No Regrets

by Jan Stryvant

  "Claudia fears her, that's all I need to know!" Chad laughed back.

  "So, getting back to the plan, when do the bombs start to drop?"

  "As soon as the last of my scouts call in. Roger called his clan members, and I sent my pack out to scout around as well."

  "I think the Sierra Club is going to take us off their Christmas list for this one."

  "Eh, I never liked those people much anyway. I just hope we're able to make the fires go the way we want them to."

  "Yeah, good luck with that!"

  "Actually, I got Vincent to help with that. He got me a bunch of mages, and they're going to do some sort of spell that will hopefully make sure it does what we want it to. Instead of, say, running wild all over the place."

  Sean nodded and sat down to look at the map on the table of the small advance post. "So have you and Max decided on a new place to live yet?"

  "Actually, if this op goes off like we planned it, we're going to keep the old place and just beef up security a lot."

  Sean looked up at Chad. "Seriously?"

  Chad nodded. "Of course. It goes back to that whole philosophy about setting up forts and such all over the area to be able to respond to any problems with the djevels. I'm fairly certain we're just outside of where they currently are, so if we push 'em out, then it's going to be up to my pack to keep them out. I think I'm gonna end up drafting about half of Jack's National Guard troops into my pack, and we're gonna own those mountains by the time this is all done."

  "What about Claudia?"

  "A lot of that is going to depend on what happens to the survivors from Jack's actions to the east. She's got people there to try and hold it, but I think she's already got another place in mind further south for her main headquarters and base of operations."

  "Damn, I think I'm the only person without a home now."

  "Yeah, there's no way you're going back up north of Reno. It's just too isolated."

  "I hate looking for a place to live, and then of course we'll have to build new houses, barracks, workshops, hangers, and everything else again."

  "Well, if you move into the mountains just east of here, you'll be close enough to Daelyn's relatives that they'll probably cut a tunnel to you. So you'd have access to all the dwarves you'd ever want, plus I'm sure Claudia will help you out. If you go into the mountains to the east, that'll put you between Tahoe and Carson City. You won't have easy access to the dwarves, but Claudia and I will still be available to help."

  Sean nodded; it was something to think about.

  Chad's phone beeped then.

  "Ah! The last reports are coming in!"

  Sean watched as Chad read things off of his phone and marked the map.

  "So, good news or bad news?" Sean asked as Chad finished up.

  "Both," Chad grumbled. "They didn't make it as far up as we thought they did, but that's only because they were stopping to eat everyone they could get their hands on along the way."

  "How far did they get?" Sean asked.

  "Truckee. You got any of more of that 'wrath of God' on hand to dispense?"

  "I can't just go tossing those things all over the place, Chad. There are some pretty serious consequences attached to doing that. What about the nukes we've got?"

  "They're not made to be dropped. I'm sure we could rig something; in fact I better talk to Dae or Samis about making something to do just that. But I don't think we have the time for that right now."

  "Why?"

  "Because the napalm will set the trees on fire, but we need to get rid of Truckee before they can eat everyone in it. Also it'll be a hole in our fire line until its destroyed. We can't very well set it on fire like the forests because of all the buildings and open spaces."

  Sean pondered that. "I'm not sure I like doing this, Chad. Can't you use a nuke?"

  "Who can we ask to land in the middle of the town and secure it for us to set it off?"

  Sean growled and shook his head. "Just the one?"

  "Yup, just the one. Truckee is our only weak spot right now."

  "Okay, but it'll take our helos a while to get up there."

  "We got a bunch of Ospreys in while you were off ruining my chances for other world domination," Chad said with a grin.

  "Osprey?"

  "Those tilt-wing airplanes?"

  "Oh! So that's what those odd things I saw on the south end of the airstrip are!"

  "Dude, are you even living in this century anymore?"

  Sean grinned. "I just had no idea what they were called." Sean turned to where Cali and Daelyn were chatting. "Cali, you still have that device I gave you?"

  "Of course, my Husband!"

  Sean smiled and looked back at Chad. "Well, we're ready to go when they get here."

