“The wall will hopefully buy us the five or six seconds we need to do that. They could blast through it with a couple of spells, or they could choose to jump the cement railing and drop to the bottom level, it’s not that great of a fall. Then we’ll take down the last four.”

  She’d have to drop her detect magic spell for the fight, to get back the twenty more Solis and a little more. It should be safe enough, and she’d put it back up after the fight was done.

  A level three shield wall was as powerful as a level three shield dome, equivalent to a level nine basic personal shield spell.

  Stacy suggested, “How about a containment dome instead? So they’ll be cut off and have to power their way out, without the option of jumping the rail instead which will give them multiple opportunities for cover. Plus, if we’re really lucky, and take down the first four before they break out, then inside a containment dome they’ll be sitting ducks. We can hit them, but they can’t hit us back.”

  She tilted her head, “I love you. Why do I make these plans when you’re clearly the group’s tactical genius?”

  Stacy blushed, “I don’t have the right personality to command in battle, way too high strung. You were born to lead, and your tactics are always effective enough to do the job. I’m quite happy making suggestions, maam.”

  She chuckled, “Alright, tactical advisor it is. Let’s take cover behind that concrete lane splitter. Same plan with Stacy’s modification. We cast on her signal. They’re almost to the edge of the park, won’t be long now.”

  They wouldn’t have surprise, but they did have the dug in position and choice of ground, while the only entry to the underground was the wide down ramp that had very little to no cover. They could take the elevator or stairwell instead, but an even smaller choke point like a doorway would be worse for them, so she didn’t think it likely.

  Still, just in case, she’d keep her detection spells up until the moment she needed to start casting the level twelve blunt force spell.

  Ella said, “They have mage rifles, as well as light and sound, smoke, and fragmentation grenades.”

  She sighed, “If they pop smoke to occlude the ramp, which seems likely, then put up the dome. They won’t see it, so should walk right into it and trap themselves. I’ll use my implant to transmit an overlay of their magic’s position in your augmented reality, so you can aim your spells through the smoke.”

  If that happened, she’d have to keep her detection spell up to act as spotter through the smoke. She dropped her shield instead, and then recast it at level six instead of eight. That and the cover would have to suffice as protection. If it all went wrong she’d use her built in spells, but she wanted to avoid it since she’d be turning in a copy of the events seen through her eyes.

  “They just stopped. Damnit. They’re splitting up, four are coming down the ramp, two in the elevator, and two from the stairwell. The four at the top of the ramp are waiting, so all three breaches happen simultaneously. Advisor?”

  Stacy giggled, then said, “Ella has the spell too, so she can act as spotter. You go take out the two clowns in the stairwell. Alone, don’t hold back, they’re trying to kill us, so just take them out, capture isn’t reasonable on your own when we’re being forced to split up. Crandall can shield wall the elevator locking in those two and act as your sniper and backup, giving you enough time to circle back around and help him with those two. Crandall, create the shield wall on the plane of the doors, if the doors won’t close, they can’t retreat by making the elevator return to the ground floor. While Ella, Daniel, and I take down the four-man team with the original plan, so at least the spooks will have someone to talk to.”

  She nodded, “I like it, and you’re right. Let’s go, Crandall.”

  She didn’t like killing, but she didn’t have a problem with it when defending herself or others. The danger level was just too high taking on two alone, to try and capture, like Stacy said.

  Ella whispered, “Good luck,” while Daniel said, “Be careful,” as the two of them headed toward the stairwell and elevator off to the right. Both were right next to each other.

  She didn’t hesitate, as she took the stairs three at a time up to the ground floor, then took a position against the wall right near the door. The men there wouldn’t open the door and move in until the others were already on the elevator and committed. She would take the first one through completely by surprise.

  She cast the three second force twelve sever spell and held it while she waited.

  The door opened and the mage rifle came through first held in a guard position. She reached out with her left hand and grabbed the barrel and pushed up and to the side as she spun around. She saw his eyes going wide with surprise, but he’d barely started fighting her hold of his rifle as she released the sever spell. It blasted through his force ten shield and decapitated him, sending blood and his head flying into the face of his buddy.

  She started to cast a blunt force spell as she kicked the falling corpse back into the second man. It didn’t do much, except serve as a distraction and foul the man’s aim as she ducked back behind the wall. The sound of his rifle going off and blasting through he cement wall next to her head, was followed by the plink of a grenade that rolled through the door.

  Well, telekinesis did come in useful in a fight. With a glance down the grenade flew back through the doorway and exploded in the second man’s face.

  That was all the time she’d needed, and she leaned around the wall and shot the blunt force spell into his face. His shield had held against the grenade blast, but it’d been severely degraded by it, so her blunt force spell pulped his skull, and launched him across the cement parking lot to slam into a car.

