Chapter 81: Bravo Six, Going Dark
‘This is a terrible idea,’ Tom thought to himself as he was walking towards the keep. Jarix had gotten in as close as he and Zarko dared to set Tom down, but he still had over two kilometers to walk. To make things even better the terrain was rocky and hilly. That was, of course, what had allowed Jarix to get so close, so it was a double-edged sword. This wouldn’t be possible to do at Bizmati Keep where it was just smooth grass as far as the eye could see in every direction.
Zarko and Jackalope needed the rest, so the fact that he would need at least an hour to get into position did give them time for a quick power nap. He was now carrying Unkai’s grenade too since the healer would hardly need it. He would need to do some scouting first as well, to try and figure out what they were up against.
He wished he had some of that trail snack right about now, not to mention dinner. The kids had been given all the rations they had and were staying with Unkai and Kalestine at the clearing for now. Poor bastards more than deserved it after all.
Kalestine had eventually woken up again; it took nearly an hour though, and she was damn near hysterical when she did. Apparently in all her years she hadn’t fainted before and thought she had died or something. When pressed, she made it very clear she couldn’t help the last girl. By the time she would have regained enough of her strength to try again, it would be far too late. Apparently, even magic resurrection was time-sensitive. Tom wasn’t sure if it was because she was scared to try again rather than actually not being able to do it.
‘Why couldn’t it just be a matter of blood in a bottle and Bob’s your uncle,’ Tom cursed as he trekked. Still, he needed to remember what he himself told Jarix. ‘We didn’t lose a kid, we saved five. And now it’s time to save some more.’
He had come across a small muddy puddle and decided to do some redecorating. He couldn’t have a torch light reflecting off his shiny steel armor plates after all. Shiva would likely be furious, but they were hardly on the best of terms right now and he didn’t give a damn.
Moving on from the muddy puddle, he reckoned he should be getting close around now. Zarko had given him some landmarks to work off of, and combined with his compass, unreliable as it was around here, he was fairly sure he was on the right track. The sound of a distant shrieking roar would seem to confirm this. He scrambled up the next hill, laying flat on the top peering out into the clear moon-lit night. He was confronted with the silhouette of Deriva Keep, and it was far from abandoned.
There were torches lit all around the base of the keep, which illuminated some rather massive shapes. He brought out the binoculars since he was still over half a kilometer away. The torches were doing a shitty job, but Tom could just about make out the general shape. The hulking creature looked more like a giant mutated bat. The thing had arms like a gorilla and almost looked like a bulldog in the way it walked on its clearly winged forearms. It paced around slowly, looking towards the keep at a safe distance. There were a few darklings to be seen, not that many though. But the lower door to the keep was smashed in, in a far too familiar fashion.
The keep sat atop a rocky outcropping overlooking a gorge. Tom couldn’t see how deep it was from here, but it looked rather wide. As he scanned around trying to see what was happening down there, he spotted at least one more of the weird mutant bat things. A way’s away from the keep a few more torches could be seen standing around, seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.
On closer inspection, he saw, much to his displeasure, what looked like a pack of vargulfs all sleeping. They looked like they were chained up too. Judging by the distance to the keep he guessed they were scared of arrow fire from the slits. ‘Someone is still fighting then.’
Tom lowered the old NVG’s that were likely about to save his life, mumbling to himself, “Payback time.” As if that would somehow make this a less stupid idea. He still had a while before Jarix would kick off the show. With his cloak made to look like dark-grey rocks, he made his way closer. It took a bit before he started picking up targets with his goggles. A few sentries seemingly posted around a perimeter. They were moving back and forth, silhouetting nicely against the torches at the base of the keep.
He decided to observe some more from a distance. It would most likely be game over if he got caught before Jarix came in. He was under no illusions as to his ability to outrun these bastards, and if Jackalope was right about the vargulfs, he wouldn’t be hiding for long either. He could hear the sound of fighting from inside. Mostly shouting at this range.
‘Hang on in there, just a little longer. We got you,’ Tom tried to convince himself. This needed to work. Otherwise, all that would happen was a repeat of Hylsdal. Likely only worse though. There was no way they had anything underground, built on solid rock like this. Not to mention, stopping them here or at least fucking them up enough would hopefully save home entirely. That was worth the risk. He would not allow another situation like last time if he could possibly avoid it.
The thing about darklings being slaved to orders seemed to be accurate, as the guards kept walking their patrol route without deviation going back and forth back and forth not saying a thing. His watch said he had been observing for half an hour when a group of six darklings exited the keep, shields raised above their heads to cover them. Some of them looked bloodied and bruised, one was limping quite badly even.
