Hidros System
The Cadaver Crasher opened its dimensional door out of the shadows, the swirling portal of violet dark energies disgorging the ship into the Hidros System at its terminus in the umbral shadow of a large gas giant. On the bridge, Captain Morwen took a moment to study the situation. She focused the view on the station and saw it swarmed in several dragons. Wyverns, by the look of them, with an extremely large wyvern lording over the rest. She found herself thankful for the caution the prophecy given to her had induced. Had she tried to open a portal directly in Hidros’ shadow, she was confident the dragons would set upon the Crasher like rabid animals.
“That is one big scaley ass dragon,” Sirsir said from the offensive console. Morwen noted his uncomfortable shift in posture. They’d never squared off against an adult dragon before, let alone so many.
“Agreed. It’s likely he’s in charge of spearheading the defense efforts, which means if we intend to reach the planet, we must deal with him first.” Morwen drew in a deep breath, confident in their cause. Someone or something had given the right tools and assets to accomplish this mission. They just had to find a smart way to do it. Besides, they built the Crasher for anti-dragon spell combat.
“Sir, it looks like there’s a small fleet of Brotherhood ships lurking in the asteroid field.”
Morwen leaned back in the leather command chair, contemplating her options. The logical step here was to secure the skies before moving on the planet. She disliked the idea of leaving enemies at her back, regardless of the circumstances. She had potential allies in the system, but they lacked the ability to cross communicate since the Brotherhood ships lacked a comm system that could use message spells and their hardware wouldn’t be able to breach the localized jamming field the Sauridius set up. That meant a face-to-face meeting was necessary, which would consume time. While she didn’t think the smaller dragons would chase them into the field, she felt certain the big one would. So he was her first problem. Then the station and smaller dragons.
“You got a plan, sir?” The Sgt. said, cutting into the silence she’d let settle in.
“The beginnings of one, I believe. But we’ll need to deal with him first,” she said, pointing at the largest wyvern.
“And uh, how do we do that?”
Morwen tapped her cheek thoughtfully for a few more moments, then smiled. She used her warfare skill for strategy insights.
System Info: Warfare check: Success. That’s one helluva big dragon. Smaller level spells won’t work on him. Only something in the tier 5 magnitude. Good luck! The entire sector is counting on you. No pressure.
“We’re going to run right for him. There’s only one spell I’m confident in that will work against that dragon, but we’ll need to ensure we have him in a position where he’s unable to dodge the attack.”
“And Wyverns are notoriously evasive,” Yasiin finally said from the defensive console.
Morwen gave him a short, approving nod. “Yes. But as to how we can trap him, I don’t have an answer. But since time is of the essence, I’m going to bank on fate seeing us through, and trust that an answer makes itself possible.”
She didn’t have to look back to see the big Sgt. shifting about nervously again at his station. It was less of a plan and more of an idea, really. An aim or a goal, really. An intent? Intent seemed most accurate. She gave the ship void aether, which it converted into gravitic propulsion as the Crasher navigated the system and built speed on an intercept course with the largest Wyvern. As the ship pressed deeper and deeper into the system, the enormous dragon’s wings flared in threatening challenge as it surged forward, swimming through the void of space after the federation ship.
As the dragon closed the gap, it soon became apparent just how much larger it was than the Crasher. Morwen would guess he was easily a few centuries old. Which put him at excessively dangerous and powerful to square off against. She hoped the aggressive charge would spark the draconic insistence on dueling solo. She risked a quick glance at the station and noted the lesser dragons clung to the station’s hull to watch their leader meet the opposition. Good, she thought to herself with a sigh of relief. One problem at a time.
“Sgt, give me your best solo offensive spell,” Morwen ordered, pointing the ship's massive fixed spell cannon squarely at the offending dragon.
Sirsir nodded, gripping the golden and silver control sticks at his station, and fed the ship several pulses of light energy into the cannon. The ship then spun that energy around in the barrel repeatedly, turning into a rod of pure radiant golden light. Morwen instantly recognized the spell. This wasn’t a common missile spell, this was a guided bolt. It was a third level spell, but still powerful. The dragon saw the energy pooling in the barrel and flew erratically.
“Fire on your mark, Sgt,” Morwen ordered.
