“Prism has left the Titian and is now holding position above it.” Lieutenant Kurillios reported over his unit’s protein-encrypted comms.
Kurillios' voice was normally just as youthful and exuberant as he was, but the pressure of his first real battle made him overly serious when speaking to his superiors.
“What do you mean he “left”?” Asked Major Defno Agitas, the First Biost Unit’s second-in-command, in a soft, deep tone.
“He’s flying. He flew out of the Titian and he is now matching its speed while flying a few meters above it.” Kurillios clarified while sending the visual recording of what he was describing to Major Agitas and his commander, Colonel Vey Vilensos.
“Still no response from the Titian?” Colonel Vilensos asked.
“No, sir; not a peep.” Kurillios replied.
“Engage them, but do so with caution. I don't want Ursun or his team to be harmed.” The colonel ordered.
“Yes, sir. Engaging the Titian now.”
Kurillios made his slim red Biost rush forward through the air as naturally as it was for him to take off running on the ground. He was connected extensively to the Biost through a modified spinal port, making the half-humanoid half-insectoid vehicle feel like an extension of his own body. Its chitinous wings fluttered harder and faster to close the short distance between him and the Titian. He soon reached out the Biost’s hands to grab the wings of the ship, but he was pushed back by a strong gale that sent him spinning downwards dozens of kilometers off course.
“What the!?”
The systems of Kurillios’ Biost took a few seconds to recover from the abrupt loss of attitude control. Kurillios knew that it had been no mere gale that had disrupted his flight path. Few things could interfere with the biological functions of the advanced craft like Prism’s attack had. It vexed Kurillios, but he was usually quick to figure things out.
While he shot his Biost back up towards the Titian, Kurillios reviewed the footage of Prism. Kurillios then saw that Prism had turned around and used some sort of energy attack on his Biost, which made Prism’s eyes flash with a blue light. The previous night, Kurillios had seen Prism rush through the halls of Getla Base at superhuman speed and somehow connect with Getla Base’s bio-system with his bare hands. Despite that, Kurillios hadn’t believed it possible for anyone to use such strange power against a craft as mighty as his Biost.
Kurillios kept a half-kilometer distance from the Titian as to not incur Prism’s wrath again. He thought on how he could disable the alien, who he had strict orders to bring in alive. The task suddenly seemed much more difficult than he’d initially thought. But Kurillios was not known to give up easily, if ever.
His Biost had a store of an archaic-yet-modified pink sedative that he could aerosolize from sprayer nozzles on his Biost’s body. He’s wondered why he’d been outfitted with such a weapon, since it would be completely ineffective if Prism had stayed within the Titian. But Hypergeneral Aksos had predicted such an occurrence, having heard of Prism’s ability to fly from Kurillios’ father, Deriges.
Kurillios maneuvered his Biost to fly low under the Titian at high speed until he was flying half a kilometer in front of it. His Biost could easily out-fly the tiltjet. The specs of the Titian’s standard model of aircraft had even been used during his top-secret Biost training over the past four years. It was Prism that remained the unknown variable for Kurillios. The pilot would need to outsmart the magic-using alien in order for him to succeed in his mission.
After holding the position in front of the Titian for a few seconds, Kurillios released a trail of faintly-pink mist that trailed behind his lean, sleek Biost. The sedative within the mist was so potent that it barely lost its effectiveness in an aerosolized form. It only took a few seconds for Prism to fly through the mist, seemingly unaware of its danger. Seconds later, Prism was hitting the top hull of the Titian, where his unconscious body quickly slid off of. Prism’s body began to fall straight into the blue ocean a kilometer below them.
Kurillios deftly flew his Biost diagonally downward in reverse, intersecting perfectly with Prism’s descent. When he reached out the Biost’s hand to gently catch Prism, Kurillios was thrown back by a sudden concussive blast. Kurillios’ visual sensors had been overloaded with a magical explosion of disruptive energy that also momentarily caused him and his Biost to become desynchronized from each other. Kurillios felt a sudden disorientation from the feedback shock to his nervous system, but his training allowed him to recover quickly.
