CHAPTER 2 – WAYLAID

"I remember the old days of astral piracy, during the golden age of colonization. Back then, still young and adventurous, I had a short stint among a crew of suhn-scum. We didn't pick our targets; convoys, free traders, even military – we could handle anything, as long as we played smart and stayed focused.

There was only one thing we feared – dragons. If one ever showed up, we would always do two things: space out like the void, and pray the FTL would spool up before those terrors caught us."

– Shonjo Tsunami, "Memories from the Crusades", Datalinks

998 RE, a month later, on final approach to Terra Para, Ascendancy System

Airo gazed numbly at the glass in his hand.

Then he tossed its contents straight into his throat.

He sat in a small, plain room which was his personal quarters. There was little furniture, and even less decoration. Before him was an utilitarian desk equipped with a hologram-haptic interface screen. The entire projected surface of the screen was occupied by a single picture.

He stared at the picture for a long time. He lifted his glass again and realized it was empty. He reached for the tall angular bottle sitting on the desk. Empty, too. Airo frowned and twirled the glass, then put it top-down. He took the bottle and went to the nanofabricator in the corner of the room. He jammed the start icon on the HHI and the readied program brought the advanced device to life. He yanked the bottle without waiting it to fill completely, dark-green liquid spilling on the floor.

Then he took a deep draught.

His thoughts swam. He collapsed back in the adjustable hover chair. His emotions intensified, rather than subside. Anger flared in his chest, and tears threatened to further cloud his vision. He bit them back with a snarl, unwilling to show them to the world, refusing to admit them to himself.

Seven hundred and fifty-two years.

That was how long he had spent in cryostasis. The galaxy had moved on. Ages had come and gone, and though people had access to practical immortality today, as he understood it, they had very little regard for the past. His eyes once more turned upon the picture on the screen. He nearly wept again.

He had no desire to be here. It was only a moment of weakness, basic self-preservation which brought him here, and made him accept this meaningless task. Here he was, on a starship en route to a planet he had never heard of, alone and surrounded by technological marvels that were nothing like their crude forefathers seven centuries ago, one absurdly simple, straightforward mission away from freedom.

He didn't care.

The galaxy held nothing for him. He was empty, save for a deep, aimless anger, which slept inside him like a beast hibernating away the dark winter nights. Only in this case, the sun had gone out.

Forever.

The starship's intercom chimed softly. An artificial voice echoed amiably over the speakers.

"Yeoman Cloud reporting in, Commander. You are invited to the bridge in your official capacity as captain."

"What for?" Airo snapped.

"We are on final approach to the planet Terra Para. The starship captain's presence is required as part of standard protocol."

Airo closed his eyes and sighed. "All right, coming," he said.

"Don't forget your armor, Commander. It's–"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, it is standard protocol. I was there when they were writing this dragoncrap in the manuals."

He turned off the screen, stood up, and went to the room's storage locker. Inside, the container was mostly empty, save for three things: a katana in an ornate purple-black scabbard, a gridcaster gauntlet, and a large, sleek-looking suit of power armor. The first two items were the only personal belongings Airo had remaining from his previous life; he took them, and then began donning the power armor. He was surprised the first time how light and flexible it turned out to be – the suit was nothing like the hulking servo-assisted plated exoskeletons from his time, which to his mind were like smaller, inferior versions of an ACU. He finished putting on the power armor, and left the room.

The starship decks were empty. The audible, yet discreet hum of the power plant and the main sublight drive permeated the nolreck, soothing presences for the mind of any starfarer. Airo's head was heavy from drinking, yet he ignored his condition by sheer discipline. He took a turn, and descended to the main level via a grav-shaft – another technological wonder that had nothing to do with space travel in the third century of the Restoration Era.

Airo glanced around. Except for him, there wasn't anyone else aboard. Well, there was this Cloud character, however he considered the starship's artificial intelligence nothing more than a talking computer. He was glad for this unexpected solitude, yet after several weeks of confinement during the voyage even he found the silence oppressive.

He reached the bridge. It was composed of multiple shallow terraces with furrowed alcoves, each alcove housing a reinforced padded seat equipped with an inertial nullifying field and a station terminal. HHI displays and status screens glowed on every wall, tracking all kinds of data and sensor feedback in real time. The seats before the terminals were retracted, to make the bridge seem less deserted.

