Wild Wastes Omnibus

by Randi Darren

  Moving over to the first bunk, Vince stared down into the sleeping face of a woman.

  She’s kind of pretty.

  Clamping his left hand over her mouth, he slipped his blade into her throat as her blue eyes snapped open.

  Sawing quickly through her windpipe, he hit her spine and pulled the blade free.

  Pulling up on her blanket, Vince stuffed it into her windpipe to collect some of the blood. That and the help soften the sound of the air whistling through her throat.

  After several seconds, she stopped struggling and Vince moved on to the next person.

  If he did it just right, it’d be a long night.

  A long, bloody night filled with dying eyes staring at him as he took their lives.

  Vince checked a sigh and shook his head instead.

  At least they can’t escape from here. I’ve got them right where I want them.

  Chapter 23

  Vince climbed the stairwell and made it to the deck just as the sun started to crest the horizon.

  Giving himself a physical shake to ward off exhaustion, he made his way to the pilot house.

  Caroline stood behind a wheel at the center of the room, watching out past the front of the boat, her hands holding to the wheel as she moved it minutely from one side to the other.

  Her eyes moved over to him, then back to the wheel, and then snapped to him.

  “What in the high hells? Are you ok?” she asked, her voice going straight to a panicked tone.

  “Huh?” Vince asked. He looked down at himself and realized he was literally dripping with blood.

  It appeared as if he’d been bathing in blood from head to toe.

  “I’m fine. This is all theirs. I got something like… eighty percent of them before I fucked up,” Vince said. “Two of the crew had been fucking and sleeping in the same bed. I didn’t realize it till I’d already practically decapitated one, and then a woman’s head popped up from under the cover.

  “After that it was a bloody mess—I killed everyone I found as fast as I could.”

  “I see,” Caroline said, her eyes scanning over him anyways. “I told Red to check on you and then get some sleep if she could.

  “Apparently when she popped in, you were doing fine. She’s sleeping up near the front of the boat. Wake her up and go get some rest. Clean up.”

  “Maybe. Weren’t we supposed to rendezvous with the others right at sunrise? We a bit late for that, or did they not show?”

  “I had to alter the plan a bit, I’m afraid. I skirted around another boat just like ours in the early hours and we lost some time. We’ll be pulling up to the location shortly for them to board.

  “After that, though, what do we do? You didn’t really share what else you had in your head after this.”

  “I… really don’t know. Most of my entire plan was just… get the gold. I hadn’t really considered anything after that,” Vince admitted.

  Sighing, Caroline nodded her head.

  “I figured. I already charted out a course to pick up the other half of our team. The base station team can head back to the west on their own.

  “Though we’ll end up pissing Richard off without returning that symbol of his.”

  “Honestly, that’s the least of his problems. Did you ever wonder how we caught up with that army? They were quite a bit ahead of us,” Vince said.

  “Hm? Wasn’t that all from the pier being built?”

  “I went and took a look around for a bit.

  “They swung north first, raided the capital of the east and took their treasury,” Vince said. “There’s nothing in the entire ship, other than the sleeping compartment.

  “No engine room at all to speak of. The means it’s a magical device moving this ship, as far as I can tell.”

  Vince took in a breath and let it out.

  “The ship is just one giant hold, filled to bursting with gold. In bars, coins, iconography, dining ware—anything and everything they could grab that was gold. Nothing else is down there.

  “It’s stacked from bottom to top with bricks, treasures melted into heaps, and gold coins fused into partial blocks.

  “The hold of this ship… is an unimaginable wealth of gold.

  “Half for me… half for my brother,” Vince said with a smirk. “Surprise, big brother.

  “For now, though, I think I need some sleep.”

  Lying down in the pilot house, he curled up and dropped off quickly.

  He’d only managed to sleep for several hours before they woke him to help oversee getting the rest of the team on board.

  Staring down at the Warden they were hauling up with ropes and a wench, Vince had a mild sense of unease at being motionless on the coast.

  It was a perfect time to get attacked.

  Like getting a drink at a watering hole.

  What lies in wait for us?

  “Vince,” Taylor said loudly from the front of the boat. “Other ships are visible. What do you want to do?”

  “They’re visible?” Vince asked, looking up.

  Blue, Steve, and Eva were already on board. We could always pull in the Warden pilots and blow up the suits, couldn’t we?

  The Warden suits were simply too heavy to go any way other than one at a time, and there wasn’t going to be enough time, he imagined, to get them all on board if those ships were close.

  Moving quickly, Vince came up next to the Dragon. Following the direction of her head, he stared out toward the south.

  He could see the enemy ships. However, they were little more than tiny specks at the edge of his vision.

  Thank the heavens.

  “That’s an incredible pair of eyes you have, Taylor. They’re little more than dots to me,” Vince said. “I thought they were a lot closer than that.”

  Sighing, he shook his head.

  “Honestly, it was only a matter of time before we were going to have to deal with them. I’m eternally grateful it’ll be after we have all the Wardens on board, though.”

  “Why’s that, boss?” Steve asked, stepping up next to Vince.

