The warm wind streamed over Prism’s bald head while he flew like an arrow towards the Athean coast to the south. He kept his arms close to his sides as he shot through the air towards his destination over 20 kilometers away. His glowing blue irises matched the color of the sunlit sea.
Prism was accompanied by the red Biost piloted by Kurillios, who’d been tasked by the hypergeneral with protecting Prism on his way to Getla Base. The bipedal craft flew a few dozen meters behind Prism, giving Kurillios a wide view of any threats that approached them. They made an odd pair, the likes off which had never been seen before by any on the intensifying battlefield save for Prism himself.
Kurillios marveled at the small alien’s flight speed, and at his ability to fly at all. The green-haired pilot still found it hard to believe that anyone could come close to the capabilities of his hyper-efficient Biost. The Biost was a platform onto which the greatest of all Etrysian advancement were placed upon. It was the culmination of five hundred years of organic technology, and Etrysia believed it to be the key to overturning the Queen’s nigh-hegemony over Æba. Prism, however, brought that possibility into question.
“I’m still reeling from that kid’s apology. Vey must’ve told him to do it.” Ursun communicated telepathically to Prism through their restored psychic link.
Not many minutes earlier, Kurillios had landed and exited his Biost on the Besper’s deck. He’d gotten new orders from the hypergeneral to protect Prism, which had stunned the young pilot. The rest of his Biost unit had not been surprised at all, as they had plenty of experience on how unexpectedly situations could shift during battle. Kurillios had been humbled by the change in orders, and had apologized profusely to RED-1 when they’d met him on the deck.
“I told you that Kurillios is a good guy. He just got bad orders. He didn’t even mean to tear through the roof of the Titian.” Srell explained telepathically to Prism.
“Vey?” Prism psychically asked Ursun while he looked ahead at the Athean landmass that drew ever closer to him.
“Vey is Kurillios’ commanding officer and an old friend of mine. His family was close to my mother’s.” Ursun explained to Prism’s surprise.
“It looks like Vey and the other Biost pilot have made it to the Paneen. Hopefully they can damage the plasma dischargers on those Ammaships and buy you some time.” Leanna chimed in.
“In any case, we won’t distract you anymore. Good luck over there. You know that we’re all counting on you.” Lorias’ mental voice was just as chill as his speaking one.
“Take out those Vadamite bullies! Do it for Jaik!” Srell shouted over their link.
Prism did his best to keep his thoughts of grief from spilling out telepathically while his teammates began to silence their own minds. He could sense their own complex emotions related to Jaik, but he pushed them out of his head and trained his focus back on returning to the base. The threat of a fast-moving enemy ship soon helped distract him from his turmoil.
“Fighsaus approaching. I’ll take care of them.” Prism could hear Kurillios’ voice over the comm ear clasp he’d been given.
“Understood.” Prism replied through comms.
Kurillios’ Biost broke away from Prism’s rear and flew over to the six fightersaucers that were headed straight towards Prism. With a swipe of its hands, the Biost sent forth two arcs of sharpened darts that destroyed three of the small aircraft. The other three fighsaus zipped past Kurillios and continued their pursuit of Prism. Kurillios shot his Biost forward and lunged at the fighsaus, but they broke their tight formation and split up in three directions. It was then that Kurillios realized that he was dealing with three ace pilots, seasoned veterans with several confirmed kills and thousands of hours of flight-time.
“Careful! These guys won’t go down easily!” Kurillios said over comms to Prism.
Prism looked back to see the fighsaus begin to unload their smart turrets at him. He crossed his arms in front of his face and extended a protective barrier of golden light that shielded him from the deadly bullets, causing his left eye to shimmer with white light. He felt himself begin to descend rapidly as his intricate flight magics started to waver.
“Please keep them off of me! I can’t keep flying if I have to defend myself!” Prism shouted over the comms.
Kurillios quickly maneuvered his shiny red Biost to intercept the fighsaus firing on Prism. The Biost flipped in the air and twisted the waist of its anthropomorphic body at an extreme angle, catching two of the fighsaus off guard. Kurillios’ Biost grabbed and crushed one of them, but the other ship evaded just in time. The two fighsaus continued firing on Prism in between evading the Biost’s ranged and close-quarter attacks.
