The battles on the western borders of the empire were fierce. The total number of deaths exceeding birth rates for a whole year. However, it was the brutality of the western borders that drew the most attention. Names like the Butchers of Fernwick, the Devils of the west, Hunters of the damned, and so on populated the air around the conduct of the army. Especially the home army. Where they were thrown into constant battles that turned into meat grinders.
It was in these battles where the government gave the title of heroes of the empire. These heroes had done acts that were considered above and beyond the call of duty. The very act of which benefitted the empire or saved the lives of its citizens. However, like a coin. Heroes were also villains after the war. Many who couldn’t cope with the more peaceful and less violent nature of everyday life.
Many of which turned to liquor, banditry, whores, and so on. To null the pain of battles suffered in extreme perpetuity. These former heroes slowly became devils in their own rights.
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Kettler Mines Exit
20:03
Owen was led out of the mines by a squad of SWRD members. However, when they had reached them. They thought that he was the butcher. He remembers their words. “The Devourer of the west had done it again.” Another a younger woman had emptied the contents of her stomach on the floor upon seeing the pile. However, Owen stood and walked over. He uttered a simple order. “Bury their bodies in the proper order of things.” They nodded but the air was palpable. The stench of death permeated the stone walls. The blood had dried in patches. Owen was followed out.
He walked through the main entrance where an influx of SWRD members stood interrogating the captured, the wounded, and the dying. However, when they saw Owen. He noted the fear in their eyes. The fact that the Devourer had caused such destruction. Had nerved a few of the members. He looked a head towards Audelia and a paled Vance. Who stood in dead silence as the tall sergeant covered in blood came walking. Slowly like it was an outing on a Sunday.
Audelia stared in disbelief. She heard what things Owen had done in the mines; however, nothing had compared to what her team had saw and gossiped about. The horrors of murder, death, and a lack of mercy. How in a fit of rage he advanced on the deserters. Tearing and ripping through their ranks. However, she looked at Owen with suspicion. Simply, because in the final moments of the raid he had come back not as a berserker in the final moments of their rage, but back to that stoicism in which he entered the mines with. It was unsettling. Given a situation Owen would return to that animalistic stage.
Owen walked and presented himself to Audelia. Back straight, a crisp salute, a simple glance into her green eyes. “Ma’am, I apologize for my failure.” Audelia stared at Owen with trepidation. Owen sighed “I guess this is my que to leave. Let the remainder of the squad return to their homes. I have to burry a friend.” He turned sharply and walked quickly grabbing a shovel and heading towards a covered body.
He stopped staring at the stained cloth. “Corporal, let me put you to rest. Somewhere nice.” He looked towards a decent path and lifted the covered body. Several members of SWRD stepped away from Owen. Some whispered words of honeyed dismissal. Owen looked ahead paying no mind to the words. He walked along the foliage. Noting that the blood of the deserters was spilled all along the path. He walked gingerly holding the wrapped body.
After several moments Owen arrived at a clearing overlooking the valley. He noted the sunrise over the mountains. “Beautiful” he whispered to Hynrich. He patted the body before lowering it gently to the ground and with the spade in hand began to mark an appropriately sized grave. He dug deep about a chain deep. He dug as the wind-swept pass howling at the scene with lamentation. The soft lights from the sun peaking over bathed the world around Owen in a hue of reds, purple, and blues.
Once it was dug. Owen had unwrapped the bag that had Hynrich covered. Looking at the corporal one last time he noted the peace within his face. However, his hands were stained with blood. Owen frowned and went about placing Hynrich in the grave. Owen cursed himself for how big he had made the grave accounting for the fact that he made space for legs. He buried Hynrich watching as the pale corporal disappeared beneath the dark brown dirt.
