“They’re clearing the area. You only give ground to get your men clear of a larger attack. Fuck, I can't believe I didn't see this coming,” he said, staring at the map, and cursing himself under his breath. “Get the Raven on the line,” he yelled to the communications officer.
“They’re going to bombard the city from orbit. It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he said to Sara's confused expression.
“But they will be destroying all the tech they came for. The whole reason this planet is being fought over at all is the tech,” Sara said, not understanding why they would come so far just to give it all up by bombarding the prize to dust.
“It was your attack. They must think we found some super weapon, and are using it against them. They will probably try surgical strikes to minimize damage, but they don't want to waste troops if they don't have to. This isn’t the only city on the planet, but it is the only one with enemy troops. They need to deal with us, then they can do whatever they like. It’s a gamble, but it seems like it’s one they are willing to take.”
Sara rubbed at the knot in her neck. She was going to have to see if there was anyone on the Raven that knew shiatsu massage when they got back.
If we get back.
“What do we do, Sergeant? Retreat to the vaults?” Sara asked, as Alister jumped to her shoulder and stared at the map.
“Too right, Captain,” he said through gritted teeth. “Ladies and gentlemen, you are to fall back immediately to the closest vault. There is an incoming orbital strike, and we have no means of stopping it. Disengage all combat and retreat to the closest vault. Move people, we have minutes at best.” Baxter slammed a fist onto the table, sending the map flickering.
“You heard the sergeant, people. That means you, too. Head for the vault on the edge of the park, pack as many as you can in the elevator, but don't wait too long, it’s a fast ride,” Gonders began yelling to the command tent staff. They began packing up and moving at a jog with cases of equipment.
“Sargent Major, I have the Raven on the line,” the comms officer said, standing at his station, eager to begin packing up.
“Send it to me,” Sara said, tapping her earpiece to open the channel.
After a moment there was a static burst making Sara wince. “This is the Raven. Captain, it’s good to know you’re all right,” the buzzing voice of Mezner said. “Stand by for Colonel Grimms.”
There was a click and the gruff voice of Grimms came over the staticky line, “Captain. What’s the situation?”
Sara cupped her hand over her ear to hear better on the bad connection, “Grimms, we are going to need air support. The Teifen carrier is about to start bombarding the city. Has the core been installed?”
There was an agonizing ten second delay with the laser comms due to the distance. Sara had to fight not to say anything out of nervousness that would interrupt his eventual reply. She waited, watching soldiers carry boxes of equipment out of the emptying tent.
When Grimms voice came back it was dark, “I’m sorry Captain. We installed the core nearly two hours ago, but the diagnostic it’s running shut us down. Cora is in a forced slumber while the ship repairs itself. We can’t do anything till it’s done. We’re blind up here, Ma’am. Sabine tells me it will be at least seven more hours till the ship is repaired and comes back online.”
Sara turned and kicked at a fallen tree branch, “Fuck.” Baxter turned at the outburst, but saw she was still on the line and gave her some privacy. “It will all be over by then. Grimms, I want you to stay out of this when the Raven comes back online. Wait till the Teifen clear the system then get back to Earth as fast as you can. We need to get those cores to the U.H.C. and start using those plans to build a fleet of ships that can actually get shit done. I’m going to do what I can down here, but chances are we aren’t going to make it.” She said the last part quietly, so the troops couldn’t hear her, though she did see Baxter stiffen at the statement.
“Sir, I don’t like this.” Grimms said after a pause, but he continued, “We are not going to leave people behind. This ship needs her captain.”
“You are going to leave us, if that’s what it comes down to. Those cores are more important than anyone on this planet, including me,” she said, and to her surprise she meant it. Those cores represented the only fighting chance humanity had in this war. “Is that understood, Grimms?”
She waited till a defeated, but determined Grimms replied, “Yes Ma’am. Grimms out.”
The line went dead, and Sara’s shoulders sagged with the weight of the order she had just given. She turned to see Baxter standing tall, directing his people. He was cool and composed, shoulders strong and head held high. He had heard her words. He knew they were dead men walking, but he refused to be beat down.
She took a breath, standing up straight, and marched to his side.
“I hope you have one or two more miracles stuffed away in that battlesuit, Ma’am. We could really use one right about now.” Baxter said, not looking at her.
As they watched the people stream past, Sara looked to Alister, wondering not for the last time if she should finish the summoning.
Will it even make a difference?
Alister saw her looking his way and raised an eyebrow.
“Fuck it. This is going to be our last stand, anyway. Might as well,” she said to him.
He actually smiled.
39
The tent cleared, and Baxter and Sara turned to follow the last of the command staff. They jogged to the building she had entered earlier that day. There was a small backup of people going down the stairs to the vault, and they waited in the lobby with the missing roof. Sara looked up to the sky, searching for the Teifen carrier.
The sun was setting, casting the city in shadow, but the flashing of the carrier high in orbit still reflected its light. As she watched, three streamers of light began burning high in the sky.
It took her a second to figure out what it was.
