Chapter 56

The encampment on the Loegrian side of the universes was distinctly different. A large area had been cleared and a tent city set up to house the expected influx of Drow, or Dökkálfar as they called themselves, Drow being the human word for them as taken from a fantasy game as well as a series of novels. Not that the Drow particularly cared what we called them, they were there to cleanse their past as they saw it.

Brianna was no longer in charge of the advanced science teams. That position had gone to Mage Ceridwen, a good friend of hers from Loegria as well as known to me from a past mission during the Coalition war. Brianna was currently spending a couple of weeks with Mage Lihui, Simon’s secretary and aide, learning the ins and outs of her new job as well as the inevitable dos and don’ts.

Other than being somewhat in the rest of my wives’ bad books on giving away Brianna’s pregnancy (which begged the question how I knew as it was barely two days conceived) things were quiet. Plans were being made to see if we could actually take the fight to the Vultoqi. Currently the Seers were still busy trying to locate the various Orbs on the Orc worlds.

Things on Vultoq were not going well for the Orcs, though they were now at least able to fight back to a degree, if mostly ineffectively as their weaponry was ill adapted to the Vultoqi’s mental powers and mostly not able to penetrate the thick hide of an adelshaut even if it did get through. Hence most of the casualties they did cause were by their beam weapons mounted on their armoured trucks and even then, usually when they could hit an adelshaut with more than one beam.

Against the troichin, the Orcs were doing a lot better as they were able to produce an overwhelming amount of small arms fire to which the creatures were vulnerable. All attempts to take the fight to the Vultoqi though had ceased as the Vultoqi did not approach the usually booby-trapped Orc corpses anymore, simply taking those dead from their attacks on the fortresses where they were successful. The Vultoqi now held over 200 square kilometres of territory and were extending it on a daily basis.

Attacks by the Orc religious leaders on Crnnch, the Seeker, had now ceased as our sniper teams, aided by the Seers and backed up by Athena, were able to target them every time and we suspected they’d run out of assassins or were taking the hint that Crnnch was off-limits.

Neither Brnnt nor Karkol had been observed since Athena’s introduction to Brnnt, though a few messages had been relayed to us via Crnnch giving us some idea as to the Council of Archimandrites’ thinking on the Vultoqi, the war and, naturally, us.

None of it was particularly good news, if somewhat unsurprising. Their Council was still of a mind that Orc numbers could carry the day and were growing six hordes as well as arming them with deep penetration weapons as well as a few hand-held beam weapons. Certainly we believed that these would be more effective against a non-magical foe, but, doubted that they’d make that much of an impact on the Vultoqi, who were more than capable of turning them to dust, assuming they didn’t go for them with their force blades as was their wont.

As for us, apparently we were still to be exterminated on sight as only they, the Orcs that is, had the right to be chosen of Beog.

As for Beog, apparently after his short appearance at his temple, there had been no more sightings and it remained to be seen what he would do next.

“Right,” Roxanne began at the first full meeting of the expedition when all had returned from their leave. “We’re going on the offensive against the Vultoqi in that we are going to concentrate on taking out as many ghosin and adelshaut that we can.”

“Limits, if any?” Naimh asked.

“Three!” Roxanne replied with a tight grin. “Don’t get caught; don’t get killed; don’t blow up significant chunks of the planet.”

“What of the Drow?” I asked.

“Being equipped and then will be under training with Arch. It will take possibly a month. Our plan is to slow down this expansion and enable the Orcs to get back into the battle with their new weapons and assist them as covertly as we can.”

“So, we’re to do more than snipe at them now?’ Heimdor asked.

“Cause as much damage as you can. I want them hunting us down, if possible, not attacking the Orcs fixed positions. Yes, I realise we might be facing casualties, but we really do need them to be fighting here and not on a world of their choosing,” Roxanne explained.

“I’m pretty sure, once we have their attention, they’ll go for us,” Alice chuckled, making us all grin.

“We’ll get planning,” I nodded as did the other team leaders.

Three days later my squad was digging into a partially demolished bunker of some sort that the Orcs had retreated from, or more likely been destroyed in place from. We were all toting heavy weapons, including the new self-activating deep penetration Null armaments, which we hoped would increase the deadliness of our firepower. Our target was a large group of adelshaut who appeared to be constructing some kind of building, though as yet we didn’t have a clue as to what it was for as, other than watching them plough fields ... for want of a better word, all they had done was attack the Orcs.

“Ready, Tirus?” I asked the Loegrian tech expert who was with us.

“Yessir! Should come as a hell of a surprise to them.”

“I hope so,” I chuckled. “You may begin.”

“Clara, drop the phasing disruptors onto the site please,” Tirus requested.

