Leanna, Srell, and Lorias took cover behind the large anti-air weapon that they’d just disabled as shots continued to ring out from the nearby forest. The loud, harsh sounds of the approaching soldiers’ weapons confused the mercenaries of RED-1. They all leaned against the dark metal surface of the disabled anti-air cannon on the otherwise featureless white sand beach.

  “What the heck are they doing with gas-propelled rifles?” Leanna cursed to Lorias and Srell while she held up her PAW, ready for a fight.

  “Could be mercenaries, like us.” Srell said just before nearly getting his head shot off as he peaked around the edge of their metallic cover.

  “The fact that their bullets aren’t cutting through this Kingdom tech that we’re hiding behind makes me think that you’re right.” Lorias said with a slow nod to Srell.

  “But why would the Queen hire mercs so close to her precious Kingdom to dispatch us? Surely she’d want her best troops to stop us?” Leanna asked in irritation before catching a glimpse of shimmering white light emanating from where she knew Ursun had been standing.

  “I guess she doubted the efficacy of her soldiers’ sonic-pulse emitters, driver rifles, and arm-mounted mini-coilguns.” Lorias said sarcastically before he too noticed the light that caught Leanna’s attention.

  The trio could see Ursun standing behind the mysterious, nude young man several meters away. They could also see that Jaik was injured on the ground near Ursun. A wet trail of dark-red blood led out of the forest and stopped where Jaik’s body lay.

  Leanna radioed their ship to tell their pilots that they were in a firefight, and that the mercenaries would need a bit more time to secure their extraction point.

  “Do what you do best, RED-1. We’ll be overhead.” The Titian’s co-pilot radioed back over Leanna’s bio-encrypted channel.

  Meanwhile, Lorias and Srell kept their PAWs at the ready, prepared to shoot at the first soldier that appeared from the wooded area. They were confused by what the young man was doing, but their combat instincts kept them focused on protecting themselves and their injured teammate.

  Prism continued to hold up his barrier of white light, translucent and warm. The barrier caused each bullet hitting it to burst harmlessly into a small bright flash of light. Ursun had tried to speak to Prism, but his words had stayed trapped in his throat by the extraordinary sight. Ursun didn’t know if he should begin firing his gun through the light barrier, or if he should check on the injured Jaik who still lay at his feet.

  Prism began to walk slowly forward towards the tree line, and his barrier moved with him. Ursun quickly stooped down and checked on Jaik’s bleeding leg once Prism had moved completely out of Ursun’s way. It was clear that the junior merc was losing a lot of blood as it began to stain the sand around him. The blood loss caused Jaik to fade in and out of consciousness. When Ursun realized how dire Jaik’s situation truly was, he got to work without any further hesitation.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not gonna let you die on us, kid.” Ursun said gruffly while he withdrew a tourniquet-kit from Jaik’s gear belt.

  Ursun removed Jaik’s thigh plate from his armored leggings and began to apply the tourniquet above the gunshot wound that was just above his knee. Ursun saw Jaik wince and groan during the treatment, which reassured the commander that Jaik would be okay.

  “Don’t be such a baby. It’s just a gunsh-“ Ursun began to joke as he withdrew a tube of regenerative gel from a pocket on Jaik’s medical gear belt.

  Ursun was once again cut off by another strange development from Prism, who stood only a few meters in front of him.

  Prism had bathed himself in the same sort of white light that had served as a shield against the bullets. He then made a run straight for the tree line and charged at the unknown soldiers hidden within. Their bullets had no effect on Prism while he ran. The projectiles burst into white light when they struck him, just as they’d done on the barrier he’d erected on the beach. With the supernatural illumination provided by his protective aura, Prism quickly discovered the soldiers crouched in the lush bushes and behind the tropical trees.

  Prism aimed his hands at a shrub to his right and then shot a ball of pure white radiance at it. The sniper that had been squatting within the shrub was blasted a short distance into the air. Prism wasted no time firing a barrage of the same sort of energy blast into the obscuring foliage that surrounded him while the enemies hiding within still tried to harm him with their firearms.

  When Leanna, Srell and Lorias made their way over to Ursun, they soon saw several of their assailants hurling through the air from the edge of the forest. The black-suited enemies landed on the beach near to them, confirming to RED-1 that they were indeed the cyborg soldiers of the Kingdom. The mercenaries instinctively fired at the incapacitated soldiers’ heads to make sure that their suits’ self-repair functions wouldn’t revive them.

  Leanna looked up at the forest and saw the still-nude Prism continue to shoot light from his hands at the remaining unit of soldiers that were deeper within the jungle. She had never seen anyone able to shoot energy from their bodies before without any assistance from a powered suit of armor or obvious cybernetic. She could barely believe her eyes.

