Part 1: How the Flower Grows
Urik hunched in the doorway of a collapsed building. All around him Outcasts and Unen rebels slinked from cover to cover as they made their way back into the port of Unen. Large parts of the city had been blasted during the attack and the locals’ fighting-withdrawal. He felt anger burning deeply. It was funny really. He hadn’t much cared about Unen in all the he’d lived there but now he was determined to take it. He silently chuckled at himself I guess you don’t know what you have until a megalomaniac from an alternate reality comes to take it away. He singled a halt with a gesture and with another called for a huddle.
"Alright you all know the plan we split up outcasts and Rebels together and get as close as we can to the heavy artillery. At the flare we attack. Take the positions and turn the guns on the other defenders to help force a breach at the Cathedral. If we can hold here the UTD will be here to back us up. If you can’t take a position try to blast their fuel reserves. That will at least take them out of action.
Flora I want you to take our best shots and go hunting. You take out any officers you see avoid direct engagement, you know the drill."
Flora grinned “Yeah Boss I know the drill.”
He nodded and grinned back.
“Remember if this all goes to hell Lalder is planning to level the whole city to stop the sacrifice. The signal for that is our signal to high tail it back to the caves. I don’t want to see that happen. So let’s take our city back.”
Flora and her best snipers and five of the best sharpshooters among the Unenese Rebels left the building by way of a rear door. Flora’s Unit made their way towards a covert culvert near backyard.
Designed to prevent rainwater from flooding this neighborhood the culvert ran in a straight line all the way towards the stone wall that separated this once-wealthier neighborhood from the old Religious quarter.
Keeping low, knowing their Immutability would make them invisible to the Leyas sight used by the Kalokians and their demonic pets, the unit would only need to keep out of visual range.
It was a dangerous gambit in a way. If a single Fell Balgog had been patrolling the inside of the Culvert, it could have caught them all in a deadly funnel of Hellfire. Luckily for them, the Kalokians were relying on Kalok’s hounds to find anyone sneaking around the city, and the Immutables were virtually cloaked from the demon-golem’s senses at long ranges.
Reaching the end of the Culvert, Flora’s team found a once luxurious Merchant’s home, made of finest binber wood, now splintered and crumbling from repeated strikes from falling debris. The remaining sections of the home were two stories tall with a widow’s walk that extended from a small tower, barely tall enough to overlook the stone wall patrolled by the Kalokians.
Using hand gestures, Flora signalled to her unit. Three would maintain this position in case of rapid retreat, three would hold the doorway to the merchant’s home. The remaining three accompanied Flora into the home, and barring any unforseen encounters they would take the tower and set up a position within rifle range of the Cathedral.
Just as she passed across the threshold of the home, Flora could hear a wooshing sound behind her. She watched as cannonballs filled the air and suddenly was nearly blinded by flashing light as one of the balls struck the stone wall. The cannon ball shone with artificed light where it was embedded in the stone, and had struck with enough force that Flora could see stone shards pierced through the wooden wall next to her.
“Looks like the cavalry has arrived,” Flora whispered, “Let’s make the most of their distraction.”
Heading up to the widow’s walk, Flora crawled out on her elbows and thighs, keeping low and slow to avoid attracting attention. Looking out across the port of Unen, Flora could see a full counter attack was well under way.
Out in the bay, pirate vessels and merchant vessels wheeled in the choppy sea, turning their broadsides time and time again on the Port. Kalokian positions were salvoed with cannon balls, and walls of wind and water rose up around the ships to protect them from the inevitable counter attack.
One of the cannon balls, artificed with fire into a swirling ball of inferno, came crashing down on a Kalokian Artillery position. Flora watched with interest as it rolled right into their Fuel barrels. The demonic fuel went off in a greenish explosion, destroying the position and the Artillery.
She raised her scoped rifle to her eye, zooming in on the destroyed position. She could see Kalokian Guard trying to put out the hellfires, and two larger Olgogs bickering in the midst of the destruction.
One was taller, maybe because of the crude hellforged Power Armor he wore. As Flora placed her reticule over his mask, she could see the power armor pilot was a grizzled version of Captain Reshed of the Rhug’na’ru. His face had a massive burn scar showing he had been dedicated as as soldier of Kalok despite his Immutable nature, a benefit perhaps of being a friend of Kalok’s Prophet Kolgol.
Flora knew he must be the Mirror Crystal version of Captain Reshed, and the demonic power armor he wore did give an element of Metal Gog to his style. A pair of hellforged machine pistols were at his wrists, and a trio of single use rockets mounted on his back.
Despite the advanced armor and relatively deadly weapons, Flora couldn’t spot any scanners, thermal scopes or other devices on the power armor that would allow the mirror crystal Rhug’na’ru leader to spot her.
Rather than take the shot, she changed directions and began to look for the other commanding officer she had spotted.
No longer arguing with Captain Reshed about the cannon bombardment, the other mirror crystal leader was making her way back towards the Cathedral. Ordering Balgogs to change their positions to try and intercept the cannonballs with their body, the general seemed cruel in her body language as she gave her orders.
Flora’s hand darted up to change the magnification on her scope, zooming in towards the face of the female Olgog general who seemed to be fearless while standing beside Kalokians and Fell Balgogs. Her eyes went wide as she recognized the face of the cigar chomping general as her own face.
Flora never suspected she would see the Mirror Crystal version of herself. Especially not leading an invasion of Unen. She looked around for Graf, or Dreg, or Urik himself, but none could be seen. Flora sighted back in on her mirror crystal self, and noticed she carried Urik’s cigars in her front pocket, and began recognizing keepsakes from Dreg, Graf and the others all pinned to her body armor like religious fetishes to keep her safe.
Flora had heard about Naeil of the Lucky Fate Gang, how her boss Godart was killed and how it had changed her. Forced her to become a real leader, to take on enemies by herself and rebuild the gang. Flora didn’t know how she would handle it if Urik had died, he was her friend and her mentor. But if all her loved ones died, she knew she would make whomever did it suffer.
Looking at her own face on the mirror crystal version, twisted with malice and pain, and Flora wondered if that had been what sent her down that path in the other timeline. The loss of her beloved friends, taking extreme vengeance on her enemies, and now this version of her own self stood before her. In her rifle sights. And Flora didn’t know if she could pull the trigger.