Among the Val Kyr part 27

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Home. Home wasn’t exactly a small town where everyone knew everyone else, but neither was it a large city. Instead, home was more like a moderately sized town, or more accurately, a suburb of one.

Just a minute earlier, I’d stepped through the blurring in space that was formed by the anchor, and arrived home. I stood in the middle of the street, right in the center of downtown. However, there were no cars racing past, nor where there people going about their business. I was immediately struck with the similarity to Australia.

“Oh shit,” I whispered, feeling a knot of cold dread forming in my stomach.

I felt a surge of worry as I knew full well that nearly everyone from my old life might very well be dead and gone, torn apart by an army of daemons. My friends at school…my teachers…and of course…Dad. I grimaced, clenching my teeth and gripping my bow more tightly.

I’d arrived fully armed and armored. I had my bow in hand with a full quiver on my back. My sword was strapped to my side, ready to be used the moment a daemon got within close striking distance. And I’d also taken a lesson from Ionne and had come with several backup weapons. I had a short sword strapped to my quiver as well, one that was just a little longer than a good dagger, and I had a small axe as well.

When Freya had told us about our mission to my own home town, she’d given Lindrell permission to heal me from my fight with Jass so that I’d be in better shape to fight. After an infusion of jatta, all my bruises were completely healed, as were my broken fingers. Even my missing teeth had partly grown back, but they felt weird and uncomfortable as they continued to do so.

We hadn’t departed immediately, not when we had five triads to gather and prepare. That gave me enough time to charge all my weapons with essence, getting them ready for use.

I glanced around at the other Val Kyr who’d arrived with me. There were sixteen of us in total, though Lindrell was in charge of the entire group. Gretchen and Lei were there, along with Natalie, who was filling in for their fallen notru. Bethany and Fleur were present as well, along with Jass.

Earlier today, Freya had pointed out that Jass and I might one day have to fight side by side, so I wasn’t sure whether Freya had assigned Jass’ triad to this mission in order to prove a point…or whether it was just coincidence. When Freya was involved, I wasn’t sure that I really believed in coincidences.

“Our information says that the incursion began four days ago,” Lindrell pointed out with a grim expression.

“Four days is a long time,” Natalie said, giving Julie and I sympathetic looks.

“I believe you are familiar with the area,” Gretchen said, looking to Lindrell who nodded.

“Yes,” Lindrell answered with a deep scowl. She glanced to Julie and I, adding, “And I’m not the only one.”

There was a moment of silence before Lei pointed out, “What are the odds of the daemonites just happening to launch an incursion in the same place where two Val Kyr had recently been recruited?”

Julie and I shared a worried look at that. Lindrell didn’t answer that, only taking her axe and using it to point at several of the Val Kyr.

“We’ll split into two groups for now,” Lindrell said. “Gretchen, your triad is with mine. The rest of you, search down there…” She used her axe to point down one of the other roads. “We’ll stay close enough to reinforce each other if necessary.”

Our groups had barely split up and gone our separate ways when I saw the first daemon. Shannon gave warning just a second before I sensed it as well. It was a fairly small daemon, something that looked a bit like a two headed hairless cat with a ridiculously long tail. I raised my bow but Gretchen beat me to it, sending an arrow right through the creature and killing it. We continued on our way, keeping a close watch for any other daemons.

A minute later, we encountered our second daemon…or at least what was left of it. The daemon had been a unicorn, but was badly torn up and had been left in the middle of the street. My first thought was that it had been taken out by another daemon, but then I looked closer. There were bullet holes all through the thing, as well as through some parked cars and the sides of the nearest building.

“This is fairly recent,” Shannon said as she looked down at the daemon. “The haunts haven’t come for it yet.”

“Then there may be survivors,” I whispered, feeling a surge of hope. Obviously, someone had killed the daemon, and I seriously doubted it was the daemonites.

Shannon nodded faintly at that, then pointed out, “But we don’t know how many…or if they survived this encounter.”

“At least this is one less daemon for us to deal with,” Lei commented, casually holding her massive Warhammer over her shoulder. “I hope that whoever did this is still around.”

We all nodded agreement at that, though Julie and I shared a hopeful look. Lindrell reached out and put a comforting hand on my shoulder, then nodded to Julie. “If there are any survivors, we’ll find and protect them.”

Just then, I noticed something else on the edge of my awareness and turned to look, only to see a shadowy figure gliding across the road. It was a haunt, and it was going straight towards another daemon body, one that I hadn’t even noticed before since it was mostly hidden behind a car.

