Ashes of the Realm: Book 04 - The Return of the Realm (17 page)

“We’re sending all of those that have passed the training back through camp to learn this procedure.”

“What are we doing with the recruit that came up with this process?”

“He’s been given command of a company of Life Warriors and is training them for the first attack on a Black Ship.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“The Algeans also want to trial one of their new ships as well. It has a dimensional drive and we know where the Demons live; so we’re going to visit and have a go at some of their ships.”

“Did Queen Gardner approve this mission?”

“Only after Tag said it was necessary.”

Trey thought a moment and asked, “How are they going to escape the Demon Scanners? They’ll be able to see them, even if they teleport away from their home.”

“If they survive the attack, they’re going to teleport to the Dark Galaxy. The consensus is that they won’t scan there.”

Trey saw it. The attack would delay the Demons going there, which would give the Realm more time. He shook his head at another example of the Gardners seeing small details.

Grang grunted and Jingo said, “It was an ingenious plan; that Tag is a smart fella.”

Grang just nodded.

• • •

Major Kline had private Liso in front of him standing at attention. He saw the private was nervous but there was nothing to do but tell him his fate, “Private, you are being transferred to another company.”

Kline saw the Private’s shock and he said, “Why, Sir? I want to stay with my mates here.”

“Private, you have had eight opportunities to activate before you arrived on our target and you have been unable to do it. You are a fine warrior but I cannot take anyone with me that can’t master the timing. You will have more time to perfect the activation with your new unit.”

“But Sir, I’m active in less than a third of a second.”

“And what would happen if the ship had the crew wearing suits and the atmosphere was a vacuum? You would explosively decompress before your armor could protect you and if you rushed the activation you would be stopped at the force field and die as well. I will only accept the best of the best for this mission and I will not allow you to kill yourself to make the grade. The Realm needs you too much and you know you’ve been pushing the envelope.”

Liso knew the Major was right, but just didn’t want to leave. He saw that he would probably end up killing himself if he continued to do the activation. He stood straighter and said, “Thank you, Sir. I know you’re thinking about my safety.”

Kline smiled and said, “I knew you were smart enough to see it. You will report to the Third Battalion and assume command of a platoon. You are promoted to the Rank of Lieutenant and I expect you to get the best out of your command.”

Private Liso said, “You know I will, Sir. I’ve learned from the best.” He saluted and left the office.

Kline sighed and sat back in his chair. He pushed his com and said, “Send Sergeant Johnson in with the list of those wanting to join us.”

“Yes Sir, He’s on his way.”

Kline looked at the list and saw a Lieutenant Graves. He said, “Sgt. Johnson, what is a Lieutenant doing on the list?”

“She wants to be part of the first attack, Sir.”

“She?”

“Yes Sir.”

“What do you know about her?”

“Her training scores were just under yours, Sir.”

“Really?”

“Yes Sir.”

Kline thought a moment and said, “Notify her she’s going to get her wish. Get her here and have her in the exercise tomorrow.”

“Yes Sir.”

“You might also tell her that she is now a private again.”

“It won’t make a difference. She’s been calling me every day for a month hoping someone would wash out.”

Kline smiled, “Let’s see what the Lieutenant is made of, shall we?”

“Yes sir.”

Kline looked at The Lieutenant’s scores from training and was surprised to see she had actually scored higher on the problem solving drills. He looked at her time getting her team through the obstacle course and she had beaten his time by a full minute. I wonder how she did that. Maybe she would make a good platoon commander. I’ll see what she does tomorrow. That should answer how good she is.

• • •

Danielle was sitting in the Map Room at Castle Gardner listening to Trey update the team on the status of the warriors and ships. She watched Tag listen to Trey and saw that he wasn’t sensing any danger to the Realm…yet. She turned back in to the meeting when she heard Cassandra ask, “I’m not sure how the warriors are going to take teleporting nude. Most of our populations are quite modest.”

