“Thoughts on the enemy captain”

  Adjutant Pavoron wisely took his time to formulate an answer.

  “He is afraid. As displayed by his weak words. He didn’t even give his name.”

  She agreed.

  The fear and uncertainty in his sound came through loud and clear as it touched the Akuthan’s outer skin.

  “They know nothing about our nature. As expected. Their primitive detection methods are akin to a child’s first stumbles in the dark. Literal child’s play for the Akuthan to absorb the waves of light and sound pinging from their ugly ship.”

  The enemy skyship wasn’t quite so ugly to Captain Ealal.

  The dark dagger moving above the storm always keeping its sharp tip oriented toward the huge, open shaft of calm air in the center was properly intimidating.

  “His words lacked conviction.”

  They took a good, long look through one of their eyes.

  The biomechanical device built into one the Akuthan’s many tendrils. Thick around as one of Captain Ealal’s fingers and many times as long as the Akuthan, the tendrils gave them great versatility with the countless items grafted on to them after the ranmerbalaen had sacrificed his long life in honor of the bond.

  “Do you believe that they will carry out their threat?”

  She kept an eye on the Benedine and the secret dagger team.

  They had just launched them into the storm.

  The time drew near for their assault.

  Indeed, the storm responded to the Benedine as it picked up speed.

  All according to the Quest plans.

  She reviewed those one last time.

  The brain processing power provide by the Akuthan allowed her to do it in seconds.

  “No, captain. They won’t. These rangers are only loosely allied with our target. I don’t believe they will risk an unknown battle.”

  She disagreed.

  The song emanating from the dark dagger suggested otherwise.

  Unlike her and the Akuthan, this Seraynaty wasn’t of one mind.

  She was like any standard ship, whether of the sea or the sky such vessels were made up of many. An orchestra that struggled to play in harmony. A discordant mass despite the best efforts of their training.

  Pavoron was about to speak, but he received a message in his ears.

  “Captain, the Benedine is sortieing. Commander Richeslaer states that her team is ready.”

  “So, the storm nears our unfortunate foes.”

  Much of it had already made landfall away from Tokyo, the capital city. Areas devoid of Earth humans, so the storm surge merely damaged structures and killed monsters or natural creatures. The main surge thrust up their bay had been blunted. Deflected, directed to empty land or flood control channels. Most of it away from the heart of the city and its population.

  They impressed her.

  Instead of catastrophe, the flooding was managed for the moment.

  Wind and lighting lashed their structures.

  Gleaming towers like the tallest of blade trees.

  Shielding flashed intermittently from the lightning strikes.

  Tiny lights in their countless windows indicated that they still had power.

  “Incoming fire detected!”

  Slow.

  But that wasn’t fair to her crew.

  They lacked the symbiotic link that allowed her and the Akuthan to act and react like a singular being.

  “Indiscriminate fire.” Adjutant Pavoron sounded disgusted and disappointed.

  The enemy skyship bombarded the storm from above with a dazzling array of weaponry.

  Mundane ordinance and spells cut through the black clouds and dark water with impotent rage.

  Captain Ealal and the Akuthan saw the logic behind what seemed like indiscriminate fire.

  She wondered if her crew would catch it as well.

  The enemy appeared to be firing on locations based on the Akuthan’s initial destruction of the first wave of probes.

  A three dimensional grid tracking where the potential threat might maneuver for a direct attack.

  It was all quite complicated owing to the fact that the enemy also had to account for their own movement altering their attack approach.

  She and the Akuthan felt the thrill rise through their flesh.

  How did that saying go?

  Ah, yes!

  One wasn’t in a real battle until they take the first strike.

  The Akuthan rose from the storm, breaching like he had done countless times when he had been fully alive.

  The majesty! The grandeur! The inspired awe!

  It was at a time like this that she wished she could see the looks on an enemy’s face.

  Huge, broad wings flapped once.

  The magic in their body flared to life, creating a temporary void in the planet’s powerful pull and a mighty gust of wind.

  “R.S. Seraynaty.” She spoke before launching an attack. “I am Captain Ealal of the mighty Akuthan. We, who know no fear, accept your declaration of battle.”

  She waited for a response.

  “Wait! We didn’t attack you first! You did! With the typhoon! So, you can’t blame this on us!”

  The skyship vomited out its captain’s words like a child randomly slapping the strings on a violin.

  “So, just, uh, disperse the storm and go away. Or really powerful people are going to ruin your cool looking ship. Wait? Is it alive?”

  She scowled.

