Ruin of Dragons Read online

  From her hip, the handheld sounded another alert, this one shrill and sustained. Mira didn't need to look at it to know what it meant.

  They were out of time.

  As if to punctuate this, a low bellow issued out of the forest to their right, sounding like the rumble of thunder on top of crumbling stone and sending a wave of vibration through the ground. Both women stopped cold, listening intently. In the silence, they could hear voices over the communicator, those of the captain, the wizard, and an unfamiliar young woman that was practically shouting. Mira spoke up, "I do hate to interrupt, but we've just reached zero hour." Her eyes widened as a jet of orange flame could be seen in the distance, lancing up from the ground into the trees, setting limbs on fire and filling the air with the acrid smell of sulfur.

  "Time's up," she said. "Emergence is now."

  standoff

  Aris had been listening to the young woman patiently, but at this he looked up at Gareth, Mira's tense voice cutting through again. "Repeat, Emergence is now."

  Aris nodded and quickly stood up, holstering his sidearm and turning back to Petra. "Duty calls, kid. Trust us," he said gravely, his expression urgent. Petra nodded and stood up as well.

  Gareth continued to drink his last glass down to a half, then dumped the remainder over his head. Returning the glass to the bar, he ran his hands through his hair to slick it down, then turned to see the young woman still standing there. "Go," he said, and there was no mistaking the edge in his voice. Petra seemed to wake up and spun for the door.

  "Copy that, Veil," Aris said into his communicator as the young woman darted for the exit. "Get to your positions, we're on our way."

  "Acknowledged," Mira's voice came back.

  Aris turned to Gareth. "You good?"

  "About forty ounces, maybe," Gareth said, standing up. "Should be enough." Shrugging out of his cloak as they walked for the door, he handed it to Aris as they stepped out onto the covered walk. He took one last look right and watched as Petra sprinted across the street and disappeared between the buildings on the north side.

  He thumbed a switch on his staff that retracted the segmented lower half, collapsing it to a three-foot length that he flipped over his shoulder and attached to the mounting clamp on his back.

  Aris slapped him on the arm. "I'll keep her occupied until you're in position. Good luck," he said, grinning as he turned to head the opposite direction.

  "Happy hunting," the wizard said as Aris disappeared around the corner. Gareth took a breath then broke into a run as he started down the covered walk, his long, loping gait carrying him quickly. Picking up speed as the walk sloped away from him, he practically flew toward the edge of town, paying no attention to the odd looks he was getting from random passersby as they were forced to step hastily out of his way.

  A shattering crash sounded from the forest just past town, and his sprint faltered a bit as the outermost trees tumbled suddenly sideways as a black mass emerged from within before becoming obscured by a giant roiling fireball.

  And in that instant, there was chaos. People standing in the walk were suddenly running the opposite direction, horses were pulling at their ties or bolting for cover, and a general clamor of shouts was beginning to rise. Gareth shouldered his way through, continuing toward the edge of town as a crack like thunder shook the air.

  The split-second wash of heat was his only warning. He slid to a halt and spun away, ducking his head and grabbing for the walk railing as the building at the end of the lane flew completely apart in a shattering explosion of wood and metal. The covered walk acted like a flume, propelling an expulsion of dust and debris up the walk and pelting Gareth with shards of glass and chunks of masonry.

  He waited a couple beats then turned back, brushing wood chips out of his hair as he continued on his way. Before reaching the crater at the end of the walk, he leaped out into the street and picked his sprint back up as he passed outside the edge of town. Directly ahead was the smoking hole in the treeline where the creature had emerged from the forest. He entered at a run, heading directly up the middle of the black gout cut through the trees, hoping to make up time as he raced for the extraction point.

  • • •

  Aris shouldered through the trees on the east side of town and stepped into the clearing where they had encamped. Looming above him in the center of the barren flat, taking up almost the entire area was the black hulking shape of Vermithrax, Aris's Hunter-class deep-space cruiser. Utilitarian in design with a wide stance, an aggressive posture, all straight lines and sharp angles, it stared down at him as he cut around to the side where the port hatch steps were still down.

  He ran his hand absently along the smooth black dragonscale armor as he went, fairly leaping up into the ship and slapping the hatch release as he ran by. He bolted up the corridor, onto the cockpit and bounded into the captain's chair, pulling the vessel into the air before he had even strapped in. Vermithrax lifted above the trees and Aris could see a black winged serpentine shape rising into the air near the south edge of town. And even from this distance, it looked enormous.

  It loped upward groggily, contracting its neck, then opened its jaw wide as it dipped back down, expelling the molten mineral slough that had collected in its gullet, remnants of the last of the creature's intake before hibernation, along with a burst of plasma generated from its digestive core. It was the functional equivalent of clearing its throat, but the expulsion hit the first building in the row full force, the slag and plasma creating an explosion of superheated air and flame that completely destroyed the structure.

  It shook its head as if to clear it, then started winging its way north toward the center of town. Aris was leaning into his controls, pushing the ship to intercept. The creature dipped again, retching up a second load of molten slag onto another unsuspecting building as Aris swung the ship over and put himself into the dragon's path.

