by Brett Baker
******
“The XC-518b hydrosylicate cannon” Torvix began he stood behind Lexi and Rin, who both held a cylindrical rifle-shaped weapon in their hands, While Watanabe stood patiently off to one side, and Gunderson stood nearby, eyeing Watanabe warily. “It fires a stream of a hydrosilicate compound which bonds unstable molecules together, causing a shell to form like a stony carapace over a living creature of flesh and blood. As you have seen already. But the chemical reaction doesn’t stop at a shell. If given enough time and exposure, it will transform living matter into an inert hydrosilicate and carbon polymer that is very brittle.”
The weapon felt heavy and awkward in Rin’s hands. She looked over as Lexi sighted down the barrel like an expert, aiming at some phantom target before her.
“Bring in the next one!” Torvix called. A few moments later the doors slid open, and two more men in golden armor brought in another hordling.
Rin could tell where this was going, and she didn’t like it.
The hordling growled threateningly and strained against its captors, stamping its feet at Rin and Lexi as Lexi took aim.
Then, once they had released it, the hordling roared and leapt at them. Rin stepped back, and turned her torso away, instinctively shielding herself as Lexi pulled the trigger and released a stream of grayish liquid, which coated the hordling in mid leap.
It fell to the ground and broke apart on impact.
“Very good” Torvix said to Lexi. “You show real promise.”
Then his eyes fell onto Rin, who stood there holding the hydrosilicate cannon uncomfortably. Without a word, Torvix returned to his position behind them, his hands tucked behind his back.
“That felt amazing!” Lexi cried, “To hold the power of life and death in my hands!” Rin looked down at the hydrosilicate cannon in her grasp, and she listened. The music sounded somehow wrong, as if it was being driven by a strange dissonance. That was enough to confirm in Rin’s mind that this was not the way to fight the hordlings.
“Again!” Torvix called, and another hordling was brought in and released as Lexi took aim. Again the hordling stamped and growled and roared as it leapt at Lexi. And again Lexi pulled the trigger… but this time nothing happened.
“It misfired!” Torvix whispered, his eyes growing wide. Lexi, suddenly realizing that her weapon wasn’t going to fire, and she was about to be on the receiving end of a potentially deadly attack reacted quickly, stepping back and raising up the weapon between them, trying to use it to fend off the blow, but Rin reacted even more quickly, dropping her hydrosilicate cannon, and leaping to her sister’s defense. Instinctively, Rin interposed herself between them, placing herself inline to receive the blow, then at the last minute, she twisted her torso as the hordling bit at her with its powerful jaws. Rin sidestepped the blow, and pivot-stepped, bringing her foot striking at the creature’s backside, and instinctively lashing out with her mind telekinetically to give her strike some extra power. She followed that up with two more telekinetically bolstered strikes, that came so quickly they were almost too fast to see, and then much to everybody’s surprise, the hordling simply collapsed, its sad whimper lingering in the air once it had passed out.
“What just happened?” Torvix asked aloud, his eyes brimming with the surprised and joyful expression of a man who had just made an amazing discovery.
“Looks like Rin just found a better way to fight the horde, “Watanabe replied.
“How did you do that?” Torvix asked.
“I… I don’t really know” Rin replied.
“She used telekinesis to augment her strikes.” Watanabe explained. “Each strike hit the creature harder than humanly possible, essentially striking it with the same amount of force as a vehicle moving at 60 miles per hour. I know, because I’ve used the same technique against them myself. There are few things more powerful than human will when one truly knows how to use it as a weapon.”
Torvix turn and looked at Watanabe speechless.
“It’s a fascinating strategy don’t you think?” Watanabe continued. “Between Lexi’s telekinetic hammer, and Rin’s precise telekinetic strikes, I would say the girls are uniquely suited to deal with the threat of the horde, and they won’t even need your weapons or training to do it.”
