Crusdae, p.11
Crusdae, page 11
The Grand Master had acted wisely. A frontal assault on an enemy at bay would have been fatal to the Tenan ships; by his action he brought his forces under control.
In fact only about a hundred ships had found refuge in the gaseous cloud. The Terran squadrons, firing volley after volley, had already won the victory, and it only remained to hunt the enemy out of his refuge.
Now it was the Tibetans’ turn to prove their efficiency. They had only to fear the confusion of the ships, and their delicate waves could easily find their adversaries, putting one after another of their maddened crews out of action, for they were using their communications constantly to keep contact with each other in the labyrinth.
In a little while Houen-Lun and his adepts were in control of the minds of the enemy leaders, making them give an insane order to the bewildered armada.
“Abandon the shelter of the nebulosity!”
One after another, the vessels then came to expose themselves to the Terrans’ fire. As the admirals alone had the secret weapon, the enemy destroyed only a few of the ships, and soon the Templars could enter the nebulosity in their turn to board and seize the ships under the Tibetans’ control.
Ten hours after the beginning of the engagement, the last ship of the squadron defending Oddh was put out of commission.
Although the Odeous on those ships had died, still William’s tactic had let him use the Tibetans’ psi attack under the best conditions, and he had saved almost all those who were on the flagships.
Six Baphomets were captured too, and chained in the hold of a ship prepared for that purpose.
The hardest task was accomplished. Now it remained to gain the base located on the satellite, then to land on Oddh. Now, without the use of his ships, the enemy would have the hard task ahead of him.
Chapter VII
☆
William of Beaujeu was not accustomed to Test on his laurels. He ordered Peter of Sevry to leave the post he had filled during the battle—he was fretting with impatience in that position—to precede to the rescue of the scattered and shipwrecked crews. He lent him several Tibetans to stop the surviving Odeous from suiciding or being killed by their cursed implants.
Sonz had appreciated the progress of the battle like a connoisseur. “Lord,” he suggested to the Grand Master when calm was restored, “we’ve made some good catches. The ships the Baphomets were on had quark devices and these cowards were so afraid that they didn’t even sabotage them. Let’s use them against the satellite base.”
“Is that really necessary?” the Templar objected. “Well need them to attack Oddh. What forces do die defenders of your moon have?”
“Now they aren’t numerous at alL Fewer than a hundred, half of which are robots. Instead, the base is equipped with a powerful antiship defense—automatic missile launchers buried in the rocks of the mountain.”
“If you know where they’re placed, it will be enough to pepper them with our thunderballs. We have a lot of them.” “Excellent tactic. The explosions will ruin the mechanisms that let them uncover the silos to launch. Only you’ll have to rout out the defenders buried in the tunnels.”
“That’s no trouble for my troops. They’re more at ease fighting on solid earth than in the sky. Let your companions take one of the captured weapons. We’ll make copies of it with the duplicators. The others can stay in reserve in the case of some ugly surprise.”
Til get busy about that at once. But it’s still possible that these delicate mechanisms aren’t going to be easy to reproduce.”
The Grand Master then asked Houen-Lun to probe the minds of the Baphomet prisoners to get all the information they had on Oddh’s defenses. Then he regrouped his squadrons and turned his bow toward Oddh’s moon, whose crater-pocked face seemed to smirk at the inky depth of the heavens.
Blue squadron was charged with the sweep operation. It met missile fire, but thanks to the thermal devices, most of that was lost in space.
In answer, Terran missiles came crashing down with full force on the silos where the enemy launchers were buried and quickly destroyed them. This base was of minor importance, and the disproportionate number of forces present let them saturate each device so thoroughly that the antiship defense was promptly silenced.
John of Grailly split his forces, one part staying In orbit as emergency reinforcements, the other landing at the starport, which had been spared destruction. It went without saying that the hot-tempered Frenchman was one of the first off the ship.
