To my relief he just laughed at that. He turned to his console and brought up our service records and chuckled. “According to this, you are already grandfathered in too, but obviously we need to fix matters to reflect the truth.”
“I don’t want anyone to get into trouble over this,” I said.
“No one will. This kind of thing happens all the time. Whenever you have people entering in data, you have issues,” he said. “I’ll have the record updated to say you have been in a relationship since the date listed here for your marriage, and that you each have full medical access to the other. That is how I understand the truth to be.”
“Thanks, but if you do that, shouldn’t we be grandfathered in?” I asked.
He thought about that for a while and eventually smiled and said, “You know, I think we can do it that way. I will put on file that I am approving your marriage under the grandfather clause once we get the paperwork in order. If you want Shea to perform the wedding, I will sign whatever paperwork is needed to make that official.”
“Thanks, Master,” I said.
I was about to leave when Shadow said, “Dusty, thank you for coming to me. You and Spectra mean a lot to me, and I would hate to lose either of you.”
Chapter Seventy-One
“Hello, Bill,” greeted Doug as I walked into his office.
Over in the corner, looking as creepy as ever, was Starbiter. For the most part, he was silent in my presence. He just stood there and silently observed everything that happened. “Hi, Doug. I trust you and your wife are well?”
“Exceptionally. Until I came here I thought I had access to the best medical facilities in the galaxy, but after a few short years working with the wizards I feel half a century younger,” said Doug.
“That’s great to hear, because I think we will need at least another half-century of your time to get the wizards and my navy working together without fear,” I said.
He laughed. “You know, it is strange how fast prejudice and fear can build, and how long it takes to eradicate.”
“Yes. It’s a funny thing,” I said.
“What can I do for you today?” he asked.
“Recently the Shadow Fox ran a mission to eliminate a potential threat near our borders. That mission was a success, as I understand it, and I would like full access to the mission reports,” I said.
“I do not believe that that would pose a problem, but what is the reason for this sudden interest?” he asked.
“We believe we’ve found a second station just like it. I will be sending one of my smaller battle fleets to check it out,” I said.
“Outside our space again?” he asked.
“Yes. Same basic set-up, just a different sector,” I said.
“As I recall that mission, Master Dusty found the target exceptionally easy to destroy, so I do not think you will have any problems,” he said.
“True, but this time I plan to try and capture it instead of just destroying it. I hope to find out more about who is building these stations,” I said.
“Good idea,” he said as he punched something into his terminal. “According to this report, and I will send it all to your office, the station was completely empty. Master Dusty states that robotic workers were building the station and stockpiling supplies in there. Their conclusion was that it was being prepared as an advance base from which to launch an attack.”
“That is exactly my fear with this one. The fact that they are trying again makes this a more serious issue,” I said. “I would also like you to deploy a squad of wizards to come along. It should be a very routine mission, and we can see how the proposed model of one squad of wizards per battle fleet might work out.”
“Starbiter and I were just talking about that before you came in. He suggests that we try a squad of seven, which apparently is his favorite number,” said Doug.
“Oh?” I asked.
“At least, every time I ask him something involving numbers he suggests seven,” said Doug.
I suspected he was teasing Starbiter somehow, but I didn’t feel it would be wise to take part in it. “Seven works for me.”
“Yes, two to three primarily defense-focused wizards, three to four wizards from the primary offensive lines, and one or two from the concealment line is what we have found to be the best way to make up a general support team like this,” said Starbiter.
“Interesting. That’s not all that different from our fleet composition,” I said.
“Battle tactics are fairly universal,” said Doug.
“True. I guess I just assumed things would be different somehow,” I said.
“And that is why we have a problem with prejudice,” said Doug.
“Ouch,” I said with a smile. I was sure he was right, and that made the remark hit too close to home.
“Starbiter, we should put Ramsong in charge of this squad. He needs more field experience,” said Doug.
“Agreed, and I suggest we let him pick the squad,” said Starbiter.
“Bill, where is your fleet now?” asked Doug.
“Waiting to deploy,” I said.
“Send them. Starbiter can arrange a gate for them to join your fleet once they are ready,” he said.
After that, the conversation drifted off to more personal topics, and Starbiter receded back into his shell. I did not understand him at all, and as a warrior that made me concerned. Doug seemed to trust him and have his respect, so that probably meant he was fine, but that did not change the fact that he creeped me out a little every time I saw him.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Master Dougherty was sending me out as a squad leader again. I took that to be a good sign that he thought well of my performance on the last two missions, but this time he was sending me to live on a mundane capital ship. That seemed more like a punishment than a sign of good favor. Still, I had to make this work. I had to admit it was marginally better than being assigned to a trash hauler like the last time.
