The twelve soldiers at our eleven o’clock position are unorganized, Richard said. Their leader must be falling down on the job. I don’t think they have a visual on me yet. They know I’m in the boulder field, but they don’t know where.
And your plan is? said Nickelo with more than a hint of curiosity.
I’m going to charge right into them, Richard said. I’m hoping the cats behind me won’t fire for fear of hitting their own troops.
Well, I guess it’s always nice to hope, said Nickelo who didn’t bother giving a probability for his wizard scout’s plan.
Whatever, Richard said. He was out of options, so it didn’t matter what his battle computer thought. Richard noticed his battle computer wasn’t giving any alternate suggestions. That normally meant Nickelo couldn’t come up with a plan that had a better than five percent chance of success.
Fully committed, Richard changed directions to his eleven o’clock and ran at full speed towards the spot where the group of soldiers seemed to be milling around. Richard had a momentary thought they might be good soldiers for all he knew, but they definitely weren’t Marines. No Marine sergeant he’d ever known would put up with their troops clumping together like that.
Richard was only three steps out of the ravine when a weapons-lock warning began flashing red on his heads-up display.
The Long Cat has a lock on you, came Nickelo’s voice into Richard’s mind. Dodge left.
Richard dove left and hit the ground in a summersault. A burst of plasma rounds hit where he’d been. Dirt and broken bits of stone flew into the air.
Rolling out of his summersault, Richard jumped to his feet and leaped to the top of a shuttle-sized boulder. With another leap, he was back on the ground and running straight for a dozen startled soldiers. Half of them were in armor, and the other half were in sand-colored, camouflage fatigues. They were all armed with plasma rifles.
For a split second, time froze, and Richard made out every detail of the situation as Nickelo funneled all available data into their shared space. With a shock, Richard realized most of the dozen soldiers before him were not soldiers at all. They were too young to be soldiers. Two of the unarmored soldiers appeared to be preteens. Richard could only make out one adult in the group, and he appeared to be an old man in his late sixties.
The old man and two of the armored soldiers recovered faster than their companions. They overcame their initial surprise and started bringing their weapons to bear on Richard. The old man actually got a short burst from his plasma rifle off before Richard kicked him in the chest. The old man went flying one way, and his plasma rifle went the other.
Richard did a spin in the air while at the same time switching his phase rod to full destructive mode. He chopped downward onto the arm of one of the armored soldiers. The armor was good, and Richard’s phase rod glanced off. However, the rod’s phase energy penetrated the soldier’s armor and shattered the man’s elbow. The man’s plasma rifle fell to the ground.
No, not a man, Richard thought. Through the soldier’s visor, Richard made out the face of a young girl with short-cut blond hair and steel-blue eyes. She reminded him a little of his friend, Liz, from the Academy. The girl didn’t look much older than his fourteen year old niece, Dren. But Richard didn’t feel too sympathetic towards the girl. The weapon she’d been holding made her an adult as far as he was concerned.
Actually, Dren is still thirteen, Nickelo said matter-of-factly.
Richard ignored his battle computer. He was well aware his niece had been sent a hundred and fifty-seven years in the past, but he didn’t have time to think about that now.
When the phase rod had made contact with the girl’s arm, Richard had noticed her eyes widen in fear followed by an intense expression of pain. Not only had the energy from the phase rod basically disintegrated her elbow, the demon essence in the rod’s creallium core had sucked out some of the girl’s life force before it ricocheted off.
The girl was still screaming in agony as Richard switched the direction of his swing towards the armored head of a second soldier trying to fire at him. At the last instant, Richard remembered his desire to avoid fatalities. He angled the phase rod down onto the soldier’s shoulder. Richard sensed muscle and bone giving way before the rod’s phase energy. The soldier screamed not only from the pain, but from the loss of life force sucked out by the demon essence as well.
Richard felt a wave of emotions swirling around him. The feeling of hunger from the demon essence and its desire to consume the life force from every living thing within range permeated the area. Richard felt the fear of the young soldiers as they reacted to the demon essence. Some of the soldiers appeared to be so affected by the demon essence they were momentarily paralyzed by their fear.
