Ultimate Warrior (The Fight for Creation (Book Three)) (2 page)

Pixie made it under the ropes easily and ran to the beam. That also went by easily and she sprinted toward the rope that swung out over the mud flats. She cleared it easily and picked up speed as she approached the bog. The sixteen foot jump was accomplished and she hit the final ten foot wall and sprung to the top. She looked at the clock at the finish line and saw she was doing the course too quickly. She still had thirty five seconds to run the final hundred yards and no one was near her. She pushed over the top of the wall and fell to the ground. She stood up and started limping toward the finish line. Two trainees passed her but she completed the run three seconds before the bell sounded. She sat down and grabbed her ankle and grimaced. Fifteen trainees had completed the course in time and they all began celebrating their good fortune. The Training Sargent came over and said, “I thought you’d set a new record.”

“I tried but that darn wall tripped me up.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m more embarrassed than hurt.”

“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Private. Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Pixie rubbed her ankle and looked at the trainees that had failed to complete the course and felt sorry for them. They could try again in a year. She had not made any friends during training. She knew her mother had decided to defend Jennifer after training and she did not want any encumbrances coming out of initial training. She knew the hard part was still ahead and qualifying to be a Scout Warrior was not going to be easy. First Armor Training and then, if she measured up, Scout Training, which made the previous six weeks look like a walk in the park.

She stood up and put weight on her ankle and walked slowly back to the starting line. She smiled and knew her ankle was fine. Now was not the time to stand out; that would come later.

• • •

Eyes teleported in to Admiral Mirabal’s office and met him and his staff in the planning room. Jason saw the giant Cat and said, “We’ve had sixteen scout vessels destroyed.”

“Show me what you know.” Eyes watched the recording of the planet and then the destruction of the scouts. “Evidently, those ships at the planet could see our ships.”

Jason nodded, “We don’t know what sort of energy they used to kill them. It should have just passed through their ships.”

Eyes looked at Jason and said, “What energy has a blue color?”

Jason stared at the giant Cat and suddenly understood, “Psychic.”

Eyes nodded and said, “We didn’t see those ships. You should not send any ships anywhere near that planet.”

“The inhabitants of that planet are enslaved by those ships.”

“Admiral, I don’t care if they’re going to be the next meal for those ships. Nothing in our arsenal can meet those ships and survive. This is a species we will have to stay away from until we have the tools to meet them head on. We’re nowhere close to that at this moment.”

Jason stared at Eyes and said, “If that species is psychic, could it find us?”

Eyes stared at Jason and said, “That is something we better hope doesn’t happen. We’re watching that planet now and none of the ships have left.”

“I’m going to guess that they don’t have to leave to communicate what happened.”

The Cat’s tail swished back and forth close to the tip and he said, “We can only hope that they determined that we are not a threat and don’t go looking. We’ll keep you notified. Where were those scouts based?”

“They were on one of the former Swarm’s planets.”

“Let’s hope that planet is not found.”

Jason nodded and notified the ships there to teleport out into deep space and to launch a probe to watch and see if anything happened.

• • •

Jason looked at the Prince on his display, “Admiral, even if those ships use psychic power, our history has shown that psychic ships can be killed by energy beams. We lost several of our ships to the Demons.”

“Mica, the Demons lost hundreds of thousands of ships for every psychic ship they killed.”

“Are you saying those ship’s force fields are as powerful as the old psychic ships used by the Old Realm?”

Jason slowly shook his head, “I have no way of knowing without taking a shot at one of them with our beams. I know our beams are actually stronger than the ones used by the Demons but we do not match up to their technology. That blue ship appeared and hit all sixteen scouts before they could get off a shot. Their destruction in spite of their force fields’ power gives us a clue as to just how powerful they are.”

Mica stared at Jason and after a moment said, “Are you suggesting that if they attack one of the planets we’ve freed that we should just let it happen without response?”

