“Vydor, do we have the power to face themyet?” asked Andreya.
“The army of darkness we can handle. Thelower-ranked sorcerers, regardless of their numbers, we can handle.But any one of the Seven is more than a match for us,” Isaid.
“Then how can we fight them?” askedLuke.
“Well, we have two major advantages in thiswar that offer us a chance, if we exploit them to their fullest.The first is the battlefield itself. This is interstellar space;this is where the Imperial Navy is at its most powerful, and it isa completely alien terrain to the sorcerers. As far as I can tell,they have only fought wars on planetary surfaces before. What wewill see when we come out of the jump is a large army surrounding alone space station. All the sorcerers will be on that station.”
“Destroy the summoner, and you remove thesummoned,” commented Darnath.
“Exactly. The key to this fight will bethat station. And you can be sure they know that. I fully expectthe Seven to be on that station,” I said.
“But how do we beat them?” askedGafar. “If they are greater than us, then that station is safe,and we lose.”
“No, they are not greater than us, but anyone of them can defeat any one of us. You see, our second advantageis our ability to combine our powers. To do that you need atremendous level of trust and loyalty,” I said.
“Something sorcerers are not knownfor,” said Kellyn.
“Yes, and when we combine our powers theresult is far greater than the sum of the parts. No single one ofthem can match our combined power, just as the dark specter couldnot.”
“What of the weapon?” asked Gafar.
“I have found the weapon, and the funnything is, I have known where it was all along,” I said.
“You are the weapon they were lookingfor,” stated Kellyn.
“Not just me, but all of us. They weretrying to destroy me and prevent the creation of this Councilbefore we discovered our powers. They foresaw our coming and theyknew they could not match two Councils of Wizards, so they aremoving pre-emptively to secure a victory,” I said.
I looked around the room, meeting each oftheir eyes and said, “This fight we are about to face seemsdaunting now, but each of you must remember that we are their worstfear. They are assembling all this power because they know theirtime is short, and that we come in great power to fight them. Theyare far more afraid of us than we are of them.”
“Vydor, did that other spirit tell you allthis?” asked Kellyn.
“Some of it, and some I finally figuredout. I also know who he is now; he is the same man from the historythat Mantis told us, the one who raised up the twelve wizards tofight the sorcerers the first time,” I said.
“What else do we know about him?”asked Luke.
“Nothing, but that book back in my room isconnected to him. I do not know how yet. Later, when we have peaceagain, I will take the time to read it, but now our main task is toprepare for this war. I plan to summon Mantis and see if they canspare any wizards to help us here.”
“Brilliant! Since they are amassing herein great numbers, they must be pulling forces from Mantis’ realm touse here,” said Kellyn.
“That is the hope,” I said. I thenturned to the ball and summoned Mantis, for the first time using myfull authority as grandmaster to command his appearance instead ofmerely requesting a chat.
He answered the call fairly quickly andappeared in a purple puff of smoke. When he saw me, he stopped andbowed and said, “Greetings, Grandmaster Vydor, what can I do foryou?”
“Mantis, war is upon us. I have foreseen thearmy we are about to face and it is a great gathering of darkness,greater than has ever amassed before. The sorcerers are makingtheir move now on this realm, and using all their might.”
He looked surprised at my statement and said,“Then they have found the weapon?”
“No, Mantis, you did. But it was not aweapon; it was this Council. They knew that if we were created theycould not face both of us. They wished to strike us down before weever got up,” I replied.
“Vydor, you have grown tremendously sincelast we met, but how can you know this?” he asked.
“I have met with the same man of light thatyou told of in your history lesson, and he revealed much to me, andopened my eyes to what I already knew,” I said.
The look of surprise that passed over hisface was priceless; I had never had the edge on him before, andwould have enjoyed it if not for the desperate times we faced.“Mantis, I have summoned you here to formally request anyassistance your realm can provide. Even if it is just a handful ofapprentices to scatter through our armies, anything would be ofgreat help. We fully expect to fight the Seven in this battle andwill not be able to lend our power to help the Imperial Navy.”
He slumped his shoulders and said, “I amsorry, but we cannot help at this time. In fact, I was instructedto ask you for help; it seems they are making a move in both of ourrealms. Our forces are already committed to battle. I do not knowwhere they suddenly got the numbers from to achieve this, but itseems they are calling our bluff on the two-front war.”
“And they only need to win one to take itall,” I said.
“That is why you must not lose. You mustbring everything you can to this fight. Both our realms depend onit.” He paused and looked around the room before continuing. “Youare by far the best students I have ever seen. I have faith in yourability to win this. No matter how big their armies are, there arestill only seven master-level sorcerers, and we have fourteen now.They will have to choose a place to make their stand, and it islikely to be here because they will underestimate the power youhave acquired. When that happens, their power in our realm will dipconsiderably and we should be able to win on our front and thensend reinforcements here, if you have not won already.”
“So we really just need to keep them busyonce they arrive,” said Kellyn.
“I fear help will not be able to reach us intime. If we see the enemy, we must engage them to the fullest,” Isaid.
