Red Skies

by Jan Stryvant

  Four hours later Sean had checked all the rifles, which had meant fixing three of them. Two had been assembled improperly, and one was just plain broken, so he'd found Shep, and gotten it replaced.

  "What are you doing up?" Roxy asked, coming into the room with Chad, Max, and Peg.

  "Checking rifles, just like you taught me." Sean smiled and then yawned.

  "Couldn't someone else have done that?"

  "The someone else was Chad and Max, and I thought it would be better for them to be rested, seeing as they're the ones in charge of the battle." Sean looked out the window. "The sun's setting. Let's get everyone up and ready and go deal with the Vestis. Hopefully they'll be as easy going as everyone else, and we'll be off to the airport in no time."

  "They definitely do seem to have a unique attitude up here, that's for sure," Max said, agreeing.

  Chad called his squad leaders and had them issue the rifles to their squads. Once that was done, they passed out the ammunition.

  "Only twenty rounds each?" Roxy said, looking at the meager supplies.

  "Apparently replacing this stuff is hard up here, and they didn't want to give us all of it," Sean said.

  "But that's only two thousand rounds! I'd expect them to have way more than that."

  "Well, it's all we're getting," Sean told her and yawned again. "I'm gonna head out to the truck and take a nap. Wake me when we get there."

  When Roxy got out to the truck some thirty minutes later with Peg, Chad, Max, and Sheila, they found Sean fast asleep, curled up on one of the seats.

  "I can't believe you let him stay up all day," she grumbled at Chad.

  "Hey, he ordered us. Besides, his part really is just to observe. The Vestis only have about a hundred lycans, and only sixty of those are soldiers. We're almost two to one on them."

  "Well, I hope you're right. Are we getting any support from Sapientia?"

  "Just the ritual of silence. That's all."

  Roxy nodded and sighed. "I guess we'll just have to see how it goes."

  The ride to the compound was fairly quiet, and not just because Sean was sleeping. Everyone was getting ready to deal with whatever they might run across. So far nearly all of the Vestibulum 'visits' had resulted in combat, some of them rather fierce. But with the removal of their North American head, along with the way the government had dropped on them like a ton of bricks back in the U.S., Chad was secretly hoping they'd just bow to the inevitable.

  "Okay, everyone out," Chad ordered as they pulled up to the planned debarking point.

  "What about Sean?" Roxy asked, as Sean was still sound asleep.

  "Leave Sheila, and I'll appoint someone as a guard. Hopefully we won't need him, and I'm sure he could use the sleep," Chad said.

  "Alright," Roxy said with a nod.

  "I could watch him," Peg said.

  "You're our only magic user, Peg." Chad said. "We need you in case they try to pull any tricks on us."

  Peg sighed. "Yeah, you're probably right."

  Getting out and closing the doors carefully, they went around to the back of the truck were the troops were piling out and forming up.

  "Okay leads, take your groups to the assigned points. We're going to try and negotiate this one instead of just hitting them."

  "Sure that's wise?" Jace asked.

  "I know you have problems with it, Jace," Chad replied, "but we need to feel them out and see if they're willing to cooperate. Besides, everyone else seems to be pretty laid back up here. So how bad could it be?"

  Jace shrugged and they all quickly moved off.

  "So, now what?" Roxy asked.

  "Find a good position to cover us as we approach the front gate. Peg, I want you to find something in cover as well, but close enough to defend us from any spells. Baron, you're with me. Max, you know the game plan; call the shots as you see 'em."

  Everyone nodded and moved to their positions. Chad gave Roxy and Peg a couple of minutes to find a good spot to set up, then taking a small squad of three to go with him and Baron, they shifted into their hybrid werewolf forms and started to walk down the road towards the gate.

  Taking out a white piece of cloth, Chad tied it to the barrel of his rifle and made sure it was visible as they turned the corner and came into sight of the gate guards.

  "What's it look like, Roxy?" Chad whispered into his radio.

  "It looks like they know we're coming. They've got everyone turned out, and it looks like they're all armed inside the compound."

