{"id":793,"date":"2020-02-15T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/?p=793"},"modified":"2025-08-15T13:44:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T21:44:53","slug":"karvusan-over-voimanudath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/15\/karvusan-over-voimanudath\/","title":{"rendered":"Karvusan over Voimanudath"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Iradathkin\nImperium Navy Cruiser Charcoaled Sun<\/em> pushed back into real space on the\ninner edge of Aligoya Poxei. Forty minutes later, a still slightly bleary-eyed\nLieutenant Kaewer Jirvaerka, 278th<\/sup> Kidorlus found herself sitting in\nthe Company\u2019s ready room with a steaming mug of ronchio, the strong black tea\nthat was the most common morning stimulant amongst draikers with Sub-Lieutenant\nLorkei Stakara at her side, somewhat more awake than his CEO. Ship Captain Duma\nPlufore was sitting across the table with an icy cup of amab, the second most\ncommon stimulant in the Iradathkin Imperium, his own expression serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAligoya System\nCommand just hit us with a priority request for assistant. Apparently,\nsomething is happening on Aligoyaka that local Virunos and Guardians cannot\nhandle. The system governor is requesting the 278th<\/sup>\u2019s immediate\nsupport,\u201d Captain Plufore reported. \u201cAccording to Aligoya System command, the\nlocal Virunos picked up lead about 23 hours ago on a certain Jar\u00edda Mar\u00e1n\nvisiting a local Vanished Court cell but the lead was time limited and the\nVirunos chief decided he couldn\u2019t wait for Order or Kidorlus support. With\nsupport of drawn from Guardians and the local Army garrison, they raided the Vanished\nCourt stronghold eight hours ago. While they captured the majority of the cell\nwithout significant bloodshed, Jar\u00edda Mar\u00e1n and his closest supporters slipped\nthe noose but instead of disappearing into the crowd, they decided to attack\nShivun Interface\u2019s regional headquarters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo the locals have\nany ideas why? What would a relatively backwater regional HQ have that an\ninternational crime syndicate would risk one of their higher ranked lieutenants\nthis way?\u201d Lorkei asked. He\u2019d been on shift for the Charcoaled Sun\u2019s<\/em>\nKidorlus compliment and had the benefit of being fully awake so, by unspoken\nagreement, he got to ask the questions until his CO woke up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe locals don\u2019t\nseem to have a clue, but I received a very interesting call from Shivun\u2019s main\nheadquarters, routed through Admiralty channels, after confirming our arrival\nwith System Command.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh maiso,\u201d Lorkei\ngroaned and almost buried his face in his hands. That kind of response time\nsaid very bad things about what was happening on Aligoya Poxei’s capital world.\nAnd about why the Vanished Court was apparently this interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt turns out Shivun\nInterfaces has been working with several of its competitors on developing the\nnew line of Interfaces for Fleet. They decided that letting a regional branch\nhandle their part of the project would be more secure than bringing into the\ncore worlds where everybody is logically watching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd they chose the Yopile<\/em>\nregion?\u201d Lorkei cut in. Kaewer agreed with him completely. Yopile, despite how\nlong it’d been under Imperium rule, was still functionally a Developing\nProvince for how stable the region was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a quarter of\nall the terror or criminal organizations in the Imperium could trace their origins\nback to the organized crime and insurgencies of the Yopile province. Nearly\nfive percent of the Imperium’s total<\/em> acts of terror took place in or\naround one of the province’s ten inhabited systems. It was part of the reason\nthe Charcoaled Sun<\/em> was out here in the first place. The Navy made it a\npoint to keep an active Kidorlus presence in the region, despite the hot-cold\nnature of the war with the Dominion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plufore gave a shrug\nthat simply said \u2018civilians<\/em>\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s Imperium policy to spread out\ngovernment projects to poorer or struggling Provinces on the theory that it\u2019ll\ngive them an economic base and help stabilize them. Yopile has actually earned\nits regular Provincial status, even if it is one of the hottest spots in the\nImperium still,\u201d He pointed out, for accuracy\u2019s sake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, but the local\nsecurity should\u2019ve been up to the task so, why is this a problem still? Jar\u00edda\nis a Sidhe Noble but surely the combined weight of the virunos, Guardian\nvolunteers and active Army units could\u2019ve run him down by now. They\u2019re more\nexperienced with counter-terror operations than a more core region would be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plufore nodded and\ncontinued with a grimace, \u201cJar\u00edda\u2019s group is apparently very well-armed and\nvery good at operational planning. He hit Shivun Headquarters in the early\nmorning, before it\u2019s security would\u2019ve been at daytime levels but late enough\nthat at least part of the upper corporate hierarchy and engineers had come to\nwork. They\u2019ve taken hostages and active the buildings security measures. Very\nImportant hostages.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cZarvok,<\/em>\u201d\nKaewer swore this time. \u201cI can\u2019t wait for the locals\u2019 after-action reports or\nthe Governor\u2019s annual review session. Someone\u2019s head is going to roll for this\nsura. How do you let fugitives draw a bead on a high-value target like Shivun\nwhile on the run? Much less actually commit to an actual operation while still\non the run?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLocals,\u201d Lorkei\nshrugged his CO\u2019s glare off. It was an obvious, and impolitic, answer but a\ntruism that her Kidorlus had come to live by. Local virunos didn\u2019t have the\ntraining or muscle to run complex operations against well-armed and prepared\nenemies. They were the policing authority of the Imperium, great at\ninvestigation and peacekeeping but that was about it. The Guardian Corp was\nvolunteer reservists, intended to provide the planet with a ready population\nfor the army to draw from in emergency and useful but they weren\u2019t trained any\nsort of sensitive operations. The Army garrisons on most worlds weren\u2019t much\nbetter, they just had bigger guns.  All\nof which meant, that the people who were guaranteed to mess up sensitive\noperations were always the locals unless they were lucky enough to pull a\nSpecial Operations unit or pay one of the Orders for a team. Order-affiliated\nteams were getting expensive and unreliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuma, what\u2019s our ETA\nto Aligoyaka from our current position?\u201d Kaewer puffed out her cheeks as she\nconnected her Interface to the briefing room\u2019s table. A system map of the\nAligoya system appeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn real-space\ndrives? Another thirteen hours. We came in out at the system\u2019s civilian shift\nlimit because we weren\u2019t in a hurry,\u201d The Captain shrugged again. Fringe-space\ngot weird, and dangerous, the deeper into a star\u2019s gravity well one got. The\nclosest most ship captains would willing risk was several light hours shy of\nthe star, thus every star had a \u201ccivilian shift limit\u201d where the vast majority\nof the system\u2019s traffic would enter and exit from. Other complexities like\nmatching spatial \u201ctopography\u201d of Real and Fringe space at a certain point\nchanged the \u2018difficulty\u2019 of a ship\u2019s shift between them. This led to cluster\npoints of traffic as ever-thrifty merchants congregated at the \u2018cheapest\u2019\npoints of shift. Which meant pirates, and Fleet, clustered around these points\ntoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThirteen hours is\ntoo long. Jar\u00edda will get what he needs, kill the hostages and escape before\nthat or force the locals to strike early and make a mess,\u201d Kaewer stared hard\nat the star chart for a second and nodded sharply. \u201cRight. Assuming the\nsituation doesn\u2019t change after my conference with the local security heads, I\u2019m\ngoing to want a full-on assault approach. Which means, micro-shifting all the\nway in. Start getting the basics set for that. Warn the governor to clear the\norbitals over the city, we\u2019re obviously going to come in broadcasting our approach,\nbut I don\u2019t want an idiot to do something stupid and panicking if we get near.\nIf he starts complaining or wasting time, have him arrested and have the local\nstation commander do it. I\u2019m being nice by giving him a chance to be a part of\nthe solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, ma\u2019am. Combat\napproach, aye. Clear Orbitals, aye,\u201d Duma snapped, stiffening in his chair.