A Burning Star
I should probably write more stuff like this, it was fun.
It had been a week since the capital ship had come down, re-entering orbit uncontrolled and lighting up a blazing orange over every section of it's armoured carapace, trailing smoke and debris from battles long forgotten. Failure of a spatial anchor holding the ship out of reach of gravity and inability of the main engines to provide enough speed to maintain such a course, the destroyer fell from the sky like an angel out of the higher power's favour. From the ground up it was like a shooting star, a fiery red and yellow streak crossing the sky at speeds hard to fathom. Belly down, the long narrow wedge shape of the ship suffered at the cruel hands of aerodynamics, the friction burning off antenna, sheering narrow shapely components from their housing and melting thousands of tonnes of material right off the warship's hull. Ill constructed for reentry and even less so for aerodynamic flight, the vessel continued to plummet even after the fires were long extinguished, the vessel's vertical thrust designed for Zed Axis maneuvering doing little more than to delay the inevitable impact. Outer sections against the inner pressure hull ablaze from the intense heat transferring after it's armoured hide was burnt and melted away.
When it fell to the forest floor, a long, almighty crash resounded across continents, the long spired tail of the vessel smashing to pieces upon the ancient trees and the rocks, cutting dozens of metres and hundreds of tonnes and discarding them over a massive area. The central spine of the hull snapped in two when the flat backed aft, disguised by it's rear spire finally struck earth, cracking the ship right across the middle, somehow remaining mostly intact. A dust cloud several kilometres wide ballooned, powered by smoke and dirt and dust, shrouding everything in darkness. The lower command tower shredded deck by deck until the belly of the beast lay flat in the dirt, listed slightly left. When the black, debris filled cloud finally settled, covering what remained in a fine layer of grey, brownish soot, the warship had carved a four kilometre long trench through the woodland, bringing terrain and shattered trees with it in a bow wave not unlike an ocean going vessel. It's paired forward spires built up to disguise it's flat bow smashed, torn and pouring smoke. It's armour melted, allowing metre thick tree trunks to have penetrated the pressure hull, creating an eerie mix of forest and machinery.
Inside, it was dark. Fuel lines cut, tanks destroyed. Batteries exhausted keeping the ship mostly together. In the centre, in the very middle of the ship, forward of it's command towers and held within a massive bastion of internal armour plating awoke a creature. Sparks spat down over the floor from the door behind her, smashed from it's housing by the impact. A fire on the top rampart above her providing some illumination inside of the grey, glassy and cracked sphere she found herself at the bottom of. A sort of holographic helm room, irreparably destroyed. The creature rolled herself out from the ball she found herself in, scales creaking with the rise to all four legs. In a daze, eyeing up to the fire on the platform above and reaching out with forepaws and raising up, gripping into the metal and hauling herself up, sapphire blue scales glimmering the firelight across the reflective surface which further bounced it around. On all fours, rotating her head and long neck, craning over the last room she remembered. The glass, the displays, not even a warning light to signal that an evacuation should be taking place. A soft breath of air as she turned for the door and slipped through the wrecked portal to find the operations centre in the same state of mess. Display panels were cracked, smashed or had completely fallen from the walls, showering the chairs and stations with fractured glass. Each step around from the back of the room crunched softly with glass under a heavy footfall. Everything was off centre, not flat.
Crestfallen, she moved on, ascending the stairs just to the left, which led up to the balcony and the commanding officer's chair, door behind that. With a turn of her head to survey what was left, the smallish operations room lit with small smokeless fires that flickered and spun, turning back to try the door, for it to not budge. With half a snarl she leaned into the right forward shoulder and leapt at it, crashing through with her bodyweight and rolling wings tucked to end up back on all four feet atop the impeding metal door. A look left and right and down the central corridor revealed the just the tip of the extent of the damage, the hallway cracked, wall panels torn and simply fallen off, the hallway twisted and by no means straight any more. Once there were easy access, now there was debris from a deck that had collapsed in on top of this one, or where it had fallen through below. Where what looked like a tree had pierced the outer hull and punctured six corridors deep into the vessel itself, where it sat choking an entire egress route.