“Yes, Vydor is right. If they know you arestalling they will exploit that to their own advantage. Now,Grandmaster, with your permission I need to bring this news back tomy realm and rejoin the fight,” said Mantis.
“Go forth, Mantis, and I expect to see you atthe victory party,” I said. He smiled, winked and disappeared.
“So we are on our own,” said Luke.
“No, we are not. Not only do we have theseven most powerful wizards in the realm here, but we are alsobacked by the might of the most powerful military in history. Wewill win this so long as we continue to stand together and notwaver,” said Kellyn.
“Well said, Kellyn. Do not forget they areused to fighting against men on horseback wielding swords, notmassive battleships, destroyers and particle weapons. The onlyadvantage they have is in numbers; the rest favors us. We will bevictorious!” I said.
“Now, we are running out of time before wewill be jumping into the battle and I must meet with the captainand discuss our fight plan, so unless there are any questions I amgoing to adjourn this meeting.” No one spoke, so I closed themeeting and we returned to the observation lounge.
“Commander, please come to the observationlounge for pre-battle briefing,” I said over the comm.
When he arrived I said, “Commander, when wecome out of the jump we need to be in full stealth mode. We willnot be joining the opening moves of the battle. Once the two armiesare locked in battle we will move to hit their primary center ofcommand. It is a space station that will be in the center of theirforces. I want you to lead three groups of Dark Knights topenetrate and conquer the station. Once your men are on the stationand actively fighting, I will send in the Council of Wizards andthen follow to open a fourth front inside the station. Control ofthat station is key to this battle. Each sorcerer killed there willweaken the forces outside the station, and if we kill their leaderstheir whole army falls apart,” I ordered.
“It is a wise plan, Grandmaster, and we willgladly give our lives for it,” he said.
“Thank you, Commander. Go and prepare yourmen. Once our time to fight is at hand, speed of execution will becritical.” As he left to carry out my orders I went over to my commstation to call the captain. Kellyn came over and set up the callfor me, then took a seat beside me.
“Hello, Master Vydor,” the captain said as heappeared on the screen. With him were several important officers,including Zalith.
“Pardon me, Captain, but his proper title isGrandmaster Vydor,” interrupted Kellyn.
“My apologies, Master Kellyn. I will make anote of that,” said the captain.
“Captain, I am aware that we do not have alot of time, but we need to go over the battle plans before wejump,” I said.
“Definitely. We have been expecting yourcall. Since you know the enemy best, why don’t you tell us what youhave in mind?” he replied
“Master Andreya, I need you,” I said,speaking aloud for everyone’s benefit. When she came over I askedher to show them a vision I had in my mind of the upcomingbattlefield.
“As you can see, there is a large forcewaiting for us, grouped around that station. That station is key toour victory,” I said. “What I will need your forces to do is toengage their fleet with everything you have.”
“If the station is the key, it would makemore sense to push through and destroy that,” said one of theofficers.
“In a normal battle, yes, it would, but inthis case that would grant them victory. That station isinvulnerable to any attack this fleet can muster, but that is wherewe come in. Once you have them fully engaged, we will move on thestation. You must keep their military engaged so that we can get onthe station and take control.”
“What of their powers?” asked Zalith.
“Their powers will be tied up in creating andcontrolling the army that you fight. That is why you must keep themengaged. Once we are on the station they will have to startdividing their power between controlling their forces and fightingus, and you will start to see sections of their forces fall apart.It is important that you keep up the pressure on them so that theycannot bring their full strength to bear against us. If either yourfleet or our men have to face their full might alone we will lose.It is only through this joint attack that we can overcome them.” Ipaused there for a moment, and memories of the first squad of DarkKnights I ever led came rushing back to me. “If something happens,and there is an opening in the shields on that station, you mustdestroy it regardless of who may still be on it.”
“Your plan sounds wise, Vydor. What can weexpect to be fighting?” asked the captain. I knew that I couldtrust him to follow through with that order. He would not like it,but he would not hesitate. He had too much combat experience to dootherwise.
“Master Andreya, please show them this,” saidKellyn as she started mentally picturing all kinds of horridcreatures. As they were being displayed one by one to them, shesaid, “They are immune to most physical attacks, but your energyand particle weapons will work well. Many of them will have shieldsaround them, but they can be overpowered. Just keep increasing yourfocus fire until you break through. I am just showing you a sampleof the kinds of beings they have available to bring to bear, butthey can all be defeated the same way. You just need to overwhelmtheir defenses by coordinating your attacks. Their primary weaponswill all look very different, but in the end they are all pureenergy-based attacks, so your defenses should be structured to takethat into account.” Then she privately said to me, “I guess allthat time spent in the library studying demons while trying to findyour demon wasn’t wasted after all.”
“Do you have this data in a form we can loadinto our computers and share with the fleet?” asked Zalith.
“No, it is all in real books at present. Ifwe had a couple of months to transcribe them, maybe, but we donot,” answered Kellyn.
“Captain, as far as I know they have onlyfought wars on planetary surfaces before this, so the battlefieldstrongly favors us,” I said. “Have you been able to call in anyhelp?”
“We have two more fleets arriving. The firstshould arrive about four hours after the battle starts, and thesecond should arrive about two hours later. Combined, they willalmost double our numbers,” he said.