\n\u201cThat drops our approach to a little over three hours, assuming we don\u2019t hit\nsomething in the Fringe that kills us all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019ll have to do.\nI can\u2019t make the universe bend to our needs,\u201d Kaewer gave the captain a crooked\nsmile. \u201cLorkei, alert Karvusan Three, Nine, and Eighteen to prepare for\noperations. Get our Talons ready for launch and set your squad to ready alert.\nBasic mission loadout. They\u2019ve got until I finish my conference with the\nlocals, I don\u2019t want anyone running around during assault approach. We\u2019ll have\na good fifteen minutes at the end of approach to modify loadouts at the end of\nthe approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMa\u2019am,\u201d Lorkei\nstiffened in brief acknowledge before putting a hand to his jaw, fingertips\nsiting just below his ear with his palm running down the line of the mandible,\nthe universal gesture for using one\u2019s Interface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I think it\u2019s\ntime I got busy,\u201d Duma said sliding his chair back and standing. \u201cYou know how\nmuch paperwork a combat approach is going to generate don\u2019t you?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer nodded as she\nstood as well. \u201cThe fun part about being a Special Forces bus is that you get\nto break all sorts of regulation and then give me the paperwork. Let\u2019s go give\nsome traffic controllers heart attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKaraide,\u201d The Captain\ngrinned. Kaewer chuckled, having the much older draiker using the current\nadolescent slang for \u2018this is stupid, let do it!\u2019 tickled her sense of humour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fringe-space was a\nstrange place that eddied and warped around gravitational bodies, likes stars\nand planets, in ways that could kill a ship in an eye-blink. The deeper into a\nreal space gravity-well a ship traveled in Fringe Space, the greater the odds\nthat it would die, by running either into an unseen distortion or by having its\nFringe Drive trigger one. So over time, a practical \u2018mass limit\u2019 evolved where\nmost captains, even warships would shift back into real space rather than risk\ntheir ships. Captain Balakarin had pioneered the modern assault approach back\nin the 1844 of the 10th<\/sup> Age. She\u2019d reasoned that numerous short\nshifts back into and out of Fringe Space along with hard real space maneuvers\nreduced the risks of running into or sparking a ship killing eddy or distortion\nto make the tactic viable. She\u2019d been right, and her destroyer squadron had\nused the tactic to great effect, winning several key victories against the\nSoudathkins in the following decade. She’d also served as the example that\nreduced risk wasn\u2019t the same as no risk as her flagship had been lost with all\nhands during an assault approach five years later.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thousand years\nlater, assault approach still sucked vacuum, even when you knew that there were\nno defenders trying to kill you. The newest generations of Fringe-drives could\nrip the dimensional barrier efficiently enough that most people didn\u2019t feel the\nShift-Sickness that\u2019d been a huge problem for Captain Balakarin but too many\nShifts too quickly compounded the effect. Kaewer could hear someone throwing up\ninto their armour\u2019s puke tube. She didn\u2019t bother finding out who. There was no\nreal shame in it and whoever it was would be miserable enough smelling vomit\nuntil they scrubbed their suit out anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern sensors and\nsystem maps meant most eddies and distortions were navigable, but the universe\njust didn\u2019t care. About fifteen percent of warships attempting an assault\napproach died to the environmental hazards of Fringe Space alone, another\npercent or two would collide with something undetected when shifting into real\nspace and die that way. That didn\u2019t even count the ships lost to system\ndefenses. Not to mention it was impossible to maintain fleet coordination and\ncohesion during an assault approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most sane admirals\npreferred the slow approach, shifting in along the mass limit and pushing\nthrough the system at real space speeds. They might use a single micro-shift\nfor more radical fleet maneuvers, Kaewer\u2019s mother had shown the advantage of\nusing micro-shifts to rapidly maneuver reserve forces in recent conflicts with\nthe Soudathkins but assault approaches in-force were rare. Fleet engagements\nrarely required haste or rapid advancement and no admiral wanted to lose\nfifteen plus percent of their fleet just to maneuvering. Assault approach was,\nhowever, quite useful for slipping single ships, or small raiding units, past defenders\nquickly. Kaewer had done far too many assault approaches in her relatively\nshort time as a Kidorlus. Thank the stars that the dice of the universe had no\nmemory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She took the final\nhour of the approach to plan her team\u2019s mission while strapped into a holding\ncreche wall in her assault armour. Every dimensional shift rattling the\nbattlecruiser as Captain Duma fought to bring every ounce of speed across the\nbarrier both ways. Shivun Corporate Headquarters had given her the blueprints\nto her target, including the unofficial additions that the Locals, with a\ncapital L because it was easier to think of the disparate groups as a single\nwhole, didn\u2019t know about. The Army garrison commander was feeding her the\nunified Legion Network of the all three agencies on the ground, giving her a\nconstant feed of real-time information that flickered and fuzzed with every\nShift. The transition between dimensions was about the only thing to disrupt\nImperium FTL communications entirely. The Local L-Net was a poorly coordinated\nmess of conflicting systems that gave her a headache to sift through but access\nto it allowed her to see anything the Local surveillance assets did. Someone on\nJar\u00edda\u2019s team had locked out all external communications with the Shivun HQ,\nincluding its security network before their attack had even started. The Army\ncommander was promising her that her best people were working on it but Kaewer\ndidn\u2019t expect much from them. If they hadn\u2019t bypassed the lockout in the last\nfour hours, another hour wasn\u2019t going to make a difference. By the time the Charcoaled\nSun<\/em> leapt through its final Shift and began its twisting, diving and\nwrithing maneuvers for orbit, Kaewer had finalized her assault plan and updated\nthe loadouts she wanted the strike team to use. When Kidorlus\u2019 armour storage\nand maintenance creches released their charges, it took her people barely eight\nminutes to correct their loads and board the waiting gunships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Stealth\nTalon-<\/em>class gunships separated from the hard-braking Imperium warship in a maneuver\nthat overwhelmed their modest inertial dampeners. The gut-wrenching lurch of\nseparation turned into something much worse as they twisted over their own axis\nand plunged toward the planetary atmosphere with their engines maxed. The many\ntraffic controllers of Voimanudath, barely given any warning, were still\nscrambling to clear their flight path when the distinctively hooked gunships\nripped through the upper atmosphere, plasma roiling off their shielding as they\ncame. The pilots kept their dive nearly vertical, rushing to get out of the wide-open\nskies of the upper altitudes as if they expected ground fire. The wing pulled\nout of its suicidal dive a bare twenty thousand feet from the hard ground. The\nrippling roar of their sonic wakes blasted over the relatively empty continent\nas the gunships flashed over the city, setting windows rattling. This sort of\ncombat approach wasn\u2019t subtle. There wasn\u2019t an engineer in the Imperium who\nthought a high velocity deorbit could ever be made subtle,<\/em> just harder\nto stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shivun Regional\nHeadquarters sat on the far outskirts of Voimanudath, enshrined in the middle\nof a large private wildlife reserve and nestled against the bend of a local\nriver. Some hair-brained executives had decided to build the campus in the\nshape of a rose. A pair of buildings were the flower\u2019s leaves, each large\nenough to be a smaller corporation\u2019s main campus. A long, carefully manicured\ncentral avenue surrounded by the greens, reds, blues, yellows and whites of\nflowers and trees made up the rose\u2019s stem. It connected to thorn shaped parking\nlots and landing pads. The main complex was, of course, shaped like a giant\nrose. The four central buildings melted into and over each other, great\noverlapping curves of building layering over each other in a mad design that\nshowed its true beauty in the late autumn sunsets when seen from above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBat One to Karvus\nNine Actual. Ninety Seconds to target.<\/em>\u201d They were under ten thousand feet\nnow and ripping along at several hundred miles per hour still. They could\u2019ve\ngone faster but that would\u2019ve complicated stage two needlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cK9A copies. Relay to\nall in five.