Chapter 12 – Diving In

  “We are not sure at what point the pocket dimensions start developing but we think it is between the attaching and opening phases. We have detected higher mana consumption at this time which we think is reted to them generating its ‘defenses’” – Order academy professor on ‘rift lifecycles and development.’

  “So, what, we just step in?” Kurt asked while looking at the colorless image of a forest. They couldn’t see anything on the other side, but they were also looking only in one direction that happened to end in dense brush.

  “That’s the idea, yes.” Penny said as both Kurt and Val stood there at the edge of the altar. “You can also exit at any time. There is a suggestion field that surrounds the portal. It encourages anything on the other side to ignore it and move away.”

  Kurt wasn’t convinced but also was brand new and had to go with the flow a little. Penny had said the rift they attached to was ‘medium’ in its size, whatever that meant. She said they couldn’t tell much more than general power and location until it attached to the anchor.

  After it did attach, it took about an hour to open to the point they could enter. It was during this time that they gathered more information. They found out it was a pretty rge, which made it seem like the creatures within might be either weak or sparsely poputed, since so much energy went to making it a rge space.

  “And we just go in and try to kill everything along with the core, thing. How do we find the core if its so rge?” Val asked the st part while trying to look around the edges of the open portal.

  “You should be able to get a general sense as it pulls mana toward it. You can also do some rituals or spells to help you locate it if you know any.” Penny was starting to get agitated. “Look, we have a few days before things get bad and it takes a bite out of reality, but you should get a move on. Like now.”

  Kurt looked over to Val as she stepped up next to him. They exchanged a look before both stepping into the portal. Kurt wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but to him it almost felt like he walked through static. He ended up with a tingling and prickling sensation that washed over him for a brief moment before dissipating. Once his face cleared the edge, the forest returned to its natural color of greens and browns.

  Val shivered as she stepped through. “Ugh, I feel like I just walked through a spider web.” She did a quick shake, her ears and tail flicking as she did.

  “Come on, Val. Guns up.” Kurt said in a stage whisper.

  She ducked her head in embarrassment and moved off to his right side, peering into the forest. Kurt wasn’t able to see much but he stopped and listened instead. He also made use of his other senses and tried to scent the air. He did faintly smell something but once again couldn’t pce it, everything else just smelled like forest.

  He pulled out the small metal container that he had grabbed from his hazardous materials locker. While there were some hazards in the case, there was also some pretty mundane talismans like the one he pulled out.

  Walking to the edge of the clearing, Kurt found a good size boulder away from the portal entrance that was just a ft grey with nothing showing through it. He crouched down and Val covered him, occasionally gncing out of the corner of her eye to watch.

  The talisman he had selected was a called waymark. It would act as a sort of compass, always pointing back toward this point in his mind. He had another device that he had enchanted back in his workshop but didn’t bring it along this time. The device in question was a sort of compass that relied on a small, paired marker that was pced somewhere.

  “What’s that?” Val asked after the talisman had finished its work and turned to dust, leaving a small white glowing dot on the side of the rock.

  “Waymark. It constantly points me in this direction for the next 48 hours.”

  “Handy.” She whispered.

  Kurt looked her over where she crouched behind a rather thick tree. She was in the green uniforms that the other squad had worn with her simir armor. She had one of his radios shoved into one of the pouches and ran the headset up from under her arm. Her rifle also had just a red dot optic on it and a light, clearly being common issued equipment.

  The only odd thing about her equipment was that she didn’t have boots on. For starters, her foot shape wouldn’t allow it, being very canine in form. And secondly, there was no real end to her pant leg, it was just bloused where it ended under her heel. Kurt thought it was strange given how he was so used to seeing tall boots at the bottom of uniforms.

  Stirring from his musings, he looked back out to the woods in front of them. He could faintly see the sky on the opposite side of the tree line that was thick with undergrowth. With nothing else to do in the small clearing, they pushed into the dense undergrowth. They broke through after a few yards and came out under the cover of some hardwoods. It was a small pocket that was surrounded on all sides by the brush, but it seemed to be an oblong patch of woods.

