Ronin’s new ship let out a musical note, to let those on board know it had landed. As the notes died away, Ronin, K3, Stone, and Whisper put their decks away. The four of them had been playing a game of POWF, while they flew. Karr and his squad had split into three groups, and had been playing as well, but they wrapped it up when the music started.
“Ok guys,” Ronin said, “Looks like we made it. Sergeant Karr, pick six of your people to train on the exosuits. Stone, Whisper, you two can ride Green and Blue.” Ronin gestured at the two gryphons that Leo had lent him. He didn’t have any arial support without Elyria, so the older man had offered to help. “Meet up at the ramp in five, let’s do this people.” Once he’d given his instructions, everyone besides K3 went about their orders. The kaldarr’s orders, on the other hand, were to protect Ronin. So, he was always nearby.
“Going to check on her before we head out?” He asked, looking down at Ronin with a slight smile.
“Yea, but it won’t take me long. Just going to let her know we’re leaving the ship.” Ronin said, not quite defensively. Seeing the elf injured like that had come as a surprise to Ronin, she always seemed so strong. It didn’t seem real that she could be so easily hurt. Moving through the mass of boxes and barrels the color force had brought down with them, Ronin entered a house they’d set up in the back portion of the ship.
“How are you feeling?” He asked Elyria as he entered her room, after rapping gently on the open door.
“I’m fine, White flame.” The elf said, laying propped up in the largest bed, her entire leg in a cast, constructed from a substance similar to the glue Ronin had plastered over his own chest. It was holding her leg in place while it healed, a process that should only take another day, thanks to Doctor Mycroft’s healing formula.
“Honestly, you were hurt worse than I was. Your entire chest was caved in. I just got a small fracture. So quit worrying so much about it.” She said dismissively, though Ronin noticed how she’d reached out under the covers to touch the cast.
“I know, you said that before.” Ronin said, sitting down on the side of the bed. “It was just a tough match up for you. And that’s on me. I did it again, let my desire for an honorable duel blind me to the fact that our lives were on the line.” This wasn’t the first time Ronin had said these words, and just like before, Elyria scolded him for them.
“Damn right it was a bad match up, White flame,” she said with a scoff. “I’m a moon elf, my specialties are politics, and herbology, with ranged combat as a distant third. I can fight with a blade, and if Pink and Yellow had been flesh and blood, I’d have killed them within three moves.” She sighed, getting herself more comfortable. “I’m just not strong enough to fight in close quarters like that. lesson learned, no big deal.” Ronin nodded at her words, not wanting to tread any further down the same old road, so he just changed the subject.
“You hear the signal?” He asked, and at her nod continued. “We’re heading out now, going to let Karr and his people train up with the exosuits… While we strip another tree of all life.” He added the last part quietly, but the elf’s keen ears still picked it up.
“Not like we have much of a choice,” she said shrugging. “The lizards are coming. If we took our time, harvesting only what we knew could be sustained, we’d never finish in time.”
“I know,” he said with a sigh, grabbing her hand on top of the covers, and giving it a soft squeeze before climbing back to his feet. “Get some rest then, you should be good to go by the time we are done with this tree. Hopefully, Xerox will have contacted us by then too.” They had a lot to do in the next few months, but they couldn’t leave the area to work on it until they’d saved Ronin’s home cave.
“Just be careful up there,” Elyria said. She hadn’t squeezed his hand back, but she hadn’t pulled away either. “You had your contest with Leo, then you got your honorable duel with the colored freaks… now play it safe for once and actually use the equipment we brought with us, ok?”
“No promises,” he said with a wink, before leaving the room. He felt the pillow impact him in the back as he left, but he only paused long enough to toss it back to her gently before walking away. He had every intention of doing this run right. Since, after the battle had ended and he’d been healed up, he’d had the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong.
“You should really just let us go,” the voice pulled him out of his brooding, and Ronin looked around to see Kimberly looking at him from her cage. “My dad is going to kill you, when he finds out that you’ve captured me and taken over this ship. You do know that right?” She was in a small cell, with standing room only, the thick tentacle, vine restraint system wrapped around all her limbs. Her feet were suspended a few inches off the floor, and her hands had been glued together. Overkill? Maybe, but those six were so strong that he couldn’t risk one of them getting out.
