Dusts of Avalon - Beastwithin.org

V. S F T“Take us the hell out of here! Now! Now!” Daleworth could barely hear someonescream over the radar spoer's microphone. e radar would be out andthey'd need to rely on their eyes on the hill. e Air Force knew that this kind ofPlanner cra meant that every cra should stay the hell off the air until the groundforces said the situation was clear… and since that never happened, they'd usuallyhave to wait until the thing took off and le.Out of the clouds, at a dazzling speed, emerged a large spaceship; at first itssize was not apparent to the observers, as its surface was adapting to the shadesof the atmospheric haze. It appeared to almost drop from the sky in a mannerthat disoriented the viewer, almost like a giant ro that came from edge of thevision; it appeared from the sky at an unnatural speed, emerging from the deepeningred sky, widening from handspan width to width that filled half the viewin seconds. Within the span of a few eyeblinks, two of the Dragon fighters explodedin mid-air, one quily dodged and disengaged from the fight as fast asit could, and one couldn't dodge in time; it hurtled straight into the alien cra'sside, exploding without leaving a dent, merely causing the cra's deflector shieldforce field, vaguely but definitely visible around the ship, to flash gently.“Planner Carrier!” Daleworth screamed as she heard gigantic explosions endthe Talon rotor whirring behind her. Nothing was going to fly as long as the carrierwas around. “Get your bus to the turf, or that thing will mow you down!”e carrier braked in the air almost effortlessly, and almost noiselessly, itssurface arcing with electricity as it took a deep green hue — probably its nativecolour. A large, flat plane with round edges, covered with a grid of diamondshapesof tube neing of some alien function, formed the alien cra's body; twospherical compartments, big on the front and and small in the ba, were visible onthe top, with one large bulge covering the boom. e ship would have appearedroughly egg-shaped if observed directly from the top, its blunt end in the bow.Daleworth didn't even flin at the swi appearance of the spaceship, butthere was some deep-seated horror in her mind. A carrier was one of the heaviestships the Planners had in their fleet, and mere sight of one told Daleworth thatthe Planners had one goal in mind: Swi destruction of all heavy defenses… andall defenders. She had seen one in action.Just a while ago, in Titan.Almost total destruction.So many civilian casualties. So few survivors.It was a fate that Daleworth wanted to avoid here. But how? She was just asclueless — like everyone else in the goddamn Defence Forces — on how to stopthat from happening in Titan, and was certainly just as clueless now.Based on the markings in the front, at least this particular cra didn't looklike the exact same one they had faced there; whatever gods there may be at leastgave that mu comfort to them, sparing Daleworth's troupe from fighting the