Rise of the Guardians Book 4 Chapter 6

                                 Rise of the Guardians

                                Book IV:  Heroes Reborn
                     
                              Chapter VI:  The Hal'Govak



            In three weeks the Ubmyran Empire had taken over 85% of Avalaria. Some areas they were unable to breach due to some unusual activity. Most of the inhabitants they put into slave camps, the dragons, were put under high level security, and the 600 Maldorian civilians were being systematically executed due to their race. Spyro and Akyre were far from their home and their people were in desparate need for them. The High Marshall, Taluge Vorg had seized all of the acient stones and tapestries to learn about the Avalarians. He learned more about the importance of the Dragons of Light and the Purple dragon.
     The city was silent, the skies were heavy with storm clouds, and there were small to meduim size ships patrolling the center of the capital. It was the perfect atmosphere for an opressed race. Inside the great hall of the Dragon City, the High Marshall Vorg was reviewing the Prophecy Stone and came across something interesting.
     "Bring me the one called Aldmir." Vorg ordered.
     The Hall was remodled with Ubmyran artistry. Marble White flooring and columns with gold lining, the Unmyran emblem emblazoned in Arterium (Derrived from the UMSS Trenalk E2), and Arterium ceilings. The ceiling was adorned with flag drapes of the conqured alien worlds with a new one being placed for Avalaria. There were 8 J'Tahl Royal Guard on station with one walking out of the room following orders. An hour later the guard returned with Aldmir by a chain, leading him like a mongrel animal.
     "I would like you to tell me the signifigance of this." Said Vorg as he pointed to the etching of Spyro II.
     "He is a legendary dragon born every one thousand years. He won't be around to stop you for another 200 years." Aldmir lied in protection of the two young dragons who were abducted from their home.
     "Acording to this stone, he has been born. Yet none of my troops have seen him. So either your hiding him and lying to us, or he is off-planet." Vorg stated.
     Aldmir did not answer as to keep the Ubmyrans from taking action against Spyro and Akyre. However in his old age he would not stand to a brutal flogging.
     "As you wish." Vorg spoke with a nod of order to his guard.
     The J'Tahl grabbed the chain and jerked the 14ft tall dragon down to the floor. The force of strength sent the dragons chin smashing into the marble plating. The impact cracked his jaw from the chin halfway up the right side of his jaw. As Aldmir was about to pick himself up, the guard stamped down on the back of his head firmly. The jar to the head disoriented Aldmir's motor functions, eyes swirling and room spinning.
     Vorg knelt down into Aldmir's face and stated, "You are aware of what I can do uncooperative scum like yourself. I suggest that if you are asked a question of importance..." Smacking Aldmir across the face with his Marshalls Staff, "YOU ANSWER IT!!!"
     Then to the guard, "Take him to the hole. Lock him up and keep him there for three months. Allow food drops once a week." Looking back at Aldmir, "A little isolation and starvation will teach you to be more cooperative."
     Just as the guard was pulling Aldmir back to his feet the dragon stated, "The only reason why I can't tell you where they are is because I don't know where they are. Spyro and Akyre have been taken off planet as detected by our orbital sensor network. Beyond that I have no more answers."
     The Guard took Aldmir out of the Great Hall as Vorg went back to his throne. After taking a seat, 6 holo monitors projected around him surveying the six key areas of Avalaria.
     "Kulgorak, send out a message to high command. Ask them on the whereabouts of two Avalarain Dragons." Vorg ordered his Royal Guard Commander.
     Meanwhile back on Sel'Kadi, Spyro and Akyre were getting ready to leave with Kalvar and Ulmer to the Trais Machinery Company on Theos 2. The weather had cooled down since yesterday and there was mild cloud cover over the lands. However the skies were a bit more radiant with small fighters and ships passing over. It was making several people nervous all over the planet.
     Kalvar was performing his final systems checks on his ship as another squadron of fighters passed over with hyper impulse engines roaring.
     Ulmer looked up covering his eyes from the bright sun and said, "Man that's the 18th flight to pass over today."
     "I don't like it. The last time I saw this was 8 years ago on Moradi Six. After that the Ubmyrans showed up and started killing everything." Kalvar spoke, "Go make sure our additional passengers are ready to leave."
     Over at the hut, Spyro and Akyre were getting what looked to be apparel taylored for dragons. Theosians consider it inappropriate for any creature of intelligence to appear naked so Kalvar had them wear attire.
     "I'm not liking this airborne activity, Spyro." Akyre nevously stated.
     "Me neither. I keep getting the feeling like something bad is about to happen in a moment." Spyro replied.
     Right as Ulmer opened the door a loud rumble rattled the farm lands. The vibrations from a low flying ship destabilized some of the weaker buildings and structures causing them to collapse. One of the buildings was Spyro and Akyre's hut and they two dragons were trying to claw their way out of the debris. They tore throught the final layer of debris coughing from the dust. They looked to Ulmer after their eye sight cleared and saw him looking up into the sky. The land was shadowed by a large Ubmyran attack vessel and as the dragons redirected their field of view to the skies, all they could see was a massive dark red vessel and the external view ports and strobe lights on the underbelly of the ship.
