It got real obvious that we’d kicked the hornets’ nest as we closed in on Camp Goldrush. The place was swarming with soldiers clutching spears, shields, and crossbows. Other more heavily armored units stood outside the gates, holding dogs and corpoi on chains. The junk turrets swiveled overhead.
"Damn," Angel signed. "That's a lot of guys. Three quarters of the fort is outside the walls."
Lulu cooed softly in agreement.
“Look… I got us into this mess, so let me get us out of it,” I thought back to Angel. “I’m the one who jumped the gun and swung in for the Maroons. If anyone should lose lives over this, it’s me.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Angel signed back. “I don’t know what they were saying, but as soon as I’d realized what was happening, I did the same thing and started fragging.”
I paused for a moment. “Really? But… I mean, you just got your big break.”
“Sucking Targent’s ass while he guns down old people and trades in slaves? Some break. The Centurions were a means to an end, and that end were these.” She patted the rifle hanging from its carry strap. “And you’re the one who gave me this. Still wish you could have asked me first, but you made the right call.”
I relayed that to Lulu. She quivered with righteous energy. “Ooh!”
The growing knot in my chest relaxed. Amazing how this woman kept on surprising me. Every time someone else would have raged or broken down or lost their cool, Angel seemed to be able to find the most common-sense response. It was no wonder she’d survived as long as she had.
“Right.” I drew a deep breath through my nostril vents, then slowly wheezed them out. “The three of us, then?”
“Yeah.” Angel’s pale eyes narrowed as she considered the torch-lit scene ahead. “We just have to get around those turrets. If the laser sights pick us up, it’s game over. At least for me.”
I could see better than she could in the dark, and was able to see where the gaps in the lines were formed. Fire was great for illuminating open spaces, but the jungle was so dense that it created a lot of shadows in the dark of the morning. The towers at the corners of the fort had snipers, but they also had big, deep pools of darkness in and around them. The snipers could look down over the jungle floor, but Eisenblatter hadn’t stationed any guards on the darkened palisade walkway bridging those towers. He was relying on the turrets.
"If we pick up and replace those turrets, do they belong to us?" I asked.
Angel shot me a curious sidelong glance. "Turrets are weapons, not building pieces, so... yeah. They probably weigh a ton, though. Two hundred pounds or more."
"That's not a problem." My eyes narrowed. "Get on my back. I've got an idea."
With Lulu gluing Angel in place, I crawled through the undergrowth to the nearest big tree, scaled the trunk until we were in a good position to jump, and plugged my tentacles into Lulu. She quivered, but voiced no complaint as I took a little of her strength and HP, and picked Shadow Cloak. Almost immediately, our bodies warped and became intangible. and as I braced six limbs against the trunk and leaped out, the maneuver slowed and smoothed our descent, letting us land with near-silence on top of the palisade wall. From there, we were able to see inside the camp - and we were behind the arc of the swiveling turrets and their scanning lasers.
I glanced down at the tents. Eisenblatter was inside the walls, of course, clutching a rifle with poor trigger discipline and sweating heavily. He'd surrounded himself with his best bodyguards. Vade was to his right, sweating and grinding his jaws. Eisenblatter's bear-like Brute pawed and grunted to his left, its saw-toothed head swinging from side to side.
"Go pick up and replace the turrets. I'll cover you." I half-crouched behind the crude wooden crenelations.
Angel slid down. Biting her lips, she scramble-crawled over the ground toward the first turret. My anticipation built as she quietly took out a bronze screwdriver and began to tinker with the base of it. After a couple of seconds, it vanished into her inventory, and she let out a soft groan as an unseen weight mashed her down to the ground.
"Shit. You alright?" My hackles lifted as Vade looked up toward the palisade. In the deep darkness of the pre-dawn jungle, with only flickering torches to see by and no Brute to spot for him, there was no way he could see me. But hearing? Maybe.
"I've got it." Angel was trapped on her belly, but as I watched, the ghost of her HUD reappeared and her eyes wandered. A few more seconds later, and the turret reappeared out of thin air. It looked exactly as it did before, a crude machinegun box mounted on a tripod, shuddering and grinding as its gasoline-fed servos began to swing the head of it from side to side. As I focused on it, I saw the hovering name had switched: [Junk Turret (Owned by: Angel - Clanless). Integrity: 600/600].
"Now for number two," Angel signed.
We snuck along the wall, keeping one eye on the slowly brightening forest. The jungle didn't really start getting light until about six am, and we were pushing five. This time, Angel picked up the turret and placed it facing into the camp.
"Get ready, kid," I thought to Lulu.
"Ooh!" Lulu wrapped herself around my torso, vibrating with determination.
