Chapter 6

“The Orcs have released hunting animals on all continents,” Lagertha announced at the staff meeting the morning following after the ambush.

“Abilities?” Roxanne asked with a slight frown.

“Magically resistant, intelligent, good sense of smell and utterly savage. They call them waargs.”

“Lord of the Rings here we come,” I chuckled.

“Indeed, John,” Roxanne replied with a slight smile as we looked at a 3D image of what appeared to be a hyena on steroids.

“We can take them,” Adok added with a lazy smile.

“Aye, I’m sure you can, but not near here.”

“Agreed,” Marja nodded. “Let’s get them looking elsewhere.”

“Take down this pack,” Roxanne indicated on a map. “In the meantime, John, get your squad to escort the medic Mages to within scanning range of this Orc encampment. It’s time we got a detailed analysis of a few specimens.”

“Yes, Mage Roxanne.”

Several hours later my squad and I were escorting six of our eight medic Mages through dense brush to a bluff above an Orc encampment. At a hand signal, all crouched down as I moved forward stealthily until I could overlook the camp.

“Damned stupid place for one,” came the quiet tones of Xi who had crawled forward with me.

“Agreed, it should have been up here, though they do have access to water down there.”

“Straddles the road too.”

“Yep. Can you scan from here?”

“Yes. Keep an eye out for those waargy things.”

“Of course,” I chuckled.

Whilst the medic Mages went about their work, my squad were checking out the site and removing any trace of our activities. I also had Kate studying one of the lifting sleds the Orcs used in an attempt to see how they worked.

“It’s alive ... sort of,” Kate finally said.

“Really?” I replied as I took out a set of binoculars to look at the craft which was essentially an open metal box with a set of controls at the front.

“Yes, the poor thing is a bio-neural interface tied to a psionic gravity lifting device.”

“How are they keeping it alive?”

“The cortex is suspended in an oxygenating nutrient gel that’s being pumped around the chamber it’s suspended in. There are inputs hardwired into the cortex for control.”

“Sentient?”

“Not sure, but it wants to die.”

“See if you can oblige it after the medics finish.”

“Yes, John.”

“Just a thought, I’ll see if the Seers can create a little diversion and you can bring it down with a full load.”

“I like that idea even better.”

I crawled forward to where Xi was with the rest of the medics. “Any answers?”

“Yes, and a hell of a lot more questions too.”

“Well we’ll have to leave soon, there’s a possibility that a waarg pack will make a sweep through here in the next few hours.”

“We can come back another day.”

“Let’s go then.”

We all, except Kate, moved carefully down the back side of the bluff to the narrow game trail that led eventually to where the Seers would bring forth their hidden portal.

I was in contact with Melanie and as soon as the medics were at the base of the bluff and on flat ground got her to send out a small psychic spoor to alert whoever was looking for us.

Two minutes later the gravity sled took off vertically upwards from the encampment only for Kate to reach out and mercifully erase the central cortex of the control pack. The result was instantaneous as the sled fell to earth with a massive crash and explosion totally destroying the encampment and no doubt giving the Orcs something else to think about. Kate soon caught up with us as we made our way back to the portal and safety.

“That was a fitting revenge for the craft,” she said quietly as we made our way along the trail.

“Yes, though it looks like we have a bunch of genetic enhancement geniuses leading the Orcs.”

“Seems that way, but let’s see what the medics come up with.”

“Good idea,” I chuckled then stiffened up.

“Waarg,” I announced. “Just portalled in and downwind of us. Kate, Clara, get the medics to the portal, I’m going to lead this one away.”

“Yes, John. Be careful,” Kate replied.

I immediately pulled out my latest semi-automatic, a brand new DPMS GII Recon firing a Nato standard 7.62mm round chosen because of the stopping power. A 5.56mm round might be the current king of the hill for weight requirements, but I preferred that anything I hit to stay down first time, not the second or third. Yes, I’m fussy like that; I have an extreme aversion to being eaten or an enemy getting back up, it’s also why I carried a Glock 17 Gen 4 pistol for the 17 rounds it carried in 9mm ammo.