“Incoming,” she shouted, ducking behind a wall.
Baxter yelled over the comms for his men to take cover. Sara squeezed in tight, Alister tucked close to her chest. She wished she had thought to put her armor back on. Then the twilight lit like a noonday sun, and the roar of hundred kilo slugs slamming into the ground drowned out anymore thoughts.
She felt strong hands pick her up, and was jostled as her rescuer started running.
Baxter was kicking and screaming to get people down the steps, cradling her in his arms, as the night began raining death and destruction down on them. They made it to the basement stairs, where a gauss round hit close by, rocking the building above. There was a rumbling, and the ceiling began to rain dust, cracks forming across the ceiling of the stairwell.
“Shield,” Sara half-screamed, half-yelped to Alister.
A spellform appeared in her mind, and she began powering it, but immediately knew she was not going to have enough energy. She was glad for Baxter carrying her, because she was going to use pretty much everything she had left to keep the ceiling up.
The shield popped up, supporting the groaning ceiling as they raced down the three levels to the subbasement and took the elevator to the vault. The shield was turning red at the slightest pressure, and she tried to push out more Aether, but she was at her limit.
The shield failed, and the ceiling began to fall.
A new shield popped up right before the chunks of ceiling would have crushed them. Sara saw that Gonders was at the base of the stairs, holding the roof at bay until they all made it down.
When they did, Gonders let the shield go and slipped into the hall behind Baxter. Sara watched over his shoulder as the stairwell filled with tumbling stone and dust, cutting them off from the surface.
Sara and Baxter sat in the abandoned control room, not talking as they listened to the dull thud of impacting gauss rounds on the surface. They were deep enough underground that the rumbling was distant, and in the quiet room, only the sound of their breathing wa
s competing for attention.
“I guess you can take that nap now,” Baxter said, running a hand through his white hair, still wet with rain and sweat.
Sara gave him a smile. “I think I’m all good on naps. Just had one in the medical tent, remember?”
“How could I forget? Scared the hell out of m—us,” he said, not looking at her.
Sara pushed herself to her feet. “I need to think. You mind if I go through some motions?”
Not really knowing what she was talking about, Baxter waved for her to continue and got up to pace.
Sara very slowly began her yoga routine, holding each position for only a few seconds, reveling when her muscles began to loosen and stretch. She got lost in the flow, and her mind began to clear.
She could see how this would end, with the Teifen numbers being the difference. It didn’t matter that her men were better fighters; they were just too few.
She changed position.
The Teifen only had a few mages. She could take them out, if she could only get her well to fill quicker. But that was like asking the rain to fall faster; it was going to fill at its own pace.
She changed position.
She needed to complete the Familiar spell. If it worked, she would have all the power she needed.
If it worked.
She changed position.
She trusted Alister. She knew familiars were a real thing, now that she had seen proof in skeleton form.
She changed position.
If it didn’t work, she would be leaving her people on the ground without a captain. Then again, if she didn’t do it, the people would all be dead anyway.
She shifted to Bakasana and opened her eyes. Standing right in front of her was Alister.
He looked her in the eyes and licked her nose.
“Is that Bakasana?” Baxter asked, leaning on the wall behind her.
She came out of the position and sat cross-legged facing him, her mouth open in surprise. “Yes. Yes, it was.”
He nodded. “Thought so. I’m going to go check on everybody.”
Sara was so impressed that he knew what the position was called, she didn’t comment on the fact that he had been watching her.
40
Sara sat on the floor of the deserted control room, front and center below the giant view screen. Her knees were pulled up tight to her chest and she peered over them at Alister, who sat facing her, his yellow eyes nearly glowing in the dim light. She had the room to herself, as Baxter and the troops had cleared out ten minutes before to explore the larger complex.
I need to get on with this.
She and Alister had unfinished business, and being trapped several hundred meters underground seemed like a desperate enough situation to actually go through with it. The Raven was not coming to help, and the Elif had abandoned Humanity to race back to their home system. They were alone; the situation hopeless.
No, not hopeless. I just need to trust Alister. Step up, Sara, or get out of the way.
She eyed him, and he eyed her back. She was done with being scared at the prospect of dying from giving him all her Aether; she was already dead. So was everyone else on the planet.
It’s all or nothing. I choose all.
“So, what do I do? Just use you as a spellform?” she said, her mouth hidden behind a knee.
“Merow,” he said, a serious look on his furry face.
“What if it kills us?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Merop,” he shrugged, echoing the conclusion she had just drawn.
“Good point. You ready?” she asked, holding out both hands palm-up.
Alister crawled into her open hands, and she dropped her knees to the side and brought her hands up, holding him so they were face to face.
Then she hesitated.
Cora was right; he’s just a cat.
No, he’s more than a cat. He’s my familiar.
But still, deliberately using all her Aether was suicide. Did she trust a cat that much? Then again, it wasn’t like they had a whole lot of options for getting out of here, and she didn't want to die. She could just—
Alister licked the tip of her nose.
