A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, Jeng, The Ancient Grove***

***Magnus***

I landed atop the trench and swung my spetum in a wide arc, creating an arch of blood around me. My weapon sowed death and claimed the lives of several warriors like the Grim Reaper's scythe. The poor sods didn't even know what happened to them. One moment everything was fine as they tried to pry Hochberg's pioneers out of their trenches. The next, they lay scattered in pieces all over the place.

I had tried not to make too much of a mess, but it was hard to do when I was matched against unpaired warriors without sufficient armour and bad equipment. They were nothing more than cannon fodder sent out to delay the pioneers.

Maybe they were exiles from the Old Camp, pressed into service? The thought made sense upon comparing their mismatched gear with the semi-professional Thich troops at the Old Camp. So far, I had yet to encounter Thich's professional soldiers.

Once I had the area clear of opposition, I looked around and clicked my tongue when I noticed I had missed an opponent. One soldier was still stubbornly trying to remove a granite slab which covered Hochberg's trench.

Twirling the spetum back to a ready position, I was about to stab the Thich when I realized it was not of his own volition that he was up to his armpit between two granite slabs.

Well, and his screams were a pretty strong hint that he was in a pretty gruesome tug-of-war with someone beneath the slab. Once I overcame my surprise, I stabbed him through the head, ending his suffering.

Hochberg's fighting style was truly peculiar and they stuck to it with religious zeal. I had yet to see one of them leave their trench for more than a short peek to check out the situation. There was little to say against what they were doing since it obviously worked well for them.

My precognition tingled a moment later and I raised my left palm towards the sky while using my right arm to shield as much of my helmet as possible. With a slight rearrangement of my filaments, I adjusted my armour in a way which would rather deflect than absorb the force of what was to come. Simultaneously, filaments covered my ears for protection.

The shells came down on my position a mere two seconds later and I discharged an arc of lightning, detonating the closest mortar projectile early.

The shock wave of the explosion forced me to stagger, but I held firm while shrapnel from the shell's casing pinged off my armour. Two more shells followed while others impacted outside my sphere of influence.

While intercepting more shells may be possible, I was hardly inclined to do so willingly. I had been ordered to assist this position in forcing back Thich's artillery positions – not tanking explosives.

A few metres to my left, Astra was doing the same to give the pioneers some breathing room.

As soon as there was a lull in the bombardment, I tapped the granite slab with the hind end of my spetum to gain the attention of the warriors beneath. “Juggernaut here, check your assigned combat chat!”

They should have already received an update on the situation and known we were here to assist. But it didn't hurt to make sure they were paying attention. Once they joined the chatroom '30203' dedicated to this combat zone, they would be able to read up on the latest news.

The high command wasn't satisfied with the progress of the trench system in this area, so they ordered Astra and me to hold back the regular Thich raids which kept interrupting the work. A fairly easy job, since the brunt of the fighting was focused elsewhere at the moment.

The goal was to force back Thich's mortar positions far enough to allow Jeng to evacuate safely.

After our return to the fleet, someone had finally found the time to inform us of the situation.

Jeng had been attacked by a combined force of Thich and Vier troops. The clan had been totally surprised by the ferocity of the attack and was unable to resist the sheer amount of modern weaponry brought to bear against them.

Their outer settlements and outposts had been wiped away with ease.

Of course, they had immediately sent for aid from Hochberg, but their messengers were far slower than Aerie's airships, and so they had yet to reach the twin fortress – if they reached it at all.

Thich's rolling Warmachine only came to a halt when they reached Jeng's capital, the Ancient Grove.

It was a tree grove made up of the same species of redwood trees standing at the Old Camp and was dwarfing what I had seen so far by a fair margin. The larger trees’ trunks had a diameter of more than a hundred metres and towered above the rest of the forest like skyscrapers.

The Ancient Grove was located right in the middle of the large forest southwards of the Old Camp and was surrounded by fields. Those fields weren’t intended to grow edible crops but to cultivate a certain bush which was the preferred food for iobeetles. Unfortunately, those very fields were now being torn apart by artillery and Hochberg’s trench system.

Like bark beetles, the Jeng had burrowed their capital colony into the bark of their trees. It was only thanks to this that Jeng had held out for three whole weeks till our fleet arrived.

