The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5
Page 69
“I think I have a good lead, but I’d like to research deeper into it and I believe their knowledge will be highly beneficial.”
“Very well,” she said, a wide smile on her face. “Commander Reagan, arrange for the healers to gather here in the council room.”
“Yes, your Highness,” he bowed and left the room.
“So,” Q turned around. “How exactly are we supposed to get to the tower?”
The Empress grinned, “How much do you like skydiving?”
***
2-4
“I HATE SKYDIVING,” Q yelled, his breath frosty from the cold, high-altitude air. He stood inside the hull of the spacecraft, waiting as the hatch door opened. The roaring hum of the engine broke through the silence of the lonely night sky.
“We have no other choice but to do this,” Taylor walked up next to him, armed in her Dark Knight battle armor minus the helmet. “The tower is jamming all communication systems in a two hundred yard radius. The moment we enter that range we’ll be on our own. The easiest way to breach the tower is drop down to it from above.”
“Yeah, but we’re dropping from five hundred yards up!”
“Well, we need a good buffer zone. The enemy could increase their jamming range in an instant, and we really can’t let the Palace of Darkness lose contact with this ship. Jumping a few hundred yards more won’t kill you.”
The first blast of wind shot through the widening gap in the hatch and shot past Q’s cheek.
Of course it’ll kill me, he thought.
“You better suit up,” Taylor said.
Q closed his eyes and felt the flow of energy within him. He shot it outwards, imagining it covered him from head to toe. When he opened his eyes, he was covered in a faint white aura, as though a shell of white light lay over his entire body.
“Well, I guess energy suits are fine as well,” Taylor said. “You won’t have a comm link though.”
“I think I’ve got that covered,” Q pointed to a small device he was wearing inside his ear, a black circular pill with a dull red point blinking periodically from its center.
“A comm device,” Taylor was impressed. “You actually came prepared for once,” she chuckled.
Better not tell her Commander Reagan forced me to wear it, he smiled to himself.
The hatch door had completely opened now, and the ship shook with the drag caused by air heading into the hull. Q could feel the force of the wind rushing past him. He could hear the howls of the night resonate in his ears.
The P.A. system turned on and the pilot’s voice came through, “Drop will initiate in T-minus ten seconds.”
“This is it,” Taylor put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s a straight drop to the ground,” she said. “Your energy suit is durable right?”
Q nodded. “The suit can hold its own,” he said.
“I’ll jump out first anyway,” she said. “The tower’s roof may be too thick for you to break through with just an energy suit. My battle armor is tough enough to breach it.”
“Fine then,” Q said and followed her to the edge of the hatch.
“Drop will initiate in T-minus five seconds,” the pilot said.
The howling became louder and more intense. Q was starting to have second thoughts about all this. Maybe there was a better way to breach the tower?
“T-minus three seconds to drop.”
Q peered out the doorway, at the darkness all around him, at the void that he was going to surrender himself to. He couldn’t see the tower below them. He couldn’t see anything below them.
“T-minus two seconds to drop.”
This is a bad idea, he thought. But it was too late to change anything.
“Initiating drop.”
Taylor put on her helmet. “See you down under, Q,” she laughed and jumped.
Q looked as she soared through the air.
“It’s now or never kid,” the pilot yelled.
“I hate skydiving,” Q mumbled and jumped off the ship, surrendering himself to the fury of the dark winds below.
***
Taylor could feel her cheeks hurt from the wide smile her face was frozen in. She absolutely loved skydiving. And skydiving in battle armor felt even better.
The winds no longer roared in her ears. All she heard was the hollow rattle of her battle armor as it struggled to fight the air resistance. Her helmet’s visor fired up, and her vision shifted from clear to a tangy orange.
Night mode, she thought. Her suit had adjusted for the darkness around her and shifted into night vision. Dull shadows and dark figures immediately appeared within her sight, as though a magician had pulled them out of, well, thin air!
Her suit’s comm link turned on. “Dark Knight Taylor, this is the Palace of Darkness’ Command Center,” a voice cracked through. “You are now two hundred and fifty yards from drop point. Communications will be jammed in approximately five seconds. The retrieval ship will hover about the tower for the purpose of your escape. We will send in backup if you don’t come out within the hour. Good luck. Over and out.”
Taylor chuckled to herself. It’s been so long since I had a mission briefing like that, she thought.
She twisted her body until she had her back to the ground, and caught a glimpse of a white outline a few yards above her falling through space in quite unspectacular fashion.
“Q! You’re supposed to keep your body still!” she yelled. “Your arms and legs are all over the place.”
“Easy for you to say!” his voice came in through her comm system. “You’ve done this before!”
“Listen, communications will be jammed around now, so we can’t talk to each other until we’re on the ground.”
Silence.
“Q?”
Nothing.
Comm link just went down, she realized.
