Advent (Red Mage Book 1)

by Xander Boyce

  Chapter Thirty — Return

  Drew accepted the transfer of the xatherite and another notification appeared.

  Drew Michalik-3 has entered into a mana-bound contract with Cassius Felix-9 (Ares). You are never to discuss the xatherite you received from him on behalf of the Order of the Dragon. Doing so will result in death.

  Ares smiled at him, “Excellent, we don’t have much time, but Themis will take the pain of the slotting from you. But before he does that, I have some words of advice to you as my page.” He pulled up the holographic display of the Human Protectorate’s territory and zoomed in on a portion of the Orion-Cygnus Arm of the galaxy. “This is my territory. My fleet protects just under two hundred human populated worlds across all 23 dimensions, for a grand total of several trillions of human lives. All of that goes away if I die; my fleet would be completely unable to defend against the predation of the Daoine, Bauk, or Azura.”

  “The life of an assault mage is not an easy one; we are the strength of humanity. My fleet alone contains more humans then lived on the Earth you knew before Advent. I send people to their deaths regularly. They follow my orders, putting themselves in harm’s way because they know what is at risk, and all of them would die to protect me.” Ares frowned, looking down at his hands, “I tell you this not to brag; they do their duty as I do mine, but you need to realize how important you are. Your life is worth more than those around you.”

  “I know that where you are from, they believe that all men are created equal, that all lives have equal value. Perhaps there is some cosmic arithmetic where that is true, but, as you are the means by which trillions upon trillions of lives will be saved, your life is equal to those trillions of lives. You must change your thinking; for if you die, you are condemning those trillions to die with you. You are worth more than they are. It is not something any of us asked for, but it is a truth that we must live with.”

  Drew frowned, opening his mouth to argue, then stopped. If there was an argument against that point of view, he didn’t know what it was. It had been a long time since he was a religious person, but it still felt wrong to say he was better than someone else. While he had his internal debate, Ares stood up.

  “Drew, I look forward to talking to you more, but you should slot those xatherite and go back home. It will be time for you to wake up soon.” He came around the table and put a hand on Drew’s shoulder, “No life should be spent cheaply, Drew. Just remember the lives you can save, focus on the good you will do--not the bitter path we walk.”

  And with that he was gone, back through the door and onto the bridge, shouting orders as he went to prepare the fleet for departure. Themis saluted him as he left, and then turned to Drew. “If you will be so kind as to remain seated while you slot the xatherite, I will ensure you wake up back on Earth.”

  Drew sat back down, then looked at Themis’ impassive face, “Is what he said true? Am I going to be required to send people to their deaths?”

  Themis frowned slightly and then nodded his head slowly, “It is not my place to pass judgment on the actions of the Pantheons. But Admiral Ares is well known for keeping as many of his men safe as possible. But even an Assault Mage of his caliber cannot save everyone.”

  Drew nodded his head in acknowledgment, if not understanding. Then, leaning back, he slotted Aeon in the violet slot nearest the origin, leaving him with only one violet left on the entire map, and put stricto mentis clypeus in the green just to the left of major blink step. When he clicked to accept the changes, he felt a massive pain flow through his entire body for a split second before he sunk into unconsciousness.

  * * *

  Drew woke up on the couch. The windows showed that the first rays of dawn weren’t far off, and he sat up, rubbing his forehead. “Weird dream,” he muttered to himself before he opened his xatherite map to check. To his surprise, the two xatherite given to him by Ares were there. It hadn’t been a dream at all. Was he relieved that it had been real?

  Now in his early thirties, Drew had been drifting for a long time. Joining the Coast Guard had been an attempt to get direction in his life, and it had mostly worked. He had never really felt like he fit in before; he’d always had friends, and his family had always supported him, but he had never felt...important before Advent.

  Was the fact that he was literally the most important person on Earth something he wanted? He didn’t think so; he remembered the look in Ares’ eyes as he told him about having to send people to their deaths, about not being able to save everyone. Already, he had encountered times when he couldn’t save everyone; Juan, Mitch, and Rob had all died when he should have been able to help them...when he should have been stronger.

