Wild Wastes 6 - ch 10-

Vince nervously scratched at his forearm.

He was sitting off to the side of the command room and listening. All the while he watched a tablet he’d borrowed from a Legionnaire.

There was a program that was actively running around inside the systems by the name of “Tribune” as of late. Apparently it was some project Felix had cooked up while he was “off world” and brought back with him.

Supposedly it was a Virtual Intelligence.

Or an Artificial Intelligence.

Vince didn’t really know, nor did he care, in truth. All he knew is that it was actively plotting out the changes in the front somewhere. The result was being projected to a screen Petra and a number of others were crowding around.

It was also on this little tablet that he could zoom around on without troubling the others. Because his curiosity had him zoomed in real close right now to North-America, rather than Europe.

While everyone else was fussing over what to do about the giant crimson cloud, he was more curious about what was going on with the Emperor and th Tri-Lliance.

Realistically, whatever happened here in Europe, wasn’t something he could personally address directly. Not yet at least.

This was some sort of magical attack that would require a magical response.

If the time came to go fight the Demon directly, then Vince would be in the vanguard.

A cloud that was thousands of feet above him made of magic, that ate magic, and could only be handled by magic, was certainly not something he need bother with.

Panning around, he was currently looking at the lands surrounding the Emperor’s fortress on the west coast. The approaches, the lay of the land, and what the world looked like when the photography was taken.

Thankfully that was only several weeks ago so nothing had likely changed. The unmoving siege lines that encircled the location weren’t exactly going to grow legs and walk themselves away.

The screen Vince was looking at suddenly changed.

He had a momentary thought that maybe he’d touched something but his fingers weren’t near any buttons.

Now though, the tablet was a live feed.

Or so he’d guess from the red “live” header at the top of the tablet. He wasn’t that dense, thankfully.

The view was of the front of the fortress of the Emperor, with the entrance just as the edge of the frame while most of it was centered around a group of people.

These people were all staring out toward the road that approached the fortress. Vince couldn’t tell who they were given the view was top down.

All he could see were helmets and tops of heads.

In the corner a small red circle appeared with an X through it.

Drone unavailable.

Huh.

Well, that’s interesting. I’ll have to see if we can’t get some drones.

Probably a hardware limitation.

Legion’s resources are stretched so horrifyingly thin.

Should be thankful that they got the armor for me the way they did.

Though why would the Emperor step outside of his fortress? It’s putting himself at risk.

Frowning, Vince tilted his head to the side.

“Tribune?” he mumbled aloud. He knew Tribune was actively listening to everything that was going on.

It was the only reasonable explanation he had as to who would’ve directed his view to this location as well.

“Yes, Vice-Legate Vince?” responded a voice from the Tablet. It sounded feminine and mature, though not old.

“Any reason you directed the view here?” he tried.

“It is current as of this moment. I assumed you’d want to know,” Tribune answered. “Do you plan on solving the issue of the Emperor?”

“I was thinking so, yeah,” admitted Vince. He hadn’t consulted anyone but he didn’t think anyone would object.

He could include it as part of the tour. When moving about Yosemite he could go handle the Emperor.

“I understand. Would you like me to put in any requisition needs for your trip?” Tribune asked.

Vince raised his eyebrows.

He rather liked the idea of having Tribune handle it for him, rather than relying on others.

Then he realized that he couldn’t actually do that.

There were people around him that had duties that overlapped with what Tribune was suggesting. He knew without even asking that those individuals took helping him out with such things as a privilege, not a problem.

“No. I have someone in my entourage who probably handles that. Just make sure to help them when it comes up,” Vince asked instead.

Watching the screen for a few moments he then zoomed it out.

He saw that there were a number of what looked to be artillery shells and bullets striking a shield. Some type of magical dome that surrounded the fortress.

Ah… he’s doing it in a display of power.

Yes. He’s a very arrogant and prideful man.