Take advantage of it, Rick, said Nickelo. Put the rest of them out of action. You’re running out of time. Those medium and heavy cats are closing fast.
Roger, Richard said as he kicked a plasma rifle out of the hands of another armored soldier. But I need help. Take out the unarmored ones. On a hunch, Richard added in command voice, Use nonlethal force.
Compliance, said Nickelo. And just so you know, there’s a sixty-seven percent probability I might have used nonlethal force even if you hadn’t ordered it.
Richard felt the right arm of his battle suit swing from right to left. His M63 lightweight plasma assault rifle fired a long burst of plasma rounds at the legs of the unarmored soldiers who were still standing. All five of them fell to the ground. Another quick burst of rounds from the M63 caught two of the soldiers in their arms as they tried to bring their weapons to bear. Their rifles went flying as the plasma rounds shredded their unprotected arms.
Keeping them alive is smart, said Nickelo. If you killed them all outright, those cats would be firing at you even now.
Richard swung his phase rod horizontally at another armored soldier, a young boy. The phase rod shattered the boy’s rifle and continued on to slam into the armor protecting the lad’s side. The hit was straight on, and Richard felt the boy’s armor crack as well as several of his ribs. Richard also sensed the rod’s phase energy scrambling part of the boy’s intestines. His scream of pain was abruptly cut off.
Crap! Richard said. I didn’t mean to kill him.
He’s not dead yet, said Nickelo. But you will be if you don’t hurry. We need to get to the lake.
Then stop talking and help, Richard mentally yelled into his shared space.
As Richard swung his phase rod at the knee of another armored soldier, he felt the right arm of his battle suit swinging towards a different armored soldier. When his M63 was aligned with the soldier’s armored knee, Richard felt the finger of his battle suit’s glove squeeze the trigger. The soldier’s armor was good. Most of the light-plasma rounds were deflected off, but a couple of rounds penetrated a weak spot in the knee joint and found the flesh beneath. As the soldier screamed, Richard sensed the plasma rounds tearing the flesh and bone beneath his armor apart. One of the rounds failed to penetrate the other side of the armor. The plasma energy ricocheted inside the leg portion of the armor. The energy continued to ricochet until its energy dissipated. By then, there wasn’t much left of the lower part of the soldier’s leg.
While Nickelo continued to fire at his target, Richard took out another armored soldier by shattering the boy’s kneecap with his phase rod. Once the boy was down, Richard turned to the armored soldier whose weapon he’d kicked out of his hands. The weaponless soldier was in the process of bending over to pick up a discarded plasma rifle. Richard brought his phase rod down on the small of the soldier’s back. It was a weak spot in the armor. The phase energy easily penetrated the metal armor at the base of the spine. Particles of phase energy acted like miniature subatomic explosions as the soldier’s spine turned into a glob of blood and powdered bone.
The soldier fell to the ground. He no longer tried to grab for his rifle. Richard made the mistake of glancing at the soldier’s visor. What he saw tore at his hear
t. The pain-filled face was that of a young boy. He was probably no more than ten years old.
What the hell is going on? Richard said. What are they doing sending children against us?
I don’t know, said Nickelo. But this isn’t the time to try and figure it out. Your path’s clear now. Get moving. The nearest Long Cat will be here in twenty seconds.
Richard’s head told him to follow his battle computer’s advice and get out while the getting was good. Unfortunately, the emotions of the wounded around him were overwhelming. Richard could sense the pain and fear of the children. He’d never before experienced this much emotional empathy. He didn’t at all like it, but there it was.
Richard’s passive scan told him what he needed to know. Two of the young soldiers were dying. Richard directed a quick active scan at each of the two. The one he’d hit in the side had part of his intestines destroyed. Internal bleeding was already filling his body cavity. Richard had been around enough wounds to know that even if the boy lived long enough to get medical attention, there wasn’t much a normal medic could do for him. And, the other young boy wasn’t any better off. The M63’s plasma rounds had basically amputated the boy’s left leg below the knee. The profuse bleeding Richard’s scan picked up left him with little doubt the boy would be dead before his companions could help him.
