Hatchling

by Chris Fox

  “You can rest easy, young man.” Voria inclined her head respectfully. “I’m sending Crewes to deal with it.”

  “Crewes? Is that a regiment or a ship?” I asked.

  “It’s a man.” Voria smiled at me. There was an amused wickedness to it.

  “One man?” I raised an eyebrow, and looked askance at a goddess. “You can only spare one man?”

  “The right man.” Her smile added a layer of satisfaction. “Were I you, I’d focus on stopping my mother. Jolene will find a way to slip away, I assure you, and I cannot stop her. That is up to you.”

  “Yes,” I growled. “Yes it is.”

  “Use terminal force if need be, and beware her magic. She is powerful beyond knowing, and cunning enough to use that power.” Voria released Ikadra. “Goddess-speed, Captain.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  I released the missive and turned back to my platoon. I’d done all I could for Highspire. It was time to end this. “Break time is over people. It’s time for some payback. Get your gear ready, and seal your tethers. We’re moving out.”

  27

  Waiting in the cargo hold as Seket piloted the Remora was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that I didn’t have to see the Inuran response fighters, or if the trade moon was sending aid. If combat went south I’d be dead before I knew anything was wrong.

  A curse in that how did you think about anything else?

  I knew at least some of my people would be stewing. I glanced around the cargo hold through the anonymity the helmet provided. Cinaka’s hatchlings were stoic to a dragon, while Lawl’s arachnidrakes were too alien to read. How did a spider express nervousness?

  My squad was much easier. Briff and Rava were whispering in low tones. Briff had apparently heard about an Arena league. That was his way…distract himself until he had to think about combat.

  Kurz had both hands wrapped around his bandolier, which sported replacement vials for those lost on the Flame. A new urn was tucked into the bottom, sheltered in a padded pouch. His expression said resolute, but the quaver in his hands spoke volumes.

  Vee stood in her dull grey environmental armor, but with no obvious armament. That was one advantage an eldimagus like the bracelet provided. Almost everyone would underestimate her. She wore a helmet, but I could see her eyes inside, specks of emerald kissed by the sun, and she seemed ready.

  I envied her faith, both in me and in whatever deity she believed in. Vee had confidence woven into her core, and never seemed to worry about anything, even life-threatening circumstances.

  Seket’s voice suddenly rang over the cargo hold speakers. “Captain, we may experience a bit of turbulence. Please secure yourselves.”

  The entire Remora shook from external detonations, but either they were stopped by Seket’s wards or were too far away to harm us. Either way it was the paladin keeping us alive, and I needed to trust him to do that.

  “Screw it,” I muttered into the helmet.

  I could trust him, and still watch. I opened a feed to the Remora’s external sensors, and saw what we were up against. A trio of fighters were still on approach from our destination, an ivory cruiser that hovered in space as if unperturbed by our arrival. I know you’re coming, and I’m ready. It didn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

  The shots that had rattled us came from a second trio of fighters, which had flown right by us and were now coming around for another pass. Seket was good, but six fighters were going to toast us if we parked alongside the cruiser.

  We didn’t have enough firepower, and we didn’t even have the rear cannon that my version of the Remora had possessed. I’d have killed for a rear-facing gauss cannon. Then it hit me.

  Rear facing.

  “Seket, we’re going to open the cargo bay doors,” I said into the general comm, and heard it echo through the ship. “We’ll lose atmo down here, so everyone seal up. Secure yourselves, and get a firing lane on the back door. Fighters are fragile. Seket, you’re going to have to let them get in close, but if they do we might be able to take them out.”

  The Remora’s momentum evened out as Seket chose a course, and I glanced at the feed on my HUD. One fighter trio was pursuing…which put them behind us.

  “Everyone get ready,” I roared into the mic. “Going in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” I punched the airlock button, and the siren next to it began. I punched it again, and the membrane disappeared.

  I snapped against my tether as the atmo was sucked out of the cargo hold. For a terrified instant I worried that we’d lose someone to explosive decompression, but it appeared everyone had secured themselves, and their gear, well.