  “Could he be…?” Leanna heard Srell whisper a short distance away with a dumbfounded look on his sharp-featured face.

  “How’s the kid?” Lorias asked Ursun, who was still crouched down near Jaik.

  Ursun continued rubbing the regenerative gel onto Jaik’s gunshot wound to further stop the bleeding from Jaik’s injured right thigh. The gel rapidly formed a protective lipid barrier over the gaping wound in addition to stimulating new cell growth.

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  “A lot of blood loss, but he’s going to make it, thanks to…whatever “he” is.” Ursun said with a nod of his head towards the forest. “He calls himself “Prism”. Says he’s going to protect us from the queenies.”

  “Prism…” Leanna almost whispered.

  She’d lowered her PAW to her side and simply watched Prism leap around the forest blasting the last few soldiers within. His body shined brightly, illuminating all that was around him in the ordinarily-darkened tangle of wood.

  “Call the ship and tell them it’s safe to land.” Ursun ordered Leanna, snapping her mind back to their mission.

  “Yes, sir.” She said before tapping her ear clasp and hailing the ship that was still hovering far above them.

  By the time she’d completed her call, Leanna noticed that the fighting within the forest had ended. Prism walked calmly towards the five mercenaries; his youthful face was an enigma. His eyes were no longer glowing white, and the aura of light that had surrounded him was also gone. He was simply a naked, bald-headed man again, albeit fully-awake. Despite his lack of dress, he walked with a confidence that alarmed yet impressed the mercenaries.

  Ursun stood up and held his coilgun firmly in hand, signaling for the others to ready their own weapons. Their aggressive stance seemed to startle Prism, who stopped in his tracks a few meters before them. They all stood silently on the sandy white beach. The area around them looked like a battered war-zone. A balmy breeze passed between RED-1 and Prism, almost urging them to talk to one another.

  “”Prism”, was it?” Ursun asked coldly.

  “That’s right, Ursun.” Prism said, shocking Srell and Leanna.

  “You weren’t asleep at all, were you?” Leanna asked. Her curiosity was in full bloom.

  “I had to be sure that you weren’t…them.” Prism said, bobbing his head towards the body of a dead soldier only a meter away.

  “You’re coming with us.” Ursun said firmly, as if ordering the mysterious man.

  “Alright, that’s fine. I sort of need your help anyway, because…”

  Prism’s words began to fade before he slowly collapsed like a falling tree. Leanna quickly ran to his aid and nearly caught him before he hit the ground. She was certain that he was their ally, though she didn’t know at the time where that certainty came from. Prism looked up weakly at her and tried his best to communicate his gratitude to her.

  “I just need…some rest. That…took a lot out of me.” Prism said softly and quietly to Leanna.

  She held his torso in her gloved hands. His body felt so light and fragile to her. She couldn’t help but feel partly-responsible for his plight. In their ignorance, her team had put him in harm’s way. They’d done a poor job of recognizing the true threat and number of the Queen’s forces on the island.

  “Thank you for saving us. We’ll take care of you. Just sleep now.” Leanna said kindly to him.

  Her soft words were only heard by Prism as the sound of their ship began to sweep through the area while it descended from above them.

  “Grab him and let’s go!” Ursun yelled to Leanna while he lifted Jaik up with ease and carried him towards their hovering tiltjet.

  The ramp to the ship’s cargo bay opened and quickly made contact with the ground. Leanna lifted the then-sleeping Prism into her arms and ran him over to ramp. In the span of a couple of minutes, they were all aboard the Titian. Its ramp quickly closed behind them while the tiltjet hovered a few meters above the sand.

  “Get us out of here!” Ursun yelled at the cockpit once he and Leanna strapped Jaik and Prism in to makeshift beds.

  The pilot wasted no time flying the tiltjet up at an angle until they were clear of the beach and back into the high skies. It had been a mystery to them why the island hadn’t had any anti-air weapons built onto it, but it was a serendipitous fact that they’d simply accepted. However, it didn’t take long for alarms to start blaring within the ship, once again putting the Red Wolves on high alert.

  “Contact. Kingdom ship is on our tail. I repeat, Kingdom ship is on our tail.” The pilot’s voice blared over the crackly intercom, interrupting the alert alarm.

  “Strap in everyone.” Ursun ordered. He rushed to the door of the cockpit and let himself inside. “Fight or flight?” Ursun asked the pilot and co-pilot.

  “Definitely fight. We can’t shake them in our current flight mode. They’re faster than us.” The co-pilot replied. She was looking over data that the Red Wolves had on that particular enemy ship.

  The ship that followed after them had a uniform copper color that glinted in the sunlight. Its surface appeared smooth and featureless, with no visible windows present. It had a sleek, compact central frame that featured movable wing structures on either side. Like many of the Kingdom’s aircraft, its lengthy metallic wings were completely modal and flexible like those of a bird. Such wings gave the ships an incredible amount of speed and maneuverability with the help of the ships’ ionic propulsion systems.

  “We’ll evade them the best we can. Say the word, and we’ll fire up our afterburners and give those queenies a real chase.” The main pilot said with a cheeky smirk.

  “We’ll see if we can’t knock them out of the sky first. No need to overwork the Titian. I’ll get on the guns. You guys keep the ship steady for me.” Ursun told the pilots.

  The pilots quietly nodded at Ursun before he rushed out of the cockpit and back towards the transport bay. There he sat down at a console that had several large organic LED displays above it. After flicking on a few switches, the displays lit up, showing a panoramic view around the tiltjet. Leanna made her way over and stood behind the console chair to watch Ursun get to work.

  “One of the Queen’s Hurriers. Must be the ship that brought her soldiers to the island. But why hasn’t it fired on us? We’re within range of its weapons.” Leanna asked openly.

  “They probably want our target’s body back in one piece. That’s why.” Ursun reasoned while his fingers swept across the weapons console, pressing various buttons to open gun ports and release safeties.

  “Be careful; the newest Hurriers can shoot ionic blasts that act like electromagnetic pulses. They’ll have to get a lot closer for it to be effective against us, but it would bring us down in one piece for them to retrieve.” Leanna said worriedly.

  “I’d hate for them to get Prism and our new plasma tech.” Lorias said while glancing at the bay’s ceiling.

  “I know, and the pilots know. Now leave me be.” Ursun said calmly before beginning to fire the ship’s rear 40mm chain gun.

  Leanna watched the screens in front of her and Ursun as the ship’s weapons began to shoot at the large but fast ship behind them. The fusion-powered Titian’s bio-computers assisted in the aiming of the guns, but the weapons still needed to be manually-fired. The Hurrier began to bob and weave through the air behind them, avoiding their powerful long-range autocannon with the deftness of a falcon. Ursun cursed under his breath at how easily the pursuing aircraft dodged their firepower.

  “We’ll be in range of their weapons at this rate. And if I use our missiles, they’ll just intercept them.” Ursun said aloud, half-heartedly wanting Leanna to put her mind on the problem.

  “We should use our plasma cannon! Gnapp wanted a live combat test, anyway.” Srell yelled from across the bay.

  He and Lorias were tending to Jaik, who was unconscious. They elevated his right leg and made him more comfortable.

  “If we miss, or hit them and don’t destroy their ship, then we’ll be giving them far too much intel about our new secret weapon.” Leanna rebuffed. “This plasma system could finally put us on par with the Kingdom. We can’t mess this up.”

  Ursun tapped on a few padded keys on the console in front of him and pulled up the access system for the experimental plasma weapon that they spoke of. It was stored in the top section of the Titian, and required the opening of a door that would give the enemy Hurrier a clear shot to their fusion engine.

  “Here’s hoping that I was right about them wanting us in one piece.” Ursun said with a shake of his head.

  He pressed a series of buttons that authorized the use of the plasma cannon. They all heard and felt the fusion-deck door slide open above them, and then the cannon start to retract outwards. Lorias, Srell and Leanna looked anxiously up at the metallic ceiling above them, as if they could see the cannon.

  One of the displays in front of Ursun changed to a first-person view from the cannon’s own targeting system. Ursun took in a deep breath and aimed the cannon’s reticule over the Hurrier with the bio-computer’s help until it was locked onto the enemy ship. He then squeezed his joystick’s firing trigger. A loud but short boom reverberated throughout the ship, followed by an explosion over a kilometer behind them. In under a second, the cannon had destroyed the Hurrier with a flash of colorful plasma.

  Srell and Leanna leapt for joy and noisily began to cheer for their commander. Ursun let out a deep sigh of relief. He then slid down into his seat so that he could relax for a moment. He looked over at Lorias, who gave the commander a casual nod of approval. Ursun smirked at his most senior teammate before putting his arms behind his head.

  “Congratulations, sir. We are flying clear.” The pilot’s voice crackled over the unreliable intercom.

  Ursun stayed put at the weapons console for the rest of their ride, just in case they ran into any more enemy ships. They were in the skies of a region of ?ba that was hostile to them; a region that had been at war with their own for a millennium. But as most of the members of RED-1 looked out of the Titian’s windows, they could see nothing but cerulean seas and skies that stretched out peacefully all around them.