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looked around at the others. They were all there, crowded around the small
transceiver: Rosa Haldayne. Chua
Gabaye, Ming Tokiabi. Varishnikar Stomsk. . . . All but Zelligman Ivan.
"They're offering us nothing at all," Gabaye snapped. "We already control the
whole damned planet! All we did was get suckered into being trapped in
Anchor."
"I wonder," said Gifford Haldayne. staring at the transceiver, "if we've been
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kidding ourselves about that all these years.
We opened the Gates, but they sure as hell aren't talking to us."
"Whoever they are, they will soon attack." Sligh predicted. "
Then we will attempt to strike whatever deal we can."
Sligh was certainly correct in at least the first part of his statement.
Clearly further conversation was getting neither side closer together.
"You may go in peace," the Commander told them, "or you may put down your
shield and we can attempt friendly relations. The choice is yours. But we will
not subordinate ourselves to another race. We have had quite enough of that
among ourselves, thank you."
She still sounded like a librarian, Matson thought, but she was also playing
it cool, calm, and correct and she clearly had the guts for this business.
Those Soul Riders picked well, it seemed.
"It is unnatural, against the grand scheme of the universe," the
Samish responded. "Under-races which deny the primacy of the First Lord also
deny the Divine Scheme. Such is corruption, such is evil. Even now there are
forces within our shield poised to strike us. We will demonstrate our power."
The small pinched-top section of the main ship began to glow, then with a
sound of connectors snapping back it freed itself of the main ship and lifted
slowly and dramatically into the air.
"Stand by to place firm thrust attack into operation!"
came the Commander's message to the operations officers at the northern and
southern Anchors.
"The loss of weight of the vehicle may have tipped things in our favor."
They had packed the tunnels nearly solid with every type of explosive known
that they could lay their hands on. The Guardians now dropped the safety
shield just ahead of the regulator and pumped highly compressed air into the
gaps in the massive load. In effect, it was Matson's great cannon, aimed at
the massive but exposed underbelly of the ships.
The small flying vehicle made a humming sound as it took off from the Gate and
headed out towards the largest New Eden force within the shield. Similar ships
took off almost simultaneously from Gates Two and Six, but this time in Flux.
The computers shifted their estimates, and through the district commanders
instructed and briefed the wizards in the north about what was to happen. The
Nine had been reduced to the
Five, but because of their abilities to travel Flux at great speed, Talanane
and Serrio were at Gate
Two, and the other three were at Gate Six. Their strong powers, combined with
that of the local wizards and Fluxlords, was considerable.
The small ships were obviously Flux amplifiers of some sort, but they were
within the greater shield and did not have a great deal of shielding
themselves. The wizards of the north watched them come, waiting until the last
moment to erect their own shields. Mervyn, alone, had once beaten an
amplifier; no one in Flux was alone, and the Nine had amplifiers of its own,
used up to now to guard the Gate and pulled back when that had proven useless.
The New Eden defenders were more constrained, but so was the ship. In an
Anchor environment its amplifiers were very limited, and they tried to pick up
power from the city electrical lines and grids. Suzl was able to pretty much
block this, leaving the ship to other armaments.
The
Samish were about to discover that they had picked a unique offshoot of
humanity, primitive though it was culturally and technologically. This was a
hard, nasty race, who'd practiced on itself what the
Samish alone believed they possessed. When the feared demons had proven to be
no more than strong wizards, the Fluxlords felt themselves right at home.
The New Eden ship rose into the air and hovered there a moment, then shot a
series of devastating rays into the main body of troops about a kilometer from
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Anchor. There was tremendous loss of life and materiel where the rays struck,
but hard-bitten commanders who'd conquered three Anchors ordered a return fire
with rockets and sweeping heat rays.
In the north, the Fluxlord's shields went on. It would not stop the ray
weapons, but it sure as hell stopped the ships well short of the main body.
Wizards who had conquered other powerful
Fluxlands knew well to disperse their troops and their most powerful wizards,
but they would have to take some losses from the rays until the commander made
her move.
"Now!''
came the order from Holy Anchor, and simultaneously small sparks of Flux flew
from the firewalls into the explosive. The projectile was not shot or shell,
but air compressed air, which would go through the shield, propelled by the
mighty force of the giant explosions which had no place to go but out the
tunnel.
All three ships shuddered, and for a brief moment their shields flickered, but
then reformed. For
New Eden it was not enough, but for the northern defenders in Flux it was the
opening they waited for. Power from the Fluxlord's shields reached out like a
living thing and struck and engulfed the tiny ships in the few precious
seconds of power cuts. Mighty fingers of force gripped the ships and squeezed
them, compressing them more and more into dense balls of metal glowing with
great heat. Now the commanders, using their Soul Rider connections,
concentrated everything they had on the master shield. It wavered, and broke
several times, reforming as a smaller and yet more powerful shield. They
smashed it again and again, and did manage to restrict it to the area just
around the Gates, but from that point the alien shield held. They kept the
pressure on, but knew they would have to find an alternate way to the Enemy's
heart.
In the south, the alien's flying craft was faring better. Capable of instant
bursts of great speed and near supernatural maneuverability, it was having no
trouble keeping out of the way of the weaponry being hurled at it, and its ray
projectors definitely had a far better range.
"We taught them respect in the north." Spirit said glumly, "but those ships
were too heavy for what we had to explode. They still have their power and
their equipment."
Matson looked over the small company in the control center. "Other than Suzl
and yourself, who has the greatest Flux power in this room?"
"In practical terms, the twins," she responded, "although Mom has greater
potential. She can't use it herself, but with spells fed to her, her past
experience will make them the most effective.
Why?"
"Because I think there's a power big enough to budge that ship, if she's
willing to go along and if you're willing to do the dirtiest thing you've ever
done in your whole life."
"The computers can't divine your meaning. Explain."
"The key to what you said is potential.
Do me a favor. Ask your computer who was stronger in absolute terms, Coydt or
Cassie."
Spirit looked surprised. "Why in relative access ability, she's much stronger.
But she lost to him!"
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