An Atrocity Answered
#4 of The Knights of Juno
Alrighty, here we go, on with the Knights of Juno. This chapter, as I have said in past comments, is all plot, but hopefully, just as enjoyable as the previous chapters. I hope you enjoy it, and as always, comments are appreciated and requested.
Hope you enjoy.
Continued from the New Knights Rise...
"Assault marines, up and over." The young golden dragon ordered. His name was Orian, and his scales were metallic gold, catching the overhead light just right to throw an odd golden cast on the white sands of the battlefield. Golden armored space marines wearing jump packs shot up into the air, coming over a line of dunes and landing behind the line of Imperial guardsmen decked out in desert camo who fought beside more marines. Twilight smiled, and spoke into his mike.
"First platoon, open fire." His troops opened fire with lasers, the fire hitting the hulking troops decked out in all black armor. Lord Mikael's Necron army was advancing steadily against the fire of both Twilight and Karen's Imperial guards, as well as Orian's Space Marines. The three allied armies were behind fortifications, but that didn't seem to make a difference. The necrons were still advancing, very few who got hit staying down. They just kept getting up. And then, moments later, the Necrons opened fire, mowing down dozens of guardsmen and marines. The soldiers were doing their best but the necrons seemed totally unstoppable. The assault marines were the last of the reserves, which is what Mikael seemed to have been waiting for. All of a sudden, at a single command into the Lord's mike, two squads of necrons warped in behind the fortified lines, savaging the Imperial Forces. The necrons were just closing in to wipe out the trapped soldiers when a voice echoed into the room. It was the voice of one of the on-duty controllers in the command center.
"Lord Mikael, your presence is requested in the command center, first priority." It said, the magic enhanced voice echoing through the hallways. Mikael sighed.
"Well that is too bad. We will have to continue this another time." He commented, looking down at the game board.
"We were happy to have you sir." Karen replied, smiling. The grey haired lord smiled in return and then tapped his mike, deactivating the device. Then he waved his hand, gathering his army into a satchel quickly with magic. Once his troops were gathered, the lord bid the three younger players goodbye and left, heading out to the command center. Orian sighed in vexation when the lord was out of sight.
"Not that his leaving matters." He said dryly, gathering his battered marine company into a satchel. Orian was one of the new players that Twilight and Karan had found since they had first played the new 'dragon enhanced' version of Warhammer 40k. It turned out that there were dozens of players in the mountain. Some, like Lord Mikael, had been players before they joined the knighthood, but others were those who had picked up the game more recently. "We have got to come up with better tactics than that. He is just too damned good at this. At least you two don't seem bothered that we got our asses kicked."
Twilight and Karen smiled, but said nothing, gathering their troops. The terrain had returned to its plastic composition, as had the necrons and space marines. But the imperial guardsmen had remained active, sustained by the shared magic of the secret lovers. The troops marched into their satchels along with the vehicles they had been using.
"So, what is on the agenda for the rest of the day for you two?" Orian asked, watching in amusement as the ordered columns of troops marched into the satchels.
"It's a beautiful day," Karen replied, resisting the temptation to look at her love. "We were going to go out flying." Which actually meant that in a few hours, the pair would be lying in a clearing somewhere, lost in the throes of passion. Their duties had kept them from sneaking off for weeks, and her quarters within the mountain were not very safe for liaisons. They had been aching for each other and at last, they had had a day off, and it was all Karen could do to remain calm in his company, knowing what was coming. The longing pouring across the mental link they shared was evidence enough that her lover felt the same. Thankfully, her dragon had become very adept at concealing how he felt. Even other dragons could not tell what he was thinking.
"You too spend all your on duty hours together," Orian stated, eyeing the pair with a look of amusement. "And when you get time off duty, you spend it together. Don't you get tired of each other?"
"I could never get tired of her." Twilight answered, sharing an amused smile with his love. Concealed within the look was something that only Karen recognized, the secret smile that they shared. Orian grinned at them without knowing what they meant and picked up his satchel, heading out.
"Have fun you two." He said over his shoulder. The pair looked at each other with another amused smile at the ironic statement, then picked up their bags with the armies that had returned once more to metal and plastic once more, and walked out of the room. As they strode through the halls, they chatted easily, speaking of normal things. To everyone they passed, they were a normal knight and dragon pair, no different than any of the hundreds of others that walked the halls within the mountain these days. But within their linked minds, they carried on a wholly different conversation.