  “Because they’re going to act like defensive turrets. They’re going to line the front of the boat—”

  “Bow,” Steve interjected.

  “Front of the boat, and shoot at the waterline where all those lovely stones have been embedded. It won’t take them long to figure out they can’t stick around without risking their ability to remain in the area,” Vince said.

  “It’s ruthless; I like it,” Julia said. “You’ve got a great way of thinking.”

  “I just go for the kill. Either we blow the rocks up off the hull, or it puts holes in the hull and they get to sink. Works either way,” Vince said, then turned back toward the pilot house.

  Opening the door, he stepped in to find Blue and Caroline in the middle of a conversation.

  That stopped the moment he entered the room.

  “Ships on the far, far horizon. We’re going to end up having company. I want the Wardens at the front shooting at their waterline. Either to sink them or blow up those lovely rocks of theirs.

  “I need you to steer a course around them on the far side, giving them a chance to avoid us if they choose.” Vince paused. “Any questions about that?”

  “None, noble husband. Do you think we’ll be engaging them today?” Caroline asked.

  “Maybe. I really can’t say. If they’ve spotted us, it’s quite likely. If they haven’t, probably tomorrow.

  “If we can manage it just right, we might be able to slip past them in the night.”

  “That seems unlikely, darling,” Blue said with a sardonic smile. “Considering how well they planned this entire incident, I imagine they have people watching both north and south.

  “Then it becomes a question of how they communicated with each other.”

  “Mm… good point. It’s unlikely we’ll deceive them in any way. I guess it’s going to come down to the Wardens acting as a repelling force.”

  “Le
t’s hope that’ll be enough. With all this gold, we’re not going anywhere very quickly once we make landfall,” Caroline said.

  Ah… yeah. That’s a good point. They could just follow us till then.

  Really… didn’t think this one out. That’s always been a bit of a problem in the end.

  “Guess we’ll just… see what we can do until then,” Vince said, knowing he wasn’t being very helpful.

  Standing next to Caroline, he did his best to make himself useful as the enemy vessels grew ever closer.

  Apparently whatever means of communication they’d used had failed quite early. The Tri-lliance navy formed up into a wedge and faced Vince’s boat head on.

  They also remained stationary, even as Caroline piloted their course around them. They rotated to keep themselves oriented correctly on Vince, but didn’t change their actual positions.

  “Get that one in the lead,” Vince said aloud. “No sense in waiting for them to make the first move.”

  “Target is designation Tango Two,” Julia said through her suit mic.

  Vince was only able to hear it because it came through the device on Steve’s wrist.

  “That reminds me,” Vince said, getting Steve’s attention. “Did you relay what was going on to the base camp after you picked up Julia’s message?”

  “Yeah, we did. They’re already heading back west. Their stated mission is to head straight back to Yosemite,” Steve said.

  He lifted his hand and flipped through something in front of him that only he could see.

  He had a strange monocle-looking headband around his brow.

  When Vince asked about it, he’d simply told him it gave him a virtual display of the area.

  Normally it’d have map notations and relevant markers, but there was no satellite feed here.

  Since they were on the ocean, though, Steve argued it didn’t need any notations. It was all flat anyways, other than the coastline.

  Really need to see if Felix wouldn’t mind putting those satellite things into place for us. I can only imagine what we could do with just a fraction of their technology.

  “Engaging,” Julia’s voice crackled over Steve’s radio.

  Turning his focus to the front of the ship, Vince watched as all the Wardens began spewing out hot blue balls of plasma.

  Each round arced gracefully over the water. All sputtering and crackling as they went.

  Then they crashed into the hull of the nearest enemy ship.

  It shuddered under the attacks, actually being forced aside to a degree in the water.

  But the hull remained intact.

  The protection stones did not.

  With a peculiar pinging noise, they shattered and sent out bursts of magic in every direction.

  Looking to the crew that had been loading weapons on the deck, Vince watched them for a reaction.

  Which was immediate and violent. They all ran toward the back of the ship, seemingly screaming orders at one another.

  Rapidly, the boat began to steer away from Vince’s.

  “Keep hitting them,” Vince said, leaning over Steve’s wrist. “Show no mercy.”

  “Affirmative,” Julia responded. A second later, the Wardens began to continuously fire on the other ship, aiming every shot toward the protective constructs.

  The other ships began to turn away from Vince’s. They were all turning inward towards land and moving as far away as possible.

  “Keep firing at anything in range,” Julia said through the comm channel. “Fire at will.”

  Picking their own targets, the Wardens kept putting rounds down toward the Tri-lliance ships.

  “This won’t stop them,” Caroline said softly. “I don’t doubt for a second they’ll just follow us.”

  “I know,” Vince said. “The best we can hope for is to keep them back. As far back as possible.”

  Slowly, they sailed beyond the Tri-lliance navy and kept moving south.

  ***

  Days later, having never let up on the forward momentum on their ship, they were off the shore of Texas.

  Except they were very much out of supplies, and the Tri-lliance navy—or at least half of them—had kept pace with them the entire time.

  They doggedly pursued Vince, keeping a set distance constant, regardless of the speed at which he traveled.

