Xandrian Stone 4: The Academy Part 3 (4 page)

Chapter 5: PROVING MISSION

My assignment was no surprise:

Prime Lieutenant Xandrian Stone,

You will report this afternoon at 15:00 to Training Brick 2 and assume command.

Your mission is to go to Eden 2 and gather a stone that has been marked blue on its underside. The location of the stone is on the map below.

You are not to use your own magic, but that of your crew. Captains do not actively use magic unless in emergencies or other special situations.

Your second-in-command will be Second Lieutenant Lindan Linuson on the trip there until the stone is found. Second Lieutenant Annina Henderson will take over as your second-in-command while the stone is being retrieved and on the trip back.

Once your mission is accomplished the new command team will relieve you and your second-in-commands and bring you to Eden 4, where parts of your crew will be discharged and brought to their assignments by Bricks that will be waiting there. Captain Miller will be there as well, you will report to him and rejoin your crew.

At your own convenience, give your seconds opportunities to gather leadership experience. They are both capable.

Good luck.

Signed, Admiral Peter Sand

I grinned broadly. My very own command! Granted, it would only last about an hour if we dawdled, because I knew exactly where that stone that we were to retrieve was, but still - my own command!

I still had a couple of hours until 15:00, so I first took a picture of myself in my dress uniform for my folks back home, then I cleaned myself, changed into the more practical all-day uniform and got myself some lunch.

At 14:55, fresh and nervous, I was approaching my new command, head held high. I did not exactly strut, but I have to confess that I got pretty close that day. At the front airlock, I was greeted by the weapon on airlock-duty. "Dude! I mean captain, welcome on board." We grinned at each other. The whole crew was made up of former cadets, so we knew each other quite well. "Thank you, Ensign. I will report to the bridge now."

With my pack still slung around my shoulder I walked into the bridge. "Captain on the deck!" yelled Lindan.

"At ease. Report?"

"Sir, we are ready and eager." Lindan kept a straight face, though I could see the grin behind his mask of duty. Typical Lindan, all business, reliable but with a wicked humor behind the facade. I had grown to really like him in the past year.

"Good. Get us into an orbit of 150 kilometers while I settle in."

"Aye, sir." While I turned and walked to the captain's quarters, I listened to his orders. "Communication, inform the Admiral that we are on our way. Sensors, navigation, keep your eyes open with all that traffic. Engines, get us into orbit, 150 kilometers."

Good. Lindan knew what he was doing. I could enjoy settling in, which honestly just consisted of me entering the captain's quarters, taking a deep breath of the air in there (that was no different than anywhere else in the Brick but still tasted sweeter) and throwing my bag onto the cot. In about an hour I'd be getting my bag out of the quarters again, after all. And yes, I intended to dawdle.

Walking out again I claimed the captain's chair and watched us settling into a nice, circular orbit. "Well done everyone. Navigation, do you have Eden 2 on your map?"

"No sir, I don't."

"You will soon." I set a course to Eden 2 and stored it in the Brick's short-term memory. "Engines, take us there with the rail-drive."

The trip was, as usual, short and way too quickly over. I looked at Lindan. "I have stored the position of our target in the Brick's short-term memory. Take us there if you please." He nodded, happy that I was giving him this much to do.

"Engines, land us 35 meters to the north of the given coordinates. Shields up for the entry, sensors and navigation, keep your eyes open just in case."

Very happy with Lindan's performance, I watched our descent through the big screen. The shields were a bit of an overkill, but my experience told me that having a shield and not need it was infinitely preferable to the alternative. As expected the landing was smooth and also over way too quickly. "Sensors, just in front of us there should be a rock with a blue marked underside. Scan for it, if you please. Navigation, I trust that you are mapping everything?"

"Of course." "Sir." Uh, I had stepped on the navigator's toes it seemed. Lindan gave me a small smirk, which was well deserved. I filed it away as a learning experience while the sensor reported. "Sir, I found the rock in question. It's 36.2 meters north-north west of here, I have marked its position and specifics in the Brick's short-term memory." Accessing the data I nodded.

