Emergence: Chapter 48

Warspheres.

While the ships had seemed slow back on Raan, they were giving Keinam's a challenge to keep up with them now. It was evident that they were heading for a specific point, rather than a random invasion of a random planet; this was a deliberate mission. He followed them closely, or as close as he could get, so he couldn't engage his L-Drive; he had no idea where they were headed.

Fucking Warspheres.

He hated them. They were just as bad as the Corlens at being indestructible; they were a bitch to take out. He remembered the Adjeti/Corlen war. It was a bloodbath on the Adjeti's side. The Corlens barely lost a soul until the World-Burner scorched hundreds of their Warspheres, driving them underground. Literally.

Keinam had thought that was the end of it.

Evidently not.

He sighed; since coming back to the Empire, he'd been faced with more challenges than he'd expected. Haven't even made a proper move on the insect bastards yet. Usually, by now, he would have fired on the Warspheres, but he hadn't flown this ship properly in decades, and didn't plan engaging about fifty of them in open battle; the Xaosian fleet was one thing, but this was out of his depth.

It seemed to take an age to follow them, and he wondered where they could be going. Ideally, they would know that it was Xaos that disturbed them, and actually head to the planet and wipe out there army. OR, for some random reason, to Buun and kill all the Pyrkagia. He grinned at the unlikely prospect, but he knew it wouldn't happen. They were probably off to Orbus or some shit like that.

Or Oblivion.

Revenge would be perfect for the Corlens now they could escape from their prison, but Keinam doubted that; from his experiences, the Corlens didn't think like that, they just wanted new homes at the expense of everyone on the planets they chose. They weren't a fan of organic life.

Keinam looked at the nav-screen, and calculated their current course to try and determine the planet they were headed to: Narcsia. He racked his brain; he'd heard something about Narcsia recently.

“The Narcsia survivors...”

“ citizens of Narcsia need new homes”

Where the Corlens already there? Cinradahs said nothing about them, so he assumed not. Unless he didn't know the full story. But, if the planet had been evacuated, then it was just the right time for Corlens to move in. Keinam couldn't help admire them there; they at least picked a good time. If he could just persuade them to stay there, everything should be fine.

It took a few minutes before his calculations were proved correct.

Narcsia, the green planet, home of the Scalimen. He liked Scalimen; one of his best friends was one. He grew old with Keinam, but unlike Keinam, he died. Keinam sat beside him as he died of old age; that was the curse of the Adjeti's longevity. You have to watch any inter-species friends grow old, whither and die. Even the thought of Osala brought a tear to his eye, but he could just about move on now.

There was something different about Narcsia.

Instead of recognisable continents like last time he was here, the planet seemed to be a swirl of green; maybe it was terrible storms that drove the Scalimen away.

He followed the Corlens down to the planets, and he could tell from their slower speed that they were apprehensive; evidently they were expecting the planet to look similar to what Keinam expected. They descended into the atmosphere, and Keinam couldn't help but notice the colour of the clouds; a dark green. Unusual for clouds, especially for Narcsia; if he expected dodgy clouds anywhere, it'd be Prauw just because of the crap the industrial district must pump out.

Keinam got the ship to run an analysis on the clouds, and it the result came back almost straight away. Keinam looked at it, confused.

The clouds were alive.

Something hit his ship.

“What the hell?” He yelled, knowing that he'd get no answer. Activating the ship's exterior cameras, he saw the clouds moving. And not with the wind. Another cloud smashed into his ship, flipping it around. He tried to gain control, but the clouds kept pummelling him. Then, they began to unravel.

Green, twisting serpentine creatures. Thin bodies, bulbous head. It's head split open, revealing a glowing red orb inside. Keinam breathed deep; the fucking things are made of gas! How am I supposed to fight gas? The thing shrieked, and lunged at his ship. Keinam, prepared, lurched out of its way. It narrowly missed, but now other joined it, unravelling into similar forms. Keinam shook his head in disbelief.

And activated the guns.

Unlike the messy projectiles of the Empire craft, and the bludgeoning of smaller Adjeti craft, Keinam's ship was equipped with lasers; pure concentrated light. Might just ignite the gas, or at least frighten them away.

