Mission 9 – Skies of Cerinia Legends
Fox was taking his turn at the helm of the 'New Dawn', one of his first solo stints while the others rested. The fluid level in the pressure altimeter showed they were flying straight and level at around 40 hiro, the hiro being a measure of distance roughly equivalent to 18 standard metres, so about 700 standard metres high. The compass showed their direction to be south-west, which matched what the direction of the setting sun was telling him.
The cockpit was a waist high half box that shielded the controls and instruments, recessed into the deck just aft of the main mast, under the lateen yard, which was a over a standard metre above the deck to avoid hitting the pilot on the head. A shielded oil lantern provided light at night, and a harness allowed the pilot to stay steady even in high winds, which at the moment he didn't need. A periscope that went down behind the mast into the keel allowed the pilot to look ahead from underneath, or by pulling a lever straight down, a useful thing for taking off and landing.
He was amazed at how few instruments they used. It made sense though, sky-ships flew around the continent, not over open ocean, and primarily used landmarks rather than solar or astronomical navigation. The only other devices were a set of weighted streamers on the mast for measuring the relative wind speed and direction, and an egg-timer like device for counting out time between tacks. He could have used his PDA to check position, but he was trying to learn their ways of doing things.
Most things anyway, his headset was playing a semi-classical selection from John Sebastian Bark, a Cornerian composer from the early space age, and one of the first to combine classical instruments with electronics. His 'Prelude to Space' was as iconically linked to space travel to a Lylatian as 'Also Sprach Zathura' to a terrestrial human. However, the current selection was from 'Biosphere Commentaries', a set of themes exploring the feel of different habitats, and excellent for atmosphere travel. And there was plenty of travelling to be done.
As the Arwing flew, it was 400 ri, about 1600 skm to Nihon, and the main temple of the Protectors. Fox's Arwing II would have made the trip in just over half a hour at atmospheric speeds, the distance being so short that doing it as a sub-orbital trajectory wouldn't have saved more than a couple of minutes. Horegan's wagons were lucky to make 10 ri a day, and would have gone by a more round-about route that would see them there in about 60 to 70 days. A sky-ship could fly high enough to catch the steady, laminar air-flows of the lower stratosphere, which could allow it to travel 10 ri or better in an hour, if it was travelling with the wind.
Unfortunately, at this time of year, the prevailing winds were in the other direction, from the west, requiring the New Dawn to beat against the wind in wide tacks, reducing the speed and increasing the distance. With the fact that they had to veer south of the shortest path, this added up to the fact that the New Dawn's actual travel time, rather than a couple of days, was likely to be a couple of weeks. They'd passed over lightly populated areas, even stopped overnight at a few, but this part of the continent seemed completely uninhabited.
He looked around him, music swelling in the background, appreciating the golden afternoon light on the rolling green foot hills and broken forest far below, and the string of glittering lakes just visible off to port. Pulling down his zoom goggles, he focussed to starboard and examined the mist and cloud shrouded peaks of the Cloudrunner range, a north to south chain of mountains that he'd detected during his orbital survey, which split the upper half of the continent in two.
It was home to the main colony of Cloudrunners. While many of the pterodon-like creatures lived among the other races, this main group formed a fiercely territorial nation, one of the few that didn't participate in the Great Council, though neither were they a threat to the peace, being insular and rarely travelling beyond their own borders.
The mountains were rich in useful ores and metals, and their nation's main income was leasing out mining claims to other peoples, while cultivated mountain valleys, lakes and forests supplied most of their needs, making them otherwise self sufficient, and with uncontested air superiority they were almost unassailable. So they felt no need to associate with other species, beyond trading for fine crafts and luxuries, and policing the mining expeditions and traders that entered their realm.
While the New Dawn could fly high enough to make it over the peaks, even a Protector sky-ship would not be allowed to travel freely through Cloudrunner territory, though they'd more likely be escorted out of their air-space than attacked, and reparations demanded from the Protectors. That was why the ship had to veer so far off the most efficient course.
