The coalition camp was a tumult of English, French, Italian, and Portugeuse. After landing, the soldiers from their flight disappeared almost immediately. Obviously someone had briefed them on where to go, but Bowman didn’t find it necessary to pass the information on to Dan or Sam. A petty act, but Dan shouldn’t have been surprised. The Colonel had been livid when he found out that the Thoth Foundation wasn’t going to provide runescripting for the soldiers. The man ranted for almost half an hour about how the Thoth Foundation wasn’t meeting its contractual obligations. Dan had only been able to end the conversation by pointing out that the only reason why the troops weren’t getting the tattoos was that the military hadn’t been able to provide the requested materials to create the ink.
It probably would have been better in the long run to provide token support to the military representatives from the stores collected by Thoth Foundation mercenaries, but Ibis refused any support after the request to deploy early had become an order. Clearly, there was some sort of power play going on between Henry and someone fairly high up in the government, but Dan was more than happy to not be involved in it.
Luckily, the System was programmed with all major languages. After a brief stop at a nearby Italian regiment’s headquarters unit, Dan was on his way with the rough location of their assigned camp. The 5th Marine regiment had arrived a couple of days before the Starshield candidates and their quarters were located on the edge of the land assigned to the marines. Of course, when they arrived, the area designated for them only had one small prefabricated command and control center set up. It was clear that the troops were expected to pitch tents and cook under tarps.
Dan looked at the damp, empty field and sighed. Nearby, some of the marines stopped their work to gawk at the ill-matched mishmash of individuals from the Thoth Foundation. Although a couple of them had rifles, all of them looked completely out of place next to professional soldiers.
“We should’ve brought a bottle of wine,” Jennifer remarked wryly, as she took off her backpack and began removing her tent. “I’ve heard bringing a bottle of wine to a party is proper etiquette. Maybe that would have helped with the chilly reception?”
“This is just fucking like Henry,” Sam dropped her backpack to the ground. “He starts a pissing match with some general, and I end up being the one sleeping on the ground while he sits around in an air conditioned Space Age compound. I knew I should have paid more attention during the sessions on survival training. I figured I would be safely behind the lines the entire time. But no, here I am with a tent that looks like a pile of sticks and nylon and not a single clue.”
“Why weren’t you paying attention during the survival training?” Dan frowned at her. “Even if you were going to be behind our lines, you knew you were scheduled for a combat deployment. Proper preparation could easily save your life out here.”
“I was busy flirting with Ellie,” she muttered, angrily staring at a bag of tent stakes without comprehension.
“Who’s Ellie?” Dan turned to Sam and cocked his head. Behind him, Jennifer was laughing.
“The short blonde with the pixie cut?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. When he shrugged, she continued. “You know the super cute one that kept asking me for help ‘tuning up’ her nanite package? God. If we actually had beds out here, I’d probably be getting laid, too. The romance of a tryst before battle and all of that. But no, here we are with sleeping bags and no air conditioning. Of all the crimes Henry has to answer for, this is front and center.”
“Come on, Sam,” Dan sputtered. “You’re like my cousin or something. I don’t want to hear about any of this shit.”
“Hey,” Sam shrugged, a smile creeping onto her face, “it’s not my fault that the last girl you had a crush on tried to take over your mind. Usually, they wait on that until you move in together. I’m just saying, your bad experiences don’t mean that I can’t have a healthy libido.”
“Sam,” Dan blushed beet red as Jennifer just kept laughing. “I’m about 90% sure that we got a memo from HR saying that we weren’t allowed to date anyone that came in through the Starshield candidate program.”
“Says the guy who is awfully chummy with Jennifer over there.” Sam nodded her head in Jennifer’s direction as the younger woman abruptly stopped laughing. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything if you don’t.”
“I’m not trying to rat you out,” Dan felt his heart thumping. “Plus, Jennifer is just a friend. She’s one of our best students, and she was a lot more approachable than most of the other candidates.”
After that, they set up their tents in silence. Dan didn’t even know why he was embarrassed. He really was just friends with Jennifer. Sure, she was pretty and talented, but he didn’t even really think of her like that. Plus, they barely had any time to talk to her. The awful deployment timetable just hadn’t left any time to date or talk about anything more than preparing for Brazil. Plus, he was an adult. There was just something about Sam chastising him that made Dan feel like he was twelve again and had gotten caught sneaking out.
