Kingdoms Fall: Book One

by Joseph Pryce

  KINGDOMS FALL

  BOOK ONE

  JOSEPH G PRYCE II

  THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY WIFE NADINE THROUGH WHOM ALL POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS

  PROLOGUE

  THE COLDLANDS

  “I hate this bloody ice and snow”, Frun complained as he and the four other officers of the King’s Royal Guard trudged through the deep snow drifts on foot. “There are no Volgags around here. We should just turn around head back to the base.”

  “Yes, Frun why do we not do that?” Sergeant Idim asked with sly grin. “And when Commander Patuma throws you into the brig for insubordination, the rest of us will be down at the tavern downing pints of black ale and taking the piss at you.”

  The other officers chuckled at Idim’s jape. The sergeant was in his fifties, he had been an officer of the King’s Royal Guard for thirty years and although he loved to have a good time as much as the younger officers, he adhered strictly to the rules of the service. Which basically meant there was no going back to the base early for any of them tonight.

  Frun, on the other hand had only joined the King’s Royal Guard because his father had insisted that he did. It had been Frun’s father’s dream to live his life in his king’s service but because of being born with a severe hole in his heart that never healed the pathway had been closed to him.

  “Two nearby surveillance satellites reported a horde of Degox Volgags marauding in Sector Seven, sergeant”, Frun said, “We have been in Sector Seven for the last two hours and have not spied one of those savages yet.”

  The old man glanced around as if he actually spied the Degox clan members hiding behind the snow filled trees of the forest. “They are here, Frun. I can feel it. I will wager you three pints of ale that we will come under attack before the night is through.”

  Zimba picked up a handful of the cold white snow and made a snowball in his hands. He was the youngest officer in this platoon of the entire Royal Guard. He had enlisted the moment that he turned seventeen years old, which was the empire’s legal age to join. This was only his second patrol into the Coldlands and the sight of snow still fascinated him. Zimba Kemet was the youngest son of a wealthy family that had produced a long proud line of Royal Guard officers stretching back for the last two hundred years. He was a striking looking young man with with dark ebony skin, piercing hazel eyes and was fit as a body builder. Even though Frun happened to be ten years older,he had still bested him twice whenever they engaged in hand to hand combat during their training drills.

  “Catch”, he laughed out loud as he heaved his snowball in Frun’s face.

  “You idiot!” Frun laughed in reply as he wiped the frozen snow from his face. “I will get you back for that!” He picked up a handful of snow to form his own snowball but was halted in mid-throw by Sergeant Idim’s silent hand signal.

  Zimba immediately crouched down beside Idim and nervously fingered the trigger on his blaster rifle. “What is it, Sergeant Idim?” He whispered.

  The salt and pepper bearded older officer glanced anxiously at the palm sized scanner in his hand. “The scanner is reading four bio-metric readings fifty metres to the west of us”, Idim replied.

  Frun and the other officers instantly unlocked the trigger holds on their rifles.

  “Volgags?” Frun asked tepidly.

  “Either that or some Demon dogs roaming the forest ahead”, the sergeant replied. He touched the communicator implanted at the base of his neck. “This is Idim reporting from Sector Seven, sixteen kilometres west of Icicle Falls”.

  “This is Base Central, Sergeant Idim”, snapped on a woman’s voice that all of the officers could hear in their communicators. “What is your status?”

  “My scanner has registered a disturbance, Base Central. Should we investigate?”

  There was momentary pause before the reply came back. “You have clearance to investigate, Sergeant. Please proceed with caution and keep your communication link open”.

  “Thank you, Base Central”, Idim replied. He glanced alertly at the other men. “All blasters off safety, soldiers. From this moment on we are now a live action”.

  Zimba expertly hoisted the long black slender rifle onto his shoulder. “If I see one of those savages poke their ugly head out from the bush, I will burn their white heart out of their chest”, he said bravely but a waver in his throat almost gave him away. The young man had never been in a real fire fight before.

  The old sergeant glanced once more at his scanner. He motioned at Corporal Tsanga, his second-command was a thick muscled man in his thirties and well-seasoned. The Corporal knew exactly where Idim wanted him to move to without asking.

  Silently, keeping their rifles high and steady he and his partner Officer Badanga crept toward an outgrowth of thick snow covered ice bushes that squatted at the forest entrance.

  The Degox are the nastiest Volgags there is. We must tread carefully. Tsanga thought grimly as he inched forward through the knee high snow drifts. I had heard that these long haired blonde cannibals skinned Captain Lex alive and ate all of his innards whole.

  The younger Badanga was the first to reach the thick ice bush and was promptly met by a long jagged white tipped ice pick that was shoved straight through his chest and came out his back.

  “Badanga!” Tsanga shouted. Officer Baganda was dead before his body hit the ground, his red blood seeped slowly into the white snow bank and froze in the blistering cold.

  The skin tight black body armour that the soldiers wore as a uniform protected them the harsh cold temperatures and was sturdy enough to withstand a direct blaster bolt but was vulnerable to the ancient metals that the Volgags used to build their primitive weapons. Legend had it that thousands of years ago all of the Coldlands had been protected by ancient spell spun by a witch known only as Sofiormenia. It was this same spell that rendered all of Royal Guard’s sophisticated technology near useless in this domain. Even the orbiting satellites in the skies above the Coldlands were made dumb, deaf and blind.

  Tsanga and the others opened fire on the ice bush hoping to kill anybody that may be hiding in it. The ruby red energy beams from their rifles set the bush ablaze and forced the Volgag hiding inside of it to leap out. He was a tall one, well over six feet tall with big calloused hands, long scraggly blonde hair and wild unkempt beard. All members of the Degox tribe were tall, had blonde hair and pale blue eyes with even the female members among them being big boned. This one was named Herg and it was his ice pick that had murdered Badanga. He was bare chested despite the bone chilling temperature, his skin was as pale as dead man bones. The lower half of his body was wrapped in thick grey animal furs and he wore ragged grey fur trimmed white boots with thick black soles.

  “Alien bastards!” He screamed. The cold winter winds whipped at his snow filled long hair and beard as he charged at the men of the Royal Guard, Badanga’s blood covering his spear.

  Tsanga fired point blank at the howling Volgag, his deadly blaster beam ripped open the tall man’s chest instantly melting his lungs and heart.

  “Good shot, Tsanga!” Zimba cheered pumping his fist in the air as Herg’s charred smoking dead body dropped to the ground like a felled tree. “That is one less wild barbarian for us to——-“. Two large ice darts in the shape of long jagged icicles fired from beyond the reach of trees behind Zimba tore through his neck before he could even finish his sentence. The young man fell face first into a snow bank clutching his shredded neck in a vain attempt to stop the flow of red blood and mucus spewing forth.

  Tsanga and Frun spun around simultaneously unleashing rifle blasts into the trees where they spied the ice darts fly from. The frozen trees caught fire which drove out the two Degox tribe members hiding within them. The two m
en fired the dangerous poison tipped ice darts from crossbows as they charged at Tsanga and Frun in a desperate attempt to avoid being killed before they had a chance to murder the two soldiers.

  Frun managed to kill the closest Volgag with a blaster shot that melted his head into an oozing pile of burgundy sludge but not before his last fired ice dart ripped a hole through Sergeant Idim’s chest. The older officer fell to his knees with a look of pain and disbelief in his dying eyes.

  For some reason I foolishly believed that I would live to be an old man….

  Was Idim’s last fleeting thought before he keeled over dead into the frozen cold white snow.

  Frun did not hesitate with his decision to kill the last remaining Volgag as the rage from watching Idim die overtook him. “Bloody savages!” He yelled violently and shot the Degox at close range in the face. Frun’s rifle blast incinerated the tribe member’s head and shoulders into ash and set the rest of the body on fire.

  The corporal gripped Frun by the shoulder and gave him a hearty shake. “You should have kept that one alive, Frun! Remember, Sergeant Idim’s scanner read four bio-readings in the area? We only have three dead here! We might have found out from the filth that you just killed where the fourth brute is hiding”.

  Frun made an attempt to look apologetic but he really was not. “My apologies, Corporal. I just lost my head for a moment”, he replied.

  Tsanga glanced up into the newly darkening sky, he know from years of experience of patrolling The Coldlands that the sun would be setting at any moment. No Royal Guard alive wants to be caught up in the dark in this dammed frozen wasteland. He thought grimly.

  As if to accentuate his point a light snow began to fall from the sky and grew heavier with each passing moment.

  Frun busied himself with the checking of any vital signs on his dead compatriots but of course found none. He stood up over Zimba’s corpse and glanced anxiously toward the darkening forest. “That fourth barbarian must have headed for shelter by now or else he would have already attacked us”.

  Tsanga crouched down into the snow where Idim’s corpse lay and used his gloved hands to pick through the thick snow in search of something. “What are you looking for sir?” Frun asked him. The young man was getting more and more anxious as it became darker and darker.

  “The sergeant’s scanner. Do you see it anywhere? It was only one that will work in bloody place!”

  Frun did not answer straight away. There was a slight movement beyond the trees that he caught in the corner of his eye. He raised his rifle and aimed it at the trees in response.

  “What it is, Frun?” Tsanga asked as he stood up from the snow. “Did you see something?”

  “I could have sworn that I saw something move back there”, Frun replied with steel in his voice. He was only twenty-seven years old and had no intention in dying tonight especially so desperately far from his homeland. He was an only child, if died out here in the wilderness who would carry on his father’s name? He thought.

  Tsanga glanced down at his rifle to ensure himself that it still held a full charge. Although every Royal Guard member also travelled secondarily armed with a longsword on their hip, the best defence against an attacking Volgag was still a fully charged blaster.

  “It might be our missing tribe member”, Tsanga advised Frun. “Be on guard and cover my back”, the Corporal marched bravely toward the now dark forest keeping his rifle cocked and ready. A cold wind stirred the frozen leaves on the trees. Darkness descended on the snow filled sky like a thick woollen blanket making the forest appear that much more ominous. The sensors intertwined in the fabric of Tsanga’s body armour sensed the growing darkness and automatically illuminated the chest plate making it easier for him to make out his surroundings. Frun’s armour followed suit seconds later. Sofiormenia’s ancient spell choose which pieces of the King’s Royal Guard technology it would allow to operate or not, like some absurd game of chance.

  The two soldiers glowed like miniature stars against the blackness of the forest.

  “How long will take for us to get back to where we landed?” Frun asked.

  Tsanga paused a moment, he had caught a movement in the trees not far ahead on his left side. “It is a seventy-five minute hike to Slum Village”, he replied. “Once we cross the border, we will signal the base”. Idim had the only communication link that was able to transmit from the Coldlands and that link had died with him. He thought in grim realization.

  Tsanga once again saw a shadow move to the left of him stirring the branches of the trees and this time Frun saw it too.

  “Whoever is there, reveal yourself immediately. This is your only warning!” Frun shouted with bluster. For a moment there was only dead silence broken by the swirling night breeze rustling the snow. Then without warning the shadow burst through the trees and growled dangerously at the two men. The treacherous beast was called a Demon dog, it had an outrageously sized head which was slightly out of proportion with it’s even larger muscular body. It had a grey coat of thick grey fur with black muzzle to match, it’s oval-shaped eyes were a blood red colour and set high up on its head. The dog’s ears were long and spiky and were also coloured red. Its yellow fangs were long and sharp and met in a scissors bite and it had six very large feet with jagged red claws and hair between the toes to keep them warm.

  “Creator protect us!” Tsanga exclaiming unwillingly freezing in place. On his very first night of patrolling the Coldlands a dozen years ago, he had barely escaped being mauled to death by a Demon dog and since that day he spent most of his dreamless nights running from that same beast. “Open fire!” He yelled. But the split second that Tsanga had frozen was all the time the beast had needed to attack. Its fantastic speed far belied it’s massive size and before Frun could even raise his rifle to fire, the dog had its deadly jaws around his neck. The young soldier screamed but it was brutally cut short when the vicious animal used its lethal fangs to rip out Frun’s vocal chords.

  Tsanga unleashed a wide blaster beam that reduced the vaporized the dog into grey ashes but it was far too late to save Frun.

  “Frun!” Tsanga shouted with sad fury as he fell into the thickening snow beside his dying friend. Frun’s spurting blood was already freezing on the cold ground. Tsanga did his best to stem the tide of burgundy pouring out from Frun’s neck to no avail, the young man died in the corporal’s arms.

  Another sound stirred in the dark forest night which caused Tsanga to jump up and spin around. He quickly checked the ammunition in his rifle but found the fire chamber was empty. The wide blast he had used to incinerate the Demon dog had drained its remaining power, so he quickly drew his sword. The official Royal Guard sword had a thick sharp ebony blade and green and red coloured bejewelled hilt. A large thick Degox tribeswoman with long curly blonde hair and skin as pale as an eggshell crept out from her hiding spot behind the trees. Her name was Fat Mary. She was bare chested, her big breasts swayed freely as she moved toward Tsanga, her large pink nipples stood erect from the cold, which was the only indication that she was even affected by it. In her hands she carried a deadly looking two handed white battle-axe with a black leather handle that was stained with dried blood from her last kill.

  “Royal Guard scum!”. She started. “I’m going to carve out your heart and lungs and cook them in a juicy hearty stew. Then I’m going to cut your balls off and use them to make me a nice necklace!”

  Fat Mary heftily swung the massive axe at Tsanga’s head who barely managed to parry the blow with his sword. The strength of the Volgag’s swing pushed him back on his heels. The clash of steel on steel rang out into the dark night.

  “You’re going to die tonight, scum!” Fat Mary screamed then spun around Tsanga in the same fashion as the Demon dog. And just like that large beast she was much faster than she looked. The very edge of her axe managed to slash open Tsanga’s right shoulder. He met her next swing with a parry and followed up with a strike of his own that sliced the skin open right above her
breasts.

  Fat Mary stopped fighting for a moment and took a moment to glance down at her wound. She used her hand to wipe off some of the blood and lustily smeared it all over her face. “Is that all you have to give, you alien scum?” She laughed. “I’m going to plant my axe so far up your ass, they’re going to have to bury you with it!” She charged like a raging bull at Tsanga. The corporal did his best to time the attack and just as she reached him buried his sword deep into the tribe woman’s face and brains.

  Fat Mary fell down to her knees in a dead heap with Tsanga’s sword protruding through the back of her head.

  “That was one strong bitch”, he said to himself as he gratefully wiped the perspiration from his eyes. “Big beautiful teats though…..Bloody shame I had to kill her”. Tsanga stared longingly at Fat Mary’s extremely ample bosom and felt the swelling in his pants. It had been almost two full weeks since he had last been with a woman, a nineteen year old vixen with long gold and black coloured braids down her back that worked at The Pleasuredome, the second largest brothel in Slum Village.