Another dialogue heavy chapter. Most of it comes right from the books.
Chapter 14: Helldiver:
Stork Cockpit
Luna
December 18th, 2840
The group was silent as they stalked back to the cockpit with Darrow in the lead. I should have offered to watch the kid myself, Shiro chastised himself as they made their way towards the front of the ship. At least I could have fought Tactus when he tried to ditch us.
"Pilot, will you be able to take us clear?" Augustus asked the pilot just as the lancers and Howlers walked in.
"No, dominus," the pilot answered in typical Blue fashion – emotionally distant, efficient, and declarative. "Geomet models don't show a probability of escape."
"What is the likely scenario?" the ArchGovernor inquired.
"They will destroy our engines with ripWing fire," the Blue replied. "Precipitating a hull breach that will kill all aboard. Alternatively, precipitating a leechCraft assault. Capturing all aboard."
"Or they'll just blast us from the gory sky," Sevro added.
"Blue," Nero offered. "Deliver me to my ship and you will receive command of a frigate."
"I would prefer a cruiser," the woman noted.
"A cruiser, then," the Martian governor corrected.
"Very well," the Blue replied as she adjusted knobs on the control console. "I will fly well, but the paradigm must be altered before they engage our vessel, if we are to survive." Friction fire wreathed the ship as it climbed towards the edge of Luna's atmosphere.
"If the hull is breached," the Blue instructed. "Hold your breath, dominii. We don't have sufficient survival helmets aboard."
"Our lungs will explode if we do that," Victra commented with a frown.
"Then exhale," the Blue remarked. "And have thirty secs of life while eardrums explode and blood vessels swell like inflated balloons. I will hold my breath."
"I hate space," Sevro said as he looked back at Darrow, eyes wide.
"You hate everything," Darrow retorted. The fire around the ship faded as it popped clear of Luna's atmosphere and slipped into open space, where the Scepter Armada's capital ships glided back and forth like the behemoths of Europa's deep sea. Gun turrets covered their hides like barnacles, and hangar bays sliced their undersides like gills. Commercial ships floated slowly along the shipping lanes while RipWings and Wasps went about their patrols. None of those ships paid any heed to the Stork's presence except the ones that escorted the ship from Luna. The Sovereign wouldn't dare announce something like this.
What are our options? Shiro thought to himself, running through possible ways to "change the paradigm" in his head. Darrow did the same on the opposite side of the cabin as Augustus suggested bribing one of the warships into giving them shelter, only for Mustang to remind her father that their communications were being jammed and they couldn't even broadcast. After a moment of stalwart silence, the ArchGovernor placed a bony hand on his daughter's shoulder. She flinched, surprised at the gesture.
"Whether missile or boarding craft come," Nero said solemnly to the group gathered in the cockpit. "Die like Golds." It's as the man said this that it finally hit Shiro that they'd just simply run out of options. This is it, he thought. I'm going to die. He turned to the corner so the Golds in the flight cabin couldn't see the tears welling up in his eyes. After all that time fighting the Galra, I never imagined this would how it'd end for me. I always figured my worst-case scenario was Zarkon bringing us down with him. But just sitting here, waiting for the end, and trying to decide between a slow and agonizing death as my body shuts down and instant death by exploding lungs? Sacrificing myself to save the day is one thing, but I don't want to die like this!
He was startled out of his panicking when Darrow grabbed Sevro by the shoulder and let out an eerie, horrible laugh as he told the pilot to take them closer to the deadliest ship in orbit. Is he insane? Shiro thought. That thing's heading to intercept us right now!
"Take us near the Vanguard," Darrow repeated to the Blue.
"That would cause our chances of survival to decrease by – " the Blue attempted to protest before Darrow interrupted.
"Never tell me the odds, just do it," the lancer commanded. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the unintentional pop culture reference was enough to calm Shiro down. Channeling Star Wars a bit, Darrow? He chuckled to himself. Should have seen that coming eventually. Everyone else in the room turned to look at Darrow. Not because they were surprised by his orders, but because they'd been waiting to do so, silently praying he would come up with a plan. Even Augustus turned.
"You gone space mad?" Victra asked. "When they realize we don't have the boy…"
"Draw an angle towards the Vanguard's bridge," Mustang interrupted as she relayed orders to the Blue. At Mustang's orders, the pieces finally fell into place and Shiro caught up with what it was Darrow was planning.
"Hic sunt leones," Nero told the young lancer, already guessing what he has planned.
"His sunt leones," Darrow echoed. Before Sevro and the Reaper left the bridge, Shiro noticed the last look Darrow gave to Mustang, but she was too busy flying the ship to notice. The two Golds exited the bridge at a dead sprint. The ship shuddered as something hit. They know we don't have Lysander, Shiro realized as Pliny voiced the thought aloud. The Blue took over piloting while Mustang began charging Darrow and Sevro's spitTubes in the launchbay. Darrow and Sevo have a lot of guts being shot out into space like this, Shiro mused as he steadied himself against the shaking bulkheads.
"We're getting pinned in," Mustang announced to Darrow and Sevro over the comm. "Boarding parties imminent. Priming your launch." The ship moaned from the impact of another missile as the Blue reported that they'd just lost their shields. Now there was nothing holding the ship together except for the rickety hull.
"Aim true," Darrow told her over the comm.
"Always," she replied. "Darrow…" Shiro smacked himself in the forehead. You two can work out your relationship drama after, he pleaded silently. Right now, you two need to figure out how to say alive.
"I'm sorry," he told her.
"Good luck," she responded.
"This is not fun," Sevro interjects with a groan. After Mustang finishes cycling through the preparations, a countdown began over the comm. When it reached zero, the two Golds' banter was abruptly cut off as they were fired soundlessly into space. Shiro watched as missiles and railgun fire from the greatest ship in the Scepter Armada streaked past the two armored Golds flying towards the dreadnought's bridge by the force of their own inertia. I just hope Darrow's plan works, he thought to himself. How exactly are they going to take an entire battleship by themselves anyway?
As they watched the two young men disappear through the viewport of the Vanguard's bridge, the ship suddenly rocked with the force of a massive impact.
"leechCraft attached on the port side cargo hold," the Blue declared. "We've been boarded, Dominii."
"Shiro, with me!" Mustang ordered, taking charge of the situation. Shiro snapped to attention and followed her out of the cockpit and back towards the cargo hold. Roque, Quinn, Victra and the Howlers rushed to join them as they met in the cargo bay to find two dozen Gold lancers of House Lune pouring out of the enemy leechCraft. Razors and various other bladed weapons flew into everyone's hands as both sides charged into battle. Shiro ducked the swing of a razor from a Lune lancer before removing his opponent's arm, while Victra kept her razor in whip form until it was coiled around her foes neck and decapitated the enemy lancer.
The fighting was swift, but intense. The Howlers used their small stature to their advantage to slip past the first wave and eliminate the rest of the boarding party. Roque and Quinn were a battle couple, taking down their foes together with ease. Shiro was about to join the Howlers aboard the boarding craft when he heard Mustang cry out in pain. He turned quickly around to see her fall to the floor, blood pouring from a long gash on her left arm. The Gold who'd struck her advanced menacingly towards her. Enraged, Shiro lunched forward, powered up the energy weapon in his artificial hand, and swung.
The Gold lancer didn't have time to scream as Shiro's glowing mechanical hand carved through the man's neck like a hot knife through butter. The lancer made no sound as he collapsed bloodlessly to the floor, the large gash in his throat cauterized instantly by the heat of Shiro's Galra-installed arm. Tears welled up in the Black Paladdin's eyes as he realized that this was the first time he'd ever deliberately killed another human being before. Even during the bloodbath at the gala, he'd only been acting in self-defense and had aimed to wound only whenever possible. But seeing his friend hurt, all he'd wanted to do was destroy the person responsible.
