"Cover your ears," her range finder told her. She did so, just in time. The guns fired. Jessica felt the shock of the shots and saw bright flashes and smoke escape the muzzles of the guns. She coughed when the black smoke wafted over the bridge.
"Why don't our personal shields work for noises and smells?" she asked out of frustration.
"It's a battle simulation," Peter said. "You have to be a part of it somehow." Peter's platform had been floating several hundred metres above the ship the whole time and Jessica envied his comfortable position. She gave him the middle finger as if he could see it.
"The enemy vessel is manoeuvring," the bridge's spotter told her.
"Will we hit it?"
"I do not know, it is slow. They are firing again. There, a hit."
"Holy crap, did I hear him say a hit? From the first shots?" Georgy asked them.
"That's what he said. Spotter, any damage?"
"A little, the shell hit the bow, I see some smoke but nothing critical was hit. Maybe some small guns."
"That's some damn good shoo—" Georgy's comment was cut off by a loud bang when something big and fast slammed into the destroyer. Jessica was knocked to the bridge's metal floor and some demons lost their footing. Her ears were ringing when she got back onto her feet. She held onto a nearby railing while the ship took more evasive action. Down on the deck below was a gaping hole on the ship's port side.
"The ship was hit," Peter said for Georgy’s benefit, "not bad thou—" Another explosion cut them off, smaller this time but much closer. Jessica peered out of the bridge's port side door at a smouldering machine gun, she tasted toxic fumes.
She snarled, "Return fire!"
"Keep your cool, Jessica," Georgy said.
"Shut the fuck up."
"The enemy vessel is manoeuvring for a broad-side," her spotter said.
At two kilometres apart, the ships passed each other. Shells fell around the ship, some slamming into its side. Hot fragments and demons went flying. The ship listed to starboard as its lower decks took on water from torpedo damage. The starboard side was unrecognisable by the time the ships had passed. Holes littered the deck and demons raced to quell multiple fires throughout the ship and patch man-sized holes with spare scrap metal.
They were fortunate, most of the enemy shells were armour piercing and had gone right through the human ship's thin hull instead of exploding inside it. Jessica could see many small holes in the Plinth's battleship but they were pin-pricks compared to its overall size. Smoke engulfed the enemy ship while chemical fires raged across its superstructure.
The Plinth were ignoring her, leaving her destroyer to die. "Deploy torpedoes," she called out from her ruined bridge. "Fire the whole salvo. Tell the engine room to put out more smoke. Everyone else abandon ship and bring the explosives with you."
With hisses of compressed air ten torpedoes dropped into the water and streaked away towards the enemy ship's rear. Having dismissed the destroyer and distracted by the fires on their deck, the Plinth noticed the torpedoes when it was too late. Three of the torpedoes hit their target, destroying almost all the battleship's engine turbines.
Jessica swallowed water when her demon bodyguards dragged her into the artificial ocean. With their help, she managed to get the breathing apparatus attached before they pulled her under the water.
"Beautiful work, well done, Jessica," she heard Georgy say in her earpiece. She couldn’t reply while she was being dragged by her demons several metres below the water's surface, but she didn’t have to.
"Their troop carriers are going ahead without the battleship!" Peter said.
"Good! You've pissed them off, Jessica. The arrogant bastards think they can take our beach without naval fire support."
"They still have the numbers."
"Yes, for the moment."
***
Goosebumps started to form on Jessica's arms and she shivered in her wetsuit while she held onto one of the Plinth ship's wrecked propellers. The ship was dead in the water while Plinth soldiers worked mere metres above to clear wreckage and try to fix one of the turbines. She pointed up at the enemy soldiers and drew a finger across her neck. Her demons ascended toward the Plinth repair crew who were taken completely by surprise. As the purple blood spilled out around her and her demons, she wondered how many more Plinth were still alive and did a head count of her own troops, coming up with around fifty dark-suited demons still with her.