As if by clockwork, five darklings got up from where they had been sleeping in armor and everything. Apparently going to replace the tired and wounded.
‘The bastards are fighting in shifts... So much for tiring them out then. That sleeping area does make a nice target though.’
As he glanced around trying to come up with a plan of attack, a third of the massive bat things emerged from the far side of the keep. Giving a total of three. All stalking around at a safe distance.
‘Okay three big ones, the main evil guy is likely inside, 4 sentries, a lot sleeping, unknown within the keep. That’s bad.’
‘Guard dog things sleeping and only a few sentries that’s good.’ In fact, looking closer, the sentries seem to be looking towards the keep rather than outwards. ‘Fuckers think they are gonna be left alone?’ Tom questioned. That seemed rather ridiculous to him. He sure as fuck wasn’t complaining though.
He had his targets. When Jarix came in, the sleeping spot was going to be served with a grenade. Hopefully, Jarix would draw off the big things or at least some of them. Then, it was the sentries and vargulfs. Hopefully he could get that done before whoever was in charge made it out of the keep. He was betting on them not figuring out he was down here, at least not immediately. If there was a dark knight he certainly couldn’t be allowed to see the muzzle flash. Hopefully, they would believe the grenade was Jarix or something.
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“You lot are hard to get a hold of, you know that right?” Maiko was clearly making having to sit in a tavern waiting for them to get back seem worse than it was. He looked rather comfortable with his legs up on the table.
“I’m sorry, but we had some business to attend to,” Dakota replied dismissively. “What do you need us for?”
“Hashaw wants a meeting in private. The court has agreed to fast track the case to get her back in the field as soon as possible.”
“Is that good or bad?” That's a good thing right Balethon questioned.
“Gives the Flaxens less time to figure out smart things to do. Hashaw certainly seemed pleased. I don’t really know anything about legal things though.” Sapphire could see that being the truth. Not that she knew much about it either of course. “She was hoping you would join her after dinner.”
“Certainly… where exactly?” Dakota had to ask. That was a good question: Where would Hashaw even live? Sapphire almost expected her to live at some form of barracks, perhaps she didn't ever leave Baron's quarters.
“At home, of course. Don’t worry, I’ll take you there. Be warned, it's basically just a very fancy military base and, well, her family is there so just behave like you are on the parade ground and you will be fine.”
“That’s… mighty generous of her. We’ll just get a quick meal and a wash then we’re good to go,” Dakota replied, looking back to Sapphire with a slightly strained smile. It had been a long day already. This was likely important though. ‘Just like everything right now,’ Sapphire sighed to herself. Still, thus far it had been a good day. Hopefully that trend would continue.
They had discussed the formalities with Maiko over dinner; to Sapphire’s surprise, there was quite a lot to worry about.
“Inside it is either Colonel Hashaw, Colonel, or Victoria to you. Her mother, Lady Hashaw, is to be addressed as such. Likewise with Lord Hashaw. The other members of the family may introduce themselves with their first name. If so, use that, otherwise, refer to them by rank. Be warned though, Victoria isn’t the only colonel in there.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I can’t remember the rank of everyone,” Balethon protested. Sapphire had to agree, Makio had recited quite a few names which may be present this evening and made it clear that likely wasn't even all of them.
“You don’t need to, they wear uniform at all hours of the day.” Sapphire was about to protest the fact they were apparently in armor when indoors before she looked down at her own breastplate. Maiko apparently caught that glance though. “They aren’t in armor, I said uniform, as in family uniform. There is not a single person in that family that isn’t military in some capacity. Be it Royal Guard, City Guard, or Militia, or whatever.
Sapphire imagined what a nightgown with rank tabs might look like for a second before snapping back to the conversation. “Hashaw has told me she let the family know who Tom is. I’m guessing both the lord and lady have read her report as well. So keep to that, okay?” Maiko continued, looking around at them.
“Certainly. See you out front in a bit,” Dakota replied, getting up to go freshen up, Sapphire joining her upstairs.
Sapphire hadn’t been quite sure what to expect. A massive mansion with guards wearing armor emblazoned with Hashaw’s family insignia was not it though. It was a massive building. From above it had seemed to be laid out in a U shape, with three rectangular buildings and a huge courtyard in the middle with what Sapphire guessed were hangars for dragons.
“How big is her family?” Balethon questioned, looking at the massive building. Clearly in awe.