  "Get your people together, and better take a team with you, just in case."

  Sean snorted. "I can guarantee you Travis and his squad are nearby. They're always nearby. I think they have me bugged."

  Twenty minutes later they were on their way. Sean had retrieved Cali's device, resetting the timer to ten minutes. He'd also taken the time to fashion a simple parachute for the device and, using some rocks he'd found for ballast, he'd attached them to it.

  He still wasn't sure if air dropping one in was the best idea; he was sure he was showing up on several countries' spy satellites now, and the last thing he wanted them to figure out was that the lion's 'godly wrath' depended on a physical device.

  "What's Dae doing?" he asked Cali.

  "She's talking to the pilots. I think she wants one, my Husband."

  "A pilot?" Sean growled.

  Cali laughed in that delightful voice of hers. "No! One of these!" She patted the bulkhead. "An Osprey!"

  Sean sighed. "Great, and here I am all but broke."

  "So? Just take one."

  "Steal one? Have you been hanging out with Sawyer again?" Sean teased.

  Cali grinned back at him. "You're the military governor here, aren't you? Commandeer one."

  Sean shook his head, but he had to smile. "I don't think that would go over very well. Besides which, I'd need crew chiefs, mechanics, spare parts, all that."

  Cali winked. "So appropriate them as well," she said with a smile.

  Sean rolled his eyes. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. She needs to learn to fly one first."

  "Considering she got her helicopter certifications finished last week while we were gone, I don't think that's going to take very long, my Husband."

  Sean laughed. "No, it probably won't."

  "We're coming up on the target, Sir!" the pilot called back on the intercom.

  "Roger that. Open the back hatch up. I'm going to want you to hover for a moment so I can decide where I'm going to do this." Sean had already used his lion influence over the lycan crewmembers to keep them from ever speaking about this mission. As far as they knew, he was just going to target a spell of some kind.

  "Once I give you the go ahead, you're going to have about eight minutes to clear out of here."

  "Yes, Sir," the pilot replied.

  "Let me check your harness, Sean, and make sure you're both hooked in securely," Travis said and checked Sean and Cali's harnesses and their tethers as the rear hatch opened.

  Getting up, Sean pressed the trigger on the bomb as he walked to the end of the ramp and looked out. Below him was Truckee. It wasn't a very big town, it didn't have a lot of people in it, but he could see the djevel army's leading edge as it worked its way through town. He could also see the fires spreading from the south and working their way north as their airplanes dropped napalm into the dry forest.

  Looking back at Truckee, he knew anyone who wasn't already dead would be soon. They'd all agreed long ago, it wasn't just denying the djevels food, it was giving the people down there what they deserved—the chance to move on to whatever came next. They'd said he'd be granting them a kindness, and maybe he was. But that still didn't make it any easier.

  Looking down at the bomb in his hand, he ca
st an invisibility spell on it, and then tossed it out of the back. Hopefully the parachute deployed; he didn't want to have to come back a second time.

  "Get us out of here," Sean said on the intercom just as the whole aircraft suddenly shuddered. Grabbing onto the side of the hatchway with one hand, he got a grip on Cali, who had accompanied him, with the other.

  Outside he could see that the ground was moving again, and it was getting larger.

  "What the hell happened!" Sean called over the intercom. Cali had a tight grip on him now, and he was having trouble keeping his footing as the aircraft bucked.

  "We lost an engine!" the pilot called out. "We're taking fire! We're trying to get out of here!"

  "You've got eight minutes!" Sean called back. "Dae! Get your ass back here with the rest of us!"

  Travis was reeling both him and Cali in at this point. Cali even had her wings out! Sean blinked at that. He had no idea she could still manifest them. Some of the crew were eyeing her as the plane bucked a second time.

  "Some dark elves can manifest wings," Sean growled at them. "It's a secret, so don't go spreading it around!"

  Daelyn came running back. "Better strap in! This is gonna be a rough landing!"

  "I thought these things could survive an engine dying?" Sean growled as he pushed Cali into a seat, and then got into another one himself, as everyone strapped themselves down.

  "They lost the engine, Sean."

  "I heard them."

  "No, it's gone. Some jackass down there is shooting at us with some heavy-duty shit."

  "Pilot! How bad is it? Can you put us behind a hill or something? We don't want to be near by when that effect hits!"

  Sean looked around the back. He could see they were still losing altitude, and he could see the ass end was point directly back towards where the bomb was falling.

  "Somebody close that hatch!"

  "But we may need to go out that way!" one of the crew yelled back.

  "That's an Order!" Sean yelled, and he stopped fumbling with his seat belts and ran up to the front of the aircraft, which was still shaking heavily.

  "You need to get in the back and sit down!" the pilot said as Sean stuck his head into the cockpit and looked around.

  "Where are you going?"

  "Donner Lake! I think I can…

  "Go that way!" Sean ordered as he saw the canyon on their left.

  "We can't do that! We'll…

  "Either you do it, or I'll rip your head off and I'll do it!"

  The aircraft bucked harder as they banked around and flew into the canyon.

  "There's no space to land here! We can't hover!"

  "Get us down; get us down as low as you can go!"

  "What?"

  "Stop asking, start doing!" Sean growled. He saw an open jump seat, and sticking his butt in it, he buckled the harness quickly. Closing his eyes, he fired up his framework and looked through his shield spells. He had his usual ones that were fairly strong, but that would only cover the back hatch, and he needed to cover a lot more than that.

  "Is that hatch closed?" he called out.

  "Yes, Sir!" someone yelled back.

  "Holy shit! What the hell was that!"

  Sean went for his weakest shield spell, because he could spread it out to cover the most area, and cast it on the entire aircraft, pushing as much power into it as he could. It wouldn't last long, but hopefully it wouldn't have to.

  The whole aircraft bucked just as he got it up.

  "We're going in!" the co-pilot yelled.

  Sean did everything he could to keep the shield going.

  "Hold on!"

  There was a loud crunch.

  And suddenly everything hurt.

  §

  "Shit! Am I dead?" Sean said, bolting up to his feet.

  "Nope," Renee said, looking over at him. "Why? What happened?"

  "We were flying over Truckee to deal with the demon problem, and we got shot down somehow. Best I can guess, it wasn't magical. We crashed on the way out of there; I guess this means we got far enough away before the bomb I dropped went off."

  Sean started pacing back and forth, tail lashing behind him in agitation. "What do I do?"

  "Stop pacing back and forth might be a good start," Renee told him.

  Just then the First showed up.

  "Oh, good! You're still alive. We heard your plane was hit and went down in the mountains."

  "Dad, Dae and Cali are back there, along with a bunch of my people! What do I do?"

  "First tell me where you are, then wake up."

  "What?"

  "Tell me where you are."

  "Oh, we were heading towards Donner Lake; I had them turn down a valley with a river in it just before. Donner Lake was in the blast zone."

  The First nodded. "Now, open your eyes and wake up."

  "Just like that?"

  "Oh, I'm sure it's gonna hurt like hell. Welcome to life as an F1."

  "What? I'm not an F1."

  "You ate Mahkiyoc, congratulations. Now, open your damn eyes!"

  §

  "Earth and Stone, what the hell hit us!" Daelyn groaned as she opened her eyes.

  "I think it was the ground," Cali said and shivered.

  "Are you okay?" Daelyn asked and immediately released her harness and went to Cali. The back of the aircraft was a mess; the opposite side was ripped open, and the rear hatch was no longer there. The fuselage of the Osprey was bent far enough that she couldn't see to the front where Sean and the pilots were.

  Travis was impaled on a piece of the airframe, and was weakly trying to pull himself off of it. Of the other five of his team, Daelyn only saw four, and two of them were regenerating some nasty wounds, while the other two were coming to their senses.

  "I think I am injured," Cali said looking at Daelyn, "but I am too numb to tell."

