37 Assault And Battery
ASSAULT AND BATTERY
MY HELMET COMMLINK buzzed. I answered, “This is the Consort.”
“Captain Boylan? You’re alive?” Princess Marie sounded truly shocked.
“For the moment. What’s your status?” I asked.
“We have the Federation delegation mostly blockaded in their quarters, but a few of them got away, including that hateful d’Lyre woman.
I just heard from my scouts – they’re assembling in the main hall.
The Federation, Selnikov’s Imperials, even the Commonwealth prince, they’re going to sign the treaty early so our uprising cannot disrupt their schemes. ”
I cursed. “Slow them down if you can, but don’t risk your troops. If Federation forces join the battle, we’ll be overwhelmed.” Clicking my commlink to Darius’s channel, I asked, “Archduke, how goes your advance?”
“Levar, how… I saw you get sucked into space!” The archduke sounded more disbelieving than Marie had.
“Technically the stratosphere, but we don’t have time to mince words. Status report.”
“We’ve encountered heavy resistance outside the barracks and have been unable to push the enemy back indoors. We’re outnumbered, but we have lancers and they only have zeroblades. If any more of them get out, though, we’ll be overwhelmed unless we receive reinforcements.”
“What about the loyalist and Urgan prisoners?” I asked.
“We can’t break away from the barracks. We’re having a hard enough time keeping them pinned down as it is,” Darius replied.
I looked around the armory, considering my options. There were plenty of lancers and zeroblades here, heavy weapons even, but I knew my plan the moment I saw the hoversteeds.
“How long until she’s conscious?” I asked the healer.
The main medic shook his head. “Uncertain, maybe minutes, maybe hours.”
“We don’t have much time,” I said, then turned to Lyudmyla. “You wait here. Defend the Emperor until she wakes. As soon as she can be moved, take everyone who can wield a lancer or zeroblade, load them up with as much firepower as you can, and drive on the main hall.”
“What about the armory?” she asked.
“Destroy it,” I ordered. “Use explosives. If you can rig it to take a few dissidents with it, great. If not, torch the place. Better to see it burn than in enemy hands. We did it all the time in the war.”
“What about you?” Lyudmyla asked.
“I need every able-bodied demon capable of flying a hoversteed armed and mounted. We’re going to go assist the archduke,” I said, pointing to the rack of Imperial machines.
Lyudmyla nodded and began shouting orders.
Shortly after, a tiny cavalry squadron mounted up behind me.
They were decidedly not professionals, but they were big demons on hefty hoversteeds with long swordstaffs and large carbines, heavy shock cavalry in all but name.
I swung myself into Tilly’s saddle, gave the order, and the odd score of mounted warriors leapt into the sky.
We approached the barracks from a high angle, but even before completing my reconnaissance, I could tell Darius was in more trouble than he’d let on.
Most of his demons were dead, slain in single combat by their treacherous brethren, and his Yezhidian professionals were giving ground.
They were arranged in two lines, leapfrogging over one another in open order.
As one rank lay on their stomachs to suppress the Imps with well-aimed lancer fire, the second rank retreated to their new positions in short rushes, dropping prone and swiveling about to send hot magma at the Imperials behind them.
It was an impressive feat of discipline, but some of the dissidents had gotten their hands on lancers, and the Yezhidians were taking fire.
Even as Darius pulled back, other demons ran down either flank, trying to get into his rear.
There was only one way I could think of to save the archduke.
I tapped Tilly’s chassis in a familiar manner, and she opened a compartment, presenting the hilt of my greatsword to me.
I drew forth the weapon and held it up, and I heard my riders raise their swordstaffs and cheer.
Then, using my knees, I motioned Tilly into a dive.
We gathered speed, charging in from above.
The Imperials didn’t notice us until we were nearly upon them.
By then it was far too late. I cut one demon in half as he twisted to look at me, slashed the legs out from another as she turned her lancer on me.
We rode through their lines, slicing them to bloody ruins, before I arced into the sky and banked around for a second pass.
The dissidents saw our intent, and they chose discretion over valor and fled.
I landed next to the archduke as he frantically loaded another magma shell into his lancer rifle. “Good to see you, sport. With a bit of cavalry on our side, we’ll drive them back into the barracks.”
I shook my head. “Not going to happen. We must withdraw.”
