A Sinner's Eden-Chapter 166 - EVO

***Tirnanog, Aerie Flagship***

***Magnus***

“I believe this is going to get ugly.”

I studied the densely packed group of ships which managed to bypass the last of our defence line after punching a wide hole in the formation.

The remaining escort vessels, which were supposed to prevent our flagship from getting involved in the fighting, were caught out of position when the Thich split their forces for a final, desperate assault.

Whether our ships were faster or not, they were unable to turn and catch up in time. And even if, there were not enough of them to halt this self-sacrificial onslaught. Not to mention, most of them still had their own battles to fight.

“I believe the big one in the lead is Thich’s flagship,” Astra commented and pointed out the largest vessel. “It was at the last battle but stayed in the back.”

It was the biggest ship I had seen in Thich’s service, but Aerie’s flagship was in the same weight-class.

The way they were steering towards us with all their engines on full power meant they were looking for a fight.

“They seem determined to take us down together with them.” I clicked my tongue at the sight of the approaching flotilla.

“It is likely they finally realized why we were pushing them back so easily,” Vanya’s voice drew our attention away from the approaching ships. The girl and her bodyguard had sneaked up behind us while we were distracted.

“They want the flagship because it is the most likely location where we would keep a mobile wormhole generator.” The girl shrugged while her creepy bodyguard looked over her head, glaring either at us or the approaching ships – I couldn't tell for certain. The woman's new persona always seemed moody for no reason.

“It was only a question of time till they found out,” Vanya finished.

I returned my attention to the girl, deciding not to question how she had secured the former Thich diplomat's loyalty. If I ever decided I needed Vanya's help with Evanne and her 'partner', I should not point fingers.

“But how?” Astra asked, drawing Vanya's thoughtful gaze away from the approaching airships.

Vanya raised an eyebrow and looked at me pointedly. “Extracting Magnus's sister from Thich City with your teleportation ability was likely the final hint. There are no other explanations. A plethora of people have the necessary skills to extract a person who is under heavy surveillance, but none of them could whisk away the target without so much as a hint at how it was done. Anyone with a few working brain cells would have thought of a wormhole. And once the idea is in the room it explains many other things. Like our seemingly non-existent supply issues or the amount of troops we left stationed at each retaken settlement.”

She gestured with her hands, indicating the logical conclusion to the story was a given.

I winced. “That’s…”

“Do not worry,” Vanya interrupted. “They already had all the clues they needed, given how much pressure we put on Thich and Vier during the campaign. Under normal circumstances, our alliance would have never been able to push back their troops so quickly and decisively. Without the wormgate, our efforts would have ceased at Jeng’s mother tree for a long time. It would have taken us months to manage that mess with a normal supply line. We would have been stupid not to use such an advantage to its fullest once your elders revealed it. To me, it is surprising that none of Thich’s strategists realized sooner what was happening.”

She glanced past us at the approaching ships. “But enough of this. I came over to relay some important orders to you.”

“Oh?” Astra tilted her head questioningly.

“As soon as the fighting starts in earnest, it will be your job to take down that big ship,” Vanya said and pointed at Thich's flagship.

I raised an eyebrow. “Us against an entire airship which is probably filled to the brim with their best warriors? And what does 'earnest' fighting mean?”

The Matriarch rolled her eyes. “I never said you should fight them head on, numbskull. It means you wait with your mission till most of their heavy hitters are distracted. There are plenty of ways to sabotage an airship. You two are our best speedsters, so avoiding combat shouldn’t be an issue. And on a side-note, I am questioning whether classifying you two as traditional speedsters is the right thing to do. We should probably invent a new category if there are ever more of you.”

I pouted at the suggestion of sabotage. “Boring.”

“Smart,” Astra countered. “Though, easier said than done. That airship is huge.”

I set some of my sub-personalities to the task. “Engines, maybe. A ship that size will have large energy needs. There are at least forty propellers on that thing. I can’t imagine that each of them has a dedicated combustion motor. They must be electric with a central combustion engine for power. Anything else would be inefficient. Too much mechanics. Though, I can’t be certain whether they were concerned about efficiency when they designed the thing.”

