Chapter 48: The Fall of the First Fortress
First there was a tremor running through the stone beneath their feet. Spark seemed to be vibrating and the soldiers were stumbling about trying to keep their balance.
Then there were cracks starting to appear in the walls of the ancient structure like black lightning. It was only a matter of time before it all came crashing down.
The stone towers that had withstood the test of time for centuries folded up on themselves, huge blocks of masonry crashing down through the lower levels of the ancient structure.
Dust exploded outward and shortly the entire battlefield was buried under a thick, choking gray cloud of dust and debris.
As the cloud slowly rose above the fallen ruins of the first military fortress the Roman Empire had ever built, the enormous structure of the First Imperial Fortress collapsed in on itself.
He had to raise his voice over the sound of wind in his ears. The vast shadow of Spark dominated the air above him as he soared in a great circle about the center of a maelstrom of a storm that still seemed to grow by the minute.
The few rays of sunlight that penetrated the gloom of heavy clouds were utterly eclipsed by his dark wings.
Every beat of his powerful wings churned the air about him in a mighty surge of wind that snatched loose and flung aside banners, torn from their moorings, and sent great clouds of rubble into the air.
The sound of his mighty roars echoed across the site of the fallen fortress again and again as the Typhon circled about above the site of the once-great First Imperial Fortress.
"Get everyone out!" Ethan said, as he pulled a wounded soldier to his feet and started to drag him to the waiting vessel. "Forget the damned walls! Forget everything except the people!"
Marcus was already leading the injured onto the vessel, a process that seemed to be slowing down due to Rick’s continued protests about leaving.
Ethan wandered over to the edge of the crumbling platform and tried to spot his former friend in the throng of soldiers. He couldn’t.
Spark, now a giant storm riding the skies, was a living storm, raging across the sky like a wild beast.
Every now and then he would let out a thunderous roar, which made more dust fall from the sky, piling up on top of the other dust already there, collapsing more parts of the once-great First Imperial Fortress.
The single fact that kept Ethan from his worst thoughts, that they had unleashed a power that in the end might destroy them all, was that every time he called the name of the Typhon, Spark, those huge eyes turned to him.
In the moments before they lifted off from the remaining platform, a massive explosion occurred behind them and another of the very old towers of the First Imperial Fortress collapsed to the ground in a cloud of dust.
The golden Roman Eagle that had been carved into the stone of the tower’s peak would remain there for a moment or two after the rest of the tower had fallen, and then too it would be lost in the same cloud of dust and wreckage.
"...the First Fortress," Rick said quietly beside him. "You understand what we’ve just destroyed?"
Ethan looked at Rick and then back at the spot where the symbol had once been. "We didn’t destroy it," he said finally, looking up at Spark. "He did."
Marcus just gave him a brief, hollow laugh. "Yeah, wasn’t that the whole plan? Let the bomb detonate?"
Ethan looked down at the fallen ruins. It was from places like this that the Empire had started out, establishing military outposts from which, bit by bit, it had gone on to create cities, then provinces, and eventually whole worlds of conquered territory.
Now, the very first of those fortresses was nothing but a pile of rubble and dust.
Finally, one of their pillars has fallen, he thought.
Ethan stood up straight as the last of the ancient fortress collapsed into the earth. "Mission complete, right?" he asked Rick.
"Nothing went according to plan, but in a way, yes. The mission is now complete."
[Mission complete]
[Congratulations]
Ethan’s system surfaced. He smiled and slid it away.
Rick continued. "This will echo all around the Empire."
"We survived. That’s all that matters for me," Marcus muttered.
Yes, they had managed to scrape together an absolute fortune’s worth of resources, managed to rescue a bunch of rebels, uncovered the First Son, and along the way managed to transform Spark, the odd little creature he’d once carried on his shoulder, into a massive Typhon.
Then the first transmission reached them.
A small crystal began to flash on the vessel in front of him. It was a communication device of some sort and it was emitting an emergency transmission.
"Emergency transmission from Sector Nine. Repeat, emergency transmission. The First Imperial Fortress has fallen. Unknown divine beast confirmed. Multiple legionary formations destroyed. Requesting immediate..."
The transmission cut off and a few seconds later another channel opened up.
"Has the First Imperial Fortress actually fallen? Repeat please."
A third voice stammered out, "Yes. The fortress is gone."
Ethan looked at Marcus, who looked back at him. Neither spoke.
Rumors and speculation of an unidentifiable catastrophe traveled the length of the Empire, handed down from civil to military.
In Roman communication networks, desperate attempts to solidify the belief that the First Son had been found were overshadowed by wild stories of an unholy beast traveling the length of the Empire after the First Fortress, tearing through legions, creating untold destruction.
Some were even saying that the gods had come down from the heavens. Others insisted that the first son of a divine revolution had come into being.
And as the first news reports arrived, the Roman authorities were already trying to have the incident contained, while however contradicting each other with every new report of the unforeseen incident.
"The rebels in the Empire are at it already, hiding the true reason. This will make sure us rebels would never be figured out," Rick muttered.
Soldiers had seen the creature. Mages had felt its presence. Survivors of the fortress had seen it with their own eyes as the ancient structure collapsed around them. Whatever the truth was, the fact of the creature’s existence had already spread into the world.
And another thing also spread into the world.
The Empire could bleed.
And the loss of the First Fortress of the Empire would be worse for Rome than any amount of bloodshed.
By the time they arrived at the base in the revolutionary territory, they were all waiting for them. The base was swarming with hundreds of soldiers who had assembled outside the command center of the base.
The crowd of hundreds of soldiers immediately fell into line behind them as they stepped off the vessel and onto the ground.
For a moment they just stood there amid all the cheering and slapping on the back as they made their way to the Command Structure building.
"THE FORTRESS IS DOWN!" Marcus shouted to the crowd and everyone began to cheer again.
"THE FIRST FORTRESS!" another voice called out. The cheering became louder and more intense as soldiers held up their arms in the air, shouting and laughing. Others simply hugged their fellow soldiers.
"Ah, Ethan, you’re alive too," Karisa said, turning to greet them. She then turned to Ethan, inspecting him thoroughly. "You’ve been through hell."
Ethan, who now had a wide smile on his lips, finally seeing someone familiar, nodded. "Barely."
Her eyes left his to gaze at the screen and took in the massive, black Typhon floating above the rabble of tents and huts that made up the rest of the settlement.
Her expression changed slowly as she seemed to realize who, or rather what, was floating above them. "Is that..." she started to say but the rest of the sentence was left hanging in the air.
Ethan sighed. "Yeah. A really powerful...friend."
Karisa stared at Spark for several seconds. "A friend. I heard about it, the disturbance on the package, and how you ended up being targeted because of it."
Ethan shrugged. "Yeah. In the end, what the rebels planned came true."
Marcus covered his face with one hand. "I still hate that they went at our throat right after we disobeyed some orders."
Other revolutionary commanders from other areas of the Empire appeared to congratulate Ethan, Marcus, Rick, and the others on their huge victory. However, Ethan could sense fear among the cheers of the soldiers, and it caused him to wonder.
The triumph was one of the greatest for the Revolution, but this wouldn’t be forgotten by the Empire.
Only now did Ethan consider whether they had actually fought and won a battle, or whether they had brought the war to everyone’s attention.
"Let’s see how they will react," Ethan muttered, but a part of him was still sad, he won, yes but in the end he lost something, he lost spark.