Orbital Academy 18

Gre watched the swarm around him carefully. It was easy to tell the difference between a mindless Drya and one whose mind was possessed of his Terran brethren, although he couldn't pinpoint exactly what had changed. The way they moved, the way they looked around them, every line of their scaled bodies seemed to speak of intelligence. The riders on the back of each Drya could tell as well, for they were whooping and cheering from their backs now. Gre smiled even though the Drya he possessed could not mimic the action.

"My lord," the Linker's voice sounded far away, "would it not have been best if you took the Drak(*dracori*)?" The man's implication was clear: wouldn't it be better for *anyone* to take the Dracori instead of the untried and unconfident woman? In his small Drya body, Gre glanced up at the magnificent creature just beside him.

All Dracori were awe-inspiring, of course, but Gre had a special place in his heart for a Dracori-of-the-Wave. Its scales were so dark that they appeared black in the light of the surface, but against the true dark of space their scales revealed the beautiful deep blue within.

"Jia, have you SEA(*melded minds*) with the Drak yet?" Gre's own voice sounded faint in his ears.

"I am TRI(*attempting something that is new, struggling with something difficult*)."

"My lord, if I may-" one of the Linkers began, but Gre cut him off sharply.

"I am not a fool. The girl will link to the DRA(*dracori*), and you will hold your tongue." Even locked away under layers of magic, the girl had knowledge that would help them make this the most successful Shrike team, the only successful Shrike team, to ever be sent to the Exiles' moons.

*That is assuming she can slip into his mind.* He thought worriedly, glancing up at the Dracori again with the eyes of his Drya. On the creature's back rode the green tribe's little gift, her legs wrapped tight in the saddle that had been fashioned just for her. She had no idea what an honor she had received; the first human to ride on the back of a Dracori, and she hadn't even been born a Terran. Even so, the girl on the dragon's back looked around her with glee in her one good eye, the other hidden behind a cloth patch and her short green hair.

Gre was startled out of his reverie when the Dracori suddenly turned its head to look back at him, an intelligence in its eyes.

"I did it my lord!" Jia said excitedly.

"Good girl." Gre murmured approvingly. "Now we must-"

It was his third time in control of a creature who broke through the green fog, but it still took his breath away each time. A deep blackness speckled with points of light, the darkest void punctuated by the brightest tiny lights.

"The torches in the emptiness." One of the Linkers said quietly. It sounded as if he was crying, but there was no shame in that, especially if it was his first time. Even Gre felt a tear slide down his cheek.

"It somehow feels like home." Jia murmured, and Gre hurriedly got them back on track.

"There is the Exiles' moon," he pointed with a scaled claw, "the blemish that taints the beautiful darkness of space." The Dracori and the smaller Drya, each controlled from within the tent, turned and moved in the direction he had indicated. The Exiles' moon sat like an ugly diamond in the sky, still some ways off.

"Where are the Exiles' small beasts?" One of the Linkers asked.

"Our riders are still gob-stuck at the sight of the stars." Gre reassured. "They will soon give us sight." In a few moments he was proven right, as the men and women who rode on the Drya began casting spells. Something behind Gre's borrowed eyes clicked, and suddenly he could see for leagues, his vision enhanced and sharpened by the magic that coursed through the beast.

"What is this? A trick? A trap?" He looked around with his newly enhanced vision, but his magical eyes revealed the same information they had without magic; a paltry twenty of the metal beasts circled the Exiles' moon. He wracked his memory for stories of Shrikes in the past. Were the Exiles holding back? Hiding in the moon? Why?

"Did we catch them UA(*with stealth and skill, catching them unawares without even meaning to*)?"

"They know when we come." Gre dismissed the Linker's idea, and he wrinkled his scaly brow in thought. "Yet here they fly, with just the SCNU(*a trifling number, barely as many as they send for a single Dracori*). Two tens of them? And not a beast more?"

"They fight each other." Jia spoke as if she was in a daze, or trying to recall through the haze of memory. "The moon that gifts the small beasts must be at war with the moon we fly to."

"There is just one moon that gifts the beasts?" Gre asked, surprised.

"Just one. Academy." Jia answered, and although Gre frowned, he didn't reprimand her.

