Rash'Tor'Ri (Soulguard Book 4), page 20
"Come here, sweetie," Lyrica said.
The girl was embraced as soon as she was within reach.
"Protect them," I said as white flame rolled across my body again and the rage began to build.
I felt the probing touch of Pelin as she looked into my mind to see if I was in control. This rage was different than what I feel when the beast is let out of its cage. I looked at Lyrica and I knew what that difference was. I could see the same righteous fury in her soul. Perhaps it was the fact that we were to become parents soon. Maybe it would have always been there after seeing what the Kresh had done. All I knew was what I could see and what I heard when I looked into her burning gaze.
"Do it."
I turned with a savage anticipation I am very familiar with to return to the lines before the Kresh could arrive.
"Where is he going?" I heard the girl's voice.
"He's going to kill them all, Sweetie."
"Everyone prepare for Code Alpha," I ordered. "Fifty supports."
The horde of Kresh poured across the open area toward us. I felt the supports link up.
"Code Alpha. Now."
My teeth hurt as twenty five hundred Mages Pulled from the Source at the same time and poured it into the sky. I closed my eyes and reached out to grasp all of that power. It began to spin in the sky, a swirling vortex of fire. I felt the power flowing through me from my supports and I looked out with the Sight that allowed me to see the flows of the world. The dark souls were closing and I pulled that writhing vortex straight down onto their heads.
"Cease!" I ordered as I watched the last of those dark souls leave their bodies to be pulled toward the west.
I turned my gaze toward Sydney and the pockets of Kresh that hadn't come out after us. The seething rage within me hadn't diminished in the least and I strode toward the city. This time I would not be running through or from Kresh. I was going to destroy them, all of them.
"Form up on Soullord One," I heard Prada order as she fell in at my side. Rostov took his place at my other side. "Patrol Three, Ten, and Twenty join Soullord Two and welcome guests as they are brought in."
Chapter 41
Paige looked down at the latest reports and back up at Gregor, "Another three thousand survivors just got off in Greymouth."
"That's better than we expected so far," Gregor replied. "So far there are two hundred and eighty thousand survivors they've managed to pull out of the country."
"Out of what? Twenty seven million?"
"There's not much more we can do. We have as many forces down there as we can put there without taking from Kansas or China where we have to keep them."
"I know," she sighed. "It's so hard to see what happened. Every time they hit before we stopped them in days. They've been there for a month."
"Going by the number of wounded in Lyrica's base camp, he's fighting one hell of a war."
"True," she replied. "Both Soulguard and regular military."
"At least we should hear something soon from the lines," he said. "The jet just landed and we have someone from First Battalion."
"We've heard precious little from him up until now."
"Maybe we can get some answers."
There was a knock on the door.
"Enter," she said.
The man who entered looked worn. It was something unfamiliar in a Mage. The amount of the Source that enters a Mage, even on a passive level, should prevent that.
Paige pointed to a seat, "Sit."
"Ma'am," the man answered and sat down.
"What's your name, Son?" Gregor asked.
"Jason Hobb, Sir."
"What has our errant Soullord been up to?" Paige asked.
"Ma'am, I was at First Kansas, Second Kansas, and several others. I saw what he did at all those places, but something happened in Sydney. He came out of that city with some kids they'd saved. He left them with Miss Jayne and went back into Sydney. When he came back out of there, not a single Kresh was living and they brought out another group of survivors."
"That tracks with what we've heard," Gregor said. "After that things get a little fuzzy."
"That's because we barely had time to keep up with him," Jason said. "He left orders for the next wave to report to Jaegher and he went south down the coast. A small force stayed with Jaegher to meet the next wave of our forces. As they landed, Jaegher formed a second force and sent it north. I didn't see that part, I was following Rourke. We hit a sizeable group of Kresh down around Melbourne and he didn't even slow down. When we came out of Melbourne the Kresh were dead and four Mages escorted the survivors back to Sydney."
"Ok," Gregor returned.
"He didn't stop, Sir. He just kept going with those freaky white flames in his eyes. We went north and met another force. He did a Code Alpha on them and just kept going."
"How long had this been?"
"Three days, Sir," Jason answered. "The Soulguards began to lag behind about the time we met the second battalion that Jaegher had sent north. They'd turned west to meet us. They joined our force and we camped in a town for a couple of days. We needed the rest but I don't think he did. He ate and spent hours with the wounded, healing the worst of them and seeing them loaded in trucks back to the original landing zone. The morning we left he was found pacing along the edge of the camp looking west like some caged animal."
Jason shook his head, "I understand the need to stop the Kresh, but he was driven by something. Those telepaths got there right before we moved out and from that point forward, there was always one or two of them with him."
Paige nodded.
"We spent the month like that," he said. "We'd fight and search for the next Kresh. They were scattered all over the country and we went from town to town, city to city. Where we found them, we fought. The Navy had warships off the coast when we were close enough to the coast to use their help. The planes started to arrive and we welcomed the support from the gunships."
"When we camped in a town or city, we'd take food from grocery stores to feed the men and rest while we could. I never saw Rourke stop. He fought, healed, and paced circles around our forces. I did see him eat but I never saw him sleep. I did sleep, myself, but I never saw him do so."
"Didn't the Kresh empty the grocery stores?"
"No Ma'am," he answered. "The Kresh ate people."
Paige winced.
"And where is he, now?"
"He's closing on the Gate, Ma'am," Jason said. "They've pulled everything together to assault the Kresh at the Gate. There are millions of them waiting for him. He's got the gunships ready to support him, and they are close enough to have missile support from the ships off the coast. There's about to be one hell of a fight and I'm half the world away."
"After such a month, I'd think you'd be happy to get away from the lines for a bit," Paige said.
"No Ma'am," he returned. "He's going to need everyone he can get to go after the gate."
***
I stared into the darkness to the west. I could see the twisted power of the Great Gate and the dark Souls that surrounded it.
"What do you see out there?" asked Alec Brighton.
"A lot of damn Kresh," I answered. "They're waitin' out there at the Gate. I'm so used to 'em chargin' at us."
"I know," he said. "They've taken a lot of losses, but they've never just camped in one spot and waited for us."
"Even in the cities we cleaned out they've came at us in numbers."
"What are they doing?"
I stared toward that darkness with spots of bright scattered throughout them, "They're holdin' prisoners scattered through their ranks."
"They're using human shields?"
"Probably to keep us from usin' a Code Alpha on 'em."
"So they have us outnumbered and we can't use our biggest weapon?"
"Seems so," I answered. "It'll interfere with the planes and the ships throwin' down fire into 'em, too."
"This just gets better and better," he said. "After what they did in Melbourne…"
Alec Brighton was born and raised in Melbourne. He'd been right there at my side when we cleaned it out. I'd been with him when he found his home destroyed and his family dead. He didn't have much family left before this and none left after.
"It's goin' to get bloody," I said.
"So be it," he said. I could see the turmoil in his aura, the hate, pain, and loss. "They want it bloody? Bloody they'll have it."
"Let's go tell the others what we have waitin' for us and get this party started."
He nodded and we turned back toward the small town in the distance where our forces awaited.
Chapter 42
"I don't see how we can save all of the prisoners," Reyna said. "We can't be sure where they are."
"That's gonna be part of my job," I answered. "I can see 'em. I want five squads to work the southern flank, and five to do the northern flank with me. The majority of the rest will hit the center. I need two squads of Mages ready for an Alpha if I can find an opening. How do you want to deploy your forces General Halifax?"
Halifax had been the highest ranking officer of all the myriad troops sent to reinforce our ranks from the nations of the world.
"We can't move as close to their ranks as you but we can offer a hell of a lot of supporting fire. We have ninety eight hundred Source gunners ready and waiting. I'd like to follow your men in and support."
"Sounds good," I said. "I'm going to depend on you and yours to handle coordinates for the naval units and when I clear an area of prisoners."
"I'll have my best on that, Mister Rourke."
"Thank you, General."
Halifax made his way to the leaders of seven different armies that had joined us in our assault on the Kresh in Australia to start making plans.
"We'll be moving out in four hours," I said. "Get some rest if you can."
I turned and left the building toward the Infirmary which had been set up in a small hospital.
"You should rest," Pelin said from my right. "You didn't even notice my approach, Master."
"The wounded have been tended to, Master," Lee said from my left. I hadn't heard either approach.
"Two hours, no more," I said and changed my route toward a small house.
I entered the small dwelling. The Shak'Tar had cleaned the blood off the walls and floor for me sometime during the last day.
I eased myself back into the bed in the smallest bedroom.
"Two hours," I said.
They had joined me after the first week and they forced me to start sleeping a couple of hours each night we were camped. The body could handle as much as I could give it but the mind begins to weaken after so much time awake. Sleep is the time a person can rest his mind to keep from going crazy. May have been a little late for that, already.
Not crazy, Master. What you have done is capable of being fixed if you will do it, Lee projected. You must accept that you are capable of good and evil. You can't cage one with the other.
Maybe they were right about it but I found it impossible to think that what I keep locked up inside me is really not caused by my Kresh DNA, but something I have done to myself.
I was asleep before I could even argue my point.
Time to move out, Master.
I came awake instantly, as the beast clawed at his cage. I looked at my watch, shaking my head. They'd let me sleep three and a half hours.
You needed it, Master, Lee projected.
Don't call me Master.
"Yes, Master," she said from the chair beside the bed.
I shook my head again as I sat up. There was no use arguing with any of them. I don't know whether it was because they were telepaths or because they were women. Honestly, it could be either.
I reached down and picked up my harness that held the twin swords of the Soulguard. Strapping it on and placing the coms in my ear, I was ready to go. Probably wasn't a bad thing they'd let me sleep a little longer. There wasn't much I could do with the wounded and it made everyone nervous when I paced back and forth impatiently.
