Prism awakened within a small, warm room that smelt of damp earth. He jerked himself up as quickly as he could, remembering the battle that he’d been in before he lost consciousness. He was aboard a living vessel, but its black and orange interior did not match that of the Sphingid. He looked around at his strange, cramped surroundings and soon heard familiar voices coming from a short distance away. When he stood up, his eyes made out two figures sitting in a rounded area connected to the area he was within. They were illuminated by the sunlight that faintly shined through the shaded panoramic window of the bug-eyed cockpit.
Testa turned in her seat to look at him while Risa continued to pilot the vessel toward a group of larger ships.
“Looks like the sedative has worn off.” Testa said loudly.
She smiled wide at Prism, which made him rub his head and look at her goofily. His mind was still a bit fuzzy, but he started to recall the confrontation with Kurillios’ big, red, bug-weapon. A rush of panic came to him shortly thereafter. He ran up to Testa’s seat and grabbed her red-patterned white pauldrons.
“Where is the Titian!? Have they been captured!?” Prism yelled in Testa’s face.
“They’re fine.” Testa said while gently taking Prism’s hands off of her armor. “Well, the Titian’s going to need some major repairs, but your team is alright.”
Prism rubbed his face and sighed with relief. He sat down cross-legged between Testa and Risa’s seats while he took a moment to calm himself. Testa then told him what had transpired while he was unconscious.
“So the rest of RED-1 is onboard the Conjunction ship we’re about to land on, and the Titian is being airlifted to the southern shores of Ruskeda by Conjunction ships as well…” Prism nodded to himself while he paraphrased some of what Testa had told him.
“The Conjunction Joint Forces won’t detain you guys. They tend to keep the peace rather than take sides in disputes such as this. The Etrysian Government would need to plead their case to the rest of the member states before the Conjunction would make a move against you or the Red Wolves. ” Testa explained.
“Lucky us…” Prism said with a shake of his head.
After landing on the deck of an especially large airship, Prism and Testa disembarked from the wasp-like vessel that they’d been aboard. Risa stayed seated in the pilot’s chair, citing the need to keep the vessel away from prying eyes. She took off in the noiseless vessel a short time later. The craft shimmered for a few seconds before it vanished from view only a few meters above the area that it had landed on.
Prism looked out to the east and saw the aerial battle above the Athean Sea intensifying. He could just make out the red Biost that had attacked him, as well as two similar bug-like vessels, zipping through the fighsau-filled sky. The Biosts flew close to the nearest Ammaship to the Athean coastline, the Paneen. The ship Prism stood upon maintained its distance from the battlefield while other, smaller Conjunction ships continued to head towards the fighting.
Warm, gentle winds blew across the deck of the ship, distracting Prism’s mind from the violence on the horizon.
"We're lucky that the Roots let us borrow the Ammophila. It's one of the best stealth ships that we Roses have." Testa said proudly. "It helps that Risa used to be a part of their covert ops division."
Prism bowed his head and then looked awkwardly up at Testa. He didn’t think that she was supposed to be divulging such information to him, but Prism was still grateful to learn more about his unexpected benefactors.
"Thank you. For saving me, I mean. I never thought you'd guys do all this to help me or my team. We all assumed the worse when you and Risa disappeared last night." Prism said guiltily.
"Oh, we figured you all would. Theda had to be careful. She knew that her cousin Aksos wouldn't want you running free once he found out about your powers. She assumed the worst about him, and she was right." Testa crossed her arms and looked down solemnly at the much-smaller Prism.
"Welcome aboard the Besper. I'll escort both of you to the others below-decks." A petite female Conjunction Joint Forces soldier who’d been standing on the deck of the grand, blue airship suddenly said to Testa and Prism.
The red-haired soldier wore a tailored light-gray uniform with four colored accents featured on its trim; light-blue, green, yellow, and brown. The four colors represented the four member nations of the Conjunction: light-blue for the icy mountains of Ruskeda, green for the verdant woods of Etrysia, yellow for the desert dunes of Disdüt, and brown for the fertile lowlands of Esdegon. Prism had learned of the colors’ meaning when reading a book about the Conjunction when he was first brought to Red Wolves HQ. Prism found the uniform to be both stylish and functional, a marvelous marriage of design that he'd found to be especially rare amongst militaries throughout his otherworldly travels.
The Conjunction Joint Forces, or the CJF as they were more commonly called, were a rapid-deployment military that usually made up for any shortfalls of its member states’ native military forces. It was Prism’s first interaction with them, and he took note of every aspect of them that he could.
"Also, these are for you." The female soldier said after being given a bundle of clothes and a pair of black running shoes by a young male soldier standing behind her.
The woman handed Prism a set of CJF-issue jogging clothes, which consisted of gray sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt. Both items had the four color motif of the Conjunction Joint Forces on them. Prism suddenly became a bit modest of his barely-clothed state. Nevertheless, he thanked her and quickly put on the clothes and shoes that she provided.
