“Is it dead?” Richard asked as he shoved the demon’s legs away from his head and tried to wipe the black goo off of his visor.
“As a doornail,” replied Nickelo. “Which by the way is how I calculate your elf and the rest of the Defiant’s crew are going to wind up if you don’t get off your feet and help them.”
Leaving the few remaining pirates around him to the two scouts, Richard jumped to his feet and headed toward the intersection. Neither Jeena nor any of the Defiant’s crew was in sight, but the flurry of energy beams passing across the intersection told him his friends were in heavy combat. He sensed a build-up of energy from one of the demons near the troopship’s airlock.
Boom!
A bright flash intermixed with a thick smoke came rolling past the intersection.
“Jeena!” Richard yelled as he picked up speed to the battle suit’s maximum.
“She’s fine,” said Nickelo. “Comstar and the gnome mages are funneling Power into her defensive shield. It’s holding for now. The other demons and magic users are following suit and funneling their own Power to the most powerful of the demons. I calculate you need to hurry.”
Sending another five percent of his Power down his bond link to Jeena, Richard accompanied it with an emotion that meant only one thing. “Hold on. I’m coming.”
Chapter 27 – An Opening
_________________
Once Timerman dropped the Defiant’s crew into the opening created by the explosion in the yacht’s bridge, he pulled the X-shuttle back a light second to wait for Sergeant Ron’s orders. The next five minutes were the longest of his life.
At least the two destroyers have stopped firing at the yacht, he thought. From the chatter on the intercom, the pirates have boarded the ship. He slapped the armrest of the X-shuttle’s pilot seat with the palm of his left hand. My friends are fighting for their lives, and I’m sitting here doing nothing.
Unable to stand it any longer, Timerman punched the intercom icon on the armrest of his pilot’s seat. “Sergeant Ron, I am in position. Do you want me to start my attack run?”
The agitated voice of the Defiant’s captain sounded loud and clear over the X-shuttle’s intercom. “Negative. Now stay off the air until I give you the order. The last thing we need is for those destroyers to pick up a signal from some young, inexperienced fool before we start our gun runs.”
Timerman felt his face grow warm and glanced over his shoulder, knowing before he did that no one else was inside the X-shuttle to witness his embarrassment. The cabin was as empty as he knew it would be. He checked the tactical hologram between the pilot and copilot’s seats. The white dot denoting Asquan in the dragon-fighter was at his seven o’clock position exactly five light seconds behind him. A second white dot at his five o’clock showed the position of Daniel in the Zip fighter. A green dot on the tactical hologram indicated the location of the Defiant a full ten light seconds behind the two fighters.
“Maybe the Defiant should be a little closer,” Timerman said out loud.
The voice of Margery came over the shuttle’s intercom. “Everyone is exactly where they should be. This is your first major engagement in a ship other than the Defiant. Rick’s plan is a good one. Don’t start second guessing it now. We can’t start our attack on the destroyers until our team on the yacht has its airlock secured. Once that happens, you won’t have time to ask questions. You’ll be too busy dodging plasma beams and missiles from the destroyers to worry about where everyone else is.”
Sufficiently chastised, the teenage orc did another check of the X-shuttle’s weapons systems. The mix of magic and technology weapons Sergeant Hendricks had installed on the X-shuttle was ready and waiting. He grasped the shuttle’s joy stick with his right hand. The gray calloused skin of his palm completely covered the small lever.
“The blasted thing’s too small for my hand,” he said speaking more to take his mind off the wait than he was worried about the size of the controls.
“The X-shuttle was made with humans in mind,” replied Margery. “You are an orc. Now get ready. Jeehana and her team are almost at the airlock. I calculate it will not be long now.”
Touching an icon on the control panel with his left hand, Timerman lined up the X-shuttle’s gunsight on the nearest destroyer’s engine. I’ve got to take the engine out on the first pass, he thought. The others are depending on me. I cannot let them down.
“Ten seconds,” said Margery. “Warm up the engines on your missiles.”
