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Displacement

by hornethead

Chapter 66: The Storm Wall Breaks

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Chapter 66: The Storm Wall Breaks

"How far have they moved?"

"Not much since mid-afternoon, sir."

Not far from shore, the massive fleet was anchored out. They had pulled in close, close enough to barely see the menacing shapes of the hostile army walking about the ships' railings and working about the landing barges. However, for some reason, they had not yet decided to land. This struck James as odd. Any competent leader would have chosen to land as soon as possible rather than standing off and allowing their foes to prepare. To James it meant that there was something else going on, something he didn't know about, which left him extremely concerned.

For the third day in a row he watched from the top of the fortifications on the beach, searching for some hint of his enemy's plans. But all he could do was wait and hope whatever they were cooking up wasn't something he couldn't be able to handle. The situation left the rest of the encampment balancing on a razor's edge, anticipation and anxiety swelling through the mass of soldiers and guards waiting for the threat just off their coast to finally make a move.

"Hey, c'mon. You've been up here for hours, let's go get some show."

James was hungry. It was past noon now and he hadn't eaten anything all day, "Alright buddy, let's go eat."

He turned and followed Sparks down to the beach, leaving the watch to the guards already posted on the ramparts. Together they walked up the slope and over the ridge that concealed the full strength of the defending army. They angled off towards the mess tent, but before they could reach it, they were intercepted. A large, hulking two legged figure clad in thick armor.

"James, I would speak with you." He said in his deep grating voice.

"Sure thing Garth, what is it?"

"Please follow me."

Curious, James watched as the warrior turned and began stomping off in the direction of the Fixers' camp. Sparks also started to follow, but stopped when Garth halted and confronted them again.

"Alone" he ordered.

James and Sparks looked at each other, the unicorn stallion giving the human a worried look. James shrugged. He pointed to his radio, which he wore, and continued on, leaving the engineer behind. He followed Garth to their camp, then past it as Garth did not stop, but instead seemed to be heading for the forest. The day suddenly grew dark and shaded as they entered the growth. James did not know where his teammate was taking him and raised his guard. His concern was for naught, however, when they broke through the under growth and out into a small clearing.

A fire burned in the middle. In the back was a low hut constructed of logs, branches and the boughs of trees. To the left was a wooden rack, on it hung some fish caught from the river and a few wild forest hares. Garth motioned for James to sit down on a near by stump. Cocking an eyebrow, James complied while the warrior went into his hut and started rummaging around for something. After a moment, he returned, carrying several small, roughly carved wooden bowls, various colors of red, black and gray. Garth sat down on a log opposite James and looked him in the eyes.

"I know of why they delay."

This grabbed James' attention, all of his focus snapping to the Lotkin seated in front of him, "You do!? The hell you didn't say anything before? What are they planning, some kind of sneak attack or some weapon I shou--"

Garth held up a palm, signaling James to stop. Begrudgingly, the human did, and waited for what Garth had to say.

"What they prepare for is battle. It is the Sherrhat Guhm, a ceremony my kin perform before great battle. It starts with great feasting, followed by contests of strength and agility among battle leaders to determine who receives the honor of the first attack."

"Uhhh... we're not about to fight, are we?"

From Garth's throat came a gravely coughing noise. To James, it almost sounded like laughter, "No we will not fight. That is not why I brought you here. There is another part, to take place just before battle. Warriors who fight side by side apply war paints to one another to intimidate their foes. Here I have the colors of my old clan." He said, gesturing to the wooden bowls.

"You want be to put them on your face?"

Garth nodded, "Yes, but first, you."

James thought for a split second. He'd worn grease paint before, but it didn't really have any significance other than to help conceal his face and camouflage his skin. He was a little uneasy about participating in something that had that much meaning, but he didn't want to offend so he went along with it.

"Ok, go ahead."

James sat patiently as Garth dipped his fingers into the bowls and began to apply the paints to his face. He sat there motionless while the warrior traced flowing lines and patterns across his skin with the tips of his digits. After a few moments had passed, Garth wiped his hands against the log. James reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPod. With the camera, he took a quick photo of his own face and looked at it.

