“Get down,” Owl three shouted. Ronin was still staring at the convulsing mayor in shock when he was tackled from behind. “Sir, activate your nanites.” The Kaldarr soldier shouted as he forced Ronin’s helmet back on his head, latching it in place. Owl four crouched over them, rifle shouldered and sweeping the area.

“What?” Ronin asked stupidly, still staring at Emil. “R..right,” he said a beat later. Activating the nano machines inside his bloodstream with a thought. They immediately began purging the alcohol from his system. “What’s going on?” he asked as his mind cleared, pulling his rifle from his equipment harness.

“Kaldarr slavers,” Owl three said helping Ronin into a crouch. “I saw them coming over the outer wall. One got impatient and took a shot early. We need to move… Now!” he said taking a shot into the night. “The Kaldarr are using stun shot, but once they realize we’re here they will switch to live rounds soon enough.”

“We need to save the mayor.” Ronin said as he watched the still writhing mayor. There was a barbed hook in his back that was continuously pumping his body with electricity.

“No time,” Owl three said dragging him away, Owl four bringing up the rear. Ronin looked around franticly, desperate to find some way to save the mayor. That’s when he saw a slim ray of hope.

“The well, Owl four remove the taser and toss the mayor down the well.” It wasn’t much, but assuming they made it out of here they could always come back.

“Sir…” Owl three started to argue, but Ronin had experienced the worst day of his life and he’d had enough.

“Do it soldier!” he snapped, “any civilians between here and the well are to be dropped in as well before we make our escape. Is that understood?” by the end he was screaming into his com, the last dregs of alcohol still muddling his mind.

“Yes, sir.” Owl three and four said in unison, slamming their fists into their chests. Owl four reached back and grabbed the huge mayor, dragging him along behind them. They hadn’t gone five feet when another crack sounded out and an object that crackled with electricity bounced off Ronin’s face plate. The close call did a better job of clearing the remainder of the drink from his mind than the nanites, and he looked around at last.

Kaldarr warriors were dropping over the outer wall in twos and threes. Ignoring the ladders and simply dropping twenty feet to the ground. They were covered head to toe in full plate metal armor. It looked like a strange marriage between something a medieval knight would wear and the futuristic armor that the Owl team wore. Each of the Kaldarr was armed with what could be described as a super old-fashioned musket, with another more modern rifle slung over their backs.

“Shit,” Ronin breathed. The smallest of the invading Kaldarr was seven feet tall. They towered over the town’s folk, who ran around in a confused rabble. Screams of fear and pain, mixed with the cracking of the muskets and the laughter of the space orcs. Watching the elderly town’s people, who’d been so generous to him that evening, go down brought a tinge of red to Ronin’s eyes. Reaching out he grabbed a passing old woman and a small child by their collars. Ignoring their cries, he dragged them along.

They reached the well without further incident. It was just outside the town square and hadn’t taken them long to reach. Without ceremony, ronin threw the woman and child into the well. They were followed soon after by the mayor and three more towns folk that Owl three and four had managed to grab on their short trip. Seeing what was happening, a few of the close by town’s people, not knowing what else to do, jumped into the well themselves.

“Let’s go,” Ronin said. He wished he could do more for the town’s folk, but his reduced team couldn’t handle this situation on their own. Looking back at the far wall, Ronin called up his reticle for the first time. His eyes zoomed in automatically on the Kaldarr warrior who had just topped the outer wall. With a quick trigger squeeze, a small hole appeared on the warrior’s chest. Without a sound, at least that Ronin could hear from this distance, the Kaldarr fell from the wall.

Owl three and four hadn’t been idle either. Ronin saw several armored bodies mixed in with the writhing town’s folk.

“WRRAAAAGGG” a mighty bellow of rage rang out from the other side of the wall. It was echoed by every Kaldarr on the field. The sounds of the shots changed, as they dropped their non-lethal muskets and pulled out their rifles.

A mighty impact to his chest knocked Ronin from his feet. His vision swam wildly as he tried to recover from his zoom mode and come to grips with what had happened. Feeling his chest, he felt the armored plate there had been shattered. Bringing his fingers away from the wound, he saw blood. Pain blossomed in his chest before the nanites, already active clearing the alcohol, rushed to this new injury.

“Sir,” owl four shouted. Covering Ronin’s body with his own as several more gun shots sounded. “AAHHHAA” the half ogre grunted in pain. It didn’t slow him down at all in picking Ronin up, and making a run for the inner wall.

Finding his chest pressed into Grush’s shoulder, Ronin took advantage of the position to provide covering fire. Fighting through the pain, he was able to drop three more of their attackers when another shot impacted Grush’s back. The plates there had already been shattered, and blood began flowing freely from the wound.

