Chapter 21 - Past Grievances

It has been years since the incident happened.

The boy is nothing special, he's just a deckhand on some raider skiff. It is a ship of people who attacks others for fun and loot. It's a grim occupation really, but even so to the boy, those days were something that he hold dearly. The crew of the skiff has become something of a family for him. But even so it doesn't ignore the fact that they are nothing but small time criminal in the planet that is known as Rayleh.

"We're raiding the shielder this time!" Yelled the captain to the crew. The boy can only stare at the captain in disbelief, raiding a well known ship that is known to be a hospital ship that helps people who are unfortunate? Is this even really something that is okay with him? The boy voiced his concern at the captain, a ship like that would surely have escorts that's being paid to keep it safe.

But even so, the captain went straight ahead with the plan, following the whispers of his most trusted subordinates. The day of the attack has arrived and the plan commences. As expected the ship was guarded by two other vessel. At first it went really well, they went in on the verge of the midnight and there's an atmospherical storm happening further reducing their visibility. The hit and run technique that they utilized is successful in disabling the guard ships and they proceeded to the boarding sequence in order to obtain the loot that they aimed.

To the boy however it was a terrible thing, threatening innocent medical staff and patients, looting the medical supplies and equipment that they truly needed in order to be sold on the black market. There's no honor as thieves in this, it's only a savage thing, but what can he do? As a raider this stuff I something that is to be expected. Then suddenly disaster happened. A large roaring sound can be heard echoing in the area.

To both the crew of the shielder and the raiders this is something that they know. The roaring of the mechanical dragon Ex-Machina the one who rules the skies of Rayleh. Before they know it a hot plasma cuts through the ship like butter. The boy thankfully is on the side where the antigravitational engine located is spared from the explosion that engulfed the other side, the part where the rest of the boarding party is. The boy without thinking immediately used his jump pack and leaped towards the skiff where they used before and piloted it, escaping the vicinity.

He left his so called family behind, not knowing if there's anyone who survived. But even so in the boy's mind there's no way that someone can survive that. The other part doesn't have an antigravitational field on it. It fell down to the ground and exploded killing everyone on it.

But even so…

The boy can only ran away with tears on his eyes. He swore that one day he would hunt down Ex-Machina and avenge his family once for all. 

"Attention crew mate, we're now nearing the rendezvous point, please prepare yourself for battle."

Said the voice on the intercom. I stood up and stretched myself getting all of the stiffness out from my limb. I then walked closer to the bed and tried to wake up Marion.

"Hey, we've arrived ready yourself."

After shaking her a few more time the princess slowly got up and rubbed her eyes.

I then walked towards the door turned back and motioned her to come with me. She slowly got up and followed me, still dazed from the sleepiness.

As we arrived at the bridge I can well… it's still understaffed, I guess the rest of crew are manning other parts of the ship, it can be helped after all we only have like 10 staff on the ship.

"Ah there you are I've been expecting you!" Said captain Robert to us as we entered the bridge.

"Well we're here, what's the situation?"

The comm screen then flicked and showed a person that can I only say a typical pirate from a kids video series. An old man. Someone with a pirate hat, eyepatch, beard, and a red overcoat.

"Sky sailors of the planet of Rayleh. I thank you for coming! Today is the reckoning day for Ex-Machina! Today is the day where our sky is finally become free! This abomination has terrorized the people of Rayleh for long enough! Today is the day where we take back our freedom!"

I can see from the bridge window that there's a lot of ships flying outside. It seems like it really is a combined fleet from various type of ship. Some looks like that it's a battleship where other looks like a modified skiff with cannons strapped into it.

So this is it huh. The moment where we confront the mechanical dragon. Well I don't really know what it looks like. It's is even alright? I shook my head. No matter, we're already this close to fighting it. There no chance for us to back out now.

"We will now march towards this monster's lair and claim back our sky! My comrades! Follow me and we shall get rid of this monster! That's is all thank you!" the coms then turned off showing us the view outside where various ship doing manuver in order to get into formation.

"Wait a minute what about the formation?"

"It's already been sent to us through that broadcast. We're at the front." Said the helmsman to me.

"Oi oi oi, will it be alright for us to be at the front? This ship isn't technically a battleship isn't it?"

"Relax, our helmsmen here is an expert in dodging attacks. We'll be fine. And if it's weaponry that's you're worried about we have fitted some extra cannons, that's should do the trick."

Extra cannons yeah right, I may have never seen Ex-Machina but I don't think some extra cannon can do the trick.

As we approached the lair suddenly everything went dark and I can hear the screech of some sort of beast howling.