When he regained his Biost’s senses, Kurillios saw that Prism and the Titian were flying in formation again.
“Damn it, he tricked me!” Kurillios cursed as he sent his Biost flying at high-speed back up to stop the Titian’s flight across the strait.
“You’ve got incoming, RedGreen.” Major Agitas warned Kurillios using his pilot call sign. “Four Fighsaus headed your way.”
Kurillios cursed yet again when he looked to the east and saw the Vadamite Fightersaucers zooming towards him and the Titian. He could also make out the three massive ovoid shapes in the distance, which were the spaced armor “heads” of the Vadamite Air Fleet’s largest class of aircraft; their Ammaships.
The large heads that blocked all other view of the ships were in fact several layers of armor that were spaced apart to provide comprehensive defense against high-speed projectiles and energy weapons. Each head was easily 100 meters tall and 200 meters wide, and were curved at their ends to offer wider coverage. Such structures were made explicitly to defend against long-range attacks, though the rest of the hull was hardy as well.
The circular Fightersaucers, or Fighsaus as they were commonly called, were small, fast, and highly-maneuverable. They existed in stark contrast to the massive flying dreadnoughts that deployed them. Outfitted with precision smart-turrets, groups of Fightersaucers could bring down even large aircraft.
Kurillios smiled at the chance to see some real combat. He hailed the Titian to tell them that he would help defend them for the time being, but his messages continued to be unanswered. When he saw Prism erect some sort of barrier of light around the Titian, Kurillios whistled in amazement before heading into the range of the Fighsaus’ guns. Their bullets bounced off of his Biost’s reinforced carapace while he bobbed and weaved amongst the much smaller vessels.
One of the vessels tried to fly around him and directly to the Titian. Kurillios pointed the right arm of his Biost at the Fighsau and shot an explosive-tipped spike at it from a firing hole on the Biost’s forearm. Though the craft dodged the projectile, it exploded when it got within close proximity of the Fighsau. The vessel was destroyed, causing the other three to put some distance between them and the Biost. Kurillios hovered in position while the Fighsaus did the same several meters away, unsure of how to deal with the unknown Biost vessel.
“Come on, you gnats!”
Kurillios yelled aloud before he dashed forward and swiped at the nearest Fighsau, destroying it before it could respond. When the last two saucers began shooting at his Biost’s wings, Kurillios laughed at the futility of their attacks. He moved his Biost’s spider-like head to face one of the vessels and unleashed a barrage of bullets at it from the Biost’s head-mounted autocannons. In no time, the Fighsau was destroyed by the spray of armor-piercing bullets. The last Fighsau attempted to ram Kurillios, but he simply reached out and crushed it with his Biost’s powerful red hands.
“Fighsaus neutralized. Resuming pursuit and capture.”
Kurillios smirked as he looked off to the north and saw how far the Titian had gotten.
“They’re really zooming.” He said to himself.
Kurillios laughed cockily while he accelerated his Biost so quickly that he felt the gravitational force through the stability rig he was strapped into. He covered the kilometers that separated him from the Titian in a matter of seconds, which caught Prism and his team off-guard. Kurillios’ Biost flew acrobatically over the Titian in time to dodge a colorful spell attack thrown by Prism. When Prism readied himself to hurl another spell at the large red Biost, the Biost grabbed the top of the Titian while it was still flipping over the ship.
The Biost pulled the ship upwards hard and fast, causing it to slam into Prism with such force that he was knocked out cold despite being surrounded by his golden barrier of light. Kurillios then had his Biost grab the unconscious Prism before he could fall out of reach. The Titian was at the mercy of the red living vessel as it began to tow the ship back to Getla Base with one hand while tightly gripping Prism in the other. For good measure, Kurillios had small nozzles in his hand release a steady stream of pink sedative mist to keep Prism from regaining consciousness.
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“Capture complete. Returning to base.” Kurillios said coolly over his unit’s comms.
