Chapter 5

The following morning the team selected by Roxanne, including me, assembled before the gate we’d made to secretly portal us onto Nansack. We were all armed to the teeth and although outwardly calm, it was clear mentally that many of us were extremely nervous.

“Ready when you are ... no rush,” chuckled Roxanne at Seer Melanie who was going over the various glyphs and sigils on the arch we were using.

“You want to do it?” Melanie asked with a grin.

“Hell no! The likes of Morgana and Simon can manage it, but not us lowly hands-on types,” came the reply in a barking laugh.

Whether or not it was intentional, the banter eased the tension somewhat as Melanie finally opened the portal and we strode through, immediately going to pre-picked defensive positions.

Nansack was psychically scarred; there was no doubt about that. No birds were singing, there was no trace of inhabitation on the animal side of things, just a few stunted trees and a howling wind.

“Marja!” I called.

“Got it John,” she replied before all the wolves transformed and slipped out to have a nose around.

“Ilzik!” I ordered.

“Yessir!” the Drow acknowledged and moved his people out to extend our perimeter.

“Weave those branches into a portal, John,” Melanie commanded me once our defenders had moved out.

“At once,” I replied, grabbing a handful of cable ties and scrambling up into a tree bending over branches and interlocking them with the ties to form the necessary arch to assist with making a hidden portal. Several others were also boosted up onto each other’s shoulders and using secateurs trimmed any excess growth.

“Not bad,” Melanie murmured as the arch took shape and although it wasn’t natural, it was difficult to spot unless you were right up close to it.

The arch itself was in a natural dip and impossible to see when activated at a distance and we put a lot of effort into ensuring it couldn’t be seen even from above, the consequences of which could have been horrendous.

So far our passive scans hadn’t alerted us to any nearby dangers, but a passive scan could be fooled and the local wildlife, not to mention the Orcs were an unknown quantity to us as yet. Still, even doing our tasks by physical means alone we soon had everything prepared for the second group. I was simply waiting (as was Melanie) for the wolves to return and report.

“There’s some sort of refugee encampment seven or so kilometres in that direction,” Marja announced as she padded up and transformed.

“What do they look like?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Bipedal squids is the closest I can come, two legs for boneless movement and four arms. Weird looking but harmless and reeking of fear ... to put it bluntly.”

“Any danger to us?” Melanie asked.

“No, but we could evacuate them to our base camp, give them a fresh start.”

“Roxanne’s decision, not mine, but I’ll back up your request.”

“Thank you, Melanie,” Marja replied as Melanie opened the portal to permit our second group to come through led by Roxanne and Arch and begin building our defensive position properly.

It took four long days before things were as ready as they could be. Most of it was spent digging and hauling in pre-built components to supplement the already good natural defences of the position under advisement by Arch, whose sole role on the expedition was towards making sure the defences gave us enough time to evacuate. Roxanne had decided under advisement from him to hold off assisting the natives until our position was as secure as we could make it and before the two Seers had completed their scan. Hence, Brianna, Clara, Xi and I had been sent out with the wolves to approach the camp and see if we could aid them and if necessary give them a fresh start on a planet off the straight path. Careful scans had shown no signs of Mage-like abilities amongst this group, though we all realised that it was likely the Orcs had hunted any Mages (assuming they had them) to extinction.

A wave of shock rippled through the encampment as we approached and several ... squids grabbed spears and positioned themselves before us in an attempt no doubt to allow the bulk of their people to escape.

‘I’d like to speak to whoever is in charge,’ Brianna telepathically announced. ‘You are in no danger from us.’ A careful scan by Xi had given us a brainwave ... call it a frequency, at which the thinking processes of these creatures worked at as we waited patiently for a response.

“You are not of the demons?” came a reply from one of the creatures, though we could not tell if he was in charge or not.

“No, we aren’t, we have come to study them before they turn their attention to us,” Brianna replied passing the information along mentally as well.

“You must flee; they destroy all in their path, particularly Mundunugu.”

“They can try,” Brianna shrugged. “We seek information on them and in return can promise you transit to a world they cannot reach.”

At this point there was a wail of despair from the rear of the encampment as the wolves appeared, preventing escape (and any traitors warning the Orcs).

“Do not fear our allies,” I stated calmly.