“No choice!” Kurillios said to himself within the innards of the Biost’s chest section.
He strained his mind to trigger muscles and nerves that had been restrained within the Biost. Its red armored surface began to glow and release wisps of bioluminescent chemicals from the tiny openings in its joints and sensory orifices. Kurillios gritted his teeth as another level of power began to awaken within the Biost. He controlled the vessel as if it was his own body, and the increased strain from the power boost put his own body under duress.
“Here I go!”
Kurillios opened his eyes before he dashed forward through the air and suddenly closed the distance between him and the two fighsaus that had been toying with him. The fighsaus flew in opposing directions to throw the Biost off, but the human reflexes of their pilots were no match for Kurillios’ chemically-boosted response time. He reached the Biost’s arms out towards the fleeing fighsaus and fired pressurized jets of corrosive red acid. Both of the fighsaus were struck by the acid, triggering small explosions mere meters away from the Biost.
Prism smiled at the dazzling red destruction and turned back around to face the nearby base. Both of his eyes were suffused with blue light once again as he fully-regained his control of the winds around his body. The base’s black surface buildings and tall walls were clear to him now, and some of its large living border guns continued to fire at the numerous Vadamite ships that still approached Athea. Prism could see large cracks running throughout the walls, floors, and ground of Getla Base. Portions of the sea-facing walls had collapsed, causing two of the borders guns to fall into the sea.
“How could that plasma attack have caused all this damage? It stopped over 20 kilometers away from here…” Prism thought as his mind struggled to understand the physics involved.
Prism’s baggy grey sweatsuit flapped in the wind as he applied a final burst of wind magic to himself to accelerate his flight. Time was short, and he knew that the three Vadamite fleet divisions would soon annihilate him and his allies with their unprecedented Kingdom-tech.
“You should slow down. You’ll splat into the ground at this rate.” Kurillios said to Prism over comms.
“I’ll be fine! Thanks for the escort!” Prism shouted adamantly through comms.
Kurillios smirked at Prism’s cockiness. It was a trait that they both possessed, the Biost pilot thought.
“I’ll stay close by. Contact me if you need anything!” Kurillios said before pulling his Biost back and away from Prism, holding a position in the skies overlooking the northern Athean coast.
A few minutes later, Prism was landing near one of the white-domed border guns. A fighsau that’d evaded the nearby cliff cannons and defensive automated turrets on the rooftop fired upon the border gun. The border gun continued to fire its long-range electrified rounds at the approaching Ammaships while its dome became pockmarked from the fighsaus armor-piercing rounds.
Prism sent a razor-sharp blade of wind up at the fighsau with a flick of his wrist. The small aircraft was sliced in two, triggering a sudden reaction within its weapons system. After the fighsau exploded above him, the nearby turrets began firing on Prism. He yelped when a bullet struck his shoulder right before he surrounded himself with a magical force field.
Prism used his mind to call out to the base’s bio-system, but the damage it had sustained from the plasma attack’s pressure wave made it ignore his attempts at telepathic contact. Prism ran over to the east-facing edge of the roof. He could sense a nerve-cable running just beneath the stone balustrade before him. He knew that the solution to his problems lay beneath his feet.
“Work with me, Getla.” Prism said in a quiet prayer.
He conjured a simple spell that created a small hatch in the stone floor near to him. He’d begun to feel the strain of repelling the bullets that still pelted his protective barrier of light, and it wouldn’t be long before his mana ran out. His eyes glowed with white light while he opened the hatch and revealed the nerve-cable below. After taking a quick glance around, Prism grabbed the thick, warm bundle of nerves and closed his eyes. He moved his consciousness through the cables and soon found the essence of Getla Base’s bio-system within. It was afraid and suspicious, just as it had been when it was infected with the supervirus.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Its nerve grid was severed in numerous places from the collapse of several sections of the underground base. Even one of its four primary bio-generators had been crushed in a cave-in. Prism began to worry if the system could still supply the power he needed.
“Let me help you like I did before.”
Prism’s intentions soothed the bio-system, allowing him to probe it more deeply with his mind. He was worried when he sensed several humans still trapped within the base, but there was nothing he could do for them. He learned that the remaining border guns used energy quite efficiently, and that they could be the key that Prism needed. Prism would not be able to fix the bio-system’s damage, but he would be able to work around it.
“We’re going to stop those that hurt you, but I will need all of your strength.”
The system hesitantly relinquished its control to Prism and stopped the turrets that had still been shooting at him. The bio-system knew that it lacked the innate intelligence to understand the world outside itself, so it placed its survival into Prism’s hands. Prism thanked the non-human consciousness for making the same decision he had made a month earlier with the Red Wolves. Trust did not come easily to the injured and the fearful, but it was oftentimes their only path to salvation.
Prism breathed deeply before he began rerouting the still-massive amount of power being produced within the bio-system. He forced the three bio-generators deep within the base to create far more energy than they ordinarily did. Prism then felt the surge of bioelectric energy begin to move through him as he brought it up to the border gun a dozen meters from him.
His form began to shift into incandescence as more and more energy washed over him. The injury to his shoulder was mended as his body’s mana overflowed. He did his best to maintain his human form; for fear that he’d be swept into the border gun to be used as a power source himself. The result was a glowing, humanoid shape that shined with all the colors of the rainbow.
“Get your ships out of the airspace! I’m preparing to fire!”
Prism sent a telepathic alert to his team since the ear clasp he’d been wearing had been temporarily subsumed by his luminescent form. The border guns became enwreathed in the same prismatic glow that made up Prism’s present form. The multicolored light expanded around the border guns, causing them to assume a grander and more angelic shape. Wings of light formed around their domes, while their long barrels became thicker. Halos of ringed rainbows soon appeared at the tips of the luminous barrels. Seconds later, Prism stood up and stretched out his light-infused right hand towards the Ammaships that moved ever closer. His shining foot stayed atop the exposed nerve-cable to maintain his state of heightened energy.
“Are they clear?” Prism’s magicked voice boomed through the minds of RED-1.
“Yes, our ships have cleared a path for your attacks.” Leanna replied with a serious telepathic voice.
“I’m firing now, then!”
The sky suddenly darkened and time seemed to stand still. Colorful beams of light shot from the magically-transformed border guns and pierced through the Paneen and its two sister Ammaships. Three of the penetrating beams went straight through the massive flagship while two beams each pierced through the other two ships. He didn’t know exactly what sections of the ships to aim at, but Prism figured that skewering them through completely should be enough. Seven perfectly-straight prismatic beams in all shot across the sky faster than the speed of sound and managed to travel over fifty kilometers to strike their targets. The hundreds of meters of hardened materials that composed the Ammaships did nothing to stop the magically-empowered beams of various energies from shooting straight through them.
“I’m sorry…” Prism said before slinking to his knees as the daylight returned to normal.
Prism’s supernatural luminosity left his body while he and the border guns returned to their normal appearance. The light left him and the guns like colorful petals floating into the sky above. Many that looked upon the phenomenon saw it as an act of divinity. The Vadamites, who were hardly religious or superstitious, viewed it as the act of a faerie, the mythical evil entities of Æba.
Prism sensed the numerous lives aboard the Ammaships that had been taken in an instant by the energy beams he’d fired. He loathed killing, especially when it was so indiscriminate. He’d been involved in many wars over many years, but it never grew easier for him.
Prism began to hear the celebratory telepathic voices of his team within his mind, but it was short-lived. While the other two Ammaships began to plummet into the sea, the Paneen had managed to stay aloft. In fact, it was flying full-speed ahead towards Getla Base, Prism was told.
“Are you able to launch another beam attack at it!?” Ursun asked Prism intensely over their shared link.
“I’ve drained myself and Getla Base dry. I’m not even sure if the base will ever produce energy from its bio-generators again.” Prism replied weakly.
“You’re right; they’ll never make energy again after the base gets pulverized!” Srell said facetiously.
“You need to get out of there! The Paneen will strike the base in less than ten minutes!” Leanna’s voice blared in Prism’s head.
“Kurillios, please come get me. I’m spent and can barely move.” Prism said meekly over his ear comms.
“Already on it.”
Kurillios’ Biost soon swooped down and landed its stilt-like feet on the tower’s roof beside Prism. The Biost bent over and scooped Prism’s weakened body up into its red-plated hands. After it covered one hand with the other to protect Prism, the Biost unfurled and fluttered its chitinous wings as it leapt high into the sky. Airborne, Kurillios looked back down at the ruined base that his family had commanded for generations. The border guns sat motionless on the rooftops, no longer firing a single shot.
