The Veil War

It’s Veil War Thursday. And that means that today you get another chapter. Your teaser:

“What are they doing firing a half mile out?”

Lewis dropped the glasses. He watched the gray cloud of arrows climb skyward. It looks like they’ve got the distance…. And there goes another volley.

Evans was incredulous. “How the hell could anyone draw a bow that could shoot an arrow that goddamn far?”

Five flights of arrows were in the air when the first round hit. Those five hundred arrows hit the goblins like the wrath of god. “Holy mother of fuck!” Evans shouted.

“I don’t believe it. Every single one of those arrows hit.” Pethoukis said softly, stunned.

FYI: there will be no chapter next Thursday as I will be conducting a Christmas safari through the untamed wilds of northern and central Ohio before heading back to Virginia. Next year, we will resume our normal weekly schedule.

In recompense for not giving you your accustomed Veil War carnage, I will send a special bonus story to everyone who has signed up as an email follower or befriended the Veil War’s Facebook page. You may justly consider this as both a reward for being an early adopter, and an encouragement to become an early adopter.

It’s Veil War Thursday, and that means that you have another 2000 words of pure, sweet adrenaline.

The goblins charged up the hill, some still carrying banners despite Evans’ best efforts. They were dropping faster now, his men steady and increasingly accurate as the range closed. A thousand monsters from hell charged up the hill and they knelt and fired. He throat tightened as he watched these Marines, his men, perform like nothing he’d ever seen.

Read, enjoy. And since I’m giving you this for free, all I ask is that you tell your friends. Link the Veil War in a status update on Facebook or Google+. Mention it on your blog. Tweet it.

There are even buttons at the bottom of every page here. They have mysterious and arcane names like “StumbleUpon” and “Reddit” and such. I presume that they won’t destroy the world if you click them. And you know what? I think it’s worth the risk.

Hey, it’s Veil War Thursday, and that means Part Six has hit the streets. Your traditional teaser:

“I swear to God, sergeant, there’s nothing more wrong than watching these bastards stand back up when you kill them.” As he spoke most of the goblins stood up and shook themselves back into order. And started marching.

“Next,” Pethoukis said, and remote-detonated the next bomb.

Enjoy. And don’t forget to share with your friends. It’s free, so everyone should have enough to share.

Part five is up, which puts us past the psychologically-significant 10,000 word barrier. A sneak peak:

“You know, for close in, what we really need?” Thompson asked.

“What?”

“Flamethrowers. Like they had in those WWII movies burning the Japs out of pillboxes and shit. Magic armor will stop a bullet maybe, but Napalm, man, that’s the real deal.

The two subsided into silence. They were all tired. Lewis walked on, thinking. Flamethrowers.

Tell your friends, use the nice little social media buttons. They want to be pressed. Want.

Today, just for you and for the love I bear each and every one of you – I offer this extra special, one-and-one-half-times larger than normal Thanksgiving Day installment of The Veil War. I have cleverly titled it Part Four because it comes right before part five, and you can read it right over there.

And as always, here’s a little taste:

Evans switched to God mode. His rifle belched fire five feet into the blackness, and every time he fired, a goblin died. The other Marines tried to match him. Goblins were dropping, but the rest sure as hell weren’t stopping. The camp road was littered with dead tangoes.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Make family happy and turkeys suffer. (Be sure you’re not doing that backwards, as it’s illegal in most states, and often just mean.)

Our third installment is now up. Read it here.

And your teaser:

Lewis blocked two handed with his rifle, and the sword chopped into his rifle, right through the rail and into the receiver. The goblin growled in rage when Lewis twisted the rifle, tearing the sword from his grasp. Lewis threw the ruined rifle and attached sword to the side and reached for his sidearm, backpedaling.

The monster was fast; unbelievably fast. He jumped and low tackled Lewis to the ground. Lewis’ head smacked the ground and his vision narrowed. All he could see was the green-hued snarling face in front of him. He couldn’t find the grip of his .45, and the goblin had his hands on his throat.

I looking up some actual facts on mortars this morning – so that you, dear reader, will have accurate depictions of military technology to go along with all the fantastical elements I purely make up – and I found this:

I think his accuracy will suffer firing that way. But he gets cool points. Like these guys.

Since there is already some mention of the Aurora Borealis in the Veil War – and trust me, there will be a lot more – here’s some truly awesome footage of aurora shot from the ISS:

hat tip iO9

Just fyi, I’ve updated the text of parts one and two.  Most of the changes are very minor.  The only thing that approaches significance is in part one, where I added a little bit explaining how the Marines came to call the enemy goblins.