“A haunt,” Julie said unnecessarily. She clutched her spear tightly, though she knew as well as I did that the haunt was no threat to us. Still, it looked pretty freakish so I was a bit tempted to shoot at it too.

The haunt reached down and touched the daemon’s body, and it vanished, just as the daemons had at the mall. Once the haunt was finished, it looked in our direction though made no move towards us. It was obviously waiting for us to move away from the unicorn corpse. Once we all backed away, it came over and made that daemon body vanish as well.

“Let’s continue,” Lindrell said, already continuing down the street.

We’d barely gone a dozen yards when Gretchen suddenly snapped around and fired an arrow at a building. A daemon, that looked something like a slime covered monkey, fell from the wall of a building where it had been climbing. A moment later, as if using this as their signal, a half dozen more daemons burst out of shattered shop windows and open doors.

“Nasty,” I said with a sneer, firing an arrow at a small flying daemon, hitting it and pinning it right to the wall.

“Agreed,” Lindrell commented, charging forward and swinging her axe at a spider daemon.

Julie touched her spear to the ground and one of the Pac Man daemons which had been rolling towards us, began to sink into the concrete. The concrete hardened again, leaving the daemon trapped as Lei smashed it with her hammer. At the same time, Natalie was performing a similar maneuver on the other side, causing one daemon to start sinking into the ground, then impaling it with her spear.

“Watch the sky,” Gretchen stated, right as she fired an arrow at one of the flying squids. However, that squid thing wasn’t alone and had another one with it, so I shot the second one.

A moment later, I snapped around and fired another arrow at an approaching mass of tentacles and spikes. My arrow went straight through its body, but didn’t seem to hit anything vital. However, Lindrell cut it in half with her axe and the two halves continued to move, so I didn’t feel quite so bad. She chopped at it a few more times, cutting it into half a dozen pieces before it finally stopped moving.

“Persistent pests,” Lindrell commented, making a show of kicking one of the pieces, which squirmed a little in response.

Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot echoed through the air, making all of us freeze and look in the direction the noise had come from. It was the opposite direction from where our other group of Val Kyr were, which meant one thing.

“A survivor,” Natalie said, absenting impaling a dead daemon with her spear and then looking to Lindrell.

Lindrell brought two fingers to her lips and let out a loud whistle in order to signal the other group. A moment later, she let out two more whistles, using a whistle code to communicate with them. I’d heard about the whistle code and how scouts would often use it to communicate with their triads, but I hadn’t yet been taught the code so had no idea of what Lindrell was saying.

“Come,” Lindrell said, starting to run in the direction the gunshot had come from. The rest of us ran behind her.

Several more gunshots led us straight to the source of the noise, which was only half a block away. There was a three story building with a prominent sign for a real estate office hanging off the front. The gunshots had come from the roof, and the target of those gunshots was obviously the large manticore that was trying to climb the side of the building.

“Watch the stinger,” Lindrell warned us. Then she looked straight at me and said, “Now would be the time to use your bow.”

“Gotcha,” I responded, notching an arrow and transferring most of the charged essence from the bow into the arrow, and then releasing it. The manticore moved at that moment, so instead of hitting it in the neck like I’d intended, I caught it in the shoulder, creating a large hole but not killing it. “Damn…”

The manticore roared in pain and immediately started charging towards us. Gretchen fired a shot at the creature, and her arrow glowed with charged essence as well. As soon as her arrow struck, the daemon was thrown back, as though hit with a massive amount of force. This was the first time I’d seen Gretchen use her special trick, and it was rather impressive. The manticore was still moving, but I had the feeling that half the bones in its body were shattered.

“That’s one way to do it,” Lei said before she charged forward with her hammer. The manticore made a weak attempt to strike at her with its tail, but she easily avoided that and slammed her hammer into its head, killing the daemon.

“That was a nice demonstration for the civilians,” Shannon commented, gesturing towards the roof of the building where several faces looked down at us. “But we aren’t finished…”

I didn’t bother asking Shannon what she meant about us not being finished since I was already aware of the other daemons approaching. They’d been gathered nearby, apparently keeping their distance from the manticore until it was killed. Now they were starting to emerge, with half of them coming towards us while the other half seemed intent on following the manticore’s example and tried going for the people on the roof.

Julie cried out, “Sandworm,” using her spear to gesture towards the daemon she was referring to.

