Published: October 9th 2019, 12:37:50 pm
Well, here it is. This is my first endeavor into writing action. Let me know how I did!
Snow Drift
The sting of the mountain winds slashed across Nik’s face as he peered over the icy ridge at an Ithaian villa, surrounded by several smaller structures sitting low on the tundra. In the Ithanian style, everything about the structures was simple. Even the villa itself was just a larger series of connected grey rectangles. The only structure of note was a bell tower on the left-wing of the main building, ready to call alarm.
That bell, and a low five-foot wall, were the only defensive measures that caught Nik’s eye. Sure, a couple of guards stood atop the wall, but the men with what looked to be outdated rifles were in a circle talking among themselves. This lapse in discipline confirmed what Nik had already suspected to be true; every man with even the slightest bit of training had been drafted south. These were likely farmers who had been handed a rifle they hardly knew how to aim.
Reaching Itha had been the most difficult mission of Nik’s life. Endless days of hiking mountain after mountain. Weeks of living off barren land, only moving at night for fear of being detected. All this suffering had now paid off. Now, Nik looked down on an unsuspecting enemy, ready to avenge those who fell at Trumair’s Gap.
The Red of the Empire had been sent on a mission to bring Itha to its knees. With the full force of The Empire slowly marching toward the capital of the city state, King Churi had sent his armies to meet them in the mountainous path to the south, a land where imperial forces moved at a glacial pace trying to navigate the deepest snows known to man. Meanwhile, the Ithan people felt right at home, with the cold feeling almost tropical on their snow-white skin.
Even with the vastly superior numbers of The Empire, the smart bet would be for Itha to crush the imperial army once again -- absolutely. Years ago, tens of thousands of soldiers marched on Itha for what was assumed to be another mere months-long war to bring yet another of the lesser kingdoms into line, but instead turned into the single greatest loss of human life in one day the empire had ever suffered.
The Ithanian military had rigged a massive amount of explosives along the only path through the mountains to the south. An unprecedented avalanche buried almost every man or woman who had dared venture into the mountains, and Itha’s snow riders made quick work of any who did manage to climb their way free of the white wave.
With Itha the only kingdom still resisting serving the empire, once again soldiers were on the march. Pulled from every corner of the continent, an army of nearly one hundred thousand men was on its way, climbing the dangerous mountains instead of taking the easier path, the site of ignominious defeat. This prevented bringing siege equipment into Itha’s borders, and hundreds of men likely were dying daily from the cold alone. Soon, if they had not already, the ill-equipped men from the south would be forced to fight Itha’s elite ski troops, masters of ambush, and devastating rapid strike-and-retreat tactics, perfect for an enemy barely able to move in the frozen land.
From this dire situation, The Red’s mission was born. While Itha’s King amassed his forces to again meet the encroaching imperial forces, the thousand soldiers of the Red were occupying the tundra of west Itha, a land almost deserted as every capable hand would be needed for the coming war. Intelligence suggested calling what remained a skeletal defense force would be generous.
A handful of squads at a time had violated Itha's borders, and now the Red’s thousand had assembled and laid in wait within the enemy’s own territory. An unseen viper slipping into your home, ready to bite the child left unattended as you worried what came down the road.
Itha's farmers and nobility populated these hills. The crops here were nothing compared to the lush grasslands of Nik’s childhood, but were still far more habitable than the frozen mountains he and his soldiers had climbed to get here. Hundreds of the Red had died on those peaks, but now after weeks of acclimating to the highest summits in the whole continent, this tundra felt almost bearable to Nik.
Today, the price paid on those peaks would reap its benefits, for Nik looked down on the Villa of a High Noble of Itha. The crops this member of royalty oversaw were visible lower in the valley. All squads of the Red would unveil themselves on this day, burning the breadbasket of the rebellious city state. Unless King Churi wanted to watch his people starve as true winter came in two months, he would bend his knees before the emperor.
Nik looked behind him and signaled in hand-speak to his second, Lira, "No alarm raised.”
Lira scared the hell out of Nik. Anyone who could use the wizardry she could did. Most with her abilities spent their youth locked away in academies, learning while mastering their abilities. Nik was told she refused to stay on the academy grounds and demanded to enlist to the front line. Not wanting to waste one with her gift dying in a bayonet charge, the empire had compromised by allowing her to join the Red. Now the black haired, stout woman seemed to be the only one who could thrive in these mountains. Nothing in their entire track up here had fazed her in the least.
