We Unhappy Few

by G R Fabacher

  “The Lich Corps will be in support. They will flank the column here.” He pointed to the main Magi road that ran to the capital. “Odd blocks will hit it from the west and even blocks will hit it from the south east. The Guild will be providing air cover. Your main goals is to draw their attention from the old Magi fort here.” He tapped at the ephemeral display.

  “My team will head off the vanguard of the Union forces. We believe several key members of the Scarlet Ring will be here. If we can cut the head off this particularly nasty snake then we win. We all get to go home, and our friends with the skulls here get some time chipped off their sentences.”

  The commander turned back to the display one more time. “So let’s hurry up and get this show on the road. If they breach the ruin then this mission gets a lot harder.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Laureli Varant was not a happy woman. She hated the bugs, she hated the damp cold, and she hated how soft she’d become living in the relative luxury. She was from some of the meanest and nastiest streets in Citadella, but she was certainly an urban creature. Even her suit’s cutting-edge environmental enchantments would bog down with muck and plant matter. The only saving grace of this whole expedition was that it would take the Republic just as long to hike in. They didn’t have the air support to mount a large counteroffensive against the swollen ranks of the Union expeditionary force.

  She smiled behind her crystal faceplate. It had taken more than a few strings, but she had managed to wrangle together enough support from the Scarlet Ring to get the necessary force together. There was no more time for shadow games and half measures. The weapons or knowledge that lay in that fort would tip the balance of power. No longer would the purity of the Union’s Purpose chafe under the misguided attempts at unity. Mankind had to take its place as the rulers of the realms. They were destined to be the rulers of all, including magic.

  The Azure Crown had thought it was the naturally gifted that would rule, and the Republic believed in the right of all to determine their own destiny, at least on paper, Varant knew they were as corrupt and diseased as the Azure Crown they’d displaced. No it was the strength of the whole, the purity of the Purpose that would drive the Union now and forever.

  Sometimes she felt as though she were the only one in the Scarlet Ring who still understood that. She looked over at Durrant and his team, deciding that she was not alone, even if the circle of true believers was small. Varant looked through the massive trees, gnarled and twisted by wild magic. The same blasted hellscape that blotted out so many places, and half of Duamatt. It always served to remind her that as powerful as the Ahmagistratii were, they were not mankind. They were the past, powerful, but now they were so much dust.

  In her days of self-education before the academy she had often tried to piece together what had happened to such a great and powerful race. Many historical theories were present, and most agreed there was some kind of massive war, either civil or against some enemy time had erased all traces of.

  Laureli had never been able to piece together what happened, but she had come to the conclusion that something had rotted the empire from the inside. Countless times throughout history great nations had stagnated. They rose, grew powerful, but then they grew complacent and crumbled. To watch it happen to her own nation was almost unbearable. When the very faith of her noble nation rested on this mission wet boots and the damp cold were small prices to pay.

  Overhead she heard the thrum of magical engines. “Durrant!” She called.

  Durrant was already on the scrycomm. “Ma’am, they seem to be Guild craft.”

  Varant used the runes on her faceplate to patch into Emile’s feed. They were indeed the sleek, cutting edge Guild craft. Only the Buteos of the City of Free Skies had more advanced air power.

  “Prepare the air defenses, but hold our trump card back, I want to see the whole range of their attack. It would be unusual for the Navigator’s Guild to attack another major power without some kind of leverage to use in the battle.”

  “Yes, my lady.” Durrant said.

  She tapped into the force-wide scrycomm and saw that various anti-air units were moving about. The first salvos of anti-air missiles flew out. Bright blue javelins of magical energy streaked right toward the Guild aircraft. Normally even she would be worried about causing an international incident. However, they were too close to their goal to stop now. Once they had what lay in the ruins then the Guild would be forced to bow before the might of the Union. The Union leadership had wanted to absorb the might of the Guild and turn its vast resources toward the Purpose. It would see the end of one of the most difficult hurdles to world unity, and the Union would finally be able to grind the rest of the Azure Crown into dust.

