Chapter 10
Alpine Mountains
United States Marine Corps Forward Operating Base, Camp Basilone
10:00 AM
Shaun Roberts watched the younger of the fox girls play with a doll one of the older wolf people had sewn for her. A much younger wolf girl did the same just outside the tent which was a nice sight, but right now he had other things to focus on. Once inside the tent, he and the Army’s intelligence officer sat down with the older fox girls.
Sasio and Talia wore medical robes still, and an excited Luna stood by them both alongside a group of US Marines, some from Intelligence, he recognized the interpreter, Frank, but others… combat cameramen? He ignored them and focused on the rescued demi-humans. They hid their tails which was expected, but he wondered if it was at all comfortable as they sat on the metal folding chairs. They did not bring attention to it if it was, with Sasio speaking first.
“My sisters and I appreciate your men’s help.” she began quietly.
Shaun translated to his officer.
“We are honored to have helped you.” He replied, doing his best to hide how corny it sounded. They weren’t exactly there to “help”, after all. They were there to grind the people who attacked them into dust and be done with it. Humanitarian aspects could be handled by others, after all. But “hearts and minds” and whatnot.
“Oh, please, spare us the false kindness.” Sasio grumbled.
Oh, that’s a relief.
The other wolf girl whispered something he didn’t catch, as if reprimanding the older fox girl who simply scoffed and crossed her arms.
The girl named Talia then said, “We understand your officers have some questions for us and… would like to make an offer?”
Shaun translated.
His officer nodded.
Talia began with a smile.
“We would love to help!”
Sasio was quick to bark something in anger at the girl. Talia quickly lowered her ears in response and shrank away slightly. The words weren’t in Latin, however. Shaun had no frame of reference for it, but the young Marine cameraman standing by had some recognition in his eyes.
He’d have to ask about that later.
Sasio then asked them, “What can you give us, exactly?”
Shaun translated, and his officer gave a barely hidden crooked grin.
“For starters, ask her what she’s offering. Make a point that we have done quite a bit already.”
“Yes, sir.” then to the girl, in a smoother voice, “We would like to know what you could give us first.”
Sasio huffed, but Luna gave her a tap on her shoulder and said “Go on, I promise they treat your kind well. Same as ours.”
Sasio muttered “Because you are helping them traverse these lands that are unknown to them. They would treat you as slaves if you did not offer something in return.”
Luna was quick to say “I told you, they have no slaves!”
Shaun kept his mouth shut. No need to start talking about the nuances of how the United States treated foreigners abroad or at home.
The other fox girl said something else, again in a language he did not understand, but the enunciation sounded oddly familiar as if he’d once heard someone mock it during a skit or in a comic somewhere. His mind darted back to the fact the stars in the night sky mirrored those back home, and the fact the spoken Latin of the Iberian Empire was not that different from that known back home as Ecclesiastical Latin.
Sasio finally appeared to relax, however.
“Alright, then we can offer you the minds of any prisoner you bring us.”
Shaun blinked. Frank glanced up from his notes.
“Excuse me, could you repeat that?” Frank said, finding his voice first.
Sasio said, “The minds of any prisoner you wish for us to harvest, we will harvest.”
Shaun asked “Harvest? You are saying… you are saying you will rob their minds?”
Sasio paused, then as if to be as clear as possible, said “Perhaps the proper word would be read? We peer into the minds of men and share that information with our masters.”
Shaun felt his inner mouth dry up whilst Frank scribbled furiously on his notepad.
“You… you can peer into our minds? You can tell us what we are thinking right now?”
Sasio scoffed, then said “If it were so easy, would we be slaves? Would we have agreed to live amongst these simple country folk in a camp high in unfamiliar mountains to us?”
“Hey…” Luna grumbled.
“No offense intended. But it is a simple observation that if we could peer into the minds of others just by being near them, then we would have never been captured or enslaved.” then, to Shaun, “There is a process. Difficult for both of us and the person whose mind we peer into. But rest assured, any information you wish, we can get. That is what makes us valuable slaves and why the Empire of Iberia purchased us. And possibly why that Seljuk agent tried to kill us before your men got there.”