Now, in response to his report, Lira turned and continued signing the message down the line of soldiers waiting to finish the climb to the ridge.
No sound would carry well over the light layer of fresh snow, but Nik did not spend the last month fighting with his bladder, stomach, and everything else the sickness of the heights brought, just to have a whisper heard in the wind blow their cover on the brink of success. The feeling was certainly shared among the squad as not a word was spoken as the remaining eight of the fifteen soldiers who began this journey moved the rest of the way up the slope. The cold truly was unforgiving.
Once a line was formed around the ridge, a waiting game began. The sun already favored an attack from the ridge, but Nik mulled over waiting for full nightfall. A night attack might allow the squad to get all the way inside the villa before the alarm sounded. But if they were somehow spotted on the ridge while waiting for night, and the alarm sounded, everyone within the confines of the low wall would arm themselves before the Red could attack. If that happened, the ground between the ridge and the six-foot wall of the villa would become nearly impossible to cross. Even worse, if the alarm they raised was silent whatever guards remained could simply set an ambush and the seventh squad of The Red would be massacred.
The only requirement of the timeframe was that the attack happen before word could arrive from the other attacks throughout the land, but with the next closest target being nearly a day’s hike away, time would not be the deciding factor.
Nik lowered himself below the crest of the ridge and surveyed his troops. Though they were struggling to regain their breath after climbing the steep ridge, the squad was faring better than it had in the higher altitudes; they all could walk all day now without anyone fainting from the thin air. But no imperial soldier would ever be as comfortable up here as those born in Itha. If the squad went in already winded, Nik would be hand delivering the enemy an advantage.
With that thought, Nik made up his mind. He waved once to gather attention, and signed, “Attack at night. Two scouts out. Stay below the ridge and shed weight.”
Timit and Riddon, brothers who had fought together in several of the wars before joining the Red, got to their feet and split off to keep a perimeter. The rest quietly removed their packs and began assembling the supplies needed for a well-equipped attack.
Nik removed his own pack and pulled out the scraps of food he had left. Everyone had less than a meal’s worth of food within their own supplies. Over the last few days, in the more populated region of the country, hunting had been too risky. Bits of leftover meat and scrounging shrubs were a poor way to sustain working soldiers but it was the only option available.
Even with his severe hunger Nik still had to force the food down. He did not mind battle; it was a side effect of the dark age mankind was leaving behind. He did not even mind the killing as it was necessary to reach the utopian goal; Imperial Will must be realized at all cost for true peace to be found. These were simple truths; even a child could understand the sacrifice.
It was the waiting that made his stomach churn. The only solace he could take was knowing everyone with him on the ridge likely felt the same pit in their stomachs. Still, none of them were new to fighting and each could handle themselves in the worst of conditions; yet they were still human. Nerves before killing was universally human.
Nik peeked over the ridge again while chewing half frozen meat. The barely discernible movement of the people of Itha about their day’s work around the stone villa made the pit in his stomach grow; he hoped few would resist.
That thought would plague him for hours to come.
While no moon lit the night ski, this high up the stars illuminated the night remarkably well. Nik and his eight soldiers now lay in an organized line along the ridge. Their rifles clasped in gloved hands. Every one of their gazes was glued to the sentry posted on the wall watching the direction of the ridge. Few fighting men and women remained in the land west of Itha, but this villa clearly had enough abled-bodied souls to keep some form of a night watch. A single sentry watching an entire side of the slope was not much, but it could cause problems; a shootout with any kind of organized defenses would be devastating.
Nik looked to the stars and back down to the snow that seemed to be glowing blue with their light. The night would not grow any darker; night would not be a strong enough cover. Many boulders and small trees lay between their current position and the wall, but it would still be a risky approach. Managing to get close enough to kill the watchmen silently would not be easy.
Nik made a click in his mouth signaling for his men to look to him. He signed, “Lira, kill the sentry. All others follow behind. Maintain cover as long as possible. Slow and easy”
Riddon relayed the orders to his brother who seem to have missed seeing them. As soon as Timit nodded, Lira crawled over the crest of the ridge and kept low as she made her way to the stone structures below. When Lira was about one hundred feet down the hill, Nik made a small whistle, signaling the rest to start crawling down the hillside.
