The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah

VII.

Tempest ran his thumb and forefinger down one of the thin blades at the ends of his nanchaku, feeling the chips caused by years of use. His weapon was light, not hindering his ability to move quickly, something that he did very well with the help of his element.

He could feel the tension on the Templar Aria's bridge, radiating especially from the general, who sat, sword in hand, beside Kei Sa, the plans for the colony filling the gap between them. He didn't have powers in the manner of Kei Sa, but he could read the emotions of people easily, usually even if he had never met them. It was something he had been forced to teach himself as a ninja, but even if he hadn't had the skill, he would have known something was wrong. Despite their leaders' attempt to keep the problem from them and prevent useless worrying, every member of the honor guard knew they were likely heading into a battle, and one that would be unlike anything they'd dealt with before.

They had passed through the portal minutes earlier, and the planet they rapidly approached was primarily covered with forest, although it had its oceans and deserts like most other planets. Lieutenant Nai piloted the ship into the atmosphere, headed for the colony, as he had before.

"Lieutenant," corrected the general, "don't go directly to the colony. Stay high and as far away as Yen Sa's sensors can reach. We need to make sure they don't already have...visitors."

Nai Do Xian nodded and adjusted his course as Yen Sa flipped some switches on his device.

"Okay," the former slave said, "we're almost in range." He watched the numbers click by. "Detecting pockets of metal on the ground other than those mapped by the colony."

"They're on the ground?" asked the general, obviously relieved. "All of them?"

"Nothing in the air except us, General," said Yen Sa.

"Then we may have a chance."

Tempest thought the general sounded almost surprised.

"Lieutenant," he continued, "land us so the colony is out of range of our sensors. Hopefully then we'll be out of theirs." He turned and began to tap his finger on the map. "We'll need to disable all of their ships to have any sort of chance in this battle. Yen Sa," he ordered, "come show me where they are."

The boy hurried to the table and began scribbling locations onto the map. "Most of them are all here..."

Tempest returned to absently rubbing the blade of his nanchaku. Disabling the ships would be a task best left to an army of tanks and massive amounts of firepower, but in lieu of that, stealth would be their only option. "Surely you don't intend to send us all in after the ships."

Kei Sa looked up. "No. Not everyone. I'd thought we should send just the honor guard."

He shook his head. "No. That's too many for a covert operation. Half of us, at the most."

"Half?" she said. "And which six would you suggest?"

"Vendetta and I, first of all, for we were ninjas, and well-trained in the art of invisibility. The lieutenant's sniper skills would be appreciated, and Zhen's affinity for poison could help with quick killing."

"Any other suggestions, Tempest?" asked the general.

He glanced at the blade. "Not for the moment."

"Well," Li Wei Yong responded, directing his words to the rest of the honor guard. "We have two positions open."

Rah Cai Yue shrugged. "I can manipulate things from afar. I imagine that would be of some help."

Tempest nodded. Perhaps it would also help to destroy the innards of the ships.

Ta Lian Shi raised his hand. "I'll come."

Li Wei Yong's brow creased as he thought for a moment. "Why?"

"Because I want to." He spun his right-hand weapon. "Can anybody think of a better choice?"

"I could probably fry circuitry with a bolt of lightning," offered the general.

Tempest shook his head. "You need to stay here and get the army set up for their attack."

"Hey," Lian said. "Who says their circuitry will be waterproofed inside the covering?"

Tempest half-smiled, nodding his head. "I think this will do."

A few hours later, the Templar Aria was nestled in a small clearing, the honor guard doing their best to make it seem small, inconspicuous, and not a shiny silver. The sun had entered the last stages of its set, the green glow caused by its final beams shining through the foliage rapidly dying.

Tempest tucked the wooden part of one half of his nanchaku under his arm to secure it as he held the other half with his right hand. Turning to the other five in his party, he said, "Let's go," and set actions to his words, immediately leaving. He estimated they had about five miles to hike through the forest before they were close enough to require stealth. At that point, their only hope was to be seen only by those whose deaths followed in less time than it took them to signal any others to their presence.

At times during their hike, he almost couldn't tell exactly where each of his party members was behind him, and it was a fair accomplishment considering they were moving at too fast a pace to be properly silent. He and Vendetta had taught them much about the art of invisibility, and they had apparently taught them well.

"Hey," one of them whispered from his right, a few feet behind. It was Rah Cai Yue.

He stopped, and the others in his party gathered behind him. "What is it?"

"Do you have some kind of plan you'd like to share before we get too much closer or are we just going to wing it?"

Tempest nodded. "Vendetta will search for the holding place of the colonists and determine if there will be any easy way to free them before the battle begins."

"By himself?" asked Lian.

"Yes. That mission is the more difficult one, requiring more stealth. If we have to kill everyone in the general vicinity of their ships, then we'll be the ones in danger. If they find out someone's observing the colonists, it's likely to get them killed. Vendetta is the veteran ninja; he will go."