Twig said, “That’s not going to be a problem.”

“Why not?”

“The ship that they’ll be assigned to will have their bodies scanned into the system. The warriors will teleport out and their clothes will be left behind. They will arrive in their armor so nudity shouldn’t be an issue.”

Tag snickered, “Not until they turn off their armor.”

Danielle smiled, “That’s good. They need to be focused on the mission and not on worrying about others staring at them.”

Tag shrugged, “Like anything else, they would eventually get used to it.”

“It’s good they don’t have to.”

Trey looked at Twig, “Have you trialed the system yet on a powerful force field?”

“As a matter of fact we have. We trialed it on the Alexander Kosiev and the warriors made it through his screen.”

“Really?”

Cassandra nodded, “Alex was genuinely surprised that they did. He said that they could have done tremendous damage before he could have responded with his intruder systems.”

Cassie said, “What are we going to do with all the volunteers that didn’t make the grade to be warriors?”

Cassandra asked, “Why do we need to do anything?”

Trey said, “All of our citizens should be given the opportunity to fight in the coming war. They need it to feel a part of the Realm.”

Twig leaned forward and thought to the group, “We have studied the vision you shared with us of all the universes being attacked in Creation. We’ve looked at a huge number of worlds and have seen them invaded by hundreds of thousands of soldiers. We looked at how we could possibly remove those from an invaded planet and we have developed a new weapon.”

Tag and Trey looked at each other and then turned to Twig. Tag said, “What is it exactly?”

“You should remember it, Your Grace. You used it against us in our first conflict on the planet you invaded to remove our forces.”

Tag smiled, “You’re talking about the invisible armor.”

“Yes, I am, but we have made a number of improvements.”

Danielle said, “I thought the ones that didn’t pass the training were not qualified to wear armor?”

Tag said, “That’s not completely accurate, Your Majesty. We cannot allow the most advanced armor to given to anyone that does not qualify to our psychological standards. Once they have the armor in their DNA, it can never be removed. They don’t wear it; it is a part of their body. The Armor used by the Realm against the Algeans was a suit that one put one. They took it off after the battle was over. The difference is that it is a tool that can be taken away from anyone that doesn’t perform in an accepted manner.” Tag turned back to Twig, “What changes have you made?”

“It doesn’t need jump jets. It will have teleportation.”

“Well, how will the Soldier be able to see the area they will be teleporting to?”

“They’ll simply teleport five miles above the surface and allow the suit to fall. During the fall, the soldier will just scan the area and select the place to teleport. If they need more time, they’ll simply teleport back up and look again.”

Trey said, “It’s not going to be easy to make those scans when one is falling over a hundred miles an hour.”

“The armor will have expandable wings that come out of the arms and a section that expands between their legs. The armor is being made from materials that are extremely light and the warrior should be able to glide for long distances if necessary.”

“Won’t the weapons weigh them down?”

“No, Cassie. The weapons will be inside the skin of the armor and will eject to the armor’s surface at the command of the warrior.”

Tag furrowed his brow, “How are they going to be powered? The old armor used Coronado Power Cells. They were really heavy and used a lot of energy to jump.”

“We’re using the skins from the ships that absorb a star’s energy. They’ll be charged before they are given to a soldier and should have enough stored energy for more than a hundred years of heavy fighting. Adding the flight mechanisms to allow them to fly just used more energy than it was worth. Gliding and teleporting higher, if necessary, used little or almost no energy from their reserves.”

Twig paused and said, “This new armor is nowhere near as powerful or as fast as a Life Warrior’s armor. But it will still be a very capable weapon in the hands of a warrior trained in its use. We need to find enough White Warriors to take on millions of invaders on a planet. This armor will give more than it gets.”

Danielle sighed, “Will it be vulnerable to enemy weapons?”

“Yes, it will; but if the warrior is trained in its use; he will be very difficult to hit.”

