Chapter 7
[Near Mars]
The T-ship was finally within a thousand miles of the invasion fleet and Cyborg finally set course for Tamaran. He held off on making the course change, though.
He opened a general hail and allowed Starfire to talk.
"This is Princess Koriand'r of the planet Tamaran and member of the Titans of Earth," she said formally, "Please state why you are approaching my home."
A young woman appeared on the viewscreen and she looked a lot like Starfire. The only differences were her hair was jet black and her eyes, for whatever reason, did not have that constant green glow.
"It's you I want, dear sister," she said coldly, in Tamaranian, "So kind of you to deliver yourself early. But, let me welcome you properly."
Edward's jaw dropped as several smaller craft suddenly split from the main fleet.
"Can we take them?" Terra asked.
"We don't have to," Cyborg said, hitting the "Engage" button.
Edward said over the channel, also in Tamaranian, "If you want Koriand'r, you will have to hunt us down and take her over our rotting corpses."
Before Blackfire had a chance to reply, the T-Ship swerved hard to starboard and its faster than light drive kicked on. The starfield appeared to stretch out in a beautiful pattern and within seconds, they were leaving the solar system, heading for Tamaran.
"All systems secure," the AI said, "The Tamaranian fleet has altered course and they are pursuing us."
"Excellent," Cyborg said, "They can't attack us at this speed, either."
[Blackfire's ship]
"So," Blackfire said, "They think they can protect Starfire, huh? They'll make for Tamaran and the other half of the fleet will blast them out of existence.
"Have our fleet spread out to prevent them from turning around."
Within a few minutes, the pursuing fleet had spread out to prevent the Titans from changing course. It was a risk they were willing to take, though. They had to spread themselves thinner than they'd like in the process.
"When they slow down, blast them out of the stars," Blackfire said coldly.
[T-Ship]
Edward noted the change in the fleet's configuration and frowned.
"Not good," he said, "Looks like they don't want us trying to retreat."
"They do not," Starfire replied, "They wish to force us to go straight ahead."
"They can't really enforce that, can they?" Beast Boy asked.
"I don't think their fighters are warp capable," Starfire replied.
"Means that only those bigger ships can go faster than light and they'd be cumbersome to move," Cyborg said, "We can stop quicker than they can."
"Have you tried slamming on the brakes at this speed?" Edward said, "If the dampeners fail…we're all hamburger if we're lucky. If not, we're a red paste. I can't even recover from that."
Edward tuned out Cyborg's answer as he felt Raven about to hurl.
[Rae, don't focus on that!] Edward said gently.
[Well, you gave me the mental image, smarty pants!] she retorted angrily.
Edward groaned, "Sorry. Can't a guy keep it real?"
"You OK, Raven?" Terra asked.
"Define OK," Raven said.
"Yo! You better not be thinking of tossing your cookies!" Cyborg said.
"Too late," Raven said and grabbed the barf bag.
Cyborg muted Raven's mic or he'd have the rest of the crew grabbing barf bags.
Edward muted his mic and let loose with several cuss words before turning his mic back on.
A long minute later, Raven phased the used barf bag out of the T-Ship where it started to slow down and since it was below the threat detection scanners of Blackfire's fleet, a few minutes later, slammed into Blackfire's ship with a resounding THUD! The impact was the same as if they hit a small asteroid and that resulted in a small dent in the ship and a cracked window that blew out a second later. Sadly for the room's occupant, he was sucked into open space. First blood went to the Titans by accident!
"Rae?" Edward said looking at the scanners and visual, "I think you hit them with that toxic bag. I'm seeing what could be a crew member's remains and venting atmosphere."
"Sure did," Cyborg said a moment later. He opted to leave well enough alone.
{Well, there went the no kill rule,] Raven said via the link.
[Hon,] Edward soothed, [This is war and in a war, there is death on both sides of the conflict. It cannot be helped.]
[You've fought in wars?] she asked.