  “Another clearing on the other side.” Kurt motioned to the next wall of brush and vines. “Lets push and peek.”

  Val nodded and they crept forward. They kept a few yards between them, not wanting to be right on top of each other in case they were engaged suddenly. The next time they broke through, they were staring at an open field that stretched for well over a mile from edge to edge.

  Within the massive clearing was a number of tall trees, each one standing alone with nothing around it but a sea of grass and its neighbor several hundred yards away. They formed a ring around the center like a series of border forts. In the very center of these trees was an absolutely massive tree. Its branches stretched out from its thick trunk for at least a hundred feet by Kurt’s estimation.

  Stopping where they were, Kurt reached into his admin pouch and fished around for a moment, eventually coming up with a small pair of binocurs. He held them up and focused on the closest tree that was a couple hundred yards away. Movement in the branches was the first thing he noticed.

  Kurt knelt and braced his wrist on the stock of his rifle, trying to steady the image. In the tree he counted over 20 figures moving around, hopping from branch to branch. “There is something in the trees.” He whispered to Val. “I think its some kind of bird by the way they move.”

  “What about the ones on the ground?” Val asked.

  Not having looked there yet, Kurt focused on the ground below the tree. He didn’t immediately see anything and as he was about to ask Val what she saw, he caught more movement as he panned across. There was another type of bird on the ground. They looked like a cassowary but had a long and pointed beak like herons or cranes.

  “Another bird but probably flightless.” He said as he watched the flock of 8 patrolling along between the perimeter trees. “Looks like they are patrolling. They stay within the border of the outer trees and are moving on a set path at a set pace.”

  “So strange.” Val said as she watched. She declined the offer of the binocurs, instead just watching the grass before them.

  “One big problem though.” Kurt said and got a look from her. “We are going to need a lot more ammunition.”

  Val looked from him to the scene before them. “How do you figure that?”

  “Well, I think there is at least 20 in each tree, and we can assume an average of 10 in the foot patrols. That would put 200 in the outer trees alone with another 300 on the ground. I have 480 rounds, you have 210 which leaves us at like one and a third bullets per bird.” He did some quick math and expined his thought process.

  “And that’s assuming that we hit every shot and there isn’t more in the center tree.” Val answered.

  “And that these are the only ones. There might be more in the rest of the woods.” Kurt added. “Plus, we don’t know if it changes at night.”

  Val shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a problem. There is no sun. it’s just a constant light over blue skies. It’s like its mimicking the outside without knowing how it works.”

  Kurt looked up and sure enough, blue sky but no sun. There was shadow being cast but it was always from directly overhead, and there wasn’t anything up there except blue. “Fucking trippy.”

  “Yeah. So, what’s the pn then?”

  Thinking for a moment, Kurt came to a decision. “Let’s back out. We can rearm and bring in a few speedballs.” He noticed her odd expression. “It’s an ammo can or bag filled with pre-loaded magazines in bandoliers.”

  She agreed and they slowly backed out, not taking an eye off the central clearing as they retreated into the undergrowth. They hastily retreated back through the portal and came out to Penny siting behind a small desk in the entrance area.

  “Back so soon?” She asked. “Is something wrong?”

  “We are going to need a lot more ammunition.” Kurt said and Val agreed. “And Val needs better stuff.”

  “Hey!” Val said, sounding indignant. “My stuff is just fine.”

  Kurt looked at her as they marched back to the house. “Just fine isn’t always good.” He led the way to the basement, expining the situation to Penny as they went. After he propped his rifle in the corner, he opened the locker he retrieved his gun from.

  “Holy shit.” Penny said as she looked inside. “You are really something. This is incredibly organized.”

  “How about you help us out and start putting mags in bags.” Kurt said and pulled open a drawer under the locker that was filled with rifle magazines. “There should be some backpacks in that cabinet if you can put some in. Oh, grab one of those bandoliers for Val and fill it too.”

