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Chapter 11

Potential Ramifications

A flapping of wings alerted Jonesy to the fact that the target was arriving, just as the sun was moving past its zenith. Jonesy was in the Territory of Karthra, and he was here to kill the Dragon Lord named Kathragon. As the dragon Kathragon flew over him, Jonesy was glad that he had brought the camouflage netting. He didn't want a random flash of light from something metallic to give away his position. The dragon wheeled in the air before coming in for a landing on a flat plateau in front of a cave. Jonesy checked to make sure everything was in order. Now all he had to do was pull the trigger. When he looked back the dragon was standing on two legs, the wings folded in tightly and the sun flashing off of it's gold and red scales.

This was the lord who had been giving the Demon so many problems, who had been sending in his drakai to raid the Demon's domain. Kathragon's territory was nearly twice the size of the Demon's, who was more concerned with consolidation than expansion anyways, and the Demon wanted him to pay the price for his greed. Jonesy was here to make sure he would.

Once the dragon had landed, two drakai immediately rushed out to meet it. There was a short exchange of conversation, then the drakai rushed back inside. Mere minutes later, eight drakai emerged. Jonesy thought he recognized the original two leading them but he couldn't be sure at this distance. Two of the drakai carried a large barrel between them, Jonesy guessed it to be about 30 gallons. In front of those two, two more struggled with something in a sack that seemed to be giving them some problems as well as a length of rope and something else, resembling long sticks.

Jonesy, now curious, decided to hold off on his shot for a little while. Kathragon and the drakai trooped down the sides of the slope, where all day Jones had observed drakai going in and out. Finally reaching the base of the slopes where it gave way to more flat terrain the dragon stopped. The Drakai holding the sack went to the nearest tree, and upended the sack. Out fell a rather ragged looking black-furred female Meechan, who, once clear of the sack, attempted to run. The drakai grabbed her and held held her fast.

Frog marching her to the base of the tree, a third drakai took a length of rope, and with another drakai's help, tied it firmly around one of her wrists. Looping the other end over a branch that jutted out from the trunk about fifteen feet up, they secured the rope to the other wrist. The meechan hung bound, standing on her toes.

The other drakai, had not been idle in the meantime. They had set up about twenty meters from the tree. One of them opened the barrel they had set down while the other began seeing to the item Jonesy had glimpsed. It resembled a long stick, about five feet long, made of equal parts wood and metal. In fact, if Jonesy hadn't know better, he would have said it was a primitive attempt at a firearm.

With a growing sense of horror, Jonesy realized that is what it was. One of the drakai took something that look suspiciously like a powder horn, and holding its weapon vertical, proceeded to make ready the weapon. Jonesy noticed that they did not use cartridges, and that they would have an extremely slow rate of fire. It was almost half a minute before they were done getting there weapons ready. It seemed that the drakai were putting on a demonstration for their dragon.

One of the drakai shouldered its weapon and pointed it at the meechan. He ignited the weapon with what appeared to be a clumsy flintlock design. It was clear that these were prototypes, as the weapon exploded in his hands when he attempted to fire. The second one with a rifle took a shot and missed the meechan by meters.

Jonesy had had enough of them playing target practice and decided to end this now. His mission was to kill the dragon, but this was nearly as important. Jonesy was sure that the Demon would likely throw a fit once he got back and reported this.

The range to the target was slightly more than 1,550 meters. With a muzzle velocity of 900 meters per second, Jonesy had less than two seconds from when he fired until the bullet hit. It would take more than four seconds for them to hear the first shot. Looking at the barrel of powder next to the shooters, Jonesy began to formulate a plan. His first shot would be at the target, he then had two seconds to fire again at the powder barrel. The incendiary rounds would ignite the powder. If he was lucky no one would even know he was there.

Unfortunately, the area would soon be crawling with drakai, and Jonesy didn't exactly have a surplus of ammunition. This meant that he would have to leave the meechan imprisoned. With a sigh, Jonesy sighted down on Kathragon. He had his back to Jonesy, so there was no chance that he might glimpse the muzzle flash. Dialing in the scope, Jonesy let it rest on the back of his head and fired.