Shaun swallowed, then turned to his officer and translated.
His officer mirrored his reaction, then composed himself.
“All of these foxes can do that?”
Translate.
“No, only my sisters and I. Those strangers from the northern tribes of the East were brought along for some other reason. Meg- Aurelia struggles the most with it, but she can do it as well.”
Talia quickly interjected and said, “I will gladly serve for her if you can promise she will be allowed to live in peace!”
Shaun would’ve been more than happy to just let the girls go, but he could already see the gears turning in his officer’s head at the possibilities, and the fact the translation would make its way to his superiors and their superiors and inevitably the CIA…
Duty forced him to say “Of course. Work with us and we promise you a peaceful life.”
He felt his heart shatter at the wide grin Talia gave him, and he felt guilt at the narrowing eyes of the ever-suspicious Sasio.
***
Isaac Hilaire watched the Army pukes leave the tent and noted how giddy Talia was as she spoke rapidly to her sister. He had snapped a few photos at opportune moments, he was sure he caught the faces when they discovered just what these girls could do, but other than that, he was unsure why he was there. He’d just been told to be there and he’d gone along. The girl, Talia, occasionally glimpsed at him, but that couldn’t mean anything… could it?
The wolf girl, Luna, brought him out of his thoughts as she sighed, then muttered one of the English phrases she’d learned.
“No big deal? Ha! Big-big deal!”
He didn’t bother trying to figure if she meant that as a positive or a negative, but Milo nodded along, saying.
“Yeah, very big.”
“Very big?”
“Yeah. Very.” He motioned with his hands.
“Ohh. Ve-ry.” Luna concluded, her ears flapping as she took in the new words.
“God, she’s cute.” Milo sighed.
Isaac ignored the pair and continued to listen to the fox girls.
The more Isaac heard her, the more sure he was the girl was speaking Japanese or some form of it. Frank was of no help, of course. How could he? He had his knowledge of Latin and that was about it. The girls were slaves, with slave names, and from “the Far East”. He knew enough thanks to Sheena that “Land of the Rising Sun” might not immediately translate for this other girl if they came from somewhere else, but…
Thinking back to Sheena only made him want to speak to the fox girl further. There was something about her that reminded him of the girl back home. A gentleness that was not as apparent to others, only it was all too clear with this girl from another world. As she stood up, they made eye contact. She smiled softly at him.
Well, now or never…
“Uh, Daijōbudesu… ka?”
It was a stereotypical but common phrase. He wasn’t sure if it had changed over the centuries, but it was worth a shot. Talia and Sasio eyed him with some surprise. Sasio asked something to Luna who was still trying to learn new English words from Milo.
Luna winced at the girl, and with a quick back to turn to him, suddenly asked “You speak?”
“Uh-”
Frank raised an eyebrow, then asked “That was Japanese, right?”
“Y-yeah… um… I know a bit.”
“Really? How come?”
Ah, oh well…
“I grew up with a lot of them.”
He turned to Talia and reached into his pocket. He showed the photograph of the girl waiting for him back home.
“Um… Kanojo… Girlfriend.”
The two fox girls eyed the girl in the photo, perplexed.
“You have a girlfriend from Japan?”
“Little Tokyo, LA, we- Uh… our parents knew each other.” Isaac grumbled, not wanting to give too many details.
Frank jotted down some notes, then said “I’ll pass it along. Plenty of guys with Japanese parents here. Might help.”
“Y-yeah, uh… can you not mention-”
“California doesn’t have race-mixing laws, you’ll be fine.” then, as if he could see his distress, “But, yeah… I’ll pass it along discretely.”
Hilaire sighed, then turned to Milo who only gave him an eerie grin.
Isaac would’ve said something, but Talia spoke up first.
