Chapter Seven- Jailbreak
The enormous glory of the Imperial Throne Room still had Enrique rapt every time he came to the massive hall, however today he had much more important issues on his mind. After a hurried questioning of the bewildered receptionists below, he had learned his mother was conducting a meeting, and was in that enormous room. He made his best speed, walking up the incalculable flights of steps leading ever-upwards onto the seat of the Empire itself.
The fifteen most elite Royal Guards in their immaculate purple armor stood at arms to either side of the enormous rug, looking as if solemn statues. Between these guards and before the small steps that led to the dais where Empress Teodora sat, the towering dark frame of Lord Galcian bowed. "Empress, Nasrad is no more. The Nasr Air Guard is disbanding, and their country has ceased resistance to our advance. We have won."
Teodora cackled, looking briefly to the enormous seal of her royal family hanging on the wall above her enormous golden throne. "Good, good work Galcian... Nasr was our only enemy with a navy... now we rule the skies unopposed. Soon all the world will bow down to our might... and Arcadia will see me as it's sole sovereign."
"Yes, Empress," Nodded Galcian obediently, his mind full of a million different calculations as he watched all activity in the enormous room.
"Am I to understand that the air pirates and the Silvite had two of the Moon Crystals in their custody when Admiral Ramirez took them into irons?" She cocked an eyebrow. "So, the fool girl did end up aiding us in the end. I want her brought to the Palace tomorrow, first thing, so we may begin questioning her for information on the other four we still do not have."
"By your will," The towering, muscled man replied, eyes still closed in thought. He spoke up a moment later. "And what of the air pirates, Empress? What would you have done with them?"
"Ah, yes, the filth..." Teodora sat in repose for a moment, then had a fit of DeLoco-epic laughter. "Have them executed publicly in the Lower City, and throw their rotting carcases into the sewer. Show the commoners what resisting our might leads to. See to it personally they all die."
"I will do as you order," Galcian said, the smallest of heavily malignant smiles taking over his thin lips. Ramirez and Fina... with them under my leash, and the pirates and Nasr out of the way, all of the pieces are falling into place... soon now, I will be able to-
"Wait!" He silently looked back as the pattering of feet on the granite steps got louder. Appearing through the handsome oak and gold double-doors, Enrique stepped forward, not pausing to catch his breath but walking calmly past the highest military commander in Valua. Galcian bowed respectfully to the Prince as he went by. He stopped at the edge of the blood-red carpet, looking up at Teodora eye-to-eye. "Mother, I just heard that our fleet destroyed Nasrad while it was defenseless... why? Why, mother? Why did you have to murder so many innocents? We didn't have to kill anyone..." He gestured emotionally with his hands while he implored this question of his only parent.
"Enrique," Squealed Teodora in an unpleasant display of annoyance, acting as if he were a stubborn five-year-old insisting on buying a new toy, "I have already went over this with you a dozen and more times. We are acquiring new lands by any means available. How do you expect Valua to bask in the glory of the six Moons without a little bloodshed?" She sniffed imperiously down at her son.
"But Mother," The crown prince persevered, "Why must we use such brutal tactics? If we continue our unfair tyranny, the people will rise up in rebellion against us. We must adopt a more humane approach-"
"Silence," She ordered, and the blonde winced in obedience. "You insist on having the foolish impulses your father always had... 'care about this'! 'think about these people'! Honestly, which of us is the woman here, Enrique?! You are certainly not a fitting heir to my grand throne... you are nothing but a dirty coward. Remove yourself from my sight, posthaste."
"Mother..." Enrique said, his voice subdued. He was cut off again.
"Remove yourself! Go to your room and think this over. You'll see the right of it, I know you will." With that, the discussion was most assuredly over.
Enrique gave the closest thing he ever had to an enraged glare, blushing as he felt the eyes of all the dukes, lords, ladies, and soldiers upon him after being publicly humiliated by his own mother. He sighed and looked down. I tried. I tried so hard... but you will not listen. You are blind, mother. Turning about on his heel, he walked out and tried to calm himself with mulling over the forming plans for the next few days in his mind. But I will make you see.
Waiting in the grand atrium outside was Captain Vash, who had heard every word. "You did all you could, your Majesty," He assured Enrique, putting a large and grizzled hand on his proud shoulder. "The Empress is not a lady who likes change. Or having her orders questioned." He considered. "In fact, I'm not sure she likes much besides trying to 'man you up' until you have no human emotion, or commanding Galcian to kill some more people."
The prince smiled. "Yes... well, the game is now afoot. Alert our men at the docks to begin repositioning themselves. I want all the sentry shifts for the next three days to be troops aligned more for me. Have the engineers make haste with the Delphinus- we'll need to cut short some of the refits, but so long as it can fly I'll take it. All of this must be done in the most secret of possible manners... if mother finds out, I am ruined. And you are dead." He looked down sadly. I seem to have a knack for getting my subjects killed... or allowing them to suffer.