The daemon was a massive snake, with a two foot diameter, crimson scales, and a large toothy maw that looked a bit more like a shark than a snake. The daemon was slithering towards the large front window of the real estate office, obviously intending to get into the building that way. Without a word, I raised my bow, released the rest of the stored essence into my arrow, and fired a single shot. The daemon’s head exploded and the body collapsed, much to my relief.

Gretchen let out what I thought had to be profanity, though I didn’t know enough German to be sure of what she said. One of her arrows struck a daemon and bounced off its thick hide. I charged my bow again and fired another charged arrow, blasting a nice hole through the daemon but not enough to kill it. My second charged arrow added to the damage, but the daemon continued coming towards us, at least until it was close enough for Lindrell and Lei to both hit at once.

“Look,” Gretchen said, gesturing to several smaller daemons that were climbing the wall, obviously trying to get to the people on top of the building.

I readied my bow to fire another shot, but the people on top of the building took a part in their own defense and opened fire as well. One of the small daemons fell off and then a second. Gretchen released an arrow to take out a third and I followed her example, catching one of the small flying ones that looked to be ready to dive at them from above.

Gretchen and I continued focusing on our ranged attacks, killing the daemons who were going after the people on top of the roof, or at least drawing their attention to us instead. While we did that, Julie and Natalie took positions to the sides of our group, creating walls, sink holes, and waves of concrete to slow the daemons and channel them towards Lei and Lindrell, who tore through them with ease. Shannon didn’t have a bow so used her sword, dodging in to quickly strike at a daemon, then backing up again out of range.

All the noise and bloodshed was drawing even more daemons out of the woodwork, and they kept arriving and swarming towards us. Fortunately, the other group arrived to reinforce us, and without a word, joined in the fight. More arrows flew through the air, and Jass managed to hit another of the flying daemons, which fell to the roof, and from the sound, was quickly finished off with a shotgun.

“I haven’t had this much fun in ages,” Bethany called out cheerfully as she tossed a grenade towards a cluster of daemons. “We can’t play with the fun stuff back home…”

“Only you would call this fun,” someone else called out to her.

With sixteen Val Kyr, we quickly took care of the daemons that were swarming us, and all the remaining ones either ran away or realized it would be too dangerous to attack. I looked around, sensing a few daemons in surrounding buildings, but they were no longer an immediate threat.

“It looks like we took care of this batch,” Bethany commented with a grin, using her claymore to poke at a dead daemon. “The haunts will feast tonight.”

“We aren’t finished until we’ve taken out the daemonites,” Lindrell reminded her. Then she looked around, scowling intensely as she did so. “So far, we haven’t seen any daemonites. Have you?”

“Oui,” Fleur answered, gesturing off to the side. “I saw one watching from a distance, though the fiend appears to have fled.”

“The rats won’t abandon this place that easily,” Natalie pointed out. “They’ve invested too much in this incursion to abandon their foothold.”

“There are other survivors,” Jass volunteered. “I spotted people watching us from windows when we came to join you.”

“And speaking of survivors,” Shannon said, gesturing towards the survivors we’d just helped.

We waited for several minutes as the survivors made their way down from the roof and finally came out the front door. There were four of them, three men and a woman, and all were armed with rifles or shotguns. They came out cautiously, watching us with expressions of mixed curiosity and suspicion.

The man in the front wore a dirty and torn police uniform, and from the way he was approaching us first, I assumed he was acting as their leader. The woman also wore a police uniform, though hers was a bit cleaner than his, though not by a lot. Of the remaining two, one was a stocky guy with a hunting rifle held firmly in hand, while the last was a middle-aged black man who looked familiar, though I couldn’t place where from.

“Thank you for your help,” the cop said carefully as he looked us over. I could imagine how odd we all looked to him, a small army of women wearing armor and wielding medieval style weaponry. “If you don’t mind my asking, who are you ladies…and what are you up to?”

“Who we are is a little complicated,” Lindrell told him with a sigh. “But as you can see, we were sent here to hunt down and kill the daemons.”

“Sent by who?” the cop asked suspiciously.

Lindrell smiled faintly and responded, “As I said, that is a little complicated, but we are here to help.”

“You know what these things are,” the female cop stated, giving Lindrell a suspicious look.

“Are there many other survivors?” Julie abruptly asked, her voice filled with both hope and worry. That seemed to make the survivors relax a little.

“A lot of people are still alive,” the female cop answered, much the relief of both Julie and myself.

Shannon nodded, then added, “Most places don’t do so well during incursions like this…” I nodded at that, remembering Australia. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one either as Gretchen, Julie and Shannon all tensed.

