“Soo?” The surprisingly chipper robotic voice Jade used, asked once the team had returned from the tree for the umpteenth time. “Are you done yet? Honestly, this is the looongest session I’ve ever done. Not that I’m complaining or anything, but if you are going to do this again, can you bring in a bunch of people from your stasis stone already… I really don’t want to do this allll over again once they get here.”
“Gosh, I think I’m happy with my build, how about you Gunner?” Ronin asked, looking over at his half goblin companion. Thankfully, she’d relented and replaced her carapace covered head for her own face. Getting the same fold down style helmet that Ronin had chosen. A few of her other modifications were a little unsettling though.
“Good,” she replied flexing all four of her hands. “After adjusting the strength of my new arms up a little bit, I can climb the tree with them while keeping my primary hands available to shoot with. Plus, I’ve been working on firing a pistol from the lower arms. It’s not ideal since they were really designed as a climbing aid, but I’ll figure it out.” Ronin blinked at the long-winded explanation. She must really enjoy her new form. He thought it was a little weird, but at least the second pair of arms folded in so tight when not in use that it was hard to tell they were even there.
“Good, and you Elyria?” He asked his other companion, not looking directly at her, still upset over the ladybug incident.
“I’m good,” she replied with a wicked smile. “I’m just wondering why you didn’t redo your armor. You looked really dashing in orange.” She added with a wink, which caused Ronin to flush with embarrassment.
“Yay, great, wonderful.” Jade said, jumping around in circles on its six legs and very much reminding Ronin of the ladybugs they’d spent the last few days slaughtering on the tree.
“I think we are then,” he said, looking at his companions. “But who should I bring?”
“OOOUUUGGG,” Jade groaned so loudly that Ronin winced at the noise. “Do you have a list of names your considering?” It asked, holding out its two-toed foreleg as if wanting him to give it a list.
“Um, well yea I guess.” Ronin said, pulling up the list he’d been putting together in a pop-up window. It had something like sixty names on it. “But most of these people are needed to run my syndicate, so…”
“Great, thank you!” It said, snatching the list that supposedly only he could see, right out of the air in front of him. “I can already tell you don’t have enough for even half these people… but whatever, at least with this many people around I shouldn’t get so bored waiting on you to choose, right? Here we go…” lifting the forelimb that wasn’t holding the list up, a sound like snapping fingers rent the air. The next instant Ronin was surrounded by a few dozen of his most trusted people, only there weren’t sixty of them, and nearly all of them were in really bad shape.
“Vasylia.” The shout made Ronin turn, to find Lily moving through the crowd towards a horribly mangled bugbear woman that he only now recognized as his second wife. She was battered and bloody, missing clumps of fur and had several long lacerations running across her arms and face. Ronin blanched, realizing that she wasn’t the only one who looked on the verge of death. They all did, except for Lily, Owl two, Benjamin and Karr’s squad.
“What is going on?” Ronin asked, too shocked to move.
“Guts!” The cry was so passionate Ronin didn’t realize it had come from Gunner until she’d brushed past him on her way to a battered and beaten goblin. Ronin took a step toward him, before turning to his wives. He was torn on where to go, until he saw K3. His bodyguard and confidant was in just as bad a shape as Guts and looked to have one foot in the grave. He was in a tangle of limbs with Unyielding oak for some reason, who looked even worse than the kaldarr, if that were possible.
Ronin again took a step forward, when a voice from beside him made him pause. It wasn’t so much what the voice said, but the calm tone that it spoke in. As, in this situation, Ronin couldn’t fathom being so calm.
“Jade, is there anything you can do to get these people healed up?” Elyria asked the now madly dancing beetle. “I hate to impose on you like that, but if we have to nurse all these people back to health ourselves, before we can even begin selecting candidates, I’m afraid I don’t know how long we’ll be stuck…” Before she’d even had a chance to finish her suggestion, everyone was suddenly whole again.
“Can’t do freebies,” Jade said with a wave of its antennae. “Just so ya know… the healing came out of your credit pool. Buutt you have enough in there that it wasn’t a huge drain… well, not since you’ll likely not be around much longer anyway.” Ronin checked his credit balance and winced. It wasn’t kidding, his credits had more than halved. Still, he’d trade any amount of money for the lives of his people.
