"Not yet. We'll let you know."
"Thanks." Kyle walked forward, past the second truck, casually noticing the structural reinforcing, the barest signs of armor plating, and the flat mesh of military antenna in a strip near the roof. As he came to the front truck, one of its doors opened, a small stair folded out, and a casually garbed, buzz-cut man stepped out.
He nodded to Kyle and motioned him up the stairs.
"Not going to frisk me?" Kyle said.
"No, sir."
"Appreciate it." Kyle climbed the stair, and pushed carefully past the black curtains that hung just beyond the doorway. The interior was lit with flat green lighting, but where the Eagle Security command van had been cramped and overcrowded, the Knight Errant vehicles were spacious and efficient, as testified by the obvious comfort of the six individuals present. He saw computer consoles with large touchscreen displays that served double duty as control and data and trideo monitors. A long bank of them showed the exterior of the garnered Citymasters and the surrounding neighborhood, including multiple views of the Brotherhood warehouse. Another showed a truck full of troopers, dim figures in black body armor, waiting. From the way they were arming up, Kyle didn't think they'd be waiting long.
"Looks like I got here just in time," Kyle said.
None of the occupants of the command and control area seemed amused, save one.
"You owe me fifty, Vathoss," Anne Ravenheart said, smiling slightly as she turned in one of the console chairs. She was already geared up in her black body armor. A tactical helmet hung from the side of the chair. Beyond her, Sergeant Vathoss frowned at both her and Kyle.
"I left my credstick in my other pants," he said sourly.
"Null sweat," she told him, glancing over her shoulder at him and then back at Kyle. "I know you know Sergeant Vathoss," she said, "and Lieutenant Gersten." Vathoss didn't acknowledge the mention and continued working the combat data console he was prepping. Gersten, however, seated to the rear of the cabin and apparently doing nothing more useful than scratching under the collar of his combat armor, nodded.
"Across from me"-she gestured to the tall Japanese' woman on the opposite side of the cabin-"is Sergeant Sakai." The woman didn't directly acknowledge the mention either, but Kyle wasn't surprised. Three hyper-speed optical cables ran from the base of her neck and plugged into her chair, which was, in turn, part of and directly connected to her console. What he could see of her eyes were focused on something invisible to anyone else. She was the tac-ops officer, in charge of coordinating and tracking unit and individual movement once an operation began. Again, from the intense look on her face and the visible activity on her console, the preliminary stages were already underway.
"And lastly," Ravenheart said, indicating with her eyes the older and at least partially Amerindian man standing directly behind her, "I'd like to introduce you to Roger Soaring Owl, CEO of Knight Errant."
Soaring Owl, who looked more like an accountant despite his combat armor, nodded at Kyle. "I'll have you know that I came very close to losing that bet myself," he said in an almost deliberately slowed voice. "Fortunately, I changed my mind."
Kyle stepped forward and hesitantly extended his hand. The shorter man shook it vigorously. Kyle didn't know much about Roger Soaring Owl, but he did know the man answered only to Damien Knight, himself the CEO of Ares Macrotechnology. For him to be here, and fully geared, actually frightened Kyle. He hadn't heard that Soaring Owl was any kind of adrenaline junkie or even a hands-on manager, and that meant this operation was very important to Ares.
"You're not going, by the way," Soaring Owl said in the moment of silence after they shook hands. Kyle saw Ravenheart smile and spin back to her console.
"Going?" asked Kyle.
"On the raid."
"I should think you'd want all the help you could get."
Sergeant Sakai's voice interrupted them. "Astral teams report they're staging point one."
"Thank you," said Ravenheart just as Soaring Owl was telling Kyle, "We appreciate the offer, but we're all set." He smiled slightly. "We've done this before."
"So have I," Kyle said.
"Yes, the Eagle raid. We have it all recorded if you'd ever like to see it. Many men and women died there for no reason. We had the situation in hand."
Kyle felt cold. “The cocoons…?"
"No," Soaring Owl said. "The troopers. Those poor souls who were cocooned are lost. Nothing could be done for them."
"Based on what I saw in that raid, you need all the magical help you can get," Kyle said. "Conventional weaponry is only of limited use, grenades and rockets are useless, and considering the metaphysics, I can't see drone or remote weaponry being of any real help either."
Soaring Owl nodded. "You're right, but we're prepared. Eighty percent of the assault force is magically active-either full blooded magicians, sorcerers, or physical adepts. They'll have drone cover against the flesh forms, which gunfire seems to cut down just fine. They'll also be supported by a cadre of elementals and watcher spirits inside, and a circle of them outside as backup and to catch any that try to break free. We've also got four shamans, all combat-trained, who will turn the place inside out magically. There's going to be a world of drek flying into that building in thirty minutes, Mr. Teller, but you're not going to part of it."
Kyle scowled, but knew it was useless trying to change Soaring Owl's mind.
Then the older man smiled and gestured to the multitudes of display monitors. "You can, of course, watch."
20
Sergeant Sakai's voice was calm and soothing as she coordinated the staging and interaction of the thirty-two different elements comprising the Knight Errant raid on the Brotherhood warehouse. Kyle understood her words, but little of what she was saying as she related custom map coordinates and abbreviated sequencing information. She, one other coordinator, two technicians, and Roger Soaring Owl were the only Knight Errant troopers present in the command cabin. The rest were staged for combat.
"All units at start point," Sakai said loudly. At the rear of the cabin. Soaring Owl quickly finished off a private telecom call that Kyle believed was to Damien Knight himself. After disconnecting, he walked over to Sakai and placed his hand on her shoulder, "We're green," he said.
She nodded and her hands flashed over the console, a dozen indicators turning green. "Stage green go," she said. "Good luck."
Things suddenly began to happen on every monitor in the cabin. Kyle could barely follow it all, but seeing that Soaring Owl seemed to know exactly where to look next, Kyle let his attention follow the older man's. Any doubt that Soaring Owl was simply a data-mover out for a rush among the troops was laid to rest during these final preparations. As Ravenheart was rattling off last-minute changes and amendments to the battle plan, Soaring Owl's questions and concerns were coming just as rapid-fire.
"Rocket's away," Sakai said.
Soaring Owl turned to the monitors showing the exterior of the Brotherhood warehouse, and as a score of black-clad troopers rushed forward, even faster streaks of light hit the various doors and windows, blowing them open.
Immediately, a second wave of rockets soared through the open windows and exploded inside the structure, spreading huge, billowing clouds of foul-smelling gas specifically designed to overpower the insect spirit's dominant sense-smell.
Three armored hover drones zipped past the troopers and in through the ruptured cargo door. Kyle searched the monitors for a view from them, and found it just as a trio of half-men, half-something-else figures were cut to pieces in a barrage of high-velocity gunfire. The troopers swarmed in after the drones, and flashes of magical power began to dominate the viewscreens.