Master Dougherty was insistent that we take the initiative to break down the barriers between the mundanes and the magi. I was happy to leave well enough alone, but as leader on this mission, I was expected to set an example in following Master Dougherty’s orders.
“Are you ready, Ramsong?” asked the elite wizard who was serving as the gatemaster.
“Yes, Master,” I said, after a glance at my team to make sure they were.
The gatemaster opened the gate, and we walked through. We came out in the captain’s office on the capital class ship where we would be serving for the remainder of this assignment. The captain and several of his officers were standing there to greet us as we came out.
“Welcome aboard the First Strike,” said the captain. Once introductions were out of the way, his quartermaster escorted my team to their quarters, but the captain wanted to talk to me in private.
“Ramsong, please sit. Can I get you anything?” he asked.
“No, thank you,” I said. I was not really sure how to handle this meeting. He was obviously nervous around me, and I did not enjoy being there either.
He took a drink of some kind and sat across from me. “As you can imagine, we have never had wizards on board before, so I am not sure of the proper protocol.”
“We don’t know, either. This is new to us also,” I said. “For the present, my squad will report to me, and I will report to you.”
“Sure, and as far as I am concerned you are a part of my command staff,” he said. He seemed a bit relieved at my comment that I would report to him. I’m not sure what he was expecting.
“Look, captain, it is no secret that mundanes and wizards tend to have problems working together. There is plenty of blame for that on both sides. If we are to make this assignment work, we have to set an example somehow.” I was beginning to understand why it was so important to send us on this mission. It was not just about some rogue station, but about overcoming our own weaknesses.
“Y
es, of course,” he said. “Before we received the message that you were gating in, we were about to have a mission briefing meeting. Would you be ready to attend if we have that now?”
“Certainly, and I have the mission reports from the Shadow Fox to share,” I said.
He called in his senior staff and made another round of introductions. “Ramsong has the mission reports from the last time they dealt with a station like our current target, and will share them with us.”
I shared with them everything we had on Master Dusty’s mission. “Other than that one internal room, there was no resistance at all.”
“The Shadow Fox was sent to destroy the last station with the hope that that would prevent any more from being built. Now that we’ve found a second one, command wants us to take over the station this time and learn who is building them,” said the captain.
“Has anyone contacted the Thelthronians?” asked the first officer.
“No, we have no contacts with them, and attempts to reach them so far have been ignored,” I said.
“Was anything learned from the debris?” asked the chief engineer.
“No, it was all standard materials with no markings of any kind,” I said.
“Someone is trying really hard to keep us in the dark,” said the captain. “Does anyone have an opinion about this?”
“Well, as I understand it, the Thelthronians hate magic of any kind and would be happy to see our kingdom eliminated, but they are not known for taking the offensive in any military action. They make their money by selling to as many different sides of a conflict as they can at the same time. I think we can eliminate them as suspects,” said the chief engineer.
“Of course the problem there is that they are currently our only lead,” said the captain.
“Have we tried to contact this station at all?” I asked.
“No, Admiral McGregor doesn’t want them to hear from us until our fleet appears at their station,” said the captain.
“What is our plan?” asked the chief engineer.
“Tomorrow, when we clear jump space, we will approach the station with all weapons ready. Then we will demand their surrender. If we get no response, we will board the station and take it over. The station has four major arms coming out of the central hub. Each arm has a docking bay where we will make our entrance. I am thinking four assault teams, one in each arm,” said the captain.
“One team of wizards, then?” asked the chief engineer.
“No, I was thinking that we would put one wizard on each assault team and keep the balance here as part of a fifth team that would attack the central hub, if need be,” said the captain. “Ramsong, what do you think?”
I did not like that idea, as it would spread us too thinly, but I presumed the captain was trying to do as I’d suggested and set an example of team integration. Besides, if this station was like the last one, there would be nothing to worry about. “Typically we deploy wizards in pairs because one can cover the other during casting. Given the low risk of this mission, I don’t see why we can’t try one wizard per assault squad.”
The security chief started to say something, but the captain cut her off and said, “This is new to all of us. I didn’t realize you needed any more cover than anyone else.”
“If we are using our staves or wands, they fire as fast as a blaster. Casting, on the other hand, takes time. The more powerful or complex the spell, the longer the cast time. During casting, the magus usually has to keep line-of-sight with the target, which exposes them to risk,” I said.
“So, in an active fire fight, I assume you stick to your wands?” asked the security chief.
“Yes, but they are limited in charges, range, and power. We prefer to use our staves, which have a much greater range and power, and are rechargeable,” I said.
“That makes sense. Captain, I’m concerned that we are deploying the wizards into our forces when we haven’t spent any time training with them,” said the security chief.
“We all share that concern, but I think this is the perfect time to change that,” responded the captain.
As the meeting wrapped up, I became keenly aware that the security chief would pose the greatest difficulty in getting our teams to merge well. She seemed to be very wary of us. I decided to try to rectify that. “Lieutenant Tyrrell?”
