“Just how far back do these histories extend?” Morwen asked.
Perthran smiled, the wrinkles lining his forehead compressed softly. “For many centuries. My predecessors have even ventured outside of our own archeological foot prints and documents instances of habitation by beings that predate this colony.”
“Predate it? By how long?”
Perthran smiled, “Roughly 149,000 to 150,000 years into the past easily.”
Morwen gasped softly. “Who inhabited this world previously?”
“The real question though, is what lived here first.” Perthran said, pushing an aged leather bound tome in front of her. The tomes yellowed pages had drawings of several constellations. It wasn’t a night sky she was familiar with though. Her head canted to the side as she tried to recognize any of constellations and came up short. She glanced back up to him.
“Where did these come from?”
Perthran flipped back a few pages to a drawing of a cave. “This is in a mountain range on the opposite side of the world. The night sky wasn’t the only art work we found in those caves. We think they belonged to a long extinct race of beings who went extinct after a great cataclysm.”
Morwen studied the drawing eagerly, making note of the constellation, and several other drawings. Her blood ran cold when she stopped at the image of a large blue dragon larger than the planet itself.
“What is that?”
“If I had to guess. I’d say that’s what gives Hidros its namesake.”
“A dragon?”
“If we understand correctly. Hidros was killed, and his corpse seeded the world with intense water magic. Another few thousand years and we might have seen naturally occurring drakes growing up in the wild. The large serpents are common enough as is.”
Morwen’s brow furrowed. That felt odd to hear, she’d seen wild well springs before. This would should be swimming in growing wildlings. So what was stunting their growth so slowly?
As if puzzling out what Morwen was thinking about Perthran nodded, “Yes. Why are the wildlings so young and immature? Unfortunately, we have no answer to that question, but I suspect it lies within the mountains at the edge of the fertile lands near Hidros’ Sorrow.”
She secretly suspected that somehow someone or something had capped the wellspring. A ward or spell to dampen is magical output. Instead of a category 10 or 5 well, it registered as a 1. That would easily place it beneath the gaze of the likes of Ominek and the Sauridius. She opened her mouth to share the thought and paused. Perthran canted his head. “You have the look of a researcher with an untested hypothesis.”
She smiled, apologetically. “I do. I think someone placed a ward or seal over Hidros’ body. It would have to be demi-god level at a minimum to cause Ominek and the rest of Sauridius’ spawn such a hard time accessing the magic. But who could have cast such a protection spell?” Some questions she was certain she wouldn’t get the answer to. Not until after they’d removed the threat that Ominek presented. Realizing she’d gleaned as much as she could from here, she decided it was finally time to return to the team and get to work finishing the job. She gathered her things and hastily left the archives.
The Crasher’s cargo bay had been configured into a command war camp. As she debated their next move, she wanted to remain as close to the ground as possible in case Ominek ambushed their position. She’d returned from her trip to the historian with a great deal more information than she had previously. Hidros was not just a name the humans had given the world, it belonged to a god. One whose life someone had claimed here. That lent Morwen to believe that Ominek was after what remained of the god's power. A powerful well of water magic would have much use. Ominek was already a powerful shackler, and with a great deal of water magic, he could erect several shields and complex wards. Enough to cage a god, perhaps.
This left her extremely concerned. Preventing Ominek from getting this magic was paramount. Which left her invariably pinched between her task and needing to be expedient. If she rushed in blindly, she’d suffer great losses and potentially lose the overall outcome. It became a paced race, not a sprint. And she hated feeling uncertain if her pace was the correct one. She’d allowed her forces a few hours to catch their breath, rearm, rest, and prepare to march. Her allotted time for that rest was nearing its end when she received a message on the communications device that Admiral Smits had given her. She pressed the green accept button, and the Administrator’s round face appeared in the small screen.
“Captain Morwen. Good, I’m glad you answered. I understand you’ve been busy fighting off the last of the Sauridius forces on our surface, and I wanted to invite you to join us in the capital city for a celebration parade.”
Confusion tackled Morwen. “Celebration? Parade?”
The administrator nodded, “Yes, Captain. I realize there may have been some tension between us previously regarding your legitimacy here, but that doesn’t matter now that you’re the hero of Hidros as well.”
She regarded him suspiciously for a moment. A parade would be the perfect opportunity to ambush them. And she profoundly disliked the idea of dangling herself in the open like bait, knowing full well Ominek was maneuvering for time. Still, it would get them into the capital city, and she might finally address the administrator. She still had her suspicions, but it was also just as possible he was this incompetent naturally. Military strategy wasn’t exactly a necessary component for planetary administration on a mundane level. Still, she could turn this trap around on the Administrator and at least use the opportunity to remove him as a thorn in her side for the rest of the conflict here. She’d need some help to set her trap, though.
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“Very well, Administrator, I’ll provide you your victory parade. I’ll even give a rousing speech to your populace.”
The Administrator looked mildly perplexed but relented. She was still going along with his plan, so whatever she intended to do mattered little in the grand scheme, apparently.
“Very well, Captain. That will do.”
Morwen hit the red end call button, and the screen went back to the default Brotherhood logo. She stuffed it back into her pocket and then tugged her navy blue uniform jacket straight. The medals on her left breast jingled slightly, and she smoothed them out. She channeled a little dark magic, and a nimbus of violet energy glowed around her feet as she floated off the deck of the ship and descended to the grass. She marched with her arms behind her back purposefully. A brief walk later, she neared the smaller portion of the camp where the mages camped. She found Akamori’s newer spell armor and zeroed in on him.
Amara gave her a welcoming nod, and Akamori turned to face her. They’d agreed no salutes in the battlefield, so he simply offered a nod. “Sir.”
“LT.” She offered back. She didn’t wait for him to ask what brought her over, cutting right to it. “The Administrator has requested our presence to throw a victory parade over the Sauridius forces on the surface.”
Akamori and the rest of the mages all blinked. Akamori’s professional shell cracked with a brief chuckle. “He’s joking, right? You told him that was just a stalling force, right?”
She shook her head, and he gave her a confused look. “I don’t get it. Why not?”
“I have a hunch. But I need to play along a bit longer to figure if it’s merited or not.”
“Surely you’re counting on the obvious ambush this’ll bring?”
“The Eltee’s right, sir. Our asses’ll be flappin’ in the wind wide open for a fress shot,” Sirsir said.
She nodded, already aware of the security issues involved. “I’ve accounted for this. It’s highly likely the Sauridius will conduct an ambush on us while we’re tied up with this. The Administrator sent me his proposed route, and it will take us straight through the city to amass in a large open park. The only area large enough to account for so many personnel and the tanks. That would be the most likely location for an attack.”
Sirsir frowned, “If yer expectin’ an attack. Why go along with it?”
She created an illusion of the administrator. “Because I want to see if he truly is as incompetent as he appears, or if he’s more cunning than I’d like to give him credit for. And if he is, then I intend to flush him out for good so he can no longer remain a thorn in our side.”
Akamori gave her a confused expression, and she could tell she’d withheld information from him, but it was for the best. He didn’t need to be aware of how mired the command environment was right now. He just needed to know who his next target was.
“Since your team represents our greatest offensive strength, I want you flying in a tight formation above the parade retinue. Amara, you’ll run a cloaking spell to conceal the entire squad. Keep your eyes peeled. The moment you find trouble, end it. Clear?”
Her XO nodded, “Crystal sir.” He spun around. “Alright, you heard the Captain, get your gear situated. I want pre combat checks done in five minutes.”
“Let’s go! You heard the Eltee. Form up in five.” Sirsir barked on the heels of the LT.’s words.
As the mages hustled about, checking their armor and weapons, Morwen turned to stroll over to the lead tank in the formation. She crawled up the side of the armor to find Lt. Fennex standing up in the turret’s open hatch. He gave her a welcoming nod.
“Sir.”
“LT. Muster your men. Administrator Patton summoned us to a victory parade in the city.”
Confusion knit across Fennex’s expression. “Sir?”
She held up a hand, forestalling further protest. “It’s undoubtedly a Sauridius trap. Expect an ambush. I want your crews prepped and ready for a fight.”
Fennex nodded, the soldier in him overcoming the officer. Having a mission plan always made it easier than trying to dissect a situation too much. Often the simplest plans were the easiest because they had fewer points of failure. She opened the Administrator's attachment to her comm and flicked it to LT. Fennex’s.
“I’ve forwarded the Administrator’s parade route to you.”
Fennex pulled the comm from his uniform pocket and opened it up with a concerned look. “That open park would be the best potential place to hit us. We’ll be bunched up and static. That’s where I’d hit if it were me.”
Morwen nodded, “Agreed. Which means I’ll need your forces at their best.”
“Count on it, sir,” Fennex said. He threw his gunnery helmet on over his army cut sandy blonde hair and started issuing orders through the chin mic.
As Fennex set to his work, Morwen stayed in place, anchored to the lead tank. She would lead the charge from here. She knew it would provide little protection from most spells, but it she could cast several shields to deal with that. It also gave her a direct line of communication with the Brotherhood units in Fennex’s comm chain, and she would need that in the fights to come. Akamori was capable enough to run a fight without her holding his hand and Fennex could command his elements capably as well. This just gave her the most middle position she could achieve.
Once all the elements of her unit reported green, she gave the order to step off. The armor trundled into motion, their treads tilling up the soft grass and soil under the weight of 60+ tons of reinforced armor. The tanks moved at a slow pace so the infantry could keep pace. She treated this more like a casual patrol with the civilian populace cheering them on more than a parade. A fact she’d passed down to the rest of the unit as well. Stay alert, stay alive.
She gripped the side of the tank as it lurched above a small concrete barrier before rolling onto the asphalt street. She saw rows of blinking lights along the edges flashing red, no doubt to keep pedestrians from crossing into their path inadvertently. Several sections had white dashes painted on them, and she saw “DO NOT WALK” flashing along both sides of the dashes.
Men, women, and children alike lined the streets, waving and cheering to them excitedly. She grimaced at the thought of an attack occurring here in the streets. She looked skyward.
“Roofs are clean, sir. No one’s up to anything they shouldn’t be so far,” Akamori’s voice said over the aethercomm piece in her ear. She gave a stiff nod, then resumed looking ahead. The stretch of road was far shorter than her imagination was making it out to be. To her, every square inch was an infinitely long stretch of space an ambush could occur.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve got some real pucker factor going here. The sooner this kicks off, the better,” Sirsir’s voice said over the comms.
Morwen thought she heard some fear coating the big man's voice. She couldn’t blame him. Rolling into a situation they didn’t control didn’t make her any more enthusiastic about it than the rest. Block by block the company crept along. She knew her mage squad above could swoop down in an ambush on anything that looked at the parade company even remotely cross eyed. But it did little to burn away the anxiety she felt in preparation for that moment.
Eventually, the convoy approached a small bridge large enough for civilians to cross above the street, and above it stood the Administrator, waving to the crowds. The convoy came to a halt and Patton came down to her tank.
“Captain. Thank you for coming. I can guide the parade the rest of the way to the park.”
He struggled for a moment to climb the side of the tank until one marine approached and offered to help muscle him up the side. He gave the marine an appreciative smile while wiping away the small sheen of sweat he’d worked up.
“Shall we?” he asked.
Morwen gave him a curt nod. “We shall.”