Fiction: Death on Dark Wings pt5

"Admiral, we have entered orbit around the body.  It's size C, a fireworld,
and we have taken up a position approximately twenty thousand miles from its
orbital ring, also fire.  Detectors are showing no other signs of
spelljamming craft, and lookouts report all seems quiet on the decks of the
armada.  Mantis ships Herald and Claimant are on approach, their salvage and
docking gear in order.  The Herald reports a couple of the kobold lookouts
have become uncontrollable and had to be put down, but the charm spells are
keeping the rest in line.  Helmsman reports there is mild debris in the
area, nothing significant, but do you wish the debris signal sounded?"



            Korgesh turned to the Grand Guard and captain of his
battlewagon.  "No, light debris is nothing any good marine cant handle, and
shouldn't get used to.  Check with the lookouts on the 22nd, I want to know
how the wyverns are handling the heat - they are without the magical
protection we have here, at least for the moment.  Oh, and one other thing,
have cook prepare a nice meal of venison tonight, I feel like dining over
victory."



            With a salute the Grand Guard Captain spun on his heels and left
the bridge of the large boar-like ship, passing several rooms down the
corridor and then leaning into one to give orders to the helmsman.  Korgesh
had moved the helm, another self-deduced enhancement to the battlewagons
design, so that he did not have to put up with war priests when he did not
want to, and also to make it a bit harder to target the command of the ship
at once.  Standing near the large window he looked casually at the large
painting on the wall, a level that would drop an inch thick of iron across
the doors and windows at a moments notice if the need arose, concealed
behind a painting of several elven women being raped by scro.  A burning
village in the background added to the scene, the Grand Guard Captain was
certainly showing talent.



            Several minutes passed and word came back that the wyverns were
faring quite well, and seemed to be enjoying the heat immensely.  It gave
Korgesh ideas, and he had Velnik take down some notes on the idea of
crossing a firedrake with a wyvern - their pleasure at the heat could be a
sign their bodies would tolerate the firedrakes exquisitely flammable blood.
While the goblin scribbled away in the small notebook Korgesh paced, and
watched the wyverns as little more than specks against the fiery backdrop of
the planet below.  He saw the glow as the warpriests cast their mana sail
spells, incredible magic they had stolen from that armada in frontier that
allowed the elves to conjure temporary magical sails.  The scro high
command, and the Chosen of Dukgash himself did not like mana sails in the
least, there were too many things that could go wrong, but in this instance
they had approved the use of the spells, as all it basically did was speed
up the wyverns to true tactical spelljamming speed.



            Right about now, if things were going by plan as they typically
did, the pilot and two weaponeers on each wyvern would be hearing the
warpriests prayer spells to dukgash, while said weaponeers loaded their
metallic ballistae, small on board a ship but known collectively as maulers
due to their immense size amongst troops.  Another note came into Korgesh's
head, and he had Velnik write another side note regarding the use of metal
weaponry in such cases near fire bodies.  If the metal became to hot without
adequate protection, it could easily start a fire in a small air envelope
such as the wyvern's, but it seemed Dukgash was with them this day because
the armada was drifting with its upper half away from the fire planet.  It
made Korgesh think of a big beaten butterfly, floating over a flame, about
to have its wings singed and then its body burst into flames.  Not this
butterfly though, if all went to standard plan they could have the armada
cleared and ready for helm insertion within sixteen hours.  The larger helm
they had bought from the spheres Arcane reperesentative had better prove
worth the immense amount of gold.



            But with gamaro base gone, there had been little place to store
it.



Tilaurin
tilaurin@?????????????????.com
http://www.planetbaldursgate.com/atreus/index.html
"Dying Swans/Twisted Wings,
Bring This Savage Back Home"
- Brave New World, Iron Maiden