by Jan Stryvant
"Okay," Chad said and turned back to the other members of the fellowship who were all looking at Sean with looks of intense curiosity.
Looking at the other members of the fellowship, Sean growled angrily, "My father made a deal with him. He's held to his end of the bargain so I have to honor my family's side."
"What kind of a deal?" Ted, from the leopard families asked.
"None of your business. The topic is closed," Sean said hotly while staring down everyone at the table.
"Right," Chad rapped on the table with his knuckles gaining everyone's attention, they were all too happy to look away from Sean at this point.
"All of you wanted to know the plan for tonight's operation, seeing as all of you have made some level of contribution to it.
"The goal of the plan is simple: remove all of the lycans at the Ascendant's compound and free them.
"The execution however is going to be anything but. They know we're coming and they're ready for us. Our only advantages are first: they've been waiting for us to attack for two weeks now, so they're starting to get fatigued. There's only so long you can wait for something before it starts to wear you down.
"Second, we get to choose the time of our attack. We picked tonight because the weather forecast is to be freezing, which will keep most of the mages indoors. We picked the lateness of the hour because most people will be in bed and a lot of those still up will be tired.
"Third, we're going in overwhelming force. From the wolves we were able to waylay and question today, the opposing lycan forces break down to a force of eighty-three wolves, fifty of which are trained combatants, the remaining thirty-three are untrained, but have all been put under arms. There are an additional twenty-six females, and twelve children being kept under lockdown in the kennels."
"What about their house staff?" Roger, the head of the cougar clans asked.
"Those that were wolves were added to the defending forces or put in the kennels. Those that weren't were either farmed out to the homes of whoever wanted them or," Chad grimaced, "they were eliminated."
There were a few dark comments muttered at that point.
"So what are we going to do about the ones that have been farmed out?" Roger asked.
"I have three teams that are going to start going house to house when we launch our attack on the main compound. After we finish our attack on the main compound I've detailed which groups will then go after the other member's homes."
"How many homes is that?"
Chad grimaced again, "A lot, over twenty. Our only advantage is that a lot of those homes have only one or two mages living in them, so we believe they'll be easy to overwhelm quickly, either by stealth or just a blitzkrieg style assault."
"What about those which are not?" Boris of the tiger clans asked.
Sean spoke up, "There are going to be losses tonight. I'm sorry, but there are. I agreed to this plan, I take responsibility for it.
"Now move on," Sean sighed and motioned to Chad.
Sean listened with half a mind, going over in his head everything that Sal had just told him as Chad went over the plan with the others.
It was simpler than Chad wanted to go with, but the troops were all irregulars, only about a hundred of them had actually been trained for combat, and that was Claudia's eighteen, Sean's thirty, and fifty of Samis' dwarves. The rest, of which there were another two hundred, were all either a little experienced, or totally inexperienced.
Ninety of the most inexperienced fighters would attack those three first points that Chad had identified. As these points were fairly obvious points of attack, they were all well defended. Once the defenders at those points were well engaged, the remainder of the forces, not including Claudia's eighteen, would attack two different locations away from the first three. Chad believed that with all of the defenders lured away to the first three spots, the other forces would be able to quickly force entry under cover of the first attacks and come up behind the engaged defenders and quickly overwhelm them.
As for Claudia's helicopters, they had learned that there was in fact a 'kill switch' that had been set up by Harkins and his people, so that if it looked like they were going to lose control of their lycans, a single mage could activate a device in the main manor that would activate all of the pellets at once, as well as set off several massive 'silver bombs' in key locations across the property. Especially in the kennels, where the females and older children that were still alive were being kept to help guarantee obedience.
So instead of being used to open up a second front in the attack, the helicopters would swoop in and drop Claudia's eighteen fighters, plus Sean, on the roof of the main building ten minutes before the first attack began. Jolene would be in one maintaining silence spells on it, while Sean did the same for the other. Sean and the rest would then make their way inside, as stealthily as possible, working their way down to where the mages who held that 'kill switch' were, and immobilize them before they had the chance to set it off and kill all their lycans once they realized that the fight was lost.
Sean watched as Chad fielded questions, though not a lot were asked. Sean hadn't even wanted to brief them, but those here had contributed people and Roxy's dad had told him they had a right to know, as it was their people's lives on the line.
Bill himself was off on a little side-project, that Sean had been told not to worry about. Seeing as Sean already had a lot to worry about, he didn't.
"Okay, that's all of it!" Chad said clapping his hands together, "Now we all need to get going to get to our starting points, so all of this can come off on time."
"One last question," Boris asked.
"Yes?"
"What about the neighbors? I know the compound is out of town a short way, but I would think that this will be a very loud undertaking?"
"That's why we plan to be gone before anyone realizes just what's going on," Chad told him. "Other than that, we're working on something, but I can't discuss it."
"Boss?"
"Yes, James?" Arthur asked looking up from the book he was reading, he'd gone over the same page six times now. The previous one had taken him eight tries to digest. Something was bothering him tonight, but he'd be damned if he could put a name to it.
"There's a Sheriff Channing at the front door, he says he needs to talk to you."
