SECTION 09
DEEP WITHIN THE ROCK
DATE: JANUARY 7, 251 A.D.E.
TIME: 0240 HOURS (LOCAL TIME)
LOCATION: NORTH AMERICA, WASHINGTON CRATER
When I'd first decided to take Ruusaan back home, the thought that I'd actually see Washington Crater had never crossed my mind. The plan had always been to drop her off far from sensor range, miles even from the crater's lip, let alone the fallen spacecraft in its' centre.
But now I was; in a Dragonoid, flanked on either side by every in-service Dragonoid imaginable in numbers that would haunt even a veteran's nightmares. And we were all heading for Washington Crater.
The night was dark, a sliver of a crescent moon the brightest light in the sky. By the dim glow, the cragged walls of the crater's lip loomed out of the darkness. Two hundred and fifty years of weathering had taken its toll. The sea and rain had worn the lip down. Great chunks had fallen away entirely, creating bizarre towers and natural openings to a harbour created by the flooding of the basin. It was through one of these openings that we flew, into the crater towards the great ship that lay in its centre.
Ruus beh Tsad Droten. The Rock of The Assembled.
Ruusaan had told me stories about her home, just as I had told her things about The Dome. Nothing that would help either of us in the middle of a battle, of course. Just little things, like her favourite places to eat and my favourite time to walk through New Hyde Park. One thing Ruusaan had never conveyed though was the Rock's sheer size.
It stood in the crater's centre; a tower of charcoal grey metal, easily ten kilometres high, perhaps three kilometres around its widest point two-thirds of the way up. Three layers of giant metal wings, each a crimson red, spread out and downwards from around a structure on its top like petals of a drooping flower. A trio of thruster nozzles the size of mobile fortresses were semi-hidden under the shadows of the largest petals, many more chains of smaller manoeuvring thrusters jutting out from under the other two layers like caves worn into a cliff. Three giant struts anchored the ship to the crater's sides, and many small additions appeared to have been added, removed or built over time and again onto the once streamlined hull. From below it was lit by a dull red glow, rising up with the smoke from the industrial looking complexes that spread out of the Rock's base. Beyond that, most of the waters seemed devoted to fisheries and the like. I couldn't see anything that even resembled a warship or Mobile Fortress. The Dragonoids knew they had superiority in the air. Why change the habits of a lifetime?
"What my Dad wouldn't give to find this."
"Is this really a good time to be thinking about that?" Astrid's voice broke through my awe, the tenseness in her tone poorly hiding obvious fear. "You know they're going to kill us when they find us right?"
"I was…trying not to think about that." I slumped back in my chair, throwing Astrid an annoyed glance over my shoulder. I was completely helpless, locked in a metal coffin to which the Dragonoids had the key. Even if the Night Fury was released from the recall signal, there was nothing to stop this 'High Superior' from activating it again the minute we tried to turn tail and run. If I just had a moment to think-
"Recall signal disengaged."
…
"Wait, wha-"
The Night Fury lurched, suddenly without a pilot, automated or otherwise. My hands and feet were at the controls in an instant, stopping the Dragonoid's descent into a nearby Nadder by inches.
"What happened?" Astrid looked around at her screens wildly, wide-eyed and breathing heavily from the sudden drop.
"I'm back in control." I didn't know whether to feel elated or despondent that I was actually in control. "Go me."
"Good, then let's get out of here!"
"We can't. We have to make sure the recall signal doesn't affect the Fury again. We need to set down so I can figure out how to stop the signal getting through." I made sure the radio was switched off and the stealth systems were engaged. A Night Fury's stealth systems only cloaked it electronically. Anyone looking out a window would see it coming, but anyone looking through a sensor relay or even an ordinary camera would see nothing but a blur of static, easily mistaken for a camera malfunction. Hopefully, the sheer number of Dragonoids coming into land might do the rest to keep us hidden.
Astrid looked like she wanted to argue, but quickly shut up when I stared her down. I no longer cared. I was done being nice. Done explaining and done arguing. By the looks of things, she might actually have understood what was happening. I ignored the confused, hurt look in her eyes and turned back to the colossal structure before us.
The closer we flew, the more…strange the Rock appeared. It had looked strange at a distance, with its mess of additional structures jutting out seemingly at random. But up close, I could see that the fabric of the hull appeared damaged. Scorch marks marked the metal; great tears had been gouged through bulkheads and craters had been blown clear through to a darkened interior within. What made it strange though was that none of the damage was recent. Rust scattered the edges of bent metal, burns were faded and only stood out because of the newer structures that had been built around them. Lights of civilisation dusted the hull in levels like the floors of a skyscraper, but patches of darkness surrounded each piece of damage, not even a warning light to mark possible repair programs.
"What kind of engineer leaves battle damage un-repaired and exposed for so long?"
"It's not battle damage." I turned around at the puzzlement in Astrid's voice. Her eyes were on her screen, a puzzled frown creasing her face. "Look at the intensity of the scorch marks. They all start strong near the base and then fade out near the top. This has to be damage from re-entry."
"But look at other damage," I scowled in irritation as I turned back. "Most of them look like whatever created these holes hit the ship from the outside. It's almost as though they're preserving old battle scars…"
If Astrid had an answer, I didn't give her time to voice it. Already the Rock towered over us, bright lights leading us and every Dragonoid around us upwards towards hangers that yawned open for us halfway up the hull. I followed the others for as long as I dared, slowing down and inching upwards to the top of the group. As we reached the great doors I pulled the Fury into a near vertical climb, ignoring Astrid's surprised yelp and the alarms warning me I was way too close to the Rock of the Assembled's hull. I watched the screens carefully, looking for something I desperately needed.
"There."
"What? What do you see?"
"An opening. We can put down there."
I bought the Fury around, hovering before a great wound in the Rock's side. Whatever had blasted through here had had enough explosive force to tear a chunk out of three decks with it. Darkness spread out around a gaping hole big enough for the Night Fury to squeeze through, the Dragonoid civilisation keeping understandably clear of a possibly unsafe location.
I eased the Fury forward, wincing at the scraping of metal as one of the wings clipped the damaged hull, the noise of thrusters in an enclosed space sending shudders through the wrecked structure and dislodging dust from burned out rafters. The exposed metal deck groaned under the Dragonoid's weight as it touched down, but held as the thrusters died into silence.
I waited a moment, just to see if the images running through my mind of a horde of heavily armed Dragonoids coming bursting through the cracks would come true, before releasing a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding.
"So…" Astrid tentatively broke the silence. "What do we do now?"
I rolled my eyes as I retrieved my tablet from my jacket discarded at my feet. The 'we' word was coming up a lot lately. I couldn't remember the last time 'we' was used in the same context as 'Astrid' and 'Alex'…or 'Hiccup'. Normally it was 'you' or 'I' or 'get lost'.
"You don't have to do anything." I concentrated on connecting my tablet to the Fury's computers, ignoring the sparks that jumped from the exposed wires in the USB port. "Ijust need some quiet to isolate the program that receives the recall signal from the Night Fury's computer."
"Can I do-"
"No."
Astrid fell silent, and I ignored the guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach at my harsh tone. I forced myself to remember that if Astrid hadn't run, or had just listened or had even decided to let me go in the first place, we wouldn't be in this situation. If she hadn't shown up, I would have been over the ocean with Ruusaan when the signal came in. Perhaps she could have done something about it. At the very least, having a Dragonoid when you're flying into the heart of Dragonoid territory would have been better than the angry Dragonoid hater currently behind me.
But I couldn't think about that now. Right now I had to drown myself in data, sifting through artificial intelligence protocols, communications subroutines and everything in-between to find anything I could that could stop the Fury from being recalled…
…until I heard someone open the hatch.
I looked up in a panic, just in time to see a blonde plait dart out of the cockpit, the sound of running footsteps fading away. I looked back, just to be sure, a part of me blindly hoping that stress and panic were making me see things. But the chair was empty. Astrid was gone.
I turned back to my tablet, speeding up my search as I struggled to keep calm.
Astrid Hofferson was loose in the home of the Dragonoids. Chances were good we would need a getaway vehicle sometime soon.
