A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, The Old Camp, Aerie Flagship***

***Magnus***

“The Thich and their allies are still holding the highlands, but we have successfully driven their forces out of Jeng’s Forest. Our scouts have identified several fortified settlements in the highland region which were formerly held by smaller clans. They are now being used as launching points for raiding parties by Thich and Vier forces,” Vanya explained while pointing out several red markers on a huge map.

It depicted the entire region colonized by the clans and spanned from the southeastern oceanic shore to the northern Aerie mountain range. A branch of Jeng’s forest reached out to the Old Camp in the centre, splitting the region by providing a natural barrier. To the south-east lay Thich’s highlands and the east was controlled by Vier’s grasslands, coming to a full circle by once again bordering the ocean.

“Of all these outposts, the one I deem the most problematic is directly across the swamp region which separated the Old Camp from Vier territory. It was a former clan settlement from a group called the Ingkar. We have no clue what happened to the former owners, but our scouts reported the Vier were massing their troops there. The problem we have is that the Ingkar dug their settlement deep into a rocky hillside,” Vanya scratched her temple and frowned while studying the map. “We cannot advance into the highlands without taking this fortress. The forces there would not only be a thorn in our backs, but they would also be within striking range of the Old Camp.”

“Wouldn’t the Old Camp be safe now that it is held by Ancient Balthasar?” Elder Juliana asked. “By listening to Mary it sounded like he could take on a small army by himself.”

Vanya tilted her head from side to side, showing she was on the fence with this line of thinking. “Balthasar has amiable ties with Ancient Nisha. She might respect his wishes to stay out of this conflict. However, Thich and Vier have already shown the lengths they are willing to go to achieve their goals and we don’t have any assurances on what Zacharias might do. If we move out with our troops, I am afraid retaking the Old Camp as a central staging point would be too tempting for the commander of that fortress. No matter what their orders may be. They might simply decide if Balthasar is not on their side, he has to be on ours. There is also the issue of how Balthasar’s mutation works. He told me it would take some more time to establish his root network and regain his power. All considered, I would prefer the outpost to be gone before we move the bulk of our forces away from the Old Camp.”

“What about the other outposts?” another elder asked. “Won’t they pose the same problem?”

“They do to a degree,” Vanya admitted. “But the difference is the distance to the Old Camp. Having to march for several weeks through unsecured territory is more of a deterrence than taking your chances with two or three nights in the open. Because of the close vicinity, I regard it much more likely for the Vier to take their chances. Also, the forces stationed there are large enough to pose a threat to the Old Camp should we move our troops away. I also don’t want to split the fleet this early into the campaign. We have already left a sizeable part of our fighting forces to defend Jeng’s mother tree. Or at least what remains of it.”

She sighed. “I wish the flagship hadn’t been delayed so much. It gave our enemies all the time they needed to fortify their positions.”

While the others were talking, I had my eyes still on the map, allowing my sub-personalities to go wild. There wasn’t much else to do while our big generals discussed their next steps.

That’s when one of my sub-personalities brought up a slightly insane idea to me.

Grinning, I raised a hand and cleared my throat, drawing everyone’s attention while pointing at the map. “Say, this area is still part of the karst region with the regular rainstorms, isn’t it?”

***Tirnanog, Ingkar Outpost***

***Sharada***

I studied the worsening weather with a deep frown. Nothing was surprising about the daily rainstorm to go down in the evening. At this time of the year bad weather was to be expected, but today the slowly building clouds were rising dark and high above the region, promising a true thunderstorm. A good sensor like myself could tell it would be a bad night for any poor soldier on watch duty. The humidity level in the air and the heat were already foretelling enough, but something also made the small hairs on my forearm tingle.

I wasn’t certain whether my precognition was warning me of things to come or whether it was just the static charge building in the atmosphere.

Nonetheless, there would be a thunderstorm tonight. I could practically taste it in the air.

Huffing, I readied myself for a bad shift. Those clouds unexpectedly dispersing was probably too much to hope for.

Much like I feared, the weather continued to worsen till the late evening when the twilight hour began. The sound of rolling thunder had been building up as the dome of dark clouds drew closer to the outpost. There were some lightning flashes in the upper layers, but I had yet to see any lightning strikes hit the ground.