  "The gate guards?"

  "They're taking aim at you."

  "Well, shit," Chad said. "Everyone, don't fire first, but the moment they open fire, it's on."

  "Roger that, Hubby!" Max replied.

  "We are about to go into combat, Max." Chad sighed.

  "That's close enough right there!" one of the guards yelled.

  Chad stopped and looked at the guard who had yelled. The other three all appeared to be drawing a bead on them.

  "We're here to parley," Chad said and gave the flag a small wave.

  "What do you want?"

  "All the lycans. Same thing we've done everywhere else."

  "You're in Canada now!"

  "And that doesn't matter. Look, the rules have changed; all of us are free now. So tell your bosses to let you go, and after we pull your pellets, if they want to hire you back, that's fine."

  "I'm not one of you filthy animals!" the guard.

  "Did he just tell us he was human?" Max said over the radio, Chad's mike having picked up the guard's words.

  "Kill th..." the guard's head exploded, and Chad dove off to the side of the road as the rest of the squad with him dove for cover.

  "We're dealing with mercs!" Chad yelled out his orders over the radio. "Take the kennels, and kill anyone with a gun who isn't a lycan!"

  Ξ

  Sean was back in the place of the vision he'd had while in the sweat lodge with John's cousin. This time he was in a forest, a forest of black trees with black leaves, and it was dark, very dark.

  But with his keen leonine hearing, sense of smell, and night vision, it wasn't all that scary, nor was he worried. He got the feeling he'd been doing this a while and had gotten used to having to use all his senses here. Especially at night.

  He was moving slowly through the trees; whether he was tracking something or running from something, he wasn't quite sure. He just knew he needed to keep moving, that there was something up ahead he needed to see.

  He kept on for hours, carefully moving past the trunks, under the branches, stepping over the occasional root. There weren't any dead leaves on the ground here, so he didn't have to worry too much about his footpads giving his position away. But still, he had to proceed with caution. There were other things in the woods, he was sure of it.

  Eventually he came to a clearing. Stopping well short of the edge, he looked carefully into it.

  There was a party of devils sitting around what could only be described as a fire, for all that it gave no light. Instead, it seemed to be a patch of even blacker darkness, if such a thing were possible. They were sitting around it and eating, talking with each other, joking about something.

  Then he saw what they were eating. It was a girl. A young woman.

  And though she wasn't bleeding, Sean could see she wasn't dead.

  Sean was halfway across the distance that separated him from the devils before he'd even realized it. His sword was in his hand and his armor was alight with the glow of magic.

  The first devil he reached was totally unaware of him, for all that his fellows were pointing at Sean, having jumped to their feet. Sean took his head off with ease, then cleaved the skull of the one sitting next to him, who had turned to look at Sean, mouth wide in shock.

  Sean kicked one of the devils in the balls as he freed his sword and started in on another one of the demons. This one was standing, but hadn't yet drawn a weapon. Sean killed him easily, then quickly killed the one next to it, and then a third.

&n
bsp; Spinning around to keep from being attacked from behind, Sean started forward into the next group. They were all on their feet with their weapons drawn. The first one was slow to engage, so Sean took him in the head, killing him. The next one fenced with him more, but it only took Sean a few moments to kill him, too.

  The next one took longer, and the one after that longer still. The third one actually cut Sean before he killed it. The fourth cut him twice. It was while Sean was fighting the fifth of this group that he started wonder just where they were all coming from? He'd killed ten of them so far, or was it twelve? And yet there had only been a handful around the fire.

  He killed the fifth and started on the six, unsure if there would be a seventh. They just never seemed to stop coming, and either they were getting better, or he was getting worse. Backing up, he came closer to the body of the girl they'd been eating.

  "Kill me," she said.

  "What? I came here to save you!" Sean shouted as he was cut a third time.

  "I can't be saved, for I am already dead," the girl's voice intoned in a strange voice. "If you kill me now, I'll go where I'm supposed to be instead of into the bellies of these ghouls."

