//------------------------------// // Chapter 48 // Story: Hegira: Eternal Delta // by Guardian_Gryphon //------------------------------// Earth Calendar: 2117 Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact) April 3rd, Gregorian Calendar "Make your report admiral." Councilor Loryss set the DaTab down on her nightstand, and sat up, pulling her robes tight around her shoulders to fend off the evening chill. "We followed the mission parameters to the letter ma'am, but it didn't go well. The North Carolina destroyed our hydrofoil, killing everyone aboard. Including your two executors. We did our best to sink the ship as per your directive, but they were able to survive long enough for fire support to arrive. We had to flee the area, or risk exposing the Agincourt to more witnesses, and further damage." Loryss pursed her lips, and frowned. "I understand Admiral. Return the ship to Norfolk, repair and reprovision. Await further instructions there. We will soon be deploying you on a new joint operation." "Yes ma'am." The Councilor jammed her thumb into the DaTab, cutting the channel. She took a moment to settle her breathing, then dialed up another encrypted line. After several moments, the screen gave way to another audio wave from. The voice on the other end of the channel was once again male, but far deeper than the Admiral's, and infinitely more gruff. "Yes?" Loryss scowled, and glanced away to her apartment's window as she spoke. "Four of your pack members are dead. I want you to find, and eliminate the person responsible." "How?" The Councilor tapped at the screen once more, dispatching a small data packet to the asset via an encrypted burst transmission. "Extract this target. I have reason to believe she may have been converted, so in all likelihood you are searching for a fledgling, not the Human child pictured in the documents. Use her to draw out the secondary target. Then kill them both." "Where?" Loryss glanced down at the DaTab once more, shivering reflexively at the grim fury contained in the voice. "A Battleship will be arriving in the harbor in a matter of hours. I do not advise a direct attack. Considering how dangerous your opponent has proven himself you should treat my given strategy as your stated objective." There was a brief pause, then the voice came through loud and clear once more. "I will deliver the heads, for proof, in the usual fashion." "Just hold that angle! Perfect!" Fyrenn smiled as he watched April make minute, precise, instinctive adjustments to the cant of her tailfan, and the direction of her primaries. The fledgling hovered precisely over the prow of the Battleship, allowing the upward and backward wind force to hold her relatively still above the deck. April looked almost like a figurehead, brought to life by some incredible accident of a spell. Every inch of her feathers and fur were outlined in the sharpest possible detail by the lights of Manhattan's port as it swiftly filled the western horizon. Though Fyrenn had managed to sleep for nearly five hours during the return trip, April had categorically refused to close her eyes. Neyla and Fyrenn had ended up sleeping in shifts, in order to ensure that the curious and hyperactive young convert was never without supervision. April had soon discovered useful ways to expend her seemingly boundless energy. Everything from helping to carry wounded crewmembers to and from the medical bay, down to helping the maintenance crews with hard to reach bolts and clasps. Over the course of the night, the fledgling had dragged first Neyla, then Fyrenn, to every corner of the ship and back, several times over. As a result, her first flight practice had attracted a fairly large audience from among the crew. The red Gryphon turned his head slightly as a small breeze heralded Neyla's passing. The Gryphoness dipped, wheeled, and drew up alongside April on the left, beating her wings occasionally to remain in place despite her greater size and mass. Fyrenn snapped open his own wings, and rose to join the other two Gryphons, taking up a position on April's right. "Think you've got a feel for it?" April's grin widened, and she nodded. Fyrenn jerked his head to the side, and winked. "Then just tilt to the right and slide out of the updraft. Don't think, just let your wings do the driving." April's eyes widened briefly in surprise, then she nodded, and her eyes narrowed in determination. She inhaled deeply, then dipped her right wing, slewing away from the relatively safe embrace of the North Carolina's jetstream. Fyrenn rolled right and climbed to avoid placing himself in the fledgling's way, while still remaining close enough to catch her or stabilize her if necessary. His concerns were wholly and entirely unjustified. April rose at a surprisingly swift clip for such a young