Time for the confrontation on the Dark Ship, its a quick one, but its the prelude to the final battle we are all waiting for.
Ch41: The Dark Ship
In another flash of light, the heroes found themselves in a brand new setting. The chamber they emerged out of thin air into was biomechanical in nature with an eerie light purple undertone. The surrounding walls and columns looked like they had jagged edges embedded within them. They realized now they were aboard the Dark Ship orbiting Elorin.
"Is this it? Are we here?" Cynder asked aloud. Several Dark Maker troopers emerged in the chamber after them. All were positioned on the lower floor adjacent to the level the heroes appeared on.
"Most definitely," answered Calidan.
"What now?" asked Sparx.
"What we've always done up to now, attack, infiltrate, and sabotage," answered Spyro.
Jak nodded his way and Calidan smirked before both humans pulled up their firearms to fire at the Dark Makers. Jak repeatedly fired his Beam Reflexor, releasing a shower of yellow shots that bombarded off of the entire group, reducing their numbers by half. The dragons jumped in and with a combined inferno of fire and shadow breath attacks, eliminated the first line of defense. The sound of an opening door echoed from their right, and they saw the adjacent door embedded in the right wall leading out of the chamber.
"Let's move, we can't waste a second!" Jak ordered while running to the door. Calidan and the dragons followed in suit. On the other side was a more open chamber with only one way for them to move ahead, across a series of rotating rings with small platforms leading up to a series of ledges. Calidan saw this and was less than enthused.
"What the heck is this?" he asked.
"Just another day on the job, come on!" Jak answered before making the run across the ring platforms in sync with their rotation. Calidan followed behind, his frustration making him forget about his wings. However, once they reached the other side, he saw the dragons awaiting on the top ledge with an eye raised. Realizing his mistake too late, he just proceeded to follow Jak up the ledges to their level. As they regrouped and turned around, more Dark Makers appeared in the next spherical chamber and threw up their shields as a means of blocking them.
Cynder seethed, "We sooo don't have time for this," she fired a series of fear spheres that flew around their shields and hit them from behind, rendering them inept in madness.
"Come on!" Jak yelled leading the way around them and into the slide tunnel on the left side. For good measure, Calidan took a bomb from his bag and threw it at the center of the immobilized Dark Maker group, and before jumping onto the slide himself, pressed the trigger.
BOOM!
The smoke from the blast littered the chamber as Calidan slid down the tunnel the whole way to the bottom where Jak awaited with the dragons. In another chamber that led to another door accessible by a series of ledges and retracting poles, Dark Maker Hornets appeared from the chasm below them. Spyro and Cynder took flight to engage the aerial monsters, leaving Jak and Calidan to ponder their next move in a second.
"Fly?" the former rogue asked.
"Fly," he replied, before activating his Light Flight again. Calidan followed him into the air with his Eagle wings. Light Jak had made touchdown on the platform outside the sealed door while his airborne friends dealt with the opposition. Spyro saw the door was still closed, and after grabbing his next hornet by the mouth and hitting it in the gut with his feet, threw it at the door with all of his might.
CRASH!
The impact blew the door open, allowing them to proceed. Jak disengaged his Light mode and went in first knowing the others would follow soon. More troopers ran up to stop him, but before they could throw up their shields, Jak unholstered his Scatter-gun and fired a shot, blowing them back. He fired three more shots as fast as he could, not giving them any room to retaliate. Finally after a fourth wave of fire from the eco-human, the Dark Makers fell over the side of the walkway they were on, clearing the way. Jak and Daxter ran to the edge of the walkway as the others followed him while still in the air. Jak saw the open chamber didn't have any ledges this time, and knew there was only way now.
"Come on you dork! Fly!" Cynder yelled as she flew ahead. Jak could only shake his head as he unleashed his Light Flight powers again. Cynder led the way into the chamber, around the large biomechanical conduit in the middle and to the open door near the bottom. Spyro and Sparx were right behind her, followed by Eagle, and Light Jak picking up the rear. Cynder landed at the foot of the open door before looking ahead, to see more Dark Maker Hornets emerge from another chasm in between another chamber section.
"Don't these things ever take a hint?" she angrily asked herself before charging them. Spyro landed right behind her to see her begin her attack on the hornets. He turned to his stepbrother beside him.
"Sparx stay here!"
"Gladly!" Sparx replied buzzing away to the far wall. Spyro joined Cynder just as Eagle approached the entryway. He was about to land until he saw the dragons fighting more hornets in the air. Realizing the air battle wasn't over, he huffed out his frustrations and jetted toward them. Light Jak soon made touchdown, and disengaged his flight mode returning to normal. As Jak shook his bearings back into place, he saw another air battle between hornets and his friends right in front of him. Equipping his blaster, he jogged over to the walkway edge and helped them in dispatching the airborne Dark Makers. A combination of Cynder and Spyro's aerial elemental and melee attacks, Eagle's blaster fire and dive-kicking, and Jak's gunfire soon rid the air of the filth.