There was a tense standoff until finally what I can only describe from a feeling was an old squid approached.

“You can help us escape here?”

“Yes,” Brianna replied.

“What of others you find?”

“Those too, so long as we can do it undetected.”

“This is good, we are not really enough to form a new civilisation on our own.”

“We will help with that too ... rebuilding and farms that is.”

“What do you want to know?”

“First, let us get your people out of here and to safety, then we can talk. Gather all you can carry, we’ll assist as best we can.”

It took almost a day before we could get the squids ... though they called themselves Akhhlognuisi, to safety and through our portal, leaving only the elder and a couple of their scholars behind to talk to us after checking naturally that their people were OK.

“So tell us what you know,” Roxanne finally invited them to speak at a meeting.

The squid society, although they were in no way cephalopods, save only in appearance were just approaching the cusp of what we would term the industrial revolution, though several were Mages/shamen, or Mundunugu as they termed themselves, though not powerful as yet to detect or go to other worlds. Then, a year before the invasion, a plague had serried through their ranks, killing many and leaving the survivors mostly powerless. Then a rock had fallen from the heavens and any who approached died from its proximity. Then had begun the days of horror and destruction as the demons had poured through a series of portals to invade in an unstoppable wave of terror. Two meters high, a greenish tinge to their skin and physically powerful beyond belief to the average squid they had poured into the cities and killed all in their path. Armies had gathered and their distance weapons had taken a toll of the invaders, yet in most cases had fallen to mass waves of attackers as the demons were prepared it seemed to expend thousands, simply to close with their enemy. Fortresses were stormed and one by one the nations were subjugated and extirpated save only for a few of the more powerful and advanced of the strongpoints on the planet. Yet even they fell as rocks from the heavens were dropped on them leaving nothing behind. Those survivors had fled to desolate areas as the demons hunted down and occasionally enslaved the few they left alive after capture to serve as farmers and body-servants for the more powerful.

The elder had heard tales of massive construction works in the occupied territories, though had not seen any for himself. He knew of no other groups of refugees, though assumed there had to be some and was grateful for our assistance as his people were on the verge of starvation having hunted out the area due to the demons descending in force upon any signs of the natives and usually wiping them out for sport.

“We will do our best to evacuate those of your people we can,” Roxanne finally said into the silence. “We have already moved those rescued here to a world far distant from where these Orcs have the ability to see.”

“We are grateful and if you need us for anything, we are yours to command,” the elder replied.

“Just rebuild and grow again into a civilisation.”

“We will.”

The squids were then taken back through the portal and onto their new world, which was on the other side of the Loegrian track, an immense distance from the one they’d previously occupied.

“Athena, any idea on what happened to the Higher Powers here?” Roxanne asked.

“Not yet, it’s as though they are all in some form of stasis. But I believe the Orcs have affected the resonance of the world here to do this.”

“So if the resonance is the same, the Thaumaturge would be able to use his power here and on other worlds if they resonate the same as well,” Roxanne mused out loud.

“You may be right, but, at the moment, I don’t know as I’m not attuned to this Earth or the Orc one either.”

“Right. Melanie, Lagertha, could you begin your scan,” Roxanne commanded. “Let’s see what we can find out.”

Crnnch the Adept, though lowly in the ranks of the TechnoYr’ch was the Senior Adept on this pestilential planet. Although it was not for him to question why the race had invaded here. He could not for the life of him understand why, the denizens were pathetic, hardly a challenge to the great horde at all. Only five times had they had to use the hammer of the Most High to flatten a fortress. Why, even the Enterlech had required seventeen, and all knew how pathetic they’d been. Still his fellow Adepts had built the psi-system to enable the Most High to project his will here and Crnnch monitored it with diligence, despite knowing there was nothing here to threaten the horde ... or so he thought.

Melanie and Lagertha stood back to back and began their scan, their senses flickering rapidly over the land, finding few signs of intelligent life, friendly or hostile as many of the inhabitants had starved to death or been attacked by the Orcs. Still those groups they had detected as friends were marked and their position given out to the expeditionary force for evacuation. Most of the Orcs in the field were little more than brutes under the direction of slightly more intelligent brutes. Yet overall there was a clear purpose to the invasion and those furthest away were more intelligent again, building massive structures to house more of their excess population, even to using basic technology like plumbing and electricity.