Astrid walked in near darkness, a dim glow in the distance her only light, small enough that she could cover it entirely with her thumb but growing with every footstep. She kept close to a wall, one hand feeling her way across smooth dust crusted surfaces and occasionally tripping over rubble and debris not disturbed in centuries. The corridor she had found led directly away from the opening, meaning she was heading towards the core of the Rock of The Assembled. She kept walking forward, ignoring junctions and the odd doorway she crossed. This was recon, she kept telling herself, but recon was useless if she couldn't find her way back to the Night Fury. If Alex…no, Hiccup she angrily reminded herself…had no use for her, she would make sure someone made use of her trip, even if that use was gathering Intel. for General Stoic.
She wasn't sure how long she had been walking, but the light had grown, now seen to be spilling from a doorway for someone far taller than her. Her footsteps and breathing were no longer the only sound either. She could hear…something; a buzzing that seemed echo from the junctions, doorways and the light up ahead that grew with every step forward. As she drew closer, the buzzing became voices, so many together talking and shouting that she couldn't understand a word even if she had known the language, the groans of machinery and the squeal of metal against metal added to a chaotic symphony. It all sounded familiar somehow, yet alien at the same time. When she finally came to the archway and stepped through into the dim light, she realised why.
She stepped out onto a balcony, cut off from the rest of the ship, and the core of the Rock of The Assembled stretched out before her. A void three kilometres across, a pillar of light as bright as the full moon shone out from the centre, bathing the innards of the ship in a pale grey light. A city built on tiers wrapped around this central void, layer upon layer of bronze coloured buildings of all shapes and sizes, some extending into the levels above to the size of skyscrapers, some hanging through the ceiling like metallic icicles. All were organized into streets and districts, each level a broad shallow bowl, taller buildings in the rear reflecting light into the darker streets below. The layout was very much the same; Ring roads cut across five wide avenues set like points of a star, each lined with strange trees with leaves of gold and silver. Parkland seemed to take up at least one corner of each level. The one that stretched out below her was filled with statues and fountains, frescoes and mosaics of pictures that held no meaning to her. Each tier was connected the others by a vast network of silvery rails that snaked its way around the edge of the void, rose red trams gliding from platform to platform like autumn leaves on a stream.
And the people…so many different kinds of people. The Dragonoids numbered in thousands to a tier. Tall, short (although most still looked taller than her), fat, trim, with skin colours ranging from bone white to slate grey, hair of jet black to bright blond and elder grey and clothing in every colour in too many styles to count. She saw people walk the streets, window shopping in stores with names she didn't know. In the park below her, she could see children playing and arguing while parents looked on and chatted with each other. A beggar sat on a street corner, nodding in thanks for spare change dropped in a battered hat. A market had been set up in a nearby plaza, filled with the noise of stall owners shouting their wares and arguing with customers who wanted lower prices. The elderly walked the paths, admiring the scenery while couples did the same, admiring each other.
Astrid felt sick. She backed away into the darkness beyond the archway, scrunching her eyes tight and covering her ears to drown herself in silence. She forced the scenes from her mind. She tried to keep hold of the picture she knew, the picture she trusted. That Dragonoids were killers, murderers of the human race. They were vicious, unfeeling monsters…
"They can't be normal."
"Why not?"
She reacted on instinct, a hand reaching for the speaker in the dark and throwing him against the wall, an arm pressed across his neck.
It took her a moment to realise her 'assailant' was too short to be a Dragonoid…and spoke English. Hiccup for his part tried to look nonchalant from under the knit cap he'd pulled low over his ears. He might have been successful had she not been blocking his windpipe.
"They're not allowed to be normal," she hissed. "They're not allowed to have normal lives and normal days."
"Why?" his words were wheezed, but he didn't stutter. "Because they're the enemy?"
"Because they're vicious, Hiccup. Soulless killing machines. They've murdered so many and left us with so little. They shouldn't be allowed to be happy and carefree and normal like…like…"
"Mesh'la!"
She froze, and Hiccup mirrored what she thought was her expression. They turned as one towards the archway, and the tiny (by Dragonoid standards) figure that stood framed in the dim light.
"…Like that."
She stared up at us, a kid perhaps three Earth years or less and no taller in feet. Bright blue eyes were wide with wonder, mouth agape just enough to see her tiny but no less sharp teeth. Her dirty blonde hair was a tangled mess that fell over her ear ridges and about her pale grey face to her shoulders. The hem of her off-white dress was stained with mud, along with her red stockings and shoes. Someone had been playing too close to the flowerbeds.
"Mesh'la!" her voice was an excited squeak as she bounced on the balls of her feet. She took several steps towards us, then jumped back as though she had been burned. "Nayc! Nayc slanar!" She looked back at us again, face scrunched up in annoyance. "Al mesh'la!"
Astrid eyed the kid Dragonoid warily, the pressure of her arm against my throat lessening. "What…what is she saying?"
"Mesh'la…" I fished my tablet from my jacket, flicking through the translation matrix's dictionary. "Mesh'la, mesh'la…" I blinked at the entry, and tried very hard not to grin. "She thinks you're pretty. Or…I'm pretty. Something's pretty, that's for sure."
"What!?" Astrid's head whipped round to me fast enough to hear her neck bones click. She stared at me, like a deer caught in headlights. "S-she can't. I'm…a-and she…"
"Well, to be fair she doesn't know you're not…you know…" I smirked slightly, "not normal."
"Nayc slanar!"
The girl was hopping from foot to foot now, inching forward and back again with hands outstretched towards us. I glanced down at my tablet, a frown passing over my face as I took in her translated words.
No go.
Something about the corridor was stopping this girl, something had been engrained in her mind that she shouldn't even step over the threshold. It wasn't fear though. Her eyes kept glancing up, annoyed at something out of sight, something keeping her from getting close.
So I smiled as best I could, pushed Astrid away, and closed the gap between Human and Dragonoid.
"Hiccup?" Astrid reached out in alarm. I dodged her hand and kept walking. "What are you doing?"
I smiled, but not at her, my eyes staying forward towards the Dragonoid girl now watching me approach. She had stopped her dancing, eyes now wary as I crouched down to her level just inside the archway. She didn't run, though. Whether it was out of bravery, curiosity or she simply didn't know any better I couldn't say. I hoped I was looking as friendly as possible, and spoke quietly in case I scared her off.
"Tion'jor nayc slanar?"
Why no go?
The Dragonoid frowned, squinting at my mouth and eyes as she probably noticed flat teeth and circular pupils. She still didn't run though, and if she realised I wasn't like her she didn't show it. Instead, all she did was point upward, to the top of the arch.
The archway was surprisingly ornate for something that led to a blown out crater in the Rock's side. Pillars of stone rose up on either side, meeting at the top at a large silver plaque, the jagged lines and triangular shapes of the Dragonoid language carved into the metal in large bold words. I raised my tablet to the plaque, letting the camera take the words in. They flickered on the screen, changing once, then twice before my eyes.
Suum olar, kadal arasuumir. Bic la payt tenn bid mhi mav ratiin partaylir.
"Beyond here, a wound remains. It is left open so we will always remember."
"A wound?" Astrid turned, looking back down the darkened tunnel. "They left the damage alone to remember something?"
"Guess you were right. Preserving old battle scars and all that…" I scratched my chin thoughtfully as I stood up, "but there has to be something more to this. The Dragonoids are big on remembering the dead, buts it's always left to the individual to decide whether or not a person is worth remembering." Astrid stared at me, confusion obvious. "Dragonoids believe that a well-remembered spirit is more likely to be reincarnated than return to the Universe after death. What a person does with their life is supposed to be a key factor; battles they fought in, people they saved, that sort of thing. But influence on the people around them is important too. For you to return, other people; family, friends, comrades, need to want to remember you. Stories that you were a part of, battles, emergencies, regime changes, need to go down in history. The only name engraved in stone should be your tombstone, so a monument like this shouldn't even have been built. If people died here, then it's up to family and friends to remember them."
"But there aren't any names here. Just a vague reminder to remember what happened." Astrid came out into the light, staring up at the plaque thoughtfully. "So if it's not about the Dragonoids that were lost. Maybe it's about the event itself…"
"Mhi partaylir. Nayc digur. Al enteyor takisit."
We both jumped, the Dragonoid girl momentarily forgotten.
She stared up at us, head cocked to one side, not angry or afraid but, if anything, confused. I looked down at my tablet and its translation matrix and the words displayed on the screen.
Astrid leaned over my shoulder, her hand tightening around my arm as she saw what I saw.