He opened fire.

The lasers fired straight at the things; Keinam was famous for his marksmanship. But they passed straight through their incorporeal bodies. He wasn't surprised; it went worse than he hoped, but about the same as he'd expected. Even so, he couldn't think much aside from expletives.

And Run!

His fight or flight reactions had already exhausted the fighting part, and now it was time for flight; he was certain that gas couldn't follow him into space. He turned the ship around. The things followed. Close behind. Keinam looked at the rear cam-screen. Damn it! He tried to call backup, just in case he didn't make it out alive, but the clouds messed with his communications.

“Fuck it all!” He steered the ship as he yelled, thanking himself for turning the voice commands off; he had no idea what the ship would've done in that case.

He escaped the atmosphere with a relieved sigh. Looking back at the planet, he saw the things retreat back into the clouds. He smiled; best possible outcome. What were those things? Allied with the Corlens, he suspected. But why would the Corlens ally themselves with something so opposite to their own existence?

At least he was safe. He relaxed, and tried to communicate with Cinradahs. No signal. Suspicious, he turned the ship around to look at Narcsia, and considered one thing he'd forgotten about.

If gas can't travel through space, how did these things get here in the first place?

It seemed that dense gas, or possibly a huge amount of it compressed together, could travel through space. Either that, or he simply didn't understand how the ships coming at him worked. Probably the latter.

The ships looked like clouds. Not the wispy ones that the being made up, but properly thick cumulonimbus clouds. They crackled with electricity and seemed to have a vortex at the centre, generating a constant tornado-like movement at the front of the ship. They didn't look all that threatening aside from the electricity it generated.

A bolt of electricity shot from it to Keinam's ship.

The ship shook, circuits sparked, and the screens went dark. Keinam looked at them, wide-eyed. Could this be my first loss in battle? Deep breath. Heart racing. Navigation systems still functional. Thank fuck for that.

He moved away from the ship, flying erratically so they might not hit him, before he realised something else.

Electricity has to travel between two points, and I'm the only other point around; they can just aim it in my general direction, and it can't miss.

He'd got far enough away from the planet to engage the L-Drive, he flicked the switch for it. It whined as it booted up, and he breathed a sigh of relief; he could get back to Raan in no time.

The L-Drive sputtered and sparked, stopping the boot-up entirely.

His face fell. “No no no no no. No!” He collapsed to the floor, ready to accept his fate. A bolt of lightning from the Cloudship came his way.

And didn't hit.

His ship didn't move, no sound and no damage. Turning the ship around, he saw what it had hit; a Corlen Warsphere. It seemed fine, just singed a little where the electricity hit it. It hovered for a moment, before swooping in to joins its allies.

They were closing in on the Cloudship, using their own lasers on it; the Adjeti based their lasers on the Warspheres' own. But these were evidently more potent; they were definitely hitting the Cloudship. Small explosions peppered it, before several of the Warspheres smashed into one another, creating a larger Warsphere. Keinam looked at it in disbelief as it surrounded the Cloudship, and closed around it, smothering it completely. The Warsphere went back to its usual shape, and the Cloudship was gone; utterly destroyed. Keinam couldn't help but be impressed.

Then he noticed the clouds on Narcsia were moving. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Lightning bolts shot from them, the combined barrage destroying the Corlen Warspheres. Blackening them until they were brittle enough to crack open. He watched, jaw dropped, as the Cloudships tore through the Corlen armada. Some Cloudships got smothered, but it seemed like for every Cloudship destroyed, 3 Warspheres were taken out. A loosing battle. More Cloudships emerged from Narcsia, firing as they came.

Keinam took the ship further away from the bolts of lightning and tried the com again. It was crackling a bit, but he could communicate. Patching in to Cinradahs's frequency, he dialled the com.

“Cinradahs.” Keinam panted. “Need help.”

“What?” Cinradahs's voice seemed confused. “Help, you say?”

“Not just Corlens. Narcsia under attack by gas creatures. My ship's damaged, I can't leave.” Keinam cursed what he was about to do. “Please,” he begged, “help me.”

The com cut out as lightning hit his ship again.