His grandfather and father, who had both served as members of the British Parliament, would think he was a lunatic for not running away from this suicide mission. He knew the risks involved when he chose to serve his country by joining Britain’s elite Special Air Service, but this was something completely different.
The patriarchs of his family were not happy at his decision to join the SAS, but they were proud of how quickly he had risen through their ranks and was now the youngest sergeant major in their history. Fortunately, his two older brothers, one a barrister and the other a rising star on Churchill’s staff, had chosen careers more in line with the family expectations.
His mother, born into an aristocratic Austrian family, had been the only one to support his career decision. He had learned to speak German from her, a skill that had assisted him greatly in joining the SAS. The SAS also sent him to their language school, where he learned to speak French as well. The regiment he was assigned to had been responsible for training the fledgling members of the U.S. Army Rangers as well.
Although his current assignment as a liaison between the American Rangers and British SAS to further develop their training regimen had provided him with some great opportunities, he had been longing to get back in the action. It looks like that wish was about to come true.
Chapter 46
Fort Benning
Training for Will’s men came again at 5:00 a.m. As the day began, they ate breakfast in silence - all of them were sore from the day before. They then went and completed the same regimen of pushups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and a run as they had the day before, except this time, Will added a few more exercises and increased the run to eight miles, and at a faster pace.
As before, Will lead them through their workout. As they continued and his men began to tire, Will encouraged them to push themselves past their limits mentally just as hard as they were pushing themselves physically, and to think away from themselves, ignore the pain and exertion, and go well beyond their limits.
After their workout, Will told them they would be working on their mountaineering skills. The rest of the morning was spent climbing with ropes, rappelling down the side of the rocky mountain slopes, and freestyle climbing. All of the men did very well at this, with the exception of Hammond, who was not a big fan of heights. However, with Will’s encouragement and some mental techniques designed to help him forget about the heights, he quickly overcame his fear and did very well at climbing.
During one of their last climbs, Serrano, Wakefield, and Robbins were climbing freestyle but with a twenty-five foot tether that latched them to each other for safety. They were climbing on one of the rockiest ledges when Serrano, who was in the lead, reached up to grab a piece of rock that was brittle, which promptly broke off in his hand, and he slipped off the ledge.
Serrano fell past Wakefield and Robbins and pulled Wakefield with him. Robbins was holding on for dear life and began yelling for help. Will was on another ledge about sixty feet above them, but the angle of the ledge had prevented him from seeing Serrano fall.
The other men who were already on top of the mountain, started to climb down after hearing Robbins yell for help. Will knew they would never make it in time to help them. Will then jumped the sixty feet, and landed with catlike precision on the ledge right above Robbins. Will then grabbed the length of rope that Robbins had attached to his climbing harness, which was to be used to hook into a piton if he needed it during the climb, just as his screaming biceps let go of the rock formation he was holding onto.
Will now held of all three men with one arm, the lengths of rope between them the only thing keeping the struggling men from falling to the rocky floor two hundred feet below them. All three of them were thrashing about trying to grab a piece of the mountain so they could secure themselves.
“Gentlemen, relax,” Will said calmly. “I have you. You’re not going to fall. I’m going to climb up to the next ledge and bring you up one at a time.”
Upon hearing Will’s voice, the frightened men looked up, one by one, and saw that Will did indeed have all three of them, bearing their weight with only one hand while he began to climb the forty or more feet to the next ledge with the other hand. Mean-while, the other men, some of whom were on the ground, and the others who were already on top of the mountain, were watching in amazement at Will’s rescue of the three men.
“Holy fuck!” exclaimed Brunner. “Do you guys see this shit?”
“Son of a bitch!” shouted Becker. “He’s climbing with one hand while holding the three of them with the other.”
“My God!” cried Hess.
Hauser, Schechter, Schultz, and Hammond, who were already on top of the mountain, made pretty much the same comments as Becker, Brunner, and Hess were making below them. They all watched as Will quickly made his way to the next ledge and pulled all of the men to safety. After safely rescuing them, Will gave the men a few minutes to rest and recover. They were then able to finish their climb with no further problems. Will remained on the ledge, in case there were any problems with the last three as they made their way up the slope.
Becker, Brunner and Hess then made their way to the top a little while later. After they all made their way up top, Will finally joined them. He looked nonchalant, and as usual, was not breathing hard or sweating - he looked as fresh as he had at 5:00 a.m. At first, all of them were too stunned to say anything. Finally, Serrano spoke up and thanked Will for what he had done. Wakefield and Robbins followed suit.
“Just be more careful next time. Watch where and what you are placing your hand on before committing your body weight to it, and make sure you have three points of contact at all times,” was all he said at first. “Gentlemen, lets stow our gear and head over to the ranges for some shooting practice.”
