“They’re moving awfully fast,” Dan remarked to Abe then jogged toward the gunfire.
“I guess,” Abe replied, each one of his armor’s longer strides accounting for a pair of Dan’s. “We made a lot of noise when we came in. Appearing out of nowhere and firing a gigantic laser cannon from the sky sure seems like the sort of thing to grab attention.”
“I thought we blew up most of the regional command and control outposts around here,” Dan said, a flash of concern on his face. “I just didn’t think they’d be organized enough to respond this quickly.”
Abe’s suit shrugged slightly, mimicking his movements. “We tried to take out any communication hubs we could find, but we didn’t attack any of the barracks. The goal was to get Bowman’s troops to defect, not piss them off by killing a bunch of their friends. Right now, they’re confused and trying to gather information. With any luck, the Bradleys and a glimpse of our suits will be enough to give them the information they need and scare them off.”
“What if we aren’t lucky?” Dan asked, his gaze occupied by the flash of Bradleys’ 25mm main gun.
“Then we end up fighting,” Abe answered. “Unless they have Infantry Fighting Vehicles of their own, I don’t think anything Bowman has will do more than scratch the powered armor’s paint. Between the runes you have inscribed on these and the amount of metal we’re wearing, rifles basically feel like paintballs.”
Dan flooded his spellshield with mana as he picked his way around the edge of a four-story office building that served as the corner to the main thoroughfare occupied by the Bradleys. About four hundred feet away, a flash of movement drew his attention as a soldier’s head popped up to take in the situation from the window of a building. The scene looked like news footage of the siege of Jakarta.
Several of the buildings were burning, pouring light and smoke into the predawn air. Many more sported large holes where the Bradleys’ chain guns had torn apart the concrete and steel. Occasionally, a figure darted from one building to another, trying to find better cover as the armored vehicles methodically demolished their previous hiding places.
Dan pursed his lips. The Bradleys were firing slow and measured shots into the advancing soldiers’ cover to minimize casualties and preserve ammunition while driving them off. They didn’t want them getting too much closer, or they might actually be able to report intelligence on their low numbers, potentially emboldening a nearby company or battalion. Unfortunately, the vehicles didn’t really have a way to do that without inflicting the kind of casualties that would make a smooth transition of power difficult.
“Abe.” Dan didn’t turn around as the powered armor trudged up to him. “I want you to throw me as high straight up in the air as you can.”
“Not asking questions, Boss.” Abe laughed.
Dan lowered his spellshield and prepared himself. A moment later, the warm metal of Abe’s hands closed around his waist. With a sudden jerk, he was airborne. Quickly, Dan reinitialized the spellshield, not wanting to get caught by a lucky bullet.
At the apex of his arc, Dan summoned a force bubble, barely catching himself on the immobile and invisible orb. Balancing precariously, he surveyed the street from his perch twenty-five to thirty feet in the air. A bullet sparked off of his spellshield as one of the advancing soldiers took a potshot at him.
Dan pointed in the general direction of the shot and opened his mouth. “Railgun.” He didn’t have to say the word. Hell, he didn’t have to point. The entire spell could’ve been triggered via a simple subvocalization, but that took all the fun out of it.
Mana swelled up inside him, the attunement stone in his arm converting it to metal as a pair of ten-foot-long spectral bars appeared in front of Dan. By far the trickiest part of developing the spell, the rods contained all the magnetic and electrical properties of metal, while avoiding the heavy mana requirements of simply generating the element from the ether.
A spike of actual metal appeared between the two bars, perfectly symmetrical and barely touching either side; it pointed directly at the gas station where Dan had seen the gunfire. The mana inside him shifted, and electricity sparkled around Dan’s hands before arcing into the rails.
He bit down on his lower lip as energy exploded outward from the spell. Electromagnetic forces tore at the bars, trying to force them apart and shift their aim as the very power that would fire the projectile tried to rip the spell apart. Dan clamped down with his mind and held onto them, maintaining their positions with sheer force of will as the slug sped down them.
A fraction of a second later, the pressure was gone and the gas station disappeared in a Fireball. Dan couldn’t quite tell how much of the blast was from gas reserves, and how much was from the hypersonic slug impacting on the building’s foundation after it passed through the walls like they were made of paper. Either way, the result was spectacular, bathing the entire battlefield in oranges and yellows as remains of the spell disappeared.
A burst of fire sparkled off of his spellshield. Dan frowned, finding a pair of men on top of a two story townhouse with their guns still trained on him. One of them fired another three round burst at him.
He pointed his finger at them, and once again cast Railgun. This time, he was more prepared for the spell, easily controlling the outward pressure of the Lorentz forces as the projectile sped down the semi-invisible metal bars.
The second story of the house disappeared in a Fireball, taking both of the gunmen with it. Moments later, the ground floor of the building collapsed, bringing down large portions of the conjoined neighboring houses with it.
A lull slipped across the battlefield as everyone stared at Dan, still hovering in the air, in shock. Even the Bradleys stopped firing, their operators likely stunned by the destruction of two buildings in under ten seconds. Those two shots had wiped out almost a quarter of Dan’s mana reserves, but each was more than capable of demolishing a tank.
