A grin spread across Ifor's face.
"I thought they were making it too easy for us. Now at least there's a bit of a challenge."
"Well we'd better revise our plan of attack a little bit to account for the extra guards. We'll meet on the Obs deck in, say, thirty minutes. That should give Roman enough time."
An hour later and the five men began their own personal preparations. With the revised plans made, departure time was in less than an hour. Each mission afforded its own preparation time. Some longer than others, but always enough time to go through each man's rituals. Some just going through a walkthrough in their minds of what was going to happen, others saying a small prayer or kissing the photo of their long departed families. Whichever one it was, it was done in their own personal space, away from the others.
At 1400 hours the sun shone down in a clear blue sky. The heat had opened the Prearus flower, a native of Prearus 6 in the Delta Sector which had been brought to Earth as a seed by an unsuspecting craft. The sweet aroma hung heavy in the air and attracted the local insects in its quest to spread its seed and begin its domination of yet another planet.
The Magno-Bikes silently left the landing site leaving the Savage Mind and transporter behind. Dar-Fur and his crew waited back in their ship for the signal that the captives were ready to be picked up. The Bikes travelled in single file, droids ahead and behind masking their approach from the light tracking systems that were installed three miles from the complex. The route planned through the bushes and trees was taken at a steady pace. A route that was marked the day before by one of the droids. When they reached to within a mile of the complex they split up. Each taking four droids until they had the complex surrounded. They stopped in their positions and got off the Bikes.
From this point the tracking systems were a lot more sophisticated. Holo-Pressure pads, infra-red sensing fields, magno-sensing equipment that detected magnetic displacements from the ground to two hundred feet in the air above the tree line.
'Everyone settled?' sent Thorn as he sat on a tree stump. Four confirmations were sent simultaneously.
'Ok, do what you can with the droids. The less guards conscious the easier it will be later on. We have thirty minutes. And remember, the extra guards should be coming on patrol now ready for the system shutdown.'
The Psychic Knights sent their droids off towards the complex, keeping one back as a guard. Each of the men could see through all four of them simultaneously while they were under their control. This gave their initial approach invisibility. The special alloy that Roman had built them from could only be found on Creeshan; a planet that sat at the very edge of the galaxy. This alloy was virtually undetectable by known technology.
Ifor's three droids came across the first guard about five hundred meters from the complex. They hovered fifteen metres above the ground in the cover of the trees canopy as silent as a light summer breeze. Ifor zoomed in on the guard to see what he was doing. He screwed his face up as he saw the guard urinate against a tree.
"Not something I want to be seeing," he muttered to himself.
As soon as the guard had finished and turned to go, he fell to the ground from a burst of sonic energy from a droid that left him unconscious. A second droid quickly activated a light displacement field around the guard making him invisible.
"One down," Ifor said.
Roman's droids were coming up to their first guards. Three of them stood around talking in a small clearing. One of the guards was lighting three Marijuana roll ups. Not your average Marijuana roll ups. The plants that were grown were genetically altered so that when inhaled they gave enhanced aggression and stamina as well as a high tolerance of pain.
The guard handed round the lighted sticks and each man inhaled as though it was a cool drink on a hot day. One of them began to speak. On his third word he dropped to his knees and then slumped forward. Simultaneously the other two did the same as the three droids sonic energy bursts reached their bodies. The three men ended up as a pile in the thick vegetation covering the floor.
"Damn! Almost got them leaning against each other," Roman said. The droids covered the men with the LDF and continued on cautiously.
Five minutes before the defences came down and the fifteen droids were making good progress. Twenty five men had been neutralised and they were within one hundred metres of the complex perimeter. No physical barrier to the complex existed. No concrete, steel or polymer plastic walls. The buildings inside could be clearly seen. A sparse looking place. Just a large dome building in the centre with five various sized living modules surrounding it. To the south of the site was the landing area for the transport craft.
What did protect these buildings was a deadly, invisible laser field that, as far as the droids could determine on their previous scouting mission, stretched to a height of three hundred metres and domed over the complex. Every fifty metres around the perimeter a laser cannon perched on its platform controlled by the central computer, a synthetic brain. One of a network of organs across Earth feeding information back to the C.O.C at the heart of the TechPsychers Empire.
A door sized hole opened in the laser field, activated by the chip lasered into the first guard's wrist and eight guards went through. Their grey body suits, made from a synthetic material that kept them cool and gave them some laser fire protection, shimmered in the weakening sunlight. Across their heads a metal band sat secured to neural connectors surgically implanted in their temples. This was what gave the TechPsychers their powers.
