Lex and the Prince climbed their way through the mountain. There were no stairs so they had to proceed on foot on rocky terrain. Lex put her climbing skills to use in a body she was now familiar with. The Prince watched her as she used her blades to slice into the rock before going up himself.
As they reached the top, Lex was out of breath as she breathed through her mask. The Prince looked around seemingly unfazed. "The pregnancy is draining you of energy," he said to her.
"Did you ever think that maybe I wasn't the right one to send on this mission?" Lex asked annoyed.
"No," the Prince replied.
The Prince looked at a hologram map of the mountain and saw their destination. Suddenly a flurry of wings swarmed near them. Lex dropped down as the small dragons swarmed around them in a circular formation. The Prince didn't move simply staring at the swarm. The dragons screeched at them but did not attack. The Prince placed himself closely to Lex and waited for the swarm to dissipate.
"Let's go," the Prince ordered her.
"They know we're here," she protested.
"They have always known," he replied.
The two continued their way until they reached a large open space inside the mountain. There were dozens of eggs all together in the cavern. Lex scanned the area with her heat vision and saw the living eggs all around her. She then saw something huge towards the back of the cavern.
"Do you see that?" she asked the Prince.
"That is why we are here," he said.
The dragon moved towards them creating a thundering noise as she approached them. Lex armed her plasma canon and readied her blades while the Prince remained calm. "You won't need your weapons," he told her.
The Prince's mask then started emitting a hissing sound to the dragon. Lex's mask immediately pulled up the universal translator and started translating the speech. "Why not kill both?" the dragon said furiously.
"You are bound by honor to not destroy an innocent. The child within the female is innocent," the Prince said.
Lex immediately realized why the Prince had taken her. She was being used as a shield. "We need to talk after this is over," she said outraged.
The Prince ignored her. "If I separate I kill you then," the dragon said to the Prince.
"Of course," the Prince said and then quickly grabbed Lex's arm.
"What are you doing?" Lex demanded of him.
The Prince clasped a metal chain to her arm linking them closely together. "You are insane!" Lex spat at him.
The dragon stared at the two uncertain. "What want?" she asked the Prince.
"I know that there is a dragon that is much larger than you. The other dragons are compelled to give him food or have their colonies perish. I will help you kill this dragon," the Prince offered.
"Impossible. His skin thick…your weapons not work him," the dragon told him.
"Then we will have to destroy him from the inside," the Prince replied. He then pointed to his wrist indicating the bomb on his wrist.
"What plan?" the dragon said circling the two of them. Lex could see the dragon's giant wings and long serpent like tail.
"We will ride one of your dragons and with our cloaking device we will be able to get inside his den. Once inside, we will then kill the dragon. His flesh is yours but I want his skull," the Prince said.
"Why trust?" the dragon asked.
"Place this cloaking device on your greatest dragon. It will give you an advantage against the other Yautja. I have never killed any from your colony," the Prince said.
The dragon stared at the Prince. "You could get your brothers killed," Lex reminded the Prince.
"That is the point," the Prince said.
"Agreed," the dragon said.
The Prince freed Lex from the chain and then picked one of the dragons he would ride. "You can either come with me or stay here. You will not be harmed," the Prince told her.
"No, I want to see you get burned to death," Lex said cooly.
The Prince chuckled. Two dragons carrying cloaked Yautja shot out from the mountain toward the destination. A flock of dragons followed them acting as decoys. The two Yautja then went inside the formation keeping themselves hidden. The dragons flew over a small sea and beautiful rock formations and canyons. Lex was reminded of Arizona as she flew inside the huge canyons.
Finally, they came to a large pit in the ground. The Prince targeted the hole and launched a small rocket inside. His dragons then pulled up as the rocket exploded inside. The dragon formation scattered as the giant dragon emerged from the pit roaring in rage. As the giant dragon flew out of the pit, the Prince and Lex fired on it with plasma cannons. The blue beams of light slightly burned the dragon's skin but did minimal damage.
The giant dragon's wing span was the size of several city blocks and its body from head to tail went beyond 100 meters. The dragon decoys fired on the giant dragon with bursts of fire but it didn't seem to do anything but annoy it.
"Stay back," the Prince ordered Lex.
"Fine," Lex said back not overly interested in the fight.
The Prince shot towards the giant dragon and harassed it with plasma bursts. The giant dragon chased after the Prince's dragon. With a roar, the giant dragon ignited the atmosphere in fire. The Prince felt the intense heat as he headed towards the upper atmosphere. The flames roared closer to him as if to consume him. Taking a few canisters, the Prince released them from his belt. The canisters created a cloud of liquid nitrogen that reduced the flames around him.
Lex saw the Prince's difficulty with the giant dragon. It seemed the giant dragon was ignoring the other decoys and was going right for the Prince. "If he dies…," Lex wondered.
Lex took out her sword and considered the battle in the upper clouds. Motioning her dragon, she soared up towards the giant dragon.
