Kingdoms Fall: Book One

by Joseph Pryce

  “The Seventeenth came under attack just outside of Shivery Village, your greatness. Because of the witch’s spell that surrounds most of the Coldlands, we are unable to send in air support”, Dambudda replied earnestly.

  Kane waved over a castle attendant standing in the far corner of the room, a young voluptuous woman with an intricate multi-coloured braided hairstyle, dressed in a low cut skin tight silver bodysuit and high heels as per the pharaoh’s instructions, as he wanted every servant working in the castle dressed the same way.

  “Birunga, pour me some more ale”, he ordered the attendant.

  Birunga picked up a silver flagon of black ale and poured it into the pharaoh’s enormous silver mug and served it to him.

  Kane’s eyes were squarely on Birunga’s full breasts bulging out of her top when he thanked her for bringing him the ale. “Make sure you are not late tonight, you randy thing”, he whispered to her with a chortle and pat on her behind.

  “Yes, your greatness”, she answered with saucy titter and sashayed back to where she was standing.

  The general looked disapproval. It had taken her a very long time to attain her rank and she did it without comprising herself. She detested any woman who peddled their flesh for material gain or favour. Kane jabbed his finger once more at the holo-screen. “Tell me again where we are, General Dambudda”, he asked her sternly. He did not care much for the high ranking officer and her scars.

  “Just outside of Shivery Village, your greatness”, she replied quickly.

  Kane turned to his son, who was tall and bearded like his father but meek with none of his father’s robustness. “Why are we under attack?” He asked Alooma. “I thought that we had reached some sort of agreement with these savages?”

  Alooma stumbled for an answer but had none. He spent more of his days drinking and bedding beautiful women more than handling the affairs of state as he should be doing.

  “I do not know, father”, he glanced in desperation at Advisor Luvota. “Perhaps our War Advisor can explain?”

  Luvota noisily cleared his throat and turned to the pharaoh. “Your greatness, the realm indeed has had a clear arrangement in place with Hannix tribe for several decades now….” he started but was cut off by Kane.

  “Then why are those white hearted bastards killing my soldiers!”

  The group watched two ground unit soldiers being stabbed to death after being surrounded by a dozen Hannix Volgags.

  Advisor Bammadann was a slight short man and looked visibly shaken by the pharaoh’s outburst. “We have no answer for that, your greatness. We have been hailing Clanhead Finn Hannix for a week but he has not responded to our calls”, he informed weakly.

  Kane drained his black ale in one massive gulp and slammed the mug down on the War Room table in displeasure. “So what I am hearing, is that my son and rightful heir and my two senior war advisors and the general of my army, have absolutely no idea what the bloody hell is going?! Is that what I am hearing?!”

  The silence in the room is deafening until Kane speak again. He looks over at shoulder at Birunga and said, “More ale, sweet thing”.

  Birunga quickly strutted over and filled Kane’s cup. He drained the ale once more and rose a little unsteadily to his feet. “Son, fetch my rifle”, he told Alooma.

  Alooma hesitated momentarily. “Father?”

  “I said to fetch my rifle!” Kane roared drunkenly.

  The general and advisors all exchanged puzzled glances.

  “Your-Your greatness?” Bammadann asked meekly. “What is it that you mean to do, may we ask?”

  Alooma pulled out the pharaoh’s assault rifle from the room’s weapon’s locker. It was a massive thing named Death Heart with a diamond covered handle that a man needed two hands to wield. He passed it to his father who strapped the large weapon around his chest.

  “General Dambudda, you lived amongst these barbarians for five years”, Kane started staring hard at her. “What do you think would set them off like this?”

  “It could be anything, your greatness. Although there was a rumour that some of the tribes were outset that parts of our plasma pipeline was built through some of their burial grounds”, she replied.

  Kane glanced about the room. “Where the hell is Carthaga?! He should be the one briefing me on all of this foolishness!”

  “The Grand Vizier has taken a short leave to attend the annual vizier’s retreat, your greatness”, Luvota told the pharaoh.

  Kane snorted in a mocking tone, “Vizier’s retreat? Is that what we have that skinny baldheaded highbrowed boob around for?” He knocked his mug against the table top. “One more for the road, sweet thing!”

  The alluring attendant poured her ruler another mug full of the black ale and once again he drained it all. “Give me a kiss for good luck, pretty girl”, he told Birunga.

  She rose up on her tippy toes and pecked the pharaoh on his lips. “You are the greatest leader to ever rule Sandstorme, your greatness. You do not need luck”, she told him in a genuine voice.

  Kane grabbed her lustily around the waist and spun around to face the others. “You see that now? Somebody in this room that knows exactly what to say to their pharaoh”. He jabbed a finger at Dambudda. “General, ready the Teleporter. We are going to Shivery Village. I want to see for myself what the hell is happening over there”.

  SHIVERY VILLAGE

  THE COLDLANDS

  Pharaoh Kane’s personal Teleportation Chamber was a black oval shaped metal device that was three metres tall and five metres across with criss-crossing red venting pipes on its domed lid. It had the Sandstorme insignia carved into its front and rear. The Teleporter was hidden in the middle of a thicket of frost covered ice-trees, away from the prying eyes of any Volgags, that may wander into the area. A sickly green glow emanated from inside of Teleporter that signalled it was in use. A moment later, Alooma, Dambudda and five of the pharaoh’s Protective Guard materialized inside of the tall machine. The pharaoh stomped through through the Teleporter’s sliding doors and looked around the forest with a flourish. “Where is the damn base?” He bellowed.

  The general pointed toward the western horizon. “One hundred metres to our west, your greatness”, she replied. The general glanced about the ice forest in grim memory. When the she was just a sergeant in the Black Panther ground Unit and stationed here at Silversand Base, whilst out on a night patrol mission, Dambudda had been captured by a marauding band of Hannix tribe members and she spent five horrendous years as their prisoner. Even today almost three decades later, she could still recall quite vividly the beatings and the numerous rapes that she endured during that horrible time. The Hannix spent most of their days living in caves, so there were times when the general went months without seeing the sun or open skies.

  I hate this place. She thought harshly.

  There the bodies of the frozen dead scattered all about on the forest floor. Soldiers of Ground Unit and Volgags alike reminding them that they have entered a war zone. Kane charged ahead with little regard for his own personal safety. Dambudda and the Protective Guard, scrambled to keep up with their leader. The general eyes caught sight of one of a Ground Unit soldier that had been nailed to the base of a massive tree with jagged metal spikes that had been driven through his hands and feet. His frozen entrails hung from his belly where it had been ripped open by an axe.

  We must put an end to this. The Volgag race do not deserve mercy. She touched the tiny flat disk that had been stitched inside of her the right hand of her black thermal glove. How could something so small be so powerful? But Grand Vizier Carthaga told me it will do the trick.

  After a full minute of marching through the crunchy white snow, the pharaoh and his team stopped short at a frozen creek covered by snow drifts and toppled over ice trees.

  “I hate this blodclot cold!” Kane complained. “Deactivate this damn hologram, general so I don’t break my damn neck finding the entrance”.

  Dambudda waved her hand at the cree
k, the automated hologram sensors surrounding the area instantly scanned her bio-rhythms and switched off its elaborate disguise that hazily gave way to what the area really was; a fantastical mirage to hide the impressive military structure known as The Silversand Base . The heavy silver door that led to the base was as faceless and imposing as great stone wall. It inexorably rumbled upwards after its infrared scanner beam acknowledged the Pharaoh Kane’s presence. “Welcome, your greatness”, a sultry woman’s bodiless voice emanated from the door’s hidden speakers. “It is excellent to have your presence back here at Silversand”.

  Kane did not wait for the massive door to finish raising before stomping through it and entering the long stainless steel entry corridor. Standing at the end of the entry way, trying not look intimidated by the unexpected arrival of their monarch, were the Governor of Defence, an aristocratic man named Muu Sungah, Lt. General Uso, a greying thick necked moustached man dressed in a crisp Black Panther uniform that had a dozen war medallions pinned to its chest and Colonel Ku, a brawny looking uniformed women with short black hair cut short on one the left side.

  The first to step forward and greet the pharaoh with a deep bow was the Uso. “Salutations, your greatness. You honour us with your presence”, he said gracefully in a low rumbling voice. He turned and briskly saluted Dambudda. “Good to see you again too, General”. Sungah and Ku bowed and saluted as well.

  “You as well, Lt. General”, Dambudda replied curtly. It was obvious that she did not like this man. “His greatness needs a full battle report immediately. Escort us tosh War Room, please”, she commanded with authority.

  The pharaoh, his Protective Guard and the general followed the governor, Lt. General and Colonel into a passageway that sloped steeply downwards away from the entry corridor. The Silversand Base was a massive installation with the majority of it built underground. The structure stretched from Shivery Village in the Coldlands all the way across the border to the city of small country of Sandview in the Sandstorme kingdom.

  The passage gave way to the entranceway of the War Room which happened to be a large open atrium with burgundy coloured walls and a transparent rounded ceiling that revealed the upper levels. The floor was the same colour as the walls with the words; THERE IS A STORM COMING, stamped on them. This was the motto of the Sandstorme realm, the meaning behind the words is simply that one must be prepared for any danger.

  Two uniformed guards gripping assault rifles bowed at Kane as he swept by them and saluted their superior officers.

  The cavernous War Room was filled with high ranking officers and abuzz with frenetic energy. Three giant holo-viewers flashed live images of the The outnumbered Seventeenth Black Panther Ground Unit being decimated by Volgags.

  A dozen of uniformed officers sat at a long silver curved operations console that wrapped around the room from one side all the way to the other. There were several agents engaged in tense conversations from the governor’s office dressed similar to Sungah, in grey business suits and black dress shoes but the entire room fell silent the moment that Pharaoh Kane entered it. Every man and women present rose to their feet and immediately in both awe and adulation, the leader of Sandstorme was a popular leader and well loved by those he ruled.