  She checked the rifle quickly, and it would fire bullets at up to force eight. It was also set for that already. Instead of running down the stairs, she stepped over to the elevator doors and pried them open with telekinesis. Then leaned forward a bit, and aimed at the two men stuck in the elevator car by Crandall’s shield wall, using her detect magic to aim. The shots blew through the ceiling of the elevator. It took two hits each, one to weaken the shields, and the second to break through and kill them, but it only took two seconds, since she could fire every half second or so. A lot faster than a single spell would’ve been. That hadn’t been the plan, but it’d worked even better than the plan.

  She started to cast another blunt force spell.

  “Watch your shots, I’m coming up on them from behind, left hand railing from your position on the first level, anything on the ramp needs to go down. Crandall, see if you can set up a second crossfire position from down below,” she said over comms to the team.

  By the time she made it over there, only one was still standing. She could feel the mage captures on the other three lying on the ground, while the last one was dug in behind the middle ramp pillar. Except, she had a perfect angle for the shot, when her team didn’t.

  She took it, the blunt force spell blasted through his shield, and slammed him hard against the wall, bouncing his head of the cement. The man was knocked out cold, so she unhurriedly cast the mage capture spell.

  Both her and Ella yelled, “Clear!” at the exact same time.

  Instead of going down the ramp, she turned back around and took the stairs, policing the second weapon and both corpses on the way, so it all floated behind her as she returned to the team. Crandall did the same with the ones in the elevator, while the rest of the team healed and gathered up the prisoners.

  The four bodies and four captured mages were lined up next to each other, along with a pile of eight weapons.

  “I kind of want to keep one.”

  Crandall chuckled, “That surprised the hell out of me, when you shot them both in the top of the head.”

  She nodded, “It was quicker than coming back downstairs, and gave me unobstructed shots.”

  The elevator shaft was two feet thick plascrete and steel reinforced, which would’ve offered them much better cover on either side of the door than the flimsy and thin roof of the elevator car. Plus, it also put her in the position to flank the last one that’d managed to dig in after destroying the containment dome.

  Ella said, “I don’t think we’re allowed sniper mage rifles as cadets.”

  She grinned, “I know, but I still want one. I’ll just have to live with the disappointment. Well executed plan.”

  Stacy nodded, “They underestimated us, and your spell. Using it to target through the smoke was brilliant.”

  She said, “Yeah, I made the spell so I’d know how hard to hit without guessing and wasting a lot of time on each enemy. But being able to take smoke or concealment spells away as valid cover is a fantastic bonus. Do we know how they tracked us?”

  Stacy pointed, and she turned around in time to see a small quadcopter drone fly down and hover next to them.

  Stacy grinned and waved a handheld device, “I found the controller on one of the four living ones, and used the return home command.”

  “One more toy to turn over to the MPs.”

  They’d also be locked down to base, until the action was reviewed Monday morning and they were cleared. Which meant they’d miss the rest of the day’s bands.

  Chapter Six

  On Monday morning the five of them sat a table facing the review board. In the past the board had just gone off the video and called it good, obvious self-defense. But they were now facing an inquiry, because this was their second deadly altercation within a week’s period, and there’d been two ground incidents in their first semester, not to mention the attack on ship during their first training cruise.

  So it wasn’t entirely surprising they wanted to dig into why this particular group of cadets kept coming up against Harbinger attack, instead of just rubber stamping it. Five times in less than six months, and two of those in the last week. She didn’t blame them for it, at least.

  The only other person at the table was Lieutenant Julie Taylor.

  The board itself was seven individuals, a commander, two Lt. commanders, and four lieutenants.

  The commander looked at Julie, frowned, then asked, “Why is intelligence interested in my cadets?”

  Julie stood up, “Commander Hill. I’m Lieutenant Julie Taylor. Cadet Foster was a victim of the Harbingers, one that got away, and they want her dead. I’m authorized to tell you that much, though not why, or any of the circumstances surrounding it. The information is sealed under the secrecy act as above top secret.

  “Suffice it to say, Cadet Foster and her roommates and friends are not ones to go looking for trouble.”

  The commander nodded, “That may be, but they detected the enemy coming. Instead of retreating back to base, they headed straight to an ambush point to take them on, while summoning the MPs for backup. They might not look for a fight, but they were prepared for a fight if one found them. They had to have scouted out the area around the park for a good ambush point away from civilians, it was a textbook maneuver and takedown of a superior force, one I doubt our marines could’ve planned for better. Not something thrown together in the heat of the moment.”

  Julie sat down.

  She stood up, “We did scout out for such an advantageous area, just in case a Harbinger team had been inserted groundside. The plan itself was finalized on the go however, before we knew the team size and deployment we’d be facing, all we had was ambush underground.”

  Commander Hill replied, “And what made you think it was possible?”

  “The Affinity, sir. They stopped here to pick up the supplies, before showing their true colors and breaking out the crews on the moon. We theorized they’d never done it before, in fear their drop off would be traced, but since they planned to reveal themselves a few hours later they probably decided it wouldn’t matter if their ground team was caught and questioned about their ingress. Under that speculation, we prepared for our first trip back to the city, just in case.”

  Hill asked, “Did you bother to share this speculation with anyone?”

