Skyfire Avenue

Lan Jue was distracted. His heart was heavy after witnessing the scene on the bridge. The North’s sacrifice had affected him deeply. In truth he’d never liked Northerners or Westerners. But after what he’d seen, he had developed a respect for them.

Warriors... true warriors! They’d lain down their lives for their country without hesitation. This was what the soul of a soldier really was! His prejudice subsided, his mission the same as every human here: Protect Tyrannosaurus from alien destruction.

Eleven pairs of hands were lain upon metal rods. No words were exchanged – none were needed. The tell-tale pulse of Discipline flooded the room and drew the eyes of the other Adepts. Their eyes were stabbed by the brilliance of their auras.

Lan Jue was only faintly visible in the orb of blue light that surrounded him. His power coursed through the rod before him, causing it to shiver and flooding the ship with excess energy. Nor was he alone as Qianlin, the Pharmacist, the Driver and all the others followed his lead. Needles practically jumped off the charts once the Paragons joined.

Literally. Ship officers stared in shock as monitoring computers failed to record the sudden leap in output. Forced to guess, they suspected a full three hundred percent increase. Incredible! Was there a limit to the power these eleven newcomers possessed? The Adepts failed to understand how their addition was so potent, so outside the norm. It was like witnessing a miracle.

One of them waved a scepter which contained the flood of their power. It was so potent there was legitimate concern for the safety of the spectators.

When they regained their senses the Adepts returned to their duties, coursing their Disciplines through the rods as well. Although it went unspoken, they victory – or at least survival – hinged on how fast the main cannon charged.

ζ

Kang Hui stared at his screen, watching the charge rate spike dramatically. He also watched as the alien planet quickly caught up with Moonfiend. A purple light issued from the planet’s vortex and hung over the former pirate enclave, which was riddled with craters from where First Fleet made impact. Once it had, the planet turned back toward Tyrannosaurus which was pummeling them both with railgun fire. Its main cannon’s second shot was inevitable.

“All fleet break off, attack the planet from the flanks.” Kang Hui ordered. Keeping the fleet close wasn’t just useless now that the asteroids had passed, it influenced Tyrannosaurs’ ability to engage.

“Dino-plate!” The Admiral roared.

At his command the entire ship began to change. Smaller railguns disappeared as the surface became a sea of spiky protrusions. All of a sudden Tyrannosaurus looked like the head of a terrible mace. What’s more, the head of each spike was a Gamma-class railgun.

It was Tyrannosaurus’ supreme transformation. Kang Hui’s bastion wasn’t constructed with the same bionic principles of Arachnid or Heron, its armor and energy stores were its advantages. As one of the North’s most traditional Bastions, its energy consumption was considerable but its construction was also among the safest.

Moonfiend’s sudden appearance and frightening speed had originally denied this transformation – it took too long. However Ying Tianlong and his soldiers had bought them the time they needed.

Third, Sixth, Eleventh and Thirteenth Fleets spread out to either side of Tyrannosaurus. A buzzing cloud of fighter ships were dispatched from the Bastion to support them. Kang Hui looked on with red eyes. In the course of this short battle one fleet had already met its demise. What would become of the rest, burning toward their overwhelming foe?

The fleets always competing with one another for glory, but First Fleet had always been head and shoulder above the others. It was a fact no one could contest. Especially in its final moments the First Fleet set the bar high, which lit a fire of patriotism and duty in the hearts of the Northern navy. Their hats were off in a sign of respect.

Ying Tianlong had waited to obey orders. He corrected that with his life.

“Where are we on the main cannon?” Kang Hui muttered.

“Admiral, at the current rate we’ll need three minutes to get a full charge.”

“Good!” A fervent light blazed in the admiral’s eyes. He was determined to fight hard, for as long as they could. Ying Tianlong’s sacrifice would not be in vain. Besides the window for retreat was gone. If they wanted to flee they would first have to free themselves from the enemy’s clutches.

Come on then, you bastard!

Moonfiend lurched backward from the alien planet’s vacuum force, but only for a moment. In a blink it was spat forward again on a collision course toward Tyrannosaurus. However, in contrast to its last charge Moonfiend was moving significantly slower.

Tyrannosaurus sped up as though to meet it head-on.

An interstellar fleet lead by Capital ships had enough combined might to destroy a small planet. However, Moonfiend was anything but small. On the contrary, it had once been the largest stellar body in the galaxy. But under Tyrannosaurus constant assault, blasts from the four fleets and First Fleet’s valiant plunge, parts of its surface had begun to fragment. Great craters and cavernous crevices marred its surface.

Tyrannosaurus blasted forward as its entourage swung around in a pincer maneuver. They blasted away at Moonfiend, slowing it down, while Tyrannosaurus bore down on it like a golden spiked mace!

“Brother Tianlong, may your journey to Valhalla be a smooth one.” Kang Hui stood tall before the window, watching Moonfiend grow larger by the moment. He marked himself with the sign of the cross.

BOOM–!! An explosion to shake the pillars of heaven roared through the Shattered Starfields. Tyrannosaurus, relying on its size and armor, and the aid of its entourage, brazenly rammed into the remains of Moonfiend.

Things appeared to move in slow motion. Moonfiend first stopped, then began to crumble apart. An angry red light cast everything in a stark light as the planet’s core cracked open.

Tyrannosaurus shook from the impact, so violently that for a moment it seemed the whole ship would rattle apart. However, a few moments later it grew stable. Moonfiends explosion tore passed the Bastion’s windows, swallowing everything up in an incandescent red glare. The only sound was the persistent roar of a planet’s ruin.

The angry fires of Moonfiend’s core roared around Tyrannosaurus. The Bastion stood its ground, unmoving even in the face of apocalyptic destruction. Its scale-like protrusions burned in the fires but did not give.

This was in part due to Tyrannosaurus’ energy restoration systems. Through this system the Bastion could supplement its energy reserves and shields at a moment’s notice. However, this required that there was enough energy outside for the system to draw from.

As tremors shivered through the ship Lan Jue held tight to the metal bar in front of him. He never stopped filling the ship with his Discipline. In his mind’s eyes the image of First Fleet crashing into Moonfiend’s surface played over and over.

War was cruel, but it was were heroes were born.

If there came a day I had to make a decision like that, could I make it? Lan Jue quietly mulled over the question.

The alien planet didn’t press the attack. Perhaps it was just as shocked by the scene as the humans were. Tyrannosaurus had bared its fearsome teeth. Meanwhile the four remaining fleets were in position.

Eventually the blazing light of Moonfiend’s demise receded. Fresh slabs of space rock were all that remained of the pirate planet. The alien planet that spat it out wasn’t advancing – it was headed back toward the asteroid field.

It was trying to run!

Kang Hui’s eyes flashed. He was about to give the order when an urgent voice caught his attention.

“Admiral! Heron has had to shed its tail. They’re headed our way. Admiral Yan Yuan wishes to speak with you.”

His heart skipped a beat, cooling the bloodlust that had bubbled up within him. Shed its tail... as one of the highest ranking military officers in the North he knew what that meant. They’d been ambushed.