“But we have them on the ropes,” Darius protested, but I cut him off.
“There’s too many of them. If we don’t leave now, even with our help, you will be overwhelmed. The barracks are lost. We have to pull back and regroup.”
Darius looked ready to argue, but decided against it. “Cut us a path out of here, and we’ll follow you.”
“I already have,” I said with a nod, then took to the sky again. The Imperials were edging back onto the bloody field I had just cleared, so I rushed them, and my mounted loyalists came with.
I was unused to mounting direct cavalry charges.
I’d participated in several during the war, but I was more used to serving as mounted infantry, rushing to troubled spots and dismounting to provide rapid reinforcements.
This was entirely different. Darius did not need thirty more infantrymen. He needed shock cavalry.
We charged in every direction. No sooner had we driven back the enemy’s left flank than the right began pressing in, and vice versa.
Three troopers fell, one to lancer fire and two others to prepared bladesmen.
Still, we gave far worse than we got, scattering the enemy whenever we approached, and riding down many more than our number as they fled.
After our third charge, our efforts paid off.
The dissidents from the barracks stopped chasing us, and Darius’s battalion was able to withdraw.
“So that’s it, then? We’ve lost?” Darius asked me as we retreated into the gardens flanked by the Crystal Palace’s great wings, his face a mask of sullen resentment.
Boots churned up the white gravel pathways and trod on carefully manicured flowerbeds.
As we sheltered between artfully placed trees and sculpted geometric shrubbery, I patted Darius on the shoulder.
“Don’t be silly, man. The Emperor’s alive, and we still have several surprises up our sleeve. This is a setback, nothing more.” I don’t know where I found the confidence, but an officer did not show fear in the face of the enemy. It demoralized the men.
“How is this not a battle-ending defeat? The bloody Imps have all the soldiers they need now,” Darius shouted.
Miraculously, I remained calm and said, “Then we go find reinforcements of our own.”
The Crystal Palace’s brig was designed to hold a few drunken revelers, not the survivors of a coup.
Those Imperials still loyal to the Emperor were locked in the stables with the Urgan delegates, directly across the gardens from the barracks.
We swept down on the impromptu prison with a fury, killing the guards in a swift, brutal firefight.
I had expected heavier resistance, but I supposed most of the prison guards were fighting outside the barracks.
They must have been the demons with lancers.
I slashed my greatsword through the massive doors, shearing through bolts like a razor through paper.
Tilly flipped up, and with a blast from her repulsor plate, blew the doors open.
We rushed in, blades bared. A few guards surrounded the prisoners.
One of them had a dirk to an Urgan lord commander’s neck.
I rode him down before he could react, striking past the prisoner’s head to slice the guard neatly through the wrist, below the armpit and out his opposite shoulder.
I turned, seeking other foes, but between my mounted unit’s charge and Darius’s foot soldiers, we’d eliminated all resistance.
The Yezhidians began releasing the imprisoned demons. These were no armed footmen, but proper Imperial guards. As they stood to their impressive heights, they flexed their claws, ready to fight. I took Tilly up to hover above their heads and began bellowing my speech.
“Fellow soldiers, guardsmen, listen up! Our Emperor is alive, and currently fighting to regain her throne from that vile dog, Selnikov. You may not trust me, but I swore I’d die for Astridur long before she was Emperor, years earlier than any of you even knew her.
I sit here now on my loyal steed, blade in hand, ready to spill blood to see her restored.
Who will join me and overthrow the usurpers? ”
The howl of assent sent adrenaline coursing through my veins and set fire to my heart. I was ready to kill, but I had one more task before the battle.
I addressed the Urgan officers. “Lords Commander, the Federation betrayed your nation as surely as they betrayed mine. We have proof their accusations are lies. They are responsible for New Melbourne’s destruction.
They, along with the usurper’s dogs, activated the Fall device and committed the gravest sin on the Rim just to gain a better bargaining.
They deserve to be punished, and I intend to see it done. Who’s with me?”
While not the same deafening roar the Imperial guards had managed, the Urgan officers cheered their agreement.
As they hollered, the Crystal Palace was lit with a flash.
I turned to see the armory tower go up in brilliant, multicolored flames.
The heat reflected on my face and I answered in my soul.
Astrid was on the move.