We head out. Heading back to another road. As we travel I notice the sky is gray and the floor is covered in ash. It looks like a big volcano has erupted here. With all the ash this truck is kicking up it can’t be fun for the other truck. I ask Cordelia where we are heading next. She says Fort Worth. Now forts are something I can understand.
Cordelia talks to the other truck. An Intercom she says. It’s a wireless form of a ships pipe. The technology I have seen on this trip is amazing. I hope I can get my hands on some of it. We arrive at Fort Worth, it seems to be more a town than a Fort. Must be the site of an old fort I guess. There is a road block when we arrive. Cordelia says the two gun like objects at the side are 50 mm cannons some sort of automatic high speed guns. And the big truck with a gun barrel on it is a Tank. Now that’s what I call a big gun. I have seen Da Vinci’s Tank in the museum in Italy, but to see a futuristic one is good.
Cordelia talks to the Guards and we are let in. We pass a heap of what appears to be small trucks (not sure if these have different name). It looks like the tank is as powerful as it looks. The guards talk into more intercoms at their necks. These intercoms seem very useful. A portable way to talk to people in the field. Could have helped back in my shadow. We may not have lost as many men.
We drive round to a warehouse and pick up the rifles. I offer to help but Cordelia says its’ all in hand. Yes some truck with a fork on the front just picks up the boxes and puts them on our truck. Very useful. Cordelia says the Mortars are in York. A future version of the York In England I guess. And the Ammo is in Louson. But she says we will have to cross the black road to get there. The same black road that appeared in my shadow. I will have to ask here more about this later.
We head off towards the next destination and I notice more shadow shifts. I mean at one point the sky was pink. I ask her about it and she says we are shifting shadows but she has to keep in shadows where the trucks work. I guess like Allanon’s magic in some shadows trucks don’t work. Good to know. Would not want to be stuck in a shadow without anything working. Hou-Jin calls from the other truck saying he needs to stop for food at some point. Cordelia complains but agrees to find somewhere.
We pull up to a building in along the road. Cordelia says it’s a truck stop. There are 3 moons in the sky, so not all shadows are copies of Earth. Unless in some version of Earth it has three moons. Then I see the man serving the food and this is definitely not Earth. Oh well I’m not exactly human myself anymore so who cares as long as the food is edible. When Cordelia reads out what food there is to eat. I tell them that I can’t eat any of this food. Cordelia asks why. So I tell them I only drink blood in this form. The others make no comment of this. I’m guessing are what we have seen so far drinking blood is not that strange. But I guess I will have questions later. Cordelia surprises me the most. She just says well you better change into a form that can eat this food then. So I head outside to change as changing while standing at a counter is not a good idea. So as we eat we talk about ourselves.
Allanon is British and was in the army in his shadow. In Kohaku’s shadow. Animals are called Mogwai and they catch them and keep them in these containers. They then use the Mogwai to fight. But they tell them what to do and the Mogwai do it. And the fight for badges. Which seems like a silly thing to fight for. Although Kohaku did say they use them to catch criminals too so not a complete waste. Maybe they will help us if we need to fight. Oh and She is 34.
I ask more about the black road. And it’s a break or something in the pattern and thus appears in all shadows. As we have to cross it I guess it is not a road that we can go round but something that goes through the shadow completely we just see it as a road. I ask about how was can talk to her and not Isocrates. She says once we have walked the pattern we will be able to understand him as the pattern translates for us. That would be good. After we have eaten we get back in the trucks and carry on to somewhere where we can cross the black road. While we travel I use the time to try and shift my aura. I’m not sure what my aura feels like so I have to do some experimenting.
I shift from Human to Vampire and look within myself for something that does not seem to change. Or does not change in the same way. Well at least as Cordelia could tell I’m a shape shifter I guess my aura is the same in all my forms. Anyway I start to find what I am looking for. But alas we have arrived. This place is an army base. Complete with lots of solders and more tanks.
During the days travel I have talked to Cordelia about me being a Sargent Major. She says she’s a 5 Star General in these parts. I have heard of a General, but not a 5 star general but I guess it’s higher in rank than a general is. Anyway as we pull up some guards come up to the truck and as soon as the see Cordelia they salute. So I guess she is big here. Cordelia tells us an incursion is about 13 minutes away and that when it hits everyone except us will freeze. The queen will freeze too. Interesting. There must be something about us that means we can move during the incursion. But we could move before we were grabbed so it was not us coming here that means we are unaffected. It could be our blood, but then why is the Queen not immune. She must have amber blood to be Queen? I will have to ask at some point.
I ask about better uniforms and weapons. As we may as well get better equipment while we are here in an advanced shadow. Cordelia says she will see to it. We are shown to some rooms. I ask about the Mess as I am not tired. But they don’t speak English. Allanon says it a form of Chinese here. And he can speak to them so I get him to ask where the mess is. One of the solders leads me to the Mess. The incursion hits. I forgot about that.
