Frontier, Trimmor.

Spike stood frozen. Zooming in on the seventeen mad men as they howled, he was at a lost on what to do. He was worried that they might turn on him and the others inside Trimmor. Had they been covered in red blood instead of green, the seventeen men would have looked like something from a nightmarish horror film.

Lieutenant Collins and Lieutenant Walker, with what little left of their platoon held their new position to wait on what the seventeen lunatics would do. The two officers could somehow feel that the seventeen were still one of them. But their current situation required them to be more prudent and take caution. So they had their weapons ready to defend themselves and waited.

Spike jumped down from the roof and was about to make way to the front when Corporal Robinson stopped him.

“Sorry sir. Until we know what’s going, I can’t let you go up to the front!”

“Right. I suppose you’re just doing your job.” Spike said he understood the Corporal’s position on this. “Hey! Silhouette! What’s going on with my men. Are they going to be ok?” Spike demanded.

“I shouldn’t have to say anything, but I suppose telling you wouldn’t make any difference. Your men are just fine. They just broke through to their spiritual freedom. Right now they are feeling the overwhelming emotion and sensory overload from the breakthrough and their body is reflecting the changes as they are overly energized. And the overwhelming urge to go kill more inhumanoids. “

“So, it’s safe for me to go to them?”

“Of course it is. They are you men!” The silhouette said in that monotone way, but Spike could almost hear the tone calling him an idiot for even asking.

“Let’s go.” Spike said in his best commanding voice. “The men are fine.”

When Spike’s group reached the mostly non-existing wall on the north side, the seventeen idiots covered in green blood were laughing and panting with a very satisfied deep laughter, Then crying. Then they all had a snarl expression as they looked satisfied. Then some of them were whimpering. Then laughing again. They couldn’t seem to make up their mind. Their tears of joy as they wept. It made them look more crazy and sinister in their condition to the onlookers.

When Spike made eye contact with Lieutenant Moore, he suddenly shouted as he whimpered. “Hehe. Sir!” and held their salute to Spike. As his voice trembled as he whimper, laughed,  snarled, and few other emotions added to his expression. “Haha.” The seventeen lunatics broke down in whimpering laughter.

Understanding the meaning behind Lieutenant’s single word as they struggle to stay composed, Spike got the gist of it that they are going through some sort of massive emotional… something, Spike returned the salute. Ahh! Looks like these men will be ok. Looks like this is what happens when you OD on ABH.

“Alright you lunatics. There might be more of them bastards so hurry up and get cleaned up.” Spike shouted out his own orders that he felt best suited for this situation without waiting for other officers input. There was no time to dick around. They didn’t know if there was another group enroute to Trimmor.

With a sniffling tone Lieutenant Moore struggled to squeeze out his word as he squarmed in orc blood. “Sorry sir. Haha. We are having difficulty, hehehe, with ourselves. Gah. We need to do, Argh,  something physically exerting to, huu, burn away this energy. Hahehe.” Then the rest of the lunatics broke down in whimpering emotional laughter.

The hell! These yahoos. With some concern look on Spike’s face. He said. “Right. OK LT. Do what you need to do. Just don’t hurt yourselves.” With that, the idiots jumped in action to start clearing up the messy battlefield.

Everyone else didn’t know what to make of them and stayed out of their way and observed the seventeen work out their problem.

It was still daylight, only few hours after lunch. With the end of Autumn, they only had three to four hours of light left. And the the steam rising from the seventeen as they exerted themselves from the cold autumn temperature.

For everyone else, they were in terrible situation. Of the one hundred fourteen original combat related soldiers, not including the five man medical team in Trimmor, they only had fourty-eight able-bodied men left, including the grenade launcher team. Of course, not including the seventeen lunatics in the total.

He could have directly summoned replacement now, but summoning men not ready for the environment would only speed up their death. He decided having Nexus veterans would work out better on the long run. And if things turn desperate, he could always summon at anytime.

