Chapter 16

It had taken a day to bore the tunnel. We could have done it a lot quicker, but weren’t sure if the Orcs would pick up the subsonic vibrations. Xi thought not, but wasn’t one hundred percent on it, hence the added caution.

The next part involved killing the door-control neural interface and fusing the locking pins in place before emerging into an empty storage chamber.

I then used my mind to cut and thread a small hole into the door whilst Clara and Kate made the room airtight from the outside. I then screwed a pipe into the hole I’d made and attached it to a number of linked high-pressure gas tanks that Arch had levitated along the tunnel for us. We’d done some calculations as to the volume of air in the complex and the mix required to make the very air toxic to them. Just opposite the chamber we were in was an air intake duct designed to keep air flowing around the complex and was another reason we were currently in the chamber.

“We’re ready,” I finally announced.

“Good,” Roxanne nodded. ‘Marja, Talshish, begin your diversion!‘

Wearing their Mage designed armour as well as using their cloak; the Drow under Talshish ghosted into the small outlying observation bunker and positioned themselves under cover. Esira and Ilzik then moved around the building planting explosives as the rest of their compatriots covered them. Twice there was the hiss of a quarrel from a Drow crossbow to take out an inconvenient Orc guard.

‘Retreat to cover, ‘ Ilzik commanded once it was done.

Moving back to their outer firing positions, the Drow then waited for the command to begin.

‘Now!‘ Ilzik sent mentally to his sister.

Hitting the first of several thumb switches, Esira watched in satisfaction as the door of the bunker was severely damaged by the explosive charge. The Orc response was almost immediate, several grunts charged outside looking for an enemy. That however, was the last thing they did as the leaders ran straight into the poisoned quarrels of the Drow. The next group ran into the second set of explosives and also fell as the Drow expertly switched positions to hide their whereabouts from any observation.

‘Radio distress call has gone out, pull back, ‘ came the order from Talshish.

Without a word, all the Drow moved as one towards the portal site, leaving no clue as to their having been there, other than Esira randomly letting off the various charges to cover their withdrawal.

Marja studied the Orc patrol carefully, the two waargs with it were upwind from the pack and all she was waiting for was the precise moment to spring the trap and get them chasing her and the rest of the pack.

‘Talshish reports the Orcs have sent a distress call from their observation post, ‘ came the mental voice of Seer Melanie to the pack.

‘Begin the skirmish!‘ Marja ordered.

The Orcs who had been doing a desultory patrol simply putting one foot in front of the other suddenly found themselves being torn into by huge carnivores who appeared to be going out of their way to wound, rather than kill. Nor were the short-range energy weapons they carried of any use as the beasts were far too quick to target and any attempt to fire a weapon usually meant the arm of the firer was savaged and in one case completely torn off. Nor were their waargs of any help as the howls of agony that tapered off quickly gave witness to the fact that they too were under attack and likely had not survived.

Following on ‘rote’ orders, the surviving Squad-boss sent a mental radio message back to the base pleading for help. Unfortunately for him, this was the signal Marja and the pack had been waiting for and the wolves swiftly finished off the surviving Orcs before racing off towards the hidden portal awaiting them.

‘Diversions are in place and working. The Orcs are scrambling to assist, ‘ came Melanie’s mental message.

“Release the gas, John,” Roxanne commanded.

Within seconds I was expelling a large volume of toxic gas into the corridor and ducting system of the complex and death followed swiftly in its wake.

“Xi, release the ... libido of the grunts patrolling outside.”

“Done,” she replied with a slight wince after less than a minute.

“Problem?” Arch asked.

“They immediately attacked the two female guards outside the Inquisitor’s building and then each other; it’s chaos out there and distinctly unpleasant to watch.”

“Sorry, my friend,” Arch replied giving her a cuddle.

“It needed doing, but ... gross.”

“Serena, random doors and a couple of sleds released, please, including a few in this complex,” Roxanne requested.

“Got it, I’ve also given them an update package to assist with their vengeance that will keep the sleds away from the complex unless I request it,” came the reply.

“Good,” Roxanne nodded. “Now, let us begin. Arch?”

“Ready when you are, Roxanne.”

The Inquisitor was roused from his contemplation by the sounds of screams, panic and fighting outside his quarters. Spreading out his consciousness he witnessed an impossibility as the docile grunts sought out his female staff and fought any others trying to do the same or prevent them from doing so. In the distance, he sensed a whole raft of sleds lifting off to deal with a local incursion only to stop in shock as one of the sleds then fired upon another, causing the attacked one to fall from the sky as the rest of them scattered from the unexpected attack.