A beat later, the muzzle flashed, and the golden missile streaked out of the cannon after the giant dragon. When the bolt tracked after the dragon, it roared in frustration, and flicked a counter attack spell after the missile, guiding a bolt of white energy into the offending bolt. Morwen watched as the attack splintered into aetheric shards, refusing to allow herself to grow frustrated. This was just the opening gambit, and she knew even had the spell struck it wouldn’t defeat the beast. They were still feeling each other out. In response, the dragon's counter attack comprised a fireball of considerable size. The orb of living fire energy rippled and billowed as the dragon finished growing the colossal ball of flame. It was now large enough it could have been mistaken for a star by those on the station. If Morwen let it connect with the ship, she knew it would bisect them easily. The dragon flicked a clawed digit down and the fireball moved after the Crasher. Morwen threw the ship into an evasive, spiraling dive.
“Corporal, counter spell on my mark,” Morwen barked as she gripped the control sticks tighter and tighter. The distance between the ship and the fireball shrank progressively more and more as the micro star closed the gap on their engines.
“Sgt., prepare a missile attack to fire on my second mark.”
The fireball was now several hundred meters away. One hundred. Fifty. At twenty meters, she gave the order, “Yasiin! Mark!”
The counter spell left the aft spell cannon and blew the micro star wide open in a brilliant explosion of fire magic that radiated outwards. The ship's shield barrier rippled and discolored for a moment.
“Sgt. Mark!”
Sirsir’s missile strike left the aft spell cannon a beat later. He’d used Air this time, and the ship fired a blast of compressed air. She watched as the attack punched through the spreading fireball, picking up some of the ambient fire magic and slammed into the dragon’s wing, spinning him around wildly.
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“Nice work with the air bolt Sgt.”
That bought her time to set a course for the asteroid field. She needed to constrict the area he could move in. That meant taking them into ground that wasn’t open. He couldn’t dodge without the space to do it. But then, neither could they. The massive solid ram at the front of the ship smashed through the corner of a large rock as the ship plowed its way into the field without adjusting course. The hull groaned in protest. Debris bounced and pinged off the hull as the ship lumbered its way out of the dragon’s fire breath attack.
Morwen grit her teeth as the Crasher’s engines began to super heat. She didn’t want to waste one of Yasiin’s counters on an attack like the breath. The ship would hold. She patted the console to comfort herself as much as the ship. “You’ll hold, right?” The output dark aether from the engines flare intensely, warping the oncoming flow of fire like the hand of gravity pushing it aside in response to her question.
“I know I ain’t never said this before… but good ship,” the burly sergeant said softly with his face close to the console. He cast a conspiratorial glance around, noticing the amused looks, and immediately darkened. “You heard and saw nuthin’.”
The dragon clawed at the space between them as it pursued them relentlessly. Its teeth gnashed as Morwen threw the ship onto a new evasive course towards another large rock. She had an idea. As the Crasher neared the next closet rock, she frowned. It wasn’t near large enough to execute the move she wanted. She’d need to cheat a little. She poured void energy into the spell cannon. The ship fired a gravity sphere at the asteroid. She watched as the dark purple sphere rippled and billowed like it was a ball of fluid. The sphere sank into the rock of the asteroid, and she hoped her trick would work. By increasing the gravity the rock exerted, she intended to slingshot the Crasher, using the rock like a rail gun, firing the ship via its inertia.
“Everyone, hang on!”
The ship’s hull groaned under the strain of the high-speed loop around the rock. She maintained the gravity sphere spell until the ship completed its circuit, facing down the dragon again.
“Yasiin, reinforce the forward shield. Sgt, give us extra speed. I’m going to feed the Crasher’s spell cannon right down that dragon’s gullet.”
A chorus of confirmations rippled across the bridge as the massive ship thundered across space towards the giant wyvern. The stern of the ship glowed in a rippling shield of protective runes fueled by Yasiin. The aft of the ship opened several afterburner exhausts that poured raw light magic from them. Where dark magic was precise, light magic was raw. Great for speed, less so for maneuvering.
The Crasher slammed square into the Wyvern’s chest. The large ram at the stern of the ship dug into the dragon’s scales. Sparks sprayed off both sides in massive fountains. Morwen watched with a grim smile.
Then the Dragon recovered as instantly as they struck it. Wicking talons sank into the protective wards. Several slashes later, the shields shattered into fractured motes of aether. The giant dragon raked its talons against the Crasher’s hull as warning alarms blared. The ship's hull shook and rattled with the blows as the dragon clawed and bit into the ship. Its head reared back, chest distending as it prepared to breathe a powerful spell on the ship. Several point defense cannons and smaller artillery turrets firing traditional slugs swiveled on the Dragon’s maw, firing to dissuade further assault. The solid kinetic rounds just bounced and ricocheted harmlessly off the dragon’s gleaming scales.
“Yasiin! Counter spell, now!”
