All characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyrighted to Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. I've taken the idea for the Unseelie Court from the TGS. Characters and concepts from Star Trek are property of Paramount and created by Gene Roddenberry. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All real persons belong to themselves, and no offense is intended. All original characters are the property of SN.
Note: I'm disregarding the events of the "Goliath Chronicles", with the exception of "The Journey" because I do not wish to use the rest of the "Goliath Chronicles" as canon to my story. Also, I am altering large sections of the Star Trek storyline, especially concerning events like WWIII and the Eugenics Wars, which without the Cold War as a backdrop probably wouldn't happen the way Roddenberry wrote them, if at all. This story takes place immediately after "Once And Future King: Restoration".
Once And Future King: Retreat
By SN/TVfan
Email: Sam_Nary
Scapa Flow
The fighting around Stonehenge and London were not missed elsewhere in the Illuminati's battle to directly take control of the British Isles. They couldn't move whole units away from the main battle lines and have it not be noticed. It was late, but many of the men trying to save the UK from the Illuminati in an official capacity were now picking up on some of these actions.
"A rebellion?" one lieutenant on monitoring duty gasped.
"In London, yes," another answered, "in just came through the spy satellites the Americans are letting us use. A big fight in London."
"Can they tell what these rebels attacked?" the first inquired.
"Other than the area the Illuminati has largely taken as a Headquarters? No," the second sighed, "but that might mean that whoever they're attacking must be important to them."
The first lieutenant nodded and then looked back to the images he was getting. He sighed for a moment and then sighed.
"We may need to get the generals up," he spoke after a moment, "because on the ones I've been looking at, have also indicating that they have practically a full division… maybe MORE around Stonehenge."
"Stonehenge!" the second gasped, "what could they be doing there? Is there another rebellion there?"
"I don't know," the first answered, "all I've seen is the transfer of troops."
"Do you know where they came from?" the second asked.
"Most were pulled out of Northern Ireland," the first answered, "the generals are already considering mounting something of a counter-attack there. Especially if this rumor of a wild man running around and knocking out Illuminati soldiers in the Ulster region are true."
"Can we prove that?" the second pondered aloud.
"That I don't know," the first replied, "all we've gotten are the few stories from prisoners that we've managed to take and shuffle back here. Nothing more than that. All the same, the rumors are there, and they did remove men from their lines in Northern Ireland."
"I'll get the generals then," the second lieutenant sighed, "you get a report ready. They'll want a full explanation for why they're being woken up in the middle of the night."
London
Shots rang out through the night as the ragtag group of rebels under Catherine Silver and a good portion of the London Clan and Macbeth resisted the efforts of the Illuminati to try and catch them and destroy them for good. The battle had begun with an assassination of the general in command of all the Illuminati forces. The plan had been for that act to draw Illuminati defenses away from Stonehenge and give Arthur and Merlin an easier shot at getting to the monument. They didn't know about the extra units that the Illuminati had gathered there, allowing the units around London to focus solely on London. But, even if they did know that, knowledge of their success would create other 'good' things for their side.
By forcing the Illuminati to fight a major engagement in the areas they felt were already secure, they wouldn't be able to focus on the main war effort further north. And considering that for the moment, the people taking the main Illuminati general's place were junior officers with little major command experience, they might make some great mistake against either Macbeth in London or against the British army in the north. To insure that that mistake was made, they would have to give a firm resistance, and not retreat from the Illuminati's counter-attacks against them. So far, they were doing fairly well, but that was mostly due to the fact that they were able to bottleneck the Illuminati in narrow streets, and the gargoyles and a few of the mutates that were participating were able to insure that the Illuminati couldn't indiscriminately fire heavy weapons at them.
And that was what Chloe was presently involved in doing. She would have preferred to remain close to Macbeth, to protect him, but he had told her that she would be needed to insure they didn't train any sort of cannon on the houses that the resistance was using as fire bases. Macbeth was somewhere below them, doing what he could to hold back any serious attacks on the ground.
"How is it going?" came Leo's voice as the lion-like gargoyle came toward her.
