Steven Montano - Black Scars

White detonations rang up and down the field as dead bodies erupted in blasts of cold fire. The explosions carried on through the small horde in a chain reaction. Angry white light leapt from one body to the next.

In the sky above, the vampires in the final warship and those mounted on the last Razorwing were also affected by the light. The dead flesh tore from their rotted bones and evaporated like melting snow.

The light caught the burning fuel in the Coffin and ignited it. The resulting explosion peeled into the sky with a deafening blast. The ground shook. Everything sucked in towards Cross like a vortex.

When it was done, every last Ebon Cities fighter was gone. Nothing was left of them but ash.

Cross stood in a daze. His eyes burned and his skin peeled from the cold. His arms and legs trembled, and after a moment his strength left him completely, and Kane caught him as he fell to his knees. His throat felt like a chimney.

The last vampire warship crashed to the ground just a few hundred yards away. Shrapnel and gouts of caustic flame filled the frozen wind with the smell of burnt metal.

And as abruptly as the battle had began, it was over. The icy world settled into near silence.

The last Bloodhawk landed a few minutes later, having lost three men. The Bloodhawk that carried Ankharra had been shot down, but her magic helped most of those onboard survive the crash.

All told, over forty of Crylos' seventy-five men were dead.

They all stood in silence for a time. They watched bloody patches of fog fall and melt the icy ground beneath them. Smoke of different colors competed for control of the sky. Torn and exploded remains were everywhere, and soon they were covered in drifts of smoking ash. The air smelled like long-burned meat.

Ekko stumbled over to Cross and Kane. Black and Cole joined them. The side of Black's face was bloody from where, Cross later learned, Harker’s head had exploded when a bone grenade went off inside the ship.

Cross stared off into the pale and frozen sky. The ghosts of centuries passed through him. He felt soiled, and very old. He had become a conduit for Death.

And I'll have to do it again, before this night is done. That was what they really taught me in Krul, whether they knew it or not. How to kill…and kill again.

Quietly, the survivors of First and Second Platoon, Claw Company, gathered what resources and men they had left. Their task was not get finished.

They still had to find the Woman in the Ice.

Steven Alan Montano

Black Scars

The Southern Claw base camp became a makeshift medical bivouac. Thankfully, only a few of those who’d been injured were in serious condition. The death toll, however, was high, and already there were mutterings that it was all too much for them to take on, that they barely had enough men left to secure the area, let alone dedicate more to a thorough search of what promised to be a sizable underground complex.

Cross quelled their concerns as best he could.

“ I don't need many of your men.”

He, Black, Cole, Crylos and Ankharra stood away from the camp, at the top of a low rise that offered a good view of the frozen city. Thirty square blocks — nearly a quarter of the city — had been reduced to icy ruin in the battle. Dark steam and churning drifts of yellow-orange fog still clung to the area. Even at a distance, it was easy to smell the smolder of artillery and scorched bodies. Drifts of ash covered the ground like grey snow.

“ How many?” Crylos asked.

“ We have to consider the very real possibility that we're still going to have to deal with the Black Circle, in one capacity or another,” Cross said.

“ Well, correct me if I'm wrong,” Ankharra said, “but we have zero intel regarding the Circle's numbers or capabilities.”

“ That’s correct,” Cross said. “And we also have a 600-foot-tall walking shadow on our tail. We'll need as much warning as possible when it gets here so that we can clear the area.”

“ Is there any way to engage that thing?” Crylos asked.

“ Not if you want to win,” Black answered.

Everyone paused at that.

“ So what do you need?” Crylos asked.

Cross looked at the bivouac, and at the remaining soldiers of 1st and 2nd Platoon. The image of men falling out of the sky was still stuck in his mind.

“ Spare me two men,” he said at last, “to escort us back to the Bone Tower. They can standby and back us up if we run into trouble.”

Crylos nodded. The last Bloodhawk had a damaged fuel pump and needed repairs, and it wouldn't be ready for any sort of heavy activity for several hours, at least. They'd need it to get the remaining men out in a hurry. Claw Company could send reinforcements, but Cross made clear that he didn't want that. It would only provide more fuel for the Sleeper.

It's coming, he thought. It wants to destroy us, and the Woman in the Ice. It knows what we can do to it.

Kane and Ekko were just outside of the main camp. They sat in a small and private tent carefully watched by a pair of soldiers who politely kept their weapons stowed.

There had been no way to conceal the fact that Ekko was Turning once the battle had finished, and Crylos had been understandably less-than-thrilled to discover that a near-vampire was now in his camp. The fact that she’d helped defeat the Ebon Cities undead helped her case, but Crylos’ biggest reservation was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the same that Cross had himself: what happened when she did Turn?

As far as Cross could guess, all three of them — he, Ekko and Black — were tied to Lucan's power and the Woman in the Ice. What would have happened if one of them had died during the battle? What if Ekko became a vampire before their task was finished? Cross didn't think that her transformation was likely, at least not yet…he still felt that the primordial energies they'd inherited from Lucan somehow prevented her Turning completely, at least for the moment.

But what happens when all of this is done? What happens when Lucan's power is no longer needed? Will it fade away? Will she Turn then?

Cross walked into their small tent. Kane and Ekko sat quietly. He meditated in lotus position — his flexibility was impressive for a large man — with his eyes closed and his palms out. Ekko sat in the same pose, utterly still, her blank eyes like black pools. The air was cold from her presence. Her blonde hair looked stiff, as if from frost, and her lips had gone dark blue, a sharp contrast to the excess of her pale skin.

I'm scared, Cross. She spoke to him with telepathy so seldom it was easy for Cross to forget that she was even capable of doing so.

I know, he answered with his own thoughts. Me, too.

Will you do something for me?

She didn't have to say what — he already knew. She didn’t want to Turn, and if it came down to it, she wanted to make sure that someone would do what was needed. He wasn't sure that he could, but he knew he’d do his best if she made him promise.

She did.

Kane's eyes opened.

“ Is it time?” he asked.

Cross wanted to take him aside, to talk to him about Ekko.

What the hell would you say? he asked himself.

“ Yeah. It's time.”

On his way back to the bivouac, Cross saw Black and Cole. They stood just behind the M2, which needed some repairs. The two women stayed largely out of sight. He couldn't hear anything they said, but it was clear they were having a disagreement, since Cole held up her hands in frustration and shook her head, but Black kept talking, perhaps imploring her lover to listen.

Cross wanted to step away before he was noticed, but Black looked up and saw him. He pointed at the city, nodded, and in the blink of an eye she regained her composure and nodded back.