Oh well I guess I can work on my shape shifting some more. In the hour it takes for the incursion to run its course I feel that I can start to make some changes to my aura. But I need some way to see if I am changing it fully. I need to read others auras or get someone to read my aura once I have changed it. But at the moment I can only seem to make minor changes to my aura. I will try again soon. If it people can read my aura changing it fully will be a good defence.
When time resumes I head to the mess for a while then head back to my room.
An alarm call goes off. And someone knocks at our door. It’s time to get up we are going in 30 minutes. I grab a shower and then head out. Some solder takes us to the armoury. Where we are given a new uniform, a Pistol with one clip he calls it. Extra bullets in a device for fast loading. Cool much better than my old rifle that takes one bullet at a time. We get a rifle with 3 extra clips. Both weapons have 100 on the side on a display and two buttons. Looks like up and down. I start to ask how to use them but get told we have to get back on the trucks. Not good. New weapons and no instructs on how to use them. I guess when I need them I will try pulling trigger and seeing what happens.
We head out in a convoy with the tanks and trucks from the base. Cordelia says they will help us over the black road. As we approach the black road, it feels as bad as it did when I first saw it. But Cordelia seems to be affected more. Interesting I will need to check that out later
To do. Check out why Cordelia feels black road more than me, and if other feel it as bad or worse etc.
The convoy spreads out and then as we drive towards the road they start to fire. But they don’t fire bullets they fire some sort of fire. But its blue not red and seems hotter than fire. Cordelia calls it plasma. Oh like her gun fires.
As we hit the road Cordelia slumps forward and we nearly lose control. I shake Cordelia to see if she is ok. She tells me to grab the wheel and steer. Which I do. Blue fire and black smoke come up in front of the truck as we drive. I guess it’s from the stuff they are firing to help us. Cordelia seems to recover a bit and take the wheel again. She says she has the pattern up and that’s why she near fainted. I guess once you walk the pattern you can then use it to help you etc.
Then some red lights appear on the dashboard. And a black screen lifts up from below the front window. And the window then displays the image that we can now not see on the inside. A HUD she calls it. Nice. The best new technology I have seen so far. Cordelia asks if I can fire the turret. I say if it’s like firing a gun then yes but what turret. She says turret down and a seat drops down behind us. I get in the seat and say turret up. And it rises. Hehehe.
Ok that was a guess but as she said turret down, up sounded seemed right. Ok I have a stick in front of me and another screen like down below. There are 5 red blips on it. Each blip as a number below it and the number is getting smaller. I call down to Cordelia and ask if this stick fires the gun, she says yes I see a button at the back and the stick and pull it. I hear a gun fire. Cordelia says aim at the red blips.
Oh the stick moves and when I move it the red blips move and a cross at the centre can be lined up with a red blip. I line up and pull the trigger. And the red blip goes out after a few seconds. I see some lines coming from behind heading towards another red blip which goes out. I guess the other truck has found the turret as well. I kill more of the red blips. As the numbers get smaller I tart to see winged creatures with the red blip in the centre. I guess the red blip is just to highlight the creature at range, useful.
One get past me. I try to turn round bit the turret will not turn 180 degrees. I guess its to stop us shooting the truck. I ask Cordelia if I can see behind. She says there is a button call camera view. I find it and press it and yes the creature has landed on the other truck. I ask Cordelia. If a can shoot out the back she says yes manually from the other hatch. I get out turret and get the rifle, but by the time I find the other hatch and get out the creature has gone and the other truck is a mess.
We are over the road. Phew. We drive a little way and stop. To see if they are ok. I stand out on guard as Cordelia checks. She goes back to our truck at one point and then carry’s and case over to the other truck. When she has finished we get back in our truck and drive on. Cordelia says Isocrates was injured but will be fine in about 36 hours and Allanon was stuck in the turret but she got him out.
As we drive I have a go at Cordelia telling her it was the most dis-organised situation I have ever been in my whole military career. We were not give warning about the creature and told about the turrets until too late. The rifles we were given we were not told how to use. Someone should have been in the turret when we started across the road. She say she did not have time and did not think it was needed. Typical Officer. Lead us into combat and we have to save there sorry asses. She says well tough. Not good. I will have to be more careful in the future.
It looks like yes Cordelia thinks of Cordelia. So I will have to think about the rest of this strange squad. Well that’s what us Sargent Majors do anyway. And she wonders why I don’t want to be an officers.
To do check out if I have rank on this uniform.
As I have nothing more to say, I am annoyed at the moment. I go back to my aura shifting. Which helps calm me and I seem to be getting more into it as well. I think I will be able to shift my aura fully soon. We drive for about 6 hours and it even snows. We eventually arrive at this building that has seen better days.
| Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hero of the Hour - Fane | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |