by Doug Burbey
Fuck, now I'm trapped, the colonel is dead, and we are so fucked.
Declan fired out at the demon via the now exposed opening with his Vulture. He didn't bother to aim as his field of view outside the vehicle was obscured. All he could see was a twisting visage of demonic teeth, claws, and flesh.
Declan felt a primal rage form in his mind. His vision clouded as the blood of the driver started trickling out in a steady stream from his body flowing through the broken windows to the harvester.
A harvester's unknown magic attracted everyone's blood like a vacuum cleaner. It caused every battle to become clouded with a horizontal rain of blood. Demon and human, both were mixed into this horrific rain. After being soaked in enough of blood, soldiers tended to get mad. Very, very mad. Declan had been soaked a few times, but never for long. This time it felt like the blood had seeped into his very bones.
Strange, I feel strange…
Declan reloaded his weapon with a speed that he would have never thought possible. He did it with a fluidity he had never achieved before. His thoughts turned into a red hazy calmness. Where there should be fear and panic, there was only alertness. Some form of a battle awareness flooded through his body like a wave of electricity. His pupils dilated and took in every detail of color and movement. Declan's muscles twitching under his skin as if carrying an electrical charge. His mouth tasted like metal. His mind took in the details around him so quickly that time seemed to have slowed down. The primordial fight or flight instinct took him in a singular direction of thought.
Fight. Fight and kill.
Pulsed in Declan's brain.
Everybody dies.
He registered the rocking of the vehicle, as the brigade's field artillery continued to fall on both the soldiers and demons alike. But he didn't care. He had to kill. Make the demons pay in blood.
He slowed, aimed and shot through the opening. Again and again. Declan held back the claws and arms by shooting and stomping at each exposed demon vulnerable body part that his mind registered. Somewhere his thoughts warned him that he was almost out of ammo. But then the knowledge, that in the end, he would stab his last demon with his combat knife before he himself was killed provided him a strange warming feeling of bliss.
A good death.
Another explosion momentarily deafened Declan and the shockwave of the high explosive artillery round shattered the MRAPs remaining vehicle windows while the demons covering it absorbed most of the blast and were pulverized in fire and steel shrapnel.
Out, out, out. Kill them all.
Declan jumped out of wrecked MRAP, temporarily cleared of demons, and squinted as the mist and trails of blood streamed everywhere around him. It got into his eyes, mouth, and ran horizontally across his coat. With only one ammunition magazine for his Vulture remaining, he held that in one hand and drew his combat knife from his chest harness with the other.
Immediately around him, the area was clear of anything living, but meters away his mind registered the humans and demons now in the throes of their final seconds of life. They tore and ripped at each other in hand to hand combat as the artillery continued to rain down on the battlefield. It was as if God was trying to hasten the end to the suffering, of all of them, with an offering of instant death. A few small remaining groups of civilian pick-up warriors and soldiers were back to back, hip firing heavy machine guns at demons that were only feet away from them.
But the blood rain still flowed toward the harvester as if they were all just ingredients of a giant bloody drink for Death himself.
Declan's skin crackled as his body was hit by a blast of scorching energy. He felt the magical attack wash over him frying the very flesh on the back of his skull. With it, the burning of the unholy magic was it dispersed through his subdermal contacts that pushed the energy out of his body and vented through the Fae designed coat.
Fuck it!
Fight. Fight and kill.
Why doesn't that hurt more?
Everybody dies.
Declan knew that he should be in crippling pain, but he didn't care. Only demons ring four, or above, have ever been known to use magical attacks directly. And each decent sized horde seemed to have at least a ring four demon somehow controlling it.
Horde leader… There you are…
He turned towards his magical attacker. The nine-foot-tall demon leader had two massive arms and walked on two legs. But there the resemblance to a human ended. Its squat insectoid looking head had tendrils where its mouth should be and rows of black eyes that reminded Declan of a spider. Its body was covered in a coating of deep blackish-brown overlapping scales and short spikes. There were strips of colored material showing glowing runes tied around both of its arms. At the end of one of its claw-tipped hands, it held a long, heavy, battered looking black metal sword.