There was a sharp crack and another, nearer, sled was suddenly compacted by its gravity vortex overloading to fall to the ground directly upon a barracks.

Gathering his wits, he then strode out of his chambers, summoning his guard to deal with the chaos using a word of power to kill a nearby grunt, who was stalking a terrified female through the quarters.

Surrounded by his now alert guards, he headed for the exit to face down (and kill) the rioters only for the door to slam shut neatly cutting the lead guard in two and spraying his innards over the party.

“What is happening, master?” a clearly rattled guard asked.

“It appears our enemy have come looking for us. But, fear not, we shall prevail.”

Again, reaching out with his mind he spoke out the words of power demanding sleep from the grunts only to recoil in horror as another command came forth...

‘AWAKE! ATTACK!‘ came a terrifyingly powerful godly command affecting all, not just the grunts but any Yr’ch or Yr’ch construct within its range.

“OK. He knows I’m around, though not where or who,” Athena announced, giving a nod to Gregorius who had his hands pressed together in prayer.

‘Keep him busy,” a sweating Roxanne requested as she and Arch were using the super-beams to cut through the last wall before the meteor chamber.

“You got it.”

In the complex itself the guards were falling where they stood or in the case of a few of the unluckier smarter ones, just inside the sealed entrance where they’d been desperately trying to force the doors open.

“Ok, John, unseal the door and open the chambers we designated as areas of interest,” Roxanne ordered.

“On our way,” I replied as I used my powers to cause the door to crumble.

All of my squad, indeed all of the people involved in the internal part of the operation, were shielded to prevent the venom getting into our systems, though it wasn’t quite as deadly to us as it was to an Orc.

“We’re through, it’s shielded, now we find out if it’s alarmed,” Arch muttered as we left the chamber.

There were bodies everywhere, but, that’s all they were, bodies. I had memorised the layout of the complex and I could read the identi-code the Orcs used for identification of the levels as well as the individual chambers. Essentially, all we were looking for were artefacts that we’d not been able to study properly due to the nature of the Orc shielding, which, although we could crack it, was difficult to scan through without setting off alarms, something we didn’t want them to know that we could. Teleportation from outside was also impossible, or rather it was until we’d attached a small disruptor amulet to the artefacts we wanted.

“Mostly technology, not biotechnology,” Clara murmured as we examined some odd-looking weaponry.

“Yes, part of Harmel’s shopping list,” I nodded.

“Yes, Tchac’trar also has a few items on there too.”

‘Ready, ‘ I sent mentally to Melanie.

The items ‘winked’ out and we moved on to the next chamber.

This one contained several of the aids to the Omniscient, though we were already aware that it was now aware of us, we weren’t trying to hide after all. Items were selected and teleported out as we all became mentally conscious that the Orcs had finally figured out there was something going on with the complex.

“Going for the Omniscient,” I alerted my team. “Xi has dibs on it and I don’t want to disappoint her.”

“Better hurry,” Kate replied. “They’re bringing up some heavy cutting gear.”

“So long as the Inquisitor is in the dark, we’ve got time,” I countered, but we hurried up the pace nevertheless.

We could feel the waves of fear almost rolling off the Omniscient as it realised that all its communication channels had been subtly blocked. It was now trying to use its sensors to injure us by flying full tilt into us, though that was merely a nuisance. It was producing a limited mental scream, a bit like Goblin chatter, but nothing too major and we were coping fine as Kate disintegrated the door of its holding chamber.

‘Got it?‘ I asked mentally to Melanie.

‘Yes, John. Now hurry, a Land-boss has finally told the Inquisitor of this intrusion and he’s heading this way.‘

“You heard,” I announced. “Now let’s pick up the pace.”

The Inquisitor reacted in shock as the Land-boss gabbled out his message about a possible enemy intrusion into the Orb complex. It was not possible, he’d surely have detected such an event, even now his senses were telling him that nothing was wrong.

“Take me there. We will see what we will see,” he finally ordered.

Outside though there was still chaos, even though he’d secured his female staff, their pheromones were still attracting grunts and causing them to riot and kill any they saw as a rival or threat. Two of his guards went down in seconds before he was able to reach out with his power to snuff out the lives of the grunts who were firing.