Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11)

by Michael Chatfield

Onos across Emerilia flashed with light as people returned to their units, the forces at the portals growing in size.

  People laughed and joked, hiding their feelings as they glanced at the portals. Beyond them was a battlefield, one the likes of which the most traveled adventurer had never seen, nor the greatest player had imagined.

  People mounted up their Devastator armor as the time came closer. Some slapped the armor before disappearing into the space of holding; others stepped in without comment. Others said prayers or did a ritual for good luck.

  Racks upon racks of Devastator armor came alive. The dormant runic lines now glowed with fierce power as they stepped out of the racks, their feet shaking the ground.

  Dwarven warclans armored with the Devastator armor shook the ground, their drums low and somber as the skies above them were filled with the screeches and roars of the various powerful beasts that they had trained up.

  Dwarven Earth mages followed them, carrying their staffs; the ground under their feet pushed them forward.

  Behind them, dwarven artillery cannons that had been heavily modified rolled forward, dwarven artillery crews around them.

  Elven rangers wearing modified Devastator armor moved in precise ranks. Bows rested on their backs as their steps barely registered on the ground, every movement thought-out and predatory.

  The DCA army seemed to appear out of the forests and swoop down from the skies. Their armor tarnished and battle-worn, they looked like a bunch of strays but there was a fire in their eyes and the way that they walked that spoke of the power and strength they had built up in the previous months and years. They might look dirty and unkempt but they were one of the strongest fighting forces of Emerilia.

  Aleph controllers and automatons appeared. Their automatons had undergone massive changes, more dangerous and capable than ever.

  Mounted forces both in the sky and on the ground, armies from across Emerilia: everything was in movement.

  They took portals, teleport pads, and onos, arriving in front of Goblin Mountain.

  Forces moved into staging areas facing the locations of where the first flying citadels had come from and were now the place of portals.

  In the center atop Goblin Mountain was a massive ship portal, catching the light of the setting sun. Many arrived at the portals ahead of time, setting up camp and readying themselves for the battle to come.

  Around Goblin Mountain, sixty-four flying citadels dominated the sky, making many look up in awe. The citadels were fully crewed; the walls and the inner castle were covered with artillery cannons, their crews and Aleph automatons. In the soul gem island underneath, the ground fighting forces were resting on the drop pads. Magical coding and runic lines covered the floors as people waited.

  Dave got an alert on his interface as the fleet readied themselves to wormhole into the Jukal home system.

  “We have to go.” Dave gripped Deia’s shoulder lightly.

  Deia didn’t say anything, not trusting her voice as she rubbed Koi’s face before she picked her up. “Mommy loves you.” Deia kissed Koi.

  “Daddy loves you, little one.” Dave’s voice got hoarse as his eyes got watery. He hugged them both and kissed the side of Koi’s face. They stood like that for a few moments.

  Mal and Fire said good-bye to Desmond as one of the minders took Desmond away and Deia handed off Koi to the Dracul family minders.

  Dave grasped Deia’s hand as she forced down the tears that were so close to making an appearance. Dave looked to Mal and Fire, sharing a glance and looking away as they walked out of the room, unable to look back for fear that they would stay there.

  Dave’s simple clothes rippled as his armor and cloak appeared around him. Orbs appeared in the air around him and began to circle him.

  Deia’s clothes rippled, changing into her Abscondita armor, her twin sword on her hip as her bow rested across her back.

  Mal and Fire changed into their fighting leathers. Staffs that seemed to be made from living fire beaten into shape appeared in their hands.

  “We’ll see you on the Jukal home planet.” Fire and Mal came to a stop.

  Deia and Dave turned around.

  “Look after yourself.” Mal wrapped Deia up in a hug and Fire hugged Dave as well before they switched. Fire and Deia looked to each other.

  “I could never be prouder.” Fire kissed Deia on the forehead.

  “Make sure you come back safe, and see that Deia does as well,” Mal said, barely keeping it together.

  Dave nodded stoically. He and Mal had become close friends and he knew the love that they shared as they hugged each other again.

  Flames appeared around Fire and Mal as they teleported away.

  “Let’s go,” Dave said, once again holding Deia’s hand.

  She took a shaky breath, pulling herself together and once again becoming the leader of Party Zero.

  The air shimmered and they reappeared at a portal. They stepped through, appearing in the first base of the Pandora’s Initiative, Pandora’s Box.

  Steve, who had been sitting on a workbench, rose to his full height, grabbing Alex the Axe that was leaning against the table. Lox and Gurren turned from where they were talking with Malsour and Suzy toward Deia and Dave.

  Jung Lee, Anna, and Induca looked up from their conversation, standing up from the two workbenches they had been sitting on.

  Dave looked to them all and squeezed Deia’s hand once more. She squeezed his hand back as he turned to face her, their hands falling apart.

  “You know the drill. We’re going to move to the first flying citadel. From there, we will launch our attack against the Jukal.” Deia paused and looked at them all. “I’ve been lucky enough to call you not only my friends but my family. Knowing you all has made my life that much better. Watch out for one another and let’s end this fight.”

