Reformation (22 page)

“
I hate when
we have to do that,” Gallono said while holding a blank stare at the blazing inferno that used to be the enemy’s impenetrable center formation.  “Those poor bastards aboard the fire ships never had a chance.”

“Command decisions always come down to the greater good,” Hastelloy responded.  “Today a few dozen men were sacrificed
allowing the rest of our forces to carry the day, thereby making it possible for us to continue safeguarding the twenty million Novi lives in the Nexus.”

“
Is this all for their greater good or ours?” Gallono countered.  “Millions were washed away and drowned when we sabotaged the dams.  What makes the Novan lives inside the Nexus more valuable than those lives lost to incite this rebellion?”

Hastelloy hardened the lines around his eyes as they bore down on his wavering soldier. 
“The fate of these humans and us are conjoined.  If the Alpha win and finally get their transmission out, billions of lives will be lost.  It is all for the greater good, Commander, now get with the program.  This still isn’t over.”

Gallono visibly straightened his posture and pushed the crisis of conscience
aside when Lord Zhu stepped in behind Hastelloy for an update on how the battle progressed.  “Looks like the perimeter you advised us to set up is working to perfection,” Zhu observed without emotion.

“
Their larger ships can’t outrun ours and are being corralled back into the flame engulfed center without any difficulty.  I’d say the outcome of this battle is almost a certainty at this point,” Gallono agreed.

“That is usually when a desperate enemy
finds the nerve to attempt the unexpected - when they have nothing else to lose,” Hastelloy responded with a matter of fact statement and then silently looked upon the scene of battle to evaluate his enemy’s next move.

It was difficult to see much of anything with the towering inferno in the center throwing deep, dark smoke hundreds of feet into the air.  He could feel the wind starting to pick up, and saw the tower
of smoke begin to lean westward.  He then shouted orders to the flag signalers, “Relocate the flag ship grouping directly downwind from their center.”

Immediately the three
signal men began snapping the flags held in each hand to relay the message to the other ships. 

Zhu
looked over at Hastelloy as if he had just stuck his head in a tiger’s mouth.  “We won’t be able to see anything coming through the smoke wafting that direction.”

“Yes, and neither will they
, which is why they would only attempt to flee that direction en masse as a measure of last resort,” Hastelloy answered.

A few minutes later the cluster of twenty five ships entered the smoke screen to the chorus of deckhands coughing and tearing strips from their shirts to tie over their mouths and noses.  The measure helped with breathing, but still did nothing for the eyes which burned nearly as hot as the flames generating the smoke.

After five long minutes of torture, through the smoke and his tears Hastelloy saw the outline of five ships approaching at suicidal speeds.  Unable to change course in time to avoid collision, three of the vessels smashed into Hastelloy’s ships.  The entanglement held those ships in place long enough for other boats in the fleet to ram them on their sides, sending the doomed vessels to the bottom of the sea in short order.

Another ship broke left out of the smoke screen and was quickly corralled back toward the flaming center by the rest of Hastelloy’s fleet.

The fifth ship was another matter.  It was smaller and far more maneuverable than the others and managed to navigate the crowded waters admirably.  With the wind at its back, escape was a distinct possibility. 

Zhu’s flagship was running nearly perpendicular to the escaping ship’s path.  Hastelloy evaluated the waters ahead and spotted several light patches along the flee
ing ship’s path.  Time was short and required Hastelloy to react more out of instinct than clear thought.

“
Force them toward the shallows on the starboard side and take us in,” Hastelloy ordered.

For the second time in less than a minute, Zhu
looked at Hastelloy as though he’d lost his mind.  “We’ll bottom out.”

“Precisely,” Hastelloy replied
as he grabbed Zhu and braced them both against the upper deck railing before the vessel lurched to a grinding halt against a barely submerged sandbar.  Zhu attempted to stand after the initial jolt, but was yanked back down to the deck by Hastelloy.  “Not yet.”

The enemy ship had been on course to pass immediately behind Zhu’s flagship, but the sudden stop of the boat put them on an unavoidable collision course.  Twenty feet away
, Hastelloy watched the menacing iron ram charge headlong into the broadside of his ship.

The crash was colossal with railings and deck timbers snapping like toothpicks as the enem
y vessel plowed halfway through the hull before also grinding to a halt.  A shower of a half dozen bodies rained down from the decks of the enemy ship as several sailors did not adequately brace themselves for impact in time.

On the open waves
, the fleeing vessel would have plowed right through the side of Hastelloy’s ship and kept right on sailing.  However, with the boat lodged against a sand bar, the enemy vessel ran headlong into an immovable object.  Neither vessel would ever sail again; the fight was now on to claim supremacy over the deck.

There was no need to give an order for the sailors to grab a sword and prepare to repel b
oarders; the situation was self-evident.  He saw a dozen of his men climbing the riggings with a bow and quiver of arrows slung over their shoulders to take the advantage of an elevated firing position.  Nearly everyone else already had a sword and shield in hand and braced for a fight.

Hastelloy’s eye
passed over the decks of the enemy ship to assess their crew compliment.  He was quite relieved to find them thoroughly decimated from the battle already.  He did see movements among the tall masts and sails letting him know archer fire from above would be an issue for both sides.

Soon the hiss of arrows filled the air above as the archers focused the fire on their counterparts on high rather than the enemy below.  H
astelloy released an adrenaline filled breath and attempted to calm the heart threatening to beat its way out of his chest.  An instant later a pulse stopping war cry rose up from the enemy decks, and no fewer than fifty men stormed over the railings with their single objective being the death of Lord Zhu.  Win or lose this little engagement, the attacking sailors knew they were all dead men when the rest of Zhu’s ships arrived.  That being the case, they charged forth to decapitate the rebellion’s leadership.

