“Theft, my lord.” Benjamin called out in a voice meant to travel. “He took food from his fellows after he had already eaten his share.”
“Please I...” The old man tried to speak out in his defense, but the collar gave him a jolt that quieted him down instantly.
“Don’t speak unless the lord asks you a question,” Benjamin snapped at the old man. “I was quite clear on this point already.” Ronin resisted the urge to tell him that wasn’t necessary, he’d already decided to let those who’d stolen food go with a warning. He resisted the temptation; this wasn’t just for these twenty men and women. This was for all his people, to show them that he could be ruthless and merciful. He hated it, but there it was.
“In these trying times,” Ronin began addressing both the man and the crowd. “Where food is scarce, and we’ve had to leave our homes behind due to the locust threat. It is understandable that we want to get everything we can… still, we can’t devolve into theft. This time will pass, and when it does, we will be all the stronger for it.” He looked the old man in the eyes for a long moment before pronouncing. “I warn you, not to do this again. but for now, I’ll let you off with a warning.” Having said his peace, Ronin reached out and unbound the man’s collar. The bracelet he wore on his wrist causing it to open when he hit the release, due to the proximity.
“Thank you, lord White flame.” The old man said with a deep bow, he was trembling so badly that Ronin thought he might collapse, but he made it away and disappeared into the crowd as soon as Ronin nodded for him to go.
“Lieutenant Benjamin, what is this woman accused of?” Ronin asked the next person in line. She was also elderly and again was accused of stealing food. He let her go as well, but when he moved on to the third person the answer changed.
“This man was caught violating one of the goblin women who was charged with delivering food to the newcomers, my lord.” A gasp went up from the crowd, it looked like not everyone knew what the people here had done. Ronin stared at the bugbear man in front of him for a long time. He was young, strong and would have made a good soldier.
“Answer me honestly,” Ronin said in a cold tone. “Is what the Lieutenant said true?”
“No…aaagghh” The man dropped to his knees and shrieked in pain as the collar punished him for lying. Without another word, Ronin pulled the mace from the loop at his waist and swung it up and around, bringing it down on the still screaming man’s head. The sound cut off as his head crunched beneath the swing. He’d hit him with enough force to crack queen armor, and his head didn’t stand a chance. The crowd muttered at the swift killing. Some jeered while others cheered, but most just looked on in silence.
Ronin didn’t say anything, just moved on to the next person in line. It was a wood elven boy who looked no older than ten. Elves aged differently than humans though so Ronin couldn’t be sure. He felt deeply sorry for the lad though, because when he came to a stop in front of him the already crying boy wet himself on the spot. Ronin quickly freed him when the crime was announced as stealing food, and even gave the boy a piece of jerked iguanodon from his own pack. The kid ran away, still bawling, with the meat clutched tightly in both hands. Ronin watched him go, making a note to discuss with Owl two how age played a role in determining one’s guilt. That kid was far too young to be lumped in with these adult criminals.
Ronin moved his way down the line, either releasing or killing the accused. When he’d gone halfway down the line, he encountered a human girl in her teens. She wasn’t crying or trembling or anything else he’d seen up till now. She was glaring at him like she wanted to rip his throat out with her teeth.
“The accused killed a bugbear man who was trying to take her food, my lord.” Benjamin said at his question. “So, this is the girl he wanted to save.” Ronin thought looking her over. She had spirit, he’d give her that. The fact that she’d killed a bugbear man too, that wasn’t an easy feat even if the fellow was half starved. The physical size difference alone made it an arduous task, and she’d done it over a bit of food.
“What’s your name?” he asked the girl who hadn’t stopped glaring at him since he stopped in front of her.
“What do you care? Your just gunna kill me.” She said, spitting into Ronin’s face. The collar activated then, shocking the girl from her feet. Ronin wiped his face clean of spittle while he waited for her to stop screaming and rise back to her feet.
“What’s your name?” he asked again, not really bothered by the show of defiance. Again, she spit at him and again she was shocked. By the third repetition however, she gave in and answered him.
“My names Rachel, you bastard.” She spat the words at him but refrained from actually spitting. She almost seemed surprised when she wasn’t shocked again.
“Nice to meet you Rachel, my name’s Ronin.” He said with a smile.
“No shit, dumb ass.” She said in reply. “You’re the ass hole who took us from a shit filled cave where we were starving to death and dropped us in a shit filled forest where we’re still starving to death.” Ronin blinked at her candor; he didn’t refute her words though because they were true. He’d put far too much faith in Owl two to take care of everything. He’d assumed the android would handle it all, but he hadn’t. At least not everything. He clearly didn’t put as much importance on things like bathrooms and clean clothes for noncombatants as he did for the soldiers.