"Boss," I heard a thick Russian accent as I stepped out of the house. "What a way to greet your comrades. We wait out in the heat and behold, our benevolent leader comes out of a house with ten women."
I laughed, something I had done precious few times in the last month.
"Ten telepathic women," I said.
He frowned, "There is that."
There was one hell of an army massed just outside of the town. I followed Rostov to the group of five hundred on the north side of the army. I had three hundred Mages and two hundred Mageguards in Division One. Division Two had similar numbers. Division Three had fourteen hundred Mages and twenty five hundred Mageguards backed by twelve thousand Soulguards. Halifax's Battalion would follow up with his ninety eight hundred Source Gunners. All of the air support was ready and waiting the order to enter the fray. There were ten destroyers off of the coast ready for coordinates.
We were as ready as we could be and the beast was clawing to get out. I felt the minds of my Shak'Tar as they helped me keep it caged.
"Let's move out," I said. "Halifax will direct from HQ on movements. I will call for support or Alpha if they give me an opening. You've all got the standard operating procedure for either of those events."
Division One moved to the north with me in the lead.
"Division One, closing on target," I reported.
"Division Two, ETA five minutes."
"Division Three, point squads will hit in five."
"Understood," I said. "Good luck and watch yourselves. Turning over movement command to HQ."
"HQ has control."
I focused on the Kresh that waited ahead of us and the bright Souls that would be my target.
"Aiming for the first group of prisoners," I said. "When we reach them, there are twenty, Squad One will grab 'em. Up until then we will be in personal shields. Each of the Mages that have a human will then Juggernaut and take them out. There are five groups of twenty or so on the northern flank, so we're going to lose a whole squad to moving them out."
"Will do, Boss," I heard Reyna answer. She was the Captain of Squad One.
"Keep ranks close and let's try not to get covered up like Cairo. We have to keep moving." I drew my swords and the white flames of Soulfire began rolling across my body.
The Kresh ahead of us charged forward as they saw us. I Pulled from the Source and lashed outward with an arc of power that slammed the first ranks of Kresh backwards. Then we were amongst them and I fell into the Dance of Blades with an ease of long practice. My blades blurred and Kresh died. Those Mages ranked in a deadly wedge to my left and right hit the Kresh, and in moments, we were all synchronized in the Dance. I left my Sight open and focused around me on the Souls, both Kresh and Human.
Dark souls slipped from bodies and were pulled back toward the gate while the more colorful souls of my allies slipped back down into the Earth. I felt every one of our losses as we closed with the first group of prisoners. We lost three Mages on the first charge.
I used the disk launcher to remove the head of the Kresh that was closest to the prisoners and we surrounded them long enough for Reyna's people to pick up a prisoner apiece. They raised Juggernaut armor and ran at full speed back the way we had come.
"Move out!" I ordered and attacked once again.
Kresh fell to my blades and the beast pounded at the cage. I needed to keep my wits so I held the beast in check with the help of my Shak'Tar. We changed our trajectory and aimed toward the next group of prisoners.
Four times we slipped away with the groups of Humans before the Kresh changed tactics. Rather than let us close and free prisoners, they would slaughter the Humans when we got close. The other Divisions were having the same reaction from the Kresh.
"Sir," Halifax said over the coms. "I know you don't want to kill people but their dying anytime we get near. You need to start dropping Code Alphas."
"An Alpha won't clear the field but it will help," I said as I severed the head of a Wraith that closed with me. "Start calling in the guns and the planes. They've left us no choice."
"Sorry, Sir," Halifax returned. "We have a communication for you from Lifeline."
Lifeline is the name we gave the operation in Sydney to get the refugees out of Australia.
"Put it through."
Chapter 43
Lyrica Jayne pulled through the woman's stream and steered that power toward her left arm. It had been broken and Lyrica had reset it. She could see the colors of the woman's Soul begin to glow a much more healthy shade.
"That will hold you until you reach safety," she said with a squeeze to her right shoulder.
"How did you do that?" the woman asked in amazement.
"It's just what I do ma'am."
"You are an angel, dear girl."
That word reminded her of Colin and she smiled. She missed him but she knew it was necessary. What he was doing was the reason she could do her job, heal these people and make sure they reach safety. Her smile slipped away as she thought of what he was facing at the gate. Reports had been that they were holding prisoners to keep him from using the Alpha. Worry squirmed its way into her thoughts.
"Thank you," she returned and made her way to the next patient. This was the last for the day and she would welcome some rest where she wouldn't have to concentrate for a small time.
Everyone could feel the Kresh to the northwest. There were so many it couldn't be helped. Soulguards are taught from the beginning that this feeling of wrongness that anyone can sense is the presence of Kresh. Up until this war began, it had always been small spots that you had to get near to feel it. The numbers at the gate could be felt from across the continent.
She looked to the northwest with her Sight, as Colin called it, and a cold chill ran down her spine. She could see the darkness in the distance, at the gate. The chill came from the other spot of darkness she saw toward the west. This one wasn't as large as the group at the gate but it was closer. Much closer.
