Chapter 47

Blensop had returned to a paradise planet ... of a sort. The vegetation was an unusual shade of blue/green and the animal life that we could scan fitted into no known genomes, though was there in abundance. Nor were there any signs of what we’d consider civilisation or Orcs, at least until we got down to the surface in the area of what we’d consider to be Europe.

Unlike previous occasions, we didn’t have to seek out a Higher Power, one approached us the moment we teleported in.

“Greetings,” we all stated with a formal bow.

“Greetings, Mages. We thank you for returning this world to its original purpose and present the remaining Yr’ch, pure in spirit, to you for your safekeeping.”

“We thank you,” Roxanne replied.

“You must take care in future; an ancient enemy of the Yr’ch has been released and will no longer be held to one world. They will attempt to seek out and destroy all that they see as a threat to them. This includes Mages and their allies. This threat if allowed to prosper will be a threat to all intelligent life in time.”

“The Vultoqi?” I asked.

“That is your name for them. They were confined to that world to stagnate until the Yr’ch awoke an ancient knowledge and an ancient lust for dominance in them. Even if you release the Powers on that world, they will no longer be able to hold them to their chosen place.”

“Dominance as in only they have the right to be?” Arch asked.

“Correct. They have the potential to destroy you all. Beog should not have chosen to disturb them, nor lock them away where they only became stronger over time.”

“Great, just great,” Roxanne sighed as the Power ported us with a bunch of Orcs back to our base site.

Athena, along with Gregorius, was waiting for us to take care of our charges and transport the confused individual Orcs back to the various villages she and Gregorius were preparing for them. For the Mages though, Roxanne summoned us to a council of war ... in a manner of speaking.

“Right,” she began. “Let’s go over what we know of these Vultoqi, before we have a run in with them.”

“The Orc descriptions are a little ... vague,” Xi began. “What little we know is that the psionic eviscerators are a creature of Vultoq, though how much like the Vultoqi is anyone’s guess.”

“The records we obtained tell us that they are warriors without peer, do not take prisoners, at least not when they go fully into combat. The suspicion is that they can read minds and use various Mage powers to enhance their combat abilities. They can also quickly make a perfect copy of anything they’ve scanned, complete with a database of the victim’s memories to call upon as they spy and sabotage things for the Vultoqi,” Jemima added.

“How perfect a copy?” Roxanne asked.

“We do not know, sorry. Neither apparently did the Orcs, according to what’s written down.”

“Be prepared for random mind scans, people. We do not need spies from the Vultoqi amongst us,” Roxanne warned.

“Weaponry?” I asked.

“We believe force blades, or something similar. Plus the usual bag of tricks a Mage can use in combat,” Abi replied.

“Numbers?” from Arch.

“Unknown, but it’s a big planet, even if they suffered from paranoia amongst each other,” Arwen shrugged.

“This just keeps on getting better and better,” Roxanne grumbled, partly under her breath. “Anything else we know?”

“They are tough, but not invulnerable. They use quantum manipulation ... hence the Orc distrust of it and we expect Null will be very effective against them. There is also the suspicion that they can remain out of phase even if the weapon they choose to use isn’t,” Arwen added.

“Null dust?” I enquired, using the generic term for the anti-casting powder we’d used to great effect against the Coalition.

“Will give the location of an out of phase creature or person due to its burning up in quantum manipulative fields. But, will otherwise not harm them,” Jemima replied.

“Null amulets will prevent the use of force blades,” Kate noted. “Null grenades to perhaps catch them out of phase but within objects.”

“Aye, good thinking,” Roxanne nodded. “I want Null zones available around any encampments we use, ready to be activated at a moment’s notice.”

“Are there any technological ways to detect an object out of phase?” Vilton asked.

“There may be...” Abi replied thoughtfully. “I’ll have a word with your people after this to see if what I think might work is actually feasible with your technology.”

“I’ve been working on a way to activate Null without the need for a Mage. I can go over the methodology again to see if it’s possible with Loegrian power cells,” I added.

“Do so please, John,” Roxanne ordered.

“Do you think it would be worth scouting the temple where Beog first came to Vultoq?” Ilzik asked. “ Only it strikes me that that is a likely place to spot a Vultoqi.”

“Aye, it’s possible, though not at this moment. We need to do a little more preparation before looking for them. Plus we still have the Orcs to deal with.”

“Yes, Mage Roxanne,” Ilzik acknowledged.

“Right, all missions are stood down for a week until we work through our options. Everyone have a good think as well as following through on any suggestions made. We’ll reconvene in a week’s time, when I hope we’ll have a few options available,” Roxanne commanded.

