“Their larger ships can’t outrun ours and are being corralled back into the flame engulfed center without any difficulty. I’d say the outcome of this battle is almost a certainty at this point,” Gallono agreed.
“That is usually when a desperate enemy finds the nerve to attempt the unexpected - when they have nothing else to lose,” Hastelloy responded with a matter of fact statement and then silently looked upon the scene of battle to evaluate his enemy’s next move.
It was difficult to see much of anything with the towering inferno in the center throwing deep, dark smoke hundreds of feet into the air. He could feel the wind starting to pick up, and saw the tower of smoke begin to lean westward. He then shouted orders to the flag signalers, “Relocate the flag ship grouping directly downwind from their center.”
Immediately the three signal men began snapping the flags held in each hand to relay the message to the other ships.
Zhu looked over at Hastelloy as if he had just stuck his head in a tiger’s mouth. “We won’t be able to see anything coming through the smoke wafting that direction.”
“Yes, and neither will they, which is why they would only attempt to flee that direction en masse as a measure of last resort,” Hastelloy answered.
A few minutes later the cluster of twenty five ships entered the smoke screen to the chorus of deckhands coughing and tearing strips from their shirts to tie over their mouths and noses. The measure helped with breathing, but still did nothing for the eyes which burned nearly as hot as the flames generating the smoke.
After five long minutes of torture, through the smoke and his tears Hastelloy saw the outline of five ships approaching at suicidal speeds. Unable to change course in time to avoid collision, three of the vessels smashed into Hastelloy’s ships. The entanglement held those ships in place long enough for other boats in the fleet to ram them on their sides, sending the doomed vessels to the bottom of the sea in short order.
Another ship broke left out of the smoke screen and was quickly corralled back toward the flaming center by the rest of Hastelloy’s fleet.
The fifth ship was another matter. It was smaller and far more maneuverable than the others and managed to navigate the crowded waters admirably. With the wind at its back, escape was a distinct possibility.
Zhu’s flagship was running nearly perpendicular to the escaping ship’s path. Hastelloy evaluated the waters ahead and spotted several light patches along the fleeing ship’s path. Time was short and required Hastelloy to react more out of instinct than clear thought.
“Force them toward the shallows on the starboard side and take us in,” Hastelloy ordered.
For the second time in less than a minute, Zhu looked at Hastelloy as though he’d lost his mind. “We’ll bottom out.”
“Precisely,” Hastelloy replied as he grabbed Zhu and braced them both against the upper deck railing before the vessel lurched to a grinding halt against a barely submerged sandbar. Zhu attempted to stand after the initial jolt, but was yanked back down to the deck by Hastelloy. “Not yet.”
The enemy ship had been on course to pass immediately behind Zhu’s flagship, but the sudden stop of the boat put them on an unavoidable collision course. Twenty feet away, Hastelloy watched the menacing iron ram charge headlong into the broadside of his ship.
The crash was colossal with railings and deck timbers snapping like toothpicks as the enemy vessel plowed halfway through the hull before also grinding to a halt. A shower of a half dozen bodies rained down from the decks of the enemy ship as several sailors did not adequately brace themselves for impact in time.
On the open waves, the fleeing vessel would have plowed right through the side of Hastelloy’s ship and kept right on sailing. However, with the boat lodged against a sand bar, the enemy vessel ran headlong into an immovable object. Neither vessel would ever sail again; the fight was now on to claim supremacy over the deck.
There was no need to give an order for the sailors to grab a sword and prepare to repel boarders; the situation was self-evident. He saw a dozen of his men climbing the riggings with a bow and quiver of arrows slung over their shoulders to take the advantage of an elevated firing position. Nearly everyone else already had a sword and shield in hand and braced for a fight.
Hastelloy’s eye passed over the decks of the enemy ship to assess their crew compliment. He was quite relieved to find them thoroughly decimated from the battle already. He did see movements among the tall masts and sails letting him know archer fire from above would be an issue for both sides.