  “What was it about?” Katie asked sleepily from where she sat in a bucket chair near the couch. She lifted her arms into the air and stretched. Drew sat up and did the same with a smile.

  “Outer space,” Drew said, looking around for Sarah. Katie opened an eye and raised her brows to question it. “We should do a patrol around the building. Do you know where Sarah is?” There were several sleeping forms surrounding them, but he didn’t see any with Sarah’s telltale curly brunette hair.

  Katie frowned, “Not sure; she might not have gone to sleep.” Katie pulled her hair out of the ponytail she had kept it in overnight, and pulling out a comb, began brushing her hair. “Come back when you find her. I should be ready by then...and grab some food if there’s anything warm.”

  Drew grunted and set off to look for the ensign, not sure how anyone would have made hot food. As he walked through the building, he was somewhat amazed by the level of activity that had continued through the night. Most of those who had taken him up on the rain had been working to create weapons or armor. When he asked around, he was told Sarah was back with Min Sun getting her armor fitted.

  Sarah was indeed dressed in Troll skin leathers when he found her and was reattaching the spider leg to a spear shaft with Min Sun’s help. When he entered, Sarah looked up long enough to smile and then went back to the task at hand. Min Sun, on the other hand, looked up, and seeing him, smiled very broadly.

  “Mr. Drew, I fix your clothes. Try on. See if need fix,” she commanded him. It took Drew a few seconds to realize she was talking about his armor; the diminutive Korean lady must have picked it up after he removed it before falling asleep the night before. He noticed as he did so that she had changed the position on several of the buckles to make it much easier to get on. She just smiled at him when he commented on it. Drew wasn’t sure how much English she understood. He assumed she was one of the soldier’s wives and had come back with him after a tour in Korea. It was a fairly common practice, and most of the army towns he had been in had strong Korean communities.

  Glancing at the armor, it appeared Min Sun had managed to finish attaching the chitin pieces that the Go’rai had originally used to reinforce the armor. Putting the armor back on, Drew discovered it was indeed a much better fit. Min Sun tsked and made a few alterations with her skill, and by the time she was finished, the armor was much snugger to his frame, which had lost a few pounds with the lack of good food and exercise he’d been getting the last few days. While he was finished getting his armor fitted, Sarah had rewrapped her spear, adding a thin leather grip to the metal pipe we had originally attached it to.

  “Come on, I want to take you and Katie on a patrol for a bit; those trolls sniffing around yesterday before the storm have me worried.” They retraced their steps to where he had left Katie. She was ready to go, eating a few dry granola bars with some water. She whistled when she saw Drew in his new armor.

  “Nice. So, where are we going?” she asked, as she picked up her own spear while eyeing Sarah’s alterations with a little bit of envy.

  “Just out for a quick survey of the area, want to make sure those trolls didn’t leave any stragglers behind,” Drew answered, while Sarah began casting her buffs on the group. “Leave the knight here. It will be more useful blocking the door than out there; we
might need to climb a bit.”

  Katie nodded and the three of them set off for the front entrance, but JP and Robbi had apparently heard that Drew was up and about and came looking for him, finding them right as they were about to leave.

  “Hey Drew, where you off to?” JP asked with a slight frown upon seeing the two women with their spears.

  “Oh, just going to do a quick circuit of the building, make sure there are no trolls around.” Drew answered then glanced back, “Stay here and guard the building. We should be back in less than thirty minutes; with the small approach paths, you’re a better choice for that than me. I work best in open spaces.” JP frowned again but nodded his head in agreement.

  Turning towards the open entrance, Drew furrowed his brow. Was it always this easy for him to give orders? Most of the people here had been rescued by him, so they were more inclined to do what he asked of them, but JP and Robbi were another story. Was this part of being a red mage? His mind continued to grind away at the many questions it had acquired since Advent but generated no new answers. When they were far enough away that Drew didn’t think anyone could overhear them, he told the two other coasties about what had happened to him during the night, editing it only so as not to include anything referencing Aeon.