Astra turned her attention to the big ship. “What about their elevation controls? Our flagship was put out of commission for a week when the psyling attacked. If we get there and start pressing random buttons, we could cause all kinds of havoc.”

I grinned. “I like the way you think, but flight control would be close to their bridge and if it is anything like on this ship, then there will be plenty of strong people nearby.”

“I am not so sure about that,” Astra countered. “Elevation controls are a very important thing on an airship. If there is ever a problem with the buoyancy or the ballast, you need to adjust immediately. Just on this ship, there are four linked stations to respond as quickly as possible. You are too heavy? You drop till you kiss the ground. Too light? You rise till you suffocate.”

Seeing that we had gotten the message, Vanya shrugged and left without a word. Apparently, she saw no point in giving us overly detailed instructions.

“Do you think fire would work?” I continued brainstorming.

“Unlikely, unless we get ourselves some of the firebombs the drake riders are using. The ships may be made mostly out of wood, but we need to get a big blaze going to achieve anything.” With just a few words, Astra poked a big hole into my idea. “And those bombs are big, unwieldy things. We wouldn't be able to carry more than one.”

For a moment, I played with the thought of recruiting Vanya's bodyguard as a human torch, but that probably wouldn't fly with the matriarch.

“Poison?” I just went down the list of ideas. “It has been a while since I got to use-”

“Magnus.” Astra looked deep into my eyes and placed a hand on my shoulder, gripping it tightly. “We are not going to spread around deathnut oil in a confined space like the hallways of an airship. Especially not when there are potentially allies nearby. Do you understand? I will not puke up my breakfast again because you want to play with your favourite extinction toy.”

“Aw...” I pretended to be properly reprimanded. “I promise it gets better the more often you expose yourself to the poison. I can already stomach small amounts without foaming at the mouth. It's just a matter of building up immunity.”

She shook her head, looking exhausted. “I still don't get how you managed to convince Thalia or Etan to sign off on handing you an entire barrel of a heavily restricted substance.”

“I think that's one of those cases where the less you know the better it is for everyone,” I suggested. “Just be assured that neither was your friend stupid enough to give out her supplies, nor did your father try to kill me by handing me a highly volatile poison.”

“Then where...” Astra's eyes narrowed. “Elder Bruce Patel. He is the only person who would have the connections to... but why would he? He doesn't like you.”

“Ah, you are way too sharp, my dear.” I gestured at the approaching ships. “Why don't we concern ourselves with the problem at hand?”

“I have more than enough sub-personalities to spare. Don’t believe I will stop thinking about it because we have other urgencies right now,” Astra pointed out. “Why don't we try to find an ammunition depot on that ship and blow it up?”

“Wise, but where to find one?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Anything we could plan for right now boils down to entering that ship and running around till we recognize some vital installation.”

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“What a brilliant idea!” I clapped my hands together. “We can play catch with the defenders while we look for something important.”

“I thought about splitting up to maximize our chances,” Astra interjected.

“Nah, I don't like that.” I shook my head. “We stay together. Anything we are after is bound to be well defended. If we stay together, we can go right to work upon finding something of importance.”

The airship shook slightly as it was hit by some kind of artillery shell.

“You know, you don't have to be here,” I pointed out wistfully as a sudden bout of sentimentality hit me. “It's my fight. You could be with the kids.”

Astra shot me a glare. “Did you forget the deal we made when we hooked up? We are in this together! Besides, this has gone far beyond your vendetta. What Thich had planned for Aerie obviously would have been set into motion whether you intervened or not. So don't give me that bullshit about not involving myself or you get to sleep on the couch for the next week.”

I blinked. “Why is withdrawing your affections always the first thing you come up with?”

“Because you are like a love-deprived puppy and I know that's the only thing working on you.”

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Sighing, I slipped a hand around her hips and pulled her closer even as another impact shook the ship. “You know me all too well. So, how are we going to do this? Just... flash step over there and find ourselves an entry?”

“Exactly.” She gestured at the nearby exit to the observation platform. “I will let you take the lead because I am the faster one between the two of us. You couldn’t run away from me even if you tried.”

“You may be faster, but I am stronger,” I teased.

“That's why I am using you as the blunt instrument you are,” Astra replied in a good natured manner.