  She watched with enhanced vision as the Guild craft jinked and juked away from the missiles. Some deployed crystal chaff. Brilliant magical explosions lit up the noontide sky.

  “Durrant,” she called out, “Leave a small force and some of the armor behind to stall them. We can’t afford to be bogged down here.”

  “Yes, your ladyship.”

  Several of the large vehicles held position with some of the troops and the rest continued up the skeleton of the old road. Varant smiled to herself under her faceplate. It was time to see how many of the real players were truly dedicated to their causes.

  Chapter 23

  Damon crouched behind a rock. The whole of his unit along with the other evens were staged on the canyon’s side looking down into it. It wasn’t a very severe ravine, possessing gently sloping sides. In many ways it looked artificial, but it was difficult to tell from centuries of nature’s touch. He saw the touches of a craftsman’s hand in some of the weathered old rock. Nature had reclaimed it and he wondered briefly if this had been a tunnel of some kind. The bard didn’t dwell on it long, marshes would have absorbed many structures into its watery embrace eons ago. If not for the impressive magic that went into the Magi capital, it too would most certainly have been pulled beneath mud and brackish waters.

  “Wait for it.” He heard the Lieutenant say over the scrycomm. The roar of fast-moving aircraft could be heard and magical missiles slammed into the column of Union troops. The attack wasn’t very effective from what Damon could see as they were chased off by harrying antiaircraft fire.

  “Charge!” The Lieutenant said.

  Damon and his team jumped over the side and skid down the loose stone and mud embankment. Some were already firing into the crowd of Union troops. The paladins stepped forward and started shooting. Activating the enchantments in his legs, Damon sprang up and over a Union cargo hauler. He skidded across its hard top and slammed into a Union trooper. Holding his rifle with both hands he sprayed the column from behind. Urani followed him, landing on the roof of the truck shooting her weapon in support.

  More troops swarmed their position and Damon rolled under the cargo hauler placing a grenade with a very short timer underneath it. He took one more second to tap the high-yield explosion rune. “Set!” He called out.

  “Back!” Urani shouted over the scrycomm.

  The cargo hauler went upward, carried by a massive purple explosion that left a huge mud hole of a crater in its wake. The truck flipped over crushing some unlucky Union paladin that had been knocked prone by the explosion.

  “Sparky! You’re up!” Damon shouted. Hellaina flew through air with her magic, shooting beams of pure magical energy from her finger tips. The thin lines tracked and smashed into the breastplates of Union troops. Each beam that touched a solider split into three beams. The Web of Death spell was infamous and instantly recognizable.

  Sparky let the magic drop and fifty Union soldiers fell down, small holes through their hearts. The young mage crashed into the mud and Damon moved over her. “Good work, kiddo.”

  “Thanks,” she panted, pulling out her pistol and shooting a soldier in the knee. “I’m going to need five to catch my breath.”

  “Jurza! How are you and Oslo coming along?”

>   Jurza answered back, “He keeps saying words I don’t care to understand! He says, ‘almost got it!’” There was a pause, “He says, ‘shite’.”

  “Oslo!” Damon shouted.

  “I got it, I got it! Union comms patching in now.”

  Damon and the rest of the entire Republic strike force patched in to the channels that the Union expeditionary force was using.

  Damon was proud of that bit of thinking on his part. It took a long while to crack battle hardened comms so he created lots of distractions letting Oslo work on it in relative peace and quiet.

  “Why do I suddenly have Union comms?” One of the Rangers said.

  “You’re welcome!” Oslo and Damon shouted.

  Damon listened in for chatter on how the odds were progressing. He could have switched channels to see, but he didn’t want to be out of touch with the other evens of his attack force. By the number of screams and gunfire the odd groups’ attack on the rear flank was progressing nicely.

  There was a lot of screaming about how a golem just smashed one tank into another tank.

  Damon ducked and reloaded his rifle. He reached down and gripped Sparky’s arm lifting her up.

