“Let’s commandeer the ship!” he cried down to the others. “To hell with Morthain! We don’t owe them a damned thing. Let’s threaten the crew and make them take us back. Just get me over there and give me some space. I’ve lost everything and I don’t really care what happens to me or that dirty city.”
“Finally someone with fire in their bones!” Sitra growled, throwing her shoulders back. Her long braid sailed behind her in the wind. “I’ll do the honors of persuading the crew.”
Valen interjected, “Cole might not care what happens to him, but some of us do.” He threw his arms out to halt Sitra, glaring up at Cole. “Humans are more selfish than I thought if you truly believe you’ve lost everything.”
“I’m not being selfish,” Cole spat. “I just-”
“You just thought you knew better than Master Roth!” Valen shouted. “He is one of the oldest Aenerians, one of the Unbound! You think you know better than he? Shame on you Cole, shame on all humans if your arrogance is representative of your whole race.” He turned his gaze on each of them in turn, burning into them. “If the unit decides to shame our Master then I will not hesitate to join you, but by my death and honor I will be done with you.”
A cold, guilty wind seemed to blow across the deck. Even Goran moaned, his fur no longer standing on end as he slumped to the deck at Valen’s side.
“I’m sorry, Valen,” Cole murmured, hopping back to the deck.
“Do not be sorry, be productive,” Valen replied, turning his gaze towards the bow of the ship, Oberon’s rainbow hues glinting in his eyes. “As Roth once said, being sorry never helped anyone.”
Chapter 9
Transient Solace
Deep in the armored belly of the Lead Orchid, War Captain Seive labored over the duties of her new position. Her arm was still broken, but she left it untreated and ignored her body’s cries for relief. It would not do for the crew to see even a glimmer of weakness in their newly promoted War Captain. She had already lost two ships and judging by the battle overlays, they would be lucky if any vessel made it out intact. The Alpha Colossus was impossibly fast and moved with a lazy grace, as if it picked them apart at its leisure. Fortunately it was distracted somewhat by consuming the remains of the other four titans.
War Captain Seive was able to direct the fleets more efficiently with the recently mended communications equipment in the war room. It was a testament to the necessity of the old engineers, who until now had been all but obsolete. The engineers bustled around, perusing dusty manuals, calibrating the old machines, and putting out spot fires from old wiring. The machines were mysterious and elegant, yet the controls were simple enough for even the dullest sailor to understand.
“Tell the fleets to stay still!” Seive barked, poring over the battle overlays of her command ship. “The Colossus is attracted to movement, so have the ships alternate their maneuvers. With a scrap of luck we may confuse it. Has anyone managed to land a blow to its face?”
“Negative, War Captain,” Lieutenant Harver replied, fidgeting his weather-worn hands over the dials and knobs of the communication overlay. “None of the deck guns can traverse that high. They would have to retreat half a mile to make the angle, but the damned thing moves too fast at that distance. We just lost the Rusty Comet by the way.”
“Tell them to stop moving around so much!” Seive shouted, slamming her fist. She watched in helpless fury as the overlay showed a miniature azure model of the Alpha Colossus dumping the Rusty Comet into its mouth. “Roth’s crew charged all their gratia stones and now they think they’re untouchable.”
The battle overlay displayed dozens of ships swarming around the Colossus. The titan tossed another to the heavens before the rest stopped moving entirely, finally heeding Seive’s orders. The Colossus halted, darting its head about as though having trouble deciding which to pursue next. One brave vessel shot out, doing a flourishing loop before speeding away. The Colossus jogged casually towards it, but then another ship caught its attention, then another. It was working.
“Lead it into the deep sands, away from Morthain,” Seive ordered. “The sands will slow it, and its head might sink low enough for us to fire at it. Concentrate fire on its knee for now. The deck guns are only doing surface damage, but maybe we can cripple the bastard if we hammer down on one spot.”
“As you say,” Lieutenant Harver replied before relaying her instructions to the fleet.
