Out of Space

"What's the situation?" Blake entered the bridge and stood next to sleepy-eyed Ford.

"Bad," Ford manipulated the view on the screen, showing the Goldrose battle line in disarray, dozens of skirmishes broke out among the gold and blue-clad soldiers. "They are attempting to reform another shield line at the rear."

"What happened?" Blake stared at the screen, "Are those incendiaries?" Pointing at balls of fires going off here and there.

"No, apparently those are magic spells." Ford swipes the screen upwards showing an area shrouded with smoke. Several balls of fire emerged from the cloud and rained down the defenders. "It's much more powerful than what they experienced in the ruins."

"That smoke is magic too?" Blake observes the unnatural smoke cloud. "Weapons." He called out.

"Aye Sir?" The weapons officer answers.

"Open Missile One. Target," He points to that smoke cloud on the screen. "Fire when ready."

"Aye aye, Sir! Opening Missile One!" The weapons officer punched in the missiles arming codes and target coordinates. "Missile One launch bay opened, ready to fire!"

Blake nods, and the weapons officer hit the firing key. A whoosh and a smoke trail erupted from the Missile One's hatch.

"Isn't that a bit overkill?" Ford asked, "Our munition stores are badly depleted."

"Those magic fireballs are killing our people. If we can stop them from casting spells, our people won't die." Blake stated. "I would rather deplete all our munitions than let more of our people die."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Ford and the rest of the crew stood up and gave a salute after hearing Blake's words.

---------------------------------------

"Good! It's about time! Prepare the 3rd to charge!" Duke Sturm ordered. "That giant there," He points to a large man, with a large crossbow-like weapon, that spews thunder and fire. "Kill him and take that weapon to me!"

He had watched the battle from a safe distance, using a finely crafted ornate telescope made from master craftsmen. He had observed the thundersticks those strangely clad men were using and was highly intrigued by them. What kind of magical weapons was those, he wondered?

The 3rd Lancers had formed up at the rear of the infantry, impatient to push through, thirsting to rush in to kill the Goldrose soldiers, to wipe away the humiliation they had received and to seek revenge for their captain.

Hearing the horn sounding, the war dragons snorted and chomped at their bits, kicking off the ground with their clawed fore and rear legs and charged through the lanes the infantry had opened up for them when a loud roar shrieked from the skies and the whole world turned white.

----------------------------------------

The Space Sparrow missile flew straight towards the targeted coordinates before arcing vertically upwards and the brain chip redirects its thrusters, flipping the missile 180 degrees, and went into terminal mode, impacting, with just two centimeters off target, the explosion deformed the terrain, creating a small crater and billowing smoke and dust. The shockwave, followed by pieces of rock and stone fragments rained among the Empire soldiers, some fast and large enough to break bones and dent armor, and sent the nearby soldiers flying, rupturing their organs and bursting eardrums.

The Empire's celebrated 3rd Lancers with an illustrious history of over 30 years literally ceased to exist as they were almost in the epicenter of the long-range missile strike, those that were caught at the edge of the explosion, suffered a major loss of hearing and internal injuries while their mounts went mad with fear.

Sturm's war dragon reared up and started thrashing in fright. Sturm managed to kick off his spurs and leaped off the back of the dragon as it thrashed about in panic, landing with a roll before the shockwave and smoke cloud reached him. The dragon than bolted away along with hundreds of other dragons, all foaming in the mouth and white-eyed in terror.

"That level 10 spell!" Sturm dusted his coat, taking out a silk handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth from the dust cloud, while his lifeguards quickly surrounded him, protecting him with their shields. "I must gain possession of it at all cost!"

---------------------------------------

Pike receiving information from Base about the missile strike, quickly informed Rathia to pull his scattered men back and reform up behind. The missile strike stunned the entire Empire army, it had perfectly wiped out the entire battle mage platoon, leaving nothing behind.