"Gory hell," Shiro whispered as the tears began to stream down his throat. "What have I done?" Mustang took notice of his distress and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. While they'd only known each other for a little over two months, Virginia au Augustus had quickly become the younger sister he'd never had, and she'd once admitted to him that he reminded her of a younger version of her late brother Claudius. So, he appreciated the gesture of support, even more so when she deflected the Howlers' inquiries about his reaction and back to the situation at hand. The shudder of a second leechCraft latching itself onto the ship sent the Howlers sprinting towards the launch deck.
"It'll be alright," Mustang reassured him as she helped him to his feet. "We'll talk once we're safe, but you'll survive this, Shiro." Shiro nodded his head, wiping the tears from his eyes. He could focus on the shock later. Right now, they had to survive. But an instant later the ship rocked, and the duo had to grab onto the ladder leading up to the passenger cabin as atmosphere vented out into space for a few brief seconds. The Howlers rushed forward with gravBoots and joined them. Then, the battered stork landed nose-first in the hangar bay of the Vanguard. After making sure they were alright, the group headed back towards the cockpit to check on everyone else. The whole entourage was battered and bruised but otherwise unharmed. It was when they got to the cockpit and found the ArchGovernor staring out the viewport that they were truly surprised.
Out in the main hangar, Golds loyal to House Lune were gathering a group of warColors outside the stork, preparing to breach the cargo bay and board it while Oranges huddled to the side in fear. But then, a towering Obsidian walked into the room, and the Oranges rallied around him. Behind the Obsidian, armed Reds poured in from the halls. The Obsidian led the Oranges and Reds against the Golds as The Jackal explained that Darrow had convinced the ship's lowColor crew members to turn against their Gold commanders in exchange for not being vented out into space. But even with the aid of the Obsidian, the Reds and Oranges were dying quickly against their well-trained opponents.
But as they died, Shiro noticed a spark in their eyes through the cockpit. He recognized the look from when he and the other paladins liberated the Balmera from Galran control. It was the spark of individuality. Of freedom. Without a word, Mustang turned around and marched back to the cargo bay once more, Shiro, Victra, Roque, and the Howlers trailing behind her. As the bay doors opened, they charged out of the stork and rushed to aid the lowColors in subduing the Golds aboard the warship. The Telemanuses trailed behind, but stayed clear of the large Obsidian leading the charge. The battle was short, but fierce, and as the conflict wound down, the hangar reverberated from the launching of broadsides and the impact of railgun ordnance against the dreadnought's hull. We're like the chest bursters from Alien, Shiro realized with a laugh as the last Gold fell to the gigantic Obsidian. Clawing our way out of the stomach of the Armada.
After a few tense minutes of waiting, the Rubicon Beacons passed by outside the viewports in the hangar's upper levels. They were clear of the armada. While the small Augustus fleet joined the five-kilometer long warship, along with those of the Cordovan, Telemanus, and Norvo families, the Yellows arrived in the hangar. The ship's medical staff quickly started darting around, aiding the wounded and carting them off to the medbay, with Grays and Oranges helping to carry. Weed prodded unarmed Golds with his razor while Shiro, Pebble and Harpy moved to assist the Yellows. Mustang stood under the stork's battered wings, conversing with her father. As Shiro walked out of the hangar, he passed Darrow, who quickly walked over to report to Augustus as the Black Paladin turned the corner and lost sight of the hangar.
Ragnar Volarus has arrived, my fellow Howlers. Rejoice! And Darrow has officailly captured and renamed The Pax.
All ship names are italicized in the Red Rising 'verse, so I kept that up here. Now that the main action is over, the next few chapters will about the characters sitting down and planning their next move.
While Shiro did end up killing a few Golds during the gala, there wasn't really a chance for him to sit down and process the fact that he'd killed fellow human beings, and since he was only doing it in self-defense, I decided to save the angst for when he had actually deliberately aimed to kill. He'll still try to aim for wounding his opponents, but there will be few chapters where he reflects on the fact that living in the world of Red Rising is making him more ruthless and willing to kill, and those chapters will explore his fears about that.
Terminology:
LeechCraft: Small spacecraft designed for boarding and capturing enemy warships.