The Song of Steel

Samalamax grunted as he took the shots. They hurt quite a bit more when shot from so close. "My turn." He whispered, cracking his knuckles as his hands whistled through the air.

INHUMAN STRENGTH!
HAYMAKER!
Quick as a flash, Samalamax grabbed Ryan's forearm as he brought the axe down, and snapped the bone in a painful jerk. Then rearing back, Samalamax slammed his fist into Ryan's face, sending the man to the ground next to Khoma to bleed.

Suddenly, a fire extinguisher exploder next to him, covering him with fire retardant. "Hmph." he grunted, unimpressed. He merely dodged the next water scythe and slash.

Ryan almost passed out from the sheer paint, but he managed to drag himself a few feet away. Using his good arm, he dug into his coat, until he found one of his regeneratives, popped the cover off, then drank deeply. Already feeling more healthy, Ryan crawled to cover, and waited for the health to take effect.

Ethan saw that they needed to change tactics. Reloading his rifle, he ran forward, emptying the entire clip to he was at point blank range, then as he reached Sam, his hand went forward and he ripped all the water out of his body.

"Ah... Ha ha..." Samalamax rasped, delighting in the pain. "I'm sorry son, but there's been nary a bit of water in these bones for many a year."

Then, clenching his fists, he released his energy.

BASS!
The flames flashed through the air, singing Khoma and Ethan quite badly. The sudden pain racking his body caused Khoma to snap out of his daze. "Alright, let's try this again." Khoma growled as he got back to his feet. Clenching his teeth, he rushed Samalamax, feinting to the left before performing a spinning slash along the man's side. He grunted as his blood gushed from his body, though it evaporated before it hit the ground. Perhaps Khoma should have been prepared for what happened next... But he wasn't. He didn't even see the fist coming.

HAYMAKER!
And just like that, Khoma was on the floor again, bleeding from his face.

Ethan Was tiring from the use of his magic, but it seemed to be the only thing working. He took a breath and gripped the metal at Sam's feet, ripped it up and attempted to spike it into his body, then sending lighting along the the ends of the metal, hopefully into his body.

Ryan rose back up, fully healed, and took aim with his magnum. Aiming right between that smug bastards eyes, Ryan fired off his clip, hoping to God this brought him down.

///END BOSS ENGAGEMENT///

Samalamax was preparing to dodge the incoming attack, but was thrown off guard by the most terrible noise one could imagine. In the ensuing shockwave created by the sound, Ethan's magic was canceled as well. "The fuck was that?!" Khoma demanded as he wobbled to his knees, trying to staunch the blood pouring from his face. "The worst case scenario." Samalamax muttered, retrieving his cape from where he'd thrown it, and slipping it back on quietly.

Before anyone could react, Samalamax walked to the boarding appendage, opened a door, and slipped inside while whispering something into a transceiver. As quickly as it had smashed into them, the enemy Leviathan withdrew and thrusted towards Urth...

"Oh... My.... G..." Khoma tried to say, once he saw what had become of his home planet. Half of it was destroyed, reduced to a billion crumbling rocks which were all busy careening off into the universe. But what was in it's place... It took Khoma a long while to figure out.

There, visible amongst the ruined remains of Urth's core, was a dragon. An enormous, red beast with four wings , a long, slender body, and a tail that forked at the end. It had eight eyes, golden teeth as long a a small continent.

"How the hell is it breathing fire in outer space?! And seriously, what the hell is going on?!" Khoma might have said, if he weren't totally flipping the fuck out.

Bit by bit, the beast unfurled it's body, sending up sprouts of flame from it's nostrils as it shook off the trillions of gallons of magma that covered it's body... And a large globlet of said magma went heading straight for the Zustin-1. Of course it immediately hardened into rock, but it was still a thousand times bigger than their mighty vessel.

Slamming his fist down on a button that he was certain patched them through to the bridge, Khoma shouted, "Get us out of here right now or we're all dead!!!"

But he received no answer.

"The escape pods!! Where are they?!" Khoma shouted towards Ethan, who was certain to know the layout of the ship far better than he.

"The escape pods are meant to be used temporarily, like say when there's a planet to land on, there should be a hanger with a shuttle down the hall."

"Curses... Let's go!" Khoma growled, as he sprinted down the hall. "The nearest planet is Weltaria 5. I sure hope these things have some sort of transmitter or radio."