What are you doing? said Nickelo.
Without answering, Richard imagined a half dozen tourniquet patches. A small amount of Power left his reserve. Reaching over his shoulder, Richard pulled the tourniquets out of his dimensional pack.
The old man Richard had first kicked was just scrambling to a sitting position while tugging at a hand blaster in a holster at his side. Richard jumped onto the old man and shoved him back to the ground. The weight of the battle suit combined with Richard’s own body weight came to over two hundred kilos. Despite the old man’s continued struggles to reach his weapon, he was helpless.
“No!” Richard yelled using his battle helmet’s external speakers. He tore the hand blaster from the old man’s waist, holster and all.
Shoving one of the tourniquets into the old man’s hands, Richard said, “Get the boy out of his armor and put this on his leg. If you don’t hurry, he’s dead.”
Without waiting to see if the old man complied, Richard threw the remaining bundle of tourniquets at the least wounded of the other soldiers. Hopefully, she knew enough first aid to minister to her companions. Richard figured he’d done about all he could do.
Nick, Richard said. Take charge of the battle suit. Get us the hell out of here!
After giving his instructions to his battle computer, Richard reached out with his mind to the boy with the stomach wound. He wrapped the boy’s wound with Power and imagined how the boy’s intestines should be. Then he compared it with how the boy’s intestines were now.
Rick, no! yelled Nickelo into their share space. I forbid it!
But it was too late. Richard was an emp-healer. Before he could heal someone, his own body had to take on their injuries first. Richard pulled the difference in the boy’s body into himself. The right half of Richard’s intestines scrambled into a pulp to replicate the boy’s injuries. Richard heard the sound of a tortured animal screaming in the distance before blessed unconsciousness began overtaking him.
If it had been up to him, Richard would have fallen to the ground and been easy prey for the approaching cats. But he was part of a team, and Richard was vaguely aware of Nickelo moving the battle suit at double-quick time.
Just before Richard passed completely out, he sensed the boy’s injuries being healed. The boy’s wounds were extensive. It took almost a quarter of the Power in Richard’s healing reserve to bring the boy’s body back to normal. When Richard’s Power finally began working on the acquired injuries on his own body, he was unaware of the healing. By then, he was fully immersed in the darkness of unconsciousness.
Chapter 4 – The Defiant
_____________________________________
Richard felt a mild vibration against the bare flesh of his back. The vibration was soothing, and Richard wanted to remain wherever his pain-free body now found itself. Unfortunately, a drop of liquid ran into his eye and demanded attention. Raising his hand to his head, Richard felt his hair. It was damp.
Am I bleeding? Richard wondered as he opened his eyes to look at his hand. Although his fingers were indeed wet, the liquid was clear. He wasn’t bleeding.
A nearby hissing sound accompanied by a mechanical voice drew Richard’s attention.
“You wake. Good,” said the mechanical voice. “I have work to do.”
Looking in the direction of the voice, Richard saw a muscular humanoid with gray-scaled skin and four arms. A translator box attached to the humanoid’s belt was the source of the voice.
“Charlie?” Richard said. “Where am I?”
Charlie was Sergeant Ron’s assistant mechanic. He was one of the Empire’s reptilian races from the Sterilia system in sector one. Richard had first met Charlie while a cadet at the Academy. Richard liked the old lizard. What Charlie lacked in conversational ability, he more than made up for with honesty and hard work.
One amazing thing about Charlie was he had a Power reserve large enough to have qualified him for wizard scout training. But instead of going to the Academy, Charlie had chosen to use his psionic abilities to maintain heavy equipment such as cats. Through some fluke of Charlie’s Power which Richard didn’t quite understand, the old lizard could seemingly communicate with equipment in a manner sufficient enough to diagnose pending malfunctions. During his time at the Academy, Richard had known Charlie was an excellent U.H.A.A.V. mechanic. Since their time together in the mercs, Richard had also discovered Charlie had an affinity for maintaining the various systems on small starships such as the Defiant.