There was a series of ‘bangs’ as Clara operated a belt-fed mortar to pepper the site where the adelshaut were working, also revealing several guards as well. This was the signal for Tirus and three other Loegrians with us to open up with the self-activating Null darts they’d been supplied with.

The Vultoqi reaction was immediate as several scans washed over us, at least one detecting our position as we hoped.

“Here they come,” Róisín murmured.

“100 metres and give them hell as they won’t be able to get out of the trapped zone at that stage,” I ordered.

There were no replies, but, from the mental state of the squad, I knew they’d heard me. The Vultoqi were dodging towards our position, laying down a barrage of various magical attacks as the Loegrians continued to whittle them down.

“Seeker, there is some sort of activity going on in the Vultoqi sector 5,” Adept Slaarg informed Crnnch.

“Activity as in?”

“Someone is attacking them...” Slaarg began then tapered off at Crnnch’s look. “I mean the new enemy are attacking the Vultoqi,” he corrected himself.

“Better, keep things honest,” Crnnch nodded. “I see no reason to interfere if this new enemy wish to attack an enemy of ours.”

“True, Seeker. But we could at least send a few of our armoured vehicles in to attack the edge of the Vultoqi advance.”

“Hmmm. Very well order the probe, but instruct the Ground-boss to be cautious and retreat immediately should the Vultoqi, or this enemy, begin to attack them in strength,” Crnnch replied after a moment’s thought.

“At your command, Seeker ... er, should we attack this enemy as well?”

“No, let them deal with the Vultoqi. Ensure the Ground-boss observes their tactics and see if we can emulate them. See if we can get an Omniscient’s probes in close as well. It would be to our advantage to study the tactics they use.”

“At once, Seeker.”

The Vultoqi were not stupid, they soon realised approaching us across open ground was a death sentence, particularly against nulled bullets. All had gone to ground and Abi, who was on over-watch for the Seers monitoring our group, had informed us that they were now attempting to flank us and get into our rear.

‘Orc patrol in armoured trucks approaching on your right flank. I suspect ... yes, they’re firing on the Vultoqi but keeping their distance, ‘ she informed us.

‘Are the Vultoqi showing signs of going after them?‘ I asked.

‘No, John. The Orc beams are just a distraction and too distant to get through a Vultoqi’s shield.‘

“Clara, drop a Null shell on the position the Orcs are firing against, if you please,” I ordered, getting a grin from her as she dropped a round into the tube after a quick adjustment.

‘That worked, the Vultoqi are taking cover as an Orc beam just sliced one in half, ‘ Abi announced to the squad in general. ‘The Vultoqi on the other flank are now behind you and trying to get into position.‘

‘Are they in the zone?‘ I asked.

‘Nearly ... now they are.‘

‘Activate the minefield and the Null medallions, please.‘

‘Done and, ooh, they didn’t like that at all, ‘ came a mental chuckle.

‘Are they still advancing?‘ I asked.

‘No, John. Currently they’re stalled.‘

‘Keep an eye on them, my love.‘

‘You got it.‘

Tenklar, the Ground-boss, had been very fearful on learning that his unit was to engage the Vultoqi who were apparently trying to overcome the new enemy. It sounded like a suicide mission to him, hence his setting up of the weapon platforms at extreme range and being happy that the Vultoqi chose to ignore him.

He was further astounded when an object dropped amongst the Vultoqi and suddenly his beams were cutting them down forcing them to go for cover.

“Advance carefully,” he ordered using his pheromone output to reinforce his command to those grunts in range.

The vehicles crawled forward in zigzags to try and expose any Vultoqi beams stabbing out and taking several down as they, for once, did not appear to be keen on taking on the Yr’ch, particularly over the open ground.

“Halt!” he ordered when he felt they were close enough to the rubble the Vultoqi were hiding behind. “Begin bombardment.”

The minelayers situated on the roof of each vehicle began spewing out anti-personnel munitions driven by a powerful compressed air burst to arc over the rubble and drop delayed-charge mines all over the site. This was the moment when the Vultoqi broke cover, with a third charging towards the Yr’ch whilst the rest retreated at pace towards where the original attack had begun.

This was the signal for the weapon platforms to pull back slowly, firing their beam weapons as they did to whittle down the Vultoqi who rapidly dispersed as they raced back to their own lines.

“Back to our base,” Tenklar ordered as it was apparent that the Vultoqi had no stomach for a fight on the ground the Yr’ch had chosen ... along with the presumed help of the new enemy. Not that Tenklar intended to put that in an official report, just a verbal report to the Seeker’s staff, assuming the Seeker wanted his input, which, judging from the way the orders had come down, he did.

‘Orcs are retreating, as are the Vultoqi on that flank, ‘ Abi informed us.