Asura, Inna and Keran pushed their skivs off from the holding racks, letting them fall down a short distance. Keran fired up his thrusters and pushed off toward the mountain. Asura followed suit and Inna trailed behind. The speed of the skivs covered lots of ground at a modest pace. Air rushed past him, hampering his hearing a bit. With the aid of wind guards that went halfway up the length of his ears, it helped reduce the amount of blowback that would’ve otherwise left him deafened without the metal guards.
As he predicted, Keran did a series of spiraling barrel rolls while maintaining a forward momentum. They were quickly approaching the guardian dropship, which was now beginning to move upward. Asura looked back to see Inna catching up to him. She held her hand up to her ear. He heard her voice from a small speaker in the wind guard.
“How’s she holding up?”
“She’s doing great,” Asura replied.
“Hey, you two are starting to fall behind,” Keran’s voice was heard, jokingly taunting them both.
“Oh, I’m gonna catch up to you!” Asura laughed and punched the throttle up. He could hear Inna laughing as well.
They got even closer to the dropship, where they could now see the tunnel in the middle of the mountain. They weren’t allowed to fly above the mountain range, so they had to use the catacomb system to cross into the sacred grounds. It was common practice to use the catacombs when travelling through mountain ranges, especially with rare artifacts in tow.
The barrels of the turbines underneath the dropship’s bow roared to life, carrying it higher at a quickening pace. Asura noticed something dark hovering in the sky. It was a small back spot that was barely visible, as it was above a thin cloud layer. Inna noted Asura’s curiosity.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know—”
Before either of them could draw any conclusions, a loud series of drumming sounds cascaded from above. They were shortly followed by bright shafts of light that sliced right through the dropship. Fragments of the ship fell from above, and both Asura and Inna were quick to react to avoid getting crushed from the falling debris. The dropship began to split in two, and they saw multiple gunships and skivs falling from the docking bays above—some of them achieving flight, while others kept on falling.
“KERAN!” Inna yelled through the speaker.
“I’m fine! Get to the catacombs!”
Dust began to separate Asura and Inna from Keran. Their view of the catacomb entrance was lost, but the contrast of the lights inside still gave them something to move towards. One half of the drop ship fell forward towards the edge of the valley, while the other was beginning to lean dangerously towards their direction. It would cut off their escape route to the catacomb entrance, and they would have to resort to fly above the mountain range to get to safety.
With as much power as he could give it, Asura cranked the throttle to full power, motoring his way across the valley ridge towards the cavern entrance. Inna was quick to trail his lead. He caught a glimpse of Keran’s shiv in front of him. The dust was becoming more apparent, as parts of the dropship continued to assault the landing dock. The polished golden stone monuments were no match to the weight of the bronze metallic debris that fell from above, crushing the exposed masonry and trapping many civilians and guards within the maze-like hallways below.
The closest half of the dropship loomed just above them, arcing its way to a complete free-fall. The catacomb was only several hundred feet away, and they were rapidly closing in. They knew they’d narrowly escape getting crushed by the falling ship. Keran was the first to reach the mouth of the entrance, then Asura. Right as Inna reached the mouth, the top deck of the dropship hit the edge of the valley and the mountainside. The catacomb entrance became entombed with dust and debris from the impact, trailing behind Inna. The entrance was sealed off from the outside, leaving only the three riders unscathed in their escape from certain death.
They all joined up in a three-wing formation, with Asura leading them toward the Hall of Henath. The catacomb cavern was a short flight, and they ended up appearing on the other side of the mountain range. They could hear a nearby siren in full blast. Keran knew that it was an air-raid signal.
“What was that??” Inna asked.
“I’ve no idea, but we need to get to the citadel—fast!” Keran shouted.
Asura nodded, and turned his skiv towards the solitary citadel that sat on the edge of the mountain range a fair distance away. Something caught his attention from the edge of his vision. A small dark vessel hovered over the top of the tallest mountain from behind. Asura motioned toward Keran, who looked back.
“Shit,” he heard Keran’s voice on the speaker. “That’s a Rygolith gunship!”
The Rygoliths. They finally gathered enough firepower to invade Marcovi.
“Follow me!” Asura shouted. He pointed the skiv down towards the forest valley below. Gargantuan rings of stone penetrated the forest canopy, which would help grant them protection from the pursuing gunship, which was closing in on them. Asura’s dashboard flashed red, indicating an imminent attack warning. He looked back to see that the ship was even closer, and he could see two racks sliding out from underneath the hull of the ship.