Slowly, the team began to pick up their gear and stow it in their rucksacks. No one had the courage to say anything else until Hauser finally spoke up.
“Beggin’ the Colonel’s pardon, but what the hell was that we just saw, sir?”
“What do you mean?” asked Will without pretension.
“Sir, you know damn well what I mean! We just watched you climb thirty or forty feet up a mountain with one hand while carrying three guys with the other! How the fuck did you…”
Before he could finish, Will was in his face, much to Hauser’s surprise. “Captain, you will not take that tone of voice with me, or I will send your ass back to Guadalcanal tonight! Do you understand me?” intoned Will; his voice a low growl.
Hauser snapped to attention. “I’m sorry, sir, but I, uh, we don’t know…”
“Do you remember what I told you at the outset of this mission about seeing things that you would have a hard time believing, but you were not to question them?”
“Yes, sir!”
“This is one of those times. I told you that at some point you may, and I repeat may, get an explanation. However, this is not the time or place for it. Do I make myself clear?” he asked, addressing all of the men as well.
“Sir! Yes, sir!” shouted all of his men as they snapped to attention.
“Now grab your gear and let’s double-time it over to the range for some shooting. I have something special for a few of you.”
“Yes, sir.”
***
The rest of the afternoon was spent going through a combat pistol course designed to teach them precision marksmanship skills. All of the men were expert shots with a rifle and pistol already; Will just honed those skills by demonstrating and practicing some different shooting techniques that allowed them to shoot on the move, concentrate on headshots, and the surgical shooting that might be needed during a hostage rescue.
As promised, Will took his two Marine Raiders, Becker, and Brunner, along with Wakefield, who was trained as a sniper, and presented them with some specially designed handguns and long rifles. The handguns were shaped like a Colt .45, but were equipped with a state of the art silencer, developed, unbeknownst to them, with Altrusian science,
that would be absolutely silent and produce no muzzle flash.
The long rifles were of similar origin, but they were designed to look like an M-1 Garand, except with a collapsible stock, lighter weight, and modified trigger. It was also outfitted with an Altrusian/Terran hybrid silencer, which would not degrade no matter how many rounds were put through it, as would a conventional suppresser, and a scoping system that had night vision and thermal imaging capability. Will told the men these were new weapons the Army had designed and had been given to them to determine how well they functioned on an actual operation.
Will explained that when they jumped into Germany, it would be their responsibility to climb the mountain from the east face and eliminate any sentries or snipers the Germans had in place.
At the end of the day’s training, and after their weapons had been cleaned and stored, they all ate their food quietly outside of the tents. Will joined them for dinner, but none of them had much to say. Afterwards, Will spoke first.
“Gentlemen, I apologize for getting so angry back on the mountain, but I have a reason for everything I do. You’re going to have to trust me until this mission is over.”
Hauser said, “I’m sorry for raising my voice, sir. It won’t happen again.”
Will nodded. “Apology accepted, Captain. Now for some good news. I think you men could use a little R and R this evening. I’m going to allow you to go into town for a few hours and unwind a bit. However, don’t do anything stupid. I expect you back by 2300 hours. We still have a big day tomorrow, so no getting drunk or arrested.”
The men all smiled at this and stated that they would behave themselves.
Chapter 47
Altrusia
1480 A.D.
Over the next few weeks, Will was put through numerous experiments to discover what additional powers he had acquired, and then time was spent for Will to learn how to use and or control his new abilities. Will’s body chemistry had stabilized for the most part, but some minor, and, occasionally, some major, changes continued to occur.
Will’s strength and speed continued to increase from week to week. At night, to enhance his brain and memory capacity, he underwent sleep learning by being connected directly to an advanced learning computer that fed knowledge and information directly to Will’s brain. It was soon discovered that Will’s brain was now an organic neural computer capable of an almost unlimited storage capacity which further allowed him to perform numerous complex tasks at a time.
During the months of direct downloads into his computer-like brain, Will received the knowledge, language, culture and customs of every sentient culture in the universe that was known to the Altrusians, including his home planet Earth. He also received all information regarding advanced science, chemistry, engineering, astronomy, mathematics, astrophysics, physics, and other forms of sciences that were available in the known universe.
A myriad of other powers were discovered as well: various vision powers, super sensitive hearing, invulnerability and teleportation. Additionally, he learned he could control each and every cell of his body to a degree that he could shift and change his shape to whatever alien or humanoid shape he desired. He also had the ability to mimic any sound or accent he heard.
Although he possessed these incredible powers, he had also learned over the months to control them to such a degree that he could be gentle to fragile and easily damaged items, including humans, humanoids and animal species.
He was also trained in the use of all of the advanced machinery, technology, computer systems, and weapons in the Altrusian arsenal, as well as the technology of all of the other alien civilizations he would come in contact with.