Meanwhile, first brother Antiman rested on a throne with a number of dragon skulls on either side of him. He was relaxing while wearing his mask, his wife Ailen attending to him. A sudden burst of fire hit them creating a small crater. Antiman was on the ground severely wounded from the burns. His mask scanned the air for the source but couldn't see anything. Another fire bursts hit him blast his abdomen open. Ailen fired blindly in the air fearfully. A fire blast from behind destroyed her armor and exposed her spine. She fell near her husband's body.
Immediately, Yautja ships decloaked and scanned the area for the threat. The cloaked dragon had already left and was returning back to the mountain.
Lex soared up towards the giant dragon and sliced off the tip of its tail from behind. Blood splurted out like a fountain. The giant dragon lost its ability to steer and started rolling in the air. The Prince fired on the giant dragon's eyes blinding it. Lex withdrew her sword and retreated away. The Prince engaged the giant dragon waiting for it to open its mouth. As the giant dragon roared, the Prince burst liquid nitrogen canisters. The freezing cold liquid hurt painfully but protected the Prince from the inevitable fire blast that came near him.
The Prince went through the fire wave and threw his bomb inside the dragon's mouth. The flames were too much for the Prince's dragon burning it up. The Prince plummeted towards the ground as his dragon burned. Lex swooped towards the Prince and grabbed him. He was burned and bleeding from the flames.
The enraged giant dragon ignited the atmosphere creating lightning strikes and super-heated clouds. Lex retreated away as far away as she could. The giant dragon then exploded creating an explosion that could be seen from space. Lex's dragon sped as fast as it could but was caught in a wind storm from the shockwave. Lex, the Prince, and the dragon crashed into the ground.
Lex got back to her feet with a groan. Their dragon was fluttering around with some broken legs and wings. The Prince struggled to get up and once he did he killed the dragon with his blades. A red hologram appeared on the Prince's wrist band.
"The first brother Antiman is dead. The hunt is over. Return to the ship," Citali ordered, the second brother.
As the hologram ended, Lex turned to the Prince. "As you intended," she said.
"The dragon with the cloak should be back to the mountain by now," the Prince muttered.
"So?"
The Prince activated his wrist band and then rested on the ground for the end. The timer went off and then there was an explosion in the distance. The mountain was annihilated by the bomb destroying everything inside. "You killed the entire colony," Lex accused.
"No witnesses," the Prince sighed.
"As if the Yautja would ever question them," Lex said outraged.
"I don't take chances," the Prince said. He then unhooked the tubes on his mask.
"What are you doing now?" Lex asked annoyed. Nothing surprised her now.
"This will cause me to forget everything. I may be questioned on my brother's death," the Prince said.
"That won't work. I know what you did too," Lex objected.
"That is why I brought two vials," the Prince said.
The Prince and Lex were the last to get back to the ship. The Prince was taken to sick bay to treat his burns. Citali confronted Lex. "Where did he get those burns?" he asked.
"I don't know, I was left behind as he hunted," Lex said. She had no memory of what the Prince had done.
"We detected two large explosions. The first explosion appeared to destroy a giant class dragon. The creature's entrails span several kilometers," the Captain reported.
"The second explosion was inside a mountain range," the Captain added.
"Do you know anything about this?" Citali asked Lex.
"No," Lex said truthfully.
Citali motioned her away dismissing her. Lex went to sick bay confused as to why she couldn't remember the last several hours. Whatever happened it burned the Prince quite a bit. She had no doubt the explosions the Captain referred to had something to do with it.
Lex watched as the doctors placed tubes of green blood into the Prince to heal him. Something in her heart told her he deserved whatever happened to him.
Citali hid his glee as he realized he was heir apparent. The idea that the first Prince was killed by a dragon seemed ridiculous. The bodies of the Prince and his wife were placed in closed caskets as their charred bodies were unpleasant to look upon. His brother was arrogant and a sloth. Citali had no love for him or his excessiveness. Now, all the wives and children of the first brother would go to him to manage by right. Citali went to work on which of his brother's wives he would want to keep, which ones he would want to trade for political favors, and which ones he just wanted to get rid of. There were hundreds to look through keeping him busy for weeks.
The surviving brothers and their wives gathered for Citali's decision. The Prince was in a chair as he could barely stand at the moment. "These creatures will never have the pride of knowing they killed the first Prince of the Yautja Empire. Fire on the planet," Citali ordered.
"Brother, please reconsider," a few of the brothers pleaded.
Citali said nothing and left the bridge. The Captain fired on the planet with a powerful beam of light. The atmosphere ignited engulfing the entire planet. Within a few moments, the entire atmosphere was on fire. Everything on the ground was cooked to over 500 Centigrade. The atmosphere settled after a time leaving a blackened planet.
Lex simply watched the molten looking planet with some disappointment. The dragon planet was now dead by an act of vengeance. Down on the planet a few kilometers below the surface of the planet a few of the eggs began to crack open.