Red Wing hissed a laugh. “Surely you are not serious?”
“Never more,” Richard replied, surprised that he actually believed it himself. “Now tell me who the last two scouts for our team would be. From what you’ve told me, we need two full quads for the recon.”
Six heartbeats passed as Red Wing stared at Richard. Finally she nodded. “As I said, you almost make me believe, Wizard Scout. I suppose another would be First-Out-Of-The-Nest. She is young, but she is a shifter like me. She might come in handy. You cannot miss her. She is the only all blonde scout among the applicants. She tends to stay near a solid black scout called Kill-In-The-Dead-Of-Night. As a protector, Kill-In-The-Dead-Of-Night’s defensive shield is the best I have ever seen. I would choose her as the last member of our team if I was given the chance.”
One of the guards to their front hissed.
“We must go,” said Red Wing. “It is time.”
“Fine by me,” Richard replied. “Just do me a favor and target the six bats for our team with Power when we get in the arena. I’d hate to kill one of them by accident.”
Red Wing hissed a loud laugh and began walking at a brisk pace. Richard stayed at her side matching stride for stride. Before long, the four scout guards ahead of them stopped in front of a set of double doors made out of some gold-colored metal. Two bats that were a third smaller than Red Wing stood by the doorway holding wing-blades in their hands. Something different about the two smaller bats caught Richard’s attention.
“They’re males.”
“Yes,” replied Red Wing taking a weapon from one of the male bats. She nodded at the second male. “Take your weapon, Wizard Scout.”
Reaching out, Richard accepted the weapon from the male. The blades were highly shined and intricately carved. He noticed the blades of his weapon had twice as many etchings as Red Wing’s.
Apparently noticing Richard’s interest in the carvings, Red Wing said, “Your wing-blade belonged to my mother. Each symbol on the blade represents a victory over an opponent.”
Holding out the weapon, Richard offered it to Red Wing. “Maybe you should take it.”
“No,” said Red Wing. “It is a good weapon; the best. Believe me when I say that you are going to need all the help you can get if you are to survive this day.”
The double doors swung outward, and Red Wing raised her wing-blade to an on-guard position as she stepped through the opening. The sound of the rushing wind Richard had been hearing was accompanied by a hissing so loud and high-pitched that it hurt his ears. With a sigh, he raised his own weapon to an on-guard position and glanced at the male who’d handed him the wing-blade.
“Well,” Richard said. “No guts, no glory.”
“So they say,” replied the male in an almost friendly hiss. “The trick is to make sure it is your opponent’s guts and not yours that litter the arena floor when the battle is done.”
Yep, Richard thought. That’s definitely the trick. Then he stepped through the doorway to meet his fate.
Chapter 40 – First Contact
____________________
Ensign Onston’s Zip fighter stayed close to Tia’s right wing as they eased their way through the asteroid belt near the outer ring of the Criterion star system. In addition to the asteroids, seven planets circled Criterion with the planet Estos being the fourth from the sun. Tia unconsciously strained her eyes in the direction where she knew the frozen planet with the Empire’s POWs was located. She saw only the lights of distant stars.
Heck, Tia thought, this asteroid belt is so far out that I can barely see the sun, much less a planet. Tia wondered if she’d done right when she’d insisted that she lead one of the Conglomerate’s recon teams.
I should’ve requested that I be assigned to a unit a little closer to Estos. That’s where the action’s gonna be. If I even think Matt stuck me with the fleet assigned to the asteroid belt to keep me out of the main battle, I swear I’ll make him sorry he was ever born. She knew she would do no such thing but decided she would definitely make him a little miserable.
“Lieutenant,” came Ensign Onston’s voice over the fighter’s intercom. “I’m picking up an energy source on my sensors. I can’t get a lock on it. The energy keeps slipping in and out.”
Tia noted a shakiness in the young pilot’s voice. She was very aware that the battle for Estos would be the young man’s first major action. It’s not his fault, she thought trying to be considerate. She’d been impressed with the young man’s enthusiasm and desire to please over the last few hours. None of the Conglomerate’s forces saw action the last time we fought here. Their commanders kept them out of the battle. I think the Conglomerate troops are brave enough. They just never got the chance to prove it.