Two smoke trails jettisoned forth from the ship, and the dash emitted a shrill screech. Asura slid a hand across the screen, which opened up a hatch at the very end of the skiv. White balls of flame fell from the hatch in random directions, and one of the missiles exploded on contact with one of the flares a fair distance away from behind. The other missile flew straight into one of the stone rings, which split it apart and let the falling debris crash into the earth below, disappearing through the treetops.
The gunship was still in pursuit. Asura, Inna and Keran weaved their way around the top edge of the canopy, dodging past the tallest trees and stone arches to keep their pursuers at bay. Purple streaks of light flashed by them, indicating that one of the gunners was firing down on them. Asura looked back briefly to see that a single Rygolith occupant was hanging off the side of the vehicle with an eco rifle pointed right at them. Another few shots hit Inna’s right wing, causing her to spiral out of control. She jumped out in time to get caught by Asura. She sat down behind him, hugging him closely as he continued to weave his way through the thicket.
The citadel was just in front of them. Both Asura and Keran pulled up aggressively and flew high into the sky, giving their pursuers little time to react. Unfortunately, they didn’t think their plan through entirely; the gunship was more nimble than they had thought. Keran’s skiv was shot out of the sky by a well-timed rifle shot to the internal crystal chamber.
Kenan bailed out of his skiv, which exploded in a brilliant fireball, and was falling down towards the canopy. Asura briskly turned himself around, passing by the Rygolith gunship. He caught a good, brief glimpse of the occupants. They were a sizable infantry, at least twenty strong. He was amazed that they all fit inside the small ship.
Asura sped downwards toward Keran. He closed the distance and grabbed hold of one of Keran’s arms, right when the dashboard flashed red. Asura shifted himself so that he could open up the compartment below him. He took out the box and held it tightly under one arm. Another missile was fired, and Asura was quick to react.
“JUMP!”
Both Asura and Inna jumped off of the skiv, still pointed down towards the forest canopy. He had Keran still in his grasp, and the box was still held in his arm. He focused a large portion of his energy around him, which also surrounded both of his colleagues. He heard the explosion of the missile destroying the shiv just above them. Asura closed his eyes, and the rushing wind was replaced with an intense guttural sound. Everything went bright for that moment.
The light faded, which found all three of them hurtling upward towards the balcony of the citadel. Asura oriented himself and his colleagues so that they weren’t falling down towards the ground. They reached the peak of their arced path, and, fortunately, rolled their way across the balcony. They slid to a stop, letting themselves catch their breaths. It was yet another quick brush with death.
They heard the explosion of the demolished skivs from the valley below, muffled by the thick forest canopy. The gunship hovered just above the forest next to the bottom support beams of the citadel. Asura got up and examined the status of his friends. They looked fine, but were probably bruised up from the impact on the balcony. It wasn’t a good feeling landing on metal. The box was also in good shape, lightly scratched up from sliding across the floor.
Asura brushed himself off and stood up, examining the carnage below. He heard footsteps from behind, and found several of the elders from within the hall, and a few guards, rush towards them. Among the elders was an ottsel about the same height as Asura. He wore a bright gold robe and had a walking stick carved out of wyrmwood—a branch from one of the trees below.
“Are you alright?” the ottsel asked, his voice gentle and soft, yet authoritative. He was worried about the state of Asura and his colleagues.
“Yes, we’re fine, master,” Keran replied, struggling to get himself on his feet.
Two of the guards peered over the edge to find the gunship hovering in place. They turned around and nodded to the others. One of the guards approached the elders. “We need everyone to get inside, now.” The guards ushered the elders to retreat back inside the citadel. Asura and Keran carried Inna by her shoulders, as they all followed the rest of the group inside. The elder ottsel had the box in hand, carefully carrying it along with him.
The massive doors closed behind them, sealing them off from the external hazards that now posed a threat on all of them.
~~~~~~
“This is impossible,” the ottsel elder exclaimed, pacing back and forth in front of the oval table. Several other elders surrounding the table shared the same amount of shock and grief from the sudden attack of the Rygoliths. “In all my years of standing before the Halls of Herath, I’ve never seen the Rygoliths attempt such an invasion on our soil.”
“This is an act of war!” another elder shouted. “How could they decide to attack us without thinking about the end result? Are they that blind?”
“Perhaps they’re not,” another said. “We knew that this day would come, but we did not expect it to come so soon, nor did we expect them to bring in this much firepower.” A bright blue sphere materialized in the middle of the table. Several purple dots lined themselves perfectly above Marcovi’s capital.
The ottsel held his hand below his chin. “Oh my…” The others watched in dismay.
Asura’s heart sank. It was an invasion unlike any he had seen or experienced. This was far beyond the Magi Civil Defense’s power, let alone their own. The Rygoliths announced their declaration of war, and they made it dreadfully clear. He stepped forth and held the box in his hands.
