The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Chapter 5: Blood Moon

Weapons fire chatter from either side of them announced that Ballan and Quist had also opened up on the gate as well from their flanking positions as the former machine gun nests merrily burned, forcing the humans to make the most of their cover before returning fire. Which, Lash again noted with some wry appreciation, they quickly and smoothly did, counterattacking without pause even as they adjusted on the fly to the additional pressure.

"These blood bags are good," Fordicht growled as he paused in firing long enough to drop his empty magazine and pump in another, resetting the bolt with a quick pull before rising and letting off a short burst. Two more bursts on different targets then he was dropping back down.

"Faster, with better reflexes than any I've encountered before." He looked over at Lash. "Think they're bio-enhanced?"

Lash grimaced as he let off a couple of bursts himself before retaking cover.

"I hope not," he grimly replied.

Bio-enhancement was a vice of the psionics, most notably the Brotherhood of Advanced Intellects with their incessant gene tweaking and DNA scrubbing in their drive to make the ultimate version of Homo Superior. If these humans were indeed bio-enhanced, then that suggested a possible link to their old enemies and put these humans in play as proxies in what could be a new offensive against the Children by the Brotherhood. This also could mean that Mordecai's offensive against them a couple weeks' ago wasn't as effective as they had all hoped.

Peering over his cover, Lash took a long, searching look at the soldiers that had taken up cover positions just behind and to the side of the gate. Thanks to his brief alliance with the psylord Mordecai, he had more than enough experience in dealing with not only psionics, but werewolves as well, which were the Dark Edge's version of bio-enhanced. At least they were for certain physical attributes.

Using that experience, he carefully studied the soldiers as much as opportunity allowed. And quickly came to a conclusion:

Yes, they were fast. And yes, they had abnormally quick reflexes, ducking out of the way of weapons fire that would have taken a normal human's head clean off. And finally yes, they had extraordinary skills as warriors and soldiers, as he had observed before. They weren't, however, enhanced.

Oddly that observation sent a trickle of relief through his hardened warrior's breast. They would've been dealt with regardless, but it was nice to know they didn't have to anticipate another war with the Brotherhood on top of their current efforts to avoid having their clan wiped off the map. One war at a time was plenty, even for normally truculent vampires. And while it didn't answer the question of who they were, at least they now had a good guess on who they weren't!

Unfortunately, his quick study also told him that their tactic wasn't working as well as he had hoped. They were indeed pulling in other guards from the rest of Magnar's compound, but nowhere near the numbers they had observed on patrol. Either the soldiers had made their way to the armored vehicles closer to the castle in anticipation of a stronger push. Or the humans weren't as troubled by the attack as they originally hoped, despite the two destroyed machine gun nests.

Lash's expression tightened. Time to increase that trouble, then!

"Fordicht, I'm advancing on the gate," he informed the veteran African vampire in a low voice. "Give me some cover."

"And if you get there intact?" the other vampire replied even as he confirmed he'd cover Lash with a nod.

"Follow with team one to see if we can consolidate." He looked over at the grim North African. "We're not pulling enough of the patrols off their routes to give Narcist and Truk's teams time to complete their assignments. I'm going to rectify that!" And with that, he was sliding out from behind cover to open up with everything that he had as he began to tactically move forward as quickly as he could.