Chapter 7

“How the hell did they sneak up on us like that?” I demanded.

‘Don’t know yet, John. I’m analysing the data now,’ Melanie replied.

“Can we use the portal?”

‘Wouldn’t advise it just yet.’

“Camo on, full active scan. If we’re being observed I want to know about it and if necessary kill it! Ilzik, look for a good place to hide up.” I gave out a flurry of orders.

Clara suddenly raised her rifle, nulling up a bullet at the same time and a single shot rang out. There was a gurgling moan as a semi-magical being fell out of a tree to fall heavily onto the forest floor.

“Think it was the one who wanted to turn us in,” she declared laconically, before moving off to extract the bullet and neutralise it.

“Probably,” I nodded. “Now let’s hide up.”

Ilzik had found a pretty good place to hide, as in it didn’t look like a good place to hide. He and Kate were carefully cutting away the thick grass near a small thicket and removing the earth underneath. I’d meanwhile dipped into my pocket universes to pull out several jars of strong smelling instant coffee and handed them over to Kate and Xi.

“Scatter them as far around the site as you can, I suspect the waargs might struggle to scent anything obscured by these.”

Using a very low-level telekinesis spell we literally coated the area for almost a square mile as we monitored the Orc approach. Xi also scattered pepper and chili powder in certain areas as we worked swiftly to make the area a scented nightmare for the waargs. Finally, we slipped under the hides after policing the site and waited.

It took nearly an hour before we caught sight of the Orcs. They were clearly having a great deal of difficulty with what we’d done and it was obvious from the limited mental processes of a Squad-boss, that the waargs could not even approach the area. I could sense Xi passively scanning all who came within her range, though it was obvious that their frustration in finding nothing but the corpse of the semi-magical being was causing good sense and due care in their search to go out of the window. Several areas that looked like good hides were torn apart, though not the area we were hiding under.

Xi suddenly stiffened as a newer type of Orc came into the clearing and she was carefully scanning it and correlating the details with the various other sub-groups she was now familiar with.

“Next rank up I believe,” she murmured softly, having learned the technique when avoiding Daoine Sidhe patrols. “Call this one a Land-boss; it’s a lot more intelligent than a Ground-Boss.”

“Yes, I see the extra natural armour along the spinal column. Looks like it’s protecting an elongated brain,” I replied just as softly.

“More an advanced complex nerve cluster that acts like a magical repeater.”

“It’s a puppet?”

“I suspect it’s being used for a higher rank to examine the scene as well as its own higher abilities.”

“Hope they aren’t too smart, or we could be here for a while.”

The Orc presumably in charge however just brayed out a bellowing call into the air as the search moved on and past us, though the outer edge of the forest was still being patrolled.

“Hold,” I murmured. “They’re dropping something.”

“Some sort of movement sensor coupled with a few other detection algorithms to discern if the movement is intelligent, rather than natural. Seems to also have a portal detector of some shape or form built in, it’s also biological in nature, not electronic,” Clara answered.

‘Interesting use of biotechnology,’ came from Melanie.

“Can you circumvent it, Melanie?” I asked.

‘Working on it, will want to do it in such a way as to not let them know our capabilities.’

“We have time; they don’t appear to be in any hurry to leave.”

Another hour passed and we could still hear the Orcs quartering the site looking for anything of interest. Every so often I’d feel, via my senses, Melanie working, scanning and interpreting the data, usually far too quickly for me to follow.

‘Complex and a lot of safeguards built in to prevent tampering,’ she sent at last. ‘But I think I can fool them.’

“You think?”

‘Nothing I can find to detect a phase shift, John.’

“Good enough for me,” I nodded, getting the rest of my team’s mental acknowledgements as well.

‘I’ll wait till they are further away though, just in case I’m wrong and they come charging in.’

“Any idea how they managed to sneak up on us?”

‘Yes, John, they used a form of cloaking device on their sleds. I’ve worked out a counter for it and they won’t be able to do it again.’

“Seems they’re determined to figure out who is messing them around.”

‘Yes, though the lack of an ambush has them confused.’

“Never be predictable,” I chuckled. “Kate, have you still got that timed high explosive anti-personnel mine in your pack?”

“Yes, John, want me to set it up?”

“Yes, set it for fifteen minutes from when we port out, see it you can figure a lure effect too.”

“You got it, John.”

‘They’re far enough away now,’ Melanie announced.

“How quickly can they get here if they come a running?” I asked.

‘Ten minutes, why?’

“Preparing a surprise for them.”

‘A lethal one I presume?’

“Best kind.”

‘You’re a terrible foe, John.’