The ottsel turned around, almost forgetting about him. “This is all unfortunate, Asura, but we are certainly grateful you made it here in one piece.”
Asura nodded. Right before the elder spoke again, a pounding sound reverberated through the hallway from the main door. It sounded almost as if the Rygoliths were using some sort of battering ram. Silence ran across their ears, and guards began lining up around the main door. Another thumping sound echoed through the hall.
He felt the elder’s hand clench his shoulder, as other guards ordered them to evacuate to the escape pods. A goliath guardian flashed to life, and the giant statue maneuvered itself from its dormant state within the walls of the hallway. It had a long, sharp stone blade in one hand. It stood in a defensive stance, awaiting the potential onslaught.
Keran stopped and faced both Asura and Inna. “You two go. I’ll protect the elders.”
Inna grabbed Keran’s hand. “No, we stay together! Asura needs us!”
“You’re right. He needs us to divert them away so that he can do what needs to be done. They will be going after the elders first, but if they see him with that amulet, they’re gonna hunt him down instead.” Tears began to flow down Inna’s cheeks. Keran held her close. “Don’t worry. I’ll be alright. Listen to what the elder says and help Asura in any way you can. My duty is with the elders now.”
Inna nodded, letting go of Keran’s hand. She only had Asura to hold on to. They both looked at each other for a long moment amidst the rushing chaos of panicked civilians and elders. They nodded and made their way to the elder ottsel.
“Master,” Asura called out. The elder turned around.
“Asura.” He held out his hands to take the box from Asura’s hands. He took out a bronze key and waved it over the top of the box. It began to glow in a lattice chain pattern, and then it slowly dematerialized. They could now see the Heart of Mar within. Asura reached through the lattice light and grabbed hold of the amulet. The entire box disappeared, leaving only the Heart in his hand. He examined it for a few moments, glancing over its sheer beauty and the ruby gem that was perfectly placed inside the metallic molding.
Asura looked back up to the elder. “The Heart is in your hands now. You must defend the blade, for Mar’s sake. If our enemy takes the blade away from us, they will undo everything that we have done.”
Asura turned to face Inna, who was eager to listen to what else the elder had to say.
“You must go down the hallway here and shut the blast door behind you when you reach the fork. The vault that contains the sword is the only vault in this citadel. You’ll know what it looks like. You must take the sword in your hands and place the Heart of Mar on the hilt.”
A large explosion filled the hall, and the metal doorway opened wide. One of the doors was forced off of its hinges, crushing a few guards underneath. The rest of the guards protected themselves from the flying debris, and were soon engaged in a firefight with the Rygolith infiltrators.
The elder grabbed Asura and Inna and led them to the small corridor. He pointed out to the fork at the other end. “Go!”
Asura and Inna ran as fast as they could down the narrow corridor, not daring to look behind them. They turned left as they were told to and were met with a closed spiral doorway.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…!” Inna hollered. Asura held up the Heart to the doorway. They could see the retreating guards and several flashed of purple light flash by them. Miraculously, the door opened up and they were able to go through. Inna slid her hand on the instrument panel on the other side of the doorway, forcing the heavy stone door to seal them from the invaders. The spiraling metal doorway shut itself as the stone wall was halfway down.
They were sealed off from the rest of the calamity. There were no guards in sight, and they saw the vault that the elder told them about. Asura ran to the vault door and held out the Heart of Mar in front of him. To his dismay, the door did not open. He noticed that the two panels which used to have guards stationed upon were empty.
“Shit! I knew Keran should’ve stayed with us,” Inna exclaimed. She paced back and forth furiously trying to come up with a solution to the situation. She shook her head in frustration and sighed. She bumped herself into Asura, which caused him to strut forward a bit. He grimaced a bit, but found that the doorway was beginning to open. Several locks unlatched themselves and the heavy door slid across the heavy bronze track on the floor. On the other side, they noticed the two guards standing in defensive poses.
The guards lowered their weapons. “Ah, you have the Heart of Mar. Did you speak with the elder?”
“Yes,” Asura said. “He is currently evacuating the citadel as we speak.”
The guards looked at each other. “We should probably do that then." They walked out through the threshold of the open doorway. "Take the sword, and then come with us.”
Asura nodded. The guards let him through into the thick-walled room. It must’ve been strong enough to resist a neutron bomb; it was a formidable shelter. The guards had the right idea, even if that idea made them look slightly cowardly.
In the center of the room was the sword, held up by a topaz-encrusted pedestal. The sword itself was forged by the finest combination of raw metals, and even the faintest light allowed it to show its true brilliance. He saw the reflection of Inna’s face off of the blade when he held it up to him. He allowed his hand to follow the slim contour of the blade’s sharp ends. It had never been used in a single battle—it was a tool that granted protection and offered insight to the wielder and its allies.
