The newly arrived major glanced over at Sergeant Ron and her but said nothing. After nodding to the desk sergeant who’d jumped to attention at the officer’s entrance, the major opened the flap to the inner tent and pulled it shut behind him.
The sergeant sat back down and went back to whatever desk sergeants did. After another five minutes, the desk sergeant looked at something on his computer console. “The major will see you now, wizard scout.”
Both Trinity and Sergeant Ron started to rise.
“Uh, he only wants to see the wizard scout.”
Sergeant Ron surprised Trinity by not arguing. He just sat back in his seat and closed his eyes again. Trinity thought she detected a half smile on the old man’s lips, but she couldn’t be sure.
“He’s a strange old bird,” Trinity told her battle computer.
“You won’t get any arguments out of me on that score,” replied Jennifer.
Moving to the inner doorway, Trinity opened the flap and went inside. She closed the flap behind her. The inner tent was as sparse of furnishings as the outer. A simple cot and footlocker were tucked into one corner of the tent. A holograph display table was located in the middle of the room. A miniature version of the planet Cavos rotated slowly above the display table. Numerous red dots were lit up all over the planet.
Trinity turned her attention from the holograph to the major. The man was sitting at a metal desk with a computer built into the top. His chair was a duplicate of one of the uncomfortable metal seats in the outer office. He appeared to be studying a report of some kind on the computer screen. The scowl on the man’s face told her the report probably didn’t contain good news.
“Well?” said the major not even bothering to look up from his computer.
“Sir?” Trinity asked.
“I hate these initial meetings,” she told her battle computer in their shared space. “I never know what kind of working relationship a new commander wants. Is he a jerk who wants spit and polish discipline? Or is he someone who likes a more relaxed atmosphere?”
The major looked up and glowered at her. “I don’t know how it is where you come from, wizard scout, but out here it’s standard protocol to salute when reporting to a superior officer.”
“Definitely a jerk,” Trinity told her battle computer.
Trinity straightened to a stiff attention that would’ve made her TAC officers back at the Academy proud. She saluted. “By regulation, wizard scouts aren’t required to salute, and they rarely do. But if that’s what you want, then so be it. I’ll play whatever little game makes you happy… sir.”
The major’s face turned red, but Trinity gave him credit for controlling his temper. The man sat silent a good six seconds without saying a word. Trinity held her salute the whole time. She had a snide remark on her tongue about superior officers who didn’t return salutes, but she kept it to herself.
“Another wise decision,” said Jennifer. “There’s no use antagonizing the man. You have to work together to complete the mission. Butting heads over a simple salute isn’t going to make your job any easier.”
Trinity had another snide comment for her battle computer as well, but she kept it in the private space of her mind. She’d learned long ago it didn’t pay to antagonize cooks, finance clerks, or battle computers in the military. They all had insidious ways of getting back at you.
The major’s face returned to a more normal color. He stood and snapped to attention before giving a parade-ground perfect salute in return. When he was finished, he sat back down. He nodded at a nearby metal chair.
Lowering her salute, Trinity sat down. She continued to remain silent. She’d found silence was usually the best tactic when dealing with jerk commanders.
“I’m heavy armor,” said the major. “That’s all I’ve ever been. I haven’t worked with any wizard scouts before.”
Trinity kept her mouth shut in spite of the fact several snide remarks were aching to get out.
“I’m proud of you,” said Jennifer. “I calculate the man’s under a lot of stress. You might want to give him a break.”
“Uh, what am I supposed to call you?” asked the major.
Shrugging her shoulders, Trinity said, “I’ll answer to Trinity, or Delgado, or plain old wizard scout, sir. Whichever you prefer.” After a second, Trinity added, “What should I call you…, sir?”
The major glared at Trinity for a split-second before his face relaxed. He nodded his head and gave what might have been a half smile. “Fair enough…, Trinity. It’s been a long day. The fact that I requested a heavy-armor regiment as reinforcements and got a single wizard scout along with the ancient mariner sitting in the outer office hasn’t helped.”
