The Power of Ten

-Sama, there’s a problem up front.-

Sama’s eyes opened as Lily relayed what she was seeing on the horizon ahead.

Sama could have been sitting up in front on the comfy seat and heating, but was instead riding in the back, keeping the snide comments of the women there to a minimum as she endured the ride with them. Just the gentle force of her breathing basically lulled most of them into quiet Meditation, which most of them naturally knew, especially as it was an easy way to pass the time.

-Is there a blockade?- she /asked calmly.

-Looks like about a mile ahead,- Lily /confirmed after a moment.

-Pull the convoy over immediately.- “Hup!” she said, but she had Voice. “Pull it over and prepare to disembark!”

The three troop carriers ferrying her relief company towards Portal immediately pulled over to the side of the road as eyes around her snapped open in surprise, to find that she was already on her feet, and her eyes had that wicked light in them...

The carrier hadn’t even stopped when she swung out over the tailgate, hit the ground sliding and pulling around onto the road to take a look at the sky to the north.

Her Mask glowed for a moment, her eyes zoomed ahead at the obstruction across the road ahead... military vehicles, with men manning it.

Far more worrisome was the inky black cloud getting shot through with yellow-green flames near the town that was the major crossing point for the American and Canadian border for hundreds of miles.

Borders were more than lines on a map in a magical world. When magic descended, the perceptions of so many millions of people that there was a division where one did not actually exist had created roiling chaos along the border, terrible storms related to the conflict between reality and law.

It had taken several years to erect Stelae all along the border, formalizing on the land a border that was only metaphysical before then. For thousands of kilometers, the Stelae symbolized the border, and more precisely, the paths between them on a magical and spiritual level.

It didn’t mean that people could only pass through at the designated roads. It did mean to many a wandering spirit that there was a barrier there, and their ability to move back and forth was now impeded.

They didn’t take it too well, and the Spirit of North America would probably have been annoyed at the artificial line, but wasn’t Aware enough to do anything about it.

Portal was one of the ‘stations’ by which magical entities like Fey and Elementals could pass through, along with normal people. However, this was very much dependent on the border staying ‘open’. When it closed, the spirits couldn’t go on through, which tended to result in some violence from such things on both sides of the border.

Thus, conflicts with fey, roving air Elementals, and some magical beasts happened with some frequency at Portal, as it literally channeled their travel paths through the town.

Now, people weren’t stupid, and didn’t want to fight the mostly-uncaring spirits who wanted to flit by overhead. At the same time, there were plenty of things on the ground they didn’t want crossing over, and this was a good way for the forces on both sides to do something about them.

Thus, it was a fairly combat-heavy posting, and a lot of Powered got sent here to get blooded. They could almost pick their fights at times; there was a wide variety of opponents, and there was no schedule to the things, save that action tended to happen at night when they closed the border much more often.

A demonic hellcloud forming there was something much, much worse than that.

“Everyone check their phones and coms. Do not message the base ahead. Call back to headquarters,” she ordered. “Get off the transports!” She banged the armored side hard enough to leave a small dent in it, and lithe, very athletic women spilled out of the back of the trucks. “Assemble off the road. What’s up with coms?”

“Sir, no signals. We can’t raise anything!” one of the new sergeants relayed quickly, backed up by the other squads.

Sama turned around to look at the long, straight road behind them, the cold plains going right to the horizon. “We’re in range of the tower relays. Coms! Are you getting jamming?”

It was an unexpected question, and the communications people immediately scrambled to test their gear, even as everyone moved off the road, including the drivers.

“Sir, we just got a call from the road ahead! They are wondering who we are!”

“DO NOT RESPOND TO THAT CALL!” Hands froze. “Coms! What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Sir, there’s no jamming, there’s just no signal! The call from ahead came in just fine!” Corporal Nikita shouted out, rapidly backed up by the others.

“They’ve cut the relay towers in the area.” Sama’s words made everyone straighten up. “Awright, here’s the plan! Channissey! Pick two squads, render them invisible, and Disk them up to that blockade ahead and give me a sitrep pronto!” The Wind sorceress hurriedly pointed at another squad, Sgt. Pilleny’s, as she moved her hand and the Disks came up.

“Move the front two trucks to block the road! Everyone down in cover! Lily, take truck three and two squads and peel out for that relay tower ten miles back there at full speed! You will assume it is being held by hostiles and possibly booby-trapped! You will splice into the landline and send out the alert that this area has gone dark and there is a Demoncloud brewing in Portal!

“Smith! Pop up a Disk for yourself, and I want a covering Holo screening our approach! Everyone left form up behind Smith’s illusion! I want guns loaded, safeties on!”

There was a roar as the first two trucks turned sideways and blocked the road, not incidentally screening away the view of the third truck pulling rapidly away after Lily and her squads raced to get back on it.

They didn’t get three hundred yards down the road before Sama shouted, “HIT THE DECK!”

Voice was wonderful. The soldiers didn’t pause to wonder why, they just slammed their faces to the ground.

The streaks of fire came in and blew the transports into flaming wrecks with loud explosions and sprays of scattering metal, sending both tumbling as ruined scrap.