The center was dominated by a one-man Commmand-Information-Communication module consisting of a dozen adjustable displays around a medium-sized platform. Airo went to the captain's place and sat in the large control seat. Past the CIC module was the starship's helm and beyond it was the bridge's one-way observation panels. The mission's destination was currently in distant, optical-enhanced view: the shadowed, curved form of a planet, its surface a bleak mixture of dark grey and blue, highlighted by dull white.

"Status report," Airo said.

"All systems nominal," Yeoman Cloud replied over the speakers in a flamboyant tone. "Welcome to the bridge, Commander Airo. We are currently on high orbit around Terra Para. Awaiting further orders."

"Cargo status?"

"Nothing unusual to report. Everything is within acceptable parameters."

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"What is the delivery destination?"

"No such parameter was specified in the mission details, Commander."

Airo thought for a second. "All right, are there any spaceports in the vicinity?"

"Negative, Commander."

"What about planetside cosmodromes?"

"There's only one registered cosmodrome on Terra Para, belonging to the Order of the Radiant Knights."

The name meant nothing to Airo, and he waved it off. "That would do," he said. "Set course and begin landing procedures."

"Aye, sir."

The starship vibrated slightly and began approaching. The view tilted smoothly and the mysterious planet drew nearer, gradually increasing in size. Airo gazed absently around the bridge. He had been only three times here: when he boarded, when the starship took off from its starting point on Arceria, and now.

He had spent the majority of the four-week voyage in his personal quarters, mostly lying on the bed awake and drunk. In the little time he had done something else, he trained barehanded or with the katana in one of the empty cargo bays, recalling moves and stances. The starship's computer had suggested to run some psychological evaluation checks in order to propose potential therapy for his 'depressive states'. Airo had denied flatly.

In his brief moments of sobriety he wondered what exactly was the mysterious cargo he was in charge of. It came with the starship, already loaded and sealed away when Airo came aboard. He studied the files he had received as part of this 'mission', and found no clue what he might be carrying, except for a password-locked message. He tried hacking the lone digital document with no success, and he asked the starship computer about the password.

"You will know it when you have it, Commander," was the only reply the SAI had given.

Airo knew this much: whoever owned the cargo, they wanted it to make the trip from Arceria to Terra Para badly enough to employ a heavy-duty frigate armed to the teeth. What he couldn't fathom was why he was selected for the task, and was the only one aboard.

Arceria. The name brought distant yet intense memories. Images of his youth flashed in his mind's eye, about the exciting journeys and the unexpected adventures, and of course... He lost the train of thought as pain stabbed his faded heart.

He had walked briefly once more upon the soft earth of his homeworld before he went away to earn his freedom. He had wandered aimlessly along cobblestone roads and old forest paths, had visited enchanting glades and crystal-clear lakes, all basking in the golden rays of the twin suns. He had felt an odd sense of relief only to be quickly subsumed by a deep, ambient emptiness. His homeworld was different from what he remembered, and the memories were too vivid. In the end, he had left all too soon, determined to not return ever again.

A soft tone chimed.

"Commander, my sensors detect you are outside optimal operating parameters. Do you need medical intervention?"

Airo broke out of his half-conscious musings. His head was pulsing. "Yes, I need something for the hangover," he muttered.

He felt a quick prick in his neck. A moment later, his vision started to clear, and he began to feel more energized.

"General anti-toxin drugs administered, Commander," Yeoman Cloud said. "If you don't experience positive effects within sixty seconds, please give immediate feedback."

Another tone echoed, this time deep, harsh, and urgent. Red lights flashed on several tracking displays.

Combat alarm.

Airo leaned forward sharply, searching the screens. "Status report!"

"Commander, several unknown objects are approaching us at vector zero-zero, dead ahead. Parsing visual feedback now."

Airo looked at the indicated screen, watching the feedback from the starship's powerful external optics. The picture zoomed and the grey-blue body of Terra Para almost completely filled the screen. There, on the terminus between the planet's horizon and the black ocean of space, three distinct golden shapes stood out. They were approaching very quickly.

Airo watched the screen grimly. The shapes were wreathed in a halo of blazing light, making details difficult to pick out at such a distance. Yet the general form was unmistakable: the arrow-shaped heads, the serpentine necks, the great wings, the long tails.

Dragons.

"Oh, my!" Yeoman Cloud exclaimed with incongruous exuberance. "Dragons! How unusual!"

"Activate all weapon systems," Airo ordered. "Give AR feedback on the main screen and place the data streams on the auxiliaries."

