This is honestly the last chapter I am definitely posting here. I will be making up my mind on the rest. The song fic part is absolutely my own. I think it's a pagan's view of Christianity, not for, not against, just sad.
In the lower hold that led to the parasite craft, Hector hoisted Daffy up. She raised the Manhole Cover to the ceiling, directly beneath the cockpit. After a moment, it fused with the ceiling. He lowered her as the hatch swung open. He was unsettled to see a ladder drop down. "All right," Hector said. He hefted the Hammer. "Let's do this…" Even as he spoke, a hulking Myrmidon in full Lorica dropped down from above.
"I am Heracles," said the warrior. "Who dares invade this ship?"
"I do," Hector said. "I am High King Hector, and you abducted my Queen in treachery. I would challenge you to single combat for honor."
Heracles shouldered a rifle and drew a massive mace, a Royal Cubit and a Span in length, with the head alone accounting for the Span. "Then beware," he said, "for I am-" He trailed off as the music of Meliboia's challenge blared from speakers all around the ship.
"Oh, yeah," Hector said. He rushed forward as the first verse began…
"If the Gods demand worship
Then give it to them,
Said the Fool to the King
For if any has refused them
None live who remember his name!"
Meliboia opened fire on two advancing Myrmidons with her 7.5mm rifle from what cover the Caryatid on the left side provided. One of the attackers fell with a shattered visor. She activated her shoulder pods, and promptly launched an anti-armor rocket from the righthand pod at the pair who operated their own launcher from cover. The blast blew out a gout of rock and rubble. The Hoplite reloading the launcher staggered, either stunned or blinded, and then fell with a cry. The one with the launcher popped up again, only to find himself exposed. A three-shot burst shattered his helmet. Mel pivoted, just as a fighter came out of the clouds. From her left pod, she launched a single anti-aircraft missile. An engine burst into flames, and the left wing twisted off at the base as the craft pitched and rolled out of sight, its weapons still blazing. A single bolt obliterated a section of the upper balcony, leaving the right Caryatid supporting only crumbling entablature. Then another, much larger craft rose up from below. "Euphonia," Mel said. She retreated as the chorus played…
"It is the end of the day
There is only the bill left to pay
Let the Fool rise
When Amphion falls!"
The Amphion banked as it circled the Island. The pursuing Trident kept its distance, sniping with short bursts while handily dodging the light automated return fire from the top turret. Then Pruna took control of the guns, and threw back the hatch to give the pilot a clear view. The craft pulled back, less to avoid any threat from the weapons than to process the new data. It promptly intensified its fire without drawing closer. Pruna called out, "If you're trying to wipe them out, they aren't taking the bait!"
"We don't need them to," Ajax called back from the cockpit. "Now hold your fire till I tell you!"
"Hurry!" Daffy shouted to Hector. He climbed up, feeling hazy. She pulled him up with help from Hylas, just before the Manhole Cover slammed shut. The relic wobbled on the deck like a coin that had just been flipped. He closed his eyes as Daffy leaned in for a kiss.
The Amphion rolled left, placing the outer edge of the Island in the way of the turret. Only then did Ajax call out, "NOW!" The fighter finally closed in, as the turret guns fired a single, futile flash. Then 10,000 birds came rushing straight into the fighter's path. As it reeled out of control, the second verse began:
"When the King's Fool is wiser
Than his wise men
Only Chaos will reign!
Now gather Discord and Darkness
To crown the Fool with thorns!"
