Skyfire Avenue

Is...is she even human?

He wasn’t alone. Everyone onboard Majesty stared in utter disbelief. Everyone who saw it was at a total loss.

The ship arrived just as Luo Xianni became her present size. By then Majesty was going hundreds of meters per second toward a sudden obstruction. To her, Majesty was about the size of an infant.

Luo Xianni waved pleasantly at Majesty. To a Paragon of her standing, Blinding Stones might as well have been glass baubles. Majesty obediently headed her direction and removed its cloak.

She gently patted the ship as it nearly. “Hehehe,” she tittered. “This picture’s for you, little math whiz. Do what you will, but I won’t have blood on my hands.” The picture was released and remained frozen in space in front of her.

“What should we do, Mistress Photographer?” The Accountant asked dumbly.

She smirked. “Attack! Destroy the photograph. Everything in it will be destroyed as well. I’m not doing it, understand?”

Luo Xianni then shrunk before their eyes back to her normal height. The Paragon sat cross-legged on top of Majesty and prepared for the show.

“Captain?” The members of the Accountant’s team looked at him, at a complete loss to understand what they were supposed to do. It was the Adept in charge of the weapons systems that nervously called for his attention.

“Didn’t you hear Mistress Photographer? Fire, all guns!” Majesty had been equipped with a number of luxury installations, like phylactery stones. Soldiers in charge of the vessel were under standing orders to charge them up when time allowed. It gave them an excuse to cultivate more.

They held the energy of eight hundred soldiers, infusing them twice a day. One could imagine how much of a reservoir they were.

Majesty’s main guns had charged on the flight over. Its cannon’s flared to life again, unleashing a beam of energy right into the photograph.

The picture rippled from the impact. After the blast, it looked crumpled but otherwise unhurt.

Destroying one of Luo Xianni’s pictures wiped out everything within it, even space. However, pictures like this had their limitations. By its nature the picture’s sturdiness was proportional to what it was a picture of. Put another way, Majesty needed enough firepower to take a battleship if it wanted to destroy this picture.

Simply put, Luo Xianni only acted to seal their enemies away. She eliminated their ability to fight back. As a result her own side could fire to their heart’s content. The battle was won, so long as they had the firepower to destroy their objective.

As far as control-type Disciplines were concerned, hers was among the best.

It took three blasts from Majesty’s main gun to destroy the photograph. When it did finally rupture, the picture and everything around it was devoured into a black hole. Majesty crew were briefly afraid they would be swallowed up as well. They swiftly retreated, leaving nothing behind of the pirate armada.

ζ

Planet Moonfiend.

The Moonfiend Palace was surrounded. After all, the pirates who called this place home were the strongest in all the Shattered Starfields, even before you included the smaller clans it’s incorporated. Planet Moonfiend was their playground.

The leaders of the clan spent the bulk of their time here, and some were allowed quarters. On the one hand it was a symbol of status, but it was also a means of control.

The smaller clan surrounding the palace got word of the attack, and began to gather their forces. They marched to retake the seat of their power. However, what they met was Moonfiend Palace’s overwhelming defenses.

Their attack was coordinated. Pirate clans assaulted the palace’s shields from every angle. More than five thousand mechas milled around like a host of angry ants. Beams of energy ceaselessly struck the shields, making them undulate. However when the shields were designed, they were made to withstand assault from battleships. Even the pirates’ armadas would need time to break through, if they still existed.

The shields started to dim under the sustained attack. The pirates outside, though, were losing contact with more of their brothers inside. As they shouted into communicators their eyes were drawn to the palace’s tallest tower. There, a bright flash blinded them as its cannon fired. Scores of other guns peaked out from various windows. The fortress was veritably bristling with firepower. They started to fire every which way, at anything that got too close.

Pirate mechas exploded all around the palace like fireworks. The palace’s defenses were active, which meant their fortress had fallen into enemy hands.

The largest ray of light from the palace’s tallest tower swept through the airborne mecha suits. After one pass the hundred or so suits were nothing more than wisps of steam. That was their railgun – a mini-railgun, to be precise.

Many of the five thousand pirates who’d come to retake their palace were taken off guard. As the Moonfiend Palace’s defenses ramped up, the pirates that survived were the ones fast enough to engage their shields and find cover.

Within the Moonfiend Palace control center.

Su Xiaosu had replaced Lan Jue in front of the control panels. Her eyes were fixed on the screen while her fingers danced across the keyboard. The Moonfiend Empress’ lips were pressed tightly together, making her look irate.

Lan Jue sat beside Gabriel.

The angel was quiet as a monk. He watched the situation outside evolve, pirates running every direction like headless flies. He knew the clan was finished. After all the time, effort and resources they put into the Moonfiend Pirates, this was how they ended.

“No need for anyone to rush back. Instead go clear out the other cities on Moonfiend. They won’t be getting passed our defenses.” Lan Jue delivered his orders to Zeus-1 and Brigades three and four.

Star Division had total control over the palace now. The pirates who were within when the operation commenced were tenaciously hunted down and eliminated. The pirates they ran into were strong, but routed. They were fumbling to find a means to flee, and had no will to fight. Once they discovered there was no way out, their only option was to fight to the death.

Unfortunately they had met their match in Third and Fourth Brigade. The two brigades together numbered five hundred souls. Wherever they went, enemies fled in terror! Nothing the pirate possessed could halt the Star Division’s inevitable march. The fighting was quick.

The Driver was the one in charge of the railgun. He had control of the high ground, and was in contact with Lan Jue in the control room. His last blast had been at Xiaosu’s command. The gun was so powerful that it needed to cool down after each shot. It took around thirty seconds for it to be prepped for another round. However, in that one blast the Driver reduced the pirate’s fighting force by two thirds. The others weren’t eager to be vaporized.

“What in the world were you and the Citadel thinking? Light and righteousness doesn’t seem to be your aim – youe boss has chosen to walk a dark path. Why?” Lan Jue was genuinely curious as he asked the question of Gabriel.

The Messenger of Death shot him a glance but didn’t say anything. Lan Jue was a predator, and saying anything to him wasn’t going to help the situation.

Lan Jue patted Gabriel’s shoulder, then stood and walked over to the former Moonfiend Empress. “Don’t grieve,” he told her. “The past is the past. When we leave here, it’ll be the beginning of your new life.”

She gently nodded her head, but a pain flitted across her eyes. “This place is a product of my blood, sweat and tears. It’s hard to give it up.” She kept typing as she spoke. Her fingers never slowed and the palace’s defenses continued to wreak havoc on the forces outside. Their forces didn’t engage the enemy, they didn’t need to. So long as they kept swapping out old gems with new ones, the defense systems could fight indefinitely.

Lan Jue didn’t say anything more to try and convince her. Some things had to be decided personally.

“The two secondary planets have been handled. The mighty tortoise has become an empty turtle shell. The armada for the other planet’s been silenced.” The Accountant’s voice reported. Lan Jue’s communicator was on speaker, everyone could hear him. Xiaosu snuck a furtive look at her boss and nodded her head.

It was a proclamation. It meant they’d won.

Zeus-1 and the battleships taken by the other divisions were scouring the planet, eliminating any resistance they found. Three battleships against a routed host of mechas – the results were easy to guess.

The pirates fighting to gain entry into the palace didn’t have the firepower to do it. The railguns on the secondary planets couldn’t reach them here. Even if they couldn’t, they’d be firing blindly.

In the end this was different from their excursion against the Red Widows. The asteroids around Arachnid were more like satellites or small moons than partner planets. They were smaller, and closer together.