While Kendra was focused on the data being collected by their essence scanners, she did her best to ignore the sounds of work being done in the central power room. The city’s engineers were currently working hard to bring the massive power generator online. Once active, it would provide the first 5 levels of the mountain complex with power, allowing the city to start getting the other facilities up and running.
There was a massive amount of work to do before the mountain city was ready to receive the immigrants fleeing from the density shift. And before any of that happened, these scans had to be done and the complex’s safety level needed to be ascertained.
Kendra saved the data set she was working on, then stood up from her chair to take a break. Taking a few steps away from the folding travel table they were using for their equipment, she looked around the dimly lit room. Their current ‘lab’ left a great deal to be desired.
As part of Mountain Team 5, they’d been down in here for hours, and even if everything proceeded according to plan, they’d be spending the next few nights here. She mentally pushed her annoyance with the situation to the back of her head, it wasn't productive to dwell on it. With her hands behind her hips, she stretched her back while groaning in relief. ‘This type of work should really be done in a lab. Making us analyze the data on-site is completely unnecessary. Not to mention, insulting,’ she thought to herself.
A voice from behind her called out, “Hey Kendra, come over here and take a look at this. Tell me what you see.”
She looked over at her partner, David, who was currently staring at several holograms with a slight frown on his face. Even though she’d known him for years, she couldn’t tell if he was worried, interested, or just confused. Since they’d left the lab, his social skills were getting worse every day.
Sighing at the thought of how dull her only companion was, she walked over to see what he was talking about. Taking her place behind him, she looked over his shoulder to see holograms depicting several isolated sections of the tunnel complex, complete with essence density overlays and range-variance calculations. Not seeing anything terribly interesting, she asked, “What am I supposed to be looking at?”
David raised his hand, pointing at one of the holographic projections, and said, “Does this look right to you?”
She narrowed her eyes, staring hard at the data, trying to find anything out of the ordinary. The map showed a large underground farming enclosure, complete with housing towers and support facilities. It was the first large section of the mountain city, and the closest area to where they currently were. Glancing at the essence scans, along with the calculation parameters, she didn’t see anything out of place. It looked like what she would have expected a farming zone inside the a mountain city to look like. Not seeing anything worth mentioning, she replied, “Nothing is jumping out at me. Is there something I’m missing?”
David’s voice carried a whisper of worry when he replied, “Don’t these essence flows look a little active for a farming zone which is supposedly abandoned?”
With a curious frown on her face, she went over the numbers again. Using her link to reference some typical ambient essence profiles from the historical records, she compared the data sets. “That IS surprising. You’d think that after 600 years of inactivity, the profile wouldn’t look this active. Maybe it’s an echo of the past signature interfering with the ranged scanners? That might explain why the mages are having trouble scrying into the old tunnels, even with the help of the Tower of Magic’s focusing crystals.”
David didn’t say anything in response. He just grunted lightly, indicating his skepticism.
They both watched the screens in silence, staring at the constantly updating essence profiles. Both of them were used to this type of lab work, waiting for more data before coming to any conclusions. Besides, the likelihood that there were still people living down there after all this time was ridiculous, so there had to be a more reasonable explanation.
Not to mention, that this was the first farming zone they’d scanned, so they currently didn’t have anything to compare it to. Most likely, it would be at least a week before their team was allowed deep enough into the mountain to find another farm which would allow them to form a comparative profile.
Time passed, and they focused on their work. In their small room, they were isolated from the controlled chaos of the rest of Mountain Team 5. So, it came as quite the shock when the door to their ‘lab’ was thrown open.
Both Kendra and David jumped in their seats, their eyes widening at the sight of a soldier covered in blood with one leg missing a boot and the pant-leg, his sword and shield brandished in preparation for violence. Rushing into the room, the soldier carefully scanned the corners, looking for threats, completely ignoring the two lab attendants.
While Kendra froze in shock, her mind stuttering to a halt. David was much older, and much harder to rattle. He immediately thought through the implications of what he was seeing and asked, “Did you lose your leg in combat? It looks freshly regrown. Who were you fighting?”
Kendra’s mind restarted, her analytical skills following David’s line of logic. She asked, almost immediately after David finished speaking, “Are we in danger?”
Apparently coming to the conclusion that the room was clear of threats, the soldier replied, “Yes, we are in danger. Gather everything you can, as soon as you can, we’re heading back to the surface immediately. Be sure to leave nothing behind.”
Neither Kendra or David moved a muscle, both of them equal parts confused and frightened.