Eyeing the readouts on her fighter’s control panel, Tia punched an icon to bring up the data from her wingman’s fighter. She spotted the energy source in question. “Computer,” Tia said. “Give me an analysis of the ensign’s energy reading.”
“Unable to comply, Lieutenant,” replied the emotionless voice of the fighter’s computer. “The energy reading does not match anything in my databanks. I calculate a twenty percent probability it may be a malfunction with the ensign’s equipment.”
Tia took her Zip fighter’s computer calculation with a grain of salt. It wasn’t a battle computer. Her fighter’s computer was just hardware. It wasn’t a living organism like a battle computer.
I got too used to working with Danny and Margery when I was on the Defiant, she thought. Well, I don’t have them here now, so I’ll just have to make do.
Spotting a nearby asteroid twice the size of her zipper, Tia eased the fighter over until its port wing was only a meter away from the gray rock. She shot a short blast of ion energy out of her maneuvering thrusters to match the asteroids rotation. Ensign Onston positioned his Zip fighter alongside a larger chunk of floating rock a hundred meters away. Satisfied the asteroids would provide them at least some cover while she tried to figure out the origin of her wingman’s energy reading, Tia drew Power from her reserve and formed an active scan the way Richard and his brother Gaston had taught her during their year on Portalis. Reaching out with the scan, she searched the surrounding area for any telltale signs of energy. She spotted nothing except for what would be expected in outer space.
“What do you want me to do?” asked Ensign Onston.
“Stay off the blasted communications channel unless you have something to report,” Tia snapped, more frustrated at her inability to spot the energy than angry at her wingman. She wondered if the rest of the Conglomerate’s pilots ignored radio silence as much as her ensign.
“Computer,” Tia said. “Assume Onston’s energy frequency isn’t a malfunction. Based upon best probability, calculate where the point of origin would be?”
“Compliance. I calculate multiple points of origin. Probabilities are low, but based upon those probabilities, the ensign’s readings are a combination of traces of residue energy left over from an earlier use. I am unable to calculate the original point of origin, Lieutenant.”
“Why not?” Tia said momentarily forgetting she was talking to a standard computer and not a battle computer. “You’ve got the energy source. Back trace it to a probable point of origin.”
“Unable to comply, Lieutenant.”
“Specify,” Tia growled, trying to control her increasing frustration. “Why can’t you comply?”
“Because, Lieutenant, the best probability indicates multiple points of origin centered inside every asteroid in our vicinity. This Zip fighter’s sensors detect only normal readings from the asteroids, so those points of origin are incorrect. My best calculations indicate the sensors in both Zip fighters must be malfunctioning.”
Something cold ran up Tia’s spine. She gathered more Power from her reserve and formed an active scan. Wrapping it in her best stealth shield the way Richard had taught her and Matt, she reached into the asteroid a meter from her port wing.
Something
resisted her scan.
She pushed harder.
More resistance.
What the…? Tia thought. Forgetting subtlety, she forced her active scan into the gray stone. She detected nothing in the physical dimension, but just below the surface at the uppermost level of the void, she sensed magic.
“Ensign, bug out! Now!”
Even as she reached for the controls of her zipper’s thruster, movement out the corner of her left eye drew her attention. The surface of the asteroid a meter off her left wing tip shimmered. A black cone of metal eased out of the stone’s surface followed by the body of a Crosioian Class III fighter. The helmeted figure of the bat in the fighter’s cockpit turned to stare at her as the Crosioian ship’s side thrusters attempted to turn the fighter’s nose toward her. Tia didn’t give the Crosioian pilot time to complete the maneuver. Shoving the control for the zipper’s ion thrusters full forward, she felt the air in her lungs expel out as G-forces shoved her back into the seat.
Glancing in the rear video, Tia caught a glimpse of the asteroid next to her wingman’s Zip fighter shimmer. A slightly larger version of the Class III fighter now on her tail popped out of the asteroid. She caught sight of a long trail of ion gas as Ensign Onston hit his main thrusters. Multiple lines of blue and green plasma energy shot out from the Crosioian fighter barely missing her wingman’s tail.