  “Time to move.” He told her.

  Damon moved back toward the canyon wall, taking cover behind another cargo hauler that had been abandoned by its drivers when the fighting started. Jurza and Oslo came running up. The Orc was holding a Union paladin’s helmet and it was dripping blood.

  “Everyone okay?” Damon asked.

  Jurza threw away the helmet like a bored child. “I’m fine.”

  Urani and Oslo walked up. Urani cocked a hip. “My little bard, you’ve a viciousness about you.”

  Damon smirked, but there was no time. “Okay, we’ve hit the middle, move up.” He wheeled his arm. Damon dared to think this plan would actually work. The superior numbers of the Union force had been caught clearly off guard. His squad bustled into a jog reaching more and more carnage as they climbed what was left of the unified Union forces.

  Damon checked his faceplate’s chronometer. “Okay everyone hole up they’re going to bring in the big wave now to finish this.”

  The teams of corpsmen began to dig in.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  High Paladin Varant seethed with raw rage. She had not been anticipating such a large force. Her vanguard had been forced to a crawl as the rear and the middle of the convoy had been hit. This was unacceptable. Her fists balled in a rage. She turned to the leader of the vanguard.

  “Move!” She pulled out her pistol. They only had to get the relic to the fortress door. The Union soldier nodded and slashed his hand through the air. Light craft hovered through the muck. Men on mounted turrets were ready to spray any attacking force with thousands of flechettes.

  Varant scanned the overgrowth and trees for any sign of attack. There was a snap and she watched as one of the gunners fell from his mount. Another snap followed.

  “Snipers!” She shouted.

  The Union soldiers struggled to find cover as the vehicles were disabled by more expertly placed shots. The Rangers skulked through the undergrowth, expertly placed three-shot bursts taking down several paladins and troopers alike. Varant returned fire, but the Rangers were well-concealed within the trees.

  “Durrant!” She shouted, “Unleash our trump card.”

  “Affirmative.” He replied.

  There came a loud roar that shook the leaves from the twisted and gnarled trees.

  The unit of the Rangers emerged from the shadows of the tree line. They brandished rifles at the decimated Union forces. The leader stepped up.

  “Laureli Varant, high paladin of the Union’s Scarlet Ring.” He said over the vox, his voice betraying a tone of faint surprise. “Throw down your weapons and surrender.”

  Varant gritted her teeth and exhaled a fierce breath. “No.” She said.

  “Then we will kill you!”

  “You will try.” She spat

  The Ranger leader calmly held up a closed fist.

  “I will not give up!” The high paladin said through gritted teeth.

  The hand dropped and hundreds of flechettes flew toward the Union forces. Varant thrust her hands out and a ward shimmered in front of her hand, not merely deflecting the flechettes fired at her, but stopping them. Behind her golden faceplate a feral smile broke across her face.

  The projectiles dropped to the ground, the violet glow in her eyes filtered through her faceplate, lighting it an eerie purple. She extended her first two fingers and shot a bolt of pure energy through the nearest ranger’s chest before they could register what she’d done.

  “Shite! She’s a mage!” The leader of the Rangers shouted.

  There was another roar and the beating of wings. From above a large mass of scales and muscles plunged from above, smashing through branches and with a landing that caused a small tsunami. The form extended its arrow-shaped head extended upward, a bright silver collar on its thick muscled neck. Blue fire licked at the sky.

  “Saints and stones!” Another Ranger said, “It’s a damned dragon!”

  The dragon hunkered down again and charged the Ranger. It skittered to a halt before overrunning the Rangers’ position. It pulled back, curling up, the leathery wings on its back draped over its shoulders like a cloak.

  “Kill them or I swear you will suffer, creature.” Varant pulled out a control wand and waved it at the dragon. The collar on its neck glowed and the giant reptile screamed in agony. He swiped at the Rangers and knocked several into the trees. It coated the surrounding marsh in blue fire, lighting the wet wood afire as if it were notebook paper.