"We remember. No forget. But must…forgive."
"Mesh'la jorhaa'ir nuh'la." The girl was still staring. Astrid stared back.
"What's she saying?"
"She thinks we talk funny."
"She thinks we talk funny?"
"Yeah, it's like we're speaking another language or something."
Astrid glared at my smirk as she pushed me away.
"Tion'jo mesh'la jorhaa'ir nuh'la?"
"Err…" I smiled nervously. The girl looked to be getting suspicious. "Kaysh…mirsh la…solus?"
The girl blinked, then smacked a hand to her mouth as a giggle bubbled up her throat. It didn't seem to help, the kid doubled over with smothered laughter in a matter of moments. Every time she seemed to calm down, one look in Astrid's direction and the laughter quickly attacked her again.
Astrid gave her a strange look, but even I could see the smile trying to pull the corners of her mouth up. "What did you say to her?"
I shrugged, just glad to feel the weight of suspicion lifting from everyone's shoulders. That, and I wasn't about to tell Astrid I'd called her an idiot in a language she didn't understand. "It…loses something in the translation."
The laughter finally subsided, the now smothering hiccups as she grinned up at us.
"Juuniis!" Her squeaked announcement was accompanied by the clack of her heels coming together, a small hand coming across her chest to close into a fist over her heart. If she hadn't been grinning and had been more around Ruusaan's height, it might have been intimidating.
"Alex." I mimicked her movements with a smile of my own, careful not to show my teeth. A sharp elbow to Astrid's ribs made her reluctantly do the same.
"Astrid."
"Juuniis, Hallex bal Hastrid." the girl pointed to each of us in turn, apparently proud of her mangling of our names. "Burc'ya an!"
"Boor-sha ahn?" Astrid looked to me, faintly annoyed.
"Burc'ya an," I smiled, but not at Astrid, as I knelt down before the beaming Dragonoid once more. "Juuniis, Alex and Astrid. Friends all."
I saw my sergeant stare then look away, feet shuffling her back into the darkness, clearly uncomfortable. I didn't blame her. It was hard to see the cold-blooded killers we were trained to fight in Juuniis' gap-toothed grin. A grin that was fading fast into a worried frown as she saw Astrid's unease. She looked between Astrid and me, trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Dalyc copaanir aht suvarir." I hoped I sounded reassuring. "Tion'jor sirbur takisit?"
She wants to understand. Why say forgive?
Now Juuniis looked uncomfortable. She looked down at her muddy shoes, shifting from one foot to the other.
"Ori'vod sirbur mirdir aabir'naas kar'taylir. Ashi vaabir'naas emuurir kaysh jorhaa'ir meyg." She scowled, small hands twisting agitatedly in front of her. "Ori'vod jorhaa'ir nay solet." Her eyes suddenly widened, the grin returning in a flash. "Ori'vod liser ba'jurir! Ba'jurir mesh'la Hastrid!"
She made to grab for Astrid's hand, then seemed to jump back mid-leap, remembering she wasn't supposed to go past the archway. She settled for my hand instead, almost pulling me clear off my knees with her energy. "Ori'vod liser ba'jurir! Ori'vod liser ba'jurir!"
"Whoa slow down! Gev! Gev already!" I struggled to keep a grip on my tablet with one hand and stop Juuniis from pulling me off the balcony altogether. Astrid watched on, a small smile barely hidden. The translation matrix buzzed angrily, not used to translating at the speed the Dragonoid girl was talking. "What was that about your brother? Jii, cin vhetin. Meg liser gar'ra ori'vod vaabir?"
Juuniis gave me an impatient pout, bouncing on the balls of her feet and tugging on my arm.
"Ori'vod liser ba'jurir," she spoke slowly and deliberately. "Ba'jurir mesh'la Hastrid." lowered her voice, covering her mouth with a hand as though she was about to reveal a big secret. "Vaabir'naas sushir nay muun. Kaysh mirsh kyramud."
"She says her brother can teach us…something." I frowned at the screen as Astrid hesitantly stepped up behind me to get a better look. "Also, he's apparently a brain assassin." I smacked the side of the tablet, the matrix flickered. "Nope, he's just boring."
"Ori'vod liser ba'jurir! Ba'jurir mesh'la Hastrid!"
"Hey wait a minute!" Astrid jerked back, but Juuniis had already latched onto her arm, dragging her out of the darkened corridor towards the ramp that twisted down to the park below. "What's going on? Where's she taking me? And why is she so strong!?"
I didn't say a word. I just followed on behind, a part of me curious as to where Juuniis was taking us, a part of me trying so very hard not to laugh at Astrid's futile attempts to break free from the little Dragonoid's grip.
"This is a bad idea."
"So you've said."
"Why haven't they seen us yet? Is there something wrong with the lighting?"
"Dragonoids are nocturnal. Moonlight's all they need to see with. Juuniis can see a lot better here than you can. Just keep your head down and don't smile with your teeth. We'll be fine."
"I really don't feel like smiling right now."
Hiccup grinned, something that was more unnerving than a comfort. He seemed totally at ease, and that infuriated her even more. A normal human being shouldn't be able to walk through the heart of the Dragonoid homeland, hand-in-hand with a Dragonoid child, and manage to keep a grin on his face. Astrid just kept her head down, her free hand checking the knit cap that Hiccup had given her was still tight over her ears.
The Dragonoids that passed by towered over them, all of them more interested in the gardens and each other than the two humans being dragged along by a Dragonoid child. She heard someone laughing behind her. Up ahead, a young male burst into tears as a girl strode away shouting angry words over her shoulder. An old man was reading something from a tablet computer under the shade of a silvery tree. A mother and her children were feeding leftovers to a flock of small, green flying lizards like breadcrumbs to pigeons. A busker had drawn a crowd to a plaza with his soothing music, his instrument something akin to a miniature twin necked cello he'd braced on his knee and somehow produced a four-part harmony. No matter where Astrid looked, normality stared right back, albeit played out by seven to nine-foot tall extraterrestrials.
It wasn't fair. Each new sight twisted in her mind, leaving a sick taste in her mouth and a tightness in her chest. Dragonoids were supposed to be vicious, bloodthirsty killers. When she had thought of the ship in Washington Crater, she had thought of darkened corridors, grizzled trophies and not a lizard-like Dragonoid in sight that wasn't encased in heavy spiked armour of some kind. Normality like this, like what she was seeing and hearing, was supposed to be the way humans lived.
Juuniis was blissfully unaware of the torment she was putting her new friend through; dragging Astrid and Hiccup through the park, albeit occasionally steered by Hiccup down quieter routes then the large busy pathways she wanted to take. The corporal himself seemed content to take in the scenery, occasionally raising his tablet to various signs and posters, marvelling at the world around him. A part of her wanted to know, to understand how he could be so at ease in the homeland of the enemy. Her unease and the questions that came with it blocked her from asking. Instead, a more pressing question made it past her lips.
"Why are they're just ignoring us?"
"Well, that's mostly thanks to you."
"Me?"
"Your braid." Hiccup tapped the back of his head with his tablet, as though she needed reminding. "It doesn't make you look more than seven or eight. Dragonoid hair growth can be measured at a rate of years. Girls don't cut theirs until it reaches the small of their back and even then it's just to make sure it doesn't get any longer than that. Ruusaan told me it's supposed to be a sign of fertil…that they've become an adult."
Astrid stopped, and gave him a very long, very hard stare. "And how exactly did that come up?
"I…that…"Hiccup went red, a deep crimson that Waif might have thought adorable. "I-it just came up, alright?"
Despite the knot in her chest, Astrid found herself smirking. "Yeah, I bet it did."
"Astrid! There are children present!"
"Ori'vod! Ori'vod!"
Juuniis' excited cries brought an end to the conversation…for the moment. She tugged at their arms urgently, tugging them with her surprising strength towards a crowd that had gathered near a tram station. Astrid pulled back warily, a part of her annoyed that her trainers scrapped uselessly against the paved path in the face of the young girl's pull.
"Can you tell her I don't like crowds or something?" Her voice was whispered and sounded almost pleading. She hated the way Hiccup looked surprised at her tone, "because I don't care how childish we look from afar, the idea of two humans to be up close to Dragonoids is not one I want to go through with right now."