Speaking of course, the sand had almost run down in the glass. With the wind currently from the west-south-west, the ship was on a starboard tack, the wind coming from ahead and the ship's right hand side. Crystals similar to the repulsion crystals that held the ship aloft were mounted crosswise in the keel, enchanted (the word was as good as any) to resist crosswise movement and replacing the resistance of water against the keel that allowed a water-based boat to sail upwind.
To change onto the port tack, it was necessary to steer using the wing-sails. Winch handles and levers allowed the pilot to let out or draw in the wing-sails, or adjust the set of their supporting spars. In this way, they replaced the rudder on a regular ship, and the flaps on an aircraft. The main sail and lateen needed no alteration, as they would automatically swing across as the boat changed tack.
Fox had never been much interested in water based boats, but this flying boat had fascinated him. He'd taken to piloting it like a duck to orange sauce, unexpectedly, but well. The design, and quality of workmanship, had reinforced his opinion that while the Cerinians might not have all the advanced technologies of Lylat, those they did have had been polished to a high gloss.
Winding the handle, he let out the starboard wing-sail, and used the lever to set the upper spar aft of the lower, meaning the wind catching it would drive it both back and down. The bow came around, as the ship rolled slightly to the right and the booms swept across, the sails now catching the wind from the left hand side. The starboard wing-sail was now shielded by the bulk of the vessel, and the roll stabilised.
Fox turned the timer, and checked the altimeter to check the ship hadn't descended during the turn. He found they had dropped a few hiro and wound another handle. While the main repulsion crystals, arm-length chunks of quartz-like rock (maybe it _was_ quartz, he was no geologist) were fixed into the ribs of the ship, a smaller secondary set were on rotating brackets, and could be tilted between vertical and horizontal.
The crystals reacted with the radiating energy field of the planet, generating a faint blue glow, and a repulsive force hundreds of times their own weight when aligned vertically. The main set counteracted the fixed weight of the boat, while the movable ones could be adjusted to counter the weight of crew and cargo, or adjust altitude when the wing-sails couldn't be used to generate a net upwards or downwards force.
As Fox wound the handle, the pointer that showed the attitude of the crystals became more vertical. When the altimeter approached it's previous setting, he wound it back to the previous setting, neutral lift for the ship. It wasn't an Arwing, but he was flying it, and quite effectively he felt. He heard someone moving up to the hatch behind him and applied another newly learned skill. Defocussing his mind as Master Ti had shown him, he let a sense that was still new to him flow out to the newcomer.
Possibly because he had come to it so late, his empathic sense, rather than being a pure and distinct thing, caused some synaesthesia, overflow into other senses, in his case his sense of smell. Master Ti said it would disappear as he grew more experienced. So the presence, which carried a feeling of contentment, came with a cinnamon-sweet scent... Krystal.
"Hi Krystal!" He spoke without looking as the hatch opened.
The blue fox popped up seconds later. "Well done Fox. I could sense you realising it was me."
The red fox chuckled ruefully, though he took pride in the fact that he understood her words without mechanical assistance. The music in his ears automatically faded when his headset detected his speech. "Should have expected it, huh? Sensing me sensing you, heck that's confusing."
Krystal giggled. "Sorry, I didn't mean to steal your thunder. I think Master Ti is really impressed with your progress."
The red fox shrugged. "Since it's a matter of clearing my mind, which was pretty empty to begin with..." Fox glanced at his instruments and finally turned, suddenly spotting what she was carrying. "Food! You, my lady, are a life saver!"
"Hardly." Krystal blushed slightly, putting down one of the bowls on the small shelf on one side of the cockpit. "It was my turn. But Sora-chan's the cook in our family..."
"Doesn't matter, I'm ready to eat anything... uh... I mean..." He winced. "I didn't mean you aren't a great cook, just... I think I'll concentrate on using my mouth for eating for the next few moments, maybe I can do that without messing up!"
Fortunately, his new sense allowed him to confirm that she hadn't been offended. Amused was more like it. He plied chopsticks to the bowl of savoury noodles and meat, which was excellent, despite Krystal's demurral. "Delicious!"
She had a second bowl, and started eating when he did. "I'm glad you like it." They shared a companionable silence as they both attacked their dinners. As they were getting to the bottom of the bowls, Krystal spoke.
"That was a pretty smooth tack you made. I wouldn't have known about it if the crystals hadn't shifted. The pot didn't even ripple. I guess this comes rather easily to you though."
Fox dismissed the complement with a wave of his hand. "Uh uh, this is completely different to any sort of flying I've ever done. Not that I mind a challenge. You'd probably pick up an Arwing's controls just as fast." Actually he knew she could, having seen it happen.
"I wish I could know more of your world, what I saw when you showed us where you came from, and what you said since, it sounds amazing. Cerinia seems so primitive by comparison."
"Not true." Fox shook his head, then slurped up the last of the broth that sat in the bottom of the bowl. "I may not be the sharpest tool in the locker, but even I can figure out the difference between technologically advanced, and civilised. I've seen far too many people with advanced technology use it for some very uncivilised things."
Krystal was intent on the public thoughts which mirrored his words, and for a few seconds she got images leaking beyond his private memories, a beautiful city of tall towers and raised roadways, smouldering and broken beneath black and red machines that somehow screamed 'enemy'. It was seen from within a transparent box, a cockpit, utterly unlike the one in a sky-ship.
The image changed. A group of blocky spaceships, escorted by sleek winged darts, space fighters of a similar but simpler model than his, were suddenly harried by black and red wedges, enemies. But this image carried a sense of disconnect, as if second hand. Two darts, somehow more important in his mind, swept into the greatest concentration of red and black vehicles, allowing the bulky freighters to escape, and wreaking great slaughter on the enemies before they themselves disappeared in blooms of light and fire. Fox closed his eyes momentarily, dropping his head a fraction, and the images faded, along with the pain and guilt he felt at not having been in time to stop those things happening.
He looked back up at her. "Sorry... From what you've told me, you guys have a pretty good set up. A voluntarily stable, healthy population, and a set-up that keeps things peaceful while still giving people plenty of chance to be themselves. Heck, just the way your caravan reacted to my presentation. You were surprised, yes, but you weren't scared, and you were eager to understand. That isn't the reaction of primitives."
He put down the empty bowl and reached into his pocket. "Though if you want to see more... I had a couple of data pads in my backpack, forgot I had them. I use them for after action reports mostly." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a palm sized square wafer of grey plastic and squeezed one edge. A twelve inch square flat holo-interface flashed into being over it. He forestalled her question with an explanation.
"Think of it like a basic version of my PDA, more like those slates you've been using to show me writing." While the Cerinians had paper and ink, it was expensive, so temporary notes were written on slates with chalk. Ancient was a mass of pictograms, while Nihon was a simple phonetic script. Given his heavy schedule, he'd barely had a chance to study either to any degree. At least they used positional decimal notation, even if the numerals were different.
He manipulated the icons on the holo-interface, which like most, could detect his fingers inside the field of view, and an array of files appeared. "This one's got a bunch of school books and images on it, as well as some music, being school books they have text to speech, and I've fixed the interface with a copy of Slippy's translator so it'll read out in Ancient." He showed her the controls, a matter of touching file icons or visual controls on the screen. Then he handed it to her.
She took the device, a bit stunned, then recovered and hugged him. "Thank you Fox, this is a princely gift."
Fox put one hand behind his head, looking a bit embarrassed but pleased, and Krystal could sense he was just happy to have done something nice for her. "I should have done it sooner, but with how busy I've been... I figured since I've got a lot more catching up to do than you have, this'd be something for you to enjoy when I can't be there to tell you things myself."
"But how did you happen to have such books. Surely you don't need them?" the blue fox looked at him curiously.
"No, but I knew someone who did, your counterpart. She had to learn this stuff to adjust to the Lylat system. I just never removed the files from my PDA."
She looked at the glowing image, eagerly, but said, "I feel a bit guilty, having something like this and not being able to share it with my clan."
"Oh, I gave one of the others to Horegan, with the same stuff on it. It was the least I could do after what your caravan did for me. He even gave me some ryo, so when we get to the big city I have spending money. I figured the best gift I could give in return was knowledge. I figure he's wise enough to use it responsibly. When it's not in use, the interface collects light to charge the aeterna-cell... well, let's just say it should work for years."
