by Jan Stryvant
"So Sean or Adam can order him not to talk about what he's teaching us. Which reminds me. I need to talk to Oak about setting up a private room where we can do this out of sight. After that…"
"Yes?" April and Rachel asked, looking hopeful.
"After that, I think you've both earned some serious rewarding!" Stewart said with a wink.
"Any excuse to party…" April started.
"…is a good excuse!" Rachel finished.
Onderwereld
Trevor opened his eyes and yawned as he looked around. Jessie was doing the same.
"Back to monochrome," she grumbled.
Trevor grinned. "Yeah. They say that back when Black and White TV was king, humans used to dream in black and white."
"Damn, that's messed up," Jake said from where he was keeping watch.
"So, what's the word from the First?" Lena asked as the others gathered round.
"Sean got the position and time for when the next gate is opening here. Actually, he had places and times for the next five. Esti conjured up a map while we were meeting with him and showed us where each of them will be."
"And?"
"And we're heading to the next gate opening."
"Why?"
"Because they're coordinating with Chad to get us resupplied. I gave them rough numbers for now, but while we're heading to the gateway, I want everyone to do an inventory and figure out how much you're gonna need."
"These things are three days apart, right?" Grism asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Then let's not weigh ourselves down too much. Even if we miss one, that's still a lot less than the thirty-day loadout we came here with."
"True," Jessie said. "But this means we don't have to be careful with our grenades or worry about conserving ammo."
Trevor listened with half an ear as he gathered up his gear. "Okay, everyone, let's get moving. Jessie and I will take point. Krista, take the right wing with Tycho. Boe and Karn, you take the left. Jake, grab someone who can tolerate you and handle the rear guard."
"Yeah, yeah," Jake grumbled and tapped Gern, who went with him.
"You know," Jessie said as they shifted into their lion forms and loped away from the others to lead the team through the forest, "when we hit the next town, they're all gonna burn as much ammo as they can so they don't have to carry it anymore."
"What, you weren't?" Trevor said, giving her his best 'shocked' look.
"Idiot," Jessie said and hip-checked him.
Trevor grinned at her. "You know, when all this is over, maybe we should make a few more F3s of our own."
"I'm not so sure the First is gonna let us expand the gene pool that much," she warned. "We're not the only ones who're going to be thinking about that."
"Hey, we took the tough job. That's gotta come with some rewards."
"Yeah, you just keep thinking that!" Jessie laughed. "So how many of those towns do you want to hit between here and there?"
"All three?"
"We do that, and they're going to know where we're going."
"Of course. Then we pick a course that's the opposite course from the following gate, hit a bunch of those, then just high-tail it out of there."
Jessie pondered that a moment. "That could work."
"Of course it will. And we do the same thing the next two times, head directly away after each gate. They're not stupid, they should figure it out. Then on the third one, we set up a nice big ambush."
"Uh-huh. Well, we better pick up the pace if we want to hit all three towns. That gateway is less than two days away."
Ξ
"So what have you learned about this factory of theirs?" the First asked Sean, Roxy, Rowan, Wendy, and Cali. They were all sitting outside, away from all of the cameras and microphones the Inangar seemed to like so much.
"We think we can get the equipment up and running," Sean told him. "But we have no idea exactly how these weapons work."
"You don't know how they work?"
All five of them shook their heads.
"How can that be?"
"Best we can guess is, they're some sort of energy weapon," Roxy told him. "But as far as Sean and Peg can tell, it's not magical energy."
"Which means they won't work back on Earth," the First said with a heavy sigh and a shake of his head.
"Probably not," Sean agreed. "But I think we should still build a couple of them so we can see how they work."
"Why?"
"To see if we can build something similar on Earth."
"How long will that take?"
Sean shrugged. "A week?"
The First thought about that for a few minutes, then nodded. "Get started on it. If nothing else, when Chad finally gets his way and invades, at least he'll have better weapons."
"Thanks, Dad."
"What, you thought I'd say no?"
Roxy nodded. "We weren't sure you'd want to spend a week here."
"I am tempted to go to that gateway control, but a few days here won't hurt. Kea, how's the perimeter doing?"
"Well, I think we took out the worst of them last night with that little raid of ours, but me and the girls are going to keep the patrols going, just to be safe."
"Good, they were starting to get annoying. Kalif?"
"I think I need Libby and Min back, Dad."
"Did you just call me 'Dad'?" the First said, looking surprised.
"Well, you are," Kalif said with a grin.
"Still, I don't think you've called that in longer than I can recall."
"Right, so that means you have to give 'em to me."
"I guess so…" the First nodded.
"What do you need them for?" Estrella asked, obviously curious.
"Something about their history doesn't quite jibe with what our host has been telling us."
"Well, he is old. You've seen how he was to refer to things constantly whenever he's dealing with something from a long time ago."
"I know. But is it because he can't remember, or is he lying to us?"
"Do you have something in particular?" The First asked.
Kalif shook his head. "Not yet. But remember, he told Esti and Sean they couldn't get the weapon factory running again, that they'd forgotten how to even make them. Yet here we are, and Sean and the others just said it'll only take a week."
