Keys of Candor: Trilogy

by Casey Eanes

  “I said total war. No questions,” Willyn shouted as she scanned the topographical maps flashing over her central command station table with hundreds of thousands of colored dots swarming over the holographic battlefield.

  “How long do we have?” Adley called back.

  Willyn turned her attention back to the map and grimaced before answering. “An hour max, but they seem to be picking up speed as they approach. Get those things ready now!”

  “Aye. We’ll get it done,” Adley answered and the line went dark.

  Willyn pulled back her hair and slipped on her headset, positioning its small microphone on her cheek to begin roll call. “Grogan command checking in, all Grogans report.”

  The Grogan forces checked in with a mechanical cadence, each answering with unit name, headcount, and position. Willyn felt herself smile with pride as she sprinted for her rook and called out to the Lottian soldiers. “Men and women of Lotte, report.”

  The line sat quiet for three seconds, but the pause felt like an eternity until a young man’s voice crackled over the line. “Blue Eagles artillery unit reporting in, twenty-one strong, locked and loaded.”

  A ragged veteran’s voice followed in, “Red Thunder infantry unit reporting, one hundred strong and digging in.”

  The roll call moved swiftly and concluded as Willyn buckled into her rook’s cockpit. She fired up the rook’s engines, and as the craft lifted from the ground she made her final call. “Men of Elum, report.”

  “Iron Wing squad still 900 clicks out. ETA 15:35.”

  Willyn cursed under her breath and punched the cockpit wall before calling back.

  “You better plan to come in hot. ETA for enemy contact is 15:00 at the latest.”

  The line sat quiet for another fifteen seconds before the Elumite squad leader called back in. “Understood. We will push these birds with all we have. We can have fixed wing craft in by 15:15 with rotary craft in the second wave.”

  “We will hold them as long as we can. Call in every five minutes for status briefing from HQ on frequency 17-552.” Willyn flipped her visor down and pushed her rook forward, taking in a deep breath as she moved to the front of her squad’s formation. As she crested the hill and took the lead position, she flipped her com line to a secure channel, calling out to General Poulox of Elum.

  “Poulox, your boys might fly in to a mess. Might not be much of us left of us, to be honest. Just make sure they take out as much as they can. Have them keep a wide berth and avoid direct contact with Isphet. I saw what he did in Elu’Qua. Work their way in from the outside, strafing machine gun fire and limit their air to ground missiles until they have a clear line of fire on the target. Don’t waste a single shot.”

  “Our men will do Candor proud, Sar Kara. Isphet will pay for his crimes against our Realm and our royals. They will be avenged today even if we lose every craft we possess. If I have to carve his heart out myself, it will happen.”

  Willyn chuckled and shook her head. “You sure you aren’t a Grogan, general? I like your spirit.”

  “Today we are all Grogans, mighty Sar.”

  Ewing’s truck tires spit gravel into the air as he ground to a halt at the bunker atop a rocky outcropping near Vale’s perimeter. Rot hopped from the back and waited for Ewing to climb from the truck. He cursed and grumbled as he climbed out, fumbling with his prosthetic leg.

  “Ewing, I thought you were going to stay at HQ,” Adley said as she jogged from the pillbox structure. “We need your help with the coms.”

  “Ha. We don’t need chatter. We need bullets and you know it, Adley.” Rot barked and trotted to Ewing’s side as he walked next to Adley, approaching the bunker. “Plus, Rot here said he’s ready to sink his teeth into something other than my old boots.”

  Adley’s datalink flashed to life on her wrist and she mumbled to herself, shaking her head. “Well, we don’t have time to get you back to HQ anyways, Ewing...they’re here!”

  “Hello, Willyn.” The voice was unmistakable, separate from the noise crashing into Willyn’s eardrums from her com lines. Hagan’s voice haunted her, and she shook her head as it repeated, “Hello, Willyn. Did you forget me?”

  “Get out of my head, you piece of—”

  “Your aggression is enjoyable, but soon you will join your brother in the pit,” Isphet interrupted and continued. “Mankind will finally fulfill its purpose today, and they have you to thank for what comes next. You played your part, and now I will play mine.”

