Kaller stood near the tall dune as he waited to set off the detonator. It was quiet on this end of the College, so there was little chance anyone would see him or Wy-lin wearing the black body armor of the the MX4 suits. It helped that they had gotten off the main walkway that ran into the College proper, and then cut through two tall dunes. They had found a spot around the side of the the tallest dune that mostly hid them from the walkway while they put on the suits and prepared for the battle before them.

  “How long do we have to wait?” an impatient Wy-lin asked for the third time over the last fifteen minutes.

  “Until he’s in position.” Kaller growled, though he almost didn’t say anything at all. The ex-Disciple had certainly not learned any patience in his training, and yet again, Kaller surmised that the other man would not have made a good Protector. The vast majority of a Protector’s career was spent waiting. Waiting for an attack. Waiting for their charge to go from place to place. Waiting for that moment that the Protector wasn’t smart enough or fast enough, and died from his fatal mistake.

  He thought he’d been done with all that when his charge had decided to break their bond. It felt invigorating to be here on the edge of danger once more. Though his body didn’t seem to agree. He was already feeling the strain of the long walk across the desert and their activities since they’d enter the College. In fact, he was trying with little success to stop the tremble in his hands he’d noticed when he started putting on the suit. Kaller was just glad he’d have the suit’s strength and power to help him get through the rest of his tasks.

  To distract himself, Kaller went over what they’d done since he and Wy-lin had arrive at the College. It had been easy enough to sneak back in with the spoofers that their benefactor had so generously provided them in a dead drop near the rubble of the wall of the Hall of the Renowned that Markus Nador had collapsed earlier in the week. With them wearing false identities and looking nothing like their former selves, Kaller and Wy-lin had both been able to walk the College freely.

  Their first task had been to gather the supplies they needed to complete their mission. Again, their benefactor had come through with security codes that had been at the highest level, something Kaller hadn’t even had when he was a Protector. He wondered how that was possible, when just a few days ago, the ex-Ascendant had been relying on Kaller and his people, but Kaller decided that wasn’t something he needed to know right now. There were other more pressing matters at hand.

  Like the detonator code he’d networked to the terminal combat system in his MX4 suit. It was linked to several bundles of termox explosives attached to key areas of the shield generator that Kaller had set out himself, while Wy-lin had been busy laying a distraction at the Pledge residence hall. Kaller eyed the sky through the black visor of his helmet. There was a smog of gray haze hanging even in the air where they stood at the edge the College. It was the from smoke bombs Wy-lin had planted in the residence to make them think there was a fire.

  The frenzy and confusion would keep everyone busy and looking in the wrong direction, when the next part of the plan was implemented. Kaller looked up above his head to the darkened sky that was held back by the shield dome. Normally, there was no evidence that the shield was even there. Most of the time it was invisible to the eye with an occasional flicker of blue to show off a random section of the dome when there was a system glitch. But for the most part, there was just a clear sky above them as the College was protected from the harsh environment of the desert.

  Today though, the sky beyond the dome was anything but clear as a sandstorm raged all around the College. He and Wy-lin had made it into the College with barely any time to spare before the storm had begun its assault of the complex. They had managed to skirt the worst of the sand and wind before it had gotten bad enough to hinder their journey.

  Kaller now watched as darkness embraced the College and hid the piercing rays of Sora’s gas giant far above. What a stroke of luck that the storm had come when it did, causing their benefactor to eagerly used it to forward their plan. It would make an impossible mission far more likely to succeed. Kaller grabbed the blaster riffle as he waited in anticipation of what was to come.

  A sound beeped in his suit. Kaller had set his unity ring to send messages directly to the suit’s neurolink. He mentally directed a nudge to accept the incoming communication. One word flashed across the bottom half of his helmet visor.

  Now.

  “That’s our signal. Let’s do this.” Kaller told the other man as he next sent a mental message to the suit’s terminal to activate the detonator.

  Half a heart beat later, the sand under Kaller’s feet vibrated as a loud explosion rent the air around them. He didn’t even bother to look toward the College from where the sound had come from or glance up to the sky above. He simple brought his gun up and marched across the shifting sands until the metal boots of the suit stomped onto the pathway leading between the dunes. Kaller heard the heavy footfalls of Wy-lin in his own suit as the ex-Disciple followed.

  He could have easily accelerated his movements until Kaller was a visible blur running through the dunes passage, but his benefactor had been clear that they needed time for those in the chalet to respond to the falling of the shield. So Kaller steadily walked toward their target at the ready in case someone unexpectedly stumbled upon them. Though it wasn’t likely with the storm beginning to sweep down around them.

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  Kaller had seen a feint outline of the dome as it flickered blue after the explosion, but it quickly disappeared along with its protection as grit and high winds assaulted the once quiet landscape. Millions of sand particulates now blasted his suit, but the black armored shell covering the entirely of his body kept it all at bay.