'I wish we didn't have to sneak around like this.' Twilight stated with his mind, the longing in his voice making Karen's legs weak. Her heart was already starting to pound with anticipation, despite all her efforts to make it remain calm.
'Me too. As much as I hate this, it isn't like we have much of a choice.' Karen replied, coming to a halt to allow a class of young aspirants to pass through a corridor junction ahead of them. These aspirants were only about twelve years old and they were jogging along quickly, running to their next class. She smiled, for she remembered what it had been like to be that age.
'Eventually we are going to get caught.' Twilight continued. 'And personally, I think it would be worse to be caught trying to hide it then to come out and say it. Think about it.' Karen nodded, for the same thought had been running through her mind for weeks now. There had been several close shaves already, where someone had discovered them just before they had started or just after they had finished cleaning up. The most dangerous of these had been when Argil and Mikael had been traveling to a meeting of the leaders of the knighthood's North American allies, and they had stopped by their camp just when Karen had started to undress. She had gotten as far as taking off her boots when they spiraled out of the sky to land nearby. Thankfully, Twilight's pheromones had not gotten out of control yet, so they had not been caught, but it had been extremely close.
'Whatever we decide to do, I don't think now is the time.' Karen replied, then the need to speak in silence was removed by her opening the door to her chambers. The pair walked inside and Karen pushed the door shut, then practically threw herself into Twilight's arms, kissing him fiercely. Her dragon wrapped her in his arms, returning her kiss with the same passion. In that moment, the urge to get away was so strong that they left the sacks carelessly on the ground, then ran quickly for the stairs leading to the Aerie. Karen's heart was pounding harder than ever and she felt possessed with the same giddy feeling that she had felt the first time, all those months ago. She grinned. Soon. Soon they would lie together in peace. They could think about revealing their relationship later...
***
Mikael walked into the Command Center, his bag slung over one shoulder. "What is it this time?" he asked, "The same rumors?"
"No, old friend." Tamerin stated, his look grave and serious. "La Roche is holding for you on holographic channel three."
"Put him through." Mikael commanded, looking up at the holographic display in the center of the room. The map of the world vanished to be replaced by the face of the Frenchman who led le Ordre de la Chiméra, the primary European ally of the knighthood. He had obviously seen some hard times since their last communication. He had a long red scar from his left cheekbone to his chin, and dark rings under his eyes. His face was decorated with forest camo face paint and there was a tear in his olive green beret. The flashes of explosions and the sounds of gunfire came over the holographic link. Judging from the hastily tied blood stained bandage covering his right upper arm, and the sounds of the battle raging in the background, he was in the middle of a war zone, fighting for his life.
"My lord Mikael." He said, his voice hoarse from breathing in gunsmoke. "The rumors are true. The Light of Truth's followers are going from town to town, and gathering their followers. The rest are asked if they are willing to serve the Light of Truth. Anyone not willing is killed. And I do mean anyone. Woman, children, everyone. My troops and our allies deployed here a week ago to try and stop them, but we are horribly out numbered. We just don't have the manpower to stop this. The government of the European Union has refused to commit any troops, so we seem to be on our own."
"Where are you Pierre?" Mikael asked, and the French commander spoke again, hefting his rifle with his uninjured arm.
"South of Starnberg, Germany." He replied and then looked up out of the view of the holotransmitter as a voice called out in german accented english.
"Commander, we must fall back, they are breaking through!!" The voice called.
"Begin the retreat!!" Pierre called and then turned back to the holo display. "I have to go."
"Hold them off as long as you can, we will send you support soon." Mikael ordered and the soldier nodded before the display blinked off. "Tamerin, how many wings are present in the mountain right now?"
"Eleven I believe." His second in command answered.
"Recall all the knights on leave. Prep nine wings for immediate action, then notify the commanders of our other allies. We will need all the help we can get on this one." He ordered, already headed out of the room and up to the Aerie. "You will be in command until I get back."
"Yes lord." Tamerin replied, already bringing up another holographic communication link. "I will keep things together until you get back."
***
Karen sat astride Twilight near one of the entrances of the Aerie. They were about to fly off for twenty four hours of blissful freedom where they could finally be together. But then, just as Twilight was tensing to leap into the air, a voice broke into both of their heads. For Karen, the voice was of Sir James Tamerin, the second in command of the knighthood, and for Twilight, it was the voice of Argil himself. Because of their mental link, both rider and dragon heard both voices and groaned inwardly when they heard what they had to say. The message was the same for both voices.