Testa and Prism followed the young woman through an extensive set of crystalline-blue corridors and lifts until they'd made it to a large room several sections below the upper deck. When its blue doors swiveled open, Prism smiled when he saw his teammates scattered about the observation room with large windows that offered a dramatic view of the skirmishes above the Athean Sea. Leanna and Ursun looked over at him with curious eyes while Lorias and Srell continued speaking on the opposite side of the lengthy room on blue leatherine couches. The Besper seemed more like a luxury liner to Prism than a military ship.
Prism's smile quickly left his face when he realized that there were only four other members of his team. He'd pushed the loss of Jaik out of his still-hazy mind, but Jaik's absence was apparent within that cold, azure room. Leanna seemed to sense Prism's thoughts despite their telepathic link having been severed when Prism was sedated. She walked over to him and warmly wrapped her arms around his slender shoulders. She'd always been motherly to him, he thought. She'd been that way with Jaik, too.
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Before they could exchange words, they all saw an almost-blinding flash of light appear over the aerial battlefield several kilometers to the east. The blast that caused the flash was soon felt within their room as glasses and other small items began to rattle and shake. Everyone covered their eyes while the white light flared out in all directions.
The members of RED-1 rushed over to the window to get a better view when the light dimmed. They saw the Biosts flying back towards the coast to the south of the Besper after the bipedal insectoid weapons were thrown back by the blast wave. A short alarm blared throughout the CJF ship, but it shut off when the explosion rapidly began to dissipate.
"Some sort of new weapon!?" Srell shouted while they watched the smoke from the blast hang drearily in the air.
"It looked like a nuke..." Leanna said softly, terrified by the possibility.
"It better not have been. The Queen will come here and wipe us all out if that was the case." Lorias said with a shake of his head.
"Why would she do that?" Prism asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The Queen forced a ban of nuclear weapons soon after she came to power almost a millennium ago. She went out of her way to round up and disarm all of the world's nukes, and she's even destroyed entire military units that have tried to test them since then." Leanna explained.
"The ban was formalized with the Nuke Armistice that was agreed upon by the Conjunction about two centuries ago." Ursun added.
"If she can just show up and destroy entire armies and cities, why doesn't she just take over the rest of this world!?" Prism said with an eruption of anger that caught everyone off-guard.
"She's powerful, but she's not impervious. If the entire Conjunction threw everything they had at her while she tried to rampage through our lands, then the Queen would be destroyed eventually. It very nearly happened a century ago." Leanna reminded Prism of something she'd explained back in Battle City.
Prism slammed his fist on the large window that stood in front of him and his team. He stared out at the airships and the small fighter aircraft that continued to creep towards the Athean coastline. The assault aircraft of the Conjunction Joint Forces and the Athean Air Fleet continued to hasten towards those enemy ships despite the explosion that had just occurred.
Prism thought of the madness of it all; that there was an almost-divine arbiter keeping the war going, but who prevented that war from spilling over into her own domain. The Queen seemed to be playing a grand game with Æba while she sat in her Kingdom doing who-knows-what, Prism thought further.
"This needs to end." Prism said aloud.
He looked around at his team and saw that they looked both tired and frustrated. Prism knew that they hadn’t given up, however. He was glad that they hadn't resigned themselves to the absurdity of the war they lived in; the Centuries-Long War that they were born into.
Seconds later, several CJF soldiers entered the room to explain what was happening on the battlefield. They were led by an especially prim-looking man who had the rank of major within the CJF.
"An unexpected reaction..." Leanna mused while she rubbed her soft chin after hearing the CJF officer's explanation of the blast.
"Damned "Biosts"! What a joke they are." Srell cursed.
"They seemed pretty effective to me." Lorias shrugged. “Not many ships can best both Prism and the Titian at the same time.”
"So the Paneen is still on a collision course with Getla Base?" Ursun asked for clarification, as the CJF soldiers had left out a few important details in their mini-briefing.
"No, the Paneen appears to be maintaining a stationary position fifty kilometers away from the coast while its Fightersaucers and dreadnought escorts continue to advance on Getla Base." One of the soldiers said calmly.
"They're creating an aerial defensive position. I suppose that accidental explosion made them reconsider their suicide mission." Leanna said thoughtfully.
"That mistake may have turned the tide of this battle." Ursun said worriedly.
"Our combined forces are about to meet the Vadamite ships. We'll stop them from advancing." The senior CJF officer that led the soldiers said, referencing the CJF and Athean air fleets.
As the minutes passed by, they all continued to discuss the battle while the Besper hovered high above the waves of the Athean Sea. They were far enough away to maintain a safe distance from the battlefield, as was the strategy for most command flagships. It wasn't long before the Conjunction Joint Forces officer within the room received an urgent message through his comms. Ursun and Leanna looked attentively at the officer when they saw his face contort with shock and panic.
"Main Window, show Zoom View 12 of the Paneen." The officer said loudly and clearly before anyone could ask what he'd learned.