She twisted herself around until she was back to facing the rocky surface of the Dark Knight tower. It rushed up to her like a freight train, ready to tear her into shreds. Her armor though made sure she’d be the only one doing any shredding. She threw her hands over her head and braced for impact.
A crunch tore through her armor. Her body tremored as she crushed through yards of solid steel in one single shot. She broke through the rooftop and kept plummeting towards the ground. She crashed into it, sending a storm of debris all around her.
She pulled herself onto her feet. Her body felt a little groggy, but she was perfectly fit for combat. She stumbled out of the yard-deep crater she had made in the floor.
“That was quite an event,” Q gracefully floated down through the gap in the roof.
I totally forgot his energy suit lets him fly for a few seconds, she thought.
He landed next to her, his feet softly touching the cracked floor, “You okay?” he asked.
Taylor brushed the debris and dust off her armor. An aura of darkness emerged around her, shrouding her in a dark flame.
She smiled, “Never felt better.”
***
2-5
Taylor remained inside the smoke, waiting for the dust around her to settle.
“Run heat scan,” she said. “Cut down on unnecessary procedures.” She needed to know what was in the smoke before it knew about her.
“Running Heat Scan,” her suit said.
She heard the faint noise of a high-pitched hum, the sound of a laser blaster being activated. She heard another hum, then a few more. All in all she counted about fifty lasers being armed.
The smoke was quickly dissipating. She could hear footsteps all around the room. The enemy was searching for them.
“Heat scan complete,” an image shot up onto the corner of her visor. She saw a blue canvas with red blurs on the lower regions. They were completely surrounded by enemy cadets.
“There are sixty cadets around us,” Q moved close to her.
“What? How do you know that?”
“Pretty easy to see through smoke when you control the Elementa of Light,” he grinned.
“Anyway,” his face turned serious. “This room is a little bigger than we expected, and we’re completely surrounded on all sides.”
“Well, there are two of us and sixty of them,” she said. “The way I see it, we have them outnumbered two to one,” she winked.
He laughed, “Time to go then,” he said. “I’ll clear the smoke out. You begin the attack. On three.”
She lowered her body, bending her knees and crouching low. She unsheathed her sword and held it in front of her, ready to attack.
“One,” Q’s body began to glow brighter. “Two,” the light was too bright for Taylor to see, so she turned away.
“Three!”
A wave of energy shot out of him in a ring. The smoke cleared out of the room instantly, and the enemy appeared within their sights.
Taylor froze. Her sword dropped from her hand and clattered to the floor.
In front of her stood sixty men in white armor.
The White Knights.
***
“Taylor! TAYLOR!” Q yelled.
Taylor could hear his voice, but her mind didn’t register that he was calling out to her. Her body didn’t react to anything. She stared at the White Knights all around her, at the Knights who now realized she was a Dark Knight, at the Knights who were now closing in on her.
They’re not supposed to be here, she thought.
The Knights charged at her.
Pick up the damn sword you idiot, her mind shouted.
Her arm didn’t move.
A sphere of light surrounded her. She looked up and saw Q floating in the air above her, firing blasts of light at the enemy.
“Snap out it Taylor!” he yelled.
Her mind jerked, and her body unfroze. She picked up her sword, and stared at the dark blade.
Forget how you feel, she thought. This battle does not need your emotions.
Her dark flame glowed more fierce than ever, and her eyes gleamed through the darkness, as though she were a demon in wait of her prey.
“Q,” she said. “I’m ready.”
“Finally,” he grinned and the shield disappeared.
A White Knight shot through, charging at her with his sword. She tugged on his arm and kneed him in the stomach. The man fell flat to the floor unconscious. She heard a yell behind her and turned around just in time to see a sword pushing right up to her forehead.
In one quick motion she fended off the sword with her own. A spark of light disappeared into the air as the metal weapons clashed.
Focus, she thought.
Her arms and legs began to move unconsciously, as though she were a machine, as though she already knew every single move that the enemy was going to try to make on her.
Knight after Knight came at her, only to fall to the floor unconscious. But their sheer numbers slowly began to eat away at her. The Knights began to land their blows onto her armor, and soon she was on the receiving end.
“Taylor!” Q activated a shield around her again.
“I can take them!” she yelled.
“Of course you can’t!” he yelled back even louder. “These guys are highly trained. You can’t risk it.”
“Damn it, Q,” she said. “I’m a Mage. I can take it!”
A huge beam of red came out of nowhere and slammed straight into the shield, shattering it into pieces.
Taylor’s eyes went wide as she saw the shield of light dissipate into nothing. What in the world? her mind panicked.
A large machine stood at the end of the room, its hollow center lighting up with a red glow.
“How in the world did that take my shield down?” Q said quietly, his face aghast.
Taylor, on the other hand, was alert to the situation. The machine was powering up again, and this time they couldn’t depend on the shield to protect them. The only good thing was that the White Knights had retreated to the sides of the room, not wanting to get caught in the weapon’s attack.
