Times Like These Read online

  But everyone had to admit, the demons probably wouldn't figure it out for days, and anything that had the chance of permanently reducing their numbers was worth doing.

  "They're falling for it!" Chad said, and sure enough, the demon army parted like the red sea as it turned to attack the 'foolish humans' taking them on to either side.

  Sean watched for a minute. The lion soldiers were concentrating their fire and cutting down the advancing djevels like grass. Their leaders, who had better armor to withstand the iron bullets, were advancing towards the front, swords drawn. They'd be engaging shortly.

  "Time for us to attack," Sean said, and with Estrella and Cali following him, he climbed down the tower and joined up with the third group of lions who would be fighting today. Only everyone in this group looked like what they were, lions and lycans. Chad figured if a large group of lions were seen during the fighting today, they wouldn't add two plus two and come to the correct answer.

  The gates on the barricade rolled open then, and they sallied forth with Sean in the lead of one group, Maitland in the lead of the other. Sean turned to the west to fall on those engaged with the lions on that side from behind, while Maitland did the opposite. A third group led by Adam moved forward to attack those still coming over the hills.

  What Chad and Maitland were looking for was a slaughter. The djevels had become very carefree with their tactics and were spending their minions liberally in each of the fights. Because, after all, they came back.

  But with so many lions now in the mix, many would not be coming back, and it would be at least a week before they figured that out. So if they could take a large bite out of the djevel army now, it would hopefully pay dividends in the long fight ahead.

  They hit the djevels from behind, most of them not even realizing Sean's forces had closed until he was actually attacking them because the noise of the battlefield was so loud. As they attacked, Sean briefly wondered if he could prevail on the horse clan to allow themselves to be used as mounts? They would definitely give Sean's troops a speed and height advantage in combat, and of course they could always join in the fight once their maneuverability was no longer needed.

  Of course, Clyde probably wouldn't care much for that idea...

  The fighting started off as the very slaughter Chad was wanting. Chad had lined up a solid six thousand troops to ride through the gates, and now that the front lines were engaged, he'd be calling in the battalions Jack was leading off to the east. Rather than bring them into Reno to help in its defense, Chad had left them free to roam the countryside, for now. Mostly he was using them to divert any groups that might decide to head eastward. Eventually they would have to come into the city's defenses, or risk being defeated in detail by the much larger djevel army.

  But first, that army would have to figure out where they were.

  It didn't take them long to destroy the group that had gone after the lions to the west. Once done, using his radio, Sean called Sampson, who was leading the group, and ordered him to turn to the north to join forces with Adam's group, which was attacking the army that was still continuing to come over the hills.

  "Chad! How's Jack doing?" Sean radioed.

  "He's destroying their left flank," Chad radioed back. "He's cutting down through Spanish Springs. See if you can't start a flanking action on their right flank over there. If we can cut them off from the rest of their army, Maitland and Jack can crush them in Sun Valley."

  "Won't we be exposed to a flanking attack of our own?" Sean asked as his now combined forces attacked the group Adam was fighting, taking the pressure off his left.

  "Once you, Sampson, and Adam get them running, Maitland's group will slide in with the lions on the east, and you'll both turn to the northwest to deal with the forces coming down 395."

  "Just us?"

  "Don't go past Panther Valley, I got ordnance on the way!"

  "Everyone, keep an eye on our left flank!" Sean ordered as he stepped forward to join the fight, Estrella and Cali watching his flanks as he engaged the råge in front of him. There was a biskop approaching quickly, but he seemed uncertain of where to attack, considering the number of lions now on the front line.

  Sean pushed forward in an attempt to get to him, but a lioness he didn't recognize got there first and made quick work of him with her sword, impressing Sean with her technique. He often forgot that some of them had been using swords for longer than western civilization had existed.

  Continuing to fight, he felt it before he heard it, the ground shaking under his feet. Apparently Chad's ordnance had arrived. He had no idea how long it had taken to get there, he was just happy that it had. The group they were fighting were now trying to retreat back along 395 as Maitland's forces drove though like a wedge and forced the larger part of the army towards Jack's troops.