Vash nodded. "The ship will be ready, and so will the guards, by tomorrow. I can swing it." He paused, and then sighed. "I can't believe that we're really going to try this. Oh, well. I always did enjoy a challenge." With a wink, he walked away with the officious air expected of a Royal guard captain, barking orders harshly to subordinates.
Enrique chuckled. I think I'll go down and pay a visit to Vyse the Demon down in the Grand Fortress... if half the rumors are true, the second I talk with him he'll breathe fire and melt my skin. But I have a feeling... he's fighting for all the right reasons. As he pondered, a soldier in the royal purple armor marched up and saluted. "My Lord, Corporal Perez, B Company. Captain Vash wanted me to report to you for escort to see the prisoners."
The prince smiled respectfully. "Very well, Corporal. Let's get going, shall we?"
0-0
"I hate Valua." Once again, Vyse cast his glance up to the wall he was leaning against. A single small square opening with thick metal bars that might be charitably described as a 'window' admitted no light into their darkened prison cell. There was no light to be had- the permanent cloud cover over the entire continent remained black as pitch, a mixture of magical storms and the heavy pollution of Valuan industry. Vyse idly wondered if even being in this country would blacken his lungs. "It's so dark and gloomy here."
"Yeah," Gilder agreed quietly, his mind running over a thousand different thoughts and not devoting much attention to his idle banter, "And it starts to look especially gloomy when you're locked up in Death Row." Anything with 'death' in it was to be avoided, especially in Valua, where death came easily and often. For many, it came welcomely. "Hey guards! Can we get some food in here?!"
"Quiet, scum," The trooper roared from the other room, and although he was not in sight of the cell they were in he could hear them alright. "Just 'cause this is your last full day above Deep Sky don't mean I can't come in there and beat you."
"Oh, come on," The rogue continued brazenly, "Where's your sense of hospitality, huh?"
"Maybe you stole it," The prison watchman replied testily, leaning his head in to glare at both of them personally. "Helping the people, bah! You're worse than the Black Pirates. At least they admit they're the filth of the skies." Their intellectual discussion over, the guard returned to his seat at the end of the hallway.
Gilder sighed. Vyse continued, "Well, this was a perfect end to a perfect day, huh? That Daccat's treasure was worth busting our asses to get. Oh, then the Valuans defeated Nasr. And took us here. Where we're going to die. And the Crystals are gone. So, the world's doomed. Did I mention we're going to die? Pretty sure I did. Awesome." His characteristic optimism bordering on ego was not showing itself now.
"Just relax," Gilder said with an unusual level of calm. "You're only making things worse by getting all worked up. We'll figure something out eventually." A faint, feminine scream drew no attention from them- many ominous noises floated into the cell from other prison areas, where the Valuans were no doubt busy causing maximum agony with their technology and magic.
The teenager was about to make his reply when he saw something out the window. It was green. He blinked, watching as the small parrot landed on the stone sill, flapping it's wings. It had a small pilots' cap on, complete with goggles, and a piece of parchment tied with a wire around it's leg. It leapt inside the room, urgently circling in the air. Gilder held up his arm and said, "Oh, hey there Willy. How're you doing?"
The bird eagerly accepted the perch offered, setting down on his hand and resting his tired wings. He opened his beak and replied, "Very bad! Very bad!" In a squawk. His Vice Captain, David LeCroix, had likely taught him that, although sometimes Gilder swore the bird was intelligent enough to speak on it's own.
He smiled. "Ha ha. Is that so? Well, no wonder, you had to fly all the way over here. I'd be tired, too." He looked down and saw the message wrapped in a small roll to his foot. "Hey, looks like someone wants to contact me. I wonder who it could be." Removing the wire and pocketing it, he unfurled the parchment. His eyes skimmed over it, his smirk growing wider and wider.
"What is it?" Vyse asked, genuinely curious about the sudden appearance of the winged messenger who was apparently the bearer of good news. He leaned over to read the note. It said:
' Gilder. We'll start bombarding at midnight. Expect you outside the harbor. - LeCroix. '
The man chuckled. "The note's just like Dave. All professional, all business. This isn't the first time he's had to bust me out of jail... or I him, for that matter. My boys know the routine." He looked around. "Hey, stooge, what's the time?"
"That eager to die, huh?" The guard at his post still had no idea what was going on in the cell containing the two seemingly doomed air pirates. "It's eleven-thirty PM o' the clock, right now."
