Chapter 33 – Squad Goals

Matt stood over the pile of people, staring at one in particular. Sari had been warned not to do what she was doing when he had his suspicions. When Echo confirmed his thoughts, he was determined to put a stop to it one way or another. He was about to begin his interrogation when he heard a voice, struggling to get out a few words.

“That’s not what he said.” Nix struggled to say. Matt eased up on his aura and its suppression, deciding to give them a little breathing room. “He said she can see the bonds.” She said after taking a deep breath like she was breaking the surface of water.

Matt looked to Echo who just tilted his head and looked back at him. “Yes, but how did you know that?” he was able to focus his aura into a more focused area, keeping just the demoness pinned down. “Why is it when she plucked at the air, I could feel the feedback along the bond?”

“It’s my trait.” Sari rasped, no longer trying to hold her head up. “Trait and habit.”

“Trust her, Matt.” Tobias said, walking up and grabbing his arm. “She really doesn’t mean anything by it.”

Matt debated for a few seconds, pondering if he should ease up or push on with using his aura to interrogate her. He really wanted to follow through with his first idea but decided to yield and pulled his aura back in, much to the relief of the other three. He reached down and grabbed Sari by the robes and hauled her up, looking her right in the eyes as she recovered. “Explain.”

She took a deep breath and began rattling off everything. “It is partly my trait and partly my nature. My trait is called Revealing Sight and allows me to see things that normally can’t be perceived or are disguised in some way. I think the reason you felt me plucking at the bond was partly because I had the intent to inspect it which caused the interaction and partly because yours are so strong you can feel them more clearly.” She rushed the last part before sucking in a deep breath reminding Matt of a scene from a comedy movie about a pet detective. “That’s all I know and really can’t say anything more besides I’m sorry.”

“Why did you keep doing it?” Matt pressed her for more.

“She sometimes gets really fixated on things. It’s part of being a demon, they are passionate, and their culture encouraged them to pursue their desires.” Nix offered and she elaborated when Matt turned to face her. “She is kind of my roommate.” She looked then to Tobias who gave a thumbs up.

Matt didn’t say anything and just stared at Sari, pushing his aura out willing her to feel the pressure to confess. It didn’t work. She did however groan and rub her temples. Matt switched tactics and refocused on Nix, vaguely aware that Van also turned his head to focus on her. “So, your trait deals with comprehension?”

Nix was still looking at the mech over Matt’s shoulder when she let out a shuddering breath before answering. “Yes. It lets me understand almost anything in any medium.” She hesitated for a moment. “Yours is to do with this field surrounding you. It carries your will, manifests it on anything within a certain radius.”

“Close but for the most part its correct.” Matt decided to play ball with them and started pushing a calming influence, Echo coming up to sit beside him. “It’s called an aura and we all have one but mine is slightly different.”

Nix and Sari nodded and then both started speaking at the same time. “I swear not to divulge the nature of your secrets to anyone without your express permission.” They finished nearly at the same time and looked to Matt.

“Likewise.” He decided to cut them some slack and introduced Echo who returned a trilling noise before returning to his spot in the grass. “So why are we here? Like in this location” he posed the question to the group but manly directed it at Tobias.

“Ah, yeah.” He kicked at the ground as he got his thoughts together. “I was hoping you would let them take a look at the mech and the enchantments but mostly Sari was asking questions about Van.”

Matt sighed. Right back to Sari again. “I assume my bond is different than the ones the other pilots have?”

“Yes!” Sari was back to her chipper self. “Your connection is strong and vibrant. Most of the others have barely a thread connecting them.” She paused for a moment, considering something. “Well, a couple have stronger connections but not like yours.”

“Van, you might as well say hi to everyone.” Matt said.

The mech moved, lowering its face to be closer to the group. “Greetings Nix and Sari, I am Horizons Vanguard. Otherwise known as Van.”

The two enchanters were staring at Van, mouths agape and staring at the construct. Nix was the first to speak. “It’s, it’s alive.” Being first apparently wasn’t exactly an example of quality of speech.