“That’s what the Cats are insisting we do, Your Highness. If they don’t see us as a real problem, they’ll probably just leave and we’ll have lost only one planet.” Mica started to disagree until Jason said, “We don’t know their strength, their number of planets, how many of those ships they have, or anything else. The Cat insists the entire Realm will be placed in danger if we take these beings on before we have the technology to counter them.”

Mica slowly shook his head, “This decision will have to be made by the King.”

“That’s how I see it, Your Highness.”

“Send all the available information to him with an analysis of what you know.”

“I’ll send it out momentarily.” Mica nodded and the display went dark. Jason shook his head and said, “What little we know.”

• • •

Pixie looked through her scanner and saw the enemy unit hidden in the ravine ahead of her unit. Russell Slade was the platoon leader for the exercise and he looked at his display and ordered two squads to teleport in behind the unit while the other two squads went in from the front. Pixie wanted to warn him not to divide his forces but he was in charge and the platoon members were charged with following his orders. She decided to at least try to warn him of his error. “Sir, they appear to have fortifications on both sides of their positions.”

“Can the chatter, Private and follow your instructions.”

“Yes sir.”

Pixie shook her head. Russell was a minor Royal and let everyone know it. She watched her command circuit and saw her squad was going in head on. She saw the coordinates she was to teleport to and locked them in. She pulled in her scanner and focused in on the enemy bunker she was to take out. She waited and knew Russell was missing something but she couldn’t see what it was on her scanner. She closed her eyes and saw the bunkers were only manned by one warrior. Where were the others? She looked around the target and then looked above the site and shook her head. The teleport order came in and Pixie teleported to her coordinates and fired a light mini-hornet into the bunker. She immediately teleported inside the bunker as all of her squad’s beepers went off.

She rolled out of the bunker and fired thirty light hornets at the invisible attack craft circling the ravine. All thirty attack craft suddenly became visible indicating they had been destroyed. Pixie ran through the bunkers firing light hornets into them and arrived at the rear of the enemy forces just as they finished eliminating the two squads sent against them. She managed to knock out half of the bunkers before she was caught in a cross fire and her beeper started sounding.

The Command frequency said, “This exercise is completed; return to base for analysis.” Pixie looked at the trainees in her platoon and saw most of them had not even gotten off a shot. She glanced at Russell and saw he was stunned at the sudden defeat of his forces. Perhaps he might learn from the experience.

• • •

Colonel Telah Dorg looked at the trainees and said, “I guess congratulations are in order.” The platoon looked at each other and wondered what the Colonel was saying. They had been wiped out so fast most of them were out of the exercise before it started. Russell Slade was the most surprised of them all. “You managed to kill the enemy forces but not because of your brilliant abilities.” Telah turned to Russell and said, “What possessed you to divide your forces?”

Russell’s face turned red and he said, “I determined that we could hit them head on and our squads coming in from the rear could roll them up.”

Telah stared at Russell and shook her head, “Did you not see those bunkers were facing both directions?”

“Uhhh, Yes Sir.”

“So your incredible logic said that if they had two warriors in each bunker with one at each end of the bunker, you would be matching them one on one and they were inside an armored bunker. Is that how you saw it?”

Russell was shaking his head, “They didn’t have two warriors in each bunker.”

“Did you know that before you issued your orders?”

Russell knew his scanners would not have given him that information. “No Sir.”

“So I ask you again, what logic did you use to hit them one on one in a two sided bunker?”

“It just seemed like the most appropriate use of our forces, Sir.”

Telah stared at Russell and said, “So you really don’t have a good reason for doing it that way?”

Russell’s face grew redder and he said, “No Sir.”

Telah looked at the platoon, “Private Mille, explain to me why you went into that bunker.”

Pixie said, “There was only one warrior in the bunker, Sir.”

“So?”

“That meant the others were somewhere else and trying to find them from inside a bunker seemed like the safest way to make that determination.”

Telah smiled, “And what did you discover?”