  The other captain wasn’t speaking like any captain, friend or foe, that she had ever interacted with before.

  A thought launched a pair of missiles from one of the many biomechanical launchers implanted into the Akuthan’s flesh.

  “This is battle. Your skyship will only be allowed to surrender when we have had our fill. Prepare your crew, Captain No Name. For you have the great honor of the Akuthan’s undivided attention.”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t sound so great. You can’t say we didn’t warn you. Rayna’s Rangers don’t look for fights, but when some asshole brings one to our door we’ll open it wide for an ass-kicking.”

  Empty bravado.

  She heard it in the way the waves of the captain’s voice trembled.

  He spoke for the benefit of his crew.

  That was obvious enough.

  A few thousand meters separated them from the skyship.

  Their missiles struck.

  Captain Ealal received and interpreted the sound of the impact before her crew could relay what they picked up with their instruments.

  “Direct hit. Shielding. Kinetic. Magical.”

  “Estimate seven percent drain. Already recharging.”

  The skyship responded with their own weapons.

  “Projectile fire. High-density mass. Metal alloy.”

  The Akuthan presented his heavily armored back.

  The natural plates were thicker, denser and stronger than the armor used on their most heavily defended warships with the added benefit of being able to naturally heal over time.

  The projectiles shrieked across the empty sky, thudding into the Akuthan like angry sting wings.

  “Negligible damage.”

  “Maintain target lock.” Captain Ealal needed to remember that this battle was more akin to a training exercise than a titanic struggle of life and death balanced on the blade’s edge.

  Perhaps, if the enemy had five or ten of their skyships in the air it would’ve been a proper challenge.

  “Diving back into the storm. Cycle through our weaponry. I want to see what these skyships are capable of.”

  Skin flaps opened, revealing gun barrels as deep and dark as an abyss. Biomechanical weaponry grafted into the very flesh.

  Magnetic acceleration launched projectiles with booms that drowned out the storm’s thunder.

  Hyper dense metal alloys shaped into darts the size of the average human across the spires worlds slammed into shields that had activated the instant the darts had shattered the air.

  The impact reverberated across the sun-lit sky, spreading cracks across the translucent blue barrier protecting the Seraynaty’s dark gray underbelly.

  Light and dark.

  Night and day.

  The separation marked by black clouds roiling like the dark surface of the ocean thousands of meters below. The boundary set by the top of the many thousands of kilometers large typhoon.

  The dagger-shaped skyship responded with a barrage of missiles and projectile fire of their own that fell like metal rain, but the Akuthan had already moved out of the area with speed that belied his bulk.

  Invisible waves pulsed desperately from the Seraynaty, seeking, searching in the black storm.

  The Akuthan instantly matched them with his song, showing the skyship nothing but sky filled with water and lightning.

  The half-living ship glided through the howling winds and stabbing rain, ignoring the distant explosions that would turn lesser creatures into bags of broken bones and pulped organs just from proximity.

  Another area of his skin opened, between a gap in the natural armor plating on his dorsal side.

  A long pole topped with a glowing orb extended.

  The coruscating orb of magic blasted forth, growing large enough to fit his entire bridge crew by the time it struck the skyship’s shields.

  The blue nimbus crackled than vanished with a bang that shook the sky and sent glowing blue shards twinkling out of existence before they reached the storm.

  Nikglon’s Shield Disruptor.

  A spell that did what it said, although its effectiveness varied depending on the specific nature of its target shield.

  It was an almost instant kill on magic-based shields.

  The Akuthan waited, circling much like he had done in life when helping the adults in his pod herd prey for the older calves to practice their hunting techniques.

  The skyship’s engines roared, thrusting it higher toward the bright, burning orb.

  Missiles streaked behind it, covering its attempted escape.

  Another weapon emerged from the Akuthan.

  Claws of gravity reached out to sink into the skyship’s dark gray skin.

  Or that was what was expected.

  Instead, claws failed to sink in to the tougher than expected metal.

  Thin and shallow tracks formed underneath claws only visible through the slight distortion of the air as the skyship powered out of gravity’s grasp.

  Thrusters in its port side fired, displacing air into visible plumes.

  The skyship spun in place, behaving more like a vessel in a vacuum than one in the planet’s grasp.

  It pointed the tip of its point down toward the black storm.

  The Akuthan realized nearly instantly that the skyship’s pointed tip wasn’t one at all.

  They stared into a perfect circle of a black void.

  A barrel larger than the ones on their own guns.