  “Suppose we’ll be making that beached landing, then defending it,” Vince muttered.

  Up ahead of them was a beach with a small river that went a little upstream.

  The plan was to crash the ship into it rather than trying to set anchor and ferry the gold off.

  “This is so stupid,” Caroline said, shaking her head. Her hands flexed on the wheel as she aimed the bow at their landing destination.

  “I don’t deny it, but I don’t have a better idea. Do you? Does anyone?” Vince asked aloud.

  Head shakes all around.

  “I think it’s the best we can do. If it really comes down to it… I can make myself rather powerful for a short period of time,” Eva said.

  “How powerful?” Vince asked, curious.

  “Powerful enough that I might be able to fight you to a standstill, Uncle. Probably not win, but… a standstill, certainly,” Eva said.

  Raising his eyebrows at that, Vince grinned.

  “We’ll have to spar again sometime then, when you can do that. Last time it lasted only a single pass and you gave up.”

  “That’s because you’re just too strong. Are you even human?” Eva complained. “And I can’t use that power whenever I like. It has to be a life-or-death situation.”

  “Red thinks we might be in one of those,” said the Beastkin. “If we don’t die in the crash.”

  She had wedged herself up against the wall of the pilothouse.

  Apparently the idea of crashing the boat was more than terrifying to her.

  “Well, you have your own mission,” Vince said. Setting his feet apart, he pressed his hands to the console in front of him.

  “Red knows. Red will run very fast. Faster than anyone could ever know. Red will find a garrison and bring it back,” she said.

  “I believe in you, Red,” Blue said. Moving over next to the Beastkin, the Dryad snuggled up beside her and then braced herself in the same fashion.

  “This really is stupid,” Julia muttered.

  The grinding crunch of the hull of the ship hitting sand made Vince’s teeth rattle.

  Everything stopped suddenly, and Vince ended up smashing into the console.

  There was a sharp crack and part of the metal housing buckled at the force of the impact.

  Tipping sideways, the boat creaked ominously as it shifted to a resting position on the sand.

  After a few seconds, everything became calm and still.

  Lifting his head up, Vince gave himself a once-over and found everything as it should be.

  “Injury check?” he asked aloud.

  “I think I broke my arm,” Caroline said, holding it against her stomach.

  Vince glanced at her and immediately agreed. It looked as if it’d need to be set.

  “Anyone else?”

  “Steve’s unconscious,” Julia said, leaning over the other man. “Looks like he cracked his head on something. His vitals are fine, just out.”

  “Right,” Vince said. “Red, you ready to go?”

  “Yes. Red is leaving now,” the Beastkin said, already halfway to the door. “Rely on Red. Red will not fail.”

  “Julia, you’re in charge. Get the Wardens lined up on deck and on point.

  “If the Tri-lliance decides to come take a peek, I want them tapped,” Vince said. “The rest of us, let’s start seeing what we’re working with. We need to get a ramp fashioned down to the sand and see about how to unload the gold.

  “And let’s see if there’s any of those protection rocks left intact as well. I’d like to take them back for Elysia to look at.”

  Grumbling, Vince stumbled his way across the slanted deck and down tow
ard the lip.

  Peering over the edge, he could see the sand below.

  Taking a breath, he leaped over the edge and landed with a thump in the soft ground.

  Taylor landed beside him a second later.

  Standing up, she eyed the hull behind them.

  “Feel like punching a hole through it? Otherwise I can get my—”

  Taylor flipped her jacket at him and transformed instantly.

  Her large horned head came down in front of him, gold eyes locked on him.

  “Just punch a hole in it?” she asked in her gravelly voice.

  “Yeah. If possible, try to make it so we can use it to start hauling the gold out.”

  “Half of which is yours. For my nest you’ll build,” Taylor confirmed.

  “Yep.”

  Nodding her head, Taylor turned to the hull and then lifted up her right claw.

  Sinking her claws into the metal, she pushed through with a bit of delicacy.

  Far more than he was expecting of her.

  “Ah, there is gold on the other side,” she said.

  Pulling her fingers out, she used a talon to peel the metal down into a bent and misshapen ramp.

  But it was far better than nothing.

  Inside, gold ingots were stacked atop one another.

  Several of them slipped free and hit the ramp, sliding down towards Vince.

  Picking one up, Vince looked it over curiously.

  It was heavy. Far heavier than he would have thought.

  Flinging it back into the hold, Vince looked for anything useful he could grab.

  “Fort Knox,” Vince said, reading the side of a wooden crate.

  “Those are the wooden boxes that were in my old nest,” Taylor said. “Though this… this looks like much more gold than I had in my hoard.”

  “Hm, alright. Let’s take a look at what we have going on behind us. We’ll need to find a staging area to put all your nest gold,” Vince said, waving at the beach behind him. “With any luck we’ll find a flat patch of dirt or some clay. I don’t really want to put all that heavy gold directly on sand.”

  “Yes, that makes sense,” Taylor said.

  Standing up on her hind legs, she stretched her neck upward.

  “I can see a suitable location. There is also a stand of trees nearby.”