The thunderous roar of the seventy tons of Hyper Logic Quad engines filled the forest below as the ship tore across the azure sky. Though flight worthy, the scrap ship was barely holding together, examples of its poor condition were quickly falling to the mile high treeline below.
“How in the world did they get the Vespids back?!” CAL yelled as he frantically struggled to both pilot and keep the ship in the air. “I wrecked that fleet years ago!”
Bella beeped, blinked and buzzed as she spoke, “It is entirely possible for Negas to have had others stored away elsewhere from his shipwrecked capital ship.”
“You can’t hide Vespids, Bella.” Cal said as he shifted several gauges, cooling some parts of the ship while heating others, “Maybe you can hide two or three, but you said there were twenty!”
“A rough estimation of twenty, there were possi- INCOMING PROJECTILE PORT SIDE!”
CAL barely had time to recognize what Bella had said before the entire ship was rocked by two heavy explosions.
“Sounds like we have some unwanted hitchhikers, open the live rear feed Bella.”
A holoscreen appeared in front of CAL revealing his pursuers. A large, bulbous armored ship, flanked on all sides by smaller insectoid ships, Vespids. A crude merger of tech and organics, the Vespids looked like large dragonflies interbred with wasps and horseflies. Engines and internal cockpits made of organic tech weaved into their bodies, if you didn’t know any better one would assume they were forcefully welded into the creatures.
“Master, we have an incoming transmission. Shall I open the comms?”
“Yes, let’s see what they have to say about ruining my paint job.”
The entire cockpit darkened as a 3D Projection of a massive fiend entered the screen. Standing nearly four meters tall, his power suit barely contained the hulking bulk of his body. One arm ending in a three fingered claw, the other a massive, mechanical dual pronged fork blade. His most noticeable features however, were his avian parts. Tree trunk size bird legs, a pair of blood stain wings, and his fanged beak, all identified him as the pirate lord of Durst, Negas.
“DROID! WE HAVE YOU AT LAST!” the grinding, mechanical voice of Negas wheezed, as the lights of his sparked and flickered
“Negas, nice to see you in poor health as usual. Quick question buddy, is this attack a recital of your last will and testament? Because if those Vespids fire a single shot at those villagers, I’ll personally see to it that my blades go so far up your oil soaked asscheeks you’ll be calling me Vlad before they reach your throat!”
“YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED WITH YOURSELF DROID! NOW THAT I HAVE YOU AND YOUR SHIP IN THE OPEN, I WILL FINALLY COLLECT YOUR PRECIOUS CORPSE FOR THE QUEEN.”
“Just try it, bird. You’ll end up just like the rest of your commanders.”
Cutting the comm link, the cockpit returned to normal.
“Master, quick update: The vespids are catching up to us, and Negas’ Tormentor class assault ship is launching Agony Spear rockets at us.”
CAL spun out of his seat, walking toward the central room. “Bella, take command of the ship. Activate the turrets, and open the elevator shaft.”
“You can’t be serious, master! The ship’s hull is barely holding together as it is, any extra weight could cause panels to break.”
“Don’t worry about that, Bella. I won’t even touch the hull. All I need you to do is barrel roll when I tell you to.”
“Very well master, but be careful.”
“I’m always careful!”
CAL ran to the back of the ship, prying open the elevator door, the sudden pressure shift sending everything in the living quarters flying. Jumping down the shaft with an energy dagger in hand , he slid down the side until he just reached the edge. With the shaft wide open he could see the dense foliage jetting by as he stuck his head out, seeing two vespids on the starboard side of the ship, and one on the portside.
“Alright, Bella, can you hear me?” He yelled, barely able to hear himself over the wind.
“Affirmative Master, are you in position?
“I will be in a sec, But i’ll need you pull off a triple roll for the momentum.”
“Are you sure Master? Engine core four is already over heating, a triple roll could rupture it.”
“How many ships are out there again?”
“12 Vespids, two Fighter ships and the Tormentor class.”
“Three it is then.”
Climbing out of the shaft, he dug his dagger into the shaft door, crouching on its rim ready to pounce.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Now Bella!”
The ship rolled once, picking up speed as it entered the second spin. Hitting the third spin, the fourth engine exploded, however, it was just enough momentum for CAL to launch himself at the Vespids. Summoning a spear mid air, he launched it at the first one, ripping right through its head, mulching the pilots in the cockpit. Flipping around he summoned a battle axe and folded himself into a ball, turning into a bladed top, cutting the next Vespid clean in half. The gunmen inside screaming as the bioship split apart, exploding as it fell into the treeline below.
With the first two down, another pair quickly took their place, allowing the now freefalling CAL to launch a chain at the tail of the third Vespid. Latching onto it, he reeled himself up on top of it in seconds. Two more Vespids appeared behind him, firing upon him with their heavy gatling cannons. He leapt to the Vespid next to him, barely dodging the hail of fire that obliterated his previous ride. The two behind him turned to fire again only to be gunned down by a flurry of impact rounds. CAL turned to see Bella firing at them with the ship.
