Richard

“So, what do you think it is?” I asked Donald. We had seen a messenger arrive at our grinding camp and talking to the captain for a bit away from the rest of us.

“New orders maybe. I mean everything has been a mess, but least we are winning.” I nodded at what Donald said. We had been about to deploy to the front when news came in that Champion Michael had smashed the front wide open.

We had thought we were going to be put right into the rest of the surge, but we had been put on reserve instead. I wasn’t about to complain. While we had trained, I wasn’t ready for a real fight. I didn’t know if I would ever be ready. The light armor and equipment felt much heavier than it actually weighed with my Body stat.

“Orders to where? I was expecting to go right in at those scalies you know. Slice and dice, and all that,” Donald said. I was still amazed he hadn’t been kicked out for all the talking he did, but somehow he always knew what lines not to cross.

“Maybe we will go in with the next wave. Or grinding. Probably grinding,” I said.

“Maybe, oh look the captain is coming over,” Donald said. We were informal as a unit, so no one got up when he came over. Only when we were in the main camps did rank require saluting. Out here in the field, we only saluted if there was someone important, but the captain would figure it out for us.

“Alright, listen up. New orders from the top and good news and a time to shine. I expect everyone to be top notch, especially you Donald.” Donald pointed at himself and looked around in fake surprise. I liked the sound of good news at least.

“The Dragon Empire is fracturing. Champion Michael sacked and took out their capital, the Forbidden City,” I cheered along with everyone else. “He has returned, and several guard and grinding units are being called up for a special operation with the Champion. Now normally we wouldn’t get picked, being a new unit, but time is critical, and there is no time to call back other units.” I was finally going to see him in person. The man had so many rumors and scuttlebutt about him, no one knew what to believe.

“What kind of operation?” someone asked.

“The top-secret kind. The commander in charge will have direct orders from the Chief Administrator, but our general command is to obey the Champion. He already took New Beijing on the way back, so we have a foothold now as well.” That really got the cheers going.

“My personal guess, is that we are going to be a deep strike force to take and hold a city deep behind enemy lines with the Champion’s protection. But that is just a guess. Whatever happens, make sure you don’t mess things up. If things go sideways, it could get dangerous really quick with skills being thrown about.” Everyone got silent at that part. Only the elite were allowed to get skills.

“We don’t mess up. We could be the ones getting skills.” The captain had Piercing Beam with one upgrade, which basically meant he was badass who had seen shit go down and had been in the thick of it to be allowed two skill points. I could tell he wanted to advance up the career ladder and I suspected that was why we were assigned to him.

This was the squad that wanted to get power and rich and he had made sure we all knew it. None of us objected when he said he wouldn’t risk our lives stupidly since he would be with us, but he would look for situations to get noticed.

The fact he was with us and not hiding out in the rear had quieted any possible objections. He didn’t coddle us, but we knew what we signed up for and were willing to put in the work. “I had to call in a favor to be one the squads that got picked. An important favor. Don’t screw this up,” he repeated.

He got a bunch of affirmatives back. “Um, we salute the Champion or what?” Donald asked. While it seemed like he asked stupid questions, those were the questions everyone was thinking.

“You salute if he speaks to you, otherwise I salute for the unit while you all keep your eyes open and your mouths shut. While it probably won’t happen, the Champion is rumored to melt people who piss him off. Don’t be one of those people Donald, it would make me look bad,” the captain said.

“Hah, you don’t got to worry about that. I do the work of three people all on my own.” Donald got some friendly shoves for saying that.

“Anyways, we will be rendezvousing Northeast of Truth. Four other units are being called in. So fifty total people. All of them are your seniors. Don’t talk shit, don’t start shit. Save it for when the fighting starts, understand.” We all gave affirmatives and nodded at that, even Donald.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“While I don’t expect any drama to happen, the fact we are a new unit might invite some hazing. I will look out for it, but we are sticking with the pair system and it is being enforced even outside of combat until the operation is over.” There were some soft groans at that.

It meant if you got up to piss or take a dump, you had to bring your partner with you. You didn’t do anything apart. No one liked it, but no one complained seriously either. That was one thing people learned not to do. Some groaning and questions from Donald were fine to let people voice their thoughts.

“We need more gear or something?” someone asked.

“We are getting supplies for a full deployment. Beyond that I can’t tell you.” That meant ten days’ worth of food and a spare weapon. No one liked carrying that much, but orders were orders. “There is also special ordinance being distributed.”

“What does that mean?” Donald asked.