She looked at him, took a deep breath, and poured her Aether into him.
She used him like a physical spellform, his shape guiding the flow. His little body began to glow a dim blue, and she pushed harder. He closed his eyes as his fur began to dance with little static charges. She pushed more Aether into him, keeping the flow wide open.
She was already nearly empty anyway, so it didn't take long for her body to start fighting back. It felt like she was slowly stabbing her own hand. Her body was firing off all the little tricks it had learned during its evolution to keep her from harm. Her heart rate spiked, flooding her with adrenaline. Her mind tried to distract her with doubt, knowing it couldn't pass the threshold; the forbidden line.
She saw the point of no return and reached for it, pushing hard, not letting up despite her mind screaming in the background. She came up to the line, that last little bit of Aether that had never been used, the bit that stayed nestled away in her soul, always there, warm and comforting.
She held that last little bit, just a dim trickle of Aether.
She cherished it. Loved it. Thanked it for keeping her solid and whole.
Then she shoved it into Alister.
Sergeant Major Reginald Baxter stalked the halls looking for Sara. He wanted to let her know that they were still unable to contact the Raven from down in the bunker.
He shook his head. ‘Captain Sonders’, he thought. Not ‘Sara’.
Actually, he just wanted to see if she was all right. He had only used a dozen or so spells throughout the day, and he was beat. She had blocked an Aether cannon blast, and then blown up half an army. He hadn’t known it was possible to throw that much magic around. She had to be nearly dead.
He came to the double doors at the end of the hall and stuck his head in. He had been gone for less than fifteen minutes, but the room was empty. He was about to leave, when a blue wispy glow caught his eye. There at the front of the room, under the huge view screen, was a blue ribbon of light, falling to the floor. It vanished in a puff of Aetheric blue mist before hitting the carpet.
Reginald Baxter shook his head.
I must be more tired than I thought.
He closed the door and took a right, heading down the hall.
Sara could feel the floor under her. It was solid and smooth, unlike the carpet she had been sitting on. She opened her eyes and was surprised when, instead of the control room, she found herself in a place that was completely white. She rolled her head to the right and could see that the white went on forever.
At least, it looked like forever.
She could see no corners where the floor met a wall. Having no distinction of a horizon of any kind set her teeth on edge, and she rolled her head back until she was looking at the blank, white sky.
She realized she was completely naked; an observation that would normally make her uncomfortable was now just a passing thought. She was neither hot nor cold. Her body didn't ache like it had before, and the knot that had been forming in her neck was gone.
There was a warm feeling deep in her soul that was both desirable and foreign. She no longer felt the pressure to advance at the academy, or sacrifice for the Navy, or search for Cora’s approval. She just felt… content.
She lay there, enjoying the peace and serenity of the place. She wiggled her toes, just to make sure she still had them, and smiled. After a few minutes of enjoying the feeling of rightness, she decided to explore some more.
Sara leaned up onto her elbows and looked down the length of her body. There were no bruises or marks from the battle she had been fighting all day. She wiggled her toes again, and noticed a tiny man lying on the ground beyond them.
Sitting up quickly in a cross-legged position, Sara examined him.
He was maybe twenty-five centimeters tall, with pale, white s
kin and black hair that flowed down past his shoulders. He had pointed ears like an Elif, but they were much longer.
He was also completely naked.
The man’s eyes fluttered open, and she watched as he went through the same process she had of assessing where he was. Sara eventually cleared her throat, getting his attention.
Startled, he sat up and began scooting back from the sound, but he stopped and smiled when he saw her.
With a little effort, he mimicked her cross-legged position and sat facing her.
“Hello, Sara. It is nice to meet you properly,” he said with a clear but alien accent.
“Um, do I know you?” she said, eyeing him. She looked into his yellow eyes, and her breath caught in her throat. “Alister?”
“Alister Burke, at your service,” he confirmed, affecting a seated bow.
“But, you’re a cat. At least, you’re supposed to be,” she said, taking him in. “What are you?”
“I’m a pixie. Have been the whole time. I chose the cat form when you summoned me; it’s all part of the bargain.”
She squinted. “What bargain? The Familiar spell?”
He shook his head. “No, the Familiar spell is the contract. The bargain is the agreement that humanity made with the pixies at the beginning. Our two species are from the same planet, and we made a deal that benefited us both very early on in our shared history, before we journeyed out into the stars.”
“So, we’re not from Earth,” Sara said, confirming her earlier speculation with Grimms. “How have we never seen your kind before?” Sara asked, confused.
“Our original world has been lost, unfortunately. The reason you have never seen us in our time on Earth is because we hide; we have the magic to help us do so,” he said, waving a hand at the empty whiteness.
Sara looked around her. “You’re saying this place is made of… magic?”
He nodded. “This,” he said, motioning around them, “is the Aether. When you filled me with your last bit of Aether, it brought us here, made us the same person, in a way. We are able to see each other as we truly are in this place. It’s part of the process.”
Genesis: War Mage: Book One (War Mage Chronicles 1) Page 24