The demon saluted and hustled out of the tent, pausing to grab another engineer. Demon engineers were easily spotted by their unusual shaped heads, which appeared to already wear hard hats and their fur was formed as white shirts with pocket protectors. Then ran to the edge of the writhing blue energy and one stuck its head into the maelstrom.
"We're shutting down all but the animi energy. So, either come on through or get cut in half!" he ordered. He looked to the other engineer. "Ok, how far we expand the field?"
The other one checked a slide rule and shook his head. "Take it all the way, all to 110%, just to be safe!"
"Right, stand by!" the first one shouted. He pulled out a small box with a single knob and twisted. The blue maelstrom of energy was suddenly subdued, replaced with an iridescent purple glow which rose and spread out. It lifted and spread, casting a purple light across the desert basin.
"Nice!"
"Yeah, very pretty. Now, let's get out of here before the boss wants us to grab a sword and fight!" the first demon said. "We can shut off the transfer energy from that end!"
"Right, back to the rear, with the gear!" the second shouted and they disappeared into the glowing orb.
Rommel exited his command tent and beckoned to two tall R'giers directing demons to the main fight.
"You two! Take a few R'giers to the gathering! Kill as many as you can, then return!" he shouted.
The Furies' horses ran in small circles, the energy of the fight was almost overwhelming. Although they were demons, they still thought like battle horses and fighting was in their blood, but without their riders, they were becoming anxious.
Sally broke away from Issa and Manx and galloped towards the campfire across the plateau. Megaera had ridden her to that spot, and now she felt she had to get there in a hurry.
When she arrived at the campfire, she halted and eyed the man. Then the human she was looking for walked up to her and began rubbing her nose.
"Uncle Dan," Brianna said while rubbing Sally's nose. "She needs me to look at something, so I'm going to go with her."
"Are you sure?" Dan asked.
"Yes," Brianna replied and jumped onto the white horse's back. Sally turned and vanished.
Dan raised the binoculars to his eyes and watched as the Furies beat back attacking wave after wave.
"It's like fire ants on roadkill," he whispered.
Brianna held on as Sally phased them through dimensions and suddenly Brianna found herself on a large plain, darkness everywhere and the sky was pitch black except for a layer of fast-moving clouds.
Sally stood still as a group of people moved towards them. Brianna spotted Hermes, leading a tall woman dressed in ancient battle armor.
"Ah, young lady! Perfect!" Hermes said. "I knew Sally would bring someone suitable. May I present Queen Penthesilea. You will convey her and her followers to the battle."
"Nice to meet you," Brianna said. She looked at the other woman, all similar to the queen, decked out in ancient armor and all appeared be eager for a fight.
"Your highness, this is Megaera's friend Brianna. She will guide you." Hermes watched the tall woman leapt onto Sally's back and grasped Brianna.
"Let's go, child! Demons await our swords!" Queen Penthesilea shouted. She spurred Sally and as they moved, the two dozen Amazons began running behind them, surrounded by Sally's energy.
In a blink, they were slightly north of the main fight. As one, the Amazons began running towards the battle.
Standing on a pile of sticky demon corpses, Megaera spotted Sally galloping towards them, ridden by Brianna with a woman behind her. Then she saw the Amazons running towards them.
"We have reinforcements!" Megaera shouted.
Sally held up at the edge of the melee, and the Amazons waded into battle. They formed two columns and pushed forward. The warriors at the far end began opening up a channel. After they had formed the lethal wedge, they pushed towards the Furies.
Brianna leapt down from Sally, allowing Penthesilea to ride into the opening. Issa and Manx followed into the widening wedge.
The attacking demons turned their attention to the Amazons, which allowed the Furies to fall back and get on their horses.
"Thank you, your highness!" Megaera shouted as she climbed onto Sally.
"We'll fall back and regroup," Tisiphone shouted. "We need room to maneuver!"
"I saw the perfect spot on the way in," Penthesilea shouted. They turned the horses and headed out of the gap. The Amazons kept fighting, thoroughly enjoying the mayhem. "They'll hold, but not for long."
