“You know, to the casual observer, you look like the bad guy and they’re the good guys,” a dry voice said from his lower right. His eyes flicked over to see a small window on his main screen showing an impeccably-dressed young man with jet black hair smiling slightly. The border around the window said “Mechanism Casten, Francescan Imperial Star Navy Space Knight Companion Rank UVV.”
“Because I’m the dragon and they’re the knights?” Paress asked.
“Well, yeah.”
“Yeah. Of course, there are plenty of dragon fans out there too…”
“Of course. But in the classic sense…”
“I know I know,” Paress said, unsurprised that even a battle couldn’t get in the way of the usual bickering with his Companion. Casten was the third part in the triumvirate of Space Knight, Hyper Battle Machine, and Companion, and was responsible for synchronizing Paress’ physical and mental abilities with Allepexxis’ to make them the best possible fighting force they could be. If a Space Knight wasn’t synced properly, the Hyper Battle Machine might not move, or worse, could go out of control and destroy itself and anything else within a few miles’ radius.
Artificial beings granted souls and with magical glamours to make them appear more organic, Companions generally stayed at a base or mothership while the Space Knight fought, all the while maintaining a link through normal transmissions to monitor the battle and make any adjustments on the fly. The Companion also acted as a sort of offsite “black box” that could be referred to in the event the Space Knight and Hyper Battle Machine were destroyed.
Allepexxis was a relative rarity in that it had the ability to make short space jumps when most other Hyper Battle Machines had to be transported by a jump-capable ship to other systems. As such, it was also fitted with a small operations cockpit buried farther inside its body than the Space Knight’s cockpit. In this way, Allepexxis could carry both Paress and Casten together if need be. The need was certainly there now, so while Paress put Allepexxis through its maneuvers, Casten sat buckled in his own cockpit about twenty feet away. The distance between cockpits was again for reasons of redundancy and survivability if something went wrong with one of the two occupants. Paress generally hated bringing Casten along because of the occasional griping about his flying, but thankfully Casten was staying quiet just now— maybe he realized this wasn’t the time to be critical of Paress’ abilities…
As Paress considered this, the two “knights” shot out at opposite angles from Allepexxis and came in with their weapons out to catch the dragon in a scissors movement. Seeing this, Paress pulled back on his control sticks and slammed his foot pedals down hard. Allepexxis’s wings extended their full span and rocket thrusters erupted from its feet to bring the entire Hyper Battle Machine to a near sudden stand-still in mid-air.
To go from over three times the speed of sound to zero in less than a second would have normally been fatal to both Machine and pilot, but Allepexxis’ Blessed construction had inertial dampers that kept it in a constant state of acceleration suppression that lessened the effects such extreme maneuvers. Paress himself had a body made much stronger from his own Blessing that allowed him to withstand punishment that would instantly kill most normal humans.
As Allepexxis’ wings shot out to their full width of over 2,200 feet, Paress realized that the giant Machine was silhouetted against the sun, casting an enormous shadow over its enemies and the land below. He absently hoped that the effect might serve to frighten some of the enemy forces. With Allepexxis suddenly no longer on an interception course, the enemies had to maneuver to keep from colliding with each other; something they did with a level of skill that even Paress had to admit was impressive.
He pulled one of his triggers and the underside of Allepexxis’ wings erupted into flame as hundreds of laser emitters opened fire, giving the effect that the wings were shining blinding light on the enemy robots. This weapon, Searing Wings, was primarily used to overload the shields on starships or to destroy many small targets at once. Against other large robotic weapons, Paress had learned its value as a blinding distraction as he followed up with...
“Rail Blasters!” Paress yelled, his vocal command firing the heavy rail guns built into Allepexxis’ forearms. Long spears of high density metal blasted out at ultra high velocity and slammed into the tan enemy with such force that most of its armor simply shattered. The robot staggered as its cohort flew away to come at Allepexxis again.