  The best part was his movements were made easy by the power of the suit. It did most of the work as he marched through the dunes with minimal effort. Once they reached the chalet courtyard, he consulted the suit combat system. Heat sensory showed the Vanguard unit that he was told had been stationed outside the chalet the last few days had moved into the foyer. He counted ten bodies in total. Kaller lined up the heat seekers in the suit. He only had twelve, so he made sure the terminal got the best trajectory possible and let them loose.

  The small missiles rocketed from the shoulder of Kaller’s suit, cutting right through the adobe walls of the chalet to find their targets. He knew only a few might hit their intended marks. The Vanguard had most certainly picked up Kaller and Wy-lin’s life signs with the perimeter sensor, though it may have been delayed somewhat because of the violent storm that whirled all around them. He didn’t stop to notice how much of a success his attack had been, allowing his suit to keep track for him.

  “Move in!” Kaller ordered Wy-lin forward through their shared comm line, not that he really need to say anything. The two of them were well versed on the plan to breach the chalet. It wasn’t until they were inside that plans could start going awry. It really depended on how the protection team inside responded to the shield coming down.

  Kaller rushed forward finally engaging the augmented speed of the suit. The fight lasted longer than Kaller had anticipated. He hadn’t expected the Vanguard team to have two of their members with the Telekinetic Dome-ni, a Mind Bender, an Illusionist, and the rest augmented with mega class riffles and shields. No one had said anything about the Vanguard team being part of the elite defenders.

  So a fight that should have taken moments with Kaller and Wy-lin in their MX4 suits winning through their superior speed, strength, and combat terminals, had turned into three minutes of some of the most violent fighting Kaller had experienced in his thirty-one year career as a Protector. In the end, his team of two won out against the elite defenders, but it had been a close thing.

  He stood above the ten bodies as he noticed his suit’s helmet blink red. Across the bottom scrolled a list of damages the suit had taken in the fight, but none were enough to significantly impair the suit’s functions, so he ignored the list and took stock of the sprawled team laid out in the entrance of the chalet.

  Some of them were groaning and he noticed the rise and fall in the chests of the closest bodies, so he didn’t think they were all dead. He had aimed for incapacitating shots instead of killing ones. They weren’t his enemy after all. Though he did notice two men with head shots near the transporter that were definte kills. Kaller finally noticed a message that had been sent during the battle from their benefactor. He’d been too busy to notice before.

  It is done. I’m in the tunnel.

  Relief flooded Kaller. There had been many ways this could have gone, and while their benefactor’s plan seemed clever, Kaller wasn’t sure if it would work. A lot depended on the decisions of the protection team in the chalet and if they had even known about the tunnel connecting the chalet to the administration building. But their benefactor had seemed sure of how things would turn out, especially when he added in the unexpected bonus of the sandstorm.

  In minutes, Kaller and Wy-lin had found the secret entrance to the lower level and in the underground tunnel. Not for the first time in the last few days, Kaller wondered how their benefactor knew about such things, when Kaller had never heard a whisper that a tunnel under the chalet even existed. But he didn’t have long to ponder the question as he and Wy-lin raced through the tunnel at near top speed of their suit’s abilities.

  By the time they had reached the other side, their benefactor had indeed done his part. The Heir was down. So where two more Vanguard soldiers and another man dressed in commoner clothes that Kaller took a moment to identify and realize it was Markus Nador.

  Kaller supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised to see the high born here after all the interference he’d caused over the last week. But seeing the once Heir to the Avi-dan kingdom gave him pause. Prince Adar was one thing. He was a proven threat to the Empire, Nador was a different story.

  “He’s not dead is he?” Kaller asked, as he’d nodded to the still form of the man near the tunnel exit. Kaller came to a standstill at the top of the stairs.

  A familiar man with close cropped hair and well built, though not quite to Kaller’s massive frame and muscle mass, stood with a stance that did not match that of a Protector in the slightest. It was far too arrogant and regal, even as he stood there with a rifle slung across a shoulder like it was an accessory of his noble station instead of a killing instrument. It was the stance more than anything that told Kaller the man in front of them was not Roterick, but Prince Zorren Zahn.

  Zorren had a dark expression on his face as his eyes darted to Nador, and then glowered at his brother that was past Kaller and sprawled at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Nador is a problem for another day. Get him.” Zorren nodded to the body of the Heir. “Reinforcements will be arriving soon,” he continued, and then wheeled around without another word, marching for the tunnel exit.

  Kaller nodded to Wy-lin who had stopped to stand next to the downed Heir. “You take him. I’ll watch your back.”

  He hadn’t added that he probably couldn’t have carried the Heir if he wanted to. The trembling had gotten worse, even with the suit doing most of the work. In fact, he was finding it difficult to keep upright. Kaller pushed his worry away that he might not be able to finish this. It was almost done. He just had to last a little bit longer.

  So Kaller stood guard as the Disciple stooped down and effortless slung the Heir over his right shoulder. They followed their benefactor out of the tunnel, and in spite of his exhaustion, Kaller felt a thrill rippling through him. After so much had gone wrong, he was finally going to get his revenge.