“Thank you, Jade.” He said and meant it. “I’ll remember this kindness.” Turning to his people, he noted a few absences, and tried not to think about them too closely. Song, Soft step, Harken, even K1 was missing. Lily had grabbed Owl two and was whispering frantically to him and Vasylia, but Ronin couldn’t pay it any attention, since one of his people had approached him while he’d been distracted.
“Lord Ronin,” Staz said, coming to a halt beside Ronin. The giant was much smaller than Ronin remembered, standing in at around six and a half feet. Again, Ronin was in too much shock to pay it any mind.
“Yes, Staz?” He asked, somewhat dazed, before coming to himself with a shake of his head. “What happened?” Ronin looked around at his people, now healed and getting to their feet, but clearly in a state of shock much like his own.
“You pulled us out of our attack on undercity.” Staz said, matter-of-factly. “We’d thought we had it all figured out, but the hobgoblins had played us. I don’t know how, but they did.”
“It was my fault boss.” Ronin looked down at the voice, noticing Hunter for the first time. She was fully healed, but the events had clearly left an impression on her. “We got cocky; didn’t think they would notice us infiltrating the goblins in the city… they noticed. Had us pegged as outsiders. When the king had me… well, anyway… he explained how we were too clean. Oh, we’d covered ourselves in dirt. But we hadn’t matted up our hair, didn’t have fleas and lice like we used to. We didn’t smell like goblins were supposed to… He had us rounded up in secret… and… I’m sorry boss, some of the girls talked. When the attack came, they were ready for it. They’d informed the hobats what to look for. He made me watch… it was a slaughter…”
Ronin listened quietly, trying to accept what he was hearing, and having a hard time doing it. While he digested the news, he looked at his people. Most of them just sat or lay on the ground, staring at nothing. Some, like Owl two who was talking to Jade of all things, and Lily who moved between the troops, were the exception. Not surprising really, since they hadn’t been in combat.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he finally said to the downcast scout. “We’ll make them pay for this Hunter, have no doubt.” Ronin said clenching his fists, trying to forget that this only happened because he told his people to invade someone else’s city. Since that would mean this was entirely on him, and he hadn’t even been there to fight with them.
“My lord,” Owl Two called from beside the dog-sized beetle that glittered like an emerald, in contrast to the group’s current mood. “Please, join us.” Giving Hunter a pat on the back, Ronin made his way over to the odd pair who both spoke in synthesized voices, but whose personalities differed so much.
“Yes, Owl Two.” Ronin asked as soon as he arrived, desperately hoping the android would have something to salvage this situation.
“I think I have a solution,” Owl two said. “But it will require sacrifice on the part of our beetle companion…”
“That’s right it will,” Jade made the closest approximation of a squeak her mechanical voice would allow. “Your associate wants something big from me, human Ronin. I don’t mind helping because you are soooo interesting, for a human… but you have to make it worth my while. Since it’s going to cost me my personal credits…” Ronin couldn’t help but smile at the beetle. He’d been forced to change his opinion on them a little after meeting this one. So, he listened as Owl Two laid out his idea.
“…Interesting,” he said at last, mulling over what had been shared. It wasn’t perfect, but it was likely the best deal he was going to get, and at least it gave his people some opportunity for survival. “Ok, I agree. Now for your payment… truthfully, I was planning on doing this anyway when you healed my people, but if you would do us this additional favor to…” As he finished speaking, Ronin pulled up his menu and materialized a three-dimensional image. Jade stared at it for less than a second, before turning back to Ronin.
“Deal.” It said, without hesitation.
* * *
“Remember, human Ronin, you have twelve hours… not thirteen, not twelve hours and five minutes. Twelve hours… ok?” Jade said, for no less than the hundredth time.
“Yes, Jade, thank you.” Ronin said with as much patience as he could muster. “Ready to go everyone?” He asked, turning to the rest of his people. “Now, remember. We only have…”
“…twelve hours.” Came a chorus of voices from his people, along with a few much-needed smiles.
