Tattoos and Rail Guns Chapter 16: When the Silo Finally Explodes

The morning came. Walker shoved Douglas awake. Douglas tried to cast a spell, but the motion caused him to fall off the bunk. He glared at Walker. After they had dressed, Walker gave Douglas his assigned knife; he had already put on the matching set. “This mission should help test out the daggers.”

Douglas smiled and started putting them on. “Definitely. And the sword?”

“I tried to get Samuels to take it, but he said he preferred a good gun. I'll be leaving it behind.”

“Sounds good. Although you could bring it along in case Kev shows up.”

“Maybe next time. Besides, I'm sure he has something better.”

They laced up and left for the departure site. Everyone else was already there, so they grabbed some rolls and then confirmed that their equipment had been stowed, and mounted. Walker explained the knives to Lieutenant Sawyer, she was impressed and let him wear them into the field. Walker also explained what the chetan was and his concerns.

The trip was silent as everyone went over their notes and tried to get enough coffee into their systems in order to function. The leaders were full of anticipation as they conferred via silent channel about the messaging issue and Walker's notes. They didn't like the threads coming together, so they decided to remain a little more frosty than usual. The corporal, the private, and the wizard all joked and tried to keep things light by joking; Rodriguez did his part by glaring at them every so often to shut them up for a few seconds, and then they returned to joking.

The three pilots were less than happy. They had received their orders the night before, which meant that they had had to inspect their suits and make sure that their ammunition and fuel had both been topped off with less time than they had liked. That also meant that their crews had been up most of the night fixing small things and were currently running on caffeine; they hated that they would be awake for the time it took to repair anything broken or damaged in the fight. The pilots were pretty much ready to kill anything just out of pure frustration.

They arrived at the ancient silo soon enough. The silo looked unremarkable enough; it had split into two parts, and one had fallen down and crumbled. There was no sign of the demon they knew was inside the silo. The pilots and Lieutenant Prowse suited up in silence as Rodriguez and the boys walked then crawled to their assigned vantage point. They set up their weapons; they would be ready when they received the word to fire upon the silo.

Lieutenant Walker grabbed the ring and looked at it. “Huc.” In front of her formed the familiar circle and Kev formed in the light. He was wet, scowling, and in a pair of speedos.

“You owe me a surfboard.”

Lieutenant Sawyer smiled as she reached for a small bag inside the flivver. “Luckily, I figured that you would be pulled from a potentially interesting situation at some point. Put this on. The boots are optional.” She tossed the bag at Kev.

He opened the package and grabbed the pants. “Thank you. I was surfing off Perth when I received the call. I was unable to reach the shore before being transported.” He pulled on the shirt. “While my gear should be safe during my sojourn here, the surfboard is likely to float out to sea.” He began pulling on the boots. “These vestments feel good.”

“You're welcome. I'll see what I can do about replacing your board.” She pointed at the silo. “That's why I called you. I know it's being paranoid, but something feels off and I needed a wildcard.” She gave him a tablet. “Inside is a 'chetan', a bird demon of sorts. We're pretty sure that something fishy is going on, as the chetan is usually a friendly spirit. So be on guard, and do the minimum needed to defeat the demon. But you're here in case there's a surprise. Also, that means no tattoos until we've been good and ambushed.”

“Confirming: I am here as support and to act against any unexpected developments.” He shook his hair dry. “Understood.”

She offered him a rifle. He took it, looked it over. “Put your hand out.” He put his hand out. She slapped two magazines taped together into his hand. He loaded the magazine and nodded. “That should get you through the exercise.”

She nodded back. “And now that you've been briefed and armed, let's get this thing going.” She shifted her voice to the subvocal range. “Teams, we're a go. Bravo Team, you're on.”

“Confirmed, Lieutenant. Telemetry data received. Commencing run in 3. 2.”

The Pheobus suits moved as one. As the moved in the silo was hit by firearm fire. Kev joined in, but in single-shot mode. Lieutenant Walker pointed out the toggle for autofire; he looked at it, toggled it, and took aim. He grinned as there were instantly more shots fired. She smiled, and they fired at the silo.

As predicted, the chetan flew out, a barely recognizable humanoid that was more flaming bird than anything else. Although it looked frail, it quickly reached the guys, jumping to hit them from above. Before it landed it was knocked away by missiles from the Pheobus team. It fell near the silo, which was rapidly disintegrating under the combined fire. It raised its head, screeching to the heavens. A pair of flaming hands wrenched the remaining segment of the silo into two and tossed the silo away, revealing a pair of chetans.

Lieutenant Sawyer sighed. “Here's where it gets fun.” As she aimed at the beings, she saw something glint behind them. She focused her sight on the glint and saw runes. She paused a moment before looking at Kev and then Bravo Team. “Kev, Walker is about to go on the move. He's your new ward.” Kev nodded and ran towards the other flivver. “Walker, you and Douglas are to split from the team and investigate their lair.” Without a word, Walker grabbed Douglas, motioned for him to follow, and the pair started towards the former silo.

“Lieutenant, Pheobus One. New bogies. New plan?”

She thought for a moment. “Modified. Take out the bogies in turn, starting with the original. We will re-assess based on casualties.”

“Roger.”

The first bird went down, exploding as it fell. There was a burst of flame followed by a burst of wind, with not even ash afterward. All four of the armored suits fell from the sky. Lieutenant Sawyer, Rodriguez, and Samuels were tossed to the ground. Walker and Douglas were sent flying but were caught by Kev. He landed and helped them to their feet.

“You are is my new ward.”

Walker was confused for a moment but recovered. “Okay, cool. We need in that lair.”

Kev looked at the silo. “It looks open.”

Douglas shrugged. “So let's walk on in.”

Lieutenant Sawyer saw them enter and turned her attention back to the remaining pair of chetans. They looked brighter, as if they had somehow gained power from the sacrifice of their nestmate. The color of the flame had changed somewhat as well, looking a little redder. They looked confused.

She heard Lieutenant Prowse's voice in her head. “Lieutenant, that thing knocked us out for a moment.”

“Roger. You and Bravo Team: You're on stand-by unless attacked. I want to see what happens.”

She received four rogers and the suits did little more than face the pair. The pair jumped up; as they did purple wisps poured from their bodies and they became even redder. Flames covered their bodies and they ignited. As they ignited they lost their human forms and became hawks of solid flame. They were surrounded by a nimbus of orange light, vaguely resembling the sun coming over the horizon in the morning. The nimbus faded and the birds flew off, quickly disappearing over the eastern horizon.

“Well, that was gorgeous.” She lowered her rifle. “The situation is over. If you're in the lair, stay there. Everyone else stand down and prep to head home.” After receiving all of the confirmations, she started walking to the silo. As she did the suits landed and Bravo Team's flivver started towards hers. Rodriguez joined her.

Pheobus One contacted her. “Lieutenant, are we cleared to leave?”

Doing some quick math, she figured that they could transport the Kronus using the flivvers. “Yes, Bravo Team, and thanks. We'll schedule the debriefing when I return.”

“Roger, Lieutenant. Let's do this again.” The Pheobus suit transport pulled out.

“Lieutenant Prowse, stay frosty. I want to confirm that we are completely finished here.”

“Roger. Consider me frozen.”

She ended up in the silo, Rodriguez in tow. Samuels smiled with no loss of breath despite running from where both vehicles were parked. He approached the guys in the silo. “So, Walker: How's it look?”

“I'm still working out the details of the thaumaturgic circle, but you'll note the brick that carved a notch into it.” He pointed to a brick that had carved a small furrow into the circle of runes and red chalk. “When the first chetan died, its death throes propelled the brick into the circle, and that disruption is what freed them. It looks like the circle was actually here to draw the birds in, capture them. and then make them attack whatever showed up.”

“Kev, any issues with his interpretation?”

Kev looked at the circle. “None. His analysis is correct.” Walker beamed. “I would suggest, however, that we look for something that may have been left behind.”

Douglas chimed in. “Already doing that. There's some weird interference inside the walls of the silo. It's almost like there is a mana storm right here, scrambling my senses, making it hard to figure out what's going on. I'd advise some serious caution here.”

She looked at Kev, who nodded. “All right. With three magic advisors, this is definitely going smoother than normal.”

Douglas seemed to have picked something up. “Kev, grab the lieutenant and get out! Everyone else, this is going to get bumpy!”

Kev grabbed Lieutenant Sawyer and jumped as far away as he could; he made it halfway back to the flivvers. He turned just in time to see the remains of the silo blow up in a large explosion. He was able to protect Lieutenant Sawyer from the explosion, but he still felt the heat. When they investigated the remains, the inside was completely black, with no sign of anyone else.

[The next chapter is here.]