"Is this all you brought?" Alecto shouted.
"Unfortunately," Penthesilea replied. "The other heroes are too busy posing to fight!"
She pointed to a small rise of red rock. The horses turned and headed that direction. Alecto paused only to help Brianna up onto her horse.
At the rise, the Furies gathered their weapons. Penthesilea was still on Sally, and she leaned towards Brianna.
"Can you fight?" Penthesilea asked Brianna.
"You bet your ass I can!" Brianna shouted. Tisiphone moved between Brianna and the Amazon.
"This one isn't an immortal. All she can do is run messages," Tisiphone suggested.
"But I can fight!"
"You're not a full immortal! One blow and you'd be gone, fully dead," Tisiphone argued.
"Take Sally and ride to Dan and stay there. We'll call if we need you!" Megaera ordered.
"I'll go help my girls withdraw, and we'll gather here in a few minutes," Penthesilea said, running off into the darkness.
Sally nudged Brianna in the back, forcing her to turn. With her head down, Brianna climbed onto Sally.
"Stay close to her," Megaera said. "She'll know when you're needed."
"Alright!" Brianna said as Sally took off.
At the main battle, Penthesilea joined her Amazons, and the wedge widened further. Across the melee, Sorath was too busy, his attention was taken by the four R'giers marching towards the festival in the distance. Then he saw the fight had shifted. No longer were the Furies surrounded.
"Where did they go!" he shouted.
"Those new ones showed up, and they all buggered off for that high ground," a R'gier pointed. Sorath became enraged when he saw the Furies on the island of red rock a mile distant.
"Where's that Teutonic ass?" Sorath shouted.
"Which one, sire?"
"The skinny one! Go to the camp and drag him back here!" Sorath commanded. He turned to watch as the Amazons opened up into a line and started to close in on the demons.
Rommel appeared beside Sorath and watched the battle. "Who are they?"
"Amazons! We will make fast work of them, but meanwhile, pull a division led by a dragon to attack the Furies! They've retreated to that rise. But, they've been weakened! We can take them!" Sorath pushed on Rommel, sending him back to the command tent.
Rommel looked to see what assets he had in reserve. Currently, all the demons were queuing up to attack. He looked around and spotted the R'gier commander. "Togarth! We need to break off here and focus on that rise." A finger stabbed at the map, showing the larger rise in the distance.
The battle demon saluted and ran to the massed demons who were standing around. In minutes, the division was forming up behind a large copper dragon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Burning Man Festival
In perfect lockstep, the four R'gier demons marched towards the festival. The festive lights and bonfires reflected in their armor. They almost looked like men in costume, playing some type of character seen in alien battle video games. They were in perfect sync, each footstep reverberating as they closed in on the people gathering to watch the insane light show to their north.
Connor was just stumbling along the northern edge of the party zone. He was smiling, his virginity now a thing of the past, long gone in the pages of history.
Then thoughts of what had happened with the hot number from Texas crossed his mind. He wondered what
had happened. But after all the drugs, he could barely remember her name. He stopped and stared at the light show in the north, the curling blue streamers of energy. Then the lights stopped and a strong gust of wind hit him in the chest. He stumbled back a bit, then he spotted the four R'gier demons walking his way.
Looking around, he was trying to find the old hippy he'd shared the two women with earlier. Instead, he saw two guys dressed as firemen. He was unsure if this was a real pair of firefighters or some guys pretending, but they were in uniform.
"Hey guys!" Connor waved and headed their direction. He stumbled up to them. The taller one, a well-built young man with greased back blond hair, looked sideways at his partner, a shorter, older man with short cropped graying hair. They both sported 70s porn mustaches. It was still unclear if they were real firemen or escapees from a disco dance troupe.
"Hey, man. Uh, do you see those things out there? Those tall guys walking this way?" Connor said, waving his hand out towards the darkness.
"No, I haven't," Blondie said, rolling his eyes. "Are you okay? You look a bit fried."
