Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (32 page)

“Of course the problem there is that they are currently our only lead,” said the captain.

“Have we tried to contact this station at all?” I asked.

“No, Admiral McGregor doesn’t want them to hear from us until our fleet appears at their station,” said the captain.

“What is our plan?” asked the chief engineer.

“Tomorrow, when we clear jump space, we will approach the station with all weapons ready. Then we will demand their surrender. If we get no response, we will board the station and take it over. The station has four major arms coming out of the central hub. Each arm has a docking bay where we will make our entrance. I am thinking four assault teams, one in each arm,” said the captain.

“One team of wizards, then?” asked the chief engineer.

“No, I was thinking that we would put one wizard on each assault team and keep the balance here as part of a fifth team that would attack the central hub, if need be,” said the captain. “Ramsong, what do you think?”

I did not like that idea, as it would spread us too thinly, but I presumed the captain was trying to do as I’d suggested and set an example of team integration. Besides, if this station was like the last one, there would be nothing to worry about. “Typically we deploy wizards in pairs because one can cover the other during casting. Given the low risk of this mission, I don’t see why we can’t try one wizard per assault squad.”

The security chief started to say something, but the captain cut her off and said, “This is new to all of us. I didn’t realize you needed any more cover than anyone else.”

“If we are using our staves or wands, they fire as fast as a blaster. Casting, on the other hand, takes time. The more powerful or complex the spell, the longer the cast time. During casting, the magus usually has to keep line-of-sight with the target, which exposes them to risk,” I said.

“So, in an active fire fight, I assume you stick to your wands?” asked the security chief.

“Yes, but they are limited in charges, range, and power. We prefer to use our staves, which have a much greater range and power, and are rechargeable,” I said.

“That makes sense. Captain, I’m concerned that we are deploying the wizards into our forces when we haven’t spent any time training with them,” said the security chief.

“We all share that concern, but I think this is the perfect time to change that,” responded the captain.

As the meeting wrapped up, I became keenly aware that the security chief would pose the greatest difficulty in getting our teams to merge well. She seemed to be very wary of us. I decided to try to rectify that. “Lieutenant Tyrrell?”

“Yes?” she said.

“My squad has a mandatory workout every morning, one hour before standard dawn. If you are available, we would be honored to have you and your staff join us.” I was taking a gamble. She looked very fit, so I assumed that meant she saw physical workouts as important.

“I was not aware that magi would bother with such a trivial, mundane thing as a workout,” she said.

“Working magic requires supreme focus and control over both mental and physical aspects of our bodies. We find nothing trivial about a physical workout,” I said.

“I might stop by,” she said and left.

Lieutenant Tyrrell did stop by our workout, and she brought some of her team with her. She asked if I minded if she ran us through some of their normal physical conditioning. In the interest of relationship-building, we agreed. I doubt if any of us performed at the level that her team did, but we did push hard and try to keep up. We must have done well enough because she said, “Your team is in good shape. Well done,” before leaving. That, of course, meant that later in the day, when I was standing on the bridge, my muscles were screaming at me to find a hot bath to soak in.

“Captain, we are ready to jump,” said the navigation officer.

“Jump,” ordered the captain.

Once we cleared jump space the captain said, “Attack pattern delta-three, and hold there. Comm, contact the station and see if anyone is home. Tactical, report?”

“Sir, the station looks like the one the Shadow Fox took out. It has limited power, no shields, and many weapons ports. Once it is complete it will be a tough nut to crack,” he said.

“Something is different,” I said quietly to myself.

“What was that?” asked Lieutenant Tyrrell.

“Sorry, I was talking to myself,” I said.

“You said, ‘something is different.’ What did you mean?” she asked.

“I’m not sure yet, but something seems wrong here,” I said.

“How wrong?” asked the captain.

“I am not sure, sir. At least not sure enough to stop the assault,” I said.

“No response to any hails, sir,” reported the officer at the communications station.

