Shades of Death

by Ramy Vance

  “How could they not want you to be? You’re amazing, and you get the job done better than anyone else I know.”

  “I don’t know. It’s just…it’s been a long time since I’ve had any friends. Other than you, everything is business. And they don’t even know me. I doubt any of them pulled my files. Not that it would have said anything. All the shitty stuff is redacted.”

  Kravis wrapped his hand around Sarah’s. “Which means they like you for you. Not some bullshit they read on a sheet of paper. And besides that, you’re more than all of this,” Kravis said, gesturing at the weapons spread out on a blanket next to them. “We both are. Might not feel like it all the time, but we aren’t only tools used to kill. You know that, right?”

  “I do. Still feels good to hear it. Sometimes it just seems like there’s no going back. After all this fighting is done, what am I going to do? This is all I’ve ever done. I don’t have a life outside of this fucking war.”

  Kravis grabbed Sarah’s favorite pulse rifle. He handed it to her and selected one of his daggers. He sharpened the blade as he peered back into the flame. “We’ll get to have a normal life. And we’ll be capable of it. Trust me.”

  Sarah focused on cleaning her rifle, relaxing with the old automatic movements of taking care of the tools of her trade. Kravis was right. They were both going to live through this. And once it was done, they were going to have real lives.

  After some time of working in silence, Kravis said, “I got you a present.” He handed Sarah a headband with a spiral emblazoned on it.

  She took the headband, which was heavy in her hand. “What is it?”

  “I know you’ve been having a hard time unlocking that last chakra. Got a couple of the boys to whip together something for you. This little guy will help you bypass all of them. Turns all of those unconscious limitations of your brain off.”

  Sarah grabbed Kravis and pulled him on top of her, smothering his face in kisses. “I can’t believe you got someone to make this!”

  Kravis still looked at her, his face serious. “You have to be careful, though. You know—”

  Sarah kissed him deep and longingly. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. She already knew what she had to be worried about. “Please. Stop talking. Just kiss me.”

  Kravis smiled. Sarah never grew tired of seeing that smile, the same one he had flashed when they first met. “All right, all right. We got a couple of hours to kill.”

  Chapter Nine

  Sarah woke up with the sun. They had slept without a tent or sleeping bags. The morning was unbearably hot. They were already burning up wrapped in each other’s arms.

  Moving silently, Sarah extricated herself from Kravis’ arms and started a fire. She brewed a cup of coffee and fried up a couple of eggs to be served alongside the dried meat Kravis had brought.

  By the time Kravis woke up, breakfast was ready. The couple ate in silence, which had been their routine for most overnight missions. Talking was distracting. Only one thing required their attention at the moment: the mission.

  Once they’d finished breakfast, the pair broke down their camp and checked in with the different teams they commanded.

  Myrddin was deeply invested in the liberation of the gnomish world. That being said, he still relied on the gnomish resistance to lay the groundwork. There was only so much the wizard could do all the way from another realm.

  Which was where Sarah and Kravis had come in. Both were instrumental in raising up the resistance and keeping it going whenever the Dark One almost crushed it beneath his boot.

  Sarah confirmed her reinforcements were making good time. “How about your team?”

  Kravis closed his HUD and grunted. “They’ll be here in time. We should get to work.”

  They slid down the sand dunes and headed to the main transportation road. “Road” was a generous description for the worn-in tire tracks Sarah had mapped out over the course of the last two months. She knew these dunes as well as she knew her childhood home.

  Once they reached the bottom of the dunes, they split up. They placed mines along the roadside, zigzagging between each other, ensuring the route was covered. Then they added additional mines along the length of the road to slow down the convoy. Once they were satisfied, they returned to the top of the dunes.

  Sarah retrieved her pulse rifle, fitted it with a scope, and posted up in a position that gave her a good vantage point to see the convoy coming through the looming dunes.

  Kravis went down to the base of the dune below Sarah and pulled a sand-colored camouflage sheet off his dune buggy. Of gnomish creation, the buggy didn’t run off gasoline, instead using a clockwork system along with piped steam for power.

