Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (40 page)

I happened to catch Master Shadow’s face when Grandmaster Vydor said that. He was shocked by the revelation, so apparently he had not been told. I knew she was much more powerful than the other wizards of her level, but I had not guessed how much.

“She did poorly in school not because it was too hard for her, but because she did not bother to try,” continued Grandmaster Vydor. “She was looking for a purpose, a reason to keep living, and was hoping the school would give her that; apparently it did.”

“You mean Dusty, Grandmaster?” asked Master Shadow.

“Yes, Dusty,” he said.

“Grandmaster, why are you telling me this?” I asked.

“Because I want her and you to be aware that I know all about both of you. I know the struggles and temptations you both face, but I still trust you. You are both important to me as advisors, and I hope someday you can call me a friend,” he said. “There is nothing more important than family, and I consider you both to be part of mine.”

The Nevermore II was waiting, as planned, one jump and two days out from what we believed to be the master table. I was on the bridge of the Shadow Fox, and Phoenix was on the Dust Dragon. We remained docked, but ready to launch. We had taken the risk of sending an advance probe and discovered a small fleet of cruisers protecting the planet. It was expected that the moment we came out of jump space they would move to intercept us. Master Shadow had us preparing the Dark Conures to launch so that, if they managed to detect us, we would be ready to respond. We did not want to jump as three separate spacecraft, as that would give them three chances to detect us as we came out of jump space.

“For a group of ancient sorcerers, they seem to use a lot of technology,” said Rocky.

“Yes, it would be best if we didn’t underestimate their technological abilities. They have had ten thousand years to learn it,” said Lythiran.

As we waited I tried to imagine the scene on the bridge of the Dust Dragon. Phoenix hated waiting with a passion. He was likely to be pacing back and forth, constantly bugging his poor communications officer to find out if any messages had come in yet. At least he would be getting some exercise.

It felt good to be in command on my ship, even if it was still in dock. The past few months learning how to be a husband and getting to know Grandmaster Vydor had changed my perspective on my future. I could see how the kingdom had come to depend on Spectra and me, and that was something I’d never experienced before. Thanks to Gafar’s routine probing throughout the years, Grandmaster Vydor knew everything there was to know about our past and the temptations we faced, and yet he still trusted and depended on us. For the first time in either of our lives, Spectra and I had found a place to belong.

I still struggled with the idea that we were killing people to accomplish good, but at least I had a family. I had people that cared about me. I had a wife and good friends. Never before in my life had I been so loved and cared for.

“All hands, prepare for jump,” came over the comm system.

“Everyone, it’s time. Be ready to launch,” I said just before the cool azure of jump space wrapped around us. As we came out of the jump I said, “Spectra, anything?”

“No, Dusty. The Nevermore II has recloaked, and there does not appear to be any change in the fleet guarding the planet,” she said.

“Excellent. Everyone, I know this is going to be a bit strange, but we will stay at our active duty stations here on the Fox until further notice,” I said. If we undocked now, it would compromise the Nevermore’s cloak and risk blowing the surprise plan, but we needed to be ready to launch at a moment’s notice. This put us in the odd position of being at full battle alert while docked.

“Master, we are two days out from the planet,” said Rocky. “I suggest we reduce to a skeletal crew until we get closer to the planet. It is unlikely anything will change until the Nevermore is ready to uncloak.”

“Good idea. Issue the order and adjust the shifts so that our primary team is in place when we reach the planet.

“Yes, Master,” he said.

With that, Spectra and I left the bridge and headed down to the mess hall for dinner. While we were eating, Darkstone came up and asked, “Master, when do we restart the games?”

I chuckled, “You do realize that we are still docked, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course, but why should that matter?” he asked.

“We are two days away from active combat. I don’t think it’s wise to start the games right now. Everyone needs to be well-rested and unhurt,” I said.

“You’re probably right, Master, but we will start them again at some point, right?” he asked.

“Yes, Darkstone, we will,” I said.

