In Death's Shadow
Page 40
“I thank you.” He looked at the orb again. “I thank you as well. I know this is all sooner than expected. Kamden’s plan would have taken annura more to indoctrinate me.”
Jell looked at him, a question in her eyes.
“According to her plan, I would not take my throne for another decade, but now I know where I belong and what I must do.” Blazer smiled back at his sister. “It will all be over soon, don’t you worry.” He regarded Gared again. “How many soldiers do we have here?”
“Enough to secure a garrison.”
“No, that would be premature at this time, to capture a garrison here. We would be wiser to take a ship, something mobile from which we can plan and strike. Perhaps I should return to the Academy, seed myself there, and build an army of blanks to do my bidding.”
Gared considered that, and nodded. “No, my King. A ship is the best plan. If they even think you have joined us, I shudder to think what they might do.”
“Good, then we will proceed with the plan.”
Jell shot him a look of pure hate again. She tried to kick him, but he stepped away.
Blazer stepped up to Jell, reached up to touch her face, and she recoiled from him. “It’s okay, dear sister. In time, you will see and understand what they showed me.” He reached up and removed the gag.
“Go to Sheol, you shit piece!” she cried, tears turning down her face.
“No, dear sister, there is no need for tears. I also have one more thing I need to tell you,” he said, wiping away the tears and winked at her. He had given her the same wink once before, to convince her that everything was all right after he’d lied to their grandparents to cover for her. “Now, dear sister, duck!”
Blazer pushed Jell down to the floor as hard as he could. He brought the pistol up and fired it into the head of the man standing behind her. The man stumbled back as the blast liquefied his brain. Blazer dove on top of his sister to cover her. The wall he had bored a hole through to the outside world exploded, and his fire team rushed the room, Tadeh Qudas leading them.
Plaser fire erupted from their rifles, downing the Electrolites with the exception of Gared, who stood too stunned to move. Blazer rolled off Jell, brought up his pulse pistol, and fired it into the orb. The orb took the hit and fell. Blazer could have sworn that he heard it thud as it hit the floor.
Adrenaline flowing, Blazer watched as Marda ran up and took a knee next to the orb. Why is she with fire team one? Seeing the stocky HRP-63-C, heavy repeating plaser in her hands, he realized why. Tadeh Qudas assembled them in the fast assault formation. In that case, Zithe is leading her fire team. Smart move. He must have swapped Arion and Gavit, too.
A series of four more orbs trailed Marda and she looked astonished at the orb on the floor. “The orb is only stunned. You four, keep it here.”
Even Blazer felt surprised that the pulse pistol had worked on an orb. It was a gamble that had paid off, based on the orb itself showing him that pulse pistols like his could disrupt the quantum wavicles of an orb.
Blazer climbed to his feet as the other four orbs orbited the Electrolite orb on the floor. He turned towards Tadeh Qudas. “The rest of the squad?”
In response, he heard three more breaching charges go off in sequence and calls over his micomm as they commenced their assaults.
“They’re on time and on task,” Tadeh Qudas replied.
Blazer nodded and turned to Jell as Gokhead helped her to her feet. “We need to get her someplace safe.” He looked out the hole in the wall the team had blasted through on their way in and could see plaser fire raining down from the upper level. The Electrolites hadn’t seen the team approach and were now firing wildly out of the building to halt any further attack. “Well, looks like we keep her here, then.”
Jell ran up to Blazer and slapped him. “Mind telling me what in ninth level of Sheol is going on?”
Blazer rubbed his face and turned to Tadeh Qudas. “I’ll explain later. How’d you find us?”
Tadeh Qudas, at his position by the door, waved Gokhead over to take his place and explained. “We picked up jamming while doing our aerial survey. Gokhead’s civilian micomm was even getting interference at altitude. Using that to home in on you was simple.”
Blazer gave Gokhead an appreciative nod. “Good job.”
Gokhead’s only response was a quick image of him smiling over the micomm link, their proximity allowing them to burn through the jamming signal.
“We need to move quickly. The five leaders are here with their attendants,” Blazer explained. “This is our chance to cut the heads off the Electrolite organization.”