  There were no cheers or roars of agreement. Even Steve seemed to be touched as they looked to one another. They had come together into a family; they shared a deep history and stories. They’d ventured across Emerilia as a party, fought in the event and pushed the limits of their capabilities. They’d defeated gods and goddesses and faced mythical forces. However, it wasn’t these achievements that pulled them together, but the care that they shared with one another.

  “Party Zero, now and forever.” Steve held out his hand.

  “Now and forever.” Suzy extended her hand.

  One by one, they gathered around and placed their hands together.

  Deia was the last to do so, looking at them all. “Now and forever.”

  They pulled back their hands as Deia looked to Dave.

  “This is going to be a lot harder not being a Lord of Earth anymore,” Dave muttered. “We’re going to be in mid-air.” Spell formations appeared around them as the scenery changed and they reappeared above their flying citadel. They floated in the air using various means before dropping down toward the citadel.

  Eyes were drawn to the legendary Party Zero as they descended, passing the central tower to land around the castle that it sprouted from.

  ***

  “Wormhole established. Moving through,” the navigation officer of the BloodHawk said. Her words seemed to grip Frank’s heart.

  Wormholes appeared in front of the main fleet, glowing in space, as the entire fleet moved through the portals. The Pandora ships kept them open for the Deq’ual ships that relied on jump drives and the bastions that weren’t able to generate them.

  They passed through the wormhole. The universe was distorted around them before they passed through the other side.

  Their screens started updating rapidly as they looked at the Jukal home system, the very heart of the Jukal Empire. The information from the various scout craft around the system relayed information to the ships, quickly building a picture of everything that was around them.

  The portal in the middle of the system was quickly activating and spitting out Jukal ships that were part of the Jukal fleet that had been sent out to so
w chaos among the Jukal Empire systems and try to re-establish the portal network.

  The part of the fleet that hadn’t left the system was still over the Jukal home world, numbering just under fifty ships.

  There were defensive networks all around the jump points that entered the system. Knowing this ahead of time, the combined fleet had entered through a region of space where there were no defenses.

  “Spinning up teleportation spell formation,” Navigation called out as massive spell formations appeared around the ships of the combined fleet.

  Frank looked to the feeds, quickly locating the Jukal home world. Its orbitals were covered with a number of stations. Some were connected to the ground by elevators; most of them appeared to be civilian. Scans showed some of the stations were obviously being used to move goods through to the planet or people who made their living by transiting between stations and serving the upper echelon of the Jukal Empire.

  Only a few of the stations were made for defense purposes and had weaponry mounted on them. Unfortunately, these stations appeared to be incredibly powerful; without needing to build engines, they were covered in weaponry, ready to destroy anything that disturbed them.

  “Start charging relays. Ready portals,” Admiral Forsyth said. “Arks, prepare to drop portals.”

  Around the arks, their rings opened up. Just like the battleships, they were capable of holding a ship-classed portal inside armored panels. The sections of the large portals extended outward until all of the edges matched with one another and started to fuse together, creating massive portals.

  The drop runes along the bottom of their ships started to glow as they activated.

  Destroyers around the arks also powered up the drop runes.

  Frank opened up the power linkage to the portal relays, the obscure dodecahedron that started to rapidly grow larger.

  Portals were released by the arks, covering their surface. The Deq’ual and Pandora ships released portals of their own that moved to their spine and belly, where they had little to no weaponry.

  Frank looked to an alert that notified him of the fire plan that the fleet was going to execute. With constant real-time updates on what was going on with the Jukal home system, they had come up with multiple ways to attack the Jukal.

  Frank sent orders down to his people as they made changes to their spell formations and changed out the grand working warheads and shells for what they’d need.

  Frank looked away from his screens and stared at the main screen. All of their weapon systems had been ready since they wormholed into the system.

  “Teleporting!” Navigation called out.

  “Ready weapons!” Admiral Adams said.

  The ships flared with power, Mana barriers snapping into existence. The spell formations around them became solid as the entire fleet disappeared, reappearing just above the Jukal home planet.

  “Fire!” Adams said. Her order transmitted to the entire fleet. For this operation, she was in charge while Forsyth was there to work with the forces on the ground.

  The broadsides of the ships opened. Missile ports that had been open now roared with runic lines and spell formations as they shot out into the void. Cannons glowed and grand working shells were fired, passing through accelerating runic lines and stacked spell formations.

  The skies above the Jukal home world ignited with the fire of the ships.

  Spell formations appeared around the defenses of the Jukal home world, powered by the warships of the Pandora fleet. Varying spells, from Mana spears to avatars made of lightning, were created by these spell formations, all of them unleashing the greatest power possible.

  It takes time to describe but all of this happened in the blink of an eye.

  “Break, break, break!” Forsyth yelled a moment later.

  Destroyers and arks broke away from the fleet, their position putting them closest to the planet. They charged into the Jukal home world’s skies. Their ships glowed as the Jukal planet’s atmosphere fought them.

