In the front yard of the Perriman Duchy, three soldiers lounged on decorative tables, usually reserved only for the Duke and his family. The largest among them, had one of the maid sitting on his stomach, while he gently caressed her back and stared into the clouds who floated lazily across the bright, blue sky.
The young maid, one of this man’s many inamoratas, with which he shared passion in bed during the small hours of the night, sat sideways on his stomach, knitting something.
“You know, I could get used to this. I hope Perriman takes longer to finish the preparations.” Clyde spoke up, breaking the serenity of the morning.
“I think he’s running out of maids for you to chase.” Jeremy laughed, not even turning to look at his friend.
The young brunette suddenly gasped, hopping off her seat. Several pairs of footsteps, rustling through the meticulously kempt grass, caught the attention of the soldiers, who sat up and turned in the direction of the sound.
“My Lord.” Said the maid with a bow, before quickly scurrying past the Albrecht and jogging back towards the mansion, feeling the Duke’s gaze of disapproval on her back, making her pick up the pace.
“Perriman. Good to see you. Looking as good as when I saw you yesterday.” Clyde grinned, spreading his arms wide while greeting the man.
Perriman rubbed the bridge of his nose, taking a deep sigh to stave off a feeling of exasperation whenever he looked at the mountain of a man before him. The two guards behind him were giving the soldiers cold and unwelcoming expressions.
“I am glad to see you three in such high spirits. I’ve come to talk to you about the second phase of our agreement. The phase in which you deliver what I asked for.” Continued the noble, pulling out a chair and planting his behind in it.
“I see. But as we discussed, the preparations must be finished first.” Began Jeremy, who was laying between Clyde and Marcel. The three of them seemed to be arranged in order largest to smallest, starting with Clyde.
“Yes. I am aware.” Perriman cut the soldier off before he could continue.
“The preparations are complete. They have been for a couple of days now.”
“Now, I am a gracious host, and you three have not shied away from enjoying in my hospitality.” The Duke accentuated the last word, staring directly at Clyde, but not saying anything further.
Two weeks had passed since the otherworldly soldiers first stood before Perriman and accepted his bold proposition to help him dethrone the Queen in return for using his town’s portal gate. Be it adventurer or mercenary, the Duke hired anyone willing to work without asking questions. He was so certain of his plan’s success, that the payments he offered to adventurer’s guilds and mercenary associations, were three times above the norm.
Some were even offered plots of land as payment instead of gold.
With this the process of clearing out the main town square, where the portal gate was, went faster than even Perriman expected.
Under the guise of renovating the square, he kept the majority of the townsfolk from asking too much questions. As for the elven spies and Marbella agents, that’s what all the hired help was. Guard was quadrupled, covering every step of the street and every rooftop, day and night. Anyone who so much as looked out of place was arrested and put in temporary cells in the Duke’s own dungeon, beneath the mansion, making sure no word of what was really happening got out. The same went for anyone discussing the renovations in the town’s taverns and inns.
Most of the heavy lifting was done by Perriman’s guards, the fine tuning and preparing the gate was what the otherworlders focused on. On their first meeting, when the plans were laid out, the three soldiers made the call to their outpost. As soon as Perriman secured the town square and locked it down, the rest of the unit that the new allies belonged to, showed up and began working, hooking up the gate with ropes and tubes, to devices and machines Perriman had never imagined existed before.
Their equipment was transported via carriage into town, as their own vehicles made too much noise and would cause suspicion.
Now the work had been finalized, all that remained was for the soldiers to fire up their contraptions and Albrecht Perriman would become the most powerful man in the entire region. He could almost feel it, the heavy crown on his head, the softness of the throne beneath his ass. The Crimson Queen, in all her might, still was no match for the weapon that the otherworlders used on Home Tree.
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Perriman waved off his guards.
“Leave us.”
The two men bowed, turned on their heels and left, leaving the four men to their discussions.
“Before we proceed, I would love to know. No, I am dying to know, what force awaits on the other side of that gate. The thought has been robbing me of sleep for nights in a row.” Albrecht leaned in his chair; hands clasped together.
In his mind, the image of the Iron Fortress played on repeat, the prospect of having such might as his tail wind almost had the man giddy.
