Fractured Earth: Viceroy’s Pride Book Three Read online

  Of course, that was if they managed to hit him. An Orakh next to him pirouetted glacially, a smoking hole in its shoulder. Dan smiled as he darted forward, sword removing an enemy’s leg at the knee as the report from one of the heavy fifty-caliber rifles built into the armored battle suits they’d looted from Thoth headquarters assaulted his ears. The gunshot was good news. It meant Abe was nearby, and he’d fought his way clear enough of his attackers to provide fire support.

  His feet sank into the springy soil of the marsh as he threw himself into a roll to the side, avoiding his injured foe as the crippled Orakh tried to tackle him. Unlike Abe and William, Dan didn’t wear the heavy, powered armor developed by the Thoth Foundation. Instead, he relied upon his mobility. Most of the time, it was a good strategy, but against the heavier Orakh, he needed to avoid being dragged into a grapple. His magically enhanced strength might let him hold his own in a one-on-one wrestling match, but his current fight wasn’t one-on-one.

  Dan came out of the roll and launched a Fireball into the cluster of five Orakh that had been trying to bring him down. The resulting explosion staggered and wounded all of them, leaving them easy prey for Dan. He hit them like a tsunami of precisely targeted sword strokes and Forcebolts.

  Over the past two weeks since the Orakh landed on Earth, Dan had become adept at the dance. Each swing of his sword took a limb, and each Forcebolt slammed into a joint, occasionally breaking a bone but mostly knocking the amphibious Orakh off-balance so they couldn’t capitalize on his attack. Then he was on the other side of the gaggle, the swamp littered with writhing limbs and crippled Orakh behind him.

  They would survive. One of the first lessons humanity learned was that Orakh could survive a lot. Their bleeding stopped quickly, and as a species, they just didn’t go into shock the way that mammals did. Worse, severed limbs could regrow onto their stumps given a couple of hours. The combination meant bullets weren’t as effective as they should be. Sure, a head or organ shot would kill an Orakh, just like it would a person, but without blood loss or shock, more than one soldier had died to an Orakh they disregarded due to “fatal” gunshots.

  These days, anyone hunting the Orakh made a point of confirming kills before they moved on. Still, William needed help with the Orakh Shaman he was keeping suppressed with a combination of 20mm cannon fire and liberal use of the flamethrower mounted into his power suit’s other arm. Technically, Dan had awakened William’s ability to use magic, granting him a water and an earth affinity, but the old man didn’t really trust the magic.

  Apparently, that distrust of magic didn’t apply to the series of runes Dan carved into William’s armor at his daughter’s behest. Jennifer knew logic wasn’t going to sway her father. Instead, she convinced Dan to inscribe enough strengthening and defensive runes into both Abe and William’s armor to bring both of the suits onto another level entirely.

  The shaman let out a silent scream, a wave of force mana rolling toward William across the uneven hillocks of the swamp and threatening to spill him off of the narrow island that they were all fighting over and into the bayou itself. That would be a problem. As troublesome as the Orakh were on land, they were completely at home in the shallow water of the bayou, moving with an ease and agility that even Dan couldn’t match. Luckily, they were usually simple-minded enough to follow humans up onto swampy islands, once provoked. Otherwise, clearing them out of the bayou would simply be impossible.

  William stomped down with his right leg, digging it into the moist soil and crossing his arms. Dan could sense the flood of earth and force mana as he activated his runes to counter the shaman’s spell. The wall of force slammed into William, but the runes activated, generating a shield in front of him and quadrupling his weight. The Orakh’s spell still generated enough force to knock the old-timer onto his ass, but William’s countermeasures broke the back of the attack.

  Dan raised his hand and shot a lightning bolt into the shaman. Whatever charm it was using to approximate a spellshield flashed, but it clearly wasn’t optimized for dealing with elemental energy. A second Lightning Stroke brought the shield down. Despite his massive reserves of mana, Dan was beginning to run dry. Gritting his teeth, he fired a third Lightning Stroke, burning through most of the shaman’s chest and dropping its twitching and smoking body to the ground.