Spike sent two volunteers from the engineers who could ride horses and sent them back to Fort Whitestone with spare horse to ride non stop. Their orders were to go straight to Major Jung and ask for at least two platoon of reinforcement, ASAP.

The former slavers convicts were put to work in clearing out the dead bodies and trying to put together a temporary barricade. And the seventeen would sometimes jump into help them as they were bouncing all over Trimmor. The two engineer squad that covered the south side took control of the convicts and supervised their work. Incidentally, these convicts became very docile and obedient.

There were only seven able-bodied men left from Lieutenant Walkers platoon so he pulled sentry with the hunters. For all intended purpose, until his platoon gets reconstituted, his platoon is in the black. So, for now, the grenade launder squad was put under his command.

The medical team were busy with twelve wounded men. Over half of which will become amputees, if not already, as they had tourniquet on their arms and legs to stop the blood loss.

Freelance platoon had fourteen survivors in total and ironically, no wounded. Their injuries somehow healed during the chaotic fight. These guys were beyond overdosing on ABH. They didn’t even bother cleaning up. While still drenched in green blood, they picked up the dead corpse and stacked them outside of the old walls to be burned later. And they even brought over all the large number of lumbers left at the woodlines.

As for Spike. Lieutenant Moore was barely coherent long enough to tell him to finish up the wounded orcs where the rain of grenades landed during the fight. When asked why him and his lunatics didn’t do it, he said that there was no point as the crippled orcs offered no challenge. Spike really felt hurt by that comment. He felt like he was on garbage duty as the CEO of a large company. As he was followed by his bodyguard team. Minus the three that are on ABH steroids. He muttered the words “Son of a bitch” as the feeling of indignation set in.

After Spike’s dirty deed was done, he checked his gain. 24,620 gained with 166,136 total EXP pushing him up to next level and 4,864 shy of Level 18. With 822 RP gain and the new adjusted total RP of 2778.9. His new personnel slot jumped to 782, but after putting one point to Spirit attribute, it increased to 816. An increase of eighty personnels.

As he had heard Major Jung often mentioned about his ability. What the Major said is so correct. This shit reminds me of the integrated VR sims, most of the people in his era plugged themselves into. Because of the general unhappiness and the powerlessness, masses of people would rather live in the VR then in reality. How is that man able to accurately point out shit that’s beyond his time? Spike was aware of the VR of his era, but he never had the money or the time to dive into it. He wondered if he missed out.

From all the fights today, Spike had sixty-five dead, but gained eight from battle summon. Then compounded with the twelve wounded. He Hoped the reinforcements arrive before sunsets.  

After Spike finished his lawn mowing duty as he had been trying to convince himself as he gave the coup de grace on the wounded orcs. He quickly returned to take over the command of Trimmor. For one, he didn’t fully trust Lieutenant Moore’s mental status. And second, they needed able-bodied workers more than a commander. They needed to hastily build a defensive barricade incase more inhumanoids show up. He was contemplating if he should start to summon some back ups But those seventeen lunatics were so energetic that each worked enough for four people doing the same labor. Seeing it with his own eyes, he decided to temporarily relieve PFC Marten, Private Gonzalez and Corporal Smith until they figure out just how long they will stay high on ABH. Spike wasn’t sure if Corporal Smith could even perform his duty as a medic. Corporal Smith said he could, but Spike wouldn’t hear of it as none of his men were dying from the current injuries. This shit is unreal. I just can’t wrap my head around these guys sometimes.

Lucky for Trimmor and its current inhabitants, no more hostile forces showed up. And Major Jung himself showed up leading three full platoon right at sunset. Everyone came in looking posh while riding their horses like a cavalry regiments of the wild wild west. That magnificent bastard! Spike thought. Something he’ll never admit the Major. It's just not done.

Captain Wraeth had loaned out his third and fourth platoon, and Captain Pearson loaned out his fourth platoon for this reinforcements.