This time Trinity saw a definite smile on the man’s face. The smile was weak, but it was there.
“You can call me Major, or Major Criteron, or sir,” said the major. “I’ll answer to any of them.”
“Understood…, sir.”
The major touched an icon on his desk. “Sergeant Wyvers, have our other guest step in, please.”
A few seconds later, Sergeant Ron entered the major’s office. After a quick set of introductions, Trinity found herself sitting on one side of the desk with the Defiant’s captain sitting next to her while the major sat across from them.
The major looked at Sergeant Ron. “I’ve been ordered to assist you in getting an overhaul done on your hyper-drive. You’ll need to move your ship to the spaceport at Tremar. That’s the Tremarians’ capital city.”
Trinity remembered an earlier briefing from Jennifer. The Tremarians were one of two factions on the planet Cavos. The other faction was the Osoloians. Something had caused them to start killing each other the previous year. The Intergalactic Empire had sent in a peacekeeping force to stop the killing. From what Jennifer had told her, the peacekeepers hadn’t had a lot of success in keeping the peace. The situation wasn’t quite a civil war yet, but from what she could tell, it was well on its way.
“The Tremarians, huh?” asked Sergeant Ron. “Can they be trusted?”
“Can anyone?” asked the major. “My peacekeepers are theoretically neutral, but in actuality, both sides resent our presence. My division has taken losses, especially among the officer corp.” Pointing to the holograph of Cavos, the major said, “See all those red dots? That’s the locations where my peacekeepers have been attacked.”
“Uh, that’s a lot of red dots,” said Sergeant Ron. “How many troops do you have, if you don’t mind my asking?”
The major stared at the holograph for several seconds before answering. “I’ve got an armored regiment along with a division of infantry. It’s not nearly enough.”
Trinity was surprised. “I was told a division during my briefing, but I took that with a grain of salt. Since my orders were to report to a major, I thought there might’ve been a mistake… sir.”
The major took his gaze away from the holograph and faced Trinity. “Your orders were correct. I am in charge. That’s what happens when every field officer above the rank of major gets killed off.”
“Jennifer,” Trinity thought. “Is he telling the truth?”
“He is,” came her battle computer’s reply. “Most of the higher ranking officers were killed two weeks ago. A bomb destroyed the Tremarians’ palace during a reception in honor of the division commander and his staff. According to the information in my databanks, other senior officers have been individually assassinated since then. Major Criteron took charge last week. According to what I can glean from the tele-network, he’s had three attempts on his life in as many days.”
Trinity looked at the major in a new light. “I guess he is under a lot of stress.”
“I calculate you’re correct, wizard scout.”
No one spoke for several seconds. Finally, Sergeant Ron broke the silence. “I read the intel files before we arrived. If you don’t mind my saying, you don’t need an armored regiment. You need a bodyguard. I’ve got a feeling Trinity here will do
you a lot more good than you may think.”
Trinity sat up in her seat. “I’m nobody’s bodyguard. I’m a wizard scout. I do deep reconnaissance missions.”
“Ha!” said Sergeant Ron. “You’re talking to someone who’s been with the Academy since before you were born. A wizard scout does whatever’s needed to accomplish the mission. Keeping the major here alive sounds pretty important to me.”
“I don’t need a bodyguard,” said Major Criteron taking Trinity’s side. “I can take care of myself. I’m sure my staff can come up with some kind of recon suitable for a wizard scout. In the meantime, I’ll have Sergeant Wyvers arrange your accommodations.”
Trinity stiffened at the apparent brushoff, but she didn’t argue.
“The major can think all he wants,” Trinity told her battle computer. “I’m not sitting around here waiting for some staff flunky to come up with make-do work for me. Jennifer, I want you to do an analysis of the situation on Cavos. Compile a list of options. We need to get started on this thing before we have a full-scale civil war on our hands.”
“Compliance.”
The major stood up and escorted them to the outer office. After giving some orders to the desk sergeant, the major looked at Sergeant Ron and her. He smiled. It wasn’t a friendly smile, but it wasn’t an unfriendly one either.