Gryphon, beating her wings efficiently, steadily, and smoothly until she was high enough to experiment with more complex maneuvers. She paused for a long moment to stare down at the harbor, the city, and the ship as the world unfurled below her in a panoply of lights and shapes. The fledgling soon found that her eyes' incredible capacity for detail extended out to nigh impossible range. Even the cover of night had no discernable detrimental effect. The leftover luminescence from Equestria's moon, and Manhattan's streetlights, rendered everything down to the tiniest chinks of sand on the piers. April rolled, then looped, letting out a keening call of joy that surprised even her. As she came around and beheld the Barrier, and the Equestrian sky, she gasped, relaxing into a slow glide as she fixated on the stunning sight. Every star in the sky was ablaze with a cold, yet comforting light, laid out like fine diamonds against a canopy of subtler blues, blacks, reds, and whites. The centerpiece of the arrangement was the crescent moon, glistening like the blade of a new scythe fresh from the quenching bucket. The silvery-blue light reflected off the sea beneath, painting the waves in a stunning array of metallic sheens. As Neyla and Fyrenn drew up beside her once more, April finally brought her focus to rest on the barrier. The glimmering, rippling energy field was so close that its scope was difficult to grasp at first. April found that her best point of reference was to examine the locations where it was verging on making landfall, sometimes within feet or even inches of making contact with a building, or a sea wall. Fyrenn sighed, and shook his head slowly. "Remember this. Always save a special place for this sight. You will be part of the last generation to have living memories of this city." April exhaled slowly, and blinked. "I'd almost rather forget this place. There are so many painful memories..." The fledgling paused, then inclined her head, and mimicked Fyrenn's sigh. "But there are important ones too. So I suppose you're right, in the end. I guess Sonya would say that I need to forget the bad, and always hold on to the good." Fyrenn nodded, and the group passed into silence for several minutes, by unspoken consent. The three Gryphons simply took in the vista below, imprinting it on their minds with even more strength and clarity than usual. Finally, the red Gryphon grinned, and nudged April with one wing. "I see more good memories to be made." April raised an eyebrow, and tilted her head slightly. "Where?" Fyrenn pointed, and April turned her head in the direction of his index talon. As the fledgling diverted her attention, the elder Gryphon tapped her on the shoulder, then folded his wings and dropped like a stone. "There. You're it." It took April only a microsecond to realize what had happened. She shared a brief grin with Neyla, before the two Gryphons pulled into a tight stoop, allowing the world to rush past at incredible speeds as they sought to catch up with Fyrenn. The red Gryphon allowed April to close to within a few yards, before pulling out of his dive near the harbor's surface. He glanced over his shoulder and grinned, before moving into a series of wide, long slalom maneuvers between the island structures of ships. April put her smaller shape and lesser mass to good use, cutting her turns so tightly that radio masts nearly brushed her chest feathers on several occasions. At last, the fledgling managed to catch up to Fyrenn just as he evened out into a straight-line sprint towards the Battleship. The vessel was in the process of being tugged into an enormous docking slip by two utility boats, and thus presented an easy landing surface to acquire, even for April. She extended one claw, and managed to tap Fyrenn roughly on his left shoulder, just before the pair came to a halt on the fore deck, eliciting impromptu applause from the assembled crew. Neyla had long since alighted on the nearest gangway, alongside a gaggle of familiar faces. The moment the connection bridge met the deck, there was a wild rush towards April, led and fueled primarily by Skye, who hit the fledgling with enough force to send the two tumbling to the deck in an amusing heap. It took some time for Skye, Stan, Hutch, Aston, Kephic, and Varan to each receive an embrace, exchange words and smiles, and examine April's new features in detail. At last the majority of the group had finished their salutations, and moved on to stand in smaller groups across the deck, conversing with Neyla, and each other, in low tones. Fyrenn gestured to the remaining roan Gryphon, and smiled as April took a tentative step towards him. "April, this is Sildinar. He is the reason I'm still here today. He's also the reason I was granted a Conversion slot in the first place." Sildinar