by Chris Fox
“Guarding Nélida. Checking in with all systems go.” Nélida had the classic dark-haired, dark-eyed look that was common in Ishpania and she was about as serious as they came about all things regarding being a guardian.
“Guardian Virág. Hey do these suits have any waste collection enchantments on them? ‘Cuz I got to pee.” Virág, ever the jokester of their squad. She had fair skin, dark eyes, and even darker hair.
“Relevant information only, Virág,” the lieutenant warned.
“Yes, sir,” Virág said, cowed. “All systems go.” Cailyn almost spoke up to tell Virág that the suits did indeed have a waste removal system, because she realized that at some point she’d pissed herself.
“Guardian Ariadna. All systems go.” Ariadna was their team leader when the lieutenant wasn’t around. She had lightly tanned skin and hair so dark that it would seem to disappear if laid across an image of the open void.
Cailyn felt comforted by their voices, even though she still couldn’t see anyone. Her suit’s enchantments told her that she was still on course, but everything was still black.
“Safira?...Guardian Safira, do you read me?” The lieutenant’s voice brought her out of her frozen panic and hastily she nudged the glyph inside her helmet that allowed her to reply.
“Yes… I mean, Guardian Safira checking in,” Cailyn stammered out. “Is… does anyone have eyes yet on the Carolina? All I see is black.” She hurried the question out and prayed that no one heard the shakiness in her own voice.
“Not yet, but… wait, I have visual,” Virág spoke up with an excited tone to her words.
“Copy that, I have visual as well,” Ariadna said through the link.
“Same here,” Virág said and as they all called off Cailyn started to feel panic surge within her once more. She couldn’t see the Carolina or her teammates, even though the read outs before her eyes said she was dead center on course.
“Lieutenant,” Cailyn began nervously. “I think I have a problem with…”
“INCOMING!” Shiv screamed through their link, cutting her off. In the same instant, a bright burning flash of light exploded to life far to her right.
“Shiv! Shiv, do you copy?” their lieutenant called out through the link, but he was met with only silence before suddenly screaming, “Incoming! Evasive maneuvers! Hit those thrusters, people, we’re coming in hot!”
The link went dead for an instant and Cailyn feared that everyone had just been blown apart. But then silent lines of primal power started to flicker on and off in the distance.
“Davit! Aim yourself at that main cannon and take it out when you land!” the lieutenant commanded. “Virág. Ariadna. Hit the port side and take out those Gol firing at us. Emel, Nélida, do the same, but from the other side, and Safira?”
“I’m here, Lt., but my suit’s way off…” Cailyn tried to say, but he cut her off.
“Angle yourself around the ship and come in from the stern,” he commanded her.
“But Sir…” she tried again.
“Just do it, Guardian!” he yelled back, before the link went dead again.
Cailyn froze. Just long enough for Davit to die.
“Fuck you!” Davit yelled, having accidentally hit his coms while in what sounded like a fight. “You yellow-skinned freak of freaks… Non stabit…. YAAAAAAA!” He screamed in ultimate agony and Cailyn, frozen as she was, heard the very last breath that her squad mate made before he died.
“Contra vacui!” At first, she had no idea who had just whispered the response, but then she realized that it had been her. Davit was dead. Shiv most certainly. Her squad mates were being picked off one by one. All while she hung there, suspended within the void. Safe.
“Contra… vacui,” she said again as something… something like anger, but not anger, began to build up inside her. “Against the void,” she said as she felt herself start to move. “I… stand….” She disabled her auto-pilot, not having the time or skills to figure what was wrong with it. “Against… the void.” Back under manual control of the thruster, she angled around to face the light flickering from the Carolina’s massive guns.
“Non stabit, contra vacui!” she said, preparing to launch her thruster. “I stand against the void,” she said so fiercely that the heat of her own breath fogged up her visor for just an instant. “So that others don’t have to,” she added at the end, before igniting her thruster at full power and surging forward like an arrow, sprung from its bow.