“Well then” Torvix replied, his expression bewildered, as he silently realized that Watanabe had just maneuvered him into a corner from which there was no escape. “If that is indeed the case, it would seem that any further training is pointless. You already possess all the tools you require. I will make a few preparations, and we will return you to your world shortly. In the meantime enjoy our hospitality, but be careful not to attract too much attention from the local population.”
With that, Torvix turned and left, with Gunderson trailing closely behind.
Lexi and Rin looked at Watanabe, who was grinning from ear-to-ear. “Did you see the look on his face?”
“Was all that true what you said?” Lexi asked. “About Rin’s telekinesis giving her to force of a moving vehicle?”
“Absolutely” Watanabe replied with a nod. “Once you start using your creativity, there really is no limit to what we can do with these powers of ours.”
*******
They spent a largely uneventful two days in Elysium, rarely straying far from the Tower of Justice. On the third day following, Torvix summoned them to an interdimensional portal in the basement of the building, not far from the testing range.
“I’m going to be sending a specialized team with you,” Torvix began, as they spied six soldiers: five men and a woman, dressed in grey military uniforms, standing in the midst of hardened plastic crates of equipment. “Let me introduce you to your team.
“This is Captain Chatham, weapons specialist, and commanding officer” Torvix began, walking Watanabe past, a large, burly man with broad shoulders and piercing blue eyes he stood staring straight forward like any good soldier should.
“Lieutenant Blythe, demolitions expert” Torvix continued, walking Watanabe past a petite woman with short black hair, whom Watanabe caught eyeing them when they weren’t looking, but who’s eyes always snapped straight ahead whenever he would turn and try to catch her.
“Lieutenant Weill, missions coordinator, intelligence officer, and combat medic” Torvix offered as they passed a man who looked like he could barely be old enough to be in the military at all. Weill had tanned skin and spiky blond hair.
“Sergeants Garret, Hastings, and Thackeray round out the team. They are generalized combat specialists who have experience fighting the horde. Don’t be afraid to utilize their expertise and combat experience.” Torvix said. “While Chatham is in command of the unit, you and your daughters are of course not military. It will be up to you to coordinate with him. Any questions?”
Torvix looked at Watanabe and then the girls, and all three of them shook their heads.
“Alright then” Torvix replied with a gesture toward the gate. “Go and save your world.”
They passed back through the portal, reappearing in Torvix’s facility in Evanston. It took some time for Torvix’s team to get all their gear together.
“So we will need a base of operations” Chatham said as he approached Watanabe while the rest were still moving crates of equipment through. “Any ideas?”
“I have a place nearby” Watanabe replied. “It has lots of room.”
V
Eventually they set up in Watanabe’s safehouse. Watanabe, Rin and Lexi shared the loft, while the soldiers set up their quarters on the opposite end of the warehouse, giving both groups their privacy. Before long, the soldiers had set up a demolitions lab, weapons racks, and a full command and control array, and once they had finished getting situated, Chatham asked them to meet.
They sat in the living room, and Chatham paced back and forth, “Prince Torvix told us you guys are some kind of Psionicists, or something.” Chatham began. “Our mission is to give you combat support, so the purpose of this meeting is to fi
gure out how we can do that.”
“This is a waste of time” Blythe complained. “Can’t I just go blow something up?”
“Ignore her” Chatham replied. “Blythe is disrespectful and insubordinate, but she’s also one of the best demolitions experts to come out of the Academy in a generation. Weill is underage, and it’s a miracle they haven’t found out and kicked him out of the service, but he’s also very good at gathering intel through ‘less than legal’ means... Garret, Hastings, and Thackeray are all top-notch. So our team is small, but we know our stuff.”
“And what about you?” Lexi asked.
Blythe cackled as she kicked her feet out and stretched her arms across the back of the couch. “Chatham is papa-bear. He takes care of all of us.”
“That’s right” Chatham replied with a joking smile and a wink. “And don’t you forget it, or you’ll find yourself right back in the stockades you degenerate.”
