Fiction: Death on Dark Wings p10

Here's part 10, and then part 11.  That's the end of it for now, but believe
me there is more about my favourite scro Admiral to come - including his
abandonment of the military to serve his own cause....  anyway, for now
enjoy :)


*********


It took but seconds for the scro to run up, and for several seconds no sound
could be heard after their footsteps ceased.  About to signal for a flare to
be thrown up, Korgesh froze in mid-signal, as almost a dozen scro heads
rolled down the ramp, some making it to the end to pile at the feet of the
warriors guarding there, others rolling off the edge before hand and
settling in the ruins of the room.  Quickly making the hand signal for magic
enemies, Korgesh backed off slightly as did his warriors.  At yet another
signal two of the warriors came forward the kneel near the severed heads,
ignoring them completely, while one lit a fuse and the other removed his
backpack.  Stuffing one end of the fuse in the pack, one of them yelled
"Fire in the Hole!" as he threw the backpack, and leaped over debris to take
cover.  An enormous explosion rocked the deck above, and for several seconds
all was quiet, until the second fuse burnt through the small hole into the
backup charge, wrapped to protect itself from going off in the initial
detonation, yet exploding with more destruction than the first.



            The silver-armoured body of an IEN officer, this a female elf
with long platinum hair, rolled down the ramp, most of hear head and back
ruined from the second charge.  As was typical for the elves, they had
underestimated the scro and come out from their cover, expecting there would
be but one explosion.  Korgesh lead the group with a warcry as he ran up the
ramp into the room above, his hate-filled eyes taking in the four more dead
elves who had moved forward - one in the robes of a battle-wizard.  With a
pause of thought to take in the field of battle, but no loss of stride, he
faced the elven cleric thirty feet in front of him, whose face was burnt and
singed from the fireball, and more than a little stunned.  An elven warrior
on each side of the cleric slipped with agility in front, an axe soon
planting itself in each of their chests as Korgesh threw them from almost
fifteen feet away.  The cleric's face still showed a look of shock and
disbelief as korgesh flew feet first at him, a hairy and clawed scro foot
breaking his neck, sending him flying backwards near the bodies of his
protectors, almost another ten feet down the corridor.



            Sounds of magic from behind, the admiral picked himself back up
and ran for his axes, lifting them and the elven bodies still attatched, the
latter being flung off with a flick of each of his powerful wrists.
Spinning he saw the walls on either side of the passage had disappeared,
revealing roughly half a dozen elven bladesingers who now battled the
marines following his charge.  Passwall, he thought, a clever idea, but we
Scro know how to get through walls aswell.  Backing up slightly to the
nearby wall, he charged for a section of wood already damaged by the satchel
explosion, and broke straight through it, surprising the elves inside the
room.  An elven wizard stood not five feet away, preparing to cast a
lightning bolt out into the marines.  He now turned on korgesh, who stood
between the elven mage and the bladesingers, and threw his hands out to
strike the scro with the spell, only to find at the last second the admiral
dove out of the way further into the room - leaving the lightning bolt to
burst through several bladesingers, felling one of them.  As Korgesh sprang
back up he backhanded the mage into one wall, continuing to spin and then
planting an axe square into the elf's stomach - killing him in one massive
blow that nearly tore him in half, and destroying the magic of one of the
passwall spells.



            The scro marines barely flinched when the wall came back into
view, now supporting half a scro sticking out on their side, and the other
bladesingers arms and swords.  From Korgesh's side, the scro was plainly
dead, his head in the wall itseld and likely destroyed, yet one of the
bladesingers screamed in agony, trying to wrench his shoulder and left leg
out of the wall.  With another mighty swing of an axe, the elf felt silent,
his head rolling onto the floor.



            With that room emptied, the admiral stepped through his
self-made door back into the hall, finding all the marines there on the
ground, mostly dead, and an elven battlepoet - their highest ranking
wizard/clerics - standing in their midst.  The cuts and slashes on their
bodies denoted a blade barrier spell, although how it could have done the
damage so instantly was beyond Korgesh, and the elf was surrounded by the
glows of various protective magics.  The two smiled at each other, the elf
having decimated half a dozen scro with one spell and without weakening
himself at all, Korgesh at the sudden thought in his head.



            With a stamp of his foot on one end of a dislodged floorboard,
the scro sent the impudent elf straight into the air, with such force as to
break the wood of the decking above, the mage trapped at his neck, legs
flailing wildly.  The board fell back into place as several missiles came
streaking from past the battle-poet, slamming Korgesh in the chest hard.
Spying a trio of bladesingers at the other end of the hall, near the ramp he
had come up, Korgesh grinned and charged, slamming the spike on top of his
right-hand axe into the groin of the trapped elf, without loosing a stride.



            Korgesh had fought bladesingers before, and knew their markings
well to guess their ranks.  Unfortunately, he had picked the wrong passwall
to destroy, considering here was the leader of what was obviously the armada
's 'singers, and two of his most apt pupils.  A tattoo of a wolf could be
seen on the upper blade-arm of each, no armour covering an area they could
defend with their sword quite well, causing a slight smirk to overcome the
admirals face as he stood in battle stance before them.  Blade's whistling
in the air, slight confusion came over their face as he spoke, perfectly
fluently of course, in elven.



            "In the wild of my homeland scum, the wolf is a powerful
creature, second yet to one other."



            The elves refused to banter, sliding forward to bring their
blades to bear.  The two pupils struck first, a blade coming at korgesh from
either side which he easily parried with his axes, then the masters blade
swinging close to the scro's stomach.  Spinning on his foot Korgesh sent a
round house kick straight into the elf's breastplate, sending the master
skittering away down the ramp.  His pupils clearly afraid, one cast a
protective spell on himself, while his companion attempted to plant a spell
into korgesh's chest.



            The scro's last trump card worked, the concussive force of the
lance of disruption turned back upon its caster and his friend, reflected by
the enchantment cast by a warpriest back aboard the battlewagon but little
time ago.  The caster of the lance took the brunt of the damage, which was
severe indeed, caving in his metal breastplate and sending him flying back
onto a piece of sharp decking pointing up from the hull - impaling him
through the neck and then ripping the flesh away as the body continued to
fall.  The elf on the other side, however, took but a small amount of the
spell, and with one hand bracing himself against the wall only inches away
from the protruding hand of a dead bladesinger, pushed himself back into a
fighting position, both hands now grasping his blade defensively.





Tilaurin
tilaurin@?????????????????.com
http://www.planetbaldursgate.com/atreus/index.html
"Dying Swans/Twisted Wings,
Bring This Savage Back Home"
- Brave New World, Iron Maiden