Everyone looked at the tall, wide window suddenly display a transposed video stream of the Paneen's massive spaced-armor “head”. The video was being captured by a scout ship that was a mere 15 kilometers from the lead Vadamite Ammaship. The video showed an expansive view of the front of the Paneen as well as the CJF and Athean fighter ships flying towards it. To everyone's horror, the ovoid head of the Paneen had begun to glow with a bright golden light at its six edges. Each of those edges featured golden Kingdom-tech panels that reminded Prism of solar panels.
Orbs of golden plasma began to merge at the center of the pot-marked armored head, forming a larger sphere of auric energy. A high-pitched trill could be heard for several kilometers while the weapon gathered more energy. After another minute of powering up, the large central orb was fired from the head with a loud warble. The plasma globule widened as it moved away from the Paneen at high-speed. It soon became a wall of fast-moving golden plasma that destroyed all it touched.
"My Twins..." Leanna said airily while bringing her hands up to cover her face.
The plasma wave streaked across the sunlit sky above the calm seas below. The CJF and Athean aircraft that had made it to the aerial battlefield ahead of their larger respective fleets were destroyed by the plasma. Not much remained of the ships struck by the wall of energy, which continued to widen as it traveled for kilometers unimpeded. A few of the more agile fighter aircraft evaded the plasma by diving downwards, but the larger ships that they'd come from could not escape the wave of destruction.
Prism's eyes twitched angrily at the sight, just as Ursun's and Srell's did. Everyone within the room stood almost dumbfounded by the destructive power of the never-before-seen plasma weapon. The widening wall of plasma only dissipated after it had traveled 20 kilometers, leaving a trail of smoke and floating debris in the air. It looked as though the Paneen was a great whale that had yelled with such force that it had destroyed all in a cone before it.
"I need to go! I have to stop that thing from unleashing another one of those attacks!" Prism shouted resolutely to Ursun and his team.
"Go where?" Ursun asked stolidly.
'To Getla Base!" Prism yelled.
His teammates looked at him as though he was crazy. Prism knew that they were right to be skeptical, but Getla Base was the only place that he could harness enough power to decisively stop the Ammaships that continued to loom menacingly over the Athean Sea. Not only did the Paneen possess the Kingdom-tech plasma weapon, but its two sister Ammaships had the same shimmering golden structures built into their heads.
"There's no time! The other Ammaships could do the same thing the Paneen just did at any moment!" Prism yelled in response to the silence that met his previous reply.
"Major, get us a line to Hypergeneral Aksos." Ursun said to the CJF officer as the officer was beginning to receive a damage report from the Paneen's attack.
"The plasma wave created too much electromagnetic interference. We're doing our best just to communicate with our own for-" The officer started to say.
"Then laser him!" Ursun yelled with a swat of his hand towards the officer.
The officer looked stunned by the sudden rudeness, but he soon nodded and rubbed on his ear clasp to contact his superiors. After a few moments of hushed conversations amongst RED-1 and the Conjunction soldiers within the room, the officer pointed at the room’s large window to draw everyone's attention towards it. An image of the hypergeneral soon appeared, moving and shrinking the transposed feed of the Paneen to a corner of the window. The ordinarily proud and well-groomed man looked disheveled and strained.
"Out of all the calls I'm getting right now, I chose to answer this one. This better be good, Commander Ursun." Aksos said indignantly.
"I won't waste your time, then. Prism can stop the Ammaships, but he needs to return to Getla Base and tap into its nerve grid again." Ursun said gruffly with crossed arms.
"No, we can't take the risk. I am still of the opinion that "Prism" is too much of a wild card for us to deal with." Aksos said with a dismissive shake of his head.
"I can do this! What other option do you have!?" Prism stepped forward and shouted at the large display of Aksos upon the window.
"Getla Base is being evacuated as we speak. A long-range pressure wave from the plasma attack has rendered the base unsafe to stay within. We have our own plan of action that doesn't require any assistance from you or the Red Wolves." The hypergeneral said coldly.
"I'm not asking for your permission! You can either stay out of my way or waste even more of your resources trying to stop me!" Prism shouted while angrily pointing his finger at the display window.
Prism began to walk away, but Lorias grabbed him by his forearm. Prism stared into Lorias' narrow blue eyes, which had a calming effect on the brown-skinned alien. Prism immediately understood what Lorias wanted from him; Lorias didn't want Prism to further destabilize the already disastrous situation that the Conjunction and its Etrsyian member state found themselves in.
"Over half of our combined aerial fleets have just been decimated. You may think that you can solve all of our problems with whatever powers you possess, but what we need now is certainty. We need to dispel all of the uncertainty that has gotten us into this mess. Can you honestly say that you alone can provide that certainty, Prism?"
The hypergeneral's words cut through Prism like a knife. Prism glanced around the blue observation room at all of the worried faces that surrounded him. When Prism's eyes returned to Lorias' face, he let go of Prism's forearm and stepped back to Srell's side. It was then that Prism saw the expectation in his team's expressions. It was then that Prism saw that despite everything that had happened, they still believed in him.
"Not alone, sir. But with the help of you and everyone else, I can stop the Vadamites."