The fighting already seemed well under way, having ramped up in intensity while we bantered. Seeing no point in further delays, I made my way outside the ship and flash-stepped.

The sky between both vessels was already filled with drakeriders and Thich's strange bats. In between, combatants from both sides who had no need for flying mounts zipped back and forth. Some were relying on wings and a scant few on other means of propulsion.

One of the stranger ones seemed to copy the drakes' breath-jet method to great effect as they dominated the sky like a flying superhero. Or a rocket, depending on how you wanted to take it. Their main strategy was to ram the batriders off their mounts with nausea-inducing flybys.

I didn't pay the battle around us any more attention because my eyes were on our target. Though it would have surely been interesting to watch because some of the more powerful mutations made the combatants look like superheroes from some old movie.

Flash-stepping again, I avoided the combat zone and moved to a less active area beneath the approaching ship, hoping this way our entry wouldn't be contested too much. Trying to gain entry from the direction where everyone was looking at would be akin to busting in the front door.

Our means of movement thankfully allowed a relatively secretive approach except for the short moments of free fall we needed to reorient ourselves for the next flash step.

Once I was sure I had identified a gun turret of similar design to the ones I already encountered at the last battle, I went in. The little flashes and exhaust fumes from the two barrels were easily recognisable.

The rotating domes which protected the anti-air guns were a weak point allowing easy entry. Anyone else would have trouble approaching such an entrenched position, but flash-step made it a non-issue.

I landed on the dome and immediately punched my fist through one of the protective glass plates which allowed the gunner a good view of the skies. The construction was a trade-off between giving the best possible field of view while still preventing easy entry for flying predators.

Since I was approaching from below, all I got to grab this time was the gunner's foot, who was sitting suspended in a small cockpit.

The inside of the cabin lit up like a light-bulb when I discharged as much electricity as I could into the gunner. The firing gun stopped immediately and I wasted no time, bending the metal frame apart and breaking more of the viewports which were connected like the Gothic windows of an old church.

Astra joined me a moment later and the hole was soon wide enough for me to reach in with my filaments and pull out the smoking corpse of the gunner, who I dropped without much fanfare.

Astra took the lead and wriggled her much longer filaments into the opening before she disappeared inside, her thinner frame allowing her to do so with elegant ease.

I followed as quickly as possible, but it took a little bit more metal bending before the hole was wide enough for my armour.

Once I climbed up the tight confines of the cabin, I found myself on a corridor where Astra just pinned a Thich crewman to the wall, shaking him like a ragdoll. From the way he flailed ineffectively against her armour, there was no doubt he had no strength enhancements.

“Where is the closest vital installation?” Astra questioned. “Energy generators, flight controls, ammunition depots?”

“Go to hell!” Was the wrong reply, because a freshly electrocuted body hit the floor just a moment later.

“We are going that way!” Astra pointed down the corridor to our left.

“Did you guess that random?” I asked. I wasn’t adverse to any direction we chose.

“No,” Astra replied, starting to dash down the corridor. “That’s where his eyes went when I asked. Do you have a problem with my choice?”

“Not really. I planned to run around like a headless chicken until we find something that looks important.” I shrugged while running next to her. “And if that didn’t work, I thought of simply going in the direction where we encounter the most resistance. Anything important would have a lot of guards.”

“We can try that next,” Astra said as we entered a broad hallway, not too dissimilar from the ones on our flagship. If they fulfilled the same purpose, then they were intentionally wide to allow for quick traversal of the entire length of the ship.

We didn’t waste time and simply chose a direction. Our biggest asset was our speed and simply not being in the location where we had been last reported to any security forces. Dashing down the corridor, we caused mayhem under the crewmen who weren’t enhanced with combat mutations.

But that could only go on for as long as we had the element of surprise and our time ran out when we encountered an entire troop of soldiers. It was a very quick security response, so we changed directions, heading up one of the ladders which allowed everyone to switch floors quickly. They were installed in convenient intervals along the main corridor, so avoiding a single group of security guards was no issue.

I had no doubt their commanders would dispatch a lot more soldiers once they realized they had two enemy speedsters running around on their ship.

We continued our game of tag with the guards, choosing corridors seemingly at random to avoid heavy resistance. Though Astra made sure we were exploring the general area.

