“Exiting hyperspace, Admiral Kai,” Major Warwick Blastimoff said, his voice tinged with excitement and trepidation.
Kildo hung onto a nearby console as the swirling tunnel of darkness and silvery haze abruptly ended, and normal space returned. While he didn’t move an inch, his eyes saw their ship, the Space Dragon, traveling at near-impossible speeds and suddenly stopped. Dozens of majestic spelljammer craft, the armada to restore Princess Xedalli to her rightful place as ruler of the Xaryxian Empire and destroy the crystallin seeds ravishing their planet, snapped into reality and instantly appeared around them. To enter hyperspace to travel to Xaryxispace, the armada had to sling-shot around the black hole, The Eye of Doom, to escape Doomspace. His stomach was still feeling the effects of being stretched, just for an instant, a foot taller. He felt unbalanced in the unnaturally longer body. So, that is what it felt like to be a human. Ugh. He recalled, weeks ago, when he magically cast, Sending to Princess Xedalli and sent the following message.
Kildo speaking. Armada in route to Xaryxispace and the Temple of Light. Be having yer force prepared. We be coming. How many words I be having~
The message abruptly ended as he exceeded the spell’s twenty-five-word limit. The reply came back almost immediately.
My subject will be notified and waiting. Don’t trust Prince Xeleth. His fleet is scattered but still has a sizable force. Beware of the ROUS.
Kildo had no idea what an ‘ROUS’ was, but it sounded like a Pokémon, and they had a Charmander with them. He was more concerned about a fleet of astral elves ships that would be waiting. Admiring the new sphere, immediately visible was a lush green planet. It looked clean and beautiful. These elves seemed in harmony with nature. Something he did admire about the fey folk. However, in the distance was a moth-shaped golden city that filled him with awe and unease. On it was a massive temple where a beam of pure, white light traveled in the distance to a bright, white star in the middle of the sphere.
“That’s the Temple of Light,” Commodore Krux explained, pointing toward the moth-shaped, golden city. “Uh, oh.”
Kildo could see movement around the structure. Several star moth spelljammer ships were beginning to swarm and move in their direction.
A loud voice boomed, “Rats! This is Admiral Sofina of the Xaryxian Empire to all invading vessels. By order of Prince Xeleth, you are ordered to surrender your commands and prepare to be boarded. If you do not surrender, we will initiate deadly force and exterminate you from the sphere. This is your only warning.”
“Again, with the rats,” Scomatch scoffed.
“Admiral Kai, you can respond,” Major Warwick Blastimoff explained.
“I’m the dread pirate Admiral Kai. My wrath is as massive and treacherous as the sea. I’ve traveled through space and time. Prince Xeleth is a usurper and not the rightful ruler of the Xaryxian Empire. You are following a false leader and executing his illegal orders. Princess Xedalli is the true royal sovereign and rightful ruler. Your allegiance is to her and not her corrupt brother, who is guilty of thirty-four felonies and many, many more in our sphere. Join Princess Xedalli’s or leave while you still can, as we will defend ourselves against any hostile action.”
“They broke contact,” Major Blastimoff said, shaking his head.
“Red alert!” Kai ordered. A panel next to the bridge door flashed a bright red in warning.
Kildo heard the two heavy catapults in the front and back of the Space Dragon and the main ballista in the middle being loaded.
“Admiral Kai, Captain Vultan is here as you ordered,” Commodore Krux announced.
Kildo turned and saw an aarakocra enter. He was a bird-like humanoid with a head resembling that of an eagle. His hands had three fingers, a thumb, and a pair of feathered wings. He had thick legs ending in talons. His feathers had a bright plumage with red, yellow, or orange. He gripped a one-handed staff, ending in a hooked axe-like head.
Kai began, “Captain Vultan, I want your hawkmen-”
Interrupting Kai, Commodore Krux whispered, “They are aarakocra, not hawkmen. That’s a little racist.”
“Ah,” Kai cleared his throat and continued, “I need your hawk…warriors to punch a hole through the astral elven ships. You’ll be the tip of the spear. I want an opening straight to the Temple of Light.”
Captain Vultan nodded, “We have a sky-speeder. Slightly used, if you would like to join us at the vanguard.”
Major Warwick Blastimoff shook his head behind Captain Vultan.
Catching the motion, Kai said, “Thank you Captain Vultan, but my place is on the Space Dragon with my crew.”