"There they are. To the west, far, far to the west." A Linker said, and Gre looked out across the leagues and leagues of space between them. Sure enough, the horrible metal beasts were departing from the faroff moon.

*Too far away.* Gre realized with glee. *It will take them too long to get here.*

"AYA(*attack without mercy, rend them apart*)."

It took only a few more minutes for them to close the distance between the clouds and the Exiles' moon, and even before then the riders began casting spells. The lights from the spells with their fiery trials were like comets streaking across the heavens, and although they were too far away to aim well, Gre knew that they struck fear into the hearts of their enemies. The Exiles' beasts left trails too as they hurtled towards them, and excitement bubbled in Gre's chest as he watched the two groups move closer.

"I know them!" Jia sounded excited too, as their enhanced vision let them see the Exiles within the beasts. "I know how they fight...I know what they'll do." Gre hoped she wouldn't think too hard about how she knew them, but before he had time to worry about it the two tiny armies met, and chaos reigned.

Gre had faced the Exiles in winged combat before, in the empty reaches of space. Their beasts were nimble and they were intelligent, but there were certain maneuvers that never failed to confound their sense. He tried one right from the start, spreading his wings and snapping to a halt in the air. The Exile's beast in front of him was firing jets of flame, but it had tried to lead him with the shots. His sudden stop had confused his opponent, as it always did, and Gre smiled predatorily as it floundered in the air, trying to make a wide turn like a fish. He swept forward to take advantage of his enemy's weakness, landing on the beast and tearing at its wings with his claws. His rider raised a shield of ice to deflect the bursts of flame fired by his enemy's comrades.

Gre would've liked to rip through to the helpless human Exile within its dead beast, but instead he launched off of the metal carcass and returned to the fray. Every tooth and claw was needed in a Shrike, especially if they were to be the first to succeed. To his right one of the Drya was pierced through the heart with a gout of flame, and Gre's human ears on the planet heard the Linker scream in pain.

"SIA(*still the mewling tongue in your cowardly head*)!" Gre snapped, trying to focus on the scolding and the fighting at the same time. "You lay here, hurt but safe. Your brave RIA(*the steadfast, the courageous, the rider*) shall fall through space till the end of time, thanks to your PIT(*horrifying lack of skill*)." He vaguely heard the healers helping the Linker out, but he dismissed all thought of him.

*The Linker will at least live.* He thought sadly, watching the dead Drya and rider float off into the void while trying to dodge blasts of fire himself.

"We bring more Drya than ever we have, and they bring less beasts." Laughed one of the Linkers next to him in the tent. Gre cast his gaze around and found him in space, a skinny Drya who was chasing one of the Exile's beasts down. "Pso will be the last of us lost in this fight." Though Gre privately agreed, he stole another glance at the Exile beasts coming from the other moon, Academy, still a long ways away. They flew as fast as he had ever seen their beasts fly, but...he glanced around the battlefield again.

*...They do not fly fast enough.*

"Eyes down." He snapped, and a few Drya dove to intercept Exiles' beasts that were trying to sneak up from beneath them. "Do you think me a fool, Exiles?" He muttered under his breath. "I fight not as if I am on land, I know that a fight in the stars is as one in the sea. We watch up and down." Even so, he *had* had to warn the others, perhaps he should focus more on command and less on fighting. As much as he wished to take part in the battle himself, Gre flew a small ways away, watching the fight from a wide view.

"One of you, go help Kon." He ordered. "The poor fool has three beasts on his tail." Other than Kon, the rest of them were doing well. Already the dead husks of metal beasts floated in the field, and only one of his own had fallen. In the middle of the battlefield, like a planet around whom the fight orbited, Jia and Tes fought the Exiles. It was beautiful, in both concept and in execution. They did not remember their old comrades, but they instinctively knew how they thought. They had no memory of being lovers, but their motions synced and complimented each other as if they were one body, even with Jia in the body of a Dracori.

Tes was hurling out lances of magic, arcing from her fist into space. It was wild and unkempt magic, and it rarely struck its target, but when it did hit an Exile it would draw the beast in, yanking it against its will and reeling it towards the center. Try as they might, any ship so ensnared would soon come within reach of Jia's claws, and she would pluck it from the air as easily as a farmer might pluck a pomfruit.

