Serial
28: WOLFWIND
December
21st, 32 S.D. 22:32 Western Frontier, Henron
Hours earlier, Losha had been expedited to the Sventa’s third division under orders of the Special Tactics Operator, Boz. This was the last segment of Sventa’s armed forces and the only ones yet to see live combat. It also happened to be the very same division that her brother was currently assigned to. She wondered if she might somehow see him, and if so, just what sort of exchange they might have. Losha remained positive that he would hold considerable contempt for her insular actions, but he cared deeply for her on the other hand. Would her extraordinary battlefield performance change his reaction? News of her triumph at Lake Lada had no doubt spread; surely Harle knew already.
Even as she thought about their encounter, their meeting was improbable for the time being; Boz had taken the highest precautions in moving her, casting a shroud of secrecy around her transport. Thus she had left and arrived without fanfare or notice. Immediately after she had come to the small fort and accompanying encampments held by the third division, Losha was ushered quickly away by Boz into a small debriefing room in the fort’s basement. To her great surprise, three familiar faces were there before they entered. Tami, Yega, and Faima stood by the light of an overhead lantern, waiting.
As Boz soon explained, it was his intention to create a highly mobile, independent, and effective four-person cell with Losha as the pivotal player. While Losha easily could have worked alone, he acknowledged, Boz felt it was best to have a team around her, preferably composed of those she’d worked with previously. What’s more, when he’d asked them, each had expressed their strong desires to follow Losha on the field. Losha herself couldn’t argue with their support, and she was glad to have allies she knew behind her. Boz had christened their newly minted unit WOLFWIND. For whatever curious reason, a number of codenames were fashioned as eight character Gandian words. She’d seen enough of that convention when she’d perused through her father’s war documents. At any rate, Boz filled them in on their current task.
He and other Sventa officers had reasons to believe that the third division would be the next target of Henron. Sventa - though they had won both battles of the war so far - had always been on the defensive. Now, however, they wanted to go on the offensive, preemptively of course. Having heard of Losha’s ability to detect seras frequencies. Boz had decided that it would be optimal to use her as a scout. Being able to sense thousands of soldiers kilometers away would indeed prove priceless. Henron had already suffered two severe losses; a third would pinch their army in both size and morale.
As he had pulled up maps detailing where their analysts believed Henron would move, Boz further expounded the specifics of their assignment. WOLFWIND would move out of Sventa into Henron territory. The objective was to observe in-depth the enemy’s strength, position, and strike readiness. Upon finding any large enemy contingent, their lot was to promptly retreat back to Sventa and participate in an instant assault. Though Losha had beaten leagues of soldiers by herself, she would be jumping directly into foreign lands with only minimal backup. Boz made it clear that they were to avoid all contact with the Henron army. If the worst came, he had instructed them to leave with all the speed they could muster.
To Losha, the mission would ordinarily have seemed exceedingly dangerous, but having survived a major battle and pushed her boundaries as a serialist, she felt assured that the art would deliver her through the harshest situations. With all of the points of interest covered, they ate dinner and set out shortly after 7 ‘o’ clock that night. They were due to report anything by noon the next day, but Boz was confident they’d be back much sooner. Under the bleak darkness, WOLFWIND departed onto the vast, frozen plains
Now, not even four hours into their work, Losha and the others had trekked along some 20 kilometers non-stop. They had long since breached the border between Henron and Sventa, and now they walked some distance onto the grounds of their foes. The lateness of the hour would have blinded them, but the phase of a nearly full moon allowed them to see quite well. However, Losha didn’t need to see things directly to fulfill her job. She merely needed to feel the presence of seras.
At great lengths, a single seras frequency was difficult if not impossible for her to trace, but a group of frequencies she could more readily pinpoint. When talking about armies, their presence was all too noticeable compared to smaller units. Once she obtained even the slightest hint of seras, all they had to do was chase it down and see if it grew. As such, their group had already narrowed the location of one possible deployment of enemy Henron. As they continued their approach, Losha became more and more certain they were right on track.