Since the trees belonged to the same plant species as the one at the Old Camp, they had resisted the modern laser weaponry which had proved the most troublesome for our fleet so far. The redwood's bark charred when exposed to heat, but it didn't burn on its own.

A far greater problem had been the explosive artillery rounds which Thich had used to fell some of the more important trees. Thankfully, their armament wasn't large enough to finish off Jeng's capital in one fell swoop.

Due to this, Jeng's defenders managed to hold until our forces arrived.

The Thich had far fewer ships than the Aerie, but they had enough to contest with Aerie's fleet due to their modern weapon systems. After a few initial brushes with the rocket systems which I had already seen in action at the Old Camp, nobody dared to flip the coin by forcing a direct engagement.

According to Vanya, it could go either way and it looked like the Thich commanders thought the same.

The result was an uneasy stalemate between the two fleets while troops on the ground tried to force the Thich to use up their ammunition while taking as few losses as possible.

After two days of fighting, Vanya's staff had concluded that the Thich weren't in a position to support their artillery with unlimited ammunition. The Jeng had already suffered the brunt of the attack and now the Thich were forced to use what was left more strategically.

This was supported by the news that we had taken the Old Camp and seen no sign of Earth sending additional supplies. Though, Earth sending more materials might have been a possibility if Thich had stayed in control of the area.

It wasn't entirely clear what was going on with Thich’s and Earth’s cooperation, but it looked like Thich had received a one-time shipment with military supplies and that was it. Otherwise, we would have expected to see a supply line at established wormhole exit points like at the Old Camp – of which there was no sign.

The biggest problem was the extensive damage which had been already done to the Ancient Grove's facilities. Even if the Jeng still fought on using their remaining trees as unassailable bunkers, they were fighting a lost battle.

The elders had confirmed with Jeng's leadership that the Thich had targeted and successfully destroyed installations which ensured Jeng's freshwater supply and food production. Combined with the holes which had been poked into their defence, Jeng would be hard-pressed for survival against Tirnanog's wildlife even if the Thich packed their things and left right now.

It was certainly suspicious how the Thich knew exactly which trees to destroy in order to ensure the collapse of Jeng’s colony even if Thich couldn’t ensure an immediate victory.

And as the Jeng revealed later on, they already suffered a population problem beforehand. I had heard of them having resource troubles – which was the reason why they hadn't tried to actively recruit people when I arrived at the Old Camp.

Their issue was one of available living space – since settling down anywhere except inside a sufficiently large redwood wasn't a long-term solution within the forest. And the grove had only so many trees of suitable size.

Hence, Aerie's elders had chosen to reveal the wormgate and bring in as many troops as possible to fight off the attackers. But while the wormgate was a convenient form of transportation, the small size was still a time-consuming bottleneck for troops and material to get through.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Once the Thich were driven off, evacuating non-combatants to Mount Aerie would be possible, which would in turn ease the burden on Jeng's warriors.

Whether we could get to this point was still in doubt and depended on how much modern weaponry the Thich were holding back. Till then, all available fighting forces were needed just to hold the line.

I lowered my arm when it was clear the bombardment wouldn’t be continued. Likely, a distant sensor had noticed my arrival and informed the mortar crew they were wasting ammunition.

Hochberg's pioneers had already taken up their shovels once more and I could only goggle at the speed at which earth flew aside and the trench grew in length. The trench was expanded at a slow walking pace which I would have only expected from the use of powered tools. The pioneers were also bringing in new rock slabs through their trench system and covering up the newly unearthed areas as soon as possible.

Every few dozen metres, bunker-like structures were erected, built with earth and interlinking rocks which reminded me of Egyptian or Aztec stonework.

Each bunker housed a heavy-duty ballista large enough that even I would rather dodge the bolt instead of tanking it. Especially since I couldn’t detonate it early with lightning.

The growing ballista network didn’t have enough range to contest with Thich’s mortars, but it strongly discouraged groups of average soldiers from advancing too deep into the trench network. Each bunker was covered by the field of fire of at least three others and the deeper attackers advanced into Hochberg's network of trenches the worse it got.

I readied my spetum once more when I noticed two flying figures approaching quickly.

It took me a moment to verify, but they weren’t really flying. Rather, they were on a low trajectory as if they had jumped – and they were coming from the direction of the Thich lines.

So, the Thich had decided to send juggernauts of their own.

I quickly added the information to the chat and called out for Astra, “Astra, ready yourself and stay close. We have incoming!”