  In most hands, this would have been an inferior form of transportation, but under the control of the gnomes, the most rudimentary tools had been elevated to deadly usage.

  Gnomes possessed the gift of tech. Anything you put in front of them would be transformed into a new creation. At this moment in time, most of what the gnomes were creating were weapons.

  Karvis’ voice came through on the comm. “I’m in position.”

  Sarah was looking through her scope, scanning for the incoming convoy and trying to locate her squad. “Okay. Looks like we’re just waiting now.”

  For the following two hours, Sarah and Kravis chatted while waiting for the convoy. These were moments that Sarah most appreciated. Quiet instances before everything grew into chaos. And she was glad to share these moments with Kravis.

  Her HUD pinged, and she checked the notification. The convoy was coming through. She peered through her scope.

  The orcish convoy totaled twenty heavily armored vans traveling in pairs. Manned heavy-artillery turrets sat on the roofs of every van. That was more firepower than Sarah had been led to believe she would have to deal with. “That’s going to make things interesting…”

  Kravis’ voice came over her comm. “Yeah, but we should be good. Just like we planned, remember. The squads know what’s going on. We just gotta make sure to stick with the plan.”

  “Yeah, I know. I know.”

  Sarah lined up her shots. Her squad was most likely already in position. All they were waiting for was her signal.

  She fired, a hyper-charged beam of plasma that struck the orc manning the turret at the head of the convoy.

  All along the road, the ground began to tremble.

  The orcs on the roofs of the vans stared at each other, clearly trying to figure out what was happening.

  Sarah took another shot, hitting one of the turret riders in the head, sending his brains out into the harsh, dusty wind.

  The ground continued to shake as giant drill-bits forced their way out of the ground. The bits were attached to buggies, which were also approaching the surface.

  Sarah fired again. And again. Shot after shot, she didn’t let up until she had eliminated all the orcs at the turrets. She collapsed her rifle and jumped, sliding down the dunes toward Kravis. Sarah climbed atop the buggy and grabbed the machine gun waiting for her.

  All along the road, gnomish buggies were popping up. The orcish convoy bunched together, their vans eliminating extra space on the road.

  Sarah slapped the top of Kravis’ buggy, shouting, “Go! Go!”

  Kravis took off, following the convoy as the gnomish buggies converged on the orcish troops.

  The convoy van doors opened, orcs leaning out, some of them brandishing plasma rifles, others flamethrowers.

  The gnomish buggies sped up, as though attempting to cut the orcs off. Gnomes hung from the side of the buggies, covered in war paint, hollering as they fired steam-powered buzz-saw shotguns.

  Saws tore through the orcs, who screamed in their native tongue as though in that moment, they had forgotten they were under the Dark One’s control, firing blazing hot plasma at the gnomes.

  Sarah stomped on the hood of Kravis’ buggy. “Faster! We gotta drive them!”

  He sped ahead, finally catching up with
the convoy as Sarah opened fire, spraying bullets at the orcs at the back of the pack.

  The orcs at the head of the convoy continued to speed up, attempting to evade the gnomes on one side and Sarah at their rear. Without warning, the gnomes peeled off back toward the dunes and away from the main road.

  And the convoy passed over the first set of mines.

  Explosions tore the road apart, sending orcs, debris, and shrapnel everywhere as the ground caught fire.

  Sarah leaned over the top of the buggy, pointing frantically to her left. Kravis obeyed and veered off the road, attempting to overtake the exploded vans and put some heat on the vehicles still running. “Everyone! Back to it! Pin them in!”

  The gnomes drove alongside the convoy, blanketing the orcish vehicles with plasma-blasts and bullets, forcing them to remain on the road.

  The convoy hit the second set of mines, explosions tearing through the vans, sending more orcs flying.

  “All right, pull ‘em in!” Sarah shouted.

  The gnomes tightened their chokehold on the orcs and started closing in.

