“Acknowledged. We’re moving on the first target now,” sent Ramsong.
“I’ll create some noise for you and draw some of them my way. Greymere out,” he said.
72
06-29-0067 — Greymere
Ramsong and his team were going to rescue the magi, and Lyshell’s team would be dealing with the sorcerers. That meant the time for playing quietly had passed. I hid the datapad I had been using inside the terminal and closed it up again. As long as it wasn’t discovered, I’d be able to take control of the systems from anywhere on the station.
The corridor outside our little nook stretched out of sight in both directions. Ramsong and his team would be moving towards the section on my left, so I set off at a jog to the right. There was a power junction there, if I had correctly understood the maps I’d found in the system, and that would make plenty of noise.
The power junction was right where I expected. I ripped open the panel and took out one of the six explosive packages I carried. Everyone’s attention would be on Ramsong right now, but this would quickly change that situation. When the package was in place, I put back the panel and turned to run.
“Halt!” came a cry as a cyborg turned the corner and raised his weapon.
It was a standard-issue blaster; an energy weapon, not a projectile. “You might want to cover your ears,” I advised, and then I ran.
Cyborg aim is flawless. A running target is not an issue for them. I knew he would shoot in a monent and his aim would be true, but the shot never came. That seemed odd. I stopped to look back and saw him walking up to the panel where I had placed the bomb.
“No!” I shouted and cursed, trying to get his attention. Leave it to a blasted cyborg to reason that he’d better see what I was doing first.
He removed the panel, and it would take him only a moment to guess what I’d done. I placed my bare hand on the wall of the station and pulled in some energy from the power line that ran behind it to the junction. As he reached into the space, I pointed my other hand at him and pushed out the power. Energy spat from my hand at the speed of light and collided with the cyborg a moment later. He stumbled back but didn’t fall. I pulled in power again and pushed it towards him; this time he fell and did not rise again.
The skirmish with the cyborg cost me too much time. I took off at a sprint, paying no attention to where I went, trying to put as many walls between me and …
The thought was cut off by a loud explosion that shook the station under my feet, sending me flying face-first into the floor. Air rushed past, as the shockwave from the explosion first pushed it out and then sucked it back in.
“That should draw some attention,” I said as I got to my feet and set off to find another power junction. The station’s computers would reroute power to compensate for the lost junction, and we were too deep inside the station for a hull rupture. In the long run the damage would be very minor, but it should draw some cyborgs to me and give Ramsong some relief.
The clunk of my armored boots was my only companion as I sprinted from power junction to power junction. Five more explosions ripped through the station, but I’d seen no sign of a cyborg response.
Panting, I said over the comm: “That’s the last of my explosives; any effect?”
Ramsong replied, “No, sir. It doesn’t seem to have distracted them at all. I’m guessing they figured out what you were doing.”
Master Raquel broke in. “Status report?”
“Ma’am, we have reached the first set of magi, but the cyborgs have us pinned down. We are winning the battle, but very slowly,” replied Ramsong.
“Greymere, can you assist them?” asked Master Raquel.
No report from Lyshell’s team, then. Hopefully that meant they were still under cover.
“I’ll see what I can do, Master,” I replied.
A swig of water from my canteen, then I headed towards the battle site. Power pulsed and thunder rocked down the corridors as I neared the area. Lightning and fire flashed, smashers smashed, and yet the cyborgs continued to attack. The Battle Wizards were outnumbered and pinned down. Ramsong had said they were winning, but I had my doubts. Cyborgs were being killed in vast numbers, but they didn’t care about that; these were all drones and expendable.
The cyborg forces were between me and the Battle Wizards. I wouldn’t be able to reach them, but even if I could it wouldn’t do much good. If I had kept the explosives instead of wasting them on the power junctions, I might have been able to have some small effect on the battle, but even that would pale against the energies already being wielded by the Battle Wizards.
I opened a private comm channel to Master Raquel. “Master, I hate to say this but I think the Battle Wizards are too badly outnumbered. I recommend they pull out.”
There was a long pause and then she said, “Very well. Our new plan is to use them as the distraction. You find the magi, and I will use you as a marker to open a gate.”
“Master, we don’t know if these magi will be friendly to us. That’s why you sent the Battle Wizards.” If she brought a large number of unknown wizards onto that cruiser and they turned out to be hostile, they could overwhelm the few people we had left behind.
“I am aware of the risk, but we have insufficient time to debate. Move out,” she said.
“Yes, Master,” I replied.
The cyborgs were so heavily engaged with the Battle Wizards that it was easy for me to slip by them into the room where the first group of magi was being held. Inside the room, I contacted Master Raquel and she opened a gate.
“Wings!” cried Phym as she ran into the room through the gate, followed by several Battle Wizards who began to rescue the magi.
“What are you doing here?” I sent to Phym.
“Don’t you want to see me?” she replied.
“Of course I do, but … ”
“But you wanted to keep me out of the fighting?” she sent back.
I sighed and replied, “I just want you to be safe.”
“While you get to run around and play hero? I don’t think so!” she fired back.