“Exactly,” he said, with his own grin. “Good luck out there… I just wish I was going with you all.” Ronin was getting a little choked up, as he looked at all his gathered people.
“And… time.” Jade said with another snap from its two toed hands. “Goodbye everyone, hope to see at least some of you again, you know, not dead, and things.” Everyone disappeared with the snap of those toes, though Ronin swore they never even touched. He was left alone with Elyria and Gunner, looking down at an overhead map of the undercity. The first thing he did was zoom in on K3’s position.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“We’ve got em,” an ugly hob called out from the top of the pile. “The king will have fun with this one...”
“Yea, might even give us a turn…”
“… what the heck…”
“AAAHHH, what is that?” Ronin listened as they started off with congratulations on their own victory, to how they planned to celebrate, then finally, cries of surprise as the tear gas canister went off at the bottom of the dogpile.
K3, now fully healed, and refitted in his armor, came up sporting his plague doctor’s mask and a mark V railgun. There were two tear gas grenades, attached to his belt and spewing their eye searing contents everywhere.
Unyielding oak was a little slower to regain her feet, not as muscled as her companion, to push off her attackers so easily. Still, once K3 had pulled off the first few, she cleared the rest away. She was holding a dagger in each hand and had her own pair of tear gas grenades attached to her belt. Without hesitation, she was off and moving between the hobgoblins, now frantically rubbing their eyes. Ten of them were dead in half as many seconds and the elf showed no sign of stopping.
Ronin blinked at the speed the elf moved, he knew the temporary enhancements Jade had provided would improve the physicality of his people. Still, Unyielding oak must have been a real beast before, to exhibit so much speed and deadly precision now. The pair were a stark contrast to one another; K3, who’d put away his mark V was swinging his hammer around like he was driving nails. Each swing resulted in a pasted puddle on the floor. Unyielding oak on the other hand, barely touched her targets. Just the lightest brush with her daggers was all she’d need, to open an artery and send the unfortunate hob to their knees, holding whatever had just been severed. Within a handful of minutes, the entirety of the hobgoblins who’d ambushed Ronin’s leaders were either dead or dying.
“Good?” K3 asked a not even winded Unyielding oak, who’d only stopped dashing about when she’d run out of targets.
“All set here,” she replied with a blood splattered grin.
“Then let’s move,” K3 said. “We’ve still got to get to the castle and end this. Most of our people are still outside, and those batlins are already tearing them apart.” The pair were already running as he finished speaking, both now holding mark V’s. The powerful rifles didn’t hold many rounds, but between the two, one hundred hobgoblins would be dead before the twelve hours ended and they had to return the weapons. To say nothing of those who would die to their blades and hammer.
Seeing that K3 and unyielding oak had their situation well in hand, Ronin turned his attention outside the walls. He wanted to check in on Hunter, and the rest of his scouts, but he couldn’t bring himself to look just yet. He knew it was going to be bad, and he didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to blame himself for his people’s suffering.
Blinking away the thought, he focused on Staz. The oni, now fully healed, was decked out from head to toe in full plate armor. So thick and heavy that the batlins couldn’t hope to penetrate it. So heavy, no lesser warrior could have hoped to wear it and still move. He’d also obtained a second kanabo, and with one in each hand, the giant moved through the storm of batlins. Bodies fell all around him like rain.
Ronin frowned, it looked like one of the batlins had… yes, it disappeared. It took him longer than it should have to realize what was happening. Staz had Ronin’s storage ring, and the batlin’s fur was highly coveted among the syndicate members. Ronin chuckled at the sight, even amid all the death and mayhem, the oni was looking to turn a profit. The chuckle died an instant later, when the blue warrior came across a group of syndicate soldiers who hadn’t made it.
The giant did a careful round to check each one, before they disappeared into the storage ring. Ronin nodded sadly, it would be good to give them a proper send off, verses leaving them out unattended on the field of battle. Ronin sighed, somehow, he’d just assumed the battle would go smoother than this. His mood continued to darken as Staz came across another group of dead warriors. When these all proved to be beyond saving as well, Ronin changed his viewpoint to hopefully find less pain.