Hiccup rolled his eyes, "Astrid-"
"I know what you said. And I can see you're a lot more comfortable here than you ever were anywhere in The Dome," she ignored the sting of her own words, and she forced herself to keep talking even as her comrade tried to object, "but I'm not. I'm terrified. Holding hands is one thing, but I don't want to risk being found if I have too."
For a moment, she thought he would argue. She saw the challenge in his eyes, until the second he turned away, jerking Juuniis off the path mid-step into the tree line. He ignored the young Dragonoid's protests until they were hidden behind the grey trunks, Astrid anchoring them to the trees to stop their new friend from dragging them on.
"Astrid la chaab." he knelt down beside the child, speaking before she could complain. "Ne'naas emuurir tsad. Tengaanar teh olar?"
Juuniis winced, whatever Hiccup had said causing her to look in guiltily in Astrid's direction. She cocked her head to one side though, listening to the noise of the crowd not so far away. She smiled as she saw the crowd parted slightly, an excited hand pulling on Astrid's sleeve as she let go of Hiccup to point.
"Ori'vod! Ori'vod jorhaa'ir!"
The sergeant looked to her former subordinate for translation, but Hiccup's eyes were ahead to where Juuniis was pointing.
She followed his gaze, to a head that stood slightly taller than the rest due to the podium that had been set up there. He was male if his short blond hair and angular features were anything to go by. Tall and thin with ashen grey skin and sharp blue eyes. His suit was smart, at least by human standards; a dark blue blazer of some kind and lighter high collared shirt from what she could see; the panelled material both were made of giving it a slight shimmer in the pale light.
The scene seemed familiar, especially with the banners hung between poles behind the man's head and the picket signs dotting the crowd, brightly coloured words proclaiming something in the Dragonoid's triangular letters. A vague memory of her father itched at the back of her mind, the sounds of cheers and boos echoing around her head.
"It's a demonstration," she couldn't decide if she was amazed or horrified that Hiccup had voiced her thoughts exactly, "or a political rally like the ones your Dad held before elections."
"Well, which is it?" there was more anger in her words than she intended. Of all the human scenes to her now being played out by Dragonoids, this was the most…unnerving.
"Just give me second. I need to extend the audio pickup range of the translation matrix." His eyes darted from place to place as his fingers blurred across the screen. He smiled suddenly, as the microphones on the podium crackled to life. "Here we go!"
Astrid leaned over his shoulder as he held the tablet up, Dragonoid words morphing into English before her eyes as Juuniis' brother threw his arms wide and began to speak.
"People of The Rock, are you not tired? Have you not grown weary of sending yourselves and your children to battle from which you and they may not return? Are you not afraid for those of us not yet grown, who may soon be sent across the ocean when they come of age? I am tired, people of The Rock, and I…I am afraid. I am afraid for my sister(Juuniis tugged on Astrid's arm, squeaking happily), who may grow to accept the fighting as an inevitable part of life. And I am afraid for us, The Assembled, who already know the fighting to be an inevitable part of life. The war with the Humans must stop, not through violence, but through words. I hope you understand, as I do, that a war to their extinction will benefit nobody…"
Astrid felt numb as a cheer rose up, drowning out those who dared boo in disagreement. A Dragonoid was advocating peace. An end to hostilities without violence. She couldn't wrap her mind around it. She wanted to believe it was the low light tricking her eyes, or a mistranslation of the Dragonoid's words by the tablet. She looked to Hiccup and found no comfort in his stunned gaze or the slight smile that was twitching at the edge of his mouth. She looked to Juuniis' brother, hoping to see triumph or disgust, anything that would tell her that her world wasn't crumbling apart. But he stood tall, eyes almost pitying as he focused on those in the crowd that jeered.
"I know many among you see my words as wrong," he continued, "that the actions of the humans so long ago have made them unredeemable in our eyes for the rest of time. I say, The Assembled are no strangers to travesty, and I have not forgotten what the Humans did to us, just as I have not forgotten what we have done to ourselves-"
His words were drowned out, a loud, angry roar rising up from some of those that had been cheering moments before.
"What Humans did to them?" Astrid heard herself ask. "What's he talking about?"
"I…I don't know. It's not a mistranslation…unless…" Hiccup frowned uneasily, looking up from prodding the tablet. "The damage…the wounds left open so they will always remember. Astrid…what if humans caused it?"
"Of course we caused it! We were fighting back, defending ourselves!"
"But what if it was the other way around?" He was sweating now, scared of his own thoughts "What if…what if we attacked first?"
"Don't say that!" her voice was a hiss, low and terrified. "You can't say that! They attacked us! No warning, no provocation! They hit us first! They crushed Washington under their spacecraft for crying out loud!"
"You're right they did," he turned to her now, face grim, "but Astrid, we've only assumed the Dragonoids attacked first because America kept everyone else in the dark. The only thing we ever knew about the Dragonoids was that they wanted to stay in orbit. What if the States provoked the landing somehow? I'm not saying it was intentional. It could have been an accident, or someone mistranslated the wrong word, or maybe even someone was too paranoid and too high up the change of command and pressed the wrong button at the wrong time. But what if we threw the first punch? What if this entire war…two and a half centuries and billions of deaths…what if it was all our own fault?"
Astrid had no answer. Her chest was too tight, as though she had forgotten how to breathe. She just stared at Hiccup, waiting, begging for him to tell her his own words were absurd. But he didn't. Neither of them said a word nor moved a muscle until Juuniis' brother spoke again.
"Have you forgotten our own actions?"he bellowed at the crowd. "Is this the example of how The Assembled forgive that we give to our children? That we can forgive our own kind for our own crimes, no matter how bloody, but we can not do the same for others? Humanity has paid the price for its mistake, just as we paid the price for ours. We are tired! Humanity is tired!"
"Morta'les la haresh!"
A new voice, low and loud, rang out across the park, a heavy thrumming reverberating through the ground and rattling Astrid's ribs. The thrum became a scream, blinding red light filling the area as a great wind rushed through the parkland. A hand went up to her eyes on instinct, the other subconsciously pulling Juuniis close as the terrified Dragonoid girl buried her head in the human's side. She felt something come around her shoulders, a warm hand quickly forcing her behind the tree. She tried to break free at first, until she realised it was Hiccup who was hiding her. Through the light, she saw his grim face, his hand painfully tight on her shoulder as he pressed them all against the bark. A part of her wanted to see what he saw. The rest was disgusted with herself for flushing scarlet just because his mouth was too close and his body was pressed up against hers, keeping them hidden behind the tree. She looked away to distract herself, craning her neck to try and see what had caused Hiccup to make sure they were well hidden.
While the people were silent, the park itself was filled with the noise of Dragonoid engines, a pair of Gronckles hovering above the tram station, searchlights mounted to their sides bathing the demonstration in the strange red light. Juuniis' brother glared up at them with fists clenched and teeth bared. He watched, as they all did, as a platform rose above the station, and when Astrid saw what they saw, she saw all of humanity's hope for survival crumble in the face of one, single, massive figure.
He towered over all, a Dragonoid easily twelve feet or more, broad-shouldered and heavily muscled, barely constrained within a uniform of deep purple and hemmed in blood red, hands and feet up to the knees encased in black armoured gauntlets and boots, a chest plate of greyish blue melding into a matching cloak that billowed out behind him in the downdraft of the Gronckles' wings. From beneath a pointed fringe of black and framed by ridges of cragged bone on either side, eyes the colour of ice stared down at the gathered crowd out of a wide bone pale head, pitted and scarred by countless battles, a grin of long sharp teeth seeming to split this face near ear to ear. There was malice in those eyes, Astrid could see clear as day, a glee at the power he knew he had in the palm of his hand.
"What…is that?" she heard herself ask, unable to look away.
"If I had to guess?" Hiccup swallowed thickly, and Astrid felt his heart beat painfully fast against her chest. "Not someone we should mess with."
Astrid nodded, all thoughts of intel for Stoic now forgotten thoughts at the back of her mind. She watched as the platform descended into the park, the giant Dragonoid holding his arms wide to the people before him as it landed beside the podium. His grin only grew as the crowd saluted him as one; heels clacking together, one of their hands coming across their chests to close into a fist over their hearts. It took only a look from the giant for Juuniis' brother to reluctantly follow the people he was trying to lead.
