The Paragon of Eden
Chapter 17

The Paragon quaked. The power of all eight Genesis Shards hid in the different compartments of the shifting shell of the Warback, glowing and radiating power. The white exterior was alight, and space itself seemed to be at its command.

Deelia found herself inside this vessel of power. She had seen its interior before, but it was different now. It felt like being at the center of the world. At the center of everything. All the power that was needed for anything in the galaxy, any kind of goal or ambition, was contained in a single point in space that was small enough to be compared to a building. And it hurtled forward, taking Deelia and Hau to some place now nearby.

Deelia held her blanket close to her. She was nervous and tried her best not to seem like she was hiding from Hau. She had loved him, but he was scaring her. She had never seen him so giddy before.

Hau was smiling, and his eyes were wide. He was looking into the void before them, twitching and agitated at every small sight. He was naked, having left his clothes behind at the Sanctuary. He had woken up and rushed the two of them out of there, barely giving notice to his attire. He hadn’t gone to sleep naked, though. Was this part of his plan?

Deelia wrapped herself tightly in the blanket as if she were trying to shield herself from the power of the center of a star. She felt like she should have been burned or atomized, existing near the Paragon in its current state. As far as she knew, though, she couldn’t leave it.

The space around them was silent and unmoving, but the trail of the Paragon’s invisible thrusters was waving and shivering, oscillating its repetitive destruction of nothing. They were going almost too fast to survive, even in this structure of invincibility. Did Hau know its limits? Did it have limits?

A sliver of light appeared before them, growing and growing as they neared it. Hau slowed the Paragon and adjusted into readiness. The glow before them gradually became a bubble, or rather, it was a giant series of conjoined bubbles that formed a string of air connected to a planet below, DAs, and then the real thing. It looked almost natural, like humans had finally reached their preferred state and position in the world and altered its appearance in ways they were not aware of themselves, painting pictures only higher beings could witness.

Each of the ships that emitted their atmospheres was of the biggest the UPOA had access to. Their bulbous design made them look like creatures of space, their ocher plating making them visible against the black void behind them. They were littered with laser turrets as well as projectile turrets, lined everywhere with small glass windows that showed the hallways inside, patrolled vigorously by uniformed men and women. Exposed ports housed the visible jets and Warbacks, open and ready to launch. This was quite literally their entire military might. It was a miracle that Hanin had organized all this with the time he had. Hau knew this. He had actually been waiting for it.

Even though the Paragon had slowed significantly, it ripped through the barrier of the first DA. The bubble wobbled slightly, but it held. The Paragon was a meteor, burning through its trajectory.

All the turrets aimed. DAs around them moved into place, displaying a massive array of Accelerator Cannons, mounted on boosting platforms with massive structures meant entirely to make for a modular use. Their railed rings rotated and clicked in the distance. They had been built excessively fast, but they were up to par with the structure that had almost killed Hau at the Genesis Protector Base. This time, however, there were rows upon rows, placed without concern for the thing they were priming to destroy.

The Paragon exploded towards the spaceship ahead. It turned into a giant needle, and with a thrust powered by the Crystals, it pierced the walls of the construction. Deelia saw through the exposed wall in front of her all the carnage and fire of tearing through metal sheet after metal sheet, pipes bending and generators exploding as they drilled onward. The Paragon itself was the size of the cavities it exposed, crushing them against its shell and ripping them all into new creations. Shortly after, the aftermath was left to explode as fire trailed their path.

They broke through the other side, trailing blasts in a massive cacophony of sound and flames. As they made way for the next ship, all the Accelerator Cannons began to shoot. They weren’t going all at once, though. They were rapid fire, gatling giant golden pillars of destruction. The debris of the previous ship took the brunt of the blow. They didn’t care for all the personnel that were positioned there. They were already dead.

They were already dead. Deelia realized the level of destruction she had just witnessed. That thing was bigger than the pirate base she had known and seen destroyed, and it did not house the dregs of humanity. It was the home for so many innocent men and women who had no desire in life other than to stay alive and make it to the next day. She remembered what Veena had said, that Hau was killing all of them without remorse. And she knew, now, it was true.

The Paragon dodged sideways, upwards, backward, gliding and sliding in the air along the shooting lasers. None of them hit, but the constant onslaught kept the Paragon from causing any more death. Deelia prayed they wouldn’t stop.

The pillars subsided, clearing the air of the yellow sparks that came after. The Paragon was untouched, and the UPOA had just used up a huge portion of their resources.