Seeing his chance to eliminate one of his enemies, Paress shot Allepexxis forward, its wings tucking close and its thrusters blazing blue flame. The enemy machine suddenly seemed to recover and brought up its hammer to try to smash Allepexxis’ head, but Paress was faster and put his Machine into a cork screw maneuver so that he twisted past the attack and was suddenly behind and below the enemy.
“Wing Blades!” he ordered and long immeasurably sharp blades extended from the leading edge of Allepexxis’ wings. Paress pressed the thumb switch on top of both control sticks and the wings arced out and then in as if they were a giant set of scissors. The enemy robot was suddenly sliced clean in two. Instead of the fluids, flame, and sparks of a normal robot, dark red Fey light rife with dancing symbols poured out of both sections of the machine.
Knowing that such a blow wasn’t always a killing blow with magic machines, and also knowing the other enemy was closing, Paress acted quickly. “Burning Claws!” and Allepexxis’ already formidably long claws were suddenly extended by one hundred foot lances of bright-blue beam light, essentially arming the Hyper Battle Machine with five beam sabers per hand. Paress slashed out at the enemy robot, ten long beams criss-crossing through its body and shredding what was left of its shattered armor and the frame beneath. Moments later, the enemy machine exploded in a hail of red magic.
A wave of screaming voices and Fey music assaulted Paress as the magic explosion washed over Allepexxis. Paress gritted his teeth. “Can you do something about that?” he demanded of Casten.
“I’m working on it,” Casten said. “Sorry, I didn’t think we’d be battling magic….”
Just then, the remaining enemy white robot blasted through the magic carnage on a collision course with Allepexxis. Paress sucked in his breath and the giant dragon shot back just as the enemy slashed through the air with its massive sword. The sword barely missed slicing Allepexxis’ chest as Paress brought its tail up and slammed it into the side of the enemy. Spikes extended from the tail’s tip and gouged the white robot. The robot quickly swung the sword around to chop off Allepexxis’ tail, but Paress hurriedly pulled the tail free and out of the way before the hit could land.
Just as Paress was about to yell at Casten again to do something about the damn music, the offending noise suddenly stopped. “It’s about damn time!” he said loudly. “Is it too much to ask that you do something useful back there? It’s not like you’re doing anything else.”
“Hey, you think this is so easy, why don’t you come back here and try?” Casten retorted.
“Oh yeah, in the middle of a damn battle, I’m gonna start doing Companion shit. Gimme a damn break,” Paress said as he flung Allepexxis upside down and sailed over another sword slash. “Damn this guy!”
“He’s pretty relentless,” Casten agreed. “Maybe talk to him?”
“Are you for real?”
“You already killed his two buddies, maybe he’ll listen. Give it a try.” Casten had barely got that out before the robot suddenly attached its sword to its back, unslung a large beam rifle and started to fire.
“He really seems like he’s in a talking mood,” Paress said wryly as Allepexxis flew in a wide arc, all the while jinking to avoid the enemy’s shots. “But maybe its worth a try.”
He instantly changed course to fly right at the enemy, and as he spun back and forth to dodge the incoming shots, he adjusted the cone of fire on Allepexxis’ flame from narrow and focused to wide and shorter range. When he got close enough, Allepexxis’ mouth opened and a colossal blast of fl
ame lit up the entire sky, absorbing the enemy beam shots into the flame’s concentrated electromagnetic core.
The enemy tried to weather the assault and quickly pulled its sword back out, but not fast enough as Paress suddenly stopped the flame and activated the Wing Blades. He put the dragon into a spin and the whirling blades sliced the arm holding the sword clean off. But quick as lightning, the enemy reached down and grabbed the falling sword with its free hand and brought it up just in time to deflect Paress’ follow-up strike. With a deafening clang, the Wing Blades bounced off the sword and dragon and “knight” were flung back from each other.