He sat near the edge of the cliff removing a cigarette from his coat pocket. He turned to Hynrich and struck a match erupting into a cloud of fire and smoke. Taking a drag, he stared at the mountains and the horizons. “You must have seen this place countless times when you were here?” He thought emptily to himself. Then he heard the crunching of boots in the slightly moist dirt. “Lieutenant, I assume you will be leaving soon?” Owen didn’t turn. Instead, the presence stood there supposedly staring off at the scenery. A quiet voice spoke up which caught Owen off guard. “It’s quite beautiful. I am sure corporal Kobala must have loved this place?”
Turning he saw the lieutenant without her officer’s great coat. Instead, she wore the drab grey tunic of the army. A frown on her face made Owen uneasy. As if he had been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. He stood, however, a headshake from Audelia caused him to return sitting. She took a couple crunchy steps towards the ledge. Peering over an audible gulp caused Owen to smirk. “Afraid, I can’t sit next to you. Sergeant. Terrified of heights.” Owen chuckled and staring off into the world. Finally standing up and turning he saw Audelia with a bouquet of flowers. Audelia looked at Owen with a somber look. Her eyes staring into his with looks of wonder and curiosity.
Owen in kind stared back. Those green, emerald eyes. How they glistened with childish hope. He remembered seeing such eyes. Looking past her towards Hynrich. He swallowed. He returned his glances back to Audelia who still stared a crease forming on her brow. He wanted to chuckle. She looked pale in the rising sunlight. Her fair skin glistening. Her fiery red hair, which was tied in a bun, loosening on the ever onslaught of the wind. She chuckled letting loose her locks. In the wind they swept like flames from a fire. Owen was at a loss for words.
“So, sergeant, where will you be your next adventure?” Owen stared puzzled before answering softly. “I’ll probably head to his village with the rest of the boys. If they are not joining your lot.” Audelia smiled, her teeth a set of pearls that shined. “The remainder of men are going to join us. They’ll make up any losses and will form an experienced vanguard.” Owen grimaced which caused Audelia to take a step back in trepidation. “I hated that word. Experienced. They are only twenty now. They’re only young men. No more.” Audelia frowned which caused Owen to sigh. “Very well. I’ll take their names and inform their families of their new positions. Maybe they’ll be happy to finally have some closure.”
Audelia could only nod at Owen’s words. She placed the flowers near a stone where Hynrich’s head was. Owen stared at the grave before removing a medal that was hidden within his tunic pocket. It was a simple ornament. An image of a flower, a clover, was engraved on the thing. Audelia stared at the medal with amazement. “You fought in Audentas Mountains?” Owen didn’t respond. He placed the brass medal along the stone’s flat surface and stared. Not long after a light downpour began to blanket the area. At that Audelia and Owen left. Their boots squelching along the muddied trail.
Walking back to the entrance of the mine Owen saw the company of SWRD members bustling about the place. Trying to grab the scraps of the damaged tanks, looking towards the entrance Owen saw the mass grave. He turned towards Audelia who simply nodded grimly. “A few words for the dead, sergeant?” Owen simply nodded and spoke softly.
“May your journey be swift and kind. May the autumn rains be light. May the winds guide you to your final place. May the goddess’ warmth keep you alive. Your memories lie within my sight.” He turned to see several members of SWRD muttering his half attempt of a prayer. Several members upon ending their prayer looked up to nod at Owen and continue their way.
He saw Vance sitting on a crate reading a small book. Owen stared at him thinking that Vance looked more like a guard dog waiting for their master. Then a corporal waiting for their officer. Audelia walked over and although out of ear shot, Owen had picked up on a couple of words. “... join us? Please.” Owen frowned, she knew he had a task to complete for Hynrich, but it seemed that Audelia was trying to poach him for whatever task she has planned. Vance stared at Owen with resolution. However, Owen noticed the frustrated crease within his brow. Owen simply shook his head. Which caused Vance to relax. He nodded and whispered to Audelia who turned and stared at Owen with a mix of confusion and understanding. She stomped her foot pouting at the idea though.
Owen smiled and turned walking into the forest. No more words were needed. No more goodbyes. For he had a feeling he would see them again. Hopefully not too far in the future.