Across his visage, swirling lines like dancing flame rippled around his skin as if it were desperately trying to burn it. Here and there, slashes like the claws of some great beast adorned the edges. The colors of every line alternated crimson red, midnight black and ashen gray. It was truly a fierce display. Getting the idea of it all, James picked up the wooden bowls and tried his best to do the same thing to Garth. The result didn't look half as good as the Lotkin's work, but it still came out as impressive.

"Hey Garth, why didin't you invite Sparks or Flash out here for this?"

"We will include them in time, for the battle is almost upon us. I did not want them to be here for the meal."

"The meal? What meal?"

As if to answer James' question, Garth picked up a blackened and charred forked stick from the ground and shoved it into the blazing fire. He maneuvered it around for a little bit before finally pulling it out, and with it, a large iron pot topped with a thick lid. He took out a knife and used it to pry off the top. It came off with a whoosh of steam and the pungent smell of a rabbit stew. With a grunt of pain, Garth plunged an arm into the still boiling water and extracted the body of a hare, probably one that had been hanging with it's brethren not too long ago. With a flick of his hand, Garth tossed the body into the fire.

"Don't know how Fluttershy would react to that..." James commented.

"She does not have to know." Garth replied softly.

The mottled skin warrior then used the stick to place the pot at the edge of the fire, enough to keep it at a simmering boil. Then, to James' surprise, he held his arm over the pot, placed the edge of the knife on the inside of his forearm and drew it across his skin, producing a small trickle of blood. Opening and clenching his fist, he increased the flow of blood until a few drops splashed into the roiling stew. Then he passed the knife to James to do the same. Taking a deep breath, the human repeated the act, adding his own life's blood to the mixture. They then left it to boil for a moment. When he thought it appropriate, Garth removed the pot and produced two more wooden bowls which he filled with the pot's contents, handing one of them to James. Next, he lifted his own bowl and spoke in invocation.

"Khoti Sah Herrat, we sup to you and sacrifice the meat of our meal. From here we fight as brothers, in honor and now in blood."

Garth lifted the bowl to his lips and began to drink deeply. James' stomach churned a little a the thought of following through. Steeling himself, he brought his own bowl up and drank. The soup was good, even if it had acquired a certain coppery taste. Once they both finished, they put the bowls back down.

"Now we truly fight together Ahrhati Khot. Our foes shall fall swiftly and in great number before our might." The Lotkin stated with conviction.

"I certainly hope so. If I can ask, why did you toss the rabbit into the fire?"

"We offer it to our fallen ancestors, so that they may guide us safely onto the next journey should we misstep and begin it too soon."

"Oh. Ok." James blinked, understanding his teammate's morbid meaning.

Just then, James' radio crackled, "Hey boss, something's going on over here, you should get back."

James' keyed the mic, "What's up?"

"The ships are starting to move."

James shot to his feet, possibilities and plans running like mad through his mind. Garth looked to him questioningly.

"What is the matter?"

"We have to go. We got work to do."

The faintest smile began to curl the corners of the Lotkin's mouth.

=====================================================================

"Nice make-up job, which salon you go to to get it?" Flash snickered.

James didn't respond right away, focused as he was on his task. At the moment, he was busy loading up several magazines for the M82 in the main cabin of the Clipper. Flash was there to help him carry some of the equipment as he would be serving as the marksman's spotter during the conflict.

"Garth did it for me, sort of a bonding thing or something."

"What, no witty comeback, no insults? James, are you feeling all right?"

"Feeling fine." James replied in a flat tone as he finished the last mag and switched to adjusting the scope.

"Ok... Well all joking aside, where's my paint at, we're a team right?"

"Yup. Sparks is getting his done right now. You know what? I'll take care of the equipment. Head over to my tent and get yours done, you can meet me at our firing position after."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, go on brother, get your war paint on."

