Rise of Shadows (8 page)

“Commander, we would be honored to join you. We are a black ops vessel, so we will need your encryption keys and power links,” I said. That would allow us to cloak up but stay in touch with their fleet.

“Wonderful, sir! We will need to move out quickly if we are to intercept them. As soon as your ship is tied in, we will move to the jump point,” he responded.

It took an hour to get everything set and travel to the jump point. During that time we went over their plan. The vanguard of their fleet that could not cloak would head in first and engage the enemy. Once the enemy was fully engaged the stealth ships would sneak in little by little and spread out. Once everyone was in place, the vanguard would retreat, and the bombers would make their runs. If properly timed, their bombs would create a sphere of death large enough to wipe out most of the enemy fleet in minutes.

The main problem with this plan is it left no place for us to really shine forth and work on making a name for ourselves. Still, it would be great space combat experience for my crew, and it would help to build relations with the Aleeryon Navy. I decided we would jump with the first wave and evaluate the battlefield to see where we could have the greatest impact. It seemed most likely that we would be taking part in the initial attacks as just another cruiser, but we did not know yet what we would face when we arrived.

While waiting I looked around at my crew and asked, “Speak freely: based on our first fights, what do you think we have done right, and what can we improve?”

For a while no one said anything. I wondered what each person was thinking. Was Flame beating herself up over her miscalculation of that turn? What about Spectra? Was she mulling over the failed jamming? I could imagine a dozen different ways a green crew could beat themselves up after even the most perfect fight, having once been as new as they were now. I was about to break the silence when Dusty spoke up.

“Well, I can’t help but wonder: are we wizards fighting like mundanes, or mundanes who happen to have a few wizard tools to call on?” asked Dusty.

“What do you mean?” asked Flame.

“Well, it seems like all our training with this ship and the first two fights could have been completed by mundanes. If we are out here as a show of force, shouldn’t we show some of our real power?” he responded.

“That is a very good point about the first two fights, but obviously the destruction of that battleship could not have been accomplished by mundanes,” I said.

“True,” said Spectra, “but Dusty is right. We are fighting like mundanes who have wizard powers to call on.”

“Well, then, let’s answer the biggest question first: are you wizards or mundanes?” I asked.

Silence filled the bridge for a bit, and then Spectra broke the ice and said, “I am a magus by birth, and a wizard by choice.”

“Well said,” I responded. “Never forget that you may have grown up thinking you were a mundane, but that was an illusion; we are all magi. We never were mundanes. We think differently, look different, and have much greater responsibility than any mundane could ever grasp. This might not seem true now, but once we are mingling with the mundanes again the differences will become obvious. You will not fit in, not even among your old friends. So, with that understanding, how should we have handled the first fight?”

After a brief silence they started tossing around ideas about different spells and how best to use them in this environment. The most interesting thing about their conversation was the total lack of any use of this mighty weapon we were sitting in.

I raised my hand to get their attention and then said, “Back home at the Academy we joke about how the wizards from Korshalemia do not use nor understand our technology. Is that the ideal we are shooting for here?” I let them ponder that for a bit, then said, “I think we need to find the balance between taking advantage of all the tools that we have to use and using none at all.”

Right then the computer interrupted and told us that it was time to jump. “Battle stations, everyone, we will have to continue this discussion at another time.” I was a bit annoyed at the interruption, as I realized this kind of conversation struck at the heart of what we were really doing out here. We were defining what it was to be a wizard at war in this realm.

“Admiral, I have the latest reports on the Alpha Academy vessel,” said my assistant.

“Excellent, put them on the big screen, and let’s see what they have been up to,” I said.

We had requested help years ago from Alpha Academy, but they did not have a navy at that time. They did open trade with us and set up a major trade hub that allowed some money to flow into our nation, for which we were extremely grateful, but we were still in serious danger from a pirate takeover. Now they were sending a single ship to help us. They insisted that it was sufficient, and that it would have great impact. They told us that they had a vested interest in taking out the pirates and assured us they planned to help.