“Affirmative,” Timerman said, eager for something to do. He fired up the engines on the three magic-based missiles and their three technology-based counterparts. Vibrations from the deck passed through his boots confirming the missiles were ready and waiting.
“Five, four, three, two, one. Go!” ordered Margery.
Timerman moved the joy stick forward and fired off a quick burst of the hyper-drive. From past training missions in the simulator with Tia and Asquan, he knew his reflexes weren’t quick enough to make a one second jump. He was totally dependent on Margery to make sure he didn’t overshoot his target. He wasn’t worried. He’d learned to trust the ex-battle computer during his time on the Defiant.
“Creator help me,” Timerman whispered. “I will not let my friends down. I cannot let them down.”
* * *
After the last of the energy from the exploding ball of purple flesh that was the demon passed overhead, Jeena picked herself up off the metal deck and took a step toward her bondmate. She couldn’t help but fear for his life. By a fluke of bad luck, he’d wound up lying on the deck between the legs of an orange demon that was busy fighting Red Wing and another Crosioian scout.
“According to Nickelo, that second scout is the Crosioians’ supreme leader,” came Danny’s thought in her mind more as an image than words.
“I have to help Rick,” Jeena thought back.
“No!” said Danny. “Rick can take care of himself. He’s got the two scouts and Sheeta to help him. Look at the plots on the heads-up display of your helmet. The pirates and their demon allies are going to overwhelm the Defiant’s crew if Comstar and you don’t get back to the airlock pronto.”
Much as she wanted to rush to the aid of her bondmate, Jeena forced herself to look at her heads-up display. The numerous yellow, red, and blue dots massing in the docking tube at a point just beyond the yacht’s open airlock told the story. Her strike team was going to be overrun by the transport’s boarders in a few seconds.
Taking a final glance at her bondmate, Jeena raised her staff, spun, and sprinted toward the forward airlock. Comstar and the dwarf Stovis were hot on her heels. As soon as the airlock came into view, she sensed a build-up of energy just past the doorway. Floating in the open airlock was a yellow eyeball the size of a small pony. A dozen elf-long tentacles waved in the air, shooting out multicolored beams of light at the Defiant’s security team. The five dwarves were hiding behind metal trusses on either side of the corridor on the yacht’s side of the docking tube. All five dwarves were firing furiously at the floating eye, but their magic and technology based beams and bullets only succeeded in bouncing harmlessly off a shimmering shield to the demon-eye’s front.
A translucent shield appeared between the eye and the dwarves. Jeena sensed the frequency of Calatron, the leader of the gnome mages, in the defensive shield. Suddenly, a beam of yellow light shot out from the demon-eye, striking the gnome’s shield. Calatron’s defensive shield bent inward as the eye’s powerful magic slowly forced its way forward.
The ring on Jeena’s left hand tingled. “Calatron can’t hold the shield on his own,” said Danny.
A line of magic reached out from behind Jeena to form a second defensive shield just inside the gnome’s shield. She recognized Comstar’s frequency.
Boom!
The gnome’s shield gave way just as Comstar’s shield formed. The eye’s yellow beam slammed against the elf’s magic, forcing Comstar’s shield inward the same as it had the gnome’s.
Jeena started to reinforce the defensive shield of her fellow elf but decided against it in a split-second decision. Some sixth sense warned her that the demon-eye’s spell was created specifically to overpower defensive shields. Drawing Power from the Staff of the Lady of the Tree, Jeena wrapped the dwarves, gnomes, Comstar, and herself in telekinetic magic. As Comstar’s defensive shield gave way to the eye’s spell, her fellow elf’s defensive shield erupted in an explosion of fire and smoke. Jeena pushed outward with her telekinesis spell, doing her best to force the flames away from her companions and herself. A bright flash filled the corridor followed by a wave of dense smoke so black even her night vision was unable to penetrate. Heat flowed into her power-armor, but the air conditioning unit kept the temperature to a bearable level. The wave of smoke rolled past, clearing the air enough to see.
“Is anybody hurt?” Jeena said in the space of her mind she used to communicate with Danny.
