by Ric Dawson
Mr. Li glanced down at the cold-insulated gloves the rest of the squad wore. A one-half-inch diameter, grooved rod nestled in each man’s arms. Blinking red and green lights scrolled up the rods in varied patterns. A scintillating sheen of small ice crystals reflected the overhead lights as water vapor condensed on each rod’s icy surface.
“Shang Shi, are these the improved needlers?” Mr. Li asked.
“Yes, Shifu. They fire time-shifted thought fléchettes with shadow-point cores.”
A thin cable connected each rod to a cryo-cooled cylinder-shaped device sitting on one of the tables.
“Ziir’jal tech amazes me. Too bad the engineers could not solve the frost problem,” Mr. Li said.
Mr. Li turned to face the team.
“Thank you, Shao Xiao Chin. My name is Shang Xiao Li. I will be your senior commander on this mission. Comrades, we are starting a war the likes of which the world has never seen. We will infiltrate the Minuteman III missile network commanded from a nearby U.S. military base. Taking control of their systems, we will launch their missiles at their own cities. Your dedication to training and expertise will pay off great benefits for you today.”
“Prepare the team for insertion, Shao Xiao,” Shang Xiao (Colonel) Li said.
Shao Xiao Chin snapped a salute. “Yes, sir.”
“Begin,” Shao Xiao Chin barked at the troopers.
The team moved to the mats and began equipment checks and prep.
“Our technology advances will crush our adversaries,” Shang Xiao Li said.
“Are these the warfighter helmets I’ve heard so much about?”
“Yes, Shifu. The techs fully enclosed the tactical headset. An illuminated opaque hemisphere covers the eyes, and an electrode mesh is built into the helmet to stimulate brain states.”
“I see they replaced the ear filters with recessed hemispheres to muffle noise and added a neutral sound blanket,” Li said.
“Yes, Shifu. Also note the mask covers the nose and mouth for oxygen-rich air to enhance brain function,” Chin said.
Li inserted the connection pins into his arm. Once the laptop was connected, he filled a syringe from a vial of purple liquid and administered a small injection from his set of neural enhancers.
Every Wraith trooper injected similar enhancers from their task-specific neural gear. Shang Xiao Li placed the tactical helmet over his head and adjusted the fit. A small heads-up display appeared on his visor that showed the team’s ready status. As the last indicator turned green, Shang Xiao Li pressed the psi injection interface and the team entered the astral.
Shang Xiao Li floated a few feet above his still form on the ground just like the other members of the team nearby, alert and ready.
“Near-psi envelope intact. We have near-psi insertion. Assume attack profile,” Shang Xiao Li said into his helmet’s neural-comm.
A few feet above the ground. The Wraith squad assembled in a wedge formation. The team leader, Shao Xiao Chin, took his place in the middle of the formation with Shang Xiao Li behind him.
“Psi-Team ready,” Chin said.
“Mission Go,” Li intoned.
The squad flew through the adjacent wall facing River Road, rose up ten feet above the ethereal ground, and headed for the nearby Air Force base. The troops passed over the perimeter fence and came down near a long two-story building in the middle of the base.
Specialist Wang deployed the di-psi field and the terrain twisted and warped like a powerful slow-motion earthquake. A cloud of smog-like visual distortions poured from the device and filled the area. A transparent hemisphere pushed the distortion field away from the team as Specialist Wang adjusted small dials.
Specialist Lin, in a crouched position, activated her Ewar keyboard. Red and blue lights began a steady pulse down her forearms. A snake-like tendril of red energy extended out from the laptop and slid over the ethereal ground into the command building. Every few moments another tendril appeared and followed the first red tendril like a growing collection of roots. After a few minutes, each tendril merged with the other tendrils to form a larger red pulsing cord.
“Network phase on-the-wire. Security protocols bypassed. Passive over-watch sensors locked out,” Specialist Lin announced.
“Excellent,” Shang Xiao Li said.
“Beginning mechanical overrides,” Specialist Lin said.
