Dance Of The Damned: The DAWN GODS War

Chapter 6: The death of dragons is the death of worlds.

Deep space is both hot and cold.

The bright fires of the solar wind burn. The dark shadows hidden from the light freeze. Ice and fire, shadows and flame. A duality of intensities.

It is a long fall from the ruined Falias towards vibrant Gorias. Hidden amongst the fragments of paradise now scattered along the orbital plane, vengeance flew towards a destiny of madness. The Draeg with their bonded Aos Sidhe soul mates moved through the maelstroms of charged particle winds. Using their photo reactive wings as sails. Tacking into the solar winds, riding the gravity waves. Both surfing and sailing.

The Fomorii had to know they were coming yet there were no signs of any preparations. No perceivable defenses raised.

No party in this, the first war ever truly knew what to expect. Amateurs of betrayal and amateurs of vengeance, creators of madness now racing into confrontation. The fall from grace into the hells of rage cared nothing for time. Only the purpose was real.

Absent was the joy of free flight. Only a demonic focus existed in their awareness.

Slowly Gorias grew from a tiny Azure and golden hued jewel into an orb.

There had been no planning save the instincts of rage with the cunning of fury.

It is possible to ignite a planets atmosphere. It merely takes a few thousand Draeg with ten thousand furious Aos Sidhe, and three comets.

The combination creates a Thermobaric reaction, which burns so hot the planets crust becomes an ignited thermite.

Sweeping in to a descending orbit Aos Sidhe riders released their weapons. Newly invented, used for the first time. Point singularity devices, antimatter bombs, sweeping Masers, Lasers, all to clear the way for the assault.

Flights swept into the atmosphere. Draeg vomiting plasma, spitting lightning, making the thick atmosphere of Gorias burn and transform. They were relentlessly thorough. Until, nothing remained save raging plasma storms. Nothing remained of either the Fomorii or the Draeg and Aos Sidhe.

In wreaking this judgement of fury, Draeg and Aos Sidhe spent their lives. Driven mad in fury and grief they joyously spent their lives in burning the world of Gorias. There had been no intention of return or survival on this quest of vengeance. Madness has it's own reason. Death is sometimes a mercy.

Absolutely nothing remained save a burnt cinder with a sulfur dioxide atmosphere. The war toll had reached two dead worlds and one turned into a spreading field of asteroids.

The stunned survivors of Falias’ destruction had been slow to respond. The Aos Sidhe first had to comprehend what had happened. The destruction part was quite obvious, the how was easily deducted. The why part was incomprehensible.

Weeks spent scouring the few ruins not completely obliterated yielded less than a thousand survivors. No one on the orbital platforms survived. Nothing of the installations and cities that had graced the twin moons Castor and Pollux remained. The two large moons reduced to three orbiting fragments.

Only those Aos Sidhe Engaged in operations above and below the orbital plane had gone untouched by the horror. Near three billion souls had been wiped from existence. Barely one hundred forty four thousand Aos Sidhe remained alive. Only the Draeg off world had survived. Weeks, turned to months as the survivors gathered. Those Draeg that had permanently moved into oort clouds, dropped along the orbital plane, called by the Death shrieks of their kin. Screaming vengeance the Draeg committed a suicidal genocide. Self immolation in grief fueled madness.

War is madness. Madness is forged in the agony of loss and the terrors of rage.

In orbit of Falias, the remnants labored. Mining into the smallest of the three moon fragments. There was nothing to rebuild on Falias. The world was dead. With the loss of the magnetic field, solar winds were stripping away the atmosphere. The seas had boiled away. A lush vibrant world covered with abundant life, now a desolation.

The Aos Sidhe were now refugees. There could be only one destination, one singular hope.

The third world, Fenias.

The journey would be hard. All of the intact survivors had destroyed themselves in vengeance. Only the wounded, those physically incapable of the journey of vengeance had remained behind.

Now those broken remnants themselves set out, falling along the orbital plane.

The heat was exhilarating. Falling, wings wrapped , acting as heat shields, skipping like smooth stones across a calm pond. The Rangers aero braked. Trails of incandescent plasma marked their paths.

Nodens kept track with the retinal display. Titanium ceramic feathers fluttering with micro adjustments. Slave linked, his descent teams armor mirrored his. The team remained in formation.

Three orbits later, the final descent began. Having slowed enough to begin falling, and cooling, the team dropped. Brake away chutes deployed. Slowing them further. Five times they deployed, sheering away.

Until, at Fifty leagues, they were moving slow enough and the air was thick enough that they deployed their armored wings. At last, free flight!

Among the Aos Sidhe, only the women had retained their natural wings. Just as, only the Aos Sidhe women could soul bond with the Draeg, and then only with male Draeg. It was a curious design choice oft debated amongst the Aos Sidhe.

Though the male Aos Sidhe had some quirks of their own. A predatory nature, an inborn need to protect, to explore, to build, to hunt. To question. Traits that now were desperately needed.

All of the Female Aos Sidhe survivors had had to be sedated and restrained. They had been driven mad with pain, grief, and fury.

Had the men understood what the Dragon flight intended, the men would have opposed the attack on Gorias. After that traumatic horror, all of the women had been sedated and restrained, before they too could destroy themselves.

Nodens led his team towards their target. A mountainous region between two fresh water seas in the midst of the primary continent.

They swept along, South to north, recording the region. To the north of the mountains lay great rolling plains of grasslands.

Enormous herds of strange beasts thrived. Bison, Aurochs, giant mono horned beasts with long shaggy fur. Herds of Mastadons.

The team landed at the mountains north western base, on a slopping plain over looking the western fresh water sea. No signs of Fomorii were registered by any of the teams.

Reports were made. Decisions were made.

Osiris himself would lead the first shuttle to land. This would be their new home. Gravity was a bit more than the Aos Sidhe were used to on Falias. However, The Aos Sidhe had initially evolved on Murias , even before the Amorphous Nephilim, had tinkered with the Aos Sidhe ancestors genetics, they had evolved on a world with nearly twice the gravity of this world. Fenias, their new home.

Fenias had just received new Apex predators. The giant cave bears and giant long toothed lions were no longer the top of the food chain.