The three soldiers exchanged looks, nodding silently.
“Well, like we said. You can expect three Spiders. Araignée-55 if you wanna get technical.
” Jeremy to explain, remind Perriman of the war machines he had shown the first time he met the soldiers.
“Heavily armoured, short range, mobile anti-air unit. Call ‘em SPAD, for short. Gyroscopic, all terrain, 4 heavily armoured legs, can go anywhere a tank wish it could.”
These words meant very little to the noble, as he didn’t understand anything in regards to what the soldier was so passionately explaining. Still, he nodded his head vehemently, pretending he understood everything.
A translator crystal, attached to the collar of his shirt, began to shine as he finally spoke.
“Wonderful. Those machines sound truly glorious. They must require countless men to properly operate.”
“Well, in total, twenty men.” Retorted Clyde.
“Twuhhh…” Perriman felt the words stop halfway up his throat. He shook his head, kindly asking the man to repeat himself, hoping that he had heard him wrong.
“Twenty. Araignée-55 is usually manned by a five-man squad. Can be with as little as three, like most tanks, but since it’s a much bigger and more complex piece of machinery, five dudes per Spider is recommended. So, 15 dudes, that’s 3 spiders. And 5 bonus men, mostly mechanics and shit.” Clyde explained further.
The Noble wasn’t sure if they were joking with him or if they were serious. He was praying for the former, his ambitions hinged on the boost in military presence he would gain by allying with the invading soldiers.
“Twenty men? Mere twenty men?!” He thought, anger boiling his blood.
He wouldn’t be able to lay siege on the farmers market with those numbers, let alone overthrow the Queen and tell the Elves to go fuck themselves.
They took advantage of him, that must be it. Played him for a fool, strung him along for almost half a month, eating his food, fucking his maids.
At last, he gathered himself, looking up at the soldiers, asking the only question burning his mind at that moment.
“What sort of pitiful military sends such a small number of soldiers to conquer another world?” Perriman took a deep breath, unable to control his frustration any longer, going off on the men.
“Do you think this world that lowly, that insignificant, that you do not even think bringing your best weapons and more than a handful of men is necessary to invade? Twenty men. Twenty fucking soldiers is what you offer me? To take on one of the biggest kingdoms of man on this side of the continent?! I can already see my head stuck on a stick in front of the Marbella palace!”
“Hey, hey, Perry. Chill man.” Clyde leaned over, patting the noble on the shoulder.
Albrecht looked up; surprisingly, none of the three men in front of him seemed even a tad bit shaken by his words. He could feel his cheeks turning warmer, realizing he may have acted like a fool for a moment.
“Apologies. I was caught by surprise is all.”
“We’ll let you in on a little secret Perry.” Clyde grinned, looking over his shoulder at the other two, who nodded, giving a silent permission to their friend.
“This ain’t an invasion. Nor a conquest. This a… resource acquisition mission.” He said, waving his hand around as if trying to pick appropriate words from the air in front of him.
Perriman was again taken for a loop by this discovery. They weren’t here to just conquer them? What were they here for then?
“We’re here because, well to put it simply, a certain, mmmmmmm.” Clyde continued waving his hand.
“Jeremy, help me out here.”
“Because a certain business on our world, believes that mana stones are the next big step in clean, renewable energy. They believe it’s their ticket to becoming the number 1 energy provider on our world and revolutionizing the global energy industry forever.” Jeremy took over the explanation, not that it helped Perriman understand anything.
“To cut a lot story short, we are private contractors, mercenaries. If we were the military, this world would’ve been boned.” Came all the way from the back of the table, as Marcel decided to finally speak for the first time since the Duke arrived.
“Yeah. All this is a small scale operation, details of which I will not disclose, not a full blown world conquering invasion.” Clyde wrapped it up, just as Jeremy’s communicator went off.
“Sir, the generators are warmed up, the gear is primed, we are ready to begin cracking the veil open.” Came over the comms.
“Roger. Any news from the peepers?”
“None. All is quiet.”
“Great. So, Duke Perriman, ready to open the gate?”
Jeremy asked, as the three soldiers got up from the table and stretched, heading down the hill towards the main garden entrance before Albrecht could even give them an answer.