World Sphere - 215

Chapter 215: 

The nine skyships of the Bruton fleet were mostly mid-sized warships. The Wasp spotters in our fleet identified them over the echo stones as we closed the distance. 

“Three Klithye Eels.”

“The scout coming in from above is an old Kratoire Skirmisher.”

“The big boy in the center is a Titorgon Mining Platform that they just added some cannons to.”

“The other four are Eslam Escorts.”

I was sorting out the implications of what I was hearing. Not a single homemade warship? I only knew the Eslam Escorts were from a human kingdom, but I couldn’t find it on a map if you pressed me. It was clear they were buying up old warships in the Sphere somewhere and creating a sky navy. As the reports came in noting the vectors and speeds of the enemy, it added another layer of complexity to the mystery. They were faster than they should have been.

That was good news for me, as my reward would be their aether crystals; however, it also created a mystery. Lowland kingdoms like this could not afford a fleet of skyships unless they had a lucrative dungeon within their influence or a massive population to tax. From what I had reviewed on the Bruton Kingdom, they only had half a dozen minor dungeons—nothing deeper than five levels. This was very similar to Skyholme, but my islands didn’t have borders to defend, and the Triumvirate had a stranglehold on the economy for so long that they could support a defense fleet.

Admiral Gelanes was now the only voice coming across the echo stone now. “High Mage, it is time to earn your reward. All ships target the Klithye Eels on the first pass. I want at least two of them falling from the sky!”

Cheers erupted and died down enough for me to speak, “Admiral, I am going to handle the Kratoire scout before it can rejoin the fleet. The Night Wraith is going to focus on the Kilthye Eel farthest left.” 

I then pulled a communication crystal for Captain Pakkam to talk to him directly. “Stay on the edge of the combat cloud in support. After the first pass, reactivate your invisibility.”

“Orders confirmed High Mage. Good hunting!” He barked back, and the stone went quiet. 

The Maelstrom was still invisible as I accelerated hard and veered upward. The scout ship was racing to consolidate the orc fleet. Bleiz agitatedly asked, “You leaving us?”

“I smirked at my friend. No need,” I summoned two lightning elementals on the bridge and lowered the cargo ramp, ordering them off the ship when I passed. They would need to be dropped off in the enemy's aether shield envelope.” I braked hard, came around on their stern, and was wildly confused as the sailors and marines on deck were not orcs.

“Are those dragon men?” Bleiz asked as we approached.

“Too small. They are kobolds,” I replied, confused. As far as I knew, kobolds only resided in the Endless Dark. What were they doing in the Inner Sphere? I didn’t have time to figure it out. I fired the disrupter cannon, intending to take down their aether shields, but they had never raised them. Instead, the cannon's shot disrupted their control over the small ship. As they corkscrewed away, I got close enough to drop off the two lightning elementals. Both draconic beasts landed on the deck and tore into the panicking kobolds. 

“I did see two orcs on the bridge,” Bleiz noted as we zipped past. I was heading toward the main fleet engagement, and spells and aether cannons were already being exchanged. The Night Wraith appeared and unleashed its own impressive salvo at close range. Both swivel aether cannons were part of the barrage from not just the Night Wraith but also three other ships in the armada.

Ship aether ships flashed in the chaos of battle. Plumes and balls of flame erupted in the sky like fireworks, and lighting arced from between the ships. But it was the aether cannons that did the most damage. Large chunks of skyships and men were blown away and fell from the sky in the volley.

As the ships separated, the three Klithye Eels were slowing falling from the sky. Too many runes had been destroyed for them to maintain controlled flight. One of the Sadian Hawks had a fire on the deck but other than that, the fleet looked mostly unaffected. I guess they didn’t really need my services for the fight.

I unmuted the echo stone as damage and casualty reports arrived, mixed with the admirals' orders for coming about and the next attack run. The Sadians were missing eleven sailors, and there were three dead. The Ancestor’s Call was missing two crew members who had been blasted overboard. It angered me that a simple runic ring could have saved those men. They would have still fallen to the lowlands, but the ring would have controlled their landing. All my Skyguard had such rings.

Bleiz nudged me as Admiral Galanes was asking for our status. I checked on the scout ship, and its descent was accelerating to the lowlands. “The scout is down, Admiral. My elementals will clear the crew for salvage teams.”

“Excellent work, High Mage. The only weapons that got through shields were on the Mining Platform. We are going to focus on the platform next,” the Admiral stated.

