Rash'Tor'Ri (Soulguard Book 4), page 14
"Visibility has gone down the crapper," Dietrich muttered.
"Maybe I can help with that," I said as I opened my inner eye. "I can let you see it from this perspective if it'll help."
I projected what I was seeing to him with my mind. He jerked just a little as the view turned to flows of power.
"Damnit, man."
I stopped projecting.
"Don't stop," he said. "Just takes a few minutes to get the mind wrapped around that. The dark ones are Kresh?"
I opened the link back up and closed my eyes. The Sight is mental. I had just perceived it as visual for most of my life.
"Yep, their Souls are mostly black and purple."
"Wow, you can get a three hundred and sixty degree view."
"I'm the center of the view, so you can figure the placement of troops from my position."
"Then step up here beside me so I can go to work."
I grinned and stepped up to a position right in front of Dietrich. He pulled a chair from one of the desk stations.
"Sit and concentrate, boy," he said. "We got work to do."
Most people would think I might get upset by being called 'boy' when I'm the second in command of the Soulguard, the leader of a complete world of thirty million humans, the head of a clan of Kresh numbering close to sixty million souls. Not likely. Dietrich Jaegher was six hundred and fifty years or so old. He can call anyone he wants a 'boy'.
Pelin snorted from close beside me.
"Very true, Master," she said. I felt the comfort of the Shak'Tar on the platform as their minds settled in around the walls I used to cage the beast inside me. I couldn't feel that clawing I was so familiar with for the moment. "We will help. You concentrate."
"Alright," I returned. "Don't call me master."
"Yes, Master."
Dietrich laughed, "Let's get started."
I concentrated on the area around us and it came into much better focus. Then I worked outward with every bit of focus I could. I could already hear Lyrica giving me a lecture on focus training. Maybe she was right.
"We don't need the area behind us if it makes it any easier," he rumbled.
I let the focus be on the area in front of us and let the rear fade. The battlefield was much more detailed, after that.
The Soul weapons were flowing with bright yellow torrents of power. The humans were multicolored and infinitely different. The Kresh were Black and purple with many other colors interspersed. They were also infinitely different if you looked close enough to tell it. I never would have looked past the surface, if not for Kil'Sin'Deres. He showed me that the Kresh were more like us than I would ever have wanted. He put a face on my enemies. It was much harder to slaughter the enemy, after they were given a face. For most of my life they had been a faceless enemy that I was able to hate without doubt.
But these Kresh, even while I disliked doing it, needed to die. I had wanted to invite them to become so much more, but now I would kill them. My mind hovered over the battlefield, and watched as hundreds of thousands of them burned. Perhaps I might have felt different if these had been the original clans of Hal'For'Radolin. I don't know. The tears I felt on my cheeks told me that I had changed so much from the young man who had sworn to kill them all so many years ago. At least there was no one in front of me to see it. Pelin rested her hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.
"Bat Three, open fire," Dietrich said. "Bat Two, replace barrels. Bat Four, target the area just inside the gate. There's a few Demon Mages there. Open fire."
He turned to the second of his Staff, "Blow the mines."
Moments later the center ranks of Kresh erupted with fire and death. The ring of mines were about halfway between the first ring of guns and the Gate. They had waited to fire the guns until the Kresh were past the mines. This would make certain the guns wouldn’t set off the mines. A ring of Kresh three hundred feet wide were just obliterated. The minefield had been dense. We had planned, if given enough time, to have it mined from there to the gate itself.
Then Bat Four opened up on the Kresh just outside the gate. The shields of the Kresh'Ma'Nar held for a few moments but the sheer volume of fire slammed into and shattered them. The Kresh'Ma'Nar were ash soon after.
Chapter 27
"Just what the hell were you thinking?" Paige's anger was rolling through her aura. "Do you even know how close it came to losing three crews of gunners? They wouldn’t open fire with you out there. I will not lose men because of your bloodlust!"
I nodded. There wasn't any use saying anything. She was right. I had watched the memories of what I had almost caused. Because I couldn't put the beast back in the cage, we came damn close to losing those three crews of gunners. They wouldn’t fire and they wouldn’t leave either. They knew they needed to be there when they needed to fire. And they had been. When Paige threw me clear and jumped clear, herself, they had opened fire with the rest of the gunners.
"Nothing to say?"
"No excuse," I said. "I couldn't stop."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Never mind," I said and stood up. "The Shak'Tar claim they can help me prevent it from happening again."
Her eyes narrowed, "Prevent what?"
"Nothing," I answered. "It won't happen again. I've taken steps."
"What is going on with you?"
"I don't know, exactly. When I do you'll know."
I stood up and left Paige's office. Pelin, who waited outside the office looked at me for a second, read what had just gone on and walked into Paige's office. I turned to go back in, seeing the anger in her aura. She slammed the door in my face.
You need not be a part of this conversation.
I may be a dumb ass sometimes, but I know when I don't want to be involved in a situation. This was one of those times when I figured I better not get involved. I walked out of the building, and made my way to my own office. There was some paperwork that had to be done. The official report on the Third Battle of Kansas would include the losses we had taken. Forty four dead and three hundred wounded. This was the smallest amount of losses we had taken in any major conflict with the Kresh.