"Was that why Baisu was so excited when we left? He's always been the most curious of any of the younglings. I'm surprised he wasn't bombarding you with questions when you gave your talk."
Fox shook his head. "Well he knows about it. I mean, it's logical the kids should get a chance to learn from it, but Baisu was a special case. You know about his dream?"
Krystal smiled. "Who doesn't? My little third cousin once-removed has been crazy about sky-ships almost since he was born."
Fox sighed. "He wanted to be the first to travel right round the world, and then I come along and wreck his dream by having already done it. That wasn't something I was proud of, so I decided to make it up to him."
Fox found the little blue fox off on his own, watching the caravan as it packed up to leave. At least he was looking in that direction, but his expression could only be described at glum, and he didn't seem to notice Fox, not until the fighter pilot spoke. "Hey, Baisu, isn't it?"
The smaller fox jumped at the voice and looked up. "Huh, oh, Protector McCloud!"
"That remains to be seen. In fact, that's why I'm going with the Protectors, to see if I make the grade. But I wanted to speak to you before I went. Why are you upset?"
"Upset? What makes you think I'm upset?" The youngster didn't meet his eye, looking down at the ground.
The red fox grinned, but shook his head. "I hope you're a better sky sailor than you are at hiding your feelings. Is it because you figure my sky-ship already flew around the world?"
"How... oh, yeah, Protector..." He gave a sigh. "Yes."
"Actually I wasn't dipping into your mind. Last night you pretty much wore your emotions on that semi-detached sleeve of yours." Fox shook his head. "Anyway, it doesn't count."
He pulled out his PDA and set it showing a small three dimensional image, a rotating Cerinia, half darkened, half greens and blues. Despite his funk Baisu perked up. A line appeared in the display, coming down from the top and around the globe, circling vertically as the sphere turned underneath it. It ended in breaking off, turning to the side and following an arc that ended on the planet. "The path my sky ship took."
He tweaked a control, and the sphere unfolded to a Mercator style map, showing the layout of continents and the sine wave path his ship took. It hadn't taken him any time to program, since the program he was using was designed to take data from Recon or ELINT satellites and turn them into tactical maps. Doing the same for his ships sensors was a standard function.
"I was in space, not on the planet. Until I came in for a landing, I was never closer than..." He made the calculation in his head, "... about 30 ri. I never landed anywhere, or even took close up views of what I was flying over. I was looking for a place to land, nothing more. Plus I was doing at least 2 ri per heartbeat, far too fast to get any detail. While I saw other continents, I can show you little more than their outlines."
"That's still really amazing!" Baisu was intent now on the world map. "This all came from your sky-ship?"
"Yep. But someone still has to _go_ to those other continents, explore them close up before you can say the job's been done properly." He hoped he had the young fox read right, that it would intrigue him,rather than discourage him.
"It'll require an expert sky sailor, as well as successful enough to buy their own ship, or convince someone to buy one for them. Plus they'd need a loyal crew, willing to follow you anywhere. It'd be an epic challenge, the work of a lifetime even to start the job..."
Fox was looking right at Baisu now, trying to divine his reaction, and wishing he had some of the empathy a Protector was supposed to have.
Baisu had perked up considerably, and looked right up at Fox, with his cocky grin back in place. "Then it's lucky I have a lifetime to do it in!"
Fox grinned. "Now that's what I wanted to hear! I can't help you with a ship, or crew, or make you grow up any faster, but there is one thing I can do. I've given Elder Horegan a simpler device that can show what maps I did get. Plus there's some stuff about ways my people found there way around open ocean back when we used sailing ships. So when you set out, you should have some idea of where to go, and how to get there. What you do with it is up to you."
"That's a lot of trouble to go to for a child you only met briefly." Krystal said after he'd explained. "Why did you?"
Fox shrugged. "It wasn't that much work, just transferring few extra files, since I was giving Horegan the data-pad anyway. Like I said, what he does with it is up to him. It was kinda pleasant, doing something nice for someone that didn't involve killing things."