  "We got trouble on the left flank, Sean!" Sampson called over the radio.

  "Adam, we're pivoting!" Sean called and then gave the order for everyone to reform, pulling back from the enemy and allowing them to flee as they reorganized. Adam's troops moved up Sean's reforming right flank, pushing the quickly dwindling force there back and engaging them in Sean's place as Sean trotted up to the new front of his formation, panting heavily.

  "What's wrong?" he called as he made his way forward. The men on his left flank were now fighting a new foe, and he noticed suddenly that the bombs dropping from up above were deflecting to either side of the highway and hitting the hills. They were still doing a lot of damage to the army coming down the road, but more than half were still coming.

  "I think we have a demon lord!" Sampson called.

  Sean swore loudly.

  "I'm coming!" he called and moved quickly towards Sampson. When he got there, he noticed that Howart was there, along with a few other lions Sean didn't know the names of, but whom he recognized.

  "Great!" Sampson said. "If you can keep his magic off of us, we'll take him down."

  "Huh?" Sean said, blinking. "That's a demon lord!"

  "Yup, and I've got five dollars on being the one to kill him!" Sampson growled. "Flying wedge! Let's do this!"

  Sean noticed then that the entire front line was lions, even if they were in human form, and they took off at a slow jog, cutting through the advancing enemy with a will. Sean immediately cast a large shield spell before them as they moved, to deflect any magical attacks.

  "Adam! Better move up behind us!" Sean ordered.

  "On it!" Adam radioed back.

  Looking up, the demon lord saw Sean at the same time Sean saw him, and Sean unleashed a flurry of magic missiles and fireballs at same time the lord cast a bunch of spells at him.

  Sean was then busy deflecting, or absorbing, those spells as they continued to move forward quickly.

  Seeing a single lion in the group approaching him, the lord apparently felt secure enough that he started to move forward as well.

  "You will not find me so easy to kill as you did Holigart, Lion! I shall be eating you this night!"

  "And to which prince shall I send my regrets when you are dead, fool?" Sean yelled back and threw a flame strike to clear the area around the lord of any defenders.

  "He's one of Skarm's," Estrella said in a loud whisper.

  "Come! Come to me and die! Foolish Lion!"

  At that point, Sampson stepped up and engaged him, with Howart on his right and the other lion on his left. The rest of the line kept pushing, using the clearing Sean's last spell had given them.

  "Die, foolish mortals!" The lord screamed and attacked.

  "Who are you calling 'mortal', scumbag!" Sampson yelled back, and suddenly the demon lord found three lions attacking him.

  "Sucker!" Estrella yelled, and Sean had the pleasure of witnessing absolute fear on the demon lord's face as all three lions attacked him simultaneously. The lord fought furiously, but he was seriously outmatched, and started taking damage immediately. Sean watched him heal himself once before Howart took off his left arm as he blocked Sampson's
thrust to his face.

  The lord then made the mistake of turning to face Sampson and Howart, leaving the third lion to slip behind him and hamstring him. As he went down, both Sampson and Howart lunged forward with their swords, one taking him high, the other low, and he fell to the ground, dead.

  With the lord's death, the shield spell that had been protecting the marching army came down, and bombs fell amongst them once again. This time Sean was forced to throw a shield above his own troops, doing what he could to deflect the bombs towards the attacking djevels.

  "Back! Everyone back!" Estrella called as Sean concentrated on the spell, doing his best not to stumble as they retreated.

  "What's going on over there?" Chad called.

  "Demon lord, he's dead now," Cali radioed back while Sean continued to burn energy on the shield until finally they were far enough away that he could drop it.

  "Damn, that was hard!" he said, panting. "How the hell do they keep it up so long?"

  "Don't ask me, I'm not a magic user," Estrella told him.

  "What's our next fight, Chad?"