“Kanojo wa yasashi-sōdesu.”
“Uh…”
Sasio then asked in a gruff tone, “Watashi no imōto wa anata ni kanojo no koto o omoidasa semasu ka??”
Talia blanched at the words, then her features turned a bright pink.
“Damn, Hil, you caught any of that?” Milo asked, grinning.
Isaac only kept quiet and put the photo of Sheena away.
Imperial City of Vicenzo
As his men gathered their weapons, Octavius watched as the arrows rained into the city. He smiled slightly as he saw the defenders duck away and he could just faintly hear distant screams. Much like the fires needed for forging their iron blades, an "ironing out" would be necessary for the entire empire soon enough.
Destroy Vicenzo…
Still, the fact that he now had the orders to do it, not encouragement or permission, but the orders to do it… It was all he needed in spite of Princess Parthea’s presence. All the better given the travesty of the last few months.
Still, it wasn't the "war" he would have wanted to lead his army into. These men weren’t “equals”, but they weren’t total savages, either. He sighed as another wave of arrows began to rain down, and he glanced at the skies behind him.
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I wonder when Cassius will get here…
Once the man and his wyverns arrived with Augustine’s fire weapons, the city was doomed. Even if the Americans were there, without their war machines, there was only so much they could do, and he doubted they could stop a firestorm from engulfing the city.
He turned his gaze toward the skies and saw them.
It was flying high, far too high for arrows and ballista shots, and despite their relatively slow movement, he knew their speed was deceptive. It moved high into the sky, and he frowned.
"These invaders always seem to have some sort of surprise… Archers! Keep your heads down!”
***
"I told you, they are engaging us with arrow fire from the hills!" their RTO yelled into the radio as the arrows screamed downwards.
Andrew kept his head down as the arrows crashed into the city’s entrance. The civilians had run into their homes, the area empty except for them and the local guards. His captain had already inched up the steps that went up the wall, arrows slamming into the rooftops, windows, horses, and of course, people. But he had to prioritize the situation as best he could. As The Legend peered over, taking advantage of one of the wall guards lifting a shield up, he shouted back down “They’re on the hills nearby! Tell them to get the mortar crews ready!”
Andrew, however, focused on the supposed “Royals”.
The envoys from the capital, if that’s what they really were, had ducked by the wall as the arrows rained down. Dressed in colorful clothes, the girl had lept from her horse and run inside, her short reddish hair a mess, her composure gone as she kept panting and looking behind her. The girl who led her horse along was looking her over with a mad glint in her eye as the guards shut the gate.
“Highness, are you alright?! Are you hurt?”
She did not answer, her gaze shifted from her guards to him.
“Fine! Perfectly fine! And these men… Legate Marcius?”
Over the incoming arrows, Marcius said “They were here to speak of opening talks, highness, but please, stay down!”
As the young woman kept her eyes on him, Andrew called “Are you Princess Parthea Traianus?”
“Of course! Who are you men?!”
The maelstrom of arrows relaxed as a UH-1 flew in the distance, and Andrew said “Members of the American Army, here to open talks. Originally. Are you here on behalf of your father, Emperor Adrian Sol Traianus?”
“Y-yes, but what is going on here?! Why are you on the walls with Legate Marcius?! Where is Governor Lucretius?!” she demanded.
The arrows then stopped and the helicopter approached, but Parthea stormed towards him.
“You are the enemy from the mountains?! Beyond the door, yes?!”
Andrew ignored her and called to his captain “It’s her, sir.”
“Hey! I am talking to-!”
Legate Marcius again shouted “Down!”
Another barrage of arrows rained down.
“That damned…” Parthea growled, then whirled around and began to march towards the city’s entrance.
“Open that up! I am heading out to speak to that traitor!”
Oh my God…
Andrew was quick to say “I would not do that.”
As if offended, the princess turned to him and indignantly said “I am Parthea Traianus, daughter to Emperor Adrian Sol Traianus, ruler of the Empire of Ibera and all those who serve him must also answer to me!”
