out.This would give them something to shoot behind. With the sergeant’snod they pushed it out and stayed low behind it. Several bolts ofenergy flew over the wall and scorched the metal walls behind theKnights. Once out in the corridor they returned fire but the humanshad the advantage of not having to hide and were able to keep theKnights effectively pinned down. I remembered something from themap that I had studied, and saw a small access panel. “Sergeant,what is your next move?” I asked.
“Well, we need to break the stalemate,” hesaid and held up two photon grenades.
“Hold off on that. I want to get my hands onthose weapons, if possible. Wait here. I am about to do somethingreally stupid, and I do not want to be talked out of it,” I said asI removed the access panel and crawled through to anothercorridor.
I needed to move fast, but undetected. Thiswould be hard since I still was unsure how they had found us undercomplete stealth in orbit. Then I remembered what had happened inthe medical wing, how I dropped completely off all the sensors. Thecomputers, of course, thought the lack of a heartbeat or brainwavesmeant that I was dead, but in reality I was merely invisible to thesystems. What was it that I was doing …? Ah, yes! Of course! Thethought shield I used in puzzle-solving mode. I immediately put itup and ran down the corridor.
I came out around the bend just slightlybehind the enemy. I activated my suit communicator and said,“Knights, for the next fifteen seconds blast every gun you have. Itdoes not matter whether you hit anything; just create a blanket oflight. At fifteen seconds hold all fire and prepare to assist me.Start your fire … now.”
Right on cue the corridor lit up withblinding light. I was shielded around the bend with my back turnedand eyes closed, covered with my hand. Silently I counted off thefifteen seconds, and as soon as it was time I turned around thebend at full speed and charged the two humans from behind. Theywere still blinded from the light and never saw me spring into theair until I hit them both hard. They both went flying down to thefloor. I landed in a roll and prepared to get up when I saw thatone of them was already on his way up, so instead I pivoted my bodyon my shoulder and swept his legs out from under him. He fell backand hit the floor again but his partner was on his feet and movingto aim his weapon at me. I sprung off the floor leading with bothof my fists, hitting him hard in the center of his chest, throwinghim back into the wall and knocking all his breath out of him. Iturned to see what the first human was doing, just in time to seeone of the Knights pick him up and slam him into the wall.
“Well done, sir. Seems that the reports aboutyou being a timid bookworm were unfounded,” said the sergeant.
As they restrained the two humans I picked uptheir weapons from the ground. They looked like bone wands withazure writing on them. It was like something out of a video game. Iturned to one of the men and said, “Now you are going to talk, oryou are going to wish you did.”
He laughed, and wriggled free enough to puthis hand on the other man and said something under his breath thatI could not make out, and then vanished.
“What happened? Where did they go?” Iasked.
“There, sir!” said one of the Knights as hepointed down the corridor.
How did they get down there? Before I couldverbalize anything the man who had laughed raised another wand andsaid, “Fools! We are the Magi! You are pathetic, trapped in yourmachine-controlled world. Your pitiful empire has reached the endof its wasted life. Now die!” With that he pointed the wand at usand called out in a loud, clear voice, “Rawrathania!”
Around me the Knights dove for cover, but Idid not join them. Acting purely on instinct I raised my own wandand repeated his call a mere instant after his. A bolt of energyleft my wand and collided with the energy from his wand with a loudexplosion. Both bolts were completely consumed by the explosion. “Idon’t think so!” I called out.
“Impossible!” was his yelled reply.
Then two more humans came running down thecorridor behind him, only to be met by a volley of fire from theKnights. Two of them were killed quickly and the other twovanished.
“Good, it appears their shields only workwhen they are stationary,” said the sergeant. He then waved thevanguard to move out, and turned to me and asked, “How did you knowthat their shields would not stop your attack?”
“It was a lucky guess. We have limited energyshields like these in labs back in the Academy. None of them stopsphysical matter, so I assumed these would be the same,” was myresponse. The truth was I had not thought it through but reactedinstinctively. With that, we moved on. I maintained my thoughtshield; I planned to keep it up at all times now. It would justtake some practice.
We did not get very far down the corridorwhen our vanguard again reported that they were under attack, thistime by overwhelming firepower. They were wiped out before we couldreach them. As we got close the Knights again deployed their mobileshield wall. As we rounded the corner behind it we saw six humanswith wands, all firing very rapidly. The Dragon Knights returnedfire and used the shield walls to slowly inch forward. We now knewthe way to beat them was to close the distance between us and them,and the Knights would not be deterred. The humans were in a badsituation because if they stood to retreat their shields would falland they would be gunned down, but if they stayed put we wouldeventually reach them and make the fight hand-to-hand. No humanstood a chance against this squad in hand-to-hand combat. I thoughtwe had a sure win here when we got a call from our rear guard.“More of those green humanoids are coming fast down the corridor,at least fifty of them in view and more coming.”
“Rear guard, abandon your position and returnto the main group,” was the order from the sergeant.
About half of the Dark Knights turned andkneeled, preparing to open fire on the first sight of the rearattackers. The rear guard quickly reached us and dropped to do thesame. As the green creatures came around the bend the Knightsopened fire, but the enemy was holding some kind of shield in frontof them and they charged forward, undaunted by the heavy fire. Ipointed the wand weapon and fired it into their line. The bolt ofenergy smashed right through their shields and opened a hole intheir defenses, which the Knights immediately took advantage of.This did not even slow their charge; they just kept coming. Theysoon reached us and the Knights drew their own blades and took themon hand-to-hand.
I moved to the front line of our defenses andadded my wand to our firepower, knowing that I could not compete inthe rear line. The humans down the corridor did not let up theirfire and seemed not to care at all if their weapons hit their ownmen behind us. I do not know how long we fought there but it wasnot long before I realized we were hopelessly outnumbered andoutgunned. Knights were dying on both sides of me, and more humanshad arrived to assist the wand group in front of us. I was reallyhoping the sergeant had some trick up his sleeves to get us out ofthis. We managed to kill what seemed like hundreds of the greenhumanoids, but they just kept coming. I was about to grab somegrenades off a dead Knight’s body when someone grabbed me frombehind and dragged me into a dark room. They put a cloth over myface and as I passed out I saw a very large explosion hit thecenter of the Knights. The last thing I heard was, “Sorry to dothis, sir, but we have to get out of here …”
Chapter Thirteen
When I awoke I was lying on a hard, coldfloor. It took a few moments to work my way out of the stupor leftover from whatever they used to knock me out. Even after Irecovered I did not open my eyes right away. I did not want to giveany indication I was awake just yet, but I did put up my thoughtshield. If I got a chance to make a break for it I did not want tobe tracked. Then I heard a gruff human voice say, “Sir, you can getup. There’s no use in pretending you’re asleep. You just droppedoff our sensors.”
I decided to cooperate for now and see what Icould learn, so I sat up and looked around. I was not at allprepared for what I saw: four men and two women in Imperialuniforms. Granted, their uniforms looked like they had taken a lotof abuse, but they were still recognizable. Then I noticed thepatch on their sleeves. “So I finally meet the Black Adders,” Isaid.
“Yes, sir. I am Major Jerran, ranking officerof what is left of the Black Adders,” said a tall and burly- lookingman. “Sir, we have to move. The Magi will notice that you’vedropped off their sensors and move in on this location as fast asthey can to get us. We can fill you in when we get to a saferplace.”
“Lead on, Major,” I said. I was not sure Iwanted to trust them yet. After all, one of the most viable workingtheories cast them as traitors. However, they had left me with allmy weapons and gear, so they apparently
