Fourth Vector Ch. 36

How he wished he could take his rifle deep into the Galician forest right now and wait out a stunning and majestic elk to add to his collection. He knew it was one act that would truly calm his tattered nerves and bring him some peace, something that was sorely needed right now.

Unfortunately, the universe seemed to be willing to add insult to injury to his situation right now. That was all the more demonstrated when Magnus entered the room and caught him staring at his trophies with a dreamy expression.

"It's too bad we can't leave the city right now," said Magnus, stating the obvious ever since the rebel army landed. "Hunting would do you some good."

Eric resisted the urge to slap the man but he certainly jumped down his throat. "Don't you think I know that, you idiot! I know we can't leave the fucking city!"

Magnus recoiled in fright and left the room but not before he took what remained of Eric's mood with him. Positively fuming, Eric found himself stomping out of his trophy room and moving through the Castle, muttering obscenities under his breath as he moved.

Everyone was disappointing him. The level of failure in his underlings was absolutely astounding, and at times, Eric doubted whether he could really hold the city against determined resistance, suicide attacks or not.

The fact of the matter was that he needed an escape plan. He needed a way to escape Jack Easterbrook should the city not hold, but to that end, he was determined that if he didn't hold Kalmar, then no one would.

To that end, a last secretive plan was hatched in the event he had to leave the city. It was secretive because only those in the upper echelons of his guard knew the full details, and they were at this very moment going about their tasks in bringing it to life.

Eric traveled through the Castle until he reached the lower levels, where the natural light from the outside was cut off after being so deep in the bedrock. Down here, Eric walked past the guarded entrance to a former storage room where he could view the operation in action.

At this very moment, the men of his guard were hard at work making the compound. It was a simple enough recipe, but the most important ingredient was one that Eric couldn't even pronounce but he was told it was incendiary in nature. That seemed to be confirmed when he watched a demonstration the night before, which showed the compound ignite entirely after introducing a simple spark.

Eric had been impressed enough with the demonstration to order mass production, at least enough to use in strategic spots all around Kalmar.

For that was the final plan should the fall of the city seem inevitable. Eric would escape from the city with the help of his guard, carving out a path from the resistance while those dedicated members of the force would ignite the compounds scattered through the city.

He would burn the ancient city to the ground rather than hand it over to Jack Easterbrook. He would rather see it reduced to ashes alongside the forces of the king. And the common citizens of Kalmar? They could perish too if they were going to let the city fall to some outsider.

If anything the calamity of the blaze would allow him to sneak away from Kalmar with the city's treasury and continue the fight for control of Galicia.

"How's it coming down here?" he asked the guard in charge, who was right now overseeing the creation of the compound. "Are we on target with production?"

"On target and ahead of schedule," answered the guard briskly. "I had another wagon load taken out twenty minutes earlier, bound for a mid-level target in the city."

"Excellent," replied Eric while clasping his hands together fiendishly. "Keep up your pace. I want a report before the end of tomorrow that most of this has been distributed to the city. I doubt it will take long before the rebels start attacking."

"At once, sir. Of course."

Finally, Eric had something to smile about. Thoughts of Kalmar engulfed in flames were almost enough to reconcile his recent failures.

Almost.

*****

The next morning, Jack, Greg, and Art sat in an outdoor tent as they went over a map of Kalmar and its immediate environs. It was still cool for the time of morning and a light rain had just finished, leaving all the tents soaked with the aftermath.

The three men were once again discussing strategy but there was a chair that was noticeably empty--the one that belonged to Lindy--who was running late.

"It should surprise no one that using the fleet to take the city is out of the question," said Jack as he gestured to the sea next to Kalmar. "I want to take the city as it is, not destroy it."

"Not to mention we'd see civilian casualties in the thousands if it came to that," said Art. "There'd be no quicker way to sour the people on receiving their king back."

"Which is why I won't even do it as a last resort," confirmed Jack. "So whatever we come up with today will have work. And frankly, I'm leaning toward a siege rather than an assault."

