Kismet’s Tale

      Colonel Vito looked at the report given to him. He leaned forward, and read the name on the paper, “Arminus Rax? You mean that there are still people who are searching for her?”

“Worst, Colonel, he's one of few who were...stable. He’s like Elric, but Arminus was born from Hounds. He inherited their strength, and was one of the best men that Elric had.”

Colonel Vito wiped his face, “So you’re telling me that this person is after the Lady?”

“Yes,” the soldier reported, “there’s reason to believe that they are tracking her down now.”

Colonel Vito took the paper. Out of his pocket was a tobacco and as he tried to light it. The soldier, who acted as his assistant, clipped the tobacco.

“Your health, Colonel.”

“Ethel. I need this to make me function.”

Ethel stared blankly at her Colonel. “No.”

Colonel Vito felt helpless. Then he turned towards the paper once more, the paper was now lit by the light coming out of the blinds. “Tell me, do we have any idea who might be the one coming for the Miss?”

“We know that they aren’t trying to harm her.”

Colonel Vito leaned his elbows on the desk. “Explain why you think that they aren’t harming her.”

“She’s not dead. They went as far to annihilate the people responsible, leaving only a mob of rebels who had been recently tamed by him. The important ones had left the city of Knia, and they thought that they could use the Lady to bargain, but realized that their Lady was dead, and head split open. So now they are after the best one.”

“I thought we had seized all their assets.”

“Their ‘visible’ assets. The ones that are for emergencies and their Korps are still active. So Colonel Vito, we still have a Company of Soldiers field with the best to look forward to.”

“Well, that's terrible news isn’t it?”

“So that’s why I must make sure that you are up to your standards.”

Colonel Vito studied. Ethel Steelheart, a member of the Shooting Club of Wilde, certified marksman, and sniper that served in Expeditionary Force in Withamia. Lately, she has taken an officer’s position, and landed her as  her military assistant. Usually, a Colonel wouldn’t have one, but the folks were sure that he was going to become a General sooner or later.

Colonel Vito wanted nothing more than to get this affair over. The conflict of the magiborne and the powerful was beyond his paygrade, and even though he doubts that he could get out of their sights now.

“Then do they have a way of finding the Lady?”

Ethel Steelheart removed another paper from her briefcase. The smug filled aura that Ethel has made Colonel Vito feel pained in his temples. He took the paper, and read, “There are no traces of the Lady. However, there is a way to track them using one of the methods devised by the Ladies of the Pact, and that is to make use of the Mistress of the Pact herself, who hands down her mark to track her down…”

Colonel Vito blinked. “Can the Lady track her down?”

“She did try, but there are forces around her that make it impossible to track her down. We believe that she should be close to someone who has a perverse resistance to the magi and their technology. Or he or she could be using a black iron.”

“That black iron, is it that rare?”

“None of it exists. And if there is one then you have to take the rest out of Lady Death’s hand. Perhaps, you can ask for it, Sir?”

“I do have one,” Colonel Vito showed the ring on his middle finger. “It’s the black iron rings that they hand over to us. It helps us survive our encounters and suppress some of the spark. It can help us nullify adverse effects that they release unconsciously.”

“Oh, then does it mean that they can’t track you?”

“Yes, it’s part of the ‘trust’ that we share with the Ladies of the Pact. Ah, that reminds me, are you willing to be part of them?”

Ethel raised a brow, “What do you mean?”

“Lady Velna sees potential in you. You met her in Wilde, right?”

“I did. I refused four years ago.”

“Oh, shooting club. Got it. May I ask why?”

“No.”

Colonel Vito shrugged helplessly. “Anyway, is the Steel Hawk ready?”

“Aye, fresh from the oven, Colonel.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

Ethel shrugged. Colonel Vito followed Ethel out of his office, and to the helipad where he saw the Steel Hawk ready for action.

 Sixty-five feet in length, and eighteen feet in height. The twin turboshaft engine, four-blade, heavy-lift helicopter was among the best that Holmian had made. With a maximum speed of 168 mph, and armed with two hellfire missile pods, an advanced precision kill weapon system, a chain gun, and a 7.62mm machine gun on each side.

“She’s...beautiful, Ethel.”

“She’s worth the money.”

“Don’t say it like that,” Colonel Vito protested. “This baby will be the one we’d be spending time on for hours. The best part of her is that she doesn’t need refueling with the Ladies of Lazon blessing it with a hydroelectric crystal engine equipped with foldable reinforced motors!”

“That so?”

Colonel Vito approached the Steel Hawk that was on standby. Inside the cabin of the helicopter was the communication equipment alongside armaments just in case they needed to get out guns blazing. It was the mobile command that Vito had always dreamt about.

“Please don’t drool, Sir. You must retain your dignity.”

Colonel Vito nodded. He looked at the pilot who gave a thumbs up. “Didn’t know Altair’s flying.”

“He had to be the one flying, Colonel.”

“And his co-pilot?”

“Lt. Zio.”

“Then it looks like we’re in good hands.”

Adjutant Ethel nodded. She went in the helicopter, and took her seat near the communications equipment. Colonel Vito took a seat in his position, wore the headphones, and checked the channels before permitting the helicopter to take off.

Colonel Vito flew out of the airship carrier, the helicopter descending out of the clouds. Colonel Vito looks at the footage on the communications panel. The burning, Old Capital had been quite a heavy sight. Many years of progress, learning, and customs burned because people didn’t want to fight any longer.

But Colonel Vito also understood that this was how things are. To keep the nation prosperous, they have to continue their operations in the Easternmost part of the world. They had to make sure that they were able to continue their mining.

The League’s able to tolerate it, while the Ruler of Egeneia rests in Withamia, watching his nation burn, and half-enslaved. I wonder what he would mean by it.

“How’s our ground troops?” Colonel asked. His voice became serious. Ethel took notice, switching to her professional demeanor.

“Most of them have neutralized the threat. Right now they are forcing the rest of the troops to surrender or be killed on sight. We believe that they are doing this so the rest of their forces could withdraw.”

“What about the squadrons after them?”

“Annihilated.”

“Say it again.”

“Annihilated.”

“By Arminus?”

“That’s right. They made use of our helicopters to evacuate the rest of their forces. Senior Intelligence officers receive information that they are about to retreat to Finia.”

“Why are they gathering in Finia?”

Colonel Vito stared daggers at Ethel pulling out a document from her briefcase. He took the paper silently, and read the information within.

“Mutated demifiends that were taken from the demifiend regions of the Magnar-Azia Continent. Mutated...they have started retaining extreme qualities that make them superior to the demikin horde. The humanoid beasts are now classified only as Fiends.”

“They take the shape of a humanoid while retaining their beastly appearance.”

“I thought Lazon had wiped them out.”

“They have. But there were creatures that were only affected by the ‘Green Wind’ that the Nullers Sect had been warning us about.”

An abomination mutated by the radiation and cultivated by the sparks. It was a dangerous combination. Additional information about the ‘beast’ had been collected, that it was a seven-headed beast with one of the heads fused with a warhead that looked like it was an undetonated nuclear warhead. The warhead itself has been shot down, but the facts were that this beast had given birth to a race called Fiends. Inferior to the humans, but superior to both of the races where it was born from.

“Do we do anything about them?”

“If we face some of the beasts in battle, we are bringing the Juggernauts everywhere, just in case.”

Killing an enemy, reducing them to a small number makes them adapt out of the will to survive. Recently, small pockets of resistance have been seen using different methods. They use the Fiends to create projectile weapons.

Even the subhumans could evolve and in the years that they’ve been slaughtering them, there are traces of evolution. The strong survives, producing stronger offspring', and creating a stronger, well-developed kind.

“No wonder Lady Beatrix insists on their genocide,” Colonel Vito thought.