  Isphet’s voice disappeared as quickly as it had arrived and Willyn’s heart doubled its pace, beating in her chest like a jackhammer as she weighed Isphet’s words.

  “This is what he wants!” Willyn screamed to herself. “He wants us all together.”

  As the realization swept over Willyn, the coms went hot as units started reporting first contact.

  “They’re everywhere!” One commander called in panic as another was reporting on his titan being capsized and swarmed.

  “De-couple! Break loose and move back!” Willyn called out over the line. “Fall back!”

  “What!?” Poulox called in. “Sar Kara, are you already calling for retreat?”

  “No!” Willyn answered, “But we are too concentrated! We have to be more spread out and we need men and women in reserve. We are playing right into his plan.”

  As Willyn finished her sentence she crested the hill and saw Dragon company, Falcon company, and Coyote company all pushing straight into the mass of bodies that were tearing Badger company’s titan to shreds. It was as if they were made of nothing more than cardboard as its pilot and gunners were calling out for evac.

  The rook’s chain guns made quick work of the outer perimeter of bodies, cutting down morels by the dozens each second. Three of the rooks in Dragon company vaulted a barrage of mortar rounds into the mass of bodies, sending gore and fire flying into the sky. In remarkable synchronizations Coyote and Falcon company swiftly pressed through the new opening, moving in toward the stranded titan.

  Just as the two units started to circle the downed craft a pulse pushed from the back of the crowd. A visible shockwave rippled through the morel swarm and crashed over the dozen rooks attempting to form a perimeter around the titan.

  The rooks ground to a halt and sat motionless for several seconds before turning away from the titan and pushing with their lightning-speed quickness from the crowd, opening fire on the rooks in Dragon company.

  “Get out of their heads, Isphet!” Willyn screamed as she witnessed the rooks of Dragon company explode under the barrage of fire coming from their friendly craft. They had no time to respond.

  “Calling all units, do not approach center mass. Fight from the perimeter. Coyote and Falcon are compromised. Engage with lethal force! No questions.”

  Willyn’s chest burned with a mixture of fury and anguish as she called out for her own fighters to be downed, but she knew to leave them intact was only to strengthen Isphet’s forces.

  Adley looked out from her bunker and scanned the battle intensifying below. A sea of bodies was swarming the battlefield. She tried to locate any sign of Isphet’s location, but he was not showing himself like he did in Elu’Qua. He knew we would mark him.

  “Ewing,” Adley called out as she stared through her binoculars. “Can you promise me you will stay with me? You and Rot stay posted on that door and don’t let anything in. If we are compromised here, we lose some of our strongest tech.”

  “Fine, but I tell ya, you need every gun you can get down there.”

  “I understand, but right now just promise me I can count on you to stay with me through this. I need every second we can get.”

  Ewing nodded and shouldered his rifle while whistling for Rot to follow him.

  Adley looked down at the notes scribbled on the pad of paper next to her control unit, and her fingers flew over the rune-covered controls. She called out to the two men positioned by the cannon-like structure erected on the bunker’s roof. “Mark is negative so
let’s test on grid 6C. No friendlies there and we can see what we have here.”

  “Aye, dialing in 6C. Charged and ready here.”

  Adley flipped a switch to engage the pred tech and winced as the cannon fired overhead, releasing a low-frequency blast that was too low to hear but shook her to the core. She stared down her binoculars and watched as a glowing green orb fell from the sky, landing amidst a mass of morels. As the ball of energy made contact, every morel within twenty feet of the orb was pulled into its center as if it was a miniature black hole. The bodies disappeared into the orb in a second, only for the energy to explode out, sending out fifty-foot shockwaves. The explosion leveled everything in its path, leaving only scorched earth and a cloud of dust behind.

  “Holy hells!” Adley screamed. “What in Aleph’s name did Cyric bring us?”

  Seam took a deep breath in the depths of the Warren. In the darkness he could feel a moment of immense consequence happening elsewhere. That something goaded him deep within his gut, urging him to move. He flashed a small sneer at both Cyric and Kull.