Ryan was ready to die to kill that bastard. What he was not ready for was for the planet to explode. What he would never have been ready for was there to be a dragon in it's place. Reacting, Ryan said, "HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"

Hearing Kohma shout something about escape, Ryan said, "C'mon, we have to get he fuck outta here!", then started running down the hall, towards the shuttle.

Ethan blitzed down the hall and into the hanger.

"It should, and some scanners to figure out what the fuck that is."

He then entered a shuttle and started powering it up.

"Ryan get the bay doors then get inside."

Performing an unnecessary flying leap into the small emergency craft, Khoma grabbed a seat and buckled up as tight as he could. He was rather unfond of the fact that the escape shuttle was practically all windows, and not very sturdy looking.

Rushing toward the Control Booth, Ryan dashed in, trying to find the control for the Bay Doors. Looking around, Ryan noticed a small box under the panel. Investegating, he found a magnum and twelve rounds, the former he left and the latter he took. Finally finding the controls, Ryan activated the bay doors, then dashed back to the shuttle, hoping he made it in time.

Ethan saw Ryan come running back towards the shuttle with a few people trying to get to safety behind him.

"Hurry, 30 to impact."

As the continued to run towards the ship Ethan lifted the ship off the ground and started nudging it towards the bay doors.

Isaiah Had already commandeered an escape pod. A briefing on what was actually going on REALLY helps every now and then.

His original intentions were to end this quarrel, but survival takes priority over all else. His primary directive had been to observe and assist, and he had done his best...

Isaiah fired the thrusters on a second escape pod, set the emergency beacon, and flew out of the doomed ship in the direction of the nearby Abh Battlecruiser that was waiting for him.

He hoped that this would be the end of that troublesome crew...

The shuttle doors snapped shut, just as the last of them made it in. Kohma didn't expect the small craft to lurch forward as violently as it did, but the massive seatbelt accommodated for his lack of preparation. "I certainly hope we live!" he said, failing his attempt at optimism as they departed. He was surprised to see other emergency shuttles ejecting from the Zustin-1 as well. During their escape, it had almost seemed as if they were the only ones on the entire vessel.

They watched in silence as the massive piece of rock collided into the Zustin, destroying it as if it were nothing in a glorious explosion of plasma and steel. Luckily for them, their shuttle was heading well away from the rock's trajectory, but still they only missed it by a few hundred meters. Countless other ships were not so lucky, and they all met the same fate as the Zustin.

And then, Kohma remembered- "Where's that huge thing that killed our planet?!" He demanded, unable to see the vile demon anywhere. "How does something that big just vanish?!"

Shifting slightly, Ryan looked out the window, only to see the empty husk of the planet. "Holy shit", he said, "I think we're gonna be in some deep shit if we dont do something. Ethan, can't you hail someone on the talkbox?"

"I don't know if I should try, our ships where taking a pounding, where more likely to get picked up by the enemy"

"Woah." Kohma said as he looked in the direction they were heading... The luscious green planet of Weltaria-5 was coming up on them with frightening haste.

"Is there, uh... Some sort of brake on this thing?" he asked, gripping the arms of his seat tightly. He wasn't looking forward to the turbulence they were bound to suffer through once they entered the atmosphere...

Ryan looked down at the green planet, and said, "So, whats the plan then? They had to have seen what happened. We gotta have some way to stay off the radar!"

Chapter Two - Broadflash



"Plan?" Kohma hadn't thought of that. "I don't suspect they'll be in any hurry to waste valuable resources hunting down a single escape shuttle." He said, with what might be construed a optimism. "Besides, that dr-" He began to say, but was cut off when the windows began to glow red as the entire shuttle lurched about, angrily.

"I FUCKING HATE THIS PART!!" He shouted, clamping his eyes shut as the turbulence threw all bravery to the wind.

After a noisy, rancorous period of time that seemed to span hours, the turbulence stopped, and the window cleared to reveal an abundant treeline that stretched for miles. "The whole planet looks like a rainforest..." Kohma commented, after his balls returned to him and his eyes opened to take in his surroundings.

As they drew close to the canopy, the shuttle's auto-landing program kicked in. Slowly and methodically, the thrusters twisted forward, slowing their approach. Mere instants before they could stall and plummet, the thrusters aimed downwards, and emitted a propulsion just powerful enough to provide them with a gentle descent straight down. The whole world turned even greener for a moment as they floated through the tree line.

Sighing in relief, Kohma gave thanks to the Goddess above for their safe deliverance from peril... And then they sank.