“You on ship,” said Charlie. “You jump in lake. We fetch.”
Richard took note of his surroundings. He was lying on a table in the small room the Defiant used as its medical facility. Richard realized he was naked. An antiseptically-white sheet was wrapped around his body tight enough to give him a feeling of claustrophobia. The sheet was very sheer, and he could feel the cold metal of the examining room’s table underneath his back. Swinging his legs over the side of the table, Richard stood up while keeping the sheet wrapped around him albeit a little looser than it had been.
“Where’s my battle suit?” Richard asked.
Before Charlie could reply, a voice in Richard’s head answered.
Your battle suit’s in the cargo bay. Charlie was going to fix the holes in your armor, but I told him not to bother. I calculate it would be easier for you to send the damaged battle suit back to Storage for repair. You can just summon a new one for yourself in the meantime. After all, you’ve still got almost two hundred of them left.
Nick! Richard said. What happened?
His battle computer didn’t answer with words. Instead Richard’s shared space was flooded with information. He saw his battle suit running while dodging fire from multiple pursuing cats. When the battle suit reached the lake, it jumped in and began sinking to the bottom.
Although the information being sent into his shared space was just cold, hard data, Richard could almost feel the freezing-cold lake water pouring into the battle suit from the hole in its shoulder. Just before the battle suit touched bottom, a four-armed humanoid in underwater gear grabbed the battle suit and dragged it into the airlock of the Defiant.
The scene switched. Richard saw the Defiant exploding out of the water and reaching for the sky as dozens of cats along the shoreline opened up with plasma beams, phase weapons, and antiaircraft missiles. The Defiant evaded most of the fire. What little fire found its target, the force field around the recon ship kept at bay. The next image to flash through the shared space was the blurring of stars as the Defiant transitioned to hyperspace.
Charlie must have figured Richard was talking to his battle computer. Richard had been told often enough he got an �
��I am not in this room anymore’ look on his face whenever he was in deep conversation with Nickelo. In any regard, Charlie gave Richard a nod of his head and turned to leave. The old lizard obviously had more important things to do than babysit an obviously well wizard scout.
After giving a nod at Charlie’s retreating back, Richard said, How long have I been out, Nick?
Not long, said Nickelo. You’ve been unconscious for just a little over fifteen minutes.
That seems longer than it should be, Richard said. I’ve healed worse wounds than that before without even passing out.
Well, replied Nickelo. Yes and no. You’ve healed worse physical wounds. But the boy’s stomach wound was tainted by the demon essence in your phase rod. I think that made all the difference. You probably need to be more careful with demon enhanced wounds in the future.
It would be fine with me if I never have to deal with demons ever again, Richard said.
Richard doubted he’d be that lucky. During his freshman year at the Academy, he’d helped the elf Shandria steal a magical seed from the demon Efrestra. The demon had sworn to hunt him down and torture him for a thousand years. Richard hadn’t had contact with Efrestra since then, but he doubted the demon had stopped looking for him. Richard supposed his only saving grace was a master demon who’d forbidden Efrestra and his three brothers from hunting him in the physical dimension. Richard wasn’t sure why.
Oh, by the way, said Nickelo with a timely interruption to Richard’s somber thoughts. Sergeant Ron wants to see you. I told him I’d give you the message as soon as you woke up.
Well, I’m awake, Richard said as he walked out the open door of the medical facility into the common room beyond.
The Defiant was a relatively small ship designed to comfortably hold no more than twenty-two occupants. At present, the Defiant’s crew consisted of only Sergeant Ron and Charlie. Richard didn’t really count himself as part of the crew. Everything he knew about operating a starship would fit into a thimble. Richard considered himself more a passenger than an actual crewmember.
Wizard Omega (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 4) Page 6