The next twenty-seven hours passed in a blur. The first few hours were a bit rocky, while Ronin adjusted himself to this type of combat. Yet before long the pair had developed a rhythm. Ronin and K3 were like a single machine of death. One would block the incoming wave, while the other would crush their attacker’s head. Then they would switch off, one attacking, the other defending. Ronin felt almost like they were dancing; his mace coming down while K3’s shield came up, his shield coming up while K3’s hammer drove home.
he was getting tired, beyond tired actually, but his body had gotten into a routine. It wasn’t hard for him to keep the tempo once they got into their rhythm. He’d intended to continue until his body failed him, but he was called out early. His team had expedited the ships conversion and were now ready to go. he had to give last minute instructions and see them off. So, with a call for Karr and K1, he and K3 rotated out of the gap and moved back into the square.
The first thing Ronin noticed upon exiting the kill box, was the stunned and almost terrified faces of Harken, Unyielding oak and Elyria. They were standing on the closest building, at a vantage that allowed them to witness the people fighting at the breach. He didn’t know if it was the amount of time they’d spent fighting or the gore that covered him from top to bottom, but he considered it a good thing that they were nervus. Having his people understand just how strong he and his team were might give them pause, should they consider anything nefarious.
Instead of commenting or calling out, he just gave them a little wave as he walked past. Ronin noted idly that Harken’s fur was actually white, without all the blood that had been caked into it. His feet were sloshing around inside his fitted boots as he walked. So, he really hoped this would be quick. He wanted to clean up and grab a few hours’ sleep before he went back to the gate.
“Ready to go, Sam?” he asked his pilot when he’d reached the ramp. He didn’t board, not wanting to get his filth all over everything, but he did look around from here. the inside of the ship looked about the same, but on top of the ship was a different matter.
“Yes sir,” Sam said gesturing upwards. “It didn’t take us as long as we feared to build the platform. It turned out the clan had an entire building filled with readymade timber. Not sure what the used it for though, since everything here is made from stone or steel.” She said with a shrug, leading Ronin and K3 on a quick trip around the ship.
They couldn’t cram more than fifty or sixty people into the troop compartment without overcrowding. However, the ship was essentially a giant box with wings bolted on. So, they’d fashioned a platform of wood, with a railing around it and added it to the top of the ship’s hull. Sam would have to keep her speed and altitude down, and it would be hell on their energy reserves, but it would allow them to ferry close to two hundred people at a time.
“How did you decide who was going to be in the first group?” Ronin asked, looking at the people sitting in the troop compartment and on top of the ship. it looked like the majority of them were young children and their mothers. There was a distinct lack of elderly in the city, but there were a number of healthy-looking men on board as well. That made him curious. The women and children he could understand, but why these men who could be used on the wall?
“We interviewed them,” Sam said. “At first, we tried to be nice about it, but there were too many conflicting stories… like who’s kid someone was, or if someone had any useful skills or not. So, Owl five ordered us to collar them before their interviews and just order them not to lie.” Sam shrugged, “Seemed a bit cruel at first, but it sure sped things up. the kids where an auto include, of course. The women are the young one’s mothers. They had to agree to put their kids in our training school before they were given a seat on the first ship. as for the men,” here she paused and shrugged again. “They are the biggest trouble makers. We collared them and ordered them not to cause any trouble on the way back, but we figured we’d better get them out of here. To prevent any trouble for you at a bad time.”
Ronin nodded, made sense to him. besides, he really didn’t care who went out first. he’d be staying until the very end with his team, so it didn’t matter. They’d all arrive before he would. He finished the round of the ship, then spent a little time talking to the six members of Karr’s squad and the three members of the scout squad who had been tasked with going back with this group.
“I appreciate you taking this assignment,” Ronin said. he glossed over the fact that they hadn’t been asked, thinking it was nicer to just say thank you. “We needed a few trustworthy people on board, people who could handle themselves in case of trouble. Can’t have them stealing our ship now, can we?” he asked in a joking tone. He turned to one of the scouts next for a more pointed conversation.