Vague shouting erupted from the advancing soldiers and they began to draw back, unwilling to advance any further into the withering firepower of the defenders. Satisfied, Dan dropped to the ground with Gravitational Easing active, cushioning his roughly thirty-foot fall.
“Well.” Abe tromped up to Dan. “That scared them off pretty efficiently. Whatever the hell ‘that’ was.”
“I used metal and electrical mana to make a railgun,” Dan grinned at Abe. “Pretty cool, right? I haven’t tested it against modern armor yet, but I’m pretty sure anything that can blow up a well-designed concrete building with one well-aimed shot can probably take out body armor.”
“Railgun?” Abe cocked his head. “I know the Navy’s working on one of those things. Supposed to hit pretty hard but not be feasible for actual combat. How in the hell did you get that thing working?”
“The elves had them,” Dan replied as he strode back toward the Viceroy. “The science behind them is pretty straightforward. The issue is just producing enough electricity fast enough and preventing the gun from tearing itself apart. Without magic, those are pretty major problems, but with magic, it’s just a matter of mana and skill. I don’t need a capacitor if my mana pool already is one, and I can just recreate the rails with each shot.”
“Wait.” Abe stopped walking. “You said the elves had these? Why didn’t we see them in Brazil?”
Dan stopped with him. “We did. That’s how they were able to take out so many of our defenses in the initial attack. They had a whole bunch of them at their landing site, mostly carriage-mounted. The only problem is that they take a whole lot of mana to shoot. You have to be awfully close to archmage levels to be able to use the spell.”
“Okay,” Abe said, a smile audible in his voice. “That was definitely a humblebrag; we’re getting into more familiar territory here.”
Anything further Abe had to say was drowned out by the sound of two helicopters rising over the skyline as they flew toward where the Viceroy’s Pride had landed. One of them opened fire, unleashing a stream of unguided rockets that caused the parked voidship’s spellshields to glow to life as they detonated against it.
On reflex, Dan fired the Railgun once more. The attacking helicopter disappeared into a Fireball as a chunk of metal ripped through its fuselage at high enough speeds to convert most of its internal workings to plasma. The other helicopter was thrown to the side by the force of the blast, only for the fire from a dozen .50 caliber repeaters to light it up as almost every suit of powered armor opened fire on it at the same time.
Most of the shots missed, but at least a couple hit critical components on the veering chopper as it tried to right itself. Smoke poured from the vehicle as it swerved drunkenly and crashed into a nearby office building, shredding its rotor before slamming into the ground. Dan stood, his finger pointed at it, another Railgun spell at the ready for almost ten seconds. After nothing happened, Abe took a few cautious steps toward it, his shortsword looking like a knife in the hulking armor’s hand.
Dan followed, a couple steps behind Abe’s armor as his companion approached the downed helicopter and stabbed his sword into it, cutting the door off with ease. Inside, the pilot was dead, a large bullet hole through his chest from one of the power suits ending any debate about trying to save him, but next to him, the gunner was still breathing shallowly.
Abe pulled out the pilot’s body, tossing him casually to the side before fishing out the gunner much more gently. Without a word, he passed her to Dan before returning to the helicopter. He watched on as Abe nimbly worked the heavy armor into the chopper’s cockpit, fishing around for something and occasionally using his short sword to cut and pry objects free.
Dan glanced briefly down at the woman wearing a flight jacket in his arms. Her eyelids fluttered, and she let out a groan as he sheepishly held her. A blood-smeared hand reached up and brushed across her face.
“Where?” she mumbled, her eyes half-open to reveal the heavily dilated pupils of the concussed. “What’s happening?”
“You’re still in Miami,” Dan replied. “Your helicopter attacked our ship, so we shot you down. The pilot didn’t make it, but we’ll get you out of here, don’t worry.”
“Darryl’s dead?” she asked woozily, struggling to free herself from Dan’s arms. He set her down, only to catch her once she tried to take a step and staggered.
“If Darryl’s the pilot, then yes,” Dan replied, putting a hand on her shoulder to help her maintain her balance. “Easy now, you took a pretty hard knock to the head when the helicopter went down, and your balance seems to be shot.”
“Is,” a cloud passed over her face. “Is Bowman gone?”
“We hit him first.” Dan nodded. “From what we heard, most of his forces weren’t happy with him, but they were too afraid to defect. We hoped that, by killing him, the rest of you would be more willing to join up with forces that actually want to reunite America, rather than fight over the scraps of its corpse.”
“Well‘s right.” she wobbled slightly, grabbing onto Dan’s wrist. “The major said we needed to rescue Bowman. He has my daughter. If it wasn’t for her, I’d gladly tell that sack of shit exactly where to stuff it.”
“Good news,” Abe interrupted, climbing out of the helicopter with an armful of machinery. “Your radio is intact. If we can get this baby hooked up to a generator, it should be broadcasting on the right frequencies with the right encryption, and you’ll get your chance to tell everyone exactly what you think of Bowman.”
Abe’s faceplate opened up, and he broke into a beaming smile. “Preferably while also telling them what perfect gentlemen we are. They keep attacking us, and self-defense while minimizing casualties is getting more and more difficult.”
