So Far

Encampment A-427

Granmarljin outlined the mission.  "Our target is one of the growing CS base camps along the eastern front.  The mission is to destroy the camp utterly, no combatants are to be taken prisoner or spared.  This camp represents a foothold in our territory that cannot be allowed to continue to exist.  Here is how I plan the attack to go.

"We will begin the mission at exactly 23h45 after the bulk of the troops have gone beddy-bye for the night."

"Hold on sir." Interrupted Shisen.

"What is it Shisen?"

"That plan is not exactly very sporting.  I mean attacking troops in their sleep?  That's pretty pathetic not to mention dishonourable."

"Would you prefer to tell them we are coming and face the full brunt of their mechanised units?" Granmarljin asked.

"Well not exactly." Shisen answered.

Yorghi piped up, "I understand the need to have an advantage over our enemy but I have to agree that attacking them in their sleep is a bit much.  What do you take us for?  A pack of rabid black faeries?  Shall we just go ahead and admit that the Coalition is right and Tolkeen is a monster in need of being put down?"

"You are terribly distorting the truth, snake." commented Thosl.  "The fact is to rid your castle of monsters you must fight like a monster.  They will not rest until we are dead, nor will they turn down the chance to do us in as we sleep."

"I believe that generally all sayings ask that you not become monsters to battle them lest you deserve what you get." Shisen argued.

"In any event," growled Granmarljin, "We are going to attack them when they are most vulnerable.  We will infiltrate their perimeter here, here, and here.  Yorghi will provide a small distraction over here on the opposite side of camp and since you dissented, Shisen, you will take this barracks here yourself.  I won't brook any argument here people.  This is a war, and it is a bloody thing, but it's also a necessary thing.  Now go prep your things to head out to the target."

"Yes sir." choruses through the others.

Everyone leaves except for Daavi.  He says to the General, "General, we may have to watch the Straw-man.  If it is acceptable to you sir I will set Major Gerry to watching him."

"That might not be the best idea.  Shisen would surely detect Gerry's mental probes if he could even get into the Scarecrow's mind.  I had Gerry attempt to study Shisen when we first put the group together.  Gerry could not get anything off of him.  Not a thing."

"If it did not fall out of your mouth sir I could not believe that.  Perhaps his mind is too different.  Or it is a side effect of whatever caused his amnesia."

"I do not know but Gerry was perturbed which I have never seen him before."

Yorghi rolled through the camp in her Holocaust power armour.  Samas buzzed around her.  She nailed another one with a well aimed volley of mini-missiles.  The motion sensor on the suit was going nuts.  She rocketed thirty feet right into the air expertly dodging a return volley from another Super Samas.  The Holocaust came crashing to the ground and she leapt again immediately rocketing forward and out of the way of a plasma burst.

She had already decimated an Abolisher before it fired its first shot.  The mini-missiles lit up the night and sent ground troops scrambling every which way.  Some of them kept taking pot shots on her but a short burst from the rail gun on her shoulder sent them running for cover again.  The Samas were bothersome.  Fortunately they were inferior pilots.  The vets must be on the day shifts.  Still mid-air from the last leap she blasted a Samas with the suit's forearm particle beam.  The pilot was unimpressed and burst plasma across her chest.

The Holocaust crashed to the ground less than ceremoniously and rolled backward across the ground head over treads.  It came to a halt lying on it's back.  Not a good position to be in with Super Samas buzzing overhead.  The back treads spit snow and frozen earth out as she dragged the prone suit forward in a feeble attempt to get out of the way of a mini-missile barrage.  Maybe she should have used her other suit.  Flying had its advantages over firepower sometimes.

The blast from the mini-missiles flung her through the air.  She fired the jump thrusters on the back of the suit only and flipped over to come crashing down face first, perfect for getting up again.  She had gained her treads again when Granmarljin came buzzing by on his flyer and zapping one of the Samas with an energy burst.  The Samas spiralled down to the ground where it hit was a dull thud and pieces flew every which way.  It must have been one of the ones that she had softened up with her own missiles.

Granmarljin came flying back and shouted, "Ground troops" as he passed by.  She took it as her clue to leave the flyboys alone.  She turned her attention to the nearest pocket of troops hiding behind a stone emplacement.  She roared across the ground tearing it up as she went.  The troopers were firing on her with a portable rail gun built into the emplacement.  Rather than showing off she fired her last volley of mini-missiles.  They slammed into the emplacement and one lucky on found its way over the top and exploded behind the troops.  Plasma splashed everywhere and troops ran out from behind the emplacement and began rolling about in the snow.