[Of course I've fought in wars, Rachel,] he said, [It's no fun, but, I have fought. It was only World War 1 and 2 when I used my Dragon form and other forms for the USA, but, I was somewhat involved with the Korean War and Vietnam as well. Those latter two was more of an advisory role. I did see action in Korea and even helped save American lives at a MASH unit.]
[I studied those later wars and didn't recall seeing you there,] Raven said.
[I didn't really use my Dragon form much then,] Edward said, [You have to remember that I was tired of the near constant fighting between nations. Most of the 20th century was fighting. World War 1, then not even 20 years of true peace before a nearly decade long conflict broke out. Then, barely five years of peace before Korea. And Vietnam was right behind that. Then, the Middle East kept flaring up. So, yeah, I'm tired of widespread wars…and here I am again, this time in a possible interstellar war?!]
[I'm sorry, honey,] Raven said softly. She was still trying to figure out her fiancée and he just gave her a major piece of the puzzle on his issues: He was sick of fighting, plain and simple. That was one reason he was having problems at times. His draconic nature didn't mind the fighting and in fact relished it…It was his learned humanity that was starting to hate it.
[It's OK, my love,] Edward said, [I know where my duty lies and it's irrelevant to shirk that. My duty is to my extended family and if one member is an alien, that's fine…if one member is a half-demon who I love very much, you know that I'll fight.]
[No kidding!] Raven said. She was thinking of all the times Edward saved her life already: Malchior and Trigon were her two biggest threats that she couldn't handle and Edward fought them to the death. And the other minor threats he handled as well.
[Blackfire's ship – 10 minutes earlier]
"Your Highness?" the commander said, "We've received a coded transmission from Tamaran. They are running into heavy resistance from the Tamaranian Defense Forces."
"Tell them to press the…" she stopped as the ship shuddered and alarms started to sound!
"Hull Breach on deck 12! We're reading a loss of pressure from cabin 12-482," the tactical officer said and entered commands into his console, "Initiating emergency force field now."
"What in X'Hal's name happened?" Blackfire snarled.
"Unknown, Milady," the guy said. Then, he paled and said, "We've lost a crew member."
The rest of the crew looked and saw the drifting body of the brave warrior drifting in space. He was still traveling at the faster than light speed, but, as they watched in horror, the corpse fell out of the warp bubble and exploded into a rapidly spreading mist…destroyed at the cellular level.
"Eeew!" one of the crewmen said, "Not how I'd like to go into the void."
Blackfire considered disciplining the crewman, but, in a fairly rare display of mercy said nothing, mainly because the guy was right. They weren't Tamaranians who could survive the vacuum of space and to die like that was not a warrior's death. She was sure that there would be causalities in this operation and all aboard knew that as well.
Blackfire turned her attention to what had happened and said, "Get me a visual of that crewman's quarters."
A moment later, there was a live feed from there and they saw where there was a dented hull plate and the remains of the window.
"Can we determine what that object might have been?" Blackfire asked.
"Milady," the commander said, "I've been looking over the sensor records and something odd happened. Something appeared near the Titans' ship suddenly and streaked back towards us."
"Do you have a visual?" Blackfire demanded.
The commander patched the video through to the primary viewscreen and is showed an object wrapped in a jet black aura for a moment.
"It's a container of some sort that appeared above where we think the girl in the violet uniform is," he said.
"That would be Raven," Blackfire said, "She's very dangerous, people. But, if you can keep her from talking, she cannot use her full powers."
"What did she throw at us?" the commander asked.
"Something tells me she got space sickness," Blackfire said dourly.
"She threw up?" The commander said.
"I bet if we looked at that dent, we'd see that you're correct," Blackfire said, "Score one for the Titans. They drew first blood. The crewman will be avenged as she will pay with her life for his."
"Milady," the commander said, "If Raven's there, so is her protector. Remember our briefing on what we know about him. When provoked, he's potentially extremely dangerous."