Crouching lowly, they crept over a small hill, and right before them, less than 800 meters away, a dim series of lights could be seen. The outlines of tents and barricades sat around a single, large, stony complex. The structure appeared far too miniscule to be a proper fort, but it obviously served some sort of function, a supply depot perhaps as Yega suggested.
“How many people do you think are over there?” Faima asked. Losha couldn’t possibly count all of the different seras frequencies she was pinging, but she could at least offer an honest estimate.
“Quite a lot. It only feels somewhat smaller than the forces we fought at Lake Lada.”
“That means it has to be one of their ‘orders’,” Tami deduced. “You think they will stay here? Does not look to me like they will mobilize any time soon.”
“And how can you tell?” Faima asked. “In the dark? At a kilo away? I for one cannot see s**t out here.”
“Sa... I have good eyes...” Tami said.
“Faima is right though; we will not know if this is just a temporary stop or if they will be holding this position. We need a better observation.”
They all got up and slid down the hillside into the bed of what had once been a large pond. During bouts of rain, this type of depression would fill with water for a time, but towards the end of the season it would begin to dry. The soil here, as a result, had long since been parched, yet it still retained plant-life that had thrived on the moisture, although these were now dormant. Particularly, a large number of reeds marked the ground. As long as they didn’t make too much noise, they could use the lower elevation and these stalks as cover. Even better, the grass here was mostly frost, making any footprints they left behind barely noticeable except under scrutiny. Slowly, they edged their way forward, closing in on their destination, brushing past the thick stems ever so carefully.
All along, Losha sharpened her awareness, mindful that several patrols would most likely be on the move within a kilometer’s radius from the base at least. She noted no fewer than seven squads floating about given the flow of seras frequencies, but only one of them was reasonably close to their current course. With a due amount of precaution, they could avoid all of the enemy’s scouts completely.
They crossed this low-land, shuffling through heavy, snow-encrusted brush. All at once, however, a sudden burst of movement exploded before them. Charging out in front of them, a wild boar squealed quite loudly. Quickly it dashed around in several circles, all the while eying their group. Then it spun rapidly once to face them. It lunged as if to attack. They were all flush with panic at this spontaneous display of primal instinct. Losha had indeed been keeping a close watch on Henron via their seras frequencies, however, she was incapable of doing the same with animals. The boar cried in a high pitch, a tone that bordered a true scream as it barreled straight towards them.
To be attacked by such a feral creature, to struggle against its beastly prowess, Losha and the other would surely come to some harm even if they could have drawn their blades in time. However, Losha swiftly performed a kinetic series. With a wave of her hand, she pressed a great deal of force atop the boar, stopping the animal instantly. It fell to the floor on its belly; its splayed legs strained haphazardly to raise itself up. During this time, it continued to whine profusely; its outrage echoed deep into the night. Without thinking, Losha sent a small surge of electricity through its body with another series. The boar’s frame shuddered with increasing violence as its voice reached a feverishly shrill level. At last, however, the boar’s movements sputtered as it collapsed into a heap.
“Shrieks!” Yega growled. “Stupid, nasty little thing!”
“D****t!” Faima cursed.
“That stunt did not seem very... stealthy,” Tami remarked. “What happened Losha? You could not sense it?”
“No,” she said. “Only humans have seras frequencies. I had no idea that it was there at all.”
“Well, nice thinking, taking out that mongrel,” Yega said.
“Sa, do not thank me yet. That boar made quite a fuss. Some patrol was bound to have heard it... wait... Sa, I can sense a squad coming this way already.”
“Se? What for?” Yega asked.
“Think about it. Boars have no natural predators this time of the year. Wolves only hunt them in the spring and summer. Something happening to one is going to seem odd,” Tami explained. “Plus it sounded as if it were being roasted alive. You could hear that noise for a couple of klicks easily.”
“You should know that sort of stuff Yega, sa? Your lot lives on farms after all,” Faima pointed out.
“Boars do not live that far east. We Kelta hardly ever see them. This ugly guy is the first one I ever laid eyes on.”
“We need to move,” Losha said, stepping over the boar and jogging ahead. The rest of her unit tailed after her, trotting over the winter prairie. They were within some 400 meters of the enemy stronghold when they emerged from the dried-out pond. However, before they could come over the slope, Losha motioned for them to stop. She dropped to the ground, laying prone and signaled for the others to follow her. Without explaining, she swept her hand over them as they lined up side-by-side. As if drawing a blanket, she used serialization to pull a sheet of snow over them. The thick mound buried them, leaving but scant holes for breathing.
“Do not move until I say so,” Losha whispered as she looked at them all before they were entombed. There they rested in stillness under an ever present chill. Seemingly out of nowhere, a number of boots ran by, crunching snow beneath their rugged soles. A dozen soldiers lightly dashed past them, coming scarcely within three meters of Losha’s little hiding spot. Even below the pile, they could hear the idle talk of the Henron.
“Did you hear that boar?”
“It did sound close.”
“The Field Lead will not mind if we catch it, sa?”
“As long as we give him some. It should not be too hard to hunt these things.”
“Oh man, I love patrol!”
Instants later, they had left the scene. Losha waited even further to make sure they were truly out of range. As if breaking through the earth itself, Losha quickly rose up from her stance, ripping away her camouflage. Faima, Yega, and Tami did the same barely a second afterwards. Losha crawled over the incline at last and took a good peek at whatever it was the Henron had established here.
“That was pretty nifty,” Yega said, quietly due to their proximity to the target.
“That was pretty cold,” Faima retorted.
“You have a cold heart,” Tami whispered as he took out his binoculars. “You should be used to it by now.”
Faima scowled at him as usual but said nothing more. Tami focused the device on the Henron army and the facility. They could all better view things now. Just then though, they all noticed a sort of smokestack popping out of the building’s rear. It pushed out little puffs of dark smoke into the night that wafted in front of the moon’s image, however, as they examined it, a sudden thick, billowing cloud erupted from its depths. With this blackened gas and soot came a pungent smell that quickly rode downwind to them.
“You all smell that?” Yega asked. “What is that scent?”
“Metal,” Faima answered. “Like they are burning something.”
“That, or they are making something,” Losha pointed out as the smoke turned into a fine white steam barely a minute later.
“Smelting or molding or something?” Tami wondered as he scanned around. “That would make sense. They would have to cool the metal with water, and that gives us all of that clear vapor just now. But this does not look like a fort. They have some defensive positions built around it, yet they seem temporary.”
“Hmm...” Losha thought for a moment. “They have enough troops here fit to fight the third division though. If this is not a fort, what kind of place is it?”
“If they are making it, it is obviously something they need,” Faima said. “If they put down all of their soldiers around it, it means it is something they can either wait a bit to get, or it simply is easier to stock up here than to ship it off.”
“You know,” Yega said. “We do pretty good at this recon stuff...” Losha agreed, but she shook her head nonetheless.
“We should still find out a bit more. Or rather, I should.”
“Se?” Yega asked. “We have enough information. Can we call it a night?”
“I do not like what I see here. It seems odd. A metal-working site out here? It seems more appropriate for central Henron, not one of its frontiers, much less so close to the border of an active warzone. Look at the size too, unusually small.” Losha recalled the various mining and processing facilities she had seen in passing in Sevetslana.
“What do you reckon then?” Tami asked, pulling down his binoculars and looking at her.
“I reckon it is a makeshift operation, but an important one. I reckon I need a closer inspection.” Losha got up slightly, walking low to the ground, hunched over. “Stay here, I will be back.”
“What?” Yega protested.
“Shut it!” Faima hissed. “She can handle it. Plus, why send four when we can send one? The less of us moving about, the better.”
Losha spun around once and wiped her hand over them, again veiling them with snow. She then turned towards the Henron army. Summoning another useful series from her repertoire, she projected a thin force-field beneath her feet as she moved; in effect the kinetic energy allowed her to stand a full three centimeters off the ground. This suspension made neither noise nor trail, a perfect combination given the ice and snow. Silently, she ran along a path that arced along the far southern side of the Henron. She figured she’d be far enough to remain out of sight, and with it being night, fewer eyes would even be watching. Losha duly monitored the surrounding seras frequencies, making sure none of them made as if to approach her.
She found herself drawn by a strong glow coming from the eastern edge. While it had only been slightly visible during their initial survey, the intense light grew the more she came around. After a minute or so, Losha gained a clearer view of what was happening on that side. Affixed highly on the facility’s eastern wall, several great lanterns burned brightly. The radiance of these fires were concentrated into pointed beams by the cylindrical shape of the lamps. They angled down, flooding the floor below with vast illumination. From about 300 meters away, on the very fringes of their perimeter, she could not see what was being lit up however.
A small cluster of trees and bushes sat close to the Henron, but it blocked a direct line of sight. Conversely, however, this would provide excellent, natural cover as she moved closer. Perched low behind the plants, she peered into the enemy’s domain. At only 50 meters now, Losha was pushing the limits of her concealment. She could easily disappear into the night if need be, but the risk of discovery still loomed over her. Even so, she felt it was necessary to take a thorough look. Her only hope was that such actions would prove worthwhile. What she spied though soon made her efforts invaluable.
Before an open lot, rows and rows of cannons sat. Their metal looked fresh and newly minted. A quick count affirmed their numbers at just over a hundred. This many units of artillery was more than enough to cause concern, but what revealed itself next was further worrisome. Just then a door of some sort opened from the building’s eastern side. Two soldiers wheeled out a single cart that was layered with racks. In those various shelves, slender silver objects were placed side-by-side. Losha squinted, but she could not distinguish what exactly they were. Her assumption immediately told her those were cannonballs of some variety, only they didn’t quite seem like balls. From her pouch, Losha extracted a small collapsible telescope. Quickly rearing it upwards, she aimed it at the two men. It took a bit of adjustment, but eventually she was able to follow them as they moved.
Focusing in, her eye caught a glimpse of the objects in question. Indeed, they looked to be ammunition for the cannons, but rather than being perfectly spherical, in design these rounds were honed to a fine tip. Instantly, Losha remembered where she had seen this form before. In the back of her head, an old voice rang out from the past.
“The ‘conical’ bullet, a sure revolution in ballistics...” She lowered the telescope upon this memory.
“Shrieks!” she said to herself in a rare moment of fluster. For a time, she merely held her forehead in her palm, but as she drew a deep frigid breath, Losha turned her head back up. The two soldiers moved the shells to a storage unit where perhaps thousands more were already waiting. Swiftly, a chain of thoughts connected themselves in Losha’s mind. The Henron had known nothing of the new bullets Brigitte had sold to the Sventa. Despite that, they’d suffered greatly thanks to those projectiles. They may have been caught off-guard by the new technology, but as they had demonstrated at the start of their last battle, they were especially adaptive foes when it came to war. Henron must have studied the rounds that had slain so many of their own, but rather than employ them through rifles, they had hastily engineered a more insidious device to fire them.
Utilizing conical ammunition would increase the power, range, and lethality of these cannons by magnitudes. What was more, these were just the sort of weapons she was unsure of how to deal with serialization. They could operate at greater distances than any of her series. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how much seras it’d take to generate a deflecting force-field or wall of ice fit to withstand even a handful of blasts. If the third division ever got in front of these oversized guns, they’d all be smashed.
As she bit her lip, she foresaw that they’d need to match the Henron’s tactical innovation; Sventa as well needed to conceive of a new strategy. Fortunately, with the intel WOLFWIND had gathered, something could be worked up. Losha already had an idea forming, she just needed to set up the proper pieces. Having seen enough, she turned around and scampered off.
Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Read Request
My Library
Subscribe
Flag Writing