Chapter 70

Again we were expanding the alpha site on the Loegrian side to accommodate new arrivals, though so far we only had the various commanders or their equivalents going over the mass of data we had on the Vultoqi, both known and surmised. It was good to see some old friends such as Hector of the Rutasi and Vaniralla Freya representing the Murians along with Kordanta of Murias who was the supreme military commander of the forces. It was also very unusual to see Host-seeker Galadriel of the Maraú-Uxuí scuttling around the camp along with Maurice, the leader of their fighting force. It was very noticeable that Galadriel spent an inordinate amount of time with the Seers, exchanging information ... I presumed, as Abi wasn’t giving away anything.

The one bit of good news the Seers did share with us was that they could now crack the Vultoqi blocking so that our communications and transportation were once again open to us. They also expressed concerns that the Vultoqi were up to something as all their incursions had again ceased, which generally meant they were planning something to surprise us ... or the Orcs.

Currently the plans, though in their infancy, were to eventually start an attack inside the Vultoqi zone and try and take the fight to their border and get the Seers into a position where they could study it. I knew both Arch and Roxanne had extreme reservations as to our ability to actually do this, even with the forces we could bring to bear. Still, Kordanta and the others were taking these into account and trying to come up with some form of strategy that might stand a chance.

Our biggest problems were that the Vultoqi numbers were unknown, as was the power and prowess of the patripures, plus their various other non-intelligent creatures that were known to be out in numbers on the side of the zone that we could scan.

On the plus side, Athena had volunteered to assist in any attack and, if necessary, get us out if, as many suspected, it went tits up.

“It’s too quiet,” Crnnch mused as his commanders were out on an inspection tour of the fortress.

“I agree, Seeker. But there is precious little we can do. It’s not as if we can go on the offensive, except for occasional probes by the armoured weapon carriers and even then they cannot work outside the range of the fortress guns,” sub-Adept Tenklar replied.

“We are being supplied with more plasma pistols though,” Slaarg noted.

“That definitely is something,” Crnnch nodded. “Any word on more powerful versions?”

“Sadly no, Seeker,” Kurl replied. “The TechnoYr’ch are being close-mouthed as to any ... if any, progress.”

“Nothing unusual there. They keep trying to get me to hand over the nanite plants and I believe that they will not do anything until that is done,” Crnnch shrugged.

“I believe it was only your threatening the chief TechnoYr’ch that has got us these weapons,” Fumel chuckled.

“Undoubtedly so, though the downside is lack of innovation on their part,” Crnnch sighed.

“Seeker, activity in the zone!” Tenklar warned.

Crnnch turned and sent a nanite swarm to investigate in the direction that Tenklar was pointing. He immediately detected a swarm of insectile type bugs racing across the ground in vast numbers towards the fortress walls.

“Sound the alert! Klarven inbound!” he ordered.

All along the lower edge of the fortress walls the various observation windows and slits were closing whilst from the top the grunts were launching various area-effect weaponry ahead of and on top of the fast approaching swarm of bugs.

“Electrify the surface!” Slaarg bellowed out an order.

The klarven, despite massive losses, pressed on across the killing zone relentlessly until they reached the fortress walls and a series of pops and crackles began as the highly energised layers reacted across their bodies, blowing them apart in droves. Yet still they came on, using the insulated bodies of their fallen to climb ever higher.

The Orcs fought desperately to try and keep the klarven at bay, but were unable to prevent a fast-moving attack of adelshaut from approaching the walls as well, placing several glowing egg-like objects against the base of the fortress and retreating. Despite the efforts of the allies of Athena to prevent this, the adelshaut were using the bodies of their dead as shields against the firepower raking their advance.

Within seconds of the adelshaut placing the last object, there was a massive explosion which ripped the walls of the fortress open as if they were tissue paper, breaching them in several places. At this point a massive Vultoqi advance began, aimed squarely at the breaches. Racing across the killing zone, taking advantage of the Orc distraction and the limited firepower of the allies, they, despite casualties, were able to get into the fortress and continue their attack.

“Begin to pull back to the secondary fortress,” Crnnch ordered. “Set the demolition charges as they retreat.”

“The majority of our areas still hold, Seeker,” Fumel informed him.

“They won’t for long once the klarven get into the ancillary ducts,” Crnnch replied.

“True,” Fumel sighed.

Soon a series of explosions rippled through the fortress, occasionally punctuated by the sizzling crack of plasma fire as the Orcs desperately fought the Vultoqi and occasionally their own under the control of a klarven.