Audelia was speechless to say the least. She watched as the man that had the greatest potential of change just slipped away from her grasped. She was feeling irritated though. Which infuriated her more as when she looked at Vance he had a smug grin on his face. She wanted to strike him, however, what would the men and women under her command think of her. She doused her furry with looks of anger towards Vance who upon seeing her shrunk a little behind his book. The book, however, caught her attention. “Vance, what in the blazes are you reading?” Vance peeking out from the book flopped the thing about with the grace of a toddler. “Something I found in that accursed room of death. Must have been the captain’s personal diary. Fascinating concepts. Cannibalism, control of the government, you know there is mention of an organization called the Wisemen. Can’t have been so wise if any of these ramblings are to be believed.”
Audelia stared at the little green book. It was an unnatural shade of green. Something those cosmetic industrials had cooked up not too long ago. Probably poison to touch too. “Corporal...” she said with a sense of worry. Vance looked from reading. “You should probably wear gloves. Maybe uses the same dye that killed those women in the fashion industry.” Vance with his mouth agape in horror dropped the book. Making a satisfying squelch sound. Audelia sighed as she put on her leather gloves. Picking the book up and handing it to the frantic Vance who washed his hands.
Vance took the book and placed it gingerly into a leatherbound case. Audelia removing her gloves went about organizing the company to leave. The book, however, would prove to be the next point of their journey. Before Vance dropped it unceremoniously into the mud. Audelia glanced a name from the book. Donnerville, a decently sized town in the cold north of the empire. Audelia had spoken to the major at headquarters. Supposedly the region has been receiving trouble about citizen militia’s rising and taking power.
Organizing their small convey of two cars and two trucks the company moved out leaving with the townspeople waving them off. Audelia sighed as she looked a head towards the rising sun. A radioman sitting across from her cupped his ears as he listened to the receiver. “Ma’am it's the major he has some news to tell you.” Audelia took the microphone, and ear sets and listened in.
An elderly man’s voice came through the set. “Lieutenant? Do you hear me?” The voice quivered waiting for a response. Audelia gripped the receiver tighter in the whipping wind. “Major, what is it?” The major, who had been given his rank due to his clerical nature. Seemed rather unfit for a position of the executive officer of the agency. However, it seemed his nature in scrounging for rations, equipment, and vehicles which had earned him the right to executive officer.
The major shrank a bit from the rather blunt remark. “Lieutenant, I heard over the line about the mines. Good job! However, I need your command to be routed to another city.” A pause caused Audelia to scratch at her neck in worry. Vance had observed the call and stared a head paled with worry. Audelia waited as the static on the radio began to interrupt the call. “The name of the city, Major?” The major seemed to jump at the words. “Donnerville.” The name left Audelia silent, gripping at her neck in worry. The major questioned whether the word had gotten through. He repeated the name several time much to Audelia’s annoyance. “Understood major, we’ll reroute to Donnerville.” At those words Vance perked up, instinctively placing a hand on the pistol in his holster. They drove on leaving behind a cloud of dust towards the horizon.
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Donnerville
17:51
The contingent of SWRD had arrived at the outskirts of the city in the late afternoon. The sun had begun to set with the edges of the sky turning a blood red then deep purple. Audelia looked around with weariness. However, what caught her off guard was the lack of hostility, the lack of ruins, in fact the people seemed to be well fed. They were happily moving about the outskirts in droves of threes or fours. Yet, what caught her eyes were the statues. The many statues of the local lord had lined the street. Every hundred or so chains there would be a statue of a heavy-set lordling, holding a sword pointed towards the sky.
They drove until they entered the city proper. Something made her uneasy. She looked around to see the inhabitants staring at her and her contingent. They stared with welcoming eyes. Yet, those eyes were vacant. As if some great sin had occurred and they stared at them like a prisoner with their last meal. Vance too looked around more like a caged animal then man. “Lieutenant, I have a bad feeling.” Audelia swiped at him. Which caused him to duck. “We all must have a bad feeling corporal. My skin is crawling.”
Once they stopped within the city center. A man dressed in the uniform of a butler appeared. “Good day, madame. My name is Humphrey. I am the personal servant of Lord Bean. He wishes to invite you to his home for the evening.” He reached out a hand to shake the lieutenant’s, however, Audelia felt her whole body shake with uneasiness. Something with this man scared her. Something akin to primal fear was setting off her mind to run. Audelia pushed through it. Grasping his hand, Audelia was surprised at how thin it was. In fact, the closer she got the more she noticed how thin Humphrey was. His clothes hung loosely around his body. Almost as if it was made for someone a size or two larger. The butler recoiled back slowly. She noticed his disheveled state.
Audelia turned but gave a response. “I am afraid you’ll have to tell lord Bean that we have already made reservations at an inn on the outskirts of the city. We just came to take in the scenery. So, I bid you a good day.” Humphrey tried to protest but Audelia moved as swift as the wind with Vance following closely behind. They drove speedily down the main street until they returned to the inn. Audelia stared at the building with trepidation. However, she swallowed such fears and entered. Inside was a single mother and child. The child looked disheveled. Hunger gripped her eyes, a sight that seemed rather polar to the rest of the city. The mother was haggard to say the least.
Audelia wanting to care for the two went to the truck and pulled a ration pack. “Now I would be careful when eating this. Don’t want to overload your body by the caloric intake.” The mother stared at Audelia with a hint of suspicion but took the ration pack none the less. While they ate Audelia questioned the mother on the state of the city. "What is going on here, ma’am?” The mother between little bites of the rice gruel looked towards Audelia. “Couldn’t become like them. Those animals. How...” Her lips trembled in fear. The sight of it made Audelia tear up. Who are they? What had they done? The mother stared at her daughter with a form of agony. “I almost joined to keep this one fed, but something about it all kept me away. Every traveler I have seen goes missing. Listen my lady do not go to the lord’s manor. There are devils afoot.” Audelia’s back chilled her neck itched uncontrollably.
She looked out a window, it was almost dusk. The fiery ball of flame that was the sun slinked beneath the horizon casting long shadows across the land. Audelia felt uneasy. “Corporal Vance...” she paused. Vance came to attention waiting for orders. “Rotating watch, ten men. Every two hours.” She stopped and looked at the mother “do you have a bell?” The woman nodded and Audelia requested for it. In a moment a copper bell sat in the middle of the tavern’s dining hall. She then looked to the thirty-four or so members within the contingent. “Something is off about this place. We’ll have a rotating watch. First group will be ten men with a rotating shift every two hours. That means at least three shifts minimum. Any sign of trouble you are to fire warning shots.” The group gave a combined affirmative and went about forming a perimeter of defense.
That night Audelia could not sleep. She stared out towards the city. The lights of which glowed with the feint flames of torches. Rather antiquated she thought, but it was the glow of movement that brought her attention. A mob moved illuminated by torches, they must have numbered in the tens or hundreds, a fear began to grip Audelia as she saw the shimmer of metal. She rushed out to her room were one of the pickets had entered in a panic. Before he could say anything to Audelia, she grabbed the hammer and smashed the copper bell. A deafening ring awakening the entire inn. Almost all the members of the contingent were at the base level. Some had thrown some tables out to form a makeshift barricade, others moved the vehicles into the rear area of the inn. Vance and several members had taken vantage points within the second and third stories to snipe at the incoming mass. Audelia along with three members in a staff car rode out towards the mob.
Getting closer she saw the tools to be pikes, swords, hatchets, and a few rifles. They slowed as the headlights of the car illuminated the front of the mob. Audelia estimated that there were around forty to sixty in the front. However, more torches illuminated the writhing mass of flesh behind them. Audelia shouted for them to stop. Which to all credit they cooperated. However, it was the man that led the mob which made her skin crawl. In ancient armor sat the figure that so many of the statues had followed. The pudgy man slid off his horse, with the help of four or five citizens. He walked towards Audelia stopping a so ten or fifteen chains.
He spoke in a way that made her skin crawl. Each word dripping with bits of turpitude. “My lady, I am Lord Jeremiaha Bean. Count of the Platinate. You must be lady Audelia Sinclair to the house of the same name?” He said so with such know how as if he were impressing a tutor of some kind. However, it was his eyes that irritated Audelia. Even in her officer’s great coat, her figure was sort of visible. She noted that his eyes lingered a little too far down for her liking. Audelia spoke with disdain. “Count Platinate, I recommend you steer your people back to their homes for tonight. You are interfering with the emperor’s command.” Lord Bean laughed with piggish glee. “The emperor, that old, withered skeleton has not even stepped foot outside the capital much less his palace. What am I too fear within my own domain?”
He extended a handout towards her which she noted had the grease of his last meal still on it. “Why don’t you come with me, my lady? We could dine on a meal you have not had before. Obviously, you are the only one invited to come. The rest of your ‘men’ are to be taken care of by my people.” Lord Bean words were dripping with honey but smelt of poison. Audelia refused outright. “Lord Bean then we would take our leave.” Those words seemed to enrage the lordling even more. Taking a couple of steps forward Audelia raised her pistol and fired a warning shot overhead. The crowd ducked, she noted some flee, but most stared at her with hungry eyes. Lord Bean on the other hand shook even more so with rage. “You whore, you ungrateful bitch. I’ll turn you to stew to throw towards my dogs. You aren’t even worth the company to dine with me. In fact, I'll let them have their way with you. My creations.” He said with a flamboyant turn and a twist of a smirk. “Maybe then you’ll understand how grateful and generous I was.”
Audelia peered into the darkness to realize that the mob encircled two towering giants. However, in the darkness all she saw were two pairs of white pupils which illuminated within the dark. What she thought initially were stars stared at her with lust. Her skin crawled, her heart raced. Her mind shook as the mob began to inch forward.
Stomping her foot in fear. The car executed a swift turn and the two SWRD members readied their rifles. The crowd surged forwards in anger. Which they received incoming bullets in kind. The sound of lead hitting flesh and the screams of the mob echoed within the night. Audelia trying to fire at the Count saw that he was shielded by the hands of the giants. Her face illuminated in the night by the gun shots showed the Count her fear. However, as she shot, she noticed that some people stopped at the fallen and began to hack at their bodies. The scream of them reaching her. They drove quickly back to the inn.
Arriving at the inn. One of the three men that accompanied her threw up the contents of his meal over the side of the car. “Lieutenant, ma’am did you see that. They cut their own up. Almost like...” Audelia stared towards the road that they came from and responded before he could finish. “Like a hunting party.” The group was silent. The rest of the contingent saw Audelia leave the vehicle and march towards the front where Vance peered out a window. “Lieutenant, what the hell happened? Thomas saw the entire thing. He claimed there was a large beast. What...?” Audelia stopped him. “Is there room in the convoy for the mother and child?” Vance nodded. Audelia turned “alright people we are leaving. There is a horde of them coming. We need to go.”
In a moment the trucks were started, the equipment was being packed, the mother and child were shuffled onto one of the trucks. However, it was taking too long. Audelia watched as the road they had come from was glowing. She ordered a line perpendicular to the road. In a moment the corporals were barking targets. The equipment was almost stowed. Audelia loaded her pistol with individual rounds. In a moment the mob became visible. The entire line opened fire. The environment around them lighting like small bolts of lightning.
