Rise of Shadows

by Vincent Trigili

  “Excellent work, Flame. Spectra, if I recall right, you have learned the gate spell, is that so?” I asked.

  “Yes, Shadow,” she said.

  As an apprentice with the dimensional power line she could open a gate to travel short distances inside our realm. As she increased in rank, she would be able to gate further distances. Once she reached elite level she could open a gate over unlimited distances, eventually even between realms, but for now she should be able to reach the distance we needed so long as we kept the Dust Dragon relatively close to the battlefield. That would make the timing difficult because, if my plan worked, the battleship would explode and destroy everything nearby. Flame would have to stay close enough to the battleship so that Spectra could gate us out if we hit trouble, but get us clear of the explosion if we were successful. These objectives for Flame were mutually exclusive, as the range of the blast would easily be greater than Spectra’s gate range.

  “Okay then, here is what we are going to do. That battleship that Flame selected is going to be our example. We will destroy it and then leave without them ever getting a shot on us. There are far too many of them for us to take alone, but they do not need to know that. The plan is to make it look like we are so powerful that we just ignored them. Flame, come to zero relative to the command tower on that battleship,” I said.

  Flame carefully and slowly brought us in. Meanwhile, the pirates were expanding their field of fire greatly, hoping to get lucky and draw us out. Tensions must be getting high by now over there. They could never guess my plan and would never look for us here.

  “Spectra, keep a tab on Phoenix and me. Dusty, you are doing very well. Keep us completely undetectable. Flame, get ready to pull us away, but for now keep the ship in its lowest possible power mode to help Dusty as much as you can. Phoenix, you and I are going on a little tour of their engine room,” I said. A look of great surprise passed over their faces when they realized what I was planning.

  Phoenix grabbed his staff, took a deep breath, and said, “Ready.”

  “Be on guard, everyone. Once we move we will have to move very fast. It would not do to get blown up with the battleship,” I said.

  Once everyone was ready I walked over to Phoenix who said, “Let’s do this!” He had come a long way from the man that I had taken into battle during Operation Foolish Hero, but I could see in his face that he was still unsure of himself.

  I traced out a doorway into jump space, and we walked into the vast sea of blue. The engine room of the battleship leaked massive amounts of power, making finding it a trivial task. As we stepped into the engine room, the crew of the battleship jumped with fear and surprise. They grabbed for weapons as Phoenix caused fire to rain down around the room. I quickly turned on the engines and used my power to unweave the powerful curtains of energy that contained their power. I then used the power I had gathered in unweaving the curtains to weave an energy feedback loop, causing the multiple drives to dump massive amounts of power into each other. Soon the drives would reach a critical level, and without the retaining curtains to stop the reaction, they would explode and take out anything nearby. Alarms were going off everywhere around us as the ship’s computers figured out what was about to happen. I sent, “Phoenix, when we exit I need you to lay down a ton of firepower to give me a few moments to do my part.”

  “Understood, one home-cooking barbeque on tap for you,” he sent back.

  “Then it is time to go. Start your barbeque,” I sent as I opened a new door to jump space while he sprayed fire from his fingertips.

  Phoenix threw one last great fireball into the room and then ran through the door. “Flame, best speed, get us clear now!” I sent to Flame just before diving through it to jump space myself. Once in there I quickly located Phoenix and then sent out to Spectra, “Spectra, I need a sign.” Both spellweavers and those with the dimensional line could move in and out of jump space at will. The only real problem was finding the way back once you were there. This typically meant that you only entered jump space if you had an exit already prepared. We did not, but I was counting on Spectra to be able to provide that marker for us, which she did, and we were able to exit right onto the bridge of the Dust Dragon.

  A quick look at the tactical showed me our plan was a great success. We were pulling away from a massive explosion that not only took out the battleship, but several ships nearby.

  “Flame, once we are safe, throttle all the way back,” I said as I saw Dusty near collapse from the effort of keeping us undetectable while Flame piloted us away from the pirates at high speed. Spectra saw what was going on and moved to lend Dusty her energy. After we had gotten far enough out, Flame cut off the powerful engines, and most of our screens went blank as we entered low power mode. Being mostly drained from our attack on the battleship, I reached out and drew some of our ship’s power into myself so that I could see beyond the ship that was now mostly blind by virtue of being in low power mode. The pirates were frantically looking for us while pulling tighter together. It was clear they had no idea of our location.

  “Dusty, you can get some rest. I still have enough power to keep us hidden while in low power mode. Flame, Spectra, I am depending on you two to get us safely to our next jump point. Phoenix, go and rest also.”

  We would have at least six hours at cruising speed to the jump exit, but I dared not go that fast right now. The faster we traveled the harder it would be to hold the cloak and the more likely that we would be spotted. “Flame, keep our max speed at thirty percent for now and everything else as minimal as you can safely manage.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The next day passed painfully slowly. I had my crew rotate through rest and meal breaks until we reached our jump point, while Dusty and I took turns keeping the Dust Dragon completely cloaked. The pirates continued to look for us, but for some reason they did not follow the route to the next jump. Instead they seemed to assume we would cross over to the Scaladian route and slowly got further and further from us. The plan worked perfectly. We had appeared out of nowhere, destroyed a battleship, and left.

