The Vanguard

by Jeffrey Ellis

  She reached out to Trish's life force as she had done at Stonehenge when she was first taken by the spirit of the grove. She felt Trish's life, but it was almost gone. The faint trace that was left was slipping away fast. Boudicca fed her own life force into Trish to bolster what was there and felt her own essence merge with that of Trish's.

  Corporal Jameson was working as quickly as he could to stop the blood flow. The laser passed through her abdomen, severing her intestines in several places and passing out through her spine. He had to cut her open further to be able to reach the damaged areas. He was sealing ruptured vessels as quickly as his hands could work. She lost a tremendous amount of blood and was losing more at a fast rate, but he was making progress. As part of both GloCom's special forces and a commanding officer, he had been trained extensively in all things they considered necessary to lead an elite operative group and this included field surgery. He was by no means a fully qualified surgeon but could handle many medical emergencies.

  Field Marshall Bruce and the rest of the team took aim on the sarsen stones. The pounding grew louder and more intense. Several of the GloCom troops readied grenade launchers. The pounding got louder, and cracks started to form in the stones.

  #

  “This thing is beat up, but it should fly. Strap in and hold on. I just wish we had time to wash off that troll blood before we got into this cockpit,” said William and helped Nefertiti connect the five-point harness.

  He powered up the craft and eased it out of the hangar. They headed quickly in the direction of the C&C building. It was a short distance for a flight craft and they only need to climb a few stories. The craft was flight worthy but only barely. It was sluggish, and the controls were not responding well. They cut through the firefight between the turrets and fighters doing his best to maintain control when a turret shot caught them. “We're losing altitude,” William told Nefertiti as the craft shook violently. “I can hold it but can't climb. We'll not be able to make the height needed for the rooftop. Rerouting to Bruce's team. We can back them up.”

  He steered the craft as best he could, zigzagging through the firefight in the crippled ship. They approached the armory but, in the darkness, couldn’t make out much below them. As they neared the armory, a dragonfly unaware they were friendly came in behind them and took out the engines and one of the wings.

  “Nefertiti, we’re going to crash. I’m ejecting us. Let’s hope the seat’s thrusters and chutes are working,” said William.

  “What does ejecting mean?” asked Nefertiti followed soon behind by her screaming as the roof canopy blew off and the seats launched into the air.

  #

  Bruce and the rest formed a line between Trish and the statues. The stones continued to crack and finally shattered. The huge marble constructs started advancing towards the group again. As they did so, an old military shuttle came towards them like a rocket. The shuttle crashed into the statues and destroyed two of them. The remaining two continued to advance, leveling their rifles at the group of defenders.

  Bruce calmed himself and faced the statues. He felt energy well up inside him and he released it. Bolts of electricity leaped out of him and at the statues. It had no effect on the stone, but the laser rifles the statues carried shorted out and caught fire. The statues dropped the damaged weapons. One of them grabbed a piece of the twisted metal from the shuttle wreckage and the other picked up the leg of one of their fallen comrades.

  Bruce yelled and ran towards the one with the statue leg. As he did so he channeled all his power into himself, augmenting his already impressive physical strength. The surviving Wardens charged the one with the shuttle piece.

  The Wardens and GloCom were concentrating their fire on the statue’s head. The Wardens were using their impact slugs and were slowly chipping away at it. The stone was hard but not indestructible. The statue was swinging the metal in large arcs like a mowing scythe. The Wardens were faster and GloCom stayed out of range so initially, it didn’t have much success.

  Bruce charged into the statue with his shoulder forward and hit it hard. The statue staggered a bit but did not fall. It swung the leg at Bruce and missed, hitting the ground and Bruce kicked its knee. The statue swung again, and he kicked its knee again. The statue raised one of its massive feet and stomped down on Bruce. The man used his augmented strength to catch the foot and pushed away, throwing the statue off balance. He kicked the knee again and a crack could be heard.