"They hell?!" He shouted as the sound of the thrusters immediately died away. It wasn't until he saw a school of fish swimming past, that he realized what had happened.

"Did this idiot shuttle land us in a damn lake?" He asked, more annoyed than afraid. a gentle bump under their feet told him they'd hit the bottom. Peering up through the window, he noted that the body of water couldn't have been more than twelve feet deep, and was relatively clear. Most likely, the top of their craft was still above water-level.

Kohma sighed again... "I hope you all can swim."

And then they sprung a leek as some shrieking creature's head slammed through a porthole, trying it's best to rip their organs from their torsos.

Isaiah had made it safely aboard his Battlecruiser. He rested for a moment, and then a thought struck him... There was certainly more than one escape shuttle aboard the Urthan ship. He quickly scanned the region for distress signals, and found several hundred. He narrowed the scan to only include his section, nearby planets. They couldn't have gotten far in an escape shuttle.

Isaiah found a beacon that confirmed his thoughts. The troublesome crew, or at least some survivors, had made it outside of the battle zone to planet Weltaria-5. He knew exactly where they'd landed. He also knew that no survivors should be allowed to escape, unless they were in body bags.

After his ship had made the jump, Isaiah quickly readied a descent ship, and dropped to the surface of planet Weltaria-5.

He had landed very close to where the beacon had cut off, but he could imagine WHY it would cut off. The last signal from the beacon came from just above a lake.

Noticing the breathtaking landscape, Isaiah noted how he'll take a vacation here after this assignment was over. But he quickly shook the thought away, saying "Duty first, unfortunately..."

Knowing that this makeshift squad had at least a modicum of skill, Isaiah predicted that they'd make it out of the lake.

All he had to do was wait for them..

Making sure his pistol was loaded, Ryan glanced at Kohma, tossed him his last regenerative, and said, "Here, you look in bad shape. Use this."

Drawing his axe, Ryan moved toward the exit hatch, and waited for everyone to prepare before he opened it up.

Kohma felt better almost immediately after swallowing the queer substance. The following rush of warmth throughout his body made him chillingly aware of how bad a shape he had been in moments before.

"Alright, I'm ready when you're ready." Kohma said, stretching his limbs, "Let's hurry up before one of those fuckers busts all the way through." He was fairly certain he could see more than one large shadow lurking about outside.

Dante leaned in his seat closing his eyes.

"Tired sir?" said Second In Command Hewwet.

"Very," he said letting his hair slide over his eyes and blur his vision.

The space ship wasn't the largest yet it was still roomy. Even though it didn't have all the commodities of a larger ship it was still something Dante could call his own. The cloaking devise was Dante's primary reason for buying the ship; as when your a thief, getting the upper hand is always a must. Why just earlier on this even the entire ship managed to sneak its why beside a armed weapon cargo and Dante and his small group of men managed to steal up to 25 silver in a few short hours.

"I guess killing a few hundred soldiers after sneaking aboard their ship, stealing their weapons, and using said weapons to kill them could be a bit tiring." said Hewwet in a comical tone.

"Indeed it is," said Dante closing his eyes completely relaxed.

He had almost drifted into a deep sleep when something firmly grasp upon his shoulder causing him to stir a bit.

"KAAAAA!!" came a sharp angered sound into his left ear. The sound was so loud and unexpected Dante fell from his chair.

"Mort.." sighed Dante realizing it was his pet raven eyeing him curiously.

"KAAAA!!" shouted the raven again happy to announce his arrival.

"How close are we to home Hewwet," said Dante wiping the dirt from his jacket and sitting back down.

"Let me fined out," said Hewwet typing in some buttons on the computer, "What the.. No the computer must be malfunctioning.."

"What is it?" said Dante with a small amount of curiosity.

"It says Urth 'Does not compute'," said Hewwet typing in more buttons.

Dante glanced at the empty space curiously.

"Full speed," said Dante firmly.

It only took briefly for the ship to reach its 'destination'; large floating masses of lava.

Dante pondered how Urth had managed to be destroyed but decided it better to find out from the next planet over.

"Let us ask our neighbor planet if they know what has happened," said Dante sitting back down.

Broadfish looked like a planet made up of a single rainforest, and because of that, made it extremely hard to find a good place to park a ship without forgetting its location.

"Land on that clear spot of grass over there by that lake," said Dante, "We will walk to a nearby civilization from there."

"Yes sir," said Hewwit.

The ship landed quietly and the crew walked out assessing the environment.