Flash dashed off to James' tent to meet up with Garth and Sparks while James put the finishing touches on his weapon. When that was completed, he tossed all the mags and the spotter scope into his pack and hefted it on his shoulder. Then he lugged the thirty pound rifle and began a light jog to the north end of the ridge above the beach, near an old dirt road that appeared not to have been used for some time. On his way over, James called out on his radio for an update on the situation.

"Captain Alister, Commander Kaughn, you up?"

"Commander, this is Alister, go ahead."

"On route to my position, what are we looking like out there?"

"Most teams have already settled in, hostiles in flat bottomed craft steadily moving towards the shore. Intermediate teams stationed with the archers on the beach head are up, ready and waiting." The Captain reported.

"Outstanding, what's the tide looking like?"

"About to reach it's high point, soon it'll start receding again."

James couldn't believe their luck when he heard that. This meant that while some of the first wave might skim over the tops of their under water traps, the ones following in behind would be completely unawares of the danger and get impaled on the large wooden stakes lurking just below the surface, further cluttering up the landing area and making it that much easier to repel the invaders.

With a quickened pace, James ran up to a small rocky outcropping on the edge of the ridge. He tossed down his pack, went prone and began setting up the rifle, deploying the bipod and taking the dust covers off of the scope's lenses. After that, he took out the spotter's scope from his pack, along with a couple of mags, and set them aside. Lastly, he pulled back the bolt of the rifle and locked it back before shouldering the weapon and sighting down the scope towards the open sea.

The ships had towed the landing barges even closer to shore, then released them to head for the beach under their own power. How they were being propelled, he could not see. Though he could see that they were now only a few minutes out. Beside him, a pair of wings fluttered down to the ground. James momentarily shifted his attention and turned his head, seeing that Flash had finally arrived, the pegasus' face was painted with a threatening array of patterns and colors making him appear as some kind of angry flying demon.

"About time you showed up." James remarked, putting his eye back to the scope.

"Hey, can't put a rush on adding to a great work of art." Flash quipped.

"Ha, work of art my ass. Scope's by my leg, get comfortable."

"You got it." Flash moved into position with the scope and began sighting through it. "I think I can get a better angle from above, mind if I head on up?"

"Be my guest, just make sure you stay in contact."

Flash took the spotter's scope and took off to the sky above. James watched briefly as the pegasus zoomed around until he found a sizeable cloud and settled into the fluff.

"So what's going on down there?" Flash asked on James' radio channel.

"Barges are moving in."

James watched as the barges neared ever closer to shore. Some of them had already caught on the underwater traps. The Lotkin on those vessels were rushing around, looking over the sides for the reason of why they had stopped. James shifted his view to the rest of the waiting fleet. He saw many of the ships out there start to turn, presenting their broadsides to the shore. James focused on them and saw hundreds of tiny hatches open up in the sides. A single thought came to mind. Frantically, he switched his radio channel to Shining's. He had given the guard captain one earlier the previous day, as well as the admiral.

"Shining, it's James, tell your troops to brace, artillery strike inbound!" He shouted into the mic.

There was no reply, but James was relieved somewhat when he looked upon the beach head and saw a flurry of activity as the warriors stationed there moved to take what cover they could. Hundreds upon hundreds of white puffs of smoke erupted from the sides of the ships. A great staccato of far off thunder, like exploding popcorn, could be heard. Seconds later, great plumes of sand could be seen blasting into the air from the beach, chunks of wood and stone were ripped away from the fortifications. James could imagine what hell the defenders down there had just been thrust into.

Suddenly, an enormous transparent golden shield flickered into existence over the beach, cannon balls exploding and bouncing off the top of it, effectively halting the bombardment. From down on the beach, a faint cheer could be heard as the defenders reveled in their luck. James noted the golden shine of the shield and knew just who was responsible for the assistance. He then looked back to the ocean and saw that even more barges were being launched to the shore. The ones that hadn't been caught in the traps had now almost made it to shore, their open decks now bristling with Lotkin, tightly packed together. An idea formed in the human's mind. James reached over and grabbed a mag, shoving it into the well and releasing the rifle's bolt with a loud clack.

