Post by newburydave on Aug 7, 2008 17:04:52 GMT -5
This is intended to introduce an nine book series which parallels the bible on an Inter-galactic scale.
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Word Count: 5,485
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The great red dragon blotted out the stars. At least that was the impression of the inhabitants who were looking up as the imperial invasion fleet converged on the blue third planet.
The Sigel of the second Imperium, a three headed red dragon clutching a starburst, blazed across the hulls of all the starships. The starships rode their own starbursts as they decelerated hard toward the surface of the planet below them. The advanced elements of the fleet were just starting to throw coronas of superheated gasses as they hit the upper reaches of the atmosphere. To an observer below them it looked like the entire sky was catching fire.
Azi-Zahakka, the great red dragon himself, stirred in the main hold of his primary attack transport ship. Though he was far removed from his home planet of Mars and his origins as a Dragonleas battle flight leader his instincts were still to lead from the battle's front. He would be first through the hatch when his winged armada launched from the wave of attack transports that were the second rank of his invasion fleet.
The two serpent heads that sprouted from his shoulders finished their morning feast of living human brains from the two slaves who had been brought to him earlier. Their dead husks were ejected from the passage airlock by other faithful retainers whose time to feed the hunger of the Emperor had not yet come. He felt the new strength and life surge through his being as the psychic energy of these two latest victims was added to him. All of the inhabitants of the stars in the universe could not sate his demonic hunger, but they would stave it off until the end of time.
He chuckled to himself; his great bulk was the most formidable weapon that the Imperium had in a close up knife and talon fight. He looked around the hold at the ranks of his faithful first battle flight, 120 of the most formidable white dragon hoplites in the universe. Each of them massed four tonnes. He personally out massed their four tonne bulk by a factor of four. His 70 meter wingspan nearly eclipsed the sun for his protective screen of draconic warriors.
He expected to meet his former clan brothers Hsi-Liu and Calan-Lan in the battle today. The three of them were the sole survivors of the first father Dragonleas' first hatching. Today would decide which way was superior in a trial by combat. His way, the way of the Darkest Ones, would finally face the way of that tyrant God Ya in the person of his two brothers.
Azi-Zahakka had no doubt that the way of the Darkest Ones would prevail. His brothers combined mass of one tonne could not stand against his sixteen tonne mass in the shock of battle. Their whole winged armada could not stand against his first battle flight alone. The imperial spies had reported that the Guardian's battle armada was a mixed force of a few Red Dragonleas, some renegade White Dragons and a massive phalanx of those pesky Blue Healers. Faugh, those Blueys were useless in a battle, they only massed about 20 kg each; how they could even stand in the wall of battle was beyond his comprehension. He would go through his brother's armada like a hot knife through butter. Victory would be sweet and final.
The buffeting that shook their assault transport told him and his warriors that they were in the final descent. Around in the hold his battle flight stirred in preparation to launch as soon as they were down into breathable air. They heard louder noises around them as the defending roodships began to target the wave of transports during their most vulnerable phase of reentry.
So be it, the Imperium was blotting out the stars with their ships. The threadbare navy of the Guardians didn't have enough warships to put a dent in the Imperial Armada. Dirax III would be in Imperial hands before another dawn rose over the hall of the Guardianship, and the curse would be lifted. The Darkest Ones would be free to stage from this planet as well. The transportation nexus of the Universe would be completely in the hands of the Abyss and the final conquest would begin.
*********************
Director of the Guardianship, Raymond Qwambi-Jones the 23rd strode through the entrance to the Command Information Center. The reinforced bunker system that surrounded the C.I.C. was deep in the bedrock below the central hall of the Guardianship. Deep Clan Bluey Six rode draped across the broad shoulders of his two meter, 100 kg frame. The blue skin fire that gave the Blueys their name surrounded both of them in one shimmering embrace. The symbiotic, telepathic bond between the two dominant sentient species of Dirax III made them a formidable power to be reckoned with. Azi-Zahakka didn't know what he was getting into.
The Second Imperium had been pushing the Guardianship back and then further back at the direction of the Darkest Ones who were the masters of Azi-Zahakka the Emperor. This was the final push. The Guardianship which had spanned seven millenniums, holding back the darkness, would survive or perish in this battle depending on whether Dirax III stood or fell. This planet was their last refuge.
The only lighting in the CIC Star Chamber came from the holographic displays that glowed above the consoles which ranged in concentric circles around the central display. The central display showed the sector of sky immediately above the Hall of the Guardianship. The concentric circles expanded outward from the center, according to the Fibonacci number sequence, like a giant sunflower of shimmering light. Their displays covered the entire sky down to the relative "equatorial" band located 90 degrees of latitude from the Guardianship Hall. From the "equatorial" band the consoles split off into eight willow leaf shaped points which tapered down to single consoles. The single console that watched the sky above the spot on Dirax III's surface 180 degrees from the Hall of the Guardianship was placed just inside the blast door into the chamber.
Director Qwambi-Jones stopped at that console. "Hemisphere controller Kagarath-Ghi, is their strategy any clearer yet?" he asked the Scarlet Wing Raptor perched before the console. The Wing Raptor partially spread his immense wings in a startle reaction. When discussing controversial things with a wing raptor one did not stand next to the high strung avian raptors, the talons on their first wing joint were razor sharp.
The Wing Raptor refolded his wings and turned his gaze away from his holographic display. He probed Director Qwambi-Jones with his intense stare. "For my hemisphere it seems they are just blanketing the surface of all the continents with equal strength; but the central consoles," he nodded toward the center of the Star Chamber, "report that there is a concentration of ships descending into the sky right above us."
"Thank you Ghi, keep us updated please."
The director moved off weaving a course through the consoles toward the central console. He stopped and spoke briefly to many of the humans, dragonleas, Loperoos and wing raptors who manned the consoles. The humans who were fellow symbiotes with Blueys he merely passed. On the way by Bluey six locked eyes with his fellow Blueys and gathered their reports telepathically. By the time he reached the central hemisphere control console he had a pretty good sample of the latest tactical status.
He stopped next to the chair of the central hemisphere controller Tiffany Jones-Stockton. "Well cousin how is it shaping up?"
Deep Clan Bluey Med Two lay draped across the back of her chair watching the Holographic display.
Tiffany lifted her eyes from the status sidebars in her holographic display. She met Raymond's gaze and her telepathic report flowed through the link. _There is a concentration of forces above us. The largest Attack Transport is leading that wave. We expect that Azi-Zahakka himself may be in that transport and will seek a decisive engagement directly above the hall. Hsi-Liu and Calan-Lan are organizing the Armada. They are trying to get above where the Imperial shock troops will exit their transports. Hsi-Liu says he's seen the coming battle for centuries in his prophetic vision._
_I wish he didn't always feel it necessary to lead the armada himself_, Raymond thought back to her, _he's much too valuable to the Guardianship._
_How can you say that cousin since you intend to lead the Sonic Raptor wing into battle._
Ignoring their two humans Bluey Two lifted her head and caught the gaze of Bluey Six. Their organ pipe voices blended in a duet of greeting.