“We might be captured right now, but we still have our power, so…”
“Oh, shut the hell up Billy,” Kimberly snapped at the blue armored color force. “This only happened because we went with your choice of heroes. If we’d have done it my way…”
“What are you talking about?” Billy asked, the overly loud tones disappearing as he looked at his girlfriend. “This was the perfect choice. Besides, I don’t see how naming a quad of girls after the planets, and slapping me in a tuxedo would have changed the way this all turned out, do you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, we…” Ronin sighed, he had no idea what they were talking about. Xerox couldn’t get ahold of them soon enough, he needed to unload these adult children onto someone else before they drove him insane. Turning around, he left them to their arguments.
“Good to go, boss?” K3 asked from his place on the ramp. Stone and Whisper had already flown out to circle around the ship on the pair of gryphons, while Karr and the three members of his squad who hadn’t been chosen to wear the exosuits waited beside K3. The remaining six members were still getting themselves strapped into the suits. Ronin was a little jealous, he wanted to wear one himself, but knew there would be plenty of time for it later.
“Good to go, big guy.” Ronin said, thumping his fist against K3’s arm. “Let’s do this.” Walking out of the ship, Ronin caught sight of the tree right away. They’d landed less than one hundred yards away from this one. Not wanting to waste time on the trips back and forth once they’d cleared it out.
His people at his back, Ronin jogged over to the tree and started the climb. He moved slowly, climbing in a spiral pattern up the trunk, checking all the deep bark valleys for aphids and ladybug larva. They shot them as they moved, never coming close enough to use their melee weapons. Not on purpose anyway, though accidents could happen.
“Stone, how we look up there?” Ronin asked, once they’d reached the first branch. It was so wide an entire village could have been built right here without feeling cramped. The goblin scouts had been flying circles around the limb, so Ronin thought he’d better check in with them.
“Looks clear of big threats, my lord,” Stone answered immediately. “There is a nest of aphids on the underside of the branch you just stepped on. Me and Whisper are taking care of them, we grabbed a few extra PCP .25 carbines so it shouldn’t take us too long to put them all down.”
“Copy that, thanks Stone.” Ronin said, unclipping his own PCP .25 carbine from his harness. After he’d been stuck in that wasp hive from hell, he’d requested a carbine of his own. It was of minimal use against ladybugs, but aphids and wasps were easy enough to kill, at short range. “Let’s give our boys and girls on the ground plenty to practice with, shall we?” He asked, to an accompanied cheer from Karr’s people.
They moved out along the branch, shooting each cluster of aphids as they came into contact with them. Once each group had been dealt with, they’d take the time to chuck the corpses out over the side of the huge branch. They’d drop to the ground, where the six exosuited soldiers were rounding them up to be fed through the processing unit.
The machine was really gross to watch work, being something close in function to a woodchipper. They’d feed in the raw materials, and the unit would shred them into what was usable, and what wasn’t. The usable parts were fed into large storage containers for either liquids or solids, while the waste material was pumped outside the ship. Ronin could already see the pile forming around the hose they’d laid out two hundred yards from the ship in the opposite direction from the tree. The aphids didn’t give much in the way of useful parts, so most of them was fed through the machine and out into the field. Still, they needed everything they could get, so nothing was wasted.
Out they moved, along the first branch, killing every aphid they found and chucking their bodies over the side. Once they’d cleared this one, they moved up to the next branch, again using the spiral pattern to check the trunks bark for any hidden bugs. It was boring and repetitive, and a huge part of why Ronin didn’t want to fight like this. At least until they made it up to higher branches. On Ronin’s last run, in his competition with Leo, they’d moved so fast that they hadn’t given the tree’s occupants any time to gather. That wasn’t the case this time. As they moved higher and higher, the opponents got more numerous and coordinated.
Ronin wasn’t sure how high up they had climbed, but the exosuits looked like bugs from his vantage, and they’d finally hit some stiff resistance. Ladybugs, twelve of them, and a pack of six wasps had converged on them the moment they reached the new branch. It was difficult to challenge them on their home ground, because both the ladybugs and the wasps could fly. Ronin and his teammates on the other hand, were confined to their feet. Thankfully, they used the same tactics as they had before. The ladybugs boxing them against the trunk while making lightning-fast darting attacks, with their mandibles. While the wasps flew down in dive runs, trying to stab them with their venomous stings.