"He might get killed chasing his dream." the blue fox responded.
"Maybe, but by the time he's ready to try it, he'll be old enough to accept the consequences. It's not like your dream is completely safe either, especially with those Sharpclaw running around."
He was struck by a thought. "Some people are happy to care for what they have, like your sister, and some are driven to pursue some goal. Both kinds are important, but I know which kind Baisu, and you, and I are. I saw it in his eyes, the same look I saw in the mirror when I was a kid who wanted to be the best fighter pilot in the Lylat system, just like my father before me."
"Me?" Krystal's head cocked to one side slightly, looking at him curiously.
He grinned. "Now you're fishing. You are going to be a great Protector, one of the best, and I don't need to see the future to tell that. I see it in your eyes right now." Fox met her gaze and held it. She could feel the truth of his statements, but now she was more interested in the depths of those green eyes, brilliant even in the twilight.
"I dreamed of being the best pilot in the Lylat system, and then protecting people from what I knew was coming... and you've dreamed of being a Protector. I worked hard and accomplished my dreams, and now I have a chance to help others to do the same thing. Not give it to them, but lend a helping hand. And why not?"
She was looking back him, just as deeply. 'Sora-chan was right... he cares. Even about the littlest things.' She flushed slightly, glad his power of mind skills weren't up to telepathy yet, as she was sure her public thoughts would embarrass him. 'I felt his pain earlier, the pilots in those ships must have been friends of his. He's been hurt so many times, and yet he still cares.'
She was beginning to think this other Krystal, the one who had left him, must have been damaged in the head. A caring, decent male, yet not soft or weak, a killer without ruth for his foes when needed, but not distant, or cold. Maturity, and a sense of honour you could moor a sky-ship to... and a sense of humour to mitigate it.
They shared each others gaze, and he must have felt her dawning emotions with his still nascent empathic sense, for his eyes widened even as his own emotions spiked... Suddenly his mind flared in a way she couldn't follow, and his demeanour changed.
"Arm yourself!" He turned away, his mind shifting from glowing lantern to blazing sword, as his hand dropped to his thigh. She knew the device that was holstered there, his blaster, was a weapon, even more powerful than a full power fire blast from a Protector's staff, but she'd never seen it in action, since it had never left the holster since the Sharpclaw fight, and Sorako had been too busy surviving to notice it's effects.
Now it was held in his hand, before she'd even started moving, and when eight bat-winged shapes ascended over the edges of the deck and dropped four Sharpclaw grunts onto each side, his blaster was already tracking. With a burst of energy, one Sharpclaw toppled backwards over the coming, head burned to a cinder and flaring into light even as it fell. She fumbled for her training staff, and sent out a telepathic yelp for help, alerting the two Protectors below decks, if they hadn't already sensed the disruption.
'We come, young one!' Master Ti's mental voice was reassuring, but there were still seven... six Sharpclaw grunts to deal with, as Fox's sniper accurate blaster removed the nearest one on the opposite side of the deck. She finally grasped her training staff, only to have it slip from her fingers and skitter across the deck to lie against the deck coaming. She considered diving after it, but that would leave her naked to Sharpclaw axes.
Without looking, Fox's free hand dipped into his backpack, and removed the compacted Protector's staff, but rather than extending it, he held it behind him, a message surfacing above the incandescent sword of his mind for a second. 'It's dangerous to go alone, use this!' He blasted another approaching Sharpclaw, but on the confined deck, and forced to cover both sides he couldn't blast them faster then they could approach.
She grabbed the staff, uncertain if she could use it, since each staff attuned itself to it's wielder, and there was no time to acclimatise it to her. But it dropped into her hand, and expanded without resistance, as if already attuned. She could sense it's powers, it was a powerful one, such as only the most experienced Protectors carried. Krystal lined up a Fire Blast and shot the nearest Sharpclaw even as Fox leapt up out of the recessed cockpit and closed with one on the other side, leaving her a clear field of view.
The red fox dived under it's powerful swing to hook it's leg with his own training staff and topple the bipedal lizardoid backwards. It forced the final one back a pace to avoid being felled, and left it a clear target as Fox raised his blaster and shot upwards through it's jaw. But that gave the fallen one a moment to recover, and it hurled itself forward, driving Fox over backwards and onto the deck, blaster sliding away.