She spoke, a crystal clear voice, tinged with a soft, high pitch, a single word. "Gemmini," Not a question, just a statement. Where she expected a soft echo as the vibration transmitted down the pipes and the metal walls further down the ship there was only silence, the hull too fractured to transmit such sounds further than her own voice. Processor smashed, strategic computer interface inoperable. A pang of regret for what was little more than code in a computer that couldn't hold a conversation held her still for a moment before proceeding. And without an interface to guide her, the simple task of reaching a cannon battery for it's cargo lock, finding an airlock or even a room exposed to the open air became navigating a maze, a maze that kept shifting, changing. There were danger zones, hallways near to collapse, fires burning out of control with no suppression system operating to contain them. So sure was she that getting out would not take long, hours after awakening she collapsed from exhaustion two decks down from the operations centre and no close to finding freedom. The darkness ever penetrating, the remaining dorsal heatsinks doing their job ever so efficiently and dissipating any heat that formed. It was a cold night, cold day, she didn't know. When those eyes finally cracked open in the middle of that hallway that should have led to the port central missile battery but was blocked by a tree as wide as she was long in near pitch blackness, she cried. Aguish for the lost home, anger at being trapped.
Tears or not, she pressed on. Navigating blindly, her extensive knowledge of the ship's layout as much a curse as it was a boon. Familiar places close together were at times separated by decks and a hike due to the damage. On the second night, she found herself in the meal hall, nursing a fire constructed out of tables and chairs, the massive wall behind the counter where food would be served bearing the vessel's emblem, a tree struck by lightning in all of it's blazing white glory and fury. The motto proudly strung upon the outer edges. 'Together, we strike.' The fire long since extinguished by the time she awoke, curled into a ball for warmth. The galley, behind the logo wall was smashed beyond repair. Scavenging something to eat, to drink of what was left, she pressed on, leaning back upon her hindlegs to crawl through the roof up into the next deck above and continue her search. The air heavy, cold. Hours passed, her will damaged by every blocked path, every hazard. A weapons locker in part of an armoury she tore the door off of with such a furious roar of repressed anger, smashing the remains of the room with such intensity that it left her paws aching, tail bleeding. Sprawled in the middle of the room, with an electrokinetic in hand, considering her possibilities of escape. There was no fire here. And she didn't even remember the way back to the meal hall, the walls mostly impervious to her attempts at marking.
A glance up and around and then back to the weapon in hand, sitting nicely weighted in her paw, just the right size. Upon hindlegs, properly stanced it would be accurate, and carried an under barrel flashlight. Mournfully, she considered. Deciding. She leveled the weapon. Hesitated. She wanted to see her final resting place. With a flick of a claw, she brought the light onto full intensity and turned it about the room with sore limbs. A pair of containers had fallen over, partially blocking a doorway she'd not seen before in her rage and fury. She paused, raising up to hindlegs and keeping the light upon the door as she lifted and moved closer, remembering. Armoury lockers were located near ship primary weapons in case they needed to be defended in a boarding action. With a huff, she upheaved the offending lockers out of the way and charged down the door with a heavy thunking roll as carry through. She was tired. So tired. But before her was freedom, escape from this maze that had once been her home. Missile battery. It was uphill, so it must surely be on the lifted starboard side. She rushed forth a few steps, but came to a halt. Flicking off the flashlight and all was dark. None of the hatches were open. The fury began to build once more, but the red haze quickly replaced with anguish. Anguish at being so close. These batteries were on the outer hull, and were directly exposed to space. But they were also plated four and a half metres thick of combat armour and required an extensive powered system to shift. With force, she threw the weapon away where it clattered loudly to the floor and slid to a halt as she collapsed, curling into a ball and letting the tears flow as she fell into sleep.
