Chapter 66

We portalled into dense woodlands as this was an area the Orcs had little or no use for. That said, once out of the gorge it was as if a knife had cut a line between the natural countryside and the intensively farmed. Still, the plants they grew for their protein packs were tall and, along with our armour, concealed our presence just as well as we made our way towards the location of the Vultoqi inbound portal. Behind us the other battalions were setting up in the gorge, though not activating any active defences as yet. The Vultoqi themselves appeared to be only using screening forces, a mixture of adelshaut and ghosin to keep a defensive perimeter in place whilst their main thrust to destroy the city of Tinchik was ongoing.

‘Ghosin to your front, ‘ Lagertha warned us.

“Birry, get the leading squad to hit it with a HEAT round. They know the frequency it vibrates pulses at,” I ordered. “Let’s see if we can force them to react and change the thrust of their attack.”

“Yessir!” he replied and mentally sent the order forward as well as ordering the rest of the battalion to hold in place.

There was a loud explosion ahead of us as the missile firer took out the ghosin, followed up by the trilling sounds of the Vultoqi communication as they realised they were under attack.

‘The attack wave that was heading towards Tinchik is now heading your way whilst the perimeter guards are trying to locate your position for them, ‘ Lagertha warned.

“Pull back the left wing to face the approaching Vultoqi. Leading edge, fire at will.” I ordered.

Birry passed the orders on to the other NCO’s as we began to engage the Vultoqi who were currently not using their out-of-phase trick, not that it would have helped them against the self-nulling bullets the Drow were using and the targeting Lagertha was providing.

‘It’s working, all the Vultoqi emerging from the portal are now heading your way, ‘ Lagertha confirmed.

“Fall back, alternate squads,” I ordered. “Clara, drop some rounds on the portal site, let’s not make it easy for them.”

Clara dropped a five round stonk on and about the portal exit, not caring if she got any Vultoqi or not. This was simply to get their attention. We began to pull back towards where we knew our lines had to be.

‘Orcs are here, setting up on the ridge on your right flank, ‘ Lagertha informed.

‘Hope they don’t decide we’re the target, ‘ I mentally chuckled.

‘Land-boss called Tenklar is in charge. He has them well under control and they know we’re allies of Athena.‘

For all the Vultoqi were moving at speed towards us, they weren’t that close, nor did we have to worry about them being between us and our lines this time. Hence there was only a desultory crackling of firepower to our rear as individual Vultoqi from their perimeter got close and they responded with their versions of hellfire and lightning. Nor at the moment were the Vultoqi using plasma pistols against us hence we reached the treeline well ahead of the two main forces who were closing in on us.

‘Well done, John. The Unbroken lived up to their reputation,” Roxanne congratulated Birry and I as we headed to our assigned positions for the ambush we planned.

“It’s why I volunteered us; they have been tempered in the fire to perfection,” I replied, seeing the pride shine out in their eyes as Birry passed on the conversation to them.

“No casualties?” Roxanne asked, although I suspect she already knew.

“None.”

“Good, now let’s get ready to greet them properly and teach them caution.”

“By your command, Mage Roxanne,” we both saluted and headed to our position.

‘Get ready!‘ Arch commanded mentally as he was updated by the Seers on the Vultoqi advance.

Tensions rose as, for all we were hiding our numbers via a mental cloak, the Vultoqi weren’t hiding theirs and there were a hell of a lot of them.

‘Fire!‘ came the command. We opened up at the exposed Vultoqi, sending many tumbling over, cut to ribbons by our intense fire.

The surprise didn’t last long though. The Vultoqi began to engage us with their plasma weapons, advancing at speed in a weaving run, prepared to take casualties in order to close with us. However, due to the narrow gorge, our firepower was highly concentrated and caused them eventually to retreat to what limited cover there was to consider their options.

‘More Vultoqi coming through, all headed your way, ‘ the Seers warned.

‘What of the ones in the city?‘ Arch asked.

‘Still committing genocide.‘

‘Damn! Hoped we’d draw them out.‘

At this point the Vultoqi began another attack, sending a veritable hail of fire at our position, including a variety of plasma with an effective shield-breaker in it which caught several of us and forced our heads down.

“That’s a new one,” Kate murmured.

“Yep, clever. We’ll have to study that as, as far as I knew, that was impossible,” I chuckled grimly.

“Hell.”

Clara, Róisín, Callum, Ilzik and Nell, as part of my small command group, were now dropping mortar rounds from cover on top of the advancing Vultoqi as quickly as they could drop them down the tubes. Whilst this slowed them, unfortunately it didn’t stop them; they continued to advance at speed towards us.