Major smoothly rode his horse up to what used to be the gate. He noted all the dead bodies in the field and the stacked bodies in front of the hastily made barricades. And noting the exhausted look on Spike's face.“Captain Pearson.” He called.

“Sir.”

“Take charge and have half the men post guards and other half on rest. And rotate them out every four hours. Even if these men are on ABH, they’re still going to need to rest.”

“Yes sir.” Captain Pearson replied. Then he started to give out instructions to the platoon leaders.

With a proud looking face, Major Jung dismounted and walked up to the tired looking Spike. “I heard a little from the two messenger sir. Why don’t we go inside and call the other officers. Then we can do a proper ‘after action debriefing’.”

With a look of exhaustion as time finally caught up to Spike. He simply nodded and let Lieutenant Collins lead the way to the former village elders house that is being used as Trimmor headquarter.

Unable to ignore the seventeen lunatics working like idiots on speed. “What’s going on with these men?” Major Jung asked.

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“They are going through some adjustment Major. They are little better than earlier, so I’m letting them burn out their energy. I’ll explain at the debriefing.” Spike replied. Then halfway to the house, Spike spoke up. “Judging from seeing two platoon from Alpha company, I take it the prisoner ransom is complete?”

“No sir. To be exact. It’s still under progress but almost finished. We’ve received all the ransom just this afternoon. Captain Grey and Captain Murphy are confirming the delivery. Once they give the clear, I expect the POWs to be back to their border by tomorrow evening. There is no point for the prisoner to cause trouble when they know they will be freed the next day.”

“I see.”

Suddenly, Spike didn’t feel like talking anymore. Now that Major Jung was here, he felt less pressure and felt that he could pass the command to the Major. Even Captain Pearson was here. But most of all, the realization finally sunk in that more than half the men in his platoon are dead. The same men that shared the danger, struggle, and fear in facing the unknown in the frontier. And sometimes the excitement. But at the same time, knowing that they are not truly dead felt weird to him. Especially when he saw them die. It’s not something any man could easily get used to.

At the HQ building, all the non Phoenixians were dismissed and only officers and noncoms were allowed to enter the HQ building.

All the events were reported in detail from start to finish. The officers and noncoms also reported from their point of view of the battlefield. When it was all said and done the sentry was changing guards.

“So all the hunters on ground are in consensus about the unnatural movements of the inhumanoids?”

“That’s correct Major Jung. If you think about it. There is no way even the best demi-human could take on an ogre. Especially when the orcs are with them. If the demi-humans had equal numbers and armor and weapons, I think it would be a good fight, but with even a single ogre presence, demi-humans would lose. So that raises some questions.” Spike said.

“Right. Why haven’t these powerful inhumanoids attacked the human kingdoms for easy food. It makes no sense that humans have been able to settle this far into the frontier without coming into larger conflict with them. And also, just what is happening in deeper parts of the frontier forest. I’m beginning to sense that frontier people are more or less in the dark about the ‘whys’.” Major Jung questioned.

“Yes. Thing just don’t add up.” Spike agreed.

“It just means that we don’t know nothing about the frontier and we need to prepare as much as posible for trouble sir. Once we secure our place in this land, we will have to send out many expeditions to explore the world. But let’s put this topic on hold for now, Lord Phoenix. There is nothing we can do until we gain more understanding of our environment." Looking thoughtful. "And about having enough manpower… about Lieutenant Moore.”

“Someone go and check on them. See if they can hold a conversation for this meeting.”

Lieutenant Collins volunteered to go check on the seventeen.

“While we are waiting sir. What is your new personnel slot now?”

“It’s at 816  after adjustment. So after we bring in replacements for the casualties, we’ll have seventy-two open slots as the grenadiers took up eight slots. I was thinking Major. Since we have so many wounded in the medical, maybe we should add a full line unit as a floater to cycle out the men while they are recovering from their injuries, especially the amputees.”

