Yngve, AR - Darc Ages

by Darc Ages (lit)

  Tharlos's ships roared past the southern harbor, firing a barrage of pulses at the site and the surrounding vegetation. Bushes and palm-trees instantly burst into flames, and some of the armed islanders were forced to move closer to the beach.

  The enemy jetfighters followed up with a fast sweep across the hills - and spotted Mechao's rock mansion in the mountainside. One ship made a second turn, and its rear gunners pounded the mansion as it whizzed by.

  The mansion's front wall disappeared in a series of explosions and sparks - but when the smoke lifted, it still stood almost untouched. The volcanic rock was far too hard to be penetrated from the air. Darc was just crouching down behind a front window, when the laser pulses hit.

  The air cracked like a thousand whips - he lost his hearing for a few moments, and stone fragments flew like bullets through the room. He opened his eyes as the ships roared away - and he realized that he had been hit.

  A splinter of rock had ripped up his left shirt arm and opened a long red wound. The pain in his arm rose rapidly, with each frantic heartbeat. Darc tore off his shirt-sleeve and wrapped it around the bleeding wound, wincing as he did so.

  Crouching down again, he crawled below the windows and headed for the front entrance. He had to reach their only parked ship, and see that it was safe. Outside, the island was ablaze with fire and smoke - and the distant volcano still erupting.

  The citizens of Damon City turned their heads up to watch the sky, and what they saw made their skin crawl. Above, a squadron of Lord Damon's jet fleet roared past and away from the city.

  From afar, one could just make out the shape of another squadron. The two ship formations joined, ascended into the clouds, and flew out of sight.

  The noise awakened all citizens; among them was young Awonso. He was still asleep in his home, after a particularly lengthy nightly visit to high-priestess Inu. The outside noise receded, and Awonso recognized it. Suddenly alert, he rushed outside and gazed into the gray winter sky. He could see nothing.

  Awonso returned indoors and asked his mother: "The noise, mother - was it...?"

  "Lord Damon's air fleet, and another fleet I think. They headed down south a moment ago. Shouldn't you hurry to the castle and ask Librian what is going on?"

  "Goddess!" he exclaimed. "The lord is away... the city! The merchant plot... I must warn Librian!"

  Awonso got into his clothes and ran out into the slush-covered street. His steps were swifter, his body not as plump as it once had been. He had not reached far, when a figure separated itself from the crowd and caught his attention. The man stood in his way, with a mocking sneer on his bearded face.

  Awonso spun around, and saw another man closing in on him - fumbling with something inside his cloak. The conspirators from the Merchants' Lodge! The apprentice librarian saw a roofed electric carriage whirring past, loaded with soldiers. He leapt into the cobblestone road, reached for the open end of the wagon and held on to the hatch.

  A sitting sergeant shouted at him: "Go away, boy! No free rides!"

  One of Awonso's pursuers made a desperate dash for the passing vehicle; a knife-blade gleamed in his hand. Awonso glimpsed him coming, swung one foot up and heaved himself into the back wagon of the carriage.

  The man ceased his pursuit, and merged with the street crowd. Awonso crawled to his feet, and faced two rows of armed soldiers sitting on each side of the wagon - sixteen men in all.

  The sergeant asked: "Who are you?"

  "Awonso, deputy librarian at Lord Damon's castle. I must get into the castle and see Librian!"

  The sergeant gave him a shrewd look, and said in a slightly less intimidating manner: "I remember... you're not allowed in there now. Library's closed to outsiders."

  He moved toward Awonso, who clung to the wall and refused to leave. "Please, it's a matter of life and death! I have proof of a conspiracy against Lord Damon! I must warn him!"

  The sergeant halted, and looked about himself. "The city lord is away, and Lady Bwynn is in charge now. If you want to meet Librian, you must go through her. Right?"

  Awonso agreed, and the sergeant did not throw him off the wagon. The ride he had hitched was heading toward the castle, and he could see the city guard on the march throughout the city. Maybe, he thought, the Paskos were going to attack again.

