Starbreaker: Volume 4, page 37
We need to find out what is happening, Mira whispered to him.
I know, he replied, closing his eyes as he did so.
There have been multiple eidolon incursions out of nowhere. That doesn’t just happen on its own. This is a coordinated attack, darling. The Empyrean is being attacked.
He took another calming breath and wished that the air didn’t taste so strongly of blood. For some reason, Strife did not find the scent calming this time, and it unnerved him. That’s what it looks like, doesn’t it?
All of the consoles around the hospital were occupied by people desperately trying to call friends and family all across the galaxy, most of them cutting off every few seconds as one relay or another went down or switched to emergency broadcasting only. If there was some secret code that intelligence operatives had available to them to hijack the emergency channels, Hector had never mentioned it to them. Still, as one console was abandoned by a sobbing family missing their mother, Sylvas had no better idea of how to try to seek information.
With a swipe of his hand, he tried to bring up a newsfeed, but it was all suspended, probably to stop the spread of panic across the whole Empyrean until some sort of order could be re-established. He flicked to local information instead, hoping that something might prove useful, but all that he could get to without breaking encryption was a guide to Hospital World Gallius, with instructions for which departments could be found on which continents, and docking manifests that were updating in a blur as more and more refugees and injured arrived. This whole world was set up to deal with medical crises, and even it was overflowing and overwhelmed. If he wanted to find out more, he was going to have to leave.
He felt uncomfortable with the idea. They had fought so hard to get Hector off the last world and haul him back here in one piece. The idea of just abandoning him here was less than palatable.
You don’t get to sit around doing nothing while the universe ends, darling. That’s the price you have to pay for all the power you’ve fought so hard for. Now that there is a need, you have got to use it.
Sylvas grunted in acknowledgment and annoyance, so as not to upset the people crammed in against the consoles around him by talking to himself.
All the information on the docked ships scrolled by with Sylvas oblivious to it but Mira recording and filtering every word. There wasn’t enough on the surface level of information to be useful, but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be able to discern some pattern hidden under the surface, given time and comparisons to star maps. A suggestion of where the Empyrean had been hit hardest.
The docking manifests revealed a laundry list of planets of origin. People all across the Empyrean had flooded to this world, renowned for its healing, when their friends and family had been injured. Everyone with the means to get off a world being hit by an incursion had gotten off that world. It gave Sylvas a list of systems that he could cross-reference with the star maps in his head to try and discern a pattern.
But there didn’t seem to be one.
Most of their origin worlds were nearby to this system, but that didn’t mean that the eidolon incursion was occurring only here, just that ships from farther out hadn’t arrived yet. He set aside the planet of origin in the manifests and looked for owners instead. It took him only a moment to find what he was looking for, and then he finally had a reason to move.
The first stop was back at Hector’s surgery bay. There was frantic work still being done there, and while he could take in all of the information on all of the consoles around the room, he wasn’t enough of a medical expert to understand their significance. He didn’t know if they were going to be able to save him or not, and he could not afford to wait and find out. So he went to his next stop and found the others.
Kaya yelped as he pulled the needle out of her arm. “Stanzbuhr?”
“We’re leaving,” he said, his voice as flat and hollow as it had ever been.
Malachai was a little more aware of what was going on around him. He plucked the blood drain out of the crook of his elbow himself. “Where are we going?”
“We need to reestablish contact with the Empyrean. Find out what is happening and where we’re needed.”
The equipment that had been attached to his friends began making distressed noises, and one of the medical staff, already harried beyond belief, began jogging in their direction.
“We’re just leaving Hector?” Kaya was on her feet and falling into step with Sylvas long before the medic could get there.
“He isn’t going to be ready to fight, and waiting for him is costing other people their lives.”
“Cold-blooded.” Sylvas was startled by Rania’s voice. She’d extricated herself from the blood donation apparatus and come over to join them without being asked. Sylvas hadn’t been sure that he wanted to ask. Their mission now was not going to be a pleasant sightseeing tour of old archaeological sites; it was going to get brutal.
Some unexpected support came from Malachai. “That is the price of power, making decisions for the greater good, even if they aren’t what you want.”
