Kyle West - Darkness

“Picking up something from starboard aft,” Anna said, swinging the ship around.

Ashton was quiet, focused, awaiting Anna’s instructions. She swung the control stick further round. He bent to the radio.

“Gilgamesh , this is Ashton on Aeneas. Do you read me?”

Lyn’s hand twitched on her gun, but Elias stayed her hand. I kept my own hand on my Beretta.

“We need to coordinate strategy with Gilgamesh in order to bring this thing down,” Anna said. “I wonder if that dragon is…”

Makara’s voice came through the speaker.

“Ashton? What the hell you doing on that thing? What happened to Odin? We lost contact two days ago.”

“Odin is down. We’re aboard Aeneas now with a group of survivors from Bunker 84.”

Ashton didn’t want to reveal who these survivors truly were, since they were right here with us on the bridge. Fortunately, Makara already knew part of the situation.

“Yeah,” Makara said. “Survivors apparently holding you hostage.”

“Focus,” Anna said. “Where did this dragon go?”

Maybe a quarter mile ahead in the air I could see Gilgamesh facing us. Its thrusters pointed slightly to port, which caused the ship to veer to starboard.

“Damn, that ship is huge,” Makara said. “It’s been hiding in 84 this entire time?”

“Apparently,” Ashton said.

“Everyone else make it out alright? Michael? Julian?”

“Yeah,” Ashton. “Grudge is with us as well. Of course, Alex is also alright.”

“Good.”

“This isn’t the time for a reunion,” Elias growled. “Chaos is trying to communicate something.”

Anna shook her head. “If by communicate you mean sending us spiraling toward our fiery deaths, then yes. You would be right.”

“The Voice sent Chaos here for a reason.” Elias’s remained focused on the sky outside. “I must know what it is. Perhaps he means to lead us somewhere.”

Before anyone could respond, the massive dragon dropped from the clouds above. Screams sounded on the bridge as the wings unfurled and beat against the wind — wings maybe two hundred to two hundred fifty feet across. Elias was right; this was no ordinary dragon. It was none other than Chaos, the dragon that had been roosting in Raider Bluff when we had returned to the Wasteland from Nova Roma. It was completely black, probably five hundred feet long from head to tip of tail. Cruel spikes jutted all over its long, reptilian form, and its angular head opened to reveal a mouth filled with rows of jagged teeth. The Wanderer had said that Chaos followed Askala from world-to-world, taking on a different form in each. On Earth, at least, he was the largest of all the xenodragons, the juggernaut of the Radaskim.

And, despite what Elias said, I knew he was going to kill us.

The creature faced us, its white eyes glowing in the dim, late afternoon light. Two more dragons, smaller, dropped from the clouds. One headed for Gilgamesh, the other for us. Chaos gave a baleful roar that shook me to the bones, even through the windshield. The fact that we were inside didn’t seem to matter.

“Hold on!” Anna said.

Aeneas lurched to port and took on a burst of speed. I fell to the deck and began rolling toward the port side of the ship as the floor angled in that direction. Just as suddenly as she had turned it, Anna righted the ship, spinning it around to face the smaller dragon attacking us from behind.

Unfortunately, these creatures were far more agile than our massive ship. The smaller xenodragon dodged Anna’s move, disappearing from view.

“I’m just going to take shots at whatever I can,” Anna said. “Makara, try to keep them off me.”

“Copy that.”

In a flash of metal, Gilgamesh swooped in front of Aeneas, deadly close. Its twin turrets blazed below its hull. Outside, one of the flying monsters screamed. Anna eased the ship left, giving us sight of one of the dragons spiraling toward the mountains below. A moment later, it crashed into a snow-capped peak in a cloudy puff of white.

“One down,” Anna said.

At that moment, the second small dragon dove from above toward Gilgamesh. Makara was going to be blindsided.

“Makara, dive!”

“I’ve got this,” Ashton said.

As Gilgamesh pointed nose-down toward the Earth, Aeneas eased in from behind.

“Target locked,” Ashton said. “Fire.”

“Red button, right?” Anna said. “Sorry, still new to this.”

“Yes. The one on the control stick.”

Anna pressed it. The ship rocked as a missile streaked from its hull, splitting the air. The dragon turned its long neck toward the missile, realizing its doom. With a scream, the dragon turned away, flapping its wings madly to flee. But it was futile. The missile struck in a fiery ball of orange, blasting the dragon straight downward to the surface. One of the wings was ripped completely off. The dragon spun madly in circles, helicoptering toward the ground, leaving in its wake a trail of purple blood that misted into ice in the frigid air.

That was when an impact came from the back of the ship, causing Aeneas to lurch forward. Anna veered the control stick upward, angling toward the clouds above. The readout LCD revealed Chaos just behind, gaining on us with massive speed.

“He’s tailing us,” Anna said. “Damn, he’s fast!”

“Lose him in the clouds,” Makara said. “Gilgamesh still has a few missiles left.”

“How much longer, Makara?” Ashton asked.

“Just a minute! It’s hard to do all of this on my own.”

Chaos took on a sudden burst of speed, his jaws snapping toward Aeneas’s retrothrusters. Anna did a little dip to avoid the dragon’s attack, causing everyone standing on the bridge to topple to the deck once more. When the ship steadied, I decided to stay on the deck. It was probably safer than standing up.

“Alright, got him in my sights,” Makara said. “Here goes nothing.”

From outside, I heard the spew of one missile, then a second, hissing through the air. Chaos was still close. Anna made a sudden dive. The top of a peak came into view, not too far distant. We could not keep this dive up for long — maybe ten seconds before crashing. From behind, Julian and Michael both slid into me. I banged into the back of the pilot’s chair.

A colossal scream sounded from behind, followed by an explosion. Chaos had been hit.

Anna swooped us around as she evened out Aeneas. We had turned 180 degrees and were facing the direction Chaos has been chasing us from. A cloud of smoke filled the air where Chaos had been. I looked down, expecting Chaos to be falling to the mountains below. Instead, there was nothing but empty air.

“Makara, do you have visual of the dragon?” Ashton asked.

“Negative. It got real bright, but afterward, I saw nothing. Only one of the missiles hit. It must have flown up in the clouds…”

“It’s still alive?” I asked.

I didn’t see how it was possible. How could anything be alive after being hit like that?

Our question was soon answered as Chaos lowered from the clouds, flapping its massive wings. It let out an ungodly bellow as it dove, not for us, but for Makara. It folded its wings as it dropped with surprising speed.

“Makara!” Ashton said. “Run. Fly as fast as you can from here.”

“But…”

“Do as I say!” Ashton said. “There’s only one thing that’ll bring this bastard down once and for all.”

With a curse, Makara piloted Gilgamesh away from Chaos, just in time to dodge its crazy dive. Gilgamesh appeared to be faster than Aeneas, so maybe Makara could keep it busy while we took our turn. Chaos gave chase to Gilgamesh. We had a small window to attack before either Makara messed up or Chaos managed to catch her.