A Creature of War, Book 3, CH04 (Patreon)

The forcefield was only visible where the arch touched it, and then only as small lightning that erupting from the contact points. It wasn’t any kind of lightning El could sense, there was no electricity in it.

The arch was three meters wide and five high, made of…things. He didn’t look too closely at it; he was worried he’d see it was held together by strings and duct tape. Jennifer was at what could marginally be called a control panel; a screen and buttons, not that there was anything saying what they did, and that what he could make out of the display made any sense.

Behind her stood Professor Milton and Stevenson. Behind him were Vee and Leech, then the rest of his unit and then the other units. He sometimes caught sight of the other two Crazies at the far edge.

“You’re doing that wrong,” Professor Milton said. He took a step toward her, but El grabbed his arm.

“Prof, stop.”

The man glared at him. He hated being called ‘Prof.’ “But she’s—”

El cut him off. “Who built it?”

“I built the armature.” He puffed his chest like that was the most important part.

“Who built the controls,” El asked.

“Jen did,” Stevenson answered, “based on my theories. So fuck off, old man, and let her work.” He gave El a proud smile.

By reflex El checked the man’s hand for trembling, not that he expected there to be any. This was pure Crazy behavior.

“I don’t want to nitpick,” Leech said, “but have you even tested that thing?” The lion had his mane tied back to keep it from falling in his face. More than one officer had told him to cut it down, and Leech had been disciplined multiple time for not doing it. 

They’d even tried to force him, but it was hard to force someone who could sap your strength and become stronger in the process. After he sent half a dozen soldiers to the hospital, he spent a month in the brig, but they never brought it up again.

It might have had something to do with them realizing that the rest of the Specialist would stand by Leech rather than the officers.

“Of course we did.” Stevenson sounded offended. He was still looking at Jennifer working the controls. “We turned it on and off.”

Leech waited for a moment, but when nothing else came he asked. “But did you check to see if it’s going to do what you want it to?”

“The theory is sound.”

“Yes, but did you—”

Stevenson spun to face the lion. “Are you doubting my research?”

“No, but it’s nothing more than theory at this point. Did you do any physical tests to see if it’s actually going to turn off this section of the forcefield?”

“Of course not. How did you expect us to do that? Did you bring a forcefield generator that you forgot to tell us about?”

“”Calm down Stevenson,” El said.

“He’s doubting my—”

“Explain it to him, but calmly.” He glanced at Jennifer, who was still working the controls. “I think you have the time.”

The human glared at him, but he took a breath. Of the Crazies here, Stevenson was the only one who seemed capable of doing that, taking a step back when he got worked up. He couldn’t always do it; if he was too deep in whatever state he got into when inventing he was as impossible to deal with as the others, but in times like this, there seemed to be enough of Eric there for him to calm down and be reasonable.

“This is the only forcefield we have access to. So it’s the only one we can test it on. Is this part clear enough, or do you need me to simplify it for you?”

Leech opened his mouth, but El shook his head. There was no avoiding the belligerent tone. The lion nodded.

“If we do anything to it, alter the field in any way, which is what my machine does—”

“Our machine,” Jennifer corrected, and Stevenson glared at her back over his shoulder.

“Just focus on what you’re doing and let me do the talking.”

“Then don’t hog the credit,” Milton said.

“Me? Hog the credit? You’re the one who thinks he should be running the show because you built the support structure for the important stuff.”

El placed a hand on the man’s arm and got glared at in return. “Do you want to argue with Prof Milton or explain why you couldn’t do any tests ahead of time? You don’t have the time for both.”

Stevenson snorted, glared at Milton’s back and then focused on Leech. “So, our machine is doing to alter the field. In this case, it’s going to open a gap in it. Any moment now! That’s going to register with the generator and whoever is in charge of it will start trying to compensate. Our machine will be able to handle it, but if we had done tests ahead of time, that would give them enough time to make alterations to it, which would render our machine obsolete.”

Leech nodded, “Okay, that makes sense.”