I withdrew about twenty pounds of meat from my inventory, turned toward the outer gate, and hocked it into the jungle. It sailed over the heads of the nervous ranks below and fell into the undergrowth with a thump and a swish of ferns. Cries rang out: arbalists fired their crossbows, spearmen advanced... and as they crossed the beam of the laser, the junk turret began firing on them, chugging like a steam engine as it sucked the magazine into the box and fired a rifle round every half second. It wasn't fast, but it was powerful, and it took the unsuspecting soldiers completely by surprise. Screams rang out as the turret unerringly gunned down half a dozen men.
On the other side, Eisenblatter cowered inside of his meat shield, which basically made him and them sitting ducks for the second turret and Angel. She hit Guns Akimbo and came up over the edge of the palisade, using the edge of it to fire her rifle and crossbow down at the assembled rank. This time, she was the one who took down Vade. I glimpsed the whites of his eyes as Angel's bullet unerringly took him through the forehead, pitching him back to the forest floor. The panic was immediate - enhanced when the bloodcurdling cries of the Maroons rang out from the jungle.
"We're up!" I bounded into the closer of the two sniper towers, ripped the guy out the window, and threw him into the camp. The one on the other side took a bullet to the chest and another to the face that sent him staggering back, his bow falling from dead hands. Angel returned to her forward fire as he sagged over the window ledge.
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I let out a roar of challenge, bounding over the edge of the gate into the compound. Dogs rushed me; I slapped them aside, sending them yelping and crashing into tents and campfires, and charged straight at Eisenblatter. His grimy Brute roared, rising up on his back legs, but the commander was too terrified to command it.
"I surrender! I surrender!" He bawled, ducking behind cover as the inward-facing turret relentlessly rained fire on anyone who crossed into the laser. Five of the fifteen bodyguards were sprawled out in the blood and dirt. Vade and company had respawned, but they'd lost all their good gear to the Maroons.
I snarled and snapped at the [Kassevanto], who was overwhelmed by his Master's cowardice and stumbled away with a moan. The other men scattered out of my way as I doggedly chased Eisenblatter to ground. He stumbled away from us, red-faced, jiggling like a bowl of jello on every forced step. No one seemed motivated to stop us.
"Chuuu!" Lulu launched herself off my body and landed on him, taking him to ground as he skidded around a row of tents.
"Aiiieee!" Eisenblatter flailed at her, but it was too late. Lulu wound herself around his torso like a straitjacket, binding his arms. Thrown off-balance, he tripped and slid across the mud... then crashed into the base of his own gallows.
"No! Help!" He thrashed on the ground as Lulu trapped him like a python. "Oh god! It's you! The Reaper! Jesus! Lord have mercy!"
For shits and giggles, I really wanted to put the fear of God into this man, but it didn’t seem fair for Lulu to have to deal with Eisenblatter pissing himself all over her. I settled for wrapping a tentacle around his leg and half lifting, half-dragging him across the ground to the front gate.
The defense of Camp Goldrush was utterly broken. The morale of the men hadn't been great to begin with, and without strong leadership, the turrets raining lethal fire on them whether they were inside or outside of the gates, they were overrun. The Maroons had half of them on their knees, stripping their gear. Resistors were coldly and efficiently executed; the dead were double-tapped to make sure they stayed down. The rest of the survivors were herded, naked, into tents and put under guard while the other Maroons spread through the camp. I stopped when I saw Merc with her lieutenants, Hong and Elijah.
"Angel's Brute," Hong noted. "Where is she?"
I lifted the squealing Eisenblatter and held him in front of me, resisting the urge to look back as Angel slid down a ladder and jogged over to us. Her eyes were bright, dancing with energy and adrenaline. She smiled at me.
"Well, whadda you know?" Merc planted her hands on her hips and looked back. All three of them were oblivious to the fact me and Lulu could understand her. "She actually fucking did it. What do you think now, Elijah? Believe her?"
Elijah's brows were furrowed in. He glanced at me nervously, then down to the blubbering Primus. He seemed to have to think about his reply. "Yeah. Guess so."
"You lying asshole," I thought to myself.
"Damn, Angel!" Merc called to the girl when she was in earshot - not knowing she was deaf. "You came out blasting!"
I rapidly translated her speech into telepathic sign.
"Like I said." Angel slowed down as she reached my side. "I don't do slavery."
"Let me go! Don't hurt me!" Eisenblatter was still blubbering on the ground, trying to squirm out of me and Lulu's grip. She rumbled warningly.
"A Limne working together with a Reaper. Never thought I'd see the day." Merc shook her head in disbelief, striding over to look down at Eisenblatter. "And you, you fat sack of shit. Where are your friends on the outside now?"
"Get fucked! They'll send every single Sponsored after you! Bitch!" Eisenblatter snarled back at her, wheezing as he tried to keep mud out of his mouth.
"Good. I welcome the challenge." She kicked him in the head. Once, twice, until he swooned and flopped to the dirt. "Blind him and tie him, Hong. We'll take him on a brisk drag back to Eden."
Hong saluted, and got right to it. Good soldier.