"That is curious," Keairra said.
"Don't talk about this here anymore. Only discuss this and your findings in our place," the First said looking at Kalif, and then Mincibi and Libby. "Understand?"
"Yes, Father," they all said and nodded.
"Esti, you can help them."
"What? I'm not very good with computers, Father."
"Then learn. You know more about this place than any of us. That means you have the best chance to find things that don't add up."
"Yes, daaad." Esti sighed.
"Uh-uh. Kalif already invoked the dad clause; you'll have to wait your turn!" the First said with a grin. "Now, I guess it's my turn in the barrel with Mahkiyoc. I'm sure Sasha's ready to gut him by now."
Sean watched as the others got up and headed back to the blockhouse, though he stopped Estrella.
"What's the 'dad' clause? And why did he make such a big deal over Kal calling him 'dad'?"
Estrella laughed. "It's from long before I was born. Apparently they'd all stopped calling him 'Dad', until one day when Raban wanted something from him, and he called him that and got it. Then the next time someone, Rowan I think, wanted something, they did it. After a while it just sort of became a rule, and apparently Kal is famous for not ever doing it."
"Oh!"
"You of course did it shamelessly and often, am I right?" Roxy teased Estrella.
"Of course I did!" Estrella laughed. "I mean, a privilege like that is just meant to be abused!"
"Well, let's get to work; those machines aren't going to fix themselves."
"I wonder how long we'll really have to get to the gateway control," Roxy said as she and Sean walked over to
the 'factory' with the others.
"What do you mean?" Sean asked.
"We couldn't get into that bunker where we're all staying now without Mahkiyoc opening it for us, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"I don't think he's going to want to stay here much longer. I think he's starting to get bored. If he leaves, we're screwed."
"He won't leave," Cali said. "He can't."
"Why not?"
"Because he has to go outside, and venture from the blockhouse into the old building we cleared, and make his way into the basement."
"You don't think he can climb it?" Wendy asked.
"No, he's a coward. He won't go outside without half a dozen of us around him because he's afraid he'll be killed. Even then, you can see the terror in his eyes."
"Really?" Sean said, giving Cali a look. She had her wings out again. She'd been practicing flying a little each evening before they all went to bed.
"I'm much more in touch with people's feelings when I'm like this," Cali said and motioned towards herself. "I can actually sense his fear."
"What's Sean thinking?" Peg asked with a snicker.
"Lust," Cali said and winked at Sean while licking her lips. "That's all he ever feels when he looks at you, me, Rox, or Stell."
"Like that's hard to figure out," Roxy said, snickering.
"Does the First know about this?"
"I think so," Cali replied. "Notice that Keairra and the others aren't just standing guard on the perimeter; they're also guarding the exits from the blockhouse."
"The point," Peg said, "isn't that he's a coward, or that Cali can feel our lust." Peg gave Cali a saucy wink then. "The point is that eventually, Mahk is going to overcome his fears, and possibly any obstacles, and he's going to try and leave. He may even succeed. Or he may get killed, and then we're really screwed."
"I feel a suggestion coming on," Sean whispered loudly to the others.
"Look, do we really need to fix all this?" Peg waved at the machines that were all arrayed in an assembly line. "We don't need anything more than what comes out of that one machine you've all been scratching your heads over. The thing that makes the firing chamber."
"You know," Wendy said, musing a bit. "I could jury rig a firing control for it. I've got the machine that makes the control circuits pretty well figured out, and the instructions on the tablet are pretty clear."
"And I can build a mount for it," Roxy said.
"It'd be pretty crude," Sean said, stopping and thinking about it.
"Sure it would," Peg agreed. "But we could have Keairra or one of the others catch a djevel, drag it in here, and then test the weapon on it. See how it works."
"I'm for it," Rowan said.
"Me too," Cali agreed. "I'm not sure how much longer our friend will continue to humor us."
"I can't wait to see that gateway control, so you know I want out of here," Wendy agreed.
Sean looked at Roxy, who nodded.
"Okay. Let's do it Peg's way. I've been itching to tear into that box myself."
Ξ
"Okay, just like we practiced it," Trevor said as they shifted back and readied their weapons.
"Practiced it? We didn't practice shit!" Jake grumbled.
"Oops, I knew we forgot to invite somebody!" Grism snickered and Jake punched him in the arm.
Trevor laughed and shook his head. "Okay, single skirmish line. Remember we got two more of these, so don't use all your grenades. We're doing a single sweep through. If anything big and bad engages, sing out, and everyone near it swarms it while the rest of us provide cover and keep it from joining up with anybody else. Kill it quick, and then get back on the move.
"Everyone got it?"
"So smash and grab, without the grab," Boe said with a smile.
Trevor nodded towards the lioness. "Exactly. Drive them before us."
"And listen to the lamentation of their women?" Grism joked.
"Dude, that's sick," Jake said.
"Huh?"
"Haven't you noticed that there aren't any women here? They're like, all the same or something."
"Damn, now I'm really glad we're only visiting!"
Jessie rolled her eyes and looked at Trevor, who just shrugged.