  Once we were ready, Dusty and I worked together to keep us hidden while Flame engaged the jump drive. I did not want the pirates to know when we left or where we were headed. We could only stay hidden until we jumped, as jumping into the ethereal realm of jump space broke our cloaking spell. As we exited jump space, we came out into a field of ships. There must have been three dozen different ships of all sizes, mainly comprising cruisers and other fast attack ships.

  “Shadow, it’s the Aleeryon Navy,” commented Spectra.

  “Excellent, see if you can raise someone on the comm,” I said.

  Spectra was able to get someone fairly quickly up on the main screen. He appeared and said, “Hello, Alpha Academy. I am Commander Jackson of the Third Aleeryon Naval Wing.”

  “Greetings, Commander, this is Battle Wizard First Rank Shadow Weaver of Alpha Academy,” I said. “It seems that our friends with the battleships did not follow us through the jump.”

  “Yes, it does appear that way. What a shame, I was looking forward to meeting them,” he responded.

  “Spectra, please send a report of that last fight to the navy, but leave out how we destroyed the battleship,” I sent.

  “Yes, Shadow,” sent Spectra.

  “Commander, you should be getting our report shortly, but it looks like they were heading for the Scaladian route, probably assuming that is where we were going,” I said.

  “Sir, how long ago did they jump?” the commander asked.

  “They had not yet jumped when we left, but they were heading in that direction,” I said.

  “Excellent, then we have a good chance of catching them on the other side. Sir, we would be greatly honored if Alpha Academy would join us,” he said.

  Something was not right here; he did not have enough firepower to go after that fleet, unless something was hidden. I stretched out my awareness and looked across s
pace, and slowly I could see tiny points of power spread out all over the area: stealth bombers, and lots of them! A force like this would easily decimate the pirate fleet that we left behind. It seems that we might have underestimated the Aleeryon Navy’s forces, if they could gather this much firepower.

  “Commander, we would be honored to join you. We are a black ops vessel, so we will need your encryption keys and power links,” I said. That would allow us to cloak up but stay in touch with their fleet.

  “Wonderful, sir! We will need to move out quickly if we are to intercept them. As soon as your ship is tied in, we will move to the jump point,” he responded.

  It took an hour to get everything set and travel to the jump point. During that time we went over their plan. The vanguard of their fleet that could not cloak would head in first and engage the enemy. Once the enemy was fully engaged the stealth ships would sneak in little by little and spread out. Once everyone was in place, the vanguard would retreat, and the bombers would make their runs. If properly timed, their bombs would create a sphere of death large enough to wipe out most of the enemy fleet in minutes.

  The main problem with this plan is it left no place for us to really shine forth and work on making a name for ourselves. Still, it would be great space combat experience for my crew, and it would help to build relations with the Aleeryon Navy. I decided we would jump with the first wave and evaluate the battlefield to see where we could have the greatest impact. It seemed most likely that we would be taking part in the initial attacks as just another cruiser, but we did not know yet what we would face when we arrived.

  While waiting I looked around at my crew and asked, “Speak freely: based on our first fights, what do you think we have done right, and what can we improve?”

  For a while no one said anything. I wondered what each person was thinking. Was Flame beating herself up over her miscalculation of that turn? What about Spectra? Was she mulling over the failed jamming? I could imagine a dozen different ways a green crew could beat themselves up after even the most perfect fight, having once been as new as they were now. I was about to break the silence when Dusty spoke up.

  “Well, I can’t help but wonder: are we wizards fighting like mundanes, or mundanes who happen to have a few wizard tools to call on?” asked Dusty.

  “What do you mean?” asked Flame.

  “Well, it seems like all our training with this ship and the first two fights could have been completed by mundanes. If we are out here as a show of force, shouldn’t we show some of our real power?” he responded.

  “That is a very good point about the first two fights, but obviously the destruction of that battleship could not have been accomplished by mundanes,” I said.

  “True,” said Spectra, “but Dusty is right. We are fighting like mundanes who have wizard powers to call on.”

  “Well, then, let’s answer the biggest question first: are you wizards or mundanes?” I asked.

  Silence filled the bridge for a bit, and then Spectra broke the ice and said, “I am a magus by birth, and a wizard by choice.”

  “Well said,” I responded. “Never forget that you may have grown up thinking you were a mundane, but that was an illusion; we are all magi. We never were mundanes. We think differently, look different, and have much greater responsibility than any mundane could ever grasp. This might not seem true now, but once we are mingling with the mundanes again the differences will become obvious. You will not fit in, not even among your old friends. So, with that understanding, how should we have handled the first fight?”

  After a brief silence they started tossing around ideas about different spells and how best to use them in this environment. The most interesting thing about their conversation was the total lack of any use of this mighty weapon we were sitting in.