\u201d Kaewer acknowledged, standing to face the cramped hold of the Stealth\nTalon, <\/em>armoured legs braced against turbulence. Her assault armour whined\nquietly as its servos matched her movements, letting the one ton armoured suit\nmove like a second skin. A really powerful and heavy second skin. \u201cLook alive\nfolks,\u201d she called over the roar of the engines rattling the gunship. The three\ncrows riding on various armoured shoulders laughed and called out encouragement\nas their flockmate\u2019s flightless flock sealed helmets and initiated system\u2019s\nfinal checks. The birds weren\u2019t going to be dropping with the team, several\nhundred miles per hours was too much for any bird, even the vaunted rust raven\nto handle safely. Not even the silver helmed falcon, fastest known bird in the\nImperium, could survive these speeds. Kaewer\u2019s feathered bodyguards were her\nteam\u2019s reserves. They\u2019d join the fight after the Talon<\/em>s landed in the\nvirunos cordon. Not that anyone would\u2019ve thought they weren\u2019t in the vanguard\nfrom their antics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSee you in a few,<\/em>\u201d\nKaewer told the boss raven. Imugemare was a large rusted raven whose attitude\nwas that of a world-weary matron. She was savage in combat but Kaewer valued\nthe no-nonsense attitude even more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnjoy your\nflight, Emerald Rust. Remember to pull up before the ground,\u201d<\/em> The raven\nlaughed even as her two younger flockmates continued their war dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m aiming for\nthe ground,\u201d <\/em>Kaewer countered, voice wry. \u201cPitch, Furigido time to clear\nout.<\/em>\u201d The two younger ravens flapped to join their boss in Kaewer\u2019s old\nseat even as she sealed her suits vaguely canid helmet with a quick mental\npulse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a moment,\neverything vanished into nearly silent blackness and then the suit\u2019s systems\nflared to life. Her Interface and the suit\u2019s own displays and microphones meant\nshe could see, hear and even smell better than her natural senses would ever\nreach, even with magical enhancements. Her armour\u2019s onboard Fragment\nIntelligence, one of the non-sentient but extremely complex and sophisticated\nlearning\/thinking program that were the backbone of the Imperium, interfaced\nwith her own Interface\u2019s FI as it began to churn out data. Atmospheric\npressure, gravimetric deviations, targeting solutions, suit diagnostics, and\nmore. To Kaewer, the flood of data pouring into her subconscious mind always\nfelt like walking out of a tight stuffy corridor into the crisp fall air. The\nseamless expansion of her consciousness and knowledge base was intoxicating, as\nher Interface and active Legion Network link allowed her to simply know <\/em>everything\nthe L-Net knew. Unlike the augmentations and implants of most non-Drailleon\nnations, which provided the user with easily accessible but explicitly external\ninformation, Interfaces and military FIs, worked with the user\u2019s brain to\ncreate temporary knowing. For Imperium veterans, the confident self-assurance\nL-Net brought was a welcome security blanket and a grave threat. Since any\nactive Legion Network relied on solely on information from active network\npenetration and integrated sensor devices and users, its knowledge was limited\nand fallible, but it always felt absolute. Smart veterans learned to\ndistinguish between the two types of knowledge and understand its limitations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kidorlus\u2019 L-Net\nabruptly doubled and redoubled in strength as all twenty-seven armour suits\nadded their own high-powered transmitters to gunship\u2019s boosters. L-Net, as with\nall draiker technology, was neither magic nor science but something between and\nhad proven unhackable and nearly unjammable, to date. Imperium military\nhardware designers had hated the very idea of \u2018nearly unjammable\u2019 and they had\ndesigned the Imperium\u2019s armour and combat vehicles to correct the adjective.\nWhich mostly meant building powerful L-Net boosters into everything with big\nenough power source. Kaewer, as unit commander, knew the statuses of every\nsoldier in her command as assuredly as she knew the status of her right hand\nand her FI helped her manage and sort that information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll\nunits in Strike: Silver in twenty.\u201d<\/em> Bat One, Kaewer\u2019s pilot\nannounced to the whole Kidorlus L-net. Her people finished their final armour\nseals and stood to brace with one heavy arm against the overhead handles. In\nthe neighboring Stealth Talons<\/em>, Karvus\u2019 Seven and Eighteen were doing\nthe same. All twenty-seven Kidorlus made sure to take extra care with the slim\nexternal pack attached to their armoured backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simplest, safest,\nand most popular method for getting soldiers to the ground from orbit was to\nland them in shuttles or gunships and have them walk off the ramps into clear\nand secure landing zones. The only problem was the enemy knew that method too\nand they weren\u2019t about to give any attacker the chance, or time, to leisurely\nland and deploy their soldiers. Eventually, modern weapons technology had made\nsimply flying into hostile space with the best possible landing impractical. So\nmilitary planners had been forced to get creative, which \u2013naturally– had\nprompted defense planners be more creative, all in the eternal cycle of\nweaponsmith versus armoursmith. Kaewer had elected to one of the crazier ideas\nto get her people to the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imperium Assault\nArmour was a highly flexible platform designed to provide overwhelming tactical\nflexibility in any environment. While it did come in specialized variants, the\nStalker Fox series was the most common, jack-of-all-trades system.\nUnfortunately, the trade-off for having an advanced, but highly flexible and\nreliable weapon system was its price tag and requirements for high-quality\nparts and pieces. Which made assault armour hard to mass produce, and generally\na pain to maintain. All the things the Navy hated. However, the units who did\nget to play with these walking tank suits could get away with doing all sorts\nof crazy things. Crazy things people wouldn\u2019t want to do to an actual tank,\nmuch less into themselves with only a suit of very expensive armour to protect\nthem. Things like a low altitude, high velocity airdrop without a parachute.\nInto a building. Through four different small atrium skylights. Kaewer thought\nit was a rather brilliant plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCondition Silver.<\/em>\u201d\nThe pilot broadcast on the squad\u2019s L-net. Her squad turned sharply to face the\nTalon<\/em>\u2019s rear ramp in a whine of servos and a clash of metal, golden\narmour flashing. A light strobed blood oker in warning as the heavy ramp of the\nTalon<\/em> opened to reveal a sweeping vista of Voimanudath\u2019s skyline. Wind\nhowled and clutched at Kaewer, but artificial muscles ignored it with casual\nstrength. Furigdio fluffed himself up against the hold\u2019s sudden cold, huddling\nwith his two flockmates as they watched their crazy draiker cousin get ready.\nHer Interface put a timer in the lower corner of her vision, a perfectly\nvisually contrasting set of numbers ticking downward. Explicit information had\nits own uses, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At five seconds to\nGold, Kaewer added a last-minute message, \u201cKarvus Nine Actual to Strike. Good\nhunting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGold! Gold! Gold!<\/em>\u201d\nThe pilot shouted and her mission timer hit zero and began to count back up.\nHer squad surged forward in synchronized precision. Each pair vanished from\nsight as soon as they threw themselves from the gunship. Seven seconds later,\nKaewer followed Privates Jalbystro and Chivin down the ramp and into the\nyawning sky at its foot. Her armour let her feel the turbulent wind that clawed\nand dragged at her as if it was her own skin. L-Net immediately began feeding\nher the location data of not just the eight others in her squad but all\ntwenty-seven of her soldiers, the extra-natural sense an intimate embrace\nwrapping her in the warm cocoon of knowledge. Her flight path appeared in her\ninner vision, the visual hallucinations broadcast from her Interface as bold\nand sapphire lines. If she concentrated, she could see the bleached blue ghosts\nof her team\u2019s flight paths.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She activated the\nsuit\u2019s repulsor field as soon as she cleared the Strixku. The plates of\nenchanted armour attached to her suit\u2019s shins, forearms and back seemed to hum\n<\/em>as they strained against her hurtling momentum. Not to reduce her speed,\nno, it was far too soon for that. Instead, her wild free fall leveled into a\nguided dive as she slid forward on invisible plates of modified gravity. About\nher, the Kidorlus formation shifted from its ragged and scattered rain of\ngolden armored bodies into a bouncing and juking flight of golden gliders.