As quietly as they could, they surfaced and unstrapped their scuba tanks. They let the tanks float away and started to climb the ship's port side near the bridge, hoping the Plinths' attention was focussed on the starboard hull and the few small fires that had managed to spread below decks. The demons managed to dig their claws into the rims of large bolts and climb to the top. Under the cover of smoke, the lead demons took out pistols from within their wet suits and quickly searched the area before throwing down some ropes and hiding under the bridge's outside stairwell. After ten demons had climbed over the ship's side, they headed for the nearest gun emplacement to plant explosives.
The deck was quiet while Jessica was lifted onto the ship. The wind-blown smoke stung her eyes. She ordered a handful of her troops up the bridge's stairwell and they crept forward with pistols pointed towards the bridge's hatch. More demons reached the deck and headed for hatches leading to the decks below to plant explosives in the ship’s armoury.
One of the demons near the guns used hand signals to communicate with those closer to her.
"What is it?" she whispered to her small group after they received the message.
One of her guards nodded towards the demons at the guns, "They spot Plinth troops, perhaps twenty of them, going over the ship's starboard side, others are coming from below deck. They may have spotted the dead repairmen."
"Go," she hissed, "go-go-go." Her demons charged the rest of the way up the bridge and she heard an ear-splitting screech coming from somewhere above her. The bridge's hatch swung open and her demons opened fire at the Plinth troops coming out.
The battle erupted all over the ship. Her demon's explosives detonated with a boom loud enough to deafen her and the 'pop-pop-pop' of pistols were met by the roar of much larger rifles. Her lead demon reached the bridge's hatch before it could be closed and tackled the nearest Plinth, disappearing inside. More demons piled through the hatch. Jessica reached the bridge and watched as the Plinth and Demons shot and tore at each other. The Plinth were half a metre taller than the demons and lashed out with three-inch claws.
It was the first time she'd seen a Plinth so close; she stood in shock at the sheer size and ferocity of the werewolf-like physiques. A demon's face was torn to shreds by a single swipe of a Plinth soldier’s claws and another fell from multiple rifle shots but it wasn't long before the demons overwhelmed their larger opponents.
Three demons lay dead among five Plinth who had been unprepared for the attack. "Lock the hatches," Jessica said. "We need to give our troops downstairs more time." Even as she was giving orders, she saw Plinth stalking towards the bridge from outside, firing across the main deck at someone near the closest exhaust stack.
From a ladder leading to the ship's fire control room on the next deck up she saw a Plinth peer down at her, "Up there!" she said while pointing. The nearest demon grabbed a grenade from a dead Plinth and threw it up the ladder.
Jessica covered her ears, but the explosion was far louder than she'd expected. A tremor vibrated the floor of the bridge and a demon ducked for cover. Glass shattered from the explosion and shards licked against her personal shield in yellow and red flashes of energy. This was more than a grenade explosion. Her demons had succeeded in blowing up the ship’s armoury.
It took a whole minute before she could hear anything again. She looked around at the bridge and thought she saw pretty red flowers and fireflies, but slowly realised an intense gunfight had erupted around her. "BROWN TEAM SECONDARY HAS ENTERED THE GAME," a loud voice announced over the top of the car
nage.
"What's going on?" Georgy said.
"She did it!" Peter said. "Their ship is gone for good!"
"How? Why? Why did a Plinth enter the game?"
Jessica didn't hear the reply; two Plinth soldiers killed her last demon inside the bridge. The demon managed to cut the jugular of one of them before the Plinth's claws slashed his stomach open and they both fell to the floor. The final Plinth stared at her.
"Oh shit," she whispered before crawling over broken glass towards a corner, her heart racing. It kept staring, opening and closing its bloody fur-covered hands. She looked for some sort of escape. The ship started tilting and she finally saw the damage on the ship's superstructure. The whole first third of the ship had been split open and oily black smoke blanketed everything. She looked back at the Plinth, which was slowly stalking towards her with its large fangs on display. "Breathe," she said to herself. "It can't hurt you."