  “It’s time to leave, isn’t it?”

  Kull did not hesitate. “Yes, it is time to make our way back to Lotte.”

  “You mean to make war, don’t you, Shepherd?” Seam’s voice was barely above a whisper.

  Kull nodded silently in the gloom.

  Willyn swung her rook wide and broke from the point position, laying strafing fire across a hundred-meter line of shambling bodies that flowed over the Lottian hillside. She rolled further to her right and her company followed suit, sending hot lead into the enemy while refusing to push too close to their nexus.

  “Adley! What is the range on that thing?” Willyn rolled back, retreating from her position to regroup for a new pass. “We might as well be fighting with nothing but small arms fire down here! This horde is insane, and if we get too close Isphet takes our men’s minds from them!”

  “Looks like we’re still about a hundred meters from you at best, but they are scattering from our firing position,” Adley snapped back.

  “Stop firing,” Willyn answered calmly as she flipped two switches to revert power from her weapons system and into thruster capacity.

  “Repeat?” Adley asked, squinting over the battlefield, trying to locate Willyn’s units in the distance. “Did you say stop?”

  “Yes,” Willyn replied. “Fire off the mark, hit the hillside on grid T77. Two impacts if possible.”

  “But no one is there! We’d be wasting our energy. I don’t know how much more—”

  “Just do it, Adley! I will bring them into range, but we can’t push them from the target zone. Keep that thing hot and ready to dial back in on mark M15. I don’t want them shifting to that hillside, and that thing will keep them funneled the way we need. I don’t want them to know when we’ll hit them. Just get it ready.”

  “Roger that, Willyn. Aiming for mark T77.”

  Ewing turned to Adley, breaking his vision from the sights on his rifle. “Sneaky girl! Like a trapdoor spider.” Ewing smiled at Adley and nodded before turning back to aim his gun down range. “Glad she’s on our side this time.”

  Cyric looked down at the gauges on his borrowed rook. The speedometer was over in the red as the machine’s engines roared with a deafening intensity. The sleek, black craft flitted over the Rihtian hills kicking up a plume of sand in its wake. Cyric leaned down and yelled into his datalink over the clamor of the engines.

  “Even at this speed we are still a good hour out, that is if we don’t crash or fall apart before that.”

  “Just keep it on the rails and get us there in one piece,” Kull answered over the line.

  Kull glanced over at Seam in the rear cargo area of the rook. Seam’s eyes were transfixed on the glowing Key of Aleph. Kull tried to quiet his heart as it quickened in his chest and a knot rose in his throat. For a moment he questioned his decision to surrender the Key.

  “Seam,” Kull’s voice was quiet, yet it pricked at Seam’s ears despite the deafening roar of the engines. “Are you ready?”

  Seam kept his eyes on the Key and rubbed his thumb over its smooth edges, but he nodded slightly in agreement.

  “Seam. Can we trust you?” Kull stiffened in his seat, readying himself for whatever might come next.

  Seam glanced up from under his brow line and offered a half smile, the left side of his lips rising as his eyes narrowed.

  “Of course. We made a deal, didn’t we?”

  “Fall back and follow my lines.” Willyn engaged every line available on her datalink. “Push for the hollow. All artillery, keep your fire along the hillsides. I want walls of fire to our left and right as we come in.”

  “Ummm, you’re bottling yourself in,” called back one of the Elumite artillery unit commanders.

  “I know what I’m doing. Now light up those hills! We’re coming in hot and this won’t work without everyone coordinating.”

  Willyn peppered the morel swarm with her chain guns but intentionally held a course, pulling back further into the Lottian hillside, inching toward the wide hollow beneath Adley’s bunker.

  “This is it, men, we’re going to pack in tight. Wait for my command!”

  “Aye. Tis a good day to die!” called one of Willyn’s lieutenants.

  The datalink roared to life as Grogans, Elumites, Baggers, and Lottians all called back. “Aye. A good day to die!”

