snippet – Page 2

06/03/2024 Snippet, SEVEN FLAGS.

There could conceivably be a Volume Three of TALES FROM THE FERMI RESOLUTION, you know. If enough people like the first two, that is. Also: this name, I like.

The province wasn’t as far west as it was supposed to be, though. There was a large purple-green swirl along its western edge, looking unpleasantly like an infected boil on the province. “That’s ugly,” Liza observed. “Dominion stay-behind forces?”

“Worse,” Callie told her. “A Dominion mage. Oh, not one of their Archmages,” she went on, at Liza’s involuntary start. “If it was one of those, that spot would already be represented by a burned-through hole on the map.”

“Or maybe it wouldn’t be,” observed the Emperor. Liza noted that his tone was serious, for the moment. “Saint Anthony is important to the Imperium. It’s going to be the new capital, for one thing.”

Liza gave him a puzzled look. “Isn’t it a monster-haunted ruin, Imperator?”

“Yes! At least, I certainly hope so.” The Emperor laughed. “Monsters can’t threaten to tie you up in court for a decade unless you pay through the nose for the land you’re seizing. If they could, they’d stop being monsters.” He brightened. “Although then they can be taxpayers, which is always nice. — But no, all we have to do with Saint Anthony is just clean out the creatures. After we take care of the enemy forces that are really in our way right now.”

#commissionearned

05/30/2024 Snippet, DESERET HORSE.

Whew!

Crap got bloody fast. There weren’t that many slavers in the fort – later they estimated that there were about eighty slavers in all of Purty to their band of fifty, total – and not many were bothering to wear armor. But the slavers that did had a big advantage, and even the ones that didn’t still outweighed and sometimes outreached Tabetha’s fighters. A few even had crossbows. They could’ve won.

Maybe. It took ‘em too long to realize that they were fighting foes who’d take a crossbow bolt to the gut if it meant closing on the enemy while he was still fumbling to reload, and edged weapons are an equalizer. Not as much of one as the fabled revolvers of the Old Americans, but knives always work.

As for the swordsmen? Well, fight three people at once, even when they don’t have armor themselves, and see how long you can last before somebody cuts your hamstring. You can’t gut out a severed tendon. Then you’re on the ground, and now your enemy has your weapon, and maybe your shield, and nobody’s fighting fair anymore.

05/29/2024 Snippet, THE DESERET HORSE.

Dun dun dun!

The slave wagon stunk of sweat, fear, and pain. At least, that’s how Tabetha remembered it. Her nose had stopped bleeding, but she still couldn’t smell a damned thing right now. That would have been nicer if she couldn’t feel the same emotions on her fingers, every time she gripped the grimy, greasy wood and metal. The metal collar she could smell, only that was mostly cruelty and hate. You had to be a seriously messed-up person to put a slave collar on another human being, but the Dominion was real good at finding folks eager to do just that.

And here I thought I’d never be on the wrong side of a cage door again, she thought to herself. Swore an oath, and everything. Guess I shouldn’t have done that.

Purty was nestled up against Island Lake, one of the few reliable sources of water in this part of the mountains. It was clumped on the east side, with a solid walled gate that was three-quarters done. That was still too high for attackers to climb without getting picked off by archers in the three finished corner towers, and the fort would only get more formidable as more of it got put up.

Snippet, THE DESERET HORSE.

Yeah. This story is only barely about Rex Fang-Blade at all. Although I’m tempted to name this story “THE HORSE IN THE DERESET.” …Well, maybe not.

“So, what do we do with the poor little fellas?” Tabetha asked. “Pat ‘em on the head and say, ‘you get back on home, now?”

To her surprise, Rex nodded. “More or less, except that we want to keep them as close as they can go. Any magic charm that starts off can be stopped, and if we can get our hands on one, we can figure out how they did it. That’ll make it a lot easier to counter.”

You sound pretty confident there, Hey-You, Tabetha thought but didn’t say. You know any mages I don’t? It wasn’t worth calling him on, though. Breaking the anti-snake charm was good enough for what they had to do, right now.

Rex stood up. “They’ll move back a little, to where they can wait and see if we need help they can give. We’ll link up with the wagons, see how Joe’s faring. If anybody can help the snakes stay steady, it’s him.

05/23/2024 Snippet, REX FANG-BLADE AND THE ATTACK ON THE GREAT NEST.

I really need a new title.

From the way he was frowning at the skittish snakes now, Rex had an answer, and it was one she wouldn’t like: “So. Is it magic crap, Hey-You?”

“Yeah,” he responded, still staring at the somewhat pathetic-looking serpentine horde now gathered before them. “Somebody’s put a no-vermin spell around Purty.” For one moment, Tabetha was downright incensed at how anybody – even the enemy! – could think of snakes as ‘vermin.’ “They’ve been ignoring it as best they could, but it’s just getting stronger, the closer we get.”

Dallin had squatted to look at one snake. “They don’t look hurt, at least. Guess that means it’s just a spell to keep critters away? Purty don’t know we’re here?”

“Good questions, Dallin.” Rex quirked his mouth.“Yes to both, I think. If they knew, we’d know that they knew, and we’d be fighting right now.”

05/18/2024 Snippet, REX FANG-BLADE AND THE ATTACK ON THE GREAT NEST.

Scouting!

