“Really?! This is the zjikhole we’re supposed to be saving?!” Kada’s draw dropped as the carriage drove past them on the literal silver-lined street. However, the carriage wasn’t of the usual fare. For starters, its elegance and craftsmanship superseded any other in the world, likely costing more than the fanciest cars.
But that was barely worth noting, because not a single point of the carriage touched the ground. Instead, its entire weight was carried by a legion of Crabsters. The monsters had been woven together in a custom-made harness to serve as a full platform. And horses weren’t pulling the carriage. No, it was two Gazebras, a flashy combination of gazelles and zebras.
The rich creature who was driving the carriage, since she could hardly be called human, was going about their day without a care in the world—as if she was entirely unaware that death was at their door. The only stress she showed was slightly upturning her nose at the Fiends, offended by the sight of those she deemed beneath her.
A gaggle of servants trotted behind her, all dressed in lavish tuxedos. Most were carrying the woman’s belongings. Another had a pair of steps for the woman to use to dismount the carriage. A few of them were picking up the droppings on the street that the Gazebras had left behind.
As soon as the servants passed, a whole nother group swarmed the street. They were in optical camouflage gear that somewhat adapted to the environment around them. If a person wasn’t expecting to see them, it was possible they could be wholly ignored, but with a bit of focus, the outline of their suits was clear. The semi-invisible workers immediately began repairing the street from the miniscule wear and tear of the passing party.
“I’ve heard they’re called The Unsightly,” Xard chimed in. “A few of the residents retain their services to go around and fix or correct anything that they might deem as inadequate or to their distaste.”
Just then, an Unsightly manifested before them, deactivating their camouflage to make their presence more known. They then held a dress out in front of Kada. “Excuse me miss. Your apparel does not meet the standards of our master. Please wear this dress for the duration of your stay in Last Bastion.”
“Guh, you’re trying to dictate how I dress?!” The offended party was ready to rage.
“We will pay you 100,000 commons,” the Unsightly didn’t miss a beat.
After that sudden exchange, the Fiends continued their walk with Kada sporting a new dress that even matched her eyes. It was still the same day that Harth and The Warden had come to visit, just late in the afternoon. Moments after their departure, the Drazah Duet had sprung into action.
First, they explained the situation to the generals. The meeting had to be held mostly over the phone since several of them weren’t present at the compound. And all of them agreed to participate, barring Nathym and Ahvra. Their lives were deemed too important to take them to an active warzone.
And unfortunately, Nathym didn’t have the resources nor the time to create a barrier large enough to encapsulate all of Last Bastion, or it would have quickly become a much more trivial matter. However, he got to work making portable blockades and repulsor fields that they could use to make a defensible perimeter outside of Bastion’s walls. He and Mallea also quickly whipped up protective underlining that they’d force any participating members to wear, since it could very well save their lives.
The generals agreed to rendezvous back at the compound and then immediately set out towards Last Bastion. While waiting for the others to arrive, Drim sent out a message to all active members of the Fiends For Hire, informing them of the situation, and requesting their assistance.
Only members of Rank 6 or higher would actively be allowed to participate in the fighting, since to achieve it required a proficiency in combat. However, all were welcome to provide aid to Last Bastion and help in preparing their defenses. While the confirmations didn’t come in all at once, Drim had to admit that it moved him deeply when every single member volunteered to fight that had the ability to do so.
They didn’t have to wait much longer for all the generals to return. Kada had just been at her resort and Tize and Feyj had been near safehouses. Xard took the longest, having to fly quite a ways to reach the nearest portal on the Valen Express. Once they’d reconvined, all of them crammed into The Tourist, except for Xard who chose to fly alongside it.
Valen then sent their transport to Zjiksa, which was the closest safehouse to Last Bastion, and then they flew the rest of the way. In all, even with their delayed departure, they arrived at the scumheap of a city only about an hour after Harth Boldur who had taken a direct flight from Bisomote to Zjiksa and then took a helicopter to his destination.
When they arrived, Tize and freshly-reborn Rusa went to check on the negotiations. She had opted for a new body so that she could be younger and more mentally acute in order to assist with their filings as much as possible. The Fiends also needed to know if Bastion actually would agree to join the CP, because that would completely change their course of actions.
So in the meantime, the four Greaters scouted out the city to get a lay of the land. While it was a fairly defensible location given the terrain, their desire to protect the zjikbags around them deteriorated by the second. But even if they were sticking their necks out for scum, they were still professionals, and would see it through regardless of the circumstances.