Raymond shot a wry thought to Tiffany, _You'd think they hadn't seen each other for weeks._
Without missing a note Bluey Six's thought intruded on the humans' exchange, _Every meeting is a gift, spirit friends. We must treasure them all to build Ya@@####._
The last thought was one of the few unintelligible Bluey concepts that even the telepathic spirit link couldn't successfully communicate to humans. The Bluey's lived much closer to the heart of Ya and thus understood things about His relationship to the universe that humans could never know until kingdom come.
_What about our Roodships, how has Icarus deployed them? _ Raymond asked.
_The Armed Scouts and Light Cruisers are attacking the transports while they're in their reentry coronas. Their tight beam projectors can't operate as long as they're still surrounded by the ionized gas envelopes. Icarus is holding his heavy cruisers in reserve to engage the Imperial heavy cruisers as a last ditch defensive wall._
_Few enough defenders in that last ditch wall I expect compared to the weight of metal the Imperium is throwing at us. What about elsewhere on the planet?_
Tiffany paused, reluctantly she gave the report, _They are coming in unopposed until they get in range of the ground based batteries. The human marines and local Bluey clans will just have to deal with them as best they can. We don't have any Air support we can spare them._
Raymond's face took on a grim expression. It was going according to plan. It was a lousy plan; too few defenders to deal with too many invaders, but it was the only plan they had in the face of the options.
He laid his hand on his first cousin's shoulder and spoke aloud for the sake of the non-symbiotes in the central area, "Just keep the status updated and try to coordinate with the on site commanders. If we lose our sensor and data feeds use the Dragonleas and Loperoos for telepathic links and update your displays manually. We may not win this one but we'll go down fighting. There is no alternative; Death before the dishonor of infestation." They all knew the fate of any sentients who fell captive to the second Imperium.
Raymond shot a side glance to Tiffany, _If I drop out of the net you're in command. Make every shot count. I'm going topside to fire up the Sonic Raptors, they may be antiques but there isn't an air breathing fighter that has ever surpassed it's abilities._
Tiffany watched her cousin go. His shoulders were squared back with grim determination. _Go with Ya_, Tiffany thought after him, _you can't hear me by Ya does._
Bluey two caught Bluey Six's eye and sent the thought. Raymond turned and saluted his cousin, then turned and marched out of the underground chamber.
***************
As the lead Imperial transport reached 2500 meters of altitude and slowed to 300 kts of airspeed the giant assault hatch slid open. Azi-Zahakka threw himself through the opening followed by the 120 White Dragons of his first battle flight. They tumbled for another 100 meters until they cleared the transports and slowed enough to unfold their wings and start flying.
"Imperials assemble on me!" he shouted above the wind blast. He looked around at the other transports vomiting thousands of white dragons and a few infested Red Dragonleas out of their assault hatches. _My ships have blotted out the sun, now my winged armada will blot out the sky._ he thought.
Far below Azi-Zahakka saw a flight of antique Sonic Raptors taking off and forming up into attack formation. "Hah!" he shouted, "Look those fools are sending antique machines up to meet us. Behold how desperate the mighty Guardianship must be!"
He scanned the sky below him. A battle wing of 90 Dragonleas was just lifting off from the Guardianship Hall with a few Blue Healers and Red Wingraptors interspersed in their ranks. Other than that there was no organized resistance to his aerial draconic assault troops.
He glanced back over his shoulder at his white dragon shock troops most of whom were still tumbling and trying to get their wings under them,...and froze. Where did they come from. A full armada of Dragonleas warriors leading a huge ball of Blue Healers was stooping down on his as yet disorganized draconic troops from 1000 meters above. He saw Hsi-Liu leading the dragonleas armada of the Guardianship.
Azi-Zahakka roared, "The enemy is above us! Imperials TO Me!" He turned and began to ascend with powerful wing strokes to meet the on rushing tide of Red Death from above. His first battle flight followed, frantic to get in front of their emperor and form a protective battle wall.
******
The 300 sonic raptors which rose up to meet the invaders were now climbing in their attack formation. Their drives sung at a high note driving the old fighters hypersonic. The unarmed transports had dumped their loads of draconic troops and pulled up. They were all climbing for space to pick up a load of ground troops. As the Hypersonic Raptors flashed through the transport ships at the bottom of their parabolic assault drop the three gimbaled masers in the bellies of each of the old fighters ripped holes in the hulls of the modern transports. Some of the big starships exploded.
Director Raymond watched his raptor's maser beams rip up the main hull of three transports as he flashed through their formation. He grinned a feral grin, "OK you thunderheads, we've got a date at Angels 25 with those heavy cruisers. Arm your capital ship missiles and go hot with your miniguns. Weapons free for any targets of opportunity on the way up."
A battle flight of white dragons beating wings to catch the Emperors formation exploded into view in Raymond's view screen. He triggered a burst of minigun fire and slewed the nose of his fighter. 80 draconic would be warriors tumbled from the sky in shreds; the sonic pressure waves killed the other ten as his hypersonic craft flashed by them at mach 9.
A tone sounded in his implanted audio pickups. Tiffany's voice came over the general command link, "All Guardian cruisers launch on my mark." Raymond watched his altimeter close in on the 18,000 mark. That was Tiffany's mark to launch the Cruisers into the battle. Tiffany started the countdown, "To my mark, five, four, three, two, one, Mark! Follow the Raptors."
Raymond checked his rearward looking radar on his Heads-Up Display. The heavy cruiser force 600 strong lifted as one and began to climb, accelerating in the wake of the Sonic Raptors. The heavy cruisers should catch them just after they made their pass through the Abyssian heavy cruiser formation.
A huge Attack Transport loomed up in Raymond's display. It was climbing desperately trying to evade the hypersonic craft. Raymond noted the double Imperial flash on the flank of the transport identifying it as the Emperor's own transport.
"Thunderheads of flight one, target your masers on my designator and fire as you come to bear. We're going to take down the Emperor's ride." The laser designator from his raptor flashed out and illuminated the center of the hull just above big ship's the power couple room. Twelve maser beams from the four raptors punched into the same spot as the fighters flashed past. Hull plating exploded away and both atmosphere and equipment boiled out of the growing crater in the big ships side. At least one maser beam penetrated into the power couple room knocking the vortex generators out of alignment. A vortex of Abyssian darkness consumed the center of the after section of the ship. A lance of Angel Fire poured into the forward spaces and the ship exploded. The Impulse rings shattered and sprayed the space around it with hypersonic shrapnel. The four Imperial light cruisers flying escort were consumed in their charge's death.
