Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (4 page)

I had been reviewing the training logs of my new crew when Master Shadow called me into his office for a special meeting. We had made great progress with our training, but now that the Nevermore II had launched it would become harder to fit in training missions, so I needed to make sure to maximize the little time I had.

“Dusty, I have been reviewing your training reports, and I am pleased with what I see. It seems you have been doing a fine job preparing your crew for their future missions,” he said.

He looked at me as if he expected me to respond to that, but I did not know what to say so I just sat there quietly. Eventually he continued, “Dusty, as you know our borders are under constant threat from many sides. It is only through the work of the Battle Wizards and our mundane naval forces that our little section of the galaxy stays peaceful. It has been a little while since the last tribe tested our defenses, but that could happen again at any time, so we are keeping constant watch on the space around our borders. Recently we discovered a space station being constructed close to our region, close enough to be used as a base from which to attack us. I want you to take the Shadow Fox and destroy it.”

When we first annexed the ailing Aleeryon nation we picked up some of their enemies who moved to try and take advantage of what they thought to be a state of weakness due to the transition of power. In response we sent elite and journeyman-level wizards to the borders to show everyone we meant business. In some short and very violent battles, we wiped out countless numbers of attackers. This turned many against us out of fear and resentment but brought an end to any active aggression on our borders.

“Master, if it is outside our borders, do we have any grounds to attack it?” I asked.

“It is a threat to the security of our space, and we have sent many warnings, all of which have gone unanswered. At this point, the Council considers it as potentially an advance base being built in preparation for a new attack on our region. As such it cannot be allowed to stand uncontested,” he said.

“Master, why only send the Fox and not the Nevermore?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, we are being sent to investigate another section of our space. I do not want to risk delaying either mission, so we will split up and handle them both at the same time,” he said.

“Master, do we at least allow them the chance to surrender?” I asked.

“That chance has already been offered, and they gave their answer by destroying the messenger drones that were sent to them when they failed to respond to more normal means of communication,” said Master Shadow.

I thought about that a bit, but I still had little liking for this mission. “Master, things have changed a lot since we were in school together.”

He sighed and seemed to think with care about what he was going to say next. “Yes, Dusty, they have,” he said. He stood, then paced a little. “Sometimes I wonder if we would have been better off if we had not closed those tears. The original wizard council ended this war for ten thousand years, and we restarted it in a period of less than two months.”

“Master, the war may have restarted, but that does not mean we have to become cold, hard warriors. Could I not at least offer them one more chance to surrender when I arrive? They are likely to be less than eager to attack a living representative of the Wizard Kingdom rather than a robot.”

“The Wizard Kingdom?” he asked with a smile.

“Well, Master, no one thinks of us as just a school anymore, so why not?” I said.

“Why not? Maybe because it is not your prerogative to choose the name?” he said with a grin. “I think the Council is coming around to it, though, since it is what the rest of the realm calls us. However, with regards to the station, you may be right but the offer would be at great risk to you and your crew, as you would not be able to use stealth and surprise to your advantage.”

“Master, it’s an acceptable risk to prevent bloodshed,” I said.

“There certainly has been enough of that these past years,” he said. “Very well. It is your ship, your crew, and your mission; if you want to do this you have my permission.” He paused there and said, “Dusty, you must understand that, even with the addition of the mundane naval forces, we do not yet have the numbers to defend this section of space from a concerted attack on our borders. Our enemies these days are without limit, and the only reason they do not unify and attack as one is because they have not yet realized our limitations. If we fail to deal with this threat, they may decide to test our borders, and that could spell the end of what we have built here. They may hate each other, but their fear and envy of us greatly outweighs that.”

“Yes, Master, I understand. I really do,” I said, and I did. The Wizard’s Council was the most powerful force in the known universe, but in the end, they were only seven people against trillions and trillions among our enemies’ forces. I had no doubt we would win, even against a united attack on our borders, but the death toll and devastation such an attack would cause was beyond my ability to imagine. “Do I therefore have permission to do whatever I feel necessary to remove that base?”

“Dusty, we cannot win a war with darkness if we become darkness ourselves. We must keep fighting for light, no matter what the cost. As long as you can honestly say that you are fighting to bring light and not darkness, then do whatever it takes to crush that station. Even if they surrender, give them time to escape and then destroy the station. It cannot remain standing,” he replied.

“I understand,” I said. “When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow morning. Your crew is already due to assemble at that time for their review and the planning of the next training mission. You will do your review and give everyone four hours to prepare for the new mission,” he said.

“Wow! That’s one heck of a turnaround,” I said.

“Yes, I know, but we have let this stand for too long already. We must move quickly before that station is battle-ready,” he said. “At this time you should find it a fairly easy target to eliminate, but if we delay your launch even by a few weeks they might be able to bring main power online, and then more drastic measures would be required.”

“Master, what should we do if anyone interferes?” I asked.

“I do not know who would, but that station must be destroyed. If anyone gets in your way, you will have to deal with them in whatever way you see fit. We cannot risk looking weak at this time. We have to appear stronger than we are until our forces are sufficiently large that we need no longer keep up a pretence.”

“Understood, Master,” I said and, after some parting words, I left to prepare for my first real mission at the command of the Shadow Fox.

I left Master Shadow’s office and headed to my ship, the Shadow Fox. The Fox was a new experimental design known as a Dark Conure Mark II. The Mark II
was the next generation of the Dark Conure, created mainly to compensate for the areas that our combat experience with the Dust Dragon had indicated to be weak.