My words weren’t even finished when one of my sub-identities urged my attention back to chat 30203.

‘Massive push! Thich deployed substantial juggernaut forces to your zone. Sending assistance.’

At the same moment, the two Thich arrived and went directly for Astra.

I flash stepped, intercepting one of them only to have my spetum blocked by a batan-like bladed weapon. My opponent pushed my spetum aside with ease and struck.

I flash-stepped again, appearing behind him only to receive a foot to the knee. Instinctively, I answered with a burst of electricity and managed to buy myself a moment of reprieve when the Thich shuddered and jumped back.

The guy was clad in grey armour and without a doubt was not to be underestimated.

I was just about to be back on my feet when he flashed forward, the tip of his blade aiming directly at the opening between my chest plate and my helmet.

To another person it likely sounded stupid, but I flexed, supplying the coils Gilbert had installed in my armour with as much power as possible. The magnetic force drew the blade downward just enough and instead of slipping into an opening, the tip caught on the chest plate’s rim which was intended exactly for this purpose: to prevent a weapon from gliding off and slipping into a less protected area.

The blade bent and snapped, causing a brief moment of surprise and hesitation in my opponent.

With a scream, I let go of my spetum and grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards me with all my might while bringing my knee up with as much force as I could muster.

The impact was powerful enough to dent the front of his helmet and break the tinted visor, but I didn’t let off. Knowing the strength of iobeetle armour, my spetum or short sword would have fared little better than the opponent’s batan.

So I picked him up at the scruff of his neck and his belt, then launched us at the closest bunker, bodily slamming us against it while a stunned crew of pioneers gaped at us while I held him down.

“Shoot!” I screamed at the guy manning the ballista while grappling with my opponent.

“What?!”

“Shoot! Now!”

The ballista twanged, the bolt still not penetrating the cracked visor, but the physical force was enough to rock back my opponent’s head with a snap.

As the bolt sailed past us, one of the metal connectors holding the helmet in place snapped and I pulled it off the enemy’s head, revealing the androgynous face of a woman.

Not hesitating, I used the helmet to bash her three times until her body went limp.

“Finish her!” I commanded the pioneers before focusing my attention on the surrounding battle.

Turning, I tried to get an overview of the situation, but the area had turned into a slaughterhouse within the few seconds my battle had taken. Warriors from both sides had arrived to kill each other with frenzied zeal. I could even make out two or three elders who had joined the fray.

That’s when I saw the other attacker from earlier holding Astra with something jammed into her neck.

I didn’t think and just flash-stepped, unleashing everything I had against this new foe who had dared to touch ‘her’.

The man, and this time it was without a doubt a man, saw me coming and pulled the syringe out of Astra’s neck.

He dodged the integrated blade which slipped out from beneath my armour plates neatly while electricity danced over his body without obvious effect. My opponent was untouched, but the electricity jolted Astra awake. Her previously slack filaments came back alive and tried to capture her attacker.

Our foe reacted with an attempted hammer blow to her head, but I intercepted it by bodily throwing myself in between, using both hands to launch plasma right at his helmeted face. This caused him to let go at last and he ripped himself free of Astra’s filaments while rolling away from the continuous arch of plasma I was unleashing.

“Can you fight?”

Astra coughed as I pulled her to her feet. She was still dazed and unsteady from whatever had caused her to black out.

“Jaunt! Now!”

I turned to put myself between Astra and our enemy, who had used the time to fill a vial with the blood he had extracted from Astra with the syringe.

“I don’t understand why they want you, but it’s all the same to me,” he said while sealing the vial as if he had all the time in the world, seemingly oblivious to the heated battle surrounding us.

And then he took a step.

I drew one of my flechettes and launched it at him. Or rather, the spot he had been in!

What?

He took another step, pocketing the vial.

I launched another one, this time giving it a little electromagnetic extra and once more missed completely. Whatever he did, he was not some speedster type and dodging me after the fact. No, he was moving even before I decided to act!

“Jaunt! Jaunt! Jaunt!”

Finally, Astra jaunted and was gone.

I tried to follow my own advice, but the man took a step again and casually threw something at me. It hit me in the chest and my chest plate cracked. Organs, bones, muscles, everything gave out a scream of protest as my upper body tried to move with the chest plate while everything else wanted to stay in place due to inertia.