For days now, the adelshaut had been filtering into Grmmar, occasionally creating spy simulacra to assist them with their task of cleansing the stain of intelligent life other than Vultoqi from this world and eventually all creation. Critical systems were identified, along with horde leaders and militia bases, all with the intended plan to do the task as swiftly as possible, despite the adelshauts’ desire to prolong the agony of the hated Yr’ch.

“All is ready?” a patripure hissed.

“All is ready!” a reply came from the command caveatra.

“Begin the cleansing!”

At first Grmmar did not realise its danger as various objectives were seized and destroyed, along with a host of Yr’ch, either targeted or simply unlucky. The adelshaut however did not recognise the avian mnemonic system for what it was and an alert Adept in a conjoining district noticed the lack of update reports. Having failed to contact the various hordes and organisations in the city, he sounded the alarm to Draenoric and hence to Crnnch and his team, as well as the military horde.

Getting into Grmmar was no longer easy however. One of the first acts of the adelshaut had been to destroy the portal and, as yet, the Yr’ch had not come up with a real backup for them, except to port in via another colony. Yet plans had been made to provide the backup military hordes with new vehicles designed to be a mobile weapons platform. This was the first thing Crnnch ordered when he used his personal portal to have a look at and hear the screams and sounds of destruction in the city.

Initially Crnnch thought he was dealing with another attack from the forces of Ar-Thenna. Certainly it had all the characteristics of one in the chaos and destruction he could see. It wasn’t until he observed a horde desperately trying to defend itself from what appeared to be an invisible foe that was spraying body parts in all directions as it advanced that he realised from old imprinted memories just what it was that he faced.

‘Alert the Beoghra! We face Vultoqi!‘ he sent to the Adept group, getting an instant response by way of reply and presumably action.

At this point, the ... creature attacking the horde noticed Crnnch. Although the Seeker could not see it, his nanite cloud detected where the attacker’s weapon was. He was able to command them to coat it and so at least tell him where the creature was. The second thing he discovered was that his nanites were ineffective against whatever was wielding the weapon and that it was approaching at an incredible speed.

Still, his shield was able to deflect the weapon as he used all his senses to try and find a way to get at this enemy, mostly to no avail as all he could detect was a thin line of ... energy that slashed and hacked at him violently.

Just when Crnnch was wondering if he could somehow escape before the creature breached his shields there was a sharp crack from what seemed to be a great distance and suddenly the creature appeared in front of him, some form of ichor streaming from a large wound in its side.

‘You have not the means to defeat these creatures as yet, my Seeker, ‘ came the glowing voice of Ar-Thenna. ‘Amongst the Yr’ch, only your Beoghra have, and they will not aid you as yet.‘

‘Must I retreat, my goddess?‘ he asked as his nanite cloud devoured the now struggling creature.

‘I advise it, yes.‘

‘I will obey.‘

“Thanks for the heads up, Athena,” I said quietly as we observed Crnnch forming his own portal to escape.

“You’re welcome, John. I have great hopes for this Orc.”

“Good shot, Dunon,” I stated to the Loegrian.

“Null dart forced it out of phase and then exploded,” he replied with a nod. “Hope you were scanning after it came out?” he added to Lagertha who was crouched next to him.

“Got a few physical details, but Crnnch’s nanites destroyed most of the Vultoqi before I could get a mental scan,” she answered.

“Nasty looking buggers,” I added.

“Yes, going to be a challenge if they sneak up on us.”

“They’re highly resistant to my powers too,” Athena added with a frown. “I’m not sure they’re from around here, the local Powers normally wouldn’t permit any ... organic life form to have the ability to resist them.”

“Not sure if they’ll ever give us a chance to act,” I nodded.

“Looks like something’s approaching to investigate,” Lagertha noted, giving us a mental reference point of a force blade floating along in a manner of speaking towards the area where the Vultoqi had been.

“I have the area targeted now for a nulled mortar shell, though the range won’t be that great for the effect,” Clara stated.

“Military horde is arriving in numbers, though not having a great effect,” Lagertha added.

“Got a position?” I asked.

“There,” she gave me a mental reference.

“Too far,” I sighed as I realised they were out of range of any support we could give.

“Want me to take this one down? Dunon asked.

“Yes, low powered Null dart. We’ll set off its auto-destruct as and when we need to,” I replied.

About a minute later there was a sharp crack and suddenly we could see the creature we wished to study as it fell back with a hissing scream.

“Ready?” I asked. Seeing the nods, I pulled out a radio transceiver and permitted a small charge to destroy the internal Null of the dart as Lagertha and Kyra got to work on a scan as the creature weakly struggled to raise itself.

“Can’t get past its mental screen,” Lagertha murmured. “The gestalt might, but this is one tough creature.”