Forsyth took in a sharp breath and looked away from the screens for a moment. He shook his head, clearing it of the thoughts that rose with the sight of losing hundreds of people.
This was a battle of extermination.
The ships fought back and forth with all they had. More of the Jukal ships fell in battle. The Pandora ships teleported away as soon as they lost their Mana barriers. They were in so close by the time that they left, there were multiple hits on their hulls.
A destroyer lost its Mana barrier because of a roving group of drones; the ship made to teleport when laser cannons smashed into its side, raking the soul gem runic lines.
The teleportation spell formation collapsed into nothing as it continued fighting on.
The Jukal started to focus their fire on it. Dread welled up in Forsyth’s gut just as a Mana shield appeared out of one of the portals, staving off the hits on one side; a portal on the opposite side of the ship also grew into a shield.
Forsyth stopped himself from cheering on whoever put up those shields. A wash of destructive fire ran over the Mana shields. The shield changed its spell formation and turned into a Mana barrier. It wouldn’t last as long as a Mana shield, but it allowed the destroyer to remain in the fight.
The Pandora fleet charged out of the Jukal fleet’s path. Teleportation spells covered the fleet, including the ships that were unable to use them as they disappeared, leaving the Jukal fleet in chaos and reappearing where ships that previously had lost their Mana barriers and taken severe hull damage were waiting.
Already there was an active portal waiting, with the broken ships limping through.
From start to end—from when they had teleported in, to teleporting out—some five or six minutes had gone by. The destruction in those five or six minutes had been enough to leave the most veteran member of the fleet panting in disbelief.
The Pandora ships were all in a state of disrepair. Only four ships had made it through with their hull not taking hits. Their Mana barriers were good, but getting hit in one area would allow some damage to get through even if it didn’t fail.
“All right, you know the drill. Get people sorted out and to medical aid. I want a group ready to move back to the area of battle to recover anyone who was lost into the void. Get the arks out here,” Forsyth said.
People in the command center started to pass on the orders as from the portal’s exit arks started to appear. They would help with the re-arming process and they also had spare items to repair the Pandora ships.
The ships could regrow their soul gem innards and runic lines, but the armor panels would need to be replaced and it was faster with the ark hooked up to their ships to supply them with power to speed up soul gem repairs.
Forsyth felt drained but he started to pull up the information on his people, looking over their status and checking on them. Once that was sorted, he would look at the information on the battle and see what he might learn and use on the Jukal in the future.
We’ve got two days before we need to take the portal to the next system to be ahead of the Jukal, Forsyth thought.
He was asking a lot from his people, but he knew that they were capable of it. If they didn’t win out here, then Emerilia would be threatened, as well as all the people on it.
We need more firepower. We need that portal bastion! Forsyth had been counting down the days until it was supposed to be finished. If everything went according to schedule, it would be ready in five days, just hours before the Pandora fleet should intercept the Jukal once again.
The reports started to come back as stealth buoys that were watching the Jukal fleet recorded their losses.
They had eighty-seven ships that weren’t damaged; twenty-five ships had varying levels of damage. Which meant that they had lost just over forty ships in the two engagements, while the Pandora fleet had lost five ships, including one that had been scrapped for parts.
If they hadn’t had the teleportation spells, then they would have lost four times that number to the fighting as a minimum.
The Jukal might not be coordinated, but their ships were incredibly powerful and their AI was smart enough to fight for them.
***
As the battle raged in the stars between the Pandora fleet and the Jukal invasion fleet, battles were happening throughout the Jukal Empire.
“Forward!” Lox barked. To his words, ranks of dwarven warclans marched forward. All of them wore Devastator armor that made them seem like giants.
Above their heads floated orbs, creating an overhead Mana barrier. Between the barrier and the dwarven lines, there were massive flying beasts. They growled and roared, unleashing magical attacks and physical attacks that shot over the dwarves to hit the Jukal-armored defenses that protected the planetary governor’s estate.
“Artillery, marked on the map!” Steve yelled.
“Incoming,” the dwarven artillery commander barked. Behind the dwarven lines, artillery cannons bellowed. These cannons looked similar to the ones that had been used on Emerilia; however, they were much more powerful.
Glowing runic lines surged around the barrel of the cannons. A layered spell formation appeared above the cannon’s barrel; as soon as it was complete, the gun fired. The glowing grand working shells howled into the skies, leaving behind a dissipating ring of Mana. The shells arced and came down toward the Jukal defenses. Spell formations appeared in front of the grand working shells, causing Light-type damage to shoot down from above, cutting through all below.
Spells weren’t as powerful on the Jukal worlds as they were on Emerilia. However, the grand working weapons and the magical tech functioned just the same.
An ark that had been dropping off more reinforcements vibrated as spell formations came to life. It shot ahead, toward another part of the battlefield as its cannons howled. The ground in its path was torn apart as the runic lines on its underside flared with light.
Dragons, DCA, and flying creatures appeared and spread out. They flew behind the ark, dropping down to bring destruction on the planetary governor’s defense forces.
