Part 7 – WarMachine's last stand…
On the Jörmungandr…
WarMachine was practicing on more Es'ka foot soldiers.
"Assault," WarMachine exclaimed as he aimed at the Es'ka, and fired as many rounds as he could in five seconds before exclaiming, "Explosive."
He continued his assault by firing his explosive rounds as fast as he could towards the Es'ka, with the weapon attached to his arm, he could feel the heat radiating off the barrels of his gun which was glowing red-hot, and he knew he was pushing the limits of his weapon.
The small computer on the side of the weapon started beeping, and then as he was about to switch to the three-barrel laser attack, the gun slowly came to a halt, and a small steam-release triggered at the back of the gun.
WarMachine shouted in frustration, and slammed his fist into the nearest wall, causing a large nine-inch dent to form.
"Those Rangers will pay for h-h-humiliating me," WarMachine exclaimed, "I will d-d-destroy them with my b-b-bare hands if necessary, and this t-t-time, they w-w-won't escape my wrath."
"Easssy on the wall," Gaeko said as he walked into the room, "This ssship is one-of-a-kind, and is more beloved by the Emperor than anything elssse in the entire empire."
"I'm so f-f-frustrated," WarMachine exclaimed, "Sometimes this g-g-gun makes me e-e-extremely angry the way it m-m-malfunctions under extreme heat!"
"I think I might have sssomething that can help with that," Gaeko said as he held out a small spherical aqua blue diamond, "Sssomething I took just before leaving Earth. It ssshould help you fire continuously without any chance of cooling down."
WarMachine took the diamond from Gaeko's hand, and held it up to the light, "It's an ancient cooling d-d-diamond," WarMachine said, "Where'd you g-g-get this?"
"I took it when we were leaving the Imperial Palaccce," Gaeko said, "It ssshould help your gun from overheating when you faccce the Rangersss."
WarMachine hit a small button on the side of gun which opened the back of the weapon, as he slid the diamond into the slot, the entire gun glowed blue before he turned back to the Es'ka targets, "Assault," he said.
As he aimed his gun downrange at the Es'ka, the bullets left the gun as fast as it could go, and as he pushed it further, he noticed his gun wasn't really hot at all.
Focusing on shooting really amped up the speed on his weapon, but it made the gun overheat.
WarMachine raised his arm, and spoke, "Explosive," he raised his arm back towards the second Es'ka, and fired, the explosive rounds that left the end of the weapon almost as smoothly as the assault rounds, and as he concentrated, he could feel that the gun wasn't overheating.
As he ended the barrage, he laughed, "Thisss isss sssurely a great gift," Gaeko said, "The Rangersss won't know what hit them."
"This is the sign of a t-t-true ally," WarMachine said as he held out his hand in a flat position, "It is c-c-custom is it not?"
"Of courssse," Gaeko said as he put his hand below WarMachine's, "I'd take a few Es'ka with you to make sssure that everything goesss off no problem."
"Good i-i-idea." WarMachine said.
As WarMachine walked off to where he would get some Es'ka, Gaeko was approached from behind by a Sergeant Es'ka, "Are you sssure it was a wise decision, giving him that diamond, Captain?" He asked.
"Believe me my dear Sssergeant, it'sss necesssary," Gaeko said, "Becaussse that diamond isss not the real one, it'sss one I made myssself."
"Sssir?" the Sergeant Es'ka asked.
"That diamond hasss a limited number of usssesss," Gaeko said, "He overexertsss that weapon too much, and it will blow up on him," he turned toward the Sergeant, "You and I my friend are going to make our way into the Emperor'sss inner circle."
"Your time in exile hasss made you very wissse my old friend." The Sergeant Es'ka said.
"Not wissse my friend," Gaeko said, "Deviousss. And sssoon we will be richly rewarded."
The two soon broke out into hysterical laughter as WarMachine grabbed several Es'ka, and began to plan his invasion of the colony.
On the colony, Alliance Command…
One of the holographic environment rooms, Damien brought his team into the room to do some training.
"Alright," Damien said, "Carter has set up a simulated environment for us to test our skills."
"What kind of skills?" Steven asked.
"I've decided to run through a few combat drills," Damien said as he looked up at the ceiling, "Computer, began simulation Homefront."
The room changed from a holographic room into a holographic image of Mariner Bay, "We're home." Matt said.