They still had their Warbacks. In droves of millions, every single machine the biggest faction in the galaxy of Ookon had in stock raced in spiraling trails of smoke and jet flames and laser flares and armed and loaded artillery and weapons of handheld destruction of every kind. The hands that held them, though, were those of giant robots controlled by the pilots within. The UPOA had even salvaged some of the experimental Warbacks and tools of the Empire of Dawn. There were dots of gold and white within the millions of Warbacks.

They approached like a cloud of dust. Behind them, their planet lay under their defense, backing the sight of them with its huge, diverse sphere. Even the Paragon could not avoid them. Instead, it took the form of the armored warrior, with folded arms and reaching shoulder pads, spiked helmet, and sharp legs.

The enemy Warbacks locked onto him, and they released such a flow of projectiles that the Paragon had to deploy a huge barrier of multi-colored energy before it. All the missiles and bullets exploded, but they did nothing.

The Paragon held its spiked gauntlet out before it, commanding where the energy could be placed. The needle fingers stretched outward, flinging the barrier away and sending it as a growing pearlescent mass toward its foes. They couldn’t touch him through it, so they backed off and arched around the Paragon, surrounding it on all sides. They sent out all their weapons again, but they were now only coming from one side, so the Paragon kited them.

Hau flew towards the other UPOA mothership, riding the trail of his colorful energy shield. The Warbacks pursued him, and soon, they had him cornered against the attacks from all the turrets. He couldn’t destroy the great structure so fast with his Warback in its current shape.

The barrier had dissipated, but now Hau was hiding behind the ship he was going to destroy. But how?

Warbacks flew, shooting him as the turrets activated and locked on instantly. Before he was hit, though, Hau split the Paragon into two. Another shot hit him, and he split again. Millions of bullets and lasers all descended onto him at once, but Hau was much smaller now. The cockpit of the Paragon flew, Deelia and Hau inside and watching clearly as they swam through the air untouched. What protected them was a cloud of tiny white triangles, floating and bouncing every direction.

Hau smiled, and he waved his arm in the cockpit toward his enemies. The triangles all followed, and they became a storm on their own. Each little fleck tore into the generators of Warbacks, blowing them up and killing their riders. They swam in arches and curves, catching many pilots off guard. The most skilled of them flew still, unbothered as the projectiles went for the easier pickings.

Hau looked at them and frowned, bringing the clouds back and escaping in his tiny orb. The cloud scattered, forming a blanket of white sand over the spaceship he flew against. Turrets shot him, but he dodged playfully. The triangles suddenly pushed, and then the ship began to rip apart and explode. Hau followed a specific few diving into a hole created in the metal surface. Behind him, he saw his pursuers. They were Warbacks of Empire design, the experimental few who trumped all others in their sect of technology. Who led them, however, was from neither faction. It was a chromatic frame, backed by blue holographic lights and armed in unseen armor. Its fashion was that of the Jonce Archology.

The first few layers were nothing but machinery and piping, which blew up in rapid succession. The concentration of white dust was thick enough to block out the dark metal of the ship’s interior. As the Paragon ripped through the base, entering room after room of burning and bleeding people, the Warbacks behind it chased, ripping bigger holes to get by. The Jonce craft suddenly slowed, taking a stance and aiming its projectile weapon at the Paragon. It locked on, and then it fired.

As the beam escaped the long barrel of the gun, Deelia screamed, “No!”

Hau swerved, dodging and regrouping with more of the sand the Paragon had become. They were forming a spaceship again, a speedy cruiser half the size of a Warback. “What?” Hau asked. “Know him?”

Deelia watched again, seeing how the bursting interior of the UPOA mothership exploded around them into flames. The other Warbacks still followed, but they were being consumed by the destruction. Would they make it?

It took a few more skillful turns until they crashed through the center of the ship. They still hadn’t destroyed the generator, but everything was failing and headed for an explosion. They sped forward, following a gradually straightening path as the Paragon assumed its full size again. The gaps in the steel that it created were larger, and Deelia prayed the other Warbacks could get through.

They broke out on the other end, flying for the next spaceship. The structure around them moved slowly, coming into place once more. There were no Warbacks. There was only another volley of primed Accelerator Cannons.

They fired, and so Hau transformed the Paragon into a flower. The pointed center glowed, and all of the space darkened around it. Then, it showered prismatic power on everything it faced, a beam of such intensity that the golden pillars of the UPOA were consumed and redirected at the machines that cast them. It was like an ocean of light, whiting out all other details within sight. When it grew dimmer, Deelia needed to rub her eyes of blindness. The effects of the sight were lasting even then, and the beam that remained was still too harsh to look at.

