Chapter 75

Other than what to the Mazdani was a minor skirmish with the Vultoqi observers, little else was happening. We’d clearly caught the Vultoqi by surprise and made it to the barrier of rubble that marked the edge of the no-go zone we and the Orcs maintained. There we were, digging in and sending out cloaked scouts to probe the numbers of Vultoqi we could detect and ensure they weren’t infiltrating towards us. Over in the distance I could sense the Orcs doing the same as we prepared for the inevitable counterattack as well as preparing another of our own with our reserves, leaving the Fae army under Talshish to cover our retreat if the ‘go to hell’ plan was operated.

‘Drones are picking up the visual glitches of a moving Vultoqi cloak, ‘ the Seers warned.

“Won’t help them in the disruptor zone, but it will mean we have no real idea of numbers,” I murmured.

“Think lots, John,” Róisín chuckled.

“No doubt,” I replied with a grin.

There was a series of loud cracks as a multitude of plasma bolts came from the shielded Vultoqi, presumably to keep our heads down. This was followed up by a mass advance by them, using the cover of the debris to try and avoid our return fire.

This rapidly developed into a stalemate as they could not get too close due to our volume of fire. A stalemate suited us just fine; all we were there for was to keep them back, our attack was going in from our main body.

All along the lines, there was the crackle of firearms and plasma bolts as the Vultoqi probed and we responded, both sides took stock of each other. Pressure was developing though on the sector held by the Azurans as the Vultoqi had a lot better cover there and were pushing more adelshaut in to try and breach it. However the Stormforce, under the command of Teali, had the situation in hand, I felt, and it would take a far heavier blow to break them, though casualties were starting to mount on both sides.

It was just when the fighting was reaching a peak that Kordanta ordered our counter in, with the Æsir leading the way, coupled with the Craebh Ruadh and Murian bolt guard. They were able to use their numbers to punch through the few Vultoqi defenders and push towards the main objective, the Vultoqi screen that covered their main operations. This produced a further counter by the Vultoqi on the exposed Æsir flank that was met by the Rutasi to prevent the Vultoqi cutting off the advance.

‘All troops, be aware the Vultoqi appear to be disrupting Null by some means. It is not always effective, but care should be taken!‘ the Seers sent out a warning.

“Must be those patripure thingies,” I opined.

“Reckon so, John,” Clara nodded as she snapped off a shot at a dodging adelshaut causing it to go down with an agonising trilling hiss.

It was soon apparent that our attack was stalled. The Vultoqi had both numbers and cover to prevent any further movement and had massacred the few probes made. Not that they had come away unscathed themselves, but, as they were defending, they had far fewer than we did.

“Main horde is coming up, Seeker,” Slaarg advised.

“Good. Get the blesséd of Ar-Thenna to punch a hole for them in this sector here,” Crnnch pointed on a map. “They understand they have not to do a mass charge?”

“Ordered not to, yes, understand ... debatable,” Slaarg shrugged.

“It is what it is,” Crnnch sighed as the blesséd of Ar-Thenna opened up on a perceived weakness in the Vultoqi lines, creating a gap for the horde to hopefully exploit.

“Advance!” Tenklar ordered the weapon platforms as they led the Yr’ch into battle.

Other than frequent attempts to try and find a way or a means to breach the perimeter of our lines, the Vultoqi were being cautious. The drone operators had noticed a large shielded mass of them near the perimeter of their inner zone, but so far they weren’t moving. Some good news was they were struggling against the Orc horde pouring into the old ruins of the primary fortress. Though again, this was expected to end when the Orcs reached the old killing zone we’d originally set up to contain the Vultoqi.

Kordanta was currently preparing a new assault, using the Veda to cut a hole through a large pocket of Vultoqi who were plugging a gap through which he intended to take the Alliance forces and across the killing zone. How the Veda intended to do this, I did not know, but I was highly interested, as were a lot of other Mages. The Veda were well in advance of humanity on the use of magic, as well as, to a limited degree, technology, though the Loegrians surpassed them in a lot of areas there.

He was also preparing the Loegrian Special Forces to forge into the gap created and keep the Vultoqi at bay, until the rest of the Alliance could move up and secure a new perimeter within a stone’s throw of the Vultoqi inner zone.

Finally the word came through to prepare and it happened. The Veda formed a gravity lens and focussed the power of the sun down on the Vultoqi, completely overloading their energy absorbing abilities and literally frying many of them on the spot. The Vultoqi countered quickly by forming a dense cloud cover, but it was too late as the Loegrians charged into their confused and dazed forces, firing their railguns on rapid fire as well as hitting their rear perimeter with implosion bombs.

