"Fire!"

The Basilisk reverberated from a low hum which gradually increased in strength. The humming increased until it reached a climax, and abruptly stopped.

"Did it mal-"

The superstructure of the ship was then awash in a blinding white light. A tremor ran through the deck, accompanied by groans of flexing steel. The cackle of half a million volts was deafening; its noise tenfold greater than the firing of the largest of of the guns.

A bolt of crackling plasma surrounded by flailing arcs of electricity extended from the bow. The bolt passed under its wing and just above the leg, searing both in the process. The dragon let out a roar, and blew flames onto the beam, unsure of its new opponent. Unaware of its narrow escape from death, the dragon adopted an evasive pattern, and continued further into the skylands.


"Captain! Shot missed!"

"Orders captain"

The captain remained unmoving, his eyes fixed to the horizon.

"Captain?"

"So that is the power of the Valkyrie Laser", he muttered with eyes still looking beyond.

Though it had missed the dragon, the beam had hit a skyland behind it, reducing it to molten debris. The pieces of shattered land then fell to the hellish landscape below.

 Only the most terrible of weapons, which have been so grimly described surviving volumes of literature matched the ferocity of the Valkyrie. The very same weapons which have led to man's strained existence in the sky, which humanity vowed to never reproduce at the cusp of extinction.

And yet, here Captain Wellis stood, upon the bridge of the Basilisk. It was an airship that was impressive as it was terrible. Its sleek beauty was only matched for its capacity for destruction. For once, the dragons seemed afraid of man's creations; maybe it was the size, or maybe they remembered the the terribly efficiency which we used with on ourselves.

The Basilisk, which once led to our near-demise , will now be humanity's salvation.

"Captain?!"

"Ramming Speed!"