Lox grunted, acknowledging the destruction that was everywhere. Artillery shells and mortars rained on the Emerilians as artillery cannons, spells, and grand working weapons were hurled back at the Jukal.
“Front line has engaged the defenses!” Gurren was up front watching over the front lines and reporting to Lox. “They always run. Mounted, you ready?” Gurren barked, changing channels.
“We’re ready. Got another two hours before we need to get the mounts back up,” the leader of the mounted said.
The Emerilians had various spells and enchanted items that allowed them to breathe in the alien atmosphere of some of the Jukal planets. However, this planet was highly acidic. The Emerilian people weren’t too bad off, but the creatures were having a hard time with it. They were larger and they couldn’t yell out that they didn’t have enough oxygen or that they were short of breath.
So, they needed to go back up to the arks every four hours to recharge their magical items and form new Mana barriers filled with air that agreed with them.
“Good. The Jukal are already running back to the next position. I want you to cut them down and charge into the next defensive structure,” Lox said.
“Yes, sir,” the commander said.
Lox looked over his feed, frowning as he saw one of the Jukal strong points being harder than expected to crack. “Deia, we’ve got a strong one.” Lox marked a waypoint and sent it to Deia.
“We’ll have a look into it,” Deia said, her voice calm as ever.
***
“We’ve got a target. Take us down,” Deia said to the rest of the party through party chat.
A roar that shook the heavens and the grounds below came from behind the advancing forces. The Jukal looked to see a blood-red dragon dropping from the sky above; on its back, three women could be seen. Fire stood in front, with Suzy and Deia on either side of her.
Induca, who was in her dragon form, g
lowed as Mana built up within her before a spell formation appeared in front of her mouth. Shocking fireballs that burned the air itself shot out rapidly, hitting the ground ahead of the advancing forces that were contesting the Jukal strong point.
Fire pushed her hand forward. Meteors formed above the strong point and rained down. As they landed, they exploded with incredible Fire Mana that melted and burned anything in its path.
Suzy waved her hand. From her ring of holding, dozens of her creations dropped to the ground below. They were towering headless giants made from rock and metal. They landed in a crouch, rising up and raising their hands. From between them, metal and stone turned into shields that stretched to either side, connecting to create a great wall.
A Jukal tank fired at Induca, making her have to bank away. Deia stood on Induca’s back, her footing steady even as she banked. The runes on her bow lit up and an arrow shot through the sky. It burned a hole through the tank’s armor and exploded inside.
The forces behind the creations got themselves together, following the advancing creations that were being hammered by the Jukal. They were regenerating themselves but it wasn’t fast enough to stop them from being destroyed. They would last for a handful more minutes before falling apart.
Suzy casually waved again. Air creations appeared, taking the shield creations thrown out with them and dropping them down. They landed below. Suzy severed her connection with the broken ones that toppled over in the battlefield.
Fire continued to cast more spells as Induca wheeled away from the Jukal defenses, not willing to pass them for fear of the defenses behind attacking them.
The front line of the Emerilian forces reached the defensive structures as a familiar aura appeared.
“This…” Fire’s eyes went wide.
“This is Earth Mana,” Induca said.
The ground around the defensive structure erupted into vines that attacked the attackers without reservation. The clean and precise lines fell into chaos. The Jukal defenders who weren’t actually Jukal but slaves that had been groomed by the Jukal for generations roared with power. They had served as entertainment for the Jukal Empire, but now they showed their own shocking skills.
As Emerilia had been the most popular show within the empire, many had tried to imitate it.
The four women looked at the scene below. Their shock turned into frowns as they felt the spells of the slaves descend on the Emerilians.
This is going to make things harder. Deia raised her bow, pulling back on the string. An arrow formed from fire appeared in her fingers as she pulled it all the way back and released it.
The arrow screamed out and hit one of the slaves. It made them take a dozen steps back and spit blood but they were still in the fight.
Deia’s eyes glowed with new fury as she pulled back on the bow string once again. The arrow’s passage made the air crack. The arrow drilled into the slave. Flames from inside its body burned it to ash in a moment.
Seeing how much power she had put into her attack, the others started to gauge their attacks off it. Deia fired arrows. By the time the first landed, another three were already on their way toward their targets.
Suzy threw out Dark creations that dropped to the ground, burrowing through it. In places around the enemy, metal spikes would shoot out of the ground, piercing the Jukal forces. In other places, the defenses would shatter and crumble as if the materials had passed through centuries of decay in just moments.
Jukal weapons systems rose out from the ground between the two layers of defenses. They shot up in the air, bringing the arks that had advanced under fire as well as any of the aerial forces that were moving around the Jukal lines.
The chaos of war descended. The four members of Party Zero in the sky did what they could to try to reduce the pressure on the forces in the air but they didn’t own the air by any means.
“We’ve got drones coming in from hidden hangars,” Steve, who was on the ground at the front line, called out. Being an AI, it was easy for him to split his processing power and deal with multiple things at the same time.