She was stiff the next morning. It was dark, and throwing the weapon was something she regretted at once, forced to fumble around on the ground for it like some with bad vision. More than once she banged her angular snout on something hard and firm, cold and unforgiving. It seemed like hours, making no progress until she suddenly did, gripping the barrel and pulling it over into her other paw to turn the light on, finding herself face to face with the business end of an armour penetrating guided missile, sitting ready upon it's rack. Dimly she stared at it, something ticking away in her mind, reaching the text and numbers written on the warhead until it finally clicked. Moving quickly, she pried open a hatch, turning and turning the valve until it swung open widely. Snarling with effort as she pushed, lifted and pulled the missile off the standing rack and left it's nose sitting on the inside of the tube. A little further back she whispered a soft, pleading phrase and opened the missile's protective panel, revealing that it's onboard flight systems were still alright, and that she could field program the warhead. Rapidly she did, setting it for kinetic impact. Next, she overrid the safety system so she could 'test' the rocket motor it was attached to. Set it on timer, and practically leapt out of the room and moved for cover, shielding her earfrills.
There was an almighty roar as the thrust unit burst into life, consuming a kilogram of fuel every second, propelling the deadly ordnance right at the armoured plate with huge force. The hull shook, and the metal screamed aloud as the weapon exploded on impact and tore right through the outer plate. For safety, she counted a minute for the fumes to vent, each and every single second was torture waiting, knowing she was so close. Just before the minute was up, she rounded the two corners into the battery once more. The massive black scorch mark on the wall told the story, as did the black smoke filtering out the tube, and the sunlight which poured through the now open hole. All patience thrown to the wind, she quickly squeezed and clambered up the tube, drawing deep breaths of warm, smokey air, eyes blinded by the light she was so unused to. Her claws dug into what remained of the outer armour plate as she hauled herself out, cringing until the light stopped burning. Rearing up on hindlegs with awe and horror, craning her neck left and right, surveying the ship, the forest and the debris field which surrounded it. Smoke still rose from the hull as fires burned, steaming from the cracks in the carapace and in the middle, where the ship was noticeably cracked where it's spine had given in to the forces imparted upon it. The sun, warm upon her scales.
Weapon no longer needed in her paw.
She stepped left, walking over the armoured plate in a way that the ship was never intended. The topside was mostly shielded from the heat and therefore still had most of it's armour plating, the stark black carapace painted with bright white tiger stripes which was the standard scheme, neither of which matched her scales particularly well. There was a thought somewhere within her head that wondered if the ship would ever fly again, a thought so out of left field that she was left questioning her sanity. A beat, an echoing sound in the air. Earfrills caught it, flicking with the noise that attracted her attention so. There was another, and her head craned to the source. Was a magazine cooking off? Another. No, airborne. There, she could see the source now, something in the air, flying towards her. The beat of wings! By Catarine, did she actually crash onto a colonised planet? There was a startling roar, a sound which moved even her glands to pump more energy into her body and lifestream. Not a friendly greeting at all, but a battle call!
"You dare enter my lands! To scavenge, of all things!" came the thick male voice as the creature drew closer. She was like him, it had to be a colony planet. But as he drew ever closer, demanding answers with that booming voice that controlled all sound, she could see that he was indeed not. There were differences, a lot of them. Bigger, bulkier than any of her species, horns instead of earfins, spiked tail and perhaps the biggest difference of them all, at her stunned silence, fire bursting from between his powerful jaws and his feet slammed down to the hull. A bag sat under his wing, neatly tucked as to not cause issue. He dwarfed her, considerably and she was left looking in silent awe. At her reluctance to speak, he demanded further. "Words creature!" he spat in apparent fury, "You know this is claimed territory, yet you still come, why?"
She stared at him blankly in shock. "I did not," she stammered out incompletely before he interrupted boomingly, making her shrink backwards a few steps.
"You clearly have, for I am here!" he postured, shifting and slapping that massive tail upon the armoured hull, the impacts, shattering the ablative material into small shards which bounced all over, reflecting the light before they bounced with the sound of broken glass, a sound she had never heard before. "Leave everything and this place now, or suffer my challenge!"