"Yes," Damien said, "I wanted a personal environment to use. What do you say we throw some enemies into the mix?"
As he waved his hand, several Es'ka appeared in front of them, "Oh yea," Steven said, "It's go time."
The team charged towards their enemies, "Let's morph!" Damien exclaimed.
The team crossed their hands over their chests', causing their diamonds to appear, "COSMIC POWER!"
As they morphed, they pulled out their Prehenderats, and fired into the crowd of Es'ka.
Five Es'ka fell as the shots hit them, three Es'ka surrounded each of them.
Damien dodged the blow from the first Es'ka, and as he kicked the second backwards, the second came in with a high-kick. Damien blocked the kick, and twisted the Es'ka's leg, spinning him away. The third came in high only for Damien to block the swing, and use the momentum of the swing to throw him into his cohort. As the Es'ka tried to stand up, Damien pulled out his Prehenderat, and fired.
Matt dodged the incoming chop from the Es'ka he was facing, punched him backwards, then turned around as the second came at him with a spinning-kick. Matt ducked underneath the kick, and jabbed the Es'ka in the chest with a fully-opened hand. The third grabbed Matt's hand only to have Matt twist the Es'ka's own arm, and then flipped him onto his head. The first came in with a haymaker, Matt dodged the blow, and slammed his open palm into the Es'ka's skull. The third came in for a kick, only to have Matt dodge the blow, kick the Es'ka backwards, pull out his Prehenderat, and fired.
Steven grabbed the incoming blow from the first Es'ka he was facing, with a quick whip downwards, the Es'ka went to his knees in front of Steven, grabbing his arm. The second came in with a quick jab, Steven stepped to the side, kicked the Es'ka backwards, and then gave his opponent a spinning-kick to the face. The third charged only for Steven to kick his legs out from underneath him, and to go flying head-long into the first Es'ka's skull.
Jackie blocked the incoming blow from the first Es'ka she was facing, and gave the Es'ka a quick uppercut. As the Es'ka stumbled backwards, the second came in with a sweeping leg kick, Jackie jumped over the kick, and when she came down, she kicked the Es'ka across the face. The third Es'ka came in only to have Jackie stun him with a blow to the side of the skull. The final blow to the last Es'ka came from Jackie's foot crashing down into the top of the Es'ka's skull.
As Lara jumped over the kick from the first Es'ka, she landed right in front of the other two Es'ka which she threw backwards by smashing her elbows into their chests. The first Es'ka that missed charged back at her, only to have Lara sweep his feet out from underneath him, and smash her elbow onto the Es'ka's chest, sending him crashing to the ground. The second Es'ka grabbed Lara from behind, and as the third came in for the blow, Lara kicked him in the chest, threw her head backwards, hitting the Es'ka right on the jaw, and sending him stumbling backwards. She then spun around the third Es'ka, grabbed him by the throat, and flipped him over her. As the final one came back at her, she pulled out her Prehenderat, and unleashed a salvo into the Es'ka's chest.
It didn't take long for them to hear a cackling robotic, hissing laughter from behind them, all five of them turned around to see WarMachine standing behind them, "It seems t-t-that you Rangers still haven't l-l-learned when to give up," he said, "Now g-g-give me the a-a-astrolabe or be destroyed."
"Damien, what's going on?" Matt asked.
"Either Carter, Wes, or Sky's hacked into the simulator," Damien said, "This must be a Ranger lesson."
"What are you t-t-talking about?" WarMachine asked.
"We're saying go to hell," Damien said, "Let's get to it."
As WarMachine raised his gun to fire, Matt yelled, "SCATTER!"
WarMachine fired several explosive shots toward the Rangers as they each jumped in a different direction, and took cover behind several objects.
"Damien," Matt said over the sound of gunfire, "Please tell me you have your Ocarina?"
Damien reached up to his neck, and pulled it out of a small pouch behind his chest-plate, "Never leave home without it." He said.
"Think we can orchestrate a little counter-attack here?" Matt asked.
Damien nodded, and raised the small flute to his lips where the mouth piece of his helmet disappeared.
Playing a quick A-major, Lara shot up, and fired three shots into WarMachine's lizard side, sending him stumbling backwards.
He then played a very low C-minor, and Steven fired three shots, causing WarMachine to stumble further backwards.
The next note was a B-minor, Lara shot up, and fired at WarMachine.
The next note was a E-major, and Matt shot up to fire at WarMachine himself.