“Shut it.” Sama’s Voice flattened the screams and complaints of surprise. “Our rides are up ahead there at that blockade, as are the fuckers who just tried to blow you all up.”

Complaints vanished. Dangerous eyes, and eyes a bit wide at having to face an attack from humans and more action than they wanted, turned north, where Channissey and her squads were flying invisibly on a cluster of Disks ahead of them.

“Smith!?” Sama demanded, with that edge of constant irritability at lack of proficiency that always had them wincing and hopping to obey.

There was a wavering in the air in front of the illusionist, who was crouched low to the ground on the edge of a Disk. A faintly moving image of the prairie behind them, sans all the soldiers on their faces, hovered in front of her. “Got it, sir!”

“Everyone in single file behind me, now!” hissed Sama, moving up behind that Disk, and the women scrambled to obey. “Hand on the woman in front of you! Let’s go!” She began to push, leaving the illusionist to concentrate on her Holo and screen their approach from those behind looking for a sign of them.

---

Sergeant Shannissey was well ahead of them and drawing away by the moment, flying just above the tall grass so as not to cause a wake. The women behind her were nervous but excited, but rapidly calming down. They were the scouts of the units behind, with instincts for hunting and the like, and the fact they were going live was slowly working into their brains, tamping down their nerves and replacing it with dead seriousness.

Fighting monsters was one thing, but this looked like more humans...

Moving at about 45 kph, it took only a bit over a minute to approach the line of heavy vehicles blocking off the road, swinging out and around to approach the group from behind.

Shannissey pulled out her field glasses when they pulled within a hundred yards, and keyed her coms. “Wind, copy.”

“Bitch, copy. Go ahead.” Shannissey smirked despite herself at the terse reply. Not that Sama’s angel-and-whiskey-knives Voice could be mistaken for anything else.

“All men from what I can see, but they’ve got two transports that are closed up. They’ve dug in a machine gun emplacement and firing positions from both sides, and I believe in the grass forward of their position. They are in military garb, but they aren’t moving like soldiers.” The casual strides and lack of discipline was readily apparent at a glance.

“We’ll need the transports. Drop Team One on the east flank, Team Two on the west, and swing around with Team Three to take out the forward firing position.” Doubtless meant to shoot any recalcitrants in the back who didn’t want to turn around.

“Copy that.” Naturally the rest of the incoming company would take them out.

---

“They’ve got forward firing posts to catch people from behind at the blockade. Sergeant Nihala, take over the pushing. You are moving at a walk, no faster, and you will stop at no closer than three hundred yards. I want the Three Robins lined up and ready to pick them off.

“I’m going up to take out their forward position. Two taps is the sign you are ready, everyone.”

“Copy.” “Copy.” “Copy,” came back quietly.

Sama dove forward into the grass ahead, looking much like a snake as she flowed into the grass, flowing forwards... and the grass barely rippled as she passed by, straightening right back up.

---

Nihala stepped up to take the pushing position. The Aethran’s Bow was in the Quiver on her back, but she wasn’t going to contest shooting range with the company’s three cool-eyed snipers and their long rifles. At a mere three hundred yards, the three young women, none of whom were named Robin, would be picking off men like shooting ducks in a barrel.

“Lightfooters ready for the charge,” she growled over her shoulder, and the fastest members of the team got ready to chuck their packs and take off for closer range. They could cover two hundred yards in about fifteen seconds. “Sir, can you tell us what we might be expecting?” she asked softly.

“That’s a Demoncloud,” came the flat reply over coms, drawing all their eyes to the magical vortex spinning there just left of the town several miles away. “Note the puke yellow-green light. Generally, that means we’re dealing with Warlocks, Witches, Hags, and/or Demon Priests, possibly with traditional Casters tagging on, as well as any cultists. They’ve probably got surprises in the transports, which will give us more clues as to the backers when they decide to come on out and surprise us. If I could see their suspension, I could probably get an idea from the weight.”

“So, be ready for surprises.” Sgt. Nihala glowered at those behind her as they cautiously moved ahead.

---

Her Vajra sliced between the grass as easily as the wind, her hair plucked at the grass and kept it straight, barely bowing as she passed by, let alone leaving a trail as she moved. Yes, she had a quarter-mile of distance to cover to her first target, meaning she’d be the last to get into position, but that was fine.

Clicks sounded slowly as Shannissey’s people slid into place behind her, waiting for her to get into place, while the crouching line of soldiers led by the broad, low camouflaging Holo that Smith was keeping in place also kept up.

There it was, a squad of men camouflaged at the edge of the ditch along the road, muttering to one another and wondering what was going on, but at least smart enough not to move around and attract the eye as they kept their guns trained down the road towards the flaming wrecks.

They hadn’t sent anyone out there to inspect the trucks, rightly thinking there were probably survivors out there, and wondering who they might be.

It was a smart decision, but it wasn’t going to save them. They must not have known the relief crew coming in was Powered...

Sama clicked her com from ten feet away from these chowderheads, and waited.

It was five minutes before Nihala’s clear clicks came back. Last one called it.

“Go,” the Amazon ordered crisply.