Seive’s brow scrunched up, sweat beading off her nose as she scanned the battle overlay. How in Oberon’s bloody light can something so big move so fast? She growled, munisica stretching as two more ships were taken out of the fight, this time by their own clumsiness as they collided with each other. The overlays didn’t show the glass missiles from the deck guns, but there were tiny pieces falling from the left knee of the Colossus. Seive let out a savage bark as the Colossus developed the slightest limp, allowing the ships to take advantage of its break in balance. As they approached the shores of the deep sands, the fleets drew their sheet caps and dove in and out of the white powder, staying just out of reach.
Seive’s uninjured arm shot out and grabbed her chief engineer by the hood of his robes. “Is the main gun ready yet?”
The engineer coughed as the collar of his robes choked him. His scowl cracked into a look of terror when he realized who had stopped him. “N-not sure ma’am, I m-mean War Captain.”
“Well?” She growled.
“Well? Uh… I don’t know what you, I mean what we…there are so many factors,” he sputtered.
“What’s the status?” she snapped. “How much longer? That hammer is our only chance of doing any real damage.”
“Oh, of course, p-please f-forgive my ignorance.” He stammered as though he were afraid his next word would sentence him to a swift death. “Well, you see it is ready whenever you want it to be. H-however it will be more ready the longer you wait.”
“What the hell does that mean?” she asked. “And stop your sniveling, you’re the most valuable sod on this ship. No one’s about to bite your head off.”
The engineer took a calming breath before resuming. “Thank you, I am just a little frightened by all this. I’ve never been in so much as a street squabble, never mind hostilities of this scale. What I meant to say was that the main gun of the Lead Orchid is not like the others. It is not mechanical, but magnetic. It seems that our glass munitions have a significant magnetic field about them and the Orchid’s main gun leverages that field as a propellant. However, the capacitors need adequate time to charge, a charge which comes from the gratia stone. I’ve diverted nearly all ancillary power to the gun’s capacitors, but it’s still only at half charge.”
Seive considered smacking him in the head just to simplify things. She took her own calming breath. “And to someone who hasn’t spent their entire life buried in books and tinkering with machines, what the hell does all that mean?”
The corner of the engineer’s mouth twitched. “We can fire now at half strength, or if you wait an hour we can fire at full power. There’s only one projectile, however, so do try to make it count.” He cast a sideways glance at the tiny Colossus on the battle overlay.
Seive’s eyes followed the engineer’s. They both watched as the Alpha Colossus shattered another vessel with a playful swat.
“Get back to work then.” She nodded to the engineer, who set off at a run. She walked around the battle overlay and rapped the Lead Orchid’s captain on the shoulder. “I need a word.”
The captain grunted and followed, ignoring the questions from his helmsman. “What is it, War Captain? I ain’t got much time for idle talk.”
“You will be anything but idle after you hear my words.” She stilled her munisica, preventing them from bursting forth. “Should we divert all power to the task, how high and how fast could you fly the Lead Orchid?”
The captain scratched the stubble on his neck. “If I were ripe crazy, I’d wager we could get it up pretty damn high. The speed’s no matter,
but the higher we go the more draw we take from the gratia stone. How high though, I ain’t got the fuzziest. Nothin’ of the sort’s been done before. It’s best to keep our ships nearer the ground. There’s no tellin’ if we’d have enough juice to make it back down slower than a fallin’ anvil. Now, why would you be askin’ somethin’ so harebrained for?”
Seive threw an arm around the captain and dropped her voice so the crew couldn’t hear. “That Colossus is big. Too big, plain and simple. There’s no way under Oberon’s light that we’re going to win this one. Not by conventional means anyhow. The main gun is going to give that rotten bastard a little kiss, then if it’s still standing, were going to fly the Lead Orchid up and give it another. Should we survive the impact, every sailor able to swing a mallet is going to board the giant and see what more we can hack off. It’s not the perfect plan, but unless you have anything better that’s what we’re going to do.” Her eyes darted to the battle overlay. “We’ve lost another three ships since we’ve been chatting idly, so speak up if you have any ideas. If not, then get ready to take to the skies.”
