Knightfall
World of Kulan DM
Taboo said:Truely excellent. I told you if you keep this up I'll never get any updates done on my own! Now I've got to get busy writing!
Good job, I'm looking forward to reading the next one. I don't know how you keep 'em coming.
Actually, this story is something I wrote several months ago when the Starfarer's Handbook first came out. All I've done recently is spellcheck it and bring it more in line with certain details in the Guide of the Galaxy.
And without further ado, here is part five of Book One. The conclusion of Book One.
Part Five - The Conflict Begins
Ruby Theragain clutched at her doll under the burned wooden sign of Hale's Fine Woodcarvings on Springwater Street. Beluir was in ruins, half it's population either dead or fled from the city. Now the halfling child watched as strange metal creatures marched up and down the street. They paid no attention to the halfling girl, as they continued down Springwater Street and disappeared around the corner. Ruby had refused to let them see her cry. Now she wept openly for the mother and father that had died in front of her eyes. The city hadn't any warning. The rain of fire had streaked out of the sky and laid waste to everything it touched.
The door behind Ruby opened. "Are they gone Rubes?"
"Yes Finkel," Ruby didn't turn around as the halfling boy struck his head out the door. "You can stop hiding now."
His friend's words were meant to cut him and he knew it. "That's right Rubes, I was hiding from them. These beasts are dangerous and you shouldn't be so defiant in front of them."
"I am not afraid of them."
"Neither am I." Finkel's tone was defiant. He wasn't a coward, just more cautious then his friend. "Hiding from them is a good idea Rubes. If you are a ghost then they can never see you. They can never pick you out of a crowd."
Ruby turned and looked at her friend standing in front of the ruined storefront. She had never seen him look this way before or sound so unnerving. He looked older, almost like he had come of age in less than a day. Not that she blamed him. She might have lost her parents but Finkel had lost everything. His family had been killed, his home completely destroyed and all of his friends in the Pond District. The rain of fire had destroyed the entire district and Finkel had been luck to get out alive. He had no one to take care of him, unlike Ruby.
True, her parents were dead and nothing would bring them back. The rain of fire had left not a trace of them when it hit them. But she still had her brothers and her Aunt Daphnia and Uncle Pete. They hadn't had any children of their own so when the fire from the sky had killed her parents they took her, Wiley and Jaspin in without a thought. Their home had remained intact for the most part but there was little room. Ruby had begged them to let Finkel stay with them. They insisted there just wasn't room, which Ruby had thought was just un-halfling of them. The truth was that Ruby's family never liked Finkel thinking him whiny and a bad influence or her.
Finkel didn't have anyone, except Ruby. She refused to abandon him to the streets and had brought him half her food and found him a place to sleep at night in the woodcarver's shop. The Carver wouldn't need it anymore. He had fled the city in the night with so many others. Most had gone north to the Lluirwood or so Ruby had heard from her friend Lily Tibbles. Lily had contacts all over the city but then she was quite the nosy busybody and loved to gossip. She had picked it up from her mother but after these steel men came she started to see it as her duty to find a way to smuggle information around Beluir and keep everyone informed.
And all this happened in less than one day and night. Ruby was beside herself with grief and began crying again. Her momma and papa were gone and there had been nothing anyone could do. Even the Priests of Yondalla were powerless to stop these metal beasts and their weapons of destruction. The temples to the Halfling Goddess had been razed to the ground and the priest round up like sheep. No one had seen or heard from them since.
Strange new humans and halflings had started walking up and down the streets during the day preaching to the city about a faith called the Unification Church. Ruby had never heard of such a thing and she didn't like what they had to say. She hadn't been overly fond of priests or religion but she did believe in Yondalla and considered herself faithful. But these priests had said things about gods and religion that scared her. Only Twelve True Gods and the rest were just fairy tales or something the priests referred to an Aspect of the Twelve. She didn't like the sound of that at all. Yondalla was real and no one would tell her otherwise.
By why had she not done anything to prevent this. Of course, Ruby knew the reason why. The entire world was suffering or at least that was what Lily had said.
"The rumor is that from Assur to Waterdeep this rain of fire had fallen and destroyed everything it touched. Then like here the metal beasts came and took over whatever they could. Everywhere in Faerûn people are resisting these monsters as best they can but it is almost impossible to hurt them. There is even talk that this Unification Church destroyed the Gods. It is all so very strange and frightening."
Ruby wasn't so sure of to believe from what Lily had said. After all, these metal monsters had arrived without warning and had powerful weapons and magic. And without the Gods, Ruby didn't think the world had much of a chance to make the monsters leave if they don't want to. But Ruby could hope the rumors that Lily believed true were false and that Yondalla would save Ruby's homeland and send these invaders packing.