Seeing that they weren’t jumping into action, the soldier lifted up the front of his helm, sliding it up to reveal his face. He adopted an understanding look, the same look a parent gives a frightened child, and said, “There is nothing to be concerned about. We’re handling it. But I need you both to start getting this equipment stored immediately. The front-line isn’t going to hold forever, and we need to get you civilians to the surface as soon as possible. Now, get moving.”
Kendra and David started shutting down their equipment, speeding up as they sensed the impatience rolling off the soldier’s essence field.
David didn’t pause his hasty collection of the equipment, but he did ask, “What exactly is the situation out there?”
The soldier was currently staring blankly into the air, obviously communicating through his link, most likely through a private military channel. He didn’t respond to David’s question, instead he just continued focusing on what he was hearing.
David and Kendra shared a worried look, not liking the fact that the soldier seemed too preoccupied to answer a simple question.
It took almost 20 minutes of focused work to get all the scanners and gear to be powered down, disconnected, and stored for travel. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best they could do with the pressure of the soldier impatiently hovering over them… silently urging them to hurry up.
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Slinging their packs over their shoulders, they took one last look around to see if they missed anything.
Finally ready, Kendra asked hesitantly, “Can you please tell us what’s going on?”
The soldier seemed to snap back to reality, looking approvingly around the room. “Looks good. Now, when we leave here, please stay behind me. We’re one of the last groups to leave. Most of the engineers are already gone, and we don’t have anyone else to spare guiding you to the surface. Once we get to the main corridor, follow the trail left for you and report back to the surface as soon as you can. Keep the talking to a minimum, your eyes open, and call out of if you see anything. Ready?”
David’s voice was calm, but firm. “Before we go anywhere, I want to know what’s out there.”
The soldier met David’s stare and replied, “Apparently Kobalds have taken over the mountain city. Somehow they broke the wards, got in, united several tribes, and as far as we could tell, it looks like they have progressed to a class 5 city threat. They must have been breeding for centuries, right under our noses. So, most likely, we will soon be at war.”
Kendra felt her hands start to tremble, and she looked over at David, her face paling. David gave her an encouraging nod, indicating that they would make it through this.
Returning the nod with a forced smile, she tightened the straps on her backpack. ‘This kind of shit never happened when I was in my lab,’ she complained to herself.
-----
Nero felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up in protest to the all the attention he was receiving. He could feel the various eyes trying to subtly sneak glances at him, judging him, wondering about him.
After they’d had a delightfully awkward conversation about his supposed divinely sanctioned aid in clearing the ‘Dorchen curse’, Nick had been able to convince Sergeant Wesker to let the group of hunters join them in dealing with their next ‘mark’.
Apparently between the sergeant’s desire to get their assignment finished before nightfall, and the cleric’s misplaced hero-worship of Nero, any reservations the man had were met. Now, their group had ballooned to 13 and Nero was surrounded by people overly interested in his life.
The worst part about it was that the sergeant no longer cared about keeping everyone quiet. Since the group was now large enough to deal with anything they might come across, he’d assigned Nero to the middle of the group, sandwiched between Nick and the cleric.
While everyone else was focusing on the flanks, Nero was doing his best to explain to the cleric, who was charmingly named Brian, that to the best of his knowledge, he was NOT sent by the goddess Serine. Furthermore, while he may have had a hand in the events surrounding the latest noble war, he had not been the one to actually end the Dorchen line. And as far as saving the city, that responsibility fell on the shoulders of the city’s military. As a new noble, he’d of course do all he could to help, but he was unfortunately unable to shoulder such a monumental responsibility.
Brian didn’t buy it at all.
Currently, Nick was smiling ear to ear, encouraging Brian’s misunderstanding with not-so-subtle praise for Nero’s accomplishments… and everyone around them was able to listen in on his bullshit.
“You see… Lord Walker’s soul came here from a harsh land. He still has memories of great battles between powerful trade states determined to use any and all means to eliminate their enemies. In the world he came from, it wasn’t the wilds that were the threat, it was the men and women standing right next to him! Naturally, this has provided the young man with an insight into the nefarious schemes of the most vicious players in the game. It was this insight that allowed him to see through former Lord Dorchen’s plot to reclaim the seat of Dorchester. Without his warning, the noble war might still be going on to this day,” Nick said, his voice full of false pride, laced with an undercurrent of humor.
Nero glared up Nick, not finding the situation remotely amusing.