Ronin and K3 took on the ladybugs, Ronin starting from the left, and K3 the right. Each pumping out one round after another until the ten on the outsides had been downed with a shot to the head each. That left only the two in the middle. K3 moved forward, using his giant shield to catch the lightning grab attack, and smashing his hammer into the second ladybug’s side as it tried to horn in on the action. Ronin stayed back, slipping five more rounds into his rifle while K3 distracted the remaining foes. Pumping the manual loader on the foregrip, Ronin checked his line of fire to be sure his best friend wasn’t in the way, and fired two more shots, ending the ladybug threat.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He turned his attention upwards, while he reloaded the two spent rounds. The sky was clear. It had been easy for Karr and his three soldiers to take down the wasps, since they didn’t have the ladybugs to distract them from the winged opponents diving attacks.
“Good work everyone.” Ronin said, helping K3 push the ladybugs off the branch. Hoping they didn’t crush one of their own by mistake. He was starting to worry a little bit about the climb. They weren’t even halfway up the tree yet, and they’d seen such a large group of defenders. He did not want to be in the middle of another wasp swarm. No way, and if the groups continued to grow, the ammunition limitations on their PCP 1.0’s might soon become a problem.
“Stone, Whisper,” Ronin said, messaging the scouts.
“Yea boss?” Stone answered for the pair. Whisper lived up to her name, like all goblins did, and didn’t really talk much.
“Can you handle overwatch on your own, Stone?” He asked, once he knew he had their attention. “The enemy numbers are growing the higher we go. We could use someone with a PCP .50 to pick up the slack, since the 1.0’s just don’t have the ammo capacity.” The pair were silent for a beat, likely communicating on a private line, before Stone came back on the line.
“It’s getting pretty hot up here boss, we need each other to watch our backs… but the wasps are pretty easy to kill, and the ladybugs aren’t fast or agile enough to catch the gryphons… we could land really quick and trade our .50’s for a pair of .25 carbines. Will that work instead?” Ronin thought about it, exchanging a glance with K3, who nodded, before answering.
“Sounds great, Stone.” He said, nodding even though she couldn’t see it. “Good job offering that compromise, I don’t always know the best course of action. So, if we aren’t in the thick of it, let me know when I’m making mistakes. It’s the only way I’ll learn. The only way that doesn't include pain and injury anyway.” He’d said that last on open coms, wanting his whole team to know they had a voice in the group.
“Sir, I have a question.” A tentative voice said over the comm, and Ronin looked around. He’d moved away from the group, to meet the scouts for the trade, so he didn’t know who was talking.
“Go ahead soldier, and who am I speaking to?” He’d figured out it had to be one of Karr’s three remaining soldiers by process of elimination, but he still hadn’t learned all their names.”
“Sorry sir, it’s me, Jack. Right here, between Zak and Jaya.” Looking at the three soldiers, he saw the taller of the trio waving at him. “Anyway sir, I just wanted to know if you’d like one of us to take the frontline spot for a while. Back in the valley, you were way stronger than us. Here though, all our bodies are about the same. So, wouldn’t it be better for one of us to take the more dangerous position sir? We can always be replaced, but… I heard the lion talking to that doctor. If you die up here, our entire world gets erased.” As the man spoke, Ronin saw Karr glaring daggers into him, and he knew the man had a tongue lashing in his future. Still, he couldn’t refute what he’d said. Why did he insist on being on the frontlines?
Ronin thought in silence while he traded rifles with his scouts. Wondering about why he always chose to be in the thick of the fighting. It had been true, in his pocket world, that he was one of the strongest people around. That wasn’t the case anymore. A reality that had been clearly demonstrated recently with his fight against the color force. Maybe he should take a step back; it would give him a chance to observe his people fighting, and maybe give him some ideas on how to better fight himself. Though, he was honest enough with himself to admit he couldn’t stay on the backlines forever. Not while his men were in trouble.
“You have a point soldier.” Ronin said, returning to the small group, and holding out his PCP 1.0 to the shocked looking Jack. “Here, you and K3 can hold the front for a while. I’ll take the PCP .50 and watch your backs, and hopefully, learn something from watching people who are better qualified than I am.” Jack’s face paled and he took a step back.