\nKaewer\u2019s own erratic pattern, spontaneously updated by her own inspirations or\nher suit\u2019s FI, endeavored to hold no pattern for any watching anti-aircraft\nbatteries to predict. The added maneuver wasn\u2019t particularly necessary this\ntime, the terrorists didn\u2019t have entrenched anti-aircraft flak or twitchy point\ndefense batteries waiting to kill them, but it was regulation. Kaewer liked\nsmart regulations and always tried to follow them, on the off chance it might\nencourage more of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty seconds after jumping,\nnearly seventy percent of the city had flashed below and the unforgiving\ntreetops of the forests that surrounded it were grasping for her soldiers.\nKaewer braked hard as she flashed past a stand of particular pines and her suit\npulsed the warning. Repulsors grabbed at gravity to slow her down in a wall of\nsudden G\u2019s that dragged at her consciousness. The Stalker Fox armour didn\u2019t\nwaste space or power on inertial dampers. The ground below her opened up in a\nsweeping vista of manicured grass and artfully planted trees and the Shivun\nHeadquarters rose in her vision. A small sphere exploded from the discrete\nshoulder launcher tucked into her armour’s right shoulder, the enchanted\nmissile whipped toward it’s the pre-targeted skylight. The force of the launch\nknocked her into a swirling barrel roll as more of the spherical missiles\nrippled from the squad. There were four from each squad, targeted to clear\ntheir entry through the thin skylights of the Shivun Rose.  All twelve missiles hit within a fraction of\na second, vaporizing their targeted skylights, and much of the surrounding\nroof, bare seconds before the Kidorlus would’ve slammed into them. Debris and\ndust swirled as the armoured soldiers crashed to the floor with bone-crushing\nforce. The large, angry profiles of the massive Varkantis Puncturer heavy\nrifles swept the room as suit sensors pushed through the visual clutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClear!\u201d Master\nSergeant Tavoik \u201cMinks\u201d Poras, CO of her second xylia shouted. Legion-net\nagreed with her, the networked FI\u2019s not noticing any potential threats their\norganics had missed. Kaewer’s own FI launched its own attack against the Shivun\nHeadquarters\u2019 security net milliseconds later. Highly classified and restricted\nmilitary code tore through the high-end civilian barriers like so much aluminum\nbefore a plasma saw. The cyber-attacker didn\u2019t waste time trying to lift the\nemergency lockdown or bother trying to infiltrate the network to allow it’s\nreal-space masters pathways in. Instead, it dove straight for the Shivun\nsecurity network\u2019s eyes and ears, ripping through firewalls and causing shorts\nto blow out defensive software. The FI knocked entire sections of the network\ninto audio-visual loops and strangled any potential alarms before they began.\nNot that the series of rapid explosions hadn’t been their own sort of alarm,\nKaewer admitted to herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhase two then,\u201d\nKaewer ordered with a sharp two-fingered come-hither gesture. Privates Jalbystro\nand Kesota jogged to join her, the two non-draiker\u2019s armour very different her\nown. Jalbystro Stalker Hound armour was massive, a walking heavy weapons\nplatoon in its own right, its helmet was even more canid to accommodate the\ncarnaven\u2019s wolf-like head. The avianoid halinwa\u2019s backward knees had required\nhis Stalker Fox armour to be even more heavily customized but the Private\ngained even greater mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three squads\nbroke into their smaller component \u2018xylia\u2019s, or three soldier teams, to sweep\nfurther into the building. Each team had to clear two positions before\nrendezvousing for the final push. The Local intelligence had been next to\nuseless for her team\u2019s planning. The Locals had known for sure that there were\nsix hostages and that they were somewhere in the main campus but that was it.\nThey hadn\u2019t known which of the four buildings that comprised the main compound\nthey were in or where in any of those buildings they might be. So Kaewer and\nLorkei had knuckled down to pour over the schematics and come up with\ntwenty-three potential locations for the hostages to be. Phase Two cleared\neighteen of them in barely two minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Heavy wooden doors exploded before the\ncharging mass of powered armour and carefully inoffensive corporate decorations\ncrunched into scrap as her xylia used walls to redirect their headlong charge,\naiming for the sturdiest seeming portions lest they plunge through. The xylia\npoint switched at every intersection, the leading soldier covering the advance\nof their comrades in a pause just long enough to stab a remote sensor into the\nwall. The sensors hooked onto L-Net, anchoring the tactical awareness of the\nwhole unit into secured corridors even as the soldiers raced past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer felt her\ngrowing anticipation of combat twitch with each new sensor that activated.\nEvery second they didn\u2019t meet resistance settled a pit of worry a little\ndeeper. The eighteen offices, conference rooms and cafeterias her people were\nclearing in phase two were the lowest probability objectives. They were\nnecessary to clear but no one expected any serious resistance. No serious\nresistance shouldn\u2019t have meant no resistance though. While Kaewer sincerely\ndoubt any of the terrorists could\u2019ve predict the arrival of a Kidorlus ship and\ncompany, the Vanished Court were hardened criminals, terrorists and\n\u2018resistance\u2019 fighters who understood basic tactical doctrine and basic tactics\nargued that every approach should have at least some booby traps on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The itch between her\nshoulder blades was grew as the strike reached their phase three starting\npoints without any resistance. Either Jar\u00edda was far lower on supplies than\nshe\u2019d have expected, or they\u2019d created a singularly nasty defense position\nahead. Like in the elevators, Kaewer noted wryly as her xylia bounded to a stop\nbefore a bank of express elevators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight, phase three. All\nunits stay on your twos. K18 watch your back, you\u2019ve got the worst approach,\u201d\nKaewer ordered, voice soft over L-Net. Her people didn\u2019t waste the breath\nresponding, they pulsed their acknowledges in the silent, wordless\ncommunication that L-Net allowed and got to work. Phase Three was a vice, her\nscatter strike slamming inward along multiple approaches to crush the remaining\neight points. Given that these points were the most probable locations of the\nhostages and terrorists to hold out, Kaewer expected the resistance to\nincrease. She was also willing to bet she knew where the hostages were, but SOP\nwas SOP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer and Jalbystro\npulled a pair of elevator doors open each, artificial muscles barely straining\nas the steel security locks bent and tore free with protesting shrieks that\nechoed in the yawning eight-story pit. Kaewer winced, that sound was going to\ntravel. Both soldiers paused to trio of sensor balls into the shafts. The\nlittle spheres bounced and rattled down, small movement enchantments jerking\ntheir ricocheting moving into an even more erratic pathway to avoid hostile\nfire while their visual and magical sensors pulsed, sniffing for hidden wards\nor explosives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing. No\nnon-standard cameras, no wards, no explosives, not even an actual sentry or\nnoise trap. Kaewer scowled. This was getting ridiculous. No one would leave a\ndirect route to their rear unmonitored and they wouldn\u2019t rely on maintaining\ncontrol of the corporate security network\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSurabai zarvok!\u201d\nKaewer cursed as a thought crossed her mind. \u201cLorkei, get the Locals moving\nnow! Make sure they\u2019ve got their most modern TrueSight goggles spread evenly\nand tell them to pay special attention to any sewers or underground passages.\nTell them to watch for traps and someone tell my ravens where to find me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour ravens?\u201d\nKesota, or ‘Leaper’, asked on a local channel, more out of curiosity than\nconcern. Karvus Nine had seen her ravens do far too many amazing things to\ndoubt their effectiveness. The halinwas was half-perched in the elevator shaft,\nwaiting for the order to take point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re facing a Sidhe\nLord and a clever one at that. I wouldn\u2019t put it past Jar\u00edda to have planned to\nsuck the Locals right past him and flee out a quiet side exit while some low\nranked VC patsies distract the cops. Hell, they may even leave us the hostages\nif he can get the information he wants. But we\u2019ve made the VC\u2019s life miserable\nin this sector for years, and if he gets a chance to knife some of us in the\nback, he may just take it. I don\u2019t want him to have the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd the ravens?