"And I'm not?" Blackfire said, eyes glowing purple. The meaning was clear to all: Don't provoke Blackfire.
[An hour later – T-Ship]
"Are we close to being there yet?" Beast Boy asked.
"Almost, grass stain," Cyborg said, "We have to slow down at the edge of Tamaran's solar system and that's coming up pretty soon."
Terra had taken a nap and hearing that they were close started to wake the young geomancer up. She was concerned, though: Would her powers even work on an alien world? Chances were that she'd have problem, but, she had to check.
She stretched and felt her back muscles pop. She let out a content sigh at that development before turning her headset back on.
"Hey, Starfire?" she asked.
"What is it, friend Terra?" Star replied.
"Do you think my powers will work on your homeworld?" Terra asked.
"Boyfriend Robin wouldn't have given you this mission if he felt otherwise," Starfire said, "Almost all of us have been there and I assure you: Your powers shall work on Tamaran."
"I don't see why they wouldn't, Tara," Edward said, "Most rocky planets like Earth will have dirt, dust, gravel and so on that you can use as weapons. The pictures I've seen from Mars bear this out with the major dust storms as well as the unmanned robots there. Relax, you'll be fine."
Terra smiled hearing that reassurance from her best friends. In the few months since she was freed from her stone prison, she'd gone from a scared out of her mind 14 year old to a more confident 18. She was stunned to find out that she missed four years of her life. But, she adjusted pretty well. She had weekly "sessions" with Edward and while she still had flashes of being unstable, the talks had helped a lot.
But, the biggest help was Beast Boy. He was her rock when things were not as stable as they should have been. He had matured, and fast according to Raven. He still told jokes and enjoyed a well thought out prank (when he wasn't on the receiving end of it) at times, but, he knew when it was time to be serious. That made Raven happy because she was tired of the non-stop effort he put into making her laugh.
Actually, there were several times recently that she actually did find him funny and laughed aloud. That told Beast Boy what he felt along…she did find him funny at times.
Terra had proven that she was no longer interested in betraying the team, especially after Edward sternly told her that there would be no more chances and that she needed to be more open with the entire team if she felt that she could be swayed. She readily agreed saying that she couldn't throw away her new family a third time, not after they sacrificed a lot for her.
Raven, for her part, taught Terra how to meditate effectively. Edward had smiled when Raven approached Terra to offer meditation lessons. Beast Boy smiled broadly hearing Terra saying that it would be a good idea. The two women had started to bond more as a result.
And, Starfire had practically adopted Terra as another sister! They would routinely go to the "mall of shopping" and while Edward got a chuckle out of it, the two performed "braiding maneuvers" on each other (Raven would politely decline, of course). Terra proved to be adapt at working with Starfire's longer hair, something that made Robin happy as well.
But, as they approached Tamaranian space, Cyborg finally had to consider slowing to sub-light speed, even with that fleet in hot pursuit. He figured that they would have, at most, 5 seconds before Blackfire's fleet also slowed to sub-light and the fight would be on.
"Y'all might want to hang tight!" he said, "We're coming out of hyperspace in 10 seconds."
Everyone did a mental countdown and they felt the deceleration as the inertial dampeners kicked into high gear.
Sure enough, Blackfire's fleet whipped right past them, but, they all saw the starstreaks as they dropped into normal space.
They also saw several other ships closing in on their position.
"We have to get to Tamaran," Edward said, lighting up his weapons.
The other Titans followed suit as each pod had its own weapons system and forcefields that Cyborg had designed.
Smaller ships emerged from the fleet and Edward let out a whistle.
"Don't let the numbers scare you," he advised the others, "We can get through this. Just remember to think your moves out in 3D, not 2D."
"Incoming transmission," the AI announced and put the video on screen.
"Well," Blackfire said, "Seems you got lucky with a cheap shot. Now that we're all back in normal space. How about you surrender Starfire to me and I'll let you return to Earth intact."
