//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 How Diamond Dogs Fight // Story: DARING DO AND THE COMPASS OF DISCORD // by De Writer //------------------------------// Brightening up, Morail snickered, “That attack went off perfectly! We are not just mining one seam, but I really can't tell you what is coming. I promise that I will show them to you on my mirror. They should be amusing!” Withers nearly blew tea out his nose as he choked on his laughter! “I look forward to seeing them, Morail! I like your idea of amusing!” Matriarch Moonstone joined them later. She was barking Diamond Dog laughter as she informed them, “I am taking the whole morning off! The whole drift is laughing so hard that nodog is getting anything worthwhile done!” Her mood shifting to one of sorrow she added,“I wish that I had better news for you, Meridian. The Downitalls got wind of your report being a trigger for the Trirectory of the Republic to recommend war. They attacked your office and village. I have Magic Net images of the remains for you to see.” Grim of face, ears flat back, he held out his small mirror and ordered, “Give me the images. They will be made a part of my report.” He stared at his mirror, allowing Morail, Daring Do and Withers to see the destroyed outpost that they had been through less than two days ago. Withers harumphed, “They tried to make it look like another Discordian attack by painting slogans!” His expert hooves pointed out details, “There were at least two fully automatic weapons used. That track of hits is from a fifteen millimeter and this one is from a twenty five, possibly an MT81.” Meridian turned his sad face, ears drooping, eyes filled with tears, to Withers and shuddered out, “My friend, I do trust you and believe what you have just said. May I have you write it out and subject it to truth testing?” “For your report? Most certainly.” Withers took up a pen and swiftly and neatly wrote his opinion of the whole attack, after seeing all of the images. Attached to it were several of the images that he referenced in the opinion. Each point was circled and numbered to key to the written note. The whole document showed the clear green of truth when the non equine magic test was applied. Meridian's shoulders slumped as he sent the whole report by Magic Net. With sobs, he sniffled, “Those bodies in the images were my friends and family. I have done my duty, as needed by both my belief and my government. I have no place to return to. I was raised in these mountains, in that small village. What shall I do now?” Morail returned his bleak stare. “Does your belief allow you to seek a revenge that does not involve killing, unless necessary to defend lives?” “Yes, it does but how? What do you mean by revenge?” Signaling Matriarch Moonstone to join them, Morail told them the whole truth of her past double life as Morail Blum Fauntin and as Morail Ruby Drift. She wound it up by adding, “Matriarch Amber has given me detached duty with Doctor Do to see if those old ruins really are a source civilization for the Nil Eya civilization down along the banks of the Forgotten River. If it is, I will have helped to destroy the philosophical base of the Downitall Party, which bases their claim to Zebra Superiority on what we do know is the false claim that the Nil Eya civilization, architecture, art and writing systems were the invention of brilliant Zebras. “They have been able to ignore the evidence that we have because there is no source, no root civilization known anywhere. The civilization along the banks of the Forgotten River has no root but Zebra lands all around it. We stand to smash that by this find, if we are lucky.” Smiling and holding out a hoof, she offered, “Join us and see if we can't bring down Downitall!” Nodding slowly, Meridian agreed, “It appears that the path of Chaos, which, when seen rightly, is always true, favors this. This expedition is founded on finding and proving what is true. I rejoice that this might end an evil but remain heartsore for my friends and family, murdered needlessly.” Morail, quiet for a moment, face twisted with grief, replied, “That, Meridian, I understand and feel perfectly.” Matriarch Moonstone offered, “You all need to stay here for another day, Doctor Do. Your truck repair is coming along nicely but won't be ready until about noon tomorrow. “Morail, we have a fascinating problem that we would like you to look at. Knowing that the big fault that you found is there, we have been searching old drift records for anything that might have been missed at the time. We have turned up several interesting possibilities! Would you like to take a look?” Morail's ears popped up! “Sounds like fun! Do you have the drift maps and records?” A smile accompanied, “I thought that you might be wanting them!” She pulled a small folio out of a pouch. Along with it was a large folded paper. Morail's eyes lighted up and she smoothed out the paper on a table! Taking the folio, she began to leaf through it expertly, eyes flickering from book to paper! Her lips curled up like a Diamond Dog about to bite as her ears belied the fierce face! She popped a hoof down on the sheet of marks that were unintelligible to the rest of the party! “Here! I would bet that it is only a little way into this face!” Matriarch Moonstone looked on in delight! “This is your find, Morail! Want to plant the charges?” “I thought that you would never ask! YES!” Withers was looking at the strange nest of marks on the paper and shaking his head. “Never saw a map like that before! How can you read it?” Morail looked at him for a moment before asking, “How many cardinal directions are there?” “That is a trick question, I guess. According to my compass there are four, North, South, East and West.” Morail nodded, “A common mistake. We are underground. There is also Up and Down. This map shows you that, if you know how to read it. It also has designations for many features and the like. Very few surface folk can read one of these.” Turning to Matriarch Moonstone, Morail asked politely, “This is just a gold ore seam, can my friends come to see the work?” Matriarch Moonstone giggled, “Sure. We can all use a laugh!” As they were all following Morail, the Matriarch's Magic Net mirror chimed for attention. Taking one look, she stopped them all! “Morail, set your mirror to record! They are taking the heavy cruiser Kaisar das Maria into the main dry dock! This should be good!” They all watched the slow progress of the blast furnace blast damaged ship as it was hitched to donkey engines and inched into the huge floating dock. It was about half way into the massive and essential repair facility when an underwater explosion rocked the ship! Water blasted out from under it on both sides! The impact of the detonation tore the lock doors of the dry dock from their hinges! The huge ship was obviously taking on water! She was settling visibly as they watched! Worse for the shipyard, the portside of the huge working dry dock was sinking too! Close examination showed a huge two or three meter rip in the steel inside plate of the dock that was letting water swirl in! The sinking vessel hit the now steeply slanted bottom of the dry dock and slowly rolled onto her side! Her mass added to the already sinking portside float of the enormous dock and finished dragging it to the harbor bottom! Now that the Kiasar Das Maria was on her side, the ghastly buckled and shattered hole in her bottom could be plainly seen! Morail was chortling happily! “Did not expect that one so soon! Marvelous!” To Wither's inquiring look, she explained, “Diamond Dogs can dig really fast in dirt. Like right into the Degrate Naval Yard. We can swim too. We even have diving gear for flooded shafts.” Withers looked at the image again and commented, “Shaped charges too. And hydrostatic shock finished the job. Very nicely done!” They were surprised when Meridian complimented, “Well done indeed. Massive damage, a whole Capital ship lost and very few actually hurt or killed due to your care in designing the attack. For a war strike, very well done indeed. “May we now go to see if you strike a different sort of gold?”