Kordanta was then able to bring up the Murian women’s Bolt Guard led by Freya into reinforcing the breakthrough along with Arch and some SeaBees who were carrying reinforced concrete berms to protect our forces and form a perimeter the Vultoqi would struggle to break. Behind them a Seer group, along with Gregorius, began to ‘grow’ a defensive post that the Vultoqi would not easily break and which would enable us, via protected tunnels, to attack or withdraw at will.

He was also then able to adjust our lines to give more support to our advance position as a series of armoured carriers moved forward from the sally port to bring in some much heavier weapons to what was, to all intents and purposes, a forward outpost, if incredibly heavily armed. He also ordered drone strikes at any Vultoqi positions the Seers could spot, including any attacking the Orcs as we attempted to set up a fortress that the Vultoqi couldn’t ignore and couldn’t defeat.

“Our allies have fallen just short of their target and are digging in,” Fumel informed Crnnch.

“Not surprising. It did appear somewhat ambitious. Still, hopefully it will ease the Vultoqi pressure on us,” Crnnch replied as he went over various reports on hard fighting between the horde and the Vultoqi.

“We’re also doing a lot better than we used to against them,” Slaarg noted.

“Still not good enough, ten of the horde to one Vultoqi is still in their favour, particularly as we cannot now replace a horde easily.”

“Yes, but we can now bring up a nanite truck and erect a fortress outpost here and force the Vultoqi to keep their distance. I believe we have at least achieved our objectives, even if it’s not as far forward as we’d have liked. With the correct weapons, it will be able to support our allies by preventing any Vultoqi from getting in behind their outpost,” Fumel added.

“Yes,” Crnnch nodded. “Let’s cut our losses and bring up the support equipment Ar-Thenna has designed for us.”

“By your command, Seeker.”

Two hours later the Orcs had connected three nanite assembly vehicles to a power and water supply that their allies had dragged through the earth for them. They had positioned the vehicles and their command interfaces in a vacant area behind their lines and begun the growth cycle by remote. The results were impressive to anyone not having seen it before as the powered nanites expanded as well as absorbed the surrounding materials to form a deeply armoured and complex bunker that had positions for a series of heavy-duty beam weapons as well as sundry small arms ports. Into this were being portalled various supplies from their allies as the orders went out to the horde to withdraw and take positions in their new, mostly underground, fortress.

Initially the blesséd of Ar-Thenna were taking up the defence positions as well as mounting the heavy weapons, screens and anti-Klarven sonic disruptors whilst Tenklar’s command held back the sporadic Vultoqi counterattacks as the Vultoqi in general appeared to be more concerned over the actions of their allies and their proximity to the Vultoqi inner zone.

“We should have asked the Orcs for a fort,” I chuckled, during a lull in the fighting as I observed the Orc fort being constructed in minutes.

“Would have been quicker,” Kate replied with a grin.

“Yep, but Kordanta wanted the Vultoqi to think we had the weaker position, despite the fact the weapons we are mounting will be far more deadly to them, even if they can block the Null bullets a lot of the time,” Róisín added.

“Yep, their screens are good, but oft times not good enough,” I agreed as in the distance we could hear the yammering of a 50-cal machine gun, along with what appeared to sound like a 40mm Bushmaster automatic cannon, presumably firing armour piercing.

“I suspect they aren’t enjoying our attack, even if they did manage to stop us before their zone,” Clara added as she scanned the area for adelshaut infiltrators.

“Probably not, though I suspect they’ll try some form of mass attack soon.”

“Yes, John, then we’ll see just how good Kordanta’s plan is,” Clara nodded.

“We have been unable to displace or cause grievous casualties to the new and old enemies,” the senior adelshaut stated to the caveatra.

“This is disturbing,” the senior patripure replied to the caveatra as a whole.

“Indeed,” stated another. “With a triumvir of patripure there to assist in defending them, we should have destroyed them in place.”

“Their weapons, even without the quantum displacement devices, are still powerful enough to breach many an adelshaut’s shield,” the senior adelshaut said into the silence.

“Let us summon the dark god and see what he advises,” the senior patripure finally stated.

“Agreed,” came a consensus of thought from the caveatra who immediately began the mantra of summoning.

“SPEAK, SERVANTS OF PURITY!” came the words from a formless shadow.

“We, your caveatra, are facing potential defeat from our many enemies. The mass of our adelshaut are trapped on the world of the old enemy and cannot come to our aid. The new enemy have almost penetrated to the expanded echtra,” reported the senior patripure.