“That’s something we would have had to do anyways. But we could also do the same thing by having the line units at overstrength. No, let’s go with your idea sir. You're the Commander in Chief and the T&EO should make sense to you. That leaves us with twenty-eight open slots after summoning another full platoon.”

“I really think Trimmor needs at least one Mark VIII. Having a single Landship frees up a lot of manpower for security. And I do remember your order to keep the fight out here instead of near the city, Major.”

“That’s a good point sir.”

“Besides. I think having the 57mm cannons may have made some difference when the ogre mages brought up their dirt walls or earth wall as I’ve heard the hunter term it.”

“Then I’ll have Captain Allen start up the paperwork for another Mark VIII... when he’s back in town. And I’ll send the requisition paper for a platoon to Captain Gray in the morning. But I’m highly interested in your creative summoning for the grenade launchers sir. Tomorrow, I’d like to see a demonstration of the weapons.”

“They are under Lieutenant Walker’s command for now.”

They took a short coffee break while waiting for Lieutenant Collins to return.

Shaking his head. “Not good sir. It's annoying as hell just to talk to them. They go from snarling at me to laughing. Then their looks get all weird on me and I can’t decide of they want to hump my leg or go hump a tree. Sir!” Becoming all snappy and sharp when he realized the words he just used. “Oh. And there are few medics on watch to monitor their conditions sir.” With a dry look on his face as he realize something unpleasant. “Errr, I suppose we’ll all be facing this when it’s our time.”

For some reason, that comment brought Spike to look at Major Jung and make eye contact. Then an uncontrollable large smile light up on Spike's face which forced the Major to look away in annoyance.

“In anycase, we brought four more demi-humans with us. Tomorrow morning, I plan to have them track were these ogres came from. I think sending only the demi-humans will increase their survivability without our men dragged along as liability.”

“You sure it’s a good idea to send them so far in Major?” Spike asked out of concern for the demi-humans going into the deep frontier.

“I’ll tell them to only go as far as they feel they can get out safely sir. Demi-humans are just too valuable to us. We won’t be risking their lives unnecessarily sir.”

After that, they called it for the night. To be exact, Spike called it as his body is still mortal and he was exhausted from another day of battle and his mind was getting cloudy.

“Sir, before he retire for the night, Sergeant McQueen is asking for parachute illumination flare rounds. He seems very unhappy with our current flare guns saying that illumination time is too short.”

“Ahh right! I suppose that’s true.” Spike replied as he realized the difference in tech level and the common sense of the Sergeant McQueen and his squad. Sergeant McQueen is probably starting to feel frustrated as well to the limitation of current technology. “Yeah. I’ll take care of that now.”

Next morning, by the time Spike woke up in the mid morning, Trimmor was alive with activity. To be exact, Sergeant Mcqueen was demonstrating the HE grenade rounds to the major. Which inadvertently woke up Spike. He summoned up some ration to eat while walking with his two sane body guards. Not thinking too much about the missing ODing bodyguards, he reached the part of the wall where Sergeant McQueen was demonstrating his M223 with his squad.

When he got up to the ramp on the west wall, incredibly he noticed the northern wall was more than half completed. And the craziest of it all was that the seventeen men were still at it. He was so stunned that his jaw hit the ground and he dropped his breakfast pack on the ground.

Oh My God! They are still at it! Silhouette said they are all fine, and they are simply experiencing too much energy from the change, but damn!

Later on, Spike would learn that the reason why Sergeant McQueen wanted the illumination flare was to support the seventeen who went out to the woodlines to chop down trees in the dead of night. And they wouldn’t listen to the warning of the danger, so he lite up the nights for them.

“Fire!”

Another volley was fired from the M223 squad tearing apart the ground with stump of trees as targets. Waking up Spike from his stupor.

“Good morning sir. Hope we didn’t wake you up too soon?” Major Jung greeted as Spike joined the group on the walls.