  Little islands of blue flames bobbed on the mash water.

  “Open fire!” The Ranger leader said. The dragon was hit in the torso by dozens of flechettes. Orange blood splattered over the mud and trees, thinning to a sallow yellow in the murky water. The rangers dropped magazines and one of them threw a grenade. A purple-tinged light exploded out in an almost perfect sphere.

  Varant ran and the Rangers opened fire.

  “Take her down!” The ranger leader said, his faceplate scorched and cracked.

  Varant laughed and gestured with the wand. Several more forms loomed over and crashed down. Without a look back Varant accessed her scrycomm, running off toward the Magi fortress.

  The Ranger leader looked around. “This is Commander Tulis. Ranger squad is in peril. The Union has control of dragonkin. I think it’s the collars. Enemy leader has fled.” Tulis stepped toward the roaring beast. It was flailing in the mire, throwing up the foul earth as it thrashed in pain. Raising his faceplate Tulis looked into the large dragon’s golden eyes. The pupils were large black pools of fear and torment.

  The ranger held his battle riffle in both hands. The dragons were beginning to succumb to the domination of the collars.

  “I’m… sorry…” the Dragon grunted in broken Common Pidgin.

  “Me, too.” Tulis lowered his faceplate.

  Chapter 24

  Damon looked up as the legions of wings smashed down on the convoy. Dragons were a rarity on Terrasti. He’d only seen them in movies and books. They were the dominant race on Duamatt before the first wave of colonization by the Azure Crown Empire. Even then, the Azure Crown always treated the dragonkin with a very delicate hand. Now Damon knew why. They were a force of nature made flesh.

  He thought orcs were big scary reptiles. Whatever the dragonkin had evolved from was much scarier than the salamander-like ancestor of the Orckin. A ten-foot tall dragon landed on one of the Union troop haulers and crushed it like a tin can.

  “Damon, not to distract you any, but I think the Rangers are screwed.” Oslo said.

  “Yeah, I heard, they said they think it’s the collars.”

  “So how are we going to do this?” Oslo asked.

  “Like this!” Urani shouted. The female orc activated the runes in her legs and leapt at the dragon. With her wrist dagger she smashed it into the seam. There was a lou
d sparking of lightning and Urani was thrown through a tree. The silver collar fell away and the dragon grunted falling to its knees.

  Damon ran over and extricated Urani from the pile of charred splinters. She wasn’t moving, her faceplate dark.

  “Urani, are you all right?” Damon shook her. Her faceplate winked on.

  “Oooh,” she moaned, “we need to find a better way of getting the collars off, I can’t feel my tongue, and I’m getting exposure warning, and for some reason my thoughts keep focusing on the wrong unicorn.”

  “Can you fight?” Damon asked.

  “I sure can, mermaid princess, I’m an orc.”

  “One thing at a time.” Damon said.

  Damon called out for his unit to regroup.

  “Lieutenant,” Damon called over the scrycomm, “it is the collars, but we need a better way to take them off. Hitting them with a blade is dangerous.”

  “Affirmative,” the Lieutenant said, “regroup with Boudira and Shaya and see if you can’t find out how the Union is controlling the dragons.”

  “Understood.”

  Damon rallied his troops and they pulled back toward the rear of the thrashed Union column. “I’ve got them on the map.” Oslo said, “They’re just above the berm here.” The corpsmen skidded to a stop.

  In the clearing Emomnu had a massive dragon in a grapple. The golem’s eyes were burning blue with exertion. The dragon roared and the golem forfeit its grip on the claws to grab the jaws and hammer the great lizard’s snout into the muck. The water boiled and the mud bubbled. The golem picked the dragon up and prepared to break its neck.

  Realizing that Em didn’t have comms Damon shouted over his armor’s vox.

  “Em, it’s the collar!” He shouted.

  “Oh, understood!” The golem shouted and his hand snapped to the neck coming away with the metal band. Magical energy crackled over the golem.

  “Sorry I almost killed you, Mr. Dragon.” Em said.