Dodge: Serial 105

Losha revisits the past, taking herself back to the birth of pain.

Serial 105: WOLFGANG

August 11th, 38 S.D.     17:49        Mandal Range, Angali, Central Plains

    Daylight yet lingered as the evening took hold. It wouldn’t begin to darken until another hour passed. Nevertheless, Losha knew that in the meantime, they could get plenty of scouting done. Walking low, bent at the knees, the Wolf of Sventa moved silently behind the foliage. Stepping softly across the ground, she advanced like a shadow slipping over the land. All at once, she gave pause, putting one knee to the grass as she dropped her stance even further. Waiting several moments, she merely stayed there, perfectly rigid. Afterwards, however, she raised her fist up, giving the signal.

    Seemingly pulling themselves out of the woods itself, others suddenly appeared. On the scene, Denze, Faima, Virel, and Jun joined up with her. She looked at them all, nodded once, then motioned for them to follow her. As their squad crept forward, Boz’s words echoed within Losha’s head, like a distant recording of her briefing.

    “Losha, listen carefully. Ever since the end of the Henron-Sventa war five years ago, clans have been scouring their territories hoping to unearth serastone of their own. Our spy networks indicate that so far, no one has been successful. It seems the stone is actually quite rare, thank goodness for that. But, some people get lucky. Our sources say Angali may finally be onto something.”

    “Approximately three months ago, they started digging here in the elevated, rocky patches of the Mandal Range. According to previous reports, there should not be anything there of particular interest. Small deposits of copper and bits of iron, but that is not something that requires the kind of supplies they have thrown at it. Explosives, construction platforms, guard details, high-capacity hauling wagons: the signs are clear on what they intend to do. The Angali are making a mine, Wolf, and there is likely only one thing they could want from some place so remote.”

    They traveled down a long slope, edging themselves closer to their objective. Though they ducked beneath the shade of the forest, Losha and the rest could feel the summer’s heat drifting in the air. Upon the breeze, the smell of a coming storm swept through the trees. Indeed, against the setting sun, she spied heavy clouds gathering on the horizon. The serialists trekked on undetected, as if they were not there at all. Again, Losha stopped them by raising her hand. They had come near enough now that special caution was necessary. Every step had to be both careful and measured.

    Losha touched her temple quickly then pointed over the bush they stood behind. Denze nodded and wordlessly scuttled off. Losha took out a set of binoculars and motioned for the others to do the same. With the tool pressed to her eyes, she popped over the bush and scanned the area ahead of them. The land dipped down, then steeply rose up; the timber thinned as the region grew higher and rockier. Such terrain was unusual for the Central Plains - which consisted mostly of flat prairie - but being the farthest to the west, Angali was the only clan with it.

    The woods outright vanished as she turned to the northeast. It had been cleared; stumps littered the floor. Panning to the right, she saw a dirt road, well-worn from recent use. Tracking that further up, she spotted a large wagon driven by a team of four horses. Its cargo, exposed for everyone to see, looked to be a massive mound of dirt. Excavated earth, Losha thought. Another vehicle with a similar load traveled a few hundred meters behind the first. They were heading south, taking the material away, likely to be dumped. Boz must have been right; this was a mine. Now, where exactly was it? She tipped her binoculars up, tracing the path.

    “This is what we ask of you,” Boz had said, “Infiltrate Angali, locate the mine, and determine whether or not the clan has gotten its hands on serastone. If it turns out they have the real thing, we want you to take it down. I do not need to tell you what would happen if they start processing the stone. They could repeat the war we fought with Henron, or worse, the stone could spread to other territories. Imagine having every major clan possessing seraswords; it would be an instant, widespread bloodbath.”

    “Head towards that range and find out exactly what they are up to. This is not like your other operations, Losha. This one is strictly classified, off the records. A true covert mission. Make sure no one sees you, leave no evidence of your presence. In all honesty, this is not even been sanctioned by the Tabran. You and I know these types of incursions require majority support and collective backing by the Toroms. The military cannot act unilaterally after all. Unfortunately, the mood of certain houses prevents us from getting their license. Time, however, will not kindly wait for minds to change. We have to act sooner rather than latter, as I am sure you would agree. Remember, no one but us and your team must even know about this. Yours is a task of absolute and total stealth.”

