by Ramy Vance
“So, you’re saying they might be trying to summon something else the Dark One can’t control?” Abby asked.
Anabelle sat in her chair as the holoscreen returned to a map of the city. “I’m saying we have no idea what the fuck will come through whatever portal that lich opens up.”
Abby groaned. “So, the Dark One and this lich are going to open up a…what? A super Dark Gate?”
Anabelle shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Also, I’ve played DnD. A lot of it. The only way to kill a lich is by destroying its phylactery, right?”
Another shrug. “In theory. But this lich is older and more powerful than anything I’ve ever heard of. I’m guessing that means all bets are off. All I do know is the Dark One’s forces will arrive through those Dark Gates. Hundreds of them. Grok is probably coming too. So, we need a plan.”
The control room was silent as everyone mulled over possible options. Finally, Roy spoke. “We look at what we know. The Dark One never just throws enemies at us. He’s strategic. I’d bet he will release a heavy ground- and air-force. You say this looks like a summoning? Let’s look at what we know you need for a summoning.”
The humans in the control room stared at each other, dumbfounded. “I’m going to assume from your silence that none of you know anything about this,” Roy said. “So, let me break it down. To summon anything from another plane of reality, you need to perform a ritual. A ritual had to be performed just to break the lich out. Seeing as the lich seems to be the magical arm of the Dark One at the moment, it’d be safe to assume she will be the one performing the ritual.
“If I was going to have one of my most powerful agents performing a ritual, I’d be doing everything I could to keep us away from them. That means the Dark One’s forces will probably be more interested in pushing us back than attacking us. Which puts us at an advantage.”
Abby considered Roy’s theory. “Wait. If the lich is as powerful as Myrddin said, why would the Dark One need to protect her?”
Anabelle raised three fingers. “One, maybe she’s not as powerful as we think. Two, the ritual might need to remain undisturbed until completed. Three, she’s more vulnerable than usual during the summoning. Any of those reasons are good enough for me.”
The door to the control room opened and Cire entered. “Those are all reasonable assumptions.”
Anabelle stood and crossed her arms. “I’m sorry, but did you receive clearance to be here?”
Cire sat beside Terra. “The human world is under attack. If you really want to take this chance to play bullshit politics, be my guest. But I came here to fight the Dark One, if that’s all right with you.”
Anabelle smiled and relaxed. “You’re a shaman. What can you tell us?”
“The lich is a creature of immense magical power. She won’t waste her time summoning something small. And she’s already mentioned multiple times that she has no care for life. Whatever she summons, will be similar. An elder one, perhaps. Regardless, it will be a labor-intensive ritual. Which means you will have time for an attack.”
Abby watched Anabelle consider their next move. She was happy the elf was the one heading up this mission and not her. It would have been impossible for Abby to tell where to start. But Anabelle seemed more ready for this than anyone else in the room.
The elf checked the holoscreen, which showed more Dark Gates opening. “There’s too many for us to close. This is going to be full-scale. Thank God, Myrddin had most of the city’s businesses shut down for the day. Scrambling to make sure humans don’t get caught in the fallout would have made this so much worse. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
Anabelle outlined the plan for the squads. Abby would head an airborne team of marines on hoverbikes. Their main mission was to keep the skies clear and destroy any Dark Gates on the nearby rooftops. Secondary focus was providing backup to the ground troops when possible.
Terra and Cire were given their own squad of ground troops to command—much to the orc’s surprise. They would lead the first advancement, breaking through any blockades erected around the location of the ritual.
Roy’s mech was on its way, and he would be leading another advancement of the bulk of the marines from the other end of the block.
Blackwell and Naota were sitting this one out. Anabelle still didn’t trust their heads to be in the right place.
Creon would be monitoring the overall state of the battle, providing support with the carrier’s artillery when possible.
“Any questions?” Anabelle asked.
“Yeah. When do we move out?” Terra asked.