"Ke'sush aht gar, te Al'verde!" he shouted over the thrum of Dragonoid engines.
"An Ke'sush, Al'verde Zearaan!" the crowd roared in response, all falling to one knee before the great being before them.
"Al'verde…High Superior." she watched Hiccup's face grow pale as the words appeared on the tablet. "The leader of the Dragonoids, High Superior Zearaan…" he laughed, to her surprise. "Oh Dad, you've got no idea…"
Zearaan stepped forward to the vacated podium, the crowds now silent with heads bowed. When he spoke, he didn't need the microphone. Even over the screams of the Gronckles above him, the High Superior's voice carried clear across the park.
"Yes my friends,"the tablet translated as the giant spread his arms wide, "Humanity is exhausted! It is low on troops, low on ships, weapons, and even ammunition. Why then, I ask you, should we waste our time with talk when victory over the enemy is assured? Why should we, The Assembled, even consider such an idea with a race of killers, the murderers of our ancestors? Have you all forgotten the kindness we gave them? Have you forgotten the 'kindness' they gave in return?"
As though responding to his voice, the dark pools within the light of the central pillar morphed and shifted, pictures forming in black and white on its surface. Astrid saw the Earth, hanging in one corner, the sun a bright spot in the far distance. The Rock was shown in orbit, a pale disk with her nose away from the camera, almost eclipsing the light from the star. A halo of sunlight surrounded the ship, strangely growing brighter with every passing moment.
"You know what this is. The phenomenon that trapped us on this world,"Zearaan spat the words with venom. "We saw it when the humans did not: A solar storm strong enough to bring the people of Earth to their knees. My predecessor took pity on them; they were weak and primitive, barely able to send their own kind to their moon's surface. We moved TheRock of The Assembled, extended our protection to the world below. We extended it…too much."
The halo engulfed The Rock, the light shining out around the shadowed hull until everything was filled with blinding white. Before the camera fizzled into static, Astrid saw fiery plumes erupt out of the great ship's side, the vessel veering off from an unseen impact before the image vanished.
"We protected them, at the cost of many lives and great damage to our home. Our engines failed us, we needed to land, to refuel and repair. We begged the humans for sanctuary on their world. And how did they respond?"
The scene shifted, security footage of a launch site, a volley of missiles streaking up from hidden bunkers into a darkened sky. The camera panned with the launch, to the fireball that was The Rock of The Assembled crashing across the sky high above and far away. The missiles were joined by others, streaks of light all converging on The Rock and crashing into her sides. Astrid watched with a wave of dread as the giant vessel slowly veered downward onto a steeper course.
"They paid the price for their malice."
Another scene; amateur footage from a handheld camera, sailors on a yacht, sailing under a large suspension bridge, panicked faces caught in the edge of frame as the camera's owner tried to keep a steady hand on the sight before him or her. Far off, The Rock of the Assembled still dwarfed all around it as it fell from the sky. The ground fractured as the massive vessel slammed into the Earth, a shockwave tearing through everything its path sending clouds of dirt and debris in all directions. The camera fell to the deck as great waves crashed into the yacht, just in time to see the bridge fall into the bay, a large black cloud mushrooming high into the sky before the water swamped the ship and the image fizzled into static.
"Even after the fall, we tried for peace. The humans would not listen to our pleas,"Zearaan turned his head from the images as scenes of war and destruction flashed across the pillar's surface. Tanks and Dragonoids and soldiers fighting, destroying and killing. "Eventually, we stopped trying to make them see reason. We realised too late what we, in our souls, have always had known: There is no talk with savage primitives." The battles seemed to turn to the Dragonoids' favour. Cities fell as the metal monsters soared through the skies, people running screaming from the fire that fell from above. "We have driven them back, forced them to hide as we hunt them like the animals that they are." Zearaan looked down on his subjects, framed by the pictures of horror that continued to flash behind him. The assembled Dragonoids had remained silent throughout, neither a cheer nor boo between them, heads still bowed, hands closed into fists over their hearts. "And yet they still consider themselves superior to us, even when backed them into a corner."
A new figure appeared, dominating the pillar to the point it put almost the entire park in near darkness. A human, tall and slim shouldered and dressed in a simple pinstriped suit. A pale, aged face stared out from under a fringe of thinning hair, a face that made Astrid's heart stop cold even before he spoke.
"I am Arthur Hofferson, leader of the free humans of The Dome," her father's voice rang out clear across the silent park, "and I send this proclamation to the people of Washington Crater, Tsad Droten, the ones we call Dragonoids. For over two hundred and forty of our years, we have fought. You have wiped out entire nations, and we, the people of The Dome, have battled you to a standstill. I tell you this now; soon, I will put an end to this conflict."
His voice was so cold, a tone that didn't quite match his calm expression. Astrid remembered this speech; recorded in front of a crowd of thousands the week before Paladin had left The Dome and met her fiery demise. She had been sitting on the balcony behind him, Hiccup fidgeting nervously beside her. Had his words really been said so cruelly, edged with steel and malice?
"You will fall."
The words came from her father's mouth, and his daughter's blood turned to ice.
"You will fall and we shall rise," the voice continued, sounding less and less like her father's words with every second. "You have polluted our most cherished planet for your own greed. Tomorrow, I will come to you with a message, but not composed of words. We have wasted too much time with words. We need action now. The Dragonoids must be taught a strong lesson for their evil corruption. This is only the beginning of our war. We have been putting more and more into our military, making it stronger than ever before."
"He didn't say that!" She turned to Hiccup, desperation in her eyes "You were there Alex! He didn't say that!"
"Of course he didn't." his voice was grim, his hand somehow getting tighter on her shoulder as he glared at the grinning High Superior up above. "But there were people who wished he had, remember? You change some words, alter the tone, and a message of peace becomes a declaration of war." he turned to her with a grim smile. "Isn't technology great?"
Her breath caught in her throat, saw her eyes widen and her mouth hang open in silent horror reflected in brown orbs. Memories flooded her mind, drowning out the rest of Arthur Hofferson's distorted words. She wanted to deny the images, of a blonde child screaming at her once best friend and the lies he was trying to tell her. Of ridiculous stories of Dragonoid innocence and the sins of the few that craved war. She saw the hurt in his youthful face of the past, and regret in the same older face that stared down at her now. She looked away, buried her face in his chest to try and blot out the memories with feeble excuses and reasons that had held so strong until now. The Dragonoids were monsters. They had wiped entire nations from the face of the Earth. They had killed her father, a man of peace, in cold blood.
And yet…
"It was all a conspiracy," she had said quietly, in the shooting gallery on Christmas Eve. "Just a small group of people that opposed my Dad's ideals."
She didn't want it to be true. She wanted to call it lies, fabrications created by the High Superior to fool his citizens.
And yet…
"It's easier to hate Dragonoids then believe your theories and things you say you've 'heard', even if that means I have to hate you in the process."
"This is the face of our enemy,"Zearaan stood shadowed by the frozen face of her father above. "One we have vanquished, but still one of many. Their words are loud, but they have no bite. The Humans are a people exhausted, and we have proven time and again there is no way they can pose a threat to The Assembled. They cannot create soldiers overnight, and they are desperately scrabbling for a victory they can never obtain. I therefore appeal to you all,"he spread his arms wide with a sharp-toothed grin, "to each and every one of you. Humanity is exhausted! Now is not the time for us to kneel before them. It is time for us to rise! Now, more than ever, is our chance to defeat the last bastions of Human resistance once and for all!"
Then, the Dragonoids roared. As one they cheered their leader, chanting his name and the words "An Ke'sush!" again and again.
Astrid buried her face deeper into Alex's chest, trying to blot out the terrible noise that threatened to consume her. She took small comfort in his arms as they encircled her tight, as the Dragonoid continued to chant and Juuniis sobbed with confused terror into her side.
It took time to calm Juuniis down, and even longer to convince the scared little girl to go back to her brother. His urgent calls as the crowd eventually dispersed eventually sent her running to his arms with tears and fearful words, Alex and Astrid slipping off unseen back to the Night Fury before she could find them again.
They walked in silence, keeping to shadows for all the good it did on a ship of aliens that could see in the dark. Even as they climbed back through the scar and stumbled through the darkness to where the Dragonoid waited, not a word was said. Astrid just let Alex lead her, a warm hand guiding her through the dark and helping her into the cramped cockpit. There had been a time, she was certain, when the roles had been reversed; memories of sneaking away to beyond The Dome's wall to watch the stars go by. How long had it been since they had done that? Astrid was surprised at the pang of panic that came with the realisation she couldn't remember.
