- 1 -
I looked through my binoculars down into the valley below us, as off in the distance Riggs' army prepared to bed down for the night. They were putting out sentries, lighting cooking fires, and fortifying their position. Not that there was much of anything left to attack them after the last two days.
The girls and I had been holing up in a small abandoned house for the last two nights. We'd caught up with Riggs almost immediately; he was between us and where we wanted to go of course. But rather than just march off, for where ever it was Riggs was now bound to, he'd chosen to sit tight and fight a defensive battle against the enemy army that had pursued him here.
At first I thought it was stupid, that Riggs had no idea what he was up to. He appeared to be holed up and fighting a losing battle with no hope of breaking out or surviving. He even let them push him back quite a bit that first day and the enemy, feeling buoyed by what looked like an easy chance to win a crushing victory had committed its entire force, pulling everything in and going for total victory.
And then suddenly, everything had changed.
Riggs' whole strategy changed so quickly, that it became obvious to us watching from up on top of the ridge that he had suckered them in, and what he did next to them was nothing short of amazing. He broke the back of their offensive within ten minutes, quickly split the enemy into several different groups and then spent the rest of the day, that night, and all of today defeating them in detail.
It was a massacre.
"It looks like the gods picked the right man," Heather said to me, moving back down the hill to go back to our camp.
I sighed and nodded slowly, "I hate to admit it, but you're right, Riggs is one hell of a commander. He even made it look easy."
She patted my leg with a hand, and then slowly stood up, now that she was below the ridgeline.
"If it's any consolation, I think we picked the right man too."
"Thanks," I told her.
"I'm going to see if I can't bag a couple of rabbits for dinner on the way back to camp. Don't stay up here too long," Heather said as she unlimbered her smaller gauss assault rifle and re-slung her sniper rifle. I only had my assault rifle; the gauss rifle was incredibly light and easy to keep out of the way. The railguns, or the 'sniper rifles' were heavier and bulkier of course, but Heather loved hers almost as much as she loved me and Sarah.
At least I think she loved us more, it was kind of hard to tell at times.
I nodded and waved to her and then turned back to watch Riggs' army as they continued setting up camp for the night. I was wondering how long they'd be there, after all they'd been fighting for the last forty hours nonstop, and as they were currently going the way I wanted to go, we couldn't move on until they did.
"He sure built himself one hell of an army," I sighed and shook my head.
"And that's only about a third of them," Coyote said, from about two feet away, making me twitch sharply as I spun around on my belly, rifle in hand.
"Only a third? Where are the rest?" I grumbled. I knew complaining about him sneaking up on me wouldn't do any good.
"They're near Barstow. He only took the men he had firearms and modern weapons for. When he meets up with the rest, he'll arm them all with the weapons he got from the armory, train them in the use of the new rifles, and send envoys up north to meet with the Washoe."
"Why?"
"Because he's planning on taking his army up what you once knew as highway three ninety-five, which is now the heart of their territory. They were pushed out of the northern parts of their home territory, which was up around Lake Tahoe by the dragons and the goblin armies of the Nev Wastes."
"So, he's going to ask for passage?"
"Passage and volunteers. Riggs is planning on taking back Lake Tahoe, and then descending into Carson City, to take that, and then move north to take Reno as well."
"That's pretty ambitious," I said, looking around to be sure no one was sneaking up on me. Being this close to the battle, a battle from which several of the losing side fled, had led to several encounters already. Though all of those had just been lone goblins or orcs running for their lives, until Heather abruptly ended them with a well-placed shot.
I took another look back out into the valley below. "So, is Reno the final goal?"
"No, Reno is just on the path to that. Taking those and returning them to the Washoe however will help build morale among the tribes and bring him more followers."
"What? Isn't being the chosen of the gods enough?" I asked a little snarkily.
"Now don't be jealous," Coyote teased. "They want to see him tested first, to be sure the prophecy is true," Coyote continued. "Then they will send out their own armies, and the war will officially begin."
I tried not to laugh, "After seeing him down there today," I motioned towards the valley below, "I think it's safe to say that he's the right guy." I paused a moment then, as I remembered something. "I thought this war was going to take place in the Navajo lands to the west of Havesu?"
"Yes, originally that was what we expected. But Riggs convinced the leaders that the best defense was a strong offense. He said he'd rather fight the armies of the Aybem in their territory, and ruin their lands, instead of his own."
Coyote smiled at me, "It was really quite a striking and inspirational speech, you would have loved it. While many members of the war council did not agree, the members of the tribes from the east and the south, and especially his fellow Navajo, were very taken by the idea of not having their homes destroyed, their people scattered, and their farms pillaged."
I sighed, "Did he give them the speech from the movie 'Patton?'"
Coyote gave one of those strange bark-like laughs of his, "No, but it was definitely inspired. I must agree with you that Riggs was a good choice."
"He shot me, you know," I grumbled.
"Yes, I know," Coyote laughed again, "it was rather humorous."
"My getting shot was humorous?" I growled at him.