Krystal had her own problems, the last Sharpclaw on the other side had used the one she shot as cover, flinging the corpse forward even as it evaporated and gotten into melee range. She was trapped in the recessed cockpit, waist level with the decking it stood on, using all her skill and agility to parry or dodge the blows from above.
Meanwhile, Fox writhed under the weight of the Sharpclaw body, twisting his head to one side as a set of three inch claws scored curls of varnished wood from the deck where it had been a fraction of a second prior. The fighter had dropped it's axe to attack hand to hand, or rather paw to claw. The heel of Fox's gloved hand came up to smash under it's jaw, but without the space to wind up, it did little more than hold the creature away from biting Fox's face off.
Ema appeared through the trapdoor in the cockpit just as Krystal triggered the Ice Spray ability of her staff, and swept it across her opponent's legs as he drew his axe back for a crushing strike. Half freezing it's legs and binding them to the deck put the creature off it's stride, literally, and gave her time to follow up with a horizontal sweep that smashed one of it's legs, and broke the other, dropping it to the deck.
Krystal bounded up onto the deck after it, and thrust weapon-end straight downwards with all her strength, smashing right through it's breastplate and spraying thick green ichor up the staff, before it evaporated with the creature. She felt Fox's emotions spike, and turned to look..
She saw him slide his compacted training staff under the Sharpclaw he was barely holding off, then extend it. One end was jammed into the crook of his armpit, buttressed against the deck. The other went in to the base of the Sharpclaw's throat, and then it extended, throwing the Sharpclaw off him and causing it to give a strangled yowl as it's throat was damaged.
While not enough to kill the thing outright, it hardly mattered as Fox slipped back, kicked off into a backwards roll and came up, staff in hand even as the Sharpclaw regained it's balance and leapt, claws extended. The fox warrior skipped sideways and spun, smashing down with a double handed diagonal strike at it's neck. There was a crunch and a gurgle, and that foe was done, but not before one last wild flail struck Fox's legs.
Krystal could see only part of this, her view of the top half of Fox obscured by the sail, but she saw clearly as he was swept over backwards, even as the Sharpclaw that had struck him disintegrated. She dived under the boom and across to the far side, landing prone as she reached for him.
She barely missed grasping one ankle, and hauled herself forward using the coaming, head and shoulders over the edge, hoping she could catch him. Once again she barely missed him, and watched in horror as he dropped away towards the darkness below... only to tumble in mid-air and grab at the upper spar of a wing sail. His one handed grip slipped, and he slid down the wing-sail itself, but was slowed enough to catch the lower spar, where he hung, his other hand still gripping his now compacted training staff.
"I'm okay..." He grinned as he looked up at her, and she grabbed the staff that had fallen beside her to lower it as a way up. Then his expression suddenly changed as he focussed on something above and behind her. "Above you!"
Her thoughts and empathic sense had been focussed on him, but his intent was clear, so she rolled to the side, even as she reached out with her empathic sense, and looked up. A Cloudrunner's shape was diving on her, still darker than the star speckled indigo sky overhead, and it's foot-claws broke off the section of coaming she'd hung over a second before as it closed it's talons upon it.
Her empathic sense, helped by vulpine low light vision, quickly made sense of the attack. The Cloudrunner was fitted with a double saddle, and muzzled. Riding it, and holding a mace, was a second Sharpclaw. The Cloudrunner was clearly under duress, raging against it's rider but for some reason helpless to harm it. The Sharpclaw swung at her, but the Cloud runner's wing chose that moment to 'accidentally' obscure it's vision.
She could sense the dull iron glow of the Sharpclaw's mind as it switched targets and forced the Cloudrunner to dive. Fox, it was after him! She rolled back to face down, and saw en-passant Master Ti and Protector Ema were fully occupied dealing with the other flyers, fending them off of the sails with blasts from their staffs.