“Oh well. Who wants to live forever,” Captain Vultan said, laughing boastfully as he exited the bridge. As the hawkmen, aarakocra, launched into Xaryxispace, they heard him bellow, “Dive!”
Several of their rebel fleet spell jammers raced ahead with the hawkmen and formed the tip of the spear. They were almost instantly swarmed by the astral elves' more maneuverable ships. They were outnumbered two to one.
The first wave of hawkmen instantly erupted in magical flames cast from the astral elves' space moth spelljammers. The aarakocra appeared like flying ants, burning and frantically attempting to put out the fire. One of the sea galleon ships also burst into flames. The spelljammer’s wood wailed in lamentation at its doom.
“This shit just got real,” Scomatch said.
The rays of the Xarysispace’s sun were blocked as a golden, massive star-moth spelljammer maneuvered and headed toward the Space Dragon.
“Belial guard us,” Odium said from the pilot's chair, making a benediction.
“Shut it Odium!” Kildo bellowed and then continued quietly, “Rigga guard us.”
As hope faded, Kildo noticed several star moths disengage and retreat away from the battle while others seemed to interfere and interdict themselves in front of other astral elves' spelljammers. A few even engaged members of their own fleet. It seemed Princess Xedalli had gotten the word out. Her loyal subjects were here!
“Xaryxian flagship approaching. Their deck is heaving with astral elves. It appeared they are going to try and board us Admiral,” Major Blastimoff shouted.
“All crew topside! Prepare to repel boarders!” Kai ordered and gripped Wave. The command staff looked at each other, nodded their determination, and proceeded to the top deck.
Kildo followed the pounding of footsteps as the crew of the Space Dragon ran through the ship and climbed the stairs and ladders to the top deck. Emerging, the astral elves' flagship was heaving with nineteen warriors. On the deck was the ship’s commander, flanked by two honor guards. The astral elves looked like normal high elves, but each had a starry gleam in their eyes.
The groups stared across the way from each other as the two spelljammers closed the distance. Space darkened. The sound of a roaring inferno was heard. A celestial event was occurring above. Four enormous meteors were observed radiating from a single point. The blazing orbs of fire plummeted toward the crew of the Space Dragon.
“Scomatch be dispelling it!” Kildo bellowed as he felt his Ring of Evasion strongly pull on him to dive out of the way.
“It’ll be fine,” Scomatch replied.
The magic of his ring flung him to cover. The last thing Kildo saw was the crew’s eyes widened in fear as the space rocks exploded in their midst. The entire deck was encompassed as the ship felt the impact. Dust, dirt, and fiery debris exploded around them. The charred remains of a crew member were blasted into space. His body floated into oblivion.
The nineteen astral elves leaped onto the deck of the Space Dragon as the ships crossed paths. Their commander and two honor guards remained on the massive star moth.
Wave flashed out from Kai and impaled one of the crossing warriors.
A sizable portion of the deck erupted in flames as Scomatch cast, Fireball. Eleven astral elves, the commander, and one of the honor guards were burned. The elf skewered on Wave died.
As the astral elves swarmed the ship and surrounded the crew, Kildo cast, Spirit Guardians. A low, rhythmic pulsing began to emanate from the ship’s deck. A white light came from the wooden plank’s seams. Fog rolled out fifteen feet from the cleric. Small wisps of air arched out. Longer tendrils began to form.
Stabbing with Wave, Kai killed an elven warrior just to the south of him and bashed the blunt end into an elf to the west.
Guo Gan, to the southeast of Kai, bashed with Qiekamis’s both ends and slew an astral elf to the north of him. He then jabbed the blunt tip into one to the south.
Kildo saw the power accumulate around the star moth's commander as he began casting a spell. “Scomatch!”
The halfling saw the magic user and cast a counter spell. The power’s accumulation turned into a puff of smoke. Anger furrowed on the commander’s brow as he motioned. His two honor guards flung themselves into the battle. One went north to the ship's bow, and the other moved to engage Kai. The cleric spirit guardians struck the astral elf as he leaped over, but it did little to stop him as the warrior’s two-handed sword smashed into the paladin.
The other astral elves followed and hacked and stabbed Kai. Blood was drawn.
Kildo had little chance to help his friend as several astral elves swarmed him. Their weapons bashed into his armor, and he felt their blunt impact. He lost concentration on the spirit guardians. They went up in a whiff of smoke. He had to focus on blocking as many blows as possible, but he was unsuccessful. Then, to the dwarven cleric’s horror, he saw through the throng of bodies, an astral elf drive his longsword through Major Blastimoff. The giff’s body remained motionless.