"As for you, Angel..." Merc turned to her, her hard expression softening slightly. "I want you to come back to base, too. We'll need to blindfold you on the way there, but you won't be coming back as a prisoner. You have my word."
"Why?" Angel tensed.
"We've been trying to get this fucker for weeks - we owe you at least the reprieve of a safe harbor," Merc said. "I don't want to talk about the rest here. We don't know who's hiding and listening."
Angel looked to me.
"I think she's trustworthy," I replied. "Not so sure about dear old Elijah there. It's a not a big deal if you're blindfolded - I'll remember wherever they take us."
"Yeah." Angel flashed me a one-handed sign, then looked back to Merc. "Alright. I’m willing, but me and my Legions need to grab a few items, first."
She strode over to Eisenblatter and looted his rifle while he squawked in protest. I already knew what she wanted me and Lulu to grab. At Level 19, I could carry just over 800 pounds. The turrets weighed 400-ish.
“Right. Gimme a minute.” I tensed up in place, and began to disgorge things from my Inventory. Meat, meat, bugs - eww - wood, thatch… any common, easily gatherable item went on the ground. The Maroons watched as I spewed stacks of items to the ground. When I was down a couple hundred pounds, Angel and Lulu climbed back on, and we parkoured back up to the pair of hot turrets.
“Can you take them both? Or only one?” Angel signed low, her face turned away from the camp.
“Both,” I said. “But if I place them, they belong to me. They might fire on you, right?”
“We’re allied, so they shouldn’t. You can also switch auto-targeting off.” She got her tool and began to eagerly jimmy the feet off them. “God, these are so useful, Noodles. We have more firepower on the island than almost anyone now. As long as we can get oil to craft bullets for them…”
“Question,” I said. “Am I allowed to use turrets in arena battles?”
She paused for a moment. “Not usually, no.”
“Damn.” I sighed. “Usually?”
“Some arena battles have gladiator PvP enabled as well. If firearms are permitted in the duel, then I don’t see why not.”
I immediately had visions of whipped out a pair of turrets from hyperspace, planting them down, and going into the fray with automatic covering fire. “Please, stop. I can only get so erect.”
Angel slapped me and tutted, then rose to work on the other turret. I folded the free one into my magical Inventory space with ease. It took up a quarter of my max weight.
“Only problem is that if I’m carrying over fifty percent weight, I might have trouble leaping from tree to tree,” I said.
“I’d say that’s a future us problem,” Angel signed back. “We can make it work for now. The Maroons don’t have Legions. I’m pretty sure wherever we’re going, we won’t need to Tarzan it.”
I looked down to see Merc clapping a collar onto Eisenblatter’s Kassevanto as the Primus howled in rage. “Good point.”
The second turret went into my inventory as easily as the first, but I definitely felt the weight. It didn’t show on my body, but when Angel and Lulu got on, I oof’ed. My carry meter was at 72% with everything combined, and as I picked my way down to the ground, it was definitely much, much harder. “Yeah, I don’t know how feasible this’ll be in the long run. These sumbitches are clunky.”
“Sorry. I can walk if you need?”
“Eh. Not a problem for now.”
As we padded back over, the guy named Hong stepped out to meet us. He was carrying rope and a blindfold, and I felt Angel tense.
“Don’t worry, sis,” he said. “The rope is a lead for your Brute here, so he can follow the boss’s new Legion to Eden. The blindfold is something I’ll have to equip. Sorry, but we can’t have anyone knowing the way in and out of base.”
Angel wasn’t happy about it. Neither was I. Her eyes were her portal to the world in a way Hong would never understand. She leaned forward with utmost reluctance to let him equip it.
“Don’t worry. Me and Lulu won’t let them screw you,” I signed mentally to her.
“Yuu!” Lulu agreed firmly, wrapping over the woman’s legs and my ribs to hold her securely on my back.
Angel nodded, lips pressed together in a thin, bloodless line.
Hong expertly tied a loose rope halter. “Make sure your Brute stays still, won’t you? Don’t want to lose an arm.
I made sure to stare at his arm while he draped it around my muzzle. Hungrily.
“Hah, you’re a great looking guy, aren’t you? Probably the best brute on this whole damn island.” Hong chattered nervously as he slid the knots until the halter was neither too tight or too snug. He dared to clap me on the neck before urging me to walk toward Merc. I dug my back feet into the mud, waiting until he hit the end of the rope and jerked to a sudden stop. He looked back at me. I narrowed my eyes. When I was sure he knew who was the bitch in this unsolicited bondage situation, I dropped my head and followed him to where the others were gathering to march.
“Alright. Good job everyone.” Merc swung herself up onto the grunting Kassevanto, guiding him with a similarly made rope halter and reins. Eisenblatter, gagged, trussed and blindfolded, was slung over the back of his own Legion. “I believe we’ve earned our rotation. Let’s head home and get some rest.”