Parvatha

  I knew something had gone wrong the moment the target stepped on stage carrying her sword. We were supposed to be carrying out a decapitation strike against an unaware target. It was supposed to be over before she knew what was happening.

  Unaware targets don’t carry swords. Where did she get it from, anyway? She hadn’t been carrying it to the venue.

  Naturally, I didn’t allow my sudden feelings of dread to affect my actions and demeanour. I had a role to play, and calling off the attack wasn’t a part of it. Harbinger Amruta could see the sword just as well as I could. I readied myself for whatever order, attack or abort that she might give.

  She didn’t get the chance. The target held up one of the primitive charms of this dimension and activated it.

  Magic flared. The charm may have been crude, but it was powerful. The unsuspecting humans around us couldn’t see magic, but they felt that something had happened. The cheers faded away, and they looked around, confused.

  That was when they saw us. I couldn’t see my compatriots, but I assume they had frozen momentarily from the shock of having our illusions dispelled. Around me, humans were pointing and exclaiming.

  “Space elf!” was the most coherent shout in the group. I grimaced. This was bad; the mission was blown. I stayed frozen a moment longer while I went through the contingency plans.

  Oh.

  So be it. This was my role; I was a Bastion for a reason.

  Ready to engage target, I sent over the link.

  Acknowledged, Harbinger Amruta sent back. As she should. I took her slight hesitation to mean that she didn’t want to respond. That she didn’t want to leave me behind to save the others. That she cared.

  I treasured that small hesitation, but it had no place in either of our roles. We were soldiers of the Dominion, and I had a job to do.

  I activated my gauntlets, causing the energy fields to flare up around them. They could be sword or shield, depending on what I needed, but they were far more effective as a shield.

  Now, the humans started to show fear. A few of them screamed. None of them ran, which was of mixed utility. They impeded me, but they also got in the way of the target. Since my job was to hold her in place, anything that stymied her was a win.

  “Face me, Earthling!” I shouted in what I was pretty sure was the local language. My Earth language skills weren’t the best, and while the autotranslator worked fine, using it to speak gave the game away.

  Whatever she heard, it worked. She drew her sword and changed her stance. Was she going to attack me through the crowd? That—

  Oh. She’s going to jump—

  Despite the briefings, I was surprised to see her clear twelve t’elai from a standing start. Over the heads of the crowds, coming down on me like a vengeful Vael’Serai. Her sword came down like a lightning hammer, ready to cleave me from head to sternum.

  My shield was up to the challenge. Barely. The field flickered red before managing to stop the blade. There was more than physical force behind that blow, but whatever it was, my gauntlets absorbed it and then sent it back.

  She got sent flying. That she kept hold of the sword was impressive, a feat that I don’t think I could have managed. She was in the air, though, with nothing to brace herself against. She flew back the way she came, tumbling out of control. She almost landed back where she started, hitting the edge of the stage and cracking part of it in half.

  Of course, she wasn’t injured. She bounced back to her feet in one smooth motion before I could take more than a step towards her. She glared at me as I approached. Red lightning started to crackle along the length of her blade. I did not like the look of that.

  Target is engaged, I sent. Fight on, for the Empress.

  For the Empress! They all replied.

  Amruta

  I was moving through the crowds when I responded to what were surely Parvatha’s last words. I was numb, moving automatically along our pre-planned escape route, stunned by what had just happened.

  With one charm, Shimoyanagi Midoriko had overloaded our disguise generators and dispelled my attention-deflecting spell. All of my illusion magic, in fact. It should recover quickly, but for the moment, I was vulnerable, unable to flicker into invisibility or adopt an inconspicuous disguise.

  Either of those would have been very useful right now. Humans were pointing at my blue skin and pointed ears, drawing attention that I couldn’t afford. None of them were a danger to me, but I had to get clear of the crowd, go further down the beach—

  A human girl in a bikini stepped out of the crowd and body-checked me. Hard. She made it look like an accidental collision, but she’d been braced for impact. She remained on her feet while I went flying backward.

  “Going somewhere, alien?” the girl said. Her skin was paler than the average for this region, and she had long, black hair, streaked with blue. At first glance, she seemed like an ordinary human.

  Then my gaze locked with hers, and I knew that she was anything other than ordinary.

  “Sorry! I’m in a hurry, I’ve got to get to my event…”

  De-escalate, delay, evade. Pretending to be cosplayers was our emergency fallback cover. I reached for my magic again, but I only felt stinging pain. What sort of monster was that girl?

