LOCATION: CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR’S HOME
PLANET: BASTION 123295 CFP
STARDATE: 4205779x03 | TIME: LATE EVENING
The dessert, absolutely necessary for the women’s plan to work, sat uneaten in the kitchen.
Six knew better than to suggest he take just one bite of it before leaving. The Supreme General was not to be questioned.
In fact, for someone of Six’s station, he wasn’t even to be spoken to.
So she remained still in the corner of the dining room, watching their well-laid plans melt away.
She sighed.
They would try again, of course.
But who knew how long it might take to put something new in motion.
As she was lost in her thoughts, Aureth Vallor was lost in a maelstrom of his own thoughts.
A maelstrom of his own making, in fact.
If it hadn’t been for his insatiable appetite, he would not have made such a grievous oversight.
What was it his mother had told him before he was sent to Bastion?
Ah, yes.
“Assign the ugliest woman you can stand to be in the presence of as your secretary.”
Vallor snorted.
“Good fucking advice, Mother. Too bad I didn’t listen…”
He pulled on his pants and buttoned his shirt.
He checked himself in the mirror. Good enough.
“Time to deal with this.”
Vallor returned to the foyer, where the General and two soldiers waited for him.
“Supreme General? If I may?” he asked.
“What is it, Vallor?”
“I realize I have erred here, but would it be possible to see the prisoners first? Perhaps I can help salvage this situation rather than reporting to High Command.”
“The Portal Magister is quite incensed,” the General said.
But then he laughed.
“Ah, whatever. When is that prickly bastard ever in a good mood? Let’s go to the cells. I’ve already found and restored the report, so be sure to approve and pass it through first thing in the morning.”
Vallor relaxed considerably.
“Thank you, Sir. I owe you one.”
One of the soldiers laughed.
“Careful with that, Administrator. The General loves to collect favors.”
The General smacked the soldier’s head, but it was far more out of jest than anger. Mostly.
Bastion was not a particularly large planet by Earth standards. But that didn’t mean walking it while trying to stay out of sight was easy.
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Both Elena and Evan had stealth skills that they could use for long periods without running low on resources.
But replenishing those resources took a long time, and since Kaela was out in the open anyway, they chose to travel that way.
They moved north through the night, shielding periodically to avoid the regular sweeps of the drone.
The day-night cycle on the planet was interesting. That first night set over the land, and by Kaela’s count, had lasted more than twenty Earth hours.
“How long does it stay dark here?” she wondered aloud.
“I guess we’ll find out,” Elena said. “But I plan to make the most out of it while we can. Let’s pick up the pace.”
The next time a drone passed overhead and was clear, they leapt up and ran at full speed to cover more ground.
Suddenly, Kaela held her arms out to stop the others, as she teetered on the edge of a deep chasm. They all stopped just in time.
In the darkness, lacking illumination from a moon of any kind, they’d almost run right off the edge to what would have certainly been their deaths.
Then, they heard voices.
“Leave your arms up and turn around. No sudden movements. You’re coming with us.”
The three turned slowly. It was a patrol squad of five.
Elena giggled.
“Only five?”
She disappeared instantly from sight.
Evan put up a shield just in time to stop bullet-like projectiles one of the squad had fired in surprise.
Kaela, on the other hand, was not standing around to see what happened next.
She ran straight for the nearest one and swung hard, striking him in the throat with the side of her palm and sending him to the ground. He was trying to yell, but she had crushed his windpipe.
The second guard turned his weapon toward her, but Kaela activated Phantom Step.
The world around her faded to gray. Everything seemed to slow down, and she heard the eerie winds that always accompanied her new skill.
The guards were dark against the gray backdrop as if they were written in place by pencil. Their lines were jagged, and they moved in slow motion.
Kaela quickly took four steps until she was standing behind the second guard.
She reached out and willed her Phantom Blade to appear in her hand.
Releasing the ethereal realm, she materialized again and slashed wide with her sword.
She took the head off the guard in front of her, and the tip of the sword sliced deeply into the third guard’s shoulder, leaving his arm hanging by a few tendons.
Blood spurted all over her, and Kaela tasted copper. The guard’s arm hung limply.
Kaela’s sword disappeared, returning to its home realm to recharge.
She was about to finish the third guard when Elena appeared behind the other two. She stabbed down hard with her daggers, pushing them through their backs and piercing their hearts.
A perfect, precision strike. Very Elena.
Evan had meanwhile finished off the first guard on the ground with a spatial anomaly spell he had that took a small sphere of matter from one place and relocated it to another.
Turns out a man doesn’t live long when his heart is beating on the ground next to his body.
The entire battle, if one can call it that, lasted less than twenty seconds.
That was when Kaela heard the buzzing of the drone, making its next sweep.
“Shit,” she said. “We need to throw the bodies over the edge and hide.”
Kaela dragged two and tossed them into the darkness.
Elena did the same, and Evan rifled through the last guard’s pockets as he dragged it.
“What are you doing?” Elena hissed.
Evan waved them over.
“Come together, quick!” he said.
He cast a shield over the three and the last body.
They waited while the drone continued in a straight line, over the chasm and to the other side.
Evan released the shield and held out his hand.
“Look at this,” he said, smiling.
“A fucking map,” Elena said. “Well done.”
They each touched the map and the information downloaded into their interfaces, giving them a lay of the land for the first time since they had arrived.
They tossed the last guard over the edge and listened for the sound of him landing.
It never came.
“Just how far down does this go?” Kaela asked.
Elena was searching the map.
“Hey, if we go a couple of miles to the east, it looks like there’s a bridge.”
Evan saw it, too.
“I really wish there was another way over,” he said. “That bridge doesn’t look very wide.”
“Are you afraid of heights?” Elena teased.
“Not really, but I’d prefer not to be seen.”
“That is true,” Kaela said. “But Elena’s right. The entire southern half of the planet is littered with these holes. I’m afraid to guess, but they remind me of missile silos.”
Nobody spoke for a minute.
Elena turned back toward the south.
“We did run by a bunch of them on the way here.”
“Should we investigate?” Evan asked.
“Let’s make it quick,” Kaela said. “It seems all of the exciting stuff happens over there.”
She pointed to the north, where the drone was already reporting the loss of a five-man team that should have been patrolling in Sector A124.