Maybe talk of destruction as if it so grand term that can be thrown needlessly until the word itself loses relevance. It has beco such a common turn of phrase that I now avoid using the word for it is utterly worthless in aning. What does it an to “destroy” an enemy force? Whereas many would point to so grand conflagration of violence as the mont of “destruction”, the word loses aning at that point. In the sa fashion that houses do not simply spontaneously combust, great problems do not get spontaneously destroyed.
We point to the kindling, we point to the drought, we point fallen candle, we point to spilled oil and we point to the general malaise of cleanliness when we search for causes of the fire. Likewise, in the case of an army, we point to the morale and food security of the n. We point to weakened flanks and we point to the lack of reinforcents. We point to the untested and untrusted commander. We point to our own overwhelming force.
We avoid destruction by sidestepping dismantlent. Our flanks may not be attacked if they face uncrossable terrain. We will not be cut off from food if the supply lines are kept open. Our commanders are tested and trusted because our commanders have guards. By the ti of the great conflagration of destruction, one must make sure to dismantle as many of these factors from the enemy and to fortify as many as possible from oneself.
The first step on the road to destruction is dismantlent. Whether we refer to armies or hos or entire nations, it matters not. Likewise, one should not be intimidated by the scale of a problem. A house with a single point of failure shatters all the sa as a house with the strongest walls. The simple matter of fact is how much energy one wishes to pour into their goal. One may look up, wishing to destroy a mountain so that his ho may have view of the dawn and one may deem it impossible. Another will look at the sa mountain with the sa goal and grab a pickaxe.
Which of the two has a chance at achieving their goal? Which of the two leaves less work for their descendants? Which of the two can at least say they tried?
The future, no one can promise. The chance for a future is the best that can be offered and, to speak frankly, to offer even a chance already surpasses what most give.
- Excerpt from “Philosophy of War”, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War.
Fer sniffed the air as she danced around the back of the retreating vanguard of the Second Expedition. Ahead of her, tank and truck and boot all slowly gave ground as they pulled away from what beca colloquially known as The Rift. They were coming across another supply base, another location that would need to be held for a few hours before it too was inevitably low. Vehicles were pulling off to the sides of the grand Epa-Arika Highway tunnel, large enough to fit an entire castle within and the hill it sat on. Already, Fer picked out Clerics running around and setting up zones for where the wounded should be put as they worked. A set of officers were helping them organize as the n untouched by the heat dove to the ground and behind the emplacents that had been set up at the supply base. The tents had already been taken down and crates of ammunition along with the largest emplacents were being loaded onto trucks. Mages and sorcerers hovered in the air as they assisted where they could. So with lifting, others with carving trenches into the stone or pulling up spikes to stop cavalry charges. None of them went too high though.
Fer sniffed the air again and looked to her left. That’s where it would hit. The sll of hot air and sulphur and that terrible sound of blazing air was coming close now. There were n there. In grey uniforms with flags on their arms, right at the end of the convoy that were sprinting with probably nothing but adrenaline powering them at this point. Sweat poured from their faces and breaths were desperate and deep. With rifles in their hands and with packs bouncing on their packs, they still ran.
Fer could not leave them.
The Goddess of Beasthood jumped to her left and held out her arms. A mont later, she felt a blast of fire try to devour her back as she kept her eyes open. Oranges wisps of fla enveloped her arms, her stomach and her thighs for a mont. She slled her own hair burning. She felt her own skin crack and char and she grit her teeth as her body rebuilt itself. Muscle rewound itself and blackened char flaked off as fresh skin ca in to replace it.
Fer sniffed the air and the ears on top of her head twisted. Chaos from the front. Engines roaring and n shouting and gunfire and cannon and explosion and n pleading for release from their burns as officers directed with orders and Clerics gave updates to themselves. Shouts for drinking water and for more of the MisseM pills and for more rounds or for space on the trucks were the tiny set of drums amongst the organized cacophony.
And from behind, she heard flood that was coming to consu them. The ever-present of anthem of Tartarus humd like a wasp-nest full of drums. Every now and then, it screeched with the searing scream of a bolt of fla although none were coming now. But those were the re cheers of the audience to the true orchestra that was on stage. That low, ever-present rumbling of a flood of stone. Fer flinched as another piece of warmth touched her. Not from the back but from above, ash had landed on her nose. Mages shifted their attention forwards and winds began to howl as they held air in place to make a barrier stronger and more impenetrable than steel.
Almost imdiately, the hot layer of ash that for a mont looked like pristine snow before it beca a disgusting shade of grey beca to build up. Grey and then the black of ruined rubble left behind after a fire. Fer dashed forwards and spun one leg to catch sight of the grey wall approaching them. A flood that had no beginning and definitely had no end, yet clearly was there. A barrier so hot that it would devour even Fer if she ventured deep into it. It slowly rolled forwards in great plus.
It was like being back in the Great War.
Ashen skies.
