their ship I want to read its logs.” At first the DarkKnights seemed uncomfortable with that order, but one by one theyseemed to get it. “Once you have beaten the hallucination, wake upyour crewmates and train them to fight the fear weapon and thehallucinations.”
Chapter Twelve
While we traveled to the landing site, Istudied the most recent maps we had of the colony. Clearly the Magiknew we were there, and that meant we would have a fight waitingfor us. One could only guess what other tricks they had up theirsleeves.
“Sir, his ship is coming into view now,” saidthe pilot.
“Odd, there is no sign of a fight of anykind,” I remarked. The shelters were up just like Zalith hadexpected but the entire site was in perfect condition. “Unless … ofcourse! That explains how they were defeated. They did not knowabout 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 totake Tom’s camp. For now, assume the Magi hold it even though wecan detect nothing. Pilot, I want you to set the Dark Talon toreturn to orbit under full stealth once we are off. Program theautopilot to return to the fleet in twelve days. Bring atransmitter with us when we leave the ship. I want every bit ofinformation we collect to get back to the fleet should we fail toreturn. That hallucination weapon is far more deadly than the fearweapon. I shudder to think of the bloodbath if they merely confuseour fleet into attacking itself!”
I let that somber thought sit in the air aswe began our final descent. The Dark Knights were rechecking alltheir weapons and gear. They carried a wide variety of light andheavy arms. I followed their example and rechecked my pulse rifle.It was a fairly slow-firing weapon, but with extreme range andaccuracy. It was not the best choice for this kind of raid, but itwas my best weapon. At the Academy, I actually earned the name' One-Shot' with it because I was the only ensign who could hit mosttargets with a single shot.
The Dark Knights all put on theirenvironmental suits in preparation for the landing. The planet hadlittle to no atmosphere and we would be dead without protection.With the addition of a helmet my body armor would work well as anenvironmental suit on the surface of this barren world. Onceeveryone was geared up, they depressurized the craft. This wouldeliminate the need to cycle the airlock, which would be dangerousif we met resistance at the landing site.
Within seconds of the Dark Talon touchingdown 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 theDark Talon back into orbit and we ran to Tom’s ship. The Knightsformed a wedge and put me in the center as they ran. I realizedthey were intentionally running slower so I could keep up. Theirlonger, more powerful legs and stabilizing tails allowed them toget 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 hisfull height, attempting to shield me.
We reached the site without any interference.Nothing living showed on our scanners, and there were no bodies atall. The place looked more like a brand-new training mock-up thanthe site of a recent battle. The lack of weather helped to keepeverything exactly the way it had been set up. As soon as theKnights secured the camp, three of them went into the ship to getthe logs that I had requested.
“I do not like this at all,” said thesergeant.
“Me neither, it feels like a trap,” Isaid.
He nodded to this, but before we couldcontinue one of the men called out, “Sir, single target on theridge!”
I looked where he was pointing and saw whatlooked like an older man with a walking staff. I was just about tosend someone to retrieve him for questioning when he pointed thestaff at us. “What is he …?” I started to ask when a bolt of energyleft the staff and hit a group of the shelters nearby, completelydestroying them. The shockwave from the blast knocked me over. TheKnights’ 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 scannerand detected an energy field around him that I had never seenbefore. Before I could think this over, he aimed his weapon at theship. “EVACUTE THE VESSEL NOW!” I ordered over the inter-suitcommunications. I saw the three Knights dive out of the ship as theold man’s weapon blew a large hole right through it. “He has somekind of personal force field. All of you, concentrate your fire ona single point.”
As the Knights adjusted their fire he seemedto realize he was in trouble and dove for cover behind a rock. TheKnights did not let up their fire and completely destroyed thatrock, but he was nowhere to be found. I moved to the hole in theship and stuck my hand in it just to make sure it was real. “Somuch for them only having light arms. Where did he go?” Iasked.
“There!” someone called out, and almost asone all the Knights turned and opened fire. He then dove for coveragain, and disappeared like the previous time. This happenedseveral mores times; we were locked in a stalemate. “Sergeant, weare sitting ducks here while he waits for help. We need to move. Ithink we should make a run for the colony. He will not be able tofire such a powerful weapon inside without killing himself in theprocess.”
“I agree,” he said, and again acting as onethey moved into their wedge around me and began running for theairlock on the colony. This time everyone on the outside wascontinuously firing in all directions. Over my shoulder I saw theold man come out of hiding and take aim with his staff, but hecould not fire. If he missed he might rupture the airlock to thecolony. I lost track of him as we ran, but I was sure the Knightsknew exactly where he was. When we got to the airlock one of themquickly disassembled the lock, and with what looked like a simpletwist of a few wires opened the door. The airlock was large enoughto hold all of us and we quickly filed in. The Knights up frontdropped to one knee and pointed all their guns at the exit to theairlock. As the door opened a group of men rushed in, only to bequickly killed by fire from the Knights’ weapons. Once the area wassecure I moved forward to check the bodies.
There were no uniforms on them, and I did notrecognize their race. They looked almost like humanoid pigs withgreen skin. They did not have any guns; instead their weapons werewhat looked like knives and swords of various makes. Lookingclosely at the weapons, I noticed an oil-like sheen on them.“Poison,” I muttered. To my surprise the Dark Knights were stowingtheir guns and environmental suits, and pulling out their ownblades. The sergeant must have noticed my expression.
“In these close quarters blades are superiorweapons. If we did not already have our guns at the ready when theyrushed in, they would have killed several of us before we couldhave taken them out,” he said.
“Surely our body armor would stop a knife?” Iquestioned.
He did not answer; instead he picked up oneof the alien swords and swung it at the airlock wall. It burieditself deep into the heavy metal wall. “Okay, point taken. Well,all chance for a stealth hit is gone, so I say we push straight fortheir primary computer center and upload all the data to the DarkTalon to be relayed back to the fleet.”
“I agree. If we take this corridor down tothe tenth junction, then turn left that will put us on a directpath to our target. Speed is going to be our best defense rightnow,” responded the sergeant.
“Then take us. I will follow your lead,” Ireplied. This was completely his turf. I knew nothing aboutpenetration hits like this.
He then looked at the squad, and theyimmediately reorganized and we headed out. Four Knights were sentahead, and four trailed behind us to prevent any surprise attackson our main force. We were moving fairly quickly down the windingcorridor when we got a radio call from our vanguard.
“Sir, we have met resistance … looks like twohumans with smaller versions of that weapon we saw earlier. Theyare positioned to shoot anyone that comes around the bend,” was thereport over the radio.
“Hold there. We can assume they have the samepersonal shields, so wait on additional firepower,” replied thesergeant. The Knights all put away their blades and drew out theirrapid-fire phase pistols. The sergeant must have seen the look Igave him because he turned to me and said, “The secret of avictorious warrior is being able to adapt to an ever-changingbattlefield. We carry several different kinds of weapon so that weare always ready.”
When we reached the vanguard I noticed theyhad set up a movable shield wall and had it ready to slide