  “Pull the pin and throw a grenade at it,” yelled one of the Wardens to the GloCom troops.

  “It’s too far, I can’t get a grenade that distance,” a troop yelled back.

  “Just do it!” the Warden yelled at him.

  The troop pulled out a grenade and lobbed at the statue. The Warden made a motion with his hands and the grenade flew to the statues head and reached it just as it exploded. The statue reeled backward and threw the large chunk of metal at the Warden. It struck the Warden and the one next to him with massive force. The two Wardens were thrown backward and lay still on the ground. The statue continued to walk around but seemed to have no focus or orientation. It stumbled and got too near the pit that Trish had created and fell in.

  The remaining statue was stumbling as well as its knee began to give way. It swung the leg at Bruce again and he ducked it, kicking the knee a fourth time. The statue spun around and swung again before he was clear, and the leg-club caught him in the abdomen. He was thrown some distance through the air and hit the ground roughly. He struggled to stand but he managed to make it to his feet. The statue lumbered towards him, off balance due to its damaged knee.

  It swung the leg-club again and Bruce caught it with every ounce of strength he had and ripped it free from the statue’s hand. He swung it around with such force it shattered the already weakened knee and continued, impacting the second one and breaking both the second knee and his makeshift club in the process. The statue fell onto its back and started swinging at Bruce. He grabbed one of the arms and broke it off at the shoulder. It continued to swing, and he repeated the process on the second arm. The statue lay there, still trying to move its stumps.

  Bruce realized both statues were down and limped back to Trish. As the magic he used on himself wore off and the adrenaline of the fight faded, he felt the impact from the statue’s hit. He felt like some ribs were cracked, possibly broken but he couldn’t let it show. Trish was the one with serious injuries, not him. Breathing hurt, though. The thing hit him hard.

  Boudicca was still holding onto Trish and in a trance. The blue stone of Trish’s skin had returned to normal and Corporal Jameson was closing her up as best he could.

  “How is she?” asked Field Marshall Bruce.

  “It could go either way. Whatever Boudicca is doing is helping. Her vitals are very weak but stable, and I’ve stopped the internal bleeding. Medvac is in route,” the Corporal told him as he finished up and prepped her for transport once the shuttle arrived.

  “Thanks, Corporal. She means a lot to us,” Field Marshall Bruce told him.

  “Why are you limping and holding your chest?” asked the Corporal as he got out his scanner and started running it over Bruce.

  “Nothing major, just some bruising. I’ll be fine,” he replied.

  Michael looked at the results of the scan. “You’re going to be on the evac shuttle with Trish. You have a badly sprained knee and ankle along with several broken ribs. One of those broken ribs is pushing against a lung. I bet it’s hard to breathe. You’ll live and it’s a pretty easy repair, but your day is done. Let me help you sit down and rest until the shuttle gets here,” Jameson told him.

  “Not happening. If I can walk, I can fight. I’ll be fine,” replied Field Marshall Bruce.

  “You will be fine but only if you get treatment. If that bone pierces your lung it’s going to be a much worse injury. Being the only one here with medical training, that makes me the ranking medical officer and that's an order,” the Corporal told him.

&nbs
p; “You’re in GloCom and I’m not. The only people on this base that can order me around are Lord Marshall Sebastian and Vice Marshall Chelsea,” he replied with a smug smile.

  “Hold on, I’m getting an update on the shuttle. I need to give them a status report on Trish. If you won’t listen at least sit and rest,” said Corporal Jameson as he walked away.

  Bruce did as he asked and with some painful effort sat down on the pavement and went over their status in his mind. He watched Boudicca and thought about the fight so far. Anna was down. Trish was down. He was hurt. They had the hangar and the armory. GloCom was already clearing the hangar now that they had eliminated any magical threats and only a token resistance was left. Sebastian and his team were very good, and the C&C would probably fall soon. The military would call their results so far successful with acceptable losses, but he was getting damn tired of losses being acceptable.

  He was in the middle of a battlefield where shit was going rough and every fiber of his being wanted to push on through the pain and fight. Deep down though, the only thing really on his mind was Bethany and their soon to be child. He felt the pain in his chest again and pulled himself up. He could barely breathe and each time he did, he could feel the bone pushing on his right lung.

  Corporal Jameson walked back over and checked on Trish. As he did, a call came in Bruce’s internal comm. “I understand you have broken ribs that could puncture a lung and you’re refusing to evac. I spoke with the Corporal and you’re right. Only two people on this base can order you on an evac shuttle and one of them is doing it. I want you on that medical transport. You have a child on the way and don’t need that child to grow up fatherless because you weren’t at your best and got killed in battle,” came Vice Marshall Chelsea’s voice over the comm.

  “Trish is down. Boudicca is effectively out of the fight keeping Trish alive and that just leaves me to command this unit,” said Field Marshall Bruce.

  “I just got a message from William. He and Nefertiti had to eject from a damaged ship and landed a few minutes from you. They’re on their way to you and William will have your back. Now get on that shuttle. You’re a friend Bruce and I don’t like to use rank but I’m going to. That’s an order,” she told him.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied sourly and cut the channel.

  Bruce slowly pulled himself up and walked over to Corporal Jameson. “I should knock you out for that. You went over my head,” said Field Marshall Bruce.

  “With all due respect sir, with the injuries to your ribs if you took a swing at me you would end up on the ground, not me. Right now, you have some broken ribs and a bit of bruising internally. If that bone pushes through your lung, and any strenuous activity could do that, you’re going to have trouble breathing and blood flowing into a possible collapsed lung along with other complications. A minor fracture could become life-threatening. You need to swallow your pride and get your ass on that shuttle,” the Corporal told him.

  “You have a lot of nerve. I’m twice your size,” said Field Marshall Bruce.

  Michael stared up at the significantly larger man. “This isn’t about your ego it’s about your team. You’re not healthy and that makes you a liability. It’s not just your life that’s on the line it’s everyone else who is depending on you. If you can’t be at your best you don’t need to be on a battlefield,” Corporal Jameson told him.

  Bruce glared at him.

  “I’ll make a deal with you. Once you’re healed up, you can have your shot. Just remember, I’m a GloCom elite and you might be biting off more than you can chew,” Michael told him while holding his gaze in a cold stare.

  William walked between the two and laughed, “Zip them up, kids. We don’t care who’s got the bigger dick right now. Michael, when this is over, remind me to recommend you for a transfer to the Vanguard. Not a lot of people have the balls to stand up to someone like Bruce.”

  The evac shuttle landed and they loaded Trish and Bruce. The doctors determined they could keep Trish stable without Boudicca at this point. With tears in her eyes, she watched the shuttle depart. She wanted nothing more than to be with Trish, but she knew if they failed here today, it could mean the lives of more than Trish, so she put her love of one person aside for her love of the world. Nefertiti held her a moment as she pulled herself together and dried her tears.

  Several of the soldiers from Bruce’s team came over and spoke with William. They had been reconnoitering the building while the rest deal with the medical evac.

  “Okay everyone, GloCom tells me the armory is secure. That’s the good news. The bad news is it’s stripped. Most of the ordnance is gone. That’s not good but we can’t do anything about that right now. We need to plan. The C&C is the only key objective left. Sebastian, Chelsea, and Xavier are going in from the roof. They said there’s a secret access there. That’s a few stories in the air and no way to reach it. The only shuttles available are medical ones and they won’t go anywhere near those roof turrets. We can reinforce positions or help the GloCom team on the north wall breach that entrance,” William told them.

  “You should see this,” said Corporal Jameson to the rest of the group as he stood staring at the statue that Bruce destroyed.

  The group walked over, and Corporal Jameson had a flashlight on the statue. It was still trying to move despite the loss of all four limbs.

  “The magic will fade over time. It’s no threat to us,” said Nefertiti.

  “It’s not that. This is the statue of General Adamson. Look at the face. Does it remind you of anyone?” asked Corporal Jameson.

  “Hehe. Looks like we have another name for King Arthur,” said Field Marshall William.

  “Another name? How many does he have?” asked Corporal Jameson.

  “We don’t know for sure. Some kind of curse makes them keep being reborn. Sebastian is the latest incarnation of King Arthur and Chelsea is the latest incarnation of Queen Guinevere,” William told the young man.

  “That means…my ancestor was…” said Corporal Jameson.

  “Ancestor?” said Nefertiti.

  “General Adamson is my several greats grandfather so that makes Sebastian…what the hell does that make him?” asked the Corporal. This is confusing.

  “After a while, you get over it. He might or might not have been another person in the past, but it doesn’t matter. As he is quick to point it out it doesn’t matter who anyone may have been in this life or any other it’s who they are right now that matters and right now he’s heading to the roof of that building and there is no way for us to get to him to help,” said William.

  Boudicca still had tears in her eyes. “Maybe there is,” she said. “Normally I wouldn’t recommend something like this for people without the time to train properly but there is a way. We can climb the walls.”

  “That’s a long climb without proper equipment,” said the Corporal.

  “The building’s surface is stone. Many animals can climb that,” said Boudicca.

  “Do think they could handle that?” asked Nefertiti. “Summoning an animal spirit is difficult for an untrained person.”

  “If we want to get to the roof, that’s the only way. You and I could easily make the climb, but they couldn’t. Maybe something easier to handle like a squirrel or lizard?” replied Boudicca.

  “Perhaps the squirrel. A reptile’s mind is too foreign to a human and they would not be able to control it without training. We would have to forcibly purge the squirrel spirit at the top. We could not leave them under its influence. They can climb walls but are too skittish to fight,” Nefertiti replied.

  “Wait just a damn minute. No one is turning me into a squirrel,” said Corporal Jameson.

  “I have to concur here. There is no way I’m letting you do that to me,” said Field Marshall William.

  “You would not be turned into one. You would adapt its traits, its skills and some of its habits,” said Nefertiti. “Boudicca’s people perfected the spell and she taught it to me. It is not
easy at first but will not harm you and not physically change you very much.”

  “Very much?” asked William.

  “You will have some minor changes. Since the purpose of this would be to climb the wall, then the spell would be focused on that ability and you would grow claws, for example, and probably some more body hair. The physical part isn’t the problem. You would also take on some of its mental qualities. They are somewhat erratic and spook easily. It would take tremendous concentration to control,” Boudicca said wiping away a tear.

  “I’m not worried about focus. I have that in droves. I’m worried about the after effects,” said Corporal Jameson.

  “There will be no lasting physical effects. There might be some minor personality quirks until you fully purge the spirit,” said Boudicca.

  “Like what?” asked William.

  “It’s hard to say. We would be using the spirit of a squirrel so maybe you’ll desire acorns or want to climb trees. I’ve never drawn on their spirit, so I can’t say for sure. They are however the best choice. Other animals that could climb walls like lizards or spiders are going to be too alien and the physical and psychological effects are profound. A squirrel is the safest choice I can think of for the first time,” Boudicca said.

  “I’m game. I’ve sat idle too long and the more we talk the more people die. Let’s do it,” said Corporal Jameson.

  “I like your enthusiasm. If you’re interested, you really should consider joining the Vanguard. Sebastian has the ear of General Morrison and the President. I’m sure we could make it happen,” William told him.

  “I have a direct line to the General myself. I see him every holiday at our family dinners except I call him dad, not general,” the Corporal told him.

  “That doesn’t change anything. The Vanguard needs people like you. You have the potential for magical training as well. I can feel it in you,” said Nefertiti.

  “I don’t know what to say. I’m honored but GloCom is my home and has been my family for generations. I would need to think about it,” Corporal Jameson replied.