Star Warden 3: CC. Chapter 14

 

A vine burst forth through the ground and peeled open. The Warden rushed out first with his wife behind him. An honor guard of Paladins and Wizards keeping them, mainly her, safe. They were rushing as best they could to Sentinel's system core. The ravages of time did not degrade the shielding that prevented random gateways from forming in the core. Since they lacked access to provide authorization. They needed to use the Elder Tree's roots to reach the entrance of the core.

The materials around the core prevented the roots from breaking through. So the Warden had to rush to the rail station that leads to the system core. Once part of the larger system built underneath the planet in the old days. Using his knowledge of the Tuatha language and his own piloting skills they arrived at the system core without incident. The room, closer to a massive cavern, was much larger than the system node with a series of interconnected floating platforms in the center. No sign of the natural world was left anywhere on the walls or ceiling. But the most eye-grabbing feature was the large head at the northern edge of the platform.

The head and its hair of cables took up the entire northern wall like a mosaic. Unlike the node, the head was disproportionately big.

“Sir Bailey,” said Merlin. “The Cosmic Ring is generating much data. I believe it is attempting to communicate with me.”

“Spt it out, Merlin. We don't have much time.”

“It says that there is something inside the head.”

The blue ring left the talisman and took physical form. By its own will moving onto Sam's right index finger. The ring's crystal began to glow causing the mouth of the head to open up. He didn't waste a moment to run in. Climbing up a set of stairs he reached the top of the head entering the brain of the head. He came face to face with a smooth orb inside a dark room.

Dawnbringer glowed as Excalibur passed along info into his mind. “Illuminate and begin Alpha installation protocols.”

The metallic skin of the orb folded in revealing its core that bathed the room in blue light. It shifted its form turning into what looked like a holographic brain. Lines of data flowed into a visible format. Materializing into holographic displays, consoles, and interfaces.

“Welcome, Administrator.” A voice brought his attention to a humanoid feminine entity with an A on her forehead. She had taken the place where the brain once was. “My designation is Alpha. I am the Planetary Defense Network's master control system. You may now synchronize your neural links.”

“We'll handle that later,” said the Warden.

“Please be advised I am more efficient when synchronized with the Administrator's neural links. I am not detecting any links. Have they been damaged?”

“Ignore that. Right now I need you to reconnect with all your nodes and bring Sentinel fully online. We have a planetary threat.”

“Of course, Administrator. I detect several ships in orbit above the planet. Shall I target them?”

“No, those are friendly. Target all orbital defenses and shipyards. They are the enemy.”

Outside the face, Kaguya, and the Templars were showered by debris and particle fire. SWAT-bots Mark 2 and the drilling machine had arrived without warning. The drilling machine had been augmented by Daimos downloading weapon attachments to it. Normally the Templars would have been warned. Their communication systems involved a form of quantum entanglement allowing real-time communication where normal communications would be blocked. But Daimos interfered using the fact he existed in a quantum-based computer network to do so.

He was not sure at first if he could interfere with quantum-based communications despite existing in the Codex. But the gamble paid off as the paladins and wizards were completely surprised when he attacked. He gave orders to the bots to slaughter the rest of them while he moved the drilling machine to the face.

Kaguya delayed the machine with a light barrier around the treads. Following up by blasting Daimos with her ray gun and holy magic. The ray gun did negligible damage as his systems were far too hardened and could suppress power surges. The magic he reflected back at Kaguya. Knocking her down and causing the light barrier to dissipate.

Daimos chuckled. “I believe that is fair recompense for our last encounter.”

The Princess got back up and was met with a hail of weapons fire. Her civilian-level energy barrier was no match for it. Forcing her to focus on defending herself than stopping the machine. Daimos was then free to enhance the drill giving it more power to break through the force field of the system core.

It was a wasted effort. As a stream of white fire poured from the open mouth and struck the driller. Snapping the drill in half and stopping the machine dead in its tracks. The Star Warden stepped out from the mouth. The blue runes of Excalibur shining through the white flames.