Just over one hundred and fifty years ago a mining company acquired alien technology that gave the wearer the ability to control things with their mind. Not like the natural psychers. This was more powerful. Not only could they control things, but they could control people and move objects the size of humans. This gave the mining company, particularly a man called Conrad Preest, the owner, immense power. Within the space of just twenty years an army of TechPsychers, controlled by Preest, had emerged and taken control of Earth and then within another thirty years all sixteen sectors of the galaxy had at least some partial influence from the TechPsychers.
The natural psychers were immune to the mind control and so became hunted, incarcerated and taken to unknown locations off world. The fight for freedom had begun ten years into the TechPsychers domination of Earth. A fight that had led the Psychic Knights to this point in their lives.
A whining noise could be heard from where the men were sitting. The defences were down.
Let's go!'
The five men jumped on their Magno-bikes and sped off through the trees. With autopilot engaged in stealth mode the Psychic Knights were free to control their droids.
***
The guards were now fully deployed in ten groups of eight around the complex sweeping their way outwards from the perimeter. Each group couldn't see the others, but kept in contact psychically.
'Another exciting day out here in the middle of nowhere, Jezza. I'm looking forward to getting back to that pleasure world. The sooner we get rid of these naturals the better.'
Jezza was the team leader of Gamma team and sat on a tree stump while his men carried out their checks up ahead.
'Are you sure you wanna be going back to that place. They didn't take too kindly to your last visit.'
Drake cast his mind back six months. Their last break from duty. In one of the clubs he was accosted by a dancing girl, though she swore blind that he tripped her in such a way that her naked breasts smothered his face as she fell forward.
'I'm sure they won't remember me. Anyway there are plenty of other places to go.'
There was a silence from both parties as Ifor's and Thorn's droids took them out simultaneously.
'Impeccable timing as always, Ifor.'
'Likewise, Thorn.'
Both men afforded themselves a smile as their bikes silently carried them towards their goal.
Yilnar was making slower progress
due to the heavy vegetation, but was none the less dispatching the guards with deadly accuracy. His droids had rendered four more guards unconscious while he was still three quarters of a mile away. A distance just on the limits of his control.
Roman was having even better success. Fifteen men down and still not spotted. His range of control was greater than the others. He felt this was due to the amount of time he spent fine tuning each droid. Getting to know their souls. For that's what he believed they had. Every droid, every machine had its own personality. Something that, if you spent enough time on, could be tapped into. The others couldn't see this. They just used the droids when they needed them. They couldn't see how bonding with them could be beneficial.
The sound of a laser shot fizzed through the trees.
'Delta leader, report!'
'I thought I saw something in the trees. I'm going closer to have a look.'
The Alpha team leader turned to his second in command.
"I bet it's just another bird he's seen. That man is jumpier than a frog on acid."
The second in command gave a chuckle with a knowing look.
Ifor watched the Delta leader through his droid. The man cautiously crept forward making use of the available cover. From behind him the droid slowly descended to within three metres and dropped the leader where he crouched.
'We may have to move a little quicker, boys. They think they've seen something, but they don't know what yet,' Ifor warned.
'Right! Let's pick up the pace. I want all of the guards neutralised ASAP,' Thorn replied.
Twenty two guards and four minutes remained before the defences came back online. The fifteen droids went about their tasks with speed, accuracy and as much stealth as time would allow. The bikes were now just fifty metres from the perimeter, except Yilnar who was still one hundred metres behind. The signal finally came that the last guard was taken care of and the five men started making their way to their positions inside the complex.
Thorn reached his cover just as his three droids joined him. He scanned the area. In his sight was the building with the extra guards and the transporter landing area. Something wasn't right. A group of guards came out of the building heading for the main domed building.
'Everybody in?'
The four men confirmed their presence. A crackle and a fizz told them the defences were back on.
'I don't like this. It's all been too easy. Did anyone notice anything about those guards that came out of the building?'
'They're just as ugly as the rest of them,' quipped Ifor.
'They don't have their Neural Bands on. When was the last time any of you saw the TechPsychers without Neural Bands?'
'Never. They even keep them on when they have a haircut,' Yilnar said.
'So what's so different about today?' Akarn queried. Before anyone could formulate an answer a blinding flash engulfed them. At the time Thorn thought that it wasn't so much a visible flash, but one that was observed only by the mind and an instant after that excruciating pain filled the inner most part of his very soul until...
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