Trey said, “Danielle, if we try to make an armor that makes them immune to attack, we’re back at the DNA armor again. This will allow our citizens to fight and take part in the defense of life. They will be better for the effort. I like this idea and thank you for developing this, Twig.”

“You’re welcome, Your Grace.”

“I’m not royalty, Twig.”

“Yes you are, Trey. I’ve seen what your parents did to save us and you and your descendants will always be Royalty to my people. You are held in as high esteem as Dorg-Ross.”

“Please, Twig, I’m nowhere near as deserving and he was.”

Danielle said, “Yes you are. If anything happens to Tag and I, you and Cassie are my chosen successors. The Realm now knows what the Empire did to prevent us being attacked by the Demons and they also revere you. Please don’t ever think you and Cassie are not royal; all of us know different.”

Trey and Cassie looked around the room and saw that all of those gathered were nodding. Trey smiled and Cassie said, “Just make sure nothing happens to you. We are warriors that need to fight.”

Danielle smiled, “We’ll do our best.”

Cassandra looked at Cassie and felt her power. She knew that she was once just like her. She smiled and thought that it was time to get back in the fight as well.

Alex was in orbit and heard Cassandra’s thoughts. His entire board lit up as he saw his best friend was coming back to life. His entire world grew brighter and he felt the need to get into the fray as well. Cassandra was coming back from the land of the dead.

K
line and Sgt. Johnson were watching the huge display on the wall that had the various rooms on the transport that were going to be attacked. All of the warrior’s weapons were set to only fire light beams and explosive devices that only emitted bright light. Private Graves was taking part in the coming attack and Kline was curious to see how well she did. He still found it hard to believe her training scores and he felt that this exercise would allow him to see if there was anything to this former Lieutenant. He had deliberately made the exercise difficult by only allowing five warriors to attempt to kill the ship.

The computer designed to score the exercise had a direct feed from the five warrior’s armor, which would tell it how strong the beams being used were as well the power of any other device employed. It would measure the damage and time how long it would take to disable the ship.

Kline nodded and Sgt. Johnson said over the general frequency, “Begin the exercise in exactly ten seconds from my mark; ready, Mark.”

Kline watched the display and saw the five warriors appear in rooms on the transport and in less than five seconds the computer announced, “Exercise completed, ship destroyed.”

Kline stood up and looked at Sgt. Johnson, “What just happened?”

“I don’t know, Sir.”

“Replay each room and reduce the speed.”

Kline watched the landing bay and saw a small warrior teleport in. He watched closely and saw the laser on top of her helmet started spinning as she lifted both arms over her head and brought them straight down to the floor by her sides. The red beams coming out of her arms traveled from the ceiling, along the walls,and to the floor. He watched as she fired a beam at a door that was set to open on being hit and a light hornet flew through the opening and exploded in the next room. The small warrior ran through the door and dropped a small package under the reactors and then disappeared.

Kline said, “Computer, what damage was done in the landing bay?”

“The walls were cut through by the max power beams causing massive decompression in the room. Any enemy crew in the room would have been killed by the decompression. Any that were standing in the room would have first been hit by the spinning laser.”

“What about the next room?”

“The breach of the door would have also caused the reactor room to decompress as well. The explosive pack was set to go off two seconds after it was thrown.”

“Where were the other members of the attack force when that package was thrown?”

“They had teleported out one second earlier.”

Kline looked at Johnson and said, “Have that team report to my office immediately.”

Johnson nodded and sent the order.

• • •

Kline sat at his desk and stared at the five warriors who were standing at rigid attention in front of his desk. Gina Graves stood and wondered how they had messed up. The computer had not reported the results of the exercise and they had been ordered here immediately. She had thought the plan would work but evidently something had gone terribly wrong. The Major did not look happy. She stood and hoped she had not lost her chance to join the company.

Kline let them stand and remained silent as he looked over the evaluations of the five. He looked at Private Vaughn and said, “Explain to me how you developed this plan, Private?”