AN: (January 6, 2021) Just a note for further readers, I don't mind reviews that have some content irrelevant to the story. If your review is ENTIRELY 'you know what would be better? this x this' it will be flagged and ignored if you are a registered user or deleted if you are a guest from here on out. It's unhelpful and does not help the author in any way.
I will also fiercely fight for ownership of this story. It contains some original and personally owned characters and species and if you see this story copy+pasted anywhere other than on under Samateus-Taal, please let me know at samateus1987 or message me on Discord, the info for that is on my profile here.
That being said, I write this primarily for my own enjoyment and share so others may as well. I have adopted a writing style similar to the wonderful RobSt who wrote 'Harry Crow' and the story of his I'm enjoying now 'Proud Parents' has given me hope that my overly information and conversation heavy writing isn't too out of the ordinary or hard to follow. As always, I hope that folks enjoy.
As the planetary leaders approached the halfway point of their trip, everyone relaxing as the trip dragged on, several ships moving close to the Aurora for brief refuels or breaks. Eventually the world leaders took to briefly speaking on what they plan to do once they reached the new solar system.
"I think we should only get as close as necessary to do full biological scans of these worlds, and make sure nothing is hiding just below the surfaces of those worlds." Tekla advised, when Jade brought up the question.
"While excited to see these new planets, and the possibility of a new home for my people, I have to agree. Remora was an unpleasant look at what traps the beast planet can come up with." Pyrus added haltingly, looking a bit downcast, shivering at the reminder of just how cold that dead world had been when he and Zera had crashed there before they learned it was the Beast Planets' forward base inside the cluster. Jade nodded, smirking a bit.
"Not afraid to get into a fight, are you?"
"Never, just don't want to risk lives." Pyrus shrugged with a playful grin directed at her, Femur scoffing.
"Nah, there's nothing on those dirtballs, let's take your ship Pyrus, when we get a bit closer." Femur waved it off, Sternum scratching his chin characteristically with a nod, Pelvus -who had already been on the Aurora from a previous visit and never left during the finishing of the upgrades- likely off in some private room sleeping or planning something to keep himself busy. Graveheart smirked at Sternum, and shook his head.
"I think we should take multiple smaller ships first, like Femur is suggesting, but spread out to check each world at once before returning here." Pyrus smiled and nodded at Gravehearts suggestion, Zera crossing her arms and frowning, fully expecting to be tasked with staying on the Aurora.
"I'll take Zera and Zuma, and Sternum. Unless you want to go with Jade and Graveheart." Pyrus offered, Femur making a face. "I didn't forget about you Femur, there's more reason for you to check out the other worlds, not the volcanic one." Pyrus shrugged, his expression hard to read.
"I agree, Graveheart and Femur can come with me, Tekla and Cryos, will you be remaining here, or shall we see about another small transport?" Jade stated, although she had no desire to be around Femur, she had noticed him being less obnoxious of late, since Sternums return. Sternum raised a brow, but nodded to Pyrus and Zera, Zuma remaining as reserved as always. Tekla smiled, looking to Cryos.
"I believe my ship was last in the hangar with the Aurora, was it moved onboard once the repairs were finished?" She asked, smile never faltering as Vox floated nearby. Cryos looked to Glailen who nodded.
"Yes lady Tekla, it's in the bay on the farthest end from Prince Pyrus' ship." He explained, as an image of the Auroras dock appeared on the primary command console before him, pointing to the two internal locations where the aforementioned ships waited. A third, an upgraded Bladewing similar to Pyrus', had been set aside for Jade, Graveheart and Femur, which he advised ahead to the loading bays to have the ships ready for departure.
As they waited, Pyrus took Zera down to his ship, which he had taken great care to check over himself whenever he used it. Zera watched him carefully remove a panel on one of the wings, looked over a few internal components, manually switched one on, which raised one of the flaps, before turning it back to its automatic setting. He repeated this a few times, testing each manual lever and checking the power core before finally leading her inside. Zuma and Sternum showed up shortly, with the others going to their respective ships, as Glailen would take command of the Aurora in the absence of Cryos or Graveheart.