  The frontrunner of the orc convoy hadn’t slowed down. Its main hatch opened and an orc crawled out on top of the turrets. “For the Dark One!”

  The sides of the van split open. Four motorcycles came flying from the left and right panels. Each of the vehicles in the convoy also opened, sending more riders out onto the road.

  The orc atop the frontrunner turned to face Sarah. He held a rocket launcher and fired.

  Kravis swerved to the side, narrowly avoiding the rocket.

  The orc smiled wickedly. “Let her out.”

  At the back of the convoy, a van opened. A screech tore through the air as two red eyes peered out at Sarah.

  Sarah unloaded everything she had at the van but the eyes did not waver. She threw the machine gun away and drew her knives. “Nothing is ever just fucking easy.”

  Chapter Ten

  The orcs sped up as the four motorcyclists wove through the gnome’s dune buggies, firing as the gnomes performed evasive maneuvers.

  Sarah was still preparing herself for whatever would exit the back of the van. She didn’t have to wait long.

  A wyrm stuck its head out and sent a blast of fire at Sarah and Kravis, who swerved to the left, narrowly avoiding being barbecued. “Who the hell keeps a wyrm in the back of a van?” Sarah shouted.

  Kravis’ dune buggy began to spin out, and he fought with the wheel to keep from flipping over. Sarah was holding on as tightly as possible as a motorcycle came up on their side. She jumped from the top of the car, kicking the orc rider in the throat and knocking him off. Then she grabbed the handlebars and righted the bike so that she didn’t eat sand.

  Sarah turned the bike, heading toward Kravis. The best plan would be to regroup, but it was apparent that wasn’t happening. Everything was too frantic. All Sarah could hope for was that the gnomes would be able to handle themselves. She would have to take care of the wyrm.

  First, she commed Kravis. “What’s your move?”

  The gnome headed to Sarah. “Cut up to the front. Try to slow down the convoy.”

  “Sounds good. Be safe.”

  “Always.”

  Kravis took off toward the front of the caravan of vans as Sarah headed toward the back. The wind whipped up sand everywhere, and it was becoming harder to see. Looked like a sandstorm was about to arrive.

  Just great, if anything else goes wrong, I’m going to call it a day and shoot myself.

  The motorcyclists were barely visible in the sand. Sarah was glad because it meant no one could see her. The gnomes would be all right. Their dune buggies were all built with telescopes equipped with heat readers. These were their deserts, and they knew how to fight in them.

  Sarah, on the other hand, was trying to figure that out for herself. Getting behind the convoy would not be a problem. Dealing with the wyrm would be. She checked the bike for weapons. All she found was a plasma rifle and a couple of grenades.

  Ideally, delivering a few shots to the wyrm’s soft underbelly would have worked perfectly. Problem was that the wyrm was lying in the back of the van. Good decision by the orcs. This way, they could have an almost invulnerable flamethrower.

  What are they hiding back there? Sarah thought. This is way too much protection for a simple resource drop-off.

  She commed the team, “Everyone still alive?”

  Someone answered, “No casualties yet. The bikes have backed off for now, but we know we didn’t get all of them.”

  “Okay, slow this thing down until the bikers come back around. Let’s take advantage of this storm.”

  The gnomes moved in unison as if they’d practiced this formation before. Kravis was leading them, trying to get to the front of the van as the other gnomes fought to catch up with the vehicle’s wheels.

  Kravis reached the front wheels, and opened his side door, holding a harpoon gun. He fired and hit the wheel’s axle. Then he slammed a lever that pulled the harpoon’s rope tight. “Got one anchored!”

  An orc leaned from a window, firing at Kravis, who swerved to avoid the plasma. He pulled another gun and shot the orc in the head.

  The driver of the convoy pushed the dead orc from the van and kept driving.

  One of the motorcycles came out of nowhere, hitting Kravis’ car hard with a plasma bolt. “Could use some backup here!”

  Sarah wished she could catch up with Kravis, but she was too far behind. Hopefully, the squad was good enough to keep each other alive. The wyrm had Sarah’s focus.