Let’s see if we can’t use that against him.

I’ll drop by Yosemite then swing west.

Looking up, he saw Petra, Leila, Zathira, Blue, Fes, and Yarris all working over the map of Europe.

Then he grinned.

He was looking forward to taking some time to himself and doing what he wanted. They didn’t need him here.

Then he looked further to the side and found Ynes, Renata, Johanna, and Sam playing some type of game. An etheral board hovering between them.

Likely conjured up by Johanna.

Red was sprawled out on the ground nearby and dozing.

And there’s my group to go with me. That’ll solve most everything.

***

“—Dionara and Charla changed groupings. Charla swapped with Renata and Dionara took Antona’s place,” Ynes explained to the bewildered Vince. “Antona an is going to join another group entirely which is what she wanted to do in the first place.

“Renata will join myself, Canae, and Dalia. Oh! And Safina. She’s a Blue Dragon that Renata was recruiting.”

Vince opened his mouth, closed it, gave it a shake, then looked to Renata.

She never lied to him even if it was to spare his feelings he’d found.

“It’s true. It wasn’t even hard. Hardly an inconvenience. We just transfered things around in the grove. It was easy! We did it while you were distracted. You didn’t even notice,” answered the Orange Dragon.

Standing next to her was an attractive Blue Dragon, Safina. The one Renata had been attempting to recruit into her group, which now encompassed Ynes and the two previously mentioned Elves.

She had dark blue hair that looked black in anything other than direct sunlight. Her horns were a blue similar to that of the sky and her eyes a pale ice-blue hue.

To say she was attractive was n understatement. She fit in quite well with Renata and Ynes.

“It really was very simple,” promised the Blue with a wave of her hand and a wide smile.

Sam flew down and set down on the ground. She put her hands to her hips and looked to distant fortress of the Emperor.

Rather than going to Yosemite first, Vince had elected in the end to take care of the problem first. Then go home.

To which everyone had quickly agreed.

A victory parade with the Emperor’s dead or captured was a real winning idea to everyone. No sooner than he’d suggested it then everyone had immediately agreed.

Apparently, everything they’d thrown at the Emperor so far had failed.

The news of those failures were starting to erode morale.

Coupled with the red cloud over Europe, it was easy to predict that there’d be a further decline in morale. Regardless of the fact that they’d made amazing progress, the simple reality was people would be concerned.

That and they’d been in a near constant state of war since Yosemite was founded. There was only so much of that a country could withstand before it became war-weary.

Even a country of warriors would eventually want for peace.

“Alright. Fine. It sounds more complex than you’re making it out to be, but fine,” Vince allowed, turning to look at the fortress. Gazing at it and wondering just how hard it would be to crack it open.

All the weapons sticking out of it were silent. From rifles to artillery pieces and everything in between everything, it was all quiet.

Quiet and unmoving.

They’d been that way for a long while, too.

The Emperor was acting as if the siege didn’t exist at all. Going about his life as if there weren’t a problem at all.

Other than to occasionally exit the fortress and stand in front of the gate from time to time. As if to goad them into trying to do something.

The Legion of Yosemite was taking the opportunity to expend excess, old, or questionable ammo. If anything using such ammo might drain whatever source the Emperor was using to stop it, as well as use ammunition that they weren’t sure of in actual combat either.

Though Vince did note there was a team of Engineers from the Legion R&D. A group the Whites belonged to.

He figured they were likely testing out new weaponry but he had no idea what they were actually here for.

“So what were you planning on doing here?” Sam inquired.

“Dunno. Probably walk over there and smash the door down,” Vince offered as if he’d labored over the plan for a while.

“You… what? You didn’t even bring the Sword of Yosemite,” Safina put in quickly.

“Don’t really need it anymore,” Vince admitted with a sniff. He’d been wondering for a while now just what his physical limits were anymore.

In a quiet moment he’d tried stabbing himself.

Then tried shooting himself.

His skin was impervious to both and didn’t even leave a mark behind, though they’d both stung a bit.

“Magic is more my issue and the suit only offers so much protection against that. If I try to use a Nullification shield inside of the suit it gets a little weird,” Vince continued. “I think… I think it’s at the point where I’m just better off going in my own flesh and bone.

“Besides, Fes can use the Sword of Yosemite, too. I left it for her and Petra to figure out what to do with it. I’m sure they can use her as a force multiplier just as they did with me.”

Johanna let out a short breath, then nodded her head.

“Yes, that all makes sense. To be fair, you’ve significantly changed since Seville defeated the demon in your name,” she offered as a possible answer to the unasked “why is Vince stronger” that everyone likely had. “Not to mention… well… you did eat the heart of the avatar. It might have been an avatar, but it was still part of the Demon himself.”

As if to denote the underlying thought she had about the heart, she pulled the canteen off her hip and took a small sip from it.

Noticing this, Red jerked the canteen off her own hip and did the same, watching Johanna as she did so. There was a moment where Red’s eyes flashed, then stoppered her canteen and put it back on her hip.

“Alright, time to get this going. Good opportunity to increase my legend. Make myself stronger for upcoming fights,” Vince declared and nodded his head. “I’ll be back. Everyone else just hang back.

“The Emperor has some type of mind ability and clearly had some other tricks up his sleeves. I’m feeling pretty… ah… good… right now. So I’m going to test the waters.

“Test myself. I guess… yeah.”

Flexing his hand Vince looked to his hand. Since Johanna had commented about him being a conduit the other day, he’d been prodding at himself.

At his powers, to be specific.

He was thinking that maybe he’d finally come up with a way to get results he wanted, with the limitations he was working under. After being taught by far too many people and having little to no success, he was eager to see if an answer had been found.

Turning his head, he looked out to the siege line not far off.

A series of bunkers, dugouts, emplaced weapons, and shield generators. All of them interlocked with the same or similiar defenses laid out on either side.

Chaining around until it encircled the entirety of the fortress.

Though it was a significant distance away.

A mile? Maybe more?

That’s still well within range of weapons. Quite a few in fact.

Can’t pass through the siege-shields without having my own in place.

Let’s try out a Nullifier shield outside and a shield like Zathira’s inside. She said it was just mana… magic… essence… right?

Time for a test or two, actually.

It’d be stupid to walk into that circle without being sure.

Vince mentally formed a Nullifier shield. He shaped it, put it together, then brought it to form.

All of it inside of the grove.

His power itself.

Then and only then did he let it be channeled outward. Outward of the grove and through himself.

Out and into the world.

He left a small tendril from the shield, back to, and through, himself, to the grove. Locking it there so that the shield would remain active.

Doing the same thing with a shield of mana, he shaped it in the grove, launched it out through himself, and tied off a tendril back to the grove.

Two spheres formed around Vince.

One was a bright blue and slowly revolved around him. The outter one was a pale yellow and unmoving.

“You… ah… you’ve got shields up,” Johanna murmured and reached out with a finger. She tentatively reached out and tapped the fingertip to the outter Nullifier shield.

The response was energetic.

A small crackle of what sounded like thunder sounded from it. Followed by a bright light.

Johanna jerked her hand away and looked to Vince with wide eyes, her mouth screwed up in a frown.

“Alright… well… that’s quite a shield,” she grumbled.

“What? Is it bad? Too much? Wrong?” asked Vince.

“No, it’s not bad, persay. Too much… certainly,” Johanna said, slowly leaning forward and peering at the shield. Though she made no move to touch it this time. “Nor is it wrong. It just isn’t what I expected.

“It’s a Nullifier shield but… much in the same way a sword is a dinner-knife. It… it ah… it drains whatever it touches rather than Nullifies. Though that’s essentially the same thing. Or at least, serving the same role and purpose.”