His Biost’s numerous sensory organs allowed him to observe the aerial dogfights and sea-to-air artillery barrages occurring kilometers east of the base. The Vadamite forces were being systematically annihilated by the exemplary teamwork of the CJF and Athean fleets. The Vadamite fleet divisions, which were large enough to be fleets in their own right, became listless and demoralized by the beams that destroyed their command structure aboard the Ammaships. Even the Paneen had grown silent as its jet engines propelled it to a suicidal end.
The whale-like living battleships of the Athean Navy fired guided volleys of organic missiles and anti-air flak from plated orifices on their backs. The sleek battleships, known as cetuships, could suddenly submerge themselves beneath the waves to avoid enemy firepower from above. The cetuships hadn’t worried much about naval battle, as Vadam had sent only a scant amount of boats to Athea.
The agile CJF jet fighters shot down multitudes of the fightersaucers that fled from the sinking Ammaships. The wide-radial missiles unleashed from the jets offered no escape for the more maneuverable fighsaus. Without the potent laser defenses of the Ammaships that ordinarily spanned the entire battlefield, the missiles could hit their targets without being disabled mid-flight. The jet planes were gray like the slate found in the unarmored sections of Athea’s coastal cliffs, and they were shaped like the narrow arrowheads used by the island’s natives thousands of years earlier.
The black flanxflies and dark-blue beetlebombers of the Second Athean Air Fleet were a menace to the dreadnought-class Vadamite airships that continued to put up a fight. The small, single-pilot flanxflies spat wads of corrosive acid at the hardy dreadnoughts’ six domed engines. A few of the flanxflies landed on the domes protecting the jet engines and began to release a steady stream of corrosive acid onto their metal surface.
The beetlebombers followed up the acid attacks with a barrage of organic cluster-bombs that they shot out of their mouths. The bulkier living aircraft swooped in with their noisy plated wings and spat out their explosives once the flanxflies flew out of the way. It wasn’t long before three of the tough-looking dreadnoughts were falling into the sea.
The CJF and Etrysian ships tried a similar tactic on the Paneen, which continued to charge forward towards Getla Base. In a stroke of bad luck, the Ammaship’s domed engines were largely unaffected by Prism’s beam attacks. The guided missiles of the CJF jet planes did little to the armored jet domes, and the flanxflies’ acid couldn’t eat through its composite materials deep enough for the beetlebombers to be effective, either. The Paneen’s advance couldn’t be stopped, even when Colonel Vilensos and Major Agitas’ Biosts unleashed their own weapons upon it in a last ditch effort.
“Sorry, dad. Looks like I won’t be inheriting the family business.” Kurillios said to himself.
He knew that his father had made it out of Getla Base alive, but Kurillios couldn’t stop thinking about how devastated Deriges would be by the base’s destruction. Ever since Kurillios was little, he knew that his father’s passion lied in that base. He wondered if his father would be able to be just as driven about anything else. Kurillios even wondered if the Etrysian Committee of Military Affairs would even let his father assume any sort of command role in the future, even though the day’s events had been well beyond Deriges’ control.
Prism rested within the clasped hands of Kurillios’ Biost as it quickly flew towards the Besper. The beautifully-constructed blue and silver airship had moved a few kilometers to the north to avoid the impending crash of the Paneen. The airspace around the Besper had become filled with smaller allied aircraft tasked with protecting it from any desperate Vadamite ships that broke through the defenses that kept the nearby aerial battlefield contained.
Prism sensed the constant loss of large numbers of Vadamite lives, a result of their remaining ships being destroyed en masse. Victory would come soon to his allies, he reasoned.
Kurillios’ Biost landed upon the expansive deck of the Besper minutes later. There were several CJF soldiers standing across the deck, ready to trounce any enemies foolish enough to try and board. The Biost leaned down as it had minutes earlier and placed the back of its clawed left hand flat against the cold metal hull. Kurillios then carefully moved the Biost’s right hand from the top of the other, allowing Prism to stand up and step onto the deck.