  She fell back a little and pulled to the left so that she was directly in front of the wyrm. The giant serpent met her eyes and roared in anticipation. It opened its mouth, preparing to send a jet of flame at her.

  Sarah pulled the plasma rifle from the side of the bike and fired. The plasma hit the wyrm in the face, only enraging the creature. It leaned out of the back of the van and swiped at Sarah, forcing her to slow down and put more distance between herself and the wyrm.

  Up ahead, one of the gnomish buggies had caught up to Kravis, but he didn’t stop there. He kept driving until he plowed into the orc biker.

  When Kravis was free, he returned to work. He sped up and cut in front of the van, distracting the driver as another gnome swung around to the other wheel, and fired his harpoon. Once the gnome was certain the spear had stuck, he flashed Kravis a thumbs up.

  Kravis disengaged, moving to the right as the orc driver fired from his window. “Now!” Kravis shouted.

  He tossed the harpoon gun out of the window. A spike shot from the bottom of the weapon and hit the ground. The spike whirled and spun, driving the gun deep into the earth.

  The van bucked forward as the tension from the harpoon guns did their job. The back of the van flipped up, and Sarah watched as the wyrm’s eyes went wide with surprise.

  Sarah hadn’t believed the gnomes were capable of pulling this off so fast. Kravis was probably still alive.

  A biker emerged from Sarah’s side, firing at her. She turned and headed into the dust, firing over her shoulder, hoping to hit something. Being stuck on this bike wasn’t working for Sarah. It wasn’t the type of mobility she needed.

  She rode over to the side of the van, which was still moving despite the harpoons. Front wheels are probably shredded to shit, she thought. Must be one hell of an engine.

  Sarah leapt onto the side of the van, shooting a grappling hook. She scurried up to the roof, reached over her shoulder, and detached her collapsible sniper rifle. This was going to be a hassle, but she was fairly confident it was doable. Maybe not for everyone.

  Ignoring the dust clouds swarming around her, Sarah focused on one thing. Listening. The roar of the motorcycles was louder than the truck’s engine. She could pick them out easily. Locating them would be the hard part.

  Sarah lined up her first shot, closing her eyes, straining her ears to listen. She opened her eyes after locating her mark.

  Bang.

  Sarah w
atched one of the bikers skid out of the sand-clouds, barely able to keep his bike straight, before racing into the truck and exploding.

  Beneath her, the dune buggies fell back to attack the rear wheels. Sarah saw that Kravis was still with them.

  An orc biker emerged from the left, heading toward one of the gnome buggies. A rocket launcher was attached to his shoulder blade. He fired and the missile connected with one of the buggies, blowing it to smithereens. The orc screamed defiantly as he loaded another rocket.

  Sarah aimed at the orc but couldn’t line up the shot. He knew Sarah’s position and was doing everything in his power to keep from being an easy target. Goddamn it, Sarah muttered. She collapsed her rifle and ran to the side of the truck, jumped off, and landed on the bike’s handle.

  She pulled the orc’s sidearm off, fired, and kicked the corpse from the bike as she ripped his rocket-launcher away. Then she aimed at the side of the truck and fired.

  The rocket tore through the truck’s freight cargo. Sarah hoped that she’d managed to at least ding the wyrm.

  With the remaining buggy on her left side, Kravis moved toward the back wheels again as he commed, “Last wheels. Ready?”

  The other driver responded and they both fired their harpoons, ripping up the back wheels. As Kravis prepared to drop his harpoon, the wyrm burst out of the side of the cargo hold.

  The wyrm hit Kravis’ buggy hard, sending it spinning off as the truck began to lose its momentum.

  Sarah watched as Kravis spun out. She reloaded the rocket launcher and aimed at the truck-cab and fired.

  The rocket hit the driver’s side and exploded. She turned to the wyrm. “Your turn.”

  Sarah aimed the rocket launcher, preparing to fire when the wyrm jumped from the freight cargo, flapping its diminutive wings enough to gain momentum. It slammed into Sarah, knocking her from the bike.