“When we see the lich. None of the Dark Gates are active yet. If we make the first move, we lose our advantage. So, we wait for them. Then we go on the offensive. Martin has Abby’s drones scanning the area for visual confirmation.”
They all watched in silence as the feed from Abby’s drones played over the holoscreen. Abby wasn’t sure how long they’d been watching, but the tension was real. She gasped when the lich finally showed up on one of the screens, limping down the street, clutching a book to her chest.
Anabelle snapped her fingers. “There we go. Now we wait for her to set up shop. Then we roll.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rasputina did not take long to select a location for her ritual. The team watched her wander cheerfully through the financial district of New York, as though she were a tourist. Her tattered face twisted into a grizzly grin as she gave herself a tour of the desolate streets.
The new Dark Gates hadn’t opened yet. Anabelle and Roy discussed the best places for deployment while everyone else watched the screens, waiting to see how the battle would start.
Abby studied Rasputina’s image on the holoscreen. There was something almost child-like about the way Rasputina went about her business. Abby had seen that purity before a few times in her life. Watching the twins play, and once when she had observed a litter of wolf cubs playing with the carcass of their prey.
It was unsettling, to say the least. Abby had been briefed on what Rasputina had done on the talk show, and she had watched some of it herself. She couldn’t understand the reasoning behind most of what Rasputina had said. The lich had made no sense.
Even if everything was meaningless, how did it mean you had the right to wipe away whatever you wanted?
“Something on your mind, kid?”
Abby looked toward the source of the voice. Terra was waving her over to take a seat beside her and Cire. Abby was glad Cire had joined the mission. Since the orc had returned to the base with Terra, Abby had accepted that her blind hatred for the orc race had been misplaced. Orcs hadn’t taken her father away from her, the Dark One had.
Abby and Cire had shared many long conversations late into the night when she found herself wandering the hallways of HQ, unable to sleep. Cire was almost always awake and willing to sit and talk for a while. Sometimes Abby would only listen. The orc enjoyed talking about big ideas, concepts she didn’t often find herself pondering. Terra would sometimes join them if she were awake.
Abby sat between Terra and Cire. “You okay after everything that happened?” she asked Terra. “That all looked…pretty horrible.”
Terra’s laugh was harsh. “I feel like shit, to say the least. Whatever Rasputina did…it felt like she was cracking my head open. I saw things I didn’t want to see. And it’s still hard to unsee them. But I’ll be okay. That shit just did not feel normal.”
“What do you think about all that crap Rasputina was going on about?”
Terra flinched as she prepared to speak. She fidgeted in her seat. “Doesn’t mean anything. They’re just words.”
Cire was watching Terra closely as she spoke. He put his hand on her knee and squeezed tight.
Terra’s eyes watered, and she pitched forward, pressing her head into her hands. “I can’t get that shit out of my head. Fuck!”
Everyone in the room turned at the sound of Terra’s outburst. She stood awk
wardly and cleared her throat. “Just need some space for a bit.”
Anabelle shook her head. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have the luxury of that right now.”
“Fuck you, man. You didn’t see what I saw. Look at how messed up everyone else is!” Terra pointed at Blackwell, who was sitting across the room from Naota. Both were covered in a layer of sweat and looked like they were ready to pass out.
Anabelle cleared her throat and moved closer to Terra. Her gaze was stony. “Step out with me.”
Terra returned the stare but followed as Anabelle walked out of the control room. She leaned against the wall and folded her arms as the elf stared at her silently.
After a long moment, Anabelle coughed and studied her feet. “Okay, this isn’t easy for me to say, but I’ve been kinda shitty to you.”
“Wait. Are you serious?”
Anabelle finally peeled her gaze away from her feet. “Yeah, so, I’m trying to say I’m sorry. For that.”
Terra shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “It’s okay. Things have been stressful.”
