While we traveled to the landing site, I studied the most recent maps we had of the colony. Clearly the Magi knew we were there, and that meant we would have a fight waiting for us. One could only guess what other tricks they had up their sleeves.
“Sir, his ship is coming into view now,” said the pilot.
“Odd, there is no sign of a fight of any kind,” I remarked. The shelters were up just like Zalith had expected but the entire site was in perfect condition. “Unless … of course! That explains how they were defeated. They did not know about the fear weapon when they landed, nor the hallucinations. Land us as close as you can. As soon as we are down we will move to take Tom’s camp. For now, assume the Magi hold it even though we can detect nothing. Pilot, I want you to set the Dark Talon to return to orbit under full stealth once we are off. Program the autopilot to return to the fleet in twelve days. Bring a transmitter with us when we leave the ship. I want every bit of information we collect to get back to the fleet should we fail to return. That hallucination weapon is far more deadly than the fear weapon. I shudder to think of the bloodbath if they merely confuse our fleet into attacking itself!”
I let that somber thought sit in the air as we began our final descent. The Dark Knights were rechecking all their weapons and gear. They carried a wide variety of light and heavy arms. I followed their example and rechecked my pulse rifle. It was a fairly slow-firing weapon, but with extreme range and accuracy. It was not the best choice for this kind of raid, but it was my best weapon. At the Academy, I actually earned the name "One-Shot" with it because I was the only ensign who could hit most targets with a single shot.
The Dark Knights all put on their environmental suits in preparation for the landing. The planet had little to no atmosphere and we would be dead without protection. With the addition of a helmet my body armor would work well as an environmental suit on the surface of this barren world. Once everyone was geared up, they depressurized the craft. This would eliminate the need to cycle the airlock, which would be dangerous if we met resistance at the landing site.
Within seconds of the Dark Talon touching down the airlock was opened and we rushed out to secure the area. Once we were all out the pilot used his wrist computer to order the Dark Talon back into orbit and we ran to Tom’s ship. The Knights formed a wedge and put me in the center as they ran. I realized they were intentionally running slower so I could keep up. Their longer, more powerful legs and stabilizing tails allowed them to get much closer to the ground and move much faster than any human. The squad’s sergeant was in the front of the wedge running at his full height, attempting to shield me.
We reached the site without any interference. Nothing living showed on our scanners, and there were no bodies at all. The place looked more like a brand-new training mock-up than the site of a recent battle. The lack of weather helped to keep everything exactly the way it had been set up. As soon as the Knights secured the camp, three of them went into the ship to get the logs that I had requested.
“I do not like this at all,” said the sergeant.
“Me neither, it feels like a trap,” I said.
He nodded to this, but before we could continue one of the men called out, “Sir, single target on the ridge!”
I looked where he was pointing and saw what looked like an older man with a walking staff. I was just about to send someone to retrieve him for questioning when he pointed the staff at us. “What is he …?” I started to ask when a bolt of energy left the staff and hit a group of the shelters nearby, completely destroying them. The shockwave from the blast knocked me over. The Knights’ powerful tails managed to keep them steady. “Return fire!” I called out.
As I got back up to bring my weapon to bear, I saw that our fire seemed to bounce off him. I grabbed a scanner and detected an energy field around him that I had never seen before. Before I could think this over, he aimed his weapon at the ship. “EVACUTE THE VESSEL NOW!” I ordered over the inter-suit communications. I saw the three Knights dive out of the ship as the old man’s weapon blew a large hole right through it. “He has some kind of personal force field. All of you, concentrate your fire on a single point.”
As the Knights adjusted their fire he seemed to realize he was in trouble and dove for cover behind a rock. The Knights did not let up their fire and completely destroyed that rock, but he was nowhere to be found. I moved to the hole in the ship and stuck my hand in it just to make sure it was real. “So much for them only having light arms. Where did he go?” I asked.
“There!” someone called out, and almost as one all the Knights turned and opened fire. He then dove for cover again, and disappeared like the previous time. This happened several mores times; we were locked in a stalemate. “Sergeant, we are sitting ducks here while he waits for help. We need to move. I think we should make a run for the colony. He will not be able to fire such a powerful weapon inside without killing himself in the process.”
“I agree,” he said, and again acting as one they moved into their wedge around me and began running for the airlock on the colony. This time everyone on the outside was continuously firing in all directions. Over my shoulder I saw the old man come out of hiding and take aim with his staff, but he could not fire. If he missed he might rupture the airlock to the colony. I lost track of him as we ran, but I was sure the Knights knew exactly where he was. When we got to the airlock one of them quickly disassembled the lock, and with what looked like a simple twist of a few wires opened the door. The airlock was large enough to hold all of us and we quickly filed in. The Knights up front dropped to one knee and pointed all their guns at the exit to the airlock. As the door opened a group of men rushed in, only to be quickly killed by fire from the Knights’ weapons. Once the area was secure I moved forward to check the bodies.
There were no uniforms on them, and I did not recognize their race. They looked almost like humanoid pigs with green skin. They did not have any guns; instead their weapons were what looked like knives and swords of various makes. Looking closely at the weapons, I noticed an oil-like sheen on them. “Poison,” I muttered. To my surprise the Dark Knights were stowing their guns and environmental suits, and pulling out their own blades. The sergeant must have noticed my expression.
“In these close quarters blades are superior weapons. If we did not already have our guns at the ready when they rushed in, they would have killed several of us before we could have taken them out,” he said.
“Surely our body armor would stop a knife?” I questioned.
He did not answer; instead he picked up one of the alien swords and swung it at the airlock wall. It buried itself deep into the heavy metal wall. “Okay, point taken. Well, all chance for a stealth hit is gone, so I say we push straight for their primary computer center and upload all the data to the Dark Talon to be relayed back to the fleet.”
“I agree. If we take this corridor down to the tenth junction, then turn left that will put us on a direct path to our target. Speed is going to be our best defense right now,” responded the sergeant.
“Then take us. I will follow your lead,” I replied. This was completely his turf. I knew nothing about penetration hits like this.
He then looked at the squad, and they immediately reorganized and we headed out. Four Knights were sent ahead, and four trailed behind us to prevent any surprise attacks on our main force. We were moving fairly quickly down the winding corridor when we got a radio call from our vanguard.
“Sir, we have met resistance … looks like two humans with smaller versions of that weapon we saw earlier. They are positioned to shoot anyone that comes around the bend,” was the report over the radio.
“Hold there. We can assume they have the same personal shields, so wait on additional firepower,” replied the sergeant. The Knights all put away their blades and drew out their rapid-fire phase pistols. The sergeant must have seen the look I gave him because he turned to me and said, “The secret of a victorious warrior is being able to adapt to an ever-changing battlefield. We carry several different kinds of weapon so that we are always ready.”
When we reached the vanguard I noticed they had set up a movable shield wall and had it ready to slide out. This would give them something to shoot behind. With the sergeant’s nod they pushed it out and stayed low behind it. Several bolts of energy flew over the wall and scorched the metal walls behind the Knights. Once out in the corridor they returned fire but the humans had the advantage of not having to hide and were able to keep the Knights effectively pinned down. I remembered something from the map that I had studied, and saw a small access panel. “Sergeant, what is your next move?” I asked.
“Well, we need to break the stalemate,” he said and held up two photon grenades.
“Hold off on that. I want to get my hands on those weapons, if possible. Wait here. I am about to do something really stupid, and I do not want to be talked out of it,” I said as I removed the access panel and crawled through to another corridor.
I needed to move fast, but undetected. This would be hard since I still was unsure how they had found us under complete stealth in orbit. Then I remembered what had happened in the medical wing, how I dropped completely off all the sensors. The computers, of course, thought the lack of a heartbeat or brainwaves meant that I was dead, but in reality I was merely invisible to the systems. What was it that I was doing ... ? Ah, yes! Of course! The thought shield I used in puzzle-solving mode. I immediately put it up and ran down the corridor.
I came out around the bend just slightly behind the enemy. I activated my suit communicator and said, “Knights, for the next fifteen seconds blast every gun you have. It does not matter whether you hit anything; just create a blanket of light. At fifteen seconds hold all fire and prepare to assist me. Start your fire … now.”
Right on cue the corridor lit up with blinding light. I was shielded around the bend with my back turned and eyes closed, covered with my hand. Silently I counted off the fifteen seconds, and as soon as it was time I turned around the bend at full speed and charged the two humans from behind. They were still blinded from the light and never saw me spring into the air until I hit them both hard. They both went flying down to the floor. I landed in a roll and prepared to get up when I saw that one of them was already on his way up, so instead I pivoted my body on my shoulder and swept his legs out from under him. He fell back and hit the floor again but his partner was on his feet and moving to aim his weapon at me. I sprung off the floor leading with both of my fists, hitting him hard in the center of his chest, throwing him back into the wall and knocking all his breath out of him. I turned to see what the first human was doing, just in time to see one of the Knights pick him up and slam him into the wall.
“Well done, sir. Seems that the reports about you being a timid bookworm were unfounded,” said the sergeant.
As they restrained the two humans I picked up their weapons from the ground. They looked like bone wands with azure writing on them. It was like something out of a video game. I turned to one of the men and said, “Now you are going to talk, or you are going to wish you did.”
He laughed, and wriggled free enough to put his hand on the other man and said something under his breath that I could not make out, and then vanished.
“What happened? Where did they go?” I asked.
“There, sir!” said one of the Knights as he pointed down the corridor.
How did they get down there? Before I could verbalize anything the man who had laughed raised another wand and said, “Fools! We are the Magi! You are pathetic, trapped in your machine-controlled world. Your pitiful empire has reached the end of its wasted life. Now die!” With that he pointed the wand at us and called out in a loud, clear voice, “Rawrathania!”
Around me the Knights dove for cover, but I did not join them. Acting purely on instinct I raised my own wand and repeated his call a mere instant after his. A bolt of energy left my wand and collided with the energy from his wand with a loud explosion. Both bolts were completely consumed by the explosion. “I don’t think so!” I called out.
“Impossible!” was his yelled reply.
Then two more humans came running down the corridor behind him, only to be met by a volley of fire from the Knights. Two of them were killed quickly and the other two vanished.
“Good, it appears their shields only work when they are stationary,” said the sergeant. He then waved the vanguard to move out, and turned to me and asked, “How did you know that their shields would not stop your attack?”
“It was a lucky guess. We have limited energy shields like these in labs back in the Academy. None of them stops physical matter, so I assumed these would be the same,” was my response. The truth was I had not thought it through but reacted instinctively. With that, we moved on. I maintained my thought shield; I planned to keep it up at all times now. It would just take some practice.
We did not get very far down the corridor when our vanguard again reported that they were under attack, this time by overwhelming firepower. They were wiped out before we could reach them. As we got close the Knights again deployed their mobile shield wall. As we rounded the corner behind it we saw six humans with wands, all firing very rapidly. The Dragon Knights returned fire and used the shield walls to slowly inch forward. We now knew the way to beat them was to close the distance between us and them, and the Knights would not be deterred. The humans were in a bad situation because if they stood to retreat their shields would fall and they would be gunned down, but if they stayed put we would eventually reach them and make the fight hand-to-hand. No human stood a chance against this squad in hand-to-hand combat. I thought we had a sure win here when we got a call from our rear guard. “More of those green humanoids are coming fast down the corridor, at least fifty of them in view and more coming.”
“Rear guard, abandon your position and return to the main group,” was the order from the sergeant.
About half of the Dark Knights turned and kneeled, preparing to open fire on the first sight of the rear attackers. The rear guard quickly reached us and dropped to do the same. As the green creatures came around the bend the Knights opened fire, but the enemy was holding some kind of shield in front of them and they charged forward, undaunted by the heavy fire. I pointed the wand weapon and fired it into their line. The bolt of energy smashed right through their shields and opened a hole in their defenses, which the Knights immediately took advantage of. This did not even slow their charge; they just kept coming. They soon reached us and the Knights drew their own blades and took them on hand-to-hand.
I moved to the front line of our defenses and added my wand to our firepower, knowing that I could not compete in the rear line. The humans down the corridor did not let up their fire and seemed not to care at all if their weapons hit their own men behind us. I do not know how long we fought there but it was not long before I realized we were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. Knights were dying on both sides of me, and more humans had arrived to assist the wand group in front of us. I was really hoping the sergeant had some trick up his sleeves to get us out of this. We managed to kill what seemed like hundreds of the green humanoids, but they just kept coming. I was about to grab some grenades off a dead Knight’s body when someone grabbed me from behind and dragged me into a dark room. They put a cloth over my face and as I passed out I saw a very large explosion hit the center of the Knights. The last thing I heard was, “Sorry to do this, sir, but we have to get out of here …”