“I saw what they did to the squids; I’m not in a forgiving mood. Just open the portal under us and let us fall through,” I replied after seeing a thumbs-up from Kate.

There then was the weird feeling of dropping through a portal only for gravity to flip 90 degrees and land on your feet, a sensation which took a little getting used to.

“Welcome back, John, Clara, Ilsik, Kate,” Melanie greeted us and pointed to a screen showing the site where we’d just left showing a whole host of Orcs racing to where a small battery powered kitchen timer was beeping away.

“Keen,” Clara chuckled.

“Very,” Roxanne, who had just come up, added.

We watched as the Orcs finally reached the site where the alarm was coming from and began milling about pulling the vegetation apart. Finally, just on fifteen minutes the squad leaders, Ground-Boss and the Land-boss approached.

“Perfect,” I murmured.

There was a sudden bang and a small charge boosted the main body of the mine into the air and at just about groin level it exploded massively as well as sending thousands of small ball bearings, claymore style, into the surrounding Orcs.

Crnnch set the small lizard like examiners over the site of the explosion and watched them go over every inch of the site, often burrowing down and dragging small pieces of whatever had caused the explosion to a position in front of him. It was frustrating; all that had been found were small metal balls. Yet they’d ripped apart nearly two hundred warriors and there was no trace of what had caused them. Orcs had anti-personnel weapons, but they were biological in form, acids, solvents, even a rapid flesh-eating plague, but not iron balls, so very, very crude ... if effective.

“Him,” Lagertha the Seer on duty stated, pointing to the Orc standing at the edge of the circle of destruction.

“I see him, what of him?” Roxanne asked mildly.

“He’s in charge; he’s directing those lizard rat things to find the evidence.”

“Recognise the type?” Arch asked.

“No, not seen one like this, fully sentient, not capable of magic, but, well-screened via other means with a lot of bio-enhancements ... a leader of some sort.”

“Interesting,” Roxanne mused. “Well, tag him and see what we can find out.”

“Yes, Roxanne.”

“Marja, how are your people?”

“Recovering, three of us were very badly mauled, but we took them all down.”

“What went wrong?”

“Over-confidence, it won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t, those waargs are tough buggers.”

“Adok said the same thing.”

“They should have listened.”

“Too right they should, he was the only one who avoided any injury.”

“To be fair, they did take down nigh on forty of them Roxanne,” Arch interjected.

“Aye, that’s true, and I wasn’t being critical, just can’t afford to lose any.”

“We’ll do better next time,” Marja nodded with a slight smile.

Crnnch stood at ease whilst his ... rival, Hortcha, went over what was known, which didn’t take too long at all.

“A catalogue of failure,” Hortcha eventually sneered.

“So far,” Crnnch shrugged.

“Whoever it is, seems to want to keep in the shadows, only emerging where they must and destroying the evidence afterwards.”

“Obviously,” Crnnch replied in such a manner as to imply that Hortcha was very much stating the obvious.

“Still, I’m here now to fix your mess,” Hortcha stated implying that Crnnch had failed because he wasn’t worthy of being an Adept.

“Feel free.”

“We’ll start here,” Hortcha added, ignoring the implied contempt. “Looking at where they haven’t been observed.”

“The same could be said of the polar regions.”

“Faugh! Do not mock me, your failure is much discussed amongst your peers and there was a move to have you enlightened; a move I approved!”

“Just pointing out an obvious fact you appear to have missed.”

“Do not presume to correct me unless you wish to challenge me ... and lose.”

“Whoa, a major horde just dropped in around what we’d consider Texas,” Lagertha announced.

“Any idea why?’ Talshish asked.

“None at all, except it’s an area we’ve never operated in.”

“Someone on their side appears to have added two and two and come up with five,” Roxanne murmured.

“Looks that way,” Arch agreed.

“All squads, prepare a few surprises for them, in addition to your normal duties,” Roxanne ordered. “Let’s see if we can give them the run-around.”

“Is this wise, Mage Roxanne?” I asked.

“Calculated gamble, John. They’re obviously looking for us, so I’m going to allow them to think they’ve found us.”

“Nearly a million Orcs?”

“I know, but I’m hoping that we can teach them that numbers will never be enough.”

“Use the Drow, target the leaders,” I suggested.

“I intend to.”

And so began a pattern of small if deadly attacks against the Orcs, small groups and individuals were targeted, often at a distance and usually at night, even though most Orcs had pretty good night vision. Whoever was in charge of the horde, and so far we hadn’t had a glimpse of him, varied his tactics, but as we never wanted to close with him (as yet) it had to be frustrating, after all, a mosquito is a small creature, but a major nuisance eventually.