Chapter 1 #3
The hatchlings stumble free of their dripping cages.
The larger one picks up his brother and runs toward the others, who crumple as the ice turns to poisoned water that soaks into the ground.
In the distance, a freed soldier activates a bore unit, and those I’ve released group up and jump into the depths of the planet.
The Talhuskin barrage vaporizes above the world I’ve lit on fire. But there are more I must save, and my Inferno knows it. It senses them through the blaze, like it can hear their cries.
My vision tinges black and white on the edges and red before me, pulsing, as my Inferno takes over the hunt. It breaks Pyraforce rules and stretches until it pushes out from my skin, raising me into a new beast of molten rock and fire.
I bolt toward the city, arc my wings, and take flight.
They carry me far above the others, a relic of a tradition we hide from the galaxy because of how the Talhuskins love to shred our wings just to torture us.
To many other species, my actions would look like destruction.
To my people, breathing fire is as essential as the molten ore in our veins.
I patrol our colony and the outskirts, melting frozen tombs and every bullet that pelts my position. Most of the ones that I free will live, but their Infernos will need time to heal from the poison.
Someone has coordinated the underground escape. When the last of my kind are freed and headed below ground, I turn my focus to the source, laying waste to our world.
A retreating Talhuskin patrol ship makes a good target, but I have my eye on the largest ship in the sky.
So I hitch a ride. The fighter’s gun swivels to face me.
But I am rage and adrenaline and too hot for most normal living things to touch.
I grab the gun by the mount, feel the metal soften beneath my fingers, and tear it free. I throw it off the ship with a roar.
Talhuskins have no one left to target but me. They have so much hatred for what I am that they fire at their own ship. I kick free and soar into orbit, heading for them, flames trailing my wings.
Most of the poisoning attack vaporizes, but several shots make it through, pelting me like rocks before slipping away to fall to the planet’s surface below.
I keep going, enduring the hits, rising and racing toward their ship with years of pain and loathing fueling my flight.
I aim for the system most likely to render a catastrophic blast. The Talhuskins’ propulsion system is within view and a decently explosive target.
Bullets thin out as I near the mothership’s hull.
I fold up my wings, grab the tips with my hands, and tuck my knees.
I am going to break everything. But I am the only viable weapon against a ship of such magnitude.
When I impact the hull, my shield only holds momentarily before sputtering out and shutting down. My flaming body melts and caves the metal. I punch inside and into a chamber that erupts in a blaze. It bursts out of the containment room and into adjoining passageways.
In a brief moment of stillness as the forces equalize, I see a Talhuskin peer inside through a window. They are taller than my kind, brown, and lightless with a bigger wingspan. They think they are superior.
They stole us from our home to serve them because we have wings like they do. We could fly in and out of the rocky cliffs they call home. But I remember the day they made us bind our wings.
I remember as I get to my feet in the blaze among shattered fuel cell parts and watch the heat light up the room he’s in. He turns and runs.
He is not fast enough.
I savor his end.
It is one small victory.
The vacuum of space pulls hard on my shaking body. Pangs thrum everywhere until I cannot count what is broken. But I see my drooping right wing and the lava running down my shoulder.
It’s depressing how, when my purpose is fulfilled, all the pain I pushed out of my mind seconds before comes rushing in with incapacitating force. I fight to stay on my feet, but my power is no match for the void.
I’m sucked out into the thin atmosphere above our dying world. As I fall back toward our planet, wings tattered and my Inferno finally sputtering out, I take one last look at the fragmenting ship. Behind it, more Talhuskin warships arrive.
Dread stops my heart for a beat.
My people are not safe.
I tense, trying to ignite my fading Inferno.
There are more ships! I must stop them!
But my monster is tired from his first rampage in years. My desperation has no effect on him.
An electric green missile races across the sky as I fall. It smashes into the Talhuskin mothership, shattering what’s left of it. Soon, it will fall to the surface like I am: busted, scorched, and trailing smoke as a dying husk.
A fleet of curvy primordial ships surges out from flashing portals all across the sky, and I know my Drathious family will be okay.
Amphirans have come to save us.
Finally.
I can rest. They will win. Amphirans win every battle they fight because they were the first species to travel this galaxy.
Aura has not forgotten me.
I fold myself up inside of my leather casket of wings and limbs and accept my fate. I am too tired to fight. And no one will care when I die. It’s just part of the job. There is no mate to miss me, no Inferno that will cool because mine is dark.
Finally, I fulfill my oath to my Pyraforce brothers. They took me in when I had no one. I helped us break free of Talhuskins. Then I started the war all over again.
I pray guilt cannot follow me to Magmium.
I slam into the mud and sink deep inside the smoldering planet, burying myself.
As the light fades, I imagine what my female would’ve looked like, felt like in my arms, the kind of smile she’d have, and the way she would care for our hatchlings, just so I can die thinking of something different.
I envision her dark hair swaying in the sunlight and what it would feel like to fly with her at my side.
The heat fades from my chest, and I know my time closes in. I have nothing left but eternal damnation. See you in Magmium, Osiris.