His forces met little opposition. Only a few robot squads bunched a counterattack. The knights’ training had taught them to disperse and hide, using all the resources of the terrain. They became invisible in no time.
The Baphomets did not appear to have given such prudent instruction in programming die metal beings, who were battered down one after another by the steel projectiles from the powder arquebuses.
A second wave met the same fate and the French then began a methodical advance by successive squadrons, each covering the other while they progressed out of cover.
The port installations were quickly taken. They were In perfect condition. Apparently the Baphomets, never having envisaged the possibility of a defeat, had never provided any mechanisms.
It remained now to get the missile silos lodged in the mountains around the base. The ground was poisoned at surface level by the residue of the nuclear explosions. John of
Greilly decided to use a classic tactic for assaulting fortified castles: sappers.
Assuredly the exits of the tunnels leading to the silos had to be strongly guarded, and a frontal assault would cost them very dear. Then the clever Frenchman discovered in one of the rooms of the starport a detailed plan of the underground retreats occupied by his enemies. With the help of the Odeous, he moved out the earthborers stocked in the hangars, the very ones which had permitted them to build the silos, and pierced vertical wells to the tunnels.
One after the other, the companies of space-armored knights, carrying shield in one hand and short arbalest in the other, descended into the holes.
They began by routing the robots who guarded the entry ports, taking them from behind. Then reinforcements flowed into the tunnels. In a few hours all the installations had fallen into the hands of the French.
In all, few Odeous were captured—only five, freed thanks to the Tibetans who disconnected their implants. The defenses were practically automatic, robots rather than slaves assuming the maintenance and defense of the whole.
As soon as the victory was won, John of Grailly ordered his men-at-arms to go back to their ships, only leaving a hundred to clear the tops of the silos buried under the rubble, using the machines they found on the site.
The whole operation, from start to finish, had only taken about a dozen hours, and soon the batteries of missiles could be turned against the planet
During this time, William had massed his squadrons in the stratosphere of Oddh, at the other side of the world from the capital, the Baphomet den wherein these perfidious creatures were entrenched.
The Grand Master, concerned not to damage the precious factories, had decided to launch a land attack with his Templars.
They had still to destroy the energy dome which protected the fortress the tyrants held. Houen-Lun had painlessly probed the captives’ minds and William knew perfectly the defense forces, the armament they had at their disposal and the configuration of the tunnels linking them with the castle outside. He thus learned that they were full of deadly traps letting them make bloody defense of the walls in case of invasion. No question then of using the strategy which had lately worked so well for John of Grailly.
Instead, Sonz, the Odeous spacefarer, gave him precious advice. “In theory,” said he, “this energy dome is uncross-able. Of course, it would be possible to lay siege to this fortress. Its provisioning would hardly let the Baphomets hold out more than a month. But our principal advantage is surprise. We mustn’t give the Baphomet squadrons time to intervene. Let’s use the few quark cannon we have to wear away the soil, just under the energy dome, so our troops can slide under and make a direct attack on tire inside of the fortress. Your knights have a crushing numerical advantage. Using a simultaneous assault from six different positions, you can very quickly overwhelm the robots and get yourselves into command central.”
This proposition gained the agreement of all the Terran leaders. Templars, Hospitalers and Teuton knights then left the ships out of range of the defenses and began their march toward the city in dispersed groups.
Some batteries opened fire but they were quickly silenced by the ships’ weapons. The Terran groups reached their objectives without excessive casualties.
In the capital, everything remained calm. The Odeous, obeying their masters’ orders, remained cloistered in their residences. A sporadic fire broke out at times, coming from the robots. Might the Baphomets have begun to mistrust their slaves? No Odeous contingent opposed the Templars.
It was an unhoped-for chance for the city; its architectural marvels would surely have taken a great deal of damage in a fight in the streets.
The citadel was set on an eminence dominating the capital, which it controlled in normal times by its batteries of weapons, but the force field had one inconvenience: it did not let them use those batteries, for it was impenetrable from either direction.
