“The Queen is the only sovereign left on Æba. She made sure of that long ago. She leads The Kingdom, an empire that spans much of the southeastern hemisphere.” Ursun said to Prism, who sat in a mission prep room with Leanna, Jaik, Lorias, and Srell. "The nations that support her are collectively known as the Monarchists, while the nations that oppose her are known to them as the Antimonarchists, though we officially call ourselves the Conjunction." Ursun added.
Ursun stood in front of a large monitor that spanned the length of the wall at the front of the small classroom-like area. The smart monitor displayed information as Ursun spoke about it. A 3D-model of the Queen was shown next to a 3D-model of Æba, which slowly zoomed in to the section of three continents that composed her kingdom.
The Queen was shown as a light-blonde, long-haired, pale-skinned woman with a youthful unblemished face of distinguished beauty. She wore a sleek silver and gold bodysuit with various metallic filigree accents and an ornate chest-plate that featured a crystalline sculpture of her hawthorn insignia at its center. Small jets of plasma came from the back of her chestplate and from the back of the golden high heels that were attached to her bodysuit.
When Prism saw the model of the Queen, he was shocked by her appearance. He’d seen portraits of her in books, but he hadn’t seen such a realistic portrayal of her until the moment that he was sitting in his first mission prep with RED-1. To Prism, the Queen looked more like a fashion model than an egomaniacal tyrant.
“From the few records of the Old World that we have access to, we’ve learned that the Queen was once a wealthy industrialist whose unparalleled genius allowed her to conquer most of the world of that time with advanced technology of her own making; much like she has done today.” Ursun continued.
“Don’t forget to mention that she used to be a guy!” Srell shouted from the row of desks at the back of the mostly-beige room.
Leanna looked askance at him, while Lorias smirked and shook his head. Srell was born and raised in a rather backwards country called Esdegon, which was well known for having ancient views on just about every aspect of culture despite centuries of social development occurring throughout the rest of Æba.
“Yes, the Old World records do say that the Queen was originally a man, but used the medical science of the time to become a woman. She has been a woman for over a thousand years, so that fact is neither here nor there.” Ursun explained.
Prism himself had experienced the mutability of gender amongst his own people, who were all hermaphroditic. He always found it refreshing when he saw other races display that same fluidity, though Srell’s response showed Prism that not everyone on Æba viewed such things positively. It made Prism further understand why Dr. Liam had promised to keep his discovery of Prism’s dual-sex a secret during his first medical examination. Prism appeared outwardly male, and identified as such to simplify his dealings with others.
“How has she managed to live for so long?” Prism asked. He’d read a variety of theories, but there seemed to be no true consensus amongst the historian authors.
“We believe that she has simply modified her own biology enough to make her impervious to aging. Cellular immortality, essentially.” Jaik leaned over and said from the seat beside Prism.
Prism nodded thoughtfully to him, not surprised by their finding. Prism had seen people live for thousands of years through both magical and scientific means. Most of those who’d unlocked such long-life had become cruel villains, at least in Prism’s experience.
“That, combined with her cybernetic battle-suit has made her the most powerful person on Æba. She has created an entire sprawling empire that supplies her with whatever she needs to improve herself and dominate her neighbors.” Ursun further explained to Prism.
“Why hasn’t she just taken over your entire planet?” Prism asked with a scratch of his head.
“Because every other nation banded against her when it became clear that she was bent on world domination.” Leanna looked back and said to Prism from her seat in the row in front of his. “Some of those nations have fallen under her sway over the centuries, but half the world is still fighting her.” Leanna added.
“No one is powerful enough to defeat the unified power of half of the entire world, though she has come close.” Lorias added with a casual flip of his hair with his right hand. He sat a short distance from Srell, on the same back row.
“That brings us to the stated mission of the Red Wolves; to stand against the Queen’s quest for absolute power.” Ursun stated rather resolutely.
