CHAPTER 4 ASHES
To his infinite surprise, Lorentius awoke in a clean, comfortable bed. The sheets were simple, white but very clean and smelling a bit like soap.
And soft. It was probably one of the softest cloth Lorentius had ever felt.
Opening his eyes, the general or rather ex-general as the man told himself, looked around him to find a small square room, all walls painted in white. It was a soft white. Lorentius could not find any other word.
Like he was looking at some high-quality cream.
In front of him on the opposite wall was a black square.
To his left was a contraption like he had never seen: it was a slender tube where two translucent pouches were hanging. From each pouch started a tube, translucent also, and the tube were… In his left arm.
As the man tried to remove the tube from his arm he felt a hand on his shoulder, pressing lightly against him. Lorentius was so weak he fell down on the pillow behind him.
To his right was a woman looking at him with eyes both of genuine curiosity and care.
Lorentius felt his heart skip a beat. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
And he skipped a second beat when she started speaking his language.
"Hello, Mister. Please do not touch those, they are for your health."
The general stayed silent for a second, while hundred of questions were birthing in his brain.
"You have suffered quite a few ugly injuries but luckily for you, you'll soon be as good as new. Your left knee will be a bit weak for the two or three months to come but it should be ok afterwards."
"How?" Lorentius asked in a meek voice. "How can you speak with me?"
The people on the other side were supposed to be barbarians living in cave.
Lorentius had never believed that obvious propaganda, but the chance for a total stranger to speak his language was astonishing to him.
And they were certainly not supposed to be angels.
Lorentius started thinking about the few prisoners who had been brought back on their side. They were injured and dirty at the time. Would they have been beautiful if washed and in good health?
"HBAL. Hypnosis based accelerated learning." The woman answered like it was evident, bringing the man back to the present.
Lorentius stayed silent again. HBAL? Hypnosis? Sensing his trouble, the woman continued.
"It is a technology that allows us to learn something very fast. It's not pleasant so very few people actually use it, preferring the old way."
Lorentius wondered why, if it was not pleasant, such an angel imposed that to herself. The woman as if reading his mind, smiled.
"We had to take it, to be able to speak to you. We deemed it necessary for all of you to feel comfortable with us." She said, blinding Lorentius with her smile.
The man nodded. Hearing a perfect stranger speak your tongue was certainly weird at first but it was also comforting.
"Where am I?"
"In a hospital. It is where we treat the sick and injured."
"Why did you treat me? Am I not your enemy?"
The woman smiled and shook her head.
"It might sound strange to you but we treat our prisoners." She said, shrugging.
Lorentius blinked. He could not hear anything in the woman's voice. Nothing, neither disdain nor aggressivity. She had said as if it was the most natural thing there was to say.
But still it meant something clear: "we are better than you".
You are the barbarians and we are the one who can pretend to use the term "civilized".
Lorentius looked at the "hospital" room. They had charities in his word, financed by the crown or nobles to give the poorest of the poor treatment, food, and a roof.
But nothing of that standing.
"What about my men? My soldiers? Did you treat them too?"
"Of course!" The woman answered immediately.
"At least those who survived the… The shitstorm."
There was some bitterness in her voice as she continued and Lorentius could not understand the last word she had used. But it was a swear word, that much he could guess.
"How many? How many survived your fury?"
The woman stayed silent. Lorentius saw her hesitant look. Did she not know? Not for sure? Or was it that bad?
"Less than two hundred."
The general closed his eyes. He the leader had survived when so many good men had died. And what for? The foolishness of an Empire who had become greedier than ever, who had forgotten what it meant to lose. Who had so much pride it could only end badly.
He felt a tear roll down in cheek. Two hundred out of four thousand.
"I will leave you so you get some rest mister. If you need anything there is a small red button on your right side."
The man heard the woman stand up from her chair, walk three steps and open a door.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot. Welcome to Canada mister."
Lorentius waited for the door to close and started crying.
SPECIAL REGION, HILL ZERO, 1200 hour
"It has been four days already since we have started the invasion, or rather the "reclamation operation" as the LN likes to call it.
Four days since we fought against the legion garrisoned at the Gate.
Four days since the giant "all you can shoot" on human targets. Targets that could not fight back. Only run like decapitated chickens.
Just like the civilians they had killed in Neo-Tokyo. Just like the civilians they had abducted to do God knows what to them.