They weren't killed and wounded by the Kresh, but by the effects of the Source weapons on the environment. The heat had created a sort of vortex that circulated the heat upward causing the heavy winds to come in toward the center. All of the turbulence had spawned tornados that had wreaked havoc in some areas. One such had plowed into the ranks and sent Soulguards flying in every direction. Including into the maelstrom of fire inside the center of the battlefield. This is where we lost forty four men and women. Others were injured but would recover. It was a tragedy, but I couldn't see where there was any defense from this sort of thing when we had to use those guns.
Without the intense fire from them, the Kresh would have broken through, and we'd have been fighting hand to hand again. We are made for that, but there would have been so many more casualties if we had to do it.
It troubled me greatly that I couldn't regain control during the fight. It's true my rage had been hovering very close to the surface, since we had returned from Kresh. I could see the accusations in the souls of many. There was no escaping that. It had begun when out in public, but I had seen it on the base as well. And it pissed me off to no end. Fear was something I had seen throughout my life. But this unreasoning hatred was hard to shrug off. It fed that rage. But there was something else going on. I wasn't sure what it was, but I would need to find out.
I had been doing the report for about an hour when Pelin returned.
"We will be bringing the strongest of the Shak'Tar here to work with me," she said. "We will be tying our Soulstreams and you will be ascending us to Mageguard strength. We will accompany you."
"Now, wait a min…"
"This is not negotiable," she said and walked out of my office.
I stared at the door she had just walked through. I saw her Soul as she took up her position outside of the office alongside Andrea Prada and Alex Brighton. I exhaled as I saw the amusement in both of their auras.
Hard to argue with that.
***
"Overall, I'm very satisfied with the defenses," Polomo said.
"Very true," Marcus answered.
We sat in the office of General Marcus Stratton of the Air National Guard.
"The mines were a decent addition, too," I added.
"That idea came from one of yours, by the way," Marco said looking at me. "Your man Jacobs popped that idea on us before he left with you to Kresh."
"Sounds like somethin' he'd come up with."
"I do wish there was something we could do about the heat dispersal that wouldn’t jack with the weather like this," Polo said, looking out the window into one of the many thunder storms that had sprung up since Third Kansas.
"Don't think there's anything we can do about that," Marco said. "Controlling the weather is a little out of our reach."
"You're a smart guy, Colin, figure something out," Polo said with a grin.
"Sorry, guys I deal in fire, plus," I shrugged "It's over my pay grade."
"Speaking of fire," Polo returned, "I've noticed a whole new respect for your Archmage after what you two did out there. Especially after she threw you a thousand feet while in crazy mode."
"Crazy mode?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, son, but every so often you go into full throttle ape shit mode and it makes a lot of people nervous."
"Yeah, I've noticed," I grimaced.
"Some of your people tell me you have a lot of shit goin on up there," he tapped the side of his head, "but I'm getting a little worried."
"It's got me worried too," I said. "I've always been able to turn it off when I need to. This time I couldn’t. It almost cost those boys who manned the guns their lives. If not for Paige, I don't know what would have happened."
"You'd have gotten control of it is what would have happened. You wouldn't have let those boys die."
"I wish I had the faith in me that you guys have. I don't know if I would have gotten it back under control."
"You would have."
"On a different subject," Marco said, "What are we expecting now, after what happened out there?"
"I have no idea."
"You've been pretty good at figuring the Kresh out, so far."
"I got lucky. I guessed he'd be arrogant, and set a trap for him," I said. "I doubt he would have survived to be thousands of years old if he was stupid. The only thing I expect is that he won't be back in Kansas. I doubt he'll send his clans into this meat grinder again. Other than that, I have no idea what he'll do. He could pause, and study us. He could open another great Gate, and try again with a blitz. He could open hundreds of small gates, and really give us a hard time by scattering troops all over the place. Hell, he could turn around and walk back out of Hub and leave us be, but I doubt that one."
"Wait and watch, then," Marco said with a frown. "The least we can do is keep shipping weapons to all of the units, both here and abroad."
"We've got Soulguards in every major city in the world," I said. "They tend to hit population centers when they send smaller groups. The Source weapons have made so much difference. We can spread out further because the weapons work."
"Speaking of spreading out," he returned, "Are your guys ready to move out to Knoxville?"
"Almost ready. We should be on the airfield Saturday mornin'. I have to do some work with a group of Shak'Tar before we go."
"You're not replacing your personal squadron, are you?"
"No way. There's an opening left from the losses we took in Egypt. I didn't want to think about those losses so I just kept puttin' it off. The Shak'Tar have been staying away from using the Soulguard techniques because they wouldn't be able to take the oath. Now they need to be with me, so they did it anyway. Can't really keep a secret from a telepath."
"I'd say not," Polo said. "Frankly, I'm surprised they hadn't done it after the first time they met your people."
"They know how much the oath means to me."
He nodded.
"But they're needed to help keep what's up here in line," I tapped the side of my head.