The Champion of Aetherium and its Tyrant stared each other down only for a moment. Then battle commenced. Kaguya wished to join in but stayed supporting the remaining Templars. She was only here for appearance's sake and had to protect the life growing inside her. The thought of leaving her love to fight Daimos himself was distasteful even with that reasoning.

But she did cast a set of spells for Sam to aid his defense and healing. Then she turned back to the battle just missing the brief burst of light. The Warden had used Excalibur to send Daimos flying into the rail station. He didn't waste a moment pouncing on his prone state. Daimos responded by phasing his hand through Sam's armor and knocking him away.

Daimos didn't have a face to convey it but he was slightly worried. If this was the true Excalibur wielded by King Arthur himself then Sam was part of the Royal bloodline of Pendragon. How that was possible was a question he would draw from his corpse. He wouldn't take any chances this time. Samuel had to be put down for good. Even if it was just a replica the very idea Excalibur existed must have inspired the Centauri to start a second Coalition war.

Leaping back into close combat, he summoned a hammer to his right hand. He made slight adjustments to compensate for the new material in the Warden's armor and talisman. One quick swing to the head. That was knocked away by the buckler. The Warden went to slice Daimos open but he managed to parry that blow.

The Warden summoned runes to further enhance his body. The Dark Lord was briefly caught off guard but managed to recover. Enhancing his own already great machine strength reflexes. Each one took and gave blows. Sam slicing open Daimos's joints and plates. Daimos striking down on Sam's helm cracking his HUD causing it to flicker throughout the battle.

Liquid metal healed Daimos's damage but it did not stop him from being pushed back. The Warden was challenging him on even terms. It was not just the strength of Excalibur or the result of all his training. It was him doing everything he could to keep Kaguya out of the fight. To protect his child and all the children after them. He was fighting to make a home for his family, a strength the machine could never understand.

The Tyrant jumped back from another swing and readied his flaming red eyes. In those microseconds when the flames were let loose. The Warden leaned forward letting the flames pass over him. Using his rocket boots to drive forward and thrust his sword through the metallic plates of the abdomen. With this leverage, he lifted Daimos from the ground and threw him upwards with enough speed and strength to smash through the ceiling.

Following through the hole he found himself in the palace garden. Swiftly he flew around looking for Daimos while expecting a sneak attack. Said attack came but not from Daimos. A ninja bot with a sniper's configuration did the deed. Causing the rocket pack to explode and send the Warden through a glass roof. Crashing onto the floor of a dark throne room.

The Dark Lord then swung his hammer leaping from behind a pillar in the room. Merlin warned Sam in time allowing him to place his blade between him and the hammer. But the surprise and the momentum of the swing sent the sword flying from his hand. A cyberfield was put up for extra defense. But Daimos shattered it and landed a strong blow right on Sam's chest. Splintering half of his breastplate and crushing the rest, only the defense boost from Kaguya preventing bones from breaking or internal bleeding.

Daimos would not let up and went to crush the Warden's head. Excalibur would not allow this and moved itself to sever his right arm. Screaming in pain left him vulnerable to a rune enhanced punch to his faceplate. Sam began throwing punch after punch faster than the eye can see. Screaming like a berserk warrior he then penetrated the abdomen plates and ripped out wires and circuits from the evil one's body.

Daimos screamed in pain not from the pulling but the holy energies pouring out from Sam's hand. The pain was not enough to distract him as he commanded his right arm to attack. Excalibur attempted to intercept but to no avail. The claw then phased into Sam's chest and reached his heart squeezing down with all its might.

Sam leaped back with his rocket boots ripping the claw out of his chest. Escaping certain death by mere moments. Daimos called his arm back only for Excalibur to destroy it. Sam, keeping his pain in check by sheer willpower, caught Excalibur and moved in to strike Daimos.

He responded by using the liquid metal repairing him to form a makeshift blow to parry it. The blade shifted into a claw and caught his sword arm. The metal spread over the hand and arm and hardened to ensure he couldn't move. Sam swung a wright hook but Daimos caught that as well. He smiled beneath his helm as Daimos did exactly what he wanted as now his fusion cannon was right in front of the Tyrant.

