We were sailing through the night sky, high over the forest when Deen called out from the starboard gunner’s pod.

“I can see an orange light just over the horizon! Looks to be about 30 kilometers due south,” he shouted.

My range of vision was slightly better than my usual via GodBomber’s sensors but still didn’t hold a candle to the ranged attack Automata.

“Redwall Hall’s in that direction,” Mazin added, leaning out over the deck. “Should we check it out?”

“Our mission is The Factory,” I reasoned, “but it wouldn’t be too much of a detour to fly close enough to take a look.”

Redwall Hall was a decent sized city located conveniently near a major intersection of the highway from Northridge in the mountains down to the major port town of Bowen’s Warf on Kra’ji Harbor and the highway leading to the capitol.

As we got closer, it became evident that the city of Redwall Hall was engulfed in flames. The destruction looked like something from a war movie. Redwall looked like it had been hit by a bomb strike. What I didn’t see was a whole lot of people— or at least, not living ones. Was this a dragon attack?

“Troop movements spotted, Cap’n!” Remi announced from the forward gunner’s pod. “100 kilometers off the starboard bow! I can just make out the rear guard, looks like titans and they’re headed for the Capital City!”

I swung GodBomber around to follow the highway to the capitol. I had copied the smoke mirror that Prince Milliardo had given me into a center console on the bridge and tried to contact him. I had no idea where he was or what he was doing, but he should certainly be informed that one of his cities was laid to waste and an invasion force was headed for his castle.

I tried connecting and didn’t have long to wait until I saw the shadowy, smoky shape that vaguely resembled the Prince emerge from the mirror.

“Prime, why are you contacting me? This had better be important,” he said in that whisper-in-a-tunnel voice that came through the mirror.

“Redwall Hall has fallen. It looks like an invasion force passed through and is enroute to the capitol. I don’t know how large a force yet but titans are confirmed,” I relayed.

“Frell,” he cursed. “Greevus should arrive in the capitol tomorrow morning, but he’s on the wrong side to intercept. I’ll need you to deal with them, Prime.”

“Your strike force should still be in the city, right? You’re not due to leave until tomorrow.”

“Yes, well... I’m afraid we left early this morning by river instead. I’m currently with the inner fleet out in the middle of Kra’ji Harbor.”

“Ah. Okay, yeah, on it.”

“Yes, defence of the capital takes priority over the strike on the Factory.”

“I assumed as much, I’ll contact you when I’ve cleaned this up.”

“I await the good news,” the Prince said, breaking the connection.

We drew closer on the heels of the invaders as they marched along the highway. I could see three neat and organised squares of troops marching in formation with four Titans per square. They were carrying banners of blood red with a golden stripe down the middle, though I had no idea what country that represented.

“Hey Vicky, hand these amulets out to everyone for me,” I ordered, as I brought a box full of green gemstones on chains out of [Inventory].

She gave me a confused look, but still took the box off of my lap and started handing the amulets out.

“Attention passengers, this is your Captain speaking,” I opened up through GodBomber. “Directly below us, you’ll notice several groups of enemy combatants. We will be engaging soon in an air strike so I ask that you return all seats and trays to the upright position. In the event that you are forced to evacuate the craft while we are at altitude, please make use of the aura amulets that Victoria Greywind is now bringing around. These amulets have a modified version of the Aura Shield that is designed to shatter upon hitting the ground at terminal velocity; absorbing the initial impact so that you don’t have to. It’s not recommended for fleshies though. Sorry Vicky, your insides will be turned into goo if you try to use it from this height due to the sudden decelerational G-Forces.”

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If it were possible for the gray wolfkin to suddenly turn white, she managed it.

“What, um... what if I wear two of them? Or three?” she asked nervously when she got back to the bridge. “I feel like, maybe, you should have said something before I got on board??”

“I did say that this vessel wasn’t designed with your kind in mind,” I said lamely. “Don’t worry, if it comes to it, I’ll get you to the ground safely.”

She just whimpered and crouched down on the floor, hugging her knees. Reinhart patted her head in sympathy.

Prime.Rom:// Thrust reduced to zero, wings aligned for stable positioning

Prime.Alfred:// Holding position over the center company of troops

Prime.Ram:// Current mana reserves at 2.070 billion

“Alright gunners, light ‘em up!” I ordered via GodBomber.

All four magic cannons opened fire, raining down heavy, steel slugs into the formations below. I couldn’t outfit the cannons with magic attacks like the royal destroyers were, only mages attuned to the specific magic type of those cannons were able to use them. Replicating the type of cannons I had built into my arm was the best method for an Automata, since the only magic required was to trigger the repulsion spell baked into the unit to send the ammo flying.

Of course the down side was ammo limitations, but unlike firearms and cannons from my world, the repulsion spell didn’t make any noise and there wasn’t any sort of muzzle flash; just the thwahp sound the ammo leaving the barrel.