“Yes, sir,” he said as he brought up the information. “They call the ship the Dust Dragon, and it appears to be a prototype of some kind of advanced Conure class cruiser. They currently have a crew complement of five wizards, and their commander is Battle Wizard First Rank Shadow Weaver.”

“Yes, I have spoken with him already. Bring up the first fight. I want to see what is so special about this Conure,” I said. I also wanted to see how much danger Shadow was putting my baby sister into.

“Yes, sir,” he said.

I watched the first battle play out on the video monitor. They easily took out the four pirates that were waiting for them. They expertly used their jamming technology and the sensor shadow provided by the dwarf star to get the jump on them. The big surprise in the fight was their first hit.

“Whoa, how much power is that thing packing?” I asked after seeing the first pirate completely vaporized under their initial attack.

“Sir, we do not have a clear measurement in the logs they provided, but intelligence estimates those cannons are putting out well over ten times the firepower of anything we have on that scale.”

“Simply incredible,” I said.

My assistant then brought up the second fight. I watched as they came out of jump space in easy range of the pirates that waited for them, but the pirates started to scatter instead of attack. “Why aren’t they attacking?” I asked.

“We believe the Dust Dragon engaged a cloak at this point. As you can see, they slowly fly over to their first target, consistent with a ship under cloak,” answered my assistant.

“The Conure is not a black ops line of cruiser. None of them can cloak,” I said.

“Yes, sir. This one appears to be heavily upgraded. However, our scans of the ship did not reveal any cloaking technology when they joined up with our Third Wing,” he said.

I continued to watch the fight, and in this battle a bit of their greenness showed when the pilot overestimated a turn, but still they dominated the fight with ease.

“Wait! Roll back the video to mark 457,” I said.

“Yes, sir,” he responded.

“There! They clearly take a hit from two neutronion missiles. What damage did they take from that?” I asked.

“Based on their logs, none, sir,” he said.

“How could that be? Those look like direct hits,” I said.

“Yes, sir. Intelligence believes they have some kind of shielding in place, based on the explosion pattern recorded in the logs,” he said.

“Impossible. That ship is too small to have shield generators large enough to handle a blow like that,” I said.

“Indeed, sir, yet the evidence is clear,” he said.

Next, I watched the log of the fight with the battleships. This one I was most interested in because Shadow said they planned “to cheat,” and I was very interested in what that could mean.

“Sir, this log, unlike the others, is incomplete. We do have some additional information from our spies among the pirates to fill in some of the missing gaps, but there are still unanswered questions. It is a very unusual fight,” he said.

I watched them come out of jump space and fly at great speed towards one of the battleships. The pirates obviously could not see them. “Man, that is some cloak if it is hiding all that power,” I said. I continued to watch as the Dust Dragon flew up next to one of the battleships, sat there for a short while, and then took off at high speed as the battleship suddenly exploded.

“Wait, what just happened?” I asked.

“This would be where the logs are incomplete, sir,” he said. “Based on the report from the spies, two wizards boarded the battleship, took control of the engine room, and caused the engines to overload, which destroyed the ship and everything in the area with it.”

“Two wizards took over the engine room on a battleship? There must have been dozens of armed men in there,” I said. Whenever we boarded the enemy craft, we found them to be vicious and ruthless fighters that were never easily beaten, even with superior numbers.

“Yes, sir. Our spies tell us that all they heard over the comm were the screams of men dying,” he said.

“Do we know which two wizards boarded the battleship or how they got on board?” I asked.

“No, sir,” he said.

Perhaps I underestimated what Alpha Academy was sending us, after all. One ship whose technology was obviously far beyond anything we or the pirates possessed had just cut a path through enemy lines, accomplishing a feat that countless hundreds had died trying. If this is the kind of ship we could expect to see out of them, then the war with the pirates was as good as won. Still, it was just one ship, and this battle was being fought by two competing navies on an interstellar scale.

