Turning the Tables (Please keep reading! Please bookmark!)

Judas felt he must have lost his mind.

Otherwise, he would never have considered completing the mission after learning how powerful Amber was.

If he had to name the person he most wanted dead right now,

he would definitely write down the code name Tailstinger.

That bastard's intelligence was clearly wrong.

Every aspect of Amber's abilities far exceeded what a level 3 Psion should have been capable of.

Whether it was instantly taking down two suits of powered armor or expertly bypassing the access controls,

none of it should have been possible for a Federation Psychic Agent fresh out of military academy.

But Judas had no way out now.

If he refused to follow orders, Tailstinger would certainly kill him.

And given that psychopath's reputation, there was no telling how much torture awaited him if he fell into the man's hands.

If he followed orders, he might just get lucky and kill this Psion.

After all, Amber had already expended a fair amount of psionic energy. He certainly wasn't fighting at his peak.

Amber was currently equipped with a Federation Psychic Agent's standard combat suit and Light Exoskeleton.

Although they provided Optical Cloaking and modest boosts to strength and speed,

the price was sacrificed protection.

Aside from the flexible ballistic material sewn into the combat suit, this lightweight gear offered little protection.

Even over vital areas, it could only stop a few rounds from small-caliber, gunpowder-powered weapons.

Against the Gauss Rifles now standard among Mobile Infantry, that level of protection was meaningless.

Of course, Judas also knew that Psychic Agents relied on the psionic shields they generated themselves for protection.

That was why these Psions dared to run around "naked" on battlefields swept by overlapping fields of fire.

But although Amber was powerful, he still hadn't reached the level required to generate a psionic shield.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to cut the power to create an opening against those two suits of powered armor in the corridor.

He could simply have activated a shield and charged straight at them.

Judas steadied himself, stuck the high-energy explosive to the back of the terminal, and started a one-minute countdown.

When remote detonation wasn't possible, a countdown that allowed personnel to leave the danger zone was essential.

"All right, the explosive's ready! I set a one-minute countdown. Get over here!"

As he spoke, Judas discreetly bent his arm, hiding his pistol beside his waist and aiming its muzzle at where Amber would appear.

Although he wasn't a sabotage operative specializing in combat, Judas had still received firearms training.

At less than five meters, he was confident he could hit Amber by point shooting.

And the pistol in his hand wasn't merely an ordinary gunpowder-powered weapon, as its appearance suggested.

After his modifications, this oversized Federation Military service pistol

had gone from propelling its rounds with gunpowder alone to using electrothermal-chemical propulsion.

Its capacity had dropped from twelve rounds to two,

but the freed-up space had allowed Judas to cram in a miniature plasma generator and a stripped-down pulse-forming network.

Those extreme modifications had sent its muzzle energy soaring.

Combined with similarly modified, high-powered explosive rounds,

Judas was confident that a hit to Amber's torso would kill him outright.

Although Federation Psychic Agents underwent physical augmentation, that only let them withstand a dozen or so more shots.

It didn't make their flesh completely bulletproof.

In a sense, Judas's plan really was viable.

With Amber's current physical toughness and no psionic shield, he truly couldn't withstand this heavily modified "little pistol."

Unfortunately, Judas had overlooked the most important issue.

Amber's reaction speed was already on an entirely different order of magnitude from his own.

The instant Amber saw the muzzle, he hurled a Psionic Blast almost on instinct.

The pale blue mass of energy hadn't even had time to fully take shape before it struck Judas in the chest, a split second before he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Judas felt as though a sledgehammer had struck his chest, knocking him flat on his back.

Although he pulled the trigger, any semblance of accuracy was impossible under the circumstances.

Unsurprisingly, that precious round went wide.

"Fuck!"

Judas cursed furiously.

Once again, he had witnessed just how absurdly powerful Psions were.

But he hadn't given up resisting.

As a trained spy, he used the momentum of his fall to roll sideways.

Then he pointed his pistol at Margaret, who still hadn't fully processed what was happening.

I can't hit a Psion, but surely I can hit an ordinary person?

Boom!

Amber fired first.

At such close range, the 12-gauge shell drove almost every steel pellet into Judas.

His chest instantly became a mangled mass of flesh and blood.

Blood and shredded flesh sprayed from his back, spattering nearly half the wall.

Amber slowly approached with his shotgun raised, only to discover that the traitor who had turned on them at the last moment

had somehow forced a faint smile onto his face.

Barely breathing, he used almost the last of his strength to force a single word through his mouth, which kept bubbling with bloody foam.

"Thanks."

As his eyes slowly closed, the Imperial Spy named Judas found release.

But Amber, code-named Fledgling, was left conflicted.

Margaret, who had just narrowly escaped death, still hadn't quite grasped what had happened.

She had never imagined that a teammate who had been fighting alongside them moments earlier would suddenly turn his gun on them.

And in the blink of an eye, the fight had already been decided.

"What... happened?"

Margaret asked cautiously.

But rather than answer, Amber pushed her flat onto the floor.

BOOM!!!

With a thunderous blast, the directional high-energy explosive Judas had planted detonated.

An explosive designed to breach fortifications was decidedly excessive for destroying a terminal.

Once the smoke and dust cleared, the terminal that had stood in the center of the Core Communications Room

was gone, reduced by the high-energy explosive to fragments scattered across the floor.

Amber got back to his feet and brushed the dust off himself.

He looked at Judas's body and slowly asked,

"Do you know what unit this man belonged to?"

Amber's seemingly random question made Margaret pause.

But after that string of sudden developments, the strength and composure Amber had displayed made her answer instinctively.

"He was field support personnel with Star Dragon Fang... why did he shoot at us?"

"Was he a double agent for the Federation?"

"No, if he was working for the Federation, why would he help plant and detonate the explosive?"

Before Margaret could continue thinking aloud, however, Amber interrupted her.

"If I remember correctly, Star Dragon Fang has already thrown its full support behind the Regent, hasn't it?"