I took a quick detour on the way out to visit my wounded soldiers, only to find they were still in surgery. With all the others waiting to get home, I decided to leave now and record a message for them on the way back.
It wasn’t quite as good as staying in person, but it was at least something.
After that, the trip home was a quick one. At the speed of my frigate, my lands were practically next door to the city.
Captain Hendricks had a group of our regular troops already waiting to take over guarding the ship when we arrived. I’d have to thank the man for his foresight, as it allowed me to release my battered and exhausted elite troops early.
As much as I wanted to join them, I had things to organize. First up was the mayor’s office, where I asked her to begin putting together a state funeral for the fallen. They deserved that much, at least.
Mayor Kosfeld was efficient, as always, and wasted no time with the initial planning. I stayed with her for the first bit to ensure it was what I wanted, the left the rest to her.
While there were more things I needed to handle in the town after my absence, I put them aside till tomorrow. There was plenty more I still had to do today.
My next stop was at the growing military complex outside of town. We now had full responsibility for securing the town and its attached villages, and the number of troops we needed had grown in kind.
if not for the population of the town growing at an even faster rate we would have had trouble with recruiting. As it was, we had plenty of fresh recruits, but our core of hardened soldiers hadn’t grown nearly as much.
Those troops came from my earlier expedition under the mountain, along with fighting beasts through the winter. Those who’d joined us after the spring population surge had time yet to catch up.
This made the loss of so many of my best all the worse. Five dead, and another half a dozen so injured it might be weeks, or even longer before they were fit for duty. Assuming they didn’t ask for an early retirement after that nightmare.
That was more than a full squad.
I had two elite squads and one reserve at almost the same level, so that was just over a third of my best troops out of commission. And even the less injured would need days of rest, at a minimum.
“Any thoughts,” I asked Hendricks after laying out the full extent of the damage.
The man grimaced in response, shaking his head. “That’s damn sad to hear. Losing soldiers under your command is a hard thing, as is losing those you’ve trained.” The man sighed, taking a moment to compose himself before continuing.
“As for returning, I’m afraid it’s going to take time. Unless you want to strip the remaining experienced troops from patrolling, we’re going to need at least a month to bring people up to scratch.”
Scratching his chin, the man continued. “Perhaps if we get all the injured back in good condition before then, we might manage two or three weeks. I can’t see it happening sooner than that, though.”
I frowned but nodded my agreement. That was about what I’d figured as well. Even then, I wasn’t sure that bringing the same level of force would be enough. There’d been signs of adaption in the short period of time we’d been down there.
How much stronger would those spiders be with a month of preparation? My gambit to remove their biomass might slow them down, but there was no way to know if that was enough.
Hell, we weren’t even guarding the base of the elevator anymore. With enough time, they could set up a hell of an ambush or even collapse the tunnel entirely. That would be a massive effort to recover from.
But what else could we do? Weakening our defenses wasn’t something I was willing to contemplate. Even ignoring the chance of a dangerous beast attack, I needed qualified troops to guard the frigate when I left.
Our shadowy enemy might be more careful now with a full investigation in place, but I couldn’t count on it. It was just as possible for them to go hard in the other direction and burn whatever cover they had left on a final attempt.
Given Felisa’s explanation of why they likely wanted the ship, throwing away all their current assets to get it might be worthwhile. With a full stealth ship at their disposal, they could always start again.
And if they noticed our defenses weakening, it might push them toward the nuclear option.
“Problems?” Linnea’s voice sounded from the doorway, pulling me from my downward spiral.
“A few,” I chuckled, turning toward her. “I thought I gave you the day off with everyone else.”
She snorted, shaking her head as she slipped into the seat beside me. “And leave you with all the work? You don’t have to take everything on yourself, Jared. Let me help when I can.”
“Thanks,” I sighed, placing a hand on her leg. “But unless you have a way to pull together a strike team of trained soldiers, I’m not sure there’s much you can do.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Linnea smirked, cocking her head. “Then you might be in luck.”
----------------------------------------
Blinking at the surprise answer, I took a moment to gather myself before raising an eyebrow. “Go on,” I said.
Linnea licked her lips, hesitation flashing across her face before she continued. “Have you considered hiring mercenaries again? There are some really hard hitters at the top of the guild. For this kind of ruin exploration, there’s no one better; that's why so many explorers hire them.”
I grimaced, my growing excitement fading as if doused with cold water. “I hadn’t, no,” I responded, forcing my voice to remain steady.
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve had mixed results with the guild. Of course, there was one resounding success,” I gestured to her, a momentary smile crossing my face. “But there was also a terrible failure.”
“Adam,” Linnea responded, a shadow crossing her face. “I can see how you’d be cautious after that. However, I think the circumstances then were a lot different from what they are now. If you’d give me a few moments to explain?”
I hesitated for a moment before giving her a nod. If there was anyone whose judgment I trusted, it would be her. After all, she’d been the one who’d taken Adam out when he’d turned on us.
After a moment’s pause, Linnea took a deep breath and plunged into her explanation. “I believe there are a few reasons why a situation like that won’t happen again. First, Adam had to have believed he would get away with it.”