Then I was tumbling. Something cracked again as I barrelled through a bunker, the shocked faces of a ballista crew flashing by.

And then a foot stopped me in mid-air, bringing me to a dead halt before we landed on the ground.

“Now, where do you think you are going, Magnus? And where did your partner run off to? I can’t sense her anymore – which is most peculiar! It has been a few decades since someone managed to run away from me.”

He leaned down and I grabbed his foot on my chest as I felt myself being pushed down into the earth. Just how heavy was this guy? Was he pure lead?

I coughed up blood, feeling as if I had been hit by a wrecking ball. “How do you know my name?”

“Earth has developed an interest in you, Magnus. They haven’t shared much. Only the important bits. How about a deal? You come with us without making a fuss and maybe you get to see your little sister.”

I smiled while I burned his armour and the especially memorable helmet into my memory. The fucker had added a little crown of golden spikes at the top. As if he thought himself to be a real king. “Fuck you.”

Then I twisted his foot and he turned with the motion, using it to kneel on my thigh.

There was a snap and pain shot through me, but I could sit up and strike his lower spine which caused him to grunt and get off me.

“Don’t you care about your sister? I promise we made sure she is in good hands.”

I got up, using my filaments to stabilize my broken leg.

The man stepped and I struck – this time intentionally not where I intended to.

And for the first time since he had displayed this strange ability, the blow connected. I only hit him futilely in the chest plate and my knuckles broke, but it was a hit, causing me to laugh with glee. A fight just wasn't thrilling if I couldn't touch the enemy.

“There was something about your mental profile,” the man said. “You are some sort of anarchist when it comes to authority.”

“Why should I listen to a single word you say?” I asked. “You threaten me with my sister and if I follow your orders I will just get fucked over. If I don’t follow your orders you may do something to her or me, but that’s outside my control. Since I can't trust a single word coming from your mouth, there are no good solutions. But you are right here in front of me, so I can fight you.”

I chuckled and jumped at him, slicing at his visor with one of my armour’s blades. Then we traded blows.

Hit!

Block!

Dodge!

Strike!

For a moment, I was within the flow my sub-identities dictated as they overwhelmed me and ruled my every action.

Till I realized my opponent was fighting me with a single arm.

Having enough, the man kicked my remaining good leg out from under me and I felt a stinging pain in my ankle. He ripped out my armour blade from my filaments’ grasp and for the first time, I got to experience the excruciating pain of having filaments torn out of me. It was far worse than having your hair plucked, and not quite as bad as losing a limb. At least I imagined it so…

He placed his foot once more on my chest and spun the armour blade he had taken from me around. “I find the fact that you are still laughing most disturbing. Might be less trouble to take back a corpse. They just wanted a sample.”

I chuckled and spit out what was very likely one of my molars. “Maybe you should stop talking so much when everyone around you is fighting for their lives!” I had given my best to buy time, but it obviously wasn't enough.

Raising the blade, he was about to finish me off when a particle of glimmering ash flittered through between us.

I would have thought nothing about it, but the man began to retreat right before a figure landed next to us. A silver blade flashed down and almost managed to bisect him. He got away with his life, but not without leaving behind the arm which had been holding my weapon.

“I am afraid you can’t have him, Zacharias,” Mary’s voice came from the silver figure who had placed herself between the man and myself. “You have no idea how much trouble I would be in if he died and could no longer assume his responsibilities.”

“Why are you here and not on your mountain, old woman?” Zacharias asked. “We ancients promised not to interfere.”

“Because I feel like it. And you are also violating the truce.” Mary rested the blade on her shoulder. The weapon looked like an organic extension of her arm. “Besides, when I heard of your invasion I just had to take a look and make sure you stick to the rules. Colour me not surprised when you did not. Though, I must say I am happy about it. It was high time to kill you again. It’s not like I would ever get tired of chopping you to bits. It's like a recreational pastime to me, seeing you squirm.”

Zacharias grinned. “It's not like you can do anything to me. I will come back no matter what. Why don't you acknowledge you would be nothing without me and step out of the way? If I hadn't killed your hubby, you wouldn't have eaten that worm and gained such power.”

“But I do like killing you so much,” Mary replied and dashed forward.

While they clashed, two Hochberg pioneers grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me towards the closest trench. It wasn’t like I was in any condition to protest.

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