     "Spyro...we should get everyone to safety." Akyre recommended.
     "You read my mind." Spyro replied as he quickly hastened to move out of the debris.
     Just as they were about to warn the Sel'Kadi farmers about the upcomming threat to their lives, a barrage of small purple plasma particles bombarded the main house and the occupants nearby. Clouds of discharged plasma and blue blod vapors painted the air like a vast mist. The sounds of the plasma discharged where like the whiping chirps of fast flying birds. After the vapors cleared Spyro and Akyre saw in horror the dismembered corpses of the Sel'Kadi family. Several fighters started to fly from an opening on the side and spool to the ground on an attack run. Most of their intended targets constisted of civilian homes and buildings. The Dragons looked to the dishonorable aliens with anger towards their actions. Attacking an innocent race is a shear sign of a coward and the Ubmyrans must be destroyed. Spyro and Akyre had to act fast by jumping into the air and flying into the Ubmyran ship. They soared into the air towards the ship dodging the incoming fighters and plasma bolts.
     "I hope you have a plan for this." Akyre spoke in discern of their impulsive action.
     "I'm coming up with it as we go." Spyro replied distrusting his own words.
     They made their way to the hangar opening as the doors were closing and flew inside. Just as they entered the hangar, the nearby J'Tahl and Xeroc soldiers attacked them with edged weapons. Spyro blocked an attack with his right wing while charging up a lighting surge. He sent a high voltage bolt into the large Ubmyran soldier, burning a hole in his upper torso severly damaging his vital organs and severing his secondary cerebral cortex. Just as the soldier dropped to the floor like a rock, a plasma bolt grazed Spyro's left cheek. He clenched his face in pain while attempting to use the energy from the plasma burn to unlock a new element. This new element was acquired by Spyro the Great through a battle with the Malderrans back in 3024; for Spyro II it would be the same. His eyes turned a bright purple as plasma energy was building up to fire. He focused his energy to destroy all Ubmyran soldiers inside the hangar.
     "Akyre get down now!!!" Spyro shouted.
     Akyre finished off her attacker and ducked as a purple beam of energy was shot from Spyro's mouth. It cut down and burned every last Ubmyran in the room reducing them to smoking piles of dead carcasses. After scanning for remaining enemies, Spyro projected a shield around his body. He walked over to Akyre and placed a form of energy on her left shoulder which gave her a temporary form of his shielding.
     "We need to find a way to take control of this ship. Otherwise more of the Sel'Kadi will die." Akyre suggested.
     "Lets give these bastards a little payback." Spyro replied.
     They started for the exit into the corridoors moving passed unmanned fighters, dead bodies and bomb crates. Thankfully for Spyro and Akyre the hallway was large enough for a couple of 7ft tall dragons seeing that the J"Tahl were about 9ft 5in tall. The doors slid open to reveal a dark blue hall with black flooring and soft white lights. The the glass pannels on the walls were shining red as a sign of combat alert status.
     "If I were the command center where would I be located." Spyro openly thought.
     "Typically most of the ships we've been on the bridge is located at the top of the ship." Akyre implied.
     "Those were decommissioned Maldorian warships. From what they told us Ubmyrans use a different key deck structure. I'd say its on the bottom." Spyro stated, unsure if his information is acurate or not, "Lets try this way."
     They hurried out of the door way down the hall to the right. Suddenly as they were about to get to the turning point in the hall a force field zapped on and halted their movements. They looked to one another knowing they were cut off and turned around. Another force field activated and they were trapped like rats in a dead end maze.
     A voice came in on the comms system and said, "You have made a grave mistake by coming aboard my ship. Now you will suffer a slow agonizing death."
     Just then the vents started to produce a green gas toxin. As the gas filled the quarantined area Spyro breathing started to fail. He was choking on the poisonous gas but not Akyre; she was using the gas to discover the Poison Element. She quickly closed her eyes to look deep into her soul. As she tried to concentrate Spyro was becoming weak, he lowered to the ground lungs straining for oxygen, eyes watering from the pain and his vision fading. Akyre's eyes flew open and oriented themselves to Spyro. She grabbed him by the head and sank her teeth into the back of his neck. She injected a type of elemental venom into his blood stream to make him immune to the poisonous gas. Spyro started to breathe normally as he stood back up. Akyre released her grip and looked at Spyro.
     "...*cough*...It seems the...*cough*...acquisition of our powers is becoming more progressive." Spyro spoke as he coughed a little less.
     Spyro returned to the first force field that stopped them and placed his left hand on the barrier. His elemental plasma shield disrupted the field and broke it down. Outside where several guards waiting to secure the 'presumed' dead dragons. As they slowly moved in they could hear what sounded like crystals sharpening in the green gas. The sound of glass scrapping agains glass was almost frightening. Some of the soldiers onboard have dealt with creatures like Spyro and Akyre back on Avalaria during the invasion. Suddenly in a split second 300 small shards of poisonous spikes shot from the gas cloud and hit most of the soldiers gathered in the hallway. The ones hit by the shards died instantly as the venom entered their brains and vital organs. Spyro rushed out and torched the remaining soldiers, who where falling back, with a large storm of fire.