"Flash, it's time to get to work, give me a suitable target, packed close to the others."

"I got ya.... Ok, third one from the right, top deck, big red painted helmet, got a bunch of his boys standing behind him in a group."

James searched for what the pegasus was describing and quickly found the mark. Indeed, there was a suitable target. Carefully, he lined the cross hairs up on the leader's chest. Before he pulled the trigger though, there were just a few more things that he needed.

"Flash, can you give me wind direction, speed and range of shot?"

"Wait one........ wind is coming out from the west, speed at maybe a few knots. Range seems to be about... five hundred, maybe six hundred yards."

"Shit, that's way to easy for this rifle. Sucks for them."

James made the necessary adjustments to his aim and began his breathing. In through the navel, out through the nose. His heart rate dropped, an unnatural calm settled over him. Slowly his finger applied steady pressure to the trigger until it was teetering on the edge of release. Then, at the bottom of his exhale, he squeezed all the way. The rifle kicked hard into his shoulder, the call of Thor barking from the barrel as it sent a deadly projectile on it's way.

Down range, several Lotkin were standing atop their barge behind their leader, brandishing their swords and axes, letting loose brutal war cries. This was abruptly put to an end as the torso of the squad's leader suddenly exploded out backwards. Three more Lotkin behind him met a similar fate, the last one being flipped back and propelled over the side from the force of the impact.

"Good hit, good hit. Send 'em some more." Flash's voice said excitedly in James' ear.

James took his advice and set up another shot. Then another, and another. In no time at all, he had pretty much cleared the top deck. The remaining hostiles onboard had all found cover of some sort and were no longer visible. In an attempt to stop whatever was still propelling the craft, he put a few rounds into the hull by the stern, just above the waterline. Still, it kept on moving. The magazine spent, James popped it out and replaced it with a full one.

"Hey Flash, you got some more targets for me?"

"Sorry boss, but I think you've trained us all a little too well."

"What do you mean?"

"Check it out."

James scanned the other barges and saw that what his friend had said was true. He watched one of the other barges as target after target dropped, some of them now lacking heads. James stopped and listened for a bit. Down the ridge and the beach to the south, he could hear the rapid, faint pops of rifle fire from the other teams. The barrage of fire was devastating the first wave to come in. But there were many more coming.

"Good shit, good shit. Hey, you got eyes on the Clipper?" James asked with some curiosity.

"Yeah, looks like they just finished an ammo run on the south side, they're descending back into the main camp right now. Hold on..." Flash said with concern in his voice.

"What's up?"

"It's Garth, he's hanging out the door... shooting! Holy shit, there's a fire back there!"

"What!? Flash tell me everything you can see right now." James demanded while trying to switch radio channels to Shining's.

"Uh, it looks like... I think I can see some ponies. Dammit, they're in Royal Guard armor, they're setting fire to tents, fucking bastards!"

James finally got to Shining's channel and tried to raise him on the comms, "Hey Shining, this is James, I need you to respond. Shining, if you can here me, respond immediately." All he could hear on the other end was static. "Shit," he switched channels again, "Flash, I can't raise the Captain there."

"What do you want to do, you wanna try picking them off from here?"

"No, I don't want to risk taking out one of our own, this thing produces a lot of collateral." He replied, patting the side of the M82.

"What's the plan then?"

"Get in contact with Admiral Darkwing, tell him to deploy the Sky Strykers, but keep his own ship out of the sky for now. Meantime, Imma keep doin' my thing." James ordered, returning his attention to the landing craft.

=====================================================================

*BOOM*

"TRAITOROUS FILTH!"

*BOOM*

"COWARDS AND BACK STABBERS!"

