01.144 Kestrel

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Lightning Cries Over Canopy, Daybreak Nüwa Hidden Kingdom

Adra was at the top of the tree, climbing his way up slowly and resolutely not looking down. He had a great view of the Nüwa town below him, with friendly territory directly adjacent. The rain continued to come down and lightning flashed across the sky. There was a slight breeze above the tree canopy, but it was still warm and humid. The two moons shown down, one very similar to the one he was used to, the other reddish and smaller.

He took a deep breath and worked the spikes off his boots and found the branch they had spotted from the ground. Eleanor had said it was serendipity, Adra had known it was anything but. He Slowly crawling out on it until he was pointed right at the town and the nearest town structure, a small building that had little activity being far from the contested territories.

The bough creaked ominously as he made his way further out and began to sway with the breeze. Different insects, more like large dragonflies, flew around him, but he ignored them.

Then he stood up carefully, cursed Innana by name, and jumped.

He spread his arms and legs, and the squirrel windsuit caught the air and he started gliding downwards. He adjusted his direction and before he knew it he was rapidly approaching the target. He moved his arms, adjusting his aim. Then it was very close, he quickly reached in and pulled a cord, the mini-chute deploying behind him and yanking him back and slowing him down just enough that when he crashed into the roof of the building, he didn’t snap his neck.

The breeze picked up and the little chute started to pull him backwards and he slid down the sloped ceiling, scrambling for the release, he managed it just as his leg began to hang off the edge.

There were hissing sounds in the building, wailing as well. He didn’t have much time.

Quickly he lowered himself over the roof edge and swung himself into the room.

He didn’t even take time to get his bearings, he lay down on the wooden floor, arms crossed behind his head. Only then did he look over, to see a mass of Nüwa children and several adults cowering in the corner. The adults looked older, their scales weathered and gray, many of them injured with leaf-like bandages wrapped around them. They were mostly of the brighter yellow variety, one of the children was somewhat closer to the teal coloring Sally possessed.

He waited… lying down in the corner of the room, not moving too much, being as non-threatening as possible.

Soon there was the sound of footsteps, lithe and fast, and several Nuwa came in armed with spears. They stood pointing them at him at range in a fanned out formation, but he didn’t move. He plotted rolling towards one of them to disarm if needed, these did not seem like seasoned warriors, but he needed to maintain a pacifying posture for now.

Another Nuwa stepped into the room, this one with similar coloring as Sally, that teal color with darker spots. It hissed at him in the strange Nuwa language he had heard before.

“Hello,” Adra said in simple English. Softly. He moved his hand slowly upwards and waved gently.

The teal lizard’s eyes opened a bit wider and he moved his foreclaws in a rapid succession of patterns, he began to hiss, but the words suddenly echoed in the room and made sense.

“How did you come here human? The gate is not open for another month…”

Now they were getting somewhere.

“We came because of Sally. Small Nuwa, teal coloring. Her mother had a scarf, but has died?” Adra tried.

“Shalhi?” the lead Nüwa said, putting an odd intonation on the name. “She lives?”

“Yes.”

“You said we?”

“We are here to help you and kill the orcs… Let me tell you how this can work. I am going to sit up now, if that is okay?”

He waited.

The teal Nüwa thought for a moment and then motioned to the children and their caretakers, they began to head outside the room, fearfully eyeing Adra on their way out.

“Let’s talk…”

Ella eyed her squad. She pulled back and had everyone circle up. “There are four hostiles, one human, three orc. I want the human for interrogation. Grab an orc if you can. Kill the other two fast.”

They crept up to the encampment, taking their time to select targets.

Ella sighted down her crossbow at the human. He was in regular tactical gear which made her arrows a bit less useful. He had a similar compound bow to the ones they had brought, whereas the orcs had brought more traditional wooden recurve bows.

The three orcs were the same light gray in appearance. Their smooth ovoid heads were exposed as they set up camp.

There was a sudden sliding sound and a muffled curse behind her. The hostiles heard it too and dove to the side.

Ella pulled the trigger on her crossbow and watched the shot go wide of the leg she had been aiming for. The human commander dove to the side and behind a tree. Two of the orcs similarly moved out of the way, the third has an arrow sprouting from its eye and fell to the ground.

She quickly set one of her cutting lines between two trees at knee height behind the enemy and tied it off. It wouldn’t last long but long enough.

The glow of her eyes must have given away her position when an arrow thudded into the ground next to her, inches from her face. It was suddenly there, and she became fixated on it’s vibrating carbon-fiber textured shaft and the green-and-white fletching.

She quickly rolled to the side and another arrow came flying next to it, this one wooden and cracking as it deflected off a rock on the ground.

From behind a tree, she reloaded the crossbow and quickly called for a report on her comm.

“Three hostiles, armed with bows behind the trees. No visual…”

And then she head a voice call out from the enemy side, “Humans?”

Damn, sound carried oddly in the forest and she hadn’t been quiet enough. Time for some quick thinking…

“Shit!” she yelled out. “Everyone stand down… These are friendlies. I repeat, stand down.” She waited a moment and faced the enemy, “Are you off course or are we?”

Ella was surprised to hear perfect Akkadian from the soldier as he started arguing with the orcs. The orcs were yelling about blood debts for their comrade but the human soldier eventually mollified them.

“Who the fuck are you?” the guy yelled out.

“New squad, under the command of Captain Peterson.” She just made up a name on the spot. This was so stupid of her, but why else would humans be here?

“Who the fuck is Peterson?”

“How the fuck should I know? He’s the boss, he gives orders and I follow them. I don’t ask questions. You want me to call him forward?” Ella signalled back to her squad and had them start moving around to better positions, they split off on both sides to flank. One more on the human commander and three on the the two orcs hiding.

“Hold on. I don’t want to see anyone besides you come out first. Our radios have gone to shit here. You call up command, confirm, and then we can become BFFs.”

Well wasn’t that lucky? Ella pulled off her ballistic mask, the face was sweaty, her hair matted down from sweat.

“Okay, I am coming out of cover. Those baldies aren’t going to shoot me, are they?”

“Baldies hmmm? Yeah, they aren’t going to attack.”

“Cause that would ruin my day, you know?” Ella tried to sound sarcastic and unconcerned. C’mon, c’mon, would an enemy talk like this?

“I am leaving my bow.” She stood up slowly and put the bow on the ground visibly. Her swordstaff was in two pieces strapped on her back in an X, but she left those where they were. Arcsa had mentioned wanting to try airsoft guns, but getting lots of bows had been easier.

Under the jungle cover, with her gear splattered with dark mud, it didn’t look too different than the Kenaz issued gear… she hoped. She put her hands up and moved towards the human voice.

“Hey, I’m Lance Corporal Chavez. Used to be corp. Semper fi and all that shit.” She needed to get a visual on him.

“Fucking marine pussy,” the voice said, amused.

She was standing in the open now.

“Just signed up and got put on this squad, then they told us about all this shit, and threw us into this jungle. Fucking weird shit man…” she called out. Fortunately the humidity and sweat was hiding her nervousness. “Hey, can we get this going? I need to call my squad soon or this is going to turn into a clusterfuck fast.”

“Yeah… yeah.” The human finally stepped out from behind a tree. Ella eyed him. He was sweaty and dirty like her, five foot eleven, stocky with a round face, gray close-cropped hair, and had a bow at full draw pointed at her.

“Hey now… Come on. Put that shit down.” Ella was nervous. She had played it right, hadn’t she?

“See… I don’t think you are whoever you say you are…”

“C’mon man, your hand is going to get tired. Stop messing around.”

“No… I think instead I might just shoot you. Whether it is through the heart or in the leg is up to you. Who the fuck are you and how did you get here?”

Fuck… Ella did not care for this. “Chavez.”

“And who did you say you were under.”

“Peterson. We did this already…”

“No… See, I’m Lieutenant Peterson. And I would know if anyone else with the same name that was hired. Plus we don’t take no illegals in Kenaz.”

Dumb fucking luck. Should have picked a white name.

“Last chance…” he said.

Well give the man what he wants. “Okay. you got me. I’m Ella. I like long walks on the beach and am a Pisces.” She looked down a bit and closed her eyes. Should have brought sunglasses.

“Shut the fuck up!”

“No you!” she yelled back.

“What the hell is wrong with you…”

“Well, see, I was waiting for my squad to bracket you, and, well, they have.”

Peterson, the real Peterson, was a cool customer. He kept his draw on her and glanced quickly to the side where Ella’s squad had arrows pointed at him and the orcs behind the tree who were also bracketed.

“I can still kill you…” he said.

The sound of rain hitting leaves suddenly seemed loud. There was even the flash of lightning, and Ella thought things would begin to move quickly, but everyone was still…

“This is kind of boring,” she said conversationally, hoping that her nervousness didn’t show.

“You’re a cool customer,” Peterson said. “But I am fine just standing her as long as it takes.”

Ella let her eyes glow a little bit. Peterson was eyeing her squad more than her right now since she was unarmed. She finally had it, and she yelled out, “Hey guys, just worry about the orcs, I am fine with this guy.”

Peterson snapped his attention back to her. He actually looked nervous at her confidence, but he still played it cool, “What do you think you are going to do?”

Ella waited as the soldiers repositioned themselves. The humidity was really uncomfortable. The rain continued and the ground was quite muddy. She hoped this worked, because boy would it look foolish if she got killed by an arrow.

She didn’t yell anything or signal. That was just asking for stupid unpredictable reactions. She dove forward into a roll.

Peterson released the string of his bow and the arrow began to move forward before the string itself cut apart on the tripwire Ella had carefully built in front of it. The arrow went off to the side, released from tension and falling to the ground.

Ella rolled right to Peterson and came back up to her feet and gave him a strong punch to the gut. His mistake was in thinking she was merely a small woman and the blow lifted him off the ground slightly and air left his lungs in shock. He was hunched over and Ella grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up easily, her arm at a forty-five degree angle, her eyes glowing, staring into his.

“Stand down, Lieutenant.” she said as he gasped and tried to understand what had happened. He was five inches taller than her, but she had him hanging, with his feet dangling, gasping and trying to take a breath.

Ella looked over to the orcs, one of them was dead, the other had an arrow in her leg. She had her hands up and was saying something in Akkadian, the other squad members telling her in the same language to lie on the ground.

She threw Peterson back and he landed hard against a tree trunk.

“Shrike. This is Kestrel. Last patrol is down. I repeat, last patrol is down. Plan is a go.”

She looked at Peterson who was lying on the ground and drew her sword, giving it a fancy whirl she had been practicing in the mirror. “Now… Lieutenant Peterson, are you going to be the lucky one to tell me what the fuck Everett Marr had you doing before he met his untimely end? Or do one of the other human advisors’ get the privilege.”

He began to scramble for his knife, when he looked at her pointing her sword steadily at him, her eyes glowing bright. He put up his hands

She signaled for everyone to circle up and head back to the staging point.