  “That’s a lot of information, Drew. Somewhere there are other versions of us trying to survive this? Makes you wonder which one of us has a soul, or if any of us do,” Katie said while leaning against her spear.

  “You took all this in stride and just sort of kept pushing forward, which is much more than the rest of us did. Without you, we would all be dead. That includes pretty much everyone we’ve met since Advent, except JP and Robbi,” Sarah said, tugging on her braid. It was something Drew had never seen someone do, but which caused him to hide a laugh, as he remembered a book series he had read as a kid where a character tugged on her braid repeatedly.

  “But I don’t like how this Ares is making decisions for you. You shouldn’t have to join the Order of the Dragon if you don’t want to,” Katie added, “I mean, I know that we’ve basically been shanghaied here, but they can’t force you to accept their morals.”

  Drew ran a hand through his hair; they were almost back to the entrance to the auto shop and hadn’t seen any sign of the Trolls. “I guess, but if I sit back and do nothing…” Drew trailed off for a minute thinking, “I can’t do that, I can’t just let all those people die if I have a chance to save them. And if it gives me an edge to do that?” That was why he had enlisted. He wanted to help make the world a better place. He had thought the coast guard would help him do that. “Could you? Would you if you were in my shoes?”

  Katie and Sarah both shook their heads, Sarah answered though, “No Drew. We wouldn’t. We’ll both help you as much as we can, but…” She held her empty hand up an expression of helplessness.

  “Well, I was thinking about that, and I think I have some ideas about how all of us can work together a little better to make us more effective at combat,” Drew began explaining his ideas. Most of his ideas were for Katie, but he had some ideas for Sarah too; however, those would take either some additional xatherite or pieces of equipment.

  Chapter Thirty-One — Murphy

  They returned to the auto shop almost exactly...who knew how much later. Drew added mechanical watches to the list of things he needed to acquire. The lack of knowledge about the world around him was beginning to get very annoying; he missed GPS, his cell phone, and hamburgers. The thought of a hamburger made his stomach rumble. Katie and Sarah both laughed.

  “I take it you’re hungry?” Katie asked, and Drew nodded, digging through his pack to pull out a handful of Beef Jerky.

  “Yes. I really want a breakfast burger, with a nice drippy sunny side up egg on top.”

  “Oh gosh, I would really love a honey mustard and avocado salad,” Sarah said, her own stomach rumbling.

  “I’d like some fresh waffles with whipped cream and strawberries,” Katie said. The others nodded in agreement.

  “Oh man, remember in A-school, they had that waffle bar every weekend; Fresh waffles, any kind of berry you could ask for, whipped cream, and shaved chocolate?” Drew added.

  “Yeah, it was basically the only thing that was edible during the entire A-school experience,” Katie said with a grin. Sarah just nodded her head, not having spent months in Petaluma suffering the results of students learning how to cook like they had.

  Daryl greeted them at the door to the auto shop. He stared at Drew for a moment, then frowned.

  “Hey Daryl, how's it going?” Drew asked.

  “You can’t hear me?” Daryl asked with a frown, and Drew paused for a moment.

  “Oh right, one second.” He tried to think up an interface--his new xatherite said it would block all unwanted mental intrusion, and it apparently defaulted to blocking everything. Nothing happened, so instead, he thought about allowing Daryl’s communication in. “Try now.”

  ‘Hello?’ Drew heard Daryl’s voice in his mind and smiled.

  “Okay, I got it that time. Sorry, I had to unblock you,” Drew said with a shrug and Daryl just glanced from Drew to the two girls.

  “Did you guys pick up more xatherite out there or something?” he asked. All three of the coasties just laughed and moved into the building.

