Two Halves: chapter 44

A Chapter by aaaa

The balloon of the airship stretched out over the field. Across the expansive cloth surface were people running across it. Most were on one of the catwalks that were adhered to the side, but several were on thin cords so that they could make it to equipment that was normally out of reach. Nearly the entire blimp was covered in either small structures or catwalks connecting them to each other. Hundreds of gear houses and rest stops dotted the floating monstrosity.

Two large tubes ran the length of the zeppelin tower to connect to the blimp. One was attached to the air sack to supply the needed lift, and the other was adhered to the tanks that powered the twin rotors at the read of the Star Catcher. At the belly of the Star Cater were the living quarters, and most of the working space. It covered the entirety of the blimp and extended for about fifty feet below it, five stories supported by the great gas sack. Gun ports littered the exterior; the eight royal blimps were leftovers from the Blaze War. They used to be giant troop carriers and war machines, and once the Blaze War had ended they were withdrawn to Cloudtop. Before the war there had been a total of twenty ships above Cloudtop, but the twelve had fallen to Salex artillery. Lucky those that had survived were the largest and hardiest of the lot. Zeppelin towers stood half deconstructed above the airfield. There had been no plan to build new war constructs after the way so the unused spires were eventually deconstructed at the need for their materials presented themselves.

The wind was extremely strong around them, and Nicolas nearly lost his balance twice as they made their way to the gangplank. Jento mouthed to them something, but it was impossible to hear it over the howl of the wind. Nicolas was happy for having the clip attached to his belt, and was terrified at the prospect of the others dangling above the hundred foot drop.

They entered the great belly of the ship. People ran through the station checking valves and doing maintenance. It was a wonder that Kilgry had readied the ship for flight in just a day, but that was who he was. He never waited for anything, and always barreled into action before thinking. It was what Nicolas had always liked about him. It was because they were exact opposite. Nicolas, cautious and natural worrier; Kilgry, rash and hotheaded. Together at the Academy they had made an unstoppable team. All the instructors expected to surpass the clan lords before them, and be the strongest magi of a generation.

They hadn’t been far off the mark. Kilgry had pushed back the heights of magical theory in his school days. He had invented spells few ever dreamed could be created. He figured out how to create life from pure magic, and researched the tie between that and the birth of demons. Instead Nicolas had always just wanted to use him chemistry set. Nicolas had discovered a fair few potions, but nothing on the level of what Kilgry accomplished.

They had passed through the engineering levels at the rear of the ship, and were making their way through the barracks. The entirety of the Cloud Breakers had been loaded into the Star Catcher. They saluted as Jento passed. Nicolas was surprised. From what Jento had described his unit as earlier he expected them to be made of no name recruits and weak individuals, but all Nicolas could see were powerful warriors. From each of them a soft magical aura emanated; the combined effect of hundreds of warriors’ powers caused the room to feel extremely humid. Though Jento had also been a surprise. None of his men flinched from such powerful magical energy, and from what he had seen of the other unit’s men they would have been crippled by the force of the magical discharge Zeckle had released.

They continued farther into the ship and into the levels. Many of them were focused solely for artillery. Gun ports lined each of the walls and looked down upon the city. Each consisted of a long narrow barrel, with a bulb on the end. They stood off the ground using harnesses attached to the ceiling to allow for easy maneuverability. An enormous amplifier would be used by several mages at a time. Five or six of them would funnel power through several ports extending from the barrel. Another would sit inside the bubble on the end and chant the spells. He would used the combined power of the other mages in order to shape spells many times the strength of a normal mage. Lightning would arc across the battlefield in great torrents when the war blimps were released, but despite the great firepower it meant nothing to Salex.

Zeppelins had fallen from the sky in great balls of fire thousands of feet long. There was no point of fighting Salex on their own ground, that was only met with death. Though now Salex were not deployed for war. After the Blaze War their military had been down graded to a mere collection and peace-keeping force. They were not ready for a full-scale war.

They finally made their way to the command deck at the front of the vessel. Engineers were checking and rechecking every piece of control equipment in order to ensure that there were no irregularities. Jento sat in one of the chairs near the large window that separated them from the whipping wind.

“Please, begin the final check. I am sure the captain is as anxious to go as I am.” Jento was addressing one of the lowly engineers. The young female squeaked a response before hurrying away. They sat there for a minute looking at the workers until a voice came over the intercom system. They were lucky to have such advanced magical equipment. An extremely rare stone found under Cloudtop called Jicci. If a stone was attuned to magical energy then split one would produce the sound of another when exposed to direct magic power. When power was put into a master stone all broken from the main piece would carry the sound around the ship.

“Final check has been commenced. We will be leaving in half an hour. I repeat we will be leaving in half a hour.”

In that half an hour they waited around the command deck of the Star Catcher. The final checks on the bridge had ended so they were alone except for the operators manning their stations. Jento led them to several chairs near the front of the ship. They looked out over the city, the bow of the Star Catcher faced the center of town, and from this vantage point the entire metropolis was a sea of light.

Nicolas had thought the view from the Academy’s tower had been amazing, but from here the city was in a slipstream of color. Rivers of the baubles ebbed and flowed with the wind, and while most were concentrated in the city center there were still many in the poorer areas of Cloudtop. In the rich districts the baubles were colored and turned into a kaleidoscope of blinking light. In the slums there were still a few lights, but there were all a bland white light, and were large functional spot lights instead of the beautiful delicate spheres.

