WilliamDArand
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RoR 3 -Ch13-
🕑 Added 2021-11-24 17:59:52 +0000 UTCWarner couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.
Looking to the streets below, he could see that it was actual chaos down there. Though, at the very least, it was managed chaos.
There was a great many soldiers that were everywhere. All of them were armed and they weren’t hesitant to point weapons at anyone who approached.
Kitted out completely in what looked to be a full deployment, they were in armor, carrying rifles, had communication equipment, and mechanized support.
Atop a great many buildings that he could see as he went by Warner saw people setting up antennae. Along with that they were setting up a great deal of electronics as well as what looked like prefab building materials that they were simply putting together.
A lot of these soldiers noticed him. Many of them would watch the sky as he flew by overhead, only to ignore him after looking away again.
They were either aware of who he was, and didn’t regard him as a threat, or were too busy in their own endeavors. Warner really wasn’t quite sure which one it was, but he was sure he didn’t want to deal with them.
It would likely only cause him more problems that would take more time to solve. Time he didn’t have right now.
“Doesn’t really match what was on the news!” shouted Dayine from his right side. “It’s obvious they were told what to say now!”
“Indeed!” responded Inger from his other side. “It would seem whoever is in charge is no longer letting the media report freely!”
Definitely.
Likely whoever is in charge of all these soldiers, too.
They’re not working for the government at the very least. No arm patches. No visible insignia at all.
They don’t feel human, either. Distinctly a Para species though what I can’t tell.
This is all so confusing.
“They’re Cambion!” Inger shouted as they kept flying. Their destination was the Fed building Mark was at. He wasn’t responding to phone calls or text messages. That meant Warner had to track him down in person.
Cambion?
What the hell is a Cambion.
Whatever.
Warner dismissed the thoughts as the Fed building came into view.
On the top of it were a number of the same soldiers he’d seen elsewhere. These, however, looked like they were holding the roof as a strong point and resource dump.
Or so Warner guessed from the large helicopter offloading crates and boxes.
Quite a few of the soldiers were setting up some type of defensive point at the door that led into the building. More than a couple had their weapons drawn and pointed at the doorway itself.
“The roof looks better than the street!” Dayine stated, causing Warner to blink and then look to the bottom of the building.
There was a bunker that’d been set up in front of the doors to the Fed. It was manned with machine guns and was nearly completely enclosed.
Those behind the guns weren’t wearing the same uniforms as those that Warner had been seeing everywhere else. These uniforms happened to look a lot like a foreign army that even had shoulder patches and rank insignia there.
Spread out in the buildings around the bunker were the soldiers Warner had actually been expecting. Hiding behind corners, taking cover behind vehicles, and even on the buildings nearby looking down.
There were bodies laid out in the area between the bunker and elsewhere of both side. Some were still moving as if only wounded but unable to clear the area.
Warner felt something different now, however.
From those in the foreign uniforms Warner felt a great deal of injustice coming from them. Even at this distance he could feel the wrongness of them. The injustice that they’d wrought on others and even now were participating in.
This was an unjust fight that they were engaged in. An unprovoked battle that they’d launched without warning, without mercy, and sparing no one.
“The street!” Warner said as the Golden power of Retribution rose up inside him. Revenge and Redemption were ready to be used and support Retribution, but weren’t pushing to the front.
This wasn’t their area to work in.
Flinging his hand out to the side Warner summoned his power to his hand. A flaming sword appeared and trailed out behind him. Even as he pulled in his wings and began to angle himself downward to the bunker he could feel the power of Retribution growing.
Flooding out of him and forming itself into a type of slanted plane it formed a barrier between himself and the bunker. It also covered Dayine and Inger as well.
When the bunker opened fire on them, spraying them liberally with machine gun rounds, they all struck the Golden glow and slid off. Not a single round would reach Warner or his companions.
Even as hundreds of rounds bounced, slid off, and deformed against that Golden wall, Warner and his two companions closed.