Asura felt the groove of the hilt, and he slid the Heart of Mar across it. The hilt perfectly matched his grip, feeling the grooves and the soft leather insets that were decorated along the handle. The gem found its spot and locked itself into the hilt of the blade. He felt an insurmountable amount of energy rush through him all at once. The energy took the form of all the souls and spirits of every living precursor and every existing source of power that they relied upon. He felt the massive movement of souls around him, fleeing for their lives from the threat of the Rygoliths.
~~~
They could barely feel it, but they felt Equestria's power through a single strand that trailed out from the cosmic web of energy through the blade that Asura held in his hands.
~~~
There were a multitude of tiny stabbings flowing through his body. These stabbings were the result of each individual Precursor falling to their deaths. One by one, he felt one soul after the next disappear from his sight. He continued to sift through the masses of individuals that were still walking on their feet. He wanted to focus his attention on one of the nearest souls in particular: Keran.
'Where are you, Keran?' He sifted through the ocean of spirits running to the escape capsules. He found who he was looking for, keeping a close distance with the ottsel elder. 'Found you.'
Keeping Keran’s spirit in mind, Asura took the sheath that hung behind the pedestal and draped the belt on his right shoulder and across his chest. He sheathed the blade into its place, locking it into position. Within a moment’s notice, the blade disappeared as well as the sheath that he slung on him. It must’ve been a way to hide its presence in the event of exceeding danger. The blade was smart—this was the first time Asura had ever carried a powerful artifact, and it needed to trust him first.
Asura nodded to the guards, and they all proceeded to leave the vault. There was a series of thumps coming from the blast doorway. Did the Rygoliths somehow know where they were? The guards ushered them to follow them out to the docking bay. Several guardian skivs were hung on their tracks. They were much larger than the civilian skivs Asura and Inna used to get to the citadel.
The guards both got into one of the skivs, allowing the bubble windshield to seal them from the outside. The skiv roared to life, and light blue flames jettisoned from the ‘feathers’ of the wings. The guardian skivs were able to hold two occupants. Since it was retrofitted and weaponized, the pilot controlled the skiv, while the co-pilot controlled the rotating cannon—at least, that was what Asura speculated.
Inna stopped, turning herself around to face Asura. He could see in her eyes that she had a crazy idea. She’s always had a knack for crafting bizarre plans, but as an intelligence officer, it suited her well, and it also kept her alive.
“Asura,” she said. “I want to go with you, but I feel as if Keran needs me. The guards can escort you to wherever you need to go.”
“Inna,” Asura spoke, unsure about what she was trying to say.
“Asura, this is for our protection. I can’t go to the places that you can now. I belong to the guard just as much as Keran does. We can protect you, but we’re not as much of a noble as you are.” She held onto both of his hands and stared deeply into his eyes. “I want you to promise me that you’ll be safe, wherever you go. I know that they’ll have to send you out to the stars to protect what's left of our hope.”
Asura nodded. “Don’t give up.”
“I won’t.”
One of the guards shouted. “Let’s hurry up; we don’t have any time left!”
Asura and Inna broke apart from their embrace and got into separate skivs. He swiped across the panel, letting the bubble window close. He heard Inna’s voice from the dashboard. “Asura, don’t forget about us.”
“I won’t. That’s a promise.”
“This is Highwing One. Pascal 297, we’re escorting the package over to you.”
“This is Pascal 297! Acknowledged! Be prepared for heavy resistance on your way here!”
“Copy that.”
Asura slid his hand across the dashboard. It was much more sophisticated than the smaller skiv, but he understood the main controls. The only difference was that the main control was a single joystick instead of individual handles. He would make due; at least Keran taught him about basic flight control on these skivs. He spoke through the speaker on the console.
“Highwing One, Pascal 297. I am designating myself as Golden Eagle. Highwing One, maintain close air support.”
“Copy that, Golden Eagle.”
“This is Highwing Two. Preparing to escort escape shuttles one through six.”
“Copy that, Highwing Two. Are you gonna be okay by yourself?”
“Yes sir.”
An explosion could be heard from behind the balcony.
“This is Highwing One. We are making an immediate departure. Enemy infantry has made it through the blast shield.”
The skiv next to Asura dropped from the track and was falling towards the forest canopy below. Asura released the clamp lever, which caused the skiv to fall out from the track. He increased the throttle to allow the skiv to achieve forward momentum and followed the escort in front of him.
“This is Highwing Two. I have observed the safe departure of Highwing One and Golden Eagle. Take good care of yourselves, you two.”