“We know, we heard,” Tadeh Qudas replied.
Jell just looked at them dumbfounded. “I thought you were jammed?”
“We are, but once they knew where I was, my team was able to burn through the jamming and set up a private link the jamming couldn’t block.”
“So you were lying that whole time?”
“Mostly, but the best lies are wrapped in truth, after all.”
Marda walked up to him, her repeating plaser quite prominent in her arms. “Speaking of which, Concubine?”
Blazer shook his head. “Not the time or the place,” he admonished her before giving her a sheepish grin. “But I had to keep them talking. Tadeh Qudas Sir, may I take back my team now?”
Tadeh Qudas shook his head. “Negative, you are armed, but not armored. That weapon is not made for sustained fire.” Tadeh Qudas regarded the pistol. “Can you hold off anyone who enters the room?”
In response, Blazer pulled up the pistol and fired it at Gared, shattering his kneecaps. “Yes sir, but I could use something a little more rapid fire just in case,” Blazer requested over Gared’s screams.
Tadeh Qudas pulled the small AP-96 assault plaser from his back and tossed it to Blazer. He caught it with ease and slid the pulse pistol into the empty holster at his back. “Thank you, sir.”
Tadeh Qudas led his team out of the room. They still had to take the rest of the building.
Blazer listened in on over the micomm as his team secured the building one room at a time, killing or stunning any inside.
Blazer knelt down next to Gared as he writhed in pain on the floor. Gared raised his hand and discharged in an attempt to shock Blazer. Blazer just absorbed the attack before firing a stun round into Gared’s leg, disrupting his abilities.
The old man regarded him with hatred and confusion in his eyes. “How? How did you beat the indoctrination?”
Blazer smiled down at him. “We put the pieces together once we’d found out that Kamden was the orb that had been following me my whole life.”
Gared scowled back at him.
“Marda and a psionic at the academy determined that Kamden had been indoctrinating me and others in our sleep. She was the one who’d been giving us bad dreams for annura.”
Gared sneered.
“I resisted for a long time. Now I know that when she would disappear for cycles at a time now and then, she was coming here to see you.”
“But how did you beat the other orb?”
Blazer looked at the orb on the floor as it twitched and twittered, the others keeping it in place. “You don’t watch security feeds, do you? That was the one thing Derjin did right. He reviewed the security logs of the room where he made his reports and saw the orb, but didn’t realize what it was. Marda could, even thru the log video.”
“You couldn’t fake that indoctrination! It would know.”
“You forget. I’m married to a Medium. And her grandmother is, or was, one of the most powerful on Anul.” Blazer gave his neck a painful crack and an orb emerged from out of his back. He turned to it as it flitted about. “Do you know how uncomfortable that is, carrying my Grandmother-in-law’s spirit inside me?”
&nbs
p; The orb twittered back at him and Gared in response.
“You can’t beat back that kind of power.”
The orb chittered back at him, then raced off to assist the other orbs. For a moment, Blazer could see the orbs as they projected what they looked like in life, an image normally reserved for mediums. It was a surreal sight, especially the writhing mass of the orb on the floor. With so many spirits fighting for control, he felt grateful when the image started to recede.
Running from outside the door drew his attention, and he brought up his oversized plaser pistol. Three Electrolites rushed the room and discharged into him. The combined assault set him stumbling backwards a step. They were powerful, just not as much as he. He pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Shreg! I wasn’t the target, they must want to recapture me.
One of them then brought up a pulse pistol. Blazer recognized it from the orb’s vision. It was newer than his by a decade, but not as well built, and it had a bad sight. Blazer rolled out of the way and the floor beside him exploded. He tackled Jell to get her out of the line fire and pulled his pulse pistol.
He twisted about as he fell and fired a haphazard shot, intended to hit the man’s center of mass, but he missed. He was used to having the enhanced optics of his ACHES integrated with his weapon. Shooting without them left him handicapped.
