Rifts of Power and Darkness

by BoltAshera

Council Meetings and Strange D-Bees

Commander Johnathan Valorius—John to those who knew him—ran his worried fingers through his short-cropped black hair as he paced back and forth in the Atlantean Pyramid’s council chamber. They had been here for hours debating different strategies to attack the demon city in the ruins of Calgary, each plan ended with failure and overwhelming losses. The losses are expected, even with victory, it's unlikely even half of the gathered forces will survive. However, victory must be achieved, no matter what, if the Earth is to continue living.

The chamber was massive, easily a thousand feet across and another three hundred tall, built in a perfect hemisphere. The ceiling was one massive window that, if needed, could be magically sealed off with powerful wards to prevent all but the most powerful of Gods from peaking in on the goings-on within the chamber. Currently, those wards are running at full strength, the members within taking no chances with Demons knocking at their door. The walls held tens of thousands of seats, and each one held a VIP from various races. In the middle of the room sits a raised platform, upon which stands a tall humanoid form, completely covered with a thick, black robe and holding a tall, ornate staff. This is the Speaker, the one who monitors and controls the council meetings.

John was already sick of it. Than again, he was sick of it six hours ago when they started. As he kept pacing, his piercing green eyes caught his reflection in floor. He was a tall man, Caucasian, just over seven feet tall with an olympic swimmer’s build, two-hundred and eighty pounds of supernaturally augmented muscle. With the mystic tattoos on his face complimenting his angular cheeks and jawline; he made for a striking image. For the long-lived Atlanteans, he looked to be in his mid-twenties despite being over a hundred years old.

His heavily enchanted full plate of full-environmental armor styled after Celestial beings was freshly polished. Not that it mattered, no one here cared about such trivialities as polish or press, it was just expected. The hilt of an extremely ornate sword pokes from between his shoulders, the crossguard having a design of spread, feathered wings while the handle seems to be carved of ivory, with a diamond set in the pummel. At his hips are two more swords, both very plain in design, but to those sensitive to magic they radiate a holy power that is nearly blinding. Clearly, these are demon-bane weapons of the highest caliber.

The gathered leaders sat in seats around the edge of the council chamber with a mystic hologram floating in the middle of the room detailing the demon city. The most prominent feature was the enormous pit over three miles in diameter and a mile and a half deep: the Hell Pit. They were all staring at it like they expected it to change or something. Like their eyes could simply make it not be.

He knew the Hell Pit there was fully operational, and that it was both the source of the demon’s power, and their greatest weak point. His gaze wandered over the gathered people, seeing the Atlantean elders, the ley line walkers, the shifters, the cyber-knights, the Human soldiers of all sorts and all different types of creatures non-earth native, more commonly referred to as D-Bees, and even a couple dragons shapeshifted to appear human. All of the gathered were leaders of their factions, and all of them were arguing over the positives of their suicidal plans while trying to shoot down everyone else's plans.

The Atlantean’s mind was racing as he attempted to think up a plan that would allow their force to come out victorious despite being outnumbered by at least six-hundred to one by the demon forces.

John finally settled on the plan he deemed the most likely to succeed, in spite of the expected heavy losses, and cleared his throat to get the attention of the Speaker, a fellow Atlantean whose task was to coordinate the council meetings so they ran as smooth as possible for a room full of diplomats.

“Could you get the attention of the Council, Speaker? I have a plan that I believe has the best chance of destroying the Hell Pit’s blood pillars while risking minimal Heroes in the process.”

The speaker gave a nod and beat the butt of his staff against the floor, creating a loud bang that grabbed the attention of the chamber. “Johnathan Valorious, True Atlantian of Alexandrea has the floor.”

John gave a nod of thanks to the speaker and stepped onto the dias in the middle of the room. “Council members, I have thought up a plan that, if executed properly, will allow us to destroy the Hell Pit’s blood pillars without losing half, or more, of our force. If we have a quarter of our force deploy to the east, and a quarter to the west to attack simultaneously to draw out the demons. Once the demons have been pulled from the Pit, my team will punch through with our armored personnel carrier, Artimas, to the Pit itself, where we will affix high-explosive devices my tech has devised to each blood pillar. After the devices are set, the withdraw will be sounded and the devices detonated, giving everyone within the dimensional bleed one to four minutes to get out before the Pit begins to collapse.”

“You know that half will not hold for longer than a few minutes?”

“If they keep to guerilla warfare, hit-and-fade tactics to lure out only, no stand-up fighting, they can hold for as long as we need.”

