John landed some distance away from the sensor’s dead zone. Spiz was with him along with several martial artists.

“Wait by the speeders,” he said, and ran towards where the Orc city was suspected to be. It was easier going in alone, especially since none of his guardsmen could use aura. Martial arts was good when it came to raw strength, but it lacked subtlety. This could be tough. Every orc was a born warrior.

John made it to the outer boundary of the invisible barrier. He activated his stealth circuit and then phased through the barrier. He immediately clothed himself in darkness after making it through. The orcs were indeed building a city. They had raised a platform twenty feet in the air. On top of it they had built walls, towers, houses, and a fortress at the center. John was puzzled about the platform. Why had they needed to raise a city over the ground?

John went in to explore. There were humans being worked to the bone, constructing more buildings within the city...the captured tribesmen. Little gnomes directed the workers while huge orcs stood guard. One orc, displeased by the speed of a laborer, picked him up by the shoulders and shook him about before throwing him to the ground.

John moved on. He was so close to the orcs that he could smell their stench. He found a big covered area and walked in. Inside were war machines, big and hulking. Multiple cannon were projecting from their armor. In one of each war machine’s hands there was attached an EM bolt gun which was similar to a rail gun but easier to construct. The other hand held a laser axe. The huge metal axe would be awash with laser light as soon as it was activated, cutting through even the hardest metals. The remaining two hands below were free. The machines did not seem to have any laser turrets. The orcs preferred large caliber ammunition. The bigger the better, was their motto.

On the other side were space craft. Some were for warfare and some for transport. Counting the number of transport craft there must have been well over a hundred and fifty orcs. The situation was still manageable. His people should be able to defeat the orcs if they went all out. As he walked towards the fortress he realized something. The orcs hadn’t raised a wooden platform below the city. It had already been there. It was the stump of a divine tree. Something must have happened to it a long time ago. The fortress was built on a hill overlooking the stump.

John walked about the fortress taking a recording of all the defenses and weak points. The structural integrity of the south west corner was much worse than in other places. He’d be able to blow it up with a few explosives and gain entry into the fortress. That was the best way. He wouldn’t even need to use aura. These gnomes were not as thorough as their reputation made them out to be.

John entered the fortress and found a big shield generator in the center. If he could sabotage this generator then he’d just have to call in an orbital bombardment from his frigate in space to end these orcs. No, that wouldn’t work. There were innocent tribes people mixed in with the orcs as well. If only everything could be that easy!

The fortress seemed to be guarding an area in the center covered by a metal structure with arcane symbols on it. He walked towards it, dodging the patrolling guards. The area was heavily guarded. He entered the metal structure and saw a stone monolith covered in runes with a hollow at the center. Blue light flickered within, but it seemed to be very unstable. Electricity would discharge from the hollow every few seconds. This was a waygate, and it still worked. The orcs were trying to repair it so that it would be fully functional. Where did it lead? A blue skinned humanoid with red eyes was watching the waygate with keen intensity. He must be the warlock. Warlocks were the overlords of the orcs.

Warlocks were aura users but their aura differed widely from other races. Theirs was the aura of blood and death. Necromancy was but one of their many abilities. They could suck the spirit out of living creatures and place them in corpses, creating a zombie army. Luckily, this was a time consuming and energy draining power, but there had been times in history where a warlock specializing in necromancy had caused widespread mayhem in the galaxy.

This warlock did not seem to be a necromancer. He was probably a demon summoner. There were lesser demons visible behind him. Some demons pledged allegiance to warlocks for a chance to walk in this dimension with their powers fully intact. They were usually lone rangers in the demon world, under no demon prince or hegemon.

John inspected the waygate again. The warlock was just a step away from fixing it. John did not want to know what was beyond the waygate until everything was fully under his control. He went back to the speeders and contacted his ships in space.

“Find the orc’s hyperspace beacon and destroy it at all cost.” He didn’t want to wage a battle just to find that his opponent had an unending supply of orc reinforcements.

Finding the beacon would be like finding a needle in the haystack. The star system was vast and they didn’t have many scanning drones.

He went to the command center and summoned all his officers. “Spiz,” he said, “this will be our first battle together. Let’s not screw up.” Maybe he should have said something more encouraging, but Spiz was the kind of person who wasn’t affected by pep talk.

“We won’t, John.” Ah, it felt good to hear his name pronounced properly. John gave him a grin and a thumbs up.

John then went over the fortress’ layout with Spiz and his security officers, and the concentration of orcs within. They made several plans, and then rested for the night. Spiz had many good ideas that John had to think over.

They began their attack two night’s later. It took some time to organize the warriors of the tribes and make them understand the plan. Orcs couldn’t see very well in the dark and the cover of darkness was perfect for their plan. Unfortunately it was a full moon that night, so the darkness wouldn’t give them that much of an advantage.