The bolts of the Euphonia's portside medium plasma cannon sailed through the Keep, occasionally detonating with the force of concussion grenades against the columns and walls. As often as not, they sailed straight out the other side of the deceptively porous fortification. An incendiary rocket detonated against the hull next to the gun, only briefly fouling the alignment of the ball mount. "All Hells!" Mel shrieked from behind a column. "Fire a missile already!" Then she glimpsed the incoming parasite craft. She hefted a translucent ammunition cannister over her shoulder, racking five rockets directly into the conjoined muzzles of the launcher. Already, the transport was shifting, giving the unseen gunner a more favorable angle. Before the next shot could come, the transport banked and swerved, too late. Its portside wing was struck by the bottom wing of the out-of-control fighter, catastrophically damaging both craft. As the parent craft reeled, the ports on the far side of the bastion flickered with the silhouette of the approaching parasite. She fired the full load of rockets through a sally port and ran up the stairs to the upper balcony. The craft disintegrated as the chorus replayed…
"It is the end of the day
There is only the Boatman to pay
Let the Fool rise
When Amphion falls!"
In the clouds, the Amphion circled. Pruna sat beside Ajax in the cockpit, learning what she could of the controls. "What are you doing?" she asked. "We should be going back for Meliboia or getting out of here!"
"That's what they expect," Ajax said. "It's what they're waiting for. We won't get anywhere without taking care of them first." He abruptly decelerated. Pruna gasped as a Trident suddenly shot in front of them.
Ajax fired, twice.
Hector looked over the controls of the Ataraxes. He realized only then that there was a good deal of blood and possibly more solid stuff on his clothes and the hammer. He gave no attention to the hum of a cutting laser at the door. "Can we take control of the ship?" he asked Hylas.
"No," Hylas said. "Neither can he." He waved in the direction of the very indifferent pilot. "If unidentified personnel enter the cockpit, the transport executes a mission-specific protocol. Usually, that means it returns to base or scuttles itself."
"What about the parasite craft?" Hector asked.
"Oh, we can do that," the Myrmidon said. He pointed to a red button Hector had already considered. "Emergency release, hard-wired. Trouble is, it's on a three-second delay, and the craft only holds 2, well, on the inside..." As he spoke, there was a venomous curse as Marpessa kicked at the hatch. It came open far enough for her to fire a volley of shots before Hylas returned fire. He slumped against the wall and slid to the deck, leaving several streaks of red.
"Well," the Myrmidon said, "who didn't see that coming…?"
Mel emerged outside the door of the uppermost structure where she and Ajax had spent what she counted as their true honeymoon. She came under fire almost immediately. She activated the pods for suppressing fire. On the right, her reconfigured 6mm rifle raked the balcony with bursts of fire, felling one of the two Hoplites who came vaulting over. On the left, her grenade launcher fired down at another who had topped the corner battlement. She raised the 7.5mm for what she was sure would be an attack from the center. She still froze as a final parasite rose into view, with two Hoplites clinging to the weapons racks. She knew the one on the left, as she knew them all; it was Autolycos. She leaped backward through a window behind the bed, just before they opened fire.
Again, the Manhole cover clattered to the deck behind Hector. Daffy was already strapped into a control harness in the bubble cockpit of the parasite craft. "I think I figured out some of these before," she said. Above them, a display on the console showed: EMERGENCY RELEASE DETONATION IN 0:03… 0:02… 0:01…
Bright flashes and dark smoke erupted from around the craft, battering its occupants. It dropped straight down into the clouds below, its wings still folded.
Meliboia crashed down on top of the nuptial bed, propelled by the blasts behind her. Her rifle flew from her hands. She kept rolling, crushing already splintered wood. The sheet and blankets wound around her, tearing where they met rough edges. She frantically tried to deploy the pods, producing only urgent warnings to withdraw for repairs. The final verse was all she could hear over the ringing in her ears…
"Behold the old gods have fallen,
Their idols are cast to the flames!
Now let us worship
The Fool, our new God,
He is better than no God at all!"
From the midst of the clouds, the insectoid parasite craft swooped almost straight up. The ball cockpit turned as it banked and rolled, keeping the occupants upright. In a minor channel, anyone listening could have heard a high-pitched cry: "WHEEEEEE!"
Two Hoplites burst in through the door to the left of the bed, melee blades drawn. An apparition came rushing to meet them, trailing streamers of cloth like an unwinding shroud. The first had only a glimpse of the shape before a leaf-shaped blade drove under his breastplate. The second parried over the body of the fallen companion, then delivered a stroke that was parried in turn by a blade that sprang from Meliboia's left wrist. Then a bedsheet fell over the adversary's head and torso, to be wound tight enough to haul him off his feet as the apparition circled behind. Her sword drove into his lower back, and her wrist blade laid open his throat. The apparition rose, now crimson, at a pounding at the door. Just before it smashed to pieces, a grenade plowed through, catching her in the chest.
The force of the concussion grenade threw Meliboia back to the wall. She rose to hands and knees, to look through a spiderwebbed visor at the figure in the doorway. "Autolycos," she said. She raised her visor. "You're an ass, but you are my brother. Walk away."
Her brother's mate opened his visor in turn, revealing a face more indignant than angry. "Oh, all Hells, Mel!" he exclaimed. "You think you can tell me that? I'll tell you one last time, baby girl, just because Aeacus made us play nice with you doesn't mean you're one of us."
"No," she said, "I suppose not." As she spoke, she completed an emergency override, just before she realized exactly what she was activating.
Her second anti-aircraft missile launched. It did not go even five times its length before it hit Autolycos in either the belly or the groin. The impact and continued acceleration propelled him straight off the balcony and well beyond before the overstrained mechanisms exploded at a fraction of the projectile's intended minimum range. She had a brief, searing glimpse of his upper body flung upward as his legs dropped to either side.
The parasite craft opened up with all its weapons. Meliboia snatched up her rifle as she ran. Behind her, the bedchamber imploded under the onslaught. She ignited the suit's short-range jets as she leaped from the balcony. Only then did she see the Amphion waiting for her. She landed short of the turret, then tumbled and rolled half the length of the fuselage before she caught hold of a hatch. Behind her, the parasite craft cleared the Keep. Behind it came the Euphonia, limping and listing but clearly deadly. From the upper battlements, a final Hoplite let fly. And from directly ahead, a Trident fighter came out of the clouds. All the while, the chorus replayed:
"It is the end of the day,
There is only Hell left to pay!
Let the Fool rise
When Amphion falls!"
The parasite craft stooped, stitching the starboard nacelle with the ball turret guns. Pruna held the controls of the Amphion, firing its primary weapons again and again. Ajax threw open the hatch, holding the rifle. He fired once, twice, then he used a third shot to fire at the Hoplite, who either fell or ducked. From behind him, there was a bright flash as the fighter exploded. The parasite craft dropped back for a moment, then resumed firing, this time aiming for the center of the fuselage. Hydraulics whirred as missiles and other heavy weapons came online. Then more fire came from the other direction, shredding the parasite's wing. An audible voice came over the Myrmidons' frequencies: "Pew pew pew!" Another volley blackened the ball cockpit. The craft tumbled into the rock face and smashed to bits as another swooped by. The Euphonia ignored the tiny attacker. Its guns fired down, bracketing Amphion. Hector tried in vain to discourage Daffy from rolling the craft again as they rose in a corkscrew turn. "Oh, look, it's you!" she said. "Oh, I couldn't leave him behind…" Hector nodded as she pointed to the doll dangling from a sensor display. It was then that he looked down at the access panel. There was a gauntlet placed on it, and it was red… He looked away.
"There," Marpessa said, crossing one last set of wires. "This will give us control back…" She looked up as they cleared the clouds. The Keep was straight ahead, approaching fast. "Hylas, you ass!" she shouted. But he was past hearing.
The Ataraxes plowed into the Keep and detonated. The Euphonia finally pitched out of the sky, its tail boom shattered by debris. The following flames swept across the surface of the structure, obliterating whatever remained. "Too bad," Mel said as Ajax pulled her up. "I would have loved to come back for our anniversary."
And as the ship soared upward, the chorus played again:
"Let the Fool rise,
When Amphion falls!"