Chapter 15

Almost the whole available garrison was on parade in the immense central octagon of the main base as the huge dimensional-travel gate was activated. Crnnch himself stood at the head of his advisory team directly in front of the gate as the honour guard of the Inquisitor’s personal staff came through and set up a position of cover for him. They were then followed by nearly a thousand investigatory Yr’ch until at last the Inquisitor himself set foot through the portal and stood looking out upon the assembled Yr’ch garrison.

The moment the Inquisitor’s foot touched the soil of Nansack, Crrnch and the entire garrison prostrated themselves fully upon the ground of the octagon and waited a command to rise.

“Up, scum!” came the call after what seemed like an age.

As one they all rose though kept their eyes low, for to look directly at an Inquisitor without permission was asking for enlightenment.

“Adept Crnnch, attend!” came the command.

“At once, Inquisitor!” he replied and approached to within a metre of the Inquisitor, passing through the immobile yet alert guards and bowed low from the waist, following protocol to the letter and hoping his internal fear wasn’t showing too much.

“There are questions to be answered,” hissed the Inquisitor. “You will assist me to find the answers,” Crnnch didn’t need to hear the implied ‘or else’ on the end of the statement; that was a given.

“You will lead the Inquisitor to suitable quarters,” came a soft female voice to the side of him.

Crnnch nodded, he had not been given leave to speak as yet.

“Lead on!”

He did a precise about face, catching a glimpse of the rare sight of a female Yr’ch before leading the Inquisitor’s party to the luxury block set aside for them, stopping at the entrance and handing over a list of the various rooms to the female who had silently followed him.

“You may speak,” she finally said after reading the list as the Inquisitor’s party filed into the building.

“Contact me if there is anything I can do to make the stay of the Inquisitor more comfortable or easier,” he croaked, the female pheromones having a heady effect on his thinking processes.

“This will be adequate; the Inquisitor will summon you or your staff when they are needed.”

And with that he was summarily dismissed as if he were nothing more than a clean-up grunt, which no doubt to the inquisitorial staff he was roughly on a par with.

“Something is going on at the main Orc base; looks like visitors,” Melanie announced.

“Visiting bigwig?” Arch opined.

“Seems likely. They know we’re here and have caused them some difficulties and it will have trickled up the food chain,” Roxanne replied.

“Looks like the whole garrison turned out. Or rather the bits of it not actually doing anything useful,” Melanie added.

“Lot of Orcs,” I mused.

“Yes, but that’s generally the case anyway,” Sinnead replied with a slight smile.

“Shame they took the psiontial away, we could have got some information on the who or what,” Harmel mused.

“We can tap into the Omniscient and ask,” Brianna stated.

“Good idea. Get our outpost to look into it, but be careful,” Roxanne agreed.

“Of course, Mage Roxanne,” Brianna replied with a formal bow and hurried out.

“Thaumaturgical energies have peaked over that base. I suspect we have an adjunct to their senior Thaumaturge visiting,” Athena added to the meeting.

“Will they spot the outpost?” Arch asked, looking alarmed.

“Not unless they do a specific scan or the outpost personnel do something stupid, Arch.”

“I’ll bow to your knowledge. It’s not like we have a good handle on what your followers can do,” he nodded.

“Pretty much anything, but I have to be asked in such a way as to make it effective. Simply asking if there were hostile forces in the area just wouldn’t cut it; you’d be overwhelmed with insect feeding for one.”

“Ah, they have to have hostile defined.”

“Yes Arch, very much so. I’ll help as best I can, but they are tapping into my reserves usually, not specifically requesting something from me in the way of an audience.”

“Morgana mentioned that about Higher Powers once. Some have to be told specifically what you want, others are far more flexible,” I agreed.

“Pretty much it, John. Gregorius is pretty smart though and he can talk to me direct.”

“He’s a nice guy.”

“He is. Makes a change from some of the dumb lumps who have been my high priests.”

“Keep an eye out for them getting frisky, please, Athena,” Roxanne request.

“No problem.”

At this point Brianna returned.

“The visitor is called an Inquisitor, with all of the unpleasant undertones that that title brings with it. He’s a very junior Thaumaturge with a large staff and apparently is under instructions to end the nuisance we’re causing on the planet,” she announced.