Raymond's flight of four Raptors, now ascending at mach 12, out flew the expanding cloud of shrapnel but many more of the escaping transports died in the kinetic debris of their leader's death. "We're approaching the battle wall of heavy cruisers go to maximum spread and lets punch a hole for our starships. Watch out for tight beams they can ruin your day." Orders complete he added the battle cry of the Guardianship," I seize immortality, who follows me?"
The roar of agreement from all 299 Raptor pilots came back over the radio.
The tone of target lock sounded in Raymond's ears and he triggered the release of all four capital ship missiles under the wings of his fighter. His raptor freed of the weight and drag lept ahead of the missiles as their engines lit. "Missiles away," calls filled the radio band as his entire flight loosed their main armaments on the enemy.
No one knows why the Imperial heavy cruiser formation didn't target the flight of Hypersonic Raptors that swept up through its center. They could have set up a grid of interlocking tight beams to shred the Raptors when they swept through their formation at Mach 13, but they didn't.
Perhaps the imperial commanders didn't think anything as small as air breathing fighter craft could threaten a capital warship. Perhaps they were concentrating on the Guardian heavy cruisers following in the wake of the tiny craft. Or maybe they didn't see the threat since no one had used Air to Air missiles in more than a millennia. Whatever their reasoning was it died with them. The capital ship missiles, trailing slightly behind the Raptors, impacted on the central 1200 heavy cruisers seconds after the raptors flashed through the Imperial wall of battle. The warheads gutted the heavy cruisers. The big warships tumbled and exploded in the wake of the hypersonic fighters.
Raymond threw his raptor into a hard turn. They were at the upper edges of the atmosphere and he had no intention of becoming a spacer in his raptor. His g-suit inflated and the inertial compensator screamed as it tried to damp out the crushing g forces of the turn. His vision started to contract as the 10 g's that bled through the compensator tried to force all the blood from his frontal lobe. Only the recumbent pilot's couch kept Raymond from blacking out at the high point of his turn. Then he was through the turn and diving back toward an intact portion of the Imperial battle wall.
"Raptors, Masers and 25 mm gatlings hot, lets go mix it up again." He glanced at the side looking HUD display and noted with satisfaction that Icarus' Heavy Cruisers were boiling up through the hole the raptors had cut in the heart of the Imperial battle wall. It was the modern equivalent of the ancient wet navy maneuver of crossing the T. The Imperial lines were reeling and starting to buckle under the Angel Fire vortices slashing horizontally through their battle wall from it's very center. He led the way back into the knife fight.
******
The Guardianship winged Armada of Dragonleas warriors, Diraxian white Dragons and Bluey's plunged toward Azi-Zahakka's forces now a mere 400 meters below them. They had successfully dodged the transports as the big space ships had decelerated through 3,300 meters of altitude. Then when the Imperial troops had come diving out of the ships a 2500 meters Hsi-Liu had led his draconic warriors stooping down on them before they had a chance to get organized. The only organized unit that rose to meet them was the Emperor and his personal guard of 120. The 120 infested White Dragon hoplites led Azi-Zahakka by fifty meters, a circular battle wall between the emperor and the plunging Guardianship battle wall.
Hsi-Liu mind spoke to his fellow draconic warriors in the plunging wall of battle, _Remember, our main goal is to tear a hole in the Imperial battle wall so the Blueys can get a clear shot at Azi-Zahakka._ The growl of assent from his dragonleas and diraxian white dragons came back over the telepathic Aether.
Hsi-Liu glanced over at his nest mate of the first hatching Calan-Lan and sent him a thought, _The Imperials look surprised to see us above them. Let's hope that the altitude advantage off sets the four to one ratio that they outnumber us._ He glanced back at the almost 250,000 winged troops following them. The distance was closing rapidly.
_You in the battle wall close it up and concentrate on Azi-Zahakka's personal guard! Follow battle flight one in._ Hsi-Liu mind shouted to the 125,000 Dragonleas and White Dragon warriors that made up the battle wall. The Blueys formed a huge sphere 50 meters back from their red and white brothers.
Hsi-Liu watched his nest mate Calan-Lan surge ahead of him in a power dive to get out in front of the 30 Dragonleas warriors of first battle flight. First battle flight was his own personal guard since he was the High Clan Leader of all winged forces of the Guardianship. He growled back to his own "second eyes" Charlie Raymond, "Get your force pike and broadsword ready Charlie, we're closing too fast for you to get any good Angel Fire shots off."
"Roger that chief," Charlie said. The force pike clicked into its rest on the front of Hsi-Liu's battle harness. It's shimmering point extended five meters beyond his nose. The force field that gave the weapon it's name hummed to life. He heard the powered Broadsword hiss to life in it's scabbard that Charlie and all of his troopers wore down the center of their backs.
Each first flight warrior had a human trooper from the First Brigade, Princess Bao's Ugly Dangerous Children, strapped in atop their shoulders. Each trooper was armed as Charlie was with a double handed broad sword, a force pike and a man portable Angel Fire projector. The mature Dragonleas in the Armada who could carry the 250 kg of a fully armed heavy trooper on their shoulders had the rest of the Brigade strapped into their battle harnesses.
The distance closed to 100 meters and the unexpected happened. The battle wall of Azi-Zahakka's personal guard irised open into a hole large enough for the whole of Hsi-Liu's first battle flight to plunge through without opposition. Calan-Lan sensing a trap mind shouted, _First Flight check your stoop!_ the thirty warriors flared wings and halted their downward plunge just shy of the obligingly opened hole.
Hsi-Liu knowing what was going to happen from his oracular vision, beat wings into a power dive right through his startled guard.
_Brother wait!_ Calan-Lan shouted beating wings after him after him. First battle flight followed their leader. As they passed the Imperial guard the main battle wall struck and folded in around the advanced forces toward the Emperor.
Charlie raised his force pike, bracing himself to plunge it through the armor into the hideously overgrown body of the demonically mutated dragonleas below them.
Azi-Zahakka shouted, "Welcome brothers, come into my parlor of death!" Four Abyssian tight beam projectors mounted below his wings sprang to life and four beams of focused anti-existence, the substance of the Abyss lanced up into the ranks of the Guardianship armada. Nothing could stand up against a tight beam and they slashed and cut the ranks of descending dragonid warriors. Suddenly the sky above him was filled with draconic blood and mutilated bodies.
A beam slashed toward Hsi-Liu. He leaped upward out of it's way but it caught the tip of his right wing and his hind legs shearing them off like a cleaver. "Bail out Charlie, I'm done for!" he shouted.
"I won't do it chief!" Charlie shouted back. He could almost taste the feeling of his force pike spitting the monstrosity below them.
"That's an order Charlie. Go, I've got to do this last by myself." He slapped the eject button on the bottom of his harness and Charlie was yanked off his back by the wind blast. As he was jerked free he flung his force pike like a spear. He was gratified to see it fly true into the first wing joint on the Imperial monstrosity as he plunged past in free fall.