There was one key difference between the Mark I and the Mark II: this was the addition of an illuminescence battery array which Shea had created, based on the design of the illuminescence canisters we destroyed during Operation Show of Force. This battery array allowed several key systems to be removed from the traditional power grid, which extended the fuel efficiency of the craft by twenty per cent. The added power reserves which the illuminescence batteries provided allowed us to add a fully-fledged cloaking system, making the Shadow Fox a true black ops vessel. These batteries also allowed for advanced control systems that improved reaction time and control, but had the side effect that only a magus could operate them. The Shadow Fox was the next step towards truly merging magic and technology.

I was grateful that I was able to choose my own crew for my new vessel, and immediately named Shea and Spectra as crew members. I would have loved to have had Phoenix as part of my crew, but he took command of the Dust Dragon when Master Shadow was given the first command class vessel of the Battle Wizard Navy, the Nevermore II. Doctor Leslie was another person I wanted on my crew, but she elected to stay at the Academy and serve as chief medical officer, as our numbers had grown to the point that Headmaster Rannor could no longer run the school and the hospital at the same time.

Since taking command, I had been living on the Fox full time. During training exercises, my crew would also stay on the ship with me, but as we were currently between exercises, the ship was mostly empty. Shea would stop by from time to time to tend to her gardens in the hydroponics bay, but she was not on board at this time. Spectra stayed on board with me; at first I had not been happy with this plan because I wanted my privacy, but I had come to really enjoy her presence and was glad of the intrusion.

As I boarded the craft, Spectra ran forward to greet me, “Well? W
hat did he want?”

“He’s sending us on our first mission in command of the Fox,” I said.

Her eyes widened and she said, “But we’re not ready!”

“We are ready enough, it seems,” I replied. She was right. Our crew was still struggling to make its marks. We were doing well based on the level of experience we had, which was none, but we were well below the level I had wanted to reach before launching from the Nevermore II.

“What’s our mission?” she asked.

“Someone is building a secret base near our borders. We’re to eliminate it,” I said.

“That hardly seems like a job for a black ops cruiser,” she said.

“The base is still under construction,
so it should be a fairly soft target,” I said.

Her long black tail twitched a little, indicating that she was a bit nervous. “Then we’d better get working on supplies for the mission. Gathering them could take a couple of days.”

“We leave by midday tomorrow,” I said.

“Ugh! I guess we’ll have a late night of packing and fetching supplies,” she said.

“Do we really need all that much?” I asked.

“That depends: do you want to fly out of here and try to destroy the station with training ammo or the real stuff?” she asked.

“Valid point,” I said.

Spectra had changed greatly in her years as a Battle Wizard, and yet in some ways she had not changed at all. Around me, she was delightful, if a bit mischievous, but with most others she went back to being her dark and solemn self. In truth, besides myself I did not know if she trusted anyone except possibly Shea, but everyone seemed to trust her. She was one of those people you meet that seemed full of light. I could not figure out what it was about her that made her stand out, but whenever she was around everything just seemed better.

“I guess we should call Shea. She’ll need time to get our food supplies organized,” I said.

“Yeah, good idea. Go ahead and contact her. I’ll head to engineering and see how badly off we are for supplies,” she said.

“
Shea?
” I sent.

“
Yes, Master Dusty?”
she replied.

“
I hope I am not disturbing you, but something came up that is likely to need your immediate attention,”
I sent.

“
Master, I was just eating a late dinner. What can I do for you?
” she asked.

“T
his will not be public knowledge till tomorrow morning, but about midday we will be taking the Fox on her maiden mission. I do not know how long we will be out there; probably weeks,”
I sent.

“
Master, we do not have enough food and other supplies for an extended mission. I need at least a day, if not two, to prepare,
” she replied.

“
That’s pretty much what Spectra said about the rest of our supplies, but the mission is time-critical. We are to leave at midday, ready or not,”
I sent back.

“
Then, Master, it sounds like we both have a long night ahead of us,”
she sent.

“
Yes, we do. We can sleep en route, I suppose
,” I sent.

I headed to engineering to see if I could help Spectra. I knew that this mission would be my biggest test since I accepted the role of head of black ops for the Battle Wizards. At first, I had wanted to turn down the position, but Spectra convinced me to take it; now I would have to prove that her confidence in me was not misplaced.

“Master Dusty, the station is in range,” said Rocky.

It had been an uneventful trip out to the station, which was a nice change from the almost panicked rush of getting everything ready to launch. So far, my crew was performing remarkably well, but we had not yet faced any challenges. “Spectra, what are we facing?”

Spectra was working at the science station just as she did while serving on the Dust Dragon. When we were filling the bridge positions on the Shadow Fox, I had offered her any spot she wanted. Without any hesitation, she said, “No need to change now,” and sat in the science officer’s seat.

“Dusty, it seems most of our intelligence about the station is correct. Primary power is not online, and it does not appear to be able to defend itself. There are weapons ports all over the structure, but they do not appear to have any power. I do not see any operable shield generators yet,” answered Spectra.

“What about the function of the station?” I asked.

“It looks like a supply depot. Each of the three arms of the station appears to have space ports that could easily service a small fleet coming through here,” she said.

“So the Council was probably right: this is an advance base. Any indication of who is building it?” I asked.

“None,” she said.

“Our mission is to destroy it, but I would sure like to find out who is building it first. Rocky, find a place to hide as close to the center hub of the station as you can. Spectra, you and I will slip on board and see what we can find out,” I said.

When I had taken command of the Shadow Fox, Master Shadow told me that one of my key jobs was to start grooming magi for the captain’s chair. We needed to grow our fleet quickly, and to do that we needed more trained captains. The first person I thought of was Spectra but quickly decided against that, as I did not want her assigned to a different ship to the one I was on. Later when I spoke with her about it, she told me that she never wanted to be a ship’s captain and that she was happy to let me fill that role with her by my side.