  Instructions given out; Kurt pulled out another rifle. This one was a little shorter than the one he currently had. The new rifle had a 12-inch barrel, with lights and ser but the optic was an aimpoint with a magnifier that could be rotated out of the way. He handed the rifle to Val and then started looking for other things in the locker.

  “Well, this is nice.” Val commented as she shouldered the gun and adjusted the stock. She was sure to keep it pointed at a wall, safety first.

  “Just needs a few more things.” Kurt said as he walked over. “Sling, mounted here and here.” He pointed to the small metal holes. “And this.” He held out another silencer like object.

  Val inspected the silencer. “It’s just an open-ended cup?” Indeed, there wasn’t any end cap or anything on the inside that she could see, just a small cup like tube about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide. “What is this supposed to do?”

  Kurt rolled his eyes before turning he hand over to show the etched lines along the sides. “Come on, you know my hobby.” He said. “It’s a very localized zone of silence. Essentially there is a cone that extends out for about a foot from the end and is about 8 inches wide at the base.”

  “Then why put it on this? Couldn’t you just put it on the gun itself?” Val asked, very curious as to his reasoning.

  “Well yeah.” Kurt admitted. “But the bst can and the muzzle device act as a fsh hider and there is some, ah, legal issues with making one of these.” He tried to find a way to say ‘unregistered magical weapon’ in a nice way. “I will remind you that it only takes away the noise at the muzzle. It will still be loud because its supersonic.”

  Nodding along and briefly remembering how the sound barrier worked, Val watched as he showed her how to put it on. He then showed her how the optics worked with the mounts and magnifier. She was a little concerned about the optics sitting so high, but it seemed to work fine and allowed for the magnifier to fold down rather than to the side.

  Penny had finished splitting 40 magazines between the two backpacks and had stuffed a 6-pouch bandolier for Val. She threw it over her shoulder and grabbed one of the bags as the went back up the stairs and to the portal.

  Penny didn’t like the silence and had to say something. “So, what is your pn to deal with the birds?” She sounded both curious and worried. “You have a pn, right?”

  Kurt looked back over his shoulder and smiled. “Sure, go in, kill everything and break the core.”

  Val ughed. “Oh, so inspiring.”

  Penny was not amused. She was so unamused that she didn’t say another word as Kurt and Val stepped through the portal and entered the clearing again. Kurt experienced the same static as st time but also noticed that his spell reactivated, and he could sense the marker again.

  “Alright, here’s the pn.” Kurt said as they pushed through the woods. “We stay in the brush at the edge of the woods. I will begin engaging the birds in the tree while you keep an eye out for any on the ground that come looking our way.”

  “That’s it?” she asked, sounding a little incredulous.

  Nodding, Kurt expined. “This is a probe. I want to see what they do and how they act when their allies start taking fire.” They had reached the edge of the woods and poked out into the brush. They had emerged a little closer to the first of the tree forts as Kurt was thinking of them. It was a little over 150 yards from where they sat.

  “Ready?” Kurt asked. They had concealed themselves in shadow, under some of the low hanging branches and he got into a nice sitting position. He had to increase his magnification to see the outlines of the birds in the tree, but he could faintly make them out through the leaves.

  “Ready.” Val confirmed as she knelt next to him. She wasn’t looking through her sight, instead keeping her head up and looking around.

  Kurt looked through his scope and picked out one of the figures that was holding still. Its head moved around, seemingly like a pigeon. After watching for a moment to make sure it wouldn’t move, He centered his reticle at the base of its neck and fired.

  Val flinched as she felt a little wave of air, the slight pressure noticeable from where she sat. The sound of the bst was absolutely muted but there was a crack as the bullet zipped down range and into the tree. There was a ‘thwack’ noise and a shape fell from the branches along with a small cloud of feathers. After it hit the ground, all hell broke loose.

  The birds in the tree began screeching and cawing, hopping around on the lower branches, looking down at their fallen comrade. One of them hopped down and looked at the corpse as it twitched on the ground. Now that it was out of the branches, they could properly see it.