Three days later

The books said you could get soldiers to walk twenty miles a day and still have them in some kind of shape to fight at the end of it. The books didn’t say anything about a gaggle of townsfolk and fighters, moving through broken land on foot. Six miles a day was the best they could do, and it was only halfway to Purty.

Rex thought they had made pretty good time, though. “They’re not going to march like soldiers,” he’d told Dallin and Tabetha when they brought up the issue. “We’re moving faster than I thought we would, and nobody fell out.”

“Yeah, well, anybody still alive and free out here is tough,” Dallin shrugged. “That includes the bad guys, sir.” He stared out into the night. It was extra dark, because it was for sure that there weren’t going to be any fires to give them away. “Only… where’s their pickets and scouts? They’re not dumb. They know they got to patrol.”

05/16/2024 Snippet, REX FANG-BLADE AND THE ATTACK ON THE GREAT NEST.

Yeah, a new title really is needed.

“What’s the problem, Hey-You? …That’s still me asking, not scoffing. I figure if you’re worried, there’s a reason.”

Rex stood up from the meeting table, and stood before an old map of Deseret. It didn’t have as much information as they’d like on it — people didn’t exactly stop by Wells to chat, and snakes can’t read or write — but it still showed every place north of Seventy Road and east of the Bonneville Flat that at least had a Dominion garrison. There were far too many of ‘em, not that anybody had asked Tabetha her opinion.

“I’m glad Burning Brand’s dead. He was vile, cruel, and ruthless. He did horrible things when he took… the capital. Even worse ones, as Viceroy. The worst part was, he didn’t even care. His atrocities were carved from ice and indifference. He was a monster of the first order.” For a moment, Rex was clearly somewhere else, and Tabetha’s fingers clenched, looking for a sword-hilt that wasn’t there. Wherever he had gone in his head, it was no place to travel alone.

But he gathered himself. “The problem is, Burning Brand was a smart monster. He knew just how hard to squeeze the towns and cities. A lot, but not enough that they’d decide to die on their feet — or at least, not before that would be more convenient for the Universal Dominion anyway.” Rex shrugged. “The word is, he was forced to take a slow poison. He must have really infuriated the Supreme Archmage with his system.”

05/12/2024 Snippet, REX FANFG-BLADE AND THE ATTACK ON THE GREAT NEST.

Title is clunky.

“That’s gonna happen no matter what, Hey-You. You think the Dominion is gonna decide, ‘Shoot! A bunch of folks in the badlands up and wrecked our base! Guess we shouldn’t go there anymore.’” Tabetha shook her head. “That’s not how those so-and-so’s do things, and you know it.”

“No,” Rex agreed, “it’s not. But every one of those motherless sons we kill first is one more Purty won’t have later to burn out farmers and townsfolk. I’m not going to pretend I don’t know that. That’s not how we do things. Not in Deseret.”

It was the most powerful temptation in the world for Tabetha to throw, There ain’t no Deseret no more! back in Rex’s face, and she wondered later what would have happened if she had. Aside from infuriating Rex no end, naturally, which was one reason why she didn’t. The man was almost supernaturally reasonable, but there were limits.

The other reason was, she didn’t think Deseret was dead. Not yet.

05/11/2024 Snippet, REX FANG-BLADE AND THE RAID ON THE GREAT NEST.

Consequences!

The next day

“We’re running out of time, sir.” Dallin was keeping it respectful, which Tabetha decided was smart of him. Rex hadn’t gone to the ‘vicious bastard’ school of war, but nobody likes to be told they gotta do things they don’t want to do.

Especially when one of your junior officers’ doing it, she decided. Bet he never saw that happen, before the Scourging. He was hiding it real well, but Tabetha could read the signs.

“I’m as concerned about time as you are, Dallin,” Rex responded. “We’re already pushing up the schedule for when we leave to attack Purty, to two weeks from now. What’re your reasons for making it one?” The heck of it was, he actually sounded interested to hear if Dallin had any.

Dallin didn’t hesitate, bless him. “We hit that raiding party too hard, sir. They didn’t just want slaves, they wanted to find out things. Now they’re gonna to find out that if they send out a few guys to Wells, they ain’t coming back. So they’ll send a lotta guys, next time. And they have magic gear now, at least a little.” He shook his head. “I don’t think they’re gonna get weaker, sir. The faster we boot them in the head, the better.”

05/01/2024 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.

Yeah, back to this.

The mural Reithner was illuminating with her headlamp was… well, it was ugly, and there was no getting around it. It didn’t even have the dubious virtue of technical skill; the artist had pounded and smeared it onto the rock wall using whatever materials were at hand. Possibly literally, Tobias thought as he averted his eyes. You can always get brown and red that way.

“That’s… Steelfang, right?” Buckley growled. “The Red Imperial god of death?”

“One of them, yes,” Tobias replied with utter calm. “He’s also sort of their god of farming. That’s why his mouth looks like a scythe, the better to reap his victims. The cult thinks blood makes the grain grow. Give me a good reason not to burn that damned thing off the wall.”

“We do not have incendiaries.” Reithner sounded hot, rather than cold. “Why did we not bring incendiaries?”

The desire in her voice made Tobias get himself back under control. “Right. Douse that light, Lieutenant. We don’t need to see it any longer.” He took a calming breath. “Lieutenant, Buckley, private circuit.” He waited until they both clicked in to continue. “Give me a good reason not to blow the airlock, and leave.”