To live as the Phoenix
"Move the forward end towards Valua and get them with a broadside. If we're lucky they'll try to dodge the guns and give us a firing solution with the moonstone cannon."
At a nod from the weaponry and navigation officers respectively the tasks were carried out.
"Yafutoman ships are gaining altitude. The are currently at a 35° angle from our guns."
Aika swore under her breath at the news. It wasn't that she hadn't expected it, but had prayed it wouldn't happen. While the Delphinus and several other ships in the New Valua armada could ascend to the same height as Yafutoman ships, many were older, more outdated models of magic ships who's redeeming qualities were magic cannons and a quick production rate.
"Continue climbing to their levels, and inform the gunners only to fire if they have a clear target lock. We can't afford to have the guns overheating if we have to leave some of our ships below us."
The communications officer took off his headset, glancing away from the data he had been observing in an attempt to hack the three ship's encryption for communication with one another. Looking directly at Admiral Aika e said, "Ma'am, magic ships and others incapable of following us are asking what they should do with themselves if they can be of no further help."
Aika closed her eyes for a moment, trying to think of anything that those ships could do, save for killing themselves by standing still. A short salvo from the three ships above and those ships would be smashed into scrap metal, making the option of moving shields an impossibility. Raking her memory, she couldn't think of any of the ships having torpedoes, but still passed on a message of, "Tell those who have torpedoes to open fire with them and try to take out the nearest ship to them. Keep them from massing their fire together- they'll drift closer together and provide once huge target for the Yafutoman ships."
"Yes, ma'am." The officer said, returning to his position. Sighing slightly, the admiral could only wait as her ship went to join the same level as the Yafutoman's. Below her was an inferno as the country she was helping to rebuild was reduced back to the ruble that it had been after the rains of destruction- above her were a series of ships opening their guns up with destructive energy, a constant movement of pain, death, and flame that needed only a vessel to give off such evil energy. Glancing at the timer on the far wall that gave time until firing solutions, she saw that it read a further forty-five seconds. They would be the longest forty-five seconds of her life, and she knew it.
"Move, move, move!" the shouts made his head hurt, made him want them all to go away, made the metallic clicks of boots slamming the walls decking in a fair closeness to unison the worst sounds it was possible to hear. All around him the ground vibrated, reports slamming out of weapons left and right. Herrand tenderly opened an eye, shutting it just as quickly when he saw the blinding light of a noon sun.
Around the soldier lay bodies, weapons, chunks of stone, and- the most grotesque of all- a fair sized chunk of someone's small intestine. With a grimace he realized that it was his own.
He tried to sit up and found, not to his surprise, that he had no feeling in his legs. His spinal chord had probably been severed, or at the very least taken a severed beating.
"We got a live one!" someone called, running by in a white medical uniform, indicating someone near Herrand.
Another white uniform ran up to him, looking at the man as he coughed up blood, the droplets lost like teardrops in a crimson rain. White Uniform examined him critically for a few seconds, noting the locations of eight separate wounds, each at least the size of a man's fist.
The official promptly yanked the firearm from his belt and fired into the bloodied man, ending his life in an instant.
Looking down at the fair sized hole in his gut, Herrand chose not to speak up, merely lay there in the blood, looking up and watching as fire rained from sky.
Out of the corner of his eye, Herrand watched White Uniform and company's progress along the wall until they promptly evaporated in a blast of superheated air. More shots shook the wall, landing subsequently in a line, one that gradually moved towards Herrand.
The firing actually made sense. If the top of the wall could be taken out, then the upper guns from the massive wall firing at missiles and other projectiles headed for Valua would shake themselves loose from pure kickback and fall to the ground, further ruining the city. The gaping holes left behind would leave inviting targets for using the same strategy down the length of the wall.
Valua and its defenses had been built on the principal of simply destroying ships that it produced, and possibly the Nassarad's, but never the Yafutomans. As the folly was exposed, Herrand truly wished that someone had the decency to say 'hey, our defenses are about fifty years old! We should probably upgrade!"
As the shots continued to chip of stone and brick, Herrand closed his eyes, waiting for the inescapable moment when life would leave him. It didn't come. Quite abruptly the firing stopped, followed subsequently by loud booming noise.
"Status report- what was that? What just took that ship out?"
Still five seconds from entering effective firing range, a blast had rocked one of the Yafutoman ships, opening a gaping hole in the main cabin as well as the engine room. With groans of protest the propellers shut down and the massive dragon upon the ships bow dipped his head to deep sky, plunging for the last adventure.
"I'm not entirely certain, Admiral, but I think that it was one of the wall guns."
"Explain that," Aika replied, confused.
"These ships were implementing a strategy to break the wall up from the top down and shake out the guns, maybe for a later invasion with less expensive ships that are of Valua's range in maneuverability and altitudinal movement," the weapons officer replied, typing furiously at his console. "Now I'm not sure, but… Yes! One of the guns was ripped free by another's kickback. As it fell the automatic targeting system was still in effect. The gun was shooting an explosive magazine headed for the wall. The intercept point was altered as it fell, thus the shot ripped through the magazine round and intercepted ship that fired it."
As if it might be some help in explaining, the officer indicated surveillance footage he had just downloaded showing one of the guns falling back ward from the wall and firing at the same time.
"I hate to interrupt, ma'am, but we're in range."
"All guns, open fire! I want those ships in deep sky before they can even think about surrendering!"
Several seconds passed and the ship remained motionless.
"Why aren't we firing?"
"There's a slight issue on that front, ma'am. They've risen above our current altitudinal abilities. They've risen to where we can't follow."
Fire continued to rain down toward Valua, smashing homes, buildings, monuments, and people.
Indeed, they rose where we can't follow and sunk to where we should never go.
A/n That's right, I ended it with a cliffhanger… again! Don't worry, those of you who might be, this isn't going to be one of those "Oh, end of the fic coming up! Somebody is suddenly in mortal peril! Sudden plot development to be completely and totally resolved in two sentences of the next chapter!" No, this sort of thing will be somewhat big and will show up later on. So yeah, those of you who thought I was dead and had stopped writing never to come back- I cleared the cobwebs off of my ficing! I just have been having a rather hectic freshmen year of high school, as well as band 3 hours or more 2-3 days a week (Sometimes on Saturdays when I try to remember to update ficing… grr!) So anyway, if there's a long gap, you needn't lose faith- I merely have way too much on my plate- Saith
I don't know how big- I have no clue what in the world I'm going to go on writing, I simply know of a few events that I will have come up and my two possible endings… which I will not tell you! MWAHAHA!