  The bird looked like an eagle or simir bird of prey, but Kurt guessed it stood at around 5 feet tall. Its feathers were a light grey and white in color. Its yellow legs ended in rge talons that looked like they were hard to walk with since it hopped more than walked.

  Kurt took advantage of the situation and found another likely victim on a lower branch. He waited for it to hold still and fired again. Crack, thwack. Another bird fell starting the process over. This time Kurt shot one of the 3 birds now on the ground. Another puff of feathers flew up as the nded bird partly disintegrated.

  Val and Kurt shared a look. It seemed that the birds were trying to figure out what happened and didn’t seem interested in what was causing it. They checked in on the patrolling birds and found them still way off in the field. With a shrug, Kurt kept firing and even Val took some shots, getting used to the rifle she had borrowed.

  Something changed after they took down the 16th bird, having fired over 20 rounds between them. It all started when one of the birds looked right at them as Kurt fired a round. He thought it was maybe the slight muzzle fsh or perhaps the foliage around them moving from the muzzle bst. Either way, the jig was up, and the 7 remaining birds all took to the air. Their enormous wing spans easily propelling them upward.

  “About time they caught on.” Kurt muttered as they watched them fly. The flock didn’t go far, only another 50 meters beyond the tree they had been in before they came back to the ground.

  “What are they doing?” Val asked. She was still keeping an eye out for anything trying to sneak up on them. So far, the only thing they had seen was the 2 types of birds.

  Kurt wasn’t sure but tried to get a look through his scope. The birds all came back to the ground, nding in some grass that looked a little shorter than the rest. Each of them hopped to the center of the clearing and did a sort of fpping dance before taking to the sky once more. He was just able to see what was going on after adjusting the magnification on his optic.

  “Oh, fuck.” He said and began creating a spell in the air.

  “What is it?” Val asked. She looked and saw the birds flying up, circling as they gained altitude. She thought their legs looked weird, like they hadn’t folded up right and were extra bulky.

  “Bombing run.” Kurt muttered.

  Val looked back and froth from him to the birds a few times. “Bombing run?”

  He drew his circle, expanded the ring and in the center drew a rather narrow inverted trapezoid that tapered toward the base. He then drew arcs along each side that stacked atop each other with the farthest out being the longest. After he finished, he compressed it to a single point then closed his fist around it.

  Gncing up, Kurt saw that the birds had reached the height they wanted and began drifting overhead. He grabbed the strap on Val’s backpack and pulled her back toward the base of the tree. He looked around a little more, but it was as good a spot as any. He pulled Val close, and they both looked up and waited, watching as the birds began to circle.

  After a couple orbits, the bird’s dove, coming in from every side at steep angles. Kurt watched and waited until he saw the first one fre its wings and turn away as a stone nearly a foot across continued on toward him and Val.

  Raising his fist, Kurt turned his palm upward, spying his fingers and pushing mana into the construct. A nearly transparent white umbrel, 10 feet in diameter formed above them just before the first stone hit. The first of the seven stones hit the barrier, sounding like a rock hitting a tree as it skittered off to the edge of the shield and dropped to the ground.

  The duo weathered the rocks without issue under the barrier. Kurt was keeping an eye on it and even weakened it a little toward the st one, getting more of a ripple from the shield than a solid deflection. After each bird dropped its payload, it began flying back to the short grass patch, likely to get another rock.

  “Quick, before they pick up more.” Val said and they both rushed back to their original spot and started picking the birds off as they nded. They missed more often but they did manage to kill all the birds before they took to the air again.

  “Good Job.” Kurt said. He reloaded, dropping his mostly empty magazine into his backpack and inserting a new one.

  “Thanks!” Val said, following suit and topping off.

  They both looked up as a new sound reached them. It was a high-pitched whistle that seemed to be repeated at different volumes and tones. They looked out to the field, searching for the source and saw a new problem coming their way. The other type of bird had finally come into action and a group of 8 was running their way.