Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

Emily stands up, stretching her arms above as she looks at the army ahead, her eyes scanning their numbers with relative ease despite the low light.

“Hmm,” she mumbles, sending a large stream of machina into Calypso and using Overdrive to speed up their approach. “Doing this at night isn’t a good idea. We’re still an easy target to pick out and it’s just going to make it harder for me to avoid accidentally dropping something on someone.”

Plans start to form in her head as her eyes roam the formation prepared to intercept them, boosted by the influence of Flow.

There are way too many ships in the air for me to use my air cushion idea to drop them. Especially those big ones. They’ll probably need six wind currents not to kill their inhabitants, and they’re currently directly above their ground forces too. Maybe I could make a third circle spell to help? Nah, that would be too mana-intensive still.

As Calypso approaches the distant army, a thunderous boom sounds in sync with twenty bright flashes of light, two from each of the artillery ships anchored to the ground. A volley of projectiles arc through the sky towards Calypso, and Emily quickly casts several wind walls, creating a large barrier in front of the ship.

A few of the projectiles hit the shield and change direction, shooting towards the floor before detonating harmlessly in a blanket of fire and shrapnel. However, the majority of them detonate either against or just before the wall of wind, sending ripples along it and draining a considerable chunk of Emily’s mana.

“Damn,” she mutters, feeling her mana flowing out to reinforce the barrier against the repeated impacts. “Two thousand mana gone in an instant. Those things will rip through our balloon in a heartbeat. I guess I know what to target first.”

She disperses her barrier while waiting for another volley, pulling out the Whisper and loading a full magazine of explosive bullets.

I only have three of these left now. I may need to prepare some more for this fight.

Flicking the firing selector into full and pouring machina into the gun, Emily aims at one of the artillery cannons and squeezes the trigger. A silent shot flies through the sky, only noticeable by the faint, crackling streak of machina trailing in its wake. The bullet slams accurately into the base of the cannon and explodes, ripping through the metal construct and completely disabling it in an instant while also setting off the shell in the hands of the soldiers behind it, blowing them to shreds.

It's a shame I won’t just be able to do this. That was too volatile, and I don’t think I can disable those cannons from this angle with normal bullets.

Oh, that could work though.

A savage grin appears on Emily’s face as an idea to disable the cannons at the cost of some of her rarer crystals occurs to her. She opens a note in her virtual notebook and jots it down, starting a list of items to prepare for her next attempt. With an idea to deal with the artillery prepared, she racks the bolt of her rifle and lines up a second shot, ready to take out the grounded ship’s second cannon. However, as her second shot flies out, the metal around the cannon lights up and a barrier of earth encases it.

“Tsk,” she clicks her tongue as her bullet explodes, shattering the barrier and sending earthen shrapnel through the mage and soldiers within. “Like that’ll stop me.”

She rapidly unloads the Whisper into the other cannons, destroying four more before another volley of shots flies towards Calypso. Emily blocks the shells, taking another hit to her mana reserves, before reloading her gun and finishing off the rest of the long-range weapons.

Having noticed the quick removal of their artillery, several of the ships waiting in the air begin their advance to meet Calypso. The two smaller craft quickly approach, travelling faster than Calypso. As they get closer, Emily continues to scan them for weaponry and frowns when she doesn’t see any guns.

What are they going to do? Are they trying to get people closer to us so they can shoot at us or something?

She waits expectantly for them to approach, holding off on knocking them from the sky so she has a chance to understand their function.

The smallest of the two models travels slightly faster and reaches them first, and Emily gets a clear look at their design. The five small ships each have a single propeller mounted directly behind the main hull, making it hard for her to remove it from afar, with several adjustable fins circling the hull to control its flight. She still doesn’t see a single gun as the ships get close, and the size of the ships suggests they only carry one or two crew members at most, but a foreboding feeling builds in her gut the closer they get.

