Interlude Three: The CU CHULAINN

            A crater in the side of a mountain wasn't something special in the Dragon's Tooth. There were many of them, some produced naturally, some created by careless vessels flying into the mountains and cliffs. This one, however, was different. Inside the wrecked remains of what had once been a proud battleship, someone was still alive.

            A man crawled out from under the debris of what had once been the bridge of the ship, and looked around. Seeing something else move, he limped over and attempted to haul a support beam off from where it lay, holding it up barely long enough for a woman to crawl out. All over the ruined place, things were stirring. The man glanced around, surprised this many had survived.

            "You're a mess," the woman said, indicating his ruined captain's uniform. He chuckled. "You're just the same." He shot back, and, despite their situation, they broke out into laughter. They kept laughing as they helped the rest of the survivors out and scouted the rest of the ship for survivors.

            As they passed through the corridors that were more or less intact, anger started to rise again in Tom. He glanced around and saw dead and broken bodies. Though there were surprisingly many survivors, little less than half the crew was dead. And then there was the matter of getting them back home.

            Bile rose in his stomach as he saw the engine room, people smashed beneath giant support beams, impaled on controls. The only thing remotely intact was the Claudia chamber, and he marveled at that.

            As what was left of his crew assembled in the now cavernously-empty cargo bay that had once housed hundreds of riflemen, he looked around at the torn and haggard faces of the survivors of the Guild betrayal. It wasn't that the Guild had done anything. It was what the Guild hadn't done that brought them here.

            He turned and faced them. "We came to this battlefield expecting a fair battle. Yet Deusis has broken the regulations, and the Guild has not interfered. I wouldn't care a damn about what the Guild does, except for the fact that it costs people's lives. We are stuck here, in the Dragon's Tooth, and I fully intent to get every single one of you back to Anatoure alive – but I can't. I cannot and will not let the Guild continue to put our people at risk. I have seen them do it more than once, and always at a horrible cost. I will not see it happen again." His voice dropped to a deathly quiet whisper. "They wiped out entire towns, refused to enforce their decrees, and killed thousands of people. I will draw the line right here. I have just about had it with the Guild. I will not allow them to kill more of our people. You have fought with me, and you've been a good and loyal crew. I'm not going to risk any of your lives in my personal crusade, but I will not be able to return to Anatoure before it is over."

            He could see some confusion between the people, then he turned his back on them and slowly walked out of the room. He didn't expect any of them to follow him on what probably was a suicide mission.The greater his surprise was when he felt his sister's hand on his shoulder and saw the entire remains of the crew assembled behind her, grim looks on their faces. "I remember Mayasa, too, Tom. I remember what they did to our home." A hefty gunner beside her spoke up, "Yeah, and we're all in this together, Cap! Whatever they'll do, we'll kick some Guild butt!"

            Tom smiled. They were a tough bunch. Together, they might just make it out alive.

            Construction of the dock was going pretty well, Tom had to admit. They had found a cavern deep inside the mountain range they had crashed into to protect them from the storms and had salvaged what they could from the wrecked NEHELENIA. The 'redecoration', as most had come to affectionally call the construction of the drydock and base inside, had just started barely two months ago.

            Everyone knew they were on the official missing in action list, presumed dead. But still they were here. He glanced down at the drawing board where he and his sister were working on a new ship design. One they could actually built from the remains of their former ship, and what little the mountain offered them in terms of raw materials.

            The design they had come up with was somewhat small – limited by the resources they had to built it, and by the crew they had to man it. On the other hand, both Tom and Caroline had made sure their design was fast and deadly nonetheless. The basic design called for a curved triangle bow section, connected via a thin spine to the rear engines and stabilizer fins. Attached to the spine on either side were two hangar decks, the center of each taken up by a large catapult to propel launching vessels out at combat speeds, the rest would be there for vehicle storage and recovery operations. Sloping away from the launch bays were two wings, curving downward and slightly forward gracefully. Not so gracefully, Tom mused, were the guns they planned to put on the thing.

            Their initial design had been to optimize speed and maneuverability. Their second concern was firepower. They had managed to cram an amazig number of turreted cannons on their vehicle so far. Tom did a quick weight calculation. "We could cram one, maybe two aditional guns on the ship without sacrificing too much space or speed." Caroline nodded affirmatively. "Yeah, but I would like to take out some cannons and put something bigger in instead."

            He glanced at her over the planning table. "What did you have in mind?"

            His sister grinned devilishly. "A big, kickass gun. Basically, the design revolves around firing fast, and firing spread shells. Do you know what kind of damage we could do to Guild formations with that?"

            His grin matched hers. "You're evil, you know that?"

            The ship's construction was nearing completion. It had been nearly a year since the destruction of the NEHELENIA, and, as far they knew, the war with Deusis was still going on. And Anatoure wasn't doing too well. Now, they were debating over a name. "I still favor NEHELENIA II. We should give the old lady some credit," Caroline announced. Her brother shook his head. "No, I like ALLASTOR best. I mean, look, it's an entirely new ship, and entirely new design. She doesn't look anything like the Claihm Solais class."

            "Yeah, but we salvaged all the material from our old ship! Come on, Tom!" Caroline glared at her brother. He met her gaze. "Maybe, but then, how about TEMPEST or simply RETRIBUTION?"

            The chief engineer chuckled as he saw the two of them. "Why not go for VALIS, instead? A legendary sword that strikes the enemy where it hurts most?" He offered, more in jest. However, Tom's eyes lit up. "Hey...wait a moment. I got it! The Claihm Solais is a sword in legend. Why not use CU CHULAINN, it's wielder?"

            Caroline grinned as she made the mental connection. "We had a sword...and we turned it into a swordmaster. I like that. Get out the paint, we got something to write on the bow!"

            The docking clamps on the vessel released for the very first time. The whine of the engine, however, wasn't the high-pitched screech of a new one – rather, it was the low throbbing of a seasoned drive unit. No wonder, it was one of the few things salvaged intact from the old NEHELENIA.

            Free of its moorings, the new ship hung in the air as its Claudia drive cancelled gravity. It slowly inched its way out of the dock, then curved gracefully away from the cavern's wall and towards the tunnels, dipping into them like a stingray.

            Only, it was a very deadly stingray.

            As the vessel made its maiden voyage through the tunnels and finally exited into the center of the Dragon's Tooth, the people aboard it cheered. The vessel's dull gray hull turned it into a shadow amidst the fog and winds, and only two things disturbed the hull paint. Two lines of letters along the port flank:

            "CU CHULAINN

            GUILD'S NEMESIS".