‘We cannot hold. The Orcs are in full retreat, ‘ I informed Arch telepathically as the various parts of the fortress fell to the implacable attack.

‘I agree. The Seers are setting up portals now, ‘ came the reply.

There was an agonised cry as one of the Drow fell to his knees, a large black bug having latched onto his neck, though fortunately being unable to breach his armour, simply squeeze very painfully. Clara used her powers to simply force it to release its grip and placed it into a cage she constructed, presumably to give it to Xi and her team.

I, in the meantime, sealed the ripped open grill it had forced its way through as others did likewise.

“Nasty little buggers,” I murmured glancing over the creature as Clara and Róisín examined it.

“I agree, John,” Róisín nodded. “My initial scan tells me it’s capable of controlling any creature with a central nervous system by blocking neural activity from the host and causing them to act as a puppet to kill anything in sight for as long as it can. They then apparently lay eggs in the bodies to grow more klarven.”

At this point a portal opened and the Drow, followed by the command group hurried through before Kate set off the demolition charge timer.

“So, the impregnable fortress fell,” Ambost announced sarcastically.

“I fail to understand where you got the idea it was impregnable from,” Karkol rebutted him. “It might possibly have been if your precious TechnoYr’ch had managed to come up with new weaponry rather than have our grunts rely on a weapon the enemy developed.”

“They have them under development, they were relying on the MilitaryYr’ch to buy them the time they needed to move from design to production,” Ambost riposted.

“Were not the Vultoqi attacks outside the fortress warning enough that time was limited?” Brnnt asked mildly.

“Here was me presuming that the ‘forces of Ar-Thenna’ were capable of assisting or even taking the fight to the enemy on their own,” Takkas sneered.

“I don’t recall Ar-Thenna ever claiming to be all powerful, all seeing and all knowing. Unlike Beog, who clearly wasn’t any of those either, despite his claims,” Karkol chuckled grimly.

“She hasn’t,” Annat confirmed. “I’ve taken the time to go over all her claims and it appears she doesn’t go in for idle boasting.”

“Pah, a weak goddess is of no use to the Yr’ch,” Flernos replied indignantly.

“As opposed to Beog who claimed to be strong, yet has mysteriously vanished, or is dead, as the Ar-Thennan’s claim?” Karkol all but laughed.

“Then we need to appeal to whoever killed Beog ... assuming he is dead,” Zorst replied.

“I’d presume if this god wanted to speak to us, he, or indeed she, would. At the moment I suspect they simply want us dead and the Vultoqi out on the rampage.”

“Seems likely, after all, if they killed Beog, they are unlikely to be a friend of ours, particularly as they have made no attempt to contact us,” Brnnt nodded

“Ar-Thenna is no friend of ours,” Flernos shrugged.

“Other than helping our grunts reduce the Vultoqi infestations in our cities?” Karkol laughed in his face.

“Taking credit for something our brave grunts could have managed for themselves, more likely,” Takkas sneered.

“Something they’d never managed before and would be unlikely to manage again without her aid, unless or until these mysterious new weapons turn up,” Karkol rebutted.

“One would almost believe you to be a follower of Ar-Thenna yourself,” Takkas stated with deadly intent.

“Indeed I am, what of it?” Karkol replied.

“Then die, heretic!” Takkas snarled and fired a concealed plasma pistol directly at Karkol, hitting him directly in the chest.

“Bit rude,” Karkol chuckled as Takkas stood open mouthed at the uninjured Yr’ch.

It was then that several other beams lanced out at other Archimandrites as others dived for cover even as the chamber door exploded inwards along with the bodies of two Seekers...

“There is trouble on Draenoric,” Athena announced to Crnnch and his advisors after a mental summons to their conference room.

“In what way and how can we help?” Crnnch replied, forgoing greetings as this appeared to be urgent and Athena never seemed too bothered about them anyway.

“A coup. The Archimandrite Takkas attempted to murder Karkol and failed. This caused a split in the Council, but was exacerbated by TechnoYr’ch fighters and temple guards seizing key locations and causing chaos in various cities. I would like you to help evacuate my people as currently it appears Takkas’ faction are currently in some control and look likely to begin mass executions if they can deal with the few areas that remain under the control of Brnnt and Karkol.”

“What of the Seekers?”

“The TechnoYr’ch are using a device to shut down your higher functions, they have also isolated the Military horde and are using various weapons against them to destroy them in place. To make matters worse, there’s also some other god interfering with my ability to aid my people.”