Even today, dragons continue to fascinate us. Though all that remain are a small population upon Solus, their physical and magical potential is unmatched. It is no wonder so many legends of their greatness were told by our ancestors. Were the dragons not obtusely solitary hunters, they might even have joined us among the stars. Perhaps the so-called Great Dragons of myth were more impressive, but as we are now I cannot imagine they would ever become a power in space, despite their mystique.

  – Prof. Lily Woodthew, Mythozoologist

  Apex dropped out of Etherspace well away from the freighter. He’d wondered about this, after the battle with the Commonwealth corvette, but apparently it was normal to do this sort of thing. This gave time for an incoming ship to get itself up to speed and come in fast enough that by the time it was detected, the target had little time to prepare.

  He’d done it against the corvette, but it hadn’t been a good strategy there since it had been a military craft. They’d had plenty of time to hail, consider, and fire upon him. The only reason that had worked was sheer audacity and because the ship underestimated him. Naven had even admitted he’d been more cautious than he should have been.

  This time, he had more knowledge, more weapons, and more fuel. His tanks were over three-quarters full, so he didn’t need to conserve the quintessence as much… especially if they retrieved any fuel from the freighter. That was the idea, anyway. Naven was still considering the offer requesting his help, so Sallus was the one coming up with the plan. Apex remembered it well.

  “You’re going to need to come in fast, take out any escorts in the first pass, and then pursue the freighter on turnaround. You should be a little faster than it even at its full burn.”

  The advice wasn’t bad, he supposed, now that he knew more about how things worked. Apex reviewed what Sallus had said in his mind, then kicked in his thrust to a modest 2G acceleration for now. For a sustained burn, that would get him up to a high speed by the time he intercepted the target… if he left it at 2G. Sallus – and Naven, from what little the naval officer had let slip – presumed there would be no way to hide the approach.

  Apparently some high-end military vessels had devices that could mask the detection of heat or baffle MADAR – a sort of automated divination system. These obfuscation devices didn’t work very well, because of the complex layers of equipment needed to adjust to the constantly shifting heat output or other changes. Even a few moments of confusion were precious in a confrontation, but the expense and complexity was just not worth it for most ships.

  Apex was delighted to hear this, because he was a far cry from most ships.

  After a five minute burn, Apex cut the engines. At this speed, they were still nearly an hour away from the objective, and he’d naturally adjusted his heading to make the intercept happen at a different point. Angles of interception and such were second nature to him, from long experience being a dragon. In his youth he’d mastered this skill, well before he’d ascended to the lofty title of Great Dragon.

  “Apex, the engines have shut off. We won’t have enough speed to give us the edge. If one of the escorts escapes and breaks with the freighter, we’ll lose any element of surprise in the future.”

  Sallus poked her nose into this the moment she noticed, of course. Apex mentally sighed, but knew that if he didn’t justify his decision it would just cause an argument when he had to keep his focus. They were still moving incredibly fast by normal standards, but here in space moving five or six kilometers per second was a snail’s pace. The fact that it would reach the target in only about an hour was a testament to how relatively close they were.

  “You have already said my fuel efficiency is relatively poor. I do not want to spend so much chasing a freighter. You yourself explained that I am not a persistence hunter in this body.” Apex explained this calmly, fully aware that she would want to find flaws in it. So he added, “I have something I would like to test. This is the ideal place to try it, since if it does not work, we can recover from the mistake.”

  The elf was silent for a long moment before she replied. “Space combat is one of the areas I can’t say I have a lot of experience in. We’ll try it your way, but I reserve the right to tell you I told you so.”

  If he could still breathe, Apex would have snorted in amusement. Sallus was incredibly capable for an elf, even accounting for their relatively long lifespans compared to the other Lesser Folk. Perhaps that was why she had such a confidence and ego about her that rivaled a dragon. Apex was well aware that his kind were egotistical, of course. But he also knew it was a well-earned ego, because they were just better than everyone else.

  As he thought of the poor creatures who hadn’t been fortunate enough to have been born a dragon, he realized he should probably warn them of what’s about to happen. He sent his voice to every occupied room.

  “As you should be aware of, we are about to enter into combat maneuvers. Non-essential items have been powered off. I cannot guarantee that the inertial compensators will fully counter my movements. Everyone has roughly forty minutes to secure loose items and themselves.”

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  That should do it, Apex thought to himself. He did just what he said and cut power to all sorts of minor devices, reducing the fluctuations as much as possible. Dimly, he was aware of the crew scurrying about, but he only glanced through the internal cameras before getting to work.

  The problem with systems designed to hide heat and obscure physical presence was that the former changed within a ship very often, and was hard to hide. The latter, meanwhile, was much easier for a device to vary than it was for magitechnology to compensate. That was the leap that Apex had made. The mana-powered technology was incredibly powerful and gave Lesser Folk the ability to perform minor miracles even without the ability to cast their own spells… but it only did it one way. Adjusting the output was difficult to automate.

