Chapter 17

I stood next to Roxanne and Kate on the surface of Nansack as we watched a Higher Power approach.

“Greetings,” we all said politely as it observed us when it came to a halt.

“Greetings to you, Mages.”

“We wish to speak to you of the Akhhlognuisi and the desire of several thousand to return to this, their home world,” Roxanne carefully stated.

“The children of this planet will always be welcome here.”

“What of the Yr’ch? Can you keep them from here now?”

“We can. This Earth is now immune to their intent. They can no longer return here, save if they serve another.”

“We thank you.”

“It is we who must thank you for your part in the great plan.”

And that was that, a large minority of the squids wanted to return and the Higher Powers had said they could. The rest were happy on their new world under a new Power and partially under our care as we helped them to rebuild.

The Orc females that Athena had ... acquired were also settling in reasonably well and were a gold mine of incidental information for us, though knew very little of the other Earths in the Orc cluster of worlds as, essentially, they were servants/slaves to the Orc hierarchy and were used as gifts to their higher orders to give ‘comfort’ as well as being a reward for good service. That the Inquisitor had over thirty of them was a bit of a mystery until one of the females pointed out that their presence and pheromones kept the males off balance during questioning and made lying or prevarication extremely difficult.

The other surprising thing about them was how smart they were. They had virtually no obvious power in Orc society ... save what the male hierarchy allowed and no bio-adaptions; yet, compared to just about every other Orc I knew of from my scanning of the prisoners the Seers had taken, could out-think and out-manoeuvre them all. Not that they did it openly, and certainly not with the Beoghra, but they were supreme at getting their own way as individuals, if they wanted to.

Anyhow, they were now the handmaids of the goddess Athena and no doubt part of her plan to make herself the supreme Power of the Orc society in place of Beog, whom we now knew was the current god/Power and cause of their barbaric expansion.

Athena herself was now being a bit more open, particularly with Roxanne, whom she’d royally pissed off when deviating from the plan to liberate Nansack by offering herself as a goddess to the Orc women. Not that Roxanne would have said no (she was in fact rather pleased that the offer stuck) but, that Athena was working to her own agenda and not that of the mission. Now that this had been cleared up and Athena knew we were aware of her intentions (for a supposed Power, she really underestimated Mage intelligence and reasoning abilities at times) she would talk to us about the best ways of bringing more Orcs over to our side when we freed the next planet we intended to study.

This was the Earth formerly known to its inhabitants as Craachan, though from what we knew, none of the Crach (the original inhabitants and insectoid in appearance) now survived.

“So, it is confirmed. Nansack has fallen to this new enemy?” a dark, cowled figure asked in guttural tones.

“It has, with the loss of all our forces including an Inquisitor, Karkol,” another cowled figure spoke.

“Does the Most High know?” the one known as Karkol asked.

“I will be informing him directly after this meeting of the Beoghra,” came a reply.

“He will not be pleased, Brnnt.”

“When is he ever?” came a sneering reply.

“Can we salvage anything?”

“No, none of our gates there can be activated, not even the deep space one that we used for the Orb.”

“Disturbing.”

“Very. I will be tasking the new Seeker to look fully into their abilities as I cannot imagine that they will not move on to a new world to oppose us.”

“Do we know how they actually did this ... thing?” Karkol asked in puzzled tones.

“I can only imagine that somehow they got to the Orb,” Brnnt replied with the Orc equivalent of a shrug.

“Yes, agreed. I will alert the worlds of the Divinity to guard the Orbs of expansion well.”

“Advise them that numbers alone may not be the solution.”

“Again, agreed.”

“Now we wait,” Brnnt stated, getting signals of assent from the rest of the cowled figures assembled around a table.

“May Beog himself bless our cause!” they all thundered out as the meeting of the Beoghra came to a close.

“Ready?” Roxanne asked.

“Yes,” I replied, glancing over my team and seeing a nod from Arwen who was representing the Seers at this time.

“Site is clear ... as far as I can tell, still jungle, but much reduced in area as the Orcs have spread out massively over this planet,” Arwen added.

“It’ll have to do. You may activate the portal,” Roxanne ordered.

As soon as it was open the cloaked Drow led the way, swiftly followed up by my team, the wolves and the Nosferatu. The first thing that hit us was the smell of ozone in the air as massive energy beams crisscrossed the atmosphere.

“Ugh, revolting,” Marja muttered.

“I’ve warded you against the ozone, but can’t do anything about the rest,” I replied, my eyes and other senses scanning the area.

“I know. We’ll report back in an hour after a good sniff around.”

“Good. Nell, your people know what to do.”

“Yes, John. We’ll have the outer perimeter set up in about half an hour,” she replied with a friendly wave as the Nosferatu ghosted into the jungle.

“Ilzik?”

