Rachel tightened her face and led the way into the ward. At the sight of the blood-spattered elf the two conscious wounded drew up, aware that with no weapons there was little they could do.
Conner strode over to Kalil, looking at him with his head cocked to the side and then extending a hand and muttering. Kalil flinched back but all that happened was that an enlarged hologram of his skull appeared in the air. Conner looked at it, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“So much power,” Rachel whispered, leaning forward to examine the hologram.
“We have power in New Destiny,” Conner said. “You can have power, if you are willing. A plate?”
“Subdural cerebral hematoma,” Rachel sighed, ignoring the implied offer. “I didn’t have enough power to do internal repairs; I had to relieve the pressure.”
“It’s very good work,” Conner replied.
“You’re a doctor?” Rachel asked.
“Of sorts,” Conner said. “With power, not this sort of work. But we have techniques that you don’t, or are unwilling to use.” He continued down the line of wounded, examining each of them. At the last one, an abdominal injury, he stopped and shrugged.
“This one is dying anyway,” he said.
“You don’t discuss a patient’s condition in front of them,” Rachel snapped.
“Well, he’s unconscious, isn’t he?” Conner replied, ignoring her. “Would you like to save him?”
“Of course,” Rachel said, angrily. “But I don’t have the power.”
“That is what you think,” Conner said, smiling at her in a maddening way. He whispered under his breath and the soldier began to glow. “There. There is the power you need.”
“I can’t sap a wounded man for the power to heal him!” Rachel snapped.
“Oh, you must not take too much,” Conner admitted. “But there is power in plenty here. He is not so far gone.” He touched her shoulder and whispered again. “There. Take it. And heal. You can take it from him. You can take it from others. You can take it from yourself. Everywhere, there is power to be had.”
Rachel felt the link and used it to bring up a diagnostic holo, one that she had rarely been able to use. Power was apparently power and her own protocols worked with it. The soldier had been struck by a cart. The legs and ribs were easy enough to repair, or at least splint, but the swollen abdomen had shown extensive internal injuries and without a skilled team she had been reluctant to open him up. Now she could see the extent of the damage. There was no way she could draw enough power from him to even repair the ruptured spleen, but… she tapped into herself, drawing her own nervous energy, and began to effect what repairs she could.
“Silly,” Conner snapped as her knees sagged. “Very silly. Draw from him, not yourself or you’ll never be able to do anything.”
“I’ve stopped up the worst,” Rachel said, weakly. “I can do the rest later, when I’m recovered. I won’t be you!”
“Then watch how I heal them!” Conner roared, spinning her across the room to the elf and extending a hand. He began to chant and light formed around all of the wounded.
“What are you doing?” Rachel asked, desperately. “Stop it!” she yelled as, one by one, the wounded began to shriek, encased in balls of light. Then the shrieking changed tones to hoarse bellows and when the light was gone five orcs were sitting up in the beds, snarling at one another and shouting curses at the Changed elf. They cowered away from Conner when he glanced at them, though.
“I promised I wouldn’t kill them,” Conner said, maliciously. “Take her away.”
“Bloody hell,” General Magalong said, quietly, as the cohort closed ranks again to make it through the gate. “Get the ballistas ready, we’ve got to get them some room.”
New Destiny had taken the Fleet base and established a large fortified camp on the north end of the peninsula. Even with all their forces they couldn’t cut the peninsula entirely, but they could do so for all intents and they had. He had sent the cohort, one of three, out to probe the defenses. He was getting back less than two thirds.
Besides the orcs that made up the bulk of the New Destiny forces there were massive creatures scattered among them. Orcs could rarely break the shield-line of a well handled cohort but these things had simply smashed into the line, soaking up the sword and spear damage to open holes that the orcs poured into. Three times the cohort had nearly been broken before they retreated. The things weren’t particularly smart or fast but they were immensely large and powerful; he had seen one pick up a trooper in either hand, while their fellows hacked at its legs, and throw them through the air.
Another of the things made its way through the orcs, charging clumsily at the line of legionnaires. The general smiled faintly as the line didn’t even bend, just kept up its steady backward motion, the troopers facing the thing like battling automatons. There wasn’t any percentage in turning to flee, that would just open up a bigger hole for the orcs to attack.
This time, though, they were close enough for support and three ballistas fired at the thing. Two of them missed, one pinning a pair of orcs to the ground in the front lines and another falling deep. But the third hit it on the shoulder, spinning it around and off its feet, the shoulder nearly severed. Despite the enormous wound, the thing got back to its feet, but it never even made it to the legionnaire line, falling and crushing an orc as it finally bled out.
The legionnaires continued to shrink their formation, closing their gaps as they filed into the camp. As they closed with the walls, defenders began pitching pots of burning napalm at the orcs, slowing them up and keeping them from pressing on the legionnaires. More ballista bolts fell as well and bolts from some of the crossbowmen. Finally, a massed company threw their pilums and the last of the legionnaires marched stolidly through the gates, which closed behind them.
The New Destiny forces pressed forward as well but the rest of the legion was already manning the walls and the attack was repulsed with bloody losses, the legionnaires poking the orcs from above with their pilums and groups of them using them to pincushion the larger monsters. After about fifteen minutes of that horns rang from the far camp and the New Destiny forces retreated, leaving a windrow of their dead under the UFS lines to stink up the morning.
New Destiny was already starting siege operations against his lines as well. Attack trenches and parallels were going in, the earth being moved by more Changed and a few local humans who had been unlucky enough to be captured. The cohort’s primary mission had been an attack against those. One that had not been successful.
For that matter, he wondered at the preparations. New Destiny could simply swarm him. If they threw enough bodies. There had been ten thousand, at least, in the invasion fleet. More would be coming in through portals. They had to be worried about time and they couldn’t move until he was reduced. So why were they starting an elaborate siege?
“Send for Lieutenant Pedersen,” the general said. “I want his thoughts.”
Rachel stepped back from the casualty as she finished suturing the artery.
“He’s going to be in pain when he wakes up,” she said, lifting one eyelid with a blood-covered hand and checking the dilation of the pupil. “I’ll write out an order for morphine. No more and no less, understand?” she said to the orderly. The man nodded at her, frightened, and called for stretcher bearers to move the officer out.