  Large enough for the tallest Lume and Teneb to walk into with arms raised.

  A powerful electromagnetic surge emanated from deep within the skyship.

  The Akuthan picked the waves up with the multitude of sensory organs in his body, sharing it with Captain Ealal and then the rest of the bridge crew.

  The reaction was quick, well-drilled.

  Emergency evasive maneuver.

  Broad wings larger than many ships in their own right flapped, tail fin swept violently.

  But, it was too late.

  The skyship’s projectile ripped through the clear sky and black storm, leaving an immense hole for a brief moment in the wake of its passing.

  It punched right through the Akuthan’s left wing where he lacked natural armor.

  The spell shield generators implanted inside the flesh had failed to activate.

  The projectile had flown too fast for the automatic detection system to catch.

  Half alive didn’t mean pain was felt at half the intensity.

  The keening wail from the Akuthan and his bonded singer brought tears to the eyes of the rest of the crew.

  Great streams of crimson fell with the rain with each flap.

  Captain Ealal and the Akuthan cut their gravity attack.

  It didn’t take a tactical genius to realized that the skyship had finally located them by following the gravity distortions to their source.

  They dived for the ocean amidst falling missiles.

  This time the warheads exploded with more than just fire and force.

  Stray acid drops pitted the Akuthan’s armor plating and burned skin, but both were thick and the damage done wasn’t worth a second thought.

  More dangerous were the gravity explosions that battered away, then suddenly sucked in violently for a few seconds.

  Those were strong enough to rip human fist-sized sections out of the Akuthan.

  They activated their own magic shields.

  Which the skyship somehow tracked judging by the next barrage of missile and projectile fire.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Prescient thought to raise their shields to absorb the few strikes that hit home without damaging the Akuthan further.

  The ocean wrapped them in its cold embrace.

  They dived deep and far, covering a great distance in a short time.

  Like a lone hunter that needed to take small bites out of its massive prey in order to avoid getting crushed by an errant tail fin slap.

  Better to let the massive behemoth bleed out over time rather than risk it all for a quicker kill.

  …

  “Did we hit them?”

  Captain Mandrill gripped the armrests like his life depended on them.

  Snarktessa on the comms grimaced.

  It looked like she was about to cry.

  That shit was really fucking scary, but it’s no reason to cry. Well, they do say women are more emotional, he thought. Do I say something encouraging? Or would that make it worse?

  “I think so, at least that noise I picked up right after what sounded like our rail gun hitting. It sounded like pain. Kinda how I imagine a whale being harpooned sounds.”

  “That’s… that’s very specific…”

  She sniffled and shrugged.

  “I watch nature documentaries in my free time.”

  “Hannarca, status of our munitions?” Picardia snapped.

  Mandrill thought she glared at him out of the corner of her eyes.

  Was that even possible?

  “Down to thirty percent on total missiles. Used up all our magitech warheads. Just have dumb HE left. Down to about fifty percent on all bullets and shells.”

  “And our defenses?”

  “No armor breaches. All ventral shield generators overloaded and no longer operable. Repair crews currently assessing. Port and starboard generators, the ones working, can be used to extend partial protection, but won’t be able to reach a good chunk down our center line. The shields will be a lot thinner too.”

  His vice captain winced before quickly mastering her expression and turning to him gravely.

  “Captain, I recommend we go zero-g and flip over. We still have our dorsal shields.”

  “Make it so, Number Two.”

  He didn’t even have to think about it.

  Trust the top-of-her-class genius.

  Easy peasy.

  He checked the straps securing him to the captain’s chair as Picardia gave the orders out on the comms and Blindo, the pilot, slowly turned the Seraynaty over.

  Up was now down.

  A blob of brown liquid floated past his faceplate.

  Oops…

  He had forgotten to secure his cup of chocolate milk.

  That disapproving gaze from his left from his vice captain didn’t need to be seen to be felt. There was a weight to it. A presence.

  Did she have a Skill to fire off that look that every child knew from a parent, a teacher or a coach?

  He snatched his floating cup and scooped most of the globules up before they could float away.

  It was a waste of precious seconds to close the lid and snap it into place in his cup holder.

  “Energy surge detected!”

  Hannarca’s voice was high and tight.

  “Launch chaff.” Picardia’s was calm and cool. “Increase power to ventral shields.”

  “Done!” Hannarca said just in time.

  Mandrill watched the tactical display like his life depended on it.

  The holographic projection showed the Seraynaty, upside down. The cloud of reflective particles spread between them and the dark, roiling typhoon clouds. The multiple beams of light stabbing out of the darkness.