  Daelyn started at the top of Cali's body and worked her way down. Ignoring that Cali had wings now, something Roxy had mentioned last night, she found multiple dents in Cali's armor, a few minor wounds, and then she came to Cali's legs. The left was broken, and the right was also broken, but her right foot was trapped in the wreckage, and it was bleeding.

  "I need to do something to stop that blood," Daelyn murmured and then looked over at Travis' people. "You! Chet! Get Travis off that spike and help with the bleeding! Jordan, get over here and help me with Cali!"

  "Where is our husband?" Cali said, looking around.

  "He was up front when we crashed."

  Just then two crewmembers crawled around the bent part of the aircraft from the front. While they'd been in human form, both were obviously lycans, as they weren't dead yet from the wounds they'd received during the crash.

  "Where's Sean?" Daelyn asked as she looked around and then pointed at the first aid kit on the bulkhead. "And somebody get me that! Cali's hurt!"

  "I don't know…" one of the crewmen said. "The front is…the cockpit…it's gone. It's just…gone!"

  "Oh shit," Daelyn swore as she got her warhammer off of her back, and used the long spike on the one side to spread the material trapping Cali's foot.

  "What do you want me to do?" Jordan asked, dropping down beside Daelyn with the first aid kit in his hands.

  "Put a tourniquet on her leg. I don't know how bad this is, and I don't want her to bleed to death!" Daelyn looked up at Cali, who was staring at some point beneath the fuselage up by where it was bent.

  "Hang in there, Cali, I'll have you out in a minute."

  "It's Sean," Cali said in a soft voice.

  "Sean?" Daelyn asked and looked over at where Cali was staring.

  "He's in pain. He's in a lot of pain, and he's….he's angry. He's very angry."

  Sean would have sworn if he could have spoken. Everything was black, and the pain was beyond anything he'd been in before, which was saying something after all he'd gone through. He didn't think he was breathing, because his chest hurt so much. He was pretty sure it was crushed, and from the spikes of pain i
n so many places, he suspected he was impaled on a dozen different objects.

  And it hurt. All of it hurt. Why the hell wasn't he dead? And what the hell had the First said? He was an F1? How in the hell….and why the fuck was he even here? Oh, right, to destroy a town and kill a bunch of people. People who probably didn't want to die, hence the lost engine.

  Well fuck it, and fuck them. He was tired of it, and he was sure as hell tired of all this PAIN! He tried to move his right arm, but something had it pinned, though he could move his left arm, just barely. There was dirt under it, so he tore at the dirt until he could press his palm down flat on the ground and try to push up.

  Oh, did that hurt! If he'd been in pain before, this was a new level of sheer agony.

  He stopped a moment then, maybe a spell… Checking his mana, he saw it was gone. Totally gone. But…if it was gone, why was he still healing? Why wasn't he being consumed?

  Opening up his stats program, he went straight to the lion power page. Going straight to Status, he saw two new fields there! The first was 'Drawing', and it showed he was pulling down a hundred points a second!

  Sean suddenly had a sneaky suspicion as to why he wasn't dead, and why the others couldn't die.

  The second file was labeled 'Body', and there was a list of all the parts of his body and how much power they were drawing, each. It was a lot. Looking at his right arm, he willed the number to increase, and it did!

  He would have screamed loudly then if he could have, as his arm felt like he'd dipped it into molten lava. Except molten lava would have at least burned out the nerve endings. But not this. Pulling his arm in, he could feel things ripping out of it, the muscles tearing and then instantly re-healing. Pushing down with both arms, he felt it; there was a great deal of weight on his body holding him down, all but flattening him.

  Going back to the 'Body' stat, he opened it up as wide as he could, pouring power into his arms, his legs, his back, his chest, pelvis, neck, head, everything.

  It felt like his soul was on fire, and as he gathered himself up and started to push his body off the ground, he finally had enough breath to scream out his pain and his rage. He was Sean fucking Valens! HE was the one that lead! What in the hell was he doing trapped under a damn airplane! Why in the hell was he dropping bombs like some stupid kid! There were dozens of lions he could have sent!