Hsi-Liu also hit the lever that armed the contact charge on his breast plate. "Welcome Brother Azi-Zahakka. Since you rejected deliverance for personal power come and embraces death!" He trimmed wounded his wings to direct his fall right into the breast of his overgrown nest mate.
Azi-Zahakka couldn't avoid the impact, Hsi-Liu was too close, "Fool!" he shouted, "I thought you were a seer. How can you harm me?"
Hsi-Liu struck Azi-Zahakka in the middle of his massively armored chest. The 500 kg Dragonleas High Clan Chief struck Emperor Azi-Zahakka's sixteen tonne bulk like a small child ramming into a terran horse. He couldn't hope to breach the massive natural armored scales of his monstrously mutated nest mate with any of his natural weapons. But the shaped charge on the breast of his battle harness and the Angel Fire that Gabriel had granted him back before the first battle of Mesa did breach the armor.
The Angel fire blast pushed back the Darkest Ones who were warding his armor to make it impenetrable. The shaped charge tore a huge hole in the armored scales and blasted a crippling wound into the muscles of Azi-Zahakka's breast. Azi-Zahakka staggered in the air as his left wing almost collapsed. The shattered remains of Hsi-Liu's body fell away in a bloody rain.
Within the body of Azi-Zahakka, the great red dragon, Emperor of the galaxy the thousand Darkest Ones who infested him rallied when the Angel Fire ceased. They forced dark power back into his shattered bones and muscles. Their agency had caused him to grow to 32 times his natural bulk and now they reinforced his life in the face of the massive physical damage done by Hsi-Liu. His left wing came back to strength and he turned upward again swinging the quad tight beam projectors on his main target, the sphere of Blue Healers only 100 meters above him.
********
The Blue Healers of the Deep Clan, the Center City Clan and the Ocean Verge Clan were locked into the great soul link. 125,000 of them were formed into a perfect sphere. The blue skin fire, that was their healing power from Ya, glittered thickly around the entire sphere. It linked their individual hearts and souls to each other in one indivisible bond. Telepathic consciousness flowed through each of them without the need for the line of sight link that usually was their telepathic channel.
Once before in the history of the Blue Healers they had done something like this. A hellhole, a stable wormhole linking the Abyss to the surface of Dirax III, had been established by the tangible hatred within the hearts of the Darkest Ones who ruled the Abyss. Deep Clan had assembled the first fighting soul link sphere based on a prophesy given by a dying Dragonleas warrior.
In order to heal their planet they had poured Heavens own blue light of healing into the roiling anti-life darkness of the hellhole. The collapse of that hellhole had shaken the Abyss and destabilized the stars for a time; but they had interdicted the Abyss from ever opening another hellhole in Dirax III. Until this day no other Darkest Ones had dared to trespass in the atmosphere of Dirax.
Following the battle wall of Dragonleas and Diraxian White Dragons the sphere of Blueys dropped toward the invaders. Their leading edge of the sphere trailed the battle wall by only 50 meters. The deep clan led the way and made up the core of the sphere.
Deep under the Guardianship hall at the central console of the C.I.C. Deep Clan Bluey Med two cried out in pain. Through the telepathic bond she experienced the agony as the tight beam of Abyssian darkness sliced through the body of her husband, Deep Clan Bluey six. Tiffany Jones-Stockton also felt the pain and stiffened. Being part of a symbiotic pair with a Bluey plugged you into all the limitless joys and crushing agonies that the healers experienced. They both felt the tearing agony as most of the Deep Clan was shredded by the terrible dark energies of Azi-Zahakka's tight beams. The beams slashed through the very heart of the Bluey's soul link sphere.
In the lead Sonic Raptor Director Raymond Qwanbi-Jones also felt the agony of his dying symbiote. They had finished their plunge back through the crumbling wall of battle of the Imperial heavy cruisers. He leveled off, "OK you thunderheads, we've got enough go juice left for one hypersonic pass through the emperor's low altitude shock troops. Lets go scramble some infested dragons!"
The remaining 200 sonic raptors screamed into a turn that brought them to level flight toward the heaviest concentration of the Imperial winged troops. Their mach numbers climbed rapidly.
******
If the Blueys had just been creatures of flesh and blood their number would have been doubly decimated. But as the purest avatars of the draconic species they were actually elemental spirits of healing manifest into physical presence. When their bodies were slashed to pieces by the Abyssian tight beams their spirits and healing power merely flowed out into the sphere of the soul bond. As they died their life force strengthened the power of the hovering sphere of healing life.
Azi-Zahakka's malice backfired on him and his Darkest One masters. His attempt to destroy them increased the healing power of the mighty fist descending toward him.
He watched with dawning concern as the blue fire around the falling sphere of tiny dragonids thickened and brightened. Every pass of his tight beams seemed to feed more power into the blue fire.
Suddenly understanding dawned on him. "Imperials, scatter out of the way of the blue sphere!" His personal guard wavered in confusion, his order clashing with their primary duty. All across the sky the invasion troops lost their inexorable drive. The great heart of darkness of the Empire was shaken.
Forty meters above him the Blue Sphere hesitated and then a massive lance of heavens own healing light lashed out driving straight into the wound in Azi-Zahakka's breast. The life energy of the Blue Healers, channeling the limitless healing power of Ya, poured out as coherent light into the anti-light, anti-life substance which was the very essence of the darkest ones infesting the monstrous body of the Emperor.
Azi-Zahakka's body convulsed and wavered in the air, like a hologram that was losing power and focus. The Darkest Ones infesting his body reeled away from the light pouring into their corporeal domain. When the light found them they imploded sucked down into the unknowable dimension that drove the whirlpool of darkness that was their substance. The blue light of healing poured in inexorably filling his fading, shrinking bulk with light.
The flight of hypersonic raptors flashed past far below them, the sonic shock of their passage shredded multiplied thousands of the Darkest Ones infested Imperial troops.
With a thunderclap the body of Azi-Zahakka imploded on itself. The fabric of the sky shook and roiled. The sun in the sky seemed to stagger and blink. The spirits of the Bluey martyrs executed one last act of healing/cleansing as the Blue Healers Sphere seemed to explode intohundreds of thousands of lances of blue light. These lances slashed out through the sky striking every infested sentient above the horizon with a flame of either deliverance or destruction. The body of a lone dragonleas, all that remained of Azi-Zahakka, unnaturally shriveled by age and dissipation, tumbled toward the ground far below.
And in that shriveled body his consciousness finally released from the drunkenness of dark power considered his life as it flashed before his minds eyes.
He was a young hatchling in the first nest on Mars. His mother fluttered around him and his fellow hatchlings. They were the first hatch of Dragonleaskind. To his left was Hsi-Liu, to his right was Calan-Lan. Around him were eleven brothers and sisters. Above was the roof of the cave which later would be expanded into the Aerie Palace of Mars. His father, Dragonleas the first, glided into the cave and landed next to the nest.
