Hunter Or Huntress

Chapter 60: Gods of death

Right okay, Tom had just decided to play who’s more important with a dragon and a colonel, and somehow if not won then at least come out on equal footing. Even Nunuk had just let him go about his escapades instead of focusing on making sure lady Flaxen didn’t do anything malicious. Sapphire hadn’t gotten the opportunity to ask what it was Tom was planning for the evening since he had spent the rest of the day with the colonel.

She had overheard him make abundantly clear about the seriousness of the oath they had to swear if they were to be allowed to witness whatever he had planned. Not even Nunuk would dare threaten a colonel, Tom though seemingly had no such reservation. He made it very clear she would be hunted down and killed if she broke the oath.

Sapphire couldn’t understand why he would let the colonel attend if he was that worried about her speaking about it when she returned. He took it very seriously though so he must have a reason.

So now she found herself sitting in the grand hall all the tables moved and the chairs facing the far wall. He was working with some of his things and when questioned he had just answered that he didn’t even know how this worked so don’t worry about it.

That was more than a good enough reason for Sapphire as she took her seat, wondering what it would take to make Tom not understand something. Perhaps he just didn’t want to explain it.... Yeah, that was more likely.

When everyone was seated and Tom finished fiddling, he turned to them all.

“I think that should do it. Now eyes up here please. You have sworn that none of what you'll see here tonight will be shared with anyone outside this room."

“You are about to witness a piece of my people’s history, what you are about to see is a clever Illusion called a movie, so I stress none of this is real, it happened a long time ago, we are just watching so it is perfectly safe. I will tolerate no drawing of weapons, general attacking, or bursts of lightning,” He went, looking to Jarix.

“I will stress though you are about to see a lot of death, likely more than most of you ever have, so if you don’t like seeing blood you might wanna leave.” Tom looked around for a second as if any of them was going to leave, they had all seen death at some point. Though the notion Tom apparently thought it necessary to warn them did disturb Sapphire a little.

“What exactly is he playing at?” Sapphire whispered, leaning over to Fengi.

"No clue, he's acting weird and why is his cloak up on the wall?”

“Unfortunately this is all in my native tongue and I haven’t had time to make a written translation. I will stop the movie to explain some things every now and again.”

Jackalope leaned in to join the whisper. “Well, he’s got me excited that’s for sure”

Tom sat down with one of the strange boxes that he had brought and his face was bathed in bright light. Sapphire couldn’t see what he was doing but shortly thereafter part of the wall covered by the cloak lit up.“Whoaa” came from Fengi and Sapphire’s mind went back to the video of the kids playing. Oh, this should be good.

“What you are about to see is a tale of war, it starts with one of the most famous battles ever fought in my people’s history, known as the D-day landings. This happened approximately 75 years ago during the second world war. American troops landed on the north coast of France to launch a counter-invasion to take back the country from the Germans to return it to its rightful owners, the French people. In other words, the guys in the water are the good guys. I must stress this battle was considered a success despite the forces suffering catastrophic casualties.”

They were gonna see how his people fought! Sapphire looked to the others who were all doing the same looking back and forth with wide eyes. She snapped a look at Hashaw who was sitting with her squad on their own row of chairs. She looked more curious than excited, then again she likely had no idea what was coming.

Tom got back down to the box and the white lights shifted to a nice picture of some blue light. Something was happening even if Sapphire had no clue what, as things moved about, there was a little white thing flying around for some reason as well it was hard to keep track of it. after a bit, Tom chuckled a for some reason, the new things started showing up.

Eventually, a new picture came up with a lot of text, all in English she guessed. Then came the video like Sapphire remembered it was a bunch of wet men that looked a bit like Tom, they were clad in all green though with those ridiculous looking helmets on and appeared to be in a box in the water for some reason.

Some appeared to puke for some reason as they were sprayed with water. All in all, it was a weird spectacle that went on for a while. Then there was a shot of a wheel turning rather fast as a door opened downwards and, OH MY GOD!!