“Will do, ma’am.”
“Asura, be careful.”
“You too, Inna. Take care of Keran.”
Asura felt the reflection shields behind him deflect rifle shots from the Rygoliths standing at the edge of the balcony. The two skivs got to the point where the rifles shots were of no use anymore.
“This is Golden Eagle. Highwing One, we may have possible pursuers within the next minute or so.”
“Acknowledged. We’ll cover your six o’clock.”
Both skivs raced across the valley towards the other end of the mountain range. There was another catacomb cavern, larger than the one that he first flew through. This one led to the capital of Marcovi. Asura looked up to see dozens of dropships falling from the sky, as well as a few flagships. It was a bewildering sight.
It was an all-out war.
Both skivs reached the catacomb entrance, giving themselves ample space between each other to allow any other skivs to travel through. It was a unique cavern system in this catacomb; it almost looked like an underground city all on its own. The catacomb system was interlinked with all of the cities on the planet, allowing massive amounts of traffic to flow uninterrupted from one part of the world to another. Now, the transportation grid was shut down due to the invasion, and any last-minute stragglers had to make their way to either a safety shelter or to an escape shuttle.
They emerged from the other side of the cavern, only to be met with the rapid pursuit of their assailants from the citadel. Asura’s dashboard lit up with a red icon. “Warning; imminent attack detected.”
“This is Golden Eagle. We’re being pursued.”
“Copy that, we see them.”
The spherical screen rotated around Asura and caught a good image of the pursuing gunship. He saw two missiles eject from the ship’s missile racks. “Warning; incoming missile.”
“Golden Eagle, evasive action!”
Asura steered the joystick to a hard left, which caused the skiv to roll rapidly. This had a tremendous effect, as one missile flew right past it. The other blew up just before impacting the other skiv with the help of the turret operator. Asura leveled the craft from its dizzying roll.
The other skiv was then battered with a constant barrage of heavy caliber fire. The rear reflection shield deflected all of the shots, but one unfortunate deflected shot hit a crucial joint of the main wing. This caused Asura’s only escort to spiral out of control and lose altitude.
“This is Highwing One! We’ve taken critical wing damage! We’re going in hard!”
“This is Golden Eagle. Pascal 297, I’ve just lost my escort! Requesting immediate close-air support!”
“Negative! We’re taking heavy casualties! All available units are in active defensive support! We can’t get any available units over to you!”
‘Shit…’ He was a sitting duck. He looked at the onboard hologram and saw the gunship inch closer to him. At any point, it would shoot him down along with the sword in his grasp.
‘Think, Asura. What would Keran do in this situation?’
He swiped his hand across the dashboard, locking all controls and keeping the joystick in its position. “Auto-pilot engaged.” He got out from the pilot seat and into the gunner’s seat, tapping the console which forced the body of the aircraft to spin vertically on an axis. Asura was now facing backwards, while the skiv continued to fly forward in its current momentum. “Warning; imminent attack detected.” A targeting reticule on the screen in front of him narrowed down to a small point, where it became a red box. “Target locked.”
“Engage,” Asura ordered to the computer system.
The heavy cannons in front of him fired on the gunship at a frightening pace. Each eco-charged shot bounced off of the gunship’s shields. The gunship returned fire on him, with its bullets bouncing off the forward-facing reflection shields. He gripped the trigger tighter, shifting his body closer to the screen. The gunship continued to close the distance, and Asura howled menacingly at the gunship as loud as he could.
One of the shots deflected into the gunship’s right intake. It exploded in a dazzling fireball, sending the ship into a lopsided cartwheel. The pelting gunfire subsided, and Asura shook his head to re-establish his bearing. The gunship continued to fall helplessly towards the bare grass valley below.
He let himself fall back onto the chair of the gunner’s seat, giving him a breath of fresh air as he fended himself off against the threatening gunship. There was a loud explosion high above, and Asura looked up to see more dropships falling from the sky. Nimble Skyreavers dotted the skies from the flagships that hovered above, sending spears of missiles towards the general direction of the capital.
The main body spun back to its forward-facing direction. It didn’t take very long for the scene to change drastically. As the aircraft slowed itself to an emergency hover, Asura gazed upon the shocking view that spanned out before him.
His heart sank. Bright flashes from explosions devoured and ripped apart the guardian dropships, huge plumes of smoke followed suit from giant explosions within the various citadels, even toppling some over, and great tracts of land were decimated from a sheer number of gunships spitting gunfire upon the lower valley structures. Tears quelled in his eyes as he watched in horror his homeland being ripped apart from the savage Rygoliths, who would challenge to overturn every speck of dirt to acquire their goals.