The shot drove the three men back, however, and Blazer fired again as he hit the floor. He wasn’t used to the sights on this gun and he missed the man’s chest again. The blast caught his arm instead. The muscles of the man’s shoulder and upper arm exploded, and he dropped his pulse pistol, falling back in agony.
Blazer twisted around and brought up his left hand. He arced a lightning bolt into the next man—sent him flailing. I’m discharging too much, I won’t be able to keep this up without a recharge.
The third man rushed him and Blazer whipped the pistol around and fired. At this range, there was no way he could miss. The pulse blast caught the man square in the chest and sent him staggering into the far wall. Damn, this thing is powerful. The man wavered against the wall dazed, gasping for breath before collapsing to the ground with several shattered ribs.
Gared lay there and watched the whole thing. Blazer wasn’t used to the pistol yet and had discharged more energy than he needed to with each blast. Gared let loose a cruel smile and brought up his hand, electricity arcing between his fingers before Jell ran up and kicked him in the head.
“Nobody discharges at my brother like that!”
Blazer smiled at her. “Thanks, now tell me there’s an electrical outlet in here.”
“No, it’s all battery powered.”
Blazer looked down at the assault plaser at her feet. Though damaged, it still should hold a charge in its magazine. He walked over and pulled the magazine, touched the two contacts on the battery pack, and absorbed the full charge.
Jell looked on amazed. “You’ve really embraced the whole Energy Gatherer thing haven’t you?”
“Yeah, and not because of that orb.” He cast the magazine aside as cries of “All clear!” began to ring in from the rest of the squad. “I’ve done it for Dad, my future children, and every other EG out there.” Out of habit, Blazer placed a hand to his ear and replied.
Tadeh Qudas came over the link next.
***
A hect later, Blazer stood in the room with the rest of his squad as security forces escorted or carried out Electrolite prisoners and dead. Blazer turned to Tadeh Qudas as he watched two soldiers carry Gared out on a stretcher, hoping never to see that man or his ilk ever again. “Sir, were this an exam, would we have passed?”
Tadeh Qudas looked at him. “I was working out some real operations for you, for next semester. I may have to amend them now.”
Several of the squad laughed, Zithe growling in approval.
“You were sloppy letting those three get the drop on you, though.”
Blazer looked about at his team. To hear that he’d been sloppy was a bitter pill. The scorch marks on some of their armor showed where they’d taken hits of their own. But I wasn’t in command, was I?
“Yes sir, I was starting to interrogate the prisoner…”
“Interrogations come later, cadet.”
“I know, sir. I was merely trying to get more intel to assist our operation.”
“Nevertheless, you all did an excellent job.” Tadeh Qudas looked at the pistol on Blazer’s hip, six discharged magazines lying about on the floor around him, and two next to Jell. “Just how much power have you absorbed?”
Blazer nodded his head to the side. “A lot. I think I may be able to handle even more, in the future.”
Rudjick looked at him a wicked grin on his face. “Maybe we need to change his call sign then, to lightning man or something.”
Arion elbowed him. “I think Blazer still fits him just fine.”
Tadeh Qudas turned to the Security Force as they escorted three of the Electrolite leaders out of the building. “As it stands, this cycle should mark the real end of the Electrolites. After we interrogate these men, we’ll have the identities of every Electrolite left, and they’ll be rounded up. You and your team ended a serious threat here, Vaughnt. You should be proud.”
Marda laid a hand on her husband’s shoulder. “I agree.”
Blazer smiled at her and a thought occurred to him. “Sir, are we to return to the academy, or are we granted leave?”
“It’s been a long time since I was last on Anul. I’d like to see what changes have been made to the garrison. We will report back there and make arrangements.”
Blazer smiled and took Marda’s ungloved hand, giving her a little tickle charge. She looked over at him after jumping in surprise. “Don’t start! You still have to pay for that Concubine Sheol.”
Jell smacked Blazer on the back of the head. “Yeah.”
Rudjick slipped in behind. “You know, boss, I don’t envy the position you put yourself into there.”
Blazer looked back at him. “I think it might be best to put my sister in protective custody while we’re here. Just until we can have a telepath scrub her of any lingering indoctrination.”
