The Heavenly Host

The corridor went about another thousand feet before ending in what could only be called a blast door, right down to a large metal wheel and locks, not unlike the vault in which he had found the Rod of Tommus. In this case, however, the door was heavy metal and wide open.

Behind the door was a large room lit with overhead electrical lights. The room had metal grating on the floor and several long rows of metal booths or cabinets. Down the first corridor of booths, the last D’Orc he had seen coming this way was putting his gear in one of the open cabinets and connecting cables to the equipment. He could hear some other D’Orcs banging around in other aisles. Tom walked down to this one to see what was going on.

As he approached, the D'Orc glanced over and saw Tom. He suddenly stopped what he was doing, setting a large metal contraption down on the cabinet bench and turning to bow low to Tom. “My Lord. Varn Starsplitter at your service.”

Tom gestured for him to rise from his bowed position. “Greetings, Varn Starsplitter. I noted you and some others carrying a lot of gear this way and came to observe.”

Varn grinned and nodded. “A glorious day, thanks to Your Lordship! For the first time in four thousand years, we can charge our equipment!”

Tom nodded, suddenly realizing what he was seeing. “Ah, yes. The electrical system has been down for a long time, and now it’s back on.”

“Exactly. At long last I can charge my battle suit and my blaster, as well as the batteries for the range finding and ignition systems for my other weapons. Clearly, requiring a battery for the rocket launcher’s ignitions system was a tactical flaw. However, traditional fire starters don’t work so well in a vacuum.” Varn shrugged.

“How much tech equipment do we have here at Mount Doom?” Tom asked.

“A fair amount. We used to plunder base stations and conquered ships and haul stuff here and then our engineers would rig it to work in the Abyss on the lightning grid,” Varn said. “Commanders Zog and Morok have put a team together to bring the Tech Command Center, or TCC, back online. It is the second door to the right when you enter the main command center. It will be a great advantage should Lilith’s forces try another attack. She has not devoted much in the way of tech resources to her local fortress; she has not needed to since we lost power. I expect she will have trouble reallocating those resources. High-tech stuff requires good climate control, which we have at Mount Doom, but is very rare outside of here and the Courts.”

“Excellent. I would love nothing more than to give her a surprise.” Tom grinned.

Varn grinned widely. “We will once more have radar for monitoring incoming threats, as well as radio communication between commanders in the field and the TCC.” He chuckled evilly. “And I think they will find our anti-air and spacecraft artillery to be quite good at knocking demons out of the sky, as well as existence.”

“The complex has that sort of heavy artillery?” Tom asked, surprised.

“Yes, sir. We had been working on adapting force field generators we had liberated, but the war in Etterdam put that on hold and then we no longer had the power or resources.” Varn shook his head sadly. “We were probably within less than a decade of having force fields on top of the runic wards.”

“Science and magic working together!” Tom marveled. He grinned and clapped Varn on the shoulder. “We shall carry on and rebuild everything!”

Varn smiled, thrilled to finally begin the return to glory.

∼

“Reattach the saddles to the D’Wargs’ harnesses,” Virok ordered once they had returned to the wargtown and the large tent they had rented for the D’Wargs to rest in. Because the pavilions were designed for wargs, they were outfitted with water troughs and food troughs. D’Wargs did not need to eat, but since the food and water were included in the price, the D’Wargs had spent the last several hours eating, drinking and investigating the wargs.

“It was just socializing,” Fed Tal told Tal Gor as they grabbed the saddles for their D’Wargs. They had left most of the harness on the D’Wargs and just detached the saddles and extra pieces of tack, such as weapon holders and saddlebags. Those extra pieces could be hooked and strapped into place quickly in the event a quick departure was needed.

“What do you mean?” Tal Gor asked his tribemate.

“A number of them mated,” Fed Tal said.

“With wargs?” Tal Gor looked curiously at the other orc. “I wonder if they can interbreed?”

“I don’t know, but if so, I pity whoever has to deal with the pups!” Fed Tal chuckled.

“So did you watch, you pervert?” Tal Gor grinned.

“Tal, trust me; everyone observed. It was so noisy and violent that it would have been impossible to miss,” Fed Tal said. “Pretty hot, actually.”

Tal Gor shook his head at Fed Tal’s weirdness. He had to admit, warg mating rituals were interesting if one had never seen one, but they were not erotic to any rational person. Or at least, not to him.