  “Wait until I give the word,” I ordered as I tightened my tether and set up a firing lane out the airlock door.

  “You’re sure the enemy vessel is vulnerable to our spells?” Lawl chittered into her com. She cradled Kek’s eight-eyed staff in three clawed limbs.

  “We’re about to find out.” I drew my new pistol and took aim. More and more she felt right in my hands. “We’ll wait until they’re right up on us. It will be real easy. When I yell fire…launch your strongest spell. Hopefully at least a few of us hit.”

  No one replied, but I did see almost everyone get a rifle, staff, or, in Vee’s case, a bracelet into a firing position.

  “Brace yourselves,” Seket’s voice echoed over the comm. “They’re coming in for the next pass. I’m not erecting wards, so this might hurt.”

  A pristine fighter in the form of a stylized dragon appeared directly behind us, but too far out. There was no way my pistol could hit at that distance. So I waited. I watched as the fighter swam up in our wake, eager to devour us.

  The fighter’s spellcannon flashed, and a bright beam of white light lanced out at the Remora.

  Kurz’s hand shot up, and he sketched a spirit sigil, then a water, then another spirit. A blue ball streaked from his hand into the light bolt, and both spells shattered.

  “Fire!” I roared, and unloaded the highest magnitude void bolt I could manage.

  A barrage of fire bolts rained from the hold, and they streaked into the fighter in waves. I think my void bolt did some damage, but when fourteen other spells hit roughly the same area, it’s kind of hard to know what caused the final detonation.

  “Yes! Nice work, people. Two more times.” I turned to Kurz. “Did you just counterspell a fighter?” I blinked at the soulcatcher. “That has got to be a first. Nice job.”

  “It seemed the appropriate response. The cost is requisite to the spell countered, and so I avoid doing it unless I must. I cannot counter many more.” He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, though I noticed the tremor in his hands had eased now that combat had begun.

  The next fighter drifted into our wake, and loosed another light bolt. This one slammed into the Remora’s left fin, which detonated in a shower of debris. That caused the fighter to position itself directly in front of the airlock door.

  We lit it up like it was our job, and the fighter paid for its temerity. The final fighter reversed course and began circling back to the cruiser.

  “Hey, Seket,” I panted. “Has the trade moon done anything since we stopped the jamming?”

  “Negative, Captain. It appears they are allowing the cruiser to determine its own fate. I am envious.”

  The Remora jerked hard to starboard, and my tether snapped me back into the wall. I kept my grip on my pistol, but a few hatchlings lost theirs. Spellrifles spun slowly in the zero G, their owners swimming out to recover them.

  I watched the feed on my HUD to see what had prompted the maneuver. Seket brought us into alignment with the fleeing fighter, then activated the spellcannon.

  A life bolt lanced into the fighter’s wing, and that side of the ship sheered off, causing the rest to go into an uncontrolled spin. The pilot might live, but the craft had been disabled and they were no longer in the fight.

  The second trio of fighters was close enough to begin their attack run. They came at us h
ead on, but as they approached, a cocoon of white sigils enveloped the Remora.

  All three enemy fighters connected with their spells. The first discolored the wards. The second tore a hole and the vessel rumbled. The third hit the nose of the ship, and something exploded in the distance near the bridge.

  “Seket?” I called into the comm.

  “I live, Captain.” Despite the words, I detected a note of pain in his voice. “The bridge took the brunt of it. We will need repairs, though the matrix functions. The scry-screen does not. I have patched my armor into the ship, and am using my helmet to guide us.”

  “Good thinking.” I maneuvered the feed until I spotted the fighters, which were coming around into our backfield. I noted that they were keeping their distance. “Looks like they’re wise to our little trick. What can we do to help you deal with the last three?”

  “Pray for their souls.”

  The fighters streaked toward us and unleashed their hail of death. Seket’s wards enveloped the ship once more, but as before, the last shot got through and tore off the remaining fin.

  Seket flipped the Remora using the attitude thrusters. Our momentum meant we were essentially flying backward, which allowed him to line up the main spellcannon. It was a clever move.

  A life bolt shot from the cannon and obliterated the closest fighter. The last two veered off, but Seket pivoted and took out another one. The last fighter maneuvered into our backfield, but got a little too close.

  “Fire!” I roared. We did. It ended poorly for the fighter, and I smiled grimly at the expanding debris cloud we’d created. “All right, Seket, get us bolted onto the hull. It’s game time.”

  My stomach lurched as the vessel wildly altered course, the severity overpowering the inertial dampeners, which sometimes happened on smaller ships.

  I watched the feed in my HUD, and tensed as the Remora closed the distance to the Inuran cruiser. We came in above her, and as before she didn’t run. She didn’t even launch a spell.

  “They’re definitely waiting for us. Cinaka, are your people ready?” I glanced over at the hatchling, Briff’s new lady friend, who was standing atop the silver teleportation disk in the rear of the hold along with two of her companions.

  She wore dark armor over dusky scales, which elicited a sort of grim reaper vibe. Pretty cool, and backed up by the menacing spellrifle she cradled in both arms.

  “Begin when you’re ready. Once you and your people are through, my squad will back you up.” I turned to Lawl and her arachnidrakes, who also stood ready. She held the staff Kithik in two clawed appendages.

  “Kek will be protected this day,” she chittered. “He sacrificed himself to the ship, and we will not let these tomb robbers pillage our vessel. We will see Kek’s dream a reality. The ship will fly once more, as a part of the Vagrant Fleet.”

  “Let’s hope so.” I didn’t mention the madness Kek contended with.

  The hold rumbled as we connected to the Inuran ship. It was time for the end game.

  28

  I’d never seen a teleportation disk used, though it had happened once or twice in a holo. The concept was pure insanity, and offered such a massive tactical advantage. The ship supplied most of the magic, with the balance drawn from a pilot.

  What made the magitech special was that somehow they’d built it to accept any aspect of magic. It didn’t matter if your pilot had void or not; you could activate a teleportation disk and it would send you up to about forty meters.

  The more wards and matter between you and the target, the less likely it would work though, so it wasn’t without risks. That seemed a good enough reason to keep the teleports as short as possible. Also keep in mind everything I knew came from an episode of the show Relic Hunter.

  Cinaka and her two companions disappeared in a silvery flash as she began the assault. Three more hatchlings stepped atop the disk and disappeared in a similar flash. That kept going on, every three seconds, until we were running low on hatchlings.

  The last group went.

  It took me about a thousand years to realize I was supposed to be next. I stepped up, and Briff and Rava joined me. Briff leaned down and whispered to me, off comm. “Stay close, Jer. I’ll keep you safe.”

  “Thanks, bud.”

  Silver flashed, then we stepped into Hel.

  Dozens of combatants littered the corridor, but I only had a vague impression of hatchlings battling smaller figures in white armor. They vastly outnumbered us, and were attacking from both directions.

  One of the lights above had gone out, and another had started to flicker, which added to the madness. Thankfully, my helmet filtered out most of the light and some of the sound.

  That was all the time I had before I heard a tink, tink, tink, as a fat black grenade with an angry red light rolled by my feet. There wasn’t time to dive onto it, or away from it, or even to decide which was the right action.

  The grenade exploded, and I found myself riding a wave of flame that hit me so hard it knocked me into slow motion. The world crawled around me as I sailed over the hatchlings and deep into the Inuran ranks.

  My flight abruptly terminated when I slammed into a pair of white-armored mages carrying rifles, and all three of us were knocked to the deck. One of the pair didn’t rise, but the other leapt to his feet even as I did the same.

  I’d never been involved in a quick draw before. The idea of gunslingers, or spellslingers as some of them called themselves, had always intrigued me. I’d very intentionally avoided it outside of video games, though, because the idea of racing someone for my survival wasn’t the kind of thrill I was seeking.