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey know the stink\nof Faea magic. They\u2019ll be better than TrueSight gear for watching our backs,\u201d\nKaewer said, nodding to Kesato. The halinwas stepped back into the elevator\nwithout hesitation and his two comrades followed several seconds later. The\neight-story drop wasn\u2019t a strain for Imperium assault armour, even without the\nanti-grav plates, but her team wasn\u2019t aiming for the bottom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three soldiers\ncaught the lip of the fourth-floor door with lazy one-handed grips that drove\nfinger shaped divots into the hard metal. Armoured muscles and servos whined\ntheir protest as they dragged themselves into covering position, massive rifles\nangled slightly upward to fit. Jalbystro slapped a breacher onto the elevator\ndoor, hit a button and dropped back to covering profile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breacher glowed\nfor a half second before cascading thunderclaps split the air and the shaft\ndoor vanished. Brilliant lights strobed down the hallway beyond in a wild\ncacophony of light and sound. Private \u2018Leaper\u2019 Kesota threw himself through the\nbreach first, bounding and ricocheting off walls in the way only halinwas could\nas Kaewer and Jalbystro came up behind him, Puncturers sweeping the hallway.\nHer armour sensors went to full active mode, sweeping the hallway with enough\ninfrared, magical and other energy to blister paint. Which they were doing,\nKaewer noted absently, seeing a cheap decorative painting deform slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMain assault is go,\u201d\nA voice said in her ear and Kaewer felt the sudden pressure of the general\nassault were pressing against into the back of her consciousness. She grinned\nand shot out an old L-Net sensor head spiked into the wall, not one of her\npeople’s. The first sign of defensive action she’d seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Her team was headed toward the fourth floor\u2019s\ncentral server room, the centralized local database. It was secure, relatively\nspacious, and the best place for a hacker to break through Shivun’s security.\nIt had the added benefits of heavily reinforced walls, no windows and a single\nentrance. Kaewer could’ve breached it from any direction, no civilian secure\nroom could be so well armoured as to stand up to military-grade cutting charges\nbut the risk of killing the hostages was too high. Which meant she had to go\nthrough the front door. Fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer sensed<\/em>\nthe fire ward from about four strides away, her armour\u2019s heightened sensors\nsniffing out the hostile magic. Two strides later, her own magic shredded the\nsloppy ward, devouring the spell\u2019s energy in savage efficiency even as Leaper,\ntwisting in a dizzying display of aerobatic skill blew away a waiting trip mine\nin a short burst of Puncturer fire that shredded an adjacent 3D printer. Then a\nheavy security door barred their path. Kesato bounced away from it to cover the\nadjoining corridor while he waited for his heavier draiker and carnaven\ncomrades to remove the obstacle. Kaewer, a few steps ahead of the Jalbystro,\nlowered her left shoulder and ran harder, armoured feet pounding. Steel\nshrieked its protest as a ton of draiker and armour ripped it free and Kaewer bounced\ninto the open-air workspace beyond, metal door partially shaped around her\nbody. Her right hand twitched, bring the large Puncturer up and to the right as\nshe fell. The open office suddenly roared with sapphire energy bolts, and the\ncrushing crash of her landing as she fired. Pieces of flaming office furniture\nand bloody goblets of a Sidhe terrorist coated the far wall even as hyper\naccelerated shrapnel plinked off her armour. Kesato leapt into behind her,\nusing a half-crushed desk as a launch pad to throw himself over his CO. His\nrifle phoomed<\/em> its own sharp burst of fire and Kaewer sensed the second\nterrorist die. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the room\nexploded as the three anti-personnel mines hidden in the room went off.\nShrapnel ricocheted off armour designed to take anti-tank fire and tore through\ncheap desks and workstations. Kesota launched a string of whistling curses in\nhis native tongue as the explosive shockwave sent him tumbling through the air\nand through the remnants of an office\u2019s glass wall. Down the next hallway in\nanother open space, Jalbystro roared and someone scream cut short. Panicked\nlight arms fire filled the area and then cut off suddenly. Carnaven liked\ngetting close to their enemy. Especially in power armour, when the enemy’s\nlight arms couldn’t stop them. Several more explosions shook the building as\nthe Kidorlus assault hit resistance at last and Kaewer could feel the chaotic\nflashes of combat from all over the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer tore the door\noff her with a sharp burst of power and started running again. Kesato burst out\nof the office he\u2019d crashed into a heartbeat later, bursting through the\nremaining glass with a snarl. As the two of them passed into the next, blood\nstrewn, office space, Kaewer slowed just enough to slap her carnaven comrade on\nthe back of the head with careful strength. Jalbystro grunted, shook herself\nand loped after her CO. Kaewer shredded six more defensive wards, none of them\nparticularly strong by draiker standards but then the Faea really weren\u2019t much\nfor elemental magic, over the next forty seconds while her teammates destroyed,\nor triggered, four more anti-personnel traps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six Faea\nterrorists guarding the server room hesitated when Jalbystro, golden armour\nslick with pale red blood of her first victim, rounded that final corner. Their\nmakeshift barricades and cover, mostly office furniture that\u2019d been dragged\ninto a pile, might\u2019ve been effective against the weapons the Locals had but\nagainst Puncturer, it was worse than useless. Kaewer and Kesato blew one\nterrorist into spinning pieces while Jalbystro charged forward, Puncturer\nroaring away. The carnaven\u2019s free hand pulped a second terrorist\u2019s head like an\negg when she popped up to shoot even as her rifle blew a hole clear through a\nthird\u2019s. A fourth died in a gurgling crunch of bones as Kesato landed on him\nand the fifth had vanished in a spray of burned gore. The last terrorist\nknocked flat by the explosive fire screamed in terrified defiance and sprayed\nfire from his light submachinegun at the golden armoured monster before him.\nThe low-yield bolts splashed against Jalbystro\u2019s armour, defensive enchantments\nand high-tech armour shrugging it off, until Kesato shot the him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jalbystro tore the\nserver room\u2019s heavy door from its hinges with an echoing roar that vanished\ninto the cascading booms of Kaewer\u2019s stun spell as she leapt through the gap.\nProtective glass cracked and spidered as Kaewer bounced off a standing server\nrack. Her right fist lashed into the face of another armed Sidhe sheltering\nbeside the server rack with thoughtless instinct. Bones crackled and shattered\nbeneath the anvil blow of synthetically augmented xinon, the hyper-toughened\nalloy that was the secret of Imperium hardware, stronger and lighter than steel\nor even carbon fiber.  Pale red blood and\ngrey brain matter erupted into the room as the unfortunate terrorist\u2019s head popped<\/em>\nfrom the force. Kaewer spun backwards, snapping out a hard right back kick into\nthe terrorist who stumbled stumbling forward from behind another server rack,\nclutch at her head. The kick practically tore the terrorist\u2019s left shoulder\nfree and the ruined ialar collapsed in gurgling death throes but Kaewer was\nalready moving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo down!\u201d She\nshouted as a Puncturer roared in the confined space. L-Net flashed an update to\nthe front of her mind, the other two xylias from her squad were heading their\nway now and her ravens were winging their way toward her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne down, clear!\u201d\nKesato shouted, and then the room disappeared. Eternity yawned out beneath her\nfeet and Kaewer staggered back a half step, the sudden loss of visual focal\npoints disorienting. Her armour\u2019s internal gyroscope kept her upright but her\nhead swum for several more seconds while her brain adjusted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNacvin!\u201d Someone\nyelled on L-Net even as her vision lit up with TrueSight alarms. Those systems\nwere practically humming their defiance as they struggled to break down the\nillusion. A green wireframe outline of the room appeared, superimposed against\nthe empty void that had replaced reality. The wireframe reality was only of\nlimited use for combat, L-Net was generating the outline from memory so any\nchanges wouldn\u2019t be visible to her until her TrueSight sensors broke through\nthe illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHold your fire!\u201d\nKaewer snapped, \u201cCivilian targets possible!