Spirit of Empire 4: Sky Knights

by Lawrence White

  The top of the wall had cut-outs called crenels for defenders to lean out with some side protection, but that physically restricted the number of defenders on any section of wall. The higher parts of the walls between crenels were called merlons. The top of the wall itself was about two feet thick.

  There was one serious weak point on the wall where rock outcrops resulted in a shortened wall. Watch towers on both sides of the weak section provided added protection against human attackers, but the shortened wall would be hard to hold against gleasons. Havlock thought about mounting heavy weapons on each end, but if the gleasons actually succeeded in breaching the wall, they would not hesitate to turn the weapons on the inner wall where they could do some real damage. He decided against. Turmae had no choice but to heavily reinforce it with soldiers. He chose King Tennisol and his 300 men for the job, and Havlock assigned four scooters to provide air cover. Galborae stayed with Tennisol, and together they detailed four marine snipers and 20 men to each tower. They spread the rest of the men and quite a few melds along the 150 meter length of wall, then spaced the remainder of the squad of marines evenly among them.

  As Turmae and Havlock completed their inspection of the outer wall and made their way up up the hill through the city toward the inner wall, Havlock pulled Turmae into an alley for a private meeting.

  “If the gleasons overwhelm the men on the curtain wall, how do we retreat?”

  “Each watch tower sits above an entrance to a tunnel. My men are showing the escape routes to your men. A few additional routes are through the streets, but we’ll do our best to avoid using the streets.”

  “You’ve carved tunnels through stone?” Havlock asked incredulously.

  “We had to mine the stone for the walls somewhere. Why not mine it close to where we needed it? The tunnels are for one-time use only. They’ll be sealed at each end when the last man is through.”

  Havlock frowned. “If they have to retreat, there will be a lot of confusion. How will they know the last man is through?”

  Turmae scowled. “I told you I’d never had to defend the fortress. That doesn’t mean we didn’t practice it. My men know what to do. They’ll protect your men during the retreat.”

  Havlock rubbed the stubble of his beard thoughtfully. “There’s no question that you’re the expert here.”

  “Actually, we have a serious shortage of experts,” Turmae responded calmly.

  Havlock looked into deep, wide-spaced, brown eyes that glittered with intelligence. Turmae might be from an emerging world, but he was smart and he was a survivor. Havlock made a decision and knew it was the right decision even if his superiors someday ruled otherwise.

  “This has to be your battle, Turmae. You’ve spent a lifetime getting ready for it. I’ll support you by providing whatever magic I can come up with, but this will be a battle of brute force. You’re far better equipped to lead it than I am.”

  “Of course it’s my battle. Was that ever a question? Tricor is my home.”

  Havlock grasped his upper arm. “Guard captains don’t command thousands of men, especially when most of them are mine. Where I come from we call such men generals. Don’t waste my men, General.”

  * * * * *

  The two of them completed their inspection of the inner wall, both of them reaching the same conclusion. Homes and a few businesses had been built right up to the wall following unification of the five kingdoms.

  “Some of these structures come half way up the wall,” Turmae said with regret. “We’ve done half the gleasons’ work for them. They’ll have no trouble getting up on roofs, then onto the wall. They still have a lot of wall to climb, a wall with few hand-holds, but this is bad.”

  Havlock frowned, not sure how his next words would be received. “We need to clear these structures away from the wall.”

  “We don’t have time.”

  “The guns on my shuttles can kill buildings as easily as they kill gleasons.”

  Turmae stared at him. “By all means, of course!”

  “Your people will be furious.”

  “Why?”

  “We’re talking about destroying a lot of homes and businesses.”

  Turmae gave him a strange, uncomprehending look. “It’s not so many, though in truth the wealthiest families live here since it’s closest to the castle. Sky Lord, everything you see here belongs to the Queen. This is her kingdom. If you prefer, I’ll get her approval, but you know as well as I do how she’ll rule.”

  Havlock stared at him, not sure what to say, so Turmae ignored his ignorance. With a touch of impatience, he said, “They’ll rebuild, but only if they’re alive. How do we do this?”

  “Just give me the okay,” Havlock said. “My shuttles will get started as soon as you’ve gotten your people out of the way. We’ll try not to damage the wall too much.”

  Turmae leaned out over the masterfully crafted wall and looked down, then he looked farther out at the shuttles patrolling the curtain wall. When he straightened back up, he said, “I’m an old man and set in my ways. I have never known life without these walls, but I don’t think my replacement will need them. Damage them if you must.”

  Havlock did not hesitate to mount heavy weapons on the inner wall. This wall could not fall or the battle would be lost.

  No one slept that night as shuttles pounded away for hours, turning a two-street expanse of buildings adjacent to the inner wall into rubble. When the sun rose, smoke obscured most of the upper town and castle, adding fear to an already frightened populace. Atiana moved ceaselessly among her people encouraging and cajoling, keeping a steady stream climbing the stairwell.