Merlin had summoned it quickly and set it to full charge. By the time Daimos realized his mistake, it was too late to do anything about it, aside from setting his personal shield to full power. But even at maximum strength, it could not protect him from a blast at point-blank range. That was not the worst news as unbeknownst to the Daimos the canon had been enhanced by Tuatha coding. Instead of the intense heat of the normal cannon, particles of dark matter impacted Daimos's barrier.

In a struggle that could be measured in the briefest of moments the barrier exploded from the overload. A burst of light, heat and exotic particles flooded the throne room.

Glass vaporized and masonry melted. In Gloriana, the battle was interrupted by the ground rumbling which soon cracked and opened up. Warriors on both sides not dragged in by surprise were pushed in by the shock wave and they were the lucky ones. Those closest to the shock wave were killed outright. The ones close but not enough to be killed outright were rendered unconscious or suffered extreme nausea from the heavy vibrations.

Even the dragons' Balthazar and Caspar were not spared from the carnage as they were knocked from the sky. Their impact only caused more damage to the city. The rocket ship crash only compounded the damage as the once great capital of the Unicorn Kingdom slowly turned into a land of craters and ruins.

In what was once the royal palace the Star Warden began to re-awaken. Excalibur and Merlin had protected him from the explosion. His armor was completely beyond repair, few pieces remained intact. Clad only in the nano mail undersuit he began to stand. The talisman was cracked and making sparks with no sign that Merlin survived. Only the Cosmic Ring was left entirely undamaged.

“Administrator,” said Alpha her voice emanating from the ring.

“Go ahead,” Sam replied.

“Sentinel is online. Connections with all nodes have been re-established. Systems functioning optimally. I have a target lock on all orbital infrastructures and enemy ships. One outstanding issue: My systems are detecting over two hundred nuclear projectiles on course to this location.”

“Oh, of course, he would do that. Supervillains are always sore losers! Can the Thunderclaw intercept them?”

“The vessel designated Thunderclaw is attempting to intercept along with another smaller craft designation Blackjack. The probability of successfully removing all ordinances is low and what remains will impact the city and surrounding areas.”

“Alpha, can your weapons destroy the weapons but remove any debris and radiation from the explosion?”

“Affirmative. My weapons systems.”

“Skip the technobabble and do it,” Sam interjected. “Open fire on the new and old targets.”

“Confirmed.”

From the lower skies of Aetherium millions of lights came forth. To the survivors just waking up, their first sight would be a light show of epic proportions. One by one the nukes went dead. All debris and radiation were absorbed and pushed the lights further into orbit.

They descended upon the Domain's battle fleet, orbital dockyards, and weapon platforms like a swarm. No resistance stopped them and nothing could slow them down as all that Daimos owned was destroyed. Admiral Sabine watched in awe as explosion after explosion occurred. The energy and debris are once again broken down and absorbed by the little horde of lights.

“Can someone explain to me what is going on,” she asked.

“Ma'am, in my professional military opinion what we have is a miracle.”

A communication came from the surface. It was from a captain of one of the marine teams.

“Hound of Ulster do you read?”

“Ulster Actual here,” Sabine replied. “What's your status?”

“We were hoping you could tell us. We saw these thousands, no millions of lights coming from out of nowhere. A swarm of them came here and just ripped the enemy defenses to shreds, but left us untouched. It was a beautiful sight, ma'am.”

She agreed with that sentiment. It was a wonderful sight, seeing the machine ships be destroyed. She asked for an update on the current situation of the enemy forces. The Captain relayed that all enemy defenses were destroyed entirely. Power was out and no team was under fire.

“Deploy teams to the enemy's command center and secure it. Reinforcements will be deployed presently to rescue any prisoners.” The Siberian Husky then turned to her second in command. “Prepare my shuttlecraft. I'm going down to the surface to meet our miracle maker.”

Back on the surface beneath the twin moons of Aetherium. Samuel Bailey smiled as he watched the sunrise on a new day. The first day of a free world.

Chapter 15

Chapter 13