Sac'a'rith

by Vincent Trigili

  “Yeah, I know, and you don’t have to tell me how stupid it was,” I sent back. That seemed to satisfy her, as she didn’t bring it up again. Then I sent to Crivreen, “Hey, we have at least a day, so lie as low as you can and recover. When we get into the system we could have a very interesting time, to say the least.”

  “Why? What did you find out?” he sent back.

  I briefed him on the conversation. “So Raquel figures we are heading into something big.”

  “Great. Well, at least the Night Wisp is stronger than it’s ever been before,” he sent.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Three days had passed since Shira, Raquel and I had returned from Alpha World, and the data from the probes had finally arrived. The captain of the Phareon fleet and his three advisors joined us via the comm as Raquel, Marcus, Ragnar and I tried to work out a plan of attack. Crivreen and Purwryn were still on mandatory rest after their foolish training session. Raquel figured they would be fully ready for combat in another day’s time, and I hoped we could give that to them.

  “Captain,” said Raquel, “according to the data you sent, they have no interplanetary probes, no orbital defenses and apparently no anti-aircraft protection on the surface?”

  “As strange as it sounds, yes. None of our probes detected anything of the sort on the way in, and all three are now safely in orbit over the target. As of last report, these appear to be undetected by the ground forces.”

  Displayed before me on our tactical screens was an image of the target. It was a modern military base with all the normal trappings, including the standard multiple perimeters created by blast walls, and patrol routes. There were numerous nondescript buildings throughout the complex which were all designed to take a beating from above, and locations for artillery placements. The one major difference was that the base had no artillery in the mounts. There were places to mount them, and even mounting equipment, but nothing actually mounted. There were no modern weapons of any kind visible in the imagery. That didn’t make sense, since this used to be a military base and would have been equipped with plenty of firepower. The only logical conclusion is that they had taken down the weapons, but I couldn’t think of a reason to do that. Even if they couldn’t work them, it would have been simpler to have left them up.

  Also clear in the images were the sorcerers’ forces. These were made up of some kind of creature which was a nightmarish mixture of man, machine and beast. They looked half-formed and ready to fall apart, but when the Phareon military had fought them at the last station they’d proved to be extremely resistant to damage and utterly fearless. They were milling aimlessly around the complex and didn’t seem to be serving any function other than discouraging a direct ground assault. Looking at them made me sick to my stomach. They were unnatural, and I couldn’t wait to see them destroyed.

  “I don’t get it. They have all the pieces in place to harden the target against any assault, but they aren’t utilizing them at all,” I said.

  “Zah’rak, you aren’t thinking like a Korshalemian sorcerer,” said Ragnar.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Remember, they don’t have spacecraft or probes where they come from,” he said.

  “Sure,” said Raquel. “But they’ve been operating in our realm for a while now, so it’s not like they don’t know about such things.”

  “Yes, but they wouldn’t defend against them in the same way that a Vydorian military force would. They have other tools,” he said.

  “What are you getting at?” asked the captain.

  “I think I see,” said Raquel. “They don’t have artillery set up because they won’t need it.”

  “Exactly,” said Ragnar. “If we try a simple attack from above, the sorcerers will reach out with their magic and destroy us in orbit. Failing that, they’ll simply abandon the base and move the operation elsewhere. Either way we lose.”

  “I see,” said the captain. “Then what’s our plan?”

  Raquel looked down at the map thoughtfully and said, “Captain, the only way we’re going to take out that base is to eliminate the sorcerers. They know that as well as we do, so we’ll have to put ground forces into play. I suggest that the Night Wisp lands here, and we move directly on the fortress. I request you to drop your ground forces about an hour behind us to land here and here. The goal will be for your attack to draw the sorcerers out from cover. When they show themselves, we’ll engage them directly. When they are defeated everyone pulls out, and you bomb the base into oblivion from orbit.”

  The captain conferred quietly with his advisors and turned back to the screen. “What about air support?”

  “You’ll need it. I’m sure the sorcerers will have some of their own,” said Raquel, “but I don’t yet know what it will be.”

  “They will summon elementals, at the very least,” said Ragnar. “Hopefully nothing worse, but they are sorcerers so it’s possible.”

  “What are elementals?” asked the captain.

  “Zah’rak, can you display some of the elementals from our database for them to see?” asked Ragnar.

  “Sure,” I said. Thanks to the datapad Master Spectra had given us, we had an extensive database of all the basic creatures elementalists could summon. None of us could summon them, but the information was great to have at times like this. I suspected our little ship contained the most extensive database of magic in the region, apart from Hospital Station.

  The image on the tactical screens was replaced by a slide show of models of various kinds of elementals. Each image contained basic information about the creatures, but I suspected only Marcus could read fast enough to keep up with the ever-changing images. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the slide show; instead he was intently watching the interaction between the captain and his advisors. I wondered if he was able to read their lips, even at the poor camera angle. Perhaps he had a special lip-reading algorithm in that electronic mind of his.