He felt thousands of souls keeling over from ravenous gunfire, some even getting brutally mauled by stronger infantries. There were some that would devour the blood from their victims as a sign of domination. He felt hundreds of guardians falling over from sprays of rifle fire, while some were crushed by falling debris of their own dropships being blown to oblivion.
There was nothing they could do to stop the Rygoliths. There was nothing he could do, but flee. He was vastly outnumbered. He knew he could not take them all at once. They would easily outgun and outman him, and toss him to the graves of the millions of others he would share his peace with. The Rygoliths knew no peace at this stage—they were determined to wipe out the Precursors for good. They were dead-set on destroying the civilization from its heart.
More and more, souls faded out of existence, and Asura couldn’t take it anymore. It was too much death and destruction to handle. There was no glimmer of hope. It would soon become clear that not even Inna or Keran would be safe.
“Asura…”
He heard the console crackle to life. He reached out over to the voice command module.
“Inna…?”
“Asura, are you alright?”
It took him a while to register the question.
“Inna… I, I can’t…”
“Asura, listen to me. You need to get out of here. It’s not safe to be here anymore. Keran and I made it to the nearest shuttle.”
He wiped the tears off from his cheeks. “Inna… where…?”
“Anywhere, anywhere but here; Marcovi is already lost.”
This was it—the Rygolith’s promise came true. They spearheaded their way right into an intergalactic war. The balance of power tipped heavily towards them. Without Marcovi, the Elements of Nature were severely weakened.
“Asura… save yourself. Save us.”
He nodded to the console. “…okay… I’ll go.”
“Asura, it’s going to be alright. We’ll never forget about you. We’ll never lose hope. We know that you can fix this. Trust in yourself to do the right thing for us, for your people.”
Those words almost mirrored that of Paleia, his personal mentor. Inna was right—there was still a chance. He owed it to himself to understand his destiny. With the sword in his possession, it would be his guide. Asura wiped off more of his tears again, and regained his composure.
“Inna, don’t lose hope.”
“I won’t. We’ll always be by your side no matter what.”
The speaker went quite. That was the last time he’ll hear her voice. He closed the panel, and switched over to the pilot seat. He swiped his hand over the panel and it blinked back on. “Manual control initiated.” Asura gripped the joystick and pushed it forward. He needed to get to the Library. Fortunately, it was right in front of him. The Library had a solitary escape pod designed specifically for him. The skiv was not built for space travel, so he had only the pod as an option.
“Warning; imminent attack detected.”
The orbital screen in the cockpit shifted to reveal two Skyreaver fighters closing in rapidly on him. The skiv was not prepared for those; they’d pick him out of the sky in seconds. He pressed down on the right pedal and got the skiv into a downward dive towards the catacomb entrance to the Library. The Skyreavers were still closing in, even as he put in all the power the skiv had.
He saw two guardian skivs fly by at the corner of his eyes. They both fired upon the Skyreavers, which diverted their attention to the defending escorts. There was a series of bomblets that flew right into his view—they were released from the Skyreavers above him. The bomblets were too far in front of him to do any damage, but they’d serve as a critical smokescreen when they’d hit the ground.
All at once, the bomblets exploded on the ground, obscuring his view from the catacomb entrance to the Library. He was only seconds behind them and he barely grazed the edge of the raging flames of the explosions. He screamed at the earth below, praying to himself to make it through safely. The fire engulfed the skiv from all angles; it was the only thing that he could see and hear around him for that split moment…
Asura opened his eyes. He found himself hugging tightly against an equally surprised Luna. Tears graced across his cheek, recalling a memory that touched him closely. Luna kept herself still, lamenting on her sorrow of the loss of Asura’s world and his only true friends. When she first met Paleia, she did not fully understand what the loss of a world was like in Asura’s eyes. Now she felt guilty, as if she should’ve left that memory alone. She needed to know why he came to Equestria, and Twilight wanted to know as well. They now had a more concrete answer than what they had originally asked for.
It was now going to haunt them; all of his pain and suffering with the ultimate sacrifice of leaving everything that mattered most to him was left behind. It was no wonder why he was struggling to keep his thoughts under control. He wanted to keep that memory alive, but he did not want it to continually haunt him. It got to the point where he couldn’t recall earlier memories, because he divided himself.
It was now going to take more than just Luna herself to get Asura back on his track. He needed the help of the Elements of Harmony to undo what the Rygoliths had done. Everything up to this point had been because of the Rygoliths balance of pwoer, and now they were all destined to keep the same fate from happening here.
Luna drew herself closer to him, comforting him in a warm snuggle.
“Luna,” Asura said.
“Yes?”
“Did you… reach into my mind again?”
“We did, and we saw what pains thee.”