Sadly, that wasn’t likely. He’d focused on his second wife, Vasylia. Ronin frowned when he thought of her. Lily had been insistent that Vasylia not be sent back into combat. Vasylia on the other hand had been just as insistent that she was. Ronin had tried to figure out what was going on with his wives, but Lily refused to talk about it. He knew something was going on, but if she didn’t want to discuss it, Ronin didn’t have the time to force it out of her, so he’d put it aside.
Vasylia had been outfitted with a lighter set of the same full plate that Staz wore. Although she’d stuck with a heavy Warhammer and a shield as her weapons of choice. Her group had been forced against one of the moss-covered stalagmites, which had grown into a descending stalactite. Though now that Ronin was looking from this closely, it appeared like it was a purpose-built column. Shaking that thought away as unhelpful now, Ronin focused back on the battle at hand.
Vasylia’s team was using the pillar as cover from one direction, while they fought off the batlin swarm. Vasylia and one of her clansmen that Ronin couldn’t remember the name of, were the only two members of the group who’d been summoned to the body fitting simulation room. So, they were the only two who’d gotten healing, fresh armor, and weapons. Both bugbears had been outfitted with mark V railguns as well, but they’d both run dry by this point and lay abandoned on the ground. The stack of bodies piled around the pillar gave grim testament to their effectiveness, but they were now relegated to their melee weapons once more.
“Move it in Halikor,” Vasylia shouted to her clansmen. “We just have to hold for a little bit longer.” The pair was standing before the rest of their team, who were all far too battered and bloody to put up anymore fight. Ronin couldn’t tell how many of the ten or so bugbears who lay there were still alive, but he knew the grizzled body of Harken, which lay just behind Vasylia’s feet, had passed on. The fact he had failed to show up to Ronin’s summons had proved that. Vasylia had confirmed it afterwards, the old bugbear had passed on just moments before the call had come. Ronin blinked back tears, knowing if he hadn’t delayed so long to train, so many of his people wouldn’t have died. The syndicate was going to be a worse place without the gruff old bear. The scene was obscured, as Halikor pulled the pin on a tear gas canister, clearing the sky around them of batlins, and giving the pair a chance to breathe.
Wiping the last of the tears from his eyes, Ronin finally turned his attention to his goblin scouts. He’d delayed long enough and had run out of people to look in on. He had to face up to reality and see how bad it had got inside the castle. Taking a deep breath, he spun his view around and zoomed over to where Hunter had been kept.
Ronin had pulled the two scout teams he was most familiar with into the simulation room. Hunter’s team had been a given, but the second team wasn’t overly familiar to him. He’d practiced with them, but that was it. He had expected then that there would be twelve goblins summoned. There were only six. Song and Soft step hadn’t made it from Hunter’s team, along with four from the second team who Ronin hadn’t gotten to know well enough to remember who, was who, by name yet.
When the overhead view entered the castle, he geared himself up to see a dungeon, or a torture chamber filled with implements of pain. What he found was actually far worse. It was a barracks, filled with row upon row of bunks. The scouts were being held in the basement of the barracks. Ready to be rounded up by any soldier who cared to walk down the stairs, and open either of the two cages that lined both sides of the room. Stairs, which were now littered with hobgoblin corpses.
Hunter had broken the locks keeping the doors closed by the simple expedient of shooting them off with her mark V. Shadow, Breeze and Whisper along with the other teams two remaining members were moving through the mixed group of scouts and food corps, giving out sips of Ronin’s nanite health potion. It seemed the hobgoblins weren’t picky as to who they abused, because many of the food corps men were just as battered and bloody as the scouts. Ronin did his best to avoid looking at the corners of the cells. The crumpled bodies that filled them were more than he could handle right now.
“Heal up and get ready to move.” Hunter, wearing a scout suit that matched the ones Owl team had dropped in, shouted once she’d ensured the hobgoblin guards were all dead. “Pick these bodies clean of weapons and armor. Guts, get some of your stronger people to put it on and gather up those who can’t move. My armed and armored scouts are going up now to kill our way out of here. Give us fifteen minutes head start and run.”
