Codename: Freedom - Book 5 - Chapter 32

It was like Lethal Accord had been waiting for this moment. Even if it wasn’t obvious to the battalions that didn’t have surveillance on every base, it was to Prodos. I had only just sat down to eat dinner when Destiny relayed it to me and the intelligence team.

The three major players all had a squad of rank D users by the central flag array. Only the Forefathers had formed up there with every rank D user they had. It was what forced a tentative stalemate.

Lethal Accord was on the move. They had one primary squad filled with rank D users but had several others with two or three leading them. Leaving approximately ten rank D users at base, they sent everyone else toward the central arena. As the only battalion with over thirty rank D users, the initiative was theirs to take.

A wave of rank D-led squads reached the maze’s exit to the central arena. The moment they did, the squads that had been in formation there to keep the path clear rushed forward. Two platoons worth, almost one hundred men, rushed toward the central flag array throwing bolts as they went. Even if the majority of them were rank E users, there were ten rank D users leading the charge. Their main target? Ebrima Okoro and The Burden Bearers.

It was their position between Legal Accord and The Burden Bearers that made them the respective target. It forced Ebrima Okoro and his men to shield up. Brendon Black took advantage and ganged up on the pinned down squad.

Everyone had been anticipating the possibilities. Someone from The Burden Bearers and Lethal Accord sent runners to grab a flag, while The Forefather’s second rank D squad came running from their defensive position in the maze.

I couldn’t help but imagine the Devs in charge of this event somewhere dancing in celebration. It had finally begun.

“Mel,” I called, coming to my feet while chewing a big juicy mouthful of cheesesteak. I’d only taken a couple bites, but it was hard to not appreciate one of the universe’s most epic hot sandwiches. Especially if it had enough melted cheese.

He’d been sitting across from me in the mess hall sipping on one of the better protein shakes. He stood with me, knowing what I intended without me saying anything.

Olivia was there with us. She stood with her hairy-chested man that looked younger than he was and kissed him firmly on the mouth. They weren’t shy with public displays of affection. They just usually limited it to handholding.

I turned to ask about getting my own kiss, in jest of course, but Kline wasn’t there. He’d already sacrificed himself early so that we could secure our first flag. Even as I grinned across at Mel and Olivia, I had a tumult churning inside me. I’d seen everything my friend had endured as well as the others.

A firm slap on the back pulled me momentarily out of my darker thoughts to see a grinning Barrell kiss at me. “For good luck?”

I pushed him, grinning. “Yeah, no.”

The fact that he’d been thinking the same wisecrack as I had just proved how much the old man had rubbed off on us. I smacked him back on the shoulder.

“You ready for this?” I asked Mel.

“One more” he replied, proceeding to pick Olivia up and kiss her as she squealed. Putting her down, he followed up, “I’m ready.”

Victoria didn’t show up to object to what we had planned. Instead, she reached out to us through the leadership channel. “Lucius, you should wait. If you’re killed trying to win another flag, then not only will it be that much harder for us to if we must, but they’ll also gain a point if they kill you. It’s the same if you’re defeated, Mel. If both of you are gone, the only other option we have is to risk hundreds of lives to try and pull something off. Can you at least wait to see if someone surpasses us?”

“Oh, we’ll wait,” I reassured her. “I just want to be in position for when it happens. And if an opportunity arises…”

In the end, Victoria allowed it. Secretly, we shared the same philosophy in our approach to this. The tension was necessary though. Even though there was a rational reason she sent us to the back gate that faced the half mile high enclosure surrounding our base, it felt like we were being punished for not obeying.

The forcefield shifted from the outer wall to the inner as we stood in the courtyard alone. When it had shifted, I asked, “Ready to climb?”

“Nope, but a guy doesn’t always get what he wants,” he sighed.

“So true. My poor sandwich.”

He jabbed me on the shoulder. “Let’s get this over with. And no, I haven’t changed my mind. I don’t have the same skydiving fetish as you. Getting down is hard enough without trying to get there as quickly as possible.”

I gave him a side-long look. “You’ve done it at lower heights. It’s mostly the same. You just have to get the timing down.”

“And wear a skintight leather bodysuit. I’ll stick with my body armor, thanks.”

I shrugged.

We scaled the wall with the help of push and soon found ourselves in the back corner of the cage enclosing our base.

“Want me to go last so that I can catch you if you fall?” I teased.

“I’ll be right behind you,” he asserted.

“Fine. Ready to get some revenge?”

“We’re headed to the Forefather’s base?”

I smirked. “Who else has all their heavy hitters out playing with other battalions and all those flags just sitting there?”

His expression turned grave. “There isn’t a battle going on at their base this time, Lucius. If you really try to dive in and snatch it, you’ll have hundreds of psionic bolts aimed at your back. It doesn’t matter if they’re just rank E.”

“Who said I’m going to dive into the middle of their base?”

“Uh. Then what?”

“We’ll see.”

I didn’t give him a chance to pry more into it and launched myself upward toward the wall, using the corner to ascend.

***

“If you hurry, you might be able to intercept a flag,” Destiny alerted us.

Mel wasn’t exactly happy about running atop half mile-high walls and leaping from one to the next, but most of them were thicker than a lane of traffic. It’s not like we were tightrope walking.

Once we’d reached the top, reaching the Forefather’s tunnel to their base was quite quick. As we kneeled at the ledge and looked down on their fortifications, it was obvious they’d earned more SP, or Simulation Points, than many of the other battalions. Not only did they have a decent wall, but they had an E-Field covering the courtyard like a screen. It wasn’t as grand as Prodos’s dome, but it would make diving in to snatch their flag difficult.

Destiny reassured me that the E-Field couldn’t stop me as long as I shielded my entire body with rank E psionics and was traveling fast enough. The E-Field was only rated at low level rank E equivalent. I’d seen enough bugs splat on windshields to not be super excited about trying it.

“He made it,” Destiny muttered. “Incoming.”

Because Victoria had requested we leave through the back door, as a matter of speaking, we weren’t by the entrance to the second layer maze, but close to the base side of the canyon tunnel. We were still a couple hundred yards for looking directly down at the base and keeping our observations to peering down through the corridor of the tunnel. It was more than enough. It also gave us a good position to see a green glowing guy with a flag in his hand enter the tunnel from the maze end and sprinting toward his base. He was using his full aura to move as fast as he could. As a rank D user, he was fast.

“Didn’t they capture the flag a while ago?” Mel queried.

Destiny explained, “Because they have their strongest soldiers competing in the central arena, they’re having to rely on rank E users to keep the maze passage way open. Let’s just say when the other battalions saw a flag coming, they took that as their opportunity to try and win their first flag. So the Forefathers had to fight back multiple battalions at the same time.”

“Back me up?” I asked but didn’t wait for him to answer. I pushed myself into a hover and darted across the top of the wall until I was in position. Instead of coming at him from the side or behind, I’d be taking him head on. If I managed the angle just right, however, he wouldn’t see me coming.

Grabbing two steel spears from my shadow drone, I glanced over to see Mel to do the same. Except, instead of a spear or sharped steel shaft, I watched as he unfastened what looked like a rifle except it was longer than Captain Ma was tall. Coming in at eight feet long with a thin barrel made out of some of one of the most psionic friendly compounds known to man. It was like the silver of electricity conductors.

My friend managed the rifle with an expert’s hand. Positioning the bipod at the walls ledge, he readjusted it so that he could remain standing in order to aim at such a low angle. When he was behind his psi-rifle which was the closest thing to a sniper rifle for psionic users, he waved. It had only taken him a few seconds.

I dove.

Even though to rank D user was racing down a mile long tunnel, I’d experienced just how fast they could be when I’d had to race the top ten users in Vanguard. This guy wasn’t amongst the fastest, be he was still going over one hundred miles per hour. I’d soon be going double that. The upward turn I’d have to take would cause me to slow. Our combined speeds would still make this one of the most difficult uses of Falling Star I’d ever tried.

As always, I used as little psionics as possible as I dove. I focused on my breathing so as not to become overly anxious. This man wasn’t Brendon Black, but he’d undoubtedly been there when they attacked Prodos and Kline and the rank D hunter team had sacrificed themselves so the others could flee.

It would’ve been wise to stay above the man’s head as I pulled up, but there was a higher chance of missing if I did. Instead, I flew at him on a collision course. We were both traveling so fast.

For an instant, I saw his face. He didn’t recognize me. Nor did it register that he was being attacked.

I let go of my spears, and spun off in an evasive maneuver, just missing him. I don’t it enough that Destiny dared to show me live footage of impact on a small panel in my peripherals. Not only was it a direct hit, but his torso ruptured.

Unlike every time before, I wasn’t looking to escape as quickly as possible. Reminiscent of my days in Freedom, beacons lit up at the entrance to the second layer. The Forefather’s men that had just helped this flag bearer escape the maze had been paying attention. There were too many to count. They were swarming the tunnel.

The rank D user had already cleared more than half the distance, so it would take them time, but rank E bolts flew in my direction even if their aim was off.

I pulled up sharply as what looked like a green bolt of lighting flash from above. The psi-rifle did two things to help a caster. Because it conducted psionics far better than the air, the projectile remained stronger for longer. It was for a further distance than you might think. Especially when a rifle barrel that was nearly eight feet long. Not only did psionic energy not lose power, but it traveled faster and in a straighter path than normal. It wasn’t as powerful as rifling was when causing a bullet to spin. It had a measurable improvement, though. And secondly, it made psionic casting much more accurate at range. When also paired with Mel’s overcharged bolt, it was devastating even to a psionic user.

From more than half a mile away, Mel struck a man in the chest, killing him instantly.

I was careful as I returned for the flag. The Forefathers had to turn off their E-Field to send men to help from the direction of their base, but it was done in a few seconds. Thankfully, they were all too far away to stop me. It didn’t hurt that Vanguard’s deadliest sniper was wrecking them from above.

Once I made it to the top, I saw Mel aiming down his rifle’s eyepiece while he had his psionic shield blaring. Only then did I hear the high caliber rifle rounds scream by. I activated my shield immediately. He might be able to tank a 50 Cal or rail-sniper round, but I didn’t trust my rank E psionics to do the same.

He fired off one more overcharged bolt before taking a knee and pulling his rifle back from the edge. Glancing over, he gave me an impish look. “That was fun.”

I waved the flag in my hand like a cheerleader. “I suggest we use our psionic shields as much as possible from here on out. There’s no way the other major battalions don’t have surveillance drones out and know what we’re up to. And who wouldn’t want to snipe me from the ground for another point?”

His mouth snapped shut, and he nodded. “Let’s do that.”

And so we began the trek back to score another point. It was then that Destiny filled us in. “While the Forefathers had delays trying to return their flag, Lethal Accord hasn’t. They’ve scored two points since they showed up in full force, and The Burden Bearers scored one as well.”

Scoreboard

First Place – Tie – 4 Points

Ø  Lethal Accord

Ø  Prodos

Second Place – Tie – 3 Points

Ø  The Burden Bearers

Ø  Forefathers

Third Place – Tie – 1 Point

Ø  The Amplifiers

Ø  Survival Mode

Ø  Fatal Glory

Ø  Humanity’s Forehead

Ø  Mockery

Ø  The Ugly Gentlemen

Ø  I Need a Nap

Mel and I shared a look before bounding across the gap to the next wall. Neither one of us were surprised. Thirty rank D users plus a battalion full of high-level rank E was not a force any other battalion could overcome on their own.

As we reached the top of the wall over Prodos, I asked, “You sure you don’t want to fly down with me? It’s fun.”

“I’m comfortable up here, thanks,” Mel retorted, his hands up in surrender.

The psionic field covering the outer wall shifted to the inner one as I flew toward the ground. In some ways, landing directly was more difficult than redirecting momentum and skirting across the ground. The grass wasn’t a good surface for it anyway, so I hovered over it for a few dozen feet before reaching the paved road in the middle. Touching down, I deposited the flag and waved before moving to leave.

Destiny updated me as I left the base and headed upward toward Mel. “The Forefathers are changing strategies and have left the central arena.

“Including ours, there are ten bases they can attack to steal flags and only one of the top ten ranked players had been defeated. That puts 30 Points in play other than those from the arena.”

“They still have the most overall and officer kills, right?” I asked.

“They do.”

“What’s their most likely target?”