"Well done. Chief Weapons Officer, please send 2 weapons to retrieve the stone." Weapons were the guys manning the turrets if needed, but as that was rare at best they also were traditionally tasked with everything that the other specialists could not do better, as well as everything that included even the slightest risk. Like walking out in the searing heat of Eden 2.

"Aye, sir. My best 2 boys are disembarking now." That voice...

"Lieutenant McGlennan?"

"Aye, sir." He looked through the door of the bridge. "You had more action in this past year than I." He smiled a little bit, and I grinned in understanding.

"I am happy to have you here, Lieutenant. Carry on."

"Aye, Sir!"

I truly felt great having him on board. Also, that he called me "sir" felt most nice, after having been yelled at by him so many times during the afternoon exercises.

His weapons were efficient, as expected. It seemed only moments later that they marched back through the airlock, one holding the stone in a thickly gloved hand. "Sir. It's hot, sir."

"Thank you, well done." I wrapped a shield around my hand and took the stone from him.

The weapon looked at me. "Neat trick." "Sir." We grinned at each other and they left again.

"Thank you Second Lieutenant Linuson, your duty is hereby concluded. Very well done."

"Thank you, sir." We shook and Lindan headed to the infirmary, as an Adept Healer his duty was there if he was not on the bridge. Annina walked in from the sensor room.

"Second Lieutenant Henderson, welcome as my second-in-command for the trip home. Take us into orbit, if you please, and back to Eden 6-1 from there." Annina smiled, nodded and took us into orbit just as expertly as Lindan had done before.

"Navigation, set a course for Eden 6-1."

"Course set, ma'am."

"Thank you. Engines, take us there with the rail-drive. Navigation, sensors, eyes open."

We zipped across the Eden system and right into The Prophecy.

Chapter 6: THE SKIRMISH AT EDEN 6-1

In orbit around Eden 6-1 were Bricks that looked at first sight like they had been cut to pieces and a weird, dark, cold vessel being attacked by another Brick.

"Divine... Those poor people..." Annina was as shocked as the rest of us. We watched the Brick flying around the dark vessel, shooting lances and pulses of weapons magic which were absorbed by its shield. There were several things that looked like nothing I had ever seen that were tracking the Brick and before any of us was able to say or do anything else they shone several beams of light at the Brick. Its shield flared brightly and failed almost instantly and it got cut to pieces, just like the others.

All that happened in the time needed for me to take a deep breath.

"Battle stations! Battle stations! This is not a drill!" I yelled loudly. "Shields up, all Shield Wizards report to the shield room and combine your magic! Weapons to the turrets, communication: Use your magic to communicate a live stream of this to everyone that might listen."

The Brick became a flurry of movement, yells and lots of cursing. Lieutenant McGlennan kept order outside of the bridge and yelled everyone where they needed to be.

I was attempting to scan the vessel in front of us. "Sensors, do you see any more than I?"

Annina answered: "No, sir. it looks and feels cold, lifeless. Almost dead."

That's when it struck me. Those might be the "Dead weapons" the Prophecy was talking about! "Communications, emphasize this: 'The dead weapons are likely here.' Don't ask, please - there is little time. Engines, drive us around that thing, fly erratic and make us as hard a target as you can. Annina, be ready to take command when we come under fire - I will lend my own magic to the shields."

While we surged forward to the vessel that was already turning towards us, Annina nodded. I linked up to the Brick's magic through my chair (the captain's chair was basically an Omni-Control-Rod disguised as a chair) which flared bright white, just as my eyes I knew.

The Engines Wizard took me by my word and weaved us around the enemy vessel in a fast, erratic, nonrhythmic way that made it difficult for their light-shining weapons to hit us. Until their whatever-was-controlling-their-lights got lucky and hit us hard. The pain that exploded all across my body and brain was nearly too much and I was distantly aware of screaming. That was probably all of us shields, we were all in the same pain. Fortunately that lasted only about a second until the engine got us out of the enemy lights.

Panting and healing myself I heard Annina yell for healers for the shields, and that communications should include the info that 10 pips of shields were just enough to survive a hit by the dead weapons. I recalled her having been in my mind during the hit, and that I clearly felt that the two shields in the shield room were a Master Shield Wizard (2 pips) and an Adept Shield Wizard (3 pips). Combined with my 5 pips we had a total of 10 shield pips.

