Then the Planet Breaker above sparkled, and torpedoes launched from the ship straight at me.
25
I raised the Bone Staff of Greatward over my head as the torpedoes jetted down through the atmosphere, shedding fire and magic as they plunged straight toward me.
I couldn’t quite see them in the traditional sense, but I could feel them buffeting against the atmosphere. I felt the power in them, felt the strength in their components, in the magic inside used to enhance their natural destructive characteristics.
The thread of that power dangled before me, and without realizing what I’d done, I grabbed hold of that thread and pulled. The rockets wobbled, the wards along their surface flaring lavender as they exploded in midair. Clouds of debris blossomed in the sky as the surrounding orcs yelled in triumph.
A war cry burst from their lips as they launched themselves forward, surging forth across the ruins of the city to engage the mechanized warriors. This time as their attacks hit the mechs, the metal gave.
More war cries spilled through the air, and the crazy thing was, I could feel their triumph in my bones, feel it filling me up like I was Goku summoning a Genki Dama. Their victory fueled me.
To my left, I saw Vah’s ship pulse. Power swirled around the blast zone and then I staggered as two more beams lanced through the atmosphere. The sapphire plasma seared through the planet’s crust, burning deep down into it before beginning to suck away more magic.
My breath quickened, and I stumbled, my vision going blurry as the world’s agony ripped me asunder.
I gritted my teeth fighting against it as I glanced at my mental timer. Even though it’d barely been a minute, my time had dropped by half. The planet was dying too quickly.
I had to end this. Only I didn’t know how to do that. Sure, swatting orcs was one thing, but stopping a ship like that myself? How could I do that?
Only, I could do that.
There was a way.
A stupid way, but the only one I could see.
As I gathered power up inside me to teleport to the Planet Breaker and take the fight to Vah, Morg touched me. At first, I wasn’t sure how he’d gotten to me, but then I saw the fire in his hand. It was the same the planet’s soul had used to send me to the surface.
“How did you get that?” I asked, raising a confused eyebrow at him even though I didn’t have time for this. Overhead another orcish ship exploded under a barrage of laser fire from Vah’s armada.
“The Soul of the Planet gave it to me when he appeared and transported me to the surface. He said it’d take me to you as long as you wielded the staff.” Morg nodded to the weapon in my hand as debris rained down through the atmosphere.
“Good to know,” I said, swallowing hard as I quirked a smile at him. “It’s been fun, but I need to stop that.” I pointed up at the Planet Breaker just in time to see the Endeavor launch its entire payload at the massive spaceship. Explosions rippled across the edge of space just beyond the ship, and I realized it’d detonated on the shield just like the ones the mechs had used.
No wonder, they hadn’t been able to take it out yet.
I wanted to tell my friends, but before I could reach out to Oliver through our mental link, the armada was on the Endeavor, and I realized it wouldn’t matter. They were way too busy escaping, and I couldn’t do anything from down here on the planet.
“I’m coming with you,” Morg said, grabbing my shoulder as I teleported. The two of us whirled through space and time, and as we appeared in space just above the shield of the Planet Breaker, I turned to look at the orc, suddenly horrified. I had been wearing a space suit, so I wasn’t worried, but Morg?
I turned, reaching toward the orc, but he didn’t seem bothered by the situation. He tapped his head with one finger, causing a formerly invisible shield to fracture into a spray of light.
“I figured this might happen.” He nodded at me. “So what’s the plan?”
“Go inside, kill Vah, save the world,” I replied, thanking my lucky stars I hadn’t just killed Morg.
“Simple. I like it,” he said, turning his eyes back behind us as a flash of explosion illuminated him.
The Endeavor had succeeded in blowing away a couple of the ships, but from the way their shields were glowing, I knew they wouldn’t last long.
