Chapter 14

“Lessons?” Roxanne asked as we all assembled to go over the mission.

“Do not let them get close. Their use of an orbital strike was seriously over the top for the situation, but would have caught us if we’d actually engaged them,” Adok spoke up.

“Agreed, Adok,” Roxanne nodded. “Fortunately, unless they learn how to conceal a firing we’ll always have enough notice to pull you out.”

“I’m still not sure what they hoped to gain from this. An orbital strike wouldn’t give them a clue as to who or what we are,” I mused out loud.

“A warning perhaps?” Nell posited.

“They’ll seriously damage the planet if they keep giving out those types of warnings,” Xi added.

“They must know we grabbed the eviscerator, so will be considering greater detection methods. All teams currently out in the field will go to a higher level of caution. Avoid giving yourselves away, even if it means going back another day. In the meantime, Operation Awakening (the releasing of the Higher Powers) is to go to the highest priority. I want a way to take out the Orcs permanently if we need to,” Roxanne ordered.

“Yes, Mage,” we all replied before filing out of the command tent.

“They detected your trap?” the Higher Adept questioned Crnnch.

“Yes, Higher Adept. They also carried out their supposed mission despite detecting the ambush.”

“Interesting. Do you believe you caught some in the orbital strike once you realised the enemy had detected your forces?”

“Originally I was convinced I had. Now, I have come to the conclusion that I did not.”

“Your reasoning?”

“I suspect it was a diversion, it may even have been some sort of audio playback machine to draw out the grunts.”

“You may be correct. The Senior Adept agrees with your conclusion that this is a most clever foe; though is yet to be convinced they are formidable ... as yet.”

“Our searches have as yet revealed no clues as to where they are operating from. I must point out though that even when we have engaged them, we have yet to detect one.”

“Point taken, it was perhaps overly ambitious of my partner to order a planet-wide search.”

“We intend to continue; sooner or later they will make a mistake, or be observed.”

“This is hubris, Crnnch. There is no indication as yet as to a possibility that they will be detected; they can after all remain undetected even as we engage them.”

“I stand corrected, Higher Adept.”

“We will be sending a psiontial to do a planetary scan; however, it may be that they can avoid this too. It is the opinion of the Senior Adept to inform an emissary of the Most High as to the situation and see what he has to say.”

“I will obey any commands sent.”

“As will we all Crnnch, as will we all.”

We were all engrossed in a planning session when the news came.

“We have a new creature,” Arwen announced to us.

“Mobile or static?” Arch asked as our heads came up.

“Static, it appears to be some form of psychic scanner.”

“Scanning for who or what?” Xi asked.

“It appears to be doing a planetary scan ... if slowly and I presume it’s looking for us or traces of us.”

“Will it be able to detect us?” Roxanne asked.

“If we are incautious, yes.”

“Call in the teams; we’ll go into lock down. Send any inherent risks back to our Loegrian side base.”

“Yes, Mage Roxanne,” Arch replied before sending out a flurry of mental orders.

“Vulnerabilities?” she then questioned Arwen.

“With Olwen and Mingxia here to back up a probe, it might be highly vulnerable. It appears to be a crude combination of interlinked neural packages, coupled with a basic Orc mental shield.”

“Will it be able to detect your probe?”

“No, but it had best not be done here. I’d suggest a remote location where we can escape easily if necessary.”

“Get them looking in the wrong direction, I agree. You can always leave a false trail if necessary. You are not to endanger yourselves under any circumstances. John?”

“Yes, Mage Roxanne?”

“Take your squad; ensure the Seers do not get any silly ideas about trying to deflect an orbital strike as well as basic security protocols. Full mental shielding too.”

“Yes, Mage Roxanne.”

Two hours later, the three Seers we had were standing back to back in a clearing in what we’d consider to be central Europe. My squad were patrolling around the area and ensuring that the Orcs weren’t in the vicinity as they’d shown a definite ability towards preparing cleverly concealed ambushes. Not that we were expecting one, the site had been chosen at random, but, you stay alive by being careful in situations like this and not letting your guard down or becoming complacent.

“The scan is approaching, maximum caution,” Arwen warned.

We all (save the Seers) activated our cloaking amulets which portrayed us as a minor squid-type creature common on the continent and viewed as pests in the same way as we viewed rats.

I felt the scan wash over us, though ignored us as irrelevant, as I watched in awe as the two Seers and Arwen tapped into the scan and followed it back to the thing that was doing it.

“We have it,” murmured Mingxia.

“Can you do anything with it?” I asked out of curiosity.

“It has a lot of information on Orcs and their creatures including a good few command protocols which it isn’t supposed to have.”

“How long till you have it all?”

“Fifteen minutes. The other good news is that it’s inside their screen and permitting us to scan throughout their base.”

“Be careful, we do not want them dropping a rock on us out of spite and then changing their protocols,” I warned.

“We will, John. We are also planting a few gateways to give us better warning if they leave the camp.”

“I think they’ve just made a big mistake,” I murmured to Xi.

“Looks like it, though the Seers have only really engaged them once, so they have no real idea of our true capabilities,” she replied with a thoughtful nod.

“This is an absolute goldmine,” exulted Olwen. “They really believe this creature is unassailable, they thought at best we’d simply avoid its scans, not be able to take it over.”

“Take it the work Harmel and Sinnead did on their shielding helped?” Clara asked.

“Yes, though their mental shielding is rather crude and depends on power, rather than subtlety. Our biggest problem is simply that their brains don’t work or process things as ours do which makes them hard to read. That however has changed with the information we are getting here.”

“Anything on their Adept?” I asked.

“No, John. He and his senior staff are protected against scanning from this creature, though if we were to use brute force, we could do it.”

“Let’s not, that would leave evidence behind.”

“It would indeed, John.”

It was almost an hour later that the three Seers confirmed that both the creature and any Orcs that they could safely scan within the base had been drained dry.

“We can fool it into thinking it has discovered evidence of us on the American continent near where that Orc horde was looking for us,” Arwen proposed.

“Why do that?” I asked, though I already suspected I knew.

“We want them to think they can beat us. If they don’t have some success then they’ll eventually bring in something that will cause us greater inconveniences.”

“They have something like that?”

“Yes, this creature is called a psiontial. There’s a greater version of it which can block mental communication over a large variety of channels with the equivalent of a mental scream.”

“All channels?”

“No, but it would be an irritant and not easy to ignore as we don’t have the equivalent of mental ear-plugs. Think of it like goblin chatter, but a lot more powerful.”

“Yes ... I get it,” I nodded. “Roxanne says go ahead if you can do it without detection.”

“Done! Ooh they’ve launched an orbital strike!”

“That was quick.”

“Yes, I think it was a mistake as the Orc Adept is not pleased.”

“Something had an itchy trigger finger.”

“It was the psiontial acting under Higher Adept orders ... only...”

“What did you do, Arwen?” I asked ominously.

“We ... er, we sort of planted the evidence right next to their Rocky Mountains base. We thought the Orcs would begin a massive search and waste time and energy. We didn’t expect them to launch an orbital strike right on top of one of their bases.”

“Survivors?” I asked, rather white faced.

“None,” Mingxia confirmed my worst fears.

“You didn’t know, John. None of us did,” Xi commiserated.

“I suspect the Seers did,” I said in annoyed tones.

“The psiontial ignored the protocols for firing near an Orc base, John. Seemed it wanted to attack them, it’s even wiped away the protocol to place the blame on the Higher Adepts,” Olwen replied.

“And you didn’t spot this?”

“We were only after data; we didn’t really look at its mental state. Sorry, John.”

“Well, we’ve been summoned back to speak to Roxanne and Julia, so we’ve got some explaining to do,” I sighed as Olwen opened a hidden portal for us.

“How did this happen?” Crnnch demanded of his investigators.

“The psiontial detected a foreign presence near the base, Adept, and launched a strike as per its protocols,” the most experienced of them replied nervously.