  The girl in front of me blinked. “I don’t know what that is supposed to mean,” she said. “But it does not matter. You will surrender, or you will entertain me with your struggles. Choose.”

  “If you touch me, that will be assault,” I asserted. “I will call the police.”

  The girl smiled. “You will not, and it does not matter if you do. Come. Draw your weapon. Show me what the Vaikarana are capable of.”

  Not a civilian, then. She wasn’t in the briefing, but briefings were never complete. I didn’t respond verbally, but I did send out a warning to my team.

  Unknown combatants in engagement zone. Lethal force authorised if deemed necessary.

  Then I drew my sidearm and fired without hesitation. A Shardflare blaster puts out a continuous stream of magically generated energy. It can cut through a seyth of arcanosteel in less than a tik.

  I expected her to dodge, but she stood there and took it. She put a hand out to block, but she might as well have tried to hold lava. She roared with the pain of it, but… she didn’t fall.

  I should have released the trigger. There were people behind her, civilian infrastructure that I shouldn’t be destroying. But she kept standing, and I kept firing until the automatic cutoff kicked in.

  When the glare subsided, I could see that she was still there, her hand still held in front of her. Her entire arm was burned to a crisp. It should have been gone. Even with just the damage I could see, she should have been on the ground, sobbing in pain. Instead, she just stood there.

  And as I watched, her arm started to heal. The carbonised shell flaked away, pushed aside by new, perfect flesh. As I watched, stunned, she flexed her hand, shedding the last of the black ash. It had only taken two tiks.

  She looked at me and grinned with a mouth that now seemed to have more teeth than it did before.

  “Adequate.”

  Vayindra

  Unknown combatants in engagement zone. Lethal force authorised if deemed necessary.

  This was all going terribly wrong. What had we gotten ourselves into?

  My escape route took me through one of the humans’ primitive markets. They had online delivery infrastructure, so I don’t know why they chose to buy items from stalls made of sticks and cloth, but it made a useful maze for me to get lost in. Or would have, if our disguises hadn’t been shattered. I stood out. People were pointing, and witnesses would remember that I’d passed by.

  And now there were enemy combatants in the zone.

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  Just flow, I told myself. Flow through the crowd like water. Smile and laugh. You’re just an ordinary human, dressed up in face paint and plastic ears. They’ve never seen armour like yours, they won’t even recognise it as military gear.

  I whirled at the sound of a girl giggling in my ear, but there was no one there.

  “Hey, do you know that fear is an emotion, too?” Her breath tickled my ear.

  I spun again, but to no result. People were staring. I struck a silly pose and started walking again. It could be an illusion or a directed sound. Despite not having a sophisticated understanding of magical principles, some humans were capable of magical feats. Shimoyanagi Midoriko was proof of that.

  I tried not to react when the voice spoke again.

  “A strong one, as well,” she purred. “It’s not my kind’s preferred choice, but it’s just as tasty as lust. It’s just less convenient.”

  I started walking faster. Not to get back to the rendezvous, I couldn’t lead whoever this was back to the others. If this was some kind of spell effect, I might be able to get out of its range. If it was someone, invisible, I might be able to lose them in the crowd.

  “When you provoke someone’s lust, they can’t wait to get real close to you,” the voice continued. “It’s a lot harder when they’re afraid of you. They’ll do anything to get away.”

  This time, when I whirled, I swung out, trying to make contact with whoever was there. A few titters were my only result.

  “I am not afraid of you,” I said. I started moving again. I put my hand on the hilt of one of my swords, but I didn’t draw it. Yet. Sheathed, my water blades could pass for costume weaponry. Drawn, they didn’t look like anything on Earth.

  “Not yet,” the voice agreed. “You’re nervous… let’s move up to concerned, shall we? Stop tripping yourself.”

  The shove came from an unexpected direction, and my feet were suddenly unable to move.

  Why? Is this because she knows she can’t hurt me through my armour?

  The military-grade magiawave that I was wearing looked like cloth, but it was anything but. I went down, but I didn’t let that slow me at all, rolling under one of the tables that blocked off a stall. I had to dodge the feet of slow-moving humans, but then I was through, still on the ground, crawling under the cloth wall that made up the back of the stall.

  I found myself in a narrow alley walled by the fabric backs of market stalls. If someone invisible wanted to follow me here, they’d have to go under—or through—the cloth, causing a motion.