Fortunately, I could give them an edge. A smile crossed my lips as I grabbed onto the spell shielding the Planet Breaker. I felt the magic pulse around me, threatening to burn me to ash, but that was fine because I understood the spell now. My staff whipped out toward the Endeavor, and with a few muttered words in a language I didn’t understand, a small portion of the Planet Breaker’s spell shield tore free of the great ship.
The blast went out like a gunshot, crashing into the Endeavor and sliding across the ship’s shields. More laser fire peppered the Endeavor as I concentrated on the spell, tying it to the ship’s own pulsar crystals just like before. Only unlike before, this spell wasn’t drawing power to fight power.
In the past, the shields had worked by slamming into the force coming at it with an equal, opposing force, and it took immense power to do that. Now though, the shields were vast, reaching far into the magical ether, absorbing the shields as though it was an elephant fending off gnats.
Before my eyes, the Endeavor’s shields cooled, and as they did, the ship stopped fleeing. It hung there for a second as the armada swarmed around it, blasting it with all the force it could muster.
“Mallory, what the hell did you do?” Oliver’s voice broke into my skull.
“I’m using Vah’s tech against him. The spell is actually in the database. I bet that if you give it to the orc high command, they can have the grey-skins automate their own ships on the fly. Let’s turn the fucking tide.”
“Got it, Mallory,” Oliver said, voice distracted. “Good luck with your craziness.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled as the connection severed, and I found myself staring at Morg who regarded me curiously.
“Now, I’m not the smartest orc, but didn’t you use a spell to turn that spell into a weapon just like ten seconds ago?” he asked, and as he spoke, I laughed.
“I did,” I said, feeling even smarter. “But my spell works a bit differently.” I pointed at the Planet Breaker. “I’m not going to go into an intense explanation, but the spell sort of worked like a sweater. You grab one thread, pull, and the whole thing comes undone. It was probably just because Vah, or whoever designed it, never expected anyone to look for a loose thread and yank on it.”
“Okay,” Morg said, nodding at me in understanding. “But that doesn’t explain why the same idea can’t be used against us.”
“Oh, it can, but my spell doesn’t have threads like this one. It’s more like an ever-shifting mass of slime. You can pull off part of it, and the amorphous blob of the spell will just move to cover the spot you jerked on. It will be weaker, sure, but it won’t explode in anyone’s face.” I smirked. “It also has the added bonus of being needed to get taken apart piece by fucking piece.”
“That makes sense,” he said, nodding to me. “You are smarter than you look.” The orc grinned at me, tusks flashing in the air.
“Um… thanks,” I said, turning back to the Planet Breaker. “Now let’s blow this fucker up.” Then I reached out with my power and jerked on the thread making up the spell shield on Vah’s giant starship.
In retrospect, doing it from so close was really fucking stupid.
26
The Planet Breaker’s shield exploded, flinging Morg and me backward across space in a fireball. Flame whipped around me, searing me even through the vacuum of space and my protective space suit. To be totally honest, as I tumbled like a broken mannequin, I got the sense Morg had taken the blast better than me because he was already reacting. He had one of those big crossbows I’d seen the orcs using against the mechs in one hand, and as he grabbed ahold of my waist, pulling me against his body, he fired at the Planet Breaker.
The bolt
shot away with enough force to launch us backward even faster, but it didn’t matter because the bolt sank into the spaceship’s armor a second later, jerking us to a stop that made me swing violently against the orc’s arm.
“Next time, maybe we can formulate a better plan, Mallory Quinn,” Morg growled, his voice transmitted through the speakers embedded in my spacesuit. He hit a button on his crossbow, and it began to retract, pulling us forward like he was the goddamned Batman.
Our feet smacked into the ship’s steel skin a second later, and already I could see mechs coming toward us. Worse, way out here, I had a lot less power to draw from. It was both good and bad because I no longer felt like I was dying because I didn’t have the energy of a planet coursing through my every cell and boosting me into overdrive. At the same time, I could still feel the planet beneath us dying. The metaphysical timer I’d drawn was still decreasing fast. Way too fast for me to deal with the mechs.