Prism had learned earlier from Leanna that the Red Wolves were more of a nonprofit, which ran on the donations of the nations allied against The Kingdom. The mercenary company had proven itself to be highly effective at every aspect of war over its past 50 years of existence, and had been rewarded generously as a result of their hard-won victories over the Queen’s empire.
“And how’s that been going?” Prism asked with a hesitant smile.
“Well, we’ve managed to piss her and her “allies” off several times. But we haven’t had a decisive victory over her forces in over ten years.” Srell shouted from the back row.
“We’re locked in a stalemate. The Centuries-Long War continues.” Leanna said plainly.
“But you can end that stalemate. Your powers are probably the one thing that the Queen can’t handle.” Ursun said boldly while he stared into Prism’s eyes.
Prism shifted in his seat uncomfortably. He knew that the Red Wolves saw him as a decisive answer to their problems, but he was still unsure of how they wanted him to deal with their enemies. Prism was hesitant to simply kill wide swathes of people who’d been compelled to fight in such a prolonged, multigenerational conflict. He felt the weight of the golden Red Wolves medallion that was stitched into the shoulder of his uniform’s red jacket, the same medallion that he’d retrieved from an ice cave several days earlier.
“And you’re sure that she can’t use magic?” Prism asked skeptically.
Forgetting how to use magic was something that happened regularly amongst civilizations across the history of existence. But there was always some small sect that preserved the art, always some group where the practice endured in spite of whatever calamities befell the world around them. At least, that was what Prism had observed.
“Pretty sure. She would have at least gloated about it by now.” Lorias said wryly.
“There’s no record of anyone either during the Centuries-Long War or in the 2000 years of Old World history with powers like yours. Believe me, I’ve checked.” Leanna added with a tap of her glasses.
“Queeny’s Absolute Control is the closest thing to magic she’s got, but that’s probably just her crazy tech.” Srell said with a snap of his fingers.
“Absolute Control?” Prism asked, intrigued.
“The Queen is able to somehow bypass any digital encryption, allowing her to take control of any technology that she can interface with.” Leanna explained. The mood in the room quickly became somber.
“The Conjunction had to take great strides to change the way it made and used technology because of the Queen’s ability. It put us technologically-behind the Monarchists for centuries. It is a miracle that we’ve held our own for so long.” Lorias said quite seriously.
“Ah, so that’s why you guys developed your organic technology…” Prism mused aloud to himself.
“In any case, Magic, as you call it, seems to only exist in our fiction.” Ursun said to Prism after the room fell into a reflective silence for a few moments.
Prism nodded slowly and affirmatively to everyone in the room. A world with an abundance of untapped mana like Æba wasn’t uncommon, but the fact that no one had access to it but him was strange. Prism’s experience with their world was still very limited; he figured that he would encounter other magic-users on Æba eventually.
“Thank you for the primer. I think I understand the basics of our enemy and your world’s conflict now. So, what’s my first mission with you guys?” Prism said with a chipper, positive tone.
Ursun tapped the screen behind him until a detailed mission report was displayed. Various data appeared on the smart monitor next to an image of a middle-aged dark-haired man wearing an ill-fitting black-and-white suit. Prism immediately noticed that the location of their mission was labeled as “Wolf City”.
“This man is Goran Tinit. He is an arms dealer with strong ties to the nation of Rvljse. The Dictor of Rvljse, or its leader, is Gryver. Gryver is a coldhearted bastard and an ardent supporter of the Queen.” Ursun began to explain.
“Goran is Gryver’s cousin, isn’t he?” Leanna asked, already sure of the answer.
“Yeah he is. What the heck is he doing in our neck of the woods?” Srell asked angrily.
“From what we’ve gathered from Security’s surveillance, he’s here to buy detailed schematics of laserliths from a Red Wolves engineer who’s looking to strike it rich and defect to Rvljse.” Ursun explained further.
“Why would anyone want to move to such a miserable place like Rvljse? It’s freezing there 90% of the year! Not only that, but its sadistic government is obsessed with torturing its own population.” Jaik asked with a sickened look on his face.
“Because it’s probably the only place that we wouldn’t pursue his traitorous ass.” Lorias replied, which got a laugh out of everyone.
Lorias’ comment was extra poignant to everyone but Prism, since they knew that Lorias was born in Rvljse.
“Each engineer only has access to a specific portion of the laserliths’ design. Only Gnapp knows the complete schematic.” Leanna said with a puzzled look.
“Exactly. But Goran doesn’t know that.” Ursun said with a glint in his eye.
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“So this entire mission is a bait and switch?” Prism asked. Ursun gave Prism a point and a nod.
“Goran isn’t an idiot. He’ll need some sort of verification that the schematic is legit. Leanna will fill the role of our traitorous engineer. The real traitor has already been dealt with, so we have a wealth of intel that’ll help us fool Goran.” Ursun said with a rub of his red beard.
"So the laserliths...they aren't just protective weapons, are they?" Prism asked.
Since he’d become a part of the Red Wolves' premier team, Prism figured that he'd finally be able to learn about more sensitive aspects of their organization. After looking at Ursun for approval, Leanna received it when her commander nodded to her curtly.
"The laserliths are multi-purpose technology platforms that give us near-perfect information about our Peninsula, in addition to being very effective weapons systems. They can use non-visible light to scan and monitor all-manner of things, provide a completely-secure light-based communication network, and they can even use light to modify atmospheric conditions throughout the Peninsula to change the weather, just to name a few of their functions." Leanna said almost without taking a single breath.
"I see. So if something can be done with light, then the laserliths can probably do it. Does anyone else on your world have this technology?" Prism asked the room.
"Not that we know of. Gnapp sees the laserlith tech as his magnum opus, and he has been downright pathological in protecting it. It's saved us from many attacks over the decades, both foreign and domestic." Leanna continued to explain to Prism.
"And maybe most importantly, at least in the last twenty years; it's allowed the Red Wolves to avoid all of the communication spying and shortfalls that resulted from the Anti-Satellite System that those boneheaded Etrysians standardized." Srell hissed about the event as if it had caused him a great deal of personal irritation when it happened.
Prism had read about the weaponization of space that had occurred over twenty years ago amongst the warring nations of Æba. It had resulted in the planet's orbit becoming a no-man's-zone, where no technology could exist without being destroyed by a sophisticated worldwide network of land-based anti-satellite weapons that had become the norm.
Prism had thought it sad that such a technologically-advanced world had turned its back on the stars.
"Alright, back to the mission, everyone." Ursun clapped loudly to get the room's attention back solely on him. "Leanna will perform the exchange of the schematics, show that she has some measure of control over the laserliths, and then leave with Goran aboard his personal aircraft to what he claims is a new life in Rvljse for her." Ursun continued with his mission briefing.
"But Goran isn't actually going to take her to Rvljse, is he?" Jaik asked.
"Correct. Our intel suggests that he is planning on taking our "defector" to a small island on the outskirts of Vadam territory, but we aren't sure which island, exactly." Ursun explained.
"Oh great; our nearest enemy and their farthest friend." Lorias said with a smirk.
Lorias was referring to the nation of Vadam, whose capital city was about 3000 kilometers away from the Red Wolves' HQ. However, that same city was over 10,000 kilometers away from the Rvljse mainland.
"We believe that Goran has been given a mission by Dictor Gryver to capture the defector and forcefully extract whatever useful information Goran and his thugs can from them. The offer of relocation is just a ruse to get our defector off our Peninsula." Ursun said.
"So where do the rest of us come in, boss?" Srell said impatiently.
"We will covertly follow Goran's aircraft to the Vadamite island using the Titian and perform a "rescue operation" of our defector to avoid too much political blowback. We can’t risk them detecting one of our tracking devices on Leanna or their ship. And the last thing we need is the Vadamite Air Fleet showing up on our doorstep while we're in the process of upgrading the laserliths." Ursun explained.
"The Titian isn't exactly a stealth aircraft, sir." Leanna stated doubtfully.