  In my musing I missed most of Ragnar’s speech about the creatures, and only caught his conclusion. “As you can see, there are a large variety of them, but they are all constructed from natural materials of varying kinds. Your physical weapons should be effective against the more physical ones, and your energy-based ones should work well against the others,” said Ragnar.

  “Also,” said Raquel, “they are summoned beings, but they have to obey the same laws of nature as you do; so a fire elemental is vulnerable to water, and earth elementals can be blown to bits. Using your basic knowledge of how things work to tune your attacks and defenses, you should do well against them.”

  “Okay. Ragnar said ‘hopefully nothing worse’,” said the captain. “Could you expand on that?”

  “Do you know much about the Great War?” asked Raquel.

  “I was too young when it was fought to remember the war, but I studied it in school,” he said. A look of fear passed over his face. “Oh, you mean they could call up creatures like that again?”

  “Yes,” said Raquel. “But those creatures take a lot of skill and power to cast, so we’re much less likely to see them here. The Great War was a battle with the best the sorcerers had; this is just a random outpost. I’m counting on there being only a few sorcerers and those not being among their best. This is likely to be an expendable base in their eyes, but I can’t fathom their purpose.”

  “I hope you’re right, but what about their fear weapon? I remember hearing stories about crews being frozen at their stations, unable to fight.” He visibly shuddered. “There was that destroyer, the Firebrand … ”

  He didn’t finish that sentence and clearly didn’t want to. The Firebrand had been part of the lead forces of the attack, and its attack group took the brunt of the sorcerers’ fear weapon before the wizards made their move. It’s said that the whole crew went mad and tore each other to pieces with their bare hands. I had no idea if that was true but, going by his expression, the captain believ
ed it was.

  “That takes even more concentration, which is why we must press the attack hard and fast,” she said. “We can’t let them focus on any one target for long. Truthfully, I’m guessing here; I don’t know how many sorcerers are going to be down there or how powerful they are, so it’s probably wisest to assume the worst until we know,” answered Raquel.

  “Raquel, what if there are too many of them for us?” I asked privately, not wanting to undermine her influence.

  “Then we’ll pull out and call for help. But despite my comments, I’m sure there are only three, maybe four, sorcerers, all fairly weak. We’ll be fine,” she sent back.

  One of the captain’s advisors said something to him privately, then turned back to the screen and asked, “Why are you going first, then? If we have to press them hard and fast, shouldn’t we hit them first and then you come in when the sorcerers show up?”

  Raquel shook her head. “If you go first, you won’t survive the initial rush. We have to engage the sorcerers directly. You see, they aren’t like us; they don’t care if they lose every single person under their command or even the base, so long as they survive and you don’t. Simply put, we need to get the sorcerers worried about us before you can attack.”

  “It’s also the expected attack,” said Marcus. “The Night Wisp often flies with fleets like yours and then attacks solo. If we land alone, they’ll probably assume you aren’t going to help.”

  “This is true,” said Raquel. “That surprise should buy you some time in your initial attack run.”

  “All right, so you rush in and distract the sorcerers and we follow behind and pound them. When you’ve killed the sorcerers, we are to make a crater of their base. Is that correct?”

  “I want the biggest and deepest crater you can make. Leave no survivors,” said Raquel.

  “That you can be certain of,” he said. “But why does this sound like the battle plan for the Great War?”

  “Because it is similar,” said Raquel. “The sorcerers still have the upper hand with regard to deployment and numbers, and so long as that’s true our options for battle tactics are limited to divide, distract and conquer.”

  “When do we attack?” he asked.

  “It’s currently mid-afternoon at the target, so I suggest we wait. The Night Wisp will land as the sun comes up tomorrow morning, local time to the target. Daylight will reduce their options, since many of their pets fear the sun,” said Raquel.

  “Agreed. Good hunting,” said the captain.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Under cover of the early morning twilight, Marcus piloted the Night Wisp to the clearing that Raquel had chosen for our landing. It was closer to the target than I preferred, but it was the best landing site in the area. Ordinarily I would have preferred to leave one person behind to keep the Night Wisp safe, but we were about to go up against what Raquel believed to be at least three sorcerers and that meant we’d need everyone.

  We were all suited up in the mission room waiting for Raquel to return from her scouting run. I hadn’t liked the idea of her traveling alone, but she didn’t wait around to argue; she simply stated her intention, activated her camosuit and left.

  Being the only mundane among us, Marcus loaded himself up with heavy weapons and ammo. No normal human could carry the weight of all that equipment, nor could they wield the two heavy thirty-millimeter launchers. I was a little anxious to see what he planned to do with all that weaponry.

  Marcus was wearing the set of armor I’d made for him. He had the first of the new enhanced line that I was making for Master Dusty’s team. Since Marcus was the only mundane among our number, I figured he would need the most protection. I warned him that it hadn’t yet been tested in combat and we didn’t know its limitations but, as he pointed out, it was at worst far superior to his own armor.

