Leanna, Srell, and Lorias took cover behind the anti-air guns as shots continued to ring out from the nearby forest. The trio could see Ursun standing behind the mysterious young man several meters away. They could also see that Jaik was injured on the ground near Ursun as a trail of blood led out of the forest.

Leanna radioed their ship to tell their pilots that they were in a firefight, and that the mercenaries would need a bit more time to secure their extraction point.

“Do what you do best, RED-1. We’ll be overhead.” The Titian’s co-pilot radioed back over Leanna’s bio-encrypted channel.

Meanwhile, Lorias and Srell kept their PAWs at the ready, prepared to shoot at the first soldier that appeared from the wooded area.

Prism continued to hold up his barrier of white light, which caused each bullet hitting it to burst harmlessly into a small bright flash of light. Ursun didn’t know if he should begin firing his gun through the light barrier, or if he should check on the injured Jaik who still laid at his feet.

When Prism began to walk forward his barrier moved with him. Ursun stooped down and checked on Jaik’s bleeding leg once Prism had moved out of Ursun’s way. It was clear that the junior merc was losing a lot of blood, and that he was fading in and out of consciousness. When Ursun realized how dire Jaik’s situation truly was, his decision was a no-brainer.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not gonna let you die on us, kid.” Ursun said gruffly while he withdrew a tourniquet-kit from Jaik’s gear belt.

Ursun removed Jaik’s thigh plate from his armored leggings and began to apply the tourniquet above the gunshot wound that was just above his knee. Ursun saw Jaik wince and groan during the treatment, which reassured the commander that Jaik would be okay.

“Don’t be such a baby. It’s just a gunsh-“ Ursun began to joke.

Ursun was once again cut off by another strange development from Prism, who was only a few meters in front of him.

Prism had bathed himself in the same sort of white light that had served as a shield against the bullets. He then made a run straight for the tree line and charged at the soldiers hidden within. Their bullets had no effect on him while he ran, and he quickly discovered where they were hiding.

Prism aimed his hands at a shrub to his right and then shot a ball of white light at it. The soldier that had been crouched within the shrub was blasted a short distance into the air. Prism wasted no time in firing the same sort of blast of energy into several other nearby shrubs.

When Leanna, Srell and Lorias made their way over to Ursun, they saw several of the Queen’s soldiers fly into the air and land on the beach near to them. The mercenaries instinctively fired at the incapacitated soldiers, not wanting to risk any further fighting on their end. Leanna looked up at the forest and saw the still-nude Prism continue to shoot light from his hands at the remaining unit of soldiers. She too had never seen anyone able to shoot energy from their bodies before. She could barely believe her eyes.

“How’s the kid?” Lorias asked Ursun, who was still crouched down near Jaik.

Ursun continued wrapping Jaik’s gunshot wound with a bandage to further stop the bleeding from Jaik’s injured right thigh.

“A lot of blood loss, but he’s going to make it, thanks to…whatever “he” is.” Ursun said with a nod of his head towards the forest. “He calls himself “Prism”. Says he’s going to protect us from the queenies.”

“Prism…” Leanna almost whispered.

She’d lowered her PAW, and was simply watching Prism leap around the forest and blast the last few soldiers within. His body shined brightly, illuminating all that was around him in the previously darkened wood.

“Call the ship, tell them it’s safe to land.” Ursun ordered Leanna, snapping her mind back to their mission.

“Yes, sir.” She said before tapping her ear clasp and hailing the ship, which was still hovering far above them.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

By the time she’d completed her call, Leanna noticed that the fighting within the forest had ended. Prism walked calmly towards the five mercenaries; his youthful face was an enigma. His eyes were no longer glowing white, and the aura of light that had surrounded him was also gone. He was simply a naked, bald-headed man again, albeit fully-awake.

Ursun stood up and held his coilgun firmly in hand, signaling for the others to ready their own weapons. Their aggressive stance seemed to startle Prism, who stopped in his tracks a few meters before them. They all stood silently on the sandy white beach. The area around them looked like a battered war-zone.

“”Prism”, was it?” Ursun asked coldly.

“That’s right, Ursun.” Prism said, shocking Srell and Lorias.

“You weren’t asleep at all, were you?” Leanna asked. Her curiosity was in full bloom.

“I had to be sure that you weren’t…them.” Prism said, bobbing his head towards the body of a dead soldier only a meter away.

“You’re coming with us.” Ursun said firmly, as if ordering the mysterious man.

“Alright, that’s fine. I sort of need your help anyway, because…”

Prism’s words began to fade, and he collapsed before he could finish them. Leanna quickly ran to his aid, and nearly caught him before he hit the ground. She was sure that he was their ally. He looked up weakly at her and tried his best to communicate his gratitude to her.

“I just need…some rest…that…took a lot out of me.” Prism said softly and quietly to Leanna.

She held his torso in her gloved hands. His body felt so light and fragile to her. She couldn’t help but feel partly-responsible for his plight.

“Thank you. We’ll take care of you. Just sleep now.” Leanna said kindly to him.

Her words were only heard by Prism as the sound of their ship began to sweep through the area while it descended from above them.

“Grab him and let’s go!” Ursun yelled to Leanna while he lifted Jaik up with ease and carried him towards their hovering tiltjet.

The ramp to the ship’s cargo bay opened and quickly made contact with the ground. Leanna lifted the then-sleeping Prism into her arms and ran him over to ramp. In the span of a couple of minutes, they were all aboard the Titian. Its ramp quickly closed behind them while the tiltjet hovered a few meters above the sand.

“Get us out of here!” Ursun yelled at the cockpit once he and Leanna strapped Jaik and Prism in to makeshift beds.

The pilot wasted no time flying the tiltjet up at an angle until they were clear of the beach and back into the high skies. But it didn’t take long for alarms to start blaring within the ship, once again putting the Red Wolves on high alert.

“Contact. Queen ship is on our tail. I repeat, Queen ship is on our tail.” The pilot’s voice blared over the crackly intercom, interrupting the alert alarm.

“Strap in everyone.” Ursun ordered. He rushed to the door of the cockpit and let himself inside. “Fight or flight?” Ursun asked the pilot and co-pilot.

“Definitely fight. We can’t shake them in our current flight mode. They’re faster than us.” The co-pilot replied. He was looking over data that the Red Wolves had on that particular enemy ship.

“We’ll evade them the best we can. Say the word, and we’ll fire up our afterburners and give those queenies a real chase.” The main pilot said with a cheeky smirk.

“We’ll see if we can’t knock them out of the sky first. No need to overwork Titian. I’ll get on the guns. You guys keep the ship steady for me.” Ursun told the pilots.

The pilots quietly nodded at Ursun before he rushed out of the cockpit and back towards the transport bay. There he sat down at a console that had several large displays above it. After flicking on a few switches, the displays lit up, showing a panoramic view around the tiltjet. Leanna made her way over and stood behind the console chair to watch Ursun get to work.

“One of the Queen’s Hurriers. Must be the ship that brought her soldiers to the island. But why hasn’t it fired on us? We’re within range of its guns.” Leanna asked openly.

“They probably want our target’s body back in one piece. That’s why.” Ursun reasoned while his fingers swept across the weapons console, pressing various buttons to open gun ports and release safeties.

“Be careful, the newest Hurriers have an EMP cannon. They’ll have to get a bit closer for it to be effective against us, but it would bring us down in one piece for them to retrieve.” Leanna said worriedly.

“I’d hate for them to get Prism and our new plasma tech.” Lorias said while glancing at the bay’s ceiling.

“I know, and the pilots know. Now leave me be.” Ursun said calmly before beginning to fire the ship’s rear 40mm chain gun.

Leanna watched the screens in front of her and Ursun as the ship’s weapons began to shoot at the large but fast ship behind them. The fusion-powered Titian’s bio-computers assisted in the aiming of the guns, but the weapons still needed to be manually-fired. The Hurrier began to bob and weave through the air behind them, avoiding their powerful long-range autocannon. Ursun cursed under his breath at how easily the pursuing aircraft dodged their firepower.

“We’ll be in range of their weapons at this rate. And if I use our missiles, they’ll just intercept them.” Ursun said aloud, half-heartedly wanting Leanna to put her mind on the problem.

“We should use our plasma cannon! Gnapp wanted a live combat test, anyway.” Srell yelled from across the bay.

He and Lorias were tending to Jaik, who was unconscious. They elevated his right leg and made him more comfortable.

“If we miss, or hit them and don’t destroy their ship, then we’ll be giving them far too much intel about our new secret weapon.” Leanna rebuffed.

Ursun tapped on a few keys on the console in front of him and pulled up the access system for the experimental plasma weapon that they spoke of. It was stored in the top section of the Titian, and required the opening of a door that would give the enemy Hurrier a clear shot to their fusion engine.

“Here’s hoping that I was right about them wanting us in one piece.” Ursun said with a shake of his head.

He pressed a series of buttons that authorized the use of the plasma cannon. They all heard and felt the fusion-deck door slide open above them, and then the cannon start to retract outwards. Lorias, Srell and Leanna looked anxiously up at the metallic ceiling above them, as if they could see the cannon.

One of the displays in front of Ursun changed to a first-person view from the cannon’s own targeting system. Ursun took in a deep breath and aimed the cannon’s reticule over the Hurrier with the computer’s help until it was locked onto the enemy ship. He then squeezed his joystick’s firing trigger. A loud but short boom reverberated throughout the ship, followed by an explosion over a kilometer behind them. In under a second, the cannon had destroyed the Hurrier with a flash of plasma.

Lorias, Srell, and Leanna leapt for joy and noisily began to cheer for their commander. Ursun let out a deep sigh of relief. He then slid down into his seat so that he could relax for a moment.

“Congratulations, sir. We are flying clear.” The pilot’s voice crackled over the unreliable intercom.

Ursun stayed put at the weapons console for the rest of their ride, just in case they ran into any more enemy ships.