Darklight: Precipice

Part 4: Coming In Hot

Her hands were gripping the arms of the command chair so hard that her knuckles were white and she could feel the muscles of her palms cramping. But she didn’t dare release her grip.

“Curator!” She heard one of the bridge staff shout over the din. “We’re nearing Utopia City and systems aren’t responding”.

“I’m quite aware of that, Commander!” She bit back. It wasn’t really his fault, but stating the  damn obvious to her was only wasting her time, she was plugged into the ship’s systems via a neural interface - she knew everything. And it wasn’t good.

All but two of the Lordships were known to have survived the Lordwars. Soran was personally responsible for the destruction of three, with Ana and her own Lordship destroying another and the Utopia City defense cannons blasting a few out of the sky and of course Draz ripping two from the very air itself. There were only thought to be seven Lordships when the fighting began, but Lord Regina had covertly constructed several more ready for her tactical strike. With so many Lordships threatening the safety of his new Utopia, Draz had to take action.

Working alongside Commander Raine, Soran and other Skry and Human designers, Draz poured massive amounts of resource into the generation of a not only a new classification of ship - but a whole new range of airships that combined the very best in both Utopian and Skry technologies. The prototype of this new line, The Roc, was completed six months after Regina’s strike. The colossal airship was completely black and capable of cloaking itself not only on the visible light spectrum but also through the infra-red and ultra violet spectrums, rendering it invisible to all Utopian sensors, and with Regina’s secretive army built on Utopian technology this gave Draz a distinct advantage.

The ship itself was twice the size of a lordship and three times the size of a Skry Airship. The hull was long and sleek with a bulbous nose that contained the bridge and sensor equipment. Towards the rear of the hull were two great aeronautically designed wings that swept backwards and upwards, as if a sea bird was diving towards the water to catch its fish prey. These wings even looked like wings thanks to the complex scales of the Ablative Armor that covered them, protecting them from even the heaviest of gunfire. The ship’s sleek and aeronautical design made it the fastest, and largest, ship ever constructed. Attached to the base of these curved wings were two Class 2 Phase Cannons - Skry weapons that had been improved by Utopian power regulation technology. The massive bulk of the ship was held aloft by the latest and most stable of Utopia’s Anti-Gravity Drive technology and it was propelled through the air by the Skry Banshee Engines - named after the same ship that Soran had infiltrated Utopia City in and using technology of a similar nature, namely the expansion and compression of spacetime on a minute scale to generate thrust. And of course even with its strong armor, The Roc was protected by the latest and most durable Skry shielding. All of these advanced systems were powered by a trio of Clandestine Generators that worked in perfect parallel with each other deep within the ship itself.

It was this ship that was entrusted to Ana. As Curator Of Utopia it was her job to protect Utopia from Regina’s insurgent threat, launching surgical strikes using information gleamed through her spies. The Phase Cannons along with the point-defense lasers and warhead-firing railguns made The Roc a force to be reckoned with, and a ship that could take out a great number of smaller vessels. Unknown to most of the crew Ana had even installed a top secret and most delicate Displacement Drive based on the early technology that Draz had used previously to teleport to Soran’s aid on Nestro. This technology was untested on such a large bulk with so many souls on board, but it was a failsafe that Ana was comforted was there.

But on this occasion The Roc was hurtling, uncontrolled, straight towards the highly populated Utopia City. It was crossing the expanse of water between the continents at a speed that was far too high - the ship would get torn apart. On top of this the crew and Ana had no control over the ships systems and the Clandestine Generators on board had been ramped up to maximum output with no way of shutting them down.

And all of this thanks to an artifact that they had discovered on one of the excavation operations on the outskirts of Netro. What they believed to be a Forefather power source and data node, it had been dormant for most of the trip but then as they neared Utopia the device seemed to activate somehow. With a bright flash of light it had sent the ship’s systems haywire and Ana now found herself responsible trying to save all two hundred crew she had on board as the new Utopian Flagship threatened to take out a chunk of its own city.

“Draz” She said, broadcasting a message directly to his comms device from her own cerebral impact.

“MAYDAY - The Roc is on a collision course for Utopia at full speed. I need you”.