“Sir, my lord.” He stammered out as he shot a helpless look at Karr, who was glaring murderously at his soldier. “I wasn’t implying anything like that, you are a great fighter, I just…”
“I understand soldier, don’t worry about it. Sergeant Karr won’t give you a hard time about this either.” He added with a pointed look at his squad leader. “I just hadn’t realized that the situation had changed, and since I’m always in the front, I never get to see how well the rest of you fight. So, at least for a little while, I want to watch your teamwork in action. If you aren’t the best one suited to be front man, then you can decide who takes the role… Show me what you’ve got soldier.” Ronin said, trying to be encouraging. He hadn’t realized until just then how negatively what he’d just done could be viewed. Karr oversaw his squad, and he’d stepped all over the man’s authority just then.
“Yes, sir.” Jack stammered, accepting the heavy rifle and the extra tank and round. “I won’t let you down sir.” He added, remembering to clasp his fist to his chest in the old owl team salute. Turning away, Ronin whispered an apology to Karr for stepping on his toes. It seemed to mollify the man, but Ronin knew they’d have to talk about it later. He didn’t want his people to feel under appreciated.
“Sergeant Karr,” he said, once he’d gained a little distance. “Redeploy our assets as you see fit, and then kindly take charge of the mission. For the rest of this climb, I am at your command.” Karr gave him a look, as if making sure that it was ok, before taking the lead with a series of barked orders.
The next branch went much differently than the ones before. Karr ended up taking custody of Ronin’s heavy rifle, he placed himself beside K3 and put his three soldiers in front of them in a triangle formation. They moved down the branch in that formation. The frontline troops dividing up the branch ahead into three imaginary lanes. Each taking responsibility for the enemies in their own lane. Ronin watched from where he’d been placed back near the trunk. The PCP .50 had such a long range, and with the scope on top making targeting easier, the person on overwatch didn’t even need to accompany the group.
It gave Ronin ample time to study the difference in his leadership abilities, when compared to Karr’s. He immediately noticed that Karr, having placed himself in the back, was calling out instructions when something out of the ordinary would occur. For example, when a pair of ladybugs flew in, he gave K3 the order to take them down. Later, when a group of wasps buzzed into view, he told Jack to take them out, while Jaya was to cover his lane as they continued to advance.
Ronin thought he was micromanaging the team too much, and that it was going to cause friction in the group. At least, he did at first. After they’d reached the third branch up from where Karr had taken the leadership role, he had to change his opinion. Thanks to the constant stream of instructions, at least when something other than, ‘shoot what’s in your lane soldier’ came up, it freed the soldiers up to focus only on what they were supposed to be doing, and what Karr told them to do. There was never a question about who was supposed to take on what threat. There was never an instance of someone running out of ammo unexpectedly. Each person in the group covered the others seamlessly.
Even Ronin’s tendency to lead from the front, was called into question. He’d always thought it best to place himself and K3 at the tip of the spear, to keep those behind him safe from unexpected attacks. What he was seeing now though, was the soldiers with the most ammunition, who were doing the most shooting, had clear and open sight lines. While Karr and K3 were able to observe what was going on around them and act against any threat aiming for the three in front of them.
Ronin found that apart from watching, all he had to do was wait for Karr to give the orders. He had his rifle shouldered the whole time, looking through the scope to follow the progress of his team. Whenever Karr contacted him, all he had to do was shoot the bug that was giving them a hard time. Generally, it was in groups big enough to require the big guns to need a reload. Karr would never let their guns run dry, instead counting shots. When either of their weapons fired their third round, he would contact Ronin over the radio to take over while they took turns reloading.
They continued on like that, for an entire day. The ship made bodies were tireless, only needing a steady supply of nutrient fluid to maintain top functionality. The scouts on their gryphon mounts kept them supplied with canteens of freshly made fluid and ammunition. By taking quick trips back down to the ship between branches. They were probably eating more than they needed to, strictly speaking, but one never wanted to be too tired to concentrate. That went doubly true for ammunition. Ronin would never enter a large-scale engagement with insufficient ammunition again unless he had no other choice.