“Excellent. At present I estimate theirnumbers to be about three times greater than the Dragon Claw’sfleet,” I said.
“Grandmaster Vydor, it sounds like you havethought of everything that could be thought of before the battle.If I understand you right, these things we will be fighting cannotfunction without their masters, and you will be attempting toeliminate their masters, while we kill the … things,” he said.
“Yes, Captain, that is it exactly,” Isaid.
“Then we will spread the plan to the ships,and jump in one hour. Good luck,” he said and signed off.
Chapter Thirty-Three
We gathered around for the trip through jumpspace, this time knowing that it was not what was in jump spacethat we had to worry about, but what was on the other side. As theblueness of it wrapped around us I looked for the spirit of lightthat had been following us, and he was there in his customaryplace, smiling and looking friendly. “Who are you?” I asked.
“Keep following the narrow path of light, andyou will find me,” was his answer.
We again came out of the jump with nopost-jump effects; apparently we had grown enough in our powers tomove in and out of jump space without issue. As soon as we returnedto normal space I took out a scroll which I had created some timeago. I opened and read from it. As I read each word the scrollstarted to burn up, and when I was finished the scroll wascompletely consumed. In its destruction it released a powerfulconcealment spell that would wrap our ship in a cloak ofinvisibility which not even the Council of Sorcerers couldpenetrate. This would guarantee that we could attack on our timingand terms, not theirs.
I switched the view mode on our observationdeck viewing screens to show tactical information about thebattlefield. I saw the Dragon Claw and her fleet slipping into avery standard attack formation that appeared to be focused on thestation.
On the other side I saw a huge army ofdemons, spirits, and other foul creatures that had somehow createdspiritual spacecraft to fight in. When they saw the fleet theybegan to redeploy to counter the attack formation they saw.
“Vydor, it looks like he plans to attackthe station. He must have decided not to follow your plan,”said Darnath.
“Studying the captain’s battle strategieswas a required course in the Academy. His plans are the best I haveever seen. He knows exactly what he is doing, and he knows that weare dependent on him to handle his part of the plan. I suspect thathe will bring some firepower against the station in order to helphide the fact that they are not attacking the stationdirectly,” I said.
As the enemy redeployed the captainrearranged his fleet, this time into an inverted crescent. When thesorcerers saw this, they moved their forces again. Back and forthwent the dance for a while. “He is stalling,” I said to theothers.
“Why?” asked Kellyn.
“Well, if I know him as well as I think Ido, he plans to attack about one hour before the first of ourreinforcements arrive. Look at all the patterns he is using. Theyare not random, they are carefully chosen to test the speed andmobility of the enemy, as they constantly have to move to adapt.The sorcerers continue to focus their positions on perceivedweaknesses in the captain’s formations, and since they are focusingheavily this is constantly opening large weaknesses in their ownlines. Their inexperience is showing and the captain is using thatto his utmost advantage,” I said.
While watching the dance, I heard the captainspeak a single word over the intership communication link:“Deploy.” That was all that was needed. Suddenly all the largeships moved to the back of the line and the smaller attack vesselsmoved to the front. The fleet then arranged its pattern into a verysolid and aggressive attack formation. I knew this one well. It wasthe subject of one of my papers at the Academy. Once the ships werearranged he issued another one-word order: “Launc
h.”
Suddenly Ravens, Falcons, and all other kindsof craft started launching from the larger ships. Everything fromsingle-pilot fighters up to the biggest war vessels that could becarried in a ship’s bay was launched. They all moved out to form aline in front of the fleet, and it was an impressive show offorce.
I felt fear coming from the enemy as thecaptain skillfully moved the final pieces of his attack plan intoplace. The enemy’s forces pulled back into a tighter, moredefensive stance. Memories of a speech the captain gave to my classcame back to me. In that speech he explained that he was never init for the long run. A battle is won by bringing your full might tobear all at once in the opening move. He went on to say that anyonewho has a long-term plan for a battle is a loser and a failure. Hisrecord backed up his boast; he never lost.
Then the final order came: “Attack.” And theentire fleet moved forward with every weapon firing. As they did, Ifelt Kellyn cast her power over the fleet twice. The first time wasa protection magic of some kind. It bolstered their resistance tospiritual and magical attacks. The second one increased the powerof their weapons against spiritual creatures. Somehow, with thosetwo spells she increased the overall power of the fleet bytwenty-five per cent.
“Commander, move us in close to the stationand hold us there. Time your men’s entry on to the station tocoincide with the second fleet’s arrival,” I said via the comm.
“Yes, Grandmaster,” he said.
The Dark Knights were already aboard theirthree ships, and the bays were already depressurized. They werevery anxious to bring the fight back to those who had killed theirsquadmates. I could sense the eagerness and anticipation emanatingfrom them.
Around us the battle raged on. The captainwas using a lot of different methods at once to attack thecreatures, most probably trying to determine which was mosteffective. “The fools think they are fighting on theground,” I commented, as I noticed the enemy formation wasfairly linear. The captain must have noticed this too, because heforced his own formation to match.
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