  Then he understood - or thought he understood. Lord Damon was heading south; the city lord was going after Darc and Sir Dohan first.

  Chapter 60

  As the fires spread uphill across the area north of the harbor, Tharlos's troop carriers came down to land - raking the ground with cover fire in all directions. As their thruster jets cushioned the touchdown, huge clouds of dust covered them from sight.

  From his hiding position just a few hundred meters away, Dohan turned over several plans in his mind. Should they charge forward, while the dust covered them from laser fire, and engage in hand-to-hand? No, the islanders would be slaughtered.

  Their only hope was a scorched-earth tactic: to maintain their distance, burn the ground between them and the advancing enemy, and try shooting as many soldiers as possible. His only aircraft, the Sunray , was still safely hidden uphill; it had to remain as a last escape route.

  Then there was Mechao's secret weapon, in the cages the islander army was carrying - a weapon in which Dohan had very little faith...

  Dohan said a hasty prayer, and gave his troops their new orders. The dust quickly drifted away in the breeze. The noise of hatches opening and marching soldiers echoed across the open place.

  The first row of enemy troops came into view, advancing slowly on a wide line, aluminum shields held side by side... a gleaming, walking metal wall, a hundred meters wide. Above, a remaining part of the armada circled the area - many of those ships were already moving west and east toward the other nearby islands.

  Dohan turned to one of Mechao's oldest sons, who huddled down next to Meijji.

  "Spread the word: cover your shields and let loose the animals."

  The word was passed, and islanders in hiding opened scores of small cages. A great flutter of wings sounded across the area, when Mechao's creations took to the sky.

  Tharlos's soldiers gasped, then laughed in relief. It was only a flock of scared birds, they thought.

  The birds homed in on the advancing line of gleaming shields. They flew closer, flapping their wings frantically. The marching soldiers saw what the birds looked like - and panicked.

  Each bird was a brown-feathered little monster, with a hissing cobra's flat head and long, saw-toothed claws on its feet.

  The foremost line of soldiers broke up, as the snake-bird hybrids attacked their own reflections in the shields. Laser rifles were fired at random; a few birds fell dead to the ground. The other bird-mutants dove on the soldiers' necks and faces, and sank their poisonous fangs and claws into any exposed flesh.

  Horrifying screams rose from the beach; poisoned soldiers died in spasms, with the flying cobras locked to their throats. These monsters were not made to last, but they served their purpose. The attackers retreated, yelling "Witchcraft! The island is cursed!" - and scared up their comrades.

  Tharlos witnessed the retreat from inside his parked flagship, surrounded by the bulk of other vessels.

  "No, you fools!" he shouted. "Don't break the chain!"

  Tharlos went over to the back of the flagship, climbed into his own mechanized battle armor, and ordered his own two subordinate knights to do the same. Then he lumbered out down the ramp, and headed for another parked aircraft.

  At that moment, Dohan ordered his volunteers to open fire. A flickering display of laser-beams danced across the beach, felling dozens of Tharlos's panicking footsoldiers.

  Most of them were hit in the legs - the islanders were placed at level with the enemy's feet, and aimed with relentless precision. The surviving soldiers rapidly put up their shields for cover, but Dohan had already spotted the parked ships in his binoculars.

  He shouted to the twelve female snipers in
his line: "Aim at the foremost blue ship! On my command... fire! "

  A supply ship belonging to Lord Orbes - it stood out from the cluster, being the only blue-colored ship in the front - took twenty hits in a few seconds.

  In a flash of light, heat and cascading metal fragments, its fuel tank and cargo exploded. A full platoon of riflemen was blown sky high; burning jet fuel rained down over the area. Soldiers caught fire and ran screaming toward the shore.

  Above the beach, the circling fighters tried to take potshots at the unseen defenders, but their fire missed - with a few exceptions. Three female villagers were hit by burning splinters and screamed for help. Their comrades continued firing, and more enemies fell. The armada's advance had been held up, but only temporarily.

  Down on the beach, while the firefight went on, a pneumatic launch-tube was unloaded and erected behind the cover of the aircraft. Its first charge whizzed through the air, missed Dohan's line of people and exploded on the burning hillside.

