Void Magi

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Invasion
Mace, Valk Dynasty, 843 Light-years from Sol

Aris guided the Aether ship as it bore down on Mace, the Valk Capital world that loomed in the viewscreen. The vast city-planet with its four moons, attached to Mace itself by massive spokes around its equator.
It was a marvel of Magical planetary engineering, one of many throughout Nexus Space, and it was under attack. Everywhere Aris looked, glowing blue Wyrm Holes punched through spacetime, and disgorged a seemingly endless number of Void Dragons into the planet’s local space. Crux ships followed and blasted their way towards the surface, as the Valk fleet moved to intercept.
“This is not good, sir. I’m not sure…”
“Open a channel to High Command,” Admiral Orlan ordered.
Aris looked up in consternation.
“Did I stutter?” Orlan asked.
“No sir,” Aris replied and did as the Admiral asked. “Channel open.”
“This is Admiral Orlan, we’re on approach…” the channel cut off.
The Admiral frowned and looked accusingly down at Aris.
“Wasn’t me,” Aris said, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Again,” Orlan ordered.
Aris repeated the operation. “Open, sir.”
“High Command, this is Admiral Orlan.”
“We hear you, Admiral; we’re just a little busy…”
“We’re on approach,” Orlan cut in. “We have intel…”
Aris could hear a voice on the other end of the line in the background ask who the speaker was talking too. They gave Orlan’s name.
“Tell him to make himself useful, attack the nearest Crux Wyrm Hole and get off the line.”
“Sir,” the comms operator replied. “I’ve been told to ask if you can help defend—.”
“I heard what he said,” Orlan replied, and cut the channel.
“What do we do now?” Aris asked.
Orlan frowned as he stared at the chaos on the viewscreen. “I’m not sure…”
“How about the Nexus?”
“The Nexus?” Orlan asked, sounding surprised.
“This is the Crux, right? They don’t care if we’re Accord or Nexus, they just want us dead. We need to unite, sir. We need to tell everyone before they wipe us all out.”
“Pfff,” Orlan replied dismissively. “We can handle a few Crux…”
His words were bold, but Aris could hear how rattled he was. His resolve was wavering. Good. Maybe he could convince Orlan to make for the Nexus.
“Respectfully, that’s more than just a few, sir.”
An alarm blared throughout the ship. Aris checked the scanner, which reported gateway energies flaring close to the ship. A Wyrm Hole was opening right on top of them.
“Fray me,” Aris cursed, and banked right, speeding up.
“Is that?”
“Yep,” Aris replied, and called up a view of the Gateway. A huge hole in space, wreathed in blue energy filled the new window on the main viewer. As they watched, an enormous Void Dragon, complete with its rider, shot out of the Gate.
A second later, another followed. And another.
“Aris?” Orlan asked.
“Doing my best, sir,” he replied as he piled on the speed. But at least one Dragon had seen them and was heading their way.
My god, they’re fast!
“Do better.”
Aris didn’t reply, he needed to concentrate as he throttled forward, boosting the ship as fast as it would go, and taking evasive manoeuvres as the chasing Dragon threw Magical fire at them.
“Can’t you lose it?” Orlan asked.
“Easier said than done, sir,” Aris replied.
“Fray me,” he cursed.
Aris banked left again, the g-forces of his tight turns throwing them around, despite the ship’s inertial dampeners doing their best to compensate.
As Mace swung back into view again, Aris regarded the planet under siege. The Valk might be fighting with the Nexus, but there were countless civilians down there that didn’t deserve to die in the super-heated plasma that the Void Dragons would spew over the surface.
But there was little they could do here.
“Sir, I really think you should consider retreating to the Nexus. We can’t help these people. We’d be dead before we even got close to the surface.”
“These are our people, damn it. We can’t just run away like cowards.”
“The rest of the Nexus and the Accord need to know. They need to know what’s coming.”
“I… I know. But…”
“Arrgh,” Aris cried as he spotted the Dragon on their tail throw more fire at them. The ship rolled right as more g-forces pulled on Aris and Orlan. “We don’t have much time, Admiral.”
“I know… I just…”
“Sir!”
“Alright, go. Get us out of here. Get us to the Nexus.”
“Yes sir,” Aris replied, relief flooding his system as he turned the ship and aimed it towards the centre of Nexus Space. The Dragon behind them banked and followed.
“Bye, bye,” Aris whispered as he fired up the Flux Drive, and the ship suddenly shot out of the system at many times the speed of light.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Orlan said, leaning into him before he turned and sat in a nearby seat.
So do I, Aris thought.