I fixed the thought in my head that 12 shield pips per Brick would be better, just to be on the safe side. Also, it might be good if we could identify specific Bricks easier than describing who commanded and crewed them. Like the stone we had retrieved from Eden 2, the one with the blue underside. In a quarry that could easily be identified amongst many other stones.

The next order Annina yelled I heard clearly: "
Quarry
to fleet command: Make that 12 shield pips per Brick to be safe, and send help please!" What? No, I had some numerical system in mind. Annina gave me a mental pat on the shoulder: 'Just keep us alive, sir.' I snorted mentally.

Then we were hit again and I was busy screaming in pain. After the engine brought us out of the enemy light again I started wondering if there was anything we could do to make this less excruciating for us shields. I knew that the Master Shield Wizard was about to collapse, the Adept did not feel much better and I was reaching my limits as well. Then I had an idea: On Eden 2, I had tinted my shield to make the sunlight more bearable - maybe that worked here as well? Then another thought came: When our shields were transparent, why was the light then stopped?

Thinking back to the hits I remembered thinking "No! You won't kill us!" and that the spots where the enemy lights hit the shield were matte black to absorb that light.

Making the shield more transparent to let some of the light through was not an option as I did not know how much our hull could take. Seeing how easily that other Brick had been cut to pieces did not make me optimistic that way. So, letting the light through was not an option. Absorbing it was becoming impossible. Maybe reflecting some? Like in a mirror?

That was the exact moment that we won the fight. Making our shield reflect at least some of the enemy light was not hard, and when they hit us the next time it was only about half as bad and the enemy shield suddenly showed signs of wavering under the reflection of their own light. Our weapons redoubled their efforts after being frustrated with the enemy shield being impenetrable. It was not enough, unfortunately. But now we knew what to do.

Following my thought Annina had the engine fly less erratic, making sure we were hit more often. Our mirroring got better, and enduring the remaining pain was not a problem. We mirrored about 70% of the enemy light back at them, causing their shields to waver each time. Each time our weapons redoubled, but could not penetrate.

Only about 40 seconds had passed by now since the battle started.

The communicator had streamed everything constantly, so when help arrived they did so with all the information they needed. When the Stack came out of rail-drive, they did so with a silvery shield and turrets opening fire immediately. It was a Stack of 3 Bricks stacked on top of each other, the middle one with a very familiar, bright colored front. The communicator yelled: "
Tan Line
to
Quarry
: One last time, fire everything." That was Captain Oriakova! I yelled: "Open fire! Give them all you have!"

Under our combined fire the enemy shield finally collapsed. None of us knew where to hit them efficiently, so we bathed them in weapons fire. At the end, they were trailing wreckage and bodies when they entered the moon's atmosphere to the loud cheering of the weapons. The communicator yelled over the cheering: "
Tan Line
to
Quarry
: Monitor where they go down, we'll see if there are any survivors."

"Thank you, acknowledge please. Sensors, navigation, keep watch over them until they hit the ground. Communication, keep streaming - this crash might teach us a little bit about their vessels, whatever they are called. Engines, keep our height. I do not want to follow them in." A chorus of "Yes, sir!" told me that there was nothing more I could do. "Annina, I'll go around and see if anyone needs anything. You have the bridge." She nodded and I left the bridge.

The first person I met was the Drill-Lieutenant. "How are we doing, Lieutenant?"

"Fine, sir. This victory is important for the morale of the weapons. I just hope that we won't have to do this again any time soon."

"A feeling is telling me that your hope might be disappointed. If I were to go somewhere to cause trouble I would not go with just one Brick. I'd bring many."

"I feared that. Well, we got a good crew and a good captain if I may say so, sir."

I smiled. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Yes?" He was looking at me and stuck his hand out.

"Radaean, my friends call me Rad, if I may be so blunt, sir."

We shook. "Xandrian, my friends never called me anything different. You are a lot more experienced and technically we are of the same rank."

"Aye, that is true. But I won't advance, while you'll be Admiral one day."