“Don’t actually know. At least a hundred though, that’s for sure,” Maiko replied as he approached the guards. “Sup. Got some guests for Victoria.”
“Yeah, we heard, come on in,” one of the guards responded in a very informal tone. Sapphire guessed that standing guard for a family of entirely military people was maybe not the most stressful job in the world, at least when they were not around. Colonel Hashaw certainly hadn’t given Sapphire the impression of not being able to handle herself thus far.
The inside of the building was decorated much like what Sapphire had expected though, which was to say paintings of what was likely important family members everywhere, with more armor and weapon racks strewn about than some actual armories she had seen.
They had been greeted by Victoria, dressed in some fine robes, though as Maiko had said she was still wearing her three golden bands of a colonel on her shoulder. She was flanked by two people: an older gentleman in purple trimmed robes for some reason and another man, who looked to be about Hashaw’s age, also in the family robes and wearing the tabs of a major.
“Good, you could make it. I was starting to worry a certain someone got their claws into you.”
“Not yet. They tried to bribe us though,” Dakota responded with a courteous chuckle.
“I can’t say that I’m surprised. This is my husband Major Hashaw.”
The man held out his hand to shake for the three of them. “Please, call me Ulrik,” he went with a smile.
They all shook his hand, making their introductions. He seemed like a nice enough man to Sapphire. Firm handshake too.
“And this is Sir Viantius. He is the family lawyer.” ‘They had an actual lawyer,’ Sapphire thought to herself. She hadn’t even thought about that. Hands were shaken once again, pleasantries exchanged.
“I think the upstairs lounge is available. I say we make ourselves comfortable,” Victoria went, turning to lead the way up the stairs.
They had been served sweetened tea as they sat discussing the bitch’s downfall. The lawyer, Viantius, certainly believed they had a solid case, even if Sapphire didn’t understand half of the terms he used most of the time.
“In all, I don’t see any way she could be argued as not guilty. Not against the word of so many people. The fact you three and your keep have recently been praised by the king himself definitely have the Flaxens worried. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have tried to buy you off.”
“We do our best,” Dakota replied, clearly pleased with that compliment.
“That leaves the matter of punishment. The Flaxens aren’t poor. There is a good chance they will try to go for monetary compensation. Unfortunately, I doubt an execution is possible. Her behavior isn’t traitorous.” Sapphire wasn’t entirely sure she agreed on that front. Stabbing someone in the gut after being let in the door seemed pretty damn treasonous to her.
“Then I say we try to lock her up for as long as possible,” Dakota concluded, clearly not entirely pleased.
“Would you prefer a comfortable cell in exchange for more time?” Viantius questioned.
“As long as possible. Let’s make it so her family will forever have their lady in jail,” Dakota replied. They had hoped for execution, but they knew it likely wasn’t gonna happen. The notion that she would bring shame to her family for the rest of her life would have to do.
“In that case, I think we can get a few decades at least. With some rather considerable compensation to be paid towards the affected parties, though I’m sure the Flaxens will take care of that part. We should push for jail time. As for Dashu’s actions, we will likely be able to secure some additional damage payment from this same case due to the two’s… close relations.”
Profiting from that particular situation didn’t sit entirely well with Sapphire. Still, Esmeralda deserved whatever they could get for her.
“How much money are we talking?” Balethon questioned.
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As Tom lay waiting in the bush he had found, he wondered what his chances of pulling this off were. He had promised Kiran he would be home in a few days; hell, he had promised that to most of the kids. He reckoned his odds were at least fair though. This seemed like a very bad idea, but he had air support, the element of surprise, much better equipment, and crucially was up against an enemy who had likely never even heard of a sniper, night vision, or explosives for that matter. Hell they didn't even have a proper perimeter. He was currently no more than 20 meters from the sleeping fuckers and they hadn’t noticed a thing, not even the vargulfs had stirred.
'Worst guard dogs in history those things. Come on Jarix, where are you?’ he thought to himself, scanning the sky for any sign of the opening shot. He had the first grenade in his hand, fuse out and lighter ready. Those sleeping darklings were never gonna be waking up again. He just hoped Jarix would go for one of the big bastards so they could spread the love around.
The enemy apparently saw Jarix before Tom did, as one of the big bat things started making a high-pitched screaming sound, the darklings starting to stir. That would do for Tom as lifted his goggles to judge the range in the moonlight, getting to his feet. Then he lit the fuse and threw, hitting the deck.