  Apex was not a simple machine, though.

  His mana circuits were better than when he’d done something like this before. They couldn’t handle his real spellcasting, but something simpler was now fully possible, and he didn’t need much. He didn’t need to cool himself with magic, he only needed to project the appearance of blending his heat signature into the background. Completely eliminating it would be impossible at this level, but masking it to the point of confusion was simple.

  Similarly, he baffled any incoming probes of divination magic. It was easier than the missiles had been, since that had been mid-combat and with strained circuits. Adding that confusion to the heat confusion was relatively simple as well.

  This was all compared to what he knew how to do. Compensating for the inferior circuitry and his strange mana network in his body took a lot more concentration than Apex was comfortable with, but that was the point of this. He needed to see if he could adapt, and this was as good a test as any he could think of.

  He couldn’t make himself fully invisible – not in his current crippled state – but the naked eye in space was apparently not what most people used. A simple color cantrip that layered his body in flat black would have to do. It should make it much more difficult to detect him.

  His target was a fat, lumpy freighter that chugged along the route Sallus had uncovered with Pan’s help. He’d have to be careful not to damage that too much, as they needed the crew alive. The way he could talk at a distance had worried him, but apparently that only worked at relatively short distances, and getting messages from planet to planet required a courier going through Etherspace. If he could prevent the escorts from escaping and bringing word of what he was doing, this would be a clean acquisition.

  Apex came in slow enough that the target – two small cutters and the heavy freighter – should have detected him thirty minutes ago. Instead, they didn’t start to react until he was less than a minute out. One of the small ships started to turn away, while the other pivoted to face the incoming dragon-ship, opening fire with several pulses of mana cannons.

  As soon as Apex saw the ships turning, he dropped his camouflage. It took far too much concentration, and he needed to think fast to deal with this situation. He was still very weak by his standards, and couldn’t afford to try simply tearing through his opponents.

  Of course, very weak was all relative.

  The shields went up as soon as Apex dropped the other spells, so by the time the cannons peppered him with blasts, he was protected. He fired jets instinctively, weaving and twisting through space like a living thing. Naven had said this was disconcerting to watch, and if that was so Apex intended to use that as another weapon. It made several of the blasts miss, while the others spattered onto the power-hungry mana shield.

  The shield was stretched thin, made for a much smaller ship, but it was a well-maintained military ship. He ‘felt’ one of the shots score a line of heat along his plating, but the rest were absorbed without effort, little more than insect stings.

  Apex didn’t bother to return fire. He’d shut down power to his own mana cannons, even though the gunners were in their seats, ready to go the moment the lights came back on. He did not think that he would need them, but his confidence was not so great that he did not have a backup plan.

  He overshot the first escort, passing just above the much smaller craft, as he’d intended. It frantically fired engines to turn around, but the crew didn’t realize they were already dead. The mass and speed of Apex’s larger hull meant that his tail, lashing downward, carried a lot of force behind it. The armored weight that most called a pointless aesthetic addition to the Draconis line crashed downward and crumpled the thin armor easily, shattering the ship’s keel.

  Apex paid it no more mind, as it began to come apart.

  A few small mana blasts pulsed over his shield as the dragon sped by the freighter, the motion of his tail having sent him into a roll. Apex didn’t bother to correct it right away, his angle already planned out. The freighter’s bolts were meant for interdiction of debris and missiles, not a massive combat craft. He could ignore them.

  “Prepare for high burn,” the dragon said, almost as an afterthought. For the time being, his passengers were helpful. He should avoid getting them turned to paste by what he did. That was the phrase Sallus had told him to use if he ever intended to use his engines at full power.

  He passed under the second escort, stabilizing his roll so his undercarriage passed just beneath it. His rear claws lifted up and caught on the light craft, targeted carefully to tear through the bridge of the cutter, explosively ending the lives of the mercenaries within.

  The impact at his rear half jarred Apex into a tumble, but that had been anticipated. He fired his thrusters just as his front was level with the freighter, still burning engines in an attempt to speed up. Red warnings flashed in his vision, telling him that the inertial compensators were stressed beyond their normal limits. He was thrusting at near full power, both boosters active, making the g-forces ripping through him strain his chassis. Several of the crew, even strapped in, dizzily blacked out in that moment.

  The high burn cancelled his momentum within half a minute, giving him plenty of time to see the now-inert escorts tumbling through space. The first was breaking apart as he watched, while the second vented atmosphere and tumbled end over end without any attempt to correct.

  Slowly, then with increasing speed, Apex reversed direction and moved toward the fleeing freighter, letting it accelerate in a panic while he caught up. It was not nearly as fast as him, the engines only capable of a few G’s of thrust. He cut his own burn to let the compensators rest, sliding in along the larger ship’s side.

  “Do your pirate thing. That was no challenge.” Apex growled that to his own bridge as he nudged himself closer.

  The dragon’s claws clamped down on the freighter’s hull, claiming his prey.

  Truth and Consequences