by Vance Moore
It was only minutes later that the first barges began to become visible. The Keldons deployed well back from Barrin's works. The invaders were far enough away that they could retreat or activate their hollow warriors before his heavy war machines could cover the distance. The Keldons gathered, and while there was no evidence of a clear and organized attack, a lot of gray-skinned warriors were leaving their vehicles. The wizard sent a runner back to the communications room to convey the information to Teferi. Barrin considered the growing ranks of warriors and then hurried to the command post.
Mageta's bunker was heavily reinforced and provided an excellent view. Communication runs and trenches converged on it. As Barrin ducked inside, he saw Mageta donning armor with the help of his aide. The metal seemed to shine even in the indirect light, and a golden lion was riveted high over the general's heart. Mageta grimaced as an aide finished wiping the device.
"I am supposed to inspire confidence and awe in the men," the general said. "As if a fancy set of armor will turn the course of the battle."
"At least the men will be able to pick you out of a crowd," Barrin replied diplomatically.
"I know a better way to capture their attention," Mageta said, gripping his sword with a free hand. The sword was ordinary and worn, the scabbard of dirty leather. "I dug myself out of the grave with this sword, and I rallied my men by slaying the enemy. Deeds are what the men need to see, not fancy armor."
Barrin only nodded his head. "A reputation can be a weapon more valuable than a sword. It drains the heart of your enemies and gives strength to your men. That armor may seem foolish now, but after the battle it will be part of your persona. It will be expected by your men and feared by your foes." A messenger entered the bunker, his cheeks flushed from running.
"The enemy is readying themselves for the attack, General," the soldier reported. "The main thrust could happen within the hour."
"Tell the marine squads and their mantises to start their attack," Mageta ordered. The soldier and Mageta's aide left at a run. Barrin stood to the side as the men went by. In only a few minutes the League would execute the attack plan that Barrin and the commanders had developed. General Mageta lifted a tankard of beer from the table and drank deeply, emptying it and then slamming it down.
"I leave the command to you, Barrin," Mageta said as he pulled on a helmet and picked up a shield. "I can do the most good up in the front works."
Barrin followed the general outside. The sun was shining brightly, and Mageta breathed deeply.
"Remember that you and the other magicians are the final reserve." Mageta glanced back toward the city. The magic users were forming a circle on a balcony looking out over the battlefield. "Commit them if the army falls. We need a victory of arms rather than magic if we ever hope to take the battle to the Keldons." He nodded and started down through the connecting trenches, calling to the men he came across. Barrin was left alone with only a few runners waiting to carry additional orders.
"He must not fall," Barrin said, calling magic to send his senses over the coming battlefield. The Keldon camp was a pool of naphtha waiting to explode as he tasted the quiescent magic driving the alien artifacts. The circle of magicians in Arsenal City was a circle of chanting children trying to raise power. Finally, the League trenches and earthworks appeared-a field of gopher holes that Barrin sensed among the scattered war machines. Even as his senses tried to focus on Mageta, the attack commenced. The League made the first move.
The marine mantises had been concealed in trenches at the front lines. At the prompting of their handlers, each lifted out of its hole and walked silently onto the field. Less than two hundred of the machines had been constructed by the overworked factories. The mantises advanced with a few lightly armed marines jogging alongside. They approached the enemy without fanfare. The machines and men in small groups looked helpless against the opposing army.
The Keldon barges were in a line surrounded by soldiers putting on their armor and stoking braziers as the mantises came closer. The warriors emptied smoking coals and shaved colos horn into receptacles on their armor. A haze of smoke rose, and a light breeze blew the fumes toward Arsenal City. Barrin could see the soldiers becoming more fearful as the smoke increased. The wizard detected a surge of energy as the warriors walked into barges and powered war manikins. The Keldons began chanting as they prepared to charge, promising death to the League soldiers waiting for them. Warriors shouted derisively at the few war machines standing before them. The mantises raised their arms and lowered their hindquarters as if in response. Then with a roar, each machine fired a heavy rocket at the Keldon barges.
A few rockets detonated on launch, and mantises exploded, cutting down the surrounding machines and men. The first League deaths of the battle were self-inflicted, but the remaining rockets arced and fell onto the barges. The crafts' heavy protective shells shattered in huge sprays of splinters. Secondary explosions bloomed like flowers as Heroes' Blood ignited and incinerated barges, leaving climbing balls of flames. The League soldiers behind the trenches heard the angry moans of the enemy as frantic barge crews ran into the remaining vehicles and drove them away from burning piles of wreckage. Delayed detonations sent huge pieces of machinery flying in all directions, killing warriors and shearing through other barges. A cheer went up as the mantises turned sharply and retreated back to their hiding places. Barrin could see marine technical troops digging out new loads of heavy rockets for a second wave of bombardment.
General Mageta stood outside a trench with sword held high. His armor caught the eyes of the troops and they began chanting "Lion! Lion!" as his golden emblem flashed on his chest. The fear that the Keldons inspired was momentarily gone, and Barrin counted it a victory. Then he felt the swell of magic as the enemy finished animating their hollow warriors and charged the League earthworks.
The mantises were nearly inside the trench lines when their heads turned one hundred and eighty degrees. Each launched a small rocket, lashing into the ranks of enemy soldiers. Manikins and men sundered in sharp explosions. The Keldons screamed in rage as the mantises jumped out of sight into the trenches.
The enemy was a sea coming to sweep the League away when crabs reared up and fired. Hundreds of them had been buried during the night. The machines fired only light rockets, but each crab carried six of them. The leading ranks of the charge dissolved into gouts of bloody foam as the machines fired in a massive coordinated blow. Warriors floundered in the remnants of their comrades, and the charge stumbled to a stunned halt.
"Fire!" Mageta called as he rose once more from the trenches, holding a launcher. The general discharged a war bolt that vanished into the milling crowd of the enemy. Barrin couldn't tell if anyone fell, but the infantry in the trenches began firing in a sporadic barrage. There was a serious shortage of launchers and war-bolts, but the fire was a light rain on a pile of sand. The Keldons were dissolving away under the attack. Barrin could see the League technicians loading the weapons modules of the mantises and crabs. For a moment the wizard hoped the enemy might break, but then warlords in fantastic armor forced their way to stand in front of the Keldon lines. Barrin could hear their shouts as they exhorted the warriors.
"Do you think victory and glory are free?" an armored giant of a man bellowed. "A great people are known by the strength of their enemies! Kill for the glory of Keld! The final days are upon us! Kill the thieves, kill them…"
Even as they shouted, Mageta was leading men and machines from the trenches, gambling on breaking the enemies' spirits. Barrin wondered at the boldness, but knowing how outnumbered the League forces were, he acted to make the blow as strong as possible.
"Attack the rear!" The call echoed through the aether as the wizard drew power and called to the light forces beyond the battlefield. Rayne's troop of fast runners and ants was out of sight, but he knew that they charged at his call.
The crabs from the trenches slowly advanced. Each few yards a fusillade of bolts poured from their weapon
bays. Some of the supporting infantry knelt and fired launchers while the rest advanced with swords and spears jabbing into the air for blood. Mageta was just behind a crab trotting forward, signaling the advance with every step. The Keldons started forward, but they came at the League in a string of disorganized driblets instead of the unified front that the warlords desired.
More bolts and rockets flew toward the enemy, but the Keldons were implacable now, advancing in a silent rage. Mageta halted and dressed his line of men and machines. Clumps of spears faced the enemy and formed small arcs of soldiers anchored by crabs. The heavy war machines launched all their weapons at point-blank range, and then the forces met. The soldiers with spears funneled Keldons and hollow warriors to the crabs. Massive metal arms rose and fell. Manikins and men almost exploded as they died under the relentless pounding clubs. The bodies mounded up into piles, and the crabs inched back as warriors mounted the shattered bodies to continue the attack.
Now League soldiers were within range of Keldon swords, and infantry dropped screaming as gray-skinned warriors shattered bones and parted flesh. The soldiers carrying launchers drew swords. Mageta shouted and mounted the back of a crab, a spear in his hands. He yelled and signaled for the League troop to back toward their earthworks. The crabs slowly stepped away from their mounds of victims and began rebuilding their fleshy barricade with new corpses. Mageta was covered in blood and poorly balanced on the back of the crab but remained there as he directed the withdrawal, needing the extra height to be seen. Axes and spears flew toward him, but the crab deflected them, smashing them out of the air.
Barrin raised more power, and his senses flew toward the general. He enveloped Mageta in a web of power. The wizard could feel crossbow bolts burning to ash as Keldons finally began sniping at the general. Mageta threw his arms wide in defiance of the enemy, trusting in the magic that surrounded him. The League withdrawal slowed as the general's actions brought fresh heart to his men. The wizard could hear Mageta whispering through the surrounding magic.
"I really hope you can keep this up, Barrin. Otherwise, I'm dead."
More weapons flew past the waving arms of the crab to burn up in the wizard's shielding spell, and Barrin drew more power, waiting for the Keldon mages to enter the fray. Then cheering rose from the retreating troops. Hordes of steel ants came swooping from the distant flanks, falling upon the enemy.
"Your wife is coming to save me from myself, Barrin," General Mageta said to the wind.
Rayne and Shalanda on their runners fired groups of bolts into the Keldons, tearing at them like rabid dogs. Wing blades scissored as they cut apart groups of warriors. Steel ants nipped at the enemy, leaving wounded who stumbled and crawled through the ranks. Rayne had directed the ants around her to wound rather than destroy. Barrin had protested the inhumanity of the tactic, but Rayne insisted that wounded warriors were more trouble to the enemy than dead ones. Additionally, the ants were less vulnerable if they didn't linger over their kills. Hundreds of voices screamed and tore at the will of the Keldons, confirming her tactics.
"Send the mantises against the Keldon transports," Barrin ordered.
A runner tore his eyes from the battle and ran to relay the command. Mageta was holding the line and retreating at a crawl that allowed more Keldon warriors to reach the crabs. Here and there a machine went down as axes and swords sheared legs free, and a crab collapsed. One huge Keldon used a crab arm as a giant club, leaving a trail of smashed League soldiers dead among the field of crushed enemy warriors. Mageta shouted orders and then led several swordsmen against the champion. The general dodged an overhand strike, and his sword cut the tendons on the warrior's arm. The Keldon grabbed Mageta with his free arm, and the general battered the warrior's face with blows from his helmet until a League soldier cut him free.
The steel ants still lashed the peripheries of the enemy as the Keldon center advanced into oblivion under the hammering metal arms of the crabs. Now Barrin saw the mantises charging the left wing of the enemy army. The colorful machines broke through the thinning lines, their long arms slicing through flesh and manikin with equal ease. Then the marines and their charges were through with the barges only a few hundred yards away. The machines ran forward as their handlers ordered them to engage at pointblank range with their reloaded rockets.
Then Barrin sensed magic from the Keldon barges like a sea of fire burning. Slaves and barge crew rushed out of their craft in a panicky mass, and flocks of birds issued forth. They circled and rose high over the battlefield then fell onto the League forces. As each small body smashed into a soldier or machine, it disintegrated in a sharp explosion. Barrin could see the center melting away, the bludgeoning crabs chewed to pieces by the attack. The surrounding infantry died as men fell with sudden ghastly wounds. Mageta struck out at a diving bird, and the resulting explosion tore at his arm and knocked the general to the ground. More bomblets dived from the orbiting flock, now striking at the steel ants that had feasted on the flanks of the enemy. Shalanda went down as her runner was struck, and Rayne attacked the Keldon warriors who rushed to kill her aide. The mantises fired rockets, but many had already fallen or were crippled, and only a few barges exploded.
More of the tiny bombs launched into the air, and Barrin knew that only magic could save the day.
"Throw fire and lightning!" he called to the magical reserves.
A long stream of power leaped from Barrin up into the sky. Explosions rippled through the flock, disrupting its structure and sending many of the birds spiraling to the ground. The League and the Keldons suffered equally as men died and huddled for shelter. From the circle of magic behind him, a diffuse cloud of flame moved toward the birds. The birds began to detonate as the outskirts of the flock flew within the League spell. Barrin sent energy to shield the friendly forces, but the battlefield was too large. He concentrated on shielding Rayne and Shalanda as the rest of the fire-swallows fell out of the sky. Finally the rain of death stopped, but the League center was down, and Keldons rushed into the defensive works.
However, Barrin felt rising hope. The warriors and manikins moved slower and stumbled even as they tried to exploit the breach. Barrin could feel the Keldons stopping as some began to fall in exhaustion or even death as their fighting machines sucked the last energy from their frames. The wizard's heart lifted even more as he saw Rayne and Shalanda back up. The scouts and their runners had survived, and handlers directed their ants to attack once more. The outskirts of the enemy army could only beat weakly at the small machines as war manikins stopped in mid-swing and warriors collapsed.
"We need to reinforce the center!" Barrin ordered. "Everyone will advance and engage the enemy." Runners ran to order technicians, cooks, and quartermasters to charge the enemy. Barrin walked forward, raising power as he prepared to sluice the trenches clean of invading warriors.
Then he was stunned by a surge of new magical energy from Arsenal City. The magic users had not recognized the Keldons' weakness. Magic that Barrin hoped to direct against the enemy was instead expended in a wordless ringing call. His senses seared by the wave, it took him precious seconds to regain his equilibrium. During that time, Teferi appeared on the battlefield.
The planeswalker jumped into the defensive works, and Barrin could hear him calling. Teferi's magic touched him, but only Barrin's momentary injury communicated itself to the planeswalker. Surrounded by enemy warriors and dead League soldiers, Teferi cast a mighty spell.
Energy rippled out in a huge wave through the ground. Even those with almost no magical talent could feel the surge. The ground began to liquefy, flowing into the trenches and burying Keldon warriors and the League dead. Out on the battlefield, huge sinkholes appeared and sucked down the enemy corpses. The land barges tossed and bucked as the land danced under them. The Keldons retreated in confusion and fear as the ground itself showed allegiance to the League. The soldiers who had been around the crabs climbed to their feet and reformed as the retreating enemy flowed back to the b
arges. The center was saved, but the effects of Teferi's spell continued to spread as Barrin watched.
Steel ants bogged down as thousands of small pits opened up. Marine mantises almost in firing range of the Keldon barges were shoulder deep in the ground, their arms tearing furrows as they tried to slash themselves free. More Keldons retreated, struggling through the mud holes appearing everywhere. Barrin could see the land barges advancing into the muck as Teferi's attack waned. The huge craft moved slowly but were able to reach the core of their army.
Mageta was up but nearly unrecognizable. "Cowards!" he yelled and struggled forward. Covered in mud and blood, only the device on the general's helmet identified him. He slogged a few steps, his injured arm hanging limply at his side, before falling down once more as he passed out.
*****
"We survived. That's the most important thing," Rayne whispered into Barrin's ear as the couple clasped each other tightly. Rayne's runner had finally battled its way through the uncertain ground and the dead as the wizard struggled through the earthworks to find her.
"It was a chance to destroy the Keldon forces, and now they've withdrawn." Barrin looked east in anger. "Our first chance to crush the enemy on land, and we missed it."
Teferi and the support troops were bringing the wounded and the war machines into the city. Here and there a Keldon warrior was found alive, and troops converged to capture them.
Rayne only nodded noncommittally. She stepped past him and knelt to inspect a fire-swallow. It had started life as a bird but at some point was transformed into a weapon. The eyes were stitched shut, and the feathers were glossy with some sort of coating. Barrin sniffed the air and could smell the refined tufa liquid draining and soaking into the dirt.
"Those were an unpleasant surprise," Barrin said as he looked at it. "The battle was in our favor before they launched."
