6 Days Later
– Isdia, Solith 34, 8034 –
“Less
than half an hour until arrival, sir.”
“Mm
hmm…” Chief Captain Krick nodded warily in response before swiveling his
captain’s chair around to face Hero Machina behind him. “This is a pretty damn
serious situation, Nimalians. The Drakkars attacking the CSA head-on… what are
we supposed to do about that?”
“Unfortunately…
not much,” Kevérin frowned, “The Drakkars aren’t limited to Transpace travel,
and they have beaming systems like you do. And that’s just a small part of
their advantages. If the Exemplar and Sursum Drakkars are actually working
together, and actually mean to wipe out the CSA, then nothing short of a
miracle can stop them…”
“Is
that why we’re going after the Ayas, then?” Davídrius snorted.
“We
already have Syn, Aldrace, Matlés, and Tanivas,” Kievkenalis remarked, “That’s
four of the nine. If we can claim all of them, then it might actually be what
we need to push back the Drakkars. In the very least, we can’t let them get the Ayas…”
“And,
secondarily, if we can find the Arcán Ayas, then we can use it to repair the
Arcán AI,” Kevérin added, “Then, maybe it’ll be able to tell us what’s going on
with the metallic infection and the Chaos Quake. Like I said, though, those
goals are now secondary to finding ways to stop the Drakkars.”
“Why
not leave the Ayas to the CSA, then?” Krick questioned.
“The
CSA are on the frontlines. I think the Ayas would be safer with us,” Kevérin
replied, “…Though the real answer is really just that we don’t want to give
them away…”
“I hope
you guys know what you’re doing,” Krick frowned, “I’ve heard stories about the
Drakkars… they don’t sound pleasant at all.”
“They
aren’t,” Kevérin shook his head, “They’re stupidly advanced and surprisingly
difficult to counter in battle, mostly because of their ability to steal Ciei…
if they can lay their hands on you, it’s all over.”
“If
it’s only regular Drakkars that we’re be up against, then we can probably fend
them off,” Christeane mused, “But if either Exdominor or Surdeus show up… we’re
fucked.”
“The
faction leaders? Yeah, I’d heard that they’re seemingly invulnerable to
everything except each other,” Krick replied.
“That’s
not even half of it,” Kevérin pointed out, “even without the invulnerability
thing Exdominor and Surdeus are both insanely dangerous to fight. Exdominor can
instantly steal Ciei from twenty meters away, and Surdeus is the only known
living Chaos Conduit.”
“That
means he can use every single Chaos ability,” Kievkenalis pointed
out, “Including Time.”
“Is
there any reason to expect that we’ll encounter them here, though?” Rebehka
questioned, “Given how many planets the Drakkars attacked, the leaders could be
anywhere, if they even decided to join the battle themselves. Not to mention
it’s been six days since we entered FTL, so we haven’t heard anything since…”
“We’re
going to Maasen because the Ayas Sensor detected an Ayas there,” Kevérin
stated, “The Drakkars have been around for far longer than we have; chances
are, if we can locate the Ayas, so can they. And I wouldn’t be surprised at all
if either faction leader decided to show up to claim the Ayas personally. They are immortal after all, so there’s no
real reason for them to stay off of the battlefield… Hopefully we’ll arrive
before they can, though; six days is pretty long, even for a planetary siege.”
“Nonsense,”
Christeané scoffed, “Maasen is a Siion Fortress World. That means it at least has a planetary shield
generator array. There’s no way it’ll have fallen within six days, even against
Drakkar siege.”
“That
doesn’t mean the Drakkars can’t have found and extracted the Ayas in that
time,” Kevérin refuted, “…but I hope you’re right. With luck, we can be in,
find the Ayas, and out within an hour or two…”
“With
luck, aye…” Krick nodded, “Given reports about Drakkar ship strength, and how
this ship stood up during the battle in the Tyrnaus system, I’m sure we can
weather a day or two of Drakkar attack. The longer we remain, though…”
“We
know,” Kevérin sighed, “Just… just use the Ayas scanner to try and find the
Ayas. We’ll try to figure out its most likely location from there.”
“You
don’t need to tell me what to do,” Krick swiveled his chair around to face the
bridge window again just as the ship exited Subspace, the outside grayscale
gradient being replaced with normal black, “I’m not the Captain of this ship
for nothing.” He raised his voice as he began issuing orders to the bridge.
“Initiate the cloak! Locate the nearest CSA fleet and hook into their data
connection! Begin examining the Relay Point input stream for updates on the
galactic condition, particularly this system. Scan the planet as well; apply
the Ayas scanner and narrow down the possible locations.”