Damien shot up next, and unleashed another few bolts into WarMachine who fell once Damien shot him right at the joint between his leg and his foot.
As Damien put away his Ocarina, WarMachine let out his trademark chuckle, and stood up before raising his gun and speaking, "Full Blast," he said.
He then raised his weapon, and in one swift move, a large laser sprung from all three barrels, and hit all five Rangers across their chests.
"Where'd that come from?" Damien asked.
WarMachine unleashed one more cackle before the entire simulation froze, and Carter walked through WarMachine, "From our scans," he said as he walked up to his young charge, "The examinations we did on WarMachine showed he was capable of using his weapon to fire all three barrels at once, unleashing one devastating shot against his opponent."
"Not a bad feature," Damien said as he grabbed Carter's outstretched hand, and was hoisted to his feet, "But it would have been nice to have a little warning."
"It was a test," Carter said as the Rangers lined up in front of him, and powered down, "The simple fact of the matter is that during your fight yesterday with WarMachine, and during the simulation today I noticed the same thing. You five are relying heavily on your blasters. Damien, what's the saying I taught you five the day you started training under me?"
"A weapon is only as good as the person who wields it." Damien said.
"Yes," Carter said, "The simple fact of the matter is that you guys can handle yourselves brilliantly in hand to hand combat against Es'ka, but when it comes to the Lieutenants like Gaeko or WarMachine, relying on your blasters is an error in judgement. When it comes to being up close and personal, we need to either develop you five something like a sword or baton, or we need to discover what your personal weapons are."
"I'm afraid that'll have to wait," Wes said as he rushed into the room, "We have an emergency."
Wes led Carter and the team upstairs to the City Monitoring center of Alliance Command, and over to a console where they saw that Colonial Defense had been dispatched to deal with WarMachine who had returned.
"He showed up not five minutes ago," Wes said, "Started shooting up buildings, and Colonial Defense was dispatched to take care of them," Wes then looked at Damien, "And Sergeant, your father is leading the team."
Damien pounded on the table, "Moron," he said, "He's leading them to their deaths. He's gonna get them all killed."
"Then it's your job to save him," Carter said, "You better get out there Sergeant."
"Let's move." Damien said as he pointed over his shoulder.
They ran into the garage, and as they stood in front of the Alliance Rover they were going to use, they crossed their hands over their chests, and exclaimed, "Cosmic Power!"
As they morphed, and jumped into the Alliance Rover, the garage door to the base opened, and Damien floored the Rover, causing it to lurch forward.
The Alliance Rover landed in the street, and as Damien slid the Rover to face the area where WarMachine had been spotted, he shifted into the next gear, and pressed on the gas.
At the sight of the battle…
People were running like chickens with their heads cut off as WarMachine launched salvo after salvo of laser-rounds into the crowds.
"COLONIAL DEFENSE," Major Winters shouted as him and his team arrived with several APCs.
The soldiers that filed out were dressed in segmented grey armor with full helmets that looked like Starship Trooper helmets mixed with a fireman's rebreather. Their P-Carbines and armor were painted in the colors of the Colonial Defense uniforms, white with a single orange stripe running straight downwards, just off-center.
"Of course, you'd s-s-show up," WarMachine said, "What could you p-p-possible do to stop me?"
"Soldiers," Major Winters exclaimed as his troops lined up in a row a few yards away from WarMachine, "Fire!"
The soldiers all opened fire on WarMachine who was only fazed by the ones that landed on the lizard side of his body.
He staggered backwards only a little, and fell to his knee, Major Winters smiled, thinking he might have just won only to have WarMachine stand up, and raise his gun, "Explosive." He said.
The rounds that left his gun threw the Colonial Defense soldiers backwards against the APC which under the constant barrage of explosions flew backwards.
WarMachine let out a his robotic, hissing cackle as Adam crawled out of the APC, "You t-t-thought you could take me," he asked, "I am the v-v-vision of robotic lizard hybridization, I am p-p-perfection!"
"Oh really," Major Winters said, "Your lizard side doesn't seem to be too strong."
"Well you w-w-won't know that for l-l-long," WarMachine said as he raised his gun to fire only to have three laser blasts to hit him on his lizard-half.
Major Winters looked up to see the Cosmic Rangers pull up in their Alliance Rover, "Back off lizard boy," Damien said as he jumped over his father, and turned towards him, "Major, get your men out of here."