“Grush!” Ronin yelled in panic, but the thickly muscled man ignored the shout and the pain and continued to run. With another yell, Ronin raised his rifle and began to fire unrestrained. He likely would have dumped the entire magazine right then, if Grush hadn’t dived to the ground. Finding himself crushed between the half ogre and the ground, Ronin fought for breath. It was the second time that day that he hadn’t been able to breathe, so he handled it a little better this time.

“…What?” was all he managed to get out, but it was enough.

“The enemy are now dropping over the inner wall sir.” Owl three said, from his prone position beside Owl four. “They must have landed craft on either side of the town… we aren’t getting out of here.” Owl three had moved just enough to let Ronin roll out from under him. He took his place beside his men as they all fired into the new attackers. Ronin searched his mind for an answer but was coming up blank. Owl three grunted as a round impacted his body, yet he continued to fire.

“Owl one, this is Owl two. What is the situation?” Ronin almost didn’t hear the voice of his assistant in his headset over the chaos going on around him. The undaunted robot simply repeated the message some three times before Ronin finally heard him.

“Owl two, we are under attack. Kaldarr slavers came over both sides of the wall. We are surrounded and both Owl three and Owl four are hurt. I don’t know what to do.” Ronin was pretty sure he had been hollering over the team channel, but at this point he couldn’t be bothered with that.

“Understood,” Owl two’s voice came back after a long moment. “Owl five is inbound, she will attack from behind the inner wall to take some pressure off of you. Best recommendation sir is to find a place to hunker down. Kaldarr slavers only care about gathering slaves. Once the resistance stops, they gather up everyone still alive and leave.”

Still firing into the Kaldarr who were ducking around between the houses, Ronin wracked his brain. Trying to find a way that they could hide. It didn’t look like the Kaldarr had night vision, from the way they were moving, but they would be certain to check the houses when the fighting stopped.

“Understood, Owl two.” the words had come from Owl three and Owl four at the same time. The pesky android must have cut him out of the conversation and given them orders. Before he had time to ask what they were talking about, Owl four tugged the rifle out of Ronin’s hands and got to his feet.

A rifle in each hand, he charged the enemy, firing with abandon. Owl three in the meantime had pulled the tower shield off his back. Yanking Ronin over to him he hugged the smaller man between his body and the shield before standing up as well. Ronin felt the impact of rounds through the shield, and knew that Owl three was getting hammered.

“What are you doing?” he shouted as the giant ran back into the town’s square.

“When we get…GAH…there, keep the shield between you and the sky. Got it, Sir?” Owl three shouted in response. Grunting in pain as he talked when another round hit him. Ronin didn’t have a clue what was going on, but the situation had gone fully outside his control. He was completely outside his element, and the enemy Kaldarr were getting closer.

Reaching the town’s square, Steady Aim dropped both Ronin and his tower shield into the well. He hardly had time to realize he was falling before he crashed into cold water and frail bodies. Struggling to his feet through the press of bodies, ronin found that the water was just over waist deep. He didn’t know how many people had jumped down here to hide, but the well was only seven feet across. The people were packed in here like sardines.

“Bring the shield up!” the giant roared as a dinosaur hide was flung down the well. Ronin recognized it as the one brought out for the small children to sit on during dinner. It settled over top the frightened figures like a concealing blanket. Baffled, but trusting in his man’s words, Ronin raised the shield up over his head, pressing up against the thick dinosaur hide. Just in time to catch the falling impact of a mountain of stones.

“Aaahhh” he screamed as his enhanced muscles and bones bore the weight that crashed down atop him. Steady Aim must be collapsing the stones piled around the top of the well. Forced down to his knees, Ronin continued to push up as the pressure mounted. Stones still tumbling down as more were pushed into the well.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“What is he doing up there?” Ronin screamed inside his head as he struggled to hold the load. The bodies around him writhed in agonized pain as they were crushed. The ones lucky enough to have been close to him, crowded closer in under his shield. Struggling to keep their heads above water.

Perhaps due to his mental question, or just his intense desire to know what was going on above, another one of his artificial eye’s functions activated. With a whirling sense of vertigo, ronin found himself seeing through Owl three’s eyes. He was pressed against the last section of well that stood above ground. His head tilted down as he heaved, granting Ronin a view of his body. It was a tattered mess. His armor plates were all shattered, and blood pumped freely from multiple wounds.

The whole team was equipped with nanites that, in theory, would work to seal up wounds and stop bleeding. The giant just had too many wounds. The nanites must have been overloaded with the amount of work. Ronin imagined them moving back from the wounds and congregating in the heart, doing their best to keep it beating, just a little bit longer.

