Power Rankings
By: K. A. Maxwell
In space, Priestess Sera Orphne rode on her WarpCycle bike. She wore its matching atmos-helmet and form-fitting bodysuit. She only wore her priestess garb on official council business or to keep up appearances. Other than that, she preferred to wear rebellious outfits in spite of her age.
It was great timing to see Bridget while following up on Rose’s whereabouts.
Hearing someone outsmarted a Nyxazon so badly, amused Sera. Luckily for everyone, they didn’t kill her. Sera couldn’t recall if there were ever any Nyxazon deaths. Having a mere Botanese trick and trap one of her own sisteren was intolerable. It completely flew in the face of their reputation as powerful warriors. She respected tactical skill; no one was above losing to superior strategy. But to womanize and humiliate a Nyxazon the way Rose did: unforgivable.
A volley of energy blasts slammed in the back of her WarpCycle. She looked behind and spotted three ships, each the size of a large building complex in pursuit. Sera gritted her teeth as plasma leaked from the engines. Those bastards were lucky they couldn’t be heard. She tried to move side to side dodging other blasts while trying to get her shields up, but her bike was losing power.
“Computer, transfer all shield power to the engines,” said Sera.
The engines flared up and gave Sera a boost. But the three ships continued their assault. Sera pushed the throttle up and dodged more blasts.
“Warning: Power loss: Engines 1 and 2. FTL drive: unstable,” warned the computer.
“Computer, open distress signal. Mayday, mayday, mayday, JH201 under attack from three hostile heavy cruisers. Engines failing. Requesting immediate help.”
No response.
The WarpCycle bike’s movement jerked and bucked as if it rode over a rocky road. The third ship fired a blast. Sera saw this and moved her steering handle hard to the left and pulled up. Sera aimed to go over them in the opposite way and make a run for the nearest planet. She could out maneuver those big ships without any trouble, a winning strategy.
“Computer, arm sensor flares,” said Sera.
“Armed,” said the computer.
A tractor beam fired from the lead ship. Sera moved further to the left to avoid it, but the ship on the right coordinated with the attack and fired. The blast hit the engines again and they flamed out.
Within seconds, she lost FTL.
“Goddess damn it!” she barked.
Her bike turned around and stopped as the trio of behemoths arrived in front of her, looming.
“Lead ship hailing,” spoke the WarpCycle’s computer.
“Open channel,” said Sera.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? A babe on a bike?” spoke a voice that held an arrogant tone. He was likely the lead ship’s captain.
“Yes, I am one of those,” replied Sera. “But why would three big ships come after a little space girl like me?”
“That’s because we heard off the vine that a female on a WarpCycle was looking for someone named Rose. She paid people large sums of money for information leading to his whereabouts. One of your informants was also in our line of business, a partner, in fact. She provided a lot of value to us.”
Sera snorted. That was the problem with private business networks. One never knew which side they played at any given moment. She hoped paying good money would have brought trustworthy people. She’ll find the traitor who proved her wrong soon enough.
“I can provide greater value to you. How about we make a deal that benefits the both of us?” said Sera in a sultry tone.
“A ha ha, no thanks lady. For you see, Rose is one of our best clients and he pays a lot for our protection. That includes making sure that people like you don’t find him.”
Sera’s tone soured. “And?”
“And, to make sure you will never find him, ever. Fire at will!”
The three space hulks fired a barrage of energy blasts and torpedoes at Sera. They connected and a massive explosion swallowed and engulfed the priestess.
“Target destroyed, Captain,” said another person on the comm.
“Good work, the guild will definitely be happy to hear that their money was well spent. Let’s get out of--”
“Captain, I am picking up turbulence from the explosion. Its energy output is rising fast.”
“Turbulence? That’s ridiculous, you only get that in an atmosphere-- whoa!”
From the plume of smoke, shockwaves shook the ships.
“What the hell?” asked the Captain.
“Captain, we’ve lost shields!”
“What?”
“The turbulence is coming from EMPs! Each one is stronger than the next. They’re taking out our systems! Long range comms are down.”
“Get us out of here, Tube Speed, now!”
“We’ve lost engines, helm control not responding.”
“Auxiliary power to inertia dampeners, activate ion thrusters!”
“No effect!”
“Captain, the debris from that explosion is clearing. I have visual contact with something.”
“Visual contact? With what?”
“On screen... magnifying... oh no.”
Gasps and whimpers filled the comms as they now realized who they were looking at.
Sera was fine along with the comm earbud within her right ear. But her clothes had burned off, leaving her completely nude. Despite her old age, Sera’s small form still looked middle-aged, and very athletic.
But that was only the beginning of their troubles.
It took far too long for Sera to find the right person to custom design and build her bike that could carry her weight. It also had to look good and badass, worthy of praise from the Goddess herself.
That bike cost her a year’s worth of her Priestess’s salary.
And these fucking bastards destroyed it.
Sera’s eyes glowed an scorned crimson color that was hotter than the Goddess herself.
“She’s a Nyxazon!” shouted a crewsman.
“Battle stations!” shouted the captain.
Sera roared, flexed her body and more powerful EMP shockwaves blasted out one-by-one. They all slammed into the three ships rattling them like dice inside a cup. She began to change. Her skin shifted from its fair color to a dark gold tan. Her height rose taller and her muscles grew thicker. Calves and legs throbbed and expanded while quadriceps bloomed within. Pecs and abs became visible on her torso which swelled up thicker than their ships’ hull plating. Her biceps and triceps inflated to incredible sizes. Her torso and back grew wide as her muscles popped out and flexed like steel ropes. Her breasts ballooned over her swelling pecs as hips spread out wide. Finally with one last flex, Priestess Sera was now in her normal form.