“They were in camouflaged attack craft circling overhead. My scanner saw their beams hit the rest of my squad and located them on my targeting computer.”

“Go on, Private.”

“I exited the bunker and launched the training hornets at them and then started taking out as many bunkers as possible.”

Telah looked at the rear of the classroom and said, “Private Callaway.”

“Yes sir.”

“Why did you teleport away from the site of the exercise?”

Everyone turned around and looked at the trainee on the back row. “I saw there was only one warrior in my assigned bunker and decided that before I went any further, I needed to locate the others. I teleported back to the location I started the exercise and saw the attack craft firing. I designated hornets to take them out but Private Mille beat me to it. I jumped in a mile in front of the bunkers and launched hornets into the bunkers at the rear of the enemy, Sir.”

Telah said, “Well, you are the only one that survived the exercise. However, you did take out the bunkers left by Private Mille. The two of you eliminated the trainer platoon.” Telah looked at the class, “The rest of you were there for your good looks. You served no other useful purpose in this exercise. I’m not really certain about good looks, but it at least allows you some sort of credit for an abysmal performance.” She hesitated and said, “However, you did win so your platoon is tied for first place.” She looked around the room and said, “You really don’t deserve it.” She closed her book and Staff Sargent Malone said, “Platoon, Atennnshun!” The platoon jumped to its feel and Colonel Dorg walked out. “Class dismissed.”

Pixie was mad. That other private had survived. She’d see how it went next time. She looked for Callaway but he had left the room. Russell came up and said, “Thank you for bailing me out. I should have listened.”

Pixie quit looking for Callaway and said, “Did you run your plan through anyone else?” Russell shook his head. “That’s your mistake.” Pixie walked by him and out the door.

Russell watched her leave and decided he was going to get to know her. She was absolutely gorgeous. He looked at the other members of the platoon and saw they weren’t happy with his failure. Tough, they’d won. So get over it.

• • •

Pixie sat at a table and finished her second tray of food. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Pixie looked up and saw Russell standing in front of her. “Sit down.”

“You’re right, I should have asked before I committed to the plan. I won’t make that mistake again.”

Pixie stared at him and said, “You know there had to be more than what you were seeing on the scanners. Every exercise so far has had elements of surprise factored in.”

“I know, I know, I just thought this one would be a straight exercise since we’re nearing the end of our training.”

“Assume nothing, Russell.”

“Those attack craft were in full invisibility mode. There was no way to scan for them.”

“Even so, you should have known it was not going to be what it appeared to be.” She stood with her tray and Russell said, “I’ll take it for you. I appreciate your willingness to try and help.”

Pixie sighed, “Thank you. I’ll see you in class.”

“I look forward to that.”

Pixie walked away from the handsome warrior and saw he might not be as bad as she thought. He was very nice to look at. Russell saw her look back at him and he smiled, “I’ve got ya.” She was interested. If she had just walked out without looking back, he knew his work would be cut out for him. Now he had to play up to her and compliment her profusely. Women like that.

• • •

Colonel Dorg stood at the front of the large classroom and said, “Your platoons are the only ones that actually won an exercise. You will compete for the class championship in an exercise pitting you against each other. The two privates that were in command when you scored your victory will be in command of your platoons during this exercise.”

Pixie saw everyone look at Russell and he had a huge smile. She noticed many of the platoon members shaking their heads.

“Which ever platoon wins this exercise; the commander will leave training with a rank of Staff Sargent and take command of a squad of Life Warriors. Now, I will flip a coin and heads, first platoon will be the aggressor and tails they will be the defender.”

Telah flipped the coin and said, “Slade, your platoon will be the aggressor. Good luck to both of you. You’ll receive your starting coordinates in your individual classrooms and the exercise will begin in the morning at nine hundred hours.” Telah paused and said, “Did I mention that you will only be allowed to teleport one time?” The two platoons stared at her, shocked by the limitation. “Well, you better use it wisely.”