image [https://cdn.midjourney.com/ce97bed4-e5ee-4465-95e6-03994ba5d94c/0_2.png]
Orleans…
Scoundrell’s gaze walked over the city, his right hand protecting his eyes from the sun. On Stellarterra, the city was on the south bank of the Loire, tucked between the larger river and a smaller one. It had a moat in the East, where there was no river, and a star-shaped fortress in Vauban style.
A good defensive position… if one has enough people.
He had arrived there in the morning, along with three thousand of his ragtag soldiers and a thousand Mongol archers. They had commandeered trains and boats for almost three days non-stop. They were supposed to defend the city. The only problem was that the enemies had twenty times his soldiers. Next to him, four envoys of the attackers were discussing with the Crown Prince, Sia Sixtus.
“And no poison of any kind,” one of them said, frowning at Scoundrell.
He’s Inspecting me…
“Only if there is no elemental magic either,” Sia retorted.
“Agreed.’
“Then we have a deal.” One by one, the four emissaries exchanged handshakes with the prince and left.
“No poison is a bummer,” Scoundrell said.
“You can’t use a skill?” the prince asked.
“No, I can’t use a weapon. On Earth, we have all sorts of cute things that are normally forbidden. Nerve gas, for instance. It spreads like a fog, and one drop kills.”
“Then it’s for the best not to use it. Elemental magicians would use the wind to push it into our ranks.”
Scoundrell shrugged. The Celtic way of waging war was strange but had its advantages. It restricted the use of specific weapons and ensured the losers would be treated right.
“Hi,” Vincent blurted, appearing near them. “Are negotiations over?”
“Yes,” Sia said. “The battle will start after the last civilians in town flee,” he pointed south, where a line of people were leaving the city.
“I brought you reinforcements. Helicopters, drones, howitzers. They’re behind that hill,” Vincent pointed. “Dragon’s in charge. Good luck… I have to go.”
----------------------------------------
After leaving Orleans, Vincent returned to Krivoburg to check on the Guild, then, half an hour later, jumped to Pragwyn to meet Karel for a brief brainstorm. Things were under control, and Trinella had sent a company of Dark Knights as reinforcements.
Finally, Vincent, Irene, Elkandaros, Bella, and Brigid boarded the Bug. Vincent intended to check the dwarven shipyards. He had no use for the princess but wanted to keep an eye on her as a courtesy to his friends, Kiara and Hubris. It was obvious that the girl had a mother of a hangover.
“Wake me up if there’s some serious fighting,” Brigid said and proceeded to snore almost instantly.
Bella groaned and tried to shove her away as the princess leaned her head on her shoulder. “Help! She’s too heavy!”
“Here,” Vincent said, giving her a hand. The back seats on the bug were crowded, with him, Brigid, and Bella there. He and Brigid were on the bigger side, and the lithe blonde was squeezed in between. “Now, let’s jump,” he said, transporting the Bug above the dwarven shipyards on Stellarelphella.
“I could have done that,” Elkandaros said from the pilot seat. He was wearing the pod armor over his robot form and looked massive. “You should conserve your Karmic Charges.”
“Please, stop bugging me… Your time will come. What do we have here?” Vincent leaned forward, supporting himself on the seat before him, looking through the small windshield. Bella started slapping his arms in a flurry of weak hits.
“Private space! Stay on your side!”
“Hey, this is not a bus! This is business!”
“I’m turning the Bug laterally,” Elkandaros said.
Now Vincent could see the landscape through his lateral window. A dozen of the building docks were empty, and the rest abandoned, with the ships unfinished. The enemy had finished at least a part of the war fleet. A fraction, but it still meant a lot.
“Let’s check the twin planets,” Elkandaros said.
Vincent nodded and transported the Bug a few thousand miles away from Emberweld and Frosthaven, hiding inside Outsider’s Refuge to be on the safe side.
“I see no ships whatsoever,” Irene said, zooming the ship's sensors around.
“Maybe they’re still on their way,” Vicent said.
“How far are we from Stellarelphella?” Irene asked.
“Something like two billion miles,” Elkandaros said.
“We got it wrong. There’s no way they’re heading here. It would take months without an FTL,” Irene said.
“What’s an FTL?” Elkandaros asked.
“Faster Than Light. Your Warp is one. Contrary to Vincent’s Stride, which is a wormhole.”
“Guys, cut the nerdish,” Vincent said. “If they’re not here, they’re going to Stellarterra. From Stellarelphela to Stellarterra, the distance is small, right?”
“Three million miles, I think,” Elkandaros said.