"A siege is probably our best option," said Greg. "But we run the risk of creating misery within the city even there. Starving people aren't happy people."

"No, but at least they'll be alive," said Jack. "Which is more than we can say for the city if we bombard it. It'll also create enormous pressure on the populace against Rosdahl to concede. They may even be able to force him to capitulate."

"The only risk we run there is that there are more Galician Army forces out there, Jack," said Art. "If we don't wrap up the siege quickly, they could come to the city's rescue. And it can take a long time for a city to exhaust its food supply in the process. We don't have weeks to work with here."

Art had a great point, and this was further illustrated when Lindy finally arrived at the meeting. He brought with him an out-of-breath Dustin, who had just gotten back from aerial reconnaissance judging by his attire. It wasn't uncommon to see the two men together these days, as they'd struck a firm friendship ever since the two forces were joined.

"There you are, Lindy," said Jack as he eyed the Galician colonel before finally looking at Dustin. "What's going on?"

"Go on, tell him what you told me," said Lindy as he gestured to Dustin.

"Jack, we have a problem," said Dustin as his arm gestured to the south. "We have enemy movements to the south of here. Lots of them too, coming north to Kalmar just as fast as they can manage."

"How fast?" asked an alarmed Jack. "Are they Galician Army?"

Dustin nodded. "Appeared that way. Who else would be out here after all? There's a large host coming this way. My guess is probably in the neighborhood of ten thousand. I managed to fly near enough to them to get their direction and relative speed but I'm not sure if they saw me. The clouds this morning let me hide relatively well."

"Rosdahl is bringing in more forces to crush us," said Art. "He's bringing in more regiments from the south to relieve his forces inside the city."

"Very likely," said Dustin. "And judging by their speed, I'd say they'll be here in about a week's time."

"You're sure about their direction?" asked Jack. "They're definitely coming to Kalmar?"

Dustin nodded. "No doubt about it, Jack. They looked to be in a hurry."

Dustin was able to give them a few more details but instead of leaving when he was finished, he was invited to sit with the rest of them as they discussed strategy.

"So much for a long siege then," said Greg as he broke the silence afterward. "We only have a week to work with here. Even if they had nothing in the way of food stores, they'd get here long before the city went seriously hungry."

Art agreed with him. "It almost puts an assault back on the table as the most likely course, with the navy as we agreed, but then again, it would make things that much harder."

"It definitely makes it harder," said Jack, still deep in thought. "But what other options do we have?"

"Are we even sure they would contest our control of the city?" asked Lindy. "Maybe they're coming our way to join us? All we know is that they are trying to reach Kalmar as quickly as possible. It's entirely logical that they could be coming to oppose Rosdahl just as easily as they could join him."

That comment made everyone stop for a moment to think. Lindy was correct, and with the amount of defections that had come from the Galician side, it wasn't an out of the ordinary thing to suggest.

"The only problem I have with that is that we can't exactly ask them who they intend to fight for," said Jack. "And until we have confirmation that they're coming to our side, we need to treat them as an enemy force for our own protection."

"So we're back at step one then," said Art finally. "Outnumbered in enemy territory with an impossible deadline. How do we proceed, gentlemen?"

No one seemed to want to answer that question directly. Everyone knew what had to be done as a likely first step but seeing as any potential step two was equally vexing meant a true stalemate in terms of strategy.

But seeing no other options, Jack was determined that they would at least take the first step.

"We need to start a serious siege of Kalmar," he said finally as he looked around the room. "We have enough men that we can cut off the city from the land and use the navy to do the rest. Once Rosdahl's men see any chance of escape cut off from the outside, they may become more amenable to joining our side. But they'll never get to that point if they don't see we mean business."

"My forces can start digging in outside Kalmar this very morning, Jack," said Art.

"As will the Javans," confirmed Greg. "And the ground is soft this morning so it'll make for excellent conditions for digging trenches."

Jack nodded. "See it done. Once Rosdahl's army sees us hard at work sealing their fate, my guess is that we'll force an outcome before their reinforcements ever get close. Let's get moving."