“I don’t know about you two,” said the major, “but I haven’t eaten since breakfast. You’re welcome to join me at our officer’s mess. I doubt we’ll be seeing much of each other after today, so if you have any questions, now’s the time to ask.”
As a wizard scout, Trinity didn’t need to eat. Like all wizard scouts, she’d received a DNA baseline during her final year at the Academy. Any time her body deviated from its baseline, her Power automatically attempted to bring it back to her original baseline. As long as she had Power in her reserve, her self-heal ability would heal her injuries and return her body to normal. As far as her body was concerned, hunger and thirst were injuries. Be that as it may, although she didn’t need to eat, she could and did eat and drink on occasion; partly out of habit and partly for the taste.
“I could use something to drink,” Trinity said thinking of all the questions she had for the major.
“Well, I’m famished,” said Sergeant Ron. “I could eat a boiled pactar all by my lonesome.”
The major took the lead. Trinity followed with Sergeant Ron. She noted the orderly rows of tents and the scurrying soldiers. A few hundred meters away, she made out the massive forms of a dozen or so of the larger UHAAVs parked in a motor pool. To her right, she watched a Leviathan cat advancing down a wide aisle between two rows of tents. The six-legged mechanical behemoth was impressive. Before she’d become a wizard scout, her infantry unit had been assaulted by a squadron of Leviathans. It hadn’t turned out well for her unit. She was glad this Leviathan was on their side.
“Can you drive one of those things?” Trinity asked more to take her mind off an unpleasant memory than any desire for knowledge.
The major gave a genuine laugh. “Yeah, that and any other piece of armor in the Empire’s inventory. I was an enlisted man for ten years before getting a field promotion as a butter-bar lieutenant. I’ve been in armor for eighteen years now.”
“Then I suspect you—” started Sergeant Ron.
“Incoming!” shouted Jennifer over the battle helmet’s external speakers.
At the same time as Jennifer gave her warning, Trinity felt the battle suit activate. The black, leather-like material changed form into the best protective armor the Empire’s technicians could devise. Instinctively, Trinity grabbed the battle helmet off the left rear of her utility belt. Somewhere between her hip and head, the helmet changed from its flattened shape to its helmet configuration. Just like she’d done thousands of times before, Trinity wrapped her long black hair with Power and tucked it inside her helmet using telekinesis as the helmet closed around her face.
With her suit in full battle mode and her activated phase rod in her left hand, Trinity reached out with her passive scan for likely targets. She sensed a series of rockets streaking out from the Leviathan cat she’d noticed earlier. Two of the cat’s missiles hit the command tent they’d just left and exploded in bursts of fire and smoldering wreckage. Pieces of burning canvas billowed up into the air accompanied by multicolored flames and smoke. The life form on her passive scan that had denoted Sergeant Wyvers blinked out.
Other missiles from the Leviathan hit among the neat rows of tents in the compound. Trinity sensed additional life forms blinking out of existence. Beams of plasma energy licked out from the ten-meter tall cat cutting running soldiers in half. A beam of energy reached out for the major. Trinity threw up a hasty defensive shield as she body slammed the officer to the ground. The plasma beam ricocheted into the air leaving a smell of ozone behind it. The major was up in a flash running toward the Leviathan at the same time as he was shouting commands for his soldiers to take cover.
“What does he think he’s going to do?” asked Jennifer. “The man’s not even armed.”
Trinity didn’t know or care. The memory of her old unit being assaulted by Leviathan’s flashed through her mind. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let this one turn into a slaughter.
Taking off at a dead run straight for the Leviathan, Trinity passed the major shoving him to the ground as she went by. She caught a glimpse of him summersaulting to his feet and chasing after her.
“The fool’s going to get himself killed,” Trinity told her battle computer.
“He’s a leader,” replied Jennifer. “Good leaders aren’t prone to sitting around with their thumbs up their rears while their soldiers are getting killed.”
