Episode 1: Chapter 3: Crack

Chapter 3 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons.

            Jaune was pacing back and forth on the rampart of the main gate that lead into the city of Mistral.  The enemy was trying their best to break through the main gate since it was nearly impossible to break through any other way given the terrain of the area without an airship, and the Atlesian military was still keeping the Order’s airships out of range of the city, so everything hinged on making sure the main gate didn’t fall.  The Order was mostly rushing the gate with a powerful mechanical battering ram that ran on wheels.  There were a few soldiers inside the ram itself to ensure that if it broke through, they could burst out the end and the soldiers of Mistral inside would have to deal with them before being able to seal the destroyed gate giving the Order plenty of time to attack.  The gate itself was strong, but not unbreakable.  The main support beams were beginning to give way, and Jaune started to fear for the worst.  However, all of a sudden without warning, what looked like a person fell from the sky.  And seconds later, there was a small shock wave that sent enemy soldiers flying.  Miles had increased his personal gravity late to create a larger impact that could disrupt the soldiers actions.  It didn’t do much outside of a flashy entrance and clear a small area surrounding him, but it got the soldiers attention.  They all turned and pointed their weapons at Miles, preparing to fire.  Miles simply smiled, and pointed his finger up at the sky.  Seconds later, Ty landed as well creating an even greater shockwave that all but decimated the enemy forces in the immediate area.  With that, the Order was forced to pull back a short ways, leaving room for the rest of the reinforcements to land and get their bearings.  Seeing them land, Jaune quickly ran over to the gate and gave the signal to open it up.  Within seconds, the gate opened and everybody ran inside before the Order had a chance to regroup.  And just as quickly as the gate opened, everyone managed to get inside and close the gates back up.  The braces were put back in place, and Jaune walked over to Jacob and Brooklyn.
            “How proficient are the two of you at ice dust?” Jaune asked placing his hand on Jacob’s shoulder.
            “We aren’t as skilled as Weiss,” Jacob said pulling out a few knives infused with ice dust, “but we can at least help give this gate some much needed support.”  With that, Jacob took one of his kunai blades, placed the ice dust cartridge in the slot, and activated a giant wall of ice that helped brace the gate.  Brooklyn also took some ice dust and added it to the existing wall to try and help improve its defense.  Ty walked over and surveyed the new defenses.
            “Why not use earth dust?” he asked as he put his sword away.  “Seems like that would last longer and be a lot harder to break.”
            “A lot of the earth around Mistral can’t be moved without causing some kind of permanent damage” Jaune said as he made his way back up to the ramparts.  “Plus, earth can’t be summoned out of thin air as easily as ice can, so this is a good temporary fix.”  As he said this, everyone joined him up on the rampart and saw that the Order had already resumed their attack with the battering ram.  While the soldiers on the rampart kept shooting at the battering ram, Evan and Jacob watched and tried to study their tactics.
            “Something seems off here” Evan said leaning forward looking over the edge.
            “You see it to?” Jacob said as he drew his main sword from its sheath.
            “What do you see?” Christy asked as she surveyed their surroundings.
            “The Order is solely relying on this battering ram to try and break through” Jacob said as he watched another failed attempt by the battering ram.  “But given all the technology and equipment available to us in the world today, why are they relying just on this one piece of equipment to break in?”
            “Maybe they think they need to save their ammunition for if they do break through the main gate?” Ty said folding his arms.
            “That doesn’t seem like a smart strategy” Miles said as he cracked his neck.  “With the Atlesian Military keeping their air force at bay, they probably are relying on this entry point to get their troops into the city to start doing some real damage against us.  Plus, if they drive us deeper into the city and away from the gate, they could establish this location as a sort of temporary base, giving them all the time they need to bring in reinforcements and ammunition.  Heck, they get enough of a foothold in Mistral, they could theoretically have it be a landing zone for some of the airships.  But that all is hinging on the fact that they succeed here, and they haven’t made much headway, even before we got here.  Maybe they’re making a different play?”  Everybody continued to theorize what was the endgame of their opponents as they watched from the ramparts.