Doesn’t seem like he’s too keen about that!
He kept the thought to himself.
Legate Marcius walked down and said “Highness, with all due respect, your status-”
“Irrelevant!” she turned to Andrew, “Soldier! You said your men were here to talk, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Good! The situation has changed and Octavius knows it, he cannot be allowed to just-”
Now Andrew’s captain shouted “Incoming!”
Though the shout was not understood, they all did comprehend the intent behind it and ducked down. Another barrage of arrows rained down.
“Johnnie, see if you can get the gunships over there, damn it!”
Their RTO started to call that out, and the UH-1 flying nearby began to move ahead, something Parthea noticed.
“Damn it, do not attack my father’s men! Let me handle this! Soldier, tell your officer as much!”
Andrew held in a sigh and turned to The Legend.
“Captain, the Princess says we shouldn’t engage them, that she can handle this.”
“Handle? The one she ordered to stand down?”
He turned to her and asked the same.
“Of course I did!”
Back to his captain, “She did.”
His captain then said, “What’s her plan, nicely talk to him and ask him to stop?”
Andrew turned to her and asked, “What do you plan to do if he refuses?”
She said, “I will relieve him of command directly!”
“You have that authority?”
“Of course I do! No more deaths, gentlemen. I am here to represent the Empire. If you men wish to discuss peace, then we shall!”
He translated to his captain.
“Well, alright then. Let her play peacekeeper.”
Andrew was about to say as much when the princess’ assistant interrupted, trying to do so discreetly, but the loud whispering was too obvious for it to be an accident.
“But highness, you don’t have that authority!” she hissed just loud enough for him to hear.
“Quiet, Paloma. I know what I’m doing.”
“Highness, with all due respect… do you?”
“Octavius is a man of the Empire. So are his men. They’ll listen to me. And if not me, then the threat of my father.”
“Highness, that just means they will kill you and blame the outsiders!”
“They would not dare.”
“Highness they just tried to-”
Andrew interrupted then, “Is General Octavius going to listen to you or not?”
Anger erupting, Princess Parthea shouted, “Let me try, damn it!”
Andrew stared at her for a moment, then at the girl’s servant. The pair could not be much older than him if not younger. The two other guards with her were certainly soldiers, but they appeared out of it, stone-faced and mute as they stood by. No one spoke for a spell.
He shut his eyes, considered things, and then turned to his captain.
“Captain, this is in fact the daughter of the Emperor. She might die if she goes out there, but she says she wants to try and get Octavius under control.”
His captain only gave him an exasperated look.
“Her funeral.”
***
General Octavius eyed the gates as they opened from afar. Galloping at high speed, Princess Parthea, in her ridiculous expensive clothes, rode towards them. He made note of the American flying machine hovering nearby. A second one had joined it, and he imagined they were watching the situation from the walls as well. However, they did not unleash their destructive artillery. No retort from their firearms.
Still, his archers kept their heads down, and he considered searching for cover in the treeline behind them, but he held his position in direct challenge.
He was not struck down, and Parthea reached him quickly enough, her guards barely keeping up.
“General I gave you explicit orders!”
“And I received explicit orders from your father. Those go above your own.”
Angry, the emperor’s daughter shouted “My father does not know I am here! He could not have ordered you to attack!”
“Do you know what he knows?”
“That is irrelevant! You just shot arrows at imperial citizens!”
Petulent child...
He controlled himself, instead saying, “This was done by the Emperor's direct command, highness. You did not die. Good on you. Now, I advise you to step aside and head to safety, and let me carry these orders out.”
“No, general! You are relieved of this command!”
The words might have meant something if the situation was different, but making a point of continuing to gaze at the American flying machines, he gave her as uncaring a response as he could.
“No.”
“Excuse me?!”
“Highness, this is a war with a power that threatens the rest of the Empire. If they wish to speak, they will do so when the Emperor approves. Until then, I have my orders. Or shall I tell your father you tried to usurp his power by ordering me to disobey his orders?”