A savage grin had been growing on the captain’s face as Seive spoke. She knew that grin, and she knew his answer before he even said it. “Well then, call me ripe crazy. That’s the most beautiful thing these ears have heard in an age.”
“Can it be done?” Seive hissed.
The captain’s voice dropped to a grating whisper: “Beats the pants off me, but we hafta try then, don’t we? The helms-crew is a little green, but I’ll grab the wheel myself if it comes to it. You’ve got balls of munisica, War Captain, and you’ve got me word. The Orchid will fly.”
“Good.” She gave him a curt nod, masking her relief.
The ship’s captain slapped a rough hand on her broken arm, giving her an excited shake before returning to the helmsmen. Seive held her breath, waiting for the pain to ebb away. She could feel hot fire stabbing along with her heartbeat as blood pooled under the skin of her broken arm.
“War Captain!” Lieutenant Harver shouted across the battle overlay. “There’s something… odd. The fleets are reporting something flying towards the Colossus. Something green and fast.”
Seive was already on the overlay. “Why isn’t it showing up on the map? This thing is real-time isn’t it?”
“I…don’t know,” Harver replied, listening closely to his earpiece. “It’s already on the Colossus. It’s…it’s a man. He’s tearing at it, doing a good job by the sounds of it.”
Seive watched as sizeable chunks fell from the miniature Colossus. It was still surface damage, but it was more than their fleet was doing. Her arm throbbed again. She had a sneaking suspicion as to who the invisible man was.
“Should we initiate ceasefire?” Harver asked.
“No. Keep it up.” She smirked. “Have them switch to offensive maneuvers and keep hammering that knee. It looks like our invisible friend is holding the beast’s attention.”
Lieutenant Harver relayed her commands. On the battle overlay the remaining ships popped out of the deep sands and pressed on with their deck guns.
“Captain!” Seive barked.
“I’m all ears, War Captain,” he shouted in return.
“Bring us around to the Colossus and ready the main gun.” Without waiting for his reply, she bolted across the war room towards the door to the upper deck.
“You heard her, lads! Crank this old bitch hard starboard and give her hell!” he barked, sending the helmsmen into a flurry of activity. He addressed the targeting officer, a young woman barely of age. “Where’s she at then?”
“Just under a two third’s charge, sir,” she replied without looking at him. Her nimble fingers danced over the controls as though playing an instrument.
“Well that’s better than nothin’ I suppose,” the captain sighed, clapping the targeting officer on the back. “Certainly gonna give the rotten bastard a nice kiss on the cheek. Fire when ready.”
Sure that the crew was on track, Seive ran out to the top deck, her munisica clacking over the glass planks. She needed to see the Colossus with her own eyes. The overlays had to be off. The thing couldn’t be that big.
“Clear the sheet cap!” she hollered to the deck crew.
The ancient latches clanked open with clouds of rust as the sheet cap raced over the deck, letting in the abrasive winds. Seive tucked her face into her scarf and ran for the bow, ignoring the protests of the crew. She leapt up the final staircase, dropping her scarf as her mouth hung wide open.
The Alpha Colossus was not big. Big was wildly insufficient. There were few words for things of this scale. Even the mountains at the far reaches of the White Sands were not useful for comparison. The thing was impossible, inconceivable. Her ships, the smallest of which held eighty men, looked like rats darting about at its feet. It was no wonder they had been so timid in their maneuvers. To draw the attention of such an enemy meant sure death. The Alpha Colossus was bigger than big, huger than huge. It was colossal, nigh on god-like. A tiny mote of Despair took root in Seive’s heart.
As the Lead Orchid raced closer she could make out the glinting and slashing of Roth’s wings. The Bonebreaker was untouchable. He seemed to know how the Colossus would react before it made a move. He was deadly yet elegant, dancing about and removing huge swaths of blackened flesh with every twirl and dive. To Seive, his tactics were confusing, however, as though he were merely drawing the giant’s attention to the sands. In between attacks Roth spent an unusual amount of effort luring the titan into striking the ground. After darting in for a strike he would land in the hard sands, appearing to take a break. Each time the Colossus followed him down with a lightning-quick fist or foot, and each time Roth shot out of the way with not a blink to spare. Roth was nimble, but there was something amiss with his gait, as though he nursed an injury. Each passing moment he appeared just a little clumsier, and his escapes were becoming more and more narrow. With each miss, the Colossus struck the ground, sending a mountainous geyser of powder up into the air.
