“Okay!” Shira responded.
“Three minutes until the fighters are in range. A second squad of fighters is on its way, five minutes out of range,” I said.
“Keep tunneling, Marcus,” said Raquel.
“Ready!” called out Shira over the comm.
“Marcus, cease fire. Shira, send over our package,” ordered Raquel. As they obeyed, she turned to Ragnar. “Transmit this message to the Cyborgs: We are ambassadors from the Wizard Kingdom; break off your attack on our vessels and leave this sector, or risk war.”
“They won’t care,” said Marcus.
“Oh, they’ll learn to care. We’re no simple primitives.” There was ice in her voice as she spoke.
“Package delivered,” said Shira.
“Any response to our message?” asked Raquel.
“A third fighter group is headed our way,” I said. I wondered what she meant by ‘primitives’.
“Detonate the package,” she said.
I’m not sure of the order of events, but the world shifted again as it had twice before and our makeshift bomb exploded, seemingly at the same time. The section of the carrier where the antimatter had been placed twisted and bent as the energy from the blast tore through it. The squads of fighters coming to intercept us were destroyed by the shrapnel and expanding wave front of energy. The carrier was badly damaged, but not destroyed; it was simply too massive for our small missiles to take down.
“Come about to 235 mark 15,” ordered Raquel.
I studied the tactical display. “The jamming grid is broken! There are gaps now.”
“Excellent,” she said. “Marcus, drone bays on the second carrier, target them all and prepare to fire again. Ragnar, notify Hospital Station about what’s going on out here and request assistance.”
I looked back over at Raquel. “You mean to eliminate this fleet?”
“They’ll retreat once they realize they can’t win this round. They still think we’re mere primitives and can be ignored. They need to know that we are not to be trifled with, or they’ll make a move on Hospital Station,” she said.
“Won’t it seem like we’re merely helping Phareon?” I asked.
“Most likely not. Remember, the Cyborgs hate everyone and everyone hates them, so even if Resden had a fleet out this way, they’d probably come to help too.”
“Ragnar, repeat our message,” she said. When the message was sent she cast, and the world around us once again shifted and bent. Marcus started firing at the carrier that was in range. Our antimatter missiles were tearing massive holes in its defensive armor, but we just didn’t have enough firepower to cripple a target as large as a carrier.
“We’re almost out of missiles,” said Marcus without emotion. “Should we cut a hole in this one, too?”
“Save what we have left for now,” said Raquel.
“Fighters will be in range in two minutes,” I said as two more squadrons turned to intercept us.
“Ragnar, any word from the hospital?” she asked.
“Defense forces are amassing now and should be here in forty minutes,” he said.
“Inform Phareon that reinforcements are on the way. We need to take down that jamming field,” she said as she studied the display. “There! New primary targets!” She punched some keys on the command console and Marcus quickly eliminated whatever she had targeted.
“That did it! Graviton field collapsing!” I called out.
“Ragnar, find me another shadow to hide in. Zah’rak, get ready on the ECM. We’ll need another cloud soon.”
“Found one,” called out Ragnar and he lit up a target on the display.
“Okay. Zah’rak, twenty seconds after I begin to cast, release the cloud. Purwryn, as soon as we arrive, bring us to zero relative so we can reassess our options.”
“Fighters incoming!” I said.
I watched Raquel cast again and counted down from twenty seconds, as she had ordered. On cue, I released the ECM cloud and moments later we were elsewhere.
Chapter Forty-Five
We were sitting in the sensor shadow of one of the carriers while the battle raged on around us. I studied the display, trying to find something to be happy about, but Phareon was still being beaten back and there was little hope for them at this stage. If a wizard fleet didn’t get here soon, there might be nothing left to save.
“I estimate the Cyborgs will guess our hiding location in seven minutes,” said Marcus, still in a completely emotionless voice. He had used it when being interrogated. At that time I thought it was just to annoy the agent, but perhaps it was a way of dealing with stress instead.
