Kingdoms Fall: Book One

by Joseph Pryce

  Bacia pulled on a pair of black leather gloves before hauling off and smashing the Volgag in the face with two powerful left hooks. The force of the blows managed to knock out two of Kokat’s teeth.

  “You fucking slag!” Kokat spit out blood onto the chamber floor. “I swear to the White Serpent, I’ll cut your tits off when I get out of here!”

  Bacia wordlessly bashed him in the face again promptly breaking his nose and backed off.

  Uso crouched down once more. “Tell us why the Hannix and Chrine tribes are attacking us”, he again asked Kokat.

  On the other side of the forcefield, Kane gave Sungah an unconvinced glance. “His father is a tough miscreant too. You might have to step this up a notch, Sungah”, he hinted.

  Sungah leaned forward and spoke through the forcefield directly to Uso, who could hear him but not see him. “Lt. General, his greatness authorizes the use of The Electro-Lance”.

  “Very good, governor”, Uso replied. He nodded at Bacia.

  The young sergeant swung open the chamber’s equipment locker and pulled out an oblong shaped silver metal box. Inside of the box was a long black lance with a bright red tip attached to a square control pad. This interrogation device was known as The Electro-Lance.

  Kokat’s eyes became wide when he saw it. “You can’t use that thing on me! Do you know who the fuck I am?! I’m the first born son of Clanhead Hogat Hannix!”

  “Tell us why the Hannix and Chrine tribes are attacking us”, Uso asked in the exact same monotoned voice. He had interrogated countless prisoners of war during his time in the military and knew that everybody had a breaking point.

  “Go to hell, you alien!” Kokat shouted defiantly.

  Uso stepped away from Kokat, allowing Bacia some space to use the Electro-Lance. The sergeant activated the device and the tip of it crackled with a halo of red electricity. She pressed the trigger switch on the lance and the electricity shot out to cover the Volgag’s body.

  Kokat screamed in absolute pain and he began to drool uncontrollably.

  Uso motioned perfunctorily to Sgt. Bacia. She promptly shut off the machine. The swirling energy left Kokat’s body and shot back into the lance.

  Uso once again crouched down and looked the Volgag in the eyes. “The beauty of the Electro-Lance is that it burns your body from the inside out. You’ll be dead before you know it but trust me, Kokat son of Hogat. This device takes a very long time to kill you”.

  Uso motioned again at Bacia and she activated the lance once more. Kokat’s screams were terrible but Uso waited a few minutes longer this time before ordering her to turn it off. By this time, Kokat had skied himself all over the chamber floor and he was in tears.

  “You can’t do this to me!” He cried. “I demand to speak to Pharaoh Kane!”

  “What makes you think that my ruler would want to talk to you?” Uso asked him urgently.

  “The pharaoh had dealings with my father! They had a business arrangement!”

  Uso shook his head. “Tell me why the Hannix and Chrine tribes are attacking us”. The Lt. General motioned once more at Bacia. She turned on the lance and it’s violent energy shot out a Kokat.

  “Because my father has been missing for the last three days! My father and Clanhead Nash Chrine! They are both missing! Please make it stop!” Kokat screamed.

  Uso nodded his consent and Bacia turned off the lance.

  “What do you mean your father is missing?” He asked Kokat indifferently.

  “Nobody in the tribe has seen my father for the last three days! Not my mother. Not my sister. Or any of my uncles! And then Chrine’s wife sent a raven to my mother, telling her that Nash was missing too”, Kokat spat out weakly.

  Bacia wrinkled her nose in disgust. The smell of Kokat’s shit and piss was filling the room.

  “So what are you saying?” Uso asked. He made an attempt to keep his voice lever but in his mind knew that he was getting close to the truth that he was seeking in this interrogation.

  “You know what I am saying you bloody bootlicker! Pharaoh Kane promised my father he would be safe from harm or capture as long as we let Sandstorme build your power plant on our land!”

  This revelation stopped Uso in his tracks. He rose unsteadily and glanced over his shoulder at the force field in confusion.

  On the other side of the force field, Governor Sungah gave the pharaoh a bewildered glance. “What is the Volgag saying, your greatness? My office was not made aware of any deal with his tribe”.

  Alooma Kane the third sighed heavily. There were times he did not like being king of the realm and this was one of them. “There are affairs in the kingdom that are far above your station, Governor Sungah”.

  “But your greatness, I do not understand”, Sungah continued.

  “But I do, Governor”, Dambudda interrupted. “There is a storm coming”.

  Kane turned on the general who stood alone at the far side of the chamber. I do not like this woman. Was the last thought he would every have for eternity because at that precise moment, General Dambudda chose to activate the tiny Incinerator Disk in stitched into her glove. The small device was so powerful that the explosion that it unleashed reduced half of the Siversand Base to ash.

  AMINA SAHN GABBA

  Sgt. Amina Sahn Gabba was the great-great-great granddaughter of the legendary war hero known as General Yared Gabba. General Gabba was famous of what had become known in the history tablets as The Battle of Bida. Bida during in its time was the second most powerful country in Sandstorme. The leader of Bida at that time had been a power hungry blood thirsty warlord named Ajaka Subba Stormgal, the Shah of Bida. He had been born the tenth of twelve children in a poverty stricken town named Waterville. During his short lifetime, the Shah would acquire a total of eight wives and father thirty-two children. He joined the Bida Industrial Army at the tender age of sixteen and due to his tenacious work ethic quickly moved up the ranks. He was the youngest officer in the history of the Bida Industrial Army to ever make captain and a few years after that, became the youngest colonel in the army’s history. In his position of colonel he found himself some allies in the country’s senate and used his powerful contacts to help him organize a coup of the sitting government. Colonel Stormgal launched a pre-dawn attack on the presidential palace and forced President Damdon Kabaka into permanent exile. Ajaka then proceeded to fold the army, navy and airforce under one mighty military umbrella of which he named himself the Commander Supreme. Within a year of his rule Commander Supreme Stormgal made the decision to suspend the Bida constitution and instituted The Grand Military Parliament with himself as chairman. It was during this time that he anointed himself The Shah of Bida and placed military tribunals above the system of civil law. He appointed soldiers to top government posts and parastatal agencies. It was around this time that all of this political upheaval finally caught the attention of Pharaoh Alooma Kane the First. The pharaoh at that time was not a leader to book any sort of insurrection in his kingdom, so he did what any powerful leader would have done and used the Sandstorme Air Force and Black Panther Ground Unit to crush the country of Bida into dust. Pharaoh Kane the First then ordered the execution of Warlord Stormgal and all of his male children. His wives and daughters were spared and promptly transported to the capital, where they remained as wards of the realm.

  Amina only knew vaguely of her family history in Bida through the digital history tablets that her grandmother kept locked away in a safe keep box that she kept hidden under her bed. She had never once visited the country of her origin and its

  entire existence as the second most powerful country in Sandstorme had been cleanly wiped away by the realm’s Ministers of Information. Lt. Amina Gabba considered herself a true born daughter of Sandstorme and a seasoned veteran officer of The Black Panther Ground Unit. The thirty and five year old lieutenant had been stationed at Silversand for one year and not once in those twelve months did she ever witness a Volgag attack of this magnitude. Of course, there was
the occasional skirmish when her platoon came across a marauding band of Hannix tribespeople who took it upon themselves to attack the Silversand Base perimeter.

  But nothing ever on this scale!

  Amina’s arms were dead tired and blood was getting into her eyes from an open wound in her forehead that she suffered earlier. Her blaster had run out of ammunition an hour ago and she had been forced to defend herself with her sword. She pivoted to the right to avoid the death stroke of a blue haired Hannix tribesman who swung at her head with his battle-axe. “Alien cunt!” He yelled.

  Amina buried her sword deep into the man’s big white belly. As that Volgag went down into the snow, a short Chrine woman jumped from the branches of nearby tree gripped a spear that she was prepared to drive deep into Amina’s chest. The young lieutenant leaned spun to her left and swung her sword upward and managed to slice open the tribe woman’s belly. The orange haired women collapsed to the snow where she bled to death. Amina cut the tribe woman’s head to make sure.Amina’s chest was heaving and her sweat poured down her face. Despite the mind numbing cold, she felt like overheated to the point of passing out. She looked around at all of the dead members of her platoon lying in the snow and all of the dead Volgags too and wondered if all the blood spilt today mattered at all to Pharaoh Kane. This thought was her very last before a blue haired Hannix named Big Bull sprung out from a nearby snow bush and battered her in the back of the head with the heavy wooden handle of his axe.

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  I am not dead. That Amina’s first thought when she regained consciousness. I am not dead.

  The sergeant could barely open her eyes as they were swollen shut. Waves of nausea from the pain that she felt swept through her and it was all that she could do to keep herself from vomiting. Somebody has been beating on me. She realized as she ran tongue along the inside of her mouth and discovered that several of her teeth were missing. Through the slits of her eyes, Amina could see that she was in a dark cave tied half naked to a wooden post that had been planted directly in front of a fire burning in a large copper brazier. Her face was severely bruised and she had fresh bruises on her bare breasts.

  A vicious looking Hannix with long greasy blue hair and a face covered over with scars, squatted by the fire gnawing on a juicy cut of moose tenderloin. His fists had Amina’s dry blood on them. “Finally back to the land of living, eh girl?” Bad Bram sneered at Amina. “When I’m finally done with you, you’ll wish that you’d stayed blacked out”.

  Amina did not panic. Being taken as a prisoner of war was something that every soldier of the Ground Unit had been trained for and according to her training for the first thing that she did was mentally assess her surroundings. The cave had one doorway and try as she might, Amina could not see what laid in cavern outside. She glanced up at the cave ceiling and tried to get bearing to see if she was trapped underground but the only light available came from the raging fire and made it hard for her to tell.

  Bad Bram watched her carefully as the juices from the meat he held in his hands dribbled down his jaw. “Don’t waste your time, girl. There’s no way out of this cave for you”. He stood up and tossed the moose bones into the fire and rudely wiped his greasy hands off on Amina’s breasts. “You got some nice tits, girl. You’re one lucky wench, let me tell you. The only thing saving you from me giving you a good hard poking right now is Hogat’s daughter. So that means I have to get my satisfaction another way”, he hauled off and punched Amina across the jaw without warning.

  Creator help me! Amina yelped silently in pain. She felt Bad Bram’s punch all the way to her toes and could have sworn he broke her jaw. She spit out some blood and another broken tooth onto the cave floor.

  “Is that the best you can do, you Volgag piece of shit?!” She baited the Hannix tribesman in the hopes that he move closer to her.

  “You’re a tough little slag, ain’t you?” And Bad Bram did indeed move in slightly closer to Amina’s body. He grabbed a handful of her short black kinky hair and roughly pulled her neck back. She could smell the rum on his breath and see that he had a mouthful of yellowing teeth. “I’m going to enjoy breaking you”.

  Bad Bram was close enough for Amina bite off the tip of his bulbous red nose with her remaining teeth and spit it out onto the ground. The big Volgag fell back holding his face in his hands, blood spurted through his fingers. “You filthy cunt!” He screamed. Bad Bram picked up a large stone from the cave floor and was well prepared to bash in Amina’s skull with it but was stopped by Fokat Hannix, who strode into the cave with her faithful demon-dogs at her side and ordered him to put down the stone.

  “But this fucking slag bit off me nose!” He complained bitterly to Clanhead Hannix’s daughter.

  “I need her alive, Bram. Go and clean yourself up. Bring me back cask of rum. I’m thirsty”, she ordered gently.

  Bad Bram threw Amina the nastiest of glares. “I ain’t finished with you yet, girl”, and he stormed out grumbling malevolently under his breath.

  Fokat took Amina’s face into her big hands and inspected it. “Such a pretty face”, she commented appreciatively. Her hands moved down to Amina’s breasts and she caressed them admiringly. “Beautiful skin. When Big Bull brought you in here, I had to stop all the boys from taking a jump at you”, Fokat said with a sly grin. She was even more impressive in person, well over six feet tall, with blue eyes, her long blue hair tied back now in a ponytail, wearing nothing but a fur covered vest and boots and deer hide pants.

  “Am I supposed to thank you for that?” Amina asked sarcastically. She felt horrible but forced herself to put up a brave front although she drew back from the demon-dogs gnashing their teeth at her.

  Fokat glanced down at her dogs with a grin. “Are Ice Fang and Cold Wind scaring you?” She slapped both animals hard on their hind parts and both of them left the cave submissively without a sound.

  “You have spirit. I like that in a woman. Do you know who I am?”

  Amina shrugged with an air of forced nonchalance. “Of course I do. Fokat Hannix, eldest child and only daughter of Clanhead Hogat Hannnix. Your mother’s name is Helgat and you have four younger brothers”.

  Fokat was impressed. She smiled at Amina and said, “Very good, Sgt. Amina Gaba. Very good”.

  Amina’s head jerked back slightly which mad Fokat smile once again. “What is it, sergeant? Are you surprised that I also know who you are?” She held up a piece of material that had been torn from Amina’s uniform. “Do you know why you are here, Sgt. Amina instead of hanging from the nearest tree with your intestines hanging out?”

  “Why don’t you tell me, Fokat Hannix?”

  Bad Bram walked back into the cave gripping a wooden cask filled with white rum and set it at Fokat’s feet. He passed her a metal cup and poured some of the rum into it. Fokat drank deeply and belched gratefully. “Thank-you, Bram. I was dying of thirst”, she told the big man. “Can you bring in, the sergeant’s friend?”

  Bram guffawed. “Right away”, he replied and left the cave.

  Fokat returned her attention back to Amina. “You are still alive because I need to use you to deliver a message to your masters in Sandstorme”.

  “What kind of message?” Amina asked warily. In her mind she was still trying to figure out a way to escape her bondage and pulverize Fokat’s face with the large rock that Bad Bram had dropped.

  “I want your pharaoh, the Governor of Defence and the rest of those cronies that you serve to know that I know they have killed my father. When I send you back to you Blaksands, they will understand that they cannot hide the truth from me”, Fokat answered most seriously.

  Amina had managed to loosen the bindings around her wrists just a little so she stalled for time. Just need a few more minutes and then I am going to kill this woman with my bare hands. “What makes you think that Clanhead Hannix is dead?”

  Fokat laughed in Amina’s face. “You
think that you are so smart, Sgt. Gaba but you know nothing. My father has never been away from home longer than a day even when he has gone hunting for food. He is dead, this I feel in my bones. You Sandstorme scum have murdered him that I too feel in my bones”.

  Bad Bram re-entered the cave dragging the bloody head and torso of a young Black Panther Ground Unit soldier. Amina instantly recognized the man’s face to be Corporal Idi, one of the members of her platoon. Bram threw the remains of Idi at Amina’s feet with a guttural laugh. “He was a long time dying, girl. A long time dying”.

  Fokat poured herself some more rum. “Was Corporal Idi a good soldier?” She asked Amina casually.

  Amina forced herself to look Fokat in the eye and not at the dead open eyeballs of Idi’s blood filled face. “He was one of the best”, she replied sternly.

  “He was a good fighter. The corporal killed six of my best men before we were able to take him down”, Fokat downed her rum and poured herself some more. “Big Bull told me that you were able to kill twelve of my men before he got you. It is like I always say; give me a strong woman over two able bodied men any day”, she chuckled.