The Lead Orchid was now close enough that Seive could feel the concussions reverberating through the hull, though they were still a little over a mile away. Seeing Roth take such risks rekindled the Rage in the War Captain. Her Despair wilted and crisped before its flame. She yearned for battle. Beneath her bladed feet she could feel the main gun stirring, a low hum rising to a high whine. Seive hoped that Roth wouldn’t catch the impact. She didn’t like him, but friendly-fire was no way for a warrior to die.
The gun’s whine rose higher and higher, sending itching vibrations up Seive’s legs. She let go of the balustrade and sheathed her munisica, plunging her thumbs into her ears not a moment too soon. An explosion slammed into her chest, taking the breath from her as a massive cloud of flame erupted from the bow of the Lead Orchid. She withdrew her thumbs as a screaming, tearing sound filled the skies. Squinting, Seive beheld the glass projectile cutting through the dusty air like a spear thrown by a god. The missile found its home within a heartbeat.
A river of bodies erupted from the torso as the Colossus stumbled and fell over its injured knee. The ship shook and nearly rattled apart as the titan’s bulk struck the sands. A glimmer of emerald wings and a tiny dark figure emerged from the clouds, rising higher with belabored flapping. Roth had survived.
The Lead Orchid was near the cloud now. Seive could make out Roth’s stony face as he sailed towards them.
“King Rothael!” Seive called out. “Get your ass over here and take a breather!”
Roth folded his wings and dove for the Orchid, half-falling, half-gliding just above the billowing cloud of white dust. He was hurt.
Seive watched in silent horror as a dark mountain of a hand shot out of the rising fog, closing around Roth with a sickening crunch. Roth’s wings stuck out from in between its fingers, flickering and fading.
“Stars no…” Seive groaned.
The Colossus rose from the dust, a gaping crevice exposing the grotesque piping and framework o
f the chosen. Its fist swung up to its crooked maw, giving Roth a final squeeze before releasing him to the hungry hole.
Seive knew better than to waste time with shock or grief. Roth was an egotistical, forgotten King after all. It was only fitting that his arrogance tie him to a foe that was so clearly beyond mortal means. The Lead Orchid banked hard and veered away from the Colossus. The rest of the fleets retreated as well, racing away as if death were nipping at their tails.
“Cowards!” Seive spat, digging her munisica into the deck and stomping off to the lower decks. Retreat was not an option, not when they were the only thing that stood between the Alpha Colossus and Morthain. She would slit the throats of every captain herself, if they survived that was.
Her uninjured hand was about to close on the handle of the door to the lower decks when out spilled the ship’s captain, breathless and pale.
“Explain!” Seive’s icy voice cut into him as she raised her sword-munisica to the captain’s chin.
“There’s somethin’ on the way,” he gasped. “Somethin big. Bigger’n that even!” He jabbed a finger at the Colossus. “Wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see the overlays with me own eyes.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Seive asked, scanning the desert. “Nothing’s bigger than that. We would see it coming at the very least. Turn us around now, or forfeit your life.”
The captain’s face slackened as his eyes cast out over her shoulder. His mouth fell open as his gaze climbed higher and higher. Seive lowered her munisica and wheeled around, steeling herself.
A serpentine creature rose from the sands, its flank shining with bioluminescent orbs that ran along its length. The monster’s girth was as thick as the leg of the Colossus and there seemed to be no end to its length as it rose up from the world. The creature was clearly a rock wurm, though a specimen of such a scale was unprecedented. Seive suddenly realized why Roth had baited the Colossus into striking the ground; he was calling for it.
Saving The Dark Side Book 2: The Harbingers Page 17