt. They then moved for the main cannon of the ship. There was very little light to see the details of the ship and Akamori squinted, trying to see harder.
“It’s so dark out here, I can barely see where I’m going.”
“Toggle on the night vision enhancement. Right side of your heads up display,” the sgt. said. He then followed with more indistinct muttering about how stupid and useless they were.
Akamori willed the NVG system to activate, and the armor applied a small bit of stored fire magic to cast the spell.
System Info: Spellarmor NVG system activated. Low Light Vision granted. Bonus +1 to Perception skill.
The display in Akamori’s helmet turned green and then resolved basic details, which improved an order of magnitude than it had been without. He sighed in relief and took in the Crasher’s hull at such close range. He could see that they fixed the magic weapons’ emplacements. The main gun was really just a long barrel that jutted out from the hull. Unlike the solid round point defense rail guns. They mounted those on swivel turrets. In their dormant state, they looked like praying mantis forelimbs folded up, waiting to snap out.
“Sgt. Why is the main cannon just a big barrel? How does it track its targets? Won’t the spells just miss if we aren’t pointed straight at the enemy target?”
Sirsir shook his head as he traveled the length of the massive gun. “Nah. The spells are like smart rounds in Brotherhood speak. They know their target. The barrel is a lot like your rifle or armor. You feed it the energy and intent, and it translates what to do with it and casts the spell. Or, well, projects it might be a better word. I dunno. Point is, it don’t have to be aimed at your target for you to actually hit. The spell knows what it’s supposed to do and acts.”
The trio around the mouth of the mammoth barrel and Akamori noticed the interior of it lined with small tiles that had glowing runes on it. Amara squinted, and then her eye widened. “Those are the runes of all the different magic aspects!”
The sergeant nudged himself closer to the inside of the barrel, peering inside. Akamori drifted up next to the Noncom, his own armor puffing bursts of air to arrest his forward movement. Even with the night vision mode engaged on his helmet's visor, his depth of view only went to about five to ten meters out before the darkness devoured all light. The faint glow of the runes even faded into the void. He felt like the pitch black was pressing in on him. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but being out here made his skin crawl. He wanted to be anywhere but here right now.
Amara glided up next to him, and she exchanged a look with him before they turned to the Sgt. “So what now?” she asked with a nod into the barrel. “Is that our mission?”
The big man grunted, hefting his machine gun up. “There’s a blockage that needs cleared.”
“A blockage that needs shot?” Amara asked, confusion tinting her voice.
Akamori just shrugged. He’d learned not to question things and just go with it the hard way.
The big sergeant turned back to look at them over his shoulder plate. “In the void, not everything is as simple as it is outside. C’mon. Stay behind me. You two will be clean up detail. Get what I don’t put down. Stay calm. Remember, yer trainin’ and the rest will sort itself out.”
Before either could protest or question, the sergeant’s armor boosted into the maw of the cannon. The thrusters on his back puffing occasionally to keep him oriented. Akamori watched the violet magic tether clipped to his armor’s waist trail after him. He gave Amara a nod, then shouldered his rifle into what the Sgt. called a low ready stance, and floated after the big man a couple meters behind him.
They drifted in cautiously, no faster than if they were moving on foot. Akamori assumed this was so they’d have time to react instead of charging into whatever was lurking in the dark. They were half the length of the cannon’s barrel when the sergeant held his fist up to halt their movement. Then he gestured ahead of him. Eyes up. Akamori searched ahead of them, but the darkness pressed in closer now that they were deeper in the cannon. He cursed the damned darkness.
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The sergeant readied his heavy machine gun and opened fire, the big weapon belting out a flurry of light bolts into the darkness. His armor’s optics automatically suppressed the flash of the pure light bolts down the cannon. The attack had two effects. The first being that everything he shot burned like he’d shoved it into a fire. The second being that the passive light from his weapon fire helped add to the illumination even if it was flickering and had a strobe effect. Unfortunately, Akamori was pretty confident he’d just wet himself. Thank gods for the armor to cover that up. He was pretty sure he preferred it better when he didn’t know what was just in front of them.
“What the hells are those?” Amara gasped.
“Voidspawn. These are the little ones. Normally we’d ignore them, but we don’t want them damaging the runes in the cannon in case we actually need to use it.”
Ahead of them sat a massive creature with an enormous circular mouth rimmed with fangs and teeth the size of machetes. The teeth flexed inward and outward, like the ebb and flow of the tide on a beach. Void magic radiated along its body, pulsing like blood. The creature had no eyes Akamori could identify. Clawed tentacles reached out that reminded him of the small cephalopods his people caught and fed on from the oceans back on Hoshun. Its slimy looking skin was black as the void, with no coloration and patterns.