  Unless they went above… My blade lashed out. More of a whip than a blade, when I wanted it to be, it extended a full two t’elai out from the hilt. It lashed through the air, exactly where anyone flying down at me would have to be…

  A peal of delighted laughter was my only reward.

  “That is so neat! Is it actually made of water?”

  I didn’t answer, just flailed around me. Not a thread of the walls around me was disturbed, but everything else, visible or not…

  I didn’t connect with anything. Then a line of fire traced its way down my back.

  “Now you’re feeling it,” the voice crooned approvingly.

  I started to run, leaving the laughter behind. The alley stretched in front of me, going on for… wait. The market hadn’t been that big, had it?

  I tore down a nearby wall with my blade, revealing… another cloth-backed alleyway, extending as far as I could see. I turned around and tore down another wall. Another empty alleyway.

  “Run as far as you like, you won’t get anywhere,” the voice said. “Midoriko-senpai asked us to take you alive, but this is so much more fun, don’t you think?”

  I felt her breath on my ear again. I lashed out wildly, but connected with nothing.

  “I’ve never drained someone before. Your fear is so… intoxicating,” she whispered into my ear. “So I have just one, tiny request.”

  “Don’t surrender.”

  Nakula

  Vayindra’s link went dead. What could do that? Unless he turned it off himself… No, now wasn’t the time to be worrying about the others. I had to worry about myself. Someone had to get back and report to Command.

  I cursed the luck that had assigned me an escape route that went along the beach. Running on sand was not a forte of mine. I would much rather have slipped through the busy crowd on the esplanade. Even if I didn’t have a disguise. Even after… whatever happened to Vayindra.

  It looked like something was going to happen to me. I stared at the man wearing green armour who walked into my path.

  His armour glowed faintly in visible light, and ferociously to my mana sight. His sword, drawn and pointed at me, was the same, a potent magical artifact.

  “Stand down and surrender,” he said in a voice that couldn’t hide his nervousness.

  That isn’t possible, my mind gibbered. Humans don’t have manatech!

  Oh, there were one or two of them that could use magic. But this, this was something on par with our equipment. Worse still, it was familiar.

  Where had I seen it before? Not on any of the current enemies of the Empire— No. The errant memory was distracting me. It probably was important, but I could chase it down later. After I’d returned to base.

  There was no point in complying, or even responding, to his ridiculous demand. Shock had halted me, now I made ready to dash past him—

  A chain shot out of the darkness and wrapped around my legs. An ordinary steel chain with no magic whatsoever.

  How embarrassing, I thought as the chain tightened. I fell face down with almost no resistance. It was dark on the beach, but not that dark. How had I missed the second hostile?

  “Nice work, Mitsue!” the green-armoured man declared. He moved forward, ready for anything I might try.

  Well, not anything. I activated my tactical teleporter. Without the ability to recharge it with my personal mana, it was considered by many to be a toy, but I found it useful to get me out of trouble that I’d walked into.

  Like this mission. It was set to send me three t’elai backwards, the maximum distance possible. In my current position, that sent me straight up, well over the heads of my attackers. The green-armoured one froze when I disappeared, and the hidden one… was still not visible. Damn. I looked for his chain, but it had already been withdrawn.

  No matter. It only took a moment for me to draw and activate my energy staff. My attacker must have heard the hiss of the fields extending, because he brought his sword up just in time to block my downward strike.

  I thought adding my weight and momentum to the blow would be enough to get past, but I reckoned without the power of his blade. My staff flickered, and I was forced to let him deflect me away. I triggered the anti-grav in my boots to make a soft landing. Designed for low-gravity, they didn’t let me fly, here, but they helped me make a soft landing.

  He charged me, sword swinging, and I was forced to fall back, trying to keep my distance. I had the reach advantage, but he kept pressing me. To my relief, he wasn’t that skilled, but I couldn’t devote my full attention to him. There was still—

  There it was. The chain snaked out of the darkness. This time, it was going for my weapon. I could have evaded, but my weapon had more options than an ordinary staff.

  As soon as the chain wrapped around, I triggered an explosive blast of energy. It shattered the steel links, sending fragments in all directions. A few of them flew at the green-armoured man, but they bounced off harmlessly.

  “You Earthlings fight without honour,” I snarled, frustrated with how the last ten minutes had been going.

  “I don’t want to hear that from a member of an assassination squad sent after my senpai,” the green man said.

  I stared at him. “How do you know that?”