dipped into a half-sitting, half-kneeling position, and flashed April a warm smile. "Well met little one. Fyrenn has told me that you are very brave, and wise beyond your years. I'm glad to see you inherited such beautiful markings from him, and Neyla." April smiled, and blushed slightly, dipping her head in greeting and deference. Somehow, she instinctively knew that Sildinar outranked everyone else around her, even the Human officers. Fyrenn wondered if she had somehow picked up on aspects of his body language, or if Sildinar just carried enough of a commanding aura in and of himself. He gestured to Neyla, and gave April a light push with his left wing. "Sildinar and I need to have a word. You should go tell the others how your first flight went, and all about the Conversion. Knowing Stan, he's probably about to burst a blood-vessel out of pure curiosity." April nodded, and smiled. "Yeah! I'll have to hoof-wrestle him again. I bet he'll have a harder time of it now." Fyrenn sighed and watched as April bounded into the midst of the group, instantly bringing added brightness to every smile. He shook his head slowly, and glanced at Sildinar. "Thank you for coming here on such short notice. I'm sure Hutch explained a great deal of what has happened so far, but I'd like to fill you in on the rest." Sildinar drummed his talons on the conference room table, then glanced out the port hole to his left, and sighed. "You were not exaggerating when you said that your actions might have serious implications." Fyrenn snorted, and practically inhaled the last of his coffee before responding. "No indeed. Skye and Stan aren't fully aware of some of the lengths I've gone to. And I'm not sure they should know what I'm about to do, either. Neyla, Kephic, and Varan are almost as angry as I am. They'd probably involve themselves in a heartbeat if I asked. Aston? She's well and truly riled at me though, as is Lantry." Sildinar inclined his head, returning his gaze to Fyrenn. "They have no right to be. But I understand their perspective, as best I think I can without the benefit of Human experience. They're not entirely wrong either. You do have less aggressive options at your disposal." Fyrenn opened his beak, and took a breath to respond, but Sildinar held up a claw, continuing in a calm tone. "That being said... Were I in your place, I am not sure I would be able to subsume enough of my anger, and fear, to take those rockier paths. I'm not sure anyone *should.* What is right is rarely that which is easy, and Human politics too often values that which is easy over that which is right. I offer my help, and my support. As always." The red Gryphon smiled, and exhaled slowly. "You know, I'm not sure I can ever find a way to express my gratitude for your friendship." Sildinar waved a claw absently, and averted his gaze once more out of mild embarrassment. "Bah! To bring new, revitalizing ideas and expansionist spirit to our kind is expression enough. So tell me... Why specifically did you ask me here?" Fyrenn sighed, and blinked exhaustion from his eyes. "I want to make April an official part of the clan, and my family. When the bodies start to fall again, and I begin to make a public mess of things, our adversary will be free to operate in the public arena as well. That could mean a potential legal challenge to April's status. I don't expect that to present a danger to her in and of itself... But I do expect it to damage the Bureaus' public relations. For their sake, we should legitimize the adoption by Earthgov's laws, as well as ours." Sildinar shook his head slowly, and his face fell. "The former may not be possible. Not after what's happened." Fyrenn nodded, and tilted his head slightly. "True, but that's part of why I asked you here. As a prince of the realm, you have the power to bring immense diplomatic pressure to bear. If the current structure of the law does not permit children in April's situation to be adopted into an Equestrian family, then the law needs to be dismantled and remade. This is about more than just April's plight. It always has been." The red Gryphon sat back, and yawned in spite of efforts to the contrary, before continuing. "I recognize that the children abused by this organization are not the only orphans on this planet, by a long shot... But they will be the first to reap potential benefits of a new law. New identities and families will be critical to the process of securing their freedom." Sildinar nodded and jerked his head towards the pre-dawn light peeking over the edge of the porthole. "You plan to send April to Tih’ré Seli’hn, then? Until this matter is concluded?" Fyrenn shook his head, and leaned forward, his ears flattening and his beak turning down sharply. "That route is closed to us for the moment." Sildinar tilted