“Leach!” Sgt. Sirsir shouted and directed his heavy machine gun fire into the leach’s face. Akamori’s armor cataloged and tagged the creature with an id putting releveant information up in his heads up optics.
Creature: Voidspawn Leach
HP: 14/20
Several of the clawed tentacles burst into flame and floated away from the main body as Sirsir continued to belt out heavy fire on the creature. Then Akamori noticed the smaller creatures clinging to it. Four long spiked legs and a large toothy maw with a long prehensile tongue. They jumped from the Leach and sprinted for the sergeant. Their legs glowing with void magic as they skittered along the concave surface of the barrel. Akamori snapped his rifle to his shoulder in response and fired off several rounds from his rifle. The near translucent air bolts shredding into the smaller hound like creatures as the big sergeant chuckled. Akamori regarded the man for a moment. Was he enjoying this?
“C’mon you creepy sons of bitches! Daddy’s got somethin’ for ya! Get some big man shit!”
Yep. He was definitely enjoying this. Amara did her best to take down the spike dogs, but Akamori was fast growing frustrated with the rifle and missing shots. He cursed and sent the weapon back into its storage, then drew his blade. The moment his hand contacted the hilt, it vibrated with eagerness. Recognition. It missed him, and more than that, it craved use. He knew all this instinctively, with no words being exchanged between them. He smirked, “Good to see you, too. We’ve got work to do.”
“Akamori, use one of those Duplicate potions,” the Sgt. ordered.
He willed his armor to activate the potion and the orange fluid drained from the bottle into the armor, which channeled and cast the spell. On his left, a copy of himself materialized into view.
“Ok… that’s cool,” Akamori said softly.
His twin gave him a thumb up, then gestured towards their opponents. He glanced up at the spiked hound like things. His father's relentless training resonated in his mind. “Akamori. Air is much like water. It thrives best when in motion. Fluid, but without mass. It always finds a way forward and never tolerates resistance. Always find your way forward. And never tolerate resistance.”
The thrusters on their armor flared as they fed them more energy. He rushed slightly beyond the first hound as it was about to pounce on Sirsir and then brought his sword around. The blade hummed as air magic thrummed along it. Even through the void of space, the vibration resonating up his armored arms and into the helmet allowed him to hear the sword's song. The magic launched itself, a thin stream of compressed air, and the creature's head popped loose from its body soundlessly. Both the head and body tumbled by Amara, unbound by gravity as they continued towards the maw of the barrel.
His twin fell on another spike dog, ramming the spell blade down into the creature’s head. Ichor flowed from its toothy maw while it gnashed its teeth in a flailing death spasm until his twin twisted its blade. The creature jerked, then went limp. Its corpse tossed away as his twin yanked its blade free.
Quickly twisting in place, he launched another diagonal slash, bisecting another beast and splashing the cannon wall with its entrails. A short boost and thrust of his blade saw Akamori feeding the last of the spike hounds his sword. Spike hounds? He nodded. Sure, sounded as good as any other name. Voidspawn felt too clinical and broad. He turned over his left shoulder to see the creature hurling more and more arms at the sergeant. He squinted at the inky, writhing darkness. Was it making more arms?
The big noncom was frustrating its attempts to seize him, though. The machine gun chopped each arm to gory bits of blood and flesh under his blistering hail of light fire. Sirsir laughed all the while and continued to taunt the gigantic creature, but Akamori knew this would not be enough to finish it. They needed to deliver a decisive blow and soon or the sergeant would tire out.
What would his father do? Kalenza was big on using his air blasts, yet the creature was large. It would take a considerable attack to knock this thing out of commission. There was such a technique, a spell so powerful they’d nicknamed it the Dragon’s Roar. Could Akamori do that here? Did he possess the strength? He felt an encouraging pulse from his blade. It was willing to try. He nodded with resolve and boosted himself to take a position up and next to the Sergeant.
“Private?” Sirsir questioned over his gunfire.
Akamori didn’t answer. He’d need all of his concentration if he was going to pull this off. It occurred to him he was wearing a sealed helmet. There was every chance this might kill him. But if they didn’t deal with the creature, that might still happen anyway. They couldn’t just ignore this thing. He drew in a long deep breath, his chest distending as his stomach drew in close to his spine. He positioned his sword in front of him, and it thrummed with readiness. His twin rushed in and plunged his blade into the leach, pinning it in place.
Here goes nothing… Closing his eyes, he willed the faceplate on his armor to snap up, and he roared. He spent 2 points of AP, and sunk all the luck he’d banked so far into the attack, taking his luck back to zero. He felt the magic stir and swell, and something else. It was beyond reach, but within him.
System Info: New Ability Learned.