Taylor gripped her sword and crouched down, sending a stream of her life energy straight into her legs. She shot forward at amazing speed, creating a powerful gust of wind in her wake. She met with the machine just as it was about to fire, and swung her sword right at it.
Her weapon merely bounced off the machine’s surface. She couldn’t even make a scratch on it! A White Knight took advantage of her distracted mind and swung his sword at her head from behind. Her already battered helmet cracked as the sword bounced off it. It split into two halves and fell to the floor around her legs. Her golden-blond hair flowed out, flying around in the wind.
She took two seconds and three moves to immobilize the Knight and leave him on the ground. But the other Knights were closing around her as well, and what’s worse, the machine was ready to fire again.
“This ends now,” Q said, and floated down to the ground.
A ring of blue lightning spun around him, sending streaks of electricity running through the air.
His Elementa of Lightning, she realized.
The machine wasted no extra time and shot a blast of red energy right at him.
Q fired a massive bolt of lightning right at its blast. It cut through the beam and hit the machine. The device tremored one second, and exploded the next. Taylor braced herself as the force from the explosion slid her along the ground.
She swiftly moved around, wary of the White Knights who had tried to attack her. But all she saw was a horde of unconscious Knights on the floor.
Q stood at the center of it all, a sheepish look on his face. “I think I overdid it with my lightning again,” he smiled nervously.
“Your Elementa of Lightning always goes rogue,” she chuckled.
“Well, at least it let me take everyone out.”
“We need to check this place for survivors,” she said, and looked around the room.
“There,” Q pointed to the staircase at the corner of the room.
The two of them headed down into the room below. They treaded carefully, looking for any enemy Knights. The room though, was as silent as a graveyard.
“It’s no good,” Q said. “This place is completely deserted!”
“You don’t think...” Taylor’s voice trailed off.
“There is no way those White Knights murdered all the Dark Knights in this tower,” he said. “It’s impossible.”
Taylor heard a crowd of voices come from the staircase that led to the floor below them. She rushed to it, her mind already in attack mode.
A man jumped out the staircase and charged right into her. She fell to the floor with a thud, her sword sliding away from her arms. Her mind instantly began to theorize what her next moves were. She jumped back up, her body going into an attacking stance as soon as her feet touched the floor.
And then she noticed the man’s battle armor. He wore no helmet, but that didn’t hinder her from recognizing who he was.
A Dark Knight.
The voices are getting closer, Taylor realized. There must be a ton of White Knights chasing him.
The Dark Knight picked himself off the floor. He was not very well built but seemed stronger than the average Knight. He had silver-grey hair, and quite a long beard. That along with his pale, withered skin indicated he was quite old.
His steely eyes looked at her, and suddenly became invigorated. He pointed at her face and gasped, “The Night Witch!”
Taylor’s body froze, Oh dear god.
***
3-1
The Night Witch, Q thought. The words piqued his interest yet again but he knew he had bigger things to deal with at the moment. He turned to the old man they had just found.
His gaze was fixed on Taylor, his eyes gleaming, whether in fear or excitement he didn’t know.
“Are there any more survivors?” Q asked him.
The man took a few seconds to divert his attention to the question. His eyes moved away from Taylor and focused back onto him.
“Are there any D
ark Knights left in this tower?” Q asked again.
The man shook his head, “I made everyone evacuate. I am the last one.”
“What exactly happened here?” he asked.
The voices sounded again, this time at the edge of the staircase.
“Q, no time!” Taylor yelled. She held onto the man’s arm and dragged him up the staircase, with Q following right behind them.
“There is no route of escape,” the man said as they reached the top floor. His eyes nearly popped out when he saw all the White Knights unconscious on the floor. His gaze shifted between Taylor and Q in wonder and surprise.
“We can go through there,” Taylor pointed to the ceiling, at the huge gap she had created when she’d broken through.
“I do not know what you think of me, but I must tell you I cannot fly,” the man said.
“Not a problem,” Q grinned.
A faint glow of white instantly covered both Taylor and the man. Q had given both of them energy suits similar to his own. The three of them flew through the gap in moments and headed towards the ship, which was hovering right above the tower, exactly at the point it had made the drop. It took the three of them seconds to fly all five hundred yards to the ship and get themselves inside.
“Boarded!” Q yelled just as he tumbled into the hull after Taylor and the man.
“Ship departing. Divers are on board.” The pilot’s voice came through the ship’s P.A. system.
The hull door closed, and the dance of the winds finally stopped. The man looked a little out of breath, but other than that he seemed fine.
“Let’s go,” Q said and walked ahead. He cut off the energy flowing outside him, and the white glow around all of them died down into nothing.
Taylor and the man followed Q into the passenger area. This was a military ship so there wasn’t any room for comfort. The only things in the passenger area were two lines of seats built against either wall, facing the center of the ship. They sat down nonetheless and strapped themselves in.
Q wasted no time in getting down to the specifics. “So what happened down there Mr.?”