Chapter 68

It was several hours later that the Alliance Command came to its decision, recommendations and requests would be sent out to the various governments and leadership for units to be made available to take on the Vultoqi. Command was given to Marechal Kordanta of Murias, though mostly the smaller units of the Veda and Maraú-Uxuí would command themselves, simply taking requests from Kordanta and finding their own way to do it.

It was on this point that I was with Morgana as she spoke to Maurice and Galadriel of the Maraú-Uxuí and V’dun’trak representing the Veda.

“We wish to know if there is anything we can offer to make your people’s stay with us as least stressful as possible,” Morgana began.

‘I will be travelling with our warriors Mage Morgana and will create a weave in their quarters to soothe their stresses from being so far from the Clutter,‘ Galadriel replied in her piping mental voice that was extremely disconcerting coming as it was from a four foot tall arachnid.

‘We will be as comfortable as possible, most of our warriors fought alongside your people and know what to expect,‘ Maurice added.

“It is good that the Maraú-Uxuí still honour the Alliance. We were gratified as to the warning you gave us of the Orcs,” Morgana replied with a formal bow.

‘We take our obligations seriously,‘ Galadriel replied.

“As do the Veda,” buzzed V’dun’trak. “Our technomancers will cope well with your people as Tchac’trar has passed much information onto the clans and we have prepared suitable dwellings for them.”

“This is good to know, your people’s knowledge has helped greatly in bringing about a reduction of the threat from the Orcs,” I replied.

“Tchac’trar speaks highly of this expedition and was deeply honoured to have an invitation to Tír na nÓg to witness the mating ceremony of his friend Ilzik.”

“His friendship is valued by all,” I replied with a formal bow.

Roxanne came under close questioning after the meeting from the various members of the Command on several of the measures that we’d used to bring down the Orc regime and the chain of events that led to the Vultoqi problem being unleashed upon the universe. All these she was able to answer at length and give the Command some insights to the problems we now faced, particularly with regard to ongoing issues with the Orc leadership.

“Congratulations old friend,” I greeted Kordanta as he approached with Vaniralla Freya when the decisions had been made.

“Thank you, John,” he replied with a friendly smile. “Hell of a mess you’ve given us though.”

“Wasn’t by design. I suspect we’d have managed the Orcs eventually as they’ve never really got a grip on what we can do. But the Vultoqi are something else entirely.”

“Yes, a great deal remains a mystery about them, though our weapons and the modifications and adaptions you Magiciens of Earth have proposed should enable us to at least take on their adelshaut in a fluid battle.”

“Aye, though we’re still going to have to be careful with the likes of their ghosin, plus possibly their troichin,” Roxanne added.

“Yes, plus there’s also a creature called a klarven that has yet to appear, assuming it does which might be a very great menace to non-Mages who aren’t armoured in Mage style,” I agreed.

“We’ll deal with what life throws at us, though it looks like it will take at least a month to sort out the various dispositions via the various planetary leaderships,” Kordanta nodded.

“A very long month,” Roxanne sighed.

“It is good of you to join us, Seeker,” Archimandrite Brnnt responded when Crnnch entered the Council chamber.

“Thank you, revered Archimandrite,” Crnnch replied as he approached the stand where he would be questioned.

“We have asked you here to discuss some of the more disturbing reports we’ve received from the battlefield,” Takkas began without any form of introduction.

“We won, I fail to see what is disturbing about that,” Crnnch replied calmly.

“In a manner of speaking, yes. However it is obvious from reports that you had the aid of this new enemy and the false goddess Ar-Thenna,” Ambost rebutted.

“I used all possible means to drive the Vultoqi back from our cities, I could not have done so without them,” Crnnch shrugged.

“Are you a follower of Ar-Thenna?” Flernos asked in menacing tones.

“Yes.”

“Infidel!” Flernos almost screamed, pointing a finger at Crnnch, who simply stood there indifferently.

“Beog or this Council can strike me down if they can, but so far I have seen no signs of Beog since he failed to seal the Vultoqi away. Hence I will go with what is working, not what doesn’t,” Crnnch finally replied after it became obvious that Flernos was not having the effect he thought he would.

“We can have you struck down!” Ambost snarled.

“Feel free to try.”

