The squad circled around the silver ship, admiring their new vessel in equal parts awe and excitement. Finally, they collectively felt like they had the weapons to handle the fight. No more Federation hand-me-downs. Now they had a proper ship, and the powers to make it punch. Akamori folded his arms thoughtfully.
“We can’t get board it without a name.”
“Maybe it already has one?” Amara suggested.
“Good point. I guess we can check.”
Akamori reached out and laid a hand on the hull for a moment. A faint glow of magic pulsed, and he bonded with the ship. Immediately, a second set of senses, thoughts, and feelings overlaid his own. There was a consciousness to the ship, too. Like his spells word, but less developed. Less complex.
“Hey ship. I’m Akamori. What should we call you?”
Uncertainty pulsed back to him for a moment. He felt the ship puzzle over the question. Then, finally, Indra appeared in his mind’s eye. Not bad, he thought. “Indra it is.”
Sirsir punched his fist into his palm with a broad grin. “Alright! Ship’s got a name. Welcome to the team, Indra.”
The squad filed up the ramp one at a time behind Akamori. He strode slowly, taking in everything. The interior was pristine and clean. It looked as though it’d just finished construction to his eyes.
“It’s so new.” Amara said.
They reached the galley area, a smaller version of the one in the Crasher. This one had two tables. A large magic item on a countertop. He tapped it a few times, and it glowed in anticipation. A moment later, a few lights blinked and flashed in a pattern and a Honshu sweet roll materialized right in front of it. He reached out slowly and picked the roll up. He cautiously sniffed it before giving it a bite. The warm flaky sweetness tasted like home. He moaned softly and turned to Amara.
“Try this. It’s just like back home.”
Amara took an experimental nibble and her eyes went wide before she too shared a moment of bliss with herself. “You’re right. They’re just like what Mrs. Shiro would make for the temple priests.”
“That food thingy is the best food thingy I’ve had food from.”
Sirsir’s dark brow arched curiously. “Just how many food thingys have you eaten from?”
“Three.” Akamori said self consciously.
The big man shrugged, the large shoulder pauldrons scraped softly as he did. “Eh. About all I’ve had. But I’ll take your word for it.”
Morwen strode past them slowly. A ghost of a smile creased her lips and Akamori thought for a fraction of a second that might be genuine amusement in her expression. The way to the bridge was a straightforward walk. They all spilled onto the bridge, looking around in wonder. The bridge area held 3 seats, all with gold control sticks.
“By the stars…. are we? It can’t be!” Rozien, Amara’s book-familiar, said as he flew free of her robe.
“What?” Amara asked.
“This ship, it’s a ship of legend. Of prophecy. In the previous epic, when the war ended, Theferis was moved. Even Aeryn didn’t tell us where it went.”
“Theferis? What’s that?” Morwen asked.
“It’s only the first great ship. Imagine a super massive spell ship with unimaginable power. That’s it.”
“Sounds handy. Where’d ya say it was parked again?”
“No one knows. They hid it from Sauridius before the war ended. I think, because they meant us to find it.” Rozien said.
“Why us?” Akamori finally cut in. This had Sashlu’s grubby fingerprints all over it.
“Because this ship? The Indra? It’s the key to unlocking Theferis. I wasn’t certain this was it until we’d boarded it. But now I’m certain. Gods, I’m so stupid. This is what happens when you sit on a dusty shelf for millions of years.”
“I think we’re losing sight of more immediate issues. We can worry about this bigger ship later. For now, we need to get back and evict the shacklers in Morwen’s home.” Akamori said. He was trying to head off the scholarly interest before they got too spun up in it.
Morwen nodded appreciatively as she cleared her throat. She tugged her jacket down smoothly. Her dark royal blue uniform made her appear regal, though he’d never consider her anything of the sort. She was too practical for the trappings of nobility.
“We know there is a threat on Aeryn, and that it will be entrenched. The prophecy showed an end to my world if we failed to act. Let’s stay focused on that and move accordingly.”
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“Agreed. So whose scaley ass are we kicking first, then?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say it was the one that we stopped on Hidros.” Amara said with a thoughtful look.
“What about that air dragon that’s been harassing us since we left Aeryn? It’s a good bet that thing is still out there waiting for us to stick our heads up out of cover.”
“Then we’ll just have to blast it’s scaley ass off with the Indra.” Sirsir said, patting the console affectionately.
Morwen frowned. She wanted something more nuanced, but in the face of haste it would have to suffice. “That will need to be enough. Make ready for takeoff.”
Akamori happily slid down into control console. He took a moment to admire the quality of craftsmanship invested in the controls. The Crasher’s golden control sticks were a basic design with only rudimentary runes and glyphs etched into their surfaces. The Indra’s controls by contrast were themselves a rare display of art. The runes were engraved with care and effort, and sported a creative curved slant to them. Something akin to a handwriting style.
At the barest of touches, the controls sparked beneath his hand as magic snapped out and bonded to them. His consciousness swam and the seat deployed a restraining harness so he wouldn’t flop out and bash his head open on the corner. The disorienting nausea faded, and then he acclimated to the sensation of having the sleek new spellship’s senses overlaid on top of his own. Underlying that, the ships own basic consciousness was there as well.
“Ok, link is good. Let’s see what it can do.”
Confidently gripping the two golden controls, the rune glowed with void magic, lines of dark purple glowing aether tracing out various runes as he fed the ship void magic. Outside, the engine nacelles lit up with a dull rumble as the magic roared through the craft, negating gravity and pushing the ship vertically off the landing pad while simultaneously reducing the ships total mass.