"What can't, Jessica?" Peter asked.
"The Plinth," she stood up while it towered over her. She wrinkled her nose at its meaty breath.
"Get out of my way," she said and tried to step around it. It stepped in front of her while growling to force her back into the corner. "It's not letting me get out of here. It's blocking me from moving out of a corner on the bridge."
"What colour is its fur?"
"Ah..." she paused while looking at the fur under the thing's grey body armour, "light brown, almost blonde."
"That's him, Jessica," Peter said with a hint of frustration.
"Him who?"
"Didn't you hear the announcement? The enemy Secondary is a light brown colour, not purple; you're looking at him."
"Well, crap," she said while shaking from adrenaline. "Isn't blocking me like this sort of... cheating? The bastard stinks worse than the smoke up here." She heard distant gunfire, and the Plinth commander looked down at the smouldering ruins of its once-mighty battleship. With a suddenness that made her jump, two bird-shaped aircraft roared over the ship, heading towards the human beach. "They have jets."
"Understood," Georgy said.
"How many points is killing an enemy commander worth?" she asked as she fingered the knife at her back
"Oh wow, the silly girl's at it again," Peter said. "How do you propose you do that? The Plinth must be five times stronger than us."
The Plinth commander was watching her closely, taking in every word she was saying and ignoring the gunfire and explosions below them. "I'm going in. Peter, enter me into the game, now before it's too late."
"No, Jessica, they'll kill—"
"RED TEAM SECONDARY—" She didn't hear the rest as she kicked off the wall behind her to dive on top of the Plinth commander. Searing agony embraced her back as claws dug through her wetsuit. She screamed. Giant teeth gnashed at her face, but she held them away with one hand and a knife that she'd plunged into its neck.
Several heartbeats later, it was dead.
She felt hot liquid roll down her back and legs as she unlocked and stumbled out of the bridge's port-side hatch. She tripped over a demon's body on the way out and fell onto the stairs outside. She noticed movement below her and picked up a nearby pistol. She tracked the movement until it was below her and saw the red head and white crown of a demon's head. She dropped the pistol and let the demon pick her up. Two more demons waited for them at the bottom of the stairs with captured Plinth rifles raised to their eyes. One of them started firing but she didn’t hear it, she couldn't hear anything.
She was starting to lose colour from her vision, as everything was turning to shades of grey and she heard blood rushing around her ears like white noise.
Coldness engulfed her body. She was floating.
Something dark and rubbery covered her face.
Strong red arms dragged her down into the water's depths.
Darkness.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jessica came to full consciousness as if someone had flicked a light switch. "Drink," a demon told her, she blinked at the bright light around them. The demon helped her sit up and she found herself on a sandy beach littered with smoking ruins and bodies. Cool water slid down her throat and she coughed up a small glob of red mucous. Multi-coloured orbs floated back and forth around the beach and demons helped load dead troops from both sides onto waiting white sleds.
A shadow briefly covered her and the demon tending to her wounds stepped back to give her a better look at the scenery. Peter's circular observation platform touched down a few paces away, he waved at her. "How's death feel?" he asked her.
She frowned, "I died?"
"Technically yes, but only after the game was finished. We won Jessica, we won by a lot," he seemed anything but cheerful as he walked over and helped her onto her feet. Hubunker's starship hovered several kilometres above them, as did half a dozen other large ships of various shapes and sizes. She heard Hubunker's distinctive croaks and hoots further up the beach and saw an assortment of creatures gathered together.
"What happened?"
Peter pointed at the wreckage. "They surprised us with their jets, which helped them take the beach, but our land mines and trenches slowed them down. Our artillery and tanks couldn’t do much to their tanks, but they lost half their troops here. Once they got to our town, Georgy trapped them inside the streets and burned them alive. They tried to regroup their soldiers on the eastern side, but Georgy had machine gun crews and rocket launchers waiting for them. We mopped up the remainders and used their landing boats to send some troops and capture the Plinth's town."
