Mass Effect: Element of Kindness

Chapter 192

Ground Assault

Fluttershy reopened her eyes as she felt wind passing over her face, informing her she was down on the planet. Yet, Fluttershy could feel something else in the air, shuddering as she felt the same corrupting energies she'd felt on Haestrom when they'd retrieved Tali for the collector base assault. Granted, it had been way more rampant there but the background was there.

“Fidelis, where did you drop me?” Fluttershy asked as she found herself in a rather barren, mountainous area.

“Stand by, sending a map now.” the ai replied, her omnitool plunging as she received the packets. Her location updated, marking her as being in the dragon lands. A secondary marker in her more local area noting the position of a geth artillery battery. The Vindica was also marked as it briefly skimmed the atmosphere above her. Looking up, Fluttershy noticed a tiny, glowing, dot in the sky among some other trails of debris coming down from battles around the planet.

“You're coming down here?” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow as she didn't think the titan would do more good against the ground cannons rather than the incoming reaper.

“Negative, that's not us. That's our passenger.” Fidelis reported, Fluttershy's eyes widening as she recognized the growing shape. Deakur's scales were glowing from the heat of re-entry as he snapped open his wings to slow down further. Fluttershy had to steady herself when the ancient dragon slammed down onto the ground, making it tremble.

“This is where my kind lives?" Deakur asked with disgust, looking around at the barren wasteland as the air around shimmered with dissipating heat. “Where are the carved-out mountains?! The grand terraces!”

“As far as I know dragons just keep to themselves and stay around their lairs and lava pools... I have to admit I never really looked into your kind, I used to be terrified of you." Fluttershy admitted, looking at the ridge of the mountain behind which the slight glow of lava could be seen alongside small bits of motion. Deakur glanced down at Fluttershy but found no traces of fear in her eyes, the unspoken question being conveyed successfully. "I met scarier things."

The dragon nodded, moving his gaze back up to the ridge where a couple of surprised dragons could be found. A low growl emanated from his throat as he started advancing up the mountainside, Fluttershy taking flight but hanging back a little, not wanting to get between the dragon and his objective.

"Oi! Who are you!" One of the dragons on the ridge shouted down at Deakur, his scales starting to blacken slightly as they cooled down. The gigantic dragon let out an earth-shaking roar in reply, scaring each dragon off the ridgeline before he lumbered over the rock. Fluttershy shuddered as she'd felt the magic the roar had contained, it hadn't been meant for the young, brash, dragon that had called out to the elder dragon. No, it had been one of challenge to a much more worthy target. The area was a pit of rock with a central pedestal upon which a dragon that, for Equestrian standards, was gigantic. His blue-grey scales were dull and mostly covered by a crude iron chestplate, his horns curving downwards, one of which being banded with a gold ring, while on his head sat a crown of ruby. His orange wings were spread defensively in response to the challenge.

"Get off your throne of pebbles, hatchling."

Every dragon that sat between Daekur and their leader as the new dragon marched back down the slope. Even now the Equestrian dragon had sat up straighter on his pedestal Daekur still looked him right in the eyes, regardless of standing on ground dozens of meters lower than the equestrian dragon was sitting.

"And who are you to demand this of me, newcomer?" the Equestrian dragon roared back, getting another growl from Daekur. The ancient dragon raised himself up, rearing onto his hind legs which made him tower over equestrian counterpart.

"What's your name?" he hissed.

"Give me yours and I shall give you mine, stranger," the equestrian dragon challenged Daekur back. Fluttershy was moving around the spectacle when a dragon spotted her.

"Who in Tartarus are you?" Fluttershy spun around, coming face to face with a female, light blue, dragon with spikes and wings of a darker shade of blue.

"Fluttershy," she answered, not seeing a reason to keep her name to herself like the equestrian dragon Daekur was staring down.

The blue dragon looked between the pony and the ancient dragon. "You two know one another?"

"In a way," Fluttershy admitted, tilting her head as this dragon felt a tad less aggressive than what she could detect of the others. "What's your name."

"Ember. I'm-"

The two of them were interrupted as Daekur made a move that almost looked impossible for a dragon his size, spinning around within the blink of an eye and smashing his tail against the equestrian dragon. Every dragon that had still been grounded was toppled over as their dragonlord smashed into the rockface, the horn which held the gold ring snapping clean off.

"DAD" Ember shouted, flying past Fluttershy and interposing herself between Daekur and her father. Fluttershy cursed and flew after her as Deakur briefly halted his advance on the fallen dragon.

"Stay out of this, small ones," Daekur hissed at Ember as Fluttershy joined her.

"I've lived under the dragon king, outsider, I won't live under another tyrant." the dragon lord hissed, struggling to get up.

Daekur halted. "I'm not here for some petty power squabbles. Have you not looked up?"

"The ponies will deal with it. They always do." he hissed back, coming to his feet shakily and was clearly not putting too much pressure on his left hind leg.

"Not this time!" Fluttershy spoke up, forcing her voice to be louder than ever, the attention of both enormous dragons squarely on the pegasus. Once that would have petrified her on the spot but that wasn't an option now. "What's out there now will kill us all! And not just us! Ponies, griffons, buffalo, zebras... you!!"

The words were mainly focused on the dragon lord, as Daekur did not need to be reminded of the stakes. Every bit of emotion related to the reapers seeped into her words.

"The pony speaks the truth. They wiped us out at our strongest." Daekur looked at Ember who swallowed under the attention she was receiving. "I was no larger than this youngling at the time. Too small to make a difference."

"Then what would you do to change things this time around." the dragon lord asked, rising to his full height again.