“Of course it does,” Stevenson snapped and walked off to join the other two by the arch.

“Touch, isn’t he?”

“They all are,” Vee said. “I hate dealing with them. I don’t know how you can stand escorting them when they go out. Last time CM came back from such a mission, she was shoving cars out of her way just from the anger she was radiating.”

El sighed. “And Arn had her spend the rest of the day in the brig for that. I remind myself he’d do worst to me if I caved in one of their heads.”

“Aren’t you two bed-buddies?” Leech asked.

“I doubt that’s going to keep him from court marshaling me.”

The bull placed a hand on El’s shoulder. “I’d save you.”

The lynx smiled and placed his hand on top of it, squeezing. “I know.”

“I’m almost ready!” Jennifer actually sounded excited.

“Time to go to work.” El kissed the bull and turned to the units. “Delta!” the men came to attention. “You’re going in first. Clear just enough of the area for the rest to join you. We’ll follow with Bravo and Epsilon. Three and Eight will close up behind us. Delta, take position! The moment there’s an opening you go!”

“Yes, Sir!” resounded as one. The unit formed before the Gate Maker.

As the last soldier took her position the lightning that surrounded the arch spread inward and then vanished. The sight through the gate was clearer than through the force field and El realized there was a slight shimmering he’d never registered before.

The soldiers rushed through.

“Brave bastards,” Vee said.

“Bravo! Epsilon! Form on me! Three and Eight! Take position!”

“No one of them flinched as they crossed,” Vee continue once El was done giving orders.

“Hey,” Leech said with a grin. “This is war. If we flinched anytime something might kill us, we’d never get anything done.”

El watched Delta form a semi-circle, pushing obstruction out of the way. They scanned the space before them, rifles at the ready.

Their radio crackled. “Clear!” came the voice over it.

“Bravo! Epsilon! March!” El began walking, Vee and Leech on each side of him. Stevenson and Milton appeared then to them.

“Fieldwork,” the professor said with glee.” It’s been ages since I did actually field work. This is going to be so fun.”

“I don’t see what’s so fun about being outside.” Jennifer said from behind them. “Do you have any idea how many uncontrollable variables there are out here?”

“Then get back to your lab. No one’s forcing you to come.” His tone made it clear this wasn’t the first time he heard this objection.

“And let you two screw things up?”

Vee growled. “How about you both shut up and I don’t give you an aneurysm?”

“You can do that?” Jennifer asked, excited. “How fine is your control? For example, can you render just my hand unusable? Or is it more of a generalized thing? You cause a blood clot in a random place in the brain?”

The bull narrowed his eyes. “You want to find out?”

“Vee,” El said, worried she might say yes. “We need them.”

“This is odd,” Milton said, as they were under the arch. “Stevenson, I don’t recall anything in your theories about this.” He pointed up.

The sparks had reappeared within the edge of the arch and pulsed.

El didn’t wait. “Run! Double, triple time!” he bolted forward. On the other side, he turned to yell at the soldiers to pick up speed. The spark’s pulses were bigger and then, with a snap that made the air reverberate, the arch shattered.

The field closed on three soldiers. One lost a foot, one an arm and the last, both legs at the knee. They were clean cuts, and Vee stopped them from bleeding out. He closed the wounds, but regrowing limbs was beyond him.

El designated a ruined building as their base of operation and the men were carried there.

“What do we have?” he asked Leech, taking out his radio. “Corporal Battleford?”

The man was on the other side of the field, looking at him and talking in his radio, but El didn’t here. He shook his head at him and put it away.

“Radios work in here,” a soldier called.

“We knew the forcefield blocked radio waves,” Milton said, “we would have—”

“Can it Prof, I’m not in the mood. Leech!”

The lion was returning. “Bravo made it through. We have about two-thirds of Epsilon.”

“This isn’t good.”

On the other side of the forcefield, Arnold was taking a board from an officer and writing on it. He turned it. “Do the mission”

El nodded. It had been his plan. He had nowhere near enough soldiers to make this happen, but it was their job. This called for a complete overhaul of the plan.