One of the council members spoke up then. “What about the other half of our forces, what will they be doing in the meantime?”

John looked over to the member who spoke up and gave an amused grin. “I was getting to that. The half that is not assigned will be stationed to the south, just outside the dimensional bleed. When the Pit collapses, everyone and everything caught within the bleed will be knocked unconscious for a few minutes, in that time the remaining half of our force will assault the Horsemen of the Apocalypse directly with everything they have. The first few minutes after the Pit’s collapse will be critical to our success, meaning the half stationed to the south will have to be able to travel a long distance in a short amount of time, while being able to hit really hard once they reach the Horsemen themselves. Are there any further questions?”

As the council debated this (suicidal) new plan amongst themselves, John turned his attention inwards, to the connection he had with the sapient city of Atlantia.

Atlantia? he sent the thought out, the reply was received at the speed of thought, a soft, feminine voice sounding in his mind.

Yes, Johnathan?

Can you connect me to the Megaversal Legion?

Of course, Johnathan, one moment please...connected.

Almost instantly, he heard a different voice in his mind. Hello, you’ve reached the Megaversal Legion. How could we help you today, mr…?

Johnathan, how many forces do you currently have available for hire?

We have two full armies currently available to hire, each consisting of fifty-thousand members, how many are you looking to hire, what is the length of contract, where are they to be deployed, and what is the contract to consist of?

I’ll take them all, the length is only a few days, they are to arrive at the city of Atlantia in three days time, when Atlantia will rift them to Laslo. They are going to be taking part in the Gathering of Heroes against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as well as the demon city of Calgary. And charge it to my account, the account number is 9008-2247-5111, I will pay half now, and half upon completion, is that acceptable?

The representative went silent for a moment before replying. very well, that will be two billion credits to hire on two Megaversal armies, they will be in position as you request. Thank you for doing business with the Megaversal Legion and we look forward to working with you in the future.

John pulled back from his conversation and looked over the council chambers once more, finding that the deal only took a few moments thanks to the deal being made through mental communication, therefore it was done at the speed of thought. He was quite thankful that the Megaversal Legion mercenary company had so many forces ready for deployment. The Legion is well known for taking on threats that most planetary armies could not, and winning with minimal losses. Their training and technology are extreme, and he knows that, even with a hundred thousand fully-realized Heroes, such a force could very well mean the difference between victory and defeat when facing the impossible might of the Four Horsemen.

Hours passed before the council eventually decided that the plan that was put to them is the best they had, and as such, they appointed Johnathan Valorious as the leader of the second Gathering of Heroes.

The speaker then stepped forward once more and called out. “I hereby declare this meeting adjourned, go forth and inform your people of the plan we have decided upon.” He then turned to John. “Make sure your group is ready, for you have the most important task of all, making sure that damnable Hell Pit is destroyed.”

John put his right hand as a fist against his left palm, the fingers of his left hand outstretched in an old martial-art type salute and bows respectively to the speaker. “We'll be ready when the time comes.”

With that, the council left the chamber, John being one of the last out. When he was alone he used his communicator to contact his tech and heavy combat cyborg. “Black Skull, how’s the anti-demon bombs coming?”

The reply was a few moments in coming. “They’re done, I’m off with the Russian ‘borgs, having a pre-battle get-together. There’s just under nine hundred holy-water and silver dust infused bombs rigged to the underside of our APC, just waiting for the call to arms now.”

“Alright, keep out of trouble.”

“Hey, this is me we’re talking about!”

“Exactly.”

John cut the comms feed and contacted his Totem Warrior scout. “Running Water, come in...Running Water?” When there was no reply, he thought, Hmm, must still be participating in that sweat lodge ceremony. John cut that feed off and started to walk towards the APC, intending to meditate until he was needed.

As he walked through the city, his mystic senses suddenly alerted him to a powerful magic going off nearby, making him turn towards the origin and call on all of his mystic tattoo defenses. Augmented strength, basic control of and immunity to fire, basic control of and immunity to wind, immunity to lightning, wingless flight and two different skin-tight barriers; one designed to withstand incredible damage, the other designed to protect him from all energy based attacks. So augmented, he flew towards the disturbance as fast as he could.

As he flew, he saw many of the heroes nearby rushing towards the pyramid with him, where the magic originated from, each of them preparing for combat. Sirens and alarms blared out all around the city, alerting everyone to a possible attack. However, when he approached the pyramid, he didn’t hear sounds of combat, instead he heard someone call out for aid. “We have wounded here!”