  At one point, M’Kind called down to Havlock with an urgent complaint. “I told her she could bring people,” he said. “I never told her she could bring animals.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “They’re bringing farm animals and pets, anything they can squeeze up the stairwell. My ship has become a barnyard.”

  “Well, tell her to stop.”

  “I did. She assured me she’d do her best. Nothing has changed.”

  Havlock skirted a throng of people and animals who were inching their way toward the castle and forced his way inside the main door. He was shocked at the number of animals in the line and dismayed when he saw the mayhem within the great room of the castle itself. He found Atiana at the bottom of the stairwell encouraging people to move quickly.

  “I thought you were on the transporter,” he shouted above the din.

  “I was. I wanted to check on progress here, so M’Kind found me a ride down on a scooter. It’s not as nice as riding a sauron.”

  “What’s with these animals?” he asked, waving his arm across the room. “M’Kind tells me you assured him you would do your best to stop them.”

  “I did not offer to stop them,” she retorted. “I told him I would do my best. To me, that means getting as many animals up there as I can. We need them to survive if we’re to survive.”

  She tilted her head to the side and looked a question at him. “Presumably there will be life here after the battle. Have you not thought that far ahead?”

  Havlock blinked at criticism that was spot on target. Everywhere he turned, he was reminded again that he did not fully appreciate this society and the hardiness of these people. He shook his head. “We won’t be able to fit everyone into the ship if you bring animals.”

  “I know. When it’s full, the rest will stay here. Some of these people are not strong enough to deal with the stairs anyway.”

  Havlock sucked in a breath. “I hadn’t thought about that.” He looked to the main doors. “Can they even get this far? It’s a long climb up that hill. Do I need to bring floaters?”

  “What’s a floater?”

  “A portable bed.”

  She shook her head. “You deal with the gleasons. I’ll deal with my people.”

  His lips compressed and he started to turn away but she grabbed his arm. He turned back to blue eyes
which had become pools of concern.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be curt. Everything is on the line here, Gar.”

  “I know. We’ll be right there on the walls with your knights.”

  Her eyes widened. “Not you, surely?”

  “No. I’ll be with Turmae in the northeast spire. We’re soldiers, but at the moment we need to command. You should know I’ve given him overall command with a title borrowed from my people, a title that is given to the one who leads everyone: General. This has to be his battle. I’ll support him in every way I can.”

  She dropped her hand from his arm and took a step back, considering the implications. In the end, she nodded and stepped back up to him. She lifted a hand to his cheek, their bodies almost touching, and said, “I’m glad the man I met in the dream is watching over us.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The gleasons remained active, individual gleasons and small groups making numerous attempts at the wall, many more attempts than during the preceding months. Havlock ordered his shuttles to leave them alone. Instead, he let his experienced squads train defenders on the use of helmets, visors, stunners, and blasters. Most local soldiers did not receive helmets—once a gleason had been stunned, defenders could see their targets without visors—but they did get coaching on the use of blasters.

  Galborae, full of nervous energy, patrolled his 150 meter section of curtain wall with King Tennisol and Limam at his side, rarely pausing to rest. During gleason incursions he coached individual defenders on proper shooting technique, and he carefully explained orders he and Tennisol would be issuing over the comm units. Each section of the wall had its own frequency for local instructions, though only commanders had access to the command network.

  He was not unhappy with the skills he encountered—King Tennisol had brought his best, all of them experienced at fighting gleasons on the walls, though no one on the planet had experience fighting the numbers expected here.

  Night fell at the end of the second day and a shuttle carefully approached an opening near the top of the highest spire, a spire which looked down on the whole town. A ramp extended from the shuttle and a crew of aliens pushed a portable command center through the opening and into the spire. Three aliens followed the command center into the spire, and the shuttle withdrew.

  Darkness emboldened the gleasons. More and larger groups roamed through the homes and businesses and streets outside the walls, but the 100 meter cleared buffer discouraged all but the most foolhardy. Nevertheless, enough made the attempt that the defenders got plenty of practice.

  Havlock and Turmae personally led the nonhuman crew members from the transporter to their assigned positions. Local knights, bowmen, footmen, and civilian volunteers stood transfixed in horror at the sight of these creatures, and without introductions from Turmae the whole thing would have been a disaster. Following his introductions, strong distrust and fear remained, but Turmae believed it would disappear once the fighting started.

  Havlock assigned 100 marines to scooters—they would be his instant reserves—and Turmae packed snipers with long blasters and archers with longbows into every firing position on the higher walls and in the watch towers, positions which would under normal circumstances only become dangerous if the outer wall was abandoned. Gleasons, however, changed castle dynamics. Any gleason that breached the outer wall would, if not stopped, reach the inner wall and only be slowed down by the long vertical climb. After seeing demonstrations of blasters shooting from these high positions, Turmae agreed to abandon the fires he had prepared for heating water and oil. The hot water and oil might slow down gleasons, but it would not stop them, and the smoke and flames would interfere with snipers’ targeting.