“Be swift about it. We need your help out here ASAP.” Colonel Vilensos said while attacking one of the three Vadamite Ammaships using retractable swords that his four-armed white Biost wielded.
When Kurillios was about to respond, he suddenly felt a strange weight on the back of his Biost’s body. His sensors soon made out the outline of a small, actively-camouflaged living ship that was preparing to pierce his Biost with a massive stinger. Kurillios couldn’t believe that an Etrysian vessel was attacking him. He hesitated for a moment, giving the stealth wasp-class ship time to stab through the waist-area of his Biost.
“I’m under attack! Attacking ship is…Etry-“
Kurillios became wracked with pain as the stinger released a potent neurotoxin into the Biost’s circulatory system. His large biological host began to jerk its limbs wildly as many of the cells that made up its nervous system began to die off. Its wings managed to keep it afloat, as they had their own backup nervous system for such events.
Kurillios soon feared that his Biost might crush Prism while it went haywire. With all his might, Kurillios wrestled enough control from the bio-system to release Prism, but not before the Biost’s other hand ripped a section of the Titian’s roof off.
“Damn it!”
Kurillios cursed in agony when he saw the damage that he’d done to the Titian. Plasma streamed out of its exposed conduits, leading to a massive loss of the tiltjet’s power. The Biost continued to twitch wildly in the air while the Titian started to plummet towards the ocean. Kurillios’ attacker pushed off of his Biost’s back, leaving the stinger wedged inside of it. The wasp-like ship flew downward to catch Prism using a sticky webbing that it shot from the launcher below its cockpit. The ship was too small to save the Titian, which continued to fall towards the sea as it vented a trail of glowing blue plasma.
“WhitePink! GrayOrange!” Kurillios yelled desperately over his comms. “Requesting assistance! I’ve been disabled by a wasp-class ship of unknown origin!”
Despite his attempts to hail his unit, Getla Base, or the hypergeneral, Kurillios comms were malfunctioning like everything else on Biost, save for its wings. He opened his eyes and furiously began to thrash about in his stability rig. He became even angrier when he saw the Second Athean Fleet fast-approaching from the west while the Conjunction Joint Forces rapidly flew from the north and south.
They’d all no doubt seen him uselessly hovering above the sea while his targets escaped, he feared.
“Unknown Etrysian craft, we have observed your unprovoked assault on a Red Wolves vessel. We will not tolerate any further attempts to bring harm upon our allies.” A communiqué was broadcast from one of the lead ships flying in the north.
The aircraft was only a few kilometers away from Kurillios, and its weapons were in range of his Biost.
“Not good…” Kurillios said dejectedly to himself.
As he began to regain control of his craft, Kurillios managed to have his Biost pull the toxic stinger out of its back. He feared what the Conjunction fleet might do to him, and he loathed how bad their first impression of his unit might be. He ignored the orders he received from Hypergeneral Aksos to engage with the mysterious wasp vessel, feigning ongoing damage to his communications equipment. He then rapidly flew to the eastern skies to aid his unit in combat.
The skies and seas surrounding the Athean coastline were saturated with the sounds and sights of war. Explosions of all sorts of sizes and colors littered the area while an assortment of ammunition flew back and forth between the myriad vessels that dotted the landscape. Anyone standing aboard the decks of the many naval boats could not only hear the unending blasts all around them, but could also feel their distant booming shockwaves move through their bodies.
A battle of such scale and intensity hadn’t been waged in years near the island of Athea. Most of the soldiers that fought aboard the vessels were as green as the hair atop Kurillios’ head.
"Aksos will have your head for this." Major Agitas said over a visual feed he shared with Kurillios. "But don't worry; we've got your back."
The major's heavy brow ridge and square jaw made him look like a brute, but Kurillios knew him as a gentle giant. His call sign, "GreyOrange," came from his bulky, grey-colored Biost and his buzzed, dark-orange hair. He kept two thick curls on either side of his forehead, which was a style popular with his generation of Myo-class soldiers.
