There was a time when humanity and fairykind lived in peace with one another. But that time, as all things do, passed. Humanity drove the People beneath the ground, and eventually forgot about them.

And so things continued for a few millenia, with humans living on the surface, happily oblivious to the fairy presence many miles beneath their feet. After a while, fairies were forced out of some of the shallower forts nearer the surface by mining, and into the deep safety of Haven.

But their abandoned cities were not empty.

A new threat evolved there, growing and evolving at a rate far in excess of any other species on or beneath the planet. They called themselves the Swarm.

It began slowly and on a small scale; unknown enemies attacked and destroyed several outposts, leaving no survivors. And then it happened.

The emergence.

At the same time both on the surface and in Haven, the Swarm attacked. They swept in, destroying everything and everyone in their path. Haven became a dark and terrifying place to live, and most of its survivng occupants (less than 30% of the initial population) evacuated to the surface, hoping against everything that they would find salvation among their brother species, the humans.

They did, but at an enormous cost.

Humanity had been attacked simultaneously, and a huge chunk of the population of the planet had been eradicated. The main population centres had seen the worst of the fighting; the capital cities of half of the american states had fallen, as had most of the capitals of the various European countries. Nowhere was safe, as the Swarm tunnelled their way around beneath the planet like moles, emerging anywhere and at any time. There was no way to track their movements beneath the surface.

And now, the united Humans and People must make a desperate stand against the Swarm. The safest places on the planet were those built on granite, marble and asphalt, the three substances that the Swarm could not tunnel through. It had been discovered that any Swarm tunneller (roughly thirty feet high, weighing in at around 4-6 tons) who consumed any amount of asphalt had their digestive and respiratory systems clog up, much like dwarfs.

But now, there are only five cities left that the Swarm have not taken. And they won’t stop coming.

They won’t stop killing.

 

CHAPTER 1

 Holly ran across the derelict ruins of the grounds at Fowl Manor; behind her she heard Swarm drones chasing her as she darted from cover to cover. She ran through the main doors, leaping over the barricade that had been thrown together in the hallway, and landed in the centre of the hall.

“Holly!” shouted Artemis from an upper balcony. “Up here!”

She activated her wings and soared upwards, where she hugged Artemis warmly.

“I was worried when we lost comms; I thought I - We’d lost you.”

“Don’t worry. I am quite safe, although I am not sure for how much longer.”

At that moment there was a room-shaking explosion as the barricade was breached. Butler ran onto the balcony and hit a button on a control panel. Several explosives underneath the staircase detonated, destroying the Swarm’s only way up.

“Holly! Good to see you!” he said, as the fairy embraced him. As ever, her arms barely reached around his neck. His relief was obvious, but it soon turned back to concern.

“We’re safe for now, but we’ve got no way down. We’re trapped like rats here.”

Suddenly the communicator crackled into life.

“Echo Seventeen inbound, ETA damn soon!”

They ran to the roof, and saw the AEF-177H Falcon dropship soaring in. The AEF-177H had been designed by Foaly and a group of techs, and was an advanced troop- and armour-transport ship, armed with under-wing missiles and a chin-mounted 45-cal machine gun. This one, however, was a little different. It had a six-barrelled Gatling gun in place of the 45-cal and twice as many missiles.

“Hold position, clearing the area!” came the familiar voice, as the Gatling gun opened fire into the Swarm. The high-velocity rounds punched the drones off their feet, tearing through their ranks and laying waste to them. The dropship hovered inches above the roof, allowing the trio to climb into the passenger compartment. The ship’s engines dipped, the dropship climbing rapidly into the air as the passengers strapped themselves in. Artemis opened the door to the pilot’s cabin, and stood with his hand on the back of the pilot’s chair.

“You were just in the nick of time, John.”

The pilot nodded, as Butler poked his head through.

“Are we glad to see you!” he laughed.

“I dunno. Are you?” asked John, dipping the starboard engines and banking in towards the field base. “This is Echo Seventeen inbound, we have the captain aboard along with Fowl and retinue. Request permission to land.”

“Roger that, E17, come on in, we’ve got a space in Hangar 4R. Roll out the welcome mat,” came the reply over the communicator. The dropship turned on a penny and swooped into the hanger, landing inches away from a human marine. The occupants disembarked; Holly, Artemis and Butler headed straight for the Ops centre, while John measured the distance from the frozen marine to the nose of the ship.

 *            *

Holly saluted as she saw Vinyaya ahead, who shook her hand warmly.

“It’s good to see you, captain,” she said.

“Likewise, ma’am” replied Holly. Vinyaya moved on to Artemis and Butler, shaking their hands in turn.

“It’s a grim situation. We’ve lost communications with many of our outposts, but from what we’ve pieced together it seems that the Swarm have congregated their forces around a location in Canada. Then they began digging. We were shocked at first, but it turns out that the site is on granite and is therefore inaccessible to them by their underground tunnels. They’ve unearthed something.”

Kelp, who was on the big screen set up by Foaly, began to speak.

“We’re not one hundred percent on what it is, but it appears to be some kind of… well, I’m not sure how to put this, so I’ll just come out with it. It’s an army. A swarm army from millenia ago, frozen in some ancient suspended animation chamber. And there are millions of them. If they reanimate this army, we’ll be outnumbered a hundred and seventy-three to one. This war will be over. And they’ll rule the world.”

Holly gasped; Artemis merely nodded. “so what is the plan?”

Kelp spoke again.

“Vinyaya has formulated a good plan, but we need your help with it.”

Vinyaya took centre stage once again.

“The swarm have set up anti-air spires all around the site, but if we can insert a small team to take one of them out then we punch a hole in their defences.”

Foaly trotted up.

“The plan is to eliminate a single spire to make a hole, and send in the human air forces; the RAF, the USAF, everybody. We’ll give them a few dozen volleys of missiles, then bomb what’s left.”

“Great plan,” said John, walking in. “Except it won’t work.”

Foaly looked personally offended.

“Excuse me? And why not?”

“Simple. The Swarm don’t need the army, they need the distraction. They know we’ll attack the excavation site, and while we commit our entire forces to there, they’ll strike all over the planet and wipe out countless billions of civilians and military instalations. I’ve studied their tactics.” At their shocked expressions, he sighed. “I’m not an idiot, you know? I may not have been involved in all your escapades, but I did go to school. Instead of wasting my time trying to exploit people who were believed to be mythical until about three years ago.”

Foaly shook himself out of a stupor. “So, genius, what do you suggest?” he said sarcastically. Artemis immediately began to speak, until he realised that Foaly had not directed the question at him.

“We should send a small force to act as a counter-distraction, so they believe we’ll fall for their trap. While they’re busy carrying out your plan, we’ll send in a flight of fighters through one of their abandoned craters. I think Foaly has some schematics showing their tunnel systems,” he said, glancing at the centaur, who nodded. “We’ll fly straight past their defences and volley the living hell out of the Swarm Hive-mind.”

There was no sound in the room for a moment, except for Kelp’s clapping.

“Magnificent plan, leiutenant. But are there any abandoned craters?”

“I’ll see to that. Trust me.”

Some other stories by LEP-recon124:

• Easing back into this...
• Probably the coolest thing ever (Part one of a series that I have no idea when will finish)
• LEP-centurion001 part two
• Pariah (a dreams and nightmares spin-off)
• LEP-centurion001

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