Trusting her instinct, Emily raises the Whisper as one of the ships gets within a hundred metres of her and fires an explosive bullet straight through the small window at the front into the cockpit behind. The bullet detonates, and the ship is instantly engulfed in a massive ball of flames that quickly expands, catching the other small craft nearby and causing a chain reaction as they detonate too. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The explosions fling large shards of metal in all directions and cause Calypso to quake despite the distance separating them as several chunks of the small ships slam into her hull and a few cut through her balloon, initiating her slow descent to the ground.

“Holy shit!” Emily exclaims, looking at the explosion in disbelief and frustration, swiftly sidestepping a large shard of metal that almost impales her. “They’re all suicide bombers. How am I meant to deal with that without killing anyone?”

As she’s staring ahead at the large cloud of smoke formed by the large explosion, with gritted teeth, the ten other small ships that were approaching break through the cover and enter her vision. The ships are spread in a wide arc, approaching from varying angles at once.

Whatever! I can worry about that later. Focus on gathering data for now. All I need to do is stop them approaching and they’ll have no reason to set themselves off.

Taking a deep breath to clear her mind, Emily regains her calm, emotionless mask as she observes the new ship type. Unlike the bombers, these ships have two propellers, one on either side, and despite the lack of guns, Emily quickly identifies the weapons as a split along the front of the hull widens, opening into a gaping maw with razor-sharp metal teeth. At the back of the open metal jaws, she spots a door still sealed shut.

“Boarding ships,” Emily muses with a small nod. “This seems like a strategy for use against a larger craft than Calypso. First blow open holes with the bombers, then board with these things.”

As an array of orange runes, mixed with glistening white flecks, flows from Emily’s body to form several large magic circles around her, the boarding ships suddenly lurch forwards, closing the distance to Calypso in an instant. Emily’s eyes open wide as six of the boarding ships slam into the hull below her, latching onto her ship. She looks to the back of the ships, noticing a trail of flames behind each of them as the other four miss their marks, rocketing past at high speed.

Short-distance boosters? Cool. Also, possibly helpful.

She finishes casting four fireballs and throws them at the backs of the boarders that missed, watching as her spell blows their rear ends to pieces, removing their propellers and leaving them floating without any means to control themselves. Looking through the falling wreckage of the ships’ rears, she searches for bodies and doesn’t see a single one.

Thought so. No one stands near the boosters while they’re being set off at least. Looks like it should be safe to destroy their rears.

With a satisfied nod, she pulls upon her connection with lightning while slowly walking to the nose of the ship. Lightning wraps her being as she bends her legs and leaps off the tip of the ship, launching up to float in line with the balloon as she condenses the charge in her legs. She kicks off thin air, releasing the crackling plasma in her limbs into the balloon behind her, ripping it apart and sending herself flying towards the army ahead as Calypso ploughs down into the sand below, crashing with a resounding thump.

Flying forwards while drawing a trail of crackling light behind her through the night sky, Emily glances back at her grounded ship and sees the hull has crumpled slightly, but mostly held together.

My armour held up.

She looks forward again with a satisfied nod, crackling runes forming around her legs from the raw elemental mana clinging to her. She leverages the air again, shooting forward as she approaches the army ahead alone.

It doesn’t take long before the twenty large ships hovering above the ground troops unload a volley from their cannons, sending a wave of hefty, fist-sized projectiles towards her. Emily weaves between the shots with ease, like a fish in water, not slowing her approach at all. A second volley comes almost instantly, firing much faster than the heavy grounded artillery, and soon so does a third.

As the fourth volley is fired, Emily enters their range and the ground troops open fire as well, sending a hail of bullets towards the bolt of lightning arcing through the sky towards them. The mass of metal rising to meet her makes a small, battle-thirsty grin form on Emily’s face, and she kicks off the air at an angle, starting herself spinning as she continues forward.

The smaller bullets of the infantry are easily knocked aside by the twisting arcs of lightning emanating from her body as she travels, and she keeps kicking off the air, propelling herself forward faster and faster, quickly draining her mana.

This is very fun, but highly inefficient. I’d be much better off approaching from the ground.

Emily finally slams into one of the large craft awaiting her with her arms raised before her, smashing through its hull and entering its bridge. She rolls across the floor before rising while shaking out her arms. Glancing around at the stunned crew staring at her in shock, she springs into motion, releasing the blades from her Claws and slashing them around, quickly cleaving the crew’s heads from their shoulders before retracting the wires to withdraw the bloodied blades.

