Defender of the Empire: Cadet #1 (24 page)

             
“Please.” He interrupted her with a pleading hand.

             
“Medrais System.” She finished at the same time he had risen his hand.

             
He flinched before dropping his hand and looking out the main screen. In a soft voice he said. “Ma’am, what happened in the Medrais System had been plain dumb luck. I happened to be in the right place at the right or wrong, depending on who you ask, time.”

             
Francesca shook head in wonder. The man honestly wanted her to believe that he was no hero. “You stopped a riot that would have destroyed a good chunk of a large city if not the whole thing.”

             
Braeden shifted uncomfortably. “But I didn’t stop the force behind it.” He muttered.

             
“One step at a time.” Francesca said. “What about the second time? Are you going to tell me the events on Forestrium were also dumb luck?”

             
Pain flashed in his eyes so briefly she wondered if she had truly seen it. “It was. I was paying my respects to an old friend when I heard the alarm.  I did what any decent person would have done. I helped. I have done nothing to earn the position of admiral.” He paused and smiled at her, noticing her narrowed eyed glower of exasperation. “Except for that last bit we seem to have that debate so well memorized we could have it in our sleep, ma’am.”

             
“Next time I will remember not to grant you permission to speak freely.” She warned.

             
“Duly noted. Though we have a version for that too.” He reminded her politely. She shook her head. “Can you imagine how many debates we would have if I
did
wear the Admiral Diamond?” the unrepentant captain mused softly.

             
He was lucky the challenge started then.

***

I stood on the once flat training round and stared at the structure before me. “How did they do that?” I asked numbly. “And so quickly?”

“A
Shaper.” Jason told me. “Or in this case many Shapers probably led by Admiral L’Seral.”

“Right.” I said as I remembered what I had learned about the people
from the prime world known as Swava. They were a race who had developed an extreme love of small robotics. They were the best in the Empire for developing nanites. Depending on the type of nanites a person had decided their specialty. A Shaper was one who could take the raw materials around them and make something. In this particular case, the side of a plateau with a barely distinguishable outpost built into the rock.

“Look
sharp, kids. Our mission is to find the hostages and get them out without losing anyone.” Westley said bringing Jason and I to attention.              

“I don’t see any hostiles
.” Jason said softly looking at the ridge.

“Don’t see the wind either.” Marius said fingering
the pulse gun at his hip. For this challenge, everyone received training weapons. We were informed of what they could expect from the weapons before we entered the ring. The guns were like the real thing, but they had only one setting: stun. Every shot fired would mimic a real wound, complete with blood loss, but without resulting in any fatalities.  They would still hurt, though. And if the shot had been good, it would paralyze you till the challenge was done. That would not be fun at all.

“And unlike us.” Westley added, “They know
exactly
when and where to expect us.”

“Not
necessarily.” I said with a frown. When the guys looked at me I elaborated “Yes, they know
when
we would be coming and from where, but they don’t know
exactly
where they can find us. We can be like a storm they know is coming but cannot see. And we can use that.” I indicated the rough terrain before us. “Granted, they would know it better than we do,
but
that only works so well if we go where they want us to. So let’s get them to meet
us
.” I greatly enjoyed this semi real life scenario. We were given our mission and allowed to choose our weapons. We were also allowed to decide
when
exactly the challenge would start. Granted, we couldn’t be all day about it. At least this time we weren’t going in blind.

T
he older boys, and I use ‘boy’ lightly since Marius was much older than the others realized, considered my words. Westley’s hazel gaze eyed the terrain as he considered the challenges before us. Marius glanced at our surroundings before looking back at me. He tilted his head and smiled. “This is gonna be fun.” He said.

“Any idea on how to tempt them out of their preferred
niches?” Jason asked in that melodic voice of his, excitement brightening it.

“Don’t be where they expect. Deceive, strike hard, and disappear.” I said eyeing the surroundings and fingering my own pulse gun.
It was an idea Carden would have approved of.

We laid out a quick, loose plan that could easily
be adapted because, as three of us knew from experience, a plan never survived real life. The basic idea was to split into pairs and move quickly. We would seek out any hostiles and take them out as quietly as possible. Though, since they knew we were coming anyway, there really wasn’t much point in stealth. Westley, however, said it was good practice and the rest of us added that it would keep us invisible. We weren’t that easy. Once the sentries were taken care of we would seek out the hostages and any other hostiles. Hopefully none of us would get shot.

Challenge one would be to make ourselves disappear. Stepping out of the safety zone would
be the most dangerous part of the operation. I really wish that we could have chosen our entry point, but no one ever thought to ask me.

I guess there had been some rule about not shooting us when we first stepped out of the safety box, because no one did. Nice of them to give us a chance. The team split into pairs. Marius and Jason went one way towards the high ground. Westley and I went the other to invite the sentries we knew were up there somewhere to join in a little game of cat and mouse.

Everything was all quiet when suddenly Westley shoved the both of us behind a large bolder. “Get down!” He ordered needlessly as we
fell to the ground. I stared in wide eyed shock as red blasts skittered over the loose sand and pebbles where we had just been.
That was close
. I thought before hesitantly peeking from behind the other side of the bolder. I caught movement up on the ridge above us. I smiled and shared the look with Westley.

“Found one. “ I said.

Westley grunted. “Now, what is the best way to keep him from telling his buddies where we are?”