He kept watching as the camp sprung into a flurry of activity. Then the beam of bright blue light smashed into the big bat thing that had sounded the alarm. It had already started beating its wings to climb vertically into the sky. That was a slow procedure though, and Jarix took full advantage, nailing the fucker in the upper torso.
If Jarix’s Lightning breath looked awesome during the day, it was in a whole different league at night. Tom almost wished he had taken a photo or something as the lightning arched out in all directions, the thunderclap deafening even for him. The still twitching husk of the clearly very fucking dead bat thing fell back down in a smoking heap, head dangling by a thread. Tom restrained himself from shouting out a “Fuck yeah!” Then the grenade went off in a bright orange flash of fire. He instinctively ducked his head, looking down into the ground. He felt bits and pieces come raining down around him, including some very wet sounding thumps.
The noise that followed was otherworldly, the distorted voices of the darklings screaming out into the darkness. Tom stayed put for a second, lowering his goggles to see what the two other bat things were doing. They were both scrambling to get airborne, apparently not waiting for what was left of the darklings on the ground to get on. To his surprise though, they didn’t turn to follow Jarix. In fact, it looked like they were running away?
‘Oh they think there are two dragons out there, brilliant, right, next phase.’ Tom got up to a crouch, shouldering the rifle, clicking the scope to the lowest light setting, and looking for where the sentry to his right should be. They appeared to have frozen, not being able to figure out what to do, looking around frantically. He lifted the goggles again, taking aim at the bastard. The range wasn’t even fifteen meters, making a nice easy target even in this light.
Tom’s rifle rang out with a crack, taking it in the chest, the Darkling folding over forwards and dropping to the ground. He ran the action, coming around to the one who should be on his left. Predictably it was right where it was supposed to be. It had at least gotten moving though, sprinting towards where the others had been sleeping. It was a bit further away but still not a hard shot. The round went a little low, catching it in the abdomen and causing it to shriek and scream as it fell, but it was down nonetheless. It wasn’t like they didn’t know they were under attack anyway.
Then, Tom turned his attention to the pack of 5 vargulfs. Those needed to die if he was to get away. Well, now there were 3 and they were pulling on their chains to get free, likely all wounded by the blast. ‘How convenient,’ Tom mused. He had wanted some payback for his first flight for quite a while, and he had three shots left.
With an empty rifle and no vargulfs left breathing, he made his retreat into the night, flicking the goggles back down and moving in a low crouch. He fumbled with reloading the rifle while he moved. He wanted more range before whoever was in charge of this shit show figured out what was happening and decided to come looking for him. He was feeling really damn proud of himself until an arrow struck the ground to his left, followed quickly by another one in front of him.
‘Arh shit! They fucking saw me!’ The third one actually hit, bouncing oh his left pauldron. ‘Thanks, Shiva.’ He picked up the pace, running to get into cover, several more landing around him. They weren't being particularly accurate though. Tom prayed they were just firing at where they had seen his muzzle flash. It was pretty fucking crazy they were up and firing after taking a damn grenade in their sleep.
Hopefully that would mean he just needed to move to lose them though, so he kept the pace. There was hardly any grass around, mostly just rock and gravel, as he made his way into the night, the arrows eventually ceasing. He moved around to the right of the keep to give himself a better shot on the main door, doing his best to make as little noise as possible while moving quickly. He found a small ridge in the terrain that he crouched down behind, steadying the rifle on the stone and finishing his reload. He kept the goggles down, scanning around for targets. As one, a large group appeared to make for the base of the keep. All of the congregating darklings had shields raised above their heads.
‘Here comes the big guy,’ Tom thought to himself. Making ready to ruin the bastards day. ‘remember nasty armor head or neck shot’
That was when he heard the whoosh of huge diving wings behind him. He turned to see Jarix coming back down for another run, apparently having circled around. He was coming down low and fast, heading right for the keep.
He seemed to be lining up for a shot at the keep, crackling arcs coming from his mouth. Then Tom spotted a black shape coming down from above. Jarix didn't see it a moment too soon, bringing up his head and letting loose, with a crackling beam. Tom saw the dark form take the hit, center mass. The blinding flash and crackling lightning blinding him through the goggles. He winced in pain at the bright light, then he heard the smack of the two flyers colliding.
He couldn’t see a thing, so he just hit the deck and crossed his fingers. He heard Jarix come roaring above him, so Tom guessed he had been the heavier of the two. Then came the gut-wrenching crunching sound as either Jarix, the bat thing, or both hit the ground in front of him.
‘This was a shit idea.’ Tom cursed himself as he fumbled around for his rifle, blind as a bat.