  Willyn took a deep breath and focused on the heads-up display, showing the positions of her fellow fighters and the morel swarm pursuing them. She pushed her rook deeper into the hollow, closing in on the sharp rise, leading to the cement pill boxes above.

  “Adley, calling in for support, fire at will.”

  “Still too far!” Adley yelled out. “We need a hundred more meters for a clear shot on M15.”

  “A hundred?! We’re already packed in too tight. I can get you sixty and that is it.”

  “Hurry! We’re dialing in.”

  Willyn cursed under her breath and flipped a console to life to activate a homing beacon. “Adley, use me as the mark. Lock in on my signal on line 84-D-5. Aim for me, not the grid.”

  “What!? We can make it work, just bring it in. We can cover your position,” Adley yelled into her datalink. “Don’t do this; it’s too dangerous!”

  Willyn ignored the plea. “All units press for the northern ridge of the hollow and press as far north as possible. Do not break formation.”

  “Willyn, don’t get too close. We need you here!”

  “Trust me,” Willyn called back as she pushed her headset microphone to the side and focused her attention on her controls, swinging her craft around, pushing against the incoming crowd of rooks, titans, and foot soldiers pouring into the hollow.

  “Ten minutes out!” Cyric called over the datalink lines to Kull and Seam. “You boys ready?”

  “We’re ready, Cyric. Have you made contact yet with Willyn or Adley?”

  “Nothing! Been calling in but there is so much chatter I am not cutting through apparently. Sounds like they are falling back though. All trying to get into some hollow for cover.”

  “Fools,” Seam muttered as he rocked his head side to side.

  “What?” Kull asked as he locked his eyes on Seam. “What did you say?”

  “They are playing right into his hands. This won’t end well. We may be too late,” Seam growled.

  “No!” Kull stared a hole through Seam’s head, his eyes burning and nostrils flaring. “We will get back in time and we will fight with everything we have left!”

  Seam chuckled and shook his head again. “I will fight. You two should join the others.”

  “I’m not going to sit back and—” Kull lunged at Seam until a blast of blue energy rocked him, slamming him back into his seat and crushing the wind from his lungs.

  “This is not your fight, Shepherd,” Seam answered as he smiled and leaned back into his seat. “I will finish this. You go join your friends.”

  Willyn’s
eyes were locked on her dash as the numbers dialed down. She approached the line of morels pouring over the final hill approaching Vale. The snow that had started slowly was now pouring over the battlefield, fogging up her vision of the thousands she knew were shambling toward her forces. She shifted all energy into her system’s thrusters and rapidly scribbled a calculation on the cockpit wall. She pushed minimal power to her front-facing auto cannon and pushed her accelerator forward as she flipped her microphone back down.

  “Adley, do you have my signal?”

  The line was silent for a moment and Willyn rechecked her line, confirming she still had connection.

  Adley broke over the coms. “I have it, but Willyn, we can’t hit them without—”

  “No question. Fire on my location when I call in. Trust me!”

  “Fine, but if this doesn’t work, we are all dead.”

  “I know,” answered Willyn.

  Willyn watched the horizon as the morel swarm grew closer by the second. She squinted, scanning the horde. Where are you? She gazed over the masses of the mindless, but Isphet was still concealing himself.

  “Isphet!” she shouted out. “Where are you? Come on out and fight me already! I can feel you. I know you’re here!”

  “I never left you, child.” Isphet’s voice bounced from the corners of Willyn’s skull. “Your rage was always your weakness, Willyn. Your guns are worthless against me.”

  Willyn’s eyes grew wide as the swarm of bodies shifted to open a thin channel, revealing none other than Isphet, who slowly strolled toward her. Willyn smiled as she flipped up a red switch and thumbed down the buttons on her steering column, releasing a barrage of concussion grenades that widened her approach.

  A quick click of a switch on the targeting computer locked in on Isphet’s position and Willyn tightened her grip on the controls, readying herself as the red digits clicked down closer to zero. Willyn kept her eyes locked on Isphet as yellow orbs of light glowed from his palms, illuminating his face in the firelight.