A globe of crackling red energy enveloped Shang Xiao Li, Specialist Lin, and Specialist Wang. Brilliant points of radiant white appeared before them and began pouring into the red tendril beam. The red tendril thickened, and large white circular waves pulsed down the energy vein, leaving trails of crackling discharges. Beams of spectral red burst from the command building in all directions. They ran just below the ethereal ground’s now translucent surface. The brilliant rays disappeared over the astral event horizon.
Moments later, sensing each missile site, Shang Xiao Li’s psi mind infiltrated the silo’s mechanical systems, isolated safety circuitry, and disabled hardened fail-safes with psi-enabled, remote telekinetics. Cotter pins and other mechanical connectors wiggled free of their locked positions and clattered to the floor in silo chambers. Safety switches flipped to off positions. Soon, Shang Xiao Li had control over each silo’s missile launch apparatus, and all mechanical fail-safes were disabled. Glancing around at the team, he nodded. The fire team aligned their kill zone towards the southeast, the direction he had instructed them to look. With a hard smile, Shang Xiao Li initiated the launch commands. At one hundred and fifty missile silos, a four-minute prelaunch cycle began.
Looking up, Shang Xiao Li nodded to Shadow Walker Xu, then twisted small knobs on a black object the size of a shoebox. A halo of red and orange appeared around the box and grew out to a hemisphere of several meters that enclosed the team.
“Psi-shield deployed,” Shadow Walker Xu bellowed.
A glowing, muddy red circle radiated on one side. Black smoky tendrils grew out from the sides of the box and encircled his forearms. Shadow Walker Xu turned and faced the southeast and peered into the thick fog beyond the perimeter.
Shang Xiao Li felt a growing presence. The enemy psiwalker was near. He turned. Three people emerged from the dissonance field. The psiwalker from the failed attempt at the power plant led the group. The team was already firing as Shang Xiao Li allowed a small sneer and eyed the enemy psiwalker. Wraith intel had identified him as Lane Sudler, an American. Smoky, viscous null tar belched from Shadow Walker Xu’s black box and swept towards the three intruders. A brilliant golden beam burst from the enemy psiwalker’s hand and splashed on the team’s inner zone shield.
“Suul’jin tech,” Shang Xiao Li said, “inferior to the Ziir’jal psi systems.”
“Yes. Shang Xiao, we have them.” Shao Xiao Chin grinned.
The one in military garb reacted quickly to the ambush and managed a powerful burst of carbine fire before being engulfed in the black tar. After the tar flow had stopped, red glowing balls of cybral spores shot out from the circular ring on the box Shadow Walker Xu held and disappeared into the tarred wall with wet plops. Shang Xiao Li watched as the tar began to shrink, crushing those inside.
He stroked his beard and leaned forward to detect screams. While the tar and needlers wouldn’t do permanent damage to the enemy psi team, the cybral spores would. Once subdued, he would spray their bodies with the spores. Vital neural pathways and brain functions like heartbeat and breathing would short-circuit. They would die.
Shang Xiao Li snorted. “Almost too easy … Almost.”
Shao Xiao Chin chuckled next to him.
# # #
Lane
The small dining area faced four sleeping rooms to the left of the main Octagon entry. Licking steak sauce off the fork, I mentally applauded the staff. They produced outstanding meals. Tonight a small rib eye accompanied a baked potato and salad. I was flipping through notes on psi phenomenon and ancient artifacts when the alarm went off.
The alert buzzer broke the quiet conv
ersations of busy techs and scientists. I sprinted past the open door to the mine shaft hoist. The Octagon steel door rotated shut as I passed. It wasn’t as large as the main NORAD blast door, maybe half that size, but impressive, nonetheless.
As I entered the sleep chamber room, flash traffic rolled over the Octagon status monitor on the wall. Doc stood at a screen and yelled over his shoulder, “We’ve just received flash notification from Malmstrom AFB, Montana. They have clusters of Minuteman III missiles going through launch prep. It looks like a breach of the hard net cabling in the silos. They can’t shut it down.”
Doc hit a large button and a wail that resembled the wa-wa-wa of European police sirens echoed off the walls. All four hinged lids to the sleepers popped open with a hiss of released pressure.