\u201d Her team was too well trained for\nthe nightmarish type of panic fire popular in the movies and Interface games\nbut even measured weapons fire from anti-materiel rifles like the Puncturers\ncould kill the civilians they were here to rescue. Sergeant Ruax\u2019s xylia froze\nabout ten feet away from the server room\u2019s entrance, L-Net showing her they\u2019d\nhit the illusion\u2019s edge. Jalbystro had had the presence of mind to step into\nthe ruined doorframe, blocking the only exist with her lethal bulk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLieutenant, do you\nneed assistance?\u201d That was Master Sergeant Poras, her third xylia\u2019s commander.\nHis team had been the farthest from the server room and hadn\u2019t been caught in\nthe illusion\u2019s boundaries. His camera showed an empty hallway with Ruax\u2019s team\nstopped halfway down it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNegative, secure our\nperimeter,\u201d Kaewer declined, no one had shot her yet so Jar\u00edda was either\ninterested in talking or stalling her while other terrorists came in to\nreinforce them. With both her other teams unimpeded, she was safe from dealing\nwith the later options, assuming there were any reinforcements lefts for these\ncowards. Then, quietly, on her xylia\u2019s private channel she asked, \u201cJal?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo minutes,\u201d The\ncarnaven growled back. \u201cStall.\u201d Kaewer\u2019s own magic, while far more subtle and\nharder to sense than a normal draiker mage\u2019s, was too similar, too familiar to\nJar\u00edda for her to safely probe the illusion\u2019s structure. Jalbystro\u2019s magic\noperated on a dramatically different \u2018frequency\u2019, for lack of a better term,\nfrom faea or draiker magic. Many of the mages from those schools ignored it\nuntil it was too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImpressive illusion,\nJar\u00edda.\u201d Kaewer said conversationally, turning on her suit\u2019s external speakers.\n\u201cI\u2019d really love to know why our TrueSight gear hasn\u2019t broken it to pieces\nyet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really is quite\nimpressive isn\u2019t it?\u201d The voice was male, smoothly manicured, and\ndirectionless. It had the self-assured confidence of a person used to being\nobeyed without question. \u201cBe polite, Lieutenant. As much as I admired the\nimposing visage of your assault armour, I do not enjoy conversing with a\nfaceless monster that\u2019s just finished slaughtering loyal retainers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t aware we\nhad anything to talk about,\u201d Kaewer said calmly, her tone bordering on bored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought we could\nhave a civil conversation, you know about places we\u2019ve been and who we\u2019ve\nkilled there, but if you\u2019d rather I could start killing hostages\u2026\u201d The voice\nreplied with an air of suffering patience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou should know by\nnow that the Imperium doesn\u2019t negotiate with terrorists,\u201d Kaewer chided,\npointing her rifle at the ceiling and resting the stock on her hip. She meant\nfor the physical softening of her stance to soften the outright rejection of\nher words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd yet, here we\nare,\u201d Jar\u00edda chuckled smugly. \u201cHelmet, if you please. I know your mother raised\nyou better than this.\u201d Kaewer sighed and opened her helmet, muting the L-Net\nchatter as she did. The canine visage split down the middle and folded again as\nthe helmet parted and retracted part way. Kaewer braced herself against the\nfamiliar stink of death: of the stink of piss and shit from bowels suddenly\nuncontrolled; the tang of blood, acrid, iron-y or sulfuric; and the reek of\nburned flesh layered on each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBetter?\u201d Kaewer\nasked with a flick of her neck length hair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do so enjoy\nlooking into the eyes of a worthy opponent,\u201d Jar\u00edda agreed pleasantly, voice\nstill directionless. \u201cAn Iradathkin special operations agent should be more\ncareful with the word terrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t recall ever\nmurdering children to scare their parents,\u201d Kaewer replied coolly. \u201cThat was\nnasty, even for your low standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBusiness is\nbusiness. There was nothing personal about it. You are far worse, child. When\nyou kill children, you do it for the greater good<\/em>. We are not opposites,\njust the shadows of different things. One more honest about its nature than the\nother. What do your parents think, young Jirvaerka, to have a daughter whose\nlife is so dark?\u201d Jar\u00edda laughed, not a pretty laugh but one that pretended to\nrefinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cQuite proud\nactually. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard about what my mother did to the Vanished\nCourt\u2019s little smuggling ring in Alqara,\u201d Kaewer said cheerfully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a brother on\nAlqara actually,\u201d The voice agreed calmly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI put together the\nintel that let my mom plan that whole operation,\u201d Kaewer smiled, brushing a\nsweaty bang back from her forehead. \u201cProbably put an energy bolt into your\nbrother myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh, but that\u2019s the\nfortunes of life and war. Well now that we are done with our\u2026 what do the\ncarnaven say? Oh, right. Now that we\u2019ve finished measuring who can pee the\nfurthest, can we get down to business, Lieutenant Jirvaerka?\u201d The voice gave a\nweary sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJar\u00edda Mar\u00e1n, use my\nfamily\u2019s name a third time and you will not like the results,\u201d Kaewer growled.\nThe weave of the world wobbled six times; the pulse of magic very strange but\nintimately familiar to her senses. Sixty more seconds. Ancestors Above, this\nwas good magic. Jar\u00edda must\u2019ve be leaching power from the local grid to make it\nthis strong. How he\u2019d managed that, the virunos were going to have fun\nunravelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh, the young one\nknows our legends. Perhaps she fears the truth?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis young one knows\nthe truth as well, trickster. I just won\u2019t tolerate the insult.\u201d Her Interface,\nwhich had kept its connection to L-Net, flashed a new visual in front of her.\nIt was the relatively poor quality of an armour helmet camera, Poras\u2019 to be\nspecific. The video showed three black shapes racing over his head and down the\nhallway. All three hit the illusion\u2019s outer edge without a flutter and flew\npast Ruax\u2019s cautiously halted team with mocking flits of their wings. \u201cI\nbelieve you wanted to talk, sidhe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI seek a parlay. The\nvirunos\u2019 blundering raid on our local cell was an inconvenience. They caught\nsome low hanging fruit and some spectacular fools whose capture jeopardized\neight months of planning, but our plans are flexible. Your team dismantled that\nsame plan, and kill twenty of this world\u2019s best underground shooters, in little\nover a minute but you still failed. I still have the hostages. So, let\u2019s talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not getting\nany schematics,\u201d Kaewer told the empty air bluntly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are\nschematics?\u201d Jar\u00edda dismissed airily. \u201cI seek life and freedom, a continuation\nof this grand game of cat and mouse not simple money. I\u2019ll even tell you who\nsold us the trick to swamp your TrueSight gear if you just let me and mine walk\naway. I know you have the authority, Lieutenant<\/em>.\u201d Something silent and\nblack brushed past her, a ghost of movement and air swallowed quickly by the\nSidhe\u2019s magic. Kaewer ordered her face to keep itself bored. If Jar\u00edda\u2019s magic\nwas working like it should, he wouldn\u2019t have even noticed the ravens\u2019 silent\npassage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I let you walk\naway, the blood of every innocent you kill, or order killed, afterward would be\non my conscious. I like my blood debt to be mine and not anyone else\u2019s.\u201d Kaewer\ngrinned as rust-coloured silhouettes began to burn in the void, her ravens\nlighting the false darkness with their own tricks. Still no reaction.\nTraditional mages really were horrible about detecting wild magic, Kaewer\nthought with a mental shake of her head. Sloppy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat a naively\nquaint idea for a spec ops officer like youse-\u201d One of the raven\u2019s dropped\nsuddenly, plummeting to land on someone\u2019s shoulder across the room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer didn\u2019t\nhesitate. She pivoted sharply, aiming just down and to the right of the\nrust-red outline in a scything horizontal burst. Sapphire energy tore the\nartificial darkness with the echoing phooms<\/em> of energy bolt fire. The\nraven silhouette tossed itself into the air almost before she fired and Kaewer\ndidn\u2019t see her bolts drive home. Jalbystro gave a roar of triumph. Crimson\nmagic spider webbed through the void for a fraction of a second before the\nillusion shattered. Kaewer found herself aiming at the ruins of a server rack\nin front of her, a line of gaping holes blasted clean through it and its next\nthree sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo for the eyes!