"Aye, sir!" the starship computer said. "Entering combat mode now!" The bridge dimmed, leaving only the low glow of the emergency light strips and the cyan-amber radiance of the HHI displays. "Parsing virtual battlefield data now!"

The main screen became enhanced by an elaborate overlay with dynamic markers such as weapon angles, speed, and enemy distance, while the auxiliaries provided various additional info on the starship's hull integrity, 3D battlefield map, and status reports. The image of the dragons was scanned and then virtually zoomed so they appeared much closer than they were. Up close, their great shapes looked formidable, even unearthly, as it became apparent they weren't surrounded by, but actually made of light.

"ETA?" Airo asked.

"Ninety-five seconds, given current variables, Commander," the starship computer replied.

Airo gazed at the data streams in disbelief. There was no mistake: those dragons were impossibly fast, flying at near-relativistic speeds. He frowned. He had never been in astral combat, let alone against dragons. It was an area almost entirely out of his expertise.

However, some things should always be the same.

"Deploy drone wings to provide screening and fire support," he ordered. "Launch warheads in two-four-eight ascending pattern. Fire the spinal mount and all heavy batteries."

"Commander, we should first determine if the unidentified party is indeed hostile, and then proceed to take measures based on extrapolated data."

In that moment, one of the approaching dragons opened its ethereal jaws, and a blinding bolt brightened the bridge for an instant. The starship trembled. A warning alarm rang.

"Status report!" Airo said.

"A direct hit, sir! Shields absorbed eighty percent of impact! Medium damage to the armor plating, the hull is still intact!"

"Fire missiles now!"

"Missiles away!"

Small, bright dots trailed away from the starship toward the approaching enemy. The dragons separated and flew in different directions. Quick as lightning, they effortlessly strafed the missiles, simultaneously turning their heads to the starship. Their jaws opened, but the bridge's viewpanels automatically dimmed, shielding Airo from the blinding radiance. The starship vibrated more strongly as three energy bolts hit.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Airo barked.

"Aye, sir!"

The starship turned sharply, yet it was too sluggish compared to the supernatural grace of the dragons. Airo realized he could not rely on mobility.

"Open fire with all batteries, now!"

"Targeting solutions are incomplete," the starship's computer reported.

"Fire, damn it!"

The bridge's audiosimulators rumbled, as two dozen weapon mounts began to spew plasma and kinetic death in the empty vacuum, and reflected laser beams crossed the void. The dragons took several direct hits. However, they didn't slow down even for a second, instead closing the distance in a spiral pattern, hitting the starship several times with their own energy bolts.

Sirens began to wail and displays went red with failure reports."Commander, we have a breach on deck one. Hull integrity is ninety-one percent. Armor damage – substantial. Shield status – failing. System status..."

"Computer, do we have veronite weaponry?"

"Affirmative, Commander! The aft and fore gauss turrets can–"

"Load them, and fire at will! Now!"

The starship's turrets whirred and began to blast furiously at the dragons. One hit. The turrets needed one solid hit, and the veronite would do the rest. The dragons dashed minutely in random directions, impossible to hit at a distance of thousands of kilometers. They approached ever closer, and more energy bolts struck the starship."Systems failing! Fire on deck five! Shield status – overloaded! Portside dampeners – offline! Quadrant three auxiliary thrusters – offline! Weapon systems–"

Airo's mind was focused on the displays before him. He had never seen such strange dragons, yet that was not the point now. He knew if the dragons reached the starship, the battle would be lost due to their adamantine claws and nova-hot firebreath. Or whatever those golden-light monstrosities used to fight with up close.

However, the fight wasn't over yet. "Computer, change course for hard planetfall!" he ordered. "Load the point-defense cannons with veronite ammunition, then lock on to all targets and wait for my signal!"

"Understood, Commander!"

Airo felt a strong pull as the engines flared at maximum thrust and the starship changed direction. He had fought dragons before, though never in space. Yet a dragon was a dragon, and if Airo knew one thing, it was how to take them down. Even if he had to sacrifice a starship in the process.

Suddenly, the starship's SAI called. "Commander, sensors detect a vast energy surge in the tri-terawatt range, coordinates–"

A tremendous column of violet-white light erupted from the surface of the planet. It engulfed the starship, flooding the bridge in blazing radiance. Airo shielded his eyes from the sudden glare. A second later, a terrible explosion shook the entire hull.

There was a deep, resounding thunder, and then everything went black.