As I watched the shuttle touch down with my new Paladin, a young man named Vincent Armstrong, I was spending more time worrying about the two squads of American Infantry and the civilians who had stepped up to fight than I was about the day I was about to spend with a guy that I was supposed to be evaluating as a Paladin.
The two men in charge of the squads a sergeant and a master sergeant, though I didn't get the difference, had approached me and demanded to know who I was and what I was doing. They didn't like my answer of ignoring them. I didn't have time to worry about their command structures and their commanding officer's orders; I had enough trouble worrying about my own chain of command and who was under it.
To remedy my refusal to answer them, they had decided that they and their squads were sticking to me like white on rice. Why me and not Carrie I don't know. Maybe the faceplate on my armor outed me as the commander. Either way as the shuttle came down in front of us all, the infantrymen were all pointing their guns at it as though that would do anything. They'd already seen that bullets couldn't do anything to me when one of the civilians shot me with his 20 gauge. The dressing down the master sergeant gave him made me happy to be at the top of my own military structure.
I watched the shuttle door open up and reveal the newly promoted Paladin Armstrong in his gold-trimmed white armor and the armored forms of Yurnel and Kiv-mel behind him waiting to disembark and speak to me. Their armor was different from Nephilim armor I noticed, and I didn't mean the differences to accomadate their races.
Yurnel's armor was blue with a bright pink cross on the chest, back, and shoulders. Guess she wanted to make sure that it was known she was some type of medical personell than a fighter; why I don't know. Unless Carrie had something to do with her armor.
Kiv-mel's armor was standard green and held a gear insignia in the same places as Yurnel's crosses. His gears were colored neon gold with small white outlines.
After the door set down and was stable enough for the two aliens to make their way down, the three of them stepped off the shuttle and saluted me. Carrie spoke before I could.
"Paladin Armstrong, you will come with me and I will work to evaluate you while the Demigod speaks to the Doctor and Engineer." She made that sound like they were official titles for them.
"Sergeants, feel free to bring your squads. Demigod James will want privacy for this I'm sure." I hadn't even realized that she was speaking where they could hear her.
"What's first Prinicipalty Appelwood?" Armstrong asked as he made his way to the side after Carrie. What was said after that I don't know because Yurnel and Kiv-mel were approaching me and speaking.
"What do we do to find the new Queen?" Yurnel asked
"I feel that we should make an effort to secure and investigate the crashed Ythnw ship," Kiv-mel said at the same time. From the glares they seemed to shoot at one another I guess this was an argument they'd been having for more than a little while.
"Why do you think we should secure the Ythnw ship?" I asked Kiv-mel. I wanted to hear both sides of their argument before focusing on one.
"If we secure the Ythnw ship then we can determine whether there were any survivors and perhaps what happened that made them transport a Scourge Queen to Earth," he said. I could definitely see how knowing that would be something that was important. "Furthermore, we will be able to secure any Warden of Life technologies that may be there before the humans get their hands on them and cause something worse to happen."
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"Why do you feel that we should focus on the Princess?" I asked Dr. Yurnel. I could guess most of her answer, but hearing it wouldn't hurt anything right now.
"If we find the new Queen before it is able to grow enough to be a problem for us then we can end this infestation quicker and save more lives," she answered. "Additionally, with the Guardians now firmly surrounding and protecting it, we would be able to remove the second biggest obstacle from our path."
They both made arguments that I could get behind without an issue, short as they were. I needed to be certain that any dangerous technology was secured, otherwise who knew what would happen after the Scourge horde was destroyed. If the Princess was allowed to grow enough that she could begin replenishing the numbers lost so far, then there was every chance that we'd end up in a slog for the last few inches of territory the Scourge had taken. Neither option was something that I could leave to chance.
"Kiv-mel, I want you to go back to the Phoenix and inform Wing Alexander that he is to send a shuttle to grab Wings Parham and Roberts. From there, he is to send a force of five hundred from our reserves onboard the Phoenix under their command and with your continued guidance they are to secure the crashed Ythnw ship. Dr. Yurnel, if you have further ideas for how we can track down the Princess then I'm all ears. If you don't then I will be sending a shuttle to pick up Wings Yamato and Eriks as well as their squads. They will meet me at the area that the Queen was killed in and from there we will spread out and hunt down the Princess."
"Thank you Commander," Kiv-mel said with a salute before turning around and heading to the waiting shuttle.
"I will be attempting to refine the scanning capabilities onboard the Phoenix to help locate the Princess' lifesign. I will inform you if I am successful in any way," Yurnel said with a salute of her own before following Kiv-mel back to the shuttle.
As I watched the shuttle take off I couldn't help from worrying about whether I was making a good choice for all this. I guess I'd never know until it was all over.
"We're running all the way to the blast zone?" Carrie asked. I don't know why she felt the need to repeat what I'd just said.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, sir?" Armstrong asked hesistantly. Just made a Paladin and already questioning my orders? Carrie works fast, good.
"We'll be fine," I reassured them. "If we come across any Scourge then we can stop and kill them quickly before continuing. At some point there won't be any Scourge left from the Screecher Explosive that was sent down."
"I'm not worried about the Scourge," Carrie said. "I'm worried about keeling over before we're even halfway there. Sure, we can run fast and after the past year I think I could make it if I had to, but while fighting? No way in hell."
"We'll be doing thruster runs," I told them. I didn't need to see their faces to know that they didn't like that idea.
"You know that thruster runs are too difficult for me to do for a long time like this!" Carrie said. "I don't even think anyone else has tried to do them as much as you have!"
"I'm with the Principality," Armstrong said. "Most everyone else tried a few times and gave up on the long distance aspects of it. They started going too fast and they lost control too often to make it something that they could do."
"Didn't anyone try to do it while using the thrusters throughout the suit?" I asked. That was how I'd mastered long distance thruster runs.
"Explain," Carrie demanded tersely.
"If you're losing control then use your feet to get better air-time and get control back," I said. "Use the back mounted thrusters to keep your body levelled out and upright. The waist and leg thrusters are used just for more forward control and to aid in tight turns."
"That sounds easy," Carrie hedged.
"I think I can try that," Armstrong said.
"Take an hour and practice," I ordered them. "After that, no matter how well you're doing, we're going."
"Commander, is this to get back at me for the eggs?" Carrie asked.
"No," I took the time to answer her. "I got you back for them with all the sparring I made you do with me." I'd kicked her ass a lot in those matches.