The flashes of light drew closer and closer, as did the booming salvos that corresponded with them. They illuminated every haggard and stubby angle of Josho’s muzzle. And yet, as he trotted forward through the hellscape, accompanied by the injured captain and his company, he couldn’t help but feel like the most immaculate equine soul there.
When they arrived at the Ledomaritan forward camp, Josho hadn’t noticed. He needed the shouts of the hobbling, three-legged captain to inform him. Suddenly, as he glanced all around, he saw that they had reached the crest of a steep plateau jutting towards the east. Along the fringes of this ridge, several camps were positioned. They occupied what looked to be a gently sloping ravine. But then Josho saw slivers of impenetrable darkness, as if the ground was falling out from beneath the surface of the battlefield.
Something had blasted the geography to bits, and the stallion perceived that it was more than just shelling from above. The very foundation had collapsed, as if with demonic subsidence. The spectacle of this cataclysm was completely lost to the soldiers. The dark, smoldering air of the place was filled with notstop shouts and screams between the punctuation of bomb strikes. Soldiers galloped in solid trains, carrying weapons and supplies towards the lower camps… and returning with wounded, writhing ponies and bloody effects.
The smell of death was positively electric, and it leapt into Josho’s nostrils like ravenous leeches. He had experienced all of these senses before, but not this dense… nor this concentrated. It felt like twenty years of memories rolled into one grimy ball. He hadn’t realized just what an effect it was having on him until one of the young soldiers guiding the captain tugged at his forelimb. Josho looked down at himself and noticed that he was positively stumbling.
The soldier shouted something again. Obviously he was concerned. Josho replied, only he couldn’t hear himself over the wave of noise blanketing the landscape. Another shell had gone off, this time disgustingly close. Metal barrels and scraps of a tent flew up into the sky. Josho actually flinched, and doing so made him feel like a lone flea on the back of a bloated corpse. Everyone else was trotting, rushing, slithering in straight lines. They had places to be; tasks to accomplish. They were companions with death here, and Josho felt like a complete stranger.
Nevertheless, he ascended the crest of the plateau along with the company he had stumbled upon. As he climbed, he glanced east past a line of tents and saw a trench full of enforcers firing into the east. Flashes of bright blue energy flickered and was gone again. Josho heard serpent shrieks and monstrous yelps. The summons of the Xonans were being slayed by the minute, but the Ledomaritans did not rejoice. It would seem that slaying the enemy did not exactly kill them.
A loud siren filled the air. Josho’s ears twitched as he gazed up towards a distant splotch of the sky lit up with otherworldly amber. A zeppelin was plummeting into the deathly ravines, too far away to actually obliterate any ponies--at least within eyesight. Josho squinted and squinted, but he couldn’t tell the colors of the falling vessel. As he observed the dull, shellshocked figures huddled within the campsite around him, he realized very few of the veteran survivors cared.
Reaching the highest point, Josho could now look out upon the entire battlefield. It wasn’t a rewarding sight. He knew that the enemy surrounded this bastion at nearly two hundred and eighty degrees. He was essentially standing on a lone peninsula in the middle of death and desolation. All he could see was dusty streams of charcoal black refuse, a landscape too charred to render any visible colors.
Except for one sliver--a glowing sheen of otherworldly gold that shimmered like the edge of a cloud. Josho craned his neck, hoping to get a better glimpse. Something in the middle of the darkest ravine--just barely on the Ledomaritan’s side of the front--was glowing, even though there wasn’t any exposed sunlight above to cause the reflection. It took Josho a few seconds to realize that the entire Ledomaritan camp was built to defend that one point, and all the trenches with huddled enforcers had been dug at harsh angles that ran parallel to it at a few hundred yards’ advancement.
“Don’t stare too long into it or you’ll go mad,” a voice hoarsely said from behind.
Josho turned to look. “Huh?”
He hadn’t realized how close he was trotting alongside the injured, hobbling captain. The stallion--easily half his age yet twice his resolve--was limping on three legs with the assistance of his companions. He and Josho entered the south end of a long tent, and the air suddenly filled with the smell of the rust and the sound of suffering. Josho was almost too distracted by wailing, sobbing, pleading voices to register what the captain was saying.