They hovered in the air, facing off. For the first time since the battle started, the enemy machine seemed to need a break. Paress had to admit that the pilot was skilled. To go up against a Space Knight this long was truly a feat. No doubt the pilot had magic enhancements, but considering Paress’ own enhancements weren’t just magical, but also scientific, there was no doubt he was better suited to the battle at hand. The other pilot had to end this soon before his body gave out. Considering this, Paress opened a channel and hailed the enemy robot.
The image of an intense, shirtless teenaged boy with penetrating blue eyes appeared on his screen. Blood was running from his nose and the edges of his mouth. Paress’ eyes flicked toward Casten and he had to suppress a laugh. He could see the same look of amusement in Casten’s eyes. Because of course, this robot was piloted by an intense teenager. And of course his body was getting wracked from the battle and his nose and innards were bleeding. This must have been the tenth such person Paress had faced in his career so far.
Keeping a grin from spreading across his face, Paress cleared his throat and started to speak, “Attention pilot of traitor combat robot. I’m Lieutenant Paress Handrel, Space Knight of the Francescan Star Empire, commanding Hyper Battle Machine #25 Allepexxis. I’ve destroyed your comrades and will also destroy you if you don’t surrender.” Casten wasn’t making things easier as Paress noticed the Companion doing an impression of the teen’s penetrating stare. He deftly flicked the window showing Casten’s face on his screen off so he could concentrate.
“I do what Anloo tells me to do,” the boy responded with an odd level of affection. “He wants me to kill you. So I will.”
“Listen, you don’t have to…try…to kill me. If you surrender, I give you my word that…”
“You talk too much,” the boy interrupted and his screen went black as his robot suddenly shot forward and slashed at Allepexxis. Paress almost groaned as he expertly dodged back, because this was another thing the intense young men of the universe inevitably did: interrupt a parley with some nonsense about there being too much talk followed by an attack.
He fired the rail blasters at point blank range and watched with satisfaction as the armor on the enemy’s remaining arm, chest and head exploded. “Wrong, asshole. I talk just the right amount,” Paress said as the ten beams of Allepexxis’ Burning Claws sliced through the robot’s unprotected inner frame. The fact that this little bastard tried to kill him as he was trying to offer a peaceful resolution infuriated him.
The enemy was trying to fight on, but with so much of it destroyed, the movements were slow and clumsy. “This is pathetic,” Casten said, his image reappearing. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m gonna kill the little bastard,” Paress said. “Because I’m sick and tired of so-called child warriors doing all kinds of horrible shit because their best buddies, childhood pals, personal saviors, whatever-the-hell you want to call them, tells them to.”
“I think maybe you’re jealous because the girls all love those types of guys.” Casten said as Allepexxis sliced apart the enemy robot until nothing was left but the chest cavity with cockpit inside and part of the head dangling sideways.
Paress held the remains of the thing in Allepexxis’ hands and said, “Where is Anloo Ange? Is he down there somewhere?”
After a moment, Casten said, “Yeah and…oh dammit…he’s doing some sick thing with the queen.”
“What?” Paress nearly screamed as he activated the section of his screen that Casten had highlighted and zoomed in to see…Anloo Ange and the queen standing next to each other looking up at Allepexxis. Ange was holding a leash attached to a collar around the queen’s neck and the queen was…naked. Oh fuck this.
He lowered Allepexxis to hover one hundred feet above Ange and his prisoner and turned on the external speakers. “Anloo Ange! Your treason is over.” As he spoke, Allepexxis’s computer was highlighting Ange’s golems and soldiers while excluding the innocent captives. When it finished, Paress flipped a switch and fifty high speed anti-personnel lasers on Allepexxis’ chest spat out instant death that put a burning hole in each target’s head. As one, all one hundred dropped and Anloo Ange found himself suddenly far away from the rest of his supporters.
“You dare to defile the queen with your filth,” Paress continued. “Watch and know the judgment of the Emperor’s sword!”
Allepexxis tossed the enemy robot’s shattered chest high into the sky and as the wreckage came tumbling back down, Paress incinerated it into dust with the dragon’s flame. “This is the fate of all who would betray the Francescan Star Empire.” He knew he should simply kill Ange where he stood the same way he had just killed the nearby followers. But no, what Ange had done needed to be made an example of for any other would-be instigators of terror.