The Baphomets’ devilish tactic seemed simple. Believing themselves invulnerable in their lair, they were calmly waiting on the help which would unfailingly be headed their way from Baphom.
Fate had decreed otherwise. The ships bearing the quark cannon had just made a rapid passage above the protective dome, aiming at ground level.
The dense rock eroded like sand, leaving large holes. At once the Templars brought up metal plates, platforms, putting them on the yielding earth as they advanced.
Very swiftly, the attackers reached the other side of the translucent wall. They saw then the massive palace of the governor, a baroque masterpiece of chiseled stone.
Trusting to their dome, the Baphomets had hardly bothered to fortify the castle. Flowered gardens and pleasant woods surrounded it; a few domestic animals which looked like deer and birds with fairytale plumage sported there.
The Templars, taking advantage of the cover, were able to thread their way up to the gate without hindrance. There, it was quite another matter. The massive portcullis with bronze engraving was closed and the robots posted behind its ogive windows met their assailants with heavy fire.
But the rough warriors were in their own element While the arbalests cracked clouds of explosive projectiles that were swallowed by the openings, Conrad von Thierberg, at the risk of his neck, attacked the thick panel that closed the entry with blows of his axe.
In a few minutes the giant German had gotten it down, and followed by his Teutons, broke into the castle. For their part the Templars were not idle. Using ladders, they entered through the windows, while John of Villiers directed the fire of his Hospitalers toward the roofs where the defenders had fled.
Without regard for the rare wood furniture, for the thousand treasures gathered in the vast halls, the soldier-monks broke through, sweeping all before them.
The Tholon brothers, always riding on their luck, broke into the harem. They had to face the eunuchs, who hurled at them incongruous missiles: fruits, vases, amphorae, incense burners. The Odeous slaves, bodies shining with perfumed oil, scattered in all directions, dismayed, with a clicking of their bracelets and collars. Some dived into a pool of bronze fish, sinking among the lilies and lilypads floating on the surface of the water, which wound like jade serpents round their wet bodies. Others huddled as much as possible behind the huge porcelain vases, or under the piles of cushions, even behind the spidersilk curtains suddenly rainbow glittering with a thousand reflections that played over the sparkling gems adorning the lovely harem servants. All of them were chitter-ing and chattering, frightened by these metal-covered giants who had broken into their luxurious though well-guarded prison. They quickly realized that the palace had fallen to assault by considerable forces, come to set them free. Pressed with questions by the Tholon brothers, they gave all their information on the placement of the command devices in the dome, and even offered to guide diem there.
The boys from Auxerre climbed four abreast up the stone staircase, disdaining the lifts, and came rushing into the room where four haggard Baphomets watched in anguish the screens which showed them the invasion of the domain they had believed impregnable.
Seized with abject terror, they hurled themselves at the feet of the Templars, begging them not to torture them, and they were content to get them on their feet without touching them and order them to cut off the protective field. Immediately the vile creatures obeyed them. Then taking advantage of the Tholon brothers’ instant of inattention, they swallowed vials of poison. This was the end of the fortress. The armies of the French, the English and the Mongols in turn broke into the castle. A half hour later the last robots were destroyed and William triumphantly entered the fortress over which the Baussant banner was already flying.
It was from the command post the Tholon brothers had captured that the Grand Master directed his operation of liberation for the world.
The few garrisons scattered over Oddh were destroyed without difficulty by ships flying at ground level, and occupation forces were brought into each major city.
The Terrans’ first objective was to free the male Odeous from the deadly implants which had enslaved them to the Baphomets. That took a long time, for the overburdened Tibetans could not treat them all at once. At any rate, there was no haste, for, at least the moment, there was no threat hanging over the planet
On the night after the end of the lighting, William gathered his principal officers in a vast hall of the Baphomet palace, which was covered with a film of shining tissue with strange scarlet arabesques. At one end began a monumental stairway of wood veined with black serpents. Purple cushions fringed in gold covered the massive chairs.