He nodded again and saluted before heading to the ruins. Except for Delta, who was still guarding the perimeter, everyone was here. He looked them over. They looked scared.

“Okay, this isn’t what we planned for, but it’s the situation we’re in. It’s up to us to find whatever created the forcefield and turn it off.”

“You can’t be serious,” someone said.

El didn’t bother locating that soldier. He was voicing what they all felt. They were new to this, probably no more than a few months old. They didn’t have the years of endurance El had

“Unfortunately, I am. The forcefield is solid from this side too. Our only way out is to take it down.”

“Sir,” one of the captain said, a badger. “There’s barely a hundred of us. How do you expect us to take on their army?”

“I’m not. This isn’t an assault anymore. We’re going to have to be an infiltration force. I know none of you have that training, but like you said, we can’t take them on straight on. Our job is now to avoid fighting as much as possible. We are sneaking in. For that, we’re going to break down into smaller teams, move separately, but stay within view and radio contact.”

“We also have an advantage,” Leech added. “They don’t know we’re here. They might send people to check on the disturbance, but we won’t be here by then, they’ll see the filed is intact and have to figure we didn’t make it through. We beat the one thing they’ve been counting on for their safety. Now all we need to do is find the generator and shut it down.”

El nodded. “Captains, the units are disbanded. Reform teams of ten and find leaders for each of them.”

“Yes Sir.” the badger gestured, and the soldiers moved away.

El turned to find Vee had his back to him and was holding Stevenson, hand over his mouth. The human was struggling against the hold.

“I think he wants to talk to you,” Vee said. Stevenson gave the bull a roll of the eyes. “Keep your voice down.” Vee moved his hand.

“You’re wrong,” Stevenson growled. “They know we’re here.”

El nodded.

The human looked surprised. “You know?”

“Of course we know,” Leech said, “we’re not stupid.”

“But you told them….”

“They’re green,” El said. “That means they’re prone to panicking. They’re good soldiers, but this is their first real war, almost certainly their first actual engagement. They’re not stupid either, they know too, but now a superior officer has told them things are going to be okay, so they’re able to focus on the objective instead of the shit we’re in.”

He motioned for the other two Crazies to come close. “Have any of you been in battle?”

Jennifer and Stevenson shook their head.

“I was in the battle of Sanders Front,” Milton said proudly.

“How did it go?”

“We won, of course.”

“So you’ve had to kill?”

The human hesitated. El handed him a gun, and Milton recoiled.

Stevenson snickered. “You made that up, didn’t you? You’ve never been in the field your entire life.”

“I did not. I was there.” His indignation turned to hesitation. “Just not on the front line.”

“You lied?” The outrage in Jennifer’s voice shocked El. A few of the closest soldiers glanced in their directions before going back to arranging the teams. “You are a scientist. We don’t lie. The truth is all that matters.”

“I didn’t lie…not exactly. I just—”

“Okay,” El interrupted, “we don’t have the time. Prof, what did you do there?”

The man deflated slightly. “I was in charge of building and maintaining vehicles. You see, it was very difficult terrain that—”

“Again, we don’t have to time. So, none of you have killed anyone?”

“Oh, I’ve killed someone,” Jennifer said. Which garnered her surprised looks. “We were testing the design for a flight suit. We were really hopeful, but it didn’t go as plan. The pilot died when it exploded.”

“Not what I meant.”

“You said—”

“I know what I said.” El was getting irritated and took a breath. He looked at Vee and Leech. “Looks like this is going to be babysitting duty for us.”

“Can’t we just leave them here?” Vee asked. “That was the initial plan, after all.”

“That was when we had at least one unit staying to guard them,” Leech said. “We can’t leave them here unsupervised, and we’re going to need them to deal with the generator.”

“I thought we were just blowing it up.”

“Unfortunately,” El said, “we have no way to know what kind of defenses it has. It’s Crazy tech, so these three might well be the only way to take it down.”

The bull looked at the humans. “Great, this is just great.”