“Yeah,” Richard said. “I think they’re starting to run low on supplies.”
Richard glanced at the dozen or so soldiers manning their section of the rampart. Several of them had crossbows, but weren’t returning fire at the besieging orcs.
“I guess they’re saving their ammo for the main attack when it comes,” Richard said.
One of the soldiers must have overheard because he turned away from the soldier he’d been talking to and looked at Richard.
“Well, we ain’t gonna be saving them much longer,” said the soldier who seemed to be a noncommissioned officer. The noncom pointed to some hills on the far horizon. “You see the haze near that set of hills? I mean the ones that look like a gap between two teeth.”
Both Tam and Richard nodded their heads.
The old noncom spat a stream of brown liquid over the side of the wall. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and held up two fingers.
“That’s how many days it’ll take to move heavy equipment from that gap to here. No one’s asked my opinion, but if’n they did, I’d say that haze is the second orc army the colonel told us about.”
Richard looked at the indicated gap. The haze was barely visible. He tried to stretch his passive scan toward the break in the hills, but it shorted out before reaching a tenth of the distance. There were too many life forms between him and the hills.
Yeah, he thought. About forty thousand orcs plus mounts and draft animals make my passive scan useless at long ranges.
Tam eyed the noncom. “If you were in charge, what would you do?”
The grizzled soldier laughed. “I think I’d sign my own retirement papers and hightail it for less crowded territory if’n you know what I mean.”
Both Tam and Richard laughed. A couple of nearby soldiers laughed as well.
“Don’t let him fool you,” said a female soldier holding a crossbow. “Sergeant Markel’s got soldiering in his blood. It’ll take more than an orc army or two to make him run.”
Sergeant Markel grinned. “You’ll have to take Abby’s opinion with a grain of salt. She’s my niece.” The sergeant took a moment to give Tam and Richard a once over. “You’re those wizard scouts whatever-they-are that came in with the colonel last night, aren’t you? Are you some type of magic users? You don’t look the part.”
Both Tam and Richard were dressed in the simple pants and blouse of King Hamerstine’s personal guard and wore a sword and dagger on their belts. They’d foregone the king’s offer of armor. Jerad had told the king it would just slow them down.
“We did come with Colonel Dandridge,” Richard said, “but we aren’t magic users. In the lands where we’re from, we don’t have magic. As wizard scouts, we’re mostly used for recon.”
“Recon, huh?” said Sergeant Markel. “That’s too bad.” He grinned and jerked a thumb in the direction of the besieging orcs. “I think we’ve already found plenty of the enemy. Don’t believe we need you all to find us anymore.”
Richard grinned back. He was taking an instant liking to the old noncom. Kinda reminds me a little of Sergeant Ron in a medieval sort of way.
“Well,” said Tam, “maybe so and maybe no. You say that haze is probably the additional siege equipment? If that’s true, it seems to me it’d probably make sense to destroy the stuff before it gets here.”
Most of the soldiers within earshot laughed.
“Be my guest,” said one of the soldiers. “I’m guessing there’s about forty thousand orcs between here and there who might argue the point with you.”
“Not to mention another ten or twenty thousand with the equipment,” said Abby.
Of all the soldiers, only Sergeant Markel didn’t laugh. “Actually, that’s what I’d try to do if I was in charge. Of course, it’d be a suicide mission for anyone foolish enough to go. Still, if we could delay the siege equipment getting to the orcs, the city might be able to hold on long enough for the king and his reinforcements to arrive.”
The soldier who’d gainsaid Tam’s idea spoke up. “It’d be suicide for sure and a waste of lives at that. You’d need to get at least a thousand soldiers to Donner’s Gap to even slow that second army down. Not that it would matter. Any force sizeable enough to make a difference would be decimated by the orcs right outside our gates.”
Tam was unperturbed. “We got in safe enough last night.”
“Well, I’ll bet you didn’t have no thousand soldiers dressed in clanging armor with you either,” argued the soldier.
