The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key
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Liam regarded Nix incredulously. “You mean this ship is modeled after the carvings at the temple, the creature of myth?”
“No. She is the creature of myth. Every myth has an origin.”
Once Liam came to understand the ship seemed to gurgle from within, perhaps the sound of building up more of the napalm-like mixture. In between the metal panels overhead Liam saw purple light flowing along the seams. The more he looked at it the more it looked like blood coursing through the ship. His heart began to race. All at once he felt a sense of claustrophobia as he came to the realization that he was inside some manner of creature.
“Pay attention,” Nix shouted, jarring Liam from his thoughts.
Liam focused out the window at the Kraven flagship. Nix spun The Garuda around over the top of it, yelling at Saturn and Ju-Long to continue their fire. His eyes snapped back to the console in front of him and he examined the readouts. The engines, which were nearly fried on their descent, were running at optimal efficiency. The ship seemed to grow faster and stronger the more they flew. A warning light shined down from up above his console.
“What is it?” Nix asked, focusing on avoiding Kraven laser blasts.
“Several Kraven vessels are moving to defend the leader,” Liam said.
“Tell those Ansaran ships to distract them!”
Liam opened a channel and ordered the closest group of Ansaran fighters to get between the leader and the approaching Kraven vessels. A grouping of five Ansaran ships swung around to help. Laser bursts tinted the sky as hundreds of shots clashed. The Ansaran vessels focused their beams on a single Kraven ship, slicing it clean down the center with a chorus of explosions erupting out from the long gash. The five Ansaran fighters passed by the broken ship and were quickly cut down by the crossfire.
Nix used this time to approach the leader from underneath. The flagship could easily have fit five of the other Kraven ships inside of it. Its massive hull was held aloft by countless thrusters, burning blue even under the yellowed sky. When they were right under the ship Nix pushed his control handle forward putting Garuda into a dive. Liam braced himself against his console, cursing after the sudden maneuver.
“Ju-Long, power up your weapon and standby to fire,” Nix instructed.
Ju-Long toggled his controls and said, “Ready.”
Nix slowly leveled off the ship and began a rapid ascent. This time the whole of the Kraven flagship’s underbelly was in their sights. Green flashes of light rained down on them from the enemy vessel. Nix spun The Garuda around, taking several of the hits in the wings but seemingly coming out all right. Nix called over his shoulder, “Target the thrusters toward the front of the ship. Fire!”
Ju-Long held down on the trigger. The next few seconds passed far too slowly for Liam. As the ship built up its power the bulkheads seemed to creak, in danger of buckling. Nix straightened out The Garuda and the blast was released. The electric fire was released with such force that the stream was far thinner than the previous one, but when it hit the Kraven ship it spattered over a dozen thrusters. The mixture corroded the jets until the turbines broke off from the ship, igniting the fuel in a chain reaction of explosions.
A whole deck of the ship was left bare under the ship. Small figures fell out of the sky, too small in the distance for Liam to clearly see. Nix turned the ship to avoid the backsplash of their blast. The Kraven ship tilted downward as the rear thrusters continued to fire despite the loss of the ones in front. The Kraven flagship hurtled through the sky, falling quickly toward the sandy surface below.
Nix turned The Garuda around and accelerated toward the remaining Kraven ships. To Liam’s surprise, the Kraven ships had begun to ascend back into outer space. The Ansaran fighters broke off their attack and formed up in groups circling over the colony at ten thousand meters. Liam peered out the window and saw several smoke trails coming out of the ground where the Kraven ships had crashed along with the flagship still falling, the rest of its engines faltering.
“It appears the Kraven lose their spine without their leader,” Nix observed.
Liam pointed toward the crashing ship, “The flagship is the one that came through the wormhole. We need to board it and find that device.”
Nix hesitated with his mouth ajar. Finally, he nodded and said, “I’m taking us in.”
He pointed the ship downward, The Garuda’s wings creating an updraft that let them glide toward the Kraven leader. The lead ship skidded across the sand toward the rocky projection just outside of Garuda Colony. Sand wafted up hundreds of meters when the Kraven ship hit the surface, clouding Liam’s vision of the crash site. Through the dust he could see parts of the broken ship fly past them.
The Kraven vessel hit the rocky outcropping at low speed, creating a boom that echoed all around them. Nix moved their ship toward the surface and prepared to set down fifty meters away. Liam toggled a switch and released their landing gear. A few moments later they were on the ground, their landing struts sinking into the loose sand. Most of The Garuda’s systems shut down automatically, though Saturn kept her finger on the trigger of her gun, light still shining through her console.
“Saturn, it’s fine,” Liam assured her. “There’s no way anyone survived that.”
“You sure about that?” she replied.
Nix unstrapped himself from his chair and stood up, steeling himself for what lay ahead. His hesitation appeared to be gone for the moment, as confidence once again filled his broad chest. He reached for the gun on his hip and began charging it. “There’s only one way to find out.”