I made my way carefully towards the now racing waarg, picking up several of its packmates all intent on tearing down my group. I soon reached an open area and set myself up and used my powers to augment my sights and waited. It didn’t take long before the first waarg came charging out of the scrub at the far side of the clearing only to go tumbling down at a single barking shot from my rifle. This set the rest of the pack to howling and I realised they were communicating mentally too, though I couldn’t tell who or what with. Still I had them on my mental radar so it wasn’t like they could sneak around me ... oops, apparently they could cloak too.

‘Well, at least we’ve discovered something,’ Lagertha informed me with a dry mental chuckle.

‘Can you track them?’ ‘Yes, John, they’re here,’ she replied giving me a mental track on them.

Taking advantage of the chameleonesque attributes of my armour I moved out into the opening of the clearing and made for a point where the waargs had to cross and took aim again. The rear creature suddenly went tumbling, bringing the others up short as they tried to find out where the shot had come from, my scent trail still drawing them towards where I’d been, not where I was. I then watched with interest as they blended into the surroundings as well using their own natural camouflage.

‘Another hidden talent,’ Lagertha opined.

‘Still on your mental track though and showing up on my infra red.’ ‘Yes, just be careful.’ I’d already moved again, using my abilities as well as the attributes of the suit until I reached cover before snapping off another shot at a creature, though missing. This time though I pulled myself up into a tree as I detected the approach of a grav sled. Swapping my magazine and jacking the one in the chamber to put an armour piercing round in its place I took careful aim at the spot where I knew the thinking cortex had to be and fired a nulled bullet straight through the light armour surrounding the cortex. The sled immediately fell to Earth from over 300 metres in the air and exploded into a gravity vortex on impact.

I was then nearly shaken out of the tree as the waargs attacked and tried to leap up at me as I drew my pistol and let fly in a series of rapid shots that eventually had them fleeing in panic as the hunters became the hunted.

Dropping down I double tapped each of the five bodies before heading off to where the portal had to be, keeping an eye on where the waargs were on my mental track.

‘Get my ammo?’ I asked.

‘Yes, John. They won’t know how you did it,’ came Lagertha’s mental chuckle. ‘Oh, and the nulled bullet disintegrated in the gravity vortex too.’ ‘Making my way back to the portal site.’ I deliberately moved slowly back towards the portal site, scanning carefully to ensure I wasn’t being observed as well as relying on Lagertha to cover my back if necessary. I’d already detected several more of the gravity sleds heading my way, including some ahead of me, though doubted they’d be able to detect me. The pack of waargs had scattered to the four winds, though I could detect another pack approaching in the far distance.

‘They think they have you surrounded, though are looking in the wrong place,’ Lagertha informed me.

‘Suits me,’ I chuckled as I kept going until caution stopped me in my tracks.

‘Problem, John?’ ‘I’m being watched.’ ‘We can’t detect anything.’ ‘It’s well cloaked and well-hidden and it’s just a sixth sense, but I trust my instincts, I’m being watched, not sure if it’s hostile though.’ ‘Melanie’s coming through, we’ll do a gestalt scan, be careful.’ I picked up the pace slightly but moved steadily away from where the portal site was, just not obviously. The feeling that I was being watched though grew and grew, even as I detected the Orcs and waargs finally sort themselves out and begin the pursuit.

‘The woods are full of semi-magical beings,’ came the gestalt voice of the Seers.

‘Harmless?’ ‘We believe so, but there are an awful lot of them.’ ‘Terrified of the Orcs no doubt,’ I replied as I moved my course back towards the site of the portal.

There was no further comment from the Seers, though I didn’t really expect one. The site of the portal was clear and although I wasn’t being threatened, I was still being watched.

‘Do you wish to talk before I go?’ I sent out on a low level telepathic band that couldn’t be read more than twenty metres away save possibly by a Seer.

‘You can avoid the demons?’ came a reply.

“I can. Do you wish aid?” I said out loud.

“You rescued the Akhhlognuisi?” came a clear voice directly from a tree.

“We did; gave them a new home on a distant planet.”

“We too would seek escape?” came a reply in a questioning tone.

“We would be glad to help any who want to leave this place.”