No metal glinted in the night and hardly a sound of movement could be heard. All metal on Red soldiers within the empire was painted a dark matte green, and all members of the Red knew how to walk on almost any surface without making much noise. The only thing Nik feared giving away their position was movement. The human eye is naturally drawn to movement of any kind, and several human bodies slowly making their way down a vertical slant was a lot of movement. The specially made grey and white camouflage could only do so much in the tundra, a land with a surprising amount of color variance under the half melted snow.
The sentry appeared to be slacking on his duties. The squad was now more than halfway down the hill, and the sentry, now close enough for Nik to assess as a man of medium stature, had glanced their way maybe once.
Why wouldn’t he be slacking? Nik thought.
This posting was hundreds of miles from any fighting that may have started, and anyone who might want to steal the food stores had probably been swept up in the king’s draft, thousands forced to join with Itha’s military to try and fight a hundred thousand imperial troops sent by a god.
Lira, roughly twenty meters ahead of the rest, stopped her advance and removed a small weapon from a strap on her lower back. The rest of the red halted their advance as well. Nik knew the weapon in her hand to be a small repeating crossbow with which Lira was an expert shot. The bow had been designed by top engineers from the Capital city. Nik had no doubt the bolt about to be fired would find its mark; he only worried about the possible noise made from the man’s death.
It was difficult to see in the night, but Nik could tell from the positioning of her body coiled around a boulder, Lira was taking aim. Nearly a minute went by as she watched the sentry. Then the man stopped his pacing and leaned on the wall.
A faint twang echoed in the night and the sentry slumped down on the low wall. Nik listened for the sound of a rifle loudly clattering to the ground, but only a soft thump came to his ears.
Several seconds went by with complete silence.
Lira raised to a crouch and began making her way back to Nik’s position, looping her crossbow in place while doing so. When she was about halfway to him, a slight gurgling turned every head in the night.
Nik did not hesitate. He stood and began sprinting, as quietly as one could sprint, to the low wall. The rest of the squad followed his lead. The residents of the villa would only have the sounds of footfalls as a warning.
Vaulting up the wall with only one hand touching the stone beneath him, he landed and rolled off toward the villa within. Nik’s repeating rifle whipped from his shoulder to his hands in one smooth motion. Lifting the weapon to his cheek, he began scanning the low square buildings for movement. Seeing nothing, he stood and jogged over to lean against the nearest building.
The rest of the Red soon joined him, all taking similar positions. Only Lira remained on the wall, slitting the throat of the dying guard. After one final louder gurgle, silence filled the night again. The Red were within the wall of the villa.
Nik had no illusions that their cover had been maintained. The sound of armed men, no matter how well trained, leaping over a wall would arouse someone from their sleep. Still, checking from window to window, he could not see any signs of a residents peering into the night.
As he scanned for any signs of watchers, the rest of the Red prepared. Gritte, a larger fellow with more scars than skin left of his arms, crouched and prepared a grenade. Lira tapped Nik’s shoulder from behind letting him know she was ready without interrupting his watch. The brothers were in position at the building across from Nik and the rest of the Seventh moved farther down across from him, preparing to push deep into the villa’s property and begin the mayhem.
Just as Nik was about to stop watching the windows and give the order to push forward, a doorway down the alley squeaked open. Two figures emerged walking into the night at a casual pace. Nik raised his rifle at the same moment as Timit, standing in front of his brother, did the same. He would wait to see what Nik decided, but the fate of the two down the alley was decided the second they turned and began walking towards the Red.
Nik aimed at the smaller figure on the left, his side of the alley, and fired. Timit’s follow up was so fast, it would have been hard to tell who fired first.
The two in the alley dropped like weightless sacks.
The brothers began moving down the alley, ready to clear each building systematically and push into the villa grounds.
Nik loaded another round and glanced around to see the rest of the Red splitting into pairs to cause as much chaos as fast as possible. Lira was still behind Nik, waiting for him to start down the alley as well.
Sparing one last glance to the dark windows, Nik followed the two brothers’ lead down the dark alley. He and Lira would not stop to begin clearing a building; their target was inside the main villa.
Nik stepped over the figure he had shot. Allowing himself to briefly look down, a fear festering since he first saw the shape of the bodies fall became realized: the boy could not be older than eighteen, the girl, maybe a sister, could not be older than fifteen.