  They struck home, but he felt nothing change.

  “Damage report?”

  “Shields down to fifty-two percent!” Hannarca snapped. “Can’t get a target lock!”

  He got an idea.

  A bit of inspiration.

  Switching to a direct link so as to not mess up his vice captain’s commands, he tapped his communications officer.

  “That whale thing you mentioned.”

  “Sir?” Snarktessa said.

  “The sounds they make… that ship sorta looked kinda alive. So, I’m thinking it makes sounds like whales. You know, like, how they move around in the ocean when they can’t see.”

  “Echolocation, sir.”

  “Can you track it through that? It has to be using that echo-whatever to move around inside the storm.”

  “I’ll try, sir!”

  “Thanks!”

  The battle settled into an exercise in shield energy management for Hannarca and the shield guys she had to send down to the individual generators for more direct and precise control, not to mention some of the random weapons the half-whale, half-manta ray warship disrupting their control systems.

  On the other side of it, they had to manage their own attacks with an eye towards their dwindling munitions.

  It was like a balanced diet.

  They had physical weapons that ran out of ammunition.

  Sure, they had an on board armory that could make more, but those fancy Threnosh printers couldn’t keep up with the demand of a fierce fight.

  They were better off with their spell-based weapons. Those were fine as long as they had mana and they had a lot of mana batteries.

  The main issues was they had no idea if they were even close to hitting the enemy inside the typhoon that had already engulfed Tokyo in beyond record winds, flooding and lightning.

  Explosive fire ball spells fifty meters in diameter were like pebbles dropped in the sea.

  Mana lasers and normal lasers burned tunnels through the black clouds large enough for a person to dive right through, but the short-lived openings were akin to the pores on the hide of some great, dark monster.

  Shields dwindled.

  The crew’s Skills and technical expertise made them last longer. Energy spent was replenished, but never to the same levels. Generators over-heated and failed, some explosively, sending brave men and women to the med chambers or to that last journey all mortal beings eventually took.

  Threnium armor stood against the enemy’s wide array of attacks like an immortal bulwark.

  Any other material would have long been melted, ablated and disintegrated.

  “Incoming gravity attack!”

  Hannarca was getting better at reading incoming.

  “They’re targeting Thruster 3!”

  Unfortunately, they couldn’t do anything about it.

  Although, if Mandrill remembered right the last gravity attack had allowed them to land what was, possibly, their only hit of the one-sided battle.

  “Track and fire!”

  Clearly, Picardia had just as good a memory as him.

  Hannarca cursed.

  Uncharacteristic, for professionalism was stressed.

  “They have a tight hold on our thruster.”

  “I can’t move without tearing… stuff!” Blindo agreed.

  The vice captain turned to Mandrill.

  “Permission to jettison Thruster 3, captain?”

  He blinked.

  “Wha— yes? Yes! Make it so, Number Two!”

  Sometimes, he surprised himself with how quick and sharp his mind worked. Like a monomolecular-edged blade as the popular saying went.

  Picardia relayed the command down to engineering.

  The Seraynaty shuddered as if groaning in protest.

  He supposed that was fair.

  It would be like him chopping off a toe because a toe-snapper had sunk its needle teeth into said toe.

  Goodbye my toe, I will miss you, but your sacrifice will be remembered, he thought. Apologies. We’ll get you a new one.

  Assuming they made it back home.

  Thruster 3 popped out like a battery and shot away down into the typhoon.

  “Turn us, Blindo! Hannarca, ready our main gun!” Picardia grinned like a feral cat as she leaned forward, her eyes fixed on the holographic projection as if it was a baby bird that had just fallen out of its nest, chirping plaintively for its mother and father bird.

  Mandrill felt the skyship strain through the thrumming in his chair as its huge bulk turned and rotated faster than something so big had any right to.

  Thank you float stones! May you never stop making the laws of physics look like timid suggestions.

  “Track lock on!” Hannarca said.

  “Got it!” Blindo said through grit teeth. “Almost there. Just a little more— There!”

  “Firing main gun!”

  Mandrill’s chair shuddered.

  It was a rather muted feeling.

  Not at all commensurate with the power of the railgun.

  The high density metal projectile cut through the black clouds, clearing a tunnel large enough to fly on old passenger airplane through.

  “Target sighted!” Hannarca crowed.

  The holographic projection shifted to display the enemy ship.

  So weird.

  It really looked like a mix between a whale and a manta ray.