“Yes?” she said.
“My squad has a mandatory workout every morning, one hour before standard dawn. If you are available, we would be honored to have you and your staff join us.” I was taking a gamble. She looked very fit, so I assumed that meant she saw physical workouts as important.
“I was not aware that magi would bother with such a trivial, mundane thing as a workout,” she said.
“Working magic requires supreme focus and control over both mental and physical aspects of our bodies. We find nothing trivial about a physical workout,” I said.
“I might stop by,” she said and left.
Chapter Seventy-Three
Lieutenant Tyrrell did stop by our workout, and she brought some of her team with her. She asked if I minded if she ran us through some of their normal physical conditioning. In the interest of relationship-building, we agreed. I doubt if any of us performed at the level that her team did, but we did push hard and try to keep up. We must have done well enough because she said, “Your team is in good shape. Well done,” before leaving. That, of course, meant that later in the day, when I was standing on the bridge, my muscles were screaming at me to find a hot bath to soak in.
“Captain, we are ready to jump,” said the navigation officer.
“Jump,” ordered the captain.
Once we cleared jump space the captain said, “Attack pattern delta-three, and hold there. Comm, contact the station and see if anyone is home. Tactical, report?”
“Sir, the station looks like the one the Shadow Fox took out. It has limited power, no shields, and many weapons ports. Once it is complete it will be a tough nut to crack,” he said.
“Something is different,” I said quietly to myself.
“What was that?” asked Lieutenant Tyrrell.
“Sorry, I was talking to myself,” I said.
“You said, ‘something is different.’ What did you mean?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but something seems wrong here,” I said.
“How wrong?” asked the captain.
“I am not sure, sir. At least not sure enough to stop the assault,” I said.
“No response to any hails, sir,” reported the officer at the communications station.
“Assault teams, move in and be ready for trouble,” ordered the captain over the comm.
I walked over to the tactical station and looked over all the displays. Lieutenant Tyrrell eyed me suspiciously as I pulled out my data pad and began comparing the current readouts to the prior mission notes.
“The assault teams are breaching the docking doors now, sir,” said one of the officers.
“There!” I said.
“What?” asked Lieutenant Tyrrell.
“Along the arms the power readings are quite different to the last mission. More life exists on this station,” I said.
“Opinions?” asked the captain.
“I think Ramsong is just showing off his skill at noticing trivial detail,” said Lieutenant Tyrrell.
Before I could react to that, the tactical officer said, “All four assault teams are under fire. Sentry robots have them pinned down.”
“Not so trivial, Lieutenant,” said the captain. “Tactical, can they handle them?”
“Normally, sir, they would be outmatched, but the wizards are bringing a lot of extra firepower to the fights. They should be able to push through,” he said.
“They won’t be able to hold that level of combat for an extended period. Let me take the rest of my wizards to the central core and shut the sentries down from there,” I said.
“Agreed. Lieutenant
Tyrrell, assemble a penetration team and take Ramsong and his wizards in,” said the captain.
“Let’s move,” said Lieutenant Tyrrell.
We met up with my wizards and her team in one of the shuttle bays. The shuttle we boarded was different to any I had been on before. While most shuttlecraft had a box-like shape, this one was shaped more like a cone. The front of the shuttle had a super-hard, pointed tip that would be heated to an extreme temperature. The shuttle was designed to accelerate towards the hull of a space station or larger vessel and slam its superheated point right into the hull. Once the shuttle had penetrated far enough, the front of the cone would open and allow the team to rush in.
As we strapped in for the flight, Lieutenant Tyrrell asked, “Realistically, how much time do we have before your wizards are overwhelmed?”
“In twenty minutes, if we have not succeeded, they should retreat,” I said.
“Punch it!” she called out to the pilot.
We were thrown against the restraints on our seats as the pilot launched. As we continued to accelerate, I could feel the slimy, cold anti-inertial gel expanding around us. I had never flown on this kind of vessel before, but I had read that the gel would keep us from being killed when the shuttle slammed into the hull of the station at maximum velocity.
“Brace for impact!” came the call from somewhere up front. The gel was now completely blocking my view and dulling my senses.
I felt, more than heard, a loud crack pass through the ship as my body slammed into the gel that had me cocooned. It hardened around me, and for a moment intense claustrophobia set in. It passed as the gel receded from around my body. It took a moment for me to regain my senses, as everything seemed temporarily slow and thick.
“Move out!” called Lieutenant Tyrrell.
“Let them lead. They know what they are doing, but be ready,” I sent to my wizards, and we fell in behind her team.
“Based on the maps you provided, we should be fairly close to the core,” she said as we ran down the corridor.
Resurgence of Ancient Darkness Page 25
