by Ramy Vance
As she, Chine, and Jim gained on the object, Alex could tell reality around her hadn’t changed, the closer she’d gotten to the green streak. That meant whatever was keeping the object from falling was natural, which somewhat put Alex at ease. “Hey, Night Watch, did you guys get the coordinates we sent you?” she asked.
Jollies’ voice crackled over the comm. “Why don’t you just use our names?” she asked. “We’re the only ones working here. Tonight, at least. And yeah, we did. I uploaded it into the system, and we’ve been waiting to see if anyone can head over to give you backup. There aren’t a whole lot of agents available, though. We’re having a hard time getting hold of anyone.”
“Where is everyone?”
“Holiday, remember? Most of the Nest is on leave. The only people left are the first-years, and I don’t think any first years are up to something this big. Seems like anytime we get involved with something, it gets a lot more intense than most of the first-years can handle. Hell, some of them are still dealing with the attack on the Nest.”
Alex had done her share of work to keep from thinking about the attack on the Nest. Much like her lost arm, it was better not to dwell on it. Thinking too much opened a well of emotions Alex didn’t want to feel. Painful guilt clenched her chest and bent her thoughts toward that simple feeling of shame she couldn’t hide from.
If there was one thing Alex wanted to stop feeling, it was guilt. No matter how she looked at the situation at the Nest, it rubbed the inside of her chest raw. But she could push it away for now. She’d grown pretty good at doing that.
Jollies was still talking, but Alex had zoned out for a second. She brought herself back to the conversation. The pixie was going on about who to send out into the field. “We might be able to pull in some of Roy’s mech riders. I don’t think those guys ever take a day off, or maybe they don’t take their days on seriously. Oh, and Gill is going to head over shortly.”
It was the first time all day Alex had been happy to hear Gill’s name. Having her team around right now sounded like the best idea. “You should avoid confronting the ship, though,” Jollies said. “At least until you have a better idea of what you’re up against. Otherwise, it could be dangerous.”
Alex agreed with the pixie. Getting close and taking a good, long look at whatever the hell had fallen out of the sky sounded like the best idea. “What’s Gill’s ETA?”
“Probably half an hour or so. He wasn’t at the Nest, and he wasn’t too far from you guys.”
Jim’s voice came over the comm. “Wonder what he was up to today?” Jim wondered.
Alex did, as well. Neither she nor Jim was suspicious of Gill like the rest of the cadets at the Nest. Apparently, drow didn’t have a good reputation with the other races in the realm. Even though Gill had been a part of several decisive victories, many of the elves at the Nest still looked at him with mistrust.
Alex and Jim were finally close enough to the descending ship to be able to scan it. Alex pulled up her HUD visor and gave the ship a simple yet thorough scan. She didn’t bother looking at the information but sent it straight to the Nest.
What Alex really cared about couldn’t be seen through the visor. She squinted, activating her superb dragon vision and focusing on the energy trail around the ship. It was definitely the same energy that had been attached to the meteor Team Boundless had fought. That meant that even if this wasn’t the same kind of ship that had come through before, it had come from the same place.
In addition to the energy, Alex could see there was a host of vrosks and harpies near the ship. Great, Alex thought. Had to bring friends along with you. Alex was preparing to report to the Nest that the ship was definitely going to be a problem. Then she looked closer.
The creatures surrounding the ship were attacking it, both the vrosks and the harpies biting at the ship’s steel sides. Now that’s interesting, Alex thought to herself. She commed Jollies. “Hey, so there’s a shit-ton of dark creatures around the ship, but they’re going after it. I think this might be something the Dark One wants.”
Jollies answered quickly. “If that’s the case, you need to stay a good distance away. You two just keep an eye on things until Gill gets there. We don’t want to escalate anything beyond what we’re staffed for at the moment.”
That made sense. Alex was about to disconnect when a voice broke over her comm as her HUD flashed the message Urgent.
Alex picked up. Myrddin, the ancient wizard responsible for the majority of humanity’s resistance against the Dark One, spoke up, and he sounded drunk off his ass. “Alex!” he bellowed.
Alex was glad her comm was partially mental and not completely physical because the volume of Myrddin’s voice would have ruptured her eardrum. She could practically smell the booze through the comm. “Yes, sir?”
“Just got your message from the Nest. A bit of a problem…yes, bit of a problem. Most of the staff at the Nest is gone. Vacation. You know all about that. But…but…what were we talking about again?”
“I think you called concerning the ship, sir?”
“Ah, yes…yes…well, you see, that ship is going to be a problem. We can’t just have other-dimensional ships landing anytime they want to, but I’m going to need you to wait for backup. Just wait—”
Alex was trying to be polite, but she felt like Myrddin was wasting her time. “Sir, Jollies just told me not to engage. What’s your position on that, sir?” A loud cheer bellowed through the comm. “Where are you, sir?”
Myrddin burped loudly before shouting something unintelligible at someone who must have been walking by. “Huge victory on the Dwarf homeworld. Was celebrating, but doesn’t seem like the best time. I’m using magic to sober up. Still takes a moment. Be there once I am. An hour, two at the most. Until then, you’re in control of the mission. There’s a tactical planner on your dragon anchor. It’ll give you access to some things you might need. Be in touch in a bit.”
Myrddin signed off, and Alex signaled to Jim to stop. He popped open his cockpit and leaned out. “What’s going on?”
Alex sat down on Chine and watched the ship in the distance. “Just got off the comm with Myrddin. We’re gonna take this mission. Let’s find a place to set down, wait for Gill, and figure out what we’re going to do.”
Jim pointed to a small copse of trees in the distance that seemed to have enough cover to obscure the mech and the dragon. “How about there?”
Alex scanned the area around for the next couple of miles. Those trees would be a good place to start, but they were going to have to keep moving if they were going to catch up with the ship. “Yeah, this’ll work. We better get started.”
Chapter Six
Alex and Jim touched down and started to make their way through the forest. Alex wanted to find a place where they were not visible to whatever was following the ship, but they could still get enough intel to make sure they weren’t leading reinforcements into a trap.
Even if all the battle prep classes Alex had been taking were extremely boring, she was glad some of it had rubbed off on her. She’d started to look at fights as something more complicated than “Make a good plan and hope it all works out.”
After the last mission Team Boundless had been on, Alex had been able to speak briefly to the leader of another squad who was a few years older than her. Suzuki of the Mundanes had been lauded as one of the best strategists Middang3ard had to offer, and despite his age, some of his battle strategies had been taught in class.
One of the things Suzuki had told her was each battle was shaped by a variety of factors that were determined before the fight took place. Some of those factors were understood on an unconscious level, like size, strength, and things that could be easily seen.
Other factors had to be searched out, and those were often the ones that determined victory or defeat.
Alex had wished she could have spent more time with the Mundanes. It had been refreshing to see so many humans close to her age. Since she had never gone to hig
h school, Alex had only had the experience of cliques at the Nest to learn how people her age acted. Spending time with the Mundanes might have been a relief.
A focused mind was what Alex needed at the moment, but she couldn’t seem to keep her thoughts from wandering. Resentment was something she felt strongly. Her mind kept going back to the first few weeks of classes and how most of the first years had completely ignored her. She was angrier at them than she was at Brath, who she’d forgiven. At least Brath’d had the nerve to get in her face.
Her resentment felt like a betrayal, even if she never expressed it. She’d sworn to protect the Nest and all of the people within it. Part of Alex hated them, and she wished she didn’t. She wouldn’t have wanted anything to happen to any of them, but she despised the way they had cheered for her when she’d given her speech after her first battle. How they’d told her she was so brave for continuing after her arm had been blown off, as if they’d all forgotten how much she struggled, being the first and only human dragonrider. Alex’s mother had told her resentment could sneak in and eat at you from the inside, a cancer that would kill you before you realized it. Alex was aware of her feelings, and she did feel like they were killing her.
Jim’s voice brought her out from her circular, intrusive thoughts. “Hey, are you okay? You seem kinda spaced out?” he asked.
Alex didn’t want to talk to Jim about any of the things she was thinking. He’d either think she was being an ass or was just generally ungrateful. Well, to be honest, there was no way to be certain how Jim would react to her thoughts, but Alex didn’t want to risk him being another person who gave her odd looks. “Nothing, just trying to figure out the next move,” she said. “Come on.”
She pointed to a raised spot in the forest. “We’ll be able to get a better view from up here.”
The two humans and the dragon made their way up the steady slope until they came to the top. Alex was right, there was a much better view of the ship. From here, it was easier to see the swerving streak the ship had left behind in the sky.
The ship was definitely coming down, but it must still have power because its descent was measured, as if the pilot were trying to conserve as much energy as possible. That would also explain why the ship hadn’t bothered fighting off the dark creatures that had attached themselves to it.
At the rate the ship was descending, it could be another two or three hours before it touched the ground. And there was no way to intercept it, given the lack of resources the Nest had at the moment. On a properly staffed day, Alex could have called for a dropship to scoop up the craft. There would have been reinforcements to deal with the dark creatures.
Great day for a holiday, Alex thought.
Jim exited from his mech and walked over to the edge, gazing through a pair of binoculars at the scene. Past the forest, the land stretched out, with hills breaking up the flat land. “That doesn’t look good,” Jim muttered, passing the binoculars to Alex, who waved them away. Instead, she focused.
In the darkness, there were other creatures moving about. Dozens of wargs and giants moved through the shadows toward where they assumed the ship was going to come down. There were more than Alex and Jim could deal with alone—enough to pose a risk if they were to screw up.
These were the visible elements Suzuki had talked to Alex about—the things that would determine if she was going to end up dead. Now was the time to look for those invisible factors.
Alex remembered that Myrddin had told her to check out the tactical planner in her dragon anchor. She hadn’t heard anything about it before Myrddin had brought it up, so it was probably a new addition, either from an upgrade or her steady increase in rank.
As Alex pulled up the tactical planner, she noticed Chine was moving uncomfortably. The dragon was probably getting annoyed with his augments. It would be a good idea to take care of that before a fight if there was going to be one. Hey, Chine, ready to get drained?
He rolled his shoulders and breathed a small wisp of fire. I don’t think it’s necessary at the moment. It is only a slight discomfort.
Oh, come on. Better safe than sorry, right? It’ll only take a little time.
Chine’s body relaxed, and he let himself sink onto the soft grass. Alex knew she wasn’t going to have to ask again.
Alex walked around to his front legs. She found the dragon anchor insertion slot and slid her hand all the way down the anchor and into it. The anchor covered her skin, which would have been burnt otherwise.
The augments dragons wore for battle were extremely effective, but they had one very bad downside. They were hell on a dragon’s body, constantly tearing the flesh and burning them by drawing so much of the dragon’s fiery, acidic blood. With careful maintenance and communication between rider and dragon, this could be avoided.
That was where the dragon anchors came into use. Not only did the anchors literally anchor the rider to the dragon’s back during flight, but they were also used to drain the dragon’s augments of draconic fluid and process that fluid through the rider’s bloodstream. Once a rider was bound, they became more dragon each day.
The process had never been fully explained to Alex and seemed to be taken for granted by all the other riders and teachers. Alex hadn’t gotten over her fear of being seen as an idiot for asking, so the whole situation still was shrouded in mystery. But at the same time, Alex’s eyes had the capabilities of a dragon’s. She was already more dragon than any of the other cadets.
Alex soaked the draconic fluid into her dragon anchor and let the anchor integrate it into her blood. When she was finished with all the augments, Alex climbed atop Chine and plunged her anchor into the final spot, his spinal augment. That augment was never removed. It was what anchored Alex to the dragon and the dragon to her.
Once the fluid had all been drained, Alex sat down and let the fluid integrate into her bloodstream. She was glad she had taken care of it now. The longer you went, the more painful the process became for the dragon and the rider. At the stage it was at right now, it was only uncomfortable for Chine. After a drawn-out battle, it was like having salt thrown on a wound.
For Alex, the difference was in how much her blood heated. Either way, it was going to hurt, but absorbing this much hot fluid into her body was easily doable. After a couple of minutes, the heat in her veins disappeared. She decided to take a brief break to look at that tactical planner.
Alex opened her anchor and looked through its menus until she found the planner. She clicked it, and a virtual board opened in front of her. The board was mapped in a sixty-mile radius around her position.
There were figures representing Alex, Jim, and Chine, along with figures representing the descending ship, the mass of flying dark creatures, and the land monsters hunting the ship. “Whoa!” Alex exclaimed, “Now that is kinda cool.”
Alex jumped off of the dragon and waved Jim over to her. “You gotta check this out,” she told him. He wasted no time. “We have a pretty good look at the lay of the land from this thing right here.”
Jim took a look at the hologram. “I think it’s only showing what you’ve already seen. Look here. You don’t have anything displayed over that hill. I think it’s because we can’t see over it.”
A little of the excitement left Alex. She wished she had paid close enough attention to have seen that for herself. Still, she was glad Jim had brought it to her attention. “Okay, well, then I know what we’re doing next. We need to map out the rest of this terrain.”
Alex commed Jollies and asked, “So, where are those reinforcements?”
“I’m nearly there!” Jollies answered.
“Wait! I thought you said you were finding reinforcements?”
“Since you’re so good at listening, you might remember me saying almost no one is here. We don’t have enough bodies to leave their stations, but Brath said he’d take care of the night watch on his own until a replacement came by, so I flew out here to help you.”
Alex would have preferred
another couple dozen riders, but Jollies was more than competent on her dragon. Besides, if Alex was being honest, she would have taken Gill, Jollies, and even Brath over twenty other riders. “All right, Jollies. I got something for you when you get here.”
“Kinda figured we weren’t going to have time to wait for reinforcements. You know, since they’re not coming.”
Alex stared down at the blank spots of the hologram map. She was going to start acquainting herself with those invisible factors.
Chapter Seven
Gill and Jollies arrived at Alex’s and Jim’s coordinates around the same time. Jollies was riding Amber, an electric dragon proportionate to Jollies’ small frame. The two were a good match, but it was always funny to see Jollies with the rest of the squad. Jollies was small enough to fit in Alex’s palm, but she had a personality the size of a mountain.
Gill rode Timber, an earth dragon. He was a muted brown with relaxed scales and unassuming claws and fangs—a dragon perfectly suited for Gill, who was a quiet drow. Gill rarely raised his voice to anything above his usual deep, soft tone. It was hard to tell when he was excited. Unlike Jollies, his skin didn’t change color with his mood.
The two dragonriders jumped off their dragons and came over to where Alex and Jim were sitting. Jim and Gill exchanged a quick hug, Gill asking Jim something Alex couldn’t hear. Even if Gill wasn’t so soft-spoken, Alex still probably wouldn’t have been able to hear because Jollies came flying up to her ear, speaking rapidly.
Alex politely pulled Jollies away from her ear and placed the pixie on her shoulder. “Hold on, hold on. I’ll tell you everything later. We have something more pressing to take care of.”
Jollies flashed bright red and crossed her arms. “What makes you think I wasn’t talking about the mission?”
“Were you asking me about the mission?”