\nMissed me! Too slow!\u201d<\/em> The mocking battle cries of her ravens and answering\ngunfire pushed her into motion a second later. Her helmet slammed shut on\nemergency activation as she pulsed her anti-gravity booster the wrong way. Two\nfull gravities pulled her suddenly in a forty-degree angle away from the floor.\nA server rack, undamaged, exploded as a ton of armour and draiker vaulted\nthrough it, smashing through a second rack and bouncing hard off the ceiling as\nshe cleared obstacles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer fired in the\nfrozen instant at the top, just able to see a quad of lightly armoured figures\nwho flailed or fired pistols at the trio of attacking ravens. Three of the\nterrorists died in the next instant, their torsos vanishing in a sapphire flash\nand the acrid smoke of burned flesh. The fourth, somewhat better dressed than\nhis comrades, spun with a scream as she put an energy bolt through his left\nhand, vaporizing the gun and adjoining flesh in a flash of sapphire. Then she\nwas falling again, normal gravity and physics asserting itself as she crushed a\nthird server rack in a sprawl of limbs. Artificial muscles tore themselves free\nof the light steel and polymer of the entangling server rack as Kaewer leapt to\nher feet. She abandon the heavy rifle, pulling out her Fracture pistol from its\nthigh compartment as she ran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jar\u00edda, for the\nwell-dressed terrorist could be no one else, was mewling as he pulled himself\nto his feet, clutching futile at the seared stump of flesh that\u2019d been his left\nhand. He sprawled to the ground when he saw her, surviving hand lunging for a\nfallen gun. Kaewer kicked him as softly as she could but the force lifted the\ninjured sidhe into the air and bounced him hard off the wall. The sidhe\u2019s\nragged scream cut off with a sharp whoop of air as he bounced off the bare\nconcrete wall and rolled to a stop a few feet away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh maiso,\u201d Kaewer\nspat kneeling over the suddenly motionless terrorist. \u201cI better not have killed\nthe wamikeris surabai.\u201d Her helmet\u2019s sensors pulsed, her FI checking the\nsprawled terrorist for the smallest visible signs of breathing and pulse. It\nconfirmed that Kaewer hadn\u2019t killed him, a very real risk when hitting someone\nin armour, and she pulled his feet roughly together and manacled them. The\nsigils etched deep into the golden metal flared she locked them. The manacles\nwere designed to restrain and contain most known types of magic use, including\nFaea. Their effect alone was usually enough to paralyze a life-long mage but\nKaewer bound Jar\u00edda\u2019s arms behind his back with the more common plastic\nbinding, then stood as L-Net showed her the rest of the server room clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got five civilians\nhere, one casualty.\u201d That was Private Uancai, Sergeant Ruax\u2019s halinwas\nxylia-mate. Kaewer\u2019s heart stopped as L-Net told her his location. The halinwas\nshooter was standing on almost the opposite side of the room, right along the\nwall where she\u2019d scythed a line of a Puncturer fire through several racks of\ncomputers and the inky concealment of Jar\u00edda\u2019s illusion. Kaewer thought fast,\naccessing Uancai\u2019s helmet camera in desperate thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sixth draiker lay\nsplayed at the base of the access console blood slowly oozing from a burned\nhole in her head. Her once light green tunic had a practical, affordable cut to\nit. Now it was torn, and blood soaked, the small promotional pin for a popular\ninterface game glowing with mocking cleanliness on its breast. There was\nsomething wrong with her legs too. Something the fish-eyed helmet camera wasn\u2019t\nrevealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell maiso,\u201d Kaewer\nsighed, levering herself to her feet. She hoisted the unconscious Jar\u00edda in one\nhand and stalked across the server room. Private Gilun met her part way,\nreaching out his free hand to take her prisoner from her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHostages secured. Time to secure extraction route\nthree minutes. Locals moving slowly and are wary of traps. Estimated count on\nremaining hostiles, three. Lieutenant, we received an Admiralty-routed\ngold-flagged com request for you about four minutes ago. The Captain is\nstalling,\u201d Flaring Ember, Charcoaled Sun<\/em>\u2019s AI, reported\nidly. Ember always had overall overwatch when unit operated anti-terrorist\nmissions. The AI was patient, meticulous and better at parsing complex data\nsituations than any of the Sun<\/em>\u2019s meat-based crew could dream of and\nwhile L-Net\u2019s FI\u2019s could do its job, the team appreciated Ember\u2019s personal\ntouch. Gold-flagged orders weren\u2019t quite direct orders from the Vinialvoalmi,\nthe Imperium\u2019s reigning head of state, but they were too close for any simple\ncombat commander to feel comfortable about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAcknowledged Ember.\nTell the Captain to keep stalling. I\u2019ve got to make some more deposits to the\nnightmare bank,\u201d Kaewer squared her mental shoulders, armour made it hard to\nactual slouch after all and rounded the corner. \u201cTalk to me, Uancai.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was tortured,\u201d\nThe squat halinwas rumbled without looking up from the young ialar\u2019s body.\n\u201cCuts and bruises are too regular for a fight and her legs have been broken\nseveral times. Carefully too.\u201d Kaewer squatted to get a better look as Uancai\npointed with a metal finger at the tech\u2019s legs whose wavy deformation was\nsickeningly clear to Kaewer now. An angry charred hole on her upper thigh added\nto the list of injuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat gunshot is at\nleast a few hours old too,\u201d Kaewer took a deep breath inspected the corpse and\nthen this little corner of the server room. A line of blackened craters pocked\nthe wall, stopping about four feet to her left. To her right, lay five bound\nhostages now being aided by a careful, and unsealed, Jalbystro. Kaewer felt the\ntension melt out her muscles as she realized she hadn’t killed a hostage with\nher blind fire but kept her voice steady as she regarded the corpse. \u201cTorture\nwhile under the threat of direct assault seems fairly extreme. If you told me\nthese were fanatics on a revenge killing, I still wouldn\u2019t buy it. So, what was\nthese scum after and did they get it out?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShivun manufacturers\nthe next generation of military Interfaces. Any number of Wild nations would\ngive up their entire treasury for the schematics on how to build the bachot\u2019\nthings,\u201d Uancai\u2019s made a spit gesture with his armoured head adding a flick on\nthe ground in lieu of actual spit. Kaewer nodded, acknowledging her\nsubordinate\u2019s explaining without agreeing. It was a clean and simple answer,\nthe sort of motive that\u2019d make the local virunos investigators and media happy.\nKaewer didn\u2019t trust the comfortable simplicity of the answer, she couldn\u2019t\nquite make it fit the \u2018freedom fighter\u2019 narrative the Vanished Court liked to\ncultivate. Kaewer snorted and tossed her head, armour turning the small gesture\ninto a full body roll as she chased thoughts away. Save the post-analysis\nfor after the mission, raven brain<\/em> she scolded herself silently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of ravens,\nKaewer thought to herself, straightening as she looked around the room. \u201cIt\u2019s\nclear,\u201d<\/em> She called out, returning her pistol to its thigh compartment and\nholding out her free left arm. \u201cYou three earned your dinner today, that\u2019s\nfor sure.\u201d<\/em> The three ravens left their hidden perches to drop on her\nshoulders and arm with rattling laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImugemare wanted\nto remain outside but Pitch convinced her you needed help,<\/em>\u201d Furigido\nreported as he settled on her left shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA building is no\nplace for a raven.\u201d <\/em>The boss raven snapped at the air casually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitch laughed from\nKaewer\u2019s wrist, the energetic bird\u2019s favorite perch, \u201cWas that a Sidhe\nagain? Their magic is so silly!<\/em>\u201d  He\nflapped his wings in a bird war dance. Kaewer laughed, one eye still on her\nhelmet\u2019s HUD as she tracked the Local’s assault\u2019s progress. The Locals\nbolstered by one of her own squads were making better than anticipated time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGet the civvie\u2019s\nready to move. We\u2019ve got a minute before our exfiltration corridor is secured,\u201d\nShe barked, recovering her own heavy rifle from the server rack it’d lodged in.