She hoped that missile supplier was still around.  She preferred his longer lasting plasma.  It continued to burn after the initial splash unlike the Coalition stuff.  She rolled up to the first of the troops and grabbed him by the neck.  Holstering the weapons held in the suit's smaller lower arms she began to work at open the suit of body armour.  The occupant struggled to reach behind him.  She let go with one of the large arms and twisted the soldiers arm out in front of him even as she opened his suit a ripped out his intestines.

Shisen entered the barracks without being detected.  He held Death Bringer loosely in his hand with the blade pointing down.  He cast the sword 's protection spell and was ready for anything. He was going to have his cake and eat it too.  Sure Granmarljin ordered him to take out the troops in this barracks but he could still wake them up first and give them something of a fighting chance.  Not too much though, he had to succeed at his mission.

To that end Shisen cast the sword's offensive defence, a series of spinning blades of blue-white magic.  He left them at the door and then walked to the middle of the single room. "Ahem.  I am sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep but I am here to kill you all."

The C.S. troops sat up and scrambled for weapons.  They were woefully unprepared with their piddling laser pistols.  Sighing loudly he started the battle.  The first grunt stepped right up and Shisen cut him in half from between the legs right up to the top of his head.  One half went one way the other half the other.  The first volley of laser shots faded harmlessly upon contact with his cloth.  He swung Death Bringer casually in a clock-wise circle and decimated two more men.  More laser shots found their mark and fizzled harmlessly.

Shisen turned towards the door severing a man's legs without intending it.  Three bodies lay on the floor cut to ribbons by the spinning blades. This was too easy.  He stopped for a moment and announced, "I'm going to give you people two minutes to get some armour on. This just isn't fair as it is."

He stood in the middle of the room and looked around at the pieces of lives these soldiers had dragged along with them to the field of battle.  They had pictures of wives and girlfriends.  Some of them were dressed in non-standard sleeping fatigues.  While he satisfied his curiosity some of the soldiers were in the back at the armour lockers putting on their suits of metal.  It wouldn't matter to Death Bringer if they wore their armour, it just meant Shisen would have to actually aim, stab, and cut in a real sense, not just swing the sword idly.

He looked at his watch.  People were staring at the blank windowless walls at the sounds of screams in the short distance, the slaughter of their fellow soldiers in the other barracks.  Suddenly it was time. He tightened his grip on his sword and marched to the back.  Six men half clad in their armour came at him.  They had their chest and back pieces on and half of each arm.  It would do.

To put the fear into them he beheaded the first one.  They came at him with virbro-knives.  This would be fun.  He turned his back on them to stab an unarmoured man who was sneaking up behind him.  They stabbed at his back the knives scraping over the spell surrounding him.  As he turned back to face the first of them broke through the barrier collapsing it entirely.  The knife went clean in right underneath his right armpit.

He turned ripping the knife out of him and sending a spray of straw into the air.  He swung Death Bringer and cut deep into his stabber's side.  The man crumpled to the ground.  There was a shout from men behind him and the ones in front dropped to the ground.  There was a massive thumping sound as little pieces of metal ripped through him back to front.  Charred straw flew through the air as the bullets sank into the wall in front of him.

Another burst of railgun fire ripped through him as he turned around.  A flurry of lasers fizzled harmlessly against him, his immunity to their energy still strong despite the forcefield's failure.  He pointed Death Bringer at the three men wielding the heavy railgun.  He spoke the words "Uli Lommel Ju" and a brilliant beam of energy blasted from the sword across the room disintegrating the three men.  The rail gun clattered to the floor.

The armoured men behind him got to their feet and began stabbing at his back.  He let them, compared to the rail gun their knives did pitiful little damage to him.  He set about casting an Armour of Ithan upon himself.  The spell finished and the mystic armour appeared around him as a series of slightly glowing panes surrounding him.  He held his gloves a few inches apart and concentrated.  A small ball of light appeared between them and he willed it to rocket across the room.  It impacted upon a man and burned through his chest leaving a huge gaping wound. More useless laser fire fell upon him as if it too could eventually breach his defences.  That wouldn't happen soon enough for any of these people to live.