“We’ll begin a study of him, but other than asking everyone to maintain caution; we’ll carry on as usual, unless something new comes up,” Roxanne stated.

Whatever it was the Inquisitor was doing, did not affect the various Orc patrols and their search of the planet for any clues to our whereabouts. They’d even combed the jungle area our base was in; though, due to the defensive weave and some mild aversion wards, had missed us totally. Athena theorised he was at the moment simply gathering data from which a set of actions would result. Further checks with the Omniscient gave us no further information, other than the fact that a good percentage of the Inquisitor’s staff were female and had highly unsettled the command staff who were capable of breeding, though not the grunts, who weren’t.

“I know the grunts are clones, but surely their male ... attributes would still be functional?” I asked Xi during a break from her studies on the eviscerator.

“The Orc grunts have this part of their urges mentally shut off; essentially their brains are in a state of pre-puberty and females do not register on their mental radar,” she replied after a little thought.

“Could we switch it on?”

“Um ... yes, I think so, why?”

“The Inquisitor is housed near the entrance to the underground shelter where the quantum disruptor is. It’s just a thought for an added confusion I had, to cause them further issues when we release the poison in the chamber.”

“Ah, you think the attempts to prevent us from destroying it will be far less organised if the guards are fighting each other over the females?”

“Very much so.”

“Found a way past the radiation emissions yet?”

“Distance and that super-beam that Morgana used at Myrkálfar,” I replied.

“Can you handle that much power, John?” she asked with a frown.

“No, not yet, but I know a Mage who can ... well, a couple of them actually, seeing as we won’t be permitted to use a Seer.”

“Roxanne and Arch,” she nodded.

“Yep. Athena believes the power will melt the thing down even if it is protected by thaumaturgy, save unless the Thaumaturge is there personally.”

“Hence the need for a load of horny Orc grunts rioting near his residence,” she chuckled.

“Every little helps.”

“Yes, though sooner or later someone will take charge and try to stop you, possibly by the simple expedient of killing all the grunts.”

“That’s why we’ll have to be quick. A Thaumaturge could unravel the entire plan in seconds.”

“Well, I might be able to help in other ways too. Serena has come up with a way to reconnect the higher functions of the control systems in the Orc artefacts.”

“Rampaging sleds and doors trying to cut Orcs in half?” I questioned with a grim satisfied smile.

“Yes, it has limited range as yet if a Mage is doing it, but Serena thinks the Seers could cause havoc with it.”

“We could try to keep it local when we make our move, only freeing one sled or a door at a time to cause havoc.”

“Good idea, we can save the big hit for another time.”

Crnnch quivered as he prostrated himself before the Inquisitor, his thought processes struggling with the heady mix of pheromones the female Orcs were exuding.

“Why was so much effort expended on the northern part of the smaller continental mass?” the Inquisitor finally asked.

“Adept Hortcha believed this was the probable site of the new enemy’s base, Inquisitor. Certainly the attacks upon him increased as a result of his setting up there.”

“Yet your reports show that you disagreed with his conclusions. Explain!”

“Absence of evidence is not proof, Inquisitor. It may just be that this enemy had no interest in the territory until a Horde showed up on it.”

“They certainly caused him enough problems, including the killings of several psionic eviscerators, one of which appears to be a victim of some form of god.” This was said with a grimace as if the Inquisitor couldn’t quite believe it.

“I cannot comment on that Inquisitor. I merely reported the facts.”

“You reported no attempts to interfere with the Omniscient though?”

“No, Inquisitor, I reported that the Omniscient believed this to be so.”

“Hmmm, so you did,” an eventual reply came. “Speculate on the nature of this new enemy. I desire to hear your thoughts.”

“Inquisitor, I believe them to be the most dangerous foe the Horde has ever faced. Their initial scan was comprehensive and looked through all our systems. Since then they have waged an effective campaign against us, keeping hidden from our sight, save for the one possible sighting by a waarg. Their weapons have extreme range, far beyond that of our grunts and they have proven that they can pierce the armoured shell of the cortex of a sled with ease. Yet other aspects of their weaponry are crude if effective, using metal pellets as a means of killing rather than simply grow them as needed to form an easily replenishable supply. I also believe them to be psionically talented as well, hence our inability to detect any emissions from them, though the psiontial was unable to detect them either. I believe that was because they use a dimension gate to access this world only when they have a mission or task to carry out.”