"Not happening," Cyborg said, "Like Edward said, over our dead bodies."
"Oh, that can be arranged," Blackfire said, "I even know who will die first. That little bird you brought with you."
Edward's eyes went instantly yellow and that got Blackfire's attention.
"Oh, hit a nerve, I see," she taunted, "Maybe I'll have her tortured before I kill her slowly. Unlike what she did to one of my crew."
Raven felt Edward's mental presence starting to go from it's comforting glow to an angrier glow.
[Easy, Edward,] she said, [She's trying to goad you.]
[I'm not going to let them hurt you,] he snarled.
[I know that, dear,] she soothed, [They don't know you that well.]
"What's your answer, Dragon?" Blackfire asked.
"How do you know what I am?" he demanded.
"Oh, we've got ways of getting information," she cooed.
[They've got spies back on Earth,] Edward said to Raven.
"Tell you what, lady," Edward said aloud, "Hurt Raven and I can and will tear you apart. Try to take Starfire back into slavery and you might not live to regret it."
"You think you're stronger than a Tamaranian?" Blackfire scoffed.
"I've seen him in the rage, sister," Starfire said, "Please don't do this!"
"Do what, dear sister?" Blackfire said, "Take back what is rightfully mine? See you get what you deserve?"
Little did Blackfire know, though…the viewscreen was showing Edward what her area looked like. And Edward smiled. He had a point of contact to teleport to.
"What are you smiling about?" Blackfire said, "I'm about to blow you out of the stars."
"I think you're in for a surprise," Raven said. Cyborg also caught the gleam in Edward's eye and cut video for a second.
"Edward, go," he said.
"I'll be right back," Edward said and shapeshifted to his tiny Dragon form.
"Put the video back on," Edward requested.
"What is that?" Blackfire said a second later, just in time to see Edward literally disappear. A moment later, the Titans saw Edward reappear behind Blackfire.
"Sister?" Starfire said, "You might not want to do the looking behind you."
"Yeah, like I'm going to fall for that trick," Blackfire said, "and where did that other one go?"
The others saw Edward's spinal ridges light up a nice white color and a moment later, he unleashed a lightning bolt, right to Blackfire's rear end. She let out a scream of pain as the electricity coursed through her.
He let off a few seconds later and as Blackfire turned around, eyes blazing purple, he warned her in her native language, "Do not continue this course of action, Blackfire. That was a warning shot. You come near Raven or Starfire and we'll bury you and your fleet here in space. Call off your fleet because, if we are forced to fight…the Titans will kill if necessary. I am a lot more powerful than you realize."
Blackfire made to grab Edward and was rewarded with bite marks for her trouble.
Blackfire grabbed her sore hand as Edward said, "Don't try that again. You have 5 Earth minutes to back down and let us through."
She tried again to grab Edward, but, only grasped air as Edward teleported back.
First blood went to Edward, but, he knew that Blackfire wouldn't simply back down as he morphed back and grabbed something to take the taste out of his mouth.
[Yuck!] he groused privately.
[You know you only made her angrier, right?] Raven said.
[Part of the plan, my dear,] he replied, [but, don't tell Star…Tamaranian flesh doesn't taste that good!]
He was rewarded with a giggle through the link.
Oh, Edward knew that wasn't even the opening salvo and it was a matter of time when that would happen…Probably within the next few minutes!
Things are finally starting to get interesting, I see. The guys are at the edge of Tamaran. Blackfire's nursing a sore hand and fried buttocks. Yeah, she's going to be most angry. Let's hope that the T-Ship can take it. I wasn't sure if Edward's teeth would penetrate Blackfire's skin, hence why he did not just tear out a chunk.
FYI, I have no idea how close Tamaran is supposed to be to our solar system, but, for the sake of the story. I had to place it fairly close to our parcel of space. I've got the Grand Centauri Empire out quite a bit, obviously.
I'm not sure how many more chapters are left to go, to be honest. I will tell you that this will be a longer story. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride :)