Page 71 of Crown of Draga

Giselle’s voice went directly into his ear through a private communicator given to all generals. “We can’t win against these monsters,” she stated, something in her voice became dead; lifeless. A warrior who knew they would lose in one manner or another.

Sirus knew in that moment, they would lose thousands and gain nothing in return.

There was only one option. “We can draw them to the surface,” Sirus suggested. “Draw them down and out. Then take them on as warriors.”

Giselle paused. It was a massive risk, Sirus knew this. They knew next to nothing about the Neprijat or how they fought. But there was a small chance they could draw the enemy out and cut them down without their ship’s protection. “You want me to act as bait?” she asked.

There was a tiny tremor in her voice, but the princess hid her fear well.

The monsters would only follow a royal. No one else. Giselle would be an extremely valuable prisoner of war.

“Yes,” Sirus said, knowing how badly this could go. They knew next to nothing about Neprijat tech, how fast the ships could fly, or the weapons they had. He only prayed they didn’t possess worldbreakers.

His warrior’s kept the starships on constant escape and evade maneuvers as they fired at will, taking down Treon starships. “Take the Royal Army down there and draw the monsters out. I will contact Seprilles and call for aid. Scyria will take down the rest of the Treon forces and then land on the surface. Our forces will come from behind to meet you on the battlefield.”

This was full out war.

Sirus had never experienced true war before. He could see the bodies of his people floating in space, hitting the debris of his warships in millions of tiny pieces. There was no time to evade the dead. Bodies bounced off ships trying to escape the Neprijat horde. Maybe if they survived this battle they could gather their people, but for now he had to ignore them all.

The Draga’s Justice was massive and rammed through Treon forces like a knife through warm butter. It was those glittering black ships that tore through their forces like a monster at a feast.

Giselle’s starship was headed straight for Treon.

“Will do, Commander Sirus,” Giselle said. Her words were hard as steel. “I’ll make sure to get their attention.”

At her words, Sirus saw the Draga’s Justice launch one of those worldbreakers. The weapon smashed into the largest Neprijat ship and the blast was blinding, so white and sudden Sirus had to shield his eyes. His starship’s defense was activated and the shield came over the viewer just in time to prevent everyone on the bridge from being blinded.

That worldbreaker rattled the nearby ships like flags in a storm. It shattered the Neprijat ship into a million pieces of glittering obsidian. Sirus felt the dread rise in his throat. Worldbreakers were so destructive they had very few of them and that Giselle had been armed with one meant she had orders to take out all of Treon if necessary.

Bile rose in his throat as he sent a distress call to the Seprilles forces, thanking Katsia the time of year had brought the two planets close enough to send aid. Then he sent out orders to his armada to attack Treon ships as he watched the small group of remaining Neprijat streak after the Draga’s Justice.

Those malicious ships disappeared after Giselle with a good portion of the Royal Army’s armada, diving into the clouds as they entered the planet’s paltry atmosphere. Sirus turned his full attention to wiping the battlefield clean of Treon forces. He threw out orders as he saw a few give the signal for surrender. Some of his soldiers would stay and arrest the men and women aboard the traitor ships. Then he turned his focus to the planet. Most of the Scyrian Army made for the planet. Sirus turned a thousand of his most vicious starships toward Treon.

They arrowed down at terrible speeds.

Sirus knew exactly how hard to push his ships and he knew the exact level of skill his warriors possessed. He put them all to the test in those dire moments as they screeched down, rattling through the atmosphere hard enough they could shake apart if his pilots and engineers hadn’t performed this maneuver a million times before.

The clouds parted and the grey, rocky expanse of Treon opened up before them. The Draga Army poured out of their starships, running towards the mountain seat of Treon. It appeared the Neprijat wanted the princess alive badly enough they’d left the safety of their nearly impenetrable ships of death.

What Sirus saw as his warriors performed the combat landings flawlessly was…difficult to describe.

Even as a hardened warrior with cycles under his belt fighting minor skirmishes from pirates, mercenaries, dealing with House feuds, and the various different policing he had to do when it came to the scavengers – legal and otherwise amongst the stars…

Sirus had never seen anything like the creatures that burst out of the Neprijat ships like sickness from an infected wound. They were the monsters from nightmares – the stories told as children didn’t do them justice. Those angular limbs crawled and skittered over everything with breath-taking speed, inciting true terror in the warriors who ran towards the protection of the mountain.

At least there they could try and bottleneck the creatures to a manageable amount.

Sirus already had his armor on and as many weapons as his body could hold. With a final order to the soldiers who would watch the starships and give cover with the ship’s guns, he joined his warriors in the cargo bay.

The Warrior’s Curse landed hard on the surface of the planet and they braced for impact. The doors slid open before they’d completely stopped moving and as one, he and the soldiers secured their masks and ran out onto the killing field.

The extra oxygen helped his heart pump as he ran. They all ran as fast as they could towards those creatures, despite the fear and terror. The stench of them still made it through the air filters and Sirus nearly gagged. His hands tightened on the hilts of his plasma blades and he roared another order.

His warriors fired on the monsters, and they fell in droves. Then like a cleansing wind his forces swept through the remaining creatures.

Sirus’s heart stuttered as he saw a…male—some kind of human male step off from one of the ships. It stopped him in his tracks and his warriors made way like water around a rock. He could not peel his eyes from the male he saw smirking at him. This was a true Neprijat and not one of their hounds—the creatures they had running after Princess Giselle.

The plasma from his swords crackled in the roaring silence. His heart pounded in his chest as he studied this…man. The human was tall and fit, wiry almost but Sirus could tell by the way he held himself the male had strong muscles. Those long fingers had sharp nails as did all Kalans but there was something a bit more violent than Sirus’s own. The claws were longer and more curved, like talons on a bird of prey.

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