Vala radiated a wall of light from her right hand while firing her pistol with her left. She landed every shot, taking the helmets off the ifreet leading the charge. The human soldiers followed with bursts from their rifles and in a matter of minutes they brought the last of their foes down. To the east, the Sentinels were slaughtering what remained of the main force. Vala loved her metal cousins. They rolled over the Anunnaki and their ifreet contingent and left only a pile of scrap behind. There were even rumors that they slew an Archeus in a previous fight. They denied that rumor, of course.
She saw one of the sentinels standing over a heap of Anunnaki shells. Though his quantum-rolled astrolloy features remained static, there was somehow an air of melancholy about her machine cousin.
“I’m Vala,” she said, extending her arm as she approached.
The Sentinel clasped her forearm and bowed his head. “I know of you, Colonel. I’m S-29 Akira, and I am honored that we’ve met.”
“And I’m honored to have fought beside you. You look sad, soldier. Have you lost someone dear to you?”
He looked down at the Anunnaki heap. “We all have.”
“Ah. And it was your unfortunate task to fight what was once your ally. I won’t tell you not to feel depressed, but do not feel guilty. You did my brethren a kindness.”
“That sentiment kept me focused, Colonel. Thank you for your validation.”
“And thank you for your courage. Shown now, and long ago.”
The Sentinel bowed again, then looked ready to ask a question.
“You seem to have something on your mind, S-29 Akira.”
“I’m not sure how to feel about using human soldiers.”
“Because of their fragility?”
“More their finality. Both our kindreds live beyond our vessels, barring extreme and very specific circumstance.”
Vala nodded. “I encourage you to ask them how they feel. Let their own voices reveal their hearts to you.”
The Sentinel cocked his head thoughtfully, then nodded. “Thank you, Colonel. I’m glad we spoke.”
“Be well, Soldier.” She bowed and moved on, heading towards the mobile HQ. The Immortal class vehicle towered above all the tanks and missile trucks. It looked to Vala like a mountain range with its heavy shoulders rising above the morning mist. She passed through that mist and climbed the mountain, riding the lift that dropped down between its two sets of fore treads.
Inside was dimly lit, with most of the illumination coming from the controls and displays at the various duty stations. The CIC boasted an impressive holomap and display console. The section chiefs and Colonels Sensus left with Vala were gathered there.
“Colonel,” said Ramses, one of the chiefs and her closest friend. He had his skullfort off, and the light from the map cast a deep shadow that his sharp features cut through.
“Colonel,” she said back. “What have we got?”
Ramses shook his head. “More decoy forces. We’re going to wear ourselves put if we keep chasing patsies.”
His accent had a way of putting her at ease. She nodded her acceptance of his assessment, then looked to the rest of her command staff. A few expressed differing views, while most agreed.
“Fountain?” she said.
The big man was leaning so far into the map his noses had pushed through the hills on the northern horizon. His hunter head was growling softly while it peered intently at the blips indicating ifreet and Anunnaki movements.
“We do to them what they do to us,” his speaking head answered. Then all three laughed. He drew a trio of lines with one claw as he spoke. “We split our army to make it tempting, then we spy with small groups. Give me three good soldiers and we will wait and listen.” He turned to his hunting head and smiled into its savage quartet of eyes. “He will know when we have found their headquarters.”
“And then?” Vala asked.
He turned to his feeding head. “Then he will feast.”
“Hmmmm…” said Ramses, “I think he’s right. They are spread very thin. We can play their game against them and draw their decoy patrols in whichever direction we want. The signal that doesn’t attack will be the signal we want.”
“Possibly,” Vala said.
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“My instincts tell me Black Fountian is right, Colonel. I want to be a part of his fireteam.”
“Yes,” Black Fountain laughed. “Come with is, Colonel. Let it be four of our mightiest.”
Something urged her to agree, though her conscious mind was screaming for caution. Her impulses won. “Go choose our fourth, Fountain.”
He shoved off the console and roared, then thudded his way to the door and leapt to the ground.
Vala and Ramses followed in a hurry, and as they did, she quickly delegated command of the split forces. They too bypassed the lift, using their radiance to slow and cushion their landing. She saw Black Fountain walking towards S-29 Akira, who was sitting on the ground with a special warfare team of humans.
“Akira,” said Fountain, “come with me!”
The Sentinel high-fived the humans before standing, then followed Black Fountain to the rallying point Vala designated while she was exiting the Immortal.
“Colonel,” Akira said with a bow.
“What did you learn from the humans?” she asked.
“That they would feel worthless if they were again left out of our tactics.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Commanding officers swarmed around the rallying point, and a truly felt vigor she issued their orders. Then they were off, three small scouting parties and them, finding a shadowy hollow in a jutting spear of rock to hide inside while they watched their divided force lure their enemy on their vams.
The ifreet forces took the bait. They moved in from the hills and the shadows of the arch trees; massive stone towers born from a near collision with some gravity rich interloper. Theor split force took advantage of their increased mobility, drawing many of the decoy squadrons into the open.
Black Fountain hissed, then adjusted the display on his vam. All three heads shook, and he resumed his eager watch.
Shells thundered in the distance, and they saw one half of their force lit by six growing plumes on their vams. Black Fountain growled three times., but he wasn’t ready. Vala felt her heart quicken. S-21 Akira’s lament repeated itself in thought.
Another volley hit the eastern front, Black Fountain’s hunter head froze, looked at the vam, waited. A missile landed, killing hundreds and wounding several teams so badly they were for the time out of the fight. Vala winced when she felt the screams in the passive waves that connect all Harbingers who are near. The hunter head now looked upward, then north, and with a triune hiss Black Fountain rose.
The serpent’s glory, hidden in the grass, Black Fountain cast a shroud. From only a hundred paces they looked like a gust of wind. They might wonder why it moved against the prevailing advection, but they would be blind to the threat enclosed within the illusion.
Black Fountain ran like no other bipedal being. The vid’redic were powerful creatures, and he, a radiant one, only the Sentinel could keep pace with him. Ramses and Vala ran as quickly as they could, and exchanged reckless smiles as they felt the boundary of Black Fountain’s aura warming their heels. They readied their weapons, ready for a bloodbath, but the Ophidian and the prisoner stopped.
“A shroud like mine,” said Black Fountain.
“Much stronger,” said Ramses.
“More lenses bulbs.”
Vala looked back at their path. They’d climbed a long, sloping hill, and there was a deep vale cut into one side. There was nothing there but an impossibly mild anticyclone.
“Here,” she said.
“You lead,” Black Fountain told Akira.
The Sentinel leaned down at the edge of the vale. With his powerful and versatile sight, Ramses had the skill to intemperate the images shown by his visor in unique ways.
“Help him,” she said.
She and Fountain followed their guides, and as the sounds of battle grew distant, Vala issued a command over her vam for the nearby scouts to relay her order to withdraw out of range of their artillery, which was stationed behind the mountains.
Akira was invaluable during their approach. The sentinels were physically gifted on such a par they could contend with the Harbingers. Of special note was the fine precision of their construction. Akira moved silently at speed, and never revealed himself to a single patrol, even stalking in the blind spots of their vision. Soon there was a path of corpses between them and the enemy’s mobile HQ.
There’s was smaller than the Immortal. Smaller and faster. Vala shuddered at the vibrations coming from the Anunnaki inside. She sensed only two, fortunately. While Akira and Ramses scouted around the vehicle, Vala readied herself for combat, sizing up the corpses of the ifreet. Stoutt, muscular, with armor so jagged and twisted it looked almost like a carapace, and two short horns sprouting out of slots in their helmets.
One twitched, and she heard a rattling croak come from the vent over its mouthpiece. She was ready to kill it, but then it lay still, so she waited. She was beginning to feel impatient when Ramses signaled to her. They could hear their opponents speaking.
Ramses suddenly turned and signaled the right of ingress. They burst into the vehicle, leaping up its treads and blasting their way with augmented ammunition through the hyperfiber hatch. There were none but the Anunnaki there and a sudden ifrit, and after a short but fierce fight, the vehicle, and its information, was there’s.
“What were they saying?” Vala asked. “When you had us waiting.”
Ramses and Akira exchanged a look. Ramses spoke first. He looked worried.
“It’s hard to say, they may be coming for the Archeus, or the kzinti, but they are not coming to join with either faction. Still, they will be a threat to us.”
“Who?” she asked.
He looked embarrassed. “I thought you might have heard, Colonel. They said their name many times.”
“Who?” she repeated, her patience thinning.
“My promordial kindred,” said Akira.
Sensus commanded Vala to hold the line, and to take the fight to the enemy if possible, which she had done. Things were about to change. “Retrieve whatever you can and get this heap back to base. I need to send a subspace to Albion.”