  She shook her head, “No, sir. It would’ve just been the speculation of cadets with absolutely no proof, and we had no reason to believe intelligence hadn’t considered the possibility already if we had. Lastly, I’m under orders of secrecy, and it all connected back to that. Without knowing how badly they want me dead, the whole scenario was just too unlikely to be true for a superior officer to accept without that added reasoning. I accept responsibility and punishment, if you find my reasons for playing it close to the chest lacking, sir.”

  Hill shook his head, “In that case, it is reasonable not to make outrageous accusations you can’t back up. I don’t blame you for keeping those suspicions to yourself. What concerns me most is your unilateral decision to take down a terrorist force as unarmed first year cadets. The recklessness of that decision does not line up with the execution, and you are the top students in the school. I wonder if that’s made you arrogant.”

  She saw his point, since he didn’t know she had the ultimate get of jail free card that she couldn’t exactly share. If they had been overwhelmed, well she’d have handled it. She tried to picture herself without the safety net of her built in DNA spells, would she have done the same thing? Taken on a superior force when she’d had the option to retreat, just to make sure they wouldn’t get away?

  They’d proven they could handle themselves, over and over, with mage level spells alone. She was proud of that fact, actually.

  How much of her bravery came from that fact, and her surety in command of her little group? No, the built-in spells helped mitigate the risk, but she could take a real or magic bullet in the head. There was no coming back from that, and she’d lost fellow cadets before.

  She wasn’t honestly sure, and from that angle it probably did look rather arrogant and reckless. At least, she wasn’t sure based on that, but she realized she would’ve done the same without her inborn spells, without question.

  There was another reason for them to stay and fight, outside of their safety net, and that one she could share freely.

  “Sir, it seemed worth the risk at the time, to ensure the terrorist team didn’t turn on secondary targets, like the crowd in the park. Harbinger is known for such tactics, it’s practically their standard rules of engagement. If they’d seen us retreating to the tram, it’s likely the team would’ve started killing, to draw us back. I was confident that we could take them, and that if it turned into an extended fight the MPs would arrive in time to bail us out, as we were well dug in under cover. If not… well better us than a bunch of civilians we swore an oath to protect, sir.”

  Hill said, “Your files show you’re quick on your feet, and that’s a hell of a good argument, cadet. Why didn’t you use it in your statement?”

  She waved casually taking in the room, “I didn’t expect this, sir. Inexperience? I thought our recordings spoke for themselves, and I honestly didn’t think I’d be asked to justify my actions or thought process, since it hadn’t happened the three previous times. Four, including the ship incident during the training cruise. In the first incident, they held a trolley full of hostages, and as the Lieutenant indicated I was in their custody for long enough to know how evil they are and what lengths they’ll go to. If you’re suggesting I just made that up on the spot, you’re wrong, sir. The idea of my friends dying terrifies me, but I’m a good leader, and they swore the same oaths, and they’d hate me if I tried to put their lives before civilian ones.”

  Hill looked down the row, then said, “Do any of you disagree, or have something to add?”

  She sat down, as Stacy stood up.

  Stacy said, “Just that we’d follow her anywhere. During the ship incident when we lost three of our platoon, she was in command on the bridge until our instructor took command, right before we hit the minefield that killed my roommate. We may be young, and the young at times have a tendency to be overbold, but not with each other. She took it hard, and her plans always look to maximize survival, both during these incidents and in class. I guess what I’m trying to say, is when it comes to our lives, she if far from reckless, and it was only the situation we were in that may make it appear so.”

  Hill replied, “Yet it was you that sent her alone after two, suggested it with a confidence as if she couldn’t possibly lose.”

  Stacy blushed, “Yes, sir. With Crandall as backup, I didn’t realize she’d go up the stairs.”

  Hill asked Ashley, “Why did you do that?”

  Ashley stood, “To gain surprise, sir. I knew they wouldn’t expect one of us to be waiting in ambush at the ground level stairwell door. They thought we were cowering behind cover in the basement level, and with my personal spell I knew what their shield power level was. The first through the door just died because of the free blow and knowing just how hard I needed to hit him, and after that the odds were even. I’ll admit it was only after taking down the second, that I realized I was in the perfect position to take out the ones in the elevator from above and provide flank fire on the ramp. So that didn’t enter into my original decision at all.”

  Hill nodded, “A gamble, but not a reckless one inspired by overconfidence. I think we have enough, please wait outside while we make a decision.”

  The six of them stood up and filed outside.

  Julie said, “Good luck. I’d give you my thoughts on how it’ll go, but I don’t want to jinx it.”

  She laughed, “Thank you, maam. I do have a request.”

  Julie said, “No promises, but I’ll pass it on.”

  She said, “We do end up in a lot of scrapes, and in our first year we are at a disadvantage. I’d like permission to build a duration-based spell of blunt force. So you’d cast it once, and be able to rapid fire blunt force spells, one every half second or faster depending on the comparative power level used. Before I waste twenty hours of my time, I’d like intelligence to agree to put in a note with my request, that asks for a temporary license for it for extenuating circumstances, just until we master the basic area spells in our third year.”