“Song,” he said nodding at one of his longest serving scouts. “You ok to do this?” he asked her seriously.
“Of course, my lord.” She said with a salute, “I will not fail you.” he’d selected her as his emissary at the wall. Sam would drop her, and K2 for protection, off at the human kingdom’s wall on their way back through. She was the most well-spoken goblin in his scout team. It also didn’t hurt that she had a lovely voice. Leaving K2 there was a bit of a gamble, knowing how much the elves didn’t like the Kaldarr. Yet, he couldn’t leave any of Karr’s men there. They’d been former soldiers at the wall, and he didn’t want to risk them being recognized.
“I have no doubt of that,” he said with a smile. Before adding on a little last-minute advice. “Don’t risk yourself up there. Just let them know what’s happening out here, and that we will be delayed in our return by a week or more. Gather what information you can, but don’t risk your safety for it.” she nodded gravely at his words, even though she’d likely been told all this already.
Giving K2 an encouraging pat on the arm, he couldn’t comfortably reach his shoulder, Ronin talked with him for a moment as well. Before nodding to Sam and backing away. The quicker they left, the quicker they would return. He hoped Song’s mission went well, he even wondered if some of the elves might fly over to lend a hand. He doubted it for some reason, but one never knew.
“Got any food ready for us, Guts?” Ronin asked, after the ship had left. they needed to get something to eat, then get cleaned up and sleep. Before they could go back to the breach again. accepting a plate of food, he sat down with his bodyguard and began to scarf it down.
“Where’s Owl five?” he asked as he ate. Wondering at her not being around for the ship’s departure.
“She’s up on the wall with the scouts,” Guts said. “She conscripted a few of the locals to reload their spare crossbows between shots, now that the ammunition for the rifles is gone.” Dang, Ronin had expected the ammunition to run out quickly, having only had time to make ten thousand rounds or so. Still, he expected it to last more than one day.
“How are the bolts working out?” he asked, trying not to focus on the negative.
“Great actually,” Guts replied. “Owl two made them out of the same rat metal that he made your guys armor out of. the cross beam is super short but the speed of the bolt it can fire is comparable to a bullet. The girls can’t even crank the string back without a ‘gear reduction’ or whatever it’s called… anyway, since we had to unload some of the gear, Owl five has four crossbows per scout up there. Three people are taking turns winding them up while the scout fires. It’s still slower than the guns, but we’ve got a lot more bolts.”
“Got ya,” Ronin said. he still didn’t understand why she hadn’t come down, unless it had something to do with Sam still. He did have to marvel at those crossbows though. Guts was right, they were amazingly built. Small enough for the four-foot-tall goblins to use easily, they packed quite the punch. The weapon was impossible to cock by hand, due to the strength of the crossbeam. Owl two had needed to make special cranks for each weapon to make loading possible. It functioned something like a mountain bike with gears that reduced the amount of strength needed to cock the weapon. Of course, the tradeoff was that it required far more cranks and a lot more time to load.
The bolts were also something they had in excess. Where the bullets had to be manufactured to tight tolerance, using hard to manufacture materials, the bolts were just printed from a solid chunk of steel. Owl two had been repurposing the wrecked Kaldarr ships to crank them out by the dozen. They’d brought crates of the things with them for this trip.
“Does she want to get more people up there shooting?” Ronin asked knowing the elves were likely great shots. “We could pass out more of the spares and ramp up the kill numbers.”
“No boss,” Guts said after a pause. “She said they’re fine, besides, we don’t wanna blow through all our bolts on the second day.” Ronin still had the feeling that something else was going on with her, but again he let it slide. He was too tired to worry about that now anyway.
“Alright, Guts. I’ll take your word for it.” he said with a shrug, “Now, where can we get cleaned up? I need a bath and a nap, so we can get back into the action.” Guts led them to one of the stone houses, and showed them inside, where a pair of bathtubs had been filled with steaming water. Then showed them where they could sleep, before taking his leave again. they’d pulled a few of the dead locusts inside the walls and he wanted to get back to his experiments with them.
