Once the outer walls of the base came into view, I stopped my group and waited for Marcus and his team to catch up.
“We have at most fifteen minutes before the troops are scheduled to land,” sent Raquel as she fell back to join us.
“About fifteen minutes,” I said out loud so that Marcus could hear. “Do we wait for them to drop in or do we charge now?”
“I suggest we move in as far as we can,” said Marcus. “If we could get on to one of those empty artillery platforms, we could rain fire down on the enemy with some degree of safety.”
I looked and we had clear line of sight to one of the platforms. “How about that one there?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Not the best one, but it would work.”
“We can get there easily and have Shira send a gate for you,” I said.
Raquel nodded. “We should wait here for the ground troops to land, then head up there. Once we’re there we can leap-frog to a better one if need be, but I suspect that once we join the fight, the sorcerers will come for us directly and we’ll have our hands full with them.”
“I thought the plan was for us to draw out the sorcerers ahead of the attack?” asked Marcus.
“It is, but our landing did that. By now they know that a group of magi have landed and are on the surface. It would be a simple matter for them to guess that we’re moving on the only base on the planet. Until they can judge our strength, they will hold back their power. That was the goal behind our landing and approach, and as far as I can tell it’s worked,” said Raquel.
“The captain will jump the gun, and his forces will launch in a couple of minutes,” said Ragnar.
Raquel spun round and asked, “What do you see?”
Ragnar took a stick and drew a circle on the ground, marking it as he spoke. “The troops will come in hard and fast, landing here, here and here. Troopers will unload first, running towards the walls, followed by armored vehicles. They will breach the outer walls in these three places, and the enemy will pour out through the breaches attempting to prevail through sheer numbers.”
“What about air support?” asked Marcus.
Ragnar hesitated and then drew three wavy lines from the center of the base. “It’s hard to see, but I think these are flight paths. They will arrive sometime after the wall is breached.”
“And the sorcerers?” asked Raquel.
“They’re hiding from me,” he said. “But they will most likely wait for full engagement before moving. That’s how they traditionally operate.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
I watched in amazement as Ragnar sketched out the upcoming battle. My own probability analysis had come to similar conclusions, but through my Cyborg implants I had the advantage of being able to tap into and monitor the Phareon fleet’s battle network. Ragnar couldn’t have had that. I still had to guess what the enemy might do since I had no information on them, and they weren’t using any network I could find, but he seemed to know exactly what they would do.
As he spoke, Phareon’s battle net suddenly went active and the troop ships began their drop exactly when Ragnar had predicted they would. I searched their network for launch orders and found them; to my surprise, they matched exactly the plan Ragnar had laid out. I was very impressed.
“Drop ships are on their way,” I said.
Raquel cursed. “Never trust a weave-forsaken mundane to stick to even the simplest of plans.”
I had to agree with her on that one. Primitives, or mundanes as she called them, weren’t trustworthy in that regard. The captain should have waited. On this occasion it didn’t matter as we were in position and ready, but there had been no way for him to know that, and by launching early he could have caused major problems and needlessly lost many lives.
I looked again at Ragnar’s drawing and traced his proposed flight lines back to a single location near the center of the base, drawing an X where the lines met. “Judging from Ragnar’s report, that must be where they are launching from.”
Raquel looked at the map. “Marcus – ”
She was interrupted by the thunder of the drop ships’ arrival as they came in hard. They had fired their braking thrusters at full strength at the very last instant, to decelerate enough to survive hitting the ground. I didn’t envy the ride the troops had on those ships. They hit the ground with a very audible thud, sending dirt and rock airborne in a cloud around them. Troopers poured out of the ships followed by armored personal carriers and other armored vehicles. Everything was unfolding in accordance with Ragnar’s predictions.
“Time to move,” said Raquel. “Shira, gate us over.”
Shira cast her spell and a gate opened. We all rushed through and came out on top of the battlement that Zah’rak had selected. It gave us a good overview of the battle and there were plenty of places to hide under cover. The location was a far better choice than I had previously thought, allowing me to set up my guns with a wide coverage of the battlefield.
“Crivreen, Purwryn, you two are on anti-air support. Take down anything that flies. Marcus, provide artillery support for the ground forces. Zah’rak, Shira, you’re with me. We’ll take on the sorcerers when they appear. Ragnar, guard Marcus and find me those sorcerers!”
Ragnar crouched down next to me and threw a handful of small rocks on the ground. They were each inscribed with a symbol I didn’t recognize, but they must have had deep meaning for him going by the way he studied them. He picked up the stones and cast them a few times. I mentally overlapped the patterns they landed in, trying to understand what he could see, but nothing jumped out at me. The writing didn’t match any I had on record, and the patterns that the stones landed in seemed random.
“Marcus, there will be a second front of enemies; much stronger ones,” he said.
“Where?” I asked.
He traced a circle. “If we consider ourselves to be at the center of this, and the edge to be where the drop ships landed, then about here,” he said, pointing to a location on the makeshift map.
I overlaid his map on the battlefield and adjusted it for size. “That will blindside the ground forces. How long?”
“Not long, maybe seven minutes,” he said. “It’ll be a large force, and it looks like their arrival will be very sudden. I see soil flying into the air, but no drop ships.”
“Maybe from ground vehicles?” I suggested.
“No, I don’t think so. The enemy doesn’t appear to have any vehicles,” he replied. “But they are definitely coming and they’ll slam into the side of the ground forces, killing many before they can respond.”
I made a snap decision and maximized my ability to fire on that location while opening a channel onto the Phareon battle network, a network to which I shouldn’t have had access. Because of the news I was bringing, I hoped they’d be grateful enough to overlook the security breach.
“Phareon command, this is Marcus of the Night Wisp, over,” I said.
After a hesitation, they replied, “Night Wisp, Phareon command, go ahead.”
“Two more groups of enemy are incoming. Heavy ground forces will arrive in grid alpha three and enemy air support will come through grids beta six and seven. ETA on ground forces is six minutes. Air forces should arrive shortly after the ground forces.”
“Acknowledged, Night Wisp. Phareon command, out,” came the reply.
I watched as they quickly moved their armored vehicles to counter the attack that had yet to materialize. I was starting to understand why the team respected Ragnar so highly. He wasn’t much of a warrior, but he could read a battlefield like no one I’d ever met. I wondered how he did it. It couldn’t be those stones, as far as I could see.
I saw no indication of enemy forces on the way, but since his last predictions had come true I had no reason not to believe him.
Right on schedule, the ground burst open and massive creatures climbed out. I had already sighted my two guns on the general area and opened fire the in
stant before they appeared. Unlike assault rifles or blasters, the heavy assault line of weapons fired super-hardened slugs at hypersonic velocities. The recoil from the guns was such that even I had to brace myself to fire repeatedly. A primitive couldn’t hope to control one without a tripod or other such mount.
I couldn’t guess what kinds of creatures were coming out of the ground, but they were being shredded by my fire as the bullets imparted tremendous energy on impact. The roar of my cannon would have been deafening had I not worn full battle armor, including the thick armored helmet. As it was, I’d had to turn the gain down on my ears to dull the noise.
“Ragnar, how long till enemy air support arrives?” I asked. I had detected the launch of Phareon fighters, but it would be several minutes before they could reach us as they decelerated from orbit.
“Should be any moment now,” he said.
Right on cue Crivreen called out, “Incoming!” and my sensors detected … life forms? Yes, large lizard-like birds or something resembling them. They each had a two-and-a-half meter wingspan, red scales and long snouts.
“Phareon command, Night Wisp,” I said trying to match their choppy battle-speak.
“Night Wisp, Phareon command, go,” they replied.
“Enemy air incoming now on predicted flight path,” I said.
“Acknowledged. Phareon command, out,” they replied.
As the creatures came in range, Crivreen and Purwryn opened fire with their wands.
Wands were interesting devices. The magi were able to store spells in them in some fashion for later release. It was like pre-firing missiles, but releasing and targeting them at a later time. It was hard to comprehend, but the creatures in the air didn’t like getting hammered with them.
On Phareon’s battle net I could hear troops requesting that the artillery fire be retargeted, and I figured they meant me. I retargeted without saying a word, as their channel was already busy. Whoever had asked sent thanks, and then I noticed a group of APCs moving to attack the flank of the enemy’s heavy forces. I optimized my fire pattern to give this new deployment as much cover as I could.
The flying creatures reached us and opened fire on our position: literally. It seemed that the beasts could breathe fire, and that fire cut right through the metal and stone buildings in their way. Their breath was like the plasma from an engineer’s torch, and I doubted if even this new armor from Zah’rak could cope with a hit from it.
Crivreen and Purwryn manage to keep the lizard-birds off our position, but the ground troops were not so lucky. The beasts strafed their lines with their fire and men were cooking inside their own armor. I couldn’t think of a more horrible way to go. The human part of me wanted to help, but my guns were too slow to track the beasts.
A loud crack split the sky announcing the arrival of the Phareon fighters, braking hard and barely ahead of the sonic boom. They would have their work cut out for them, as they were outnumbered heavily and the birds were far more maneuverable. Their fire would be more than sufficient to cut through the fighters’ metal exterior, and I feared that the fighters would have a hard time targeting the beasts.
Ragnar stayed crouched beside me with wands at the ready, but so far none of the enemies had targeted our location. Crivreen and Purwryn were putting up effective cover fire which kept the flying beasts away from us.
The dogfight between the fighters and the beasts was an interesting one. According to the chatter on the battle net, I’d been correct in my original assessment. They apparently couldn’t lock their weapons on the creatures, so they were using their cannons in manual fire mode. The guns shredded the lizards effectively, but their accuracy was hit-and-miss without computer assistance.
“Ragnar, where are the sorcerers?” asked Raquel, sounding very impatient.
“They’re still below ground, but beyond that I can’t see,” he said.
One of my internal alarms went off, warning me that my ammo stores were low. I had heard the ground forces calling for drops of supplies, so I decided to try it. “Phareon command, Night Wisp Artillery.”
“Night Wisp Artillery, Phareon command, go,” they replied.
“Running low on thirty-millimeter high-bond carbon. Got any spare?” I asked.
“Affirmative, Night Wisp. Sending a drop. Phareon command, out,” came the reply.
Excellent, I thought to myself. I hadn’t really expected it to work. “Heads up: Phareon is sending me an ammo drop and I would prefer if no one shot it out of the sky,” I told them over my team comm.
Overhead the battle continued. The fighters had the beasts locked in combat with them. I feared that the fighters might not have the upper hand, but at least they were preventing the beasts from attacking the ground forces. Thanks to the ammo resupply that arrived shortly after my call, I was able to keep firing without ceasing. I had to be careful not to overheat my guns, but as long as I alternated between them and kept the speed down they should be able to take the abuse. I didn’t know where Zah’rak got his supplies from, but all his weapons and associated supplies were of the highest quality.
I had settled to a good pattern when, somewhere behind my position, things suddenly turned violent. There was a loud crack, followed by Ragnar spinning round and firing both his wands at once as fast as he could call out the commands. I stopped firing and turned to see three men whom I assumed to be the sorcerers in the center of our position.
My position was exposed to a rear attack, and Ragnar had moved between the sorcerers and myself. His wands were pounding the closest target, but seemed to be hitting some kind of shield. They couldn’t break through, which didn’t stop him from firing at the same spot over and over with great precision.
I tried to bring my guns to bear but didn’t have a clear shot. If I opened fire, there was a high probability of killing most of my team. I dropped the weapons and launched myself into the air at the closest target, but for the second time that week I was too slow. He pointed a finger at me and a pulse of energy flew from it; the blast hit me in mid-flight, square in the chest, and sent me tumbling back off the wall.
Chapter Fifty-Six
“Marcus is down!” shouted Ragnar.
The sorcerers had finally arrived and, just as Raquel had predicted, they teleported right among us. We had arranged ourselves in a fanned-out formation to make sure they couldn’t appear and get us all with one spell. Various mounts and structures had been left over from the time when heavy artillery had been mounted here, and these provided cover and broke the line of sight needed to target a spell.
Ragnar had jumped between Marcus and the sorcerers, firing his wands as fast as he could, and Marcus had turned to attack. He didn’t stand a chance head-on against a sorcerer, and he should have known better. I didn’t know if he’d survived the hit or the subsequent fall from the roof; either could have killed a normal human, but he was made of tougher stuff.
“Everyone, target the sorcerer Ragnar is fighting! We need to overpower their defenses!” I sent.
Everyone except Raquel turned their wands on Ragnar’s target, the third sorcerer, who started to fall back under the abuse. He was fully occupied trying to counter the attacks and could not cast a spell, which took him out of the fight for the moment.
“Stay on him!” I called out, considering grenades. I could have used telekinesis to bring them from where Marcus had placed his supplies, but we were all too close together and there didn’t seem to be enough room. We needed to finish him quickly so that we could move to the next target and then help Raquel.
“Zah’rak, look out!” sent Shira.
I spun round just in time to see that the second sorcerer had teleported behind me. The fool was too close and I continued my spin, bringing my tail up to slam him hard in the chest, but he expertly teleported away and then charged back in with his staff, swinging it like a sword.
I pulled my staff from the air as Raquel had taught me, just in time to block his blow. Impos
sibly though it seemed, he had grown larger and now matched my size and strength. He kept pressing the attack with his staff, growing stronger and faster as we battled. I was totally unprepared for a sorcerer to use physical force, and that gave him even more of an advantage.
“Stay on that sorcerer; I’ve got this one,” I sent. I wasn’t sure I did, but we had to keep these two busy while Raquel battled the lead sorcerer. She was tied up in an all-out battle of magic with her opponent. Great energy flew back and forth between them, and it was impossible to guess who was winning or even to understand what was happening. I had to assume she would survive until I could try to help her.
I tried to press a counter-attack in between his attacks, but he was now definitely faster and stronger than I was. His reach even exceeded mine, and there was no question of his skill; since he looked like a normal human, I couldn’t understand how that was possible. Not that it mattered, as he beat me back closer and closer to the edge of the tower.
As my rear foot started to slide off the roof, an idea struck me. It was crazy and foolish, perhaps even idiotic, but that should make it unpredictable at least. Just as we hit the edge, I sprang forward and grabbed him around the chest. He swung a fist and tried to bash it into the side of my head, but I didn’t lessen my grip. I squeezed with all my might, forcing the air out of his lungs while springing back towards the edge and allowing myself to fall.
As we tumbled towards the ground he realized my plan and tried to break free, but it was too late. Just before we hit the ground I let go and allowed my full weight to slam into his body, using him to cushion my fall. My armor absorbed most of the shock, but he wasn’t so lucky; I heard his ribcage break and collapse under my weight.
Extending my claws, I slashed across his throat, making sure he would never cast again. Once I was sure he was dead, I attempted to stand, and then I realized how bad the fall had really been. A wave of pain tore through my body, and my lungs screamed in protest with every breath.
Sac'a'rith Page 32