“Maasen
is still under Siion control,” one of the bridge crew replied after several
seconds of tense silence, “There’s a three-thousand strong Siion fleet engaging
a similarly sized Drakkar fleet ten thousand kilometers out, and according to
the Relay Point input stream there’s an incoming Siion reinforcement fleet
that’s about four days out. We’ve been denied access to the fleet data
connection, but we’ve been redirected to the command stream from Maasen… the
planetary shield array is still intact, albeit strained. It looks like Drakkar
beaming tech can penetrate it, and there are Drakkar ground forces attacking
several of the shield generators…”
“What
about the Ayas?” Krick questioned, “Where’s the Ayas? That’s what we’re here
for.”
A
holographic display of Maasen appeared toward the front of the bridge before
slowly zooming into a fifty kilometer by fifty kilometer section of the
surface.
“That’s
one of the primary shield generators,” Krick muttered, staring at the large
facility in the center of the map. A couple seconds later three marks appeared,
all roughly twenty kilometers from the primary generator, with two of them
lying on secondary generators.
“So the
Ayas is at one of those locations?” Kaoné questioned.
“Possibly…”
Krick frowned as he read some of the scan statistics displayed to the right of
the hologram, “There’s a lot of factors in play down there that are interfering
with the scan results. In the very least, we can probably assume that the Ayas
is in that area…”
“Well,
it won’t be impossible to search at least, considering your beaming tech,”
Kevérin remarked.
“You
aren’t wrong… but it looks like there’s a group of five Drakkar ships sitting
just over that primary generator. I have no idea if the Drakkars will be able
to see through the cloack, especially at the range we have to approach to beam
you down.”
“We
need to keep the Ayas from the Drakkars, though,” Kievkenalis insisted, “And if
they’re hovering over the generator – that’s even more reason to get in there
as fast as possible!”
“I’m in
agreement with you,” Krick scowled, “…this just isn’t going to be smooth
sailing.” He glanced back at Hero Machina, noting that each of them were
already suited up in their Chaos Armor. “You’re all ready for combat; good. Be
ready to be beamed down with a moment’s notice; expect it to happen soon.” The
Captain then turned back to the rest of the bridge, shouting, “Approach the
scan coordinates at half acceleration! Apply eighty percent reversals within
two hundred kilometers; uncloak at a hundred and open fire on the nearest
Drakkar ship, then begin circling at ninety-percent accuracy range. Ready all
fighter squadrons for sortie, but don’t launch until my mark! The moment we’ve
drawn their attention, beam the Nimalians down to the northern most Ayas
location!”
“Aye
aye!” the entire bridge responded, bewildering Hero Machina with their united
enthusiasm. The scanner hologram promptly disappeared, allowing clear sight
through the bridge’s window as the ship turned and began approaching the
Drakkar ships. The following several minutes passed in tense silence as the Genesis accelerated toward the ships,
prepared to ambush them.
“Two
hundred kilometers! Applying eighty percent reversals!”
“Here
we go,” Krick announced, leaning forward in his chair expectantly, “Everyone,
prepare for battle!”
“One
hundred kilometers! Uncloaking; firing all weapons!”
“Alright
guys,” Kevérin muttered, “This is it–!”
By the
time he finished his sentence, Hero Machina had been transported from the Genesis’s bridge to the surface of
Maasen below. Roughly a quarter of a kilometer in front of them stood the
secondary shield generator, and all around it–
“Drakkars!!”
Siyuakén exclaimed, immediately blowing away a nearby pair with a massive
lightning shock.
“This
is it, guys!” Kevérin shouted as he blasted away another couple of Drakkars with
flame bursts, “Press on to the generator! And don’t allow any Drakkar to lay hands on you or it’s over!”
“Time
to go all out!” Christeané grinned before launching himself forward with his
battlehammers. “Overdrive: Omni
Crush!”
“Overdrive: Conflict’s–!”
“Not
now!” Kevérin interrupted Kaoné, “The Drakkars don’t need weapons or killing
intent to do us harm; you’d only be handicapping us! Save it for a worst-case
scenario!”
“…If
you say so,” Kaoné responded begrudgingly, but nonetheless complied.
“Chaos Assist! Chaos Armor!”
Kievkenalis shouted before pushing forward, ignoring the blasts from several
Drakkar laser cannons as his armor of Chaos Energy absorbed the shots. He
quickly began directing his hands toward various targets, calling out, “Chaos Massive Impact! …Chaos Strike! Chaos
Strike!”
“Haah!!”