  I raised my hand to get their attention and then said, “Back home at the Academy we joke about how the wizards from Korshalemia do not use nor understand our technology. Is that the ideal we are shooting for here?” I let them ponder that for a bit, then said, “I think we need to find the balance between taking advantage of all the tools that we have to use and using none at all.”

  Right then the computer interrupted and told us that it was time to jump. “Battle stations, everyone, we will have to continue this discussion at another time.” I was a bit annoyed at the interruption, as I realized this kind of conversation struck at the heart of what we were really doing out here. We were defining what it was to be a wizard at war in this realm.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Admiral, I have the latest reports on the Alpha Academy vessel,” said my assistant.

  “Excellent, put them on the big screen, and let’s see what they have been up to,” I said.

  We had requested help years ago from Alpha Academy, but they did not have a navy at that time. They did open trade with us and set up a major trade hub that allowed some money to flow into our nation, for which we were extremely grateful, but we were still in serious danger from a pirate takeover. Now they were sending a single ship to help us. They insisted that it was sufficient, and that it would have great impact. They told us that they had a vested interest in taking out the pirates and assured us they planned to help.

  “Yes, sir,” he said as he brought up the information. “They call the ship the Dust Dragon, and it appears to be a prototype of some kind of advanced Conure class cruiser. They currently have a crew complement of five wizards, and their commander is Battle Wizard First Rank Shadow Weaver.”

  “Yes, I have spoken with him already. Bring up the first fight. I want to see what is so special about this Conure,” I said. I also wanted to see how much danger Shadow was putting my baby sister into.

  “Yes, sir,” he said.

  I watched the first battle play out on the video monitor. They easily took out the four pirates that were waiting for them. They expertly used their jamming technology and the sensor shadow provided by the dwarf star to get the jump on them. The big surprise in the fight was their first hit.

  “Whoa, how much power is that thing packing?” I asked after seeing the first pirate completely vaporized under their initial attack.

  “Sir, we do not have a clear measurement in the logs they provided, but intelligence estimates those cannons are putting out well over ten times the firepower of anything we have on that scale.”

  “Simply incredible,” I said.

  My assistant then brought up the second fight. I watched as they came out of jump space in easy range of the pirates that waited for them, but the pirates started to scatter instead of attack. “Why aren’t they attacking?” I asked.

  “We believe the Dust Dragon engaged a cloak at this point. As you can see, they slowly fly over to their first target, consistent with a ship under cloak,” answered my assistant.

  “The Conure is not a black ops line of cruiser. None of them can cloak,” I said.

  “Yes, sir. This one appears to be heavily upgraded. However, our scans of the ship did not reveal any cloaking technology when they joined up with our Third Wing,” he said.

  I continued to watch the fight, and in this battle a bit of their greenness showed when the pilot overestimated a turn, but still they dominated the fight with ease.

  “Wait! Roll back the video to mark 457,” I said.

  “Yes, sir,” he responded.

  “There! They clearly take a hit from two neutronion missiles. What damage did they take from that?” I asked.

  “Based on their logs, none, sir,” he said.

  “How could that be? Those look like direct hits,” I said.

  “Yes, sir. Intelligence believes they have some kind of shielding in place, based on the explosion pattern recorded in the logs,” he said.

  “Impossible. That ship is too small to have shield generators large enough to handle a blow like that,” I said.

  “Indeed, sir, yet the evidence is clear,” he said.

  Next, I watched the
log of the fight with the battleships. This one I was most interested in because Shadow said they planned “to cheat,” and I was very interested in what that could mean.

  “Sir, this log, unlike the others, is incomplete. We do have some additional information from our spies among the pirates to fill in some of the missing gaps, but there are still unanswered questions. It is a very unusual fight,” he said.

  I watched them come out of jump space and fly at great speed towards one of the battleships. The pirates obviously could not see them. “Man, that is some cloak if it is hiding all that power,” I said. I continued to watch as the Dust Dragon flew up next to one of the battleships, sat there for a short while, and then took off at high speed as the battleship suddenly exploded.

  “Wait, what just happened?” I asked.

  “This would be where the logs are incomplete, sir,” he said. “Based on the report from the spies, two wizards boarded the battleship, took control of the engine room, and caused the engines to overload, which destroyed the ship and everything in the area with it.”

  “Two wizards took over the engine room on a battleship? There must have been dozens of armed men in there,” I said. Whenever we boarded the enemy craft, we found them to be vicious and ruthless fighters that were never easily beaten, even with superior numbers.

  “Yes, sir. Our spies tell us that all they heard over the comm were the screams of men dying,” he said.

  “Do we know which two wizards boarded the battleship or how they got on board?” I asked.

  “No, sir,” he said.

  Perhaps I underestimated what Alpha Academy was sending us, after all. One ship whose technology was obviously far beyond anything we or the pirates possessed had just cut a path through enemy lines, accomplishing a feat that countless hundreds had died trying. If this is the kind of ship we could expect to see out of them, then the war with the pirates was as good as won. Still, it was just one ship, and this battle was being fought by two competing navies on an interstellar scale.