Swallowing any emotions that tried to rise in his chest, Nik led Lira toward the noble’s villa.
Dozens of shots rang out in the night as Lira and Nik made their way to the central building. They had been made to stop twice, once to kill a guard scrambling to load a weapon with trembling hands, and again to toss a grenade into a building which looked to be the slaves’ quarters. The screams filling the night were more often than not simply begging for mercy; there was no fight in these people. The Red would stop killing soon; once there were few left on the grounds a resistance would be impossible.
Nik finally ran up to the villa itself and more or less crashed into it. The adrenaline in his blood did not allow him to slow for an instant. Lira leaned against the wall behind him again, ready to breach the door, small one off to the side, probably used by slaves to bring in supplies.
If there was any fight left in within these walls, it would be here. Anyone with real training would have retreated to this spot at the sound of the first shot to protect the head of the house. Nik paused to try and catch his breath and calm himself. The light air, mixed with sprinting and adrenaline, caused the edges of his vision to blacken for the first time in weeks.
“Ready.” Lira said, clearly not sharing Nik’s desire to pause.
He let out a frustrated grunt in response and took one last long slow inhale and exhale. As the breath finished leaving his mouth, he heard Lira let out a frustrated sigh, an annoying habit she would demonstrate regardless of the circumstance. Nik swore she would sigh in the One Above All’s face if he took too long to declare her a high noble.
Nik stepped up to the door and tried the handle. It was locked. He shouldered the door and it did not budge.
Lira let out another slight sigh.
Nik shot her a glare over his shoulder. She shrugged in response.
“Could you?” He asked with great hesitation.
Her responding “Sure!” was far too eager for his taste.
She stepped out from their cover against the wall and raised her hands toward the door. A slow growl began emitting from her as the taste of metal flooded Nik’s own mouth. A slight glow in the air stretch from Lira’s hands to the door. After a few seconds of loudly groaning in protest, the door exploded inward. If anyone had been lying in wait for their entry, they would now be filled with shrapnel.
They both entered the villa with rifles raised.
No greeting, Nik thought.
When they finally reached the nobles’ quarters, Nik did not hesitate in simply kicking open the door. His stomach was still in a knot remembering that shimmer in the air between Lira and the door. He thought he could even still taste metal, as if he had licked his own gun barrel.
The room had one guard toward a back corner trying to hide behind a large chair. Nik simply drew his pistol and ended the coward’s life. After killing so many in the house on the way up here, this one hardly registered.; it was a numbness that came in any drawn-out fight.
Nik knew from searching the sitting room that the noble ruling over this region had not fled: a box of fine stones sat open on a table, a rare collection of spices was left untouched, and most important, the dust of a drug favored by the rich called vikus was smeared over a chair arm.
Nik looked to the door to the bedroom. Lira had been standing there with her rifle trained on the door since he started his search.
“He has to be in there” Lira said.
“Remember, alive and uninjured he said in a low tone;” the noble did not need to overhear that bit.
“Come out,” Lira said loud enough to be heard down the hall they had come down. “By imperial authority, you are summoned. Come freely and you will not be harmed. That we swear on the Emperor himself.”
Several seconds passed in silence. Nik kept his eyes on the door where they entered. He did not think any remained would put up a fight, the sounds of gunfire outside had even stopped, but this was not the time for carelessness.
Nik spoke in a calm tone he knew to have a frightening effect on those afraid for their lives. “Our grenades will come in before we do.”
A couple more seconds passed before the door creaked open.
As soon as she had eyes on the man, Lira raised her left hand and the glow filled the air once again. The man in robes flew from the bedroom and landed harshly to the floor on his stomach.
“Please!” he bellowed, “let my family go.”
The metallic taste was back in Nik’s mouth and it made him want to vomit. Lira was maintaining some form of grip on the downed man as Nik passed them to enter the bedroom. A woman and three children cowered in a corner, the mother trying to shield all of her children.
Nik raised a hand and said, “Your children are safe; you must come though. Hands out in front of you please.”
The woman shook her head in response. Something Nik had expected. Mothers almost never agreed to leave their children when weapons were drawn.
Nik raised his pistol and pointed it at the youngest child. The mother cried out, “No! I will come. Please, don’t shoot.”