  “We ready for the planning meeting?” Drew asked, between a mouthful of the jerky he’d taken out of his pack after commenting on food. Daryl assented, following along with the other three more out of habit than anything else. They were all as crazy as Drew was.

  “What on earth did they do to Coasties to make them so strange?” Daryl muttered under his breath. The Coasties opted to ignore the rhetorical question, although Drew had an urge to belt out some random phrases they had been required to memorize in boot camp about King Neptune. Most of the survivors had collected around a workbench in the middle of one of the auto bays. There were a few papers taped and stapled together that recreated their knowledge of the interior of the former DIA building.

  Once all but the three or four people who’d been posted as sentries were gathered, Sarah stepped forward and cleared her throat; the talking immediately ceased. Sarah seemed a little surprised by the suddenness of the quiet. “Excuse me, everyone. I just wanted to get this planning session in order. The sooner we organize everything, the sooner we can rescue everyone.” She paused for a minute to gather her thoughts. “First things first, what’s our status on weapons, food, and armor?”

  Min Sun answered first, “We have 15 troll armor, two orc armor, and that’s it.” Sarah nodded her head in understanding.

  Bill spoke next, “Ma’am, aside from you and Katie’s two spears, and JP and Robbi’s guns, we’ve got a half dozen metal bats, and other blunt weapons mostly improvised with what was available in the auto shop. We also have five fire axes and about a dozen handmade grenades. As for food, we have about 5 days’ worth for 24 people, give or take a few meals.”

  Sarah nodded, “Alright, so we need to get more food for the prisoners we rescue, and some more weapons wouldn’t hurt the cause either. Bill, I want to discuss some logistics with you afterward, but I’ll turn the meeting over to Drew to plan the rescue itself.”

  Sarah stepped back, and Drew took her spot. “So, I guess first thing...Do we think they’re going to send another food gathering group out today?”

  No one answered, and the silence lingered for ten heartbeats. Bill finally broke it, “Well, they’re going to have to feed people somehow. A day or two might be fine, but…” He trailed off, not wanting to say the implications.

  “What are the trolls eating?” Sarah asked since the food runs had been for human food only.

  “I’ve never seen a troll eat anything,” Bill said, and all of the prisoners murmured in agreement.

  “Alright, well, let’s assume they’re going to send out another team today. If they do, we need to be in a position to ambush them again. We also need to work on how we’re going to get everyone
else out. Does anyone have any skills that can cut through metal? Even if it’s slow, I personally have a small amount of acid I can use a couple times a minute. Anything like that?” Drew looked around, but no one seemed about to raise their hands.

  “Okay.” Drew turned to JP, “What’s your effective range with those pistols?”

  “I can hit center mass on moving targets 55 out of 60 times at 60 feet.”

  “Wow, okay. Can you use a rifle?”

  “Yes, I’m not as good a shot with one, but all of my skills work on any firearm.”

  “Any particular reason you aren’t carrying one?” Drew asked, running a hand through his hair. Everyone else was pretty much just watching the exchange between the two.

  “Lost it on the bridge,” JP answered with a glance at Robbi.

  The interplay between the two was not lost on Drew; but he moved past it, “Alright, who knows where we can get JP a military grade rifle?”

  Looking around the room, Drew got a few shrugs, but no one seemed to know where to find one. “Alright, we’ll have to raid the exchange; there should be some rifles in there. We’ll send a few people. Arm as many people as you can; not everything is going to be immune to bullets, and we’re going to have a lot of people to rescue.”

  They got into the depths of planning how to rescue the people left inside the DIA building. After discussing the location where everyone was being held and where the trolls inside were, the plan presented by JP ended up being the most popular one. Katie would create a safe location with JP, Daryl, and a few others acting as scouts, and the two illusionists would hide the building until Drew had managed to eat a hole into the wall with his acid dart spell.

  If everything went well, they would be able to evacuate about half the people before any of the trolls even knew that they were there. The other half would require Drew to act as a defensive screen from within the building while Bill, Sarah, and the others healed anyone injured and evacuated everyone.