Into the Black

(Sendal Plain, Ydan, fourth planet in Dimiya System)

I had to fight to keep from laughing as I saw the dragon-lady before me. “Oh, Imperatrix, I didn’t see you there. Could you step aside? I was told there would be someone who could challenge me here, and I don’t want them to think that I was already engaged. That’s just rude, you know.”

The woman bristled at my insult, for obvious reasons. “You worm! I will destroy you, and devour your soul, again and again, until there is nothing left! Even with your Nomad abilities, you cannot stand against the Champion of Baxanke!”

As she said that, she launched into attacks with her clawed hands. Hellspace energy covered her body like armor, keeping my energy blade from touching her. I might as well have had a saber to take on a suit of full plate armor from the medieval period. I would have to strip her armor away if I wanted to get at her person.

I deflected her next strike, stepping to the side so that her other hand could not slash at me directly. Self-acceleration sorcery allowed me to jump over the tail that came swinging through, attempting to bash me down. With a second leap in mid-air, I landed on the Imperatrix’s back, between her wings.

That was when I made a discovery. Her sorcerous armor was not perfect. Or, rather, it was not universal. It protected perfectly against quick physical attacks, and energy attacks of any speed, but slow pressure allowed physical objects through. Also, the barrier was just slightly above her skin, except around the claws, where it focused more on enhancing her melee abilities.

This meant that, when my armored hand grabbed the base of one of her wings, I was gripping her scaly hide directly. And when she tried shaking me off, I had a firm grip on her. Other than throwing herself on the ground and rolling around like a child, she couldn’t dislodge me. And Pride would not allow her to do something so undignified.

Thankfully, I didn’t have something like pride keeping me from doing things that would make me look foolish, so long as they led to me winning. People could laugh all they wanted at how foolish I looked, flopping around on the back of a dragon as she tried to throw me off. But so long as, at the end of the day, I was breathing and the dragon wasn’t, then I didn’t much care about the rest.

Still, with my arm wrapped around the base of her wing, and locked in tight, I had a moment to think. My energy blade was useless at this part of the fight. The enemy came prepared with the perfect defense against it. And I doubted my other melee weapons would get through her scales all that easily, especially with how I was flopping about.

I wasn’t augmented like my Marines, and so couldn’t carry the same kinds of armor they did. The chainsword was an iconic weapon that all Nomads knew, but using one unaugmented was difficult, especially without power armor of some kind. It could be done, but to saw through armor like this dragon’s hide, I’d need both my hands for that. Since one arm was busy keeping me on the dragon’s back, that was a nonstarter, and my other melee weapons lacked the power to get through her hide.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t have options. In fact, there was one weapon I had that could turn the tide. I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it was my best shot, unless I wanted to try and match my sorcery against hers. And no, I didn’t want to do that. That would be far too close to a fair fight for my liking. I had no intention of giving her any advantages I didn’t have to.

Psybreaker Pistol

Type

Pistol

Rank

Uncommon

Damage

10 – 20 (Stun)

Damage Type

Psychic

This weapon deals low Stun damage, but is a welcome partner to any who have to deal with troublesome Psy Power users. This single-shot pistol deals little damage, but has a high stun rate, and can short out a target’s ability to use Psy Powers temporarily. Duration of Stun depends on user’s Sp. Attack and target’s Energy Armor. Duration of Power loss depends on the user’s Sp. Attack and target’s Sp. Defense.

Durability 30/30

Stun – Stun target for up to 30 seconds.

Stun Shots – Deals Stun damage. If Stun damage equals current HP, target becomes unconscious. Stun damage heals at a rate of (CON/10) per minute.

Psyblock – Block access to target’s Powers for up to 5 minutes. Deactivate all currently active powers.

1 shot clip. (20 PP to reload)

The little Psybreaker Pistol that I had picked up all the way back on Choson Ring, before I even left Sol System the first time. I’d only used it a couple of times, back in Alpha Centauri. I’d found bigger and better weapons since then, and most of my engagements were either fleet battles or something my energy blade could handle. But I’d always kept the little pistol in my inventory, just in case.

I swung myself up, wrapping a leg around the Imperatrix’s other wing to steady myself, and keep her from flinging me about as much. Slowly, I pushed the muzzle of the pistol through the shields. It might not be a slow blade, but this would do just fine, for me. I pressed the pistol against her spine, at the base of the neck, and pulled the trigger.

The reaction to the Psyblock round was swift, and immediate. The Imperatrix roared in pain, her muscles locking up like I had shot her with enough electricity to bring down a whale. But that made sense. If her condition was anything like what the source material suggested, then she was infused to the very core with psychic energy. If that was suddenly blocked? Well, it couldn’t have been very fun.

More importantly, it caused her armor ability to disappear. In an instant, the pistol was back in my inventory, and the energy blade back in my hand. I was not going to monologue, or do anything stupid like that. I could already see her starting to shake off the stun, and who knew if she would be affected for the full five minutes that a normal person would be? No, there was an enemy before me, and the enemy existed only to be destroyed.