“Assault teams, move in and be ready for trouble,” ordered the captain over the comm.

I walked over to the tactical station and looked over all the displays. Lieutenant Tyrrell eyed me suspiciously as I pulled out my data pad and began comparing the current readouts to the prior mission notes.

“The assault teams are breaching the docking doors now, sir,” said one of the officers.

“There!” I said.

“What?” asked Lieutenant Tyrrell.

“Along the arms the power readings are quite different to the last mission. More life exists on this station,” I said.

“Opinions?” asked the captain.

“I think Ramsong is just showing off his skill at noticing trivial detail,” said Lieutenant Tyrrell.

Before I could react to that, the tactical officer said, “All four assault teams are under fire. Sentry robots have them pinned down.”

“Not so trivial, Lieutenant,” said the captain. “Tactical, can they handle them?”

“Normally, sir, they would be outmatched, but the wizards are bringing a lot of extra firepower to the fights. They should be able to push through,” he said.

“They won’t be able to hold that level of combat for an extended period. Let me take the rest of my wizards to the central core and shut the sentries down from there,” I said.

“Agreed.
Lieutenant Tyrrell, assemble a penetration team and take Ramsong and his wizards in,” said the captain.

“Let’s move,” said Lieutenant Tyrrell.

We met up with my wizards and her team in one of the shuttle bays. The shuttle we boarded was different to any I had been on before. While most shuttlecraft had a box-like shape, this one was shaped more like a cone. The front of the shuttle had a super-hard, pointed tip that would be heated to an extreme temperature. The shuttle was designed to accelerate towards the hull of a space station or larger vessel and slam its superheated point right into the hull. Once the shuttle had penetrated far enough, the front of the cone would open and allow the team to rush in.

As we strapped in for the flight, Lieutenant Tyrrell asked, “Realistically, how much time do we have before your wizards are overwhelmed?”

“In twenty minutes, if we have not succeeded, they should retreat,” I said.

“Punch it!” she called out to the pilot.

We were thrown against the restraints on our seats as the pilot launched. As we continued to accelerate, I could feel the slimy, cold anti-inertial gel expanding around us. I had never flown on this kind of vessel before, but I had read that the gel would keep us from being killed when the shuttle slammed into the hull of the station at maximum velocity.

“Brace for impact!” came the call from somewhere up front. The gel was now completely blocking my view and dulling my senses.

I felt, more than heard, a loud crack pass through the ship as my body slammed into the gel that had me cocooned. It hardened around me, and for a moment intense claustrophobia set in. It passed as the gel receded from around my body. It took a moment for me to regain my senses, as everything seemed temporarily slow and thick.

“Move out!” called Lieutenant Tyrrell.

“
Let them lead. They know what they are doing, but be ready,
” I sent to my wizards, and we fell in behind her team.

“Based on the maps you provided, we should be fairly close to the core,” she said as we ran down the corridor.

We reached the central core without problems, but the core itself was heavily guarded by sentries. They opened fire as we approached and quickly had us overwhelmed.

“Pull back!” called out Lieutenant Tyrrell with a curse.

“Gaia, we need smashers!” I called out.

“On it!” she said.

Soon three earth elementals charged into the room and began smashing the sentries. Gaia’s smashers were still at a fairly low level, but had sufficient strength to last quite a while against the sentries.

“Impressive,” said Lieutenant Tyrrell.

“They are big, dumb, strong, and highly resistant to energy-based attacks, which makes them perfect for this,” I said.

“Not completely impervious, it seems,” she said as we lost one.

“No, not completely. I suggest we give them some help,” I said and drew my staff out of the air.

“Agreed. Return fire!” she called out.

It was going well for a while, until we made progress into the room and saw in the center of it a table that was very intricately carved. Each of its six legs was a different beast portrayed holding the table on their backs. The table itself was covered in myriad strange and bizarre carvings. Seated at the table were seven foul beasts that stood and turned towards us.