“Archimandrites! Brnnt broke in. “This meeting is to sort out the current situation with the Vultoqi, not to start a debate on who or what the Seeker believes in. If Beog so desires, I’m sure he will strike the Seeker down, as it happens, he hasn’t. Hence let us return to the subject of improving our response to the Vultoqi’s attacks on our cities.”

“Essentially we need better weapons, the plasma pistols are a good start, but they are limited, we need more powerful versions with longer range and faster recharge times,” Crnnch stated. “Better shields would be good too.”

“The TechnoYr’ch are under instructions to find more and better weapons,” Karkol replied.

“We also need time, time to train in these weapons use. Running up to a Vultoqi screaming has a tendency to only result in the death of the screamer.”

“Yes, we’ve noticed that,” Brnnt replied with a dry chuckle.

“How was Ar-Thenna able to give you victory over these Vultoqi?” Annat asked.

“All she did was close the inbound portal, then highlight the Vultoqi and remove their ability to shield. Our weapons were then able to do the rest as we moved from one infiltration to another,” Crnnch replied politely.

“In short she did very little?” Ambost sneered.

“In short she did enough without grand showy gestures. We could not have fought effectively without her aid. Something that Beog never offered in the past.”

“Your blasphemy continues to offend, Seeker,” Flernos grated out.

“My job is to ensure our race survives, by all means be offended, but do not try to maintain a moral highground over the failures of the past and Beog’s part in them,” Crnnch riposted.

“Beog brought glory to our race!”

“Beog brought misery to billions of Yr’ch on the outer worlds who merely existed, not lived as true Yr’ch should,” Crnnch shrugged indifferently.

“This is beside the point, honoured Archimandrites,” Brnnt interjected. “Seeker, your views on the Vultoqi and our grunts arms are worthy of great thought and this Council will no doubt seek to improve the chances of our grunts as they battle the Vultoqi.”

“I would know more of these followers of Ar-Thenna,” Zorst spoke up.

“My reports to this Council tell you all I have learned,” Crnnch replied.

“Yet you and those you command will have witnessed how they fight as well as any abilities they have. Please be forthcoming now.”

“My initial thoughts were that they were a worthy foe, one that we could eventually defeat ... once we had found out where they are from. I now believe that had not the Vultoqi come to the fore, they would have defeated us, after all, they had no problem throwing us off the conquered worlds and returning them to their gods. Even here on Draenoric I believe they would eventually have overcome the regime and cast down Beog, despite his godhood. And all this, revered Archimandrites, without us knowing essentially who or what they are.”

There was silence in the room as the Archimandrites took in all Crnnch had to say, some clearly wanted to dispute the facts with him, yet realised that his conclusions, though unpalatable were backed by what data they had.

“And what do we know now?” Zorst asked.

“They are psionically powerful, matching at least the lower ranks of the Vultoqi. Their weapon capability surpasses ours in many ways even if mostly their technology doesn’t, plus they use their psionic capabilities to supplement those weapons to breach shields and nullify other psiontists abilities. They are Yr’chlike in appearance, if smaller, but are formidable warriors in their own right. Their armour matches ours in strength yet they have woven avoidance imagery into it and are difficult to detect even when moving and nigh on impossible when they aren’t.”

“In short a formidable foe or perhaps, a worthy ally in our fight against the Vultoqi,” Karkol concluded, frowning slightly at a thoughtful looking Zorst.

“Well the good news is that the Vultoqi are keeping their heads down at the moment and probably assessing the results of their raids and our response,” Xi updated us on our return from the meeting on Tír na nÓg.

“Well it enabled us to rest the Dökkálfar and replenish their losses,” Quruth added.

“Yes, they have taken the brunt of the casualties so far,” Roxanne nodded. “How is their morale?”

“Still high and we have a surfeit of Dökkálfar who wish to apply to fight with us.”

“That is good to know however much we dislike the casualties inflicted.”

“We Dökkálfar understand this. It is not a safe profession after all.”

“The experience has improved the performance of the survivors too,” Talshish added.

“It has indeed and we now have several junior officers from the ranks,” Quruth agreed.

“How are the Orcs doing?” I asked.

“We have been told that the supply of plasma pistols has increased, we have been using Loegrian battery tech to replace the power cells in the Athena believers weapons as their versions have a faster surge rate leading to a more powerful output for the same energy triggering,” Vilton replied.