Coming around a bend in the corridor, we came across five stationary guards who were without doubt protecting a heavy, iron door.

So far, we already encountered several guards patrolling the corridors in pairs or standing guard at a door, but except for what looked like the office of an important person, we found nothing. We weren’t here for documents.

But the higher number of guards and the unusual door meant there was something important here.

We fell on the poor soldiers like armoured hurricanes and it was over in an instant. The normal soldiers had no chance against two juggernauts.

Astra was the first at the door, but it didn’t budge when she tried the handle. The thing was designed with people who had enhanced strength in mind.

I gestured for her to step aside and placed both hands slightly above and below the lock without touching the metal. Then I grit my teeth and created one of my signature Lichtenberg arcs, allowing the plasma to dance over the metal until it began to glow red.

Astra understood without needing explanations and rammed her shoulder against the door. The first time it bucked only a little, bending the now softened locking bolt. On her second attempt the metal gave way and the door sprang open, revealing a storage room.

“Are those grenades and shells?” I grinned like a little boy upon seeing what was stacked on the shelves. Forgetting about safety, I ran into the room and grabbed what was without doubt a hefty mortar shell.

“Magnus, no time!” Astra warned me, looking down the corridor where screams were coming from.

I pulled the safety pin off my fun-device and rejoined her outside, taking a pitcher’s stance right as a group of Thich soldiers came around the bend in the corridor.

Astra realized what I intended to do and dodged into the ammunitions depot, which was probably not the wisest thing to do if she feared what was coming.

The soldiers saw what I had in my hand and did a U-turn, running the other direction. They had the right sense for survival, but they were still too slow.

I launched the shell down the corridor and was thrown back against the doorframe when the concussion of the blast and a shower of splinters pushed me back and down onto my butt. Slightly dazed, I got back up. That would have hurt without my armour. “What the fuck are they packing into those shells?”

“Firehorn glans, you moron!” Astra pointed at a warning label above the shells. “Are you trying to kill us?”

I squinted at the big, red label which somehow… completely escaped my attention. Admittedly, my focus had been elsewhere. In my defence, this storage room – while small – was a pyrotechnic's wet dream. I never failed my duty during New Year’s Eve, and it had been a long time now that I thought about it!

“I don’t care! Hahaha.” I laughed madly and grabbed another shell. Then I looked around the storage room as my sub-personalities feverishly catalogued what we had to work with. “This is going to be a big badaboom!”

***Tirnanog, Thich Flagship***

***Zacharias***

The ship suddenly shifted beneath my feet as it was rocked by a mighty explosion, causing one of my clones to lose his balance. I managed to catch myself on a nearby table which had been wisely bolted to the floor.

“What was that?” I demanded. The explosion must have been huge to affect the ship to this degree.

One of my adjutants looked up sheepishly from his communicator. “That was ammunitions depot ‘9-F’, sir. It was blown up by two speedsters who infiltrated the ship on the lower floors.”

“Why am I hearing about this only now?” I wondered whether I should throw this idiot out a window for his incompetence, but that would probably cause more chaos at this point. The plan was to board the enemy’s flagship or take it down. Not for us to be boarded!

“They- they just infiltrated four or five minutes ago and they kept avoiding our security teams,” the adjutant tried to explain his reasoning. “I didn’t think they had enough combat power to overwhelm a vital area so quickly.”

I growled. “Then correct your mistake and dispatch someone who can counter them!”

It was only good that the ammunition was split into smaller stashes so a single mistake couldn’t end the entire ship in one fell swoop.

“I have nobody who can, sir.” The man looked desperate. “All the higher-classed combatants are already engaged outside.”

I hissed and gestured for one of my generals to take over. “If you want something done, you have to do it yourself.”

“Sir?” the general asked. “Shouldn’t I go?”

“No,” I replied, resigned. “You are needed here and your skills are not suited against speedsters. Besides, I have an inkling who those speedsters may be.”

I left the bridge, already coordinating this body with a second clone who I left on the flagship. Catching a speedster wouldn’t be an easy task if I was alone, but Zacharias Regulus was never alone.

There was the one who was still holding position at Thich City. And the two clones who were fighting amidst the air battle outside. And the three who were already on Aerie’s flagship.

No, Zacharias was never alone.