Dragon’s Roar: Variable Breath Weapon (learnable by humans)
(Variable Breath Weapon) Dragon’s Roar. Aetherpool base cost: 2, Range: 10 feet Cone, Damage: 10 , Attack Bonus: +7, Defense: Air Resistance.
A conical blast of air slammed forward out of him. Even in the void of space, the volume of air he launched was so great that it created a micro-atmosphere inside the cannon. Both Amara and Sirsir could hear the roar. As the blast of air surged over his sword, it glowed white, bathed in the raw air magic. It pulsed, adding its own power to the attack and a brilliant blast of razor thin aether hurled itself into the leach, cleaving the beast in two cleanly. The duplicate twin evaporated into motes of aether as the spell wore off.
Akamori’s faceplate snapped down, and he gasped for air as he lazily floated backwards off axis until Amara stopped his spin and helped reorient him. The Sgt. drifted back to them and helped steady Akamori. He studied Akamori for a long moment.
“That attack just now, it almost looked like a Dragon’s breath attack. Learn that move from back home?”
“Yeah. My father learned it from his. He told me they created it by studying how dragons breathed. I’d never tried it before now,” he said.
The Sgt. smirked approvingly. “Well. Good job, then. C’mon. Let’s get back inside. This damn place gives me the fuckin’ heebie jeebies.” They each helped nudge Akamori back. On the way out of the cannon, Akamori felt something trickling from his nose and could taste the bitter metallic tinge of iron in his mouth. He didn’t recall his father ever bleeding after using the attack. Maybe he’d done it wrong?
Amara noticed it first with a gasp. “Gods, Akamori, your nose. You’re bleeding.”
“Didn’t channel the air right. Cut my own lungs up,” he said in a raspy voice. He’d be fine soon. He just need rest. He hoped. By the time the trio reached the airlock, he’d passed out. His last thoughts were on his execution. Feeling the swell of magic pooling with and mixing with the air in his lungs. The rush as it poured out. The power. There was something deeper in those moments. Buried just beyond sense. It had resonated with the attack. More than that, it had helped him. What was it?
Back in the barracks, Yasiin and Sala sat around Akamori and Amara. Yasiin finished wiping down his spell rifle and carefully placed it within his void bag. Akamori lay on his rack with his feet crossed, and Amara sat with her back against her locker. They all wore grins, a stark change over a few nights ago.
“Sarge says you guys went out and bagged a bunch of voidspawn in the main spellcannon?” Yasiin said.
Amara snorted and pointed at Akamori. “More like the sarge and him. I choked. Couldn’t get a bead on any targets before him, or his duplicate was already chopping it up. And that’s saying nothing about the terrifying storm the sarge created with that machine gun of his.”
“Duplicate?” Yasiin asked.
“Potion. I don’t actually know the spell.”
“Ah. So that’s what you brought back from supply. So voidspawn, eh?”
Amara visibly shivered. “I would give my other eye to never relive that again.”
Akamori couldn’t suppress his pleased grin. His throat was still sore, but a quick healing treatment from Sala had taken the brunt of the pain away. “That duplicate was pretty handy.”
“Yeah, it’s better in some ways over an illusion because it copies the mass and aetherpool of the caster. Illusion magic just makes a non corporeal copy. Clones can actually attack. The draw back is that it consumes half your remaining AP when the spell finishes, so using it can be pretty costly.”
Well, that definitely made it a double-edged sword. That explained the sudden onset of weariness he felt at the duplicate’s conclusion, though. Akamori nodded. He’d just learned something new. Again. That’d been happening a lot in his time with the Federation’s spell soldiers.
This group of mages had shown him a lot in his short time with them. And while the training was probably different from his father’s, he appreciated it all the same. He glanced over to Amara, a thought just hitting him.
“You know, you never worked with weapons back home. Maybe you should practice some of your hand weaving?”
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. The doubt in her expression gave him a clue that she wasn’t exactly buying the suggestion. “I don’t really know much that would help us in a fight unless I’m trying to send our enemies on a soul walk. And our goddess is back home on Hoshun.”
Amara bit her lip, thinking about the issue. “I found the pistol more agreeable. Maybe I’ll practice a bit with that.”
Akamori smiled and gave her a thumb up. She returned the gesture. Sala strode back to them with a sweating can of beer in each hand. The two fuzzies gave him a confused look and Yasiin chuckled.
“You guys have come a long way since the day you first got on the ship. We thought you guys could use a little treat to celebrate. Good moments are rare in this line of work. If you don’t take advantage of them as they come, well… it can break a man. So drink up. Enjoy the victory, small as it may be. Because tomorrow we hit the Void well on Xanofex Prime.”
“That I can drink to,” Akamori said.