The Pantheon Moves

by Michael Chatfield

  “Josh! Don’t drop people from the flying citadels—drop toward the planet now!” Dave yelled out through a Mirror of Communication as he pulled up an interface. With each press of a button, messages were sent out and orders were given.

  In the sky above Markolm, one moment Force One was fighting off the angels; the next they had disappeared.

  All of the onos over Emerilia were warming up as power surged through the hidden soul gem construct compartment underneath it.

  “Open Pandora’s Box!” Dave barked.

  Across the second moon around Emerilia, explosive charges went off. Hundreds of missile tubes were revealed in a single moment. As soon as the tubes were cleared of debris hiding the tubes, missiles poured out from the tubes.

  The cannons that had been run out from the dwarven mountains now erupted, not with artillery shells or grand working shells but missiles that tore out from the tubes before angling upward and to the heavens.

  “Kill switch is active!” Jeeves called out.

  Those who didn’t have the Band-Aid blocking the signal died in just moments, their bodies being eaten from the inside as the nanites that had made them stronger now destroyed them. The angels, the armies of Light, those who had been part of the event of Myths and Legends and born on Emerilia—all of them were being killed.

  Only the creatures and beasts of Emerilia were left alive.

  The Band-Aid blocked the signal, transmitting information to the onos that sent it back to Jeeves that decoded the signal and blocked it. In less than a second, the kill switch was stopped and Jeeves started to destroy the parts of the kill switch that were inside the bodies of the people of Emerilia with the Band-Aid.

  Markolm started to drop downward. The flying citadels that were now dropping toward the ground as fast as possible started to fire shells that had never been seen on Emerilia before.

  These were fusion bombs in the shape of grand working shells.

  They buried deep into Markolm before exploding. The island started to shatter as the Alturarans still on and inside the planet were rocked with power that they couldn’t easily fight.

  The dwarven mountains of Donsk and Zolu fired their mountain cannons.

  As Markolm was falling, it started to break apart into smaller and smaller pieces. These pieces rained down on the Mana barrier that was growing from the onos underneath. More and more blue pillars reached into the sky, creating Mana barriers that reached out to connect with one another.

  “Teleport to Markolm!” Dave yelled as the destroyer he was on and its three compatriots disappeared from their slips, appearing over Heval.

  “Destroy that island!” Dave yelled. The destroyer shuddered as all along its length, cannon and missile ports opened, unleashing their rage. The two other destroyers did the same. Markolm became smaller and smaller. The impacts that were breaking it apart hammered the shield that was underneath.

  The debris started to rain down on the ono-powered shield. The shield took on the impacts, only discoloring from the impacts instead of being destroyed.

  “Incoming from the orbitals!” the captain called out.

  Dave shook his head and pressed a button on the interface. The ono’s shield pushed around Markolm, allowing it in as it dropped toward Emerilia.

  The cities below were supposed to have been evacuated; he hoped everyone had got out, but now he needed that shield to cover Emerilia, not just the area around where Markolm had been.

  “Fire on the orbitals and get us out of here,” Dave said, hoping that they had broken up Markolm enough.

  As the destroyer disappeared once again, all of the onos that had been seeded across Emerilia finally connected their shields with the others and started to pump more power into it. The thin shield became more and more solid as it expanded into the heavens to cover all of Emerilia.

  The Jukal satellites that watched over the entire planet activated their second ability and started to shoot down onto Emerilia. Here and there, they hit missiles that were shooting into the heavens.

  Missiles opened up, turning into warheads that shot out to deal with as many of the orbitals as possible.

  “Bob is doing something to help,” Anna said.

  All across Emerilia, a gray glow fell around every single person and creature. Few had seen a spell that consisted of gray Mana. As the gray Mana made it into their bodies, their strength grew in an explosive manner.

  As their strength grew, information and memories filled their minds. These were Bob’s memories as Lo’kal and as he had looked over Emerilia. It was his knowledge of the human race, the Jukal, their empire and everything he had done.

  Dave let out a breath, his mind reeling with the information. “What was that?”

  “Well, Fire made the dragons, Light made the angels, and Dark made the demons. But Bob, he made Emerilia,” Anna said.

  Dave looked at the plots. The missile boats were rushing out of the moonbase, firing missiles as soon as they were clear. The first of the Jukal orbitals were being hit by the missiles on the ground.

  Explosions shook the sky as the shield over Emerilia continued to grow, covering nearly the entire planet.

  The orbitals hit the shield but it remained firm. Hundreds of onos all powered one shield as destruction reigned supreme on the other side.

  Missiles shot out from the Jukal military base, tracking for the Datskun. Interceptor modules that had been hidden under explosive panels were now revealed. Mana bolts and disruptor rays shot out, destroying the missiles as the last of the missile boats left the moonbase.

  The exit they had come pouring out of changed, showing instead of the interior of the moonbase, the inside of the asteroid base.

  Destroyers shot forward and through the event horizon, teleporting as soon as they were in-system, headed for the military base.