The cop snorted. “We had a bit of a warning…but not much.”

Lindrell gave him a sharp look. “What do you mean?”

“About a month and a half ago,” the male cop explained grimly, “one of these things attacked the local high school…”

Julie and I shared a look at that and I noticed Lindrell tense as well. “Continue,” she told him.

“One of the teachers saw the thing and hid in a classroom until it was gone,” the cop continued the explanation while Julie and I both listened intently. Ever since I’d been taken to Val Halla, I’d been curious about what had happened afterwards. “Afterwards, two teachers were found dead…torn to pieces…and there was the body of another man we couldn’t identify.” He paused at that, then shook his head, “Another teacher was also missing…along with two students.”

Suddenly, the bald black man blurted out, “Ms. Lindrell…”

Lindrell turned to look at the man, recognition appearing on her face before she said, “William.”

It was then that I suddenly recognized him as well. This was Mr. Decker…one of the math teachers at school. I hadn’t been in any of his classes so hadn’t recognized him until just then.

“She’s the teacher that disappeared,” Mr. Decker told the cop, who suddenly stared at Lindrell with a look of surprise.

“Indeed I am,” Lindrell told him, gesturing to Julie and adding, “And Julie here is one of the students who escaped the daemon with me.” I noticed that she hadn’t included me in that, which was no surprise. My changes would have been a bit much to explain, not to mention really embarrassing for me.

The cop’s eyes went wide and he demanded, “What’s going on?”

“Please, tell me of what happened after that,” Lindrell gently insisted. “I’ll answer what questions I can afterwards, once I have a better idea of the current situation.”

“No one believed Jacobs,” Mr. Decker announced, apparently deciding to give Lindrell the benefit of the doubt. “I mean, there was plenty of evidence of some kind of wild animal, but no one imagined it was something like this…” He gestured to the dead daemons that were scattered about.

“Most people don’t believe in daemons,” Shannon agreed. “It lets them sleep better at night.”

“The evidence was…confusing,” the male cop admitted reluctantly. “Everyone had their theories, and some were pretty wild. People became afraid that some rabid bear or dangerous monster might still be around, so began to load up on weapons… And when the first reports of these things came in…”

“We were ready for em,” the stocky man added with a look of smug satisfaction. I looked at him, imagining that people must have been calling him paranoid, so the appearance of the daemons had just proven him right.

“And we were quicker to believe the reports and respond to them,” the female cop said with a deep scowl. “Not that it did a lot of good. We lost power, the cell phone towers went down, and those things have completely cut us off from the outside…”

Gretchen looked at Lindrell and simply said, “The daemonites…”

“This is the most populated area they’ve ever tried launching an incursion,” Shannon said with a nod of agreement. “And it seems that they planned ahead…”

“Daemonites?” the female asked with a suspicious look.

Lindrell looked to the other cop. “Please continue.”

The male cop nodded at that and reluctantly continued, “It was pretty damn bad, and probably about half the town was killed before we really got organized…” He paused as a haunted look passed over his face. Then he shook his head, as if that could clear out the images. “Once we started getting organized, we got as many people as possible to the school to hunker down until this is all over. We’re pretty heavily guarded, but we still need to go out for supplies…”

“We have a lot of mouths to feed,” the stocky man added.

Lindrell stood there with a thoughtful expression, then said, “If you’re organized, then I assume you have a leader…”

“Yeah, we do,” the male cop answered, still looking just a little suspicious. “Back at the school.”

“I’ve always wanted to say this,” Bethany abruptly blurted out. Then she smirked and announced, “Take me to your leader…”

Lindrell glared at her but it was Fleur who pointed out, “I hardly thing this is a time for levity.”

After a moment, Lindrell turned her attention back to the cop. “As my tactless companion indicated, we do need to speak to your leader so that we may coordinate your defenses. I know you have many questions, but I’d prefer to wait until then before answering them as I don’t want to have to keep repeating myself.”

“I guess I can understand that,” the male cop responded, though he was obviously frustrated by the wait. He looked like he was bursting with questions, as were the three people with him.

We all started walking in the direction of the school, but it was obvious that our four survivors were impatient for answers. Mr. Decker asked Lindrell and Julie, “What happened to you…? Why in the world are you dressed like that?” However, Lindrell merely gave a few vague promises of answers once she’d talked to their leader.

Several times, we saw daemons, and the archers amongst us quickly either killed them or discouraged them from approaching. I had to admit that Jass was a pretty good shot, though she was obviously ignoring my presence as much as possible. She refused to look at me or acknowledge my existence in any way, which was perfectly fine by me. As long as she ignored me, the two of us should be able to get along just fine.