“Everyone on our strike team was in power-armor,” replied Danny. “They’ll live, although I think a couple of the dwarves closer to the blast may have gotten their beards singed a little. I sense that some of the pirates’ magic users and a few of the demons are feeding energy into that demon-eye. I calculate the next spell is going to be massive. I doubt your little telekinesis trick is going to do the job the next time.”
Jeena doubted it too. She sensed Comstar and the dwarves funneling Power into her.
“Well, two can play at this game,” she thought as she drew Power from her reserve and converted it into magic with a few hand movements and spoken words. A ball of magic formed in her hands, growing more intense by the second as the magic from Comstar and the gnomes combined with hers. As her spell grew in intensity, Jeena noticed a similar concentration of magic building in the demon-eye.
The ring on Jeena’s hand tingled. “I calculate the eye’s spell is going to be ready first,” said Danny. “I highly recommend you hurry.”
Whether the battle computer’s calculation was correct or not, Jeena didn’t find out. An emotion came down the link she shared with her bondmate. She intuitively knew what it meant. “Hold on. I’m coming.” At the same time, a dark, wolf-like shape came leaping out of the metal floor near the demon-eye. It was Sheeta. The big male dolgar grabbed hold of one of the eye’s tentacles and spun the demon a full hundred and eighty degrees. At that exact moment, another ray of yellow light shot out from the floating eye. Instead of the beam hitting the Defiant’s crew as intended, it blasted into the pirates, magic users, and demons massing in the docking tube just past the Defiant’s airlock.
Boom!
The eye’s magic decimated anyone on the transport’s side of the docking tube that wasn’t behind a defensive shield. Dark smoke once again filled the corridor, blocking Jeena’s view of the eye, but she sensed its life energy with her passive scan. She also sensed other demons and magic users moving forward. Without waiting for the smoke to clear, Jeena released her spell. A blast of blue magic leaped out from her staff, filling the airlock and the docking tube behind it with a freezing-cold wind of near hurricane force. The smoke disappeared completely as it was replaced by flying bits of snow and ice. The force of the wind stripped the paint off the metal walls of the airlock as it continued on into the docking tube. The space in the center of the Defiant’s airlock cleared. It revealed the demon-eye floating in the airlock, surrounded by a shimmering defensive shield. Two of the orange, humanoid-looking demons stood on either side of the eye protected by shields of their own. Although Jeena couldn’t see them, she sensed other demons and magic users hiding behind defensive shields in the docking tube. They were in a perfect position to charge into the yacht as soon as the demon-eye cleared the airlock. Jeena saw no sign of Sheeta, but she did sense a disturbance in the void that she assumed was the big dolgar.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The yacht shook violently as distant explosions echoed throughout the corridor. Jeena, Comstar, as well as all of the dwarves and gnomes fell to the corridor’s floor. Caught in the midst of casting a second spell, Jeena pulled the magic back inside her. Either luck or skill was on her side as she gained control over the half-completed spell and forced the magic back into her reserve before it malfunctioned.
Glancing up, Jeena saw the demon-eye still floating in the center of the airlock. The two orange demons were on the airlock’s floor, scrambling to get up the same as her strike team. A yellow glow began forming around the eye as other demons and magic users inside the docking tube resumed funneling Power into the demon-eye. Jeena sensed a massive spell building in the eye’s pupil.
This is it, Jeena thought as she pulled Power from her reserve and began reciting the incantation for her most potent defensive spell.
“I am here,” came an emotion through Jeena’s bond link.
Even as she continued her chant, she smiled and pushed herself off the deck with help from the assistors in the arms of her power-suit. As she rose, two wolf-like shapes came out of the airlock’s walls and latched onto the throats of each of the orange demons. The dolgars didn’t try to shift into the void. Instead, they began shaking their heads back and forth, ripping demon flesh from bone while sucking out life force. The orange demons’ pain-filled screams echoed down the corridor, giving hope to Jeena’s strike team.
A translucent shape dressed in black armor rose out of the airlock’s floor directly behind the floating demon-eye. The eye began to turn. Jeena completed her defensive spell just as the demon-eye completed its turn. Instead of forming the shield to her front as she’d intended, Jeena shifted her magic to surround the attacking dolgars and Richard. The red glow of her bondmate’s phase rod plunged into the demon-eye. The tentacles on top of the eye fired beams of magic at Richard from pointblank range, but Jeena’s defensive shield was too strong. The beams ricocheted off the shield and back into the docking tube. Fiery explosions filled the tube. The blasts were accompanied by screams of the wounded from what was left of the massed pirates, magic users, and demons in the docking tube.
Jeena ran forward to the very edge of the airlock. The demon-eye was slamming its body into the ceiling and walls in an attempt to tear her bondmate from his perch on top of the eye. Jeena sensed Richard pumping pure Power into the demon-eye through his phase rod. The eye’s tentacles changed tactics and began tearing at her bondmate’s battle suit with teeth-filled suckers.
“No!” Jeena shouted as she rushed into the airlock and began beating at the demon’s defensive shield with the Staff of the Lady of the Tree.
Comstar joined her and blasted the eye with a bolt of electricity barely missing her bondmate. Felspar and his dwarves ran up swinging glowing battle axes and hammers at the demon-eye and its two orange demon guards. Stovis reared back and swung a mighty blow of his battle axe at the demon-eye, cutting off one tentacle at its base. The eye screamed. How it could scream without a mouth, Jeena didn’t know, but scream it did nevertheless.
Two Crosioians dressed in scout armor ran up to Jeena’s left and right and began stabbing at the eye with their phase spears. She recognized one of the scouts as Red Wing. Jeena sensed Red Wing drill into the demon-eye’s defensive shield with a line of Power, creating a small hole. In went the tip of Red Wing’s phase spear, directly into the center of the eye’s pupil. Again the demon-eye screamed.
Jeena maneuvered around the dolgars as they tore at the orange demons. She was forced to dodge in order to avoid the swings of the dwarves’ battle axes and hammers. Once she was in a momentary clear space, she shoved the Staff of the Lady of the Tree through the open wound in the pupil created by Red Wing. As soon as the blue gem at the top of the Lady’s staff entered the demon-eye’s pupil, she sensed the staff’s Power reach out to make contact with the flow of Power coming from Richard’s phase rod. When the two lines of Power met…
Boom!
Jeena, Comstar, the dwarves, and the two Crosioian scouts were all thrown back down the corridor on the Defiant’s side of the airlock, all the way to the spot
where the gnomes had formed a final defensive line. By some miracle, Calatron, the gnome’s leader, changed his defensive shield into a softening cushion of air in time to reduce the impact enough for Jeena to hit the deck without injury. Jumping to her feet, she looked at the airlock. No living thing remained inside the goo-splattered walls.
“Rick!” Jeena shouted.
“Relax,” came Danny’s thought in her mind. “The dolgars and Rick shifted into the void. They’ll meet us on the yacht’s engine deck. The X-shuttle and the fighters are making their gun runs now. They’re going to destroy the docking tube. You’ve got to get that airlock door shut while it’s still empty.”
Turning to the only one she knew that was familiar with Crosioian technology, Jeena pointed at Red Wing who was just pushing herself off the corridor’s floor.
“We’ve got to shut the airlock,” Jeena shouted. “Timerman and the others are making their attacks.”
Before Red Wing could react, the second scout, the one Danny had told Jeena was the supreme leader, jumped to a panel on the corridor’s wall and slapped a button. Whish! The airlock door slammed shut.
“That will not stop the boarders for long,” hissed the supreme leader. “We must get to the engine room and detonate the self-destruct. We will die with honor.”
“No!” Jeena said. “We will not die. My bondmate has a plan.”
Chapter 28 – The Plan
____________________
Sergeant Ron’s voice came over the X-shuttle’s intercom. “Blow an opening in their shield.”
Timerman took a look at the four starships through the shuttle’s windscreen. Between the transport and the two destroyers, the yacht was so tightly wedged in place that it couldn’t have moved even if its bridge had still been intact, which it wasn’t. The twenty-meter-long tube connecting the yacht and transport’s airlocks together was still in place.
Wizard Defender (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 8) Page 26