“What we need is a strategy” Watanabe offered. “It’s hard to know where to begin without knowing our enemy.”
“I guess that’s where I come in” Weill said, leaning forward in his seat. “”I’m writing an algorithm to analyze the pattern of attacks on your world. What I have seen so far is that the horde attacks have been precise, and meticulously planned out targeting this world’s energy and supply infrastructures. Whoever is in control of the horde is following a pretty classic ‘disrupt, and spread panic’ strategy. But your governments have been very effective in suppressing any news of the attacks, so the majority of your world remains blissfully unaware that this is even happening.”
“So somebody’s in command of the horde?” Lexi asked.
Weill nodded. “The Horde is ravenous, but targeted and strategic they are not. Without a hordemaster, they would run amok, consuming until they were wiped out. They need somebody to command them, and he will have a support team around him as well.”
“So the key to beating the horde is to take out the hordemaster?” Lexi offered.
“Not necessarily,” Weill countered. “Like I said without the hordemaster in control, the horde would run amok. The key to beating the horde while minimizing their damage is to confuse the hordemaster. Get him to attack the wrong targets, set ambushes, and whittle away at his forces until he makes a fatal mistake. It’s a game of cat and mouse, really.”
“So where do we start?” Watanabe asked.
“I’m still working on that algorithm. When it’s completed, I’ll develop a simulation model.” Weill replied. “I’ll need at least another 12 hours. Once the model has run, and I can analyze the data, I’ll determine a shortlist of targets for you.”
“Sounds like a plan to me” Chatham replied. Alright, let’s let Weill do his job.”
They all went their separate ways, and Weill returned to the command and control array, where a progress bar displayed the data he was compiling.
Sitting down, he began to navigate his way expertly through holomenus, and various displays of local cities began to open before him.
“So this is what an intelligence officer does?” Lexi asked as she approached. “Hack into people’s databases and program simulations?”
“Not all intelligence officers” Weill replied, spinning in his chair to face her. “Just the best ones.”
“What would make somebody want to become an intelligence officer in the first place?” Lexi asked as she shifted her weight, thrusting a hip out and crossing her arms, her eyes scanning the data open in Weill’s array.
“I started hacking when I was about 5,” Weill replied. “I didn’t even really know what I was doing then, but I would get into secured city databases and poke around. Sometimes I would leave rude messages as proof I was there. I was arrested, but because of my age, I was released into my parent’s custody. They tried to keep me away from the net, restrict my access, but that’s the insidious nature of the net. It is so interwoven into our lives, we can’t be cut off from it completely. Within a couple of years I was hacking again, but this time I learned to be more careful. By the time I was 12 I had already become famous on the net under the name ‘gh0sth4x.’ The military started to come to me to do work for them on a consulting basis. That lasted for about two years, then the officer I had been working with suggested I join the Intel Corps. The idea of becoming an intelligence officer intrigued me, so I ran away and joined. The Officer forged the paperwork to get me into the Academy before I was of age, and arranged a directed study program for me with Intel Corps officers who were all ‘in the know.’ But the truth is, nobody really wanted to look into it that closely. It took me about two years to finish my academy training, and I accepted my commission last year.”
“But Chatham and the team know you’re only what, 17?” Lexi asked, having calculated the running total of his age in her head.
“This is a team of misfits, led by a misfit, but were all good at our jobs. We’re all very, very good. Chatham and the rest of the team don’t care so long as I do my job. And what about you?” Weill asked.
“I’m Lexi. I carry a big hammer.”
“Nice to meet you Lexi who carries the big hammer” Weill replied, holding out his hand.
Lexi grasped his hand with her own, and shook it. “Nice to meet you. I suppose I should be getting back. See you later.”
“Be seeing you” Weill replied as Lexi smiled, then turned and wandered back into the shadows, heading toward the loft.
“Hey!” Chatham called from nearby, “I saw that! She’s not a girl, she’s an asset… a high-value asset! And we’re here to do a job, so don’t be getting any ideas about her!”
“Geez old man!” Weill replied, as he turned back to his array, “Take it easy will you? I’m not getting any ideas!”
“Sure you’re not, you brat,” Chatham muttered as he wandered away. “Sure you’re not.”
*******
Rin and Watanabe sat in the living room, as a holoprogram was projected in the center of the room.
“I have a question” Rin asked as Lexi returned and sat down next to her. “If you don’t trust Torvix, why do you trust his soldiers?”
“I don’t trust his soldiers” Watanabe replied.
“then why did you invite them to stay here?” Rin asked.
“Because I don’t trust them” Watanabe explained. “I want them close so that I know what they’re doing.”
“That makes sense” Lexi said. “I just talked to their Intelligence Officer, Weill. He seems like a nice enough guy, but he’s definitely a top-flight hacker. We might need to increase our network security.”
Watanabe cocked an eyebrow at Lexi. He didn’t need telepathy to tell that protecting their data wasn’t the only reason she had gone to visit Weill.
“It’s strange” Watanabe began, “I can get a clear read on Blythe and Weill, but the others it seems harder with them somehow. Sometimes that just happens. It could be nothing…”
*******
Late the following morning, Weill requested another meeting.
“Alright, after the model fully compiled, I have identified the two most likely targets. Both are local. The first is the Northbrook Dam.” Weill moved quickly through the holomenus, and a window opened with pictures of a wide dam spanning the Northbrook Overflow Channel cut off from the Skokie River basin. “The dam is fairly new, being erected only 10 years ago thanks to an NAF federal works grant. It gives almost 12% of the power to this city and the surrounding area, so its loss could be a staggering blow that taxes both the local infrastructure and the local economy.”
“The second location is a local research facility called SummitTech. SummitTech does federal research for the NAF on everything from medicine to weapons and technology.”
“Sorry,” Blythe interrupted holding up her hand. “I keep hearing NAF. What is that?”
“Didn’t you read your briefing packet before we left?” Chatham asked.
Blythe shrugged and shook her head. “I figured I didn’t need to know any of tha
t to be able to blow stuff up.”
“The NAF is the North American Federation” Weill informed her. “Supernations began to form on this earth in the 1990s. First was the European Union, then the Asian Rim Coalition, then the NAF.”
A holomap of North America appeared behind Weill, showing the now outdated national boundaries of the 20th century. They watched as the border between the United States and Canada disappeared, and both nations turned blue, indicating a union between the two countries.
“The NAF was preceded by NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1992. In 2036 following the Great Pacific War, the United States and Canada joined to form the NAF. Mexico joined two years later, despite massive opposition from conservatives. By 2067, all Caribbean nations had also joined. One item of particular interest is that the NAF has been courting Japan, which due to regional rivalries with China and Korea was not invited to join the Coalition, and likely would not have accepted had the invitation been extended, and Great Britain, which only ever affiliated itself with the EU economically, refusing to surrender its sovereignty and began its official exit from the EU in 2016. Political analysts suggest that despite their close ties, neither the NAF, Japan, nor Great Britain are really all that interested in actually joining but are only using the negotiations as a means to gain economic and political concessions from the EU and the Coalition, who naturally don’t want the NAF so close to their own borders. Economic and political realities, however, might actually force the 2 independent nations to actually follow through and join the NAF regardless of their actual intent.”
Blythe sighed loudly. “See, this is why I didn’t read the packet. Geopolitics is booooooring.”
“At any rate” Weill continued, “SummitTech is located in the Upper Commercial Sector. It employs its own private security. However, given the nature of their research, I don’t think the Horde would actually be after any of their technology. I’ve deployed surveillance drones to both locations to alert us if the horde makes a move on either. Given that we have to defend two locations we might actually split our team and wait onsite so we can be ready when the horde makes its move.”