by M.C. O'Neill
For Your Consideration (ii)
ROYAL DAILY REPORT
Eighthmoon the 28th, 2789
Besieged!
Our forces of the ADF elite are currently fending off wave after wave of the demonic attackers at the very gates of the Royal Palace itself! Fear not citizens! Our valiant efforts shall not falter. The High King and the Princess Regent are safe and will remain so by the will of the gods! A count of three behemoth steeds is battering the walls and buttresses of our King’s domain, but the fight wages on!
Iron is the Key!
Deep in our kingdom’s shelters, impromptu smithies have been working day and night to forge iron armaments for the grand counterassault against our otherworldly assailants! Anything from spears, knives, blades, and the new “miniball” for our casters are being fabricated. They are even retooling our golems with iron armor! Join up with the smithmaster of your local shelter and be a part of the cause! Those weapons aren’t going to just build themselves!
Canine and Lupine Friends!
Do you love animals? Of course you do! Our specialist forces of the Canine and Lupine Divisions of the ADF are working night and day to guard your shelters from demonic infiltration. These lovely animals HATE the demons and will become extremely agitated when such monsters attempt to break into our vital living space! Join either the C-9 or L-9 Divisions in your shelter today and speak with a local recruiter.
Acquisition Report
Keep those daily sorties going, folks! Food, medicine, and even toys and games for the elflings are just many of the tantamount supplies that are needed to keep this effort alive. Just today, we have nationwide acquired 7 tons of rice, 2 tons of wheat, 3 tons of barley, 1 ton of hemp and 400 pounds of shellfish for our shelter network! Join a daily logistics party and you will keep the pulse of Corosa’s heart beating! Visit your shelter’s quartermaster for more details.
‘Shrooms and More ‘Shrooms
When food gets low, we can always rely on our friends from the Fungus Kingdom. Become a gatherer in your shelter in order to identify and harvest the ready-to-eat specimens that thrive in the underground! It may sound nasty, but with a little ingenuity, you can craft a delicious meal for your entire family! Be careful of those pretty toadstools though! They can be poisonous! Arrange a meeting with your shelter’s alchemist for more info!
From Commander Uriel
Our mighty angelic defender and his celestial host are planning with ADF generals and other top-brass for that glorious day when we push those winged freaks out of our dimension forever! Join the ADF today and follow in the wonderful shadow delivered unto us from Ui Himself! Creator be praised!
Draft Lottery
Check your tablet every day! If you are between the ages of 14 to 86, the ADF may need YOU! If so, expect mustering orders to become a full-fledged soldier or pilot against the hordes from the Nine Hells just outside your shelter door! Fear not citizen! You will either live on as a hero or die defending our very existence! The other option is an eternity of total damnation. You really have no other choice!
Remember the Fallen
Over the past weeks, we have sustained terrible losses. Many of the great and not-so-great citizens of Corosa Province have succumbed to capture into the dark bellies of those arks. Cry now and not much longer! The ADF will strike back and liberate those poor souls who are awaiting a terrible fate! Only YOU can bring them back alive! Visit your local ADF recruiter for military placement or await conscription.
Mana Report
Those stupid demons! The forces of Lucifer are too engrossed with swiping up our elven bodies to destroy our infrastructure. Our mana flows just as well as ever and power wardens throughout the province are keeping the lights on! As for now, our mana levels are at one hundred percent! Let them just try to break us!
Beware Loose Lips!
You never know who’s who! Keep your ideas to yourself and speak about important issues only to immediate family members and official wardens! Keep an eye on the dogs and wolves! Those demons are a sneaky lot and may attempt to infiltrate the shelters furtively! Be careful!
Keep Abreast!
The day will soon be at hand to strike back! Keep informed with this timely report for any breaking news! Every hour, on the hour!
Gods Save the King!
From the desk of Quay’liss Dalian, Royal Reporter and Correspondent.
For Great Justice
Sky of the richest morning blue blanketed the ruins of Corosa City on the eleventh day of Ninthmoon. Only two cirrus wisps occupied it and Lance Corporal On’dinn Jak’sin thought that it was somehow improper to wage a grand battle under such wonderful weather. In all of the war movies his father would watch when not passed out, the producers made sure to enact the scene under the most inclement conditions. The reality never matched the notion.
Hugging the column of a demolished third-story archway, which was battered at some point by one of those behemoths, the lad made quick glances at the nest of demons basking in the sun atop another ruined structure from across the street. He couldn’t be quite certain under the glare of the sunlight, but it appeared that there were five of them. Two of the females were playing some ridiculous game in which they would try to dodge each other’s slap to their faces. Boredom, it seemed, had set in as fewer and fewer elves were easy for the picking by then.
While trying not to make a single noise, the young scout summoned his air-golem to life and aloft. The small drone looked much like a large bird of prey to the uninitiated eye, except that its wings failed to flap. The little wooden beast circled the nests of infernals dotting the rooftops of the local neighborhood. In total silence, it recorded their positions with the little mirrors installed in its belly. According to the elf’s comsuit, the area was infested and he counted himself fortunate that he wasn’t crouching right next to a gaggle of the creeps.
“Skylark to Skyline One,” he hissed his whisper into the suit. “Birdie has flown. Prepare to receive coordinates.”
“Copy,” a posh voice responded with a loud and startling blast. The suit’s harsh crackle made On’dinn wince.
On’dinn jumped the very second the P.A. systems throughout the city blasted the opening trill of the classic elven war march The Charge of Bonn’fyr in ear-shattering unison. How corny, the corporal rolled his eyes. That tune was used like it was a religion in almost every war movie ever produced. All he could think about was “Killing Wabbits.”
To the contrary, the alien ears of the infernals did not share On’dinn’s critique of the hackneyed piece. The ADF’s Psychwarden General was convinced the music would “scare the Nine out of the moths.” By judging from the frantic swirl of the dun-brown forms blotting out the blue, perhaps the top brass was right. They hated it.
“Skylark to Skyline One; Skyline Two,” the lad studied the coordinates on his tablet with one eye and observed the demons fluttering over his head with the other. “Bearing a mark at five-degree radial in the north okta.”
“That’s a solid copy, Skylark,” First Lieutenant Ferd’inn Kokoff responded through his comsuit. “Coordinates received. 76er’s inbound. ‘Iron Rain.’ Supercharge! Supercharge! Keep your head down, lad.”
Rain iron it did. Flak from the aerial barrage met a clutch of winged hellions dead-center as the corporal’s readings were perfect. Bursts of red mana-charged metal miniballs tore through the flesh of the infernals as if they were nothing but rice paper. The demon Dysentarius caught a full load of it in his face as the hot charge and his cruel body exploded the instant it hit into a cloud of black slag.
Below, On’dinn was showered with hellfilth from the carnage in the sky. The stink was so dreadful that he couldn’t hold his delicate stomach together. Some people have lower tolerances for these things, the lad considered before he flashed his meager rations down on what was left of Fifth Street.
Corporal Hyrax Arcovis cheered from the seat of his 76 millimeter heavy aircaster. Commander Uriel was spot-on as the new miniball ammunition was
the perfect remedy to the infernal’s natural resistance to red mana. His longtime friend Private Garb’ann was busy reloading the cannon with muscle and due haste for the next barrage.
Working with On’dinn Jak’sin under such dire circumstances had forced the former runta captain to gain a better understanding of the nonconformist elf. At first, Hyrax found himself biting his tongue to hold back his snooty disgust of the lad, but On’dinn had proven himself to be a valuable asset to the antiaerial outfit. He was small, fast and furtive, and his light steps rendered him a formidable spotter. Not once was the young elf detected when he was ordered to sneak out of the shelters for a logistics run. After a mere week in the underground, Hyrax Arcovis’ better understanding of On’dinn had germinated into utter respect. Garb’ann, being Garb’ann, followed his alpha-comrade in suit.
“Good show, lads!” Ferd’inn bellowed as he held his breakfast teacup aloft. He was trying in vain to keep the drink from sullying his pristine officer’s cloak from under the rumble of the airbursts. “Let’s give them another dose of what-for, eh?”
Across the embedded ruin from Skyline One, Corporal Monti Dell’lavio hooted his own joy from the helm of his aircaster. “Hey, Warehouse! This is awesome! You gotta load me up for another one!”
Face took Quen’die’s advice after a few days and rounded up the Zobbos for a shelter in the Docks District. Once the ADF had seen their incredibly fit forms, they were, without delay, “volunteered” for military duties. Not one of them took the assignments lightly at the onset of their training as they were forced underground for weeks and had no access to sun caskets. Pumpkin had all but suffered a nervous breakdown when she had noticed that her tan lines were disappearing into the pale. Although there was danger overhead, the sky was sunny and brilliant and the lads of Skyline Two were most grateful to at last be out under it for the first time in weeks.
“Yeah!” the giant private agreed as he shoved the miniballs into the caster’s breech-slide with one burly hand.
“Yeah is right! We’ll fire this one off for Princess!” Face growled as he was sure the infernals had been responsible for her disappearance which, in an oblique way, they were. “Give me some more targets, Cheatsheet!”
