Valix ignored him. “And where did you get that Wave Whip?”
Kelerin reached back and pulled the Whip from its sheath. “What, this?” he asked, holding out the Whip in question, “I believe you’ve met before. Put you through a wall, remember?”
“People, focus!” broke in Dunner again, this time attempting reason over warning.
“Dunner’s right,” conceded Kelerin. “We’re going to have to work together on this if we wanna get out of it. Look, I came in from the north because the enemy’s line is spread thin on that side. My Prophet counted only three raiders, so-”
“Wait a sec, you’re receiving Prophecy now?” Valix was beside himself.
“Yes.”
“So, you’ve got a Wave Whip and Prophecy.”
“Your powers of observation are mind blowing, Valix. Can we please stay on point here?”
“How?”
“Why does it matter? On my mark you drop the north shield wall and I think I can take out all three raiders with a single lash. Once that’s done, you take the north line and all Students inside the pocket here, and make a break for the lower docks.”
“You ‘think’ you can take those raiders in one lash?” repeated Valix scornfully, “Thinking’s not gonna cut it today, Kelerin.” Before Kelerin could defend himself Valix turned to three pairs of students who held positions at several points along the north line, each roughly opposite one of the three outside attackers. “Yelin and Fabish, Ikasho and Flager, Grolo and Asix - you’re going to power down, one pair at a time, each pair on my mark. Stand by for my order.”
Kelerin swung Valix around by the shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.
Valix smacked Kelerin’s hand off his shoulder and stuck a warning finger in Kelerin’s face. “Watch it!”
“They don’t know that we’re armed yet,” argued Kelerin, “don’t you understand? We do this one at a time and we lose that advantage.”
“Standard doctrine for any duel calls for caution above risk,” countered Valix.
“For Creator’s sake, Valix, get your head out of the textbook. This is real life. We’re not dueling here!”
Dunner heard Klade’s voice from the wall opposite him. “You need some backup, Val?”
Valix kept his eyes fixed on Kelerin’s. “Hold your line, Klade. I got this.”
“Are you guys really having this conversation, right now?” asked Dunner, exasperated. “Would you like me to fetch you two a few chairs? Perhaps a beverage?”
They ignored Dunner and continued to stress the advantages of their respective strategies.
“I’ve got Sight.”
“I was first on site.”
It was a deadlock. Dunner couldn’t believe he was going to have to be the adult in the room. “Hey, Kel, you and I both know that if anyone here can take out those raiders, surprise or nothing, it’s you. Let the pretty boy have his way. We’re running out of time.”
Valix glared at Dunner but Kelerin pulled him back to the matter at hand. “OK, Valix. We do it your way.” He called to his Prophet. Dunner watched as Kelerin’s stare expanded to include things beyond what the eye could see.
“You ready yet?” asked Valix, getting impatient.
Kelerin exhaled thinly. “Yeah, you might wanna take notes, by the way.”
Valix snickered. “On my mark.” Keeping his eyes locked on Kelerin, he shouted the first pair of names: “YELIN, FABISH!”
The two Students powered down their Ripplers just as Kelerin completed a downward arc of his Whip. The lash was powerful and struck his target dead on. He was already dashing along the perimeter of the Rippler chain toward his next target before the first felled raider hit the ground.
“IKASHO, FLAGER!”
Repeating a figure eight motion with his Whip to keep the subatomic tail under control as he ran, Kelerin came up on Ikasho and Flager, finishing off his last figure eight with a full body spin that added untold torque to his arm. The lash cut downward on a diagonal, annihilating the raider long before the man could take advantage of the temporary gap in the line.
The final raider seemed to catch on to the strategy. He turned tail and ran, making for the cover of Userus Hall behind him. There was no time to reach Grolo and Asix. Kelerin took off through the gap between Ikasho and Flager, launching himself off his right leg, twisting to the right and whipping out sidearm style. He landed a bit awkward but had the pleasure of seeing his lash arc around the building’s corner, chasing after the retreating raider like it had locked onto his bio signature. No cries of agony were heard but a moment later a falling hand peeked out from behind the wall, dropping a Pulser as it hit the ground.
