Serial 53: Hostile takeover
January
21st, 33 S.D. 08:22 Totul, Sventa
Core Lead Ano Taksat stood by the eastern wall of Totul. With his hands calmly held behind his back, he looked upon the town. The air was abound with cries and calls of warfare, echoing clearly down and across so many streets. Above him, blackened, smokey trails rose against the gray sky. Even from where he stood, the rising cinders smelled strongly. Just then, a soldier came running up to him. His mouth stuttered as he gasped in shallow breaths; brokenly the messenger conveyed his report.
“West gate... lost. The south side... breached as well. They are... flooding in all over. We cannot maintain positions. The Wolf is... wiping us all out!”
Ano did not need the grunt to tell him all of that. He’d been expecting this situation from the very start. Although the Wolf had ripped right through their defenses, he’d long known she would. She’d certainly been faster and more aggressive than he’d ever anticipated, but that didn’t really alter his plans.
“Enough,” Ano said, raising his hand. “I understand the circumstances. I will take the necessary measures to deal with that woman myself. Return to your position. We shall yet turn this battle against them.”
“Sa! Ver Ano!” the soldier said with a salute. He turned then ran off from whence he came. Ano sharply faced his second-in-command, a Range Lead standing to his side.
“Open these gates,” the Core Lead said, tossing his head back at the eastern exit. “Give the order to light the bombs.”
“Core Lead?” the subordinate asked. “Some of our units are still inside Totul. Was not what we discussed an agreement to wait until most of us had retreated?”
“The nature of our struggle has changed. With that wild Wolf on the loose, there is no telling if we can afford to wait or not. We may lose the advantage of my little gambit altogether if we fail to act soon enough.” The Range Lead said nothing; his face, though conflicted, remained stiff.
“Tell all you can to evacuate. The rest must stay and fight the Sventa, to keep them occupied in this trifling town,” Ano ordered. Still the Range Lead did not speak.
“It will be a noble sacrifice and finally bring an end to that wretched Losha Holvate. Besides,” Ano added. “We are Henron. We fight the enemy to the end. Even if that means charging through the flames of hell.”
Slowly, the Range Lead nodded. “Understood, Core Lead,” he said, walking away.
A few minutes later, another sort of meeting was taking place among the Sventa. Having secured over half of Totul and disposed of the enemies therein, Losha reunited with WOLFWIND. Together, they went back to Delri. They held such an advantage in the fighting that Losha felt confident enough to leave the front-lines unattended, if only for a short while. Delri had only just arrived a quarter of an hour ago, yet already the battle was seemingly won. Even so, Losha thought it prudent to update the commander on their progress.
The Prime Lead was not an idle figure, however. As WOLFWIND approached her position, she was hollering out instructions to various units nearby. Her sword, unsheathed, was firmly raised in hand. Faint traces of crimson ran down its length. Her only good eye continually swept across the town, scanning the immediate area to keep herself abreast of the operation. As soon as her sight locked onto Losha and the others, she motioned for them to come closer.
“I must say, Losha, your tactics leave little to be desired. At this rate, we will be finished before noon. Although I had hoped for more from the Henron, I shall not complain about our victory. What news have you for me?”
“We have retaken every section of Totul up to and including the central plaza. Based on the amount of remaining seras frequencies east of us, I believe it is safe to say we have yet to engage the greater portion of their fighting force, however”
“The same applies to them as well” Delri said. “The larger contingent of our First Division has yet to pour into Totul and take part in battle. I should hardly think it matters though. We have routed them easily so far. The more they send, the more they fall. Anything else?”
“We were just about to uproot a few of their more prominent positions- wait...” Losha said, turning around.
“Losha?” Delri blinked.
“Hold on a moment... Something is not right. I need a second to concentrate... Isolating their seras frequencies from ours.”
At that time, they all heard a voice crying in the streets, a desperate warning. “We have to move! Prime Lead! Prime Lead! We are in trouble!”
“Hey,” Yega said, looking behind. “Is that Valo?”
“Sa. He appears injured,” Tami noted. Sure enough, the engineer had blood running down the lower half of his leg. He limped erratically as another member of the Special Operations Corps supported him. Together, the pair awkwardly rushed forward.
“What is he saying?” Delri demanded.
Eventually, short of breath, Valo came to them. Though his speech was somewhat drawn out, he gestured excitedly with his hands. “Prime Lead Delri, we need to leave Totul right away.”
“What are you talking about?” Delri asked as her gaze narrowed.
“Shrieks, Valo,” Faima said. “You are bleeding all over.”
“Just a gunshot wound, nothing special... Got the b*****d trying to set the...” he explained before changing the subject rapidly. “We... we found explosive charges in various places all over the town. Totul... The whole place is a trap!”
Suddenly, Losha’s eyes cracked wide open as she whipped around. “Delri!” she said urgently. “I have movement to the eastern edge of Totul. Lots of bodies; they are leaving.”
“What?!” Delri growled as she sliced her saber to the side.
“How often do you see the enemy retreat like that?” Tami asked aloud, albeit rhetorically. “We beat them good so far, but they still have plenty of soldiers to spare. I see no coincidences here; they know what comes next.”
“D****t,” Delri huffed. “We need to fall back, get outside of Totul and come around to fight them on the plains. We stay here, and we will standing in the middle of one giant firebomb.”
“Valo,” Losha said. “Can we defuse them?”
“Not unless you can find an unknown number of them within the next two minutes. Even for you, it is impossible.”
“Two minutes?” Losha exclaimed.
“They run on timers. The ones we found - the few we managed to stop - they are all set to detonate soon, but others might-”
Before Valo could finish his statement, a great, cacophonous blast roared through the town. Shuddering ground and air, a streak of fire burst straight up from a far off house. Blowing heat and debris madly about, the explosion obliterated a small portion of Totul, outright leveling it. Half a second later, the anguished screams of comrades and enemies alike rang out.
“Pull back!” Delri shouted. “Hais, Velka! Order all units to return here or exit Totul altogether. Losha, do what you can to make this place safe. Getting into Totul was easy enough, but climbing back over these walls is not. The snow bank that let us in completely covers the western gates; we are effectively trapped.”
“I understand,” Losha said. “Everyone, please stay back. Blue light surrounded her hands as she began moving her arms about, as if she were conducting the art of serialization. As she raised her palms up, heavy, thick mounds of ice rose around them. Like the walls of a fortress, the ice formed up on them, lining the streets. These frozen barriers were easily two meters thick, a density she hoped would save them from injury. In her second act, she turned back west and punched the air with a single fist. A powerful kinetic series burrowed clean through the wall, exposing an exit route. For good measure, she threw her other arm and similarly created another opening.
“We should be able to get out through these,” Losha said. Delri, simply looked back at the massive gaping holes. Losha had made them with such ease, as if it that much raw destruction were a task of insignificant effort.
“Well now...” the Prime Lead said.
“You found those bombs in buildings?” Losha asked Valo.
“Sa,” he replied as he was helped to the ground for a moment to recover himself. Sitting in the snow, he coughed and shivered for a bit.
“In that case, we must avoid any areas but these streets. Delri, I am going to fetch the others-” Another thunderous boom reverberated all throughout Totul as a red column scorched the background. Shortly thereafter, another bomb went off on the opposite side of the battlefield.
“There is no time!” Delri said, holding up a hand as if to grab Losha, but the Wolf had taken off.
With a few quick speed-steps, Losha propelled herself to the roof of a nearby building. Halting herself, she pressed her index and middle fingers together as a pale light emanated from their tips. It was yet another experimental series she’d invented on-the-fly, but what better time to test it than now, when the stakes were critical? She intended to build off of the sound generation series she’d used during her encounter with Suvla. If she could create any noise at any volume she desired, she could also amplify and project her own voice, as if she were a some sort of giant. She could use this series to reconstruct her exact words, only louder.
“Attention,” she began, pausing to ensure her idea was working. Indeed, she heard the veritable echo of herself spreading across the land. “Attention. All Sventa units, disengage the enemy immediately. Return to the western side for evacuation. I repeat, disengage the enemy immediately and return west.”
Having never heard of any such phenomenon quite like it, the First Division was slow to react initially. However, as subsequent bombs activated, they took the message seriously. They hastily backtracked to the rallying point, although not without a few casualties, to Losha’s dismay. Looking about, she saw a group of stragglers pinned down by a superior number of Henron. Something didn’t seem right, however. Why was the enemy still in Totul with all of the explosions taking place? Why hadn’t a notable amount retreated along with the other Henron to the east?
Before she could ponder these questions, however, another fearsome blast tore through the town, this time striking fairly close to herself. As the building beside hers instantly incinerated, the roof beneath her feet split open with cracks. Heat and rubble flew up at her as the structure she stood on cleaved itself in two and began to collapse. Before impact, she managed to leap away, springing to the ground. Her landing was hardly graceful. With her shoulder, she crashed roughly on her side, bouncing twice and sliding along at least a meter. The kinetic force-field around her took the brunt of the damage; nonetheless, she felt a bit sore coming up. Losha merely shook her head as she went back to action.
Zeroing in on the seras frequencies of the group she’d just seen was trivial enough, but the town was beginning to burn. Even if everyone managed to retreat to Delri’s position, they’d all be caught in the blaze if they stayed too long. Rounding a corner, Losha came face to face with a rushing windstorm as another bomb blew. Holding up her hands as if to brace against the tempest, she realized that it had come from the direction of the soldiers she’d been trying to reach.
“Shrieks!” she said lowly, resuming her dash. Several seras frequencies had disappeared, both Henron and Sventa as far as she could tell. By the time Losha arrived, she already expected the worst at the scene. True enough, as she turned, she came upon a street littered with fire and human remains. No one was left standing except for a single man whose entire being had been ignited. As bright wisps curled around him, consuming him whole, he stepped forward but twice on shaken legs. Slowly, he sank down, hitting the ground with his head.
A most repugnant scent hung about the clouded air, the smell of bodies burned. Either side of the street was little more than ruin amidst a brewing inferno. Against the ashes, indistinct darkened lumps were strewn here and there, forms she could only assume had once been people. For a moment, her hand opened; her servai evaporated in a twinkling. Her jaw dropped and jittered for a while as she came to a stop. Soon though, her fist clenched up; her mouth tightened grimly. She ran ahead, trying to locate any active seras frequencies. The first survivor she stumbled upon, however, was someone she knew.
Range Lead Aslo was lying on his back, emptily staring at the sky. His entire front side had become a bloodied, mangled combination of flesh, shrapnel, and torn uniform. Reduced to a feeble stub, his right arm smoldered. Though he breathed, the process remained laborious, fitful. As she approached, he gave a single, sickly cough. A slimey substance oozed from his mouth, red yet somehow ominously black as well. His eyes vibrated rapidly from side-to-side as he seemingly quivered in the winter cold. Losha slid to her knees, coming just centimeters from the fallen officer.
“Aslo!” she called out, leaning over him. His gaze appeared to shift slightly, but she doubted he’d heard her at all. She knew little medicine, but if she had to guess, it looked as if he were going into shock. Again, the ground trembled as bombs somewhere flared to life. Away from her, the pangs of dying souls howled aloud. Before her, a man on the verge of the grave rasped unevenly.
“D****t!” she cursed through her teeth. “What... what can I do? Why am I here?” Hadn’t she gone to war to prevent tragedies just like this? Hadn’t she steadfastly believed that serialization would be enough to handle every situation, to save so many lives? Yet, where was the art now? There were others too, men and women who would fade to nothingness. She could see them, feel their seras frequencies weaken and slowly slip. All the years she had spent in Palostrol, and here she sat powerless while Sventa and Henron alike died. Could she really bring an end to this conflict?
“D****t!” Losha cried once more, hanging her head down. She shut her eyes forcefully, unsuccessfully trying to restrain a tear. Suddenly, she came across an idea, a long shot as the Gandians called it. She remembered the time she’d battled Koter, how he’d pierced her side with a crossbow bolt. She’d only considered it a theory at best, but evidence highly suggested that seras might have had a role in the body’s healing process. Although the exact principle behind accelerated healing remained unknown, it was probably the only thing that could spare Aslo. She truly didn’t know whether or not this could work, but she had to do something. Losha raised both of her hands as a strong glow surrounded them. Hovering each over the Range Lead’s chest, she started pumping raw seras into him. Could another’s seras really affect a patient? Could it improve their condition? In either case, she and Aslo were about the find the answers. As his eyes half-wise closed, he gurgled faintly.
“Hang in there, you,” Losha said, ignoring the sweat gathering on her brow. Already, she’d spent considerable amounts of seras in battle, and the fighting was far from over. But this man needed her. Perhaps she couldn’t aid anyone else, yet at the least she wanted him to survive. In the distance, bomb after bomb quaked Totul. Like a chorus of corpses, the moans of those perishing filled her ears. Regardless, panting, she focused intently on the one before her.
The Henron order led by Core Lead Ano slowly began to pull back from the town after they’d sealed the eastern gates. Everything within those walls appeared to have turned to flames. The high stone perimeters made Totul nothing more than a box of fire. As the final detonations rang loudly across the plains, Ano looked back at the site.
“That should have taken care of a number of them,” he said; his lips rolled into a faint smile. “With any luck, it will have eliminated that b***h the rely on so much.”
“... Orders, Core Lead?” the same Range Lead from before asked.
“See to it that the troops are ready to charge. We wait until the fire settles a bit, but not too much; we must attack while there is still chaos. We shall strike their forces holding position just west of Totul. Split the remainder of us into two segments: north and south. We wrap around the walls and flank them.”
“... Understood.”
“Is everything alright?” Ano asked, turning around. The Range Lead cast a wary eye at the burning town but walked off.
“No... it is nothing.”
Ano paid no mind to this as he continued to watch the results of his strategy. All at once, however, an object ejected from Totul, launching over the walls, shrouded in fire and smoke. Ano thought at first it was some random chunk that had been blown away, but he’d heard no such explosion. As the mysterious ball arced down east of Totul, the haze surrounding it suddenly died. Like a star streaming through the air, Losha came crashing down to the earth. She landed evenly, knees bent as she somewhat cratered the ground below. As if a heavy wind swept over her, the embers attached to her pulled away and vanished. She raised her head in his direction; her servai stood ready in her hand.
“N-no way...”
“That is the Wolf of Sventa!”
“She lived through it after all.”
Without the merest hesitation, she surged forward, dispatching six Henron in as many movements of her weapon. Losha didn’t stop; her feet ever raced ahead. Even as two squads stepped in to block her, she continued running, cutting all who obstructed her path Through the Wolf of War pelt, her eyes latched onto Ano’s. It was at this point the Core Lead realized she was singling him out as a target of interest. In fact, she made a direct beeline for his location.
“Humph,” he said to himself. “Some dogs just do not know when to die.”
Losha carved her way through dozens of Henron, clearing the road until she was shortly before Ano himself. The Core Lead, however, neither budged nor signaled for others to engage. Instead, as Losha left a trail of incapacitated soldiers in her wake, Ano merely held up his hand.
“Stop,” he said. “Stay right where you are, unless you want your people harmed.” Ano snapped his fingers; the Henron behind him parted to the side. Among the soldiers, hundreds of civilians huddled together, bound by restraints. Just a scant two meters from Ano, Losha came to a perfect standstill; her servai was drawn low as if she meant to swing it.
“That is better,” Ano smiled. Losha, for her part, displayed no emotion as she analyzed the situation. It had always troubled her to think what had become of the town’s inhabitants ever since the occupation. She’d hoped they’d fled somewhere, but that was clearly not the case here at all. Upon closer inspection, she realized there were thousands of ordinary Sventa mixed in with Ano’s order. Even if she could make a move, there would be an instant bloodbath a moment later.
“Now that I have your attention, Wolf of Sventa,” Ano said, once again placing his hands behind his back. “I will kindly request your complete and unconditional surrender.”
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