"Fairly well," Chloe answered, "they've only brought up one or two field guns here, so far."
Leo glanced down to the street he had seen Chloe dive on. There were two toppled anti-tank cannons that had been flipped upside down. They were similar to other small level artillery pieces that Leo remembered from World War Two, going through London on trucks or trains for the areas where the Allied armies were assembling for D-Day. Though the ones the Illuminati were using were a bit more advanced than the ones from the Second World War. They wouldn't do as much as a major artillery piece would, but against small scale fortifications and tanks, they would more than do the job.
"Best to also patrol out a ways," Leo advised, "go toward the areas they control. The more chaos we cause in their rear, the less trouble they can give the Illuminati troops assaulting them here."
"Don't you think they can hold?" Chloe wondered, "That they can win? Do you doubt Macbeth that much?"
"I do not doubt Macbeth's skill as a warrior or commander," Leo answered, "but the army he has isn't a trained army, and isn't made up entirely of gargoyles and mutates, and we've used up the heavy weapons that we'd stolen from the Illuminati base on the north side of London."
Chloe nodded remembering the anti-tank rockets they'd used to assassinate the Illuminati general and to slow down the initial Illuminati counter-attack. The only other thing they could possibly use was the armored personnel carrier that they had stolen from the same base, but that would have to wait until Arthur and Merlin and the others could return to London. And they'd likely be coming back into London with a large number of enemy troops on their tail as well.
"Churchill urged every Briton to fight against the Nazis when they invaded," Leo answered, "and I've seen some reports that indicate he had some special secret army ready should the Nazis have actually managed to cross the channel."
"But they didn't," Chloe replied.
"And a good thing they didn't," Leo answered, "Mostly thanks to Griff and the RAF… but still… if they invaded, their well-trained troops would have slaughtered the untrained volunteers that fought them."
Chloe only sighed.
"We need to insure that there is chaos in their rear," Leo answered.
"Okay then," Chloe answered and moved off in search of any other heavy weapons the Illuminati might be bringing to the area.
"Let's get out of here!" a man screamed in near panic as a section of a nearby wall was blown in by the detonation of an anti-tank rocket went off.
They had been manning a section on the northern edge of the line that the rebels against the Illuminati were holding when a soldier on the other side fired the rocket, blowing a large hole in the wall. From there, they began to rush the opening, and that panicked the two men manning that section of the rebel line on that floor.
"To where?" the second asked.
"To the house across the street," came Macbeth's voice from the doorway behind them.
"Only across the street?" the first said, still panicking as Macbeth hit the first Illuminati soldier attempted to rush in with a blast from one of his electric blasters.
"And slowly," Macbeth answered, "we need to buy time for those on the upper floors to withdraw to the next street. You run in panic and the battle is over and we lose. We must withdraw slowly, particularly when we're trying to buy time for Arthur."
The second fired off a couple more shots, getting the next Illuminati soldier that tried to rush in.
"Come on, to the next building, "he said to his panicked partner, and the hollered up a nearby flight of stairs, "come on guys! Time to withdraw to the next set of buildings."
"I'll hold the line here while you pull out," Macbeth assured them, and then toppled a large table over on its side.
The table would act as a sort of shield for him, and allowed Macbeth to fire more shots from his electric blaster from behind cover. His shots stunned two more Illuminati soldiers into unconsciousness, and those that were outside began to be a bit more cautious. He continued to hunker behind the desk when the fired in a few shots toward him. The table managed to deflect the shots, but that wouldn't go on forever. Eventually, he heard one of the rebels shout that they were out. Shortly after that, he heard a grenade hit the side of the table he'd tipped over.