They were hampered by the fact that they didn't want to hit the clearly enslaved Cloudrunners, and their position gave them few clear shots at the Sharpclaws riding them. Ema did connect with one Sharpclaw, bounding up off the lateen boom and using a jet boost from the staff to rise high enough to attack the reptile on it's mount from above. One swipe from a tora-jin was more than sufficient to smash the Sharpclaw grunt. But the other six still harried them, there'd be no help from that quarter.
This took only a fraction of a second to see as she turned over, pointing the staff down to cover the diving Sharpclaw, but the pterodon rider had closed with Fox, turning the Cloudrunner so it could attack with it's mace. She wasn't sure she could shoot it without hitting Fox, who now had both hands on the spar, and his training staff in his mouth. Despite the peril he appeared to be in, his mind glow was calmly confident, even calculating.
As the Sharpclaw dived past him, swinging, he used his legs like a pendulum to swing on the spar like a gymnast, swinging his body up and back, out of the way of the swipe. As it passed beneath him, it was 'Fox three', as he flung himself down, throwing himself at the descending Cloudrunner like a Sharpclaw seeking missile as it pulled the Cloudrunner out of it's power-dive.
It quickly became Fox one, Sharpclaw zero, as his boots smashed into the back of it's neck. The creature was smacked down against the pterodon's body, and the feeble sweep of it's mace behind it came nowhere near the fox on it's back. Fox stepped backwards onto the rear saddle, thanking his mol-stiction boots for providing him with stable footing, and deployed his training staff, smashing the Sharpclaw with repeated blows that quickly saw it follow it's fellows.
Fox dropped into it's vacated saddle, speaking in Saurian. "It's okay, I'll get you free, and help free your friends, but could you help me help mine?" Even as he spoke, he slid his staff into his belt, and started working on the crude buckles that held the bridle and muzzle over it's beak. They were simple, crafted large and sturdy for less than dexterous clawed digits. It came free, and fell away as the Cloudrunner circled.
"Agreed, Protector, but we must get them all!" replied the Cloudrunner.
"Then I'll need to get up there!" called out Fox, and the flying dinosaur, beat it's wings, ascending on a thermal from the hills below. Krystal had not been idle, seeing Fox rising to meet her. She'd unleashed one of the boat's stored firefly lanterns, and the whole deck was now dimly illuminated by the floating motes, more than well enough for vulpine low light vision.
She scooped up Fox's blaster, and went to meet him as his steed landed. She called out with relief. "Fox, you're alright!"
"Yep, but no time! Get up behind me, I need fire-power... You can carry both of us?" The last was directed at the Cloudrunner, even as he did up the harness straps that had been left loose by the vanishing Sharpclaw. "What should I call you anyway?"
"The name is Win dam, and you're lighter than my last cargo!" The Cloudrunner stated with a hint of humour.
"Fox, and this is Krystal!" the red fox replied, reaching down to help her up. "Speaking of which, strap in, things are going to get interesting!"
Krystal swung herself up, and in seating herself on the rear seat, had to brush his tail to one side, maybe taking a fraction of a second longer than needed. Her conversation with Sorako surfaced, and she felt her face flush. Fortunately, Fox appeared to be concentrating on the fight. To cover her momentary inattention, she passed forward his blaster.
"Thanks, you're a mind reader!" Fox said with relief, then realised what he said.
"I know!" giggled Krystal, doing up her own straps.
Fox shook his head, and looked up at the circling Cloudrunners. "Get above them, Windam, I'll try and guide you into the best position for us to fire from..."
The Cloudrunner rose on powerful wings, ignored by the Sharpclaw riders until he rose above the sails. Fox leaned low to the Cloudrunner's body, one hand with the blaster held forward. Krystal focussed her mind on him, ready to follow his lead. She was shocked by what she sensed. Fox was a quick learner, but he was still gaining full use of his most basic, empathic sense. Yet she could clearly feel he was en-rapport with the Cloudrunner, not the full interchange of senses she and Sorako had done, in fact light enough that it was probable neither he nor the Windam realised it.
"Dive!" His thoughts elaborated what he wanted, and the Cloudrunner swooped down as two others turned towards him, weaving to confuse them. Fox picked one Sharpclaw off with a well placed blaster shot from above, even as Krystal took the second, attuning to his awareness the movement of their mount to compensate for it.