“Think he’ll come up with anything from those bodies?” Ronin asked K3 as they settled into the tubs to soak.
“The carapace is sturdy. It could make good armor, for less vital troops… the talons could also make adequate swords. Perhaps he wants to outfit the goblin troops with them?” K3 speculated, washing gore from the short grey bristles that covered his head.
“I could see that,” Ronin said. examining the Kaldarrian from the side. “Just as long as he isn’t trying to cook them, I’ll be fine with whatever he comes up with.” Owl two had done a number on K3 when he implanted him with Owl three’s organs and muscle tissue. Not to mention his eyes and… various other parts. Yet, his grey skin was free from any scarring. The eyes fit cleanly into his head, and he didn’t show any signs of trauma at all. Ronin was relieved to see it, even after so many days outside the pod. He’d worried Owl two had gone too far with his enhancements. Especially considering how rudimentary their equipment was right now.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I’m ok sir,” K3 said suddenly, startling Ronin out of his thoughts.
“I know you are.” Ronin said quickly, to cover his embarrassment at having been caught staring.
“No, really sir.” K3 persisted, looking over at Ronin at last. “Owl two did me a favor, with the upgrades. It’s my job to keep you safe. now that I’m stronger, faster, can see things that were too far away before plus can see in the dark… I’m much more capable to do my job. Besides, I need to be able to keep up with you, what kind of guard can’t keep up with his charge. Am I right?” he asked with a chuckle. “It’s actually a shame they were ready to leave so quickly,” he added working a rag between his massive toes. “I was looking forward to seeing which one of us could last longer at the breach.” He added with a sly wink Ronin’s way.
“Oh, now you’ve done it.” Ronin said, deciding to let go of his worries for his friend. “Once we get some sleep and some breakfast, we’re going back to that gate. Once we get there we aren’t leaving until one of us passes out from exhaustion.” He slapped the now pink bathwater to emphasize his point.
“Deal,” K3 said with a deep throated chuckle of his own.
Once their bodies and their equipment had been tended to, the pair lay down in an attached room. two members of the squad were there to stand guard for them while they slept. They received little more than an acknowledging nod, before the pair were fast asleep.
When Ronin woke the next day, he felt refreshed. Not as alert as if he’d spent the night in his pod perhaps. Still, the exercise followed by the food and sleep had done him worlds of good, in clearing his mind from the anger that had tormented him since he arrived in this world. it had been clinging to him for so long, that he hadn’t even noticed it until it was overwhelming him.
“You look better,” K3 said upon seeing Ronin. “It looks like combat agrees with you.”
“Thanks,” Ronin smirked. “Not that what we were doing was really combat. It felt a lot more like a chore than a fight.” He had learned a lot, but the locusts were just so single minded in their desire for food. Not much thought was needed to crush them, when they didn’t fight back effectively.
“That is how you should fight.” K3 said shaking his head in disagreement. “Set the field in your favor and choose the moment to attack. Sure, it would be more thrilling to face that horde in the open. But they would have overrun us in the first hour that way. doing it like this, however, maximizes our damage while minimizing the risks.”
Ronin looked at his normally quiet friend. He’d spoken more in the last little bit than in the weeks prior combined. Maybe it was that he had finally gotten a chance to let loose in a fight. also, it could have been that he was the only one around so he didn’t feel the need to step back for others to talk. Ronin didn’t know, but he didn’t mind either way.
“You know something,” he said in wonder. “That sentence, taught me more about fighting effectively than all the training Owl two and Benjamin put me through.” He said with a chuckle.
“Actually, sir.” K3 said, scratching the thick bristles on his head. “It is because of their training that allowed you to see the value in my words.” Thinking about that, Ronin had to nod.
They ate breakfast before moving back to the breach in the wall. Ronin was once again disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to talk with Owl five, but he shook it off. she would come around. he also shook off Harken and Unyielding oak’s attempts to talk to him. He still wasn’t too happy with them but did tell them that they would have a meeting after he finished with his next round at the gate. They weren’t happy, but let it be. So, only a short time after waking up, Ronin and K3 once again found themselves knee deep in gore.