"Hey, thanks," He replied, his voice echoing slightly. "Maybe they'll promote you for humane treatment or something." He hastily muffled Willy before he could start trumpeting 'hey, thanks', and alert the guard, thereby spelling death for their plans. He looked over to Vyse and grinned. "The Claudia might not be able to demolish this fortress, but it will cause enough of an uproar to make one very heroic jailbreak." Vyse found his clever smirk infectious, and tried it out himself. It fit well.
"One problem, though... how are we going to get out of this cell?" As Vyse asked that, he watched Gilder walking up to the lock in the large iron bars that contained them.
He pulled out the wire, straightening it more or less, and grinned. "That note was secured with wire, and not string, for a very specific reason. Give me five minutes and I'll have this thing busted wide open." He knelt, eagerly getting to work and using the wire to mess with the internal mechanisms of the mechanical lock.
"Hm... what's this?"
"What's what?" Gilder asked, his voice low as he concentrated on breaking the lock.
"There's some writing on the back of this note... it's in pink ink, which kinda glitters under a little moonlight... ' Gilder, my love! I will fight for your freedom as well! Be quick, darling, so we may be reunited as soon as possible! - Clara '. There's also a bunch of lipstick marks on the bottom of the paper, too..." Upon hearing this, he winced, stopping his work and looking back towards Vyse with a pained expression on his face.
"Clara, huh? Um... you know, we're not in any rush to escape this place, actually... we could stick around a while more. See how the food is, you know..." He stood up, looking back towards his new teenage friend.
"'Stick around'?" Vyse echoed in slight disbelief. "Gilder, they're going to kill us tomorrow at high noon. As in we die. Diiiieee."
Gilder rolled his eyes, and kicked the bars. The door built into the cell swung open with a loud creak, and he said, "Well, it's a choice between killing my soul or just letting the Valuans kill my body. You can't blame me for a moment's lapse. Let's go." Even the remarkably myopic prison guard was alarmed by this, and he stood up, grabbing his sword and running over to their cell instead of pulling the alarm, a breach of protocol. Gilder turned around, expertly kicking the man in the face and sending him crashing to the floor with a terrible clatter, his unused longsword laying besides him. He pondered killing him, but decided not to. He did have the courtesy to give me the time. More Valuans need courtesy. Plus, he's remarkably harmless for a ferocious Valuan trooper. "Willy, tell David to have a barrel of loqua ready and waiting. I think I'm going to need it."
With a final "Aye, Aye," the bird stopped circling the room, descending and perfectly sliding through the window. He flapped his way into the darkened skies, heading outwards and away from the enormous fortress, towards where the Claudia laid in wait.
"Let's get our weapons and gear," Gilder said. "The Valuans are keeping them in impound with the shit from all the other prisoners on this level, in that room down the hallway. Then we can go pick up your beautiful friends, maybe kick some serious Valuan ass going in and out of the Fortress, and then get out of here." Vyse nodded in agreement, following him into the storage area and grabbing all of his equipment.
Gilder looted gleefully from the supplies, including several fair bags of gold that he stealthily placed in his pocket, before retrieving his own pistols and items. Vyse said, "Alright, I think I saw Aika being taken to the prison block adjacent to ours. It should be right above us."
They proceeded down the other side of the hallway, past rows of totally vacant cells, and moved down a narrow flight of metal stairs that led to one of the many elevator junctions. Two lifts waited, their metal doors controlled by the small panels to the side. On the floor was imprinted the Great Seal of the royal family of Valua, but they ignored that for many different reasons and summoned an elevator for their use. They encountered no more guards- the Valuans' trademark arrogance once again worked against them. Probably never even considered anyone would escape their cell, Gilder thought with contempt.
Riding the motorized metal box was an odd experience for both of them, but especially so for Vyse, who had never tried such machinery before. It most resembled to him the hover disk technology of Rixis, but this made a lot more noise as it's gears churned and propelled them up a long brick shaft. The doors slid open, revealing two Marines standing guard at the junction. "Hey," One of them boomed out to the two Blue Rogues. "Freeze!"
"Good idea. Vyse, Crystales!" He pulled out one of the purple crystals, tossing the other one to Vyse. "One, two, three!" Before their enemies could get their bearings, they both hurled the crystals at them. Banging harmlessly off their armor, they sparked and cracked, the magic energy released. The Purple Magic spell Crystales froze opponents solid, and these two were now encased in a layer of magical ice as well as their own bulky armor- unharmed, but totally immobilized.
"Nice," Vyse nodded, chuckling. He got in the lead, drawing his cutlasses as he proceeded down several hallways. A very familiar scream from up ahead caught his attention, and he charged forward. When they arrived at Aika's cell, Vyse paused for a moment, then smirked, and said, "Are we interrupting something?"
