While Briana and Co went west. We have had a jolly good time exploring the east hall. Though the traps we’re facing are quite trivial. There were some logic puzzles, construction puzzles, and the occasional draugr. With our collection of skills though we made short work of them over the course of four days.
The east hall was supposed to be filled with great leaders that led the plains people to new highs during their lives. Lucius gave us a tour of the place naming all the dead and explaining their accomplishments. Though I lost interest and stopped paying attention after the fiftieth tomb.
We were surprised when we weren’t logged out by Briana so we were able to explore without worry. The next four days we spent checking the south hall which was full of great inventors and artists with tapestries and jars strewn across the rooms we passed. Teage enjoyed looking over their achievements and their technology. Showing a lot more interest than I thought he would give. Though this area also turned out to be a dud as well.
So we then explored the North hall the next day. Full of many wise men who expanded the use of magic, law, and philosophy. But, this hall had something off about it. Lennie led the way disabling the many magical traps set testing our arcane knowledge. That wasn’t what was off though. There were a lot of unusual non arcanian traps about with tripwires strewn about.
“I think we’ve found your intruders Lucius.”
“Yes, it appears so. It only worries me more about what we will find ahead.”
We made quick progress and were able to get to the end of the hall after only half a day of nerve wracking trap avoidance. One hour was dedicated to unfreezing Teage who got frozen after triggering an ice ruin Lennie missed. Lucius was able to unfreeze him luckily and even better for us it wasn’t considered painful so his trouble wasn’t ours. Though that issue feels like it's going away recently (thank God).
As we reached the end of the hall Lucius stopped us. He said he felt something up ahead. So he cloaked us in some shadow that hid our presence. We then emerged to see the cave full of unknown people. But what was worse was what we saw.
Guns! Lots and lots of GUNS! How the hell did they have guns here! Not even muskets but fully automatic AKs from the looks of it.
“How the hell did they get their hands on those things!”
Teage looked shocked as we all were.
“What even are those things?”
Lucius and Lennie still had no idea the threat those things held though.
“Shhh keep it down follow me and I’ll explain.”
Lucius led us to a tomb before facing the door and saying a chant an earth wall formed sealing us in.
“Alright now you can explain what were those things?”
“I don’t know about the people but the weapons are AKs which shot metal at ten times the speed of an arrow. It’s bad news to get shot by them.”
“What is weird is how they got their hands on them.”
Teage was stroking his beard. Pondering how they could have possibly gotten them.
“The only place they could have gotten them was from Earth, or do you guys have some secret weapons program.”
“What is this earth you speak of?”
Shoot why’d he let that slip! Lennie caught it and now we had bluff ourselves out of another problem.
“It’s just a secret weapons merchant we know of. We ran into them before a while back. It wasn’t a good encounter I can tell you that.”
Lucius didn’t seem convinced.
“But what are they doing here then? If their weapons merchants then they’d have nothing to gain here.”
“They also have a mercenary branch which they supply with their tech. Though a job like this is indeed unusual for them.”
“Stop talking out of your arse John. We just kill them like we killed the draugr. It’ll be a piece a cake.”
“You do remember they have guns Teage. If we used the same plan we’d all be riddled with bullets.”
“Couldn’t we sneakily take them out and use their weapons against them?”
It did make sense but I think Matt was giving us more credit than we were worth.
“There are way too many though, and none of us are very experienced in stealth. Best we’d do is get caught before we were even 50 meters out.”
“Might I interject?”
Maybe Lennie has a good plan we could use.
“Sure not like we got any reasonable plans.”
“What if I plunged the camp into darkness and then we take them by surprise.”
I take that back he didn’t have a good plan.
“None of us have night vision so we’d be bumbling about the same as them.”
“We could cause a distraction calling over some of them. We silently take out the guards in the narrow corridors of the tombs. Surprising them and taking their guns!”
At least Matt always comes up with consistently good plans.
“Why don’t we interrogate the guys we subdue as well. Maybe they can explain what is going on here. No need to kill them over a misunderstanding if possible.”
“Good idea let me prepare a light spell to attract their attention.”
“Guess I’ll use gravity manipulation to capture them.”
Lucius then undid the earth wall. Before he and Lennie prepped their light and gravity magic respectively we hid behind a wall in complete silence.
“I’m ready. Let’s get this started.”
Lucius let out a bright light from the palm of his hand that shone so brightly we had to look away or we’d have been blinded by it. Lennie held a book in his left hand while slowly chanting his own spell. After a minute we finally heard something approach us. But, it was drone, not a combatant.
“Take that out! It’ll give away our position and the whole camp will be on us.”
“Lennie used his spell and the drone dropped to the ground. If we were lucky they wouldn’t have seen us and would presume it was an error on the drones part. Maybe we could still salvage this.
“I told you to charge the drone before the mission Cutler. Why’d it run out of juice?”
“I don’t know it just suddenly couldn’t produce enough thrust to fly. Maybe the battery indicator isn’t working.”
“Well, eyes up let’s see what’s going on in here.”