“That’s what Prism is probably for…” Lorias said after pointing slyly to their resident alien.
Everyone turned to look at their bald alien teammate. Prism looked down at the ground shyly. The day after he’d been made a Red Wolves contractor,
Prism had been asked by Pack Command for an extensive list of what he could practically do with his magic during a mission. Prism worried that he’d been too thorough and too honest about his capabilities.
“Prism will cloak our ship during the mission, allowing us to avoid detection to and from the island." Ursun stated, eliciting a sarcastic whistle from Srell.
"The whole ship, during the entire flight there? And how's he going to do that, sir? We've all seen how tired out he gets from using his powers too much." Srell said as apprehensively as he could.
“Yeah, I’d hate for us to wear him out on his first mission. We shouldn’t be setting him up for failure…” Jaik said while looking at Prism with a look of concern.
Jaik placed his hand atop Prism’s sleek head and gave it a few squeezes, causing Prism to laugh and push Jaik’s arm away. Ursun then looked to Prism and opened his palm in the alien's direction, giving Prism the go-ahead to explain himself. Prism cleared his throat and made an overly-serious face, which made Leanna and Jaik giggle.
"I can use my magic to put myself and other things just a bit out of sync with the rest of reality. When things are unsynced, they are invisible and intangible to almost everything else." Prism began to explain to Srell.
"How interesting. Are you able to..." Leanna started to interrupt before a loud cough from Ursun signaled for her to be quiet while Prism explained.
"Unsynced things float slightly in the air, so no need to worry about falling endlessly through the ground or anything scary like that. It's like being a ghost that can pass through walls, if you guys have ghosts in your world…" Prism said while turning to look at Leanna. She nodded happily, as if he answered one of the many questions she was going to ask. "Fortunately, this sort of magic is very easy to use and maintain, so I shouldn't have any problems with sustaining enough mana to either unsync or resync things on the fly." Prism finished his explanation.
"So you're going to turn us all into ghosts..." Lorias said eerily while placing his forefinger on his chin and looking at the floor near Prism.
"Errr...it'll only be temporary! I can easily put anything back in sync with the rest of reality!" Prism replied frantically when he saw the worried looks on most of his teammates' faces.
"Give us a demonstration, contractor. ”Unsync" and "resync" that empty desk." Ursun said while pointing to a desk near the door of the room.
Prism nodded confidently at Ursun before standing up from his own desk chair and opening up his right palm before him. His eyes flashed with blue light as he coalesced the required magics into his hand, forming a spell circle to contain the syncing magics he'd be using. The circle hovered above the fingers of his right hand like a shining blue disc of energy, giving off blue sparks as it spun. Prism then tossed the spell circle at the desk with a deft flick of his wrist. The spell circle became attached to the desk's table section, and continued to emit a bluish glow.
"Now watch as I make it disappear..." Prism said animatedly.
With a snap of his fingers, Prism's spell circle released a blue flash of light before it and the desk chair it was attached to quickly became more and more transparent, until the desk was completely gone. Prism leapt from his row of desks and ran to the exact spot where the desk he'd made disappear was. He walked back and forth around the area, showing that there seemed to be nothing impeding his movement. He then walked over to an open area in front of the room's door.
"...and make it reappear." Prism said with a smile.
With a second snap of his fingers, the chair began to quickly fade back into view, until it was completely opaque again. Prism then walked over to the desk and sat down within its chair portion. He placed his arm on the desk’s table-section and tapped his finger on its hard surface, showing the others that the desk was completely back to normal. Prism's blue spell circle was no longer visible on the desk.
"Hmph, okay. Seems...doable." Srell said with a shrug. He’d already believed in Prism’s abilities, but still wanted to see them in action.
Prism smiled again and nodded his head cockily at Srell and at Ursun. He made his way back to his seat beside Jaik, but was interrupted before he could sit back down.
"That glowing circle you used...what is it, exactly?" Leanna asked.