     "ALL SOLDIERS TO DECK 3!!! CONTAINTMEN PROTOCALLS HAVE FAILED!!! DESTROY INTRUDERS ON SIGHT!!! PROTECT THE HAL"GOVAK WITH YOUR LIVES!!!" the captain yelled over the comms system.
     Even with all of the soldiers on board, it would make no difference with Spyro and Akyre on the ship killing them all. Two very powerful dragons would easilly take over the ship and the Ubmyrans would all die. An hour of fighting had passed, Spyro and Akyre had reached the door leading to the bridge on Deck 1.
     As the security personnel and soldiers were moving into defensive postures, the captain ordered, "Make sure they do not enter this room. Kill them with your bare hands if you have to!"
     Spyro and Akyre halted for a moment to hear the activity beyond the door. They heard the clacking of weapons and equipment, footsteps and the captain barking orders in Ubmyran tongue.
     "Sounds like they're trying to lock down the bridge." Spyro spoke.
     "Too bad it won't do them any good." Akyre replied, "Help me up to that vent, I want to try something."
     As Spyro hunkered down to let Akyre climb on his back he asked, "What are you doing?"
     Akyre explained, "I'm going to use the ventilation system to distribute a cloud of poison into the bridge. You and I will not be harmed."
     She took the cover off and blew a sickly green fog into the vent duct. The trail spooled into the vents on the bridge and poluted the atmosphere inside. The occupants inside started to gag and choke on the venomous cloud. One by one they fell to the floor, suffocated, and died from the toxic gas that took their breath. After waiting 5 mintues to confirm they had all been killed by Akyre's poison cloud, the door to the bridge started to glow a bright molten red and then fragmented from a plasma blast. Spyro had melted the door enough with his fire element to weaken it. They walked in over the fresh corpses to see if there were any potential survivors.
     "Akyre, remind me never to piss you off." Spyro said as he looked at the large number of dead bodies.
     Akyre went over to a console station to look over any potential system that could help them halt any more attacks on the Sel'Kadi people.
     "Damn, two semesters of Xeno Linguistics never prepared me for this." Akyre stated.
     "Can you figure some of it out?" Spyro asked as he walked up to her.
     "I'll try but I can't garuntee it would do any good." Said Akyre as she looked over the console icons and touch screen interface systems, "Maybe this halts all automated attack protocols."
     She touched the icon and it showed an image of a nearby Sel"Kadi town under heavy fire. The ordinance bombarding had stopped the moment the image was brought up.
     "I think that did it." She said hoping that it did stop the attack.
     "Try to find the engine controlls." Spyro suggested, "Maybe we can..."
     "I don't know any more about this ship than you do." Akyre replied, "Dragons weren't meant to fly starships and I am no expert on this sort of thing."
     "Many lives on this planet are at stake. If we don't figure this out those people will die." Spyro spoke trying to rais Akyre's selfconfidence, "You can do this, I can feel it."
     He placed his hand on her hand and smiled. Akyre knew that Spyro could support her through the most difficult of challenges. She looked over the console and found what looked to be the ordinance orientation sequencer. She reprogrammed it to fire on the remaining Ubmyran fighters and the ship began to move. The Hal'Govak repositioned itself into a lateral attack pattern and started to fire small charged particle rounds at the enemy fighters. Small explosions and hull fragments bellowed at their destruction points killing the remaining 57 crewman assigned to the Hal'Govak. All was now silent as the Ubmyran attack was stopped by two younng dragons.
     "I wonder if they offer a degree in understanding and interpereting alien technology on the fly." Spyro openly wondered.
     "After what we've just done there should." Akyre replied.
     Just then an alert sound came from the console to the front of the bridge. Spyro went over to check it out to see what the alarm was indicating. He looked at a sensor screen and saw what looked to be a Maldorian vessel; Omnivorg class to be precise.
     "A Maldorian ship is moving to attack us." Spyro warned, "Can you figure out a way to talk to them?"
     "Let me see what I can do." Akyre answered as she hastened to find the communications station.
     She looked over each console and found one that looked to be used for the onboard comms relay network. She keyed in a random code which, in their luck, activated the comms satelite intergrated on the upper part of the hull.
     "This is Akyre of the Hal'Govak. Halt your attack run, the Ubmyrans have been eliminated. Hold your fire, please." Akyre pleaded.
     "This is Captain Derrivick of the Maldorian starship Krogarrius; Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded." Derrivick demanded.
     "Gladly, just give me a minute to find the shield controls." Akyre requested.
     After finding the shield controls, six Maldorian soldiers beamed aboard to find all of the bridge personnel dead and two 18 year old dragons standing among the dead. The Maldorians were baffled to see that a couple of dragons from the Carpathian Galaxy managed to overpower the entire crew of a De'Ermrok class frigate. They had to do some explaining to the captain of the Krogarrius but they had finally secured transport to their homeworld. Luckilly for them there was a VIP passenger on board who knew more about their powers than anyone in the any of the three galaxies explored...