He landed Allepexxis a couple hundred feet away, right on top of a scurrying mass of Ange’s followers scrambling not to be crushed or charred by the Hyper Battle Machine’s thrusters. The moment the dragon was on the ground, the cockpit was open and he was making his way through the blast doors. Casten was shouting after him, “Paress wait! Ange’s not trying to run. He’s got something up his sleeve. Wait!”
“The queen’s waited long enough,” Paress said and he jumped down from Allepexxis and strode through the mass of wailing people and dead golems who had followed Ange. Ahead he could see the man standing confidently, still holding the leash. One of the followers managed to get to his feet, but was quickly cut down by laser fire that came from behind Paress. He didn’t blink as Casten jogged up next to him, his laser pistol hot.
“Paress, you know we’re in the middle of his cronies, right?” Casten demanded.
“Yeah, and you seem to be doing a good job of keeping them off me. Keep up the good work,” Paress said, never taking his eyes off Ange. Some of the people loyal to the queen were starting to fight back against their captors now that Paress had begun to turn the tables. “Go help those people out. Start a revolution against Ange’s Revolution or something.”
Casten groaned at Paress’ joke, but dutifully ran off to help the people who were fighting back. Being a top level Mechanism, he was a crack shot with his laser pistol and soon more traitor bodies were dropping as he moved back and forth with unnatural speed to dodge the return fire.
Paress was now within shouting distance of Anloo Ange and he could see the man’s mouth moving, whispering a spell. The ground around Paress feet began to grow jagged with claws reaching up toward him.
“No,” Paress said simply and with a short telekinetic burst, broke Ange’s jaw.
The traitor’s spoken spell-making suddenly turned into howls of screams. Queen Artzia used the opportunity to pull the leash from Ange’s hands and began whipping him with the attached chain. But she was suddenly thrown back as Ange moved his fingers in complex patterns to create other silent spells. She crashed to the ground with a thud as Ange started to straighten, his fingers and hands moving in ever more complex patterns and a Fey aura growing around him.
“No!” Paress repeated in a shout and Anloo Ange suddenly found every bone in his hands dislocated by Paress’ telekinesis. He screamed even louder through his broken mouth and collapsed. Paress walked up to stand in front of the broken mage. “Anloo Ange, in the name of Emperor Siegfried Francesca II, I hereby arrest you for treason…”
Ange kicked out at Paress
with a boot tipped with a blade that had an odd green sheen. As Paress quickly stepped out of the way, he sent his own foot down on to the side of Ange’s knee, breaking it. The blade’s green aspect no doubt meant some kind of magic poisoning, and Paress silently cursed himself for almost getting hurt by something so simple this late in the battle. His Space Knight physiology could defeat most physical poisons and many magic ones too. But there were never any guarantees.
“Dammit, I’ve had it with you,” Paress hissed and his distant eyes instantly locked on to Ange’s as if burning holes through them. And within milliseconds, every bone in Anloo Ange’s arms and legs were shattered into a fine powder. Ange didn’t even scream, he simply crashed into unconsciousness from the sudden extreme pain and shock that his body was assaulted with.
“Damn this bastard,” Paress said under his breath just as Queen Artzia limped up to stand next to him.
She spat at Ange’s unconscious form. “Will he die?” she asked.
“Not until the Emperor wills it,” Paress said. “The emperor…or you. I can always say things got out of hand in the fog of war or something...” He made sure to sound as nonchalant as possible.
He turned to look at her meaningfully and then blushed with embarrassment when he was suddenly reminded of her nakedness. “Oh! Forgive me, your Highness!” He quickly pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her. As a member of the Frontier Anti-Piracy Force, his Space Knight uniform’s jacket was the long variant that swept down to his knees, but on the smaller queen, it went down to her feet. Only her head was visible now and he felt that was as it should be.
Space Dragon Allepexxis Page 2