"Here they are dearest," the voice of his mother, "The first new life since the creation. Aren't they beautiful?"......
The Beginning.
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Word Count: 5,485
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The great red dragon blotted out the stars. At least that was the impression of the inhabitants who were looking up as the imperial invasion fleet converged on the blue third planet.
The Sigel of the second Imperium, a three headed red dragon clutching a starburst, blazed across the hulls of all the starships. The starships rode their own starbursts as they decelerated hard toward the surface of the planet below them. The advanced elements of the fleet were just starting to throw coronas of superheated gasses as they hit the upper reaches of the atmosphere. To an observer below them it looked like the entire sky was catching fire.
Azi-Zahakka, the great red dragon himself, stirred in the main hold of his primary attack transport ship. Though he was far removed from his home planet of Mars and his origins as a Dragonleas battle flight leader his instincts were still to lead from the battle's front. He would be first through the hatch when his winged armada launched from the wave of attack transports that were the second rank of his invasion fleet.
The two serpent heads that sprouted from his shoulders finished their morning feast of living human brains from the two slaves who had been brought to him earlier. Their dead husks were ejected from the passage airlock by other faithful retainers whose time to feed the hunger of the Emperor had not yet come. He felt the new strength and life surge through his being as the psychic energy of these two latest victims was added to him. All of the inhabitants of the stars in the universe could not sate his demonic hunger, but they would stave it off until the end of time.
He chuckled to himself; his great bulk was the most formidable weapon that the Imperium had in a close up knife and talon fight. He looked around the hold at the ranks of his faithful first battle flight, 120 of the most formidable white dragon hoplites in the universe. Each of them massed four tonnes. He personally out massed their four tonne bulk by a factor of four. His 70 meter wingspan nearly eclipsed the sun for his protective screen of draconic warriors.
He expected to meet his former clan brothers Hsi-Liu and Calan-Lan in the battle today. The three of them were the sole survivors of the first father Dragonleas' first hatching. Today would decide which way was superior in a trial by combat. His way, the way of the Darkest Ones, would finally face the way of that tyrant God Ya in the person of his two brothers.
Azi-Zahakka had no doubt that the way of the Darkest Ones would prevail. His brothers combined mass of one tonne could not stand against his sixteen tonne mass in the shock of battle. Their whole winged armada could not stand against his first battle flight alone. The imperial spies had reported that the Guardian's battle armada was a mixed force of a few Red Dragonleas, some renegade White Dragons and a massive phalanx of those pesky Blue Healers. Faugh, those Blueys were useless in a battle, they only massed about 20 kg each; how they could even stand in the wall of battle was beyond his comprehension. He would go through his brother's armada like a hot knife through butter. Victory would be sweet and final.
The buffeting that shook their assault transport told him and his warriors that they were in the final descent. Around in the hold his battle flight stirred in preparation to launch as soon as they were down into breathable air. They heard louder noises around them as the defending roodships began to target the wave of transports during their most vulnerable phase of reentry.
So be it, the Imperium was blotting out the stars with their ships. The threadbare navy of the Guardians didn't have enough warships to put a dent in the Imperial Armada. Dirax III would be in Imperial hands before another dawn rose over the hall of the Guardianship, and the curse would be lifted. The Darkest Ones would be free to stage from this planet as well. The transportation nexus of the Universe would be completely in the hands of the Abyss and the final conquest would begin.
*********************
Director of the Guardianship, Raymond Qwambi-Jones the 23rd strode through the entrance to the Command Information Center. The reinforced bunker system that surrounded the C.I.C. was deep in the bedrock below the central hall of the Guardianship. Deep Clan Bluey Six rode draped across the broad shoulders of his two meter, 100 kg frame. The blue skin fire that gave the Blueys their name surrounded both of them in one shimmering embrace. The symbiotic, telepathic bond between the two dominant sentient species of Dirax III made them a formidable power to be reckoned with. Azi-Zahakka didn't know what he was getting into.
The Second Imperium had been pushing the Guardianship back and then further back at the direction of the Darkest Ones who were the masters of Azi-Zahakka the Emperor. This was the final push. The Guardianship which had spanned seven millenniums, holding back the darkness, would survive or perish in this battle depending on whether Dirax III stood or fell. This planet was their last refuge.
The only lighting in the CIC Star Chamber came from the holographic displays that glowed above the consoles which ranged in concentric circles around the central display. The central display showed the sector of sky immediately above the Hall of the Guardianship. The concentric circles expanded outward from the center, according to the Fibonacci number sequence, like a giant sunflower of shimmering light. Their displays covered the entire sky down to the relative "equatorial" band located 90 degrees of latitude from the Guardianship Hall. From the "equatorial" band the consoles split off into eight willow leaf shaped points which tapered down to single consoles. The single console that watched the sky above the spot on Dirax III's surface 180 degrees from the Hall of the Guardianship was placed just inside the blast door into the chamber.
Director Qwambi-Jones stopped at that console. "Hemisphere controller Kagarath-Ghi, is their strategy any clearer yet?" he asked the Scarlet Wing Raptor perched before the console. The Wing Raptor partially spread his immense wings in a startle reaction. When discussing controversial things with a wing raptor one did not stand next to the high strung avian raptors, the talons on their first wing joint were razor sharp.
The Wing Raptor refolded his wings and turned his gaze away from his holographic display. He probed Director Qwambi-Jones with his intense stare. "For my hemisphere it seems they are just blanketing the surface of all the continents with equal strength; but the central consoles," he nodded toward the center of the Star Chamber, "report that there is a concentration of ships descending into the sky right above us."
"Thank you Ghi, keep us updated please."
The director moved off weaving a course through the consoles toward the central console. He stopped and spoke briefly to many of the humans, dragonleas, Loperoos and wing raptors who manned the consoles. The humans who were fellow symbiotes with Blueys he merely passed. On the way by Bluey six locked eyes with his fellow Blueys and gathered their reports telepathically. By the time he reached the central hemisphere control console he had a pretty good sample of the latest tactical status.
He stopped next to the chair of the central hemisphere controller Tiffany Jones-Stockton. "Well cousin how is it shaping up?"
Deep Clan Bluey Med Two lay draped across the back of her chair watching the Holographic display.
Tiffany lifted her eyes from the status sidebars in her holographic display. She met Raymond's gaze and her telepathic report flowed through the link. _There is a concentration of forces above us. The largest Attack Transport is leading that wave. We expect that Azi-Zahakka himself may be in that transport and will seek a decisive engagement directly above the hall. Hsi-Liu and Calan-Lan are organizing the Armada. They are trying to get above where the Imperial shock troops will exit their transports. Hsi-Liu says he's seen the coming battle for centuries in his prophetic vision._
_I wish he didn't always feel it necessary to lead the armada himself_, Raymond thought back to her, _he's much too valuable to the Guardianship._
_How can you say that cousin since you intend to lead the Sonic Raptor wing into battle._
Ignoring their two humans Bluey Two lifted her head and caught the gaze of Bluey Six. Their organ pipe voices blended in a duet of greeting.