“That means annihilation bombs. Don’t mess with them. The people who use them, well if they go off, then there is nothing left. You are vaporized. The fact they are being given out, means that this is as serious as things get.”

I recalled the briefing about the bombs. They were expensive and you needed to steer clear. If you were caught in one, a restoration wouldn’t fix you. Well, it was time to get serious and get moving. We had a hike in front of us.

Richard (Day 88)

“Commander Abdullah sir,” I watched as our Commander saluted Champion Michael. He looked like a regular guy, but he had blue armor with golden dragons on it. He returned the salute and looked over us. I felt his gaze pass over me and straightened up a bit more.

“This everyone?” he asked.

“Yes. All five units are ready to deploy under your direct authority.”

“You have been briefed?” he asked.

“No sir. Just that we are to meet you here on this day and follow your orders.” He nodded at that.

“Well, this is going to be a bit complicated. I am going to be engaging in some diplomacy with a hostile power, the New United City States. They aren’t a friend of the Dragon Empire, but they aren’t our friend either. In addition, the city most likely has several high level assassins.”

That didn’t sound good. Assassins! “My job will be to conduct aggressive diplomacy. Your job will be to secure our objective once I recover it and keep it intact at all costs.” I wondered what the objective was, maybe some high level person who had some key knowledge about the Dragon Empire.

“What kind of stats and skills will they be using?” Commander Abdullah asked.

“I would estimate anywhere from twenty to thirty thousand for their top combatants. And total concealment skills, even against the Sense stat.” That was a lot. No one had that many stats on our side except some of the very top grinders, or commanders.

“That will be difficult to counter. We primarily have beam skills with upgrades,” the Commander said.

“Tight formations once the objective is retrieved and you don’t have to force combat, I will handle that. But the objective must be returned intact no matter what.”

“May I inquire to what the objective is?” Commander Abdullah asked.

“This is top secret. Consider that a direct order.” He paused to look over everyone and no one said anything. “Any and all books,” Champion Michael said.

“I could arrange units to search building to building?” Commander Abdullah offered.

“No. I suspect it will be assassins and booby traps galore inside the city. We will camp outside while I negotiate. If and when things turn hostile, you will remain there or exercise your judgement. But they have high level mechanical traps and high-level combatants. These books must be returned and unread to Chief Administrator Clarissa at all costs and their existence is considered top secret, understood.”

“Yes Champion Michael,” Commander Abdullah said.

“Good. Can your people handle frostlands or stonelands?” he asked.

“Stonelands, we aren’t geared for the cold,” the Commander said.

“Alright then, let’s set off. We can cross the level 3 zone today and reach Normandy by tomorrow.” We quickly set off. The Champion took the lead.

It was impressive and awe inspiring. He didn’t even look. Balls of acid just materialized and took out monsters near him effortlessly. His movements were perfect. Even the trainers wouldn’t have been able to point out a single fault with how he moved.

The man really did live up to the hype, but books? Well, they had to contain something interesting, but it was clear we weren’t allowed to talk about them. Top secret and all that. It was hard to keep anything a secret, but if something got hit with that label, we had been told in no uncertain terms during training that we weren’t supposed to gossip about such things.

It was mainly slapped on missions, locations, skills, stats, and movements of various units and bases. Didn’t want that information falling into enemy hands. But the rest, we could spill our guts about if we were captured.

We easily cleared the level 2 zone and I saw the stonelands in front of us. This was a nightmare. Just giant boulders strewn everywhere and piled up. The Champion paused for a moment. “Keep to a tight line and don’t fall. Don’t follow me either. I will be sweeping for monsters in front of the group.”

He didn’t wait for a reply and quickly set off. Commander Abdullah took point while everyone else followed behind him. It was tough, since everyone had to keep moving. There was no good place to stop.

The monsters were pink and some sort of small creature that leapt out in between the rocks. I did not look forward to coming back this way. It was impossible to have good footing to swing a sword. We detoured slightly to avoid a very large hill of boulders and kept moving, with the Champion clearing the way.

It was getting quite late, and everyone was exhausted by the time we reached the other side. Everyone pulled out rations, but I noticed Champion Michael not eating. Well, time to be brave and I decided to just take a chance since everyone was so on edge. I pulled out some wrapped jerky and an apple from my pack and got up.

He was sitting alone in the center of the camp. He looked at me along with everyone else as I walked over. “I have some jerky and an apple if you want Champion sir?” I offered.

“Thank you, I will have the apple,” he replied. “What’s your name?” he asked me as he took the apple.

“Um, Richard sir.”