Dinky’s Heroes Pt. 1

Inspired by the movie Kelly’s Heroes

The shabby disguises couldn’t last long. Walking along at a good clip right in front of them, these guys are really stupid, he thought. Darkness helped, but any flame legion coming close would notice them right away. And this enemy shaman they captured, with a pistol in his back, could hollar or try to run, depending on how loyal he was. Either way he would die, and Dinky was counting on him not wanting that.

Mere feet away, flame legion ran back and forth trying to stay organized, grabbing supplies and hoping to get moving out before the combined iron and blood legion forces came close enough to overwhelm them. There was already heavy mortar fire raining down nearby. A large camp, but it seemed the bigger the flame legion force, the more disorganized they were.

Torches lit the area not very well; as a flame legion soldier walked past Dinky and his two soldiers, one holding a gun to the shaman standing stiff as a board not even looking around, the enemy glanced, then turned and saw through the legionnaire’s disguise. ‘HEY!’ he yelled and pointed at them. Dinky and the soldier with the pistol each grabbed the shaman by a shoulder and the four ran off into the dark, ducking out of gunshots with bullets plinking off his shield, toward cover in the darkness and safety nearly a half mile away to their forward line.

Centurion Grimcrotch had ordered the wireless radio Poppler Swizzlestix and Grimpaw Grindgear made for their aborted rocket flight, to be made for each warband in his battalion. Most times communication was shakey at best, non-existent in others, but it kept them from risking valuable soldiers lives running information across the battlefield for the most part.

‘Stop dropping your mortars on our position!’ The soldier yelled into the microphone angrily to the forces in the rear, ducking at the sound of a shell exploding nearby. ‘You can’t hear me?! The reason you can’t hear me is because you’re firing the mortars on YOUR end, and they’re dropping here, on MY end. Flame legion isn’t here, WE’RE here!’ He threw down the microphone and turned at Dinky, the two soldiers and the flame legion shaman entering.

Fireheart Rise south and Blood Legion Homelands north-east

In the barn, Dinky stopped in the light when they entered to read a scroll he took from the flame legion shaman, eyes growing wide. ‘We have our necks stuck out here, sir. We’ve had alot of probing going on, it might be a good idea to regroup before flame legion gets brave and tries something stupid. They might just get away with it having few soldiers here with us at the moment,’ legionnaire Fyon the Wraith said to the his boss. ‘As much as I like a good fight, an outnumbered death doesn’t sound very appealing.’

‘Alright get everyone out of here, I’m going to stick around a while with my new friend,’ he said, motioning to the captured shaman. ‘Tell Grindgear to hang about, I may need him in a bit.’ Fyon saluted and ran off to relay the info. The Wraith, Grim and iron legion warbands left, Dinky stayed behind pushing the shaman into a chair.

‘We’re going to have a little talk, shaman,’ he said, pouring sour mash into a tin cup and handing it to him, ‘drink up.’ The enemy turned away, saying ‘I don’t drink.’ Dinky stood and drew his sword, slamming the blade tip into the ground next to him, then sat back down and leaned into his face snout on snout, baring his fangs. ‘I said drink.’ Realizing he had no choice, the shaman forced it down and burst into a coughing fit, nearly choking.

Two hours later Grimpaw Grindgear and his asura friend Poppler Swizzlestix were the only things between near constant flame legion probe teams and Dinky, with his now smashed flame legion shaman commander, so they decided to make a break for it and get back to the warband south. Dinky and Grimpaw each took a side and began to carry the drunk out.

A few yards away from the barn, despite the engineer turret packs dropped behind them for defense, the buzz of arrows and bullets whizzing by grew thicker; a bullet pierced the drunk shaman’s head, then an arrow speared his back. They dropped the now dead soldier and trotted off, Dinky having taken the scroll case off his belt before he began interrogation.

Newly promoted Primus Centurion Grimcrotch, preparing his armor to move out

Imperator Bangar Ruinbringer had ordered centurion Grimcrotch to the blood legion citadel north of the Blazeridge Mountains, upon his return from the Durmand Priory with Rafka Firemane. During his trip there the flame legion, angry at the centurion’s infiltration with only one other soldier and killing over fifty of their number along with one of their high commanders, launched a massive attack on the allied legions posts in Fireheart Rise. It was a mess, and tribune Brimstone was livid at not having his right paw charr available.

Things were getting done on the front, that was not a problem, the leadership of Grimcrotch showed in his subordinates with his absence. But there was not as much of an effective offense as the tribune would like without the centurion. And having to work with iron and ash legions made things kind of unorganized; crossed orders, miscommunication and just plain infighting held back the potential, and a swift hammerstrike is what he preferred.

Upon his arrival at the blood legion citadel, the imperator welcomed the centurion and told him to have a seat. ‘First things first, centurion. I want ten cases of your sour mash delivered to me here. I can’t keep traveling so far south just to enjoy a good drink, hehe…’ He chuckled. Grim grinned, ‘I’ll be sure to get on that as soon as I return, sir.’ Ruinbringer then waved the centurion to his feet.

‘Second, I’m ordering you to take the promotion to Primus Centurion you turned down at our last meeting, refusal is not an option this time.’ The imperator stepped toward Grim, focusing on his eyes. ‘Something looks different about you, primus…’ he said seeing the slight green flames in his pupils, then waved it off. Grim saluted smartly and replied simply, ‘Thank you, sir. I’ll try to live up to your expectations.’

Ruinbringer then updated the new primus centurion on the goings-on in Fireheart Rise since his departure from Black Citadel. The imperator brought out his maps and discussed the current situation, then they went over offensive possibilities, the primus assuring the imperator his subordinates would do fine, but that he would need to leave soon to join them, and Ruinbringer agreed. Things were heating up again, just how Grim liked it.