With each pull of the trigger, Garth felled another of the deceitful rogues currently sabotaging the army's main camp from the side door of the Clipper. Before the airship could even touch down, he jumped out and landed on one of them with a sickening crunch. On the other side of the camp, near the ridge separating the beach from the railroad and forest, the army was dealing with more of them, unable to reach hostiles causing all the damage. Thus, for the moment, it was up to Garth and Sparks to clean up the mess. Behind the Lotkin, the Clipper finally landed, Sparks jumping out to join his teammate.

"Hey, how can you tell which one's which?"

Garth loosed another blast from his shotgun, sending the body of another conspirator into one of the fires his comrades had started, "Look closely at their armor, friend. It is dented and battle worn, long before they have even met the enemy. Clearly they have scavenged their ill-gotten garments from our fallen brethren."

Just then, a pegasus matching Garth's description rushed the Lotkin with a large blade. Before Garth could bring his shotgun to bear, Sparks used his magic to un holster his sidearm and put a bullet in the stallion's head.

"Sounds good to me," Sparks turned his head and yelled back into the Clipper, "Myst, go ahead and take off, we got this!"

Quickly, the airship lifted and rose into the sky. Sparks put his sidearm back in it's holster and took out the AK strapped to his back, levitating it in front of him so he could properly use the sights. He looked to Garth, who simply smiled and unsheathed his broad sword. Together, the rushed a group of five stallions currently trying to start another fire. Sparks put a couple bursts of bullets into two of them, Garth impaled a third through the neck with his sword. A fourth rushed the Lotkin as he tried to extract his sword from the body of the third. Before the attacker could even land a blow, Garth raised his shotgun with his free hand and blew off one side of the pony's face, causing him to crumple to the ground. At this point, the fifth one just ran away in fright.

With a little difficulty, Garth pulled out his sword and wiped off the blood on the trampled grass while Sparks watched his back. Satisfied, Garth then reloaded his shotgun, placing the almost empty one in a pouch on his uniform and slamming a fresh one into the magazine well of his weapon. Before the two to get back to work, their radio earpieces crackled.

"Sparks, Garth, Flash here. Be advised, strike units from the griffons inbound, watch your fire."

"Thanks for the heads-up, Flash. We'll keep an eye out." Sparks replied into the mic.

"There's one other thing," Flash continued, "Captain Armor isn't responding to calls, we need you two to see if you can find him, make sure he's ok."

"You got info on his last known position?"

"That's a negative. Try the command tent. Hold on, wait one........... The boss said to also check up on the Princess if you can."

"Ha ha ha," Sparks laughed, "let dear leader know that she's with the main body of the army still, helping repel those barrages."

"I will. Good luck, Flash out."

"You hear all that buddy?" Sparks said to his teammate behind him.

"Let us carve our bloody path to the Captain."

"I'll take that as a yes." Sparks said with a grin.

The two stalked further into the camp. Every time they encountered another group of saboteurs, they made sure to swiftly dispatch them before they could cause more damage. At one point they came across three actual members of the Royal Guard frantically fighting for their lives against a total of eight of the attackers. Springing into action, Garth launched himself into the air. Letting the Saiga dangle from the strap on his back, Garth held his sword in both hands and inverted it so it pointed to the ground.

With a savage cry, the warrior landed on the back of one of the attackers and drove the point of his sword into the hostile's skull, pinning it to the ground. The rest of them spun around, shocked at the sight. Their shock was short lived, however, and they set to attacking the Lotkin. Garth brought up his shotgun and, with a spray of blood, created a large hole in the chest of one of the stallions. He then ducked as another swung a blade at his head, the sharp metal singing over his head.

Before Garth came back up, Sparks put the hostile down with a bullet to the brain. As Garth came back up, he spun and yanked his sword from the skull of his first victim. Following through, Garth swung his sword and decapitated an earth stallion that was looking to run him through. Sparks dropped two more hostiles with a couple quick bursts from his assault rifle. By now, the two guards they had stopped to help had taken care of the last two.

"Thanks -*huff*- for helping us. We didn't -*huff*- know how much longer we could've held out." One of them, a pegasus, said in gratitude.