“Then let’s be off. There are more groups like this one,” I sent. It was odd: I was simultaneously happy to see her and upset that she was in danger. I would have to learn to accept that she was a Battle Wizard; staying safe was not in her job description.
73
06-29-0067 — Lyshell
Stones and Dave kept me informed about the comm chatter while we rested. Thanks to their helmets, they could listen without exposing our position. Without my battle armor, I had to rely on them to telepathically relay what they heard.
If I still had my implants I wouldn’t need the armor, but that day was long gone. I had to come to terms with being a primitive; incomplete and crippled. I could almost hear the cyborgs’ invitation again, calling me, offering to make me whole again . . .
NO! I screamed at myself and tried to push back the darkness tempting me down a path of no return.
“Sounds like Ramsong’s squad is hard-pressed,” sent Stones.
“It will get much worse if we can’t find those two sorcerers,” I sent and recast my tracking spell. My head started to hurt again. I wasn’t ready, but we couldn’t just hang around while others fought and possibly died.
The lines slowly came into focus. Most of them were very dim, meaning those whom they represented were at a distance, but that was why we’d chosen to hide in this spot. The corridor appeared to be little-used, so there was less risk of someone coming upon us.
“Here, try these,” offered Dave.
He handed me several pieces of chocolate. “Candy?”
He nodded. ““This is laced with artificial illuminescence. It’s not as effective as the potions, but it will help some.”
I bit into one and it was surprisingly sweet, much sweeter than the chocolate I had tried back at the Academy. “Wow, that’s tasty.”
“Master Kellyn is rumored to have created the recipe in the years before anyone
knew what magic was,” sent Dave.
“Here, we have three illuminescence potions left. We should each carry one,” sent Stones.
“Take some chocolate, too and eat a piece every fifteen or twenty minutes. It will help you regenerate your energy stores faster,” sent Dave.
I stowed away the potion and the candy, reminded again of how far I had fallen. These were very basic things and yet still new to me. I was no longer the superhero I had once been, only the sidekick in training.
Stones looked out the door of the small room we were in. “Looks clear. I guess we should go back to where we left the trail of the other two.”
I shook my head. “No, we should head towards the fighting. The cyborgs are not retreating, so that means they intend to wipe out the Battle Wizards.”
“Sir, are you thinking that’s where they’ll send the sorcerers?” asked Stones.
I slipped out into the corridor. “If they want to win, they’ll throw everything they have at the battle; that would include any magi on board who are friendly to their cause.”
“Is that why Greymere’s distraction didn’t work, because they’re throwing everything at one battle at a time?” asked Dave.
“No, it’s more likely that they figured out what he was doing and focused on the real problem. Now, does either of you know the way?” I sent.
Stones pulled up a map on his wrist comp. “Greymere broadcast a map.”
A map; just one of the many things this leather armor did not have. “Okay, take the lead and bring us to the action. We’ll lie low and conserve our illuminescence until the sorcerers show themselves.”
As we moved down the hall, Dave asked, “Are you sure the sorcerers will make for the battle?”
I nodded. “That’s how cyborgs operate. They’ll send everything they can at the Battle Wizards to prove their superiority and to gain victory.”
Through our telepathic connection, I could feel Stones shaking his head. “Sir, that is not the sorcerer way, however; at least, not Korshalemian sorcerers.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Dave responded, “Well, sir, they tend to hold back and send others to do their fighting whenever possible. They fight only when cornered or if they feel very confident of victory.”
“Hold,” I sent. We regrouped and I asked, “Where do you think they would have gone, in this case?”
“Sir, if they are still on the station they’ll avoid the direct fighting,” sent Dave.
Stones nodded. “They’ll be in a place where they can watch the battle. They’ll want to know if they’ll need to get out quickly or join in.”
“The central command center?” I asked.
Stones shook his head and sent, “No, sir; that’s where a mundane would go. A sorcerer would only go there if they needed to interact with mundanes. They’ll find some out-of-the-way room, close enough to the fighting to watch and intervene if necessary but at enough distance to be out of danger.”
That seemed to make sense. I must make a point of studying the personality profiles for sorcerers, since they didn’t seem to behave like the magi I had dealt with back in the Empire. It was just one more way I was disabled now. I pushed aside those dark thoughts. I had a mission to complete.
“Stones, can you show me any rooms that they might be in, then, on your map?” I asked.
Stones nodded and turned his wrist comp so that I could see the screen. He quickly highlighted several rooms, noting the pros and cons of each as a target. One room stood out; I didn’t know why, but there was something about it that seemed not quite right. Something was different about that room, and I understood enough to know what that meant. “That one; that’s our target. Let’s move!”
Stones and Dave were good soldiers; they didn’t ask why, just obeyed. Soon we were jogging through the halls, moving towards what I believed to be the hiding-place of the two sorcerers we’d tracked earlier. If I was wrong - well, it was still a likely target to investigate.
Approaching the entrance to the room, we stopped to organize. I had learned from my last charge that I wasn’t yet ready to charge a sorcerer, never mind two at once.