“Like a sword being a dinner-knife,” Vince said, repeating her comparison from earlier. He now understood what she meant. “Alright. And this other shield?”

Vince disconnected the outter Nullifier shield and let it dissipate into nothing at all.

Johanna wrinkled her nose, lifted a hand, and hesitantly tapped a finger against it.

Her finger indented at the tip as it pressed to the blue sphere.

She tapped at the shield several times.

Then she lifted a hand and slapped it into the shield.

“Ha,” she hissed then let loose with a bolt of lightning a foot away from the shield. The spell made bolt slithered across the shield until it finally faded away into a soft sizzle. “Yeah, your shield is fine. It won’t be breaching any time soon. Not sure how much it can take but I wouldn’t want to actually test it personally in a fight with you. Pretty sure it’d out last me.”

“Hey, does that mean I can finally take up a fight with magicians and win?” Vince asked with a laugh.

“If by win, you mean, run them down till they’re out of power, then yes,” Johanna confirmed.

“I mean, that’d be a win. I’d be the one standing in the end and they’d be the one dead and gone. Right? I’ll take it. Far better than it used to be for me,” Vince countered, sighed, and looked to the fortress. “Alright. I’m going to go see about our neighbor. Time for him to move.”

“You’re giving him an option?” Renata asked curiously.

“I mean… if he’s willing to surrender everything and just leave. Go to the Tri-Lliance, Prussany, or further and beyond… I wouldn’t care,” Vince answered honestly. “I’d take all his possessions and home in exchange for his life.

“But… let’s be real, that won’t happen. He’ll want to fight for his home, which I understand, and then he’ll have to die for it. That’s really how it goes.”

“Red thinks that’s what will happen,” agreed Red. “Though Red thinks you’re an idiot if you truly believe you’ll be walking out there all by yourself.

“Stupid.

“Moronic.

“Dumb.”

Red finished the last with a grunt then looked to Johanna.

“Imbecilic,” Johanna suggested. “Ludicrous. Foolish. Naive. Simpleminded!”

“Yes, yes. All those,” concurred Red, then looked back to Vince. “Red goes with you. We all go with you.”

“I mean, good on you for even bothering to tell him,” Renata remarked with a tilt of her lovely head. “I was just going to walk out there with him and not even say anything.

“His thought that he’d just go out for a walk by his lonesome wasn’t even worht acknowledging.”

“Yes, I planned on walking out there as well,” Safina agreed.

“Canae was going to grant us an illusion and follow behind him,” agreed the Wood-Elf, Dalia. She and Canae were both in their Bellum Dryadum armor.”

“I was going to wait and just open a portal, from here, to where-ever he stopped,” Johanna admitted.

“Oh, uh… I guess I was just going to sit here and wait,” Sam confessed with a laugh. “Maybe I’m the placid one in the group. I never would’ve thought that.”

“Well… then… let’s go for a walk I suppose,” Vince offered with a sigh and a smile. It really had been somewhat silly to expect to walk out there by himself. “So… I was thinking… maybe when this is all over, or we get to a spot where we can actually do something for ourselves, I was wondering if maybe I could swing up to Russia and move east.

“You said it’s a wasteland filled with lots of open space. Are there villages? Cities? Spread out between? Does anyone run in the areas between them or move people or packages back and forth?”

“Yes, in fact,” Johanna confirmed. “It’s not a very fun job and from what I’ve read and heard of, very few are willing to do it. Too dangerous.

“They’re called Smotritel, or that’s how I saw it written. You’ll have to forgive me if I’ve gotten the pronunciation wrong though. I’ve not heard their spoken language, only the written versions of it.”

“Red thinks that sounds a lot like what you said you used to do, Bringer,” pointed out Red. “Red would like to do this job with you. It sounds like… adventure. Adventure without the weight of a nation on you.”

And maybe that’s it right there.

The weight of a nation.

I wonder if Felix ever feels like this.