Her mind worked furiously. As the guardians had left the ship, they had been traveling at the same velocity and in the same direction as the troop carrier. To reach the Carolina, she would have to use her thrusters to accelerate or decelerate to match the velocity and direction of the galleon.
In essence, it was all about relative speed. If the Carolina was traveling at a similar speed and direction, the difference would be small, and it would require little thrust from her suit’s thrusters. However, considering that now the difference was large, it would be prohibitively difficult to change velocity enough with just her thrusters.
This far from Pangea there was barely enough primal energy to light up a candle, so she’d have to rely on the suit’s backup crystals for power. She needed to get closer, to bridge the gap between herself and the Carolina. Her thrusters alone just weren’t going to cut it. So, reaching out to stored power within each specialized fractal of hermetic power, she channeled, wove, and released her spell back into the universe.
The darkness of the void seemed to undulate against her will, before relenting and folding itself around her. She sprung instantly forward, then instantly back, her will hitting some kind of wall and forcing her to draw more power from her suit to compensate. She surged forward again and this time there was a snapping sensation, as for a moment she felt drawn out across the intervening void before being shoved completely and wholly forward once more.
Suddenly, she jolted to a stop, as if she’d just run face first into a wall. Blood leaked freely from her nose and her vision blurred with sparkling stars that threatened to pull her down into the blackness of unconsciousness.
“Someone take out that main gun!” The lieutenant’s voice shook her from near unconsciousness.
“We’re on deck… but shit!” Emel began before getting cut off by what sounded like plasma fire. “These damn blue bloods have got us pinned down,” she yelled, frustrated, back into her link.
“That main cannon reloads too fast,” Virág responded, sounding out of breath. “And it’s got a whole pack of red-eyed fairies covering it between shots.” There was another silent explosion that briefly outlined the Carolina against the void with a brilliant display of light.
Cailyn shook the blurriness from her vision before taking stock of her current course. The good news was that she was pointed directly at the Carolina. The bad news was that she’d apparently burned out most of her crystals in getting there, which meant that unless she wanted to hold her breath for the rest of fight, she had zero power left for her thrusters.
What was worse was that she was still hurtling directly at the Carolina at the same speed that she’d been going just before folding space to get there. The speed was considerable, as she’d just opened her suit’s thrusters for a full burn. At her current angle and trajectory, she’d hit the Carolina in a matter of moments. Or, to be more accurate, she’d hit the armored starboard side of the Carolina and likely end up as a smear upon its side.
“Breathing’s overrated,” she cursed before using herself as a conduit to channel power from life-sustaining crystals to the ones that powered her thruster. The unfamiliar act cost her to lose about a quarter of the power during the transfer. But it would have to be enough.
Hitting the glyph that reignited her thrusters, Cailyn angled most of them toward the main deck and the rest into slowing her forward momentum so she didn’t end up leaving a dent in the hull before she got there.
She felt her body being crushed by the sudden shift in direction and u
nconsciously felt herself reach out for the primal source, but found nothing but the void.
A grinding noise reached her ears as sparks started to appear just outside her helm. Looking down, she saw to her horror that her breastplate was literally grinding itself upon the outer hull of the Carolina.
Her helmet hit the top of the railing that ringed the ship’s deck, knocking her senseless as easily as it derailed her direction. She slipped in and out of consciousness as images of green and yellow-skinned Gol, grouped tightly together like bowling pins, were scattered by her haphazard dash across the deck. There was a flicker of a mast, more Gol scattering, and then everything went white before a searing pain exploded across her arm.
“She’s coming around,” Virág said to the sound of plasma fire in the background. “It’s okay, Safira, I got you. It was just a bad bump on the head followed by about three minutes of hypoxia.” Cailyn felt her vision forcefully clear as the pain in her arm rapidly faded into a dull warmth. The Carolina appeared to have its atmo enchantments running and looking down, she saw that Virág had removed the gauntlet and was currently removing a healing syringe from her arm.
Her helmet had been removed, but she wasn’t having any trouble breathing.
“Virág, is Safira’s suit up and running?” the lieutenant asked in between plasma shots from his gauntlets.