As he left Cymeion came up and asked a few random questions about the mission, and then Skryth. After a while perhaps half the crew had come by our table to talk about one topic or another.

“
Now I know why Flame and Shadow eat in their quarters all the time,
” I sent to Spectra privately.

“
Yes, but they need this. They need to see us confident on the eve of battle so they feel reassured about it,
” she sent back.

“
Still, this is getting to be too much. I think it’s time we retired to our quarters, don’t you?”
I sent.

Her eyes lit up with mischief, and she darted off. I didn’t know what she was up to, but I figured at the very least I should clean up after our dinner and head back to our quarters.

The trip to the planet passed without any interruptions. As we got closer, Spectra and I headed back to the bridge and I ordered the Shadow Fox to return to full staff levels. While we were settling in, Shadow sent, “
Dusty, Phoenix, there has been a change in plans. We are about one hour out from the planet. When we reach it we will launch our attack immediately. Karlith will take the third Dark Conure out to help eliminate the targets in orbit. Dusty, you follow through with your penetration plan.”

“
Understood, Master
,” sent both Phoenix and I.

“Rocky, prepare for launch in sixty minutes,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” said Rocky.

After months of waiting, that simple order seemed to bring a level of relief to the crew. They were happy for the waiting to be over. “Lythiran, Karlith will be flying the third Conure, so adapt plan Dusty-One to allow for his help.”

“Yes, Master,” was his response.

“He must be running a pretty lean crew,” said Rocky.

“I would imagine so, but the enemy won’t know that, and these Conures can be quite effective even with a skeleton crew,” I said.

I watched my crew prepare for the launch. Having a full hour’s warning allowed them to work through the final preflight checklist and take their time to make sure it was perfect. This kept them distracted from thinking about the battle in which we were about to engage.

The enemy’s fast attack cruisers heavily outnumbered us, but we had superior firepower. I was confident that we would be able to clear the targets from orbit, which would give us an unobstructed path to the surface. It would take time, however, to eliminate that many targets.

The hour passed quickly, and then the command came to launch. “This is it: launch!” I said.

“Yes, Master,” said Rocky.

I was almost surprised he did not follow that with a cheer. Everyone was looking forward to this fight because it was against an enemy known to be truly evil. This fight was in support of the core mission of the Wizard Kingdom, which was to remove the sorcerer threat permanently from our realm. With so much of the last year spent guessing and wondering if we were on the right track, a clear-cut battle like this one was a relief.

“We have cleared the Nevermore and are moving to the attack vector,” reported Rocky.

“Hold cloak as long as you possibly can,” I said.

On the tactical screens, I could see our four ships spreading out into a V-shaped attack pattern with the Nevermore leading the charge. Our launches would have given away our existence, but they couldn’t do much now but wait for us to reveal ourselves.

“Enemy has opened fire!” called out Lythiran.

“They can’t possibly see us yet!” I said.

“Master, they are firing a widespread pattern along our last known position, from their perspective,” he responded.

“Master Shadow’s flight path accounted for that, right?” I asked.

“Yes, Master. They are missing our fleet, but not by much. They will probably keep widening their spread of weapon fire until they hit something,” he said.

“Enemy targets coming in to missile range now,” said Rocky.

Almost at the same time, “Break and attack!” came over the comm from Master Shadow.

“Rocky, keep us cloaked, and change our attack angle to 30 degrees mark 10,” I said. That would send us wider than they would expect us to come in.

“Yes, Master,” he said.

“Lythiran, prepare to lock all of our grand staves on different targets. The moment you have enough in range, open fire,” I said. “Rocky, accelerate to full attack speed.”

Soon after that that Lythiran called out, “Positive lock, all staves!” and then tactical lit up with our weapons firing off in rapid succession.

“Spectra, full counter measures,” I said. “Rocky, come around on targets six, ten, and twenty-three. Let’s finish them off.” There was no way to stay cloaked while using our weapons, so we would have to depend on Spectra’s ability to keep them from acquiring a target lock. Their ships might be small, but there were a lot of them, easily enough to overwhelm our defenses if they coordinated their attacks correctly.