\nHer ravens scattered again, perching themselves in the dim half-lit shadows of\nthe battered server room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Lieutenant, the Captain is running out of stalling tactics,\u201d\nFlaring Ember broke into Kaewer’s com-net again. “The situation appears nominal. You can spare a moment for this\ncall. It does seem important.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer sighed\nmentally but took a second to review the tactical situation. She made a face. Flaring\nEmber was right, of course. Unless something dramatic was waiting in the wings,\nthe situation was firmly under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Lorkei, I have\na gold-flagged comm request from the Admiralty that doesn’t want to wait,”\nKaewer said, opening the private channel with her second-in-command. His own\nsquad was halfway across the building and two floors higher up, having cleared\ntheir own phase three objectives with minimal resistance. “I’m going to\npass operational command off to you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Got it,”\nHer XO chuckled. “Have fun with that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All Kidorlus\nUnits, this is Sub-Lieutenant Stakara, Lieutenant Jirvaerka has passed\noperational command to me. Sergeant Ruax, you have Karvus Nine tactical\ncommand.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaewer tuned out\nLorkei’s rapid instructions as he assumed overall command and reopened her link\nto Flaring Ember. “Alright, Flaring, patch whoever this suradec is through\nto me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes Lieutenant.” A new icon appeared on\nKaewer’s HUD and she opened the call with a thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Lieutenant\nJirvaerka online. You’re interrupting an active Kidorlus operation right now,\nso just what in the Stars is so important it can’t wait another twenty\nminutes?” Kaewer answered, not bothering to conceal her annoyance. She\nmight be only lieutenant, but her mother was the head of the Imperium’s navy. A\nlittle acerbic attitude, even if the person on the other end was a flag\nofficer, wasn’t going to hurt her career overmuch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLieutenant\nJirvaerka, Agent Forial, Trip-I. I apologize for the intrusion, but I need your\nteam immediately. My contacts pulled some strings to route my call through the\nAdmiralty in the hopes that I could get to you faster but Captain Plufore was\ninsistent you were unavailable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh maiso, it’s\na Trip-I operative,” Kaewer sent the thought to Lorkei with the hint of a\nwince for emphasis. He sent his amusement back as a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Agent, surely\nthere are other Kidorlus in your sector that you could’ve called. I’m sure\nyou’re aware that my portion of the 278th is currently deployed in an active\noperation on Aligoyaka. Even if you’re in Yopile, we are not the most\nconvenient Kidorlus to get ahold of,” Kaewer kept her tone reasonable and\nher retort logical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No, I need your\n<\/em>team, Lieutenant,” Agent Forial said. Kaewer frowned. Something about\nthe way he said it\u2026 she shook her head, shrugging off the concern for the\nmoment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Unless you’re\nin Aligoya Poxei, as soon as possible is going to be a couple of days at best,\nAgent Forial,” Kaewer pointed out, “Physics are physics. Stars, even\nif you were in Voimanudath itself, we’d still be a couple of hours before we\ncould support you. It takes time to disengage from an anti-terror\noperation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m in-system,\nLieutenant but the issue I need your help with isn’t. I’m aboard the Crossing\nDawn<\/em> out of Tiralsyi Poxei. As soon as I realized where you’d be, I hopped\non the soonest Stellar Verge and headed this way. I wasn’t expecting to find\nyou already in-system and deployed though.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Where’d I’d be?\nAgent, not even a Trip-I operative should have accurate data on Kidorlus patrol\nroutes in a region as chaotic as Yopile. I’m going to need you to explain\nexactly how you got that information, and I’m going to need you to do it right\nnow.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2026 can’t. Not\nover the Pulse-Net. Even on a gold-flag secure line I managed to\u2026 borrow\u2026 from\nthe Admiralty. But we have a mutual friend, Lieutenant. One that told me if I\never needed my posterior pulled out of the fire, I should find a\nJirvaerka.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A mutual\nfriend?” Kaewer knew a lot of people. Her parents knew even more and a fair\nnumber of them would swear by the family’s ability to pull people out of the\nfire when it looked impossible. How many were mixed up with the Imperium\nIntelligence Institute though? The Institute was the Imperium’s premier\ncivilian intelligence agency, focused on investigation, counter-intelligence\nand non-military foreign intelligence gathering. Generally speaking, the Trip-I\nprovided background data and support for the military but stayed out its way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Yes,\nLieutenant. One of my mentors. Always reminded me of a mountain’s sewer, if\nthat makes any sense.” Kaewer froze, her eyes narrowing. Agent Forial had\nmanaged that weird metaphor casually, almost absently but it was a phrase she\nknew. A phrase she’d never expected a stranger to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I find that\nsingular description very\u2026 accurate, Agent. Our mutual friend has earned you an\naudience. We’ll see you when you hit orbit. Our planetary engagements should be\nwrapped before that,” Kaewer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thank you,\nLieutenant,” Forial said after a long pause. “I look forward to\nseeing you. Forial clear.” Kaewer nodded sharply as the connection cut and\nopened her channel to Lorkei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Lorkei, I’m\nordering a recall. I want us in the air within the next two hours. I’ll chat\nwith the locals, but I need us moving as soon as physically possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What’s up,\nboss?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is an\nalleged Trip-I operative aboard the Crossing Dawn<\/em> who claims to need our\nhelp.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So? The Trip-I\nis always asking for our help.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He insinuated\nthat he knows Uncle Rowan. Dropped a very specific family code phrase\ntoo.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Boss, I know\nyour family is\u2026 well, it’s the Jirvaerkas, but you can’t break Kidorlus\nstandard-operating-procedure because of a family code- phrase from a\nstranger.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Uncle Rowan is\na senior Trip-I operative, very senior, and the code phrase this ‘Agent Forial’\nused is a bad one. Redeploy Imperium Fleets bad if he used it on my mother\nbad.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh\u2026 uh\u2026”\nLorkei swallowed audibly. “If that’s the case, I’ll get started.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thanks,”\nKaewer chuckled. “I’ll contact Captain Duma and traffic control. We’re\ngoing to be in a hurry on our way out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took almost the\nentire two hours to soothe the local authorities and get her people\ndisentangled from the post-operation mess that always followed an anti-terror\noperation. But her people stomped up the ramps of their waiting gunships with\nminutes to spare. The veteran Kidorlus locked themselves firmly into their\nshock frames as the gunships\u2019 engines howled and the wing leapt airborne. They\nweren’t about to burn plasma sheaths like they had on their descent, but their\npilots were about to break all of traffic control’s ordinances again. High\noverhead the Charcoaled Sun <\/em>fired her own engines and broke out of her\nparking orbit. She too was violating traffic control’s ordinances, but her burn\nwasn’t very hard, yet. Forty-five minutes later, the wing of gunships\npractically crashing into the hangar\u2019s docking claps, which were thankfully\ndesigned for such rough treatment, as the Charcoaled Sun<\/em> accelerated\ntoward an intercept with the Crossing Dawn<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Iradathkin Imperium Navy Cruiser Charcoaled Sun pushed back into real space on the inner edge of Aligoya Poxei. Forty minutes later, a still slightly bleary-eyed Lieutenant Kaewer Jirvaerka, 278th Kidorlus found herself sitting in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,34,29,8],"tags":[31,33,30,24],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-patreon","category-toi","category-writing","tag-kae","tag-patreon","tag-toi","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talesofalexander.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}