Standing at a height of seven feet, four inches tall, Sera was like a massively muscled Nyxazon. She glanced at her normal body, now several orders of magnitude more powerful than before.
Sera’s glowing crimson eyes gazed at the ship on her right. In a blink of an eye, she zipped and hovered in front of its pipe-sized bow. Her hand reached out and grabbed it. The structure groaned and crunched under her powerful grip.
The entire ship’s hull polarized and linked up with the Nyxazon Priestess. She pulled it up and held it over her head with one arm like a makeshift giant RPG-style sword. A feat like this wouldn’t be possible, since the bow would have snapped off from the ship’s mass. This unique ability made the Nyxazons revered in construction and demolition.
Screams of horror and despair from that ship filled her communication channel. She shook the ship a few times just to hear the rattling voices. Sera then flew over the lead ship and set her sights on the first ship. Using her arm, she slammed the ship into it. Millions of tons of hull cracked and folded on impact. Alarms blared throughout both vessels as crew members scrambled.
Within moments of cutting into each other, a couple of bright flashes came from their reactor cores. Then, the ships exploded into massive balls of fire. The debris bounced off Sera’s body as she watched the pair of starships disintegrate.
Sera’s attention then turned to the lead ship and floated up. Using her enhanced sight, she spotted the captain at a bridge window and stared at him. The captain spotted this and scampered back in his chair.
Sera rolled her eyes. As if the captain’s chair can protect him like a King.
She flew towards the ship’s bridge pod. Looking in, the people on the bridge were mostly Draekar. They were bipedal creatures with green scaly skin with large jewel-like eyes that change color based on emotions. Their eyes were a bright yellow after witnessing the destruction of two powerful ships and scores of lives lost.
Sera didn’t care. The fact that there were no women on the bridge intensified her scorn. When she got to the bridge’s outer wall, her bare body pressed against the wall and pushed in.
Inside the bridge, an indentation of Sera’s body swelled within the inner wall. It creaked, groaned and popped when she broke through. The explosive depressurization on the bridge sucked out crewmen to their deaths. Seconds later, an emergency force field activated restoring the environment. But not before at least ten people got sucked out.
Sera hovered over the bridge crew like how the Goddess would have. Her hands were on her powerful hips. She looked around at the terrified bridge crew and landed on the floor with a loud thump in front of the Captain. Step by step, she shook the vessel with her power.
“Please, please” begged the Captain, his tail thrashing around. “Don’t hurt us! Have mercy! We surrender!”
Sera’s eyes flashed brighter. Her lips parted and she roared, “After what you’ve done?” her voice was deeper and booming. “You and your kind enabled the sickening behaviors of your clients! Why should I spare you?”
“Because I know where Rose is,” cried the Captain. “I am willing to betray my client for the safety of my crew.”
“Do you? Is this an attempt at redemption because it’s only now you realized whom you were up against?” Sera walked closer, and leaned forward. “Or is this another one of your tricks to earn my trust?” Her chest pushed the captain back into his chair and began to crush him. The sound of crushing bones and the rapid beating of his heart, Goddess, how she loved her blessed power.
“I know where Rose is, I swear!” the Captain wheezed from the crushing pressure. “I know his entire network.”
He glanced at one of his crewmen and nodded. The crewman placed a tablet on one of the consoles and after a few beeps, the computer announced. “Download complete.” Then, he ran and offered it to Sera who carefully held it in her hand and glanced at it.
She stood back and gave the captain back his breathing space. “These are the coordinates to all his hideouts?”
The Captain nodded while coughing up blood and catching his breath.
“Your offering is acceptable. I will spare your lives.”
The commander and many of the crew breathed a sigh of relief.
“But one more thing. You destroyed my vehicle. For that, I’ll destroy yours. It’s an eye for an eye, which is only fair, “ said Sera.
“What? Wait--.”
Not nearly fast enough.
Sera flew at super-speed through the floor of the bridge. She tore through deck after desk in the ship until she was in engineering and hovered in front of the ship’s reactor. It was a massive sphere in the center of the chamber which pulsed a light blue color. Sera’s hand gripped the reactor and pulled. With no effort, she ripped it away from its containment. The energy core began to destabilize.
Alarms blared all over the ship.
“Danger! Core breach! Danger! Core breach,” said the ship’s computer.
“Abandon ship! Abandon ship!” shouted the Captain.
Sera turned towards the engineering crew with a sadistic grin, “I hope you boys enjoy space walks as much as I do.”
The sound of her laughter reverberated in the room.
Within seconds, the reactor exploded around the Priestess. Sera watched as the destruction and devastation careened harmlessly around her body. When the explosion died down, there was only scrap, charred flesh and the captain’s chair.
With her scorn pacified, Sera returned to serene peacefulness. She floated up and sat on the captain’s chair albeit a very tight fit. She managed to bend and stretch it out a more using her hands. After getting comfortable, she bowed her head and prayed.
“Dear Goddess, I offer these souls as tribute in your name. I pray that you keep guiding us to more battles so that we may fight in your name. Please keep giving us your blessed strength and power so that we may continue to be heralds of your justice. May my actions this day serve to honor your liberation. In the name of my Goddess, my beautiful Goddess.”
Sera opened her eyes and examined the tablet that she protected. There was no certainty that Rose would be at any of the places it had.
It was a mistake to trust every informant. Attacks like this will attract unwanted attention. But she had no choice. She searched the remains of the ships and didn’t find any transponders. Good, it will make it harder to trace it back to her. Besides, accusing a Nyxazon without hard evidence would be foolish, even if it were true.
After all, she was defending herself against an aggressor.
She tucked the tablet between her breasts and flew at her fastest speed which was close to FTL. She didn’t mind traveling like this; it would be like training. But it will test her patience. Without any FTL drives, it was going to take a long time to find a planet where she could call for an FTL taxi.
