The Celestial Way

Chapter 15 - Long Way

CHAPTER 15 – LONG WAY

"Ask me about philosophy, about religion, about the meaning of existence, and I will ask you in turn: what is the point?"

– Onis Abdo, "Let Us Get To There"

"Great Cosmos, allow me to go lifeward and find myself in the mirror of the Universe, so my soul may sing the song of love."

– Celestine prayer

Same interval, another perspective

Airo stood alone in Ilsorin's command room. Before him, numerous AR screens hovered above the wide circular table, displaying battlefield analyses, transcribed commlink records, mission schedules, and progress reports on various other tasks. The table's smart surface was active too, projecting a complex multi-dimensional map, its spectral image alight with dots, arrows, and vectors, denoting settlements, last known locations of survivors, and predicted routes of military forces or refugee caravans. A large part of the map was overlaid with a single golden-hued filter, resembling a rippling wave, which was the estimated advance front of the Revenant. Finally, dark purple spots marked the places where warpstorms occurred most often, with the largest of them being the Shard itself, sitting at the center of the map.

Airo studied the data streams, chose where to make his next move, and then left.

The first few patrols were a smashing success, because there wasn't much they could be compared to before. After several incursions into what was termed 'the hot zone', Airo started encountering Revenant much more often, to the point he designated missions purely focused on their elimination, to reduce the chance of interference during rescue operations.

Said rescue operations also needed adjustments, as many settlements weren't where the maps supposed them to be, either because the local E-beacon had been broken by warpstorm or conflict, or the inhabitants had decided to relocate in the past.

Airo put Yeoman Cloud and its increased processing power to the task of producing an as accurate as possible map of all artificial points of interest on Terra Para, by scouring every corner of the planetary Viirt the SAI had access to, and then deep-mine and cross-reference the resulting databulk; the goal was to reduce time lost in directionless wandering and following false leads.

Occasional scout parties and assault forces from the Consortium and the Union also introduced difficulties during a mission, and the diplomatic approach wasn't always reliable; Airo lacked leverage as when he had recruited Captain Riley and his company.

He made some inroads with isolated or undersupported forces from the Consortium, gaining goodwill by reintegrating lost soldiers with Sol Force headquarters, or even by giving basic supplies to those who had overstayed their welcome amidst the hostile wastes of the paraworld.

Yet try as he might, Airo had no such luck with the Union, and the few encounters he had with them always ended with their forces opening fire on the skyship. Still, he persevered, focusing in the meantime most of the rescue operations and counterattack missions on Union territory, where local forces were still defenseless against the Revenant.

By now, his chosen routine had started to become automated reflex. He spent most of his time aboard the skyship, returning to the Order's stronghold to drop off rescued civilians, to change the crew on shift, and to restock on veronite and resonance fields. During this necessary downtime, he used the opportunity to check on base operations and smooth out any complications or glitches, simultaneously planning the next patrol, which was greenlit as soon as the skyship was ready to depart, catching up on sleep whenever there was a lull in the action.

This hectic pattern reminded him of his days as a division commander during his military service. In that period, too, he'd had little time for anything besides warfare, both on the abstractly strategic and the imminently tactical level.

Like seven centuries ago, days and weeks soon blurred into a never-ending cycle – fight, rescue, supply, return, rest, repeat. Yet back then Airo had someone to fight for. Now, he fought only because the all-consuming blazing fury inside him told so.

Despite all setbacks, the skyship returned to Ilsorin loaded with survivors and refugees more often than not. Everywhere people seemed to trust the Radiant Knights a great deal, whose reputation as champions and heroes proved to be true, at least on Terra Para. The latter vexed Airo inexplicably, yet he approved of it, since it made the job of evacuating civilians easier.

Being mostly defensless – Dragon Retreat had been an exception – the settlements had been mistreated by the occupational forces as often as not. According to the historical datalinks, the Consortium and the Union were in actuality invaders on Terra Para, and their actions so far proved these claims. This, compounded with the terrifying threat of the Revenant and the local inhabitants' high regard for the Radiant Knights, made people readily accept the offer for shelter, even if it meant abandoning homes where generations had lived, homes created after centuries of effort to transform the aberrant arctic landscapes into tiny sanctuaries of life and well-being.

Yet the stellar civilizations' crimes and violations didn't dissuade Airo one bit from continuing to aid them; he needed bodies to fight Ferrtau's supernatural legions. There were some capable warriors among the civilians, too, members of former militias or retired soldiers from all parts of the galaxy. Those he set aside, signing them up for intensive training back at the stronghold, to tap into such reserves when the time came to turn the war tides.

While most of the missions Airo authorized – supply distribution runs, rescue patrols, Revenant interceptions, settlement evacuations – were well-planned to maximize the limited presence his single skyship could project, the outcome wasn't always smooth. Fights went wrong. Settlements deemed safe for a few more days were destroyed by the time the Radiant Knights arrived. Supply drop points were never visited by expected parties. Many times, instead of scared yet still thriving settlements, Airo and the Knights arrived to derelict locations bearing signs of devastation – gutted buildings with blackened surfaces, crumbled machinery and dead infrastructure, broken bodies lying where they'd been struck either by a plasma bolt or a Revenant's intangible assault.

The warpstorms steadily worsened, becoming more frequent and destructive. Several times the skyship was on the brink of entering one, and once it was indeed engulfed by the vengeful rage of the paraworld, surviving only because there were enough Conduits and dragons – and dragon Conduits – aboard to counteract the ruinous effects of the warpstorm. Afterwards, the skyship was grounded for nearly three days, its immediate missions failed or postponed, much to Airo's chagrin. Bad supernatural weather grew strong enough to cause havoc even to the Beacon Highway, in some instances destroying weaker or damaged E-beacons, further cutting off large sections of inhabited regions from the rest of the populated areas.

When a warpstorm passed through a settlement, there were no traces left in the fortunate cases. In the unfortunate ones, the result was a hellish landscape, riddled with anomalous fields and grotesque edifices, twisting environment and perspective into incomprehensible vortices of fragmented space-time; and sometimes, floating or strewn among these insane vistas, were unsettlingly familiar shapes, which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be the mutilated remains of the warpstorm's victims. Such sights always hit the Knights' morale hard, and whenever Airo encountered these deusforsaken places, his gaze always lifted to the sky, eyes full of anger and focused on where the sheer violet-white presence of the Reality Vortex pierced the sky.

You will pay, Ferrtau. It will be mainly for your wrongs against me, yet I will readily add your other untold transgressions to the list once I get you.

You will pay, Ferrtau.