"We've observed some kingdom-tech on the heads of the Ammaships, but we still don't know the tech's function. Be careful."
Colonel Vilensos also shared a visual of him speaking aloud with his team. The colonel had the look of a classic Etrysian hero, with his handsome, stoic face that had small features. His caesar-cut pink hair and his sleek, white, four-armed Biost had earned him the call sign "WhitePink".
Most in the military already knew who he was due to the fame he'd earned ten years prior, during the Battle of Proulkat Plain in Ruskeda. He'd single-handedly taken down a Vadamite Ammaship while piloting a simple flanxfly, one of the smallest fighter aircraft that the Etrysian military used. It had earned him the nickname "Flanxfly Vey" in the media.
"Sir, I messed up. I damaged the Titian pretty badly." Kurillios reported while sending his own image to his unit.
"Any casualties?" The colonel asked with a raised eyebrow.
"None that I'm aware of, sir." Kurillios said while glancing down away from the screen in front of his face that also captured his visuals.
"Ursun is tough, like his mother was. They'll be fine." Colonel Vilensos said for his and Kurillios' benefit. "Now, back to work."
Kurillios joined his unit in attacking the side of the Ammaship at the front of the Vadamite fleet. It dwarfed them in size, but their Biosts were heavily armed with an assortment of versatile and destructive weapons. Though they fought off swarms of Fightersaucers, they still managed to damage the lead Ammaship enough for it to begin descending closer to the sea, putting it in further danger as the Athean navy found it easier to fire at its underbelly.
"The Paneen is accelerating far too quickly. At its current speed and heading, it will ram into Getla Base within the next twenty minutes. Focus your attacks on its engines. With those gone, it'll plummet into the sea." Hypergeneral Aksos ordered the First Biost Unit.
“Easier said than done.” Colonel Vilensos said over his unit’s comms.
The Ammaships were heavy and massive aircraft with no real wings to speak of. They were kept aloft by powerful pulse jet engines that were contained within large, open-bottomed domes on their sides. The domes were well-armored like the rest of the Ammaships’ hulls, and the heat that came from them made attacking them from the bottom unlikely to succeed.
"Did you get those orders from Aksos, RedGreen?" Major Agitas asked over audio only.
"Yes, sir. My comms are fully-functional again." Kurillios said with a smirk.
“I’ll use my acid spray to expose the engines’ primary control conduits at the midpoint of the ship.” The colonel explained.
“That area is too well-defended by Fighsaus and auto-turrets. We’re hardy, but not that hardy, sir.” Major Agitas said.
“You two will just need to cover me the best you can. We’ll be in and out.” Colonel Vilensos said sternly.
“How’s that injury, RedGreen?” The major asked while noticing the gash in the back of Kurillios’ Biost.
“The carapace still looks bad, but all my systems are nominal. The internal damage was minimal, and has already healed.” Kurillios explained rather flippantly.
“Good. I’m going in, then.” The colonel said.
After an intense dive back into the intense firefight that was occurring around the Paneen, the three Biosts zipped through the explosions and fighter aircraft that blocked their path. They were too fast for most of the automated fire that was directed at them, and the sheen of their chitinous armor made them a difficult laser target.
They’d trained with the Biosts for over four years in nearly every sort of battle condition, so the chaos going on all around them did little to faze them. It also helped that the weaponized organisms they piloted had their own evasive instincts that allowed them to dodge attacks without conscious thought. The pilots were one with their Biosts, combining their human skills with the innate abilities of their living vessels for maximum efficiency.
Once they’d fought through to the most vulnerable part of the Paneen’s exterior, Colonel Vilensos had his Biost stretch out its four spindly arms and shoot four streams of corrosive acid at a sizable portion the hull. He didn’t stay close to see the acid eat away at the composite materials, exposing the critical network of wiring behind the plating. The automatic turrets that lined the undamaged portions of the hull began to unload their high-explosive ammunition directly at the colonel’s Biost. The colonel zigged and zagged to avoid the barrage until his allies could take some of the attention away from him.