*****

"You know, I'm beginning to think you like being in the forest more than you like me!"

Trevor couldn't help but laugh at such an accusation, and he shot a playful look at Nina who was standing a few feet away. Her hands were firmly planted on her hips, and despite trying to look annoyed, she'd never looked more beautiful with her pouty lips and long flowing hair.

"Well, at least the forest never nags at me about liking something else more," teased Trevor in return, causing Nina to raise her eyebrows with indignity. It didn't take much more than that before she lowered her stance and started to run towards him, rapidly closing the distance.

Their bodies collided together with heavy laughter, the force enough to push Trevor to the ground. They rolled together several times before he settled in on top of her, looking down into her incredible brown eyes.

It was always these quiet moments with Nina that he enjoyed most--those times when nothing mattered but the two of them and when they removed the war from focus. It was the reason why Trevor liked going into the forest in the first place, often coming here to think when their mountain fortification was too noisy. It was only a short walk into the forest to find solitude, and lately he'd been bringing Nina with him.

It seemed to be the best medicine for her, especially after all the turmoil she went through when her cousin died. Being in the forest again as well as allowing themselves the opportunity just to be a carefree couple for once seemed to take the weight of the world off their shoulders.

And what a weight it had been lately. With the Javans devastating every part of Tyrol they could reach, just about everyone was in need of a serious escape. Refugees and volunteers kept streaming into their camp, many of them victims who'd lost their entire livelihoods. Some of them had lost their entire families. In all the carnage, any reminder of what normal life was like was wholly welcome.

"I have you right where I want you now," said Trevor as he looked down at the brunette beauty.

Nina bit her lip as she automatically thrust her hips against his. "I've been in a lot worse positions than this. In fact, this one is one of my favorites."

"You do like this one, don't you?" said Trevor with a chuckle.

"Just with a lot less clothing," she confirmed. "Which reminds me, want to have a romp out here? We're far enough away from everyone that no one would notice."

"You think that until we're right in the middle and someone shows up."

Nina stuck out her bottom lip. "So we have an audience. Big deal."

"Are you already so horny?" he asked. "I thought I scratched that itch this morning."

She purred back at him. "That's an itch that never truly goes away, love."

If he was being honest with himself, he wouldn't have minded another round of sex. He didn't know anyone who wouldn't be ready to go after one look at Nina, who even managed to look exquisite in her army fatigues and with leaves and small twigs intertwined in her hair. In fact, it was all he could do not to stare sometimes.

He often found himself wondering what would have happened if the Movement never started. Would he still be living a quiet life in Amboy running his store? Would he have ever met Nina?

Probably not, and even if he did, she would have been married to someone else. It was only the terrible fortunes of war that brought them together--something that was never far from his mind.

Even still, he was thankful for having Nina in his life, even if it wasn't the original path intended for both of them.

"Where'd you go all of a sudden?" she asked, jarring him back to reality. "You look like you had something deep on your mind."

Trevor shook his head. "Just some thoughts that never truly go away. They always pick the worst times to come to the surface."

Nina nodded her head without the need for further explanation. There weren't many in the camp that didn't have their past demons, especially those that only came to visit when it was quiet or at night.

"One of these days, you'll have to tell me some of these thoughts you have," said Nina quietly. "You don't have to keep it all bottled up inside you."

"Someday," replied Trevor quietly. "You know how it is though."

"I do, but I was able to open up to you recently," said Nina as her eyes locked on him. "If we're going to be together, we have to be able to be there for each other. We have to be able to communicate."

That was true, and Trevor found himself nodding in acknowledgment. If there was ever a time that she needed him more, it was when her cousin died. But he found himself focusing on the other words she said too.

"We are going to be together, aren't we?" he asked. "We're together, you and I?"

Nina shrugged as if he was asking if the sky was blue. "Of course, we are. That's what you want, isn't it?"

"I want nothing more," said Trevor. "That's what you want?"

She nodded again. "I love you, Trevor. It doesn't get much simpler than that."