  “What am I looking at here?” He asked Governor Sungah motioning at one of the huge holo-viewers that was flashing images of half a dozen Panthers firing their blasters at large group of Chrine rushing at them armed with battle-axes, bow and arrows and ice-spears.

  “That is Sector Fifty-five, your greatness, near Glacial Ridge. That is where our energy pipeline begins” came the Governor of Defence’s quick reply. “Our soldiers are doing their very best in trying to hold onto the area”.

  Kane turned his attention to another screen and pointed at it. “Why do I have dead soldiers there?!” He rumbled to Dambudda. He was referring to the half a dozen Ground Unit soldiers that had been nailed to the trunks of the giant ice-trees with their necks slit open.

  The general was slow to answer as her mind was on the task that she had ahead of her. She carefully fingered the disk in her gloves which she was still wearing. She turned urgently to Uso. “Lt. General, do we have control of this situation or not?!”

  “I’m sorry, General Dambudda but we are still trying to figure out what it was that set off the Volgags. Things have been relatively quiet in this area up until today”, Uso answered.

  On the third viewer, a platoon of soldiers were rounding up several members of the Hannix tribe and taking them prisoner as they struggled violently against the chains that bound their hands and feet.

  “Things do not look very quiet right now, Lt. General!” Kane snapped at the high ranking officer. “I want to know what the hell went wrong here! Have we heard from Clanhead Nash Chrine or Morat Hannix? We have made those bastards rich to keep the rest of these animals under control!”

  Colonel Ku looked at Uso. “Sir, maybe we should show his greatness the recording?”

  “What recording?” The pharaoh demanded to know.

  The governor tapped one of his agents with a long cornrowed hairstyle sitting at the console on her shoulder. “Agent Gamdella, playback the footage that we recorded of the clanhead’s daughter”, he ordered the young woman.

  “Yes, governor”, she replied. The young woman waved her hand across her control panel and a three dimensional life sized image of Fokat Hannix, a formidable looking woman with long blue hair and dressed in homemade armour created from dead animal bones and horse hides standing between two frothing Demon dogs, sprung to life in front of Pharaoh Kane.

  “These bloody aliens came from outer space and blackened our world!” She screamed at a large gathering of her blue-haired tribe members. “They took our planet from us! They tell us where we can live and where we cannot! Meanwhile they build cities where they want! They put up their power plants where they wants! And we’re just supposed to sit back and take it! I say enough is enough!” Fokat’s image continued with her angry tirade but the audio of the recording reduced to a burst of static followed by the image fading away into nothingness.

  Kane spun impatiently on Sungah. “Where is the rest of the bloody recording?!”

  “I apologize, your greatness”, the Governor of Defence told his ruler. “But the Volgag witch Sofiormenia’s spell makes the effectiveness of our technology spotty at best up here in the Coldlands. Our long range remote probe just happened to catch that recording by accident”.

  Kane turned to Dambudda for answers. “Did you or Carthaga authorize the killing of Clanhead Hannix?”

  Dambudda shook her head no. “Nothing was authorized in my office, your greatness. I cannot speak for The Grand Vizier though”.

  The pharaoh uneasily fingered the trigger on his assault rifle. “Dammit it to hell!” He cursed aloud. Maybe I have spent too much time with the wine and women? I am losing track of what is going on under my nose. He glanced at Colonel Ku. “Colonel, I want you to teleport back to Blaksands and locate The Grand Vizier! I want you to escort him here personally! I need some answers!”

  Ku bowed with respect. “Yes, your greatness”, she replied and quickly left The War Room.

  “Your greatness, we have a Hannix prisoner in the stockade that may shed some light on this situation”, Sungah informed.

  ********************************************************************************************

  The Silversand stockade was located two levels beneath the War Room. It was a dark dreary military prison with a row of sixteen prison cells. At the end of the long rectangular room was the entrance to the Interrogation Chamber and it was guarded by two armed uniformed guards. The large chamber was separated into two two parts by a transparent forcefield. One side of the shield stood Kane, Dambudda and Sungah. One the other side was Lt. General Uso, a hard faced young woman named Sergeant Bacia in a sleeveless vest, her bare arms covered with military style tattoos and a blue haired Volgag hanging upside from the ceiling, his feet held in place by a c
omplex looking black metal contraption. The forcefield was opaque on one side so that the prisoner could not see who was on the other side of the chamber.

  Kane stared at the Volgag who had black and blue bruises all over his pale white naked torso. “Who is he?” He asked Sungah.

  “Kokat Hannix, your greatness. Clanhead Hannix’s eldest son and sister to Fokat, the woman bellowing in the recording that we just watched”, the governor replied coldly.

  Uso crouched down in front of Kokat and stared at him dead in the eye. “Tell us why the Hannix and Chrine tribes are attacking us”, he asked emotionlessly.

  Kokat spat in the Lt. General’s face. “Go to hell, you black devil!” He yelled.

  Uso rose and calmly wiped the spit from his face. He glanced over at Sgt. Bacia and said, “Sergeant, if you please”.