“Yes, John?” the Drow replied, dropping his cloak to talk to me.

“Check for anything that might have been missed within the perimeter. Unlikely I know, but let’s not get careless here.”

“You got it, John.”

“OK, team. Let’s set up the portal frame in the hollow.”

Clara, Kate and Callum, along with myself, swiftly scrambled up a couple of trees and began to link their branches to form an arch for the portal to be formed in. Not that the Seers needed such a thing, but, it did make things easier for them as it would with a Mage.

A tense hour passed before Adok returned with news from Marja. “All clear, John. Nothing dangerous within ten clicks of us in any direction.”

“Thank you, my friend. Arwen, summon the second wave. Let’s get the fortification started.”

“Of course, Uncle John,” she replied with her usual delightful smile.

The portal flared within the framework and soon the Mage teams along with the Mazdani and Azurans were filing through, pulling the various mentally levitated concrete berms we intended to set up our mini fortress with.

“Cloak!” Arwen ordered as a minute later some form of scan passed over our area. Though fortunately we had time to cloak the Azurans and some of the Mazdani who couldn’t use magic. The wolves and Nosferatu were already cloaked via their amulets as they were tasked as lookouts and scouts.

“Any idea why?” I asked Arwen.

“It’s planet wide, Uncle John. I suspect that after Nansack we’ve upset them greatly and made them nervous.”

“True,” I nodded. “Can we set up a defence or counter for it?”

“Here, yes. Out in the field, it will have to be amulets and a lot of caution as they are using multiple psiontials. Though the Drow will be OK, that cloak they use is damned effective.”

“Yes,” I nodded and activated my own version of it for a second.

“Getting good, Uncle John,” she nodded in approval.

“It’s hard work, but getting easier.”

“Yes, even for me it’s rather complex and needs practice, rather than just knowing how.”

“Could you prioritise the anti-detection warding in the perimeter? I’d like the work to carry on 24/7 until it’s complete rather than have us all dive for cover every time there’s a scan, please.”

“Already on it, Uncle John. We were lucky we didn’t come through in the middle of one. That would have put a massive spanner in the works,” she mused quietly.

“It would,” I nodded. “Once we’re all settled in though, you Seers can have a go at corrupting the psiontials protocols.”

“I’m not a Seer, Uncle John.”

“Yet.”

“True, but compared to them I have so much to study and apply as yet and I’m not with them full time like their apprentices or journeywomen.”

“You have nothing but time, little Lady,” I chuckled.

“Also true,” she giggled. “Ah, Arch is coming through; you’re no longer in charge.”

“Sic transit gloria mundi ... all glory is fleeting,” I chuckled and went to greet him.

“Going well, John,” Arch stated after a quick passive scan.

“Yes, I’ve added an extra layer in the form of a chameleonesque armour cloth over the berms as they are being a bit aggressive in their scans at the moment,” I replied.

“Yep, what they can’t see, they can’t report.”

“Arwen has the camp mentally covered now anyway ... or will have in the next few minutes. Then we can finish off and prepare for a gestalt scan.”

“Yes, having three of them will make it go quicker, though I suspect Roxanne will not want them doing it from here.”

“Not with them lobbing rocks at things they don’t like, no ... I’d guess she wouldn’t.”

“That’s why I’m going to suggest they do it from under an Orc city. Bound to be an unused cave or cellar there they can play from.”

“Plus they can get out if an orbital strike does happen,” I nodded.

“Yes, but we’re hoping that the Orc high command have beefed up the psiontial protocols to prevent such a thing. The last time was bad enough, even if Sofya cleared us of it.”

“I’d rather not be under an orbital strike anyway,” Arwen added with a wry smile as she came up.

“Makes two of us,” Arch chuckled.

“I agree with doing the scan from elsewhere though. I suspect they are being very cautious at the minute.”

“Cautious and liable to strike out at anything they misinterpret,” I nodded.

“Oh, I don’t think they’ll misinterpret our scan ... assuming they detect it. Three of us will be a lot quicker.”

“I still wouldn’t try it here,” Arch shrugged.

“We won’t, Uncle Arch.”

Three days later, having set the encampment up to Arch’s exacting specifications, my team were in the bowels of the Earth in what on our Earth would be called the Krubera Cave around 2,000 metres deep. With us were the three Seers as well as the Nosferatu who had faded into the darkness around us, it being a perfect place for their talents. From what our limited passive scans had told us, the Orcs did not go in for spelunking and had no use for this cave system; indeed, did not appear to have explored it at all. Above us was a colossal Orc city cum fortress which appeared to be used for the manufacture of some form of wheeled vehicle that we hadn’t seen on Nansack. We weren’t entirely sure what they were used for if it wasn’t a military type, nor did it have storage like some sort of truck, yet was too big for personal transport.