The beautiful tomboy pirate was hanging off the bars of the windows, desperately trying to escape a muscled titan, who was clinging to her legs. The man was enormous by any regular standards, and wore a teal and purple muscle-shirt and sweatpants to show off his build. His hair was a chocolate-brown, and spiked up into a single forward-facing style. Aika replied by imploring, "Vyse! Gilder! Get this creep away from me!" She was blushing madly.
The man looked over at the two Blue Rogue men, glaring. "Beat it, punks!" He said rudely, still tenaciously attached to the redhead. His arms looked like tree-trunks or boa constrictors wrapped around her pale and slender legs. She squirmed again, and he further tightened his grip. Vyse glared, twirling his cutlasses.
"Sorry to spoil your fun," Gilder said, stepping up and drawing his firearms into a battle stance, "But you heard the lady. Down, Fido."
"Who said we were having fun?!" Aika objected, again trying to escape from the muscle-man. To her surprise he let go, standing up. This action was intimidating, for he was rather tall and rather large, and looked down on both of the men. Seizing this chance, she moved like lightning, getting around him and running to join her friends.
"I'm Vigoro," He said with a supremely confident smirk. "No woman in Valua can resist me. I believe the worth of a man can be measured by his popularity with the ladies." He put his hands on his hips and nodded.
Gilder stood in repose for a moment. "Hm... I like that philosophy... I'll have to tell David about it later." The look he got from both Aika and Vyse promised a death that was far worse than what the Valuans threatened, and so he hastily continued, "Uhhh... Right after we kick your ass for trying to rape this beautiful young girl!"
"Agreed," Aika nodded, glowering. "I might not have my weapons, but I've got plenty of magic to mop the floor with you. If the floor can stand to be around you long enough."
"Ooh, I love it when the babes talk tough," Vigoro said, favoring her with a wink. She favored him with a lewd gesture which translated across all cultures. "Oh? Feisty indeed. Maybe I need to teach you and your little friends a lesson in brute force." He cracked his knuckles and stepped forward.
Aika deadpanned, watching Gilder aim his guns. "Hold on a second. I'm going to deal with him personally." She stepped forward as well, her eyes blazing with rebellion against him and everything he stood for or ever was. "Moons! Give Me Strength!" Thinking quickly as yellow light flickered into the room, she accumulated lightning in her hand, the ionized energy sparking and glowing as it increased in size. Vigoro paused for a moment, the dove for her. She fired off the Electres spell.
Like a lightning-bolt, it connected her hand and the far wall of the cell with incalculable electrical power. Vigoro was caught in-between, and jolted as the electricity flowed through him. He shivered and shook, the smelly hair-gel maintaining his improbable hairdo beginning to smoke from the current. Recovering after only a few moments, he wound up a punch and might have taken her beautiful head clean off her shoulders if she hadn't dodged him quickly. Both of the men backed up several paces, as much as the cell's large confines allowed, and watched Aika work.
"Hey, catch," Vyse said, pulling out her enormous boomerang and tossing it roughly. He lacked the correct angle, so it didn't return to him, merely careening through the darkened air of the cell at her. She put out a hand and expertly captured the old wooden handle of the weapon, twirling it around into a battle stance. The crystalline material of the boomerang was transparent, it's enchanting moonstone having been removed by the Valuans.
Vigoro blew a kiss to her cockily, which only contributed to her rancor. She wound up and threw her weapon... but when she looked down it was still clutched in her hand. Trying to move again, she found her body rooted to the spot. Her eyes widened in horror. This must be the 'charm' Vigoro was talking about... no wonder he was speaking literally. She couldn't even open her mouth to ask for aid, as the muscled giant advanced on her. How's he casting it? I don't detect any magical apathy at all from him, and I don't see any 'stones or casting items...
"It's my natural power," He boomed in response to her voiceless question. "The Vigoro family has always had the best and most powerful men in all of Arcadia, and we've proven it by using this special magical technique. You're now helpless, Red. How about we get a little closer?" He reached out to her.
Gilder had seen enough. Readying his pistols, he expertly lodged twin bullets into his back, distracting him for several moments and sending rushes of pain throughout his massive body. His concentration thus broken, Aika felt the feeling return to her body and knew this was the chance for a counter-attack.
She took the initiative, running forth and expertly kicking him in the most vulnerable area she could think of. Blinded by even more pain, he fell to the floor with a meaty thump and flailed, as the agony from the well-placed low blow actually made him shiver. Gilder blinked, turning to Vyse. "Remind me never to make Aika mad."
Vyse snorted. "Good luck with that. I'm still trying to pull that off, and I've been living around her since I was five." He saw Vigoro laid out on the floor spread-eagle, obviously and handily defeated. The victor glowered down at him, and they all stepped up to look him in the face.
"Looks like you were all talk," Aika noted with contempt, hands on her hips.