Prism glanced around at the sentry soldiers standing as still as statues. The Besper was so stable during flight that Prism could barely perceive of the flagship’s slow northerly movement without looking out at the horizon. He’d noticed that the other side of the deck was recessed and terraced, like an arena. It was strange to Prism that the Besper had such a feature, but he’d forgotten to ask about it earlier.
Prism soon wiped the tiredness from his eyes and looked up at the beady black eyes of the Biost. Kurillios opened the Biost’s chest plate and shifted the stability rig he was held in forward. He and Prism were soon looking into each others’ eyes.
“I appreciate your help. I wish we could’ve avoided fighting earlier.” Prism said to Kurillios, who was several meters above him.
“I’ll apologize again, if you want.” Kurillios said cheekily.
“That’s okay. Just stay out of trouble, young man.” Prism said with a wry smile.
“Young man!? You’re younger than me!” Kurillios exclaimed after laughing for a bit.
“Sure I am.” Prism said with a wizened nod.
“Well, I’ve gotta head out there and help my unit out, old man. Until next time.”
Kurillios caused his Biost to stand back up and give Prism a military salute. Prism returned the salute with a slight grin before the Biost took to the skies again while Kurillios closed its chest. Prism imagined that piloting such a creature provided a thrill that few would ever experience.
Prism soon heard numerous footsteps come from the blue cabin doors behind him. When he turned around, he saw Ursun, Leanna, Lorias, and Srell stepping onto the deck. They all looked elated to see him, though the tiredness was still clear on everyone’s face. They hadn’t had much time to rest.
“Any reason you couldn’t bring down the Paneen?” Lorias asked bluntly, earning him a jab in the ribs from Leanna’s elbow that he paid no mind to.
“I don’t know the layout of those ships. I was firing in the dark.” Prism said with a shrug
“You literally took a shot in the dark! Well, several shots! What was up with the sky becoming black all of a sudden!? I thought the world was ending!” Srell started shouting and pointing at the sky.
“I drew the daylight into the beams, to boost their power. I wasn’t sure what kind of energy would pierce through those ships, so I kind of shot a bit of everything at them.” Prism rubbed his head and said meekly.
“Amazing.” Leanna said softly.
“Look; it’s happening.” Ursun said with a nod of his head towards Getla Base.
The five of them turned to watch as the Paneen descended on the evacuated base. When the Ammaship’s massive armored head collided with the cliff wall, a massive plume of fire and smoke erupted from the impact site. The Paneen seemed to disappear as all 200 meters of its length hit Getla Base with enough force to pierce into even the base’s deepest underground sections. A wide pillar of thick, black smoke obscured the crater that was created in an instant.
“After all we did to protect that base; this is how it ends up.” Prism said with a dejected shake of his head.
“Most of its people got out alive. Your efforts helped secure the safe escape of even more soldiers.” Ursun reminded Prism.
“Bases fall, even ancient ones like Getla. It’ll be rebuilt, given time.” Lorias said nonchalantly.
“Yes, this wasn’t completely unexpected. And it isn’t as though Vadam has the resources to launch a second invasion attempt anytime soon. They don’t have many Ammaships in the first place.” Leanna reasoned while her eyes remained fixed on the site of the crash.
“Sending three entire fleet divisions at us is pretty insane. They probably thought they’d take all of Athea with those plasma weapons of theirs.” Srell commented.
“We’ll leave it to Bighead and the analysts back home to figure this all out. For now, we’ll lay low here while our allies mop up what’s left of those Vadamite ships.” Ursun sounded almost irritated to Prism and the others.
“Sir, what’s the matter?” Leanna asked Ursun cautiously.
Ursun looked down at her with his fierce, green eyes. When she didn’t back down from her inquiry, Ursun sighed and crossed his arms. He thought for a moment whether he should share his true thoughts presently or back at Pack HQ, where they wouldn’t have to worry about being overheard. He chose a mixture of the two options.
“The Queen seems to have wanted the Vadamites to overplay their hand. This all feels too staged, too artificial. Our forces back home will be able to confirm my suspicious, so we’ll talk about it more there.” Ursun explained in earnest.
“I see…” Leanna said with a distant look in her eyes. Ursun’s cryptic words reverberated in her overactive mind.
As the colorful lights of aerial explosions flashed in the distance, RED-1 stood tall at the edge of the Besper’s deck while the hard-fought battle came to an end.