“You killed Blastimoff! You bastards!” Scomatch screeched. A thin grey ray sprang from the halfling’s finger as it struck the astral elf commander. The front of his armor disintegrated into fine, grey dust.
“Abra! Abra!”
A small, three-foot-tall abra Pokémon then emerged from behind the commander. It was golden-brown and foxlike with three fingers and toes on both arms and legs. Its feet had three sharp claws. Two on the front and one on the heel. It had a long tail with one brown stripe. It bound straight toward Charmander.
“Char! Char!”
The two Pokémon began their own battle.
“Don’t get overwhelmed!” Kai shouted as he thrust with Wave. The trident’s prongs sunk into an astral elf’s chest, killing him.
Kildo could see the crew was hurt, and the elves' swarming tactics had their own advantage. They were pressed from all sides, and several wounds had been inflicted. Channeling divinity and Rigga’s blessing, he sent out a wave of divine healing. It washed over Kai, Scomatch, and himself. Normally, he wouldn’t have used any on himself, but he needed to ensure he stayed up to continue delivering healing magic.
Bringing Qiekamis bashing downward, Guo Gan dropped an elf north of Kildo. The monk then backflipped out and away as a group of astral elves attempted to surround him. Running across the deck of the Space Dragon, he leaped and landed in front of the commander of the star moth.
“Admiral Sofina, I presume,” the wood elf, Guo Gan said, slightly bowing but keeping eye contact.
“Ah, an intelligent rat. You are correct, but you are still just a rat,” Sofina replied.
Guo Gan smashed his foot into Sofina’s groin. The stunned astral elf dropped to his knees in pain.
Upon Guo Gan attacking Sofina, one of the honor guards jumped back to the star moth. The other smashed his greatsword at Kai. The paladin threw up Wave to parry the attack, but the force bashed the weapon into him.
Kildo saw at the bow of the ship four crewmen fending off a group of astral elves. Two were cut down as the remaining were hard-pressed to defend themselves. He then heard a scream as Jonny One-bags was stabbed with an astral elf rapier in the meaty part of his shoulder.
Two hatches burst open from inside the star moth to the north and south. Two Rodents Of Unusual Size emerged. Resembling hamsters, they were stout-bodied, with a tail much shorter than their body length. They had round, furry ears, short, stocky legs, and wide feet. Their thick long fur was orange with white around the mouth and cheeks, which extended along both sides of their head and neck. However, they each had cute little faces, but their eyes were a deep, crimson red.
The one to the north pounced on the honor guard next to Guo Gan and Admiral Sofina. Its nasty, sharp, pointy teeth cut clean through the astral elf’s neck and hewed his head off. It bounced and rolled on the deck.
Guo Gan’s eyes went wide in surprise, fear, and trepidation.
The giant space devil hamster to the south flung itself toward the Space Dragon. Its paws latched to the ship’s edge as its sharp claws dug into the deck. It snatched an astral elf’s head just to the south of Kildo. There was a muffled scream, followed by a bone-sickening crunch, as the headless body fell to the deck.
“The nine hells!” Kildo cursed in shock and terror. As he looked on, a glowing one-foot ball of emerald acid from Scomatch streaked toward the bow of the Space Dragon. A crew member had been disarmed and surrounded by three astral elves. They raised their swords to cut him down. The orb burst, covering the entire area. All three astral elves shrieked, their words gargled in acid, as their armor and skin melted, exposing muscle, organs, and bone. Admiral Sofina and the northern ROUS were affected and sizzling. The spell also melted two of the three elves battling Kai.
“Whoo-hoo! I’m alive!” the Space Dragon crew member called out.
A silvery mist formed as Scomatch appeared in the Space Dragon’s aft section. Next to the halfling floated a white creature about six inches off the ground. It was shaped like a flat saucer with a two-foot diameter, slightly larger than a human from shoulder to shoulder, and between three to four inches thick at its center and about as thick as a human arm. Its body was hollow, with a small circular hole at the center of its topside. It had a pair of six‑inch-long eyestalks on either side of the central hole, as well as numerous tentacles and small spikes that grew from the underside, which were a darker shade. Its most distinguishing feature was that it wore a black tricorn hat with three brims turned up that were buttoned in place to keep them up to form a triangle around its head with an orange feather.
“Do you like my hat?” the creature asked, its voice gargled.