  "Right now you don't have one. Pull back to base and we'll see what develops. Maitland and Jack are obliterating the part of the army they cut off. Once they're done, we'll see what how it goes."

  "Sounds good. Okay everyone, back to the staging area."

  "So how'd your people do?" Chad asked as Sean caught up with him at his command post.

  "We only took about ten percent on the casualties," Sean said with a sigh as he dropped his tired butt into one of the folding camp chairs set by the table where Chad was going over troop movements.

  "I meant the lions, how many did you lose?"

  "Oh, not many, seven of them. They'll be back in about a week."

  Sean chuckled as Chad gave a quiet fist pump.

  "That's some of the best news I've heard all day. Now if only we had more of them!"

  "Well, right now I think they need them more in South American than we do here."

  "They're not going to take any of the ones here away, are they?"

  Sean shook his head. "No. Those are ours; they're staying here. Honestly, a lot of the lions wanted to stay here. A lot of them have never seen a modern city, and they like the conveniences."

  "How does that happen?" Chad asked, looking up from his maps.

  Sean shrugged. "A lot of the lions haven't been here in a couple hundred years, or longer. They've been keeping the numbers down. Not sure that's going to continue, though."

  "The old 'now that they've seen the big city, how are you going to keep them down on the farm', story?"

  "More like there's a lot more lycans in the world now, and someone has to keep an eye on them so they don't get out of hand," Sean said with a smirk. "Lion la-la land is a pretty nice place."

  "Lion la-la land? Another technical term?" Chad asked with a chuckle.

  "Eh, seems as good a name as any, seeing as no one ever thought to give it a name."

  "It's not the 'lion home world' then?"

  "Earth is the lion home world. We own it, lock stock and barrel. We just let the humans run it because they've done so much with the place!" Sean said, waving his hands around with a grin.

  "After two world wars and all the other messes we've made, I'm surprised they'd believe that."

  "Trust me, I know the stories. We were worse, a lot worse."

  Chad paused a moment, then looked over at Sean. "You're a lion now; it's finally become who you are, hasn't it?"

  Sean nodded slowly. "Yeah, it has. I've stopped thinking about it as me and them; it's all just 'us' now. It hasn't fully settled in; there are still a few things I'm having trouble grappling with. Some ideas that my mind keeps shying away from."

  "Oh? Such as?"

  "Immortality. I mean, apparently we all have it to some degree or other; humans and lycans have souls that go, well, somewhere after you die. But lions? We're here for pretty much ever."

  "You sure on the soul thing?"

  "That's what the djevels eat, so yeah, I'm sure on the soul thing. I've even seen a couple. I suspect the First knows more about it than I do, but I'm hesitant to ask. So!" Sean sat up and clapped his hands, changing the subject. "How'd we do today?"

  "We did well. I'm estimating we killed over two hundred thousand of the enemy."

  "That many?"

  "They've been pretty careless. Because they keep coming back, they have no fear, so slaughtering them by job lots isn't all that hard."

  "When about half those killed today don't come back, that's going to change, you know."

  Chad smiled. "I'm counting on it."

  "Really?"

  "Of course! Soldiers who have no fear of death are the most dangerous. They don't hesitate, and they don't stop until you've killed them. Soldiers who are afraid of their own mortality? They hesitate, they don't take chances, they have to be spurred on. Especially when they're something as self-centered and uncaring as the demons we've been fighting. So if we can put the fear of death into them, it slows them down and makes our fight easier."

  "I really need to go back and talk to Mahkiyoc about those weapons, don't I?"

  Chad nodded in agreement, a grim expression on his face. "Yeah, you do."

  "Well, we've got the weapons, and we're working on armor for our teams. I'll get everyone together tonight and see what's left to do. Then we'll just have to wait on the next gateway."

  "And hope it's somewhere they don't have control over."

  "We still have that bomb I had you plant at the main gateway. If we need to, we can set that off first as a diversion and make it look like we're trying to take it back."

  Chad looked thoughtful a moment. "That'd work. I better put together an attack plan to go with it so they think we're serious."