Macbeth immediately pushed the table over and slit it toward the opening. Again, the table saved Macbeth's life. Its weight was enough to absorb the worst of the grenade's explosion. The worst of it was the smoke that came with it. The smoke obscured Macbeth's ability to look out, but it also obscured their ability to look in. The first Illuminati soldier rushed in blindly, and Macbeth was easily able to grab his rifle barrel and then knee the man in the gut. The blow knocked the wind out of the soldier and he released his grip on his rifle. Macbeth took it and then slammed the butt of the weapon down on the man's neck, knocking him out. He then quickly collected the man's belt and ammunition straps and then pulled out a grenade that the Illuminati soldier had been carrying. Macbeth then left the room quickly, and didn't pay attention to when the grenade went off behind him. Hopefully, the others were managing to maintain an organized retreat. They had to buy time.
Scapa Flow
"Alright, alright," a British admiral grumbled as he made his way into the room where the two lieutenants had been monitoring the images that they were getting from American spy satellites.
The acting Parliament had managed to convince the Americans to loan the satellites to them as a sort of allied agreement, and there was some speculation that they might have to repay the Americans in kind somewhere else at some later date. But for the moment, that wasn't the issue. The issue at the moment was the survival of the UK. The admiral and the couple of generals that had followed the admiral were there to save their country. They weren't about to let it fall to the Illuminati.
"Based on what we've been monitoring, sir," second of the two lieutenants began his report, "it would appear that the Illuminati are engaged in actions behind their lines that may be to our advantage."
"Something to our advantage?" one of the generals asked.
"Yes," the second lieutenant answered with a nod, "they've moved a division's worth of troops to the area around Stonehenge for some reason and there also appears to be a major fight in London."
"A major fight in London?" the admiral questioned.
"Yes, sir," the first lieutenant nodded, "based off of what we could see, a group of rebels has launched some sort of attack against the building in London we believe the Illuminati has been using as its headquarters. The Illuminati's main reserve force has since been committed to fighting this uprising."
"What of the men around Stonehenge?" another general asked.
"We haven't been able to see why they've moved men to Stonehenge," the second explained, "but since my duty partner went to get you, I've managed to monitor a little bit more… develop some of the images."
All eyes came to focus on the second lieutenant. He cleared his throat before continuing.
"A lot of this appears to have been obscured by fog, but I was able to make out rings of trenches and machine gun emplacements," the second lieutenant spoke, "they were evidently expecting an attack of some kind there…"
"Ludicrous thinking," the admiral grumbled, "we don't even know for sure what Stonehenge truly does for sure. And how it was built is still unknown."
"It may sound ludicrous, sir," the second lieutenant told him, "but based off of what I was able to develop, they've had some sort of attack there within the past couple of hours. And the attack itself was somewhat weird. It looked as though they'd been attacked by rose bushes."
"Rose bushes?" the admiral gasped in disbelief.
"Yes, sir," the second lieutenant answered, "Stonehenge may not have any major military importance, but maybe the Illuminati or whoever attacked them had some other reason for being there."
"Pendragon," the first of the generals commented off hand.
The other three generals and the admiral then turned to face general who had spoken. The general, however, kept his focus and turned to the two lieutenants.
"Where did the troops around Stonehenge originally come from?" that general asked.
"Northern Ireland, sir," the first lieutenant answered.
"I see," the first general answered, "Gentlemen, I believe we may have an opportunity, though we'll need to discuss it fully to make sure we're on the same page and our response is correct."
"Of course," the admiral nodded.
The general/admiral officers then quietly left the monitoring station room in what was Britain's very small intelligence area and moved to a nearby conference area. They were led by the first general in the group. The one who had mentioned Arthur by his family name, Pendragon.
"Okay, what was with the Pendragon line back there?" the admiral demanded.
"Arthur Pendragon," the first general answered, "in legend, the historic Briton who resisted the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain…"
"My family is of Anglo-Saxon heritage," the admiral said in a slightly agitated voice.
"Just about everyone is, but in time, the stories of King Arthur became a big part of our history, even if our ancestors were on the other side of his war," the first general answered, "in a way, the old Celtic Legend has become our legend as well. And even if he did fight the Anglo-Saxons, based off of the legend, the kingdom he created is everything we have always aspired to."
"And?" a second general asked.
"The Illuminati has blamed their invasion one Arthur Dragon, and plastered his photograph everywhere, hoping we'd side with them," the first general continued, "And said he is really Arthur Pendragon, the legendary King."
"You don't honestly believe that, do you?" the third general asked, "I mean, it's ludicrous. The legend is that King Arthur reigned after the fall of Rome, and the Historians claim he was likely a Romano-Briton noble who would coble together some units that would preserve their way of life and would ultimately create what we know as Wales today… which would put him alive at around five hundred CE. He'd be over a thousand by now."
"Then why else would someone attack Stonehenge? And why would the Illuminati feel the need to defend it?" the first general commented, "we may have to accept that there are such things as magic and that maybe Stonehenge served some sort of magical purpose that Arthur needed and that the Illuminati sought to prevent him from getting to."
That was a lot for all of them to accept, but it was also something that made sense to them all. Stonehenge was of no major military importance, and it would make no sense to station troops there beyond the bare minimum to control the local population. So the only reason for such a massive deployment had to be something they wouldn't be inclined to believe. As an old saying goes, if we remove the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. They were all quiet for a moment, before the admiral spoke up.
"If he really is, Arthur Pendragon… wouldn't that make him the legitimate King of all England?" the admiral asked, "dethrone the Queen? I mean the legend has him going to Avalon to sleep. Not truly dead…"
"Maybe by a technicality, but I'm not sure he'd take the chance," the first general sighed, "I mean, he had the opportunity to do so when she knighted him… to kill her and claim the throne… but he didn't. He may not want it… and even if he does, I don't think we're in much of a position to do much about it. If he'll help us defeat the Illuminati, let's take it and take it quickly. We can see who he's loyal to after our bigger enemy is gone."
"Agreed," the other three men nodded.
"And so, now we have our next move to make," the third general spoke.
"Yes," the second General nodded, "the report said they'd moved troops out of Northern Ireland. Our forces here run from Glasgow to Edinburgh and are strong enough to hold that line, but not strong enough to advance… but if they've removed troops from Northern Ireland, our forces there might have an opening to counter-attack."
The other three nodded.
"And we do have some last reserves to land amphibiously," the admiral commented, "the Illuminati don't seem to be patrolling too much by sea at the moment, "our men are presently holed up around Ballycastle, right?"
"That general area, yes," the third general nodded.
"This may be a bit of a gamble, but I believe we can land our reserve units at Belfast and then spread out along the coast, using our ships for support," the admiral spoke, "then once they link up, the Illuminati will be cut off… and maybe with all these rumors of some wild man in Ireland spooking them, maybe we can get them to all surrender and clean up our western flank…"
"And then move troops to Scotland to drive south," the first general nodded, "when do you want to do this?"
"As soon as possible," the admiral urged, "who knows how long the rebels can hold out in London, or Arthur can hold out in Salisbury."
London, Illuminati Headquarters
Meanwhile the acting commander of the Illuminati was facing problems of his own. While he was a colonel and more experienced with command decisions then the two lieutenants that had to make the first response to the first attack, the position he was in was not an easy one. His actions were mostly to be dictated by superiors or from Two. At present there were no superiors to take command and Two was still at Stonehenge. No one in the Illuminati knew that the Councilmember was dead and that Merlin had regained his powers. For the moment, all he could do was keep up the orders to attack the rebels that had struck at the Illuminati Headquarters and not much else.
Fearing the rebels were part of something bigger, he moved most of the Illuminati ships to support southern England in case of some sort of 'cat claw' landing. This was actually in keeping with his predecessor's actions, though his predecessor came from a different perception of strength. He had figured the navy was no longer needed as the fight in Northern Ireland was seemingly over and the forces in Scotland couldn't hold out much longer. Either way though, the colonel's worries meant that policy didn't change.
Still, his biggest problem was the rebellion in London. They were fighting surprisingly well for what were likely shopkeepers and other non-military trained civilians that had been ignored when the battlefront swept past London early in the Illuminati invasion. While they were surrounded and victory was certain, the rebels seemed intent on making it a costly one. Every street seemed to barricaded, slowing the advance along the streets and making it difficult to move the artillery units along the streets as well. They were firing from the houses and buildings making infantry units assault each one in bitter house to house fighting, and to make it worse, the rebels had other allies making things more difficult for them.
Reports had confirmed that Macbeth was the rebellion's leader, and the Immortal Scotsman was going up and down the battle lines and shoring up the weakest sectors with his own personal bravery and combat knowledge. And with nearly a millennium of experience, Macbeth was not one to be overestimated, even at his present physical age. On top of this, a large number of the London Clan was also aiding him, and the gargoyles were giving his mean even more trouble. They were diving on the Illuminati soldiers trying to move the guns to blast at the buildings being used as fortresses and at snipers trying to set themselves up on other rooftops. This was throwing chaos into everything and enabling the rebels to put up a stronger fight then they should.
"Has there been any word yet from Two?" the colonel demanded, "anything at all?"
"No, sir," a communications officer answered, "we can't even raise the units around Stonehenge."
The colonel grumbled. Things were turning against him, and quickly. He needed more men to secure London. The forces he had were probably strong enough to win, but things were fast becoming too difficult for that. If their reserve was chewed up, they couldn't counter attack any main British counterattack in the north. They needed the men to break the rebellion quickly, before things got even worse.
"Send a message up to the units in Scotland," the colonel commanded, "I want two divisions from the weakest sector to rush back to London. We need to crush these rebels as quickly as possible."
"Two divisions, sir?" the man asked.
"The north is quiet for the moment," the colonel responded, "we're going to have to gamble. We secure London now, and with few losses, we can then counterattack any thrust they make there and retake the ground. London, Macbeth, and Pendragon are the important targets. The units around Stonehenge are chasing him, and even if they weren't, we haven't been able to contact Stonehenge. We need the men to crush the rebellion now!"
The colonel sighed and then looked about the room.
"Before Pendragon does something to change things," the colonel thought nervously.
Outside Salisbury
Arthur, Rachael, Merlin, and Beth made their way quietly back through the rose maze and back out to where they had originally entered it from. They had won a great victory at the Stonehenge monument in the fact that Merlin had his powers back, and the fact that Two was dead. Rachael had a little bit of guilt at that, but she had accepted that she had to make the choice she made. Arthur wouldn't have made it if she decided to try and deal Two a non-lethal blow. Now the matter at hand was to get out of the battle zone and regroup with Coyote and the others.
"Can you sense them, Merlin?" Arthur asked as they ran along, "sense where they are?"
"Not really," Merlin admitted, "I've got my powers pack, yes… I can feel that, but not sharp enough to pinpoint their location."
"Based off of all the shooting, I'd say they're to the east of us," Rachael commented, "It's died down now, but I can still hear some of it."
"You don't think they…?" Beth began to ask, sounding slightly nervous.
"I'm sure they're fine," Arthur answered, "Coyote wouldn't let them get captured if he could help it, and Griff has been an excellent knight and is familiar with these sorts of odds. I doubt they'd be able to kill him. The key is getting to them. And that will be easier once we get to the vehicles we drove in."
"Can you drive it?" Rachael wondered.
"Well enough to avoid crashing," Arthur commented, "whether or not I fully comply with all the rules of the road or what is specifically good for the vehicle's engine, is another matter."
They silently slipped out of the area where they had crossed the Illuminati's defense lines through the rose maze that Beth had conjured up with the Avalon Stone. Merlin paid close enough attention to notice that the battle lines on the outside of the rose maze were quiet as they moved out. No one shot at them, and there appeared to be no one in those sections of the line.
"We'd best do this quickly," Merlin commented, "it would appear that they've sent everyone after our decoy force."
They rushed along until they came across the armored personnel carrier that they had stolen from the Illuminati base on the north side of London. It was where they had left it, luckily, and they were quick to climb into it. Beth and Rachael were quick to get to the back seat/passenger area while Merlin sat in the front passenger seat while Arthur climbed behind the driver's seat. Arthur glanced at things, but was at a bit of a loss on how to start the vehicle. For the most part, he walked where needed to, or gotten a lift from Griff. He could manage with some things, but size of military level equipment threw him off a bit.
"For the sake of starting," Merlin sighed, sent a small pulse of magic to start the vehicle.
The engine hummed to life and Arthur managed to get into a forward gear. As he made it out and onto a nearby road, Merlin began to look around.
"Rachael, I think we ought to switch," Merlin commented, "Your night vision is better than mine is at the moment."
Rachael blinked from where she was setting her normal clothes. She was still in wolf form, and was looking toward shifting back and possibly drinking some water to get the taste of Two's blood out of her mouth. She then sighed. Merlin might have his magic, but if he used it too much, he might set off some sort of beacon. She then moved forward while Merlin climbed back. Once she was seated in the front seat she turned to Arthur.
"Most of the gun shots have come from that direction," Rachael explained, "so it'd be best to go straight and around. Not directly toward the sound of the gunfire. We'd go straight into them…"
"And it'd be best not to advertise that we've given Merlin his powers back," Arthur nodded, "You can keep a lookout?"
"Of course," Rachael nodded.
Elsewhere on that battlefield, Griff, Coyote, Reginald, Lancelot, Julia, and Octavia were making their way to the north and east, away from where the Illuminati soldiers were. Coyote had once again thickened the fog around them to make it difficult for the Illuminati soldiers to see them, and the gargoyles had landed again to avoid gliding into anything hard. So far, the trick to make the Illuminati think that Merlin and Arthur had been with them and had been killed was going okay. It had bought them the time they needed to disengage and get away from the point of the Illuminati's proverbial sword.
"So, what will we do next?" Lancelot wondered, "The real Arthur and Merlin would have come for us buy now if they'd restored Merlin's powers."
"We move far enough away to get out of their most direct line of sight, and then scout things out," Reginald explained, "find out where they're weakest and strike there, and resume our sort of fighting retreat. So long as we draw them away from Stonehenge."
"Hopefully the trick with the 'dummy' Arthur and Merlin do the trick and keep them occupied to carry this maneuver out," Griff commented.
"They'll probably have figured they weren't real out by now," Coyote sighed, "that's why they're still firing the occasional shot. They're stumbling in the dark and fog after us, and are firing at anything that's jumped them. Could be a bat, could be an owl… shoot… could be one clumsy guy in their own ranks that's fallen down."
They continued on quietly and trying to keep as low as possible in order to lower their profile as much as possible. On occasion, they did look back to where they had come, and managed to see only the fog that Coyote was leaving behind them. They sincerely hoped that the Illuminati soldiers would give up because of the fog, or at least pause to regroup and reorganize. Eventually Coyote spoke up again.
"Also, I think Arthur and Merlin were successful at getting to the monument," Coyote spoke.
"They made it to the monument?" Griff asked, "You mean Merlin has his powers back?"
"I felt a small sort of pulse come from the monument," Coyote answered, "all I know is that it was used. It could be that Beth was able to restore Merlin's powers, or Two used it to drain the Avalon Stone that Beth has."
"Is there any way you contact them?" Reginald asked.
"Yes… but it would mean leaving you," Coyote answered, "I'd rather not do that… if they catch you, you'd be routed and either killed or captured."
Reginald sighed and then looked to them, "we'll keep moving. If Arthur and Merlin's group was successful, we can assume they'd come back for us."
"Most likely," Griff nodded.
"And if they do so, we'll likely hear the APC's engine running," Reginald answered, "come on."
They continued to move on quietly for quite a while. They managed to remain hidden in the fog and began to move toward an area where Griff or one of the gargoyles could begin gliding again. Seeing through the fog from the air would be tough, but it would have to be done if they were to launch any further strikes on the Illuminati line. Griff was about to climb up a telephone pole that they'd found when they heard the sound of an engine in the foggy mist.
"Is that Arthur?" Lancelot wondered, "Or did the Illuminati find us?"
Reginald readied his weapon and aimed it toward where the sound was coming from. But, it was soon clear that it wasn't needed. The APC that they had been using came into view with Arthur in the front seat and with Rachael, still in her werewolf form beside him. They pulled up and shut the engine off. Arthur was then quick to get out and help them get in.
"Were you successful, your majesty?" Griff asked him.
"Yes, but we'd best be going," Arthur answered, "Rachael's seen a large number of Illuminati soldiers along the way here, and we were lucky to have avoided them."
"So, Merlin's powers have been restored?" Reginald asked.
"Yes, which means we need to get back to London," Arthur answered, "see what can be done there."
"Not much, other than make a distraction," Reginald replied as he climbed in to sit in the driver's seat, "besides, if Merlin has his powers back, that means that Coyote and Beth Maza , here, can return to their home."
"Of course," Arthur nodded.
"It might be best to move toward Liverpool, or some major western port," Reginald answered, "there we see about cutting some of the Illuminati's supply lines, and our American guests can esacpe to Ireland and return home from there."
"Some of that might be a good idea for other reasons," Merlin commented as they got rolling again.
"And that being?" Julia asked, somewhat curious.
"Sunrise is getting closer," Merlin explained, "The Illuminati will expect us to return to London, and will in all likelihood, lay a trap for us there. We'll need to find a way to get to London eventually… in a timeframe that allows us to move more swiftly."
Julia nodded. Merlin could likely do much with his powers, but during the day, if he was protecting her and the other gargoyles with them, that strength would be limited. They may have won a great victory by defeating Two and giving the Illuminati soldiers the runaround, but the war was far from over.
London
Macbeth managed to find Catherine Silver in one of the last main houses that the rebels had been holding. Their uprising had no real hope of ever winning from the beginning. They simply didn't have the supplies or the training to keep fighting forever, nor did they have the heavy weapons to make the few real strong points that they had had, impregnable. The fight was intended to draw men away from Stonehenge or the northern front to help the overall situation. And Macbeth didn't know it, but the uprising had done that, so far. The Illuminati were bringing troops down from the north, even though the uprising would be done in a matter of hours, and 'defeated' by the units of the Illuminati reserves.
"I don't think we can hold much longer," Catherine grumbled, "your gargoyles have thrown them into chaos, but there's simply too many of them. Even with the chaos they rush on."
"Dawn isn't that far away," Macbeth replied, "we won't be able to even have their help for much longer."
"How far away?" Catherine asked nervously.
"About an hour," Macbeth answered, "I've already waved Chloe down. They'll be going underground soon and the mutates will hide them for the day."
Catherine nodded and fired a shot through a window, taking down an Illuminati soldier climbing over one of the various barricades that had been constructed.
"Do you know if they're sending troops through the sewers and subways?" Catherine asked, "Because we'll need to scatter into much smaller units after something like this…"
"You'll also need to leave London," Macbeth nodded.
Catherine grumbled heavily. She had hoped for an all-out victory. She was certain that at least half of the men and women that had joined her rebel movement were dead or wounded. A victory would make their deaths worthwhile. Launching a rebellion and getting crushed wouldn't. Thankfully, Macbeth's allies, however weird they were, had thought of ways to escape. The tunnels that made up the subway and various sewer tunnels that ran under the city of London created a maze of its own that would be tough for the Illuminati to catch them in, provided they hadn't already sent troops there.
"And as for troops in the sewers, the mutates haven't seen any," Macbeth finished his answer, "but we're running short on time. You have only one entrance into those tunnels that you can use effectively. And with the gargoyles now going underground, their snipers and heavy weapons won't be harassed any further. Their advance will get stronger."
"I'd hoped we'd be able to win," Catherine gave a sigh.
"We never had the men or the equipment to win here," Macbeth answered, "the success of this uprising will be determined by what happens elsewhere. You will need to begin withdrawing now… and make sure it is as orderly as possible. They have maintained a fairly cautious approach when they've managed to push us out of the other buildings we've used as fortresses."
Catherine nodded. She doubted her untrained rebels would withdraw in good order, like an army on the battlefield in history books or movies, but they didn't have much choice. She'd do her best to relay the orders as effectively as possible.
"Where will you be?" Catherine wondered.
"I'll hold them off to buy you time," Macbeth answered.
Catherine blinked in surprise and nodded.
London, Illuminati Headquarters
The colonel commanding the Illuminati was finally getting some good reports in that the rebels seemed to be withdrawing from the main battle lines. The best news was that the gargoyles had left the battle. He had read Illuminati reports that dated back to when Macbeth was King of Scotland. He had relied on gargoyles to defend his kingdom then too, and when they helped him, the English suffered heavily. But in the end they abandoned him for reasons unknown. The colonel hoped things would repeat themselves now.
"Sir, with the fact that they are retreating, do you think you should cancel the order to bring more troops down from the north?" a lieutenant asked him.
"No, we will still need them," he said quickly.
"What? Why?"
"I won't change the order until all of the rebels can be accounted for," the colonel answered, "if they're not… they'll scatter and we'll need the men to hunt them down and make them pay for killing the general… unless you've finally gotten through to our units at Stonehenge."
"No, I haven't, sir," the lieutenant looked down, embarrassed.
"Then we will continue the transfer of troops," the colonel answered, "end of story."
London Subway Entrance
Macbeth stood quietly at the entrance area to the London subway that had been at the center of where they had ultimately set up their defenses. Catherine Silver's withdrawal of the rebels had gone well enough. They had just made it into the tunnels and the mutates would help them escape from the battle area, and possibly even get them out of the city. Now, all he had to do was slow down their pursuit into the tunnels. With him, Macbeth had a small collection of grenades taken from fallen Illuminati soldiers as well as one lone rifle with a few clips of bullets for it. Using a post for cover, Macbeth kept an eye on the one entrance to the subway. If he could get them into a major firefight, the others would get away, and no one on the rebel side would be permanently harmed.
"Unless they've recruited Demona for this," Macbeth thought to himself, but he knew the immortal gargoyle, and the only one that could truly kill him, wouldn't partner with the Illuminati. At least not knowingly.
After a few moments, though, his thoughts were interrupted as he heard sounds coming toward him. The Illuminati found everything above them abandoned and were now coming down to begin the hunt down there. He had had to buy the others time.
"They must of have gone into the sewers," one voice said.
"Come on, if we're quick, we'll gun them down," a second added.
Macbeth leaned around the post and fired a barrage of bullets down the narrow hallway at the approaching Illuminati soldiers. Three men fell before they took cover where they could, or at least got out of the center of the hallway.
"Nothing in this will be quick!" Macbeth shouted to them, and tossed one of the captured grenades toward them.
The grenade explosion caught the rest, and Macbeth soon heard cries for help and reinforcements. The help came in the form of a grenade being tossed down the entrance area with great force so that it skidded along toward Macbeth was before exploding. The immortal Scottish king managed to dive away to avoid the worst of it, but when it went off, he felt a great stinging pain in his legs as small bits of metal tore into him.
"At least it isn't as bad as it was at Ypres," Macbeth grumbled to himself and rolled around, ignoring the pain in his legs to fire the rifle at the next group of Illuminati soldiers to rush down the entry way.
Again, Macbeth shot down several men, but this time, with his legs immobilized by the grenade, he was unable to get to the grenades he had in his arsenal and couldn't use them to force the Illuminati soldiers to try and retreat back out again. This enabled his opponents to begin taking potshots at him. The first round to hit him, hit him in the shoulder, making him lose his grip on the captured military weapon he had. He rolled onto his back to draw his electric blaster with his other hand when he was hit again, this time in the and. He gave a pained grunt and brought injured hand to his chest as the Illuminati soldiers approached.
"Well, I'll be, it's the old guy, himself!" the first of the three soldiers to approach him chuckled.
"You may have caught me, but you will not catch the others," Macbeth vowed.
"Perhaps not today," the man answered, "and I have to respect you for your skill. You bloodied us a lot harder than I would have expected. But in the end the result was never in doubt and never will be in doubt. You lose."
Macbeth was unable to do anything as the man then pulled out his pistol, and fired.
To Be Continued…