  Mandrill didn’t know his whales and manta rays, but the measurements the system put up said that the enemy warship was a lot bigger than Earth whales.

  Despite its size the damn thing flew or swam through the air like it was underwater.

  It spun into a barrel roll, curling what appeared to be a wounded wing-thing barely out of the way of the Seraynaty’s hypersonic projectile.

  “Did we miss?” Picardia muttered some bad words. “Fire everything before we lose it again.”

  “Everything? Are you sure?” Hannarca said.

  “Yes!”

  “But—”

  “Everything!” Picardia roared like an unhinged crooked cop about to lose it all because a waif became friends with a hitman.

  “Acknowledged.”

  Hannarca fired everything.

  The tactical display flared bright enough to trigger the automatic darkening feature in Mandrill’s faceplate.

  …

  “Close like the first loser in a game of bladecatch.” Captain Ealal spoke in a whisper that only the Akuthan could hear. Not that they need words to communicate, especially when deeply-linked in their symbiotic bond.

  The heat in her pod grew to mirror the heat of the enemy’s hypersonic hunk of metal.

  More specifically the heat it left in the shallow groove it carved against the Akuthan’s lighter colored underbelly.

  She urged him to devote more resources to healing the wound than he would have had it been up to him.

  The old softie always prioritized his calves over himself.

  She had to remind him that the crew died if he died.

  Speaking of.

  Their crew spoke in hushed, but harried tones.

  The music of concern turning to fear.

  An unpleasant, discordant thing.

  She and the Akuthan sang over them, bringing instant composure.

  A captain’s Skill reinforced the feelings, making sure they would stick for the duration of the battle no matter how things went.

  “The enemy’s end has arrived.”

  The time felt right.

  They had coaxed all manner of weapon’s fire. Tested defensive systems. Watched it fly and maneuver.

  Ealal was confident that they had recorded enough valuable information to take back home so that those higher up the food chain could come up with a proper engagement doctrine for future battles.

  The Akuthan dived back into the storm as hypersonic projectiles burned huge tunnels in his wake.

  The last skimmed uncomfortably close to his enormous tail fin.

  The heat flashed across the bottom of Ealal’s feet like a splash of lava.

  “Take control of the weapons, our crew. You have the honor of finishing this fight.”

  It would be good for their crew’s confidence and experience to take a significant part in their victory.

  …

  “Captain! I think I got it!” Snarktessa almost jumped out of her seat before she realized that she was strapped in. “I isolated what I think are the sounds the enemy ship makes to fly around in there. Sending it to you, Hannarca.”

  “Give me a few seconds to feed it into targeting.”

  “We don’t have a few, but do your best.” Picardia nodded stiffly. “Good job, Snarktessa. Keep listening for them. I want us tracking through multiple avenues. If you think you have a hit don’t hesitate to share.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Captain Mandrill grinned.

  A job well done!

  Delegation was, indeed, the key to good captaincy.

  “Incoming!”

  Alarms blared at the same time as Hannarca shouted.

  “Brace!” Mandrill said. “Number Two, how are our shields?”

  Her eyes were tight, her posture was ramrod straight.

  “Down.”

  “Well… engineering did their best.”

  “The efforts are always appreciated,” she agreed. “Even if there might be none left to appreciate them.”

  He shrugged.

  Somehow, impending death didn’t feel as bad as he had imagined it would.

  “There’s the black boxes.”

  Picardia’s response was lost as the hits began to land.

  …

  “Their armor is strong.”

  “Nearly impenetrable to the majority of our weapons.”

  “Mark it for sample recovery.”

  Captain Ealal listened, content to fly through the storm, placing the Akuthan in the right spots and positions to provide their crew optimal lines of fire.

  They danced through lightning and rain, dodging enemy return fire that was much closer than previously.

  They moved with speed and grace belied by their massive bulk.

  Wings and tail, fins and flippers moving in harmony to propel them with their inherent magic while moving out of the way of the Seraynaty’s attacks.

  And, yet, not all attacks missed.

  A few skimmed flesh or deflected off natural armor plating.

  She decided that the risks had, perhaps, grown too high.

  It was time to disrupt that interesting song she and the Akuthan had heard emanating from deep with the skyship.

  …

  “Tracking’s good, but it’s just too fast and quick!” Hannarca spat.

  Mandrill didn’t get it.

  Fast and quick?

  Those were the same thing.

  “System’s struggling to lead them. Going manual.”

  “Their singing is disrupting our sensors!” Snarktessa said. “I’m trying to keep on them, but it’s like trying to grab an eel.”