Major Agitas began to wield the mighty, massive arms of his own Biost to punch as many of the turrets that he could from a distance. With each powerful punch it threw, the major’s Biost released shockwaves from its hands. Those invisible shockwaves traveled several meters and crushed nearly anything they came into contact with. When several of the turrets were craterized by the forces exerted by the punches, the remaining turrets instead turned their focus to the major’s Biost.
Colonel Vilensos capitalized on the opportunity and fired a stream of explosive rounds of his own at the corroded, exposed sections of the hull. His Biost’s four arms sprawled out like the legs of a spider as they jerked slightly with each burst of spike-rounds that they fired from their palms.
Arcs of electricity and flares of plasma soon erupted from the areas that he fired upon.
“That’s enough! Now to the secondary systems!”
Colonel Vilensos fled the area before it became completely swamped with enemy ships, and his two solders did the same. They watched as the Paneen began to dip lower while its flight and fuel stabilization systems switched to their secondary control circuits. It would be more difficult to repeat what they’d done on the other side of the mighty vessel, as their enemies were onto them.
“RedGreen, time for a clustershot. I take it you know where to aim it?” The colonel said casually to his youngest subordinate.
“Of course, sir! Just keep these gnats off of me and I’ll make you proud!” Kurillios said with his signature zest.
Kurillios jetted nearly a kilometer away from the Paneen and hovered within sight of its starboard side. With a clear line of sight to the ship’s midsection, Kurillios stretched his Biost’s arms out before him and slowly brought its palms together. The chitin armor of the arms began to shift and fold, allowing the arms to merge into a single limb.
With fingers bent back and palms conjoined, the Biost formed a long-barrel cannon. A round hole opened up where the palms had met, large enough for the clustershot that was stored in the Biost’s chest area. A hole also opened up on its back so that the cannon would avoid any recoil when it was fired.
Kurillios took a deep breath as he aimed the cannon before him at the Paneen. His Biost hovered as stably as it could.
“Ready and willing, sir.” Kurillios said over his comms while his team fought off the Fighsaus that flew towards him.
“Then what are you waiting for?” Colonel Vilensos said calmly before he intercepted a missile and punched it casually out of the way.
Kurillios smiled and gritted his teeth before firing the Biost’s converted-arm cannon. A small bundle of colored fused spheres shot from its hole and flew in an arc towards the Paneen. A group of Fighsaus that had been approaching Kurillios’ Biost attempted to fire at the spherical projectile, realizing the danger it posed.
Major Agitas, who was several dozen meters away from Kurillios, swung a mighty punch that sent a shockwave towards the Fighsaus. Most of the Fighsaus were destroyed by the pressure wave, but one survived. It flew at the clustershot at full-speed and met it as it began to fall downward from the zenith of its arc. Colonel Vilensos fired a few shots from his four arms, but his attempts to strike the small, distant vessel were in vain.
"Get out of the blast area!" The colonel yelled through his comms to his two subordinates.
When the Fightersaucer collided with the clustershot, a conflagration of fire and light flared out in all directions from the point of impact. A spherical blast wave of deafening force expanded for two kilometers, destroying several small aircraft and seacraft within its radius. The sea beneath the blast was struck hard enough to create volatile waves that capsized many smaller Etrysian ships. The flames of the explosion traveled half a kilometer, and all within the area of the fireball was vaporized. The clustershot had detonated with far more force than it had been designed to.
Kurillios, Major Agitas, and Colonel Vilensos all managed to get clear of the explosion, but just barely. Each of their Biosts suffered varying degrees of damage that would take them out of the fight. They each flew back to the Athean coast to find a safe place for their vessels to recover. They did not know why the yield of the clustershot had been increased so dramatically, but their blunder had cost the lives of many of their allies.
Their plan to stop the Ammaship had been catastrophically thwarted just as the Conjunction and Etrysian air fleets began to enter the airspace filled with Vadamite ships. The Paneen moved ever forward toward Getla Base, readying itself for one final showdown.