Before Adam could open is mouth, one of his soldiers ran over, and picked him up, "Come on Major, let's get you out of here." He said.
The team turned towards WarMachine with their P-Carbines raised, "Alright," Damien said, "This is your one chance to leave you cybernetic lizard."
"You sure don't know w-w-when to quit," WarMachine said, "Something we b-b-both have in common, Red Ranger. I'll o-o-offer you a similar warning. Give me the a-a-astrolabe, and the Serpent Empire will a-a-add you as Generals in the empire."
"There's nothing we have in common," Damien said, "Why are you so interested in that astrolabe?"
"That a-a-astrolabe is my emperor's b-b-birth right," WarMachine said, "It was s-s-stolen from his m-m-mother when she was destroyed by your predecessors."
"Must hold some important information then," Damien said, "But I can tell you right now you'll never get it as long as we're around."
"Then I'll h-h-have to change that." WarMachine said.
He raised his weapon to fire, and unleashed a salvo at the Rangers who dove in different directions before unleashing concentrated bursts of laser-rounds at WarMachine.
Damien managed to fire several rounds toward WarMachine's lizard-half only to have him block the shots with his robotic-side. Before Damien could react, WarMachine hit Damien in the chest with several explosive rounds, sending him flying backwards.
Steven tried to fire a wide-beam at WarMachine, managing to hit WarMachine's lizard wrist, as he grabbed his smoldering wrist, he raised his weapon towards Steven, and spoke, "All a-a-at once."
The laser that struck Steven launched him against the side of a building, and left a human-shaped dent in the wall.
Matt and Jackie ran up to fire at once, only to have WarMachine fire at them at the same time with his three-barrel blast, and throw them both backwards.
Lara quickly scooped up Damien's P-Carbine, and fired both at once, the first shot was blocked by WarMachine's robotic-half, but the second shot nailed him right in the skull.
As WarMachine stumbled backwards, he raised the weapon, and fired, the shot missed Lara, but the explosion didn't.
"Pink," Damien said as he crawled over to her, and held her in his arms, "Pink," she was out cold, "Come on girl get up."
"How sweet," WarMachine said, "There's just one p-p-problem, I don't l-l-like sweet."
WarMachine raised his gun to fire, and right as he did, Damien shielded Lara with his body.
Before the blast impacted though, everything went quiet, he looked around, everything was gone, and it was completely pitch black inside the room.
As he looked around, the entire area suddenly turned into a heavy forest, and not twelve yards away was the original Cosmic Rangers battling a hostile Serpent Empire Lieutenant that for some reason was completely pitch-black and featureless.
But things weren't going their way, that was until the Red Cosmic Ranger shouted, "SHIELD OF ORION!"
Suddenly a perfectly round 24-inch shield that had a red diamond glowing in the center which emitted a red energy that spread across the surface of the shield.
Blue shouted, "BOÖTES SICKLES," and what appeared in his hand were two sickles with blades made of what appeared to be blue diamonds with foot-long handles that had very ornate teardrop-shaped knots on the ends.
Green shouted, "TAURUS AXE," what appeared was a large one-handed double-bladed axe with a foot and a half long handle with a diamond-shaped spike on the end.
Yellow shouted, "PISCES STAFF," and a large gold-metal bo-staff like weapon with eight-flanged rounded ends that looked like dull maces on the ends of the staff.
Pink shouted, "LIBRA'S Daggers," two Raven Claw-style knives appeared, and on the ends of the daggers were two glass orbs that appeared to have stars swimming in them.
Red threw his shield at the hostile who was hit dead-center in the chest, Blue jumped over Red, and struck the enemy twice in the chest, Green slid between Blue's legs, and brought his sickles upwards in an 'X' slash across the hostile's gut, Yellow bounced off Green's shoulders, and came right down on top of the hostile's head with the end of her staff. The Blue, Green, and Yellow made a small diamond-shape with their weapons as Pink jumped off Red's shield, through the hole, and jabbed the hostile in the middle of the chest.
The original Rangers then stood in a very unique position, Green grabbed the axe handle, and pulled it upwards to where the axe's grip was reversed. Blue attached his sickles to the ends of Yellow's staff, Pink then put her blades on the insides of Red's shield who put his shield on side of Green's axe. When Red put his shield on the side of Green's axe, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Pink grabbed onto the staff as Red put the grip of Green's axe on his shoulder.