“By keeping him occupied with us.”
I smiled sweetly at him, which by his widened eyes, startled him. I glanced quickly around the boulder again. “Let’s play a quick game of peek-a-boo with him before Marius and Jason get to him. Then we can hunt for the next one.”

We didn’t ha
ve a long game with our friend up there. I had only gotten to my fourth rock shield before the stunning red blasts stopped suddenly. I glanced at Westley who wasn’t too far away. He was peering up at the ridge. His teeth flashed in a satisfied hunter’s grin before indicating to me that sentry one was down. I grinned back and hurried after him. We might be friends now, but that didn’t change the fact that I was short and he was tall.

***

Up on the ridge Marius watched Rylynn and Westley head off in search of another sentry. He turned back to the one he had taken down. The guy was almost paralyzed from the stun blast and follow up stab from a holographic knife Marius had dealt him. Once paralyzed he would be considered ‘dead’ until their challenge time was done. Marius squatted next the young guy and prodded him with his stun-knife’s hilt. “I can make this quick if you tell me how many of you are out here.” Marius said.

The downed sentry glared at him petulantly.

Marius sighed. “
Alright, I’ll tell you how this is going to be then. I’m gonna put you in a painful position before you freeze up. Then my buddies and I will just take our sweet time while you consider why anyone would want to be a human pretzel…” Marius shrugged. “Then again, if you tell me what I want to know then I could make sure you are comfortable for the rest of the time. Your choice.” When the sentry wasn’t immediately forth coming Marius moved to make good on his threat.

Eyes wide
, the guy quickly said “Twenty! There are…” Before he could continue Zara snarled a warning. Marius ducked quickly as a red blast hissed through where he had been. Instead of him, it struck the downed sentry. The guy instantly froze with his mouth open.

Poor sucker
Marius though absently as he spun to face his attacker. His collapsible staff blocked the heavily built sentry’s stun-cutlass. The orange-red light blade sparked against the reinforced staff.  The guy was bigger than Marius when he was this age. It would be tricky to throw him off without raising questions. He began to slip out from under the cutlass when there was a stun blast to back of the sentry’s head. Marius was glad he had decided to get out of the way as the guy fell. He flinched as the man hit the ground face first.

“Make that eighteen.” Jason corrected lowering his blast-gun. 

Marius grinned and collapsed his staff. He then rolled the poor sentry off his stomach. “You lucked out, my friend.” He said with a pat to the immobilized man’s shoulder. “You didn’t break anything as far as I can tell.” Marius moved to the first sentry and moved him into some shade. Jason did the same for the other guy. “Thanks for the assistance.” Marius said to Jason.  The kid grinned with pride. Marius smiled and nodded down the path they had yet to traverse. “Let’s go find some more new friends.” He said heading toward the outpost.

Jason followed after him. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Jason’s troubled expression. “What is it?” Marius asked.

Jason glanced back the way they had come. “You are scary sometimes, you know that right?” He asked finally meeting Marius’s gaze.

“Do you mean the questioning?” At Jason’s nod Marius shook his head. “I wasn’
t
actually
going to do something horrible, I was just making him worried.” Marius explained. “All one has to do is sell it and make it very believable. Once sold, any information you want is yours.”

“As I said, scary.”

“I wouldn’t have done anything more humiliating than his buddies’ ribbing for being the first sentry down. “ Marius pointed out mildly. “Besides, I kept my end of the bargain and he is as comfortable as I could make him.”

“He could have lied, though.” Jason pointed out.

“True. We’ll find out soon enough.”

***

Westley and I decided to make our way up the cliff side. We moved as quietly as we could, listening for any telltale signs that a sentry was nearby.

AROUND THE BEND. THERE ARE TWO. Luna told me.

How do you know?
I asked silently.

LISTEN. She advised.

HEY! WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT NON-INTERFERING AGREEMENT WE MADE?! Scrae snapped indignantly.

Luna snorted.
DON’T COMPLAIN MOUSE. I WAITED UNTIL HER SAD LITTLE HUMAN EARS COULD MAKE IT OUT. IF I HAD WANTED TO TRULLY BREAK THE AGREEMENT, I WOULD HAVE TOLD HER I SMELLED THEM WHEN WE WERE ON THE PLAIN.

I stopped listening to their argument and
reached forward and rested a hand Westley’s back. He paused and turned back with a raised brow. I placed a finger over my lips than tapped my ear. He nodded and we listened. I focused on everything I could hear, picking through the various sounds. My ears were listening so hard they started to tingle. It took a while but eventually I could hear something that didn’t fit with our surroundings. Meeting Westley’s gaze I could tell he had heard it too.

“Voices.” He mouthed soundlessly.

I nodded and pointed around the bend.

He tilted his head for a moment and shrugged. ‘It sounds like they might be coming from that direction.’ The
gesture said. The next gesture he made was for us to go forward cautiously.

I nodded, but indicated that I should go first. I was
smaller than he was and thus less of a target. Westley didn’t like it, but he could at least understand the wisdom of my plan.  I took point and edged my way closer to where we could hear the sentries.

“Do you think anyone has seen the cadets yet?” A male voice asked. I frowned because I was pretty sure that I had heard that voice before.

Another snorted. “We would have heard something by now. My guess, those cadets are still cowering in the safety zone.” This voice I also recognized.

“Careful, mate,
don’t you remember how dangerous it was to underestimate that girl?” The first said warily.

“You telling me you’re scared?”

“No. I just remember being knocked on my ass because she knew how to use crowbar. You wouldn’t remember because you clumsily ran into a wall of bricks.”