Everything was destroyed, leaving distant fireworks to show what had become of the Cannons. The Warbacks resumed their flight, coming at the paragon from all directions. Hau redirected the beam, and it vaporized all of them in its massive trail.

Hau released it. The stream of light winked out, disappearing in a warping blink much like a small star. Had it been using too much energy?

They entered the next DA just as the last one ignited, and Hau turned the Paragon back into the suit of armor. It stood in the air with its back facing the explosion.

Out from the fire of that blast flew the Warbacks of the Empire and the Jonce Archology. The Jonce craft came first, and a war cry sounded through the atmosphere. The speakers on Janue’s ride confirmed it was him, and they carried all the emotions of lost comrades and friends.

The Paragon twisted around and slammed its gauntlet into the Warback. It held on, holding the other Warback by its neck.

“You bastard!” Janue shouted, and he took his Warback’s leg and slammed it into his enemy. It did nothing.

Hau flew away, escaping the reach of the huge Empire weaponry. He carried the helpless Janue with him. As he slowed, he turned the Paragon’s other arm into a cannon, putting it against Janue’s cockpit.

“Hau!” Deelia shouted. “Stop it!”

Hau simply smiled, overcome with his intent to kill.

“Hau!”

The Paragon suddenly aimed far away and shot the laser. The smile on Hau’s face disappeared, and he turned to see Deelia in the cocoon with him. She had her eyes shut, tears seeping down her face. She had taken control of the Paragon.

Janue leaped away, and then his Warback loaded its shoulder-mounted weaponry and fired.

Hau grunted and dodged at the last second, exploding forward and crushing the Warback in one swoop. Deelia watched through a lens of slowed time as someone who could have been her lover disintegrated in his weapon, dying in vain without seeing the other side of all this terrible warfare, dead in battle against Hau.

The Empire Warbacks followed, and Hau accelerated towards them and detonated an explosion of white essence, the Paragon in the center. Hau and Deelia were unharmed, but everything near them had been destroyed.

The Paragon turned once again to the other UPOA spaceships. They were sending more and more forces his way, though they were useless. Hau had infinite energy now. He didn’t need to hold back. However, that did kill the fun. Behind them all was the home world of his enemies, the highest concentration of life in the galaxy. Its turquoise oceans drifted under the pink clouds, and the land beneath seemed speckled with yellows, greens, browns, even blues and whites. Mountains rose in an eternal escape attempt from gravity. The people down there lived and died too fast in their everchanging nature to notice. Hau was eager to show them what the power of the universe thought of that. He needed to savor what he could.

Four crafts soared toward him, carrying a malicious intent.

Hau stood and waited, and then he faced them, the Angels of Dusk. They floated in front of him, but they said nothing. They must have talked with each other beforehand, agreeing that their last words were not going to be heard by Hau.

The Dragon retreated, spurting fire in increasing bouts. The Gaurdian advanced, throwing itself and its shield toward the Paragon. Just before it made contact, it unveiled its beautiful sword and slammed down on Hau.

The Paragon caught the blade, though, and threw Hanin away, toward the Dragon.

The Shrike attacked from behind, swooping at a speed that had taken him a minute to build up. The Paragon dodged effortlessly, but it moved into the field of tangled wire the Oracle had sent out.

Energy sprang from the Paragon, and the wires were destroyed. Hau aimed a beam at the pink and grey Warback, but it was deflected by the indestructible shield of the Guardian. The Shrike launched the counterattack, followed by the Guardian.

Hau made way to dodge again, but he suddenly remembered his friends. They had been his friends, once. They knew him better than anyone. They had countermeasures when he showed signs of turning against him. They had contingency plans. Of course, the Judas was one of them, but he couldn’t have been the only one.

The Oracle strung the Paragon in place again. It broke free, but then the Guardian slammed into it, catching it with the legendary shield. The Oracle responded and tied the Paragon onto the Guardian. The Shrike flew in, impaling the white Warback with a nose dive, sending all of them into the arms of the Dragon.

The Guardian changed its position, putting the Paragon between its shield and the Dragon.

Then, the dragon exploded in fire. What heat there was, however, was not spread across the entire DA. It contained all of its power into a single area, shooting out waves and waves of unbearable heat.

Hau tried to access the Crystals, but they went dormant in the fire. What was happening? Why couldn’t he use them?

The cocoon had a red hue, casting everything else into darkness. The fire would soon reach Hau. Sen watched from his cock pit, embracing his sacrifice. His own power would kill him now, as long as Hau was succumbing to the flames, as long as the Crystals roasted in the heat.

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