End tis.
“BROTHERS IN ARMS HOLD!” Fer roared. “HEADS UP! FOR ALL HUMANITY WE STAND!” That may have been presumptuous but Fer did not care in the slightest. “HOLD!” She heard the n of the Second Expedition return with a cheer as they settled into the trenches for protection against the blasts of fire. The mage’s barrier of hardened air left a small gap at the bottom. Small only in relativity to the size of the underground Highway itself, it was twice Fer’s height and it would even the n that stood on trucks to open fire into that grey fog.
She had a mont now. The frontline could be tended to later when the fighting began. Fer turned around and raced back into the camp. She hopped over soldiers and onto tanks as her nose picked out the familiar slls of the commanders. In reality, all the n slled of the sa mixture of sweat and cigarettes and gunpowder, tal and stone and sulphur and ash, but a few had the faint of familiarity. That and the cold mint that was resolute determination.
Captain Thomas Morrow was stood near the lines of n, talking to Captains Andy who had been promoted to take Jas’ place and Jaroslaw. All three Fer would give personnel comndations to. She did not care what Kassandora thought, those three had managed to keep this shambles of a retreat in as much order as it could be held. They were huddled around near n who had been hit by blasts of Tartarian fla and then thrown forwards by Fer in a last ditch effort to save them. Death slled thick around here. There was nothing supernatural about, it was just the stinging copper of blood and the char of burned flesh.
Clerics in grey uniforms and with armbands of blue were tending to the n, most critical first. A few received full heals but the ones that were on the brink of leaving this world were only stabilized before being carried into a truck for Clerics further in reserves to use their energies on. A few had played, others pistols, none of them bothered with rifles at this point. If there was one thing this rabble had too much of already, it was n with guns.
Fer’s ears finally managed to pick out Captain Thomas’ conversation over the sound of retreat around them. “Very simply, there is no way to hold.”
Captain Andy raised a point. A gruff man, soone who looked like that should be called Andrew rather than Andy. He had a burn on his cheek he had refused healing for when there were n in need. “This is Epa-Arika fifteen.” He said, pointing to the ground. “Next is EA-fourteen.” The captains continued talking even as Fer approached them. They did not even bother with the salutes, good, there was no ti to waste.
“And?” Captain Jaroslaw barked back.
“Between EAs thirteen and fourteen lays the North Arika East-West.” Andy replied.
For a good half minute, no one said a word. Not even Fer. They all knew what that ant. The Vanguard force of the Second Expedition had given notice and every army was retreating north of the East-West Highway. But whereas here, they were getting frantically pushed back, the other armies were faring considerably better. If this route fell. Fer said what needed to be said. “The rest of the Second Expedition will be cut off.”
Nothing more needed to be said. At the very minimum, they were looking at over a million in losses. If worst ca to worst, then it would spill to multiple millions. If they let the force behind them enter the East-West, they may as start ringing the death bells for Empire. “What are the chances of holding at fourteen?” Fer knew the answer, she just couldn’t let the sweet sll of fear and the bitterness of disappointnt already wafting from these n settle in. They had to get moving and get thinking.
“None.” Captain Thomas said. “We’re a roadblock. A day would be phenonal.”
“Answers Thomas.” Fer said. “We need answers and solutions and not estimations.”
Another good half-minute of silence. Thomas had shut down entirely. The disappointnt was thick from him. Andy and Jaroslaw looked at each other. The forr man was starting to bathe in it. The latter though… Definitely a promotion. He was beginning to sll with the sa sourness of crazy that Kassie sotis carried. “Well.” Captain Jaroslaw said as he rubbed his bald head. “I can say there’s one thod.” He obviously did not want to say it.
Fer gave the little push he needed. “Be direct Captain.”
“We would require your blessing.” Jaroslaw sounded as if he was regurgitating each word. “But’s it the only way we see to slow them down. To stop them even.”
“What?” Fer barked harshly this ti. Maybe too harshly, Jaroslaw actually flinched back from the Goddess that towered over him.
“We bring the ceiling down at the next depot. We send cars off now, they start planting explosives with sorcerer assistance. We give them four hours. That should be enough ti to set everything up. We retreat, pull everyone back. Blow it. I don’t know of the effects though. Whether the whole thing will co down or what it will be like up above for them.” Fer blinked at the words, unable to close her own mouth. The taste of ash in the air awoke her.
It was a plan. Certainly. It was a plan worthy of Kassie. If she had suggested it, then everyone would clap and say it was the only way. But it was a human suggesting it.
But did that make a difference?
The Goddess of Beasthood rubbed her nose and looked down at her fingers. Grey with ash. She turned to the grey fog behind them. A fog of burning snow that blew upwards and forwards and to the sides. The red glow of flas like tiny suns trying to burst through clouds were t with gunfire. Sotis they fell, sotis a snake of fla would dash out to devour a man.
Fer made the call. “Under my authority, collapse the Highway.”
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