"Let's go," Trevor said, and with that they started marching towards the village. This one was pretty large. Esti said a lord lived here, and that a prince lived about a half day away. Neither Trevor nor Jessie wanted to tangle with a prince; they were both fairly certain they didn't have the people or the firepower for a fight like that.
The second they stepped out of the forest and into the fields, those who had breach-block rifles started taking shots at anything larger than a gnasher that they could see in the village up ahead. Everyone else pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, and then hurled it as hard as they could.
Which for a bunch of seven-foot-tall lions and lionesses, was a good distance.
"Aim for that courtyard!" Jessie said.
"Screw that!" Krista said. "I see open windows!"
"You can't hit that!"
"Sure I can! You're just pissed that I beat you at cricket!"
Trevor tried not to laugh as Krista's grenade went through the window on the building as they drew closer. For the next twenty seconds there were a lot of bets and wagers being made as some of them proved that they could put a grenade through one of the open windows.
And a lot of lost bets as others proved that they couldn't.
"Rifles and pistols!" Trevor ordered as they entered the outskirts of the village. Trevor had a repeating rifle, and pulling that out, he started shooting at every demon and any demon he saw. The sharpshooters slung their rifles and either pulled out pistols or shotguns.
"Trouble!" Tycho called out from the left side. Turning, Trevor saw that it was a lord alright, and he had two biskops with him, along with a handful of råge.
"On our left!" Trevor yelled and, turning, he raised his rifle up and started picking off the råge as the rest of the line wheeled around behind him. As soon as his rifle ran dry, he slung it and pulled his pistol. He started putting rounds into one of the biskops, the råge all being dead, and the gnashers were really not being much more than an annoyance.
Tycho, Krista, Boe, Lena, and Gern were all sword fighting with the lord and one of his biskops as Trevor and Jessie drew their swords and attacked the last one, along with Jake, Grism, Quinn, and Lyle. Meanwhile the rest of their team circled them to keep anybody from getting hamstrung by a gnasher or anything else that came late to the party.
With such overwhelming numbers, plus the damage from all the bullets, the biskop went down pretty quick. Trevor and Jessie joined those fighting the lord then, while Jake, Grism, Quinn, and Lyle helped those fighting the biskop. Neither fight lasted much longer at that point.
"The others are fleeing," Jake called.
"Are they going our way?" Jessie called back.
"No, they're running west."
"Then leave them."
"But they're ridders and raseri! Those are good eating!" Jake complained.
"The prince is to the west; we're not going there," Trevor yelled. "Now, back on the line, and let's keep moving!"
Quickly spreading out into a line, they started to move again. It was mostly gnashers and råge, but they caught a couple of ridders as well before they left the village.
"That wasn't so bad," Krista said after they stepped back into the forest.
"They didn't know we were coming," Jessie pointed out.
"Think they'll know when we get to the next one?"
"Maybe, maybe not. But let's not count on it," Trevor said. "Next time we come across a lord, be ready to turn and hightail it into the trees."
"Why?"
"That one only had two biskops with him. What if he'd had all those others we saw fleeing, as well as those ridders?"
"Yeah, but once you kill their lord, they fall apart."
"If they follow us into the trees, we'll turn on them, if we
have the advantage."
"I don't see what the big deal is," Jake grumbled. "If we die, we just respawn, and then go through the gate to Earth again."
"The big deal is, we have a job to do, and for each one who goes home, that job gets harder. We're here to cause trouble, and learn what we can, while taking the heat off the others. That's it and nothing else. Got it?" Trevor growled.
Jake sighed. "Fine, I got it. It's just, it's such a nice change to be killing them on their home turf for a change."
"I know how you feel," Trevor admitted. "It is a nice change, isn't it?"
Ξ
King Sladd was going over the preparations for his troops to move up to the gateway when Eldstaden came into the room, looking worried.
"My King," Eldstaden said and prostrated himself before Sladd. "I bring troubling news."
"Arise, Eldstaden, I will not blame you if it is not your fault."
"Prince Vises Ikke has sent a rider. One of his lords was slain a daer ago."
"Slain? By who?"
"A force of lions. Further, I have heard back from those I dispatched to those two lords of Prince Talt's. Some of Tvivel's people did return, and they claimed that the force that they went up against was indeed a large force of lions. They were quite surprised to find out that Prince Talt survived after their lord was killed. I of course had them all brought back here."
King Sladd nodded. "Question them, learn what you can, then kill them. I have no room in my armies for anyone who would desert one of my princes."
"Of course, my King."
"Now, about these lions. First we had them attacking some of Spis' lords, and then Prince Talt up by Spis' lands. Next we had them in Prince Skarm's lands, and now they're off attacking one of Prince Vises Ikke's lords."
"That is a lot of distance to cover, my King."
King Sladd nodded. "Obviously they're fast. I would hazard a guess that they're moving around so much to try and convince us that there is more than one group."
"You don't think there is more than one group then, My King?" Eldstaden asked, looking concerned.
"We know the number of lions is not that great. Our spies discovered that several years ago. If they were to commit a large force here, that would leave a hole in their defenses. But by all reports, their defenses are as strong as ever.