Alex slumped into the forward seat once he was sure she was secure. The Night Fury hummed to life around him as his fingers danced across the consoles and he muttered the start-up sequence under his breath.
Astrid kept quiet, even as the Fury pulled out of the scar in the Rock's side and headed out towards the open ocean. Her mind was a mess, her father's forged words echoing around her head again and again. They hadn't been his words, but they had been the ones that had reached the Dragonoids. They had been the words that had killed him, sent by people who wanted nothing but eternal war until one side annihilated the other.
And Alex…Alex had been right. Of course he had, she'd always known that. It was just…
"It's easier to hate Dragonoids then believe your theories and things you say you've 'heard', even if that means I have to hate you in the process."
It all seemed so selfish now. An easy way out; believe the lies, that a people already an enemy had taken her father, or the painful truth, as told by the only friend who had never lied to her. The choice had been obvious to a broken-hearted young girl. To a teen hardened by hate and bitterness, now left broken by the truth laid bare, it just left a bad taste in her mouth.
"Strap in."
Astrid looked up from her misery. "What?"
"We've got company." Alex reached for his tablet as the radio beeped above his head. "Nadders at eight and four o'clock low coming in fast. Just let me do the talking."
"Didn't you cloak before we left?"
"Of course I did," he gave her an angry glance. "Someone must have looked out a window or something. Now be quiet. This is going to be tricky."
Astrid didn't reply, her eyes glued to her side screens, watching as the Nadders closed in from both sides. Had the situation been ordinary, she would have already been running to Outpost 83RK, maybe to pick up a spare rifle on her way to the fire truck to prepare for service, barking orders to the rest of Nu Squad. But here, in the rear seat of a Dragonoid she barely understood, the situation was anything but ordinarily.
"Ke'sush Beskar'ad Ca'furor T'ad Resol Ehn Ta'raysh." the speakers crackled with a voice, curt and professional. "Meg la gar'ra aka?"
Alex took a deep breath, his hand shaking above the communication console before he flipped a switch. "Anaykebise la chur ke'gyce olar, aka nu'amyc."
"Meg banar?"
The corporal winced, one hand rapidly flicking through the translation matrix in his lap. "Uh…Mhi ganar ika gotab parjai, Al…uh…anaykebise la an staabi jii. Meg copaani jate. Meg copaani am jate olar jii, vor entye. Me'vaar copaani gar?"
An unhealthy pause followed. Astrid watched the Nadders move closer.
"Ibic tabalhar mav nari gar norac aht te Ruus."
"Uh, uh…nayc, nayc!" Alex was now frantic, his fingers a blur as he sifted through words Astrid didn't understand. "Mhi su ganar parjai olar jii. Dinuir mhi kisol jiila aht mircir daab. Ori parjai, ori burk'yc."
"Tion la ibic?" the voice grew impatient. "Meg la gar'ra gai bal verda?"
"Uhh…uh…Shit!"
The Night Fury lurched violently, the Nadders blurring from side screens to forward as targeting reticules blinked red over the first of the blue machines.
"Alex, what are you-"
"Weapons control: Command Seat Enabled."
The Night Fury shuddered as it unleashed its first volley, vulcan cannons belching energy rounds as the Dragonoids split apart to avoid its fire.
"Lenedat la aru'ela! Jurkad! Jurkad! Linibar burc'ya!"
Alex shut the radio off as the first pulse blasts rattled the fuselage. "Boring conversation anyway." He pulled the Night Fury round, baring his teeth as the Nadder seemed to dance around the reticules. "Dammit! How did Ruusaan make this look so easy!?"
"What are you doing!? Are you insane!?" Astrid gripped the armrests tight as the Fury banked hard, a volley of pulse fire from the second Nadder missing by inches. "Alex, you can't fly this thing! You can barely hold your own in a Viking for crying out loud!"
"I beat you didn't I?"
"That-…I mean…That's not the point! You can't just-"
"Incoming!"
Bright blue light blinded her screens, a beam of energy sweeping past the Night Fury as Alex dropped the Dragonoid into a steep dive to avoid it. Astrid felt her stomach lurch as he pulled up, a spray of water splashing out from a near miss with the ocean's surface.
"Reinforcements." Alex growled, eying the radar. "Gronckles, a few more Nadders and a…"
A scream cut him off, that faint high powered scream that gradually rose above to deafening levels as a smudge of black soared across the stars.
Astrid's blood ran cold. "Night Fury…"
A rain of plasma mortar fire broke through her fear, the Gronckles attack pluming water high into the around as Alex ducked and weaved between the explosions.
"I'll give you this, I don't think we can win," Alex grimaced as plasma fire hit a little too close to home. "We need to punch a hole through their defences so we can head back into orbit."
"What about those cannons you've got mounted on the back? Surely they'd pack enough punch to-"
"Can't do that. Too powerful."
Astrid stared at the back of his head. "Now isn't the time to hold back, Alex!"
"I just need to change!"
Blue light engulfed the forward chair as Astrid felt the Night Fury shift around her into its Humanoid mode, shield brought to bear and rifle in hand. A timer glowed red in the corner of her main screen as Alex unleashed his first volley of bright green light, curved alien numbers rapidly shifting from one to the next, although what they were counting and why they had appeared, Astrid didn't know.
Then the battle caught her eye. Alex had a Gronckle in his sights, the workhorse of the Dragonoids lobbing great balls of plasma as the Night Fury rushed towards it, rifle blazing. One shot sliced through the plasma mortar, the weapon reduced to slag as another shot pierced a wing, sending the ruined mech pinwheeling down to the ocean as the pilot ejected into the night.
"You missed!?" she stared at the back of his head in disbelief. "How could you miss!? He was three feet in front of you! Did you do that on purpose?"
"We don't need to kill anyone to escape-"
"The hell we don't! Have you told the people shooting us?!" she leapt down to his side, pulling him around by the shoulder to glare into his eyes. "Is this some kind of game to you?! You are a soldier! Take out the enemy as soon as you can! If you let them go now, they will come back later to kill again."
"Of course it's not a game!" Alex glared at her, wrenching her hand off him in an unnervingly tight grip, "but a Dragonoid's life is still just as valuable as a Human's. I can't just look at these machines and not remember there's a living being inside! Could you?"
Alarm bells screamed before she could find an answer, Alex pulling away from her as the enemy Night Fury bore down on them, sword raised. Astrid felt a thud rumble through the Dragonoid as Alex magnetically holstered the rifle to pull a sword of his own from his Night Fury's back. Sparks flew as blades clashed, the other Dragonoids hovering around, as though unsure what to do.
"Ke'sush aru'ela lenedat." the radio crackled as the enemy Fury glared into the cameras. "Motir daab bal yaimpar aht bal Ruus."
Alex grimaced as he pulled a trigger. "I wish it was that simple."
The vulcan cannons belched energy rounds, slicing through the enemy Fury's head, the Dragonoid flinching back as though scalded. It was enough for Alex to push forward, his blade slicing through metal, cleaving through the enemy's legs and wings. Astrid was thrown back into her chair as their Fury lurched forward and the enemy spiralled down towards the sea, the cockpit bathed in red light as the countdown stopped on four red squares. As if on cue, she saw her Corporal clutch his head with a painful moan, one hand moving to switches and buttons as the other clutched at his head.
"Times up. Strap in, we're getting out of here."
Astrid didn't have time to ask how. Their Night Fury groaned around her as its form shifted, then roared as its engines sent it skyward, pinning her to her seat. She scrunched her eyes shut, ignored her shaking hands and the sweat that made the armrest slippery under her grip. The Night Fury rattled and groaned. She swore she heard energy fire crash into its armour…
Then, just as before, the world was suddenly silent.
She didn't open her eyes, just let her body float slightly up against the straps as the Night Fury took a stable orbit over the Earth.
"Could you?"
She opened her eyes, found Alex watching her over his shoulder. She knew what he was asking, she wanted to say yes. She wanted to tell him that they were soldiers, on both sides. Trained to kill until one nation's flag rose over the ashes of the other. It didn't matter who the enemy was, only that they were the enemy…
"Juuniis, Hallex bal Hastrid. Burc'ya an!"