"It's a spell circle. It's...basically a way for me to maintain and store complex magics that I weave. If you were to zoom in on them, you'd see that they were made of hundreds of lines of complicated runes, or magical text." Prism explained to Leanna again, trying not to divulge too much extraneous information since he knew that it would lead to more of her questions.
"He'll use his spell circles to imbue the Titian and its contents with the same magic that he just used on that desk." Ursun said to his team. "He'll also use it on himself, since he'll be the one keeping watch over Leanna during her dealings with Goran while he's in Wolf City." Ursun added.
"Gnapp's been trying to make lightweight active camo for years. And now we're friends with someone who can do something even better than just render us invisible. Very cool." Jaik said with a pat on Prism's shoulder. Prism beamed at him.
"Shouldn't Prism unsync Srell and me in addition to himself? Leanna would be safer with the three of us keeping watch." Lorias asked Ursun.
"Prism is still regaining his strength after being locked up for a century without access to his "mana". The rest of Command isn't comfortable with immediately putting that much strain on his abilities. Goran is only in Wolf City for one more day, so we have to take the risk of using Prism so soon. But we aren't going full-in on him until he's at least shown that he can carry his own weight during the first part of this mission." Ursun explained gruffly to Lorias, who nodded in agreement with his commander's clear reasoning.
"And if Prism fails to stay hidden from Goran and his goons...?" Srell asked.
"Then we'll have no choice but to arrest Goran with the evidence we have, and risk Rvljse moving against the Peninsula. We'll also have to re-assess Prism's utility to the Red Wolves." Ursun said before locking eyes with Prism.
Prism felt everyone's expectations fall onto him once again. He was the crucial piece to their first mission together, and he didn't want to let any of them down. He felt Jaik's hand on his clothed shoulder. The heat from the young man's hand comforted Prism more than he thought possible. Prism looked at Jaik, and gave his hand a grateful pat.
"I've got this. The Red Wolves can rely on me." Prism said assuredly.
"We'll see." Ursun said after crossing his arms. "You'll be departing for Wolf City this afternoon with Jaik and Leanna. Srell, Lorias and I will get into town later tonight after we make so final arrangements here at Command HQ." Ursun informed Prism.
After discussing the largely uncertain second half of their mission to the island in Vadam, Ursun dismissed his team from the mission prep room. Prism kept close to Jaik and Leanna when they all left the room. He had many questions about the new city he would be traveling to in only a few hours.
"So...what can you two tell me about Wolf City?" Prism asked while the three of them walked down the well-lit circular hallway.
"It's one of the few free trade cities left on Æba, as crazy as that sounds." Jaik said with a shrug.
"It's located on the outskirts of Red Wolves territory, around 200 kilometers west of us nearer to the other end of the Peninsula. It's a seaside city that's separated by a river that cuts through the entire region." Leanna explained in greater detail.
Prism had learned through books that the Peninsula, as the Red Wolves called it, was a peninsular landmass that was directly under their control. It had been bought by the creators of the Red Wolves over fifty years ago from the nation that the peninsula was attached to, Ruskeda.
"It's called Wolf City...does that mean that the Red Wolves control it?" Prism asked.
"We protect it, but we don't actually run the city. We use it as a source of trade and information, so we have to maintain a pretty hands-off approach to it." Leanna said with a few hand gestures to help describe what she meant.
"But everyone knows that it’s our town. Most of us either live there or are from there." Jaik said energetically.
"Yes, but we let Monarchists come and go from the city as well. It really is a careful balance that we have to maintain." Leanna rebutted Jaik. She knew that he was naive in matters of politics.
"Are we taking one of those off-road cars there?" Prism said complainingly.
It was clear to Leanna and Jaik that he dreaded the idea of taking a three-hour ride in such a vehicle.
"Actually, we're taking a train." Leanna said with a smile before she picked up her pace down the hallway towards the elevators at the end of it.
Prism breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the news, but he then began wondering where the train could be. He hadn't seen any sign of railroad tracks during his forays outside of Kyero Mountain. Jaik saw the pensive look on Prism's face and chuckled.