I had hoped for satisfaction. Nothing came but a void. Not disgust or horror but neither the feeling of a satiated revenge I was hoping for.
It could not be that easy right?
Some of us have already started to see the RobShrink. Only four days in and already some wanted the ugliness washed away from their brain.
I have to admit, searching the wasteland to look for wounded amongst the mangled bodies had not been pleasant.
But mainly because of the smell of shit. Many soldiers of the enemy had emptied their bowels when the first shells had hit them.
There was blood and shit everywhere and it was crazy how terrible the smell was.
Burning everything would have been easier. Something like "How I love the smell of napalm for breakfast".
But no; Geneva Convention and all that, we went to look for prisoners. I think those who wake up will be traumatized for life.
Maybe I find some cruel relief in that. No reason why John should be the only one to lose it. They deserve to go batshit crazy too, for what they have done, don't they?
I'm not sure anymore. I knew it would come to that obviously. Everyone kept on telling me there is nothing in revenge but bitterness.
For now, I just feel empty, void of the purpose I thought I had when coming here.
I had dreamed of a scenario where we would find the one responsible for Ginza quickly, judge him and I get to punch him in the face for John.
I had dreamed of some family torn apart in repayment of the one that had been torn apart in Ginza.
But in place, we just committed a one-sided slaughter.
Which left us all with one question only: "why the fuck did they attack us, obviously without knowing anything about us?""
"Hey Charles, stop doing whatever you're doing and come: Big Daddy want all squad leaders from the second to go to command."
Hearing those words, Charles raised his head from his notebook and saw Ali waving at him from just outside of his room.
It had only been four days but log had worked their asses out to provide the army with decent lodgments, water, and power.
"Alright, thanks Ali. Can you send word to the other to prep their equipment?"
"You already know what it's about?" The brown-skinned man asked, surprise showing on his face.
"Nope. Just a hunch. It'll do ya'll slackers some good anyway: you need to move your ass."
"Amen to that." Ali answered while turning heels.
Closing his notebook, Charles stuffed it in a drawer, laid his pen upon the table took his cap and exited his prefab. The advantage of leading a squad: he had a slightly larger "flat".
Walking across the camp, he could see the men of the log running to and fro and bulldozers and other various diggers working on fortifications.
The first problem after the arrival had been the temple. The military authorities wanted to destroy it but the people from the red-cross and a journalist had already arrived at the time.
They had screamed their lungs out that it was a religious monument and that it could not be destroyed. It would most certainly gather animosity towards the army from the locals.
The higher up had answered that building a camp and fortification directly around it would disfigure it anyway.
The red-cross did not want to hear anything and the journalist had threatened to go to the international court of justice.
"Quelle putain de bande de casse couille." had been the words of general Kocescu.
So the temple was still standing, encumbering all construction work and slowing it down.
It was the joy of the team of archeologists who had crossed the Gate just yesterday.
After a walk of ten minutes and several "hi" and "hello sir", Charles finally reached his objective: the building of Command.
"Hello Lieutenant, the meeting is taking place in room two."
"Thanks Bob."
Command was a two-story building, the second largest of the base after the armory. It comprised several offices for logistic, radio and meeting room where briefings were given.
The Lieutenant knocked at the door and entered.
"Ah Lieutenant Bethun, good. Take a seat and we begin."
Charles quickly sat down and the captain of his company, Wilhem Gerr, started talking.
"All right, you know that already but we started mapping this area. We have already a pretty extensive map thanks to several drones we let fly these past three days."
The blond haired, blue eyed man looked at his lieutenants and clicked a remote, displaying the map on a screen in front of them.
"What you see circled in red are villages ranging from ten to a few hundred inhabitants. Command has deemed it was time to establish contact with the locals and our company was selected for that."
"Woohoo finally some action!" Someone said in the back, starting a round of laughter and nods.
"Yup I feel you Lieutenant Ishi but you don't go there to shoot things."
A common "Aaww" of faked deception was emitted by the room.
"The mission is awfully simple: contact the autochthones, explain we're not the bad guys, gain some intel on the region and kiss them goodbye."
"Only if their women are not too ugly."
Second burst of laughter.
"Yeah right, remember you're not some pirates. If I hear anything shifty, you'll hear from me."
Everyone nodded, seriously this time. No one wanted to hear the captain scream. The man could pop your eardrums with the power of his voice alone. Some said that was the reason he became captain.
"One last thing: each team will be accompanied by a journalist: they are here as observers."
The captain stared at the lieutenants as if to defy someone to say something. No one squeaked.
"Alrighty boys, you'll find your destination in the folder marked to your name that are on this desk. I want you gone at 1400 and back at 1800, last offer, non-negotiable"
The room rang with "yep" and "yes sir" and all soldiers present stood up, took their folder and exited the room.
As Charles made his way back to the place where his men were staying, he saw a few of them gathered around a table.
"So Lieutenant what's all about?" A tall, black man asked Charles saw him walking towards them. Lewis.
The black man and three other soldiers were seated, playing some card game.
"Well ladies and gentlemen, I'll gladly give you our mission orders but only when everyone is here." Charles looked at them, folding his arms in front of his chest.
They glared back.
"Well get your asses movin' and gather the other five!"
"Aye aye sir!" He was told as they scrambled around.
Two minutes later all nine of the men and women Charles had under his command were forming a circle around him.
"Ok boys and girls, we've been tasked with a very simple mission: we are to conduct reco east of Hill zero and contact a small village situated fifteen klicks from here."
"Terrain is rather hilly but nothing terrible. We could probably go by foot?" A petite, chestnut-haired woman proposed after looking at the map. Katy.
"And that would do us good but we have only four hours and we have to babysit a NCP."
"NCP?"
"A journalist will come with us."
Charles saw them look at each other.
"So this guy will be our watchdog, huh?" Ali asked.
The lieutenant nodded. It was nothing official of course but the journalist would miss no opportunity to make the soldiers look bad.
Too many people were against the operation back home after all.
"That's why you all better work on your best smile and watch yourself during our little journey and with the locals."
They all nodded. Of course, they would be nothing but shiny knights.
"Ok, go grab some chow, be back here ready and equipped at thirteen hundred thirty. We leave at fourteen hundred."
"Aye aye!"
After my soldiers dispersed, Charles opened the folder again, took his cell phone and dialed the number of the journalist.
"Hello?"
"Hello miss Hamzi, this is Lieutenant Bethun speaking."
"Ah yes hello."
"As you should know, you are to keep us company during our little trip today. I would like to meet at thirteen forty-five at the motor pool. That will leave us fifteen minutes to introduce yourself and get to know the squad."
"Ah yes, of course, Lieutenant, with pleasure."
"Excellent, then see you soon."
SPECIAL REGION, HILL ZERO, 1330 hour
As ordered, all nine of them were lined up, equipped and armed to the teeth and waiting for him.
"Good, good. Remember, it's heart and mind alright? So you very carefully check your fire at all time, roger?"
"Roger."
"Ok, now we go to the motor pool and get out two humvees and we wait for our watchdog. Let's go."
At these words, all ten soldiers started speed walking through the base towards the motor pool.
Amongst the various vehicles that were loaded, the odor of fuel and the overall chaos of the place, one man waved at Charles as he saw the ten men squad approaching.
"Hello, Lieutenant Bethun right? We prepared two little Humvees for you and your guys. Each holds a machine gun and the entire standard ration for a day." The man welcomed them, drying his hands on his combat engineer fatigue.
The man shrugged. "Not that you'll be staying out late."
"If all goes according to plan, we will be back for aperitif time."
Today was supposed to be Friday after all. Aka the beginning of the end of the week. And their company was not on duty this week-end.
The engineer smiled. "If you have a glass for me…"
"That will depend on how fast we can push those babies." Charles answered with a side smile.
"Then my glass is assured." The man answered laughing.
"Lieutenant?"
"Yes Ali?"
"There is a woman here for you. She is called Hamzi."
Turning away from the mechanic, Charles saw a woman walk toward him, hand already extended.
The man took it and shook it. Her skin was dry and her grip firm. Charles nodded in appreciation. Maybe she was not that much of an asshole. Assholes tend to have a limp hand when they give a handshake.
"Miss Hamzi, pleased to make your acquaintance. I'm Charles Bethun, the commanding officer of this squad."
"Daniella Hamzi, I work for The New York Time."
Charles let a small whistle escape my lips. It was not any journal.
"All right Daniella, let me introduce you to the team. This Moroccan guy is Ali, the blond there is Lenny, the big black guy is Lewis. Both come from the US. Then you have Pierre, a French like me, Carlos coming from Spain, Ahmed and Gerhart from Germany. And the two angels amongst us brutes Katy and Lana. Lana is the curly one."