“By the gods it’s so… beautiful” Sari said, the last word was partly questioning. “No, it’s more there are layers, depths that hold more. It has a wild harshness that is somehow balanced and refined by…” She trailed off, eyes following something until they landed on Matt. “You.”

“Tobias, you can back brief them on the finer details.” Matt said, knowing that there would be questions and trusting in his friend’s judgment. “I will let you two examine the exterior and the weapons but nothing more.” Seeing their smiles fade a little he clarified. “Not for now, we will see about the future.”

“I think you should have a group arriving shortly for you to use the codex with and brief on the comms arrays.” Tobias said, pointing back to the forge.

“Right, thanks.” Matt said and started walking back to the forge entrance, Echo following along. As he went, he called over his shoulder. “Oh, and you’re a fucking asshat for springing that on us.”

Tobias laughed and started telling the enchanters what he knew or speculated about Van and the mech. Matt saw a group of combatants walking to the forge, headed right for his favorite governor. With a sigh, he moved from a walk to a jog, not wanting to be late to the party or having any other surprises.

“I would like to thank you all for coming, we have a special project for you if you wish to be a part of it.” Franklin was saying to the 16 people standing in a semi-circle around him. “The area that should hold valuable materials for mining is slightly contested.”

Seeing his opportunity as he just got within a distance to being heard by speaking up Matt interrupted. “Slightly contested is a nice way of saying bug infested hell hole, Frank.” He clapped franklin on the shoulder as he joined the group. “Let’s get them inside and I can run the footage for them.” He picked out Jess from the cluster of pilots and waved, getting a blush in return which confused him.

They began making their way inside, but Matt did a quick check and found that there were 2 of the ‘squads’ that had become the norm. 12 infantry types and 4 pilots, some of which he recognized from the night before and greeted them by name as they walked into the room with the holographic tables. Matt was sure that this wasn’t the intended use and probably a huge waste but also didn’t care.

Matt hooked up his helmet to the display again and pulled up the maps along with footage from his reconnaissance. What had started as a pretty upbeat meeting, devolved into an oppressive silence and some muttered cursing over the next couple hours. Matt gave a clear, no nonsense briefing of the objective and its defenses. Everyone could see the levels displayed by the recording.

“I know this looks bad but on the bright side, surely we will gain some favor from the system for taking part in this righteous crusade.” Matt joked. It falls flat as a few of the gathered folks gave him the side eye. “Look, it was a joke. I know its going to be a hard fight, but we can handle this after a little training.”

Jess decided to step forward. “Lord prote-“

“Nope. Just Matt no titles, fancy names or anything.” Matt had to cut her off before the lord thing went too far.

“Matt, what can we do for training to make up an average of 13 levels in difference?” Jess finished. She seemed to brush off his dismissal of the title, just rolling into her point like nothing happened.

“Well, we have some presents for you. Or at least for some of you more squishy types.” Matt said, sweeping a hand over the non-pilots. “Should we tell them Frank?” He looked over to the governor and saw Tobias quietly enter the room with Nix in tow.

Franklin sighed, pinched the end of one of his tusks and rubbed his temple with the other hand. “Why in all the hells is this so frustrating?” He muttered under his breath before speaking up. “If you accept this offer, we will be giving each of you a piece of very expensive equipment to train with over the next few days and you get to keep it if successful.” He looked to Tobias, noticing him in the corner of the room. “You are of course free to leave but if not, you will be reporting to Matt and Tobias until the task is complete.”

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Matt looked back to the group and saw them all looking amongst themselves, gauging the interest and commitment. Finally, one of the non-pilots stepped forward and waited to be acknowledged. Matt remembered her name was Gret, another one of the Felids like Rohm, different coloration, however. “Go on, Gret.”

Slightly taken aback at him knowing her name, she took a breath and spoke up. “We are in, as long as after these few days we are confident in our success. None of us plan to throw our lives away for this.”

“Neither do I” Matt said as he looked to Jess and the other 3 pilots. They had a hushed discussion, huddled up since after Franklin had stopped talking. She looked up to him as they came to a decision and gave him a nod. She looked confused at the thumbs up but then returned the gesture.

Tobias took this moment to step forward and take control of the group. “If you will all follow me, I have set aside a training room for our uses.” He turned to Matt. “The rifles are there but the LMG’s will be delayed for another few hours, we finished the ammo boxes and are just doing a couple tests.”

“Holy shit that was fast.” Matt looked from Tobias to Nix who just shrugged.

“We are good at our jobs.” The enchanter said.

Matt was impressed and would remember to see about giving them a little gift for the hard work. He would have to find out what an appropriate gift would be and what they would like but was sure he could find something. Well, maybe not for Sari, she kinda freaks me out a bit.

Tobias led the group to another room which looked like a mix between a gym and a classroom. There was an abundance of space, but one corner was taken up with tall tables and surrounded by whiteboards. Matt was already remembering his time in the trial and tried to recall all the info he had given for that event. He then remembered a crucial detail, the very reason that this would be possible within a few days rather than a few weeks, his codex.

Each of the tables had a pair of tall stools set behind them, allowing plenty of elbow room for the people sitting there. Since there wasn’t much in the way of the whiteboards, every seat had a clear view to the center of the room and the table sitting there. On the exterior wall was a large bay door, through which, Matt could see 4 constructs resting in a kneeling position. Seeing that, Matt sent a quick mental message to Van while Echo went and looked outside, pacing around the constructs, sniffing at only he knew what.

Matt walked over to the front of the room and pulled the codex out of his storage and plopped it on the table with a very satisfying thump. “Alrighty folks, gather up and form a line. The first gift is actually a bit of an experiment.” Seeing the group just looking at him he loudly clapped his hands together. “Come on! We don’t have all day.”

The pilots ended up leading the way with the combat classers at the back of the line, one elf in particular happened to be pushed to the front. “What would you have of us?” Jess asked.

Matt stepped to the side and gestured to the book on the table. “Inspect it for yourself. Touch it, imbue some mana and absorb some knowledge.”

Jess stepped up, reaching a shaking hand forward while the pilots behind her moved to the sides to see better. As her hand touched the cover, nothing happened. She looked to Matt who reminded her to give it a bit of mana and she did. Her body went rigid for all of 3 seconds before her knees buckled and she started to fall. Matt caught her by the collar and plopped her on one of the nearby stools.

“Well?” Matt asked, noticing that everyone else was now crowding in to see.

Jess never lost consciousness but clearly wasn’t prepared for the influx of information. She sat panting and rubbing at her temples as she caught her breath. “That was a lot. I… I think I just learned an entire cultures knowledge on war.” The rest of the group looked rather impressed and started talking among themselves.

Matt had some more questions, however. “That had you locked up for only a few seconds. What did it feel like on your end?”

“It definitely felt longer.” Jess said. “I felt trapped, contained for minutes but at the same time hours or days. Does that make any sense?”

“No but then again, not much does these days.” Matt sighed, having to just take her word for the experience being weird. “Go find a seat, I guess. I have to get the rest of them through this.”

Jess started to turn away but stopped. “Was this, um data, all from you?” Matt nodded and she continued. “I’m sorry, the cost of this knowledge isn’t one many would pay if they had to gain it themselves.” Then she turned away and wandered off to one of the tables.

Matt wasn’t sure what to think about that. He also didn’t exactly know how much detail was shared with the users or even what the knowledge looked like. Still, he moved on to the next in line. After seeing how Jess had handled the codex, he also grabbed a stool for the next person to sit on while using it. He plopped the stool down and beckoned the next pilot to sit on it as he moved the codex back to its spot on the table.

Over the next half an hour, Matt had the pilots and combat classers use the codex, taking a few minutes between each to interview them. While he was doing that, Tobias had wheeled in a rack of rifles and another cart with radios. The combatants had eyeballed the racks greedily as they came in, knowing what the rifles were but clearly curious about the radios. Matt had to distract them before they just started playing with stuff.