“You’re right,” he said shocking the girl and causing a gasp from the gathered people. “I wasn’t prepared to take you in. I made the same mistake the White mane clan did, in taking in people I couldn’t support… would you have preferred to die in that filthy cave then?” he asked, looking around he included all the gathered people in the question.
“I wasn’t prepared for so many people. It’s true… I took you in anyway. In a few more weeks we’ll have a city to call our own. Perhaps I should have waited until then to collect you, would you have lasted?” he continued, asking them all. “This situation is just as new to me as it is to all of you, and I’ve made mistakes. Look at what happened today. Could it have been avoided? Perhaps… if I’d have let the people, I brought here… brought here to save, abuse my people, and steal the food I was providing to others… No, I made a mistake with your living conditions and for that I apologize. But I won’t let you hurt my people and let it pass.”
“That being said,” Ronin added turning back to Rachel. “I’ll need people around who are willing to call me on my bullshit. People like you Rachel, so how about it, will you join my forces? Someone with your abilities will rise high, you’ll be able to tell me when I’m being a dumb ass. So, we can avoid any more mistakes.”
She stared up at him, not speaking, while the crowd muttered around them. Ronin couldn’t hear all their words, but he gathered that some approved of what he’d said while others were skeptical. That was ok, Ronin planned to prove his words to them. So, he waited, looking calmly into the young girl’s eyes for her to answer.
“Fine,” she said at last. The glare never leaving her face, “but there better be more food for the soldiers than for the rest of us, or I’m out.” He nodded gravely at her words, reaching up to unclip her collar. Before he hit the release however, he paused.
“I’ll take you at your word, Rachel.” He said staring into the blue eyes that were partially hidden by a ragged mop of brown hair. “Please don’t make me regret it.” With a snap, the collar was off, and he tossed it aside. “Report to the Lieutenant, soldier.” He said before moving onto the next person in line.
The rest of the sentencing passed without incident. He released thirteen people and killed seven. Their bodies were left to be picked up by the food corps. After he’d finished, he watched Benjamin laying into his new recruit. He smiled at the look on Rachel’s face, she looked ready to kill but she was following orders. He hoped she would make it, in fact, he thought he should enroll all the kids around her age into the military. He’d read once about a draft that had taken place back on earth. All the men aged at least eighteen were forced into military service. That made him frown.
“Hey, K3?” he asked, looking back at his bodyguard. “Back on my old planet, there was a custom of enrolling only the men into combat. I haven’t seen any Kaldarr soldiers who were women either, but here I’ve seen several women who make better soldiers then men… why is that?” In his own life on earth, there hadn’t been any wars. There weren’t enough people to fight them, but in all the books he’d read the men were typically the ones fighting. He hadn’t seen anything to explain the difference.
“Well, my lord.” K3 said, scratching his bristly beard under his helmet as he thought about it. “There are several races present here that likely weren’t present in your world. Species makes a difference. Look at the goblins, the men were more aggressive while under the influence of their sex drive, yet the women proved more capable of combat when it was removed. Even though they are long distance fighters. That’s a bit of an outlier though honestly because normally it’s that added aggression that makes for good fighters… hmm.”
“On Kaldarr, women aren’t included in our military because they are giving birth to new soldiers. I believe they were in the military once. But having young men and women in close proximity, led to unexpected pregnancies that disrupted campaigns. Also, from a breeding perspective, one man can father children with several women at a time, while women can only bare one child at a time. So, it makes since to send out the more disposable of the two into combat where they might die, especially when they tend to be more aggressive anyway.” The giant shrugged his shoulders, “Honestly though boss, I have no idea. That’s just a guess based on what I’ve seen.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Huh,” Ronin said thinking about his words. “You have a point; it would be crippling to our next generation if we removed all the breeding aged women from the civilian population. Especially at this point in time, when we are so limited on numbers as it is. Later down the road however, it won’t be that big a deal.” He thought about the ramifications of that as well. Would the women come to resent being held back, not understanding why it was done at some point in the far future? Or take for granted the fact that they didn’t have to fight? or worse yet, would they take for granted the fact that they didn’t have to fight while resenting it? what a double standard that would be. Eh, this speculation was pointless; he was stalling, and he knew it.
“Come on then,” he said with a sigh, “let’s go to the meeting. I want to see what Owl two has to say, then we’ve got work to do out here.” He moved back through the crowd, no one barred his way this time, they all stepped aside as he passed, mixed looks of fear and respect in their eyes. Ronin didn’t know how to feel about them. He’d been a nobody back home on earth, so the looks now caused him to feel awkward.
