Джеффри Лорд: The Ruins Of Kaldac

The smoke wasn't going to affect the lasers as much as Blade feared. Very well, then let the butchery start. He'd known all along there'd be a gory spectacle but in the first excitement of seeing the enemy at hand he'd forgotten it. Now he remembered, his hands and mouth were dry, and he had to swallow before he could give his next order to Sidas.

«All right, Sidas. Face yours forward, and fire on my command.»

«Yes, Blade.»

He sounded subdued. Blade hoped he was. He distrusted bloodlust in other people almost as much as he distrusted it in himself.

Blade bit down on the firing button, saw the laser beams lance the smoke ahead, and heard the screams.

«Fire!» More of the same, then:

«Waldoes of Kaldak, charge!»

Rehna tried to peer through the smoke from the burning forest on the north side of the valley. She wanted to see how the battle was going.

For the moment at least it hardly deserved the name of a battle. The only Kaldakans in sight were the handful of dead they'd left behind on the north slopes. Rehna didn't know if they'd been driven off completely or just driven back to another position. Certainly they were now out of range of either the Doimari infantry in the valley or the Fighting Machines on the hills to the south.

For the moment the Fighting Machines were staying where they were. Those were Nungor's orders, Rehna had passed them back to the Seekers in the control chairs in Doimar, and so far they seemed to be obeying. Rehna did not like Nungor or trust many of his captains, but she knew that if each part of Doimar's army fought its own battle the Kaldakans might still win.

Some of the Doimari foot soldiers were going north and some south to get around the fire and renew the attack. Others were going nowhere, either too busy licking their wounds or because they hadn't received any orders. Rehna saw Nungor run past several times, more red-faced and sweating harder each time, shouting orders, trying to get the lazy ones moving. She wished him luck. For now her own part in the battle was so easy that she had time to realize she was hungry. That wasn't surprising, since she hadn't eaten all day.

She bent over and started to call down the hatch. Then she heard a sudden swelling uproar from the smoke to the west. Screams, the sound of lasers, and a metallic chorus which sounded like Fighting Machines on the move but couldn't possibly be that.

Then in a moment Rehna knew that the impossible was the truth. A line of Fighting Machines loomed out of the smoke, all marching the same way regardless of the ground underfoot, all swinging blood-stained metal bars in their hands, all with fire-beam tubes glowing like evil eyes in their chests. Behind the first line was a second, behind the second line a third-

No! Logic, sanity, and common sense all shouted that in her mind. She ignored the shout, because her eyes told her differently. The Kaldakans had live Fighting Machines, and they were coming down the valley against the men of Doimar like Death itself.

Then the Fighting Machines stopped, and the first row shot their fire-beams. Hundreds of Doimari were already running or lying down, but that didn't save most of them. The fire-beams made a net like a fisherman's in the smoky air, and the Doimari foot soldiers were the fish. Some flew completely into the air, trailing smoke. Others fell, writhing and screaming, their clothes on fire. Still others became puffs of greasy smoke or were torn into bloody rags when the fire-beams set off their hand fire-bombs.

Some men lived a bit longer, because the beams didn't catch them or because the smoke and dirt thrown up weakened the beams. Many of these died in the next minute, when the Fighting Machines strode forward, swinging their clubs. Rehna was reminded of farmers beating their fields for blue rats. One blow of the steel clubs the Fighting Machines carried could turn a man into pulp from his head down to his chest.

The Fighting Machines swung clumsily and all together, whether they had a target or not. Rehna saw one smash the arm of the machine next to it with its club. It looked as if a few men or perhaps only one man was controlling all the Fighting Machines at once. That was something she knew was possible but which Doimar had never tried. If there was one man controlling all the Kaldakan machines, she though she knew his name.

Blade of England.

Suddenly she wasn't quite sure she wanted to bear the child of a man who'd slaughtered so many of her fellow Doimari. However, she was sure he wasn't going to win the battle, in spite of the bloody start he'd made. When the Fighting Machines of Doimar came down into the valley, each one would have a trained Seeker controlling it. Blade's crude tactics and skills could never meet such an attack.

While she'd been thinking this, the Kaldakans moved a hundred paces forward and used their fire-beams again. This time she felt the heat on her face and clods of earth rattled off the armor of the Carrying Machines. She looked anxiously at the Voice equipment, but it seemed unhurt. They'd still better move back to a safer position.

A breeze seemed to be carrying the smoke away now. To the north Rehna saw Kaldakan foot soldiers appearing on the ridge again. To the south she could now make out eight or ten of Doimar's Fighting Machines. Any moment now they should start down the hill, to pass through the retreating Doimari foot soldiers and engage the Kaldakans. The battle would be hard and would destroy much Oltec, but it would also prove, even to Nungor, that the Seekers-

«No!» This time Rehna said the word out loud. Then she screamed it at the top of her lungs, as if screaming loud enough could change what she saw. The Fighting Machines weren't coming down the hill. They were turning away into the smoke and walking off the battlefield. No, not walking-they were starting to run. Rehna's fellow Seekers were more concerned with saving their Fighting Machines than saving their fellow Doimari, or even winning the battle.

«No,» Rehna said again, and burst into tears. «No!» she shouted, pounding her fists on the armor of the Carrying Machine until she tore open skin and flesh. She went on pounding, as blood made the armor slick under her. «Cowards! Cowards! Cow-«

Fire-bombs exploded all around her, and something like the metal fist of a Fighting Machine struck her. She flew through the air and landed hard enough to knock the breath out of herself. More explosions crashed out as the Carrying Machine started moving off. The Voice equipment was now leaning drunkenly to one side. She hoped it still lived.

Rehna knew what was happening. The fire-bomb throwers were shooting at the Kaldakan Fighting Machines, but they didn't know the exact range. They were landing their bombs short, right among the Doimari! «No,» she whimpered.

Then more explosions, and a rain of metal pieces, human bodies, and broken weapons fell all around her. She tasted blood in her throat, gagged on it, and also felt a pain deep in her belly. Was she losing the child?

A single fire-beam stabbed through the smoke overhead, from a Kaldakan machine controlled by someone as good as any Seeker. With horrible precision it sought out the Carrying Machine with the Voice equipment. The Voice equipment sagged and started to melt, someone on fire from head to foot jumped out, then the fire-boxes inside gave up all their energy at once. The explosion roiled Rehna over on her side, so she didn't see the red-hot wreckage of the Seekers' proudest achievement. She did see a Kaldakan Machine bring down one foot within inches of her face, the other on top of a Doimari soldier who was mercifully already dead. She didn't see any more clearly, because the pain suddenly struck her all over so that she curled up into a little ball and started whimpering.