The heavy Star-Iron winches groaned as two hundred and twenty-two alliance warships hauled Crater Island into the lower atmosphere of the Blood-Star Citadel.
Massive steel mooring rings emerged from the clouds.
The outer sky-docks formed a series of concentric obsidian tiers built directly into the underbelly of the floating metropolis. Each docking ring was wide enough to berth fifty dreadnoughts, guarded by automated ballista towers and heavy cold-iron gates.
With the southern ramparts in smoking ruins, the citadel’s lower artillery crews were completely disorganized.
“Full steam to the bow thrusters,” Princess Valeria shouted from the flagship bridge. “Ram the lower boom. Do not let them drop the secondary portcullis.”
Forty heavy assault galleons surged forward through the vapor.
Their reinforced cold-iron rams slammed into the outer mooring boom with the screech of twisting metal. The wooden crossbeams shattered into kindling, clearing a four-hundred-pace gap directly into Ring Four.
Elder Sterling leaped from the forward railing before the ship had even touched the stone pier.