Jell raised a fist to Blazer. “You wouldn’t dare…”
“I’m already going to have your boyfriend…”
“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”
“Good, then let’s report back. I think we could all use a vacation after this.”
TIME AND MEASURE CONVERSION FACTORS
Time:
1 pulse = 100 centipulse/cents = 0.48 minutes
1 hectapulse/hect = 100 pulses = 0.8 hours
1 cycle = 30 hects = 1 day
1 decacycle/decle = 10 cycles
1 tridecacycle/tridec = 30 cycles
1 annura = 390 cycles = 1 year, 25 days
Distances:
1 metra = 100 centimetra = 1 foot = 0.3048 meters
1 kilometra/kimet = 1000 metra = 0.19 miles = 0.30 kilometers
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Monstero Nach:
Seri Amare- Original Monstero Nach Squadron Commander/Blade Force Leader
Railet Altair- Original Monstero Nach XO, Seri’s WSO Candidate
Blade Force:
Schan Vaughnt- “Blazer,” Anulian Male, Ex- Navigator Guild Buoy Boy Energy Gatherer
Arion Scotts- Anulian Male, Ex- Navigator Guild Buoy Boy, Self-healer
Marda Sciminder- Anulian Female, Ex-Diplomatic Corps Shuttle Pilot, Combat Medium
Usha Gokhead- Drashig Male, Ex-Space Forces Intel Specialist
Deniv Vail - Anulian Male, Ex- Navigator Guild Buoy Boy
Gavit Markus- Anulian Male, Ex-Aero-Racer, Ex-ASF Militia Spacecraft Handler
Chris Anit- Anulian Female, Ex-Space Forces Security Specialist
Eggedon Bichard- Cortherian Drone (Spec), Ex-Navigator Guild Buoy Boy
Ener
ian Zithe- Anulian Male Lycan, Ex-Dragon Corps Rider
Meaden Rudjick- Anulian Male Elf, Ex-Dragon Corps Dragon Handler
Datt- Anulian Male Clone, Ex-Zel-Tagian Militia CSAR Specialist
Treb- Anulian Male Clone, Ex-Zel-Tagian Militia CSAR Specialist
Seaver Acknit- Anulian Male, Ex-Space Corps Infantryman, Communications Tech
Mikle Tager- Anulian Male, Ex-Space Corps Infantryman, Security Specialist
Matt Talkerna- Anulian Matt, Ex-Space Corps Sniper
Explosions:
Trevis, Dibtel,- Tomeris Males, Ex-3267th Tomeris Security Battalion
Gadcon, Roilin, Ribtin, Dosher
Telsh, Kallie, Tomeris Females, Ex-3267th Tomeris Security Battalion
Porc, Nash- Nerzain Males, Ex-Space Forces Gunnery Specialists
Kink Ller- Nerzain Females, Ex-Space Forces Infantry
Samtriss- Anulian Female, Ex-Space Forces Heavy Gunner
Anul:
Jell Vaughnt- Anulian Female, Blazer’s Sister, Energy Gatherer
Admiral A.Sadrick- Anulian Male, Retired Space Fleet Admiral
Cherela Sadrick- Anulian Female, Blazer and Jell’s Maternal Grandmother
Derjin Sheil- Anulian Male, Bartender, Club Soren, Energy Gatherer
Kamden Krain- Anulian Female, Electrolite War Criminal (Deceased)
Gared Corva- Anulian Male, Electrolite War Criminal, Wanted for War Crimes
Nilosa Sciminder- Anulian Female, Marda’s Grandmother, Medium (Deceased)
UCSBA-13:
Cadre:
Jerlin Sares- Anulian Male, UCSBA-13 Commandant, O-85 (Admiral)
Magdin Pio-Tolis- Anulian Female, Dean of Pilot Training, O-55, (Colonel)
Chief Flind- Rimdook Male, Spacecraft Maintenance Chief, O-45, (Major)
Tadeh Qudas- Telshin Male, Head of Field Operations Instruction, O-55, (Commander)
Mendrick- Drashig Male, Owner of Cadet Bar