“Okay, let’s fast drop into the astral and see if we have another psi-walker. Alert Malmstrom to look for any parked traffic near the base and seal the area with as wide a net as they can,” I said.
I dashed over to Sleep Chamber One, ripped off the jumpsuit, and eased into the dark solution.
“I’m in. Securing seal.” I pulled the large hinged lid closed.
“Roger!” piped Dr. Fortas. “Initiating harmonics.”
Kane and Sam entered their sleepers as my lid closed.
Moments later we were in the astral, floating above the sleep chambers. I waved to Kane and Sam, and they followed my lead as we ascended the several hundred meters through the stone to the mountain top. Sensing the direction to head was northwest, we rose in the flying V formation we had practiced. I leveled our flight out at what looked like half a mile above Pikes Peak’s summit. The twilight landscape shifted past us and within a few moments I could see flat plain ahead.
As we descended, several vortexes appeared below us. Many of the vortexes overlapped and filled the landscape with a churning swirl of thought energy. Near the center of the collection, a dense cloud of smog expanded. Silent flashes of light exploded inside the smog, like obscured LEDs firing randomly. I’d never seen anything like it before.
Something was nagging at my consciousness, trying to get in, but in the excitement, I pushed it away and focused on the descent as we plunged downward into the smog. We came to a stop on the ethereal ground. I could barely see Kane and Sam even though they were right next to me.
Shield On.
A blue aura encased us as the shield snapped on and pushed back the smog a few meters. Then the shield stopped. My thinking felt blurred as if something erased my thoughts even as I focused on them. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs.
Extend to twice your current range.
–Unable to comply. Psi interference is causing a localized dissonance zone.–
“What is this fog?” Kane asked.
“Not sure. It’s not a mist, but something else. The implants are calling it a dissonance zone.” I shook my hands and shoulders to ease tension and glanced around.
“Do you think something is in here with us, Lane?” Sam asked.
“I’m not sure, Sam. Maybe.” My jaw clenched as I tried to concentrate.
Kane glanced at me. “You okay?”
“Yes. Fine.”
Kane’s astral image looked exactly like his real one, right down to the combat fatigues. Kane had mentally created a replica of his M4A1, which he brought up to a combat low-ready position.
Sam’s red hair flamed against her dark ninja outfit. A black tenugui cloth covered her nose and mouth. Her katana hung over the shoulder while assorted throwing stars and small explosives filled a waist sash. A small kusarigama chain and sickle dangled from her belt. She pulled the katana out as we entered the smog.
It didn’t matter what you chose as a weapon since weapons were all thought-based, as long as your opponent knew what it was.
A mental twinge whispered. No.
The sense of rising danger was palpable. Claircognizance? Presentiment? The distinct mental sensation of wrongness grew. My hand trembled. I stopped, confused and alarmed by the strange mental nudge. Gripping the astral version of my .356, I raised it to a low-ready position. I had grown accustomed to the handgun after the Woodland Park assault.
“Jeans and a T-shirt, Lane? Where’s your creative impulse?” Sam said. “You look like Dirty Harry on a laundry day.”
“Don’t pick on him, Sam. He’s a virgin,” Kane said.
“What! I am not!”
Caution.
Who is in my head, Dammit?
No one answered.
I shook my head again.
“Something wrong?” Kane asked. I could see the wary look in his eyes.
“No. Keep alert.” I moved forward into the thick gloom.
A splash of colors flashed in front of us, muted by dispersion and diffraction in the smog. Dark reds shot past followed by streams of blue-white sparks. It reminded me of the cyber-attack at the nuclear plant. Fear tugged at the back of my mind and willed me to go back. I hesitated as Kane glanced at me again. His eyes slitted. The smog veil evaporated and before us stood eleven men in combat gear. Seven were dressed in the combat fatigues of Wraith spec-ops troopers and looked right in our direction as if they expected us. Three others carried odd devices that glowed sullen red and orange. The small white-bearded Asian man from the nuclear plant stood with them.
Aw, shit.
A red crackling energy field popped and sizzled around the Asian and several of the troopers. My blood ran cold as the small white-bearded Asian turned, his lips curled up into a cruel smile as the Wraith team fired.
A golden beam of energy burst from my left hand as I dodged left and crouched. The focus guided the beam. It struck the red energy shield in front of a trooper in a black cape. He had a long wicked scar running down his face. Shadow Tech.
The golden color splashed in all directions but did not penetrate. Their energy shield held. Kane crouched and opened fire with a long burst. A wave of black oily sludge spread over the ground in front of the Wraith team. The black wave surged towards us.
Tiny sparks of light erupted over the shield surface like firecrackers.
Whatever they were firing caused our blue shield to go into the violet, but did not penetrate.
My gun jerked up and the booms of the .357 washed over my hand. The shock wave oscillated the astral air like the surface of a struck drum. The bullets hit their shield, sending circular ripples out from the point of impact. No damage.
The Wraith troopers fired small rail-gun-like tubes, and a hard rain of fléchettes poured from them. The white-bearded Asian’s arm glowed red, just like before at the nuclear site. From his hands, small streamers of lightning arched over a large red tendril into a nearby building.
I glanced at Sam. She flung small metal stars that split into dozens of small slivers. The tiny shivs left a trail of tinsel-colored streamers behind them that crackled with energy.
The enemies’ red shield wobbled and blackened as the shivs struck it.
The tar was on us. Upon reaching the shield, it oozed up the smooth sides, like some noxious black layer of living oil. Puffs of astral vapor boiled off the shield where the tar struck.
Within moments we were plunged into semi-darkness as the thick film of black sludge covered the hemisphere created by my force shield. Our only light radiated from the flickering shield.
Violet spots spread on the shield as my ruby medallion blazed brighter and brighter under the strain. Holes appeared in the tar wall and glowing blobs of red energy the size of baseballs punched through the shield along with a hurricane of fléchettes.
“The shield’s failing, get back,” I shouted.
A voice in my head yelled, RUN. Cybral spores!
Time slowed down, and from the corner of my vision, organic-looking blobs of red energy struck Sam in the head. She screamed and stumbled backwards, falling to the ground in slow motion. Within moments, half her face was missing, eaten away.
Kane stumbled to his knees, almost knocked down. His body jerked as the metal slivers rid
dled him with small needle-sized holes. I was having trouble breathing as pressure crushed me, greater and greater, from all sides. I was being squeezed out of the astral, ejected. Molten tar dripped on me from holes in the failing shield. I felt dizzy and nauseous. The tar bubbled my flesh in noxious streams.
Kane dropped prone, firing blind now, as streams of fléchettes poured through the flickering shield. I had the .357 up and fired where the Asian had been before the wall of tar overran us.
Stupid and careless. Idiot.
The shield was collapsing fast. Sam’s face reflected a silent scream, her eyes frozen wide in terror. Sam. Not Sam. My heart burst. I’d killed her.
Compassion. Protect us.
Something resisted the thought like thick syrup. The energy surge slowed. The white-bearded Asian had surprised us, and in the moments it took to summon the strength of compassion, the shield failed completely. I felt no pain as the fléchettes ripped into my body.
Cyber-psi impact needlers, the distant voice said, then faded from my mind.
Before I slipped into unconsciousness, I sensed something was nearby, something bright and golden.
# # #
Colonel Li
A sunburst of brilliant gold exploded in front of Shang Xiao Li’s team. The smog-like dissonance field blew outward. The tar vaporized into sparkling points of erratic fireflies before vanishing. Above the three still forms on the ground, a crystalline cube the size of a small shipping crate vibrated and pulsed. The team hesitated while Shang Xiao Li stared, mouth agape. Ball lightning crackled around the cube and raced across the ethereal ground towards the fat red tendril still pulsing into the building. The cube brightened in rapid pulses, sending waves of light towards them.
“You’re too late!” Shang Xiao Li shouted as his team’s manifestations were pulse-blasted into tiny bits of blacklight foam.
Groggy and disoriented, it took a full minute before the dizziness subsided and Shang Xiao Li could get up.
“Wraith intel was faulty. Once again, we have failed in our mission,” Shang Xiao Li hissed.