Waaahhhhh! Kaazzz! I didn't even realize I had six pages! *sobs hysterically*



Anyway. The Conquerer's shields have to be down for the Hypernaught to leave. Otherwise the Hypernaught will be fried. And just you wait for the NEXT part! Ahh, here it is. I really shouldn't give this to you, but I can't RESIST. . .



"Lessaria 309 to Assassin 216, do you read. Over."

"Roger, Lessaria 309 Over."

"Jendara 245 to Assassin 216 and Lessaria 309. Do you read. Over."

"Roger, Jendara 245. Hey, Omega, where ya been?"

"Everywhere. Looks like this is our final strike, eh?"

"Roger that. Shonar, y'think you can get both of us in? Uh. . . over."

"Affirmative. Bit more difficult, but definitely possible. Over."

"Now we're getting somewhere. Shonar, once you're inside, try for the command room. Hit that self-destruct thing. I'll send Grath. Over."

"Roger that. I know the Conquerer inside and out. Over."

"Great. Let's go for it."



Three ships, one chestnut, one black, and one stormy grey, held formation as orders were given. It was a strange group, two Darksprays, one modified, and an "Empirial" Protector converging on one lone Star Destroyer. And a very unthreatening one.

"Right. So that's the Hypernaught?"

"Yep. Looks pretty small, eh? I'm sure you can get in there with no problem."

"True. Grath, y'ready?"

"Uh-huh."

"Go for it, then." Grath gripped his staff and shimmered slightly. Then he vanished. Taking that for a green light, Copper throttled up and headed for the Hypernaught.



Once on board, it was a simple matter to find Kroys, although the Hypernaught was a large ship. With a lurch, the journey to Firen started.

They took him by surprise. The instant Alpha saw him, she lunged, forcing him to backpedal, cursing with shock. Before Wild Angel could stop him, he vanished.

"Blast! He can't have gone far. . ."



Hissing with fury and shock, Kroys paced the control room. How had they gotten on the Hypernaught? SOMEONE would have to answer for this.

A soft click alerted him, and he turned swiftly to face the door. His shields were up. . .

An impressive explosion filled the room with smoke, and he stepped back slowly, keeping his eyes on the door, or where it would be.

The smoke swirled as a tall black rabbit stepped in, followed closely by another. The first was one he'd seen before, oh yes, he knew him. It was Shinyso. The second had a sword on his back and a uzi in his hands. Kroys had never seen him before.

More figures materialized from the smoke. Several he knew, but others he had never seen before. A delicate female squirrel, a tall powerful black cat, a red rabbit, and a black one who was festooned with throwing knives. A brown rabbit, the one he'd seen on Lohar. KRSplat, the bird Kaz, Wild Angel, Emerald Dragon, Ducky and Blacksheep. And behind the group of warriors, two figures he knew very well.

"It was a simple matter to find you, you know," Copper said with -amusement?- in her voice. "You really must stop taking refuge in your command rooms."

"I have been waiting for you."

"Oh?"

"Why this army? You don't need reinforcements."

"They have all earned their place here today, evil one." Kroys' eyes blazed at the insulting title.

"You would do well to watch your tongue, fool."

"Oh?" Kroys hissed with fury.

"Yes. But today you die." He made a sign with one hand, and a staff with a razor-sharp crescent tipping it appeared. Copper moved delicately through the swirling, obscuring smoke, sword in hand.

And like a blaze of silver flame, she attacked him.

What can I say?

Most absolutley spiffy, Copper.

ALMOST OVER? Nooo....*gurgles and dies*

Okay! Now I know a better (is that possible) part is coming up!



(hint: that was made for a compliment!)



Mwahaha! I own 33% of the pages to Copper's STory!

Hah! I own 67%, so nyah.



Ahem. Kovu, get off the ground, you guys are my main inspiration, and if you die I won't FINISH the story!



Umm. . . yeah. Right. I. . . have more. . .



Time stopped for Copper. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. She dodged a slash and came up, parrying Kroys' next blow. He swung at her feet; she danced back lightly and then stepped in with a quick thrust. He backpedalled and she pressed her attack, hammering him with hard blows that he was hard put to block. His back to the wall, he fought ferociously.

Suddenly she stepped away, warily circling him.

He moved away from the wall, towards her, and a flicker of motion caught his eye. He turned and blocked Claw, who had been trying for his back.

A pressure at his magical senses made him turn. There was nothing. Copper was gone.

He turned back to Claw and flung a sizzling violet levin-bolt at him. He ducked and rolled nimbly to his feet again, and Kroys was waiting for him. With a quick downthrust that Claw barely blocked, he suddenly backed off and turned to face the wall.

Copper was there. He advanced on her, and she brought her smoking sword up defensively. Abruptly he turned and fired another levin-bolt at the stalking Claw. It took him through the chest and flung him against the wall in a boneless heap, limp, fur smoking and singed.

With a cry of "Claw!" Copper flung herself upon him. Startled, he brought his staff up to bear, and then shoved her away. She growled something low in her throat, and promptly had to dodge yet another levin bolt. She came to her feet with her sword ready, and, touching the jewel and breathing something that Kroys didn't quite catch, shimmered out of existance. He cursed as she materialized behind him, and caught him in the ribs with the flat of her blade. He cast a crackling shred of fox-fire at her; she twisted away as it lanced by.

"It's a lot easier murdering innocent, unarmed creatures, isn't it," she mocked him, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

"Murdering? I do not murder, rabbit. I exact vengeance," Kroys rasped. He, too, was panting from his exertions. She snorted contemtuously.