Lian nodded in understanding. "And we find the ships and hurt them real bad."

"Yes. The lieutenant will find someplace to hide, scout, and help us from afar. The rest of will go in and then...'wing it'."

Rah Cai Yue smiled, saluting Tempest with his sword and bowing in a theatrical manner.

The group set off and a few minutes later they slowed, taking care not to be seen or heard and searching for the best entry into the area. As they began to glimpse outlines of buildings in the thankfully sparse light of the colony, Vendetta nodded once and left the party, stalking through the trees to an area of the colony that was closer to the buildings than the fields.

The others crawled around the perimeter of the colony until they saw the flash of light against metal. Upon study they found that a medium-sized ship, easily three times the size of the Templar Aria, had been landed on the former fields of the colony, six smaller, single- or double-person fighters flanking it.

Tempest nodded to Nai Do Xian, and the sniper nodded in return, pulling a small knife from his boot and scouting the area. He pointed to a tree overlooking both the ships and a good deal of the rest of the colony. Tempest nodded and the sniper began to climb, holding the knife's hilt between the lower half of his thumb and the side of his hand.

Tempest lost sight of him in the tree's leaves, then heard a slight gurgle. The sniper began to climb down again, dragging a human body with him. The others rushed forward to help ease the body to the ground so it wouldn't make a sound. Nai Do Xian was smeared with blood and the dead guard had a slice through his neck. Someone else had thought the tree was a good vantage point.

Lian examined the dead guard and pulled his weapon out of the holster. Tempest took it. It was some sort of projectile weapon, consisting of an elongated cylinder and a handle with a trigger, somewhat bulky. He set it by the base of the tree and pointed to it. Nai Do Xian nodded, cleaning his knife on the grass, then climbed the tree once more. He would retrieve the weapon when they left, so that Yen Sa could examine it.

Tempest turned to the remaining three in the party and beckoned. They crept toward the ships, getting as close to them as they could without entering the actual colony. Several invaders wandered around the ships; most seemed to be socializing, but all were armed with variations of the type of weapon the deceased guard had been carrying.

He nodded to Zhen and pointed to the guards, then held up a hand, indicating for Zhen to wait until Tempest gave the order to kill. Then he turned to Cai Yue and held out cupped hands, mouthing, Catch him. The priest nodded in return.

A minute or so later, one of the invaders wandered closer to the honor guard than he was to any of his allies. Tempest pointed to the isolated human and nodded to Zhen. The invader convulsed once and was caught by an out-of-place shadow, then dragged outside of the colony's perimeter. Tempest saw the bloody foam running from the lifeless man's mouth and decided that Zhen's unusual power did indeed have its occasional uses.

Another of the humans seemed to notice his ally's disappearance. He began to walk toward the honor guard, but he was disposed of just as effortlessly.

Tempest shook his head. Despite the ease with which they could kill the humans, they couldn't kill them all, or even clear the area around the ships without alerting too many people. He turned to Lian and pointed to the ships. Lian nodded and looked at them, then turned back.

Where? he mouthed.

Tempest looked at the ship, then shook his head slightly. Cai Yue and Zhen shrugged.

Lian shrugged as well. He closed his eyes and raised his hands. He pointed to each of the smaller ships in turn, his hands twitching each time, and a little hiss of steam leaking from the rear ends of the ships.

One of the humans noticed the steam and approached a ship. He opened its cockpit and yelled, "It's all wet!" Another walked to the ship. The first climbed down from the cockpit and wrenched open a panel on the rear half with some sort of tool he had grabbed from the cockpit. A flood of water poured from the opening and the two humans cursed loudly.

Rah Cai Yue turned to Lian, grinning and applauding silently. Lian shrugged again, then mimicked the priest's earlier bow in smaller proportions.

Tempest pointed to the large ship. Lian shook his head vigorously.

"There's no way I can fill that thing!" he whispered.

Tempest raised a finger, insisting on silence.

Cai Yue tapped him on the shoulder, than nodded. He closed his eyes, concentrating. A minute later, nothing had happened, and Cai Yue gritted his teeth.

Tempest began to doubt the priest and was about to stop him when the ship creaked. He turned his attention to it and saw the back end twist in another notch. The crushing increased slowly until the entire back end of the ship was nothing but a bulk of gnarled metal.

Rah Cai Yue finally opened his eyes, wiping sweat from his forehead. Tempest looked at him with respect in his eyes, and Cai Yue shrugged nonchalantly, although the smug smile on his face revealed his sense of accomplishment. After Tempest jerked his head in the direction of Nai Do Xian, the honor guard crept away, leaving the invaders to yell questions about the cause of their ship's bizarre destruction.

When the four honor guard members neared the tree in which Lieutenant Nai was hidden, he dropped from it, landing on his feet and retrieving the dead guard's weapon. He shook his head, whispering, "No more."

They left as silently as they had come.