'All knights and dragons on leave, return to the mountain immediately. You are hereby recalled to active duty.' The voice said and then repeated the message. Twilight looked back at her and she sighed. The dragon crouched, letting her slide off of him and onto the ground. She stroked her love's shoulder affectionately and spoke with her mind to him. 'I suppose we will have to wait a while longer for our vacation.' Twilight smiled at her and she blushed once more. So concerned with each other were they, that they jumped when a new voice filled their minds. It was the voice of Captain Michael Duncan, their wing leader. He was a man born in Ireland who had been raised on the mythology of the ancient Celts, and he had come to honor the dragons. He had served in the knighthood a long time, riding a green dragon by the name of Tourmaline.
'All members of my wing, prepare for battle, we are going into action.' His voice commanded and Karen smiled at her mount.
"Meet you back here in a flash." She said and tapped her magic, teleporting right into her quarters. Karen hadn't thought that a battle was imminent, but she supposed that she should have known better than to invoke Murphy's law by thinking that there wasn't going to be one. Once inside her quarters, she quickly gathered her weapons from where she had stowed them. She buckled on her black sword and grabbed her rifle and the enchanted ammo magazines for it. Each magazine contained a different type of ammunition, and each continually regenerated rounds. It was a kind of magic that the dragons and their companion knights had not shared with the outside world. She slipped the magazines into their cloth holders on her sword belt and then slung the rifle across her chest. Then, she teleported back to the Aerie, appearing in a clear space designated for just this purpose. What she saw when she returned surprised her. A flurry of activity filled the cavernous room, with more than two hundred dragons preparing to depart. The raven headed knight strode through the controlled chaos to where Twilight stood waiting, next to Turquoise, her friend Malcolm's mount. Malcolm was no where to be found, but she knew he would be there soon. Turquoise would not have been carrying her railgun if he hadn't been on his way. Twilight stood with confidence, checking the harness of the new railgun that he bore, ensuring that it was secure. When Karen approached, he stopped checking the new gun and looked over at her, nuzzling her shoulder with his snout. This was a common enough thing for a dragon to do when greeting his rider, but while he did so, he planted a kiss on her cheek quickly, the movement camouflaged by his greeting.
'Any idea what is going on?' Karen asked her mount, speaking with her mind and returning the kiss quickly, ensuring that no one would notice.
'No, but whatever is going on, nine full wings are going.' He replied, letting her climb into position on his shoulders once more. Karen was surprised. Each wing consisted of six flights of four dragons each, which meant that two hundred and sixteen dragons were going. Only once before had such numbers been deployed at one time, and that had been to fight Blackwell, a renegade black dragonlord*. Once astride her dragon, she nodded to her parents, both of whom were wing leaders. She also picked out Twilight's parents, who were part of Argil and Mikael's wing. The lord of the knighthood was sending some of his best on this mission, which struck Karen as worrisome. She was distracted a moment later by Malcolm climbing onto Turquoise, who stood ready beside Twilight. He nodded in greeting to her and the wing mates sat ready for the briefing that the Lord of the Knighthood would most likely be giving in a moment. They didn't have long to wait.
"Alright, listen up." Mikael commanded, swinging into position on Argil, the dragonlord's size putting him a full six feet above the other dragons. "Our friends in Europe report that the Light of Truth is committing thousands of murders of civilians in Germany. We are deploying to support their efforts to stop the Light of Truth. We don't know what dangers our enemy has in store for us, so be careful and watch out for each other. Good luck to us all." With that, the huge white and silver dragon lunged upward, his great wings snapping out to the sides and he soared out into the open sky, followed by an army of dragons...
***
A few days later, the huge force of dragons came soaring out of the skies of southern Germany, coming in for a landing at a camp of friendly soldiers. For many of the younger knights, it had been a long and tiring journey. Many were unaccustomed to long flights, and while flying was natural for them, they were not as comfortable as the veteran knights. For Karen though, the journey had been pleasant. Her trust in Twilight was absolute and she slept peacefully at night, lying draped on Twilight's neck, as comfortable as she had been in a real bed. Malcolm had commented to her several times in their journey that he couldn't imagine sleeping like that. He wasn't nearly so comfortable with Turquoise that he could just fall asleep like that, with no saddle to hold him in place. Most of the knights had grown increasingly bored as time went on, having nothing to occupy their attention. Twilight and Karen had no such problem. They could easily amuse themselves, creating new fantasies with magic that they enjoyed together. But, despite the pleasentness of the journey, it had brought with it a new worry.
She and Malcolm were both born into the knighthood. As a result, they had grown up training together and had been friends for most of their lives. But unbeknownst to Karen, he had started to have more romantic feelings for her. Out of courtesy, he had held off asking her out during their training, for both had had to concentrate on their studies. But, while they had still been over the Atlantic, he had finally asked her out, speaking with their minds due to the buffeting winds. Twilight, who had been listening in to the conversation via their mental link, had had to use magic to block Malcolm from hearing his out right laughter at the proposal. Karen's answer had been that she would think about it. And think about it she had, for his attraction to her presented some very serious problems. Had her situation actually been as she pretended it was, she wouldn't have had a problem with his attraction. She probably would even have gone out with him. But her heart belonged to only one person, Twilight; and the fact that Malcolm was interested in her meant that they would have to be even more careful in the future.
Bringing her mind back to the present, she waited for Twilight to land before sliding off his shoulders. The borders of the camp consisted of foxholes and fortified bunkers hastily constructed of sandbags. But there were fewer soldiers on guard then she would have expected for a headquarters. The reason why became apparent quickly. Several large tents had been constructed in the center of the camp and all were packed full of wounded men. What she had taken for equipment cases or more sandbags from the air were in fact rows and rows of wounded soldiers, lying out on litters beneath the sun. Surgeons, medics and healers, their movements sluggish with exhaustion, moved among them, trying to treat them, but the task looked well beyond their capabilities. Twilight had happened to land near to the command wing and the pair listened in as Mikael greeted Pierre la Roche.
"Lord Mikael, thank you for your quick response." The frenchman said, clasping the knight's forearm.
"Pierre." Mikael replied, nodding to the man. "What is the situation?"
"Not as bad as it could be, all things considered." The man replied. He looked exhausted, as if he had been awake and fighting for days. "I have deployed the troops I could spare in small groups ahead of the enemy advance. We are evacuating civilians as quickly as we can, but we have limited resources. The bulk of my forces are fighting in Munich and Stuttgart. The local EU army units have apparently started acting on their initiative and started to fight back. We have joined forces and that has certainly helped to stabilize the situation, for the moment at least. The cities are roughly divided between us at the moment, but satellite intel has shown the Light of Truth bringing in more and more troops. It won't be long until we are overrun. The trouble is that there are still pockets of civilians in the cities, caught between armies. Casualties have been...well, extreme. There are a dozen camps like this, all of them overflowing with wounded. Every hospital in the territory we control has also been filled to capacity and then some."
"We can help with that." Mikael stated, signaling his wing leaders to come up. "Give us the locations of your camps and I will have one of our wings split up between them."
"Alright. Lieutenant!!" Pierre called and another exhausted man ran over from a small bunker packed full of communications equipment. "Give Lord Mikael the coordinates." The lieutenant nodded and Mikael directed him to speak to another member of the command wing. "What of the rest of the dragons?"
"We will split into two groups. Four wings each. One will go to Munich, the other to Stuttgart." Mikael stated, looking around at his comrades, obviously deciding which to send where. Karen fervently hoped she wasn't assigned to the wing babysitting the camps. That would be terribly boring. But fortunately, he gave the job to another wing and soon, she and Twilight were on the way to Stuttgart with the rest of their wing. Mikael and Argil themselves were leading that group and within a half hour, they were circling slowly over the city. The city itself was hard to see, as most of it was hidden by billowing black smoke, but that which could be seen was not promising. The city was in ruins, and if the EU government was ignoring this, they had to have been paid off, or worse, the leaders were part of the Light of Truth. But much more pressing than their inability to see were the long lines of vehicles pouring into the south-eastern edge of the city, most of which were technicals**, but there were a few that were obviously regular military hardware, including a least a company of tanks. The four wings split up at the signal of Lord Mikael, each going for a different road leading into the city.
'All dragons, target the tanks on the first pass,' Captain Duncan's voice ordered, popping into the heads of his knights and their companion dragons, along with images from Tourmaline of specific targets. 'Riders, hit the infantry.'
'Yes sir.' Karen replied, bringing her slung rifle up to her shoulder, a magazine of special anti infantry rounds loaded into the breach. As Twilight dived down a little to get a better view, Karen noticed the marching columns of soldiers flanking the vehicles and sighted her weapon on the nearest one. The dragons were much too high for the marching soldiers to spot them easily and she grimaced slightly in anticipation when Twilight sighted his railgun on a tank that had pulled over. The commander was leaning out of his hatch, talking to an infantryman standing nearby. They wouldn't be talking for very long. A moment later, Captain Duncan's voice came back.
'Fire!!' He shouted and twenty four brilliant lances of light speared down from the dragons, accompanied by streams of bullets from their riders. For a moment, the soldiers down below stood in silent shock, staring up at the swarm of dragons that hovered above them, all the while the tanks and other armored vehicles that had been targeted crackled with energy. The bullets flying from the rifles of the dragon riders were tearing great holes in the marching columns of infantry, but they seemed incapable of moving. Then, just as the first round of targets exploded, creating huge craters in the road, another volley of rounds soared down out of the sky, and at last, the enemy soldiers started to move. Most ran in the grips of primal terror at seeing the huge dragons above them, but some returned fire. In response, the dragons soared low over the convoy breathing long tongues of flame down onto vehicles and soldiers. It was not so much a battle as it was a massacre. The dragons crisscrossed the convoy, breathing fire and raining railgun rounds down on the soldiers massed below them, the knights mounted on their backs picking off any soldier that had the guts to shoot back.
The battlefield grew quiet after only two minutes of shooting. Twilight and Karen hovered with the others over the melting husks of vehicles and the blowing clouds of dust that were once humans, staring around at the destruction. Karen's face grew hard, her usual cheer gone. She spoke to her mount after a moment. 'This isn't war.' She said, staring in horror at the slaughter below her. 'This is murder.'
'It does seem that way, doesn't it?' Twilight asked in reply. 'They didn't stand a chance.'
A sudden sense of danger interrupted them and Karen bent flat to Twilight's neck, holding on tight as he made a sudden roll in the air, flapping his wings hard to gain altitude. Karen could feel the heat from the Air to Air missile's exhaust as it spun through the space they had occupied a moment before and she cast about with her mind, searching for the source of the weapon. There, rapidly closing on the wing of dragons were several flights of twenty or more fighters, none of them bearing the mark of any country's Air Force. In its place was the symbol of the Christian cross clenched in a fist, bathed in a beam of gold coming down from the clouds. Karen didn't need to be told whose fighters those were. But now, angry dragons were flying up to meet the fighters, who loosed a second flight of missiles. This time though, dragon and rider worked together, building a shield of magic around them. The missiles struck the shields and exploded, but the dragons flew on, unhurt. As the fighters soared in close, accelerating in an attempt to close to gun range, the dragons answered with a volley from their railguns. Fighters evaporated when the rounds contacted and then the flights of fighters and the wing of dragons became a swirling dogfight.
The pilots of the fighters must have hoped to gain some sort of advantage over their supernatural foes by closing in to engage in close, but that was a foolish notion. Not only were the dragons much more agile then the fighters, they also wielded better weapons and magic as well. Twilight and Karen soon found themselves in the sights of a pair of fighters, one falling back to cover the leader. While Twilight easily avoided the streams of cannon shells from the two fighters, Karen reached out with her magic, touching the mind of the pilot in the rear most craft. With surprising ease, she gained access to his unguarded mind, nudging the pilot's hand just when he was about to fire. Instead of firing on the black and violet dragon that weaved so easily around the his wingman's shells, the cannon shots from the pilot's craft drilled deep into the leader's fighter, breaking off a whole wing of the craft, which then spiraled back and slammed full force into the trailing fighter. Both craft exploded well above the city streets below the raging aerial battle.
Needless to say, the dogfight was over quickly. All the fighters were destroyed, either by magic, the flaming breath of the dragons, or by railgun fire, but the dragon wing was not without injuries. Two dragons had been hit by cannon rounds, forced out of the combat zone by their injuries, but none of the wing had been slain. The wing formed back into flights, then grouped around Captain Duncan and Karen watched as he spoke over a radio headset to an infantry commander on the ground. After his unheard conversation was over, the Captain spoke to his wing. 'Follow me, I think it is time we joined our comrades on the ground.'
*: The story of the knighthood's battle with blackwell is recorded here: http://www.sofurry.com/?pid=51936
**: A technical is any civilian vehicle that has been converted to military use, usually by adding fixed weapon positions.