  The ships bashed their way in. The destroyers’ spells located defensive installations on the ground. Its weapons and the limited weapons of the arks opened up on the targets.

  To the Jukal below, their nighttime turned into a series of explosions in the heavens above and streaking meteors headed directly for the Jukal emperor’s residence that dominated thirty percent of the planet’s surface.

  Floating islands that covered the emperor’s residence rolled out their weapons. They were run by AIs instead of Jukal officers, up in the stations that were only just starting to realize the enemy had arrived.

  These islands started firing wildly up in the skies, making the arks and the other ships divert.

  Arks released their portal’s tethers, letting them fall away from the arks. A number of them were broken, but many survived. Some stayed in the air; others dropped to the ground. Runes that covered them acted as flight controls.

  The arks and destroyers cut the speed of their descent and changed their headings, coming in low and fast southward, toward the Jukal emperor’s residence. The destroyers were firing at any defensive installations they could find with their spells. As they passed over the sea to the north of the emperor’s residence, raging waves formed, insignificant to the ships above.

  The destroyers opened portals on their bows and spines; missiles tore outward, aiming at the Jukal emperor’s northern defenses.

  The missiles were met with defensive weapons fire and shields.

  The destroyers and arks cut their speed. The drop runes under the arks flashed with light then the portals appeared on the ground. The portals stabilized and one of them started to activate; then more and more started to activate. The arks and destroyers covered the portals as one of the ships’ portals that had been trailing behind the arks activated. In mid-air, a different scene appeared; it no longer showed the skies of the Jukal home world. Instead, it showed the skies above Goblin Mountain.

  The air shook as a flying citadel slowly started to emerge from the portal. The minute the cannons were through, they started firing.

  Around them, dragons and other aerial creatures entered the Jukal home world, their roars only overpowered by the sounds of the destroyers and arks fighting the Jukal defenses.

  The destroyers’ drop runes flashed with light as Pandora fighting forces wearing Devastator armor appeared.

  Frank’s eyes flashed over his screens, checking on the progress of the ground forces as the fleet above the Jukal home world were now the center of what looked like the apocalypse.

  All of their portals were open, spewing forth magical destruction.

  “Ejecting portal relays!” Frank barked. All over the fleet, the portal relays were thrown out, expanding at an incredible rate as the surfaces of the dodecahedron started to form into portals.

  One of the Jukal defensive ground stations had been toppled already under the combined attacks of the fleet.

  Not knowing what the portal relays were, the weapon systems that were online didn’t even pay them attention as they continued to fire on the combined fleet’s warships and bastions.

  The Jukal fleet that were orbiting the planet were moving around the planet to attack the combined fleet.

  The Jukal defensive stations had their act together as well. Their weapons were starting to power up and hit the combined fleet’s ships.

  “Portal relays up!” Frank yelled.

  From the portals, beams of power appeared before spell formations turned that power into Mana barriers that connected to one another and formed a protective barrier over the portal relay ships. The portals of the ships connected to Gunboat Isle, pouring forth spells, missiles, and grand working topped destruction.

  Frank checked the heading of the Jukal fleet that was protecting the Jukal home world. Their path would take them right through the portal relay ships.

  A cruel sneer appeared on his face. Another station was felled by the combined might of the human fleet.

  From the Deq�
�ual carriers, more and more fighters were filling the skies to contend with the drones that were just being released from their Jukal stations.

  “Looks like we caught them unaware,” Xiao said.

  Frank looked to the wave of destruction that was filling the Jukal home world’s skies as the defensive structures that had been broken now fell toward the planet, burning up in the planet’s atmosphere.

  Frank didn’t need to say anything. His people were doing everything they could to dent the Jukal defenses. Soon enough they would be locked into combat with the Jukal fleet.

  His eyes darted to the screen showing the area around the Jukal system’s main ship portal. More Jukal that had been racing through the Jukal Empire systems were now returning and charging toward the combined fleet.

  Frank gritted his teeth. They wouldn’t be able to set up another teleportation spell to move the entire combined fleet again. The first shots had been fired. However, even as they were sweeping the orbitals, the battle on the ground was only just starting.

  Chapter 15: One Last Fight

  “One last fight.” Steve’s words gripped the atmosphere around them as his eyes passed over them all.

  His words were filled with memories, experiences that they had all shared together. There was no way to express the things that they felt, the things that they had been through. They had experienced great victories, and losses, together. They had laughed, they had cried, they had bled and they had healed.

  From Opheir to Ashal, they had fought, a group of strangers coming together to form Party Zero. They looked to one another as they jogged through the portal, leaving Emerilia and entering an ark.

  They heard the noises of those wearing Devastator armor marching from the teleport pad to the outlined drop formations that flashed with light and made them reappear on the ground below. The speakers within the destroyer were filled with the sharp tones of orders.

  They were Party Zero; they were a family and they would stand by one another no matter what.

  Nothing needed to be said as their gazes turned toward the nearby drop formation. Together, they stepped forward, checking their swords, their staffs, donning their helmets and circulating their Mana. They didn’t look back as they stepped onto the drop formation.