Cyclonis walks through the hallway. Her mind is troubled and throbbing with a headache at this point. She has been working hard, having meetings with the Wallops as soon as she can reach them. Much like they figured, it took nearly ten and a half days for the Atmosian council to gather enough bodies and ships to launch an attack on Cyclonia. It went about as well as they had predicted it. The strike force was so concerned about how fast they could launch the attack, they did not take into account the defenses they had prepared. By the time they had made it to Cyclonia, only half of the squadrons that set out were with them. The rest have been split off to engage the Talon defense forces.
Now they are in the middle of the clean-up. She had allowed the Dark Ace to use the Aurora stone to deal with them. He had only been able to release a fraction of the crystal's power, but it was enough to cause a shockwave powerful enough to knock out eight squadrons worth of skimmers and nine cruisers. Though, unfortunately, five of their cruisers and a destroyer were also caught up in the blast, damaging them severely. They were still rescuing and capturing combatants from both sides.
"Master, we managed to retrieve all our ships and recover six of the nine rebel cruisers so far," a Talon officer reports, walking up beside her.
Cyclonis frowns, fearing something isn't right. "What's the status of the rest of the Atmosian fleet?"
"They have been pushed back beyond our borders. Seems they are returning to their terras," the officer informs.
"That's…good…" Cyclonis mentions, frowning even more. She would imagine now they would try to sneak in and save those they captured. But how can they if they couldn't muster everyone together for the initial attack and be cohesive for it?
"As for the rebel cruisers, three are the Thunder Strike series we have been augmenting our fleets with. We should be able to refit them in two to three months and assign them to our forces. The rest have been either repurposed civilian-level cruisers or armed merchant cruisers. Should we scrap them to use their components for our industry?" the officer informs before requesting orders.
"Go ahead," she answers, stopping and turning to the talon. "And make sure our retrofitted new cruisers are correct in what they can output. We don't want to fall behind because of bad calibration. And none of us want to make any of the Ravens pissed at what a bad job we did." She then turns back and continues walking down where she was going. 'Why haven't they tried anything yet? Usually, you might expect someone foolhardy and brave to their head to just ram an airship on a platform and charge right in. Even if they aren't the leftover squadrons or survivors. Something is wrong…or maybe I am expecting too much from the Atmosians. After all, I am basing this on Raven's capabilities and accomplishments,' she thinks to herself, tapping a finger against her chin.
"Master," Cyclonis is greeted by her subordinates and other talon guards as she enters the throne room.
"Report. How goes our offensive against the northern squadron of the rebels?" Cyclonis orders, retrieving the Aurora stone from Dark Ace as she passes with just a flick of her finger, making it surrounded by an aura and floats after her. A crystal on her sleeve glows dimly as its power allows her to finely finesse the stone around to view it in all directions. Though only a prototype for crystal-infused clothing, she is making great strides for simple usage.
"Slow progress. But we are taking the terras bit by bit, knocking any sky knight off of them," Ravess informs. "Each one that falls makes their entire defensive line fall back to regroup. Seems they are putting up enough of a decent fight."
"Though we have only sent one fleet consisting of only two destroyers and six of the new Thunder Strike cruisers. In the past, to make this kind of progress, we sent multiple fleets, each larger than that," one admiral boasts.
Cyclonis isn't impressed by the boast as this is to be expected from her retrained forces. Any less and she would have been upset. Now Cyclonis places the Aurora stone into the storm engine. "Are all flights grounded?" Cyclonis asks.
"As per your orders, all flights have been docked and roped tight before this time. All forces are also ready for any weather changes you so wish," an operations officer confirms.
"Then we begin," Cyclonis informs and activates the machine. At first, there is nothing and none of the talons in the room say anything, thinking that their master is about to explode in anger because it didn't work, but then there are sparks everywhere inside the machine and the power is easily felt by all of them, making them sweat a bit as the storm that can be seen from the windows starts to dissipate and it starts to shine not the bleak red light that had been shining down on Cyclonia as long as they could remember, but clear normal light. "Now that's better. Finally, we can see," she says happily, seeing the state of the sky.
"And the…Atmosians?" Snipe asks, wondering if she will flip the weather on their side.
"I expect they will have to get used to not having the skies clear every day," she says dismissively.
"Which can mean their role of being a breadbasket for the rest of the rebel's side could be also at risk," Ravess points out.
"Start expanding our shipyards immediately," Cyclonis orders her minister of industry.
"Right away, master," the minister answers.
"Also, be on your best behavior. Dustin of the Ravens is coming to Cyclonia soon. He says he will be sharing a lot of the discoveries he and his crew have made over the last year. I want nothing to go wrong for this visit and what other business he may have here as well," Cyclonis informs.
"And the prisoners?" Ravess asks, wondering how to keep him and his group from the mess they have downstairs.
"Prepare to send them to our prisons. I want them all split up and going to different locations," Cyclonis instructs before the intercom sounds off, informing them that two intruders are captured in the hangar from a cargo container that had been filled with donut rations for the Talons. "Surprising. I was expecting this kind of thing in the next hour," she says out loud. "Also…donut rations?" she asks, looking at her food minister.
The minister then points to the talon commanders and Dark Ace, saying to her, that they were the ones who ordered these things, not him, with his gestures.
Cyclonis sighs, rolling her eyes. "Deal with them. Get things cleaned up down there. I want it to almost look like we are holding a ball," she waves off, returning to her machine.
"Yes, master," all of them say and all, but those at the comm gear left.
'This is bad,' Starling thinks as she continues with her guise as a Talon. Eight whole squadrons had been captured. Because the Atmosian council sent them on a strike that she had informed them was idiotic as they had their defenses raised and knew they would be coming after their raid and seizure of the Aurora stone. And now the other half of the Atmosian sky knights are not coming back either as they are facing their front or not taking another chance and losing as well.
'It has to be here,' she thinks, trying to find the way to the cell blocks. She can even hear the chatter of the Ravens above her on a couple of floors as they fill up the ship they came in on and even block off doors so they don't walk where they aren't allowed. 'It's like she is throwing another ball for nobles.'
"You telling me they will be sending down the royal guard?" Starling overhears some Talons around the corner and stops to listen in on this. "Yeah, apparently she doesn't want them to escape and cause any more trouble. I hear that it's because the boss of the Ravens himself is going to be paying a visit."
Starling stops dead cold, turning towards the direction of the two through the wall, waiting behind the corner. 'Dustin…please don't tell me you would allow this to happen. They even got Suzy here, man.'
"I heard he hasn't been seen for over a year. Wonder where he has been and what stories he can tell?" another talon adds to the conversation.
"I can guess," the first suggests. "I have been making new shit and finding new things," he mocks, chuckling with the others laughing a little too.
"Watch your mouth, man. Master Cyclonis herself has a vested interest in him and the last thing I want to happen is to disappear with the rest of us because a royal guard overheard you talking shit about him and report it to Master Cyclonis," another Talon scolds.
Starling rolls her eyes, hearing the talon complain. 'Dustin…you are making new trouble around here,' she thinks, walking down the hall again.
"Bad news as well. That new prisoner ate half of the donut rations that were brought in today so they could sneak in," another Talon says, sounding very upset.
"Oh come on! I was planning a donut party," one of the talons complains.
"Think anyone will mind?" one of the talons asks before Starling hears the activation of a weapon.
She immediately stops and rushes over, stopping as she sees a talon with a crystal staff aiming at Junko through the bars. "Hey, what are you doing? The royal guard is on its way. What do you think would happen if they heard crystal fire?"
"Eh, they are busy with the party," the talon dismisses with a wave of his hand as Junko backs up against the cell wall.
"Oh…then what about the night crawler on the ceiling?" Starling asks, having spotted one of the elite agents of Cyclonis herself.
The talon stops, slowly moving his gaze up, and sees a night crawler there, 'standing' on the ceiling. "Oh…right…" he says, slowly putting his staff away.
'Good, at least I held off on…' Starling stops as the red alert goes off.
"Alert, Alert. We have an unauthorized landing. A sky knight has landed in hanger twenty-three. I repeat, a sky knight in hanger twenty-three! All available Talons report there immediately!" a voice over the intercom yells.
"Shoot!" the talons say before running away to the hangar. Starling starts to follow before stopping before a corner as they run around it. She frowns, turns back to the cell block, and runs back, finding Finn and Junko behind the bars with some others.
"I was hoping the bulk of everyone is here," Starling sighs, taking off her helmet and going to the door controls. "This is the best chance to get everyone out."
"Get the idiot!" Finn yells jumping at Starling who opened the cell door.
"Ah, come on!" Starling groans, landing hard on the ground. "It's me you dumb rocks!" she yells, frowning at the two. "Starling."
"Uh…Junko," Junko says, pulling him off of Starling.
"Hey, Starling," Suzy says embarrassed she is here in a cell as well.
Starling groans, picking herself up off the ground. "Lunkheads," she mutters, huffing and brushing herself off. "Now, how about we get the rest of everyone out of here?" she asks, frowning at the blizzardian.
"Why should we escape? We can take over Cyclonia," Finn says and Starling starts to laugh.
"Seriously?" she questions, shaking her head. "You have only ever encountered Talons. You have not yet met the royal guard or the nightcrawlers. No. Our only chance is to free as many as we can and flee," Starling informs.
"She's right. Let's get going everyone," Suzy exclaims, getting everyone to rush out, hurrying to unlock the rest of the cells. She walks out of the cell beside Starling as they start to get whoever they can. "Dustin is here…isn't he?" she asks, frowning at the girl.
"Yes," Starling answers, sighing. "He's here to showcase any new inventions and animals he has found. I don't know how he would feel about you locked up though," she adds, eyeing the blizzardian who wags her tail a little at the mention of him here.
"Oh, good lord! What the hell is that!?" they heard someone yell from above.
"That would be Aerrow," Junko mutters, hearing the yell. "Maybe he found a new animal Dustin got."
"That's good. Or bad? As well Dustin's tastes in things can be questionable at times," Suzy asks, scratching her head as they free more.
Starling smirks. "Like you?" she asks teasingly, eyeing her overall look.
Suzy frowns hard at that as she keeps working and they hear some group coming now. "Thought you could just fly right in and do what you want, did you?" a talon calls.
Starling frowns. "That was…too fast," she sighs, pushing Suzy away and making her lead everyone away. She then grabs the helmet off the ground and slips it on. "Come on. Just believe it," she hopes to herself.
"Oh, someone is still down here. Put this one with the others, I want to go see more of what is being shown off," the talon says, spotting Starling before shoving the red-haired sky knight to her.
"Sure thing," Starling agrees, grabbing Aerrow. The talons start to walk away, letting her lead Aerrow to frown at her as they walk away. "Thank me later," she whispers, shoving him down another hallway and Aerrow is grabbed by the other sky knights who help him out of the cuffs. He looks surprised as Starling walks over to him and removes her helmet. "Want to tell me what you were thinking?" she argues, pointing at him.
"We had a plan to infiltrate and get back the Aurora stone," Aerrow admits.
"Not good it looks like," Starling points out, holding up the cuffs before tossing them away. "We are getting everyone out. And we need an airship for our escape."
"We will have to take over one of the airships from the hangar bay, but with the Ravens here as guests, security will be tightened where their ship is. Doubly so if it is the Tailwind," Suzy points out.
"We won't even try that one. Just one of the ships off to the side," Starling dismisses. "Held on hold, ready to fly. Just need to start it. Now, help the group escape," she orders Aerrow.
"What about the Aurora Stone?" Aerrow asks, massaging his wrists.
"We can try for it later," Starling assures. "We need to escape. Besides, they have moved it somewhere hidden. It could be in the nightcrawler's barracks for all we know."
"She could eventually use it against us…somehow. We need to at least know where they could be holding it," Aerrow mentions, frowning. "The stone is powerful enough. It is already able to calm these skies maybe by the looks of things. Who's to say she can turn Atmos into a hurricane-filled nightmare?"
"And what purpose would that serve? Cyclonia wants to conquer the Atmos, not destroy it," Starling points out.
"Make it hard for us to take off, fly, do anything in the air?" Aerrow suggests, already feeling this becoming a little heated. "And we need to show that Cyclonis isn't that powerful with it anymore with us around."
"Kid, be quiet and just do what is possible. Or do you want everyone here to be captured again to feed your ego?" Suzy asks.
"I want to save everyone. At least get everyone out of this place. I can go after the stone and figure out where it is at least," Aerrow states, frowning at her. "Plus, it does us no good with us always running. And I do mean all of us."
"How long ago were you made into a sky knight?" Suzy questions with an eyebrow raised.
"Just a month," Aerrow answers, not going to like her response to him.
"Then let us who are far more experienced lead the way. We can't afford you running off and putting everyone at risk for an impossible goal," Suzy informs.
"And I learned nothing is impossible," Aerrow returns frowning. "We can get it back."
"Just one day. For now, we go. Or are we going to drag you out?" Starling questions, seeing that even Finn and Junko are not sure which side to take as they stare between the two sides. One side consists of multiple sky knights and their squadrons. And the other only one person.
"So this thing can chew through metal?" Cyclonis asks, amazed as she looks at the dog-sized insect creature.
Dustin nods, looking at the creature on its back, chewing on a metal piece like a dog bone. "Yeah…it's tough to make sure he doesn't chew through our ships. We got him a ball made of the same metal the Tailwind is made of. Thankfully he can't chew through it and is happy to have a toy," Dustin explains.
The insect creature looks up at them at the mention of that, the metal ball clamped in its teeth before it clacks its teeth against the metal again, making a small clicking noise.
"I see you have been very busy with your expeditions to the south," Cyclonis says with a smirk, seeing the map on the table behind him with crossed-out areas.
"Oh, the three hundred pages of documentation and observations give that away?" Dustin jokes with her.
Cyclonis chuckles as well, eyeing him carefully. "If only you can tell the exact point of some of these findings. We may want to see it for ourselves even. Or capture and find some use for some of these plants and animals."
"I wouldn't do that lightly. There are some carnivorous plants that we almost lost a member of down there. And I mean he had a bald spot on his head for a few months. Not to mention more dangerous creatures than my little buddy there. Also, how did you like seeing his scythe-like arms slice through that staff when the knight tried to defend against it?" Dustin asks, partially trying to discourage her from doing that yet, and inquires if she liked the show.
Cyclonis hums. "I am still wondering how he broke through our security."
"I had my boys take note of security from afar before landing. My guess is dock twenty-three as it had no activity and thus no guards so could have just landed, but find his skimmer and you will find the entry point," Dustin offers.
Cyclonis sighs. "Wonder what I can gain from scrapping it?" she wonders to herself as she looks at Dustin, taking in how he had changed over the last few years. He had grown a bit taller and is starting to grow a mustache and had a small stubble on his face from a shave a day or two ago. It made him look a bit refined and cultured, reminding her a bit of some adventure novels that she would never admit to anyone she read.
"Depends on the model. Though you may be able to retrofit it into one of your switchblade models depending on the frame," Dustin offers.
Cyclonis smiles. "Speaking of, I have heard rumors that you and a raptor have gotten together. How is life with this one?"
Dustin gives a tired sigh. "Let's just say I want to take my ships and bombard the tabloid from here to Amazonia a lot sometimes," Dustin informs in a tone Cyclonis is all too familiar with as the rumors about her in them as well were tiring, to say the least. "But it is fine. So how many prisoners did you get from the hasty and ill-conceived reprisal attack the sky knights did?"
"Around forty. I expected more, but they will be moving to different prisons around the territory," Cyclonis wonders to herself, trying to think what happened during their meetings exactly.
"I hate to have to ask this, but are the Absolute Zeroes amongst them?" Dustin inquires.
"Yes. They are part of it. As well as other squadrons too. Why? Do they owe you money? I could make them pay up the extra reimbursement on top of the initial damages." Cyclonis asks, raising an eyebrow.
"No, it's just I am friends with them and I recruit from their terra. Could you at least make them comfortable?" Dustin requests rubbing his head as Cyclonis understands why he asks this. Dustin has a high bar for his members, either building them up or hiring within those skill ranges and, since the Blizzarians are naturally built for the cold, they adapt well to the south as reports indicate it's colder down there than most of the known atmos. Cyclonis even briefly wonders if they will try to set up settlements down there later, depending on how things go.
Cyclonis slowly nods. "I will see what I can arrange."
"Than…" Dustin suddenly stops as his eyes narrow and his pet's head raises. "Something is wrong," Dustin mutters confusing Cyclonis.
Cyclonis raises an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
"My crew and I have kinda developed a sixth sense on our expeditions. We get this feeling if something is going wrong or if something dangerous or hostile is approaching. Knowing my crew, they will be alerting the royal guard of this and asking to beef up security around us before going to secure the Tailwind. It's saved us more than a few times from large predators on the unknown terras and the carnivore plants," Dustin explains.
Cyclonis frowns. "Then I will make sure they get it done."
Dustin nods looking out of the window, observing everything as Cyclonis speaks with the guards and only speaks up after she returns to talk with him. "Cyclonis, I believe you have an order to ground all ships in place for the hanger, correct?" Dustin asks.
"I did. Why?" Cyclonis asks, walking up to the window with him.
"Then why are three Thunder Strike cruisers leaving port?" Dustin asks, watching the cruisers start to move further away.
Cyclonis frowns. She then turns and starts yelling something at a guard as Dustin stares hard at one of the ships. For one second, he swears he can see large ears flopping around as a person stares out the window back at them.
"Well this may solve an issue, but this also means the war length is extended as well," Dustin says, picking up and petting his pet. Cyclonis didn't return for another twenty minutes, obviously checking on what had happened. She came back in a bit of a sour mood, to say the least. "Would bringing up that I have a new ship design for you help lift your mood?" Dustin inquires.
Cyclonis frowns, turning her gaze towards him. "…maybe."
Dustin motions her over to one of the vacant desks after setting down his pet and pulls out a tube from his jacket. He opens it up and produces a schematic for a ship for her to look over. From the schematics, she can tell this was going to be bigger than a cruiser but not as big as their destroyers. "Curious?" Dustin asks.
"It does make me want to know more about it," she mentions, turning her head to look at him. "What am I looking at?"
"Our answer to a problem we have noticed about your fleet. You see, the branches of my group send us reports of what they notice. Like, for example, the operating distance and time of the cruisers we have made are significantly less than what they can be when paired with your destroyers. So, to optimize this, I and the R&D have been putting our heads together to find a solution. We discussed redesigning the destroyers themselves, but it went in a different direction and we came up with a new class of ship itself. It sacrifices the armor and armaments of your destroyers, but it makes up for it in speed, fuel efficiency, and operational time and distance. We have named this class: Battlecruiser," Dustin explains. "We designed this to work in tandem with the Thunder Strike cruisers to keep up with them and bring the firepower they lack for fleet engagements. They can also be used as troop transports or at least that is the goal for the class of ship."
"First generation of a new class…can it hold up?" Cyclonis asks, running her hand over the blueprint.
"We are still in the design phase, basically it prioritizes speed and runs time over firepower and armor. We also made it with the plans that it can easily be refitted to use the AA weapon," Dustin whispers into Cyclonis's ear so as not to be overheard before pointing out the areas on the ship left initially bare for preliminary ideas for placements of them. Then flipping to the second page of the blueprints, showing a side view where she saw the broadside had eight crystal cannons in total spread out in two rows of different heights While this is nothing to sneeze at, the destroyers had three times this on their broadsides but placed in several locations and not in rows like this. Cyclonis's mind runs over this and wonders if this is for internal wiring to save room.
Cyclonis hums, picking up the blueprint. "This…does look like something I could buy."
"We will allocate the budget you give us to start developing this ship. We still haven't come to a consensus on the name yet," Dustin says nodding.
"…call it the Roc. After the giant bird from legends," Cyclonis instructs.