Vigoro tried to raise a fist to punch her, but his quivering hand and sapped strength made him fall short of connecting. He chuckled in pain and horsely admitted, "Well... you got pretty lucky there, Red... but I didn't have my cannon or my armor that time..." He fell back to the ground.
"Hrmph," His 'victim' frowned, looking down on him. "Where I was born, they have a saying: 'a true man doesn't make excuses for his own shortcomings'. Going by that, you've still got a lot of work to do, boy."
"Where are they holding Fina?" Vyse demanded, stepping over Vigoro and looking him in the eye.
"The Silvite girl?" The muscled Admiral paused for a moment to think, still in enormous pain from the low blow. "Um... the Upper levels, restricted section. You'll never get in there, even I don't have the key." He chuckled.
"No, but you have the keys to the Fortress's batteries of cannon," Gilder crossed his arms. "Each Admiral gets access to their special areas of this place, and you've gotta be the one in charge of making things go boom, correct?"
"That's right." He frowned. "Take the keys if you want. Won't do you much good... three people can't fire those things, and they can't be aimed much neither."
"No, but they will make a convenient method of passage." With that, Gilder led them back down the hallway and to the elevator junction. One of the lifts was in transit, but they didn't stick around to find out who was moving where, getting into the other one and using the key to make it begin it's descent.
Less than a second later, the elevator arrived, the metal doors sliding open to admit the young teenager. Enrique looked back to the vigilant Perez, who followed him closely. "So, this is where the air pirates are being held?" He asked the royal guardsman.
"Yes, my Lord," Perez replied without delay. "Vyse the Bold and his accomplices. This is Death Row, sir."
"Take me to them," He requested. "I wish to speak to these Blue Rogues at once." Let's see the man behind the rumors, Vyse Dyne, son of the Blue Storm. I hope you're not what you've been made out into, a villain.
"Take you... sir, perhaps you should wait out here. I'll summon the other guards for this level, and we'll bind the pirates and take them back to you. The confinement facilities are not... suitable for one of your grand stature, m'lord." With a quick salute, he stamped down the passageway, his armor rattling loudly through the large room.
Enrique sighed airily. I'm so grand I can't even be near the place where they keep the people who anger my mother, hm? Such is yet another failing of this country's broken logic. Things are looking more desperate each week for my chances to turn Valua around to the course of righteousness again...
"Prince! My Prince! It's an emergency!" He snapped his head around to look at the soldier, who was trotting hastily out to meet him. "Sir, the guards have been subdued, and Admiral Vigoro is wounded, laying in the cell where we were keeping the girl."
"I see," The blonde teenager saddled with the burden of nations nodded solemnly. So, Vyse is trying to escape again... interesting. "Listen closely, Corporal. Take this message verbally to the Captain, tell no-one about it. If questioned directly, reply it was an order from me. 'Change of plans. Make ready ASAP.' Go now. Lock down this level remotely as I leave."
"Sir... yes, sir. But... what of you, my Prince? Will you not come back to safety with me?" Perez was a simple soldier, and did not understand most of the events that were about to unfold and change the course of history. Enrique longed for that bliss, but knew that the man was good at heart and in a better time would appreciate his cause. Telling him, a loyal servant of his mother and not him, would still be unbelievably foolish.
Time to be evasively truthful. "I have a matter of grave import I must attend in the docks area. Fly with all your speed now, soldier." The purple-armored royal guard gave another full salute and ran into the left lift, which had just returned from taking someone lower. He took the second one, calmly meditating to the mechanical noises surrounding his metal box as it slid slowly down towards where his personal flagship was stationed.
0-0
David walked out onto the deck, the night air whipping about his mysterious hairstyle and exposing his face to the licks of the wind. His hooded tunic and coat flapped about him as well, and he took out a pair of moonstone binoculars, zooming in on the distant speck on the horizon that was the coastline of Valua. Already the clouds were so dim it was impossible to tell night from day but for the clocks onboard the Claudia, which was setting up a position to fire.
He sighed, putting down the piece of expensive tactical equipment. "Gilder... I can't believe we're going to take on the Grand Fortress and it's entire garrison fleet... oh well. Now's the time for action, not words. Mr. Jonas, please switch us to assault configuration, and signal the Primrose that we are to begin firing at twelve of the clock, sharp." The ship began to rattle and rumble, it's deck reshaping itself slightly.
Portals to either side covered by steel bulkheads lifted up, allowing numerous deadly batteries of cannons to poke defiantly out of the sides. While it appeared in sailing mode to only have a few guns set up on the forward grille, the hidden firepower of the ship was unmatched even by the famous Blackbeard before it was sunk some time ago.