"Don't despair, Rad. I have the nagging feeling that your specific skill-set might come in handy before this is over."

He wanted to say something, but was interrupted by the communicator: "Captain to the bridge, please. The enemy is showing signs of breaking up." I lifted my eyebrows to Rad. "They are not done causing trouble yet it seems." He nodded. "Looks that way."

I arrived on the bridge just in time to see the enemy vessel break into two pieces on the main screen. The pieces immediately separated, one seemingly slowing down and changing the entry angle. "Sensors, report."

"Sir, the slower part is a lot lighter than the other part and I can feel some signs of life in there. The heavier part has steepened its angle of entry and is heating up. It should impact in just under a minute." I nodded and opened my mouth, but was interrupted. "Sir! The lighter part seems to show signs of artificially slowing down. They might have a working engine rune or something in there."

Using the breath I had taken before, I ordered: "Communication, appraise
Tan Line
and the academy below of this development. Engines, shields, we shall follow the lighter part down and see if anyone comes out once they land. Rad! The weapons might have some work to do yet!" That last part I yelled to make sure that Rad heard me. He yelled back just as loudly: "Understood, SIR!" I grinned. I really liked that guy.

While we dove down to enter the moon's atmosphere in the wake of the landing lighter half of the enemy vessel the heavier part impacted on the surface and surprised us all.

There was an immensely bright light that lighted the inside of the Brick through the turrets. The light persisted for about four seconds, then it subsided and there were yells for healers. "Everyone, keep watching, streaming and learning. Annina, you have the bridge." I ran out, following the voices yelling for healers. Our healers had had a lot of work already with the shields, so I planned to support them with my own healing magic.

Arriving at one of the back turrets, I saw some weapons tending to others that were lying on the ground, moaning in pain and shock. "Sir! They looked into that flash and it seems that they were blinded by it!" The weapon next to me reported.

"Understood. Let me see to the wounded here." The weapon flattened himself against the wall to let me through. Bricks were not grown with great comfort in mind, and the corridors were quite tight. When I knelt at the wounded weapon's head, I laid my hands on each of his temples and felt myself into his pain.

It was not as bad as I had feared, but both familiar and unknown. I had had the very same injury myself not too long ago, when I looked into the star on Eden 2. But this here was amplified many times compared to that. I repaired his eyes, which was not so difficult at all. When he saw me he wanted to get up, obviously to not lie in the presence of his captain.

"Remain prone for now, until you have regained you orientation. No point in you jumping up and falling immediately again." I patted his shoulder, while he nodded, and went to the next wounded.

When I was done and came out of the turret, Lindan was waiting for me. We nodded at each other. "Lindan, have you encountered this severity of this particular injury before?"

"No, sir. It's like their eyes were burned out somehow. How that is possible I do not know."

"Me neither. How are the healers, as they had lots of healing to do with the wounded shields and now the weapons?"

"Exhausted but okay. This is a weird situation - do you think that you can give us a bit of a break?" He was only half-joking.

"Honestly, I don't know. I hope so, but one part of the enemy vessel seems to be actually landing, so there might be more work coming."

Lindan grinned. "Not if you kick their asses first." The weapons around us whooped at that and expressed their intentions to not give the healers any more work at all. Laughing, I went back to the bridge to see where we were standing on that.

"Sir," reported the sensor, "they are definitely landing. I can feel life signs in there, but weird ones - kind of cold, alien and reptilian all at once. It might be best if you took a scan yourself, sir." I did just that and could only confirm the sensor's opinion. Those life forms in there were about our height standing on their hind legs, but seemed to walk on all four. They definitely had tails that seemed to have some sort of spikes, and they did indeed feel very alien and reptilian at the same time.

"We are going to find out soon enough - they are landing." I walked to the captain's chair and called out through the ship: "Battle stations. Battle stations. This is not a drill. Eight weapons, gather at the fore airlock, equip yourselves for ranged and close combat if possible. Shields, healers, join them to support. The three remaining weapons take positions in the fore turrets and be ready for anything. I will leave the Brick myself. Lieutenant Henderson, you have the bridge."