The two jeeps of the secondary assault team rumbled down the ill-maintained cobblestone road. They were about two miles from the last known location of Lyle’s last known location, and where his PiD was currently being pinged. They had tried to contact him on the way; to no avail. The PiD had last been turned on at least a week and a half ago, according to Liam, so he either deserted or was dead. Jack had hoped for the former because at least then he could be brought back into the fold. In case it was the latter, Jack kept a hand on the rifle and sat in the seat beside him.
Towering pines loomed over the road, cutting the light of the rising sun into little shards sent cascading against the gray stone. Strange plants grew in abundance at the edge of the road, and thorned vines choked the lives of some of the trees as the jeeps rattled on. In the curls of briar, Jack could see the decimated remnants of birds, hares, and squirrels.
Liam’s jeep came to a stop near the edge of the road. Overgrown thickets had been cut by some unknown hand, and the contents of the countless crates had been rifled through. A pair of desiccated corpses sat a couple of dozen feet away from the jeep, face down on the stone, with no indications around about what had killed them.
“Think Lyle was the one who went through this stuff?” Jack asked as he leaned outside of the jeep.
“Probably. Could be anything sentient, really.”
Sentient? Jack didn’t know if he had come across anything that could be classified as sentient aside from other humans. He had heard the Elf Market was coming to town when both moons were full. They were both in the New phase now and would be full together on the first week of August, according to the calendars around New Eden. He was excited for that. Elves. He’d get to see elves.
“The question is, how did they,” Liam pointed to the two corpses, “Get over there?”
“What do you mean?”
He motioned Jack over as he navigated himself to the front of the jeep. Jack followed suit — stepping off the road and into the underbrush. Liam pointed to the two seats in the front, and Jack turned away quickly and emptied his stomach on the thick trunk of the tree. Painted on the front seats were two stains: deep brown and red: the stink of rot wafted off of the green canvas.
“So they died here,” Jack said after he had recovered, yet still keeping his eyes away from the rot stuck to the seat.
Liam nodded.
“Think Lyle did it?” Clara spoke from the jeep.
“Why would he?” Jack asked.
“Who knows what a druggie would do.”
“He made a mistake.” Aurora spoke up, “You’ve never experienced addiction before, Clara, so you don’t know how hard it is to kick something like that.”
Clara rolled her eyes, as she crossed her arms over her chest. Liam, Jack, and Bernard unloaded the jeep into both of theirs after inspecting the goods a little and then continued on their way. It took another ten minutes before Liam’s lead jeep stopped again. Jack pulled up behind him, as Bernard was getting out of the truck carrying a small, black drone, and a controller with a screen on it. He tossed it into the air, and its tiny propellers lifted it high into the air. He flicked a switch, and an overhead view of the road and the small group.
“About 500 meters from here is where the signal is. Watch for now, and make sure nothing approaches us.”
The drone flittered forward over the tops of the trees, as the loud buzzing chased the birds from the highest branches. Jack watched the small screen on the controller sweep over the tops of the trees. Two or three minutes later what looked to be a compound of some sort came into view. A domed hangar-like building stood in the middle surrounded by a wooden fence, with a pair of towers overlooking the road. Strange creatures that looked like a combination of frogs and snakes given legs. They carried weapons: mostly spears clubs, and javelins. Some wore scant armor and carried shields. One, larger than the rest, even had a bit of makeshift armor — what looked like the plates off of one of the vehicles repurposed and reforged. In the middle of the compound, in the large hangar-like building, a ring of light blared through a domed, tin roof.
“Fuck.” Bernard muttered.
“Think he was captured, or killed?”
“Dunno, but that,” he pointed to the point of light as the drone circled above. “Is where his PiD is.”
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As he was doing that, there was a quick blur before the drone’s feed got caught off.
“Shit. It was knocked down somehow.” Bernard muttered.
He looked over to Liam, who thought for a second before climbing back in the jeep.
“They’re just a bunch of goblins. We’ll see what’s going on.” He said. “If he’s there, then he’s there. If he’s not, then at least his PiD is. Let’s go get it.”
“If he’s not there, are we going to look for him?” Jack asked as the rest of them were about to get into their vehicles.
Liam sighed.
“If we can. He could have been eaten already.” He said after some time had passed, “We’ll look around the compound for any sign of him, or where he might be.”
Jack nodded. That was all they could really do. If he’s not there, and there are no signs as to where he went, what more could they do for the time being? Jack climbed into the driver’s seat of his car and grabbed his rifle from the back bed. He racked it to make sure that there was a round available and set it in his lap as he pulled away from the small wreckage, and followed after Liam’s jeep.
“Get ready!” Liam called from the lead jeep as he banked the first right, and sped his car up.
Clara sighed and pulled her pistol from her belt, and racked it. The small outpost was a couple minutes drive from the turn and down a slope a little. As soon as the top of the guard tower came into view, Bernard stood up from the lead truck with his staff in his hand and chanted something that Jack couldn’t understand at the distance. A large lance of wind and dust grew above the lead jeep and spat forth and crashed into the cradle. The wooden structure exploded and the goblin inside was launched backward into the roof of the hangar behind it.