  Standing up, Sean took a look at the maps on the table, and the markers Chad had place on it.

  "How long until they try to take Reno again?"

  "I think we have a week. More, if they decide they want to build up a larger force. It won't be until they realize we're whittling them down faster than they're whittling us down that they'll move to an overwhelming force."

  Sean nodded and headed towards the exit.

  "Oh! Before I forget, the tac-nukes showed up a few hours ago."

  "Well, that sounds auspicious," Sean said with a frown. "Gonna mine Reno?"

  "Adam had a long conversation with me about 'food supplies'," Chad said, making finger quotes. "He thought it would be better if he gave me the talk than it would be if you did."

  "I thought we already had that conversation?" Sean said, blinking in surprise.

  "We did, but Adam drove it home with a couple of very dire threats. Even offered to give the order for me, if necessary, so I wouldn't have it on my conscience."

  "He didn't?" Sean growled. He didn't like it when people threatened his friends.

  "He did, and I took him up on it. So don't go getting your panties in a bunch. We talked about it, but he drove it home, and I'm honestly thankful he's willing to take the heat on it. Sending soldiers out to die is one thing, but killing civilians? Even if it's to protect them from something worse than death?"

  Chad shook his head. "No, I can't do that, and I'm happy he offered."

  "I could do it for you," Sean offered.

  Chad laughed. "I wouldn't let you do it, Sean, even if I thought you could. Like you said, there are still things you're coming to grips with. Well, Adam isn't."

  Sean dropped his head and sighed. Chad was right.

  "Later."

  "Later."

  Heading out of the command post, Sean rounded up the girls as they found a ride back to their base. He really needed a shower.

  "Dae, I need a favor."

  "Sure, what is it?"

  "I want a bunch of my bombs made, but these need to be smaller and more portable. Put the tags and bars in them. They also can't have any electronics in them."

  Daelyn nodded. "I can do that, is windup okay?"


  "That'd be fine."

  "Give me a couple of days. I'll have to stop by my uncle's for the parts, but I can build it. Will six be enough?"

  "Make it eight."

  "Got it!"

  Into the Breech

  "So now what?" Roxy asked Sean as he dropped onto the couch, still damp from showering.

  "Now I need to go have an argument with Dad." Sean sighed, closing his eyes and leaning back into the cushions.

  "You mean the First?"

  Sean nodded.

  "Over what?"

  "Going through a gateway."

  "Doesn't he want to go?"

  "He doesn't want to go now. I think he's still mad at me for figuring out how to pull his ass out of lion la-la land."

  "Maybe he just doesn't like it that you figured out something he hadn't?"

  Sean snorted. "He's a crafty old bastard. I'm not so sure he didn't know about it. The problem is, sometimes his ideas about what's right and what's best are just wrong."

  "Ah! The voice of teenaged wisdom!" Roxy teased.

  "I'm not a teenager anymore, Rox," Sean said with a growl. "Yeah, I'm still young, I get that. But he's just as bad at the other end of the spectrum. Thousands of years of wisdom and experience! But unfortunately, he's like your grandfather trying to figure out a cellphone, or how to use the internet. Things have changed, a lot. The time for new things is here, now. I'm not willing to let half the world get destroyed, or even a little bit of it.

  "We don't live in the fuckin' stone age anymore! It took hundreds of years to get where we are today, maybe a thousand! I don't even want to drop back into the nineteen fifties of technology, much less the eighteen fifties! We've got to act now if we don't want to end up living in some sort of shitty post-apocalyptic world!"

  "Would that really be such a bad thing?" The First's voice came from over by the door.

  Rolling over onto his knees and facing him over the back of the couch, Sean growled back at him.

  "Yes! It would be! How many people do you think would die from a lack of clean water? Hell, would we even be able to grow enough food? And when winter comes, no electricity, no light, no heat! Dammit, Dad! You keep saying humans did such a great job with the place that we have to help them along! So why the fuck aren't you helping?"