Sergeant Markel nodded his head in agreement. “Travers is right. You might could sneak twenty or thirty soldiers past those orcs out there, but you’d need a lot more than that to do any good. Donner’s Gap is narrow in a couple of places, but even a thousand troops could only hold the pass for a few hours.”
“Or half a dozen troops who were as good as a thousand,” Richard said as much to himself as to anyone else. His mind was going into overdrive as he thought of possibilities. “Besides, we wouldn’t need to hold the pass for long. We’d just need enough time to clog it up with destroyed equipment and cause some confusion.”
“You’d best get that idea out of your head,” advised Sergeant Markel. “Nope, the only thing we can do is sit here and wait for those orcs to get their equipment here and attack. Then we need to do the best we can and go down fighting.”
Richard eyed Tam.
She raised an eyebrow as if reading his thoughts, then shrugged. “Maybe we should see what Jerad thinks. I did a lot of one-on-one as a merc, but large-scale tactics isn’t exactly in my repertoire.”
Nodding his head in agreement, Richard turned and headed for the stairs leading down from the wall. Large-scale tactics wasn’t his field of expertise either. He heard Tam’s footsteps behind him and smiled. It was nice not having to do everything on his own.
Chapter 24 – Equipment from the Sky
_________________
They found Jerad at the garrison headquarters. It hadn’t taken Colonel Dandridge long to realize Jerad’s worth as a leader. The colonel had given Jerad an honorary rank of major and put him in charge of organizing the city’s reserve forces. Their friend was pouring over a map of the city and surrounding area along with several others when they arrived.
When Jerad noticed them, he waved them over. Pointing at the others with him, he singled out two women in chainmail standing nearby. “This is Captain Kelvoy and Lieutenant Rirely of the city guard.”
Richard and Tam introduced themselves to the two women.
“And this,” said Jerad as he motioned to an old gnome wearing a black robe, “is Master Garis.”
The fact that nothing registered on Richard’s passive scan at the gnome’s location told him a lot about Master Garis’s abilities as a spellcaster. He made a mental note not to get on the gnome’s bad side.
“We were going over the garrison’s deployment,” said Jerad. “I assume you’ve been on the wall. How’s morale?”
The frowns the captain and lieutenant gave Richard told him he’d better answer tactfully. As it was, he didn’t have to stretch the truth. “I’d say morale’s as good as can be expected after a month-long siege. The troops are concerned about some haze in Donner’s Gap. I talked to an old sergeant who said it was probably from heavy-siege equipment.”
“What was the sergeant’s name?” asked Lieutenant Rirely.
Tam answered. “Sergeant Markel. He seems like a good man.”
The lieutenant nodded her head. “He’s the best.”
“The sergeant’s right,” said Jerad. “Master Garis says the approaching army’s composed of twenty-five thousand troops, plus enough siege equipment and supplies to breach our walls in short order.”
“How’s he know that?” asked Tam. “We couldn’t see anything from the wall, and the distance was too great for our passive scans what with that army of orcs between us.”
The gnome answered Tam. “Scrying devices. What did you think? That they keep me around here for my good looks?”
/>
“Scrying?” asked Tam with a perplexed look.
“Think tele-bots feeding data to a computer,” Richard said. “Only instead of tele-bots, scrying devices use magic.”
“Oh?” said Tam. “I’ve got a feeling it’s going to take me awhile to get used to this place.”
Richard smiled. “Join the club. I’ve spent a lot of time on Portalis over the years, and I’m still trying to figure things out.”
Tam looked at Jerad. “Rick and I were thinking maybe we should do something about that equipment. Sergeant Markel says the gap gets narrow in some spots.”
“It does,” agreed Captain Kelvoy. “A large swamp makes the gap nearly impassable for heavy equipment except for a road near the cliff. We’d need at least a thousand troops to hold the gap. We’d be slaughtered before we got halfway there.”
The map on the table where Jerad stood showed the city and most of the surrounding area. Richard noticed a spot marked as Donner’s Gap that did look very narrow.