Deia looked to the ground. There the defenses were falling but in the rubble, there were powerful ripples as a magical war of spells, barriers, and counter spells shot out. The Emerilian forces were powerful to the extreme, but they had earned all of their strength, being rewarded by the Emerilia system. However, these slaves had been implanted by their masters with the nanites that would make them stronger and allow them to control Mana and turn it into spells. Then they had taken the controlling software and put it to the max. The slaves had lapsed into comas and a number of them had died, but those that remained were little more than powerful beasts.
Their attacks were simple, but then they had been taught only the most powerful and dazzling spells on Emerilia.
When they waded into battle, each of them was as powerful as three people in Devastator armor. However, the Emerilian forces had come together and their coordination had been tempered in the Myths and Legends event and the fighting that had rocked Emerilia for months. They pulled together; the fractured lines that had been thrown into chaos with the sudden surge of fighting slaves and magic started to recover.
A massive explosion smashed into the Emerilian forces. Induca and all of those on her were tossed away as if they were nothing but rag dolls.
Deia threw out her hand. Fire shot out of her hand as she quickly stabilized herself. She looked to where the explosion had come from. There was a mushroom cloud rising from where it hit.
Shocking power washed over her in waves, pulling the wind from her lungs and then trying to push her back. A wall of fire appeared as Deia let out a yell.
Fire mages worked together, resolving the power of the approaching firewall. The firewall collapsed, the different Emerilian Fire mages panting with exhaustion.
Air mages moved in concert through the air to near where the explosion had been. The mushroom cloud dissipated, revealing what lay underneath.
The Mana barrier had been torn apart; there was not even a trace of the orbs. The summoned creature corpses had been torn apart and shredded. They looked nothing like what they had in life.
Devastator armor was wrecked. Deia’s eyes shot off to the distance, where a rally point had been created and an anchor placed. One of the things coded into the armor was a teleportation spell. If the armor was under threat of being destroyed, then the people who were inside were teleported to a pre-set anchor point.
People filled the area around the anchor point; however, their numbers were less than what they should’ve been. The only reason for that was if the armor was destroyed so fast that there was no time for the teleportation spell to finish.
There was no more time to check on the survivors as a concentrated push of slaves rushed out from the defenses that had been under heavy siege just moments before.
Using the Emerilians’ shock, the slaves smashed into the Emerilians who remained. A chaotic brawl broke out between the two groups.
The four looked to one another before looking back to the battlefield.
Another explosion rocked the front lines as another mushroom cloud appeared.
“They’re using fucking nukes to break our lines!” Suzy screamed in anger.
A droning sound could be heard from above, and then a boom as something broke through the air. They all looked up and saw what looked to be multiple falling stars. However, these were not just passing by.
They raced through the air before slamming into the governor’s residence. The entire continent shook. The arks moved away from the continent as anyone in the sky was forced on to the ground. The air shook violently as massive craters from the impacts of the rounds being fired from the Deq’ual ships above tore through the governor’s palace.
Deia watched with a complicated look on her face. She had been at the front of some of the fiercest fighting in Emerilia. However, none of the spells she had seen could attempt to match up with the destruction that the Deq’ual shi
ps were raining down upon this planet.
Dust shot up into the sky, blotting out the sunlight. Spells and weapons lit up the dust-filled sky.
“Mounted, move out!” Lox barked.
The mounted forces moved through lanes between the miles-long formations, picking up speed as their beasts leapt over the destroyed remains of the defenses, coming down on the other side to charge out and meet the Jukal slaves and defenders that lay behind their walls.
Screams filled the air, as did the clash of weapons and spells crashing into the world below.
Air and Water mages rose up from the ranks. Spell formations formed between them, using the power of the air that had been disturbed by the passage of the Deq’ual fleet’s attacks and the moisture in the air.
The dust came together, forming sand tornadoes that tore through what lay in their path as if they were a sand blaster.
The Water mages altered the temperatures of the water above. Clouds rolled in from above, going from the brown dust, to brownish clouds, to gray to black in mere seconds. The wind spun up faster and faster as lightning crackled through the sky; the dark black clouds turned green.
Massive tornadoes dropped from the skies as lightning crackled within them. The Air and Water mages merged the dust tornadoes and the lighting tornadoes together. The dust fused together, becoming glass as the tornadoes shot toward the enemy. Anything caught in their path was shredded; the fierce cutting forces of wind was reinforced with the glass shards and powerful lightning that raged through their creation.
A teleportation spell formation appeared as a familiar face appeared.
“Anna, what are you doing here?” Suzy demanded as Anna moved to join them.
“Well, they might know how to make tornadoes but they don’t know how to make Air paladins!” Anna had a look of pride on her face as she waved her hands. She sent out a message through her interface before a spell formation appeared in front of her hands.
The Jukal commanders, sensing all of the power that was now surging toward Anna, turned their fire onto her.
Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11) Page 14