They slowly approached our position until they got to the drone.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“I don’t know the battery indicator says it’s fully charged. Maybe it lost connection in the tunnels. It would make more sense than battery failure. Let’s clear the area and take it back for maintenance.”
They got closer and closer to us and we dared not breathe for fear they’d see us. When they were right at the doorway we jumped them. Lucius and I dove for the back one and knocked the gun out of his hands. While Matt and Teage took the gun of the one in front. I grabbed the stray gun and pointed it at him.
“Surrender and you won’t be harmed. If you resist I won’t hesitate to kill you here and now.”
Please buy the bluff please buy it! I pull back the action ejecting a shell before telling them.
“I know how to operate this thing so don’t even think I won’t do it.”
Stolen novel; please report.
He hesitated before raising his hands in surrender. With his partner following suit shortly after. We escorted them deeper inside the tomb tying their hands together with some zip ties they had. Teage grabbed the other weapon and was inspecting it from top to bottom in glee. Time to get some answers from these guys.
“So what are you doing here?”
“We had a job and we’re doing it.”
“Which is?”
“To defend our employer’s man and his equipment while fulfilling our mission.”
“How many of you are there and what is your mission?”
“I can’t say I wasn’t told I’m just a lowly grunt.”
This isn’t going to work he’s just dodging the questions. I need to speed this up before the others notice that they’ve gone missing.
“So let me ask you then. Why shouldn’t I kill you and everyone else in there? Because if you don’t give me the answers I want. I’ll do just that. We can piece it all together from your corpses. If you’d like.”
He hesitated for a second before giving up with a sigh.
“Then kill me! You’ll die before you can even step a foot out there!”
Guess this mission is highly secretive. We’re going to have to go either loud much to my displeasure or retreat and think of some other approach.
I beat his head with the butt of the rifle and he slumps over unconscious. The other shuts his mouth and backs up to the wall in fear. Lucius says a few words before he falls unconscious as well.
“Lucius can you do your spell shadow spell again to conceal me.”
“Yes but why? Aren’t we going to take them out in a frontal assault?”
“No, that guy let something slip that we can use. They were sent here to guard someone. If we can find and capture them we might have a shot at negotiating with them.”
“With a hostage?”
“No, we’ll negotiate with the VIP. The soldiers won’t negotiate with us. They’re here just for security purposes.”
“Alright give me a minute and we can go.”
“Why just the two of you though? Aren’t you going to need some help if things go south?”
“Too much risk. The less the better. You guys try to secure us an exit. When we finish we might need to book it out of here.”
Lucius and I then left the tomb sticking to the shadows to get close to the camp. While the others made their way to another tomb to escape from the next patrol which had come to check up on the last one. We used the gap in security to make our way into the camp sneaking into the nearest tent we could find. Luckily we were in a supply tent. There seemed to be a manifest laid out on a table with a cup of steaming coffee on it. I quickly grabbed it and skimmed over it. It listed all of the supplies and equipment of the camp. It was labeled OPERATION GATE and at the bottom, it listed a name, Dr. Zephiel.
“Alright, this is enough. Let’s get out of here.”
“But I thought we were going to stop them?”
“Not possible, it's too risky. If he isn’t here he’s further in the camp with higher security. With this, we can hopefully find out what they were planning. Now let’s get out of here. We’re already pushing our luck as it is.”
We were luckily able to escape undetected as the camp scrambled to alert and made our way to the hallway we took in. Where everyone else was ready to escape with Matt and Teage covering our retreat with the AKs we ‘borrowed’ from the soldiers. Lennie led the way taking us safely through all the traps. Looking at them carefully I could see Earth traps on our route out.
It now made sense why there were so many traps. They were probably trying to keep anything and everyone out until they finished their objective. Whatever that was. After a day we finally made it out and finally had what felt like some room to breathe. We didn’t want to make to much noise as we made our escape because we didn’t know the extent of their tech.
“How the hell are we supposed to deal with them! I thought we would be fighting evil vampires, rampaging orcs, or some rogue demon general. Not a Spec Ops Unit. How the hell did they get here!”
“What’s a Spec Ops Unit? Is it like a capital guard?”
Argh, this is going to be annoying to explain all this technology and terminology.
“Also how did you communicate with them so easily? They weren’t speaking common.”
Guess that means there is some kind of translator built into the helmets as well.
“Like we’ve said. We’ve encountered them before and had some dealings with them. We never met their merc unit though. That was a surprise for sure. So what’s the plan, Lucius? We don’t stand a chance if we decide to fight them. If we try some of us are going to die. If we are lucky, at worst we all would die.”
“Can’t we communicate with them?”
“No, they are a very secretive organization. My bet is they’d kill us on site.”
“Then we’ll have to ask the nearby tribes to help us take back the northern hall.”
“Did you not hear me? You’d be slaughtered by them. We don’t have the technology or men to stand a chance!”
“Even so, it is the duty of us shamans to defend our ancestors and heal our people. If we ask for support we should find ample bodies to help us achieve victory.”
“NO!” I wrenched the AK from Matt and shot a three shot burst across the room.