Another captain interrupted, “They are withdrawing. The Escorts are tightening up and are covering the platform.”

I activated Maelstrom’s invisibility again and dove in an arcing run against the platform. They were trying to abscond with my reward, and the best aether crystals would be on the heavy platform due to its mass and number of aether cannons. “Admiral, the Night Wraith and Maelstrom will get below the platform and attack it from there. Draw the escorts up above it.”

The Admiral was slow in his reply, but eventually he confirmed my plan. Maybe I had stepped on his feet a bit. He began issuing orders to target the escorts. The platform was descending to were two of the Klithye Eels had set down, probably planning to defend their assets on the river were they landed. “Captain Pakkam?” I asked my dedicated communication stone.

“Orders, confirmed. We will be aft, port side,” he noted. That was smart as I had ot considered the logistics of having two invisible ships attacking the same target. It could get messy if we collided at high speeds.

Adrial and Kiara had been sitting at the forward viewing glass during the entire engagement, tails twitching in eagerness. They now watched as the Maelstrom descended onto the large oval mining platform. These massive discs were intended to land near a resource in the Sphere, mine or lumber it, and then fly to a city for processing. They were terribly slow, which was why I was surprised by how fast this one was moving.

The entire top deck was open, with orc sailors rushing about. I counted seven aether cannons coming to bear on us. Even though we were invisible, I still flew erratically, which was lucky, as two of the cannons flashed toward us- one deflecting off the aether shield and canceling our invisibility. The other five cannons opened fire, but I spoiled their aim by accelerating and darting below them.

The combat with the escorts was starting, so I muted it to focus. The disrupter cannon plowed into the belly of the platform, overloading runes and causing it to tilt. It was clear they had sacrificed shielding to give the platform more speed. This was a massive mistake, as there were no defenses on the belly of this beast. I switched to the powerful aether cannon and started to obliterate large chunks of the ship's hull. A few mages popped their heads out, but their spellcraft lacked the range to reach us.

The platform began to cartwheel, and Pakkam’s voice came through the communication stone, “You didn’t save anything for us, High Mage.”

“Maintain the Night Wraith’s and go capture the scout ship. Put a prize crew aboard. You said you wanted to season your crew,” I replied. I doubted the lightning elementals would have left anything alive.

A little reluctantly, Pakkam replied, “Understood, High Mage. Orders confirmed.” I think he wanted to be part of the larger fight.

The Maelstrom’s shields flashed, bringing my attention back to the platform, and I spun away. They had managed to get an aether cannon set to fire through the deck damage I had done. I was considering using my exchange ability with one of the gunners, but that platform was about to have one nasty crash, so I just pulled back and watched.

The battle above was mostly over, with one escort being harassed by Wasps as it retreated back to the lakeshore city. Most likely, that would destroy it, but it would be too close to the city to retrieve the aether crystals. Over the city, two other smaller skyships hung in the air, but the Admiral decided to focus on claiming our prizes and taking them back to Skyholme. The Sadian Hawks, full of marines, moved to land near the grounded ships. They would try to either take them as prizes or strip them of everything valuable. The two Harbingers positioned themselves to be ready to respond to any threat.

The platform had finally reached the ground. The four-hundred-foot-long oval didn’t look like it was moving fast, but it hit at a slight angle. The internal lattice of the hull crumbled as the mass pushed it into the earth. We could see bodies and timber beams being thrown across the rocky terrain.

“Hunt now, Father?” Kiara’s voice echoed in my head.

“Yes, hunt now,” I replied aloud, getting Adrial excited. “Bleiz, you have the ship.”

I descended to the cargo deck with the ramp extended. The Skyguard in the hull looked eager to join me, and I was about to tell them they were not coming, but Thibault bellowed, “Teams of four! Secure the vessel! No survivors!” 

They were already filing off the ship, but I stopped Neoma and Thibault, “One of you needs to stay on the Maelstrom with Bleiz.” Neoma smirked and did a backflip off the ramp, waving at Thibault as she went to join the other Skyguard. I summoned my limit of three elementals and sent them to join the Skyguard. There was no point in risking the lives of anyone.

I walked calmly toward the wreckage with the cats flanking me. I could tell they wanted to join the slaughter, but I didn’t release them. The only resistance was a pair of mages who survived the crash. One managed to injure a Wolfsguard with a swarm of daggers, overwhelming the young Wolfsguard’s defenses, but two of the lightning elementals used their breath weapon on the human mage a heartbeat later. The other mage, a dark elf, only cast a single fire lance and was deflected with an aether shield ring the Skyguard wore. The lightning elementals didn’t leave anything behind to examine.