  He looked up, and saw that the brushfires were approaching his camouflaged aircraft on the plateau. Dohan ordered the volunteers to try and hold the enemy for only a few more minutes. Then he told Meijji and her brothers to come with him, and they retreated uphill.

  Lasers flickered and bombs exploded everywhere around them. The cries for help from the wounded echoed fainter as they withdrew...

  As the party made their way upward, another person left her post and sneaked after them, unseen: Alchaia. She ducked behind a shrubbery, and took aim with her rifle.

  One hit in the back, she thought, and everyone would believe the invaders had killed Meijji. With his wife gone, Alchaia imagined, the grieving Dohan would seek comfort in the arms of her sister...

  The opportunity vanished in a moment; Meijji disappeared from view, moving too fast for Alchaia to lock onto her target. Alchaia turned around, stood up and peered through the smoke - and an enemy lookout spotted the movement.

  A grenade was launched at her position; she glimpsed a projectile whistling through the air. The girl was gripped by panic, ran away - and the bomb detonated next to her. Meijji heard the explosion without knowing her sister was dead.

  Dohan glanced back down at the smoke-shrouded beach, where black, rounded spider-like shapes were emerging from the circle of enemy ships.

  He ducked down when a projectile came whistling at them; the detonation made him forget what he had seen. A drop of fire hit Meijji's skirt. It spouted smoke; she panicked and screamed.

  Dohan threw himself at her, grabbed the burning skirt and tore it off her. She had only a small superficial burn, and moved on without a sound of complaint.

  Their group continued to climb uphill through the underbrush; meanwhile, the shootout at the beach intensified.

  The Sunray , to Dohan's great relief, turned out to be undamaged. His beloved aircraft lay covered by protective canvases and camouflage nets; but the fires were rapidly creeping up the hillside and could reach the ship any minute. It had to take off.

  At the foot of the ship Dohan's group ran into Darc, who had been waiting for them. "Have you seen Shara?" Darc asked, but got no answer.

  Dohan alone entered the ship and started up its engines. None of the people present had seen Shara or Eye-Leg since they left the mansion. They assumed Shara and the girl were still hiding out with Amada's family.

  Darc asked his sons where Mechao might be found. They answered that Mechao had gone off somewhere, carrying a pouch with unknown content. Darc considered whether he should assist Dohan as rear gunner - but then he recalled that the rear cannon had been dismantled before the Sunray left the Leper tribe in Amrica, months ago. His best way of helping Dohan was on the ground, guarding Meijji for him.

  The Sunray 's jet tubes roared into action. From the cockpit window above their heads, Dohan waved at the others to free the ship. They pulled away the camouflage nets and blankets, and cleared away from the area.

  The craft soared on its thrusters, exposed to the enemy as it ascended from the hillside plateau. Darc, Meijji, and the others looked first downhill at the flickering battlefield on the beach, then to the dark, ash-filled skies.

  A black, very sleek enemy craft emerged from the northeast, and closed in on Dohan's ship: it was Kamo Yota in his Roaring Wind . It suddenly occurred to Darc, that his own side might rapidly be losing the battle...

  On the beach, Tharlos's twelve spider robots were advancing on a wide line. Their heat-seeking sensors spotted the hidden islanders within seconds, and fired rapid green bursts of laser light.

  Several of Dohan's volunteers were burned, blinded, killed. Their homemade metal shields stopped most of the pulses, but the islanders were too few and too far apart to form an effective shield wall.

  And yet the islanders kept firing, until their rifles were overheated and depleted of energy. One, then three, then four of the war robots were destroyed.

  The remaining robots marched on - and panic broke out in the island's defense line. Those volunteers who could stand, retreated to the hills. Some were trapped between enemy fire and bush fires, and died fighting. The sixty-plus unharmed volunteers helped the wounded and blinded retreat.

  Lucijja and Faluti, miraculously unharmed, covered the retreat with their shields and rifles and lobbed home-made firebombs in the enemy's way.