“This fires at a rate of 600+ rounds a minute and this isn’t even their best tech. If we fight them, they’ll mow us down. Give it up!”
He looked shocked by my outburst but kept his stance firm.
“I appreciate your advice and I understand your concern, but I can’t do that. They are desecrating my ancestors resting place with their presence and I will drive them out no matter the cost. It tarnishes the memory of this place and I can’t allow it.”
“Fine but first we need to regroup with Briana and the others. Maybe they can help us find a way to deal with them.”
Since they went down the west hall I’m not sure when we shall see them. They should be back within a few days so he agrees to wait until then. For now, he said he will communicate with the spirits and see if they can help us.
He then took the stairs up to meditate outside. Leaving us down in the hall. Lennie looked conflicted I believe he understood the gravity of the problem, but still wanted to help Lucius fulfill his mission.
“Is there any way we can beat them? There has to be some way.”
“Not with our supplies. Maybe Briana has something up her sleeve but us. We’re more frontline fighters than tactical geniuses. Well maybe except for Matt here. You got any ideas?”
“I believe we should wait for Briana then we can pool our resources together. We might have some better option then.”
“I could try making a bomb from the gunpowder in the bullets. Blow them right out of the cave.”
“NO! Teage we can’t use explosives underground. It could cave us in and it would damage the burial grounds which would piss Lucius off.”
“Then it’s decided. We wait for Briana and pool our resources to take them out. I’ll set up some traps of my own and we’ll defend this place until they get back.”
Lennie then started working on some magical traps to defend the hallway.
“We should have 56 bullets left so if we use single fire and conserve our shots we can hold them for a couple minutes.”
“How optimistic. But, I guess we don’t have a choice.”
Matt looked worried but he couldn’t think of any other course of action. So we then created the best defense we could make which turned out to be about a half dozen trip wires (just to trip not explode) and a couple of Lennie’s magic traps. We also set up a couple rock barricades to fight behind. It was meager at best and wouldn’t hold out in an extended firefight, but not like we had the supplies or knowledge to make anything better.
The next day we saw Briana and the others come out of the west hall.
Though their condition wasn’t very good. Guess they weren’t as lucky as us. Elizabeth was carrying Rachel and Briana also grew a considerable amount for some reason. She was also carrying a moonlit sword. I wonder where she found it.
“What happened? Are you guys okay?”
“What do you think smartmouth. You think we’re okay?”
Raven was limping but was okay for the most part. His mouth wasn’t hampered though. As his quick retort proofed.
“I’ll go get Lucius he might be able to help.”
Matt went up the stairs leaving his AK near his barricade. Briana looked at it before backing up in fear.
“Where did you get guns. They aren’t supposed to exist here. Why?! WHY!”
“Calm down, it's okay we’re safe.”
Elizabeth approached her and rubbed Briana’s head. It calmed her down but she went to a corner and laid down hugging her tails in her arms. I wasn’t sure how mentally fine she was.
“Hey, Elizabeth what happened?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. We need to deal with Rachel first. She isn't doing good.”
“Fine but we also need to talk we discovered something in the north hall and it isn’t good.”
“Don’t tell me that’s where you got those guns!”
“It was and they aren’t completely dealt with either. So we’re going to need to prepare before we assault their position.”
“Why! Shouldn’t we run as fast as possible away from here!”
“I found a manifest with all their equipment and supplies. If what I’m reading is right. They plan on opening a portal from here to Earth.”
“Why in a burial ground?”
“Fewer people and something about ambient energy I guess. Maybe it has something to do with spirits or something.”
“Spirits? What about them?”
Briana perked up and looked at me with deadly focused eyes. I forgot her senses are better due to her animalistic traits.
“I don’t know just a hunch and something about a ‘Spirit Energy Detector’. I’m not sure what it is. All we know is they have one.”
“Let me see the list.”
She grabbed it from my hands before I could react and quickly scanned its contents. Though she didn’t seem to understand it any better than us.
“Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“Fight them! They need to be stopped right? Let’s stop them.”
“That’s insane! They have better manpower and weapons. Based on the manifest there have to be at least a dozen armed men. Going in a frontal assault against them is suicide!”
“I don’t care. I accidentally killed too many people because of them. I want to fulfill their mission and end this.”
“What are you talking about Briana? What happened? Talk to us!”
“We don’t have time. I’ll do it myself.”
She then pushed past me and ran towards the northern hall.
“Briana! Wait! Teage grab your gear we’re following her.”
“Into a battle full of certain death no doubt. I can’t wait!”
“Don’t do this Briana. Think about this. We don’t have to resort to such extremes.”
Elizabeth called out to her. She stopped hearing her cry and turned around.
“I’m sorry but there is no other choice.”
She then ran straight through all the traps nimbly dodging them with ease. I made chase but due to her speed and my clumsiness I fell behind quickly and after a minute she was out of sight.
“Goodness sake lass. Now is not the time to go crazy. Though I’m amazed she hasn’t gone crazy yet in all honesty.”
I had to agree, but this was going to become a bloodbath if what she said was true. Though for what side I did not know. All I knew was that we needed to help her before she broke too far.