Tize eventually met back up with them at the city’s square, which was more like a lavish botanical garden with dozens of water features and one magma feature, because of course they had one. “Well that was an interesting experience,” the man looked both exhausted and befuddled as he squeezed the bridge of his nose. “But the negotiations were successful and the induction process has begun.”
“Though, the newly appointed Bastion Representative wasn’t too happy about it when he saw the mountain of paperwork and started crying. He whimpered stuff like ‘how dare they expect me to do actual work!’ Apparently, he only agreed to become the Rep because he didn’t want the invaders trampling over this garden, and now we’ll be destroying it anyways. The three Vice-Reps are three of his servants because they couldn’t find anyone else to make the sacrifice.”
“Well, at least that means we can get to work,” Phon got a bit more serious. “Though it’s kind of a shame. I was looking forward to teleporting them all away kicking and screaming.”
In the event that negotiations had broken down, they were planning to forcibly evacuate the city against the citizens will. One way or another, they were going to save their wretched lives. But now that Last Bastion needed to remain standing, it would only hamper their defensive preparations to spend that time moving the entire population. So instead, they’d force them to hunker down.
“Alright, let’s go over the gist one more time.” Drim had already explained their plan in detail, but it was important to keep it fresh in their minds since the generals would have to relay it all to the others. “Kada and Xard, you’re in charge of reforming the land. Make it as defensible as possible. We can change it back later when they inevitably complain, though we’ll probably charge them for the service based on how annoying they are about it.”
“Tize and Phon, you’re in charge of making sure everyone is secure in their quarters, even if that means restraining them and locking them inside. Whatever it takes to ensure their cooperation. I’ll be here getting ready. When the others arrive, divide them into either the plant group or setting up the defenses. Use your best judgment to decide where they’d be the most useful.”
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“Alright then,” Tize whipped out his gun. “Let’s get this started.” He turned off the pistol's usual sound dampeners, pointed it in the air, and fired. That was just to get everyone’s attention, not actually cause any panic or commotion, though a few servants nearby were clearly startled. He then pulled out the sound amplification device that Nathym had developed.
“Attention, everyone. Last Bastion is now under protection of the Fiends For Hire, and we’re enacting martial law. The full-scale invasion will begin in approximately 16 hours. You have tonight to make your preparations. Gather enough food and water for several days and then secure yourselves in your homes.”
“Tomorrow morning, we will be going by each and every property and making sure they are all locked and barricaded. At that point, you will not be let outside for any reason except for the most dire medical emergencies. If you need our assistance with preparations, we will help you, but we won’t serve you. We are here to keep you alive. Your comfort takes no priority.”
Tize then repeated the message four more times, not allowing woeful ignorance as a potential excuse. Seconds later, a woman accosted him, screaming at the top of her lungs. “Shut the mawhg up! Who are you to tell me what I can do at my own home?! We don’t want you here, so—”
She didn’t get the opportunity to finish her thought. Tize flicked his gun and shot her right between the eyes. She limped to the ground unceremoniously from the paralyzing shot. The man then pointed the gun over at the woman’s servants. “Be useful and take her home, or you’ll be shot too.” The group scooped her up and scuttled away.
From that point on, there was only compliance. It seemed word had spread about the seriousness of everything that was happening. However, there were a few people who approached Tize about the possibility of escaping rather than sheltering in-place.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” he told each of them. “You were warned and given a chance to flee before, but now it’s impossible. We’ve received word that the infantry from several nations are passing through Kazji as we speak. So no matter where you fled, they’d intercept you or hunt you down. You can’t take a helicopter or boat either, they’ve already set up perimeters with their vessels.”
As proof of his words, artillery fire and gunshots could be heard in the distance. They weren’t aiming at Bastion, but rather at the unidentified aircraft that was trying to cross the Bastion border. But The Salvation slipped by unharmed, its personal barrier back up and running, and stronger than ever before.
All the remaining Fiends For Hire disembarked from the ship after it landed just outside the city and got to work. Half of them stayed outside the walls and began setting up barricades and other defenses. The other half unloaded the ship's cargo: mountains of plants, as much as could be stored on the ship.
The Fiends formed a relay chain to move all the plants towards the city's square as quickly as possible where they placed them next to Drim. He sat in the center of the botanical garden which had already been reduced to a withered husk. The man was meditating as he had once done on Ledmer, absorbing every speck of nature energy around him.
For Drim, the next day and a half passed rather slowly. He didn’t move, didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, didn’t say a word. But for everyone else, it was an unrelenting, chaotic frenzy. That first night, none of the Fiends stopped working for even a second. And even though they’d gotten everything they could think of done by the second, few of them could sleep.