Leave her ship, she questioned mentally, staring at this massive creature, reacting. Glowstone was hers, and hers alone! It was her home, her means of survival! Even with it's spine broken and reactors smashed, it was hers alone to care for! "It's mine!" she countered fiercely, stance adjusting as she explained with a combative hiss to the not-creature, "This is my home, however broken!"
The creature who looked like her but didn't look like her barked in laughter. "Challenge it is, foolish one. You'll learn why your elders tell you to avoid this place." With little more he leaned forward, those jaws snapping open and breathing a huge cone of fire directed right at her! Eyes widening like a small creature trapped before a predator, she kicked off her hindlegs backwards, sweeping her tail forward across the armour plating to provide rearward momentum, rolling up to her hindlegs out of range of the fire and leveled the weapon still in hand. Sights aligned, the barrel glowed blue, spitting out arcs of blue electricity as a muzzle flash as it propelled a solid metal arrow at the target with hypersonic velocity, two pieces of a discarded sabot spinning out at 45 degree angles from the sides as the weapon fired with a muted screech. Emerald eyes traced the projectile as it streaked faster than she could track right towards him, only for it to bounce off some invisible barrier, crunching against the field with a shower of sparks, vapourising with the friction. She fired eight more times, action locking back with the last round, showering him in little more than a colourful spark show. The smirk forming on the creature's face as out of habit she ejected the magazine and reached for a new one where there wasn't one present. She half tossed, half dropped it to the ground and stared up at the creature who should have nine holes right through his body, but instead was unharmed and grinning with dark intent. He began to step, slowly to the left.
"Impressive non-verbals there, my dear. It's an artform, unspoken magic. Thought you'd outgrown your teachers and it was time to move on, did you?" he mocked as he shifted, the sapphire only taking a turning step to keep him frontal. There was a word he spoke, something she didn't recognise but his form flickered, appeared to flicker. One blink he was stepping, the next he had closed nearly ten metres and the back of a forepaw had struck her across the face, sending her sprawling. A sideroll to control and redirect her energy and a quick glance to confirm his position before she leapt into an all fours dash, kicking off the hull and faking high with a slash but delivering the strike low. She could feel talons tearing scale, the resistance as she rended scale and sinew, kicking off his body with her hindlegs and returning to a standing fighting position with bloodlicked claws drawn at the ready, she couldn't even see the wound she'd inflicted upon him.
It was merely a moment that she paused to assess the fight and the uneven, lightly smoking wreckage that was the terrain before she stepped in, forwards and down to make her next strike, hoping to disable but as she closed into range he spun and she found herself upon the receiving end of a tonne worth of dragon's weight delivered right into her side by means of his massive muscled tail slapping her out of the air and sliding across the deck plates. Dazed, a paw lifted for defense of her head and neck as she regathered, he barked out humiliating laughter. "All out of magic, young one? Here, let me help!" Came the call, warning of the next strike. Flapping her wings hard and pushing off the ground got her back to her feet, but only to hear another barked sound, a word or phrase. From the bag neatly hidden under his wing came long metal chains moving of their own accord, powering right for her. Expecting a lethal finisher, she parried with her paws, stepping to the side only for it to snap around her wrist instead, looping around and tightly gripping. The squawk that erupted from her maw was loud and echoed, made all the worse by the darkening of the not-creature's grin.
She pulled at it and yanked at it, but couldn't get it to come free or loose at all. Despite it's earlier movements, the male still gripped around the chain and yanked hard with both forepaws, which brought her flying forwards towards him, dragged and sliding against the hull armour. As soon as she stopped, she flung her tail at his head, the dangerously whiplike appendage headed for eyes, but was intercepted by another length of chain that sprung from that cursed bag! It snapped around her tail and clamped painfully, holding it upright inches from his face. For a moment, he looked almost concerned by the closeness of the strike before that expression of smug control resumed. She thrashed and snapped, and in response, more chains, ensnaring her limbs, forcing between her jaws like a bit before looping around itself to seal her muzzle tightly shut, and no amount of force she exerted before ending up rendered completely helpless affected them at all! In fact, all she seemed able to do was hiss at him mutedly, which only seemed to amuse him. Despite having won his 'challenge', he seemed in no hurry to put the sapphire out of her misery just yet.