“No, it’s fine Major. I should be awake with the men anyways. So what do you think about the M223?”

“There’re definitely not as powerful as the normal artillery pieces. However, the tactical advantage of having a team of them in a platoon is overwhelming. It was an excellent call in the heat of the moment sir. I’ve been pulling out my hairs on trying to figure out our artillery problems and you solved it for me. And also, I forgot to tell you last night, but you made some good call during battle and that includes promoting Lieutenant Moore to First Lieutenant. I know you could do it.” Major praised.

“Ahh, thanks. What! Wait! I just know you set me up.”

“I placed my trust in your intelligence sir. You just lacked experience, but you have them now from the all the OJT. You did good sir. And sir. I don’t gamble with lives.” The Major Jung said with that annoying look of his.

This calculating scheming SOB. He must possess an IQ over 9000 for crying out loud. Well whatever. “And I thought I was going to get court martialed for judicially burning up RP.” Spike commented.

With a smirk on the Major’s face. “Not at all sir. Even the M99 Sniper rifle worked out in the end. If the ogre mages had gotten closer, who knows what other magic they could have rain down on you.”

“Yeah. Well I didn’t want a repeat of the fight with that Baron Myojhuk.”

“So what’s the price tag on the M223 Revolver sir? I’m thinking we need them asap.”

“It’s 140 RP for 512 Revolver.” Spike said as he observe the weapons and the gears of the soldiers.

The M223 Revolver really did look like the old wild wild west colt revolver pistol with it’s six grenade rounds inserted like the old pistol rounds. Except for the triangular buttstock that was much more wider with three mini shock absorber in each corner to reduce the recoil. And each soldier had special shoulder and upper chest solid armor piece to spread out the recoil so the constant recoil from using the weapon didn’t cause long term injury. Unlike the older generation, all the grenade rounds were longer. To maximize the usage of the advance metallurgy used to make the M223 barrels, the designers built more powerful grenade rounds as the barrels were highly resistance to cracking. In addition, there was a small digital screen next to the aiming sight to tell the gunner the degree of the angle of the weapons and an adjustable targeting sight to aim faster and accurately in the heat of the battle. On top of the weapons hand guard were stips of solar cell chips to prolong the micro battery.

“Then let's do it sir. We have three platoons that can start training immediately and we can chose the most talented to build a firing team. We have eight instructors here with us. And we can send half of them back the Fort Whitestone. I’m looking forward to finally having some artillery support. Even if it’s a quasi-artillery.” Major Jung declared.

Spike quickly agreed. In all honesty, he also wanted to try them out and blow shit up. The little boy in him couldn’t lie.

Around high noon,Spike, Lieutenant Walker and his seven men, all the wounded, the extra M223, M1917, and flare guns were sent back to Fort Whitestone. That also included all the extra horses from the missing men.

Now that they have some flexibility with increased manpower, all the new summons are required to go through the Captain Wraeth and Hunt Master Malikai’s survival course, including training up on the new weapons. Only then will they be allowed to join as regular a soldier.

Spike wasn’t allowed to hunt for now as his Freelance platoon is temporarily non-existence. Not with the current surviving seventeen men and bodyguard's condition. With the constant battles wearing down Spike as he felt himself being jerked around all over the places, Major Jung decide he needed a break. But the Major knew there was nothing he could do about the grind to keep fighing. So Spike took Major Jung advice and took this opportunity to get some rest and stabilization. So, with two extra squad temporarily added as security escorts, the battle wary group journeyed back to Fort Whitestone.

Then three days later, one by one, the rest of the seventeen finally regained their sanity and crashed. They were comatosed for three more days until they started to wake up one by one.

“Now let’s hear about what happened to you and your men.” Major Jung asked Lieutenant Moore.

