The Bulmäs come in hard and fast and Paul, Rae and Ryan are all too aware how out numbered they are.
Paul empties the Clip of the SMG and throws it away, reaching through the realities to another one already to go in the castles armoury. Rae curses loudly that she is out and he throws the new one to her before pulling out a third. Toby had better have done his chores or they could be in real trouble.
The front ranks of the Urox go down under the hail of lead, silver and crystal, but more keep coming.
“They brought a whole fucking army.” Ryan protests as he changes clip.
“O this is just cheating.” Paul complains. He stands up to get a good view of the approaching wall of minotaur like beings.
“Cheat back.” Rae instructs.
Paul grimaces, forcing his will on the Islands reality and battling it into submission. The ground before the approaching troupes turns blue and sweeps towards them.
He hears Ryan scream in protest as the reality is ripped open by the rift Paul’s action makes, but the next wave of attackers have vanish when the rift closes up.
“What are you trying to do?”
“Save your bloody neck.” Paul responds.
“For gods sake Paul between you and the lea gate there is going to me nothing left of this place.”
“Quit whinging and start fighting.” Rae retorts, standing up to load off another clip of ammo at the next wave and throwing the gun to one side and holding out her hand expectantly to Paul.
He drops the SMG into it and reaches for another. “Crap.”
Rae looks up at him concerned.
“The racks empty.”  His face twists with concentration then he pulls out another weapon, larger with an under slung grenade launcher. It makes a distinctive crunch noise as he cocks it.
“Shit.” Rae covers her ears and opens her mouth.

The sky turns white and then an evil deep green; lightning streaks across the sky to the farthest horizon. And then a blast wave and the noise hits them, pushing Paul back and running groves in the gravel of the path.
“What the fuck was that.” Ryan mouths, temporarily deafened.
“Nuclear grenade thrower.” Rae shouts back.
He glares at Paul in disbelief that he would use such a weapon this close to the main house.
“What are you complaining about it’s relatively clean.” Paul defends.
“They are still coming.” Rae cuts across their argument. And then unloads the last of the SMGs.
“What does it take to give these guys the hint to fuck off.” Ryan screams.
“Up close and personal time.” Paul grins. He drops the grenade launcher and draws a large Naginata from the thin air between his hands.  He jumps over the wall and charges towards the Urox.
“Oh he enjoys this far too much.” Rae protests, kicking over the grenade launcher “I need a sword!”  
There is a blue glow in the air in front of her and a Katana lands in her hand. “Thank you.”

The largest of the creatures takes his charge head on, Paul feels the blade dig deep into muscle and fiber. He reaches down the connection the blade has made between himself and his victim with some deep inner sense and pulls. A quiver runs through the body of the beast as it’s life force is almost instantly snuffed out.
The beings around him pause, caught by surprise at the suddenness of the death; and Paul decides to let them see what they have really taken on.
He feels the reality boil around him in protest at his presence, but with the rent he ripped in it earlier and the lea gate above it can not muster enough energy to kick him out.
Lightning blue sparks crackle down his claws as his true from unfolds it self from the human shell.
He sees fear in the eyes of the Bulmäs before him as they begging to grasp just what he is. He draws strength from it, feeling their terror roll around him like some wonderful drug, filling his tired muscles with fresh power and his lungs with the purest of airs.
He smiles.

+*+

The amber fluid rises up around them, a cloudy swirl that reduces visibility down to almost nothing. The sides of the ship fade back into view, leaving only a single window showing the deep yellow fluid beyond. The black cover slides back off his pilot.
“Not a lot to see from here on in. If we are lucky.” Andi explains. He shifts in the seat so he is looking at Silas. “You hungry?”
Silas suddenly realises he is. Andi reaches out and hits a push button control near his seat with AG on it in large friendly letters. Suddenly Silas feels very heavy, like he has got out of a pool after a long swim.
Andi gestures to the back of the compartment. “There’s a fridge there, help yourself and while you are up, I could do with a coffee?”
Silas gets up carefully and then realises that is not a bad version of gravity after all.
“I’d help out but...” He pats the chair and Silas assumes he means he has to control the ship.
Inside the fridge is a number of pre-prepared meals, some of which manages to even look edible and he soon locates a microwave next to it.
He hands the coffee to his pilot. Who warms his hands on it before taking a swig. “Ta.”
“If you need to get some sleep.” He gestures to the cots at the back.
“No I’m fine” Silas responds. “You?”
“I’ll kip in the chair if I have to. I’m used to that. We do have a long way to go. We should be able to follow the currents down for most of the way. Also,” He takes another swig. “I can’t get you all the way back to CG001, there is no way I can get landing permission there. But I can get you pretty close, a quick trip round the walks and you’ll be home. That ok.”
“Fine.”
“Good cos actually you don’t have a choice.” He grins. “You meals ready” He states just as the microwave goes ping.
Silas wolfs down the meal, surprised how hungry he feels. As he finishes and sits back down Andi asks. “Mind if I turn the grav off?”
“No.”
“Ta.” He his the button again and seems to relax as weightlessness returns. He stretches again almost as if even the brief exposure to gravity stressed his muscles. “Sorry it’s kind of boring. There isn’t much to see in U-space. Least ways if you are lucky there isn’t.”
“And if there is.”
“Then that proximity alert goes off and all hell breaks loose.” He grins, “so lets hope it doesn’t.”
“Does that happen often?”
“Depends which route you are on. The one we are on is a little hotter than most, but then we are going pretty deep. CG013, may be BF012 if I can slip round.”
Silas frown s at him. “BF012?”
“World nomenclature.” Andi states obviously surprised Silas doesn’t recognise them. “Why? How do you keep track?”
“Usually just ‘who ever came from that worlds’ home world.”
“How do you navigate with that?”
“I use paths, like walking to someone’s house.”
Andi shakes his head “Weird.”
“So how do the numbers work?”
“Well the bottom most one where you are of to is CG001, That’s the original Caester where the daemons attacked. It’s right on the edge, virtually in the daemons planes. All the others are layers about them. Number gives the height of the layer, letters give the coordinates. There are rumours of a 000 layer but that’s so close to the edge it’s just asking to be Scragged.”
Silas keeps very quiet.
“So you just set your depth and direction, make sure your route isn’t going to get you caught up in any reality wells so you avoid accidentally ending up in the wrong world, and hope there is nothing in the way that wants to eat you. It’s not hard. Just very, very tedious especially compared with real space.” He sighs. “Don’t suppose you play chess?” He asks hopefully.
Silas smiles. “Actually I do.”
“Cool. Boards at the back, cupboard under the microwave. Rack em up!”