She looked away, to the stars that drifted past her screens, and saw Juuniis' smiling face among a trillion points of light. Even though she didn't say a word for the rest of the flight, she knew by Alex's grim smile as he turned back that he had his answer.
ROCK OF THE ASSEMBLED, FIRST LEVEL MILITARY COMMAND, OFFICE OF THE HIGH SUPERIOR
Humans. Humans on the Ruus.
The cameras had seen their every movement, watched their appearance from the scar, the meeting of Jaedaar's sister and their faces as they had seen everything unfold on the Tier Seventeen parkland. No one but a two-cycle old child had noticed their presence, and why would they? No Human had ever set foot on the vessel, even before The Fall and the war that followed it. Most weren't even alive the final time Tsad Droten had taken prisoners, and no one would expect any soldiers amongst the civilians to compare two quiet children, not even trying to hide, to the targets in their sights on the battlefield, fleeing Tsad Droten Beskar'ads.
But Zearaan knew. He saw what the rest of his race had forgotten; the eyes, the teeth, the ears. The face of the enemy. That they had reached the Ruus beh Tsad Droten without detection was…concerning. The craft in which they'd made their escape? Unsettling, to put it mildly.
There was no doubt in Zearaan's mind that the Ca'furor that had left the Ruus without authorisation had managed to escape and now refused to heed the recall signal had been the method the Human's had used to escape. The after-action reports confirmed it. The Beskar'ad's identification code was registered to a Ca'furor confirmed Missing, Presumed Destroyed during the last attack on the settlement Humans referred to as The Dome. Had the Humans somehow downed the Beskar'ad, stopped its' Mirdala from going berserk. The thought that Humans could reclaim the skies was troubling enough, but if they could do so with Tsad Droten machines…
How much had they learned? Had they listened?
"High Superior." He killed the feeds, the screens fading around his desk to reveal the simpering aide at bowed low behind them. "Everything is prepared."
Zearaan smiled, rising from his chair and striding out of his office to the balcony. At the Ruus' First Level, where the military made its' home, the courtyards and parade grounds below had been filled with soldiers of his command. Far below, every citizen of every level stopped what they were doing to watch his face as it shone from the central pillar. The thousands below stood to attention as one as he stood up to the podium, and the countless faces below them didn't even whisper a word, as though the entire vessel was holding its breath for his voice.
As it should be.
"My friends," he held his arms wide, his voice echoing in the streets, "the end is near. An end to conflict, an end to bloodshed…and end to Humanity. For can we not have peace as long as the Humans crave war?" He let the words hang in the air, saw the grins of his most loyal standing close by. "Events today have opened my eyes. Too many of us are tired of war, and have become desperate to end it by any means. They delude themselves into thinking conflict can end with both sides remaining. But I know, as do many of you know, that this can only end one of two ways. Either we finish them, or they finish us!" A murmur from below, worries and agreement. "And so, today, we launch the final push for freedom: Aka Ge'tal Kyr'am." The murmur became a hum, voices talking over one another, arguing, agreeing "With it's completion, the spirit of Humanity will be broken, and this I promise you: The Earth will belong to Tsad Droten, and we shall rise again to reform our great civilisation! Humanity will burn, Tsad Droten will rise and NEVER AGAIN SHALL OUR PEOPLE BE DENIED!"
The hum became a roar. Shouts from below, the loyal began cheering his name and chanting his praise "An Ke'sush! An Ke'sush! An Ke'sush!"
And Zearaan drank it in, took strength from the people, even as their cheers drowned the sound of engines long thought dead roaring to life and pushing the Ruus beh Tsad Droten back into the skies.
Dragonoid Translations
"Mesh'la!"
(Pretty!)
Note: Usually means beautiful, but Juuniis is three and pretty sounds more childish.
"Mesh'la! Nayc! Nayc slanar! Al mesh'la!"
(Pretty! No! No go! But pretty!)
"Tion'jor nayc slanar?"
(Why no go?)
Suum olar, kadal arasuumir. Bic la payt tenn bid mhi mav ratiin partaylir.
(Beyond here, A wound remains. It is left open so we will always remember.)
"Mhi partaylir. Nayc digur. Al enteyor takisit."
(We remember. No forget. But must forgive.)
"Mesh'la jorhaa'ir nuh'la."
(Pretty talk funny.)
"Tion'jo mesh'la jorhaa'ir nuh'la?"
(Why pretty talk funny?)
"Kaysh mirsh la solus."
(She's an idiot. Lit: Her brain cell is lonely.)
Note: The proper Mando'a for the above, Kaysh mirsh solus, is my favourite part of the Mando'a dictionary I take the Dragonoid language from. I just gave a minor literal translation of it so it fit in with the rest of the Dragonoid dialogue. I've done the same for my second favourite, marked by the literal translation below.
"Juuniis, Hallex bal Hastrid. Burc'ya an!"
(Juuniis, Alex and Astrid. Friends all!)
"Dalyc copaanir aht suvarir. Tion'jor sirbur takisit?"
(She wants to understand. Why say forgive?)
"Ori'vod sirbur mirdir aabir'naas kar'taylir. Ashi vaabir'naas emuurir kaysh jorhaa'ir meyg. Ori'vod jorhaa'ir nay solet."
(Big brother says they didn't know. Others don't like him saying that. Big Brother talks too much.)
"Ori'vod liser ba'jurir! Ba'jurir mesh'la Hastrid! Ori'vod liser ba'jurir! Ori'vod liser ba'jurir!"
(Big Brother can teach! Teach pretty Astrid! Big brother can teach! Big Brother can teach!"
"Gev!"
(Stop!)
"Jii, cin vhetin. Meg liser gar'ra ori'vod vaabir?
(Now, Fresh start. What can your brother do?)
"Ori'vod liser ba'jurir. Ba'jurir mesh'la Hastrade. Vaabir'naas sushir nay muun. Kaysh mirsh kyramud."
(Brother can teach. Teach pretty Astrid. Don't listen too hard. He'll bore you senseless. (Lit: He's a brain assassin.))
"Ori'vod! ! Ori'vod!"
(Brother! Brother!)
"Astrid la chaab. Ne'naas emuurir tsad. Tengaanar teh olar?"
(Astrid is scared. Doesn't like crowds. Show from here?)
"Ori'vod! Ori'vod jorhaa'ir!"
(Brother! Brother speak!)
"Morta'les la haresh!"
(Humanity is exhausted!)
"Ke'sush aht gar, te Al'verde!"
(Hail to you, the High Superior!)
"An Ke'sush, Al'verde Zearaan!
(All hail, High Superior Zearaan!)
"Ke'sush Beskar'ad Ca'furor T'ad Resol Ehn Ta'raysh. Meg la gar'ra aka?"
(Attention Mecha Unit Night Fury Two Six Three Ten. What is your situation?)
Note: Aka is another duel word, meaning Situation, operation or mission
"Anaykebise la chur ke'gyce olar, aka nu'amyc."
(Everything is under control here, situation normal.)
"Meg banar?"
(What happened?)
"Uh…Mhi ganar ika gotab parjai, Al…uh…anaykebise la an staabi jii. Meg copaani jate. Meg copaani am jate olar jii, vor entye. Me'vaar copaani gar?"
(Uh…We had a small engine problem, but…uh…everything is all right now. We are fine. We are all fine here now, thank you. How are you?)
"Ibic tabalhar mav nari gar norac aht te Ruus."
(This patrol will move you back to The Rock.)
"Uh, uh…nayc, nayc. Mhi su ganar parjai olar jii. Dinuir mhi kisol jiila aht mircir daab. Ori parjai, ori burk'yc."
(Uh, uh…negative, negative. We still have problems here now. Give us a few moments to lock down. Big problem, very dangerous.)
"Tion la ibic? Meg la gar'ra gai bal verda?"
(Who is this? What is your name and rank?)
"Lenedat la aru'ela! Jurkad! Jurkad! Linibar burc'ya!"
(Contact is hostile! Attack! Attack! Need reinforcements!)
"Ke'sush aru'ela lenedat. Motir daab bal yaimpar aht bal Ruus."
(Attention hostile contact. Stand down and return to the Rock.)