John opened a small area of the barrier by weaving a spatial doorway on it. It was so small that the warlock would hopefully not notice anything. His men went in one by one. It did not take long for the hundred martial artists and hundred regular guardsmen to enter. The armies of the native tribesmen were outside with another fifty ordinary guardsmen waiting for John’s signal. He’d promised them a big KABOOM!

His men lay in wait just outside the orc city, between the barrier and the divine tree stump. They hid behind tree cover and waited for John’s signal. John made his way to the orc’s garage and killed the three orcs guarding it with a simple stab to the back. One orc screamed as he died, but nobody was alerted.

He set explosive charges on all the machines and ran out of the building. When he was near the fortress he activated the explosives using his chip. This was the signal. The warriors of the tribes ran towards the barrier, waiting for it to open. Meanwhile, his own men crept stealthily through the chaos, killing any orc in their path as they made their way to the fortress. John set the last of his explosives on the weak point of the wall of the fortress and waited for his men. He could see that a few of the orcs in the fortress had gone out to look for the enemy, but the warlock had retained most of his forces within. He seemed to be more concerned with the waygate than the safety of his city.

When his people arrived John destroyed the fortress wall and charged in with his glaive before him. There were many orcs in his path, but he phased past them looking for the warlock. He soon found him, standing near the waygate. The waygate appeared to be completely functional now. The blue light within was uniform and steady.

“Why are you attacking us?” the warlock asked. His voice was gravelly.

“Why are you on my planet?”

“This is nobody’s planet.”

“This is part of the Oor Empire and my barony. Surrender now and I’ll show you mercy.”

The warlock attacked, green gasses forming wherever his staff pointed. They hit John’s aura shield and started corroding it. John countered with dark rainfall. Small black knives outlined with electric blue rained down on the warlock and his two demon guards. They were unaffected. The demons charged at him, their sinister otherworldly war cries making setting John’s teeth on edge. They were shaped like men but their skin was covered in green flames. Their eyes were black and red lights throbbed like veins under their skin. These lesser demons were barely a step away from evolving into a higher form.

John swung his glaive at the demons while he battled the warlock with aura. The demons were hit by a single strike from his glaive and sent flying to the wall. They soon recovered and charged at him again. Meanwhile, the warlock let loose red bolts at John. John could smell its stench. These bolts were made out of something oily and disgusting. He wondered what elements it was made out of. There were all sorts of strange elements that John had never encountered before. John countered the red bolts with his lightning, evaporating the warlock’s attack.

John wrapped himself up with light, increasing his speed many fold. This, combined with phasing, was a deadly combination. He hadn’t used it much before because he hadn’t practiced it to the point where he was satisfied, and it was too energy draining.

John cleaved through the bodies of the lesser demons with his glaive of light and they vaporized into black mist, diffusing into the air. Now it was only the warlock left. John phased behind him and swung his glaive with such speed that the air exploded into flame behind it. The glaive passed through the warlock as though through air. The warlock had used his ethereal body to dodge. John phased and struck wildly within the aether hoping to make contact with the warlock’s real body. He managed to hit his target and the warlock became flesh and blood once more.

The warlock then began chanting in a strange language. John fired fire balls at him but the warlock was using all his remaining aura in strengthening his shield. The fireballs exploded harmlessly on its surface. The waygate fluctuated and black energy started swirling from it into the warlock’s body. This was the element of death. The warlock’s skin changed from blue to an albino white. He began transforming into a hideous monstrosity. John struck before the warlock could finish his transformation. He put his everything into this single thrust of his glaive. Energy exploded as he pierced through the aura shield and made contact with the warlock’s body. There immediately followed an explosion of blood and flesh. It had been foolish of the warlock to transform in the midst of battle. The warlock had been vulnerable for a few seconds while he was undergoing the transformation and John had struck with his all at that moment. John’s hyper-aware combat state had let him time his move to perfection.

John helped his guardsmen finish the remaining orcs. There were many injuries on his side but no deaths. As soon as the warlock died the barrier around the city vanished. The native tribesmen rushed in, massacring the orcs and freeing their people. The orcs, outnumbered fifty to one, stood no chance. Even though the native tribesmen used primitive weapons they were still deadly in such numbers, especially with John’s troops supporting them. Orc armor had few weak points but the native tribesmen quickly found them. The gnomes were non combatants and captured alive. This was a complete victory. John gathered his men before the waygate and spoke to them.

“This is a waygate. It must be kept a secret for now. Don’t tell anyone about it. Spiz, make sure there’s someone guarding this place at all times.”

“I’ll organize a team to take care of it. Shall we place some gun enclosures here? Something could come out.”

“I trust your instinct. Do what you think best.”

John would explore this new world before deciding what to do with it.