Chapter 159
Part 24
“The Hilian forces had good sess fighting in open void in theirst bout.” Grakonexikaldoron pointed
out. “They used three hundred and twelve attack wizards in the initial stage of it, and that seemed close
to an optimum number to deal with the magnitude of the enemy they faced. It gave them more than
enough eyes on the scene, and enough variety of attacks to keep the demons scrambling, while being
few enough that their support corps could keep their Shields almost impregnable.
“It was a higher concentration of power than we used in the joint Xervian exercise yesterday, and it was
measurably more effective.
“However, in both of those cases the magnitude of the enemy was known. All we were told today was
that we would face ‘a force of demons’. Those operating the recentrge-scale exercises have tended
to try to make the exercises almost impossible, ording to their most recent evaluations of us. And
since they have fresh evaluations of both our forces from the exercises we’ve fought within thest
three days, we can’t expect them to underestimate us again.
“Today, we can expect the exercise to truly be almost impossible.”
“Look, the whole thing is a fool’s errand.” Six stated as he Translocated into the center of the clearing.
“It was worth it for the demons to defend their base on Deh in our exercise because they’d dug
warrens for more than six billion of them. They’d invested a lot to build them, and they were extensive
enough and deep enough to provide effective cover for almost their entire force.
“In this situation, some of us or all of us are going to get trapped on the surface with insufficient cover,
and a big force of demons are going to have the high ground against us. The demons are often sneaky
in how they attack, ording to the Triax battle records that I’ve reviewed, but they’ve got no need to
be sneaky now, and I very much doubt they’ll hold anything in reserve today. They’ll throw everything
they’ve got into it in hopes of a quick, overwhelming victory.
“I say we fill the bases with as many of us as we can send as Simcrums in the time we have. They’ll
be bait, but they’re just Simcrums. As long as those in them are protected against bacsh when
the Simcrums are destroyed, none of us get hurt, and we can just re-cast them whenever they get
overwhelmed. We’ll also put one or a few real Strike wizards in each base to channel all our power
through. Their task will be to put up a convincing fight and kill a lot of demons while drawing all of the
demons in as close to the bases as possible without beingpletely overwhelmed. Then we nt
hidden destructive measures, enough to destroy the entire area, and abandon the bases, taking
everything of value. We let the demons upy them and get packed in tight around them, then blow
the bases and attack from without with everything we’ve got to mop up, while we’ve got the high ground
and they’ll be trapped against the surface. Even if they abandon the surface and fight us in the void,
that’s still better than having them above us. If the rest of it goes well we’ll only be mopping up anyway,
and it should be no problem to kill them all.
“If we can aplish that much in seven hours, with the amount of help we have avable today, we’ll
have enough time in the exercise’s remaining hour to rebuild the twelve bases and restore the surface
of the moon.
“Then we win.”
“I’ll vote for that.” Povon announced after a short pause.
“As will I.” Somonik agreed.
“And I.” Mark nodded.
“And I. We havemand consensus.” Tithian stated.
“We’ll help with casting Simcrums, we’re getting pretty good at it.” Fire offered.
“You will, and you and your father and brother will be our Strike Wizards at these three most critical of
the forts.” Somonik decided as he indicated the three spots on the map. “If your sister was with us she
would be most useful, but the importance of her work excuses her.”
In another four minutes everyone’s ce in the n was decided, and they began to fill the forts with
Simcrums.
In the minutes before the exercise began, Mark toured the twelve forts, considering each of them most
carefully with all his concentrated awareness, and magically augmenting his memorization of their
construction and contents.
“What was that all about?” Kragorram asked in the final expectant seconds, as Mark took up his station
above the central fort.
“Just some insurance.” Mark chuckled in reply.
As it turned out, it was a valuable precaution. Almost every member of the Xervian forces were
extremely formidable, and while there were only about a billion of them they were bolstered by the
Drawn power of The Hidden Nation. They wielded power almost equal to Mark’s forces, almost
doubling the power of the Kerani taking part over their previous exercises.
But the enemy was more than twice as numerous as Mark’s forces had faced in their previous war
game. Worse, the greater demons were almost half the enemy force, rather than a tenth as they’d been
thest time, and there were hundreds of DemonLords, rather than dozens. In total, they wielded eight
times the power of the horde Mark hadst faced.
Six’s n worked as well as could be expected. They held the forts as long as they could, killing
demons by the tens of millions, and with the upation of the forts by the demons and their
subsequent destruction, only half the demon force survived. In the final minutes of the exercise they’d
lost only twenty-seven Strike Wizards as well as innumerable Simcrums, but there were still over
three billion greater and lesser demons and most of the DemonLords remaining, all of whom had
abandoned the moon to fight in open void. The six hundred or so Kerani Strike Wizards had to
Translocate randomly and constantly to avoid bing englobed.
In the very final minute Mark cast his ‘insurance’. He expanded his collection field to thousands of
kilometers wide and cast a simple but supremely powerful Restore spell on the destroyed forts. There
was just enough time to upy them with a few hundred personnel each before the exercise ended.
The simted demons both living and dead vanished as time expired.
Mark quickly checked with the organizers, then called to everyone in the Command Link; “We are
triumphant!”
He was answered by the mighty cheering of the victorious billions; a thunderous psionic shouting in the
silent void.
Far less than a thousand of them had been physically present at the battle, but they were all called up
to the surface of Blenda to see for themselves the devastation around the newly-Restored forts before
Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDra/ma.O(r)g!
the area was cleaned up, to get a feel for the ce where they’d battled remotely, and to take part in
the debriefing and evaluations.
Once that was done, those who had attended themand meeting before the exercise were called
back to The Valley of The Senate by Pakdag.
“That was an impressive demonstration.” the war god stated, but both his gravelly voice and his grim
expression showed that he was displeased.
“We won’t hold your literal interpretation of your objectives against you. Though you did not hold the
forts for the entire exercise, it could indeed be said that you held them at the end. More importantly, if
this exercise had been a battle, the demons would have obviously fled or been in to thest,
eventually. You were steadily devastating them in the closing minutes.
“You slew over nine billion greater and lesser demons and thirty-four DemonLords while sustaining
losses of only twenty-seven personnel, and without divine assistance. That is a far greater achievement
than we expected of you. It seems the probability of our victory over the demons grows greater every
day.
“But less than seven hundred of you actually took part in the battle. And while your use of Simcrums
was brilliant, fighting as a Simcrum is not the same as being present in the thick of warfare. It
doesn’t train your forces’ courage and determination to as great an extent, since all those who fight that
way arefortable and safe from harm, and only a few million took part in even that limited
manner.