The round went downrange, and it seemed to be gliding in slowly. Jonesy noticed the curve in the flight and knew that the round wouldn't be right on target. But he was already firing at the powder barrel. The first bullet hit Kathragon low on the right side of his neck. The high explosive round therefore penetrated through the flesh before exploding almost right in front of it's face. The second round hit the barrel lower than Jonesy wanted, but it accomplished the goal. The barrel erupted, throwing drakai around like rag dolls. As Jonesy briefly scanned the area to make sure no drakai were moving, he noticed that the meechan had managed to slip free and was making a run for it. Jonesy grinned in satisfaction before getting ready to move out.

A loud roar, followed by an explosion, grabbed his attention. Coming up the trail behind him was a drakai warrior, who must have been nearby when Jonesy shot. Its side was peppered with shrapnel from where part of the claymore blast had caught it. Jonesy had set the claymore to vibrational detonation, which meant that the footsteps of the victim would set it off rather than the more commonly used infrared sensor (which were useless against drakai), or tripwire. The heavier tread of the drakai must have set it off early, therefore most of the steel balls fired missed while only a fraction hit. Still, despite getting a light peppering from the claymore, it came on. Jonesy quickly fired off two shots from the hip, the large weapon's recoil almost jerking the weapon out of his hands, doing horrible damage to the drakai's right hip and stomach. Then it was upon him, swinging a large maul. Jonesy ducked out from the path of the weapon as it impacted a tree behind him and slammed the butt of his rifle into it's already damaged side.

With a roar, the drakai swung it's maul in a backhanded swipe. The weapon connected with Jonesy's left hand where he held the rifle, crushing it into his side and throwing him onto his back. Jonesy lay on his back, stunned for a second before remembering his pistol. Drawing it, he unloaded his entire clips into its upped chest and face. The drakai advanced on him, and was standing over him, ready to finish him off before finally keeling over. Jonesy was forced to roll out of the way to avoid being crushed by the body.

Getting to his feet, Jonesy ignored the pain in his chest and left hand and instead went to find his rifle. When he found it, it was clear that it was never going to be fired again. The delicate optics were completely destroyed, and there was a large dent just forward of the magazine well. As he reached down to pick it up however, his body was racked by a violent series of coughs. When he drew his hand away from his mouth, it was speckled with blood.

"So, you're basically a feudal lord, and you want me to do things for you so the status quo won't change?" Sean said as he ran his hand through his hair, a tic of his whenever he was agitated. He had lost a lot of money in poker due to that tic. He had taken the shock of the Demon turning out to be a dragon quite well, all things considering. However, he did keep his hand firmly on the hilt of Draconex.

"That is a fair summary, yes."

"I'm not sure if you understand this or not, but a boat is rather hard to move overland, it's more than twice your size, and several hundred times your weight." Sean felt it was only fair to point this out.

"Not to mention the fact that it's several days journey there and back." He continued. Sean stopped as the demon held up a hand.

"You should speak to your warrant officer if you want transportation."

"Otherwise, you should leave as soon as possible before someone else scavenges it." Sean turned to leave, eager to get away from the dragon.

"Oh and one more thing." The Demon spoke just as Sean's hand landed on the door.

"Yes?"

"From what I heard, the place you landed, it's not in my territory."

"Who's territory is it then?"

"The territory Tantris. Ruled by a fellow dragon lord who goes by the name Nithragon, a magnificent Dragoness." The Demon with a strange tone of voice.

"So how will I get there?"

"You will have to ask for permission to travel through her territory. Find one of her patrols, and when challenged, request an audience." The demon explained patiently.

"Tell her that you are an agent of Corinagon. She is one of my allies."

"And that's all?"

"Yes. Just in case, Forana will go with you. He has served as my emissary before." Sean didn't bother arguing with the demon, he wouldn't have taken the time to even if he thought he would win, he just wanted to get out of the tower right now.

Sean eventually found Kit on the wall above the gate. He climbed the ladder slowly, the wound in his side aching and his leg throbbing slightly. When he reached the top he found a small enclosure, much like a guard tower. Kit was lounging in one of the chairs and didn't look up until fully inside.

"Lieutenant," She said nodding in his direction. "Hope you're feeling better."

"Thank you warrant officer, I am."

"Was there something you needed."

"Ah, yes. The Demon sent me to find you, said I should speak to you about some transportation. Going to have to scavenge some stuff from my boat."