Arthur raised an eyebrow, "He did now, did he?"
"Yes, and he was most insistent."
Arthur looked at the clock on the wall, it was a few minutes before ten pm, this obviously wasn't a social call.
"Very well," Arthur sighed and getting up from his chair he set the book down and headed for the front door.
"Oh, James?"
"Yes, Boss."
"Get the rest of the council on the line. I don't think the good Sheriff is here for polite conversation."
"Sure thing, Boss."
Going down the stairs, Arthur saw that Sheriff Channing was indeed there, Frank was keeping an eye on him.
"Sheriff Channing," Arthur said, coming up to him and shaking hands, "At last we meet in person. To what do I owe this honor?"
"I am here to invoke the tradition of silence," Bill said.
"The tradition of silence?" Arthur said, surprised.
"The Council of Sapientia is the bearer of the traditions, and your council has held that it has the power of those traditions over all of us. I hereby petition you, here, now, for five of your members to conduct the involved spells and magicks so that none of the mundanes become aware of what is about to transpire."
"But the tradition normally only applies to mages," Arthur said, considering it.
"Sean, my son-in-law, your niece Jolene, and Peg Wilston, are all magic users and they all request it. Arthur, you've entered your council into an alliance with the fellowship of lycans. We've agreed to help you with your defense, and honestly, none of us wishes to expose anymore than we have to, to the mundanes of the world.
"So we could really use your help tonight."
>
Arthur took a deep breath and sighed. "I can't fault your logic, and if anyone complains, I can say that three magic users, one of which is still a member of my household, requested it."
Arthur turned to Frank, "Go upstairs and tell James to make sure that the other council members are here within the hour."
Bill interrupted, "I can have a car pick them up and bring them here, if necessary."
Arthur nodded, "Frank, find out from James if they'd rather not drive, so I can have the good Sheriff send someone over to get them. Then come back down here and let me know who needs to be picked up."
"Yes sir," Franks said and quickly ran up the stairs.
"So, now that we're alone," Arthur smiled, "Sean's attacking the Ascendants tonight?"
Bill shook his head, smiling, "You know I'm not at liberty to answer that question, Arthur."
Arthur chuckled, "Oh, of course. But I have to commend young Sean for taking this action. It is always harder to accuse people of being upstarts and revolutionaries when they stick to the traditions, right?"
"That and it's a lot easier not to have to explain all the noise," Bill agreed.
"Well, let's see who we get, and I'll pick four to accompany me."
Bill looked at Arthur in surprise, "You're going?"
"When I was a young man, I took it into my head to sail around the world. Oh, not on a fancy sailboat or anything as pretentious. I signed up as an able-bodied seaman on a number of small cargo ships; I guess what my parents would have called 'tramp steamers.'
"I remember when we sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, there was this feeling in the air, as if things were about to change in a very fundamental way. One of the old salts told me that we were about to experience a 'sea change.' A very apt expression that.
"Well, Bill, I am feeling that tonight, and it's not a comfortable thing to feel at my age. I think it just might be for the best if I'm there tonight, should anything unexpected take place."
"I didn't think the tradition allowed you to get involved?"
"It doesn't, and I won't," Arthur said. "However, I still think it best that I go. Now let me find a pair of warm clothes to change into and a heavy jacket. You can invite your men inside out of the cold while we wait for everyone to arrive."
Sean looked out the open door of the 'huey' helicopter that they were flying in. He'd cheated on the silence spell, as he'd found something a lot cheaper and easier, and taught it to Jolene before they left. Rather than try and abate all that noise, and it was a lot, he'd simply created a reflector that directed all the sound straight up.
He wasn't pleased about the moon being up, because that made it almost as bright as daylight to all of those with night vision, but the pilots said it would make it a lot easier if they didn't have to use lights when it came time to land on the roof. Besides, who looks up?
Sean shook his head and sighed. There were all pretty heavily armed, Sean had created a large number of wands with cramping spells on them and high level sleep spells, everyone had tasers and high-powered cattle prods, zip ties, pepper spray, and ball gags.
Jolene had made a joke about having a real fun party with all of that stuff and the looks Sean had gotten from all of the wolves after that had actually made him blush.
They started to drop down quickly and Sean grabbed the handhold with his left hand tightly and stepped out onto the skid. Two months ago, the idea of doing that would have terrified him. Now he knew his grip was strong enough, and his balance good enough, that he had nothing to fear.
Funny how much his life had changed.
They leveled off and Sean could see the house right in front of them, the pilot flared coming within inches of the roof and Sean just stepped off as the other nine piled out to either side in less than a second, and then the helicopter was gone and they all spread out and fell prone to make room for the second helicopter as it dropped off the rest of Claudia's wolves.
They all hugged the roof for a moment, listening for any sounds of alarm, but heard nothing.
"Okay," Jon, the werewolf in charge said in a hushed voice, "everyone move off to your assigned entry points. Entry in one minute from my mark." Jon paused a moment as everyone checked their mission timers, which were really just cheap smart phones with a couple of specialty apps on them.
"Mark!"
