Chapter 1:
Aftermath
Captain Zar stroked his ornate sword hilt, looking out the main window of the Zabai Floating Fortress. Hills stretched on for miles before they stopped at a mountain range just north of Palas. It was there he would meet up with the victorious Zaibach forces, and prepare to invade Austauria. Or so he thought. They had felt and heard a loud bang a few minutes ago, and some messenger pigeons were captured detailing the plausible outcomes of the battle. Unfortunately, they had not given good news about the Zaibach forces.
It had now been five minutes since they were supposed to meet the Zaibach forces, but no messages came. Captain Zar was getting nervous, but his face was neutral as always. Better to keep your troops moral up, he thought. His officers stood hunched over their control panels, making sure everything was going smoothly aboard the ship.
Another five minutes passed when he saw five black dots on the horizon. His fists stiffened. He considered for a moment, then shouted orders at his lieutenant.
"Ready the garrison for combat," he bellowed "and make sure all the Guymelef pilots are ready-and-waiting. Hurry!"
"Yes sir!" The lieutenant replied. He in turn shouted the orders to several officers, and they all disappeared down the various corridors. An alarm came on, and the Floating Fortress slowly uncloaked.
The five dots were rapidly speeding up to them and were getting larger by the minute. Captain Zar pulled down a monocular lens and looked through it. Four Austaurian Skiffs and one Basran Cruiser were closing in. Damn! He thought to himself, those must be the victors! There was always the slim chance they were just renegade forces fleeing from a defeated battle, but the chance was just that: slim. His lieutenant ran up to him with a grim look on his face.
"They are fully armed, sir, and are barely scarred. They are closing in on such a high speed I would judge they barely saw any combat at all," he said.
"Then they must have been the relief forces, sent to clean up anything left. Its much worse than I thought," Zar said "we lost the battle."
The alarm continued to drone as the first few volleys of cannon balls and ballista bolts hit the Floating Fortress. Everything shook violently, and some men were knocked to the floor. Zar gripped the railing in front of him, steadying himself as he shouted out orders to the officers below him.
"Are all the cannons armed?" He shouted.
"Yes!" and officer shouted back.
"Then fire at will!" Zar cried bloodthirstily. The ship shook, but this time from the volley of cannon balls they fired. Two of the Skiffs were hit, one of them now lop-sided and the other one descending rapidly. The smoke momentarily made sight impossible, and before the wind blew it away two of the Skiffs latched on the side of the Zabai. This caused another violent crash through the ship, and faint sounds of combat drifted through the corridors leading to the bridge. Zar heard it, and unsheathed his sword.
"Lieutenant!" He bellowed, "take over until I return. You know what to do," he said. The lieutenant nodded his head and assumed Zar's previous position. Zar took of down one of the corridors, following the sounds of steel crashing against steel. He turned a few times, and eventually reached the sixth docking bay where the fighting was still going on. He jumped into the fray, madly swinging his bloodstained sword. Five men fell down in mere seconds before the invaders took real notice of him. Three of the Austaurian soldiers charged him, but he cut through two of them and knocked the other one unconscious with the hilt of his sword. The Zaibach soldiers also took notice of him, and started to fight with a renewed energy. The Austaurians were slowly pushed back, until they were against the edge of the docking bay's floor. Some of them turned and ran into the Skiff as it unlatched its anchors while others stayed and fought. The Skiff started to climb as the last few Austaurians were pushed over the edge to their deaths below.
A cheer rose up from the silver-clad Zaibach troops, but Zar wasn't done yet. He directed the troops to grab ropes and anchors off the walls and told them to try to latch onto the Skiff. A few of the anchors hit, and the ropes were pulled taut as the Skiff struggled to get away. Zar shouted over the buzz of the soldiers, this time telling them to try and climb across the ropes. They eagerly threw themselves on the ropes, carefully inching their way across them. The Skiff tried to fire arrows at the troops, but only a few were hit. Changing tactics, they fired their own anchors, aiming the sharp claws at the vulnerable rope-climbers. Zar watched as fifteen men were sliced off their ropes and as one of the ropes snapped. However, that was not enough. Ten Zaibach troops made it onto the skiff and waited at the entrance. Zar yanked a pulley off the wall and placed it on one of the ropes. Saying a prayer, he leapt off the edge of the floor and rolled across the rope until he came to the small ledge on the rear of the Skiff. A second before the pulley started to roll back again, he used his momentum to swing off it and land on the entrance floor.
The sound of feet pounding against the floor started to get louder as Zar and his ten troops moved inside the Skiff. After they turned a corner, they met face-to face with the Austaurian troops that had fled. But this time, they charged. Zar grunted as he locked swords with one of the Austaurians. He parried a thrust, then thrust himself. He hit the Austaurian in the leg, and the young soldier toppled. Zar slit his throat. What a waste, he thought for a moment, he would've made a fine soldier. Once the other Austaurians were down, Zar told his soldiers to gather around him. Only one did not respond. Leaving the man on the floor, Zar and his nine soldiers pressed forward. They had met some minor resistance, but this time they easily overcame the tired defenders. Once they reached the bridge, They charged the surprised crew and slaughtered them. Only one was left, facing Zar's sword. The skinny man tried to look defiant, but trembled.
"Pilot this thing back to the docking bay" Zar said menacingly. The man stood still. Zar jabbed the point of his sword into the man's chest, but drew no blood. He gulped, and reluctantly turned to the controls. The Skiff backed towards the docking bay where the troops had gathered. The two boarding ramps were lowered, and the troops poured into the small ship.
"How much room is there for Guymelefs?" Zar inquired.
"Uh… I think four, sir" the man said shakily. Zar turned to one of his men and told him to relay a message. Within two minutes, thirty troops and four Guymelefs were packed onto the small Skiff.
"Now," said Zar "we must go to the Basran Cruiser, and masquerade as Austaurians. Act as if everything was normal, but we need to dock in order to re-supply and care for our wounded" he said. The man nodded, and started towards the Basran Cruiser as soon as the anchors had been disconnected.
The fierce firing continued between the Basran Cruiser and the Floating Fortress, and they were both taking heavy damage. As the Skiff neared the Basran ship, the pilot picked up a small copper cone that had a long tube connected to a larger amplifier outside.
"This is the Avenger," he said "and we require to dock in order to re-supply and care for our wounded" he lied. Zar licked his lips as the large metal door opened up and the Skiff pulled up to it. It launched the anchors, and the ramps were lowered as the Skiff neared. A small group of soldiers and a squad of dock-workers waited for what they thought would be tired, wounded allies. Instead, silver-clad troops poured out, swords raised.
Zar ran down to the holding room where four Guymelefs waited. They were standard-issue Zaibach Melefs, armed with nothing but a sword. The three Melefs that had their own pilots were already lumbering out of the chamber, as swarms of footmen avoided their plodding stride. Zar ran up the ramp that led to his own Melef, and hopped in the already-open cockpit. The hatch closed, and the ramp pulled away as his Melef rose to its full height. His Melef moved like clockwork under his experienced touch. One step after another, his huge metal monster descended the ramps and entered the fray.
The Basran soldiers started to retreat when they saw the four Guymelefs plod into the docking bay. In one swipe a Melef could take out six men at once. The footmen commenced fighting around the legs of the Melefs, making sure none of the Basran troops damaged the mechanisms.
Frustrated with the his state of immobility, Zar shouted out orders to clear away from the Melefs and emphasized the point by swinging the huge sword close to the Zaibach lines. The Zaibach troops pulled back and the Melefs lumbered forward, killing many fleeing soldiers in their stride. Finally, the last of the Basran forces emptied out of the docking bay, running down corridors too small for the Guymelefs. Zar exited his own Melef, but instructed the others to stay just in case the enemy had anything tricky in mind. Leading his footmen forward, Zar readied his sword for he knew the Basran soldiers would not give up easily.
The corridors were small, only wide enough to fit two men at a time. Thus the Zaibach soldiers proceeded in two lines, with Zar in the front. The ship constantly rumbled under the fire from the Floating Fortress, and Zar constantly prayed that they would not be shot out of the sky—with him still in it.
The Basran Cruiser proved to be quite large, and they traveled for two minutes before they met their first defenders.
Zar shouted out a battle cry and drove forward with his sword, running two Basran soldiers through at once. As their comrades stumbled over their corpses, Zar seized the moment and hacked away at the soldiers who had momentarily lost their balance. As three more fell, the defenders got cautious and coaxed Zar and his men forward. As Zar swung his blade around, the Zaibach soldier beside him fell. Facing two enemy soldiers, one in front of him and the other on his left, Zar backed up a little and then swung his word in a wide arc. The two men fell as another Zaibach soldier stepped up to take his fallen comrade's place. The fighting went on for a good ten minutes until the Basran troops were fully slaughtered. The only problem was the Zaibach forces had been reduced to fifteen troops. Zar pushed ahead anyway, smelling victory.
"Damned bastards!" The Basran captain shouted. The large, muscled man lifted up a sparking piece of the bridge and hurled it at the Zaibach invaders. There was no hope for the ship now, so the captain had resigned himself to killing as many of the Zaibach dogs that he could. Five of the soldiers fell as the huge metal chunk hit them, and Zar barely avoided them. He lunged forward with his sword, but the Basran captain grabbed it and broke it in two. As if he didn't even notice his bleeding hands, the Basran captain lunged for Zar. Zar jumped back as the burly man stumbled to regain his balance. Zar knew he could not defeat the man in hand-to-hand combat and his sword was gone: the last hope was to outwit him. Zar quickly looked around and surveyed the situation: he had a huge brute bearing down on him, his sword was in two pieces and there was a periscope beside him. Perfect, he thought. He jumped behind the periscope just as the captain turned and ran towards him. In the last few seconds before impact, Zar pulled the periscope down. The large man crashed into it and then the whole periscope crumbled with the man on top of Zar.
Zar groaned. The firing upon the vessel had stopped, probably because there was no one on the vessel left to return fire. Thank goodness for my lieutenant's sense, Zar thought groggily. He heard the loud noise coming from the Floating Fortress, but could only make out a few words.
"Have you surrendered?" The inquiry came. It was being repeated several times, for the crew aboard the Floating Fortress was unsure of what was transpiring on the ship. Helped up by two of his soldiers, Zar walked over to the speaker and spoke into it.
"This is captain Zar. This ship is now under Zaibach rule. Prepare a repair and overhaul team to get this beaten up thing back into shape, and for goodness sakes get some Kakeli reeds ready, for I have a headache from hell."