“What in the nine hells are you!?” Scomatch gasped.
“I’m a flump.”
“You’re annoying,” Scomatch replied.
“Oh,” the flump said, distraught, and floated off.
Charmander came bouncing up and dropped the corpse of the Abra Pokémon in its mouth to Scomatch’s feet. “Char! Char!” Charmander chirped happily.
“Ugh. I hate you so much,” Scomatch muttered.
“Char,” Charmander lamented and slumped away.
Lunging with Wave, he was distracted, watching the ROUS. He missed the remaining astral elf in front of him.
Kildo understood the paladin’s concern as he saw the southern, gigantic devil hamster gain traction on the deck of the Space Dragon. Surrounded by four astral elves, he moved back away to the north. One of his opponents took quick advantage and slashed with his sword. It crunched into his plate armor. It failed to penetrate but would leave a nasty bruise. Better than a missing head, Kildo thought. He began to chant and cast, Mass Healing Word. A wave of Rigga’s healing energy washed over the command staff and healed the most grievous wounds. He then noticed a straight view of the commander of the star moth. He cast, Toll the Dead. Dolorous bells rang around the astral elf admiral. Blood began to seep from his ears, nose, and eyes. It was too much, as his body slumped over dead.
Guo Gan was free of opponents, which would typically be a good thing. However, the monk now had the full attention of the northern giant space devil hamster. Holding out his hand, Guo Gan said into the creature’s mind, “Eh, what’s up doc?”
Listening, Guo Gan’s understanding of the hamster’s thoughts was a series of deep, gravelly voices with growls, screeches, and raspberries. The monk’s eyes widened as the hamster spun like a tornado toward him. Flipping over the creature, he sprung back to the Space Dragon. He came down hard. The ends of Qiekamis smashed into the heads of two astral elves to the northeast and east of Kildo. Their skulls cracked as they fell.
The remaining astral elf honor guard lashed out with his greatsword. Kai attempted to block the blow with Wave, but its weight bashed through the parry. The elf then pressed forward, used his strength, and maneuvered the paladin between him and the spinning hamster, moving their way from the star moth.
The northern ROUS crossed to the Space Dragon. The lone crewmember in the front section of the ship, still dancing with joy at being previously saved from Scomatch’s vitriolic sphere, didn’t notice the hamster until its nasty, sharp, pointed teeth cut his head clean off.
Connie of Dexy’s Midnight runners charged at the creature. She had an object in her hands that resembled a large, highly decorated orb made of gold with a cross on top. “Bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy-”
She was interrupted as the hamster’s jaw clamped over her head and hewed it off.
The southern ROUS went into a frenzy as it tore into and vivisected the astral elf southeast of Kildo. The dwarven crew member, Red Fred, would have been a gerbil snack if he was an inch taller, as the hamster snapped at his head.
Scomatch pointed his finger and a thin ray struck the hamster as he cast, Disintegrate. A large section of the creature’s fur turned to grey ash.
Kildo had never seen a creature, let alone a pair of creatures, tear through the battlefield like these hamsters. He completely understood Princess Xedalli’s warning. ‘Beware of the ROUS’. Casting, a long wobbling note began to increase in pitch and then a ‘chirp’ as the two hamsters winked out of existence, banished.
Kai used to fighting one-on-one, could not land a solid blow as Guo Gan joined the fray. The monk sped around the astral elf honor guard and he didn’t want to risk hitting the wood elf. However, Scomatch had no such qualm, as a fire bolt clipped his shoulder and burst into the astral elf.
Guo Gan bashed low with Qiekamis. The astral elf parried the attack, bringing down his guard. In blinding speed, the monk dropped his quarterstaff and struck the honor guard elf rapidly, striking around its heart four times. The monk then hit in the center and twisted.
“You know the sacred five-point palm exploding heart technique?” the astral elf asked as he crumpled to the deck.
Kildo heard the roar of a battle cry as Dexy of Dexy’s Midnight Runners rallied the crew. In a tight formation, they killed the remaining four astral elves, including the last one to the west of him. Around him, dozens of similar ship-to-ship battles raged. It was a dance of death. He then looked outward toward the Temple of Light. There was a gaping hole straight to the moth-like citadel.
“Orders Admiral?” Guo Gan asked Kai as Kildo and Scomatch joined them.
“Instruct Odium to take us in. Maximum speed. We are going straight down their throats,” Kai ordered.
Kildo muttered and said, “And there I be thinking there be a moment where we might actually survive.”
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