That struck home.
Parthea shakily said “B-but my father does not know I am here! He… he would not allow this if…”
“Then why are you here if he does not know?”
“I… I was…”
“You are a child, seeking glory, yes? Then join us and help us defeat this enemy.”
“But the enemy wants to talk! They want peace!”
“And then what? Say they are telling the truth and not simply trying to buy time to strike again.” He motioned to the scars on his leg. The odd projectiles that struck him back then left very curious marks that had never truly healed. “A power that strong would destabilize the land. If we do not negotiate from a position of power, they will work to steal our power away for themselves. Same as any other empire. Negotiations now would only result in a slow end for us. Is that what you want? What your father wants?!”
Parthea turned behind her, watching the old city that stood near the mountains, with a pair of American flying machines.
“But… but you will be killing Imperial Citizens!”
“And? Since when does the survival of a few plebians or rich men of the empire go over that of the entire empire?”
Parthea growled something he did not catch.
“Tell your Seljuk Agent I wish to send my father a message. I wish to send my father-”
“No.”
“General!”
“The Seljuk agents at my disposal have other work important to this mission! If you wish to send a message to your father, do it with your own means. Now, I advise you to head to the rear lines. I suspect those enemy metal fliers will attack soon.”
“No.”
“Well, if you wish to be turned into a mass of shattered body parts, then by all means.” He spoke, hiding his smile. The girl thought she knew war. Oh, he would show her what war truly was. True glory in war was won not by cowards, after all. Those who feared to draw their blades never won any glory for themselves.
Still, she surprised him.
“General, I will not allow the city to fall. I will speak to my father. I am ordering you. Do not attack the city. Not until you hear again from my father. If you do, I cannot guarantee the survival of you or your men!”
She yelled the last part, his archers and footsoldiers all turning to her.
He raised his hand, knowing someone would just love to strike her down there and then. How dare she side with the invaders who had killed so many of them, after all? But no. It would be best if her death was under less heinous circumstances. With fewer witnesses, ideally.
He instead warned her, “That would be treason, highness.”
Sensing the hostility, she only said “I have spoken. You have heard.”
She turned her horse around and galloped back to the city.
Octavius watched the flying machines, then turned to the now distant figure of Princess Parthea. He watched the gate open. She went inside. The flying machines remained where they were, hovering near the city like watchful hawks. Scorpions waiting to strike.
One of his men asked, “General, do we continue the attack?”
He said “Another volley of arrows, and keep your men’s heads down. Let us see how they react.”
***
Dennis watched the unfolding situation silently.
The young lady who had arrived had failed. Now more calls of arrow fire were coming in. Governor Lucretius was covering his mouth as Sean translated the radio calls. The situation was only becoming grimmer. Rhodes was silent. The governor’s guards were equally stone-faced. The blind woman with rabbit ears stood by them, appearing even more uncertain.
Dennis Orville crossed his arms as she quietly turned to him.
“Your men will fight to defend the city?”
He eyed the Air Cav’s mortar crew unloading their M2 60-millimeter mortars from one of the Hueys. From the rooftops of the city, they would have the range to cover an entire mile around the city’s surroundings.
The problem was that there were only two crews at the moment. Such was the unfortunate side-effect of only having eight Bell UH-1s to bring guys in. If ordered, they could just leave the city to its fate and move in later. But that would not make for the best press, now would it?
Before he could answer her, Dennis heard the words he’d been waiting for.
“Captain Thorne, we have been cleared to engage.”
Only then did Dennis tell Hypatia “It appears that we will.”
The woman did not smile. She stiffened slightly as off in the distance the whip-like crack of gunfire began to echo.
Dennis said nothing and waited for orders to move. His mind wondered if it would be enough.
***
The Legend did not react to the information with any tangible change in tone. He simply turned to his men and gave the order to engage. They had already covered the top of the wall, sheltering behind its stone railing as arrows fell. The moment there was a lull in the attack, the Green Berets rose up just enough and shot back.