Above the ship, a pair of retractable hanger doors slid open. Unnoticeable with the naked eye, Akamori could see the retraction by the faint glow of the ambient magic imbued in the palace roof parting open to allow the ship exit. As he angled them for an exit, he felt an eager pulse ripple through the ship. It too, like himself, was ready to leave and go find what Fate had in store for it. Too much of his conversation with Sashlu was rattling around in his mind and he needed to meditate to sort all of it out. For now? He had the mission.
The Indra roared into the air, and no doubt stood out like a glowing magical flare. The void fire dragon was on the ground with the lesser wildlings. They would saturate in this worlds magic and mature into full fledged magical beasts over time given the chance. In the distance, the snow scaled air dragon took flight and angled into pursuit. Immediately the craft sensed the danger it posed. But this ship was ready for a fight. More than that, it was built to fight.
All four spell cannons swiveled to face the dragon as it closed in rapidly. No longer flying a rusty box with a spell drive and cannon bolted on, the squad now possessed tools more than capable of dealing with the opponent. Akamori watched as the dragon’s maw opened and raw undiluted magic pooled together forming a writhing bolt of air magic. Now not only could Akamori fight, but the others could as well with the additional control consoles.
All four cannons on the Indra came about to face the Dragon. The air wyrm hesitated reflexively for a moment, finally realizing the danger it had placed itself into. But rage won out and it pressed on, overcoming survival instincts and wisdom. This was a fight it wanted. A fight Akamori was more than happy to provide.
“Our friend is back and looking for round three.”
“Then let’s not disappoint. Sergeant. Give me all the fire you can muster in every cannon. Akamori, all the void you can spare.” Morwen ordered.
“Hell yes.” Sirsir cooed as waves of rippling red and orange magic poured down his arms into the golden control sticks. The runes glowed with the fire magic as the ship routed the magic to all the weapons. On the outside, orbs of fire aether coalesced in the maw of each barrel.
Recognizing the threat it was in, the dragon fired its breath attack. A bolt of raw lightening as thick as its neck blasted out. The bolt narrowly missed the the new ship, some of the raw energy arc’d onto the ship by virtue of proximity. The dragon watched with increasing dread as void magic began mixing with the fire magic in the spell cannon barrels. Ignorance wasn’t a factor, it knew the human kinslayers were planning to fire off disintegrates. It’s only hope was being able to dodge the attacks. One disintegrate was dangerous. Four was very nearly a death sentence.
The spells fired, larger than they had any right to be. The ship must have amplified the attacks. Quickly the dragon morphed from full wyrm to a small human. The smaller target easily evaded the attacks and morphed back into full form. The humans possessed power and tools but she had years of experience being one of Anazi Prime’s most capable warriors.
In the Indra’s cockpit, Akamori torqued the ship into a sharp banking turn looping back to face the dragon. He had to admit, it handled their opening attack very well. Facing the attack and exploiting it’s lack of tracking with a quick shift to reduce size and mass. He only regretted lacking any way to make use of the tactic himself. The ship bore down on the dragon as the two raced at each other in the near total black gloom of the world.
Whatever shielding magic Sashlu had cast upon the world kept it isolated from the rest of the Umbral plane. Meaning no light or magic escaped or penetrated the field. The Indra could see without light anyway, its magical senses capable of discerning the white and blue beacon of light that was the dragon. How it fended off the voidspawn was another question entirely. Akamori tacked it up to raw power and the knowledge of how to fight.
“Amara, think you can teleport the ship a short distance?” Akamori asked, focused on flying and evading as he and the dragon traded basic spell bolts with each other, probing reactions and defenses.
“I think so. Best I can do is 50 meters though.”
“That’s more than enough. The tighter the better. Sgt, take two turrets and start filling them with fire and face them aft.”
“What are you planning Lt?”
“I can explain or do. Pick.” Akamori growled avoiding several blasts.
“Carry on.”
He appreciated that Morwen liked to have information to make decisions, but sometimes you only had seconds to decide and time was a luxury they had little of. Instinct and reflex took over as he faced down the dragon again hurling distractionary rapid fire base spells at the dragon. The dragon evaded and shielded where necessary, not noticing the aft cannons charging a pair of disintegrates. It unleashed a powerful cone attack of lightning that threatened to overtake the ship.
“Now!”
At the last possible instant, the ship winked out of reality. The magical electrical storm tore violently through the airspace the Indra previously occupied. A second later the ship reappeared behind the dragon as a pair of black and purple beams of destructive magic slammed into the glittering scales on the air wyrms back. Scales, sinew and bone evaporated away. Broken down into constituent atoms, their bonds severed by raw deconstructive energy.
The joints anchoring the wings to the dragons back dissolved into motes of void magic. The dragon roared powerfully, channeling strong air magic to keep itself aloft due to the loss of wings in atmo. Akamori powered the Indra hard ahead and banked around again, priming all four cannons to fire one last time. He glanced back at the others to gauge their conditions.
Sirsir had a sheen of sweat glistening on his bald pate. A stern glare focused ahead on the spell screen. Akamori could see the drain the few salvos of disintegrate had exacted on the burly dark skinned man already. Morwen and Amara equally shared determined expressions though seemed less for the wear since they weren’t directly tapped for the spells. Akamori also noticed that Amara’s eyes blazed iridescent gold, a shimmer of rainbow glistened on her eyes as light reflected off of them like a prism. Morwen gaze seemed distance, like she wasn’t staring at the main spell screen but through it and off about a thousand meters.