“It’s not the Xonan monsters that’ll end you,” the captain said. “Not the death rattle of your best buds.” Orderlies in red-faded fatigues rushed in and helped him towards a spot between two cots where shredded soldiers lay, sobbing into their bandages. “But that… place that Seclorum is defending.” The captain winced as his freshly wrapped stub twitched for a few seconds. With a hissing breath, he muttered, “Either it’s not of this world, or we ain’t. Why we’re defending it, I have no clue.” He gulped dryly. “But ponies who have gazed at it for a long time, seeking solace? They’re the ones who are driven mad. Like a void has opened in their hearts. It sucks them in, and it’s cost us several dozen lives alone in this madness.”
Josho took a deep breath, his ears twitching from the sounds of moans and whimpers all around him. “I don’t think you can blame any of this on a place or an idea,” he muttered. A shell struck within a hundred meters and the whole tent shook. Bloodstained medical instruments rattled while foalish squeaks lifted and lowered back into the wailing cadence. “Where is he?”
“Seclorum?” The captain laid back and pointed upside down beyond the cart. “That’s where the bastard’s at.”
Josho followed his remaining good hoof. He saw a circular, reinforced tent lying at the northwest edge of the plateau.
“Right in the line of sight of the Xonans. Why those tattooed freaks haven’t blasted him to shreds and ridden us all of his arrogance is beyond me. Sometimes…” He coughed, wheezed. “...I think they’re keeping him alive to help whittles us down to nothing. So long as we’re holed up here… we’re wasting away all that Ledo’s got to give.”
Josho slowly nodded. “Yeah. I’m pretty much on top of that mountain of crap.”
“Just who are you, anyways?” The captain gazed up at him. “You have teleportation skills. No soldiers have utilized that since the initial days of infiltration. Are you from the Council? Paramilitary?” He gulped. “Fr-Franzington?”
“No.” Josho shook his head. “But I’ll tell you one thing I am.” Miniature bolts of lighting danced down from his horn and flickered between his eyes. “I’m pissed off. And it’s time I had a little chat with an old friend.”
The nurses and wounded soldiers gawked at him. “What are you--”
Flash! Josho vanished. The ponies around him gasped as a faint streak of the unicorn’s leyline went soaring through the MASH unit and towards the circular tent on the crest of the plateau.
“You idiot!” A surgeon snarled as he charged up to the scene. “Do you realize what you’ve done?! You’ve marched some sort of an assassin into this place!”
The captain squinted at him while the soldier in the next bed bled to death. “And you’re mad about this… why?”
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Im sorry you mistook my definition, it is commonplace.
Only Shell has magic powerful enough to withstand that dragons fire. Nagul is Shells formost enemy, without her the Xonans will fail and fall.
If I wanted to be disgusting, I would tie Shell up in a dungeon somewhere, and give him food via a pipe.
The most horrible and evil thing anyone can do, is keep someone alive beyond their time, because they cant accept their faliure as a god.
In the midst of all this death and desolation, it's probably as good enough a time as any to express my gratitude that this story exists.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I'm not sure whether to laugh at this line or cry that the battle has truly deteriorated this much.
Good to see Josho's making some friends. I'm waiting for him to go and beat up Seclorum before telling the others, "I'm Prime Enforcer Josho, and I want all of you to find a zeppelin. We're going east"
Next, in Austreoh: Two old friends have a pleasant chat over a nice cup of tea
Josho isn't aware that the Hold is moving towards him, is he?
~Basso
Even on thanksgiving. Bravo you strange beautiful thing.
I'm not quite sure I trust in Josho's diplomatic skills...
Wow, that last line is definitely telling about the whole situation. Not surprised that the soldiers don't give any resemblance of a shit of the battle anymore...or about their commander.
I look forward to Josho's "chat" with Seclorum.
Out of all the recent chapters, this is the one that made me shiver...
Once again, this story-line is giving me Apocalypse Now vibes. And in my mind's eye, the battlefield looks a lot like Mordor (which Tolkien based on the No Man's Land in World War I). I look forward to the confrontation with Seclorum.
Also, happy thanksgiving everyone!
Thank you for this story SSaE!
And also, I hope that Josho can restrain himself long enough to get help to the rest of our heroes. Though considering both Josho and Seclorum, I think Seclorum will need to be the one to be restrained when he hears about the book and Nightshade...
I kinda love how pissed Josho's getting about this whole thing, when his plan is to convince Sec to march all his men in a suicide mission to Xonan territory... as a distraction. I was kinda completely onboard with the whole plan beforehand, but these chapters have pointed out that it's kind of a shit move.
3551730
I want to apologise, because I made a mistake adding you to "Response" stuff (or whatever this thing is called). Yes, indeed I added one person too many and I didn't want to put any kinds of words into your mouth. Mostly because my comment was general statement, and not something related particulary towards chosen persons.
So as I said earlier, I sincerely apologize for my lack of careness and behaviour.
- Verlax
3551790
Duly noted. Apology accepted.
Still, you did bring up some valid points I enjoyed talking about.
Oh goodness. Josho probably won't be too friendly with Seclorum.
Josho the drunk makes way for Josho the Enforcer. At his prime he must have been a holy terror. I don't think Seclorum is going to have a nice time.
Someone mentioned WW1. That is what war was like; is like. Perhaps be thankful it hasn't reached here. Yet.
Sir, I have a cunning plan.
Well, looks like it will have to wait, Baldrick.
As per the rating that I base these chapters off of (EPM). This exceptional chapter has earned a rating of approximately 20 EPM!
What better way to celebrate thanksgiving than the smell of explosives and cyanide in the air!
Oh jeez, finally caught up after two weeks hiatus. And just in time to smell the explosions! Let the war rage on!
I guess both Josho and Roarke have taken SAN loss.
Alright, The groups to hop between story-wise:
Josho at Seclorum's Bulge
Belle and Shell at the derelict sequencing facility
The Noble Jury
Kera and Dalen
RD and Khao
The remaining named prisoners in the Xon-Ship
-Mind you the latter three groups will be converging shortly.
I'm honestly surprised it was this easy for Josho to get to Seclorum. Looking at all the crap everyone has been through recently, its a miracle IC didn't make Josho get kidnapped by Xonans or something.
I have mentioned before that the story is drifting towards realism in a way that I observe with some suspicion. In this chapter in particular it is basically the adaption of a WW story along the lines of either Saving Private Ryan, All Quiet on the Western Front or Schindler's list when it comes to one element: overwhelming the recipient with a blunt display of brute violence taken to its extremes. In my personal opinion an acceptable tool for teaching people that war is something horrible, but out of place in this degree here. Anyway.
images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130203123656/es.warhammer40k/images/c/cc/Brecha.jpg
On another note the word "bled" then again just has a wonderfully appropriate sound to it given the context.
An amazingly enlightened observation.
Weird glowy thing is the machine world being stoopid
IIIIIt's Dashie's evaluation time!
Oh.
Um. Well then. That happened. Also, Josho seems far too calm in this situation...could it be a memory from the past. These are my thoughts so far.
-MASH
Leeches being my least favourite thing on the planet, this was a decidedly disturbing simile.
Also, Josho knows how to get things done. We'll see if those things are effective soon enough, I'm guessing.
Onward!
So let's see how Josho and Seclorum interact.
-Spirit
Go get 'em, Josho.
Ledomare has a real bad habit of letting the worst ponies rise to power.
Fuck, I can't even remember why the war's being fought...
5893269 two words. Racism and religion.
6033588 At this point, I am not sure even THEY know.
Seems the Ledo forces have had quite enough.
And now I'm caught up to where I left off a year ago. This time I'll keep reading.
Also at this point I'll add some commentary (something I haven't really done yet).
I find this whole saga incredible. From the land scapes, to the characters, and the unique and complex cultures that our hero comes accross on her eastward journey.
I haven't read for fun in a year, too busy with research. However, reading this has been incredibly fun. I'd say it's relaxing, but I'm too busy worrying for the gang.
Right now we are following six different character groups (Josho, Rainbow, Roarke and gang, Kera and Dalen, the Jury, and Belle). I wonder how they will all converge. My guess is a couple groups at a time until they are all together. Although a giant meetup would be pretty sick, it would be way to coincidental.
Anyway, those are some thoughts and my guess. On to the next chapter (finally)!
8297819
I don't think I can catch up to you :(
I think this chapter does a very good job detailing the costs and effects of war, but this time on the Ledo side.
It truly is looking like a one sided battle