Edward’s POV

I woke to the sound of crackling and the smell of something divine; Meat, cooking over a fire. I opened my eyes, laying motionless on the cave’s uneven floor.

“Proc, threat scan, three second pulse.” I mouthed.

I waited a moment, still as the rock beneath me.

No threats detected.

I breathed a silent sigh of relief and sat up slowly. We were safe. I looked around and spied Eric tending to a small cooking fire with a small boar roasting over it on a spit. Oddly, there didn’t seem to be any smoke gathering in the cave, it just… disappeared.

“Morning. Neat trick with the smoke.” I lifted my hands to my head, hesitating for a moment, then I lowered them and leaned over to shake Larsen’s shoulder gently.

“Hey. It’s go time.” I said.

She jerked awake, her knife freezing halfway to my throat. I wasn’t surprised, really. Waking a soldier abruptly in unfamiliar surroundings wasn’t the safest idea.

She paused for a moment before lowering her knife. She got her feet underneath herself and stood, extending a hand which I took. Pulled upright, I gave her an appreciative nod.

“Smells like breakfast time to me.” Larsen’s eyes locked onto the flickering fire and the boar roasting over it. Her hands rose to her head and she removed her helmet as the seal broke.

“I was beginning to doubt you were even human.” Eric joked.

I followed her example, letting my own helmet rest on a rock next to me.

“Oh, we’re human alright. My stomach is, anyway.” I said, glancing at the veritable feast nearby.

A quick motion unsheathed my knife and I passed it hilt-first to Eric. “It’s your catch.” I said when he looked at me in surprise.

I watched as he sliced the meat into chunks, passing them around. He even had crude forks, though we didn’t have a plate. He sliced off more chunks and they hung in the air, suspended by nothing but magic. I stole a second glance at the floating slices of meat before ignoring it. It probably wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’d see here.

“What’d you use to hunt this thing? And these forks? I don’t see any weapons.”

A subtle motion of his hand put a small knife into his hand from where he had it concealed in his sleeve. He held it up to me.

“I told you I wasn’t helpless. I constructed a hunting spear and took down that boar while it slept.”

“Impressive.” I smiled. It was good to know that my new allies weren’t all one-trick ponies who’d become over-reliant on magic. Or at least, Eric wasn’t one of those people.

Our breakfast was quick and simple and I lamented the fact we had to leave so much good meat behind. My helmet went back on, and I

Still, it was barely eleven minutes before we stood in the last cavernous chamber, staring at the flat platform that rested on the cave’s floor. The runes glowed in a circle of unfamiliar lines and shapes.

“So… we just step onto it, right?” Larsen asked.

“It’s not getting there that worries me.” Eric admitted. “It’s what might be there when we do.”

“Falling boulders, spike pits, incinerators, that sort of thing?” I asked mirthfully. I was genuinely curious despite the humor in my voice, and not just because it would affect whether I lived through the next five minutes.

“Perhaps. I believe whatever runic defenses are on the other side will be a bit more… creative, however.”

“Really? Is there any way to see what’s on the other side?”

“Unfortunately, no. Not with my understanding of magic, at least.” Eric stepped closer, kneeling with his palms and fingers contacting the runes loosely.

“Then… time to improvise, I guess.” I shrugged, mulling over ideas to even the odds. I’d already checked Larsen’s kit via the near-field communication net. We had not one single magazine or grenade between us, which made things difficult, to say the least.

Gone were the days of soldiers who followed orders like robots and failed to act without them. Every single soldier worth his spit could act and think on his feet, cut off from leaders and supply lines. Independence and initiative were not just highly-valued; they were requirements for the modern battlefield where we could be literal light-years from the nearest friendly ship or base.

That training was very reassuring to me at that moment, since we were about as cut off from leaders and supply lines as we could be. I wasn’t some kind of madman who could create tear gas from cayenne pepper, vinegar and hot water, but I did have some ideas about how to get us through the gate without walking into an ambush.

“Improvise?” Eric asked.

“Well, improvise, wing it, play it by ear, it’s all the same really, isn’t it?”

Larsen did not sound amused. “Some days I wonder if you left your ‘insane officer’ streak behind you. Did you actually have a plan in mind?”

“Well, we have fuck all to make a plan with, don’t we? Just Eric’s magic, our suits and a couple knives. No, we’ll just have to go dynamic.”

Larsen chuckled, while Eric looked at us in what was becoming a very familiar expression of confusion.

“Go dynamic? Through a teleporter? We don’t have flashbangs, or bullets.” Larsen shook her head.

“Exactly. So we have to go dynamic.”

She didn’t answer for a moment, and naturally neither did Eric.

“If we ever get off the rock, I might put in for transfer, you know, so I can have a sane team leader.”

“Ah! You wound me.” I said dramatically, snickering as I did so.

“Ready?” Larsen asked me.

“As I’ll ever be. Eric?”

“Time is an issue, so yes, I think it would be best not to delay any further.”

“Alright then. On three.” I said, stepping onto the platform.