She didn’t wait for a response from the similarly armed and armored Guts. Only two of the food corps members Ronin had called had made it, Guts included. The pair of them were guarding the rest and getting them moving when Hunter and her mixed team of six scouts filed up the stairs, staggered and covering different sides of the room. Ronin followed them out into the barracks ground floor. Unsurprisingly, there were very few Hobs in residence, considering the war that was raging outside.
Without hesitation, Hunter, who was in the lead, shot the seven stragglers' dead with one clean shot to the head. She then motioned for Shadow and Whisper to go upstairs, while the others fanned out and covered the building’s windows. Backing up the near magical viewing screen that he could only use for a little under twelve hours now, Ronin watched as the pair of scouts methodically slaughtered another fifteen hobgoblins between the second and third floors, before returning to the group on the ground level.
“All clear,” Shadow said with a nod, taking up her position near the door.
“Very well,” Hunter said with a nod. “You all know the score. One shot, one kill. Get to the castle as fast as you can. Our lives mean nothing next to killing the king and claiming the throne for our lord. We’ve failed him enough and lost half his army in the doing. Our sisters who are able will follow in our wake, so let’s make sure to pave the way with a blood red carpet.” The five scouts around nodded and shook their fists at the impromptu speech, before firmly gripping their rifles and moving in a crouch into the streets.
Ronin gulped, holding a hand to his stomach that had gone sour at Hunters words. He didn’t consider what had happened her fault. It was his. He’d asked too much of his people and it had led to this disaster. Months, they’d planned this encounter for months, and it had fallen apart so easily. One miscalculation, just one, and it had ruined everything. It was his interrogation of the hobat, all those months ago. The hobat who’d told him, they weren’t in contact with the hobgoblins.
They had gone into this with the understanding that the two races wouldn’t be working together. Sneak in the goblin scouts and food corps, empty the city of all the goblins and hobs they could before sneaking the army passed the batlins, to a mostly undefended and unaware city. It couldn’t have been easier. Until they’d shown up on the field to find the hobs had warned the hobats, and everyone in undercity had been on high alert, scouts and food corps having been captured.
“It’s not your fault, White flame.” Elyria said, resting her hand on his shoulder. I was involved with the planning sessions just like you were. There was no way to know this would happen. It isn’t even Hunter’s fault, despite what she just said… No more than it was my fault, my husband died in that kaldarr attack, even though it was my idea to talk to them about an alliance against the locusts…” The last part was muttered under her breath, and Ronin knew it wasn’t meant for him, but for her own benefit. Still, he put his own hand on hers, where it still rested on his shoulder.
“That’s right boss,” Gunner said, grabbing him by the elbow with both hands. A move that coincidentally pulled his hand from the elves. “Sometimes bad things just happen. It’s part of life.” Ronin felt grateful for the two women at that moment. They’d helped to distract him, if nothing else. Still, he knew they cared for him, even if it wasn’t in a strictly romantic since.
“That’s right,” Jade chimed in. “It’s not like a few more scouting trips, or several weeks of constantly sniping the hobats, with the eight mark Vs you had to reduce their leadership, or setting traps for the hobgoblins, or having your scout teams poison them… or replacing the tear gas grenades with nerve gas or a paralytic agent... or even…”
“Thank you, Jade,” Ronin snapped, when it became clear the crystalline beetle had no intention of stopping. “I appreciate your willingness to cheer me up, but I’m feeling much better now.”
“Your super welcome,” Jade said doing a little dance. “I knew I was good at understanding humans, Hehe.” It wasn’t only Ronin who gave the beetle a disgusted look after that comment. Still, none of them could honestly say the alien wasn’t trying to be friendly.
“Look,” Gunner said, pointing down at the screen. “Hunter and her team are about to meet up with K3 and Unyielding oak.” Ronin turned away from the beetle, refocusing on the display. It was true, the two teams were converging on the same castle gate. It looked like the war for the city would be decided, one way or the other, very soon.