Asura sighed. “What did you see…?”
“Pain and suffering, things that we should not have seen, but we needed to know that you were telling the truth.”
He looked at her in confusion. “What? Why would I not?”
She gazed at the sheets below. “It’s so unusual having a stranger from another world land on ours, and then proclaiming to us that something out there is threatening to destroy everything.”
Asura chuckled. “And now that you… hijacked into the bitter recesses of my mind, you believe me?”
She chuckled briefly. “Well, we wouldn’t say hijack…” Luna paused, looked up at him again. “It’s more like desperately seeking an answer to an invaluable question. From what we’ve gathered from you and your friends here, this whole thing is now becoming even more desperate.”
Asura nodded. “What did you put in my tea, exactly?”
Luna chirped. “It wasn’t my idea. It was…”
“Shh,” Asura covered Luna’s lips. Something felt odd to him; there was a lingering presence nearby. He looked around the room, noticing that all of the candles were burnt out. “All of the candles are still unlit.”
Luna also noticed the absence of candlelight. “Strange. They shouldn’t be out for this long, unless…”
They both looked at each other, equally worried. Asura got out of bed in a quick motion and tiptoed his way to the bedroom door. He found it relatively easy to see with the moonlight shining through the window. He also noticed that the door opened without much effort. He opened it further and was met face to face with Cassandra. He jumped slightly, which caused her to squeak quietly.
She gasped. “I’m so sorry I spooked you, sir.”
“Eh, that’s fine." He looked down the corridor towards the open balcony to his right. "What are you doing up at this late hour?”
“Well, I wanted to share something with you, but there seems to be something going on with the castle. All of the candles and torches went out, and Skyhawk Two reported that much of the complex has gone completely dark.”
“That’s not a good sign.” Asura pulled out his watch from behind his sleeve. “Skyhawk Two. Do you or Skyhawk One notice anything out of the ordinary?”
“Negative. This is Skyhawk One, I’m seeing nothing.”
“This is Skyhawk Two. I’m also seeing nothing on my end… wait a second…”
Asura and Cassandra froze.
“I think I just saw movement on the second floor of the tower you’re currently residing in. Switching to thermal view.” The watch went silent for a moment. “Scratch that, it was only the castle guards moving through the building. They are eliciting strange behavior, though, as if they’re rushing towards something.”
Cassandra and Asura breathed out slowly.
“Hold it! This is Skyhawk One; I’m seeing downed castle guards on the third floor of the complex.”
“Downed?” Luna asked. The night guards standing next to him turned to face Asura in surprise.
“It means something tranquilized them. I think we’ve got company.”
“Copy that. This is Skyhawk One; we’re putting everyone on high alert.”
Both Asura’s and Cassandra’s watches vibrated and flashed red. Cassandra pulled out her handgun and tiptoed her way along the hall, alongside Asura. He looked behind to see Shining Armor poking his head out from Celestia’s quarters. Asura raised his hand and ushered him to stay put. Shining Armor stared blankly.
Cassandra and Asura rounded the corner and sneaked along the corridor towards a large bay window. The stars twinkled innocently, revealing nothing of unusual happenstance. He heard the faint whirring of one of the Skyhawk drones, so that told him that whoever else was in the building wasn’t far. They came upon a stair well that wrapped itself around the wall of a bedroom. It descended towards more unlit hallways.
They made it halfway down the stairwell, when they noticed lights flashing on the side of the farthest wall that he could see. Asura and Cassandra stopped dead in their tracks. They froze and hugged the outer stairwell wall for a few moments, listening in on anything they could gather from the other side. Asura slid against the wall, slowly inching his way to the bottom of the stairwell. He heard the faint shuffling of footsteps from whatever it was that was on the other side.
There were only two outcomes: either they were from the Rygoliths, or they were from the active royal guards. He heard the voice of one, and the scuffling feet did not sound like loose armor to him. The voice of one rambled in Sarrath tongue.
‘Rygoliths.’
Asura leaned his head beyond the edge of the wall, barely getting a good view of the corridor. He saw several brutes focusing their attention to the doors on the far side of the wall. He had a good shot to blast them all to the ground without being seen, but he needed to keep a low profile. He prayed to himself that the silence would remain for him to make a plan…
Had it not have been for the garrison of guards that busted their way through the hallway on the other side of the corridor.
“INTRUDERS!”
“HALT!!”
The surprised Rygoliths turned around and were met with a blinding flash of light, followed by an ear-piercing screech in that moment. It was bright enough to affect both Asura and Cassandra. Almost immediately after, all of the candles in the castle re-ignited, lighting up the dark stairwell and the corridor in front of them.