After the first few minutes Bestalel walked into the cabin. He was accompanied by two of the Cloud Breaker’s honor guards. Instead of the battle ready gear the others wore they were in formal garb. Large plumes sprouted from their heads in crests over two feet tall. The halberds were jewel encrusted and impractical. They nodded to Jento and started to take off the larger and clunkier pieces of equipment.

“I have spoken with the navigator. He will take us in the direction we need to go, and we should arrive at the Cloud Walker’s Terrance in a few days’ time,” he said before sitting down next to Nicolas. His eyes were strangely unfocused, and seemed to be indirectly looking at the entire room, seeing everything, but never really looking at it.

“You ok Besty?” asked Zeckle, some genuine concern leaking into her voice.

“Yes, I’m fine. Kintera’s power is just overbearing. Images I’ve never seen and memories I’ve never experienced sometime over take me, but I am learning to control them. We will be fine.” He gave a weak smile that was not at all reassuring; Nicolas would have probably been more confident if his old expressionless gaze was back up. This attempt at reassurance was far more disturbing than a simple blankness would have been.

“You better be. This war is starting soon, and we all have to be ready.” The now less equipped honor guards motioned towards them. Jento waved them off as he was still performing work on the deck. As they left they passed the captain of the ship, a large heavy set man with a rust read beard extending down to his mid belly. They could hear him converse with Jento and begin to take command of the flight deck.

The honor gaurds led them back through the ship towards the habitation decks the soldiers were occupying. They strolled over a catwalk that over looked the entire barrack area. Suspended on stilts was a kind of officer’s room that had been converted into living quarters. There were three total rooms; Zeckle and Bestalel had rooms to themselves. Nicolas and Jento had to share the other. Star charts and maps of half the hemisphere littered Jento’s side. A mattress was the only thing sitting on Nicolas’s. He laid back on it and felt a rush of tiredness run over him. Despite his long rest after the episode with Abagail he did not feel like he had really slept. He drifted off to a restless sleep, his dreams still permeated with images of Abagail being dragged off by Salex troops.

Five days later they were apparently on schedule, according to Bestalel. Who had been spending much time with the navigator attempting to explain to him that he simply know which way to go. They had been going through the mountain deeper into the mountain range and back towards the dead lands. Behind the mountain range was a great desert that spanned a good two thirds of the total continent. The enormous zeppelin had to rise several times in order to clear the peaks, but so far they had no major incidents. Luckily Cloudtop effectively marked the end of civilization in the mountain range, and anything farther than it either did not produce anything Salex cared to take, or had never been discovered in the first place. On one deep mine, only the entrance of which was visible in the valley, a large group of residents came out and cheered on the blimp. The oldest with painful memories of what was, and the youngest merely being sucked in by the euphoria.

On the morning of the fifth day, while Nicolas was eating with the soldiers, who generally made better company than the engineers, a frantic trooper burst in saying they had cited the Terrance. Most of the soldiers abandoned their meals and followed him up into the gas sack above the habitation rings. They moved through it along the wide footways and wooden pulley elevators until reaching an observation deck half way up the balloon. Now that Nicolas was on its side he could appreciate the scale of the buildings along the surface. The entire thing was honeycombed with gear houses and work platforms. The observation deck they had come out on was already crowded with engineers from around the ship.

They had come out of the side of the blimp facing the Terrance, but the hulk was slowly turning so that it could head towards it directly. In the rush to see it before it fell out of view many pushed their way to the front. Nicolas instead climbed a staircase to a relatively uncrowded gear house. Out the window sprawled Cloud Walker’s Terrance. Like Gen it was hidden by a large over hang, but the building were instead hanging from it like mighty stalagmites. Around it swarmed tiny flying machines, like moths around a flame. Several larger ones were being deployed as he watched, and they slowly made their way towards the Star Catcher.

Nicolas had enough of the structures, for they were still too far away to make out any distinct details, and instead made his way back down into the ship. By now most of the people had made their way past him to observe the city. It was after all the lost monastery of what was probably the most powerful military order that ever existed in Cloud Top, but there was a month before the battle when you could site see through it, and if they won a lifetime after that. Nicolas made his way down towards the very bottom of the ship, where the hangar hung. Inside were dozens of ships, both military and diplomatic, as well as a few civilian ships hastily converted to military use.

The enormous hangar gates were slowly being lowered using pulleys, each driven by a team of Krignals. The captain, Jento, Bestalel, and several senior officers and diplomatic officials were waiting at one side of the chamber.

No one spoke, only a few nervous nods were exchanged between those gathered. Finally with a flash of movement one of the Cloud Walker’s air machines did a fly by of the hangar entrance. When they had deemed it an all clear the largest of the three that had been deployed slowly lowered itself into the hangar on a cushion of soft blue magic energy.

The frame was bronze and open topped. The four wings glittered with enormous bronze scales, each with a chip of magic stone, and each trailing soft ripples of power. Around a central shaft danced several figures wearing tribal clothing. They movements slowed as the ship dropped, and completely stopped when it touched down. The blue energy coating the central pole dissipated, and the three Cloud Walker shamans stepped down. Many more spilled out of the metal frame. Each was wearing heavy leather clothing, with intricate spiraling tattoos covering their faces and arms. The pilot, and evidently the leader, pulled off his flight goggles and cap to reveal a baldhead, which was also covered in tattoos.

“Hello there,” he said in a dogged voice. “Is the one touched by the Bronze Star with you?”

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© 2010 aaaa

Author's Note

It's been such a long time since I wrote in this book. But recently I have met a professional editor who wants to help me with my work, and he believes that I can get this published with his help. We're going to work together, and my part is to get this thing done.