Soon the hiss of arrows filled the air above as the archers focused the fire on their counterparts on high rather than the enemy below. Hastelloy released an adrenaline filled breath and attempted to calm the heart threatening to beat its way out of his chest. An instant later a pulse stopping war cry rose up from the enemy decks, and no fewer than fifty men stormed over the railings with their single objective being the death of Lord Zhu. Win or lose this little engagement, the attacking sailors knew they were all dead men when the rest of Zhu’s ships arrived. That being the case, they charged forth to decapitate the rebellion’s leadership.
The initial wave was not the problem. Those sailors armed with swords and axes were met with similar weaponry and skill. The real trouble came from the second row of ten attackers who leveled spears tipped with long, round cylinders that looked like honeycombs.
Hastelloy and Gallono recognized the dangerous hand cannons immediately and planted Zhu face down on the deck and followed with their own bodies to allow the shrapnel to hopefully pass overhead.
Explosions from the hand cannons leveled the ranks in front of them. Both friend and foe alike fell to their fury leaving the deck completely enveloped with a dense fog.
Hastelloy was the first one back to his feet. He charged headlong into the cloud and took a hack at anything that moved. As the brisk winds cleared the smoke, Hastelloy became a little more choosy where he swung his blade. To his surprise, Gallono did not engage. The commander stood back and dropped his sword in favor of a handful of star shaped disks with razor sharp edges.
In rapid succession he flipped the throwing stars at the attackers who busied themselves with preparing another volley with a second set of hand cannons. Like dominoes, each of the ten men crumpled to the deck while grasping a piece of metal lodged in their throat.
Hastelloy’s sword along with archer fire from above was able to finish off the remaining attackers giving him a moment to catch his breath. He was about to draw his first lung full when the crash of a body to the deck from up above caused him to jump back several feet.
He looked up toward the source in time to see six gigantic figures leaping from mast to mast and scaling their way down to the deck with ease. The massive furry figures landed with a collective thud that probably would have sunk the ship on its own had it still been afloat.
A demonic war howl rose from the intruders as the Alpha warriors set about their trade. The overwhelming speed and strength of their race was on full display as they cleaved men in half with a single swing of their sword. They leapt twenty feet in a single bound to maul less brave men who fled from the intimidating sight.
Gallono did not hesitate. He jumped over the balcony railing bringing his sword straight down into the back of an Alpha warrior inducing a death wail from the target as Gallono moved on to the next. He did not try to block their powerful blows with his sword; instead he expertly dodged the strikes and delivered a counter blow that always drew blood and often left a severed limb twitching on the deck. One by one, the Alpha warriors fell to Gallono’s skillful hand until only one, who realized the caliber of foe he faced, remained.
“Only a Novi who’s lived a thousand unnatural lives could be this skilled with a blade,” the Alpha declared in its language while he circled Gallono testing his defenses with halfhearted blows before going at him with blinding speed. Gallono dodged half a dozen swings without finding an opening to deliver a counter strike.
F
inally the Alpha managed to line up a slash Gallono was unable to step away from. At the last moment, he raised his sword hand to deflect the blow and had the blade ripped from his grasp by the Alpha’s bone crushing blow.
Now defenseless, the Alpha grabbed Gallono by the throat with one hand and squeezed. “Be sure and tell Captain Hastelloy hello when that mechanical vagina spits you out again.”
Just when the Alpha was about to twist Gallono’s head clean off his shoulders, the business end of a sword suddenly burst through the Alpha’s chest. The seven foot giant went limp and collapsed to the side revealing Hastelloy standing behind the warrior empty-handed.
“Message received,” Hastelloy triumphantly declared while standing over the last fallen Alpha.
Gallono picked himself up off the deck to stand next to Hastelloy. “I suppose taking on all six of them alone was a bit ambitious.”
The unexpected levity brought a smile to Hastelloy’s lips. “You always did like a challenge.”