Beskar'ad
(Mecha, or what Tsad Droten call thier Dragonoid mechas
Aka Ge'tal Kyr'am
(Operation Red Death)
Author's Notes
It's taken me this long to notice that Dragonoid's chapters are longer than I'd like them to be. When I'm writing original fiction, I try and cap them at around five thousand words, but this chapter is closer to the eleven thousand mark. I think this is just the nature of adaptions like this. When I watched HttyD, I saw where potential chapters began and ended, so by the time I got around to writing that particular part I just felt uncomfortable about starting and finishing at any other point, no matter the word count. I did briefly think about cutting this chapter in two, just after Juuniis drags Astrid away to meet her brother, but I realised by this point I've been uploading chapters with six and seven thousand word counts, so what would be the harm in a few thousand more words? I'm mentioning this because next week's chapter is comparatively shorter; only just over three thousand words, largely because it's a finishing up chapter before we head into Act Three.
Anyway, onto (hopefully) more interesting topics.
In a lot of ways, this chapter is what every other chapter has been leading up too, at least in terms of what inspired me to write Dragonoid in the first place. Namely, to give Astrid's relationship to Hiccup and her heel realisation of the Dragons more depth than the 'Romantic Flight' sequence did. Don't get me wrong, on its' own 'Romantic Flight' is a fantastic bit of cinema, but it's just too short a sequence to make the change of heart on both counts believable, at least in my mind. Of course, that it only takes up about two of the film's ninety-eight minute run time and the fact Hiccstrid isn't HttyD's main focus can be blamed here, and the minor retcon as a result of the series episodes like 'Blindsided' being made has eased my irritations.
At any rate, I'm hoping that the changes I've written into Astrid and Alex's history and the extension to the equivalent of the 'Dragon's Den' sequence have made it more believable, or at least interesting. Yes, at face value the timeline isn't that much longer, but I'm hoping that by giving Astrid more seen depth, essentially moving her up from a largely support character in the film to full main protagonist along with Alex and Ruusaan here, I've accomplished what I set out to do.
As a species, the Dragonoids (or Tsad Droten) have probably had one of the greatest tonal shifts in anything I've ever created in writing. Astrid's thoughts on "darkened corridors, grizzled trophies and not a lizard-like Dragonoid in sight that wasn't encased in heavy spiked armour of some kind" was how I originally envisioned them. They were soley bad guys then, before Ruusaan joined the main cast, inspired more by Star Trek: Voyager's Hirogen than anything else. Ruusaan surviving led to them initially becoming more like the Madolorians as seen in the Star Wars Expanded Universe's Republic Commando series of books, but I was never truly happy with this portrayal. Planet of Hats is the trope; when an entire species shares a single defining characteristic. Star Trek is the worst offender at this. Klingons being proud warriors, Romulans being sneaky, Vulcans having giant sticks up their collective asses, etc. Only Humans are allowed to be diverse. So, I thought when I got to this chapter, why can't aliens be like that? One of the aesops I've always taken away from HttyD is that if you strip everything way, we're not so different. With the Dragonoids, I took that literally. I deliberately kept exactly how the Dragonoids dress and the aesthetic of the buildings as basic as possible to leave it to your imaginations to fill in the gaps, hopefully to create scenes that were significantly alien and yet surprisingly similar. I guess it's up to you how sucessful I was.
This chapter is also where I established Dragonoid naming conventions, as well as gave their species name, Tsad Droten (The Assembled), in their own language. Ruusaan is the only original Mandalorian name I used, but she became the template for the other names.
Female Dragonoid names will always have seven letters. The first, fourth and seventh letters can be anything, but the third letter must be the same as the second and the sixth letter must be the same as the fifth (EG, Ruusaan, Juuniis, etc.). Male Dragonoid names will also always be seven letters, but only the sixth letter has to be the same as the fifth (EG, Zearaan, Jaedaar (Juuniis' brother), etc). Tsad Droten have no surnames, as they consider themselves to be one family united by the Universe. Instead, they establish who they are as a child of their father and mother. Example of an introduction: "I am Gadarrl, Child of Hievaan and Miiraal. This I give freely to you."
In-Universe, the name Tsad Droten is from an ancient dead language from the Dragonoid homeworld, akin to Latin on Earth, but whose meaning translated into the modern language (hence why the translation matrix translates it as The Assembled). From a writing perspective, the name was still taken from the Mando'a dictionary, where it means Senate or Assembly. It was chosen as I felt it represented the Dragonoid's beliefs in reincarnation, that they were brought together by the Universe into a single species. As a side note, it is always Tsad Droten, not the Tsad Droten. That's like calling them the The Assembled. For simplisitises sake, I'll still be referring to them as Dragonoids in these notes.
The Ruus beh Tsad Droten's outer design was inspired by a combination of Star Trek's Earth Spacedock and Gundam F91's XMA-01 Lafressia. Pictures of the Amarr Avatar Titan from Eve Online also inspired the hull's uneven design. When the ship was in flight, the ship was propelled with the 'petals' as the ship's front. Gravity was created from the ship's thrust, with the decks built to be parallel with the ship's engines (I think this was inspired by a Mass Effect codex, but I can't remember which one.). I can't remember the exact inspiration for her interior, but I think the mining town from the anime film Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Mayda, a town featured in the novel A Web of Air by Phillip Reeve probably inspired the 'buildings built into the walls' imagery, while the other general 'bronze' aesthetic might have been inspired by Rapture from the Bioshock games.
The Dragonoid busker's instrument is an iolona, something I created here and then refined for an original novel I've been working was first inspired by a cover of 'Romantic Flight' by Taryn Harbridge which I saw on youtube, and would have been the song played in the unlikely event this fic ever got made into a film.
Speaking of original characters, Juuniis and her brother, Jaedaar, have no direct counterparts to either film or series characters. They were created to help introduce Zearaan, give a real excuse for Alex and Astrid to explore the Ruus and to further hammer home that the Dragonoids weren't that much different to Humans in a lot of ways.
As with Ruusaan, Zearaan is an original character, developed to be Dragonoid's equivalent of HttyD's Red Death but someone I don't consider to actually be the same character. His size and 'smile' are the only things that really carried over, as the Red Death was basically a ball of Dragon eating and evil for Hiccup and Toothless to defeat, which gave him plenty of room to develop into his own person. His main inspirations are Charles zi Britannia from the anime Code Geass, and Patrick Zala from the anime Gundam SEED. His first speech, ironically, was largely taken from one given by General Revil from the original Mobile Suit Gundam's novelisation and was talking about how easily the big bads of the book, the Principality of Zeon, could be defeated. His second speech was inspired by the Red Skull's "rain fire upon them" one from the Captain America film.
Likewise we have Arthur Hofferson, Astrid's father and primary instigator of her current state of mind. Originally, his entire role was a background one; little more than an instigator for Astrid's path of darkness as it were. His appearance here stemmed more from the realisation that Zearaan's speech gave an opportunity for him to show up, delivering a few more blows to Astrid's view on the world she knows before the next chapter.
Finally, this was another chapter that had a lot of help music wise in writing process. The approach to the Ruus was helped along by 'Prologue f', track one on Macross Frontier's O.S.T. 2. 'Starfall', track five from Two Steps From Hell's Classics Volume 2, was the primary inspiration for Astrid's initial views of the insides of the Ruus, and generally set the tone for most of this chapter, especially everything from the 2:15 minute mark (although the whole track is a great listen). 'Dragon's Den' was a bit too short to help me with Zearaan's speeches, so 'Wulgaru Army', track one of the anime Majestic Prince's OST was a major contribution for his introduction, while 'Rain Fire Upon Them', track 19 from Captain America's soundtrack helped with the second speech. Lastly, the battle of Washington Crater took direct inspiration from 'Mobile Suit W Reg Mix' from Gundam Unicorn's second OST, track 11. This battle was again something I think the story needed to showcase the Night Fury's abilities in Alex's hands, as well as showcase the Dragonoid's abilities in and armament in actual combat (The last Tsad Droten actually shown to be fought was way way back in Section 01 after all. Everything else has either cut away before the battle got underway or the Dragonoid mecha were controlled by AI). The appearance of another Night Fury here was to show that Alex and Ruusaan's Fury isn't a one off ace custom or advanced prototype.
Right, I think that's enough. Long chapter, long Author's Notes and all that. As I said, next week is a short but notable chapter, tying some ends up as we move towards the finale.
See you then!