“Where is the Dust Dragon now?” I asked.

“They have just joined the Third Wing and are heading to intercept that battleship fleet,” he said.

“Excellent. As soon as that mission is complete, ask them to join me,” I said.

“Yes, sir,” he replied.

“Dusty, as soon as we come out of jump space make us disappear,” said Shadow.

“Okay, Shadow,” I said. Shadow continued to give instructions to the others, but I stopped listening. I knew we would be in jump space soon so I had to prepare my mind for casting. Entering jump space would break any spell that was cast, so I could not start casting until we came out the other side. In order to get the spell off as soon as we exited jump space, I would need to be focused and ready to go.

“Shadow, I have us locked into fleet control. We will be jumping in less than a minute,” I heard Flame say somewhere behind me.

I took a deep breath as the azure energy of jump space flowed around me. It was a very pleasant feeling, but I did not understand why. I reminded myself that I had to keep my mind on the task at hand. This was not a time to be distracted. Soon we were exiting jump space, and I immediately cast my cloaking spell. Casting the spell was easy; the hard work was in keeping it going while the ship operated. It would get harder the more power the ship expended, but as we were just cruising I could afford to pay attention to my surroundings once again.

“Shadow, we are clear of jump space, and the fleet is moving towards the pirates,” said Flame.

“Looks like they call themselves the Scorpion Gang,” said Spectra.

“Shadow, I have the cloak stable, and it appears that the fleet we are approaching is the same one that we attacked yesterday. There are no additional targets, at least,” I said.

We followed the fleet, completely invisible. It seemed odd to me that Shadow wanted us cloaked when we were the only ship in this group that could cloak. The Scorpion Gang would clearly see the whole flight coming, so I did not know what we had to gain by this.

“Shadow, they appear to be demanding the surrender of the Scorpions,” said Spectra.

Shadow chuckled and said, “Standard operational procedure. Show up with an obviously inferior force; demand surrender, and when that fails bring in the rest of your force to destroy them. Some things never change.”

“That seems a bit underhanded,” I said.

“Oh, it is, but everyone knows that is what goes on so it becomes a gamble for everyone,” he said.

“A gamble? I don’t understand,” I said.

“The enemy knows that we have more forces hidden, so they have to take a gamble on what we might be able to bring, and it would be a safe assumption for us that they have help on the way, so we are gambling we can win before help comes,” said Shadow.

“This much deception seems more fitting for sorcerers than for us,” said Flame.

“I had not thought about it that way,” started Shadow. “But it is just the way war is fought. Both sides play the game, each hoping to outmaneuver the other.”

“I guess it’s not really deception if both sides are in on it,” said Spectra.

“Shadow, they are launching drones and fighters!” I called out.

“Then it is showtime. Flame, bring us on an attack vector for that drone control ship, but keep it easy for now. I do not want to drop our cloak just yet,” said Shadow.

“Shadow, the Aleeryon forces have moved to attack,” I said. Just as I finished saying that, tactical alarms started going off as weapon fire erupted around us.

“That is our cue! Drop the cloak and engage that drone control ship,” said Shadow.

The Dust Dragon jumped forward as Flame brought us up to attack speed. Freed from the rigor of spell focus, I turned to my tactical station and brought all our weapons online. “Spectra, can you find the drone launch bays?” I asked.

“Sure, Dusty,” she said and soon had them on my tactical display.

“Excellent!” I said as I adjusted my targeting. “I have positive lock, Shadow!”

“Fire!” he ordered.

I sent two waves of antimatter torpedoes on their way towards the drone launch tubes. Soon we would be close enough to use the grand staves, but by the time we reach the drone ship both sets of torpedoes will have done their job and removed its ability to launch any more drones.

“All torpedoes, confirmed hits!” called out Spectra moments later. “They are running!”