Are you kidding me? A fucking sword? Now it's a fight…
The demon bellowed something and began to charge at Declan. He raised his Vulture and tried to aim through the raining blood. He could sense the battlefield chaos continuing around him, but it no longer mattered.
"Die!" Declan yelled at the demon as he fired three rounds into it. Each round hitting with a cracking noise against the demon's body but not slowing its advance.
Shit.
Declan knew he only had a few more shots left, but the horde leader was just not exposing any of its weak points that he could hit while he was trying to aim through the blood covering his eyes.
Through the gunfire and explosions around him, a new noise assaulted his ears. He heard, and felt, the sound of a crumpling implosion of metal and liquids that was accompanied by a crackling wave of energy like a static discharge.
The hoard leader screeched insanely as Declan noticed the blood rain immediately stopped moving and the blood fell to the ground.
The harvester! Shane got the harvester!
"Ain't that some shit asshole!" Declan yelled at the horde leader as it began to run directly at him still screeching bloody murder.
Declan raised the Vulture as the demon raised its sword exposing the joint area between its arm and armored body.
Perfect, yes perfect. Fight and kill. Everybody dies.
The mantra filled his thoughts, as Declan fired all his remaining ammunition into the now exposed vulnerable point on the demon, collapsing it. The demon fell a few feet in front of Declan, who without hesitating shoved his knife through the tendrils of its head and wrenched the knife back and forth scrabbling the tissue inside coving himself in even more demon blood.
Yes, that's a good death.
He kept wrenching to cut off the head. After a moment Declan noticed the sounds had changed. There was still the occasional shout and burst of gunfire, but the artillery had stopped. He looked around and noticed the battlefield was now more of a wrecked field of carnage than a fight. His radio microphone seemed to be buzzing also.
What?
"….. or are you dead, you lazy bastard?" He could hear Shane's voice over his radio. "Declan, come in, over."
Declan reached for the microphone and shook the blood from it before hitting the transmit button.
"Yeah, I'm here, Shane. What?"
"What? What? Seriously. You are asking 'what'. Don't be a dick. It's done."
"Give me a second." Declan released the radio mike and climbed onto the hood of an only partially wrecked vehicle nearby and looked around the field. He could make out a few teams of two walking through the area putting dozens of rounds from their M240B heavy machine guns at anything on the ground that still moved. The ground was now covered in craters and the pieces and parts of humans mingled with demons. Every vehicle that the brigade had moved into the attack, had been destroyed and the smoking remains of the demon blood harvester could be seen about a kilometer away.
Ten, twelve, fourteen…
Declan counted the humans he could see silently to himself as he saw a soldier wearing a trench coat walking towards him. It had to be one of the other SSAU team members. H
e climbed slowly down from the vehicle hood. All his energy now completely spent, and his body feeling empty, except for the places where demon blood dripped onto his skin leaving a strange, but pleasant, tingling sensation.
"Declan? That's you right? You're a fucking mess. Wipe your face at least." The voice seemed near him and he tried to focus.
Declan pulled together enough energy to raise his head and saw Shane handing him what looked like a semi-clean rag. He took it and wiped at his face and neck roughly. He noticed the rag was now soaked in blood when he pulled it away. With a slow blink, he dropped it onto the ground.
Fourteen…
"Kenner, you there man?" Shane snapped his finger in front of Declan's face.
"Yeah. I'm here. Just… Just surprised we still are, is all."
"Oh no shit. That's the understatement of the day, Kenner." Shane pointed at Declan's burned head. "That's is going to scar up nasty there man. Oh, by the way, I don't think Janice wants you in the sack anymore."
"What? What the hell are you talking about?"