“We need to stop the draw,” I said, ignoring the mechs charging toward us and pointing at the huge energy coils siphoning energy from the orc planet and into the ship.
Morg turned to look, casting a quick glance over his shoulder. He looked back at me, and I could see thoughts swimming in his eyes. Then he nodded once. “That seems like more your deal than mine.” He gestured at the mechs behind us, their bodies already starting to blaze with charged plasma. “I’ll take care of the metal heads.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “Come back with your shield or on it.”
“I don’t need a shield.” He smacked his chest with one hand, and the sound resounded over my speakers. “We do not block. We charge forth and attack.” Then he belted out a war cry that left my ears ringing like a gong and bounded across the ship toward the mechs, chain-axe blazing with light.
His strides were huge thanks to the relative lack of gravity, and as he moved, I turned back to the cannons. They were giant, like football field giant, and I wasn’t sure how to go about stopping them just yet.
“Well, let’s get this done,” I said teleporting the few hundred meters to the closest one. As I burst out of space and time next to it, I was amazed at the heat of it. The plasma burned so hot, the metal around the intake ports was molten red beneath the ethereal pulse of the shielding. Unlike the one that had guarded the ship before, this one was the normal stuff. I wondered why but decided I didn’t care that much.
Instead, I pointed the Bone Staff of Greatward at the energy beam. As I did, I felt the pulse of the planet connected to the ancient staff. Sparks of energy danced through the air, and magic arced toward me from the high energy beams like I was a Tesla coil.
Only this magic was way more concentrated than I’d felt on the planet. It hit me like a shotgun blast to the chest, throwing me backward across the surface of the ship. I slid along it, leaving a molten trail in my wake, and still the energy hit me, guided to my staff like it was a lightning rod, which was exactly what it was.
Still, I couldn’t think about that, couldn’t think about how my skin was literally burning away and flaking off. Couldn’t think about how my hair was burning or how my vision was blurring. No. All I could think about was stopping the ship.
I pointed the staff at the plasma and cried out wordlessly. More power leapt to my command, and this time I directed it through me. My other hand whipped out as energy passed through me leaving a burning wake across my torso.
Blue plasma exploded from my outstretched hand, slamming into the area just beyond the shield and carving into it like the metal was made of warm chocolate. An explosion rocked the ship, throwing me from my feet as the shielded area buckled, allowing the superheated plasma to boil through into the ship.
All around me lights began to flash red, and a claxon sounded before the beam of energy shut off, leaving me standing there. The timer on the planet’s demise inched upward for a second, but I ignored it as I hauled my broken body up and got ready to repeat the procedure.
Or I would have if I hadn’t heard the hail on my speakers just then. I answered the call, my chest heaving with exhaustion.
“You’ve taken down the shields, yes?” the voice of the spider-orc asked.
“Affirmative,” I heaved the words out of my mouth as black started to encroach on my vision, and I knew, just knew, I didn’t have much time left. The planet’s timer may have been at seven minutes, but I had much less than that.
“Then get out of the way, witch,” he replied, and as confusion overtook me, I saw two of the orcish motherships make their way toward me. Their main cannon began to charge as I realized their plan. They were going to hit the siphons.
A smile crossed my lips as I watched their concentrated effort strike the left most siphon. Their attack cut into the ship like a cleaver, severing the internal workings in an explosion of light and sound that rocked the ship. A smile crossed my lips as the beam shut off amid a plethora of lights and screeching sirens.
They began to reorient themselves, aiming toward the next and final siphon, and for the briefest second, I smiled.
A siphon beam burst from the skin of the ship, lancing through the left ship and slamming into the planet. As the orcish ship exploded in a fireball and I was thrown backward across the Planet Breaker, another siphon beat erupted outward, turning the right ship into slag as it slammed into the planet below.
Horror flashed through me as I watched upwards of fifteen more siphons follow it, and as I watched the timer drop down to ten seconds, I knew we were fucked.