  "Are you sure?" Sean grunted and was wounded again. He needed to do something; the odds were no longer in his favor.

  "Do it!" the girl commanded.

  So Sean plunged his sword into the young woman's breast, and just like that, she exploded into a million little shards that simply dissipated.

  Sean noticed suddenly that there were none of the devils around anymore either. Not even the ones he'd killed. But he saw a road now. The road the Devils had obviously come down with their dead but not dead girl.

  The girl he'd had to kill to stop them from eating her.

  Hoping perhaps he could save the next one, Sean growled and, after cleaning and sheathing his sword, he started off back the way the others had come, moving quickly at a trot.

  How long Sean had run down the road he had no idea, just that there were young girls that needed to be saved and devils that needed to be killed, as his anger and frustration grew. But suddenly the sound of a firefight floated up to his ears from a long way off, getting louder and louder as he approached.

  "At last!" he growled. "A battle!"

  Ξ

  Sean's eyes opened wide as the sound of sustained gunfire filled the cabin of the truck from outside.

  "Sean...oh, you're awake," Sheila said, looking at him in surprise.

  "What's happening? Where is everyone?" Sean growled, sitting up and opening the door as he looked around. They were parked on some side street, and there was a guard with a rifle outside the door.

  "They left you to sleep and went to dicker. I'm thinking the dickering ain't goin' so well." Sheila sighed.

  Sean nodded; the sounds of shooting got louder as the door opened, and he could feel a large spell go off. Getting out of the truck, he shifted into hybrid form.

  "Out of the truck, Sheila. You, too," he motioned towards the Sapientia-supplied driver. "Leave the keys."

  Sean turned to the soldier guarding him with the gun and said, "Get in the passenger's seat," then he walked around, got into the driver's seat, and started the engine.

  "You can drive?" Sheila asked from outside the truck.

  "Yes, I can drive." Sean sighed. He turned to the soldier. "Your radio on?"

  "Yes, Sir!"

  "Good, tell Chad and the others that I'm awake, pissed, and about to show up."

  "They're saying there's mercs in there, Sir."

  "Soon to be dead mercs," Sean growled. "Trust the Vestis to want to keep fighting the war long after they've lost it."

  Firing up the truck, Sean pushed the clutch in, and with a little bit of grinding, he jammed it into first and released the break.

  "Do you know where we're going?" Sean asked the guard.

  "To hell!" the guard laughed and then pointed down the road. "Turn right up at the brick column.

  Sean grunted, and flooring the gas, he let the clutch out and was happy that he didn't stall it as the wheels spun and the truck lurched forward and onto the road. Calling up his defensive and offensive frameworks, Sean started to prep a few spells as the truck went down the road. He didn't want to get going too fast until after he rounded the corner.

  "Hang on," Sean said and, hauling the wheel around, he spun the truck around the corner. He could see Chad, Baron, and a couple others whose names he didn't know in sparse cover returning fire. From the looks of things, they were getting shot up pretty badly. Laying on the horn, Sean threw up a shield in front of the truck, pushed the clutch and the accelerator to the floor, jammed it into second gear, and popped the clutch.

  "That got their attention, Sir!" the guard yelled as he charged his weapon.

  "Shoot out of the side window, I put a shield in front of us," Sean yelled and, pointing the truck at the gates, he hit the clutch and shifted into third, veering slightly to the right and clipping the stone column as the truck hit the gates. The truck shuddered for a moment, and Sean banged his head against the windshield, leaving a nice spiderweb of cracks. Thanking his hard lion skull, Sean shook it off as the gates gave way, the column knocked askew as they burst into the center of the compound.

  The guard with him started taking shots as Sean did his best to drive the truck around the compound, smashing into cars and running over anybody that got in his way. When he ran up onto the fountain in the center of the courtyard after rebounding off of a couple of cars and crushing a number of very surprised people, he threw the door open and dived out.

  Rolling onto his back, Sean felt his silver tag activate as he took direct fire.

  Sean fried the guy running at him, hitting him with a lightning bolt and enjoying the way the man's body exploded. Someone hit him with a cramping spell then, so he took the energy as his framework soaked it up and turned it into a fireball. While the magic user was busy deflecting that, Sean hit him with a blast of pure energy that dropped him where he stood, allowing the fireball to careen into one of the buildings, where it exploded and started a nice fire.

  Scrambling to his feet, Sean jumped up onto the roof of the truck and roared loudly.

  "Surrender or DIE! I don't have time for this SHIT!" Sean yelled, pushing as much of his lion into his words as he could.

  "Damn, and I thought I woke up in a bad mood," Sean heard the guard mutter as he scavenged ammo off one of the mercs Sean had run over with the truck.

  "What the hell? They're not stopping!" Sean muttered under his breath. At least the silver shield was deflecting bullets now.

  'Your guy did say they were using mercs,' the First reminded him.

  'Humans? They're using humans against us? Oh, am I going to make them regret this!' Sean said, growling.

  Calling up his enchanting framework, Sean tripped the routine he'd modified in the silver tag to feed him more power as they continued to shoot him. Next he called up the mental domination spell the kid in Vegas had tried using on him. Sean was sure they probably had some magical protection spells or items on them, but with the amount of power Sean was now siphoning off the tag, he was sure he could overwhelm it.

  It's not like the Vestibulum would have given the good stuff to a bunch of humans anyway.

  Sending a firebolt into one of the buildings a caster was throwing spells out of at Sean's people, Sean started dominating the troops around him, one after the other. The first three stopped shooting at him, but the fourth one kept going.

  "Kill him," Sean said, pointing at the one he couldn't dominate, and the other three immediately did so.

  Sean smiled then, and got a truly wicked idea. "Kill the mages inside the house, spare the women and children. Go!"

  The three took off like a shot. Sean was starting to warm up; he was still getting shot by way too many people, standing up in front of everyone. Last thing he needed now was to get overloaded from an incoming spell!

  Jumping down to the ground, he continued to dominate all the
mercs he saw, one after another. Every time he ran into one he couldn't dominate, he ordered the others to kill them. After the second time he'd done that, the rest of the mercs turned on the dominated ones and started killing them, and things quickly turned into complete chaos.

  Sean turned off his silver tap, and started throwing the occasional fireball into the midst of the mercenaries until the remaining members suddenly turned and ran, heading for one of the buildings.

  The magic users inside, however, must have thought they'd fallen prey to Sean and were coming to kill them, because they unleashed a bevy of fireballs right into the midst of the fleeing men, killing all of them.

  Taking cover behind the truck he'd come in, Sean looked around. The soldier he'd come in with was crouched down, taking the occasional pot shot.

  "What's Chad's orders?" Sean asked him.

  "Not to stop until they surrender or they're all captured, Sir."

  Sean nodded. Two of the buildings were actually burning rather well. Anybody in them probably wouldn't be able to stay there much longer. Looking around, there were a lot of dead bodies on the ground. Most of them the human mercenaries, but there were a few magic users there as well. Peeking over the hood of the truck, Sean could see several magic users running out of one building and casting water spells on the larger of the two burning buildings.

  None of them ever saw the fireball Sean cast into their midst, killing two of them and knocking the others unconscious, their clothing burning as they fell to the ground.

  When what sounded like the voices of women started to scream that they were surrendering, not to shoot, Sean saw the soldier lower the muzzle of his rifle to the ground. At that point people started to run out of the burning buildings, and several of Chad's troops came out of cover and started to herd them all to a spot away from the fires.

  On seeing that, people came out of the remaining buildings, allowing themselves to be herded, under armed guard, into an open field.

  "Show off," Chad grumbled as he walked up to the crashed truck.

  "What happened? I thought they were going to just roll over?" Sean asked Chad.

  "Apparently they decided to hire human mercs instead of hiring their former slaves back. Of course, it might be that most lycans don't want to work for the Vestibulum because a certain lion god seems to be slaughtering them.