"And they can do this?"
"They showed me they could help when I got up on the command deck to help Dietrich."
"Good."
"It's not like they gave me a choice anyway," I laughed. "Pelin and Paige hatched this up and informed me what was goin' to happen."
Marco chuckled, "That sounds about right. I'll have the planes ready for Thursday morning. God knows I hope we don't need any support from Knoxville on the East coast, but I want to be prepared if we do."
"You can say that again," I answered.
Chapter 28
I sat at a table in the same bar where the Marines had tried to out drink me. Hicks had asked me to join him for a drink. I knew there was something he wanted to ask me but we were both mesmerized by the train wreck that was taking place at the bar.
One of the Marines I had never spoken with yet was sitting beside Lee. Lee was one of the Shak'Tar who had come in from off world. How they had gotten by the forces of Hal'For'Radolin was a close kept secret held by the Shak'Tar. Leemukatyaniala was her name but we just called her Lee. Apparently the strongest of the Shak'Tar all came from the same world, Sorost. They all had names that sounded like that.
"Hello, Miss," We heard Trace, "Have you ever been to Canada?"
"No, I have not."
Lee and the others from Sorost had to have been of the same blood as the Native American folk of our world. She was about five feet and six inches tall with dark skin and eyes that were so dark they were almost black. Her black hair was held back in a loose ponytail. She could have been Kyra's sister.
"It's cold there," Trace said. "Sometimes you just have to do stuff to keep from goin' crazy, you know."
Lee just stared at him but he was undaunted.
"We drink a lot up there," he said. "We drink just to pass the time sometimes. By the way, can I buy you a drink?"
"If you wish," she said with a shrug.
"Does he realize every man in this bar has been after her since she came in?" I asked.
"He doesn't care," Hicks chuckled. "Probably doesn't know she's a telepath either."
"Kind of hard to hide your intent if you're hittin' on a telepath."
"Are you a beer drinker or is it whiskey?" he asked.
"Whiskey."
He pointed at the bartender, "Let's get this lady a shot of some fine Irish Whisky."
He turned back to her with a grin, "Speakin' of Whiskey, I had a friend back in Sudbury. He was a real drinker. I ran into him one night at the local bar and he grabbed my arm."
"He said, 'I need a favor, Trace.' So I followed him outside. He had this bottle of Scotch and he took the lid off and threw it over his shoulder. I knew right then this was something big. He handed me the bottle and said, 'Drink' so I took a big swallow and handed it back to him."
"I asked, 'What's this favor?' and he handed me back the bottle with a nod of his head. 'Drink.' So I drank another swallow. 'Come here,' he said and I followed him to his truck. He started to open the camper and stopped. He handed me the bottle with a drunken nod and said, 'Drink.'"
"I drank another swallow as he opened the camper. I looked inside, 'Grady, why the hell do ya have a dead bear in the back of your truck?'. He handed me back the bottle, 'Drink.' He said with a grin."
"So I drank some more. He leaned in and whispered, 'It's not dead. It's sleeping. I found it while I was clearing some brush' I backed away from the truck, 'But how did it get in the truck?' 'I had some plastic and kind of slid it under the bear. Then backed the truck up to the bank and pulled it into the truck.' He answered. I asked 'What the hell are you gonna do with a sleeping bear?' He smiled real big and said, 'I have an idea. Get in the truck.'"
"So I figured what the hell and took a great big swallow of Scotch and got in the passenger side of the truck. We drove thirty minutes or so to his brother-in-law's hunting lodge. Grady hates his brother-in-law. He's an asshole from New Jersey. But Grady has a key to the lodge so we both take a huge drink of Scotch and drag the bear inside the lodge where we removed the plastic and locked the door back behind us."
"He definitely doesn't realize she's a telepath," Hicks said.
"Funny thing is," I said, "I can see if a person is lying by the chaos it causes through their aura. He either, truly, believes it's true or it's true. I think maybe the use of tranquilizers might be missing but the tale is overall a true story."
"Son of a bitch," Hicks muttered.
"The best part," trace continued, "Was the next spring when we ran into Joey, Grady's brother-in law. He came right up to Grady. 'You won't believe what happened at the lodge! A friggin' bear broke in the front window, tore all the cabinets off the wall, it shit all over the place, and left!' I guess no one noticed the glass from the window was broken outward, not in!"
Trace laughed and Lee joined him. Lee looked at me.
It was a noble attempt, Master, she said in my mind. What is a bear?
Better than any of the other attempts, by far, I returned. Very large, mean, animal.
"Someone needs to tell that girl to run," Hicks said. "If not, she'll be hearin' Canadian stories all evenin'."
"I'm pretty sure she can handle herself," I said.
"I guess these Shak'Tar are pretty tough," he returned.
"She gets tired of it, she can make you forget she was even here."
"Not much chance she's gonna get drunk either," he said with a laugh.
"True, she's got a Mage strength Soulstream already. Her stream is about twice as powerful as my own. A week ago he wouldn't be hittin' on her at all. She's sixty five years old and looked it. With the new stream she looks about thirty or so already. Not sure how far that will go."