She stood and the eldest child, a fat boy, assumed her position, trying to shield the others.
“Thank you,” Nik said as he guided her out into the sitting room. One hand firmly on her shoulder
Nik lowered himself into a cushioned chair as Lira knelt the two nobles facing him. They both shook violently. Blood flowed down the man’s face as he tried to somehow stare down Nik while kneeling before him. Clearly Lira had not been careful in how she threw him to the floor.
The man opened his mouth to speak, but Nik raised a hand silencing him.
“I do not care what you have to say. I do not care who you are. There is nothing you can offer me.” He sat forward drawing a knife from his boot. The woman’s shaking intensified and the man let out a small yelp. Nik just started carving the imperial seal into the small table to his right.
“’The empire is not coming, we are here. Our will is upon you, and you cannot resist. Your armies march to starvation.’ Those exact words you will tell your king, do you understand?”
“What?” the noblemen managed.
Nik looked to Lira. “I do not think that was hard to understand, do you?”
Lira smirked, “For him, maybe.”
He stood and seized the kneeling nobleman by the collar, hauling him to a window on the far side of the room. The man fought the best he could, but his soft body against Nik’s was pathetic.
Nik threw the nobel against the window’s ledge. Grabbing a fistfull of hair, he forced the struggling man to see the fires that were the villa’s now blazing storehouses.
“Look and comprehend. Comprehend what resistance means.” Nik lowered his face so close to the noble’s that he could smell the blood still dripping from his nose. “We have beaten you. The seasons are changing.” The noblemen let out a frightful whimpering noise. “The meager crops you have stored burn throughout the country tonight. The breadbasket of Itha burns, you idiot.” Nik shook the man’s head violently to make sure his words fully registered. “Your king must choose. Die starving in your own homes, or open your borders to salvation. The empire is forgiving. We admire you for beating us once, but it will not be allowed to happen again.”
The noble’s eyes glowed with terror reflecting the growing fires. “Thousands will starve! This is not warfare.” A gunshot sounded from outside in the night. “You’re purging us!”
Nik let the man’s head go. He did not realize how much of the wretch’s weight he had been supporting. The man instantly collapsed to the ground.
Nik walked from the window, picking up his knife from where he had dropped it to the floor. “’The empire is not coming, we are here. Our will is upon you, and you cannot resist. Your armies march to starvation.’ Say it back to me or I will make you wife choose which child dies first.”
The man complied without hesitation.
Nik and Lira left the family cowering in the bedroom. They would be found and saved by whatever force Itha managed to pull together to do damage control on tonight’s events across the Westlands. It would not be for days though. Meanwhile, these people would begin to taste the starvation that was coming, a starvation that would save many more lives if all went according to Imperial Will.
When Nik and Lira emerged from the Villa, the Red were waiting for them. A few slaves and some children knelt in a line. Spared from the massacre of their families. It seemed no casualties for the Red had been sustained, and every building glowed inside.
The message he had delivered in the villa had been important, but what he had to say here, to those actual people of Itha, was debatably more so.
Nik crouched to be on the level of those who had been knelt and said, “Your leaders failed you tonight. They offered you no protection from us.” He locked eyes with several of the slaves who weren’t staring into the dirt. “We offered peace to your king repeatedly. He refused.”
Nik looked up to Timit and asked, “Can you recall a single time an imperial village has been taken?”
“No” he replied with pride.
“Neither can I.” Nik looked back to those kneeling. “We are your enemies now, but we do not have to be. We want to protect you. We want you to have access to the same peace that has come to the rest of the continent. No go sick without treatment where I come from. None worry men with guns will invade their homes. Do not blame us for doing what is necessary to save the lives of future generations. Do not try and stop us from bringing a better life.”
Nik stood, and gave the order for the Red to leave. His message would ring hollow for most of those brought to their knees tonight. They would hate the empire for the slaughter at their doors. A few may see the truth. A truth of a better future at all costs. Hopefully that message would spread as imperial forces began to occupy a starving land. The men who handed out bountiful food to relieve those a greedy king had failed. That king’s people may start to see the light just a bit faster.
That future was not what Nik had to worry about tonight though. He looked to the tallest mountains he had ever seen in his life on the horizon, and thought about how he had to lead his eight over them once more. As he and the Red left the villa, he wondered if any of them would survive the mountains a second time.