Several hours into the second day of the climb, Ronin spotted Elyria flying up to meet with the troop. He’d been worried about her, but knowing she would make a full recovery had kept him from dwelling on it. Still, it was nice to see that she’d joined them, just as soon as she’d recovered.
“Still playing rearguard?” She asked, coming to land beside Ronin. He was pleased to note that she looked as healthy as ever. “I thought you would get antsy by now and rush back up to the front.” Unfortunately, her words had hit a sore spot, and dimmed his excitement at seeing her.
“Yes, still playing rearguard.” He said with a sigh. “It’s so frustrating… K3 is stronger than I am, Karr is a better leader than I am, Owl Two is way smarter than I am, you understand politics and people on a level I likely never will… Stone is a better shot, by far. Sometimes I wonder why I haven’t been replaced yet. There isn’t anything I can do that one of you can’t do better… Jack asked me yesterday, why I was still on the frontlines. So, I figured I’d come back here and learn how Karr did things. Well, I’m learning alright. Learning that I really don’t have a place on the battlefield. At least not when I don’t have a massive advantage in strength.” He was throwing a bit of a pity party, and he knew it. That didn’t mean he was wrong though.
Elyria tucked her wings down and to the sides, then leaned back into the tree’s main trunk. Once she’d gotten comfortable, she looked over at him with an intense gaze that made Ronin uncomfortable almost immediately.
“Good,” she said at last, nodding her head.
“Wait, what?” Ronin asked, looking sideways at her.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” She said with a scoff and a hard flick to the side of his head. A target she’d adopted after the first time she’d punched his shoulder, only to bruise her knuckles. “Was I supposed to give you a peptalk there? Tell you that you really are great at leading, or that you swing your metal stick like a pro?... It seems pretty clear that I don’t have to tell you how bad you are at everything, since you already know.” That hurt. Ronin didn’t know what he’d expected exactly, but this wasn’t it at all.
“Never mind,” he said, bringing his rifle back to his shoulder. “Forget I said anything.” Before he could look into the scope, however, Elyria placed a hand on his arm, gently pushing until he lowered the weapon back down, and was forced to look at her.
“Each of us is better at our specialty than you, White flame, because we spent our whole lives working to improve our abilities. Lives that, in many cases, are quite a bit longer than yours. Your buddy, K3 for example. He’s in his sixties, did you know that? He is double your age and was born into a race that excels in combat. Wouldn’t it be weirder if he wasn’t better than you?” Ronin hadn’t actually known that about his friend. A flush of shame creeped over his cheeks at how little attention he paid to those he claimed to be close to. Elyria wasn’t done, however.
“You are new to all of this. In a way that I could never have understood until I saw where you lived your life up until we met. Until I crawled into that tiny crack in the cave wall you slept in every night…” Her voice choked up, and the hand resting on his arm squeezed it a little tighter. “Look, all I’m saying is, why should you be better than we are at our specialties? We’ve lived our lives, working to improve those abilities. So, we understand them. Anything worth having is worth working for White flame. Whenever someone gets something handed to them, more often than not they don’t appreciate it as much as if they’d worked their whole lives to acquire it.”
“…thanks,” Ronin said after a long pause. She was right, he had been being very selfish. Why should he be better at everything than everyone else? He hadn’t earned the ability to claim that right. It did give him something to work towards though. Since, if he wanted to be the best at something, he could be, as long as he was willing to put in the work.
“There is something that you have that we don’t though,” Elyria added, releasing his hand, and standing back up straight. “Our entire world is tied to your life. It doesn’t matter how strong, or smart, or good at shooting any of us are. If you die, our entire world dies with you. So, think about that, next time you decide to risk your life in some crazy, pointless honor duel, ok?” She said, changing the subject back to a familiar argument they were both comfortable with. Ronin chuckled, feeling better after the conversation after all.
“Hey,” he said, pointing down at the soldiers working in their newly acquired exosuits. “It worked out ok in the end, didn’t it. After all, we…” he was interrupted by a call on his comms unit. The voice that came through, bringing news he’d been waiting for.
“Hey kid, it’s Leo. Your android contacted the ship. Red was able to find the channels he used to route the message, so, given a few days, she should be able to get an open channel to him. But for now, we have what we need to send the cave folk into your personal realm. So, finish up there, and get hustling to the cave.”