“Just need a moment, Lt.” Virág’s dark eyes watched Cailyn as she gathered crystals from a pouch that hung upon her hip.
“I need to get me one of those,” Cailyn slurred, her head still a bit funny, likely from when she’d used it as a battering ram. “What happened?”
“You went kamikaze across the deck,” Virág explained as she removed crystals from key spots along Cailyn’s armor. “You scattered two groups of Gol that were keeping us from landing, in between shots from the deck guns, then you slammed head first into a solar mast before getting caught up in the rigging. After which you singlehandedly took out the main gun by crashing into it on the stern, knocking its gunner out and giving us the opening we needed to land and rescue you before you suffocated to death in your own suit.”
“I did all that?” Cailyn exclaimed. “While unconscious?” she asked in disbelief as Virág handed her the helmet back.
“Yeah, just think what you can accomplish now that you’re awake.” Virág gave her another coy wink and a smile.
“If you two are quite finished flirting,” the lieutenant called back at them, “we have a galleon to take back.”
Shoving her helmet back on, Cailyn watched as the cantrips enchanted into her visor came to life, feeding her information about her suit’s condition and current power levels. She was at half strength on pretty much everything, but given her predicament not more the four minutes ago, she felt she had nothing to complain about.
They’d all apparently landed on the forecastle deck of the ship and appeared to be taking fire from both the stern, quarter, and main decks of the ships. Peeking over their hastily constructed barriers, which looked suspiciously like a massive overturned cannon, her mind reeled in confusion.
Gol, of numerous skin hues, were fighting with what looked like very strangely fashioned staves. Their bodies were all decked out in gold earrings, gold bracelets, and bejeweled belts, and all of them glowed with the spark of magic.
“Fates, damn it,” Virág exclaimed. “These fairies have more bling on them than a cold-blooded Ecfector out to disgrace its parents.” Their gauntlets fired a form of plasma on their own, yet every hit from them grazed off an oval shield that surrounded them.
“Virág! Get off your ass and return fire!” the lieutenant roared and the guardian in question leapt up, gauntlet already charged and ready to go. Then to Cailyn in a much softer tone the lieutenant asked, “Safira, you in this fight?”
Half a dozen plasma bolts shot over her head and she just gave her lieutenant a nod before activating her weapons glyph along her gauntlet.
“Then let’s do this. Squad advance!” The lieutenant leapt up and over the forecastle deck, both gauntlets firing, and not a nanosecond later, Emel and Nélida, activating the force shield along their off-handed gauntlets, leapt after him. Virág and Ariadna did the same, before taking the stairs to the right, all laying down an intense set of suppressive fire. Cailyn took the left stairs, shield activated and gauntlets blazing.
The Gol fired back.
Emel took a shot to her knee, the enchanted armor there melting, causing her to stumble and fall.
Virág got hit with a grazing blast across the temple and she tumbled as well, leaving Ariadna alone upon the stairs.
Nélida expanded her shield to cover both herself and Emel, but under the onslaught, her suit’s power wouldn’t last long. Cailyn opened fire on one Gol at the bottom of the stairs who just laughed at her with every step and shot that she took.
“You cannot hurt us Magi!” it said contentiously in the common tongue of the Fey. “Out here, you are weak, but we are strong. We are….” She kicked him, having descended all the way to main deck, her shots from her gauntlets having no effect. Yet when her foot struck him, with mystical enhanced strength courtesy of the enchantments in her armor, the cackling Fey flew backwards, his shield offering him no protection whatsoever from Cailyn’s armored boot.
“There’s no way that should have worked!” Cailyn uttered in disbelief before hitting the sword glyph on her unshielded gauntlet. Instantly, a conjured sword appeared in her hand. Charging forward, she aimed herself directly at the cluster of Gol who were keeping Emel and Nélida pinned down.
She hit the cluster of Gol like they were bowling pins. Her conjured sword was hitting resistance against their magic shields, but finding none when she curb stomped them with her boot. If anything, it sent the cluster scattering and took the pressure off of Emel and Nélida long enough for them to see what she was doing and conjure their own swords and shields.