The weather front’s arrival was accompanied by a lightning bolt discharging into the top of the settlement, igniting a lone banner which had been fluttering in the wind.

Blinking and covering my ears, I tried to regain my senses as quickly as possible. The lightning had destroyed my night-sight since I had looked directly into it and the thunder messed up my hearing. At times like these, I hated to be a sensor. Having better eyesight and hearing than anyone else was good and all, but it also made me a lot more sensitive to light and noise.

Already seeing it would only get worse, I was of half a mind to retreat underground, but procedures demanded for the watch to be kept during the day with utter vigilance and I wasn’t scheduled to be relieved till nightfall.

Well, one could argue that with rain clouds so dark they hid the sun – it was already technically night. Under these conditions, there were without a doubt some critters who decided to come out early to snack on a half-blinded, half-deaf human.

My thoughts were interrupted by another lightning strike hitting the roof of a nearby building, followed by a third one impacting the grounded airship which was supposed to serve as an emergency carrier, should the upper brass decide it was time to flee while leaving the grunts behind. They had already done that with the troops guarding the Old Camp and rumours made the rounds despite the commanders trying to suppress the information. But it was impossible to keep soldiers from talking when they witnessed others being left behind to delay the enemy.

Granted, most of the ones who had been forsaken were those from other clans who had been pressed into service, but it still left a bitter taste in many mouths.

I was still caught in my thoughts when all hell broke loose as the lightning strikes which were previously just an ominous rolling rumble in the upper cloud layers began raining down on the outpost in a continuous set of strikes.

As if guided by an intelligent force, repeated strikes obliterated the airship’s rear propellers. Hell, at this point I was still inclined to believe in some fluke of nature. Like the airship’s superstructure providing a convenient place for some weather phenomena to discharge its immense power.

All that went out the window when one of the nearby watchtowers was struck next and all I could see was the dark silhouette of a fellow watchman twitching on the parapet before falling still. And worse, the lighting wasn’t just a single strike, but a continuous flickering snake which wandered over the entire structure. As I watched the watchtower’s roof was peeled away as if it were nothing but paper.

Judging by the tower I was stationed on, I knew for certain it had to be a very sturdy roof capable of withstanding most flying critters who wished to snack on a poor human.

The structure being torn apart in this manner was a telltale sign of the unleashed power.

That’s when I noticed the two flickering lights in the clouds above. They danced around each other like opposing poles, seemingly guiding the storm clouds moving around them like a cyclone. As the charge built up again, I imagined seeing two people, but it was hard to tell because of the dark cloud.

Realizing the first initial onslaught of lighting was just the prelude for more to come, I took a hesitant step backwards, wondering what the next target would be. Judging by the fact that one watchtower had already been felled, I was prepared when my precognition turned the skin on the back of my neck into a tingling mess.

Eyes wide with terror, I threw myself into the nearby doorway leading into the interior of my tower. There was barely enough time to tumble down the first stairway to the lower floor before the world outside turned white and my poor ears exploded from the following thunderclap.

The upper floor was torn apart above me even as I kept more tumbling than running down the stairway with my ears ringing.

Taking quick looks out of the tower’s narrow windows as I passed, I watched with increasing horror as the elements themselves seemed to have taken a dislike to my people as lightning strike after lightning strike came down on the settlement in an honest attempt at wiping Ingkar from existence.

Whatever was stationed at the settlement’s surface was successively destroyed by the lightning storm which seemed to increase in power as time passed.

Upon reaching the watchtower’s base, I didn’t entertain a single thought of taking my chances outside. I went directly into the underground tunnel system which connected most of the surface structures the Ingkar had built to keep track of their surroundings.

The last thing I saw before entering the tunnel was a ball of plasma dancing outside the watchtower in eerie erratic movements.

That’s when I was certain that there was no strange weather phenomenon at play here. Even if it sounded ludicrous, fantastic even, someone was messing with the weather! Had to! Or else I had to believe that the goddess herself had intervened to punish the Vier.

***Tirnanog, Ingkar Outpost***

***Astra***

I landed hand-in-hand with Magnus on top of the remains of the superstructure which had served as a hangar for the handful of airships stationed at the outpost.