  Sighing, he toggled his time dilation rune off. Immediately, the world sped up, and the dull bass roar turned into music. Abe had insisted that his suit have speakers. He claimed that fighting to “tunes” inspired morale. Dan didn’t particularly care; it wasn’t that hard to reconfigure the suit’s PA systems to play music. It was just that, in the current state, they couldn’t ensure proper access to streaming apps. That meant Abe was stuck using an old CD player and collection of CDs he’d fished out of an abandoned car a week ago.

  “Big wheel keep on turning,” Abe shouted, off-key and with enthusiasm. He pointed the cannon arm on the power armor at an Orakh that was trying to flank Jennifer as she fought another two.

  “Rolling!” Abe fired the 20mm cannon twice, throwing the Orakh to the ground. “Rolling on the river!”

  Jennifer used the distraction to quickly bring down the remaining Orakh, leaving them all panting on the otherwise cleared-out island. Well, Dan assumed that Abe and William were panting. It was hard to tell through the towering suits of armor.

  “Can you cut the music, Abe?” Dan called out to the man. “We’ve got a job to do, and I’d prefer to not alert everyone and everything within a mile that we’re here.”

  “Come on Dan,” Abe responded. “We can take pretty much everything we’ve seen since the landing, so long as we can stay out of the water itself. Plus, we have to listen to Creedence down here. It’s basically a rule.”

  “Abe,” Dan pinched the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t sure if his headache was from mana exhaustion or the soldier’s exuberance. “We can win against everything we’ve seen so far, but I don’t think we can handle the numbers the Orakh are capable of throwing at us. Plus, now that there are enough mana-activated individuals in the area, it's only a matter of time before the local wildlife begins changing. I’d prefer not to be surprised when some sort of magic-using mega alligator pops up for the first time.”

  “Fine buzzkill,” Abe replied with a chuckle as he wandered over to a pile of writhing Orakhs. Methodically, he lifted the heavy boots of the powered armor, bringing them down on the Orakhs’ skulls, crushing them with a fairly satisfying crunch.

  “That’s Mr. Buzzkill, Sir to you, Abe.” Dan rolled his eyes at Abe’s gleeful behavior. “If we’re going to make this entire mercenary company thing work, we need to have some sort of chain of command.”

  “I still don’t see why I’m not the one running this show,” William interjected, crossing the arms of his powered suit across his chest. “I mean, I’m the one that actually used to be a general at one point.”

  “Because none of this works without Dan, Daddy.” Jennifer shook her head as she walked away from her father and began finishing off the wounded but regenerating Orakh. “Plus, he could take all three of us in a fight if it came down to it. You can be in charge of planning and operations, but the person who can command the elements and ignore bullets gets to be the commander. That just seems common sense to me.”

  “Same,” Abe agreed, continuing his happy stomping.

  “Thank you for your votes of confidence, everyone.” Dan smiled slightly. William was a bit of an ass, but he didn't mean much by it. At this point, Dan suspected that the old man was simply giving him a hard time out of spite. He almost seemed relieved to not have to deal with the boring politics and logistics of command anymore.

  Mana began to flow into him as the rest of the team butchered the Orakh he’d injured. Dan gritted his teeth against the influx of pleasure as he grew stronger. He slipped back into a meditative state and quickly began partitioning his personality to prevent it from impacting his thinking. The worst part about the mana was how seductive it wa
s. It was easy to know that too much of it was bad for him, but the minute he touched it, Dan couldn’t help but think about how much easier it would be to just let a little more in.

  Still, he knew where that path ended. Addiction, and in all likelihood, becoming some sort of serial killer, like the gang running Miami right now. Even as the Orakh tried to take over the world, yet another problem reared its head, demanding that he solve it.

  Dan stared off into space and triggered his status. It had been some time since he’d had the opportunity to access the system and take stock of his gains over the last month or so.

  Status

  Rank 7

  Body 6(8)

  Agility 7 (9)

  Mind 8

  Perception 7

  Spirit 67

  Skills

  Swords 11, Brawling 5, Archery 2, Runecrafting 8

  Affinity

  Space 13, Lightning 11, Fire 11, Gravity 10, Force 13

  Enhancements

  Armor Rune V, Strength Rune +2, Agility Rune +2, Thermal Resistance Rune, Temporal Dilation Rune 10:1

  Runes+

  Spells

  Shocking Fist 10, Spark Field 2, Lightning Stroke 11, Spatial Shield 8, Flame Jet 4, Gravitational Easing 10, Fireball 13, Force Bubble 12, Spellshield 10, Forcebolt 9, Flame Aura 3

  He blanked out the status. He was close to another rank up, and already the extra kick from the steadily increasing level of his spells and affinities was having an impact. Once upon a time, Lightning Stroke would simply stun an opponent. Now it killed them. He wasn’t where he needed to be yet, but Dan was well on his way.

  Shaking his head, Dan focused on the moment. Jennifer was cutting off the ears of the Orakh they would need to fulfill their contract with the Mayor of New Orleans. The country was in chaos and at this point; no one really knew who was in charge. In some states, the governor ran the show, but in others such as Louisiana, control was much more local. The Mayor of New Orleans had declared emergency powers and set herself up as a borderline autocratic ruler.

  Still, most of her efforts were devoted toward keeping her people safe and the Orakh away from the city. When Dan and his team arrived, she was ecstatic at the idea of a trained group of veterans of the Brazilian campaigns against the elves stepping in. Even if paper money was of dubious value, she was able to offer up enough food, gold, and electronic equipment, including solar generators, that Dan’s team wouldn’t be able to replicate on their void ship, the Viceroy’s Pride, to make helping out worth their while.

  As Dan glanced up at the sky, the sun’s rays promised plenty of light left in the day. That meant more Orakh to kill and more mana to earn.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Recruitment

  “Look, Mr. Thrush.” Bessie DuBlanc spoke to him in a tone of voice that promised disappointment. “The City of New Orleans appreciates everything you’ve done for us. Hell, we know that your team has been the only reason we’ve been able to catch a breath from those damn swamp monsters-”

  “The Orakh, Mayor DuBlanc?” Dan asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  “Whatever they call themselves,” Bessie waved a hand dismissively. “They’ve encroached on our farming and scavenging operations more than once, killing our citizens and tying up our security forces. The people are sick of it, and they’re demanding answers.

  “Your intervention has bought us enough time to arm and train the local police with heavier weapons.” Bessie leaned back in her chair, ignoring the creak of warning from the distressed piece of furniture. “More importantly, we’ve had the time to mobilize and secure supplies for the national guard. Finally, we’re about ready to make a major push to get them out of the bayou. If you’re in, that’s great, but if you’re not, I’m not sure how much work we’re going to have around here, once we clean ‘em out.”

  “What about that warlord out of Florida?” Dan furrowed his brow. “He doesn’t seem like the type to play nicely with his neighbors.”

  “He sent us an emissary.” She picked up a sheaf of papers from her desk. “Long and short of it is that he wants to unite the South with some sort of mutual defense pact. I’m not sure I buy it, but he’s willing to coordinate an attack on the toads, and for now, that’s enough. I’m not inclined to let his soldiers anywhere near the city, but that doesn’t mean we can’t cooperate to get rid of the aliens.”

  “Honestly?” She shrugged. “He seems like a piece of work. But even if he’s as big of a sociopath as the rumors say, only an idiot would let those fucking monsters fester. There’s more of them every day, and even if we can hold them back for now, it’s only a matter of time before they manage to overrun everyone.”

  Dan glanced back at Jennifer, indecision flickering across his face as he weighed his choices. They needed someplace to use as a base for their voidship, and so far, New Orleans had seemed like the best option. Pretty much everywhere else in the English-speaking world was under the sway of some oligarch or another, most of them too focused on arms races with each other as they struggled to collect as much of the Thoth Foundation’s old technology as possible.

  The various local governments near the Orakh invasion sites were largely left to their own devices. In the former United States, that meant that New York City and Louisiana were on their own. The Manhattan invasion was at least partially contained. Dan had been more than a little surprised at the number of NYPD and national guard members that purportedly showed up to fight off the Orakh, but apparently he was the only one. According to Jennifer and William, the NYPD had about 38,000 officers and would be around the world’s 40th best-funded army if they were included on the lists. Between the police and the New York national guard, they were able to keep the Orakh confined to Manhattan.

  Jennifer nodded quickly. Really, their options were New Orleans, New York, or overseas. With as much time and effort as they’d invested in the area, it seemed like an absolute waste of resources to just move on.

  “We’re in, Mayor DuBlanc.” Dan’s forehead furrowed slightly. “But we’re going to need to work out some details.”

  “Well, the troops will be glad to have you.” Bessie smiled, the corners of her mouth crinkling slightly. “Now, what sort of details were you thinking about? We can certainly provision you for the attack and continue with the usual payments of ammunition, food, and medicine. Beyond that, make your offer, Thrush.”

  “That’s most of it,” he said with a chuckle. “The only other concession we’re looking for is the ability to set up our home base here and recruit from your population. Right now, there aren’t a whole lot of us who are fighting fit, and our plan is to turn this into a full-on mercenary company. We’ll need volunteers and a place to lay our heads for that.”

  “Half of them are out of jobs, anyway.” The mayor smiled, extending her hand to Dan. “Some of the plants are still employing people, but no one knows if the other states are buying or even what they’d buy with. Layoffs have been hitting the area really hard. If you’re willing to step in and employ some of my out-of-work citizens while providing security for the area, I’m not going to say no.”

  “I’m glad we’re on the same page then,” Dan took her hand, his tanned skin contrasting with her dark mahogany. “Just let us in on the planning, and we’ll find a spot where we can do the most damage.”

  “Be ready in ten days,” Bessie agreed, waving a hand toward the door. “I’ll have someone from the defense force get into contact with you in the next couple days so we can see how to best utilize you. Until then, feel free to set up a recruitment stand on Bourbon Street for all I care. You have my permission to hire anyone who wants to work for you.”

  “That went well,” Jennifer chirped cheerfully as Dan and her left the mayor’s office. “She’s insisting on a stupid and potentially deadly course of action, but other than that, we’re all on the same page.”

  “She has to have seen the reports from the deserters coming out of Florida,” Dan frowned. “No one is sayin
g anything good about Bowman. It sounds like he’s gone completely off the rails.”

  “I never got why Dad liked him,” Jennifer’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “He was always either pompous or dismissive. Like, the only times he would talk to me were when he was being condescending. He was always an asshole at parties. I guess without anyone keeping him in check, he can finally be himself. A glorious piece of shit.”

  “I’m not going to argue.” Dan chuckled slightly. “I fully expect him to betray us the second he gets a chance. Still, what do you think about her proposal, setting up a stand on Bourbon Street?”

  “Well,” a mischievous grin flickered across Jennifer’s face, “Abe did lose the last squad game of hold ‘em, and he has been a bit insufferable lately. It would only make sense that he pay off his debt in a suitably painful way.”

  The next day, Dan sat at a folding table, head in his hands. About ten feet away, Abe was dancing to bad R&B while wearing a sandwich board advertising “Thrush’s Raiders,” absolutely having the time of his life. Next to him, Jennifer was absolutely laughing her ass off.

  “COME ON, MY GOOD MAN!” Abe shouted, puffing for breath as he pointed at an unsuspecting stranger. “The world’s falling apart around your ears. Are you going to do something about it, or are you going to just sit here jumping at shadows?”

  “What?” The man stared back at Abe blankly.

  “Do you think that the ladies are gonna like you just sitting around and getting fat?” Abe shimmied, making Dan even more uncomfortable. “They’re going to want a provider! Someone that can sling lightning with one hand and punch an Orakh in the face with the other!”