Only… there was one way. One way that would cost only me and no one else.
I threw a glance back at the Endeavor as it circled around like it was going to try to take out the siphons, but I knew it wouldn’t matter. I was betting from the way the ship looked, there were hundreds more such beams on its skin.
Worse, they’d probably be blown to smithereens. I couldn’t have that. Even if Chloe had wanted to trick me into killing myself to save them.
That’s because, in that moment, I knew I would make the sacrifice.
I teleported, launching myself directly into the path of the closest beam, and as the magical surge of energy struck me, burning me from the outside in, I gripped the Bone Staff of Greatward, stiffened my fucking spine, and set my fucking jaw. Then I reached out with everything I had, grabbing all the energy coursing through me, and teleported us the fuck away.
27
We didn’t make it nearly as far as I’d have liked because Vah’s power rose up from within the ship and batted me aside like I was a particularly annoying gnat. The spell I’d been using shattered. Backlash punched me in the stomach so hard, I spat blood across the mask of my spacesuit.
The Planet Breaker tumbled out of the teleportation stream right on the edge of the solar system. Fortunately, it was still far enough away for the planet-sucking energy beams to be out of range, and they shut off with a pulse.
I fell to my hands and knees on the skin of the ship, hacking my lungs out. I couldn’t feel the metaphysical life force of the planet anymore. Hell, the Bone Staff of Greatward felt about as useless as a squeegee in my hand. On the upside, my body didn’t feel like it was torn apart, but at the same time, from the way I couldn’t breathe without spitting up blood, I wasn’t sure it mattered.
My arms and legs gave out then, and I collapsed face first onto the skin of the massive starship as the huge blast doors to my left screeched open. An army of mechs surged outward, and I barely had the time to look at them before plasma fire erupted from their cannons.
I threw my hand out, summoning a shield that managed to keep me from turning into smoked jerky. Unfortunately, the salvo threw me across the ship, and I crashed to the ground like a broken doll. I rolled, haphazardly and felt my left arm snap at the elbow. Pain launched itself through me as the mechs continued to come, their footsteps sending vibrations through the ship.
Part of me had expected Vah to come find me, but as the massive engine on the ship roared to life, I
knew why he hadn’t. He’d sent the mechs to finish me off or buy time or whatever, while he flew the Planet Breaker back into position. Once there, he’d need precious few seconds to steal the rest of the planet’s life force.
That was going to be bad.
Really bad.
I crawled to my feet as the ion engines fired, rocketing us forward through space. I collapsed onto my ass as inertia threw me like a little bitch and another wave of agony wrapped around me and squeezed me like a ketchup packet.
More ragged coughing erupted from my throat like barbed wire, and more blood sprayed across my face shield. My head pounded and my vision was dark and fading. Still, I wouldn’t let this planet die. Not with my friends there, not after everything. I wouldn’t let somebody-snatching fuck win.
I sucked in one last breath and crawled to my feet as the first mech appeared overhead. Its plasma cannons swiveled to target me, energy streaming off of them, and as I raised my good hand to try to magic it to death, I knew it wouldn’t work.
“For the horde!” Morg cried, his chain-axe slicing through the mech’s armor and rending it into two distinct halves that slid to the ground in a spray of sparks and molten steel. He whirled on the balls of his feet, burying his axe in the faceplate of another mech, and hit a button on the handle. The light streaming across the blade changed, and then the mech exploded into a fireworks spectacular.
As bits of it fell to the ground around us, Morg glanced at me and held his hand out. “Come with me, Mallory Quinn. It is not yet time for you to die.”
“Fancy that,” I mumbled, taking his hand and letting him pull me to my feet. I threw my good arm around his waist to steady myself as we made our way back toward to blast doors. The strewn wreckage of mech carcasses littered the ship’s hull, making me think Morg had literally cut his way to me.
Planet Breaker: A Supernatural Space Opera (Witching on a Starship Book 2) Page 13
