Path of Dragons 17 - Chapter 58 - A Moment to Shine (Patreon)

“Radiation shields at maximum, Captain,” Corporal Diaz said from her console.  “Ethera reserves, seventy-two percent but falling fast.”

“Structure?” Captain Jessup asked, his hands behind his back as he stared at the monitor that stretched across an entire wall.  In another life, he might’ve thought it was a window.  The view it gave of the surface of the Vengeance was absolutely perfect, without any quality loss. 

“Holding firm, Captain,” answered another technician.  He was new.  Enis Watson.  Two years in the Seattle Defense Force.  One year in technical school.  Two six-month tours aboard the Vengeance.  Before that, he worked in the private sector as an Administrator for a shipping company. 

During his time in Orveth Kaal, he had worked his way up to the command hub where he had so far done everything that had been asked of him.  However, like most of the others on the bridge, he was obviously rattled.

Even Jessup was.

And rightly so.  He’d known about Project Comet since its inception, so he was very much aware of its potential for destruction.  However, even in his wildest dreams, he couldn’t have imagined the explosion he’d just witnessed. 

The Vengeance was more than three hundred miles away, and it had still been rocked by a massive shockwave that pushed its defenses as hard as a draconic bombardment.  The physical shields had never been in danger of failing, but the charged atmosphere was definitely a problem.

Despite sending some of the delicate electronics haywire, it wasn’t the main issue though. 

Like the nuclear bombs, the Comet’s payload emitted quite a lot of radiation.  Normally, that wouldn’t be an issue for demigods and deities.  Irritating, sure.  But no one would be in danger of dying after exposure to mundane radiation.  However, what came in the wake of the bomb’s explosion was not that.

Instead, it was laced with agitated ethera that bordered on corruption.  The Druids all said it wasn’t the same sort of energy, that it was technically natural, but Jessup wasn’t so sure.

Whatever its nature, it was extraordinarily toxic and extremely volatile.  Even brief exposure could make some of the weaker demigods ill, and prolonged contact would make for a lot of bad days even amongst the deities. 

That was why the Vengeance’s scientists had built another layer of defense, specifically turned to guarding them against that corrosive force.  They called it ethereal radiation, and it was a fitting moniker.

Thankfully, the shield held.

For now.  Would that continue to be the case?  Perhaps not, which was why Jessup had immediately ordered a tactical retreat.  The Vengeance’s engines went to work, dragging the attached sky island slowly away from the point of impact.

For the first time in the past few days, there were no attacks.  No bombardments from various magical assaults.  Just the familiar creaks that came with moving such a massive hunk of rock, metal, and ethereal engineering.

“Casualties?” he asked.

“Unclear.”

“Best estimate.”

“Seven Z-14’s, with pilots.  The Comet is unaccounted for.  The –”

Just then, every sensor on the bridge went crazy.  Alarms rang, machines burst into sparks, and one caught fire.  No one panicked, though.  In seconds, the fires were out, the damaged circuits had been bypassed, and everyone was back at their stations trying to figure out exactly what had gone wrong.

“Two powerful energy signatures, a little more than a hundred miles north,” said Clancy, the radar specialist.  That was a bit of a misnomer, because the machine didn’t actually rely on radio waves. Instead, it functioned off a sophisticated combination of factors, including ethereal fluctuations.

“Masasha es Tharys,” he growled.  She was the leader of the other expedition, and reportedly, the most powerful among them.  There were some who thought she could even rival Illska, as improbable as that seemed.  “What’s the other signature?”

“Unclear,” Clancy stated.

Another massive wave of energy sent the sensors into overdrive, but the previous repairs held.  “Get me eyes on that.”

“Copy that.”

One of the other technicians worked at her station, launching a probe that would give Jessup exactly what he’d ordered.  A few moments later, a hundred tiny spheres rocketed across the atmosphere.  They weren’t quite as fast as a Z-14 at full thrust, but they could still cover quite a lot of ground in a hurry.

Moreover, they constantly transmitted a signal back to the Vengeance.  It gave everyone on the bridge a good view of the consequences of dropping that bomb. 

At first, they only saw open air, but after a while, the probes showed them a host of dragons.  Most of them were injured, though none seriously.  Those were the dragons closest to the Vengeance, and they’d been too far away from the blast to hope for more. 

But then, a minute or so later, they got a look at the dragons’ forward command post.  Or what was left of it.  That once proud tower had been reduced to a few stories tall, and even that was crumbling.  The stone itself had melted down to slag, covering the small landmass upon which it had been built.  Some of that molten slurry flowed from the sky island like a fiery waterfall.

Of the dragons who’d been stationed in that tower, there was no evidence.

Which didn’t make sense.  As powerful as that bomb was, it shouldn’t have been enough to kill every dragon there.  Some of them were defenders.  They had classes specifically tailored to taking damage. On top of that, there were peak-tier deities like Masasha in that tower.

It was too much to hope that they’d all been killed.

A massive wave of experience that had washed over every single one of the crew said otherwise.  That’s what killing deities did for a demigod, and everyone who contributed to that was rewarded for the effort.

Some of the probes remained to further investigate the devastation and look for survivors.  If anyone remained alive, they would be saved.  Kept captive, but they would be healed.  Meanwhile, the rest of the probes continued toward the two energy anomalies a hundred miles distant. 

They covered that ground in a couple of minutes. 