his head, and swished his tail as Fyrenn's tone and volume dropped to conspiratorial levels. "Our enemies are not operating alone. Several members of a Diamond Dog pack were present during the assault on this ship. That makes any attempt at crossing the wilds between here and the Kingdoms hazardous. Particularly if April is under a bounty that any enterprising clan could collect." Fyrenn sighed once more, and closed his eyes momentarily. "She is too young to make the journey entirely on-the-wing, and that would leave her vulnerable. So for now, I think here may be the safest place for her, relatively speaking. Defended by eighty two thousand tons of titanium and steel. It is far from ideal, but it needn't last overly long." The red Gryphon thumped a fisted claw into the table, and his eyes narrowed. "I intend to make a public example of these people. One that will leave a lasting mark in the memories of all who see it. It's time to remind everyone what we do to those who oppress and enslave. A reminder inscribed in fresh blood." Fyrenn rose, turning as he depressed the lever to release the room's hatch. "And when I'm finished? Even the devil will be afraid to set foot within a thousand miles of my family." "Good morning. You sleep well? Because I certainly did." Commander Ward stiffened, and twisted frantically to get a fix on the origin of the voice. Fyrenn stepped slowly around the side of the APC and smiled, the mid-morning sun glinting off the curve of his beak. "It is amazing what even four hours here and there can do for you. But I'm betting you didn't enjoy your night in the brig." Ward narrowed his eyes, and threw back his head. "GUARD!" Fyrenn chuckled for a long moment, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. Ward's eyes widened, as he realized that help was in no way, shape, or form, forthcoming. The red Gryphon inclined his head. "That's right. Your driver and both guards are strung up, and gagged, at the end of the pier. For the next fifteen minutes..." Fyrenn leapt gracefully into the back of the vehicle, and pulled the rear door closed with an unsettlingly delicate touch. "No one can hear you. No one can see you. And no one short of God can save you... Though I doubt He's in any mood for Divine intervention, considering your recent behavior." Ward scooted backwards until he was flush against the rear of the compartment, his eyes darting back and forth as overwhelming fear began to take over his body's reflexive motions. "I don't know who you think you are... But you'll pay if you lay even one talon on me!" A chuckle escaped Fyrenn's chest once more. The sound was even deeper, bordering on a growl. It seemed to shake the very floor of the armored transport. "You don't seem to know much about me, or my kind, so I'll fill you in. A little 'free advice,' if you like..." Fyrenn lunged forward, and pinned Ward's right shoulder to the bulkhead with one of his claws, spearing muscle and bone until his talons encountered metal. The commander screeched in pain and scrambled to free himself, accomplishing nothing more than deepening his wounds in the process. The red Gryphon brought his beak alongside the man's ear, and projected his voice with enough volume to ensure Ward received the message. "My kind does not fear your kind. My kind fears no one enough to abandon our purpose. Right now, my purpose is to disassemble your organization from the ground up. You will give me the information I need to continue that task, or I will use what's left of your corpse as bait." As Ward's screams faded away into grunts, Fyrenn lowered his volume to a whisper. "If you wish to die for your superiors? You should understand that if I don't get what I want from you, I will reduce you to chunks so small that they will need a DNA scanner to identify you. Since we have fifteen minutes, that means I have time to extract every single one of your finger and toe bones, piece by piece, one at a time. Is the situation becoming clearer to you now?" Ward flinched, and whimpered, nodding as vigorously as he could without further traumatizing his shoulder. Fyrenn smiled. "Good. Now then. Start at the beginning, and when you get to the end... The pain will stop." "I thought I told you I wanted you off this ship when you were done." Fyrenn snorted, and placed the crate in his claws down with a resounding thud. He turned to see Orik leaning against a workbench, glowering. "Plans changed. April needs protection. I need your machine shop. I warned you that I wasn't making you any promises." The red Gryphon gestured to the huge compartment around him. The space was two decks high, and easily thirty yards long. On the port side, large feeder doors opened onto a receiving pier. On the starboard side, a lower-slung one deck high, ten yard long accessway led