"Alright, this'll be your ship for this trip." Drew, the ether technician who had shown Caeden how to drive an ethership, led him to a much larger vessel. "The Captain says the plan is for you lot to head to your destination and then catch up with us as we keep moving. Normally that would be difficult, but the Turtle Fortress is slower than a fish swimming through molasses, so you should be fine. But, if things take you too long, this baby can get you back to the Academy in a couple of weeks. It's the fastest cruiser we have on board. On-board storage has enough food to last twice that long for the four of you. Normally, a ship this size would hold at least eight. It has enough space to seat twelve comfortably, so long as they sleep in rotation."
"Damn. It's a lot nicer than the skiff." Caeden looked up at the twenty-foot tall, fifty-foot long vessel. It was several times the size of the last ethership he flew. "It's a bit intimidating."
"Psha," Drew spat out a sound of derision. "You handled that skiff beautifully. This'll be a cakewalk. The skiff was bare bones, none of the safety measures and assistive tech that this beauty has. It'll be an even easier drive. This isn't a combat vessel. Those models aren't allowed on the dragon reserve. She's big, fast, and safe. There's little else going on under the hood."
"Well, that's nice. Though going into hostile territory on what's essentially a civilian ship is a little nerve-wracking." Caeden laughed.
"Them's the breaks, kiddo. Your choice. Honestly, I think you're fucking insane. You wouldn't catch me anywhere dragon territory for my damn near immortal life. No idea why you want to. The stories I've heard… They're near monsters, kid. Dragons hate us for locking them into little pockets. They want to run the Starry Sea and hate that we do instead." Brew sighed. "Just be careful, yeah? I'd hate to hear something happened."
Caeden clapped him on the shoulder. "We know what we're up against. Don't worry. We're taking every precaution."
{}
It watched its target from across the hanger. This had proved one of its most difficult assignments to date. It was one of the oldest among its kin; three years had passed since the Creator had forged its new body, ascending it beyond the limits of frail humanity. Only two years left before its existence burned out. The brilliance of the Creator's design was too much for the mortal flesh it had been built from. But in the meantime, it could bring about the Creator's vision.
A vision that currently required the immediate death of a shrouded. Normally, not such a difficult task. Indeed, with its enhanced physiology, it had killed scores of shrouded. But those had been the dregs of the shrouded world. Failures banished to the limits of the Starry Sea to not further embarrass their forebears. That was not the case for this one.
This one was unlike anything it had ever seen before. Young. Very young in shrouded terms. Fresh in his power. But undoubtedly strong. None it had killed before had even a fraction of this fledgling shrouded's power. Its normal approach would not work. A direct attack, a surprise infused knife to the throat, or a bullet to the back of the head would be unlikely to catch this one unawares.
He was surrounded by three equally anomalous and young peers. Each one posed their own challenge to its task. The pale woman was fiercely intelligent and defensive. He could not escape if he attacked in her presence. The other woman, the one who could create ghosts to fight for her, would likewise be able to stop his retreat. Capture was not an option for it. The Creator's prime directive was that it and its kin could never be discovered.
But the two females were not the most concerning. It was the other male, the tall skinny one, that truly worried it. It could swear that one could feel its gaze, sense its ill intent. Such a thing should be impossible. The Creator's ethertech was flawless. In its three years, it had walked the streets of Central City several times and never been discovered for what it was. The idea that this young child of a shrouded could pierce its concealment was laughable. Yet it could not shake the sense that the lanky man was aware of it, more that it was comfortable with.
All of this meant that its original plans had to be scrapped. It could not strike the target in a moment of weakness or carelessness because he was surrounded by abnormally skilled and perceptive allies. It had hoped to be finished with this assignment within a week. That deadline had passed, leaving it at a loss. In this situation, its only avenue of attack was through indirect methods, but this ethership left such options practically nonexistent.
Then, a gift. The target was leaving with his allies in tow. On an ethership. That, it could work with. In fact, the Creator's tutelage and crafting of its new flesh had left it with the knowledge and tools to ensure that the target never reached his destination. More than that, there would be nothing left behind proving it had ever been on this ship, fulfilling the prime directive.
Shifting casually past the supposed ether technician, it approached the vessel it needed to modify. If it had been susceptible to emotions in the same way it used to, it might have snorted at the man. The shrouded thought themselves smart, gifted when it came to ethertech. They were fools dancing in the palm of the Creator, never capable of more than he willed them. Their ethertech was the crude flailing of a blind child compared to the Creator's radiant brilliance. Even the Revolution, those that had curried the Creator's favor, wielded only a fraction of his true majesty.
A scrape here, a minute shift there, and it was done. The ether engine was changed, and the target would never know what ended him. It strolled back out of the hangar, no one the wiser.