"Rubes, another patrol is coming. Their stupid curfew is right now! If you stay out here this time they haul you away. Please come inside until their gone. Can you do that for me, please?"
Ruby knew Finkel wasn't a coward and that he was right. They would haul her away and to who knows where. "Alright, if it will make you feel better."
Finkel let out a long sigh. Ruby scrambled to her feet and the two halflings scrambled inside and closed the door behind them. They ducked down and remained completely still as one of the huge metal beasts went by screeching and howling as if to dare anyone to challenge it.
Ruby covered her ears and forced herself not to cry.
* * *
Hours earlier, Commander Madden had watched as the Imperial battleship turned towards his tiny fleet. The battleship was huge but Madden was not impressed. He had served on such a vessel once and knew its weaknesses. He also knew its strengths and barked an order to his helmsman as the metal behemoth lined up it main gun to fire.
"Hard to stern, Ensign Wilder!" Madden cursed as one of the corvettes continued on straight towards the leviathan firing all its guns at once. "Damn fool! Captain Sandaval is going to get everyone aboard that ship killed. Hail the Sabre, tell them to bank away-"
The Imperial battleship fired just as the hail was going out to the other League ship. The Sabre did bank but not in time to prevent the battleships powerful quad ion cannons from finding its target. The entire forward section of the corvette exploded as the ion blast cut through the shields and hull. The ship began to rock with explosions and soon the vessel was dark and adrift in space.
"Message to the rest of the fleet. Fire everything we got at that damn battleship! Keep them away from the Sabre! I'm not going to lose that ship and it's crew just because Sandaval had to be a glory hound!"
Madden knew that bringing Sandaval into the League had been a mistake but he had battle experience. The League wasn't very battle savvy so Madden had gone against his better judgement and not vetoed Sandaval's application before the Directorate. Now the hot head captain's crew was paying for his mistake.
The Victory let loose with what weapons it had but the Deva Wing and the remaining corvette, the Valorous, would have to beat the odds and work together. Madden patched in his command station directly to the Valorous' captain. The gnome was a good man but didn't have Sandaval's experience or arrogance. The two captains came up with a quick strategy, which would hopefully allow the Victory to send in rescue teams and save the remaining crew of the crippled corvette.
The Deva Wing would draw the battleship's fire away from the Sabre, while the Valorous appeared to stay with the Victory and cover her, while she rescued the Sabre's crew. And hopefully the Imperial captain would move to take out the cruiser and then come back for the corvette and the carrier. Then the corvette would try to surprise the battleship from behind and disable its ion cannon. It was risky but had little choice now. The quad ion cannons could cripple each ship with one precise shot.
The Deva Wing took the fight to the Imperial battleship using its quad plasma cannons to full effect. The two warships exchanged torpedo fire both taking a severe strike. The battleships port side exploded inward as the torpedo struck, while the cruiser took a massive strike near engineering. The two ships then past each other like on the open sea. The Imperial captain smelled blood. The battleship turned away trying to line up its ion cannons. That's when the Valorous shot out of nowhere firing all its weapons at once. Only its plasma cannons penetrated the battleships shield. Two of the quad cannons exploded but the other two remained. The Imperial captain realized his mistake and sent out a barrage of torpedo fire towards both vessels. Two of the forward torpedoes struck the Valorous, dead center, and the ship exploded in a ball of fire and metal. The Deva Wing took two torpedoes from the battleship's right tubes and Madden knew he was in trouble. His engines were gone and so were the main guns.
The Imperial ship turned away from Deva Wing towards the crippled Sabre and the Victory. She closed towards the two other vessels and all Madden could do was watch helplessly. Then something happened not even he expected. The Sabre's engines fired and the ship turned towards the Imperial warship. The small corvette rocketed toward the ship that had supposedly crippled it and through a barrage of torpedo fire Captain Sandaval rammed his ship into the battleship. The force of the impact knocked out the battleships remaining ion cannons and severely crippled the ship. The Sabre exploded into a blood red fireball that any wizard would have been honored to see. The battleship remained but it had no way to stop the Victory from moving in and destroy it with its torpedo bays.
What happened then was unfathomable to someone who had not seen it happen.
* * *
Captain Farhand had never been more terrified in his life. The corvette had come to life and rammed into the Centurion before anyone could react. The battle was lost. He had only two torpedo bays left and doubted that they would hit the mark without the targeting computer. Most of his bridge crew was dead along with Elgan. The computer would not even recognize his command codes so the autodestruct was useless. Blood poured from chest and face and his left arm was shattered. The Divine Sphere had been at the focal point of where the corvette had rammed his ship. Centurion, the ship and the Aspect were dead.
The windows on the bridge had held but cracks were beginning to form and spread. He could hear the air rushing out of cracks and knew that it would be only a manner of time before the whole bridge decompressed. He refused to leave the bridge. He would not leave his ship. He would die here where he was meant to be.