There were shrieks of alarm and gasps from all around the room, Sapphire even heard Jarix hit his head on the ceiling as he tried to pull it back. “What the fuck is that!?” Jackalope let out in alarm

Sapphire's jaw just dropped, what was happening!?

Then the movie as he had called abruptly shifted to show what was causing it. It was some kind of weapon clearly, like Tom’s, but it was firing so fast. It was spewing death like nothing Sapphire had even dreamt of.

The movie played on as they slowly quieted down, so much death there must have been at least 20 people in that metal box thing, had any survived? Somehow since they then jumped over the side into the water to get away from the torrent of death. She actually saw people drown as they struggled in the water. She looked at Dakota, she had her hands over her eyes, head held low.

After a bit Tom the movie stopped and Tom got up. “That was a machine gun. Before you ask Colonel, no I do not have one.”

Nunuk raised her hand very politely. “Yes ma'am” Tom replied pointing at her.

“Who is fighting the... amecain?”

“Germans”

“Other humans?” There were evil humans then, Sapphire thought.

“Yes,” Tom admitted in a sad tone, Nunuk took her hand back down again. There was a bit of solemn silence. Wars between people happened, of course, but they were rare and mostly small. One of the main duties of the royal guard was to stop such things before it got out of control.

The movie continued, as the ones in green struggled to get off the beach trying desperately to find a place to hide, yet they moved forward. Towards that insane weapon, as the picture got wider you could see there was not just one boat but many and there were also many of these machine guns. It just went on and on into the horizon.

This was insanity, she flinched at a loud boom as something exploded and a man went flying. Fengi scrambled for Sapphire's hand clutching it tightly. She held her breath for a moment to see if he would get up but the image shifted to someone else immediately, she guessed not.

Fengi let out a distress sounding squeak. Burying her face in Sapphire’s chest.. Sapphire just stared at the carnage struggling to comprehend it all. Jackalope leaned forward, mouth open, eyes wide, looking more amazed than anything.

She silently cheered for the ones with the red crosses on their helmets just like Tom’s medicine bags, they were clearly trying their best to save who they could. They sounded so calm and collected, as they worked as if not even caring about where they were and what was happening. ‘Come on you can do it, hang in there buddy.’ Then a shot landed and it was all over. The Medic she believed Tom called them, broke down screaming at the Germans for what they had done. Sapphire felt his pain, why, why had they shot a wounded?

Luckily Fengi hadn’t looked up yet, as Sapphire did her best to comfort her, keeping her head buried for the time being, hopefully the worst was over soon. From above came a whimpering sound like she had never heard from a dragon. She looked up to see Jarix staring desperately at the screen fidgeting back and forth like he had to do something.

His eyes were more panicked than furious to Sapphire, he looked so helpless. The mere notion that a dragon could be helpless was unnerving to Sapphire.

Tom had stopped the movie looking at all of them. “Let’s give everyone a minute.”

Fengi was sobbing softly but mostly the room was silent. Sapphire looked back to the colonel, she appeared to be discussing with her people, clearly shocked at what they had seen. Dakota had held up her hand during the break from the carnage.

“Why would they walk into that? It’s certain death!” She sounded like she was between sorrow and rage, at the insanity they had seen.

“They had no choice. Everything was fortified and this was the weakest part.”

“That is the weakest!” Esmeralda let out in alarm, clutching her snout horrified.

“Sadly yes, 5 beaches were attacked, 4 went okay, this one is Omaha beach, it did not, but they had orders, as does any soldier. Take the beach at any cost and so they did." Tom looked very pointedly to Jarix at that last remark.

“How many died in the battle?” Hashaw asked coldly

“Over two thousand.”

“How many landed?” she continued

“40.000 total, we just saw the first wave though” There was a bit of silence, as she thought on that.

“Wave?” she asked, not understanding. Sapphire had to agree, what did he mean by wave?

“They were gonna batter those defences to rubble by any means necessary if that meant continuously assaulting them until the defenses broke then that was going to happen."

“They were going to throw an entire army at the Germans just to break the defences... on a beach!?” Tom pondered that one for a bit, before seeming to realize something.

