The Champion of Fire
Mechavax Short Story #4
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Dragons do not bark.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Every five minutes, this was the message coming from the enemy’s vessel. It’s been two weeks since Joe Mak first spotted the large battleship in sector 4 near Moon. It was her job to keep an eye on it until Prometheus decided what action to take.
Joe specialized in stealth and reconnaissance. After finding the enemy battleship, she sent the information back to Earth and went into dark mode. It was time to observe.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Dragons do not bark.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Her patience did not waiver, not even for a nanosecond. Imagine, what if Joe’s information was what helped the Daomyo to get out of the deadlock with the Demi-urge, changing the course of the war! But she was getting ahead of herself.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Dragons do not bark.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Her thoughts were interrupted by friendlies appearing on her radar. Did she count them correctly? Did Prometheus really just send two cruisers and a battleship? If fully occupied, this represents roughly 10% of the Daomyo’s forces. After the appearance of [name of first ascendant to appear] and the subsequent boost to the Earth’s morale, the AI wants to win this fight and it wants to win it now.
She can relate. Strike once, strike hard, win the fight. This is what the instructors drilled into them in training. This mantra represented the way of the Nexus, recon specialists, since Daomyo was established.
Enough internal rambling, time to report. She pressed a few buttons and was connected directly to the commanding officer. He appeared on her screen.
Sergeant Mak, thank you for keeping an eye on the enemy for us.
Of course sir, my pleasure. What is the plan of action?
Prometheus and the other AIs were thinking hard about what to do here. Loki said this smells like a trap, but Prometheus and Odin won the argument, saying that we should try to capture the battleship, or at least destroy it. Has there been any movement?
No sir. Nothing but that annoying message, every five minutes.
Dragons do not bark, right? Nobody on Earth knows what it might mean.
Yes sir. Something does feel off…
Don’t worry, Sergeant. We will approach the enemy and once we are five clicks away, we’ll light her up. If the battleship doesn’t defend, our troops will board and we’ll take it back to the Cradle. The nerds and the mechanics will have a field day!
Yes sir. Awaiting orders, sir.
Keep observing, Sergeant. Tell us if you see anything.
Yes sir. Mak out.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Dragons do not bark.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Something was not right, she was sure. The feeling in her gut got worse when the cavalry arrived. If she could only focus…
Dragons…
Do not bark…
Who does bark? Dogs. Why? Because they are hungry? Yes, that too. Because they want your attention? Sometimes. Because they are protecting something and are warning you to not come closer? Yes, that’s it!
Warning you…
Do not bark…
OH SHIT!
Sir, something is going to happen! I believe we will be attacked!
What’s that, Sergeant? Do you see anything?
No sir, but I have a really bad feeling about this. I advise that you pull back the ships until further recon can be performed.
Sergeant, if you don’t see anything, we’ll continue with the attack. You’ve been watching the enemy for two weeks. We are almost at the designated distance.
The feeling in her gut told her to get away as fast as possible, to hide until danger is over!
No movement by the enemy. The turrets are not moving, no fighters flying out of the hangars. We’re at five clicks, sir.
Fire, on my mark.
Three.
Two.
But before the countdown ended, it happened.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the creature arrived.
It was five times larger than a regular fighter, bigger than anything living she has ever seen. It seemed as if it was running through space on its four legs, its tail swooshing behind it. It had wicked talons and long teeth that were shining in the starlight.
It moved so fast.
It crashed into the first cruiser’s engines, tearing them apart with its talons one by one. In a heartbeat, the cruiser exploded.
She could not believe her eyes, but the creature looked like… A dragon.
Another heartbeat later and it was already at the second cruiser. The dragon rammed the cruiser’s rear starboard side once, twice, three times, just as it was about to fire at the enemy battleship.
This caused the cruiser to move to port towards the battleship, firing its nuke directly at it at point-blank range.
It hit the hangar area.
Joe was surprised that the explosion was not larger. It did enough damage for fires and small explosions to spread like wildfire throughout the battleship. It took no more than 10 seconds before all life aboard was extinguished.
The dragon did not rest. It ripped the remaining cruiser apart from stern to bow, immobilizing it.
Joe found it strange that the dragon moved away from the cruiser at that point. It looks like it was abandoning the fight. Maybe there is still a chance…
But all her hopes were squashed when the dragon stopped in mid-distance and turned around. It seemed to inflate and then breathed fire at the cruiser, engulfing it in an inferno.
Once the flames went out half a minute later, the cruiser was simply… Gone.
At this point, Joe could barely breathe.
Her eyes told her what happened, but her brain just could not catch up to the reality.
All three ships, gone.
10% of the Daomyo’s fighting forces, gone.
In less than a minute.
Once the dragon disappeared, she carefully sped away from sector 4 and back to Earth. She was already putting the facts in order to explain what happened to Prometheus. She was glad her recordings were intact. Otherwise, people might not believe her.
Just before she was out of reach, she heard the message once again. This time, it shook her to her core.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Dragons do not bark.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
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