For a fraction of a second, the projected image that protected its majestic biomechanical form flickered. None saw, but it was deeply concerning. Checking its internal clock, it realized it was nearly three days past its scheduled maintenance. Such a lapse should not have happened. If the false shroud projected from its core had slipped instead of the hologram, every shrouded on this ship would have known it for what it was. Such slips were inexcusable, and it slunk away to the hidden corner of a cargo bay that it had sequestered in to perform the necessary repairs.
It needed to be more careful in the future.
{}
"This is bigger." Lily stared at the light cruiser. "I think you undersold how big it was."
"That's what she said!" Erik laughed, strolling past Lily's gawping to take an enhanced leap, landing on board the ethership. "At least, it would be if you two ever did anything fun!"
An icicle fired at his head forced him to duck out of sight.
Caeden patted Lily's shoulder comfortingly. "You know he only says it because he knows you'll react."
She huffed. "So? Maybe I want to stab him with some sharp projectiles. If he keeps giving me the excuse, all the better." She smirked playfully.
Caeden couldn't help but laugh. "Fair enough. I wouldn't deprive you of your fun." After all, he knew that Erik's hyper-refined defensive sense would never let Lily's hits land, so it truly was all in good fun. Erik knew it, and Lily knew it. Erik and Lily didn't connect on much, but they had formed a friendly banter playing off their opposite demeanors. Erik's silly antics meshed surprisingly well with Lily's serious contemplation.
"Hurry up, you two; I want to see the dragons." Cat passed them both, several Brutes trailing behind her to load up all the infused weapons she was bringing.
"Why do you care about seeing dragons?" Lily asked. Caeden was equally curious. He would have expected Cat to be ambivalent. When they were first discussing this trip with Samantha, she hadn't seemed to care.
"I want to try and model a specter after them. Should be pretty powerful. But It's easier if I get an up-close view." Cat explained as Brutes began hefting crates onto the deck where spectral workers moved them below in teams of four.
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"That makes sense. I hope it works." Lily said.
"Yeah, me too." Cat sighed. "Honestly, the Swarm isn't a great design. It worked in those circumstances, but I'm having trouble making it anywhere close to efficient. I think specters based off of real monsters or magical creatures will work better. Even my Brutes are based on a Hauler Ape. And the workers are modeled after Candle Ghosts. They're not exactly the same, but close enough. The Swarm isn't based on anything."
"I guess we'll have to find out." Caeden chimed in, "It's at least worth testing."
Cat just nodded, watching her specters work.
Half an hour later, they left the hangar after checking that the cruiser's larder was fully stocked and all their cargo was secure. Caeden took a moment to adjust to the completely different control scheme, but Drew hadn't lied to him. The cruiser wasn't nearly as maneuverable as the skiff, and it lacked the overall acceleration, but the handling was much better. The controls were more responsive, less finicky. Caeden found himself enjoying the ease with which he could get the ethership where he wanted it to go. Handling the skiff had always included some manner of guesswork.
"How long until we get there?" Erik asked, wandering onto the bridge. Unlike the tiny skiff, where the controls were open to the elements, the cruiser had a cabin and a lower deck with a cargo hold and two rooms with bunk beds. Sitting at the top of the cabin was the bridge. It was a small space, four-foot square. The control console took up half of that, but it left enough room for the pilot's seat, with some room left over for another to stand next to it. The rest of the cabin, separated from the bridge by a dividing wall, was composed of a bathroom and kitchen. Each room had windows facing different directions, with the bridge set forward for obvious reasons.
"Well, the trip to the structure will take about half a week. But we're going to have to stop before then," Caeden replied.
"Why's that?" Erik stared out the window, looking for the island. It wouldn't be in view for another hour. However, the cruiser's base speed was much higher than the Turtle Fortress, so they would come up on it rapidly, making landfall less than an hour from sighting it.
"Because the Treaty of Scales allowed the dragons to police the territory around their continents for a hundred miles out into the Starry Sea."
A confused expression stole over Erik's face. "Why? There's nothing in the Starry Sea. Seems kinda pointless."
"It's an anti-harassment measure against the Central Authority. Military assets, people, or vehicles, can't come within that range. The Dragons didn't want the CA parking a battalion an inch from their shores and watching their every move. A hundred miles out is beyond the aura range of all but the most powerful shrouded. We're talking Council-level power to get that far. The dragons like privacy." Caeden explained.
Erik looked at him. "You seem to know a lot about this."
Caeden snorted. "Lily and I had several conversations with Captain Saorise over the last week. We weren't going to go into this blind."
"Me and Cat didn't get invited." Erik crossed his arms and huffed.
Caeden just rolled his eyes. "Neither one of you would have come if we offered, and you wouldn't have retained any information if we made you."
Erik raised a finger as if he was going to protest but then dropped it. "Yeah, that's fair."
"Of course it is. Since when have either of you paid attention to anything that wasn't directly related to one of your interests?" Caeden laughed. Trying to get his two friends to listen was like pulling teeth. He and Lily had almost given up on several occasions.
"So, when will we see a dragon?" Erik asked quickly, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, an hour and a half. We'll see the island before we encounter one." Caeden shrugged. They were over five hundred miles from the continent still. "Why are you up here anyway?"