With a monstrous shout and a mighty heave, Steady Aim finished collapsing the well. Ronin felt his vertigo increase several fold, as he watched the rocks falling, yet feeling them impacting his shield from above. Job finished, Owl three stopped his struggle. With a long blink, he toppled over the edge and landed on top of the stones that now completely covered Ronin and the poor town’s people.

Vision snapping back to his own body with Owl three’s death, ronin let out an agenized sob. He’d only known the giant for a day, yet sharing his last moments brought him closer to the Kaldarr soldier. Not wanting to think about either his, or Owl three’s situation, he refocused his vision to Owl fours eyes.

The feeling of vertigo came back and intensified with this new shift in prospective. Owl four had dropped the rifles at some point, he now held his massive two-handed hammer in his bloody grip. Ronin didn’t have any way to shift Owl four’s focus, so he did his best to figure out what was going on by checking the periphery.

A flash of movement. A Kaldarr warrior sneaking around the corner of the house Owl four was hiding behind. With a grunt, he brought the hammer down. Crushing the fully armored warrior into the ground. Turning around, Grush stumbled around to the other side of the house, where he repeated the action again on another Kaldarr warrior.

The aliens seemed to have caught on at this point, however. The next Kaldarr didn’t come around the house. They went through it. The heavy dinosaur hide wall exploded outward as the new warrior arrived on the scene. Stumbling backwards, the injured half ogre nevertheless brought his hammer around in a backhanded swing that sent the warrior flying back into the house. That warrior wasn’t alone though, two more were standing behind the first. Ronin’s vision shifted again as the pair unloaded their rifles into his second team member.

“Nooo,” he cried out in fresh grief. Tears flowed freely from his eyes now. He wanted to lash out, to fight, to run and hide. All he could do though, was kneel here holding Owl three’s shield over his head. Hold the shield, and prey that the kaldarr didn’t find him.

“Owl one, this is Owl five. What’s your statis?” the soothing voice of Owl five entered his helmet, and fear gripped his heart. Owl two had said Owl five was inbound. She wasn’t going to die trying to save him too, was she? In a panic, he shifted his vision to her eyes.

She was outside the inner wall of the town. There weren’t any Kaldarr in sight though, they must have already gone over the wall. He followed her gaze as she looked at one of two drop ships that had landed in the field outside the wall. The back hatches were both open and he watched mutely as she ran up the ramp to the closest. Her non-lethal cradled in a two-hand grip, she crept through the passenger compartment. Reaching the cabin, he watched as she shot the pilot in the back of the neck. Once he had finished convulsing, she pulled him up and out of the seat. Ronin was surprised to see that it was a human.

“Owl one, what is your statis? I repeat, what is your statis?” as she dragged the pilot from the ship, she continued to try and contact Ronin. He realized that she must not be able to tell that he had accessed her vision. Having pulled the pilot some fifty feet away and hiding him in a patch of tall Field grass, she headed towards the other drop ship.

“Owl five, this is Owl one,” he answered at last. “I’m currently buried in the well with some of the town’s folk. I should be fine as long as the Kaldarr don’t find me… though I can’t say the same for the town’s folk.” He added, as he listened to their continued crying. It was quieter now than it had been. He could only assume that they had been overcome from the weight of the rocks and drown.

“Owl one, please maintain position. I’m coming to get you, Owl five out.” having finished speaking, she must have cut the channel because she didn’t respond to any of his attempts to contact her again. He could only watch through her eyes as she entered the second drop ship.

This scene played out nearly identically to the last, only the pilot was female this time. Once she had been incapacitated and dropped off in the tall grass, Owl five returned to the craft. Closing the hatch behind herself she strapped into the pilot’s chair and began pushing buttons. She made several false starts before the craft finally fired up. Ronin guessed she was doing this on the fly. Gripping the stick, she lifted the craft from the ground. It wobbled unsteadily as it rose, Ronin had serious doubts that she could fly the ship for very long… thankfully, she wasn’t going far.

Owl five flew the ship over the wall, through the city and over the next wall. Another three drop craft were landed on this side of the wall as well. Ronin wondered how they had gotten so close to the walls without being seen, before forgetting the question, when Owl five fired a rocket into the closest craft. It exploded in a shower of shrapnel, knocking all the nearby Kaldarr from their feet. Ronin didn’t know if they were dead or just incapacitated, but he didn’t have time to look. Owl five had moved onto the next ship.

A second rocket flew from the captured ship, causing a second explosion as it impacted the next ship in line. The night lit up as the rockets flashed towards the targets. Ronin expected the ships to catch fire, in the books they always caught on fire, but these didn’t. Before he could ponder on that, Owl five moved the ship toward the last Kaldarr vessel. When she pulled the trigger a third time, however, nothing happened. She slapped the control and tried again, but again, nothing happened. Moving her hands over the controls she tried several buttons at seemingly random, until finally something worked.

A bloom of fire from under the craft lit up the sky as some kind of machine gun began to fire. The shots were laced with tracer rounds, so Ronin found it easy to follow the bullets trajectory as they slammed into the last craft. These bullets weren’t powerful enough to penetrate the ship’s haul though, they just ricocheted off, leaving dents in the ship.

Punching the controls again, Owl five swung the ship around to the side. Where she sent bullets straight into the still closing hatch. They bounced around the inside of the ship, until the front viewing screen was painted red with the pilot’s blood.

Ronin’s vision shifted away from Owl five and back to his own body as his head went under water. Spluttering in shock, he heaved himself back to the surface. Looking around, he realized that the town’s people had crowded in so close that they were pushing him underwater with the added weight of their bodies.

Growling, he started to bash his helmeted head into the clinging town’s people. The irony of the situation was clear to him as he tried to free himself. He’d done everything he could think of to help save these people at the beginning of the battle, but now that they threatened to drag him down, he batted them away without remorse. He felt sick at the realization, but his body had taken over at this point. He didn’t want to die; it was as simple as that. The problem facing him now was that the town’s people didn’t want to die either.

Ronin didn’t know how much time passed as he struggled to keep his head above the water and keep the rocks from crushing him. Conscious thought had fled his mind at some point, leaving only the desire to survive. Eventually, however, he felt the rocks above him beginning to shift. The remaining town’s people had noticed too, and began to shout for help. Ronin wanted to shout for help too… but who was up there? Was it Owl five, or the Kaldarr?

“Owl one this is Owl five,” the voice sounding inside his helmet was the sweetest sound Ronin ever remembered hearing. “I’m almost to you, just hold on a little longer.” His arms were shaking so badly now that he didn’t know if he could hold out for even another minute. Hearing Owl five say that she was almost too him, had drained what little fight he still had in him away.

When the leather tarp was finally removed and the tower shield taken from his limp hands, Ronin sagged into the water. He caught a glimpse of both Owl two and Owl five above him before his body gave up entirely and he blacked out.

* * *

The next time Ronin opened his eyes, he was back in the pod cave. Owl two was carrying him to his pod. Noticing he was awake; the android gave out a mechanical sigh.

“Glad to have you back with us sir,” he said settling Ronin into his pod. “Don’t worry, sir.” He continued once Ronin was settled in. “You are safe. The bullet didn’t penetrate anything vital, and the damage to your arms is repairable. Just get some rest now, the pod will do its work and when you wake up again you will be right as rain.” Closing the door slowly he added, “Owl five and I have the situation covered for now, get some rest sir.”

Lid closed; the pod set to work. Small mechanical arms reached out towards his wounds as the pod released a knock out gas. He wouldn’t wake up until he was fully recovered or Owl two or five manually pulled him out. Just before he lost consciousness again, Ronin triggered his release from the pocket world.

Once again seated back in his hotel room, a pop up appeared in his field of view.

“Would you like to pause the flow of time in your tutorial experience or let it continue at previously set time dilation?” there were two options underneath the question, but Ronin didn’t have it in him to even finish the message, let alone make decisions. Reaching out blindly, he closed the window with a wave.

He was exhausted. Even here, he felt like he had just been through hell. Looking down at himself, he found he was still wearing the fresh white tee shirt and blue jeans. His cybernetically enhanced muscles making the material bulge more than when he first looked in the mirror. Collapsing back into his chair, he stared at the slowly spinning globe. “Is that what adventure is?” he thought as his mind blanked. “That hell? Why on earth would anyone do that to themselves knowingly?” feeling sick to his stomach, Ronin struggled to his feet. He needed to relax, and clear his head of the day’s events.

Walking into the bathroom, he ignored the mirror that had so enthralled him before. Stripping down, he stepped into a shower for the first time in his life. Turning the water on intuitively, he cranked the dial up as hot as it would go. Letting the water flow over his head to hide his fresh tears. For a long, long time, he just stood there and cried. He didn’t know that he’d even had this many tears. It felt like he’d cried more today than the whole of his life to this point combined.

Getting out of the shower, he dried off mechanically and climbed into bed. This was another first for him. He’d never even had a pillow before, let alone a bed. Yet, like the shower, he couldn’t appreciate the comfort the bed offered. Closing his eyes, he resolved that he wasn’t ever going back into that hell, as he drifted off to sleep.

He didn’t know how long he had been asleep, when he was awoken by an ear-piercing ringing. Another pop-up appeared before him and, like before, he waved his hand blindly trying to shut off that noise. The noise did stop, but when he opened his eyes again, he found that there was now a well-dressed man standing in his hotel room.

“So.” The man said, looking down at Ronin who was still laying in bed. “You must be ‘alexander Dawson’… it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Leo, Leo Dawson. I’m Alexander’s father…”