“Sir. To put it simply, I and the other men became cognitively aware that we were freed from returning to the void even in death. And the feeling on our body was so incredibly overwhelming. Hmm how to explain… It’s not that we weren’t aware of what was happening, but our bodies were telling us to let go and face our enemies and kill as many of them as possible. And the closer we got to them for the killing blow, better it will be for us.  If I had to make an educated guess, it’s something akin to the viking berserker myth. Or even the old Germanic barbarians during Roman Republic times. When we were clade in that red aura, we were something amazing sir. Even now, I feel the residual energy. But I can assure you that the men who died while wrapped in that red aura have left us for good. They’ve moved on. And I think the seventeen of use should be kept under observation. There may be some other sort of side effect from this. Just like the After Battle High we all experience after each battle. I mean, I feel like I can go wrestle a thousand pound gorilla and kick it’s ass right now and it’s only a fraction of what I felt sir. And I don’t know how long this will last.”

“Well, I have it from Lord Phoenix that you men are just fine. You simply had excess amount of energy and just needed to work it out. And something like that won’t happen normally as I understand. For now, you all need getting used to the change. In any case, congratulation to you all. This is something the rest of us are looking forward too and gives us hope.” Then he added. “Also, Doctor Dietz said, physically, you men are cleared for duty, but he wants you to check in with him everyday for the next week. And he’ll be returning with your group.”

“Yes sir. Thank you sir. I understand. So what’s the plan for us sir?” Lieutenant Moore asked.

With a smile on his face Major Jung spoke. “Well First Lieutenant Moore. Congratulation on the promotion by the way. And to utilize your new rank...hmm... I don’t like the idea of Lord Phoenix’s bodyguards abandoning their post and running off to fight because of this uncontrollable red aura condition. We are fortunate things turned out well in the end. But to prevent that from happening again in the future, only those who have reached spiritual freedom from the void will be assigned to that post...ie those with red iris only. I had always planned for our lord to have minimum of a company with him in all his travel. And increase the size of his protection unit as our forces increase. So as the first and only officer with red iris, you and your current sixteen other men will be the foundation. Now I don’t expect for everyone to have the red iris, because I can actually see the usefulness of some of the men ODing on ABH. But I want those in his immediate protection circle to be spiritually freed… looks like we need to find a proper name for this condition. Calling it red iris is getting tiresome.”

“Yes sir. I understand your intent.”

“Good. Then, once the rest of your men wakes up go back to base and wait to get reconstituted. Also, once Captain Allen completes his mission, I intend Lieutenant Sheldon and his platoon to join you to form the Honor Guard. Calling Lord Phoenix’s personal unit Freelance company sounds too much like a mercenary unit and it sounds very undignified. Let’s put dignity and honor to his presence.... You know, I sometimes thing our commander comes from thug background. But that’s just not possible, considering he was an actual cadet.” Major Jung said with a frown on his face and shaking his head.

“Hmp” Lieutenant Moore cleared his throat to remind the Major of the unofficial ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy about their former life.

“Right. Right. Let’s forget what I just said. LT.” Major Jung said in straight face and changed the topic. “Your unit has priority on replacement. I thought of stealing men from the other platoons, but it would just disrupt their combat readiness and their ability to perform their duties. Right now, the initial survival training is for two weeks. So you have another eight days to fully recover. We were actually worried that there would be more incursion from the frontier, but things have calmed down for now.”

“Yes sir. What do the hunters say about the calmness sir?”

“That’s a good question Lieutenant. They seem to believe that this is a calm before the storm. Whatever forced the ogres to move to our location, it will be more troublesome. And I concur with them. We need to take this time to hurry up and build up our defenses. That’s why I’ve put a stop on the road construction and put all our efforts on Trimmor’s defense. I’ve also given the same instruction to the base. They have plenty of common labors from the ransom, so they can at least build proper wooden defense and dig up the ground to reinforce them.”

“Do the hunters have any idea when this storm will hit sir?”

“No. They only say that it’s coming.” Major replied with a serious tone.