across the length of the ship to an identical machine shop on the other side of the vessel. Orik's frown deepened, and he shook his head. "Why do you need the machine shop?" Fyrenn rolled his eyes and snorted once more as he made his way across the deck to another crate of materials. "Well after you found all five pieces of Ward, you locked me out of the armory. I didn't want to ask Neyla to retrieve anything for me because then you'd lock her out too, and she needs access if she is going to keep April safe." The Captain watched in silence as Fyrenn removed several solid blocks of titanium from one crate, and a series of graphene sheets from another. As the red Gryphon set about securing one of the metal blocks to a laser sculptor, Orik stepped up to the workbench, and glared. "What you did to that man was unnecessary, and brutally vile. He was an officer, and he deserved a fair trial. And if death was the sentence? So be it. He deserved a humane execution. You tore his limbs off one by one and let him bleed to death. What did that accomplish? Did it make you feel better?" Fyrenn slammed the metal block home against the securing mechanism, causing Orik to jump back several feet. "Yes! It most *certainly* made me feel better, and I do not apologize for that. But far more importantly? It sent a message. A message I'm going to keep sending in ever more creative ways, until it is received, understood, and acted on to my satisfaction. If I have to kill everyone even remotely associated with this conspiracy for that to happen? Including every complicit official, and every officer who stands in my way? So be it." The Gryphon silently spent a minute typing in a series of specifications for the laser sculptor, before flicking the activation switch, and turning to face Orik. As the device spun up, and began to chip away at the metal block inch by inch, Fyrenn fixed the Captain with a death glare. "Maybe you're right. Maybe there are 'better' ways to go about this. You're not the first person to tell me that. But by now? It should be clear to you that I no longer care if there are subtler means to ending this. I gave fair warning. I gave these people a solid chance to resolve this legally and humanely, with a minimum of bloodshed. Now? I will do whatever I have to, in order to see them hung high in the streets." Fyrenn only stopped once, to take in a small meal. By and by the ship's crew gave up on making any use of the port side machine shop. The Gryphon had co-opted the majority of the equipment, and the enlisted were too frightened of his demeanor to make any use of the rest. As the morning slipped away into mid-afternoon, Fyrenn's project began to take shape. A part of him found it fascinating to build so much of the weapon from scratch. The rest of him was utterly consumed by the impetus to finish the device, so he could put it to proper use. A portion of the plan called for several chemicals that were not present on the ship. As components underwent the lathing process, Fyrenn stopped periodically to call on his limited knowledge of chemistry, and the ship's database. Slowly but surely, the various components of the project began to coalesce. Everything from the smaller mass-manufactured items being ejected from the industrial 3D printer, to the elusive caustic compounds being mixed in spare fuel canisters. As the weapon neared completion towards the end of the afternoon, Fyrenn realized that he had a visitor by way of Kephic. The speckled Gryphon had approached in absolute silence, causing Fyrenn to shiver involuntarily when he realized he was no longer alone. "Yeesh! Knock next time, please. For both our sakes." Kephic chuckled, and gestured with one claw towards the mostly-finished components of Fyrenn's project. "What are you planning to kill with that? A fully grown hydra?" Fyrenn smiled slightly, and snapped the weapon's rail armatures together, noting that the connection locks went together perfectly with a satisfying 'clank.' Precisely as designed. The red Gryphon hefted the partially finished object, and raised an eyebrow. "Close. But not quite." Kephic glanced over at one of the percolating chemical containers, and sniffed, grimacing as the acrid scent reached his nostrils. "That is absolutely rank. Worse than Stan on a long flight. What in the blazes are you concocting down here?" Fyrenn's eyes narrowed as he continued to assemble the weapon carefully, and methodically. He inclined his head towards the chemical distillation device, and smirked. "What in the 'blazes' indeed. Just an old Gryphic recipe, combined with a heavy dosage of Human chemistry." The red Gryphon paused, and glanced up. "Will you do me a favor, brother? Could you and Varan please go back to the Bureau and retrieve two things for me?" Kephic nodded curtly. "Name them."