"Have you settled on a name for this new ship of yours Pyrus?" Sternum asked, moving to settle in the seat directly behind the Fire prince. Pyrus chuckled, watching Zera strap herself into the co–pilot seat as Zuma sat herself behind Zera.
"Not yet... General Blaze doesn't like the fact that it's a modified Bladewing, not an Inferno." He explained as he effortlessly started up the ship and began launch procedures. As they departed the Aurora, communications briefly crackled and went quiet again. Pyrus frowned, attempting to open a comm–link to the Aurora.
"Yes prince Pyrus?" Answered Glailen, appearing on his vidscreen from the Auroras bridge without issue.
"I had a brief comms static, everyone okay?" He asked, assuming that a comm–link would have been established with all three away ships and the Aurora on the same channel. He was correct, as Jade piped up shortly.
"So did we, likely a bounced signal?"
"No, there is no reason for communications signals to bounce at us, I will have to look at the Auroras shielding, it may have caused a brief feedback." Tekla explained. Pyrus shrugged it off, the three ships gathering together before rapidly heading toward the blue star they could see in the distance now. As the first world came into view, the static came again, and everyone became concerned as they were a good distance from the rest of their escorts.
"That must have come from somewhere, especially if it's affecting all of us." Jade announced, Tekla could be heard tapping away at controls and Vox suddenly chimed.
"Subspace anomaly detected."
Everyone froze, eyes wide, as they looked at the pale blue star they were getting closer to. Pyrus grit his teeth angrily, everything seemed to be working against him and his people, as he had just spotted the volcanic world in the distance, when the small data–companion of Tekla announced something was strange. They slowed their travel, and Tekla seemed to blink in shock.
"Talk to us Tekla, what is it?" Graveheart demanded over the comm. The response she gave was simply to send the image of the assumed 'dead' world, where a satellite they had not noticed from the long–range images and scans sat in plain view. It was a delicate thing, no larger than an average Rockian stood tall, with four petals that spun centered around an hourglass shaped centerpiece. It seemed to move to point one of its ends at them, a lens iris could be seen adjusting to focus on them. It was much clearer than in the images Tekla had taken of the other similar craft, so they could tell that they were indeed being watched.
"Someone knows we've come over to say hello?" Pyrus asked at length, looking to Zera and then to Sternum and Zuma. Zuma seemed to be meditating, if there was any way for them to find out the intentions of these strangers, it would be thanks to her. The static occurred again, and a brief shockwave pushed each ship slightly away from the strange satellite, as another satellite suddenly materialized near the first.
"Okay, I don't like this, what are they and can I shoot them?" Jade asked, obviously on edge by the strange static that seemed to come from these camera–bearing satellites. Before anyone could respond, Vox chimed again.
"Subspace anomaly detected." Tekla frowned, all of their party looking at the star, and seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
"Toots, I think your brainball has a glitch." Femur announced. Pyrus then saw a streak of gold, and several red ones just beyond the edge of the star itself. Zera saw it also, pointing at it.
"Uh, I think there's something out beyond the other side of the sun..." Pyrus stammered, a bit worried to find out the issue, but instead gunned his ship toward the atmosphere–less world, and the two satellites. The satellites watched him, then moved away suddenly and with such speed that they had trouble tracking them. As the trio of ships moved just far enough to extend their scanners beyond the electrical field of the nearby star, and saw several large, nearly invisible ships, firing bolts of red–violet energy at something moving much faster and leaving a streak of golden light behind it. Another ship, similar in size to the Aurora, suddenly appeared behind and above them, slight and brief shockwave announcing its presence. It seemed very bulky and had what appeared to be multiple long thin petals that hovered near its exterior, obscuring its overall appearance, however it remained quite menacing and almost appeared like the head of a massive beast. Pyrus and Jade reacted suddenly, pitching their craft forward and away from the silent alien ship that had similarities to the camera–bearing satellites that had just disappeared.