Raymond shot a wry thought to Tiffany, _You'd think they hadn't seen each other for weeks._
Without missing a note Bluey Six's thought intruded on the humans' exchange, _Every meeting is a gift, spirit friends. We must treasure them all to build Ya@@####._
The last thought was one of the few unintelligible Bluey concepts that even the telepathic spirit link couldn't successfully communicate to humans. The Bluey's lived much closer to the heart of Ya and thus understood things about His relationship to the universe that humans could never know until kingdom come.
_What about our Roodships, how has Icarus deployed them? _ Raymond asked.
_The Armed Scouts and Light Cruisers are attacking the transports while they're in their reentry coronas. Their tight beam projectors can't operate as long as they're still surrounded by the ionized gas envelopes. Icarus is holding his heavy cruisers in reserve to engage the Imperial heavy cruisers as a last ditch defensive wall._
_Few enough defenders in that last ditch wall I expect compared to the weight of metal the Imperium is throwing at us. What about elsewhere on the planet?_
Tiffany paused, reluctantly she gave the report, _They are coming in unopposed until they get in range of the ground based batteries. The human marines and local Bluey clans will just have to deal with them as best they can. We don't have any Air support we can spare them._
Raymond's face took on a grim expression. It was going according to plan. It was a lousy plan; too few defenders to deal with too many invaders, but it was the only plan they had in the face of the options.
He laid his hand on his first cousin's shoulder and spoke aloud for the sake of the non-symbiotes in the central area, "Just keep the status updated and try to coordinate with the on site commanders. If we lose our sensor and data feeds use the Dragonleas and Loperoos for telepathic links and update your displays manually. We may not win this one but we'll go down fighting. There is no alternative; Death before the dishonor of infestation." They all knew the fate of any sentients who fell captive to the second Imperium.
Raymond shot a side glance to Tiffany, _If I drop out of the net you're in command. Make every shot count. I'm going topside to fire up the Sonic Raptors, they may be antiques but there isn't an air breathing fighter that has ever surpassed it's abilities._
Tiffany watched her cousin go. His shoulders were squared back with grim determination. _Go with Ya_, Tiffany thought after him, _you can't hear me by Ya does._
Bluey two caught Bluey Six's eye and sent the thought. Raymond turned and saluted his cousin, then turned and marched out of the underground chamber.
***************
As the lead Imperial transport reached 2500 meters of altitude and slowed to 300 kts of airspeed the giant assault hatch slid open. Azi-Zahakka threw himself through the opening followed by the 120 White Dragons of his first battle flight. They tumbled for another 100 meters until they cleared the transports and slowed enough to unfold their wings and start flying.
"Imperials assemble on me!" he shouted above the wind blast. He looked around at the other transports vomiting thousands of white dragons and a few infested Red Dragonleas out of their assault hatches. _My ships have blotted out the sun, now my winged armada will blot out the sky._ he thought.
Far below Azi-Zahakka saw a flight of antique Sonic Raptors taking off and forming up into attack formation. "Hah!" he shouted, "Look those fools are sending antique machines up to meet us. Behold how desperate the mighty Guardianship must be!"
He scanned the sky below him. A battle wing of 90 Dragonleas was just lifting off from the Guardianship Hall with a few Blue Healers and Red Wingraptors interspersed in their ranks. Other than that there was no organized resistance to his aerial draconic assault troops.
He glanced back over his shoulder at his white dragon shock troops most of whom were still tumbling and trying to get their wings under them,...and froze. Where did they come from. A full armada of Dragonleas warriors leading a huge ball of Blue Healers was stooping down on his as yet disorganized draconic troops from 1000 meters above. He saw Hsi-Liu leading the dragonleas armada of the Guardianship.
Azi-Zahakka roared, "The enemy is above us! Imperials TO Me!" He turned and began to ascend with powerful wing strokes to meet the on rushing tide of Red Death from above. His first battle flight followed, frantic to get in front of their emperor and form a protective battle wall.
******
The 300 sonic raptors which rose up to meet the invaders were now climbing in their attack formation. Their drives sung at a high note driving the old fighters hypersonic. The unarmed transports had dumped their loads of draconic troops and pulled up. They were all climbing for space to pick up a load of ground troops. As the Hypersonic Raptors flashed through the transport ships at the bottom of their parabolic assault drop the three gimbaled masers in the bellies of each of the old fighters ripped holes in the hulls of the modern transports. Some of the big starships exploded.
Director Raymond watched his raptor's maser beams rip up the main hull of three transports as he flashed through their formation. He grinned a feral grin, "OK you thunderheads, we've got a date at Angels 25 with those heavy cruisers. Arm your capital ship missiles and go hot with your miniguns. Weapons free for any targets of opportunity on the way up."
A battle flight of white dragons beating wings to catch the Emperors formation exploded into view in Raymond's view screen. He triggered a burst of minigun fire and slewed the nose of his fighter. 80 draconic would be warriors tumbled from the sky in shreds; the sonic pressure waves killed the other ten as his hypersonic craft flashed by them at mach 9.
A tone sounded in his implanted audio pickups. Tiffany's voice came over the general command link, "All Guardian cruisers launch on my mark." Raymond watched his altimeter close in on the 18,000 mark. That was Tiffany's mark to launch the Cruisers into the battle. Tiffany started the countdown, "To my mark, five, four, three, two, one, Mark! Follow the Raptors."
Raymond checked his rearward looking radar on his Heads-Up Display. The heavy cruiser force 600 strong lifted as one and began to climb, accelerating in the wake of the Sonic Raptors. The heavy cruisers should catch them just after they made their pass through the Abyssian heavy cruiser formation.
A huge Attack Transport loomed up in Raymond's display. It was climbing desperately trying to evade the hypersonic craft. Raymond noted the double Imperial flash on the flank of the transport identifying it as the Emperor's own transport.
"Thunderheads of flight one, target your masers on my designator and fire as you come to bear. We're going to take down the Emperor's ride." The laser designator from his raptor flashed out and illuminated the center of the hull just above big ship's the power couple room. Twelve maser beams from the four raptors punched into the same spot as the fighters flashed past. Hull plating exploded away and both atmosphere and equipment boiled out of the growing crater in the big ships side. At least one maser beam penetrated into the power couple room knocking the vortex generators out of alignment. A vortex of Abyssian darkness consumed the center of the after section of the ship. A lance of Angel Fire poured into the forward spaces and the ship exploded. The Impulse rings shattered and sprayed the space around it with hypersonic shrapnel. The four Imperial light cruisers flying escort were consumed in their charge's death.
Raymond's flight of four Raptors, now ascending at mach 12, out flew the expanding cloud of shrapnel but many more of the escaping transports died in the kinetic debris of their leader's death. "We're approaching the battle wall of heavy cruisers go to maximum spread and lets punch a hole for our starships. Watch out for tight beams they can ruin your day." Orders complete he added the battle cry of the Guardianship," I seize immortality, who follows me?"