“How do you figure that?” I asked.
“Easily, Zah’rak. It won’t take them long to guess what we’re doing, and once they do, they’ll begin sweeping all the sensor shadows out here and eventually find us,” said Raquel.
“Now what?” I asked.
“The Cyborgs still think that we’re primitives and they need to learn we are more advanced than that, otherwise Hospital Station won’t be safe from attack,” said Raquel.
“The fleet is coming,” I said. The wise course seemed to be to wait for them to eliminate the Cyborgs without taking any undue risks ourselves. That did mean Phareon would be in trouble, but they were already as good as dead. I was more concerned about my team making it out of this mess.
“Yes, and that’s good. You all need training and this is a good time to show off the power of a Dragon Knight.”
“A ‘Dragon Knight’?” I repeated.
“It’s the elite division of the Battle Wizards. They fight with completely unconventional means for a wizard and I mean to train you in their ways. Dragon Knights use a mixture of technology and magic and, unlike traditional magi, they prefer to fight behind enemy lines.” She walked closer to the tactical display and examined the data. She was rapidly paging through the screens but not saying anything.
“Raquel, Phareon is wondering where we are and if we need assistance,” said Ragnar.
“Don’t respond. It’ll give away our position,” she said.
“Okay,” he replied.
I wondered what she was looking for. She stopped at a large overview of the entire battlefield, her finger tracing lines on the screen, but I couldn’t figure out the pattern.
“There! Computer, designate this as alpha target,” she said.
I spun around to the science terminal and pulled up the data on the target. “The target appears to be a run-of-the-mill destroyer, upgraded with Cyborg technology.”
“Yes, and we’ll eliminate it,” she said.
“How? We’re almost out of missiles,” I said.
“Master Shadow taught me a thing or two about weaknesses in military craft engine systems which can only be exploited from the inside. We don’t have a spellweaver to do it the way he does, but I think I can manage it another way,” she said.
“Spellweaver?” I queried.
“Inside?” said Purwryn at the same time.
“Yes, inside. Purwryn, Zah’rak and I will board the ship, destroy it from the inside, and bail out before they can do anything about it,” she said. “Marcus, I’ll need you to take over navigation in addition to tactical.”
“Yes, ma’am,” was the monotone reply. Purwryn and I turned in surprise. I asked, “How?”
“Come with me,” she said, already exiting the bridge.
Purwryn looked at me. I shrugged and said, “Ragnar, take command until I return,” then followed her off the bridge.
She headed for the mission ready room, turned to us and said, “Put on your full battle gear. Our goal will be to get into the engine room and sabotage the ship.”
I started to ask for more details, but she raised a finger to stop me. Over the comm. she said, “Get ready for another transition. After we move, keep us at zero relative to alpha target, as close to the hull as you can manage.”
“Understood,” said
Marcus.
The three of us donned our full battle armor and loaded up on wands, blasters, and other weapons. Once we were ready, Raquel cast her spell and I felt space twist again. The sensation was disorienting but something I was starting to get used to. Shira had said a traveler couldn’t be caught, and seeing Raquel using some of her spells for the first time seemed to reinforce that. If she could bend the fabric of reality like this to change her position, what chance had any mundane of keeping up?
We moved into the airlock and teleported out of the ship onto the hull of the destroyer. Purwryn and I followed Raquel as she drifted through space, flying over the hull, always within reach of it. She finally grabbed a handhold and stopped herself.
She was overlooking what seemed to be the window of a private room. It amazed me that spacecraft had windows at all; they were much weaker than the armor around them, and couldn’t give as good a view as a basic viewing screen. They also made it simple for a magus to board a hostile craft.
It’d be a good idea to cover the windows on the Night Wisp, I thought to myself, somewhat annoyed that the idea had only just occurred to me.
Raquel pointed to a window and sent, “Teleport in through there. Alarms will go off almost immediately, so we’ll make a mad dash for engineering. Use wands and staves at first; save your spell energy for the final push.”
“Staves?” I queried.
“Yes. Your staff will act as an extra large wand,” she sent. “Follow my lead.”
She teleported in through the window, and we followed. As she’d predicted, the lights in the room turned red and an alarm blared throughout the ship.
“Odd; Cyborgs don’t need audible alarms. Must be left over from the previous occupants,” commented Raquel. She drew her swords, opened a door and called out, “This way!”
We didn’t get far before Cyborgs were marching on our position. I took aim with my assault rifle and blasted away, but they were using a combination of body armor and portable blast shields to render my weapon ineffective.
Purwryn had a pair of Crivreen’s wands in his hands and sent bolts of lighting down the corridor, which was far more devastating than my trusty rifle. The bolts seemed almost alive as they arced from the walls to the Cyborgs and back. Used against creatures whose bodies were mostly metal and salt water, lightning was a truly horrific weapon.
“Use your staff!” sent Raquel.
I slung my rifle over my shoulder and drew the staff down from the air as she had taught me. “How?”
“Focus on a target and say the command word, just like a wand.”
I pointed my staff towards the middle of the charging group who were trying to seek cover from Purwryn’s insistent pounding. Speaking the command word, I carefully aimed the staff into the middle of the group; a green bolt of energy was released from the staff and slammed into the chest of my target.
The Cyborg was engulfed in a green-tinged explosion which killed him and several more around him. The effect was far more powerful than that of any wand I’d ever seen, and on a par with the heaviest of hand cannons.
“Wow!” called out Purwryn, who had paused to watch the carnage.
“Keep shooting!” called out Raquel as the fearless Cyborgs began to regroup.
Remembering my training with the wands, I mentally reduced the power level of the staff. I didn’t know yet how to tell how much energy it contained, and figured I’d better conserve its power just in case. We blasted through that position of Cyborgs and charged on, meeting no resistance for the rest of the run; that bothered me. It was obvious where we were going, so they must have been digging in there, preparing for our arrival.
Raquel stopped us just short of engineering. As she sheathed her swords she sent, “Assume they can hear and see everything we do, because I’m sure they can. They’re expecting us to charge, firing our weapons, and they will have superior defenses and firepower ready to counteract that. I have no intention of making a suicide rush, but we’re going to make them think we’re doing that. So follow me on the dash, but when you see the gate open, dive through it. It’ll let us out behind them in engineering. I’ll open it as soon as I have line of sight.”
We nodded our agreement and she sprinted off down the corridor with her own pair of wands. As we came in sight of engineering, I blasted a hole through their defenses with a single bolt from my staff. Purwryn rained lightning down on them, and Raquel sent white energy bolts from her wands.
Moments after we began our barrage, a gate opened directly in our path. We sprinted through and, true to Raquel’s plan, came out behind the Cyborg position. My staff and our wands made quick work of the Cyborgs, as they hadn’t set up any defenses behind themselves. In their arrogance they never thought we’d get past them, so they hadn’t prepared for it.
“Cover the corridor,” she sent.
More Cyborgs were heading our way, but now we were entrenched behind cover and they had to navigate the corridor under fire. I switched to Crivreen’s wands, as their smaller size made them easier to work with in the tight fortifications. I would have liked to use my grenades to force them back, but the narrow corridor would have channeled the explosion right back in my face.
I couldn’t see what Raquel was doing, but I knew we couldn’t hold out long. Purwryn had already burned through most of his wands, and the enemy numbers kept growing. I suspected they could run the ship as easily from the hall in front of us as anywhere else. We could soon have the entire crew bearing down on us.
“Okay, time to bail out!” sent Raquel.
I glanced over my shoulder to see her open a gate. No longer concerned about the narrow passage acting as a funnel for the explosion, I tossed two explosive grenades down the corridor and dove through the gate right behind Purwryn.