  The first battleship came through the portal connecting the Nal system to Emerilia. Its massive cannons fired as soon as it could, aimed at the Jukal fleet that was still in a holding pattern around the Jukal military base.

  Drones shot out from the base, looking to engage the forces that were amassing outside of Emerilia’s atmosphere.

  “Massive teleportation magic,” one of the sensor officers called out.

  Dave saw as gray Mana wrapped around Markolm. One minute, it was there; the next, it had appeared in the middle of the Emerilian sea.

  “Yes!” Dave slapped his console with a smile on his face. “That’s my fucking Bob!”

  “Kids all hopped up on Mountain Dew,” Steve said in the background. There was a familiar noise from the back of the command center as Lox gave a satisfied snort.

  “Time we earned our pay,” Gurren said.

  “That it is,” Lox said, leaving the command center with Bob.

  “All ships are currently on their way from the asteroid base, moving to the Jukal Moon Base,” Suzy said, as if it were just another day at the office.

  “Malsour is taking the flying citadels to destroy the remaining Alturarans before they have time to hide in Emerilia,” Induca said.

  “Self-destruct of Emerilia was activated. Good thing we never installed it,” Anna said in a pleased voice.

  Dave watched the orbitals fighting the missiles but it was a losing battle as they were wiped out. For the first time ever, Emerilia was no longer covered by satellites watching those below.

  “The player farms at the north and south pole have been destroyed. However, Air is now in the process of reviving them all. Bob has moved to the ice planet to assist,” Jeeves said.

  “The Jukal fleet is on the move. They’re sending out all their drones and activating any weapon platforms they have left,” Anna said.

  Dave watched it all as the Emerilian fleets formed up around their battleships, all of their cannons and tubes firing as fast as they could. The Jukal shields started to shake more and more violently as the Emerilian fleet were using barrier busters.

  Finally the shield gave way and the fleet started to use thei
r more powerful weapons. The fleet teleported behind the moon for the best firing positions.

  The cannons were covered in runic lines that lit up the darkness, recoiling and firing at a steady and impressive pace, not stopping once.

  The moonbase was being torn apart, its shields gone; the fusion grand workings landed, tearing out great sections of the base.

  The Jukal fleet might have taken some time to react to what was going on but, to their credit, once they saw the threat that was now pounding on their door, they started to fire everything and anything they had at the Emerilian fleet.

  Their beams shot out, striking out at the Emerilian shields before they were met by the disrupting beams that caused the beams to malfunction and the impact on the shields was barely noticeable.

  However, the Emerilian fleet’s reaction wasn’t small.

  The darkness of space was lit with the angry barrages of the modified cannons and the shells from the interceptor modules. Explosions of warheads dotted the thousands of kilometers between the Jukal forces and the Emerilian ships.

  The last of the Jukal missiles exploded against the massive shield that now covered all of Emerilia.

  The broken satellites that had been watching the Emerilians for hundreds of years, that had been torn apart, now smashed into the shield, turning into smaller pieces that flew off into space.

  Across Emerilia, in both the day and night sky, they saw the blue shield as impacts rained down on it and in the distance, explosions from the battle between the Jukal and Emerilian fleets could be seen out in space.

  In different cities, teleport pads were activated, linking to massive ships. People were ushered through; whole cities being evacuated in just minutes. As they stepped through the portals, they found that they were actually entering the arks that were located deep within Emerilia.

  Others were retreating to Terra, which had onos connecting them to a secondary hub that activated and connected to Ice City. Thousands of people were moved out of Emerilia in a flood.

  No matter what, after this we will survive in some way and we will fight back, Dave thought as the Jukal destroyer’s shield cracked. The entire Emerilian fleet concentrated on it, tearing it apart in just a few minutes as Jung Lee’s Light penetrator grand workings reached the ship. Golden light ate through the hull of the ship, cutting nearly a third of the way through it as the missiles shot into the new opening and detonated.

  Inside the ship, the explosions were much worse.

  The ship broke apart into sections as more golden rays cut into the parts of the ship that were still intact, boring their way in and then detonating. The ship’s superstructure was shattered, the ship nothing more than debris that continued to be broken apart further and rocked by more explosions.

  The cannons and weapons of the Emerilian fleet turned to the second destroyer and unleashed their anger.

  The drones now made it into range of the Emerilian fleet.

  The destroyers hunted the small and maneuverable drones. The battleships’ guns that weren’t aimed at the Jukal base and interceptor modules created streaks of light in the abyss around the ship. The missile boats stayed in the protection of the other ships; using their interceptor modules, they didn’t have massive cannons but rather the heavy striking power filled with innumerable missiles.

  Even under attack, they flushed more and more missiles toward the second destroyer. There were sixty of the ships in the void of space near the moonbase. The Jukal destroyer did its best to try to stave off its destruction but it wasn’t enough as its shields crumbled. Its hull holed and then was torn apart with the power of grand workings.

  The carrier didn’t last as long as the destroyers as the Emerilian fleets were now closer and there was less time for it to react and try to escape the destruction that rained down on it.

  Still the drones rushed over the Emerilian fleets. But they weren’t organized, hitting anything they saw, trying to inflict as much damage as possible.