* * *
Swing, crunch, pull out the corpse, block for K3, swing, crunch. It was the new rhythm Ronin had gotten into over the last thirty-four hours. Guts had contacted him shortly after they’d started their one-sided massacre. He’d asked that Ronin and K3 start pulling in the locust corpses, since he’d found a use for them. Ronin didn’t ask what that use was, only communicating to K3 that they needed to somehow gather them up.
Surprisingly, once they started pulling in the odd body, the locust swarm got even more riled up and aggressive. Communicating with each other using their telepathic link, Ronin and K3 determined they were angry at being denied the biological material from their fallen companions. Taking that as a good sign, the pair worked out a method to pull in one out of every two corpses. During the last day and a half, Ronin had no idea how many bodies they’d pulled in, but it had to be a lot.
During the next surge, K3 slipped in his grab for a corpse. Ronin covered him with his shield, but they missed the grab. The locust drones pulling their fallen brethren back from the gap. Two waves later, Ronin slipped up. taking a talon to the helmet that scored a deep scratch into the metal surface. they were getting tired, and Ronin figured it wouldn’t be long until they had to pull back. He was just debating how long they should continue when he heard the rattle of machine gun fire.
Realizing the ships must have returned, he motioned for K2 and a bugbear warrior who’d been standing by for their turn. They traded partners while the locusts were distracted by the ships and hopped out of the kill box.
“Patriarch,” Harken said from his position on the nearby roof with Unyielding oak. “It sounds like your people have returned. Does that mean…”
“Sorry Harken,” Ronin said cutting the man off. “I need to get cleaned up and meet the ship. but I’ll ask Guts to whip us up something to eat and we can talk over a meal. Is that acceptable?” It wasn’t that he didn’t like the two leaders, he just didn’t want to deal with them just now.
“… of course, patriarch. We will be waiting by the ships for you.” Harken said, a frown on his scarred face. Unyielding oak looked ready to attack him, but she always looked that way, so Ronin didn’t really care.
“You really should talk to them,” Elyria said jumping down from the building’s roof and falling into line with Ronin and K3 as they headed towards the house they’d bathed in the other day. “They are good leaders, and their people look up to them. they are also scared.”
“Scared?” Ronin asked, as shocked at her talking to him as he was at her words. “What are they scared of? We’re getting them out of this mess, and they haven’t lost a single soldier since we got here.” he couldn’t understand what they had to worry about.
“That.” Elyria said, pointing to a mound of corpses. Ronin stopped walking as he stared at it. there must be… “There are close to four thousand locusts in that pile… four thousand. The two of you killed them all in just over a day. They were watching you fight; they know you only pulled in every second Locust killed. They’re scared of you, White flame.”
Ronin looked into her eyes as she spoke. He was surprised to see the hatred that had been burning in them wasn’t as strong. It was still there, but it had been mostly replaced. Replaced by wariness and, maybe a little respect? He wasn’t sure.
“I don’t see the problem.” He said, continuing his walk towards the house. “I’m just trying to save these people.” Nodding to the pair of guards at his door, he strode inside with K3 and Elyria in tow. Reaching the tub, he began removing his armor.
“The problem, White flame is that you look like a bigger monster than the locusts. They want reassurance that you’re not taking them away to live a worse life than they have here. if they don’t get it there could be trouble.”
“I already said I’d talk to them after I talk too Sam and Eric.” He said, finishing on his armor and starting to remove his blood-stained clothes. he did go ahead and put in a call to Guts though, to get a table and food ready for a meal. “I’m grateful that you came to me with this, but…” he was cut off by a shrill scream.
“What are you doing?” Elyria cried, staring at him in horror.
“What?” Ronin asked, looking down at himself in confusion. “I’m taking a bath.”
“How dare you,” she said emphasizing her words with a slap to his face. before she turned her head away, face going red. “I should kill you for this.” she snarled, but she was already leaving the room. Ronin felt his cheek, and looked after her, stunned.
“What just happened?” he asked a chuckling K3, who had stripped from his armor but was still fully clothed.
“Sometimes, my lord.” The giant said between chuckles, “I think you must have some goblin in your ancestry.” He said, finally getting undressed. “Most races who consider themselves civilized. Humans, elves, bugbears, even Kaldarr, don’t expose their naked bodies to the opposite sex unless they are in a relationship with them. heck, most don’t show their naked bodies to members of the same sex either. Except while bathing perhaps in a public setting… she likely thinks you were making some kind of, sexual advance on her.”
“Lovely,” Ronin groaned as he climbed into the tub. “That’s just what I need.” he muttered; Brie’s scarlet hair framed face coming to his mind for some reason. She still hadn’t talked to him, and he had a feeling this incident was going to make her grumpy.
“Sam, Eric.” Ronin called a short time later, after he had cleaned up and moved back out to the ships. “How was the flight?” he looked at the drop ships while he talked. They had been heavily modified since he last saw them. now giant platforms covered the tops of each. They could likely hold several hundred people on each ship now. It wouldn’t get them all, but one more trip should see them all safe.
“Greetings, lord White flame.” Sam said with a smile. Eric mirrored her words, with a sideways glance at his fellow former slave. “We dropped off the first batch, and somehow, Owl two already had platforms ready to add to the ships by the time we arrived.” She said with a shake of her head. “That man is shockingly well prepared. I wonder what his face looks like?” she added under her breath.
“Glad to hear it.” Ronin said, glossing over the talk of Owl two’s face. he didn’t actually have one, being entirely mechanical in nature. The armor he wore was his actual body. Still, Ronin wasn’t surprised she was curious. She worked closely with Owl two on the breeding program. “Get with Karr on loading the next batch, I believe he should be free…” He talked with them a little longer, before excusing himself for his meal with Harken and Unyielding oak.
When ronin entered the square around the gate, he was directed to another nearby house by one of the soldiers. he stopped to inhale a breath of food flavored air as he entered, K3 doing the same behind him. moving further into the stone house, he saw Harken and Unyielding oak seated at a table with Elyria. She wasn’t looking at him, and her moon silver face still held a tint of pink.
Guts was behind the table with another member of the food corps. They were working over two huge cauldrons, which bubbled with boiling water. One looked like plain water, while the other contained a mix of herbs and spices. Likely what was flavoring the air.
“Hello, Harken, Unyielding oak.” Ronin said as they rose to their feet at his entrance, “Please, sit down.” he said, motioning to them to be seated. “Elyria,” he said to the elf who hadn’t stood up. “I apologize for my lapse in judgment, K3 has informed me that the way I was raised… differs slightly from how most people were.” He had to fight to prevent grinding his teeth together at the words. He’d lived his whole life until now on a planet that desperately wanted to be rid of humanity. Where things like nudity weren’t considered beyond whether a person was cold or not. “I beg your pardon in the matter, rest assured it won’t happen again.”
He honestly wasn’t interested in apologizing to her. Yet, he really didn’t need the misunderstanding straining things with Owl five any further. Besides, he was stuck with this elf. Unless he decided he didn’t need the help of the moon elves that was, and for the time being at least, he did need them.
She didn’t respond to his words, but her expression did look at least a little mollified. Harken and Unyielding oak stared on in confusion, obviously not having heard about the incident. Guts on the other hand, held in a snicker. Ronin doubted the goblin knew what was going on either, but he always laughed whenever Ronin screwed up. it was part of his charm… and Ronin wanted to strangle him for it sometimes.
“Now,” he said taking his seat at the table while K3 took up position at the door. “I also owe the two of you an apology.” He didn’t want to do this either, but again, ‘needs must when the devil drives.’ A saying that Markus used quite often, when he had to do something unpleasant. “I had intended on speaking with you earlier about where we will be going…” he then spent a few minutes telling them about the valley, and the underground city that they would be going too.
His story cut off abruptly, when Guts pulled a bright red arm out of the caldron, and placed it on the table.