She stands still and pours machina into the floor, shutting her eyes and inspecting the ship’s design.

No active ventilation system for the bridge. There are some manual overrides for the steam flow controls in other parts of the ship, but the ones to the balloon are in a closed crawlspace that will take time to access, and there are none for the propellers. Okay, this should be easy enough to handle.

Adding another idea to her notes, Emily uses one last flex of her machina to adjust the propellers to push the ship down and disable all steam flow to the balloon, opening the vents for controlled descent at the same time. As she turns to leave the ship, a silver tube with flames trailing behind flies through the hole she created. Sensing danger, Emily immediately leaps back, the lighting around her legs sending her straight into the far wall of the room as the metal tube slams into the ceiling and detonates in a thunderous boom.

Emily raises her arms to protect her face from the heat and shrapnel, gaining several gashes on her arms and legs, and a few bruises on her torso as her armour blocks the rest. Several more explosions rock the ship as Emily activates half the injectors on her spine to stem her bleeding.

Trying to bring your own ship down with me in it? How brutal.

Glancing at her mana and machina reserves, Emily decides it’s almost time to end her test. She charges her legs and arms with lightning before slamming both her elbows back into the wall behind her, launching herself out through her entrance hole before another explosive can be fired at her.

She flies out into the open air above the army and looks down, her eyes quickly scanning the gathered troops to try and locate Virgil Hibiscus as more bullets are shot at her. Their numbers are reduced as those below the ship she was in have scrambled to escape the falling hunk of metal. Unsurprisingly, before she sees Virgil, she feels him. At the back of the army, close to the shore, she suddenly feels an imposing mass of mana gathering.

Emily kicks the air, driving herself towards the source as one of her hands lowers to The Clock’s pouch. She quickly spots a man with long, fiery red hair wearing rich black robes covered in glowing red embroidered runes with both his hands raised above him and a massive crimson magic circle condensing multiple beautiful flowers of flames. His face is distorted in a recognisable manic grin that overlaps in Emily’s mind with his son’s.

Emily meets his eyes as he chants, and converts the rest of her machina into mana on the spot. She pours most of it into a crackling, curved wall of plasma that stretches under her, protecting her back from the hail of bullets flying towards her and giving her a platform to stand on, facing the preparing mage with a matching grin. She raises a hand and gestures for Virgil to bring it on as a flicker of doubt crosses his features, and he nods before continuing his casting.

Emily moves the rest of her mana into her legs, ignoring the feeling of intense exhaustion that has started to wear on her and focusing on the dazzling spell formed above the fourth circle mage. The blazing red flowers start breaking apart, releasing flickering petals of fire that gather in the centre of the large magic circle, spinning into a flower-shaped burning hot vortex that distorts the air around it.

Virgil points the spell at Emily, but following his gaze, she instantly works out that he’s targeting her legs, aiming to disable her.

Is he that confident in its speed, or does he just not want to hit me at all?

Emily remains rooted in place, ignoring the surrounding battlefield and pouring all her focus into the deadly blaze before her. With a small twitch of his hands, Virgil releases hold of his spell, and the burning flower rockets forward in an instant.

Emily releases all charge in her legs, shooting up at an angle towards a gap behind the sinking ship above her as a solid red line is drawn from the Hibiscus patriarch’s position to hers. The fire clips one of her boots, instantly melting the metal and scorching her flesh down to the bone, but she avoids the brunt of the spell and twists midair, activating The Clock as she looks back to see the main detonation.

The burning flower slams into the bottom of the ship and in the blink of an eye engulfs it, along with two of the ships floating in the air next to it, in a ball of flames.

I guess destroying his own ships and letting his people die in the battle is one way of making sure it looks real.

Emily watches with a growing respect for her opponent as the shockwave released by the spell knocks her and a large portion of the ground forces back. She can’t help but let out an impressed chuckle at the overwhelming power displayed.

Damn. I do not want to get hit by that.