The main cannon glowed with a cool white spell that zipped out of the barrel into the dragon’s maw, and down its throat. The Dragon coughed violently several times as aetheric smoke poured from its nostrils. It then snapped down at the ship, the hull grinding under its bite. Atmosphere and shrapnel burst into the void in pressurized jets, like arteries opened. The ship groaned as the hull twisted and bent under the draconic onslaught. Aether burst outwards from within the ship. Conduits and panels exploded in surges as enchanted fuses failed to hold feedback loops at bay. The lights flickered and went out completely as the dim red combat lighting kicked in as backup.
Now’s the time! Morwen poured as much magic into the cannon as she could, laying the groundwork for the spell. “Everyone give the cannon as much dark magic as you can. If you hit your limit, someone else tap them out. Now!” She watched as her Aetherpool plummeted to 0. She’d invested everything she had left. They had to make this shot count.
Waves of void aether flowed from Yasiin into the ship’s controls. Sirsir got up from his station, allowing Akamori to take a seat and add his own energy to the mix. Once the spell hit critical mass, Morwen fired. The violet energy spiraled around. A large circular pattern of runes appeared in front of the maw, then the beam was pressed through, accelerated and multiplied in power to a 4th level Void Ray. It was one of her most powerful spells she could use. The dragon’s maw tried to fire off a counter, but it was pointless, and the beam of dark energy slammed into the back of its mouth and blasted out of the back side of its head with a violent jerk. Atomized particles drifted away as the dragon’s head slowly disintegrated. Take that, wyrm, she thought to herself smugly.
The dragon’s eyes lulled upwards as its massive body released the death grip it had on the ship, drifting away from the ragged hull of the Crasher. A beat later, the top of the head lost its solid cohesion, billowing out into a dust cloud that hung around the stump of its neck. Morwen breathed a sigh of relief and patted the console affectionately. Thank you for holding out. It was more than she deserved. The ship was badly outclassed. She knew that, and she still had to press on.
System Info: 1 XP for the defeat of the Big Ass Dragon.
“One down. A whole slimy wing to go,” the Sgt. said as he stood next to her. She pressed a message spell button to speak to the hanger bays. “Lt. Rayshe, prepare the hanger bay to recieve guests. I’m going to link us up with the Brotherhood forces in the system so we can coordinate the rest of our assault.”
“Yes Sir,” Rayshe replied tersely.
She leaned back in the command chair; the leather creaking softly, and she exhaled deeply. The tension of the fight easing out of her gently. She rolled her head back to look at the ceiling of the Crasher. The silver plating crumpled, and its damaged running lights flickered and sparked. She eyed the dragons perched on the station protectively with a wary eye. The attack against the wings’ lead dragon was a taxing battle, and everyone would need some recovery time. A costly delay as it allowed Ominek more time to move on the surface of the planet unchecked, but a necessary one. Every step was vital to winning the battle, she assured herself. Being too hasty would mean unnecessary sacrifices, and she needed to ensure she got to the ultimate stage of this battle with all of her pieces in play if she expected to prevent Ominek’s victory.
The victory gave them a foothold in the system now. The remaining wing of dragons now pinned between the station with the planet as their only point to fall back to. She’d effectively cut them off from any reinforcements or resupply. She set the Crasher on a course to link up with the Brotherhood ships, using the wounded vessel’s signal light to send a communication. “REQUESTING MEETING TO REINFORCE POSITION AND RETAKE SYSTEM. MEET ABOARD THIS SHIP’S HANGAR IN 20 MIKES.”
Discretion and privacy were less of a concern now that the wings leader was dead and the ships aft facing the remaining dragons perched on the station like a flock of birds of prey waiting for their targets to spring from the tall grass. And using sector standard as the language ensured the Brotherhood could decipher the Morse Code. No one knew or even remembered who made Morse Code or how old it even was, but damn, was it handy in a pinch where more complex communication wasn’t possible. Either spell or tech.
“The Brotherhood ships confirm and are moving to intercept, sir.”
She turned back to Yasiin and nodded to him. Good. Now they could start fighting this war. The way she always meant to. She turned back to the primary screen, watching the gigantic dragon’s lifeless body floating in the void. Small sparkling droplets of blood floating in the void like a blanket of glitter sprinkled around the stump of his neck. He’d almost been the death of them. Just like that. And this war was only getting started. It was going to get a lot worse. She knew that much.
She dismissed the rest of the crew to try and rest. They were going to need to recover their aetherpools so they could resume the conflict. Spent mages were as useless as zeros. She needed her company to recharge for the whole sector’s sake.