Son of a witch!

I guess the battle had started without us.

The Vengeance's laser batteries came to life all at once, the guns craning up from their resting position on the ship's hull. The artillery pounded out blisteringly red laser beams a quarter mile long.

It was an upward deluge of molten rain.

The wyrms gave me all their suffering and grief; all their hopes; all their dreams.

Fibrous weaves of azure and gold flung toward me from every direction, crackling with power. I willed the energy onto the Sword and let it spark, igniting it with the flame of &alon's might. It flared long and bright. Wyrms and starfighters parted to either side of me as I roared in the soundless void and brought the Sword down in a single vertical strike.

I'd cut through density itself if I had to.

My blow launched a crescent wave at the Vengeance. The magic swept up a column of laser fire and dragged it along, surging forward as it cut through the flagship's shields. The mighty forcefield crumbled like dry leaves outward from the cut's seam. Energy sparked across the hull.

Geoffrey raised his halberd high and yelled. "Charge!"

Wyrms roared, and engines, too. The great host descended into the many lines of fire. I pulled the Sword free of my fellow wyrms' power; it was up to them to use their magic as they saw fit.

For a second time, I went on the defensive, focusing on deflecting the incoming laser fire, slamming forcefields into oncoming blasts or launching them in broad walls that redirected the beams in ever-changing paths as we hurtled toward the hull.

Details on the Vengenace's hull resolved as I approached. Windows. Walkways. Atmospheric domes. Bristling communications antennae. Corrugations and in-folds festooned the silvery surface in hills and valleys and canyons long—the canals of a great, mechanical brain.

Rebel ships scattered left and right, sinking into strafing maneuvers along the Vengeance's hull. Their death rays carved up one laser battery after another.

Above me, hundreds of wyrms descended on the flagship. Their long streams of spore breath were misty waterfalls. Not only did the sheets and plumes make us harder to hit, they ate away at the Vengeance's hull. Wyrms streaked across the spaceship's hull like a flight of dragons, blasting away at Vyxit artillery.

"Daddy, something's happening!" &alon said. She'd clambered up to my head, and pointed out over my snout.

Energy was sparking across the Vengeance's hull. The patches of sparks quickly expanded, thickening and bubbling.

"They're trying to restore the shields!" Jonan yelled.

"Genneth!" Merritt said.

Nodding, I acted immediately, channeling &alon's power into a flurry of Sword strikes, launching anti-magic in crisscrossing shockwaves. The sections of recovering shields dashed to pieces, shattering where the anti-magic clung.

The Vengeance was losing laser batteries with every passing second. In a moment, we'd cleared a large enough section of the hull for me to swoop down. I pulled up before I got too close, adjusting my path so that I was flying parallel to the hull, no more than a hundred feet above it, rushing over the silver spires of the Vyxit sealed cities.

"The main power junction is this way!" I yelled.

Other wyrms followed suit, answering my call.

The indicator on my heads' up display had finally stopped moving, meaning I was close enough to the junction to start making a beeline toward it. The problem was, with the expanse of the hull spread out before us, I couldn't tell whether the junction was up on the surface of the hull, or down in one of its gray-matter folds.

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"Riceroni sandalfish!" I growled. "Is the junction on the surface or not?"

"Use your hyperphantasia," one of the wyrms said. "You should be able to find a route!"

So, I tried that and, lo and behold, it worked! A highlighted overlay wove across my vision. It traveled along one of the larger hull channels until it reached the point where my HUD said the main power junction was.

"It looks like it's in one of the channels," I said.

Then the Loyalists' reinforcements arrive. Wyrms' distress calls shone rippled across the ether.

I turned my head to look.

Swarms of Vyxit modules were emerging from the landing bays further down the Vengeance's hull. Some of the bays were already on fire, having been decimated by spore breath and laser blasts, but that didn't stop hUen-dE's faithful.

Angel's breath, they were charging through walls of flame and spores just to get to their vehicles, crossing the line from bravery to madness! They'd die for their Empress before they even got a chance to fight!

Ships deployed by the hundreds. They spread out as they emerged from the landing bay, and then immediately turned around and trained their charging death rays at the Rebel-Wyrm alliance.

"Go, Genneth!" Merritt screamed. "Go!"

&alon pounded her fists at the back of my skull. "Hurry!"

We dove into the winding canyons, pataphysics flaring from our flight like magic missiles' fire. We raced through crevices as tall as houses. Vyx modules both friend and foe clashed overhead, laser blasts streaking over the canyon's mouth. Laser batteries rose to attention on the walls, forcing me to use the Sword like a bat to bash away the oncoming fire. The wyrms flanking me spewed spores that melted the artillery down to the barrel, triggering explosions that rocked the canyon's sides. Metallocrystalline walls shattered. Forcefields sparked. Atmosphere sprayed into the void, carrying innocents and their lives.

Sword stab me…

I'd mourn the lost life when this was over. I'd mourn them all.

Right now, I owed it to the victims to end this now, before anyone else suffered. I owed it to all the victims, past and present.

We turned another corner. Out-of-control modules careened into the canyon walls, blowing themselves to smithereens. We managed to dodge it.

"There!" someone yelled.

I spied a hole in a ring-like bridge. Surging forward, I passed through the opening, emerging into a mechanical agora. The view brought to mind Elpeck's Civic Center. It even had the same general shape: a roughly octagonal space recessed into the hull. Many channels extended radially from its center, where a dais-like platform had extruded itself, rising several dozen feet above the surrounding parts of the hull. Lines of circuitry emanated from the dais, shining with a bright, rhythmic pulse that their spidering network carried far across the Vengeance's surface. The heart of the circuitry web was riddled in banded bundles of silvery muscle. The icon on my hyperphantasized augmented-reality overlay flashed over it like a light at a railroad crossing warning of an approaching train.

The main power junction!

I looked back at my companions, only for Karl to shake his head and yell.

"Dr. Howle, in front of you!"

V had mentioned that the main power junction was only being exposed like this because Vyx—the machines, not the people—on board the Vengeance sympathetic to our cause had decided to fight their own to bring it there.

I should have expected their opponents' company. Whole segments of the surrounding hull broke free from the flagship. They reshaped themselves and merged, forming a menagerie of living weapons, from spidery crawlers to modular serpents and living wings.

Scattering, my wyrms support tackled the module-creatures. Laser beams blasted every which way.

I shot up, away from the hull and charged Azon's Sword with psychokinesis so strong, it glowed like fire.

I swung the Sword down at the dais, hitting it at the same time as I slammed myself into it. The double impact sent out a shockwave that scattered everyone around me, wyrm and Vyx alike. Beneath me, the main power junction's sensitive machinery cracked open like an unlucky egg.

Sparks cracked.

I followed up with a carefully aimed blast of spore breath for good measure. The silvery substances eroded before my eyes, sending up bubbles that choked the sparks as my acid did its work.

The many glittering circuit lines went dark.

"Retreat," I yelled. "We did it!"

I blasted away from the Vengeance's hull. Wyrms corkscrewed alongside me, joining me in my flight. Sporey curtains strung through the air like creation's breath as we yelled and rejoiced.

With the main power junction destroyed, not only could the Lodestars no longer be fired, hUen-dE couldn't use her Sword to interdict &alon's magic from getting us out of here!

"Can you feel it, &alon? Can you make portals again?"

Clenching her fists, she squinted her eyes shut in deep concentration. Portals bloomed across the battlefield, one after another.

The little monster opened her eyes and mouth, grinning broadly. "I did it! I did it!"

It was finally time to say goodbye.

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