Shane frowned. "You were right. Battlemages die too. She got ground into the mud holding the line just like you ordered." He tried pulling together an unconvincing smile. "But by god man, she went out like a rock star. She showed these denizens of hell what real wrath and fury was. Anyway… before they took her down."
A good death then. Everybody dies.
"Damn." Declan shoved that loss deep into the growing metaphorical hole in his soul that he refused to deal with. He motioned for Shane to follow him as he led him over to the body of the horde leader. He reached down and cut off the colored strips of cloths from its arms and handed them over to Shane.
"Here, check this out. I think this means that he was the boss."
Shane glanced back and forth, from the demon then to Declan. He then pointed at the horde leader's body.
"Dude is that a fucking sword?!"
"Yeah, he was about to cut me in half with it when the harvester blew."
"That… is a no shit, demon fucking sword! Dibs. Called it. Mine."
"No," Declan said quietly as he picked up the heavy hellish rough broadsword.
"What do you mean asshole? I called dibs. I mean you did kill the thing, so I guess you can arbitrate my dibs claim through the man card council. But that will take years you know. They still haven't ruled on our 'shotgun' claim dispute from 1995 yet." Shane's voice had forced flippancy, as if they weren't covered in blood, burnt and cut, surrounded by the dead bodies of good men and women. Declan turn the sword over and shoved it point down into the blood-soaked ground. "Fourteen."
"Fourteen what, Kenner?"
"The 48th Infantry had over 3000 soldiers in this fight against what? Five hundred or so demons in this small horde. So far, I've only counted maybe fourteen humans still alive, excluding you and me. I think those fourteen earned this sword with the blood of their brother and sisters. They can mount it, break it, melt it or bury it here for all I care. But, the 48th owns this sword now. Those fourteen are all that's left of it anyway."
Shane pivoted slowly and looked at the few, the pitifully few figures, making their way towards them and his shoulders sagged.
"Yeah, it's theirs." They didn't speak as the survivors gathered around them, honoring the silence of the dead.
Chapter 14
Bowling Green – October 23rd, 2015, I-75 South
Declan admitted that seeing the entire 134th Field Artillery Regiment, from the Ohio National Guard, lined up was an impressive sight. Their M119 Howitzers, each with their own supporting ammunition carriers, were lined up neatly alongside the abandoned highway. Every one of their guns was oriented northwest towards the city of Bowling Green Ohio.
The SSAU mages and their international counterparts had provided enough information back to the world scientific community that they managed a breakthrough in figuring out where the portals would likely open. While ley lines had never been accepted by science, the reality of the Becker-Hagens Grid could not be disputed, and they lined up with the portal openings. Small crossings allowed the mini-portals to open enough to let in a few demons. But to open the huge portals, all of them required a multiple crossing of lines and a few months of time in between each opening. Why the demons needed this portal recycle time was still not understood. What was understood, was that a major portal opening was predicted to occur in just a few days north of his current location in the vicinity of Detroit Michigan.
Declan and his SSAU team had been escorting this particular field artillery regiment during its movement north to join the 1st and 7th Infantry Divisions that were massing along interstate 94 near Detroit. If the plan worked, and the scientists were correct, a portal would open in the southeast portion of Michigan soon and the military would employ their newest kinetic weapon systems that had been rapidly produced to counter the effects of the portal's electronics nullification effect. The US Navy provided truck mounted rail gun systems that had been proven to be damn helpful in ripping up a horde formation. But they were large, hard to move and in very short supply. The defense depots in the United States were starting to turn out a new artillery round called the PASK-Es, short for portal attack saturation kinetic explosives. Neither of these weapons had turned the tide of the war, and the chances of a human surviving any battle hovered at less than fifteen percent, but the demon body count had risen sharply.
