“What do we do?” Peri asks uncertainly. “Thassa lotta bad guys.”
“We take 'em down,” Keri declares, punching a palm with a fist. “Anyone who can’t keep up can stay behind.”
“I’ll look into that planetoid,” Armiger says.
Adam nods. “Jordan - Peri - while you’re here, please watch over the Love Bug, okay? Don’t let anything get through.”
The girl thinks, frowns, but finally nods. “You can count on me, Adam!”
Adam and Keri nod to each other. In a flash, Adam teleports the pair of them out into space, and together they fly toward the Blot fleet.
“In the name of honor, in the name of justice, I declare these lands under my protection!” shouts Armiger, as Excalibur flashes into his hands. And with his vow binding him to the planetoid and its people, he teleports away, for the land and the king are one.
Peri teleports to just outside the Love Bug, and takes up station on the hull, just above the cockpit. Space Bug and Jaycee look up and see her smiling and waving.
Jaycee waves cheerfully back, and turns to Space Bug. “Just tell me where the guns are on this thing, and show me how to fire them.”
In flight, Keri is explaining her tactics to Adam.
“We plow right through 'em. It’s like pulling a fish apart,” she says, eyes straight ahead.
“You did this a lot?” Adam asks.
Keri doesn’t answer.
But she doesn’t get a chance to demonstrate, either. Well before either fighter is close enough to launch an attack, they can see a visible change in the Blot ships. They shrink, and harden, and descend toward the planetoid at high speed.
“What are they doing?” Keri asks in bafflement, mostly to herself.
The ships descend and land like giant mushrooms, planted on the planetoid itself. Keri changes direction, and Adam follows.
“Shit, shit shit shit shit,” Keri mutters. “If we smash through 'em like they are, they’d crush the habitat, and the people inside.”
While the warriors ponder, the Blot make their next move. Thousands of winged drones emerge from the armored towers, and make a beeline for the entrance to a cave system - what must be the way into where the planetoid’s inhabitants are living.
“Fine,” Keri mumbles, and changes direction to intercept. Adam follows.
Armiger finds himself in a living place. There’s soil, flowing water, and growing life everywhere. Unlike Earth’s greens, the life here is colored every hue of the rainbow.
Most notably, he can see what are recognizably people. They look to be willowy beings made of tree bark, with “feet” rooted in the soil of the place.
“My name is Armiger,” he says uncertainly. “I’m here to help. What do you need?”
Through the sword’s magic, he feels his message will be received. But how will people here respond?
One of the tree-beings positions its “head” in a nearby waterfall. Depressions in the water form the illusion of a human face. Modulation of the flow provide sound, and articulate speech in a high, soft voice.
“Armiger. Are you one of the Halcyon Heroes League?”
“I’m not,” Armiger confesses. “But I’m a hero from Earth, like them.”
A shudder takes hold of the complex, briefly disrupting the water - and almost uprooting half of the population.
“We are in peril from the Blot,” the tree-woman explains. “We are unable to leave this place because of our roots. We cannot flee them, alas.”
Armiger nods. “Alright. Well my friends are outside fighting them now. If any get through, I’m your last line of defense. Can you show me where they’d come in? Oh, and what’s your name?”
Through some kind of hydrokinetic manipulation, she lifts water from the waterfall, and wraps it around herself like a dress, with water flowing from the top of her head to maintain her face and voice. The water recycles itself at the “hem” of the dress, flowing back upward to repeat the cycle.
“Platana,” the tree-woman says, and smiles. “The entrance to the cavern is this way.”
Jaycee eyes Peri, still outside the ship. She’s seen Concord’s aged-up form, but she also knew Adam Amari from years back. And if this is his little sister…
Space Bug isn’t much better. The creature seems to do whatever pleases it in the moment, and might just decide to run from this battle if things go slightly sour.
Jaycee realizes she’s going to need to give orders.
“Get in there,” she directs Space Bug. “We gotta help Keri and Adam.”
“Roger dodger codger!” the insect-alien acknowledges, and begins operating the esoteric controls of the Love Bug.
“Peri, keep a strong shield in front of the ship,” she directs. “Just hold onto it, as long as you can. We’re going to plow through the bad guys. Okay?”
“I can do that!” Peri acknowledges.
Jaycee comes back to an unanswered question. “Hey. Bug. Guns.”
Space Bug chirps up. “Lightning directors that way,” it indicates with a spare arm. “Big blasty-wasty, big nasty, fun fun fun!”
Jaycee spots a section of the controls that have been adapted for human use, and breathes a sigh of relief. “Okay. They fire backward?”
“Affirmative, confirmed, verified,” Space Bug enthuses.
“Right.” Jaycee straps herself into the station, and takes hold of the gun controls. “Ramming speed.”
Keri goes first, with all the pent-up aggression she developed in her last adventure in space.
She smashes into and through the flying drones, sending them tumbling backward. The masses of them explode outward, colliding with others, forming a chain reaction that knocks whole squads of the things out of the sky.
Adam discharges blasts of energy at wide angles, concussing the drones in similar fashion. But much of his attention is given to his emotional senses.
The first thing he feels is the Blot group-mind. While individual drones do speak with each other, the guiding intelligence of the Blot is distributed across the entire mass. None of these things are individuals, so he doesn’t mind going in at full force.
The second thing is the feelings he’s getting from Keri. There’s an ugliness to her aggression. There’s hate, and anger, and it’s not directed at the Blot for the most part.
He wants to say something, reach out, talk to her about it. But now isn’t the time.
The winged drones split into two groups. The first continue their journey toward the entrance to the habitat, where the huddled tree-people hide underground. The second are turning their attention to the Love Bug and the two flying heroes.
Behind him, Adam can see Peri focusing all of her attention on her own barrier. Space Bug is driving the ship through the hordes, and the drones are, well, splatting on the barrier like bugs on a car’s windshield.
As the Love Bug flies through the massed drones, Adam watches as lightning bolts spark from the hull, jumping backwards. The bolts chain through dozens of drones at a time, and their charred remnants drift down to the planetoid below.
But there’s so many.
Adam is going to need a lot more energy.
He hears Somber’s voice in his head, courtesy of the second Shard.
There is some, right before you.
Armiger finds the cavern entrance. It’s broad, many meters wide and quite a few high.
It takes him a moment to analyze the tactical situation. It takes another for him to hurl Excalibur into the rocky ceiling high above, and will the sword to act.
Much of the cavern comes down in rubble. The sword flashes back into his hand.
Platana is startled. “Do you want to trap us inside?” she asks.
Armiger points at the narrow hole his cave-in has left behind. “A good fortress has one weak point. The enemy must come there, and the defenders will be ready. A horde could come through there, and I can’t stop them. But one man can guard this much.”
As if in answer to his challenge, a buzzing noise is heard. Armiger gestures for the tree-folk to get back, and readies the sword.
It’s one man against an army.
Numbers will not save him. His friends outside will not help him. All he has to carry the day is his conviction. It must be enough.