“Looks like this is going to be an old-fashioned tavern brawl,” Virág slurred drunkenly as she got up from where she’d landed at the bottom of the stairs. The right side of her helmet was deformed from where the Gol’s fire had nearly melted her head.
Instead of conjuring sword or shield, Virág charged in with fists held high, before deciding not to use them at all and instead started kicking the yellow and green-skinned Fey for all she was worth.
“Ariadna! Cover Virág before she gets herself shot!” the lieutenant shouted, switching to his own sword and shield.
“Got it, Lt.,” Ariadna responded, igniting her own shield and placing it and herself between the punch drunk Virág.
“Emel, can you walk?” the lieutenant asked, taking cover behind one of the main masts.
“I can bloody well walk out of here!” Emel shouted, using her shield to cover Nélida as the other Mage slammed her fist against a yellow-jawed Fey.
“Safira, you’re with me!” the lieutenant commanded as he fought his way forward across the deck.
“Retreat to the stern castle!” an orange skinned Gol shouted in Fey. “Protect the drive.” Apparently the Gol mistakenly believed that none of the mages could understand Fey.
Despite what urban myth said about them, the Gol weren’t cowards, but neither were they fools. They retreated slowly, attempting to reform their clusters so as to maximize their firepower, but the guardians fought hard to prevent them from doing so.
When it looked as if they were going to end up finishing the Gol before they even reached the quarter deck, the double doors that led into the captain’s cabin exploded open.
A wave of pure, primal energy, scrambling their suits’ enchantments and knocking them all off their feet and several meters back, washed over all of them.
The thing that emerged from the cabin was Fey, but unlike any that Cailyn had ever seen before. It was as if someone had taken all the most common traits of a Fey and then stuck them all together to make a generic one. It had the pointed ears and blue within blue eyes common to them all, as well as that odd bluish
pale skin color. It was lithe like a Felidae, though completely hairless and tall like a Cretok. Its features were as beautiful as a Narikian, but they were set in an expression of cold contempt.
The cloth that covered its body seemed to glitter as if made from the stars and the void itself, and a single slightly curved blade hung loosely at its hip. Tight golden bands encircled its fingers and palms.
As the generic-looking Fey stepped onto the deck, every Gol still standing dropped to the ground in utter supplication.
“Mortals.” Its voice was both beautiful and terrible, soft and loud in the same instant. Though it spoke in perfect Fey, Cailyn heard its words in perfect Jayd’deening inside her head. The effect sent the inside of her skull spinning. “The Collective should have annihilated you millennia ago.”
“In the name of the Barons,” the lieutenant commanded as he got back to his feet, “identify yourself!”
“I am Darthien,” the Fey said impossibly. “And that is all you will ever need to know.” With unfathomable speed, the Fey that claimed to be the progenitor of all Fairy life on Pangea and beyond was across the intervening space between it and the lieutenant in a blinking blur. It plunged its mercury colored blade directly into their pure-blooded lieutenant’s heart.
Navin. Cailyn remembered at last. Its family name was Navin. With the same speed as before, the ‘Darthien’ extracted its blade, turned, and with little effort, decapitated Lieutenant Guardian Navin and sent his helmet and head rolling across the deck.
The horror that Cailyn thought to see on the lieutenant’s face was absent. It had merely a look of confusion, before, with a silent ‘pop’, the life went completely out of his eyes.
“Bastard!” Ariadna screamed into her link as she re-conjured her shield and charged the Darthien with every inch of enraged grief at the lieutenant’s death. The Fey simply backhanded her and her heavily armored body went sliding across the deck.
“Fuck!” Nélida cursed. Then over the entire link she shouted,, “Light this fucker up!” Gauntlets raised, they opened fire upon the Fey, but it was as before, only worse. The Darthien raised its hand and every plasma bolt froze mid-flight. Then, with a contemptuous wave, the Fey hurled the bolts back at the three guardians who went diving for cover.