“Oh no 40.000 isn’t an army to us, they had two divisions with some support elements thrown in here and there. And a battalion of rangers, that is who we are following. The invasion army numbered over two million. That was why they needed to secure the beaches. So they could land the real army. Because if they didn't, the Germans would just throw them back into the sea with a counter-attack.” The insanity of such a tactic, Sapphire thought to herself.

“Bu… but… HOW!” The colonel objected. She of course hadn't been told just how many humans there are.

“There are a lot of us and when we go to war as in really, go to war, we don’t send some hand-picked highly-trained elites like yourself. We send everyone that is able and not needed at home. This was just one front. In total, some believe the number of soldiers that fought in the war was around 70 million. 11 million of those died.” The colonel just sat back down at that. She clearly had a lot to think about. Vulzan fainted and fell off his chair.

“11 million dead!?” Dakota objected. Sapphire just shook her head and clutched Fengi a little tighter. She couldn’t even comprehend how many that was.

“Yes, I’m afraid so,” Tom replied with sorrow in his voice. “Have you all seen enough?”

“Do they win? Jackalope questioned.

“They do in the end, yes”

“Then I haven't,” She stated, folding her arms.

Tom looked around at the room to see if anyone was getting up. None did. Sapphire leaned down to Fengi whispering to her.

“You sure you don’t want to go?” She felt Fengi’s grip tighten on her.

“No, I wanna see the Germans pay.” She replied looking back up.

“Agreed” It came from Jackalope next to them.

With that, Tom had let the movie continue. The soldiers fighting must either have been the bravest Sapphire had ever seen, or downright suicidal. There were explosions going off all around and killing left and right, but they just kept on pushing. They made it to the sand wall, then the cliffside, and even up it. Fighting with fury and determination all the way.

And in the end… they did it. They actually did it! The Germans ran. They ran for their lives. The battle appeared to have been won, as they were shown the running Germans and the Americans coming to terms with what had just happened. There were grown men crying and shaking. Normally Sapphire would have called them cowards, but after that... She had never seen bravery like it. It was bordering on insanity in fact. They were shown the countless dead littering the beaches. The water red with their blood those metal boxes they had arrived in sitting empty and useless. With that, Tom stopped the movie again.

“I will not show you the rest as you wouldn’t understand what they are saying and this was the end of the battle for the beach. But as I said, this was a victory.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Right then, that had certainly been effective. He had been expecting a forest of hands or maybe a cacophony of questions, but there was silence upon seeing the end of the scene. Looking at Jarix, the dragon was certainly shocked, actually he looked ready to cry. Might as well work while the iron was hot then.

“Jarix. Earlier you called me and my people coward soldiers, do you stand by that statement?”

“No... I do not” The dragon answered in the quietest voice Tom had yet heard from one. Tom smiled solemnly and nodded a bit.

“I don’t hold it against you, you didn’t know. Colonel tell me have you ever seen a battle like this?”

“No, never. I have seen many die, some in horrible ways. But never like that, never that many.” Tom definitely had her full attention, her voice was still quivering even.

“Most of these men had been in the army for a few months at the most, only a select few veterans among them. They were not trained professionals like yourself. They were regular people, the one we followed was a school teacher, a bit like Apuma, in a way. Many had never even held a weapon before joining the army.”

“You cannot ask that I do not warn our people of this. Such an army would destroy us!” Hashaw interrupted him. “If that wasn’t even your best…”

“I can and I will, because my people can’t come here, I’m not from this world colonel. I don’t know why I was allowed to come here but some greater power decided to give me the opportunity. What you just saw is what I want to avoid. Not prepare you for.

I’m scared this might happen in this world. I don’t know if it is possible to avoid it, but I want to try. The greatest peril my world ever faced was ourselves and we continue to do so every day. But here you face something greater and I’m willing to help you face that threat. But only if needed and only if I believe it can be done without that happening.” he pointed to the screen still showing the beach littered with dead. The colonel was silent as she stared at him.

"I am going to trust you to make that call for me, so I’m gonna ask you to carry a burden. Should the need arise for what we just saw. For hell to be unleashed upon this world. Then you may return and I might… Might! teach you how. Until then I will continue the slow and steady progress here, testing and learning all that I can.

I want to try and use what my people know to give you a better world. Not that.” Tom knew he was laying it on thick, and not telling the truth entirely, he had no plans for not arming the keep in any way he could, but he needed time. Fingers crossed though come on, you damn old vet.

“How can you be so sure of this? You are here, why can’t others come? We need to be ready!” goddammit you old goat.

“Have you ever heard of a human before?”

“...No” She replied in an uncertain voice.

“My people have never heard of a dragonette either, not even in myths and legend and we record everything. So in all likelihood, I’m all you got and are ever going to get. Also if it comes to war you would have lost before it began on numbers alone not even mentioning weapons. We can field tens of millions of troops, you can't. In other words, deal with the trouble in this world, not others.”

“You want to keep this all a secret unless it becomes necessary? Even the knowledge that we could be wiped out in a blink of an eye!?”

“Yes, because what purpose does knowing you might be wiped out serve? But I think you need to learn more about my people. I have just shown you the worst we can do. The ones in black, the Germans” He waited for a second to get a few nods from the crowd.

“What do you think happened to them after they lost the war.”

There was a lot of murmuring as they looked back and forth between each other. He could hear talk of exterminating them, execution, even death by drowning was mentioned. He sighed a bit, they did tend to look at things in a very white and black way, literally in fact. so it wasn’t surprising to him that mercy wasn’t even mentioned.

“They became our good friends.” Tom interrupted their discussion with a slightly annoyed tone. “They did what they did for a reason. They were a downtrodden and defeated people, who were driven to war, by the perceived injustices against them. With some truly evil people in charge who were of course dealt with.” No need to mention many of them got away... “The ones fighting on the beach you were cheering the death of. Those were soldiers just like the Americans. Following orders like any soldier is supposed to. Like you are supposed to” Tom went pointing at Jarix.

“These days the Germans are steadfast defenders of peace, freedom, and law in my world. They are skilled engineers and build things used all over my world. They are also often amongst the first to offer aid, to countries who have suffered and they often don’t even get anything in return.” That got him a stunned silence.

“So Jarix. The question for this first lesson is a simple one. Where was the honor and glory that you mention when talking about war?”

“That was no battle, that was a slaughter.” Jarix retorted defensively, clearly not willing to face what he just saw.

“You don’t win slaughters, this is what my people refer to as a Pyrrhic victory. A battle won at great cost. Those men on that beach are considered some of the most honorable in our history precisely because they were slaughtered, yet they pushed through to victory.”

“But they were cut down in droves, achieving so little!”

“Yet together they achieved the impossible... This is your first lesson, so I will give you a hand. The honor lies not in what they did, but why they did it. Every soldier on that beach fought not for themselves or people they knew and loved, but for ones they had never met nor even seen. They fought for the very idea of freedom and peace. That is honorable. Letting your opponent get back up, or making feigned courtesies during battle isn’t. Real honor lies in fighting for something honorable, not in fighting with honor.”

“As for the glory I have to disappoint you. Glory lies in victory. Returning home and receiving your praise, while you have to live with what you had to do to get there. Glory can’t be found in battle and it never will. It is a reward for doing terrible deeds.”

Jarix just stared at him in silence, clearly not able to come up with a reply to that.

“Colonel Hashaw, do you fight with honor or for something honorable?”

“We fight for these lands and their people, I would claim that unlike you we manage both” She was clearly on the defensive now, even if her sure-footed demeanor from earlier was gone. Well, Tom had just taken a shot at her way of life so that was probably fair.

“So you have never done something despicable like this? I have yet to see what Baron’s breath can do, but I guess it might look a little like what happened to that German bunker.”

“Fighting with honor does not mean every act will be honorable.” She admitted with a pained expression, clearly not happy to concede that.