Signal lights on the side of the Claudia flashed in a repeating, consistent pattern, waiting for a reply from the pink sailboat which coasted just out of sight to the side. A dim flickering orb appeared, blinking repeatedly. One of the crewmen looked up. "Clara acknowledges, sends best wishes, love, hearts, and... yep. More love."
"Lovely," Jonas commented, spinning the wheel and turning the ship so it's broadside batteries were ready. Down below, a dozen more of Gilder's Blue Rogues were loading the many guns with special high-firepower explosive shells enchanted with Pyrum spells. One of the strongest classes of Red magic, he figured they couldn't have a shot at taking down the Grand Fortress, but would cause quite a dent in it's garrison forces and island guns.
"Eleven fifty-five," Someone else called from the bridge, next to Jonas, their voice floating up to the windy deck via their talking-tube system. "Five minutes until attack."
"Very well." He turned back, giving the behemoth of a fortification another good sweep with his binoculars and sighing again. Gilder, you crazy bastard. I just hope you know what you're doing, and have gotten out of the prison by now. If you don't get out of there quick, the Valuans will send a few dozen Spectres out and rip us to bloody shreds. It all rests on you...
Inside their target, the three escapees had just arrived in one of the guns of the Grand Fortress's many batteries of ultra cannons. They gaped as they looked up in awe at the scope of the shell that was ready and loaded. It was over ten times taller than they were, a huge shaped black metal creation with enough force to blast islands out of the sky. It led down mag-lev tracks into a long grooved metal tunnel- the barrel of the gun.
The gunnery crew hadn't been called up for action yet, as most of the Valuans didn't know of the jailbreak in such a short amount of time. They were left alone in the titanic room along with the gear and apparatus of the machines.
Vyse blinked. "Alright, we're at one of the enemy's cannons... what now, Gilder? How is this going to get us into the higher restricted areas?"
"Simple," Gilder replied calmly. "The Fortress is crisscrossed by walkways on the surface. All we have to do is run out the barrel and drop down onto the walkway. The maintenance lifts that run on tracks up and down the surface armor aren't restricted, and we can go right to the level where Fina's being held without delay."
"Run through... that?" Aika looked at the sheer enormity of the shell, then back to the huge long circular tunnel. What faint Valuan light flickered through it did so through a dot to their sight. "I guess... we don't have much choice, do we. For Fina, then." When she turned her gaze back to the men, she found Gilder missing. "Huh? Gilder? Where'd he go?"
Gilder ran back up to them, his mysterious smirk plastered across his handsome features. "Hey, sorry, guys. Just had to take care of something. Let's get a move on. David's about to let loose the hidden fury of my Claudia on these bucket-heads." Following his suggestion, they sprinted down the barrel, each fully aware that if it was fired they would all be dead, and thus as eager as possible to reach the distant other end.
Vyse took the lead, and looked down, to see a walkway not five meters down from the edge of the cannon barrel. "We're in luck," He announced. "Five-meter drop off. Watch your landing and you'll be fine." With that, he stepped out, landing perfectly like a cat and rolling aside. Aika landed with only minimal pain in her ankles from the force, while Gilder narrowly saved himself from getting a face full of metal, sitting up and rubbing his shoulder.
She pointed into the distance and said, "There's the nearest service lift... it's so far away! Hey, don't the Valuans send out patrols through these walkways to depopulate the monsters on them and stuff-"
"Hold it, scumbags!" The harsh command in clipped Valuan made them all turn around to find two Spell Wardens standing beside the hulking form of a Marine Sergeant. All of them were formidable opponents, but alone were quite a deadly force. The officer raised his lance-rifle, in which the machinery of a carbine had been embedded in his Yellow long lance. "Surrender or be killed, in the name of the Empress."
Gilder's hand reached down. The enemy officer began to squeeze the trigger mounted on the weapon's large handle. The rogue retrieved one of his guns with both gloved hands and raised it with incredible speed. Both of them fired at the same instant, their bullets passing each other in midair. The shot pinged off the reinforced armor of the Marine, but the yellow bullet sliced a glancing cut in his shoulder and shot minor electrical pulses through him.
"Gilder," Vyse called out in concern, turning to face the Valuans. "Damn you!" Charging in for a head-on attack confused the Spell Wardens, who put up no defense nor had a chance to counter as he began to cut them both down. The Marine turned and raised his lance, sweeping it down and sending a wave of electricity into the vacant space where Vyse was half a second before.
"Let's try this!" Aika pulled out one of the grenades plundered from the Valuan armory by the two males, and tossed the cylinder with all her might. It bounced off the thick plating of the Marine's armor, but landed against the wall near him. Before he could react, it detonated.
A cloud of vapor and shrapnel pushed him to the side, causing his off-balance form to stumble slightly and hit the side railing. The crafted metal was never meant to withstand such a burden, and bent ominously inwards with a terrible groaning. Struggling for his balance, he found himself tossed over the side and into the air by a well-placed strike of Vyse's cutlasses. He fell into darkness below, and into Deep Sky.
Turning instantly, he walked over to the prone forms of the two Spell Wardens. One had succumbed to the terrible slash across his chest, but the other one still lived, drawing raspy breath and clutching the diagonal bleeding wound that shot agony through him. Holstering one cutlass, he took out a Sacres crystal, and held both his weapon and the healing magic crystal out to him. "I know you Wardens have keys. You can give me your key to the harbor, or you can die. Choose."
Surprisingly enough, the man chose self-preservation and surrendered the key. Now, when they rescued Fina, they could easily steal any ship out of the docks and make their escape. Keeping to his word, the Blue Rogue gave him the Sacres crystal. His wound would heal enough to stabilize him until a medic got to him.
With no further run-ins with Valuan patrols, they reached the lift. Gilder activated it from the control panel, and with a mechanical shudder the motors to either side began to push it up the steep incline. The maintenance lift began to climb higher and higher on the wall, and they enjoyed the awe-inspiring view of the colossus around them. They also looked out upon the open, dark and cloudy skies, and the surrounding tiny islands mounted with cannons and the fleet of ships warily circling the gigantic wall.
"Any moment... any moment now..." Gilder said, smirking. Suddenly in the distance a dozen flashes appeared. Three tense heartbeats later the shells came screaming in, sailing past the defenses and slamming into the enormous wall. Their large explosions looked like dots in the distance to either side of them, and the Pyrum bombs served only to alert all the Valuans.
Alarms began to wail desperately, the Valuan ships wheeled up into a line formation, and the enormous batteries mounted on the Grand Fortress opened up. Their lift shook from the force of the return barrage. Even as this was happening, another round from the pirates hit the wall. One of the shells, by more chance, struck one of the islands, vaporizing it's gun and silencing it's small crew.
Thunder was never so loud as the Fortress guns. Each one of them was as big as the Valuan ships they supported, and each time they fired a black metal island streaked out, carving a flaming trail in the sky towards the muzzle-flashes on the horizon. The gunboats and cruisers joined in as well, sending furious rounds of unaided salvos into the night as fast as their mechanical guns could load.
One of the shots from the hidden pirate ships landed perilously close to their lift, bathing them with uncomfortable heat and sending chunks of mortar, brick and steel falling meters from their very tiny elevator platform. Gilder winced. "Well... my boys are right on time... but we're running a little late, it seems."
"Look at the firepower of the Fortress," Aika said breathlessly, watching the fortification send another wave of enormous flame out from it's massive barrels. "... what about Clara? Will she be ok with all these cannons firing at her?"
"She knows her stuff about battle," Gilder said, crossing his arms. "She's had to evade me once in a while when I get exasperated enough to loose a few salvos. Clara will be fine." He paused for a moment. "Probably." They were less than halfway up the enormous track, that stretched up out of sight into the black sky.
The fifth wave of Blue Rogue shells came in, arcing gracefully until they slammed into the Fortress. The massive defensive wall seemed unscathed even by the fury of such fire. A moment later Vyse thought that they had gotten a lucky hit, because one of the cannons burst into a sphere of flame which tossed enormous chunks of white-hot debris outwards and sent most of it's own barrel toppling towards, trailing plumes of smoke.
"That was the cannon we came through," Gilder explained, smirking. "I sabotaged the firing mechanism. Simple trick, really. Valuan cannons are so easy to break if you can survive long enough to get that close. They won't be putting that fire out any time in the next few hours." They observed several more rounds where each side sent wave after wave of deadly fire at each other. One of the Valuan ships was nicked on the side by a bomb, floating away from formation and trailing smoke, while the status of the air pirates was impossible to determine. Neither side backed down, nor moved as they focused all their power into their long-range blows.
"You two ready?" Gilder asked as the lift began to slow down, finally approaching their destination- the restricted upper sections of the Grand Fortress. "This is where the real fun begins." They debarked, steeling themselves against the ground's rumbling and shivering and moving on. At the end of a long catwalk they found a locked door, but bashed through it easily enough and entered the narrow passageway beyond. The sounds of sirens and alarms faded away as they went deeper into the wall, although the bone-rattling boom of the cannons still shook them every few seconds.
Another door soon appeared ahead, and Vyse put his hand to it when a familiar, low, voice drifted through the small barred window on the top of the metal bulkhead. He froze up. Ramirez's voice declared, "Remain calm. I doubt that the might of two sailboats is going to destroy the Grand Fortress. Any deserters will be captured and brought to be personally... consulted with.. by me. You two, stay here and keep the girl under guard. The rest of you, with me. We're going to investigate the source of that cannon explosion." They waited, breath low, as the sound of heavy footsteps eventually faded into nothingness, while the ground still shook and resonated.