  The Inuran’s hand reached his pistol at the same instant mine wrapped around my sidearm. I yanked her from her holster, and almost got her up. The Inuran was faster.

  “Pathetic.” I could hear the sneer in his voice. The spellpistol discharged and a life bolt hit me in the helmet. My HUD flickered, and then thrust me into sudden darkness as the plasma bolt knocked me into the wall. Sounds were muffled, but I could still hear the Inuran taunting me. “I’ll enjoy taking that armor from your body.”

  I pulled at the fire and void inside of me, and fired blind as I unleashed my spell. Just after I completed the spell, light suddenly returned. I could see! My HUD was still dark, and I could still hear my breath panting in my helmet. Yet somehow I could see.

  A faint buzzing hummed in the back of my head. That had to be the magic I’d gained from the Flame of Knowledge. Maybe I could see not only through lies, but through illusions and barriers. I wished I understood the limits.

  Talk about a clutch last minute power to suddenly discover that you have. Bet you didn’t see that coming, random Inuran goon.

  I adjusted my aim to point my pistol directly at the Inuran’s chest, then thumbed the selector to explosive rounds and shot that prick right in middle of his monologue. The impact blasted him into the corridor wall with bone-cracking force, and his armor did little to protect him.

  “You know,” I pointed out, as my opponent crumpled to the deck, tendrils of smoke rising from the hole in his chest. “If you win the draw maybe shoot twice instead of running your mouth.”

  “Jer!” Briff roared from down the corridor, where most of our forces were holding. “Get back to the line!”

  A trio of Inurans stood between me and our ranks. They were advancing on Briff and Rava, even as Vee, Kurz, and Seket teleported in to support them.

  All three Inurans were raising their rifles, and my friends were going to get the brunt of it. And it hadn’t even gotten complicated yet. Behind me I could hear many sets of booted feet. Like…easily a thousand. Or, like, twelve, if I was being real, but if I somehow lived and got to tell this in a bar…a thousand.

  The subconscious is a funny thing, and in this instance it saved my life. Maybe the lives of my squad too. It had figured out the following.

  All the Inurans appeared to be using identical gear.

  The Inurans were using grenades.


  I’d just killed an Inuran.

  That Inuran hadn’t yet used his grenades.

  I dropped to my knees and pawed at the dead man’s belt. Sure enough, there were three angry black spheres. Thankfully, my plan only called for one, and I didn’t even need to take it off his belt. I just pressed the red button.

  A thin red line sprang up around the grenade, indicating it was armed. A second line appeared exactly a second later. You could see where this was going. I didn’t stick around.

  I reached for the void in me, and blinked. The last thing I saw as the frost covered me was a third red line. Then I appeared behind Briff, still in a kneeling position. Rava had taken cover on the other side, and had her pistol drawn in one hand.

  Briff grunted as he took a life bolt to the wing. “There’s no way we can—”

  By the time my little present detonated, the Inurans trotting right by it, and the ensuing wave of death rocked up the corridor in both directions. They didn’t even have time to scream. The flames faded to a faint whiff of heat by the time they washed over Briff’s wings, which sheltered both me and Rava from the blast.

  Shrapnel pinged off his scales, and I’m glad none hit me. My HUD was still down, which meant I couldn’t see the paper doll to know how much damage I’d suffered. It could be gone in places for all I knew.

  Since the grenade had dealt with our immediate problem on that flank, and we had Briff and Rava on overwatch, I turned to survey the other direction. Vee knelt next to a hatchling who was clutching at a nasty hole in her gut.

  The familiar golden glow surrounded Vee’s wrist, and the dragon’s flesh began to knit back together. Even the scales grew back, though their dusky hue was slightly off from their neighbors.

  “Thank you,” she rumbled, then picked up her rifle and dove back into the fray on that flank.

  Kurz knelt behind Vee, with a scarlet vial clutched in one hand. His face was obscured behind his environmental armor. “I have a river of flame I can use. It is the soul of a powerful Ifrit, but it will only obey a single command. Shall I save it, or use it to relieve the hatchlings, Captain?”