"What we're doing is something terrible, and awful, and necessary," he said to her. "But I won't kill those people, people who can still be saved, just because it's risky for us to try and save them. If we don't try, what's the fraggin' point? We destroy hives to save people. Well, Captain, I got bad news for you-the people on those buses are literally the people we're doing this for. That's the chip truth."
Ravenheart began to slowly look around the room, and Kyle did the same. It seemed most, if not all, of the Knight Errant troopers had come in or were standing in the hall within earshot. Many looked fearful, yet were nodding at the sentiments Sergeant Vathoss had unexpectedly voiced. The consensus was evident.
Ravenheart closed her eyes and shook her head violently. "You're all fraggin' glitched," she muttered, but she looked and sound very, very tired. "All right," she said, turning to Kyle. "Let's do it."
31
"The wacker is," Anne Ravenheart said as they stood alone in a large, loft-like warehouse space some blocks away from the insect hive, "that we don't even really know if the nuke will hurt them."
Kyle nodded, but said, "I'm pretty sure it will. We're talking about one hellacious blast of energy."
"Conventional blasts don't harm them," she countered. "No real mystic, human impetus behind them. No emotion, no energy."
"You're right, but a nuclear blast, despite the way it's achieved, is one of the most primal effects you can get. If they're immune to that, we'd be better off at ground zero ourselves."
She smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I suppose so." She looked around the space quickly and then back at Kyle. "You sure this is a good idea? One or two of the little bastards is bad enough, but close to a dozen…"
He laughed. "Why do I suspect you'll never have children?"
Ravenheart mocked a flinch. "Ugh. Fraggin' right. I just don't have the tolerance for them."
“Then let me do all the talking. You just echo it to your brood.”
"Deal," she said. "I'll guard you first."
Kyle nodded and took a few steps away from her, turning as he did. With that slow spin, he shifted his senses into astral space. It was warm and cool at the same time, and he felt the careful radiance that flowed from Anne Ravenheart's aura as well as his own. The rest of the loft space was peaceful and quiet. That would soon change.
He reached out a hand, and focusing his power, swept it through the ambient energy of astral space. It scooped into his palm and condensed as he swept it again, building more energy into his cupped hand. The energy of astral space pulled together. It was the energy given off by all living things, the power of the planet's biosphere, and as he compressed it, formed it, shaped it, it began to take on a life of its own.
He wouldn't need it long, just an hour or two, so he allowed it to form some degree of loose structure. Its weave didn't need to be tight enough to last for any real length of time. He folded the energy in on itself as a piece of astral origami sculpture. Then, barely a few heartbeats after he'd begun, the molded energy gained and retained its own form (not unlike yogurt floating weightless in space). A pair of impossibly big eyes opened in the form and blinked at him. Then it grinned, big wide, ragged, and dumb.
"Hoi," it said, almost shyly. "Are you gonna play with me?"
Behind him, Anne Ravenheart groaned. Kyle had created a watcher spirit-incredibly fast in both astral space and in the physical world, with the fighting spirit of a pit bull, and the brains to match. It was one of nearly a dozen he and Ravenheart would create before they attacked the nest.
"The plan," Ravenheart told the group who'd be participating in the raid to capture the buses, "is straightforward, and not without its risks."
The Knight Errant troopers were all garbed in assembled pieces of hard combat armor and softer body armor. All carried helmets equipped with some sort of vision-enhancing system and a tactical communication system strong enough to punch through the UCAS government jamming for a short distance at least. And they were all armed, most with Ares Alpha combat guns, a few with the newer HVAR high-velocity assault rifles, and two with Mossberg SM-CMDT combat shotguns equipped with under-barrel mini-grenade launchers.
They all also carried-trained to use it or not- the biggest knife, combat, survival, or kitchen, they could find. Kyle had suggested it, and Ravenheart quickly ordered it, both knowing that if an insect spirit got in close enough to the trooper to strike with its claws or mandibles, assault weapons would be of little use. Even in untrained hands, a physical, direct attack with a knife, or even an unarmed one, carried more emotional, mystical power than a firearm did. A firearm, though, tore into the bugs before they got too close. An undeniable advantage.
With them sat a dour Seeks-the-Moon who stared off unblinking in the direction of the power plant. Whatever magic was working in the power plant was affecting him, though he refused to admit if. Near him, and possibly a contributor to his mood, was what one of the Knight Errant troopers had dubbed "the crib"-a low-power mana barrier that kept the ten watcher spirits Kyle and Ravenheart had summoned contained and hopefully protected from the unknown capabilities of the insect spirits' senses. Inside the hemisphere of dull blue energy, the ten globs of protoplasm chased each other gleefully, more than occasionally plastering themselves flat against the barrier, only to rebound in the other direction with even more force. At Seeks-the-Moon's request, Kyle had placed a silence spell over the area to cut off the cacophony of squeals.
"Our main goal," continued Ravenheart, "is to get those buses, with the people inside them, out of that plant. There's enough room to turn them around, and even if the gates are closed, as I expect them to be, the first bus will be able to get up enough speed to tear through it.
"Six of you will actually participate in the assault. Three of you, Douglas, Quess, and Keith, will drive the buses, tagged alpha, beta, and delta, respectively, from first in line to last." Once the consensus had been reached that Ravenheart and her team would back Kyle in his attempt to rescue the bus passengers, it was quickly agreed that his best use, as a mage, would be to accompany and provide magical support for the assault. Kyle had readily agreed; he really didn't know how to drive anything bigger than a commuter car.
"We're going to come in from the south, through the boat yard that abuts it off the river." She recapped for them. "There's nothing special about the fence, just aluminum alloy; Vathoss and Douglas will use the acid strips on them. No sparks, little noise.
"By that time, I suspect," she said, "we'll have trouble."
"Excuse the interruption," Seeks-the-Moon said unexpectedly, "but I am suddenly afraid I know what they're doing." He stood up from the crate on which he'd been sitting.
"What?" Kyle asked.
Seeks-the-Moon started walking toward one of the room's few exits. They'd gathered and commenced the briefing in a small extension to the rear of the building that sat across from the power plant. It was old and derelict, probably abandoned years before, but it served. Kyle and Ravenheart followed as Moon said, "We must look."
"Vathoss!" Ravenheart gestured at the sergeant. "Begin a weapons check, and let Conner know to prep the drone." Vathoss nodded as his only reply.
The spirit led the two mages on a fairly involved path through the building they'd mapped out earlier. Squatters, at some point in the building's history, had punched holes in the walls connecting originally isolated sections. They climbed to the fourth floor, second from the top, via a rusty ladder in an elevator shaft. Reaching the warehouse space there, they crept forward, keeping to the inner wall. Halfway, Seeks-the-Moon held up his hand and the other two stopped.