*She's being very delicate with them.* Gre realized with worry. The great beast was carefully raking her claws across the beasts she captured, shearing off metal wings and destroying their firing stings and then leaving them to drift in space, when she could have been crushing them in her giant teeth or ripping them apart to leave their human occupants drifting instead. Gre had heard Exiles died in space, gasping for air like fishes out of water. *Could it be that a part of Jia's mind is still one of them?* He worried. *Is she concerned about hurting them?*

Jia unleashed her first breath, and all doubt left Gre's mind. On the surface the Dracori-of-the-wave's breath would be powerful, a stream of water that could crush houses into rubble. Out in the depths of space, it was devastating. Shapeless globules of water shot forth from her mouth, of such size and speed that they were overwhelming to even look at. One globule hit a moving beast with such force that the metal dented, slamming it backward. Although the lights remained, the ship drifted, so its human must be dead within. Another beast became trapped inside a sphere of water, its tail flaring but unable to move.

"The beasts from Academy come soon." Jia murmured, and the Dracori began moving. The Drya followed, Gre right behind. Exiles' beasts buzzed around them like flies, but Jia crushed them like flies as well; plucking some out of the air, blasting waves of water at others. On her back, Tes flung lightning bolts of magic across the skies, and the other riders had taken her cues. Instead of the mix of spells that a Shrike team usually used, the void between the stars was filled with arcing lightning, and where they struck the beasts, their lights died.

Gre couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the display. Yes, the Exiles inside still lived, he could see that, but within their dead beasts they could do nothing to stop the Shrike. He had heard the Princes speak of their attempts, attempts to burn, to crush, to melt, to kill, but Jia and Tes knew exactly how to stop them. For a moment Gre considered staying and waiting for the Academy Exiles to reach them, but he shook his head. Overconfidence would do him no favors, and it wasn't needed when he was so close.

The Exiles' moon loomed before him, closer than he had ever seen it before.

*Closer than anyone has seen it before.* He thought triumphantly. *Closer than-*

"DIVE!" Jia suddenly screamed. Gre shot downward out of instinct, as did most of the others. Less than a second after the girl had screamed, the Exiles' moon fired.

It was as if someone had bottled the sun and now hurled it just behind Gre's head. He wasn't looking at the beam, but the heat of it burned his skin, even in the blank ether of space where heat did not move as freely as in the air. Their riders must've been confused and disoriented before, but they were screaming now, shrieking in terror. Ahead of him Jia's Dracori was flying and Gre blindly followed her as another bottled sun blazed past them.

"What is happening? How is this happening?" He could hear the healers shrieking in the tent, but Gre couldn't focus on anything but following the Dracori-of-the-waves in front of him. They were so close now, so close to the very surface of the moon, it *couldn't* end like this. Another bottled sun blinded him for moment, and then his claws scrambled on a metal surface, his scaly belly touched a warm and solid ground. Gre panted in his comfortable chair, waiting long tense moments for sight to return to his Drya.

Slowly, he began making out blurry shapes around him. After the sudden screaming and panic, the silence seemed deafening, both to his ears in space and his ears in the tent. He looked around, blinking rapidly. Panting, dishevelled, but whole and alive, three Drya and their riders looked back at him, as did Tes and the Dracori. They stood on the smooth metal surface of the Exiles' moon.

"They can't hurt us here. They risk harming their moon." Jia said, breaking the silence.

"Healers, what happened to the others? What were you screaming about?" One of the Linkers said shakily. Still in control of their Drya, none of them could move their heads to look around them in the tent.

"They died." One of the healers finally said. "They died right in front of us. I...I didn't know they could die."

"And now-" Gre cleared his throat, shaken but determined not to show it. "-now we give the Exiles back their death. Jia."

On his order, the Dracori flexed the muscles along its wide arms. It sunk its claws into the surface of the moon, rending it and sending huge shards of metal floating into the air.

"It is a great ACI(honor of exploration and conquest, accomplishment that none have achieved), to make it in the moon." He said, as the Dracori dug into the surface beneath them.

"The Exiles will try to push us out, of course. They will fall on us in waves." Despite their success, the Linker's voice sounded muted and downcast. Gre's answer was similarly grim.

"I hope so."