Still Falling: Book 1: Solstice 31 Saga (33 page)

“I never saw her shed a tear her whole life, until today. And I was there the day they put the brand to her.” Smith bit the bread. It was almost ceremonial.

“We need them strong, healthy. Convince them it's true. Clothe them first. Take the animals, wagons, food, whatever you, Po and Grady say to bring. We have room for everyone. We have to be gone from here in two days, because on the third, they arrive.”

“What's to stop them from following us?” Smith was truly worried.

“I will be killing them all,” Barcus growled.

CHAPTER FORTY

Battle

“The depth of this manipulation was immense. Safety protocols in survival mode were off.”

--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Emergency Module Digital Forensics Report. Independent Tech Analysis Team.

<<<>>>

Barcus made sure preparations were well underway when he set out that night with Par and Ash. He would not wait for the mercenaries to arrive in Langforest Keep. He would meet them on the road and ensure the people had maximum time to escape.

It didn't take long to find them. By the next evening, he was approaching their encampment, which was at a farm. They had already taken the farm, killed the family, and were feasting on fresh meat from the farm’s cattle.

Par deployed a cloud of BUGs that would find and shadow every man in the camp. The BUGs easily entered the farmhouse and the barn.

The leaders were in the house. There were six of them. One of them had a Plate.

“The one that carries the Plate must die before calling in,” Barcus communicated while sitting inside Par. Forty windows were open all around, showing vid feeds from the BUGs, as well as an increasingly detailed tactical map of the region.

Slowly, more and more indicators were tagged red as more and more of the mercenaries were identified by the BUGs and marked on the tactical map. Ash was working his way around quietly to the far side, where the most likely escape route would to be.

“Par, you will drop me off here three hours before dawn, and then take up station here.” He indicated the points on the large tactical map. “I will have an excellent field of fire in three directions from this point.

“They have only three sentries: here, here and here,” he said, marking the slowly moving points. “I will take this one. Par, you take the other two, but try not to spook the horses. Then start dropping the mercenaries one at a time, using suppressed fire only. We will get as many as we can this way before we start the mop up.

“Par, use your high def thermal imaging and take out the man with the Plate. He will most likely look out the window to investigate before he calls in. Take him then. Use the 10mm if you need to.”

***

In full darkness, Par quietly dropped Barcus off, where he took his position in an elevated rock outcropping that overlooked the farm. It took Par almost another hour to get into position after that.

Barcus scanned the camp with his scope as he waited. He found eleven bodies laid out in a row. The farmers and family, including the children. From their state of undress, it appeared that four of the woman had been raped before their throats were slit.

His growing fury kept him warm.

In that hour, waiting for Par to get in place, he watched the sentry on his side walk back and forth just outside of the firelight. The fools kept looking at the fires, destroying their night vision. Barcus would drop him at the extreme end of his path. It was farthest from camp.

Dawn was two hours away when he pulled the trigger. The sentry fell like a puppet with its strings cut.

The sound of the rifle, though suppressed, still seemed loud in the night.

The windows in his HUD showed the other two sentries drop, a moment apart.

Barcus began to work. Targets were highlighted in his scope. He held his trigger back, and when a target was acquired, the rifle shot. He had consumed his first magazine before he knew it. The process of ejecting, reloading and firing only took seconds. The camp was beginning to react now. The alarm went up. Yelling began. They fell as they emerged from tents, drawing on boots, pulling on pants, shrugging on shirts. Some ran for the horses without a word.

Search, aim, fire, search, aim, fire, over and over until he emptied another magazine. Em called a warning to him as he paused to eject the latest magazine.

“Movement, behind YOU!” Em called out.

Barcus rolled over in time to see a Tracker with a huge knife bearing down on him in the darkness. He brought up the empty AR to block the downward stab. The strike was so hard on the AR that he heard the man’s wrist break. Instantly, he swung the butt of the AR at his assailant’s head but missed. The man’s momentum landed him heavily on Barcus, knocking the back of his head on the rocks behind him, dazing him for a moment.

The man was driving his left forearm into Barcus’s throat with all of his weight. This was a mistake because it created a bit of space between them and freed Barcus’s hand from being pinned.

Barcus drove his knife under the man’s ribs with all the fury that had been building. He tore through his heart and lungs and even ribs, from belly to collar bone.

He threw the body off and quickly reloaded his rifle. Several men were now screaming in pain, adding to the chaos below.

Barcus noticed a counter in his HUB, “Remaining: 21/109.”

“Several remain hiding in the barn. They are getting ready to make for the horses as a group. Four remain in the house. They are hiding in the basement. Even the 10mm cannot reach them there,” Par stated.

“Move in. Spook the horses if you can. I will wait for them to move. Do you think we may have missed any other Trackers? They don't sleep in camp with the rest.”

“They must have met up with them as guides,” Em replied.

Par was moving towards the horses when the men began to flood out of the barn, with their crossbows shouldered and aiming in every direction. Barcus started with the last one out. Quickly moving up the double row, he cut them down one by one. They had no idea where he was or what was happening.

The last four got to the horses just as Par arrived. They all fired their crossbows at Par, but they might as well have been tossing toothpicks. Par simply stomped them to jelly.

“Remaining: 4/109.”

“They are all in the house. Ash, move in,” Barcus said.

Less than a minute later, Ash jogged up to the farm house and casually crashed through the front door. Screaming ensued. Barcus didn't bother to watch. He took the time to remove a partial magazine and replace it with a full one.

Par was already beginning to collect bodies, strip them of weapons and gear, and toss them like dolls into a pile inside the barn.

The mercenaries had tried to fight off Ash with fire. But they only managed to burn the farmhouse down with themselves inside it. Even so, Ash retrieved the Plate and placed it inside Par’s Faraday compartment for later conversion.

By dawn, all the weapons and gear were loaded into Par, and the barn was their funeral pyre. None of them had managed to get away.

The swarm of BUGs revealed one more Tracker that had been hiding high in a tree. He had nearly been overlooked. He had been patiently waiting with his crossbow for a shot at Barcus. The 10mm literally tore him from the tree.

Barcus asked Ash to return to Langforest Keep with the horses. They had never spooked, not a single one. Ash could lead them all at once. Barcus wanted the caravan to have as many options as possible.

He would return with Par. She would provide her shadowed protection on the road.

***

Barcus slept in the command chair almost as soon as they got underway. Par woke him as they approached Langforest Keep.

“Em, status?”

“They are packed and away. Someone set the slave quarters on fire on the way out. That caught the stables and several other buildings as well. The Manor might survive, mostly because it is made of stone.”

“How is Ash doing?” Barcus asked.

“I estimate he will catch up to us a few kilometers above the Salterferry Bridge tomorrow.”

“Good. Par, do you think you can get me to the bridge before the caravan?”

“Easily,” Par answered. Before he could reply, they were moving faster.

“Excellent,” Barcus said, as he ripped open a protein bar. He noticed his hand was covered in dried blood. He looked down at his tunic and he was covered in stains.

“I should have brought a change of clothes.”

He ate the bar, wondering what he would do with all these people.

***

He wasn't sure how they would react to Pardosa just yet, so she dropped him off at the southern bridge tower. A cloud of BUGs followed the caravan, so Barcus knew how far away they were.

Par went north to ensure the road around the mountain was passable by the wagons. She already knew there were several fallen trees would need to be moved.

Barcus walked out onto the bridge while he was awaiting the caravan. The gorge was very deep, and the bridge was wide and strong. It was a suspension style bridge, the deck was made up of squared, thick, timbers from impossibly tall, straight trees. The caravan came into view.

He stood in the middle of the bridge.

Po was the first to recognize him and galloped her horse up to him as fast as she could. She was out of the saddle before the horse came to a full stop but didn't rush into his arms.

He realized he was disappointed.

“Barcus, are you all right?” She was looking at all the blood.

“Yes. I'm fine. It's not my blood,” He answered.

She moved closer, slowly as if he might spook like a wild horse.

“How are they?” he asked. They were starting to enter the bridge.

“They are fine for the most part. Some of the sick and wounded may not survive the trip. We have so many on foot.” She looked back at the group.

Barcus turned to face the north end of the bridge. “Par, after you clear the road, I want you to clear the tunnel for them to camp tonight. Unload everything at the tunnel’s mouth and then just wait, deep in the tunnel.”

He turned back to Po and said, “No one will follow us. We will be safe for now.”

“More will come. There will be much to do,” she said.

“Will they leave us alone now, Po?” he asked.

“There are no happy endings, because nothing ends,” she echoed her reply with a sad smile.

***

They reached the unfinished tunnel by midafternoon that day and made camp early. A giant pile of dried tree-fall was already piled near the entrance for firewood. There was a huge pile of weapons and gear there.

Soon, several fires were built up, and cooking began. After getting into some clean clothes, Barcus helped with the most severely injured people. There were fifteen of them. They had been carried in three large wagons that now had makeshift canvas covers. These were set up as a makeshift hospital in the tunnel. Only five of them could even walk on their own.

“I don't think Kat is going to make it. She has lost so much blood,” Lea said. The woman, Lea, had assumed the role of healer. Po looked at Barcus.

Lea continued, “Volk let them take turns with the lash. They opened her to the bone in several places. She passed out mercifully after the first twenty.”

“Moving her opens the wounds again,” Po said so only Barcus and Lea could hear. “We need to get her back to The Abbey quickly, Barcus.”

Barcus faced the darkness of the tunnel and said, “Par, I want you to come up quietly and back your ramp up as close as you can. Lights off. I want to load ten of these cots directly inside. They should just fit. I will ride with Lea back to Whitehall as fast and smooth as possible.”

Po turned to Lea. “Lea we are going to take them tonight. We need you to be brave. We need you to go with them. Don't be afraid,” Po said to her as Barcus walked to the edge the darkness.

A candle flickered with the movement of air. Lea was watching Barcus when suddenly, he was outlined in the soft light of a small room that somehow appeared directly before him. It looked like a rustic cabin inside.

“Come. We should hurry,” Barcus said.

Po and Lea led the least injured to the front where they sat in five of the six seats. Others helped them carry the ten occupied cots in without bumping the patients. They were especially careful when moving Kat. Barcus had retrieved a small first aid kit from the side of the main console. Without a word, he held a small tube to the side of Kat's neck, moving the tube side to side until the light shifted from red to green. The injector made a small sound.

“That will help. But we will need to hurry,” Barcus said. “Get Smith. He will need to help walk us out.” Four other women sat among the cots when the ramp closed. Barcus was in the command seat.

In the end, it was Smith, Po, Ulric and Grady that walked through the tunnel saying, “Don't be afraid. Close your eyes. Just for a minute. It is all right. We are safe.”

Most people closed their eyes. Some did not. Deep in the tunnel, Par was so black that as she passed over them silently, they didn't even notice. A few people looked but didn't know what they were seeing. She was a greater darkness. Keeper’s magic. The few that truly saw Par were the ones working just outside the tunnel. They saw her as Par emerged, as it immediately turned and began climbing over the mountain.

Par moved fast after that, even though they could barely feel it inside. The walls remained simple white and the lights dim. Barcus used his HUD to get them there. He called ahead, and Olias had all the hearths lit in the main hall when they arrived after dawn. Par backed right up to the main double doors of the hall as she opened the ramp.