The older guy looked out into the darkness. "Wait, those guys?" He pointed so his partner could spot them.
"Wow. Great costumes!" Blondie said. "I bet they can really party."
"Say, are you two actually firemen?"
"Sure, we are," the gray-haired man said, smiling. "Want to follow us to our tent and let us show you our firehoses?"
Connor wasn't so stoned he couldn't understand what the guy meant. "Come on, do you guys have a radio? Call for help?"
Blondie shook his head. "No, we sure don't."
Connor moved so that he could keep the approaching demons in sight. They had shifted direction and one was quickly heading their direction.
"No, you don't understand. We need to call for help, now!"
The two men looked at each other, grinning. The R'gier stopped and swung a broadsword at the trio. Connor saw it coming, and he hit the dirt. In front of his eyes, the blond man's head hit the ground, rolling away, the blue eyes had a look of shock.
The older man yelled and started running. People turned and watched as the man was cut down by the R'gier.
Now, people started running away, back towards the center of the festival, shrieking in terror. Shouts of "Terrorists!" filled the night air.
The R'giers easily caught and cut down the partiers. Arms and heads were dropping every which way. Chaos erupted all across the festival.
Several people ran into the nearest medical tent, and the medics inside immediately assumed the babbling, scared people were on a very bad trip, until one skinny old man in a thong stumbled inside, waving a severed arm.
His own.
He collapsed as the medics and nurses started tending to him. They rolled him over and the medic struggled to attach clamps onto the mass of bleeding arteries in the man's wound. He looked up as more cut and bleeding people arrived.
"What the hell is going on?" The medic was expecting dehydration and sun stroke cases, even drug overdoses, but this? He helped a woman with a huge gash on her back to a table, then he went to the door and looked out. A riot. People running, screaming. Pandemonium in all directions.
"Guys!" the medic yelled. Two Sheriff deputies looked up from helping the nurse. "Looks like a terrorist attack!"
The older deputy rushed to the door and looked out at the crowd. Earl Fleming, a ten-year veteran of the department, took in the scene. He'd never seen anything like the panic he was witnessing.
People running in fear, shouting and chaos. A tall man in a bikini rushed past, then tripped over a tangled heap of men in black leather. Looking to the north, he spotted one of the demons swinging a sword, cutting down a man in a silver harem outfit.
With no other thought, he took off towards the terrorists, jumping up to look over the people, trying to see which way the tall men with swords were heading.
Grabbing at his shoulder microphone, he started shouting: "Unit A-7 to base. Code nine-nine-nine! We have a terrorist attack at Burning Man, I repeat, there is a terrorist attack in progress. I need backup!"
The radio blasted static for a moment, then the dispatcher came through.
"Unit A-7. What is the location?"
"Aid station at the nine-o'clock point!" Fleming replied, "The attack is to my north, near the trash line fence!" Then he unholstered his weapon. The younger deputy, Michael Gallagher, ran out of the tent, pulling his Glock out of its holster.
"They're together, at twelve o'clock!" Fleming shouted.
The men both rushed to the north, shoving their way through panicking partiers. Radio chatter was full of units responding to the area. Patrol cars were taking off from the front area and racing around the perimeter to get to the northern side.
The crowd ran past Fleming and his partner, and they were left alone, facing the four warrior demons.
Fleming began shouting. "Drop the weapons! Stop and drop your weapons!"
The R'giers continued advancing.
"One last time, assholes!" Fleming shouted. At that moment, three more deputies arrived. They all took shooting stances.
The monsters kept advancing.
It was Gallagher who shot first, then the rest started shooting. All carried high capacity automatics, most were .40 caliber. The bullets impacted the R'giers, knocking then backwards. The demon to the far left fell backwards.
The deputies all reloaded and continued firing.
It just so happened that the ammunition used by the sheriff's department contained small traces of iron. This was quite effective in dropping the R'giers. They were designed to be impervious to arrows and bladed weapons, but not high-speed copper-jacked rounds traveling at eleven hundred and thirty feet per second.