Another result of the enhancements Will had received during the enhancement procedure was the gift of immortality. However, if he wanted to appear older or younger, he could control his body to that degree as well. But, with immortality came a price - Will was unable to reproduce children.
His next power was discovered by accident.
Chapter 48
Altrusia
Torvan City
Will was in the middle of completing one of his training regimens when some scientists, who were conducting weather control experiments in a research spacecraft, sent out a mayday signal. Their vessel suddenly malfunctioned and began falling towards Torvan City, a heavily populated metropolis a thousand miles from the facility where Will was living and training.
Will was inside of the command center when he heard the mayday call.
“I’ve got to do something to help them,” he said to Portak.
“Go then. Do your best to keep the craft from crashing, as hundreds or thousands of people could be killed on the ground,” Portak intoned.
Will nodded and took off running at hyper-speed. Within seconds he had arrived at the location where the craft was falling. Will knew that he could catch the craft right before it hit the ground, but he also realized that would not completely solve the problem, as it would not totally prevent the craft from breaking apart when he caught it. He thought of several other options as well, none of which would do a lot to keep the spacecraft from killing innocent civilians.
Will thought, Damn, I wish I could fly up there and ease the craft to the ground. Will paused for a few seconds, and then thought, Why not give it a try? I‘ve got nothing to lose.
With that Will bent his legs slightly and shot straight into the air at hyper-speed. It took Will a second or two to realize that he was indeed flying! The problem was he quickly realized that he was going too fast and was going to overshoot the falling spacecraft. As he shot by the falling craft at incredible speed, he began slowing his ascent and went into a freefall. He quickly gained control of his flight pattern, caught the craft in mid-air from underneath, and gently lowered it to the ground in a large, unpopulated area west of the city.
Will started to remain at the location to make sure that everyone was alright, when he heard and saw the emergency vehicles flying in his direction. Will knew that he should not let anyone see a Terran performing superhuman feats, so he decided it was best to leave before the authorities arrived. Will took off running at hyper-speed, launched himself into the air, and began flying again. What a rush he experienced at learning he had the power of flight! He did not return immediately to the command center, but instead he flew straight up into the upper atmosphere until he was in outer space, hundreds of miles above Altrusia.
My God, it’s beautiful up here! he thought. Will came to a stop and simply hovered where he was. After a few seconds, he realized that he was not breathing in outer space and that he did not need to do so. Will continued to fly in outer space and went around the planet Altrusia three times in the blink of an eye.
Will then spotted one of Altrusia’s three moons - the closest and smallest being approximately 100,000 miles away. Will began flying towards it at an ever increasing speed. He reached his destination in less than five minutes.
He walked around the Altrusian moon for several minutes, and then thought, I probably need to get back to Altrusia. Let’s see if I can get back faster than I arrived.
Will launched himself off of the moon and started flying back towards Altrusia. He pushed himself even harder and made the return trip in less than two minutes. As he entered Altrusia’s atmosphere, it become apparent that although he was impervious to the thousands of degrees of heat he encountered during his re-entry, his clothes were not. As he came out of the atmosphere, he realized that he was mostly naked, except for a few strands of clothing still strategically adhering to his body. He thought it best to go to his room and put on a new set of clothes before he paraded into the command center wearing little more than a smile.
After he made his way back to the facility faster than the eye could follow, he teleported inside of his room, put on some new clothes, and returned to the command center. There he was greeted with a mix of applause and cheers at having saved the spacecraft, the people aboard it and the people on the ground.
�
�Well done, Will!” exclaimed Portak. “It seems you now have the ability to fly as well! We were watching when you took off into the air, and were stunned at this new ability!”
“Yes, I was somewhat taken aback as well. I overshot my target originally, and had to make myself slow down so I could catch the craft and lower it to the ground.”
“But, where did you go afterwards?” Portak inquired.
“I wanted to try out my new power. So I ended up circling your planet a few times and then flew to your closest moon,” Will said, as if he had just told them he had shaved for the first time.
The Commander and Portak looked at each other in disbelief.
“What do you mean you flew to our closest moon?” asked Portak.
“Yes, that’s more than 100,000 miles from Altrusia,” said the Commander.
Without any exaggeration or braggadocio in his voice, Will said, “Well, it wasn’t really all that difficult. I was able to make the trip there in about five minutes, and the return trip only took around two minutes. I was a little embarrassed when I realized re-entering your atmosphere had burned most of my clothes off, and I had to put on some new ones before coming back in here.” Will smiled sheepishly at his last comment.
Portak and the Commander continued to look at each other in stunned disbelief.
“So you mean to tell me that you made a 200,000 mile round trip journey in less than seven minutes?” asked Portak.
“Impossible!” exclaimed the Commander.
Shadow Warrior: Destiny of a Mutant Page 18