“What the fuck was that?” Vikalos snarled as he tried to stifle the vomit in the back of his throat. Standing by his feet was Tah, the leader of the tiny team of Decay Lords that had recently joined the Thantir.
“Sorry, my teleportation is pretty nauseating to organics!” Tah apologized. “But we had to get you out of there before Psehon worked out too much!”
Vikalos swallowed, then snarled some more, inspecting his surroundings. He was on the main observatory of the Thantir Two, alongside pretty much every member of the Thantir. Including Galyn and Itaviir, who were both eyeing Vikalos angrily. Vikalos realized that they had both just been told about The Big Plan, and, more importantly, everyone seemed to be actually going ahead with it.
“Are we really doing this right now?” Vikalos asked. “I thought we were going to wait until the Phantai were more distracted?”
“We cannot!” Litvir exclaimed from the doorway. “They know we are doing something, and we have had to alter our plans. While I do not like leaving Eksi behind, he is making sure that the Phantai remain quiet and distracted while we work. We have to do this now!”
The ship briefly shuddered. It took to the air and swiftly left the safety of the Shimmering Blade, disappearing into the darkness. Once the Shimmering Blade was out of sight, the Thantir Two slowed down and came to a halt, sheltering by a stray asteroid. Retvik immediately beckoned everyone to the cockpit, where Tah’s siblings Nuh and Koh were piloting the ship and everyone else was quite squeezed in. Vikalos did a quick headcount and realized that only two members of the Thantir were missing: Eksi and Leh.
“I apologize for throwing us all into this early, but Litvir is absolutely right, we need to act now…” Retvik began to explain. “Luckily, our plan is incredibly simple and, based on past experience, it should work without a hitch. Admittedly, because of Psehon’s nosiness, we are altering things slightly, but these changes are minor and should not affect too much.”
“That sounds fine and all, but what IS the plan, and why did you not tell us?” Galyn hissed. “You clearly have a plan to destroy the Crystal Doom, doing my three favourite things, and you kept it secret from us?”
“We did not tell you because we feared Psehon would violate your minds and discover the plan,” Litvir interrupted. “Unfortunately, we did not foresee Psehon violating Vikalos’s mind and catching glimpses, but fortunately, Eksi is a truly terrifying Psion and he is single-handedly keeping the entirety of the Phantai distracted, and he and Leh have convinced them all that there has been an outbreak of Kenic Spores and they need to go into quarantine. This means that we have approximately 25 hours to get this done.”
Galyn sighed. “I… I see. So what do we need to do?”
Retvik started explaining further. “Our Decaylings already know their jobs. The first thing we need to do is get close to the Voidborn mothership, the Diamond, which we plan to do via the two Life Goddess ships we have access to. Phovos and Tahvra will pilot these ships, while Pah and Koh will remain on the Thantir Two, keeping it hidden from the Voidborn in general. Gah and Nuh will each be placed on one of our Life Goddess ships, and they will use their magnetic and gravity powers to keep the Life Goddess ships shielded while we enter the mothership.
“We initially planned to have Litvir, Vikalos and I cause a distraction on the more inhabited areas of the Diamond, but Litvir now has to uphold our telepathic communications. Instead, you three Tattered Navigators and myself will be our main distraction, while Elkay, Akah and Tenuk, all disguised as Voidborns, will enter the deeper parts of the Diamond, laying out explosives. Once they are done, Tah and Teekay will teleport our disguised Decaylings out to Phovos’s ship, while Tahvra will use his superior piloting skills to get the Tattered Navigators out. I will break off briefly, cause a nice big inferno to set off the explosions our Decaylings have placed and then have Teekay teleport me out, and we all run away before everything goes boom properly.”
“Huh…” Galyn raised a finger, but slowly lowered it. “That… that is an insane plan, but also… not that insane? I mean you have done this before…”
Retvik smiled. “We have. But when we did this last time, it was just Tenuk, Elksia, Arkay and myself. We have a proper team here, we have maps of the Voidborn mothership, we have two teleporters who can get us out with ease, we have a powerful telepath linking us together and Elksia can actually use her Time Drake powers properly now, meaning she can stop is from being too badly injured.”
“How will we get close though?” Itaviir asked. “The Phantai have never managed to get close to the Diamond.”
“That is where the Life Goddess ships come in!” Tenuk beamed. He was currently shapeshifted into something between a Rethavok and a Lanex, and was holding a golden, clearly stolen Voidborn mask. Itaviir realized that Akah and Elkay were both carrying Voidborn masks as well, Akah had painted his normally white armour black, and Elkay’s wings and tail seemed to be missing. “Kinisis’s ships all have a stealth mode. Can’t travel very fast at all in stealth mode, but not only do the Life Goddess ships avoid the Diamond’s automatic anti-Decayon defences, but they also are invisible most of the time and we can stay hidden for as long as we need. Sadly, we don’t have any of the special ammo for the ships’ guns, but traditional gunfire isn’t going to do much anyway.”
“And… where are these ships?”
Phovos held out her hands. In them were two very tiny ships. Teekay also had a similarly sized ship attached to his belt.
“Just gotta make these things expand and we’re good to go!” Phovos seemed oddly confident, despite the fact that she wasn’t that experienced a pilot. In fact, everyone seemed oddly confident, apart from Litvir. Something which Galyn immediately pointed out.
“You seem very uncertain, Litvir.”
Litvir sighed, then nodded. “I am. I will be stretching myself thin, and I am both concerned that I may lose connection to you all and that my telepathic disguises and directions will falter due to the strain. But I will do my best, as always.”
“And we’ll do our best to act as a backup should Litvir struggle!” Koh added. “We’re not really suited for combat any more, but we’re as dedicated as you all are.”
“Indeed. Does anyone have any questions before we set off?” Retvik enquired. “Because we are burning valuable time here.”
Everyone glanced around, then shook their heads. Satisfied, Retvik nodded to Phovos, who made her way to the back of the ship, with Tahvra, Gah and Nuh in tow. They headed to the cargo bay, where Tahvra quickly tethered Phovos to the ship and opened the bay doors, letting her float outside.
Once Phovos was clear of the Thantir Two, she opened up her hands, revealing the two ships, which she held out at arm’s length. She closed her eyes, then muttered the magic word, forcing both ships to expand, turning into their normal, full-sized forms. After a few strange clicks, the ships finished up, and Phovos went to the side of each ship, entering a code on a blank panel by the doors, causing them to open up.
“Alright, we’re all good to go!”
The majority of the Thantir appeared behind Phovos. Tahvra undid Phovos’s tether, then she, Tenuk, Elkay, Akah, Teekay, Elksia and Gah all entered one of the Life Goddess ships, while Tahvra, Retvik, Vikalos, Galyn, Itaviir, Nuh and Tah all climbed into the other ship.
Koh, Pah and Litvir remained on the Thantir Two, with Litvir locking himself in one of the observatories. Phovos and Tahvra took control of the two Life Goddess ships, which they had temporarily named “Yisini” and “Epani”, and started their engines. Both ships lit up, then flickered and faded as they activated their stealth modes. Tahvra’s ship, “Epani”, moved behind the Thantir Two, while Phovos’s ship, “Yisini”, remained at the rear, with the Thantir Two leading the way.
An odd silence drifted across the three ships, before being broken by a brief static and a tense, mental voice.
“You are all now telepathically connected…” Litvir spoke through everyone’s minds as the Thantir Two’s engines re-ignited, and the three ships started moving. “Thantir, stay strong. I have faith in all of us.”