One of the smaller daemons moved fast and wasn’t discouraged, and it made it all the way to us before several notru responded at once, sending a wave of concrete to knock it back. It went to lunge again, but Fleur hit it with an arrow, which was immediately followed by three more arrows from other archers.

“How the fuck did you do that?” the stocky man demanded, staring at us in stunned disbelief.

“You aren’t normal,” the male cop accused us, pausing to give us another suspicious look. His hand was clenching his rifle tightly, as if he was thinking about using it.

“No, we aren’t normal,” Lindrell admitted, already continuing on her way. “But we aren’t your enemies either. In fact, we are your best chance at surviving this incursion.”

“She’s telling you the truth,” Julie added.

We made it the rest of the way to the school without further incident, other than a few minor daemons being killed. The sight of my old school made me gasp in shock. The fence around the school had largely been knocked down, but there were a lot of trucks and busses parked in front of it, forming a sort of wall. People were crouched down on top of the vehicles, and on top of the school building itself, some of whom were holding binoculars but all were armed.

“This looks like a scene from one of those apocalypse movies,” I whispered to Julie, who nodded agreement. I half expected to see Mad Max around somewhere.

“We found these ladies wandering around,” the male cop called out to the guards. “I’m taking them inside.”

Lindrell turned to some of the other Val Kyr and said, “If this is where the survivors are gathered, then we need to help secure them.”

“I’ll run a roaming patrol around the school,” Gretchen volunteered, gesturing to Natalie and Lei, indicating that she meant her triad would.

“They’ll need a couple kaern to help keep watch for daemons,” Lindrell added.

With only a little more discussion, ten of our Val Kyr split off to help guard the school while the rest of us went inside. I immediately noticed that there were obstructions in the hallway, obviously intended to slow down any daemons who made it this far as well as to provide cover for the guards, who were armed with everything from shotguns to a machete.

As we walked down the hallway, I looked into several open classrooms, which were filled with people. I was amazed at the number of people hiding in the school since I’d never imagined there would be so many survivors. And even better than that was the fact that I recognized some of them.

“I just saw my neighbor, Mrs. Kravitz,” Julie whispered to me, right before peeking into the next classroom, obviously looking for her family. I did the same.

When we reached the gym, I saw that the floor was covered with cots, sleeping bags, and blankets. A lot of people had been sleeping here and were still gathered around, sitting around and talking. However, half of the space was obviously being used as a hospital, as everyone in that area appeared to be injured or patched up.

In the middle of the gym, several tables had been set up in what looked like some kind of command center. Standing behind one of the tables, while bending over and looking at a map, was the man who was obviously in charge. He looked gruff and grizzled, radiating an air of dangerous competence. Of course, I instantly recognized my dad, though this wasn’t the drunk who’d sunk into self-pity but the man I remembered from my childhood.

As I stared at my dad, I was struck with relief, fear, and guilt, all at the same time. It was an unbelievable relief to see him alive, to see him healthy and in better condition than I could have hoped for. But I was also afraid of how he’d react to the new me, to having me become a girl. And of course, I was also guilty over the way I’d run off without even letting him know I was alive.

“This is David Sorensen, the man who’s been leading us,” the male cop said, gesturing to my dad.

“What’s this?” Dad demanded, looking up at us.

“We found these ladies out fighting the monsters,” the cop told Dad with a shake of his head. “Using swords and axes…”

Dad’s expression was unreadable as he looked us over, then his eyes went to me and suddenly went wide with a look of shock and recognition. After just staring with his mouth open for a moment, he blurted out, “Lynn?”

“Hello David,” Lindrell quietly said from beside me, suddenly making me realize that she was the one Dad was staring at…not me. Lindrell turned to stare at me for a moment with a strange expression, before returning her attention to my dad. She almost looked afraid as she took a deep breath, then announced, “It has been a long time…my husband.”

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Comments

I called it!

Just saying, I guessed Lindrell was Michelle's mother quite a while back. It explains so much about the way she has reacted oddly around Michelle from all the way back when he was Michael.

I will say it's a huge relief to see Michelle's father rising to the occasion of this invasion instead of just going into a full collapse.

Thank you for another chapter in this awesome story, Morpheus!

OMG

Lindrell was a guess and now we know why she knew that Michael could be saved.

This is going to be interesting to say the least.