It had taken us the better part of the day to nudge the weather system in the right direction. To say we controlled the thunderstorm was stretching it. We weren’t on that level of power, so we had to make do with what was already there by nature. And there was indeed a lot of power within a storm front if one could draw it all together in one spot.

The Vier’s surface presence had been obliterated, forcing them to retreat underground and leave it to a combined force from Aerie, Hochberg and Jeng to take easy control of the surface and lay siege to the outpost. With the defenders being forced underground it was just a matter of time till we managed to root them out.

The only question was whether they had some secret exit which would allow them to mount a sally and try to break the siege.

“I am completely tapped out,” Magnus commented. “And I am drenched.”

“Me too!” I answered. “I still can’t believe it worked.”

Magnus grinned. “There was never any doubt in my mind after our performance at the Mycelium.”

“Will you inform command of our status or should I?” I asked.

“I will do it,” Magnus said and began posting messages into the chat UI.

We watched together as a group of Jeng paladins led the path into the outpost’s underground facilities. As Jeng’s version of Aerie’s hunters, they were known as elite warriors and they still had a bone to pick with the Vier.

Due to their specialization in defensive mutations like strong carapaces and the adverse conditions of tunnel systems like the hive-like setups within Jeng’s giant trees, the paladins had been chosen to serve as a spear-point in this operation once the surface was secured.

With a beat of leathery wings, Thalia and Mark landed next to us.

“Bro, you two rock!” Mark commented right away. “We watched from like five kilometres away and I still thought increasing the safety distance some more might be prudent. Those guys down there who didn’t book it into the tunnels had a bad time. You up for more?”

Magnus shook his head. “I may have one or two jaunts in me, but nothing more. My body is killing me.”

I nodded, feeling the same. “It seems like our muscle system isn’t just taxed by creating an electrical charge, but holding and manipulating the power by creating an electrical field is also stressful. We have been gathering this storm since early morning, so I would prefer taking it easy from here.”

“No complaints,” Mark said. “I prefer staying away from the frontline.”

We stayed on standby, should the troops need our help, but nobody called for us till the operation came to an end. Seemed like the commanders preferred to avoid sending two exhausted strategic resources into an underground combat zone and instead drew on their pool of capable warriors to finish the fight.

About an hour after the attack began, our airships descended from the sky, exactly timed with the last rays of sunlight. Once the area was declared safe, we joined the rest of the high brass in a hastily erected field tent which served to house the commanders of this operation.

Moving the necessary troops within striking range had been a logistical nightmare, but it was well worth it. Our enemies had been caught completely off guard and if our theory was correct, the storm should have prevented any radio-based communication. In addition, the storm would have prevented the enemy’s main fleet from steering in this direction.

So any relief forces would likely be delayed for long enough to present our opponents with a done deal once they realized the trick we pulled on them. The question was whether we could double down on the strategic advantage of our strategy, or whether the Thich and Vier would realize what happened and pull out of all the outposts they set up along the edge of Jeng’s forest.

Another hour into the operation Ingkar was declared to be firmly in our hands, albeit with some horrid news.

A runner had gotten us to inspect the despicable deed.

Ingkar’s former inhabitants had been found in what served as a waste and compost-dumping spot within their underground system. Or at least those who hadn’t seemed useful or too expensive to transport to their conquerors who needed the facilities.

So we stood in a stinking cavern filled with the bodies of those who seemed unsuitable for hard work or combat. It was a horrible necessity of war on Tirnanog, but the way the bodies looked made it unlikely a quick execution had taken place here.

Fighting the reflex to puke, I had to leave the cavern soon after Magnus rushed outside.

“Are you alright?” Thalia asked. As someone from the ninth strata, she seemed a little more used to the ugliness of a mass grave. “You aren’t going into shock or something?”

“No, just a little sick and maybe a little out of it,” I answered, finding it hard to digest what I had seen. “It looked like they got rid of anyone who wasn’t of immediate use, no matter the… age.”

Thalia nodded. “Good, then we should probably go and catch Magnus before he does something stupid.”

“Why?” I looked around, only now realizing that Magnus hadn’t waited for us outside.

Mark gestured with his hands. “Didn’t you hear him ask whether the Geneva Convention applies on Tirnanog?”