Rocky executed a steep S-turn and plowed back towards wounded ships. As we came about Lythiran quickly finished them off.

“Dusty, drones coming in on our six,” said Spectra.

“Keep an eye on them for now, and keep working those countermeasures. Rocky, come about for another pass through their primary pack. Get inside their main group. Sweep through the heart of it and get within grand staff range of as many targets as you can. Lythiran, take them out as fast as you can,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” said Rocky.

“After you complete that pass, go back in for more. Keep choosing new angles of attack, and see if we can’t cause mass confusion and fear among them,” I said.

“Dusty, the drones are following us, but have not yet locked on with their weapons,” said Spectra.

Our missiles were too large to use on the drones, so I could do very little about them until they closed in for the kill. “Spectra, distance to the drones?”

“Fifty kilometers and closing,” she said.

“Lythiran, use the two rear grand staves and pick off any drones that get within range,” I said. “But keep up the attack on their cruisers. Those drones are secondary targets.”

“Understood, Master,” said Lythiran.

On the second sweep through, the pack started to break up in front of us. “It seems they have figured out the range of our grand staves,” said Lythiran.

“I don’t want to switch to missiles yet; there are too many targets. Make our path more erratic and harder to predict; also, accelerate by another fifteen per cent,” I said. We were faster, but their pulsar canons had greater range, and their ships were more nimble. Our anti-matter missiles would negate their advantage, but we only had so many of them, and there were still far too many targets to deal with.

As we began our third sweep through their pack, destroying the cruisers almost as fast as we passed them, a message came in from Shadow: “Dusty, begin phase two.”

“Cymeion, Darkstone, suit up and meet us in the pod bay,” I said on the comm. “Spectra, we’re on. Rocky, you have command until we return.”

“Yes, Master. Good luck!” he said.

Spectra and I quickly headed down to the pod bay. The Shadow Fox was equipped with four pods for just this occasion. “All right, everyone, grab your gear and load up.”

As everyone complied Cymeion said, “Let me get this straight: we are slipping packs full of antimatter onto our backs, climbing into missiles, and shooting ourselves at the planet?”

He acted like he was joking around, but I could see he was nervous. “The pods are safe. We have done this many times during training. If something goes wrong, just teleport away. Now, we’re running low on time, so load up.”

“Yeah, and teleporting into the atmosphere a hundred kilometers over the ground is a better plan,” said Cymeion.

“Look on the bright side: at least you would still have the antimatter with you!” said Darkstone.

“You’re not helping,” I said. “Now, the longer we delay, the more time for casualties on our side, so load up!”

Once everyone was secured, I climbed into the last pod. Cymeion was right; it was an awful lot like climbing aboard a missile. Once on board the pod, the anti-inertia gel filled the space around me until I was completely e
ncased in goo. As a fish-based race, I found this very comfortable, but I knew Spectra hated it with a passion.

“
Rocky, we are locked and loaded. Fire at will,
” I sent.

“
Firing in five, four, three, two, one …
” he sent. As that last number cleared my mind, the displays around me lit up with trajectory and speed information. The gel worked perfectly. There was almost no sensation of movement as we accelerated away from the Shadow Fox. The pods were designed to burn at full speed just like a missile, but with a much smaller signature. Without the inertia-absorbing gel the acceleration could easily kill us, and the sudden deceleration at the end would not be much better.

“
This is exactly like being a missile, just for the record,
” sent a still-nervous Cymeion.

“
Don’t worry. With all the antimatter we’re packing, you’re sure to leave a nice mark when you hit,
” sent Darkstone.

“
Everyone, just relax. This is the boring part of the trip, and we need to be alert to move quickly after impact,”
I sent. I knew Darkstone was just playing, but I couldn’t allow that at this time.

We whipped through space at an extreme velocity and entered the atmosphere of the planet at a steep angle. The pods were programmed to get us to the surface at the absolute maximum safe speed, so there wouldn’t be much in the way of atmospheric braking on this trip.