Deakur looked at the horizon where a plasma shot from one of the geth's batteries flew into space. "By starting with them."

The dragon lord followed his gaze, frowned, and nodded. "We shall fly together and I shall see you for who you are when we meet the creatures of metal."

Fluttershy flew among the flight of dragons that had been assembled by dragonlord Torch, the force of well over fifty adult dragons that had been in the immediate area following their dragonlord who was flying besides Deakur. The roar of the orbital artillery had become louder as the distance rapidly closed and the flight had lowered themselves, using the gorges and valleys to disguise their approach for as long as possible. Torch had already cleared a few of the geth when they'd tried setting up a position inside the borders of the dragonlands but had not felt any pressure to attack any of their positions outside of his borders.

"The ones we took out before weren't so tough."

Fluttershy looked over to see Ember flying alongside her, confident of her abilities to face whatever they were flying towards.

"You only faced geth. You haven't even seen a reaper yet," Fluttershy frowned as she looked at the position of the plasma batteries, steeling herself for the fight ahead.

"Reapers huh?" Ember laughed contemptuously. "Seriously, it's going to take more than just a 'scary' name to move my dad."

Fluttershy's frown deepened. "Ember, have you looked up at our new night sky?"

The dragon cocked an eyebrow. "Duh, of course."

"Now imagine those stars having worlds like ours. Thousands of them. And all of them with creatures living on them," Fluttershy explained, Ember's confident smirk faltering as she felt the direction where this was going. "This is merely an advanced post by a race enthralled by the reapers, Ember. I've seen entire planets burning. Palaven is losing millions. Earth is losing millions... does Equis even have millions to lose?"

Fluttershy had taken the wind out of Ember's sails completely, the dragon looking for dishonesty but finding none.

The flight suddenly flew up, into full view of the canning and hit the installations like an avalanche. Fire flew up from small calibre guns as the geth desperately tried defending against the new threat but the shots only leaving minor wounds against aged dragonscale. The first battery was torn apart by Daekur as he sheered metal apart with claws, wading through venting plasma as the structure buckled. Torch took his lead as he fell on the second battery and tore into it. the other dragons divided themselves up, some smashing the geth frames while others went after further batteries. Ember landed beside Fluttershy as she landed some distance away, rockets starting to impact against the dragon assault and actually starting to do more damage against the biological flamethrowers.

"This is only an advanced post?!" she asked as she saw one of the dragons get an unlucky hit against the head and crumple onto the ground. Fluttershy fired her rifle, killing the geth wielding the rocket launcher that had hit the dragon.

"Yes!" Shy simply answered as she picked her next target. Ember, though, found some courage, letting out a battle cry and charged forward. Fluttershy let out another curse at the dragon's charge. She'd figured out the fondness the dragonlord had for his daughter and if a geth killed her while she was nearby then he likely wouldn't take too kindly to her. Fluttershy charged after her self-imposed charge, catching up with the dragon as she found her first geth and tore it apart while it was still focused on the larger dragons above.

"Alone they're not so tough!" Ember called out as she started her charge to the next geth only to get tackled behind a rock as Fluttershy ploughed into her.

"Stick to cover!" she roared as the rock was pelted with fire from another squad of geth. Fluttershy lit her wings with biotic power and flung her power at the machines in question, crumpling them before turning back to Ember. "They kill at range and are never alone!"

Shy crossed the distance towards where the geth had fallen and picked out a rifle, throwing it at the dragon. "Use that! Think of it as a rapid-fire crossbow."

"Dragons don't fight like that!" Ember protested, only to get a face full of Fluttershy. "Are you the size of a house?"

"N-No?" Ember stumbled back as Fluttershy's gaze was almost paralyzing, feeling like a ton of bricks on her shoulders.

"Then you use it!" Shy broke off her gaze and focussed on another group of geth, decapitating them with shots from her rifle. Ember took position beside her, propping the rifle against the rock and firing. Her first few bursts weren't great, but she got closer very rapidly.

"Fluttershy! It stopped working!" Ember called out, Fluttershy pulling her back behind their cover and taking the rifle, pushing it back with a fresh thermal clip. Meanwhile, the larger dragons were advancing on the final two batteries, both of them having shifted from aiming at targets in orbit to the ones assaulting their position. The first was destroyed in the middle of a charging sequence, plasma engulfing it and the two dragons that had taken it out while the last managed to finish charging up.

Torch's eyes widened as he saw the plasma coming straight for him.

"NO."

Daekur pushed the dragonlord out of the way, magic flaring around his two horns as the plasma blast engulfed him. The battlefield fell mostly silent as the massive dragon was engulfed in smoke.

Ember's eyes were wide. "Did he-"

Another thunderous roar came from the smoke, Daekurs gigantic wings dissipating the cloud and revealing his bloodied and, once again, glowing form. The last cannon stood no chance.

"He saved him," Ember breathed. "He saved dad."

"We really don't want to fight you, Ember. We need all of you," Fluttershy assured her as the other dragons were doing their damnest to clear the remaining geth armatures. Torch and Daekur faced one another before the dragonlord lowered himself.

"We stand at your command, dragonlord."

All the other dragons bowed too at seeing this, even Ember stepped out from her cover and took a knee. Daekur looked around until he found Fluttershy. "Pegasus, I was told the planet possessed a shield." he looked up briefly. "It is clearly no longer there. If you know where its machinery is located you need to reactivate it, this planet will not last without it if more reapers arrive here."

"Join her, Ember," Torch commanded, eyeing Daekur. "She can treat with Celestia for us."

Daekur nodded in agreement. "Go. Luna showed me where all the cannons are, they will not last long."