The roar of agreement from all 299 Raptor pilots came back over the radio.
The tone of target lock sounded in Raymond's ears and he triggered the release of all four capital ship missiles under the wings of his fighter. His raptor freed of the weight and drag lept ahead of the missiles as their engines lit. "Missiles away," calls filled the radio band as his entire flight loosed their main armaments on the enemy.
No one knows why the Imperial heavy cruiser formation didn't target the flight of Hypersonic Raptors that swept up through its center. They could have set up a grid of interlocking tight beams to shred the Raptors when they swept through their formation at Mach 13, but they didn't.
Perhaps the imperial commanders didn't think anything as small as air breathing fighter craft could threaten a capital warship. Perhaps they were concentrating on the Guardian heavy cruisers following in the wake of the tiny craft. Or maybe they didn't see the threat since no one had used Air to Air missiles in more than a millennia. Whatever their reasoning was it died with them. The capital ship missiles, trailing slightly behind the Raptors, impacted on the central 1200 heavy cruisers seconds after the raptors flashed through the Imperial wall of battle. The warheads gutted the heavy cruisers. The big warships tumbled and exploded in the wake of the hypersonic fighters.
Raymond threw his raptor into a hard turn. They were at the upper edges of the atmosphere and he had no intention of becoming a spacer in his raptor. His g-suit inflated and the inertial compensator screamed as it tried to damp out the crushing g forces of the turn. His vision started to contract as the 10 g's that bled through the compensator tried to force all the blood from his frontal lobe. Only the recumbent pilot's couch kept Raymond from blacking out at the high point of his turn. Then he was through the turn and diving back toward an intact portion of the Imperial battle wall.
"Raptors, Masers and 25 mm gatlings hot, lets go mix it up again." He glanced at the side looking HUD display and noted with satisfaction that Icarus' Heavy Cruisers were boiling up through the hole the raptors had cut in the heart of the Imperial battle wall. It was the modern equivalent of the ancient wet navy maneuver of crossing the T. The Imperial lines were reeling and starting to buckle under the Angel Fire vortices slashing horizontally through their battle wall from it's very center. He led the way back into the knife fight.
******
The Guardianship winged Armada of Dragonleas warriors, Diraxian white Dragons and Bluey's plunged toward Azi-Zahakka's forces now a mere 400 meters below them. They had successfully dodged the transports as the big space ships had decelerated through 3,300 meters of altitude. Then when the Imperial troops had come diving out of the ships a 2500 meters Hsi-Liu had led his draconic warriors stooping down on them before they had a chance to get organized. The only organized unit that rose to meet them was the Emperor and his personal guard of 120. The 120 infested White Dragon hoplites led Azi-Zahakka by fifty meters, a circular battle wall between the emperor and the plunging Guardianship battle wall.
Hsi-Liu mind spoke to his fellow draconic warriors in the plunging wall of battle, _Remember, our main goal is to tear a hole in the Imperial battle wall so the Blueys can get a clear shot at Azi-Zahakka._ The growl of assent from his dragonleas and diraxian white dragons came back over the telepathic Aether.
Hsi-Liu glanced over at his nest mate of the first hatching Calan-Lan and sent him a thought, _The Imperials look surprised to see us above them. Let's hope that the altitude advantage off sets the four to one ratio that they outnumber us._ He glanced back at the almost 250,000 winged troops following them. The distance was closing rapidly.
_You in the battle wall close it up and concentrate on Azi-Zahakka's personal guard! Follow battle flight one in._ Hsi-Liu mind shouted to the 125,000 Dragonleas and White Dragon warriors that made up the battle wall. The Blueys formed a huge sphere 50 meters back from their red and white brothers.
Hsi-Liu watched his nest mate Calan-Lan surge ahead of him in a power dive to get out in front of the 30 Dragonleas warriors of first battle flight. First battle flight was his own personal guard since he was the High Clan Leader of all winged forces of the Guardianship. He growled back to his own "second eyes" Charlie Raymond, "Get your force pike and broadsword ready Charlie, we're closing too fast for you to get any good Angel Fire shots off."
"Roger that chief," Charlie said. The force pike clicked into its rest on the front of Hsi-Liu's battle harness. It's shimmering point extended five meters beyond his nose. The force field that gave the weapon it's name hummed to life. He heard the powered Broadsword hiss to life in it's scabbard that Charlie and all of his troopers wore down the center of their backs.
Each first flight warrior had a human trooper from the First Brigade, Princess Bao's Ugly Dangerous Children, strapped in atop their shoulders. Each trooper was armed as Charlie was with a double handed broad sword, a force pike and a man portable Angel Fire projector. The mature Dragonleas in the Armada who could carry the 250 kg of a fully armed heavy trooper on their shoulders had the rest of the Brigade strapped into their battle harnesses.
The distance closed to 100 meters and the unexpected happened. The battle wall of Azi-Zahakka's personal guard irised open into a hole large enough for the whole of Hsi-Liu's first battle flight to plunge through without opposition. Calan-Lan sensing a trap mind shouted, _First Flight check your stoop!_ the thirty warriors flared wings and halted their downward plunge just shy of the obligingly opened hole.
Hsi-Liu knowing what was going to happen from his oracular vision, beat wings into a power dive right through his startled guard.
_Brother wait!_ Calan-Lan shouted beating wings after him after him. First battle flight followed their leader. As they passed the Imperial guard the main battle wall struck and folded in around the advanced forces toward the Emperor.
Charlie raised his force pike, bracing himself to plunge it through the armor into the hideously overgrown body of the demonically mutated dragonleas below them.
Azi-Zahakka shouted, "Welcome brothers, come into my parlor of death!" Four Abyssian tight beam projectors mounted below his wings sprang to life and four beams of focused anti-existence, the substance of the Abyss lanced up into the ranks of the Guardianship armada. Nothing could stand up against a tight beam and they slashed and cut the ranks of descending dragonid warriors. Suddenly the sky above him was filled with draconic blood and mutilated bodies.
A beam slashed toward Hsi-Liu. He leaped upward out of it's way but it caught the tip of his right wing and his hind legs shearing them off like a cleaver. "Bail out Charlie, I'm done for!" he shouted.
"I won't do it chief!" Charlie shouted back. He could almost taste the feeling of his force pike spitting the monstrosity below them.
"That's an order Charlie. Go, I've got to do this last by myself." He slapped the eject button on the bottom of his harness and Charlie was yanked off his back by the wind blast. As he was jerked free he flung his force pike like a spear. He was gratified to see it fly true into the first wing joint on the Imperial monstrosity as he plunged past in free fall.
Hsi-Liu also hit the lever that armed the contact charge on his breast plate. "Welcome Brother Azi-Zahakka. Since you rejected deliverance for personal power come and embraces death!" He trimmed wounded his wings to direct his fall right into the breast of his overgrown nest mate.
Azi-Zahakka couldn't avoid the impact, Hsi-Liu was too close, "Fool!" he shouted, "I thought you were a seer. How can you harm me?"
Hsi-Liu struck Azi-Zahakka in the middle of his massively armored chest. The 500 kg Dragonleas High Clan Chief struck Emperor Azi-Zahakka's sixteen tonne bulk like a small child ramming into a terran horse. He couldn't hope to breach the massive natural armored scales of his monstrously mutated nest mate with any of his natural weapons. But the shaped charge on the breast of his battle harness and the Angel Fire that Gabriel had granted him back before the first battle of Mesa did breach the armor.
The Angel fire blast pushed back the Darkest Ones who were warding his armor to make it impenetrable. The shaped charge tore a huge hole in the armored scales and blasted a crippling wound into the muscles of Azi-Zahakka's breast. Azi-Zahakka staggered in the air as his left wing almost collapsed. The shattered remains of Hsi-Liu's body fell away in a bloody rain.
Within the body of Azi-Zahakka, the great red dragon, Emperor of the galaxy the thousand Darkest Ones who infested him rallied when the Angel Fire ceased. They forced dark power back into his shattered bones and muscles. Their agency had caused him to grow to 32 times his natural bulk and now they reinforced his life in the face of the massive physical damage done by Hsi-Liu. His left wing came back to strength and he turned upward again swinging the quad tight beam projectors on his main target, the sphere of Blue Healers only 100 meters above him.
********
The Blue Healers of the Deep Clan, the Center City Clan and the Ocean Verge Clan were locked into the great soul link. 125,000 of them were formed into a perfect sphere. The blue skin fire, that was their healing power from Ya, glittered thickly around the entire sphere. It linked their individual hearts and souls to each other in one indivisible bond. Telepathic consciousness flowed through each of them without the need for the line of sight link that usually was their telepathic channel.
Once before in the history of the Blue Healers they had done something like this. A hellhole, a stable wormhole linking the Abyss to the surface of Dirax III, had been established by the tangible hatred within the hearts of the Darkest Ones who ruled the Abyss. Deep Clan had assembled the first fighting soul link sphere based on a prophesy given by a dying Dragonleas warrior.
In order to heal their planet they had poured Heavens own blue light of healing into the roiling anti-life darkness of the hellhole. The collapse of that hellhole had shaken the Abyss and destabilized the stars for a time; but they had interdicted the Abyss from ever opening another hellhole in Dirax III. Until this day no other Darkest Ones had dared to trespass in the atmosphere of Dirax.
Following the battle wall of Dragonleas and Diraxian White Dragons the sphere of Blueys dropped toward the invaders. Their leading edge of the sphere trailed the battle wall by only 50 meters. The deep clan led the way and made up the core of the sphere.
Deep under the Guardianship hall at the central console of the C.I.C. Deep Clan Bluey Med two cried out in pain. Through the telepathic bond she experienced the agony as the tight beam of Abyssian darkness sliced through the body of her husband, Deep Clan Bluey six. Tiffany Jones-Stockton also felt the pain and stiffened. Being part of a symbiotic pair with a Bluey plugged you into all the limitless joys and crushing agonies that the healers experienced. They both felt the tearing agony as most of the Deep Clan was shredded by the terrible dark energies of Azi-Zahakka's tight beams. The beams slashed through the very heart of the Bluey's soul link sphere.
In the lead Sonic Raptor Director Raymond Qwanbi-Jones also felt the agony of his dying symbiote. They had finished their plunge back through the crumbling wall of battle of the Imperial heavy cruisers. He leveled off, "OK you thunderheads, we've got enough go juice left for one hypersonic pass through the emperor's low altitude shock troops. Lets go scramble some infested dragons!"
The remaining 200 sonic raptors screamed into a turn that brought them to level flight toward the heaviest concentration of the Imperial winged troops. Their mach numbers climbed rapidly.
******
If the Blueys had just been creatures of flesh and blood their number would have been doubly decimated. But as the purest avatars of the draconic species they were actually elemental spirits of healing manifest into physical presence. When their bodies were slashed to pieces by the Abyssian tight beams their spirits and healing power merely flowed out into the sphere of the soul bond. As they died their life force strengthened the power of the hovering sphere of healing life.
Azi-Zahakka's malice backfired on him and his Darkest One masters. His attempt to destroy them increased the healing power of the mighty fist descending toward him.
He watched with dawning concern as the blue fire around the falling sphere of tiny dragonids thickened and brightened. Every pass of his tight beams seemed to feed more power into the blue fire.
Suddenly understanding dawned on him. "Imperials, scatter out of the way of the blue sphere!" His personal guard wavered in confusion, his order clashing with their primary duty. All across the sky the invasion troops lost their inexorable drive. The great heart of darkness of the Empire was shaken.
Forty meters above him the Blue Sphere hesitated and then a massive lance of heavens own healing light lashed out driving straight into the wound in Azi-Zahakka's breast. The life energy of the Blue Healers, channeling the limitless healing power of Ya, poured out as coherent light into the anti-light, anti-life substance which was the very essence of the darkest ones infesting the monstrous body of the Emperor.
Azi-Zahakka's body convulsed and wavered in the air, like a hologram that was losing power and focus. The Darkest Ones infesting his body reeled away from the light pouring into their corporeal domain. When the light found them they imploded sucked down into the unknowable dimension that drove the whirlpool of darkness that was their substance. The blue light of healing poured in inexorably filling his fading, shrinking bulk with light.
The flight of hypersonic raptors flashed past far below them, the sonic shock of their passage shredded multiplied thousands of the Darkest Ones infested Imperial troops.
With a thunderclap the body of Azi-Zahakka imploded on itself. The fabric of the sky shook and roiled. The sun in the sky seemed to stagger and blink. The spirits of the Bluey martyrs executed one last act of healing/cleansing as the Blue Healers Sphere seemed to explode intohundreds of thousands of lances of blue light. These lances slashed out through the sky striking every infested sentient above the horizon with a flame of either deliverance or destruction. The body of a lone dragonleas, all that remained of Azi-Zahakka, unnaturally shriveled by age and dissipation, tumbled toward the ground far below.
And in that shriveled body his consciousness finally released from the drunkenness of dark power considered his life as it flashed before his minds eyes.
He was a young hatchling in the first nest on Mars. His mother fluttered around him and his fellow hatchlings. They were the first hatch of Dragonleaskind. To his left was Hsi-Liu, to his right was Calan-Lan. Around him were eleven brothers and sisters. Above was the roof of the cave which later would be expanded into the Aerie Palace of Mars. His father, Dragonleas the first, glided into the cave and landed next to the nest.
"Here they are dearest," the voice of his mother, "The first new life since the creation. Aren't they beautiful?"......
The Beginning.