They moved quickly through the throng, coming out to the other side and entering the southern tunnel. They nodded at the Kaldarr on guard duty before entering the cave once again. He’d spent more time here lately than he’d intended, but that was about to change Leaving K3 outside, Ronin Entered the command tent and found he was the only one there. He supposed he must be early, so he took the time to go over the map in detail.
Looking around at the command room, Ronin smiled at all the books. There were several shelves of them in here along with a few reading chairs. This tent was unlike his own in that it was lit with several LED lights that brightened up the room, letting anyone inside view the table sized map more clearly.
He hadn’t spent much time on it before, just taking Owl two’s word for everything. Now, he looked at the figures on the map and compared them to the key hanging on the wall. The key showed each figure beside a description and a number letting him know what each represented. Deciding he’d check out the actual numbers, he picked the figure of a goblin swinging a shovel. The description beside it said, ‘worker class goblin’ and the number was fifty.
“Ok,” Ronin said looking down at the map. “So, each one of the figures of a goblin swinging a shovel equals fifty of the little guys.” He counted eleven such figures, clustered mostly around the fields. “There are five hundred and fifty of them?” Ronin was shocked, they must have emptied the mushroom forest to get that many worker class goblins. That was what they’d wanted to do, but still the number astounded him.
The next figure on the key was a goblin wearing a chef’s hat and holding a cleaver. This one represented the food corps and had a number ten beside it. Indicating that each figure represented ten members of the food corps. Looking over the map he only counted four of these figures. Only forty? That seemed really low, considering how many goblin workers there were. The last goblin type figure on the key was the goblin scout. It was represented by a female goblin in scout armor holding a crossbow. Each figure represented a single team of six members. Ronin wasn’t sure how they’d settled on six members per team, but it had stuck.
Looking over the board, he counted them up. There were sixteen crossbow wielding figures on the board. That was, he had to think, ninety-six? There were almost one hundred of them, far more than the food corps members. Thinking about it, Ronin realized that the numbers actually made sense. The crafter class goblins were actually goblins with hobgoblin blood, so there were fewer of them to begin with. Added to that there were fewer males in general and all the food corps members would have been alphas of their respective groups… yea, which added up. Still, it was a shame they had to capture an average of six and a half goblins to get one who was more useful than a laborer.
The next figure was a human soldier, it represented a squad of ten men. He counted nine of them. Unfortunately, the next figure was of a human sitting on the ground with their head between their hands. This was a human noncombatant and each figure represented fifty individuals, there were seven of those. Following the humans on the key was the figure of a wood elf holding a bow. This represented a combat capable elf and each figure represented fifty people. Ronin counted ten of them, putting their numbers at five hundred. The following figure of an elf sitting with their head between their hands was also for fifty people but there were only four of them on the board.
“It looks like the elves are the most combat capable force so far.” Ronin mused looking at the figures. It didn’t surprise him to see these numbers. From what he’d gathered, Unyielding oak had been brutal on her people when it came to their survival. She hadn’t wasted energy on those who couldn’t keep up, and where the people revolted in the town. She’d been the one to put the most force into quelling the uprising. “The elves represent a huge advantage; I just need to find a way to bring that home.” He muttered while counting the figures again.
After the goblins, the humans, and the elves, the last race that was present in any significant numbers were the bugbears. They had two figures representing combat capable units. The first one was a young muscularly built male with full plate armor and a large mace. Each of these figures represented fifty bugbears in the prime of life. The second combat capable unit showed an older bugbear man with his hand resting on the shoulder of a young boy. This one also represented fifty combat capable units, but these were either too young or too old to be proper soldiers.
Of the first, Ronin counted three figures. Of the second there were four. That put the combat capable bugbears at around three hundred fifty, though only one hundred fifty of them were competent soldiers. The final bugbear figure was of a bugbear seated on the ground, again with his head between his hands. Each of these represented one hundred and Ronin counted five of them.
“I’m really going to have to talk to Owl two about these figures.” Ronin muttered as he looked them over. Sure, they might not be combat capable, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have value. The sad pose they were in just made them look like victims. He knew in that group, however, were several talented artisans and trades people. Just waiting for a chance for their skillset to shine. He’d find them and bring them out.
The last humanoid figure on the key was of a Kaldarr. There was only one of these figures on the board and it represented all thirteen of the captured Kaldarrian warriors. K1, K2 and K3 each had their own figure to show they were a piece of higher importance. Under the Kaldarr, was the figure of an armor-plated rat. Naturally, this indicated the stone carver rats and each figure represented ten individuals. Ronin counted three figures, two of which were inside the cave. While the other was inside the mine tunnels along with a goblin scout figure and a human soldier.
“Now what are you doing in there?” he wondered, looking at the group. He hoped the rat experiments were paying off. He’d have to poke his head into the tunnels to check on them.
Having finished looking at the figures of people. Ronin looked to a second key that showed equipment. He didn’t look at each of these as carefully as he had the first ones because most of them weren’t particularly important to the survival of the settlement. Like the figure of a crate with a ‘K’ on it that represented one hundred Kaldarr stun weapons. Or the one with the figure of an oven that was an actual oven. They’d used it to jerk meat by the literal ton when they’d still been trying to meet Charles’s demands. There were still several that interested him.
The armed and armored truck he’d picked up from Andy’s reef for one. It was tucked away inside the cave; the truck was too big to fit inside the tunnel, so they must have dropped it in through the opening the pod had fallen in from. There were also the two wagons that Benjamin and Charles had ridden in on. He looked around for a minute, before he saw the two figures representing the ankylosaurs that had pulled the carts in the first place. He’d worried for a moment that they’d been eaten, but he found them penned up just outside the town of valley’s pass.
While scouring the map, he also came across the figure of the hobat Hunter had captured. It hadn’t been on the key, perhaps because there was only one of them. It was inside the cave as well. Strange, Ronin hadn’t seen him out there, he’d have to go out and look. He had actually forgotten about the hobat since they’d brought it back. Owl two hadn’t brought it up either… another thing the android hadn’t mentioned. They were adding up, and Ronin was going to have to do something about that.
“You look hard at work, for once.” Elyria’s sarcastic voice pulled Ronin from his deep study of the map he’d been conducting. It only surprised him a little to see her sitting in her chair, balanced on two legs with her feet on the table. He hadn’t even noticed her arriving, yet here she was, kicking back at her ease.
“Trying,” he said not bothering to comment on her jab. “It’s becoming clearer to me by the moment that I’ve been failing as a leader.” He continued to look from the key to the map. Trying to fix everything in his memory so that he could follow up on it later.
“That’s actually a good thing,” she said dropping her chair back down on two legs to lean closer to him. “I’ve been doing rounds of this place since I got here, and I’d be lying if I said you were doing a good job… you’re not doing the job at all though are you? you’re just letting that tin can do all the work while you run around acting like a hero.” She snorted and tipped her chair back again.
“What?” Ronin asked with his own snort. “Not going to threaten to kill me over how I handled the Safie situation?” He said the words flippantly, but he was actually curious about her opinion. She was a real bitch most of the time, but she usually had useful advice when he bothered to listen to her.
“No,” she said fiddling with her knife. Ronin winced when he looked at it, remembering how it felt to have it hilt deep in his chest. “You were trusting the machine too much; a problem I see you’re working on correcting now. But apart from that, you did the best you could in that situation. You handled the animals who molested your people correctly, in my opinion at least. And the way you handled Safie last night was…”
“Wait,” Ronin interrupted her. “You were listening to that?” his face flushed as he remembered how hard he’d had to fight to keep Vasylia from caving his head in, and Lily from breaking his nose.
“Yea,” she said with a careless shrug. “I was listening. Apart from an obvious lack of technique, I’d say you handled yourself well… anyway, the way you Handled Safie was about as good as you could. You didn’t let her continue to walk on you and you didn’t let her brother go when she threatened you. What more could you have done?”
“I could have let them leave.” He said, his face flushing brighter at her jabs.
“True, you could have. But where would a trouble making family, like that get its food if they left the valley? By settling in at the nearest town and robbing the people there blind, that’s how. Something tells me you already knew that. No White flame, you do plenty wrong as it is, to go blaming yourself for the few things you manage not to screw up too bad.”
“Ok,” Ronin said again glossing over her barbed complements. “So, what should I do now?” he asked her, watching her twirl the knife between her fingers so fast it whistled.
“Oh no,” she said with a sneer. “That’s on you to figure out buddy boy. I will tell you that I think you’re on the right track now though. You saw some problems, you solved a few and are educating yourself on the overall picture… What you choose to do next will be telling, I can’t wait to see if I get to kill you for it or not.” She said with a dazzling smile.
“Ah, good you’re already here.” Owl two’s voice entered the tent, cutting off any retort Ronin might have made to the beaming moon elf. “The others are coming shortly, so we can get this meeting underway.”