Richard tapped the point on the map with a finger. “I was thinking four wizard scouts, a couple of mages, and a platoon of cavalry could do the job. At the very least, we could do enough damage to buy us a couple of days.”
“That’s crazy,” said Captain Kelvoy. “What could three dozen people do?”
“Not much if they were regular soldiers,” admitted Jerad. “However, with a full quad of wizard scouts, they’d be a force to be reckoned with.”
“The only problem is that without our battle suits, we’d have to attack during daylight hours,” Richard said. “We’re human. We can’t see at night.”
A female voice came from Richard’s rear. “Speak for yourself.”
Richard didn’t have to turn to know Emerald and her friend Chancee had joined their impromptu meeting.
“If you’re planning something without us,” said Chancee, “then you best think again.”
Both females were dressed in darkened chainmail complete with steel helms. Emerald carried a large battle-axe. A dagger with a blue gem in the hilt was stuck into her belt. Chancee had a longsword strapped to her waist. Richard sensed powerful magic radiating from her sword.
“No one’s going anywhere,” said Jerad. “We’re just brainstorming.”
“That’s your opinion,” said Tam. “Rick and I are going. We just need a few other fools to go with us.”
Chancee laughed. “Then I guess we arrived just in time. I’m a ranger. I hate fighting behind walls anyway. When do we leave?”
“Slow down,” said Jerad sounding like he was concerned events were getting out of his control. “We don’t have our equipment. We can’t even see in the dark.”
“Ah, that’s easily corrected,” said Master Garis. “A couple of spells would take care of that. Unfortunately, they’re time-limited. I’d have to send a couple of senior mages with you. They’d be sore missed on the walls if the orcs attacked while they were gone.”
A strange look came over Captain Kelvoy. “I wonder…” When the captain noticed everyone looking at her expectantly, she explained. “I was just thinking about the equipment we salvaged last year.”
“What equipment is that?” asked Jerad.
“One of the Dragars’ smaller flying ships crashed in the mountains last summer. We were able to save some of its equipment from the fire.”
“It doesn’t work,” said Lieutenant Rirely. “That is, we couldn’t get it to do anything.”
Richard got a strange feeling things were falling into place a little too readily. He bristled at the thought he might be moving into one of his nemesis’s equations, but he didn’t see another way. If ‘the One’ had this all planned out, then he might be forced to go along with the plan just to keep his friends and him alive.
“Maybe we should take a look at it,” Richard suggested.
“I can take you to it later,” said Master Garis. “It’s magic, but it’s a different type than the magic I’ve used in the past.”
“We’d still need some volunteers for the cavalry,” said the lieutenant. “I’ve got a few in mind who might be foolish enough to go with us.”
Jerad held up his hands in a stopping gesture. “Hold on, everybody. Nothing’s been decided yet. Colonel Dandridge would have to approve any foray.”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to get things in motion,” said Tam. “You can ask him ‘pretty please’ if you want. In the meantime, the rest of us can get the show on the road just in case.”
Jerad frowned at the determined looks on those around him. “Fine. Tam, you and Rick can go with Master Garis to check out that equipment. Lieutenant Rirely, you see if you can find enough fools to volunteer as cavalry. The captain and I will go talk to the colonel.”
A feeling of satisfaction touched the edges of Richard’s senses. He’d once been told ‘the One’ sent tele-bots to keep an eye on him during missions. He knew tele-bots could sometimes interact with sensitive people at the emotional level. He was pretty sure he was picking up a satisfied feeling from a nearby tele-bot. He hated being used but could think of nothing better at the moment than to go with the flow.
* * *
As it turned out, the captured equipment consisted mostly of damaged pieces of armor along with a few small-arms weapons. According to Master Garis, the Dolgars’ ship had been destroyed by fire during the crash, but the force of the crash had thrown some of the ship’s contents free.
Tam held up a metallic pant leg. “This armor’s small. From Rick’s descriptions, I thought the Dolgars were bigger.”
“They are,” said Master Garis, “but they’ve got a lot of allies from other races. The crew of this ship were probably dark gnomes. They’re only a little taller than my race.”