"Ready." Red said.
"Ready." The other Rangers said.
Red aimed the device they made at the hostile, when he said, "Fire," the other rangers pulled on the staff, and like an old Beyblade ripcord toy, the shield went spinning out the end of the weapon, went flying into the hostile's chest, and caused the hostile to explode on impact.
Damien quickly snapped back into reality, and shouted, "SHIELD OF ORION!"
When the blast cleared, Damien stood up with Lara hanging on his left arm, and a large spartan-like shield attached to his right.
As Lara regained consciousness, she awoke to see Damien standing there with a large shield attached to his arm.
"Whoa," Lara said as she straightened up, "Where'd you get that?"
"The shield," Damien asked, "We each have a unique weapon, say, 'Libra's Daggers'."
Lara stood to Damien's side, exclaimed, "Libra's Daggers," and the same daggers Damien saw in his vision appeared in Lara's hands, "Wow!"
"Impossible," WarMachine said, "T-t-those weapons can only be w-w-wielded by the true Rangers!"
"Guess we earned them," Damien said as the rest of the team ran up to them.
"Got a word for us?" Matt asked.
"Blue," Damien said, "Boötes Sickles. Green, Taurus Axe. Yellow Pisces Staff."
"Boötes Sickles!" Matt exclaimed.
"Taurus Axe!" Steven exclaimed.
"Pisces Staff!" Jackie exclaimed.
As the weapons manifested themselves, Damien smiled from ear to ear.
On the Jörmungandr…
"Cursssesss," Gaeko said, "Thossse annoying Rangersss have found their weaponsss," he turned away from his viewing-screen to his Second, the Sergeant Es'ka, "My friend, sssend down more sssoldiersss!"
"Yesss sssir," The Sergeant Es'ka said as hit two buttons on his console which launched several Es'ka down to the planet.
On the Colony…
As the Es'ka appeared, the team took fighting stances, "Looks like Gaeko wants us to fight some more." Matt said.
"Then let's give him a show," Damien said, "Let's go!"
As the team charged, the Es'ka and WarMachine charged as well.
The first of the Es'ka reached Matt who blocked the incoming strike from the first Es'ka with his sickles, pulled the Es'ka off balance, and kicked him backwards. He then spun around, and delivered two strikes against the Es'ka's chest. He quickly blocked the swing from the Es'ka behind him by holding one of the sickles over his shoulder. He spun around, hooked his second sickle around the Es'ka's leg, using it to pull the Es'ka off his feet, and once he was spinning around, he flipped the sickles around, and used the blunt ends to send the Es'ka slamming into the ground. The final Es'ka came in, only for Matt to dodge the spin around him, hook his sickles around the Es'ka's throat, and flip him over onto the ground.
Lara quickly jumped over one of the Es'ka's that attacked her, when she came down, both her knives came across the Es'ka's chest in a large 'X'. Spinning around, Lara kicked the second Es'ka backwards, and turned around to dodge the third Es'ka which tried to drop-kick her. As the Es'ka flew past her, Lara flipped her knives around, and used the end to bunt the Es'ka in the side of the head. The final Es'ka stood up as Lara ran up, and sliced the Es'ka across the chest.
Jackie quickly spun her staff around in a large ark, the blow that landed against the first Es'ka's chest sent him flying off his feet. Using the momentum of the staff, she took the second Es'ka's legs out from underneath him. As the Es'ka went flying, the third tried to grab hold of the staff only for Jackie to bunt the Es'ka on the front of his skull with the staff's grip, stunning it. She then lifted the Es'ka off the ground, slammed the Es'ka into the ground. Right as the second Es'ka stood up, she slid her staff between the creature's legs, lifted him off the ground, slammed him into the third Es'ka, and then brought the flanged end of her staff hard down on their stomachs.
Steven blocked the strike from the first Es'ka with the side of his axe, when he pushed backwards, the Es'ka stumbled until Steven ran up to him, jumped on his bent knee, and came down hard on top of the Es'ka's skull with his axe. As Steven landed, he rolled passed another Es'ka, turned around to bunt the Es'ka on the chest with the top of the axe, and then hurl the axe into the Es'ka's chest which upon hitting the Es'ka flew right back into his grip. He then simply swung backwards, close-lining the final Es'ka.