Just then Hastelloy heard light footsteps approaching him from behind. He whirled around and readied to defend himself when he came face to face with Zhu Yuanzhang standing in the middle of his flag ship’s main deck. “What wrath from the gods have I invoked for them to send hell hounds such as these after me?”
Hastelloy would have preferred a heartfelt thank you from Zhu for defeating the terrifying enemy, but instead he had an accusing finger pointed directly at him. “You! This is your fault. You counseled me to poison the other lords to unite the banners.”
“Yes I did, Lord Zhu,” Hastelloy said in his most contrite tone. He then raised his arms out wide and slowly turned a complete circle. “Look around you, my lord. The rebel factions are united under your leadership, and the Huang armies and ships lay smashed at your feet.”
“All I see before me now are these hounds from hell sent to exact a penance for my betrayal,” Zhu cut in. He would have continued the tirade, but was cut short by the thunderous crash of a soldier made of solid stone, or perhaps clay, jumping down from the enemy ship’s bow onto the deck. If Zhu was intimidated by the sight of six Alpha warriors, his bowels nearly turned to water with the new arrival.
Sailors abandoned ship left and right declaring that the legendary stone army of Emperor Qui Shi Huang was upon them. Zhu stood petrified while the earthen creature stalked forward. He was saved from a mighty swing of the warrior’s sword by Hastelloy yanking him backwards by the neck of his shirt. Zhu fell away from the blow and landed on all fours on the deck.
“Captain, look out,” Hastelloy heard Gallono yell. The commander managed to deflect the clay warrior’s counter strike toward Hastelloy’s head at the last possible instant. While Hastelloy scurried away from the blow in desperate search for a sword, the adversary delivered a stiff punch to Gallono’s jaw that sent the commander flailing five feet through the air from the powerful blow. Hastelloy picked up a sturdy sword, but swallowed hard at the prospect of facing this new adversary alone.
“Captain Hastelloy,” the stone warrior declared in the Alpha language. “At long last I finally get to face the revered and feared Captain Hastelloy. It has truly been worth stretching the laws of Mother Nature to come alive once more and experience this moment.”
Before he could find any words, Hastelloy’s arm was in motion to parry a sword swing coming from his lower right. He deflected the blade, spun around the soldier’s arm and delivered a slice across the creature’s back resulting in a nearly imperceptibly shallow gash across the dense, wet clay.
Three more blows were deflected and countered with identical results, inducing a demonic cackle from his adversary. “It’s a pity my ancestors consider reanimating flesh an act of blasphemy. I do so miss the sensation of touch, but bringing life back to hardened clay that feels nothing at all certainly has its advantages.”
“Goron, what have you done?” Hastelloy demanded as he reestablished a firm footing. “This violates everything you hold dear. Are you so consumed with defeating me that you have forgotten who you are and what you stand for?”
“That overly conservative traditionalist would never condone my vision, but many others will come around to my way of thinking.” The warrior paused long enough to look around at the fallen Alpha bodies. “I’m quite certain you will see these six warriors again.”
Hastelloy heard a harsh snap followed by a crackling sizzle. He looked to his left and found Gallono holding one of the unused hand cannons with a lit fuse pointed directly at the clay warrior. “Be sure and tell them I look forward to it.”
An instant later hundreds of metal shards exploded from the hand cannon. The sheer force and volume of shrapnel unleashed at point blank range shredded the clay figure like a raw egg slamming into a mesh fence. The thick white smoke cleared just in time for Hastelloy to watch the last remnants of an Alpha relic flame hovering where the clay figure once stood fade to nothing.
Hastelloy knelt down and picked up a handful of orange dust that used to be the clay soldier. Apparently without the relic providing life, the figure reverted back to its original fire hardened exterior. Slowly he tipped his hand to the side and allowed the fine red powder to fall back to the deck boards.
Hastelloy was at a total loss. He made a living being prepared for any and all possible outcomes from a situation, but this? This he was completely unprepared to handle. How could he be? “My god, Gallono, somehow they are reanimating. How can we fight them now?”