"Cat and Lily are playing games with Snowball. He gets really loud." Erik sighed.
"I thought you loved Snowball."
"Everyone loves Snowball. But he's getting to be a big bear, and he can be a bit much in a small space." He didn't seem overly upset, so Caeden figured Erik was actually just bored.
"Well, you can stay up here as long as you want; just don't touch any controls." Caeden asserted. The last thing he needed was Erik's unlucky hands mucking with the ship they were flying on over the very deadly ocean of magical water.
"Fair." Erik nodded.
It was almost two hours later when they heard a roar come from the cruiser's starboard side. Caeden had forgotten to account for the additional air resistance from the continent's atmosphere that would slow their ethership down for the rest of the trip. The continent itself had come into view thirty minutes ago, so they had been waiting for the welcome party.
Following the protocol Samantha had told him, Caeden brought the cruiser to a complete stop, and all of them, bound monsters included, filed out onto the deck. From there, Caeden could see a form flying toward them at a speed that eclipsed the cruiser's maximum. Admittedly, the cruiser wasn't as fast as some specially made military vessels, but it was fast for a civilian ship of its size. The approaching shape that could only be a dragon matched those military speeders.
Ten seconds later, and it was upon them. The first dragon Caeden ever saw was long and sinuous, with two horns pointing straight backward at the top of its head. It had a long snout, body, tail, wings. Everything about this dragon was long. It had primarily white scales interspersed with the occasional silver. It landed on the deck in front of them on four three-toed feet and folded four wings against its back. Caeden would guess it was five feet tall but nearly twenty feet long. Its head was the size of his arm.
It opened its mouth, and sound poured out. "Val natch ato voom. Gretom nada reto. Shoo wa techai."
Of course, Caeden understood nothing of the guttural language. It had a rhythm and pitch to it that Caeden found fascinating. But he didn't have time to study that now.
He reached out through his aura sense, letting the vibrations of the words roll through his senses. His shroud picked up the intent behind the words, and his communication aura sense engaged.
"You should not be here. Leave at once. Shrouded are not welcome on this continent." The words resonated through his shroud.
Speaking back and letting his aura adjust the vibration according to his instinct, Caeden replied. “Crea doss vessai noon reit boon walt nea. Shoo pesh techai gotch den." We come under the right of civilian travel. Shrouded cannot be barred from the continent.
Samantha had told them the dragons would almost certainly try to deny them entry. They had to calmly but firmly assert their right to be there. As the dragon began to reply, Caeden ignored the words, focusing solely on the intent.
"What purpose would you want to travel our continent, whelp? There is nothing here for your kind. Nothing you can take and own. Do not think that just because your forebears left this place alone, there are riches to be had." The dragon warned, its tone hostile and condescending. Samantha had also told them that the dragons would both know and be dismissive of their age. Which was a positive. Harming children was a massive taboo in dragon society. They aged differently. Dragons were considered children until they molted their first set of scales, which typically took around a hundred years. Caeden and his team were little kids to them.
"We are here to visit a specific place." Caeden pulled out a recording egg like the one Blaine had used to show them a map of the last continent. The dragon sniffed suspiciously before nodding. Caeden cracked it, letting the projection show a map of the dragon continent, with a big x where they wanted to go. "There are ruins of old human buildings at this sight. We wish to see them in person."
Here was where truth speech was a problem. If Caeden came out and said, 'I want to go here to fix my super cool weapon that no one has ever seen before,' the dragons might not be as willing to let them go. But he also couldn't lie and give a completely fake reason for why they were on the continent. So he had to toe the line, telling the truth, but only as much as was necessary.
The dragon peered at the map, taking it in. "This is far from here. Why would you come to this side of the continent to go to the other side?" It peered at him with distrust.
"We are students on a journey. Other students are on a ship that way." Caeden gestured behind himself. "We split up from there. We did not come from the other side of the continent."
The dragon let out a growl of irritation. Its toes flexed. "You can go around the continent, not over."
"Then we will be here much longer. It would take weeks. We go over the continent; we will be gone in one week." This was true. Caeden doubted this dragon or whoever they answered wanted Caeden and his friends anywhere near their continent any longer than they had to be. Passing over the continent was the fastest way for them to be in and out.
A snort escaped wide nostrils. It shook its head, silvery scales flashing among the white. The dragon almost looked as if it wanted to deny Caeden's words. That was the other side of truth speech. The dragon had to take his word at face value because he couldn't lie.
"Very well. Safe passage, students. Do not stray from the destination. If you travel elsewhere, we will know." It glared at him.
"We're just going there and coming straight back. We don't want to go anywhere else." Caeden promised, hoping the truth of that statement might ease some of the dragon's distrust.
It let out a low-pitched hum without responding. Flaring its wings wide, the dragon leapt from the deck. They watched as it flew away, gaining speed with every wingbeat.
"Well," Cat laughed. "That was awesome!"