Thosl was entirely frustrated.  Granmarljin had sent her into the other barracks building.  She has stepped into the horrid smelling place as she completed a spell to slip into the future a few short seconds.  As soon as the time elapsed she was in the middle of the room and had turned a dozen of the troops into stone with her crimson eye beams.  Then she had a few seconds reprieve where she turned another four men into stone.  By then the humans had retrieved their weapons and started to fire upon her.  The beams stung and she had to fight to control her temper.  For each sting she stoned another man.

She leapt across the room and grabbed a metal bearing man by the neck.  It crumpled in her hand and he dropped his weapons and immediately began to smell foul even for a human.  She bounded again and came up to a wall.  The soldiers were not so good at hitting a moving target.  She turned and blocked a shot using the dead man and fired her own beam at the attacker.  Her human shield fell apart but she stoned the man who fired the shot. Blocking once more with the dead man's head, and getting a nasty burn on her claw for the trouble she stoned another man.

This wasn't going well.  The pain was accumulating and overwhelming her regenerative powers.  She began casting a spell as the lasers singed her all over.  These humans would pay for their insolence.  She finished the spell and a lightning bolt exploded through the middle of the room, the thunder was deafening in the confined space.  She could see the puny humans screaming and holding their heads.  Ignoring the ringing in her own ears she zapped another ten before they began to regain their sense of doom.  There were only eight men left now.

They were firing wildly and stumbling around.  Thosl picked them off one by one until only one was left.  She picked up one of the stoned soldiers and tossed her at the living one.  He dodged out of the way and Thosl leapt across the room.  The man was scrambling to get away from her.  She lashed out with her tail and knocked his feet out from under him.  She towered over him and he rolled on his back and held his hands out in front of him.  She thrust her head forward smashing through his defensive posture and sinking her teeth into his shoulder.

If one could get over the smell the taste was all right.  She dug her clawed foot into his belly and ripped his arm off and swallowed it whole.  The man was screaming incoherently and she twisted her foot and he fell silent as she disembowelled him.

Fool humans she thought.

Daavi flew in low over the camp.  The snow on the ground glistened in the light of the half moon.  He had decimated the first patrol team to the north now it was time to do the same for the other to the south.  They were just approaching the back of the camp now.  Daavi swooped past Granmarljin who gave him an approachable thumbs up.  He spotted the Abolisher.  They were such easy targets.  So top heavy and such old technology.  They had their uses for the C.S. obviously, as far as pounding an encampment, or better yet a village or town they were superb.  Just stand there and shell the target, practically no aim necessary other than pointing the bulk of the bot in the right direction.

Against small agile targets like himself the giant robots were as good as scrap.  With his Elom on defence maintaining it's EM field he flew straight at the robot.  It fired upon him and the shells just swerved around him.  Then he was between the cannons slamming into the robot's body with all of his weight.  The robot pitched backwards landing on its backside and slamming its rear cannons deep into the frozen ground.  It struggled to roll over or sit up or something but it was pinned in place.  Daavi sat on it and drove his stinger into one of the false eyes on the front of the Abolisher.  He rooted around in the electronic guts of the eye looking for a week spot.  He found it and pierced the first layer of armour.  Straining he pushed his stinger further into the bot until he felt something snap and then he was in the crew compartment.

He pulled his tail out and turned around.  He could the light inside the robot and leaned over to peer in the hole.  All was quiet but he was suspicious.  He leaned over further and spit some venom into the hole in a short spray.  Screaming immediately followed.  They were conscious in there.  He pulled a frag grenade from his belt ripped the pin out of it and dropped it in the hole.

There was a muffled explosion followed by a rapid flurry of pinging sounds as the grenade sprayed metal everywhere in the contained area of the cockpit.  Daavi lifted off of the Abolisher.  It was conceivable that one of the armoured men inside the robot had survived, perhaps using a comrade as a shield, or perhaps just being lucky.  The grenade had ripped open the small hole he had created.  He could see the riddled back wall of the cockpit.  "Sojanna, a lightning bolt through the hole if you don't mind."

There was a pause as the magic built itself up.  Lightning speared down from the sky directly into the hole in the robot's face.  Thunder split the air and then rolled away into the distance.  Everything was dark inside of the robot now.  Daavi was now satisfied that there would be no further trouble from the machine or its former crew.