  The creature lifted its head and caught sight of the black vessel suddenly hanging in the air in front of it. "That's right, look at me," Aris said, watching the dragon approach.

  It backflapped, slowing itself to a near halt, then brought its bulk down heavily, landing on the covered spire of the courthouse bell tower. The roofing crumbled under the weight, the bell itself tumbling out and down to the street, ringing discordantly as it landed in a broken clatter on the pavement below. The main structure of the tower held, however, and the creature reared back, spreading its great leathery wings wide in a classic threat display, issuing a hissing shriek that echoed in Aris's earpiece.

  "Got your attention now," he said, smiling.

  Striking forward with alarming intensity, the dragon opened wide and let loose a powerful blast of plasma that washed across Vermithrax's hull like liquid. Protected by the composite dragonscale outer skin, it flowed off the sides, raining down onto the covered walk below and setting everything it touched ablaze.

  "Dammit," Aris grumbled. "Is everything in this town flammable?" As the beast drew back and hunched its shoulders, preparing for another blast, Aris punched the throttle. "Let's take this somewhere else, shall we?" he said as Vermithrax lurched forward, slamming full force into the creature and carrying it bodily backward away from the center of town. The dragon's limbs flailed, and the wings were pushed up against the ship's hull with the sudden thrust of inertia.

  The right wing, as it flapped across the top of the vessel, managed to completely obscure the front viewport as the ship lobbed itself past the treeline and out over the northern skirt of the forest. Flying blind, Aris slapped a panel to bring the heads-up display online. An infrared image of the surrounding topography flickered to life, overlaid on top of the currently dark viewport, just in time for Aris to see the trees below rising swiftly to meet him.

  Instead of pulling up, he angled in steeper, dropping down into the forest itself, hoping to use the trees to dislodge his unwanted passenger. Aris hel
d on tight as the ship bucked and shook as it dove in, its sharp shape and reinforced armor allowing it to cut into the trees, shearing off many near ground level to create a wide wake. The drive emissions mixed with the dragon's angry plasma bursts to create a fiery trail behind, covering everything in black ash.

  As the ship continued to vibrate violently, Aris watched as the wing covering the viewport slipped down, affording half a view, then disappeared entirely as the creature was pulled underneath the vessel. Feeling more than sufficiently rattled, Aris pulled up sharply, bringing the ship back up into the air. He leveled off and turned back to the great flaming gout he had just carved into the forest. As he hovered, he heard Mira's voice in his ear.

  "Veil to Castle, Wasp and I are in position."

  "Copy that," Aris said. "Lure, what's your status?"

  "Two minutes, Castle," Gareth's voice said.

  "Acknowledged. Everyone stand by." Aris rotated the ship, looking for the dragon, checking the infrared overlay but not seeing any sign of the creature's thermals. "All right, where'd you go?"

  He scanned the forest directly below, the area around Vermithrax, even the airspace above Turic. Nothing. He checked his equipment for malfunctions. With internal temperatures exceeding most blast furnaces, dragons couldn't simply hide from proper sensor arrays.

  He frowned. "Castle to Kingsguard," he said. "Target is evading sensors, anyone have a visual?"

  "Negative, Castle," Mira's voice said. "Eye line is obstructed—"

  The comm was drowned out as a high pitched metallic screech cut through the interior of the ship, echoing all the way to the rear hold. Aris spun to his side monitor, switching to external sensors. Nearly obscured in shadow between the lower engine cowlings, a spiked tail was faintly visible, scraping along the underside of the ship.

  "You little sneak," Aris breathed, "you hid in my exhaust bloom." As he watched, the long, jagged head appeared as the creature crawled up under the rear of the ship, its glowing red eyes visible even on the small display. "Never mind guys, I found—"

  He was cut off as the dragon struck out suddenly, the ship lurching sideways. Aris grabbed the controls and pulled back hard, pointing the ship straight up. "All right, time to get off," he said, punching the thrusters to maximum, the creature scrabbling suddenly backward.

  Vermithrax shuddered slightly as the dragon managed to latch a set of claws into the rear manifold to keep from tumbling completely off the ship. After a second the creature hoisted itself around into a position where it could begin to crawl back up the underside. "You're a tough old girl," Aris said. Twisting the controls, he sent the ship into a corkscrew spin, trying to shake the dragon loose, but it held tight, finding a seam in the engine cowling to jam a wing claw into. With a squeal of stressed metal that vibrated through the interior of the ship, the creature pulled back, the panel peeling off completely to spin away into the open, revealing the hydraulics for the left rear stabilizer.

  An angry alert flashed on his console. "Yes, I know there's a skin breach," Aris said as he watched the creature peer into the new hole. The scale outer armor protected the vessel from the dragon's corrosive plasma, but underneath was standard ships alloy that wouldn't last a minute under a direct dragonfire assault. If the creature figured out it had found an opening—

  Aris nearly froze as the dragon shoved the end of its jaws into the hole, but instead of releasing a jet of flame, it twisted its head back and forth, as if trying to break something loose. "Are you eating my ship?" he said, incredulous.

  Gareth's voice sounded in his comm. "Um, Castle? I'm in position now. Are you leaving without us?"

  The creature's jaw came out of the hole, dragging with it several chunks of bracing and some dangling cable. "She's eating my ship! Yes, I know!" Aris yelled at the console as a second warning alert flashed up beside the first, adding its screeching warble to the din. He leaned back on the controls to give Vermithrax as strong a spin as possible. Defiantly, the dragon held on tighter, only shoving its head even farther into the hole.

  "It's made of metal," Gareth said. "Of course she's eating it."

  Blood was rushing to his head, and he was beginning to get dizzy. "This isn't normal! They're supposed to think the ship is a threat, not breakfast!"

  "This one's old, she probably knows better." Gareth sounded like he was laughing. "You'd be hungry if you got up from a four-hundred-year nap and someone was keeping you from getting to that tasty vein of silver just under town."

  "You're not helping!" Aris shouted, releasing the controls and letting the ship pull out of its spin. He exhaled heavily and checked his instruments. He had been traveling straight up, and if he had enough altitude, there was something else he could try. He reached over to the weapons panel and unlatched the electromagnetic pulse control cover, arming the system.

  The ship's EMP was designed as a defense against technological system attacks, but it had the side benefit of being useful against dragons as well. Not typical carbon life forms, dragons possessed a silicon-based biochemistry, and had a physiology akin to living stone, which made them much more sensitive to magnetic forces. The EMP in a focused burst would disrupt the creatures' neural functions, disorient and likely completely impede their gross motor control. But while electromagnetic defenses were useful against the creatures, they held no permanence, their effects lasting no more than a handful of moments.

  But a moment was all Aris needed.

  The major drawback, however, was that the EMP would also damage the ship's own electrical systems, which was why it was originally designed to be used while the vessel was powered down. Aris had heard of attempts made at midair EMP discharges, but the ship would have to be at an extremely high altitude to allow enough time in freefall for the ship's systems to be rebooted.

  But Aris had nowhere near enough altitude, nor enough time to get there. Switching the engines or critical systems to standby was one thing, but to power down the ship in its entirety took time. A system as complex as the one required to keep Vermithrax running smoothly had redundancies built upon redundancies to keep the vessel functioning in the event of any subsystem failure. This meant that under normal circumstances the ship could not simply be shut down with the flip of a switch. Systems had to be powered down in sequence, with proper safeties employed.

  But this was far from a normal circumstance.

  And Aris had made sure he did have the ability to completely shut down the ship with the flip of a switch. It had been rigged with a deadman switch that would bypass the safety protocols and simply kill power to every system on board. It would play havoc with the ship's computer and navigation, and likely short out many of the smaller subsystems, but it would remove at least ten minutes from the equation, which was Aris's primary concern at the moment.

  Like the EMP, it sat behind a latched cover to prevent accidental arming. He opened the panel and rested his left hand on it, his right hovering over the EMP control. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath—

  And turned both switches at the same time.

  The cabin went dark as every system on the ship simultaneously cut out with a deep thrumming boom. He felt it vibrate through his ribcage as it resonated the entire length of the vessel, plunging everything into a sudden deafening silence. In the same instant, the EMP control released the focused charge of energy the system had built up. Silent and invisible, the pulse fired outward, washing through the skin and expanding away from the ship, the only indication of its passing being the odd tingling sensation Aris felt as the wave passed through him.

  To the dragon it was far more violent than a tingle, and the creature reacted exactly as Aris had hoped, seizing up in a convulsive fit, releasing its hold on the ship as its limbs contracted in great paralytic twitches. Its rear claws scraped noisily along the underside as it fell out into the open, and finally the ship was silent.

  Its upward momentum waning
, Vermithrax slowly succumbed to the pull of gravity. It reached the apex of its parabolic arc and Aris had the brief sensation of weightlessness before the craft began its freefall in earnest, nosing forward as it was buffeted by rising air currents.

  Aris had been counting the seconds since cutting the power, and upon reaching twenty he immediately reached up and flipped every switch on the power control panel above his head. Ignoring normal preflight procedure, he disengaged all safeties, kicked the engines past standby to full, angled all attitude thrusters to counter the ship's current forward roll, and waited for systems to come back online. Control panel lights on the center console blinked as the computer system rebooted, monitors flickered back to life and a rumble could be felt through the bones of the ship as the engines started to warm.

  Aris grinned as Vermithrax woke back up, shuddering as stabilizers kicked in and finally ceasing its forward rotation as maneuvering thrusters started to fire. He pointed the nose back down with the fall, noticing as he did the dragon in its own freefall not far below him. The wings had gone limp and it was plummeting in a corkscrew spin. A sudden burst of flame escaped from the mouth and one of the legs kicked out as it seemed to be waking up as well. The head swung back and forth, then straight down as it appeared to realize what was happening, stretching its wings shakily as it tried to bring its own spin under control.

  The ship, falling faster, slowly caught up until the two were level with each other. Aris watched as the creature shook its head violently one last time, then opened its red eyes wide to lock directly onto his gaze.

  There was a moment of pause as both sides stared, frozen. Then like a spell lifting, the dragon threw its wings wide, shrieked loudly and launched itself back at the ship.