Richard and Tam spent a few minutes sorting through the salvaged supplies. While some of it seemed similar to technology, Richard could tell it was all magic based. By mixing and matching some of the equipment, they were able to piece together a couple of suits of armor and two weapons similar to rifles.
Richard picked up one of the rifles. It reminded him of a riot gun. Cartridges about half the size of a 20mm grenade round were stuck in webbing on the stock of the weapon. Richard sensed energy coming from the cartridges. They were magic. He concentrated on the rounds. Their magic had the same energy signature he’d encountered when he had a vision of the Dragars’ pyramid.
“It doesn’t work,” said the gnome. “I’ve had my best spellcasters on it, and they can’t get any of this stuff to work.”
Richard probed the riot gun with an active scan. He knew he had an advantage over the gnome’s mages. With the help of his battle computer, he’d once taken over the primary computer of a Dragar destroyer. Richard tried to sense anything familiar in the weapon. Before long, he found what he sought.
“Maybe your mages failed because it’s not spells that makes this stuff work,” Richard said. “Or at least, it’s not spells they’ve been taught.”
Continuing to use his active scan, he probed the weapon farther and followed some conduits within the frame of the weapon. He sensed that the conduits should be filled with energy, but they were currently empty. He decided to use a technique the Defiant’s mechanic, Charlie, had shown him. Richard let a part of his mind merge with the weapon. Charlie had told him since everything, living or inert, had at least a trace of Power, someone good at manipulating links could also diagnose problems with equipment. Using Charlie’s technique, Richard sensed several points of Power in the weapon that appeared to be damaged.
All bragging aside, Richard knew he was very good at manipulating Power links. He used his diviner ability to repair the riot gun’s damaged energy conduits. Once he was finished, the weapon hummed slightly and a couple of lights in the handle flashed on.
Richard handed the weapon to Tam. “Based upon the flows of energy in this thing, I think this light is the capacity indicator. That little doohickey there appears to be the safety.”
Tam flipped the weapon over and removed the
magazine. She inserted cartridges until the magazine would take no more. She then slapped the magazine back into its slot. After lifting the weapon to her shoulder, she sighted down the barrel.
Tam lightly touched a metal protrusion with her index finger. “I’m guessing this here’s the trigger.”
Richard half expected his impetuous friend to fire, but she didn’t. Instead, she lowered the weapon.
Tam grinned. “I’m thinking this beats a sword.”
Richard nodded his head in agreement, then began working on the other equipment. Within half an hour, between the three of them, they’d repaired enough equipment to put Tam into a complete set of power-armor. It was a little tight even for Tam, but she didn’t complain.
“This suit’s similar to the power-armor of the Empire’s heavy infantry,” said Tam. “It’s all manually operated. I’m not getting any sensation of a computer in this helmet.”
“Can you activate a filter on the helmet?” Richard asked.
By touching the side of the helmet with her hand, Tam lowered the helmet’s visor. It gave off a bluish glow.
“It looks like some kind of thermal imagery,” said Tam. “I’ve got a feeling I’ll be able to get around in the dark with no problem.”
“Well,” Richard said. “You’ve only got a limited amount of ammo. There are about two hundred cartridges. They won’t go far against an army of forty thousand. I think you’d better hold onto your sword for emergencies.”
Tam grinned. “Ha! If I run out of ammo, I can pretty much guarantee they’ll be plenty of swords lying around for me to use.”
Richard shook his head in defeat. He’d always suspected his friend’s years in the mercs had given her a little bloodthirsty streak. “Well,” Richard said. “We’ve got enough armor to equip one more person, but the second set is missing a helmet. The suit’s too small for anyone but Telsa. I guess she wins the honor by default.”
Tam began bagging up the armor and the second weapon. The weapon appeared to be some type of automatic along the lines of an M63. The short-barreled rifle was powered by one of the Dragars’ energy spheres. After hunting through the salvaged equipment, they managed to find several pouches filled with replacement spheres.
Wizard Rebellion (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 5) Page 23