[22nd February 2008]

[Curragh Camp, County Kildare]

I lay silently in the bushes gazing off at the mocked up buildings off in the distance and all the 'terrorists' moving around, and guarding, them weapons at the ready and gazes alert. Just as they had been for the last hour or so of me them in the watching on this rather damp and chilly day; this was hardly one of my best ideas really as the chill seemed to creep into my frame.

Or I would be suffering as such without the helpful spell for enduring said elements upon me. So far I'd counted about eighteen or so patrolling the outside, with at least three more on the inside that I could see; but I'd guessed near thirty in total since this was about a full platoon of infantry.

While they were aware they were going to be attack they shouldn't, in theory, know what they were up against in the shape of me, a teenage magic-user. They were here for training as much I was I expect, though probably not as they'd envisioned for handling meta-humans or abilities such as my own. For me though it was to see how I'd perform up against people actually knew what they were doing, and with using non-lethal spells for that matter while I 'rescued' the 'hostage' inside.

'Of course easier said than done isn't it' as I judged the distance between my position and 'farmhouse' and those areas I couldn't see. After all this spot was hardly ideal and there blind-spots on both my right and left sides as I gazed down the snipers scope held in my right hand.

No rifle of course since I wasn't trained on it yet, and in truth it wouldn't serve much use considering what I needed to do. Oh but I had a band of helpful adventurers right now to aide me in my quest. The cleric or wizard should not be one to launch the attack on the enemy arms-men, nor try to be the sneaky one and stealth past them. But like most things in whatever life I lived it seemed I'd have to improvise as best I could.

I really needed to work my permanency skills and enchanting stealth based spells into my gear. Blur was useful but not at all the same as having invisibility on demand from items rather than cast spell. I began to crawl forward very slowly and careful through the muddy midlands ground. I needed to hold off casting till I got within a reasonable distance. Let's try stealthy shall we?

Crawl. Crouch. Move.

Crawl. Bush ahead. Careful.

Move. Crawl.

Close enough.

Silent Casting and I'm invisible from sight.

Crouch and move forward.

Keep checking enemy movements...

Freeze, lost track of one to the...

There he was, move left carefully...

Cast silence upon self.

Limits options but now I'm both invisible and not making noise against those better at this than myself.

Continue forward...consider flight a moment but discard for now as I move towards my left to target the group on the other side of a large barn and hidden from that of the larger group.

How long had it been?

Minutes? Hours?

Bugger watch invisible too you damned idiot. Need to track better in future.

Fence...over or under?

Over it is then as I hop over in one motion. In range...

NOW!

Oh how I love thee non-verbal casting as my hands make a cutting motion and the seven soldiers in their BDU's slump to the ground out of sight of the rest of their comrades. Move quickly around the barn to target the rest of them outside...

Huh?

Their alert and scrambling for position as orders are shouted judging from mouths moving silently beyond me...

Still I'm not visible to them. Sleep. Hold Person.

Six down, four more visible and activity in the buildings...paintball rounds are impacting off the galvanised walls at random. Blind shooting I judge. Sleep again. Four down.

Move. Move. Move.

I frown. More impacts, this time near me. Following me...

Glance up. Older man with rifle on platform to my left shouting silently and making sweeping at the ground I'm running over.

Glance down still moving. Feck it, footsteps in the muck. Bloody idiot. Run faster for cover.

Dispel silence effect. Holy fuck its loud...whats?

Shit concealed machine-gun off to my left away from the building on over-watch. Must have seen others go down. Radios.

Feck, never had those in Faerun now did they?

Who evers shouting orders made a guess at what I am. Calling meta-human, invisible and targeting based on effects of my movement. Paintball rounds pounding on the walls and ground like flak on my relative position. Look. Think. More of them coming out of the building or firing out through the glassless windows.

Protection from Missiles. Should have cast that earlier, dammit. Break cover and run towards largest concentration. Works on paintballs just as with arrows and bullets.

But not on grenades as an explosion of paint off to my right and behind me. Oh Crap. Glitterdust!

'Pistol' out. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Sorry guys your now officially dead.

Rob paint grenades off the still standing and unhappy looking 'corpses' and dash towards the machine gun nest.

Lob one. Lob two. Problem solved. How many was that now?

Move back towards the side entrance to the building 'pistol' focused forward and ready. Entrance clear.

Second room clear. Third...

Bang. Bang. Bang. You're dead!

Up the stairs. Clear. Hallway clear. Noise from room. Silent image...and paintball rounds pass through and bang off the wall.

I lower myself down and crawl forward to glance in the room. Two left and the 'hostage' inside tied to a chair. One crouched with rifle at the doorway and other standing with rifle moving. Pistol out. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

'Sorry guys that's you dead' I announced after pushing myself up and striding into the room weapon still at the ready. They were confused and annoyed at the sudden voice and lack of visibility. But they were 'dead' now and merely muttered about in complaint as I approached the unhappy looking woman tied to the chair and began to untie her...

Huh? She's not actually tied and...

Fuck that's a taser! Move you...

Motherfu...

--

"So close and yet so far magic-lad" Sergeant Macklin announced to me cheerful as I sat on the bench and watched the footage of the whole engagement. Evidently I showed up on scans for body heat as one of the monitors showed. That wasn't really ideal but I'd been expecting as such from the start. It was blurred slightly compared to the others present on the computer monitor but still very evidently there. Needed to remember that for the future and using invisibility.

"Yeah, yeah I know. That didn't go as I'd wanted" I admitted maybe a little sullenly. Honestly considering what I could do the whole thing had been a problem from start to finish. Especially the finish with that particularly painful act of negligence on my part; totally let my guard down and got a Mission Failed result. Yeah I'd taken out nearly everyone present but the actual fake hostage would be dead, and probably I would have been too with my momentary incapacitation. Bloody hell but that had hurt!

"Well we know that your magic can pull off these things against some proper soldiers. That lot aren't a bunch of neophytes, all of them have done at least one peacekeeping mission and two have faced a meta-human before so I'd say you did well for your age and experience"

I nodded tightly at that. Yeah my physical age perhaps but with my powers and memories I should have breezed through this. Which of course was likely part of the problem; I was making assumptions and forgetting the basics because they were memories at best, and from another time and place at that. Sadly it seemed I had a very long way to go at this rate, and I hadn't even come to a decision on getting a magic instructor or other such things. Also I'd make damned sure to wear enchanted body armour forward anymore to not let myself be knocked out for dumb reasons. I sighed "Maybe, but still fucked up. So what's the plan Sir? I know the Minister wants to have me get into a position to provide support in the coming months and this shows I'm really not there yet am I?"

He nodded "No you're not in my opinion. Your powers are very impressive, you took out a disciplined and professional platoon that was ready for an attack after all. But, and it's a big one, you didn't think it through well enough from the start and then relaxed before the threat had passed. It's fixable, just like we're doing with your physical abilities but we'll need to work at it. We'll run another exercise tomorrow, against two platoons and with a squad of my lads and yourself as attackers. You'll follow orders after we agree a preset list of your 'spells' prior to the mission. Understood?"

"Understood" I relied giving a salute and glancing at the footage one last time before it was deleted. Dang, it had impressed my bosses but I'd count it as a failure on my part. For now I'd just count it as lesson to be learned and worked upon in the coming months; between the short school time, exercise, and seeking out a magic teacher. Fun times. Fun times indeed.

--