We came out on the bridge of the Night Wisp. Raquel said, “Purwryn, go back to navigation and set a course away from here.”
He jumped in his seat and took control of the craft.
“Ragnar, send my warning to the Cyborgs one last time,” she said and cast her spell again, moving the ship elsewhere.
“Okay, sent,” he said.
She smiled and pressed a button on the comm. pad of her armor. Moments later a massive explosion ripped through the rear of the destroyer, throwing the remains of the vessel out of the battlefield.
Chapter Forty-Six
Raquel, Zah’rak and Purwryn had been gone thirty-seven minutes when a strange blue oval appeared on the bridge of the Night Wisp. I searched my memory banks for a match and finally came up with one. A gate, I thought to myself; I had used one to get off the space station when Purwryn and I were grievously outnumbered.
Moving through them was like walking through jump space. It was a very odd sensation, and didn’t have the hangover effect of the jump drives. This gate technology was something I needed to learn. The Great Core would definitely be interested in it.
They came running out of the gate moments later, and the blue oval disappeared behind them almost before Zah’rak had made his way through.
“Purwryn, get back on navigation and set a course away from here,” ordered Raquel. “Marcus, watch for incoming fighters; if any move within our range, destroy them.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said.
It was odd that she was running this battle, since Zah’rak was the captain, but it was obvious that she knew she was doing and Zah’rak did not. It was wise of him to let her lead, given her skills, but he seemed to be doing more than that; he was behaving as if she were the captain and he just another warrior following her into battle.
I listened as Ragnar sent her message once again, and I couldn’t understand why she kept sending it. Did she think they hadn’t received it the first couple of times? I was sure they had, and that it was stored in a memory bank somewhere. Cyborgs never forget anything.
Moments after we began to pull away from the destroyer, my tactical sensors were momentarily blinded by its destruction.
I didn’t know how they had achieved it, but somehow they had completely destroyed the craft. These primitives were extremely resourceful. No, not primitives; magi, I corrected myself.
“Alpha target destroyed,” called out Zah’rak.
“Purwryn, prepare an evasive spiral while Ragnar finds us a new hiding-place,” she said.
“Okay,” he replied.
The Cyborg fleet was in disarray. The destroyer she had chosen was a lynchpin in their communications network, and it would take several minutes to reroute the comm. traffic to compensate for the loss. How in the name of the Great Core did she figure out that this one was the core of the fleet?
Raquel was the only trained wizard on the craft, as far as I could tell. Ragnar had some training, but he didn’t seem very knowledgeable about current events or technology. Despite this, or maybe because of it, Zah’rak completely trusted Ragnar’s input on any subject.
“Agent P2003, report,” came a call over my internal communications network.
“I am undamaged and on mission,” I silently replied.
“Agent P2003, the Night Wisp is a liability to the fleet. Eliminate the threat.”
“I cannot without jeopardizing my mission.”
“You will receive new mission parameters when the Night Wisp is gone.”
“The Night Wisp is a minor inconvenience in this engagement, but its information value is irreplaceable.”
There was temporary silence. I hoped I hadn’t overstepped my bounds, but I knew it would be foolish to take down the Night Wisp at this stage. The magi had proven deadly in combat and, in order to compensate for their presence in this region, we needed information about them. No one was in a better position than I to do that. It had been a major stroke of luck teaming up with Purwryn back on the Paradise, and one I was eager to take advantage of for as long as possible. The Cyborg nation needed this desperately, even if they hadn’t yet realized it.
“The fleet is jumping in now,” said Ragnar.
I watched on my tactical readouts as a fleet of Class Three and Class Four tech. jumped into the battle, impressed by the show of force. The Wizard fleet by itself would have overpowered the Cyborg fleet, which was mainly Class Two technology. They had some Class Three, but Class Four was almost unheard of nowadays in these numbers.
Sac'a'rith Page 26