Dunner had seen the whole thing and told the Student next to him to pull back slightly and cover his spot. “Keep your Rippler angled straight this time,” he cautioned the young Student. The lower classman nodded. Powering down his Rippler, he made his way over to Kelerin. Valix had already given the order to Students protecting the north wall, and every Student not active in the defenses, to begin making their way down to the lower docks.
Dunner and Kelerin came together in the middle of a sea of retreating bodies. Placing a hand on Kelerin’s shoulder he greeted his roommate with praise, “Nice work, brother.”
“Thanks,” said Kelerin, mirroring the gesture.
“Almost missed one there, Kel,” taunted Valix, joining them, Jorin and Klade following close behind. “Still got three sides left. Better be a bit sharper with your technique next time around.”
Dunner rolled his eyes.
“I’m not sticking around to mop up with you,” informed Kelerin. “The Faculty’s pinned down in their quarters and a smaller force is making a go at the Armory. I suspect that’s their real objective.”
“And how would you know all this?” Valix asked, skeptically. Kelerin tapped his head with his forefinger in answer. “Right, well maybe your Prophet can tell us who’s going to free up the rest of these lines after you run off with our only Wave Whip, or should we just tell everybody to make a run for it, risk giving their backs to the enemy and hope for the best.”
“Wait here,” interjected Dunner, and he took off to the north side.
Watching after him, Jorin said, “Brave friend you got there, Kelerin, ditching you for the docks.”
“Shut up, Jorin.”
Dunner was running fast but he wasn’t making a straight line for the docks. Instead, he headed for the first raider Kelerin had cut down, picking up his Pulser and turning toward the second raider. After scooping up two weapons he sprinted back to the group.
He shoved one of the Pulsers into Valix’s chest and said, “You go west, I go east. We take out the south together.” Then, turning to Jorin and Klade, “You two run ahead and help out with the evacuation. Make sure those Wave Cutters don’t leave without us.”
“We don’t take orders from you, Dunner,” spat Klade. “That’s right, reject,” threw in Jorin. “Who made you a Teacher?”
“Do as he says, boys,” came the surprising final say from Valix. Jorin and Klade looked to Valix, stunned, but they didn’t question him. Throwing Dunner one last dirty look, they both joined the flow of retreating Students.
Dunner turned back to Kelerin. “Do what you gotta do. We’re good here.”
What would he ever do without Dunner. “Thanks, brother. Full disclosure: I haven’t got the win back yet.”
“Fine, just so long as you don’t step foot in my room til you do.”
Kelerin looked around, surveying the damage. “What room? See you at the Wave Cutters.” With that, he turned and ran back the way he’d come.
It was just Dunner and Valix now. “You’re not scared, are ya, Val?”
“Just don’t keep me waiting on the south side,” was Valix’s retort, and he sprinted northward before veering left toward the west.
Can’t keep a pompous man down, thought Dunner, taking off himself and mirroring Valix’s route toward the east. He consi
dered perhaps trying to make it all the way across to the dining room and rec center. From there he could swing around and come up behind the attacking raiders, but a Pulse burst blasting a chunk of earth out of the ground at his feet nixed that idea real quick. He cut sharply toward the attackers and settled for a flanking action. A line of six raiders stood relatively close together in front of what looked to be a small ship that had seen better days, bearing down on him with Pulse burst.
Time to turn the tables.
Heading straight for the small collection of raiders at a dead run, he held his Pulser out behind him and set his Rippler out in front at a sharp angle, deflecting the incoming Pulse bursts with minimum absorption stress. When he came upon the first raider in the line he dropped to a sideways roll, his Rippler still out in front and rolling along with him, his weapon brought forward and resting on the edge of the rolling Rippler sending out an oscillating stream of Pulse burst as he traversed the length of the raider line. Three of the raiders continued to pulse ineffectually at his Rippler, two attempted to escape the swirling stream of death by dropping to the ground to take cover and the sixth tried making a run for it. It was no use. Dunner’s tactic covered every angle, mowing down the raiders one by one in quick succession.
Having cleared his side he popped up to his feet and was greeted by cheers from the east Rippler line out in the distance, pumping their Ripplers up in the air at Dunner in a celebratory salute. Dunner smiled and waved them off toward the lower docks.
As they cleared out he saw the south line retreating as well, Valix already there towering over a wounded raider and placing one last Pulse burst through the man’s chest to finish him off. The raider went limp and Valix looked up, searching the east side. He saw Dunner and called out to him from across the way. “I TOLD YOU, I DON’T LIKE BEING MADE TO WAIT!”
Deal with it, showoff.
Dunner turned to join the other Students but what he saw stopped him dead in his tracks. From this perspective the thirty story dormitory now looked like a fruit whose bottom had been eaten away to its core by a swarm of insects. The carefully manicured quad, all torn up. Trees lay on the ground, splintered and twisted, nothing but gaping holes in the earth where their roots were blasted free. Detailed stone architecture reduced to rubble and scattered all along the paths it once graced.
Within minutes, the Academy’s grand beauty had been rendered a scene of grand destruction. The sight of it all made Dunner sick. The thought of retreating to Castious, to his home, his father - it all made him sick.
Academy Island was the only real home he’d ever known. Even though he was about to be sent away come end of the semester, he would rather die than leave for Castious knowing the Academy had been reduced to this and he’d done nothing to avenge it.
“Hey? You coming?” asked Valix, who had been in the middle of jogging over but something in Dunner’s expression made him stop several paces back.
It took a minute for Dunner to answer. “Say hello to my father for me, will you? There’s something I have to do first.”
“Dunner?”
“GO!”
Valix shook his head, turned, and ran off to join the rest of the Students. Dunner considered the small ship behind him and kneeled next to the closest dead raider. The man was decked out in a serious pressure suit. He started stripping it off him.
You broke my house, he thought. I’m gonna break yours.
Analel
Userus Hall - Academy Island, Osmos
She watched him reach the eleventh floor, the floor of the Armory. He’d moved quickly and quietly, taking the stairs three at a time on the balls of his toes, his controlled breathing and light footfalls sending out soft and colorful Wave ripples permeating throughout her Sight, their rhythm having a strange and reassuring effect amidst all the surrounding chaos.
Analel had led Kelerin to this point, taking him on the most direct route possible, bearing in mind the need to avoid premature run-ins with the enemy. Now that he’d arrived, he paused. He could not see what she saw but he could feel it. She sensed him working it all out in the stillness of the stairwell; the corridor beyond the door, the twelve raiders lining its walls keeping cover, the two raiders at the far side of the corridor sending out Pulse bursts intermittently into the room beyond.
Kelerin’s eyes were closed. For reasons Analel couldn’t explain, she found herself wondering what it was like to feel and not to see. Could he feel beyond her Sight? Could he feel her fear? Could he sense that she didn’t want him to fight? That she wanted him to turn and run? These were thoughts wholly inappropriate for a Prophet to have and it bothered her that she felt them, but she couldn’t help it. She only hoped Kelerin couldn’t feel them as well.
His voice broke into her thoughts, dragging her down to the harsh reality ahead of them. “They’re not Pulse bursting in streams. They’re using suppressing patterns. Stalling.”
“For what?”
“That’s what scares me - something bigger, if I had to guess.”
Analel expanded her Sight. She rose to the top of the twenty story structure and spread her consciousness all along its width. From this vantage point she could no longer see into the building but she would notice any abnormal Wave Currents rippling out in concentric circles from their origin points within. Other than the aggressive Waves flowing from the place where the small group of raiders were carrying out their attack on the Armory level, there were no other Wave patterns signifying any kind of threat. She retracted her consciousness back down to Kelerin and reported her findings.
“I’ve gotta get Professor Harris out of there,” said Kelerin with finality. He turned and headed back down the stairwell.
“Where are you going?”
“Just keep your Sight on that corridor above.”
Analel did so, keeping tabs on the raiders while expanding outward along with Kelerin as he quickly and quietly made his way down one flight of stairs and entered the corridor directly below the one the raiders now occupied above. He stopped inside the door frame. She watched him remove his Wave Whip from its sheath, activate it and whip a broad arcing lash along the length of the ceiling, straight down its center. There was a half second delay, followed by an ear-splitting crack. The ceiling caved in on both sides of the seam, screams from the raiders falling as the floor dropped out from under them, crashing down to the corridor below, sending out aggravated Wave patterns reverberating throughout Analel’s Sight - and still the nightmare wasn’t over for these men just yet. Kelerin reversed his arc, this time splitting the upper corridor’s ceiling in identical fashion and burying the cries beneath a pile of rubble, the aggravated Waves cutting out abruptly.
“You’re clear,” informed Analel.
He was moving as soon as she’d confirmed the kill, re-sheathing his Whip and nimbly leaping from foothold to foothold, traversing the tangled mesh of wood, stone and twisted metal in the corridor ahead of him. Nearing the far end, Analel watched him take one large stride and leap into the air, spreading out both arms and legs and jamming them into either wall. Suspended like a giant X, he alternated pushing with both hands and feet, scampering up the wall and catching hold of the floor above at the edge of the hole his Wave Whip recently fashioned. Before fully hoisting himself up, Analel picked up on a hostile Wave arcing toward him. “DUCK!” she warned.
He kept his grip and dropped his body down into the hole below the upper floor. The lash cut low, a quarter meter above his gripping fingers and right where his head had been a half second earlier. Hanging there, he collected himself from the near miss. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” But she liked that he did. Why was she having these feelings?
Louder, he called out. “Professor Harris! It’s me, Kelerin.”
“What?” came the answering call.
“I’m coming up. Don’t attack.”
“Who is that?”
Kelerin hoisted himself up again, tentatively stepping out from behind the corner.
“Kelerin? Is that you?”
He trotted over to the Professor who watched his approach suspiciously, darting quick glances around the room and making sure another attack wasn’t about to surprise him from some unseen angle. “Kelerin, what are you doing here?” he asked, surprised, still looking around and clearly annoyed at what he saw as a new complication.
Kelerin pulled up next to Harris at the Armory’s threshold. He was less paranoid, having taken out the invading force himself, and addressed Harris directly. “I came to get you out.”
Harris quit his scanning and eyed the boy with arched brow. “You came to get me out?” he asked dryly. “Kelerin, I’m a Professor at the Academy. I could leave anytime I want.”
Kelerin was confused. “So why are you still here?”
“Because,” answered Harris, a little frustrated with the Student who was wasting his time and endangering his task, “I’m protecting the Armory, which I’m more than capable of doing against this rabble on my own.” The Professor stretched out his hand to indicate the host of dead raiders littering the floor around them. “But thanks to your overdeveloped sense of worth, now I’ve got to protect both the Armory and you.”
Kelerin took offense. “I assure you, Professor, I’m quite capable of taking care of myself.” The Professor had stopped listening. He was looking beyond Kelerin, beyond the room even. “Professor?”
Harris’ face went from suspicious to one of clear alarm. Kelerin turned to follow the Professor’s gaze but before he could zero in on what it was that had gotten Harris so spooked, he was kicked hard in the chest, knocked several meters to the side, landing flat on his back. Propping himself up on an elbow, his side on fire from the blow, Kelerin at first gawked at Harris - Why did he do that? - but movement out of the corner of his eye stole his attention away. A shadow was forming on the floor and he followed it to the massive windows stretching all along the chamber’s north wall. The shadow grew larger, more ominous, and before Kelerin quite knew what was happening, a ship crashed through the windows, sending shards of shattered glass raining down everywhere. A battle cry from Harris mixed in with the deafening sounds of destruction, the tremendous lash he sent forth cleaving the advancing ship in two before it fully cleared the window’s frame. But the ship’s momentum was too great and both halves came crashing down through the front wall of the Armory, Professor Harris disappearing in their wake.
Wave Mandate Page 24