“Yeah, they have. And I don’t want to do that catty shit. I’m not good with all this relationship stuff. But you’re my friend. And we have a potentially devastating battle conveniently looming in the immediate future. So, I want to be an adult about this. We’re DGAs. And I need you with me on this. Abby, Cire, and you are the only people I can rely on to get the job done. Roy is out of it. So are Blackwell and Naota. We need to take care of this, and I can’t do it by myself.”
Terra grabbed Anabelle and embraced her, squeezing hard enough that the elf gasped for breath. “Shit, man, I didn’t think you were going to drag me out here for a Hallmark moment.”
“I can’t breathe, Terra.”
“Is it because you’re filled with so much love?”
A voice squeaked from inside the control room. “Uh, could I have a hug too?” Abby poked her head out.
Terra beckoned her to join them. Anabelle scooped Abby between her and Terra and squeezed as tight as she could. When she dropped Anabelle and Abby, the girl was crying. “Yo, kid, what’s wrong?”
Anabelle began to put her hair back into a bun. “Goddess. I didn’t bring you out here so we could start having a therapy session. Someone needs to be watching the screens.” She headed back to the control room, ruffling Abby’s hair as she walked by. “You’re strong, Abby. Remember that.”
Abby was fighting back tears as she nodded in agreement with Anabelle. Then she looked at Terra, searching for the right words. “Can I talk to you about, I don’t know, all that stuff Rasputina said? About everything not mattering. What if she’s right? What if everything we’re fighting for is meaningless. Like, people just die, and that’s all. And there’s nothing you can do about that.”
Terra didn’t answer for a while. “You’re talking about your dad, aren’t you?”
Abby wiped away her tears as she chewed on her lip, struggling to speak. Terra grabbed the child and held her close. “He mattered to you, which means he mattered. Maybe life is meaningless, and there’s not a point to any of this. You really going to trust the opinion of a half-dead demon monster who eats people alive, on the matter? Fuck that. What we’re fighting for matters. I’d rather be alive and fighting for my freedom than dead. This matters to me.”
Terra released Abby and stared into the girl’s eyes. “You’re a smart, kind, and strong young woman. You matter to me. That orcish hunk in there with those baby eyes? He matters to me. Even that rude-ass but surprisingly sweet elf is important to me. That’s the whole reason we’re fighting. And we all need to remember that. Rasputina is just some Joker knockoff. Anyone can spew that shit.”
Abby laughed as Terra shoved her toward the control room. “Yeah, yeah, she is kinda derivative.”
“She probably watched The Dark Knight like a thousand times before she made her TV appearance, practicing in the mirror and shit.”
The pair returned to the control room, where Creon, Cire, and Anabelle, were watching the holoscreen. “It’s starting,” Anabelle said. “Get over here.”
Rasputina had found a suitable place for her ritual. She was at the base of the Empire State Building, drawing a pentagram that stretched from one street corner to the next. Candles appeared around the pentagram, while a Dark Gate emerged at each point. The lich stood in the middle of the magic circle and opened her book.
All at once, the Dark Gates around the pentagram began to open. Anabelle assigned the gates to the different squads to focus on. Then she split Naota and Blackwell up, sending them to separate holding cells on the carrier. Five marines escorted them both out of the control room.
“If everybody is finally tired of sitting on their asses, let’s get going,” Anabelle said.
Abby and Terra followed the elf as they headed toward the exterior level of the carrier, where the aerial team was waiting for Abby.
Anabelle ran through their orders one more time. Abby would lead the team of hoverbikes, eliminate any threats in the sky, and shut down as many gates as possible.
Terra would drop with Abby’s squad, using a set of jet-packs Creon had developed. She would push through any defenses protecting Rasputina’s location.
Anabelle would take another squad and flank Rasputina. From what they had seen through Abby’s drones, their approach would encounter a strong resistance on both sides of the lich’s position, but it would be possible for their team to shut the summoning down.