  Tharlos saw the tide of battle turn, and seized the opportunity. He took a jet-powered leap through the air and landed heavily on armored boots before his footmen. The black-orange-yellow Pasko flag was tied to the blade of his broadsword, which he waved toward the hill.

  "Follow me!" he told the soldiers who were still standing - most of them his own. The forces of the other families were scattering across the surrounding islands. "Did you see the Damon ship escape? Our flying forces are taking him out as we watch! Now we find the witchdoctor's lair and smoke him out. No monsters of his creation can pass through me! "

  He banged the chest of his armor with his metal fist. The soldiers made a hoarse cry of support, and their officers ordered the remaining companies into formation. Tharlos hurried to catch up with the spider robots, afraid that they would get lost without his guidance, and commanded the troops.

  "Launch the flagship to escort the Yota fighter! Knights in armor! Companies two, three and four, behind me and... CHARGE!"

  His electronically boosted voice signaled their attack. Ninety soldiers and two knights ran hollering across the beach on a wide front, joining the spider robots up the smoldering hillside. The flagship took to the skies, piloted by Sir Devis.

  Dohan put the Sunray on a low, sweeping course along the circle of islands. He had no plan but to keep fighting until he ran out of fuel, firepower or hope. First he had to deal with the fastest of the enemy fighters.

  The Roaring Wind came into his sights several kilometers away, and turned down against him from the opposite direction, very fast.

  Kamo Yota, piloting his needle-nosed craft alone, had been dreaming of this kind of duel for years. He had not yet gotten the chance to fight the Damons in tournament, despite his great talent.

  This would be his final test of supremacy, to ensure his status as the youngest knight-champion of Castilia. So confident was he of his superior skill that he now indulged in a game of chicken.

  Kamo forgot his fear of the new and alien environment; his fear of failure was much greater.

  The Sunray and The Roaring Wind flew head-on toward each other; either pilot had a few seconds' time to alter course. Only moments before impact, Dohan reflexively banked off.

  They zoomed past each other - and the draft from The Roaring Wind hit the slower Sunray and tossed it into a spin. Dohan fought with the controls, and pulled up the plane just before it could hit an island peak. His conscious mind shut off, following his gut feeling, he set course straight for Fogo.

  In his rearview periscope, he could spot the distant shape of The Roaring Wind - plus another, slower enemy craft closing in from the south. He accelerated up into the clou
ds, G-forces pressed him into the padded seat and his vision blurred.

  This was as far as his father's ship had ever been pushed - until it reached cloud level. The clouds consisted of water, toxic gas and dust from the volcanic eruption. Even as the Sunray skimmed the lowest haze, its engines started to make grinding noises.

  In a blink, Dohan saw engine temperature rise and exhaust effect sink. He let the craft drop down, and the engine noise receded to a less threatening level.

  Then suddenly Kamo Yota was behind him, firing his cannons. Red lines blinked past the windshield. Dohan put his ship into a downward-spinning roll, then leveled out just in time to avoid diving into the sea.

  Kamo circled a hundred meters above him, waiting for a new opening. Both knew that The Roaring Wind had a weakness - its greater speed gave it a very large turning radius. Dohan saw the volcanic inferno rapidly grow in size and fill up the view before him.

  From Fogo's crater billowed cascades of molten slag, a few hundred meters high or more, and a constant, opaque torrent of smoke reached up into the clouds. The smoldering crater was much larger than he had imagined - perhaps three hundred meters across, almost engulfing the little island in blackish lava streams.

  The surrounding sea boiled and steamed, and the Sunray abruptly passed through thick veils of mist. The rising mist gave only moments of cover from Kamo's laser fire - moments to think.

  Dohan banked his craft, circled the crater in passing - and he knew what to do.

  A short figure came staggering through the shrubbery, into the clearing of the plateau. Darc and the others had not heard him approach, due to the noise of the advancing Pasko troops.

  They took aim at the figure; in the next moment, they saw that it was Mechao. His once white clothes had become grimy with dust, and and he wheezed asthmatically. Meijji rushed forward and caught her exhausted father in her arms.