Trinity glanced at the approaching heavy cat. Noticing a movement in the UHAAV’s cockpit, she increased the magnification on her visor. A lone man with a tattooed face sat in the pilot’s seat. He was wearing an orange technician’s uniform.
“He’s a Tremarian,” said Jennifer. “Look at his tattoos.”
Trinity zoomed in on the man’s face. His tattoos were similar in design to the ones she’d seen on the tattooed man during the battle to free the professor and Telsa.
Switching back to normal magnification, Trinity threw up another defensive shield as the Leviathan pilot turned his forward plasma and phase gun arrays toward her. Trinity’s defensive shield stopped most of the energy beams and solid slugs, but one phase round got through hitting her on the left thigh. The heavy-steel slug penetrated her armor passing completely through her leg and out the opposite side of the battle suit. She went spinning to the ground spewing blood in the air.
“Your defensive shield can’t stop that kind of firepower for long, wizard scout,” said Jennifer. “I highly recommend you find cover until help arrives. I detect two of the major’s UHAAVs starting their engines in the motor pool. I calculate they should be here in sixty-eight seconds.”
“To hell with that,” Trinity said as she placed her hands over the entrance and exit holes in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood. “A lot of people can die in a minute.”
Sensing Power wrap around the hole in her leg as her self-heal took over, Trinity struggled to her feet. She felt a cool liquid enter a vein near the wound as her battle computer injected a painkiller through a thread needle located close to the injury.
“The seal on your battle suit’s compromised,” said Jennifer. “Fortunately, the assistors in your leg are still in working order. I calculate you can still move if you’re ready to handle the pain.”
Ready or not, Trinity knew she had no choice except to move. Her defensive shield was already buckling under the continued assault of the cat’s weapons. She sensed the Power in her reserve dropping rapidly.
“You’re at twenty-nine percent,” said Jennifer.
Bulling her way forward against the force of the Leviathan’s firepower, Trinity made it to a point below the cat’s cockpit just as she sensed the portside phase cannon attempt to lock onto her positi
on. The portside phase cannon didn’t fire.
“You’re inside the field of fire of the cat’s larger weapons,” said Jennifer. “You’ll still need to watch out for the underside antipersonnel weapons.”
No sooner was her battle computer’s thought in her head, than a series of explosions came from the underside of the Leviathan. Thousands of metal pellets hit Trinity’s defensive shield throwing up dirt on the ground around her. Nothing penetrated her shield.
“You’re lucky your shield defends against both physical and energy attacks,” said Jennifer.
Trinity knew she was lucky. Not all wizard scouts were as fortunate as her.
Taking hold of the UHAAV’s nearest leg, Trinity pulled herself up climbing rapidly hand-over-hand toward the underside of the cockpit. Spying an escape hatch, she grabbed hold with her right hand and began beating on the hatch’s hinge with her phase rod. The shaft of the rod bounced off leaving nary a mark on the hinge.
“It’s magnetically sealed,” said Jennifer. “Your phase rod’s a blunt-force weapon. It can’t cut through the metal. You’re not going to get through that way. Recommend you try something else to force your way inside the cat.”
Switching out the phase rod for her phase pistol, Trinity emptied it pointblank at the hinge. Except for a few dull streaks, the hinge was no worse for the wear.
“I told you it’s magnetically sealed,” said Jennifer. “You don’t have anything powerful enough to gain entry. The Leviathan’s armor can’t be breached by anything smaller than a Type IV anti-tank rocket.”
Continuing to hang by one hand from the hatch, Trinity used telekinesis to extract the empty magazine from her pistol and levitate a fresh magazine out of her ammo pouch and into the opening in the handle. Still using telekinesis, she chambered a round.
Looking around, Trinity tried to find another point of entry. She saw none. What she did see was a flurry of incoming small arms fire as some of the peacekeepers returned fire. Their low-energy plasma beams had no more effect on the advancing metal behemoth than her phase pistol.
Trinity Unleashed (Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado Book 1) Page 7