The war became real for them once the opposing armies could be seen on the horizon. Bastion had just enough farmland to push their border almost out of sight, and that farmland would quickly devolve into a stained battlefield within minutes when the fighting started.
Since only the front layer of infantry could be seen from even Bastion’s tallest building, Xard flew out to scout and took a few pictures. He only bothered with the ground troops since the enemy ships were stuck out in international waters until the start, and the helicopters and skycrafts would be mostly grounded until the fighting began.
The grim reality bore itself even further when the Fiends saw the sea of soldiers that even the widest lens couldn’t fully capture, along with all the artillery they’d brought along with them. Though there was a bit of clear separation amongst each of the countries, setting up camp with very slight gaps in between.
It was almost an interesting game to try and decipher every flag that was flying above them, to figure out exactly who they were fighting against. And it gave Phon an idea. She called over Rezin and gave him a special task. The boy used his Curse to make a giant flag fly over Bastion with the Fiends For Hire logo plastered for all to see. It took his help with any other preparations, but he made sure every single soldier could see what they were fighting against.
At [300] on the morning of the battle, the Fiends For Hire gathered up for a quick breakfast, anything that they could stomach, though most of them found it difficult to eat in the bleak atmosphere.
At [320] Tize went over the plan again, reminding each member of their assignment and posting. While the battle would surely go off the rails at some point, and they’d have to adjust on the fly, the group had a good idea of where each member would be most useful at the start. Once their briefing was completed, everyone did a last sweep of the city: checking on the inhabitants and making sure none of them had defied their sheltering orders, along with shoring up any last minute defenses.
[380] was the deadline for all of them to be outside of the city. Once the fighting started, no one would be allowed in or out of Bastion, friend and foe alike.
The one exception to the deadline was Phon, who approached Drim at [390]. “It’s time, Drim.”
Her brother didn’t respond, still concentrating, so she spoke for the both of them. “Everyone’s prepared, and everyone understands our expectations. Their lives are the most important thing. We’ll make it through this with no casualties, even if that means destroying everything around us to save our own.”
“I wish you were going to be out there with us. Cosmos knows we could use your strength, and how much better I’d feel with you by my side. But I understand that you need to be here, and that you’re the only one who can keep these people safe. So I’ll see you on the other side of the war, brother.”
“Once Victori’s speech is done, that’ll be the sign.” She then teleported outside of the city herself, since even she wouldn’t be able to get back inside once it started.
Victori’s voice then rang in the heads of all who opposed them. “To those who are about to unjustly invade the country of Last Bastion, this is your final warning and your last chance to reconsider. Most of you are surely here at the behest of your nations and think you have no choice in the matter, but there is always a choice.”
“What did they tell you? What lie did they sell? What order did they give for you to be willing to massacre an entire country? Did they tell you of the horrible people who are here just living their lives? Did they promise you wealth or a better future for participating? Did they threaten you or someone you cared about if you didn’t do what they said?”
“This genocide is nothing but the schemes of politicians too cowardly to do the dirty work themselves. And they will be the only ones to prosper from this affront to humanity. Even if you were to succeed, the entire world will know of your atrocities, we have ensured it. You will not be able to live a single day without the guilt of what you’re about to do haunting you from the glares of the public you pretend to protect.”
“But that’s only assuming that you make it back home. Neither you nor those who sent you know what you’re up against. You have been sent to slaughter. If you cross the border, you have made your choice, and you are wilfully forfeiting your lives.”
“It’s not too late. You can end this before it begins. They may call you a deserter or charge you for treason, but wouldn’t that be better than throwing your life away for nothing? And if enough of you rally, what can they do to you? Your armies have all the power. Maybe you should confront those who sent you here on a whim.”
“Think hard. Are you a mindless drone, willing to die because someone told you to? Or are you able to discern right from wrong for yourself. Perhaps you all are just so delusional to think you can win. If that’s the case, cross the border, and see just how wrong you are. The Fiends have been hired, and they will not fail.”
Silence then echoed around Drim. There was no movement, not even the faintest chirp of life. The only thing he could hear was his own breathing. One last deep breath before he opened his eyes.
Fire consumed him. Not just his eyes, but his entire body, channeling more energy than he ever had in his entire life. The fire spread around him, turning into glowing lines on the ground—roots that entrenched in spread all throughout the city. They connected to dots on the outside perimeter and closed the gaps. Soon, a giant glowing ring completely encircled the entire city.
A single word slipped from the man’s lips. “Cocoon!”