It didn’t even make sense. Jennifer was something like five years younger than him. Even if he wasn’t a supervisor or mentor, it would have felt weird. If anything, she was like a mischievous younger sister.
That night, after a light dinner of pre-packaged dehydrated food, Dan went to bed early. The System was set to wake him up around 5:30 in the morning so that the team could meet up and put together patrol schedules. Part of his compromise with Henry was that, at least for the first month or so, he would serve primarily near the camp upgrading candidates’ runescripting as sufficient resources came in. Still, he would be allowed to hunt monsters within the ten miles or so near camp. Rumor had it that there wasn’t anything bigger than some awakened monkeys and snakes in the area, but mana was mana, and Dan was sick of stagnation.
He was awakened by a series of explosions. For a second, Dan wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him, when the chatter of heavy caliber machine gun disabused him of that notion. By the time his chainmail was on, the staccato thump of mortars joined the fray. Frantic shouting erupted from the darkness as Dan strapped his sword to his belt. At some point, someone turned on the camp’s floodlights. The marines were fairly efficient, pairs of men and women checking each others kit and weapons before jogging off in the direction of the jungle. The Starshield recruits, on the other hand, were a frantic mess of panic and disorganization. For all of their skill and recent training, none of them, other than the security staff, had the faintest clue of how to react to the chaos and confusion.
Dan nodded to LT Jefferson, the unofficial leader of the ‘security’ faction as he jogged over to him. He had never figured out if LT was actually the man’s name, initials, or a reference to his official title of Lieutenant. There was an intensity to the six foot five man that didn’t invite such questions. Even if LT couldn’t beat Dan in a fight due to the difference in magical power, Dan still wouldn’t want to tussle with the man.
Every word and action from him screamed competence on a level that made Dan vaguely embarrassed of his own amateur efforts to serve as the team’s leader. Maybe that was why he had never won the respect of the security team. He might have magic and some experience, but it was nothing compared to LT’s decade of service in distressingly vague locations across the Middle East.
“Thrush,” LT said simply in response to Dan. Behind Jefferson, the rest of the security crew moved with a practiced efficiency. They had mostly finished their preparations, although a few of them were still making last-minute provisions.
“Jefferson,” he replied. “Do you have any idea what’s going on? I just hear a lot of shooting, but no one has bothered to reach out to me. I was supposed to be meeting with someone from the 5th Regiment tomorrow while we dispatched patrols to get us integrated into the overall command, but at this point, I don’t even know if anyone knows how to get ahold of us.”
“Better to stay put and radio to command when we’re ready, then,” LT shifted the gun slung over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t want us to run off playing cowboy only to get shot by our own troops in the dark because we didn’t let command know where we would be.”
Dan agreed wholeheartedly, but before he could reply, the sky lit up. Then there was a flash of white and Dan felt the tingle of a massive amount of thunder mana being discharged from almost a half mile away.
A small mushroom cloud bloomed at the edge of the jungle. A second later, he heard a crack and staggered backward as a wall of hot air washed over him.
Before Dan could figure out what exactly was happening, the process repeated itself. Another burst of light was immediately followed by a mushroom cloud and a crack as a watchtower erupted into flames at the edge of the camp.
Then it clicked. The flares of light were magically-induced electrical arcs. Someone out there had a rail gun.
It made a sick sort of sense. Tellask technology peaked as their society focused research on magic. It didn’t make sense to invent gunpowder or the internal combustion engine when fire and teleportation magic could do the same thing but better. Of course, modern technology was superior to magic in any number of ways, but a blunderbuss, musket, or steam engine would hardly impress a wizard enough for them to devote their time and energy on perfecting it.
Magic may generally be less efficient than technology, but at the same time, it solved all of the problems that made a rail gun difficult to develop and field practically. The primary impediment was generating and storing enough electricity to power the weapon. Proper mastery of electrical magic would allow a caster to generate the amperage needed to launch a projectile, and metal magic allowed a caster to repair the melting and warping to the rails in real time.
Really, when it came down to it, a rail gun was more or less just two metal poles with a strong electrical current running through them. A metal projectile would be placed between the surfaces and complete the current, and then the projectile would get pulled by electromagnetic forces down the length of the rails. This process would heat and partially melt the rails, meaning that they needed to be repaired or replaced frequently. But, other than generating the electricity needed and maintaining the metal rods, the weapon itself was incredibly simple.
At some point, an elf had clearly solved the problems that plagued human researchers to this day. There was another flash of white and electrical mana. Dan flinched as an explosion consumed a checkpoint five hundred yards from his position.
The night devolved into an incomprehensible clamor of vehicles starting and people screaming. Marines were running everywhere, some en route to cover or an armory, and others toward forward positions. Despite the chaos, it was clear that most of the soldiers knew where they needed to be as they went about the business of getting there.
Dan turned back as he heard shouting from the Starshield camp, and took in a very different picture. Some of the candidates were hiding in their tents, trusting canvas and polymer to stop magically empowered shells that were cracking tanks like eggs. Others were running toward the perceived safety of the marine camp, abandoning any thought of fighting the elves as they fled for cover.
Jennifer walked over to him, a concerned look on her face. In the distance, Dan could make out Sam staggering out of a tent other than her own, a much younger woman with a pixie cut stepping out behind her. Evidently, Sam’s charm had overcome the lack of proper mattresses and air conditioning.
The gunfire was getting closer. Dan frowned. That wasn’t supposed to be happening. The marines should have been able to push anything the elves could throw at them back. Allegedly, the camp was hardened beyond belief with heavy machine guns posts and armored vehicles keeping a tight watch on the jungle.
A flight of Apache helicopters rumbled overhead, their chopping rotors sending the tall grass just outside Dan’s camp dancing. Two of them banked slightly to the left while the other three flew in a straight line past Dan and Jennifer.
The Starshield candidates stopped running. One of them pointed up at the gunships as the thrummed past, and a halfhearted cheer went up from the camp.
Then, the lead helicopter crashed into an invisible wall. For a brief second, the formerly unseen barrier rippled and lit the night in blue flashes of light before the Apache crumpled like a tin can and erupted into a brilliant orange fireball.
The other two veered to the side, their chain guns opening up on something half-seen in the jungle. Dan ducked, Jennifer dropping into a crouch next to him as the report from the heavy weapons shook the very air in his lungs.
A second later, an almost fifteen-foot tall gigantic lizard burst into the camp’s spotlights. Its dark grey form was covered in spiked silvery plates of armor inlaid with runes that glowed visibly with mana. On its back, two shadowy figures fired a large crossbow from an armored platform. The bolt missed one of the Apaches, but Dan could feel the mana coming off of it. He wasn’t sure what enchantment was being used, but it felt potent.
Then a pair of missiles launched from one of the helicopters struck the lizard with a brilliant eruption of flame. For a second, spellshields shimmered on its side before flickering out. A sudden wave of pressure slammed Dan off of his feet, as the air itself was sucked from his lungs. The other helicopters rained a stream of smaller rockets onto the lizard. Without armor, the explosions washed down its side, ripping great holes into the reptile. It flicked its tail futilely at the attack helicopter, not able to reach the vessel’s altitude.
Then a bolt of electricity flew from another armored platform atop the lizard and struck one of the two helicopters. Immediately, the gunship’s lights flickered out and it began listing to the side. The final helicopter elevated itself above its injured companion and fired another pair of missiles into the lizard’s side, smashing through ribs and mulching what passed for the creature’s heart. The final set of explosions sent the figures on the back of the lizard flying into the night.
The Apache soared off as Dan stood back up. The night air smelled of smoke, and his ears were ringing. Thank God the System could let him heal at an insane rate. Those explosions had been far too close.
Then a small arrow landed in the dirt next to him. Waist-high figures armed with bows scampered toward the Starshield camp under the cover of the smoke filling the air. In the distance behind them, Dan could see marines backing up toward his unit while firing at unseen targets. Whatever was out there, the 5th Regiment was falling back. He looked over to LT. The bigger man shook his head with a grimace as he unlimbered his rifle.