"Boat?" Suddenly Kit was paying a lot more attention. "Boat as in with an engine?"

"Well yea-" Sean stopped as Kit stood up, grabbed the ladder, and slid down it.

"Follow me." Sean shook his head and climbed down the ladder at a more sedate pace. Kit jogged to an entrance to one of the tunnels. Sean had noticed that it was larger and the floor was flatter than the others. Stepping inside they walked down it for about twenty meters before it curved and opened into a large cavern. Sean noticed holes cut into the ceiling to direct light into the cavern.

Inside the cavern there were military vehicles of all shapes and sizes, most damaged. It looked like a chop shop.

"Stuff pops up every now and then. Most of the time it's too damaged to be useful. Sometimes we have to haul out some bodies as well." Kit walked through piles of scrap before stopping in front of a 5 ton transport truck. Sean could see that the addition of hillbilly armor was fairly recent but the machine gun mounted on the top of the cab wasn't.

"Well this is our ride, only problem is we really don't have any fuel. However, if we have enough to get there, we could siphon it from the tanks of the boats."

"You can do that?"

"Well yeah, I'm the grease monkey around here. What, you think I just watch the damn gate all day?"

"Uh, pretty much yeah." Sean said with a sheepish grin. Kit gave a quick laugh then was serious again.

"So how much will we be hauling? We got a five ton limit off road."

"On the way there, call it four people and basic kit."

"And on the way back?"

"We're gonna grab about a squad's load of weapons. As for fuel..."

"We have a few fuel bladders, how much fuel do you have?"

"Well I used up some, call it 200 gallons left... I have no idea what that would be as pounds."

"That would be between 1,200 and 1,400 pounds, we're gonna be well within the limit." Suddenly Kit frowned.

"You said four people?"

"Well me, you, Arutha and Forana." Sean explained. "The demon practically ordered me to take Forana as a emissary to the lord's territory we're going into."

Kit gave a small groan of frustration. "We're gonna get caught up in a territory dispute?"

"The Demon gave the impression that it wasn't that big a deal."

"Notice that he's not the one in the hot seat. I'll go see if I can't find some .50 cal ammo for the gun." She said gesturing at gun mount.

"You also mentioned Arutha?"

"Oh yeah, well his village is pretty close to where we need to go so I figure we could just drop him off or something."

"Alright, I'm gonna have to spend some time getting ready. We'll probably be ready to go tomorrow."

"Alright then. Kit, I actually have to go and talk to Arutha now." Sean said as he was walking up the tunnel.

"Yeah sure, just remember to show here tomorrow."

Jonesy stumbled through the trees trying to make good his escape. Over short distances meechan were faster than humans and both could outrun drakai, but for endurance it was humans coming in first followed by drakai and meechan. Unfortunately for Jonesy, cracked ribs had slowed him down to the point that nearly anything could catch him. He had been steadily coughing up blood for the last half hour he had been on the run, and was close to the point of exhaustion. He had lightened his pack until all he was carrying was his pistol, a combat knife, two throwing knives, some food, and of course his tin of tobacco.

Almost losing his balance on a steep grade, he paused to lean up against tree. He hadn't heard any sound of pursuit but couldn't afford to slow down, he needed to gain some distance and find somewhere where he could hole up and recover. He leaned against the tree for a moment, then dropped the lightened pack to the ground. He dug through it until he found his tin of tobacco. He stared hard at it thinking about how Kathragon could have possibly gotten weapons.

It was the tin of tobacco that gave him the answer, If Kathragon had gotten his hands on a single bullet, then he could simply replicate the gunpowder, the same way that the Demon did with Jonesy's tobacco. He didn't even need to know the formula for gunpowder, each of the ingredients would be replicated in proportion to each other. A gun was to complex to be replicated so Kathragon would instead be forced to build one from scratch.

Jonesy awkwardly unscrewed the cover of the tin with his left hand, his ring finger and little finger broken from when they had been smashed against his rifle and the drakai's maul. Chewing thoughtfully he wondered how he was going to deal with whatever had been shadowing him for the last five minutes. Whatever it was clearly thought that Jonesy was ignorant of it's presence and he saw no benefit in having it think otherwise.