But they needn’t have gotten so close.  In fact, it was advisable to keep their distance, as the errant waves of energy destroyed three probes the second they came into range.  The others retreated until they were out of the line of fire, giving Jessup and everyone else on the bridge a good view of what was happening.

And it was apocalyptic.

Two dragons fought.  One had blue scales rimmed in white.  Obviously Masasha.  The other remained in her comparatively tiny human form, though that didn’t seem to affect her power at all.

But calling it a fight was to undersell it.  It was more like two natural disasters clashing against one another, both vying for dominance.  Meanwhile, the very atmosphere shook with the weight of their attacks.

Masasha was a space mage, and her attacks centered on summoning cosmic forces like black holes.  Meanwhile, she teleported around, keeping her distance from Illska.

Illska didn’t seem to mind.  With wings of black energy, she pursued, cutting through every attack like it was nothing more than open air.  She wasn’t fast – not for a peak deity, at least.  But she was inexorable.

It was like watching an avalanche combat a tidal wave.

There were other dragons nearby, and they attempted to attack Illska as well.  However, their efforts were entirely ineffective.  It was obvious that the only one with any shot at fighting Illska – even to a standstill – was Masasha. 

“Sir,” said the radar technician.  “We’re picking up a signal from nearby.  One of ours.”

“Which one?” he demanded.

“It seems like the…Comet.”

Jessup didn’t know how to respond to that.  By all rights, that run should have been a suicide mission.  Everyone onboard knew that going in.  But it had survived?

“Send the other probes,” Jessup ordered.  “Prep a team to rescue them.”

“Aye, captain.”

Everyone erupted into a flurry of activity.  Warriors, Sorcerers, and Rangers fought their battles their way, but Administrators and Tacticians went about things in an entirely different manner.  They didn’t use swords or bows, but instead keyboards and machines. 

Soon enough, a squad of Z-14s exited the hangar, escorting a transport ship containing more than a dozen high-level fighters.  Most were demigods, but there were a few deity dragons in there as well.

Miguel rode beside them on the back of that stag of his. 

The beast had no trouble keeping up with the sleek aircraft.  If Jessup needed it, that was evidence of the animal’s – and its rider’s – power.

“Evasive maneuvers!” came a cry over the communicators.  A second later, a half-dozen massive dragons descended upon the small squadron.  They reacted immediately, with the fighter jets breaking off to pepper the attackers with their ethereal rounds.  Each one held the kinetic energy of old school bunker busters – and then some – but they barely penetrated the scales of those high-level dragons.

The same could not be said of Miguel’s response.

He darted in, narrowly dodging a claw swipe then dove low to avoid a wave of fire.  A second later, his sword lashed out, dragging a deep gash in the dragon’s stomach.  He was forced to break it off before he could do much real damage, but it was enough to distract the dragon from the flight. 

At the same time, the stag aimed beams of blistering moonlight at the other dragons.  A second later, a giant crater exploded near the front shoulder of the already-wounded dragon.  The attack was followed by the sound of a whip crack – evidence that Gunnar was still part of the fight. 

Jessup had no idea where the sniper had taken up position, but the battle was clearly in his range.  That was all that mattered.

“Open fire,” he ordered.

The Vengeance had seven-hundred and three cannons.  Seventy-one had been damaged during the ongoing siege.  Seventeen more had been knocked out by the explosion’s shockwave.  That left six hundred and fifteen.

Every single one of them took aim at the flight of dragons and let loose with massive, roiling balls of ethera, specialized iron they’d mined from Orveth Kaal, and infused crystals they had brought from Earth.

The Vengeance shook under the stress, but the ship held together.

The dragons never saw the barrage coming.  Until that moment, the Earth expedition had cycled the cannons, never using more than a hundred at a time.  So, the sheer magnitude of the attack left the dragons stunned. 

And with their size, it wasn’t as if the cannoneers could miss.

Even as the Z-14s disengaged to continue their escort, the bombardment connected.  The wail of dragons filled the air, echoing the thundering sound of more cannons firing.

Wings tore.  Scales ruptured.  And dragons lost their grip on flight.

Right up until a large, white dragon repositioned itself in the center of the dragons and cast a spell.  A white barrier erected all around them, and when subsequent cannon fire descended, it was entirely ineffective.  The expensive ammunition shattered against that shield, proving once again that in terms of raw power, the people aboard the Vengeance were sorely outmatched.

Jessup glanced at the section of the monitor dedicated to the battle between Illska and Masasha, and he saw little more than continued catastrophe.  Three sky islands had already been utterly destroyed, and the probe was barely hanging on.  He could scarcely even see the two combatants for all the noise.

The picture of the Comet was a little clearer.  It had crash-landed on a nearby sky island, and they were barely holding on by deploying every single one of the grounded aircraft’s defense measures.  They filled the sky with ethera-laced bullets, but it was obvious that the dragons were going to win that battle.

And Jessup knew good and well that if they all fell, the remaining enemies would gang up on Illska.  She would survive for a while, but it wasn’t as if she was a transcendent.  She couldn’t take on hundreds of people at her tier.

“Orders, Captain?” asked Washington, the second communications officer.

For a second, Jessup hesitated.  Then, his resolve firmed and he gave orders to continue the bombardment.  That shield wasn’t impenetrable.  The dragons weren’t omnipotent.  There had to be limits.  And he intended to find them.