Shooting her a thumbs up, Cal summoned a pair of daggers. Jamming them into the left side door of the Vespid, he ripped it off, and swung himself inside. Kicking a Raider through the opposite door as he did so, he immediately turned to deal with the remaining two. Throwing one of the dagger’s into the Pilot’s hand, impaling it to the console, Cal flipped to a reverse grip on the dagger in his left hand. Running the blade up the body of the raider behind him, and into his jaw, splitting him open like a freshly butchered pig.
Summoning another battleaxe, CAL slashed through the back wall of the Vespid, severing the engine and several organs. Launching himself out of the ship as it quickly became engulfed in flames, he summoned a trident. Flipping himself around, he threw it at another Vespid, using the force of throwing it to launch himself back to the ship. Slamming his fist into the side hull to slow his fall, he turned just in time to see the vespid explode.
“Bella, talk to me! How many Vespids are left?”
“Radar scan show no more vespids, Our combined assault was a 100% success. However the two fighters and the Tormentor are still in hot pursuit.”
“Alrighty then! What about the damage report?”
“We have sustained major hull damage, only one turrent remains functional, and our engines have exceeded the Overheating capacity and are beginning to melt.”
“If that’s the case I’m coming in, I’ll get us out of this the old fashioned way.”
Deftly flipping himself atop the ship, CAL dodged, cut and deflected every bullet coming his way as he dashed across the ship’s hull. Slipping into the elevator hatch on the roof, and sliding down and back into the living quarters, kicking open the cockpit doors and jumping back into the Pilot’s seat.
“Okay, Bella. Be honest with me. Can you hold up under my flying?”
“I have few alternatives, master. We are only a handful of miles from reaching the Village, you know what will happen if the tormentor reaches it.”
“Cool, Then divert all of your computing power to powering the Havoc Drives. Drop it to manual and let me know when we have enough power for take off.”
“As you wish, master!”
The ship lurched forward as Bella switched to manual control, allowing CAL to feel the monstrous weight of his pride and joy pull the control wheel forward.
“Oh no you don’t!” He grunted as he pulled the wheel back. “I’m the captain here, and the captain says we are going up.”
The ship reared back blasting off further into the sky, its pursuers hot on its tail. The comm beacon lit up, allowing a small projection of Negas to appear.
“FLEEING DROID?! SUCH COWARDICE IS LAUGHABLE! MY CALAHAN FIGHTERS WILL RIP YOU OUT OF THE SKY, IF MY MISSILES DON’T DO IT FIRST!”
“Not fleeing Negas, just putting a few things in motion.”
CAL moved the ship with surgical precision, dodging volley after volley of missiles from the Tormentor. Slowly, reaching the limits of the lower atmosphere, he leveled the ship off as alarms began to blare and hoses and pipes began to burst. Some bellowing jets of steam and boiling coolant, while others erupted with jets of fire.
“I know, I know, it’s too high for you. But we aren’t flying too close to the sun just yet.”
“I’M SURPRISED, DROID! THAT SHIP SHOULD BE IN FLAMES RIGHT NOW! BUT HERE YOU ARE, DODGING ALL OF MY SHOTS! BUT, LET ME SEE IF YOU CAN DODGE MY NEW TOYS, ALL ON LOAN FROM THE RESEARCH FACILITY YOU RANSACKED!
The front of the Tormentor opened wide, revealing an absolutely enormous gun. Nearly two-thirds the size of CAL’s own ship, it began to glow red, before firing a beam directly at him. Though he dodged, the sheer size of the beam vaporized the right side of the ship’s roof. Chipping a sizable chunk of the engine as well.
“Damn, I felt that engine blow out. Just got to hold on a bit longer.”
The two fighters pulled up alongside CAL, hammering him with a storm of heavy machine gun fire. Shredding the hull and ripping the last turret to pieces. Flames and smoke began engulfing the ship as the continuous bullet storm continued. Many rounds managing to tear through the cockpit shielding, injuring CAL directly.
“Master!” Bella shouted as she appeared next to a freshly bloodied CAL. “Everything is ready!”
“Excellent! Let's fry these freeloaders.”
CAL immediately nose dived, the fighters and tormentor following suit. Activate port side Rail cannons!”
In an instant, the thin remnants of the left side of the ship exploded. Revealing four tank sized cannons each simultaneously firing a plasma rail into the fighter next to them. Obliterating the Fighter and sending the ship into a tailspin, slamming into the fighter on the right side, sending it careening into the treeline in the distance.
“Activate starboard side Grav stabilizers!”
Halting the tailspin of the ship, it was now flying back up towards the tormentor, as it prepared to fire another beam at them.
“Bella, Activate the Havoc Drive. And save a backup of yourself somewhere cause there is no coming back from this.”
“Affirmative! It has been a pleasure serving you Master.”
CAL quickly jumped from the Pilot seat as the clicks of the Havoc drives beginning to whirl filled the ship. In a single second, CAL felt the antigrav feel of the Havoc Drives taking off as he fell through the living quarters. Hitting escape velocity in a single second, the freedom, antigravity and the feeling of calmness came crashing down as everything went black.