  Raquel insisted I should leave my normal weapons behind for this raid and rely on the new spells she’d taught me. After the fight on the Cyborg ship had shown me the ineffectiveness of my assault rifle compared to my staff, I had to agree with her. I took as many wands as I could carry, some grenades and my swords. My staff was always close at hand, thanks to the summoning trick Raquel had taught me. I didn’t understand how it worked, or where the staff was when not in my hands, but that really didn’t matter; what did matter was that I could pull the staff out of the air when necessary.

  I was also wearing a new type of armor, chosen specifically for this environment. Those weeks spent waiting at the hospital station had given me time to experiment on some new designs. My armor wasn’t spaceworthy, but it was made from completely natural materials that shouldn’t hamper my ability to tap the forest around me. I was hoping that advantage would more than compensate for any loss of protection in the weaker armor. It was lighter and quieter to move in, which should also make casting easier.

  Shira was in her own magical armor which she’d worn when she was a slave. It was far better than anything I could yet make, and also made completely from natural materials. Hers was sufficiently enchanted to protect her in the vacuum of space. She had somehow changed the color of it, too, and it was now as dark as her hair. She wore the pack Raquel had given her, but I didn’t know what was in that.

  “Zah’rak, lead everyone out northwards. You’ll cross a wide game trail; follow that and it will take you around the rear side of the base,” sent Raquel privately, interrupting my inspection of our team.

  “Okay. Where will you be?” I sent back.

  “I’ll continue to scout ahead of you. We’ll regroup at the base,” she sent.

  After one final check of my equipment I said, “We’ll split into two groups. Ragnar, Shira, you’re with me. Marcus, you take Crivreen and Purwryn and, when we hit the trail that Raquel found, take your team under cover on the far side and stay about thirty meters behind us. We’ll take the closer side. That way, one ambush can’t catch all of us at once.”

  We moved out into the woods, making our way carefully though the dense underbrush. I’d intentionally taken Shira and Ragnar in my group because they would both be very much at home in the forest. This would allow us to move with more stealth and speed and give us a chance to surprise any ambush, instead of the other way around.

  “Here we go again,” sent Ragnar, after we had been walking for a while. It was strange to hear his mental voice, but a relief also. Thanks to Master Mathorn’s work with Ragnar, he could now speak telepathically on his own. That meant we no longer had to rely on the communications system in our armor to talk, which was good since I hadn’t added that to my new armor.

  I chuckled. “Getting bored with this life already?”

  “No, I always enjoy a good blind rush into a sorcerer’s stronghold!” he said. “Having no idea what we’re up against and a damaged fleet to back us up just makes it more fun!”

  I couldn’t help but smile at his sarcasm. He wasn’t a warrior at heart, but was invaluable on the battlefield despite that fact or even because of it. Either way, I wouldn’t have dreamt of leaving him behind.

  “Zah’rak, a big change is coming,” he sent, with real concern in his voice.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I wish I knew. All I can say for sure is that the Fates have something in mind for us today, and I don’t think we’ll ever be the same afterwards.”

  I almost tripped over my own feet when I received that message. Ragnar’s domain was knowledge: present, past and future. His divinations and rune casting gave him insight and understanding beyond what any mortal should know. If he said a big change was coming, then there was reason to be concerned.

  “Is this change good or bad?” I asked.

  “I wish I knew,” he said. “I suspect a bit of both. All change seems to work out that way.”

  Before I could respond to that thought, we came upon the trail Raquel had described. I reached out to a tree with my bare hand and used it to search the area. I found Raquel
hiding farther up the trail but no one else. It was eerie being this close and still seeing no resistance.

  “Why haven’t they moved against us yet?” I sent. “Surely they saw the landing.”

  “Sorcerers tend to be cowards,” sent Raquel.

  I wondered if that were true or just a product of her feelings about them. “Marcus, cross here. It’s clear,” I said, remembering at the last moment that Marcus couldn’t hear our thoughts.

  He nodded and took his team across, and they disappeared into the forest on the other side of the trail. I knew I’d taken a risk putting him in charge instead of Purwryn, but I wanted him to know he was one of us now, and showing him trust by giving him this responsibility was the best way to communicate that to him. We waited under cover until I estimated they would be in place. Marcus’ sensors should be able to follow us and stay within the planned spacing.

  “Okay, they’ve had enough time. Let’s move out,” I sent to Ragnar and Shira.

  “Why did we have to land so far away?” asked Shira.

  I felt bad for her. Her short legs meant she had to take two, maybe three steps to every one of mine or Ragnar’s. “Because we want the Night Wisp to survive the fight.”

  “You could’ve dropped me off and I could have gated everyone and saved a lot of time,” she sent.

  “We discussed that already. Casting a gate would be likely to tip our hand to the sorcerers, and we can’t risk that at this early stage.”

  I knew Shira didn’t agree with the plan, but Raquel had insisted that we use no magic until the fight started. She didn’t want the sorcerers to have any idea what we were capable of. I felt there was wisdom in Raquel’s plan, so I supported it. Shira felt that they probably already knew what to expect of us, and she might be right, but I’d rather leave them guessing than confirm their thoughts.

  “We’re almost there,” sent Ragnar.