“Where the hell did all these assholes come from?!” shouted Dawson’s first sergeant. The man was a grizzled war vet that Jessica knew probably chewed nails and shat diamonds. But he seemed rattled at the display overhead. Max stood in his marine combat uniform just behind Jessica, a reassuring presence in the insanity she had walked into on the command deck.

Hundreds of red streaks of fast moving fire rained down from the sky. The bases six C-RAM anti-artillery and close anti-missile defense weapons belted millions of rounds of ammunition a minute into the night sky, desperately trying to intercept and either divert or destroy the rain of death falling on them. Their streams of hot lead and fire swatted dozens out of the air with every heartbeat, but it wouldn’t be enough.

Jessica was in awe of both the attack and the fire-base’s response. The Quick Reaction Force had met the infantry push head on and stalled the enemy’s night time attack. The three hundred men and women who had stood against the enemy had quickly pushed them back, reaping a terrible tithe and toll for the unknown enemy’s audacity. But that had only invited the artillery barrage.

“Lieutenant Brown, I think the sergeant is right. I don’t think the defenses can hold that many off.” She knew what he wanted. Jessica nodded confidently and stepped forward on the raised command platform. The artificial and extremely experimental bubble shield protected them from small arms fire on the raised platform in the center of the fire-base. But it wouldn’t absorb an artillery shell. Very few things could, really. But Jessica knew something that could do a hell of a lot more than that.

Jessica pulled the weapon from beneath the cloth and exposed it to the night sky overhead. It activated, reflecting blackness and fire, and white light. Mirroring what she saw overhead, the stars twinkling down amidst the rain of fire from the heavens. She opened her mana pool, and poured 10,000 mana into the staff, nearly exhausting her pool completely. I’ve come a long way since those days I started with only 10 mana a day, she thought, grinning to herself.

When she was done, Jessica was left with only a few hundred points of mana. Enough to defend herself, but little else. She swooned slightly at the emptying of her pool. “Think I overdid that—” Peep let out a shrill Peep! Of fright, and leapt off Max’s shoulder and onto hers. He connected to her pool, and added an additional three hundred mana to hers, steadying her knees, and allowing her to think clearly. “Thanks buddy, that’s better.” She smiled at the parrot like dragon, patted him on the head, and activated the saved spell in the staff.

The world expanded around her, and mana poured from the staff in a bright rainbow of blues and whites, rising quickly to meet the oncoming attack as Jessica weaved the energy into the spell. Her heart raced, and she wasn’t sure she’d finish in time.