"Pretty, for a rebeling youth," he started, those chains shifting and moving, her forepaws moved and held together as the chains rearranged, binding them both together with surprising finality. "Thought you could just cross the barrier and no one would notice? Grab some proof and you're a hero to your friends," he elaborated, working movements with those forepaws she didn't understand beyond that he had some control of the chains currently binding her. "maybe I need to do more to warn your kind off than putting up markers," he mused, the chain binding her tail shifted, pulling it up and yanking over her back and coiling around her neck.
"Mmmmnn!" was the snarl that escaped as she realised what he meant, but no matter her airborne struggles, she couldn't find any leverage! It was like zero gravity entrapment training all over again, floating without any velocity with no gravity and no leverage, having to get yourself to a wall or something solid and bolted down so you could crawl out of the training arena. Maybe! Wings flapped harshly providing the momentum she needed moments before chains snapped around her underbelly with a harsh slap and rolled over the top of her body making loops which sealed them down completely, "nmmn mn mnnnf!"
The chains swung her at the behest of those paws, but the impact was surprisingly light, not even denting the armour plate designed to break at the first sign of energy imparted into it, the chains pinning her to the outside of the warship moments before his body did the same, loud piercing clanks indicating that the chains restraining her were now implanted into the hull itself, unlikely to become free without his direct intervention. Now, her training didn't even matter, she didn't have any freedom to move at all. Emerald eyes threw a piercing glare that could have shot down orbital installations if it weren't for the fact that he made his desires overwhelmingly clear by the pressing of something cold, large and roughly phallic in nature against her vent. A similar one pressed to her rear as well, and both liberally slippery as those large forepaws forced them home with a single, slow and firm push that pushed an unwelcome moan from her chain bound maw. They were textured, too textured, her body responded too well! "Mmmnf!"
He left them seated fully within her body, spicy scent laden in the air by the end of it, the little twists and turns of the objects now filling her holes heavily playing the sapphire's body like an instrument, leaving her a panting, sopping mess. Biologically she was as bound as her body, no matter the resistance offered, when he began to draw them both back, up out of her body with those slow little twists and slid them back down, her back arched, toes curled and muzzle whimpered. "Nffffn!" Another pang, and then her head yanked back, muzzle chain buried into the hull above her, leaving her looking at the sky helplessly until his paws descended and plunged her into darkness with a sort of hood, leaving even the sounds of the forest muffled. Without her head senses, the feeling of lightly stretching fullness only worsened. She swore she was dribbling.
His paws stopped, but before she could feel even slightly relieved, those objects began to hum and they began to move of their own accord, shifting, buzzing, even thrusting just a tiny bit, each little movement pressed so firmly against her walls it left her thrashing and begging, begging for it to stop, begging for it to continue just so she could blow her mind out with the orgasm she could feel building between those scaled thighs! They stopped. She thrashed even harder, rocking and throwing her hips back and forth with what little movement she had to drive herself over the edge without any result, screaming muffled into the air, begging for something, anything. It felt like days before she cooled down enough to even think somewhat clearly before they shifted once more, touching, driving and played her orchestral pitch all over again until the very edge and then some. He was there or he wasn't, but no matter how they played her, they taught her a very valuable lesson. That they would never show any mercy to those who disobeyed. And when her gagged, muffled voice finally gave out from her screamed pleading, they finally stopped, having held her denied on the peak for hours. Her panted, desperate gulps for air interrupted as she began to relax, exhausted as they shifted again.
Again she screamed, no words, just screams of helpless, desperate pleasure, a soundless call for something forever again denied.