“Lieutenant Tyrrell, call for a retreat, now!” I yelled and backed away, shouting into my comm, “Captain, General Order Seventy-One! Get everyone off the station and destroy it!”

As we backed out the creatures stood and walked towards us.

“Focus fire on the lead creature!” called out Lieutenant Tyrrell.

All of her team fired at once, but the creature did not seem to even notice the attack. I called out, “Lieutenant Tyrrell, run for it! We will cover the retreat!”

She looked at me briefly and then ordered her team to make for the shuttle. As they ran I sent, “
Stick to your barriers and elementals!
” to my wizards. If I had my whole team, we could take one or two of these creatures, but I only had two wizards with me, and there were seven of them. The best I could hope to do was slow them down and give Lieutenant Tyrrell enough time to get clear.

I cast my Ice Wall spell at several places along our retreat path, while my other wizards mixed it up between elementals and barriers. The plan was working, and we were staying well ahead of their attack.

“Ramsong, we are on the shuttle. Hurry!” sent Lieutenant Tyrrell over the comm.

“Lieutenant, launch without us! We have other means of escape! Hurry! We can only slow these things down, not stop them!” I replied.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Go! Just make sure you’re in the area to pick us up in a while,” I said.

“Understood. Make sure to keep your comm signal on so that we can track you,” she said.

“
Okay, they are clear. I will blast a hole here, then everyone, teleport out,”
I sent.

We locked our helmets in place and double-checked our equipment to make sure our armor was not damaged in the attack. Once I was sure everyone was ready, I pointed my staff at an exterior wall and blasted through. That gave us the clear line-of-sight to space that we needed in order to teleport to safety. “
Go!
” I sent to my team and teleported out. From outside the station I could see the fleet moving in to attack.

“
It looks like they are in trouble in the third arm,”
sent Gaia.

I looked and saw their shuttle was drifting free in space, and the assault team was still in the hangar fighting. “
Teleport in!”
I sent.

As we entered the fight, I cast three ice elementals and sent them in. Their crystalline structure d
eflected most of the blaster fire from the sentries, making them virtually impervious to their attacks, but extremely dangerous to everyone in the area.

“Assault team three, activate your propulsion packs and make for your shuttle. We will cover your retreat,” I sent over the comm. I noticed that Zal was with this team and was preparing to fly out with them. “
Zal, stay with us. We may have more to rescue yet
,” I sent over our telepathic network.

“Lieutenant Tyrrell, team three is making a retreat to their shuttle, which is drifting freely. We need to provide them with cover fire,” I sent over the comm.

“Affirmative. We will head to team two. The captain said to tell you: you have five minutes until he executes General Order Seventy-One,” said Lieutenant Tyrrell.

“Once we are finished here we will check the other teams,” I replied. Five minutes was not enough time, and I was sure that everyone knew it. The only way the other two teams were going to get off the station in time was if they could make it without help. I wondered if the captain would really begin his attack if his people were still on the station. I didn’t know him well enough yet to make that call, so the safest bet was to assume the worst.

“
Okay, remind me next time: ice elementals are a bad idea for this,
” I sent to my team. Blaster fire was reflecting continuously around us, and it became completely impossible to guess which direction the next blast would come from.

Gaia kept shields over our position as we let our elementals fight for us. It seemed like an eternity before we heard, “Sir, we have regained the shuttle. We’re coming in to pick you up,” over the comm. It was good timing too, as Gaia’s shields were starting to fail faster than she could recast, and some blaster fire was getting through.

“Negative! Get out of here, now!” I sent back as I took a deflected blast from a sentry into my chest. My armor held, but pain ripped through my body.

“But, sir …” he started.

“That is an order! Get out of here, now!” I interrupted him, practically screaming through the pain.

“Yes, sir,” he sent back.

After taking a moment to steady myself, I sent, “
Wizards, teleport out,
” and then over the comm, “Lieutenant Tyrrell, team three is clear. What is our status?”