  Sundhara

  I don’t know how I made it back to the Redoubt. Everyone else on the team was calling out contacts, but I ran through the gauntlet unscathed.

  Our home away from home had started as a hole in the ground. Magically dug out, the entrance was concealed with illusions and lined with nanocrystals to shield it from electromagnetic and gravimetric scans. Then the interior had been spatially expanded to hold all of us and our supplies. And, of course, the portal home.

  My first thought, on seeing that the door was open, was relief. Someone else had made it back. My second thought was that whoever it was would catch hell from Command for leaving the door open. Under the circumstances, though, I couldn’t fault them for a small breach of doctrine.

  My third thought, as I stepped across the threshold, was stark, stunned surprise.

  “Good evening, Weaver Sundhara. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to keep very still and hold your hands in the air.”

  An ordinary human girl was standing in front of me. Dressed in a bikini, no less. This had to be a prank that someone was playing on me. The Harbringer could do it with her illusions, but—

  The Shardflare blaster the girl was pointing at me looked very real. And Harbringer Amruta wasn’t known for playing pranks.

  I held my hands up. What the human didn’t know was that I didn’t need my hands to Weave a devastating attack. I reached out and…

  The strands of this world’s power slipped through my mental grasp. I could do… nothing? The girl looked at me intently and then nodded.

  “A device for every occasion,” she said, pointing, “Even one for neutralising the magic of a team member, should that prove necessary.”

  I looked. The Aetherbane was sitting on the desk. Somehow, she’d known what it was, found it in storage and managed to activate it. Any one of those should be impossible for a human.

  “How?” I asked helplessly.

  “You told me how,” she said simply. “Take off your tactical vest and throw it on the bunk. Then do the same for your weapon belt. Move slowly and don’t try anything that would cause me to shoot you.”

  I hesitated for a moment, but I couldn’t see any way out of this. I started to comply. Slowly, as she’d asked.

  “I never told you anything,” I said. “We never met, and I would never reveal operational details to anyone who wasn’t cleared.”

  “You don’t remember,” she told me, “but we had a very long and detailed conversation about who you are and what you do. I had to be quite insistent.”

  “I don’t remember you,” I agreed. Not that the absence of memory proved anything. I tossed my belt on the bunk, finished with her instructions. “No, wait. I do remember you. You were one of the singers on the beach.”

  “That’s right!” she said happily. “You said you liked my song, before things got… unpleasant. Now, there isn’t really room in here to switch places, so head back outside. I’ll be following you.”

  I followed instructions. There was enough room in the Redoubt to pass each other, just not if you wanted to maintain more than an arm’s length distance. We swapped positions, I entered the Redoubt, while she stayed at the entrance.

  “Now, you’ll see I set up the console to sever the link to your dimension,” she said. “However, it needs biometric authorisation to proceed. I could get Harue to try, but I’m not certain that her shapeshifting can fool your security measures.”

  I stared at the console. “This won’t just sever the connection. It will trigger the self-destruct.”

  “I know. I think it’s for the best. I don’t think our authorities need any more examples of your technology to study. Oh, but don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for us to both get out.”

  “Assuming you don’t kill me as soon as I’ve done what you want,” I pointed out bitterly. “So it’s do this or die, is it?”

  “I’m afraid so,” she admitted. “I’m not confident of my ability to keep you captive in the medium term, and the Aetherbane only lasts a short while.”

  I sighed. As much as it stung to submit to this human, under the current circumstances, it was practically my duty to destroy the Redoubt. Our mission was a failure; many of us had been captured. The only thing left was to make sure that our technology didn’t fall into enemy hands. I bent down and let the device scan my eye.

  The countdown started immediately.

  “Out!” the woman ordered, following her own command. She waved me further away from the entrance as she waited for the countdown to finish. By this time, I was beyond questioning how she knew how long the timer was. But at the last second, she threw the blaster inside.

  There was a flash of light as the space imploded, and everything within was reduced to a compressed, molten slurry.

  “Why did you throw the gun away?” I asked incredulously. The Aetherbane was gone, now. I could feel the strands of power gathering. I could blast this woman off the face of this misbegotten planet.

  She just cocked her head.

  “I don’t need it anymore,” she said. “You’re trapped without supplies on a hostile world. You need my help if you want to survive.”

  I just stared at her, the power building within me. If she could sense it, she gave no sign. She just turned and headed back to the beach.

  “Come on,” she said. “I’ll put in a good word with Midoriko-senpai.”