“I’m not saying it’s the wrong call.” Rania shrugged. “I just didn’t know you had it in you.”
“So, uh, how are you planning on getting off-world? Because the Folly was falling to bits.”
“I’m going to take someone else’s ship.”
Malachai’s pace slowed a little. “So quickly we fall to banditry.”
Sylvas smiled. “I’m going to ask permission first.”
“And what happens if they say no?” Rania seemed a lot less concerned about stealing, which made sense, given her professional history.
“They won’t.”
The distance from the surgical department back to the spaceport was substantial, but while there was a great deal of foot traffic surging in both directions, blocking the way, there was no air traffic to speak of. A simple spell had the four of them in flight, clearing the tops of everyone else’s heads while also brushing along the roof of the pristine white hallways. There were a great many cries of annoyance, and some hurled insults at them for skipping the queue, but for the most part, everyone was too focused on their own trials to worry about what a few flying mages were up to. The corridors opened out from ivory passageways into big transparent piping before long, letting the full size of the docking array on the planet become visible even from inside.
On the lowest levels were the massive ships that really should have stayed in orbit but couldn’t for whatever reason, then gradually smaller ships were attached to the scaffolding extending out from the side of the hospital heading up, suspended with anti-gravity charms to keep them in place. There was still a catastrophic amount of traffic coming in, but none of the docked ships were moving out, and it was easy to see that the planet was already well over its expected capacity.
Level 87, pylon 41.
There were elevators and stairs leading down from the docking ports above, but given that the docking ports stretched all the way up to brush the lower side of the planetary atmosphere, there weren’t many people hiking down the stairs. The flight spell eliminated the need for walking or for waiting on one of the massive, cramped elevators to arrive, though how much time it really saved when heading up about 80 floors was questionable.
They landed once they were up there. It was not that the spell was a drain on Sylvas’ boundless mana supplies, but rather, the whole place had not been built to be navigated that way, and everyone had brushed against the ceiling enough times to be fed up with it. Their own ship had been abandoned somewhere on the upper floors—somewhere about level two hundred. Sylvas already missed it.
“You sure about this?” Rania managed to ask one last time as Sylvas approached the 41st pylon and the ship attached.
He didn’t bother to answer, instead hitting the switch by the airlock and waiting for a response.
There was a surprisingly long delay before there was a chirping reply from the device, and then an illusion of a scowling dwarf sprang into being between him and the door. “What?”
“My name is Sylvas Vail. I need your ship.”
You can read Starbreaker: Volume 5 in serial form now!
About the Author
Writing far faster than his hands can withstand, Luke Chmilenko hails from the Great White North where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
Toiling endlessly Luke juggles his time between a rapidly growing catalogue of series while playing far more video games than he would ever openly admit.
Visit lukechmilenko.com for news and updates.
Also by Luke Chmilenko
STARBREAKER
Starbreaker: Volume 1
Starbreaker: Volume 2
Starbreaker: Volume 3
Starbreaker: Volume 4
Starbreaker: Volume 5 - Coming Soon
ASCEND ONLINE
Ascend Online
Legacy of the Fallen
Hell to Pay
Glory to the Brave
Threads of Fate
Ascend Online The Comic: Chapter One
AETHERFORGED
with Harmon Cooper
Rebirth
Demonstorm (Coming 2026)
IMMORTAL’S ASCENT
with Chris Harris
Death and Glory
Sand and Steel
Blade and Banner
Blood and Gold
War and Wrath
THE DROP OF A HAT
The Drop of a Hat
Hat's Entertainment!
Top Hat
PARAGON
with Alex Knight
Paragon of Blood
Paragon of Shadow
Paragon of Unity
SAVAGE DOMINION
with GD Penman
Savage Dominion
Wyrmshard
Voidgod
THE SHATTERED REIGNS
with Bryce O’Connor
A Mark of Kings
A Blood of Kings
WARFORMED: STORMWEAVER
with Bryce O’Connor
Iron Prince
Fire and Song
Luke Chmilenko, Starbreaker: Volume 4