“Happy to hear you at least accept the fact. Now, what happens when your enemies all start having that sort of weapon?” Tom pointed to the screen.

“Then we do our duty and fight them with honor, and if necessary, we die with honor. If you are trying to convince me that your people are somehow more worthy of wielding such weapons then I must disagree.”

“I’m not saying that. In Fact, I believe you may be more worthy, but I don't know. The problem is that with weapons development comes the arms race. Everyone racing to have better weapons, I think you need to see where that leads. What you just saw was from our second world war. Millions of humans died during that war, both civilian and military. It only ended when we developed a weapon so terrifying we don’t dare go to war again.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

He had more, what could he possibly want to show them this time? As he had spoken Sapphire took the time to look around to the others, Dakota sat in shock, Fengi just looked like an emotional wreck, Esmeralda was clutching Kokashi's hand seemingly hard enough that his pained expression wasn’t due to the movie.

“Hey, Saph?” Jackalope poked her, seemingly giddy for some gods forsaken reason.

“Ever seen a dragon treated like a school kid before?” ‘You have got to be kidding Jacky.’

“No Jacky I haven't.”

“What do you think he has that can top that?”

“Jacky you just saw thousands die.”

“Yes I know, but did you see that gun? It fired so fast”

“The biggest boom you are ever going to see” Tom replied without looking up. “Hopefully you won’t find this one funny” Sapphire just shook her head. Fucking hell, Jackalope.

“Sorry” Jackalope replied mutely. At least she had the decency to look ashamed.

“Right then, what you are about to see is a test detonation of a nuclear bomb. This weapon was used twice against the empire of Japan and marked the end of the war. The empire had sworn to fight to the bitter end, despite having no hope of victory. It was deemed that an invasion of their home islands would cost millions of lives and as such another solution was sought and found. You are about to witness death incarnate.”

There was complete silence, Sapphire had no idea what she was about to witness, but Tom had not exaggerated yet when it came to weapons. ‘Death incarnate’ she repeated to herself, swallowing.

There came an image of a very sandy hot place. Sapphire hadn’t seen terrain like that before. It looked completely dead, so perhaps that was why they used it to test whatever this was. Tom had mentioned something he called a desert, perhaps this was it.

They were shown some nice looking buildings and many weird boxy things, Sapphire didn’t know what where. They were very colorful and pretty though, there were roads of pure black running back and forth as well. Choice of color wasn’t really a concern right now though and what were those weird people standing all around?

“Those are empty buildings, inside mannequins just dummies meant to look like humans. This is a test to see what would happen if you hit a village. No one is about to get hurt, I swear.” That did ease Sapphire's conscience a little, she had seen enough death for today.

Eventually, they were shown the original image of the desert again and there was a flash of light.

“Holy shit!” Jackalope let out and there were some concerning sounds coming from Shiva, who clearly liked what she saw.

Sapphire's jaw just dropped. ‘what was that, how big was it?’ The buildings were torn apart like they were made of paper, the mannequins just disappeared! There was nothing left standing. The weird colorful things were thrown like when you kicked a rock for fun. It was carnage.

Then came the image of the firestorm rising up into the sky like a giant tree, or maybe a mushroom. The village hadn’t even been that close to the thing and it had just ceased to exist. The amount of death a weapon like that could cause was insanity. It could wipe out most of the capitol in one go!

Tom once again stopped the movie, turning to look at them. Likely deeming they had had enough. Sapphire just sat there staring with a tear in her eye, she heard Esmeralda puke and Vulzan fall off his chair again behind her with a thunk.

“So Hashaw, will you keep your oath? or face that in your future or possibly your children's future”

Those who could turned to face the colonel. Who just stammered out.

“I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Excellent, Jarix I’ll let you sleep in today's lesson we talk in the morning. Now you all know why I don’t want to teach you more than you need when it comes to the art of dealing death. My people are too good at it. I’m willing to make you better, but this must be avoided at all cost” Sapphire found herself on Tom’s side for the first time when it came to weapons. She had no clue how a rifle would lead to that, but if it did she didn’t want one.