The Rygoliths raced their way to the open doorway, where the guards hid themselves away from view so as to not get shot at. Asura took this opportunity to take out his personal sidearm. He stuck out halfway from behind the edge of the wall and pointed his gun at one of them. He aimed at the lower leg of the nearest one, and pulled the trigger. The gunshot ringed throughout the entire tower, and the bullet met its mark by hitting one of the Rygoliths square in the foot between the covering leg plate and the boot.
The brute fell over, keeling over in pain, while the others briskly turned around and raised their rifles. Before they could even get a bead on their target, Asura was already in the safety of the stairwell. The Rygoliths opened fire on the end of the corridor, shooting at nothing but the empty wall.
“This is Skyhawk One! Visual confirmed! Armed Rygolith commandos spotted on fourth floor of the complex!”
After several seconds of non-stop firing, the rifles ceased fire and the tower was silent. He heard the Rygoliths shuffle forward towards the stairwell.
“HEY!” he heard Randan shout from the other side of the corridor. Asura took this as a cue to prevent them from progressing. The Rygoliths were in the perfect spot, as they were easily flanked. He stepped out from behind the wall with a transparent shield in front of him. The Rygoliths were facing the other direction.
Asura flexed the field in front of him, which made a surreal sound. The Rygoliths turned around and pointed their rifles at him. The first few shots bounced off of the field, leaving him unscathed. They all ceased fire, still keeping their defensive stance as Asura took one step toward them.
"My turn." He sent the field of air barreling right at them, sending them flying backwards toward the back end of the corridor. They all landed in several heaps of wriggling bodies. Asura chuckled to himself. One of the Rygoliths got a hold of his rifle and pointed it at Asura, who was exposed. More stared right at him, expecting that one to fire on him at any moment.
“Yep, you caught me,” Asura taunted, obviously aware that they were surrounded. He had his arms held up in a surrendering fashion. Cassandra peered out from behind the wall, examining the scene with her sidearm in hand.
Several of his comrades came in through the doorway on the other side and pointed their rifles at the struggling Rygoliths. “FREEZE!!”
The Rygoliths froze, immediately aware now that they were outmatched.
“Drop your weapons!!” The Rygoliths stayed still. “Right now!!”
One by one, the rifles they held clamored to the ground. They also took one step further to push their rifles away from them.
“Hands in the air!!” A few raised both hands, while some still seized up. “NOW!!” The rest hesitantly raised both hands. The Eagoran individual that shouted the orders seized both arms of the closest one with a coiling energy cuff. Following suit, the rest of the officers seized all of the commandos without any difficulty. It was the first time a Rygolith combat group had not put up a fight in the presence of their enemy. Perhaps something was on their mind.
Asura lowered both hands, and winked to the closest brute.
“Atlas GHQ, we’ve just apprehended twelve Ryoglith commandos attempting to extract the commander from Canterlot Tower.”
“Copy that, corporal. We’ll have a retention chamber waiting for them here.”
Celestia and Luna appeared from the other side. They were shocked to see the Rygoliths in the crew's custody. Asura walked up to the closest Rygolith restrained by Randan. Asura analyzed the gear that the Rygolith was wearing.
“Galvanized steel body suits; Gerushian-grade eco rifles; high-strength Teflon under-armor.” He smirked. “You know, if you really wanted to steal from a munitions shipment, I would’ve recommended Unitrix.”
The Rygolith scoffed. “And how did you know I was the brains of the group?”
“I can tell because you’re the only one brave enough to carry a third weapon on hand.” He took a good look at the hilt of the blade on the Rygolith’s side. “Let me guess, vintage? Family heirloom?”
“What makes you think I’m gonna talk to you in a cell?”
Asura raised an eyebrow. “The only thing different is that it’s not a real cell.” He straightened out his face. “You should be thankful you’re even alive in the first place.”
“Thankful…” the Rygolith spat. “Thankful for what? You and your people have given us nothing but a cold shoulder all of these years, and now you thank us for keeping us alive? I should’ve shot you when I had the chance…”
“But you didn’t,” Asura interrupted, “which begs me to ask you: why? Why didn’t you just shoot me?”
The Rygolith did not share a response.
Asura nodded. “Think on that for the rest of the night. I’ll come back to the Atlas to check up on you and your pals.” He motioned the officers to take them to the Harmony vessel. He turned around, only to come face to face with Shining Armor.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
“Just a little pep-talk,” Asura replied. He leaned up close to the captain's ear. “There seems to be some unconventional pattern popping up as of late. Something just doesn’t add up.”
“What do you think it is?”
Asura shrugged. “Dunno. I’ll have to think on that in my sleep. I really should get some rest.”
“I’m not sure if we’re gonna be able to sleep the rest of the night…”