Eagle and the dragons flew over to land on the opposite side where an elevator door awaited them, only to be met by one more group of Dark Makers appearing out of nowhere. Spyro had had enough, "That's it, I'm ending this, get close to me!"
Calidan and Cynder huddled close to the purple dragon as he charged up a new attack. However this was no ordinary attack, for the purple dragon was now emitting a glowing green aura. The sight stunned Jak, Daxter and Sparx from the opposite side of the chamber and froze the Dark Maker troopers the dragon lot were facing on the other side. Spyro felt that he had charged enough power, it wasn't as much as the last time, but enough to clear the way quickly as time was running out.
Spyro unleashed his Earth Fury, sending out a series of pulsing shockwaves of green earth energy, blowing the Dark Makers away as well as their life. Calidan and Cynder remained unscathed as the fury occured all around them, while Jak and his group shielded their faces from the shockwaves they felt. They were a bit rattled but unharmed. Spyro ceased his attack, though his body kept a green glow as Calidan and Cynder lifted their heads up again, though the humans were wide-eyed having witnessed their second elemental fury.
Spyro turned towards them, "Come on let's move!" The elevator door opened as soon as he said it.
Cynder turned back to Jak at the other end, "Come on Jak hurry!"
The eco-human nodded as he channeled his Light powers again, this time activating two in a particular sequence. Calidan and the dragons were at the open elevator door before turning back to see Jak's progress. Only this time, he was gone!
"What! Where did he go?!" Calidan exclaimed. The dragons looked and were panicking as well.
"Don't tell me he fell?!" Cynder shouted.
"Over here guys," the three of them turned to the elevator, and to their surprise, saw Jak, Daxter and Sparx standing on the elevator!
The dragons were stupefied, before Spyro came to a realization and said aloud, "you froze time again didn't you?"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, like using your fury," Jak answered his question. He had indeed frozen time again with his Flash Freeze before activating his Light Flight to make his way over to the platform, while grabbing a hold of Sparx in tandem to bring him along. He didn't deactivate the Freeze until he was standing with the sidekicks in the elevator.
Sparx was less than enthused at Jak from being carted against his will, "Yeah, well next time warn me before you drag me along into something like that."
"Hey! I've had to deal with a lot worse than that for three adventures," Daxter retorted, "so don't go complaining on my turf!"
The door closed behind them as the rest of the hero party ignored the sidekicks while they gathered together in the elevator. It activated with a jolt and began to descend. It was a long drop, it made them wonder how big the ship really was, and what the cargo the ship carried really was. They would soon get their answer, as the elevator finished its descent after a full minute, opening another door in front of them, making them vacate into the Dark Ship's main cargo hold.
The Dark Ship's cargo was as menacing as the monk's old records told, for it was a series of giant terraforming machines. Each one consisted of a large pyramid-like body the size of a small mountain, with a long tail-like appendage at the rear, six large spider-like legs with three spikes on each foot, and a neck leading up to a cockpit with a lizard-like head. Just one of these Terraformers alone had the capability of draining an entire planet, and the heroes were looking at an armada of them as they ran along the walkway leading from the elevator to the other end. Jak was in the lead, with Calidan right behind him on his right, Cynder on his left, and Spyro and Sparx directly behind him.
"Well now we know what the cargo is," Cynder said looking around during the run, "but I'm even less thrilled than when we didn't know."
"I concur," Calidan agreed.
"Yeah well if any of these nasty things ever wake up, the planet's finished!" Daxter yelled.
At the center platform that oversaw the terraformer armada, the two planet traitors, one domestic and one alien overlooked them all. Having seen everything capable of planet annihilation on his own world, Malefor was quite intrigued, if not impressed, despite his words to his cohort, "most impressive, it's like having an army of Destroyers all in one place."
"Indeed Malefor, when you expand your horizons beyond one world, it can blow anyone's mind, even make you rethink what is possible," Cyber Errol replied.
"Well as 'breathtaking' as this little display is, I believe a more practical test should begin now," Malefor suggested.
"Quite right, and with all of these Dark Makers at our command, no world in existence can stand against us," declared Errol.
"FAT CHANCE!" Jak yelled, forcing the two of them to turn around to see their greatest enemies gathered together to face them.
"Well look who's here to witness the end of the world, again," Malefor sneered, making Spyro and Cynder seeth at him in pure rage.
Errol didn't share Malefor's intrigue, but was utterly stupefied how they got into space, "How did you get here?!"
"We're more resourceful than you know," Calidan retorted, "you're through! Both of you!"