  With their fire spread out too much and dealing with so many targets, they could hurt the fleet’s shields but they weren’t able to actually break any of them as the fleet turned their attention to the drones.

  “I’ve got the Jukal feeds. I am now uploading this battle to the Jukal net and across the Mirror of Communication news boards,” Anna said.

  “Good,” Dave said.

  The drones were whittled away; it only took a cannon blast or two to destroy them, but they were fast and nimble so it required a number of cannons saturating the void to destroy their target.

  The void once again became peaceful. As new platforms were detected, the missile boats spared no expense, smashing their shields and then destroying the platforms that hid underneath.

  “Ready the destroyers to drop the Devastator corps,” Dave said.

  His words passed through the fleet as the destroyers moved their positions in the fleets, angled at the moon.

  “Begin bombardment,” Dave said, his voice cold and merciless as the sky once again lit up. The bombardment that had been halted continued once again. The barrier that had been recovered was now torn apart. The fleets fired into the Jukal military base. Their weapons’ fire converging into one point made the moon itself shake with the power of the cannons grand working rounds and the missiles that tore holes into the moon.

  The bombardment slowed down as there was nothing that even resembled a structure on the moon anymore.

  “All infrastructure within the Emerilia system is now under our command,” Anna said.

  The Datskun that had been in orbit around Emerilia for the last five centuries now shed armor panels, revealing runic lines underneath that glowed as the massive carrier started to move to join up with the Emerilian fleet.

  Five destroyers teleported to the Pandora moonbase. Three watched over two whose undersides glowed with runic lines as units wearing Devastator armor landed on the moon’s surface. The runic lining glowed across their bodies with various different weapons conjured in their hands as they rushed forward.

  Dave changed his view. The Jukal military base was buried deep; if they wanted to kill them all, they would need to destroy the moon, or send in ground forces to end them.

  The Devastator-armored units were met with plasma rounds. To those who lived on Emerilia, they were nothing but reasonably powered fireballs. Shields smacked away the plasma as they unleashed Mana bolts and arrows that passed silently through the airless vacuum, hitting the Jukal and their drones with so much force that they simply exploded.

  Spells raged through the corridors of the military base, frying the Jukal electronics as fire storms burned through their armor and bodies.

  In their Devastator armor, it wasn’t even a contest between the POE melee fighters and the Jukal.

  They had never fought close combat before in their lives. They were a race that knew how to press buttons and nothing more. In the face of the Emerilian steel, they weren’t even as hard to kill as Level 100 creatures; only their armor and space suits made it harder to kill them.

  Dave shook his head at the Jukal.

  They had developed the nanite augmentation technology to make it so that the races of the empire were better suited for their jobs. They had given it to the Emerilians, so that they could fight the aggressive species and survive on Emerilia.

  However, the Jukal saw the augmentation as something that only those who were not Jukal might ever use. They looked down on it and as such, none of the Jukal actually used the technology. Instead, their vassals and those under their command did.

  However, in Emerilia, to make sure that if anything did go wrong that no one would hesitate, they were all Jukal. All they had was powered armor and drones that put up something of a fight until they got hit with spells or a rogue got up behind them and landed a critical hit.

  “Transferring all money from Rock Breakers Corporation and all of the accounts we have access to,” Suzy said.

  Dave’s notifications lit up as Anna had left some of
the coding from the AI connecting Emerilia to Earth. All of those trillions opened up the coffers of the AI vaults hidden across Emerilia as resources flowed into the Grahslagg Corporation and Dave’s accounts. In turn, he sent Kol a message; all of those resources would be shipped to the different bases and used for the war effort.

  “The military base has been cleared,” Jeeves reported a few minutes later.

  Dave continued to hold onto the console in front of him. He felt if he let go, then he would fall to the ground. He simply couldn’t believe that they had been able to secure Emerilia.

  “First arks are leaving,” Jeeves said as arks appeared in front of the moonbase’s portal, teleporting from where they’d been located in Emerilia.

  They passed through the massive portal and entered the asteroid base, moving for massive open slips to allow those within their hulls to offload.

  “Send the remaining destroyers and their Devastator forces to Emerilia to clear out any more aggressive species. Close the portals and offer the Jakan a ride through a portal back to their home world or they can have Nal if they want to help us defeat the Jukal. I want patrols around the entire Emerilian system and a sensor net around it.” As Dave’s orders fell, the people in the room rushed to complete them and pass it on to the rest of the Initiative’s forces.

  For the first time in its history, Emerilia was now controlled by humanity and all of its sub-races.

  “All infrastructure created by the Jukal has been sent destruction orders,” Anna said.

  Dave nodded, seeing on a side screen as Altars of Rebirth were destroyed and the portals started to act erratically. With a press of a button on his interface, the portals all stabilized, coming under his full control while it would look like to the Jukal as if they still controlled them.

  “We’ve got a lot to do and not much time to do it in.” Dave took a steadying breath as he saw the people moving through the room with confident movements as the fleets started to teleport away to the different areas in the system and drop off sensor buoys.