‘Where?’ asked Ryan, walking to her.
‘At Mount Tibain, sir, zone three. Immediate reinforcements recommended.’
‘How large a force?’
‘Twenty thousand or more,’ said the woman, pointing to the screen in front of her where there was a map of the area. ‘They’re coming from a tunnel behind the ridge here.’
‘There’s nothing on scanners,’ observed Ryan.
‘Ex Thirteen Fighter Unit reports the same, sir,’ said the man next to the woman.
Ryan’s eyes flared as he remembered the Alliance had been able to disable the sensors somehow in the southern zones, and he quickly called out to all in the room. ‘Sensors are down! Get remaining forces to zone three, now!’
‘What about the southern Alliance retreat, sir?’ asked an operator.
‘Leave them. They’re a diversion!’
The command room became alive as new orders were issued, and Ryan raced around all the screens hoping to see any other incoming force on the video surveillance systems. He found nothing at any other zone, but stopped at one, focusing on zone three.
‘You,’ he said to the male operator, ‘zoom in on that.’ He pointed to a white dot in the centre of the screen.
The operator zoomed the camera in as far as possible, revealing the white dot to be a Daijuarn sentinel with shadowed blonde hair and his arms exposed.
Ryan remained staring unsurely for several long seconds, and then he mouthed simply, ‘No. What is he doing out there?’
Without waiting for an answer, Ryan exited the command room to find the other Daijuar.
* * *
Jaden had felt them coming through the ground. He knew the Alliance was planning an attack here in the northwest, where there were no defences to keep them from entering the city. That is why he had chosen to make his stand here, to confront those that had taken his home and family from him. He had left Raquel the same night she had sat with him, deciding she was of no help to him anymore. He had yelled at her, telling her that she was to blame for all that had happened, from keeping him from Alyssa and allowing her to be harmed. He had accused her of being no better than the Daijuar, the ones who manipulated him through Alyssa to get him to do their bidding.
He knew he couldn’t trust anyone anymore. They only helped him for their own gain.
He had wanted to take his anger out on them, but after weeks of thought, he realised that he could not punish anyone for the accident that had claimed Alyssa’s memory. Even if he had been there, there was no way to guarantee he could have stopped Alyssa from falling. But the reason the people from Ceahlin and Waikor had fled, the reason that there had been commotion at all and a need to travel was directly in the hands of the Alliance. It was by their threat that the people had needed to leave. It was by their attack that he had lost his home. It was because of them that Alyssa had fallen. She no longer remembered him because they had attacked.
If anyone deserved to be punished, it was the Alliance.
As the Alliance military unit formed a line in front of Jaden, time seemed to slow until seconds kept in beat with his heart. Only the wind seemed to be making a sound, all else was still in the standoff. The Alliance force recognised what was confronting them in Jaden and seemed to be hesitating, deciding how best to operate with him being in their way.
Jaden raised his right hand, his movements precise in the slowness. A giant wall of blue light then formed that stretched across the entire field and up to the sky. Two Alliance fighter jets about to turn and dive toward him crashed into the wall and exploded on impact, the burning debris falling down at the northern cliff face.
The clouds parted a little as gusts of wind began to blow strongly around the almost barren field of dying grasses. Although it was approaching midnight, the sky was still alight, orange now as the rings were revealed as a thin band almost directly above Jaden. He was facing southwest, the Resistance defence systems behind him and the Alliance coming out from the destroyed mountain ridge in front. Seeing their two fallen jets caused them to fire upon him, and his right hand came back down to meet with his left to form a shield around himself.
He jumped and flipped backward with a missile that was fired at him, and then jumped forward again, somersaulting with the force of the explosion to land ten yards closer to the Alliance. He remained crouched on the ground for a moment before turning to his left, igniting another shield to this time disintegrate a second missile, and then another to his right. Alliance bullets had little effect on the shield around him, making it seem as nothing more than a pond with pebbles being thrown into it before being repelled a second later. For all his anger at Raquel, he training had helped him for this moment.