At least two hundred marines were waiting outside for their squad leaders. Abby hadn’t seen this large a force for any of their previous missions. This was going to be a big battle. She was glad Myrddin had had the forethought to prepare them for this.
Abby’s armor flowed over her body as she approached her squad. They were all equipped with exo-suits and jetpacks. They sat atop one of Creon’s new creations: hoverbikes he had reverse-engineered from the Dark One’s tech.
Martin said, “I’m having the drones continue with their recon. They haven’t been spotted yet. That should give you a little bit of an edge. I can tap you directly into their feed, or let you know when something important is happening. It’s up to you.”
Abby thought it over. “You can handle the drones. If they get into trouble, get them out.”
Then Abby turned to her squad. She was still uncomfortable commanding her own team, but she’d realized that if she didn’t display some kind of confidence, her squad would feel worse, which could lead them to make mistakes. And any screw-ups could result in the deaths of members of her team. “Squad C. You know our mission. Don’t bother trying to stick with me. Stay together, and if you’re in any trouble, let me know. Keep comms open on all channels.”
Abby leapt off the carrier, her thrusters activating as she soared toward the closest building their intelligence team had pinged as containing a gate.
Terra glanced at Anabelle, her face smug with pride. “She’s turning into quite the commander.”
Anabelle smiled as she watched Abby speeding away. “Yeah. She really is.”
Suddenly, a voice tore through the minds of all the DGA agents and marines. Abby stopped midflight and scanned the city block for the source. But it only took one word to identify the speaker.
Rasputina.
“In your darkest home, your silent insanity, I call to you, I call to you. Child of eyes, giver of knowledge, you who lay dreaming, I call to you. Let us see, let us see your dreams of wild fantasy. Wake, my father, wake my mother, wake my love to our fading dream. Fill us with your eyes. Fill my mind with sight. Sleeping Child of Beyond, I ache to be seen.”
The lich chanted the words incessantly, and they rumbled within Abby’s mind making it hard for her to think. “Martin? Is there something you can do about this?” Abby asked.
“Already talking with Creon about it. He’s working on using your HUDs as a way to block it. I can handle this for you, though.”
Rasputina’s voice cut out, and Abby’s mind was silen
t again. Abby wasn’t waiting for anyone else. She flew toward the Dark Gate that showed up on her HUD. Within moments, she spotted the gate on the top floor of the building ahead.
Abby burst through the window, hovering in place as she fired at the Dark Gate, blowing it to pieces.
A plasma blast hit her in the back, sending her tumbling through the air. Her feet touched the floor and she skidded a few yards back, cursing herself for not scanning the room for enemies before she entered.
Rasputina’s chanting had thrown Abby off. There was something unsettling about her words. They had crawled into Abby’s head and, though she couldn’t hear the lich anymore, she could still feel the chant.
Abby boosted to her feet, zeroing in on one of the orcs hiding in the darkness. Before she could say anything to Martin, her eyesight adjusted, allowing her to see the heat signatures around her. A pair of orcs were holding a massive cannon, and Abby could see the energy fluctuation as it charged up.
She soared forward and tackled one of the orcs. When he dropped the cannon, she spun around and fired at the second orc who had leapt toward her with a plasma ax. Abby raised her arm, the nanobots quickly constructing a shield to block the blow.
Looks like the Dark One finally decided to upgrade his basic-ass tech, Abby thought.
She fired at the orc as she fell backward. She rolled to her feet and slammed her hands together, forming a small cannon. She fired a thin ray of plasma that surged out the side of the building and spun about, slicing through the room.
“How are my power reserves looking, Martin?” Abby asked as the orcs in the room sank to the ground.
“Solid so far, but you might not want to keep performing stunts like that. You’ll drain yourself too fast, and you’ll have to take a while to recharge. Not too long, but it won’t be a good idea in the middle of a firefight. Since the nanobots multiplied, you have more energy, but it’s not infinite. Try to play it safe.”