"Form up!" Pike shouts at the defending marines and crew using this lull in the battle, pointing to the main entrance of the Pass, where several chevaux de frise or wooden spiked barricades were being set up to create a chokepoint at the entrance next to a simple berm with a firing step, raised before with the help of the Goldrose mages acted as a wall. "Fall back quick!"

The Goldrose soldiers humped their shields and filtered through the barricades and gathered together forming up again into a shield wall, while Marines, security, and crewmen followed behind them. Pike saw the huge figure of Pvt Bartley firing his HMG single-handedly, while the other he held onto the handles of a stretcher, covering the rear of a group of medics carrying wounded.

"Pvt Bartley, hand over that stretcher to others," Pike orders. "Go set up your weapon back at the MG bunker!" He ignored Bartley's abandonment of his post, seeing he saved three lives out of the four in the bunker.

"Yes, Staff!" Bartley let the support crew carry the other handle and ran off back to his previous post.

"Rathia, how are your men?" Pike asked as he stood next to him. "Will they be able to handle another charge like that?"

"They will hold," Rathia said with confidence. "We will rather die than let those Empire soldiers come and steal and kill our people."

"Good."

----------------------------------

Sherene, Joesph, and Thorn entered the bridge under an escort. They were told politely and firmly to follow the escorts to the bridge as their attention is needed.

Seeing the big screen again, Thorn sighs in admiration, before his brain processed the images. "Is that Sawtooth Pass?"

Sherene and Joesph stared at the carnage going on on the screens. "What happened?"

Blake glared at Sherene, who lowered her head shyly and whispered very softly, "sorry..."

He shakes his head at her before answering the question posed by Joesph. "General, the Pass was attacked, your soldiers and mine are currently defending it."

"Show the playback on the secondary screen." He instructs a bridge operator, who replayed a video recording of the battle viewed by the UAV.

"What?" All the elves eyes went wide, "Is this the past? You can view the past?"

Ford shook his head and whispered sharply, "Stop making fun of them!"

Blake smiles and whispered back, "I still haven't get back to you about last night! You wait!"

"Haha, what happened?" Ford smiles and acted blur. "Did something good happened?"

Blake shakes his head and turns his attention to the elves. "What are those?" He points to the smoke screen and balls of fire.

"That's a smoke spell, used to conceal troop movements mostly," Joesph explains. "And those look like fireballs. Very common spell."

"Yes, a very common spell just needs a longer time to set up and cast, but it is quite destructive and flammable." Thorn elaborates more. "Our mages uses lightning spells more, as they are faster to cast and uses less magic."

The video then showed the missile strike directly into the smoke cloud, causing an even larger cloud and shattering the nearby soldiers like tiny broken sticks, effectively halting the Empire advance.

The elves sucked in a deep breathe when they saw the destruction wrought against the Empire's soldiers with one spell. A legendary Level 10 spell!

"I asked you here, not only to ask about the enemy spells," A new word he learned from reading Dungeon and Dragons Forever, "But also to talk about the offer of an alliance." He points to the main screen, showing the blue-clad Empire soldiers retreating.

"I will like your answer now," Blake stated flatly. "I do not want to waste the lives of my men for nothing."

Sherene clasps her hand hard together and stared up at the hooman Blake. He is like a totally different person to her. Who is he? Someone who cares or someone who wants power? She looks at him standing there with his hands behind his back, waiting for her answer.

Sherene looks at her advisors, both of them gave a slight nod, encouraging her to follow her own heart. She sucks in a deep breath and before letting out with a deep sigh and walked up before Blake.

And kneeled down, "My people are yours to command. I pledge loyalty to you and your cause, my Liege." Joesph and Thorn also kneeled. "We are yours to command." They intoned.

"Wait... what?" Blake was stunned. "Is the translator broken or something?" He looks at Ford in confusion. "Is it some alien culture thingy?"

"What did you do last night, Captain? You stud!"