    Through the lenses, Losha saw where the trail led up to. At the end of an incline, a gate had been erected. It fit narrowly between a pass crowded by large boulders and grassy mounds. Three guards stood at the front entrance, each carried a sword on one side and a pistol in the other. For a second, she frowned to herself. Firearms were becoming more prolific in the Central Plains as Gandians sought to export them to warring clans. Perhaps she’d deal with that some day, but for now she had to stop serastone from becoming a threat.

    Losha let the others finish examining the mine before she pointed to the side. She turned and together they walked down a bit to the west. Here, their cover started to wane, so she ordered them to stop again. It was best to wait for night to mask them. Of course, they could easily have performed several light manipulating series to make their presence all but invisible, however, Losha wanted to avoid spending their seras like that. They should conserve their energy; any situation could rise up in an instant. They had to be ready and needed all their seras at their disposal. For now, they bided their time.

    Eventually Denze returned from his round. He went to them, gaining their attention as he held his hand out. On his palm, a green glow appeared as he serialized. Immediately, light shot forth, projecting short rays into the air. Constructed by these small beams, a three-dimensional image was born. The other four leaned in, peering into the holographic model before them. It was a complete, albeit miniature view of the surrounding square kilometer. Features such as individual trees were absent, but the landforms were perfectly represented. Apparently, just after the entrance, a large, almost conical pit burrowed into the ground. That had to be the mine, Losha thought, furrowing her brows.

    A moment later, little red dots winked to life on Denze’s map. There were over a hundred of them, mostly clustered in the pit itself or in the space encircling it. A few of them moved around. These were seras frequencies which in turn were markers of how many people were here. Losha sat down and studied the information Denze had collected. She had to think of a plan. With serialization at their command, and with five of them present, they had plenty of options available. Nevertheless, only a mindfully applied solution would work here. She had to factor in how to shut it down without killing the Angali, without being spotted by anyone, and how to make Virel and Jun useful.

    As their master, Losha knew the two of them to be extremely competent. This mission, however, was their first. They were strong and smart, but here on the field, they were also untested. She hadn’t wanted to take either of them along, but both had been persistent. In a way, Losha knew she couldn’t object, not with a job this big or this serious. For this task, WOLFGANG needed all the strength and talent it could muster. Even so, her instinct was to keep them out of danger.

    She continued glancing over Denze’s display until at last she reached forward. Blue light hung around her index and middle fingers as she touched the hologram. Like a pen, she left a stream of color where she traced. In two separate strokes, she drew the path of their approach. One way swung up the western side, jumping over the rocks and getting close to the pit. The other came around the southeast, poking around the mine’s blindspot where a cluster of buildings had been put up.

    With this highlighted, Losha pointed to herself, Virel, and Jun, explaining through her movements that they were to take the first route. Faima and Denze were to go the other way. Denze nodded and shut his palm, putting his series to an end. It was still too light to make their play, so they settled down for the next hour, eating a brief, soundless meal from their packs. Lying on her side as she watched the sky fade, Losha remembered the rest of what Boz had told her.

    “I know it seems a bit dirty, what the Gandians would call a ‘black op’, but these are steps we have to take. Serastone must not proliferate. In any case, you and I are no strangers to sabotage. That was what happened on your first mission five years ago, sneaking into Henron to destroy their supply of cannons, although your orders were merely to survey their base. The stakes here, however, are much more severe. Failure means the Central Plains at large could face wars like it has never known before. You and I perfectly understand what serastone means. It is the start of an endless disaster, the key to the gates of hell. If you have to bury the mine under a mountain or blow it off the earth, I do not really care. The future depends on us eliminating that wretched rock. You, Losha, are the only one I see capable of fulfilling this objective.”

    Gently at first, rain began to fall as twilight disappeared. The additional cloud cover would surely aid their efforts, Losha thought. It would also quiet their footsteps; they just had to be aware of any mud. Once she felt the time was now, Losha stood upright; her team did so likewise. Faima stretched and yawned. Denze folded his arms giving Losha a slight grin. Virel looked up at the Wolf eagerly, blinking brightly. Jun smiled for a moment but quickly made himself serious. Losha looked at all of them in their eyes then nodded once.

    Denze and Faima formed up side-by-side as they moved eastward. Losha turned around as Virel and Jun followed behind. Splitting into two groups, WOLFGANG advanced on the mine. Leaving the forest now, the three serialists felt dozens of cool drops shower them as they stepped into the open. Losha looked up at the rising land ahead. While it was yet dark, they stooped as they moved, reducing their visible profiles. For a good couple hundred meters, they climbed up the somewhat steep environment. To the side on their right, they could see the entrance with its guards. The shift was changing, and lanterns were flaring over at the post. Losha was too far away for anyone to notice, however.

