The Siege Against Tolkeen

It was a chaotic, frightening day in the city of Tolkeen. The fear of war gripped everyone by the throat, as the Dead Boys came closer and closer to achieving their murderous imperative. Most people were huddled inside their homes, listening to battery-powered radios for news from the front. A few pessimists had built shelters in basements and abandoned buildings, praying that they would be able to avoid the wrath of the Coalition States by hiding. But most people were just hoping for the best. Why bother hiding from an enemy whose mutant shock troopers can just sniff you out? Why build flimsy barricades against guns that can cut through solid steel?

In a city of magic, to suddenly lose all sorcerous power is especially damaging. Common techno-wizard appliances, taken for granted by most, were suddenly useless, and everyone felt their loss. A few people were forced to go to the hospital when their magical augmentations or prostheses shut down, and quite a few patients on techno-wizard life support equipment were plunged into critical condition or worse. The most common means of transportation and communication were shut down, forcing a state of solitary confinement on the innocent people of Tolkeen. There were only two places in town where large numbers of civilians had gathered.

One of these was the religious district, the area of Tolkeen where most of its churches had been built. People crowded inside to pray, to make their peace with whatever gods they worshipped, and to take comfort from each other's presence. Even those who didn't believe in any divine presence and those who just hadn't stepped inside a house of worship for years ducked into various temples.

The other place was the Rift-gates. They had been shut down to conserve magical energy for Shaard's ritual, but hundreds had come anyway, in the hope that they would be allowed to flee if things went bad. This was a truly chaotic place. Entire families huddled together, their possessions carried in carts or suitcases. A few enterprising souls were selling extra suitcases and shopping carts at exorbitant prices, proving that capitalism thrives under even the most adverse conditions. A mighty guardian seraph carrying a sword watched over the masses, making sure that everything was orderly, even as would-be lords and unmentionable beings tried to spread chaos for the fun of it. Groups of scholars passed the hours in heated conversations. Occasionally some of them, their nerves already tensed by the war, would start to fight, but these scuffles were broken up quickly by the vigilant angel. There were indeed some odd characters in that motley crowd. A wandering necromancer, newly arrived in town to take advantage of the many war dead, amused a small group of children by animating hot dog wieners. A robotic crow set up a money-changer's table, offering currency conversion to the refugees. Gargoyles, lunatics, wizards, and even stranger folk were all gathered at that meeting place, talking and laughing and trying to enjoy themselves a bit in the face of utter calamity. In the back, a ghoul wearing a scavenged CS uniform scribbled down notes about the scene, thinking that maybe he would publish a book about it someday.

The D-bee mercenaries guarding the Great Pyramid looked around nervously. Their best weapons, those powered by sorcerous energy, were now worthless. The walls of the pyramid behind them were hot to the touch, and a couple of the brodkil guards had burned themselves badly against it. And even worse, they could hear the guns of the Coalition getting closer and closer. Flashes of artillery fire lit up the horizon like distant thunder, and every few minutes a burning ship would plunge to the earth like a shooting star. The fact that the mercenaries weren't very trusting of their employer (trusting one's employer was like suicide in their profession) didn't help one bit.

Suddenly, there was a flash of blue light, and what appeared to be an elf in jet-black armor appeared in front of the main gates. Before anyone could react, it walked through the electrified barbed wire fence as if the metal was nothing more than string. The monstrous guard hounds ran from the intruder, yelping in panic. The guards manning the brick wall panicked as well, opening fire on the elf. They were armed with Atlantean, Triax, and Mindwerks weapons, some of the finest firearms in the world. The guns did nothing, bouncing off the armor of this intruder. Then the elf looked up, and the guards caught fire.

The wall exploded, bringing several more of the mercenaries down with it. From the left, a wave of gargoyles and brodkil soldiers charged. With a flick of his wrist, the monster solidified the air around them, stopping them dead in their tracks and suffocating them horribly. From the right, guards crouched behind any cover they could find as they plinked energy blasts off of his armor. The elf looked at them, said a word, and they all aged centuries in seconds, turning to dusty skeletons before even hitting the ground. The mighty defenders of the pyramid were now dead, dying, or fleeing for their lives. The elf smiled, and turned to his prize.

The doors were well-warded. Breaking them down or passing through without permission would be nearly impossible. Likewise, the walls had been enchanted to resist any physical or magical assault. Fortunately, Shaard had not been crafty enough to weave such potent magicks into the floor of his fortress. The monster turned insubstantial for a moment, dove into the ground, and then rose up again into the pyramid. The fiend knew that there would be many more wards and guards before he could face Shaard, but knew that he could reach the wyrm in time. It wouldn't be long now.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Jack Perrin, as his APC pulled up to the streets surrounding the Great Pyramid. A portion of both the exterior and interior barricades had been knocked down, and dead guards littered the ground. Some of them seemed to have been roasted from the inside out, almost as if a plasma grenade had gone off inside their stomachs. Some of them were suspended in midair, forever trapped in their dying moment. Some of them were only skeletons and ashes. And a few had just been blown to bits.