What he saw then was unbelievable. His laughter echoed through the bridge, then the glass on all sides shattered and he was sucked into the void of space.
* * *
While the warships danced with death the League interceptor's rocketed through the void dealing death to the outmatched Imperial fighters. The League's numbers were too many and the few remaining Imperial interceptors left the void of space switching to the atmospheric engines that allowed them to enter Toril's sky.
The leader of Fathom Wing, Jason Rodani, watched the five Imperial interceptors cross through the plasma gun grid guarding the planet below. He wouldn't let them get away not after what the Empire did to his world, what they did to Breka.
"This is Fathom Leader," Jason spoke into the Comm with authority and pride in his men. "We're going to split up. Breakwater, you take Fathom Left and draw those guns fire. Fathom Right, you are with me. Those Imperial bastards are not getting away today."
"Yes sir!" Breakwater was his second-in-command and one of the best pilots you'd ever meet. Halflings were great pilots. Half the interceptors of Fathom Wing banked towards the plasma cannon grid and burned their thrusters at full. The cannons wouldn't hit them, as an interceptor was one of the fastest fighters in the galaxy. Everyone used them.
Jason hoped the programmer that came up with the software for these weapons wasn't that good. If the platforms were programmed with multiple threat analysis then they would be easy targets, as they attempted to slip by and into the planet's atmosphere.
Fathom Left moved into range of the platforms and then rocketed away before the cannons could get a lock. The weapons fired away depleting power reserves and Jason knew the programmer had been second best. The weapons should not have fired without a lock. The interceptors of Fathom Left easily dodge the plasma bolts and even took two of the platforms with their ship's twin laser cannons.
"Alright, lets get those Imperial dogs!" Jason banked his ship towards the gap and the rest of Fathom Wing followed him down towards the planet. Several distant platforms tried to lock on but they were to far away to be of any real concern. The pilots of Fathom Right dodged and weaved through the incoming plasma fire without breaking a sweat.
"Switch to atmospheric engines and watch your descent. It will feel like the ship is falling for a second." Jason wasn't worried. He and his men had done this maneuver dozen of times before in training in harsher conditions than this.
The twenty interceptors cut their fusion engines and switched to the atmospheric generators. The ships had magic built into them that allowed them to use the world's air to propel them forward. The effect was that the ships were almost a part of the air and didn't burn fossil fuels. It also gave them blinding speed through almost any sort of atmosphere. The only problem was that the Imperial interceptors worked the exact same way.
"Alright, lets find those bastards and send them to Gehenna."
Back in the depths of space Breakwater was having a ball. The platforms were really slow to lock on and their shields couldn't stand up to multiple hits.
"Fathom 12, watch your six. That platform almost locked on."
"Sorry BW, I just wanted to see that last platform I shot go boom."
Breakwater pulled his interceptor up to lock on to the platform lining up Fathom 12. His twin laser cannons made short work of the platform. He watched the reports coming in from the Victory. She had unloaded most of the Sabre's crew, while the Valorous guarded her back. Commander Madden had drawn away the Imperial battleship in the Deva Wing.
Breakwater pulled further back to see how the Deva Wing was faring against the bigger ship. He switched on his monitor and enhanced the view with his scope. The image came up just as the Valorous rocket toward the battleship fire all weapons. Madden knew his tactics but the corvette barely scratched the battleship and Breakwater closed his eyes, as the Valorous was destroyed.
"Damn it!" Breakwater flipped on the Comm and got his pilots attention. "Fathom Left, break off from the platforms. That damn battleship just destroyed the Valorous. We are going to try and cover the Victory if we can."
The Comm was silent, as the pilots responded without a word. Most of them had friends on all these ships and they knew the risk. But knowing the risk is different then finding out you friends had just died. The interceptors of Fathom Left ignited their engines in formation just as the Sabre turned and made its ramming run against the battleship.
They cheered as the not so crippled corvette dealt a fiery blow to the battleship crippling it. Then the Comm went silent as a sight worse than death appeared on the scope.
"Oh crap, crap, crap, crap," Breakwater's mother would forgive her son for his wicked tongue, if he lived to see her again.
"Are they what I think they are?" Fathom 4 sounded like he was going to be sick.
"They are," Breakwater couldn't believe his eyes. Three Pirate Brigade warships teleported into the system in triangle near the crippled Imperial battleship. Dozens of Brigade dragon wings swarmed out of the fighter bays of the lead carrier. Breakwater knew the ship, had prayed never to see it again. The Warlock and its two battle cruiser escorts began to open fire on the remaining League vessels. Thul Gulokas had come to Toril.
End of Book One
[Bwah-ha-ha-ha...
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