Shield of the Ancients (Wizard Scout Missions), page 1
Shield of the Ancients
Book Two
Wizard Scout Missions Series
Rodney W. Hartman
DEDICATION
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This book is dedicated to my grandson Thomas. May your life be full of happiness and adventure. The future belongs to you.
Copyright © 2020 by Rodney Wayne Hartman
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design by Angie Abler
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Other Books by Rodney W. Hartman
Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles
Wizard Defiant Book One
Wizard Cadet Book Two
Wizard Scout Book Three
Wizard Omega Book Four
Wizard Rebellion Book Five
Wizard Betrayed Book Six
Wizard Redeemed Book Seven
Wizard Defender Book Eight
Wizard Gigantic Book Nine
Wizard Angelic Book Ten
Wizard Draconic Book Eleven
Wizard Scout Missions Series
The Unicorn Gambit
Wizard Scout Trinity Delgado Series
Trinity Unleashed
Last Stand on Talos Seven
Paladin 05 Series
Steel Apocalypse
Steel Uprising
Table of Contents
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DEDICATION
Copyright
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 – First of Dragonkind
Chapter 2 – Recon
Chapter 3 – Hacker-chip
Chapter 4 – Escape
Chapter 5 – Apology
Chapter 6 – Birds of Metal
Chapter 7 – Different
Chapter 8 – Bonfire
Chapter 9 – Speech
Chapter 10 – Agreement
Chapter 11 – Promises
Chapter 12 – Empathy
Chapter 13 – Training
Chapter 14 – The Message
Chapter 15 – Load of Crap
Chapter 16 – The Hatchling
Chapter 17 – Dragon
Chapter 18 – One Way or the Other
Chapter 19 – The Source
Chapter 20 – Dragon Mountain
Chapter 21 – The Gathering
Chapter 22 – Flight and Fight
Chapter 23 – Battle Plan
Chapter 24 – Eastward Bound
Chapter 25 – Assault Force
Chapter 26 – Recon and More
Chapter 27 – Trapped
Chapter 28 – Two Become One
Chapter 29 – Breakout
Chapter 30 – Missing Piece
Chapter 31 – Into the Fire
Chapter 32 – Making a Choice
Chapter 33 – Decision
Chapter 34 – Circle
Chapter 35 – Defiant
Epilogue
About the Author
Preface
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The Wizard Scout Missions Series is a set of standalone books that can be enjoyed in any order without previous knowledge of the wizard scout world. For those who are already fans of Wizard Scout Richard Shepard and his battle computer Nickelo, this book takes place after graduation from the Intergalactic Wizard Scout Academy and before Rick rescued High Priestess Jeena from the demon called the Dalinfaust. During this period of time, Rick and Nick performed numerous missions for an entity called ‘the One’ that were only hinted at or not discussed in the Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles series.
For those who are discovering the wizard scout world for the first time, wizard scouts are the elite, deep-recon units of the Intergalactic Empire. They are a deadly mix of technology and psionic-like abilities, making them the greatest fighting force the galaxy has ever seen.
Rick and his battle computer, Nick, were unwillingly selected by a mysterious entity known only as ‘the One’ to do missions that have nothing to do with the Intergalactic Empire. These missions for ‘the One’ sometimes take them back in time to a planet called Portalis in the magic dimension. This book, Shield of the Ancients, is one of those missions.
I hope you enjoy reading Shield of the Ancients as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Chapter 1 – First of Dragonkind
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[Begin Transmission]
Life came into being.
I am alive, thought she who had been created. Instinctively she knew she was feminine. Who and what am I?
Opening her eyes she sensed a bright light reflecting off golden scales covering a massive body with a long tail. It was her body. It was her tail.
A name came to her mind. I am a dragon.
She didn’t exactly know what a dragon was, but she wasn’t dissatisfied. Being a dragon seemed the proper thing she should be.
“Hello,” said a voice that wasn’t so much a voice as it was a combination of emotions and images. “I imagine you are a little confused.”
Glancing around, the dragon spotted a ball of purest white light floating above a placid lake. Snow-caped mountains rose above the tree covered landscape lining the far side of the lake.
“Confused?” said the dragon. She thought about her state of mind for a moment before replying in the same manner of images and emotions the voice had used. “I suppose I am more curious than confused. Who am I? What is my purpose?”
A noise came from the ball of white. The dragon recognized the sound as laughter.
“Ah,” said the light. “What you ask is something I have asked myself off and on for a long time. It took me a very long time to discern my purpose. I will save you the trouble of trying to figure it out on your own. You are a dragon. To be specific, you are a gold dragon. You are the first of your kind. From your life force will come a great species. Your offspring will spread throughout the dimensions doing that which needs to be done. The task I have given you and your offspring will be to maintain the force that binds the universe together.”
The dragon accepted what the light said as fact. She pondered the light’s words. “You mentioned a force. What force is that?”
Although a ball of white, the light nevertheless seemed to shrug. “Hmm. How to explain something so complex without taking an eternity to do it? Let us just say it is magic; wild magic; and leave it at that. Your task will be to maintain the wild magic and keep it pure.”
“I will do my best,” said the gold dragon, eager to have a purpose in life.
“I have no doubt you will, as will your offspring,” said the ball of light. “I will give your kind a species memory so your mission will be remembered forever. Be warned. My enemy will attempt to corrupt the wild magic, but I am confident your species will keep it pure.”
“What if we fail in our task,” asked the gold dragon, growing suddenly concerned. She had not even begun her mission and already she was having doubts about her ability to perform her purpose successfully.
The ball of white energy dimmed in intensity. “If your kind fails in your purpose, then let the dimensions tremble.” The sphere of light brightened. “But I have faith in you and those who will come after. My opponent is crafty. Many years from now he may succeed in corrupting the wild magic. Those who come after you will know if this happens. There is a planet in the magic dimension called Portalis. I have made it the keystone for the wild magic. Only there will your kind be able to copulate and produce fertilized eggs. However, the day may come when my opponent corrupts the wild magic enough so your specie’s eggs will no longer be fertile.”
The gold dragon feared for the existence of her species even though as yet she was the only one of her kind. “Are you saying my descendants have no hope? If that is so, then why bother creating me in the first place?”
The glow from the sphere of white grew warm. “Hope is the one thing you and every other living thing in the universe will always have. My opponent can never take that from you. In the time of your offspring’s greatest need, a helper will be sent. The helper will be the shield that will remove my opponent’s corruption and restore the wild magic to a form that will allow your species to continue so your offspring can maintain the force that holds the universe together.
“How will my children know this helper when he comes?” the dragon asked.
A beam of light stretched out from the white sphere and touched the dragon, going deep within her before withdrawing and taking a splice of her DNA with it.
“The helper will have this part of you inside him,” said the ball of light. “Your offspring will recognize him when the time is right.”
The gold dragon accepted the sphere’s words as fact. “Who is this helper? What is he?”
The sphere of light glowed brighter.
“He will be a wizard scout.”
Chapter 2 – Recon
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Wizard Scout Richard Shepard moved deeper into the shadows of the building, silently mouthing a prayer the sister’s at the orph
A squad of human-sized bats dressed in power-armor marched past with plasma rifles at the ready. The Crosioian guards gave nary a glance in Richard’s direction.
Once the guards disappeared around the corner of the building, Richard breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh ye of little faith,” said a voice in Richard’s head. “Your battle suit is the best the Intergalactic Empire’s technicians can create. On top of that, you have your best stealth shield activated. Not to mention you have me to help you. I am an advanced prototype battle computer. I think at nanosecond speed. I can—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Richard said, responding to his battle computer Nickelo in a series of near instantaneous emotions and images he’d come to think of as battle-speak. “You know, Nick, it’s a well-known fact that if someone pats themselves on the back too much, they’ll eventually hurt their arm.”
“Humph! I calculate you are attempting to make a joke. I also calculate you if you do not watch what you say, I may be forced to find a wizard scout who will better appreciate my capabilities. Besides, I do not have an arm, so I cannot hurt it. I am an integrated circuit contained within a brerellium steel chip embedded inside your battle helmet.”
“Trust me, I know you don’t have a body.” Richard laughed in the part of his mind his battle computer and he used to share information. “I’ve certainly had to replace your isotopic battery often enough. Now how about getting that nanosecond brain of yours to work figuring out a way I can get inside this research building. If I have to dillydally around here too long, a group of guards who are a little more observant might come wandering along.”
“Compliance.”
As his battle computer analyzed the results from the battle helmet’s built-in sensors and combined it with the information from Richard’s passive scan, Richard took the opportunity to look at the spaceport sprawled out around him. The planet’s twin moons had set an hour earlier. Since the bat-like Crosioians relied on sonic senses more than their eyes, the immediate area near the research facility was devoid of any light sources. That mattered little to Richard since his battle helmet was equipped with a night-vision filter. As a result, his surrounding showed up bright as day, albeit with a reddish tint.
“I count twenty troopships on the ground with landing pads for another hundred,” Richard told his battle computer. “How many soldiers do the Crosioians have stationed in this place? The MI officer who did my briefing assured me all I’d find here would be lightly guarded buildings manned by Crosioian civilians.”
This time it was Nickelo who laughed. Much to Richard chagrin, his battle computer tended to display emotional responses on occasion.
“What’s so funny?” Richard asked, never one who liked being laughed at.
“Oh, I was just analyzing some jokes in my databanks. After all, you know what they say about military intelligence.”
Richard did, but he didn’t think the current situation was a time for jokes. “Get serious, Nick. I’ve only got twenty-two minutes left to get that special hacker-chip inserted into the Crosioians’ research computer and hightail it back to the pickup site. If I’m not at the rendezvous point on time, the shuttle won’t land. The shuttle’s crew is under orders from the Imperial High Command to leave me here if I’m late and for them to return to base. Considering the fact I’m fifty light years behind enemy lines, I’ve got a feeling trying to hitch a ride home ain’t gonna cut it.”
“I calculate you are correct, wizard scout. Too bad the Defiant was not assigned to pick you up. Sergeant Ron would not hesitate to tell the Intergalactic Empire’s Imperial High Command what they can do with their orders.”
An image of the recon ship Defiant and her ornery old ship’s captain, Sergeant Ron, came to Richard’s mind. “Well, Sergeant Ron and the Defiant are a thousand light years away on another mission, so how about canning the chatter and concentrate on getting me back to the pickup point on time?”
“Compliance.”
As he waited, Richard thought back over the course of the war between the Intergalactic Empire and the bat-like Crosioians since he’d graduated from the Intergalactic Wizard Scout Academy. Things weren’t going well for the Empire. Despite what civilian news agencies such as the Intergalactic Empire News put out, the nearly three year long war with the Crosioians had taken its toll on the Empire’s military. Even the wizard scout corps was hard-pressed to keep up with all of their assigned missions. As the Empire’s elite recon force, wizard scouts were given the most dangerous of recon missions. His current mission was more dangerous than usual. He only hoped the reward was worth the risk.
The battle suit’s sensors picked up vibrations coming through the cement pad beneath Richard’s boots. He checked the heads-up display on the inside of his battle helmet’s visor. The schematic of the spaceport was covered with thousands of white dots denoting the various life forms picked up by his helmet’s sensors and his telekinetic passive scan.
“Nick, the display’s too cluttered. Clean it up for me. Filter out the normal personnel and only track the armed guards.”
“Compliance.”
The number of dots on the heads-up display was cut in half.
“That’s still too many,” Richard said. “Try displaying just the personnel in power-armor.”
“I recommend against th—”
“Just do it,” Richard said using command voice. “Limit the display to only personnel in power-armor. I’m in information overload the way it is now.”
“Compliance, oh greatest of wizard scouts. I am just your obedient battle computer. Why would my opinion matter?”
The number of dots on the heads-up display reduced significantly.
“That’s more like it,” Richard said. “Now identify what’s causing the vibrations I’m picking up.”
At least a score of red dots were added to the display on the inside of the battle helmet’s visor.
“What are those things, Nick?”
“I calculate those are the Crosioian versions of the Empire’s Ultra-Heavy Ambulatory Assault Vehicles, or ‘cats’ as the Empire’s UHAAV pilots prefer to call them. There are fourteen light cats, four medium cats, and two heavy cats patrolling the spaceport. My recommendation is to avoid contact with them if possible. The weapons on a medium or heavy cat can blow holes in your battle suit’s armor with no problem. I calculate by the time they are done with you, your battle suit would look like a piece of Swiss cheese.”
Richard wasn’t sure what Swiss cheese was, but he had no problem grasping the concept of holes being blown in his armor. “Thanks for the safety tip, Nick. I’ll try to keep that in mind. Now, how about helping me figure out how to get into this building?”
“Well, if it was a normal structure, you could do a dimensional shift into the void and walk through one of the walls. Unfortunately, the outer walls of this specific building have flakes of energized titanium, or creallium as it is called, embedded in them. Creallium exists in both the dimension you are in and the void between dimensions. As a result, that method of entry is out.”
Richard remembered a time when he’d been wounded and sent to a cavern in the spiritual dimension that had been occupied by a mother spirit-wolf who’d just given birth to a litter of spirit-wolf pups. By some fluke of luck or fate, the spirit-wolves had adopted him as one of their own. Since spirit-wolves moved between dimensions to hunt, the spirit-wolf parents, Sheeta and Sheba, had taught their newborn pups how to do dimensional shifts. They’d taught him at the same time. Although he’d never been able to learn how to do a full shift to another dimension, he’d succeeded in learning how to shift into the void. The ability had saved his life more times than he could count. Dimensional shifting also tended to come in handy when trying to infiltrate enemy positions undetected. Unfortunately, with the current building being constructed with embedded creallium in its outer walls, Richard knew shifting into the void wasn’t going to help him this time.
“Thanks for nothing, Nick. I figured that one out on my own ten minutes ago. I also can’t blast my way into the building. I’ve got to get in and out without anyone suspecting anything’s amiss. If I didn’t have to worry about noise, I’d just summon a funnel mine from my dimensional pack and blow a hole in the wall and be done with it.”