"I don't know, but it's a good thing it happened," said Possman. "We were short-manned due to this morning's raid. Doesn't look like it's going to be a problem now."

"Could still be trouble," replied Perrin. "Remember, the rest of the Tolkeen army isn't going to take this lying down. I want everyone to take strategic positions along the interior wall. Tell the men to grab up any weapons they see lying around, because it looks like the bad guys had better ordinance than we do. And then find me the people I picked out for the strike team, at least any who are still alive. We're going in."

As the Human Freedom Alliance troops took up positions along the interior wall, Perrin stormed towards the main doors, only to see the glowing runes carved into them. "Aw, crap," growled Perrin. "Should've expected it. How the hell are we supposed to get into this place now?"

"Stay back, damn you!" cried the elite guardsman. The sorcerer-soldier cast a powerful spell at the alien intelligence, a spell which the monstrosity barely managed to deflect. These mortals were surprisingly powerful. The monster drew its sword and bisected the human in one fluid movement. In that moment of distraction, another of the guards managed to get off a clean head shot. A beam of intense, searing energy blasted into the side of the alien intelligence's skull, instantly charring off most of the flesh. Although the monster's energies had somewhat fortified the flesh of its host body, it was not enough to deal with this attack. Most of the left side of its face was blown clear off, exposing the bone underneath. The fluids inside of its left eye instantly turned to steam, bursting the eyeball like an overinflated balloon.

A new one grew out from underneath. But this new eye was different from the old one. The old eye, the eye of the elf host, was blue and remained inside of the socket. This replacement was bright yellow, and was at the end of a three-inch tentacle growing out of the skull. New waves of greasy, blue-white flesh instantly re-grew where the laser had hit. They constantly moved and receded over the affected area, like an ocean made of some impossibly thick fluid.

Impossible, the monster thought, as it decapitated the guard who had shot it. The energies of this place are strong enough to remake me as I was! By killing Shaard, not only will I save my ally, I will heal my old wounds and regain my former body! The monster laughed, an unimaginably horrible sound, and charged into the other guardsmen with a terrible zeal.

"Hey!" shouted Perrin, as the rune-encrusted doors of the pyramid suddenly burst open. Two Tolkeen soldiers ran out, screaming with terror. One of them sprinted past Perrin, only to be shot down by the HFA gunmen manning the walls. Jack managed to grab onto the second one, twisting his arm to hold him in place.

"What's happened?" Perrin asked, noting the shocked expression on the young man's face.

"M-monster!" the soldier replied, pointing into the dark bowels of the pyramid. "We can't even slow it down! It's killed everyone! Everyone!"

Perrin frowned for a moment, calculating this new twist. "Good," he finally remarked. "Less guards for us to fight. If we're real lucky, maybe it'll even soften up the dragon for us." He tossed the panicked soldier out into the street, and watched him flee.

"Everyone who I picked out, get in here with me!" he ordered. "Be careful, we don't know what to expect in here." With the HFA's elite at his sides, he walked into the darkness, not knowing whether or not he would return.

"I must leave for a moment," said Shaard to the other sorcerers. "I trust that you will be able to channel the energy without me." With that, he teleported to his sanctum, carefully hidden in the catacombs of the pyramid. The others, caught up in the ritual, wouldn't have noticed that he was gone if not for the sudden extra strain. Shaard's portion of the PPE channeling had been so large that his sudden absence was felt by everyone.

Inside his personal chamber, Shaard peered into a row of crystal balls. In one of them, he saw the monster tearing through his best guards, slowly shedding its flesh as it did so. In a few minutes, it would no longer be remotely humanoid. Furthermore, it would be almost as powerful as the entity whose death would provide the explosive force behind the ritual. In another, he saw Perrin and his commandoes advancing through the tunnels of the pyramid. He saw the black-garbed CS troops charging ever closer towards Tolkeen's walls, and the decimated remains of several of Tolkeen's bases.

"This might be a problem," growled the dragon. "I can deal with the entity or Perrin, but not both at once. How fortunate that I already had a countermeasure. He motioned to the construct of flesh which was crouching in a corner of the room. "I have need for you, my dear," he said. As the construct, a horrid assembly of claws and armor and fangs stood, its features melted into those of Jack Perrin's dead wife.

Next Chapter

By David Haendler.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998 David Haendler. All Rights Reserved.