Breaking up into three groups, they all hurried off to their assigned spots as they all shifted. Sean was with Jon and his team; they'd be entering on the third floor of the building, through a number of skylights and dormer type windows. Most of the third floor was storage and for servants. It was expected to be vacant tonight.
Sean checked the window for any magic, and as they expected, he didn't find any. One of the other wolves quickly defeated the lock on the window then, and opening it, they all quietly slipped in.
They spent the next two minutes carefully checking the floor to be sure it was clear.
"Alpha-three, contact," Sean heard over his radio. Turning and looking at the door next to the one that Jon was checking, Sean saw that the team member had a wand out and was using it.
"Alpha-three, they're asleep," came the call as Sean quickly padded over and looked into the room. There were four young women; actually, two of them looked more like girls. The were all sleeping on beds, and each one had a collar on with a metal chain leading to a heavy looking paddock set in the floor by the bed.
"This doesn't look good," Sean grunted and stepping into the room he checked each of the girls. The collars on each of them were magical, so Sean just drained each of them causing them to unlock, as Alpha-three followed behind him, first gagging and then zip-tying each of the girl's arms and legs.
Sean paused a moment to look at them, none of them were lycans, he knew that as soon as he had touched them, they were all very lovely with dark skin and long straight hair, which on two of them appeared to be a dark blonde, red on the third, the fourth one's hair was white. Sean noticed the ear on one of them as Rich, Alpha-three, rolled her over to adjust her gag, they were slightly pointed.
'Dark elves,' his lion told him.
'Those exist?'
'Not normally in this world. The only pathways to their lands lie in northern Europe. The Norse dealt with them, called them the Dökkálfar.'
Sean shook the one with white hair awake. Her eyes came open quickly and were a rather surprising red color, or at least her irises were. She looked at him and her whole body twitched as she tried to move, and then she scowled as she realized she'd been restrained.
"We're here to free the lycans," Sean told her, "we can either leave you here...."
She started to shake her head 'no' rather vigorously.
"Or take you with us?"
She nodded then.
"Fine, with us it is. If I cut you loose, will you stay quiet, calm the others, and do as your told?"
She nodded again.
"Understand, that if you give us away or cause us problems, I'll kill you."
Sean noticed her eyes narrowed just a little bit, but she nodded again.
Sean used a claw to cut the zip ties, and then undid the gag.
"Wake your friends up, calm them, tell them what I told you. Then wait here until one of us tells you what to do, okay?"
"Okay," she said in a voice that Sean could only describe as melodious.
"What do you think they were going to do with them?" Richard asked as Sean left the room to catch up with Jon.
"Considering they're all naked, I don't think it's all that hard to guess," Sean growled. "Get someone in here to keep an eye on them and tell them what to do. We can sort them out when this is over."
Rich nodded and called over one of the guys from Charlie group who'd been designated for survivor pickup.
"What are they?" Jon asked softly as they all prepped to go down to the third floor. Sean checked his mission clock; they were three minutes behind schedule now.
"Our replacements I guess. Dark elves."
"Huh, I've hea
rd stories about them; I think they don't do well in sun." Jon keyed his radio, "Alpha-one, all groups, step two."
Forming a human chain, like Sean had seen in all those action movies, they moved down the stairs, each with a hand on the shoulder of the man in front of them, a wand in their other hand. Odd numbered men had cramping wands; the even numbered ones had sleeping wands.
Sleeping would be tried first, and then the more serious attacks if that didn't work.
The second floor of the building was rather opulent, Sean noted. It reminded him of some of the better casinos that he'd worked in as a busboy and general maintenance worker. The floor had a fairly new and thick carpet, there were tables set to the side of each doorway leading off of the hall, and there were fine pieces of artwork decorating the walls.
According to their sources, these were all bedrooms on this level, for those members who had no place of their own to live in, or who were assigned to work as guards in the compound. The door to the master's suite, which Sean figured was Harkins', was at the center of the hallway, there were two less doors on that side, giving a clue to just how large that set of rooms was.
They quickly broke up into three man teams, and starting at opposite ends of the hallway, one man would open the door, while the other two used their wands on whoever was inside. With twenty-two doors, it would take about five minutes to clear them all.
Looking over the shoulders of the first team, Sean noted that there were two men in the room, both of who never even woke up as they got zapped with the sleep spell, and then quickly gagged and trussed up with zip ties by the three man crew.
"Step it up!" Jon growled, "We're running behind! Switch to two man teams! My men, on me!"
They were just starting on the third round of six doors, as Jon started to prep his team to go downstairs to the ground floor, when Sean's mission timer vibrated once. Swearing Sean turned and raced for Harkins' door as within seconds the sounds of the first assault started and an alarm went off in the building.
Kicking in the door, Sean led with the cramper wand. The room he entered was obviously a living room; there were two doors on the right side leading out of it, and one on the left. Guessing left, Sean ran over to the door and kicking that one in as well he shot the person on the bed as they started to sit up. It was only when the wand went off that he realized it was a woman, and Sean suddenly got shot in the side by a man who had been standing behind the door as Sean had entered the room.