“They all deserve righteous cleansing!” shouted Warner as he grasped hold of Retribution completely. “Spare them not and give them their ends!”
To his left Inger blazed with a golden light as bright as his own. Dayine on his right grew just as bright, though in her azure hue that was unique to her. Unmistakably to his eyes though was that there were golden streaks moving through her aura as well.
Warner didn’t stop even as he reached the bunker. Aiming for the faceless soldier manning that gun emplacement, Warner simply flew right into them.
Or more accurately, through them.
The speed and power of his flight broke the soldier in half at the waist. Tearing him into two separate pieces. One that screamed as it hit the ground and began to flop about, and another that fell backward from the waist down and moved no more.
Slamming into the ground afterward Warner bounced and then slapped into a wall.
Getting his feet under himself in a flash he raised his sword and simply went for whoever was closest to him. A soldier with a handgun pointed in Warner’s direction.
The gun began to fire, the rounds splattering against Warner’s power and doing nothing at all.
Swinging upward from the side Warner caught the man at the elbow. Cutting it free from the man’s body at that point, the hand and handgun tumbling to the ground.
The soldier had a moment to scream into their mask before Warner lashed out with his sword again. Their cry silenced as the tip of his sword exploded through their face and out the back of their skull.
Whipping the sword out through the side of their face Warner turned and looked for another opponent.
Inger was in midswing after beheading someone and Dayine was a step beyond her, backing several soldiers up into a corner. All three of them unwilling to face her directly.
Beyond that Warner could see the field of fire the bunker held. Cambion soldiers were now rushing toward them since the machine gun had been made silent.
From them all Warner felt nothing that would cause his sense of justice to become positive or negative. They were neutral or only very slightly to one side or the other of the scales.
Which was rather strange if they were soldiers, or so Warner felt.
Before he could actually decide how to handle them they were rushing into the hole Warner had made. Clambering over everything and more or less ignoring him, Inger, and Dayine.
Though they were quick to pounce on the soldiers Dayine had cornered.
“Will you be going into the building, Yellow-Eyes?” asked one of the soldiers. Warner could see it was a woman who had red glowing eyes behind her face mask.
“I must,” Warner said, letting his golden sword sink down to his side.
“We’ll hold the roof and the door,” said the woman. “Please let those inside know that they should remain in side for the time being. We’re still working to maintain order.”
Warner didn’t reply to that, but he didn’t disagree with their wish. It would probably be best for those inside to remain inside. The streets were clearly perilous at the moment.
Glancing to Dayine and Inger he saw they would go with whatever he said. They were looking to him for direction.
Turning, Warner head to the back of the bunker. It was practically built on top of the doors that led into the Fed building. To exit the bunker, he entered the building.
Standing in the entryway, he saw a small enclosure facing into the building. On the other side were desks, tables, chairs, and corpses. Everything had been stacked up into an impromptu barrier.
They were holding this position while attacking the Fed building. Is that it?
“Looks like it was some type of breach attack,” Inger said from his left. “Though I don’t see anyone from either side. Did… the battle move?”
Moving forward once again, Warner began to take a path through the war-torn entry and over the barricade. As soon as he got to the other side he could see that Inger was right. There were corpses of what looked to be Fed agents laid out here and there. Interspersed throughout were the corpses of the soldiers in foreign colors.
“The agents at least made a good showing of themselves,” Dayine muttered as she joined Warner on the other side.
Nodding his head, Warner moved ahead again only to stop once he reached the elevator bay.
Ahead, just before the bay, was yet another checkpoint. This one was set up facing the elevators and the hallway that lead to the stairs. It was obvious they were keeping anyone from coming down or leaving, but they also couldn’t go up.
Dayine and Inger leapt into action before Warner could process a response to what was laid before him. They dove into the enemy ranks and began slaughtering them while their attention was on their duties.
It was over in seconds, the soldiers laid low in pools of their own blood.
With a sniff, Warner walked over to the hall that led to the stairs.
Looking through the doorway he realized that there were probably Fed agents in the stairwell or above. Holding out against enemies trying to push in.
Standing there at the door, he cleared his thoughts quickly.
“Hello the stairwell,” Warner called through the doorway. “This is Yellow-Eyes, we’ve cleared the entry and elevator bay of hostiles. The front of the building is also now clear and… held… by Cambion.
“Is Mark up there? Could I speak with him?”
“Mark?” called back an unfamiliar voice.
“Director Mark Ehrich,” Warner yelled. “Again, my name is Yellow-Eyes, and I’ve been working on conjunction with him.”
“One minute,” yelled the other person. They sounded considerably less tense and if anything relieved.
Well, now we just wait.
***
“Uhm,” Dayine intellectually said while they stood at the doorway.
“Uhm indeed,” replied Warner. He wasn’t really looking at anything, but straining to hear anything he could from inside the stairwell.
“That is… err… weren’t… you going to kiss me?” asked Dayine after finding the words she wanted.
Stunned, Warner turned to look at her. She was staring at him resolutely as if she wasn’t kidding. That her words were actually quite serious.
“You… can’t be serious,” Warner said after several seconds passed.
“I mean… we’re alone, kinda running on some adrenaline right now but starting to dip, nothing else to do,” Dayine reasoned aloud. The logic sounded somewhat wrong to Warner but he could imagine how she thought it was correct.
She didn’t adhere to human standards after all. This might be perfectly within the realm of “makes sense” to her.
“I’m here?” said Inger in what sounded more like a question.
“Yeah, but you’d just turn around if I asked,” Dayine said, giving Inger an odd look. As if what she’d said didn’t even need to be questioned.
“Oh, yeah, that makes sense,” murmured Inger with a nod of her head. Then she promptly turned her back to Warner and Dayine, looking back toward the elevator bay.
The soldiers who secured the bunker didn’t come into the building, but were just outside the doors. Now actively manning the machine gun emplacement.
Apparently the winged ones line up more closely than I thought. I’m the odd one out I guess.
This just doesn’t feel like the right time at all, though.
“I mean, I guess I could take care of that now,” said Warner in an unsure tone. “It just feels like wrong place, wrong time.”
“I promise I don’t care, it’ll be fine,” she assured him with an odd laugh and a hand gesture. “So… how about you just do what you said you would?”
Warner thought on that for several seconds, realized there wasn’t a reason not to. With a mental shrug he decided to go with it then started to move closer to Dayine.
“Yellow-Eyes? Is that actually you?” called a voice from inside the stairwell.
Snapping out of his thoughts and halting in mid lean toward Dayine, Warner then stood up.
“Mark?” asked Warner, his thoughts about kissing vanishing in a flash. Turning away from the Angel Warner went up to the doorframe. “Is that you?”
“Sure shit is. I take it you’re the one who came and rescued us?” Mark asked, his voice getting closer. “Does that make me a princess and you a white knight?”
“NO!” shouted Dayine with a voice that sounded like it was about to boil over with rage. “No, it doesn’t. It makes you the damned villain!”
The next second had Mark coming through the door. He was wearing a ballistic-vest that had FED written across the front of it. At his hip was a holster with a handgun on it. Additionally to that he had an entire harness that had multiple magazines, grenades, and other things hanging from it.
Held in front of himself looked to be a shortened combat-rifle.
I think… he was active duty at one point, wasn’t he? I think Gus mentioned it. He and Mark served together.
“Well, I dunno about the villain,” Mark said with a wide shit eating grin. “But if I have three angels coming to my rescue every time I have an issue, just call me Princess and find me a damn tiara that’ll fit.
“Cause I’ll be honest, it was looking a bit problematic for us there. The mercs couldn’t get past the machine gun and we couldn’t get down. It was all fucked without much of an option.”
“They’re mercenaries?” Inger asked, causing Mark’s head to turn and look to her.
“Yeah. They’re… well… someone I know runs them. Kinda a friend of the family at this point I guess you could say,” Mark said with a chuckle. Then he glanced backward toward the stairwell, then back to Warner.
Mark reached into a pocket of his vest with his left hand and Warner felt a subtle wave of magic roll over them. It felt almost like some type of sphere.
“There, now we can talk freely,” Mark said, pulling his hand back out of his pocket. Whatever he had in there could stop the travel of sound. “It’s your uncle’s mercenary company. Incubus-Sucubus, Inc. They’re all Cambion, all women. Tough as fucking nails, too.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of them lately. Very reliable and totally worth whatever their cost is. Your aunt Jezebel owns it. Decima is the commanding officer and runs it with Irene, Stacia, and Caer. Nasty fucking think tank right there.”
“Oh,” Warner said in an almost idiotic way. He knew his aunts had some type of security business, he just never knew it was a mercenary company. A lot of things suddenly made more sense as well.
“That’s why they just watched us,” Dayine said in a growl. It was obvious she was still mad at Mark for interrupting her would-be kiss. “They all saw us flying by, didn’t even bother to life a weapon towards us. Just watched us go by as if it were the most natural thing in the world.”
“Yeah, no, can’t imagine they’d ever even point a weapon at your group,” Mark said with a laugh. “Decima would fucking cook their ovaries in a chowder and then serve it back to them if they did. I brought you up in passing once to her and she went full doting aunt in a snap.
“I plan on using that little get-out-of-jail free card whenever I fuck up. Never knew there was an off switch for her but whatever. If it works, it works.”
Warner couldn’t help but grin at that. He could see auntie Decima getting riled up with Mark. She was always fairly no-nonsense and Mark was almost entirely nonsense.
“So, what’s going on on your end?” Warner asked. “We came to check in and then to tell you what we knew. Because this… all of this… isn’t what you probably think it is at all.”
“You mean beyond a false flag attack?” Mark asked, looking like he wanted to suck on a lemon.
“Exactly,” Inger said.
“Damnit. As if that wasn’t bad enough,” grumbled Mark, then he sighed. “Just… how bad is it?”
“Well… we’re going to be fighting a nasty cunt that’s just as old as I am, which is whatever untold millenia that is, and she gains power the more we fight them so… probably pretty bad,” Dayine said with a shake of her head. “Pretty fucked, yeah.”
“Great,” Mark said pressed a hand to his brow. Warner expected some type of comment, but Mark said nothing more.
Which meant his own side of things was pretty bad as well, Warner imagined.
Right now, nothing seemed to be going his way.
Comments
Peter
Now, the questions. Is Warner Aleric? I was also wondering earlier if Bianca or Claire was War. That doesn't really fit after reading the last few chapters. War was created by Ryker and he didn't know they were alive until well into this struggle. Now Runner could have done it, but Claire and Bianca were under Zeus's control. I don't see how that would have worked, since Runner was supposed to have created War. This speculation was based on a recollection that Bianca was War from an earlier story. Perhaps it was that War looked like Bianca and so could have been either Claire or Bianca. Of course, I might have misread or misunderstood the text.
Peter
So, Ryker created War to encourage struggle and war which sparked her betraying Runner on this world. That betrayal fooled Zeus into thinking he won that conflict. Runner and Ryker was left to sniping at Zeus around the edges. Zeus doubled down on that victory and committed more and more of his processing power to managing that world. All the while War continues to foster conflict to increase her power and drawing more and more of Zeus' processing power to keep things in check. Zeus can't walk away without forsaking he foothold in the network of servers. To walk away is to lose his war with Srit. If he continues to fight, War's escalation will destroy everything including him. It appears that Ryker wants to strike when Zeus is 100% committed to keeping the worlds together. So, Warner needs deescalate enough that War is no longer drunk with power, then redirect her desire for conflict in ways that allows Srit to destroy Zeus' presence in the network if not destroy him totally without allowing War to run amok. Very Nice! That was an elegant device tying all the stories together.