“Suggestions?” I sent.
“How about sending in two smashers? They’ll trigger any traps and we can follow them in, blasting with our wands,” sent Stones.
“Won’t they just banish the smashers?” I sent.
“Yes, but during the time that takes we can move into position and attack,” noted Dave.
That made sense. Let the stone creatures take the heat this time “Have you tried this plan before?”
Stones nodded. “Sometimes it even works.”
My former superiors would not have appreciated their constant humor, but I found it a good way of releasing tension. I readied a wand and sent, “Summon when ready.”
They each took out a scroll and read it. As they read, the scrolls were consumed by fire, the ashes fading away as they fell. It took only a moment to read the scrolls, and then two large, bipedal rock creatures appeared at the door to the room where I suspected the sorcerers to be.
One slammed its fist into the door, snapping it from the frame and sending it flying inwards, the metal screaming as it tore free. The two smashers plodded their way through the opening they had made. Lightning and fire filled the doorway as they triggered whatever trap had been set.
Stones and Dave were already in motion, holding up blast shields which were locked together as they charged into the room. Each had drawn a wand. They were utterly fearless and moved with sure steps. It was obvious that this was a plan they had executed several times.
I moved behind them and kept low, hopefully out of sight. I couldn’t see much from my current vantage point, but I could see what Stones saw through our telepathic network. Just inside the door, the smashers continued to plod towards an older man in black robes with a tall bone staff. He sneered at the rock creatures and cast a spell.
The room was large and wide, and the smashers moved deliberately but slowly. It would take them some time to cross the room. Off to the left was a pile of debris which had once been chairs and tables. The walls were broken and scarred with blaster fire, but the Battle Wizards had not yet reached this room; there must have been a fight in here at some earlier point.
Stones and Dave also began casting, and walls of stone dropped from the ceiling and fell into place. I quickly teleported behind one as the sorcerer finished his spell and the two smashers turned to dust.
Stones and Dave had their wands at the ready and were using the walls for cover as they leapfrogged each other. One constantly fired his wand while the other moved. I added my own wand to the battle but stayed put.
The earth bolts coming from their wands moved too slowly to hit the sorcerer. He used a spell that Master Phoenix had called a ‘push’ which constantly knocked them aside, but that kept him distracted while the Hammer Brothers moved closer.
My own wand fired what Master Raquel had referred to as a ‘nature bolt’, similar to my own mage bolt. She had made these wands, so they were far more powerful than I could yet cast. The bolt slammed into the shield around the sorcerer and exploded in a brilliant flash of light. The bolts weren’t strong enough to penetrate his defenses, but I kept firing them towards his eyes to prevent him from holding line-of-sight long enough to cast any stronger spells.
Stones and Dave stopped leapfrogging and Dave redoubled his wand work, filling the air between himself and the sorcerer with more rocks than I could count. The sorcerer was hard-pressed to keep deflecting them, and I did my best to keep him blinded.
I was so focused on my wand work that I missed Stones standing up to cast. I suppose that was the whole point of the attack: to occupy the sorcerer with defensive casting so that he couldn’t respond in time to the real threat. There was a loud crack as a massive slab of rock fell on the sorcerer from above. He was caught unprepared and went down with a strangled scream.
“TAKE COVER!” Dave said urgently over
our telepathic network.
I didn’t know what I was taking cover from, but I saw a hole in the wall that looked as if it led to a corridor with a junction. In an instant, I teleported into the junction and dove down a side hall.
An explosion rocked the station, the shockwave carrying shrapnel into the junction where I had just stood. Dust and debris flew everywhere as I instinctively threw myself down on the floor and prayed my armor and shielding spells would protect me.
A powerful wind rose, sucking the dust and atmosphere back the way it had come until a blast door dropped, sealing off the corridor. Silence descended quickly to fill the void the explosion had left behind. The blast door had a window, through which I could see stars; the explosion had ripped a hole in the side of the station.
“Stones? Dave?” I sent, but there was no reply. They must have been blown clear, too far for my limited skills to reach. As long as their armor hadn’t been damaged in the blast, they would be fine. They had each other, experience and plenty of supplies.
My situation was far worse.
I was alone on an enemy station with no proper armor, no comms, and limited supplies. I wasn’t even half a person, and now I had lost the two soldiers who had kept me connected. I didn’t even have a map. I was lost behind enemy lines and had no way back.
The bleak reality of the situation hit me hard. Without my implants, I was nothing; I couldn’t even find my way back to the forces which were depending on my battlefield command. Twice I had led an attack on sorcerers, and twice Stones and Dave had had to save the day. I was useless. No, I was worse than useless; I was a liability. I had nothing to offer.
I lay there, lacking the will to move.
“Light will always be there for you,” came Shea’s voice, unbidden. She often said things like that. As I lay there, I wished it were true.
“Light, if you’re real, I could use some help here,” I told the empty corridor as the darkness of depression closed in around me.
Mage Hunter (Lost Tales of Power Book 8) Page 38