Davídrius slammed his foot down on a Drakkar before it even saw him coming,
instantly flooring it and demolishing its armor and chest. He quickly drew two
swords out of his new four-sword harness and used the recently deceased Drakkar
as a springboard into another nearby group, stabbing each of their hands before
knocking them out of the way of Rebehka and Siyuakén, who cautiously rushed
forward side by side, issuing shocks and ice clubs left and right.
Kaoné
followed uneasily but quickly, constantly raising steel barriers behind the
Nimalians to prevent any Drakkars from following and ambushing them. Suddenly,
two Drakkars rushed toward the group from the right and attempted to ambush
Kievkenalis as he was looking the other way, but Kaoné deftly plucked the
Drakkars out of the air by their armor and flung them aside, smiling to
herself. I’m not useless anymore!
In the
middle of her thought a Drakkar suddenly came flying over her head before
tumbling to the ground in front of Kievkenalis. Christeané quickly followed,
both battlehamers grasped and raised over his head before smashing them down on
the Drakkar the moment he landed, obliterating it and creating a five foot
crater. He quickly began twirling his battlehammers and launched himself out of
the crater, allowing Kaoné to cover it back up as Kevérin alighted on the
ground and suddenly sent out two blasts of flame to his left and right,
incinerating several approaching Drakkars.
“Who
said Drakkars were supposed to be dangerous?”
Davídrius scoffed as he knocked away another three, “The Riaxen put up more of
a fight than they do!”
“Yeah,
something doesn’t feel quite right…” Rebehka responded warily as she flipped a
few Drakkars away with an ice sheet.
“Ah,
we’re at the shield generator now, anyways,” Kevérin remarked, “Kaoné, fence it
off!”
“Got
it!” the Materiatechnic replied, before raising a massive steel wall all around
Hero Machina and the shield generator. The Nimalian Chaotics paused for a moment
to take in the sudden lull before cautiously approaching the generator-housing
structure, which stood nearly thirty meters away – only to be surprised as a
hidden hatch directly in front of the structure opened up, revealing an armored
helmet.
“…You
aren’t Drakkars,” the man muttered, and then exclaimed, “Identify yourselves!”
“We’re
Hero Machina!” Kevérin responded, “A Nimalian Chaotic squad, here with the
Earthians to ensure that the Drakkars don’t make off with the Ayas!”
“…You’re
here to help?”
“Well
we certainly aren’t here to hurt,”
Davídrius rolled his eyes.
“…” The
man paused for a moment before pulling himself out of the hatch, revealing his
full-body armor and the distinct dual-knee legs of Siions. He glanced around
warily at the steel barrier Kaoné had erected before turning his attention back
to Hero Machina. “…I’m Colonel Saavis,” he commented, “This generator has been
under siege for the past couple hours. And now that you’re here – I think the
Drakkars may have caught onto where we’re keeping the Ayas.”
“Of
course they have…” Kevérin scowled, “Where is it?”
“…It’s
in the area.”
“Damn
it, just tell us where it is! I know you don’t want to lose it, but worst comes
to worst, better we have it than the
Drakkars, right?”
“…Of
course. You’re right. If it hasn’t been moved, then it should be–“
The
Siion was interrupted as a cloaked figure came flying down from above and
grabbed his head, slamming him backwards into the ground and subsequently
snapping his neck. The figure paused for a moment, crouching over the Siion’s
body, before slowly standing and looking up at the shield generator. “What
hubris…” it muttered, though its voice didn’t seem to carry through the
air – instead, it came from within the mind, as if it were speaking directly inside
the heads of Hero Machina. “To think, that they could hide the Ayas from me, and in such an obvious location…”
“Agh…”
Davídrius scowled, shivering uncomfortably from the sensation of another voice
inside his head, “…Is this what the Drakkars sound like?”
“…Everyone,
get back,” Kevérin muttered warningly.
“You
would indeed do well to fear me. Many greater than you have fallen by my hand,
and uncountably more have fallen before my armies. That you have not yet run
for your measly lives speaks either to your unfounded confidence or blistering
ignorance.”
“…I
knew this would happen,” Kevérin scowled, “Just our luck to encounter one of
the faction leaders…!”
“So you are aware of my identity!” the
Drakkar turned toward Hero Machina, revealing his heavy armor, black cloak, and
black arrow body markings. “Ha. You know who I am, yet you dare suggest you can
stand up to me, by electing not to run? Fools! I will teach you your grave
folly of underestimating me, the leader of the Exemplar Drakkars – your folly,
of not fleeing from the first thought of my name: Exdominor!”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 45 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: {null}
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