Damien blocked the shot from WarMachine's right hook with his shield, and came in low with a quick jab. As WarMachine recovered, he raised his weapon, "Explosive," he said as he leveled his weapon towards Damien. The rounds that hit Damien's shield exploded on impact, but didn't even cause him to so much as skid backwards. As WarMachine focused, and made his weapon fire faster than it had ever gone, but soon regretted it as his gun backfired on him. WarMachine checked the diamond at the back of his gun to see it had shattered, and knew that Gaeko had played him for a sucker. "GAEKO!" WarMachine yelled.
As WarMachine was distracted by his rage, Damien hurled his shield at WarMachine which struck him dead-center in the chest, and threw him backwards.
As the team joined Damien to see WarMachine struggling to get up, Damien turned to his team, "We have to combine our weapons." He said. "How?" Steven asked. "Just follow your instincts." Damien said.
Steven grabbed the end of his axe, and pulled the blades back to the end of the hilt. As Matt and Jackie combined their weapons, Damien and Lara combined theirs. As Damien placed his shield on the side of Steven's axe, Matt, Steven, Jackie, and Lara grabbed hold of the pole. Damien took aim with the shield, and asked, "Ready?"
"Ready." Matt, Steven, Jackie, and Lara said.
"Pull!" Damien exclaimed.
Matt, Steven, Jackie, and Lara pulled as hard as they could on the pole, and Damien's shield came flying off the end of the weapon with a fury. The shield made it about twenty feet before it started emitting a red, blue, green, yellow, and pink aura. As soon as it struck WarMachine, it carved a large hole straight through, and caused the creature to explode.
As the Rangers' weapons returned to them, Damien walked up to WarMachine who had been reduced to a pile of rubble, but as he walked up to the rubble, WarMachine's remains suddenly moved, and came together in a bright flash of light that when cleared revealed a cluster of dirt, but Damien noticed something inside the dirt.
He attached his shield to the back, and reached down to the dirt, and produced a round object about 2 inches in diameter, roughly the size of an 1877 Half Union coin. As he wiped the dirt away with his thumb, the dirt revealed the object was a silver coin, on the face of the coin was a side-profile of WarMachine's mechanical side, and on the other side of the coin was WarMachine's weapon. As his team walked up to him, Damien was just looking at the coin, puzzled at what was going on.
"What's this." Lara asked.
"I don't know," Damien said, "Must be a storage device. The body's gone, but the spirit must live on in these coins."
"Hey," Major Winters exclaimed as he walked up to the Rangers.
Damien quickly tucked the coin behind his clavicle armor, and turned to face his father.
"Major Winters." Damien said.
"Sergeant," Major Winters said, "What were you doing over here?"
"We heard about the attack," Damien said, "Looked like you could use some help."
"Colonial Defense doesn't need help from anybody." Major Winters said.
"Apparently," Damien said, "You were two seconds away from getting turned into snake-food before we arrived," he then walked past his father, "You're welcome!"
"Hey," Adam said, "I'm not finished with you!"
"Too bad," Damien said, "Because I'm finished taking your crap."
As the team walked back to their Rover, Adam spoke up, "I want to know what he meant by that Astrolabe," he exclaimed, "You better believe that I'm going to take this to your commander!"
Damien scoffed as he climbed into the Rover, he couldn't care less what his father said about knowing about the astrolabe. Everything about their operation to the planet where they found their powers was classified so there was nothing that his father could do to get the answers he wanted.
After returning to base, the team had their weapons examined by the base's top scientists, Damien presented the coin to Carter.
"So right after WarMachine went down, this appeared?" Carter asked as he flipped the coin between his fingers.
"Yes," Damien said, "Must be the emperor's way of summoning their creatures."
"Maybe," Carter said, "Either way, this gives us some insight," he then looked through the glass into the lab where the team's weapons were being studied, "And those weapons give us the edge."
The two of them entered the lab where Eric Rawlings was studying Damien's shield, "Truly remarkable thing Damien," Eric said as he looked at his computer, "The entire shield seems to be made of some kind of composite alloy, stronger than titanium, carbon steel, harder than diamonds, but half the weight."
"I know," Damien said as he picked up the shield, and flipped it around in-between his hands before it dissolved in his hands.
"You did well today," Carter said, "But we need to have a talk about that astrolabe, and soon."
"I know," Damien said, "If the Serpent Empire wants it, then we can't keep it on the colony for extended periods of time."
What do you think…