The idea behind the PASK-Es was that it would allow the artillery to saturate explosives directly through the portal into the other side of it. The thought was to kill the demons clustered inside of their own staging areas causing them to close the portal without sending over any more demons. Without any PASK-E rounds, when a portal was opened in a city, the only thing they could do was obliterate the forming horde with massive indirect artillery barrages. Unfortunately, that meant the city, and all its inhabitants received the same fate as the demons. If they didn't close the portal a horde would reform, move quickly in a direction of their choosing, and harvest the nearest population densities until the military could gather enough ground forces to crash into the horde again and again until it was destroyed. Meanwhile, those damned harvesters would fill and go back through the portal.
The ratio of humans to demons lost in those engagements was at least six to one. The United States was almost out of soldiers and pick up warriors to throw at the hordes. Only thirty percent of the prewar combat capability of America remained and almost all of that was now headed to Detroit. Unfortunately for the city of Bowling Green, 90 miles south of Detroit, a small portal had emerged within it first, and that had to be dealt with immediately.
Declan appreciated the position the National Guard artillery commander was placed in. Bowling Green was in Ohio, he and his troops were generally citizens of Ohio. Hell, some of the troops could have family in the city in front of the regiment's howitzers.
But it doesn't matter. Everybody dies.
For the third time, Declan verbally pushed the reluctant artillery commander. "Colonel Crowley, it's clear. The portal is open, and the horde is forming. We hit it now with everything we have. They're not massed to move yet so now is our only chance. We have no infantry or armor to attack it with. If it forms and moves south, we are all dead in the next 15 minutes. If it moves north, they would move directly to the population Toledo, Ohio. That's over 273,000 people that will be harvested by the horde within the hour. We have to stop the horde before it is fully formed to save those lives, right damn now!" He started to lose his temper, they didn't have time for this.
The commander looked distraught and on the verge of tears. "Lieutenant Colonel Kenner, or should I just call you 'DK' or 'Demon Killer' like those insane pick-up warriors do? I get what you are saying, and I know the tactics. I know the punishment for refusal, but there are tens of thousands of people down there. American women and children. I have kids too. The girls. Their mom died two years ago of cancer. They'll be all alone now… But… I just… I can't." The colonel took off his helmet and
dropped it onto the ground and failed to hold back the sobs coming from his throat.
Declan knew what he had to do now. And in his mind, he got ready again to rip his own soul open just a little bit more.
I understand, sir. Oh god, I really do. I am truly sorry but, everybody dies. I'll make your death quick.
Declan slid his finger over his carbine's trigger.
"You heard what the colonel said asshole! We're not fucking doing it, you psycho!" Yelled the regimental sergeant major standing right next to Colonel Crowley. "Now pack up your team of magical freaks and…"
Shit.
The sergeant major never finished his sentence as Declan quickly raised the Vulture and sent an enhanced .45 caliber slug through his head. At such close range the round, re-engineered to penetrate up to level three demon's armor at close range, impacted and shattered the skull of the senior noncommissioned officer, spraying the colonel standing next to him in blood and gore.
"Now Sir!" Declan grabbed the front of colonel's body armor and shoved his carbine's still hot barrel under the colonel's chin shouting loud enough for everyone nearby to hear. "I don't think you fully understood the SSAU orders you were issued before your sergeant major clearly refused the order and attempted treason against humanity by refusing to destroy a forming horde, no matter the cost."
Declan whispered into the sobbing colonel's ear.
"Take the way out that I'm giving you. Live now, so you can at least have a slight chance go home to your daughters. Please, sir." If he had to beg he would. Pride had been beaten into dust two incursions ago.
Then he backed away and shouted, intentionally to be overheard again.
"Just to clarify the order, sir, the 143rd will fire all its gun batteries with Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition rounds into the city of Bowling Green to destroy the forming horde before it's able to mass and move. If we can destroy the forming horde you will then fire a second artillery volley against the City of Bowling Green using your artillery deliverable assortment of scatterable mines. That will kill any demons left in the kill area still moving around and provide an immediate obstacle slowing any addition horde reinforcements preventing it from reforming through the portal."