What got Andrew’s attention, however, was the pair of gunships.
Andrew fired his M2 Carbine in the direction of the hills. It wasn’t an insane range, a little over two hundred yards, but the enemy archers were keeping their heads down. As he gently squeezed the trigger on his carbine, the gunships moved over the fields rapidly. One behind the other.
No one really commented.
Marcius and his men watched just as silently as the Berets, their shields up, expecting arrows to hit still, but even now they were curious about seeing these machines in action.
Anyone back home would’ve recognized the attack pattern, and he wondered if Octavius did as well.
Then, with the echoing buzz of an overly large electrical razor, the first of the Huey’s guns fired in anger. The M134s roared, lifting smoke and dirt up into the sky as the guns strafed the hills in a long, long burst. Then the second strafed the area to much of the same effects before both began to circle around. A tree fell over, men screamed, and the helicopters continued their attack.
Some of the local guards gaped at the destruction. Andrew heard someone mutter “Terrible” but nothing else. The Berets did not comment on the attack runs by the helicopters. Other grunts would be hooting and hollering as the enemy was slaughtered, but they kept quiet. He held his carbine as puffs of smoke caused by the impacting rounds. Waiting.
Then he saw them. A few, vaguely human silhouettes rose over the hills. They charged over their cover, running desperately, arms flailing as they tried to avoid the oncoming death.
Too bad.
With a few merciless cracks of rifle fire, those that had earlier been trying to rain death on the city collapsed, crumpled like lifeless puppets that had just had their strings cut.
The battle had now truly begun.
***
Octavius watched the machines fly by and begin to circle back.
He forced himself to relax, the tree he had ducked behind just in time had spared him the terrible weaponry. Most of his archers had made it back into the forest, but those that had been just a touch too slow…
He eyed the corpse nearest to him by the tree line. It wasn’t human anymore. Blood and organs soaked the grass beneath the remains, bow still in the comically intact hand. Men who had been in the process of running into the forest had whirled around and tried running towards the city as the enemy weapons cut them down.
He saw those fall limply to the floor.
He covered his ears as the roar of the enemy fire enveloped him. Grass and dirt hit him in the face and a man fell nearby, screaming at the top of his lungs to the point it overwhelmed the chopping machines that flew overhead. The wounded legionnaire was missing his lower leg, the rest having been cut by the flying machines that were now attacking their refuge in the woods. Trees held, but only by so much.
“G-general! Help me!” the man cried.
Octavius grabbed his hand, pulled him to his tree, and in one swift motion drove a dagger into the soldier’s neck. A cruel mercy, perhaps. But a mercy.
The roar of the enemy weapons paused again, and he thought he could hear them leaving.
Standing tall, he shouted “Gather your men and weapons! We wait until nightfall when Cassius arrives! Legates, look to your own!”
He looked around then.
Twenty men dead.
He could not help the grin on his lips as he realized it.
Their heavier weaponry is not here yet…
Alpine Mountain Range
Iberian Camp
“Be careful when you pull the string. Your wyvern being set on fire is not something you want.” Augustine said.
Cassius secured the jars to his wyvern’s back with a nod. His other fliers did the same. Each understood the dangers of their job.
Augustine then asked, “How was Vicenzo when you left?”
“The enemy flying machines had landed. Octavius was adamant I leave him on the palace and quickly fly back to ensure the attack later tonight goes smoothly. That said, I saw no sign of fighting as I left.”
“Strange.”
“Perhaps, but our orders stand. I plan on meeting with whatever forces Octavius has left in the area to confirm things. I do not want to lead my fliers into another one of those terrible fire lances again.”
“True enough. Take care of yourself.”
“Thank you, Warlock Augustine. We will make these invaders pay!”
“We shall!”
Augustine watched the wyverns fly off in the direction of the city. Then he turned his gaze to the blocked paths.
We shall…