Liam’s jeep crashed through the front gate, slammed into the chest of a shield-wielding goblin, and dragged it backward to pin it against the pillar of the second outpost tower looking over the road. The goblin on top tossed down a pointed javelin aimed at Aurora, who was in the back. Liam stood up, drew his sword, and split the javelin in two. It was the first time that Jack had witnessed the leader of the Secondary Assault Platoon draw his sword.
The goblins barked warning to one another, and a rather large one stepped out of the hangar, as others poured from the other buildings surrounding it. Clara stepped out of the truck and retreated behind Jack, who pulled his rifle out and fired a round into the head of the group of three charging his jeep. The creature’s head exploded at the bullet, and the other two fell as Clara’s bullets found purchase in their chest.
The large goblin with the makeshift armor barked something over the cacophony, and the mass of goblins who had been chaotically charging began to converge together in a formation: those with shields in front and center, those with spears behind them, and those with other weapons on the flanks.
Before the formations could finish forming Aurora grabbed her spear out of the back of the car and launched herself forward. A bright white light shone from the tip of her spear as she zipped up, and then down with the point of her spear in the top of the goblin leader’s head. Aurora leaped backward and was beside Liam a second later. The goblin staggered as smoke began to rise from the puncture wound. It collapsed forward, and soon its body was consumed in a white flame that exploded outward into the rear of the back rank of goblins.
Liam sprung forward just as the explosion behind the goblins knocked them off balance. With a quick swing of his longsword, the front rank of goblins. Five of them fell on the first stroke and six on the next. Before Jack could get his mace from the back of the jeep, Aurora sprung forward again with a stab into the gut of one of the goblins. A blast of white flames spat out from the point that had pierced through the creature’s body. The flames swept across the left flank and consumed most of them.
The veterans of the Secondary Assault Platoon were powerful. Jack didn’t have anything to do but watch as they struck down scores of the goblins. Whenever one broke through the line to attack them from behind, he’d fight them off with mace and pistol. By the time the battle was over, Jack had killed just about 10 of the nearly 100 goblins that now lay dead on the ground, and not a single member of the Secondary Assault Platoon had received an injury greater than a scratch that could be quickly healed through Clara’s magic. This was the first time that Jack had witnessed the full fighting power of the Secondary Assault Platoon. When he and Lyle were rescued from the Scrapyard, he only witnessed the tail end of their battle with the Rat King. He was aware they were strong, but had no clue how strong, but now? Now he was proud to be among their numbers.
“His PiD is in here.”
Liam called as he pointed to the hangar. There was a thick door closed in. Liam jiggled the door knob and gave the door a hard shove without it budging. He grumbled as he glanced back.
“Jack, take point.”
Jack nodded, and barreled through the door: his mace clutched tightly to his chest, and his pistol hanging off his belt. The door collapsed inward and the bar that had been keeping it closed fell to the ground under his foot, and a goblin from the right charged at him. It swung a dull blade that dug into his shoulder fat, but he gritted his teeth and slammed the head of his mace into the creature’s chest to push it away before slamming the full heft of it down on the creature’s head. With a crunch, the thing’s strange body collapsed in on itself in a small bounce before lying still. A second came at him, and Jack drew his pistol and put two rounds into the goblin’s chest. It fell backward.
Within the room, there were twenty or so goblins who charged forward toward Jack, as he pushed forward into the room. The others
“Duck!” Liam called behind him.
Jack did so just as a volley of gunfire roared above him as the others had set up a momentary firing line behind him. Jack fell behind them, and fired a couple more shots into the room with his pistol until his clip was empty, Clara meanwhile cast a spell to dampen the noise. By the time their clips were all empty not a single living goblin stood.
Once the room was clear, Jack was able to get a good look around. It was a large, empty room like one would see a plane sitting in while getting repaired. Cots, straw beds, and piles of meat that Jack shuddered to think of its origins. Otherwise, it was mostly flat and empty, save for the corpse.
While the others reloaded their weapons, Jack slid another magazine into his pistol and turned the safety back on before stepping into the room. It wasn’t long before several footsteps echoed behind him as the others joined in his search through the room.
“Search for the PiD. Bernard, can you start cutting out the hearts? Split them up evenly.” Liam called as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and lit it with a cheap bic he had in his front pocket.
Bernard started the work with a grumble as he began slicing open the chests of the goblins, prying open their ribs and pulling out their hearts. He set them in five separate piles. Meanwhile, the others looked around the room. Jack checked the pile of meat. Strips of blue clothing lay among the meat as plentiful as bone. He picked up one square of this cloth: it had crossing red threads embroidered in it. It was a pattern he was familiar with several of this land’s natives that had come and visited the city over the past few weeks wore similar designs. His stomach churned and he dropped the cloth and stepped away.
“There’s a hatch here,” Aurora called from across the hangar: her voice rolling off the domed, ribbed ceiling.
Liam glanced at Jack and he nodded and hurried over to her as she pulled the hatch open. A broad staircase stretched down into the darkness, and Jack stepped forward into it.