"Then why so glum?" Jessica ran a hand up her back where it felt numb. She felt torn cloth but smooth skin underneath.
"Georgy’s been accused of cheating. Hubunker's arguing against the accusation as we speak." Flanked by several demons in advanced combat gear, they headed off towards the small crowd of beings.
"We have a bodyguard?"
"Tensions seem a little high," Peter motioned above at the red, black and orange orbs zipping past them to encircle the arguing aliens. As Jessica and Peter neared the gathered creatures something started to translate for them.
"It is inconceivable that this primitive being could have so vastly defeated our Plinth colleagues!"
"And they burned most of my soldiers, they burned them!" The Plinth commander was visible among the crowd, pointing large claws at a kneeling human. Georgy had his knees buried deep in the yellow sand while two purple orbs latched onto his hands with red glowing tendrils. Hubunker raised his hands in a placating gesture.
"I assure you, there has been no—"
"Your commander mocks us!" The Plinth commander screamed at Hubunker. Ammon stepped forward in front of Hubunker as if to defend him.
"Soldiers are burnt in war," Georgy said quietly. "Your troops were ill prepared." He looked up from the sand to stare at the Plinth commander. "You were not prepared."
The Plinth roared, and several creatures jumped back in fright. "Arbiter, they must be punished! Can you not see it?" The Plinth looked at something that resembled some sort of purple tree trunk with thick green tendrils coming out of the top.
"Your plight seems reasonable." Its tendrils vibrated as it spoke.
"No, please, Arbiter, hear my case," Hubunker said and waited for a response. At a signal from the arbiter, Hubunker continued, "Thank you. Humans have no knowledge of these games; he would not have been able to learn about the systems in place in the short time he has been aboard my vessel. Arbiter, you know of me and my kind; subterfuge is not our way."
"Then how in the seventy-stars did he do it, hmm?" A short blue elephant with two trunks asked. "No one could have defeated our Plinth colleagues so viciously.”
"It's called planning," Georgy said while a tear rolled down the left side of his face, "and experience."
"Human," the arbiter addressed Georgy, "what experience do you speak of?"
"War, battles. I've been in real naval engagements. I've studied war for most of my life. I assume that's why I was chose
n to lead this game."
"He lies!" shouted the Plinth commander.
"No, I speak the truth. Hubunker, can't you show them?" pleaded Georgy.
"He would only fabricate your records," the blue elephant said. "He's guilty."
"Guilty!"
"Guilty," several others called out.
"I'm afraid I must be the judge of that," the tree-like arbiter said. "In all the history of the Everworld, no minor race has ever achieved total victory over a major player. None have ever come close. It would seem as though you have deployed some nefarious device to gain an advantage. Until the game can be reviewed in detail, I am withholding half your team's winnings. Furthermore, as recompense for your deliberate targeting of your opponent's game pieces with combustible weaponry you will enter your pieces for the next game in the minimum required time," translators interpreted several alien sounds as gasps from the shocked crowd. "Take your commanders and pieces, Hubunker."
"Not enough," the Plinth commander said.
"This one needs punishment!" someone else said.
Two stick-thin humanoids crossed their arms. "That's quite enough; you have no proof of any wrongdoing."
"He MUST be punished. Pieces and points mean nothing next to the price of respect; the human must be responsible for his actions," the blue elephant insisted.
"Execute him!" the Plinth roared. Georgy's eyes bulged, and a cacophony of noises erupted from the crowd while creatures jostled and gesticulated at each other. Silence followed several moments later, and all eyes turned to the arbiter. It lifted a single tendril towards Georgy.
Hubunker raised his voice, "Stop, Arbiter, consider your actions. This game will be analysed to the microns, trillions of beings across the Everworld must be watching this momentous event this very instant. Yes, this 'primitive' chose flame throwers and incendiaries, but all is fair in war; it is written into the rules! You will see; there was no cheating involved." The arbiter seemed to pause as its tendril hung low at its side.
Wargames of the Everworld Page 5