“No offense to your former self,” she continued with a wry grin. “But back then, you were just a promising new explorer fresh off a transport ship. There would have been an investigation, but if he had a backer, they likely could have protected him.”
“That’s a far cry from taking on a noble, however. Even if the king himself promised you would be fine, I don’t think anyone would believe it. Your title is well known, and rumor is that you have influence with the Duchess.”
I clicked my tongue, thinking over her words. That was true; I’d had minimal connections and little backing at that time. Though the Duchess had already taken a small interest, it hadn’t been public like it was now.
Now, my frigate had just flown back from landing at the palace. No one would deny I had powerful connections.
“OK, I can see that,” I responded after a few moments. “But the other option was that Adam had been promised a life of luxury off-world. That’s something that could still be used.”
Instead of looking dismayed, Linnea leaned forward, her face growing more eager. Past her, I could see that the captain was looking intrigued as well.
“That brings me to the second fact. At the time, you were hiring on the cheap end, right? I mean, you hired me,” she said with a self-deprecating smile. “That’s entirely different to what I’m suggesting.”
“Top-level guild members have made a life out of it; they have a reputation to maintain. They also have a far higher income; it would take vastly more to entice them into some kind of hidden retirement.”
Before I could open my mouth to respond, she rushed on.
“This comes to my third point. The stakes aren’t that high here. With Adam, they wanted the ritual sites before the crown could find them. Right? Probably so they could create Psions without a paper trail.”
“But now, there’s no such incentive as long as you leave the frigate behind. It’s obvious that the duchess would never have given you the land if she thought there was a ritual site there. Probably because it’s just an old mine.”
“So whoever is behind it all has no reason to layout the incredible amount of money it would take to bribe multiple top-tier mercenaries.” Linnea grinned as she leaned back, leaving her words to resonate through the room.
I began to respond before catching myself and actually thinking about her words. She… wasn’t wrong. I’d gotten so used to being targeted that I hadn’t given enough thought to the reason behind it.
We’d been at the mine location for days, and nothing had happened until the frigate had shown up. Hell, Linnea and I trekked through the wilderness for months without a hint of outside danger.
And that was because there’d been no reason for it, just as there was none now. Outside of a couple of trusted people, no one knew how valuable the ore down there was. Even if they did, I wasn’t sure that was the kind of thing our foe cared about.
It wasn’t like hired mercenaries were going to betray me for no reason; I was just stuck in my old issues. At worst, word would spread about what I was mining, and that would happen anyway if I started selling excess ore.
“Captain?” I asked, at last, turning toward Hendricks,
The man was nodding thoughtfully. “I have to say I like it, sir. Anything that keeps our men and women out of danger has my vote. And as Linnea says,” The man nodded in her direction. “The mercs have more experience than us in these kinds of ops.”
“It’s not the kind of thing you could do to defend your holdings without looking weak, but it’s perfect for this kind of exploration. I’ve heard of several nobles engaging their services in such a way.”
“We can also do a few things to further mitigate any security concerns you have,” Hendricks tapped the table as he continued. “Give them all the details on the situation they need, but keep the location secret.”
“If we use one of our pilots to fly you there in a VTOL, all they will know is it’s somewhere in your lands. Which I don’t have to remind you,” the man smirked, “is quite a large area.”
“The cost is the only downside. It’s going to be… significant,” Hendricks finished with a wince.
“Hang the cost,” I snorted, shaking my head. “We just got a massive load of cores we can use to mitigate it. Even without that, I barely care anymore. Not if this keeps more of my people alive. Even if I have to go into debt, our harvest should clear it in the near future.”
Gesturing for them to give me time to think, I ran the idea over in my mind. While a few nightmare scenarios screamed at me, Linnea was correct that they were unlikely. Hell, the royal guard would even be guarding the surface.
It would take a brave mercenary to see that and then dare to come back up without me.
“We’ll do it. Good idea Linnea, and thank you for bringing it up; I would never have even considered it. Do you still have any contacts in the guild?”
“I know a couple of people,” she shrugged, a pleased grin on her face. “And for a contract this big, I’m sure I could get a meeting with the guild master. You could, too, if you showed up.”
“I’d appreciate it if you handled organizing them,” I shook my head in response. Delegating was something I needed to get better at, and this was a prime time to start.
“If this is really their area of expertise, maybe get a plan from them as well. Who knows, they might have something better than what we came up with. Run it past the captain before agreeing to anything, but it’s well worth hearing their ideas.”
Linnea’s face brightened as if I’d given her a gift instead of a bunch of work. She must have been serious about wanting to help.
“Got it. I’ll get back to you when we have a preliminary plan and a breakdown of costs. Don’t worry, I’ve got it all covered,” she finished, leaning in for a hug before hurrying out.
I watched her go with a raised eyebrow before turning back to Hendricks. I had a few more things to organize with him, the funeral being a major one, then a last stop for the day.
It was time to talk with Elana about seriously beefing up the frigate’s security. As with hiring mercenaries, I was done caring about the cost.
Next time someone attacked us, I wanted them to pay for it.