It hadn't attacked him, so he knew it wasn't immediately hostile. In his battered state Jonesy wasn't sure he could take it if it was. His only chance would be to take it by surprise. He had two clips left for his pistol and one round in the chamber making a grand total of fifteen rounds, enough to outright kill at least one drakai. Jonesy decided that if it came to it, he would target their legs instead. They couldn't chase him down if they couldn't run, and their then restricted mobility would make a kill shot easier.

Jonesy placed the tin back into his pack and slipped the pack back on, trying not to wince noticeably as he did so. Up ahead there were two trees recently downed, their branches tangled together and obscuring the view. Jonesy's plan was to move around the small game trail he was on, slip behind those trees before his pursuer saw him, then when the target moved onto the trail to see where he went, Jonesy would be able to sneak up behind them.

He moved down the trail, trying to avoid doing anything that might give him away. His pursuer was barely close enough to keep sight of him, Jonesy moved behind the trees, and rather than continuing his path, cut right, staying parallel to the downed trees. He had to time it right and hope that his shadow would either follow directly down the path or swing out wide, and not move on a intercept path.

Moving as quietly as he could and fighting against the aching in his side, he finally came around to the other side of the tree, now advancing back the way he had came he pictured the situation. His pursuer had obviously lost sight of Jonesy when he had gone around the bend and would now be standing on the path looking for Jonesy. Jonesy would come around the other side of the large tree and be only a few feet behind the target.

As he cleared the tree however, another violent coughing fit set upon Jonesy. He cursed as he fell to his hands and knees in the dirt directly behind his shadow who promptly spun around. A hand landed on his left shoulder, surging upwards his left arm came up from the inside breaking the hold on his shoulder. Grabbing the shoulder of his surprised adversary, Jonesy's right hand came flying up, with it his pistol. He jammed it under his opponents chin just as a clawed hand grabbed his throat, tiny pinpricks of blood welling up. The only thing that kept Jonesy from immediately firing was that he now recognized who had been following him.

It was the female dark furred meechan he had seen earlier. Up close she looked even worse than through the scope, one eye was filled with blood and she breathed irregularly. What Jonesy was wondering however, was how she found him. She had been facing in his general direction when he fired so it was possible she had seen the muzzle flash, but then she would have had to track him when he had a mile head start!

They stared at each other, both waiting for the other one to back down or to say something. The stare down might have gone on indefinitely but for the arrival of a drakai. It's squawk of surprise and the direction it came from told Jonesy that it was not one of those searching for him. It drawing it's sword, however, confirmed that it was hostile.

The meechan and the human both disengaged immediately. Jonesy was reluctant to give away his current position, so instead of merely shooting the drakai he reached down to his right boot and came up flicking a weighted throwing knife. The knife tumbled through the air and hit the drakai sideways. The throw was merely meant to distract the drakai, which it did.

Jonesy was already drawing out his combat knife, a Gerber MK II his grandfather had carried while serving in Vietnam. Next to the drakai's large sword it seemed laughable, but then the meechan leaped toward the drakai. The suddenness clearly surprised the drakai, and both of them went to the ground, the sword rolling free.

But the meechan surrendered two feet and more than one hundred pounds too the drakai. Jonesy was not at all surprised when the drakai heaved her aside and got to it's feet. That was when Jonesy struck. Darting in from it's blind side, he stabbed into it's thigh, sinking the blade in a good five inches, then pushed forward on the handle. The drakai screeched as Jonesy created a wound almost three inches wide and five inches deep. Jonesy quickly withdrew the blade and nearly got his face smashed in but for the timely arrival of the meechan.

With another leap she again brought the drakai to the ground, but this time, instead of flinging her away the drakai rolled so that she was on the bottom and the drakai was straddling her. The two of them flailed away at each other with dagger like claws. Jonesy hobbled forward, his wounds voicing their displeasure at him. With an easy target, Jonesy's left hand snaked around from behind and seized the drakai's maw, nearly losing his fingers to snapping teeth. Holding the head as steady as possible with only three working fingers. Then Jonesy right hand came in, a short brutal thrust to the base of the skull burying his combat knife all the way to the hilt in it's brain.

For a human, damage like that to the brain stem would bring nearly instantaneous death. For the drakai it took five long seconds, what felt like the longest of Jonesy's life, and a twist of the knife before the drakai stopped struggling. Jonesy was breathing heavily, seeming like he he was going to fall over if he stopped leaning on the now dead drakai. Then it gave a little twitch and Jonesy jumped and nearly screamed like a little girl before realizing that the cause of the twitching was the meechan trapped under the large drakai.

Sean barely got Draconex up in time to block the overhanded strike from Arutha's short sword. Sean had eventually found Arutha and had persuaded him to accompany them. Arutha hadn't been sure if he should stay at the Citadel with Syphis, or head back to his village now that his mission was complete. Sean had reminded Arutha of his promise of a sparring match in order to take his mind off it.

The bout had started off as rather instructional, with Arutha treating the edges of their blades with something that looked like mud to Sean's untrained eye, but when heated over a fire became quite solid thus stopping them from skewering each other. Arutha had assured him that it would come off when moistened. However, the blades were quite heavy, and neither of them wanted to end up with broken bones. Sean had retrieved his combat armor to further dampen any blows, though he elected to keep his head bare.

Over time it had morphed into a friendly sparring match, then slowly evolved into something more as it became apparent that Arutha had quite a competitive streak. Now it was a full contact fight that had Sean drawing on every bit of his skill to keep the much more experienced - not to mention stronger, bigger, and quicker - meechan at bay.

Sean retreated a step, waiting for the meechan to make a mistake he could exploit. He lowered Draconex into a low guard. He had been forced to stay on the defensive most of the match, Arutha had superior reach, both due to his larger stature and his longer weapon. What Arutha did not have however, was patience. Humans had superior endurance, so Sean's defensive strategy had been wearing down Arutha much quicker than Sean. Feeling his strength waning, Arutha took more chances, more complicated attacks.

The meechan warrior came in low and fast in a straight stab at Sean's stomach, Sean shifted Draconex to to catch it with a cross body block and knocked it past to his left. Stepping forward and to the right Sean swung for the body. Arutha had to scramble to get his sword in the way to intercept it. Sean quickly pulled back to his defensive position. Arutha came forward with several high strikes, forcing Sean's guard higher with each one.

When the low stab came, Sean wasn't surprised, he knew Arutha was working his guard high for a reason. This time Sean blocked with a diagonal chop and forced the blade down and to his right while he stepped to the left. Sean let loose a vicious kick to Arutha's leg just above the knee. Hoping to hit the peroneal nerve, Sean was disappointed when Arutha barely flinched.

The counter attack was much more devastating. Rather than retreating or squaring off, Arutha simply brought his sword back around hilt first. Catching Sean in the solar plexus, Sean not only had the wind knocked out of him, but the hit had also affected the celial plexus. Arutha had unknowingly just accomplished Sean had tried to do. Sean wound up on the ground, unable to draw breath and with a burning pain from the affected area. The combat armor had taken the edge off of it, but it still hurt.

"Just relax, it'll pass in a few seconds." Sean rolled over to look at Fiona who was leaning against the doorway, an amused expression on her face.

"I thought I told you no strenuous activity? This is what you get for ignoring the doctors orders." Sean was finally able to breathe, though it had a high pitched quality to it.

"How long were you watching?" he managed to say as he levered himself into a sitting position, the high pitched breathing slowly fading.

"Just got there in time to watch your attempted cheap shot. I could've told you that wouldn't work, totally different physiology." Her tone of voice slipping towards what Jonesy and Kit called her lecture voice. Sean merely waved it away.

"If I'm ever in a fair fight, it's because I made a mistake."

"Now, was there something you needed or did you just want to watch the fight?" Sean finally gained his feet, his breathing almost normal and the pain in his chest a dull throb.

"Yeah, we have a problem." Sean glanced up at that, suddenly giving Fiona his undivided attention.

"Jonesy's not in trouble is he?" Sean asked thinking back to his talk with the Demon about Jonesy's dangerous mission

"No, Jonesy's probably perfectly fine. He could take both of you right now, he's a fourth degree black belt in Semper Fu." Fiona replied, using the nickname for MCMAP, the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program.

"The problem is that your little road trip is gonna have a few modifications."

"Not now," She said as Sean made ready to get up and leave right then. " In the morning, get some sleep first, tomorrows gonna be a big day."