At this point, Tenklar’s command opened up on their flank, throwing them into disarray and forcing another retreat in good order.

“Let’s see what they try now, as I doubt they can get at the Orcs easily with us here to prevent it,” I murmured as casualty reports came in, though fortunately none from the Unbroken.

“Anything on those shield-breakers?” Róisín asked.

“Nothing from the Seers yet. I expect Roxanne has them looking into it as a matter of urgency,” I replied.

“Was it their own fire or that from the plasma guns?” Clara asked.

“Pass.”

“Pity, I kind of hoped someone would know,” she chuckled.

“The Seers will, they’re monitoring the skirmish.”

“True. Here they come again.”

The Vultoqi once more advanced at speed, though tried to keep our heads down by their front ranks constantly firing at us, at least until they reached the line of claymores Arch had planted in amongst various Null emitters. That however just caused those in the rear to pick up the pace as we now opened up with our heavy machine guns and mini-guns. That was when they launched a series of their grenade things towards us. Fortunately they weren’t quite in range for any damage to be done, but it did clear all the crop vegetation away from in front of our lines, which might have been the point. The Vultoqi now began sniping at us from the cover that they’d created and despite them only using pistols, were very accurate with them if they spotted one of us. As yet they hadn’t used a shield-breaker bolt again. Another group of Vultoqi were using their weapons to try to keep the Orcs heads down, though as the Orcs were firing from their armoured vehicles, it was a far harder task to get at one of them, plus the beam weapons were effective against the Vultoqi in the nulled zone and they didn’t have many places to hide.

‘Get ready!‘ Arch warned. ‘The next charge will get them in amongst us!‘

I could sense Tu’tar and his people as well as Athena’s Orcs getting ready to mix it with the Vultoqi, their natural strength being roughly equal to an adelshaut. I could also sense the small squad of Loegrians readying themselves in their powered armour.

“Let the warriors do their jobs,” I advised my battalion. “Ours is to whittle down the ones coming at us, not the ones that get past.”

“You heard the man!” Birry added. “Try to make their job easier by killing as many as you can as I doubt any will be coming back to worry us,” he finished with a grin.

“Here they come!” Clara yelled as nearly a thousand Vultoqi burst from the crop line straight towards our massed fire, but closing faster than we could get them all.

As they reached our lines they were met head on by the Mazdani and Orcs and were rocked back by their prowess. Following orders, we kept our firepower directed at the approaching Vultoqi even as the hand to hand fighting took place over and above the covered trench we were in.

I could also hear the sharp cracks as the Loegrian railguns sought out any Vultoqi who managed to get past the Mazdani and Orcs whilst in the distance my senses told me the Azuran reserve was moving up under Teali to add their firepower to the fight and to ensure no stragglers managed to cause any damage to our lines.

After a brutal, if thankfully short, fight though, the Vultoqi attack ceased and we counted the cost of our first real physical encounter with them.

“Thirty-two of the Unbroken dead, five wounded,” Birry reported. “All down to the Vultoqi’s plasma guns.”

“Gather their dust, that we can honour their memory later,” I sighed.

“By your command,” he nodded.

“Let the rest know how well they fought and how proud I am of them.”

“Yessir!” he replied, pride shining from his eyes.

“We lost three Mazdani and five Orcs,” Róisín reported, having tapped into the Seer network for a few seconds.

“Tu’tar?”

“He’s fine, unwounded and grumbling about how the Drow were too good at killing the Vultoqi off before they got to him,” she chuckled.

“Vultoqi casualties?” I asked.

“Seers calculate they’ve lost over fifteen hundred so far. Seems they can survive being badly wounded so long as they can get back to their lines and some sort of medical help.”

“Right,” I mused. “Wonder what they’ll try next.”

“The old and new enemy have engaged us upon the barren southern island,” a senior adelshaut reported back to the caveatra.

“Can we sweep them aside?” the senior patripure asked.

“Not easily and not without great cost to the adelshaut.”

“Hold them in place and continue our attack on the city. Let us see if they dare to move out and engage us openly.”

“By your command.”

“Looks like they’ve decided to permit us to wither on the vine,” Arch opined as the Vultoqi attacks ceased, except for occasional harassing fire.

“Thoughts?” Roxanne questioned.

“Attack with the second battalion, have the Unbroken ready to cover a retreat or reinforce a breakthrough.”