"Yes of course it was," Coyote said with a huge grin. "You know he doesn't like you, yet you still had to go and take the stick and poke the bear!"
"You knew he was going to shoot me, didn't you!" I swore, realizing I'd been set up.
"Some lessons need a little pain to sink in properly," he said grinning at me.
"But you said I could go be an asshole!"
"And you were," Coyote agreed.
"So why'd you let me go do it, if I was going to get shot!"
"Because you have to learn that it's never fine to be an asshole, unless of course, you're subtle about it," Coyote winked then, "or a god."
I stopped and fumed a moment; he had a point, even if I didn't want to admit it.
"As much as I admire his abilities, I really hate that asshole," I sighed.
"And that is part of your problem," Coyote pointed out.
"Why is that? He ruined my life! It's his fault I'm here!"
"It's my fault you're here, so technically I'm the one who ruined your life, but you don't hate me, do you?"
"The jury is still out on that one," I warned him. "But he was going to throw me out of the service!"
"Which he was told to do."
"But he didn't have to be an asshole about it."
"Exactly, and neither did you. But you were, and rather obnoxiously as well."
I sighed and let my head drop until my forehead was touching the dirt.
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked him, talking into the ground.
"Why do you think?" he said, and then he was gone.
I hated it when people were cryptic, because I really sucked at figuring out what they meant. But then again, Coyote was a god, so I guess it was just his nature.
That or he knew how much I hated it and was just messing with me.
I put away the binoculars after a last look and slid back away from the top of the ridge, then getting up I turned and made my way back to the camp.
It was just the three of us now, the rest of the group having taken the equipment we'd been allowed to raid from the armory back to Havsue, to be both studied for reproduction and sold. Originally it was just going to be me; I had a little something in my backpack now that Coyote wanted me to deliver to Sutter Buttes. But both Sarah and Heather had decided that they were coming along. Apparently they had become as attached to me as I now was attached to them.
That was something different for me; I'd always been something of a 'player' back home. I'd grown up a bit rough around the edges and gotten in trouble more than once and run with the wrong kind of people more times than I could remember. But the girls had all liked my 'bad boy' image and even if it wasn't really more than an image, I wasn't afraid to take advantage of it.
But becoming this involved with not one, but two, women was something I still wasn't sure how to deal with. At first I think it was just me trying to hold on to something, anything, after my life had been turned completely upside down. Thinking back on it, I was probably more afraid of being alone than even Heather was. But now? For the first time in my life I was actually starting to care about someone other then me, other than Paul, the kid from south Sacramento who thought he had an angle on everything.
"Hi," Sarah said coming up to me and giving me a kiss as I came into our little camp. Sarah was an interesting contrast. Where Heather was long and lean with a fair amount of muscle under an impressive figure, Sarah was much curvier. Not to say Heather wasn't a very attractive young woman, she was! But Sarah had long dark brown hair that went all the way down to her butt, where Heather was a redhead with much shorter hair she kept in a pageboy cut. Sarah's skin was a nice tan, while Heather's was very light with freckles, being of obviously Irish heritage. Sarah's physical features appeared to be more of a cross between oriental and Mexican, best as I could figure it. She also didn't look like the kind of woman who 'roughed it', her nails were always immaculate, and she wore polish on both her fingernails and toenails, unlike Heather who loved to wear buckskin, even if she sometimes wore it tight enough to look like a second skin.
But Sarah was very much able to rough it, and last night had taught me the best way to skin and butcher the rabbits that Heather had shot. All while remaining remarkably clean. Of course, Sarah was a magic user, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that had something to do with her impeccable neatness.
"So, where is Heather?" she asked, looking around. "Getting dinner?"
I nodded, that was another thing about Sarah I'd noticed, her language was always rather precise.
"So, Riggs' army moved off a ways to the east to bed down for the night," I told her. "With any luck, we can start moving off again in the morning."
"That would be..."
We were interrupted then by the sound of one of Sarah's wards suddenly going off. Grabbing my rifle I pushed her inside the old abandoned house we were staying in, jumping inside as well, then ducking to the side and using the edge of the doorframe as partial cover as I pulled my rifle around.
They started shooting at us almost immediately, and I pulled my head back as the doorframe exploded from the impact of the bullets.
"Orcs!" I said and I dropped down to lie prone on the floor, pointing my gun out the door and taking a couple of shots in return, to try and slow them down.
Sarah swore and moved further away from the door, into the shadows of the old building and out of sight.
"How many?" She asked.
I rolled onto my side and took a couple more shots as I looked out the doorway.
"Looks like four," I said as I quickly rolled back into cover as they returned fire.
"Use the window," she said and started to chant something, while moving her hands.
I rolled over until I was under the window, then getting to my knees I readied myself and my rifle. Popping up, I could see one of them was moving towards the horses. I fired a three-round burst, aiming at the center of mass.
All three rounds hit, and he staggered back, but where a normal human would be on the ground in pain and probably dying, orcs were made of tougher stuff. I fired another burst as he ducked into cover, firing his own rifle towards the house.
I then looked for the others, who were now all taking cover and returning fire.
"These four must have deserted during the night," Sarah said as she stopped chanting. "They were probably hiding out until they decided it was safe enough to sneak off."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I blocked the doorway," she said motioning towards it. I noticed that the air in the doorway had a slight distortion effect to it now.
"Anyone trying to pass through it will become stuck for a short while. Please do not shoot through it."
"Okay," I said while nodding and looking back out the window, "now is there anything you can do to kill them?"
"I would rather save my strength in case there are more of them," she told me. "I would suggest you start picking them off."
I sighed and set my rifle for single shot. I'd rather have my railgun, but I didn't want to leave my spot by the window, in case they should charge. Moving back a bit further from the window so I wouldn't be too obvious to their eyes, I put my rifle to my shoulder and carefully leaned to my left, so I could see them.
Hopefully they wouldn't see me as well.
I was trying to draw a bead on the head of one of them using the scope on the rifle when its head suddenly exploded with a loud 'thump,' like you'd hear if you dropped a fairly ripe watermelon on a concrete floor.
I switched my aim quickly to another one, and its head exploded with a 'thump' as well, so I moved to the one on the far left, skipping the one in between. He must have realized something was up, as he shifted his focus from the house to something off to my right.
But in doing so he exposed himself to my line of fire and I put two shots into his head in quick succession, dropping him as I heard another 'thump'.
I looked around quickly, none of them were moving, but I wasn't going to expose myself just yet.
"I only saw those four," I called out the window.
"There are about a dozen more to the south," I heard Heather call back.
"How far?" Sarah asked, coming up behind me.
"About three hundred yards, but they're in the trees, so I don't have a clear shot at them."
I slung my gauss rifle and quickly went and got my heavier railgun, and turned it on. I moved towards the door then that Sarah had removed her barrier spell from.
"Cover me, the both of you," she said in a soft voice. I could see Heather was climbing up onto the roof of the old house.
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
"This," she said and then moving her arms in a strange pattern that my eyes had trouble following she said a string of nonsense sounding words in a voice that I could barely hear. Then she whipped her hands up above her head as she closed her hands into fists, then snapped them forward as she opened her hands and flung a bunch of bright objects into the trees.
I turned to follow them and rather than impact the trees as I thought they would, they flew around them, deeper into the trees. I lost sight of most of them, but I was able to follow one right to its target, a rather large orc that screamed as it was hit and burst into flames.
"That got eight of them!" Heather called down from the roof, where she was lying prone and watching them through the scope on her rifle.
"What about the rest of them?" Sarah asked.
"They got the message and are running off to the south."
"Think they'll come back?" I asked the two of them.
Sarah shook her head, "Orcs are smart enough to know that if they come back, they will die. I am more worried about Riggs and his army however."
"I don't think that was loud enough for them to hear," I told her. The rifles all had integral silencers, not that they were all that loud to start with, seeing as they didn't use gunpowder.
"That will depend on where they have their scouts," Sarah said. "Also, offensive magic has an effect that can be heard, if any are listening for it."
I sighed, "And Riggs' mages with definitely be listening for it, after the fight they've had the last two days."
"Yes, I am afraid that they know we are out here."
"Time to move camp!" Heather said and slid down off the roof, landing on her feet close by.
We spent the next five minutes quickly packing up our gear and saddling the horses.
"Do you think they'll investigate?" I asked after we'd finished and mounting our horses we headed off to the west.
"I doubt it," Heather said, "but why take the chance?"
I had to agree with that. To the west of us was a rather large estate, the buildings of which were now in complete ruins. We'd circle around the far side and find a spot to the north of it to spend the night. In the morning we'd follow Riggs and his army, once they started moving again.
"You know, this would be a lot easier if we could travel with them," Heather said.
"I suspect he thinks I'm dead," I grumbled at her, "and I'd rather not change that."
"But he's failed twice now," she said grinning, "surely he'll stop trying now!"
"I'd rather not go for three, okay?"
"Stop teasing him, Heather," Sarah said, speaking up. "You know the Navajo do not use women warriors, and they would more than likely relieve you of Conan there."
"Conan?" I asked looking over at Heather, who was now blushing, and then back at Sarah who was smiling faintly. "Who's Conan?"
"She named her railgun Conan."
I blinked, "As in 'Conan the Destroyer'?"
Sarah nodded and Heather turned an even brighter shade of red.
"You have heard of him?" Sarah asked.
"I'm surprised the stories are still around," I admitted and then looked at Heather. "But who would name their rifle after a big barbarian with a sword and a penchant for slave girls? I mean...."
"Okay!" Heather huffed loudly, "It was a bad idea and I won't bring it up again!"
I looked at Sarah who was grinning at the two of us.
"Gee, and here I was feeling bad for naming my rifle 'Red Sonja,'" I said and winked at Sarah.
"Enough!" Heather grumbled and kicked her horse to move further ahead of us.
"Well, I guess that survived too," I said with a smirk.
"Apparently," Sarah agreed.