  There was an interesting story there, but it wasn’t the time.

  The Seraynaty suddenly lurched.

  Straps kept Mandrill in place and zero-g meant he only knew there had been a sudden drop in altitude because of said straps.

  “Blindo, report!” Picardia snapped.

  The pilot tapped and swiped frantically on his console.

  “Somethings wrong with the float stones! We’re losing altitude.”

  Picardia cursed.

  Sweat beaded on her forehead, visible through her faceplate.

  She called the float stone chamber.

  Mandrill listened to the conversation since she kept him patched into all her communications.

  It wasn’t good.

  It was all very technical and he didn’t get a bunch of the terminology they used, but he had reviewed how the float stones worked and the system of sound waves used to control them.

  Sound waves… whale songs…

  “Number Two—”

  “Yeah! I know!” she snapped. “Sorry, captain.”

  At least she had the decency to look ashamed.

  A glance at the tactical display showed that they had already dropped into the storm where the enemy had all the advantages.

  “Ideas?” he prodded.

  “Without the float stones we…”

  “… fly as well as heavy hunk of metal? I get it. But, I know you have ideas. You always do.”

  “Maybe… but it means abandoning the ambassador and our guys down there.”

  “And the people of Tokyo. But, without the float stones we sail about as well as we fly. So, the way I see things is how are we good to anyone else if we’re dead anyways? Right now, we’re the only ones on this planet with recorded information on that whale-manta super ship.”

  Picardia nodded, grim expression on her face.

  “Permission to withdraw from this battle, Captain Mandrill?”

  “Make it so, Number Two.”

  …

  “Target their thrusters!”

  “Disable them before they escape!”

  The enemy skyship had dropped into the storm like a falling dagger.

  A successful gambit using the Akuthan’s song to disrupt the songs the enemy used to remain aloft.

  Levitation rocks, crystals and such were a fairly common occurrence from Captain Ealal’s experience.

  Out of the multiple worlds she had visited roughly seventy percent of them had some form of naturally occurring object that levitated and imparted the same on another with the right use of magic, technology or Skills.

  She listened, a mental image formed from the sound waves bounced back to her, to the Seraynaty using the last fleeting bits of control it had over its float stones to angle its sharp point toward the sky, almost vertical.

  Its remaining thrusters fired, shooting them out of the storm like an interstellar rocket.

  “Not badly done at all.”

  The Akuthan agreed.

  He was a soft one for a ranmerbalaen, living or half-living, and he often preferred to allow a defeated opponent the opportunity to live.

  He wasn’t the type to seek total annihilation for that left a world empty of diversity, which was the true defeat.

  They pinged the skyship until it passed out of their range.

  “Adjutant Pavoron.”

  “Yes, captain.”

  How long had the battle taken?

  Time flowed strangely when deep in the bond.

  Sometimes faster, other times slower.

  “Report. The Benedine’s and the secret daggers’ Quest. Any changes from his last communication? Concise, please.”

  …

  “This is your captain speaking. Congratulations, crew of the Seraynaty. You are now one of the very few humans to have reached space.”

  It sounded scarier than it truly was.

  He knew the skyship’s specs.

  New the protocol for emergency space travel.

  Low orbit to be specific.

  “There is no cause for alarm. We’re sealed and we have plenty of oxygen and oxygen generation. And we have our environmentally-sealed suits. Even if our ship suffers a breach and we are all sucked out into the black void, our suits will keep us safe and alive for hours until Rayna can come get us.”

  Picardia cleared her throat.

  He nodded at her and then threw a nod at Potiguayan.

  The big combat vet had remained silent throughout the battle since they hadn’t had any unwelcome visitors, but leave it to a combat vet to get the prognostication right.

  Mandrill wouldn’t have bet any amount of money when the battle had started that they’d end up in space.

  “We will conduct repairs and return to Earth as soon as it is safe.”

  He figured it would be easy enough.

  No more manta-whale ship song to mess with the float stones meant they wouldn’t have to worry about falling splat like a meteor.

  Their armor was more than enough to deal with re-entry.

  Even better if they got at least some of their shields back to take some of that heat.

  “We have to hurry, captain,” Picardia said. “The enemy—”

  “We will. Meanwhile, comms?”

  “Yes, captain?” Snarktessa snapped to attention.

  “There shouldn’t be any interference up here. Get me home base and send them everything we got from that fight.”

  They definitively lost the one versus one, but he’d like to see how this Akuthan did against five, no, make that ten skyships.