A slash of the blade, and the Imperatix’s head was separated from her shoulders. But, even as the corpse fell to the ground, with me on top of it, I could feel it beginning to fade, being drawn back into Hellspace from whence she had come. The Imperatrix was no longer a creature of the mortal world, after all. It was possible that she could only be truly destroyed if she was killed in Hellspace itself.

But that was a fight for another day. Picking myself up off the ground, I looked over to where the Empress was fighting. Well, to call it fighting was a bit of a misnomer. She was simply advancing, one step at a time, with her psychic shield like a bubble around her. Each step was purposeful, deliberate, like the steady trod of Fate itself.

Against that shield, the demon prince with the strange cannon kept up a constant stream of fire. Other demons swarmed around, trying to flank the Empress and force her to drop the shield, but they were all either cut down by the Empress’s blade, or by the cadre of Royal Guards behind her, helping to keep their Empress safe.

And then, it was over. The Empress was close enough, and her blazing sword pierced the demon’s chest, coming out the other side. She slashed upwards, splitting his torso and skull in two. Even as she flicked her blade to the side, casting the foul blood upon it to the ground, the demon prince dropped to his knees, finger still clutching the trigger of the cannon, but, unlike the Imperatrix, his body did not fade. The Empress’s sword had severed his nascent immortality before he had even truly begun to enjoy it, and snuffed out his life, soul and all.

The Royal Guard made room for me, as I made my way to the Empress’s side. “Well, Empress, it seems that it was a good thing you asked me along. They were a good mix. Ranged suppression and a strong melee fighter. Two-on-one, and that would have been a nasty fight.”

The Empress smiled at me. “Indeed, my friend. And what of your battle? I was preoccupied with my own fight, but I am quite certain I did not feel you use any powerful abilities. How did you end her so quickly?”

“Rock, Paper, Scissors,” I grinned. “A long time back, before the Civil War had really gotten started, I came across a trinket on Choson Ring. It was a nifty little device, designed for incapacitating Psy Users. But it was only a single shot, and short range, so I quickly found better, more effective weapons, in most situations. And yet, that weapon was the perfect counter to what was an almost perfect layered defense.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, anything fast enough to damage her scaly hide, and energy of any sort, would be stopped by her armor ‘spell’. And anything slow enough to get through the armor would have to be exceedingly lucky to make it through her hide, literally counting on finding a chink in the armor of someone who prided herself on perfection. The pistol slowly pressing through the shield, to fire at the base of the spine, shorted out her powers long enough for me to get in the killing blow.”

The Empress nodded in understanding. “Very good. Using the right tool for the job is important. A stealth corvette is a very different tool from a dreadnought, and should be used accordingly.”

She sighed, before looking back at the field they were standing upon. “It was here, that the rift was open. And it is here that we must shut it once again. I will throw my might against the rift, and keep any more demons and other enemies from spilling through. You must sever the bonds that anchor the rift here in real space. You will see them if you look for sorcerous power.”

“Any particular way to sever them?”

The Empress grinned. “I believe that a physical weapon of yours, one you have blooded in battle, will work, if you infuse it with your power while making the cut. That will allow the blade to transcend the physical just enough to cut ephemeral bonds.”

I simply nodded, and switched out my trusty energy blade for my dagger. Taking a deep breath, I focused my mind, and stretched out with my senses, looking for the anchors. There were nine in all. Eight at the points of the eight-pointed star that marked the symbol of the cultists, and one in the center.

Slowly, deliberately, I went around the circle, going widdershins more out of superstition than anything else. Infusing my power into the blade, I slashed out, but had to use two hands to push the blade through the first anchor, severing it. There was a flash of power, visible even to normal people, but nothing happened. The Empress still held the portal closed.

I moved from place to place around the circle. Each anchor conduit resisted, like the first, but now I knew what I was dealing with, and so each one fell beneath my blade, releasing a burst of energy as they were severed. At last, only the center one was left.

Each release of energy from a severed anchor had been larger than the one before it. The eighth anchor had actually sent me skidding back several feet from the physical impact. If I didn’t have the kind of sorcerous ability I did, or had skimped on the psychic shielding in my armor, it would have been worse. Much worse.

I took a breath as I stood before the final anchor, and cut. This time, instead of a feeling like cutting through taffy, it was like trying to cut through stone! But I would not be denied. With a roar, I pushed all of my power, all of my strength, all of my emotion into the blade. And, slowly, it began to cut into the anchor. A little at first, and then more and more, until finally—

TWANG

There was a sound, more felt than heard, of a steel cable under tremendous strain being cut, and releasing all that energy at once! That release, though, I certainly felt, as I was at ground zero. Orders of magnitude more powerful than the last blast, I was hurled off my feet, flying backwards until I hit what felt like a stone wall. The last thing I heard before I blacked out was a woman’s voice.

“Well done, my friend. Sleep now. I shall handle the rest.”