The Bloodless Soldier
#1 of Bloodless Soldier
Something differant, it has been eating at my dreams, and today, after listening to some White Zombie, the plot solidified into something writeable. At this stage it will be a 'write as it comes to me' thing, I will be working on Weapon as a primary.
It was the a rainy afternoon in north Scotland, not something new for the area or so I had heard, but one of the rifts had opened here, so we had to fight.
It had struck us by surprise nearly a year ago, gateways, rifts, dimensional doorways, whatever you want to call em, opened, spilling three things into this world.
The first was the armies, soldiers clad in light medieval style armour, with swords, bows and cavalry, they were not much problem.
The second was their masters, Mages, they turned the weather against us, they set fire to thousands of us, they subjugated or killed every living thing they came across.
The third thing, was magic. For a world dominated by technology this was fantastic, and devastating.
My homeland, Australia, was mercifully safe for the moment from the Mages and their armies, they had not been able to open their rifts to there, something about magic pouring into the world had empowered many of the old folklores of the world, foremost among them was the Australian Aboriginals. Their elders had, for many thousands of years, wrought the same thoughts and ideas into their peoples minds, those minds all believing in the same thing, had given magic a path to flow down. The land itself was protecting the people, be they native Aborigines, white descendants of colonists from England, or the later peoples who now have called the land their home for generations, and it protected it well.
The ancient spirits had communicated with the people, helping them build weapons to assist with their defence, and modifying existing weapons too. Our steyrs fired special anti-magic rounds, that would cut through a mages defences, we were one of the first squads so equipped, and were here to give them a good testing.
The first few enemy we had encountered here, assisting our oldest ally, the United Kingdom, with their problems, was merely human, or human like, regulars. For the most part they were human, but some were part beast and bayed at night time and stank whenever we made contact with them.
We used standard rounds for them, saving the special ammo for its big test.
"Ok you bastards, our scouts have said that at the top of the next hill over is a mage tower, there should be substantial regular army and beastmen there, but keep those special toys handy, we may have a run in with one of the 'high and mighty' pricks themselves, and I expect his arse to be so full of lead he will die of metal poisoning before blood loss, you hear me?" The Sergeant told us.
"Sir, yes Sir!" We chorused, spirits high.
At first light we moved in, and indeed there was a substantial enemy presence, our mortar teams took great toll on their troops, until a light started behind their still advancing numbers.
"Its a mage, sharpshooters, if you get the shot, take it. The rest of you, keep working on those meat-shields." the Company Sergeant Major yelled.
Just then an arc of brilliant light lanced out and struck down in our mortar teams, slagging the weapons and leaving the soldiers screaming.
The deadly rain of high explosive fragmentation rounds had stopped, but the guns from our trucks and APCs were now brought to bear, slicing through the antiquated infantry armour like a knife through butter. We started to fire as well now, the enemy were within three hundred meters of our line, and were steadily closing.
It was then the Sergeant tapped me on the shoulder, "Evans, get your arse back here, there's some extra kit we want you to use."
I flicked my weapon back to safety and turned, "Sir, respectfully, this may not be the best time."
"Just get your arse back here, you have the highest proficiency with close combat in our squad, and the Major General has some kit that he wants us to test, kit that will require some experience in such circumstances to use. Now get back there and get a move on." He order-yelled at me. "Carson! Your taking over as Lance Corporal."
I jogged back to the vehicle the Sergeant had indicated, "Sir, Lance Corporal Evans reporting, my Sergeant ordered me back here, said my close combat training could be of use. Sir." I reported to the officer present, a Captain.
"Good, out of that infantryman gear, we have some special body armour and weapons for you." He ordered, already helping me out of the gear.
In seconds I was out of my regular tack and into a strange set of almost half-plate armour, it had sections with runes scribed into it that fitted on over most of my limbs down to the first joint, and was handed what appeared to be a short spear, again lined with runes.
"Sir, what is this stuff?" I asked.
"Its the latest thing our guys came up with, just say the command word and it will be activated, once that happens, nothing short of a nuke should be able to stop you." He replied, I was curious now, but the shout of "Fix bayonets!" rung over the top of the of the gunfire.
"What's the word?" I asked, ready to run off.
"Dreamtime." The officer told me, "But it will only work if you say it, and it will shut it off when you are done. Good luck son."
I ran back to the front line in time to see my comrades in two lines, the first with their rune etched bayonets thrusting forward, cutting down enemy, the second firing over their heads into the following lines of enemy.
I looked at the spear in my hands, and said, "Dreamtime" and almost staggered.
Power flowed through me, it was hot, it was fiery hot, it burnt through my veins and felt like my chest would burn up, but if anything my heart welcomed the fire, and forced it out to every part of my body. When it reached my head, a bright red haze descended.
Running I leapt over our line, spinning the spear around me, the blade seemed to be longer than its physical presence, reaching to slice through several lines of the creatures pressing forward, somewhere behind me my mind registered someone saying "Holy shit.", I just made a rictus grin and ran along the front of our line, cutting the creatures down like wheat, they were no match for me, for what I had become.
The ease I put on our forces allowed them to start firing again and that added to the effect I had started, driving the horde back, but all of a sudden bright arcs cut down into our line, tearing men apart, someone behind me, sounded like a Sergeant, yelled "Kill that fucking mage now soldier!". Licking my parched lips, I turned to where the light had originated and was off at a dead run, scything through enemies.
Eventually I came to a cleared patch of ground, and saw what was my target, she was about five foot eight, gaudy, rune lined clothing billowing, dark hair streaming behind her in a wind I couldn't feel, she started chanting and lines of light arced toward me.
At the last second the lines diverted away, seemingly repelled by the armour, to land in and around her forces, devastating them further, her chanting grew more emphatic.
All of a sudden, she stopped and looked at me, "Your people have twisted your mind, body and soul to that of an avatar of destruction, to my eyes you are a thing of beauty, forget your pitiful comrades, join with me and we will rule this world."
I started laughing, it was very, very hard to stop, but after a minute I managed, and looked right at her. "Fuck you." I said, giggled a little more and started to move forward.
"So be it, a twisted wreck you are, a twisted wreck you will forever be. Rot hell." And this time it wasn't a line, it was a cloud, and when it touched my armour the armour fizzled and crackled, but then I felt it touch my skin, and it burnt, it burnt with cold so chill I could see steam pour from my flesh.
"I will chill the fire from your body, then I will have you as my pet!" She unleashed another spell, this one sank into the same places the chill had started, and spread, pushing the chill before it, where it passed, burnt fur remained.
I screamed and had almost reached her, even with the cold burning through nearly every part of me, and turning into the who knows what, I swept out that blade, and took the mages head from their shoulders, even as I fell down, the pain eating away at my sanity, I took solace in the fact I had taken one of their number with me.
Darkness came, I felt no more, not even the magic left in the suit could keep me from my final rest.
-
I was next aware of voices around me.
"The subject, despite showing no signs of life, continues to have brain function, you will notice the amulet on their chest, it is the source of power keeping it un-alive, we tried to implant the power siphon into its chest but the regeneration just kept popping it back out..."
It was droning on and on, talking about things, using phrases I couldn't even fathom.
My attention was caught by the fact, suddenly, that I wasn't breathing, in fact I felt very, very still. I expected to feel fear, but I realised with a start, that I felt no emotion what so ever.
I opened my eyes, took a breath, and said. "What the fuck?"
Well, by the tag you can guess our luckless soldiers new species, but, as they said, 'what the fuck' indeed :)