  * * * * *

  Lebac called down from the transporter. “Gar, gleasons are still streaming in from every direction, but there’s a gap between the ones already here and what I believe might be a second wave. If they’re going to attack, I think it will be soon.”

  “How many?”

  “Hard to say. We’ve tracked a fair number of them into the buildings outside your walls and we can’t see them. I hope it doesn’t mean they’ve figured out we can see them in the open, but it might. I estimate at least a thousand, but probably a lot more. The shuttles are in position. They’ll stun the gleasons as quickly as they emerge from hiding, and as time permits they’ll follow up with blasters.”

  Havlock gathered up Turmae and led him toward the command center in the top of the spire. “This is our place for the rest of the battle,” he said.

  “My eyes are not what they used to be, but it’s a good position. From here I can see everything. Your communicators will let me talk to each of my knights.”

  “We’re going to do even better than that. I’ll show you.”

  When the two of them entered the small room, the presence of three aliens brought Turmae up short. One alien looked like a frog. It’s four eyes, each on a long stalk, looked in any direction it wanted, and the creature had a mind like a computer to process those multiple inputs. Another had no eyes at all. It’s head was, literally, all ears. Multiple stalks sprouted from its head, funneling sounds into its brain. Tiny wires ran from the command center’s communications console to the creature’s hearing stalks, enabling it to process many calls. It would either provide responses or forward those calls to the appropriate people.

  The last creature resembled a gleason in some ways, though it was dressed in a marine uniform and did not come equipped with claws, only hands and feet. Turmae knew this particular Dramda, Sergeant Guarl, the weapons expert he had trained under on the transporter. Four arms had access to various weapons, including long and short blasters, a stunner, and a vicious looking knife which was almost a small sword. He was their protection in the event a gleason made it into the room.

  Each of the marines bowed to Turmae and spoke a few words, then went back to work. Havlock turned Turmae toward a spherical, bright blue, holographic display of the city floating in the air and stepped into it. Turmae followed, awed by the amazing presentation even though he had operated a similar one on the transporter.

  Havlock showed him how he could reach out and touch any part of the display to expand it, and by touching symbols of his knights, he opened a line of communications to that person. Turmae caught on quickly and went to work checking on his men. He could expand the picture a little or a lot, and with high magnification he could see every stone and every person. He spoke briefly with each of his men and with some of Havlock’s. When he had gone all the way around the wall, he turned to Havlock.

  “I don’t hold with magic, but considering what we’re up against, I’m willing to turn a blind eye. Our men are as well positioned as I can make them.”

  “When the gleasons show, you’ll see them as clearly as you see your men, so you’ll know when your men are in trouble or if they need reinforcements. The commanders out there will call for help on their communicators, but because you can see everyone, you can decide who needs the most help. That would not be possible if you were with them on the walls.”

  Havlock moved his finger out beyond the curtain wall on the display and touched buildings which instantly expanded. “We can only see the life forces of gleasons when they’re outside buildings. Lebac is certain there are a lot of gleasons inside the buildings, so there are a lot more of them out there than we can see at the moment. The stunners on our shuttles can stun targets inside buildings even if they can’t see them, and that will probably drive the gleasons outside, so soon after the battle starts we’ll have a good idea of what we’re up against. We’ll know where they’re going and will be able to reinforce any weak spots.”

  “And we’ll know when they get past the wall.”

  Havlock nodded, though he personally believed they had a fair chance of stopping the gleasons at the outer wall. It would be a battle of brute force, that he knew, but blasters were powerful weapons and there were a lot of them. Still, he understood that he and Turmae had t
o plan for the wall to fall. He expanded the hologram to include the sky above and gave further explanation. “These symbols are my shuttles, all 20 of them, and these are marines on scooters, 120 of them. This big one is the transporter. They’ve each been assigned a position, but except for the transporter which is still loading people, they’re staying out of sight until I call them. We don’t want to give away all our tricks to the gleasons.”

  “Queen Atiana should see this.”

  “Call her.”

  “How?”

  “This is her symbol on the drawing. Just touch it.”

  Turmae called her, still a truly amazing feat as far as he was concerned. He left the hologram and went out into the stairwell to talk privately with her over their comm units.

  “Your Majesty, I’m up in the northeast spire. Havlock brought one of his light maps and it’s a general’s dream come true. We can see the whole battlefield. You should see it.”

  “I’d like to, but this is your battle. Our people need to see me with them. Let me know how things progress.”

  “Major Lebac thinks it will start soon. I’m sure you’ll hear the shooting.”

  “I’ll try not to interfere, but please keep me informed,” she said.

  * * * * *

  The gleasons had completely surrounded Tricor, so Havlock expected an all-out attack from every direction, but the gleasons surprised him. A mass of white blobs suddenly poured out of buildings across the clear zone toward the weakest spot of the wall. Stunners opened up from everyone along that wall and from the four scooters assigned to that section of wall. Two shuttles raced in to assist. The gleasons’ horrible, ululating scream sounded as several hundred raced across the cleared area.