The runes flaring slightly. Then, we were there. ‘There’ being the inside of another cell, one that was free-standing and inside a large cylindrical stone room of some kind. The ceiling was incredibly high and the walls all around us were curved, about thirteen metres away from the centre where we’d emerged.

“What is it with you people and underground prison cells?” I asked Eric, not really expecting an answer.

We were alone, but probably not unseen. My suit pulsed a variety of scans and I saw no people, but a lot of stone tunnels and a dozen different rooms. The place wasn’t We would’ve made damned sure that any place that wasn’t under constant guard at least had cameras. I had to assume that there was something similar here.

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I examined the cell. Large steel rods separated by a metre or so each ringed our arrival point. They were made of some kind of dark metal, burnished and glowing with runes. I approached to get a better look at them.

“Careful!” Eric hissed.

My head snapped to him. “Keep it down, you idiot. If they don’t know we’re here, let’s try to keep it that way.” I murmured.

“Right, sorry.”

“Less talking, mission-essential chatter only.” I said. I didn’t want to be a dick, but he needed to shut up and let the professionals work. Standing around talking during what was intended to be a covert intrusion was something I tried to avoid at all costs. It was a great way to get yourself captured, or shot.

Upon reflection, I realised Eric was effectively a civilian with a very powerful skillset, but probably not the kind of experience and training you’d need for something like this. That made a certain kind of sense though, if he was an assistant to someone who did have that training and experience.

I shook my head. Reaching out to touch one of the rods a flare of green light shimmered around my gauntlets as I made contact with seemingly nothing. A barely visible translucent dome glimmered around us all.

“A shield.” Larsen noted.

“Eric. What the hell is this?” I scowled, pressing my gauntlet’s palm into the shield. It flared brighter as I increased the pressure, the boundary clearer.

“It’s a shield, as she said. This will be… difficult to get through. We need a large amount of energy concentrated into as small an area as possible. If the shield’s integrity is broken, it will shatter and cannot reform quickly.”

“Where the hell are all the guards?” I asked.

“Probably already on their way.” Larsen said.

“Great. Larsen, take my six, strike in time with me.”

“Wilco.” I positioned my self close to the transparent dome and charged my knife to align the edge. I doubted it would make much difference but I wanted the blade repaired and in perfect condition for the task ahead.

I raised my knife in an ice-pick grip and slammed it down into the air. The tip of the blade bit into the shield and I repeated the motion. Behind me, Larsen did the same.

It was a hard and fast rhythm, on and on and on. There was no sound, just the light flaring in time with our blades. One strike, two, three, after a while each strike blended into the next.

I stumbled as the sudden lack of resistance forced me to halt my arm and adjust my stance.

I projected my voice in Eric’s direction. “We should move, that wasn’t discreet.”

As though my words were prophetic, mages appeared in a circle around us and raised spears at us.

I swore. “Fucking knew it was wishful thinking…” I raised my knife and took stock of the situation.

It would’ve been laughable at how many men they’d fit into the room, except I counted twenty-four men with spears leveled at us, and another ring behind them forming a barrier of pointed spikes. There was still a decent amount of space behind them all, too.

“Shit.” My mind and suit worked in concert to categorise, prioritise and assess the threat. My categorisation? A bad situation. The priority? Fucking eleven. My assessment? We were at their mercy. None of us were some kind of action movie star in disguise with a gift for acrobatics and daring deus ex machina moments.

“I don’t suppose we can… talk about this, can we?” I ventured.

They remained silent.

“Okay… so I’m guessing you boys failed the portion of the exam where you needed to understand that talking to your captives was a good idea.”

Larsen gave a simple declaration over our shared comms.

“You give the order and I’ll put these sticks through their hearts.”

“A little bloodthirsty, Larsen?” I replied, double-checking to make sure I wasn’t broadcasting my audio to the literal wall of spearmen surrounding us.

“I don’t appreciate being boxed in.”

“Let’s not go jumping to conclusions, maybe they’ll be allies.”

“We’re not that lucky.” Larsen scoffed, “Seriously, give the order, I’ll kill them all.”

“No… this isn’t a fight we need to win. Let me do the talking.” I ordered.

Naturally, not being able to communicate to Eric discreetly was a pain in the ass for coordinating. Fortunately though, with such limited options it was hard for him to screw things up too much. I suppose the simplicity of my plan helped, too.

“Get your boss in here.” I told them. “And for God’s sake, quit sitting there silently, you’re all creeping me out. Are you all mindless statues or something?”

One of the men spoke up, somewhere up the back.

“Put down your weapons, and come with us.”

I dropped my knife and it tumbled to the floor. A moment of silence passed and then Larsen did the same, but no one bent to retrieve them. I assumed they’d do that after we left the room.

I’d be wanting my knife back, but every scrap of our technology had an RFID beacon in it so it was doubtful we’d let our knives go too far, even if they did get sent off to some other facility, they were knives, not the codes for Earth’s planetary defense grid. I wanted to keep our tech out of enemy hands, but I’d been naive to think it wouldn’t happen if we stayed here for any reasonable length of time.

I didn’t plan on staying the night in this place. We’d find the optimal point to stage a breakout, then sweep the place for our man. Failing that, figure out where the attack was going to take place and what form it would take.

One of the spearmen lowered his spear slightly to part the men in front of him. He stepped forward, leveling his spear’s point at me.

He delivered his threat calmly, in what I’m sure was very ominous and intimidating, to him. “You try to run, you die. You fight back, you die. You do anything stupid…”

To me? It was melodramatic and a bit over the top. We were captives, persons under control, not actors in a play.

“Yeah, yeah, where are we going? Hurry the fuck up already, I want to take a nap.” On the inside I couldn’t help but crack a smile as I felt ironically enough, the pre-action jitters, as if everything leading up to this point had just been a walk in the park.

“Quiet, scum.” I saw one of the men behind me poke my back with the tip of the spear. It was light, so as not to seriously injure me, but I didn’t even feel it through my armour.

“Fine.” I scowled, switching over to the closed comms channel again.

The men in front of me parted. It was like a movie, or implant coordination. They moved in lockstep, two steps to either side of me. A thin channel appeared and I filed through it slowly, hands slightly raised and away from my body. Behind me, Larsen, then Eric followed.

“Are you recording everything?” I asked Larsen.

They led us to the edge of the room and one of them laid a palm on the stone. The dusty material shifted and formed a narrow opening. Two guards handed their weapons off to others and then took point, leading us more by pokes with a spear than actual words.

“What do you think?” Larsen asked as we emerged into a tunnel system. It was noticeably different than the one we’d been in before. Far less maintained, dusty and in some state of disrepair. Cracks ran through the stone, and debris was plentiful

“Pump this place full of LIDAR, ultrasound, the works. I’m pretty sure they can’t detect any of it.”

“That kind of a weakness makes stealth aircraft almost irrelevant.” She pointed out.

“Or a thousand times more effective. I know a couple friends who’d kill to have that kind of an advantage.”

“We’d be able to fly nearly anything at a fraction of its standard altitude.” She mused.

“It’ll make recon a lot easier, that’s for sure. You know the plan?”

“Break out of prison? Break everything in sight, find Kirtus and break his legs?”

“Well, I was thinking hands actually. Not to sound like a sadistic psychopath but I’m curious to see if he can throw fire and lightning with broken hands.”

“You make it sound so easy.” Larsen said dryly.

“Well, my plans are always pretty simple. I don’t know about easy.”

I could think of too many curve-balls these people could throw at us. We’d barely half a dozen mages and they’d all turned out to have certain tricks up their sleeves. I looked back at Eric. He was calm, collected, drinking everything in, the same as us, really.

As we rounded another corner, prodded by mostly silent men in full-face helmets, I wondered what the hell was going on here. This was a bit much for a simple terrorist attack. There had to be something more going on.

As it turned out, I was right. We weren’t going to a prison cell, which was, I admit, a nice change of pace. We were going somewhere else.

We rounded another bland hallway. At the end a doorway sat with a heavy and ornate steel door lefty ajar.

“Again! You must train to be ruthless!”

A flash of something orange lit up the room inside. I’d been glancing at my augmented display, but it was one thing to see a computer-generated composite image and another to see a direct optical feed.

“In there. Now.” One of the two men leading us turned and stepped aside, glaring at me. I didn’t let it bother me, I’d been glared at by men a lot scarier than some no-name guard. Drill Instructor Fisher came to mind.

As I passed the guard, he shoved me roughly, or at least, tried to. I quickened my steps and his hand missed my shoulder. I smirked, my eyes travelled upwards to the symbol of a rose laid across an open book. The symbol was one I’d seen on many different rooms, but not all of them. Each one had the mark of Kerennium, but I saw no visible magic. I wondered what kind of spell needed such a precious commodity.

I passed the threshold, stepping fully into the room. Inside, two occupants stood facing one end of the room. One had hair the colour of sand and an unruly look. Rather like a romanticised pirate without any of the clothes. The other was young, no more than nineteen and he looked focused, but frustrated.

I watched for a moment as the boy pushed his hand forward and a jet of flame reached out and slammed into the opposite wall. Instead of scorching the wall, or the material exploding from the sudden introduction of so much heat, an invisible heat haze rippled across the wall, starting where his attack had struck. Another kind of shield, for training it looked like.

The older, rough-looking man turned to me, glaring at me. I consider myself something of an expert when it comes to understanding the facial expressions and behaviour of people who are pissed at me. It’s something I’ve had a lot of practice with, so my immediate reaction to Davian was one of confusion. I'd gotten a basic description of the man, and given his attitude, I had very little doubt this was who we were looking for.

“YOU!” He hissed, cold eyes turning on me. “You are lucky I let you live at all, but I have questions. I better like your answers.” He looked like he was ready to gut me with his own hands, all personal-like. I honestly didn't know why. I'd never met the guy. We hadn't even been on the planet when he was captured, if I remembered things right.

“You make enemies like a man with nothing to live for.” Eric laughed behind me.

I shrugged, keeping up an even stare with Davian. My reply to Eric was simple. “I’m a Marine.”