“That’s a matter of days. They could be already there.”
“Fuck!” Irene hit the control board with her fist. “With twelve ships, they could bomb our cities into submission.”
“Not if we find them first!” Vincent said. “Here we go.” He Strode over Stellarterra, at the location where he encountered the Calamity, then jumped next to the moon because it was within sight distance.
“I don’t see anything,” he said.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
“Have a little patience,” Irene said. “I’m scanning, but I’m not so good at this stuff. Oh… Here they are… Very close. A few thousand miles from us.”
She zoomed on the image on the touch screen, showing them twelve tiny dots, not looking much at that distance. Vincent jumped closer, starting another Refuge. This time, the Bug’s optics could take in the full view. The ships were leaving long lines of thruster fire behind. All had their cargo bays open, revealing multiple rows of space scooters, each with bombs attached underneath. Maintenance personnel filled tanks with whatever fuel the contraptions used, and pilots wearing spacesuits were getting ready. The bays were protected from the vacuum through a force field.
“This is bad,” Irene said.
“I could break those ships apart, no problem,” Vincent said. “People inside my skill area can refuse to come with me, not stop me from jumping.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Irene asked.
“I’m afraid of one thing. How would you describe Thorrak, Elkandaros?’
“Fat?”
“That’s body shaming. We don’t do that on my watch. I meant his character.”
“An asshole?”
“Yeah, that… Remember where I caught him? Why would an asshole run a military college?”
“Goodness!” Irene widened her eyes. “You mean he uses the kids as his army?”
“Cannon fodder. I don’t mind spacing the dwarves, but that would kill the kids in the process. We have to do this the hard way.”
“Boarding the ships?” Irene grimaced.
“I was thinking of you shooting lasers and disabling their engines…”
“But what if those fighters are already in range and launch no matter what? It would be next to impossible to get them all.”
“I can control spaceships, remember?” Elkandaros said. “I will mark the Bug as a tug boat, connect it to the fleet, and Warp back to the binary planets. Contrary to your skill, mine doesn’t ask for people’s opinions for a jump.”
“Or we could do that,” Vincent said. “How long would it take?”
“Ten seconds after I get in position.”
“That’s a very good plan. Want me to Stride ahead?”
“No, they’ll zoom past us in seconds. I need to match their speed. We need to fly it in real-time.”
“Bella?”
“Yes?”
“Prepare to shield us from magical attacks.”
“Err…”
“Dismissing Refuge in three… two… one.”
Already having piloting control of the ship, Elkandaros activated their thrusters, accelerated, and put the Bug in front of the Realmbound attack fleet within the next few minutes. Vincent couldn’t feel any magic going on, but the robot was frowning and humming something like a spell.
“I think they detected us,” Irene said, pushing buttons in a frenzy. “They’re locking some sort of targeting system on us.”
“On it, on it, on it,” Bella squealed, waving her hands in the air.
A turret emerged from the first spaceship, releasing a flurry of bolts. The Bug’s control panel and the lights went off almost instantly. Nevertheless, Elkandaros Warp finished channeling. A second later, they arrived at the binary planets.
There was a loud hissing noise in the cabin.
“Pressurization problem. We’re losing air,” Irene announced, trying to push buttons and pull levers.
“I thought you were supposed to shield us,” Vincent frowned at Bella.
“Good tidings: I did,” the girl scoffed. “One little problem, though: that wasn’t a magical attack. It was just electricity.”
“Even worse, it was an EMP,” Irene said.
“What’s an EMP?” Elkandaros asked.
“Still electricity of sorts, but meant to fry electronics,” Vincent said.
Irene sighed. “We lost all but manual controls, and a back door tries to open itself… I’m searching for the repair protocols… Hon, honestly, you should have taken Bee or Jorge… Oh, here there are…” With a sliding sound, a thin pellicule appeared over the walls of the flyer, resembling the third eyelid some animals have. “We’re good now. The self-repair spell should take less than an hour.”
“You should always keep your armor ready,” Vincent scolded her. When the breach happened, his armor had hermetically sealed, but Irene was still in normal clothing.
“I don’t like it,” Irene protested. “It’s too tight.”
“You get used to it. Beats suffocating. Why are those fools persisting?”
Outside, all the spaceships were shooting projectiles blindly despite not hitting anything. Vincent had activated the Refuge the moment the Warp had ended.
“Is the Bug dead?” Elkandaros asked.
“She just told you about the self-repairing spell.”
“At least the fleet is neutralized,” Elkandaros said. “They’re not going anywhere now. Should we return to Orleans?”
“Let me check the situation on the ground first,” Vincent said, activating his ring.