As Charles pointed each member of his team, they saluted back and shook hand with Hamzi.
"Ok are we good to go?" Charles asked, looking at Daniella who simply nodded.
"Alright boys and girls then let's roll."
The Humvees were quite big, each allowing six persons to take place comfortably inside. The Lieutenant sat in the first one, leaving the wheel to Ali, Ahmed, Gerhart, Lana and Daniella seating behind.
"Radio check, bravo one to two, how copy? B-one over"
"Loud and clear one. B-Two over."
"Alright, we go first you follow five meters after."
"Roger that."
Gaining speed, the Humvees were driven out of the camp towards the east. They were now turning their back to the sun which was going straight west.
"Funny." Charles thought. "Seems like suns always rise east and set west…"
In an almost complete silence, Ali drove them on a rocky trail, the second Humvee following five meters after the first.
"B-one, this is Two, where are we going exactly?" Lenny abruptly asked, breaking a long fifteen minutes silence.
"There is a small village east of Hill Zero, we check it. But first we have to investigate some burnt area a bit to the north. Some forest was on fire and the drone could only take pictures of a rising smoke." Charles answered.
"Why are we doing that, we're no firefighters."
"Ask the higher up. Maybe they want to make sure some enemy is not up to something in the area."
"What could they achieve by burning a forest?"
"Black magic?" Lewis suggested over the com, laughing.
"That's right they could be setting up some voodoo shit, we don't want that!" Carlos added.
"Magic is bullshit." Charles said, wanting to cut the conversation to a close.
"You saw a fuckin' griffin in Ginza and you say magic is bullshit? That's rich!" Lewis said.
"Some weird beast doesn't mean magic is real. You heard the biologists explain how the thing could fly.'
"You ain't a believer huh?"
"They better don't have any magic, that's the only way they could achieve anything against us."
"Hey! Don't you dare fuckin' jinx us, Carlos you fucker!" Lenny barked at the Mexican.
"Hoohoooo, I'm a voodoo sorcerer and I'm going to make your wife infertile if you don't give me one hundred dollars."
"Eat a dick."
"You have a wife Lenny?" A clear surprise could be heard in Pierre's question.
"All right kids time to clear the coms and focus, the forest is up ahead." Ali warned as the forest started to appear in their line of sight.
"I'm giving a big candy to any of the girls who find the burnt zone first." Lewis offered.
"You could go to jail for sexual harassment back home you fuckin' now that?" Was all he got for an answer.
SPECIAL REGION, EAST, NORTH-EAST OF HILL ZERO, 1450
"This road is extraordinarily shitty. We could have been here twenty minutes ago if it was not that shitty."
The Humvees were doing quite good but Charles had to admit the road was more of a trail, bumpy, rocky and muddy all at the same time.
"Stop complaining over something you cannot change and drive."
"That was funckin' deep Lieutenant."
"Thanks now try to…"
"I see it!" Charles did not finish his order that Lana, manning the turret, screamed in her microphone, pointing a finger to their right.
Charles adjusted the optics integrated into his helmet and zoomed in the border of the forest. Scanning the area slowly he finally saw what Lana was pointing at: a large zone of burnt trees, like a scar eviscerating the forest.
As they got closer and closer, the amplitude of the destruction was slowly made clear.
"I don't know what kind of black magic they did here but boy did that backfire on them!"
"Stop with the shitty puns Lewis."
"All, dismount and see if you can guess what happened here." Charles ordered, a bad feeling building in his chest.
Katy was the first to set foot in the ash and cinder, some big logs still smoking, embers still glowing red.
The woman took two steps and stopped in her track, like punched in her stomach.
"Lieutenant, I think…" She started in a monotonous voice.
"Shit, it's a fuckin' village!"
A/N : Dear readers, how are you all? Yes I know it's a cliffhanger. But you all know what happens next (unless I'm actually a bastard, who knows) and I need to limit myself to a set number of words. That I already passed. So yeah that's all you'll have. For now.
Itzabluewulf: thanks, will try to keep it interesting.
Wacko12: as this is my fanfic, I will fuck with the canon just as much as I want. So if I say the empire knows about gunpowder, they do. But think about very basic, primitive guns, the like of which you could find in Europe around the 14th century. So no danger for our heroes.
To all: feel welcomed to criticize my writing, the pace or whatever BUT if I want to screw the canon I will.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter.