Chapter 7 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

Erik jogged over to the Vehpolis lines, the guards had fatigue eteched into their expressions, but determination and duty held them upright.

“Thank you sir, we used up all the spell scrolls that could deal with Devourers,” One man stepped forward and bowed his head.

“No worries, my guys like to improvise, Erik dropped down into a couch against a pile of rubble that had been a house.

Storbon ran back over to his team, coordinating with Roska and Tully.

Yao Meng caught his eye and waved him over.

Erik grunted to standing and jogged over.

They were using what had been a trading stall to share map information.

Erik pulled out his map and touched it to the Vehpolis guard’s map.

North is the worst, where the section of the mountain fell in, nearly at the central plaza, the East and West are folding in, South is holding the furthest from the mountain. Where we are,” Yao Meng said, pointing at the forces across the map. “They’ve been using spell scroll as their main way to deal with the Devourers, don’t have many strong enough to deal with it.”

Erik’s helmet rang with a notification from command.

Eri held up his hand listening to it.

“We have broken through to connect up with Vehpolis forces to the south. Teleportation formations will be shifted from deployment locations to the new link up locations. Vehpolis locations will collapse to theses southern teleportation formations, get dug in. Bombing runs have been successful in dealing with most tears around the city. Whatever is inside the city is what we’ve got left to fight.” Glosil’s voice ended with the message.

Erik opened up his team chat, adding in Raddich. “We’re going to fortify this location, anyone with teleportation formations, Storbon you gather them all, your team is on defense and teleportation hub building. The rest of our units will be converging on our locations,” Erik looked around the area, shops, a church, houses, it looked like a Victoria suburb.

He saw people peeking out the door of the church, over pews they’d stacked at the door to block it off.

Erik was standing inside a shared courtyard by three story houses shaped into a rectangle.

“Yao, keep talking to him, anything we can learn, relay to higher,” Erik pointed at the guard leader.

“On it,” Yao turned and started asking questions. Erik jogged into the center of the buildings, his domain stretching over them confirmed there was no one there.

He fused and compressed the ground, making sure it was level he collapsed what of the buildings hadn’t been destroyed already and started working, creating several bunkers back from the street, facing outward.

“Roska, get some people to clear out those buildings to the south, they’re blocking my view!” Erik yelled as he reinforced walls to create barricades from houses, pulled stone and metal from rubble to create obstacles.

Roska and her people tore down buildings with attack spells while Storbon’s people hastily erected defenses.

A flare appeared above the position.

“The hell is that?” Erik asked.

“Signal to the civilians to gather here, they’re all over the place,” Yao Meng apologized.

“As long as it works.”

Storbon’s team put down teleportation pads, lighting up only a few minutes later as the Dragon corps started pushing out.

“Yao, get me some local guides!”

Erik waved the officers over.

“You take your people down that way, create defenses as you go, knock down anything between your position and ours, we can’t make a solid line but I want us with interlinking arcs of fire, this here is your guide,” Erik waved over Yao’s guides.

Corvettes from the Attack fleet howled overhead, tracking around the city, hunting down devourers and tears.

Kestrels came in to land in an open square, dropping off soldiers and supplies.

“Anything for me?” Erik asked.

“No sir.”

“Alright, get going,” Erik said. Tian Cui, Yao Meng’s second in command jogged over to him.

“We’re moving all the civilans we can back to Kircross,” She gestured at the church with her chin, people were funnelling out and to the pads as more Alvan soldiers were exiting.

“Got four in and eight out, two to one.”

“Sounds good, I want some eyes around us, take five others and get alarm formations out infront.”

“Already done, Team Two.”

“Alright,” Erik accessed his command chat. “Tully, Roska, get Raddich and her people to take over the defensive, Tully, Roska, I’m with your teams, Yao Meng, Storbon you two will be together. Move to the teleportation hub, we’re quick reaction now.”

“Yah, Devourer hunters,” Yao Meng whistled as Erik and Tian Cui returned to his stall.

“How we looking?” Erik asked.

“We’re securing the southern defensive line, pushing up the East and West some, inside the mountain is the problem, like a damn ants nest in there and the Shattered are bulldozing through while the residents are running through the streets. Units getting cut off and shit, its not pretty.”

Erik Grimaced.

“And if we go in there, we’re just going to add to the confusion.”

“Yeah, Glosil has the Tigers creating a defensive line at the mountains, something to offer the Elevenths a stop.”

“Elevenths.”

“Well, not of the tenth realm, elevenths, or shattered, add in some spice.”

“Whatever,” Erik smiled.

“Good news, well, if its that, the people that were in the north, the civvies, now they’re running down here to the south, most of the teleportation formations were in the mountain. They can collapse those defensives, they were a meat grinder. Bad news, we’re going to be quickly swarmed by people.”

“Are we sure that there are not shattered in here,” Erik gestured at the area between lines.

“We don’t think so.”

Erik checked objective and unit locations. “That mountain is going to be the biggest pain in our ass,” Erik stabbed at it with his finger. “Filled with shattered, covered and we’re not allowed to shoot blindly.”

“Why not?” Yao Meng asked.

“Something about, personal property damage and all that.”

“House values all time low,” Tian Cui said as another series of houses were destroyed to clear their line of sight.

Shooting close broke out as all three faced off with the noise.

Sporadic fire turned into a massed rage, and died with several dull thumps of explosions.

“Guys on our right flank found a group of devourers in the sewers.” Tully said.

“Got it, thanks for the update,” Erik said, across the city, one could hear the fighting continuing.

Erik ducked as an accelerator fired overhead, followed by a second, a third and a fourth, the explosions far off in the distance could still be heard even across the city.

“I fucking love having superior firepower.” Yao Meng said.

“Supposed to be twenty of them around here, Erik checked the map, in the corner a tally had been created. “We’ve got six of them in the ground.”

“And fourteen wandering.” Tian Cui said.

“It was a guess and you know how guesses can be,” Erik said.

“Under or over, nearly never on.”

“Give the lady a prize.” Erik laughed.

“Scramble Scramble Scramble, Devourer Delta seventeen, Even teams your closest.”

Erik checked the grid square, finding the pin.

“Yao?”

“We’re ready to rock and roll.”

“Go.”

Yao Meng and Tian Cui took off running towards their waiting Kestrel, perched ontop of the church, they jumped using broken building and spells to climb up. Their team and Storbons jumped up to the Kestrel she and her partner moving their wings for flight.

The ramp closed up with the last team member as the Kestrels carrying ten Special team members each climbed up into the sky with their two sparrow wings in support.

Erik watched them as they disappeared from sight, his eyes fell on the main fleet that was positioning itself to the southern side of the mountain.

It was a race now, get out the people of Vehpolis as fast as possible, and collapse their forces quicker than the Shattered could create more tears hidden in the mountain or overrun the Alvan positions.

Retaking that mountain later is going to be a stone cold bitch.

***