“I’m coming back for you,” Tia shouted into her communicator. “Plot an intercept course. You fire at the yahoo on my tail, and I’ll fire at the one on yours.” Twisting hard on her control stick, she banked the zipper into a maximum force turn. She caught the Class III fighter on her tail by surprise and gave the bat pilot a one-way-to-heaven sign as she passed twenty meters off the Crosioian’s starboard side, going in the opposite direction.
“She’s hot on my six,” said Ensign Onston. “The bat’s got a lock on my fighter.”
“Activate countermeasures,” Tia ordered pressing the firing button on her control stick.
Beams of plasma and phase energy shot out. She knew the range was too great to be accurate, but it was all she could do until she got closer. She knew the ensign’s life depended upon her distracting the Crosioian pilot long enough to keep the bat from firing.
A white flash to her front momentarily activated the blast shield on her windscreen. When it cleared in less than two seconds, only one fighter remained to her front. It was the Crosioian. A lump appeared in Tia’s throat as she realized the young ensign was gone. She’d failed to save her teammate.
“A Crosioian anti-ship missile took out your wingman,” came the emotionless voice of her fighter’s computer. “I detect three more missiles are headed in your direction. The Class III fighter to your rear has also locked onto your Zip fighter. Recommend you activate counter—”
Tia pressed the icon for countermeasures. She thumbed it as fast as her fingers could move until the COUNTERMEASURES EMPTY warning light began to flash. At the same time, she shut off her main engine and activated her reverse thrusters at max velocity. The shoulder harness of her chair dug into her flesh as she was thrown forward. Her helmet hit the edge of the zipper’s dash, causing a momentary flash of stars before her eyes. Tia heard the zipper’s audio warning for incoming missiles sound as the fighter came to a near stop. Since she was still alive, she assumed the countermeasures had done their job. Three explosions to her left front confirmed they had.
“Multiple fighters at your nine, ten, twelve, two, and three,” said the zipper’s computer. “I am detecting four destroyers and a cruiser appearing next to larger asteroids. The ship’s sensors are detecting other warships materializing. I detect—”
Tia tuned her computer out. She didn’t need electronics to tell her what was around her. Her passive scan told her all she needed to know. Flares of energy were popping up all over the place as starships by the dozens, nay by the hundreds, shifted out of the void.
“Contact the command ship,” Tia ordered, grateful Matthew was safe aboard the Conglomerate dreadnaught a quarter of a light year away. “Tell them we’ve located a major Crosioian fleet. Tell them—”
“Unable to comply, Lieutenant. All outgoing signals are being jammed. I am unable to connect to the tele-network.”
Multicolored beams of plasma energy flashed by the starboard windscreen. Tia instinctively shoved the control stick to the left. At the same time, she flicked the switch to drop six anti-ship mines behind her.
A probability percentage of .006% popped up on the fighter’s computer readout. “The odds that the fighter behind you will hit those mines are—”
A flash of white light lit up the space around Tia. The blast shield on the fighter’s windscreen activated again. Just before the screen cleared, she glanced at the computer readout on the control console. The probability percentage read 100%. Shoving the main engine throttle full forward, Tia touched the icon for the hyper-drive.
“Jump!” Tia ordered.
“You have not provided a destination,” protested her computer. “The odds of—”
“Jump now!” Tia shouted. “Jump anywhere!”
“Compliance.”
The stars visible through the windscreen shimmered as every cell in Tia’s body began to vibrate. Everything turned black. A split-second later, the light from a twin set of stars replaced the darkness.
Not bothering to punch up a star map, Tia said, “Where are we?”
“Based upon the radiation readouts of those two stars,” said the fighter’s computer, “I calculate a ninety-six percent probability we are in the Jakar star system in District Four. According to the information in my databanks, the stars entered the first stages of supernova a hundred and two years ago. Their radiation is penetrating the fighter’s force field.”