Three more swept in, the Sharpclaws mewling and calling instructions to one another, bracketing the lone Cloudrunner as the last two flew up and away. Fox took out the rider of the one coming in head to head, but just missed one of the side ones as it did a desperate aerial evasion. Krystal was in a bad orientation to target the other and also missed.
The two Sharpclaw riders closed almost to melee range, unlimbering spears the others hadn't had.
"Do a barrel roll!" Fox's last two words were in Lylatian, but despite the fact that they should have been meaningless to Windam, he rolled and drew in his wings, performing a perfect barrel roll that took it over the riderless Cloudrunner ahead of it, and left the other fliers without a target.
One was quickly rendered irrelevant, as the descending fight had finally given the Protectors on deck a clear shot at their adversaries. The nearer one was picked off by a Fire Blast from Ema, while Fox brought his Cloudrunner around to give Krystal a broadside attack on the last one, which ended up being blasted from three directions at once.
"The last two, they must not escape!" called out Windam.
"Krystal, use the boost to catch up!" The concept in Fox's mind was even clearer than his words, and she jammed the melee end of the staff against the saddle, while triggering the jet boost effect. Keeping it up for any length of time would quickly drain the staff, but the fleeing Sharpclaw's hadn't gotten more than a few hundred standard meters in the seconds their comrades had bought, even diving to gain extra air space.
Fox slid his Zoom goggles on, set to infra-red overlay and making the escapees as clear as day to him. "That way!"
Windam dived after them, adding to the power of the staff boost and straining to his utmost limits to close the range. The extra weight of two foxes compared to the single Sharpclaw riders the fleeing ones carried actually helped as he swept in and onto the others.
"You take the port one, I'll take starboard!" called out Fox to Krystal. Unfortunately, with unaided sight, even vulpine she couldn't see well enough to aim... at least until the bright flash of a plasma bolt striking one in the back illuminated the other. She aimed, and fired. The shot was high, but not too high, as it fried the back of the last Sharpclaw grunt's head.
The trio returned to the ship, guided by the glow of the fireflies on the sail, and landed, finding the other Cloudrunners had already landed. Ema was in the cockpit adjusting the secondary repulsion crystals to take the extra weight. Master Ti was talking to the largest, which had brightly painted wings, and had already had it's own muzzle removed.
Fox recognised the painted wings from his experiences on Sauria, wing leader markings, this was the head of a group of families that flew together, a sort of clan. For people who had just been rescued from slavery, their attitude was subdued. Krystal concentrated on their public thoughts, and her face fell. "Oh no..."
Fox could only sense the emotional tenor, and asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's horrible! We may have hurt them more than we helped!" Krystal exclaimed.
Master Ti turned to the air as they got down off Windam. "Krystal is correct. This clan of Cloudrunners were captured with their families, and now their aged and children are held captive at a abandoned temple in the foothills, against their good behaviour."
Windam added. "Destroying the entire patrol brought us a few hours, but when we don't return..."
"They will be killed!" stated the wing leader.
"Not as long as I have anything to say about it!" stated Fox grimly. "And I do!"
Ema nodded in agreement. "Exactly!"
Master Ti responded, "It goes without saying we will help to rescue them, but the temple has dozens of Sharpclaw warriors, and several larger ones that give the orders. If we are discovered, it will not only mean our deaths, but the deaths of their families."
Fox pulled out his PDA, and activated the mapping function. "I did it once before, I can do it again! With the Cloudrunners to tell us the layout, we should be able to figure out a way in. And with the four of us, we should be able to get everybody out."
Author's notes: Boy, this took longer than expected. I had a month of stuff happening, both good and bad, and was too busy to write. I hope people aren't too disappointed with the result. On the other hand, you get two chapters for one update. I had hoped to fit it in one, but there was just too much stuff to do.
Next chapter, we have an explosive adventure in, 'Fox McCloud and the temple goes BOOM!".
Edit: Since I had to chop that in two as well, the first half is actually 'As cunning as a fox...'