From his right, he heard Brian respond. “It’s fascinating that so much could be changed by the inclusion of one variable. Did you know that the Tower of Fate in Hennings had actually predicted the fall of Dorchester? It’s true! Can you believe they kept quiet about it… only alerting some of their most fiscally supportative adherents to the prophecy. The rumor is that many powerful families have invested a great deal in plans that are contingent on Dorchester not surviving this leveling event,” the cleric said, his tone full of righteous anger and disappointment.
Nero didn’t exactly follow what the cleric was saying, but he listened anyway. The Tower of Fate sounded like stock brokers doing insider trading, that is if he understood what they were talking about.
Nick replied easily, “I hadn’t heard that. However, I’m not surprised. There is a reason the Tower of Fate’s influence hasn’t spread to all the cities of Oglivarch. There have been many papers proving the hazards of playing with fate, yet those bastards continue doing it. You know that there are actually several laws limiting their powers in regards to their fate-weaving? As for me, I side with the Tower of Magic in regards to this issue. They believe that the old king’s matrix was never intended to be used as a tool for benefits, it was merely created to stave off losses.”
Brian replied as if he were campaigning for office, “Well said! The Temple of the Sun relies on the goddess for guidance. Only those who’ve reached the higher planes can see the flows of fate clearly enough to aid our growth. It’s through our connection to them that we may get through these trying times. As long as we remember her, she will continue to work tirelessly for us, turning fate to our favor, and preparing us for the trials that we will face in the coming days.”
Nero couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes at the religious propaganda. Feeling the cleric’s hand land gently on his shoulder, he nearly jumped in surprise. Repressing the urge to violently shake off the offending appendage, he looked up the smiling cleric with what he hoped could be construed as an equally 'honest' smile.
Meeting Nero's earnest eyes, Brian said, “I, and many others, thank her for sending you to us. Whether you believe she helped guide you here doesn’t matter, we trust in her and we support you. I know that you will lead us to victory in these trying times.”
Nero didn’t know how to respond, but he knew that he had to be careful. In his last life, he had once gotten a little too drunk at a friends barbecue. Surrounded by suburban Lutherans and Catholics, he made the mistake of asking if Catholics believed they could talk directly to God like the Lutherans or if they still thought they had to use a priest to pass their messages along. Like it was some kind of spiritual ‘telephone’ game. After all, wasn’t that what caused Luther to leave the Catholic church and start his own?
To this day, he could still recall the look on his buddy’s mom’s face when she accused him of being an instigator, and told him that he was acting as an agent of the devil, only here to try and ruin her barbecue. Had he actually been TRYING to piss people off, he might have been offended. But he had honestly wondered about that question… which he still didn’t have an answer to. After all, he wasn’t stupid enough to ask that question TWICE!
He really hadn’t been trying to start shit, but alcohol must really be the devil’s juice, because however he worded the question, was NOT the right way to go about it. He had no problems with religion as a concept. In fact, any faith that caused people to be a little less horrible with each other was all-right in his book.
Regardless, now he was plodding through a forest of nightmares, with an honest to God… gods… whatever cleric, and he didn’t want to get ‘smited’… ‘smitten’… or even ‘smote’ for being a smart-ass. So, he was doing his best to choose his words carefully.
The worst part about it was that he could feel Nick’s essence field humming with happiness at Nero’s caution. The old man was enjoying the hell out of seeing Nero worried about how someone would take his words for once.
Nero looked up at the smiling cleric and said, “I thank you for your support. But please understand, I’m sure that although this might be part of some large cosmic plan, I have no knowledge of it. Also, I know very little about your religion, so hopefully you’ll not be offended by any accidental insult I might give you or your goddess.”
Brian patted Nero’s shoulder and said, “We of the Sun’s faithful do not offend easily. We just do our part to help the kingdom in our own way. If you’d like to learn of our order, I’d be more than happy to teach you.”
Nick immediately spoke for Nero, “He’d love to learn more about the religious district and its place in our kingdom. I haven’t had a chance to explain how we view religion here, and I’m sure he’s eager to hear about the various temples and, of course, the goddess Serine.”
Nero offered Nick a deadpan stare for a few seconds, then turned back to Brian with a fake smile and said, “Yup, I’d love to hear about your lord and savior Serine. Lay it on me.”
Brian’s smile made him look every inch the Sunday morning pastor Nero expected him to be.
‘I swear to Serine, I’m going to pay Nick back for this. I’m going to find whatever this world’s equivalent of Jehovah’s Witnesses are, and then I’m gonna put him on a list to receive weekly home visits from them for the entirety of the next year!’ he promised himself, while forcing a plastic smile to stretch across his face.