“We start by assaulting the burial mound of Qui Shi Huang,” Gallono said without missing a beat. “Whatever they’re doing to make this possible, it’s happening there.”
“No,” a despondent voice shouted from the far corner of the deck. Hastelloy saw the voice belonged to Zhu. “That tomb is cursed, and I will not risk god’s wrath any further by desecrating the honored grave of Qui Shi Huang.
“Legend has it that thousands of stone soldiers protect that tomb,” Zhu frantically pointed with both hands to the clay shards strewn about the deck. “Clearly that legend is true.”
“But the evil must be stopped,” Hastelloy began, but was cut short by Zhu.
“No! I must get away from this place. We will head north and drive Kublai Khan and his horde back to the mountain steppes of Mongolia. Perhaps that accomplishment will pacify god’s anger with me.”
Hastelloy wanted to argue the point further, but he could see it was no use. Zhu was terrified to his core by what he just witnessed and would not be dissuaded from his course of action.
Still, this new and terrifying Alpha threat needed to be stopped, and the job that would determine the fate of the entire planet in the next few weeks rested solely on the shoulders of Hastelloy and Gallono. There was no time to reach the others for help, and his human allies were now hopelessly spooked away.
The concerned look in Gallono’s eyes let Hastelloy know he was not the only one who came to that conclusion.
Chapter 46: What a Sight
Professor Russell settled into his seat as the procession of Mengshi off-road vehicles and trucks drove away from the Xi’an airport. He was about ready to close his eyes to pass what was sure to be several hours of driving through the countryside to reach the burial mound of Qin Shi Huang when Alex jabbed him in the side.
“Look, right there,” Alex pointed across Brian’s nose and out the side window.
The professor shrunk down in his seat a bit to have a look and was amazed to see a steep sided pyramid partially lit up by the street lighting standing proud and tall alongside the highway.
From the front seat Chin looked back in amusement. “That is just one of many my friends. That relatively small pyramid was unearthed in the early 1990s when the new airport was under construction and the main road to the city was built.”
“I was expecting these pyramids to be farther out in the countryside,” Professor Russell replied.
Chin let out an uncharacteristically playful laugh at the professor’s flawed assumption. “No. They are all over this regi
on in and around the city, so I would not get too comfortable. This will be a short drive.”
As the procession of vehicles drove west from the city, Professor Russell and Alex spotted no fewer than twenty pyramids dotting the evening landscape. Some were multi-tiered, others had straight angled sides. Most were covered with trees and other vegetation while a few were only covered with grass to allow their once precise shapes, now worn by weather and time, to be seen.
Chin periodically glanced back at the two archeologists having to wipe the drool from their mouths at the spectacle. “This is only a small sampling. There are many hundreds more out in the unsettled countryside if our satellite imagery is to be trusted. Up until just a few years ago, my government vehemently denied even the existence of these pyramids, but a new era of openness for my country has changed all that.”
Forget Egypt or Central America, Brian thought. The future of pyramid excavation was in China. Everyone always thinks of the Great Wall when considering Chinese monuments, but these pyramids were just as impressive. Despite the circumstances of his arrival in the country, he was positively giddy at the prospect of working with these structures.
The vehicle caravan drove westward for about ten minutes. When they came around a sharp curve, Brian saw a view through the front windshield that managed to be both impressive and underwhelming at the same time.
Straight ahead in the dying light of early evening stood a tree covered mound that measured nearly a half mile long on all four sides and stood over a one hundred fifty feet tall. The sheer volume of earth that needed to be moved to build the mound was mind blowing, especially considering it was all done by hand two hundred years before the birth of Christ.
Despite the impressive scope, he found the vista lacking. He could easily tell the pyramid once stood twice its current height making it double the size of any pyramid in Egypt, even the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Unfortunately weather and human activity over the last two thousand years made the mound look like a shrunken cake, or a soufflé that attempted to rise but deflated at the last moment. It would have been truly a grand sight to see in its former glory.
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