"Anytime. You wouldn't happen to know where these guys came from would you?" Sparks inquired.

"Not a clue. At first we thought they were soldiers rotating out from the beach, but they came from the south, the direction of the river. When our lieutenant questioned theirs, they went all berserk and started burning the place down! Our CO was cut down on the spot."

"Well at least it's something. One more thing, have you seen Captain Armor?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Try and see if you can hook back up with the rest of the army, let 'em know what's happening and get them in here."

"You got it!"

The two guardsponies took off at a gallop towards the army's rally point. Sparks and Garth continued on, making quick time through the flames and smoke. Soon, Garth spotted the command tent up ahead. He pointed it out to Sparks and together they rushed to it. When they got to the entrance, another faux guard came tumbling out, a pegasus, body bruised and bleeding. As he landed on his back in a heap, one of his wings crunched, causing Sparks to flinch a bit. The saboteur was followed by none other than Shining Armor himself, the unicorn stallion was also covered with cuts and lacerations and wielding his own sword.

"That'll teach you to come into my camp and attack my soldiers!" The Captain bellowed.

With great terror and pain, the pegasus got to his hooves and galloped away at a maddening pace. Noticing the other two figures standing there, Shining turned to confront them, sword held ready to strike.

"Sir, it's us, part of Commander Kaughn's team!" Sparks shouted in warning.

Shining stopped and lowered his weapon, "Ah, so you are. Sorry about that."

"It's ok sir. The commander has been trying to get a hold of you. When you didn't answer, we were sent to go find you."

"Oh yeah. The radio he gave me was damaged in the attack. I had just barely got the warning about the strike on the beach when these.... I believe James would say 'assholes' came out of no where."

"SPARKS!" Garth shouted in warning.

The unicorn whipped around at the Lotkin's side. Another group of the attackers was rushing at them in an assault. Both Sparks and Garth, including Shining raised their weapons. But before the could use them, several dark blurs dropped from the sky. Large wings, fearsome claws and devastating blades whipped about in a whirlwind fury. In the blink of an eye, it was all over. Six griffons now stood over the bodies of the slain. Overhead, a small airship closely resembling the Clipper buzzed by at low altitude. One of the griffons looked over his shoulder at the Captain and the two RSTG members and gave a little nod.

"Well, I think we're good for a minute." Sparks turned on his mic, "Hey boss, this is Sparks. We have Captain Armor, he's a little beat up, but no worse for wear."

"Good to here," the human replied, "I hope he's not too beat up."

"Ha, you should see the other guy."

"Ok, this is what I need you to do now; get the Captain up to his army's rally point, we've got a massive amount of hostiles inbound to the beach, we need to.... what the fuck?"

=====================================================================

James, still laying prone with his rifle, stopped mid sentence, almost gawking at the sight before him. He propped himself up on an elbow to afford himself a better view. On the edge of the horizon, below the still setting sun, yet above the rippling waters, a gargantuan floating shape of epic proportions glided towards land with a low reverberating hum.

"What the hell is that thing?" Flash said offhandedly above.

James watched as it moved closer and closer to shore. At this point, it was casting and enormous shadow almost over the whole of the fleet. As it neared, James dropped back down to his rifle and angled it up so he could get a better look. It was a massively built and fortified airship, the likes of which he had never seen. It was being held aloft with two huge balloon like containers, the low hum he could hear indicated propellers of some sort. The closer it came, the more detail he could see, until eventually he spotted a feature that made his heart jump into his throat. Along the bottom of it's belly, he could see three large double doors. He could think of only one use for doors that large and on that part of the aircraft. James got to his knees and began packing up in a hurry.

"Flash, I need you to get in contact with Admiral Darkwing and Sparks. Let the Admiral know we have a volatile situation on our hands and he needs to get his ships in the air, now. Tell Sparks to get Captain Armor and the Princess together and call me back on my radio, I need to brief them of the new threat."

"Roger that. What do you think that thing is gonna do?"

"Hopefully not what I think it will. Either way, we need to bring it down."

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