Naero's Valor

by Mason Elliott

  “Are you ready, my little duck?” Naero called to Shetharra, still hidden within their sheltering star.

  “Yes. I’m merging with you completely now, Mom. I can’t do much more directly because of the dampening factor of my suit. All of my energies shall be yours to command.”

  “Our Seven are ready now?”

  “They are,” Shetharra said with a grin. “All stands ready. I will syphyng us all together when the proper moment comes.”

  “Here we go, sweetie.”

  A bright flash and Naero did appear, as if she had actually been summoned in that very hour.

  She stood before the advancing foe in her newest energy form, learned from the Cosmic spheres of the Songs of Power themselves. In it she was half the size of a planet, and rivaled even the Dark Emperor himself towering threat.

  Once again she took on the enormous persona of Shetanna, gigantic this time, ever larger than life.

  Naero also used the Cosmic Voice, and her power had grown so great–coupled with Shetharra’s–that the vast enemy forces checked their advance, and even Nahaxrathrax himself drew back upon seeing the dark veil she took upon herself. All gave heed.

  DARK EMPEROR. IN YOUR HUBRIS YOU HAVE CALLED ME FORTH, AND LO, I APPEAR STRAIGHTWAY BEFORE YOU IN DEFIANCE, MIGHTIER THAN I HAVE EVER BEEN. BEHOLD! TRULY NOW I AM SHETANNA IN ALL WAYS, THE DARK ANGEL OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION PERSONIFIED. YOUR TIME NEARS ITS END, GREAT MONSTER. WHETHER NOW OR AT SOME FUTURE SPACE HENCE, I FORETELL THAT YOUR MALIGNANT EXISTENCE AND ALL OF YOUR HOSTS OF EVILS SHALL COME TO THEIR APPOINTED DEMISE–BY THE WEIGHT OF MY HAND. STAY AND FACE ME, GUTLESS WRETCH!

  Still the Dark Emperor laughed, yet neither did he advance straight way. YET ANOTHER FOOL COMES AT US AGAIN, TO JOIN THE ASSURED DEFEAT OF HER FELLOWS. VERY WELL THEN. LET US TAKE THEM AND CLAIM THEM ALL. FORTH AND SHATTER THEM! CRUSH THEM ALL. NAERO AMASHIN MAERIS, YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SO FOOLISH AS TO COME BEFORE OUR MIGHT ONCE AGAIN, SO ALONE.

  Now it was Naero’s turn to smile her famous half smile and openly laugh. She held her face high before the onset of the Great Adversary’s power.

  WE SERVE THE RIGHT TO FREE WILL AND THE LIBERTY OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS OF GOOD AND RATIONAL INTENT.

  WE SERVE THE BONDS OF HONOR THAT WE HAVE SWORN TO THOSE WHO FIGHT AND DIE BESIDE US IN GLORY.

  WE SERVE THE GREATEST MYSTERY THAT EXISTS OR THAT SHALL EVER EXIST; FOR WE ARE PART OF THAT FORCE OF LIFE AND LOVE, THE COMPREHENSION OF WHICH SHALL EVER BE BEYOND THAT OF YOUR FOUL ILK.

  WE ALL FIGHT AS ONE. I AM NEVER ALONE. WE ARE NEVER ALONE!

  BRING YOUR VAUNTED POWERS, THOUGH THEY RAGE A THOUSAND TIMES AS GREAT. FOR HERE WE STAND!

  NAY, I SAY AGAIN, I DO NOT STAND ALONE.

  NEVER SHALL I STAND ALONE.

  FOR THIS DAY, I BRING FORTH THE STARKILLERS!

  Naero sang out and unleashed the sweeping force of the Songs of Power. Those energies echoed through all of her reps, even though it threatened to tear her asunder.

  They and the Alliance fought with their backs to the untainted stars.

  From the depths of their souls merged together, Shetharra sang the great Song of Making with her mother in unison, and their Seven echoed the words as they whirled about her shining head within the KDM.

  In answer, legions of the Starkillers burst forth from out of the depths of the stars themselves all along the full length of the galactic battle front.

