Into the Storm chapter 9 in progress... · 3:50pm Apr 20th, 2018
Currently 4300 words down. Will be putting on a big push to get it done this weekend, though it's unlikely to release before next week. But since you've been so patient, here's a teaser:
News that we were planning a counterstrike was an instant morale boost to my beleaguered troops.
Flight Sergeant Osprey, Fell Flight, and First Sergeant Still Way had just finished hashing out the rough outlines of a potential spoiling attack with me and Storm Sergeant Blue Bolt, leader of our lightning teams, when my red command gem buzzed. By the tone, it belonged to my fourth platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Snow Squall, who was currently patrolling the Outpost perimeter at a twelve-mile radius to provide early warning of a gryphon attack. If one was sighted, his orders were was not to engage, but to fall back on Epsilon so we could fight supported by our storm teams with our backs to the base.
“Firefly here. What is it, sir?” I asked into the ruby crystal, though the ‘sir’ was simply a courtesy to his officer bars. Though he outranked me, and indeed was supposed to replace me, I had not been relieved yet, and by the Corps chain of command, as base commander I held authority over all assigned to it regardless of rank.
“Ma’am, methinks you won’t believe this, but… we’ve found another Guardspony.”
I exchanged looks with an equally surprised Still Way at that. “Please repeat, Lieutenant? Another Guardspony?”
“Yes, ma’am. He’s wounded and exhausted but he slipped in between Talon patrols. I don’t know who he is or where he came from because he’s in such shock ‘tis hard to get much out of him. I’m dispatching a flight to bring him to the infirmary now. No other activity to report. The gryphons are scouting, but still not pressing.”
I could only hope they stayed that way a bit longer; if they attacked again too soon we would lose all chance to hit them first. “Understood, Lieutenant. Continue your scheduled patrol and recall your flight as soon as possible. I don’t want you out there understrength.”
“Aye-aye, ma’am. Snow Squall out,” he acknowledged while I left my staff to work out the final details of the strike and flew out the watchtower to the infirmary. I arrived there to find Gavian helping treat the wounded while Swift Strike watched over him even as he interrogated the few live prisoners we’d captured; ones that were too badly wounded to take their own lives.
Methinks our healer team was as efficient as treating as they were at killing (a compliment methinks they would not be pleased to hear given they were reluctant warriors to begin with), though they kept their longbows close at hoof while they attended their patients, unicorn blades given them by Still Way on their belts along with various bandages and other tools of the medical trade. They had already been told to expect a new casualty and were rapidly clearing a space for him; they had just finished when he arrived, leaning heavily on his escorts, trembling and looking on the verge of collapse.
He was a mess, and ‘tis to my great shame to say I didn’t recognize him at first. He was young, looking barely out of basic, yet he already wore the stripes of a Guardspony Sergeant. His blades were bloodstained, his armor was badly battered and even penetrated at multiple points by blades and armor-piercing crossbow bolts, at least two still impaling him; I didn’t even think of how much damage he’d taken for as much as of his own blood, some fresh and some dried, was covering him.
It only got worse the longer I stared at him. His helmet was partially bashed in on one side and when I looked closely, I realized there was a broken-off end of a third crossbow bolt lodged in his upper arm, causing his visibly broken front left leg to hang limply within a crude sling that appeared to be fashioned from the torn-up pieces of a Corps combat uniform. Meanwhile, the side of his face had been slashed by steel claws and his right hind leg was scorched by Magus Knight fire, some of his fur seared.
In visible shock, he didn’t speak but obeyed instructions; with effort, he made it to the table on three legs and collapsed there as the healers quickly attended him, magically stripping his armor and treating his burns and other injuries as I waited patiently. ‘Twas only when his helmet was removed I realized who he was, and my jaw dropped open to see him.
“Sky Sentry…?” I gaped at him, recognizing a graduate of the Armored Guardspony class that had followed mine, a promising young pegasus stallion I’d later fought a friendly duel with. “How did you get here?” He’d been assigned to Outpost Delta, I remembered, and that meant he must have flown all the way from there to Epsilon in that state, a distance of one hundred twenty miles!
At the sound of my voice, he turned his head weakly to face me. “S-Sergeant F-Firefly…?” he finally spoke in a weak but shaky voice, staring at me in wonder and then reaching his good hoof out for me like he wasn’t sure I was real. “D-didn’t know if… Epsilon was still st-standing. Th-thought you might all be d-dead…”
“I’m here, Sergeant.” I quickly took his hoof as a healer reset his foreleg bone with a sharp and sickening crack!, causing him to grit his teeth and hiss hard, then lie back again, looking straight up into the ceiling as his many wounds were tended. He’d expressed a certain interest in me before, perhaps the first stallion ever to, and the terms of the duel we’d fought were that I would allow him to indulge that interest if he won and put in for his transfer to Epsilon. I’d won the duel instead, for which he’d bought me and my sister dinner, but I’d taken a instant liking of my own to him in the process, and ‘twould be a lie to say there weren’t times I didn’t at least mildly regret losing. “You’re safe now and you’re going to be fine. But why did you come here?"
"I... I..." He looked like he was fighting his own memories for a moment. "I d-didn't know where else to g-go after..." His lip was beginning to quiver.
"Sergeant?" I tried again, getting a very bad feeling in my stomach. "What happened at Delta?”
He didn’t look at or answer me except for the tears that began streaming down his cheeks.
Best guess for release is early next week, though depending on progress it might come sooner.