An itchy feeling spreading across Tia’s chest and down her arms told her the fighter’s computer was probably correct. She triggered a long blast from her hyper-drive to send the fighter three light seconds away from the twin stars.
“Contact fleet and relay the location of the Crosioian warships we spotted. Make sure you stress the fact that they were hiding in the void and that normal sensors won’t pick them up. Tell them they need wizard scouts to locate the enemy ships.”
“Compliance. I am now able to connect to the tele-network. Do you have additional instructions, Lieutenant?”
“Yes. Give me a direct line to Admiral of the Combined Fleets Bistos. Make it a level five priority.”
“Compliance. Stand by.”
While Tia waited for the connection to her sister, she punched in numbers on her navigation console. A glance at the computer readout indicated she was eight hundred light years from Estos. Making a snap decision, she punched in the coordinates for the main Conglomerate fleet. As she waited for the fighter’s navigation computer to crunch the numbers, an image of Matthew rose in her mind. At the same time, a feeling of concern came over the link between her ring and his. She knew without a doubt where she needed to be.
If I’m going to die, I’m going to be near Matt. That’s all there is to it.
With that thought she pressed the icon for the fighter’s hyper-drive. Everything around her shimmered before turning black.
Chapter 41 – War
____________________
The scene on the bridge of the dreadnaught Destiny was chaotic, but it was organized chaos. Dozens of uniformed personnel sat at computer terminals dragging fleet icons from one point on their screens to another as messengers ran to and fro doing who knows what. Admiral of the Combined Fleets Bistos took everything in stride while doing her best to filter out the minutia from the more important information. She took her eyes off the finger-sized hologram of her sister long enough to acknowledge her chief of staff, Admiral Akins. The admiral held out a pad with fleet data, much of which was flashing red. Scrolling the information with one finger, Liz picked out the locations of enemy sightings. There were a lot of them.
“We’re only getting a few contacts near Estos,” sa
id the chief of staff. “The majority of sightings appear to be concentrated along the asteroid belt. I don’t understand. We had our recon teams—”
“Never mind,” Liz said as she handed the pad back to the admiral. “Stick with our plan until further notice. The asteroid belt could be a ruse.”
The holographic image of Tia shifted position. “It’s no ruse, Admiral. I saw them myself. It was a full battle fleet shifting out of the void. I think—”
“You saw them, Lieutenant?” Liz asked knowing full well the answer. “Even a tight fleet formation is hundreds of thousands of kilometers across, but you saw them?”
Even as a hologram, Tia’s face turned red. “I sensed them, Sir. With my passive scan. They were hiding in the void. Our fighter’s electronic instruments won’t pick them—”
“Admiral,” said the chief of staff as he held out the electronic pad once again. “The Trecorian’s fourth fleet is reporting contact on the far side of Tardis. Fleet Admiral Donovan estimates at least a squadron of Crosioian destroyers and two cruisers. He’s not sure where they came from. According to him they just appeared out of thin air. I’m trying to confirm that now.”
Liz knew her husband wasn’t prone to exaggerations. “If Admiral Donovan said the Crosioians appeared out of thin air, then that’s what they did. As far as I’m concerned that confirms the lieutenant’s report of the bats using the void to hide.” She turned to the hologram of Tia. “Not that I didn’t believe you, Lieutenant.”
Turning back to her chief of staff, Liz gave her orders. “Deploy the main Empire and Conglomerate fleets around Estos. The Trecorians are to hold Tardis. If Estos’ sister planet falls, it will provide the bats an attack point on our troopships. Pull everything back from the asteroid belt. That’s bound to be where the Crosioians’ main fleets are hiding.”
Liz thought of the hundred and twelve wizard scouts she had ordered to Estos over the last week. She’d committed every active duty wizard scout in the Empire to Estos in order to organize the POWs without tipping off the Crosioians. No, that’s not right, she thought. Rick’s doing Creator knows what, and Telsa is on assignment in the magic dimension. Concern for her two friends passed over her. She shrugged it off. She had a war to fight.
Wizard Defender (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 8) Page 35
