Naero's War: The Citation Series 2: The High Crusade by Mason Elliott Page B

Nelson. Go ahead and phaze. I want to study everything you do at every level. I’ll mindlink with you and study your flows when you phaze. I’m a quick study. Once I see a talent performed, once or twice, I can usually learn to imitate it. Now, find the enemy for us. Show me where they are.”
    “If you don’t mind, sir, I’ll have to lie down. If I phaze successfully standing up, I’ll slip right out of my armor and flop down on the ground naked. The neutral flows of the ground strata will act as a stabilizer. I won’t fall into the ground while I’m phazed.”
    “All right. Go ahead. I’ll stay right with you to maintain our mindlink.”
    “Oh, we have to turn our stealth suits off, as well. That will also interfere with the process.”
    They lay there under cover, and Nelson went still, into a psyonic focus trance. Naero matched her, keeping one arm across Nelson’s shoulder and another hand on the Marine’s other shoulder.
    Then Nelson phazed.
    For an instant, Naero winced as if she were on fire. Phazing was painful at first. Their link almost shattered defensively as Nelson compensated. Naero kept pace with her and phazed right along with her, the very next instant.
    Nelson was already scanning and searching the nearby areas with her racing, telepathic mind. Once more, Naero caught up with her counterpart.
    Nelson most likely did not know this, but being phazed was a lot like being in the actual astral plane. But instead, this felt more like a small pocket dimension that was temporary, and on a slightly different frequency or flux energy band of Cosmic existence. Only a Mystic would be able to figure out all of that.
    There they were: the six members of the enemy sniper team were within range. Nelson and Naero could see and spot them, but without being telepathic, the Ejjai could not see them in turn.
    The enemy team had moved once more, and quickly set up to start shooting again.
    “We’ve got them, Om. No one else is dying here. Can the fixers paint them some way to light them up on the combat grid?”
    We can’t paint them while they’re phazed, but we can paint the air around them and their positions so that they show up. They won’t see it. But what good will that do? Our weapons and any of our fire will simply pass right through them.
    You forget, Om. My weapons and I are also phazed.
    Naero spoke to Nelson. “I’m going to take them out.”
    “Sir, wait. Moving while you’re phazed is incredibly taxing. You’ll quickly exhaust yourself and become vulnerable!”
    “I’ve got an idea, Nelson. Back in a sec. Trust me.”
    Shetanna transported right in on the enemy sniper team with her blazing red katanas appearing with her, already rammed right through their bodies. There was no time to react. Their eyes blinked in surprise and froze in death.
    Then Naero noticed that she was both phazed, and naked.
    She had her swords, which were a part of her, but she had teleported her phazed body right out of her stealth armor.
    Not that anyone besides Nelson might notice.
    If that was the trade-off for taking out the enemy sniper team, so be it. Naked never hurt anyone.
    She quickly flashed back to Nelson and teknomanced into her gear.
    “Did you get them, sir? How do you feel?”
    Naero caught herself, and un-phazed along with Nelson.
    When Naero tried to sit up, she felt lucky that she was already lying on the ground. She barely had the strength to move.
    “You were right, Nelson. I’m almost completely drained. But yes–I got them. We got them, thanks to you.”
    We did get them, right, Om?
    Gathering the bodies and all of their gear as we speak, N. The teks are swarming over them and sending the scans and feeds back to HQ and Intel for full analysis. They’re having a field day. Fireteam 4 is securing the area and going over everything with the teks. Intel’s already got a rapid response ship on the way.
    Om, I’m spent. While I’m lying here resting, let’s at least teknomance the enemy gear