Aside from the obvious

Lindrell should probably have anticipated that this could have happen since she is going back to her old stomping grounds and I suspect she has braced herself for that possibility. But, even so, this is a Bad time for this to happen as it is a distraction for the defenders which need to stay on task. Michelle is going to be too distracted though at this time and she is too inexperienced to not let that affect her.

BTW, I have yet to see mentioned of all the AR15s that have been squirreled away by the gun 'connoisseurs' who thought they would be taken away from them ^_^. I would think some of them converted to full-auto mode would help in this little survivalist battleground. I would think that classic survivalist paranoid one they saved from the Daemons would have one actually. So far the way it has been written, the defenders have mainly 'hunting' equipment.

And as for more support, you would think that someone had managed to sneak out and get help from outside the community by now. Loss of power should not affect landline service at least in the short run for plain old telephone service for at least a number of days I would think. Cell towers though are a hungry beast and use a lot of power and there are no on site generation or large battery backups I think so yes, cell service can be destroyed too easily.

There aren't as many fully

There aren't as many fully automatic weapons around as the anti-gun people would have you believe. They're just not very useful, except in full field conditions. (most of those AR15s you're talking about are only semi-automatic anyway)

The problem with any firearm is that of physics. Recoil dictates how often you can shoot, and how well you aim after the first shot. Even the -first- shot can be pretty buggered up if you don't hang onto the gun. With an automatic weapon, unless you have it bolted down, it's going to jump. (Notice photos of crew served weapons from Vietnam, etc. They tend to have bags of sand or dirt piled over the feet of the bi or tripod. ) 'Spray and Pray' is what fully automatic is called. Generally, those in the service never use fully automatic. They use single shot, and three round bursts.

Then we come to the real problem. Hand-held fully automatic weapons are low powered. They either use a very small projectile at a very high velocity (M16 rounds are not too much larger than a .22 LR, but have a huge amount of propellant), or they use a large projectile at low velocity (UZI -9mm, Thompson sub machine gun - .45). In this case, most of these demons need single shot, high velocity, high weight round. That is, 30-30, 30.06, 454 Casul, and .50 calibre Barrett or similar. The same stuff you'd use for wild boar, bear, or elephant/rhino.

.357 Magnum might work as a handgun round, but not against the big ones.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Gun nut culture

I was always dissed by real men, but my X's relatives were certified gun freaks. Once news of this gets around, it will be surprising how many "altered" rounds will show up. I am not an auto enthusiast, believing that the first shot, properly placed with an effective round could do wonders. I've seen 10 Ga shotguns do an amazing amount of damage, and imagine that one with an exploding charge in it could raise billy hell.

10 or 12 gauge slugs, or 0

10 or 12 gauge slugs, or 0 shot, would probably do a lot of damage. I think they make shotshell grenades, but I'd have to research it, and I don't feel like doing so.

Anyway - national guard style weapons would make a difference. standard 'hunting' rifles would be so-so. anti-personnel weapons such as the M16 and AR series would probably just irritate the demons.

Hm. I wonder how napalm would work at home? There's nothing heavily mechanical about it. It's basically a chemical under pressure with an igniter. Greek fire throwing trebuchets, perhaps? That also brings up chemical weapons. Maybe not mustard gas, but tear gas, pepper spray/liquid rounds, painball guns with mixed rounds of HE and acid....

Pneumatic cannons, rather than driven by gunpowder? They'd require more pressure to push than the standard charge, but could you see, say, grapeshot ripping into the summoner and his bunch - in an area where they _knew_ they couldn't be reached?


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Excellent points

Full auto is basically a waste of ammo. Semi-auto is what everyone I know uses. As far as knock down vis high velocity goes, I'd rather start killing at 300 meters than ten. So give me a long gun any day over a handgun. If I've got to use a hand cannon, I like the Barrett 96A. .40 cal vis 9mm with good velocity. Just my opinion.

Cheers
Zapper

Now thats an orse of a different colour.

I hadn't guessed about Lindrell but this is a nice surprise. No wonder dad became a drunk, what with all that grief over losing her. I do hope that somehow Lindrell and dad can be together again.

Gwen

I knew it!

D. Eden's picture

I was positive that Lindrell was Michelle's mother, but what a way to break it into the story!

I can't wait to see how Michelle reacts to the news that Lindrell is her mother. I also can't wait to see how Lindrell handles the relationship, and whether or not Michelle's origin comes up. One has to wonder just how big a bombshell all of this is going to be - this is quite a revelation to drop into the midst of all of those survivors.

A truly wonderful story and I am already counting the hours until the next chapter is posted.

Dallas

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

Daemons and Fathers and Cops, Oh My!

Wow. Almost a two week wait for that chapter, but it was worth it.

I knew Michelle was related to SOMEONE, but had no idea who. Now she's together with her father AND mother. It'll be another big surprise for her father, though...

I wonder how close Michelle and Lindrell look in appearance. I'm assuming Michelle looks like how she'd look if she'd been born female, but with extra height and muscles from being Val Kyr now.

Lisa

(Sorry about the message subject. I couldn't resist...)

Doh!

Doh, I didn't even think of it... surprise for Michelle's father? This will be an even bigger surprise for Michelle. And a source of anger and resentment, at finding out Lindrell is Mom. "Okay, you left Dad and I to fight demons... I can understand that, I guess. But once I became Val Kyr, why didn't you TELL me? And why were you such a bitch to me back in school?" Etc, etc. :)

Lisa

I sense Freya's hand

We know Lindrell received some form of undisclosed punishment for converting Michelle. I think her silence is it. Hopefully Freya intended to allow Lindrell to come clean at some point, but being forced to remain silent about her relationship to Michelle would certainly drive home the lesson about defying the chain of command, even for good reasons.

As for being horrible to Michael back in school, after seeing the typical Val Kyr attitude toward training, it makes sense that she'd be rough on him if he was slacking in class. Unlike her other students who were slacking, she actually had a reason to care about Michael personally, and that motivated her to kick his butt so he'd learn.

Subject

Well sure, but at the time, Mike thought it was because he and Julie were an item, and that Lindrell didn't like him. And he certainly didn't know then about the harsh training methods the Val Kyr use. So I can see Michelle having a moment of "Ohmigod, you were my mother, and you still treated me like that?" before figuring out why in her head.

But I think she'll be more upset that Lindrell didn't tell her who she really was... and I suspect you're right that it was her punishment for converting Michelle, even though, as a mother, how could she do otherwise? Still, Freya knows rules have to be followed.

Lisa

In a way this is a pointless discussion

In that your final point, says it all. It is highly unlikely that even if the penalty was death would Lindrell not at least had tried. I am surprised she even asked for permission from Mike to save him. Water under the bridge of course, one wonders what she would have done if Mike had said 'no'.

I think she would have respected his choice

The Val Kyr are warriors of the old school, and Michael's courage defending Julie against a monster would have earned him respect. At least enough respect that she would have felt obligated to honor his wishes, regardless of being his mother.

Note that she didn't offer any inconvenient details that might have dissuaded him, though. Just a promise that she could save his life and a very vague warning that it would change him forever. She would have respected his choice, but she wasn't going to do anything that might have prompted him to make a choice she didn't want to respect.

A Family Reunion at a Bad Time

Welcome back.

I can now appreciate the time it took to bring the chapter to release. with mother and father getting reacquainted.

I can't help but wonder if Estrid planned this incursion or if it was a chance thing. I am leaning in favor of the former, but we will need to wait and see.

I hope that the next chapter follows soon, although I realize quality takes time. Post it when you are ready.

I knew it!

I had figured that Lindrell had to be Michelle's mother right right from the first chapter. The clues were how she kept looking at Mike in the class room and how she kept grilling him as if testing him to see if he might be worthy or something. Then when the deamon fatally wounded Mike when he sacrificed himself in a selfless act to protect Julie, Lindrell didn't hesitate to offer mike his one chance of keeping alive. Another clue was Lindrell's gift of the lovingly made wooden wardrobe and the other furnishings she provided the newly minted Michelle for her room. Although why Lindrell didn't reveal herself as Mike/Michelle's mother is a bit of a mystery. My best guess is that Freya may have ordered her not to and that this was done in an effort to protect protect Lindrell from being accused of showing favoritism to Michelle so that she could be placed in Lindrell's triad. Maybe we will find out in the next chapter. Thanks Morpheus for a great chapter. I eagerly await the next chapter.

Hugs,
Tamara Jeanne

Finally!

GrandiaKnight's picture

So glad we finally got the next chapter and it was worth waiting for!

"The pen is mightier than the sword ... if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp"

shocker!

wow!

DogSig.png

Well, that is a shocker, at

Well, that is a shocker, at least for Michelle. Now will Dad be made aware of who Michelle is? To me he should be as he has probably wondered just where his son went. How will Lindrell explain to the survivors who the women are? Getting more interesting each chapter.

What does he know?

Does Michelle's Dad know what Lindrell is? Or did she marry him and carefully not let the cat out of the bag until now?

There's going to be a lot of questions asked, and yes, this will distract everyone from the main problem.

Penny

Another Morpheus Twist to his tales

BarbieLee's picture

What I expected and what I read are two different things. In every engagement with the demons the fight is the main theme of the chapter. Here it was a tag line kinda like. "Look more demons. Anyone know what time it is? Darn I broke a nail." It demonstrates the strength and wisdom of sending enough warriors to not only take care of the problem but to overwhelm the problem. IE "Do you think you need this many guns? No. If I thought I needed this many I would have brought more."

Morpheus breaks out from the norm in his stories so they don't feel like I've read them a hundred times before from different authors. In other words, my dress isn't like Susy Q's dress only in a different color. It's a totally different style. The "comfortable" in reading Morpheus' stories is you know you're gonna get whapped every time you think you have his story line figured out.

Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl

Just when you thought you had it figured...

The English Teacher's picture

Mass carnage, half eaten bodies everywhere, blood filling the streets, sinister laughter, Morph makes a left turn at Albuquerque.
The mark of a very good Author!
Just don't kill off dear old dad.

So much to read, so little time and only one of me :)

The English Teacher

Huh...

Huh...I'm kinda surprised at the number of folks that were surprised at Lindrell's revelation. I tumbled to that way back when she went all Mama-bear-protective over Mike before he got eviscerated in the 2nd (?) chapter. It was pretty heavily foreshadowed.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the story a lot. Morpheus is an excellent writer, but thus far this is one of his better efforts. The only critique I really have thus far is that Jass is, at times, coming off as one of Morpheus' standard delusional bigot characters, ala Marcus Tambright and a few others.

Moar, please!

Does Dad have Val?

Ameria's picture

Does Dad have Val?

For me, that is the important question. If he does then his part of the story gets one resolution, if not it gets another. Both are satisfying and in Morpheus style and range. My guess is that he doesn't, but that is little more then a guess.

al

Another message from Hissy the Snake.

wheee!!!

I did NOT see that coming! Cool twist!!!

Peace!
Cindilee

Skill...

I've used Full auto weapons before, I was a .50 machine gunner in the military, with the right training and setup, Full auto weapons are devastating. I was able to hit vehicle sized targets at 1200 meters with a spotter and the proper tripod. heavy machine guns are used from fixed positions or vehicles, and would be of limited use in this situation, unless you had the strength of a Val Kyr... if I recall, my weapon without tripod weighed in at around 75 pounds. the impact of a 750 grain bullet moving at 2700 feet per second is not to be underestimated

Using more man portable weapons such as a M240 (belt fed machine gun that fires from a bipod using 7.62mm ammunition) you could tear most Demons apart.

I would be very surprised if a organization such as the Val Kyr didn't have access to at least some modern military weaponry.

Most civilian hunting rifles are more powerful than calibers used by the military. a Scoped "deer rifle" in the hands of a skilled marksmen should be very effective, with much greater range and power than any bow. even a massive bow used by a Val Kyr is going to be fairly ineffective outside 100 meters, Air resistance rapidly degrades the velocity of arrows.

Modern military weaponry

The problem with modern military weaponry is, as has been stated early on in the story, it either doesn't work in Valhalla or the results are unpredictable.

Yes, they could have some, but storage, testing and training would have to be on a range on Earth (or some other "real" realm) and that leaves them open to discovery and attack.

Penny

Val Kyr and weaponry

Right. They don't exactly explain... is it the machinery that works inconsistantly or not at all in Val Halla or is it chemical reactions not being the same (so gun powder doesn't work)? But either way, some Val Kyr will use modern weaponry, probably especially the newer ones, who are more familiar with them from their pre-Val Kyr days. I get the feeling that when daemon uprisings aren't occurring, many Val Kyr take "sabbaticals" and take time off on Earth for a few years, doing things that interest them or updating their schooling or marrying and having one or more kids, or whatever. They could also learn/practice firing modern weapons during that time. But since they can't train in them back at Val Halla, they use them as supplemental weapons, and rely more on their tried and true "ancient" weapons. (Mind you, I'd love it if Michelle eventually makes or buys a Klingon Bat'leth for herself and figures out or learns how to handle it effectively. That would be SO fitting for a geek Val Kyr to use.)

Lisa

This is a Classic!

This is Morpheus's greatest work, and Chapter 27 is the best of all. The shock at the end of this chapter is awesome!