Audelia watched as a member prepped a M17 grenade and chucked the lump of metal towards the mob. A plume of dirt, blood, and shrapnel erupted into the sky. However, the mob continued, like a beast narrowing on their pray. Vance sat atop one of the cars readying the 303-caliber machine gun, with a flick of the bolt he squeezed the trigger letting loose a hundred rounds within a moment's notice. Most of which landed a little short. She watched as the dirt in front of the mob kicked up in little clouds before finding their targets. She saw twenty or so fall dead. The mob broke into smaller groups some surrounding the dead and with their weapons flashing above their heads hacked into the corpses. Others continued slowed by the onslaught of fire Vance was giving.
Audelia raised her pistol firing into the horde. However, each shot felt more futile then the last. She watched as the platoon that formed loosely in front of her inched back slowly. She squeezed the trigger but heard the instinctive click of an empty barrel. She turned quickly but clumsily feeding each round into the gun. A soldier cupped their hands and shouted that everything was on board. Audelia nodded and called for the retreat. In small squads the platoon broke and ran frantically to the trucks, which had their engines idling.
Everything was going perfectly; however, Audelia could not shake that sensation in the back of her neck. Then it happened. She noticed it when the ground around her shook. A tremor here a tremor there. She looked and saw the white pupils that stared at her. This time they were closer. She shook with the realization on how close the giants were. She heard Vance swear frantically. Ratcheting the gun above Audelia and firing with reckless abandonment. A hand reached down but she rolled out of the way. The squad that had formed around her fired at the beast. One of the SWRD members, a woman from a merchant’s background was grabbed by the other giant. She screamed in terror. Shriek kin to a crying kitten from the woman. Audelia watched as they tried to help her. The giants grabbed at the woman’s uniform ripping it whole.
The other giant not wanting to miss out gripped the womans arm trying to take her away from her unwanted owner. She screamed in terror as her arm began to pull. The sound of flesh and bone twisting echoed over the noise. The squad realizing the futility of it. Fired a killing blow ending the woman’s suffering. They grabbed at Audelia who fired at the white orbs that turned towards them. One round striking a mortal blow to one eye. Which caused the giant to howl in pain. It sounded guttural. Like a bear and a moose. The sounds blending and echoing into the sky. The vibrations of which shook the earth and deafened some of the members. They watched as the giants threw the body of the woman to the mob who with pleading hands caught the body and hacked at it mercilessly.
At this point Audelia and the rest of the squad had mounted onto the trucks and cars. While Vance fired into the giants and hordes in wide sweeping arcs. To quell the ever-advancing horde. The vehicles’ engine roared to life as the drivers throttled the vehicles. They drove off to the methodical thumping of the giants. The sound of which faded away as the company escaped. They stopped at a bridge several miles away from the inn.
Dismounting the vehicles they stared towards the city. A trooper shaking in the car stared at Audelia. “Ma’am, apologies for the words, but what the hell was that. They took Mary and they... I had too...” the trooper cradled the rifle that ended his friend's life. Audelia could not muster a word. She too felt the fear of what was to happen. Goddess knows that Audelia would have suffered the same fate if she failed in her narrow brush with the giants.
Audelia turned calling the radio operator towards her. “Patch me to command. I think we’ll need more help now than ever.” She then turned to the rest of her command. “Corporal Vance form a defensive line here.” She looked towards an engineer. “Prepare explosives on the struts of this bridge. If they come, we’ll blow it.” She looked at the members of her command. The fear within their eyes. She noted some of them were shaking, others stared coldly ahead. Others had their fixation turned on the road they had just come from.
As she walked towards the truck Vance stopped her. “Ma’am, I think it best you rest. I’ll wake you if there is trouble.” Audelia stared at her second in command with a mix of confusion and annoyance. “Corporal I...” she staggered a bit. Vance caught her arm “do I have to call Doc?” She shuttered at that. Doc was the company's chief medic, more a field nurse than a doctor. However, she didn’t want to add to his ever-looming concern regarding the two civilians they took with them. She agreed to Vance on the condition that as soon as command responds that she is to be awaken. She slinked her way to the car and laid in the back. Staring at the stars. The white twinkles looking back. She turned away to stare into the darkness and quickly went to slumber.