On the immense tables were spread strange foods, birds served in their bronze plumage, game baked in cinnamon-perfumed sweet sauce, fried insects floating in a mellow sauce, mounds of pâtés stuffed with spices, vessels filled with crimes mixed to make a subtle design on their surface, veritable works of art, cakes with crackling crusts or covered with smooth glazes in rainbow colors. Voluptuous Odeous presented the platters to the guests. Each of them, robed like a goddess, had put on her finest dress in honor of die liberators. Some wore gold bands confining their thick hair; others had thrust carved insects in the metal behind their heavy chignons. Diaphanous tunics of pastel colors reflected the light of the crystal and emerald chandeliers, and all were anointed with the same heavenly smelling ointment which filled these rough warriors with dreams.
In finely turned flasks, transparent liquors of heady aroma were ready to quench the warriors’ thirst.
French, English, Germans and Mongols were honored at this celebration.
When they had finally finished, the Grand Master, who had hardly touched these tempting offerings, rose and summed up the situation. “My brothers, let us give thanks, let us praise and give glory to Our Lord for having given us the victory!. For the first time, the host of the Crusaders has met the miscreant aliens and given them a sound thrashing. Now these creatures bom by the will of God are going to know the True Faith and regain their freedom. In sum, our losses have been few and we must congratulate ourselves on having so easily eliminated enemies who had devilish weapons hitherto unknown to us.”
William was silent a moment while he drank a mouthful of water from an engraved cup. Then he continued. "But we will make a great mistake if we think we are invincible. Formerly I thought long on the use of the starships and of likening them to sailing vessels. I have read and reread ancient texts recounting history’s naval battles: Sal am is, Aotium, Bravalla, Constantinople . . . and I have discovered there not one valuable instruction to help me work out a battle tactic for space. Our recent campaign was a succession of improvisations. How to liken ships that fight far from one another with vessels of sail, with galleys which meet and board? The fire missiles have no proper comparison with Greek fire; and magic circles, like that which protected this castle, bear no resemblance at all to the stone walls of our strongholds. For awhile I hoped to find advice among the Odeous, whose practice of alchemy is very old. Alas, this peaceful people has never worked out a specific tactic for this kind of battle. We must then rethink this problem entirely, thinking soberly on the possibilities offered by the new machines we have at our disposal. Let’s not forget: we have only met a small portion of the forces opposing us; the effect of surprise was working in our favor, but now we can’t count on it Before ending his life, the governor of this planet sent out alarms in all directions, signaling our attack and asking for help. We’re going to be meeting squadrons equal if not superior in number to our own. What must be our objective? To try to liberate the Ethir and the Orpheds? Or, instead, to go to Baphom to engage in decisive battle? We have to broach that question without delay. I am open to suggestions.”
That declaration threw a pall on the party. They had all, in the euphoria of the banquet and the victory, forgotten reality, and the Grand Master had reminded them of the precariousness of their position, nothing held back.
A heavy silence reigned for a moment Their stomachs were full of strange food, tender meats, succulent vegetables, plump, juicy fruits, all of which had all been tested by Brother Joubert on Turcopole slaves, which guaranteed their partial harmless ness, but not their easy digestion by a Christian stomach. On top of that one had to add the consumption of volatile liquors, quite pleasant to the throat but tending to befog the celebrants’ brains somewhat
Ascetic John of Villiers had not participated in these feastings. He drew himself up to his full height. "Are we bloodthirsty wolves," he growled crossly, “or Christ’s soldiers? I’ve not heard anything here but talk of fighting and conquests, while problems of primary importance are passed over in silence. As far as I understood, we still came here to bring our brothers of beyond the Earth the True Faith. Well, no one seems to be worrying about learning whether the Odeous have souls, if they knew a Christ, and how they worship the Divinity. So far as I'm concerned, I refuse to go any farther in this universe before having raised that question. So I demand that we immediately call in the leaders of this people to listen to them and to decide what our response should be toward them.”