 
The initial wave was not the problem.  Those sailors armed with swords and axes were met with similar weaponry and skill.  The real trouble came from the second row of ten attackers who leveled spears tipped with long, round cylinders that looked like honeycombs.

Hastelloy and Gallono recognized the danger
ous hand cannons immediately and planted Zhu face down on the deck and followed with their own bodies to allow the shrapnel to hopefully pass overhead. 

Explosions from the hand cannons leveled the ranks in front of them. Both friend
and foe alike fell to their fury leaving the deck completely enveloped with a dense fog.

Hastelloy was the first one bac
k to his feet.  He charged headlong into the cloud and took a hack at anything that moved.  As the brisk winds cleared the smoke, Hastelloy became a little more choosy where he swung his blade.  To his surprise, Gallono did not engage.  The commander stood back and dropped his sword in favor of a handful of star shaped disks with razor sharp edges.

In rapid succession he flipped the throwing stars at the attackers who busied themselves with preparing another volley with a second set of hand cannons.  Like dominoes, each of the ten men crumpled to the deck while grasping a piece of metal lodged in their throat.

Hastelloy’s sword along with archer fire from above was able to finish off the remaining attackers giving him a moment to catch his breath.  He was about to draw his first lung full when the crash of a body to the deck from up above caused him to jump back several feet. 

He looked up toward the source in time to see
six gigantic figures leaping from mast to mast and scaling their way down to the deck with ease.  The massive furry figures landed with a collective thud that probably would have sunk the ship on its own had it still been afloat.

A demonic war howl rose f
rom the intruders as the Alpha warriors set about their trade.  The overwhelming speed and strength of their race was on full display as they cleaved men in half with a single swing of their sword.  They leapt twenty feet in a single bound to maul less brave men who fled from the intimidating sight. 

Gallono did no
t hesitate.  He jumped over the balcony railing bringing his sword straight down into the back of an Alpha warrior inducing a death wail from the target as Gallono moved on to the next.  He did not try to block their powerful blows with his sword; instead he expertly dodged the strikes and delivered a counter blow that always drew blood and often left a severed limb twitching on the deck.  One by one, the Alpha warriors fell to Gallono’s skillful hand until only one, who realized the caliber of foe he faced, remained.

“
Only a Novi who’s lived a thousand unnatural lives could be this skilled with a blade
,” the Alpha declared in its language while he circled Gallono testing his defenses with halfhearted blows before going at him with blinding speed.  Gallono dodged half a dozen swings without finding an opening to deliver a counter strike. 

Finally the Alpha managed to line up a slash Gallono was unable to step away from.  At the last moment
, he raised his sword hand to deflect the blow and had the blade ripped from his grasp by the Alpha’s bone crushing blow.

Now defenseless
, the Alpha grabbed Gallono by the throat with one hand and squeezed.  “
Be sure and tell Captain Hastelloy hello when that mechanical vagina spits you out again
.”

Just when the Alpha was about to twis
t Gallono’s head clean off his shoulders, the business end of a sword suddenly burst through the Alpha’s chest.  The seven foot giant went limp and collapsed to the side revealing Hastelloy standing behind the warrior empty-handed.  

“
Message received,” Hastelloy triumphantly declared while standing over the last fallen Alpha.

Gallono picked himself
up off the deck to stand next to Hastelloy.  “I suppose taking on all six of them alone was a bit ambitious.”

The unexpected levity brought a smile to Hastelloy’s lips.  “
You always did like a challenge.”

Just then Hastelloy heard light footsteps approaching him from behind.  He
whirled around and readied to defend himself when he came face to face with Zhu Yuanzhang standing in the middle of his flag ship’s main deck.  “What wrath from the gods have I invoked for them to send hell hounds such as these after me?”

Hastell
oy would have preferred a heartfelt thank you from Zhu for defeating the terrifying enemy, but instead he had an accusing finger pointed directly at him.  “You!  This is your fault.  You counseled me to poison the other lords to unite the banners.”

“Yes I did
, Lord Zhu,” Hastelloy said in his most contrite tone.  He then raised his arms out wide and slowly turned a complete circle.  “Look around you, my lord.  The rebel factions are united under your leadership, and the Huang armies and ships lay smashed at your feet.”

“All I see before me now are these hounds from hell sent to exact a penance for my betrayal,” Zhu cut in.  He would have continued the tirade
, but was cut short by the thunderous crash of a soldier made of solid stone, or perhaps clay, jumping down from the enemy ship’s bow onto the deck.   If Zhu was intimidated by the sight of six Alpha warriors, his bowels nearly turned to water with the new arrival.

Sailors abandoned ship left and right declaring that the legendary stone army of Emperor Qui Shi Huang was upon them.  Zhu stood petrified while the earthen creature stalked forward.  He was saved from a mighty swing of the warrior’s sword by Hastelloy yanking him backwards by the neck of his shirt.  Zhu fell away from the blow and landed on all fours on the deck. 

“Captain
, look out,” Hastelloy heard Gallono yell. The commander managed to deflect the clay warrior’s counter strike toward Hastelloy’s head at the last possible instant.  While Hastelloy scurried away from the blow in desperate search for a sword, the adversary delivered a stiff punch to Gallono’s jaw that sent the commander flailing five feet through the air from the powerful blow.  Hastelloy picked up a sturdy sword, but swallowed hard at the prospect of facing this new adversary alone.

“
Captain Hastelloy
,” the stone warrior declared in the Alpha language.  “
At long last I finally get to face the revered and feared Captain Hastelloy.  It has truly been worth stretching the laws of Mother Nature to come alive once more and experience this moment
.”