Down below, the formations broke as troops scattered in confusion. It took a while, but eventually they figured out that the attack was coming from above, and sought cover under the trees. The titans were firing off magic bolts at random into the sky. A couple of shots got closer than I’d like so I kept us moving slightly in case one shot connected and they started playing old-school Battleship.

“We have incoming fliers!” Aster yelled back.

Jhaix hadn’t been sitting around twiddling his thumbs either, it would seem. Several of a new type of Automata that looked modeled after a harpie, or possibly the traditional “Angel” archetype but with a big “bee” butt-engine was shooting up into the sky from the trees. They were too nimble in the air for the gunners to get a lock on them, but they weren’t armed with ranged weapons.

Jhaix was an idiot. If you build a flying unit, you give it a ranged attack so that it can stay flying. These saps were armed with swords, shields, and nastly looking claw-feet. I guessed the use-case for them was more hit-and-run attacks and snatching people off of walls.

Once they got above us, they easily marked our position, hitting me with a flare that drew all of the magic attacks from the titans below. The mecha-bees tried pulling people off of my deck as they swarmed me with a couple dozen units. Mazin was the first to get pulled off, though he managed to grab the leg of the mecha-bee holding him, ramming his oversized sword through their chest as he fell.

Voltes didn’t wait and took a flying leap off the deck, slicing two of the mecha-bees in half with a single swing. Seeing these former royal guards in action made me think that when we’d fought against them before, they weren’t giving it their all. Just enough to appease the control curse. For that, I was thankful.

Below, Mazin and Voltes hit the ground like a pair of tungsten rods. I caught a glimpse of green as their aura shields kicked in and were destroyed while their impact caused an explosion of force that toppled two Titans and sent enemy troops flying. The gunners were doing their best to lay down suppressive fire but the guys on the ground would be overrun in no time.

Reinhart, living up to his clan training, leapt from mecha-bee to mecha-bee, puncturing, stabbing, and slicing without touching the deck. Eventually there was no more deck beneath him, nor living mecha-bees in jumping range, and he too dropped, creating an impact crater.

“We need to take this fight to the ground!” Koji yelled, as he vaulted over the side, followed by Prowl.

I couldn’t argue, once the flare was lit, I was taking damage from below thanks to the titans on the ground. The gunners were working to take them out but now they were also trying to cover the backs of our guys that had dropped.

“Prepare for immediate drop!” I warned. “Vicky, I know this is weird, but I need you to sit on my lap.”

“Ehh...” she winced.

“Look, if you want to survive the drop, quit farting around!” I barked.

She looked insulted but stood in front of me anyway.

“Um, where?” she asked, confused, gesturing at all the stuff attached to me at the moment.

“Disconnecting in THREE... TWO... ONE!” I shouted.

The interface module disconnected from my chest and GodBomber immediately powered down and started falling. The harness and clamps swung out of the way as the entirety of GodBomber dissolved into [Inventory]. Vicky screamed as gravity forcibly reminded us who was in charge.

I reached out to grab her, but she’d fallen away from me and was just out of reach. I converted my gunarm, switching to the grappling fist and shot it at her, grabbing her by the belt.

“Come here! Get over here!” I yelled, retracting the line to reel her in.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her legs up in a princess carry and pulsed my jump jets, slowing our descent. Below me, Remi, Rebecca, Deen, and Artes hit the ground, sending debri and enemies flying. A few of the remaining mecha-bees were coming after me as I dropped but I wasn’t in a position to fight them off with Vicky.

Thankfully, Victoria Greywind was no damsel in distress. Once she’d gotten over the freakout of suddenly falling from 250 meters, she was combat aware. A mecha-bee that got too close, was blasted by some sort of fire-jutsu; possibly the same one that she’d used on Carnivac once. She glanced down, assessing our height and kipped up, twisting in the air, and kicked off of my chest like it was a diving platform. She sailed through the air, landing on the back of a mecha-bee, grabbing its wings and guiding it to collide with another one.

As the two mecha-bees crashed into each other, she vaulted off, grabbed the last one by the foot, yanking it downwards. She flowed around it, letting momentum rotate it in the air until it was on its back with her sword shoved though the back of their throat. The two hit the ground and she went tumbling but popped back up on her feet, racing for the next target.

I did a full burst with my jump jets at the last moment, killing off my momentum and landing with a light thump on the ground. Around me swarms of enemy Automata, all in uniforms of blood red and gold, clashed with the handful of bots that I’d brought with me. Time to add some more!

I stretched out my hands, summoning Carnivac, Sentinel, IronHide, Swarm, and Solus. They hit the ground, powered up, and dove straight into the melee as the Convoy armor snapped around me. The panels in my back opened up and my burst jets flared to life, launching me towards the nearest Titan.