    After another minute of navigating their way, the trio reached the boulders that lined the mine. From here they could go no further without scaling them, so she decided to continue westward along the perimeter. Eventually the rocks gave way to earth, although the elevation was just as tall. They could scramble up more easily without relying on serialization however.

    Losha tossed her head over her shoulders and communicated their next steps visually with her hands. Her students nodded in return, and they all lined up against the wall. Digging into it, they carved their own holds, then began hoisting themselves. Gradually, they went up and over the top in this fashion. It was only six or so meters altogether when they finished pulling. Losha quickly wiped her hands off on the grass as she went prone. Virel and Jun did the same. With their bellies pressed to the ground, they crawled forward, sneaking upon their target.

    The entire place was like a sort of crater. Where Losha currently was sat on the rim. The mine went down some meters, creating a flat outer ring before diving deeper into a wide, central pit. As they approached the end of the rim, the mine as a whole spread before their eyes. Various Angali facilities had been established on the outer ring. To Losha, they looked to be various warehouses, processing points, and evidently lodgings as well. Coming from the pit, a complex system of pulleys and ropes lifted crates out of the depths. A criss-crossing, almost aimless pathway of wooden boards led workers from the surface to numerous points along the pit. Only one, however led straight to the reaches below.

    As the rain poured into the gaping hole, filling it like a bowl, the miners hurried on up, calling it quits for the day. In a few minutes, most of the seras frequencies went indoors, although a handful of guards stayed out on patrol. How strange, thought Losha. Guards on the outside near the front made sense, but why inside? The heightened level of security told her that this was no ordinary mine. She still had to determine if serastone was present here at all. The Angali could have merely struck gold or come across some other valuable resource. In that case, WOLFGANG had no reason to be there any longer. However, if not...

    Losha focused on the pit; all she had to do was get down there and examine things. Serastone leaked out seras at a set rate, just like souls. If she could feel that, she’d know. But how to get rid of the mine itself? Her plan was to cave it in while pushing it even further underground. It could be made to look like an event of misfortune, a sinkhole, or perhaps something caused by poor engineering or the rain. Something to that effect was her preferred method. It would result in no loss of life, and it would bring no suspicion towards Sventa.

    Losha rose up and beckoned Virel and Jun. They carefully tip-toed towards the edge, but right before they went down, Losha held her arm out at length, stopping them. On the other side, Faima and Denze were holding still, acting as an over-watch. At the first sign of trouble, they were to alert her with a wolf’s howl. They’d all practiced enough to convincingly use the signal, and since wolves roamed nearly all of the Central Plains, the call would not raise much attention in the mine.

    She began to hide her seras frequency, forcibly commanding herself to retain every bit of her soul’s seras. In this way, a serialist could prevent any energy from leaking from their bodies, effectively cutting off the frequency. The move was merely a precaution. The mine could have been filled with serastone, and no one was sure how the stones really reacted under different conditions, especially around serialists. Denze and Faima, taking note of the change, covered their frequencies as well. Losha turned to her young teammates and nodded. They too started to obscure their seratic presence.

    With that, Losha slid down the rim, dropping onto the outer ring. Virel and Jun landed near her, and from there their mission began for real. Dispersing into three separate directions, they weaved through the patchwork of buildings, hugging the walls and ducking low. Their goal was to reach the pit, then descend for a closer investigation. First, however, they had to dance around the guards. Since they could easily detect them based on their seras frequencies, Losha and the rest had little trouble moving through the dim night. They still had to be alert. Visibility was low, but not completely gone; the Angali could still catch sight of them if they didn’t move prudently.

    She swung around a corner, peeking out to see a pair of guards walking past with lanterns in hand. Waiting for them to go on, she came out and snaked her way to the side of an unhitched wagon. Taking this position away from any other guards, Losha paused for her students to catch up. Virel made it after her, with Jun coming later when an opportunity arose. Unfortunately, he stepped right into a puddle, splashing in its water. Though he was with Losha a moment thereafter, the sound caught the attention of one guard pair. The one holding the light turned around, swaying back and forth as if curious.

    Shrieks, Losha thought. She wanted to refrain from casting any series, but a small one seemed warranted. Using a quick kinetic series, she applied a tiny amount of force against one of the guard’s leg as they stepped forward. He tripped harshly, taking his partner down as he clumsily toppled. Hitting the ground together, the guards cursed as they heard glass shatter and saw their light extinguish. They grumbled angrily, picking themselves up, then they turned around and left to replace the broken lamp. Jun frowned and growled at his mistake, wishing he’d known to be more diligent. Losha, however, briefly touched his shoulder, shaking her head, telling him to forget it. She threw her arm to the pit, urging them to move.

    The three of them darted away from the wagon and swiftly made it to the hole. A ladder led the way to the first segment of the inner mine, though each of the serialists chose to jump down. From there, branching sets of boards guided them downward. As they put their weight on the wood, it creaked slightly. Losha worried someone above might hear them, but the rain seemed to shield them. There were no rails or posts along the side, so they had to feel the muddy walls beside them for guidance. After a few minutes, they reached the bottom without incident. It had been an uneventful trip, but Losha could not have wanted anything else. Everything was going smoothly...

    At the lowest level, the sodden earth was brimming with water in various pools. Losha sank her feet into the murky liquids, unfazed even as it lapped at her ankles. If they were mining that dreaded rock, she’d be able to feel it now. The stone radiated seras after all. She thought she sensed something, a twinge, a spark resonating against her soul. Hunting for the source, she sloshed past pushcarts full of dirt, shovels, pickaxes, empty crates labeled as explosive, barrels, and dozens of heavy machines. For a moment, the trail grew colder. Doubling back, she was drawn to a sort of cave the miners had dug out. It was barely big enough for one person to fit in, and judging by the amount of tools and supplies scattered nearby, the work done here must have been fresh.

    Holding her hand up, she ordered Virel and Jun to wait while she inspected it. Upon entering, everything felt cool, like the confines of a tomb. Though a void wrapped around everything, she could feel it emanating all around her. She leaned over and picked up a loose fragment from the ground before returning outside. Between her fingers, she held the piece up in the air, extended out at arm’s length. All three looked at the piece, its jagged, jet black form. Losha narrowed her eyes as the facts became indisputable. There was little doubt to be had.

    “Serastone,” she said aloud. At that moment, Virel grabbed onto Losha’s arm; her face bore a sudden fright as she looked at her master, then beyond the mine.

    And then calling from the distance was the cry of a wolf.

Author's Note

15 years ago, Losha Holvate Sventa fought to bring peace between Sventa and Henron. Though calm has been established between these two major clans, the larger situation has not been resolved. Time has passed, but the Central Plains are still a violent place, seething with anger and hatred. All it takes is a simple scratch, and everything will come rushing to the top. From the shadows, one underground group aims to do just that using the strength of serialization. Now an abandoned hero, Losha must once more rise to save these lands from the destructive power of the art. Yet as the actions of her past confront the Wolf, can she find the will to stand against the one behind it all, her very own son?

The next installment comes January 13th, 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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* The past is exposed! Jumping back in time, we examine the events that caused Losha her great pain, her exile, and her current, troubled state.

* Angali is the western-most clan of the Central Plains. As such, it enjoys sharing some of its border with the Western Frontier, which eventually turns into the Zevano Badlands. In the Central Plains, this is a significant advantage. It means they're surrounded by less enemies. Contrast this with Sventa, which is the most central clan and has enemies surrounding them from all sides (with the exception of Henron now). Because of Angali's proximity to the Western Frontier, it enjoys rockier terrain.

* Jun received very little attention in the last arc, besides the serial where Losha met him in Leitis. She promised to take him in and even teach him the art of serialization if he was interested. Eventually, he became one of her best students at the time. I said he'd be important to this arc, but in what way? Their adventure at the Angali mine holds all of the answers, and this flashback isn't finished just yet.

* In the five years after the Sventa-Henron war, Losha and her band of serialists have expanded the art to remarkable new levels, as evidenced by Denze's mastery of light to create a hologram. Everyone in WOLFGANG can mask their seras frequency and their overall seratic presence by concentrating and limited how much seras is supposed to naturally radiate from the body. It's an advanced technique, although there is evidence that TRIBLADE, Henron's premiere, almost super-human squad of soldiers, had developed such abilities in the past (Losha could not detect them in their battles).

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Any feedback is welcome. Just writing because I like it. Always wanted to make a weekly series, so I'm doing it.