"The train's below us. You're going to love it. It's another one of Gnapp's creations." Jaik's words only served to excite Prism, just like Jaik had hoped.
The two of them walked a bit faster to keep up with Leanna until the three of them were taking the elevator down to the lowest level Prism had been on within the base. When the elevator doors opened, Prism was amazed by the sleek silver-colored train that he saw peeking out of a large sectioned-off tube dozens of meters in front of him.
There were over a hundred people busying about throughout the large station area. Many were transporting assorted supplies from crates that had been taken off of the train using a large crane-like mechanism that looked as though it automated the loading and unloading from the train itself. Seating was scattered throughout the area, though few were using them. Most people seemed to be getting onto the train, which Prism could see was scheduled to leave in only ten minutes. Prism could also see that there was a second tube that ran parallel to the one he saw, but its train wasn’t at the underground station.
Jaik ran up onto the loading platform before Prism and Leanna and stretched his arms wide above him.
“Welcome to the TubeTrain! Getting us to Wolf City in 30 minutes or less!” Jaik shouted loudly. Several of the station workers and passersby looked at him with mocking irritation, but all Prism and Leanna could do was laugh.
“He wouldn’t act like this if you weren’t here.” Leanna said to Prism with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“I guess he sees us as being around the same age or something.” Prism said with an apologetic rub of his head.
“That explains it.” Leanna said before walking forward to meet Jaik on the platform.
“Hey, don’t the two of you need to pack or something? We’ve got several hours before we’re supposed to leave.” Prism said after running up to meet Leanna and Jaik atop the train platform.
“Oh, we’re already prepped to leave, basically. The only thing we need to do is get our disguises put on.” Jaik said with a relaxed expression.
“We got our orders last night. The mission prep was more to explain things in greater detail to you, and to hear any questions or input we might have for the commander.” Leanna said.
“But I…didn’t know about the mission until this morning…” Prism complained.
“That’s weird. But then again, having a “contractor” on our team is also something new for all of us.” Leanna said.
She looked curiously at the medallion on Prism’s shoulder for a moment and then shrugged as if she was shaking off an intrusive thought. Jaik’s eyes quickly darted from Leanna and Prism several times before he decided to get their minds on something else.
“We’ve got some time to kill. Let’s get Prism trained on the use of our weapons.” Jaik said after grabbing the back of Prism’s neck between the crook of his right arm and pulling the much smaller man close to him.
“Hmmm, I guess that is on the list of things to do, isn’t it…” Leanna said before anxiously biting the nail of her thumb.
“I uhh think I’ll pass on that…” Prism said hesitantly. “I need to keep my hands free so that I can use my magic effectively.” He explained.
“Yeah, that’s what Dr. Liam thought. But Ursun argued that you could probably use your magic without your hands.” Jaik said loudly and directly into Prism’s ear, which annoyingly tickled him.
Jaik had taken to all manner of horseplay with Prism since the two reunited after Prism’s live combat test. Prism couldn’t help but wonder if his magic had linked the two in some deep way that hadn’t been intended. Leanna’s earlier comment made Prism worry that he could’ve possibly even have altered Jaik’s personality. The magics that Prism had used to heal Jaik contained the raw mana that Prism had just absorbed from the planet itself. Prism couldn’t be sure what lasting effects that could have on his new friend.
“Ursun was right, but it’s harder for me to do anything sophisticated without my hands.” Prism explained to Jaik.
“That’s okay, little buddy. You should still know how to fire a weapon, in case you aren’t able to use your magic or something.” Jaik said with a pat of his free hand on Prism’s chest.
For the next two hours, Leanna and Jaik taught Prism the basics of using PAWs, pistols, and rifles. Neither of the mercenaries were surprised by how quickly he learned, or how accurate his shooting became after the first hour of their instruction. Prism, on the other hand, loathed using the weapons; he only saw them as instruments of death. But he cheerily went along with the lessons, hoping that it would at least bring the three of them closer.
Prism would need all the trust he could get for the mission that soon awaited him.