by T J Marquis
The drivers gunned their throttles and went careening over the top of the parapet.
Naphte’s transport traced a perfect line down the steep slope, and the other fishtailed for a moment, then righted itself. Those big, fat tires were doing good work. Nulian rifles opened fire on the transports, but their armor held. Portions of the enemy’s front line surged forward to defend the blaster emplacements, but cannon fire from the ramparts deterred them. Dahm made his contribution by hurling some of his diligently collected boulders through the air to join the cannonballs. Scores of Nulians fell to these volleys alone, crushed to a pulp under stone or iron, or pierced through with shrapnel.
Within a few dozen seconds the transports had swerved and skidded to a stop between the two blasters. The gremlin engineers were at a loss, not knowing whether to stand their ground, run out to fight, or flee. Soldiers burst out of both transports, swarming the siege blasters and cutting down their operators. Dahm imagined Naphte sweating it out in the driver’s seat. The Nulian frontliners opened fire and several men went down, riddled with bullets. Others made it into the protective shields of the blasters.
The fuel hatches had not yet been closed, and crude bombs were lit and dropped into the blasters’ fuel chambers. The human soldiers sprinted away to escape, and more of them were shot in the back as they retreated. The survivors piled into the transports, which tore off back toward the City wall.
The blasters exploded, their shields flashing blood-red as the last of their power was consumed in the attempt to contain their own explosions. Intense purple light drowned out the red as the fresh pellets of fuel ignited, held in by shields for an instant, then released in a blinding flash and an accompanying shockwave that flattened Nulian troops over a hundred yards away. The shockwave caught the rear of one of the transports and flipped it into the air viciously, sending it tumbling across the ground in a wreck. When it came to a stop, a few of the soldiers escaped and ran to the City wall for their lives, under fire from the enemy.
Twin mushroom clouds snaked up into the air from the ruined blasters, and everything, everyone was dead silent for a moment, except for the growling engine of the remaining transport. It had no chance of scaling the slick talus, but a long steel cable had been let down, and the transport’s passengers managed to hitch the vehicle up without taking any bullets in the back. A winch on top of the rampart was activated, and the transport was pulled back up.
It was the one that Naphte was driving. The downed transport’s survivors made it to the wall just in time to get hands on the surviving vehicle, and they held on for dear life, praying not to be shot.
A cheer went up among Centrifuge’s defenders, and their cannons resumed firing at the enemy lines. Dahm cheered along with them, the thrill of battle beginning to tug at his heart. That might very well have been a suicide run, but instead, had turned out almost entirely successful, though several brave men and women had given their lives to stave off the breaching of the City gate.
The transport was hauled back up the talus and its men unloaded. Naphte had survived, but his eyes were wild, and he was bleeding from one shoulder. A stray bullet must have ricocheted into the slitted viewports on the front of the vehicle. Dahm patted him on the back while other soldiers cheered their thanks to the brave team of saboteurs. Naphte and the other soldiers were all sent to the infirmary.
Enkann’s first celebration was short-lived, however, as a new cry went up from its army almost immediately.
“Dragons!”
A dozen dragons had surged up from among the hills blanketed in Nulian soldiers. All were of a similar breed, each a slightly different hue of orange, some more golden, others closer to brown. All were giants, with scales like mountain stone and wings like thunderheads. They looked hungry, and their serpentine necks ended in long, two-horned heads with dark eyes and slavering mouths. Massive spiked tails trailed behind them, twitching as they flew.
Rae had said the dragons were a noble folk, so how had the Nulians brought any of them to be their allies?
In an instant, the defenders on the ramparts were scrambling for cover. Dahm protected himself with some of the stone slabs he had collected. One desperate volley of cannon fire was loosed at the approaching flight of dragons, but with precious little time to aim, all the shots went wild.
About half of the dragons spread out and closed the distance to the defenders’ cannon emplacements, each spouting great gouts of flame to drive the cannoneers away from their positions. One man got a shot off before his attacker landed on the parapet, but the cannonball ricocheted off of thick scales harmlessly. Within moments, the great beasts had burnt and smashed dozens of Centrifuge’s cannons, spilling and igniting barrels of black powder before wheeling back away from the walls.
The rest of the dragon squadron had their talons fastened on huge sacks that appeared to be full of writhing figures. These cruised boldly over the top of the walls, taking fire from the men and women below. Even the bolts of cobalt light had no significant effect on their thick armor, though a number of the large sacks were blasted into flaming pieces, spilling small green bodies out to the ground below.
The dragons swooped low beyond the wall and released their cargo. The heavy sacks flew open and dozens of gremlins scrambled out in search of shadows and concealment.
Defending squads of swordsmen raced out from the redoubt that had been built in from the gate and gave chase, but within moments many of the gremlins had already disappeared into their surroundings.
Dahm heard the cry go up - “Release the hounds!”
Centrifuge had not been prepared to encounter dragons, but gremlins were old hat, and the City was prepared for them.
Hundreds of dogs flooded from the kennels staged near the redoubt, trained hunting dogs and conscripted pets alike. The leaders of the many packs knew what they were about and immediately raced off into the City streets, sniffing at the ground and barking to each other. The less well-trained animals were swept up in the moment, following their leaders for the most part. Swordsmen and pikemen followed the hounds, intent on preventing a gremlin incursion at the gate. History must not be repeated.
Gremlins were masters of stealth and evasion, but through sheer numbers and wild excitement, their canine hunters quickly sniffed them out. Yelps and growls and gargling screams rang out from alleyways and alcoves, from within dark, abandoned buildings as the dogs began to catch their prey. Many gremlins were forced out of hiding and cut down mercilessly in the streets, but there could be no guarantee that all would be found.
Rae’s Throne surged forward within range of the dragons, harassing them with lances of light that broke on their armor. But the great beasts fell back, and the Throne followed suit before the siege blasters could take aim at it again.
Now the main City gate was temporarily unaccosted, but a slow, constant barrage of purple fire continued to eat relentlessly at the resilient material of the City walls. The shallow craters burnt into the talus by the siege blasters deepened with every shot. The walls appeared to be regenerating slightly through some strange force, as evidenced by a light shimmer of energy crawling across the damaged surfaces, yet slowly but surely, the blasters were winning the standoff.
Again the defenders of Centrifuge wracked their brains for any possibility of counter-attack, but the dragons in the air were a huge problem. Snipers had been given leave to fire at will, and they took all the best shots they could spot, taking out ogres, gremlins, and beastmen at legendary distances. It was like swatting flies on a dunghill.
The dragon squadron pushed forward again, with more sacks of gremlins. Enkannite riflemen tore many of them apart with concentrated bursts of fire, but the dragons could not be stopped, and another wave of gremlins tumbled into the City. Some were dropped haplessly between the gate and the redoubt, but others landed sloppily behind the defenders’ lines and scurried into the shadows. A number of them landed badly and broke ankles or other bones, but the majority were intact. The hounds
gave chase, spread increasingly thin.
On their way back over the wall, the dragons sprayed the City’s troops with sheets of flame, and not a few were slain. The redoubt caught fire in places, as did some of the temporary shelters that had been built in between Centrifuge’s skyscrapers by its many refugees. Soldiers rushed to contain the blaze.
Dahm wondered desperately if there were anything he could do to help turn the tide, but watching the dragons complete their circuitous flight, he knew they were too many for one wizard to take, or even two. Would even Jon have made enough of a difference? Where was that man anyway? He should have returned by now.
As Dahm braced himself to defend against another pass by the dragons, he heard the complex call of a signal horn from deeper in the City. He asked a soldier nearby what it meant.
The man’s face had lit up with weary hope.
“Allies,” he said, “at the north gate! Sarathi are coming to help!”
Everything after leaving the town of M’bel’ata had gone by in a mad blur for Bahabe. They had struck out, unannounced, in the middle of the night, waking most of M’bel’a’s household with Sira’s commotion. Sira’heva had an infectious way about her, and no one who was awoken could resist coming along to see what she would do.
As the small group phased into the elements of the plains outside M’bel’ata, wild sarathi from all around began to fly alongside them, swirling among them in curiosity. Most were varieties of nocturnal sarathi, either silver-skinned, like the light of the moon, or so dark as to almost appear as shadows.
The night rolled into morning, and other cousins continued to join the mad rush across the plains and into Katal. Bahabe was amazed to see all the hues of her people and wished she knew what their colors conveyed about each of them. She hadn’t had time to learn it all yet. There were reds, blues, greens, browns, yellows, and all the shades in between, beginning to form such a strong current of ethereal bodies that the environment they traveled through became obscured to Bahabe’s sight. It was like she was dashing through the essence of a rainbow.
Did they know to what end they sprinted? Did they care? Or was it simply intriguing enough that a crush of their brethren was already in motion? Perhaps they knew or sensed in some instinctive way that this was important to one of their own. Perhaps they had other knowledge concerning the state of Enkann that convinced them this rush to war was right, needed.
Either way, the tsunami of sarathi was impressive, and being part of it was intoxicating.
Equally impressive were M’bel’a’s ‘pets’, as Sira’heva had called them. Whenever Bahabe looked up, she saw them. At night they had created a false dawn, and in the day, their tight formation coalesced into a second sun.
Bahabe couldn’t say how long they’d been sprinting when they finally came to the gates of Centrifuge. She’d been so swept up in the flight that she hadn’t even wondered how much time had passed in the outside world during her stay in M’bel’ata. Her aunt had said time flowed differently there, due to their protective enchantments. How differently?
The gate guards were astonished at the appearance of the rainbow horde, awestruck when Sira’heva stepped forward to announce the reason for their coming. They sounded the signal horns in triumph, and the sarathi swept into Centrifuge like a flood.
After the signal had been sounded, various officers were summoned down from the wall for a conference, and Dahm followed.
They met in a command tent just behind the redoubt, not lavishly furnished, with sweaty, soot-stained men and women crowded together and reeking of fear and worry. Dahm had come across Naphte outside and stood by him now. Naphte had been cleared to return to combat after the successful attack on the first two siege blasters. He wasn’t an officer yet, being only a transplant from Anek to these people, but no one asked him to leave, since he was clearly acquainted with the earth wizard, and he had Rae’s seal.
“What do you think it’s about?” Dahm asked.
Naphte shook his head. “Not about the sarathi coming, though that’s great news. That doesn’t call for a meeting. It’s gotta be something else.”
Two Generals named Sorc and Aron had already been in the command tent, discussing something with Rae. She’d reluctantly disembarked from the Throne to come and confer with them. Dahm caught her eye and offered a brave smile. She tried to reciprocate, but it wasn’t convincing.
General Sorc bellowed for quiet.
“Alright, we’ve little time to spare, so keep it down and I’ll get right to the point,” he said. “Our best guess is that the wall will be breached at sundown.”
Shock rippled through the crowd of officers.
“It seemed unthinkable, especially after we saved the gate today, but nothing should ever be counted impossible. This is why we built the redoubt, and luckily, the breach will be within its arc.”
“Once they’re in,” said General Aron, “the streets beyond the gate will be flooded with them. We’ll have to fall back behind the redoubt before then.”
“Why not set up more cannons?” someone asked. “We have enough transports to take out the siege weapons - they just need cover fire.”
“If it weren’t for the dragons...” Sorc said. “It’ll be better to hold the remaining cannons back and fire into the breach when it opens. Of course, the dragons will target them, but they’ll get some good work done first.”
“What about the sarathi?” Naphte said. “They have magic!”
Sorc sighed, “So people say, and surely more bodies in the fight won’t do us harm. But we don’t really know what they can offer… Until I see one face-to-face, they’re still just a myth to me, and we can’t count on myths.”
Some mumblings could be heard throughout the tent about Althne, but no one spoke up.
“We do know,” said Aron, “that they’ll make it across the City by dusk. Apparently they move quite fast. Meanwhile, we prepare for the breach as best we can.”
So the meeting was called to announce the impending breach, Dahm thought. They didn’t want to signal it to everyone at once.
The generals began to go over specific procedures with their officers, and Dahm strode over to Rae. Her guards eyed him out of habit, but everyone knew he was to be trusted.
“We will survive,” he said hopefully. Rae grimaced, but her face softened as she worked to accept his comfort.
“Yet I will be the first leader of this great old City to have allowed its wall to be breached,” she said. “What an excellent legacy.”
“Rae,” said Dam, putting a hand on her shoulder. He had to focus to ignore her electricity. “We can’t meet them on an open field. But the breach will force a choke point. You know that. Me, you, the Throne, and whatever the sarathi can do - there is only death waiting for those who press the attack.”
It was an odd thing to smile about, but he tried. He knew the Wizardess lacked nothing in the way of courage. She was simply at the end of a long rope. He prayed to Cenaprim that her rest would come soon.
Throughout the afternoon, the Nulians did nothing more than to drop endless waves of gremlins across the wall, sometimes near, and sometimes far. It was impossible to know where all of them might be, but each of the City’s gatehouses was protected as fully as possible. Thankfully, no more siege cannons seemed to be forthcoming, and the south gate remained unaccosted. Each time any of the cannons firing at the great wall needed to be refueled, a pair of dragons were sent to guard it during the process, leaving no more openings for sabotage.
Every time the approaching sarathi contingent passed a sentry checkpoint, a signal horn blew, and their calls echoed down from the north. With the closing proximity of the signals rose the hope and morale of Centrifuge’s defenders.
Yet no amount of hope would quench the moments of tension and terror just before the wall’s imminent breaching. The parapets above the deepening hole had been abandoned, as had the area beyond it. A hasty extension to the redoubt had been built to section off the area around the
gate and defend it from the breachers, and a sea of defenders had been stationed behind it.
The breach finally occurred at the second blaster emplacement, a quarter-mile east of the south gate. The last few layers of Centrifuge’s ancient and mighty wall sizzled with intense heat as it strove in vain to repair itself. The final blast came, tearing through the wall’s mass like paper, heat and purple fire spilling through the gap.
Horns blared and drums thundered within each of the armies as they prepared to meet at last. It took many long moments for the Nulian rush to reach the gap in the wall, and when they did, they met a withering hail of gun and cannon fire from the redoubt. Most of the first several ranks of the enemy died before even setting foot within the walls, their bodies piling up to fill the breach.
Dahm had stayed atop the ramparts to wait for this and sent the remainder of his rocks and boulders crashing down on the Nulians below before retreating in the direction of the gatehouse.
Thousands of Nulian bodies surged forward, heedless of gun or cannon fire, pouring through the breach amidst the remains of their stricken comrades. Bodies, limbs, blood and shrapnel filled the air around the breach in a tempest of chaos. The screams and wails of bloodlust or injury and pain became indistinguishable, merely a wall of horrid, piercing sound.
Dragons swooped in over the heads of the Nulian troops, bearing yet more gremlins and adding to the chaos with blasts of fire. The redoubt itself caught flame in places, and precious water was used to douse the blaze yet again.
There were too many targets for the defenders to fire at - inevitably they would get through to the redoubt. Moreover, Nul's sorcerers were being brought to bear, casting spells of fear and confusion over the City's defenders, using heavily armored ogres as mobile cover. Men and women atop the redoubt doubled over, stricken with crippling vertigo, emptying the contents of their stomachs.