"Tekla, get out of there!" Graveheart yelled into the comms, as the two satellites they had seen before reappeared and moved toward the new ship. Teklas ship strangely refused to move, as some form of gravitational field had them in its grasp, fluctuating beams of light emitted from a small port on the new ship surrounding and caressing the exterior of her VariTek ship.
"Oh no you dont!" Pyrus exclaimed as he deftly spun his ship around, expertly shutting off his left wing–engine and gunning the opposite, then fired twice at the new ship after turning. It did not respond, the blasts of plasma hitting a shield and seeming to be absorbed by it as ripples of energy danced away along it like a bubble, disappearing slowly as it spread. Pyrus gaped, quickly moving to rush forward to free Tekla and Cryos.
"Wait! Pyrus, I think it's alright." Cryos stated, their comms coming active again. Pyrus stopped his ships' advance, only meters from Teklas' ship. The large ship released the small VariTek fighter, turning and moving between their ships and a blast of red–violet light that came from the direction of the other battle. The blast hit, but coursed through the shields of this new ship, shaped akin to the bulkhead transports of planet Rock, with more streamlined overall design, engines that had no visible exhaust vents as many were used to, instead having lines of blue–white light at the aft of the ship, hidden behind curved panels and the strange hovering petals. Once the shields had faded again, coloured lights ran in repeating sequences in lines along the side of the hull of the strange ship.
"Tekla, I assume you can... Wait, I know those sequences." Pyrus began to ask, before he realized that the lights were a code, a warning to onlookers. "Planet Fire used lighting like that, to send messages across battle lines." He explained, as Zera and Sternum were looking at him expectantly.
"Yes, planet Tek had similar. They want us to head back to the others and leave. Those are..." Tekla explained herself, then paused, choking back a gasp. Jade eased her craft alongside the others, frowning at them through the viewports.
"Those are beast ships, and some of them are following that... Streak, straight at us!" Jade announced, having gotten a clearer look at the distant battle when she and Pyrus had pitched their ships away from the strange new craft. As she began to turn back toward the Aurora and their escorts, the golden streak suddenly caught up with them, spinning and spreading two armoured wings as a long tail with what appeared to be fins along its tail and four limbs with other small fins helping it slow and stabilize.
It looked built like a lava–dog, but heavily armoured and much larger, easily dwarfing their ships as it floated near the first and largest craft. It seemed to be talking to the ship, and turned to look straight at Pyrus suddenly, before flexing its wings and golden light from its wing–armour lit up, propelling it towards him. He made a move to close the viewport, when Zuma suddenly rested a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head when he looked at her. Her eyes were aglow, and she seemed to lock her gaze on the armoured creature. The angular horned head armour slowly became transparent, allowing them to see two brilliant golden eyes on either side of a plated head. A moment passed, and it flapped once, moving away as Zuma went to be seated again.
**They are allies, and will help. Something is keeping them from communicating with these ships.** She explained to Zera and Pyrus, Sternum raising a brow. Zera reiterated what was said, as Pyrus turned his ship back towards the fleet, Tekla taking a moment to follow. The armoured creature hovered near its ship, or so they assumed, before suddenly moving to follow the trio. Two petals seemed to break off from the formation around the larger ship, and kept pace with the armoured wings of the creature as blasts of brilliant golden energy were fired from hidden locations on the large ship, and small metal cartridges with propulsion engines on them were launched from it, which shot toward what was now known to be beast ships. It moved to follow them, though much slower, as it moved backwards to keep its shields and weapons toward the threat.
"Solar anomaly detected." Vox chimed suddenly, as the light from the nearby star was suddenly dimmed, and blocked. They knew what it was, yet they could not keep from looking. The beast planet had found them.