The moment the tip of the Solar Anvil pierced the central command node of the Ironwood deck, The Ascendant ceased to be a conventional vessel of timber and hydrostatic pressure.
Orion did not merely pilot the dreadnought; he fused with it. His hyper-compressed solar plasma surged down the obsidian fuller of his broadsword, flooding directly into the ship's primary root system. The neon-green digital veins coursing through the dark bark violently flashed into a blinding, molten gold.
Through the transparent digital viewport, the vacuum of space ignited.
The three-hundred-foot living hull did not fire standard thrusters. Instead, the entire spearhead of the ship became an engine of localized solar wrath. The Ascendant accelerated to intercept velocity in a fraction of a second, leaving a blinding trail of white-hot plasma that temporarily burned afterimages into the retinas of anyone watching from the healed world below.