 

            The Order’s battering ram continued to strike the gates with no avail.  Watching from the commander’s position stood Lord Geminu Sangui, a short man with black hair and a buzzcut.  He sported an orange bandanna around his neck, and wore a ripped up black button up shirt with a white undershirt underneath with black combat pants and tan combat boots.  He watched as his forces attempted to break through again and again. Suddenly his communicator went off.
            “This is Lord Imperia.  What’s your status Lord Sangui?”  Lord Sangui grabbed his radio from his belt and responded,
            “The gate still stands.  A few minutes ago, enemy reinforcements arrived via an Atlesian dropship.”
            “Were the reinforcements soldiers or huntsmen?”
            “Huntsmen.  And by the look of it, a good number of them were the heroes of the battle of Vytal.”
            “Perfect.  We can proceed to phase two.”
            “Are you sure that is wise?”
            “Lord Tenebris has already entered the tunnels, and we have scout ships keeping an eye on the rest of the kingdoms and their forces.  This is our window.  Give the order Lord Sangui.”  Lord Sangui smiled as Lord Imperia said this.  He put his radio away, and walked towards the front lines.  With a wave of his hand, several soldiers with rocket launchers rushed forward.  The battering ram pulled back once the soldiers were in position, and soldiers prepared their weapons at the ready.

 

 

            “They’re going to blow the gate!” Ruby yelled as she tried firing several shots at the rocket soldiers.  Everyone was using their ranged weapons to try and stop the incoming attack, but it was too late.  The rockets fired, and everybody jumped off the rampart and into the streets below.  Not even the ice dust wall was enough, as with one grand fire explosion, everything fell apart, and the path into Mistral was wide open.  Everybody was struggling to get their bearings, especially Natalie, who took the brunt of the blast.  As she tried to get to her feet, she could barely make out what was happening.  Order soldiers flooding the main gate, striking down every single person in their way.  Suddenly, almost without warning, an Order soldier was standing right above Natalie, ready to bring their weapon down to kill her.  But in that moment, the soldier went flying backwards out the main gate having been struck by one of Miles’ swords.  Miles then ran past Natalie and started striking down everybody that he could.  Blake joined him and took care of the enemies at long range to make sure they could help everybody regroup.  Jacob and Brooklyn ran past the two of them, Jacob with his sword and Brooklyn with her weapon in shield form.  Brooklyn took point, and used the shield to push the soldiers out of the way.  Jacob took out the stragglers and the enemies that bounced off of Brooklyn’s shield and in the path of his blade.  Ty was firing his own rocket launcher through the opening at the enemy to try and keep them from advancing.  Yang kept punching everything she could see while Christy and Jaune were trying to help make sure all the injured were healed enough that they could re-join the fight or retreat and regroup without running out of aura themselves.
            “Everybody form up!” Evan yelled helping Natalie get to her feet.  “We need to keep the advantage of this bottleneck point!  If we lose this position, the city may as well be lost!”  Everybody quickly rallied around the gate and fought back the incoming attack.  Suddenly, a new figure leapt into the fray.  Natalie could barely make anything out about the new opponent outside of his bright orange bandanna around his neck.  Once the figure landed, he started fighting whoever was around him.  He used martial arts, there was no sign of a weapon on his person.  Just his fists.  Natalie didn’t have time to question it, she simply grabbed her weapon, and rushed towards her opponent.  But when she swung her blade, her opponent dodged it with ease and landed three good punches on her abdomen.  Natalie almost lost her balance in that moment, but managed to stay upright.  After that, she tried again, this time with Yang having rushed over to help out.  While Natalie struggled fighting this foe, since Yang’s style was more hand to hand oriented, she was able to hold her own.  But then suddenly, without warning, the stranger grabbed Yang’s face with his bare hand.  Natalie quickly prepared to try and save Yang from whatever attack was coming.  However, no attack came.  Instead, there was a large flash of light, and it almost seemed as if a solid light projection of Yang flashed around her for a split second, then it faded into the body of the opponent.
            “This will be a fun one to use” the opponent said.  Suddenly, with a wave of his hand, what looked like protoplasm started falling from his hand and taking shape.  That shape suddenly looked almost exactly like Yang, even down to the scars.  The clone smiled and said in a voice that sounded like a carbon copy of Yang’s,

            “I live to serve you Lord Sangui.”  Lord Sangui smiled, and the battle continued.  Yang now having to deal with her own doppelganger, and Natalie trying to figure out the best strategy to fight Lord Sangui.  Suddenly, Christy rushed over and started to help in the fight as well.  But it didn’t change much.  There had been so much fighting in small areas that several troops had managed to slip through the other rifts.  All of a sudden, the Order had overwhelmed the gate and were starting to flank the heroes.  There was no way to turn the tide, not without using up a large amount of aura and risking several more lives.  Jaune tapped a button on his Scroll which sent out the order to retreat.  Everybody started falling back, trying to make sure that the Order didn’t follow them any further than they had already progressed.  Several dust crystals were used up to try and create barriers while everybody started to find transports to get them to Haven.  It wasn’t easy to get to Haven without letting the enemy in further, but as soon as Jaune had given the order, several small transport ships descended from the Academy to transport people to the safety of the school.  The severely injured were transported first, while those who had to wait for another transport continued to fight back against the advancing armies of the Order. Everybody who had Dust to spare tried to create as many barriers as possible to try and slow down the enemy advancement.  However, eventually everybody was on an airship that took them to Haven.  As soon as everyone made it into the school, everybody finally had a chance to catch their breath.  Pyrrha ran out and embraced Jaune tightly.
            “Are you okay?” she asked inspecting Jaune for and injuries.
            “I’m fine hon.  What about the kids?”
            “The older kids are keeping an eye on the younger kids.  They were the first to leave on the evacuation transports.”
            “Good.  I’m going to be honest, I’m not sure if we can even get out ourselves at this rate.  Even with our own transport ships.  The Order is right on top of us.  And I don’t think Ironwood’s fleet is going to stop the Order from breaking off and picking us off one by one.”
            “Then we’ll just have to fight our way out” Blake said as she reloaded her weapon.  “We weren’t prepared for them this time.  The fact that we managed to get so many people out is a miracle in and of itself.”
            “You made sure that there isn’t anything else that we need to take care of before we get out of here, right?” Jaune said watching another evacuation ship take off into the sky.
            “Everything I could grab I got already” Pyrrha said clasping a suitcase of family albums and important documents related to Haven.  “Everything else is either locked up tight, or is not that important to lose.”
            “Good.  I’ll call Team BEAT, let them know that we are evacuating the city and need to get out of here.”  Jaune then grabbed his Scroll and walked away from all the noise.  Miles walked over to where Blake and Pyrrha were standing, his hands crossed.
            “What’s wrong?” Blake asked tilting her head to the side.
            “Something doesn’t feel right” Miles said scratching his head.  “The Order always had a sort of goal with their attacks in the past.  This just feels like they’re throwing everything they’ve got at us for no reason.  And to do it so quickly after declaring war when the whole world is on edge with their defenses at their highest, it seems like a bad idea.”
            “Maybe they want to throw us out of whack?  If we lose Mistral, that’s going to hurt the forces of our armies significantly.”
            “Maybe, but there are still all the other military installations across the continent, and to top it all off, they’ve been focused on trying to get us out of the city.  I think they’re looking for something specific.”  Everybody started to feel more concerned after Miles said this.
            “But if that’s the case,” Pyrrha said pinching her chin, “then what do they want?”

 

 

 

Ember was struggling not to rush forward in a blind rage.  It took every ounce of willpower to recognize that she needed to stick to the plan instead of going full tilt, but it was almost impossible not to rush in head first for her.  Even Arri was wanting to launch herself forward with no regard for her own life.  Bovia and Terra while ready for a fight, still shuddered at the sight of Lord Tenebris stepping forward out of the shadows of the tunnel with a strike force of Order soldiers standing right behind him.
            “I must admit,” Lord Tenebris said with a chuckle in his voice, “I did not expect to face you so soon.”
            “This will be the first and last time you fight me monster” Ember said holding back tears.  “I am going to kill you for what you did.”  Lord Tenebris laughed as Ember said this.
            “You will try, imposter.”

Author's Note

Please read/review/enjoy!

Reviews

[Shep]

“You (se ) it (to)?” Jacob said as he drew his main sword from its sheath.

Awesome, awesome. The battle is really heating up on two fronts just fond a couple of words that need your attention other than that it was perfect. I am really enjoying this and don't want to spend a lot of time typing words that sem pointless when I could be reading some more fantastic work such as yours on the next page so please return the love.