"I guess part of what I think about is that this wasn't the life meant for us," said Trevor as he looped his finger around. "Being here, in the middle of this war, who could have predicted this life? Who could have predictedus? We had other lives before the war."

"Is that what you're afraid of?" she asked. "That because I had a life before you that it's somehow more legitimate than this one?"

"Don't forget a fiance," said Trevor grudgingly.

Nina started to chuckle. "Trevor, you make me laugh sometimes. I'm now at the point that I can say laugh because those people that we used to be? It's in the past now. Our lives changed. So many are dead, including my fiance, Nick. There's no sense living in the past. Especially with Cherise."

Trevor caught his breath at the mention of her cousin. Even until recently, the mention of her very name could draw tears from Nina's eyes but today, they remained focused and clear.

"We can't dwell on those that have passed," continued Nina. "We have to bury the past and move on. We keep going as our way to honor the dead, and we find comfort with the life and the people we have left. That to me is the way of life. It's why I'm ready to move on. It's why Ihave moved on. I'll always remember them but life has brought me to you now, Trevor. And for that, I'm exceptionally thankful."

As if to seal her statement, she pressed forward for a long and tender kiss. Trevor found his arms wrapping around her, and together in the silence of the forest, they comforted each other.

"Sometimes I worry that I may not have been your first option," he whispered against her ear. "That you have to settle to be with me."

Nina would hear none of it. She grabbed his face with both hands and forced him to look at her. "Nothing could be further from the truth. I choose you, Trevor. And I will continue to choose you as long as you let me. Settle? Are you crazy?"

"I think this war has made all of us a little crazy."

"You're not wrong about that but do you want to know something else that I'm crazy about?" she asked before putting her finger against his chest. "You."

"Thank god for that," he said quickly.

"It's why I have some serious plans for you once this war is over," she said with a mischievous smile.

"What kind of plans?"

"Oh, I was thinking you could finally make me an honest woman. Maybe give me some rugrats too. Something like that."

Trevor couldn't hold back his grin. "Oh yeah? That's what you really want?"

"Mm-hmm. Think you can give it to me?" She thrust her hips against his, and Trevor had to guess at what she was really asking that he "give her."

Nina kissed him passionately and he was just about to pull her down to the forest floor when they heard rustling a short distance away. Their kiss ended just as quickly as it began, and together they looked in the direction of the noise.

It quickly became obvious that Gavin was on his way, having found their little hiding spot.

"Looks like we finally got our audience," said Nina with a coy smile.

"Not the kind I had in mind," muttered Trevor. He waited until Gavin got closer. "What's the news, Gavin?"

Gavin's face was serious as he gestured back to the fortification. "You need to see this, Trevor. I need you both back at the fort. We just had a large group of refugees arrive and well... you need to hear what they're saying."

That got their attention quickly, and the three of them moved quickly back to the fort to find a stream of no less than two hundred refugees that had newly arrived. Many of them were ragged--emaciated wraiths of flesh with tattered clothes and hollow eyes. Some collapsed as soon as they stopped moving, signs of having pressed hard to reach the fort.

In all of them it became obvious that something or someone was behind their rapid pace in reaching the fort.

A good portion of them were old--men and women alike, as well young children and mothers. Fighting-age men were scarce but there were a few to be had here or there. Trevor helped distribute what food supplies they had before finding that an older man was watching him rather closely.

"You're Trevor Downing, aren't you?" asked the old man.

Trevor looked back at the man, unable to tell how he knew his identity. "You're right. That's me."

The man gestured to the rest of the refugees. "These are all that's left of my village. Two weeks ago, there were four hundred of us in total. Half of us are dead thanks to the Javans."

"I'm sorry for your loss," said Trevor. "We've all seen grievous losses in this war."

The old man nodded his head in acknowledgment. "The Javans fight like devils. I never imagined they could be this cruel. I used to have two sons. They answered the call to defend our village when the Javans showed up. Neither of them were left alive."

"They gave their lives for a good cause then," said Trevor. "There's not a single soul in this fortification that hasn't been touched by death personally. We've all had to sacrifice, and I thank you for yours."