When the way was judged clear, Vyse kicked open the door. It flew back, crashing against the metal wall with a thunderous boom. Charging into the room, he found it a long and narrow passage with a royal red carpet- on their end was barred simple double-doors, the other end the locked entrance to a meeting room. Standing before the door were two Marines with arms and armor, and when the spotted the pirates they stood in surprise.
Aika knelt to the floor and closed her eyes. "Fire... Consume My Enemies!" A circle of flames surrounded her, and she sprang up, tossing her boomerang onto the ground. "Lambda Burst!" A grid of magical flames appeared, filling the hallway but taking both Vyse and Gilder in the gaps between roaring walls of blaze. The guards' armor became superheated, and was now little more than a pressure-cooker for the agonized souls within. The Marines dropped their weapons, kneeling and rolling around, thrashing to get out of the burning iron.
Gilder put a silver moonstone bullet in each of their neck joints just to make sure, and watched the unmoving corpses before leading them into the room. Fina was standing at a large window on the other side, and looked back with a glare on her face that evaporated as she saw who her new visitors were. "Huh?"
"Fina," Vyse called, running over to her. "We're here to rescue you. Let's go."
Fina nodded, smiling fondly. Cupil appeared, shifting back to his balloon-form after assuming his usual cover as a pretty bracelet. It chirped happily, reflecting her mood through the telepathic link. "Vyse... the first time you rescued me, it was a total shock... but this time... I've been expecting you..."
"Heh," The teenager shrugged. "You know me by now, Fina. I'll always do everything in my power to protect you."
"Hey, um, not to ruin the moment," Gilder said. "But let's get the hell out of here before we're all caught, hanged, drawn and quartered, and the world looses all hope of surviving."
Fina giggled. "Very well. Lead the way." Her weapon had been with her all the time, and she had no gear to speak of, so they simply took off, running back down the maintenance tunnel they had come in at. "Where are we going?" She asked breathlessly, trying to keep pace with the three seasoned Blue Rogues.
"The dock," Vyse replied. "Then we steal a Valuan ship and get out of here."
Arriving back outside, they witnessed the battle still going on. Flashes of thunder and cannon illuminated the black as pitch night, and the dim forms of ship formations swarming up told Gilder that the Valuans were already deploying reinforcement squadrons. "Looks like things are getting dicey for the Primrose and the Claudia, we should hurry," He said, leading them back onto the lift. "Time for some backtracking."
As they descended down the unthinkably huge armored surface of the Fortress, Vyse noticed something. The ground no longer shook. "Hey, the big guns have stopped firing!" Indeed, the most massive Valuan assets, the cannons on the wall, had fallen silent. The harbor forces and ships continued to return fire, but the attacks going out were now much reduced. "What's going on here?"
Then the lift began to shake again. The wall meters away from them began to twist inwards, as the enormous motors mounted in the heart of the wall began to put out enough power to slowly turn the Fortress. It was converting to defensive mode, turning slowly but surely to put up their ultimate defenses. Even through the backside, the smoking weakened section of the wall where Gilder had blown up the cannon was clearly visible.
"They're locking up tight," Gilder noted. "They know we can't do anything at all to them, especially like this, so they're just going to wait until they run out of ammo or get bored. Look." The harbor fleets were slowly falling silent, reluctantly giving up the attack. The floating island cannons were the last to stop shooting, and the only light once again came from the steady Red magic explosions across the face of the wall. "Now's our chance- let's grab a ship and get out of here!" They finally arrived.
Using the key obtained from the wounded Spell Warden earlier, they got the large bulkhead to open, and were admitted into a set of maze-like passages that lead through the heart of the Grand Fortress's docking facility, which was an enormous part of the fort. Resistance was light, and the ones they did run across were naval crewmen or regular troopers.
As they rounded yet another steel corner, a million alarms began blaring at once, and red lights flooded them all with crimson illumination. "Crap, the alarm!" Gilder glared at the flashing light. "We must have tripped some kinda switch. In ten seconds we're going to be swamped by troops."
A voice floated over to them, coming from above one of the standard lifts they were near. "Get on the lift! Hurry!" Vyse frowned, pondering for several seconds and seeing no other options before him. We have to move... now! Let's take our chances! Finally he climbed aboard, motioning for the others to follow. They did, and the elevator set out.
After some small transit time going up, the elevator cleared the alarmed section, to reveal their benefactor. He was a blonde Valuan teenager in a noble's tunic, staring intently at Vyse. He opened his mouth, and said, "So, you are Vyse the Bold, hm? I am Enrique." The die is cast.