The remaining three managed two more steps, then fell. Their swords dropping, and a single demonic helmet rolled away.
Fleming led the others slowly towards the downed demons. He kicked at the swords and reached down to feel its neck. He wiggled the creature's nose, pulled at its chin, then he lifted one eyelid. A green eye with a slit for an iris looked back at him. He stood up and looked at Gallagher, then at the others.
"Ya'll? I don't think they're wearing costumes!" His voice was tinged with wonder.
"Are they aliens?" Gallagher asked.
"Dammed if I know," he replied.
Across the plateau, the battle raged. The neon blue light show had stopped, but the life-giving magic from the portal continued and this time, the Furies had to deal with a copper dragon who was busy circling and shooting fire at their heads.
The Amazons formed a circle, halfway down the rise, fighting off the demons. They stood about three feet apart, creating a fence of death between themselves and the Furies. As demons charged, the Amazons repelled them, severing arms and heads. As each demon dropped, another took its place.
The Furies stood above them firing spears and arrows into the attacking demons. Megaera aimed an arrow at the dragon, who easily moved out of the way. The arrow flew across the desert and impacted the ground several hundred yards away, erupting into a huge fireball.
Back at Burning Man, the explosion caught the eye of Sheriff Vance Howell, who was chatting with a ranking member of the local armed forces, Colonel Barry Reese. They both watched the fireball rise into the sky. The colonel brought up a pair of binoculars.
"Whatever that was, I can't see much more than movement, looks like they're over five miles away. But there's a shit load of people up there!" the colonel said.
Reese is what you’d call a nondescript man. He’s in his late 30s, full head of light brown hair, square jaw, brown eyes. He’s what you'd get if you asked Central Casting to send you an intelligence officer. Even his teeth looked just a bit too perfect.
Howell took the binoculars from the colonel and peered through them. "Your eyesight is a hell of a lot better than mine, Barry. I can't see shit," the sheriff said. In opposition to Colonel Reese, Sheriff Vance Howell looked like a country sheriff
. A bit of weight around his mid-section, hair thinning and pale blue eyes in an older round face. He was only forty-five, but looked ten years older.
"I'm going to call this in," the colonel said. "Vance, we're going to have to shut down this party."
"Not going to be easy," the sheriff mused. He kept looking to the north, and spotted the dim, red flame of a dragon. "Son of a bitch, those folks have flame-throwers!"
The colonel took the binoculars back and saw another jet of red flame. "Yes, I see."
He turned and looked the sheriff in the eye. "I'll see about sending a few cars that way, but they may have heavy weapons, some type of militia group. So, leave this to me, ok?"
"Be my guest. I will have my hands filled with trying to get this place shut down," the sheriff admitted.
Colonel Reese walked over to the fallen demons and crouched. He studied the one without a helmet. All four bodies were still laying where they'd fallen. All the other cops were well away, leaving him alone with the Sheriff. He stood up again and stood near the older man.
"Vance. You did not hear this from me, alright?" Reese began. "I'm used to seeing, well, bizarre things, especially in this area. But I have never seen anything like these four things."
"I've seen cattle cut up, and traces of some awfully weird things myself," the sheriff said.
"Yes, but these fellas?" Reese said, pointing at the bodies. "They're completely new to us. I have a group heading this way, they'll take the bodies, then I'll want to talk to everyone who saw these things."
"Right. What do I tell the families about these, things?"
"I'll give you a story to tell them, and it'll hold up to scrutiny," Reese said. "Then we'll all forget this ever happened."
"Easy for you to say," Howell remarked.
"We have ways to make sure that happens, Vance. You too, I'm afraid."
"I don't like the way you said that," the sheriff growled.
"You'll forget about that as well," Reese said, a slight smile playing across his face.
Back at the main battle, the wall of Amazons was collapsing. Several of the Amazons had fallen and were dragged out into the main mass of demons and possibly ground into pulp.
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