“Alright here’s the deal, before anyone gets to play with shiny new stuff, we need to assign positions.” Matt said, walking to a whiteboard and rolling it to the front of the room. “Are you running the standard two-six split for your squads?” He got some confused looks before one of the non-pilots raised his hand. I really have to find a name for that.

Getting the go ahead from Matt, the man stood and spoke. “We have no idea what you mean by squad or split.” He sounded a little nervous but went on regardless. “If you could clarify that or perhaps start from zero and we build up.”

Matt thought to himself for a moment before responding. “Good to know, that helps clarify what the codex does too. I like your idea, let’s start from the bottom and work our way up.” Matt then went into laying out how teams and squads could work. He placed one construct with 3 ‘infantry’ to make a team and 2 teams for a squad. This also paired well with his next part of the plan.

“Ok, so how does everyone’s finances look?” Matt asked, surveying the group. He got a lot of very odd looks in return before he just headed off this confusion. “Look, I gained access to the party system a little early and have the chance to pass it on to you. The problem is, unless I put a penalty for leaving my party, you are stuck there, and the spots are limited.” Then he saw the realization sink in.

Jess was the first to speak up. “What is the cost of the removal penalty?”

“Currently it’s a thousand credits. Does anyone not have that?” He looked around and didn’t get anyone raising their hand. “Here’s how we can do this, you can elect team leaders, I bring them into my party then you can party up after I give them the boot. What do you think?” Getting a bunch of nods in agreement he invited the party leaders, all the pilots for some reason, and then booted them out, getting 4 grand richer in the process.

“Great now you will share experience and a couple other benefits like division of loot sales. Don’t worry, while I can’t give the credits back, I will be using them on you.” The group all looked pretty happy with the deal. Indeed, Matt had noticed something while talking with them and planned on fixing it after he got his next very important task out of the way. “So, what do we call ourselves to separate us from crafters or builders?”

In the central building of the city, amongst the freshly laid stone and timbers, Franklin was looking at his menu. His was different than most others due to it being a city administrator screen, something that came from his position and control of the city hub. The hub was just a crystal pedestal that allowed one to interface with the city menu and view information. Franklin hadn’t paid the window much attention since nothing had changed and their growth was stagnant.

Of course, all that changed when Matt and Tobias showed up which is what prompted Franklin to open the menu for the first time in weeks. He was absolutely stunned when he saw the icons blinking in nearly every menu tab. He quickly began to open the notifications that had piled up. He was not prepared for the absolute deluge of information.

Subjugation: 12%

Development: 5%

Quest Completed (Preemptively): Infested Woodlands

Completed by Matt Shultz and Tobias DeCamp

Rewards awaiting allocation.

Subjugation: 13%

Development: 7%

New Citizen Added: Matt Shultz

New Citizen Added: Tobias Decamp

Subjugation: 27%

Development: 8%

Citizen Lost: Lord Alfron

Quest Completed (Preemptively): Lead Weights

Completed By: Matt Shultz

Subjugation: 35%

Development: 10%

Subjugation: 49%...

Development:22%

Subjugation: 87%

Development:43%

Territory Resource Discovered: Class Trials

Territory Resource Discovered: Ore Vein

Franklin read through the updated quickly, instantly seeing the connection between Matt showing up and the rapid jump in subjugation and development. The quest being completed before he knew it was available was a shock, but he assumed the duo had stumbled upon it while traveling. On a whim, he opened the questing tab and looked at the available options.

Quests Available for Assignment:

Hunters in the night (Locked)

Ripe for the taking

Trying Times

City Development 2

Do it yourself

Quests Completed:

Infested Woodland

Lead Weight

City Development 1

Franklin continued his review of the administrator screen seeing all the updates he had missed and finally seeing a light shining in the dark. He could see hope on the horizon and could only blame Matt for the sudden change in fortune. Now he just had to find a way to allocate the rewards. He supposed that he should get Matt and Tobias to help, it was partly their reward too. Maybe they would have some insight on how to develop the city and what would be the best use for the points they now held in reserve.