  Instantly these titanic, terrifying warships shot forth at amazing speed and went on the immediate attack, driving straight into the enemy hordes.

  All of the Alliance forces rallied behind them and swept forth in blazing new formations.

  THEIR MIGHT AND FURY SHINE RADIANT WITH OUR OWN AND YOU SHALL FALL BEFORE THEM AS YOU DEVILS DID IN AGES LONG PAST!

  Hyper beams and hyper attacks of intense, pure Eternal Fire erupted out of from the Starkillers in rays, expanding rings, and waves of blinding, irresistible fury.

  Their might had not been witnessed in millions of years.

  The oncoming enemy forces and hordes slammed into a physical wall of pure Lifespark devastation. They exploded and perished in multitudes all along the length of the current battle lines.

  Scores of Starkillers came on in formation behind Naero as she assailed the Dark Emperor himself. The great abomination reeled before their blasts and voided the field, vanishing like the coward he was through a vast portal that he had just opened up.

  The other enemy Powers melted away in similar fashion.

  Xath the Hidden fled screaming in terrified panic.

  Khemathrykal brazenly sacrificed his own protectors, blasting a path through them with his deadly hyper beam for his own ignoble escape.

  The battle still raged with their mindless slaves, despite the rapid, gutless flight of their “invincible” leaders.

  Huge explosions and hyper beams of Darkforce slammed into the Starkillers from the Darkforce stars trying to check and hurl them back.

  The Starkillers slowed but a moment, absorbing those incredible attacks.

  Then they kept coming straight on, ploughing furrows of destruction directly through the packed enemy ranks.

  They responded in full force, true to their name, and attacked the tainted stars with multiple energy-draining rays.

  The stars that had only thus far been tainted by the enemy’s star disease were assailed and most of them purified.

  Any star too far lost to the Darkforce corruption had to be destroyed, its doomed, lifeless planets already consumed.

  The remaining enemy forces acted so stunned by the might of the Starkillers that the Alliance defenders surged forward and swarmed among them, blasting many to burning oblivion.

  Bereft of their primary leaders, the witless slaves and lackeys broke their formations, and at last fell into utter confusion.

  Some smashed into one another and were thus destroyed.

  Without the will to fight and press on in order to dominate and subjugate others, there would be no hope of victory for them, despite their remaining numerical superiority.

  The skill and ferocity of free sentients in defense of life and liberty would eventually take and win the day once more.

  “Shetharra!” Naero croaked and shrieked. “I’m dying…I’ve given everything I am. Help me. Save me, daughter. I want to live!”

  Om confirmed. We are dying…there’s nothing we can-

  “Nay,” Shetharra said. “I am with you, and our Seven with us, and the Great Mystery is eternal. You shall not perish, for we are with you in every way. Feel your strength return tenfold, and stand strong before the Great foe!”

  Power charged through Naero as never before, and golden waves of Cosmic force strobed around her in building, coruscating waves that flung back attacking foes who tried to fall upon her.

  To assure defeat for the enemy, Naero shot directly into what remained of the fierce battles to come, bathed in the radiance of the Starkillers, and fought for all that she loved beside the Alliance Champions.

  But it was the Starkillers who led the way and continued to turn the tide.

  Each time the Starkillers came against the enemy, the latter either grew terrified beyond all belief and fell back, or were blasted to atoms.

  Within a matter of days, the GSA forces and many others vanquished the depleted hordes of the Great Adversary. With or without their three cowardly leaders, the routed remnants that could not be dragged down scattered in every direction.

  A full month later, when they were no longer needed, the Starkillers and their replicant crews bade Naero and the Alliance farewell, having earned the thanks of the entire galaxy.

  They faded away, back into the stars from whence they came, until their radiant might was needed once more.

  Naero was not certain that she could endure such an ordeal a second time. The very thought terrified her to her very core.

  After all of the terrible losses from the vast war, for the first time, the victorious defenders seized the upper hand, and at last, t
heir galaxy could be said to be free.

  40

  In the aftermath of the first major modern war throughout their entire galaxy, Naero and Khai escorted their oldest daughter Shetharra to the Spacer Mystic Homeworld of Tae’ha, the center of Order Wisdom.

  Shetharra was the first Mystic Prime Adept capable of truly mastering not just one or two of the three Cosmic Wisdoms—but all three at the same time.

  Even Naero had only been able to focus on just one.

  Poly had mastered two.

  Yet her oldest still had three years of intense training in Order Wisdom with the enigmatic Master Tree to get through.

  Naero smiled. Master Tree also had to get through three years of training with a Cosmic prodigy the likes of which the universe had never seen.

  Shetharra was now sixteen years old. Because of her unique situation and abilities, the Spacer elders waved the need for her two year hitch of required military service, either with the Spacer Navy, or Spacer Marines.

  If there was time later, she would perform that duty with the navy.

  Already she was one of the most powerful beings in the entire universe.

  And she had not yet come into her full power and the full use of all of her expanding abilities.

  Each day, some skeptics in and outside of the Alliance did not know whether to hold hope or fear for what she would eventually become. So they maintained both.

  But Naero knew.

  She could have told them.

  So did Khai, and the other two High Mystic Masters, and anyone who knew Shetharra’s heart by this time.

  She was the very soul of goodness personified.

  Few knew that the seven legends of the ancient days, the spirits of the Seven Kexxian Dreamers, lived in the heart, mind, and soul of she who was now the stupendous White Tsunami. From birth these enlightened spirit beings had nurtured, protected, and guided her. They laughed and played with her, and sang to her in the mighty Songs of Power—the songs of the ancient gods, that had not been voiced or heard in eons.

  The gentle Tua knew.

  When Naero and her family visited them briefly, they knew what she was.

  They had always known.

  They revered her as the Vah-Halaena–She of the Eternal Light, for any with sight could see that the secret fire blazed bright within her.

  The Tua sang their mighty songs to her and praised, and bowed low to her in reverence as he walked among them.

  For her part Shetharra loved the kind Tua ever more, and kissed them and their fingertips when they reach out to touch the light that emanated all around her.

  Changes had indeed come as Shetharra matured.

  Naero’s little duck had long since grown much taller than her indomitable mother, standing at 1.83 meters, over a head taller. She was still more than a head shorter than her father, the Mystic Enforcer.

  Shetharra stood in the whipping wind of a thunderstorm on Tae’ha, her perfect, alabaster face held high, her clear azure eyes glowing from within.

  She had grown beautiful beyond all reckoning, and Spacers and many of the other races instinctively bowed their heads to her in love and reverence of what they experienced, whenever she strode or floated among them.

  She truly was the child of light, born of the Flame Eternal.

  Already it became widely known how many times Shetharra had been crucial to saving their galaxy.

  As she grew in grace and power, many of the wise among them understood that she would always do so. The Astonishing White Tsunami was now the wild card in the Comic Prophecies.

  Their dazzling daughter turned and spoke to them plainly one day, when they stood on one of the observation decks of her mother’s flagship. “I love you, Mom and Dad. I love our family, my sisters and brothers, our friends, and all of our Allies. We must face the truth. The Cosmic Prophecies are continuing to ramp up and unfold,” she told them. “I’m afraid it all gets worse from this point on. The trials and challenges will continue to come, and none of us can know if any of us will survive. We can only face what comes with faith and courage.”

  Naero recalled the words of Uvx.

  “Yet know this. My little lizard friends have warned me. The Great Adversary will prepare to unleash their full power against us. We already know that their Great Armada stands poised and ready. And this time when they come against us, they shall bring not one, but all six of the resurrected Darkforce G’lothc Champions with them in their vanguard. They will not take any chances that we can defeat them again.That will be the sign for the final battle.”

  “It will be our end,” Naero said. “All will be lost. None of us possess the might to withstand the Six. Not the Alliance Champions, and even with you at our side, Shetharra. With those devils at the head of the Great Armada, the G’lothc will be invincible. No power we have will be able to stop them!”

  “We must find lost Xanathar at all costs,” Shetharra said, glancing up at her father.

  Khai nodded. “The Second Cosmic Sword of Darkness, Jaa, must be forged, the mate to Yii. Together both swords shall increase my powers as the Cosmic Swordsman a thousand fold. Then we shall face the Great Enemy, no matter what they do!”

  “Not only that,” Naero reminded them, “the last Cosmic obelisk must be located, and the Third Cosmic Guardian of Order must be chosen, making all of the three Guardians far more powerful as well. Only then can the Second Sword be forged, from the Ur-metal of that obelisk itself. After all of that, and if our Champions and Dreamers continue to grow stronger, the Alliance might yet have chance.”

  “Until that hour,” Khai said. “We must fight on as best we can. Do your duty and return us when your full training is complete, my sweet girl. You cannot know how proud you have made your mom and me. Our universe needs the glory of your strength and your great heart so desperately. You have become our light, our star of hope.”

  “Oh, Dad…” Shetharra hugged them both, drawing them together. “I can’t tell the two of you how much I love you. Everything I am is because of you two, because of the mighty blood that I come from. It is I who go forth each day with pride. Not because of myself, but because of both of you and my love and respect for you, that knows no limit. You know full well that I will always strive to do my very best, just as the two of you have done and continue to do. How can I ever do less?”

  Her father encircled them both in his great arms, bereft of all words.

  Naero floated up and kissed Shetharra on both cheeks. “My sweet star child, my little duck. I love you more than my life itself. Never doubt that…ever, my bright, bright star girl of radiant light.”

  Shetharra sobbed, shining tears rivering down her bright face. “Love you both…so much. Whatever the future holds, we shall all face it together, with everything we have. But I’m sorry, guys. You know I have to go.”

  Naero wiped her face with both hands and managed her classic half smile. “It’s only another year; three for you, of course. Oh, you’ll be nineteen the next time we see you, just a year away from your coming of age.”

  Shetharra laughed. “I’ve been so busy with the Mystics. If you remember, they cut me some slack so that I won’t get the chance to do my two years of required military service.”

  “We did not forget.” Naero blinked, trying to imagine the White Tsunami serving as a Spacer Marine twofer or a regular ensign on some naval hulk.

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” her dad told her. “They made an exception in your special case. The High Command and our elders understand that your Mystic training is far more important to the universe.”

  “Yeah,” her mom added. “Who do your think squared all of that with them honey? Your dad and I still have a little pull. You keep doing what you’re doing.”

  They watched their oldest daughter walk through the great doors to the Mystic Compound on Tae’ha. She flashed them one last smile, very similar to that of her mother.

  Naero breathed a deep sigh, watching her beloved oldest child go on to seize her destin
y.

  All of their children also grow older quicker under the time dilation.

  Some would soon go on to serve their own two years of Spacer military service.

  All of them would face their futures.

  “Our children are strong and smart,” Naero said.

  Khai nodded and wept openly. He took her hand in his. “I know that. I need your help, my heart. We still have our many duties as well.”

  “Indeed,” Naero said. She rose up and kissed her beloved and then smiled and gazed deeply into his eyes. “Which of those pressing duties should we pursue first? Perhaps some of them will only take a moment?”

  Khai chuckled and raised one eyebrow, wiping his face with his hands. “I see your mind, my clever little vixen. There will be plenty of moments for all of that along the way, my jewel. That outlaw uncle of yours has finally made a full recovery. He’s stronger and more dangerous than ever after Shetharra quickened him the way that she did. Just recently, he and his crew uncovered some interesting leads at last about finding my people, the lost Oden.”

  Naero nodded. “Haisha! I know how important that mission is to you, my soul. We know it had to wait until the war was decided, but now is the perfect time, while we are still free to act. Our forces stand ready. We know that the kids are in good hands. Let’s you and I get out there and find out once and for all, what happened to your people!”

  THE END

  Watch for the further adventures of your favorite Cosmic super hero in the next entertaining Naero Novel.

  THE

  LOST

  ODEN

  Next, enjoy the start of an exciting new SF series from Mason Elliott: