The Grey Chronicles Part Two: Under Siege.

Chapter 17: Mind the Gap.

Outskirts of the capital city, surface of Stonehaara One, August of 8096 AL.

Salem pressed the binoculars to his eyes, scanning the area ahead of the column. They hadn't met any resistance during their travels, the Nephilim always waited until they settled in for the night. A series of small raids had been attempted, but nothing substantial enough to cause need for alarm. Since their encounter at the mountain range several days ago, the column had lost a few hundred soldiers. They had traveled almost one hundred and thirty kilometers in the last few days, they only had another sixty to travel until their first objective; the base outside of the Blood Forge.

"We're coming up on the river, Salem," Seth announced over the radio. Salem picked up his receiver, holding his binoculars in one hand as he spoke and searched for his ship.

"I know, only another kilometer or so to the ford." Salem examined the horizon and finally caught sight of a familiar shape; the hull of the Anarchist, halfway covered by the trees surrounding it. Only the naval hook was visible above the canopy, and its condition gave Salem hope that his ship was intact.

"We'll have to be careful around the city," Seth said, "Thermal imaging shows a lot of something in the city center. The Nephilim may be using it as a staging area."

"Or it could be the parasites." Salem set his binoculars down and crawled back into his tank, closing the hatch behind him. "I seem to remember we had several dozen of your titans on the Anarchist, I wouldn't be surprised if they escaped."

"...You think they might be here?" Seth was audibly worried.

"What's the matter? Scared of your own pets?"

"He used them against you, yet he can't stand to fight them himself. How cowardly." Hyde scoffed in Salem's head, he had been particularly talkative in the last few days. Salem figured he was bored.

Well, you're not wrong, Salem thought.

"No, but I do know what they're capable of." Seth grumbled, "We could have dropped off a couple thousand of them instead of even launching this campaign. They would've taken a few months, but they would completely take over the planet."

"It's a little late for that, but looking back on it we could've nuked the planet from orbit." Salem chuckled, "Of course, both options aren't very good."

"Agreed, nukes and insects would do the trick, but if there is any chance of a plan failing, one should take care of it personally."

"Seth, there's a very simple saying we have that's almost identical to what you just said." Salem laughed, he found that everything the Stonehaaryn leader said was a little over complicated. "If you want something done right, do it yourself."

"Interesting, I wonder what other moral lessons our cultures share," Seth pondered, then seemed to forget about his own inquiry. "The river is just over this hill, we're only a few hundred meters from it."

"I'm so happy your people adopted our measurement system," Salem muttered to himself, "You used to call everything units, and expected us to know which unit you meant; the Titanus had you writing blueprints for us, and it was impossible to figure them out."

"It was simpler than having a different word for each unit," Seth grumbled, "I preferred the unit system."

"The rest of your people prefer the metric system, deal with it." Salem's tank group was in the lead, he watched the horizon as they crested the hill. The river came into sight moments later, a winding snake among the plains. This was the first open area they'd seen in almost one hundred and sixty kilometers since leaving Baseplate Sierra. Trees dotted the landscape, small clusters of the dead evergreens. Salem made out the ford easily; it was the widest part of the river, just before it plunged downhill towards the cliffs several kilometers to their right. The ford was half a kilometer wide, while the rest of the river was only two hundred meters and even thinner in places.