Errol argued, "Your empty threats mean nothing boy! We…"
"SHUT UP!" shouted Jak, "he's right Errol, it's over! Even if it means we all die…ARRGGHH!"
He charged toward his robotic adversary to tackle him, only to be blown back by a pulse of dark energy, courtesy of Malefor. Errol looked up to the elder purple dragon as Malefor spoke with his eyes glowing yellow, "my dear Errol, if there's one thing I've learned about dealing with insubordinate pests, it's squash them before they latch on!"
The former Elorian nodded before sneering at the hero party, who Jak had regrouped with. They stood in a battle stance against their planet's greatest villains. The standoff lasted for one minute before they rushed each other in a brawl.
The Planetary Defense system cannons finally reached full power, and in an instant they fired their dual beams at the tunnel where they connected with each other upon their ascent. The defense beam emerged from the catacomb ruins of Haven City and headed for Elorin's upper atmosphere. The Dark Maker ship was on final approach as the beam penetrated the body, heavily compromising its integrity.
The shockwave from the beam threw all the heroes and villains in the cargo hold to the ground. The hero party lifted their heads to see that the defense system had done its job, having broken through the shell of the cargo hold and rupturing the ship's structure. Errol and Malefor were shocked to see the beam breaking through the hull, and the dragon traitor turned towards his partner for an explanation.
"What was that?!" he yelled in anger.
Errol instead directed his outrage to the heroes, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"
"Ended your invasion," Spyro calmly replied. The Dark Ship cargo hold continued to break apart, a large hole now open in the bottom leading to the planet below. One terraformer was positioned just above it, as Errol quickly noticed before addressing his partner again.
"Malefor...Plan B," he said.
The purple dragon sneered at his suggestion, but thought it was best seeing how the ship was now lost. He would chew Errol out for this later, first he had two young whelps to address, "enjoy this while you can young dragons. For today, we all lose."
He activated another smoke cloud to vanish into, forcing Spyro and Cynder to fire a full power elemental Aether blast at him, just like they did before. Their attacks unfortunately were too late, and both purple aura beams ended up hitting air as the evil purple dragon vanished within the evaporating cloud. While one of them was gone, the other activated his built in hover jets to propel himself in the air. Jak and Calidan fired their blasters at Errol, only for him to dodge as he hovered over the head of the terraformer. He entered its cockpit before it fell into the hole, heading for the planet below. The ship continued to creak and shake as it broke apart from within, the vacuum forced all of them to keep low to the ground, for if they attempted to fly by spreading their wings, they would be sucked out into space.
Jak looked in the other direction to see another Dark Maker portal, knowing it was their only chance, he yelled to his friends, "Let's go everyone!"
Keeping themselves as low to the ground as possible, they made a run for the portal along the crumbling walkway. Spyro and Cynder made an effort to fold their wings across their bodies to keep them from catching an updraft. Calidan's Eagle pack was already retracted enough to do the same, leaving only the matter of the flying debris heading for them!
The centered platform they were running nearly broke completely below them, making them stumble. They continued running regardless until they reached the walkway that led to the portal. Jak jumped up first with a tightly gripped Daxter, then Calidan, then Cynder, then Spyro and Sparx who clung to his brother's horn with all his might. As the purple dragon jumped, the platform gave way and fell into the vacuum of space below. None of them looked back as they ran with all their might, avoiding any flying debris coming their way. Large panels broke off the walkway, heading for them. Jak rolled underneath them while Calidan did a side roll to avoid one taking off his head. Spyro and Cynder each slid on their bellies to avoid the same debris.
They had almost reached the end, though the walkway then gave a jolt as more panels broke off and were flying their way. Calidan did another side roll avoiding another large piece and Jak mimicked his move in the opposite direction. Spyro slid underneath the same panel while Cynder did a ground barrel roll to avoid it. As the panels flew by them, the vacuum force was getting stronger as the breaches grew. The walkway was shaking erratically as Jak finally reached the end and jumped onto the portal platform. Calidan followed close behind with Cynder as the walkway's integrity was giving way. Spyro was last to reach to end, and made a lunge as the walkway disappeared beneath his feet. It looked like he would miss and fall into space forever lost...until he felt both of his front paws get grabbed. Looking up he was relieved to see Jak and Calidan holding him together, before lifting him up onto the platform safe and sound. Cynder gave him a quick loving nuzzle before the whole group ran beeline for the portal that was about to perform its final function.
As the hero party reached the portal's threshold, the Dark Ship exploded...KAAABBBLLLAAAMMM!
One last meet with the villains' before the ship is destroyed. Malefor has escaped while Errol has fled to the planet in the terraformer, get ready for the final boss wasteland scene with my own aerial twist coming up next!