John flew close enough to observe and intervene if need be, but far enough so he did not interfere with the first responders, the warriors and medics that might be needed. What he saw he could easily class as one of the odder sights he had seen over his long lifespan: six brightly colored quadrupedal creatures that his goggles—enchanted with an Eyes of the Wolf spell—showed him were all good aligned. All of them had powerful magic auras, the purple one had both wings and a horn and, even with his extensive training, John has no idea what she could be. A winged Unicorn? A horned Pegasus? Something else? He wasn't sure. The white one has a horn, making her a Unicorn and the yellow and cyan ones both had wings, marking them as Pegasi, though very much unlike the Unicorns and Pegasi he's familiar with. While the pink and orange had neither, and could pass as normal ponies if it weren't for their unusual coloring and strange proportions. All six were unconscious, with four of them bearing signs of being wounded by what appeared to be ballistic weaponry, the white unicorn with a purple mane, the yellow pegasus with a pink mane, the orange pony with a blond mane, and the purple-winged unicorn with a dark blue mane with pink stripes in it.

As the six newcomers were carted off, their destination a medical ward, which will be guarded until it was decided what could be done with them. Their auroras read as potential allies, but when one faces the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, taking chances is never a good idea.

John dismissed his magical augments with a thought and walked up towards the one who made the call of wounded. “Hello, could you watch over those six and inform me when one of them wake up?”

The psion gave out a courteous, if condescending, “Very well, sir.” The Mind Melter, as his breed of psychic are commonly known, followed the doctors to the cell the new D-Bees were to be held in while John went back to the custom built APC he shared with Black Skull and Running Water. Once there, he made his way to his room, sat down and meditated until he received a message from someone.

Six hours passed before John received a magical message, the arrival of the spell having pulled him from his meditation to listen. “Johnathan, one of the horse-like D-Bees has woken up, and is panicking. It’s the purple one with wings and a horn, it threw the doctors from the room and sealed the doorway with a magic barrier. We… we have not been able to breach.”

That was disconcerting. John stood up and activated his flight tattoo, then flew out of the APC and into the pyramid, quickly arriving at the blocked doorway that had two doctors and a spellcaster, one common to Rifts Earth known as a Ley Line Walker in front of it. The Ley Line Walker in the middle of the doorway was attempting to dispel the barrier, and was looking quite exhausted from the effort. All three looked up when John landed nearby and addressed the nearest of the two doctors. “What happened?”

The doctor glanced towards the barrier for a moment before returning his gaze to John. “The pony woke up a few minutes ago, disorientated. I learned that she’s a female from the tone of her voice, and that her name is Twilight Sparkle. But when I used my psionics to try and calm her down she freaked out even more. She picked up both my partner and I and threw us out of the room, putting up this barrier once we were out. I then called for a Ley Line Walker to dispel the barrier, but so far our attempts have been... unsuccessful.”

The Ley Line Walker in question looked over to the doctor with a scowl. “This barrier is unlike anything I've seen before, there’s an incredible amount of power behind it, much more than I can dispel.”

When John heard that, he grabbed a black grenade from the bandoleer he wore. “Stand back.”

He received curious looks from the other three. The second doctor’s eyes went wide on spotting the grenade in John’s grip he asked, “What are you going to do with that?”

“This is an anti-magic grenade, it releases an anti-magic cloud spell when activated, and unless you wish to have your magic suppressed, I suggest that you stand well back.”

Once the Ley Line Walker and one of the doctors withdrew, the other doctor remained where she was as she did not rely on psionics or magic to heal. John pressed the activation button on the grenade. After a couple seconds, a thick, black cloud came boiling out of the device. John resisted the urge to wince as he felt the cloud suppress his own magic power while watching the barrier before him. Sure enough, the barrier simply winked out when the black cloud touched it, granting them entry.

“I’ll go myself,” John stated.

“Sir, is that wise?”

He thought about it, he was about to face a creature with power he had rarely seen, but…

“Trust must be given before it’s earned. I have a feelings about these D-Bees.”

The Psionic watched as their commander stepped through the doorway to face creatures none of them had ever seen before, all without his magical power.

Author's Note:

Phiew, that was a good sized chapter, much longer then my last two! Now we introduce the world of Rifts Earth, embroiled in a fight for survival against the Apocalypse itself. I hope you all have just as much fun reading this as i did writing it.

And as always, a huge thank you to my two editors for putting up with my terrible writing and wrangling it into something worthy of being called a chapter!
Twidashforever
and Lightness7
thanks a ton to you both!