As I walked among the debris, most of the crew appeared to be orcs clad in steel cuirasses and leather leggings. It was clearly converted into a warship. I paused to extract as much gold and platinum as possible from the runes while searching for the crystals. There were only trace amounts of mithril on some of the control runes. As an artificer, I was confused about why they would use such a large ship for this purpose. It would cost thousands of gold to maintain such a sizable skyship for the purposes of war. They would have been better served using these resources across three smaller vessels. 

I found one of the aether cannons buried halfway into the ground. I was disturbed to find it was newly artificed—most likely within the last month, from what my metal sense was telling me. The aether feed was mithril, but the rest of the simple runes were only platinum. Pakkam communicated that the scout ship was crewed and in the air, but I would need to review the runes as they were having difficulty flying it.

Neoma called me over from the wreckage, one of the Skyguard teams had found what was left of the control room. I used my flight spell to ascend the wreckage and examine the aether crystals. Touching the exposed metal allowed me to send my senses into the metal pathways and find the crystals: a pair of small tier seven crystals. Excellent for a small ship, but for a vessel this size, with the number of aether cannons we noted, it would only be effective for a few hours. I pulled all the platinum and mithril feeds I could reach and then floated down to retrieve the pair of crystals. These were more power than the Bacon and Eggs needed, but I could always add upgrades to utilize the excess aether.

“The Admiral is ready to leave,” Bleiz’s voice echoed. By his tone, I could tell he was not happy he had been left on the Maelstrom.

“What is the haul?” I asked.

“They got two Klithye Eels and one of the Eslam escorts into the sky. I don’t know what they took from the other downed skyships,” he replied in a bored tone. There are a few hundred riders coming from the city, but it will be four or five hours before they reach the first wreckage.

“Understood,” I replied. I gave Neoma the command to withdraw and take everything of value. That meant searching the dead.

When the Maelstrom lifted off, I received an order from the Admiral and finally realized why they had wanted me on this expedition. “High Mage, tall, the prize ships need your artificing skill, and the Lucky Squid and Wandering Crow need repairs as well.” They needed me along to make sure the prize ships got back to Skyholme, and all damage to our ships was repaired.

It was still very much worth it. In addition to the modest-sized paired tier-seven crystals, I was also getting six smaller tier-six crystals. These could be used in skiffs but not in skyships, as their capacity was not enough for long voyages. Apparently, the orcs only planned to attack the skyships that entered their short range. It was not surprising as that was how Skyholme also operated most of its fleet.

I repaired the Klithye Eels first. They were long, skinny, aerodynamic skyships without sails. The runes on the ships were somewhat amateurish but functional. The Lucky Squid and Wandering Crow were Sadian Hawks, and I replenished their runes while I was on board as a thank you for the assistance. The last ship was the scout that Pakkam had captured. Due to the agreement, I was only going to receive the small tier seven crystal powering it, but I was okay with that. When I added the value of all the crystals together, their value probably exceeded 600,000 gold. I even transferred the spoils my Skyguard had looted as a show of good faith—but I forgot to include the metal I had looted—it must have slipped my mind.

The admiral debriefed me on the battle. Based on what they had found, the Bruton Kingdom was trading heavily with people in the Endless Dark. He didn’t know what that meant or what they were trading, but crew members, artificers, and mages from the Endless Dark were found on all the skyships fighting alongside the Bruton Orcs.

“Could it be the other way around?” I asked. When the admiral looked confused, I explained, “Could the Bruton Kingdom be subservient to someone or something in the Endless Dark?” The admiral seemed shocked he hadn’t thought of it. They only had three prisoners, but they would question them more thoroughly with magic when they returned to Skyholme.

It took two extra days to return to Skyholme, even with me switching out the lesser aether crystals on the captured ships. I had talked to Freya twice through our linked adamantine rings on the return trip, so everyone knew the expedition had succeeded.

During the trip, I artificed a quartet of swivel cannons and two hundred feather fall rings for my Skyguard. I would not lose a valuable Skyguard to being knocked off a skyship in battle or by accident. Once I saturated my ranks with the rings, I might offer to sell them to the Skyholme Navy close to cost.

When the islands got in sight, I took out the communication stone for Sana. “Sana, are you ready to go explore the Goblin Vault Dungeon?”

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