Nightmares and War Pt 2
In the in-between, deep within the crack of his? Or was it it's? prison, the entity known as Morgoth watched as his once greatest lieutenant clashed with the Istari and the alliance those blasted entities had created, and felt disappointed.
He knew what Sauron, as he liked to call himself, was after. The Rings he'd crafted were indeed great objects of power.
But the power had blinded Sauron. It was all he saw. All he craved with every fibre of his non corporeal existence.
That was disappointing.
But expected, perhaps. After all, Sauron was a mere shadow to himself. A great lieutenant, no doubt. Cunning, and loyal. But limited.
To Morgoth, however, the Rings were so much more than mere power. They were the stepping stones, pieces of a larger wheel that had the potential to free him completely from this wretched prison of his.
And so he turned away from his lieutenant, away from the battle that was a pale imitation of the ones he'd commanded, and fought.
He turned towards the fiery mountain that was his lieutenant's stronghold, where unbeknownst to him, a new ring was being made.
His name was Talion, and he had set on his perilous path after his village in the badlands between Gondor and Mordor had been slaughtered by an orc incursion.
Driven by grief, rage, madness, and the spirit of what he thought was an ancient elven lord, but was in fact a mere tendril of Morgoth, he'd climbed Mount Doom and lit the forge, casting a new ring of power from the black metal of the mountain.
The tendril had slowly worked its influence into the ring, changing it, corrupting it so that it became an instrument to channel Morgoth's power.
But now the ring was finished, and there was a need for more than just a tendril.
As Talion cooled the ring down, Morgoth prepared. Concentrating all the power he could channel in his current state on the tiny crack in the walls of his prison, he waited.
Once the ring cooled down, Talion took the ring up, and slipped the ring to his finger, and Morgoth let loose.
In a single swift strike, all the concentrated power bore into Talion, channeled through the ring. It consumed his mind, his life energy as it flowed in to replace it, him, Talion.
The being that was known as Talion sank to the floor, the ring on his left hand pulsing almost pure white, except for the tiny letters written in blue.
He was now Valkor, servant of Morgoth.
As he slipped into unconsciousness, a voice whispered in his ears "bring me the Rings of Power"
1
Shepard sighted her rifle on the giant catapult that her armour sensors could tell was made from wood that was somehow hardened and toughened to be as strong as composite alloyed titanium.
Which meant the entire thing could easily send one of the 30 kilogram bolts (being lugged around what she would have termed as half giants, if a helpful Baggins hadn't said the word Troll aloud) at roughly 200 meters a second out to 300 meters. The bolt, when it would hit the ground, would have the yield equivalent to a Systems Alliance K-77 Anti Personnel Kinetic Kill Vehicle. The K-77 was a 5 gram Osmium alloyed Depleted Uranium dart that was launched in clusters of thousands from a Type - 44 Guided Cluster Munition Missile.
She was familiar with the K-77 from her time in Torfan.
.
.
.
Torfan. The place was a shithole in the ass end of the galaxy that somehow managed to be both not a shithole (in all the wrong ways) but also a far more important place than you'd expect of an ass end of the galaxy kinda place.
Probably something to do with all that slave trade. She thought with a snort.
When she'd landed there with the First Unified Army of the independent human colonies, hired mercenaries, Batarian rebels, and the combined might of a confluence of interests, including of the lower placed species of galactic society, it had been divided between the slave collectives, and the elaborate mansions of the overseers. Without help from other species, she would never have been able to do what she did with Torfan.
The Drell, with the tacit approval of the Hanar (not that their approval mattered to the Drell in that particular matter), had sent twelve detachments of the Drell Self Defence Section. All trained assassins and infiltrators, they had been crucial in preventing nuclear mines or biological WMDs from being activated by the Hegemony special forces on the moon.
The Krogans had sent a full company of warriors, Urgkak Company. It was one of the newer companies, composed of a new generation of Krogans willing to clear their species' name by doing good the way they knew - kicking the living shit out of tyrants. One contract at a time.
She'd enjoyed working with the company of young krogans who only took contracts that helped innocents in the process.
The surprise had been the Virtuals. They'd sent a full brigade of artificial body inhabitants, as those who chose to live in physical bodies were called in Virtuals' society.
Then again, they gained quite a few bodies that were brain dead. She regretted the fact that she had had to give them those bodies, but at least, they were put to good use. The brain dead bodies had been implanted with a host mind, allowing the Virtuals' access to new organic minds, and biological material, crucial to improving their life in galactic society, now that their AI had finally fragmented into different VIs within the mothership.
All of which is to say that the giant 30 kilogram bolt, just like the 5gm K-77, had enough energy to wipe out a column of dwarves.
She couldn't let that happen. She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, and squeezed the trigger.
The inferno round seemed to almost blink as it rocketed to the catapult. It struck the bolt brace, sending the metal arrow tumbling backwards, its weight crushing the nearest orcs, before it's falling blade caught on a troll's head, sending down the creature's body in a shower of blood and organ pieces as the force of the falling blade shredded through bones, tissues and organs.
The catapult exploded into bits and pieces of burning shards, just before the plasma exploded out in a wave as the second payload activated, vaporising closer orcs and other creatures in a flash.
She traced her sight over to the next catapult, noting the ranks of orcs and goblins on wargs galloping down in giant irregular columns. She would have loved to thin these columns out as well, but she had limited ammunition, and bigger targets to flash fry into incendiary shrapnels.
That didn't mean she couldn't do anything about the columns either.
The next catapult already had a bolt locked and almost ready to fire when she fired on it. The round hit the release lever, sending the bolt, which had not been yet elevated for a parabolic arc shot, into the troops nearby, crushing half a column of troops nearly fifty metres in front that were preparing to ride out to the battlefield. At the same time, the catapult rocked backwards, crashing into a pile of bolts, which went tumbling away, causing more damage.
She cycled from catapult to catapult, putting a single inferno round through each of them until there were none.
Just as she was aiming for the first of the crossbow, there was a loud thump and a giant ball came arcing up from beyond her line of sight, almost lazily crossing the distance to the allied formation. She switched her target quickly and fired into the shell, even as she toggled her armour's public address system and shouted to the troops below:
"Explosive! Shield wall now!"
2
Tauriel had seen the stranger climb the ladder up to the walls of the dwarven hold, and lay out her weird contraption. She had also seen what her contraptions were capable of. Not since the War of the Ring, and Isildur's fall had such power ever been on display. The stranger had wiped out the enemy before it could lay its cunning trap upon the races, and saved them in the process.
All of this was to say she was really inclined to follow the Stranger's advice, even if her king whispered misplaced misgivings to Mithrandir and the others.
She ducked down immediately upon hearing the shout, shouting out the command to the shield bearers, who immediately formed up the shield wall in a few practiced motions. And not a moment too soon.
The sky shattered with a thundering crack, sending the entire line to the ground, the heat pressing down on them, turning their armour like the grill of a fireplace just for a second, before the wave passed. She shook her head to try and stop the ringing in her ears, only to wince as the movement sent a sharp jab of main up her spine and into her head, making her even more dizzy.
Then with a sudden slide, Kili and Legolas were beside her. Kili placed a steadying hand on her. "Are you okay, my love?". Kili was focused on her, so he didn't notice the brief twitch in Legolas's expression at his endearment. Although he had accepted their love for each other, Legolas couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow at the loss of what may have been between him and Tauriel.
He pushed that thought away. Tauriel had promised herself to the young dwarf, which meant she was walking the same path Luthien of old had. Hers will be a mortal life, forever away from the Blessed Realm in the West.
"I am alright, dear. Just a little dizzy." Tauriel willed her pain away for now, taking comfort in her paramour's presence as she leaned her head on his shoulder.
"Orcs!" Legolas warned in a shout even as he drew his bow and loosed threw arrows at once, his elven senses having picked out the enemy skirmishers trying to surprise the allied lines in the chaos. His arrows flew true, striking down the first three, the ones leading the rest.
Kili and Tauriel pulled away from each other instantly, each drawing their bows and killing two more orcs in the first instant.
They were joined by a scattering of others in the shield wall who were just getting up, sending the skirmishers scurrying back at the volley.
It did not bring comfort to the three leading the line. They could hear the snarling of the wargs and the rumbling thunder of troll feets.
Legolas turned to the two lovers."Organise the line. I will buy us some time!", and before they could reply he was gone.
He raced towards the charging enemy, firing arrows in twos and threes with unerring accuracy as he neared them, shattering the first line of wargs and goblins even as the riders tried to shoot back at him.
He dodged them all, sidestepping anything that came close to him. He was a prince of the Woodland Realm, and son of Laicolasse, she who was known as the beacon of Gondolin's Fall. Laicolasse had guided survivors to safe havens, killing whatever came in her path with her bow, throwing knives or even her bare hand, and she had taught him all her battle arts. Today he intended to make her proud.
As the first warg riding goblin came upon him, he kicked off the ground with his right leg, stepped on the warg's head with his left, and pushed off, even as he drew another arrow from his rapidly depleting quiver and shot the goblin straight through the eye, sending him careening off the warg. He rapidly aimed his bow down and shot the warg with another arrow.
He then brought the bow back up, and shot the next four wargs with his last arrows, sending the riders tumbling to the ground.
He landed in a roll and swiftly came up in a crouch, dropping his bow and quiver in one practiced movement, before diving forward at the next warg, bringing his twin short swords out. His mother's blades glowed a ethereal bright blue in his hands, sending terror striking at the enemy. The wargs whimpered and the goblins shrieked, trying to turn their rides away from the elf with Gondolin blades.
Legolas had an almost feral grin on his face as he cleaved into the enemy line, slashing through wargs and goblins alike in single sweeping strokes as he moved deeper and deeper into their line, carving a bloody path of goblin limbs and warg guts, in a fury that almost no creature could stand firm against.
Almost no creature, because as he cleaved the last warg in a long line of wargs, he came face to face with a troll. But not just any troll. It had a head to toe armour, all painted black with a particularly foul smelling concoction that reminded him of the wicked war paint his mother would sometimes talk about, and with a sudden sinking feeling, he realised his blades would not go through that paint and armour.
He threw himself backwards, just in time to avoid a sweeping blow from the troll's giant spiked mace, dropping to the ground and rolling backwards and up into a leaping crouch, rapidly backpedalling away as he cursed himself for not bringing some of his throwing knives in hurry to catch up to Tauriel.
His senses screamed at him, and he jumped to the right, avoiding a sweeping mace from another troll, before throwing himself to the ground, feeling the spikes of yet another mace whistle past his back at a hair's breadth.
He rolled between the legs of the troll, and out beyond them, only to see another troll already swinging his mace down at him, too close for him to dodge.
For just a moment, his thoughts went to Tauriel and he felt glad there was someone to take care of her when he was gone… And then the troll and its mace was thrown away in a searing flash of heat that left him tasting iron, and Gandalf landed in front of him, his staff blazing with power that reflected the fury in his eyes.
"Move, you fool of a prince!" Gandalf grabbed his collar and threw Legolas behind him as the three other trolls turned to face them.
Gandalf raised his staff and brought it down on the ground, and with another searing flash the three trolls turned into ash.
"Get him out of here!" shouted Gandalf even as he turned his attention towards the much larger wave of enemies, now with orcs, goblins and trolls, coming towards them.
Legolas felt a tug on his shoulder, and turned to see Tauriel and Killi, along with two of his father's guards, one of whom was holding his bow and a fresh quiver of arrows.
"Come on, Legolas. Our work is not done yet." Tauriel said, her face brightening for a moment in a small smile, before it returned to its grim line.
Legolas nodded as he sheathed his blades, and took his bow and quiver from the guard, swinging the latter to its place on his back, and nocking an arrow.
They started making their way towards another part of the line where another wave of the enemy was about to clash with the dwarves and humans in that section, and Legolas turned back for one last look to see Mithrandir blazing like a light, turning wave after wave of the enemy into ash, even as a loud crack rang out through the sky, and just for a moment, there was another sun in the distant sky over the enemy's line once more.