----------------------------------------
In Orleans, a break in the chain of command happened. Technically, Crown Prince Sia was the highest in rank, but that meant nothing for Dragon, who ordered the two Howitzers to start shooting seconds after the deadline expired.
That didn’t surprise the enemy camp for long. After three of four salvos, the enemy dispersed their troops into smaller units, spreading all over the riverfront to the north. The bombardment continued, but taking groups of a few soldiers at a time was inefficient for spending ammunition.
“The idiot!” the crown prince was yelling. “Doesn’t he know battles begin with champions advancing and challenging people from the other side to duel?”
“Yeah… I don’t think Dragon’s aware of that…”
The Howitzers could have been used better later when the enemy concentrated on the city's gates, but what was done was done. There was only a matter of time until the besiegers figured out the artillery position and the self-propelled guns had to stop firing and move into hiding.
Soon, things looked grim. The enemy had prepared boats and passed the river in numbers, protecting themselves from the incoming machine gun fire and arrows with enchanted shields and force fields. Worse, a few thousand troops had crossed the river to the East unimpeached and marched toward Orleans’s most vulnerable gate. The bridge was overrun in minutes, and a steam ram was brought into play.
Scoundrell ordered the Apache helicopters to take flight and deal with the threat. The first wave of the attackers was obliterated, and the choppers turned their fire toward the river. Then, a dozen flying scooters rose from a forest. Despite their small size, they weren’t maneuverable; instead, they were fast.
Three were downed either by helicopter or sniper fire, but two others managed to crash into the choppers, exploding together. The kamikaze attack continued with the remaining scooters rushing at the gates. Two gates were breached, and a third one was gravely damaged. The East Gate was among the ones destroyed.
“Your grandparents are at the core, right?” Scoundrell turned toward Sia.
“Yes.”
Scoundrell pushed a radio into the prince’s hands. “Go there; tell them to dismiss both pocket universes immediately. Push this button and speak in this object when they’re ready for it.”
“But—”
“The city is breached. We lost. We can do only one thing: make them pay.”
“But how?”
“GO!” Scoundrell yelled at the prince. Followed by his bodyguard, Sia ran away.
For the next ten minutes, Scoundrell used a pair of binoculars and a laser range finder to mark things on his tablet. The Mongols began to shoot arrow after arrow, a true rain of projectiles, the only thing still stopping the invaders from rushing into town.
There was a flicker of light and a change in the wind’s scent and temperature. It was colder. The forcefield was down. At the same time, the last defenders of the gates fell, and the enemy poured inside.
“Fucking moron, I told him to—”
“This is Sia Sixtus,” the radio said. “The protections are down. How long do we keep them shut off?”
“Forever!” Scoundrell yelled, pushing the enter button on his tablet. “Block the access underground. Stay there until Vincent comes for you.”
Ten seconds later, beams of light descended from the sky, twelve of them. With the foes so widespread, it was not about killing troops but taking out the Pocket Universe breacher and the command tents. There were notifications about two throne contenders being slain.
“Well… at least that’s something,” Scoundrell sighed. He had hoped to get them all, but the survivors had probably fled after the first impacts.
“Moment, I’m there!” Dragon's voice yelled. Leaning over the railing, Scoundrell saw the colonel running up the stairs of the observation tower. “Axe Raven wants to know where we stand. I told him you called a full strike.”
“Scoundrell, what’s up? Why did you call it?” Vincent’s voice spoke from Dragon’s ring. “It’s Sunday, I can’t buy more rods until tomorrow!”
“The enemy’s in the city. Our attack was fragmented. The howitzers did little damage, the choppers were destroyed, and we had no drones whatsoever.”
“They fried them!” Dragon shouted. “We couldn’t raise them in the air.”
“Yeah, the fuckers were prepared for us too,” Vincent said. “They took out the Bug, but we also took out their fleet.”
“What now? We took out two princes and the forcefield breacher. The prince and the oldies are in the underground. Should we evacuate?” Scoundrell asked.
“Can you win if you stay and fight?”
“No. There’s too many of them.”
There was a long moment of silence. “Do as you wish. I consider you honorably discharged.”
The connection cut.
“Shit…” Dragon said.
“I’ll tell my guys to leave town and harass the supply lines,” Scoundrell said. “I’ll stay behind to teach these assholes a few lessons about urban fighting. What about you and your guys?”
“It’s only me. Maverick and Dumdum are gone. They were in the helicopters. I send everyone else away. So… why not? It’s a good way to go.”
“Let’s do it,” Scoundrell offered a fist bump.