Suddenly he pounced, driving an unexpecting Coppertop back until she was against the wall. He hooked the crosshilt; Shale went spinning across the floor. He brought the staff up in a blurring arc, resting the razor curve against her throat. . .

What?! Nobunny (AND nobirdy) replied?! Noooo. . . So, I guess I have to post more. *grouches*



As Kroys gazed furiously into Copper's deep green eyes, he saw no surrender there. Only defiance, determination and cold, calculating fury. Startled by the depth of her anger and insulted nature, he let his guard down for the slightest second.

It was enough. Copper ducked under the staff, and dove for Shale. As she tripped again, he yanked her feet from out beneath her, and she collapsed on the floor. He bent slightly, intending to finish his adversary off once and for all, and was drawing all the power from the innocent slaves on the planet below, rendering them unconscious, when a numbing pain seared through him.

Kroys gasped in shock as he stared down at the sword embedded in his chest. He made a move to pull it out, intending to heal the wound; the hiss of cold steel being drawn froze him. Then a curved dagger appeared in his throat, the poisonus nightshade on it blocking his magic.

A look of astonishment crossed his face, and with an inarticulate cry he fell to his knees. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed forever was Kovu, bending over him to retrieve his sword.

"That's for Claw," he told him.



The endless storehouse of blood-magic locked in the dark one's powerful mind broke free as the keeper was destroyed. The flood of bruised, tainted power flowed out, through the largest outlet it could find. The black rabbit's diamond glowed and heated. . .



Copper took an uncertain step backwards or two as the black cloak fluttered slightly. A sort of glow was enveloping Kroys, but it was sickly looking. The tainted light formed a channel, heading directly for-

"Angel!"

-Wild Angel's diamond. As the first beam penetrated, she swayed, and Shinyso and Grath -And what was HE doing here, anyway?- barely caught her in time. She cried out as the entire gold headdress was enveloped and then-

A beam of brilliant, diamond white light lanced out, striking the shard of Sparif in Ducky's staff. It seemed to make the whole staff vibrate and glow, and then the light leapt to Kovu's shard, and then to Alpha's ruby on her knife, and to Omega's opal, and to Nightshade's redstone sword pommel, and then to Copper's key, and down to her sword, which she still held. Light shot through the green jewel, making it translucent, and then spread along the blade -and the light was still coming from Kroys! Anything with jewels or magic was touched, and the light on Shale dissolved as more kept pouring in-



Invisible rays of power slid through the air, headed for the unconscious slaves. It delicately entered one, filled the space that Kroys had emptied, and went on, touching each one in turn and awakening the slaves as it went. . .



Abruptly the flow stopped. Wild Angel swayed once more and then dramatically collapsed, and once more Shinyso barely caught her. Then they all turned their eyes to Kroys.

He was gone. All there was was a pile of ashes, that stirred in an unseen wind.

Ducky prodded the ashes with her staff. A small, fire-blackened object fell to the floor next to the pile. It was a jewel, that had once adorned a ring on Kroys' hand. And etched on it in letters barely readable with age- Belaine.

Copper turned her shadowed eyes to Shinyso.

"So that's how you knew," she breathed. "Claw told me-" she choked up slightly. Shinyso nodded.

"Yes, I'd seen it before, on a wizard named Belaine. He 'disappeared' a few years ago- disappeared into Kroys."

"Copper?" Kovu was bending over Claw. "I don't think Kroys killed him." She frowned slightly.

"Ho-"

"Blasted enemies." Kovu backed off as Claw picked himself up slowly. "I always make sure of a job."

Nightshade seemed to wake from her stupor.

"Blast! That moron took my best dagger with him!" Claw turned his pain-soaked gaze to her.

"Be glad he didn't take you," he replied.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Finally Kovu drew in a shaky breath and sheathed his sword.

"Alright, guys. Let's. . . go home."



Off in the distance, a small Darkspray named the Rain Mantis sped away from Firen. Devan was in high spirits, having stolen three power cells and two blast rifles and having gotten away with it. Sure it had taken some smooth talking, but he was home free.

As he checked his back visuals, he thought he saw a brilliant star appear in the distance, on the other side of Firen. It remained in place for quite some time, until it faded away into the distance. Shonar had done his job well. The Conquerer, both ship and being, was ashes.



THE END

Once again, the light triumphs over the darkness, light casted by Wild Angel... a well written and intreging story (but I didn't help kill kroys =<... noooo...?!)

*tears* Beautiful, CT, *floods* and nice, and spiffy, and...awesomocular!

`Ducky

Brilliant, Copper, absolutley brilliant.

And a good ending to boot.

'A course you helped kill Kroys, Kaz, everybody did.

Thanks, guys. This will probably be my last story in the Tavern for a while, as I am moving. After that, who knows? I'll still be here. . . if I have to I'll go to one of my friends' house or (nooo!) the library. But that's not for a while yet. . .

I know this is a major of a topic revival, but I'm posting here to make this easier to find. I need to refrence to this a lot for the RPG, and it's a pain always doing a search for "conquerer". Yay for topic revivals =P.

It's all good. Now I can start reading it, now that it's magically appeared on the first page.

Just search for posts by Coppertop in War Tavern, eventually you'll get there.

Originally posted by KRSplat
Just search for posts by Coppertop in War Tavern, eventually you'll get there.

Not all people know how to use a keyboard.

Efil topic reviver!

Oh well, nice to know it's still liked. Believe it or not, Conquests may end up longer than Conquerer ... I hope